Enjoy! Just wait until you hear that iconic theme music in the menu…reimagined :P

So nice to see you enjoying the Brick Hammer, too. Such a classy handheld :)

I had the chance to interview Mike Miller, the developer behind Halo: Combat Devolved, an ongoing project that aims to bring Halo: Combat Evolved to the Game Boy Color (and retro handhelds) using GB Studio. I’ve been playing through it on my Brick Hammer, it really feels at home on there.

We talked about the difficult process of translating Halo’s weapons, enemies, vehicles and levels to such limited hardware, the creative solutions he’s come up with along the way, why authenticity sometimes means changing the original game, and what he’s got planned for future levels. If you’ve ever wondered what Halo would have looked like as a '90s Game Boy game, or wanted to hear a bit more about how he’s made it all happen this one should be right up your alley!

It is, yes! Gamma uses DJ Khaled for his display picture everywhere, so this felt appropriate :)

So here’s my review on the 55G1 retro handheld.

The chip itself is pretty interesting: the CPU is capable, while the relatively weak GPU creates a pretty unusual performance profile, which by now is no shock to anyone here.

I also chatted with Gamma (the mind behind GammaOS) about what he’s been able to do with the RG55G1’s drivers and where he thinks there’s more performance to be found.

And I spoke to Camille, lead dev/creator of Eden (a Nintendo Switch emulator), about the G1 Gen 2, Switch emulation, drivers and how the chip compares with other Snapdragon hardware in his experiences. Obviously I review things too, but these are the two unique angles in my lil article here.

There’s a lot I really like about the RG55G1, but the $150+ price makes it a difficult handheld to place. I think the part I’m most proud of in this review is the image of Gamma on top of MC Hammer’s ubiquitous album cover, which I used for his section in here:

Removed by mod

Here’s the latest in my super long running series of developer interviews, this time with the team behind Cocoon, the Android frontend for retro handheld gaming systems (or phones!)

I find their team especially interesting because the trio have such distinct roles: development, UI/UX design and sound. I was so fascinated to learn early that they’ve even commissioned musicians and instruments specifically for Cocoon’s menu music. I mean, everything else as well, but that was taking things to the next level for me.

Anyway, it’s a super long and super detailed interview, so if you’re interested in software development, UI/UX, sound design, dual-screen handhelds, their history and how Cocoon is made, or just getting a behind-the-scenes look at how projects like this are done, there’s a lot to dig into here. Hope some here enjoy it :)

I’m glad you enjoyed her story!

Well now I wish that was a thing!

(Sorry for any confusion!!!)

This is a small interview (by my usual standards!) with Jiayu, a girl in China who runs MagiGamer, a business she started making custom buttons and controls for various gaming handhelds. Tech, but with a custom twist :)

She makes buttons for things like the Nintendo Switch, 3DS & DS handhelds, the Steam Deck and her recent favorite: AYN’s Thor (as well as the Odin 3), and more.

I chatted to her a bit for some quotes to use in my AYN Thor article I shared here yesterday, but this is the full chat, only because I love the work she does and how she gives people an option to truly make a console unique for everyone. I thought it deserved to be shared :)

There’s plenty of behind the scenes pictures of the effort she goes to, and detailed pictures of the handhelds with her buttons installed. I thought this was a fun little one to share, hopefully you like it too!

___

I’m glad I could help!!!

(Nice to see a Swiff user in the wild, too!)

I had the luck to stumble across Swiff recently, a project that brings Flash games back to modern Android devices, and its developer NaviVani was kind enough to let me interview her for both this piece and an upcoming article.

Swiff is a really interesting project for anyone who grew up with Flash games, but also for those who never got to experience that super weird but also super creative era of the internet. In my interview, we talk about NaviVani’s own history with Flash games, the challenges of preserving and running them today, the retro handheld community, her love of the RG Rotate, and where she hopes to take Swiff in the future.

If you have any fond memories of Flash games, or just want to discover some of what the old web had to offer, I think you’ll enjoy this one :)

If it doesn’t, I highly recommend the OSTENT 1,400 mAh batteries. Higher capacity than the original and they work perfectly. 100% the one to choose!

Oh absolutely. This was exactly me for the longest time. I review retro handhelds, so I’ve had everything from the entry-level to the high power ones (like the Odin 3 Max). I thought you couldn’t get better than upscaled graphics and save states, but when I got a re-obsession semi-recently with the PSP:

https://gardinerbryant.com/tag/psp/

…I’ve realized that native hardware just has magic to it. The handheld is slim, the design is retro futuristic in the best way (in my eyes), the jailbreak and add-ons are invaluable and the experience is just fun. I’ve just reviewed the Retroid Pocket Nova, am reviewing the Anbernic RG SP, and have a couple more on the way, but that isn’t stopping me absolutely loving WipEout on my PSPs :)

For anyone who still wants to access Reddit just to browse favorite (niche) subs which won’t ever get traction here, some third-party apps still work.

My favorite is cygnusx’s Slide for Reddit fork (they picked it up after it was abandoned). You can use it logger in or anonymously - without an account logged in:

https://github.com/cygnusx-1-org/Slide

^ you can see my Slide app with the frontpage showing regular subs, and it doesn’t use the dumb new reddit algorithm which shows you posts from like a week ago.

The other option is Morphe who patch the official Reddit app. It will require an account but you can change a heap of things, block everything you dislike too. The patching app does YouTube and YouTube Music or whatever they call it, but it also patches Reddit:

https://morphe.software/

^ here’s an example of some of the things you can change in a Morphe patched Reddit’s settings

Also sorry for the pictures, I wrote and uploaded this while steaming milk for my coffee!

We do our best in the /c/games community! It isn’t niche by any means, but we have regular posters (including myself) and we have fair engagement on new posts and members also.

Unfortunately as is the nature of most social media, it can only be as active as the users. So for very niche subjects I can’t see Lemmy ever being super viable (sadly)

Whether I could create a new account on Reddit for the first time in years, in order to share articles I have written with more people

Within 24 hours I had one absolutely crazy person declaring that forever more whatever I posted they’d add a comment under it warning people that I’m on a posting crusade (I posted it to one sub: consolerepair)

Needless to say this experiment was flames

Oh my God I was scrolling past and thought this was like…gore! Something had gone awfully wrong!

The relief as I zoomed in after paying attention to the title is enormous

I’ve been using tmdb out of spite since they brought this shitty change in. Less reviews, but I can be the change I want to see, and submit reviews here myself

https://www.themoviedb.org/