iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Glad to see that @borman.bsky.social was able to get something working with Atari's Garfield coin-op prototype. I tried looking at the files a while ago and wasn't sure if there was enough for a functional game. Atari Games's PPS tools and the whole dev process for their pixel art is so complex.

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shoffur @shoffur.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Cactus lady for Nested Dreams (she will be holding either a handheld device of some kind or a magazine). #aseprite #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev

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Cicada Sirens @cicadasirens.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It's Bandcamp Friday. If you have a few extra bucks and want to hear loud and depressing noises, then please consider supporting me. These are my favorite albums I've made so far. cicadasirens.bandcamp.com/album/harsh-... cicadasirens.bandcamp.com/album/legacy...

cicadasirens.bandcamp.com

Harsh Wires, by Cicada Sirens

7 track album

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Very surprised to see more stuff from Atari Gremlins survived!

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Darío @dariosamo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Apparently VGE hid the comment I left under his video. Here it is for anyone who wants to see it, as it seems to clearly bother him that someone wants to hold him even slightly responsible for the major damage he's been doing and continues to do this scene.

Not putting any sort of disclosure in the thumbnail or the description that this isn't from the actual team that made the tooling (which this uses and is the only reason it works) and the existing Banjo port is a new low for this channel.

This port is NOT associated with us. It is entirely AI-generated. Both Zelda: Recompiled and Banjo: Recompiled have very clear No AI stances. We have not, do not and will not use AI to ever work on these projects.

Your irresponsible reporting is exactly the sort of behavior I've told you about that completely hurts the scene and the entire reason why people keep pumping out these projects just so they get their 10 minutes of fame in your videos.

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Darío @dariosamo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

We're not interested in engaging a race to the bottom and will take the time that is necessary to deliver a polished version of the game. Using the extensive amount of human research we've done for the framework, the renderer and the games themselves and throwing AI at it is just disrespectful.

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Darío @dariosamo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Just a warning for everyone, since Video Game Slopterica keeps being the most irresponsible YouTube Channel to exist these days. The Banjo-Tooie Recompilation is NOT associated with us. It is entirely AI-generated. Both Zelda: Recompiled and Banjo: Recompiled have very clear No AI stances.

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Jason Scott @textfiles.com · 01/10/2026

Looking forward, nay excited for this little fad to end

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Ed Foster. @fo5tered.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Pickle, the Robin, in the Cherry Plum Tree a few days ago 🪶 #birds #DDOR

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Jack Grimes @jackapedia.design · 01/10/2026

Walls of Philadelphia

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Neato Tito @neatotito.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Illustration of a man firing a rifle at two bears attacking him

Man - Me
Further away bear - self doubt
Closer bear- This one is just a real bear

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Nested Dreams will be using as few stock sound effects as possible. For example, I recorded some metal grate sounds in the parking lot at the nearby park and then I combined a bunch of different clips together for some foley footstep sfx that is now in-game. #devlog #indiegame #soundeffects

A screenshot of FL Studio, showing several audio clips stacked together to make a rhythmic sound effect, as seen in the spectrum view of the audio recording (which uses a heat map to plot out all the frequencies, giving them a fire-like appearance).

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Yuri Stern | SIGNALIS @laststarfarer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Since I've received a few emails asking me about this: "Vossstorg Toys" is NOT an official SIGNALIS partner, rose-engine was not involved, were not contacted, and did not approve any products they sell.

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Kevin Edwards ( Retro game developer ) @kevedwardsretro.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Just heard the very sad news that a former Software Creations friend passed away recently. All of his friends knew him as 'Bone'. He was a friendly, fun, knowledgeable guy who started in QA at Creations back in the early 90s, and was recently working on Star Citizen. RIP @bone6502.bsky.social

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Last month, I spoke with Duncan about Alien Arena and his career as a pinball software engineer during the Vid Kidz panel at CAX 2026. I literally just started following this DevMsg.txt account a couple of days ago, so this is quite a crazy coincidence.

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shoffur @shoffur.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Vamp mallard, another early Nested Dreams NPC concept of mine #aseprite #pixelart #duckgame #indiedev

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

For those that are interested in following along and/or would like to contribute to the original Beetle Adventure Racing Decompilation project you can check out the repo, discord link, and contributing guidelines here: github.com/synamaxmusic... #n64recomp #n64decomp #decomp #videogamehistory

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🎃Autopsy of Ashley Lynch 🔪🎞️ @ashleylynch.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

So I just found out that someone fed our Beetle Adventure Racing decomp repo into Claude and beat us with releasing a recomp first. Fuck AI, it has not only left me unemployed since February but it has absolutely sucked the fun out of literally all of my hobbies. #decomp #recomp #N64decomp

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downchasm @downchasm.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

one aspect regarding retro gaming scenes that genAI has been blazingly efficient at is in trust erosion whether it’s fan TLs, FPGA cores, or recomp scenes, within the past year so much optimism and excitement regarding new projects has been swiftly replaced with doubt and suspicion thank you genAI

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This is why I don't say AI anymore and instead call it NPC logic or intelligence routines.

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PandaMonium @pandamonium.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Today, I decided to dump all my thoughts about A.I. infecting the retro and Saturn scene into one cohesive article. In short, I am certifiably sick of this.

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PSX Bunlith 🪄🏳️‍⚧️ E2 OCT 16TH!!!! 🐰🌱 BLM ACAB 🇵🇸 @b0tster.yeag.gay · 24/09/2026

i think one big factor (among many) as to why AI has had such a foothold in coding spaces is because the majority of people dont consider programming to be art

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Megan Fox @glassbottommeg.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Apparently we've gone from "no, trust us, AI doesn't give you CEO brain" to "actually it's good that it gives you CEO brain"?

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Mike Bithell @mikebithell.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

“GenAI is great for parts of the game you don’t care about” Wait. Is that an option?

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

My weird typophile self couldn't help but notice that the UI font used in Castlevania: SOTN is based off of character ROM font from the Commodore PET computer (first used in 1977). SOTN and Silent Hill also feature fonts from another computer company, Apple (Chicago, Times, and Chancery).

Taken from http://cbmsteve.ca/cbmchr/index.html

https://microcorelabs.com/2025/12/15/worlds-fastest-commodore-pet-using-the-mcl65-6502-drop-in-emulator/

The font was slightly modified by Konami. For example, the "4" was given a serif at the bottom, while the original PET character ROM omits this.

Here's Times from Mac, with the Silent Hill UI font below. Konami modified the font heavily by adding a color gradient and squishing some of the glyphs.

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Games That Weren't @gamesthatwerent.com · 21/09/2026

MELT, a lost 1997 PC game featuring Iron Maiden's Eddie, has been recovered! We're releasing a build for the first time, along with source code and an updated version for modern PCs. We also speak to developer Paul Tebbutt. Thanks to Tamaracade for their earlier research.

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Made some great progress with Nested Dreams yesterday. After some extensive debugging, I got my dialog boxes working perfectly. We were previously using a popular add-on for talk boxes, but it was too bloated for our needs. So I decided to script the talk boxes myself. Our game talks now! #devlog

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davemakes🔶 @mixolumia.com · 07/09/2026

I feel like the main struggle developers have when trying to write marketing copy is that they are describing the game they made instead of the player's experience of it

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

For the past year, I've been researching the Vid Kidz dev archive containing prototypes, software tests and early art assets for two important arcade games, Robotron and Blaster. Last month, I got to speak with Larry Demar, Duncan Brown and Paul Dussault about their work and these historic findings

youtu.be

Return of the Vid Kidz: An In-Depth Look at Robotron and Blaster - California Extreme 2026

YouTube video by SynaMax

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

synamax.bandcamp.com/track/inferno Happy Bandcamp Friday, here's a single I did a couple of years ago that I still enjoy listening to.

synamax.bandcamp.com

Inferno, by SynaMax

track by SynaMax

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shoffur @shoffur.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Nikki with some mysterious bubblegum goop for my upcoming indie game w/ @synamax.bsky.social Nested Dreams. #indiegames #pixelart #anthro #duckgame

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Big update post on Patreon; expect to see a new video game history presentation video on the YouTube channel soon. Development on Nested Dreams is still going strong, hope to show more progress very soon. #devlog #NestedDreams #indiegame #videogamehistory

patreon.com

Update for 9-2-2026 | SynaMax

Update for 9-2-2026 by SynaMax on Patreon. Join SynaMax's community for exclusive content and updates.

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Videogame Beaches🏳️‍⚧️ @videogamebeach.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Vineta K (Wipeout HD Fury, PS3, Studio Liverpool, 2008)

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Just chiming in with some updates on my (many) current projects: - Nested Dreams is still in active development - Vid Kidz Panel from CAX 2026 will be uploaded to YT soon - BAR-Decomp is still alive too and recomp work has started Again, I bit off more than I can chew but we are making progress.

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shoffur @shoffur.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Another upcoming Nested Dreams creation #aseprite #nesteddreams #indiedev #indiegames #psychicrink

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Alec S // Renegade Sector Games @renegadesector.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Fundamentally I think videogames are a medium that (most of the time) gets worse the more the texture is obfuscated. It is not a medium where it's beneficial to hide the artist's hand; The details of the craft are more compelling than the artifice.

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🫀nenetto [🌳 Deku edition ▿] @nenetto.com · 17/08/2026

By www.jwz.org/blog/2026/08...

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Happy Birthday Stéphane Picq, you would've been 61 today.

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

On August 8th, I had the pleasure and privilege of hosting the "Return of the Vid Kidz" panel at the 2026 California Extreme arcade show. We had Paul Dussault, Duncan Brown, and Larry Demar join in via video call, where we discussed Robotron and Blaster, plus recent incredible findings from backups.

Last week, I had the privilege of hosting a second Williams-related panel for the California Extreme pinball show. Here I am speaking via video call with Paul Dussault, Duncan Brown, and Larry Demar. We talked about Robotron: 2084 and Blaster, plus a bunch of new content that was recently recovered from Vid Kidz backup floppies, such as unused special effects, missing prototypes, and even artwork for a cancelled haunted house game. Behind me is the actual GIMIX 6809 microcomputer used to develop Robotron and Blaster at Vid Kidz. Photo taken by biomonk

Me with "MYKE", the GIMIX 6809 microcomputer used during the development of Robotron: 2084 and Blaster. The story of this machine and how most of the data barely survived is incredible.

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I'm back from my trip to CAX 2026 and I'll be talking more about what I did there in another post. While the Nested Dreams Kickstarter didn't meet its goal, the encouragement from everyone has only reinforced our commitment to getting a playable demo ready for December. Let's do this. #devlog #godot

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I'll be making the last video about the Nested Dreams kickstarter today. We need $3000+ to get this game fully funded, with less than 3 days remaining. Regardless if we make the goal or not, we're still committed to completing a playable demo for December. Thanks to everyone for their support.

First drawing I did of Nikki's final design two years ago.

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Jay Tholen @jaytholen.net · 04/08/2026

this game needs almost $3k more to reach its goal with only 3 days remaining. watch the trailer if you haven't!

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Nested Dreams will be one of the games featured in the next video from Brendan; looking forward to seeing the premiere later this morning!

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shoffur @shoffur.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

4 days left and 44%!! To anyone who follows me or my creative and life partner @synamax.bsky.social , all of your support over these last several months has meant the absolute world to us. If you wish to pledge your support, follow the link below. #indiegame #punk www.kickstarter.com/projects/syn...

kickstarter.com

Nested Dreams for PC/MAC/LINUX, by artists SynaMax & Shoffur

Play as a punk duck stuck in an endless network of surreal and strange worlds. Use your guitar to blast through enemies. Get back home.

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SynaMax 🎧 Nested Dreams Dev // Video Game Historian @synamax.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I made a vertical version of the latest Nested Dreams trailer, you can see some more details like Nikki's guitar (it shoots music notes!) #animation #indiegame #pixelart youtube.com/shorts/DxVVL...

youtube.com

We're making a punk duck adventure game! #NestedDreams #indiegame #animation #pixelart

YouTube video by SynaMax

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kuraine @lena.fyi · 30/07/2026

i feel like my thoughts on the matter have been pretty clear from the word go, but just in case: the moment i think automating creativity out of existence is a good idea is the day i've been unceremoniously replaced by an evil lena that has bad opinions. (put another way: i'll never use gen ai)

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