I run 16 Bit Virtual Studios. You can find more reviews from me on YouTube youtube.com/@16bitvirtual or other social media @16bitvirtual, and we sell our 3D Printed stuff on 16bitstore.com
Pro: Price, Convenience, Looks
Cons: Much like buying an “iPhone” from Temu, the price is usually reflected in the quality.
Don’t get me wrong, there are cheep smart watches if you look for them or go second hand. But what you’ll find advertised on Temu isn’t it.
Build quality is usually the first to suffer, but you’ll find mislabeled battery info a 500mah instead of the promised 1000mah. Or an LCD instead of an OLED.
But those are things we can adapt too. The biggest problem is software. That’ll do and close enough has been the name of the game for years now. And sometimes “smart” just means it can (badly) track your steps and pretend to check your heart rate with a led pretending to be a sensor.
Alternative
If you are looking for any budget electronics try looking for last years or a few years ago models. I got a Garmin Forerunner 235 in 2022 for 1/5 of its asking price because I found a deal on eBay.
I’d also look into the landscape of the market you are buying into and seeing who is actually making these things, and what is running on it.
For smart watches I found the answer was
Apple
Android with Watch OS (Samsung google and many more)
Garmin
If the watch isn’t running android watch os or is made by Apple or Garmin. Assume its good too be true and look into it more, or look elsewhere.
Good news China is lazy and one clone usually is made by many factories and someone else made a video about it. Might not be the same name, but it’ll be close enough.
Released in March of the is year (and in August for non switch consoles) Pepper Grinder is a traditional 2D platformer with a world map, levels, and a gimmick of using a drill to travel underground like a dolphin through water.
Its platforming has a good rhythm to it, with a nice momentum when you go in and out of the dirt. The best way I can describe the game is that it feels like a Mario Gimmick level that’s been expanded to its own game.
If I had any complaints about this game, is that the boss fights are a bit too tedious. Not impossible as I’ve been able to beat them. But requires a bit more precise movement than the levels which preceded it.
Overall though, I haven’t played a 2d platformed in ages which I’ve actually wanted to go through in ages. And it is a welcomed addition to my gaming library.
Favourite as in the one I love the most. Model 1 Genesis, or Virtual Boy. Love their aesthetic.
Favourite as in best Library. PS1/PS2. Massive library of games which are still being enjoyed decades after they were launched.
Favourite as in still using. By my books, I’d consider the PS Vita as retro now, if not then the Nintendo DS/PSP.
It’s fun to zoom in on the GameCube icon on the controller spool. At 4K it doesn’t look like there will be detail, but there is.
I happy to hear there shape are unique enough to recognize their wireframe. I was a bit worried that they were a bit too generic.
Bold assumption to think that I have a Neogeo pocket color. (I’m broke)
Fun part, since I’ve made each stylus for each system, the icons are all unique. There shouldn’t be (I hope) duplicates.
I have a dell laptop with that port too. Upgraded my CD drive to a CD/DVD combo drive
Pokemon Sapphire/Emerald/Ruby/Leaf Green/Fire Red were my goto especially for grinding. From sound and memorization along you can play pokemon without looking… Or at least I could.
Zelda Oracle of Ages is another game which I found calming. Its more puzzle than combat, but there is still combat. Not goof got meeting but good for afterwards.
The GBC Harry Potter games or Prisoner of Azkaban are fun RPGs that I played before Pokemon. A fun time too, and can almost be played under a desk (don’t ask how I know)
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, rogue like endless(ish) dungeon crawler. Amazing story, but the post game is just a grind perfect for fiddling as you are just doing the same thing for 99 levels… Until you find the boss. Better on DS with Blue rescue team, but red on GBA is a good choice.
Outside of mega man battle network, the rest of my games are platformers which don’t fit the bill
My desktop is now unplugged, I am too terrified to plug it back in. Send help
At it’s current pace, it might take 7.5 million years
As I said above
I have a Floppy to USB adapter inside my rig, and since my motherboard has an unused set of USB 2 headers, I just plugged it into that.
So 1 adapter and 1 usb header, and it reads it as a USB Floppy, which I believe Linux has drivers for.
The device is shown as /dev/sdd (sda is 1TB SSD, sdb is hdd#1, and sdc is hdd#2)
The drive has been making noises since yesterday and it’s still not loading. I’d say I’d get back to you, but I don’t think it’ll load.
The world may never know :D
And totally not password123!
Honestly since the New 3DS screen is so small, the slight blurring is negligible to my eyes. So long as there isn’t certificating in the image, like shimmering and or screen tearing, I don’t noticed it.
My first system I could call my own (not sharing with siblings) was the fat Nintendo DS. It will always be my favourite out of nostalgia.
But my primary DS is my New 3DS, does everything want and plays everything.
For me the DS is the Pokemon machine, from the mainline series to the spin offs. Such a good time to be a fan of Pokemon. Even the knockoffs were fun like Fossil fighters.
The DS was also a good rpg power house the first system I beat Chrono Trigger on.
Then there was the slog of platformers, from new Mario bros, to license of game dubious quality, nicktoons unite anyone?
The 3DS was just an overall disappointment in comparison, game selection was limited and 3rd parties just didn’t give it the time of day. Don’t get me wrong love my 2d Zelda and Metroid revivals on it, but outside of Nintendo games, it didn’t offer me anything.
Minecraft is officially supported on Linux through deb or snap here: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/download/alternative
Unofficial some one packaged it up as a flatpak which can be found here: https://flathub.org/apps/com.mojang.Minecraft
As for ease of mods and other things, Prismlauncher is my go to, though I primarily use it to avoid the endless login requests from MS on the base launcher.
It can also be installed officially via flat hub here: https://flathub.org/apps/org.prismlauncher.PrismLauncher
I love Emulation since it can be on completely different ends of the spectrum. On the one hand you have ROM collections on modern system, like Capcom Arcade Stadium, or TMNT Cowabunga Collection.
On another you have complete reverse engineering project like PCSX-Reloaded, and community developed emulators with retail games are based on, all open sourced and technically legal, so long as you have the hardware, and tools to back the ROMs, BIOS’s, and other material required.
Then you have the complete black market, where the ROMs are illegally obtained, the BIOS’s are just downloaded from a random server, and the emulators are paying to get access to the latest retail games patches like Yuzu.
All 3 of these interact and play off of each other, like arcade collections using MAME, being able to extract the ROMs from collections to use in emulators, and Nintendo using someone else’s ROM dump of their own game for Wiiware. That it’s just interesting that emulation works at all.
I personally love it, and try my best to get my ROMs, ISO, and BIOS’s without resorting to downloading it.
Ditto, but I don’t exercise as much as they do so I assume its longevity is based off of how much you sweat.