Damo

@RetroGames The point being made here is that Retro-Bit has always claimed that it doesn't use existing translations. If it had given credit then you could be more understanding, but to claim this is original work makes it a bit worse in my book.

Anyway, I've reached out to them and will see what they say. The people I've dealt with there have all been really decent over the years, but clearly, someone has dropped the ball pretty badly here.

@bring_on_branstons My personal fave was the fake VR console that was featured in CVG

@X68000 That name rings a bell - I might have to have a look in some old issues for an advert!

@X68000 Oh wow, what shop did you own? PC Engine Supplies?

@sdelfin I feel the NGCD pad is really good for fighting games because the pad acts more like a stick, if that makes sense.

@NinChocolate I can only speak from my own experience but I've been playing 2D fighters since the days of the original Street Fighter and IMO this D-pad just isn't all that great. It's serviceable, but is leagues behind the Saturn D-pad, which is the best ever, if you ask me.

@-wc- To be fair I had no idea Agetec distributed the stick in North America, so I learned something today too!

@-wc- Agetec released the stick in North America, but it was made by Sega: https://segaretro.org/Dreamcast_Arcade_Stick

@Angelus3K My only experience with this kind of thing is the SAROO Saturn cart, which is using the console's expansion port, and that loads things super-fast. I couldn't say for sure but it wouldn't shock me if loading from this thing is just as fast, if not faster, than loading from optical media.

@RootsGenoa I think you're right!

@jimmytodgers I might be wrong, but I think both of those cores are now (mostly) playable on single-RAM MiSTer FPGA units?

@Daggot Some of the appeal is the hardware itself, though. I got my first Nomad around 1999 when they were dirt cheap, so I've got a nostalgic connection with it, bulk and all. Plus the D-pad is incredible!

@RetroGames We use both Twitter and Bluesky links. We link to the source where we first witnessed the news.

@Guru_Larry System 3?

@Bod2019 Yep, apologies, fixed!

@ruiner9 Quite right, I've added that! I assumed it was just for the Pocket. Apologies!

@Ristar24 The music in the Mega Drive version absolutely slaps, you're right!

@O_Ilusionista Done!

@slider1983 London floods too, you know. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b95MIFk2kMM

@Deway Software emulation on powerful hardware is great, but on a device like this (which will most likely use an underpowered, off-the-shelf SoC), there's almost certainly going to be a big difference in accuracy when compared to, say, the Analogue Pocket (which admittedly costs more).

FPGA emulation, in the most part, is superior to software emulation - at least in the commercial applications we've seen so far. On super-powerful hardware, the difference is less noticeable.

@dmcc0 Yes!

@GlamorousAlpaca Sorry you were disappointed! I'll try and make it up to you in 2025. Can't let my hardcore fans down! 😘

@GlamorousAlpaca Thanks for the positive feedback. It's great to have such a devoted fan! ❤️

@Fanboy_Destroyer I imagine (if this does happen) we'll see a combination of new games and hacked ports which add in CD-quality music and the like.

@B3tan_Tyronne You're not the first person to ask this, and from what I can gather, it won't. I might be wrong there, though!

@mariteaux Yep, if it hadn't been for Spawn Wave's video I wouldn't have known it had an update.

@RetroGames It already has (kinda): https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/10/somebody-has-made-the-computer-from-ufo-50-to-play-ufo-50-on

@-wc- "Slightly odd writing here, as the (admittedly slight) improvements on the design are sandwiched between statements that seem to claim there are no improvements"

Printing some text on the casing doesn't constitute a massive improvement in my book, but each to their own

@cakeashi I didn't notice that during the review period, I have to admit. I was mainly playing solo, so will investigate a little more and update the review if I find anything. Thanks for the info!

@hste Whatever your opinion of CDKeys they are a pretty big retailer when it comes to games and digital codes, so it's worth highlighting.

@TJSpyke No profit is being made from this project.

@bring_on_branstons The majority of traffic for our network comes from the US, so we tend to use US names (when we remember, at least).

@GlamorousAlpaca This piece pulls from existing sources as well as new interviews with the developers to present as full a picture as possible on the making of the game.

Your continued negativity in the comment sections of this site has been noted, so consider this your first warning. If you don't have anything constructive to say, then I'd rather you posted elsewhere.

@dequesi It's probably not as big a deal as I've made out, to be honest. The majority of the text flows perfectly fine. There's no indication whatsoever that this is machine-translated.

@KainXavier I was referring more to the chipset which is driving the machine, which I believe is totally identical to the one in the 2600+.

@Slider2711 Aha! Thanks! I've updated the review

@KitsuneNight I wasn't sent any instruction documentation with the console, so if you can find a source for that, I will gladly update the review. I only knew about the screen filter options because someone else told me about it!

@Stocksy We will never, ever use AI to create content such as reviews, videos or anything else a human would do.

@axelhander Using someone's art without permission to deny them future work doesn't "exploit artists"? Sure...

I think we're done debating this, as you've shown your hand quite clearly. Have a good one!

@slider1983 Five so far: NES, SNES, Mega Drive / Genesis, TG-16 and N64.

@axelhander "AI fear-mongering supports capitalism, straight up. This is a tool that gives people access to time savings that previously was the sole domain of the rich."

You're confusing "rich" with "talented" there. The vast majority of artists are not rich.

@-wc- No worries dude, any time!

@axelhander I think we're debating two different things here.

I'm not defending IP law and capitalism, which you seem to assume I am. I'm saying, in black and white, that the theft of human art to train AI - which then replaces the human artist - is massively unethical, and if you want to put AI-generated slop on the cover of your game, then you should be ready for a less-then-positive reaction from the general public.

"Art is in the editing and presentation. And only a human can do that. You can piss and moan about how AI is theft all you want: in reality it is just doing more quickly what is already done and has already been done before."

It's not "doing it more quickly" - it's mushing a bunch of art it doesn't have any ownership over and creating something which approximates art, but without any soul. Why would anyone (beyond the rich people you constantly keep mentioning, who can avoid paying artists and make more money) want that?

"The fearmongering over AI remains silly, and distracts from the true cause of hardship for both unprivileged artists and everyone else who isn't rich."

Given that companies are already using AI art to cut real artists out of the picture, I would say this fearmongering is laser-focused on what's actually happening here, and certainly isn't a distraction.

@axelhander I never said IP law doesn't protect big companies - it's there to protect everyone, from corporations to individuals. Whether or not it is applied fairly is another topic entirely; I'm well aware that IP law has been misused multiple times in the past. That doesn't have any impact on the fact that AI art, built directly on human art without credit or permission, is unethical.

"Big tech corporations already scrape all of our data all the time, to their financial enrichment, and we receive no compensation." Yes, and we sign away that when we tick the terms and conditions on Google, Facebook, etc (always read the small print). The difference here is that these companies are scraping images online to train their AI art bots despite the artist not having agreed to the 'value exchange' in any way beforehand.

"And if using AI in the creative process is "theft" then Shovel Knight is also "theft" for iterating upon Mega Man and Ducktales among other things."

A human being inspired by another piece of art isn't theft - it could be branded a lazy imitation at best. You're attempting to make some kind of connection between a living, breathing artist and a computer program which, rather than being inspired by art, merely takes it and mushes it together to create something which approximates human art, without treating it as an homage or a piece of work with clear influence.

I cannot fathom why anyone who appreciates the talent and hard work that goes into art would be in favour of AI art. It boggles my mind.

@SlangWon The AI used to create the image will have been trained on human art. The fact that the artists who trained this AI cannot be named only proves my point more keenly!

@SlangWon The comparison with the printing press doesn't hold weight, sadly. The printing press allowed writers to spread their work to an even wider audience, with continued protection / credit and enhanced reward.

AI art doesn't credit or benefit the original creator - it steals.

@NinChocolate Exactly.

@KraniX This is the official cover art key art for the game, as seen here (it's getting a physical release, but it's a code-in-the-box deal):

https://system3.com/

Even if it was only used on social media, that doesn't make this any less objectionable.

@-wc- If you zoom into the artwork, there are clear red flags, like the 'melting' effect on the finer details of the spacesuit. Given that the rest of the image has perfect lines and clarity, this sticks out like a sore thumb.

It's still relatively easy to spot AI art. That isn't always going to be the case, sadly.

@axelhander IP law may well protect businesses, but it also protects individuals.

The use of AI to create art is a shortcut. A money-saving exercise, nothing more. Without human art - much of which has been scraped from the internet without permission - AI art simply could not exist. It is nothing more than slop meshed together from actual, real art.

I'm not 100% anti-AI - the internet is built on algorithms, and there are AI services that make my life easier every single day (spellcheckers, for example).

But AI art is a completely different prospect; it is stealing human work to create an approximation without reimbursing those artists - but it does double damage, as not only are the original artists not getting rewarded for their original contribution, they're also losing potential work because some tightwad is getting a computer to do it instead.

To label something that is literally going to take work away from artists who are already struggling to make ends meet bad is not "fear-mongering" - the fear is 100% real, and it's happening right now.