NoirConceit

You know the recent "No disc, no buy" we've seen used in response to the PS6 not having a disc drive?

We need to see "no Hall Effect/TMR, no buy" when it comes to controllers with analogue sticks.

Ten years is a long time in this space, congrats on his achievements so far, and the best of luck to him with whatever he does next.

@Damo You said "lots", but I cannot even find one. I could find an app which did auto-translation, but not a handheld itself.

@Damo What exactly are the LLM AIs being crammed in doing?

Such a weird headline, AI has nothing to do with the product, and who is even trying to add LLM AI to a basic emulation handheld anyway?

Another Kickstarter. Remember, Kickstarters are 100% customer risk pre-orders.

$82 delivery for such a small item is a joke.

It is insane that they have not secured a proper distributor for it in the UK and Europe, there's a lot of people who would gladly buy it if the price (after postage) were not so high.

That's the thing, all they are ever going to be is glorified pre-orders, no matter how much you try to spin the "patronage" angle, it just doesn't hold up. It is a 100% customer financial risk pre-order. As such, always better to wait for the eventual general release.

@Gamemoose So why are they holding features hostage behind certain backer goals? Seems a bit suspect to be doing that since they could just as easily add those features post-launch.

Fly by night or not, I don't pre-order in a manner where all of the financial risk is on the customer. I buy it at the point of release. That way I also know what I am getting for the money. If anything messes up with the pre-order then "goodwill" isn't going to suffice as a refund currency.

This is an advert for crowdfunding. And remember everyone, crowdfunding is a non-secured pre-order for something which may never release. If it is as fully-funded as it claims to be then just wait for the general release.

And anyone saying that features will be held hostage unless they raise enough money now, what is to stop them from adding those features post-release when it sells loads?

Eh? It's just a level and sample pack. I thought it was going to be adding new weapons and whatnot. Nothing to write home about.

"As Physical Media Rides Off Into The Sunset"

Clickbait headline alert. PlayStation has ditched it. Nintendo hasn't. Xbox have not announced. Do better.

Why did it take this long? Seems Commodore International flashed some cash at both sides to get them to end their feud.

@Fanboy_Destroyer As in you're telling me it was to do with AI? Doesn't seem to be the case.

The clowns who are singing the praises of AI MiSTer cores have completely forgotten/are completely ignorant of the aims of the MiSTer, which is accuracy and preservation, not merely emulation.

Article is a few years late, nobody worth their salt has put much credance into the words of Generation Amiga in about a decade.

Separately, it is a double shame that you're quoting Neil Green, considering he allowed some of the most disgusting homophobic insults to be made on his group a long time ago, because someone posted some artwork of two men holding hands. In fact, he was happy for the other admins of the group to threaten the person who posted it with being removed from the group for making a political post. Because apparently two men holding hands is political.

This is the same Neil Green who made a performative post on his Indie Retro News Facebook page not covering certain games (because he didn't get a free key for the games), before deleting it when called out by anyone with a brain.

@Kushan And I'm very "put it down to malice when money is involved, and it isn't the first time the GDQ organisation has been accused of dodgy things".

@Kushan More like going by the same logic they were hoping nobody would open their mouth about it so they could pocket the money.

As if GDQ didn't know that the sponsor was funded by human-rights violator. They knew full well and just wanted to see if nobody would notice or speak up enough for them to not get the funding from the sponsor.

@PZT Given the VGHF is more than a little dodgy, I would go elsewhere in trying to document this.

@Goldgreen That's exactly why they are calling it divisive, there are people who are hating on it, and there are people who love it, there doesn't seem to be a middle-ground.

I will say this, there's a lot of people who are saying "nobody wants this", and that is very obviously false.

@brakeman90 It depends what you mean. If you mean listening to them via the native apps they're on then it is a maybe depending upon the app.

If you just download them as an audio file and copy it over then it'll be a yes 100%.

HANG ON A MINUTE.

This is actually a $50 reduction being marketed as a $100.

On launch there was already going to be a $50 reduction (previously announced) before the use of any discount code, bringing the price to $450. The $500 price being touted by many press outlets didn't take this into account.

You may wish to edit your article to reflect this.

As a side note, the gold edition has not gotten so large of a discount.

If having those additions (earphones and "premium memory") makes it cost more than the original price was going to be then this price drop is a complete and utter con.

> "1 in 8 cartridges infused with Chaos Emerald energy"

Great, you get to pay $100 to enter what is basically a raffle.

@Fanboy_Destroyer "Credit where credit is due: he’s a condescending, gaslighting, gatekeeping master."

Can you elaborate upon this?

@mariteaux It does clarify it, as it states (and I quote), "Time Extension is looking for a talented and knowledgeable UK-based News Editor to join Jack and me on the site".

It is entirely possible that it was edited after you posted your comment, but the article as it stands at the time of writing is pretty clear cut.

@Guru_Larry It is running a fork of Sailfish OS with an Android compatibility layer, which is not the same thing as "running Android" as that implies that the core OS is Android.

It's not the first time we've seen such, some later Blackberry phones ran Blackberry OS but allowed for running Android apps via inclusion of an Android runtime (before Blackberry decided just to move all of their phones over to running Android OS natively).

Having had one of those Blackberry phones which had the Android runtime, app compatibility was patchy at best (an issue exacerbated by default screen dimensions which most Android apps were not designed to handle). I forsee issues with this new phone due to the way many Android apps handle logins by opening a web browser and then going back into the app itself, due to the fact that web browsers are blocked in this fork of the Sailfish OS.

I'd be interested to see if someone does a jailbreak for this phone, even thought it would go against everything the phone is purporting to be to begin with! 🤣

It looks exactly as I expected it would which can only be a bad thing. I cannot say I am tempted to purchase it.

Nice, is it getting a Mega Drive port too?

Turns out it is pre-order, it does not release until May 2027.

@mjparker77 You do know that if you only want the cases then you can buy the games without the console, right?

Crowdfunder: "Give me money".

Also, Crowdfunder: "I don't think my audience is worth committing brain power to writing a sales pitch for myself, I'll just outsource that to AI".

Get a Herman Miller Aeron, your spine will thank you later.

What is the difference between the Arcade Archives 1 version and the Arcade Archives 2 version, other than a price increase which I cannot see justified in any way?

@WaveBoy Yeah, the cases of individuals being prosecuted for downloading an old game ROM are next to non-existent because the issue is not possession, it is the distribution of them.

@Damo Sadly sometimes some people need to be saved from themselves, and especially when it comes to this hobby (see also: any number of crowdfunding campaigns which retro fans keep throwing money at despite them being covered in red flags). A media blackout on them would see that person disappear into obscurity, and nobody else gullible parted from their money.

@WaveBoy Eh? My question of "And?" was "And your point is what exactly, since nobody cares about the dubious legality of ROM sharing?".

@Damo Counterpoint: Without the continuing coverage given by news outlets nobody would be funding (i.e. being conned by) that biff.

@WaveBoy "It's technically illegal, like with any MiSter since you're downloading roms off a website"

And?

I loved Hard Edge, just sad that the new entry in the series is yet another card game.

Small reminder that the same fund also has a (albeit far smaller) stake in Nintendo.

But nobody mentions that.

(Edit for accuracy: Another article on the site does indeed mention it, alongside stakes in Capcom, Take-Two, and Embracer)

@Guru_Larry Almost as bad as the Vega Plus though? I think that's hyperbole, but each to their own. There's been lots of problems with the C64 Ultimate, yes, but I don't think anything will ever come close to that debacle (apart from maybe that SuperSega grifter).

@Neotext You'd be surprised how many deeply unpleasant people there are who have retro computing and consoles amongst their hobbies, and how many of those would think it is humorous to participate in such horrendous acts such as this.

@Guru_Larry Sounds like a script for an upcoming clickbait video of some sort.

@Sketcz The bundled joystick with the standard edition Black AES is wired, but the oddly the bundled joystick with the white one is wireless, and with the Ultimate Edition you get one wired and one wireless joystick. I prefer wired myself as batteries in controllers have a shelf life on them, and if I cannot manually replace them then the controller would become essentially bricked before the point where the buttons and such have worn out.

Amazing news! It will be interesting to see if other PSP projects are taken out of mothballs and also see similar upgrades over the coming years.

@Sketcz Is "Cheevo" one of those yank Gamers(TM) terms for Achievements?

@Martin_H The lack of regulatory protection is exactly why they target their fans for the investment, who may be willing to burn some money to show their fandom.

See also: Brew Dog with their "Equity For Punks" crowdfunding.

"After generating over $7 million in revenue and selling 250,000 controllers, Retro Fighters is looking to its fans for future investment. The company has taken to the investment platform WeFunder with a goal of raising $75,000."

If it has made $7,000,000 in revenue, why does it need $75,000 from their customers on top of that? In the US that's not even a year's wages for an electronics engineer. There's something quite fishy about this.

FAFO. MEGALOL.