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Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday! Wished I was 40 again. 

It wasn't long enough. And Loki does what he always does, causes chaos and mischief. Good to see his magic back in action.

I like what I am seeing. But there is that small part of me saying, "What are they doing to my GameBoy game?" I really did not know they had this for the switch.

I visit the site every day. I may not make any comments because many times there have been no comments. About the middle of July I will probably be more active due to retirement. I will have more time to game and respond in a retro gaming way.

All I can say concerning the second episode is, "whoa." That was not expected. 

Took a notion to turn on the Wii-U today. Put in a Wii game, Pirates PlundARRR. A hidden gem in the Wii library. It is a strategy side scrolling hack n slash, beatem up. You can build you character up the way you want. Up to four players. I got my tail whipped.

@BLUEVOODU I agree with your spoiler info. My Daughter spotted a picture of "Nightmare" on the candy wrapper that the kid had. Not sure if that is just one of those "things" or whether or not that is something that will unfold in the series.
Waiting for the next episode.................................................

We say it is a good start. Looking for more. Supposed to be six episodes? We really thought it was better than expected.

Spoiler: ShowHide

We were thinking that it is not Loki's fault. It was the Avengers that are responsible for him getting the cube.

I start retirement on July 16th. I begin a journey of redefining myself. That is key to successfully making the transition and not ending up setting on the couch forever. I plan on yard work, which will be a big deal, because it is needed. Also I have a Wacom graphics tablet that I want to learn and use to get back into art, drawing, etc. Might even get back into photography. Then there is that guitar I use to play 40 years ago, but maybe my hands might not be ready for that. And there will be time for gaming and I must plan on some sort of exercise program so my body doesn't turn to the blob. And of course there will be gaming. The days will be packed.

I never blipped a year, if you are referring to the "pandemic." Never blipped here, my year was totally normal, except for the mask thing, stayed at work the whole time. I still have trouble believing that there was anything to be concerned about. Maybe my town just missed it in some way, don't know. I do know that my area of our state has the lowest number of people taking the vaccine. I have yet to take it. I have reservations about taking something that has not had the research and development that the flu vaccine had. And I get very suspicious about the way this is being pushed.

Some of those early home computers like the Amiga, Commodore 64, Atari ST, Atari 800, has a ton of games. Close to 5000 each. The Genesis has 890, SNES 1232, NES all of them. Going back over the different systems I have discovered two SNES and Genesis, US releases, Japan releases. Include the different arcade games, 2000 for mame, all the handheld consoles, yes them too. They only had 3 games for the Dreamcast. Must be the only three that perhaps runs good? It adds up to a lot of games.

@targetrasp if you can get a hold of this thing for the same price that I did, $65. (I have since seen it for $59 on Aliexpress.) I would say it is worth every penny. What causes the drop in value to me are the controllers. The little box, from a quality perspective, I have no idea concerning its durability. But I figure if it lasts 65 days, $1 a day, then, yeah, I can live with that. But I am thinking it will last longer.
This is loaded with emulators running "Retroarch OS."  Games? I really don't know where to start. This thing has got Atari 2600, Amstrad CPC, Neo Geo, Mame, SNES, N64, PS1, etc, around 47 emulators of game consoles with original games. For a simple plug and play device, I am impressed. A rasberry Pi would take a little of your time putting together, but this is a cheap simple alternative. Being that it is loaded down with games, I personally would not add to what I have here. There is enough for me. The only repeats would be the same game in the arcade ported to the Genesis and SNES, just for example. But I get where you are coming from.
This thing, I think, is an old left over TV Box running android with Retroarch running from the SD card. Why do I find these things out too late? I have since watched a video on Youtube on how to convert one of those boxes into something like this, but then there is all that work involved, and the rom thing.
I will just settle for this thing. And I will set back and enjoy.
This is really an awesome little box, for what it is. Runs N64, PS1, and what few games for the Dreamcast, very good.

I grabbed one of these. Yeah I know there is that gray area there somewhere, but I didn't load it up, they are the ones that put over 33,000 games on it. Been doing some arcade gaming. The wireless controllers that came with it are very cheap. One lasted a day and a half, now dead. (but I knew this from reviews) Pulled out an old PS2 wireless and it connected, boom! Better controller anyway.


Been playing Ninja Baseball Bat Man by irem. It is a side scrolling beat'em up.

I am using an iphone SE 1st edition. It is using the current os. Probably won't be supported in the next os update, who knows. I have a tracfone sim card in it. Serves me well.

I cannot get the Gameboy camera to work. Just a white screen. If I could it would be pointed right at me. But no great loss.

@BLUEVOODU this console was able to play both the famicom discs and the carts.

Hyperkin has updated the firmware with the latest release of 1.2. This is what should have been on the console at its release date. Very good for the GBA. Thumbs up on this one. If only now they would update it to give us some features to choose from in some sort of menu. That would be the icing on the cake.
I have been going through my GB and GBC library. The biggest issue that I have ran into it dirty pins.

No. I have never seen one. I have never been anywhere that would have anything close to something like that. The town I live in just barely has video games.  There have been occasions in my early years of gaming that I had to drive out of state just to purchase something that was gaming related.

I have heard of it. Read about it and saw videos. I think it was the only licensed Nintendo console that was not made by Nintendo. It is a collector's item. The disk system for the Famicom was Japan only. But I think the games were finally put on cartridges. Seemingly there was a big difference in the audio quality on the carts, music was better on the disks. I think the Sharp Famicom was in limited quantities.

@targetrasp I have 5. I have been busy with picking up things for the Switch. I call that a distraction.  But I think you can understand. But of all the things that I have picked up for the Switch I seem to be glued to Animal Crossing. I have good intentions. I do want to continue with picking up game carts for this system. Some carts attract me more than others, the arcade carts especially. I will probably turn toward stocking my library for this console later on in the year. I am focused at the moment in getting into gear for my retirement in about a month, July.

I am totally excited about the four "arcade" game carts coming this fall.

@CreepinDeth zorin is a very good excellent choice. My Daughter and I have used it for years and it is very user friendly. And you are right it does give a very windows like experience. Or rather it gives a very intuitive interface, which lowers your guard for the unknown, and offers a lot of familiarity for the average user.

Looking forward to your updates.

@BLUEVOODU the system is just basic with no added features. I am hoping for some future firmware update that would add things like choice of scan lines, for example. Scan lines would be a big help for the graphics of some games. I am in the process of testing my game library. So far I have found that the Gameboy Camera does not work. I am not devastated. I have a larger library of grey carts over the GBC. And a good library of GBA.

@CreepinDeth building a rig around Linux is fun. It has been a long time since I did that. Not only is it a learning experience, but also satisfying using the end product when you're done.

Just saw Evercade's latest announcement! They are introducing their VS console. It will hook up to your flatscreen TV for a four player capability. What do they have planned? Is anyone here interested? Pre-order will be available in May. I will be in line to add this to my collection of the Evercade stuff.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/evercade-vs-is-a-modern-retro-game-console-with-two-cartridge-slots/ar-BB1fZc34

@Grindspine many of the RPGs look good, just depends on whether or not they spent time detailing the character sprites. Here is Lunar for the GBA on my 32" flatscreen.



Castlevania looks good.

The updates made all the difference. GBA games now play as they do on the original console.

This is not how you launch a product. I mean right out of the box the GBA emulation is broken. If you don't know, this is a new console that is designed to play Original Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advance games. Hyperkin has already proven that they can do GBA emulation on the RetroN 5. The RetroN SQ is built around the same concept technology using RetroArch for the firmware. And RetroArch has proven that it is more than capable in producing excellent GBA emulation. Right out of the box, available only because of bad reviews and complaints, I had to flash the firmware fix from the Hyperkin site. Then I had to go to youtube for RoXolid's fix for the frame skip issue. After those flashes, perfect GBA emulation. The console only plays game carts, so you would need to have a collection of the game carts to even have an interest? Obviously this is not built for the casual gamer. I mean how many people would actually seek this out unless they were into retro gaming. And then it would be questionable if anyone had a desire to play games designed to run on 2 to 3 inch screens to finally be able to play them on their 32" plus flatscreens? Blockiness of the situation would be normal due to the nature of the beast.
I have a nice big collection of the old original gray carts, a smattering of the color, and a small bunch of GBA. There was a blurriness, a smoothing effect, to the games until the firmware updates. Now everything is sharp which emphasizes the blockiness of the gaming graphics. The update also reduced the game load times, 2 to 3 minutes now, depends on the game, it could take longer, because it does download your games into the console for play. Some gamers have an issue with that. If you can get over the blocky pixelated graphics, it is not a bad console. But it does lose something when you go from the GBA screen to the HDMI screen. They were never meant to be played on the big screen. For example, I'd rather play Street Fighter alpha 3 on my GBSP. Sakura's image is so much more appealing, and likable. Apparently the GBSP screen does the same thing as if you had scan lines? Some RPGs look better than others on the big screen.
My only dislike is the powercord change. All of their consoles, till now, used the same thing, something like a micro usb. Why the change. The connection on the console is the same as the Switch lite, type-C.
The controller is good and responsive, no issues. Has a ten foot long cord, no complaints there.
It will not play multi carts, but it will load repro carts. It will play the carts that have two games on it, like Castlevania double pack, but took forever to load, just be aware that it might be 6 minutes, or more, of wait time.
What do I think about this? It is a niche market item. This is not for everyone. I like it for the novelty. Good to have in my collection of clone consoles. How much time will I spend playing games on this? Will it be often? Only time will tell as I sit down and gain some type of affection for the platform. Will you like it? Not sure, depends on who you are and what your taste is in gaming.

@BLUEVOODU loki tv series is why this family has Disney plus. We are so looking forward to this. We are hoping that loki will be loki and they not bring any change to his character.

@BLUEVOODU It has been a while. I am not sure why, but I played Mega Turrican on my Genesis more than the other Turricans. And I am sure I finished it because I remember the words or something going up the screen. And then again it may be that I am remembering something else? I don't know. Seemingly there was something about the Mega version that I found fun over the others and it kept me glued to it. I remember long sessions.

  I was so waiting to binge watch this, but YOU are making it very difficult.