@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social
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marksemczyszyn

@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social

Still standing in the smouldering wreckage of the Twitter Airbus. On there, here’s what some lovely people said about me:

You're funny.Kinda cute.Full of shit. All good qualities. So says https://mastodon.social/@oboogie. Unpronounceable internet friend with benefits. So says @ActualBenMiller

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

marksemczyszyn, to random
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So fell asleep last night watching Russ’ Ayaneo Pocket Air review. It’s a good video but clearly I wasn’t engaged with the product. And neither really is the manufacturer. Seriously, haven’t they learned anything about the importance of chipset drivers? Crappy, incomplete drivers kill the potential of a device that could have knocked it out of the park. But I also hate their pricing structure tying RAM directly to storage options. https://youtu.be/oW_ClEoEoRw?si=zdr5C42j5y3jL-bR

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

Well. Interesting stuff on the Taki Discord. Russ had a bad software update that crippled performance?

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

Yup confirmed it was a software bug. And a few of the 6GB SKUs appeared back on Indigogo where people cancelled pledges. And I had one in my basket. And had to take a phone call. And didn’t pull the trigger. And now they’ve gone again. Bummer.

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

And amazingly another of the 6GB early birds prices appeared. Bagged it. £229 sounds about right to me.

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

And here’s the video update that pretty much caused the turnaround in dumping pledges. Some folk will be a little …. Irritated. Truth is, I was on the list for the launch and missed the early bird in the first place. Anything above £229 is getting close to Steam Deck justification territory. https://youtu.be/TxNR5vtZmcQ?si=cie6aylCzjvjtAnx

marksemczyszyn, to random
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SteamDeck on sale at the mo.

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

Been thinking about it. Mainly because of the state of higher powered retro handhelds. Don’t trust Ayn to ship the Odin2 any time soon - they say December. Cough. Ayaneo might be better with the Pocket Air. That D1200 APU is not bad but they’ve already announced a SnapDragon variant. So why bother with the launch version. Plus both are still Android with all the good and bad that brings. My Retroid Pocket 3+ is still a nice little device. But my Steam library has a real appeal.

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell The Deck? Yeah. Rewatched Russ’ Deck video (it emulates everything). It does look superb but I never watched it too closely before and the temps being reported for the heavier systems peaked at 90 degrees. But you can’t hear a fan because he overlays a new narration audio track. That’s crazy temperatures.

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell Been thinking how little I play the RP3+. It’s a quick dip in and out normally. So that puts me off the other Android devices that are looming. And the Deck is interesting because of the Steam connection. But would I use it any more? Maybe enforced and loosely documented October with the Retroid. See what happens and it might inform what I’ll end up doing. Likelihood is I’ll just buy a switch. :)

marksemczyszyn, to random
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Anyone fancy talking about Nintendo Switch? Some background:

I’ve had everything since the N64. Wii U still gets played at times. But I didn’t understand the Switch - I didn’t “get” it. A tablet form factor seemed too much of a personal device to treat it like the communal games system.

Now Switch 2 looms although unconfirmed. And I’m thinking - is it a stupid time to grab a Switch now? OLED appealed for sure but the cost of the Lite and the realistic, non TV use case for me makes me wonder.

craiggrannell, to random
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My Fritz!Box 3490 is being weird and updating its OS every day. To the same version. Not ideal. Wondering if it’s time to change.

Any UK recommendations for solid, robust mesh systems? We’d likely need a main unit and two repeaters. Main unit ideally needs to have a USB port with NAS-style functionality.

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell Orbi RBR50 with a single satellite covers whole house and garden and has been bulletproof for me for a good couple of years now.

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell But it doesn’t have NAS. So not for you unless you hook up a PI.

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell the satellite is on a coffee table at the back of the house. And the pi (plex server) in a cage under the table and plugged in via Ethernet. You could do similar but for file sharing.

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell The 3B running my plex has been in service 5 years now I think. Never missed a beat.

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell I know what you mean. But my experience has been good - especially as I haven’t had to mess with it at all and it’s been stable and reliable enough for the non technical in the house to use it.

craiggrannell, to VintageOSes
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#DailyRetroGame 188: Driller (1987)

In the march to realism, Freescape tried to level up visuals, taking Mercenary-style vector landscapes and filling them in. The result was a first-person adventure, where you had to save an otherwise doomed moon by placing drilling rigs and avoiding automated security systems. Worth checking out today primarily for its place in history – or to hear the music on the dog-slow C64 version.

Play it on: #AtariST

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5wx1tHQ1vo

#retrogaming

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell Hmmm. I adored the atmosphere on the 64 version back then. Expectations were far lower. Didn’t enjoy any of the Freescape follow ups though apart from Wally’s music on the 64 Dark Side and Total Eclipse.

llamasoft_ox, to random
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Those computer shows were important to us, not so much as opportunities to sell stuff (although we did sell games while we were there), but more as social events - in those pre-internet days they were an opportunity to hang out with the people who actually played the games, chat with them, just to be accessible, that was important to me. Good times.

It was lovely at Zzap! Live to meet again people who were there, and who still remember fondly what we did back then.

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

@llamasoft_ox You were always approachable at those shows which was pretty amazing really. There was always such a buzz and strong, friendly community feel. It was always a bonus to pick up a few show discount games at the end. But we were never there for the commerce. Happy times back in those 80s.

craiggrannell, to random
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@ChinnyVision BTW, I watched your lataest video and was amused by your Wally Beben bafflement. I wanted to interview him years ago for a Retro Gamer SID feature, but it never happened. (Well, the feature did. The interview didn’t. Tel was also MIA at the time.)

I love what he did with C64 Tetris. Watching the waveforms on those YouTube SID videos shows how talented he was. (And that’s just as well, given that there’s no other reason to give the slightest crap about C64 Tetris these days.)

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell @ChinnyVision Tetris is a masterpiece for sure. He did some lovely stuff on the Ariston player on Compunet. Airborne, Viking. And for my money, Dark Side betters Driller by a whisker or two.

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

The sheer amount of brand value being destroyed here is incredible. Even people who didn’t use Twitter knew what a tweet was and linked it to that service. The generic “post” has no link to anything. It’s such a unique screw-up (given the verb usage rather than just the wider brand recognition), I’m struggling to think of an equivalent.

From: @the_verge
https://mastodon.social/

marksemczyszyn,
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@craiggrannell @the_verge Really boggles the mind. So sad that Twitter was sacrificed in this way. If the fool wanted to build an all in one app of everything, he had another couple of options: 1. Build it from scratch. 2. Move to China.

craiggrannell, to c64
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#DailyRetroGame 152: Shoot-’Em-Up Construction Kit (1987)

Game creators existed before SEUCK, but this was arguably the first that was usable. The UI even today feels modern, with its menus and WYSIWYG approach. And although the output was basic, clever folks managed to eke surprisingly smart games from the kit. It also came with several of its own, including a Gunsmoke clone that was better than the official home conversion.

Play it on: #C64

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMdg5ETQ6jM

#retrogaming

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell An amazing bi product of a fab coder wanting to enable a fab designer to create content without waiting for code. Quite genius really.

craiggrannell, to c64
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#DailyRetroGame 146: Sheep in Space (1984)

Sheep! In space! Specifically, flying sheep that spewed bonios of doom, to try and keep aliens from blowing up their planet. As ever with a Jeff Minter game, there were quirks – you battled gravity and inertia, and a difficulty level that would make lesser sheep panic. But you also had to deal with your sheep’s tummy, by letting the woolly hero munch the odd bit of planetside grass.

Play it on: #C64

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt3bExO4ez8

#retrogaming

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell Ahhh. The game that would become Iridis. Always loved Jeff’s mechanics even if I never got on with them. Experimentalism at its best.

craiggrannell, to c64
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#DailyRetroGame 141: Thrust (1986)

Inspired by Gravitar, this game had you fight gravity and physics, attempting to rescue pods from inside caverns peppered with gun emplacements. It was hard as nails, but hugely compelling as you tapped keys to carefully adjust your craft – before inevitably crashing into a wall. The original’s on the Beeb, but the C64 release adds a fab Rob Hubbard soundtrack.

Play it on: #BBCMicro, #C64

Version comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xfbd7eHieQ

#retrogaming

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell did it. Kind of. Mapped A and S to dpad left and right and A button to Return. Shield and thrust seem to work on B button because I guess it’s mapped as Joystick Port 1. Anyway, did those and added a horizontal and vertical auto crop and saved them as game settings. Neat.

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell only niggle now. The Thrust image I have doesn’t have sfx. Grrrrr.

marksemczyszyn, (edited )
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell yup using OneLoad version.

marksemczyszyn,
@marksemczyszyn@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell I wondered if it was the core I was using. Vice accurate. Maybe I’ll try another and see. It’s got the music though. Someone should hack it to play that during the game.

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