Obviously the #zeebo flopped, espechally due to #Qualcomm's #BREW #OS ¹ which is basically '#JavaMobile but worse in order to circumvent #SoftwarePatents' whilst also having dogshit performance and being hard to develop for or even port games to, making it even worse than #Gizmondo or #NGage which used #J2ME.

• Making the #OUYA look like a piece of perfection in comparison, because that #cube didn't cost 20x more to port games to but merely demanded the (OUYA-exclusive) #GameController #API (which predates the later #Android-Standardized one!) to be supported, which is closer to a #patch than a #redevelopment!

But even in a starved market like #Brazil most households weren't gonna dump over 1 month minimum wage on an aging #3G-#Cellphone with composite video and 6-button #USB #controllers.

• Also who thought that announcing a price cut before launch was a good idea in a time the "Osbourne Effect" was already well known?

So yeah, blame Qualcomm for this shitshow...

• To add insult to injury, #piracy on it is rampant... and the #PS2 whipped it's ass around town cuz it even as #import #console like the #PlayStation2 could shaft them in spite of #tariffs because by that point #Sony closed their books on that platform and didn't give a fuck about #piracy, only allowing pre-agreed licensees like #EA to still shove out their games for it.

And lets be honest, #Edutainment is not a cash cow because in places like #Mexico it's way easier to get even cheaper #PC|s due to #NAFTA #FreeTrade (i.e. all the stuff #refurbishers couldn't sell in the #USA anymore got offered there before being sold further south...

• Really sad, cuz if the Zeebo was like a €50 box, it could've been a smash hit, so it died due to lack of resources...

Needless to say the Zeebo is the strongest argument for #StopKillingGames as these devices are nearly useless these days and piracy is the only way to get / change games on it and play them these days.

• Also respect to Derek from #SSFF for playing the entire Zeebo catalogue tho there's nothing to ride home about...

Nowadays the nieche of the zeebo is served by cheap #PCs for #gaming even cheaper #Android devices and (aside from few stores like #Steam that managed to upstell a #DRM as a #feature), rampant #piracy to the point that #MobileGaming outside of #iOS is basically dead unless we account #PayToLoose #Shovelware of the "#DisguisedGambingGame" kind as "#Gaming" which is an insult even for #gambling, because there at least in theory, with a honest operator the chance of winning is greater than zero (tho I'd still disrecommend it because no gambling game is *"fair" beyond the theoretical chance of winning by the rules)...

#tech

@MiaWinter likely...

I'm just glad #SoftwarePatents like that are null and void in #Germany...

#NotLegalAdvice

I hope #PatentTrolls like #Rothschild get their asses handed to court.

• Espechally when the #PatentTroll's #lawyers farted out "#AIslop" (don't call it a #hallucination, #Mansplainers don't hallucinate either, they know it's wrong and unlike any "#AI" they do have sentience!) in their filings.

• The fact that #Valve settled in the past is only due to the #SueHappy nature of #US #courts, where filing nefariously isn't punished and where #settlements are cheaper than fighting for the #truth, with #ShellCompanies being weaponized as disposable shields from harm!

I'm just glad such bs patents are null and void in #Germany because they are neither "new" nor "an actual invention that solves a technical problem"...

#NotLegalAdvice #commentary #sarcasm #PatentTrolling #Patents #SoftwarePatents

PERA Remains A Serious Threat To Efforts Against Bad Patents

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/20/pera-remains-a-serious-threat-to-efforts-against-bad-patents/

I too am shocked and offended.

"In my opinion, none of the three patents I've discussed here should have been allowed. It's shocking and offensive that they were," Sigmon said. "The USPTO dropped the ball big time, and it's going to externalize a lot of uncertainty (and, potentially, litigation cost) onto developers and companies that do not deserve it."

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/an-embarrassing-failure-of-the-us-patent-system-videogame-ip-lawyer-says-nintendos-latest-patents-on-pokemon-mechanics-should-not-have-happened-full-stop/

#Nintendo #Patents #SoftwarePatents #Pokemon #PalWorld

#SoftwarePatents should be #illegal as they only exist to #profit #ValueRemoving #RentSeekers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmyCy5pRMSg

Digging through my #Steam library and found a game that I apparently last played in 2014: Symphony (Empty Clip Studios). Basically, an arcade shooter that loads up music from your own music library and lets you shoot some vector things, to the beat.

Problem is, most of the music I have downloaded on this computer is via iTunes, in AAC format. Back in the day I bought the AAC add-on for Symphony, but the problem is, Symphony asks me to install QuickTime. #Apple has deprecated #QuickTime for Windows, so I'm not *too* keen on trying to install it. Also the game says "hey we're not allowed to distribute the decoder" - shit, I paid money for the add-on, what did I pay you guys for back in the day? Apple *sucks*, man.

Guess I'll convert shit to sensible formats after all if I want to play this. Hell, these days I can even use MP3s without feeling bad! Remember: Hella proprietary formats *continue* to screw you over, if not today, then one day in the future.

#softwarepatents #videogames

Virtually the same text - a detailed spec/design document that describes a problem and its technical solution in software - if typed into Word and sent to a patent lawyer, will turn into a patent, if typed into a modern LLM (those reasoning ones using chain-of-thought-reasoning), will turn into software that cannot even be copyrighted.

Yepp the legal system is consistent and reasonable. And not at all a decade behind technology.

#llm #copyright #softwarepatents #ai #lawisweird