It's not a bad idea as a product and there absolutely is market for it but the price is atrocious.
Personally, if I wanted to give up on smartphones I would probably just get a phone with an e-ink screen since it would still be able to use any apps if I absolutely needed them (which, sometimes you do in this modern world).
@gingerbeardman I'm fluent in Japanese and have been living in Japan for 1/3 of my life. You can absolutely (quite easily) tell if something is machine translated or not (whether by AI or something like DeepL or Google Translate). These tools are nowhere near as good as you believe they are, and as a beginner you have no basis for making any such claims.
And yes, your friends did lie to you. It's called 建前 (tatemae), you will probably learn the word in your Japanese textbook at some point.
There's nothing wrong with making a game inspired by another game, but you need to innovate on the idea enough to make it unique and to truly make it yours, rather than produce a straight 1:1 clone.
I highly doubt Sega would outsource the development to a Western company. All of their recent devices (both Mega Drive minis, Game Gear minis, both Astro City minis) were outsourced to Japanese companies. More than likely they would probably outsource it to the same companies who did those.
I'll never forget those leaked internal Sega docs (slideshow from a 1997 company meeting with sales data) that contradicts the "very well documented" story that everyone believes. Sega of America didn't do as well during the 16bit era as Kalinske would like us to think.
I feel like Compute's Gazette deserves a spot on this list. It's a great magazine for anyone interested in retro computing and every month they publish type-in games and programs just like in the old days.
@-wc- are you trying to somehow say that these images of women in bikinis are somehow related to LGBT culture? What a bizarre comment if I've ever seen one.
@Sketcz over here in Japan, most towns have nude statues around town. The one in front of my local city government office features a nude child. I think you were probably right when you speculated that this squeamish mentality around nudity (both sexual and non-sexual) is probably an offshoot of puritanism because it mostly seems to be a Western (and especially American) thing.
@-wc- what does "woke" or "anti-woke" even mean? It's just a cute girl holding a Dreamcast, George. I don't see how this is at all relevant to American politics.
These specifics ads themselves might be fake, but at least it's not far removed from reality. Models dressed like this used to be common at trade shows, and magazine ads were never afraid to spice things up either. Especially here in Japan where gravure shots of various models were (and still are) included together in magazines with all of the latest gaming news or the latest chapter of your favorite manga. It wasn't too long ago that one of the Super Monkey Ball games had DLC levels themed around a certain gravure idols boobs as part of the advertising campaign for the game.
I certainly wouldn't mind gravure idols being used for advertising more consoles.
Somashekar Is an idiot. That's not a bait and switch, it's exactly what they promised. There's always people like him looking to stir up drama where there is none.
If I wanted to play a game that's like Ninja Gaiden or Shinobi than I would just play Ninja Gaiden or Shinobi. Indie devs should spend more time making original games and less time making knock-offs of popular games.
This (expensive) game will literally stop working if OpenAI ever updates their API (which is something that tech companies do often) or if the developer ever cancels his sub and loses his API key (highly likely given the price).
Jim (the designer of the keyboards) posted in the C64U Facebook group addressing the issue a few weeks ago and it was pretty clear from his statement that the problem is the workers in the factory aren't installing the keyboards correctly in the Starlight editions.
It's rather unfortunate. Commodore has done an amazing job with this product, and their customer support has also been fantastic. But unfortunately, the companies they hired in China have been absolutely awful and are the fully at fault for the problems affecting a small amount of customers (well, except for the ones caused by FedEx abusing packages). The manufacturing partner for the keycaps screwed them over and are the reason why the Founders Edition units were delayed, and the assembly partner is the source for the issues with the Starlight units and a few other random issues that affected a small number of people. And unfortunately this makes Commodore look bad in those instances.
Anyway, I thought the Starlight looked tacky and I picked up a Beige unit. It arrived a few weeks ago and I've been having an absolute blast with it. The C64 predates me so I've never had one until now, but I absolutely love the C64U and have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of it so far. It's found a home next to my MSX and is getting plenty of love. The quality of life features that Commodore added are VERY appreciated. Also I love the keyboard on this thing.
The whole thing stinks of a scam. The Japanese government is already archiving video games and related materials through the national diet library. All new game releases are required to be archived by law (this has been the case for around 25 years now), and in recent years they've gone back and started archiving games which released before that law was implemented. Printed materiels are also archived, and if you contact them they will even mail you photocopies of portions of any work (for example, if you want an article from an old issue of Famitsu or something).
If the GPS actually cared about archival than they would dump their roms online for the public and then donate their entire collection (including printed materiels) to the National Diet Library in Japan. This would at least make the print materials publicly accessible, and it would ensure that the software is properly archived.
Some politicians in Japan have been trying to find a suitable way to make the software library accessible to the public, but currently there is nothing. But still, currently nothing from the GPS collection is available publicly so this approach is better than nothing and it ensures that the collection would be cared for by professional archivists and funded by taxes, rather than whatever this private group is doing.
@bring_on_branstons @obijuankanoobie Well, if you want to play it that badly you could always buy the one in the listing. With an inexpensive adapter you could plug it into a normal TV to play. You can order from Mercari by using a proxy shipping service, and the yen is really weak right now too so now is probably a good time.
@obijuankanoobie I doubt they will ever port it. Yuji Naka talked about including it in the Mega Collection but they cut it because they couldn't find a solution for the controls. You basically have to buy the hardware if you want to play it, even MAME has control issues with this game.
Comments 30
Re: Romhack.ing Disables AI-Translated Patch Downloads Following Langrisser V Upset
@gingerbeardman I'm not
Re: Poll: So, Will You Be Buying Commodore's Callback 8020 Flip Phone?
It's not a bad idea as a product and there absolutely is market for it but the price is atrocious.
Personally, if I wanted to give up on smartphones I would probably just get a phone with an e-ink screen since it would still be able to use any apps if I absolutely needed them (which, sometimes you do in this modern world).
Re: Romhack.ing Disables AI-Translated Patch Downloads Following Langrisser V Upset
@gingerbeardman I'm fluent in Japanese and have been living in Japan for 1/3 of my life. You can absolutely (quite easily) tell if something is machine translated or not (whether by AI or something like DeepL or Google Translate). These tools are nowhere near as good as you believe they are, and as a beginner you have no basis for making any such claims.
And yes, your friends did lie to you. It's called 建前 (tatemae), you will probably learn the word in your Japanese textbook at some point.
Re: Developer Of Densha De Go "Tribute" Admits To Using AI, Considers Halting The Project Over "Online Hate & Accusations"
There's nothing wrong with making a game inspired by another game, but you need to innovate on the idea enough to make it unique and to truly make it yours, rather than produce a straight 1:1 clone.
Re: "No Human Proofreading Pass" - Langrisser V Gets An AI-Driven Translation Patch
@gingerbeardman they're all terrible at translate and your friends lied to you to be nice. Learn a language and you'll quickly find out.
Re: "No Human Proofreading Pass" - Langrisser V Gets An AI-Driven Translation Patch
En/Jp bilingual person here:
AI translation is really bad. Like re, really, really, really bad. It's terrible. You shouldn't use it. It's bad.
Please don't ruin games like this.
Re: Rumour: Sega Might Be Releasing A Low-Cost Handheld With Removable Game Carts
I highly doubt Sega would outsource the development to a Western company. All of their recent devices (both Mega Drive minis, Game Gear minis, both Astro City minis) were outsourced to Japanese companies. More than likely they would probably outsource it to the same companies who did those.
Re: "I Was Saddened To Learn That You Are Leaving Sega" - Here's The Letter That Brought An End To The 16-Bit Console Wars
I'll never forget those leaked internal Sega docs (slideshow from a 1997 company meeting with sales data) that contradicts the "very well documented" story that everyone believes. Sega of America didn't do as well during the 16bit era as Kalinske would like us to think.
Re: It's Tough Out There, So Check Out These Amazing Websites
I feel like Compute's Gazette deserves a spot on this list. It's a great magazine for anyone interested in retro computing and every month they publish type-in games and programs just like in the old days.
Re: Random: "This Isn't Real, Is It?" - These Annoying Gen AI Adverts For Retro Consoles Are Fooling A Lot Of People
@-wc- are you trying to somehow say that these images of women in bikinis are somehow related to LGBT culture? What a bizarre comment if I've ever seen one.
@Sketcz over here in Japan, most towns have nude statues around town. The one in front of my local city government office features a nude child. I think you were probably right when you speculated that this squeamish mentality around nudity (both sexual and non-sexual) is probably an offshoot of puritanism because it mostly seems to be a Western (and especially American) thing.
Re: Random: "This Isn't Real, Is It?" - These Annoying Gen AI Adverts For Retro Consoles Are Fooling A Lot Of People
@-wc- what does "woke" or "anti-woke" even mean? It's just a cute girl holding a Dreamcast, George. I don't see how this is at all relevant to American politics.
Re: Random: "This Isn't Real, Is It?" - These Annoying Gen AI Adverts For Retro Consoles Are Fooling A Lot Of People
These specifics ads themselves might be fake, but at least it's not far removed from reality. Models dressed like this used to be common at trade shows, and magazine ads were never afraid to spice things up either. Especially here in Japan where gravure shots of various models were (and still are) included together in magazines with all of the latest gaming news or the latest chapter of your favorite manga. It wasn't too long ago that one of the Super Monkey Ball games had DLC levels themed around a certain gravure idols boobs as part of the advertising campaign for the game.
I certainly wouldn't mind gravure idols being used for advertising more consoles.
Re: Talking Point: "We, The Consumers, Need To Vote With Our Wallets" - The Moral Dilemma Of Supporting SNK In 2026
Removed
Re: Talking Point: "We, The Consumers, Need To Vote With Our Wallets" - The Moral Dilemma Of Supporting SNK In 2026
@damo are you going to buy the AES?
Re: Talking Point: "We, The Consumers, Need To Vote With Our Wallets" - The Moral Dilemma Of Supporting SNK In 2026
@alliekitsune you bought Nintendo games, how dare you accuse anyone else of being a horrible person when you literally funded the Saudi's!!
Re: Talking Point: "We, The Consumers, Need To Vote With Our Wallets" - The Moral Dilemma Of Supporting SNK In 2026
Removed
Re: Talking Point: "We, The Consumers, Need To Vote With Our Wallets" - The Moral Dilemma Of Supporting SNK In 2026
Removed
Re: Talking Point: "We, The Consumers, Need To Vote With Our Wallets" - The Moral Dilemma Of Supporting SNK In 2026
Removed
Re: The Neo Geo+ Will Be "Better Than Emulation" Says Modding Legend Furrtek
Somashekar Is an idiot. That's not a bait and switch, it's exactly what they promised. There's always people like him looking to stir up drama where there is none.
Re: 2026 Continues To Be An Awful Year For Retro Handheld Fans, As AYANEO Hints At More Price Hikes
Do people actually buy this crap?
Re: Ninja Gaiden-Inspired Platformer 'Eclipse Blade' Sneaks Out Of The Shadows
If I wanted to play a game that's like Ninja Gaiden or Shinobi than I would just play Ninja Gaiden or Shinobi. Indie devs should spend more time making original games and less time making knock-offs of popular games.
Re: This Game Boy Cart Uses ChatGPT To Create "Personalised Scenarios Tailored To Each Player"
@Honkshot an ESP32, it's in the photos.
Re: This Game Boy Cart Uses ChatGPT To Create "Personalised Scenarios Tailored To Each Player"
This (expensive) game will literally stop working if OpenAI ever updates their API (which is something that tech companies do often) or if the developer ever cancels his sub and loses his API key (highly likely given the price).
Re: You Can Now Transfer Game Boy Camera Photos To Your Smartphone
This already existed for several years though
Re: "We Need As Many Hands As Possible" - There's A New Volunteer-Driven Effort To "Preserve Myrient's Legacy"
News sites like this one posting about pirate sites is how they get taken down and sued into oblivion.
Re: "This Is What AI And Greed Does" - Video Game 'Preservation Service' Myrient Is Shutting Down
Stop labeling piracy sites as preservation efforts. It's headlines like that that make it so that preservation isn't taken seriously.
Re: "Flex Is In Spec, Buckling Is Not" - Commodore Addresses Quality Control Concerns With Its C64 Ultimate
Jim (the designer of the keyboards) posted in the C64U Facebook group addressing the issue a few weeks ago and it was pretty clear from his statement that the problem is the workers in the factory aren't installing the keyboards correctly in the Starlight editions.
It's rather unfortunate. Commodore has done an amazing job with this product, and their customer support has also been fantastic. But unfortunately, the companies they hired in China have been absolutely awful and are the fully at fault for the problems affecting a small amount of customers (well, except for the ones caused by FedEx abusing packages). The manufacturing partner for the keycaps screwed them over and are the reason why the Founders Edition units were delayed, and the assembly partner is the source for the issues with the Starlight units and a few other random issues that affected a small number of people. And unfortunately this makes Commodore look bad in those instances.
Anyway, I thought the Starlight looked tacky and I picked up a Beige unit. It arrived a few weeks ago and I've been having an absolute blast with it. The C64 predates me so I've never had one until now, but I absolutely love the C64U and have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of it so far. It's found a home next to my MSX and is getting plenty of love. The quality of life features that Commodore added are VERY appreciated. Also I love the keyboard on this thing.
Re: "It Has To Happen Outside Of Japan" - Game Preservation Society Launches Patreon And Opens US Office Following Government Fund Freeze
The whole thing stinks of a scam. The Japanese government is already archiving video games and related materials through the national diet library. All new game releases are required to be archived by law (this has been the case for around 25 years now), and in recent years they've gone back and started archiving games which released before that law was implemented. Printed materiels are also archived, and if you contact them they will even mail you photocopies of portions of any work (for example, if you want an article from an old issue of Famitsu or something).
If the GPS actually cared about archival than they would dump their roms online for the public and then donate their entire collection (including printed materiels) to the National Diet Library in Japan. This would at least make the print materials publicly accessible, and it would ensure that the software is properly archived.
Some politicians in Japan have been trying to find a suitable way to make the software library accessible to the public, but currently there is nothing. But still, currently nothing from the GPS collection is available publicly so this approach is better than nothing and it ensures that the collection would be cared for by professional archivists and funded by taxes, rather than whatever this private group is doing.
Re: Insanely Rare Sonic Arcade Game Crops Up On Japanese Resale Site
@bring_on_branstons @obijuankanoobie
Well, if you want to play it that badly you could always buy the one in the listing. With an inexpensive adapter you could plug it into a normal TV to play. You can order from Mercari by using a proxy shipping service, and the yen is really weak right now too so now is probably a good time.
Re: Insanely Rare Sonic Arcade Game Crops Up On Japanese Resale Site
@obijuankanoobie I doubt they will ever port it. Yuji Naka talked about including it in the Mega Collection but they cut it because they couldn't find a solution for the controls. You basically have to buy the hardware if you want to play it, even MAME has control issues with this game.