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!