5 ms·

You know, all those people making new n64, playstation, and gameboy titles might be onto something. Apart from steam, I don't think I've heard anything but bad

You know, all those people making new n64, playstation, and gameboy titles might be onto something. Apart from steam, I don't think I've heard anything but bad news from modern consoles.

amiga-workbench 2mo ago
Honestly, there's never been a better time to be writing games for those platforms. The SDK's are much improved from the proprietary stuff available at the time and the hardware is very well understood. People have been pulling off some utter witchcraft on the N64.
- echelon 2mo ago
  Kaze and James Lambert are amazing. Kaze's new Mario game looks better than a first party Nintendo title, and James's engines pushes the console to its absolute limits. I've been thinking about giving it a go myself. It's such a fun and nostalgic console, and the limitations are fun constraints. The code archeology is really cool too. Seeing Rare's Dinosaur Planet boot up and play after being a lost title. Decompiling all the original titles. Building sequels to Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. It's such a fun scene. Then there's Analogue 3D and ModRetro too, which make it fun to play as physical hardware.
  - RajT88 2mo ago
    Even crap emulator handhelds are getting pretty dang good (if you can get the right software stack).
    - opan 2mo ago
      Seconding this. Look for something with ROCKNIX support and put that on there.
  - dml2135 2mo ago
    Wait, someone actually brought N64 Dinosaur Planet to life? I gotta check this out...
    - ColdStream 2mo ago
      Yeah based on a ROM leak from a while back. The game was almost entirely complete before they moved over to the GameCube.
  - ColdStream 2mo ago
    It was last night, after seeing Linux on the Atari Jaguar, I was just pondering over that whole scene. Then I decided to throw on Metal Slug X, a classic of the Neo Geo. Then it struck me, "Could I attempt porting this to Jaguar?!". It would be a great start project to familurise myself with this older stuff again. They both have a 12MHz 68k, it is just that the graphics and audio cores are different. Would probably have to base it off the CD version so that the memory addressing is already handled (it loaded all assets into 1MB RAM - twice the jaguars storage). It doesn't sound impossible. But the Jags RISC chips were notorious for being a little slow due to limited cache space, so it might not be so straight forward. Regardless, the scene is jumping.
- crote 2mo ago
  Best of all: there's no hardware rat race. The N64 is never going to get any faster, and emulators can run on just about any potato these days. People have realistic expectations of what the platform can do, so there's no need to spend insane effort making the graphics look better. It's always going to look kinda crappy, and that is Just Fine. This lets game developers focus on the actual gameplay itself. No "Generic Shooter vol. 26 - now with slightly prettier water!", but innovative stuff focusing on the narrative and on novel gameplay elements.
  - supertrope 2mo ago
    The makers of Super Mario 64 said 3D graphics greatly increased game development costs.
echelon 2mo ago
Huge capital overhead. Exhausting mid-lifecycle crunch that makes or breaks the next gen. Multiple giants. Meanwhile Steam just casually absorbing everything. It doesn't matter that it's porous. And now suddenly - hardware costs you can't tip toe schedule around. The console business is shitty.
- PaulHoule 2mo ago
  Talk to console gamers and they still think the PC is sweaty and playing on the PC is like putting your hands in the toilet. I mean, I remember the 1990s when kids were playing flight simulators with this huge plastic joysticks that were always falling apart and needed to be calibrated every five minutes. It's not like that anymore, with Steam Big Picture and either an XBOX ONE or PS4/5 controller your PC is a better console. The main problem is that, ex. the Steam Controller, nobody can make a decent game controller except for console vendors and when the console vendors go down somebody will have to step up. I just can't believe the PS5 has sold as many units as it has with just 15 exclusive games, many of which are remakes, even remakes of remakes. That reputation that the PC platform is too sweaty has taken a long long time to die and it doesn't help that ACER and such are coming out with handhelds that are maximum sweat (boot into a Windows Desktop with 10x too small fonts) compared to the consumer electronics experience of the Steam Deck.
  - skgough 2mo ago
    > The main problem is that, ex. the Steam Controller, nobody can make a decent game controller except for console vendors and when the console vendors go down somebody will have to step up. I used to only play on DualShock 4s and even skipped the DualSense because I just loved my DualShock that much. I use an 8bitDo now and it is better in every way I care about. 8bitDo does not make consoles.
  - wing-_-nuts 2mo ago
    >Talk to console gamers and they still think the PC is sweaty and playing on the PC is like putting your hands in the toilet. Eh, as someone who owns and plays on both pc and console, the simple truth of the matter is that playing on console is, for the most part, better 'bang for the buck'. You can reliably purchase a console and a budget linux laptop and both will reliably fill their respective niches for the next decade. PC gaming, in my experience, requires a much higher budget, and this was even before the modern pricing madness. Consoles also had much wider support for couch coop than PC did, so it was a more social experience, and to be blunt, PC gaming has a pretty bad problem with cheating that I simply never experienced on console. Like I said, I play and enjoy both. I can afford to do so now, but I do feel bad for teens today because even consoles are getting crazy expensive.
buran77 2mo ago
> Apart from steam, I don't think I've heard anything but bad news from modern consoles. Gabe is in his mid 60s, I'm prepared that in the next decade or so there will be a change of guard at Valve and the slow train of enshittification will get moving. P.S. There's been a lot of groupthink and bandwagoning for Valve, ignoring all the dirt under the rug. But at the end of the day, by comparison, they are the best behaving in the field.
- add-sub-mul-div 2mo ago
  The company that gave up making games because there was more money to be had from inserting itself as a middleman into a previously open platform does not deserve any adoration.
  - derideor 2mo ago
    Then don't buy it through steam. Just buy it through a third party like greenmangaming. Valve gets zero cut there.
  - CamperBob2 2mo ago
    The market demanded a middleman. Would you prefer an Epic or Microsoft monopoly?
    - Forgeties79 2mo ago
      > The market demanded a middleman Says who?
      - CamperBob2 2mo ago
        The market. If you're an indy game developer, it turns out that just posting .exes on your website gets you a limited reach.
        Forgeties79 2mo ago
        I understand my question was a bit flippant but truly, this doesn’t answer it.
ChrisRR 2mo ago
So that make all of the games that release for consoles good news, right?

You know, all those people making new n64, playstation, and gameboy titles might be onto something. Apart from steam, I don't think I've heard anything but bad news from modern consoles.

amiga-workbench 2mo ago

Honestly, there's never been a better time to be writing games for those platforms. The SDK's are much improved from the proprietary stuff available at the time and the hardware is very well understood. People have been pulling off some utter witchcraft on the N64.

echelon 2mo ago
Kaze and James Lambert are amazing. Kaze's new Mario game looks better than a first party Nintendo title, and James's engines pushes the console to its absolute limits. I've been thinking about giving it a go myself. It's such a fun and nostalgic console, and the limitations are fun constraints. The code archeology is really cool too. Seeing Rare's Dinosaur Planet boot up and play after being a lost title. Decompiling all the original titles. Building sequels to Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. It's such a fun scene. Then there's Analogue 3D and ModRetro too, which make it fun to play as physical hardware.
- RajT88 2mo ago
  Even crap emulator handhelds are getting pretty dang good (if you can get the right software stack).
  - opan 2mo ago
    Seconding this. Look for something with ROCKNIX support and put that on there.
- dml2135 2mo ago
  Wait, someone actually brought N64 Dinosaur Planet to life? I gotta check this out...
  - ColdStream 2mo ago
    Yeah based on a ROM leak from a while back. The game was almost entirely complete before they moved over to the GameCube.
- ColdStream 2mo ago
  It was last night, after seeing Linux on the Atari Jaguar, I was just pondering over that whole scene. Then I decided to throw on Metal Slug X, a classic of the Neo Geo. Then it struck me, "Could I attempt porting this to Jaguar?!". It would be a great start project to familurise myself with this older stuff again. They both have a 12MHz 68k, it is just that the graphics and audio cores are different. Would probably have to base it off the CD version so that the memory addressing is already handled (it loaded all assets into 1MB RAM - twice the jaguars storage). It doesn't sound impossible. But the Jags RISC chips were notorious for being a little slow due to limited cache space, so it might not be so straight forward. Regardless, the scene is jumping.
crote 2mo ago
Best of all: there's no hardware rat race. The N64 is never going to get any faster, and emulators can run on just about any potato these days. People have realistic expectations of what the platform can do, so there's no need to spend insane effort making the graphics look better. It's always going to look kinda crappy, and that is Just Fine. This lets game developers focus on the actual gameplay itself. No "Generic Shooter vol. 26 - now with slightly prettier water!", but innovative stuff focusing on the narrative and on novel gameplay elements.
- supertrope 2mo ago
  The makers of Super Mario 64 said 3D graphics greatly increased game development costs.

echelon 2mo ago

Huge capital overhead. Exhausting mid-lifecycle crunch that makes or breaks the next gen. Multiple giants. Meanwhile Steam just casually absorbing everything. It doesn't matter that it's porous. And now suddenly - hardware costs you can't tip toe schedule around. The console business is shitty.

PaulHoule 2mo ago
Talk to console gamers and they still think the PC is sweaty and playing on the PC is like putting your hands in the toilet. I mean, I remember the 1990s when kids were playing flight simulators with this huge plastic joysticks that were always falling apart and needed to be calibrated every five minutes. It's not like that anymore, with Steam Big Picture and either an XBOX ONE or PS4/5 controller your PC is a better console. The main problem is that, ex. the Steam Controller, nobody can make a decent game controller except for console vendors and when the console vendors go down somebody will have to step up. I just can't believe the PS5 has sold as many units as it has with just 15 exclusive games, many of which are remakes, even remakes of remakes. That reputation that the PC platform is too sweaty has taken a long long time to die and it doesn't help that ACER and such are coming out with handhelds that are maximum sweat (boot into a Windows Desktop with 10x too small fonts) compared to the consumer electronics experience of the Steam Deck.
- skgough 2mo ago
  > The main problem is that, ex. the Steam Controller, nobody can make a decent game controller except for console vendors and when the console vendors go down somebody will have to step up. I used to only play on DualShock 4s and even skipped the DualSense because I just loved my DualShock that much. I use an 8bitDo now and it is better in every way I care about. 8bitDo does not make consoles.
- wing-_-nuts 2mo ago
  >Talk to console gamers and they still think the PC is sweaty and playing on the PC is like putting your hands in the toilet. Eh, as someone who owns and plays on both pc and console, the simple truth of the matter is that playing on console is, for the most part, better 'bang for the buck'. You can reliably purchase a console and a budget linux laptop and both will reliably fill their respective niches for the next decade. PC gaming, in my experience, requires a much higher budget, and this was even before the modern pricing madness. Consoles also had much wider support for couch coop than PC did, so it was a more social experience, and to be blunt, PC gaming has a pretty bad problem with cheating that I simply never experienced on console. Like I said, I play and enjoy both. I can afford to do so now, but I do feel bad for teens today because even consoles are getting crazy expensive.

buran77 2mo ago

> Apart from steam, I don't think I've heard anything but bad news from modern consoles. Gabe is in his mid 60s, I'm prepared that in the next decade or so there will be a change of guard at Valve and the slow train of enshittification will get moving. P.S. There's been a lot of groupthink and bandwagoning for Valve, ignoring all the dirt under the rug. But at the end of the day, by comparison, they are the best behaving in the field.

add-sub-mul-div 2mo ago
The company that gave up making games because there was more money to be had from inserting itself as a middleman into a previously open platform does not deserve any adoration.
- derideor 2mo ago
  Then don't buy it through steam. Just buy it through a third party like greenmangaming. Valve gets zero cut there.
- CamperBob2 2mo ago
  The market demanded a middleman. Would you prefer an Epic or Microsoft monopoly?
  - Forgeties79 2mo ago
    > The market demanded a middleman Says who?
    - CamperBob2 2mo ago
      The market. If you're an indy game developer, it turns out that just posting .exes on your website gets you a limited reach.
      - Forgeties79 2mo ago
        I understand my question was a bit flippant but truly, this doesn’t answer it.

ChrisRR 2mo ago

So that make all of the games that release for consoles good news, right?