What are you playing on iOS/droid/mobile?

[jdollatari]

lol indeed

 

Galerider to me needs a controller so I plan to get one. Elder scrolls looked like elder scrolls and pretty but idk I lost interest and will revisit on switch

Edited August 30, 2019 by jdollatari
add content

[Flojomojo]

I was eagerly awaiting Elder Scrolls Blades but it's the same grindy thing over and over again, and the loot boxes don't help. I get the sense it's not fully baked and maybe they'll develop it into something more interesting by the time it launches on Switch. I sure hope so, anyway. 

[Flojomojo]

September 19, five dollars a month, family sharing included. No in app purchases, loot boxes, or micro transactions. 

 

 

[Flojomojo]

I really like GameClub. Apple only for now, Android coming soonish. It's like GOG for mobile. 

[Flojomojo]

Speaking of subscriptions ... a large proportion of Apple Arcade works with a controller (ps4 and xbone included), and all of it is on AppleTV as well as phones and tablets. Nice spreadsheet here. 

https://airtable.com/shrhJWPLYUrC9ctSQ/tblIRCulDltlOaCEv/viwER6b1tjbmrdUBP?blocks=hide

[Tanooki]

Ok my turn to put something here I don't think anyone brought up before since it arrived earlier this year.  Falling Lightblocks.  iOS, Android, in your browser, on your amazon stick/tv thing too even.

 

What is it?  Classic Tetris, modern tetris, and variations of all sorts including hand off multiplayer and it's free, pay on merit (donation) if you so wish it.  A very unique feature is that even on stuffy iOS (and also android) you can find and download themes for it.  The maker has a few that are ok, very few, but I found more through a discord server (hard drop: tetris community) and someone aped the NES-Tetris game for all the red block art and music-A and sfx too.  It's like playing NES Tetris free on your phone, and it has very intuitive controls for 3 styles of touch but also can use a real controller too for super serious play.

 

https://mrstahlfelge.itch.io/lightblocks

GO there, try it out in browser, or grab the others.  I stuffed it on my iPhone then downloaded the 8bit pack, then found and put the NES pack on it and it's amazing.

 

Here's a bit on how to make your own themes and downloads of those tools and some already made:https://www.golfgl.de/lightblocks/themes.html

[wierd_w]

I recently tested Dwarf Fortress out inside Eltech's now defunct Windows Emulator for Android.

(it has been a point of contention in the DF fanbase on if android devices are even powerful enough CPU-wise to play the game.)

 

The 32bit window version runs inside, but not terribly fast. (To be expected, its lugging a full x86 emulation with it.) It was however, sufficiently fast to somewhat play a normal size embark on a pocket world.

A significant factor in the playabilty is probably the device I tested on; An older Samsung Galaxy S5, which only has 2GB of RAM. (DF wants the full 4GB possible, and the Galaxy tries to provide via zram backed swap. This quickly bogs the CPU down in the compression/decompression operations, since DF is VERY memory intensive.)

 

Given the resources available in more modern phones, I suspect that a native app would be more than just hypothetically possible, if it were not for the "not portable" nature of the closed source codebase.

[Flojomojo]

That's cool. How readable is it on the small screen? 
 

I wonder if the Linux version might be a better fit for Android someday. Or just via emulation, since there are emulators of everything on Android. https://joyofandroid.com/linux-emulators-on-android/

[wierd_w]

Depends on what you set the text size to.  (also, pinch to zoom works with that emulator.)

 

You really DO need a bluetooth keyboard paired with the device, due to how DF's interface works, and it took me a minute to figure out why the escape key was not being registered. (Eltechs hard-coded ESC to be entered with the android back key, for reasons that escape me.) Failing that, the Hackers Keyboard alt entry method from the playstore, so you have arrow keys, ctrl and alt keys, etc.. 

 

Otherwise, I had ~11FPS on a fresh standard sized embark with a pocket world.  If you were more conservative, and did a tiny embark on a pocket world, (and had a device with more ram, without zram enabled), it would probably do fairly well.  

 

The linux version "Might" run inside qemu's non-native binary support mode... but it is going to want quite a few libraries. (Wants SDL and OpenAL for sure that I know of.) Those aren't going to be there on a base android system, you are gonna have to lug around a full chroot.  It would be hilarious to see DF running in text mode inside the terminal emulator app.

 

Maybe I should take a video? 

Edited November 5, 2019 by wierd_w
cat on keyboard

[Flojomojo]

A video would be great!

 

When the nvidia shield handheld was new, I was really into trying to squeeze DOS and Windows and other games onto the thing for some reason --because I could, I guess. I've come around to the idea that some genres are just better with a hard keyboard and a bigger screen. 
 

And now you have me wanting to install Dwarf Fortress on one of my potato netbooks. I'm told it's best appreciated while stoned (despite the headline saying the opposite) https://kotaku.com/4-games-you-should-definitely-not-play-while-high-1839613850

[Flojomojo]

New version of BASTION on iOS is free for a limited time. Get the app and grab the "full game" in-app purchase for $0.00. https://www.pockettactics.com/articles/bastion-ios-free/

 

I've been sitting on this for ages and didn't know it had been delisted because of the rights transfer. 

[wierd_w]

Ok. Nice informative post on getting DF running on an ARM based android phone. (Exagear windows emulator does not support x86 based devices.)

 

First up, the emulator is buyware. 

 

Secondly, it seems hard to find with the playstore app. Here is a hard link that should go right to it.

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eltechs.ed

 

Thirdly, i have heard eltechs has discontinued development of the emulator, and did so in Feb of 2019. You might or might not be able to purchase it. Caveat emptor and all that.

 

Necessary formalities dispensed with, this really should be called WINE for android because that is what it totally is. 32bit WINE. On Android. With eltech's proprietary x86 emulator underneath. It supports network functions, fullscreen graphics, sound, bluetooth keyboards and mice, and can run quite a lot of windows software. (Including favorites like starcraft and pals. But also dwarf fortress.)

 

First up, grab DF from Toady's site.

Http://bay12games.com/dwarves

 

Its free. You want the 32bit sdl windows pack. The default one for windows is 64bit and wont run. The legacy one cannot find a graphics device and wont run. The sdl version works fine.

 

Unzip the zipped package into a folder in your phones downloads directory.

 

Fire up the emulator and make a new container. Once made, press the hamburger menu and pick "manage containers" then "run explorer" under the container's three dot menu.

 

The wine session will start, and open the file browser.  It auto mounts the downloads folder as drive D:. Copy the df folder to the container's ? drive, then navigate inside it. Find the executable and long press. Choose copy. Navigate to the desktop folder in the left pane. Long press in the blank area of the right pane and choose paste shortcut.  The emulator looks for shortcuts made there and adds the items to its launch menu.

 

Now to muck with df's settings.

 

Navigate back to df folder, then the data folder, then the init folder.

 

We want to edit init.txt 

 

Doubletap it and wait. This version of wine includes notepad.

 

Scroll down using touch and drag.

 

Graphics:yes

Windowed:no

Fullscreenx:640

Fullscreeny:480

Printmode:2d

Fps:yes

 

Save and exit.

 

Close the emulator session by pressing the x on the hoverbar.

 

Now DF shows up in the list. Pick it and wait. Wait quite a bit.. It will eventually start.

 

Make sure your bluetooth keyboard is paired, then make a pocket world and have fun. All references to esc key need to be handled by the back button.

 

The screen can be stretched to fit the device by tapping the leftmost icon in the hover menu, and the hover menu can be hidden with a 3 finger tap.

 

Again this thing can handle all kinds of stuff. GoG installers work well. I will make a video here shortly.

 

[wierd_w]

Ok. Video finally uploaded.

 

Apologies for the terrible camera. The phone used to record is a terrible one issued by my employer.

 

It loses focus repeatedly. 

 

 

 

[Flojomojo]

Neato-- River Raid with SNES Zelda graphics. 
 

https://toucharcade.com/2019/12/17/bridge-strike-pre-order/

[Flojomojo]

Roundup of 3 years of AppleTV gaming. 

https://theappletvgamingblog.com/2019/12/18/icymi-recap-celebrating-3-years-of-apple-tv-gaming-2017/

 

This box $150 and supports Apple Arcade. It's arguably a better set-top box concept than the new Atari and Intellivision things coming out. I say arguably because despite being supported by one of the biggest companies in the world, there's not that much on it, relative to stuff like Xbox and Playstation. Hopefully that will improve since it now supports Microsoft and Sony game controllers, but I have a feeling most people will just use it to stream video. 

[Flojomojo]

Stardew Valley on sale for five. 

[Tanooki]

The Dragon Quest of the Stars game went active today and so far it doesn't seem to be whale bait for money, though they do make more blatant boxes about it than the overly generous cygames who did Nintendo's Dragalia Lost among some of their own.

DQS plays just like a normal, DQ game for the most part but with an added gatcha thing for items/gear, and there is a stamina bar kind of, but it fills up each tick fast so I'm not sure how easy it would be able to burn it through at some point later.  So far, early into just finishing off Ch1 and doing the after bits of it, it seems capable and well done.

[Flojomojo]

There's a port of Castlevania Symphony of the Night on Android and iOS now. Appears to be straight up emulation. Three bucks. 

[roots.genoa]

7 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

There's a port of Castlevania Symphony of the Night on Android and iOS now. Appears to be straight up emulation. Three bucks. 

Since the SotN/Dracula X bundle was released for Castlevania's season 2 on Netflix and season 3 will be available tomorrow, I think we'll have to wait for season 4 to get SotN on Switch.

[+wongojack]

I just got access to Microsoft's Beta for game streaming to Android and iOS.  However, it requires a Xbox style controller.  What's the best controller option for Android these days?  There are many choices on Amazon, but I'm not really sure what the Pros and Cons are.

 

Edit - the Xbox controllers that I already have don't seem to be new enough to have BT.

[Tanooki]

I haven't heard of this beta, sounds maybe interesting?

 

I decided after that mind blowing Nintendo direct mini the other day to grab that Elder Scrolls Blades as I'm curious about it.  Since it will have cross save usage play between formats and the Switch is getting it too, I figure this could be something worth taking a peek because if Nintendo's bothering it can't be that much of a whale mess thin experience, at least I'd hope not.  I've not yet fired it up though, animal crossing sucked me in.

[+wongojack]

13 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I haven't heard of this beta, sounds maybe interesting?

 

I have special access.  I can't even get my own wife in with me.

 

Still would like a recommendation about a controller for use with my phone.

[NE146]

I am playing though the original Plants vs. Zombies again.

[cimerians]

Empires & Puzzles

Raid

Marvel Puzzle Quest

...and occasionally the D&D Warriors of Waterdeep game.

 

Games I was playing and stopped:

Elder Scrolls Blades

Etherium

Star Wars Heroes

Warlords of Aternum

Whiteout\Lifeline series

Pixa (Adventure look-alike)

Captain Cowboy (Boulderdash clone)

[0078265317]

Happy Glass