Tag: Emulation

The Week of Covid

So Covid had lasted a while in this house, me and Megan are now testing negative and Lindsay is too, but swears she sees a very faint line in her test.

The law says we didn’t have to isolate, but we chose to until we tested negative, why, because it was the right thing to do.

My first bout of the disease utterly destroyed my lungs, the second bout has messed up my sleep and left me very fatigued.

Inflicting this virus on others, just cause I fancy a pizza is unacceptable, and I did crave a pizza all week.

We have to be responsible, I know most of us have been sensible and gotten vaccinated, but many have not done so, some of those because they medically cannot.

I think that from this point forward we all should be more responsible for health and keeping others well. So when you feel a bit crummy and under the weather, reach for a face mask and wear it when out, because it’s not just Covid that can kill, but things like the flu as well.

What I Am Modelling

Started the week by painting the Weirdnob Shaman for my Orruk Warclans.

He is painted in such a way to bridge the two parts of the army, the Ironjawz and Kruleboyz, with aspects and textures from both.

I then painted a pair of Medusa Guns for my Death Korps of Krieg.

And this was followed by the crew for the guns!

At this point I painted the ruined Factorums I got with my Forbidden Planet order.

Then I started work on some Blood Warriors for my Blades of Khorne army. Which have reached the stage of getting washed.


So what next to hit the painting table, note the T’au are on hold as my new Redgrass wet palette is hopefully coming soon.

  1. T’au Breacher Squad x 10
  2. Ork Terrain
  3. Blades of Khorne Blood Warriors
  4. Ork Burna Boyz
  5. Sicaran Infiltrators
  6. T’au Strike Team x 10
  7. Ork Nobz x 5
  8. Orruk Gutrippas x 12
  9. Blood Angels Assault Intercessors x 5
  10. Ultramarines Intercessors x 7

What Video Games I Am Playing

Put an hour in on Far Cry 3 and I made the noob mistake of not saving the game, and well it crashed!

I got a couple of hours in on Horizon Zero Dawn on Thursday which you can view here.

I got an updated controller family photo done, although considering I have now added a couple more, its already out of date!

I am currently watching a few auctions of some Stadia controllers on eBay, whilst it’s not exactly a controller that is particularly associated with any game, I am reliably told that at least two publishers use this when developing some AAA games, which has me curious as to see if those games actually feel better with a Stadia controller.

I also managed to finally get Neo Geo games running in Retroarch, which I am super happy about!

What I Am Creating

I published the latest episode of Edge of Empire on Wednesday.

On Wednesday night I published the 25th Imperium Battle Report.

On Saturday I filmed and published the issue 26 battle report.

The Wednesday report is also in the can and ready to publish too.

What I Am Spending

I bought myself a new controller, you know for the emulation joy, this time it’s a Neo-Geo controller, well not the amazing joystick from the AES console but the one from the Neo Geo CD, which is still a great controller.

Of course cause it’s a USB-C controller I had to grab some USB-C female to USB-A male adaptors, which is fine, I guess it’s probably something I should have lying around for future use as USB-C becomes more prevalent.

I also grabbed a couple of USB-A to USB-C cables to make sure I could plug in my Elite controllers charging dock permanently and still have one spare to charge the mouse when needed.

And finally, finally, my Hyperkin Duke arrived, I ordered this months ago and it’s taken this long for it to come!

So happy to have this as it’s a controller I remember very fondly!

And I did buy Lindsay a new keyboard, simply because the sound of her current keyboard, something that her work got that costs according to Amazon £7.99!

The sound just hurts the ears and she goes through keyboard so quickly because she just wears down the print on the keys in a few months, so I also grabbed her some pink double shot PBT pudding keycaps.

So here is the final look!

And I also grabbed a keyboard cleaning kit cause mine is in desperate need of a good clean, plus I needed a keycap puller for Lindsay’s one.

Oh and I won an auction on eBay for a Stadia controller and it’s only cost me £7!

I also got asked to do some game play testing for which the publisher wants me to use a DualSense alongside the Xbox controller, so they sent me one today.


A Bit Ill & Upping the Emulation Game

Most of the past fortnight I have been quite unwell, a tummy bug that just refused to budge.

Spent a few days in bed unable to do much of anything including one day where I basically slept for 20 hours.

Emulation

So the emulation game needs improving, and I have tried to do that by turning my Raspberry Pi kit that I got earlier this week into an emulation console.

Originally when I ordered it, I was thinking of making it a server to run Home Assistant, but I am not quite ready to do that yet, but it is high on the list.

Anyway at first I installed Recallbox, but I couldn’t get on with it and it refused to recognise the DualShock 3 controller I am using temporarily, well I was and then an Xbox controller was freed up, and I much prefer the layout of the Xbox pad.

So I ended up putting Batocera on there, but that refused to connect to the houses Wi-Fi, which was really annoying as Batocera was my first choice to run the system.

So I ended up going with RetroPie, which is a fantastic bit of software and very user configurable, but it’s as user friendly as I wanted it to be.

At the moment I have emulators for the Master System, Mega Drive, Game Gear, Mega CD, 32X, Dreamcast, NES, SNES, Game Boy Advance, Amstrad CPC and PlayStation running and still figuring out to get Amiga CD32 and Neo Geo games running.

The primary intended use is for my nephews to enjoy use of it and play some amazing games from my childhood.

But I am looking forward to being able to play some of these games myself.

Meanwhile downstairs I took a photo of my family of controllers that I have right now!

What I Am Modelling

Not much this week as I have been quite poorly, but I did paint a couple of Legio Custodes Caladius Grav Tanks.

I then moved onto the Phase 1 Clone Troopers for my Grand Army of the Republic.

Not my best work but they look okay for the tabletop.


So what’s coming up next week?

  1. Magos Macrotek Enginseer & Servo-Automata x 4
  2. Ork Shockjump Dragsta
  3. Yndrasta, the Celestial Spear & Celestant Prime
  4. Obi-Wan Kenobi
  5. Necron Skorpekh Destroyers x 6, Canoptek Plasmacyte x 3 & Warriors x 3
  6. Flesh-Eater Courts Terrorghiest
  7. Blackstone Fortress the Archivist
  8. Adeptus Custodes Wardens x 5
  9. Death Korps of Krieg Heavy Bolter Teams x 3
  10. Blackstone Fortress Ambull & Borewyrm Infestations x 2

What Am I Reading

A lack of concentration means nowt 🙁

What Video Games Am I Playing

Other than a three hour stint on Dizzy, I have mostly played Halo Reach and got it completed this Friday.

I have now started on Halo 4, which I never got very far in the last time I played, and I am now further than that.

I found it frustrating and dark, and at the time my setup wasn’t that great. Much more enjoyable to play now, but the Forerunner level was a bit of a chew on.

Also played a few games of Street Fighter Alpha, I seem to be incapable of pulling off the special moves or defeating the final opponent 🙁

I played a lot of Forza Horizon 4, managing to go on an Achievement hunting run on Friday, getting myself a total of 150G in a couple of hours.

I am kind of wanting to get to 32000G by Christmas, so need a few more days like that.

What Tabletop Games Am I Playing

Adeptus Titanicus was played a couple of weeks ago at the club, mostly as an intro game for Graham.

Myself, Lindsay and Megan also played a game off Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese Pizza, which I won, and a game of Love Letter, which Lindsay won on a Friday night.

What I Am Creating

I have been quite ill these past weeks so things have been slow.

But the next episode of Edge of Empire was published, so that’s good.

I have made a video that’s going out Monday about a couple of odd games for the Master System from Brazil, more because I though that they were weird.

And the next Imperium Battle Report went out as well!

What I Am Backing

Actually noting right now.

What I Am Cooking

Another week with nowt at all.

What I Am Spending

Probably too much, I bought a couple of movies to watch on the Xbox, I had some vouchers going spare from the rewards program.

I bought Ultra Street Fighter IV just cause I fancied playing it and I didn’t own it, only cost me £3.99 and I was happy paying it. I want Street Fighter V but I am gonna wait until next month for that.

I did also pick up Aeon’s End because it came on sale at the right price.

And I umm, well I bought an Xbox Series X, managed to get it from EE with a pair of extra Controllers and Assassins Creed Valhalla as an Add to Plan item, which is fantastic.

It’s going to live in the den and will also be used as the households 4k Blu Ray Player, so I picked up a couple of 4K UHD Blu-Rays, The Little Mermaid and Mulan, cause it’s Lindsay and Megan I need to win over to this new format!


Adventures in Emulation

I want a full suite of all of the retro consoles, sadly due to money and space, that’s not an option.

And thus I have turned to emulation, mostly using Retroarch.

Controllers

One thing I need to have are good controllers, if I cannot have the original machine I can at least have a controller that’s as close as possible.

Currently I have the following.

  • Mega Drive x 2
  • Mega Drive 6 Button
  • NES x 2
  • SNES x 2
  • Saturn
  • N64
  • PlayStation Original x 2
  • GameCube (original & Wavebird)
  • Madcatz Arcade Joystick
  • Xbox One

The N64 is the most recent addition to that list and if I am honest, the next one I want is either a DualShock 4 or even a Dualsense for PlayStation emulation.

The plan is to do some play through videos of some classics from when I was a kid, the first one I want to do is Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, I loved that game, leant it to my friend Simon and never saw it again.

PlayStation 3

The PlayStation 3 is unused for the most part, so what I have done with that is installed PS3Hen along with a big collection of Mega Drive, Game Gear and Master System Games.

Sadly it won’t run Mega CD or 32X games, which is a shame, but I will live with that, to be honest, I have set it up mostly so the nibblings can play Sonic the Hedgehog, Willem and Brandon really love those games!

I mean every time they come round the first question is, can we play the Hedgehog game.

What I Am Painting

Not much given the needed work for Company of Legends.

But here is a pair of Pallas Grav-Attack for my Legio Custodes.

Right now on my painting desk is the Galvanic Servohaulers for my Zone Mortalis board.


So what’s coming up next week?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Stormcast Eternals Praetors x 3, Knight-Vexillor & Vindictor
  3. Legio Custodes Agamatus Jetbikes x 3
  4. Stormcast Eternals Anhiliators x 3, Lord-Imperatant & Gryph Hound
  5. Blitzkrieg German HQ & MG34 MMG Team
  6. Death Guard Fire Raptor
  7. Necron Canoptek Wraiths x 6
  8. Magos Macrotek Enginseer & Servo-Automata x 4
  9. Flesh-Eater Courts Crypt Flayers x 3
  10. T’au Ramora Drones x 2

What I Am Reading

I started and finished Outlaw: Relentless by Tristan Palmgreen, and a review for that will be published in the next few days.

I also managed to get around to publishing the review for The Serpent and the Dead by Anna Stephens, which you can read here.

What Video Games Am I Playing

Not a lot, a little bit of Forza Horizon 4, and some various retro games when testing out the emulation stuff.

What Tabletop Games Am I Playing

I had a game of Disney Villainous in the week with Megan, in which I obviously lost, but it was a very fun game nonetheless.

I also had a game of Horus Heresy on Saturday but I will talk about that a bit more in next weeks post.

What Am I Creating

Got a couple of videos in post production, fist a Vlog from Company of Legends and the overdue Battle Report.

What I Am Backung

The pledges for Isle of Cats: Don’t Forget the Kittens and Avatar: Legends were both collected this week.

What I Am Cooking

Well I cooked hot dogs for 29 people on Saturday, with Graham’s help!


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