games

20802 readers
490 users here now

Tabletop, DnD, board games, and minecraft. Also Animal Crossing.

Rules

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
1
 
 

I forgot to post this yesterday. Anyway, hope everyone had a good weekend. I made some major breakthroughs in Balatro this week, unlocking several of the few remaining Jokers I haven't unlocked, scoring over 100 million points (probably could've have gotten to e score if I had been smarter with my DNA joker) and also chipped away at my DS3 SL1 run, beating the Demon Prince fight after about 4 hours of head bashing spread out over the past week, so I only have Midir, Halflight, and Gael before I've officially conquered Lothric at level 1. Have a good week everyone

2
43
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by riseuppikmin@hexbear.net to c/games@hexbear.net
 
 

Here are some educational resources/explanations for the games community about emulation and other game-related tools.

Note: Check my top-level replies in this thread as I ran out of text in the post

[Informational Resources]

Reddit's ROM Megathread - Unaffiliated with this site

Emulation Wiki

[Emulation as a field]

Emulation is the process of re-implementing the functionality of something (hardware and/or software) in a separate software environment. You're probably most most familiar in the term as it relates to game system emulation- like the Dolphin Wii and Gamecube emulator, but it's actually much broader than that.

While emulation does cover physical systems, it can also cover things that strictly exist as software. If you've ever played on WoW or any other MMO private servers, the actual underlying software that was being run was likely a server emulator (or in rare cases the actual official server software itself may have leaked or released).

These server emulators are created by analyzing the network information exchange (packets) sent from the game client to the server and those received by the client from the server. A painstaking and brutal process of analyzing these packets allows server reverse-engineering projects to then re-implement the functionality of the official servers, and then we can point the game client towards our reverse-engineered private server (that speaks the exact same "language" as the official servers). This then allows the private servers to provide additional or changed functionality (for example, more exp per quest) which allows a much more customizable experience.

Emulation can also be used to re-implement vendor solutions like the Steam API which provides various utilities like DRM (which the emulator could choose to ignore). A great example of an emulator in this regard is the Goldberg Emulator.

Let's say you've acquired (through legal purchase only of course) the clean steam files for a game and want to run it offline. Normally you wouldn't be able to because the steamworks DRM check wouldn't be able to authenticate against the official steam servers. If we instead replace the steam_api.dll (this could also be named steam_api64.dll depending on the game) with the one provided by the Goldberg Emulator, when the game makes the check for the steamworks drm authentication status, the Goldberg Emulator's implementation of steam_api.dll will simply return true and let us play our game offline. The game itself just knows that it asked for a DRM verification check to a service, and the Goldberg variant of steam_api.dll looks (to the game) exactly like the "real" version, except that it always returns that the steamworks DRM has been verified.

Refer to the readme within the Goldberg project for more information about what to do with specific games. Also take note that this only works with games that only use steamworks drm (most of them) and games using other/multiple DRM solutions won't work with this method only for offline play.

[Console Emulators]

All of the emulators listed below are my personal per-console pick. Each is at least in the recommended section of a great general emulation resource, the Emulation Wiki

Game Platform | Emulator Name | Emulation Platform | Comments

Nintendo Consoles

NES | Ares | Windows/Linux/Mac

SNES | Ares | Windows/Linux/Mac

SNES | bsnes-hd | Windows/Linux/Mac | Widescreen modifications for some SNES games

N64 | Simple64 | Windows/Linux | Soon to be replaced by Gopher64 by the same developer (26/3/2025) N64 emulation has a lot of viable candidate emulators, check the page here

GC | Dolphin | Windows/Linux/Mac/Android

Wii | Dolphin | Windows/Linux/Mac/Android

Wii U | Cemu | Windows/Linux

Switch | Ryubing Ryujinx Fork | Windows/Linux/Mac/ Android/iOS | Continuation of the Ryujinx project by some of the original contributors

Switch | Yuzu | Windows/Linux/Android | Killed by Nintendo 3/4/2024

Nintendo Handhelds

GB/C | mGBA | Windows/Linux/Mac

GBA | mGBA | Windows/Linux/Mac

DS | MelonDS | Windows/Linux/Mac/Android

3DS | Azahar | Windows/Linux/Mac/Android | UPDATE 2/28/2025 Pablomk7 and Lime3DS forks have joined to work on Azahar

Sony Consoles

Playstation | DuckStation | Windows/Linux/Mac/Android

Playstation 2 | PCSX2 | Windows/Linux/Mac

Playstation 3 | RPCS3 | Windows/Linux/Mac

Playstation 4 | ShadPS4 | Windows/Linux/Mac | Heavily experimental and not for casual use yet

Sony Handhelds

PSP | PPSSPP | Windows/Linux/Mac/Android

PSVita | Vita3K | Windows/Linux/Mac

Sega Consoles

Sega Master System | Ares | Windows/Linux/Mac

Genesis | Ares | Windows/Linux/Mac

Saturn | Mednafen | Windows/Linux

Dreamcast | Flycast | Windows/Linux/Mac/Android

Microsoft Consoles

Xbox | Xemu | Windows/Linux/Mac

Xbox 360 | Xenia | Windows

Apple Phones

iOS 2.x | TouchHLE | Windows/Mac/Android

[Graphics Packs]

A lot of emulators have texture replacement capabilities built into them. What this means is that users can manually and/or AI upscale textures from the game into higher resolution or outright replace them with other textures. There aren't currently (that I'm aware of) area that have consolidated links to these things, so you'll unfortunately have to search individual project forums and look for texture or graphic packs links.

Some known graphics packs repositories:

Dolphin Forums

Citra Forums Killed by Nintendo 3/4/2024; waiting for the dust to settle for recommendations

[Graphics API Translation Layers]

Sometimes there are scenarios where a game may only use DirectX to draw it's rendered graphics to screen and we may not want this. This could be for performance reasons (maybe the Vulkan graphics api has better performance, maybe DirectX isn't available on our OS, or maybe the DirectX version is really old and not properly supported by our OS/GPU/Driver combination). In these instances we can use translations layers to translate DirectX graphics api calls into Vulkan calls using utilities like DXVK . Explaining which files to copy over depends on a per-DirectX version basis, so you'll have to use a combination of the PCGamingWiki and DXVK documentation to figure out which files to replace.

[Graphics Post-Processing]

With a utility called ReShade we're able to inject various post-processing effects into the final stage of the graphic rendering pipelines of games. This allows you to adjust color curves, inject path-traced global illumination (a method like ray-tracing), and add a bunch of other effects to DirectX9/11/12/Vulkan games.

3
 
 

How does it feel to be in the wrong side of history?

(From Corn Kidz 64)

4
 
 

I checked the Japanese script and they specifically translated this thing's name as Pulse-Inferno Typhoon Omega to set up the Ford Pinto joke. This game's localisation is so 90s SquareSoft there was even an unironic usage of the word "bodacious"

8 chicken wusses out of 10

5
 
 
6
7
8
9
20
submitted 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) by cerealkiller@hexbear.net to c/games@hexbear.net
 
 

I won't get into It much nor spoil anything. I went into this blind not really knowing of the YouTube series. But I fell in love with this game and frankly the series on YouTube after falling into a rabbit hole of sorts.

Every character is so weird, different and just full of personality (or rather personality's considering the main protag). All of which makes them quite memorable. Even with the minimal gameplay (most of It being going from point A to point B if there is any, some platforming or collecting items) the real "meat" of It is either observing or interacting with the characters and world where rules and logic are more of a suggestion.

I'm not really sure If there are underlying metaphors or an overarching story in this since the creator (Joel G) said that the YouTube series, which I'm not sure If It's even connected with the game, was mostly just nonsense. But in a odd way It makes no sense to the point It does somehow. It's weirdly relatable in a way I can't describe.

I couldn't recommend It more considering the first episode is free on Steam. Plus there being a supporters pack that you can buy where you get the OST of the game. I really look forward to seeing more of this, including the short animations on YouTube. I had too much fun writing this lol.

10
 
 

Gunna' start linking to the latest translated GCCX episodes here maybe. Watched this the other day when it was released on Nyaa. Was a fun episode since it's such a bizarre game in general and for the show. I like the art style and the story, although the gameplay looks fucking awful to me. Also got frustrated watching Arino struggle with the puzzles. And the older lady store owner was funny.

11
 
 
12
 
 

Original post was removed so apologies for the discord screenshot

13
 
 
14
 
 

Old discussion from 2017: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/7/1471967615868031324/

This discussion sits rent free in my head; I keep remembering this from time to time because it's just nastiness for nothing. There's nothing to be gained from preventing Cuban players from playing steam games and yet you have someone hoping they can't access it; why? No idea.

The absolute nastiness people have for random strangers who've never done them harm nor wished them harm is beyond me. Just a reminder but Cuba offered to help during the events of hurricane Katrina, which predates this nastiness by over a decade.

America needs to be shut off from the world by being placed within a giant indestructible dome.

15
 
 
16
 
 

Made by the same guy who made cruelty squad. I am like 2 hpurs in and have np idea what anything is. I die in one hit and my mech splatters anything it touches. I lost all my money to a crackhead and now im in debt for shooting too many bullets at communist vocels

17
 
 

Each one of those cards has a code for a booster pack in pokemon trading card game live (PTCGL)

You don't have to tell me your username or play with me but I'd appreciate it lol.

The game has no microtransactions, you can only earn packs and cards from playing or from codes from physical booster packs. It's actually the same game as the physical cards, unlike pocket.

Also check it out gem mint trash bag

18
 
 

"Mario 64 was 60 dollars in 1995 meaning that it would be about 100 dollars today"

Pay has NOT kept up with inflation. People are poorer.

Folk need to stop pretending like people have as much money as they did in the 90s. Rent costs, house prices are astronomical.

Xbox's business is still impacted today by outpricing people with their initial Xbox One reveal pricing a decade ago.

Nintendo Treehouse comments are absolutely packed with people complaining about prices.

Again, I'm vastly aware that game budgets, inflation etc have increased!

but Pay has NOT increased accordingly. I don't know the solution, but that's the reality.

And I make these points as someone who is lucky enough to earn well enough to just buy them regardless. Most aren't as fortunate.

Game bubbles regularly disregard the poor, unfortunately, as the industry has an above-average number of middle-class background workers.

Price increases combined with physical knock effectively prices the poor out of legally gaming (Buying directly from them/the digital store)

19
 
 

You ever fuck around and get a high score worth more than all the planets in the universe?

20
 
 
21
 
 

anti-italian-action

22
23
 
 

Someone also wrote a save handler for the games so it saves your deck and won cards.

I know next to nothing about the game outside the manga which I read a little bit in some shonen jump issues I had back in high school. It's super easy to play, much easier than magic the gathering I've found, but like all good games has depth and is hard to master.

24
 
 

For real why is he white with blue eyes lmao white-pharaoh

25
 
 

Is No Man's Sky a good game after all the updates and fixing and adding all the stuff they promised?

I love space stuff but am not the biggest fan of Minecraft style crafting/mining. I don't mind it in Stardew and factory games are a favorite genre of mine, for reference. Basically I like the mechanics but it matters how they are implemented.

I've been trying to find a game that I can just turn my brain off and chill after a long day and right now Stardew is starting to get a bit stale(or I'm just dreading winter since there isn't much to do).

The game looks beautiful and I did spend maybe 100 hours on Starbound, which is like 2D NMS I think, but even on sale, it's at the upper limit I'd like to spend.

The other game is Hyperlight Drifter and it's $6 right now so I'm probably gonna get that one regardless.

Edit: I went ahead and grabbed it. I think my kid will also enjoy watching me play it.

view more: next ›