Author: valleyreading

PS Vita Emulation

Recently I got into Pokémon cards and collecting Japanese cards of the game. I have amassed a small collection, nothing too expensive or valuable except a Golden Charizard from the Ruler of The Black Flame set (Japanese version of Obsidian Flames in English). That got me thinking how I miss playing the games especially the one ones from the Game Boy and Game Boy Colour era. Red, Blue and Yellow.

Emulation exists and I have tried them on my phone in the past but with life and using the phone and notifications its too distracting. I could buy an old Game Boy to try but then it is a bit iffy like will it have any faults and would it be expensive to repair or upgrade parts. Similarly you can buy emulators which look like a Game Boy or handheld console, but there is lots of choice and is it something I want to sink £100 into and not use in a week or twos time.

I was mulling it over and thinking then it dawned on me…. I have a PS Vita somewhere collecting dust. I could turn that into an emulator and play the games that way. After much hunting I found it finally. My only issue was the cable which I could not find, unfortunately the PS Vita uses a proprietary cable which is unavilable to buy like a generic USB-C or Micro USB cable. Eventually in my box of old cables and shit I found it which saved me a trip to China and AliExpress.

To be safe once the device came to life after years of neglect (came out in January 2012 and probably was dead as a device by May 2012) I decided to be safe and give it a complete wipe so none of my info was on there. Given that I was installing homebrew and unknown things to me I felt it best to safe than sorry.

All in all it was a relatively straight forward process first of all installing HENkaku to hack the device and then VitaDeploy, iTLS=Enso and VitaShell to name a few things. The one bit I had an issue with was ShaRKF00D which wouldn’t open and run properly but I found a work around for that and no more issues were faced.

I used mGBA to play the roms of Pokémon Yellow, Red and Blue and they work pretty damn well. It’s a fun blast of nastalgia playing the games and I am enjoying them.

I also decided to try and emulate the SNES/NES and Sega Mega Drive for those I use Retroarch and run the various cores to play the games and so far so good. Sonic and Jurasic Park The Lost World play very well on the Sega cores and McDonald Land and Super Mario World play well on the SNES/NES cores.

It does the job I want it to, is it perfect? Probably not but its perfect for me and has saved a nice chunk on money and put some old tech to good use and a new lease of life. Perhaps one day I may buy a purpose built emulator like an Anbernic RG35XX or Miyoo Mini Plus. For now though I am perfectly have with repurposed PS Vita.

Babylon Revisited by F Scott Fitzgerald

My fifth read of the year done. I do enjoy F Scott Fitzgerald though I have only read The Great Gatsby despite owning his full library of novels and short stories.

This one is a short book of three short stories, about 100 pages or so long.

Babylon Revisited

Reading this I felt I had read this one before and it seemed familiar to me, I only bought this the day before so maybe its a part of an anthology I have read before or a sample I started long ago (EDIT – I seem to have read this in 2020). It was a bit of a sad read a father from the height of Jazz age Paris trying to regain his daughter from her guardianship, proving he is responsible and safe to his sister in law. The thing I notice is the women are always weak and prey to their nerves. I wonder if that was true to the time or just how they are charactised?

The Cut-Glass Bowl

A haunting read following the life of a beauty where a large cut glass bowl seemingly has been the catalyst of pain and decline of a woman’s life. From the decay of her marriage and love, to the disability of her daughter and the ruination of her husbands upcmoming business partnership, finally to tragic consequences.

The Lost Decade

Short and sweet, not much really to say about this one.

Overall I quite enjoyed these but I got the feeling I had read them before somehow, I don’t recall reading this book before but perhaps I have.

The Rest Is History by Tom Holland & Dominic Sandbrook

Very productive so far this year, another book done for our provisional target of 25. So that makes it 4 so far. Not bad considering how unproductive I was last year. I do still read several at a time but that’s how it works for me and I am quite enjoying the Kindle Colorsoft too.

This book is a very fun read from two highly respected historians. Some interesting and funny topics like for example the history of St Patrick which makes the whole fuss over him seem like Americanised bullshit. It seems he wasn’t even Irish either but like me and Welsh. And the myth around him could have been a mix of another person and them become merged as one.

The Dan Brown section was also funny and their investigation into the basis of The Da Vinci Code and the inspirations and fiction behind the “facts”.

Overall very enjoyable and I wasn’t familiar with the podcast before this book but I am familiar with both historians and I will check out the podcast when time permits. As well as read their new book The Rest Is History Returns.

I am a third of the way through my next book too, its just a short one Babylon Revisited by F Scott Fitzgerald.

Steve Wright’s Further Factoids

Three books down for the year. I tried this on Kindle Unlimited for something to read that was short and sweet. Being a fan of his radio show it was an enjoyable read. Poorly formatted and very dated to read today though.

Does make me miss Steve on the radio. BBC Radio 2 hasn’t been the same since he left the afternoon slot and passed away last year.

A very British book with most of the facts or factoids. Has an amusing triumvirate with factoids featuring Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris and Stuart Hall – all three since discovered to be historic paedophiles.

2/5 for content and 3 for nostalgia

I am deciding what books to commit to, I have dipped in and out of several but not got into any enough to commit yet. I do find the new Kindle to be excellent and I am enjoying the colour. The covers really do make a difference.