About the Speed Racer game "PC Port"
So, If you've been in this subreddit recently, you may have noticed that someone seemingly managed to port the PS2 Speed Racer game to PC. Sounds cool right? Unfortunately, I highly advise against supporting this individual and their proejct due to several reasons, as it is quite problematic for several reasons.
I also ask you to please read the full post instead of skimming it through.
It is vibe coded
To get everyone up to speed, "vibe coding" is the action of asking an AI agent (typically Claude or Codex), to write entire programs for you, without any true input of the user, hence they're doing it off "vibe".
It has infested retro gaming communities, with recompilations (the act of taking a console game and translating it's code in real time to something readable by a PC), becoming especially prone to this, producing many extremely low quality projects in a concerningly quick manner. This Speed Racer project is one of those vibe coded recompilations.
Vibe coding is generally an extremely lazy type of programming, as you quite literally do nothing other than paying for an AI subscription, and prompting a robot to do the work for you, like asking a chatbot to generate a 2d illustration.
It is also concerning, as there is no guarantee the code will be maintained or further updated by anyone but the AI itself, making it extremely prone to severe issues down the line, without any good way to fix them.
Now, how do I know the person did this? For starters, the code present in the Github is geniunely terrible. It is a mess of "spaghetti programming" and content that is unreadable by an actual human.
Not only that, but the Github has very damning files, such as AGENTS.md, which are instructions for the AI to produce the project.
Inside the docs folder are also damning files, such as AUDIT_CODEX.md literally instructions for Codex, the AI agent, and that folder is filled with content specifically used and generated by AI.
Alongside that, this project has been made in a suspiciously quick manner. If you check the Github page, the project started only 2 weeks ago, and it's already seemingly functional.
For comparasion with human-made efforts, Sonic Unleashed Recompiledtook 6 months to be finished, while Banjo Recompiled took 9 months.
Finally,the author has no other projects on his Github, and seemingly no prior coding experience with the Speed Racer one being its only currently available project in his Github page.
The game might "work", but not only is the code under the hood very poorly optimized, but there is also no assurance of it becoming better, as it's solely reliant on the AI agent not making the code even worse by continuous prompting.
The author is dishonest
The person making this is lying to you about the true nature of their project. When questioned about the project being vibecoded, they denied it, and claimed it was merely AI assisted (through an AI generated message, might I add).
However, as explained earlier, the evidence heavily supports against this claim.
Alongside that, after being questioned, the author went and tried to scrub off some elements of the Github to hide their AI usage, such as removing certain Claude and Codex files and contributions.
Of course, it was done quite poorly, as I was able to find evidence of the vibe coding that occured, but the fact that they tried to hide this speaks volumes about their honesty and intent.
We as a community
The Speed Racer community is relatively niche, and we don't have nearly as many talented creators compared to other fanbases.
We should not celebrate AI generated content, as it cheapens our creative output, and makes us look like a bunch of AI bros.
Would you praise an AI generated 2D artwork? Do you think it's a good thing that the author has zero knowledge on what his AI agent is even doing, and is actively trying to hide that fact?
We as a community should foster creativity, not celebrate laziness and instant gratification.
Of course, you're free to play this project if you want. However, I ask you to at least consider the background and ethics of the project and the author. I personally do not support someone who just asks a robot to do all the work for them, but that's just me.
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About the Speed Racer game "PC Port" So, If you've been in this subreddit recently, you may have noticed that someone seemingly managed to port the PS2 Speed Racer game to PC. Sounds cool right? Unfortunately, I highly advise against supporting this individual and their proejct due to several reasons, as it is quite problematic for several reasons. I also ask you to please read the full post instead of skimming it through. It is vibe coded To get everyone up to speed, "vibe coding" is the action of asking an AI agent (typically Claude or Codex), to write entire programs for you, without any true input of the user, hence they're doing it off "vibe". It has infested retro gaming communities, with recompilations (the act of taking a console game and translating it's code in real time to something readable by a PC), becoming especially prone to this, producing many extremely low quality projects in a concerningly quick manner. This Speed Racer project is one of those vibe coded recompilations. Vibe coding is generally an extremely lazy type of programming, as you quite literally do nothing other than paying for an AI subscription, and prompting a robot to do the work for you, like asking a chatbot to generate a 2d illustration. It is also concerning, as there is no guarantee the code will be maintained or further updated by anyone but the AI itself, making it extremely prone to severe issues down the line, without any good way to fix them. Now, how do I know the person did this? For starters, the code present in the Github is geniunely terrible. It is a mess of "spaghetti programming" and content that is unreadable by an actual human. Not only that, but the Github has very damning files, such as AGENTS.md, which are instructions for the AI to produce the project. Inside the docs folder are also damning files, such as AUDIT_CODEX.md literally instructions for Codex, the AI agent, and that folder is filled with content specifically used and generated by AI. Alongside that, this project has been made in a suspiciously quick manner. If you check the Github page, the project started only 2 weeks ago, and it's already seemingly functional. For comparasion with human-made efforts, Sonic Unleashed Recompiledtook 6 months to be finished, while Banjo Recompiled took 9 months. Finally,the author has no other projects on his Github, and seemingly no prior coding experience with the Speed Racer one being its only currently available project in his Github page. The game might "work", but not only is the code under the hood very poorly optimized, but there is also no assurance of it becoming better, as it's solely reliant on the AI agent not making the code even worse by continuous prompting. The author is dishonest The person making this is lying to you about the true nature of their project. When questioned about the project being vibecoded, they denied it, and claimed it was merely AI assisted (through an AI generated message, might I add). However, as explained earlier, the evidence heavily supports against this claim. Alongside that, after being questioned, the author went and tried to scrub off some elements of the Github to hide their AI usage, such as removing certain Claude and Codex files and contributions. Of course, it was done quite poorly, as I was able to find evidence of the vibe coding that occured, but the fact that they tried to hide this speaks volumes about their honesty and intent. We as a community The Speed Racer community is relatively niche, and we don't have nearly as many talented creators compared to other fanbases. We should not celebrate AI generated content, as it cheapens our creative output, and makes us look like a bunch of AI bros. Would you praise an AI generated 2D artwork? Do you think it's a good thing that the author has zero knowledge on what his AI agent is even doing, and is actively trying to hide that fact? We as a community should foster creativity, not celebrate laziness and instant gratification. Of course, you're free to play this project if you want. However, I ask you to at least consider the background and ethics of the project and the author. I personally do not support someone who just asks a robot to do all the work for them, but that's just me.