Flicsmo

And after that he goes directly into a tedious story that does more to make me dislike him than actually build up the point he's trying to make. I agree with the basic premise of the article, but the endless passive aggressive anecdotes really don't help.

Hah, are we the same person? My family was poor too. I'm a bit younger (born 2000) but I grew up using a VCR, and my first console was a GBA where I played a lot of SNES ports. The internet has existed my entire life, but I still remember before smartphones were a thing. It's a really weird place to be socially. I don't connect with Gen Z culture in almost any way, but I'm also distinctly not a millennial.

Interestingly my older sister (1998) who has zero interest in anything tech is actually pretty tech savvy for how little she cares about it. I think she crossed that threshold of learning how to learn, where even when she comes across something she doesn't understand she knows how to approach the problem.

Oh you're right, no wonder this looked kinda weird but kinda normal.

ngl I actually really like that. the start button popping out over the taskbar is a nice touch. what's the setup?

That sounds like an amazing experience haha. I have some fond memories like that with these games too.

I think in my case, the narrative isn't the main thing I enjoy about metroidvanias - rewarding exploration is what I really love. Though I didn't play a true metroidvania until I was into my teens, some of my favorite games before that were exploration-focused platformers and (simple) RPGs.

I probably would have been frustrated and given up with my favorite metroidvanias if I had played any too young, but 8-12ish would have hit that nostalgia + enjoyment sweet spot. But hey, even without any early nostalgia I can still love them :)

That's awesome! I've only ever heard of Crystalis in the context of games that flew under the radar, I don't think many people can say they actually owned it. Too bad the GBC port isn't great.

I'm typing this on my Xiaomi Mi9T which also has a popup camera. This phone is on its last legs, I'm not looking forward to having to get a new one with a typical selfie camera. A popup camera just makes so much more sense.

Ooh, great question! Super Metroid is one for me too. I love metroidvanias now, and really enjoyed the nonlinear / exploration elements of Super Mario World, but I didn't play a proper metroidvania until my teens. I think I'd take CV:SotN over Super Metroid, but I bet I'd have been more than happy with either.

I wish I grew up with some OG gameboy RPGs. Final Fantasy Legend, Dragon Warrior Monsters, Crystalis. They were just a bit too far before my time for me to get much exposure when I would have liked them best, so I don't have any real nostalgia, but in revisiting old games I've always been drawn to those.

Yeah! Here's what I'm using right now:

I've made a couple out of real wood, but I usually just use these semi-disposable bamboo ones which are really quick to make. When it starts getting gnarly I just make a new one.

The smoke is smooth and cool, and I like not having to deal with water or an ashtray.

I use a pipe thing I make. It has a long stem like a churchwarden pipe, plus a chamber beneath the bowl that catches ashes and embers. Works well, I have yet to find something I like better.

I timed my DSi; it varies a lot by game but the largest I tried (Pokemon Black 2) loaded in around 25 seconds on the first run, then loads in under 10 seconds on subsequent runs.

I recently started messing with my DSi again after a few years away from it, and you're definitely not alone in being confused by it all - I really have no idea what exactly I did to it. To refresh everything I ended up just wiping the SD card, then putting Twilightmenu on it. I can still boot into unlaunch so I must have modified the firmware / internal storage before, but I don't know if hiyaCFW is something that lives on there on the SD card.

Speaking of which, that's the same setup as my SD card, which is a 32gb Transcend. I can't seem to find my SD card reader to double check but I'm pretty sure of using 32k cluster size.

Might be worth mentioning, I have another DSi with a wildly different system boot time for no apparent reason. I set it up the exact same, but it takes 15+ seconds to boot vs the <5 of my main DSi, even when I swap SD cards. The only difference between them is that the one that takes a long time to boot is Japanese. Games take about the same time to boot so it doesn't seem directly related to your issue but who knows.

The first time booting a rom takes a while, but after that it's only a few seconds for me. Maybe something to do with SD card formatting/specs?