Lots of very good games in here. I have to give a special shout-out to Mega Man ZX Advent, in which one of the two playable characters is voiced in English by the same actor who later went on to voice Bomberman in the modern titles in that series. :wink:

Also, Mega Man 11 is a short-but-sweet jumping-on point if you're new to the Mega Man games, with lots of options to cater to fans old and new - I highly recommend that one, too.

Unfortunately, it's also worth noting that some of these games have had undeclared DRM added to them recently, years after release, and given Capcom's current policies it's likely that the rest will follow.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: jams3223Pengling, you never cease to amaze me. This is why I have some deep respect for you; you're a genius.

Aww, thanks very much - that's very kind of you. :smile:

It's true, though - if this logic had been applied in the old days, we would never have moved beyond Pac-Man, because Crazy Otto wouldn't've been allowed, then that would never have been re-worked into Ms. Pac-Man, then we'd never have gotten Lock 'n' Chase or K.C. Munchkin or Bomberman. Super Mario Bros. wouldn't have been ok because Pitfall! existed, and then Sonic The Hedgehog would've been a "Mario clone" so that's not ok either.

Then Data East wouldn't have won Capcom U.S.A. Inc. v. Data East Corp. [External Link] and fighting-games would never have been allowed to advance beyond Street Fighter II, then from there Doom would never have had its deathmatch mode and Puyo Puyo would never have existed (both of these non-fighting-games had important elements inspired by SFII, but that wouldn't have been allowed either).

And extending out from that we'd never have had Half-Life because that was inspired by Doom and Quake, and without Half-Life hitting the big-time ultimately Valve wouldn't've grown and we wouldn't have the Linux-gaming support that we now have today.

It's not even hyperbole for me to say that - being fine with letting Shovel Knight copy Mega Man's homework (it even employed one of its original composers! Shock! Horror!) but not being ok with Never Grave copying Hollow Knight's homework is a slippery slope. :wink:

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Purple Library Guybut I could buy a major game for that money, or more likely three indies.

Ordering my wishlist by lowest price first, I could buy seven games for that much! :shock: (Five indies, two retro Toaplan arcade-game re-releases.)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Oh, nice surprise! And cute artwork for it, too. :grin:

Unfortunately, only one game on my wishlist is in this sale, and it's not discounted by very much, so I won't be picking anything up!

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Loftyyou underestimate how close i sit to my screen

To protect your privacy, external media requires approval to load.

Source: i.postimg.cc

View cookie preferences.
Accept & Show Accept All & Don't show this again   Direct Link

NOOOOO! Hahahaha! :tongue: Don't do it! You'll end up like me;



:tongue:

Quoting: CyborgZetaPlus, unless I'm mistaken, this is the first Deck clone I've seen to actually have trackpads. It baffles me why this isn't more common.

All of the pre-Steam Deck handheld PCs lacked it, so I guess that various vendors have just continued on with that? :huh: It's such a great feature, though - I wouldn't want to be without them now, and I wouldn't consider an x86 handheld that lacks them!

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Jarmer- bore blaster: holy shit so much fun!!! I'm always on the lookout for something that can scratch that steamworld dig itch, and this isn't exactly the same, but it's SO FUN!!! I can definitely see running this on the deck a lot. This is a definite purchase.

This is what I was hoping to hear - I've had Bore Blasters on my wishlist for a while. Better check it out once my Steam Deck's finished charging. :grin:

Incidentally, I notice that the store-listing for the game now has the new "Dwarf" tag. :grin:

View this comment - View article - View full comments

This is a fab bundle, lots of good stuff in here! :grin:

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: nromdotcomThe battery is indeed replaceable without much trouble! I haven't had to actually replace it yet, but I've done the teardown to see how it is.

It's just a few screws to pull off the back, then the battery is a 803450 with the JST connector. No spudgers or heat guns or anything required, standard sized battery, couldn't be easier.

I've been a huge fan of the Evercade ecosystem for a couple years now and the Super Pocket is a really cute little entry point. Heck I still use it instead of my EXP for some games.

Looks like I got ninja'd - that'll teach me to write quicker! :tongue:

Thanks much - that confirms what I dug up from that teardown video. :smile:

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: amortician

Sugru by tesa - Moldable Multi-Purpose Glue for Creative Fixing and Making, Red, Blue & Yellow, 3 Piece

Something like this might help with the rear buttons. :smile:

It might, but on the inside the four buttons are a single piece of hard plastic, which connect with tiny clicky little tactile switches that you wouldn't typically use for game controls, so I'm not sure how much it might do (again, I really do think these buttons were an afterthought!). Thankyou, nonetheless! :smile:

Quoting: PoliticsOfStarvingIs the battery easily replaceable and, importantly, with readily available replacement batteries?

It’s looking to me that anything with a Li/USB rechargeable battery is just a disposable device ready for landfill after a few years.

• I wanted to turn my old Vita into an emulation handheld. Found out it only holds 7% battery now. Spent just over $50 to get a replacement 3rd party battery which only gives me about an hour of play.


• Switch Pro controller needs to be put on charger after nearly every play session. Otherwise seems to be out of juice when I want to play next. Luckily we have a spare Switch controller that uses AA batteries which we always have ready to go in our battery charger.


• I have a DS that won’t charge, battery’s dead and I can’t find a replacement.

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderIm also curious about that answer..... Sadly *easily* replaceable batteries arnt the norm anymore...... But we are also trying to be more environmentally friendly...... I dunno how that works.......

Going by this teardown [External Link], it uses a 3.7V 1500mAh 5.55Wh 803450 battery, which isn't soldered in, and which seems, from a quick search, to be a standard readily-available battery-pack. It's also not a difficult device to pop open, as we can see. :smile:

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderThats great to know...... Its hard to tell from just images but I was worried about the d-pad..... Its got that real cheap POP Station knockoff look about it.......

Must be honest, it's one of the best d-pads I've come across in years, as far as mass-market devices go. Folks with the Capcom version suggest it's perfectly good for the Street Fighter games, too, which I guess says it all! :tongue:

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderI knew you couldnt go an entire article without showing off at least a tiny bit of Bomberman merch...... :wink:
(I know what stand that it is that the Super Pocket is sitting on...... You cant fool me.....)

You got me! Haha. :tongue:



To be fair, it's the only stand I've got that can hold up devices like this and the Steam Deck. :wink: My other one is a beanbag penguin, who's only good at propping up a phone!

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderWait..... You Pengling..... Bought a device that doesnt play bomberman???........ Who are you and what have you done with the real Pengling???....... :tongue:

Honestly, I'd love to see a Bomberman collection for the Evercade - the single-player campaigns would be ideal for the handhelds, and then you could use the home-console for multiplayer matches. :grin:

Failing that, I'd be happy to see the indie Commodore 64 game Bomberland [External Link] appear on one of their C64 compilations. This might be more likely at some point in the future, since apparently they've been asking fans which C64 indies they'd like to see [External Link].

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderThat image always makes me laugh and is exactly how I imagine you write up these articles......

Hahahaha! Glad you like it. :smile: Thankyou! :grin: :tongue:

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Loftyi mean, its not a fact. it's your opinion. but if you have a study you can link which shows where people cannot tell the difference then i will bow to your superior evidence.

i can tell the difference on a smart phone between a 7" 720p smart phone and a 1200p smart phone, its a nice sizeable difference for reading text. last time i checked, we still read text in games, although i admit the steam deck might not be used for e-book reading :grin:

in fact i can link a dozen videos where people are showing the difference and claiming the difference in the detail of the screen of a ROG Ally vs a Steam deck.

I think I may not have been clear enough, and I apologise. I'm afraid I don't have any studies and equally I don't need to see people's opinions about the ROG Ally - it's just Handheld Design 101 that you don't waste battery-life and performance on details that can barely be seen at a normal viewing distance for a handheld (a big mistake the ROG Ally makes, and it's already impossible to see the individual pixels on the Steam Deck's display even if you push it right up to your nose; As I said before, it's a fact that there's barely any difference at the sizes we're talking about - there's a point of diminishing returns with high-resolution 7" displays in a handheld).

The original Apple Retina Displays were 960x640 and a normal viewer could not distinguish the individual pixels on those at a standard smartphone viewing distance - and that's a lot closer than you would be viewing a handheld, and a lot lower-resolution than the devices in question here. Dot-pitch is key more than the resolution itself, and the human eye can only see so much detail in a centimetre at the intended viewing distance. You don't want to eat into other issues that are more important for the form-factor, like needing to be able to venture further than the power-cord goes! :tongue:

You're normally going to be holding a handheld at least twice the distance away than a smartphone due to the weight (which is much greater than a smartphone in most cases), and for the sake of not hurting your arms, wrists, and hands; Even with a lighter gaming-handheld, you'll never hold it up like a smartphone because that makes it hard to use the controls since that sort of posture and lack of elbow/forearm support will put undue strain on your wrists and fingers (I learned that one the hard way a long time ago, before smartphones even existed - ouch! Don't try this at home! :dizzy:). Maybe if it was put on a desk or aeroplane seat at very close-proximity at eye-level and you were using external controls, but that's not how most would typically use a handheld.

As an aside, I have to compliment your amazing eyesight - please be sure to look after your eyes well. :smile: A lifetime of handhelds and laptops mean that my own are sharp only at the typical viewing-distances for those; Long-distance vision is a bygone dream, but at least I like my glasses, haha! :tongue:

Quoting: sarmadI second that. They should've stuck with 1280x800 to guarantee higher frame rate or longer battery life. On a 7" screen 800p resolution should be enough given the constrained processing power.

I can imagine there being a market for a larger device with a screen big enough to see those details, but then it would be a pretty large handheld and getting into only-semi-portable "Maybe I should've just bought a laptop?" territory, I suspect, and the battery definitely wouldn't be much cop.

Ideally, I'd like to see Linux handhelds and Linux gaming-laptops bolstering each other by covering all the options, because there's only so far you can take the resolution on a handheld before you can't see it, and there's more room for a bigger battery in a laptop, but both can advance the software side of things.

Quoting: Phlebiac

Quoting: Penglingthere's barely any difference between Coke and Pepsi

Them's fightin' words! ;-D

I'm a lot less picky about sweet fizzy water now that I'm getting older! :tongue:

View this comment - View article - View full comments