AI seems to be working its way deep into our cherished retro gaming machines Anbernic, a household name among portable game consoles, is announcing "Anbernic AI" with the recent software patches in some of its devices. But just what kind of artificial intelligence are we talking about here
Well, Anbernic is not simply conceding to some generic AI. Yep, a generic AI grunt like a chatbot. There appear to be other features that let you create text images and modify them. The really excited part for gamers further lies beyond that.
Picture this A nice Japanese or Chinese game that never got an English release. Anbernic AI aims to break this fetter with real-time text translation in eleven different languages. It essentially reads on-screen text and overlays the translation in English. Of course, many older games were often patched with Fan translations by dedicated fans, but this could be a makeover for the games that have slipped by.
From a succinct demo video that we've seen so far, the original text would remain visible, and hence the screen may look a lot cluttered. But being able to play games that were just unplayable because of the language is quite a tempting feature, don't you think
In addition to the translation, Anbernic AI will include:
- A chatbot that you can ask for tips and tricks if you're in a tough spot in your game.
- An AI chat by voice, although details on how that's meant to work are somehow thin.
Which Devices Get Treated with AI
The AI functionality is being rolled out via OTA updates to the Android-based operating system on these Anbernic handhelds:
- Anbernic RG Cube
- Anbernic RG 406V
- Anbernic RG 406H
- Anbernic RG556
If you own one of these, you want to check for updates More information and download links can generally be found on the official Anbernic blog.
One detail that so far remains unclear is whether these AI features will, following the currently accepted definition, run on the handheld system itself or require an active internet connection to work. This will immediately change wherever you want to utilize the new tools so clarifying this will hopefully come some way soon.
This is quite an interesting move from Anbernic an intersection of retro gaming and cutting-edge AI. It will be interesting to see how the features work in real-time and how the gaming community will take them.
