u/Dependent_Wafer3866

Speaks for itself. The game itself runs at full speed, but the graphics look like this even when you start playing. ROM is fine, works normally on my PC using PCSX2.

Any fix ideas? It does this on the regular and the Turnip version of the Nether app.

No luck with Vulkan or OpenGL or any of the hardware download mode settings.

EDIT: actually software rendering makes it look normal, has some slight slowdowns though.

It's a mix of mostly pixel games with very high ratings based on SteamDB and some personal curation. Should run fine on most Android handhelds, though no guarantees.

• A Short Hike
• Abzu
• Beyond Blue
• Bot Vice
• Castle Crashers
• Celeste
• Cosmic Star Heroine
• CrossCode
• ElecHead
• Gravity Circuit
• Hotline Miami
• Life is Strange (Original 2015 release)
• Lil Gator Game
• Mirage Feathers
• Moonleap
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
• Rocket Rats
• Smushi Come Home
• Sonic Mania
• Stardew Valley
• The Last Campfire
• The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series
• Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion

https://archive.ph/GFWa9

Device: Retroid Pocket 5

Game: Life is Strange

App: GameNative (free and open-source)

It runs at 1280x720 at 30 fps at medium settings, which is pretty much the limit of what this device can handle. It runs at about 30-34 fps when uncapped.

It's worth noting that the chip in this handheld is 6 years old at this point (as in it was released 6 years ago), but it can still run a PC game with only 5W of power draw. A built in fan keeps it running cool.

It's installed on the internal storage, only has 128GB but that's enough for lightweight games like LiS.

Now I can play it on the go.

So I had the game installed, played it just fine. When I tried launching a few days later it said it wasn't installed. Except I'm quite sure the game files are still there. The button to install is greyed out. I can click "Remove container" but it does nothing. It's supposed to say "Uninstall game". It says it's not installed, and 0 B.

I'm literally hard stuck. Can't remove the app, can't install it, can't launch it. Any ideas?

Device: Retroid Pocket 5

Version: GameNative 1.0.0 (latest)

Game title: Castle Crashers

Status: Not Installed

Size: 0 B

Now first of all, before everyone brings out their pitchforks, it's not about the money to me. I got these games like 95% discounted, they were like €1,99 and €2,49 each. I won't have to go hungry over that kind of loss. I shared some screenshots of my recent purchases, and that's not even all of it.

Mostly I just want to share my experience, and warn people about buying broken games (anything that requires a launcher in particular), and the modern issue of expensive storage combined with massive file sizes making it difficult to test games in advance.

So I purchased Battlefield 1 Revolution in March, for 2 bucks. I purchased Battlefield 3, 4 and 5 on April 29th, for a grand total of €6,47. It is June 12th as of writing, about 2-3 months after purchase.

I have 5 mins playtime on Battlefield V, zero playtime on any other titles. I couldn't get the game to even launch because of the buggy launcher. In hindsight, the negative reviews did mention this, but I thought worst case I can always refund a broken game. Except, a few months later, here we are.

It's safe to assume that the other games won't launch either as they all use the same launcher, and I don't want to deal with kernel level software on my system. I falsely assumed I would only have to install it for online, so I could just enjoy all the campaigns, but that wasn't true either. It even installed on its own when I clicked refuse, which personally I find that reprehensible. If it had stopped the install at that point, fine, but never quietly install software with that kind of access on my system.

The support tickets are shared in full, so you can read them for yourself. Despite all the talk about how generous Steam is about refunds even after the 14 day window, they rejected all of it, just to save themselves 6 bucks.

Now whether that's a fair solution, I think people will disagree on that, and that's fine. Personally, I think a 14 day warranty on broken items is very short. The fact that games are sold in this state in and by itself is an issue that would warrant its whole own separate rant.

The secondary issue is that these games are huge. I have 4TB of SSD storage, and it is filled to the brim. Why is it the customer's responsibility to install and verify that all of their games are working within just 14 days, instead of the seller's? Why is Steam not responsible to ensure their games are playable? Why shouldn't they eat the loss?

I guess it's so Gabe Newell can buy himself entire yaught companies.

Storage has become very expensive. And not everyone has fast internet, so it would be literally impossible for a lot of people to even download games of these sizes. To install, launch, and uninstall all 100 games I recently purchased would be a fulltime job. How is that a reasonable expectation to put on consumers?

Again, I won't lose any sleep over losing 6 bucks, though I totally could have been someone who had purchased them all at the full $69 retail price, and then I'd be down a ton of money, stuck with unplayable games. It's food for thought, and personally I think Steam can afford to do much better here.

TLDR:

• Be careful about buying broken games. Avoid anything with its own launcher, or buy at your own risk.
• Steam won't help you with broken games, the proof is in the pudding.
• The burden to verify that games work falls on the consumer, not the seller, even when doing so is unreasonably tedious and demanding.

First, download the latest shaders in RetroArch:

• Main Menu > Online Updater > Update GLSL Shaders

Load up a GB/GBC game with Gambatte core. Open the RetroArch menu.

Settings:

• Quick Menu > Core Options > Internal Palette TWB64 - Pack 1
• Quick Menu > Core Options > TWB64 - Pack 1 Palette > TWB64 041 - Pocket Ver.
• Quick Menu > Overrides > Save Core Overrides

=================================

• Quick Menu > Shaders > Video Shaders > ON
• Quick Menu > Shaders > Load Preset > shaders_glsl > interpolation > quilez.glsp
• Quick Menu > Shaders > Append Preset > shaders_glsl > handheld > pixel_transparency.glsp
• Quick Menu > Shaders > Shader Parameters > Tint intensity > 1.50 (my preference)
• Quick Menu > Shaders > Manage Presets > Save Core Preset

I think it looks pretty good, and I say this as someone who has only ever used the quilez shader at most until now. Pixel_transparency is just a fantastic shader.

-------------------------------------------------------

NOTE FOR PC: I was having issues setting it up on my PC, where I have the ingame screen size reduced. Picking the handheld pixel transparency shader would make it zoom in and cut off most of the ingame screen.

To fix this, there's an alternative setup method. You want to start with the following shaders_slang preset and edit it. The lcd3x grid it comes with also looks nice if you're into that. I also found that you get an extra brightness setting with this setup under Parameters, which I actually think makes this the better method. Not 100% sure if every device supports these shaders, but I'll leave both methods up just in case.

• Settings > Drivers > vulkan, glcore, or d3d11/d3d12 (needed to unlock Slang Shaders)
• Main Menu > Online Updater > Update Slang Shaders
• Load up a GBC/GB game
• Quick Menu > Shaders > shaders_slang > presets > pixel_transparency > pixel_transparency-lcd3x.slangp
• then you can change the lcd3x shader pass to quilez.
• shaders_slang > interpolation > quilez.slangp
• Quick Menu > Shaders > Shader Parameters > Backing Tint Brightness > 0.65 (or preference)
• Quick Menu > Shaders > Shader Parameters > SHADOWS > Blur Amount > 2.50 (or preference)
• Quick Menu > Shaders > Shader Parameters > Front Polarizer Tint > Intensity > 0.95 (or preference)
• Quick Menu > Shaders > Manage Presets > Save Core Preset

Game: Pokemon Yellow Legacy - Tetris (GB)