Does anyone here actually PLAY the games anymore?

Darksavior

@retropieuser555 When they played goonies 2, I wanted to play it and in my search there's a fan patch to make it slightly easier.

retropieuser555

@Darksavior yeah it's incredible that people take the time to modify games to make the mechanics or gameplay actually work.

Like that ET game on Atari, regarded as one of the worst games ever, someone made a patch for that.

The rabbit hole of playing is absolutely incredible in pi for me. Games I played as a kid, games I missed out on, hack versions of games that didn't exist, import exclusives, the list goes on and on.

dankcushions

i try to! but the docs/support/developing is as fun for me as the games, so i try not to feel bad about it :)

i try to be working on one game at any given time. right now it's castlevania - harmony of dissonance on the GBA (which is apparently the weakest vania on the GBA but i'm having some fun with it!)

Thorr69

@Darksavior said in Does anyone here actually PLAY the games anymore?:

@retropieuser555 When they played goonies 2, I wanted to play it and in my search there's a fan patch to make it slightly easier.

Easier? Why? I remember buying that game on release date and I finished it over the weekend. (I was stuck on getting the ladder. Once I had it, I finished it 10 minutes later) It is definitely counter-intuitive to 'HIT' walls and stuff, mind you, and the translation errors are annoying. This is still on my all-time favorite NES games list.

IanDaemon

The ability/freedom to customize is fun. Cue this graphic...and apply it to RetroPie/EmulationStation/Retroarch:

dionmunk

@IanDaemon Spot on!

simpleethat

@IanDaemon That should really be a gif

Clyde

@IanDaemon said in Does anyone here actually PLAY the games anymore?:

The ability/freedom to customize is fun.

Indeed. That's why Minecraft is such a big thing.

ecto

I think the most important part is having fun.

What I like most is learning the history of the games: how some of the gaming series started out or moved from one system to another, etc. I usually only try to keep the games that are exclusive to a system. That alone is very telling.

Also, trying out systems I never had at home is quite interesting, too. Or re-trying games I have long forgotten (like ET but now with some QoL hacks).

But mostly real gaming is maybe 5-10% of the tinkering.

windg

For me is 80% gaming and 20% tinkering (until the system is not usable anymore).

IanDaemon

@simpleethat Just to be honest...that's not mine. I'm just posting something that I found that applies to the conversation.

VictimRLSH

@windg said in Does anyone here actually PLAY the games anymore?:

For me is 80% gaming and 20% tinkering (until the system is not usable anymore).

Actually an issue I worry about so I backup and mirror my image on another every few days. While the Pi 4 is now my primary computer, I do have an ancient netbook PC with an SD card slot that can run Etcher.

Darksavior

@Thorr69 Maybe that's the wrong word. More like, accessible and enjoyable. Here are the changes: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4363/

Clyde

@VictimRLSH Although I do not worry so much, my Pi is part of the weekly differential network backup of all of my machines.

simpleethat

@Darksavior Those seem like pretty solid changes. I still think Goonies 2 held some sort of record for number of doors for a long time.

VictimRLSH

@Clyde Another issue is I am trying to learn how to develop install scripts for Retropie and in order to do so, I need a freshly burned image of Retropie to make sure I include the proper dependencies. As I compile more and more into the system, it is satisfying dependencies for future builds too and I need to know what new installs are looking for if I am going to create install scripts.

Clyde

@VictimRLSH I know that problem from another perspective. When I'm helping people here with the Retropie shell, or publish small useful scripts, I often put a sudo apt install line before it for packages that I'm not sure about if they're included with the fresh RP image.

As we're drifting slowly out of the topic orbit, I want to mention that I recently discovered the vector-based 2.5D (?) shooter Einhander for the PSX. It's graphics blew my socks off, and the gameplay was easy enough for my slightly-*couch*-more-than-middle-aged reflexes. But that said, I also tinkered with my cab a good deal more afterwards than I played the game. 😇 But at least I played something!

IanDaemon

Einhander is great! I generally prefer vertical to horizontal, but this horizontal shmup is fun.

Clyde

Fun fact: "Einhänder" – note the umlaut "ä" – means (the) one-handed in German, for example as a designation for one-handed swords.

VictimRLSH

Now cracked out on Kobo Deluxe. It's very similar to Bosconian but with some upgrades to make it more of a challenge. Wouldn't have discovered this game if I hadn't tried to compile it just to see if I could get it working...