World

@NinChocolate These are great insights, and I agree with you completely. Although I don't make art, I appreciate art and the work of artists. I think it's part of what makes us human, and I definitely will continue to reject any projects that use AI.

I'm not an artist so will not weigh in on that side, but as a consumer I think AI art in its current iteration looks cheap and it tells me the product will also be cheap and poorly made.

In a way, this is super cool! It looks great, and I might get one (especially if they do a unit from a company I like; Taito seems like a good contender. Although they have the Egret II Mini, it'd be neat to have some Taito games, and then play whatever cart as well)
That being said, I think I'm getting console fatigue from the Evercade line. They're just putting out too many console variations too quickly and it's personally turning me off. And to a extent I wonder how sustainable it is (although I'd guess that Blaze is flush with cash to be pushing out so much hardware so quickly?).

In my opinion, this is a bad decision, but it's also one of those cases where none of the other options are great in my opinion because they don't achieve the goal of preservation.

The companies want their IPs forever, so they can re-release things or at least prevent people from taking their copyright. Okay.

On the user side, some people are saying either "pirate everything!" or "become a collector!" Also okay.

But, like, none of these achieve the goal of preservation because they are all still aiming at some version of private collections by end users which is not and can never be preservation.

Preservation happens when media works can be acquired and held publicly by a third-party repository unaffiliated with the original creator that has a mandate of preservation and allows some degree of public access (like a museum or a library). And if we can't permit that as a society we won't have preservation. We'll have nothing but piecemeal "Hey! Look what I found in a warehouse!" shots in the dark at random games forever, which is sad.

You know, I was a big supporter of the Evercade project when it began, but I feel at this point Blaze has almost overplayed their hand. Others obviously feel differently and that's cool that they're making people happy, but for me I feel like there's a sweet spot with things like this where you want to release just enough stuff to keep it feeling fresh and also special.
And now it's like...they've put out how many console variations in three years? I do still pick up a cart from time to time if they have something I really want (last one I got was Sunsoft Vol. 2 for Daze Before Christmas which I do not own in any form), but I no longer keep up with the new releases as fatigue has set in for me personally.

This is a great article! It really got me thinking.

In my opinion, as to whether or not bad nostalgia can exist, I'd say both "yes" and "no."

If we mean "should we gatekeep old stuff that is bad from being ever released again?" Then no, bad nostalgia is not a thing.

But if we take bad nostalgia to mean "Old people love a property so much that they will tyrannize the makers of said property into forcing us all into a death loop of remaking the property exactly as they remembered and no new ideas are ever allowed" then yes, we can absolutely have bad nostalgia.

(I don't care about Star Wars, but I think in this case it's not bad nostalgia.)

This seems neat! The homage in Arzette was quite good, so why not?

@JohnnyMind This a really good point! AI that is useful and good already exists, but corporations just want slop generators, which is going to sour consumers on all AI products so that indies with their actual good uses of AI will fail to get traction in the market. So frustrating!

Ultimately, this is a terrible decision from a company that has long been anti-consumer so it's sad but not surprising.

The executives know AI can't really replicate what a developer can do. AI isn't really anything; it doesn't "create." But they're looking at the "number go up/down" balance sheet implications only and betting on customers not caring and honestly for something like Madden or whatever, they are probably right.

Ugh, I hate that he's right, but he is right. Although I've certainly chilled out a bit over the years, I'm still a physical collector and buy titles in physical if such a thing exists.
But I do also wish we lived in a world where libraries prioritized archival collections of video games and not just "Have a selection of the latest titles for patrons to check out," but it is what it is (at least for now).

This is disappointing. That's way too many "Extra" games (the only slight positive I have ever seen in those extras is that sometimes on the Chinese consoles you get an abbreviated form of Xiangqi which doesn't usually appear in video game form on those early consoles).

@John_Deacon @RetroGamerAndrew I've been seeing $250USD as the quoted price, with $60 for add-ons and bundles with discounted prices planned.

As cool as this thing looks, I'm going to wait on it. I'm not confident they can pull off Saturn emulation, and although the price is right, as someone who doesn't live in the US the duties/shipping/exchange rate are bound to make the cost somewhat more outrageous. Would still possibly be worth it if everything works as planned though. It's really an amazing idea.

The sound has been fixed on the HD models, but I imagine there's little incentive to do so on the handhelds until there is a major hardware upgrade (so probably never). I have the portable Atari model and enjoy it, as it sidesteps two of the main downsides by virtue of Atari games having little to no sound and not requiring save capabilities. It's also a useful way to stay in touch with the Atari homebrew scene if you don't have a 2600 lying around.

Sound issues aside, I'd consider one of those if not for the fact that it won't run most of EA's sports catalog and the lack of saves, which makes many other classics unplayable.

I love LCD games, but I hate the permadeath in Tamagotchi as much as I love it in roguelikes. Mainly because it can happen for reasons beyond your control (i.e., not feeling the need to play it every single minute because you have a life).