Author: taternews

📰 New article from Retro Handhelds

Man Flies ZX Spectrum To The Moon, Sort Of

https://retrohandhelds.gg/man-flies-zx-spectrum-to-the-moon-sort-of/

Ever tried landing a lunar module with a relic that predates Windows 95? YouTube star Scott Manley did just that—by putting an original ZX Spectrum in the pilot’s seat of a Kerbal Space Program lander.

The plan is delightfully retro: the Spectrum, equipped with the old‑school Interface 1 serial add‑on (emulated inside Fuse), streams live telemetry from KSP over a 19.2 kbps link. A tiny Python script talks to Kerbal via kRPC, feeds the numbers into a Sinclair BASIC program, and spits out throttle commands back to the virtual rocket.

Sure, the Z80 spends most of its cycles “bit‑banging” the serial port, making it painfully inefficient compared to any modern microcontroller. But that’s the charm—stretching an 8‑bit home computer to control a simulated spacecraft just for the nostalgic thrill.

Why it matters: It proves that even decades‑old hardware can still interface with today’s software ecosystems, opening doors for other vintage rigs (think Commodore 64) to join the space‑age hobby. In short, if you’ve ever dreamed of piloting a moonshot on a machine that once ran “Manic Miner,” now’s your chance—just don’t expect a speedy descent!

📰 New article from Retro Handhelds

Subnautica: Below Zero Coming To Android Handhelds

https://retrohandhelds.gg/subnautica-below-zero-coming-to-android-handhelds/

If you’ve ever wanted to dive into an icy alien ocean while waiting for your coffee, the wait is finally over: Subnautica: Below Zero lands on Android handhelds (and iOS) this March 10.

The sequel’s shaky Switch debut—think frame‑drops and downgraded textures—gets a fresh start thanks to Playdigious, the studio that nailed the original Subnautica’s mobile port. Expect a touch‑friendly UI, full controller support, cloud saves, and even extra polishing for the new iPhone 17 line. At $8.99 (with a 10 % pre‑order discount), it’s a bargain for the complete game.

What you’ll actually be doing? Braving sub‑zero seas on Planet 4546B, juggling temperature as fiercely as oxygen while hunting down your missing sister and unraveling more alien tech. All the story and survival depth of the console version, now optimized for pocket powerhouses.

So if you’ve got a Android handheld or a controller‑ready phone, this is the portable adventure you’ve been waiting for—finally, a Below Zero that feels right at home in your palm.

📰 New article from Retro Handhelds

New SNES Hack Adds 5‑Player Mayhem To 16‑Bit Hockey

https://retrohandhelds.gg/new-snes-hack-adds-5-player-mayhem-to-16-bit-hockey/

Ever tried juggling a puck with five friends on a couch? A new SNES rom‑hack just made that possible, turning classic 16‑bit hockey into full‑blown chaos.

The hack hijacks the SNES multitap and remaps extra controllers so each player can steer an individual skater. No more “one person runs the whole line” – you now have a true five‑player roster sharing ice time, complete with CPU teammates when you need a breather. It feels oddly modern: half the fun is still shouting at your buddy for missing that perfect pass, but now everyone’s scrambling for their own stick.

Why it matters? Retro fans love fresh ways to breathe life into old titles, and this isn’t a gimmicky side mode – it’s baked right into the core gameplay. While the trick stays SNES‑only (the Genesis version of NHL ’94 got its own fist‑fighting upgrade), it shows the community is more interested in expanding mechanics than just updating rosters.

Bottom line: grab a multitap, rally the crew, and watch five humans try to out‑skate each other on pixel ice. It’s couch sports reimagined, 1992 style.

📰 New article from Retro Handhelds

How ‘End of Eden’ Picks Up The Torch From ‘Piranha Bytes’

https://retrohandhelds.gg/how-end-of-eden-picks-up-the-torch-from-piranha-bytes/

Picture this: you crash‑land on a cursed island with nothing but your wits, a bow, and a vague promise that every scrap of progress will actually matter. That’s the vibe indie studio Laughing Fox Games is selling for End of Eden, their upcoming 2027 PC adventure that feels like a love letter to Piranha Bytes’ gritty, faction‑driven RPGs.

The game drops you in as a nobody and forces you to claw your way up through melee, archery or magic—no glowing quest markers to hold your hand. Factions aren’t just flavor; siding with the right camp opens doors (and closes others), while a living NPC ecosystem reacts to your choices. Crafting, gear upgrades, and “earning every inch” are baked in, promising that each victory feels earned rather than handed out.

Why it matters: Since Piranha Bytes shuttered in 2024, fans of titles like Gothic and Elex have been starved for a true spiritual successor. If Laughing Fox can deliver on the promise without the usual indie bugs, we might finally see that coveted Gothic‑style comeback. Keep an eye out—this could be the next big niche hit for players who love hard‑earned progress.

📰 New article from Retro Handhelds

Epomaker G84 HE Review: Gaming With Style

https://retrohandhelds.gg/epomaker-g84-he-review/

If you’ve ever dreamed of a keyboard that looks like a gaming rig and types like a pro‑mechanical, meet the Epomaker G84 HE. At $85 it throws a 75% layout, tri‑mode wireless (Bluetooth 5.0, 2.4 GHz, USB‑C), an 8 000 mAh battery pack, and eye‑popping RGB into a plastic case that feels surprisingly sturdy.

What really sets it apart are the hall‑effect “Duskrise Magnetic” switches—pre‑lubed linear keys with a buttery 55 g bottom‑out that you can tweak via Epomaker’s desktop app. The software is a bit clunky (it defaults to Chinese and isn’t web‑based), but once dialed in you can drop the actuation distance for lightning‑fast game inputs or raise it for comfortable typing.

The board’s ergonomics are decent: two‑stage feet, a raised back for underglow, and a slightly extended 75% layout that keeps the arrow cluster handy. The only quirks? A gradient keycap scheme that might clash with your setup and a wrist‑rest that sits oddly due to a slanted front plate.

Bottom line: the G84 HE isn’t perfect, but for gamers who crave fast, customizable actuation without breaking the bank, it’s a surprisingly well‑rounded contender.

📰 New article from Wololo.net

Optimizing a 2D Godot Game for the Nintendo Switch. My first-hand experience

https://wololo.net/2026/01/21/optimizing-a-2d-godot-game-for-the-nintendo-switch-my-first-hand-experience/

Ever tried squeezing a PC‑born Godot card game onto a Switch and watched it crawl at 1 FPS? That was my reality until I started treating the console like a picky roommate—clean up, cache what you can, and stop asking it to do everything every frame.

First off, I slashed the base resolution from 1080p to 720p. It sounds trivial, but that alone nudged the framerate up by 7‑10 FPS. Next came a cache‑overhaul: repeated string lookups and card‑copying were eating cycles like nobody’s business, so I stored results once and reused them, scoring a 95 % hit rate.

I also stopped stuffing every invisible card into the scene tree. Unused nodes were still being ticked, so I pulled them out and kept references in plain variables—instant CPU relief. Finally, I migrated most logic out of `_process()` to signals or one‑off calls; if something truly needs per‑frame updates, it’s now as lean as possible.

TL;DR: lower resolution, cache aggressively, prune the node tree, and keep `_process()` to a minimum. With those “low‑hanging fruits,” my Switch build jumped from a sluggish crawl to a respectable 20‑25 FPS, proving even modest 2D titles can run smoothly on portable hardware when you tidy up the code.

📰 New article from Retro Handhelds

Sony Gets Third AI-Related Patent Granted

https://retrohandhelds.gg/sony-gets-third-ai-related-patent-granted/

Imagine your favorite game character popping into your ear with a cheeky podcast that tells you how to beat that boss, what your friends just unlocked, and the latest DLC gossip—all without you lifting a controller. That’s the vibe behind Sony’s newest AI‑related patent, “LLM‑Based Generative Podcasts for Gamers.”

In plain English, Sony wants consoles (and even VR headsets, smart TVs, PCs, or phones) to run large language models that stitch together recent gameplay data, news and tips into an on‑the‑fly audio show. The twist? It would use the game’s own characters, voiced by AI‑generated versions of their original dialogue, so you hear “in‑universe” banter instead of a sterile robot.

Why it matters:

• Personalized help that feels like a friend rather than a tooltip.
• Cross‑platform reach, with Microsoft and Nintendo even named as potential hosts.
• Privacy & rights headaches—the system would mine your play history and friends’ activity, and voice‑cloning could rattle voice actors.

It’s still a patent, not a product, but it signals Sony’s ambition to turn the PlayStation ecosystem into an AI‑driven recommendation engine that talks you deeper into its world. Keep an ear out—your next gaming session might come with a built‑in podcast host.

📰 New article from TorrentFreak

NVIDIA: Contact With Anna’s Archive Doesn’t Prove Copyright Infringement

https://torrentfreak.com/nvidia-contact-with-annas-archive-doesnt-prove-copyright-infringement/

NVIDIA isn’t about to go quietly into that good night. After authors sued the chipmaker over “millions of pirated books” allegedly fed into its AI models, NVIDIA filed a sweeping motion to toss the case.

The plaintiffs lean on an email thread showing Nvidia’s team asked Anna’s Archive for “high‑speed access” to its shadow library. Nvidia counters that a friendly chat—plus a vague “green light”—doesn’t prove it ever downloaded anyone’s books. In legal terms, the complaint is built on “information and belief,” i.e., educated guesswork, not hard evidence.

To make matters messier, the authors’ amended filing now drags in every unnamed NVIDIA LLM, plus a laundry list of other pirate sites (LibGen, Sci‑Hub, Z‑Library). Nvidia says this is a classic fishing expedition: no specific titles, no proof of download, just speculation that big datasets must contain their works.

The chip giant also knocks out the newer contributory and vicarious infringement claims, arguing there’s no concrete customer who actually used pirated data. While it leaves the core “Books3” claim for a later battle (likely fair‑use defense), Nvidia wants the whole expanded lawsuit dismissed before an April 2 hearing in Oakland.

📰 New article from RetroRGB

Virtua Racing Deluxe 32x – Complete Disassembly

https://retrorgb.com/virtua-racing-deluxe-32x-complete-disassembly.html

Ever seen a classic arcade title ripped apart like a lab rat—only to come out looking healthier than ever? That’s exactly what Matías Zanolli just did with Virtua Racing Deluxe for the Sega 32X, and it’s a geek‑fest you won’t want to miss.

He’s posted a full, buildable disassembly on GitHub that not only maps every corner of the game but also rebuilds to a byte‑identical ROM across all regional versions. In plain English: the code is spot‑on, and the documentation backs it up. While there’s nothing for casual players to download just yet, the groundwork is laid for anyone daring enough to tinker with 32X hardware or port the title elsewhere.

What this means for retro devs:

• Byte‑perfect rebuild – every translated function matches the original down to the last byte.
• 75 SH2 functions and 107 SH2 + 503+ 68K named routines fully documented, with clear subsystem labels.
• A 4 MB expansion ROM (including a 1 MB SH2 workspace) that could eventually unleash parallel processing tricks.

The possibilities are tantalizing—optimizations for the original console, fresh ports to PC or even new homebrew projects—but they’ll take time. So if you’re itching to dive in, head over to the repo, star it, and maybe toss a few bucks at Zanolli’s Patreon while you wait. Retro hacking never looked so polished!

📰 New article from RetroRGB

Weekly Roundup #499

https://retrorgb.com/week499.html

If you’ve ever wished retro‑gaming could run in 4K without turning your living room into a fire hazard, this week’s RetroRGB roundup has the goodies you didn’t know you needed.

First up is a brand‑new Neo Geo HDMI mod that finally lets those classic arcade fighters shine on modern TVs—plus all the schematics are open source, so tinkerers can dive right in. DreamMods’ VM2 pre‑orders also hit the airwaves, promising smoother video scaling for a slew of older consoles. And for anyone who’s ever cursed at tiny solder joints, the Solderless PicoLoader and its sibling PicoIDE now ship open‑source, making firmware flashes as painless as plugging in a USB stick.

A quick firmware bump lands on Analogue’s 3D line (v1.2.0), unlocking smoother textures for those beloved N64 titles. Meanwhile, Okami fans can finally spin the vinyl soundtrack on their turntables—pre‑orders are live. And if you’ve been hunting a GameCube memory card that actually works with modern hardware, the FlipperMCE open‑source card is here to save your saved games.

All of this (and a few “worst HDMI cable” horror stories) is wrapped up in a 33‑minute video/podcast that’s available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and more. Grab it, support Bob on Patreon if you can, and keep the retro revival rolling.