Bitmap Books - Leaps and Bounds & Trigger Happy Book Reviews

 

For a long time now I've been a firm fan of the books from a company called Bitmap Books, they're of good quality, lavishly illustrated and packed with quality content, and I've recently taken delivery of what I think are their best two books yet....

The first is called Leaps and Bounds and describes itself as 'a visual guide to nine console generations' beginning way back in 1972 with the Odyssey and finishing in the present day with the Switch 2, two pages are devoted to each system with some information about each one including the month and year of release and the number of games that were released for it, on the opposite page is a screenshot from a key game for that system.

This really is a fascinating read and a useful work of reference too, I discovered many systems in the book that I'd never even heard of as well as all the usual familiar systems, if you've an interest in systems from the past and present this is definitely the book for you!

The second Bitmap book is called Trigger Happy and describes itself as 'a visual celebration of video game controllers' and as with Leaps and Bounds is lavishly illustrated and comes with some postcards of some of the controllers tucked inside the front cover which is a nice touch.

Again the majority of controllers have two pages devoted to them with lots of information about each one and one or more photos of the controller.  Again as well as the familiar and well known controllers I discovered many I'd never even heard of, there are a variety of different controllers covered in this book from design masterpieces such as the N64 and Gamecube controllers, to controllers which just look impractical and uncomfortable to controllers designed for use on a specific game.  Again a really excellent fascinating book to dip into and enjoy and highly recommended if you're interested in learning more about game controllers.

Move over MelonDS - there's a new DS emulator in town!

For a long time now the go-to Nintendo DS emulator on Android has been MelonDS or a special fork of it for dual screen devices, well now there are two new DS emulators for Android, WatermelonDS for more powerful handhelds such as the AYN Thor and Seedless DS for less powerful devices such as the Anbernic RG DS.

WatermelonDS as you can see above has a really attractive interface and is easy to use with lots of features and I especially like that when you add your library of roms the emulator automatically scrapes for box art which is handy.  As with MelonDS there is a choice of resolutions and graphics settings such as OpenGL and Vulkan and it's easy to set up too for dual screen use with the AYN Thor or AyaNeo Pocket DS.

SeedlessDS uses the same interface but has less features and is best suited to a device like the Anbernic RG DS which it would be perfect for.

As an owner of an AYN Thor I've been using WatermelonDS and for me this is now my new go-to DS emulator and will be using this going forward, it's really excellent!

The two emulators are available now from https://github.com/SapphireRhodonite/WatermelonDS and https://github.com/SapphireRhodonite/SeedlessDS

8BitDo Flip Pad Review - the best mobile controller

For a long time now 8BitDo have been making some of the best console controllers, well now they've released the Flip Pad, a pocket sized, lightweight mobile phone controller, but is it any good, let's find out.....

The first thing to notice is it's extremely well made and of good quality and very light so easily pocketable when not connected to a phone.  To begin using it simply connect it to the USB-C port on your phone and it connects instantly and is ready for use, no Bluetooth here!

I've found that the best use of the Flip Pad is for playing GameBoy, GameBoy Color and GameBoy Advance games through the excellent Delta emulator on iOS, the games run flawlessly and the d-pad and face buttons are extremely responsive, the only slight issue is that the R1, R2, L1 and L2 buttons are on the front rather than being shoulder buttons, a design sacrifice that had to be made in order for the device to be as light as it is and flip down like it does.

A carry case would have also been useful as with the GameSir Pocket Taco but other than that I've no real issues with this and in my opinion this is the best mobile controller you can buy, highly recommended!

Playdate OS 3.0 is here!

Regular readers will know I'm a big fan of Panic's little yellow Playdate machine, it's well made, fun to play with a huge library of games.

Well version 3.0 of the operating system has now been released which makes it even better and easier to use.  The main new feature is that your games are now organised into folders : All Games, Alphabetical, Recently Played, Season 1, Season 2 (if you purchased this), Catalog, Sideloaded and System.  This makes finding your required game a lot quicker and easier rather than scrolling through a long list previously.  It's also possible to add your own folders so if you want to create a folder for a specific genre of game that could be done.

I'm hugely impressed with this new version of the operating system, it makes the Playdate way more user friendly and the new version is fast and responsive, great job Panic!

This eBay Gameboy Advance SP seller really is awesome!

I've always loved the GameBoy Advance SP so was excited when I discovered an eBay seller who goes by the username of 'domaniacal'.  This seller provides custom made GBA SPs using a variety of different shells and colour schemes.  As you can see from the photos I chose a glow in the dark Metroid themed device and, as I'm a big fan of the Kirby series, a pink Kirby themed device.  You have to wait an average of about 3 weeks to receive your SP as the seller orders the shell and buttons but what sets this seller apart from the rest is firstly the fact that when the build is completed they send you photos of the completed build and of the machine working so you know exactly what you're getting before it's shipped and secondly it's the superb quality of the machines they make, they really are excellent!  Each machine comes with a fully backlit screen offering an amazing 15 levels of brightness and the machines look and feel really premium.  Also each machine comes with a matching storage box to keep it in, another nice touch.

I was even able to pay a bit extra and purchase an EZ Flash Omega Definitive Edition flash cart loaded with pretty much every GBA game so it was ready to go straight out of the box!

The last thing which really impressed me was when they were building the Kirby SP they changed the colour of the power light to pink to match the colour of the shell, it really is little touches like that which make this seller so awesome!

If like me you're a fan of the GBA SP and are looking for a well made, high quality custom built device you really can't go wrong with domaniacal on eBay!

OneX Sugar 1 Review - quite the transformation!

2025 is becoming the year of Android dual screen handhelds with the recent releases of the Ayn Thor and the AyaNeo Pocket DS, but hold on, there's another device and this one is unusual, unique and highly ingenious, the OneX Sugar 1.

What makes this device unique is that it can be used as either a single screen or dual screen Android device, it does this via a series of very strong magnets on the screens and controllers and a second small screen tucked away on the back of the device.  To transform to a dual screen device you simply detach the two controller sections from the magnets, flip them up, release the small screen from behind the machine, attach the controllers to that and hey presto you have a dual screen device ready for DS, 3DS and Wii U games!  A magnetic d-pad is also included which can be attached to whichever side it's required.  The Sugar 1 really is a very clever piece of design!

Another thing to mention is that, as you can see from the above photo it comes in one of the best looking and premium carry cases I've seen.  My case was included as I was an 'early bird' backer on Indiegogo but otherwise it has to be purchased separately and it's absolutely worth it.

The build quality of the Sugar 1 is excellent, the magnets are strong and both screens are OLED providing a bright, sharp and vivid image.  And thanks to it's Snapdragon Gen3 processor it's extremely powerful able to play pretty much anything you can throw at it with virtually no issues.

The only issue I had was that a small amount of tinkering in the settings was required for some GameCube titles on the Dolphin emulator but apart from that everything ran flawlessly.

With regards to Nintendo DS, both the Drastic and MelonDS emulators can be used, both of these require a small bit of tinkering in the settings to get dual screen support to work, however instructions can be found on YouTube and online for doing this, once set up though DS games look and play really well and on the Drastic emulator it's even possible to increase the resolution so they look even better.

Since I own a 3DS and an extensive library of titles I've not tried 3DS emulation but from what I've read online I believe this to be excellent as well.

Wii U emulation is provided by the Cemu emulator, this is still in it's early stages on Android so performance will vary from game to game, I've only so far tried one title, 007 : Legends and couldn't get beyond the title screen but I understand there are quite a few Wii U titles which do play and play well.

To sum up this is a comfortable to hold, well made, powerful dual screen Android handheld and I absolutely love it!

Tennis Elbow 4 - best tennis game ever!

Many years ago on my desktop PC I discovered a really fun little tennis game called Tennis Elbow so was quite excited recently to have discovered on Steam the latest version Tennis Elbow 4 and having played with it for a few weeks now it is without a doubt the best tennis game I've ever played!

High praise indeed I hear you say but there are quite a few good reasons why.  When you first load the game you get fictional courts and logos and pretend player names but that isn't the end of the story and this is what sets TE4 apart from other tennis games.  There are free modifications available from within the game, the main two being xe4 and Scoreboards by Stef, the former changes all the courts to the actual real life venues including all the Grand Slam venues complete with the correct sponsor logos on the court, it really does feel like you're actually at Roland Garros or the US Open!  It also changes the mens and womens player lists to real players.  The second modification offers the actual score graphics for each tournament so if you're playing a WTA tour event you have the latest WTA graphics which again adds a great degree of realism.  You're even provided with the TV broadcast logos including Eurosport and Sky Sports in the top right corner of the screen, another nice touch.

A huge selection of tournaments are available once the mods have been added, all the grand slam tournaments are there along with every ATP and WTA tour event, the Billie Jean King Cup, Davis Cup, United Cup, WTA and ATP finals and even the Olympics.  Although I should mention that the BJK Cup, Davis Cup and the finals you have to qualify for through another tournament first.

Gameplay wise the game also shines, serving is easy and a wide variety of shots are available.

This has now taken over from Tiebreak on the PS5 as my go-to favourite tennis game, the level of detail and realism really is outstanding, thanks to the mods it's about as close to the real thing as you'll ever get!  A really wonderful experience and thoroughly recommended for tennis gaming fans.