It’s an interesting technology, a solution in search of a problem.

I remember reading the insert for this back in the day included in my Civilization box or something. Was interested in getting it, but I think I picked up Betrayal at Krondor or Ultima Underworld instead.

I guess now it’s time to revisit it.

Have a Lemmy gold: 🥇 !

This, to my mind, is the one biggest benefit of GoG. No separate launcher/front-end/DRM needed.

On the topic of launchers though, I’m a big fan of Heroic Launcher (for Linux at least). Can hook it into GoG, Epic, and Amazon.

Glad to hear Gog is partnering with Heroic. Heroic is pretty slick, and only getting slicker. Shame to waste effort, and much better than forking and not contributing to upstream.

The whole Fediverse is still a little on the niche side, but if growth continues, I think this is exactly another development. When you work for Company X, your work email is usually somebody@companyx.com, likewise I would expect official Fediverse presences.

Where it will probably take off though is when somebody starts selling corporations a turn-key solution. Kind of how products like Outlook took over corporate email.

I’ve been complaining about printer support. It’s pretty much the last piece of the puzzle for a school focused SD.

Thanks to KDE on the SD, I’ve switched my main DE on my desktop. Still have a soft spot for XFCE, but KDE Plasma on the SD was polished and was very “coherent”.

One thing the SD is missing for being a complete “serious” computer is printing support. I’m sure I could it installed, the SD is eminently hackable, but a Flatpak solution or a Steam default solution would really justify using a SD in Desktop mode for school and work.

Pretty much. Musk is far from a free speech absolutist as he proclaimed himself to be. I would go further and say he’s substantially worse, unpredictable and inconsistent in free speech matters.

Old Twitter would hardly be a true paragon of free expression, but they were at least relatively transparent. Good luck getting any answers from new Xitter or any consistency.

I’d have to agree. An official Mastodon instance for announcements, and then just echo posts wherever desired.

Could go further, have public libraries get funding to run public instances or similar, but I think you are already seeing non-profits and maybe some co-ops formed to run Fediverse instances, so the need is less.

Similar. Had a Colecovision when I was a kid, followed by a second hand Commodore Vic-20. Hands down the Colecovision had better graphics, but all you could do is play the games you bought or shared. Next was a Tandy 1000 TX, and I don’t think I ever looked back.

I did have an original Gameboy, that I bought with my own money, and that was pretty cool, but still it was simply a matter of playing the games they sold you. In the shareware scene of the 90’s, even the Gameboy was horrendously limiting.

For me it’s never been a performance issue. Most of the time I’ve been using old PCs, and the latest console would technically be more powerful (back to Colecovision vs. Commodore Vic 20). It was a matter of flexibility and variety.

Have you looked at the Stop Killing Games campaign?

I think the Windows thing is spot on. You’re going to be using a handheld gaming device for gaming mostly (if not entirely). You don’t need to run Excel.

I think the justification for Windows on a gaming device though is kernel level anti-cheat. The problem is that you are chasing a pretty select audience. People who will play one of those games on a handheld, and will also only buy a handheld that can pay those games. Also won’t install Windows on a Deck either.

An aside, I probably use Desktop mode more than average, and I have LibreOffice installed on my deck. Jokes on Microsoft though, I’ve been using Linux primarily for ages anyways, so I don’t even need Windows for that.

I was 95% k+m until the Steam Deck (the 5% being my old Saitek Flightstick).

Since the Steam Deck I’m probably 90% controller.

I will say that k+m offers superior speed and precision, especially in FPSes, but the biggest improvement that I noticed was that I was getting a sore shoulder from repetitive strain sitting too much time in front of computers. Controllers are more ergonomic.

Ironically, the Atari -like joystick from the 2000’s from Walmart for $15 that plugs directly into your TV with games stored in the joystick is a better joysticks than the original 2600 joysticks.

However, I would contend that the Intellivision controller was worse.

I had a Colecovision (and Vic 20), and although I will say that was better than the 2600 and Intellivision joystick, I have to emphasize to all these youngsters complaining about the original NES controllers that those were still an improvement over previous default joysticks.

Flashbacks! This reminds me of my first Gravis Gamepad (IIRC). Was a disappointing joystick, even compared to old Intellivision controllers.

It was okay with fighting games, and I do recall a nineties PC giant robot fighting game (One Must Fall maybe?)

Still, my first joystick that I actually loved and made a game much better was an old CH Products flightstick. Early flightstick, so it only added a throttle to the base, so no rudder control.

I remember playing Comanche Maximum Overkill with that stick and just popping in and out of canyons. Also Earthsiege and Strike Force Centauri. I ended up with a Saitek Flightstick, and it was even better (Independence War is a fond memory) but the difference was not as revolutionary as going from a regular joystick to that first CH Products flightstick.

For sure. Easily half (likely more) of my unplayed games are Bundle games from a bundle I got primarily for something else. There’s a few gems I’m sure.

There are a few games I bought on sale to play later as well (I’ll get to you!) but the other glaring flaw I see is a selection bias. The people who use this service or similar services are going to be the heavier Steam users with collections in the hundreds.

So heavier users, with lots of bundle games and sales. I’d divide that total by 10 at least

Probably why I actually leave multiplayer on in No Man’s Sky. There’s people around, stuff happens, but there is no need to engage if you aren’t in the mood.

Plus, if you are feeling sociable and want to, you can go to the anomaly and team up for bonuses.

Apples to apples, I wonder how much that holds true…

When a console launches, buying off the shelf equivalent parts is probably a fair bit more expensive. After a couple of years though, the latest and greatest whatever is at least two years old.

I’m sure console manufacturers flatten out these prices by making long term contracts, but still a 4 year old machine is still 4 years old. AMD has released new chipsets since that are in turn themselves coming up on 2 years old.

Granted, console games are optimized for a specific platform, but that will likely be very game specific.

Hard disagree. Sure, I might be okay with doing that, you might be okay with that, but the success of the Steam Deck hinges on its accessibility and ease of use.

The people on a Steam Deck Lemmy community are not representative of most users, and I recommend the Steam Deck frequently to others based on its ease of use, not it’s moddability.

I will concede that Steam’s support of parts and upgrades also has long term positive implications, even for people that just buy it to play games. Even if the average user never cracks it open to swap out the hard drive, they probably know someone who could. A broken screen for a Steam Deck is a repair, not a replacement for example.

Good to know!

I can’t really complain to much though, mine is around 1 1/2 years old and still works.