ModRetro's new plastic Chromatics are being revealed all over the place at the moment. It was first teased in an email sent out to Chromatic customers, nudging them to update their firmware; then Logan Paul, an ambassador of ModRetro, leaked a green transparent Chromatic in a short video; and now ModRetro has come out to reveal a fully transparent Chromatic given out to those who attended OpenAI's developer conference yesterday
It's an effort to promote OpenAI's coding agent known as Codex and likely a way to entice developers to create retro games for the Chromatic that could make their way into ModRetro's line of physical games, many of which they have launched over the last couple of years. It was hard to ignore the mass of videos and pictures flooding my feeds from many blue-ticked AI enthusiasts, all showing off games that they farted out in a few seconds. And for some reason, this tickled me the wrong way.
I am not against the use of AI to assist when coding; it can be a very useful tool to help developers mine through repetitive tasks, but what I worry about here is that OpenAI's Codex will clearly and obviously take copyrighted and trademarked material in order to help the user assist in their game development, which is not the way it should be. And for me, that's where the line is drawn. This is incentivising theft and neglecting the very human developers that create remarkable retro games that we all want to play.
This is also a slap in the face for all of ModRetro's publishers and developers that they have partnered with to create the awesome games that I and many others have experienced over the last few years. Most people, especially retro gamers, do not want to buy or experience AI-generated games that steal from the very creatives that make retro gaming so damn good. We want to experience new, remarkable games, made by humans who have genuine passion for game development, and I am disappointed to see ModRetro put so much marketing and effort into promoting a tool/partnership that goes against their very core demographic's values. It's as if ModRetro are becoming misaligned with the very audience they are trying to capture.
Credit: ModRetro x OpenAI
And I know for a fact that past Chromatic game developers aren't happy about this, nor should they be. ModRetro has done an incredible job in the past working with awesome developers, so much so that they've given out over $1,000,000 in royalties to these developers. That's what we want to see, but this move goes against that, incentivising lazy game creation that doesn't give the Chromatic customer what they actually want. Perhaps ModRetro should have given those few hundred consoles to schools, teachers, or children/teenagers interested in game development, rather than AI-bros that they're incentivising to spit out low-quality games. Just look at OpenAI and ModRetro's page that showcases the games made with Codex. They're slop that provides nothing to the gamer apart from a migraine, in my opinion. One has even been made to replicate Flappy Bird. This isn't good enough.
I've always been on the fence with ModRetro, as you can see openly in our past content here at Retro Dodo; I talk with their team regularly and honestly, and they too know that I can be brutally honest at times. They've been very kind to us in the past with samples. Sometimes they prove that they want to benefit the retro gaming industry; other times they're partnering with the wrong influencers for their chosen market, making controversial editions of their device, and handing out freebies to an audience that doesn't align with who actually buys/loves their products, putting off the very customers that first supported them when they launched the original Chromatic back in 2024. Which is a dangerous game to play because I think a lot of people are like me: I could be easily swayed to dislike ModRetro, or I can fall even more in love with what they are trying to do, and I think the next year or so will push me and many others onto one of those sides.
The Chromatic shown does look very nice; I'll give them that. This new transparent plastic offers a new look, and likely a more affordable price tag once they're officially announced in October, hopefully in multiple colours and with similar hardware. The freebies even come with blank cartridges so that AI developers can patch the ROM to the cartridge once their game is made. I just hope ModRetro reevaluates their future marketing efforts, because they're making their true customers feel ashamed and a little embarrassed, and in the long run, that ain't good, especially with more FPGA consoles making their way into the playing field recently. We just want to play retro games, without the fluff. We use retro games to escape this messy world, not remind us of it.
