Yep. Even when clicking the single checkbox captchas, I try really hard to click it “just like a human would”. Which is weird, because I am a human. I think.

I had a similar need, and it prevented me from moving to FireFox for a long while. Luckily, I did manage to get fx_cast to work, and it’s been flawless ever since. In fact, I’d say it work more reliably than Chrome’s casting!

Except in the case of the Sega Master System, where the simplistic 8-bit graphics felt like a massive leap up from the terrible box art!

Often it was because the ports were given to different companies to do… one would get the Spectrum/Amstrad and another would get the C64. Also, the whole sound and graphics systems would need to be rewritten, given the Spectrum’s lack of hardware sprites or scrolling, or decent sound. Presumably it just made sense to build them separately.

Can’t believe I missed that one! Sounds like it made some interesting compromises.

I always thought that as well, and was similarly jealous. But in doing these port comparisons, I’ve found that the C64 often got a really bad port. See my Bomb Jack post the other day, for example.

If you can look past the visuals and sound, the Spectrum ports often capture the feel of the arcade the best of all. It’s probably about 45-45-10 (C64-Speccy-Amstrad), with the Amstrad getting some rare gems like Renegade.

I’m not sure that’s the case…

A lot of the time, the C64 and Spectrum/Amstrad ports were done by different companies, in isolation. You’d often see the C64 go its own way, changing up levels and gameplay. While the Amstrad port was usually a lazy port of the Spectrum. You can often see the colour limitations of the Spectrum ported across wholesale to the Amstrad as well.

In the case of Commando, the Spectrum and Amstrad teams had some overlap and the games share some of the same DNA (see the title screen, for example), while the C64 was distinct. It doesn’t feel like a lazy Spectrum > Amstrad port though, so it has that going for it. The C64, as usual, feels like its own thing.

It’s a cool game.

Oddly enough, the MiSTer FPGA N64 core has undergone some incredibly quick progress in the last few days, and Wave Race 64 is one of the first games that is almost fully playable. Follow the dolphin!

I did a much smaller comparison over on Mastodon a few months back: https://mastodonapp.uk/@davetansley/109767977707445539

It’s one of my favourite games from that era, so I’ll maybe expand it and post here.

Ferries and other ocean-going vessels seem to be a rich source of arcade memories… I remember lurking around the sit down Galaxians cabinet on the Bowness to Ambleside ferry on more than one occasion.

Nope, Lemmy exclusive :)

Just want to contribute something to building the Retrogaming community, after years of being a consumer only on Reddit.

(mostly it’s just an excuse to play loads of games… you know, for science)

In the interests of good comparison science, it’s worth mentioning that a couple of platforms also got homebrew ports…

Over on the Atari 8-bit platforms, we have “Gacek”, a kind of unbranded version of Bomb Jack. It’s really good, and really pushes the old Atari’s to their limits. Varied sprites and colourful backdrops, and a range of music throughout the levels. It feels really good to play as well.

There are oddities though - like the way it plays the theme from Gradius/Nemesis on the high score table. And the way it doesn’t mention Bomb Jack at all (understandable, given its homebrew nature). So it’s not so much Bomb Jack as Bomb Jack-ish. But it’s still very good!

The venerable Colecovision also got a homebrew version, this time staying truer to the original. It’s also very good, and looks way better than a 1982 console has any right to. Control is fluid and fast, and the music is catchy and not annoying.

The bomb sprites are a bit large however, and the game tends to be a bit on the easy side, given there are fewer enemies on screen. But it’s still a tremendous achievement.

It was a pivotal issue for so many of us, for sure.

There was a lot of it about at the time… who can forget the Your Sinclair Vixen cover, that was so scandalous in our town, it had to be moved to the top shelf!

I took a look at all the versions of Rastan over in Retrogaming.

It can be made to work in largely the same way. You just need to install the extra plugin (and associated extra component). I have a similar number of profiles as you and I haven’t had to change how I work.

The article comments reference Multi-Account Containers, but I’m not sure I could make them work. I need different bookmarks for each profile, and I like the separation of a new window.

I recently switched from Chrome to Firefox as part of an ongoing de-Google effort… and, honestly, I found it fairly easy. The two things I missed and found solutions for were:

1. Profiles - I just use the built in profiles with the Profile Switcher extension
2. Casting to Chromecast - I use the fx_cast extension and actually find it more reliable than Chrome’s casting!

Other than those, I’ve found it to be a very comfortable, familiar experience.

I use it for work. Other than having to think for a second to find weirdly hidden menu items, it’s fine. At least for my purposes, as a .NET dev. One thing I love about it is Windows Sandbox… really wish Linux would could up something similar.

Yeah, it’s weird. I’d been trying it on and off since 1997, and always bounced off because of some annoyance or other. Now… nothing. It’s very low friction.

It’s interesting how far Linux desktop has progressed recently… I don’t hate Windows, in fact I think it’s a great OS for most purposes. But I happened to try Linux Mint a few years ago in a fit of pique about being excluded from the Win11 upgrade for spurious reasons… and it just kind of stuck.

Two years later and I am full on Linux now. Don’t even have a Windows partition (though I do keep a VM). And I’m about to buy a new laptop that I intend to buy without an OS, it will never be touched by Windows, there’s just no need.

For my purposes, Linux does everything now. OS, software, the games I want to play… I never even think about it. Also, everywhere I look, I see Linux - my Steamdeck, my MiSTer, my Pis, my Miyoo Mini. It’s everywhere…