Flint vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
Flint took 10 min 5 s and was free at list price, Gemini 3.8 Flash took 8 min 33 s and $0.32 at list price. Flint took 1.2× as long.
Flint
Recursive · free route · 36 HN pts
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Google · $4.13/M out · 1,293 HN pts
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Patchbay began in a small, cluttered workshop in Rotterdam, where solder smoke and old capacitors seem to belong together. We are a three-person studio, which means every synthesizer that comes through our door is handled by one of the same people who started the project. No call center, no hand-off to strangers. We repair vintage synthesizers: the dusty analog beasts, the rare oddities, the ones with missing knobs and mysterious tuning drift. Our work is part electronics, part archaeology, part stubborn love. We listen to the hum before we open the case, and we believe most vintage synths are not dead, just waiting for someone to pay attention. In a city known for moving quickly, we prefer taking our time. Patchbay exists to keep old voices alive, one oscillator, filter, and power supply at a time. If you have a synth that sings, whispers, or hums through the decades, we would be glad to meet it.
Tucked away in Rotterdam, Patchbay is a three-person repair studio dedicated to the preservation and revival of vintage synthesizers. We believe that classic instruments are living machines rather than museum relics—tools built to inspire, create, and be played loud. Between the three of us, we combine decades of experience in electronics engineering, sound design, and meticulous craftsmanship. Whether tracking down elusive voice chips for an eighties polyphonic giant, rebuilding power supplies, or recalibrating the drift on a cantankerous monophonic circuit from the seventies, we treat every piece of gear with obsessive attention to detail. Our workbench is built on a deep respect for historical engineering and a refusal to cut corners. For musicians, producers, and collectors across the Netherlands and beyond, Patchbay is where forgotten circuits find their current again, keeping the tactile soul of analog synthesis alive and resonant.
Specs and numbers
| Flint | Gemini 3.8 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Recursive | |
| Made in | US | US |
| Released | 21 Oct 2026 | 2 Sep 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | free route (list $0/M) | $0.825 |
| Price out, per M tokens | free route (list $0/M) | $4.13 |
| Context | 262,144 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | open | closed |
| Hacker News points | 36 | 1,293 |
| Time for the six prompts | 10 min 5 s | 8 min 33 s |
| List price of the six prompts | free | $0.32 |
Flint was free at list price; Gemini 3.8 Flash cost $0.32. Gemini 3.8 Flash was faster: 1 min 32 s less in total, and faster on 4 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, Flint's Breakout game loads but doesn't start; Gemini 3.8 Flash's plays.
Tea Garden experiment: Flint's game passed 5 of 5 checks; Gemini 3.8 Flash was not in it.





