Category: Tater News

📰 New article from RetroRGB

Dreammods VM2 Pre-Orders

https://retrorgb.com/dreammods-vm2-pre-orders.html

Let’s be real—your Dreamcast is sitting in the corner like a dusty trophy, and that tiny VMU? More of a paperweight than a power-up. Enter the Dreammods VM2—a sleek, modern reboot of Sega’s 1999 pocket sidekick, now with actual screen clarity and zero dead batteries.

For $115, you get a full-color display, Bluetooth connectivity, and the ability to finally see your saved game data without squinting like you’re decoding hieroglyphs. Available in White, Black, or Blue—because even nostalgia deserves a mood board.

Now, you’re probably thinking: “But what about the VMU Pro?” Good question. Both are $115, both shipping this spring, and both look like they were beamed down from 2024. The real difference? Tiny tweaks in button layout, build feel, and maybe which one makes your inner 12-year-old scream louder. No official head-to-head video yet… but someone’s gonna make one. And when they do, we’ll all be holding our breath (and our VM2s).

Pre-order now. Your Dreamcast is begging for a comeback.

📰 New article from Retro Handhelds

Virtual Boy Classics On Switch Are Bringing Back Two Lost Games

https://retrohandhelds.gg/virtual-boy-classics-on-switch-are-bringing-back-two-lost-games/

Let’s be real: the Virtual Boy was Nintendo’s most gloriously weird misfire—a red-lensed nightmare that turned gaming into a 20-minute headache. But now? It’s getting the royal treatment.

Starting February 17th, Nintendo’s bringing eight Virtual Boy games to Switch Online, including Innsmouth no Yakata, a Japan-only horror gem that’s been haunting collectors for 30 years. And get this—Zero Racers and D-Hopper, two games that never even hit shelves, are finally playable by the public. No more YouTube rips. Just pure, uncut 90s VR weirdness.

The lineup’s a love letter to what the system could’ve been: Wario Land is legendary, Teleroboxer is weirdly fun, and yes—3-D Tetris still slaps. Plus, Nintendo’s tossing in modern luxuries like rewind and remappable controls. And because nostalgia is a drug, they’re selling two headsets: a $25 cardboard version for the purists… and a $100 plastic one if you want to feel like a 1995 tech bro.

Color filters (white, green, yellow) are coming later—because nobody wants to stare at red for 10 hours.

So… headset or no headset? The real question is: how many of us are ready to relive 1995’s most painful love affair?

📰 New article from Retro Handhelds

Geekom A5 Review: The 2026 Standard?

https://retrohandhelds.gg/geekom-a5-review/

Let’s be real: 2026’s mini PCs are basically a tax on optimism. RAM prices? Higher than your ex’s expectations. N100s are back at $200, and if you want something with actual power? You’re looking at $300+.

Enter the Geekom A5 — a little metal beast with a Ryzen 5 7430U, Vega 7 graphics, and zero plastic flimsiness. It doesn’t scream “future,” but it whispers “good enough” in a world where even basic chips cost more than your last coffee run.

Build quality? Surprisingly solid. No glued-on feet, no screw-hunting nightmares. Just open it up, slap in a spare 2.5” drive, and boom — instant GameCube emulator station under your TV. And it’s quiet. Like, “I forgot I turned it on” quiet.

Performance? Not a powerhouse, but for 720p gaming and light multitasking, it punches above its weight. Beats Intel’s UHD graphics in most tests, and even handles PS2-era games like a champ. At $369? It’s not cheap—but in 2026, “cheap” is a myth. The A5 is the guy who shows up with snacks when everyone else is broke.

Bottom line: If you want a no-nonsense, quiet, upgradeable mini PC that won’t make you cry into your RAM bill… this is it. For now.

📰 New article from RetroRGB

NeoPico-HD – Open Source Neo Geo HDMI Mod

https://retrorgb.com/neopico-hd-open-source-neo-geo-hdmi-mod.html

Let’s be real—Neo Geo fans have been begging for a cheap HDMI mod for years. Enter NeoPico-HD: a $5 Raspberry Pi Pico 2 hack that taps directly into your MVS board and spits out clean, linedoubled 480p with full RGB and shadow detail. No fancy chips. No bloated features. Just pure, unfiltered 90s arcade magic—digitally upgraded.

Forget Markus’ $150 CSPSDigiAV beast. If you just need HDMI to feed a scaler like the RetroTINK 4K? This tiny board does it better—faster, cleaner, and for less than a cup of coffee. And here’s the kicker: it’s completely open source, no license, no strings attached. Want to bake it into a custom cabinet? Tinker with “direct video” mode? Go nuts. The code’s yours.

Bonus win: Pair it with the OpenMVS mod for RGB gaming + HDMI streaming. No lag. No noise. Just arcade perfection, reimagined by a hacker who clearly loves the 16-bit era as much as we do.

Watch the video. Gasp. Then go clone it before someone turns it into a $40 kit.

(P.S. Fliperama86’s GitHub? Watch it. Things are about to get weirdly wonderful.)

📰 New article from RetroRGB

Weekly Roundup #498

https://retrorgb.com/week498.html

You know what’s cooler than retro gaming? Fixing retro gaming.

RetroRGB’s latest Roundup is basically a treasure map for vintage tech nerds — and this week, the loot is wild. Ever wish your Sega CD looked like it was beamed in from 1995? There’s now an open-source laser board replacement to bring your console back from the dead. And if you’ve ever stared at a pristine NDS cartridge and thought, “This needs more glitch,” meet the DSpico — an open-source flash cart that’s basically a time machine for your handheld.

But wait — there’s more. A $20 ultrasonic cleaner that actually works? Check. A VHS filter plugin to make your emulator look like it’s playing through a dusty 1987 TV? Double check. And for the true connoisseurs: a Genesis-shaped mug that’s 100% caffeine, 0% regret.

Oh, and someone made replacement labels for your Holo3DFX console. Because nothing says “I love the 90s” like a sticker that says “Powered by Space Magic.”

If you’ve ever spent more time fixing your old hardware than playing it… this is your weekly dopamine hit. And hey — if you’re feeling generous, Bob’s got a Patreon link. Your $5 buys him coffee… and keeps the nostalgia machine running.

📰 New article from TorrentFreak

Spotify’s Crackdown on Anna’s Archive Domains Hits a Jurisdiction Snag

https://torrentfreak.com/spotifys-crackdown-on-annas-archive-domains-hits-a-jurisdiction-snag/

Spotify went full “Hollywood villain” this month—filing a secret court order to shut down Anna’s Archive, the shadowy digital library that’s hoarding millions of music files like a bibliophile dragon. They took down .ORG and .SE domains, got Cloudflare to cooperate, and even tried to freeze the site’s future domain registrations. Bold move. But then… reality hit.

Enter Njalla: a privacy-first domain service named after a Sámi hut (yes, really)—built to keep things safe from predators. Only in this case, the predator is a multi-billion-dollar music industry. Njalla, based in Costa Rica, didn’t blink when Spotify’s U.S. court order landed. Neither did Switch Foundation (.LI) or AFNIC (.PM). Why? Because U.S. court orders don’t automatically mean “do this” in Costa Rica, France, or anywhere else with a sense of legal sovereignty.

The result? Anna’s Archive is still online—just on new domains, hiding behind DNS providers who don’t take orders from New York courts. Even the registrant name “Cyberdyne S.A.” (a Terminator reference?) feels like a troll move.

Bottom line: You can’t sue the internet out of existence. Not when its infrastructure is global, decentralized, and unimpressed by American subpoenas. Spotify’s legal hammer just hit a wall made of privacy ideals and jurisdictional red tape.

And Anna’s Archive? Still streaming. Still sharing. Probably laughing.

📰 New article from Retro Handhelds

The Games I’m Actually Playing on My Odin 3

https://retrohandhelds.gg/the-games-im-actually-playing-on-my-odin-3/

You know that feeling when your new gadget is so good, it makes you question all your life choices? Meet the Odin 3—Ayn’s latest handheld wizard, and now my personal dopamine delivery system.

Nick didn’t just unbox it—he unleashed it. Between Vampire Survivors clones, PS2 crash-fests, and a slot-machine prison simulator called Clover Pit, his playlist reads like a love letter to addictive, low-stakes fun. Megabonk? 3D Vampire Survivors with jumping. Bloodshed? Duke Nukem meets bullet hell with voice acting that should be on a podcast. And Destiny: Rising? A mobile game so good, it made him forget COD Mobile ever existed. (We’re not mad.)

The real MVP? Hollow Knight. Yes, he finally played it. And yes—on the Odin 3’s gorgeous screen—it felt like magic. “I get it now,” he says. We believe you.

Burnout 3 on 3x resolution? Yes, please. G.I. Joe beat ‘em up with cartoon-perfect style? Sign me up.

The Odin 3 isn’t just powerful—it’s persuasive. You don’t need to max out every emulator or run 4K Steam games. Sometimes, all you need is one great game… then another… then five more before bedtime.

The real win? Knowing your next handheld won’t collect dust. It’ll just collect wins.

P.S. If you’ve got a game you can’t quit on the Odin 3, we want to hear it. And maybe… just maybe… you’re also stuck in Clover Pit right now.

📰 New article from TorrentFreak

The Oscar Surge: ‘Sinners’ Piracy Triples Following Record-Breaking 16 Nominations

https://torrentfreak.com/the-oscar-surge-sinners-piracy-triples-following-record-breaking-16-nominations/

Oh, the Oscars don’t just crown winners—they fuel piracy surges like a Hollywood glitter bomb.

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners just dropped 16 Oscar nominations—yes, sixteen—and fans didn’t just cheer. They pirated. Hard. BitTorrent data shows downloads of the film tripled overnight, while other nominees like Bugonia saw a nice 50% bump. Meanwhile, the un-nominated Superman? Crickets. The message is clear: Oscar buzz = pirate frenzy.

This isn’t new—remember when Barbie or Oppenheimer spiked on pirate sites after nominations? But this is next-level. With 16 noms, Sinners isn’t just a movie—it’s an event. And where there’s buzz, there are always folks skipping the subscription to grab it for free.

Here’s the kicker: this surge isn’t just about BitTorrent. Pirate streaming sites are seeing millions of extra views we can’t even fully track. Legal platforms? They’re riding the wave too—Sinners jumped back into Max’s Top 10 and VOD sales are soaring. So yeah, piracy might be bad… but it’s also the ultimate fan signal.

Bottom line: If Sinners wins big on Oscar night? Prepare for a digital stampede. Theaters might lose a few sales—but the internet? It’s already packed.

📰 New article from Retro Handhelds

Game Over: Casio Loopy

https://retrohandhelds.gg/game-over-casio-loopy/

Meet the Casio Loopy: the console that printed stickers instead of pixels.

In 1995, while Sony and Sega were locked in a 3D arms race, Casio dropped a lavender wonder that didn’t care about frame rates—it cared about diary decor. With its built-in thermal sticker printer, the Loopy turned gameplay into glittery keepsakes: anime girls, fashion sprites, and your cat’s face (if you were brave enough to scan it via the optional MagiCard). It wasn’t a failure because it was bad—it failed because it was too nice. No one knew if it was a game console, a scrapbooking tool, or a very confused Hello Kitty robot.

Ten games. All sweet. Zero explosions. The market shrugged, grabbed a PlayStation, and never looked back.

But here’s the twist: 30 years later? The Loopy is iconic. Collectors pay top yen for it—not for its 32-bit processor, but because it’s the only console that made you say, “Wait… I can put this on my pencil case?”

It didn’t win the console wars.

It won our hearts.

And honestly? We could use more consoles that ask, “What if gaming felt like a glitter bomb in a journal?” 🎮✨

📰 New article from TorrentFreak

Aylo Wins $90 Million Default Judgment Against Porn Piracy Network

https://torrentfreak.com/aylo-wins-90-million-default-judgment-against-porn-piracy-network/

Aylo just scored a $90 million win—against a ghost.

The parent company of Pornhub, Brazzers, and MOFOS sued an elusive pirate operator named Anton Popravkin for running eight adult sites that streamed over 9,000 of its copyrighted videos. Popravkin? Never showed up in court. So Aylo got a default judgment—a legal win by default, like winning a race because everyone else quit.

The math was wild: Aylo initially asked for $150 million ($15K per video). The judge said, “Nice try,” and cut it to $90 million—still enough to make pirates sweat. But here’s the twist: Aylo knows they’ll never collect a dime. Popravkin’s probably sipping cocktails somewhere with no U.S. assets.

So why bother? Domains. The real win: the court ordered eight pirate domains—FreshPorno, Kojka, you name it—to be handed over to Aylo. Verisign’s already been told: transfer control. In a few days, those sites will go dark… or worse, become Aylo-branded PSA portals. (“Hey, why pirate when you can subscribe?”)

It’s less about the money and more about sending a message: We own the content. You don’t get to steal it—and we’ll take your URL too.

Bottom line: The lawsuit was a legal stunt. The domain seizure? That’s the knockout punch.