We have these amazing little computers in our hands. What are some beneficial things we can do with them? Websites, apps, tinkering… anything you can think of or things you already do. I’m tired of doom scrolling.

  • taiyang@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I love emulating old Gameboy games on my phone. It can play things all the way up to Switch, but there’s sort of a nice mix of nostalgia and simplicity to just go monotone. No micro transactions, no server connecting, nothing. Just me and the bits.

    I guess that’s not terribly beneficial, unless you count my mental health.

    • Typotyper@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Where do you get the games from. I have a switch and an old gameboy carriage but I’m too out of it to bridge that gap

      • taiyang@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Most people will download roms, which is technically illegal although with 30 year old games there usually isn’t much concern on enforcement (heck, even Switch games aren’t really enforced). The legal way is to dump the rom from the original cartridge, though, and there are tools for that. Honestly, as long as you own the original game I’m pretty sure you can just argue you have a license to play, though.

        Generally you can’t share links to roms on communities, although I bet some communities are cool with it (/0 maybe?). Try not to go anywhere that looks suspicious, in any case. Most people don’t malware Gameboy games, though lol. They won’t be .exe in any case.

        As for getting it to work, Android and iPhone have different emulator apps available on their respective stores. I tried MyBoy prior but tend to prefer Retroarch (which covers multiple systems, but is a like harder to setup). On Mobile, default has controls on screen so it’s pretty much plug and play though. It’s so much more convenient than digging up ancient systems, though!

      • Denjin@lemmings.world
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        2 days ago

        They’re called ROMs, can’t give you links because that’s naughty but if you use your reputable search engine of choice for Gameboy ROMs you can find them pretty easily.