Previously on Lemmy:
Past Discussions:
Now that our buying guide (or a first draft of it) is done, let's get back to our usual discussions. This week's topic is emulators, by request of u/AlmightySnoo. As emulators could not be loaded on iPhones without jumping through many hoops, Android remains the preferred OS for emulation on smartphones.
(Reminder, rule 2 is in effect, so please don't give out links to ROM sites.)
Now, as we all know, the mobile gaming landscape in 2023 is not great exactly. Most of the games in twr Play Store are designed for frustration instead of fun, littered with microtransactions, timegating, and of course, ads. Even the good games have terrible monitization practices, and there are a lot more bad games than good.
But emulated games are a way to get away from that, and let us remember a time when games on the go are simply games that are fun and nothing else, the nights when you are sitting in the backseat of your parents car with only the glow of your GameBoy and the passing streetlight as you play Pokemon. Nostalgia from a time when we didn't have grownup things to worry about.
But of course, many emulators didn't only aim to "emulate" the original console, but to enhance them into the modern age: Save states, rewind, enhanced graphics, texture replacements, easy cheats, touchscreen and gamepads. Things we could only dream of as kids are now reality.
So, please share your experiences with emulation on Android and give out some cool tips and tricks here.
(A special shoutout to RetroArch for having the (dis)honor of staying as one of the most frustrating software that I have ever used.)
If you want a more detailed explanation, USB-C is a small connector that was designed primarily for data transfer, extended power range delivery (240w) was essentially hacked on to the standard. Electricity arcing between the contacts on the connector is the biggest challenge with this hack, since the contacts are small and very close together, which could burn out the circuit board and start fires. For EPR to work safely, there needs to be a lot of extra components on the circuit board/female connector side, which there simply isn't enough space for on an f2m extension cable.
As for why USB-C cables are so short, it's simply a matter of physics, carrying high speed data over larger distances would result in higher losses and requires thicker conductors and more shielding, which is why you don't see USB4 Gen3 cables over 1 meter unless they are optical, and longer "charging cables" are only rated at USB 2.0 speeds, because more often than not they don't even have the USB 3.x data pins on their connector.