Yeah it seems like since COVID19 and the release of RG350 there’s been a real increase in the amount of progress

The Vita also has a lot of source ports.

For the right price it can be a pretty good deal considering it can play PSX and below as well as PSP games and a lot of handheld emulators still struggle with Vita emulation.

The RG35XXSP has a GBA SP clamshell style and is relatively new with a lot of positive reviews

It depends what you want to emulate. Most consoles can do PSX and below without any trouble. A lot of devices share the same chipset so that’s a big thing to look out for.

If you want to get into things like PS2 and GameCube you are going to have to pay more and likely consider Android.

A console with HDMI out and Bluetooth might be what you are looking for so you can potentially have that desktop experience you are used to.

I think Batocera-based custom firmwares can show retro achievement availability from the games list

https://wiki.batocera.org/retroachievements_settings

Just a heads up the “10,000 in 1” game claims that every of these devices advertises isn’t something you should consider. It’s going to be a lot of games you’ve never heard of for older systems like the NES so they fit on lower capacity SD cards. Potentially in multiple languages. It also comes on SD cards most people would recommend replacing.

It’s better to just download the entire library, individual games, or an already curated collection.

When you say upgraded do you mean changed to a new device or just updated the OS?

If it’s the former you might be able to extract the app and transfer it and crack it yourself.

What is it exactly? Some kind of developer mode to bypass the login screen?

Some people use Usenet for that kind of thing. I typically stumble across things I have been looking for on other social sites. For example someone makes a post with Adult Swim pilots and specials and other people will add additional material they happen to have. Sometimes it can help to think of what category what you are looking for is under then lurk around there for something like a bundle or a mislabeled version.

Probably not the answer you are looking for but thought I’d mention it

Good to known I thought there would be other giveaways like not having the DLC registered to your account but somehow having the achievements for it.

In that example though there might be some ways that could happen legitimately like having Fallout New Vegas on Steam but using DLC acquired from a physical copy or GOG.

I feel like I heard before no one has gotten banned for it yet but it just seemed a bit too easy to me

I don’t even like connecting to the net with pirated games. Always feel I’ll get banned and I used game piracy to test drive them.

Pirated games wouldn’t be associated with your Steam account so I don’t think you would be banned.

Even using the Steam API I don’t think you would unless you were sharing it openly or were making an obscene amount of requests.

That said I don’t know a ton about online fixes or using CreamAPI to unlock DLC for games you own so maybe it would be possible to get banned in that regard.

• Are free tier VPNs (like Proton VPN) good enough?

Other people have already answered this but keep in mind a lot of them are browser based. Even if you are using a web UI for your torrent client that’s not going to protect you. I’ve seen a few people here make that mistake.

• I don’t want to pay much or anything for a VPN, is a way I can get a good free one, or set one myself somehow (I have experience with selfhosting) ?

Have you considered looking into direct downloads?

They are a bit more work but if you are motivated on going in without protection it’s a safer alternative.

If it helps you rationalise the cost of a VPN you can always think about how much money you save compare to paying for subscription services.

I really hope Valve doesn’t start making small incremental changes to the Steam Deck like devices in the emulation handheld scene (Powkiddy, Anbernic, etc.) do.

I’d feel a lot less incentivised to buy one if I felt like my device was going to immediately age out. I imagine less developers would make system settings specifically for the Steam Deck like Cyberpunk 2077 did or design third party peripherals.

Yeah I feel like it’s similar to movies in a way. You can only push so much money and development into something before you start seeing diminishing returns.

As I said in another comment I think it’s more about people having to create another account.

I also don’t know how or if PSN integration is going to impact matchmaking.

This is on PC and unlike some other ported PS games I don’t think there is an option to play offline I imagine a lot of people are going to be creating PSN accounts I’d say that’s a hurdle for some people.

I am curious how this is going to effect the number of active players. I know a lot of people who were trying to get me to play this saying it was here to stay and not a trend like a Lethal Company but I feel like this hurdle might be enough to get them to give up.

I definitely have a low level of tolerance for Russian nesting dolls of accounts and launchers.

I didn’t watch the video the article references but it seems to be missing a big part of why so many NSFW games have been added to places like itch.io and Steam in the past couple years.

COVID 19. A significant amount of developers got started during the quarantine and continued on afterwards. Development of a lot of these games slowed down afterwards and many were abandoned though. A big percentage of them make direct reference to some kind of quarantine or virus.

It probably helped, as well, that so many people were stuck at home and the tools to create these games have become more accessible in the past couple years.

I think it has just spiralled since then with lewd games sneaking into people’s recommended games list and others making jokes or commenting about it. Fetish Locator was one that some people might recall.

I don’t think games like Cyberpunk 2077 can be considered sex games because they have occasionally have visual genitals and carefully framed sex scenes. That seems more like a natural progression like people’s tolerance for violence in video games.

There are also multiple projects for using a PSVR on Linux that are in various stages of development.

https://github.com/OpenHMD/OpenHMD/wiki/Support-List

ThinkPad x200s. I recently did the USB C charging mod and upgraded to WiFi 6E. I’ve had Libreboot installed for a while now.

I do wish I could have more than 8GB of RAM though.