I got me one of them Android Handhelds (AYN Thor)
I got me an AYN Thor like all the cool kids.
This thing seems pretty nice on the whole! Setting it up has been a bit tedious, but I suppose fiddling with settings and stuff is always half the fun/battle with such things.
I managed to squeak in before they raised the price (like the first time, I know they're doing it again) which is nice. I also sprang for the MAX model under the rationale that even just the boost in storage space between the Pro and Max paid for itself in the equivalent of ~750GB of MicroSDs. The extra RAM is just a nice bonus.
So with this handheld what's got as much RAM as my real-ass desktop machine, I've mostly been playing... PS1 and PSP games I could have just set up on my desktop for less money and less fuss. At least the two-screen form factor has been working great for most DS games? I haven't put any 3DS games on it since I still have my hacked 3DS and native hardware is generally preferable.
I went on a massive downloading spree during March before Myrient went down. I still probably missed a ton of stuff I'd be interested in, but realistically I still only have so much game time in me anyway. Like, am I really going to put time into the N64 version of Animal Crossing, or do I just want to say I downloaded it? I still missed a few things, like Xenosaga, which I'm downloading elsewhere as I type this. That's something that I might actually play, even if only to say I've played every Xeno game.
My "For Real" to-play list on this thing so far is basically:
- Valkyria Chronicles 3
- Fate/Extra CCC
- Ace Combat 3 Electrosphere (i did get one ending actually but i want more)
- Ace Combat's Holy Trilogy of 4, 5, 0
- Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1+2
- Sakura Wars
- Xenosaga
What I've actually ended up playing instead:
- Contact
- Advance Wars: Dual Strike
- Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
- Like three Yu-gi-oh games for whatever fucking reason
- Blood of Bahamut
- R.A.D.: Robot Alchemic Drive
PS2 games are kind of the main thing I want to check out on this, and of course PS2 emulation is particularly tricky. I talked on bsky about how the emulator I was using couldn't read .chd files if they were compressed a specific way. So I had to transfer all the PS2 games off the Thor to my PC, decompress all the files back to .iso, then recompress them to .chd in a specific way.
Other dumb thing bothering me about PS2 emulation: I don't quite get how cheats work (and you folks know I love to use cheats all the time). Most of these other emulators just have databases you can pull down that give you some toggles in the menu. PS2 makes you do some arcane process with .txt files and manually editing all the hexes and whatnot. Which, okay, that's how using Gameshark worked back on actual consoles, fair. I suppose I'm spoiled by how Cheat Engine on PC lets you mess with stuff in real time.
This has caused me silly problems: for Robot Alchemic Drive, I can't get the cheats to turn off even though I've disabled them and deleted the patch file. I'm stuck with full health and energy now but I can't just give myself more money or anything. Damn.
So if you've got any obscure old games that you just desperately want me, some goon on the internet, to play, let me know so that I can download them and have them sit unplayed on this device indefinitely while I keep playing more mainstream slop.
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