Rather, a program superficially imitating the first level of Doom is able to run on a simulator of a quantum computer.
Not to diminish this accomplishment, but based on the level geometry on display there this is obviously a bespoke but very basic 3D-ish engine, extremely simplified, built from the ground up to do this and is not an actual source port of Doom before anybody gets too excited.
While it’s amusing I don’t think it really serves to illustrate too well the actual exciting parts of what quantum computing is actually theoretically capable of. Regular old boring Turing-compatible binary computers are already perfectly capable of running Doom already. ^[citation^ ^needed]^
A revocable license for a virtual “product” whereupon they absolutely do not give you back your real world dollars if they terminate said license.
There’s no power imbalance in this transaction at all, no siree.
Anyway, I’m all for making backups of things. So you de-licensed me. Big whoop. I still have the file and I can still play it, and nobody can physically stop me.
The annoying thing is, the problem with this from a design perspective was well known and there were already some efforts to improve upon matters as early as the SNES era. Both Chrono Trigger and Earthbound leap to mind. It’s just that following this, most developers forgot to learn a lesson from these for another decade or two.
In Earthbound, all non-story, non-boss encounters are visible on the overworld and you can either:
Avoid them entirely with some foresight and skill
Get a backstab advantage if you manage to maneuver yourself behind the enemy, or
Instantly win the battle if your level significantly exceeds that of the enemy
Battles can be auto-fought with the computer controlling your party if you are e.g. trying to eat a sandwich at the same time or something
In Chrono Trigger, most trivial encounters can be avoided, with some scripted exceptions that always initiate when you cross a certain area presumably to prevent players from completely avoiding all combat entirely and subsequently getting their asses stomped by the bosses. Chrono Trigger’s overworld map also features no random encounters whatsoever. You can wander the world freely and will only encounter monsters if you actually enter a location.
I harp on this a lot, but only because it’s true. Despite its faults, some of which it definitely has, Chrono Trigger had some incredible design innovations and was easily the high water mark for JRPG design not only for its time, but even compared to subsequent games for a long time – maybe even still to this day.
Many trash mob encounters can simply be avoided if you can’t be bothered or are low on resources
Those that can’t can usually be wiped in a single move if the enemy is far beneath you via double/triple techs
Encounters happen on the screen you’re already on, so you don’t get disoriented after the battle ends
Positioning on the battlefield matters for techs, making fights more interesting than the usual you line up on one side/they line up on the other side method…
…However, positioning on the battlefield absolutely does not matter for single magic spells or melee attacks, meaning you never get completely screwed by how the chessboard is laid out
You can walk diagonally (seriously, the inability in even much later games to do this bugs me to no end – Pokémon, I’m lookin’ at you)
If a non-story-critical NPC is yammering at you and you can’t be bothered, you can just walk away even when the text box is still open
Not only can you rearrange your party however you want including not putting the protagonist at the head of the conga line (and even being able to remove him fully, after a certain plot event), but which combination of party members you have actually matters for techs and not just a perpetual case of, “I need one tank, one caster, and one healer” like prior/later games
The entire concept of the New Game+ is called what it is and works how it does because of how Chrono Trigger did it
You can fight the final boss pretty much any time as soon as you learn about him, and if you get your ass whooped trying that’s on you
Etc.
Apparently the Chrono Trigger devs originally planned to give the player even more freedom but several additional concepts such as being able to freely position your fighters on the field were cut due to time constraints and not being able to figure out a sufficiently elegant way to do it on the SNES hardware and controller.
There are retro revival consoles that aren’t deliberately made to looks like the original incarnations. I think the issue here was that the consoles being sold were deliberate counterfeits of otherwise valuable original retro machines.
For instance, litigious as they are Nintendo has either been unable or unwilling to snuff out things like the RetroN machines which play original Nintendo and SNES cartridges (and Genesis, and some others) but don’t claim to be a Nintendo machine or look like one in any way.
That said, I personally would totally buy a fake OG JDM Super Famicom just to have on the shelf, or even a shell just that looks like one.
That, and Gabe’s hotdog stand has spent decades building customer trust by generally acting decently towards its customers, right after it invented the concept of the hotdog stand.
Making the core of your business model revolve around whining about your competitors doesn’t work so great when your main competitor is already significantly better than you are.
You can file the paperwork to attempt to sue anyone for anything. It doesn’t mean it will be accepted by the court, or that the judge will not summon you there specifically to laugh in your face, declare your suit frivolous, throw you out, and refuse to validate your parking.
If Jabroni thinks he’s having it rough with Elden Ring, he ought to go back and try out the first couple of King’s Field games…