I installed Retroarch on Steam and wrote a script in desktop-mode to point it’s default folder to my emulation files hosted on a home server (raspberry pi w/ external drive). I loaded the script into steam as a non-steam “game” and can run it in game-mode so once it was all set up it’s literally two clicks to get to an enormous library of retro+arcade games.

Xenogears

Selfish Machines - Pierce The Veil Crimes - The Blood Brothers

Not as many breakdowns but I get the same vibe

Just like change your perspective man. You’re looking up into the gooch of the molecule bro.

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Sounds like you’ve got some classics lined up but I’d suggest throwing in some more casual stuff too, especially if you’re losing interest in the long-form, story-based games. Something like excite bike or crazy taxi or road rash (I’m partial to old racers) or anything where you just pick it up, play a few rounds and move on. Think arcade style.

I made a favorites list in retroarch and cycle through it. I’ll play the story-based classics too but sometimes it’s difficult to get invested with dated graphics and sound. The pick-up-and-go games I find more accessible as I’m getting older.

-hops on nix soapbox- As someone currently trying to set up a NixOS server, your bullet point descriptions of it are incorrect except maybe the last 2. You’re just describing Arch.

In fact Nix tolerates user error extremely well and arguably makes every effort to be error-proof. A wrong user config means it flat out won’t compile and just revert to the past working config.

I agree it’s a pain - at first - and requires a strong base knowledge of how Linux in general works. -hops off-

Vagrant Story and Parasite Eve

Played them as demos back when that was a thing and I didn’t get why there’s spheres popping up making battle stop (semi-turned based combat) and why there’s a dude named Ashley.

Tried again a couple years later after playing FF7, connecting that they were all by squaresoft, and it all made sense. Absolutely became a couple of my favorites.

Battery is good for me. Lasts about a day and a half, almost two days through my standard use. Hasn’t dipped from that at all in the months I’ve had the phone. Super quick charge.

Battery is replaceable as well. Haven’t done it myself but it’s looks very simple.

Stock android. There was an initial issue I had with the physical keyboard mis-matching keys (I’d press one character, it’d type another) but there was a fix I found from the fxtec forum by disabling “Accessibility” permissions from “Android Assistant”.

I am currently typing from the Fxtec Pro1 X, using Android.

It’s great for me with the stark exception that it has recurring issues with dropping signals, be it mobile 4G, Bluetooth, or WiFi. I would not say that it makes things unusable at all… just occasionally annoying. It’s usually fixed quickly by switching to airplane mode and back.

The most annoying part is that I can very rarely use it as a telephone unless I’m on WiFi. People report they can’t hear me at all only very broken and garbled when I’m on mobile signal (T-Mobile carrier). This seemed to have been resolved by my using my smart watch to make calls which appear to go through without issue.

Freaking love the keyboard on this thing though, so it’s worth it for me.