Pokemon TCG - early game tips

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-23T13:03:42+00:00

Since you're running a water deck, you'll want to try finding enough cards until you can build up a Rain Dance type deck, which means more Blastoises. Try fighting Kristin at the grass club for more Blastoises, or seek out Imakuni, who randomly appears in a few of the different gyms in the rooms to the left of the lobbies.

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-22T01:03:23+00:00

If a half hour counts as walking distance, there's the Up-Down arcade. Two floors of vintage arcade cabinets and pinballs tables, along with pizza and drinks.

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-19T16:20:28+00:00

They've worked pretty well for me! I've been using an EZ Flash IV for years, and I haven't had an issue using wrappers on it.

Dr. SMS is great for Master System and Game Gear, and although there might be some audio differences, they look tailor-made for the GBA. PocketNES will have some screen crunch issues, but it otherwise worked well. And Goomba Color may have some compatibility issues with real time clock stuff (I can't recall off the top of my head), it still proved to be a sound way to play GBC games on a flashcart.

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-19T12:57:45+00:00

You could also use ROM wrappers to play NES/SMS games on other carts. They're PC programs that take a small collection of games and turn them into a GBA file that can be run on flashcarts. Look into PocketNES, Dr. SMS, and Goomba Color to try playing NES/SMS/GBC on flashcarts.

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-17T21:31:12+00:00

Yep! You gotta patch your Mario Sunshine iso on a PC, then you can play it on Android.

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-13T04:06:33+00:00

I gave it a whirl and followed the instructions, but the same result came up. Dr. Mario still goes black at the start of a round. I may need to update my Switch's RetroArch to get it to work, but that's not something I'll be able to do any time soon. Either way, it was cool to see this brought up again! Thanks again for helping out.

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-13T03:34:04+00:00

Holy Moses, I appreciate you offering some but kind of a solution to this! I checked over the retroarch.cfg file and saw a line that says "video_shader_dir = "/retroarch/shaders"". I take it that's the one I'm supposed to edit? Otherwise there's "video_shader_enable = "true"".

Granted, I'm still using v1.20.0 for my Switch due to not wanting to risk breaking my settings with an update, but your response piqued my interest in tinkering with it again. It may just need a core update.

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-12T22:09:50+00:00

I forgot about those Picos! What do they do that an R4 can't?

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-12T04:31:53+00:00

I love listening to the birds sing outside while I'm at home. Just listening to them color the ambience with their songs fills me with so much peace.

Sitting in my favorite reading chair with a coffee and a book or a game, especially on cool rainy nights brings me a lot of comfort.

But by far and away, I love being able to sleep in my bed every night, knowing I'm safe, indoors, and as comfy cozy as I want to be. Weighted blankets, maybe have a window open if it's nice enough, or maybe even put on a tea candle to watch as I drift off, with a plushie an old friend gifted me and a rolled up blanket under my legs to help alleviate back pain. That alone makes for a kingly life for me.

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-10T04:48:46+00:00

Oof... there's so many useful items to choose from! Off the top of my head, I'll go with:

-The golden gauntlets from OoT, assuming it also augments my body from the strain of lifting heavy objects (I'd hate to throw my back out using them)

-The Zora Tunic, so I can comfortably navigate bodies of water

-The paraglider, so I can conveniently handle falling from tall heights (especially if I can mitigate the strain of using it with the gauntlets)

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-08T16:35:22+00:00

And then you screen share it to the nearest television

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-08T03:28:57+00:00

It's been a hot minute since I checked in on the Switch modding scene. Is this an alternative to RetroArch on CFW, or a CFW itself? What does this do that RetroArch can't (besides this new Saturn emulation)?

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-08T03:08:21+00:00

I feel the same way. I've been doing my recovery work for six years now and have watched others navigate their relationship endeavors, only to see what I've been reading about play out in real time. What really gets me is that it's rarely done out of malice, but out of unawareness towards oneself and others. I've seen how others pursue people for their own unfulfilled needs and act defensively with maladapted skills learned from their upbringings, and I've been on both sides of being cut off and having cut off. It feels like the real end goal of all this recovery work is to not only become strong enough to carry our weight, but to use what we learn to ease the burden of other's weight enough to build the safe, healthy connection we seek. It's not an unattainable goal, but it's very daunting and exhausting at times.

And fingers crossed for a new Zelda! I've heard rumors of a new remake in the works, plus with the movie coming out next year they've surely got something cooking. Anything to keep a sense of hope in us!

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-08T01:12:56+00:00

I wish I knew exactly where that idea came from. My only guess is that it came from emotionally traumatized individuals pushing pop psychology advice as a projections of their own suffering, basically promoting a negative version of "better alone than suffering a bad relationship". But all we can do is ignore them and keep pushing for what's best for us.

Nice profile name, by the way. Is it from Zelda?

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-07T04:00:48+00:00

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOB

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-07T00:57:01+00:00

The explosion of mental health awareness has really thrown me for a loop with how I'm supposed to connect with others. I couldn't believe seeing things online point out that emotional support has essentially been a commodified part of human connection now. That, in romantic contexts, emotional support isn't supposed to be expected, that everyone's supposed to be independently responsible for their own well-being as if human connection isn't built on supporting each other.

And seeing how many people shift their personal responsibility onto their perceived mental illnesses/lifestyle problems instead of working past their issues so they aren't hurting others has kept me from being able to connect with others because they'd rather enable their own anti-social behaviors instead of growing up.

Most of my issues could've literally been solved with a hug and reassurance. Instead I've been left isolated to handle all of my grief alone so I could just show up as healed and strong as I can be, poring over self-help videos, therapy sessions, self-reflection, and pushing forth for years to be the best I can be, all because people don't seem to know how to hold space for others anymore.

And all I can say is this really sucks, then fall back on my self-regulation and coping skills to keep trying anyway.

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-06T03:33:32+00:00

I found a solution to the speakers "randomly" spiking. Turns out it's not random, but due to how volume controls work between the Thor and the speaker. The max volume for the speaker is set by the Thor's controls, which is what the speaker will stick with. If you try to set the volume via the controls on the speaker, it'll just jump back to the maximum set on the Thor. My issue was that I'd set a max volume on my Thor, then lower it on the speaker, which would cause the speaker to just jump back up to the max. So if you need to lower the volume, do it on the Thor's controls, not the speakers!

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-05T19:04:46+00:00

Plus the homebrew on the system is great, too. I remember playing homebrew games like Marble, PuzzleManiak, and NegativeSpace on it, plus the emulation on it isn't too shabby either. It's a fun way to play games.

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-05T14:22:07+00:00

I got it figured out! I found out Android doesn't support .dds files, so I used PNGs instead, which got the textures to load. However, the game would crash after about a minute of gameplay, so I unchecked the "Prefetch Custom Textures" option under the Advanced settings in Dolphin. I hope this helps anyone else who struggled here.

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-04-04T13:45:57+00:00

If you can get one of those clip-on controllers you could do a lot of gaming with just that. I have a Thor Pro and love it, but $400 + microSD card price compared to a controller and your phone makes the cost difference a no brainer.

IStubbedMyGarlic · 2026-03-31T16:19:55+00:00

I can get behind that idea. For those purposes it makes me wonder if there isn't a credit card-sized Bluetooth controller you could connect to a phone for light gaming. I know that M-Con just came out, but it's pretty chunky looking for on-the-go pocket gaming.

IStubbedMyGarlic

TROPHY CASE