Mega Man 4 is my favorite NES game. I also love Mega Man 2 and 6. 5 is fun. 3 is overrated. 1 is okay. I’ll write you a paragraph on each game if you’d like. Try The Sequel Wars!

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Cake day: July 7th, 2023

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  • I had an absolute mess of a time trying to get Unity working on Linux. Even once I got it working, it had an issue where hovering over the Burst menu would cause the whole OS to lock up and I would have to reboot. It wasn’t a good experience. I’ve never used Wine so I don’t know if that would be any better.

    When I first got it working, I wrote down the steps I took. I don’t know if this is everything I had to do or if I forgot a step, but it might be a good starting point.

    • Install Unity Hub from the Pop!_Shop. I vividly remember not being able to get it to work right any other way.
    • Install .NET and Mono via flatpak. I wrote down that it had to be version 6 of both SDKs, don’t remember why.
    • Install the flatpak version of Visual Studio Code. You can do this from the Pop!_Shop if you want.
    • Get the C# extension for VSC if you don’t have it.
    • Once in Unity, go to “Edit/Preferences/External Tools” and check “Generate .csproj files for:”
      • Embedded packages
      • Local packages
      • Registry packages
      • Git packages
      • Built-in packages
    • Click “Regenerate project files”
    • When you open a script, Unity will tell you to set “Omnisharp: Use Modern Net” to false in VSC’s settings. Do this to get code suggestions.

    I hope this helps! Welcome to Linux! If you need clarification on any of this, just ask.







  • Low profile circle pads for joysticks aren’t bad at all IMO. Some people dislike them. Depends on the person.

    I don’t think I would want a Steam Deck in this form factor. The current Deck honestly feels like the perfect size for me. Not too big to be unruly, not too small to be uncomfortable. I totally understand the appeal of a pocketable device, but I’ve come to realize that I really just don’t have a need for a device that portable and would rather have something bigger. A device this small wouldn’t have the same number of inputs and would greatly compromise on comfort. That’s mostly a me thing, though. Plenty of people want smaller handhelds, so a smaller handheld PC could probably find an audience.

    I would love an Android smartphone that’s like this. Not a gaming-centric device like a Retroid Pocket, but something that could be my daily driver smartphone while also offering physical controls for a quality gaming experience. Basically the Xperia Play, but modern. It would be far less cumbersome than carrying around a gaming device in addition to my phone, making it much more practical for me.





  • Here are some tips from somebody who made the switch about a year ago. My advice is to take it slow.

    I first tried Linux on an old laptop that nobody was using anymore. I messed around with it, did a coding project, tried to see what it was like to get this and that running. It’s good that you tried Linux with a home server first. That means you’re already decently comfortable with it.

    I recommend starting with a dual boot setup. Some time later I got a new PC, and I was planning to run Linux on it. It came with Windows 11. I wasn’t comfortable with going full Linux, so I split the 512GB SSD down the middle and gave most of the 2TB hard drive to Linux. This has served me very well. It gave me peace of mind to know that if there was something I really needed that I couldn’t get working on Linux, I could boot into Windows.

    After a bit, I defected back to Windows. It ended up being somewhat bad timing. I wanted to play Sonic Frontiers, but it barely worked on Linux. At the time I was also using the game engine Unity, which was what my game design courses were teaching me, and I couldn’t get it working properly on Linux for the life of me. I kept my Linux partition in case I ever wanted to use it for something or even switch back. This is partially why I recommend a dual boot setup. You might be dissatisfied with Linux the first time you try it, and if you end up really wanting to go back to Windows, you’ll be glad that you left yourself an easy way back.

    Well, I’m glad I left my Linux partition on there, because I eventually came back and stayed here. I was over Frontiers, and I finally managed to get Unity working, so there I stayed. As I spend more time with Linux, I get more and more comfortable with it. I only ever boot into Windows to play multiplayer games with my friend since I don’t want to waste time troubleshooting a game for an hour during a call if something doesn’t work. Though I suspect that most of what we play would work fine on Linux! I’m starting to feel like I’m getting comfortable enough with Linux that if I wanted to get rid of my dual boot, I could. It helps that Unity destroyed itself so I don’t want to use it anymore anyway. Moral of the story: Don’t feel like you have to fully commit to Linux at first. You can make the transition slowly and do what makes you comfortable, and you’ll get there eventually.

    I know this comment is very long, but I want a paragraph to recommend distros. I highly recommend something Debian based for a new user. It’s relatively easy to learn compared to other kinds of distros and more stable. I recommend either Linux Mint or Pop!_OS, both of which are excellent for beginners. They’re both based on Ubuntu, which itself is based on Debian. They’re pretty similar under the hood, so it mostly comes down to which UI you prefer. I believe that Pop!_OS is a little more up-to-date with some packages, but not everyone likes its UI, and its app store is somewhat miserable. I use Pop and I adore it, but it’s not everybody’s cup of tea. If you want to try a few distros before you commit, I recommend trying them on some old device you don’t use anymore, or a virtual machine.



  • Yeah, that’s exactly my problem with a lot of the Deck’s competitors. They’re trying to out-spec the Deck, but there’s a lot more that factors into a fun experience than just power. SteamOS’s Game Mode might be the best UI I’ve ever used. I also love the Steam Deck’s controls to death and could go on a very long rant about them, but I’ll hold that in.


  • Absolutely. I definitely feel like the Steam Deck is better than the Ally. SteamOS is amazing, and the Deck’s plethora of input options brings the gaming experience to the next level.

    I wasn’t sure if you were aware of the Ally, so I brought it up just to make sure you know what options you have. I would still recommend the Deck over the Ally any day of the week, though.


  • Eh, I disagree. Most AAA games are still releasing on eighth gen hardware. The Steam Deck’s keeping up decently well, depending on how low you’re willing to drop your settings. I wouldn’t want a sequel this early in the Deck’s life. Besides, if you want more power, there are devices like the ROG Ally that can handle AAA with flying colors, even Starfield.

    Now that I think about it-- @neku, if you’re willing to pay a bit extra, you could consider a ROG Ally, or that Lenovo Legion go that’s releasing soon. I think the Steam Deck offers a better user experience than the Ally thanks to its controls and software, but it might be worth considering for its more powerful hardware if you’re not happy with how the Deck performs.


  • Steam Deck seems great for you! Most of the games you mentioned work great on Deck.

    Keep in mind that the Steam Deck can struggle with recent AAA releases. You probably won’t be able to hit 60 FPS in Elden Ring, but if you can handle 30 or 40 fps, you would enjoy it on Deck. Do some research on the games you want to play to make sure the Deck can run them well enough for you.

    The Steam Deck is a phenomenal device for emulation. I adore playing retro games on this thing, it’s a spectacular experience. Games with a 4:3 aspect ratio look fantastic on the Steam Deck’s 16:10 screen!

    The Deck can emulate a lot of systems very well. It’s excellent at emulating GameCube and Wii games. I don’t think it does all Wii games perfectly, but all the games I’ve tried work like a charm, even very intense Brawl mods. 3DS runs swimmingly as well, and while I haven’t tried Wii U emulation, it seems to work pretty well from what I’ve seen. The Deck is a monster for retro Nintendo emulation!

    On a downer note, PS2 emulation on Deck is not perfect. A decent amount of PS2 games work fine. Some PS2 games require tinkering on your part to get them working well. Some PS2 games might simply be out of the question depending on how much slowdown you’re willing to tolerate. If you want to do PS2, you might want to look into Powertools, which can let you disable “SMT” to improve performance. I can go into detail on Powertools if you want. (Actually, I’ve heard that Valve is gonna make an update for the Deck that makes this unnecessary, so you might not have to worry about that.) You might want to research the PS2 games you want to play to make sure they work on Deck.



  • Try Performance Mode in HoT’s settings. My first time I made it to 30 minutes, my game crashed. I turned on Performance Mode, and it’s been running just fine ever since. With the retro PC game vibe they’re going for, Performance Mode arguably adds to the experience!

    That said, your game crashes when you’re five minutes into a run? I did hear that the game can have crashing issues on Steam Deck, but that’s a little extreme. Not sure if Performance Mode will fix that.