It’s about that time of year again where I check in with the community to see if we can get the front page aligned with what people are interested in knowing and what people are interested in talking about. As the title might have given away, there’s one topic more hot than most at the moment, and that’s AI.

I am a C++ developer by trade, and my place of employ has just started to roll out Claude licences for those interested, so the topic of AI assisted programming is very much on my mind. I’m not just going to go out there and say “AI bad”. I don’t necessarily think it’s a productive conversation to have. The reality is that we’re going to see more projects that make use of it in some form, and some are likely to warrant attention.

Going forwards, I think it’s important that we highlight when projects we do feature make use of AI, and to what extent if such information is available. My hope is that this will strike a reasonable balance of being able to share projects that might look interesting, and giving people who want to avoid AI related projects a simple indicator.

Obviously not every project is going to be so open with their usage, and we have no intention of starting witch hunts by deep diving code and looking for em dashes in the comments. The aim here is to make whatever public information there is accessible for people reading here, and just make things a touch clearer for the people who are looking for that kind of disclaimer.

With that aside though, I am interested to know what the general consensus is among the user base. Are you open to playing ports assisted by AI if it’s the only port available, or happens to offer something unique? Do you draw the line at vibe coding, or do you avoid any project that has Claude listed as a contributor? We sadly don’t have access to polls on the front page any more, but I will make sure to keep up with any replies as they come in.

 

[BigOnYa]

Are you open to playing ports assisted by AI if it’s the only port available, or happens to offer something unique?

Yes, just as long as it is mentioned that Ai was used, I'm ok with it.
Ai has been in games for many years already technically, NPC's are essentially Ai to some form.

 

[weestuarty]

Im Happy if its AI assisted - If the dev knows how to code and uses it to assist or automate certain task. But if the "dev" doesnt understand what the ai is producing then they arent capable of saying its safe.

 

[MeowthBlep]

when a new recomp or whatever drops, wait for confirmation that it's human made.
dont cover ai, dont let it replace us.

 

[ChaosEternal]

I couldn't care less whether a project uses AI. I only care that it works. I hope the day comes when it actually is possible to vibe-code a fully functional recompilation project.

 

[spidychoi]

I don’t really mind as long as AI-generated works or apps work well and are virus-free. And I always welcome AI-generated content that receives regular updates.

 

[SecureBoot]

Transparency is king. As long as y'all aren't intentionally leaving information out in your reporting, I'm happy. Some people care more, some people care less and that's okay.

I agree that the conversation is much more nuanced than "AI bad". It can provide genuine benefit when used effectively. I just want to know for myself whether a project is complete vibe coded slop or had genuine care and love put into it with the assistance of AI

 

[TheStonedModder]

View attachment 587957​

It’s about that time of year again where I check in with the community to see if we can get the front page aligned with what people are interested in knowing and what people are interested in talking about. As the title might have given away, there’s one topic more hot than most at the moment, and that’s AI.

I am a C++ developer by trade, and my place of employ has just started to roll out Claude licences for those interested, so the topic of AI assisted programming is very much on my mind. I’m not just going to go out there and say “AI bad”. I don’t necessarily think it’s a productive conversation to have. The reality is that we’re going to see more projects that make use of it in some form, and some are likely to warrant attention.

Going forwards, I think it’s important that we highlight when projects we do feature make use of AI, and to what extent if such information is available. My hope is that this will strike a reasonable balance of being able to share projects that might look interesting, and giving people who want to avoid AI related projects a simple indicator.

Obviously not every project is going to be so open with their usage, and we have no intention of starting witch hunts by deep diving code and looking for em dashes in the comments. The aim here is to make whatever public information there is accessible for people reading here, and just make things a touch clearer for the people who are looking for that kind of disclaimer.

With that aside though, I am interested to know what the general consensus is among the user base. Are you open to playing ports assisted by AI if it’s the only port available, or happens to offer something unique? Do you draw the line at vibe coding, or do you avoid any project that has Claude listed as a contributor? We sadly don’t have access to polls on the front page any more, but I will make sure to keep up with any replies as they come in.

This won’t do a thing other than start which hunts

Too many people here only talk out of Their ass and the extend of their research and knowledge on the subject is “ai bad” while not wanting to learn or consider another conversation

Most of the people on this site bitching about AI use have never released anything public to the community. Of any size. A tutorial, tool, documentation. Literally anything

Catering to the smallest loudest group Is a good way to lose valuable site members.

 

[GengarsGhostlyGiggles]

If Stripe is all in on Ai agents they probably are the future:https://stripe.dev/blog/minions-stripes-one-shot-end-to-end-coding-agents

My work just rolled out Ai agents (the f*cking premium ones) and holy shit these things are astounding with the right harness.
It's pretty clear the harness/orchestration is the secret sauce to get the holy grail of AI agents, and if you got one you dont' want to share it usually. I watched an AI agent supercharge our c++ to get 10x performance our lead engineer was blown away.
Fable 5, GPT 6 (beta access only thru the dev program), GLM Ox Alpha, holy shit we are in for a wild ride.

 

[Magnus87]

Homemade or store-bought burger? Both are good, and both can make you sick.

AI is just another tool, like autocomplete or the IDE itself. You're not worse for using Unity, Godot, GameMaker, or Unreal instead of developing your own engine.

 

[mathew77]

AI slop must be highlighted in all the topics / threads, so we can avoid LLM at any cost.

 

[Scarlet]

I couldn't care less whether a project uses AI. I only care that it works. I hope the day comes when it actually is possible to vibe-code a fully functional recompilation project.

It kind of is to be fair. For my curiosity I figured I'd try just straight vibe coding just to see what it could do before we got access to the various tools at work, and I have a seemingly functional PC port of Pokemon TCG with a custom duel overlay:

Doing this myself I do understand the need for like, better processes though. Handing Claude a repo of a disassembled game and saying "make a PC port" without having any kind of plan, any understanding of how it's done, or any idea of how to test it, will ultimately lead to a bad port with problems that you don't even know exist.

This won’t do a thing other than start which hunts

Too many people here only talk out of Their ass and the extend of their research and knowledge on the subject is “ai bad” while not wanting to learn or consider another conversation

Most of the people on this site bitching about AI use have never released anything public to the community. Of any size. A tutorial, tool, documentation. Literally anything

Catering to the smallest loudest group Is a good way to lose valuable site members.

On this point, I just think transparency is good. People keep posting that they wish we mentioned a project used AI, and if there's a clear message on the repo, there's no reason why we shouldn't be including it in our coverage. Those people can then safely ignore the content, and people who are interested can engage with it. I know it never quite works out that way, but I think it is a positive step as a whole.

 

[TheStonedModder]

It kind of is to be fair. For my curiosity I figured I'd try just straight vibe coding just to see what it could do before we got access to the various tools at work, and I have a seemingly functional PC port of Pokemon TCG with a custom duel overlay:

View attachment 587993

Doing this myself I do understand the need for like, better processes though. Handing Claude a repo of a disassembled game and saying "make a PC port" without having any kind of plan, any understanding of how it's done, or any idea of how to test it, will ultimately lead to a bad port with problems that you don't even know exist.


On this point, I just think transparency is good. People keep posting that they wish we mentioned a project used AI, and if there's a clear message on the repo, there's no reason why we shouldn't be including it in our coverage. Those people can then safely ignore the content, and people who are interested can engage with it. I know it never quite works out that way, but I think it is a positive step as a whole.

With how purposely ignorant so many people as a whole tend to be on the subject I still think it will cause nothing but witch hunts

Back to what I said before, the only people complaining about this haven’t made or shared anything publically themselves. So without disclosure they have zero way of knowing. All you’re doing is giving them the easy target to be toxic

If this becomes a thing I def won’t be disclosing anything and will take any warnings/bans that come with it. It’s no one’s business or exactly fair to dismiss the whole
Project no matter how little or a lot AI may have been used

If these complaints where coming from other contributors of the forum. I would be more understanding but it’s not

This same pattern extends to other sites/platforms it’s the same pattern

You are listening to the loudest smallest majority

Also do you have that port uploaded anywhere yet? I’d love to help

 

[verypedro]

Having just posted my first homebrew project a few days ago, which was 100% vibecoded I think this is an important discussion. As long as it's clearly stated to be AI, it should be all good and give people who don't wanna to support it the option to not do so.

Maybe having a tag or something?

 

[TheStonedModder]

AI slop must be highlighted in all the topics / threads, so we can avoid LLM it any cost.

You’re gonna be avoiding a lot then

Even big companies and devs use ai now

Hell I used AI to get my system root keys…I can sign or decrypt any module like I’m Sony. It’s a tool if you know how to use it

The main ps5 jailbreak devs even do to find their 0days

And idk if you’ve noticed we are in a bit of a homebrew renaissance vibe coded or not we have more new ports and projects than we ever did across multiple scenes

That’s not a bad thing, and if it’s an issue someone without AI at all can redo the project themselves. Which I have yet to see done yet. Only complaints

This is not aimed towards you or meant as a dig of any sorts

If it wasn’t for AI we still wouldn’t have a GameCube emulator or anything for HOS but so many people said it was simple to do after a vibe coded one came out? If that’s the case than why did no dev release it sooner and claim it wasn’t possible

Same with 3ds

 

[GenoCL]

As an artist I'm naturally against AI but also can't deny it can be helpful.
In projects like this I guess it's fine as long as AI isn't doing 100% of the job. I like human results.

So far I've rejected all machine translated games.

 

[Lumstar]

The scenario tends to be oversimplified. Ethical objections to a game's AI use are just that.
Like it doesn't mean the actual gameplay is bad.

 

[Scarlet]

Also do you have that port uploaded anywhere yet? I’d love to help

I haven't posted it anywhere! I have that alongside a Pokemon Emerald PC port just sitting on my PC. The Emerald one was me wanting to see what all the fuss was about with Fable when that ended up getting re-released. I saw somebody on Reddit had a similar project in progress, so between seeing that and not having the time to fully test it, it's just been on the sidelines. It was fun to see exactly what the model could do though. To list a few features (outside of it running on PC), it supports multiple save files, wide-screen, randomisation, cheats, some various quality of life bits like EXP all, enforced monotype and nuzlocke rules, and even some fun game modes like inheritance. A few simple screenshots below.

To be completely frank I don't think I have the time to put into making sure either one is really suitable for release. If you want to take them on, I'm happy to throw them into a private repo for you to just do what you will with them.

 

[TheStonedModder]

I haven't posted it anywhere! I have that alongside a Pokemon Emerald PC port just sitting on my PC. The Emerald one was me wanting to see what all the fuss was about with Fable when that ended up getting re-released. I saw somebody on Reddit had a similar project in progress, so between seeing that and not having the time to fully test it, it's just been on the sidelines. It was fun to see exactly what the model could do though. To list a few features (outside of it running on PC), it supports multiple save files, wide-screen, randomisation, cheats, some various quality of life bits like EXP all, enforced monotype and nuzlocke rules, and even some fun game modes like inheritance. A few simple screenshots below.

View attachment 587996View attachment 587997

To be completely frank I don't think I have the time to put into making sure either one is really suitable for release. If you want to take them on, I'm happy to throw them into a private repo for you to just do what you will with them.

I would love that.thank you very much

When the gen1recomp was at max hype I got deepseek to re emerald down to the title screen and intro sequence using LOVE potion

But this will be much better I am sure

 

[purple_bandit]

We love and support A.I vibe coding!