Haha

I file all of this under “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

• Qwant has claimed since 2016 that they have an index. That lie has earned them investments and funding. They do not have an index and they’ve said so after the fact. They also give data to Bing. They are not private but they say they are because the data they share is anonymized.

• Ecosia is just a Bing frontend like DDG. Caron offsets never work. In order for Ecosia to work you need to see and click on some ads, so anybody using adblockers will not be helping. Their servers aren’t green either.

• This is because Bing is going to raise their prices and now these companies need to lure in new investors to keep the lights on. It isn’t about sovereignty or data privacy; it’s just about money.

I only have a Switch but I’ll add it to my Deku Deals list

https://www.dekudeals.com/items/rite-switch

Platformers are amazing. I think I like most of the big series that I’ve played—Mario, Sonic, DKC, Crash, Mega Man, etc.—and I really enjoy indie platformers.

Recent indie games that have taken the tried and true formula of unforgiving precision platforming to the extreme are also amazing. Celeste is a gorgeous games, Kaze kicks ass and retro throwback games like Byte the Bullet and Bzzzt are soooo satisfying.

I like a good pick up and play game, platformers fit the bill.

Once muscle memory kicks in, you’re golden. As long as the learning curve is right.

Going back and playing the first levels with the skill gained by completing the game is such a good feeling.

For me, SMB Wonder is a 10/10 platformer if we’re looking at recent 2D only. I don’t know many 3D platformers, but Crash 4 is a must play (I think that’s the most recent 3D platformer I’ve played).

You gotta try Mega Man. And if that doesn’t do anything for you, try Mega Man X or Zero. I love all of them, but X7 and X8 were my leas favourite.

Personally, I like them because of the art style, the music, and the challenge.

Shmupdate:

GreyLancer (oldie but a goodie, too tempting to play on easy mode with rewinds so replay value is lowish, but was still very enjoyable.)

Crisis Wing (love the graphics, good difficulty levels for near-beginner.)

Radiant Silvergun (what the hell were they smokin at Treasure!? Even on very easy this is going to take me at least 25 hours to beat using every life/ship I can get. Probably double that! In the first hour of play I went from “well this is garbage” to "oh, I see, you just need to put in the time and effort and then it’s awesome.)

Still haven’t finished the boss rush on Andro Dunos II so those extra levels will be a mystery to me…

R-Type Dimensions EX is on sale right now, so I’ll probably buy that tomorrow.

Accelerated Mobile Pages

Main issue, for me at least, is about locking publishers into a Google-built version of the Web that generates less revenue for the publisher and sometimes uses more data for the end user.

I found Iconoclasts to be pretty uplifting to play. The ending is marvellously satisfying.

The Shantae games are good.

Disney Illusion Island fits in here too.

Excellent game. Still never quite finished it. I think have 3 screens left.

I’ve always liked FF. We had FF1 on the NES back when but the battery in it was dead so we had to the leave the console on. My brother got through it after a good number of afternoons.

I never got into it though. I like watching it. I remember the obsession around FFVII.

Then I picked up one of those SNES Mini things that came with… FFIV. That one got me. I wasn’t surprised to find out that loads of people love that one in particular.

I’m tracking sales on dekudeals for the moment but I did get copies of Raiden IV (which is definitely something I enjoy), Ando Dunos II ( still can’t beat the boss rush to unlock the last levels) and GreyLancer.

I’ll probably pick up Strikers 1945 II this week since it is on sale.

I’m just patiently waiting and also considering grabbing some physical copies of games that I’ve seen for sale on local marketplaces (Sophstar and Mushihimesama).

Not even a third of the way through… Holy crap.

I only know Infinitime, wasp-os has some games.

I think it is a blurry line.

Video games have always used terms like “next generation” in marketing, so that does have an influence. My students think PS4 is retro. They think iPhone 13 is retro!

When I was in my early 20s we didn’t consider CDs retro or vintage, and that was the early 2000s when the tech was around 30 years old.

Before we also had big jumps, or at least we were told they were big jumps.

Analogue to magnetic tape to digital 8-bit to 16 to 32 to 64…

If I had to write an essay on the topic, I would focus on the aspect of “the way things were…” Meaning that something could be thought of as retro if the process of making it work vastly differs from the current process.

The PS2 didn’t have HDMI, but it did have internet connectivity. There were wireless controllers, but they were a little different from today. The TV was probably a CRT so you had to change the channel to make it work. Magazines still had demos sold with them…

My conclusion: a young person can probably figure out how to get a PS2 up and running, so it isn’t retro technology, it is just retro gaming.

I don’t want to make generalisations. I have worked with people from all around the world as a teacher at an international business school. A thing that comes up quite often is a certain close-mindedness of people in China. I never would have noticed this myself, but it was my own students from China that mentioned it to me. I’ve only been to China once for 3 weeks and I while talking to people I did hear some comments about other nationalities that made little sense historically. My friend that I was visiting there basically said that anything bad that happens in China is caused by foreigners or Uyghurs which sounds like BS to me.

Why a child, though? That’s some evil shit. Get that person’s phone and look at ther social media, I bet their WeChat is filled with anti-Japanese shit.

The majority of my international students are very worldly and open-minded, and every year there are more like them.

I’m trying to get into shmups. Just playing whatever I can find on sale on Switch. Mostly Raiden IV x MIKADO Remix on loop. I think I might be getting better!

Another term for shmup or Shoot 'em up

You can still install Rockbox on many different MP3 players, that comes with little games like that…and Doom.

I’m still considering getting one of these

Some games it was just the difficulty that scared me.

There were plenty of jump scare games that definitely got me like the early RE and SH games. Even Metroid games got me when I was a kid.

I haven’t tried a horror game in more than 20 years though!