davetansley
@davetansley@lemmy.world
Dice maker, gamer nerd, developer, Dolphins fan. Reddit refugee (maybe).
Still fighting the 80s 8-bit wars, one port comparison at a time.
- Comment on Linux Mint 22 released: An attractive option for migrating away from Windows | Windows 11 system requirements block millions of PCs from upgrading, while Linux Mint continues to work on older hardware 3 months ago:
I did try running Plasma on Mint, but it was never quite as good as on Fedora or as smooth on Mint as Cinnamon.
Honestly, I think I just like the simple uniformity of Cinnamon. It’s dull and predicable, but really, really solid.
- Comment on Linux Mint 22 released: An attractive option for migrating away from Windows | Windows 11 system requirements block millions of PCs from upgrading, while Linux Mint continues to work on older hardware 3 months ago:
Switched to Linux Mint about three years ago after being unable to take my perfectly good laptop from W10 to W11. Dual boot firstly, quickly becoming entirely Mint. It just worked. It was the first Linux distro I’d tried in about 20 years that I didn’t mess up in a week or so.
Recently bought a new laptop and decided to distro hop. Tried various flavours of Fedora, and a few others, but ultimately came back to Mint. None of the others worked quite as well as Mint does for me (though I really liked KDE Plasma, and Gnome surprised me once I finally discovered extensions!)
- Comment on Linux Mint 22 released: An attractive option for migrating away from Windows | Windows 11 system requirements block millions of PCs from upgrading, while Linux Mint continues to work on older hardware 3 months ago:
For some reason, Mint doesn’t provide access to the power profiles out of the box… no idea why. I just install a Cinnamon applet called “Power Profiles” and it gives me the same systray switcher as Fedora.
Fresh install of Mint was giving me about 2 hours battery life. By switching to Power Saver profile, I can get up to about 6-8 hours. I mostly only need to go to Balanced or Performance when gaming.
- Comment on Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah tells employees to 'work longer hours' in year-end email 10 months ago:
Clowns who think like this need to fuck all the way off… and, honestly, it’s up to older folk like me to make that clear. Younger folks are going to be fooled or scared into thinking like this and be unable or unwilling to speak up. We who have less pressing concerns need to have their backs.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 year ago:
That and the woke mind virus.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 year ago:
Why did its valuation tank after Elon Musk took over and started enacting his policies? Perhaps we’ll never know…
- Comment on If you could play one game for the first time all over again, what would it be? 1 year ago:
Dwarf Fortress is one of those games that I love to read about, but I don’t think I would actually enjoy playing. Like Eve Online.
- Comment on If you could play one game for the first time all over again, what would it be? 1 year ago:
Nope, it’s Zelda 3 on the SNES.
- Comment on If you could play one game for the first time all over again, what would it be? 1 year ago:
My heart says it should be Dark Souls, but my head reminds me I absolutely hated it until I’d figured out that the run from Undead Burg bonfire to Taurus Demon couldn’t be rushed, and the point of the game was to be slow and methodical. Then I loved it.
- Comment on Nightmare Scenario 1 year ago:
I love and hate the feeling in Animal Crossing that the world has just continued existing without you for the last 18 months that you haven’t booted it up. Feels like visiting old friends… but old friends that thought you were dead or something.
- Comment on If you could play one game for the first time all over again, what would it be? 1 year ago:
Yeah, it really was amazing to play blind. We especially enjoyed the DLC… when we first realised what it was all about, it nearly blew our minds!
- Comment on If you could play one game for the first time all over again, what would it be? 1 year ago:
It does seem to have been overshadowed by Shadow of the Colossus somewhat.
- Comment on If you could play one game for the first time all over again, what would it be? 1 year ago:
I picked it up blind after getting carried away in the magazine hype and excitement. I’d not played any FF games before that… man, that was quite an experience!
- Comment on If you could play one game for the first time all over again, what would it be? 1 year ago:
Considered Dark Souls… but, honestly, the first time I played it, I hated it. And every successive playthrough, I’ve loved it more and more. Playing it for the first time would feel like a step back.
- Comment on If you could play one game for the first time all over again, what would it be? 1 year ago:
It’s 20 years old… if Windwaker isn’t considered retro now, then Atari 2600 games weren’t considered retro in 1997 :)
- Submitted 1 year ago to retrogaming@lemmy.world | 341 comments
- Comment on Retroid Pocket 2S 1 year 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.
- Comment on Retroid Pocket 2S 1 year ago:
More powerful chipset and different dpad/left stick placement is the main one. Here’s a breakdown:
- Comment on Retroid Pocket 2S 1 year ago:
Yeah, it’s confusing, and not helped by the fact that they release a new one every couple of months.
- Comment on Retroid Pocket 2S 1 year 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!
- Submitted 1 year ago to retrogaming@lemmy.world | 17 comments
- Comment on The cartridge art was always so kickass. You just had to use your imagination quite a bit... 1 year 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!
- Submitted 1 year ago to retrogaming@lemmy.world | 3 comments
- Comment on Bomb Jack: A Home Port Comparison 1 year ago:
I did a much smaller comparison over on Mastodon a few months back: mastodonapp.uk/@davetansley/109767977707445539
It’s one of my favourite games from that era, so I’ll maybe expand it and post here.
- Comment on Bomb Jack: A Home Port Comparison 1 year 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.
- Comment on Bomb Jack: A Home Port Comparison 1 year 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)
- Comment on Bomb Jack: A Home Port Comparison 1 year 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.
- Submitted 1 year ago to retrogaming@lemmy.world | 24 comments
- Comment on The NES at 40: Seven ways it changed the gaming world forever 1 year ago:
I’m always vaguely jealous that I missed out on NES culture first time around.
In the UK, consoles weren’t really a big thing until the Megadrive and the SNES, and the NES seemed to be nowhere at all, at least where I grew up. A few people had Master Systems, but mostly it was Spectrums and C64s.
I’d see the NES in magazines occasionally, or in game ads in American comic books I got my hands on, and it always looked so cool.
- Comment on Vigilante: A Home Port Comparison 1 year ago:
I tried so hard to find the ST version for this comparison, but I couldn’t find it anywhere! It’s like it has been erased from history or something.
