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Cacher said:
I have an analogue pocket and that screen is otherworldly good. No I'm not asking you to buy another handheld. :face-with-stuck-out-tongue:
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The Analogue Pocket is perpetually sold out and it would be extremely difficult for me to purchase/import even if it wasn't. There is an alternative device called the Ayaneo Pocket Vert which has the same screen as the Analogue and is a pretty premium product. It is expensive though and the company has a reputation of being very slow to fulfill orders. And of course, it doesn't play real cartridges but that's not an issue for me since I have no carts and wouldn't be able to get them anyway.
 
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spindoctor said:
The Analogue Pocket is perpetually sold out and it would be extremely difficult for me to purchase/import even if it wasn't. There is an alternative device called the Ayaneo Pocket Vert which has the same screen as the Analogue and is a pretty premium product. It is expensive though and the company has a reputation of being very slow to fulfill orders. And of course, it doesn't play real cartridges but that's not an issue for me since I have no carts and wouldn't be able to get them anyway.
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I got my analogue pocket overpriced. Originally no plan to buy it but saw one in a local store when I was in Japan... Then I got it on impulse. The price was way higher than MSRP but the screen quality and display option available are excellent. Definitely did not regret buying it. Should put more time into it though as I've been neglecting my handhelds.
 
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Watched Nintendo's partner direct. Not bad I guess for Switch 2 peeps but nothing new to check out for the rest of us. Pragmata and RE9 etc. being the biggest things I suppose, otherwise already expected stuff like Monster Hunter Stories 3, the next Digimon game, Granblue Fantasy Relink, etc., but hey, that's the nature of third parties, nothing's exclusive any more so all they can do is show that they're getting games that came out/are coming out, lol. Tokyo Scramble and Paranormasight and other quirky Japanese B games are neat to see though. Still, gonna need a first party direct to get hyped. Switch 2 does run games my PC can't though, like Indiana Jones and Granblue, lol. I might have to get one of these if the hardware market keeps getting worse like it's been for a decade now...​
 
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Seriously considering getting some retro handhelds.

I’m thinking of grabbing either (or both) an AYN Thor and Odin 3. Both the most specced out versions with storage and RAM (because SD card pricing makes it worth doing that these days).

Need to decide which I get. I have an Analogue Pocket for 8 and 16-bit games, but I’m looking at replacing my 3DS, Vita, and PS3 with hybrid systems. I did think about running Syncthing between my Xbox Ally X and PC, but EmuDeck is just bad and I’ve enjoyed the simplicity of the Analogue Pocket for handheld and docked gameplay without syncing my saves between devices.
 
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Nebulys said:
Seriously considering getting some retro handhelds.

I’m thinking of grabbing either (or both) an AYN Thor and Odin 3. Both the most specced out versions with storage and RAM (because SD card pricing makes it worth doing that these days).

Need to decide which I get. I have an Analogue Pocket for 8 and 16-bit games, but I’m looking at replacing my 3DS, Vita, and PS3 with hybrid systems. I did think about running Syncthing between my Xbox Ally X and PC, but EmuDeck is just bad and I’ve enjoyed the simplicity of the Analogue Pocket for handheld and docked gameplay without syncing my saves between devices.
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The Thor is a no brainer in my opinion.

I'm also considering getting the Odin 3 before these handhelds become super overpriced or just vanish from existence. However, there are a few things that make me pause... first, Ayn is having a sale on the Odin 2 Portal and that's also a really great device. With the sale discount it becomes an incredibly good deal. The Portal also has a larger 7" screen compared to the 6" one on the Odin 3, and I'm used to larger screens now because of the Switch 2 and Deck. The Portal screen also has a higher listed brightness of 800 nits vs 650 on the O3. And finally, the Odin 3 SOC is more powerful but it doesn't have quite the level of driver support that the Odin 2 SOC does. So buying an Odin 3 now is sort of hoping/betting that drivers will become better in the future. I've been going back and forth on this decision for days now and I just can't make up my mind. The ideal option would be to wait for the Odin 3 Portal because that would have a larger screen and hopefully better drivers by the time it comes out, but there's a very real chance that it never happens at all.
 
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I'm very lttp on this but I'm playing Metroid Prime Remastered at the moment, almost finished it and very much enjoying it :)
I'm not the biggest Nintendo fan tbh but Metroid has frequently been a hit for me when I have played them.

I can see why people priase this so highly as it must have been mindblowing back when it first came out, plus even now there aren't really all that many 3D metroidvanias.

It's got a great sense of exploration and atmosphere, good music, and the sense of place is palpable (you'll become very familiar with the map as you traverse it back and forth in so many ways for each thing you find yourself doing).

Minor criticisms of my playthrough:
  • the artifact hunt is indeed very dumb padding, I'm unashamed to say I'm using a walkthrough to just get it over with (in fact I@m not sure how you get some of these without one)
  • By about the 60% mark the game does feel to me to have quite a noticeable difficulty jump once you reach the Phazon Mines area. There are much fewer save points, more enemies who are themselves harder hitting and bullet spongey
  • it's a foible of the genre but there have been a few times I've had to check what to do online (I had no idea what to do next with the boost ball powerup the tutorial for that was useless, the x ray visor also had a similar "how was I supposed to know that" quality in a couple of areas, and the aforementioned artifact hunting)
  • oh, and this is probably sacriligeous I expect somehow but the whole scanning mechanic feels like complete fluff to me
  • Likely a symptom of the time of release but no fast travel whatsoever (not even between some fixed points of the map) can really add to the backtracking
 
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LFG.webp

LET'S FUCKING GO

(Probably too late for prices to meaningfully drop with RAMageddon already here, but I'm glad to see that mafioso motherfucker lose one of his signature policies).
 
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^^^ Much like ICE pulling out of MN, I suspect this was entirely motivated to soften the blow to R's in the mid-term elections and is absolutely nothing about doing right by the people.

Thanks I guess.
 
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Aaron D. said:
^^^ Much like ICE pulling out of MN, I suspect this was entirely motivated to soften the blow to R's in the mid-term elections and is absolutely nothing about doing right by the people.

Thanks I guess.
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I'm not sure it'll make a difference. But I'm not an American pollster, so what do I know? From what I've read from this side of the Atlantic, the Republicans are cooked.

What I do know is the GOP are doing a bang up job of making Nigel Farage look like a cunt, so that's good for the UK, I guess?
 
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The Ayntec representative mentioned on their official Discord that a price increase is coming for the Thor very soon.

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This will probably happen with their other devices (the Odin series) as well so if anyone was at all interested in getting any of them, now would be the time to put in an order.

It's going to get much worse.
 
spindoctor said:
The Ayntec representative mentioned on their official Discord that a price increase is coming for the Thor very soon.



This will probably happen with their other devices (the Odin series) as well so if anyone was at all interested in getting any of them, now would be the time to put in an order.

It's going to get much worse.
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Phew. Both of mine (Thor and Odin 3) arrived on Monday. Great systems and I’m really loving the Cocoon Shell.
 
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Nebulys said:
Phew. Both of mine (Thor and Odin 3) arrived on Monday. Great systems and I’m really loving the Cocoon Shell.
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How did you get it so quickly? Their shipping had stopped because of the Chinese new year and they have a huge backlog of orders even if they had been operating.

I've been holding out for a potential Odin 3 Portal with a larger and maybe brighter screen but I'm not sure if that will ever happen. I keep going back and forth on whether to just order the regular Odin 3. It's a lot of money to spend on something you're not quite sure about..
 
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spindoctor said:
How did you get it so quickly? Their shipping had stopped because of the Chinese new year and they have a huge backlog of orders even if they had been operating.

I've been holding out for a potential Odin 3 Portal with a larger and maybe brighter screen but I'm not sure if that will ever happen. I keep going back and forth on whether to just order the regular Odin 3. It's a lot of money to spend on something you're not quite sure about..
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Local seller. I ran the figures and combined it was about £100 more expensive than importing, after VAT is taken at customs.

They also warranty the systems themselves which is good.

I decided it’d be worth it for next working day delivery.
 
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Ah that's lucky. They've been having some issues with shipping from their site. I'm not sure if I mentioned this here but when Trump's tariffs went into effect, a lot of people were concerned about having to pay extra import duties when buying the devices. Ayntec reassured them that they would not, and it turned out to be true. But a few weeks ago, orders using DHL shipping started getting returned to the company, and so they had to disable the DHL option for customers. The rumour is that the reason this happened was because Ayntec was declaring the packages to be $30 hair dryers to avoid getting hit with tariffs lol. DHL apparently found out and dropped the company.
 
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The Thor is the highlight for me. DS and 3DS emulation is somewhat of a white whale for me insofar as I’ve been looking for a great hardware solution but never quite found perfection.

It’s definitely a top 10 handheld for me.

The Odin 3 is also great. I will possibly play it more than the Thor, but the Thor is pretty magical.
 
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Pretty pleasant looking game



Surprised it's 2027 though. I was so sure it would be at the end of this year. Now I wonder if it's early 2027 or will they let Legends Z-A be the main Pokemon game for 2 whole years. Is this maybe why they started releasing their old games on the eshop to tide people over?
 
Oh dang, if Pokemon looks like this (with whatever technical shortcomings like low res/fps/random crap assets probably) imagine Zelda or other flagship stuff!
 
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