Kind of speaks volumes that the pro-AI posts above are all quite rude and entitled, demonstrating a particular lack of gratitude and appreciation for Jotego's excellent work, while the anti-AI ones are much more thoughtful. Hmm!
BIG MEDIA attacks plucky little (AI-powered slop) site!
No, but seriously, there is zero value in a site that appears to be pretty much 100% AI-generated, given how inaccurate, waffly and vague AI can be — particularly with a subject like retro gaming.
That "review" they posted that was based entirely on YouTube footage is a perfect example — it can spit out a review-shaped object, but it can never provide meaningful commentary and analysis.
God, I can't wait for this Age of Stupid to be over.
@Deway Yep. I give it maybe five minutes before the "AI is here to stay, get used to it, the genie is out of the bottle, I have completely given myself over to cognitive surrender" clankers arrive.
I'm amazed that so many of them continue to hang out in this comments section considering how overtly hostile all of Time Extension's staff (and much of the community) are towards generative AI. One day they might get the message.
(One day the bubble will pop, too, and that will be a good day, albeit one that will almost certainly have scary economical consequences.)
Sony getting rid of Japan Studio was a big part of this change, so far as PlayStation is concerned, at least. Most of the games he's talking about — and some other greats, like Tokyo Jungle! — were their work. A big part of why so many mainstream, big budget, big studio games got so boring and samey is because of the Americanisation of formerly worldwide efforts like PlayStation. Jim Ryan has a lot to answer for. (Yes, I know he's English, not American, but culturally what happened to SIE and PlayStation was very much Americanisation.)
It's also why Nintendo stands out, perhaps more than ever. Nintendo's top-end games still feel fresh and creative because for the most part, they haven't compromised on doing what they have always done. Even when developed by western teams, Nintendo stuff still has a heavily Japanese feel, and even when doing large-scale open world stuff like Breath of the Wild and Xenoblade, they don't fall into the trap of pursuing hyperphotorealism; they maintain a sense of distinctive — and often unashamedly Japanese — style about them.
There's a good piece on the subject from Thomas James (someone who does localisations both professionally and properly) here: https://dateemups.com/fan-translation-llm/ — well worth a read. It touches on LLMs' unwelcome incursion into the space, and the pitfalls of "MTPE" — Machine Translation Post-Editing — for producing a work in a new language.
As occamyDG points out above, an AI translation is never going to be able to understand context, tone or authorial intent, and thus while I'm sure some people will regard it as "good enough", it's unfortunate that a low-effort, often inaccurate AI job shat out onto the market may well be the first encounter people have with works that could otherwise become beloved classics.
I am unequivocally on the "this is a terrible thing, and a terrible precedent to set" side of the fence. The tricky thing with the suggestion that there might be aftermarket physical releases for PlayStation platforms without any need for Sony to get involved is that Sony is the one who makes Blu-Ray discs, and part of the reason this whole thing has come about is because it wants to... not do that any more.
Cartridges for vintage devices are a little different in that anyone capable of making a circuit board and with access to the right chips can, in theory, make one. Optical discs, however — I'm not aware of anyone "homebrewing" those with any great success.
As you say, though, people have found a way with other supposedly proprietary formats, like Dreamcast's GD-ROMs and suchlike. I guess we will have to wait and see, as although I signed that petition I think you're right — Sony's going to do this whatever everyone thinks.
I do know I'm not buying another PlayStation if it's digital-only. I've always said this, and I'm sticking to it. It's not as if I'm short of things to play in my collection as it stands now — and for games where digital is the only option, the much more open market on PC (not just Steam!) is clearly the way to go.
Rhapsody is a lovely and incredibly charming (if exceedingly easy) game, but it's a bit strange to see this release — NIS America already did a very good port of this for the "Prinny Presents NIS Classics" collections (it's in vol. 3 along with La Pucelle: Ragnarok) and it's basically the same as the PS1 version.
They ported and localised the second two games for a subsequent "Marle Kingdom" collection, too — first time those have been officially in English.
The entire point of FPGA is painstaking recreation of how original hardware works, making for — in theory, anyway — some of the most accurate recreation of vintage computer and console hardware you can get outside of... just owning the original thing.
Any vibe-coded AI slop runs completely counter to that philosophy and has no place in the MiSTer project and related FPGA scenes. However accurate AI agents can be "in theory" — and I'm still incredibly doubtful of that, given how often genAI writ large gets things wrong — you know that anything vibe-coded has inevitably not been checked thoroughly by a human.
These folks can vibe-code their crap if they want — I just never want to see it as part of official MiSTer distributions/update_all and suchlike.
I know a lot of people have been mocking this, but there's a lot that sounds quite appealing about this to me — a mostly dumb phone that still does WhatsApp and Google Maps is exactly what I want from a portable device these days.
At least until I saw the price. Five hundred dollars? No. Absolutely not.
The Atari 8-bit had a lot more than the 25 games that were on the 400 Mini! I've covered 236 on my YouTube channel alone, and Atarimania's list stretches into the thousands. That said, the licensing situation for a whole lot of all-time classics is probably in limbo, but there's still a fair few Atari-published games that were not on the Mini — the original Star Raiders being the biggie. (That was a deliberate omission from the Mini, as it has relatively complex keyboard controls that wouldn't have fit on the included controller.)
I'm hoping this is something like a C64 Ultimate-type FPGA thing, but for Atari 8-bit. I already have a MiSTer set up for 8-bit computing, but if they release an FPGA 800XL I will almost certainly bite.
"It's just a tool!"
"Use it or get left behind!"
"The genie is out of the bottle!"
"You own a modern mobile phone and computer. I am very smart."
"Artists drawing inspiration is the same as AI training!"
"Robotics is the same as AI training!"
"Time Extension is BULLYING AI FANS"
@TransmitHim There are several people responsible for PEGI ratings. Developers/publishers are responsible for accurately telling PEGI about the content of their game in the questionnaire they submit when asking for a rating — this results in a "provisional rating", which is what you often see on pre-release materials — and PEGI is then responsible for both reviewing video footage sent by the dev/pub and a build of the game that they should play to their satisfaction. After PEGI does that, they come up with a final rating.
In this instance, it sounds like that initial questionnaire was done incorrectly, and PEGI got wind of that post-release. It might seem kind of silly to some that gambling minigames result in an immediate PEGI 18, but those have been the rules for a while now — it's why, among other titles, Falcom's Trails to Azure/Trails from Zero are 18-rated, despite being otherwise fairly "teen" in terms of content.
@GlamorousAlpaca I'm going to be charitable and assume that you're simply not familiar with the following:
He provides commentary over edited excerpts of TV shows, not full episodes, making his work clearly transformative and thus covered under YouTube's fair use provisions.
He has collected older work from multiple videos into single compilations that people can "binge". This is standard practice for moderately sized channels, because YouTube doesn't push old videos to new subscribers. YouTube doesn't allow you to upload identical videos, it detects that at the upload stage.
He does not sell any merch, and monetises entirely through YouTube and Patreon. Again, standard practice.
He has never claimed to have "created GamesMaster".
Any other accusations you want to make up, or are you done?
Absolute dog mess behaviour from YouTube, but glad to see the situation has been getting attention and traction from both popular creators and press outlets like this one.
RoseTintedSpectrum has been working hard for more than 5 years on some great videos, and has just recently started enjoying some much-deserved breakout mainstream success with his GamesMaster retrospective videos. Here's hoping all the attention his case has gotten will lead to a swift resolution, ideally with YouTube taking a good, long, hard look at the automated nonsense that is the reason this came about in the first place.
I won't hold my breath for that last bit, but I have some faith that his channel will return, at least.
@vnavarro Glad to hear you're enjoying Evercade and the Super Pockets — and that moreover, you're finding them helpful case studies! We have a blast working on everything, and as a gaming history enthusiast from even before I started working in the project, it's basically a dream job. Particularly as I've now played a part in the rerelease of some of my personal childhood favourites (Definitely-not-Bruce Lee, Rod Land and Boulder Dash, for the curious)
This is frustrating to see, but with continued efforts of folks like the Video Game History Foundation, things will gradually change — particularly as we're starting to move into an era where having a physical copy of a game for a past platform is no longer a guarantee you'll be able to play it as intended.
The concern that people will "treat the archive as a game centre" is bizarre. That's like telling people they can't visit art galleries because they might look at the paintings.
Man. Speaking as a 43 year old dude who works in retro gaming (I work on Evercade)... I want to take that class!
I thoroughly believe that the history of games is well worth examining, because even if students want to create facsimiles of popular games, the conventions of those games became a thing for a reason. Souls games, to name just one example, have their roots in tricky 2D titles like Mega Man and Castlevania as much as action RPGs.
As someone who works in the business of making retro games more accessible through officially licensed rereleases, I always make an effort to educate people on the historical context of the games and the systems that played them, rather than just the surface-level "this is why this is cool". And I do that in my own free time, too, through my writing and YouTube channel.
In the years since I've started really focusing on my passion for retro, I've learned a lot about game design and how things have evolved over time and hardware generations. It's fascinating, and it boggles my mind how difficult it seemingly is to get people to pay attention — though I also completely understand, particularly as a former teacher. Today's media landscape is a chaotic mess, with subscription services and their seemingly bottomless libraries not helping matters.
Might have to get involved in that Historical Games Network business, though. Regular events sound like an interesting thing to be part of.
@Gs69 You can switch the controller into left-handed mode, which puts the action button at the upper right instead of the upper left. Press the Menu button, shoulder button and the left "ring" button at the same time.
You can also use other USB controllers, such as the Competition Pro-style "TheStick" and the CD32-esque gamepad designed for TheA500 Mini.
Folks have also reported successfully using stuff like DualShock 4s — in those cases you can use the analogue sticks to simulate paddles, or recreate the Atari 5200's analogue controller.
Comments 20
Re: "You Might As Well Play On A Raspberry Pi" - The World Of MiSTer FPGA Remains Divided Over "AI Slop" Cores
Kind of speaks volumes that the pro-AI posts above are all quite rude and entitled, demonstrating a particular lack of gratitude and appreciation for Jotego's excellent work, while the anti-AI ones are much more thoughtful. Hmm!
Re: "There Is A Reason They Are Banned" - The Amiga Community Turns Against "Awful" AI-Generated Website
BIG MEDIA attacks plucky little (AI-powered slop) site!
No, but seriously, there is zero value in a site that appears to be pretty much 100% AI-generated, given how inaccurate, waffly and vague AI can be — particularly with a subject like retro gaming.
That "review" they posted that was based entirely on YouTube footage is a perfect example — it can spit out a review-shaped object, but it can never provide meaningful commentary and analysis.
God, I can't wait for this Age of Stupid to be over.
Re: "Thanks For Sharing, But I Do Not Support GenAI" - Dev Behind Sonic And The Black Knight Recomp Corrects "AI Slop" Website
@Deway Yep. I give it maybe five minutes before the "AI is here to stay, get used to it, the genie is out of the bottle, I have completely given myself over to cognitive surrender" clankers arrive.
I'm amazed that so many of them continue to hang out in this comments section considering how overtly hostile all of Time Extension's staff (and much of the community) are towards generative AI. One day they might get the message.
(One day the bubble will pop, too, and that will be a good day, albeit one that will almost certainly have scary economical consequences.)
Re: "Games Like PaRappa The Rapper Don't Get Made Anymore" - Shawn Layden Thinks Mainstream Gaming Has Gotten Too Safe
Sony getting rid of Japan Studio was a big part of this change, so far as PlayStation is concerned, at least. Most of the games he's talking about — and some other greats, like Tokyo Jungle! — were their work. A big part of why so many mainstream, big budget, big studio games got so boring and samey is because of the Americanisation of formerly worldwide efforts like PlayStation. Jim Ryan has a lot to answer for. (Yes, I know he's English, not American, but culturally what happened to SIE and PlayStation was very much Americanisation.)
It's also why Nintendo stands out, perhaps more than ever. Nintendo's top-end games still feel fresh and creative because for the most part, they haven't compromised on doing what they have always done. Even when developed by western teams, Nintendo stuff still has a heavily Japanese feel, and even when doing large-scale open world stuff like Breath of the Wild and Xenoblade, they don't fall into the trap of pursuing hyperphotorealism; they maintain a sense of distinctive — and often unashamedly Japanese — style about them.
Re: "This Whole Thing Has Just Been A Slap To My Face" - Dreamcast RPG Tricolore Crise Just Got An AI Fan Patch, & People Aren't Happy
There's a good piece on the subject from Thomas James (someone who does localisations both professionally and properly) here: https://dateemups.com/fan-translation-llm/ — well worth a read. It touches on LLMs' unwelcome incursion into the space, and the pitfalls of "MTPE" — Machine Translation Post-Editing — for producing a work in a new language.
As occamyDG points out above, an AI translation is never going to be able to understand context, tone or authorial intent, and thus while I'm sure some people will regard it as "good enough", it's unfortunate that a low-effort, often inaccurate AI job shat out onto the market may well be the first encounter people have with works that could otherwise become beloved classics.
Re: I'm Really Not Sure How I Feel About Sony Killing Physical Media
I am unequivocally on the "this is a terrible thing, and a terrible precedent to set" side of the fence. The tricky thing with the suggestion that there might be aftermarket physical releases for PlayStation platforms without any need for Sony to get involved is that Sony is the one who makes Blu-Ray discs, and part of the reason this whole thing has come about is because it wants to... not do that any more.
Cartridges for vintage devices are a little different in that anyone capable of making a circuit board and with access to the right chips can, in theory, make one. Optical discs, however — I'm not aware of anyone "homebrewing" those with any great success.
As you say, though, people have found a way with other supposedly proprietary formats, like Dreamcast's GD-ROMs and suchlike. I guess we will have to wait and see, as although I signed that petition I think you're right — Sony's going to do this whatever everyone thinks.
I do know I'm not buying another PlayStation if it's digital-only. I've always said this, and I'm sticking to it. It's not as if I'm short of things to play in my collection as it stands now — and for games where digital is the only option, the much more open market on PC (not just Steam!) is clearly the way to go.
Re: This Disney-Inspired PS1 RPG From The Creator of Disgaea Is Making Its Way To Nintendo Switch 2 & PS5
Rhapsody is a lovely and incredibly charming (if exceedingly easy) game, but it's a bit strange to see this release — NIS America already did a very good port of this for the "Prinny Presents NIS Classics" collections (it's in vol. 3 along with La Pucelle: Ragnarok) and it's basically the same as the PS1 version.
They ported and localised the second two games for a subsequent "Marle Kingdom" collection, too — first time those have been officially in English.
Re: "Extremely Disappointing" - Are AI-Generated FPGA Cores The Future, Or The Death Of Accuracy?
The entire point of FPGA is painstaking recreation of how original hardware works, making for — in theory, anyway — some of the most accurate recreation of vintage computer and console hardware you can get outside of... just owning the original thing.
Any vibe-coded AI slop runs completely counter to that philosophy and has no place in the MiSTer project and related FPGA scenes. However accurate AI agents can be "in theory" — and I'm still incredibly doubtful of that, given how often genAI writ large gets things wrong — you know that anything vibe-coded has inevitably not been checked thoroughly by a human.
These folks can vibe-code their crap if they want — I just never want to see it as part of official MiSTer distributions/update_all and suchlike.
Re: Commodore's Next Hardware Release Is Dumb, And Proud Of It
I know a lot of people have been mocking this, but there's a lot that sounds quite appealing about this to me — a mostly dumb phone that still does WhatsApp and Google Maps is exactly what I want from a portable device these days.
At least until I saw the price. Five hundred dollars? No. Absolutely not.
Re: New Atari Trademark Application Hints At Hardware Refresh For Mr T's Favourite Home Computer
The Atari 8-bit had a lot more than the 25 games that were on the 400 Mini! I've covered 236 on my YouTube channel alone, and Atarimania's list stretches into the thousands. That said, the licensing situation for a whole lot of all-time classics is probably in limbo, but there's still a fair few Atari-published games that were not on the Mini — the original Star Raiders being the biggie. (That was a deliberate omission from the Mini, as it has relatively complex keyboard controls that wouldn't have fit on the included controller.)
I'm hoping this is something like a C64 Ultimate-type FPGA thing, but for Atari 8-bit. I already have a MiSTer set up for 8-bit computing, but if they release an FPGA 800XL I will almost certainly bite.
Re: "Learn How To Code" - Team Behind PS3 Emulator RPCS3 Has Had Enough Of People "Peddling AI Slop"
In before:
"It's just a tool!"
"Use it or get left behind!"
"The genie is out of the bottle!"
"You own a modern mobile phone and computer. I am very smart."
"Artists drawing inspiration is the same as AI training!"
"Robotics is the same as AI training!"
"Time Extension is BULLYING AI FANS"
Re: 'Hokkaido Serial Murder Case' Returns To UK eShop With A PEGI-18 Rating
@TransmitHim There are several people responsible for PEGI ratings. Developers/publishers are responsible for accurately telling PEGI about the content of their game in the questionnaire they submit when asking for a rating — this results in a "provisional rating", which is what you often see on pre-release materials — and PEGI is then responsible for both reviewing video footage sent by the dev/pub and a build of the game that they should play to their satisfaction. After PEGI does that, they come up with a final rating.
In this instance, it sounds like that initial questionnaire was done incorrectly, and PEGI got wind of that post-release. It might seem kind of silly to some that gambling minigames result in an immediate PEGI 18, but those have been the rules for a while now — it's why, among other titles, Falcom's Trails to Azure/Trails from Zero are 18-rated, despite being otherwise fairly "teen" in terms of content.
Re: "A Slap In The Face Of All Creators" - YouTube Terminates Popular Retro Gaming Channel Without Warning
Pleased to report that our lad has got his channel back. Thanks to everyone who supported him and helped get the word out, including Damien.
If you don't already follow RTS, pop him a subscribe, I'm sure it'll make his day after a miserable 24 hours. https://www.youtube.com/@RoseTintedSpectrum
Re: "A Slap In The Face Of All Creators" - YouTube Terminates Popular Retro Gaming Channel Without Warning
@GlamorousAlpaca I'm going to be charitable and assume that you're simply not familiar with the following:
He provides commentary over edited excerpts of TV shows, not full episodes, making his work clearly transformative and thus covered under YouTube's fair use provisions.
He has collected older work from multiple videos into single compilations that people can "binge". This is standard practice for moderately sized channels, because YouTube doesn't push old videos to new subscribers. YouTube doesn't allow you to upload identical videos, it detects that at the upload stage.
He does not sell any merch, and monetises entirely through YouTube and Patreon. Again, standard practice.
He has never claimed to have "created GamesMaster".
Any other accusations you want to make up, or are you done?
Re: "A Slap In The Face Of All Creators" - YouTube Terminates Popular Retro Gaming Channel Without Warning
Absolute dog mess behaviour from YouTube, but glad to see the situation has been getting attention and traction from both popular creators and press outlets like this one.
RoseTintedSpectrum has been working hard for more than 5 years on some great videos, and has just recently started enjoying some much-deserved breakout mainstream success with his GamesMaster retrospective videos. Here's hoping all the attention his case has gotten will lead to a swift resolution, ideally with YouTube taking a good, long, hard look at the automated nonsense that is the reason this came about in the first place.
I won't hold my breath for that last bit, but I have some faith that his channel will return, at least.
Re: Guide: Evercade Secret Games And How To Unlock Them
Small correction: Pyramids of Ra is the NES version, not Game Boy. The NES version was previously unreleased until 2019.
Re: The Challenge Of Teaching Game History In The Age Of Minecraft, Netflix And ChatGPT
@vnavarro Glad to hear you're enjoying Evercade and the Super Pockets — and that moreover, you're finding them helpful case studies! We have a blast working on everything, and as a gaming history enthusiast from even before I started working in the project, it's basically a dream job. Particularly as I've now played a part in the rerelease of some of my personal childhood favourites (Definitely-not-Bruce Lee, Rod Land and Boulder Dash, for the curious)
Re: New Report Highlights One Of The Major Challenges Facing Game Preservation
This is frustrating to see, but with continued efforts of folks like the Video Game History Foundation, things will gradually change — particularly as we're starting to move into an era where having a physical copy of a game for a past platform is no longer a guarantee you'll be able to play it as intended.
The concern that people will "treat the archive as a game centre" is bizarre. That's like telling people they can't visit art galleries because they might look at the paintings.
Re: The Challenge Of Teaching Game History In The Age Of Minecraft, Netflix And ChatGPT
Man. Speaking as a 43 year old dude who works in retro gaming (I work on Evercade)... I want to take that class!
I thoroughly believe that the history of games is well worth examining, because even if students want to create facsimiles of popular games, the conventions of those games became a thing for a reason. Souls games, to name just one example, have their roots in tricky 2D titles like Mega Man and Castlevania as much as action RPGs.
As someone who works in the business of making retro games more accessible through officially licensed rereleases, I always make an effort to educate people on the historical context of the games and the systems that played them, rather than just the surface-level "this is why this is cool". And I do that in my own free time, too, through my writing and YouTube channel.
In the years since I've started really focusing on my passion for retro, I've learned a lot about game design and how things have evolved over time and hardware generations. It's fascinating, and it boggles my mind how difficult it seemingly is to get people to pay attention — though I also completely understand, particularly as a former teacher. Today's media landscape is a chaotic mess, with subscription services and their seemingly bottomless libraries not helping matters.
Might have to get involved in that Historical Games Network business, though. Regular events sound like an interesting thing to be part of.
Re: Review: Atari 400 Mini - A Deep Cut, But A Welcome One
@Gs69 You can switch the controller into left-handed mode, which puts the action button at the upper right instead of the upper left. Press the Menu button, shoulder button and the left "ring" button at the same time.
You can also use other USB controllers, such as the Competition Pro-style "TheStick" and the CD32-esque gamepad designed for TheA500 Mini.
Folks have also reported successfully using stuff like DualShock 4s — in those cases you can use the analogue sticks to simulate paddles, or recreate the Atari 5200's analogue controller.