What are you playing this weekend/these days?


"Monkey Island" with my 8yo. I want him to be knowledgeable, regarding ancient cultures. (He likes knights and roman legionnaires, too, so.)
Also, back then, I hooked up my trusty US Robotics and pulled a walkthrough txt file from a Mailbox after I got stuck in Pt 3, and don't remember much after that. This time, it's without outside help.
I think.
I hope.
 
Outside help is good because it compensates for diminished concentration. Walkthroughs allow me to get through games I wouldn't otherwise have the patience for.
 
Outside help is good but inside help is better. Listen to the oriental wisdom of Sunchin Shiiyo, the wise Chinese sage from 486 B.C.:
"git gud"
- Sunchin Shiiyo, the wise Chinese sage from 486 B.C.

More seriously, I might be ripping Game Boy files this week. But do not tell Nintendo. I really like the old Game Boys. I recently found a Game Boy Color for €55 in good condition but I passed it up because I am not willing to spend that much on it. Approximately a year ago I bought a Game Boy Pocket in good condition for €30. Still a lot of money, but IMO worth it. I even got a Tetris game with it.
 
Outside help is good but inside help is better. Listen to the oriental wisdom of Sunchin Shiiyo, the wise Chinese sage from 486 B.C.:
"git gud"
- Sunchin Shiiyo, the wise Chinese sage from 486 B.C.

More seriously, I might be ripping Game Boy files this week. But do not tell Nintendo. I really like the old Game Boys. I recently found a Game Boy Color for €55 in good condition but I passed it up because I am not willing to spend that much on it. Approximately a year ago I bought a Game Boy Pocket in good condition for €30. Still a lot of money, but IMO worth it. I even got a Tetris game with it.
I got a cartridge to run games from a micro SD-card. In my case so I can run my own code, but it will run any game I think. Works on the Nintendo Advance also as that one still supports old GB style cartridges.
 
I got a cartridge to run games from a micro SD-card. In my case so I can run my own code, but it will run any game I think. Works on the Nintendo Advance also as that one still supports old GB style cartridges.
What kind of software do you make?

I bought EZ Flash Junior a few months ago also to run my own software. But I also run games on it. Kind of like I did years ago with the R4DS. Though the DSTT works good, too.

Maybe I will buy a flashcard for the 3DS someday, I know next to nothing about the 3DS but it seems like a cool device to develop for.
 
What kind of software do you make?

I bought EZ Flash Junior a few months ago also to run my own software. But I also run games on it. Kind of like I did years ago with the R4DS. Though the DSTT works good, too.

Maybe I will buy a flashcard for the 3DS someday, I know next to nothing about the 3DS but it seems like a cool device to develop for.
I made a small game as a fun demo to show at my work while working on a 3D and VR demo. I use an EverDrive clone card, I feel it's a bit power hungry and always requires fresh batteries to run a game.

The 3DS is fun to, the New 3DS has some additional hardware. I haven't made any software for any other Nintendo hardware, so can't say if it's easy to do. I would assume the Switch would be nice to develop for to.
I only have a flashcard for the DS but haven't tried building anything for that either. A flashcard for 3DS would be nice to, I only ran original software on it but it should be easy to run homebrew on it.
 
Also played a bit Dungeon of the Endless... man, this is difficult stuff !!!
It is a very cute little rogue-like (or rogue-lite, as they call it), with tower defense, but the very limited resources coupled with the randomness of the game makes the things very hard... I became very aware of the strategy needed to advance, but even in "too easy" difficulty, around the 10th level my squad of upgraded characters finds death... and even if one or two survive, I already know that I will never be able to finish the next levels with so few men...
It reminds to me the difficulty of "UFO: Enemy Unknown (1994)", but in that case I was at least able to save/reload at every single turn... but with Dungeon of the Endless, instead, there is only a save game constantly overwritten automatically, and I should physically copy and substitute constantly the file... as far as I don't like it, I'm very tempted to use Cheat Engine...

So, I was able to finish my first run in "too easy" difficulty !! :cool: (without cheating ;))
I was lucky anyway, in the last level I found the exit early, so at some point, because I was risking too much trying to explore the entire dungeon, I just let everyone escape.
Winning the game and unlocking the second pod I started a new run with some different rules, even more difficult for me, even if still on "too easy"... like no more full healing after every battle... :confused:
Anyway I found out some mechanics I didn't know about, the game is absolutely not good at all at explaining how it works, and this new knowledge changed my kind of strategy... now I almost finished my second run, still without losing a single crew member, I also maxed out the experience level of one of them... I still have to be VERY cautious, a single wrong choice can end the game in a turn.
This game doesn't have any kind of persistent bonus to simplify the next runs, so getting better at the game is entirely on the player itself.

There is only a thing that I don't like too much... there are some background stories involved in the game, that while are interesting, are just some phrases told by the crew after exiting a floor, and only if you have the right combination of members together... this is the difficult part because of the randomness of getting them... also one of the stories ended with one of them killing another... I was like WTF !! All that struggle to let them escape safely from the floor and then I lost one of them anyway, it was also the one that I leveled the most... :(
You can actually choose two of them at the beginning, but the other two must be found in the dungeon... for example there's an unlockable picture that I expect to represent the full squad of "Team Fortess 2" crew, so you'll need to have all four of them at the same time... this will require a lot to unlock...
 
Just started Baldur/s Gate 3, and while I've only got a few minutes in, I can tell it/s going to be something special. It/s been one game I've been looking forward to for a long time, and will probably buy it more than once (digital and when I can get a physical copy...)
 
My first impression after completing the game is that it's a nice game. I read people complete it in roughly 19 hours, while I like to doodle around so it cost me almost 27 hours to complete.
I also made my life more difficult to drag a pan around, which I called Bucky (as in bucket). Half-Life didn't always appreciate me dragging around this item as it could spawn me on top of it if I loaded a savegame, which can cause issues with the game.
In some instances my trusted Bucky would get lost if a grenade would explode near it or the game has some special instance (like animation when riding an elevator) causing Bucky to get lost. So I replayed those parts until I completed them with Bucky in tact.
Without giving spoilers, I couldn't bring Bucky on the final few minutes of the game. Although the first thing I got after this special transition was a pan just like Bucky, but it didn't use that one.
Bucky was really handy to store any items the game doesn't want you to take with you, like health or grenades. While you really don't need to have those items, as the game really takes good care of you, it made some parts really easy as I had an excess of grenades.

The only part of the game that was terrible at first was with a creature named 'Jeff'. You cannot kill Jeff, even with a pan full of excess grenades. You have to trust the game to make this a 'fun' experience for you, the developers knew this should be scary, but in an okay way.
All other parts I didn't have any troubles with. Some views are really nice. And there are some nice references at the end of the game.

One of the nice views, although dark, when playing. There are nice bright views to.
HL-Alyx.jpeg

What visor did you used ?
I used the Pico4, which I got after I returned the Vive Focus 3 from work to work on future hobby projects.
I already had a Vive Focus Plus but that headset requires a subscription service to get the PC streaming to work (which is €100+ per year).
The Pico4 is a fine headset for a low purchase price, it's easy to use and in combination with Virtual Desktop Streamer it's easy to play Steam VR supporting PC games.
The only hardware issue I have with this headset is the face mask, which puts too much pressure on your forehead causing discomfort after one hour of play. Which can be somewhat mitigated by using a 3rd party face mask.

While I really didn't want the required Facebook account to use the Oculus headsets, the Pico4 is the next best thing.
The Pico4 is from ByteDance and I'm not really happy about that company either. So I got a used unit, for whatever that makes a difference, and I had to (temporarily) install some app (on a not-my-personal phone) to actually purchase the Virtual Desktop Streamer application (which is working really well). As I couldn't purchase it directly from the headset. Which also means I had to register to link purchases to the headset, which I understand but also not that happy about. As I'm also a developer I also have an Unreal developer account, which is also owned by ByteDance. I guess you can't always work on games without having an account with Google (Android Playstore), Apple (App store), Microsoft (Xbox), ByteDance (Unreal/Pico4).
I can however install any app directly onto the headset, which was the aim for this headset (for development). Which doesn't require an account. To download the SDK however it's expected to create an account, which I assume can be done via a temporary e-mail address if needed.
 
I played ocarina water temple last night for 20 minutes. Such beautiful graphics. Especially with ossc scanline emulation. Such a lovely game.
 
I didn't post a picture of Bucky, so here you go:
bucky.jpg


I played ocarina water temple last night for 20 minutes. Such beautiful graphics. Especially with ossc scanline emulation. Such a lovely game.
Have you tried the 3DS version? It's easier to switch boots compared to N64 version and obviously it can show 3D effects.
 
Have you tried the 3DS version? It's easier to switch boots compared to N64 version and obviously it can show 3D effects.
No I haven't played the 3DS version. I'm playing the GC version from the Zelda Collection on Wii. I think it's higher resolution. I'm also interested in Master Quest, and Majora, of course.
 
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