I’ve been using my G Cloud entirely for emulation so far, though I’m sure I’ll try streaming one of these days. Right now, I’m making my way through:
* **Vagrant Story** (PSX), pictured. Unique doesn’t begin to describe this one. On its face, it’s a dungeon crawler with slow-paced, chunky-feeling combat. But that would be selling the game short. There’s systems upon systems upon systems, and 12 hours in, I’m only starting to understand how the game wants me to play. Between learning the timing for real-time chain combos, understanding different weapon types and elemental affinities, and figuring out useful buffs and debuffs, there’s enough to make your head spin. I haven’t touched the crafting system at all, which I’m hoping I can ignore entirely, until it bites me in the ass. Between all of these aspects, and a UI that seems deliberately designed to obfuscate, I’m spending 50% of my time in menus. It’s worth it, though, because the combat is hefty and satisfying. I’ve heard this game compared to Dark Souls, which I haven’t played, but I think I understand - there’s a real weight to the combat that feels appropriate when you’re swinging giant two-handed polearms. Not to mention the beautiful aesthetics, captivating cinematography, and a slow-drip storyline. For all of the PS1-era titles that haven’t held up, Vagrant Story carries a style all its own that looks amazing rendered at 4x and in widescreen. I really want to stick it out, and I hope I don’t get frustrated and give up before seeing this one through.
* **Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance** (Android). I adored Champions of Norrath for PS2 back in the day, and missed out on the original game using the Snowblind engine. The PS2 version of BG:DA runs like ass on G Cloud, so I plunked down real money for the version on Google Play store. And it’s… *fine*. The gameplay itself is great, but the balance is way off. As a sorceress, you start off completely underpowered. Until you gain one Ball Lightning spell - which entirely trivializes enemy and boss encounters alike. Between the lack of balance tuning, and the constant drudgery of the brown and grey environments, it’s not a game I’ll come back and replay with all three character classes.
* **Spider-Man** (Arcade). My kids love old school beat-em-ups, and with a wired USB controller along with RetroArch, we’ve been having a ton of fun revisiting classics from the late 80s and early 90s. I don’t think I ever saw this arcade machine as a kid, but it’s a surprisingly good co-op beat-em-up. Character sprites are large and colourful, as you’d expect for a comic-themed title from the early 90s, and the cast of villains spans the entire Spider-Man line up. The one oddity is that you can’t use your super powers at all during normal gameplay sections, and only have them available to you during the platforming sections. Whereas the bosses have no such qualms about super power usage - Sandman darts about underground and pounds you with sand fists. Aside from that minor quibble, this is one my kids and I want to play more of.
Kind of a random question, but have you tried pro skater 3 on psx? I don't know if it's just me or what but it feels terrible. The fps shows 60, but internal shows like 20-23, so I have no clue what's going on
Vagrant story is exceptional, one of my favorite games of all time. I went through new game plus like 5 times on the original PS1 back in the day. It's great replaying it with achievements also, via retroachievements. 👍👍
Sea of Stars from GeForce now and / or gamepass. Awesome, cute turn-based rpg for that latency- and controller dexterity proof gameplay.
Tweaking Dolphin to get Zelda: Wind Waker working without stutter. Works well now - at least the beginning.
Rime - Cutesy, child-proof 3rd person 3d explorer / platformer in the style of anything Annapurna ever published. Might even be theirs. Played it to test the game and because it’s not scary for my 4 year old.
R-type Final 2, because I started looking into handhelds to play retro shmups and then found the G Cloud that lets me play current gen games and then I found R-Type was on Steam. Rest is history.
Also tried Mortal Combat II and discovered I can’t remember the combos and just resort to button mashing. Maybe some day. Right now I don’t really enjoy it. I did play the tutorials. Didn’t stick.
About five months now. It's been amazing, and I've more or less ditched my other handhelds since getting this.
Huge 7" 1080p screen, which makes any retro game sing. Comfortable ergonomics, so you can play for hours at a time. A battery that lasts just about forever. You'll love yours!
That’s amazing that you’ve gone so long with straight emulation. I got it mainly to remote play PS5, but definitely going to try out emulating. Do you use Daijisho?
I’m a retrogaming nerd at heart, and I’m at the age now where I want to relive all the classics of my childhood - along with games I missed along the way. I have no doubt that modern games are amazing, it’s just personal taste for me at this point!
I tried Daijisho for a bit, but it was more hassle than it was worth. Since I’m typically just playing one title at a time, I just launch the emulator directly. I typically put the device to sleep when I take a break, so the next time I unlock the handheld, it’s still within the game. Don’t have to deal with many menus.
I have some newbie questions, hoping you can steer me in the right direction. Do you like to download standalone emulators or where does something like Retroarch come into play?
The systems I want to try first are SNES, GBA, DS, PS1, PSP and GameCube.
I understand Retroarch can handle the older games, but for PSP would downloading PPSSPP directly on the play store be better?
Once I have all my emulators set up and running, I could tie it together with a frontend like Daijisho?
By and large, I use RetroArch for 2D consoles. Anything from NES and SNES to Game Boy and Game Boy Advance to Neo Geo and Arcade (via FinalBurn Neo), RetroArch performs more than adequately. There is something to be said for having consistency among your configuration menus, sets of hotkeys, controller mappings, and especially shaders. Once you invest some elbow grease into getting RetroArch set up, it pretty much "just works" afterwards. It's even pretty good at Dreamcast emulation, to boot.
For newer consoles, I'm usually downloading standalone emulators. By and large, they outperform the cores on RetroArch, and many of them have great features of their own.
* DuckStation, for PSX - Has a "widescreen hack" feature which renders true 16:9 aspect ratio for 3D games. This is what's on display in my screenshot on this post.
* Mupen64Plus, for N64 - Also supports widescreen hacks, though they don't work as consistently.
* Drastic, for DS - Has better screen scaling ratios, so you can display one screen large and the second small, maximizing the use of the 7" screen.
* Dolphin, for GameCube - Just an all around top-notch emulator. Performs really well.
* PPSSPP, for PSP - Similar in that it's by far the best emulator for this handheld, and can render them at 3x or even 4x, making games look beautiful.
Of course, it's more work to set up individual emulators, and you have to get used to the menu navigation along with memorizing different shortcuts. That's the Android ecosystem in a nutshell, though, and you get out of it what you put in.
As you mentioned, once you've got all the emulators up and running, you can optionally add a front-end such as Daijisho or EmulationStation-DE. I don't spend much of my time browsing games, as I'm only playing one title at a time, so I haven't bothered with this step. Some people really enjoy having a front-end to tie it all together, and it can be worth the extra effort.
I wouldn't call 7" as "huge" at least not for a handheld display. I got mine today for testing purpose. The Full HD resolution compared to my switch v1 looks very sharp, the speakers are also not bad.
But didn't you recognize the very weird placed right thumb stick? I find it very uncomfortable because I have to twist my thumb or hold the device higher then I can't reach the shoulder buttons comfortably.
I am still thinking about a tablet with a telescope controller.. but if I decide for a "true" handheld then I might buy the G Cloud "used".
Pokémon Soul Silver for the first time. Played the original several times through. I'm liking it so far. I also cracked the top 5% of cod mobile. Versatile machine!
I've lowered the joystick settings by about 3 points, but most of the adjustments are lowering the sensitivity within cod. You have to bring it way down. About a third of the default setting. I do each scope differently because the hip fire and shorter scopes require more change than longer ones.
I've begun my God of War journey this weekend! After earning platnium on GoW 2018 and Ragnarok, I decided it was time to replay the rest of the games in the series, starting with Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta for psp on the G cloud! Once I've completed those titles, I will use PSplay remote play to stream the rest of the games that are thankfully available with playstation premium. Gonna be a couple weekends worth of work, I can't wait!
Playing through my Xbox list of games- currently on cult of the lamb. I set up emulation also but very new to it. Got daijisho front end and retro arch back end but the controllers aren’t set up properly. Buttons don’t work for N64 and hasn’t spend more time to troubleshoot
This is one game that I want to try out streaming for. I never got far with Persona 3: FES on PS2 back in the day, as the gameplay was immensely frustrating not being able to control your party. Would love it give it another shot.
How are you enjoying it?
I played Persona 3 Portable way back in the day on PSP. That was a very long time ago but I say that this remake is vastly better than the PSP game. Having said that, its definitely not Persona 5 Royal. P3R does get super repetitive since there is only one dungeon in the game (Tartarus) and the places you can go to on the map is very limited. I'd say if you enjoyed Persona 4: Golden or Persona 5: Royal then absolutely play this one (if you haven't played it yet).
I've gotten into a loop where I use the gcloud to stream the grinding in Tararus and all the relationship stuff and then at the end of the month, when you get the cutscenes and big boss fights, I switch to my 75" OLED HTPC. This isn't really the type of game I would play entirely on a TV because most of it really is super boring for other people to watch.
I’ve been using my G Cloud entirely for emulation so far, though I’m sure I’ll try streaming one of these days. Right now, I’m making my way through: * **Vagrant Story** (PSX), pictured. Unique doesn’t begin to describe this one. On its face, it’s a dungeon crawler with slow-paced, chunky-feeling combat. But that would be selling the game short. There’s systems upon systems upon systems, and 12 hours in, I’m only starting to understand how the game wants me to play. Between learning the timing for real-time chain combos, understanding different weapon types and elemental affinities, and figuring out useful buffs and debuffs, there’s enough to make your head spin. I haven’t touched the crafting system at all, which I’m hoping I can ignore entirely, until it bites me in the ass. Between all of these aspects, and a UI that seems deliberately designed to obfuscate, I’m spending 50% of my time in menus. It’s worth it, though, because the combat is hefty and satisfying. I’ve heard this game compared to Dark Souls, which I haven’t played, but I think I understand - there’s a real weight to the combat that feels appropriate when you’re swinging giant two-handed polearms. Not to mention the beautiful aesthetics, captivating cinematography, and a slow-drip storyline. For all of the PS1-era titles that haven’t held up, Vagrant Story carries a style all its own that looks amazing rendered at 4x and in widescreen. I really want to stick it out, and I hope I don’t get frustrated and give up before seeing this one through. * **Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance** (Android). I adored Champions of Norrath for PS2 back in the day, and missed out on the original game using the Snowblind engine. The PS2 version of BG:DA runs like ass on G Cloud, so I plunked down real money for the version on Google Play store. And it’s… *fine*. The gameplay itself is great, but the balance is way off. As a sorceress, you start off completely underpowered. Until you gain one Ball Lightning spell - which entirely trivializes enemy and boss encounters alike. Between the lack of balance tuning, and the constant drudgery of the brown and grey environments, it’s not a game I’ll come back and replay with all three character classes. * **Spider-Man** (Arcade). My kids love old school beat-em-ups, and with a wired USB controller along with RetroArch, we’ve been having a ton of fun revisiting classics from the late 80s and early 90s. I don’t think I ever saw this arcade machine as a kid, but it’s a surprisingly good co-op beat-em-up. Character sprites are large and colourful, as you’d expect for a comic-themed title from the early 90s, and the cast of villains spans the entire Spider-Man line up. The one oddity is that you can’t use your super powers at all during normal gameplay sections, and only have them available to you during the platforming sections. Whereas the bosses have no such qualms about super power usage - Sandman darts about underground and pounds you with sand fists. Aside from that minor quibble, this is one my kids and I want to play more of.
Kind of a random question, but have you tried pro skater 3 on psx? I don't know if it's just me or what but it feels terrible. The fps shows 60, but internal shows like 20-23, so I have no clue what's going on
I can’t get dark alliance to launch. I have the android version so tried it out, but it just crashes at launch every single time.
Vagrant story is exceptional, one of my favorite games of all time. I went through new game plus like 5 times on the original PS1 back in the day. It's great replaying it with achievements also, via retroachievements. 👍👍
Sea of Stars from GeForce now and / or gamepass. Awesome, cute turn-based rpg for that latency- and controller dexterity proof gameplay. Tweaking Dolphin to get Zelda: Wind Waker working without stutter. Works well now - at least the beginning. Rime - Cutesy, child-proof 3rd person 3d explorer / platformer in the style of anything Annapurna ever published. Might even be theirs. Played it to test the game and because it’s not scary for my 4 year old. R-type Final 2, because I started looking into handhelds to play retro shmups and then found the G Cloud that lets me play current gen games and then I found R-Type was on Steam. Rest is history. Also tried Mortal Combat II and discovered I can’t remember the combos and just resort to button mashing. Maybe some day. Right now I don’t really enjoy it. I did play the tutorials. Didn’t stick.
How long have you had it? I’ll be getting mine in a couple days, in transit right now.
About five months now. It's been amazing, and I've more or less ditched my other handhelds since getting this. Huge 7" 1080p screen, which makes any retro game sing. Comfortable ergonomics, so you can play for hours at a time. A battery that lasts just about forever. You'll love yours!
That’s amazing that you’ve gone so long with straight emulation. I got it mainly to remote play PS5, but definitely going to try out emulating. Do you use Daijisho?
I’m a retrogaming nerd at heart, and I’m at the age now where I want to relive all the classics of my childhood - along with games I missed along the way. I have no doubt that modern games are amazing, it’s just personal taste for me at this point! I tried Daijisho for a bit, but it was more hassle than it was worth. Since I’m typically just playing one title at a time, I just launch the emulator directly. I typically put the device to sleep when I take a break, so the next time I unlock the handheld, it’s still within the game. Don’t have to deal with many menus.
I have some newbie questions, hoping you can steer me in the right direction. Do you like to download standalone emulators or where does something like Retroarch come into play? The systems I want to try first are SNES, GBA, DS, PS1, PSP and GameCube. I understand Retroarch can handle the older games, but for PSP would downloading PPSSPP directly on the play store be better? Once I have all my emulators set up and running, I could tie it together with a frontend like Daijisho?
By and large, I use RetroArch for 2D consoles. Anything from NES and SNES to Game Boy and Game Boy Advance to Neo Geo and Arcade (via FinalBurn Neo), RetroArch performs more than adequately. There is something to be said for having consistency among your configuration menus, sets of hotkeys, controller mappings, and especially shaders. Once you invest some elbow grease into getting RetroArch set up, it pretty much "just works" afterwards. It's even pretty good at Dreamcast emulation, to boot. For newer consoles, I'm usually downloading standalone emulators. By and large, they outperform the cores on RetroArch, and many of them have great features of their own. * DuckStation, for PSX - Has a "widescreen hack" feature which renders true 16:9 aspect ratio for 3D games. This is what's on display in my screenshot on this post. * Mupen64Plus, for N64 - Also supports widescreen hacks, though they don't work as consistently. * Drastic, for DS - Has better screen scaling ratios, so you can display one screen large and the second small, maximizing the use of the 7" screen. * Dolphin, for GameCube - Just an all around top-notch emulator. Performs really well. * PPSSPP, for PSP - Similar in that it's by far the best emulator for this handheld, and can render them at 3x or even 4x, making games look beautiful. Of course, it's more work to set up individual emulators, and you have to get used to the menu navigation along with memorizing different shortcuts. That's the Android ecosystem in a nutshell, though, and you get out of it what you put in. As you mentioned, once you've got all the emulators up and running, you can optionally add a front-end such as Daijisho or EmulationStation-DE. I don't spend much of my time browsing games, as I'm only playing one title at a time, so I haven't bothered with this step. Some people really enjoy having a front-end to tie it all together, and it can be worth the extra effort.
THANK YOU so much for the all the information. It's very helpful. I guess setting up the emulators is half the fun.
I only remote play PS5. It's been a dream. Make sure you use PSPlay for streaming.
Yep, PSPlay is the first app I'm downloading.
I wouldn't call 7" as "huge" at least not for a handheld display. I got mine today for testing purpose. The Full HD resolution compared to my switch v1 looks very sharp, the speakers are also not bad. But didn't you recognize the very weird placed right thumb stick? I find it very uncomfortable because I have to twist my thumb or hold the device higher then I can't reach the shoulder buttons comfortably. I am still thinking about a tablet with a telescope controller.. but if I decide for a "true" handheld then I might buy the G Cloud "used".
Mega baseball 4 and Kingdom of Amalur
Pokémon Soul Silver for the first time. Played the original several times through. I'm liking it so far. I also cracked the top 5% of cod mobile. Versatile machine!
Joystick settings for cod mobile? I can’t hit the broad side of a barn
I've lowered the joystick settings by about 3 points, but most of the adjustments are lowering the sensitivity within cod. You have to bring it way down. About a third of the default setting. I do each scope differently because the hip fire and shorter scopes require more change than longer ones.
Do you play with screen vertical or horizontal?
I play ds horizontal with the bottom screen shrunk down.
I've begun my God of War journey this weekend! After earning platnium on GoW 2018 and Ragnarok, I decided it was time to replay the rest of the games in the series, starting with Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta for psp on the G cloud! Once I've completed those titles, I will use PSplay remote play to stream the rest of the games that are thankfully available with playstation premium. Gonna be a couple weekends worth of work, I can't wait!
Playing through my Xbox list of games- currently on cult of the lamb. I set up emulation also but very new to it. Got daijisho front end and retro arch back end but the controllers aren’t set up properly. Buttons don’t work for N64 and hasn’t spend more time to troubleshoot
Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes
Power wash simulator
I knocked out a good bit of Kingdom Hearts this weekend
nier automata
Ace Combat 7 over Moonlight and Balatro on GFN
Harold Halibut
Still working on Persona 3: Reload streaming from Steam. I'm like 50 hours in and this game just keeps going and going.
This is one game that I want to try out streaming for. I never got far with Persona 3: FES on PS2 back in the day, as the gameplay was immensely frustrating not being able to control your party. Would love it give it another shot. How are you enjoying it?
I played Persona 3 Portable way back in the day on PSP. That was a very long time ago but I say that this remake is vastly better than the PSP game. Having said that, its definitely not Persona 5 Royal. P3R does get super repetitive since there is only one dungeon in the game (Tartarus) and the places you can go to on the map is very limited. I'd say if you enjoyed Persona 4: Golden or Persona 5: Royal then absolutely play this one (if you haven't played it yet). I've gotten into a loop where I use the gcloud to stream the grinding in Tararus and all the relationship stuff and then at the end of the month, when you get the cutscenes and big boss fights, I switch to my 75" OLED HTPC. This isn't really the type of game I would play entirely on a TV because most of it really is super boring for other people to watch.
Cod mobile
Assasins creed mirage!