Belghast, Author at Tales of the Aggronaut

Rg350 Emulation Handheld Thoughts

April 23, 2020 by Belghast

taking a photo with my phone of me playing Final Fantasy V on RG350

Yesterday’s post spawned a whole slew of interesting comments. First off I don’t want it to ever sound like my view of grinding is the penultimate view and that everyone should adopt it. In fact I think Bhagpuss has it right, that when I am talking about grinding I am actually talking about playing while in a “flow state”. Folks enter this in so many different ways, but for me I find it deeply relaxing to just do mildly enjoyable repetitive tasks while watching the numbers go up. Proof in point, what did I do last night while laying in bed? Well I started a new game in Final Fantasy V on my rg350 handheld emulator console and ground my level to 13… with a party that is multi-classed with level 3 of two different jobs. In theory you should be around level 6 when you arrive at the Ship Graveyard… so I mostly just did a bunch of repetitive nonsense while listening to the evening news and the late night shows.

Some look to gaming for a sense of adventure and discovery, and I absolutely love that at times. However there are a lot of times when I am playing, especially with MMORPGs that I am playing for comfort. My life is often times a little crazy, especially on the work side and what I am needing is some control. Repetitive and predictable gaming helps me feel like I am taming that chaos and that sense of calm allows me to weather uncertain times in other aspects of my life. I find myself needing it more than usual because during the pandemic my home life seems to be in not so much a state of chaos but more a state of forced stasis. My work life however is absolute chaos as we are trying to adapt to doing everything remotely. So the reaction to the upset balance in both of those spheres has lead me to crave something like leveling all of the alts in World of Warcraft because it gives me a sense of calm that I can use to shield me against the things that are otherwise unbalanced in my life.

Retro Emulator Handhelds

Random sampling of Emulator Handhelds on AliExpress

Over the last several years there has been a constant flood of relatively well designed emulator handhelds coming out of China. In the past these were blatant knock offs attempting to look like other systems, but something changed. Instead what we are getting are attempts at unique gaming experiences of their own and with them some pretty interesting developments on the software front. For the most part all of these handhelds run on a Linux Distribution called OpenDingux. This got its start as being a Linux operating system designed to extend the functionality of the Dingoo series of handhelds, which were for years effectively the best possible handhelds you could get out of China for emulation purposes.

What OpenDingux buys this current generation of hardware are some much needed standards and with that a certain measure of community and mod support. The handhelds function in a similar manner and because of that it makes them fairly easy to contrast and compare. While the emulator is generally the same regardless of the handheld, the hardware ultimately dictates how well the various games run on it. If for example you only care about Game Boy Advance games, then you have a wide variety of options and price points that will support those titles. If you want to start dipping into newer Arcade emulation or the Sony PlayStation, then you are going to need a bit more horsepower to back that demand up. I embedded the above video by YouTuber Taki Udon which gives a pretty solid rundown of the various options. His channel has been useful because he seems to review every one of these new handhelds as they release, however if you prefer the printed word here is a decent rundown by Retro Dodo of 16 handhelds.

I started down this rabbit hole originally because of the above unit. I’ve wanted something to play Gameboy Advance games on for awhile other than my Sony PSP, because for the life of me I never can seem to keep track of that console and or keep it charged. I wanted something that had good battery life and that I could more or less just chuck in my pocket for gaming on the go in those various moments where I am stuck waiting around. This is a fantasy I often have but never seem to actually make good on since when I am idle I tend to just keep scrolling twitter. The Pocket Go effectively was a handheld that was good at 8 bit and 16 bit era consoles as well as the Gameboy series of handhelds. The price however was ultimately what attracted me because you can pick one of these up for in the neighborhood of $30. So on a whim I decided to order one.

Shortly after placing my order I was informed by the company selling it out of China, that they were currently out of stock of the Pocket Go, but for $5 more I could upgrade to the RG350, which admittedly was another option I had been looking for. I however largely ignored it because traditionally these are more in the range of $80-$100 which is out of the range of my normal “whim” purchases. Effectively I think in order to close out the books they were willing to sell me one at closer to their unit cost, which is entirely fine by me. I accepted and opted for the above color scheme… which in person looks more Gameboy as those buttons are actually maroon rather than fuchsia. The RG350 has considerably better hardware and with it comes two analog thumbsticks which in theory extended the sorts of games I could play on it.

I had not really talked much about this handheld up until this point other than randomly mentioning it one morning, because I wanted to spend some time with it before I ultimately decided if it was a good thing or not. At this point I have tested out all of the emulators that were installed on it and have some opinions of the handheld in general. First off lets start with a list of the platforms that are supported.

Nintendo
Super Nintendo
Genesis
Sega Master System
Sega Gamegear
Gameboy
Gameboy Color
Gameboy Advance
TurboGrafx 16/PC Engine
Wonder Swan
Neo Geo Pocket / Color
Sony Playstation
Mame
Final Burn Alpha
DosBox
Various Open Source game ports like FreeDoom

Of these I have played with everything but DosBox, only because I just never got around to it. The systems that I have spent the most time playing are Sony PlayStation, Super Nintendo and Gameboy Advance. I have to say while PlayStation games look pretty dated on a big screen, it feels amazing to play Legend of Dragoon on a handheld while laying in bed. The unit ships with 8 gb of onboard storage and the package I ended up getting shipped with a no name aftermarket 32 gb SD Card. When it comes to throwing multi-disc ISOs for the Sony PlayStation on a SD Card, you can eat up 32 gb really fast.

I opted to upgrade rapidly to a 256 gb card but ran into some initial problems. Firstly the unit comes with zero documentation, but thankfully the RG350 is fairly ubiquitous in emulation circles and there is even a Reddit devoted to the device. After some googling I figured out what the issue was. First off the card has to be formatted in FAT32… which in theory it already was but I wanted to reformat just to make sure. This lead me to have to find a third party formatter since Windows will not format a 256 gb drive in FAT32 by default. After doing this it still didn’t work, which lead to more research and finding out that the volume label for the drive must be “SDCARD” otherwise the Open Dingux installation will not mount the device. I share this anecdote not because it was difficult, but because you have to be willing to dig when you encounter friction when using a largely unsupported device like this.

After market thumbstick replacements for the RG350

As far as the games and gameplay goes, I am exceptionally happy with the handheld. I’ve heard tale that there are a few late release PS1 games that have slowdown problems like Bloody Roar 2, but these are the same games that generally have trouble in desktop emulators as well. The build quality of the unit feels solid and it has some heft to it, weighing about the same as a standard mobile phone. The only real complaint I have with it is the thumb sticks, which are unfortunately the dual analog sticks were one of the initial selling features. The sticks do not feel comfortable and there is something about the left stick that causes it to occasionally stick. The other issue is the fact that they stick up as far as the unit greatly hurts the whole “shove it in your pocket” aspect because they tend to hang on the fabric or pull random other things out of your pockets along with them.

There are a number of aftermarket mods available like these thumbsticks that I am showing you from Etsy. They are of course 3D Printed, but without a 3D printer or access to someone who has one I would have to ultimately order them online. I like the concept of having them sit flush with the device, so at some point I am probably going to order a set or try and find someone local to print them for me. I think I would also like to get a set of the Super Famicom colored buttons and maybe swap those out as well. However none of these complaints are really enough to detract from the function of the device. Since I am mostly playing JRPGs with the Sony PlayStation Emulator, it isn’t like I actually need the thumb sticks and have found it way more comfortable to just control everything with the dpad.

Would I recommend the RG350?

I guess at the end of the day it comes down to this question of whether or not I would recommend this device. If you only care about playing 8 bit, 16 bit and Gameboy era games, then I would probably go with something like what I was originally seeking out… the Pocket Go because it has an attractive price point at $30. Also the lack of the sticks makes the entire package more sleek and easy to toss around. For the price I got my RG350, which was ultimately around $40 I would absolutely recommend it. I am finding it way more enjoyable to play Sony PlayStation era titles on the device than I thought it would be. If you can find it for around $60-70 then I still think it is well worth the price to add better game support. However for the original release price of $100 I think I would probably pass and wait for newer devices to end up coming onto the market.

Is Grinding Fun?

April 22, 2020 by Belghast

This is probably going to end up being an odd post because I am essentially going down a rabbit hole that was inspired by a comment I received from yesterday’s blog post. In it long time reader and regular commenter Mailvaltar noticed something about my post.

I can’t help but notice that you used the word ‘grind’ an awful lot in this post.
In contrast, there’s only one instance where you speak of enjoyment, and that’s the last paragraph where you talk about the fact that the boost kinda ruins said enjoyment (of leveling characters).
I don’t know…maybe just let it all go and play something else entirely…?
Mailvaltar

This has lead me to think about it probably more than was intended, but I guess at the end of the day I find grinding to be enjoyable. Sure I didn’t specifically talk about the enjoyment I was having, because for me at least grinding can be relaxing and enjoyable. Like I said at the beginning of this recent string of posts about World of Warcraft, I started playing it again because I needed a game I could more or less shut my brain off while playing it. Living in the time of pandemic has been an extremely stressful thing for me on a personal level. Not only have we not left the house much in the last six weeks, but we have had to figure out how to both be fully functional working adults without stepping on each others toes all the while trying to juggle a completely new skill. I’ve had to learn how to manage a team of sixteen people efficiently without actually having any face to face interaction with them, and my wife has had to figure out how to teach a classroom to a group of students that may or may not have stable internet connections.

The stress has made it to the point where I just really need something soothing to play at night, and in many ways a familiar grind offers an awful lot of solace. You have to realize I am also the guy who gleefully starts a brand new seasonal character in Diablo 3 effectively every three months to grind from scratch and ultimately throw that character away later when I “rebirth” it in another season. There are certain kinds of grinds that just set my mind in order, because I am effectively working entirely on muscle memory. There are kinds of grinds however that I do not find enjoyable, and probably part of the confusion is that I rarely give much effort to explaining what makes one fun and another not so fun.

I think the mindset I have at the time ultimately is what changes things for me. If I feel like I am forced to do something that I don’t really enjoy… see PVP requirements in games like Destiny 2 gating some weapon that I want or grinding for faction in a zone I hate like Nazjatar or even the relatively frustrating methods of leveling alternate jobs in Final Fantasy XIV. Those are grinds that can wear me down and make me want to walk away from a game for an indefinite period of time. Leveling a brand new character through questing and roaming around the world doing bite sized world quests for faction… those are both the sort of grind that sets my mind at ease and allows me to just go with the flow of the game ultimately relaxing me.

My favorite zone in Destiny 2 for mindless grinding

My favorite activity in Destiny is doing public events and patrol missions, because it is the sort of bite sized repeatable entertainment that allows me to just zone out and enjoy myself. Similarly I think the main reason why I have never gotten into Warframe is that there isn’t really any equivalent to that sort of self directed engagement. Everything in the game is mission focused with an objective, and I seem to always avoid doing things that put me on someone else’s schedule. I hate anything that happens on a timer, or anything that involves leading or following another NPC away, because it forces me into a rhythm of game play that is not my own. Those kind of grinds are ones that I am forced into and not one that I choose on my own.

The problem for me at least is that I find it extremely hard to predict ahead of time if a grind is going to be one that I find personally fulfilling. On some level there needs to be some goal that I am working towards to keep me engaged. The goal needs to feel reachable, so like 2000 kills instead of 20,000 kills, but there also needs to be a chance of me having something interesting happen in the process. There needs to be enough friction to keep me interested, but not so much that it knocks me out of a flow state while grinding. Like I said before it needs to be an activity that I am participating in mostly from muscle memory and not really requiring much in higher order thinking. Finally and most importantly I need to find the moment to moment game play mechanically enjoyable. It needs to feel good for example when I charge into a new pack of mobs and drop my first few attacks on them. Charging in as a Warrior and dropping a Thunderclap just feels good, and is probably never going to reach a point where it feels stale.

The games that filled this niche for me growing up were the various JRPGs that I obsessed about, probably none more than Final Fantasy VI. This is not my screenshot because I played on the Super Nintendo and don’t have any images from 1994. However I spent countless hours roaming around aimlessly killing whatever monsters I happened to encounter. I spent weeks trying various things in the Colosseum in the World of Ruin, or trying to steal stuff with the Genji Glove. It allows me to play for a very short amount of time or hours at a time. I think I put off beating the game for as long as I possibly could, because I have always hated when something I am super into ends. I am not sure if I have ever beaten any RPG, without grossly over-leveling and out-gearing the content. I guess you have to understand that I am never chasing “challenge” but instead a mindless state of blissful escape where I turn off my brain for awhile and just become one with the experience. This is what the grind is for me.

Wisdom and Influence

April 21, 2020 by Belghast

For the last few days I have been in a cycle of pretty much playing nothing but World of Warcraft. Now I am not entirely certain why it is suddenly the most important thing for me to be playing. However I have an idea that it is more or less tied to FOMO. Right now the leveling in the game is insanely fast and I know that I have a server full of lower level characters that I would love to catch up. I’ve played on Argent Dawn since the game launched in 2004, but primarily on the Alliance side of the fence. When The Scryers was merged into the server in 2015 I set forth to separate my Horde and Alliance characters so that all of my Alliance stayed on Argent Dawn and I either moved or created new characters on The Scryers.

During the normal course of the Battle for Azeroth expansion, I managed to level both a Demon Hunter and a Warrior. More recently I finished leveling a Paladin Alliance side and leveled a horde Paladin and Hunter as well and have been working on leveling a Druid. This influx of leveling is all thanks to the “Winds of Wisdom” buff that was put into place as a bit of a boon to those folks who were sheltering in their home. Recently it was announced that this buff would in fact stay in place until the pre-expansion patch later this year. This has in turn triggered a strong desire for me to level all of the things. Back during the pre-release events for Legion I managed to pull all of my Alliance characters up to level 100, and I guess in some way I am hoping to do something similar here on the Horde side. I do have a level 120 boost sitting waiting there for me, but I figure more than likely I am either going to use it on my Mage… which is traditionally the character I am least likely to level on my own… or make a Death Knight since I already have a high level one sitting on another server Horde side.

Yesterday the game changed however, and a brand new buff was introduced and it has me shifting around a bit. I’ve not unlocked any of the new Allied Races on the Alliance side, and I really would like to be able to roll Dark Iron Dwarves. The Impressive Influence buff gives you bonus reputation in the Broken Isles, Argus, Kul Tiras, Zandalar and Nazjatar… or essentially this is a way for you to catch up on the last two expansions Pathfinder buff relatively easily. Essentially in order to unlock those Allied races I am missing, I just need to get a bunch of factions to Exalted, which seems considerably more reasonable when I am getting double faction. Were I a smarter man I would have leveled one of my humans and used it to grind out those factional gains.

So now I find myself in the unfortunate place of being split between loyalties of grinding out a bunch of new characters on the Horde side, or using the faction buff to catch up Alliance side and unlock those new races. As of right now I am splitting time between the two. So for example last night I ground through all of the World Quests available that would give me the reputations that I cared about, and then finished the night out working on my Druid. I have a feeling this is going to be what the flow of my game play will look like for awhile. Maybe at some point I will figure out what exactly I want to do with that boost, but for the time being it is sitting there mocking me. I really do actually enjoy going through the process of leveling characters, and as a result the boost sorta always feels like I am ruining that experience.

An Appreciation of Spiders

April 20, 2020 by Belghast

The earliest evidence I have of Developer Appreciation week is 2010, but it might have been taking place prior to that. Unfortunately the original site of its creator Scarybooster no longer exists, nor does even the social media evidence as his twitter account was hacked some years back. Whatever the case it has been going on for awhile and with Scary’s falling off the blogging wagon, we tried to start integrating the practice of taking a moment out to appreciate the folks that are behind the scenes creating the games we love into the Blaugust proceedings. This has morphed a bit to include content creators since I feel they also need some appreciation as well, but for this very first post of the week I thought I would bring things back to its roots and talk about a game studio that might not be that well known.

Prolific Release Schedule

Spiders is a French Game studio most recently known for the huge sweeping RPG adventure Greedfall that I have written about at length on this blog. However if you have not been reading the blog it is probably likely that you may not know about this studio or many of its games. I originally became aware of them when Technomancer released, because I thought it looked extremely interesting and it happened to be one of the games that Steam suggested to me through its discovery algorithm. However they have been cranking out ambitious games for awhile now, and it is highly likely that you have at least heard of several of them.

Sherlock Holmes Versus Jack the Ripper – 2009
Faery: Legends of Avalon – 2010
Gray Matter – 2011
Of Orcs and Men – 2012
Mars: War Logs – 2013
Bound by Flame – 2014
The Technomancer – 2016
Greedfall – 2019

The games utilize a custom in case variant of Sony’s PhyreEngine that they call the Silk Engine, and it seems to have allowed them to crank out a pretty prolific release schedule. Until Technomancer they were seemingly releasing a new title every year, which is fairly impressive. I’ve played through four of their games to date and finished three of those four. I ultimately decided that Bound by Flame just was not for me, but I deeply enjoyed Mars: War Logs, Technomancer and Greedfall. In fact Greedfall was on the AggroChat games of the year show and it really was one of the darlings of what was an otherwise packed year of games.

Flawed But Ambitious

In an April or 2019 Article, CEO and Co-Founder Jehanne Rousseau spoke a bit about their motivations and why they seemingly keep creating the same sort of games over and over.

We’re 35 in our team, with 40 at the moment working on the game. We are developing this because we love the type of game. There aren’t that many studios doing this type of games today. I mean, even BioWare have stopped doing it and I’m very sad because it’s what I like to play the most.
Jehanne Rousseau, CEO of French studio Spiders

That really is the thing that drew me to the games the most, is that they are in fact creating games in a genre that seems to be dying. There is a blind ambition in each of these titles that is impressive, but the negative side of that is said ambition sometimes outstrips their technical prowess. They seem to constantly be grasping for greatness and often times end up a few steps short of it. There are numerous things about the games that I would consider a bit buggy at best and poorly designed at worst, in each of the games that I have played there is something magical about them that kept me coming back for more. If you take the sequence of games Mars: War Logs, Technomancer (its direct sequel) and Greedfall there is a clear growth and improvement between each of the games.

The stories that they are telling are simultaneously huge and expansive while at the same time managing to include some deeply personal encounters. There is so much world building happening that feels fresh and interesting, and these worlds are populated with characters that are worthy of them. Where the games fall short however is on the technical execution. Combat often times feels a little stilted and control schemes often feel a little awkward. However much like going back to Dragon Age Origins which also suffers from many of these issues when compared against a modern game, the story and the characters are engaging enough to get you to look past those blemishes.

A Bright Future

The reason why I chose to talk about Spiders this morning, is that I am extremely excited for whatever comes next. After having played a sequence of games and seeing the improvements between each of them, I have to say Greedfall was without a doubt their most polished experience. It came extremely close to being a perfect game, at least in my eyes. It had some mechanical issues still, but the amount of improvement made between it and Technomancer for example were impressive. It is like I am watching a studio flirting with greatness so many times and Greedfall really was the show case of those abilities.

This makes anxious for whatever game comes next, because I feel like whatever title that is will be their big commercial break out. Greedfall was still very much a niche title for the people “in the know” about such things, but across the board it seemed to review extremely favorably. In hindsight it was probably my favorite game of 2019, and while based on their current schedule I don’t expect to see another game until 2021 at the earliest, I am pumped to get my hands on it and play it. Spiders is exploring one of my favorite genres of games… the Bioware style action RPG, and sadly it is a genre that not too many companies seem to be making. I think more than anything I want to keep pushing recognition of this studio out there, because they are doing some really interesting things. Over the last year they went from a studio that I knew next to nothing about, to one of the ones I am watching closely for any tidbits of information that might be announced.

If you are curious about some of my other posts related to Spiders games… you can find the various categories associated with them below: