Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

This sounds potentially interesting, but the website is so vague it's criminal.

I have absolutely no idea what the "console gaming experience of the 1990s" was. What console? What experience?

I've only owned 3 games consoles in my life.

An original XBox, a gift from a friend which I immediately hacked to be an XBox Media Centre and used daily for years but never played a game on again.

A PS2.

And now a Wii for my kid.

For any website or any publicity material it is always a mistake to rely on shared experience, because whatever your experience, there are billions of people out there who do not share it.

So don't rely on it. Say what your product is and does and how it does it.

This page does not.



I have to say, this is not targeted at you. I know exactly what a 1990s gaming experience is like and xbox is the console that killed it completely.


Never assume the reader knows what you're talking about, that's bad writing.


Could one be forgiven for assuming on the internet that people know what "console gaming" or "the 1990s" are? I expected the worst reading this comment thread before clicking TFA but it's really very straightforward.


Well of course I know. But I never owned a games console in the 1990s, I've never played a game on a 1990s console, so I have no clue what aspect of the experience is being captured or not.


It really depends on the context.

Everyone's bandwidth would be saturated if no one assumed their reader knew what they were talking about, but assumption is a form of lossy compression that allows both miscommunication and misunderstanding.


conversely: never assume the writing is for everybody :)


My point is general.

That's what I was talking about.

Don't assume -- especially when writing. Always explain because people outside your target audience will read what you write and they may go on to buy a million of your product, or give you a job, or something.


Suggestion: Stop giving instructions to people and talking down to them, people generally don't like this.


Not saying you are wrong about that, but if you don't know about 90s console gaming and you only used the XBox as media center you are likely not the target audience for this project anyway.


Simple mathematics will help you here. All three consoles you mention all came out after 2000, which means this is not what the project is trying to replicate.


The page does say it, though it might be easy to overlook if you don't understand the significance of the statements:

> Zero setup

> Direct to gameplay

> Distraction-free gaming

> Use SD cards or other external media as carts

The 90s gaming console experience was:

1. Grab your game cartridge.

2. Insert cartridge into console.

3. Turn on console.

4. Play the game.

There are no steps between 3 and 4. The console booted directly into the game. It was fast and there was no messing with multimedia experience stuff (like Xbox or PS later introduced).

I have no experience with Kazeta but this is what I would expect from its homepage.


I got a patch:

  @@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ The 90s gaming console experience was:
  
  1. Grab your game cartridge.
  
  +1.5. Blow into the cartridge slot for some reason to make the game boot on the first try. But in reality you are slowly destroying the contacts and making the problem worse.
  +
  2. Insert cartridge into console.

  3. Turn on console.
Fixed it.

Honestly though, the experience of just turning it on and being in game was great. I had access to an NES and an SNES growing up and have a lot of great memories playing games with friends.


one more patch/pull request:

1. buy your second game (130 DEM in 1995 / 109 EUR inflation-adjusted for 2025 / all the money you saved for weeks age-adjusted) for your new Sega Saturn.

2. notice it doesn't load on your console

3. be told that you have to send everything in to have it repaired (in retrospect find out that Saturns often had faulty CD drives)

4. wait three weeks (an eternity age-adjusted for a 12 year-old) until you get your console returned

5. finally play


I think it’s confusing particularly because it pushes the whole “zero setup” thing, then when you go to the docs to figure out what the heck the thing is it describes a long list of things one would need to do in order to set up a working physical machine running Kazeta and the cartridges etc... The website itself reads like it’s an app you can just download and run, while at the same time hinting that you’re gonna need to do a fair amount of physical stuff without really explaining the whole thing.


The 2nd and 3rd words on the page are "operating system", it is obvious that an operating system must be installed before it can be used.


Great! Thank you. That's much more helpful.


[flagged]


It's not nostalgia for a game, it's wanting to get back to plug-and-play gaming experiences.

With consoles in the 70s/80s/90s, when you put a game into the console and turned it on, you launched directly into the game. That immediacy is lost when you end up with endless software updates and having to launch games from a menu. If you didn't live through that time I can understand why you aren't nostalgic for it.


Yes its called modernization

are you ignoring the fact that physical games sales literally in spiral downward trend for decades???

people not buy it anymore, that's why company didnt produce that any of that

You may argue that company has a hand with it but its just down to culture, japan still buying an cd/blueray for physical music and games etc

their industry still thriving despite so called "old tech", people choose to do that


Most modern physical games don't give the full benefits I'm talking about, as you still have to install them and update them. I'm talking about games where the only thing you need to do is plug them in to a console and start gaming.


[flagged]


She is 5. I bought it less than 2Y ago.

If you don't understand something then it is not OK to blame the mental faculties of the author.


[flagged]


> I didn’t even imply anything of that nature.

Yes you did.

>> maybe you got mixed up and you’re referring to your kid from a long time ago

Accusing me of senility is not merely ad hominem it's also extremely rude.

Learn to do better.


That’s your twisted opinion. I don’t know your situation. The Wii is really old and obsolete. Perhaps you have lots of kids and you don’t have any kids at the moment. The rules here even say it, you need to be charitable and assume the most positive meaning of a phrase.

You need to learn to talk with basic courtesy. It’s not an assumption when I say this: you have issues.


> You need to learn to talk with basic courtesy. It’s not an assumption when I say this: you have issues.

Talk about projection. Sorry, but this kind of gaslighting just pisses me off. You're entire comment history is that of being incredible obnoxious to everyone and and its screaming "I have issues". Then you write that? What an arse.


Thanks for stalking me like a creeper. I think that act alone is signal you have the most issues. I'm not going to stalk your comment history but I wouldn't be surprised if you do shit like this on the regular. Most people just don't have time to stalk someones comment history... especially if the thread didn't have to anything to DO with them.

Can you not stalk me and not insult me to my face? also please mind your own business.


What an entirely expected style of response. Of course it's the due diligence itself that's the problem, not what it discovers. How can someone have the nerve to do that to you!

> I wouldn't be surprised if you do shit like this on the regular.

I certainly do, and I recommend everyone to do it. It's quick and requires much less time and effort than to accidentally be drawn in to a barren discussion with - in a broad sense - the proverbial village idiot.


>How can someone have the nerve to do that to you!

More like how someone can live in such a state where they need to do this. Do you not have a life? Don't answer. This conversation is over.


> Do you not have a life?

Judging by your comment history I'd look inwards!


>Judging by your comment history I'd look inwards!

I do. Commenting and having contrarian opinions isn't the same as spending time going onto other peoples threads to start shit and stalking them. Unfortunately, you don't have much going on, that's why you can do this. It's the truth and you know it. Good day sir.


I think you should consider calling the police and report that someone read your public comments on a discussion board - that's very powerful and concerning proof that the person has nothing else to do!

Snark aside, I find it amusing with you weirdly domineering types that you just can't stop trying to gaslight. It seems compulsive; "you don't have much going on, that's why you can do this. It's the truth and you know it.". Like, come on, the eyeroll got so far back I got worried it might get stuck.


But it's true though. Don't pretend it isn't. Time for you to leave. I suggest you try to improve your own life rather then focus on mine.


> You need to learn to talk with basic courtesy

> Don't answer. This conversation is over.

> Time for you to leave.

It's fittingly delusional, but very amusing, that you think you can command people around on an online discussion board.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: