ClassicGMR

I have had this board in my drawer for probably a year. Just can’t bring myself to tear the stick down to install it. I’m lazy and it works fine. I’ll do it eventually… 🤷‍♂️😁

GAME: Yakuza 0 (Steam) SYSTEM: Steam Deck 512 GB LCD, GPD WIN 4, PC CLOUD SAVE: Yes I recently bought the Yakuza series(included 0, Kiwame, Kiwame 2, 3 Remastered, 4 Remastered, 5 Remastered and 6) on Steam when it was on sale. It worked out to be $6 per game. I am starting with Yakuza 0 since it's "technically" the first one (prequel). Now I've never played any game in the series but it is very good and I am hooked in. Story driven. Violent but since it IS Japanese Mafia that's expected. It plays flawlessly on the Deck with no overheating or loud fans. Looks beautiful but I have to say sometimes I am fighting with the camera for a good angle especially in tight spots. Minor annoyance you can get past once you get used to the controls. It uses the Steam Deck preset controls so no config needed.

Still my favorite theme. GameEx just looks weird without it. (Sorry Tom) Here's some more torture stats from the GPD WIN 4. As you can see in GPU-Z the 16GB RAM is assigned to the GPU like I thought. Heaven shows a good 62 FPS average but don't be fooled. It stuttered in the larger scenes noticeably hence the 9 FPS low. I really love this thing. PS2, Gamecube, Dreamcast... pffft... it doesn't even sweat.

You mean like the title of the thread? 🤣 "Ryzen 7 7840u / 64GB RAM / 4 TB" Seriously though - I figured if I'm doing it I'm going all in. These specs were for the top model and as of this post the link is valid for this model specifically. It's $77 off right now but it's a pretty penny (150,000 pretty pennies to be exact). * It's an 8-core, 16 thread chip that can hit 5.1GHz. I think it runs at a normal max of 3.3 GHz and at idle I've only seen it as low as 2.5 GHz so very nice. * It is running 64GB of DDR5 of which 48GB are usable (massive overkill I know). I think the other 16GB are reserved for the GPU? Could be wrong. * The GPU is the on-board AMD Radeon 780M which I have stressed a little. It's somewhere between a GTX 1660ti and a 2070 Super(?). It runs well that's all I know. It will do 1080p but on the 6" screen 720p is more than enough. I still do 1080p docked though. I get a solid 60FPS in Forza Horizon 4, Fortnite, Slay the Spire, Skyrim, etc. She'll chug in Cyberpunk but I can lock the FPS and it's a solid experience. I still want to "Furmark and Unigine the hell out of it" but I've had too much fun just using it. * There's an optical mousepad on this thing that's just so easy to use. Took me a hot minute to get used to it but I absolutely love it. Beats the actual joystick+shoulder buttons "mouse mode" the system sports. * The GPD WIN uses an XBox style controller setup. Works fine. The right stick is a tad close to the A button for my tastes but I'm getting used to it. * It has a 6" LCD that is smaller than the Steam Deck but it's more vibrant. I don't notice the difference while using it. Slide it up and it feels better playing on it PLUS reveals a full, back-lit keyboard. * I do have the dock which adds the usual HDMI out and USB Type-A ports. Right now I have a mouse/keyboard attached and it's connected to my 1080p monitor. * WiFi is as fast as my laptop and desktop so no complaints there. I've played Fortnite as I said earlier with a solid, no stutter 60FPS. * The Bluetooth works. I don't use it much on any of my PCs but it works. * The SD card slot works as well as an SD card can in terms of speed so *shrug*. * The speakers are front-firing and sound a lot better than I expected. They do get obscured a bit by my hands but even then they sound better than any rear-firing or bottom-firing speakers I've heard on other handhelds. Just for reference here's my Amazon review: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R30NIVB2LFQQOO?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp

Wow. You bet your ass it's running GameEx! Of course it is! (And Steam. And Epic. And Battle.Net.) This thing is amazing. Full-fledged PC with some nice gaming chops. Emulation is a breeze.

The Raspberry Pi novelty has definitely worn off in my house. Between my wife and I we had 6 at one point running various things. I am down to 2x RPi 4 setups - a Pimoroni PiCade and a 10.1" Sunfounder setup. I keep these since they are both portable and run on a 25W battery bank for 8+ hours. Back in August I sold off 3 of the RPi's and used some of the money to buy a Windows mini PC. The mini-est I could find actually! It's a GMKTek Windows mini pc. 1000 times better, has more power and runs Windows. The emulation is good but the functionality I get from it being an actual PC just makes it the better buy. Stream movies, productivity, general browsing, YouTube (Ms Rachel for the grandkids is a MUST LOL). It just makes more sense. I put it in the entertainment center with a Bluetooth keyboard and you can't even see it. I paid $170 USD at the time but right now it's only $140 USD. There's just so many better options. If you like the Raspberry Pi and tinkering around and playing with it as a hobby then yeah buy one. If you just want something to emulate on without tinkering or hassles AND get a full blown PC as a bonus then why would you even look at a Pi?

GAME: Persona 4 Golden (Steam) SYSTEM: Steam Deck 512 GB LCD, PC (and almost any other platform now) CLOUD SAVE: Yes I first played P4G on my PSVita system at least 10/11 years ago. I am an RPG fan to begin with but this game is something special. Every choice you make has an impact on the dynamics of the game. You can beat the game no matter what choices you do make but it may be a shorter, less satisfying ending. Interpersonal relationships and building friendships is essential to growing your power so you have to do it. But once I started doing it I couldn't - and didn't want to - stop building on it. The game isn't just a dungeon crawl. You actually care about these characters you're playing with. It's an amazing piece of writing. I cannot remember a game before or since that I actually had that experience with. Books yes. You read a series and you get into their lives and care about what is happening. Games? Not so much. I actually found myself wanting to spend more time OUTSIDE the dungeons so I could interact with the world and all these new friends I had! I realize this is rambling a bit but it's hard to describe properly... TES: Skyrim is an awesome RPG that can be modded to hell and back. Final Fantasy VII was just so good for its time. Still is and has a decent story. But neither of them holds a candle to Persona 4's immersion and depth of play. Damn. Now I want to take it out for another spin. "Every day's great at your Junes!"

GAME: Forza Horizon 4 (Steam) SYSTEM: Steam Deck 512 GB LCD, PC CLOUD SAVE: Yes Forza Horizon 4 is not only a great marathon game. It is one of those games you can pick up, play a race or two then put down. (I like to call these "Quick Hit" games.) It is still a visually beautiful game on PC. Now... on the Steam Deck... it is stunning. The scenery, lighting, weather, seasons and car effects are all perfectly translated to the small screen. The game plays right out of the box with no tweaking required. With the Cloud Save feature you're not forced to play 2 different games just because you are on your handheld. I have not seen any stuttering or slowdowns on my handheld while playing this game. At max settings on your PC you may see lower FPS if you're the last racer in the pack (and you're actually paying attention to that sort of thing) but on the deck the FPS isn't an issue to begin with so all you see are clear roads ahead (unless, you know, you're in 8th place 🤣). I haven't tried Forza 5 but, to be honest, I have no desire to as yet. I haven't even scratched the surface of what Forza 4 offers and it's a beauty to behold

GAME: Slay the Spire (Steam) SYSTEM: Steam Deck 512 GB LCD, PC CLOUD SAVE: Yes I have a Steam Deck and have spent a lot of time playing with my library to see what runs well. My latest passion has been Slay the Spire. It's a rogue deck builder type game but it's not a Magic the Gathering clone. It's more like a turn-based RPG (kinda) but the cards you start with and acquire determine your actions. You have to be smart about how many cards you actually have in your deck. Just having cards isn't always a good thing. As you finish drawing the deck the discard pile is shuffled back into your draw pile again so having the right balance of "good cards" vs "a ton of cards" is crucial. I have been playing this game for about 3 months now and I finally FINALLY finished Act III. Which is like beating the first boss in Metal Gear Solid. Yes it is an accomplishment but it's the easiest fight among many. I plan to enjoy - and be frustrated by - this game for a very long time. EDIT: Also important to note the Cloud Saves work with this (and almost all) Steam titles so I can easily transition from my Deck to my PC and back when I want/need to.

What you did with your Ally is what I did with my Steam Deck - go nuts and get all the toys! I have never tried a ROG Ally but I CAN say that I literally use my Steam Deck daily. Literally. Slay the Spire is my current passion.

So I bought one of these way back in August - base model no recoil - and I am still having so many problems calibrating it. I'm sure it's all on my end and I mean that. I can't get further than 3 feet away from my arcade cabinet due to the living room furnishings etc AND my cabinet only supports a 22" display. My cabinet's old and can't take a bigger display. I get stutters and jitters all over the place. Most of the time it isn't even recognized on screen. I haven't done it yet but the gun is slated for a massive round of testing on the 42" tv in the basement when I can find the time/energy. It's not what I wanted to use the gun on but it's probably my only option. I had horrible results with my Ultimarc gun initially, gave up very quickly (maybe too quickly?) and put it in storage. It's probably time to dig it out and make that puppy work right. It's only been.... a few years? 🤣

Excellent! I will do this some day damn it... 🤣

I bought one of these maybe a year ago(maybe even 2 years ago?) but I still haven't gotten around to installing it. I also bought the Atari Dual Fightstick they sold as well around that time. I don't think I have even tested that yet either! 🤣

... hate you so much ...

Damn it I missed it. I love RTS games. EDIT: Oops... not an RTS but turned based. Still looks like I would have loved this. I may just drop the $7 on it anyway.