It's worth mentioning that the author has a YouTube channel[1] where he periodically posts videos showcasing updates he's made to the game over time. I'm surprised there isn't a link or even any kind of screenshots of the game on the Github repo, even if it is still very early in development.
I personally have found there is something of an art to a good readme. So folks can make one that is informative and visual, others can't. I have a project or two that suffered because my readme designing skills suck, then talented friend PR'd a great readme with screenshots and such.
Was wondering the same thing.
If you search "screenshot" in the issues, there are a few screenshots people have uploaded, primarily in regards to demonstrating bugs.
I did not know this concept existed, Wonderful Idea, no doubt demakes would be a lot more frequent if we valued ecology and actually tried to curb digital obsolescence as much as possible, in a permacomputing way.
I imagine it would be much more straightforward to port pretty much any indie games to consoles like Xbox original onwards, PS3 onwards, Wii onwards, maybe Windows 7 average desktop and notebooks (lots of indies already use older direct x and are compatible with windows 7 , another win for the pc master race).
The AAA Games would need to be done with less scale and no 4k dlss ray tracing whatever.
While I agree with the sentiment, and it's awesome that a lower-specced version of the game exists...
> port [...] to consoles like Xbox original
Uuh, in the name of energy efficiency, let's not. My smartphone is much more powerful and has a much lower power consumption than these systems. My Steam Deck even more so, though it's higher-power than a phone.
Targeting energy-efficient, low power hardware should be the goal, not porting to inneficient obsolete HW, IMO (though it's pretty cool, and demonstrates that you can do a lot with little computing power).
Still, I agree that something that runs well on old commodity hardware can run well on most existing hardware, reducing the need for hardware upgrades.
But my point is, running ond old HW is probably counterproductive if you only value ecology. At best, you could emulate old HW with much more efficient modern HW, and integrate most of the system on a single low power chip.
''running ond old HW is probably counterproductive if you only value ecology''
I could be wrong, but i think the opposite than you.
You are being reductionist, and only accounting for the factor of direct eletrical consumption during use, and not the total energy and natural resources spent during the equipments lifetime , specially its manufacturing (which i think is the real measure of ecological efficiency we should aim).
The old hardware was already produced, resources were spent and pollution and emissions were made, so it is a duty that we should use it as much as possible until irrepairable breakdown happens, and reduce our consumption of new stuff that would only replace it. Like your example of a new smartphone or new steamdeck replacing the old Xbox Original: it is almost certain that the electrical consumption gains would not compensate, in terms of total energy and resources spent and pollution made, the discarting of the original xbox (in fact, it would generate more waste that would need to be reprocessed, generating even more pollution).
Remember the 3Rs ? The 1st R is REDUCE, not ''replace stuff every 3-5 years to get slightly less eletric consumption''.
It is kind of the point of the Permacomputing movement the OP mentioned: perma comes from perma-nent, make computers that last much longer lifespans than the current system.
If people could repurpose old PS3s and Xbox for playing indies, and bigger games we demaked to it, people could keep using the stuff and buy less.
This isn't an issue. A lot of us who mod old hardware, etc... Once we get the project working, we'll play the game for like 10 minutes a few times a year at most lol.
Can't wait to fire up my 128mb ram modded og xbox today, to test the unreleased debug build of the need for speed game mvg dumpped yesterday.
I'll probably play it for 10 minutes before I pack up the console again.
The typical modern gaming PC uses a lot more power than the original xbox. Yes maybe it's more efficient because it's doing "more", but in the end it's one person playing a game.
> But my point is, running ond old HW is probably counterproductive if you only value ecology.
Do you have a calculation for that? It's not entirely clear that this is the case if you factor in that the old hardware already exists and new hardware needs to be produced.
> I imagine it would be much more straightforward to port pretty much any indie games to consoles like Xbox original onwards, PS3 onwards, Wii onwards, maybe Windows 7 average desktop and notebooks (lots of indies already use older direct x and are compatible with windows 7 ,
Not a game developer, but given the lack of ports between current gen gaming systems I would assume that it is not straightforward. Sure, a game engine will magically pump out your game for different backends but even supporting Vulkan and Metal results in much gnawing and mashing of teeth (and a lack of games on Apple hardware).
Then there is the developer ergonomics. I know that I hate having to write code to maintain compatibility for even 5 year old standards. Each GPU and game engine is also a unique clusterfuck of incompatibility and subtle bugs that crash the shit out of games. If you want to support that old hardware, you will need to test on the actual hardware. Why bother with all that when there is no money in it and your team just wants to move on from a project that already took 5 years of their lives to develop?
Forward compatibility is something I strongly agree with but backwards compatibility is a logistical nightmare.
Forward compatibility is promising.
- The computing systems are kinda standardized now, with consoles and pcs using X64-86 architecture, Xbox using a optimized windows os, and PS4 (almost certainly PS5 too) running BSD. Industry standards would bridge the gap even more, like making open software mandatory (everyone just incorporates their code). More companies investing in FOSS like Vulkan instead of the proprietary ones would be helpfull too.
- The proton software on Linux makes a compatibility layer between the game and a newer system, and you can choose an older version.
I think we could eventually just leave the ''XYZ Game of the Year'' v.2.1.4 and never touch it again, and future gamers would at most have to select the proton layer version and vulkan-directx-other game engine version of the game release time, and it could be automatically done in the instalation.
This demake is an additional game. Seems like it will just add to the energy load required to run a computer programs. Which I think is fine, frankly. Perhaps some people will play it instead of portal but even still there is the overhead of developing it. I guess if we cared about ecology we'd shut down more game servers faster.
To 'save the planet' you want as many people playing video games, watching TV, or arguing on social media as possible.
If they're doing those things, consuming digital entertainment (eventually powered by renewables), then they're not out in the real world, travelling around using fossil fuels, consuming physical products, using up physical resources and emitting CO2.
I was thinking the same - ecology. People need to have 3d Tetris with raytracing while there are millions of hours of old games to be played through. There are few titles that are avant-garde and IMO better in 3d, like GTA VC/SA, Minecraft is revelation of a sandbox game. But otherwise we don't need such good graphics and DLC, when we want story and playability. Recently we played with kids Pokémon fire Red - the world is huge and full of secrets. But I guess this only applies to me and my kids, because other kids I know (my brother's e.g.) don't like pixel games at all
I went ahead and built the newest version of the ROM into a .z64 (happened to have a copy of Portal on hand). Here's a magnet link for it if you just want to use it:
Is distributing it as a patch of `portal_pak_000.vpk' meant more as a form of "DRM"? Because I doubt that BPS can manage to reuse a lot of bits from a file meant for a completely different version of the game...
Readit News
[1] https://www.youtube.com/@happycoder1989/videos
https://github.com/lambertjamesd/portal64/issues?q=screensho...
I imagine it would be much more straightforward to port pretty much any indie games to consoles like Xbox original onwards, PS3 onwards, Wii onwards, maybe Windows 7 average desktop and notebooks (lots of indies already use older direct x and are compatible with windows 7 , another win for the pc master race). The AAA Games would need to be done with less scale and no 4k dlss ray tracing whatever.
> port [...] to consoles like Xbox original
Uuh, in the name of energy efficiency, let's not. My smartphone is much more powerful and has a much lower power consumption than these systems. My Steam Deck even more so, though it's higher-power than a phone.
Targeting energy-efficient, low power hardware should be the goal, not porting to inneficient obsolete HW, IMO (though it's pretty cool, and demonstrates that you can do a lot with little computing power).
Still, I agree that something that runs well on old commodity hardware can run well on most existing hardware, reducing the need for hardware upgrades.
But my point is, running ond old HW is probably counterproductive if you only value ecology. At best, you could emulate old HW with much more efficient modern HW, and integrate most of the system on a single low power chip.
You are being reductionist, and only accounting for the factor of direct eletrical consumption during use, and not the total energy and natural resources spent during the equipments lifetime , specially its manufacturing (which i think is the real measure of ecological efficiency we should aim).
The old hardware was already produced, resources were spent and pollution and emissions were made, so it is a duty that we should use it as much as possible until irrepairable breakdown happens, and reduce our consumption of new stuff that would only replace it. Like your example of a new smartphone or new steamdeck replacing the old Xbox Original: it is almost certain that the electrical consumption gains would not compensate, in terms of total energy and resources spent and pollution made, the discarting of the original xbox (in fact, it would generate more waste that would need to be reprocessed, generating even more pollution).
Remember the 3Rs ? The 1st R is REDUCE, not ''replace stuff every 3-5 years to get slightly less eletric consumption''. It is kind of the point of the Permacomputing movement the OP mentioned: perma comes from perma-nent, make computers that last much longer lifespans than the current system. If people could repurpose old PS3s and Xbox for playing indies, and bigger games we demaked to it, people could keep using the stuff and buy less.
A Few texts for inspiration: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/12/how-and-why-i-stop...https://www.iltascabile.com/scienze/sostenibilita-digitale/
Can't wait to fire up my 128mb ram modded og xbox today, to test the unreleased debug build of the need for speed game mvg dumpped yesterday. I'll probably play it for 10 minutes before I pack up the console again.
Do you have a calculation for that? It's not entirely clear that this is the case if you factor in that the old hardware already exists and new hardware needs to be produced.
We should have a digital-DNA-Lineage-for [CODE, GAMES, APPS] etc...
Where in 100 years, we can follow a digital evolutionary time-table-mind-mad that routes us through all the code, apps, games that got us [HERE]..
And it will connect logic of thought and problemsolving through generations.
This is a thing we should through a (NON-HALLUCINATING) AI at?
Not a game developer, but given the lack of ports between current gen gaming systems I would assume that it is not straightforward. Sure, a game engine will magically pump out your game for different backends but even supporting Vulkan and Metal results in much gnawing and mashing of teeth (and a lack of games on Apple hardware).
Then there is the developer ergonomics. I know that I hate having to write code to maintain compatibility for even 5 year old standards. Each GPU and game engine is also a unique clusterfuck of incompatibility and subtle bugs that crash the shit out of games. If you want to support that old hardware, you will need to test on the actual hardware. Why bother with all that when there is no money in it and your team just wants to move on from a project that already took 5 years of their lives to develop?
Forward compatibility is something I strongly agree with but backwards compatibility is a logistical nightmare.
I think we could eventually just leave the ''XYZ Game of the Year'' v.2.1.4 and never touch it again, and future gamers would at most have to select the proton layer version and vulkan-directx-other game engine version of the game release time, and it could be automatically done in the instalation.
If they're doing those things, consuming digital entertainment (eventually powered by renewables), then they're not out in the real world, travelling around using fossil fuels, consuming physical products, using up physical resources and emitting CO2.
Pretty bleak future though.
By most accounts the PS3 was not fun to write software for due to its unusual specialized processing units.
https://archive.org/details/portal_v1_ntsc
Here's one for the Apple II [ http://www.deater.net/weave/vmwprod/portal/ ]
and the C64:
https://tasvideos.org/2122G
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:5FAD6DBBF02D39AA40062D7F0F498F3F341F8DB3&tr=udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce
[1] https://teamultrarare.itch.io/telocation-gemini
[2] https://teamultrarare.itch.io/mission-lost-control
[3] https://teamultrarare.itch.io/styx
https://github.com/lambertjamesd/portal64/releases
(There's some older releases below as a ready-to-go .z64 rom image, though, which should be ready to run on an Everdrive)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_game_demakes