AlAjem

Emulators are legally protected and asking for donations is just fine, the fly in the ointment for emulation of modern consoles is that they require firmware and decryption keys extracted from real consoles to actually do their advertised function, the emulator might tell you that it is your responsibility to extract the required files from your own console to protect itself but just like game "backups" it's much easier to download the required files someone else has ripped and uploaded to the internet.

The stupid part was paywalling the latest version of the emulator behind a patreon subscription (it wasn't even effective as anyone could share the latest release) which opened them up to being taken down by nintendo although it was likely they would have been taken down anyway just because the switch 2 was nearing launch and they didn't want switch emulator developers to get started on the switch 2.

With the early dies with thousands of transistors you really can see the logic gates, once it gets to the millions you can see the structures minimized and multiplied but once it gets to the billions on modern dies it becomes so small and abstract I wonder if any image can capture the detail contained in them.

I misread it as "doommaxxing" and could only guess it somehow involved Doom (1993).

I don't see the case for DRM protected local models on either side.

The consumer has access to free and open models for local use.

The supplier has better control and wider market to serve running the models in data centers.

Only way I can see encrypted models being widespread is if they are bundled as part of a software package (OS/Browser/etc) and not sold as the product.

Windows 8 hasn't been vindicated by time yet, Windows releases have been more of a pendulum where every other major release is widely adopted (not necessarily beloved) after a misbegotten major release.

Most definitely, we have a seen a version of this within our lifetimes through the history of Gates foundation laundering Bill Gates's public image from a historic lows in the 90's to being seen as a "redeemed" counterpart to the new generation of tech billionaires right up until his divorce cracked his public image he spent 20 years building.

Pokemon TCG Pocket which uses a modified ruleset and its own card sets designed for fast games on mobile devices earned over a billion dollars in its first year before slowing down.

Then there is the official online simulator which is not monetized at all and not used for competitive events so there is no reason for them to market it as a product like its mobile game sister.

The cards themselves weren’t very rare when he bought them and it’s quite easy to keep them in mint condition if you never played the game.

>infinite printing supply

Much like other collectibles all the most valuable cards are so long out of print that even if they were reprinted exactly as they were they would not receive the same valuation by the collectors because they are not the originals.

But the boom in old pokemon cards still drove demand for modern pokemon cards so much so that more pokemon cards have been printed post 2020 than the two decades before it despite the fact that “rare” cards you can obtain in new sets only go for hundreds to thousands at most and yet people still gamble on new pokemon card packs.

A lot of the people paying the price of a car for a piece of mass produced cardboard aren’t doing it just because it looks nice they are treating it as an investment much like the man featured in the article when he bought the cards in the 2000’s, only difference is he could buy collections in bulk for hundreds of pounds while individual cards are going for thousands of pounds now.

I think you underestimate how much of a game’s success comes from innate appeal that you can’t simply pivot into with AI boosted workforce, high profile failures like Concord and Highguard didn’t lack production value they lacked the appeal to millions it takes to fuel a live service game of that scale not everyone can be Fortnite and make the switch at the perfect time to hop on a new trend.

>around decade ago

Two decades now actually. By 2016 we were already seeing the mass transition to browsing on phones instead of PCs, Windows 10 was already out and for reasons I am not quite sure of the old homepage and toolbar hijackers were on the decline and adblockers were on the rise although I am sure there were still people using malware ridden Internet Explorers for years after.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_hijacking