davetansley

davetansley, 7 months ago

North Yorkshire, in the UK.

davetansley, 7 months ago

Hah! I’d never seen that before! I don’t think it looks too bad :)

I’ve certainly seen worse Amiga ports!

davetansley, 7 months ago

I believe Super Ghouls n Ghosts is seen as a sequel to Ghouls n Ghosts.

davetansley, 7 months ago

If, like me, you do a lot of Chromecasting from your browser, you’ll want to install fx_cast. You need to do a bit of manual installation to get it running, but it works great when you do.

davetansley, 8 months ago

They 100% count!

davetansley, 8 months ago

Pretty much all of them… I have so many memories of old 80s computer games where all I remember is level 1. It appears that I was terrible and perfectly happy with that.

davetansley, 9 months ago

Funnily enough, that’s one of the reasons I went with the 2S over the 3+. I love the look of the old NGPC!

davetansley, 9 months ago

Yeah, it’s confusing, and not helped by the fact that they release a new one every couple of months.

davetansley, 9 months ago

More powerful chipset and different dpad/left stick placement is the main one. Here’s a breakdown:

retroabxy.com/retroid-pocket-2-plus-vs-retroid-po…

davetansley, 9 months ago

I don’t have the other devices to compare, but I understands that it should handle those platforms better than the 2+ and slightly worse than the 3+. So some playable games, but not all.

I tried a few GC games (Mario Kart Double Dash and Monkey Ball). They seemed to run okay. Monkey Ball ran worse than Mario Kart.

davetansley, 9 months ago

Yep. Even when clicking the single checkbox captchas, I try really hard to click it “just like a human would”. Which is weird, because I am a human. I think.

davetansley, 9 months ago

I had a similar need, and it prevented me from moving to FireFox for a long while. Luckily, I did manage to get fx_cast to work, and it’s been flawless ever since. In fact, I’d say it work more reliably than Chrome’s casting!

davetansley, 9 months ago

Except in the case of the Sega Master System, where the simplistic 8-bit graphics felt like a massive leap up from the terrible box art!

Ugh

davetansley, 9 months ago

I’m not sure that’s the case…

A lot of the time, the C64 and Spectrum/Amstrad ports were done by different companies, in isolation. You’d often see the C64 go its own way, changing up levels and gameplay. While the Amstrad port was usually a lazy port of the Spectrum. You can often see the colour limitations of the Spectrum ported across wholesale to the Amstrad as well.

In the case of Commando, the Spectrum and Amstrad teams had some overlap and the games share some of the same DNA (see the title screen, for example), while the C64 was distinct. It doesn’t feel like a lazy Spectrum > Amstrad port though, so it has that going for it. The C64, as usual, feels like its own thing.

davetansley, 9 months ago

I always thought that as well, and was similarly jealous. But in doing these port comparisons, I’ve found that the C64 often got a really bad port. See my Bomb Jack post the other day, for example.

If you can look past the visuals and sound, the Spectrum ports often capture the feel of the arcade the best of all. It’s probably about 45-45-10 (C64-Speccy-Amstrad), with the Amstrad getting some rare gems like Renegade.

davetansley, 9 months ago

Can’t believe I missed that one! Sounds like it made some interesting compromises.

davetansley, 9 months ago

Often it was because the ports were given to different companies to do… one would get the Spectrum/Amstrad and another would get the C64. Also, the whole sound and graphics systems would need to be rewritten, given the Spectrum’s lack of hardware sprites or scrolling, or decent sound. Presumably it just made sense to build them separately.

davetansley, 10 months ago

In the interests of good comparison science, it’s worth mentioning that a couple of platforms also got homebrew ports…

The Atari 8-bit version of Bomb Jack

Over on the Atari 8-bit platforms, we have “Gacek”, a kind of unbranded version of Bomb Jack. It’s really good, and really pushes the old Atari’s to their limits. Varied sprites and colourful backdrops, and a range of music throughout the levels. It feels really good to play as well.

There are oddities though - like the way it plays the theme from Gradius/Nemesis on the high score table. And the way it doesn’t mention Bomb Jack at all (understandable, given its homebrew nature). So it’s not so much Bomb Jack as Bomb Jack-ish. But it’s still very good!

The Colecovision version of Bomb Jack

The venerable Colecovision also got a homebrew version, this time staying truer to the original. It’s also very good, and looks way better than a 1982 console has any right to. Control is fluid and fast, and the music is catchy and not annoying.

The bomb sprites are a bit large however, and the game tends to be a bit on the easy side, given there are fewer enemies on screen. But it’s still a tremendous achievement.

davetansley, 10 months ago

Nope, Lemmy exclusive :)

Just want to contribute something to building the Retrogaming community, after years of being a consumer only on Reddit.

(mostly it’s just an excuse to play loads of games… you know, for science)

davetansley, 10 months ago

Ferries and other ocean-going vessels seem to be a rich source of arcade memories… I remember lurking around the sit down Galaxians cabinet on the Bowness to Ambleside ferry on more than one occasion.

davetansley, 10 months ago

I did a much smaller comparison over on Mastodon a few months back: mastodonapp.uk/

It’s one of my favourite games from that era, so I’ll maybe expand it and post here.

davetansley, 10 months ago

I recently switched from Chrome to Firefox as part of an ongoing de-Google effort… and, honestly, I found it fairly easy. The two things I missed and found solutions for were:

1. Profiles - I just use the built in profiles with the Profile Switcher extension
2. Casting to Chromecast - I use the fx_cast extension and actually find it more reliable than Chrome’s casting!

Other than those, I’ve found it to be a very comfortable, familiar experience.

davetansley, 10 months ago

It can be made to work in largely the same way. You just need to install the extra plugin (and associated extra component). I have a similar number of profiles as you and I haven’t had to change how I work.

The article comments reference Multi-Account Containers, but I’m not sure I could make them work. I need different bookmarks for each profile, and I like the separation of a new window.

davetansley, 10 months ago

It’s interesting how far Linux desktop has progressed recently… I don’t hate Windows, in fact I think it’s a great OS for most purposes. But I happened to try Linux Mint a few years ago in a fit of pique about being excluded from the Win11 upgrade for spurious reasons… and it just kind of stuck.

Two years later and I am full on Linux now. Don’t even have a Windows partition (though I do keep a VM). And I’m about to buy a new laptop that I intend to buy without an OS, it will never be touched by Windows, there’s just no need.

For my purposes, Linux does everything now. OS, software, the games I want to play… I never even think about it. Also, everywhere I look, I see Linux - my Steamdeck, my MiSTer, my Pis, my Miyoo Mini. It’s everywhere…

davetansley, 10 months ago

Yeah, it’s weird. I’d been trying it on and off since 1997, and always bounced off because of some annoyance or other. Now… nothing. It’s very low friction.

davetansley, 10 months ago

I use it for work. Other than having to think for a second to find weirdly hidden menu items, it’s fine. At least for my purposes, as a .NET dev. One thing I love about it is Windows Sandbox… really wish Linux would could up something similar.

davetansley, 10 months ago

I’m looking forward to it! I bought it on Steamdeck, but had to refund because I couldn’t get it to run decently… felt I would be doing it a disservice with all the compromises. So I’m not waiting for the PS5 release…

davetansley, 10 months ago

Well, my problem is partly that I play docked, so every issue is magnified up to 50 inches… so take what I say with a pinch of salt.

I managed to get it to run at a fairly stable 30fps, but the settings were so low that everything looked pretty muddy and basic. You can turn off the FSR to get it to look less blurry at 800p, but it still looked pretty bad. Generally, everything just looked a bit unstable, you know? Hair was pixelated, lines were jaggy everything felt jumpy and gritty. I’m sure it would look better on the SD screen itself.

I also read that Act 3 onwards takes a further hit to performance… so at that point I decided to cut my losses. Shame… it’s the first game where I’ve genuinely felt the SD isn’t up to it.

davetansley, 10 months ago

Phew… I was starting to think I was the only docked Steamdeck gamer in the whole universe!

davetansley, 10 months ago

I’m endlessly fascinated by game room pics and tours :)

Do you find that you play physical systems still? I’ve mostly replaced all of mine with a MiSTer FGPA, and I don’t really miss the overloaded power sockets and scart switchers. I still keep the games on display though, because sometimes I get just as much nostalgic buzz from looking at them as I do playing them.

davetansley, 10 months ago

I have a line in my budget called “disposable” which is a fixed amount per month that I’m perfectly happy to spend on me. It covers entertainments, videogames, books, anything that isn’t strictly necessary, but is enjoyable.

I keep this largely the same every year, not even adjusting it for pay rises etc. It’s a non-negotiable amount (unless things get really dire!) and helps me to understand what I have available to “waste”. Keeping it at a static amount helps to divert any extra into savings and investments, and helps me to avoid lifestyle creep.

davetansley, 10 months ago

Pretty good. It’s my default morning scroll, at least.

I’ve got a lot more comfortable with it since using Alexandrite on desktop and Sync on mobile.

The only thing really missing at the moment is content. It tends to be good for the high profile stuff, but a bit lacking for the niche stuff. I still sneak back to the other place on occasion to catch up on smaller communities… hopefully that will come with time.

davetansley, 10 months ago

Isn’t it weird how music streaming has managed to remain a preferable option to the high seas, but video streaming has become so enshittified that it’s easier to not use it?

davetansley, 10 months ago

As a diehard desktop user, I seldom use mobile clients other than for brief looks. However, just got back from a week long holiday where I used Sync exclusively for my morning scroll - and it was was brilliant!

My one remaining quibble is with the way that links in comments are inexplicably a couple of font sizes bigger than surrounding text. Anyone found a setting to change that?

davetansley, 10 months ago

Amazing! Thanks! (and I love the inline settings links!)

davetansley, 10 months ago

Blame fat fingers rather than lack of knowledge for that one ;)

davetansley, 10 months ago

On which platform?

davetansley, 10 months ago

All of the ones in this post, plus a Java version on phones, and various re-releases on modern consoles and retro compilations.

davetansley, 10 months ago

You know, I’ve been using Mastodon for 10 months and I’d never noticed the Explore link! My interface even has the fresh, dismissable help text at the top of that column! :D