@beardalaxy @coded_artist "nooo you can't make a game based on artistic value and story it has to be hard for REAL GAMERS ONLY"

@PurpCat @coded_artist that creates toxic af communities too

@PurpCat @beardalaxy @coded_artist the funniest part is that dark souls is actually a game based on artistic value and story, the difficulty is just part of these two

@beardalaxy @coded_artist I thought people were complaining about modern games being too easy. Have the tables turned?

@xianc78 @coded_artist the issue with modern games being too easy, from my knowledge, usually comes from things like "yellow paint" and the characters pointing out obvious as fuck things, or just straight up spoiling puzzles. that's bad too. the "let's make this shit super hard" thing happens more often in the indie games space, whereas the "yellow paint" issue is more often in AAAs.

@beardalaxy @coded_artist I remember hearing that the whole "making games as easy as possible" mentality came from the fact that a lot of people have games in their backlog that they never finished.

When it comes to indies, it's mostly just copying the practice of old games were you make the game longer by making it harder or it's a response to the practice of AAA devs making games piss easy.

There clearly is a market for ridiculously hard games, but I don't think they should be the norm, even for indies. Indies want to be the exact opposite of Triple-A games, but this ends up making the vast majority of indie games the exact same, which is why you see so many Metroidvanias and Roguelikes, as they aren't common in the Triple-A sphere. There is an untapped market for indie games that emulate the double-A titles of the pre-7th gen days, which should be easier with engines like Godot, but it seems like nobody got the memo.

@xianc78 @beardalaxy @coded_artist the latest fads are psx slop and mascot horror
Even the sonic 3 movie credits scene emulated the former which tells you a lot

@Pawlicker @beardalaxy @coded_artist I'm surprised that PS1 slop is more popular than N64 slop. I know that the PS1 outsold the N64, but the N64 is much more fondly remembered. But it seems like in terms of actual homebrew games, it seems like the N64 is the more popular choice, while I never hear about the PS1, so maybe N64 fans would rather make actual N64 games.

Also please don't call the PS1 the PSX. I never owned a single Sony console and even I know that the actual PSX was a Japan-only PS2-DVR hybrid.

@xianc78 @beardalaxy @coded_artist even magazines and stuff called it that before the ps2 and the DVR

Also the N64 doesn't have the drm issue because the cic is cloned so if you use a legal sdk you can make N64 games

@Pawlicker @coded_artist @xianc78 I've always wondered why they called it the PSX even back then

@beardalaxy @coded_artist @xianc78 they called it the PlayStation X as a codename to differentate itself from the SNES PlayStation and eventually it was used to refer to it before the PS2 and Sony calling the slim model the PSOne.

Hence an old nickname for the Slim PS2 being the PSTwo.
https://www.ign.com/articles/2004/10/15/checking-out-the-pstwo

@xianc78 @beardalaxy @coded_artist Also the thing with "PSX slop" is that it's not actually PSX/PS1 homebrew, and while there's SDKs that are open, the problem with the PS1 is that you need to get the "wobble" (as it's nicknamed in the community) right on the discs to make them boot.

https://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=1266&start=20

That needs to be worked around to make self-booting PS1 homebrew.

On the n64 on the other hand; there's the CIC chip being cloned, which is why there's commercial homebrew and bootlegs for it. Commercial homebrew games only exist as a result of cracked DRM; as opposed to the ability to dev for it.
https://av.tib.eu/media/32818
https://github.com/ManCloud/UltraCIC-III

As for the "PSX slop" games, they're unity/godot/similar games mimicking the PS1 look, usually of the Mega Man Legends games, and it's the trendy art style. Low-poly, early 3d console games are easy to mimic and it's become the craze lately because pixel games seem done to death for most people.

Interestingly enough during the GG era I read an article mocking the overdone pixel style and it had an interesting quote that ended up being a prophecy:
"What hap­pens in the next few years? Will we see PS1 or N64 style “retro” games with hor­ren­dous tex­tures, low draw dis­tances, and and slow fram­er­ates? All to hide the fact the a dev can’t han­dle mak­ing an en­gag­ing “mod­ern” look­ing game?"
https://archive.fo/9JQFy

@xianc78 @beardalaxy @coded_artist That's also why there's no commercial homebrew for any console newer than the Dreamcast as well.

The Dreamcast infamously has the MIL-CD loophole that allows it to play burnt and homebrew games. There's self-booting PS2 backups but they require exploits that are version specific and abuse DVD player exploits, along with a mechacon exploit that disables copy protection, yet this doesn't work on all PS2s universally. The GameCube has another weird "copy protection" (the BCA) that has to be implemented on real minidiscs (Datel did this). The Xbox/360 has signing along with the legal minefield of the entire XDK architecture (there's a meh as fuck free XDK clone), and that's not getting into how locked down the newer consoles are. The PSP signing key has been leaked, but who even has the ability to make UMDs?

@Pawlicker @beardalaxy @coded_artist
>the problem with the PS1 is that you need to get the "wobble" (as it's nicknamed in the community) right on the discs to make them boot.

I know that, but I also know that the PS1 can also be booted from it's parallel port. There was an unlicensed accessory known as the Super GB Booster which allowed users to play GameBoy games on the PS1 and it used that port. So it is possible to make homebrew cartridges (with maybe using the CD drive to load audio). Granted, the final revision of the original model removed that port, but still.

https://consolevariations.com/collectibles/innovation-super-gb-booster

@xianc78 @beardalaxy @coded_artist the idea is to make a disc bootable on the PS1, but also the PSOne, PS2, and even the PS3.

The discs that Datel and others engineered in the past (when they had hookups to a pressing plant to let them use modified equipment and could produce shit like Action Replay self booting discs and the FreeLoader) were like this, they could boot on any Sony console.

If you could press a PS1 disc, there are hundreds of millions of consoles it'll work on if you count all the PS1, PS2, and PS3 revisions made. You'd just need a different region disc for NTSC-U/C, PAL, and NTSC-J.

@xianc78 @Pawlicker @beardalaxy @coded_artist That parallel port is partially used for that PSIO I saw a while ago. That needs some soldering work done inside the PS1 motherboard, which might explain why there isn't much notable stuff developed from or with it. Maybe it's possible, but getting one is intentionally limited due to fakes being sold.

@berkberkman @beardalaxy @coded_artist @Pawlicker Like I said earlier, I don't own any Sony console let alone the PSIO or Super GB Booster.

I only know of the latter, along with the PS1's parallel port thanks to The Gaming Historian. He didn't mention any disc for the thing, other than the option to use an audio CD to play background music, so I assume the port is bootable. The port was also used for the rarely used link cable. I assumed that some games might have required only one disc, which suggested that the port might be bootable, but on further inspection, it doesn't seem to be the case.

@xianc78 @beardalaxy @coded_artist
You listed many reasons why I'm excited for The Big Catch. The demo was good enough it could have been sold for money.