Right back in the cave after a cold snap Has ground things to a halt for a month.
new year so time to have a cleanout will be migrating some equipment out of the cave once working. the custom cr-10 build I am going to finish it and then will ship it to wales with some more tools as lack being able to create it when I am away.
so why am I losing a printer well fiber laser will be coming soon so I can start doing some fun streams still working on setting up and I need to raise the connection speed to the shed as speeds are still capping out below stream minimums.
also going to clean out the projects that failed completely as I need to make some space and add additional extraction for the fiber laser. also going to fire up my CNC machine again.
Right, let’s get started as I have confirmation my steam deck is packed and about to leave the USA to me I am getting myself ready for this end as I am hoping to get it before i travel to holiday home.
so first up I going to print the steam deck life saver as recommended from a video I watched on YouTube free to download here by LWC on printables.
Time for a quick 3+ hr print.
All printed still waiting for a tracking number from steam but on with the preparation. next up sorting out my roms for a steam deck build.
I am also going to do a separate build that’s bootable on the steam deck this will be housed on 256 sd card this will have 25 games on each system going to the best of the best. that will be worked on in the back ground. More about this at a later date..
Next i am going print a stand so over to thingiverse. and found a nice stand for just propping my machine up so this is a 13 hr print wish me luck. can be found here by ShaunDarkLord
Sliced and ready to print away it goes will check back in a few hrs. works on flat surfaces I don’t have to Meany as working on my deck on the couch. so don’t know how much use I will get out of this print.
The pre Packing my bag to go away
This is the down side to ordering a steam deck. GLS has my deck its meant to be coming parcel force yay at least i have some control of delivery by the Wednesday my order now got a GB multi courier this means Evri is delivering my deck argh no control no warning no way to change delivery dates…
any how let take my mind of thing and pre pack my bag.
Thursday get notification of parcel has been received by Evri. Friday morning get they got the package.
11:20 your parcel is out for delivery. Now on a normal Friday this would not be a problem. But this is not a normal Friday as we are going to our holiday home. at 3pm the parcel due time is between 4 and 6 pm eek.
Wife is on call delaying us till 4 i have my son and have come home waiting for tumble dryer to finish now 5 packed the car time for a comfort brake before 3 hr 30 min drive just about to leave the house when the door bell rings its my package so straight in the boot with my bundle of joy,
4hrs later time to play or Update and download.
I have arrived in wales and put my son to bed time to play. as I opened the brown box I am greeted with a happy message to plug the deck in and power on and so I did I then chose my language time zone and log in all going well sort of 60meg line Vs 600 Meg line in london. lots of updates and time to down load some games that take around a hour each when 40+ GB So not played a lot but all updated. have noticed a few silly things with the system. there is no way to sleep and download. there is a work around using screen dimming and leaving system on download page. as wont sleep. Note to self Elden rings probably wasn’t the best bet to down load first.
I also changed the sleep setting from 1 hr to 20 mins no way to change it back again this will probably change soon in a update.
So time to que all my games from the library leave it over night to download and install everything .
The next afternoon.
We had stuff to do at the house also dug out a i7 pc to upgrade in a future post as want a power house down in the work shop for streaming. more on that in a future blog and how to run ethernet out doors.
its working spent a fun few hours playing games i had downloaded off steam servers to my deck. so far blown away by the steam os and handling. of the games system. will post a video of game play soon just building something capable of streaming
but wait there’s more i can do that just play new games on time for some old school retro gaming as this will play pretty much anything.
added my life saver to the case works well and stops the deck falling out of the case. defiantly a must if you have a 3d printer. well until i invest in a tough case for it.
Adding Emu Deck
As for some one who loves retro gaming this is a must for me so over to desktop mode. the first thing your going to need to add in firefox as its not pre installed so open discovery and serch for it and install it.
I also looked for ProtonUP as this is proton GT a better version installed proton.
now Firefox installed go to emu deck website and download drag the emudeck.desktop file to the desktop now go to start menu search for konsole open it type passwd set a password now can close the console.
now double click on emudeck.desktop this will take some time on a slow connection. i have a 1TB sd card installed and thats were my games are going to be installed so when prompted click sd and ok
then i selected expert mode and ok then next screen the ok for the next few screen as all installed you will then prompted for password so i enter my freshly set password and then the install will start. away it goes go make a cup of tea or coffee as this is going to take a wile. at the end. once its its done will ask for a retro achievements password free register will record all achievements so worth doing. and then your done go to your sd card and you will need to add roms to roms each system has a game folder. will need to install bios files in the bios folder now this is a gray area and i am only using backed up roms of games i own. but if your intent on getting games google is your friend.
A few days later
I have been busy coping generating artwork set for games i have added i have approx. 30 working emulators i can add more but have gone with console and handheld gaming systems and joystick compatible systems. the reason for this is then don’t need a keyboard out to play them. still working on getting some of the emulators to work but again its just a bit of light reading should be able to solve all issue as such a great community surrounding steam deck. The updates are also coming out every few day as well so if its not working yet it will be soon.
Views so far...
Loving steam games loving how well this play most emulated systems there area few a that are a little glitchy but the updates are coming think and fast.
This thing is very customisable with plugins as well and have also installed ducky loader and several plugins to theme the deck and show compatibility with non native games and vibrancy of the screen as well as a CSS theme builder will also be adding new start up videos.
If your a lover of gaming this is the device for you. if you want perfection out of the box this is nearly there but with some tinkering it come close to being perfect.
Docking your deck
I have one of the 2 docks I have ordered the first dock is the jsaux as recommended by a few youtubers and I have also ordered the official dock from steam this is on its way to me. So why 2 dock well one will be permently fitted in the man cave so i can get screen shots and film mods in the future the other one will be my traveling dock.
well all plugged in and it works great. in game mode screen turns off and my 4k tv was the interface with external 8bitdo works perfectly. i then switched to desktop mode this was a little different had 2 screens I decided i only wanted one so over to settings and display enabled the big screen as main screen and deactivated the deck screen. i have also plugged in my Logitech wireless k400 keyboard and it all works like a dream. much easier than my travel one. but that’s for home life and not life on the go.
Protector case
I have been looking at serval different cases and this seemed the most feasible for me as will fit in standard case that the deck shipped with so at £23 was a mid ranged price its very good nice textured grps and kick stand works well.
Will be adding more
happy so far will report more on this shorty with some videos and screen shots and things I have learn over the next month.
Time to join the revolution as Q3 comes to an end i have decided to join the que. As i do love a machine i can tinker with. have invested in 1tb sd card for this bad boy and Bluetooth keyboard with track pack. so this post with be what I’m looking to achieve when i first get it.
Just waiting on shipping should be with me within the week. knowing my luck this will be out for delivery on the day i am traveling to wales. hopefully can get it before that or my friendly next door neighbour will take it in for me. thats worst case senario.
Accessories
Already got:
Bluetooth keyboard i have gone with a travel one as folds up nice and small and will fit in my back back on my travels.
1tb SD card A2 so 180 write speed should give me plenty of space for emu deck.
will be paring my 8bitdo SN30 Pro or got a Xbox carbon controller kicking around for it
3d printed dock more about that in next post as pictures been added after the post release lol
Looking for:
Dock going to look for a dock for the man cave so i can film and have stuff on the main monitor looking for one with a ethernet connector built in and eventually with m.2 port as that will come in handy but that will once I have paid the deck off.
travel bag as the case it comes in might be short lived if I get a protective case with a stand.
Protective case
Emulation
Emu deck is where i am going to start my build i am going to start off porting all the roms of the rick dangerouse image i will aslo be adding some backed up games from my switch and GameCube along with some ps3 and ps2 games as well. I then might look at my wii and wii u catalog as well as tempted to try that as well.
PlayStation 4/5 remote play
its been done so i will be trying this out as well and documenting my journey as something I would love to be able to do as don’t get enough time with my PlayStation as anti gamer wife.
Steam OS
My steam liberty is very small 3 games so i will be increasing this over the next month or so. I am looking for recommendations.
Epic game collection
going to give this mod ago as over lockdown have been adding stuff to my library
Oculus 2 support
apparently its a possible modification so will be looking at this as might be a fun addition as I don’t have a high end pc. so will be doing some reading on this too.
As i have just purchased a second hand GameCube. I have decided i am going to modify it to the maximum the using the latest mods form 2022 for my 2001 machine
Picoboot modification
So first up I have decided to look modifying one using the Raspberry pico method. There are some options to softmod but they are more costly as can only get the modified memory cards or action replay discs from the states. there are other methods but the cost of these are well over £170 i wont be doing this the methods i have chosen is £14 for a complete Raspberry Pico wires thermal pads memory card and heat sync. I haven’t accounted for solder and flux as i have them in abundance the SD2SP2 PRO adapters all from aliexpress. £3,99
So why would you want to do this well there are several reasons.
To preserve your game collection by being able to back them up
Allow you to play homebrew.
Allow you to play games from other regions.
allow you to run DVD-R discs (if you pot tune)
So as I was away relaxing in Florida I was searching eBay for cheap game cubes i brought 2 one that was modified with Picoboot and one standard box.
why 2 well sniped them both by mistake so will be making them the same and then shifting one back on eBay as need to rase founds for a fiber laser. please donate if you like my posts.
What you will need to teardown you GC
you will need some special tools to open up a Nintendo product. In this case, you will need special 4.8 mm tool available of amazon
to open up the case you need to remove these 4 security screws from here onwards they are cross-head screws. see the image below.
you can now separate the shell.
Next up will need to remove the fan mechanism with 2 screws and unplug the power cable. as you can see mine is very dirty so out with airgun to blow the dust away. these are second hand boxes after all all built around the 2000s
you will now need to remove the optical drive board from the base board this is done by removing the following screws. there is around 15 of them all the same length so as long as they all go back afterwards wont be a issue. have pictured below locations.
Put the drive mechanism to one side and time to install the picoboot mod
For the pico boot method, you will need the following.
Raspberry pi pico
23 AWG wiring red black blue purple and orange approx 15 cm long lengths of each
Flux
Solder
Soldering iron
Thermal pads for chips
3D printed bracket
Heat shrink
i brought this kit of ali express for a grand total of £14 with all the parts
Lets start to install the mod so back to the main board.
To do this mod you will need to remove the 6 screws holding the heat sync in place then rock the heat sync carefully as not to damage the board.
if the heat sync is not moving heat the machine up for 15 mins then will come easily with out damaging DA14 which is common if your not delicate with this.
you will now need to solider the wires to the correct place on the lower board. once this is done you will need to route them to the side of the GameCube. see below instructions my board is DOL-001 built in 2001
going to start with black jumping over the 2 pin headers. Next will be the pink and the red wires, To Finish off will do the blue and the orange wires jobs done. Now it add heat shrink and route them through the board now this is done will add some Kapton tape to help protect the wires before re installing the heat sync. montage below
Now to flash the pico you can download the latest firmware here and how to install instructions as if you have dol-101 is different.
Lets get started on flashing plug usb in to pc and then Hold down white button connect via usb drive will mount on pc can let go of white button now. next drag latest version of the firmware picoboot.uf2 over to the folder drive will eject green light will come on your done as simple as that. now disconnect the pico and solder the corresponding pins. make sure you don’t have too much or too little wire
Me being a perfectionist i found this bracket by zedlabz to install the Pico on my machine. as 2 mm 2 screws and bottom bolts to machine for a nice clean install
so over to prusa slicer to make it going to take a wapping12 mins To produce
time to reassemble the machine and make sure it boots.
Format your SD card to FAT32 or exFAT. Download the latest Swiss release from here and grab swiss_rXXXX.dol file, rename it to ipl.dol and copy to the root of your SD card. it works nice and simple.
SD2SP2 & SD2SP2 PRO 2022 AND SD MEMORY CARDS
There are 3 current options on market for the GC depending on method of modifying will be how you if you were using a mod chip you would need dvd media to boot in to swiss. In the case of the picoboot you wont need the optical drive unless your booting games off it.
So will need a front end to boot in were as modchip will still mainly read from the drive and then boot off the sd.
so your my options are the followng
SD2SP2 micro sd card reader that hides behind behid the expattion port on the front of the machine willhave to remove port cover to access it easily.
SD2SP2 PRO this is simulare but had an exstention board so it can be accessed from the side of the game cube (this is the one i am going to use.)
Memory card SD reader in standard and Micro sd verisons
all pictured below.
Formatting SD Card (Important)
it has to be fat32 if you want some of the apps to work especialy home brew cheats saves etc. it gave me a headache for a few days till i did some testing. i am using a 256GB micro SD in the SD2SP2 card port the system will support bigger and when the prices drop will put a 1tb drive in there. I know were as the front loading memory cards can be a bit different.
Card structure
Download the latest version swiss and then copy the .dol in to root folder you will need to renamed the to swiss_rXXX.dol to IPL.dol this will allow the system to boot in to swiss you can also launch other systems by naming them a, b, y and x .dol not tried this yet good for the homebrewer.
Using homebrew software
This is primarily why I built this machine as have a love for old school gaming
So have added the following SNES, NES, N64, Sega master system and Mega drive, PC Engine and colecovision. there some others like PSX and scummMV that i will try come back to later
Key points:
You will need to install emulator.dol for each system in the correct Name folders
with in each folder you will need a roms folder and saves folder this will then
the SD Card needs to be formatted fat32
So far i have working the following systems.
N64
Sega master system
Sega mega drive
SNES
NES
Gameboy and Gameboy colour
Gameboy advance
PC Engine
Backing up your games
This is done with very easily using CleanRip insert disc in drive turn GameCube launch app and follow on screen instructions about 30 mins later you will have a full back up on the sd card of your disc ready to launch through swiss.
its not illegal o own back ups of your own games. its is how ever illegal to download them off the internet. unless the are now public domain for historical reasons. like a lot of old games are.
Pot tuning for burnt media
This step will need to be done for all methods methods if your going to use burnt media as most GameCube wont allow you to use DVD-r or +.
to do this you will need need a multimeter set to 2k ohms.
Deepening on model will depend on what figures you should see GC is on. DOL-001 units are usually set somewhere between 450 – 600Ω while DOL-101 units will be a bit lower at around 150 – 250Ω so if the disc is not reading try raising it a bit. and try media again till it boots correctly. as show below.
fist you will need to take the shield off the media drive
just been probing my pot with multimeter and i am getting readings that are very off I have a DOL-001 unit i think it running a 101 drive as I am read 163 ohms so in theory I should be seeing between 450 and 600 ohms were as the model number with DOL-101 should see between 150 and 250 ohms
i know its not a DOL-101 machine as i have digital output.
so i am going to tune it up to 200ohms and see what happens.
Still not reading dvd-r could be my media I’m using does not matter as still reads original games so will do some experimenting with secondary unit.
Adding HDMI Support
there are a few different ways of doing this from cheap to really relay eye wateringly expensive. the holly grail would be the av out component cable costing around £200 followed by the eon HDMI output again around the £170 mark now as i doing this build on a budget I decided go cheap with a £5 cable from AliExpress this was less than impressive as was a cheap upscale washes out the screen hard to play with but good to get me started whilst i waited for more bits to arrieve
I also invested in a £59.99 GC2HDMI Kaico Gamecube GC HDMI this is a AV plug in and play just doubled the scan lines this gave me true 521p output. the difference is incomparable but see below the images from both files. well worth medium outlay
Cheap cable image below on left hand image kaico on the right much better image.
Gameboy Card Cartridge reader addon
these are getting hard to find but as i found on sub £60 without software box or anything else I thought why not as I am going the full hog on this project i also invested in a multi game cart for fun. will also invest in a multi card for GBA as well for fun if it works.
I will be refebing the plastic on this pre modded game cube with retrobrite in another post just added the game boy addon to see it in action wilse i was waiting on parts.
But there’s no software with well homebrew will take care of this with GBI homebrew interface which works like a charm perfect addition for my game cube.
Broadband adapter
So this was only used for one game in total but can now be used for uploading to the game cube remotely thought this might aid with the project well when i can find one for reasonable money.
i have put this hear to talk about the theory of what it can do till i have my hands on one think i will be going to some retro games shows.
as the cave has evolved over the last few years its time for a site up date this will be happening in the not so near future. probably will be doing this over my holiday and here and there. As you can see the work shop is getting very busy with bits and tools so will be having another clean up and anything i don’t use will be getting rid of. to make space for new project. might also be launching a shop to sell some of my 3d printed designs and custom laser cut stuff to fund future projects.
I will also be taking donations for my ramblings as i want a fiber laser to add to my collection of tools. any manufactures out there wanting some on to show the wares i am happy to do so.
there are loads of guides to building retro pi machines. but this is a slightly different build as going to use 1TB SSD image so will be running an SSD drive on a pi 4 B
So why am I doing this well I was going to put together a retro flag GBI 2 but as raspberry pi modules are limited supply here in the UK/World Wide I decided as I had a pi4 B gathering dust I would review a different case that supports SSD drive.
I have been wanting to build something that I can let my son play with as he is a little young for the ps5 or the VR headset. I was looking at desktop cases and then found argon one v2 with USB SSD support.
A little bit of an update will be building a reviewing a GPI 2 in September as have managed to buy one in Germany and ship it to a hotel I will be staying in so I can get around being outside the European Union. 2022 issues I hate that we left not going to get political.
So what you will need to build this
Raspberry Pi 4 Modle B.
Small micro sd card.
1TB SSD drive.
Argon one v2.
USB adapter for SSD drive.
pihut argon one adapter for SSD 2.5 drive.
game controller Xbox pc controller I had kicking around
Burning the image:
Now for the fun bit, I tried this process with the 1TB image and the imager took around 8hrs it didn’t like it so instead I’m using etcher software to create the SSD image I have the drive in a quick swap 2.5 enclosure USB C so loaded the .img file into etcher and hit write
Bear in mind this is going to take a long time to burn at least 3hrs once it’s done we are ready to build the system.
Didn’t work again argh so after joining rick dangerous discord group and chatting with him and some of the great users I found 2 issues one I had a bad drive enclosure not compatible with raspberry pi. 2 the retro flag enclosure I had originally brought didn’t want to work so I sent it back and off the group recommendation I brought an argon one v2 and USB drive housing for it off pi Hut. that turned up surprisingly quick. Rick’s discord link below and his youtube channel.
I also learnt from rick about the about-to-be-released version of his drive the [1tb]-Rick.Dangerous.Insanium.Edition.RPi4. Over 60 systems and 8,400 games on board and growing with user input.
A week later it launched and I downloaded it off Usenet 3hrs 30 with the new version I then imaged to a SSD drive from an old project that I had kicking around the workshop. it ready to use. more information can be found on the link below.
this isn’t too complex you will need to put the heat sync tape on the 2 chips mentioned in the documentation. once they are done place the pi into the enclosure at this point you will need to plug the sideboard into the audio and HDMI ports and power then insert the pi into the gpio pins will post some stock images below. 7 screws and it built
Plugged in the power and turned it on wow Rick’s image is awesome some screenshots are below and it’s continuing to grow. this is on my 65″ 4kv and there are a lot of systems from my childhood. I will be having a retro night soon.
I will be doing a full review of the drive shortly once I get back from holiday and work commitments
ricks also going to develop a hand-held version for the GPI 2 I will be coming on the journey shortly with the discord team.
sorry, not a lot has been going on have had a bit of a day job work overload going on and will be going on holiday for some RNR hoping for 9 days off when I get back more stuff coming up.
So this week will seem very busy but it’s not as it’s been over several weeks.
accounting +
let’s kick things off with accounting + a very rude but fun game this is definitely an 18+ game that’s very twisted have spent about an hour diving into this game and well it’s just plain strange it involves puzzle-solving and rude anecdotes from the different creatures you meet in the game. so what do I mean well I have helped summon the horned beast from hell and I have had to battle in court with a tiny lawyer. it’s one of the games that is very much for a cult following as it’s hard to categorise what it is. just expect a lot of f-bombs and another Rudeness defiantly one I will go back to.
Addictive puzzle solving with no plot just a lot of rude words and jokes jumping from area to area in a random way characters that you have met in other scenes will come back with a new seen one cursing you for getting them in trouble. there is zero chance of motion sickness with this game and can be played sitting down.
£8.99 on the quest store
3/5
I expect you to die
I love puzzle games saw this when it first came out on the psvr just was having issues with space in my room so didn’t buy it but now I have the quest 2 so why not and seeing as I love puzzle games. This is a great game for sitting down and solving puzzles so I am 3 missions in and they are getting harder it involves you exploring the scene finding clues and then opening up parts and adding bits to machines very good for true puzzle-solving experience in vr.
It has a lot of moving parts to solve each mission. it’s my nightly game for winding down at the end of the day some parts are timed so you have to work quickly have only had to look at a walk-through for help once but defiantly worth checking out. only frustration is timing of some of the puzzles currently stuck just got to get the timing right oh wait i thougnht it was over but its not played another 2 mission i presumed it was over due to the data disk wrack was full just stuck on the last mission.
at £18.99 it’s a little more pricy but I do like these games I will be buying a second outing once I have completed this one.
5/5
Population:one
a Fortnite-style game that involves climbing and building and shooting so what not to like about this multiplayer game. I have done the training and played a few matches against others seems fun I will be playing more over the next few weeks as love first-person shooters.
the only thing I hate so far is lots of kids chatting shit and in one multiplayer game, someone was trying to chat someone up. so a little off-putting but this is the joys of multiplayer without your friends. seems solid and they are regularly updating the system so I’m sure the kinks will be worked out.
Will give it some more gameplay and report back on it.
price wise it’s up near the top price bracket at £22.99
2.5/5
A Fishermans tails
This is a great little puzzle solver animated adventure that threw me at first but soon got my head around it after tutorial loving it so far and I am only on the first hour of play no issues playing seated again easy-going game for someone who wants to unwind for the day.
lead for a great night’s sleep last night this reminds me of an old pc game black and white a god-type game. the key to this game is perspective as you are a wooden fisherman within a world within another world and loving it so far. The only annoyance is you need to complete each chapter otherwise it don’t save.
3.5/5
1976 back to midway
this is based on the classic arcade game that i grew up with it comes with multiple control options from joystick to actual VR stick control loving it a bit more clunky than the original.
good for a short bit of fun one to fill some gaps from time to time not sure its worth the £10.99 price tag there is a demo for you to decide.
1/5
Robo recall
This is one of the reason I is why I brought the system and it dose not disappoint fast base action with cheesy one liners great replaybility it’s a nightly pay for buy me have not finished the game yet but will update this post with more as I play
5/5
Walkabout Mini Golf
Fun for the whole family nice easy to play mini-golf game mutable courses to play and lots of challenges not had the time to play as need to stand so only when the wife has gone out
5/5
Pistol wiped
Just wow love it cool tracks so much fun to play hooked will give you a sweet on even when sitting will be.playing this some more I am sure this will just get more complex good physics and speed top play so far this evening.
5/5
The Last Clockwinder
the clock master has vanished the clock tree needs maintenance and you are set logic puzzles to help save the tree you can use your army of robots who will mimic your movements to achieve these tasks.
you start off having to get access to your robots this was tricky as i did not know what was going on but soon figured it out then once
took me 5 mins to get my head around the physics after that loved it spent a good hour picking berries and delivering them to the machine. that was the first puzzle done.
one I will be keeping on my device.
4/5
Vr sports
Was a little disappointed at first with one but once you have got the movement down it’s good fun but not one I would have rushed out and brought but hay it’s on there but have a feeling it will be removed for better games as I get them.
2/5
Wings 1941
New game and what a fun little 8bit battler your hand controls the plane and trigger fires the machine gun’s left hand is your magnetic grab loot and health. i played through the first mission and loved every second of it a great on to play if you like the 1942 sort of games
this will be a regular play and a great new game for the oculus
4/5
World Of Mechs
as someone who remembers playing mech warriors in submersive VR back in the early 2000s in the Trocadero in the west end. so to have this advanced version is great to me was having issues login in so will report back about online play soon.
4/5
Down The rabbit hole
Alice in wonderland game with puzzles and interactive storyline have just added it to m list on my device and had a good 30 mins playing good graphics and so far great fun
I finally bit the bullet and purchased a 256GB Oculus 2. I have previously owned the PSVR but had issues with space in the house so have shipped it down to my holiday home in wales so i felt the time was right to get back in to VR. why now well as someone who is going to start to travel again I wanted something fun to go with me on my journey.
well, let’s get started what’s in the box?
charging plug adapter
USB C cable
2 controllers
1 silicon cover
1 glasses adapter plate
head set
So I started by charging the headset as I always like to do to make sure I can test things out so let’s start with the set up you will need an app on your phone and a Facebook account and payment method you will then need to link the headset once done your ready to go so out with the first run app and got to learn movement and grabbing shooting etc. fun for five mins. over to the app store have chosen a few games I wanted to play and downloaded them with a slick interface and easy to use.
lots of games to choose from have selected a hand full of games I will be reviewing shortly.
Battery life is good at around 1 hr 40 mins approximately not the 2hrs that’s stated
functionality so far so good managing to play with a smaller playfield than I could with psvr with the latest firmware update there’s also hand physics in play to will be testing this out shortly as look cool.
loving the updates and more features on the way including streaming high graphics over the net it’s beta atm but looks promising. as yet to try pcvr link but will be covering this soon.
There has been a lot of flack about having to link it to facebook but this don’t bother me as people were complaining they were being baned on Facebook for breaching rules but that won’t affect me as not that rude on fb or chat rooms.
pros
constantly being updated games are being patched so always involves
a good selection of games at reasonable prices
big community on Facebook
great for 3d playback content.
play games for free in development by side-loading them.
good controls.
cons
I hate the standard strap too loose for me.
Battery life could be better.
Misting on lenses when playing physical games
Controllers straps
Games I primarily downloaded to play
Beat sabre
I expect you to die 1&2
Walkabout mini golf
robot recall
rec room
metaverse
big screen
+more
will be reviewing the over the next few weeks I will be adding them to my collection.
Accessory and improvements
Straps now there is an elite strap with extended battery connection I there are issues with these snapping so I did some research and decided to go with the bobo Vr m2 pro strap with the hot-swappable battery pack I managed to get this on offer for £39 its now £60 so look out for deals on amazon.
Next up i wanted to get rid of fogging so again after strolling through the FB group bobo VR F2 fan came up and i brought this too and yes its worth the money no fogging is dropped in price since i brought it now £30.
the final upgrade I went for was the kiki grip upgrade for the controllers with ring protection as seen some horror images of damaged controllers and I didn’t want to add to them. splashed out £39 on these but make them comfortable to wear.
is it worth getting yes it is love it so far has been a blast playing some games yes it connects to the pc as well just don’t have a pc that’s powerful enough to test that out yet but I am sure I will be buying one soon enough
so games range from £40 to £4 for a game it can be played seated or standing up and has a great anti-collision system built-in that you can customise your space for play so you wont punch a wall tv etc.
So far not had any motion sickness but still have a lot of games to test out you can add side loading and pcvr if you have a supported graphics card.
lots of games in development with a side loader you can test some out before release and more experiences.
Yes, there is a way to play a lot of games for free using bootleg loader but I won’t go into this as I tend to pay for all the games I play. yes, it does work and google-fu will definitely give results.
there is a 2-hour refund policy if you don’t like the game you have paid for I am yet to test this out.
There’s a great Facebook group for chatting with other users. one word of warning if you are outspoken on Facebook and get banned a lot might want to use a secondary account for your device as banned in one banned in all.
lots of kids in multiplayer mode but more on this in another post.
anyhow let me know your reviews of games I should play.
Don’t worry about me giving up just diversifying and adding my other passions to the site so will be reviewing games and hardware gadgets and more I will and adding more skills to my arsenal. I know I said this before but this time I am going to do it might even do some travel reviews as the world is opening up and I am itching to get out there.
So when is this going to happen well it’s already starting shortly your going to start seeing gaming reviews and hardware equipment. being added here.
Phase 2 will be domain name swap with the new site going live hoping by the end of summer. will be cleaning the blog up by giving them each area on the site I will also be running trying to run a daily blog and might even try some vlogging.
as always I am looking for sponsors and freebies to review as any help will be appreciated.
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