A smartphone's virtual keyboard would be worse (smaller) than the Kindle's, wouldn't it? Maybe I should try it though. I mean, I'm pecking this message on my smartphone's virtual keyboard so...
Lol. That's my thought. We use the virtual keyboards a lot already. Like the other poster said there are some drawbacks but I find it much easier than any physical mini keyboard (far less strain).
Smartphone software like messaging or notes is built with imprecision in mind. I don't know about you, but I use the swype method (moving a finger continuously from key to key and lifting at the end of the word) and when writing a message I still spend like 50% of the time correcting mistakes from the virtual keyboard.
Because these are usually short messages, you'd instead likely be hunting and pecking the virtual keys, but without the tactile feedback of a real keyboard. For games that are all about text, it's a preference thing.
Plus a phone comes with a ton of distractions that a dedicated device without notifications doesn't. Sure, you could turn on do not disturb while playing a text game but that feels a little intense. Don't bother me, it's Zork time!!
And if you really think about it, your question is basically like asking why anyone would need a Nintendo Switch when mobile games have virtual controls.
I wasn't trying to be dismissive. You bring up several good points. I asked because what seems to me the most obvious small form factor answer hadn't been considered at all.
Assuming that you are using an NTSC console, check the label for the number next to where it says "NTSC" if it's a 0 or 1, then it can definitely play them. If it's a 2, then it depends how early it was released. The very first run of them still could, but later revisions couldn't.
OK, I'm a big text adventure fan too, as well as a programmer and hobbyist electronics tinkerer, and you gave me a great idea.
I want to take this cheap wireless home theater keyboard and see if I can replace the touchscreen with a tiny OLED display and power it all with a simple board running Linux for text adventure games. The biggest challenge might be getting everything to fit properly in the case, but if I can make it work I'd have a portable text "game boy"!
Will do! If I can get it all working (and that's a big if) I'll definitely post about it and create a guide. Total project will be like less than $35 so worst-case scenario I'm not out too much, heh.
Maybe this is overly simplistic, but I'm a couch gamer, and text based games on the TV with a wireless keyboard work great. Relax on the couch and otherwise it's just like you're physically at the terminal.
I know few people have a PC on the living room TV, but there are ways to stream it over there -- e.g. with a Steam Link.
I have a living room PC - a mini pc plugged into my TV that I control with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse or game controller. It's so comfortable just sitting back into a sofa to game. You could also get a laptop stand/lap tray for the keyboard for more comfortable typing on your lap.
Basically it doesn't need to be either a desk or a handheld. You can have a halfway of a PC on your TV. I also dock my steam deck and play on my TV, which you could also use for IF if you have one.
I loved all 3 games as a kid, and I think it did a lot of things right for a game of that era. I think it's at least surprising that it never had a remake or a more modern iteration, considering other remakes like ratchet & clank, rayman, etc.
I think that's the key thing there... "as a kid". Kids aren't exactly discerning when it comes to games... or movies... or pretty much anything really. It takes time and experience to distinguish what makes something good or bad or just average.
I was in my 30s for the PS2 generation. Sly, Jack and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank - they were all lost on me. Great if you're a kid. Otherwise? Eh... meh.
I'll agree that if I tried playing Sly Cooper for the first time as a fully grown adult I probably wouldn't enjoy it nearly as much. But kids definitely know a good game from a bad one, that's why there's games targeted to kids/ teens that sell well and others that don't. Just because they didn't grab the attention of 30 year old you doesn't mean they weren't great games, you just weren't the target audience. That's like someone who was 30 when SpongeBob came out saying that it was never that good.
Out of curiosity, what games from that platform/ time do you consider good? Everyone's coming at you for your (objectively wrong /s) opinions on these classics, surely there were some that you enjoyed.
Halo of course. I was skeptical until I played a demo, instantly bought in.
That's funny, I had this exact experience much more recently when Breath of the Wild was relatively new. I heard so many people raving about how good it was but I was never a huge Zelda guy. Went to Best Buy to window shop, they had a switch on display with BotW queued up. I don't think I even got in to combat before I thought, "ok, this is something special, I need to give this time". Still play it here and there when I'm bored of other games.
Is the disc badly scratched or otherwise physically damaged? Usually, if your disc is the problem, you'll be able to tell by looking at it.
If the disc is in good condition, then the problem might lie with your console. Hopefully it's just a dirty lens, but given how long that console was released, the motor in your optical drive could be wearing out. Do you have similar problems in any other games?
If it is the disc, I'd take it to my local game store and have them run it through their disc buffing machine. I guess I just want to encourage you to not blame the disc too hastily. Honestly, without visible scratches or damage, it's very rarely the disc. Like...almost never.
I don't know if there are any existing implementations that work well enough yet for it to actually be relaxing, but it might be possible to set up a hands-free IF experience by hooking up speech-to-text and text-to-speech tools to the game.
As far as I know there is no issue with legality. I don't remember the specifics at this point. I believe the psobb setup was a free download for the client and what they did was rewrote the server side so it was their own software. As far as the IP art, music, etc. IDK 100%.
I will say it has been going for nearly 15 years and widely publicized and sega hasn't ever tried to do anything to shut it down. I believe it's in some kind of loop hole where running the server is legal, and using the client is legal for PSO:BB, but for v1, v2, and I & II version you would still need to have a legit copy for maximum legality. So if you just want to play the game... PSO:BB using their modified client / server setup is a good way to do it... plus it looks nice in HD. There are other servers besides schthack, that's just the one I used way back in the day and they're still around.
This is a very complicated question. Reverse engineering a public game server via network traffic sniffing is legal in the general sense because you're doing it without direct knowledge of the server code. However many game EULAs forbid exactly this, or even forbid playing on private servers. And you have to agree to the EULA in order to use the game client. When in doubt, read the EULA.
However, speaking practically, many game companies don't enforce this.
Since you own the media and console, you are allowed to make a copy of your disc and play it on an emulator. If the emulator needs a Bios, there are ways to copy it from your console. That would be the legal way of doing it.
There's not many good options. It's a genre that was built specifically for a keyboard, after all. Everything that isn't a laptop or desktop is gonna be a frustrating downgrade.
Maybe the answer is getting into adjacent genres of games. They aren't the same, obviously, but there's a lot of overlap with the adventure game genre, especially, and the visual novel genre is more distant but a lot more accessible away from a pc
It is a shame that they never made a game after thieves in time (still on my list of games to play). The first three games were an absolute blast for me when I first got to try them back around 2018. Just as fun, if not more, than the ratched and clank series for me.
I need to get back into Jak and Daxter. I had 100% complete the first game but due to circumstances, never got to complete the 2nd game past the first few hours. Definitely on my list of titles to play, again, if I ever find a copy.
I replayed the first one on OpenGOAL last year and it's amazing how good it still looks at higher resolutions. Jak II is fully playable now and I'm planning to start that as soon as someone releases an HD texture pack.
I'll definitely have to check out OpenGOAL on my laptop. I've wanted to try it for a while, but was always worried my desktop would be unable to handle it.
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