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.

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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
• The solo dev behind Minigalaxy
• A PC game repacker (piracy!)
• The dev who runs a Switch piracy FreeShop
• Independent Linux & Gaming journalist, Gardiner Bryant
• The creator and dev of Lutris
• The team who make Heroic Games Launcher
• With RetroDECK

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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!

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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 and FlibbleHexEyes for making 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.

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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 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 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

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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.

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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.

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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
• Their GitHub
• Their Discord

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:

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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

Get it here

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

Hear from the Developer:

• Hear from the developer himself in this interview with Gardiner Bryant: Watch here

• Listen to Gardiner Bryant: Watch it here

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. 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!

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Minigalaxy:

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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 😄

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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!

• And of course, the Discord server link is here too, if you want to join in on the chats!

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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 (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.

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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!

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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

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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!

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What's Next:

But I have also got plenty more in the works to share. I’ve been in touch with:

• PortMaster (though this one might be taking a little longer than I first anticipated)

• The person behind the emulation compatibility report site called EmuReady

• The dev team who have made Ocean Keeper: Dome Survival on Steam - 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 :)

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Game Boy Advance/SP:

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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:

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PS2:

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Nintendo Game Cube:

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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:

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Art of Rally:

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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.

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!.

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

• Their website

• The link to the game on GOG

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’

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Drive Rally:

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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

• Link to the Steam store page here

• Their official website for the game

• Trailer for the 1.0 release from 2 months back on YouTube

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!

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Old School Rally & Rush Rally 3:

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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.

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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

• Official trailer on YouTube

• 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 with a ‘Very Positive’ rating from 1,186 reviews.

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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

• 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

• The Steam page for the game, with a -70% off price currently

• No official trailer is on YouTube, but a ton of great review videos are there, with everyone stunned by how great the game is

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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, 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

• Their official website, which has a lot of nice info on the game

• On sale on Steam right now, this is the link to the page. -25% off, but it does end soon!

• 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!

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Emulation:

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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 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.

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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

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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.

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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. 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 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.

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Section 2: The Repack Scene:

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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.

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Section 3: Gaming:

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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.

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Section 5: Future of Repacking & Piracy:

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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:

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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

• RetroDECK

• Heroic Games Launcher

• Lutris

• Gardiner Bryant

• The RomM Project

...and I have more to come in the future.

Mastodon:

If you want more of this kind of thing, come join me on Mastodon!

I'm sure you've seen by now that I've been arranging interviews with developers of various Linux and Steam Deck programs and projects, done in a question-and-answer style, and posting them here to Lemmy.

These have mostly been with personal friends of mine. Projects like Heroic, Lutris, RomM Project, Junk Store and so on. My idea for these is to give you all a peek behind the curtain (so to speak) as to who is behind the projects you know and love - but this time the interviewee and content is a little different.

I got in touch with the lead dev and creator of what is called a 'Nintendo Switch Freeshop'. This dev runs the biggest piracy freeshop around - over 1 petabyte at its peak - and they're doing it right under Nintendo's nose. I wanted to know what brought them down this road, how they justify their piracy, and what it’s like operating something so massive (and illegal) in the shadow of one of the world’s most aggressive copyright enforcers. What I got was a surprisingly candid look into the mindset of someone who sees themselves less as a thief, and more as a digital archivist, a rebel, or even a necessary evil in a broken system.

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 made with the moderators’ permission. I’ve omitted both the name of the shop and the interviewee to avoid inadvertently promoting or encouraging their work.

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Personal Background & Development History:

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How did you first get into software development or programming? I’m trying to imagine how someone ends up running the most prolific Nintendo Switch Freeshop (currently)...was this one a gradual progression from ‘regular projects’ to your program?

I was around 14 or 15 years old, stuck in my room during the COVID lockdown. One day, I created a simple JSON file that allowed me to install games on my 3DS using an app called Universal-Updater. The games were hosted on a free Dropbox account.

Originally, I uploaded the file to a random GitHub repository — mostly just to avoid losing it. At the time, I didn’t know much. I could only build small websites in JavaScript and tweak JSON files, but that was about it.

Then one morning, I woke up to find dozens of videos talking about my little 3DS script. Back then, it only had a few games and, to be honest, it was pretty bad. But I think people were feeling nostalgic about the old Freeshop, which probably explains why it got so much attention.

That’s when I had the idea to create the eShop, mainly to meet a need I personally had. I was also inspired by an old, now-defunct project made by a developer on GitHub — I think his name was "Tom Stalcker" or something like that, I can’t remember exactly. His work had left an impression on me, and I wanted to recreate something similar in my own way. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one looking for something like this. Seeing how much interest the project was generating, I started working on it more seriously — but still for fun, and out of passion.

I wouldn’t say it was a gradual or “traditional” progression. Once things started taking off and gaining some visibility, I focused entirely on making the kind of service I’d personally want to use as a user.

So no, I didn’t start with "regular projects", even if I’ve worked on other things since then that helped me level up my skills — both in development and in server management.

Speaking of your program, can you tell those reading here who haven’t a clue – what is it, what does it do, how does it run?!

This question is actually quite broad considering the number of related projects, but let’s say we’re talking about the most well-known one. To put it very simply, it’s like the Nintendo eShop — but without financial barriers. Everyone is equal, regardless of their wealth, and can download content (games, updates, additional content) without having to pay.

Its main purpose is the preservation of digital heritage.

Have you worked on any non-piracy-related projects in the past? Indie games, tools, programs or otherwise?

Yes, I’ve personally made some mini-games before. Usually, when it’s just for fun, I like to create mashups — for example, I’ll challenge myself to mix Mario Kart with Space Invaders, just out of curiosity and for my own enjoyment.

I also often build simple websites just for fun — to improve my skills, explore ideas, or sometimes simply because something made me laugh and I wanted to turn it into a little project.

What drew you specifically to console hacking/homebrew/piracy scene?

I didn’t have any money, and like many kids who own a console but can’t afford games, I just wanted to be able to play video games.

Would you consider yourself more of a developer, a hacker, or an activist or something else entirely?

I wouldn’t presume to label myself as any of those. I’d say I’m simply someone trying to do what I love, creating what I’d want to have as a user, while also trying to help as many people as possible.

Are you operating solo, or is this a collaborative effort?

Generally, I prefer not to answer this question, but no, I’m not working alone. It wouldn’t be possible to manage the community, handle the servers, add content, and do the programming all by myself. So yes, there are several of us, although for security reasons, I prefer not to specify how many we are or who manages what.

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Creation of the shop:

---

When and how did the idea for your freeshop begin?

During the COVID period in 2019-2020, refer to the first question in the previous section.

What 'technical challenges' did you face in building a freeshop for the Switch compared to older consoles like the 3DS?

On the 3DS, I wouldn’t say it was very complex, because for the app itself, we had forked Universal-Updater at the time — although that might soon change given some big projects aiming to simply patch the 3DS eShop are in development.

But I’d say the biggest challenges we faced on the Switch were, first and foremost, dealing with DMCA takedowns from companies like Nintendo and Markscan...

Another major challenge was bandwidth for a public, free shop. In terms of numbers, the public shop serves at least 200TB every 24 hours on a normal day.

How do you source the game files and keep the library updated?

I’ll answer this question in two parts. First, I’ll explain how we managed to gather over 12,000 games right from the launch.

Without bragging, I’m someone who analyzes a lot, so I’m quite skilled at creating workarounds and even more so at developing automated scraping systems.

Using my knowledge, I created a set of scripts that, initially, scraped the biggest trusted sites offering Switch games. This required two things: integrating an ad blocker (like uBlock) directly into all the scripts, and then scraping the affiliate links.

Once all the links were collected, I wrote a simple script to bypass link shorteners stuffed with ads, to get the full list of 1fichier.com links. When the 1fichier.com links list was ready, I just used a program like JDownloader to mass-download everything.

But that only worked for the first few months. Later, I was contacted by someone who had a full backup of the entire content from an old shop.

Regarding adding new content, there are several sources: One external source is the scene, with dumps coming from teams like Venom, Suxxors, to name a few.

Since (another shop I'm omitting the name of) closed, most new content comes from our own dumps, which we do thanks to donations and payments we receive for our professional services.

We dump around 200 to 300 games per month, and up to 500 updates some months. DLCs occasionally come in dumps too, but that’s rarer — although we’re getting more interested in those lately.

Do you design it to be resilient against takedowns or detection? Speaking of, can you tell me about that side of this, I can’t imagine Nintendo is unaware of your efforts, have you been contacted at all, DMCA’d, any legal notices?

Regarding the systems we have in place, yes, we’ve implemented more than a hun- dred techniques, methods, and systems to ensure the entire project isn’t affected by DMCA takedowns.

As for the DMCAs, we receive them — whether for content, links, or other reasons — sometimes over 500 in certain months, either directed at us or companies linked to our services. Most of these are generated by automated systems from companies affiliated with Nintendo, like Markscan, and some are directly issued by the legal team of NOA (Nintendo of America).

Why create something this polished and accessible, knowing it could attract heavy legal attention?

The goal isn’t focused on the legal side. Whether it’s me personally or other members of the team, we primarily want to create a trustworthy service — exactly the kind of service we’d want to have ourselves as users.

Just because we’re doing something that goes beyond the legal boundaries in some countries doesn’t mean it has to seem shady, obscure, or inaccessible.

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Ethics, Legality, and Preservation:

---

How do you personally justify what is undeniably piracy with the project?

Personally, I don’t limit myself by legal boundaries; my limits are ethical. As long as what I do is ethical and doesn’t harm almost anyone, I’m okay with it.

The most important thing is to consider who this project impacts — both positively and negatively — including our users, donors, Nintendo, game studios, and so on.

The reality is that out of 100 people affected, over 98% are helped and given the opportunity to dream.

So, since the project has a positive impact on more than 98% of the people directly or indirectly affected, I don’t mind it. I believe projects like this serve a necessary purpose.

Is this about game preservation, access, anti-corporate stance, for monetary gain — or just practicality? I’m super curious what stance you take for justifying this kind of platform. I interviewed one of the two ‘main’ PC gaming repackers last year, who said that where he lives (a ‘third world’ country) the price of games means any and all gaming was totally inaccessible to he and everyone he knows. He did this (in his words) as a way to give those who wouldn’t be able to game a chance to do so.

Our goal is both preservation and access, because by enabling access, we indirectly ensure preservation.

One of the first things to understand is that if services like this exist, it’s because there is demand — and where there is demand, there will always be supply.

Moreover, thanks to services like these, some games will still be available in 200 years simply because a service — whether ours or another — dumped and shared them.

If projects like (shop name omitted) eShop exist, it’s to give users and people confidence that when they come to our service, they will only find trusted, high-quality files. That’s also why, for example, you won’t find any ads on our platform. Monetary gain is not something we’re interested in. Of course, what cannot be denied is that an infrastructure like this isn’t free.

Generally, the people who pay or donate are not paying for the games themselves, but for the service we provide.

Do you think there's a meaningful difference between pirating current-gen games and legacy titles?

Of course there is a difference. I consider that “pirating” an old game isn’t really pi- racy as soon as the game is no longer commercially available, because piracy means stealing. But at what point can it be considered stealing when the content is no longer sold?

Regarding recent games, the main issue is the price, especially with Nintendo openly mocking its users by selling Mario Kart World for around $90. And we’re still talking about Mario Kart…

I agree with Nintendo that purchasing power has recently increased in Japan, but they forget one important detail: the majority of their users simply aren’t Japanese.

For example, the Brazilian currency is worth about four times less than the US dollar.

So, I would say that people who “pirate” retro games don’t have the same needs as those who pirate recent games.

Old games are mostly no longer legally accessible, whereas recent games are inaccessible mainly because of their price.

How would you respond to indie devs or studios who rely on every sale?

Unfortunately, some developers make great games but end up paying the price. However, blaming piracy isn’t the right target — if anyone should be blamed, it’s companies like Nintendo.

This question comes up quite often, and while the impact of piracy on indie developers is one of the few real indirect effects, it largely stems from decisions made by Nintendo and others.

What’s your take on Nintendo’s approach to digital rights and game availability?

I would simply say that Nintendo shows absolutely no respect for their community and is now solely focused on filling their pockets.

Back in the day, we had real games—not necessarily standing out for their visual quality, but for their ability to bring people together.

Today, Nintendo mostly just re-releases remakes originally from old consoles, selling them for $60. It’s getting worse with the Switch 2, where they now dare to sell texture packs or minor upgrades for $5 to $10.

Unfortunately, Nintendo’s priorities today are purely financial. And I’d rather not even talk about the closure of the 3DS eShop, which would have been a huge disaster if projects like hShop didn’t exist. I want to clarify that hShop is neither a competitor nor directly or indirectly affiliated with (shop name removed).

Our eShop for the Switch is simply what hShop is for the 3DS.

---

Gaming Life & Relationship with Nintendo:

---

What's your history with Nintendo consoles — were you a fan growing up?

I mainly played on the 3DS from when I was 6 until I was 15, so I don’t have as much experience with other consoles.

For many years, my 3DS was my only way to escape my reality, from a childhood that was simply very difficult...

The 3DS was simply Nintendo’s best era, and I don’t think we’ll see anything like that again given the current direction of their latest consoles...

Do you still play games regularly? If so, what’s your current favorite title or platform?

Unfortunately, over time, I play less and less. I truly enjoy only older games now, and I have less and less time to play. It’s one of my regrets not to make more time for it, but life seems to go faster and faster with each passing year.

Have your views of Nintendo changed over time — either as a fan or as a developer?

Yes, a lot, as I explained earlier.

Were there any particular events or decisions by Nintendo that directly motivated you?

See previous answers =)

Do you see a piracy front-end mimicking the Nintendo eShop as an act of protest against Nintendo’s practices? Or are you purely mercenary here – this is for money?

It’s important to know that (shop name edited out by me) eShop was fully funded by myself from 2019 to 2024, so no, this is not about money.

We simply want to provide a high-quality, trustworthy service that is as user-friendly as possible.

---

The Broader Scene:

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What do you think the future holds for freeshops like yours

I can’t give a very detailed answer to this question, but it’s important to know that the more piracy is condemned, the more accessible it becomes. The community, pirates, and hackers will always evolve and become increasingly motivated...

Have you got any data for us? I’m beyond curious to know, have you got any idea of the metrics: total users, total downloads, how much data you host? I read that “at its peak the service was handling over 1 petabyte of data per day” – that’s a crazily large operation. And I really don’t expect to get an answer for this one, but how much have you made, an estimate would be nice, from your freeshop?

In terms of bandwidth, yes, it has reached several petabytes per day during some peak periods. However, on quieter days now, we handle between 200 and 300 terabytes within 24 hours. As for users, we recently surpassed the milestone of 3 million across all services combined.

Regarding financials, personally, this does not generate income for me. I prefer to prioritize improving our services and expanding our projects.

You should know that personally, money is not an issue for me. I’m a pretty simple person— as long as I have a roof over my head, food to eat, and internet access, that’s enough.

Between the ages of 18 and 20, I founded four bulletproof hosting companies, which I later sold. Today, I still own two companies—one in hosting and another providing large-scale network systems for major enterprises.

When I need extra money for vacations, I sometimes take on freelance work, like building websites and other projects. So, financial gain isn’t something I’m interested in.

Do you believe the piracy/homebrew community is growing or fracturing?

No, the community is growing and will continue to grow. It’s important to remember that the more piracy is punished, the more services will become available.

Also, as games become increasingly unaffordable, the demand will only keep rising.

Are you concerned about potential legal action or consequences? We all know about Gary Bowser, who was sentenced in 2021 to 40 months prison and $14.5m USD in fines. This has to play on your mind, right?

I am not worried about that at all. I’m not completely reckless—if it’s going to happen, it will happen. Life is short, so I prefer to do what I want now.

Besides, I’m not acting blindly; I’ve already taken precautions and prepared for any eventuality. When you do something like this, you always need to keep some advantages.

You also have to understand that Nintendo doesn’t have the same power everywhere. I could mention countries like Iran or Panama, just to name a few. Panama, for example, is one of the few countries that has no agreements with the NSA or similar agencies.

Do you plan to expand features — or create tools for other platforms? By your own words elsewhere on the internet, I read it’s been quite a tumultuous year for your program...what exactly happened?

We plan to eventually expand our projects across all platforms, including consoles up to the PS4 and PS5. We also aim to explore torrenting, IPTV services, and streaming platforms.

Our core goal remains the same: providing access and maintaining high-quality service.

This year has been quite eventful, with personal challenges as well as a tenfold growth in user numbers. As a result, we had to completely overhaul parts of our network, add new servers, improve some systems, and even rewrite others from scratch.

If Nintendo offered a better digital access or preservation model, would that change your approach? Further, what would make you close shop and change your stance? Would that even be an option?

I don’t think that will ever happen, but the only way to shut down services like ours would be to reduce the demand—because without demand, there’s no need for supply.

Personally, I don’t see myself involved in the project much longer. I created it in 2019, and now it’s 2025. Whether we like it or not, a project like this is extremely mentally exhausting, even if it’s enjoyable to manage. It’s complex and has grown very large.

But no worries—I’ve already started planning my succession, and trusted people will be ready to take over and contribute to the project. Personally, I plan to step away before 2027.

It would become too costly to maintain and pointless without users. But we all know Nintendo will never admit what they are doing or change their stance.

What do you think about the Nintendo Switch 2?

There’s so much to say—between game prices like Mario Kart World at $90, a $500 console that only comes with a black and white theme, $10 texture packs, and even paid software just to learn how to use the console...

I just hope other manufacturers like Sony, Microsoft, and the others don’t follow this same path.

But honestly, it doesn’t really matter, because by doing this they’re alienating a lot of people. There are now many who are solely focused on breaking the console’s security, and the more Nintendo continues down this road, the more they’re pushing their own community away.

Anything in general you’d like to say? The floor is yours!

The one thing I want to say to everyone is: don’t overcomplicate things. Today’s society has become way too complex. Live and enjoy the present moment because you never know what tomorrow will bring. Do what you want, when you want — we only have one life. And remember: in whatever you do, only those who achieve less than you will try to put you down.

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The end!

---

...and that's that. Again, I'd encourage you all to remember this is not endorsing the program, it's just a chance to have someone explain how they justify doing what they do. As I keep on saying - a 'peek' behind the curtain.

This was quite brief, but their time was limited and I'm grateful that they even accepted my request and let me do this. I've edited some of their answers, as you'll see - 99% of these edits have been to remove the eShop's name.

I have also done a few of these interviews now, and posted them here to Lemmy, if you'd like to read them:

• RetroDECK

• Heroic Games Launcher

• Lutris

• Gardiner Bryant

• The RomM Project

...and I have more to come in the future.

Mastodon:

If you want more of this kind of thing, come join me on Mastodon!

As ever and always, I’m back with a week’s worth of gaming news I’ve spotted and thought I should share with you all!

Being in the middle of the various gaming sales ‘season’, you’re probably too busy either buying games and never playing them (yep, that old joke again) or enjoying your cheaply bought games on your PC or handheld!

Hopefully this week’s news is a nice little distraction from spending your money.

So what are these posts?

My aim for these News Posts in general is to make them a more clearly not a professional, but someone who cares about gaming manner than most gaming sites do now. I see so many sites, even the independent ones, bombarding with ads, banners and reminders to support them. I get it, I really do, but it’s an unpleasant experience to me.

My ever-lasting inspo is the old, old video game sites, blogs and magazines that I never had the privilege of being alive for:

• Image/gif/link heavy (though once again this week I have few GIFs, so this dot-point’s a bit needless)

• Personal voice (I can’t help rambling, send help – this won’t be even slightly professionally written)

• Mostly news or articles or points which you won’t find on normal gaming sites. These are the smaller, lesser things that I’m drawn to. I know you’ll have spotted the big news articles, so I’m hoping some of these smaller ones might have been missed by you.

A mixed bag of what I’ve considered news this week, so there really is a bit of everything ahead.

So grab a coffee? Or a tea? Or a fresh juice? And enjoy <3

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General Gaming News:

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Humble Choice Price Hike:

I get asked so very often why I’m not a member of these game bundle programs: Humble and Fanatical. I’ve not done it once, and...honestly I can’t tell you why. Maybe the biggest factor is that I’m a GOG supporter first-and-foremost. Maybe because I know I’ll end up with games I never have the intention of playing? I do mean to, eventually, but maybe I’ve waited too long.

Humble Choice started back in 2019 giving you games to keep each month, typically they’re Steam keys, though that’s not always true.

There’s been criticisms lately however, ones I see most often are

• A decline in quality game offerings (though to me that is subjective)
• Things few want like EA Origin keys
• IGN Coupons (WTF even is that?)
• Some customer support issues in the past

Anyway, adding to that is a price hike for some. There’s been a price increase in some parts of the world starting in May 2025, but it seems to now be crawling across the board:

Pricing:

Currency / Current / New

• USD / $129 / $154.99
• CAD / $159 / $194.99
• EUR / €109 / €134.99
• GBP / £98 / £‎119.99

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The Alters & Fashion:

ZA/UM claim to be the developer of Disco Elysium. That claim isn’t sitting well with the developers themselves who made the damn game.

Members of the original Disco Elysium team:

• lead designer Robert Kurvitz
• writer Helen Hindpere, and
• art director Aleksander Rostov

...were forced out of ZA/UM in late 2021, and never received proper compensation for a game they made. In fact, after they got kicked out, Rostov publicly encouraged players to pirate Disco Elysium, stating they made no money from current sales and viewed the official version as no longer representing their work.

Anyway...I’m just saying while ZA/UM claim to be the dev...that claim comes with a lot of baggage these days.

ZA/UM have a branch, which is...weirdly a fashion house. ZA/UM Atelier have a new collaboration with 11 Bit Studios (whose game The Alters has just released) which is releasing clothing inspired by The Alters.

“This collaboration with ZA/UM Atelier felt like a natural extension of that philosophy — an embodiment of identity through design. We can’t wait to see how our community responds to this fusion.” - Tomasz Kisilewicz, The Alters game director at 11 bit studios

Weird, right?

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GOG on Prime and CAPTCHA:

If you’ve been redeeming GOG games from Amazon Prime’s Prime Gaming each week, you’ll have by now seen the CAPTCHA challenges which pop up. You can be trying your best to select which squares feature a bit of a motorcycle for a long time.

I’ve seen a lot of complaints thinking things are broken, and asking why it even exists.

WHY:

It’s just crowd control. The number of people who claim a game to keep forever can be really high – esp for games which are popular (like just over a week ago we had Tomb Raider I-III Remastered given away), when this happens GOG’s servers can be hammered pretty hard, so this is just a method of slowing the people down.

It can be annoying, and take my advice, if it is too annoying, just wait a day or two to claim. The number of people drops low, then you’re not going to be limited.

IS IT BROKEN:

No, for the reasons explained above.

SHOULD YOU EVEN BOTHER WRITING THIS HERE?

Not really, but I have seen an awful lot of people who are worried that something in the service has gone wrong. And if there is even one person who reads this and now knows all is okay...then that’s fine by me!

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Gabe and Half-Life:

You’ve probably seen this by now, but even if you have...it’s too good to not share again. 3Dguy2 has made this stylized 3D model of Gabe in the obvious attire.

There was the usual tiring claims that this is A.I. generated and low-effort, and the artist shared their artstation page which you can find here with this link, if you wanna see more of their art! to quell those claims. They’re also emailing it to Gabe (who has a history of replying to regular users’ emails quite often!), so I hope they get a nice reply :)

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Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Enhanced:

If you’re tired of recent games being re-released (looking at you TloU and GTA V) for another cash-grab, then prepare to be disappointed. Hellblade II (2024) is getting the same treatment:

• Comes to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Game Pass, Steam, and, for the first time, PlayStation 5 on August 12.
• This updated version includes graphical and gameplay additions, as well as an enhanced Photo Mode and developer commentary.
• August 12 will also see the game become Steam Deck Verified.

Performance Mode:

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is a cinematic experience of immersion where we push real-time visuals to deliver rich, believable environments and characters to sink you deep into Senua’s story. Now, with Performance Mode, we’re excited to give you the option to experience gameplay at 60 FPS (not available on Xbox Series S). The result is smoother gameplay, especially noticeable during combat and fast-moving moments of the game. On PC, where you’ve had more flexibility with performance based on your personal hardware, we’re now offering a ‘Very High’ preset to push that fidelity even further. The team has also been hard at work optimizing the game for Steam Deck, so when this update lands, the game will be Steam Deck Verified for the first time. Wherever you choose to play, we’ve made sure the experience is optimized for your chosen hardware.

The Dark Rot Returns:

The Dark Rot from Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice has returned and offers an additional challenge for Senua on her quest to Iceland in this optional game mode. The Dark Rot will grow each time you fail, and if it reaches Senua’s head, her quest is over and all progress will be lost. Do you think you’re up to the challenge?

Enhanced Photo Mode: We have an incredible community of Virtual Photographers who have captured stunning moments from the world of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. We’re really excited, then, to enhance the toolset within Photo Mode with improvements across a multitude of settings, as well as an all-new ‘Motion’ tab for custom cinematic video capture. We can’t wait to see what you create with these new tools at your disposal.

Developer Commentary Let us take you behind the scenes of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II with over 4 hours of insightful commentary, exploring the craft and creative decisions that went into making the game. Hear from the ensemble cast, key collaborators in depicting Senua’s experience of psychosis, and members of the development team who poured their heart and soul into Senua’s story.

Here is a link to the YouTube video announcement for this, it will be arriving August 12th this year

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Runescape 3 & Microtransaction:

There’s a few headlines and videos being shared about which state that Runescape 3 is removing microtransactions. And this is not the whole truth.

Jagex are running a series of one to two week long experiments to gather data to re-evaluate their monetization practices.

We will turn off Treasure Hunter, instead offering bundles of Stars and Knowledge Bombs for direct purchase (capped at 1 bundle per day)

We will offer a large selection of past cosmetic overrides - including some previously only available via TH - for direct purchase all at once

They are temporarily disabling gambling through Treasure Hunter, while offering a capped direct daily purchase of experience and direct purchases of cosmetics. It seems they are trying out the daily FOMO method to condition players into purchasing the daily bundle so they don't miss out.

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FBC: Firebreak Reaches 1m players:

Maybe not the best numbers for a developer as beloved as Remedy is. Will it have the staying power for the long-run? I’d say...maybe not. They’re already making changes however, so I guess we’ve got to keep an eye on it. For now, here’s their own statement pic:

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Steam Deck Work/Play Case:

If you’ve followed along with me on Mastodon long enough then you’ll well and truly know I love sharing 3D printed gaming things. This one looks wonderful, too. Makes me think of a very William Gibson-ish Cyberdeck look. A Steam Deck user shared their print and thoughts on it:

I'm joining the ranks of users that will do anything but hold the deck. It's a nice print, but I had to use the split file version because it's too big for my printer to do in one piece.

Ergonomics are ok, there is some room for improvement. It's kinda nice to treat your steamdeck as a laptop.

The cults3d link has a list of compatible keyboards. I used a logitech K380. The K380s also works since it's the same dimensions. You can use the logitech pebble mouse. I got this mouse from aliexpress

Here’s a couple pics from the maker themselves, just for some color:

The creator of the file also has a video showcasing their design, and it’s well and truly worth a look – YouTube link here!

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Sales Season:

Everyone will be aware of the Steam Summer Sale on right now, but I’d love to remind people that its not the only front who is cutting prices for the season:

• Steam Summer Sale runs from 26th June to 10th July

• GOG’s Summer Sale runs from 18th of June to 9th of July

• Epic Games Summer Sale begins on 17th July

...have you picked up any games? What have you bought, recommend some deals for everyone here, because it might shock you but we do all love deals here!

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Warhammer: 40,000 Master Crafted – Refunds, Discounts & Patches:

Seems like no one was happy about the ‘Master Crafted Edition’ coming out recently: buggy, overpriced, no discount for anyone who owns the original, barely any reviews (and those that are there on the Steam page are negative) – they’ve clearly realized they’re in strife and had to correct it.

As it stands they have only ninety four user reviews on Steam, and those equate to being ‘Mostly Negative’.

The official statement is here, on Steam, if you’d like to read it in its entirety.

But to summarize,

• Refunds Extended: Full refunds available regardless of playtime if requested via Steam Support before July 10, 2025 (6pm BST / 10pm PST). This feels underhanded to me, sticking to a limited window for people being able to get their money back if they didn’t see this statement? Not right!

• Owners of the Anniversary Edition get 50% off the Master Crafted Edition from June 26 to July 10 (but If you already bought at full price and are eligible, you’ll need to request a refund, then rebuy at the discounted rate which is...suspect to say the least)

• Patch Improvements are also in the works, covering UI/UX, gameplay fixes, platform and controller support, networking, tech fixes and so on (read the above link to check their full notes on what they’re working on)

...I suppose to be fair, at least they’re trying to fix their mistakes, if only because it fell flat for them. More than some companies end up doing!

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Fallout 4 Themed RetroPie:

This is...amazing. Made by ‘CheezyJesus’, this build is about as nice as you can find for a RetroPie arcade machine.

Custom designed and 3D printed, it’s so good, it should be official. I’ll let them do the talking by just copying their words, and sharing the images but...no one can deny this effort. Fallout 4, by the way, is my fav of the series. Perhaps because I didn’t grow up on the games, and by the mere fact it is the most recently made – I just love it!

Anyway, in the users own words from hereon out:

This is the most ambitious project I had the absolute pleasure of doing so far.

A 3D printed Fallout 4 themed, RetroPie arcade machine, based on one of the computer terminals in the game. I wanted it to feel as vintage as possible. so I used a CRT from one of those early 2000's B/W portable TVs as a screen. And it looks great!

The hardest part was definitely sanding and painting. This was my first time sanding and painting a 3D print. It was challenging, especially with the size of the build.

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Brazil warns Nintendo:

Okay, a tiny bit of sensationalism in my little headline there, but its still 100% true.

Nintendo is facing at least some legal scrutiny in Brazil over the much criticized Switch 2 policy where they can ‘permanently disable consoles for unauthorized use’ without clear justification. This, along with a mandatory arbitration clause that prevents users from suing Nintendo in Brazilian courts, even in class actions directly violates Brazil’s Consumer Code, according to consumer agency Procon-SP.

Nintendo has 20 days to respond.

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Switch 2 Manual:

I’ve shown this users booklets/manuals off before. They make such high quality inserts for game cases (since as you know, modern gaming has well and truly done away with anything inside the game case), and they look better than you’d expect from the companies themselves.

I can’t help but share a lot of photos of this, since it’s so beautiful. Apologies in advance!

This time around RowanFN1 has made them for Mario Kart World. I’d say for $80 USD something like this wouldn’t be too much to ask, but alas...modern gaming is all about the money and stripping back the features. Anyway, as always, in their own words:

The Manual is a bit more traditional on all the info bits and controls etc. and has checklists for Grand Prix, knockout Tour, character outfits while viewing their stats. Meanwhile the Booklet is all about free roam and called the Explorapedia, listing all the P-Switch Missions, Peach Medallions, ? Switches and more for you to check off and complete in free roam.

I tried to combine them but that would've been about 90 odd pages, which is insane. So a 40 page Manual and a 52 page Booklet was the choice as I did really wanna cover all the areas.

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Playnite Theme for Handhelds:

If you’ve not heard of Playnite, its a free, open-source game launcher and library manager that unifies all your PC games—across platforms like Steam, GOG, Epic, and emulators—into a single customizable interface. Currently it’s only available for Windows, but the devs have promised an eventual Linux release also.

You can check out the Playnite link here if you’d like to read more on what it is, via their site.

A user by the name of AsciiMorseCode shared a theme they’ve made for handhelds which do run Windows, tailored to make it feel like a more handheld-friendly environment.

Toggle is my take on making Playnite feel natural on smaller screens while keeping performance smooth. I wanted something inspired by the Switch 2.

The whole design is built around thumb-friendly navigation. All the important buttons and controls are positioned where you can actually reach them comfortably when holding a handheld.

Performance was a huge priority - Toggle is intentionally lightweight so it runs smoothly even on lower-powered devices. Clean and fast was the goal.

If you’re running Playnite with a ROG Ally, or a Legion Go, or even a Steam Deck running Windows, the link to the GitHub release is here!

...one thing to note, though:

Works best with ExtraMetadataLoader for game logos and Now Playing for the session management features. I've included some recommended Playnite settings in the screenshots on GitHub, but note that wider screens will need to have more columns shown.

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AudioPin - (stop Windows devices changing)

Someone created a tool called AudioPin for Windows – which lets you create prioritized lists of audio devices for input and output, with the option to separately pin devices for communications.

Ever been annoyed by Windows audio defaults changing when you plug or unplug devices?

This utility allows a user to "pin" a selection of audio devices in windows with a prioritised list. On any change to audio devices AudioPin should very quickly re-assert your pinned devices setting the highest prioritised available device as default.

Not applicable to me, but I’m sure there’s at least some users here who might have missed this, and have the need for it. I’m sure I’ve done a terrible job of summarizing what it is and what it does, so the link to the GitHub page is right here for you to check it out!

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Death Stranding 2:

Norman Reedus (Sam Porter himself) posted this on his socials, just a nice reminder that Kojima can still deliver an amazing experience:

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Crystal Dynamics Cosplay:

The Community Director at Crystal Dynamics, Meagan Marie shared her cosplay dressing up as Lara Croft from Rise of the Tomb Raider from the peak of Mount Rainier/Tahoma.

The reason it looks so accurate? She’s had decades of cosplay:

Over the years cosplay has afforded me incredible opportunities, including being featured on CNN, in Time Magazine, Marie Claire UK, and even modeling for original Wonder Woman art for Justice League: A League of One by the phenomenal Chris Moeller.

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Quick Dot-Points of Interest:

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• Stalker 2 has released official modding tools. Some are angry that it requires 700GB of space, but that’s just the typical rage-bait headline. The reason for the size is that the devs are giving modders the uncompressed resources – which is rare and quite amazing of them

• Ready or Not will have new, more strict censoring on the game due to console ratings required for release. *"If a content change was just a texture swap, we were able to apply it to console only while keeping the PC version the same as before. However, if the change involved transforming an entire asset this was less feasible." *](https://steamcommunity.com/games/1144200/announcements/detail/526472884483260568)

• A man in California has stolen over $10K USD worth of Nintendo Switch games from libraries and is now finding himself being held accountable. Stealing from libraries? Hope he gets all the books thrown at him

• Callina Liang has been officially cast as Chun-Li in Legendary’s upcoming live-action Street Fighter movie. It is now in pre-production. No matter how great it might be though, it won’t have my girl Kylie Minogue’s Cammy in it, so it can never reach that level of amazing to me!

• Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson has also been cast for the live-action Street Fighter. He will be playing Balrog

• Xbox 360 has seen an update, fixing the game title cards looking ‘stretched’ (they now fit nicely) and adding an advert for the Series X. Interesting that MS remembered the 360 existed, here’s a picture of the new look if you’re curious.

• Donkey Kong Land is now officially 30 years old!

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Sable / Free:

If you haven’t already claimed it, Sable was a free title from Epic Games this last week until July 3rd. It’s a lot of things, but the best part of Sable to me is the art design. Beautiful colors and minimal animations. That and the music being provided by the band Japanese Breakfast!

While it does run into some performance issues in certain sections, I tested it on my Steam Deck and plays great! I’ve mostly been playing it on my desktop PC though, this time on Heroic with EOC enabled to collect achievements (something I never used to enjoy, but lately have been embracing a lot!)

It’s such a beautiful world, and well worth playing through.

The game has no combat, just pure exploration, some (very mild, and I’m risking it by calling it so) platforming sections, zero combat.

If you’ve claimed it, or perhaps you’ve bought it elsewhere and haven’t got to it yet...please give it a try. It’s such a nice little game.

Another little ‘box’ Sable ticks for me is the collecting. I know some people hate searching for little things scattered about gaming landscapes, but Sable does it so nicely. Ugh it’s so pretty.

The launch trailer is here, if you’d like to see some of the gameplay

And finally, I found something created by a fan – the LEGO hoverbike is a fan creation, and I thought it was kind nice, so here it is:

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NEC PC Engine LT:

Only because I thought this was super interesting, and haven’t ever seen it before! A user by the name of Retroaffaire shared their photos and words on this one:

Released in Japan in Dec 1991 for a hefty ¥99,800, has a great (for the time) built-in flip-up 4″ TFT screen. It’s essentially a fully-featured PC Engine with internal speakers, an AC-only power system, and a traditional controller port, and even a TV tuner. You could hook up the CD-ROM² unit too. Extremely limited production run, estimated between 1,000–5,000 units.

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The Future of my posts:

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If you’re just here for the news, that’s it for this week!

However for anyone who might be more invested in these week-by-week, I’m just going to be upfront about what’s next. You probably know I’ve had a few health hiccups these last few weeks. I’ve been type 1 diabetic since I was very small, and also have a rather more rare affliction called Addison’s Disease (J.F.K. had this, and it’s why he frequently carried a flask of chicken soup with him!)

Such a long time with the former has left me with newly diagnosed ‘proximal neuropathy’ – which means a small part of my hip feels either numb-to-touch, or like it’s being split with a hot knife. I don’t know, things are just piling on and I’m feeling quite sick each day. Stress makes my Addison’s worse, which in turn makes me physically worse off.

So! While it takes me a few minutes to write up a small post on my Mastodon acc, here it takes a little longer and even little things are taxing for me lately.

I’m just going to warn you all that I’m maybe pausing these for now. Maybe a week will go by and I’ll feel 100% and this will all seem pointless to have written, but then again, perhaps not. My next appointment is on the 17th with my specialist, so I’m realistically thinking I might be taking a break at least until then.

I do want to say though that I LOVE writing these. I love that Lemmy is a small, condensed and personalized gaming community and I recognize now after a few months so so many of the regular usernames who chime in and comment here. I’m so grateful you’ve all shared that you enjoy these with me. And so lucky that I’ve been encouraged to keep on writing them.

Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me that things improve, okay?

~ P.D.

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Previous Posts:

If you’d like to read my previous Gaming News posts (they’re mounting up in number now!), then you can find them here:

• Steam Deck / Gaming News #2
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #3
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #4
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #5
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #6
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #7
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #8
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #9
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #10
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #11
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #12
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #13
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #14
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #15
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #16
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #17
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #18
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #19
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #20
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #21

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Mastodon:

I do tend to post there each and every day, 99.99% gaming nonsense. If you want more of this, then come drop by!

As ever and always, I’m back with a week’s worth of gaming news I’ve spotted and thought I should share with you all!

This week is slightly less than is typical (1,000-ish words less than my last week’s I can tell you!) for a few reasons:

• I’ve cashed in some of my crypto and bought a cabin. Which makes me sound like an actress in a Stephen King movie
• I’ve had some odd health hiccups lately – nerve damage in my hip which means I feel nothing when touching a small patch of skin, but it also feels like it is on fire

So I’ve been a little distracted, but I do pinkie-swear next week’s will be back to my normal output!

So what are these posts?

My aim for these News Posts in general is to make them a more clearly not a professional, but someone who cares about gaming manner than most gaming sites do now. I see so many sites, even the independent ones, bombarding with ads, banners and reminders to support them. I get it, I really do, but it’s an unpleasant experience to me.

My ever-lasting inspo is the old, old video game sites, blogs and magazines that I never had the privilege of being alive for:

• Image/gif/link heavy (though once again this week I have few of these, so this dot-point’s a bit needless)

• Personal voice (I can’t help rambling, send help – this won’t be even slightly professionally written)

• Mostly news or articles or points which you won’t find on normal gaming sites. These are the smaller, lesser things that I’m drawn to. I know you’ll have spotted the big news articles, so I’m hoping some of these smaller ones might have been missed by you.

A mixed bag of what I’ve considered news this week, so there really is a bit of everything ahead.

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General Gaming News:

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A New PS2 Emulator – Iris:

After 7-8 months of working on it, Lycoder (also goes by Allkern) has released their PS2 emulator called Iris. While games are running with very low/low/unplayable frames at the moment, they want to reassure people that this is constantly in development and improvements are being made regularly.

Windows, Linux and MacOS are supported.

The GitHub page is here, if you’d like to read a little more!

...and here is the link to the 0.10-alpha build of Iris

Funnily enough, it was only very recently that I fixed a DMAC bug that was keeping a lot of games from booting, and now this opens up a ton of potential to further debug and fix other issues, which may lead to even more games to boot. There's still a lot of work to be done, especially in the optimization department. I'm really looking forward to continue working on this project and advancing PlayStation 2 emulation!

It’s lovely to have another player in the scene, particularly with PS2 emulation.

And, naturally, here’s some pictures:

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System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster Delay:

...sorry, don’t want to make you panic if you’re a PC gamer – no delays on that front, but if you’re a console gamer then it has been delayed for now:

Knowing the publishers, I’d say you’re in good hands without having to wait too long to play it, and I’m so excited to play through myself.

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How to Fix Xbox’s Stupid Update:

I can’t even be bothered taking picture to illustrate this one, but if you’re on Xbox you’ll have seen it. Select a game and then you’re presented with a new screen giving you another step before you can select it again to play the game. And half that screen is taken up with their hopeful promotions of DLC and micro-transactions.

Shitty.

Anyway:

Settings / General / Personalization / Games & Apps / Choose whether game huds open automatically from the following places -

• Recently played list
• Groups
• Installed games

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Grounded 2 Hype:

With the announcement of Obsidian’s Grounded 2, the numbers of the first game (Honey, I Shrunk The Kids meets Arrietty have exploded, bring a 193.8 boost to current players. The game shot up the Xbox charts from #88 to #23 (overtaking Halo: MCC and Elden Ring)

The game was announced two weeks ago, and the trailer is here for those curious

The first game on Steam holds a ‘Very Positive’ rating with 66,596 all-time ratings.

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Lies of P:

I’m sure you’ve read this in at least four other places by now, but it still warms my heart. I couldn’t really make it through Lies of P – the souls-like and even souls-adjacent genre is not my cup of stressful tea. What I did love though was the atmosphere and setting, reminding me for no particular reason of Drood, the novel by Dan Simmons about the last five years of Charles Dickens and how spooky it could get.

Anyway, the devs behind Lies of P and Overture (the DLC) got a bonus for their efforts, with the two selling over 3m copies combined. They got a bonus, two weeks vacation and a free Nintendo Switch 2. IDK, a nice rarity in today’s gaming world!

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Still Wakes The Deep:

The Chinese Room - Developers behind the BAFTA-winning-game Still Wakes The Deep have laid off some of their team, just after the release of their DLC – Siren’s Rest.

At a glance, around 10 staff with the studio listed as their current employer have the 'looking for work' label on their LinkedIn profiles – though this is not a reliable metric by itself.

A full article telling you not much more than I just wrote is here on GamesIndustryBiz if you’re wanting to find more details on things.

However, The Chinese Room will share news on changes for the studio in the coming weeks so more will come out, I suppose. Sad news for those who worked on the rather amazing game.

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Subnautica 2 Dev Vlog:

The latest dev vlog for the game has come out, titles ‘Building Unknown Worlds’

Join senior narrative designer Seth Dickinson, level designer Artyom O’Rielly, environment artist James Stout, and senior environment artist (and rock connoisseur) Ben Hale as they walk you through the incredible work that goes into building out the world of Subnautica 2.

The link to the YouTube video is here, go watch it, its a great glimpse behind what is going on behind the scenes!

My fav comment on the video is this one:

I have never been so excited over rocks

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LEGO Island in Browser:

As the title says, the game is now available to play in your browser. I’m way too young for this game to have any impact in my life, but I think the older members here might remember it. Released in 1997, it’s certainly got a rabid following.

The link to the site is... now unavailable, the mod checked in in the comments and wanted it changed, so you'll have to do a search yourself for it, sorry!

And one more thing, I found the fact the devs created a physical island in actual LEGO when making the game, and this is ancient and adorable:

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Auto-Shutdown after game download:

A gamer by the username of Avaneesh13 has created a Python-based application when they saw room for it – shutting their PC down for them after a big game download completed (rather than having their PC on all night)

This application is called SteamDown, and the link to the GitHub page is here for you to read through if you’d like.

SteamDown:

• Monitors your Steam download activity in real-time
• When downloads go inactive for a set period (you choose how long), it automatically performs an action of your choice
• Actions include: shutdown PC, sleep mode, stop Steam, or other custom actions
• Completely free and open-source

I kept starting massive game downloads (looking at you, Call of Duty) before going to bed, only to wake up and find my PC had been running idle for 6 hours after the download finished at 3 AM. Felt wasteful and probably wasn't great for my electricity bill either. Now I just set it to wait 5-10 minutes after downloads stop, then shut down my system automatically. Much better for power savings and peace of mind.

How it is different from other solutions:

*Generic system monitors that don't understand Steam's download behaviour specifically

• Command-line tools that require technical setup and aren't user-friendly
• Part of a larger system suite with bloatware I didn't want
• Paid solutions for what should be a simple utility

Technical details:

• Written in Python and built it as a standalone .exe (no installation needed)
• Works on Windows primarily, though I might explore macOS/Linux support
• Planning to add support for other launchers like Epic, GOG, etc. in future updates.
• Codebase clean and modular in case anyone wants to contribute or fork it

The functionality should be working as expected - it reliably monitors Steam and performs the shutdown actions. The UI could use a bit of work though (I'm more of a backend person), so if anyone has suggestions or wants to contribute on the interface side, I'd welcome the help!

Again, the GitHub link is at the start of this section, so take a look if you’re curious!

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Epic reaches 500:

When Epic officially started their free games each week, all the way back in 2018, no one anticipated it would go for as long or be filled with the quality titles it has today. Starting with Subnautica (though unofficially giving away Shadow Complex Remastered before this in an effort to get users to install the launcher), we’re now up to 502 PC games given away.

Now they’re even expanding on this, with mobile phone games given away free each week. This coming week’s giveaway will be Sable (more on that later!).

But if you’d like to scroll down the list of every game given away by Epic, you can do so with this article which gets updated each week on PCGamer

...though be warned, it might make you sad to see what you’ve missed out on.

And what is this free games each week on Epic thing I mention? Well, there’s a tiny chance you don’t know:

The Epic Games Store gives away free games every week (to keep forever) as part of its strategy to attract new users and keep existing ones engaged. Anyone with a free Epic account can "claim" these games during the giveaway period (usually one week), and once claimed, the games are permanently added to the user’s library—no strings attached. This initiative started in 2018 and is funded by Epic to build its user base. The games are often high-quality indie titles big-budget releases, and you don’t need a subscription—just an account.

If you’re a Linux gamer you can use methods such as Heroic Games Launcher or Junk Store to play these games without requiring Epic’s own launcher (Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney is famously anti-Linux).

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Warhammer 40,000 DLC:

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, the incredibly well regarded cRPG made by Owlcat Games has released their next DLC – Lex Imperialis.

(...the YouTube link for the trailer is here)

Lex Imperialis, the second major expansion for Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, offers a new 15-hour storyline and introduces the Adeptus Arbites — a faction of incorruptible enforcers — alongside a new companion: the grim and relentless Solomorne Anthar. Featuring battle familiars like cybernetic eagles and cyber-mastiffs, this DLC is AVAILABLE NOW to all players.

Rogue Trader holds ‘Very Positive’ ratings on Steam, with 22,120 reviews on Steam. I own the game on GOG, and I enjoyed it far more than I expected to. There’s a lovely gothic/space setting, kinda unsettling, and a deep game behind the Warhammer branding.

While releasing this DLC, Owlcat games is also working on two more games (both ‘coming soon’):

• Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy

Become an acolyte of the Inquisition in this grim dark, party-based, story-driven cRPG. Lead investigations, uncover grand conspiracies, master tactical combat, and wage a secret war against heresy. Make tough choices as a conduit of the God-Emperor’s will.

• The Expanse: Osiris Reborn

The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is a third-person Action RPG set in The Expanse universe. You’re no hero — just a merc caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, trying to hold your crew together and keep the ship up and running. Your choices will shape your story.

One thing is for sure with Owlcat (aside from the initial release of their games tending to need a patch or two!), they care about their games and support them for the long haul.

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Crosswind – MORE PIRATES!!!

Since you’re reading this, you’ll probably know by now that I cry about the lack of games set in the golden age of piracy. It’s a setting I like to think is popular but just...kinda ignored. AC: IV Black Flag is still in my opinion the best-of-the-best, but we’ve got another to add to the collection. Crosswind!

Crosswind is a survival adventure in the Age of Piracy. Explore procedural open world, gather, build and craft. Overcome challenging bosses in soulslite combat. Sail your ship, fight on land and sea, play solo or with friends. Live your swashbuckling life in PvE or rise to power in optional PvP.

They’re calling it a ‘pirate survival adventure’, and they devs known as Crosswind Crew have released a statement along with the trailer, which is as follows, in their words:

Crosswind is our dream pirate game. Heavily inspired by great titles like Valheim or Enshrouded, it also feautres naval combat similar to AC: Black Flag and soulslite bossfights. The upcoming Alpha is a big milestone -- with playtesters live feedback we will be able to thoroughly verify a lot of work and designs. It's not gonna be perfect, but we hope it will move in the right direction, and we are absolutely willing to complete this journey whatever it takes.

The Alpha will feature:

• Basic survival gameplay (building, crafting, upgrading);
• 3 unique biomes scattered across a big archipelago - each with unique resources, enemies and bosses;
• 3 playable ships and one NPC merchant (of course to plunder it!);
• Land combat, basic naval combat and early version of boarding actions;
• Very basic Tortuga social hub.

All in all we hope it will provide 30-40 hours of a survival adventure, but of course some parts of the game will be much less polished then others.

For those interested in playtesting: we start small, and have very limited server slots for the test, but for those willing to try the game -- the signups are open on Steam page. We will be gradually letting people in starting tomorrow; Steam picks people randomly. There will be other tests in the future, so even if you want to try Crosswind and don't make it in the first wave, you may get luckly later.

The Crosswind Steam page is here, for you to check it out

The Crosswind trailer on YouTube is here, via this link

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Jurassic World Evolution 3:

After some people got (rightly) angry at Jurassic World Evolution 3 using A.I. generated assets for scientist portraits, the devs realized they’re being stupid and released a statement:

Thanks for your feedback on this topic. We have opted to remove the use of generative AI for scientist portraits within Jurassic World Evolution 3.

...you can read their statement here on the Steam community page

Meh, I’m hardly going to celebrate devs for doing the bare minimum here.

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Major Mod - Black Orchestra:

...admittedly a game and gigantic mod I’ve never heard of before, but Black Orchestra Worldfront: 37-54 is coming. Made for Rising Storm 2 Vietnam, it adds the Pacific, Western, Mediterranean and Eastern Fronts of World War II to the game.

The mod is deemed feature complete now,

• Here is the trailer, showing off the upcoming mod contents

• This is the link to the modDB page where the full info is

• This is their site

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GOG Library Price Checker:

Someone has made a site which checks your GOG games library and gives you an estimate on the value of the total games. Or, it makes you feel awful about seeing a cold number stating you’ve spent way too much.

It’s wonky, and makes mistakes, and doesn’t seem to register all games. I can also see GPT everywhere in this, which as someone who enjoys writing kinda makes me feel icky. But whatever, if it helps people get an idea across then that’s the better of the A.I. uses these days.

I guess all-in-all, it’s still a fun idea in theory. One I should note I have not done or checked myself.

Here’s the link to their site

In their own words:

So I wanted to check how much my GOG games library is actually worth — like how SteamDB does it for Steam users — but turns out… there’s nothing like that for GOG. And if there was anything, it either asked you to log in or paste your cookies... which to me instantly screamed obvious scam 🙃 So I thought: why not just make something myself? Here's what I did:

• You just grab a list of your games from GOG (don’t worry, I explain how to do this — since GOG gives no easy export option, had to get creative).
• Upload that CSV to my site.
• It fetches current prices from GOG, calculates your total value, base prices, and savings.
• You get to download the results as a CSV or as a cool little trading card-style badge image.

I'm a CS student (cooked ), and this is kinda my first real utility site — so I’d love feedback, suggestions, criticism, anything really. Will try to make a video walkthrough soon for those who need visual instructions. Let me know if anything breaks, or if there's something you'd want to see added.

yes It’s hosted on Vercel for now because, well… it’s free and I’m broke The ads are just me playing around with how a “real” implementation might look — not trying to cash out or anything, just testing stuff in the wild.

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Where is your Q&A?

You might remember in my last news post I shared I mentioned that I have been chatting to the lead dev of a program which makes piracy on a jailbroken (Custom Firmware or CFW) Nintendo Switch. The program works as a replica to the official Nintndo eShop except...it’s not filled with shit, ironically. And it doesn’t slow to a crawl to search through.

Anyway, it’s a piracy portal. I wanted to interview them with the idea of getting a glimpse behind why they do it, how they do it, how they justify doing it. All without sharing the name of this program, or the name of the dev.

Anyway, they’ve been a little busy, I’ve shared my side with them and am still waiting on their responses before I format it up and add some pictures, generally make it fit to view on Lemmy here.

Anyway, it’s coming soon, just to let you know!

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Switch 2 Compatibility Tracker:

Speaking of Switch, someone has made a webpage which tracks Switch 2 compatibility with Switch 1 games:

*I saw that the lists here don't update regularly (last updated June 5), and that Nintendo says to check individual eShop pages for updated information. So, I made a webpage that scrapes the eShop for up-to-date information. Check it out! Feedback is welcome!

The GitHub page for the tracker is here and updates twice daily!

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Junk Store’s Pricing Revealed:

The next iteration of Junk Store is close to launching. Promising emulation, more store-fronts and even (planned, not there yet!) cloud saves. Currently Junk Store works as a plugin via Decky Loader on your Steam Deck – install the plugin and from the gaming mode on your Steam Deck you can enjoy Epic Games titles. With a paid extension to that (a one-off purchase of $6) you can also enjoy GOG games.

The next iteration will be a subscription model, and I’ll share Junk Store’s own words on their announcement below:

Tldr:

Junk Store is almost ready. It’s a full rebuild — faster, more stable, no Decky required, and packed with new features. Pricing is USD$40/year with a 7-day free trial, and you keep everything released during your subscription.

The open-source version remains available. Early supporters get a discount, and we’re rolling out in waves to keep things sustainable.

The Longer Version

We’re close to launching the new version of Junk Store — rebuilt from the ground up after over a year of work. It’s faster, more stable, and adds major features like Amazon support, a download queue, and simplified extension generation (no coding needed). This version is fully standalone — no more Decky required — and is based on everything we learned from the original. We know pricing will be a sticking point for some, so here’s the plan:

• $40 (USD) for 12 months of updates
• Includes all extension presets (currently GOG, Epic, Amazon — more to come)
• You keep everything released during your subscription
• Renewal is $40/year
• 7-day free trial — cancel anytime (Stripe handles billing)

To keep things sustainable, we’ll be rolling out in waves. Hosting and bandwidth aren’t free — and based on the original version’s download volume, opening the gates all at once would sink us. Existing supporters will be onboarded first and get a discount that reflects their earlier contributions. We also want to clear up a few things:

• This version does not share code with the open-source one.
• The free, open-source version will remain available.
• Junk Store does not handle any credentials except its own.

We expect a few bumps early on — this is new code, and no software survives first contact with the public. But it’s already been battle-tested internally and testers. What’s Next?

If all goes well, we’re planning:

• Itch.io support (and possibly EA, Ubisoft, Battle.net)
• Cloud saves (done right)
• Game-specific presets
• Better extension creation tools
• Full localisation
• Community extension sharing
• Automated updates

For a more detailed breakdown head [to this link] here Thanks again to everyone who’s supported this journey. We’re almost there. Game on.

So, what do you think? Will you be trying Junk Store out? I think Gardiner is planning a video showcasing what it does and how it does it, closer to the date if that helps you visualize what it’s capable of!

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Retro Gaming Finds:

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I’ve just come across a few fun retro gaming-centric things, so while they’re not at all news-worthy in the hard news sense, they’re amazing in every way and I’d be remiss to not add them to their own section here. If you’ve interest in older games (by my sense because I am so young what is ‘old’ might make you cringe), so settle back and enjoy these ones:

Underwater:

Just someone’s custom bathroom efforts, which seems totally appropriate here:

PS1 Concept Logos:

PC-88:

The PC88 was an 8-bit computer that was dominant in Japan in the 1980s, and has a bit of a reputation for very pixel-y blocky boxy graphics. What comes out beautifully though are the city-scapes in the games. The images will follow, but in order they appear from the following games:

• Tien Gow Pia Special (1989)
• Can Can Bunny (1989)
• Snatcher (1988)
• Misty Blue (1990)
• Burning Point (1989)
• Imitation wa Aisenai (1989)
• Can Can Bunny Superior (1990)
• Paragon Sexa Doll (1989)

Costanza:

Yep, George owned a Virtual Boy. I also think it’s pretty funny that the series has him as the fat one and by today’s standards he’s honestly pretty trim. Weird. Sad about our society now, I think. Anyway, Virtual Boy here:

Wall Art:

It’s amazing, but if you wanna be totally accurate to the time:

• DK has a tie on, whereas the original does not
• ‘jumpman’ should have red overalls and a blue shirt
• Peach is used instead of Pauline

Michael Jackson:

Keen eyes may spot that it is GoldenEye in the N64 there, next to his throne.

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That’s that for this week!

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Sorry again that it’s been a little smaller than as is typical, I have a lot on my plate right now but I do plan the next to resume my typical way-too-many-words standard I seem to have set for myself!

Previous Posts:

If you’d like to read my previous Gaming News posts (they’re mounting up in number now!), then you can find them here:

• Steam Deck / Gaming News #2
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #3
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #4
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #5
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #6
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #7
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #8
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #9
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #10
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #11
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #12
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #13
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #14
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #15
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #16
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #17
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #18
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #19
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #20

Mastodon:

I do tend to post there each and every day, 99.99% gaming nonsense. If you want more of this, then come drop by!

As ever and always, I’m back with a week’s worth of gaming news I’ve spotted and thought I should share with you all!

And this one is a long one!

This one’s got a bit of everything, and it’s my twentieth of these posts! Hard to imagine so many of these have been posted so far, but one thing does remain – writing these makes me super happy to write. So, while we're on the topic, thanks to all of you for even wanting to read along with these when I post them :)

What are these posts?

My aim for these News Posts in general though is to format them in a more clearly not a professional, but someone who cares about gaming manner than most gaming sites do now. Less demanding? My ever-lasting inspo is the old, old video game sites, blogs and magazines that I never had the privilege of being alive for:

• image/gif/link heavy (every time I make these, at least 4 GIFs end up being too big for Lemmy to upload, and it always makes me sad)

• personal voice (I can’t help rambling, send help – this won’t be even slightly professionally written)

• mostly news or articles or points which you won’t find on normal gaming sites. These are the smaller, lesser things that I’m drawn to. I know you’ll have spotted the big news articles, so I’m hoping some of these smaller ones might have been missed by you.

A mixed bag of what I’ve considered news this week, so there really is a bit of everything ahead.

So grab a coffee? Or a tea? Or a fresh juice? And enjoy <3

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General Gaming News:

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GEX:

The Gex trilogy has finally arrived on GOG and Steam. Will it cause a stir? I’d say...not, the games are just poor emulation in a new wrapper. Check the trailer and you’ll see something like polygon stabilization (‘jumping’ textures) we see DuckStation do so well (for ‘free’) is completely missing.

Anyway:

Everyone's favorite tail-whipping, channel-surfing, gecko is back in a collection that features all of his best-selling adventures!

Interestingly, they opted to only use the U.S. voices for this one. The originals had different voices for different markets (Leslie Phillips in the U.K. and Dana Gould in the ‘States).

If you’d prefer something a little lighter, check AVGN’s video on YouTube where he plays the original three games and gives his (angry – it is the Angry Video Game Nerd, afterall!) reviews from three months ago. The link to that video is here!

Just check this image of this newly released Gex Trilogy, it’s directly from the Steam page!

Amazing:

And of course, here’s the link to the GOG page for the game, too!

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Starfleet Academy:

Back in 1997 a game was released, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy: the game simulates the life of a typical Starfleet cadet, with the player learning the basics of flying a starship and engaging in role-playing with a crew of cadets, with the eventual goal of becoming captain of their own ship. The game included full motion video featuring William Shatner, Walter Koenig and George Takei reprising their roles from the original television series and movies, and a multiplayer simulation mode allowing for up to 32 players.

It’s still available on GOG (because, of course it is!) but I’m sharing something interesting I found.

Nick Acosta, a big fan of the game, has remastered the opening to the game.

I’ve reimagined the opening sequence of the 1997 PC game Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, replacing its dated CG effects with recomposited footage from the original ILM model work used in the first six Star Trek films. I also created new matte paintings and redesigned interior backgrounds to better align with the look and feel of Starfleet in 2288.

I’ve always loved this game and felt it was an underrated addition to the Trek timeline—bridging the events between Star Trek V and VI.

Their work is incredible on this one, and seems as official as you could get.

Updates include:

• Original physical models restored and recomposited
• All 3D effects replaced with modern lighting and detail
• New matte paintings for interiors and FX sequences
• Production design aligned with the 2288 Starfleet aesthetic
• Revised title sequence and updated credit order
• I used an animated version of an unused Ralph McQuarrie Matte Painting of Starfleet Command from Star Trek IV

Of course, the link to it being shown off on YouTube is here, and really - you should click this and have a look. This is the kinda thing I love to find, fans caring so much about a fear-forgotten game that they take the time and effort to bring it to life again!

This is a fan preservation and restoration project—a tribute to the timeless quality of ILM’s practical model work and a chance to reimagine this scene using today’s compositing tools.

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Nexus Mods Sold:

You’ve no doubt read all about that by now, it’s going to be old news but...it’s still big news to me. Nexus Mods has been sold:

In ‘An Update From DarkOne’, they stated:

After almost 24 years of running Nexus Mods, the time has come for me to step back from the day-to-day management of the site. This isn't a decision I've made lightly - far from it - but one I think is in both my and the community's best interests.

I started this project back in 2001, in my bedroom, with a 56k modem, an excitement for the upcoming release of Morrowind and with no grand ambitions or intentions. I didn’t set out to build a business, I just wanted to make a place where modders could share their work without worrying it would vanish into the internet either the next time a fansite went offline or a publisher decided they were done with it. That idea grew legs, sprouted arms, and turned into Nexus Mods.

Their entire post is here, you should check it out if you’re interested!

Resetera users discovered that both new owners named by Dark0ne work for a company called Chosen.

It's vague to what extent this is a sale. Dark0ne mentioned the owners have "changed hands", but also mentions "I’ll also be working with the team to help guide the overall direction of the site, just without needing to be the person who signs off on every little thing and without taking responsibility for any and all things Nexus Mods".

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The Deck Trap:

This one’s...pretty typical of the Steam Deck community, you’ll see it generally fall into two categories: those who leave the Deck stock and just, idk, use it, and those who like to tinker. Then there’s this effort, which is tinkering x1000.

Snicker-Snack83 has created an all-in-one effort which, in their own words because they went into great detail, is:

This is the DeckTrap, as I'm calling it, and it's a portable dock with a number of cool features.

It doubles as a kickstand using the dbrand killswitch, with two HDMI ports, Ethernet, and an adapter for use with AR glasses. The battery is 20,000 mAh and all the cables are rated for 65 watts, with an on/off switch to ensure the dock doesn't drain the battery when not in use.

It's something that anyone can build, but all the parts amount to $257, so making them would be kind of expensive. As someone who travels I find it very useful. It lets me use the XREAL glasses on the go without killing the battery and it doubles as a dock when on the go and you're looking for a way to connect it to the TV.

I’ve seen a ton of pointlessly weird and mean comments over this. What is it with gamers who like to just put someone down for sharing their work? It’s weird. This is specific, and they love it. They saw a problem with their own gaming, and solved it! Is it for me? No. But as someone who goes through airport security often with a suitcase full of suspicious looking tech (I’m a pen-tester who works red ream), I know how this kinda thing can grow!

I love it!

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Next-Gen Minecraft (for consoles):

Maybe some remember this. In 2017, Mojang announced the "Super Duper Graphics Pack" for Minecraft, promising enhanced visuals (including shaders) for Xbox consoles. However, this project was postponed to 2018 and ultimately canceled in 2019 due to ‘technical challenges in achieving consistent performance across devices’.

The community felt a little confused why a company like Microsoft, with its infinite wealth, didn’t focus on this idea a little more. Mojang is hardly an indie crew. But, it seems like some good things come to those who wait eight years.

Now, with this next-gen update, all 3,000 textures will be replaced with PBR materials (color, roughness, emission) optimized for Physically-Based Rendering, aiming to accurately simulate the physical behavior of the light source and materials to achieve realism. PBR materials are a very important step if you want to add ray tracing or even path tracing. Until now, Minecraft used only simple color textures, so renderers like the famous Nvidia Minecraft RTX didn’t work with the standard game.

The next-gen Minecraft renderer will be released on June 17, 2025, and will be enabled by default on Xbox Series X.

This is the 5-ish minute video they shared on YouTube, detailing a lot and showing what the update has done. Well and truly an interesting watch, even for me who is not a fan of Minecraft!

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The Thing:

...or maybe, the thing about John Carpenter is that he is a gamer. He frequently shares his thoughts on games, what he enjoys, what provides a good atmosphere. I found that long ago in 2024 he enjoyed Prince of Persia’s The Lost Crown (I did too! I was sad to see the team didn’t get a chance to expand and refine with a sequel), and tweeted this one:

That’s all, IDK, I just though it was neat!

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Switch 2 + Staples:

Did everyone see the drama that happened when the Switch 2 was released? GameStop stapled receipts on the Switch 2 box which damaged screens on launch day upsetting customers. Everyone blames GameStop (yeah, that’s valid), but I’d say some blame lies with Nintendo for having no buffer zone between the cardboard box’s lid and the console itself. It’s literally thin cardboard / soft cover / console screen.

Here’s an artcile (short one) on The Verge detailing that issue.

Anyway, GameStop have leaned into their own issues and have made a pretty funny ad about it. Here you go:

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Coincidence:

VERY briefly, also spotted a user sharing this and it made me laugh:

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Improvements:

The developer of the insanely popular Expedition 33 have stated that they’re working on various bits and pieces:

Bonjour! We're currently exploring a wide range of future improvements — from accessibility features to new content and all sorts of bits and bobs we're actively assessing. Naturally, this also includes expanded localisation options!

While we don't have specific timelines or confirmed languages to share just yet, we wanted to let you know that it's very much on our radar. Wheee!

Their statement which I’ve copied is here, on Bsky

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EmuReady is Ready:

This one is for those who love the SBC gaming handhelds, but there is plans for this to end up on Decky Loader, for the Steam Deck. The release post is so detailed and nice that I’m not even going to bother annoying you with my own words, I’ll just (painstakingly) format it so it looks pretty here on Lemmy. I’ll make a couple of changes (remove some words and embed the links), but nothing changes anything here:

https://emuready.com/ is a platform designed to help users share and find emulator compatibility reports more effectively.

After a lot of feedback, 1000 commits later, EmuReady is now live for everyone to use! By the way, it's open source, so if you want to contribute, check out the GitHub repo. (leaving a star on the repo means a lot to me and helps others find it!)

Features:

• Share emulator settings to get your game running
• Upvote and downvote reports to help others find the best settings
• Search for games and emulators to see compatibility reports/listings
• Configurable your profile with devices and socs you use to only see relevant reports * Performance ratings - See if a game runs "Perfect" or "Potato Quality" before you waste 3 hours tinkering
• Custom fields for every emulator - Because some emulators have 47 different graphics settings and we're not animals
• Device/SoC/Emulator/Console filtering
• Dark/Light mode

Coming soon:

• Trust system (probably shipping tomorrow) - Build reputation by contributing quality reports and get access to approve others' reports, add devices, and more (so this platform isn't held back by how much time I have to spend on it)
• The EmuReady Mobile app (very early stages)
• A Decky plugin for the Steam Deck

Maybe Coming:

• Automated settings export/import (I am experimenting with this for the emulators that support a config file, but it is not a priority right now)

Never Coming:

• Ads.

If your device isn't included yet, please send a message in the discord server or create a GitHub ticket and I'll add it :)

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• Most Played at Next Fest:*

June’s Next Fest is, as we all know is a week‑long digital showcase on Steam—held three times a year (usually February, June, and October), where players can download and play hundreds or thousands of free demos of upcoming PC games, watch developer livestreams, and add their favorites to wishlists .

Next Fest exists to give developers early feedback and build hype, while giving gamers a no-cost chance to explore and discover new titles before they launch, like the age of gaming long before my time, when demos were typical!

Anyway, Steam shared a post giving the top 50 most played demos!

• [Vindictus: Defying Fate (action RPG / souls-like)[https://store.steampowered.com/app/3576170]

Experience intense action brought to life with diverse, unique characters. Read your enemy’s attacks and strike back for maximum impact in Vindictus: Defying Fate. Immerse yourself in signature combat and a gripping narrative.

• Wildgate (multiplayer space/adventure)

Wildgate is a PVP multiplayer shooter that blends tactical ship-to-ship combat with fast-paced first-person action. Evade deadly environmental hazards, search for powerful weapons and ship upgrades, and be the first crew to escape with the Artifact... or the last crew left flying.

• Jump Ship (co-op space PVE)

Jump Ship is a mission based co-op PvE for up to 4 players, where you are the crew of a spaceship. Transition seamlessly from crewing the ship to on-foot exploration and space walks. Engage in intense battles both on the ground and in space, and always keep your ship upgraded and intact.

• Mimesis (online co-op / horror / action)

4 Player co-op survival horror game. When the cursed rain falls, 'Mimesis' appear, perfectly imitating your teammates, bringing a new level of tension you've never experienced before.

• Dead as Disco (single-player / action / rhythm / beat ‘em up)

Martial arts meets music video in Dead as Disco, a neon-drenched Beat ‘Em Up where every punch, kick, and combo syncs to the music. Join Charlie Disco on a quest to confront the villainous Idols and reunite the band.

...figured I’d add the top 5 here for the heck of it (yes, it is an excuse to share some GIFs), but check this link out as it has the whole top 50 covered.

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The Loss of Pak-Sen Lim:

Malaysian-born British actor Pik-Sen Lim died on Monday, June 9 at the age of 80. Lim had an extensive career in British theater, film, and television. PC Gamer readers will recognize her as the narrator of Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3's opening cutscenes.

The opening cinematic to Dark Souls III is here, if you’d like to view it

Her imdb page link is here, if you'd like to see her career

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Farthest Frontier Delay:

Farthest Frontier has pushed back their long-anticipated 1.0 launch until October 2025. They stated that they need time for polish, bug fixes, optimization and posted an updated Road to V1.0 (which you can read here with this link)

Farthest Frontier, from their own game page:

Protect and guide your people as you forge a town from untamed wilderness at the edge of the known world. Harvest raw materials, hunt, fish and farm to survive. Produce crafted items to trade, consume, equip and fight with as you battle for your survival against the elements and outside threats.

It currently holds a Very Positive rating on Steam, with 18,769 reviews (all time)

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3DS at Bob Dylan:

Just another funny quick one, saw this shared about – someone spotted taking a photo at a Bob Dylan concert with their 3DS. Not only that, but taking it a step further and using the circle pad pro attachment!

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Epic Games Delisting:

Epic has removed Dark and Darker from sale on the Epic Games Store, thankfully if you have purchased the game you will be issued a full refund.

Dark and Darker:

An unforgiving hardcore fantasy FPS dungeon PvPvE adventure. Band together with your friends and use your courage, wits, and cunning to uncover mythical treasures, defeat gruesome monsters, while staying one step ahead of the other devious treasure-hunters.

It currently holds Mixed (all time reviews) and Mostly Negative (recent reviews) on Steam, so...maybe you’re not missing out on much. Here’s the statement Epic made:

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Epic’s Languages:

Epic has also added additional language support to their launcher, but not their website (yet). The languages added are:

• Bulgarian "bg" *Czech "cs"
• Danish "da"
• Dutch "nl"
• Filipino "fil"
• Finish "fi"
• Hindi "hi"
• Hungarian "hu"
• Indonesian "id"
• Malay "ms"
• Norwegian "no"
• Portuguese (Portugal) "pt"
• Romanian "ro"
• Swedish "sv"
• Ukrainian "uk"

This information is from the developer documentation which you can read with this link on Epic’s site.

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Animal Crossing / Gamecube / Decompiled!

Another monumental fan effort has been achieved. The team behind the Animal Crossing decompilation have reached 100% progress on recreating the game's code. This isn't a full 100%, as noted by project creator Cuyler, who states that there's still work left to do, but it means Animal Crossing for the GameCube can be modded fully, and soon ported to other platforms, once released. Additionally, the same team has been working on backporting and translating content from the Japanese-exclusive Dobutsu no Mori e+ into a project called Animal Crossing Deluxe.

It's my pleasure to announce that as of <t:1750082820:R>, Animal Crossing's decompilation hit 100% matching and linked game code. While not fully 100%, the way the game is set up means that we can fully mod the game. There's still some work to do on supporting libraries like the GameCube SDK, among others. However, this does not impact modding. HUGE shoutout to everyone who contributed and supported the project along the way! This has been 2.5 years in the making! I'll have a more fitting announcement when we hit complete 100% in the future!

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GameSieve Updated:

GameSieve is, in the developer’s own words:

Full-text search for the entire GOG game catalog, with advanced filters and price-tracking for 12 currencies. I've tried to optimize for information-density without reducing usability. I also put a lot of effort into correcting and enriching the data from GOG's API. Lots more of all of that to come.

They’ve made a lengthy post for what’s next, and what’s been happening with their site, and I’m just going to copy it (almost) verbatim – I love this site, and use it all the time, and I definitely recommend you visit and bookmark if you’re a regular GOG user!

Anyway, in their own words:

Nearly two months ago, I launched GameSieve, my independent price tracker, game discovery service and improved search engine for GOG. In the weeks since then, I've been building some frequently requested quality of life features and new abilities. Highlights include:

• The ability to remember preferred defaults. This could be just the country for which you want to see prices listed, but it becomes particularly useful if there are genres or developers which you never want to see (cough whale rock cough). Just exclude them all, and then click the "remember" button underneath the applied filters.

• Sorting by price, discount, release date (original or on GOG) or title (added to the existing default of sorting by price improvement).

• Showing included products and goodies.

• Filtering for GOG's new bundles with dynamic pricing.

• Filtering GOG’s new modded games.

• Filtering by age rating.

• I've recently created a GameSieve sub-reddit for those interested in following the details of ongoing development. See the changelog for the full details of everything that's new.

The big thing I'm aiming for (which based on initial exploration looks feasible, but will still take a long time to implement correctly, and might still prove to be too complex) is the ability to create various types of lists and then filter by them. I'm quite ambitious there, hoping to eventually allow for wishlists (imported from gog, optionally managed (with priorities) on gamesieve), owned games (on gog or elsewhere), lists of games you never want to see and maybe public "gog mixes".

I'm actively asking for feature requests, both in general, and for such lists. (It really helps me to have a thorough understanding of a wide range of desires and usecases - what are you trying to do, what information do you need to see for that to work? The more details the better!) Feel free to drop them here, or on the roadmap

I make no promises about what I'll implement, but almost all of what I've added since launch was caused by someone asking for it, or at least voicing a desire which made me realize (how) I could implement a related feature.

And that’s that one!

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Kernelbay:

I spotted this game and had to share it, because of how unique it looks and feels to me. There’s (apparently, thought it has to be small and niche) a small but growing trend of games running as overlays on the desktop instead of full-screen apps.

These games float above the desktop, partially transparent, blending into the background while you work. They act more like ambient experiences...always there, but never demanding attention.

This developer is creating Kernelbay, a cozy idle fishing game built around this idea.

It runs as a transparent window, with your fisher upgrading gear and exploring tiny handcrafted dioramas while you go about your day.

Their Steam page is here, wishlist it I guess if you’re interested!

(I did try attach two GIFs here, to show it in action - but both being around 19mb was too much for Lemmy to be able to upload, sad)

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Borderlands 4 DRM:

Borderlands is shipping with Denuvo DRM (yuck), but they’re also applying Symbiote (2K’s custom DRM) – so I suppose we can see why their recommended specs for playing Borderlands 4 are on the higher side.

So, UE5’s often-poor performance + two DRM’s running in the background + higher rec’s for specs?

Hmmmmmmmm.

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RetroAssembly:

There’s a new web-based ‘retro game cabinet’ concept which as launched. Arianrhodsandlot shared a quick post on RetroAssembly, which is just getting started. Again, in the dev’s own words:

Hi! I’m excited to share RetroAssembly, a web-based retro game collection cabinet. It lets you play and organize games from classic consoles—right in your browser. No installs, just upload your ROMs and play!

Price: $0 – RetroAssembly is completely free and open-source. I originally built this for my own use, and now I’m excited to share it with the community.

Getting Started:

• Visit retroassembly.com
• (Optional) Try the demo games
• Login to upload your own ROMs and play instantly in your browser—no extra software needed!

Key Features:

• Supports NES, SNES, Genesis, GameBoy, Arcade, and more
• Auto-detects and displays beautiful box art for your games
• Save and sync your progress, resume anytime
• Some emulators support gameplay rewind
• Navigate your library with keyboard or gamepad (spatial navigation)
• Retro-style visual shaders for that authentic vibe
• On-screen virtual controller for mobile play

Here’s a link to their GitHub

Here’s a link to their Discord

...and if you do try it out, let me know what you think! I’d be curious (haven’t the time myself at the moment!) how it runs and looks!

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FBC: Firebreak Launches:

Remedy’s new multiplayer game, FBC: Firebreak has launched everywhere (for free, if you have Game Pass!) and reviews are rolling in. FBC is a three-player cooperative first-person shooter set within ‘a mysterious federal agency under assault by otherworldly forces’. If you’ve played Remedy’s brilliant game Control then you’ll have an idea of the setting, it’s that game’s universe this one’s set in.

Currently the game is sitting on ‘Mixed’ reviews on Steam, with under 1,000 being submitted. PC Gamer has given it 60/100 (which some take to mean a terrible, terrible, scathing review but to me, idk, 60/100 seems like a fun time?)

I suspect Remedy might have seen this title as a passive income – skins and micro-transactions are the bread and butter of the gaming industry these days, but...we’ll see if FBC stays the course and sticks around I suppose.

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Marathon Delayed:

Looks like Bungie and Sony have delayed the rather universally hated Marathon 'reboot' (hard term to use, since it has nothing to do with their classic, old, single-player titles of that name) It is now delayed indefinitely. Terrible reviews of their closed Alpha tests, a shitty account by an artist where Marathon displayed stolen art assets, it's not hard to see why this has been delayed.

“Through every comment and real-time conversation on social media and Discord, your voice has been strong and clear. We've taken this to heart, and we know we need more time to craft Marathon into the game that truly reflects your passion. After much discussion within our Dev team, we’ve made the decision to delay the September 23rd release.”

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My Interview:

My friend Gardiner Bryant asked me if I’d like to post the occasional thing to his website. For now, some of the interviews I do with developers (typically Steam Deck / Linux / gaming) are going to start popping up on there and...that’s kinda exciting!

To start with I’ve shared an interview you’ll only read there, with another friend of mine, Eben Bruyns who created Junk Store. He and I did that early last year (-ish, my memory of exactly when is hazy!), and roughly covers things like:

• What Junk Store is
• Development motivation
• How the project evolved
• What its like to develop a program for Linux
• Challenges he faces, UI/UX

...and so on. I’d love it if you’d read through, it’s 15 or 20 mins worth of back-and-forth between he and I!

Of course, the link to it is here!

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My next interview:

I’ve approached a developer of a program for the Nintendo Switch. I understand this one might be a sensitive topic for some, but stick with me for the moment.

They run a very successful app, a program which replicates the look and feel of an official Nintendo program, but allows users to download and install games and DLC to their jailbroken Nintendo Switch for free. And they are 100% a pirate. The level which they’re operating is, at the peak, around 1 petabyte of data per month, so this one’s no small fry.

I wanted to ask them about their motivations, their reasons for creating and maintaining such an idea, their experiences with being devs and gamers, how (or *if) they justify what is stealing, whether it is an ideal which motivates them or the money, and the threat of Nintendo’s lawyers.

This isn’t condoning the project (the opposite, I won’t share the name of it, nor that of the developer), it’s something as far as I can tell hasn’t been done before. I can see why it hasn’t, but to me this is the interesting thing – a peek behind a curtain of a shadowy service. I wanted to know the how and the why, so I asked!

This won’t be posted for a few days, and will only be shared on the c/games Lemmy community (since it is outside the scope of others I post to!)

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Prime Gaming’s Bonus:

With Amazon’s Prime Day, they’ve released a bonus pack of games out of the blue as a giveaway.

If you’re unaware (and are one of the three here on Lemmy who don’t pick up a pitchfork whenever I share anything about Prime Gaming), Prime Gaming is a bonus for your Amazon Prime subscription. Each week they give a handful of game codes away for you to keep forever. GOG, Epic Games and Amazon titles are yours to keep. I’ll be crucified for saying it here, but to me its the best deal in gaming at the moment, purely because of the GOG games you get.

This bonus day of games includes:

• Tomb Raider I-II-III Remastered (GOG)

Play the original three Tomb Raider Adventures: For the first time ever, play the complete experience with all expansions and secret levels on modern platforms in this definitive collection. Prime members and Luna+ subscribers who claim Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft can link their Luna and GOG accounts to play via Luna in supported countries.

• Saints Row 2 (GOG)

Saints Row 2 brings true freedom to open-world gaming. Players can play as who they want, how they want, and with whomever they want in this sequel to the much acclaimed and tremendously successful Saints Row. Prime members and Luna+ subscribers who claim Saints Row 2 can link their Luna and GOG accounts to play via Luna in supported countries.

• TOEM (GOG)

Set off on a delightful expedition and use your photographic eye to uncover the mysteries of the magical TOEM in this hand-drawn adventure game. Chat with quirky characters, solve their problems by snapping neat photos, and make your way through a relaxing landscape! Prime members and Luna+ subscribers who claim TOEM can link their Luna and GOG accounts to play via Luna in supported countries.

• Star Wars Rebellion (GOG)

It is a time of great upheaval. The first Death Star has been destroyed, marking a major victory for the Rebellion. But the Empire remains strong. As commander, you must choose to take control of either the Rebel Alliance or the Galactic Empire. Your goal: complete domination of the galaxy.

• Saints Row IV: Re-Elected (GOG)

After a catastrophic alien invasion of Earth, the Saints have been transported to a bizarro-Steelport simulation. With homies new and old, and an arsenal of superpowers and strange weapons, they must fight to free humanity from alien overlord Zinyak and his alien empire, saving the world in the wildest open world game ever.

• Dungeon of the ENDLESS – Definitive Edition (Amazon Games)

Dungeon of the Endless is Amplitude Studios’ take on the demanding Roguelike genre, mixing in Dungeon-Defense mechanics for a unique gameplay experience.

Of them all, I’m actually going to say TOEM is my fav (and I am a HUGE Lara Croft fan!)

It’s a perfect game for the Steam Deck, cozy and interesting and hand-drawn, too. I love this game so much, you’ll have such a nice time playing through, I can’t recommend it enough

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Xbox’s Next Console:

Xbox has released a...idk what to even call this, a ‘hype’ trailer? A promise of what is next? Xbox is patnering with AMD for their next generation system (Xbox console, handhelds, phone gaming, streaming, PC and so on).

We’ve established a strategic, multi-year agreement with AMD to co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices, including our next-generation Xbox consoles. Together, we’re delivering deeper visual quality, immersive gameplay, and AI-powered experiences - grounded in a platform designed for players, not tied to a single store or device, and fully compatible with your existing Xbox game library.

But what has most talking is the (seemingly throwaway) line in their statement:

Not locked to a single store

Is this the much talked about Steam integration? I’d doubt it (what manufacturer will let you use their service to give money to another platform?!), but...I do hope I am wrong!

Anyway, here’s the link to the video they uploaded onto YouTube: Xbox + AMD: Powering the Next Generation of Xbox

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GoldenEye 64 DD44 3D Print:

Just something fun, I noticed a user by the name of Arniel86 made a great 3D print of one of the weapons from the old Nintendo 64 game:

Was an interesting design to work with, looks nothing like the TT-33 its supposedly based off. But I chose to keep it looking as in game as possible.

The link to their MakerWorld page where the files are free is here, if you’d like to see more or start your own print!

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Hades II Update:

Hades II which is still in Early Access (but which plays like a damned fully finished game, albeit one without a proper ending so far) has released another big update. Titles Spread Fear in The Unseen:

Our third Major Update for Hades II is finally here, focused on expanding core combat, Guardian encounters, and character relationships, with lots of new visual flair!

Their change-log and notes are extensive, so you’d be better checking them out on Steam with their announcement:

Which is through this link here!

And here is the update trailer on YouTube!

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That’s Enough!

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I think I’ve ranted enough here by now. I still have more interesting bits and pieces I’ve come across, but I’m told quite often how my posts take a looooong time to get through, and if I keep it up then it’ll never end!

What have you been playing?

One thing I can’t leave out, is asking what you’re all playing right now! I’d love to know what (if anything!) you’re enjoying!

I’ve actually started God of War. Somehow I never really gave it much time, giving up before that opening tree sequence each time, but out of the blue I stuck with it and I’m having a great time. I’m playing that on my desktop PC (for the highest possible fancy settings) and have been enjoying a few of the WipEout games emulated via RetroDECK

But what about you? AAA? AAAA? AA? (this is getting odd), indie? Emulated? Tellll meeee!!!

Previous Posts:

If you’d like to read my previous Gaming News posts (they’re mounting up in number now!), then you can find them here:

• Steam Deck / Gaming News #2
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #3
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #4
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #5
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #6
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #7
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #8
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #9
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #10
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #11
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #12
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #13
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #14
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #15
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #16
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #17
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #18
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #19

Mastodon:

I do tend to post there each day, 99.99% gaming nonsense. If you want more of this, then come drop by!

Thought this might be worth a share here.

The developer of Junk Store (letting you play Epic Games and GOG titles on your Steam Deck) did a podcast with G. Bryant which he's shared on YouTube.

They cover things like:

• What is JunkStore?
• What inspired JunkStore
• What sets JunkStore apart from Heroic/Lutris?
• Original vision for JunkStore
• Goals for v2 of JunkStore
• What are your next goals for JunkStore?
• Recounting the JunkStore/Steam Store thing
• The NSL drama from Eben's perspective
• Eben's interesting living situation
• What everyone needs to know about JunkStore
• Conclusion

Here is the link to the interview on YouTube, which runs at 20:38

But there is also a longer, uncut interview which runs longer on Gardiner's blog for his suppporters:

In this nearly 50-minute interview, Eben Bruyns and I discuss the history and future of JunkStore, plus we chat about his interesting living situation, our favorite video games, his perspective on the Non-Steam Launchers drama from a few months ago, and how Steam accepted (then rejected) JunkStore on Steam.

The link to that longer version, again for his paying members, is here