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Ask HN: What is something you built but never marketed?

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Re: Ask HN: What is something you built but never marketed?

#161

Post by stavros »

darthcloud wrote: post #113

I've build BlueRetro [1] an universal Bluetooth controller adapter for nearly all pre-USB gaming console. I've been working on it for the last three years. I entertained the idea to make and sell the hardware myself. But in the end I learned that's it's not something I'm interested to get into. What I really like is working on the software. In the end this pivoted into a more community driven project where multiple m…

That looks fantastic! I think Pimoroni will take care of the entire manufacturing and marketing process for you, if you want to contact them. Their CEO emailed me way back about this, but he hasn't replied to my multiple emails since, so YMMV.

Re: Ask HN: What is something you built but never marketed?

#162

Post by stavros »

ezl wrote: post #138

https://www.lost-item.com I lose stuff a lot. It started as a URL ( https://www.lost-item.com/eric/ ) that I can put on a sticker on my stuff so that when people find my phone, wallet, credit card, keys they can contact me. I preferred that over my phone number or email address because I didn't want to put anything that identifies me on the items, so a form on the internet acts as a barrier. In general, I find that p…

This seems great for my RC planes and other things! It would be nice if the site could generate a nice sticker-looking thing with a QR code, though.

Re: Ask HN: What is something you built but never marketed?

#163

Post by toast0 »

badtension wrote: post #101
toast0 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One major problem is that console manufacturers would probably need to be a part of this and I think they would rather sell 10 consoles individually than 5 for sharing. It would certainly work better with manufacturer involvement, but you could use HDMI capture to source the video, and USB to provide the inputs, so the console doesn't know any better. There's some licensing rigamorole and content management as well…

Yes, in principle you could do that (apart from all the legal troubles...) In practice we like things customized and only want to see our own savegames available on the list so this is a real issue that could break this especially if large number of strangers were to use it. Another issue is waste - what if you want to play some game but it was installed on another console that is currently playing something complete…

Scheduling around game installs would be tricky yeah. I don't know how the various console do with having their storage swapped... I know the switch can store downloaded games to SD cards, but I don't know if it lets you put that SD card into another console and play the games if a licensed user is logged in... Or if it needs to be downloaded by that specific console. I think the current xbox and playstations also have user replacable storage, but again, it may be specialized per console? I know the platforms already have code to check for licensed user on a downloaded game when the game is downloaded to a console not deemed the 'home' console for a user.

If you can swap storage, you can build around NAS connected storage emulators.

Otherwise, yeah, big storage and guessing about what should go where. Like Netflix CDN nodes, but with more black boxes.

Re: Ask HN: What is something you built but never marketed?

#164

Post by graboid »

adamhi wrote: post #160

Over COVID I wrote a novel-length... thing. I hesitate to call it a text adventure, or a game, even though that's what it looks like on the surface. I'm not sure what to call it. The joke at the beginning was that it's a "travel simulator" for a period in time when you couldn't travel. I worked on it every day for about eight months, and I think I showed it to maybe six people. It was mostly a writing exercise, and a…

I would be super interested to see it.

The aspect of text adventures or MUDs [0] that attracts me the most is the fact that you can actually move through a "textual landscape". Sorry, I have no better words to express it. Ditch all the quests and puzzles and fighting. Just immerse myself in a landscape evoked by words, that maybe adds some surreal elements, or other stuff that you couldn't express in a graphical way.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD

Re: Ask HN: What is something you built but never marketed?

#165

Post by fxtentacle »

notpushkin wrote: post #115
fxtentacle wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About $0.5 per hour for a 3080 equivalent. And yes, I have an image that I can spin up on-demand.

This seems to be a neat setup. I've found this script a couple days ago: https://github.com/gcloudrig/gcloudrig (haven't given it a try just yet but surely looking forward to)

Yes, that's very similar to what I built. That repo is using Parsec (also free for private users) as the game streaming implementation.

Re: Ask HN: What is something you built but never marketed?

#166

Post by polyterative »

TT-392 wrote: post #131

I was having problems with my hands from muscle exhaustion due to typing. My doctor recommended I should use an alarm clock, to remind me to not type for more than a few minutes at a time. Instead, I thought, I could do better. So I made the following program: It is a program that has a countdown, lets say, 100 key presses, and every time you press a key, it goes down by one, and every, lets say second, it recovers 1…

I need this, got rsi

Re: Ask HN: What is something you built but never marketed?

#167

Post by fxtentacle »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #120
fxtentacle wrote: post #7

I built my own GeForce Now / Google Stadia clone for up to 8 gamepads to connect to the same instance. It's GPU-accelerated, UDP-based and all C++. It works well and I still use it with friends and family to play games together. I even designed a logo, registered it for an EU trademark, and made t-shirts. But when Steam Remote Play Together was announced, I decided that there wasn't a market for it anymore, so instea…

There is a tremendous market for low cost reliable remote viz software.

What is "viz software" here? Visualization? e.g. Fusion 360?

Re: Ask HN: What is something you built but never marketed?

#168

Post by tokinonagare »

adamhi wrote: post #160

Over COVID I wrote a novel-length... thing. I hesitate to call it a text adventure, or a game, even though that's what it looks like on the surface. I'm not sure what to call it. The joke at the beginning was that it's a "travel simulator" for a period in time when you couldn't travel. I worked on it every day for about eight months, and I think I showed it to maybe six people. It was mostly a writing exercise, and a…

That's intriguing to say the least. Any plan on published it somehow?

Re: Ask HN: What is something you built but never marketed?

#169

Post by adamhi »

graboid wrote: post #164
adamhi wrote: post #160

Over COVID I wrote a novel-length... thing. I hesitate to call it a text adventure, or a game, even though that's what it looks like on the surface. I'm not sure what to call it. The joke at the beginning was that it's a "travel simulator" for a period in time when you couldn't travel. I worked on it every day for about eight months, and I think I showed it to maybe six people. It was mostly a writing exercise, and a…

I would be super interested to see it. The aspect of text adventures or MUDs [0] that attracts me the most is the fact that you can actually move through a "textual landscape". Sorry, I have no better words to express it. Ditch all the quests and puzzles and fighting. Just immerse myself in a landscape evoked by words, that maybe adds some surreal elements, or other stuff that you couldn't express in a graphical way.…

Some of the very first scripting I did was for a MUD, back in the day! I really like that feeling of painting a very subjective map of a place in my head, just based on text.

Part of the joke of this project, for me, was treating an entire country like a room in a MUD (e.g. "You are in the United States. Exits are Canada, Mexico...")

You can see the game here: https://travelsimulator.rodeo/

`/help` shows commands, but the important ones are `go` and `look`.

Re: Ask HN: What is something you built but never marketed?

#170

Post by tasuki »

ezl wrote: post #138

https://www.lost-item.com I lose stuff a lot. It started as a URL ( https://www.lost-item.com/eric/ ) that I can put on a sticker on my stuff so that when people find my phone, wallet, credit card, keys they can contact me. I preferred that over my phone number or email address because I didn't want to put anything that identifies me on the items, so a form on the internet acts as a barrier. In general, I find that p…

> https://www.lost-item.com/eric/

The page shows for me:

> Oh my...

> It looks like this page has been lost

I tried to use your page to tell you that the page has been lost, but that didn't work!

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