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PerfectDark

@ PerfectDark @lemmy.world

Posts
17
Comments
93
Joined
1 yr. ago

I just play Steam Deck and write about gaming + Linux a lot

  • Making Buttons Into Little Pieces of Art

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  • Well now I wish that was a thing!

    (Sorry for any confusion!!!)

  • Making Buttons Into Little Pieces of Art

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  • This is a small interview (by my usual standards!) with Jiayu, a girl in China who runs MagiGamer, a business she started making custom buttons and controls for various gaming handhelds. Tech, but with a custom twist :)

    She makes buttons for things like the Nintendo Switch, 3DS & DS handhelds, the Steam Deck and her recent favorite: AYN's Thor (as well as the Odin 3), and more.

    I chatted to her a bit for some quotes to use in my AYN Thor article I shared here yesterday, but this is the full chat, only because I love the work she does and how she gives people an option to truly make a console unique for everyone. I thought it deserved to be shared :)

    There's plenty of behind the scenes pictures of the effort she goes to, and detailed pictures of the handhelds with her buttons installed. I thought this was a fun little one to share, hopefully you like it too!

    ___

  • Inside Swiff: An Interview with NaviVani on Bringing Flash Games Back to Android

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  • I'm glad I could help!!!!

    (Nice to see a Swiff user in the wild, too!)

  • Inside Swiff: An Interview with NaviVani on Bringing Flash Games Back to Android

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  • I had the luck to stumble across Swiff recently, a project that brings Flash games back to modern Android devices, and its developer NaviVani was kind enough to let me interview her for both this piece and an upcoming article.

    Swiff is a really interesting project for anyone who grew up with Flash games, but also for those who never got to experience that super weird but also super creative era of the internet. In my interview, we talk about NaviVani’s own history with Flash games, the challenges of preserving and running them today, the retro handheld community, her love of the RG Rotate, and where she hopes to take Swiff in the future.

    If you have any fond memories of Flash games, or just want to discover some of what the old web had to offer, I think you’ll enjoy this one :)

  • Technology @lemmy.world
    PerfectDark @lemmy.world

    Inside Swiff: An Interview with NaviVani on Bringing Flash Games Back to Android

    gardinerbryant.com /inside-swiff-an-interview-with-navivani/

  • Hands On with the Anbernic RG SP; The Game Boy Advance SP Reimagined

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  • A dedicated Game Boy Advance console, literally designed to be a love letter with thumbsticks just doesn't feel right to me! Luckily for you though, they make GBA-esque one with the sticks: the RG34XX SP

  • Hands On with the Anbernic RG SP; The Game Boy Advance SP Reimagined

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  • Have you tried Aliexpress?

    From what I've seen, that is the option which saves the most on shipping. Anbernic's own site adds way too much with shipping, but when they sell on Aliexpress that drops so significantly. I've seen a few users saying it is the way to go, so maybe it is worth a look!

  • Hands On with the Anbernic RG SP; The Game Boy Advance SP Reimagined

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  • Have you tried Aliexpress?

    From what I've seen, that is the option which saves the most on shipping. Anbernic's own site adds way too much with shipping, but when they sell on Aliexpress that drops so significantly. I've seen a few users saying it is the way to go, so maybe it is worth a look!

    (And I totally understand, with those handhelds the power to run GBA games is well in hand, but the form factor of this RGSP is a beautiful nod to the original!)

  • Hands On with the Anbernic RG SP; The Game Boy Advance SP Reimagined

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  • If you've got some nostalgia for playing the Game Boy Advance back when it was the thing, then this might scratch that nostalgia itch you didn't know you had :)

  • Technology @lemmy.world
    PerfectDark @lemmy.world

    Hands On with the Anbernic RG SP; The Game Boy Advance SP Reimagined

    gardinerbryant.com /hands-on-with-the-anbernic-rg-sp/

  • The People Still Keeping the PSP Alive: PSPunk

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  • The People Still Keeping the PSP Alive: PSPunk

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  • If it doesn't, I highly recommend the OSTENT 1,400 mAh batteries. Higher capacity than the original and they work perfectly. 100% the one to choose!

  • The People Still Keeping the PSP Alive: PSPunk

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  • Oh absolutely. This was exactly me for the longest time. I review retro handhelds, so I've had everything from the entry-level to the high power ones (like the Odin 3 Max). I thought you couldn't get better than upscaled graphics and save states, but when I got a re-obsession semi-recently with the PSP:

    https://gardinerbryant.com/tag/psp/

    ...I've realized that native hardware just has magic to it. The handheld is slim, the design is retro futuristic in the best way (in my eyes), the jailbreak and add-ons are invaluable and the experience is just fun. I've just reviewed the Retroid Pocket Nova, am reviewing the Anbernic RG SP, and have a couple more on the way, but that isn't stopping me absolutely loving WipEout on my PSPs :)

  • The People Still Keeping the PSP Alive: PSPunk

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  • So recently, I spent a fair time chatting with the creator of PSPunk, a website I’m sure many here might have visited. But that chatting (which ended up being an interview) pivoted instead to something a bit different from what I usually end up doing with articles.

    Rather than just talking about the website itself, we ended up discussing the people who keep older gaming communities alive. We covered how PSPunk started as a simple custom firmware guide, why preserving guides and community knowledge is just as important as preserving games themselves, the modern PSP homebrew scene, and why the handheld still has such an active community more than 20 years after launch. You might recognize me from a few PSP articles I’ve done these last months, I just…think they’re neat:

    It was also interesting hearing from someone who doesn’t consider themselves a developer or a major figure in the scene, just “a helpful user who creates guides.” I think that humility says a lot about projects like this, because every community needs people documenting, organizing and preserving information just as much as it needs people writing the software.

  • Technology @lemmy.world
    PerfectDark @lemmy.world

    The People Still Keeping the PSP Alive: PSPunk

    gardinerbryant.com /the-people-still-keeping-the-psp-alive-pspunk/

  • AI companies are now destroying warehouses full of rare books

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  • That and the ending (V for Vendetta) were the sections I wrote in this article. Because as soon as I saw the news, it was all I could think of :(

  • AI companies are now destroying warehouses full of rare books

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  • "For some people the choice to use a bot or not is a choice of having the job, or not."

    That would be Gardiner's side of the article. I contributed by wroting two sections on this one:

    • The Shadow of Fahrenheit 451, and
    • “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.”

    Just to explain whose take is whose for this little article, at least.

  • Technology @lemmy.world
    PerfectDark @lemmy.world

    AI companies are now destroying warehouses full of rare books

    gardinerbryant.com /ai-companies-are-now-destroying-warehouses-full-of-rare-books/

  • Hands On With The Hidizs AP30 Music Boy; A Game Boy-Inspired Music Player With Audiophile Ambitions

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  • But I do still think search would be nice

    I gave them all my feedback, and they have said that firmware updates will bring this and other features in as improvements. This isn't in users' hands yet, so (ironically) my waffling review actually did some help for them and users who end up with them!

  • Hands On With The Hidizs AP30 Music Boy; A Game Boy-Inspired Music Player With Audiophile Ambitions

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  • No, this is the on/off (and lock) switch, by pressing it in, but it is the volume wheel!

  • Hands On With The Hidizs AP30 Music Boy; A Game Boy-Inspired Music Player With Audiophile Ambitions

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  • Hi there!

    I am not Gardiner, but he is one of my best friends! While you'll know Gardiner from his YouTube (I assume!), he and I run the site together, equally. His focus will be no surprise to you, but mine is almost entirely the gaming scene, and then some forays into new things :)

  • Hands On With The Hidizs AP30 Music Boy; A Game Boy-Inspired Music Player With Audiophile Ambitions

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  • I had a LG G6 for awhile, which had the lovely focus of quad-DAC and made sound beautiful

    Such a shame they no longer make phones :(

  • Hands On With The Hidizs AP30 Music Boy; A Game Boy-Inspired Music Player With Audiophile Ambitions

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  • Edit: worth saying: thanks for posting this though, I am interested in seeing gadgets and it is an interesting design and has unique features.

    Thank you! Don't worry, zero offense taken! These things are pretty niche these days, so you're well and truly in the majority with that POV!

    I can take my phone and stream music from my server. If I really want to I can download to the phone (simple drag and drop KDE connect style or syncthing if I want to go that route). I use only FLAC by the way.

    This is the important part here, the quality of those files is dependent on the DAC your phone has. Phones don't place much emphasis on high-quality DAC implementation because they’re built more for things like for convenience, battery life, and mass-market audio (think Bluetooth earbuds and streaming compression). They’ll play your FLACs for sure, but the internal DAC and amp stage are usually an afterthought rather than a focus.

    This one's built around the Cirrus Logic CS43198 chip, which has one purpose in life: make sound good!

    In the end these won't be super convenient for most. But there's plenty of people who want to drop using their phone for everything now, or who want to try out a new way of listening to music.

  • Technology @lemmy.world
    PerfectDark @lemmy.world

    Hands On With The Hidizs AP30 Music Boy; A Game Boy-Inspired Music Player With Audiophile Ambitions

    gardinerbryant.com /hands-on-with-the-hidizs-ap30-music-boy/
  • Technology @lemmy.world
    PerfectDark @lemmy.world

    Is Denuvo's Dominance Finally Beginning to Crack?

    gardinerbryant.com /is-denuvos-dominance-finally-beginning-to-crack/
  • Technology @lemmy.world
    PerfectDark @lemmy.world

    A Modern Setup Guide for the PSP-2000 (Jailbreak, Plugins, and More)

    gardinerbryant.com /a-modern-setup-guide-for-the-psp-2000-jailbreak/
  • Technology @lemmy.world
    PerfectDark @lemmy.world

    Keeping Physical Gaming Alive

    gardinerbryant.com /keeping-physical-gaming-alive/
  • Technology @lemmy.world
    PerfectDark @lemmy.world

    WeatherMaster, Open Source, and the Future of Android; An Interview with Pranshul

    gardinerbryant.com /weathermaster-open-source-and-the-future-of-android/
  • Technology @lemmy.world
    PerfectDark @lemmy.world

    F-Droid and the Future of Open-Source Android; An Interview with DocWolle

    gardinerbryant.com /f-droid-and-the-future-of-open-source/
  • Technology @lemmy.world
    PerfectDark @lemmy.world

    The Other Side of Android: My Favorite F-Droid Apps

    gardinerbryant.com /the-other-side-of-android-my-favorite-f-droid-apps/
  • Technology @lemmy.world
    PerfectDark @lemmy.world

    Some of Android's Most Interesting Games Aren't on the Play Store

    gardinerbryant.com /some-of-androids-most-interesting-games/
  • Technology @lemmy.world
    PerfectDark @lemmy.world

    The Quiet Modder Behind Some of Handheld Gaming's Most Interesting Hardware Hacks

    gardinerbryant.com /the-quiet-modder-behind-hardware-hacks-2/
  • Technology @lemmy.world
    PerfectDark @lemmy.world

    Stepping Away from Streaming with the Snowsky Echo Digital Audio Player

    gardinerbryant.com /stepping-away-from-streaming-with-the-snowsky-echo/
  • Technology @lemmy.world
    PerfectDark @lemmy.world

    Why Everyone’s Picking Up a PSP Again in 2026

    gardinerbryant.com /psp-in-2026/
  • Technology @lemmy.world
    PerfectDark @lemmy.world

    Stepping Away from Streaming with the Innioasis Y1 Digital Audio Player

    gardinerbryant.com /stepping-away-from-streaming/