metaphysician

Sigh, you make me wish again that the legal tangles could be sorted so that a "Quintet Collection" could be released. . .

I'd be fine with a remaster, as long as its broadly available this time.

@Johnny_Arthur

I feel like the story of Retro has an additional message, though- when Nintendo found out they had purchased a mess, they didn't just go "Oh well" fire everyone and turn off the lights. They fixed things, at no small cost in effort.

@tektite_captain

I suspect its at least partly an artifact of the SoJ vs SoA feud. Retro games getting the cold shoulder in the present because they were made by the "wrong" faction, or popular in the "wrong" region. Conversely. . . well, I don't think its a coincidence that the Sega classics to get the most love and attention, are those that came out of AM2.

@NatiaAdamo

Would that actually be a problem? My understanding is that, while the CD-i disks are not CD-ROMs, they are part of the "rainbow book" of formats. Which, to the best of my knowledge, means they should be readable by standard CD drive hardware, at least if it has the right software.

@RaeDawnChonglingBay

Sadly, some people just like to watch the world burn. Destroying something that brings other people joy is the whole point.

I would be a little skeptical of claims like "80% complete". Those hinge entirely on how one measures "completeness", and its very easy to pick metrics which make a game look much more closer to launch than it actually is. For example, if you mean "80% of the levels of the game are playable", that sounds good. . . until you learn that most of the assets are still alpha assets, and nothing has gotten balancing or QA yet.

@Pak-Man

I suspect there would be nostaglic demand. . .but sadly, the fact that they were all(?) licensed probably means its impossible.

@Kushan

Also discrepencies between different models and revisions and production runs of the console, even when new. While people often simplify the matter as "consoles are one single fixed hardware" ( and compared to PC, this is substantially true ). . . iyd not quite technically the case. I'm comfortable with saying that "perfect emulation" is achieved when any imperfections between the emulator and real hardware, or the same or less than between real hardware and real hardware.

@Gs69

This was my thought, too. I did end up getting the Neo Geo Mini, once I ran across a copy for cheap enough. . . but I know I would have played it a lot more ( and more comfortably ) if it were a conventional mini console with controllers.

@PKDuckman

I suspect whoever has the final say is a believer in "Why should we encourage people to play old games, when they ought to be buying our newest greatest GAAS MTX delivery mechanisms instead!"

@Martin_H

I would keep optimism tempered, since even if the AI bubble burst is here, and real, and doesn't cause larger economic collateral damage. . .

Prices are always fast to rise and slow to fall. So, expect the manufacturers to cling to high prices and the hope of sales at that level, as long as possible and still further. Especially versus small scale buyers like these kind of boutique manufacturers, who have less negotiating power to call a bluff in a way Big Silicon would have to care about.

I know there have been games since with technically more advanced animations. . . but I'm not sure if any game has ever really matched Darkstalkers for the complexity and creativity of its spritework. Which is sadly why its probably doomed to never return, since Capcom doesn't want to go back to using old school sprite sheets, and the transformations that are ubiquitous in Darkstalkers would make a modern 3D engine melt.

@Azathoth

I think that's a broader issue with "scenes": the perceived sense of community and common bond acts as a lure to predators who wish to exploit that environment, unless there is someone actively monitoring for and enforcing good behavior. Which is difficult enough when you are dealing with something as structured as a fan convention, nevermind with much more amorphous communities that are only barely that. Sadly, it doesn't matter if 99% of everyone just wants to play fair out of shared love for a topic.

@KingMike

Silly question: is there a reason the MBC2 is poorly emulated? Normally I'd expect a common mapper chip to be one of the things emulated well, unless it had technical reasons to be challenging.

@McShifty1984

If so, that just circles back to the question "So why has Sony not made a new entry in a series, when they are literally producing a TV adaptation?"

If I had to make a WAG, its the "wide range of goods and services" part that sparked the hostility. The Bond IP holders might not overly care about James Pond, so long as they are a decades old mostly forgotten couple of video games ( even if they got the occasional rerelease ). The prospect of a whole lot of merch showing up, all based on a parody of the Bond IP, by contrast? Had them contemplating ways to technically-legally stop it.

Silly question: how is the story of the game? Because I don't actually see anything in the screenshots that makes me think "unbearably bad graphics".

@James-Bond

Eh, I think the Konami influence kind of goes both ways. On one hand, they are definitely the reason why Kojima got to make basically nothing but Metal Gear once MGS proved a smash hit. OTOH, without Metal Gear and the Konami money it brought, I am skeptical Kojima would have ever got the budget needed to pursue his cinematic dreams.

As for comparisons with Miyamoto, I'd only do so with some reservations. They have such difference in philosophy that its basically 100% apples vs oranges- Kojima being a cinematic storyteller first and foremost, while Miyamoto largely rejects the idea of 'narrative' being important in the first place. Miyamoto almost certainly is the more influential figure, but that doesn't mean Kojima's work isn't also important and influential- art forms need specialists as well as generalists.

@jygsaw

I have read some speculation that it might be due to bad blood at Sony with David Jaffe. Can't speak to accuracy, but based on his public behavior I find it at least plausible that he'd leave bad feelings in his wake.

@tameshiyaku @badbob001

So, basically, a game where one or more players are agents in the field, and one or more players are Mission Control. It sounds like a neat concept, though it would be tricky to make the coordination fun. Maybe have multiple different types of "person in the chair", which have their own sets of information. Like, one player gets the "Satellite View", having the broadest overwatch of the site, but the least detail and no direct ability to intervene. Another has the "Drone View", where they watch things from a drone hanging above: more details and possibly the ability to target strikes for support, but a smaller view subject to viewing angle and obstacles. A third player has "Hacker View", where they can see through subverted cameras and hear through comms, but they are limited to what can be perceived by the systems they subvert.

The main use for Galaxy is simple convenience for downloads and updates ( and also cloud saves, perhaps ). Lots of people ( waves ) like to support GOG and its no-DRM philosophy, but don't feel the need to entirely eschew convenient launchers on a regular day to day basis. It is, admittedly, nowhere near as good a launcher interface as Steam, in most ways.

This is an incredibly stupid waste of money and effort, akin to putting a fancy lock on a freestanding gate that doesn't actually have a fence attached to it. I have to assume its because of some zero-nuance internal policy at Capcom, where its part of the 'Official Procedures' that "All games released on Steam get Enigma".

An adventure game "run" by an LLM is an interesting idea, and one of the more worthwhile ways to apply AI tech to video games. You just would need to actually put more effort than "Connect yourself to an existing generic LLM", which is what these people are doing. If you want to actually work, you'd need to train your own LLM towards the task of "running an adventure", as opposed to "be a generic chatbot".

@-wc-

I think there's a fairly simple reason: Valve has both a theoretical source of secondary revenue ( increased sales on Steam ), and a large war chest they are willing to spend on experiments. Thus they are willing to sell a Steam Deck at a loss, and provide a lot of value for the dollar. None of the potential competitors have the same willingness to take the loss on hardware, and thus they can't provide a technically-better product without also a much higher price tag.

@-wc-

The bigger issue with labeling it a "Steam Deck Killer" is that there is no evidence it ever would even come close. Given that the entire handheld PC market is so far about 6M sales total. . . and the Steam Deck is 5M of those. It is highly unlikely that this Ayaneo device will ever come close to outselling the Steam Deck, even if Valve does discontinue it for some future product.

I think, if you could boil down Sega's problems to a single issue? It would be that Sega was fundamentally a hardware company, born of the arcades, and so they prioritized solving problems via hardware. In this context, the whole culture conflict between SoJ and SoA was at least exacerbated by SoA primarily dealing in software. . . and succeeding as a result.

@Serpenterror

It does make me wonder: is there any BTS interviews explaining why they chose two face buttons rather than four, on a device that even Nintendo clearly intended to be home to SNES ports?

@slider1983

Such as? cough

( To make it more blunt: the NES won, rightfully, because it was objectively better than all other 8-bit platforms, other than full on DOS and Apple PCs. Only the Commodore 64 comes anywhere close. )

Yeah, I agree with the sentiment: this smells like a particularly stinky attempt to disguise unregulated investment as crowdfunding. Legitimate crowdfunding is about the creation of a specific product, with the rewards being specifically about the product. You want money for your company generally? You should be soliciting actual investment, with actual contracts and legal obligations. Not offering what amounts to a donation jar and pretending its something else.

@lordlad

Yeah, this is one of my issues with the Anti-AI movement. There are real serious problems with AI and how its applied, in terms of how it could and already is impacting employment. But are the people actually concerned about employment? And if so, why were they not just as outraged and energized by other prior forms of automation threatening jobs? Were they just not paying attention, or are they too young. . . or is it that they offended not by jobs being destroyed, but by specific jobs being destroyed?

@Hexapus

I suspect that wouldn't work, at least not without some effort to distance yourself from the aspects of the original arcade game. Just because it was licensed from someone else, doesn't mean the game itself wasn't IP owned by Capcom.

@Atariboy

Maybe short for "sci-fi", referring to the setting and aesthetics? A bit of an odd thing to give a new term for, mind.

I can guarantee you: every single person who criticizes ____ for doing something "pointless"? Spends time and effort on something equally "pointless", and praises those doing likewise. Underneath the question "Why do you waste time on this pointless thing?" is the true question "Why are you not wasting time on the different pointless thing I like?"

@Fiyz

1. Using bankruptcy as a means to not pay court costs, is a good way to end up with no lawyers willing to work for you in the future. It also does nothing to prevent future lawsuits and associated expenses.

2. The reason they don't generally sue individuals has little to do with bankruptcy law, and everything to do with the fact that there are countless individual potential defendants, and no chance to actually recover much money. Even the most spiteful legal campaign would run into the "Suing everyone will run us out of money" problem.

I'm sorry, but "Produced some of the most sought after systems in the modern era", and this being in reference to the Analog 3D? That goes beyond spin to an outright lie. Maybe if there were a qualifier, "Most sought after retro revival system" or the like. But I've seen zero evidence to suggest the Analog 3D is anything but a rounding error compared to even the XBox Series consoles.

@N64-ROX

I suspect one half "Never admit fault when it might get you sued", one half "We don't actually think the people saying that stuff are persuadable, so why bother". After all, at least a good chunk of the anti-LRG commentary contains something of the form "I object to the very premise of LRG's business model". There's no point trying to use more nuanced rhetoric to make people happy, if the people in question are never going to be happy unless LRG magically transforms into a conventional publisher with their own giant factory.

I really have a hard time getting past the sheer hypocrisy of "No one should want to fix your bad AI translation", coming from people who are already not working on a translation. Note: I do not consider "Has said at some point in the past that they will totally do a translation some day" to constitute "working on a translation". There has to be some sign of actual life and progress. While this might focus on the anti-AI side of things, honestly it feels more part and parcel with the broader toxic "Calling Dibs" aspect of the fan translation community.

The Sega CD was probably always at least a little doomed from pricing, but it wasn't conceptually bad like the 32X. It just needed more games and reasonable sales vs price expectations. Which is to say, it was mostly another victim of the SoJ/SoA split. While I usually place the majority of the blame on SoJ, in this case they actually had what was the correct idea for How To Make CD Games.

@AngelSpark

This. Bleem was in the clear legally, that just doesn't matter when a much larger company is willing to spend you into the grave.

@Martin_H

Except worse, because this game also adds third party licenses. Though I suppose its a mixed blessing, since the sales potential of those licenses might make for a compelling reason to clean up the issue.

I've been saying for a while that a "Castlevania strategy game" would be a great idea. Here's hoping it turns out good.

@sdelfin

Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought. Like, there are some legitimate gripes in there ( people bundling the emulator with ROMs does increase the risk of negative legal actions ). . . but it doesn't change that he's essentially throwing a temper tantrum. The GPL allows for commercial use, and doesn't allow for retroactive changes, and that's the license you chose to use, my dude. When you release software as open source, you are forgoing most ability to control what others choose to do with it.

I suspect he subscribes at least somewhat to the "FOSS as ideology" mindset.

@MegaJ

Its because, at heart, most of the anti-AI paranoia is based on an emotional aversion to art no longer being a special spiritual gift of humanity, as opposed to a skilled craft subject to the same threat of automation as many other crafts. That's why even the people who do talk about the ( very real ) threat of AI to employment, spend way too much effort on purity testing and witchhunts like this, as opposed to, say. . . advocating for Universal Basic Income. They don't want to ensure people don't get thrown out on the streets if automation comes for their job; they want to ensure that they can still tell themselves that being able to draw makes them special.

( And don't think for a second that the people who do want to abuse and exploit AI in all its worst forms aren't gleeful about this tendency. )

@cyxceven

Why would you think that? Translation and localization is hard, because language and culture is hard. You are trying to convert meaning across different languages ( which often have wildly different grammar and vocabularies, none of which is guaranteed to directly map ), and across different cultures too ( which the literal meaning of specific words and phrases can have radically different interpretation in context ). What about that sounds even slightly easy?

@sdelfin

Is there a publicly-known explanation for why he took the code out of the open source? i tend to be cynical, but I'm open to an alternative explanation.

@Tom_Gamer

The question is nonsensical, because there are no "preexisting buyers". Sin Remastered is an entirely new. . . well, remaster. Its not an update patch to an existing release.

@slider1983

I think the issue is less that those games are "trash", and more that stuff like Gain Ground and Sonic 1 have already been rereleased countless times. There isn't that much demand because there have been tons of ways to play them, for years or decades, many of which are recent or even still available. Those who are interested have already bought them, possibly multiple times; and those who aren't, won't magically decide to buy Gain Ground just because Virtua Fighter isn't available.

@slider1983

I mean, its possible that is what they are doing. The main obstacles in the face would be:

1. All the Dragon Slayer titles are 80s PC games at heart, and thus would need a lot of remastering to make them both reasonably playable on consoles and appetizing for modern players.

2. Their localization status is dicey, at best, meaning realistically they'd need new translations. They might not be giant doorstopper scripts, but they are still RPGs with a fair amount of text.

These aren't insurmountable obstacles, but they do mean that I think a rework of a game is more likely than a collection.

@MikeP

This. I suspect there are quite a few collections of classic Sega games that could command prices anywhere from $30 to $60 easily, depending on how big or previously-unrereleased they were.

Which I suspect is part of what they don't want to say out loud: part of the pushback and disinterest is likely execs who really wish they could sell every single rereleased title at those prices. "Why should we have to put together a collection of all the old Super Scaler games to charge $60, we should be able to get that for just Outrun!" Or thereabouts.