FOSS?

CDs and DVDs are digital media. There is no degradation of the content when you convert a fragile physical disk into a dumped ISO, and the dumped ISO can be stored on an arbitrarily large number of devices. Stuff like physical books or analog media (vinyl records, for example) are worth caring about physical degradation for, but a “physical copy” of a PC software disc is just a more fragile way to store the exact same ones and zeroes that can be stored on actually resilient media.

release installers DRM-free online. No need to bother pressing plastic and wrapping it in plastic and wrapping that plastic in thinner plastic and then putting it in a box full of plastic to ship around the globe on giant cargo ships, to be ferried from the docks by big-rig trucks, to be stacked on palettes that get wrapped in more plastic, to sit on store shelves or the shelves of some amazon warehouse where they’ll get wrapped in more plastic and shipped in more trucks, so that you can pay the middleman store instead of the developers, all so that you can install the files to your SSD anyway. And if this physical media is DRM-free you could just make backups instead of holding onto the plastic… or skip the part where the plastic exists in the first place, and download the files over the internet, right to your computer, without any trip to a gamestop or stop on an Amazon driver’s daily route! And if it’s not DRM-free what was even the point of all that plastic and gasoline that got it into your hands when you need to verify the purchase with an online key anyway?

GOG, Itch, and even Steam all have large catalogues of completely DRM-free games, to say nothing of developers that don’t distribute via a storefront platform. Once you download the game, provided you don’t delete it, your copy of the game will survive the distribution platform dying, the developer being bought out by EA, licenses expiring for content, the devs patching it to make it worse, or even (if you make backups) your house burning down.

Nintendo’s out here trying to justify $90 mario kart because of the “rising cost of developing games”, meanwhile probably more than half of the new mario kart’s sales are going to lose huge amounts of revenue because Nintendo has to pay manufacturers and shippers and storefronts to move and hold onto plastic and circuit boards that are just glorified read-only flashdrives for 32GB of media. It’s been a joke that digital games have been the same price as their physical counterparts ever since companies started selling digital copies in the first place.

As long as spellcasting is still good and spellcrafting is still in. Magic was a complete joke in Skyrim and not just because it was terrible DPS compared to swords and bows. The spells were all so boring.

Just not buying something isn’t a boycott. Don’t buy bad games, and it’s a good idea to include dark patterns in the criteria for what makes a game bad.

And don’t forget that if you somehow lose access to the digital product called “v1.1.2” without losing access to your save file, you still can’t use that save file with the helpful little bit of plastic you have with v.1.0.0 on it. This is very possible with 3DS games, because the physical cartridge stores the save file but game updates are installed to the system memory/SD card. The 3DS also ties your licenses to the console, not to an account, which means that if you lose your 3DS but still have your copy of Smash Bros, replacing the 3DS will let you redownload the patch but not re-buy or re-download the DLC. Without piracy or buying a secondhand 3DS from someone who has the Smash DLC, you’d never be able to be Cloud on Smash 3DS again.

Physical game copies have been practically irrelevant from a software preservation standpoint since the X360 and PS3. Nintendo took an extra gen to catch up as usual. The only meaningful preservation work that can be done for modern game consoles is cracking the console’s DRM so that even the “digital-only” games and all updates/DLC can also be backed up somewhere that will tolerate the death of all Nintendo servers and devices. Thankfully, Nintendo’s software has never had an era where this isn’t true by the end of the console’s lifespan (sometimes it becomes true really early, like with the Wii and Switch). We just have to hope that the homebrew wizards find something on the Switch 2, even if it’s a limited exploit that needs a hardware modchip and only works on launch models.

Or it’s actually running at 720p30 and being FSR/framegenned into a blurry shimmery mess. There’s no way Nintendo managed to cram a chip powerful enough to render its own Switch 1 games at true 4k120 into a tablet.

Any “fumble” is the result of the object of your affection making their own choices, lol.

Wait “the obvious” one isn’t supposed to be the she/they from steven universe? On tumblr?

man, of all the times to accidentally a word in a post, he threw an extra “to” into his post making fun of people’s grammar. Unless he’s trying to use “to English” as a verb, which seems unlikely.

S22 Ultra here. Selecting text, taking cropped screenshots, placing the text writing cursor precisely where I want it, hovering over web elements to view tooltips or alt text, playing Slay the Spire and Balatro, emulating the Nintendo DS, using the button as a camera shutter, hovering over the bottom of a scrollable element to smooth-scroll without repeatedly finger-flicking, and doing anything that benefits from a touchpoint more fine than a big fat thumb. The S pen is the only reason I’m still on Samsung instead of the greener true FOSS pastures.

Not at all that kind of manga.

PEGI is a joke, but it’s a consistent joke. Any gameplay that looks like playing a casino game is consistently “simulated gambling” and an instant 18+. PEGI is why the Pokémon series stopped putting Game Corners in after gen 4, even though Pokémon’s “slot machines” were timing-based skill challenges.

Right? Training data is an absurd blob of everything the algorithm can get its hands on. It’s like trying to assure that there’s no alcohol or coca-cola in a lake.

Gw2 jumpscare

Which is why this flashcart is saying “don’t go online unless you’re using your own backups”. This cart spoofs the unique signature and such to the console. If you download mario kart 8 from a torrent and run it here, you’ll trip Nintendo’s copy detection. If you go to a gamestop and buy a used mario kart 8, then back it up to this thing and return the cart to the gamestop… Well one of two things happens.

1: Nintendo’s system is manually managed and Nintendo checks cartridge certs against a known dataset of pirated copies. You can now play pirated Mk8 online because of your valid cert that doesn’t match any known dumps.

2: Nintendo’s system is automated and will permanently ban anyone online with a given cert in two consoles at once. You can now play pirated Mk8 online until someone else goes to the gamestop, buys the cart you used, and tries to play online at the same time as you. Now you and the guy that bought the used game are perma’d.

Thanks for Priiloader! Still using it multiple times a week in 2023.

I love f4mi’s videos. They’re an absolute treasure and she’s clearly passionate about the Wii/DS era of gaming which was my own awakening point for modding the absolute christ out of every bit of tech I can get my hands on.

Returnal supports dualsense advanced features, you just have to plug the controller into the PC and disable steam input.

I used Returnal as the benchmark tool for the dualsense features (I don’t have a Playstation older than 2) and was amazed by them, then I realized that I didn’t like the actual game as a roguelike or a shooter so I return(al)ed it. But the controller features were sick

I’d argue that fighting and punishing hate speech would be protected by Tenet II, which takes priority over “other laws”.