If you buy PC games at all (*especially over the last 12 months given how positive the news around them has been*) then you’ve probably heard of GOG. GOG is a platform that sells games completely DRM-free, meaning there’s no Digital Rights Management shoehorned into the games. For a lil context, Mass Effect Legendary Edition or GTA V use DRM. Their system checks for an online connection and will outright stop you from playing your legally purchased, single-player game if you’re offline for too long. Gross, right? GOG though refuses to sell games with this nonsense. Every game on GOG must have no DRM attached. From AAA to indie titles, with a lot that lean heavily toward older and classic releases. ----------------------------------------------- *Anyway...* I got the chance to chat to the developer of GameSieve. This is a site which lets you search, track and filter games for sale. GOG's site does a reasonable job with selling you games, but something like GameSieve was purpose built just to make all of this easier. I chatted to them about how they made it, why they did, what goes into maintaining it, and a little on the future. If you've not visited the site before, make sure you do! https://gamesieve.com/ They do such lovely work, I think it deserves a lot more recognition! [So, if you want to read through my interview with the dev, you can follow this link here. I do hope you enjoy this one too, I love GOG so much, so this was a blast to me!](https://gardinerbryant.com/building-gamesieve-for-gog-a-chat-with-the-developer/)

Miyoo sent me one of their newest handhelds: the Miyoo Mini Flip to review. Its made to be a clear nostalgic nod (in design) to the old GBA SP:  The tiny thing is *adorable* (and it's so small!), it's perfect for the classic systems (though you won't get N64, Dreamcast etc), and I've essentially found this has been my modern Game Boy Advance SP. For the GBA, GB and GBC systems it's just perfection. I love how you can customize the surroundings with community-made contributions, like this one:  There's a handful of small downsides, like perhaps if you're old-old with poor eyesight, the screen might be a bit too small for you, but this was an easy recommendation from me. [As ever, if you'd like to read my full review, you can find it here with this link, plenty of pictures (with my cat!) and detail shots, if that's your thing in here too!](https://gardinerbryant.com/hands-on-with-the-miyoo-mini-flip-the-modern-successor-to-the-gba-sp/) ...or you can just ask me anything directly here, if you'd prefer :)

So Anbernic sent me their RG DS to review. - They had a terrible desync issue for the first week-and-a-bit (you might have seen some YouTube reviews showing this). Which meant the top screen went to 40Hz after 30-40 seconds, while the bottom screen kept 60Hz. Basically that means DS games ended up looking awful and mismatched. - They updated it a couple days back, which fixed that issue! - Other issues are there (shortish battery life, the unit can feel warm - no big deal to me - other systems emulate either nicely or poorly  (*cat tax, this is my cat Ciri with the RG DS*) Then I forgot to move my finger from closing a car door on it, which left me with a REALLY deep cut in my index finger, on the top joint. The second half of this review was SO hard to type up. Typing right now is *not* fun either. So writing this up has taken me...20 mins? [Anyway, you can follow this link here and read my full review if you're at all interested. There's a lot of photos, and separate experiences with playing the games and emulating various systems](https://gardinerbryant.com/hands-on-with-the-anbernic-rg-ds-the-dsi-reimagined/) OR You can just ask me RG DS questions here, I'm happy to laboriously type responses if you'd prefer that method :)

I've been lucky to interview a *lot* of my friends over the last few years now; developers from plenty of projects, programs and apps. But this is one I've been looking forward to sharing for a long time now! I interviewed the team behind **Decky Loader**, all about their history and work keeping it running. If you don't know, Decky Loader is (from my own article): > *...[an] indispensable little tool that turns a brand-new Deck from ‘fun handheld console’ into a full-blown customization powerhouse. From adding plugins to tweaking the interface, Decky Loader quietly powers a lot of the creativity and convenience that Deck owners have come to take for granted.* Download it, and you can customize the *heck* out of how your Steam Deck looks and functions, by community-made plugins. Anyway, I'm quite proud of this one, and really grateful that they all took the time to chat to me to make this one happen. If you're at all interested in development, Steam Decks, open-source, or just gaming in general, then I think you'll enjoy this one too! [The link to my article is here, *please* let me know what you think of it! I love doing these interviews, and I've been lucky that so many have followed along with them so far :)](https://gardinerbryant.com/behind-decky-loader-an-interview-with-the-team-that-makes-customization-possible/)

So while writing up a full review on AYN's new Odin 3 handheld, one of my teeth decided to give up the ghost and deliver me with agony and trepidation. Somehow I've managed to finish this one, but I also want to share that I've got a bunch more articles and things on the way. Some interviews with developers (one is a big program/project if you're in the Steam Deck space!), some features, retrospectives and more reviews for upcoming handhelds too (the RG DS which is...going to be a hard one). I felt like this needed to be a bit of an explanation/apology, normally I share my things here regularly but tooth time is the *worst* time.  (*this is me, discovering tooth shittiness*) Anyway, you can either follow the link to my full review, or just go for my tl:dr here: If you're a first-time user of these Android retro handhelds then this won't be for you. Being a Snapdragon Elite chip powering it, the compatibility with emulators and games is in its infancy. This *will* change in time, but for now...it's simply not plug-and-play. If you're into tinkering, enjoy the setting up, testing and finding the perfect settings to make things work well? If you want to be at the bleeding edge of where Android gaming is heading (literally, this thing plays AAA Steam and GOG games. Its mind-blowing!), the this really is for you. AYN sent me the Odin 3 Max version to test and review, and I've thoroughly enjoyed my time. There's some frustrations, but if you're anything like me and wish you were around for The Homebrew Computer Club back in Steve Wozniak's time - hacking and testing and trying every little bit to eke out the best of a crazy future of tech? Then the Odin 3's a safe bet for you.  [I hope you enjoy this, it's a fair read, but here is the link to my full review!](https://gardinerbryant.com/hands-on-with-the-ayn-odin-3-the-future-of-android-gaming/) So now, keep an eye out for more 'regular' articles and interviews from me, and for all that is good in this world, keep your fingers crossed for me when I get to the dentist. Ugh.

This one might be a bit more niche than you're used to here, since it pertains to [NeoStation](https://neogamelab.com/), an emulation front-end for Android and Windows.  This is a newer one on the block, but the developer has been *so* dedicated and hard working on it, releasing weekly updates and announcements. I was lucky enough that when I reached out to Miguel he was *so* happy to chat, and covered a bunch of what goes into making NeoStation, and what he hopes it might end up doing. This has been the first interview he's done, but I feel like it won't be the last!  [Anyway, as ever, if you want to read the whole interview with him (if you're interested in emulation, development work or just want something to do while you have a coffee!), then the link is here!](https://gardinerbryant.com/behind-the-screens-an-interview-with-miguel-soto-creator-and-dev-of-neostation/) Hope you enjoy :)

So maybe some of you have seen the recent ROM hack come out, by the developer of Pokémon Emerald Seaglass, called Pokémon Lazarus. This one has a far larger scale to everything, it's quite clear that it is a massive undertaking for a sole dev, and *most* of the community is loving it.  Well, some aren't behaving well. There's been some petty, disgusting feedback from a (as ever) vocal minority. Those who are homophobic, bigots, who are mocking design decisions and the sound (which Nemo, the dev, has created from scratch), some who hate seeing a pride flag. Anyway, Nemo has decided after this bullshit to step back from the public and stop interacting. We've seen this again and again with developers. And it's getting SO damned exhausting: > ***With that said, I’ll be taking a step back from the community for a bit. I’ll post bug-fixing and new feature patches to the Development Discord server, but I don’t plan on posting anywhere else for a while. If I go on to develop a new project (which I do have planned!), it will likely be in secret until close to release, if I choose to release it at all. With everything going on in my life (Master’s program, work, real world commitments, etc etc), I guess I’m just not prepared to also handle the bad side of attention on the internet.*** [Anyway, if you'd like to read my article about the scene and this shitty news for Nemo, as every you can find the link to my post here!](https://gardinerbryant.com/pokemon-lazarus-when-a-fan-game-becomes-a-conversation/)

If you've not heard of projects like Winlator, GameHub and GameNative, they've been working on bringing what once kinda seemed like the impossible, to being pretty easy and effective: playing full PC games on Android phones and handhelds. You can run Steam titles like Tomb Raider (2013), GTA V, Red Dead Redemption, and Sleeping Dogs. Heck, someone even managed to finish Cyberpunk 2077 on their Magic 8S Pro — though the FPS was, well… not great. But one issue popped up with GameHub. It was found to be a little bit sneaky with telemetry and permissions. So, someone decided to take that program, strip the permissions and telemetry and call it a day. This program is called GameHub Lite From the current dev: > *GameHub Lite is a community-modified version of GameSir's GameHub that strips out all the privacy violations while keeping the functionality that makes PC gaming on Android accessible.* Anyway, this is a long-winded way of saying that GameHub Lite came about for a very specific need, and addressed it. It still amazes me that somehow in the span of a couple years, we've got these extremely powerful Android handhelds somehow running (some) PS3, Switch and Steam Games. I chatted to Producdevity: the dev of GameHub Lite and also Utkarsh from GameNative about their experiences in the Steam emulation scene, and the current PC emulation landscape in general. [If you're interested in this kinda thing, then you can find my link here to the interview with them](https://gardinerbryant.com/gamehub-lite-gamenative-and-the-android-pc-revolution-an-interview-the-developers/)

Well, I took some time to jot down some thoughts on the one handheld that *everyone* seems to agree was the bee's knees: the Nintendo 3DS (and all its various iterations thereafter!) It's one I've gone through a few 'phases' with - collecting, modding, selling, then buying a 'perfect' one, then...the pattern just repeats and repeats. I love how *truly* customizable it is now that it is...essentially an abandoned generation. The community took things to great new heights (those themes!!!), 3D printed docks and displays, vinyl stickers...it makes me so happy to see how very few 3DS consoles look like anyone else's. The market is getting crazy though. Prices are only going up (and special editions are going waaaay up), but it's nice to see options like the Thor, Pocket DS and Anbernic's RG DS coming up to give modern users some solutions to playing. *Anyway* Don't expect anything wonderful here, I wasn't even sure what to write for this article. I guess while I call it a retrospective, it just touches on some key points in the lifetime of the 3DS system. [If you wanna read me rambling (as always) but this time on the flippy console, then this is the link for you to go and check it out!](https://gardinerbryant.com/the-last-truly-custom-nintendo-a-3ds-retrospective/) ***P.S. 100% ready for any 3DS games recommendations to be shared!!!!***

So, once *again* I'm just going to share the latest in a long, long line of developer interviews I've done. You might be getting tired of me telling you this, but I do these purely because I found the devs themselves rarely got any chance to share their experiences while programming. It's just my little way and a small chance to share their stories. This time around, I chatted to the *very* newly launched ARMSX2. This is a PlayStation 2 emulator built for Android and ARM-based systems, aiming to deliver full-speed, accurate emulation through open development and fresh collaboration from across the emulation community. They launched their 1.0 for ARMSX2 only 15/16 days ago now, so things are *very* early on this one. [But if you have interest in programming, emulation, the old PlayStation 2 days and so on, you might find this interesting! The link is here if you want to check it out :)](https://gardinerbryant.com/inside-armsx2-interviewing-the-team-reviving-ps2-emulation-on-android/)

So the next in my long line of developer chats is here. I got to talk to Whatcookie, a developer from the PlayStation 3 emulator, RPCS3, and ask them all about their work with the emulator! If you're interested in programming, emulation or the old PS3 days, then you might find this one interesting. Oh, and I've done a fairly long list of these now. Way too many to list, but I've got a couple of special ones still on the way before I focus on writing something different for awhile. Hope you enjoy it! :) https://gardinerbryant.com/emulating-the-impossible-inside-rpcs3-with-one-of-its-developers/

I just wanted to share this! Nintendo Switch is a bit of a touchy topic when it comes to emulation, we've had some super rough times with Yuzu being taken down (legally) and Ryujinx also being taken down (voluntarily), which left the Switch emu scene...fractured to say the least. You've probably seen Eden's name or logo around in the last year or so, though. They've swiftly become 'the' emulator to fill that gap. Anyway, I interviewed two of the devs from Eden, asking them about the history of Eden, the tech, their plans for the future and...well, plenty more! [If you'd like to read through the full interview, you can use this link. It's a lengthy chat this time, so maybe grab a cup of tea or coffee for it!](https://gardinerbryant.com/preserving-play-how-eden-grew-into-the-switch-emulator-everyones-talking-about/) If you've not seen these before, this is just one of many interviews I hold with my friends who are developers. I like to chat to them a bit and give them the chance to share why they do what they do! So we get a chance to 'peek behind the curtain' of the programs and projects we love and use :) I do hope you enjoy this one!

AYN recently got in touch with me, asking if I'd like to review the AYN Thor in an article, and...naturally I said 'yes'. I've been super excited, seeing that there's a new boom in DS retro handhelds, hoping that this might mean a viable alternative to the older genuine Nintendo hardware.  I'll just give you a tldr here: For *me*, this really is the alternative. There are some caveats, but they're so few, and those it does have really don't affect me much. This can handle all the consoles I need, I've been enjoying Wind Waker HD, MGS 2, Mario Odyssey and *so* many DS and 3DS games (Metroid: Samus Returns has been a blast!)  [If you'd like to read my full review, the link is here. Plenty of pics in there too. I chose the white model, since it was the closest look to my DSi (my fav of Nintendo's handhelds!)](https://gardinerbryant.com/ayn-thor-the-modern-dual-screen-revival/) Regardless, this is a handheld I recommend if you can afford the higher price point!

A few days back [I shared a post](https://lemmy.world/post/36944201) asking for suggestions on what PS2 games people here might recommend I play. Having *not* been one who played PS2 at any stage (it was a bit before my time), my experience with the systems and games is slightly limited. What I did love though, was seeing how many here shared games they clearly loved, and who spent so long convincing me that what they recommended would be the perfect game. One thing I've learned...all of you in this community love the PS2! Anyway, the only PS2 games I *have* played through have all been through PCSX2 - the ubiquitous and decades-old PlayStation 2 emulator. I've bumped the resolution, I've activated RetroAchievements, and I've applied HD texture packs. Each time I'm shocked at how amazing the games are, despite their age. So, while I was setting my collection of games up I thought it might be nice to reach out to the PCSX2 team and ask if anyone wanted to chat about their experiences in creating and maintaining the emulator! Two of the devs (fobes and GovanifY) said they'd be more than happy to, and so I've got a little interview with them to share with you :) [If you're at all interested in reading it, the link is right here. The devs cover their history with the console, their history with developing the emulator, dev work in general, what the future will bring...and more besides. Hope you enjoy!!!](https://gardinerbryant.com/keeping-the-playstation-2-alive-inside-the-world-of-the-pcsx2-emulator/)

I got through phases of games, and right now I'm in the one I like to think of *everything-modern-is-making-me-angry-so-I'll-turn-back-to-vintage-games* - and that's in the form of PCSX2 on my Steam Deck. Playing the PS2 generation on the Steam Deck is kinda the 'perfect' generation: I can upscale the resolution without a performance hit, I can apply HD texture packs, Retro Achievements *and* I can drop the TDP to extend the battery life. Anyway, I never had a PS2 (it was just a touch before my time), so there's so many games I'm yet to discover there. I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have for what I can play on there:  *Just a couple notes:* * No GTA games because they're better with the PC versions. While I've bought the games, the account that Rockstar demands people have to play their games makes me angry on principle (*a single-player game forcing an online check each week to be able to play it? No thanks*), so I've got cracked versions to play. * No Final Fantasy because I'm not even sure where to start! So if anyone was around back in the PS2 era, and has some recommendations for games they've loved, I'm all ears. I've been having *such* a fun time playing these. Some big thanks to my friends who made and run RetroDECK (my choice for emulating on the Steam Deck), and to the PCSX2 team (who I'm chatting to right now actually, so keep an eye out and in a week or so I'll share that chat with them all about creating and maintaining the PS2 emulator!) --------------------------------------------- Also, if you *do* have a Steam Deck, and want to play with the HD texture packs I do, then it's *really* simple. Just download the pack, and name then according to their game's I.D. code - **SLUS-20743** for example, then place it in the texture_packs folder:  From there, go into PCSX2, then right-click the game, select properties, graphics, texture replacement and tick the two boxes I have:  Then you've got the games looking the best they can be! [Here's a link to a stack of pre-done HD textures for a lot of PS2 games, to help you on your way!](https://archive.org/download/pcsx2-hd-texture-packs)

This is *is* totally free right now, but claiming it is in a morally grey area. It's also not as simple as adding it to your library, I'll explain how in a sec, though. Anyway, since I figured since it is being shared everywhere, I might as well share it here also. > *[The Leviathan's Fantasy] is a Simulation game. You will manage your cloud city, recruit adventurers all over the world, take them for exploration, obtain resources and blueprints. Construct buildings, make equipment, produce items, so to develop your city into greatness together with your adventurers.*  > I think they want to hide the option somewhat from new customers? Basically the drama with this game is their account got banned for I think steam review manipulation, and they had to re-list the game, which means a ton of people are pissed at them because they spend $30 on an early access game that's been abandoned for an identical version that they then need to re-purchase. > So instead of trying to chase everyone up, I think they're just making it free for anyone who still cares enough about the game to go digging in the community posts for instructions on how to redeem it? ----------------------------- Anyway, to claim it, all you have to do is * Add the game to your wishlist * Open your wishlist in Steam, and next to the game will be 'add to library' * Click that, and its done! ...is the game good? Doesn't look like it, but I know a lot of you here enjoy claiming games regardless. Reviews are 'Mixed' on Steam, with 113 reviews left so far. [Here is the Steam page](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3376080/The_Leviathans_fantasy/)

This one is *very* new, and I haven't seen it mentioned much on any platforms. The developer (Kyle McParland) has developed an app for Android (*and iOS / PC in the future*) which lets you and a friend 'pass the controller', and play any of your emulated ROMs together, with co-op. It's called *Your Turn!* He's very much in the early stages of the app now: > *How it works: you and your friend load the same ROM on the same emulator on your devices (currently supported emulators for BETA: John GBA or John GBC - lite or otherwise). Open the Your Turn! app and invite your friend to start a game. Take your turn, save the game using the emulator’s save state, add a note, and upload it in the app. Your friend gets a notification, reads your note, downloads your save, and plays their turn. Repeat back and forth - just like passing the controller!* To me its nice, because it encourages a kind of game-play we've left behind in the modern gaming scene. I also love that it is a unique take on playing through much older games, which before this weren't 'sharable' Only some regions are supported right now, but more are being added constantly as the testing is getting underway:  What I love is that he hired an artist to create the official art/instructions for the app, and he now has a mascot for *Your Turn!* > *That artist is Evan Palmer, he can be found on Instagram @evantickles*   Anyway, I know there's a lot of gamers in here who enjoy the older games. Either from a collecting standpoint, or from an emulating one. I wrote a feature article on the app after chatting to Kyle a ton, so if you want to read all about it, you can with the following link [This one right here!](https://gardinerbryant.com/from-couch-to-cloud-the-app-that-brings-turn-based-play-anywhere/) (...*I love that mascot, so much*)

Hi everyone! You might recognize my name in here by now, but now you'll see a tiny little 'm' next to it! **Dremor** (head mod here in c/Games) recently asked me if I could step into moderating here, and I have accepted. I've done a lot of moderating on Reddit, from super-large places with 10s of millions subscribed to it (*in the fields of tech and programming, gaming and so on*), to extra small ones (*the last I grew from nothing to 35K when I left the site*), so I do know how to not only moderate, but to foster a community and help it feel fun. Though, to be totally fair...it's been a good while since I left Reddit - I'll be rusty! And what I haven't done is moderate her on Lemmy, so I hope you'll give me a little time to not only learn the ropes...but find them first. ----------------------------------------- I'm lucky in that a lot of my good friends are developers of games, projects, programs, operating systems and apps to do with gaming (and so on), so maybe in time I'll be able to convince some to do some things here in this community (*giveaways, AMAs, chats, something-like-that*), but we'll see! If you've got anything you'd like to see in c/Games, then by all means leave a comment so we can see what we can do. That's all, I think!

I just thought these were nice, and *fun*. The artist goes by Abovesn4kes, and having recently started Red Dead (*the first*) on my OLED Switch, I've been looking into fan art and builds, projects and ideas the community came up with, for RDR and RDR2. And then I stumbled over these! If seeing these makes you feel like you'd like to see a movie with them in it, well Johnny Depp made a movie with a similar basis called [Rango](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/44896-rango), released in 2011: > *When Rango, a lost family pet, accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging town of Dirt, the less-than-courageous lizard suddenly finds he stands out. Welcomed as the last hope the town has been waiting for, new Sheriff Rango is forced to play his new role to the hilt.* [You can find the link to the trailer for Rango here, if you want to check it out!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDgoDooApwM) Anyway, now on to the pictures. I just love these! All credit to the artist :) --------------------------------------------                     -------------------------------------------- *(now go install Red Dead again, you know you want to!)*

If you're interested in self-hosting, gaming and emulation then you might be interested in RomM's new (*and significant*) update to how things work - version 4.2 I've long-since befriended the dev team behind RomM, after covering their last few releases, and interviewing the team previously too! This time I got to chat to some of the members (*some new to the team*) and get an inside line on what they've been making for the new version. If you're interested in my article, I'll link it at the end, but I'll also quickly dot-point what's new in RomM here for those who aren't interested:  (*it's looking far prettier now, too!*) # **Console Mode:** > *The new console interface is designed for big screens and easy navigation with a controller or remote. It features a grid layout, large icons, and a simplified menu structure to enhance your gaming experience from the comfort of your couch. Launch it from the navigation bar or navigate directly to /console.* # **Out-of-the-box PSP and DOS Emulation:** > *PSP and DOS play is support out-of-the-box, no custom reverse proxy settings or browser launch arguments required! You'll now see play buttons on supported games, though please note that performance is limited by the browser's WASM engine, and performance will vary.* # **Incremental RetroAchievements Sync:** > *A new scheduled task has been added to sync RetroAchievements progress for all users on a recurring basis. Enable the task by setting ENABLE_SCHEDULED_RETROACHIEVEMENTS_PROGRESS_SYNC=true in your environment variables, and manually run the "Convert images to WebP task in the /administration page to start generating .webp files.* # **WebP Image Task:** > *Another scheduled task has been added to convert all uploaded images to the modern .webp format. WebP images are 5-10x smaller then JPG/PNG images with no loss of quality, leading to faster load times for cover art in galleries. Enable the task by setting ENABLE_SCHEDULED_CONVERT_IMAGES_TO_WEBP=true in your environment variables.* -------------------------------------- -------------------------------------- [Anyway, I've written up a little itty-bitty mini feature article on it, after interviewing the team, so if you'd like to read through that, then click here!](https://gardinerbryant.com/romm-4-2-launches-with-console-mode-and-smarter-library-tools/)  Also curious to hear if anyone here runs RomM, and what you think of it?!

[Kazeta](https://kazeta.org/) is a new OS by the creator of ChimeraOS. You might have seen some news on it in the last few days, or at least some posts on social media. Its not trying to be the next big gaming platform, it’s more like a little love letter to the *old* style of gaming. Instead of all those menus, online accounts, and updates, it takes things back to the basics: stick in a 'cartridge' you make yourself, turn on the system, and play. That’s it! No fuss, just the game you wanted to play.  What makes it extra fun is that the 'cartridges' are really just SD cards you load games onto. Label them, stack them, swap them around, it’s built to make you feel like you’re back in the ’90s, digging through a shoebox of game carts. For someone who wasn’t alive for that era of gaming (*not even close, honestly*), it’s a neat little glimpse of what it was like. A tactile vision of when games came on actual carts...well, kind of. Kazeta is a neat mix of nostalgia and practicality, especially if you’re tired of modern gaming feeling like a chore. I got the chance to chat with Alkazar, the dev behind Kazeta, and he shared some great insights into building the OS. This feature pulls together our conversation and what makes the project so unique. [You can find the link to that article I wrote here (on Gardiner Bryant's site), and I hope you enjoy it! Please let me know what you think, of it...and my writing!](https://gardinerbryant.com/kazeta-the-linux-os-that-makes-modern-games-feel-like-90s-consoles/)

A few weeks ago I reached out to Lbrpdx, who is the developer of [Batocera](https://batocera.org/), asking him if he's okay with the idea of an interview. Batocera itself is a free, plug-and-play operating system that turns a PC, handheld, or single-board computer into a retro gaming console with built-in emulators. I've used it on my PC's, and I've used it on my Steam Deck - *everything* from the ROMs to bios, emulators and files all stored on a SD card without any performance issues. It's pure magic to me.  Anyway, Lbrpdx said he's very much okay with chatting to me, so I got the chance to ask him a bunch of questions! [If you're interested in reading what he and I talked about (*how Batocera began, how it is developing, the community and the future of things!*), then you can follow this link to read all about it](https://magazine.fediverse.games/keeping-retro-alive-a-conversation-with-batoceras-lbrpdx/)

A few weeks back I reached out to [RetroStyle Games](https://retrostylegames.com/games/), the Ukraine-based indie studio behind their first full release, Ocean Keeper: Dome Survival. I had first stumbled across the game (*back when it was still called **Codename: Ocean Keeper***) during a Steam sale, and as someone obsessed with anything ocean-themed—books (The Deep), films (Leviathan), and of course games—I knew I had to dive in. In this (*what technically is, but I shudder to call: 'exclusive'*) interview, I got to speak with Diana, RetroStyle’s content manager, who shares insights into the creative inspirations, development process, and community-driven evolution of Ocean Keeper. From how the team mixed influences ranging from cult sci-fi films to classic roguelikes, to their approach to building player relationships through Discord and Reddit, Diana offers a candid look at what it takes to bring a complex indie game from concept to launch and beyond. I do hope you enjoy this one!  ------------------------------- # The Background: # # # ***To start with, introduce us to the team behind Ocean Keeper!*** Hi! We’re RetroStyle Games, a small but passionate team based in Kyiv, Ukraine. We all absolutely love everything related to games. While the company was originally founded back in 2010 and has been working as an outsourcing studio ever since (you might’ve even seen our work in titles by Ubisoft, King, Sega and other). But recently we’ve taken the exciting leap into making our own full-scale games. Inside our company we’ve launched a full-on gamedev department with a super young and energetic crew: everyone here is around 25 years old. The core team behind Ocean Keeper includes a few developers, QA testers, one game designer and a humble little marketing team. Answering your questions today is Diana, content manager at RetroStyle Games with a lot of help from our devs and game designer.  ***What inspired Ocean Keeper?*** We’re big fans of games like Dome Keeper and Vampire Survivors for their loop, pacing, and satisfying power scaling. The thrill of diving deep and uncovering long-lost secrets has always pulled us in so yeah Subnautica definitely left its mark too. Also StarCraft had a huge influence! Not just as a design reference but as a game that shaped many of us growing up. It’s a childhood favorite for several team members. In Ocean Keeper you’ll definitely catch echoes of that in how enemies are designed. Silhouettes and animations are key. We wanted each creature even as a shadow in the deep to feel instantly threatening.  Our whole team loves roguelikes and replayability was a big focus from day one. And the underwater setting itself? It felt like such a rare space in games. It’s unpredictable and perfect for building tension. Plus it opens up tons of fun mechanics. ***Any non-gaming influences?*** Oh yeah a ton. What’s cool is that everyone on the team brought different tastes and ideas to the table. During brainstorms you’d hear everything from Pacific Rim and Edge of Tomorrow to War of the Worlds (both the movie and the book), Evangelion, The Iron Giant. That mix of references helped shape everything.  Our moodboards also had plenty of refs to Peni Parker’s mech from Spider-Verse when we were designing our mech and EVE from WALL-E when we were shaping the emotional bond between the mech and the Digger. ***How much did the game change during development?*** A lot honestly. Early on it was more generic, but we gradually leaned harder into the underwater vibe and added subtle "easter eggs" to real-world landmarks. You’ll see sunken historical locations which helps the world feel full of mystery even before we added a full narrative.  (*an old build of the game, with a more 'rusty' mech type*) The mech also changed a bunch. It started as one rusty old machine but eventually grew into three distinct mech types that reflect your level of progress in the game.  (*The mech builds soon got more detailed and more expansive*) ***On inspiration in general:*** We believe the best ideas come from mixing things up. Art, movies, books, memes etc. Ocean Keeper has a serious tone but there’s warmth and a bit of soul underneath. That contrast is something we kept stick to the whole way through. ***The indie gaming scene is thriving like never before. In recent years, we’ve seen growing frustration with big-budget AAA titles, while smaller studios (often working with just a fraction of the resources) have delivered some of the most creative and compelling experiences around. What led you to self-publish rather than partner with a publisher or turn to crowdfunding options like Kickstarter?*** Honestly because we wanted to see what we’re capable of. It was a challenge we gave ourselves to grow not just as individuals but as a studio. Sure it’s hard but we knew what we signed for. Going all in on our own game from idea to release felt like the next step if we really want to grow as a team and as a company. ***How early did you start promoting the game, and what was that process like? Especially when trying to build interest and visibility ahead of launch?*** Marketing didn’t come easy at first if we’re being honest. It was all pretty new for us so the early steps were a bit messy. Things really picked up around the beta launch, that’s when we started making real noise. Steam Next Fest helped a ton too it’s a crazy powerful event for visibility if you come in prepared. Right after the beta we started reaching out to influencers, basically anyone we could find. We knocked on every door not knowing if anyone would answer. Sometimes they did sometimes they didn’t but we kept going. Another big moment for us was the livestream we ran on Steam. It was just our own team playing the game and chatting with the audience live on Steam. And that worked — people connected with us and the game on a real level.  (*Screenshot of that livestream held on Steam by the team*) We’re putting a lot of effort into organic reach and trying to catch every opportunity that comes our way. It’s scrappy but it’s real. ***As a small team, which marketing platforms ended up making the biggest impact: Reddit, Discord, dev blogs, Steam forums...or somewhere else?*** Discord and Reddit definitely made the biggest impact for us, mostly through open communication and creating spaces where players felt heard. During the beta testing phase of Ocean Keeper, our Discord server was buzzing with daily conversations between players and developers. That early interaction helped shape the game and also created a strong sense of community. Many of those players are still there, chatting and joking around, not about bugs anymore, but just because they’ve genuinely connected, even with some of our team members. Another major moment was an AMA we recently hosted on the r/NintendoSwitch subreddit. It brought a huge spike of attention to the game, with lots of thoughtful questions and feedback. We think this kind of genuine engagement is what makes people want to spread the word. Screenshots and trailers are great, but conversations build loyalty.  (*Their AMA!*) ***Were there any lessons (or surprises) you’d like shared, in trying to break through the noise of so many other indie releases?*** One big lesson for us was understanding how different the marketing approach needs to be between our outsourcing services and our own game projects. With outsourcing, it’s about clarity, structure, and client trust. But in game dev, you’re building emotional connections, with your audience, your world, and your team’s personality. What helped us stand out wasn’t just the game concept (although underwater mechs are definitely rare), but finding the right way to position it and build a niche. Instead of trying to appeal to everyone, we focused on players who specifically love roguelikes, underwater themes, and mechs. That gave us a clear voice and message. And most importantly, we learned the value of community. Not just as a one-time campaign, but as a long-term commitment. Real conversations, real care, those things cut through the noise better than any paid ad ever could. ----------------- # The Development Process: ***Let’s talk a bit about the development process itself. Ocean Keeper is a game that clearly underwent a lot of iteration, from early access to full release across multiple platforms. What did development look like day-to-day?*** It felt like one long never-ending brainstorm honestly. The whole process was super feedback-driven especially as we got closer to release. Pre-launch was basically the feedback era. You test a version, collect thoughts from the team, patch it up, rinse and repeat. First it was all internal suggestions from our devs and designers but once we launched the open beta the feedback floodgates really opened. Bug reports, improvement ideas - it all poured in and honestly helped us a lot. One cool story from that phase is how we found our QA Sophia. She was one of the beta players and her bug reports were so detailed and sharp, we just had to reach out. We invited her to an interview and now she’s been with us for over a year. So yeah, lots of back and forth testing rebuilding tweaking again.  ***The procedural generation element plays a big part in replayability for me. How did you go about designing levels that still feel purposeful and satisfying within that randomness?*** First thing - procedural generation in Ocean Keeper only applies to the caves. The surface map stays the same. For us replayability isn’t just about random levels. It’s about how each run feels. So we focused on balancing action with a more meditative flow. The game splits into two main rhythms - blasting fish with big guns and then mining peacefully. That contrast is super important to the vibe we wanted to achieve. The caves are few, but important, and we didn’t want them to get stale. So procedural generation made perfect sense there. It keeps things fresh. You never know exactly what layout or surprises you’ll get which helps a lot with keeping each run interesting. Replayability also comes from the upgrade system. The map may be small but every run gives you different weapons, different paths to power and different combinations. That completely changes how the gameplay feels. We also sprinkled in some puzzles and little narrative beats that act like twists during the digging phase. And we kind of “cheated” a bit, because our studio has years of experience in level and system design from outsourcing projects. So we took that know-how and put it straight into our own game. ***Were there any features that had to be cut or postponed because of time or resource constraints? If so, are they still on the roadmap? And any sneak peeks at what they might be?*** There are plenty of examples. When you start a project you’re full of ideas and ambition and then reality hits, at some point you gotta actually put it all together into one working game. And, unless you want to spend the next ten years in dev hell, some things just have to go. We originally planned more weapon types and chip mods for them. There were ideas for adding variety to the Digger’s tools, more destruction on the surface, more interactivity in the world. Narrative was also something we had to delay, for almost a year the game had zero story. We only added it right before release. At one point we were even planning to have different biomes inside the caves but that turned out to be way too much for the timeline. Still we managed to sneak in a lot of those ideas just in a simpler more “budget-friendly” way. And that honestly helped both the game and our team grow. It forced us to test systems faster and be more creative with what we had. Some of that stuff is still on the wishlist though. So who knows, maybe in an update. ***Looking back now, what was the hardest system or mechanic to get right, and what finally made it click?*** The hardest part wasn’t a single mechanic, it was getting all of them to work together as one system. Each individual feature was challenging in its own way, sure, but the real headache was syncing it all up so nothing broke the game. You’ve got combat, mining, upgrades, puzzles, the mech systems, enemies events — and they all need to feel like one game, not just a pile of features. What finally made it work? Just persistence really.  -------------------------- # Platform Support/Launch: ***Ocean Keeper didn’t just launch on Steam; there was Steam Deck support out of the gate, a mobile release not long after, and a full PlayStation 5 version too. That’s a huge feat for an indie team.*** ***How did you decide which platforms to prioritize, and what did your release timeline look like behind the scenes?*** Right now Ocean Keeper is available pretty much everywhere: Steam, Steam Deck, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, even Linux and macOS.  From the start we really wanted the game to be accessible on all major platforms. That was both a big goal and a challenge for us. Kind of like expanding our territory of possibilities if you will. We paid special attention to portable consoles and especially mobile gaming. We already had experience with our mobile games like Last Pirate (10M+ downloads), Zombie Run (1M+ downloads), and more. So bringing a full-scale game to mobile felt like a top priority. The release pipeline went roughly like this: mobile platforms first, then PlayStation, followed by Xbox and finally Nintendo Switch. Of course, real-world workflow isn’t always that linear, console porting comes with its own quirks, certification steps, build approvals. Sometimes you’re juggling multiple platforms at once just to keep things moving. But that’s the norm in multi-platform development. This kind of strategic and time management played a major role in helping us bring Ocean Keeper to major consoles in under six months! ***Steam Deck support was available right from launch (which is lovely to see), was that a focus early in development, or something that came together late in the process?*** It was kind of part accident, part intention. Making a build for Steam Deck isn’t too complicated. You can actually submit your regular PC version and Steam will test it and assign a compatibility rating.  Ocean Keeper got the “Playable” status at launch which means it runs fine but still has a few things to polish. We’re still working on improving that and aiming for the full “Verified” badge. So while we didn’t build the game just for Steam Deck from day one we always had it in mind. We’re big fans of handhelds in general so making sure the game feels good on Deck was important to us. (*writer's note - since this interview, Ocean Keeper has been verified!*) ***What were some of the biggest challenges with console or mobile development: UI adaptation, optimization, certification, or something else?*** Porting to consoles can definitely feel like opening Pandora’s box. It’s a cycle of endless checks, re-checks, optimizations, approvals, rejections, and trying again. But honestly, we feel things went pretty smoothly for us overall. Each platform’s support team was helpful throughout the process, which made a big difference. The biggest time sink, though, has been mobile development. The sheer variety of devices and system versions makes porting much more complex. We’re aiming to make the game run well on as many phones as possible, which means finding the right balance between visual compression (without losing the game’s look and feel) and adapting gameplay for touch controls. It’s a multi-layered challenge, but one we’re actively working through, because we want the game to be accessible on every platform possible. ***Do you approach performance and controls differently on each platform? And how important is parity across PC and console experiences?*** Yeah the porting approach was different for each platform. Everything had to be tweaked: from controls and UI to how we ran playtests. Adapting performance settings from PC to Xbox and PlayStation was fairly smooth. But Switch and mobile versions were a lot more challenging. On portable platforms the key is to find that sweet spot where you’re not cutting core gameplay just to make things run. Parity was super important to us. We wanted the experience to feel unified no matter where you play. So sometimes that meant sacrificing a bit of visual fidelity or texture quality or model complexity just to make sure the gameplay stayed consistent. Another thing we kept in mind was game size. Especially for mobile. We didn’t want players waiting forever just to download the game. So we did a lot of optimization there to keep it light without losing the feel of the full experience. ---------------------- # Community Feedback & Post-Launch: ***What was the most common player feedback post-launch?*** Aside from the usual bug reports, gameplay feedback, and requests to tweak the balance a little (yes, we admit the game can make you sweat a bit xD), we’ve also received some incredibly heartwarming messages. One of our favorite stories comes from a father and son who both play Ocean Keeper on Nintendo Switch and are huge fans of the game. They’ve been actively following development, regularly sending feedback, reporting bugs, and cheering us on. The father often shares how much his son loves the game and keeps asking how things are going on our side. Every time we hear from them, the whole team sends a big hello back to his son, it’s become a bit of a tradition now! ^^   It's moments like these that remind us why we make games. ***How has the game changed since release based on community input?*** Feedback is a core part of Ocean Keeper from the very beginning. Ever since we launched the beta and brought in our first wave of external testers the conversations never stopped. Our Discord has been buzzing daily with ideas, bug reports and suggestions. At one point our CEO literally asked the team to make a top list of player-submitted bugs and feature requests and many of those ended up in the game. That kind of direct connection with the community shaped a lot of what Ocean Keeper became.  (*credits to the Beta-Testers in the game's credits*) We’re super grateful to everyone who’s contributed. That’s why the most active beta testers are credited in the game. And when we hit our Early Access launch we even invited some of them to our office to celebrate with the team. ***Do you find it hard to balance your own creative vision with community suggestions?*** It all comes down to critical thinking really. If a community idea is great and it fits the game - we’ll find a way to make it happen. Of course not everything can go in. We’ve got deadlines and a limited team size so we have to be selective. Sometimes we have to say no not because the idea’s bad but because the timing or scope just doesn’t line up. ***Could you share an update or feature that exists only because of player feedback?*** Honestly a huge part of how the game looks and feels now is thanks to player feedback. The underwater vibe especially got a major upgrade after the beta. Players kept saying the game didn’t feel “underwater” enough and they were right. So we added reflections, water caustics, floating corpses of defeated enemies, subtle fog, particles. All those little touches came straight from community suggestions. A lot of small ideas from players ended up becoming core parts of the atmosphere. ***Are there new biomes, enemies, or mechanics you’re excited to add?*** Since the 1.0 release on PC we’ve already dropped update 1.0.3 with a bunch of new upgrades, rebalancing, and optimization tweaks.  Right now we’re working on getting that same update rolled out to all consoles. We’re definitely continuing to support the project and we know it still has room to grow. There are plenty of things we’re excited to explore next, but we’ll let the updates speak for themselves when the time comes. ----------------------------- # Finally: ***What games have you been playing lately - indie or otherwise?*** Everyone on our team has different tastes when it comes to games. Personally, lately I really enjoy spending time playing with friends, and recently we’ve been playing a lot of DayZ and PEAK (we just love WALKING in games :D). As for indie games, one that really caught my attention since launch, both for its storytelling and its incredibly unique visual style - is ENA: Dream BBQ. The game touched me deeply with its originality and the way it creates such a vivid interaction with the player. ***Do any of you feel the ‘burn out’ from developing your own game? Most developers I chat to end up having such little time to play games yourself, or even much desire to, when the day-to-day is spent maintaining your own project. Is that the case here, too?** As a company based in Kyiv, Ukraine, I can say that dealing with burnout is something we have to manage very carefully. Especially when our country is at war. Day after day, with air raid sirens, sad news, and explosions, it deeply affects both the company as a whole and each person individually. Everyone worries about themselves and their loved ones. In these circumstances, you start seeing life and your free time in a completely different way. It makes you realize it’s better to do something now because you never know what might happen next. This applies to everything: from spending time with loved ones to even finding the desire to play a new game. So yes, burnout is a challenge, but it also brings a new perspective and determination to make the most of every moment. And the support within our team helps us keep going. ***If you weren’t working on Ocean Keeper right now, what kind of game do you think you’d be making instead? And, what would you love to make next?*** We’re definitely not done with Ocean Keeper just yet, but that doesn’t mean we’re not working on new things too! Here’s a little exclusive: right now we’re actively preparing the beta launch of a co-op version of Ocean Keeper, which we plan to release in late summer or early fall. Funny enough, we already had the idea for co-op back when we were working on version 1.0 and now it’s finally becoming its own standalone project! We're aiming for an even better launch this time, learning from our stumbles and building on everything we learned from the original game. We’ll be sharing more details on our social media soon, especially in our Discord, where we’ll likely be recruiting beta testers from the community. So stay tuned! :3 Where can the community find you, if they want to know more, or join in? Whether you want to follow updates, join the conversation, or just hang out: we’d love to see you around: * [Official Website](https://retrostylegames.com/) * [Discord](https://discord.gg/5ZWUTEpCNf) * [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@RetroStyleGames) * [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@retrostyle_games_) * [Behance](https://www.behance.net/info7e54036a) * [ArtStation](https://www.artstation.com/retrostylegames?ref=gardinerbryant.com) * [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/OceanKeeper?ref=gardinerbryant.com) * [Twitter](https://x.com/RetroStyleGames?ref=gardinerbryant.com) [And of course, the Steam page!](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2845630/Ocean_Keeper_Dome_Survival/?ref=gardinerbryant.com) -------------------------- A big thank you to Diana and the entire RetroStyle Games team for taking the time to share such thoughtful and detailed answers. It’s clear how much passion and care went into creating Ocean Keeper: Dome Survival, and that dedication truly shines through in the game itself. I’ve really enjoyed diving into its world and can’t wait to see how the game (and the team behind it) continue to grow. I’ve always been a fan of 80s and 90s underwater movies like Sphere, The Abyss, Leviathan, and Deep Star Six. As an avid SCUBA diver, I’m constantly on the lookout for more deep ocean video games to explore. Ocean Keeper was an impulse buy in its early days, and I’m so glad I took the plunge. Maybe you’ll enjoy it too!

I recently had the good fortune to interview the two developers of [CrankBoy](https://github.com/CrankBoyHQ/crankboy-app#crankboy) - an emulator for the Playdate console which allows users to play original Game Boy games on there (*and yes, you can use that crank to play them!*) I've always found the Playdate to be a super interesting console, it doesn't compete on *any* level with the typical handhelds...it doesn't even have a backlight. But it makes up for that in how utterly fresh and unique it is. Creativity is the focus for it, and the games devs themselves all seem to have true passion for their creations.  After seeing some social media posts about CrankBoy get shared about, I reached out to the devs, asking if they'd let me interview them to write up a feature article on their project, and they were so kind to say yes. If you've got any interest in emulation, dev work, or the crazy cute yellow handheld, then you might enjoy this one I wrote. [Here is the link to the article, please let me know what you think!](https://gardinerbryant.com/crankboy-how-two-devs-made-game-boy-run-on-the-playdate/)

I've been lucky in my incessant poking at the developers of all kinds of gaming projects, programs and sites recently. I'm sure by now you'll know that I've done this with plenty of devs: from Heroic and Lutris, to RomM and RetroDECK. With plenty others as well. My aim is to chat to the people who create the things you all know and love, and might use yourselves. I feel that it can be rare to hear from those devs. Rare that they get any of the spotlight, so my series of these interviews is my attempt to change that! This time I've befriended and chatted to the dev who runs the site called [EmuReady](https://www.emuready.com/), which is a site dedicated to compatibility reports - what emulators, devices and settings work best for emulated games. The developer, Producevity, was kind enough to agree, and I'll share the full little Q&A I did with him here, in its entirety and without me picking and choosing quotes from him. *However, if you're more interested in an article format, I wrote one up and shared it on Gardiner Bryant's site ([which you can find here with this link!](https://gardinerbryant.com/emuready-how-one-developer-rebuilt-emulator-compatibility-from-the-ground-up/) - he's been kind enough to let me submit lots of articles and interviews on his site, and posts them there)* ----------------------------- # *THE BEGINNING:*  ----------------------------- ***Can you tell me about how the idea for EmuReady first came to you? What pushed you from "this should exist" to actually building it?*** This might sound weird, but I have never been into gaming, this changed about a year or 2 ago when I tried the game Elden Ring. Maybe not the best game to start with, but it really showed me the art of games and storytelling. After discovering the world of gaming, I felt like I had missed out on so much, especially the games from my childhood that somehow never interested me back then. Natually, I started looking into retro gaming and emulation. A lot of emulators not being as mature and stable, the compatibility Google Sheets were a decent solution the community came up with to share this information. That said, Google sheets suck for information like this, allow me to list a few. - They are not easily searchable - Everyone and their dog has their own version of a sheet, for every emulator, every device, every configuration, etc. - The same people (and their dog) are constantly updating these sheets. Having no archive meant that usefull information would get lost. - There is no room for discussion and most importantly, no room for verification of the information. So I started building EmuReady, being pretty new to this community I asked around and received a lot of useful feedback. In particular, _Ryan Retro's_ community and Ryan himself has been very helpful. ***Was it something you made for yourself at first, or did you always imagine it as a public tool? And are you still running it solo...or have others joined you behind the scenes now?*** I never intended to use it myself, which may sound weird, but I personally enjoy the tinkering process and it may even be more fun than playing the games themselves. But since Reddit is filled with people asking for help regarding emulation, it's clear that not everyone enjoys the tinkering process and just want to enjoy their games. I like making things, and emulation quickly turned into a passion. So I might not be the target audience, but I do understand the target audience and this was my way of giving back to the community. Currently, the development side is mostly done by me, there has been a couple PR's from the community, which is a way developers can contribute code to the project. However, there is a lot of moderation work that needs to be done, and I am very grateful for the help I get from the community in this regard. A user by the name of **Drackool** has been a great help in moderating the site, since every single report needs to be verified by a human before it can be added to the site to ensure the quality of the information. Then of course, there is the community itself. Once a report is approved, it's up to the community to verify the information. **EmuReady** has a voting/verification system in place, where users can vote on the accuracy of the information. If a report gets enough votes, of gets verified by one of the developers of the emulator the report is for, it will be marked as verified and show up higher in the search results. ***The community contributions seem to be growing fast lately, with more reports coming in every day. That must be exciting to watch those numbers grow!*** Yes, it absolutely is! I did not expect the site to grow this fast, it almost started to stress me out since this hobby project started to cost me 50-60 euros a month in server costs. It's very exciting to see that we get 10k to 20k unique visitors a day, and as long as I can afford it, I will keep the site running and improving it. ----------------------------- # *COMMUNITY:* ----------------------------- ***Have there been any standout moments or bits of feedback in your short site-life so far that stuck with you?*** Yes, there have been a few, but one in particular. A user on Reddit suggested something like a "trust system". This is probably the most complex part of EmuReady and I won't go into too much detail here, but there are essentially a lot of systems in place that work together to ensure the quality of the information on the site. Voting is a big part of this, but also the amount of contributions, and what information a user has contributed. A benefit of this sytem is that it slowly allows **EmuReady** to become self-sustaining, since the more trusted a user is, the more permissions they gain. Being able to edit reports for typos, and having their reports automatically verified, are just 2 examples of this. ***Do you feel like the people using EmuReady “get” the vision you had when building it, or has the community helped shape that vision in unexpected ways?*** There are a lot of people that do, and use it exactly as I intended it to be used. There are also users who fail to see the benefit of this over the 7392468 different Google Sheets that are out there. A lot of these users changed there mind, but EmuReady is an alternative, and in my opinion, a better alternative to Google Sheets. People can just use what they prefer, and I am happy that EmuReady is an option for them. ***By all means, for anyone unaware on what EmuReady is, tell them how they can help!*** EmuReady is a community-driven platform that allows people to find, share, vote/verify and discuss game compatibility for their specific device and emulator. If you are a developer, the project is Open Source and the community is doing a great job of submitting GitHub issues, so if you see something that you think you can implement or fix, you are more than welcome to do so! As for other people, simply using the platform helps a lot, but the most valuable thing you can do is vote/verify reports to let other know if the information is accurate or not. If you find a report that is incorrect, you can downvote it and if a report matches your experience you can upvote it. This way EmuReady can prioritize the most accurate reports and show them higher in the search results. ----------------------------- # *THE FUTURE:* ----------------------------- ***I noticed you recently added support for PC games, which seems like a nice move, to really be an all-in-one site.*** That's a funny story, haha. I was personally arguing against this, but the community was very vocal about it. I was worried that it wouldn't provide enough value because of the sheer amount of different PC configurations, it just isn't as reliable as a report for a specific device with the exact same hardware. That said, I don't see EmuReady as my platform anymore, it's a community platform and with the amount of people asking for it, I decided to give it a try. Unfortuately, about 2% of all the searches and submitted reports are for PC, the other 98% is still for handheld devices, which still contain PC handhelds like the Steam Deck, GPD Win, ROG Ally, etc. Maybe it needs a bit more time to grow, but I am happy that we have it now and I am sure it will be useful for some people. ***What are your current goals for the site? And what are the wild, dream features you’d love to build one day?*** The site is mostly feature complete, but as with any project, done doesn't really mean done. I recently added a lot more quality of life features and some neccessary features to present EmuReady as a more mature platform. For example, it's very likely that there are also a lot of users that are minors, so I added a way to report inappropriate content and a NSFW filter to hide NSFW content. So only users that opt-in to see these games will see them, and the rest will be hidden by default. ***Could you see something like an Android app, emulator integrations, or even personal game libraries happening? Basically, what does your “perfect future version” of EmuReady look like?*** Absolutly! And this is the part I am most excited about. The Android app is already in the works and I have been closely working with the developers of "Eden" (Switch Emulator) and *Winlator* (x86_64/windows emulation on Android) to make an integration with EmuReady. This will allow users to find a compatibility report and with a single click, open the game in the emulator with the correct settings applied. This is a feature that I am very excited about and I think it will be a game changer for a lot of users. The goal is essentially to make emulation as easy and accessible as possible, so that anyone can enjoy their favorite games without having to worry about the technical details. This will require a lot of work, and it is work that needs to be done on a per-emulator basis. I am currenlty making the implementation for _Eden_ and _Winlator_, but I am also open to working with other emulator developers to make this a reality for their emulators as well. ----------------------------- # *YOU:* ----------------------------- ***Tell us all about you! Is this your first project like this?*** It's not my first project, I have been a software developer for about 15 years now and I love to build things. This is however my first project relaled to gaming and emulation, and I am very happy that it has been so well received by the community. ***(I HAVE to ask this one) – give us your fav games, maybe a top 5 or 10 retro game list?*** Well, I don't have a huge library since I only started gaming about 2 years ago, but I can give you a list of games that I have enjoyed so far: 1. Elden Ring 2. Portal 1 & 2 3. Subnautica 4. Hollow Knight 5. Undertale 6. Cyberpunk 2077 As for retro (or older) games: 1. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (GBA) 2. GTA: San Andreas (PS2) 3. Soul Reaver: Legacy of Kain (PS1) 4. Gravity Rush (PS Vita) 5. Hotline Miami (PS Vita) 6. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) 7. Super Mario 65 (N64) ***Are you an avid handheld SBC collector, like some are?*** This feels like a self report, since I just mentioned that I only started gaming about 2 years ago. Don't tell my wife but I have a few handhelds, I currently own: - Anbernic RG35XX-SP - Anbernic RG35XX-H - Anbernic RG40XX-H - R63A - Sony PlayStation Portable - Sony PlayStation Vita - Retroid Pocket 5 - Steam Deck OLED  *And one final thing of note, which he told me in chat after the questions and answers were sent back and forth:* > Something I should have mentioned: all money donated goes to server costs, everything above that gets donated to other emulator developers and people in the community like TheGamesDB ----------- If you'd like to see more of EmuReady, and what it is and does: * [Here is their website](https://www.emuready.com/?ref=gardinerbryant.com) * [And here is their GitHub](https://github.com/Producdevity/EmuReady) ----------- I know this one's rather short, but again, I'm sharing this to get the full answers from my questions when chatting to Producevity. If you're a gamer who loves SBC handhelds, then you might have some experience with what settings worked best on which devices. I *know* EmuReady would love you to contribute your findings to the site. I do have more articles/interviews coming with other developers in the coming week or two, as well. So, I'll share here as they happen (*if you'd like*) ...and I'm curious, anyone use, or submitted info on here to EmuReady? *If you want to follow along with my gaming words, you can find me on Mastodon, too:* 

I'm sure you'll know by now that some time ago I did a full interview-ish effort with the dev team behind RomM. RomM - three our of five of the team gave me answers on their history of the project, emulation as a whole, self-hosting, ROMs and building what they did. That RomM Project is an open-source, self-hosted application that's designed to organize and give you a nice, clean and *pretty* way to view and play your retro video game collections. Its got a clean, responsive web interface that allows users to scan their ROM libraries, then grabs the metadata from sources like IGDB, MobyGames, and Screenscraper, and playing games directly in your browser via built-in EmulatorJS support. It supports over 400 gaming platforms (seriously), accommodates various naming conventions, multi-disk games, and custom tags. It even integrates with tools like Playnite and muOS, and upcoming features include device syncing for games, saves, and emulator settings. I reached out to the team again about their new release for RomM - RomM 4.0.0, which also included at the same time a full Android app made by a community member. They agreed to share their thoughts and experiences putting it together with me, and while 24 or so hours ago I shared a full 'article' I wrote on this, based on these answers they gave me, I'm sharing their full answers here on Lemmy with you. ------------------------------- I write these little interviews, Q&As and articles with devs from all kinds of gaming, Linux and Steam Deck projects and programs. Its fun for me, and I love to help people get a peek behind the curtain, and get to know who is behind these bits of software they might know and love. *I've previous shared interviews on Lemmy with:* * [The RomM Project *(like I mentioned!*) in general](https://lemmy.world/post/30310701) * [The solo dev behind Minigalaxy](https://lemmy.world/post/33488986) * [A PC game repacker (piracy!)](https://lemmy.world/post/32441387) * [The dev who runs a Switch piracy FreeShop](https://lemmy.world/post/32339854) * [Independent Linux & Gaming journalist, Gardiner Bryant](https://lemmy.world/post/29876029) * [The creator and dev of Lutris](https://lemmy.world/post/29459679) * [The team who make Heroic Games Launcher](https://lemmy.world/post/29307275) * [With RetroDECK](https://lemmy.world/post/29089606) ------------------------------- Do be warned, this is a *little* rough, since I intended to cherry-pick the quotes for an article, there are some general statements from one dev, then some direct answers to direct questions from another. Regardless, I do hope you enjoy this! -----------------------------------  ----------------------------------- # ***With danblu3:*** **About the Android App:** Our main goal is to have RomM reachable from any platform, we want to be the centre piece of your retro library and an android app has always been an idea in the devs head. That said, the Android app is not something we claim (fully) an amazing user by the discord name of "MattSays" actually made the application and just dropped it into our discord one day without warning, we did have a very basic and functional version from a user called "samnwella" which did do the job, but it was clunky and I know they won't mind me saying this. MattSays dropped it and the UI was there, the functions was there, everything. It was gorgeous even from a 1.0 release. Community reaction has been positive, bugs have been raised and already squashed, and in relation to the RomM team both Zurdi and Arcane have reached out to MattSays for further discussion, it's currently being branded as the official Android connector app for RomM and as for team status for MattSays, that is up in the air. The future? It's definitely bright for the Android app, the dev is very keen and even wants to get save syncing up and running. Imagine this flow: Going into ES-DE and with the recent Android app launch update you open the RomM android app, using your controller you scroll to a game you fancy playing, press A and that's it, downloaded, you exit the app, back to es-de, scrape the game and play. No removed SD cards, no plugging into your PC, no dealing with SMB users or NFS perms, just, done. Dusted. The future is very bright for this app. **About the new 4.0.0 release:** Right. So. 4.0 4.0 from many different point of views is huge, from preservation enthusiasts, from retro nerds, from the people who just want a retro fix and the completionists, 4.0 is HUGE. Before I go on to say what 4.0 is let me explain about hash matching, I'll make this very simple and it's possible I might get something a little bit wrong here or there but the theory is correct. A hash is like a signature, and each ROM (file) has a unique signature, some people way back when began groups to dump these games in the name of preservation and put all this together into a library called .dats, these .dats files store a unique signature and this unique signature will match to a game name, it's development date, if it was ever released to retail etc etc. Two of the biggest names of these groups is NoIntro and Redump, they both specialise in different media formats but with them combined they built a "digital bible" of what game is what signature, with 4.0 we finally introduce hash matching with the help of two incredibly skilled developers. Why is hash matching better, why am I so excited? * It's faster, much much faster. Right now when a ROM is scanned into RomM it breaks apart the file name, removes the (tags) and then sends an API call to the metadata agent of your choice with the name, even though we began to get a high success rate it relied HEAVILY on your files being named correctly. With hash matching, ROM reads the unique signature of the file and is told near instantly what the game is and what data is needed to be scraped, without wasting time doing a fuzzy match. * It's more accurate The fact we can now match on hash means that you could have a game named "TLOZ: AltP.zip" which is a snes game from way back when and you named it like for ease of use, you load it into RomM and are confused why it doesn't match, you know it's the legend of zelda! But RomM does not, because of the weird name you chose, like come on? It's one of the best games, give it the full name! Anyway, with hash matching it'll look inside and see the game file, extract and work out the signature and instantly match it against the matching signature online, pulling all metadata and information it needs, without you needing to rename your whole collection. * It's prettier - Now we have confidence in what your matching, we've made SteamgridDB a metadata agent, it was before but we left it to user decision. Now that we are confident in the matching we can pull gorgeous artwork for the matched games directly from SteamgridDB, and we still give user the choice if they want to change it. Now that is out the way, I want to give a huge shout out to Yukine for making [Playmatch](https://github.com/RetroRealm/playmatch) and FlibbleHexEyes for making [Hasheous](https://github.com/gaseous-project/hasheous) both these technologies have been implemented in RomM and honestly they are flawless. Yukine has been a regular around discord and I'm pretty sure he began working on hash matching pretty damn quickly just for his own benefit, he then released a small tool which caught the eye of the RomM team, a few conversations later and here we are with it as a service. It's essentially a 2 in 1 service where it does the hash matching through a lighting quick database and then proxies that over to IGDB to pull the relevant metadata from their servers, all in record time compared to our API to IGDB route. Then onto FlibbleHexEyes, people who are around the self hosting scene might recognise the names, and yes he is the lead dev and creator of Gaseous, I would say a competitor but not really only because of how well we get on with him, the self hosted space is large and there is enough room for all of us, no point sniffling creativity! It's another hash matching service (we go from 0 to 2!) and it's similar in the vein of playmatch, just on its own location and maintained directly by Flibble. Without these two amazing devs 4.0 would not be as huge as it is now. We have more news as well! In 4.0 we introduced launchbox support, this is essentially an offline database that is downloaded every day and used for matching. It does not do hash matching but it does fair better with ROM hacks on testing, it's also very good for people who want to control exactly what is coming in and out of their server as it does not need an API key and the queries are ran locally (until we go to LB to collect the art) Something that might have been missed is that we also support retro achievements! This is purely display purposes but if you have a matching hash, 9.9/10 you have a matching retro achievement and it will update your status on how your doing when it resyncs, it's a nice little QoL feature and we even show the difference between hardcore and soft core achievements. Want to help contribute? Well now it's now easier then ever with an official devcontainers RomM container, which will be explained further in the release notes but the environment is contained in the container, just pull it and start developing, no setting up extra libraries and so forth. 4.0 is huge for RomM. It's deserving of the major number and this has lit a fire under the dev team, I'm sure there will be a small hiatus between updates to let them recover but as we always keep saying. We're just getting started. ----------------------------  ---------------------------- # ***With Yukine (community member and contributor:*** # *What changes are you making?* The main changes for RomM 4.0 besides adding new Metadata sources (like LaunchBox) is the integration of Playmatch and Hasheous I've created the [Pull Request to add Playmatch Support into RomM](https://github.com/rommapp/romm/pull/1931) and arcane added Hasheous support a little bit later Playmatch (and Hasheous too) is a Microservice which does Hash based matching for Roms, it incoperates DAT files from Groups such as No-Intro and Redump and keeps a database of those Roms with a mapping to external Gaming Databases such as IGDB, right now only IGDB is support but i plan to add other Gaming Databases such as Screenscraper, MobyGames, Launchbox, SteamGridDB and more # *How was your experience, making these changes with RomM?* The Pull Request to RomM wasn't really all that hard, even me who doesn't usually do or write python was able to integrate it quite easily into RomM that said there was work the RomM Team did before my change was merged to ensure that the logic runs in the correct order What i mean by that is that in RomM 3.10.x it used to be so that the resolution step of Metadata was running before the calcuation of hashes When you integrate services which require you to send the hashes of files for the metadata provider resolution you usually want these hashes calculated which before wasn't possible because Matching of Metadata Provider was running before the hash calculation step After arcaneasada changed that and did some other side work the Playmatch PR was quite fast ready to be merged, i think it took less than 2 weeks to get it merged into RomM # *How long has this release been 'in the works' for?* As i said above the PR itself was only ~2 weeks of work but Playmatch itself was quite a lot more work I've started Playmatch back in June 2024 (over a year ago already ) as a side Project of mine, at the time RomM was quite a bit more immature especially the Metadata Matching part, i personally have quite a big Rom collection and when only ~40% of all games got a match on IGDB i was quite annoyed because i didn't want to go through my whole collection and manually match all the unidentified games to get the nice looking metadata for them Out of annoyance i thought how i would fix that, thinking about other Projects who also use Metadata Providers i checked out how they solved it and then i also found Hasheous at the time which basically was @FlibblesHexEyes Solution to the issue. After checking it out i decided that while i know C# and i think he did a good Job i wasn't quite sure if i would've solved it this way and the database structure of it wasn't quite speaking to me (when i thought about performance and how many req/s it would likely get) so i decided that i could probably write a small microservice myself and i oriented myself at Hasheous but also at Skyhook which is a Metadata API Sonarr uses and how they solved a lot of issues with that # *What can the users, both existing and new, expect from this 4.0.0 release?* Generally speaking 4.0 with Playmatch and Hasheous enabled should improve Automatic Metadata matchinig *a lot*. When users enable them they will be queried for each rom and if either has a metadata match in there database it will be used This makes RomM a lot less reliant on Rom Names and exact naming matches and basically kills the naming requirement completely assuming the Rom Hash is in either Playmatch and Hasheous (usually if your ROM matches the No-Intro or Redump DAT thats the case) and has a Provider match in either. Playmatch does by default automatically try to match ROMs it gets from the dat files to IGDB but sometimes that also fails when for example the ROM name is localized and on IGDB there is no Alias for that name. Playmatch also allows users to "suggest" manual mappings for No-Intro/Redump roms, if a rom was not automatically mapped due to naming issues i described before users can now use a Discord Bot to suggest a mapping to be added to Playmatch, after an Admin (currently thats me) reviews it and approves it it'll be added to playmatch and RomM can make use of it This Discord Bot is also added to the RomM Server so that users can do the suggestion there if they like to, this also helps out the whole community (so when the next person then checks playmatch for the same hash it already has a mapping!) which is generally the ideal state that the community can "maintain" a mapping database themself # *Any significant difficulties? Anything you're particularly proud of with this release?* There were a lot of difficulties to be fair but thats normal Playmatch is written in Rust which is a [Memory Safe Language](https://www.memorysafety.org/docs/memory-safety/) and a very fast and performant language too. When i initially thought about how i would create Playmatch i had a few key aspects in Mind. It needs to be fast and handle a lot of http req/s when a lot of RomM users run library scans It should keep a low memory usage so i can run on a small VPSIt should have a good Database ORM because i dislike writing raw SQL queries in code generally My choices were between Rust, Golang and C# but i decided for Rust because the HTTP Server Actix im using has decently fast benchmarks, the language can run a http api on only a few MB ram and also the Database Driver im using (SeaORM) is great and very fast for database queries Playmatch does a lot of things automatically by now, it can automatically download & import dats and after import also automatically try to match unmatched games to IGDB for example the matching logic is also decently smart, the datting group No-Intro for example has a cloneof id relationship set in there dat file, basically if a game like Pokemon Emerald has multiple versions (different regions, Demos, Betas etc) they write it down in the dat file with an id and a clone of id field, Playmatch can make usage of that and use it for matching, if any game gets matched playmatch automatically matches the games parents and of the parent other child games as well so that if i manually match lets say No-Intros German Pokemon Platin ROM playmatch will check the database and see that other roms (Like the Italy Pokemon Platin Rom) is a clone of the same parent (The Europe or USA Pokemon Platin Rom usually) and then apply the same mapping to it as well For automatically matches this is a great benefit, like if one of the different region name is either the Direct Name or an Alias of the Game on IGDB then we can match all versions of a game This fixes the issue for localized rom naming a lot as well, if you use any Rom Manager or tool which renames your ROMs to match names from No-Intro/Redump dats this will now not make the Identify step of RomM fail because the name is localized and not like that on IGDB and also if one region gets matched now all region gets matched! this makes it less annoying to manually match as well when instead of 20 matches for all different versions (Regions, Beta, different Revisions) of Pokemon Platin you just match any of it and Playmatch does the other one fully automatically Another big issue generally is compression, RomM does not enforce any format when accepting ROM files for Platforms, users usually want to compress there roms if possible to save space zipping Roms is one way but usually the compression rate is not that good especially for newer consoles with for example encryption (which decreases compression rate by a ton) so most Homebrew Communities have developed own formats to compress ROMs a few examples are Wii / Gamecube raw format is .iso and the a common compression format is .rvz which is supported by Dolpin Emulator Wii U Raw format is .ISO but the common compression format is .wux A lot of Disc based system Emulators support .chd files which is a format the MAME team developed with a very good compression rate DAT groups such as No-Intro and Redump usually only create dat files for "RAW" or original formats so if you want to compress your roms it will not be matching to Playmatch anymore as Playmatch only holds rom data which is from a DAT group Luckly the Community already has made DAT files for a few of those formats but depending on the format and compression used these formats might have some randomness depending on what compression level and settings are used Playmatch currently has community dats for .rvz, .wux and decrypted PS3 Games ----------------------------  ---------------------------- # ***With FlibblesHexEyes - community member and contributor:*** Hey! So, just to clarify I'm not part of the Romm team, though I do work closely with them. I work on Hasheous (https://hasheous.org/), which provides hash based ROM matching to metadata providers as well as metadata proxying. Hasheous came about from my other project called Gaseous Server (which is similar to Romm - started about the same time) where I noticed a major point of friction for users was matching their ROM files to metadata providers such as IGDB. This led me to begin the Hasheous project where a user adding a ROM to their ROM Manager of choice (Hasheous was always designed to be client agnostic and not favour one client over another). The idea here is that when adding a ROM, instead of the user having to manually say that file is "Choplifter", the client (Romm or Gaseous), would reach out to Hasheous and say "do you know what this file with this SHA1 hash is?" and Hasheous would respond with information about the ROM and where the client could find metadata such as summaries, and cover art. Which led to solving a further point of friction for users which is that many metadata providers require an API key - and an often convoluted method to generate them - which led to Hasheous having the ability to proxy some metadata providers. This allows users of Romm (and others) to have a completely friction free experience when adding ROMs to their libraries. It's this part that I'm particularly proud of. It's taken me about a year to get Hasheous to where it is today. By far the biggest issue is that of data integrity. Hasheous relies on DAT providers (such as TOSEC and NoIntro) who all name games slightly differently. The same is also true of the metadata providers. Examples include that a DAT might name a game with a dash, which the metadata provider might use a colon. Individually these are reasonably easy to match, but at scale it gets a lot harder. So building out a community contribution method (to fix bad matches) that is abuse resistant was also a challenge. ----------------------------   ---------------------------- # ***With MattSays - community member and developer responsible for the Android app:*** Yeah sure! You may want to know why I decided to make this app. I recently got into retrogaming handhelds and in particular Android retro handhelds, and I also discovered the existence of RomM. However, to my surprise there wasn't an app that could easily handle all of my rom collection without having to go to my browser and manually do all the steps required to just play my desired games. So I developed a client that could improve the usability of RomM on Android without too much hassle and shared all of this with the charming community that instantly tested it and gave me precious feedback. ------------------------------------- # *And that's that!* Well, like I said, perhaps a little rougher than my regular efforts at these, but the contents in the answers really *did* deserve to be read through, but anyone interested. I love how passionate about gaming, self-hosting and emulation the team (and contributors) are in RomM. It makes me smile to see! You can find more on The RomM Project with these links: * [Their official website](https://romm.app/) * [Their GitHub](https://github.com/rommapp/romm) * [Their Discord](https://discord.gg/RGPJHNMMwJ) And don't forget, if you like this kind of gaming nonsense I share, you can find me on Mastodon, where I tend to post every day: 

I saw that no one had shared Junk Store's newly released version '2.0' announcement, so I figured I'd format it for Lemmy and post it here. Is anyone picking it up? Or trying it out? Anyway, everything below here is their words that I'm pasting in: ---------------------------------- The wait is over! **Junk Store 2.0** is now live, and we’re excited for you to try it! You’ve heard the fuss, now you can judge it for yourself. If it’s not for you, no hard feelings; all we ask is that you make up your own mind. [Check it out in action here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDKQyL5iLSg) [Get it here](https://www.junkstore.xyz/buy_now/) # *What is Junk Store 2.0?* Junk Store 2.0 is a **fully extensible game launcher** designed to help you easily install and manage games from platforms like Epic, GOG, Amazon, and more — all without the hassle of complex workarounds. It’s faster, more stable, and includes a ton of new features to enhance your experience on the Steam Deck. # *Try Junk Store 2.0 Now!* We know you’ve been waiting for a faster, more stable, and expanded experience, and **Junk Store 2.0** delivers just that. While we continue to scale up some of our supporting systems, we’re offering a **25% discount on your first year** if you sign up before the end of the month. Use the code **EarlyBird** at checkout to take advantage of the savings Learn more here # *What Users Are Saying* * “Junk Store 2.0 gives me access to dozens of games I already own on platforms I rarely use — without all the convoluted workarounds.” — Anonymous * “JS allows me the freedom to choose stores with better deals, DRM-free options, or freebies — without sacrificing the joy and simplicity of the Steam Deck.” — BadServo * “This is f*ing great and well worth the sub. It’s leagues better than before and blows the Decky Loader version out of the water.” — Zer04evr * “It's the perfect Swiss Army knife for my Deck!” — Tiny Tech # *How to Try It?* * **7-day Free Trial** – Try before you buy! If you cancel within the first 7 days, you won’t be charged. * **25% off your first year** – Discount available until the end of the month. # *Why Upgrade?* You’ll still have access to the old version of Junk Store, but we truly believe the new version offers too many improvements to ignore. Whether it's the download queue, the new extension generation tools, or the ability to view up to 1,000 games, this is the future of Junk Store. [Check out "What’s New" here](https://mrsjunkrunner.github.io/learnmore/) # *Hear from the Developer:* * Hear from the developer himself in this interview with Gardiner Bryant: [Watch here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRVFqHGkqio) * Listen to Gardiner Bryant: [Watch it here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRVFqHGkqio) # *We’re Here to Help* Junk Store is a living project. We’re constantly working on improvements, and we need your feedback to make it even better. If you run into any issues, let us know — we’re a small team, but we strive for fast resolutions. Thank you for your support — Game on!

Hello, everyone! I was lucky enough to get in touch with Wouter, the solo developer behind the Linux game launcher Minigalaxy. He was generous with his time and happy to answer a bunch of random questions I sent his way over the course of a few days. What started as a quick chat turned into this fun little Q&A. A few hours ago, [I posted an article here on Lemmy that used some of his replies as the backbone for a short piece about Minigalaxy](https://lemmy.world/post/33486015). But the more I looked over his answers, the more I felt they deserved to be shared on their own, unedited and in full. So here they are...straight from the source. I like to do these little Q&A's, interviews and pieces on these projects and programs, because it's a fun chance to get to see what's behind the curtain - hear from the devs which you rarely get to. Minigalaxy itself is a lightweight, open-source game launcher for Linux, designed specifically for running GOG games with ease. It keeps things simple and streamlined: no bloat, just the basics like installing, updating, and launching your games. I hope you might enjoy these, it was a fun time, and Minigalaxy itself is a great little Linux program :) All questions by me, and all answers are by wouter! --------------------- # Minigalaxy:  --------------------- ***Q. I'd like to start with what inspired you to create Minigalaxy? Was it the 'typical' reason? - I know that everyone (do you know Lignuin from Heroic? I'd say you do, he and I both think that GOG's own Galaxy 2.0 is essentially abandoned now) is dissatisfied with the software GOG themselves present.*** A. So I wrote Minigalaxy at at time where Lutris was the only other option, but it wasn't as easy to use as I'd like. I also wanted to do a project using python, since that language was still quite new to me. So I decided to write my own client. The idea was to have my own easy to use GOG specific launcher. The initial version was a bit rough and still saw some crashes, but it got better over time. In the beginning I was only planning to make it able to install Linux games, but then it ended up taking off and people started contributing. A contributor who's account name on GitHub is Kzimir wrote the initial wine support. ***Q. Minigalaxy seems to be known for its minimalism. Was that a deliberate design choice from the start? I'm a big fan of that, by the way!*** A. It was deliberate, I wanted a good overview of the GOG games I can play and an easy way to install them 😄 ***Q. Why focus solely on GOG support, instead of building a more universal launcher?*** A. In the last 6 years I've contributed to a lot of open source projects, but the only launchers I've been using have been Steam and Minigalaxy, so I've not really ran into an opportunity to contribute to other launchers. Besides Minigalaxy I spend a lot of time contributing to PSPDEV, which is a homebrew SDK for the Playstation Portable, and to open source games and game preservation projects. I think other launchers do a great job integrating multiple platforms. I really like that Minigalaxy is so focused specifically on GOG. I think that gives it its own niche and allows us to offer a level of uniformity while still providing a lot of specific info from GOG. For example filtering on genre would be hard if you're dealing with multiple platforms  ***Wouter's unprompted statement:*** I do have to say that I was not expecting as much community engagement as there has been when I originally started. It was initially just something I wanted to have, but also made available to others. Then when I implemented translation support the contributions really started rolling in and even some programmers joined and added features I wouldn't have thought about. Lately GB609 on Github came in an he fixed most of the outstanding bugs. It has been really cool to work with the over 50 contributors over the years I recently made translation easier by adding support for Weblate and we now have a 100% complete Ukrainian translation which we didn't have before. It's things like that which just blow me away To give another example, being able to ship a full Taiwanese Mandarin translation with the third release I did was unexpected, but insanely cool ***Q. How has the Linux/GOG gaming community responded to Minigalaxy?*** A. The community has been really nice 😄They've really helped to keep me going. Minigalaxy has had so many contributions from the community. Translation, small fixes on the website and even new features and bug fixes ***Q. What keeps you motivated to maintain the project?*** A. I think that has been my main drive. Minigalaxy has had the features I want from it for a while now, but the community keeps bringing in new ideas and even implementing them ***Q. Is there any way people can support you — contributing code, donations, spreading the word?*** A. I don't want donations, but contributions are always welcome. It is now super easy to contributed translations, I think it would be really nice if some more people could help out with that 😄 --------------------- # *And that's that!* It was short, but their time is valuable, and this was more a chat than a full-blown interview. I am *very* glad wouter agreed to chat at all: projects like Minigalaxy, which are done free for the community who love gaming are amazing, and I think he deserved a *little* time to share his views! * [If you're more interested in Minigalaxy, you can find the GitHub page here!](https://github.com/sharkwouter/minigalaxy) * [And of course, the Discord server link is here too, if you want to join in on the chats!](https://discord.gg/RC4cXVD) --------------------- I do hope you'll forgive me posting the entirety in full here, so soon after my other link. And I hope you enjoyed this little post also!

Hello everybody!!! Sorry it’s been so long since my last updates here on Lemmy. I do know its been too long between my [Steam Deck / Gaming News posts](https://lemmy.world/post/32248169) *(and I pinkie-swear that will change sometime soon!)*, but at least I have some things to share here which I hope you’ll find interesting. I’ve been lucky in that a friend on Mastodon has asked me to help contribute to his weekly gaming ‘magazine’ - a site he’s launched a week or so ago with the idea of being: > *...a site where we can write about games, technology, and nerdy culture in a relaxed, informal fashion. Where we can celebrate creators, game developers and anyone else who makes a positive contribution to the gaming community on the fediverse.* So, this time, I’ve written some things for this site as a contributor, and I’d love to get *your* thoughts on what I’ve written. ----------------------- # An article: First is an article on RomM's new release version 0 4.0.0 *(along with its Android app release!)*, which is a little different to how I’ve typically written and shared on Lemmy before. You might remember that I’ve interviewed the team behind RomM before, and shared it here on Lemmy. They’re all lovely people!  For this I wrote more of an 'article' - but also was in touch with all the devs responsible for the changes in this release, so you'll find them sprinkled throughout! [The link to my RomM article is here!](https://magazine.fediverse.games/romm-version-4-0-0-a-major-leap-for-retro-game-management/) ----------------------------- # Minigalaxy: The developer behind the Linux GOG launcher for games, Minigalaxy was kind enough to chat to me over a few days so I could hear more about the work and what brought the launcher into being. I'm super grateful that they wanted to chat, and Minigalaxy is such a fun program, if you haven't already then you should check it out!  [The direct link to that article I wrote is here](https://magazine.fediverse.games/without-getting-in-your-way-inside-minigalaxy-the-gog-gaming-launcher-for-linux/) ----------------------------- # An interview: Lastly *was* to be an interview with the developer behind Falkor, an independent game launcher built almost entirely by one develop. Designed to be personal, customisable, and community-driven, Falkor was built to stay in line with the dev's plan: a *'user-first alternative to the other launchers available'*.  In our conversation, he shared his journey as a dev, insights on the plugin architecture, thoughts on legal boundaries, and future plans for Falkor, including Proton support and deeper community involvement. ***Sadly, a few hours before posting, he actually ceased work on Falkor with an announcement in his Discord, and has stepped back from it. So that one is no longer being posted!*** ----------------------------- ## What's Next: But I *have* also got plenty more in the works to share. I’ve been in touch with: * [PortMaster](https://portmaster.games/) (though this one might be taking a little longer than I first anticipated) * The person behind the emulation compatibility report site called [EmuReady](https://www.emuready.com/) * The dev team who have made [Ocean Keeper: Dome Survival on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2845630/Ocean_Keeper_Dome_Survival/) - they've been super kind and are arranging the dev team to answer my questions, and provide me with promo material to use * And another handful of teams and devs – projects and independent games, which I suppose I’ll share when the time is right! What I'd love most from all of you here is to hear what you think. These posts have entirely been for all of you on Lemmy in the past. But sharing these on this site *does* mean RSS will be easier for you (for those who ask how to RSS my posts). Would you like me to share my articles and interviews here in Lemmy as they were, or through this fediverse-centric site instead? Or both? *Please* share what you think. My style writing these, the format, the fact they’re on a site, just give me your thoughts. If you’d just like a link to the site itself, its here: https://magazine.fediverse.games/ One other thing, if you'd like to contribute to that site, then Mr Dendry stated: > .*..if you have a product or project you'd like to be featured on this site please reach out! Additionally, if you're a writer and you want to contribute, please let me know as it would be great to have a few people writing here aside from me.* Hope you’re all well, and enjoying gaming lately. Again, all apologies for my absence from Lemmy lately :)

This is probably going to seem wildly low-effort compared to my usual posts here, but I've found a bit of a treasure trove of print media gaming ads from magazines and sites. And they're amazing. I found it *so* fun to see what companies used to do to promote their games. Things have clearly changed a lot over time, some of them are insensitive or even outright sexist, but if you just look at it through a lens of being a time capsule, it's fun. This one's going to be *very* image-heavy. If you're using Boost on iOS then you might struggle to scroll through this (*or maybe not? It's happened with all my other posts though, so you've been warned*), if that happens just visit using your browser :) ---------------------- # Game Boy Advance/SP:  ----------------------                                  *The 'feet' collection were from an ad company in Stockholm, in 2005. I think it is to mean you're using hands to play the GBA, and only have feet left to use for real life:*  ---------------------- # PS2:  ----------------------             ---------------------- # Nintendo Game Cube:  ----------------------                  ---------------------- *And that's that! Just interesting to see a time when gaming was a little more experimental and edgy.*

In case you missed it, recent reports suggest that Microsoft/Xbox has *likely* cancelled future Forza Motorsport titles (*effectively ending the series*), following massive layoffs that affected around half of Turn 10’s staff. Its not a series I played, like most I think I opted for the Horizon series, but its still more sad news in a line of layoffs recently. So, I decided I might just make a tiny list of a few games which haven't sold massive amounts, aren't AAA, and have few reviews. Fair warning though, as ever I love to include a *ton* of pictures and GIFs in my posts. This one is no exception. One issue is if you're using the Boost for Lemmy app. My posts tend to slow scrolling to a glitchy mess, so if you're interested enough...maybe opt for your browser to read through instead? Or another app, I guess. I know it's not what I typically post here, but...it's an easy write up...even if its a niche problem (*finding car games to play!*). If you know of any, or have enjoyed some and want to recommend, please comment them! Anyway, let's start with the first one: ----------------- # *Art of Rally:*  ----------------- To start with I’ll *have* to mention Art of Rally. I’ve ranted about this for so long now, you’ll no doubt have already read through me trying to convince you to play. But, let’s do it all over again. It’s *so* good. Set in the ‘golden era’ of racing: from the 60’s to the 80’s in a kind of alternate universe – if the infamous and incredibly dangerous ‘Group B’ never ceased. Group B itself was a class in the *World Rally Championship* (WRC) that existed from 1982 to 1986, and was infamous for being both the most spectacular and the most dangerous era in rally history. They’d find *literal fingers*, hair, blood splatters in their vent grates and stuck in their cars when the races were finished...because no rules were in place for the spectators. None.  Group B allowed the car manufacturers to use just stupid barely tested technology and push performance limits with minimal regulation. The cars just had the most lightweight materials, turbochargers, superchargers, and four-wheel drive, producing up to 600 horsepower (*more than many modern supercars*). Their own rules required only 200 road-going models, making it easy for manufacturers to develop near-prototype race cars.   In the end they were extremely fast, but safety measures couldn't keep up. Tracks were narrow and lined with crowds of unprotected spectators, and co-drivers had to rely on pace notes at breakneck speeds. Crashes were frequent and often fatal.  [This YouTube video is amazing and really *should* be watched, just so you get a snapshot of how dangerous and unsupervised this all was.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN93WoPDJS0) Anyway, that’s the history behind the setting. Now to the game. > Race in the golden era of rally. Drive iconic cars from the 60s to Group B on challenging stages through stylized environments inspired by real worldwide locations. Will you master the art of rally?  It’s a minimalist game. Super stylized environments and landscapes, the art design is bright simple and colorful, with over fifty ‘iconic’ rally cars (*their own takes on them though, not at all licensed*), rally driving tricks (Scandinavian flick, counter steering, left foot braking, handbrake turns) and maps like Germany, Japan, Norway, Australia, Indonesia (*some are DLC*).  I love how its open for simple beginners all the way up to incredibly detailed technical expert racing. I love how has a top-down perspective, not the typical racing style.  The music is beautiful, and its such a complete independent game. If you regularly claim the Epic Games free PC games each week then you’ll have the base game in your library already. But it is on regular sales too, with [-40% off on Steam currently!](https://store.steampowered.com/app/550320/art_of_rally/). It’s a game that very much reacts to your touch and movement. Much like a real rally car, you’re going to be feeling that sensation of needing to react quickly, or trying your best to wrestle that steering to either direction, or quickly having to tap the break. And that handbrake is where you’ll be dialing in those hairpins and perfecting that Scandinavian ‘flick’.  To me its the atmosphere. The setting, the colors, the foliage and hills, sky and how cheerful it all is makes this game such a beautiful one. I’ve played so much of it, and if you’re looking for a racing/rally/automotive game you *might* have missed alongside the typical AAA offerings, then choose this one!  * [The ProtonDB page for Art of Rally – where you can check Linux/Steam Deck performance ratings from community members](https://www.protondb.com/app/550320) * [Their website](https://www.artofrally.com/) * [The link to the game on GOG](https://www.gog.com/game/art_of_rally) The developers also have another automotive-based game coming: > *Explore the world in the golden age of offroading. Drive iconic vehicles from the 60s to 80s by yourself or with friends through challenging trails and beautiful scenery.* [Here’s the link to that one, called ‘Over The Hill’](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2929250/over_the_hill/)  ----------------- # *Drive Rally:*  ----------------- Drive Rally released their 1.0 after being in Early Access not so long ago. This was one of those games you’d be forgiven for actually buying in E.A. though, since it was so damned complete (*much like Hades 2, or Selaco feel for example*). *One Caveat, there’s a hashtag before ‘Drive’ in the game’s title...but that is used for formatting on Lemmy so I’m just leaving it off for this little one.* > *DRIVE Rally is an arcade-inspired rally-driving experience set in the golden racing era of the ‘90s. Grab your co-driver and burn some rubber on iconic race-winning cars across a variety of terrains in some of the most iconic rallying locations in the world!*  Far less sim, or precision-based, and far more forgiving, this one’s just *fun* - and feels the most ‘arcadey’ of the ones I’ll cover here. It’s more of a retro-inspired look to it, kinda reminding you of the PS1/PS2 days but without that heavy pixel-ish look to everything.  You can dial down the ‘wackiness’ on the voices of your co-driver/navigator (*I recommend you do this*), if you’d prefer it to be a little more serious. By default they have a humor to them, and a distinct voice style. Or you can keep it all the way up, totally up to you!  I like how this game makes me feel like I’m *not* fighting my car, that I am in control and it’s not punishing me for mistakes. Some people don’t like this, but I just like to think of it as a fun arcade racer – keep my serious racers for other times.  The usual suspects are here: car customization, fun locales which have their own unique feeling, there’s a heap of fun easter eggs from the genre and the history of racing games. There’s constant updates, and you can see the devs care about keeping their game feeling fresh. I *do* know from an early point they really did listen to the community in Early Access, and changed the game according to some issues raised. So that’s always nice to see.  It’s on sale as a part of both the GOG and Steam Summer Sales right now, too, with -30% off right now:  * [Link to the GOG store page here](https://www.gog.com/game/drive_rally) * [Link to the Steam store page here](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2494780/DRIVE_Rally/) * [Their official website for the game](https://www.drive.game/) * [Trailer for the 1.0 release from 2 months back on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9xK8RjQxC8) If you just want a fun, arcade rally game that rewards you for races (unlockables), and doesn't make you stress on every turn and decision, this one is a perfect buy. I *really* recommend it!  ----------------------------- # *Old School Rally & Rush Rally 3:* ----------------------------- Both of these games are *very* similar, if not in the gameplay, in execution. They’re attempting to take you back to the PS1/arcade game era of rally racers, but with modern controls (and sensibilities, too). One is extra-heavily pixelated to make you think of the Colin McRae series of games. ----------------------------- # *Old School Rally:*  > “Carefully crafted retro style visuals, reminiscent of the late '90s rally games full of nostalgia and charm”  > “With a variety of rally tracks from around the globe, race across different surfaces such as dirt, tarmac and snow and challenge your driving skills.”  > “Choose from a diverse lineup of rally cars inspired by the legends of the past, each with unique characteristics and features.”  > “Challenge other drivers from around the world and climb to the top of the leaderboards. Ready for more? Try to get all the achievements over the course of the game.” To me this one’s a great Steam Deck game. There’s a fun balance between pure arcade gameplay, but with more to it if you want to invest your time in it. I’ve noticed the reviews tend to mention the excellent music...and they're very right on that one. If you've nostalgia for the PS1 era racing games, obviously the McRae series, then this is a *must have* for you.  * [Old School Rally official website](https://www.frozenlake-games.com/games/old-school-rally/) * [Official trailer on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y1Abnys_Q0) * Platinum Rating on ProtonDB with one review stating: *“90 FPS, 7.5-8 W TDP with 7+ hours of gameplay easily with a full charge.”* * [Steam Listing here](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2824660/Old_School_Rally/) with a ‘Very Positive’ rating from 1,186 reviews.  ----------------------------- # *Rush Rally 3:*  Less pixelated and intentionally PS1-ish than Old School Rally is, this one still *is* in the same vein. Created by a single dev, it’s amazing how deep the game feels. To me the ‘rougher’ areas, are the tracks and lanscapes, but the vehicles seem to be far more polished for the player – even giving you a pretty comprehensive set of options to customize the cars to your liking:  There are online features (leaderboads and multiplayer), unique weekly live events, a dev who cares deeply about suggestions and is constantly making adjustments and changes to how things run and look based off player feedback. I love how dedicated the dev seems to this game, you can tell they love racing and rally.  > “60 FPS racing (120+fps on supported devices) at night or day in the rain or snow! Over 100 new and unique stages each with different surface types including snow, gravel, tarmac and dirt! Race with one of the best car dynamics models to date, including real time vehicle deformation and damage, built from over 15 years of experience.”  > “Race with your favourite controller, all fully configurable including full force feedback wheel support!” * [Again, platinum rating on ProtonDB, though this time there’s only one review left for it](https://www.protondb.com/app/2020860) * [The dev mentioned on Steam that they’re done *extensive* Steam Deck testing to make sure it runs as well as can possibly be expected](https://steamcommunity.com/app/2020860/discussions/0/5568165891230571161/) * [The Steam page for the game, with a -70% off price currently](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2020860/Rush_Rally_3/) * [No official trailer is on YouTube, but a ton of great review videos are there, with everyone stunned by how great the game is](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rush+rally+3+)  ----------------------------- # *Japanese Drift Master (JDM):*  You might have seen this one, while it’s still *kinda* under the radar compared to most games (*with only 2,457 total reviews on Steam*), it turned some heads before release because of the setting and presentation. Drifting in Japan. Story told through the pages of manga. Clearly *very* inspired by recognizable, real life locations. Licensed cars. Euro-beat. DRM-free? It ticked so many boxes that racing fans have, but the main one is being set in Japan. Horizon fans have been clamoring for the game to be set in that country for many iterations now, so this kinda felt like...the next best thing?  > *JDM: Japanese Drift Master combines realistic, carefully-tuned physics in a simcade experience that’s as smooth on a controller as it is with sim racing hardware. Tackle hundreds of kilometers of open-world roads and uncover story-driven events and quests along the way. Hone your drifting skills, perfect grip races, take on challenges, and feel the thrill of authentic Japanese street racing.*  This game is far more…‘sim’ than the others I’ve covered so far. [While of course it’s still accessible to those who don’t want to take it super duper seriously](https://media.tenor.com/I0TBdryetcYAAAAC/han-tokyodrift.gif), you can see this one’s aimed *more* at those who want to play the game as a drifting simulator.  > *Experience the automotive culture of Japan and discover the roads where drifting was born.* It’s very, very pretty. The detail in the environments and the cars is really impressive. The music is incredibly moreish and I did keep going back to this game. What gives me pause in the end is that I don’t feel much like their market. I’m less into sim-racing and more into fun arcade racing. Performance is *not* the best, more suited to higher end systems (which is why I played on desktop, rather than any of my handhelds, though it did perform and look nice on my Legion Go), with the usual Unreal Engine 5 hiccups.  The devs keep updating the game regularly, the map/roads are *amazing*, really I’d put it up there with any Gran Turismo title. If you’ve any interest in a serious racer, with a less-serious story, beautiful locations and want to try something a little different, then this game is an easy recommendation. * [Here is the launch trailer, which is on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iebhqKtmcg) * [Their official website, which has a lot of nice info on the game](https://jdmgame.com/) * [On sale on Steam right now, this is the link to the page. -25% off, but it does end soon!](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1153410/JDM_Japanese_Drift_Master/) * [Also on sale on GOG, with the same -25% discount, but this sale will probably end by the time you read this, idk. This is the link to the GOG page!](https://www.gog.com/en/game/jdm_japanese_drift_master)  ----------------------------- # Emulation:  ----------------------------- Of course, if you just emulate, then you’re going to get the best of the best from every preceding era to play through. * The old Colin McRae games (*if you use something like DuckStation then you can even upscale to a crazy degree, add shaders and then use RetroAchievements to make it feel amazingly modern!*) * Gran Turismo games * In *particular* you can add the Gran Turismo Spec II mod to GT4 and have a massively upgraded experience, [this YouTube video will explain what it is and what it does (sounds, tracks, cars, camera views, menus, UI, it’s *massive*) * All the WipEout titles, including WipEout HD/Fury for PS3 (works beautifully on the Steam Deck!) ...the list is obviously so extensive, over *so* many consoles and systems that I won’t go into super detailed details. I will say however, that I use my friends’ creation: [RetroDECK](https://retrodeck.net/) to play them on my Steam Deck, and it works beautifully for this. The YouTube channel, Retro Game Corps covers RetroDECK in-depth, showing what it can do, the features and step-by-step how to install and configure it. [The link to that particular video on YouTube is here if you want to check it out.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXS00Wcbwt4&t=58s) ----------------------------- This post is just a small one, and a bit of fun. I love racing games, and maybe you'll find something interesting in here if you do also! And again, if you've got suggestions for similar games, please leave them below!

Keeping with the theme of my recent interview with the developer behind the largest-running Nintendo Switch piracy program, I thought I’d post another piece in a similar vein. Some time ago, I reached out to a pirate known as *Masquerade:* a prominent figure in the game piracy scene. Working both solo and as part of a group known as KaOs Krew, he's what’s known as a *repacker* - someone who takes DRM-free games and rebuilds them with streamlined installers to make them easier to install and share. I wanted to ask him all about... well, everything: * What drives him to do what he does * How he views the scene now — and what the future might hold * The risks, stories, and challenges behind the curtain * And most importantly, what it actually takes to repack a game ------------ *This interview is conducted for journalistic and educational purposes only. The intention is to explore the motivations, ethics, and technical aspects behind unauthorized software distribution platforms this. The interviewer does not condone, support, or participate in software piracy, nor does this site provide access to or promote the use of illegal content or tools. Readers are encouraged to respect intellectual property laws in their respective jurisdictions.* *This post was also made with the moderators’ permission. Not having direct links or instructions on **how** to pirate means this is just what it appears to be - information from a source you won't hear from typically.* ---------- # Section 1: The Piracy Scene: **Tell us all about you, who is ‘Masquerade’? How did you get started with gaming?** Masquerade is just an online personality. The character used in my profile picture is The Masked Gentleman from Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, a Nintendo 3DS game. I've always had a certain affection for masked characters. Behind the mask, I have a scientific career. I'm not very much of a gamer in my personal time. My introduction to gaming was when the Nintendo Wii was around, it wasn't much of an interest to me beforehand. My favourite games to play were the LEGO series by TTGames. They're a fun, light hearted collectable-fest. I like the franchises from which the games are based on (Star Wars, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.) and because they're made for kids, they don't take a lot of thought to play. At the time, I wasn't really interested in your typical violet videogames like Call of Duty so I was put off from consoles like the XBOX or Playstation. Alongside the Wii, I also happened to be gifted a Nintendo DS with an R4i card loaded with some popular games at the time. This wasn't my first introduction to piracy, but this was the first introduction to my favourite game series - Professor Layton. Since these simple beginnings, I haved owned an original Playstation, DS, 3DS, Wii, Wii U and XBOX 360.  **How did you first get involved in the piracy scene, and what motivated you to join?** I like being able to contribute. Piracy has always been an interest of mine, emboldened by being able to provide free media for my friends and family. Very little of the work I do is for personal gain. I signed up to rin forum in 2018. My first major contribution and start to the Masquerade piracy career was with sharing files for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands in late 2019. This is the PC game in which I have the most hours, I enjoy it a lot. I've played over 500 hours of that game. It was rewarding to me to share the files for the game and I knew from there that I wanted to contribute more in future. I certainly never imagined I'd be where I am today. I'll always be thankful to the people I've met and who have helped me along the way. **How has the piracy scene evolved over the years, and where do you see it going?** I don't think I can comment too much on the history piracy scene since I only really started exploring this world beyond surface level in 2017. I think those who are interested in piracy history, especially around videogames, would LOVE the [YouTube channel ModernVintageGamer](https://www.youtube.com/@ModernVintageGamer). I cannot recommend this channel enough. The content is all incredibly well researched and presented in such an intriguing way. Some of my favourite videos are detailing anti-piracy measures from early games consoles. As for where I see the piracy going, I want people to strive to learn some coding skills, even just the basics, and learn to tackle little things like custom triggers. Start off small and work your way up. **What challenges do piracy groups face today that they didn’t face a decade ago?** I think the current state of the DRM scene explains a lot. 10 years ago we saw the first ever game protected with Denuvo, FIFA 15, which was humiliated by Chinese P2P groups and CPY. The warez scene is pretty much the same today as it has always been. Supply, crack, pack and release. The p2p scene perhaps suffers from pressure of demand to share new games. As someone who shares a large amount of games, in the past I have certainly felt a lot of pressure to release more new games. 10 years ago there was no Discord and reddit communities were considerably smaller so the lines between being "in" on the piracy scene and not were a lot less blurred than they are today. One of the difficulties is just how large the game piracy audience is and the challenge this brings is everyone will have various levels of understanding of what is "correct" and incorrect. [An example of this is a semi viral tweet attempting to explain Denuvo cracks](https://x.com/XRTerra_/status/1659941730123231234) which is incorrect on so many levels. (*writer's note - this is a Twitter link, if you don't like visiting that site, avoid clicking it!*) **Do you think piracy has had any positive impacts on the gaming industry?** Yes, look no further than Danger Gazers and Repella Fella. Posting pirated versions of their own games worked out really well for both developers. I don't think developers should target pirates in particular, but I do think they should see us as people and understand why we do what we do and reap the benefits of this approach. Start off by getting rid of DRM that affects the real customers too. **How do you balance your love for games with the legal risks of piracy?** I don't love games *that* much. I have a small collection of games that I do absolutely love. I have taken relevant measures to ensure my security online. **Have you had any memorable experiences with any repackers, developers or other members in the ‘scene’ you might like sharing?** I'd prefer to keep this one to myself. ---------- # Section 2: The Repack Scene: ---------- **What inspired you to join KaOs, and how did the group come together?** KaOs Krew is one of the oldest repack groups in the business along with the likes of Kapital Sin. When I first started repacking, I went solo. I didn't touch torrents much, all of my files were shared via Google Drive. In May/June 2022, Google took action against GDrive abuse and took down a lot of the exploits I was using to store an insane amount of data. One afternoon, I opened my account to learn that I had lost about 17TB of backed up repacks over two Google Drives. Strangely, this is not the sucker punch of a loss it sounds like. I don't feel strongly attached to the repacks, more the work and skills learned whilst making them. After this, I faced a big issue. I had my own website which had no alive links so I'd have to start again, or I could ask to join an existing repacking group and release under a new name. This would liberate me from having an empty catalogue and being swamped with upload requests I could never fill. At the time, my upload speed was still 2mb/s so taking to upload the 7TB I have backed up locally would be a futile task. I had actually been offered a place in KaOs Krew multiple times by KiNG since I had started repacking but the data loss pushed me to join. I don't know much about the origins of the KaOs Krew. I am happy knowing that the group has a clean history and the name is well known amongst those of us who have been in this scene for a long time. KaOs has outlived many others who have came and gone over the years, perhaps even myself one day. **What’s the most challenging part of creating a quality repack?** The main compression algorithms all repackers used have not really changed since 30th December 2018 when the final version of lolz compressor released. Instead, the quality aspect from the release comes from being able to reverse compression methods and rip game data from archives to allow for selective download options. By far the most challenging aspects of repacking for me is when I face a difficult compression algorithm or encryption scheme that I don't have sufficient knowledge to deal with. I have made friends with talented people who can reverse engineer some code and data formats but sometimes achieving perfection is outside of my current knowledge. I hope to learn more about dealing with complicated formats in the future. A lot of Japanese developers have started using encryption in Unity games. Japanese developers love encryption - I wish they would stop already. Sometimes you will also get seemingly random decompression failures - ancient algorithms can just be a little buggy here and there. **How do you decide which games to focus on when repacking?** I mainly follow the upcoming SteamDB upcoming list. I typically avoid rubbish asset flip games. I like to repack games with a charming art style regardless of the game engine. Also, I like to make time to repack the family friendly games published by Outright Games. There's something immensely special in my mind of parents who will download games for their children to enjoy or enjoy as a family. Games that use a unique engine (or literally anything other than Unity or Unreal) are also exciting to see. **What’s the community response like when you release a major title, and do you feel pressure to deliver?** People appreciate my repacks, even moreso since I have joined KaOsKrew. I'm very grateful for this. I used to put myself under a huge amount of pressure to release highly anticipated titles as quick as possible because there is a certain element of racing against other repackers. I don't put myself under as much pressure these days. My attitudes have slightly changed in that I'd rather take some extra time to make a better repack. This decision has been heavily influenced by FitGirl having 100+ games in her upcoming list. With the amount of new games releasing exponentially increasing, there's only competition for a small amount of hot new releases. The rest will just come when they're done. 2021 me would be disappointed but the scene is different now. **How do you approach compressing large games while maintaining their quality?** There is little to no relationship between the size of a game and its complexity to repack. Here's some examples: * SHINORUBI: tiny game, uses LZMA algorithm which makes it interesting to repack. * God of War: huge game, uses no compression, easy repack to make. * Steel Division II: huge game, simple compression algorithm, constant decompression errors meaning you have to punish those installing the repack in order to repack it correctly. * Franchine Hockey Manager: tiny game, no interesting algorithms, easy repack to make. **Have there been any games that were particularly difficult to repack?** Mario Kart 8 has always been a weird one that comes to mind. It uses one of Nintendo's proprietary algorithms. When you recompress this data and load the rom into the emulator for testing, some courses will work fine however others cause the emulator to crash. I mentioned Steel Division 2 earlier. This game uses ZLIB/DEFLATE algorithm which is easy to deal with thanks to Razor12911's XTool but you get decoding errors every time you try and decompress your final archive. To repack this game properly, you need to decompress every single game archive individually and then make your archive. During installation, you need to extract all of the decompressed data and recompress it on the users' disk which is slow and means you need an excessive amount of disk space for a task which is always done in memory. I don't really like doing large games due to the insane amount of time they take to complete. ARK Survival Evolved took nearly 50 hours to compress. Never again. ------- # Section 3: Gaming: ------- **What are some of your favorite games, both from the past and recent releases?** Few things would make me happier than explaining my favourite games: * Professor Layton. My absolute favourite videogame series of all time. Please look them up and give them a go if you've never played them before. These simple puzzle games have fantastic characters, emotional soundtracks and beautiful stories that truly push the boundaries of what a puzzle game should be. Despite replaying these games many times over the years, I still end up in tears by the time the credits roll. These games mean so much to me and I'll continue to replay them again and again. Professor Layton and the Lost Future is probably the best game, followed by Pandora's Box. Nothing will ever beat these games as being the best I have ever played. * Persona 5 Royal. I struggled to really fall in love with any game other than Professor Layton until November 2022 rolled around. This hit Japanese game which I had heard only a little bit about was getting a release on PC and Nintendo Switch. Cool! I was working with FitGirl at the time to work out getting the Switch rom to work correctly in emulators and figuring out between the two of us the best way to compress the rom. It's important to test the games that get repacked so I must have played the first 10 mins of the game a good 5 or 6 times over, tweaking little bits each time. Something about the opening of Persona 5 just... hit me. The casino, Life Will Change playing over the desparate voiceover, the pure adrenaline of the moment that the player is dropped into. I found myself thinking... "I need to try this game". I was hooked. I spent my entire Christmas sinking hundreds of hours into this game and feeling every single emotional pull. The third semester was so unbelievably emotional and I found myself feeling empty and hollow after I finished the game. Its a feeling I am sure that those who have finished Persona 5 will know well, that broken feeling and not being able to fill the hole that was left. * Persona 5 Tactica. When this game got announced, I was gutted by the goofy artstyle. I actually warmed to this a lot and really enjoyed the game. The soundtrack and extended cast were excellent. Again, had me in tears many, many times. Other games I have enjoyed are Persona 3 Reload. This one was fun but my dumbass failed to understand the gravity of the ending. The Episode Aigis DLC didn't really work for me. A solid 8/10 nonetheless. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands is my most played game on PC with about 500 hours in game. I can play this repeatedly. Watch_Dogs 2 is another one I have played a lot of. I do also enjoy Hitman. Do check out RTGame's series of Hitman gameplay if you want a good laugh. **How do you stay up to date with the latest in gaming, and do you get to play a lot outside of repacking? So many people I’ve talked to [*in gaming*], and who are legitimate developers struggle with even wanting to play games, when essentially their 9-5 is about them. Do you feel that same struggle?** Honestly I have no clue about any upcoming games. I only keep tabs on the SteamDB upcoming list and I have my RSS feeds for warez releases. There have been many times where I have opened the site and gone "oh, that's released today, cool" and been taken by surprise. I play only a little amount of games as and when I wish. Having other hobbies does help. **Are there any genres or franchises you’re particularly passionate about?** I have already spoke about my favourite games, so I hope instead that I could talk about some of my favourite films and music instead? I like punk music, my favourite bands are UK Subs, Subhumans and the Dead Kennedys. I have a small collection of my favourite films too - including Smokey and the Bandit (I + II) and Cannonball Run (I + II). Snatch and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels are also in there. Watch Amelie too! **How do you feel about the rise of live-service games and their impact on game ownership?** Vote with your wallets. That's all I can say on the matter. **Do you buy many games? Being such a name in this scene, and essentially having free reign over endless games, do you support any devs? Any games?** I don't play any pirated games. All of the games that I play, I own. # Section 4: The Steam Deck and Handhelds: **How do you think the Steam Deck, Ally (X), Legion Go have impacted gaming, especially for pirates and modders? Have you personally seen any shift with these becoming so common-place?** I have no comments to make regarding handheld consoles. I don't know anyone in real life who owns one. **Have you done any specific optimizations in your repacks for, say, Steam Deck users? When I interviewed Dodi [*another 'big' name in piracy*], he mentioned some of his repacks are specifically for Steam Deck users, and the Deck coming out directly changed his process.** Nope, no such practices. **Do you think devices like the Deck could push more people towards piracy due to ease of access? So many users think (wrongly in my opinion) that pirating on the Deck and Linux is too much of a hurdle, I see it as the opposite. An open OS and a easy process. What do you think?** Piracy is already easy enough on a mainline system, so I don't see it any harder on a handheld. Open Source operating systems are great but I will only offer guaranteed Windows support for my installations. **Have you received any interesting feedback from handheld Windows users, or Steam Deck users about your repacks?** No, I know people online who own them but I haven't had any specific feeback about handhelds and my repacks. -------- # Section 5: Future of Repacking & Piracy: -------- **Where do you see the future of the repack scene heading in the next few years?** It's not looking great - the rapid integration of the oodle compression algorithm into the likes of Unreal Engine is making repacking harder. Oodle is a very efficient algorithm and you save only a small amount of data when a game is compressed by default with a high level of Oodle algorithm. The sheer volume of new releases is also posing a challenge as I simply don't have enough free time to repack loads of games anymore. Beyond that, things will keep ticking over as normal. I don't imagine a huge amount of changes. **How do you think A.I. and new technology will affect piracy and repacking?** The only space for Large Language Models in repacking is the use of ChatGPT for writing quick little scripts, for example, when you need a script that will check and modify the first 4 bytes of a file when you have several thousand files to modify. It saves a lot of time because you then don't need to learn the basics of a programming language. Beyond that, LLMs are useless and should be purged from the face of the earth. People joke about using ChatGPT to crack Denuvo. Like that's ever gonna happen. **What’s your vision for KaOs Repacks, and are there any plans for growth or new directions?** Just keep ticking over, it's a very relaxed group which I appreciate. I don't think there's much of a way to grow the group further beyond taking on more repackers which are in short supply and I wouldn't want the quality of the group to degrade. We do the games we can. **How do you handle the constant updates and patches that modern games receive?** I don't really do many updated repacks unless there is a major update or DLC released, in which case there is ususally a warez scene release to accompany this. **Do you think game streaming services will impact piracy, and how?** You cannot pirate streamed games. Like I said for live service games, vote with your wallet. I'd certainly just buy games that I can keep the files for and crack myself, should the way to download them be removed. If all games are streamed, it will probably be game over for piracy. **What do you think of new users who are trying to enter the repacking and piracy scene?** A big mistake I see newbie repackers make is purchasing domains/hosting/remote servers without having experienced repacking for a few months first. Get at least 4 months of steady releases under your belt and then decide if you want to continue or if it's not sustainable. Don't waste your money on domains/hosting etc... in this case. Build your reputation slowly, from the ground up, using existing platforms. Only when you grow a large enough audience should you even remotely consider purchasing ANYTHING. Secondly, never stop learning. Do lots of research, read old forum posts. Look beyond basic toolsets. You don't become a good repacker instantly. ------- # Bonus Questions: ------- **Have you noticed a rise in demand for Linux-compatible repacks?** Yes, I have noticed this and I can only offer my apologies for those who have issues installing mine on Linux. The tools I use are built for windows, so support for other operating systems are never guaranteed. It's excellent to see Linux becoming more common! **Do you see Linux becoming a more dominant platform for gaming in the future?** Yes, but I can see this being in the forum of specialised operating systems like SteamOS. **How do you approach compatibility when repacking for Linux users?** I don't think about Linux at all when making my repacks. YMMV. *Confirmation/proof from when this was sent back to me:*  ------- # The end! ------ …and that’s that. Again, I’d encourage you all to remember this is not endorsing the practice or repacker, it’s just a chance to have someone explain how and why they do what they do. As I keep on saying - a ‘peek’ behind the curtain. *I have also done a few of these interviews now, and posted them here to Lemmy, if you'd like to read them:* * [Nintendo Switch Piracy Program](https://lemmy.world/post/32339854) * [RetroDECK](https://lemmy.world/post/29089602) * [Heroic Games Launcher](https://lemmy.world/post/29307275) * [Lutris](https://lemmy.world/post/29459679) * [Gardiner Bryant](https://lemmy.world/post/29876029) * [The RomM Project](https://lemmy.world/post/30310701) ...and I have more to come in the future. # *Mastodon:* If you want more of this kind of thing, come join me on Mastodon!