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Author | SHA1 | Date |
---|---|---|
Cadey Ratio | 65aa745baa |
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@ -168,9 +168,9 @@ dependencies = [
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[[package]]
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[[package]]
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name = "axum"
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name = "axum"
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version = "0.5.13"
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version = "0.5.11"
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source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
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source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
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checksum = "6b9496f0c1d1afb7a2af4338bbe1d969cddfead41d87a9fb3aaa6d0bbc7af648"
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checksum = "c2cc6e8e8c993cb61a005fab8c1e5093a29199b7253b05a6883999312935c1ff"
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dependencies = [
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dependencies = [
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"async-trait",
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"async-trait",
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"axum-core",
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"axum-core",
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@ -200,9 +200,9 @@ dependencies = [
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[[package]]
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[[package]]
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name = "axum-core"
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name = "axum-core"
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version = "0.2.7"
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version = "0.2.6"
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source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
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source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
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checksum = "e4f44a0e6200e9d11a1cdc989e4b358f6e3d354fbf48478f345a17f4e43f8635"
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checksum = "cf4d047478b986f14a13edad31a009e2e05cb241f9805d0d75e4cba4e129ad4d"
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dependencies = [
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dependencies = [
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"async-trait",
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"async-trait",
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"bytes",
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"bytes",
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@ -218,7 +218,7 @@ version = "0.3.6"
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source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
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source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
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checksum = "277c75e6c814b061ae4947d02335d9659db9771b9950cca670002ae986372f44"
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checksum = "277c75e6c814b061ae4947d02335d9659db9771b9950cca670002ae986372f44"
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dependencies = [
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dependencies = [
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"axum 0.5.13",
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"axum 0.5.11",
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"bytes",
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"bytes",
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"futures-util",
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"futures-util",
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"http",
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"http",
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@ -451,9 +451,9 @@ dependencies = [
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[[package]]
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[[package]]
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name = "color-eyre"
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name = "color-eyre"
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version = "0.6.2"
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version = "0.6.1"
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source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
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source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
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checksum = "5a667583cca8c4f8436db8de46ea8233c42a7d9ae424a82d338f2e4675229204"
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checksum = "8ebf286c900a6d5867aeff75cfee3192857bb7f24b547d4f0df2ed6baa812c90"
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dependencies = [
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dependencies = [
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"backtrace",
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"backtrace",
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"color-spantrace",
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"color-spantrace",
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@ -478,9 +478,9 @@ dependencies = [
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[[package]]
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[[package]]
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name = "comrak"
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name = "comrak"
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version = "0.14.0"
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version = "0.13.2"
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source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
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source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
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checksum = "15bf1e432b302dc6236dd0db580d182ce520bb24af82d6462e2d7a5e0a31c50d"
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checksum = "2f6adde15dc19b207fd77b6bd88cf76cfa40cd23c4cc002647ed808c91be7905"
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dependencies = [
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dependencies = [
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"clap",
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"clap",
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"entities",
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"entities",
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@ -3212,7 +3212,7 @@ dependencies = [
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name = "xesite"
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name = "xesite"
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version = "2.4.0"
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version = "2.4.0"
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dependencies = [
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dependencies = [
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"axum 0.5.13",
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"axum 0.5.11",
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"axum-extra",
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"axum-extra",
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"axum-macros",
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"axum-macros",
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"cfcache",
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"cfcache",
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@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ axum-macros = "0.2"
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axum-extra = "0.3"
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axum-extra = "0.3"
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color-eyre = "0.6"
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color-eyre = "0.6"
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chrono = "0.4"
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chrono = "0.4"
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comrak = "0.14.0"
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comrak = "0.13.2"
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derive_more = "0.99"
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derive_more = "0.99"
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dirs = "4"
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dirs = "4"
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envy = "0.4"
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envy = "0.4"
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@ -1,175 +0,0 @@
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---
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title: "Anbernic Win600 First Impressions"
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date: 2022-07-14
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series: reviews
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---
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Right now PC gaming is largely a monopoly centered around Microsoft Windows.
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Many PC games only support Windows and a large fraction of them use technical
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means to prevent gamers on other platforms from playing those games. In 2021,
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Valve introduced the [Steam Deck](https://www.steamdeck.com/en/) as an
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alternative to that monopoly. There's always been a small, underground market
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for handheld gaming PCs that let you play PC games on the go, but it's always
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been a very niche market dominated by a few big players that charge a lot of
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money relative to the game experience they deliver. The Steam Deck radically
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changed this equation and it's still on backorder to this day. This has made
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other manufacturers take notice and one of them was Anbernic.
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[Anbernic](https://anbernic.com/) is a company that specializes in making retro
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emulation handheld gaming consoles. Recently they released their
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[Win600](https://anbernic.com/products/new-anbernic-win600) handheld. It has a
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Radeon Silver 3020e or a Radeon Silver 3050e and today I am going to give you my
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first impressions of it. I have the 3050e version.
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<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="happy">A review of the Steam Deck is coming up
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soon!</xeblog-conv>
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One of the real standout features of this device is that Anbernic has been
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working with Valve to allow people to run SteamOS on it! This makes us all one
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step closer to having a viable competitor to Windows for gaming. SteamOS is
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fantastic and has revolutionized gaming on Linux. It's good to see it coming to
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more devices.
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## Out of the box
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I ordered my Win600 about 3 hours after sales opened. It arrived in a week and
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came in one of those china-spec packages made out of insulation. If you've ever
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ordered things from AliExpress you know what I'm talking about. It's just a
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solid mass of insulation.
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[![The console siting on my desk with its charging brick and included cable](https://cdn.xeiaso.net/file/christine-static/img/FXozAEjUsAQEg9d-smol.jpeg)](https://cdn.xeiaso.net/file/christine-static/img/FXozAEjUsAQEg9d.jpeg)
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The unboxing experience was pretty great. The console came with:
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* The console
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* A box containing the charger and cable
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* A slip of paper telling you how to set up windows without a wifi connection
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* A screen protector and cleaning cloth (my screen protector was broken in the
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box, so much for all that insulation lol)
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* A user manual that points out obvious things about your device
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One of the weirder things about this device is the mouse/gamepad slider on the
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side. It changes the USB devices on the system and makes the gamepad either act
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like an xinput joypad or a mouse and keyboard. The mouse and keyboard controls
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are strange. Here are the controls I have discovered so far:
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* R1 is right click
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* L1 is left click
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* A is enter
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* The right stick very slowly skitters the mouse around the screen
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* The left stick is a super aggressive scroll wheel
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Figuring out these controls on the fly without any help from the manual meant
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that I had taken long enough in the setup screen that [Cortana started to pipe
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up](https://youtu.be/yn6bSm9HXFg) and guided me through the setup process. This
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was not fun. I had to connect an external keyboard to finish setup.
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<xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="coffee">This is probably not Anbernic's fault.
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Windows is NOT made for smaller devices like this and oh god it
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shows.</xeblog-conv>
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## Windows 10 "fun"
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There is also a keyboard button on the side. When you are using windows this
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button summons a soft keyboard. Not the nice to use modern soft keyboard though,
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the legacy terrible soft keyboard that Microsoft has had for forever and never
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really updated. Using it is grating, like rubbing sandpaper all over your hands.
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This made entering in my Wi-Fi password an adventure. It took my husband and I
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15 minutes to get the device to connect to Wi-Fi. 15 minutes to connect to
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Wi-Fi.
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Once it was connected to Wi-Fi, I tried to update the system to the latest
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version of windows. The settings update crashed. Windows Update's service also
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crashed. Windows Update also randomly got stuck trying to start the installation
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process for updates. Once updates worked and finished installing, I rebooted.
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I tried to clean up the taskbar by disabling all of the random icons that
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product managers at Microsoft want you to see. The Cortana button was stuck on
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and I was unable to disable it. Trying to hide the Windows meet icon crashed
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explorer.exe. I don't know what part of this is Windows going out of its way to
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mess with me (I'm cursed) and what part of it is Windows really not being
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optimized for this hardware in any sense of the way.
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Windows is really painful on this device. It's obvious that Windows was not made
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with this device in mind. There are buttons to hack around this (but not as far
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as the task manager button I've seen on other handhelds), but overall trying to
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use Windows with a game console is like trying to saw a log with a pencil
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sharpener. It's just the wrong tool for the job. Sure you _can_ do it, but _can_
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and _should_ are different words in English.
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Another weird thing about Windows on this device is that the screen only reports
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a single display mode: 1280x720. It has no support for lower resolutions to run
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older games that only work on those lower resolutions. In most cases this will
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be not an issue, but if you want to lower the resolution of a game to squeeze
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more performance out then you may have issues.
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## Steam
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In a moment of weakness, I decided to start up Steam. Steam defaulted to Big
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Picture mode and its first-time-user-experience made me set up Wi-Fi again.
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There was no way to bypass it. I got out my moonlander again and typed in my
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Wi-Fi password again, and then I downloaded Sonic Adventure 2 as a test for how
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games feel on it. Sonic Adventure 2 is a very lightweight game (you can play it
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for like 6.5 hours on a full charge of the Steam Deck) and I've played it to
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_death_ over the years. I know how the game _should_ feel.
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[![The starting screen of City Escape in Sonic Adventure 2, with the console propped up with a Steam Controller](https://cdn.xeiaso.net/file/christine-static/img/FXpIjhwUIAUEujg-smol.jpeg)](https://cdn.xeiaso.net/file/christine-static/img/FXpIjhwUIAUEujg.jpeg)
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City Escape ran at a perfect 60 FPS at the device's native resolution. The main
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thing I noticed though was the position of the analog sticks. Based on the
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design of the device, I'm pretty sure they were going for something with a
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PlayStation DualShock 4 layout with the action buttons on the top and the sticks
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on the bottom. The sticks are too far down on the device. Playing Sonic
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Adventure 2 was kind of painful.
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## SteamOS
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So I installed SteamOS on the device. Besides a weird issue with 5 GHZ Wi-Fi not
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working and updates requiring me to reboot the device IMMEDIATELY after
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connecting to Wi-Fi, it works great. I can install games and they run. The DPI
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for SteamOS is quite wrong though. All the UI elements are painfully small. For
|
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||||||
comparison, I put my Steam Deck on the same screen as I had on the Win600. The
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||||||
Steam Deck is on top and the Win600 is on the bottom.
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[![The game overview for Sonic Adventure 2 on both the Steam Deck and Anbernic Win600](https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/christine-static/img/FXqSz_tVsAAU0wf-smol.jpeg)](https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/christine-static/img/FXqSz_tVsAAU0wf.jpeg)
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Yeah. It leaves things to be desired.
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When I had SteamOS set up, I did find something that makes the Win600 slightly
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better than the Steam Deck. When you are adding games to Steam with Emulation
|
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Station you need to close the Steam client to edit the leveldb files that Steam
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uses to track what games you can launch. On the Steam Deck, the Steam client
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also enables the built-in controllers to act as a keyboard and mouse. This means
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that you need to poke around and pray with the touchscreen to get EmuDeck games
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up and running. The mouse/controller switch on the Win600 makes this slightly
|
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||||||
more convenient because the controllers can always poorly act as a mouse and
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keyboard.
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When you are in KDE on the Win600, you don't get a soft keyboard at all. This is
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||||||
mildly inconvenient, but can be fixed with the moonlander yet again. Here's a
|
|
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screenshot of what my KDE desktop on the Win600 looks like:
|
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[![My SteamOS desktop on the Win600, showing Crossette from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 center frame](https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/christine-static/img/Screenshot_20220714_144655-smol.jpg)](https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/christine-static/img/Screenshot_20220714_144655.png)
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|
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Overall, SteamOS is a lot more ergonomic in my opinion and will let you play
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||||||
games to your heart's content.
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The D-pad feels really good. I love how it responds. When I did a little bit of
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Sonic Mania I never felt like I was inaccurate. There were some weird audio
|
|
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hitches on Sonic Mania though where the music would cut out randomly. Not sure
|
|
||||||
what's going on with that. I could play through entire Pokemon games with that
|
|
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D-pad.
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|
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## Conclusions for now
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
Overall I'm getting the feeling that this device is _okay_. It's not great, it's
|
|
||||||
not terrible, but it's okay. I need to get some more experience with it, but so
|
|
||||||
far it seems that this device really does have a weight class and oh god if you
|
|
||||||
play a game outside its weight class your UX goes to shit instantly. The battery
|
|
||||||
life leaves _a lot_ to be desired so far. However it does work. It's hard to not
|
|
||||||
compare this to the Steam Deck, but it's so much less in comparison to the Steam
|
|
||||||
Deck.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
I don't know how I feel about this device. I'm not sure it's worth the money. I
|
|
||||||
need to get more experience with it. I'll have a better sense of all this when I
|
|
||||||
write my full review. Stay tuned for that!
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|
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@ -29,14 +29,11 @@ The story is about an office drone named Stanley that pushes buttons based on
|
||||||
instructions from his computer. The big thing that this game does though is make
|
instructions from his computer. The big thing that this game does though is make
|
||||||
you realize the inherent paradoxes in its own design.
|
you realize the inherent paradoxes in its own design.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="happy">Being mechanically limited like this is
|
<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="happy">Being limited like this is not actually a
|
||||||
not actually a bad thing like the phrasing might imply. This means that the main
|
bad thing like the phrasing would imply. It just means that the main focus of
|
||||||
focus of the gameplay is not on the micro actions the player can take. In this
|
the game is not on the micro actions the player can take. In this case the main
|
||||||
case the main focus is on how the player interacts with the story and not how
|
focus is on what the player can do with the story and not what the player can do
|
||||||
the player interacts with their controller or puzzles or tactics. Additionally,
|
with their controller.</xeblog-conv>
|
||||||
the mechanical limitations of the gameplay are thematically aligned with the
|
|
||||||
story's premise of being an office drone in ways it can play with. Think
|
|
||||||
dramatic irony taken to its logical conclusion.</xeblog-conv>
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
Endings that make you look like you had exercised your free will actually boil
|
Endings that make you look like you had exercised your free will actually boil
|
||||||
down to your actions being controlled by following the narrator's voices. This
|
down to your actions being controlled by following the narrator's voices. This
|
||||||
|
@ -62,11 +59,13 @@ just followed the line. Walk outside of the intended playable area? 10 second
|
||||||
timer until the game kills you. Shoot a person with the wrong skin color? The
|
timer until the game kills you. Shoot a person with the wrong skin color? The
|
||||||
game kills you.
|
game kills you.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<xeblog-conv name="Numa" mood="delet">If you manage to clip out of bounds in the
|
<xeblog-conv name="Numa" mood="delet">I used to be an adventurer like you until
|
||||||
escape ending, the screen will fade to black and you will be transported to a
|
I took an arrow to the knee! Get it? It's because "taking an arrow to the knee"
|
||||||
temperate climate. Then a t-posing model in terrible armor will tell you that it
|
meant "getting married" because being married in Norse times (because Skyrim's
|
||||||
used to be an adventurer until they took an arrow to the knee. Hope that's not a
|
Nord are basically LARP vikings) really handicapped your ability to move around
|
||||||
marriage proposal!</xeblog-conv>
|
freely, and in those times an arrow injury was basically guaranteed to be fatal
|
||||||
|
so it can't be literal (if only because there's so many guards with knee
|
||||||
|
injuries walking around effortlessly which is...unlikely at best).</xeblog-conv>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
However in The Stanley Parable you can defy the narrator and that's where the
|
However in The Stanley Parable you can defy the narrator and that's where the
|
||||||
game really opens up. It's great to get in the area where the game is unfinished
|
game really opens up. It's great to get in the area where the game is unfinished
|
||||||
|
|
Loading…
Reference in New Issue