Tag: pokemon

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.

Attack On Titan – WOW!!!

Recently I was introduced to anime/manga and hasn’t it surprised me, I didn’t know what to expect and it literally shook me. Ordinarily I would have rubbished anime as for Japanese weibos and creeps but having now tried it, its the opposite. Since May I have slowly been watching the anime Attack On Titan and my goodness what a show! Everything I thought or expected has been turned upside down.

To expand on a point made above I always expected anime to be child orientated or aimed at the forever alone viewer who’s contact with females come in the form of pillows and Dead or Alive Volleyball video games. Some of the art work and covers of anime show me right in this thought, lots of thickness and titties but as they say you can’t judge a book by its cover and the same is true for anime.

As a child I was into Pokémon but I never classed that as an anime, I always looked at it as a cartoon, so I guess I had sort of got into it. But never progressed beyond that initial craze. There was only 151 of them and the last Pokémon game I played was Yellow on my Gameboy Colour.

Well Attack On Titan is no Pokémon or Spirited Away (have since seen this too). Initially for the first 10-15 minutes I was a bit blasé about it, I have a pet peeve of kids in media. The characters get on my nerves and their voices and being is just not my cup of tea (see Tim in Jurassic Park, Gavroche in Les Misérables). Early impression was meh with the child Eren, Mikasa and Armin and their nonsense.

THEN IT HAPPENED.

A Titan! Not just any Titan but a giant steaming hulk of bone and muscle. This grabbed my attention and all that followed. Since that point I haven’t looked back. Although it is animation, the images and gore lingers in your mind and it is very visceral. Starting with Eren’s mother getting eaten. That bit and the face of the Titan stuck in my mind, especially their mouth and teeth.

Needless to say I am well and truly hooked and I am loving the show so far. So many twists and turns and it is a very deep show. It often leaves me feeling completely confused and shocked. I like googling but I’m trying not to so I don’t spoil things for myself.

I’m already on the early episodes of Season 3 and I’m excited to see what is coming, I’m so enthralled, confused and excited. To me this is one of the best things I have ever watched. So much so that I have even started to read the manga on my kindle and noticing foreshadowing and bits I missed whilst watching, it certainly enriches the experience (though it did take me 20 minutes to realise manga is read opposite to a western book).

I have even subscribed to Crunchyroll and will explore other anime shows too, but right now my focus is on Attack on Titan. Make up for lots of media I have been missing out on.

As I say every time I post I do plan to blog quite often about Titan and my thoughts, maybe not episode by episode but I might do that. I started watching an English dub and whilst I enjoy it some voices annoy me. I would like to go back and watch it in Japanese with subtitles. Perhaps when I do I’ll blog Episode by Episode. Like with the manga going back will be an enriching experience.

We will see if I post or as usual forget ha!