I have been playing some more #Castlevania #AriaOfSorrow and yep. This is awesome. I really like this location I just got to, the clock tower! Lots of moving mechanisms.

Also played a lot of 2600 Gravitar, which is *weird*, compared to the arcade game. It's a long-play game, the physics are fun, but the missile aim is so terrible it's kind of unwinnable.
#atari #retrogaming #gamedad

Got my 64 cart, the other is next week. Some of the games ported well. Others have very obscure keybindings, and I keep having to hit Select for virtual keyboard, and cursor around picking those, trying to see what happens behind it.

In practice I play a LOT of Berzerk, I'm getting into low thousands of points and staying alive a lot longer, but I haven't really optimized my strategy.

"Chicken, fight like a robot!"
"Destroy the intruder!"
"Got the humanoid!"
#atari #retrogaming #gamedad

Oh I didn't update this, yes I put a deposit on this car haha

But also, personal development of the semi-ungood-kind update: I've gone through life trying my hardest not to find out too much about cars, because hell I've gotta specialize in SOMETHING and I've got Too Many Other Things to fix. In a week of fixing coinops at dayjob and coming home to a pipe with a pinhole leak and brickwork that needs repointing and the dryer breaks down, it's honestly a great comfort to just drive the car to a dude who'll straight-up change the oil for me.

Like... oh no, check engine light came on? GOOD THING I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT CARS HUH, time to have a day off! Sit my butt down at the mechanic's and play Final Fantasy on the #gameDad! Ask a stranger "So what're you in for" and end up going for lunch together and telling bad jokes!

In the right context, not knowing stuff can be a massive privilege. It's a bloody holiday is what it is.

The only problem is when the car craps out and the mechanic's booked up for days on end, and then you end up poking around a bit and going "Hmm, this looks electrical, I know electrical stuff at least," and you carry on doing just, like, odd little bits here and there y'know?

And then one day you go see a liar whose Honda Element won't start and they're all "Any ideas?" and you smile your blissful ignorance smile and you say "Sorry, I don't know anything about cars," and look just past the jump leads and go "but having said that, the ground braid connects from engine to frame with the battery in the middle, and if it's corroded where it bolts to the engine like yours is then it ain't ever gonna pass enough current through the starter motor to crank it when it's this cold outside. Yeah look just down there, see it's hanging by a couple threads. They're not expensive, fifteen minute fix, I did mine this summer. If that doesn't fix it try swapping the starter and AC relays round, they're just in that little box there."

You just said you didn't know anything about cars.
I don't, thank goodness.



aw SHIT

Screen's nice and bright, and you can turn on light or dark scan lines, pixel perfect or scaling. Speaker's mono, in front, can be very loud, has a headphone jack I haven't tried y et.

The only Atari theming is the logo on body & screen, otherwise just black & red. *REALLY* wish they'd made the special edition woodgrain the standard, that's kind of a dick move only making 2600 (ha) of those.

Still, best handheld in a while. I'll be pretty busy with Adventure.
#atari #retrogaming #gamedad

Any competently run forum removes wallet-flashing posts and bans images entirely, this post brought to you by #gameDad subreddits that are just endless scrolls of pictures of consoles and every twenty posts is someone asking a question and ten people jumping on them to tell them that their console is junk and they have to buy a more expensive one

@ajroach42 There's a few good tiny console roguelikes, Fushigo no Dungeon, Shiren the Wanderer, etc.

I play some on my little #gamedad things.

The classics of Moria, Larn, Angband, Hack, generally work on smartphones, there's some UI hackery so you don't just have to use keyboard. I miss playing Moria & Larn on my Treo, tho.

Miyoo A30's 2/3 the size of my phone, screen's 1/3. But because it has actual goddamned buttons and a nice shell, it's much more immersive. I just vanished into it for an hour.

Same with the Anbernic when it's working, but it's so much bulkier.

I kinda blank out on just how very '80s Japan/medieval attitude about women Fire Emblem is. MC's a woman, second merc you recruit is a girl pegasus rider, but every bandit is like "don't kill the women, we can use & sell them!" Yikes.
#gamedad #miyooa30