A friend of mine did posit the quandary that an "unpalatable" individual such as Luckey appears to be one of the few making consumer-friendly products: Removable, swappable battery packs, AA battery support, standard USB-C charging, easy interoperability, open sourced designs, exposed screws, teardown instructions, etc. Apparently ModRetro is even looking into making dumb TVs for gaming.
It's ironic, in another world HN commenters would be lauding Luckey and ModRetro for all these virtues.
> It's ironic, in another world HN commenters would be lauding Luckey and ModRetro for all these virtues.
Lot's of HN (and "social" media) commenters in this world evidently are; nothing ironic about it.
It's just many people have a radically different set of ethics which, once they become principles, can't be easily, or at all, compromised on. And just to be fair, it's not just the what, but the how (which extends not just to Luckey & Friends, but to Anduril & Friends).
I am nuanced enough to appreciate that these qualities are present in the products being produced and still not buy from this producer because of their industry ties. Hopefully someone without such ridiculously unpalatable PR is able to copycat their design and sell a competitor - and hopefully the lead they've laid sets the standard for easily replaceable parts for the market (though, I'd mention that retro gaming hardware is intentionally made to be as modular as possible in most circumstances anyways).
> I am nuanced enough to appreciate that these qualities are present in the products being produced and still not buy from this producer because of their industry ties.
ModRetro produces one thing I do have an interest in. A partly aluminium-cast version of the, to me, most ergonomic gamepad made so far: the classic trimaran-style N64 controller. But that marriage ain't gonna happen. And that goes for every other (future) product of theirs as well.
Certainly one of the most devisive controller designs, but the lack of two thumbsticks is precisely what I like about it. The pad centers one thumbstick and the trigger on opposite sides of the "main hull", with the rest of the inputs divided along two (remappable) zones, i. e. the outriggers. I have never held a controller in my hand with better ergonomics and holding adaptability. Even the size is just right for my hands.
It's the only pad that ever made FPS games on a console a joy to play for me; put in two analog sticks and you fuck with that formula. It's only serious weaknesses are the cheap plastic, especially for the thumbstick, and the weight (too light). Make a full metal version out of it, with some thumbstick material mods known from the PvP fighting game community, and it's the best. Well, at least for me.
> Lot's of HN (and "social" media) commenters in this world evidently are; nothing ironic about it.
I suppose what I'm trying to say is that it's ironic that the one guy providing these consumer-friendly features is considered anathema by many of the people clamoring for those features.
You, yourself even mention downthread that you'd otherwise be interested in the M64 Pro controller, but won't consider it. I guess I'm just trying to steer the hate-train into a somewhat reasonable discussion, but I guess people are more interested in making quippy one-liners.
This might be quippy but killing people isn't consumer friendly. Weapons companies inevitably will kill innocent people, if that's the line people draw for not dong business with someone, it hardly seems ironic, it's just having different moral standards.
Comparing a run-of-the-mill defense contractor to a serial rapist and murderer is certainly up there in the most unhinged justifications that I've seen on HN.
> So you know, either go all in and live like you mean it or stop pointing fingers at only very select individuals.
Careful. You're one step away from playing out the "Yet you participate in society. Curious!" meme. Besides, many people who are not in the Anduril fan club already boycott Microsoft for their ethical transgressions.
You can't use that meme argument at the beginning and mention that it is perfectly possible to boycott the other company at the end. The whole point of the meme is that participating in society is unavoidable, right?
And I don't think you can use "one step away from" a meme arguments at all. Pattern matching to a cartoon is not a great tool for this in the first place, and once you've acknowledged that the pattern doesn't even match, what's the point?
> If we’re gonna go for a witch hunt then we better hack off Microsoft’s head as well, for instance, since even their Xbox controllers are used in military subs.
I don’t think the parent comment was trying to equate the two, but rather pushing the argument to its logical extreme to test show that the reasoning doesn’t hold consistently across cases. Whether they made a convincing argument is separate.
Run-of-the-mill. Ya know, a normal perpetuator of war profiteering. I mean he's your standard enabler of civilian bombing. Simply an average propagandist. Just a regular guy!
I guarantee you can't name one thing that Anduril is doing that is uniquely evil among defense contractors, because you don't actually know what you're talking about. You're just repeating quippy reddit talking points because Luckey is a known "bad guy".
Yeah I don't really like Luckey, or what I've heard from him anyways. But in the run up to launch the Chromatic, it became pretty clear that this guy, for whatever reason, is really passionate about gameboy. I have been less impressed with the other emulator/fpga machines. the chromatic is solid though.
Xbox is literally imploding right now, they laid off half the company and significantly raised the console price. If sales were good they never would've had to do game pass.
Besides, it's a dumb argument to compare military purchasing non-weapons commodities like controllers or toilet paper to a literal weapons company. It is almost literally impossible to live anywhere in the world without using a platform hosted on AWS or Azure. It is very easy to not buy things from the drone and now retro-console king. They are entirely different asks.
but the comforts you enjoy directly came from those very items you listed as unethical.
you could live off the grid in the cabins without internet if you truly believed in being free from the grips of the military industrial complex and the petrodollar you deeply feel guilty about
anything less and you risk sounding like a hypocrite
Genuinely what am I supposed to do if you can't read? Participating in the global economy is not the same thing as enthusiastically giving money to a company that only makes weapons of war because you love war. If you try to not use AWS in a modernized economy like the US you will probably die on the street and still have unwittingly used AWS anyways.
Nice! They produce some awesome tech. Great to know I can also support a cause I care about like ensuring America stays up to date with modern warfare to keep our citizens safe.
Move to the EU if you want to be an insufferable loser.
After reading it I ordered an m64, I am tired of people trying to gatekeep people into boycotting or telling them what they should consume or not when it's pretty clear the author in question is largely trying to virtue signal as means to reach their target audience.
Thank you for virtue signalling and telling us that we absolutely should buy this product. It's nice to see a comment from someone who isn't trying to sway consumers.
AWS (and many others) is also then war profiteering company with JWCC, C2E, WildandStormy, not to mention all the other defense contractors that rely on their computer power to design and operate mass surveillance and killing of people. Is your agenda selectively blind?
not OP but yes, i consider the tech sphere's dive into mass surveillance to be war profiteering and have eliminated or minimized several in my life including amazon and spotify.
I saw a video from the ModRetro YouTube channel a few days ago and thought it was AI because it only had 10,000 subscribers. They’ve been at it since March of 2024 and have less than 400,000 views spread across 54 videos. Strong attention economy recession indicator that even a memeified billionaire can’t get organic attention on a platform like that.
No one should be surprised that this comment doesn't go over well on HN. But the multiple people replying to you like "Oh? Cool I'm gonna buy more now that I know it signals that I love war" is really disgusting. And they're all identical, like you've activated something in their programming.
Yeah, I’m seeing this a lot too recently. I guess polarization comes for us all eventually. Nuance and cognitive dissonance are so painful for some they simply flatten their position to something that feels safely straightforward, even if ghoulish?
but your position that people just making nuanced non-emotional purchase decisions is somehow flawed itself is the main point of contention, its similar to how vegetarians keep pushing their views and preferences as a yardstick to measure others who don't share the same values.
people are diverse yet its highly ironic that those that push it are selectively even more less tolerant. history points to that as being the focal point of major events where one side simply couldn't tolerate that there were people with different value systems.
> No one should be surprised that this comment doesn't go over well on HN.
Top of the thread, and resurrected from being (rightfully) flagged, and currently shadowing over any actual conversation about game development. How on earth do you see that as "not going over well"?
This is the same concept as "separating art from the artist". i.e. can you appreciate the creation without associating it with the personal foibles of the creator.
If you went around scrutinizing the personal failings of every single creator and deciding not to support their art, you would cut yourself off from a huge chunk of human creation. Creators and builders are disproportionately imperfect people.
Harvey Weinstein, for example, is a serial abuser and genuinely evil person. He also was involved in an enormous number of Hollywood productions. Do you go out of your way to make sure to never watch or consume media associated with him? My guess is probably not. It's impractical and also I think the net benefit of this mindset, where we only allow people with certain moral characteristics to succeed, is a loss for society.
I have mixed feelings about it. I don't agree with how my country often ends up using these technologies, but defense tech and weaponry still seems pretty necessary. The US is not the only one doing this. Should they wait for their adversaries to have the upper hand? I don't think it's such a bad thing, as long as they can put the right people in charge. That's a whole other problem.
I mean, that's just defense companies in general now. Would you rather have your own soldiers dying in a war, rather than robots? Ukraine is using AI in their targeting, is that something you condemn?
eltondegeneres · · focus · HN ↗
Their previous console had an edition made of the same metal as Anduril's lethal drones.
[1]: <a href="https://www.timeextension.com/news/2025/12/site-news-why-we-wont-be-covering-modretro-products-moving-forward" rel="nofollow">https://www.timeextension.com/news/2025/12/site-news-why-we-... [2]: <a href="https://kotaku.com/modretro-anduril-chromatic-attack-drone-metal-luckey-2000654868" rel="nofollow">https://kotaku.com/modretro-anduril-chromatic-attack-drone-m...
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It's ironic, in another world HN commenters would be lauding Luckey and ModRetro for all these virtues.
spankibalt · · focus · HN ↗
Lot's of HN (and "social" media) commenters in this world evidently are; nothing ironic about it.
It's just many people have a radically different set of ethics which, once they become principles, can't be easily, or at all, compromised on. And just to be fair, it's not just the what, but the how (which extends not just to Luckey & Friends, but to Anduril & Friends).
munk-a · · focus · HN ↗
spankibalt · · focus · HN ↗
ModRetro produces one thing I do have an interest in. A partly aluminium-cast version of the, to me, most ergonomic gamepad made so far: the classic trimaran-style N64 controller. But that marriage ain't gonna happen. And that goes for every other (future) product of theirs as well.
qup · · focus · HN ↗
spankibalt · · focus · HN ↗
Certainly one of the most devisive controller designs, but the lack of two thumbsticks is precisely what I like about it. The pad centers one thumbstick and the trigger on opposite sides of the "main hull", with the rest of the inputs divided along two (remappable) zones, i. e. the outriggers. I have never held a controller in my hand with better ergonomics and holding adaptability. Even the size is just right for my hands.
It's the only pad that ever made FPS games on a console a joy to play for me; put in two analog sticks and you fuck with that formula. It's only serious weaknesses are the cheap plastic, especially for the thumbstick, and the weight (too light). Make a full metal version out of it, with some thumbstick material mods known from the PvP fighting game community, and it's the best. Well, at least for me.
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dabluecaboose · · focus · HN ↗
I suppose what I'm trying to say is that it's ironic that the one guy providing these consumer-friendly features is considered anathema by many of the people clamoring for those features.
You, yourself even mention downthread that you'd otherwise be interested in the M64 Pro controller, but won't consider it. I guess I'm just trying to steer the hate-train into a somewhat reasonable discussion, but I guess people are more interested in making quippy one-liners.
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edent · · focus · HN ↗
Isn't it strange that commentors focus on the other, less palatable, aspect of his life?
As the meme goes, "you do not, under any circumstances, 'gotta hand it to them.'"
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spankibalt · · focus · HN ↗
Careful. You're one step away from playing out the "Yet you participate in society. Curious!" meme. Besides, many people who are not in the Anduril fan club already boycott Microsoft for their ethical transgressions.
ToValueFunfetti · · focus · HN ↗
And I don't think you can use "one step away from" a meme arguments at all. Pattern matching to a cartoon is not a great tool for this in the first place, and once you've acknowledged that the pattern doesn't even match, what's the point?
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Sounds like a great idea! I'm all for it
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Nevermind that he literally was equating the two and explicitly says so.
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nonethewiser · · focus · HN ↗
Sadly, this is just an average online take.
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The article says the game is published by ModRetro.
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also not a good look using kotaku as a source, were you aware of their poor journalistic standards?
I'd take a step back and assess whether the media you are consuming is dictating what to think and feel rather than from free will.
dosisking · · focus · HN ↗
Yes
> Xbox controller is used on nuclear subs too.
I have never played an Xbox, nor do I have any interest in doing so. There is nothing interesting about the Xbox.
qup · · focus · HN ↗
There is something interesting about the Xbox, as evidenced by its sales record.
jackb4040 · · focus · HN ↗
Besides, it's a dumb argument to compare military purchasing non-weapons commodities like controllers or toilet paper to a literal weapons company. It is almost literally impossible to live anywhere in the world without using a platform hosted on AWS or Azure. It is very easy to not buy things from the drone and now retro-console king. They are entirely different asks.
zuzululu · · focus · HN ↗
you could live off the grid in the cabins without internet if you truly believed in being free from the grips of the military industrial complex and the petrodollar you deeply feel guilty about
anything less and you risk sounding like a hypocrite
jackb4040 · · focus · HN ↗
bogota · · focus · HN ↗
Move to the EU if you want to be an insufferable loser.
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zuzululu · · focus · HN ↗
contrarian and virtue signaling are very different. i could totally care less if you choose not to buy it.
i respect diversity
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For those not aware, look for the green name highlight.
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vrganj · · focus · HN ↗
They've all become war profiteers and fascist enablers.
The only way to live with my conscience was to choose not to be complicit.
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Social media’s a helluva drug.
zuzululu · · focus · HN ↗
people are diverse yet its highly ironic that those that push it are selectively even more less tolerant. history points to that as being the focal point of major events where one side simply couldn't tolerate that there were people with different value systems.
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dabluecaboose · · focus · HN ↗
Top of the thread, and resurrected from being (rightfully) flagged, and currently shadowing over any actual conversation about game development. How on earth do you see that as "not going over well"?
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Dig1t · · focus · HN ↗
If you went around scrutinizing the personal failings of every single creator and deciding not to support their art, you would cut yourself off from a huge chunk of human creation. Creators and builders are disproportionately imperfect people.
Harvey Weinstein, for example, is a serial abuser and genuinely evil person. He also was involved in an enormous number of Hollywood productions. Do you go out of your way to make sure to never watch or consume media associated with him? My guess is probably not. It's impractical and also I think the net benefit of this mindset, where we only allow people with certain moral characteristics to succeed, is a loss for society.
wombat-man · · focus · HN ↗
TulliusCicero · · focus · HN ↗
I mean, that's just defense companies in general now. Would you rather have your own soldiers dying in a war, rather than robots? Ukraine is using AI in their targeting, is that something you condemn?