It’s not default because of other countries. It’s still very viable, I never got a better experience than recently. Look up some roms on XDA for your phone!
Almost android device once they became more powerful and had root, around after 2016 is when only root matters.
Full Linux CLI, all the game systems of the 90s playable, all the hardware devices of the 90s emulated but much better (the Pokédex app was very good, TI emulator, etc), OTG docking for wired devices or you can use BT for hardware. They can do 90% of what your current phone can do but everything is a bit slower and worst, so using it as a dedicated device for various purposes like a Linux man page app at your computer, a device to game on, attach a controller, spares your non easily replaceable battery, if you have an iPhone and didn’t jailbreak, having a handheld Linux computer in your pocket is convenient to easily use CLI tools and SSH/MOSH.
Personally hate them, they’re slow, can be replaced with an instant pot, and old crappy rice cookers still with decades later. Cute logo, good for keeping rice warm without drying it out. What appliances are you using that don’t feel durable?
If you have an nvidia card you can install moonlight and stream it to anything that the app installs to. I played Halo on iOS with a xbox one controller mounted to my phone (had to use 5Ghz instead of 2.4Ghz). If the gift was an older switch there’s tons of homebrew on it, it was hacked at the beginning since it was just a Tegra and nvidia shared all the hardware info to developers. I think it’s a fine piece of hardware as someone who used a hacked PSP for mostly emulating old Nintendo consoles. I ended up playing Pokémon rom hacks more than PSP games. It’s still a viable solution for gaming, the vita is technically better and paysw more games, as does the switch but the games I care about are solved on my current mobile gaming hardware, and if you want a better homebrew device some jailbroken older iPhone or Android with emulators connected to a wireless controller (or mounted) will be good enough. I saw a GameCube emulator on an S9 playing skyward sword pretty well.
I think that streaming from a desktop is probably the best way to go, if you’re just playing at home it’s great, but if you’re mobile a dedicated device is better. The deck is too heavy for being a good handheld, and I have plenty of fun with older games: newer games might have better graphics but they’re often not as fun. The best CoD for me was BO2, and the best classic games don’t need good hardware, although I’d find very little reason to play some like SS2 on the go. The idea of playing computer games on the go is enticing but most require more attention, so streaming at home is the best compromise and it’s a solved problem with network streaming. I don’t have bias against AMD I just use nvidia and know the software for it. They might have a better solution.
But my PC can run PC native games, console emulators and upscale the graphics to make them look better on top of running programs. A 360 is limited to 720p, slow discs, proprietary slow HDD, and RRoD (I killed 2 360s when I had them due to the poor quality heatsink).
If I had to buy a console, form factor is the most important, I love my PSP. Could play NES, some SNES and very slow N64, perfect compatibility PS1 emulator, GB+GBC,GBA and of course PSP games. The homebrew on it for apps was amazing too with music players, ebook readers, cheats for every game, ability to change clock for battery life or performance, really a game changing device.
Why do you need a weaker handheld? Nvidia moonlight can stream from PC already, played Halo on my iPhone with controller. Steam link or equivalent on TV works, and you can just subscribe to nvidia GeForce now if you want to be GPU free anywhere(all long as games are supported). The things I’d want to run from the deck will be served better on a laptop anyway. No thanks to 720p screen, low battery life, the weight of the device is too heavy for a handheld. A ryzen APU laptop from 2017 will do everything better.
What was the last console you used? A PS2? These talking points would have been relevant 20 years ago, but they sadly aren’t the same ease of putting in your game and playing. Consoles are constantly updating their firmware, have annoyingly large mandatory game updates for online play, require you to pay for online (PS3 was a treasure, PC is usually free it isn’t monthly/yearly subscription unless you’re doing an MMO usually), and they’re basically just slower crappier PCs.
Whats the point of bringing up the most expensive GPU, is that what most gamers have? Most gamers on Steam have a varient of a 1050 or 1060, originally a $140, and a $250-$300 card from 2016. https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/videocard/ You ignored PC exclusives too.
Depends what matters to you. Do you care a lot for graphics? I can run nearly every game I care about on a laptop, since I care about gameplay like older emulator, indie games such as into the breach don't need good graphics, AoE II and SC are way more fun than ray traced shooters to me. For a cheap PC a 3400G APU can play GTA5 pretty well, and emulate PS3 games, nothing high spec just a CPU+GPU combo chip for $150 that will play older games, not lock games by console, and run PC software. Lots of great free games on PC like cave story exist too, not to mention the granular settings to games that don't exist on console, free mods to make games like Skyrim keep it modern, the existance of mods for games like Fallout or GTA5 make console games less full featured and unappealing unless you want to be locked to whatever they think is best for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0p5fbW5odYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yxPtHuyPJo
If you want the latest AAA games, consoles are cheaper unfront costs, more expensive in the long run, and you have less freedom to run cool stuff on the games.
You are paying for support in terms of the higher cost of the games, being locked to one online store and only approved playable games they allow, not being able to move it to another console generation, no replacable parts. A good PC in 2013 would have been 1.3x more expensive at launch (today it would be way more expensive to build a PS5 equivalent) but a PC would be able to play games better than a PS4 Pro (it is locked for GTA5 at 1080/30fps, while PC is always unlocked), have more graphics options, populate the streets with more NPCs, and tons of external niceties such as mods, you can use the PC for playing old games and emulators too. You can get 60FPS on desktop or more any time if you lowered the graphics like they do for consoles like PS4, but even the equivalent PC GPU runs a better than 30FPS at 1080. https://www.userbenchmark.com/PCGame/FPS-Estimates-Grand-The...
At the same time, I don't really recommend building a fancy gaming PC, most games are not exciting and having an APU for playing fun older games makes the most sense to me, I used my GPUs way more before, but since 2017 for Prey I haven't felt like I cared for them since I care to play AoE II and Starcraft more, and new games that are exciting are all indie, and don't need good graphics like into the breach, or Factorio don't exist on console. The PS store irritates me because they resell to me the same games again except on a different console, PC just runs everything. Heres the performance of an 3400G APU ($150 CPU+GPU on one chip. You can also upgrade the hardware if you see a good deal, unlike a PS4 where you'd have to buy a completely new one.
Hacking them was easy if you wanted to pirate, but during that time I don't think its the only reason. The games were huge DSL wasn't around in the PS1 days, PS2 yeah it was, and so was DC, but PS1 was more for region locked games like imported Japanese games. Running PS2 games off the HDD if you bought that was way faster, it was a legitimate reason to want to hack it even if you bought games. The size doesn't matter if you just used a reader and copied the discs, the PS3 was easier to use the onboard bluray to copy so you could it off the HDD, but I used hacks to use other branded controllers on the PS3 like on the USB ports. PS3 was somewhat piracy related but otherOS and homebrew matters more than you think, being able to run emulators on xbone in developer mode was enough to keep it from being hacked since you can run emulators on it, while the PS4 was hacked. The PS5 hardware is very attractive in the GPU shortage, and has very decent hardware for the price too.
> Fail0verflow have stated in the past that Jailbroken consoles are not worth it anymore since they are so close to computers in features and functionality
They're right, its just a PC now. Its crazy, I can't think of anyone who wants a console that has a rough computer equivalent of a Ryzen 7 3700X, 5700 RT with ray tracing, shares 16GB GDDR6 ram, a blu-ray drive, with a 1GB NVME drive for $500+tax (in store stock and not scalped, and even scalped at $900 its not easy to match PC hardware). Who wants to hack such a device for legitimate reasons like using it as a computer? Nobody, its not worth it!
This sounds a lot like a free EVE online. Looks fun, that era of space games was great, I remember I didn’t have consistent internet and played EV Nova a lot.