sftwn

@dedant you're referring to trademarks, not copyright. Not defending your copyright doesn't cause you to lose it. Not defending your trademark does cause you to lose it.

Trademarks exist to prevent confusion, so you have to defend it or why even have it. Copyright has no such burden.

I just recently completed a multi-year project developing an engine to play King's Field 1 JP. (Started on the 30th anniversary, took roughly 2 years to finish, about 20 months longer than I anticipated.) It was rewarding, but it was grueling work at times.

I wish I had something like this going in. I ended up writing the GTE and SPU logic myself to reasonably match the PSX version. I ended up poring over the internals and sites like exploring tokimeki memorial, nocash, and trying to suss out info from the PsyQ docs. If this existed when I started, I would have used it. From being in the trenches of that work, static analysis tools like this are incredibly helpful, as much as I live Ghidra and all its quirks. I think making the process of decomping something as easy as the original build-up of the game via the rich PsyQ libraries is really really valuable. Very cool project.

Didn't comment on the AI part because I don't have much to say even though it's the article's focus, other than I agree. I think going into it not wanting to learn and just wanting to port something is a weird goal since PSX emulators are quite good already.

Edit: and if I could leave words of wisdom to anybody looking to do a hand decomp, keep a good accurate emulator's source at hand. I referenced mednafen's source constantly for all sorts of HW info. Also take your time. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

@Ruka they're a private company with private investors. They can say they sold ten trillion of these and it wouldn't be a crime on its face, let alone a "serious crime." It's a cute thought though.

I'm not sure how long this gravy train of theirs will last, if it even exists in the first place. They already did "the thing" that fans wanted and then went straight into a gimmick. I agree with the sentiment that they're just a couple years from insolvency.

I can smell that translucent plastic. I haven't owned anything made if it in decades, but just seeing it made my nose wiggle a bit.

Well... Huh, anyway

My gut tells me the brand is being used as nothing more than a vanity car plate would be used.

It was a fun story the first scam, but I think this whole saga has run its course.

@RadioHedgeFund by 2000, Sega of America was just a weak zombie arm of Sega of Japan, filled with yes-men and run by leaders who themselves were SOJ's favorites.

It's not something I like saying, but there's a lot of evidence to suggest that SOJ was largely xenophobic towards SOA. (And from what I understand, that internal culture flaw still hasn't changed.) When you read through the history of management and development, there's many stories of SOJ seeing SOA as nothing but a cash cow with no inherent value otherwise.

And I wouldn't say SOA was arrogant as much as they were naive. They tried so hard to not acknowledge what SOJ really saw of their branch, and it ended up killing what was left of SOA by 1996. As much as I really don't like Nintendo through history, Sega's biggest failure was not embracing their American arm the way Nintendo did.

Is the link on "shown off in 2010" correct? It directs me to a video about the development of Lemmings, which is a cool video, but if it is correct a timestamp would be really helpful.

@KingMike it was officially licensed by SEGA with the catalog number T-47803M, so it went through all the usual certification steps. Another reason it's kinda notable is because they slid right under the deadline for the end of GD-ROM disc production. Pretty sure they rushed a bunch of copies up to the last disc pressing.

@hste the ROM on this cab only exists with a couple private collectors and a museum. If you wanted to play this specific English version, you'd need to own this cab. It's not in the wild to download like Rev A and C.