3DS Catch-all

bobbywatson wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

La Pucelle Tactics [...] that never got ported to handhelds and I don’t think I’ll ever finish them unless they’re portable.

I think La Pucelle Ragnarok will be released later this year for Switch, if Switch counts as a portable system :)

It does. Especially since I own a Lite. Where did you see that?

Kurrelgyre wrote:
Mr GT Chris wrote:

Well Vita sucks for SNES/GBA but...

I found that the MGBA port worked well enough for my needs, but the system was so locked down compared to other systems that it made moving my saves off and on more complicated that I wanted to put up with.

That was my experience as well. Games look gorgeous on the screen, but it’s just not the same as dropping games / saves onto an SD card.

Do we have (or do we need) a dedicated "retro emulation handheld" thread? I'm loving the conversation, but it's only tangentially 3DS-related. (-:

hbi2k wrote:

Do we have (or do we need) a dedicated "retro emulation handheld" thread? I'm loving the conversation, but it's only tangentially 3DS-related. (-:

I'm resurrecting https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/....

hbi2k wrote:

I picked up a Retro Pocket 2 during that first bad summer of lockdown. On paper it checks all the boxes, but somehow it just didn't click with me. I wound up never actually using it much. Fighting against their weird outdated flavor of Android and with Retroarch, which is a UI disaster in the best of circumstances, just never felt worth it.

The RP2 did get an upgrade to Android 8.1 late in its life, and has been succeeded by the RP2+, which runs Android 9 and is both faster and adds a touch screen. RetroArch is still awkward, but the newer Android version means you can install a lot more standalone emulators, up to and including ones for Dreamcast games.

Kurrelgyre wrote:
hbi2k wrote:

Do we have (or do we need) a dedicated "retro emulation handheld" thread? I'm loving the conversation, but it's only tangentially 3DS-related. (-:

I'm resurrecting https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/....

hbi2k wrote:

I picked up a Retro Pocket 2 during that first bad summer of lockdown. On paper it checks all the boxes, but somehow it just didn't click with me. I wound up never actually using it much. Fighting against their weird outdated flavor of Android and with Retroarch, which is a UI disaster in the best of circumstances, just never felt worth it.

The RP2 did get an upgrade to Android 8.1 late in its life, and has been succeeded by the RP2+, which runs Android 9 and is both faster and adds a touch screen. RetroArch is still awkward, but the newer Android version means you can install a lot more standalone emulators, up to and including ones for Dreamcast games.

Hopefully you don’t mind, but I’m going to reply to this in the other thread.

DSGamer wrote:
bobbywatson wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

La Pucelle Tactics [...] that never got ported to handhelds and I don’t think I’ll ever finish them unless they’re portable.

I think La Pucelle Ragnarok will be released later this year for Switch, if Switch counts as a portable system :)

It does. Especially since I own a Lite. Where did you see that?

RPGamer, I think it was announced some time last month, coming out this summer.

bobbywatson wrote:
DSGamer wrote:
bobbywatson wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

La Pucelle Tactics [...] that never got ported to handhelds and I don’t think I’ll ever finish them unless they’re portable.

I think La Pucelle Ragnarok will be released later this year for Switch, if Switch counts as a portable system :)

It does. Especially since I own a Lite. Where did you see that?

RPGamer, I think it was announced some time last month, coming out this summer.

Oh wow, that’s great news. Thanks.

Edit: Preordered. This made my day. Sincerely. La Pucelle Tactics was the first SRPG I purchased after I played FFTA. FFTA is one of my favorite games ever and opened up a world of gaming to me, but I never managed to finish La Pucelle. So I’m really stoked about this.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

You should be able to set up the back touch pad for L2/R2 if that's what you're referring to.

Sir you were absolutely right, I can now play Colony Wars properly! Thank you!

DSGamer wrote:

Oh wow, that’s great news. Thanks.

Edit: Preordered. This made my day. Sincerely. La Pucelle Tactics was the first SRPG I purchased after I played FFTA. FFTA is one of my favorite games ever and opened up a world of gaming to me, but I never managed to finish La Pucelle. So I’m really stoked about this.

I think what I remember most about La Pucelle was the lvl 100 tree trunk monster that showed up at some point out of the blue, and the fact that places and characters had sometimes inappropriate French names.

As an aside, it has been bugging me for a while why GBA games don’t look as good to me on my New 2DS XL. Same with DS games. That’s what pushed me to try emulators and I’ve been much happier since.

That said, I saw this video making the case for why it’s the 3DS-specific aspects of the hardware that make displaying those games properly, difficult.

After watching this I decided to pick up a used DSi XL so I could get the best possible picture while playing DS games.

I actually have both a DS Lite and DSi (regular size) collecting dust. I guess the DS Lite is good for GBA but I only have a handful of carts still. I have more DS carts but the only game I really want to get back to is the Hotel Dusk sequel. And maybe a Hotel Dusk replay at some point. I also have two unfinished Layton games but I feel kind of done with the formula.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

I actually have both a DS Lite and DSi (regular size) collecting dust. I guess the DS Lite is good for GBA but I only have a handful of carts still. I have more DS carts but the only game I really want to get back to is the Hotel Dusk sequel. And maybe a Hotel Dusk replay at some point. I also have two unfinished Layton games but I feel kind of done with the formula.

The premise of the DSi being good for GBA is if gbarunner2 runs them decently. It obviously doesn’t have a native GBA VC mode the way the 3DS does, but I assume it’s close. I hope to find out.

I remember the super annoying thing about GBA carts on DS Phat or Lite was that sleep mode didn’t work for them when you closed the unit. Burned through batteries a few times before I got used to saving and shutting the system down. I’m not sure if it’s any different running GBA games on DSi off an SD card.

Probably isn’t. GBA hardware never had a built-in sleep function, which seems counterintuitive if you’re used to the DS and it’s function to sleep on lid close. It feels like the SP would have had that, but it didn’t.

Instead some games like Advance Wars and Fire Emblem had an instant save wherever you were feature.

Looking back it is perplexing that the SP didn't have some kind of sleep function given how well it was woven into the DS line, but different times I guess.

That’s what I mean. We’re so used to the function now that it seems counterintuitive that the SP didn’t have it. In fact, the GBA platform didn’t have it. I think if you close the lid on a running GBA game in a DS or DS Lite the GBA game keeps running, including sound, light, etc.

Edit: Fixed typo

I think it's probably one of those things that needs to be baked into the system design from jump and since the launch GBA didn't have it, they couldn't add it in a new hardware revision without causing games to act weird on being slept and awakened.

I've been playing Mother 3 on my 3DS, and it has a title-specific sleep function programmed into it. You have to go into the menu and select "sleep," you can't just close the lid, but as long as you remember to do it, it makes a big difference on battery drain. I haven't done side-by-side testing, but anecdotally it seems to work just as well as the DS' line's native sleep function.

GBA games did have sleep, but it was a per game basis. For instance, Metroid Fusion you pause, and then press L or something to go to a sleep menu. I tried it out just a few months back.

I think it was more a screen off sleep mode or something vs freezing the whole system but I can't remember? Saved some battery at least.

Stele wrote:

GBA games did have sleep, but it was a per game basis. For instance, Metroid Fusion you pause, and then press L or something to go to a sleep menu. I tried it out just a few months back.

I think it was more a screen off sleep mode or something vs freezing the whole system but I can't remember? Saved some battery at least.

There was definitely sleep on a game by game basis. And as I mentioned earlier Intelligent Systems would often implement an instant save that couldn't be abused for strategy games. I just think it wasn't hardware level, which is why you can't even sleep a GBA game on a DS system.

Right not by just closing the lid. But those menu sleep things still work.

Here's what I'm talking about for both Metroid GBA games, with a screenshot.

I'm building my DS/3DS library up before the eshop goes away, and I decided to give Pocket Card Jockey a try.

Holy crap that's amazing.

So from today it's eshop gift cards only for purchasing on the 3ds?

Veloxi wrote:

I'm building my DS/3DS library up before the eshop goes away, and I decided to give Pocket Card Jockey a try.

Holy crap that's amazing.

I need to get back to this!

Played a bunch of the demo back when it released, then of course I bought it and barely touched it since

Are there any other hidden 3ds exclusive download only gems that should consider buying quick smart before they disappear?

Or even games that are so rare and expensive on cart that should consider grabbing now digitally?

Bubblefuzz wrote:

So from today it's eshop gift cards only for purchasing on the 3ds?

Yeah, today's the day.

However, there's still another route if you have a Switch:

Nintendo wrote:

Users who link their Nintendo Network ID wallet (used with Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems) with their Nintendo Account wallet (used with the Nintendo Switch family of systems) can use the shared balance to purchase content on any of these systems until late March 2023. After that, the balance can only be used to purchase content for the Nintendo Switch family of systems.

Ted wrote:
Bubblefuzz wrote:

So from today it's eshop gift cards only for purchasing on the 3ds?

Yeah, today's the day.

However, there's still another route if you have a Switch:

Nintendo wrote:

Users who link their Nintendo Network ID wallet (used with Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems) with their Nintendo Account wallet (used with the Nintendo Switch family of systems) can use the shared balance to purchase content on any of these systems until late March 2023. After that, the balance can only be used to purchase content for the Nintendo Switch family of systems.

That'll work for me I think. Ta for the heads up!

Bubblefuzz wrote:

Are there any other hidden 3ds exclusive download only gems that should consider buying quick smart before they disappear?

Attack of the Friday Monsters tops my list. Crimson Shroud and Liberation Maiden are also pretty cool. If you're into puzzles then Pushmo/Pullblox, Boxboy, and of course Picross are all really good.

I'm not sure about rare/expensive carts, though.

Just played the first level of Kid Icarus: Uprising and my god what a delight.

Ted wrote:
Bubblefuzz wrote:

Are there any other hidden 3ds exclusive download only gems that should consider buying quick smart before they disappear?

Attack of the Friday Monsters tops my list. Crimson Shroud and Liberation Maiden are also pretty cool. If you're into puzzles then Pushmo/Pullblox, Boxboy, and of course Picross are all really good.

I'm not sure about rare/expensive carts, though.

Yeah got all of those except Boxboy and they were fun. Of course I got some of them for a dollar or something insanely cheap on sale

Ted wrote:
Bubblefuzz wrote:

Are there any other hidden 3ds exclusive download only gems that should consider buying quick smart before they disappear?

Attack of the Friday Monsters tops my list. Crimson Shroud and Liberation Maiden are also pretty cool. If you're into puzzles then Pushmo/Pullblox, Boxboy, and of course Picross are all really good.

I'm not sure about rare/expensive carts, though.

Yeah have got Friday Monsters, a few versions of those puzzlers. I shall look into Crimson Shroud and Liberation Maiden, thanks.

I guess rare carts that would be way cheaper to pick up from the eshop would mostly be jrpgs. For example Radiant Historia sells for over £100 here on eBay, I picked it up on eshop sale for a fraction of that. That's the kind of thing, just wondered if there are any quality jrpgs where download is the way to go before disappears. Those carts I guess are only going to get more expensive once the shop closes.