If you’re going for “tablet/phablet/phone with a controller” route be prepared to do some research to find a controller that’s actually worth having. Though I haven’t kept up with those mobile controllers lately, from what I remember from reviews in the first few years of that trend, it basically came down to “don’t bother buying anything cheaper than $50” because most of them were flimsy and uncomfortable.
PS I never actually tried any of those controllers myself, but there was an app (I don’t think it works on modern versions of Android) back in the day that allowed you to use a Wiimote and in the platformers I’ve tried the difference compared to on-screen controlls was staggering. So some controller is definitely a good investment if you’re going to play certain types of games. Although controller support in mobile games themselves can be rather spotty to my understanding, so controller might not actually be often useful outside of emulators.
I’m curious, how comfortable is it for playing for more than let’s say 15 minutes? I always found those things too tiny to be really playable for me and I don’t have huge hands, my fingers may be a bit longer than average but not by much.
“Had a feud with”… That’s a funny way of saying “had been stomped into ground”
@Strifeborne How comfortable is it?
I can play for 1-2 hours before I get uncomfortable. (I have quiet large hands)
@Danacscott Also, this is like a mini emulator then?
Yes, it can play loads or different consoles and handhelds, all the game boys, Snes, Mega Drive, Mame, Atari, to name a few.
I’m pretty accident prone, so if it falls a few times…?
It feels solid, I’m sure it would survive a few drops onto carpet.
@Imaynotbehere4long you can just get those same emulators for free on your Android phone?
Indeed you can but it feels a lot better on something with buttons and a Dpad
Let me know if you want to know anything else about it.
@pulling3r Is this something you can buy in a store like Walmart or have to order online. I’ve got a friend going to the US soon, so just wondering because shipping can be the ev3l.
If you want to try my method, all you need to do is find a reputable APK dump site and download the apk + data.
Steps
For now, you could try something like Final Fantasy’s Opera Omnia. It is free, so for the test, it’ll be perfect.
The first step is going into Settings for your Device and going into Security and enabling (if there, most devices should have it) “Unknown sources”, which will allow installation of applications from unknown devices.
Now, some apks will just require downloading the apk and installing that. It’ll mean downloading a single file and navigating to it wherever it was downloaded to, be it root (which means the storage on the device) or the microSD. Some Android OSes or devices come with their own file browser, but some do not, so if yours does not, Google Play has several free options (or if you cannot yet install Google Play, online APKs exist). Use that to navigate to the apk and install.
Now other apks will require special steps. Some require a rooted device (which basically means unlocked/modified). Some require the apk + the obb files (which is the data). Whenever you see the obb files, it wants you to install the apk first but not open it yet. Then extract the .obb file to android/data so that it looks like this: android/data/obb. Once that’s done, you launch the apk. Now some are wonky and require apk and obb to be installed on the ROOT memory, not microSD memory, but sometimes you get lucky and the apks also work on microSD as well.
If my written steps are confusing, I can provide a video that’ll explain. It is really quite simply in practice.
and everything looks a lot better on a proper IPS/AMOLED screen at 1080p than it does at 320x240 lol
and a controller solves the issue of no physical buttons
Correction: /obb folder resides in /Android folder not in /data subfolder so for .obb files the path would look like this: /Android/obb/whatever.the.game.is.called/game’s.data.file.obb
Unless they changed it in newer Android versions, which I don’t think they did.
1080p distorts the picture as its around 16:9
The LDK screen maintains the correct 4:3 aspect ratio.
And who needs high definition if its 16bit or 8bit graphics.
Back at you!
ahaha ooops, yea, i have a habit of calling .obb data so I was forcing myself to break it and I guess it leaked into the instructions. Thanks for the correction.
even the old pokemon games look a lot better at high res
a good panel has accurate colours, good contrast, a high refresh rate, a short response time…
many reasons to rather choose a phone than that low end device, as ppl already have a phone anyway
This convo took a turn for the very odd. I’m not certain about resolutions other than the fact is, some games just plain refuse to open at certain combinations if you try. The error screen will say something like: This game isn’t optimized for… blah blah.
SO in the end, does the size of the physical screen make that much of a difference? I for one, do not like squinting - not near sighted in the least.
It was in my room, in its proper case, inside a box, on a high shelf, clearly labelled “Puzzles, Rubik’s cube, Nintendos Ds, Yo-Yo” and whatever else. le sigh I found it after rifling in bestie’s room.
Second time in as many days that I was too organised. Totally forgot, that having almost throwing out 3 games with the Nintendo DS case, I made a point of tracking down all the games and storing them correctly for “safe” keeping. Vive le bad memory.
No idea why I stopped playing Hourglass before, other than bestie using her DS a lot on the way to work at the time, but since I’ve never not finished a Zelda game, time to try again. Miaow.
Very much leaning towards an Android device whether phone or tablet. As long as I can play my much missed Subway Surfers, other games and read .pdf, .epub, etc. That’ll be a winner.
Oh and no one answered this, but do any of you know much about or actually use the Steam App?
I do a fair bit. No you aren’t going to play games on your phone with it.
But it’s good for chatting, looking at games when you aren’t by your computer, for security, and to chat when you’re in a full-screen game and it doesn’t like when you tab out.
I only use the app for steam guard. I feel like it’s gonna be a pain to get into my account if my phone ever breaks though.
Phantom Hourglass is great btw.
@Truly There is a section of Steam Guard that will give you a code to deactivate it, you should probably write that code down just in case you lose or break your phone.
@Danacscott There is a “Steam Link” app that Valve has on Android at least that let’s you stream your Steam games from your PC to your phone or tablet.
Miaow.