When Doom was rebooted for modern audiences in 2016, its arrival was heralded as a high-water mark for single-player first-person shooter combat. Now id Software is looking to one-up its prior achievement with the upcoming Doom Eternal, whose creators insist needs to not just meet expectations set by the previous title, but exceed them, in order to be as satisfying an experience.

At a press event in LA last week, Doom Eternal game director Hugo Martin sat down with Gamasutra to discuss the game’s evolved design, and what changes were needed to make a satisfying sequel. According to him, much of Doom Eternal’s design evolved out of the circumstances created by the game’s new abilities like “dash” and a new flame belcher weapon.

For every tiny tweak to the player’s speed and resource management, a spiraling set of design changes ensued to ensure the quality of the experience. As Doom Eternal barrels toward its March 20 launch date, Martin was able to share details about some of the changes that set Doom Eternal apart from its predecessor.

What was it like, moving from creative director to director on this series? 

It’s kind of the same thing, you know. My role hasn’t changed too much. Marty [Stratton, id executive producer] and I still work really closely together and stuff so it’s very similar. What’s been most exciting for everyone has been the chance to make another game together, having worked out what our process is. From the very beginning, we were able to hit the ground running as a team and that felt fantastic.

In other interviews, you mentioned that instead of having to onboard people and learn to work together, you all could start iterating fantasy because you could argue better with people you knew and trusted.

Yeah, and I think you see that in the first two to three levels of Doom Eternal–you are doing more, seeing more than you did in the entirety of Doom 2016. You go to more locations and see cooler stuff and do cooler things than you did throughout all of that game. We were able to do more work at a higher level at a faster pace because the teamwork and the synergy on the team is stellar.

You’ve talked about how things that worked in the first Doom weren’t working in [in Eternal] again, because players who experienced the first Doom were a souped-up racecar. Can you talk about the process of evolving things in Doom to make that racecar track bigger?

It was the player’s [new] abilities that we gave them, like “meathook” and “dash,” that made the racecar super fast. Immediately you notice that you were so quick that nothing could touch you. So you were never really under any kind of duress.

…In the early part of development, because of the abilities we gave the player and the imbalance that it created, there was nothing to master. It was basically a very simple, child-like puzzle, that really wasn’t engaging anybody at all and I don’t think anyone would have wanted to play more than two hours of it.

Even though the gore was beautiful and the levels–it wasn’t doing justice to the hard work that the art team was doing, because you just didn’t care to play it. Immediately the analogy is accurate. The race car is better, the track has to get better. It has to keep up with the race car. So that meant making the chess pieces–the AI–much more responsive at the expense of maybe even some visual flair. The in-tos of certain animations kind of getting sped up so much that you can barely see them, so maybe visually they don’t look as great, but they’re more responsive so they feel better.

We’re not trying to make a cinematic, immersive game. It’s important that things react when they should react, with the speed they need to react. Doom is such a fast game, that, for example, the Mancubus, his area-of-effect blast is almost instant.

I think the AI team did a fantastic job, Kurt Loudy and Jake Campbell and all those guys, the animations all just starting to get a little less expressive and more purposeful. Just take the windup of a fireball. Those needed to get about two times faster now. There was much less of a flourish, still a strong tell, because we need that, but it’s pretty damn fast.

The level design also had to get bigger, to make room for this faster racecar, otherwise, you’re banging up against the walls. If you had dash, and the abilities you have now, but you were playing inside the Foundry level from the last game, that would not be a good experience. You’d be banging against the walls and just feel like a cheetah at the zoo. You’re in this confined space, you need to be set free so you can run.

Finding the right size racetrack for the player [is important]. Too big, you actually feel slow. Too small, you’re frustrated. So [it was about] really nailing the feel of the spaces…all in response to what was going on with the player at the beginning of the project.

Something that works well in the game is not just the level design, but what kinds of spaces the player is moving through. What was your vision for “where you are” being as interesting as “what you’re fighting?”

A fair criticism of the last game was that it was just hallway-arena combat, and the most interesting part of the game was the arena combat. As a result, during the third act of the game, some people found it to be a bit repetitive. That’s a fair criticism. Also the locations were limited in the last game. Mars, Hell, Mars, Hell. A huge objective at the start of the project was to make sure we opened up the scope of the game. Simply put, I wanted to go cool places, shoot interesting things with cool guns.

And we’re just better at creating strong setpieces and creating a spectacle for the player to walk through. Walking along the spear of a giant mech, into the belly of a huge titan he’s just slain is far more interesting than walking down a hallway to the next arena.

What’s a guiding marker for your team to say ‘this is an interesting setpiece,’ instead of ‘this is just a hallway’ when making these spaces? 

We have level outlines that we establish early on of what the player’s objectives would be. We take a lot of time working on those–myself and our mission design director Jerry Keehan, who’s awesome. And then the level designer on the particular level, whichever it may be. We try to establish early on from the very beginning that we have that spectacle built in, that we really make sure we’re taking in interesting locations. We saw that last time that hallways are not so great.

But they also are necessary because it can’t all be mechs and spears. That will get repetitive as well. Outlining things, and then every step along the way, through development, people are enhancing things, new ideas are coming in, and if your team has bought in on the vision, then everything just gets better. You don’t want the best version of an idea to be what was originally on the page, you really want the best version to be what ended up on screen.

And that means everybody has to be engaged and contributing and pushing toward the same goal. And that’s where having this be our second project together really comes into play. We are working really, really well together. Everybody enjoys working together, And that’s why I think you’re seeing what you’re seeing onscreen right now.

There’s a ton of work going on with accessibility design in the shooter space right now. What does designing accessibility mean in a game with a game like Doom Eternal that’s fixated on learning and mastery?

It’s just important to make it as accessible as it should be. We do everything we can to try to make Doom–we want it to be the martial arts analogy. You begin the game as a white belt, you can feel yourself getting stripes and leveling up. By the beginning of the third act you will be a black belt, and you will meet some other black belt-level AI. You’ll become Obi-Wan and you’ll meet your Darth Maul. But it’s not just for skilled players. So long as you’re on the right difficulty for your skill level, we’re going to try to make sure everybody becomes a black belt.

Just in the same way that you can make basketball accessible to everyone, but it’s played at various levels. We take time to put in the accessibility features that we feel are appropriate for the game and we’ve got people spending a good amount of time doing that. We have colorblind people and [people with other disabilities] at the studio testing those things. I want as many people as possible to enjoy the fun of Doom. It’s a power fantasy and I think it’s an accessible one. Doesn’t mean it has to be any less sophisticated.

How does it feel to be making this kind of game, working in this kind of design, alongside developers like From Software, who have maybe a higher difficulty than you do, challenging other design conventions that have defined triple-A games for a bit?

The trend was, “you can’t make a hard game.” It never really changed. What happened was looter-shooters, and the Diablo-style games that created this [trend]…they were really successful, and they don’t rely on player skill. You just have to understand what works for one game won’t work for another.

For example, no individual action that I do in Destiny is hard. It’s a trade-off not in skill but in time. In order to do high-end strike missions or do a raid, I have to level up my character, that means I have to put X amount of time into the game to get my level there.

And when you look at a game [like Doom Eternal] like that, you might say “you’re asking me to master all these things, and in another game, what if I can’t, I’m scared, this is just for skilled players, that means it’s a niche game.” That’s not really accurate at all. The thing is if you’re going to make that kind of game that leverages time over skill, that means that as the skill goes down required for the player to succeed, the content that you’re giving them has to go way up. I will put in the time so long as you’re giving me a new gun once every five minutes.

That’s huge, and the worst thing you could do. If you don’t understand that, you’re going make an easy game that doesn’t have a lot of content and that’s terrible. Destiny engages me with fantastic locations, I’m seeing things all the time, I’m also getting amazing guns every couple of minutes. That’s not Doom, that’s not how Doom is made.

All the while there was that brief conversation about how games needed to be easy. There was what I just said, and there was “really? Because Call of Duty is not an easy game, and they’re still cranking out massive sellers and have a huge audience.” I challenge anyone to turn on Fortnite, a huge game that’s played by children, and tell me if you think it’s easy. It’s not easy, you’ll get smashed.

Skill-based games have always had large audiences, and as long as you’re educating players effectively, you have difficulty settings if you can have them, there’ll be an audience for them. We’re not making a hard game. We’re just making a game that’s going to give you something to master, and frustration is a part of mastery. All games have frustration. All engaging experiences have some form of frustration that comes with them.

If I love basketball, there are certain rules. I have to hit a free-throw, rebound, I have to have a good jump shot. If someone blocks my jump shot, and then you ask me “are you frustrated?” I would say “yes,” and then you say “okay maybe we should make it so you can’t block people’s shots.” No, what I need to do is get a better jump shot. I thought I’d create space on my jump shot. That’s where the engagement comes in. At that moment, after my shot gets blocked, and now I’m going to engage because I’m going to work on my jump shot.

So the bet is, yes, you’re frustrated, but we’re pushing you into a style of play that we promise will be more engaging, because the better I get at basketball, the more engaging it becomes. And if I suck at basketball, it’s not that engaging, but I’m motivated to get better, because the better I get, the more fun it is. The better you get at Doom, the more fun it will be, and we have to do what we can as designers to make sure we corral the player and push them into that style of play because we bet you’re going to find it really engaging.

Last question, who’s your basketball team?

You know I don’t really watch a lot of basketball! [laughs] I know it from the ’90s! I’m so lame, I’ll say the Lakers.

For more insight into the making of Doom Eternal, check out Kris Graft’s discussion with Martin from E3 2019.

This tutorial shows you everything you need to know to help you master the essential pop() method of the most fundamental container data type in the Python programming language.

Definition and Usage:

The list.pop() method removes and returns the last element from an existing list. The list.pop(index) method with the optional argument index removes and returns the element at the position index.

Here’s a short example:

>>> lst = [1, 2, 3]

>>> lst.pop()

3

>>> lst

[1, 2]

In the first line of the example, you create the list lst. You then remove and return the final element 3 from the list. The result is the list with only two elements [1, 2].

Code Puzzle — Try It Yourself:

Now you know the basics. Let’s deepen your understanding with a short code puzzle—can you solve it?

You can also solve this puzzle and track your Python skills on our interactive Finxter app.

Syntax:

You can call this method on each list object in Python. Here’s the syntax:

list.pop(index=-1)

Arguments:

Argument	Description
index	Optional argument. You can define the index of the element to be removed and returned. The default argument leads to the removal of the last list element with index -1.

Return value:

The method list.pop() has return value Object. It removes the respective element from the list (default: the last element) and returns it directly to the caller.

Video:

Python List pop() By Index

You can use the list.pop(index) method to with the optional index argument to remove and return the element at position index from the list.

Here’s an example:

>>> customers = ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann', 'Frank']

>>> customers.pop(2) 'Ann'

>>> customers

['Alice', 'Bob', 'Frank']

>>> customers.pop(0) 'Alice'

>>> customers

['Bob', 'Frank']

After creating the list with four elements, you first remove and return the second element 'Ann'. Then, you remove and return the first element 'Alice'. The resulting list has only two elements left.

Python List pop() First / Front / Left / Head

The list.pop(index) method to with the optional index argument to remove and return the element at position index from the list. So if you want to remove the first element from the list, simply set index=0 by calling list.pop(0). This will pop the first element from the list.

Here’s an example:

>>> primes = [1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11]

>>> primes.pop(0)

1

>>> primes

[2, 3, 5, 7, 11]

The pop(0) method removes the first element 1 from the list of prime numbers given in the example.

Python List pop() By Value

In the previous two examples, you’ve seen how to pop elements by index. But can you also pop by value?

Yes, you can by using the list.index(value) method which gives you the index of the element value in the list. Now, you can use the list.pop(index) method on this index to remove the value from the list and get the result as a return value.

Here’s an example where you want to pop the element 7 from the list and store the result in the variable some_prime.

>>> primes = [1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11]

>>> some_prime = primes.pop(primes.index(7))

>>> some_prime

7

If you’re not interested in the return value but you only want to remove the first occurrence of the value x in the list, use the list.remove(x) method.

Related Article:

• Python List remove()

Python List pop() Multiple Elements

Python List pop() First n Elements

Python List pop() Last n Elements

Python List pop() Time Complexity … First and Last and General cases

Python List pop() vs remove()

Python List Pop and Push (Stack)

Python List pop() Without Remove

Python List pop() While Iterating

Python List pop() If Not Empty

Python List pop() Slice

Alternatives Ways to Remove Elements From a List

There are some alternative ways to remove elements from the list. See the overview table:

Method	Description
lst.remove(x)	Remove an element from the list (by value)
lst.pop()	Remove an element from the list (by index) and return the element
lst.clear()	Remove all elements from the list
del lst[3]	Remove one or more elements from the list (by index or slice)
List comprehension	Remove all elements that meet a certain condition

Next, you’ll dive into each of those methods to gain some deep understanding.

remove() — Remove An Element by Value

To remove an element from the list, use the list.remove(element) method you’ve already seen previously:

>>> lst = ["Alice", 3, "alice", "Ann", 42]

>>> lst.remove("Ann")

>>> lst

['Alice', 3, 'alice', 42]

Try it yourself:

The method goes from left to right and removes the first occurrence of the element that’s equal to the one to be removed.

Removed Element Does Not Exist

If you’re trying to remove element x from the list but x does not exist in the list, Python throws a Value error:

>>> lst = ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann']

>>> lst.remove('Frank')

Traceback (most recent call last): File "<pyshell#19>", line 1, in <module> lst.remove('Frank')

ValueError: list.remove(x): x not in list

pop() — Remove An Element by Index

Per default, the pop() method removes the last element from the list and returns the element.

>>> lst = ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann']

>>> lst.pop() 'Ann'

>>> lst

['Alice', 'Bob']

But you can also define the optional index argument. In this case, you’ll remove the element at the given index—a little known Python secret!

>>> lst = ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann']

>>> lst.pop(1) 'Bob'

>>> lst

['Alice', 'Ann']

clear() — Remove All Elements

The clear() method simply removes all elements from a given list object.

>>> lst = ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann']

>>> lst.clear()

>>> lst

[]

del — Remove Elements by Index or Slice

This trick is also relatively unknown among Python beginners:

• Use del lst[index] to remove the element at index.
• Use del lst[start:stop] to remove all elements in the slice.

>>> lst = list(range(10))

>>> lst

[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

>>> del lst[5]

>>> lst

[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9]

>>> del lst[:4]

>>> lst

[4, 6, 7, 8, 9]

Related blog articles:

• Check out my full slicing tutorial that makes you a master slicer in 15 minutes or so!

List Comprehension — Remove Elements Conditionally

Okay, this is kind of cheating because this method does not really remove elements from a list object. It merely creates a new list with some elements that meet your condition.

List comprehension is a compact way of creating lists. The simple formula is [ expression + context ].

• Expression: What to do with each list element?
• Context: What list elements to select? It consists of an arbitrary number of for and if statements.

The example [x for x in range(3)] creates the list [0, 1, 2].

You can also define a condition such as all odd values x%2==1 in the context part by using an if condition. This leads us to a way to remove all elements that do not meet a certain condition in a given list.

>>> lst = list(range(10))

>>> lst_new = [x for x in lst if x%2]

>>> lst_new

[1, 3, 5, 7, 9] 

While you iterate over the whole list lst, the condition x%2 requires that the elements are odd.

Related blog articles:

• Check out my full list comprehension tutorial for maximal learning!

Python List pop() Thread Safe

Do you have a multiple threads that access your list at the same time? Then you need to be sure that the list operations (such as pop()) are actually thread safe.

In other words: can you call the pop() operation in two threads on the same list at the same time? (And can you be sure that the result is meaningful?)

The answer is yes (if you use the cPython implementation). The reason is Python’s global interpreter lock that ensures that a thread that’s currently working on it’s code will first finish its current basic Python operation as defined by the cPython implementation. Only if it terminates with this operation will the next thread be able to access the computational resource. This is ensured with a sophisticated locking scheme by the cPython implementation.

The only thing you need to know is that each basic operation in the cPython implementation is atomic. It’s executed wholly and at once before any other thread has the chance to run on the same virtual engine. Therefore, there are no race conditions. An example for such a race condition would be the following: the first thread reads a value from the list, the second threads overwrites the value, and the first thread overwrites the value again invalidating the second thread’s operation.

All cPython operations are thread-safe. But if you combine those operations into higher-level functions, those are not generally thread safe as they consist of many (possibly interleaving) operations.

Where to Go From Here?

The list.remove(element) method removes the first occurrence of element from the list.

You’ve learned the ins and outs of this important Python list method.

If you keep struggling with those basic Python commands and you feel stuck in your learning progress, I’ve got something for you: Python One-Liners (Amazon Link).

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Get the book from Amazon!

OFFICIAL BOOK DESCRIPTION: Python One-Liners will show readers how to perform useful tasks with one line of Python code. Following a brief Python refresher, the book covers essential advanced topics like slicing, list comprehension, broadcasting, lambda functions, algorithms, regular expressions, neural networks, logistic regression and more. Each of the 50 book sections introduces a problem to solve, walks the reader through the skills necessary to solve that problem, then provides a concise one-liner Python solution with a detailed explanation.

Earlier this week, Nintendo revealed it would be rolling out its first major update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons before the game was even released. This update – which is now available to download – will give you access to online multiplayer features and much more. There are also a few surprises in Version 1.1.0.

To thank users for downloading the update, Nintendo is giving out a free in-game Switch. When you press it, you’ll get the familiar boot-up screen and clicking sound. If you happen to have bought an Animal Crossing themed Switch, you’ll receive this same model in the game. This update adds a special Nook Inc. rug as well, which can be purchased with Nook Miles.

Apart from this, the first update prepares players for the Bunny Day festivities, which take place between 1st April – 12th April. When the date reaches 1st April (in real-time), a patch (Version 1.1.0a) will be rolled out to activate the event. In order to experience Easter, you’ll need to make sure you’ve linked a Nintendo account.

Last, of all, this update adds support for the NookLink app. This service (located within the Nintendo Switch Online application) will launch on 20th March, at 13:00 JST. NookLink, as previously detailed, allows you to scan in patterns with QR Codes and communicate with friends via text and voice messaging.

Have you updated your to Version 1.1.0 yet? Leave a comment below.

From the way our industry tackles cyber threats, to the language we have developed to describe these attacks, I’ve long been a proponent to challenging traditional schools of thought—traditional cyber-norms—and encouraging our industry to get outside its comfort zones. It’s important to expand our thinking in how we address the evolving threat landscape. That’s why I’m not a big fan of stereotypes; looking at someone and saying they “fit the mold.” Looking at my CV, one would think I wanted to study law, or politics, not become a cybersecurity professional. These biases and unconscious biases shackle our progression. The scale of our industry challenges is too great, and if we don’t push boundaries, we miss out on the insights that differences in race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, neurology, ability, and degrees can bring.

As we seek to diversify the talent pool, a key focus needs to be on nurturing female talent. Microsoft has hired many women in security, and we will always focus on keeping a diverse workforce. That’s why as we celebrate Women in Cybersecurity Month and International Women’s Day, the security blog will feature a few women cybersecurity leaders who have been implementing some of their great ideas for how to increase the number of women in this critical field. I’ll kick off the series with some thoughts on how we can build strong mentoring relationships and networks that encourage women to pursue careers in cybersecurity.

There are many women at Microsoft who lead our security efforts. I’m incredibly proud to be among these women, like Joy Chik, Corporate Vice President of Identity, who is pushing the boundaries on how the tech industry is thinking about going passwordless, and Valecia Maclin, General Manager of Security Engineering, who is challenging us to think outside the box when it comes to our security solutions. On my own team, I think of the many accomplishments of  Ping Look, who co-founded Black Hat and now leads our Detection and Response Team (DART), Sian John, MBE, who was recently recognized as one of the top 50 influencers in cybersecurity in the U.K., and Diana Kelley, Microsoft CTO, who tirelessly travels to the globe to share how we are empowering our customers through cybersecurity—just to name a few. It’s important we continue to highlight women like these, including our female cybersecurity professionals at Microsoft who made the Top 100 Cybersecurity list in 2019. The inspiration from their accomplishments goes far beyond our Microsoft campus. These women represent the many Microsoft women in our talented security team. This month, you’ll also hear from some of them in subsequent blog posts on how to keep the diverse talent you already have employed. And to conclude the month, Theresa Payton, CEO at Fortalice Solutions, LLC., and the host of our CISO Spotlight series will share tips from her successful experience recruiting talented women into IT and cybersecurity.

Our cyber teams must be as diverse as the problems we are trying to solve

You’ve heard me say this many times, and I truly believe this: As an industry, we’ve already acknowledged the power of diversity—in artificial intelligence (AI). We have clear evidence that a variety of data across multiple sources and platforms enhances and improves AI and machine learning models. Why wouldn’t we apply that same advantage to our teams? This is one of several reasons why we need to take diversity and inclusion seriously:

• Diverse teams make better and faster decisions 87 percent of the time compared with all male teams, yet the actual number of women in our field fluctuates between 10 and 20 percent. What ideas have we missed by not including more women?
• With an estimated shortfall of 3.5 million security professionals by 2021, the current tech talent pipeline needs to expand—urgently.
• Cyber criminals will continue to exploit the unconscious bias inherent in the industry by understanding and circumventing the homogeneity of our methods. If we are to win the cyber wars through the element of surprise, we need to make our strategy less predictable.

Mentoring networks must start early

Mentorship can be a powerful tool for increasing the number of women in cybersecurity. People select careers that they can imagine themselves doing. This process starts young. Recently a colleague’s pre-teen daughter signed up for an after-school robotics class. When she showed up at the class, only two other girls were in the room. Girls are opting out of STEM before they can (legally) opt into a PG-13 movie. But we can change this. By exposing girls to technology earlier, we can reduce the intimidation factor and get them excited. One group that is doing this is the Security Advisor Alliance. Get involved in organizations like this to reach girls and other underrepresented groups before they decide cybersecurity is not for them.

Building a strong network

Mentoring young people is important, but to solve the diversity challenges, we also need to bring in people who started on a different career path or who don’t have STEM degrees. You simply won’t find the talent you need through the anemic pipeline of college-polished STEM graduates. I recently spoke with Mari Galloway, a senior security architect in the gaming industry and CEO of the Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu (WSC) about this very topic in my podcast. She agreed on the importance of finding a mentor, and being a mentee.

Those seeking to get into cybersecurity need a network that provides the encouragement and constructive feedback that will help them grow. I have mentored several non-technical women who have gone on to have successful roles in cybersecurity. These relationships have been very rewarding for me and my mentees, which is why I advocate that everybody should become a mentor and a mentee.

If you haven’t broken into cybersecurity yet, or if you are in the field and want to grow your career, here are a few tips:

• Close the skills gap through training and certificate programs offered by organizations like Sans Institute and ISC2. I am especially excited about Girls Go Cyberstart, a program for young people that Microsoft is working on with Sans Institute.
• Build up your advocate bench with the following types of mentors:
  
  • Career advocate: Someone who helps you with your career inside your company or the one you want to enter.
  • Coach: Someone outside your organization who brings a different perspective to troubleshooting day-to-day problems.
  • Senior advisor: Someone inside or outside your organization who looks out for the next step in your career.
• Use social media to engage in online forums, find local events, and reach experts. Several of my mentees use LinkedIn to start the conversation.
• When you introduce yourself to someone online be clear that you are interested in their cumulative experience not just their job status.

For those already in cybersecurity, be open to those from the outside seeking guidance, especially if they don’t align with traditional expectations of who a cybersecurity professional is.

Mentorship relationships that yield results

A mentorship is only going to be effective if the mentee gets valuable feedback and direction from the relationship. This requires courageous conversations. It’s easy to celebrate a mentee’s visible wins. However, those moments are the result of unseen trench work that consists of course correcting and holding each other accountable to agreed upon actions. Be prepared to give and receive constructive, actionable feedback.

Creating inclusive cultures

More women and diverse talent should be hired in security not only because it is the right thing to do, but because gaining the advantage in fighting cybercrime depends on it. ​Mentorship is one strategy to include girls before they opt out of tech, and to recruit people from non-STEM backgrounds.

What’s next

Watch for Diana Kelley’s blog about how to create a culture that keeps women in the field.

Learn more about Girls Go Cyberstart.

Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity. Or reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Update [Wed 18th Mar, 2020]: Well, that was unexpected. The adorable Japanese white PC Engine Mini is now available to order from Play Asia. We’re not sure how much stock the online retailer has, so you’d better act fast!

Please note that some links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.

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Update [Fri 6th Mar, 2020 12:05 GMT]: Konami has issued an updated statement on the official PC Engine Mini site and via its Twitter account stating that the release of all PC Engine Mini stock has been “delayed until further notice”, meaning the console will completely miss its proposed March 19th release date, irrespective of when orders were placed.

Here’s the statement:

Regarding the PC Engine Core Grafx mini console and its peripheral accessories, the manufacturing and shipping facilities in China have encountered an unavoidable suspension due to the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. As a result, the delivery of all PC Engine Core Grafx mini products, which was originally scheduled for March 19th, 2020, will be delayed until further notice.

We deeply apologize to our customers for the significant inconvenience, and we humbly ask for your understanding and patience while we keep our close attention on the situation. We are investing all of our efforts to deliver the PC Engine Core Grafx mini as soon as possible, and will provide further details on the deliver timing once confirmed.

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Original Story [Fri 6th Mar, 2020 09:05 GMT]: Konami has revealed that the release of its PC Engine Mini range has been delayed slightly due to the Coronavirus infection impacting production and shipment.

The system – which will be released in PC Engine (Japan), PC Engine Core Grafx (Europe) and TurboGrafx-16 (North America) forms – was due to launch worldwide on March 19th. Konami has now issued a statement that says those who pre-ordered their console before March 5th should still get their machine in time for launch, but there will be an unspecified delay on pre-orders placed after that date.

Here’s the full statement:

Thank you for your continued patronage of KONAMI’s products and services.

Due to the effects of the new coronavirus infection that is currently occurring, the game consoles “PC Engine mini”, “TurboGrafx-16 mini”, “PC Engine Core Grafx mini” and peripheral devices scheduled to be released on March 19, 2020 in China Production and shipping delays are inevitable.

For those who pre-ordered “PC Engine mini” by March 5, 2020, the product will be delivered on March 19, 2020. If you purchased TurboGrafx-16 mini, PC Engine Core Grafx mini, and peripheral devices Turbo Pad for PC Engine mini, Multi-Tap for PC Engine mini, or Multi-Tap for PC Engine mini, For those who pre-ordered “PC Engine mini” on or after March 6, 2020, it will be delivered on or after March 20, 2020. Stay tuned for more information, as we will share more details.

We apologize for the inconvenience to our customers, but we will work hard to deliver the products as soon as possible while keeping a close watch on the situation. We appreciate your understanding.