All I wanna know is where's the Suikoden remaster? They've moved the goalpost three times already! All we got was a blasted boilerplate response in August of last year:

Quoting: KonamiNotice Regarding Release Schedule for Suikoden I & II HD Remaster: Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars

We would like to thank Suikoden fans everywhere for your ongoing passion and support for the Suikoden series.

Regarding the planned release of Suikoden I & II HD Remaster: Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars, we have reached the conclusion that despite the very best efforts of our dedicated development staff to release the Remasters in 2023, additional time is needed to ensure the quality performance and gameplay experience our users deserve.
The entire Suikoden team is renewing our efforts to bring Suikoden I & II HD Remaster to release as soon as is possible.

We will share further release information as soon as it becomes available, on our official social media accounts and official homepage.
We appreciate your understanding and sincerely hope you will continue to lend Suikoden your support.

Thank you,
The Suikoden I & II HD Remaster: Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars Team

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Quoting: TruckStopSantaClausWeird that Microsoft games have better Linux support than Roblox or Fortnight.

Huh, I thought that was a winged pig tweeting on my windowsill this morning.:tongue:

Remind me to mail Satan a parka and snowshoes! He's gonna need 'em if the company that called us "Communists" and our kernel "cancer" keeps doing things like this. :grin:

Of course, there's always the risk of the triple-E from Microsoft. I realize they have different leadership today, but that same leadership keeps cheerfully destroying their own already-loathsome OS's usability.

Their decisions are less predictable than a map of R'lyeh.:dizzy: At least with the old Microsoft, you could figure out what their endgame was. They didn't try to make nice while planning Linux's destruction.

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Quoting: Relsre

Quoting: redneckdrowI'll stick with these.

1. Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup [External Link]

2. ADoM [External Link], but seriously, stick with the Steam/GoG version, the randomizer stinks. I hate the background corruption mechanic, but the rest of the game is gold.

3. ToME [External Link] The game/engine is open source, with the DLC/cosmetics being donationware. Buying on Steam/GoG is the same as donating.

4. Dungeons of Dredmor [External Link] It hasn't been updated in a long while, but the game's got a few good mods. Also, if I recall correctly, icculus did the Linux port. It's hilarious.

5. Dwarf Fortress Adventure mode. I can't wait until the new version! There are so [External Link] many [External Link] role-playing [External Link] opportunities. (Though, admittedly, that last one is presumably using arena mode.)

6. My latest addiction, Elona [External Link]. Specifically, the Elona+ Custom-GX [External Link] variantvariant [sic]. The previous maintainer [External Link] is currently in the process of creating OpenNefia [External Link] which is a version that can (hopefully one day) be run natively on Linux.

If you've never played Elona, It's like ADoM and ToME (in that it has a story and an overworld) mixed with an even more madcap Dwarf Fortress adventure mode. Unlike ADoM, Elona doesn't have a time limit. The one thing I would change: the "tweaks" menu seems to be per character in the variants, instead of persistent.

Great traditional roguelikes, but none of them have the DOOM-like sci-fi theme/setting of Jupiter Hell.

I see your point, and raise you Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead [External Link] and Caves of Qud [External Link]. :wink:

I play 'em, but not as much as the others. I'm just waiting for the story to be finished in Qud before diving back in.

C:DDA requires that I feel the need to drive myself insane with the vehicles. But I do play it, from time to time, using Catapult [External Link] to take the pain out of updating every time I want to play.

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I'll stick with these.

1. Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup [External Link]

2. ADoM [External Link], but seriously, stick with the Steam/GoG version, the randomizer stinks. I hate the background corruption mechanic, but the rest of the game is gold.

3. ToME [External Link] The game/engine is open source, with the DLC/cosmetics being donationware. Buying on Steam/GoG is the same as donating.

4. Dungeons of Dredmor [External Link] It hasn't been updated in a long while, but the game's got a few good mods. Also, if I recall correctly, icculus did the Linux port. It's hilarious.

5. Dwarf Fortress Adventure mode. I can't wait until the new version! There are so [External Link] many [External Link] role-playing [External Link] opportunities. (Though, admittedly, that last one is presumably using arena mode.)

6. My latest addiction, Elona [External Link]. Specifically, the Elona+ Custom-GX [External Link] variantvariant [sic]. The previous maintainer [External Link] is currently in the process of creating OpenNefia [External Link] which is a version that can (hopefully one day) be run natively on Linux.

If you've never played Elona, It's like ADoM and ToME (in that it has a story and an overworld) mixed with an even more madcap Dwarf Fortress adventure mode. Unlike ADoM, Elona doesn't have a time limit. The one thing I would change: the "tweaks" menu seems to be per character in the variants, instead of persistent.

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Quoting: 14This is anecdotal, but nobody who has told me they play Nintendo games on the Steam Deck also told me they purchased those games. They did not. Nope, they didn't already have a Switch copy. They were willingly ripping Nintendo off because they had a distaste for them, and they "don't need the money." It is thieving out of hatred and an unjustifiable sense of deserving something for nothing. That attitude gets on my nerves really fast. Wanting something doesn't mean you deserve it. Grow up.

I'm not talking about the people who own a physical copy or digital license.

You hit the nail on the head. The main point of emulation should always be preservation.

Unless a physical copy of a game is so rare and expensive that even dumping it is a risk, there's no reason to download a ROM in this day and age. If you can shop somewhere on the internet other than E-bay, you'll usually find a good deal on any widely-released game. As for ripping carts, the Retrode 2 [External Link] is probably the most cost-effective non-DiY solution these days.

As for DiY solutions, I'll quote the Emulation General Wiki (I won't link them directly because of links on certain pages):

Bear in mind that when trying to dump cartridge games, there's a significant risk of having corrupt sectors in the resulting dump. If you're using your DIY adapters but don't know what you are doing, there's a risk of damaging the original cartridge due to out-of-spec voltages.

Heck, if I recall Sega actually gives you the ROMs for Genesis/Mega Drive games in their collection. They were early supporters of emulation on PCs. They used a commercial version of KGEN (a predecessor of the also discontinued Kega Fusion) for their Smash Packs on Windows.

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Quoting: TheSHEEEPI very much recommend this Total Conversion/Upgrade mod for WBC3, it's standalone (but you gotta own WBC3 on Steam):

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2420170/Warlords_Battlecry_The_Protectors_of_Etheria/ [External Link]

It is also on ModDB, where it doesn't require you to own WBC3.

It does change things around quite a bit.
And also comes with lots of QoL improvements, makes it work better in larger resolutions, adds a lot of sub-factions to the already 10-12 or so factions, includes several campaigns like the WBC2 campaign (you need to go to custom campaigns for these), etc.

Also a rather active Discord.

IMO the way to play this gem nowadays.

I had no idea this existed, sweet! Many thanks, my caprine friend.:grin:

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Warlords Battlecry III

Well, there's a blast from my past! I remember I got my copy at my local Big Lots' very eclectic electronics shelf for around three bucks. Somehow, they still get new copies of games of the same (and older!) vintage from time to time.

Everything from Warcraft 2's CD-ROM version, Zanzarah [External Link] (think Pokémon meets Quake meets King's Quest), Battle Realms [External Link], to Lords of Magic [External Link].

Heck, I even got my original 5-disc copy of Baldur's Gate from them for $6 circa 1999.

These are available from Steam or GoG these days. Call me a fossil, but I still like my physical media. I hate that it's become something one has to pay extra for, at least for computers.

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Quoting: Brokatt

Quoting: redneckdrowThe thing is, I don't think Nintendo was going after it as an emulator. Sony v. Bleem (a PSX emulator) set a precedent ~24 years ago. Emulation of older systems is not only permissible, it's vital. Even the IRS uses emulators of 60's-era computers, such as the Martinsburg Monster, that still accept their wildly out-of-date programs written mostly in COBOL.

The way they went after Yuzu was by arguing that it is not just an emulator, that it is a tool used primarily for piracy. Because they're still selling the Switch. Cracking encryption on proprietary hardware that is still on the market is legally dubious at best. I believe Nintendo to be incorrect in assuming that the majority pirated games, but the burden of proof against that would be too great, even in civil court.

Just look at what happened to the guy that cracked the Switch firmware in the first place. Modern Vintage Gamer did a whole video series about why he gives the emulation community a bad name.

Things like this are why I only use emulators for discontinued platforms. In that case, it's much harder for a company to say that it affects their bottom line.

Ripping my own cartridges requires a lot of pain on my part (there are a few different pi-based solutions that lessen that pain today), but it's better than risking a $500,000 dollar fine or five years in prison. Ripping floppies or discs is considerably easier in most cases. I tend to use cdrdao or ddrescue.

Outright piracy of a game still commercially available is theft, no matter how you slice it. Backing up your existing games for a discontinued platform isn't.

I have a couple of 90's-00s games that would be expensive as heck to replace, so I keep the physical copies locked up in a fire-resistant safe and play them via emulation.

If you're interested in Sony v. Bleem, Gaming Historian did a video on the whole debacle [External Link]. Bleem may have run like a piece of garbage, but every emulation project today owes it a debt.

Manufacturing of Nintendo 3DS stopped over 4 years ago. After last year the Nintendo eShop is completely shut down so even customers who have original hardware cannot purchase digital games. So Nintendo makes no money from neither hardware nor software but they still went after Citra. This is a serious blow to game preservation.

Precisely why I started using Citra last year, from the wording, I didn't realize Citra was also shut down until this morning. That's a low blow, indeed.

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The thing is, I don't think Nintendo was going after it as an emulator. Sony v. Bleem (a PSX emulator) set a precedent ~24 years ago. Emulation of older systems is not only permissible, it's vital. Even the IRS uses emulators of 60's-era computers, such as the Martinsburg Monster, that still accept their wildly out-of-date programs written mostly in COBOL.

The way they went after Yuzu was by arguing that it is not just an emulator, that it is a tool used primarily for piracy. Because they're still selling the Switch. Cracking encryption on proprietary hardware that is still on the market is legally dubious at best. I believe Nintendo to be incorrect in assuming that the majority pirated games, but the burden of proof against that would be too great, even in civil court.

Just look at what happened to the guy that cracked the Switch firmware in the first place. Modern Vintage Gamer did a whole video series about why he gives the emulation community a bad name.

Things like this are why I only use emulators for discontinued platforms. In that case, it's much harder for a company to say that it affects their bottom line.

Ripping my own cartridges requires a lot of pain on my part (there are a few different pi-based solutions that lessen that pain today), but it's better than risking a $500,000 dollar fine or five years in prison. Ripping floppies or discs is considerably easier in most cases. I tend to use cdrdao or ddrescue.

Outright piracy of a game still commercially available is theft, no matter how you slice it. Backing up your existing games for a discontinued platform isn't.

I have a couple of 90's-00s games that would be expensive as heck to replace, so I keep the physical copies locked up in a fire-resistant safe and play them via emulation.

If you're interested in Sony v. Bleem, Gaming Historian did a video on the whole debacle [External Link]. Bleem may have run like a piece of garbage, but every emulation project today owes it a debt.

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Quoting: legluondunetYou can install all Android games with Waydroid? It's an Android emulator?

Actually no, it allows you to run Android apps on your native kernel. All you need is a Wayland compositor and an Android image of your choice. It's not a compatibility layer, either. It uses Linux namespaces to run Android apps in a container, without being a full VM.

The official docs [External Link] are a good place to start. The ArchWiki [External Link] has a decent write-up too.

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