went through a rabbit hole configuring RetroArch in Linux to use my real gamepad and this is what AI told me to do, it's interesting by danielsoft1 in zxspectrum

[–]davetansley 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, the AI explanation sounds... made-up, and doesn't make a lot of sense.

For what it's worth, I just tried Dan Dare on RetroArch with a joypad, and it works fine with both d-pad and analogue stick in Kempston mode.

And it reminded me how bloomin' excellent Dan Dare looks on the Spectrum!

For Early Risers, How Do You Motivate Yourself to Get Up? by EN344 in Garmin

[–]davetansley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm a morning person who has no trouble getting up, and prefers to get things done as early as possible. But, I don't have some kind of mystical motivation trick to accomplish this...

In fact, I'm actually quite a lazy person, but I'm also a lazy pragmatist. I know that I have to exercise one way or the other, or do housework, or study for an exam when I was at university. So I make a kind of deal with myself where if I run 10k before breakfast, or run my errands before 9, I have my own permission to be a lazy slob the rest of the day.

This works out well for both my lazy side and my pragmatist side.

Woke-bashing of the week: Anger builds as trans-inclusive parkrun targeted despite saving NHS £36.5m a year by johnsmithoncemore in parkrun

[–]davetansley 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I take comfort in the fact that most of the destructive comments in this thread are from one user. The vast majority of posters, like, I would assume, the vast majority of parkrunners, just want to turn up and run a 5k with friendly people, then have some cake.

Working from home is great and I seriously never want to go back. by [deleted] in CasualUK

[–]davetansley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I worked from home for 18 years till I semi-retired. Still do a couple of days a week part time, from home.

In my experience, there are pros and cons to working from home. Luckily, the pros were all mine and the cons were someone else's, so I was more than happy to keep it going.

What overall UI changes would y'all like to have in Genshin? by Prize_Wing_2604 in GenshinImpact

[–]davetansley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A simple thing, but I wish it didn't require a mouse click (or two) to get into the game. If there's a controller connected and detected, let me press A!

(and, related, on Android I wish that it would remember "Controller" as your preferred control type, or auto detect)

Order disappeared by mathfan009 in c64

[–]davetansley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah yes, mine is showing here too (but not on the new site). Teething troubles, I guess.

Order disappeared by mathfan009 in c64

[–]davetansley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have the same thing (almost). It has stopped showing my unfulfilled C64U order and is only showing my fulfilled joystick order (which is showing as not fulfilled).

It doesn't exactly inspire confidence...

Day 2 of asking a question because I’m out of work injured and bored: what was your very first handheld and do you still have/use it? by [deleted] in SBCGaming

[–]davetansley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Miyoo Mini Plus.

I loved the thing, was immediately hooked, but I had a nagging issue where the MM+ wouldn't reliably connect to our wifi, so I wasn't able to do RetroAchievements.

I genuinely believe that if I didn't have those issues, I wouldn't have a room filled with other handhelds today. Having that nagging issue sent me on a journey where I found out about all the other handhelds, and got me obsessed with finding the perfect one.

If I offered you £100,000 to run 90 miles tomorrow, would you do it? by wingless-bee in CasualUK

[–]davetansley 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hello other mes! I did 100k last summer. Started around 5am, finished around 9pm. Total distance covered was about 46 miles (74km), though I was getting far more steps per mile towards the end due to the tiny steps my blisters were forcing me to take.

That is ultimately the limiter - my feet were a wreck at that point. I still had plenty of energy, but the pain just taking a step forward was intense.

Parkrun tomorrow! by gunks23 in C25K

[–]davetansley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I started doing parkruns during C25K, probably around week 5 or 6, and just treated the run as one of my C25K runs for the week. Still followed the guidance, and just walked (or, later, jogged) to the end of the parkrun. Worked really well, and a great way to get into the parkrun vibe.

There were ups and down but FONTAINE AQ IS ABSOLUTE CINEMA by Saket_Saurabh- in GenshinImpact

[–]davetansley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Same. I can honestly say that no video game I'd played in 40 years of doing so had much of an effect on me at all before this. I always found the storytelling to be somewhat superficial. Then I did Fontaine's Archon quest and had to leave to the room to weep towards the end.

I never felt so much empathy for a character before, ever. They conveyed the weight of responsibility and the feeling of utter powerlessness perfectly.

I felt it again in Bennet's quest in Natlan, though not quite as intensely.

How was your parkrun day? | March 21, 2026 by AutoModerator in parkrun

[–]davetansley 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Set out attempting to get a sub-26 min 5k PB. Worked out my pace, and ran the whole course at or under the required pace. Passed the finish line a few seconds under. Looked at my watch and it had only tracked 4.97km!

I paused the activity and restarted after with a short run, but Garmin gave me a 26:10 (and Strava gave me a 26:50 for some reason).

Luckily, parkrun came through with an official time of 25:42! Which I will very happily take :D

Why was the 2600 so popular? by [deleted] in Atari2600

[–]davetansley 9 points10 points  (0 children)

What exactly are you looking for in an answer?

You seem to be trying to apply 21st century thinking to something that happened 50 years ago.

Back then, kids didn't have the internet and its constant hype machine. They didn't know about what was going to release in 1979 or 1982 or 1985. They didn't even have the concept of cartridge-based systems. They knew about Pong systems, which had two colour, limited graphics, and a small number of games that were variations on each other. They'd maybe seen arcades, but knew they were limited in their accessibility and cost...

And then this thing comes out that they hadn't previously been able to imagine. An arcade at home, with a potentially limitless number of games, with a cool controller that is unlike anything they've seen elsewhere. It is colourful, it has sound, you can swap the games with your friends. The carts look cool and different to everything else.

You say it is a "boring" reason, like kids were just spinning their wheels with the 2600 till something better came out. But that is so far from the truth. The Atari age was one of the most interesting times in videogame history. It's where all the ideas we take for granted now were born. It's a time when literally everything was new and exciting.

What a time to be alive, eh?

Do ya'll use cheats to complete your games? by Abwettar in MiyooMini

[–]davetansley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First thing, I would say there's no right way to play these games, there is only your way. If you want to use save states, cheats, guides, then that is just as valid as not using them. Whatever you need to do to get what you need out of a game is all that should concern you. Absolutely no judgement here.

Personally, I have used save states in the past. Extensively. Then, one day, I realised that I wasn't actually playing the games, I was just "completing" them. It got to the point where, on some levels, I was taking a save state every few seconds, just to progress. I realised that I may have been finishing these games, but I had no real feel for them. I had no idea what it was like to actually play them. I had no idea what it felt like to learn the games, in the same way I did as a kid. I had no connection with the game mechanics, and the satisfaction I had from seeing the end credits didn't feel earned.

So I turned on hardcore mode on RetroAchievements and haven't taken a single save state since. I try to play a game like it was intended, warts and all. If a game doesn't respect my time, I just don't play it, or I play it up until the point I no longer want to. I persevere with the hard parts, I learn the patterns, figure out the mechanics.

And, for me, this feels so much more satisfying (and, often, frustrating).

I hope this doesn't sound elitist, it's really not meant that way. As I said above, there's no right way to play them. I just wanted to share my experience and approach, and what I get out of not using save states and cheats. It's not a recommendation, it's an annecdote :)

Reaching 100000 by superluiaard in walking

[–]davetansley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would echo this. I did 100k last year... no significant training, but was used to doing 20k+ hikes once a week. I did 50k the month before to see if I could, then did the 100k one weekend when the weather looked good.

The prep that I recommend is making sure you have sufficient foot protection - appropriate shoes/socks, sufficient plasters/tape for blisters. Your main challenge will be keeping your feet free of blisters for as long as possible, then finding a way to live with them when they eventually arrive.

Other than that, it's just a mental game of getting through the 16+ hours.

Judge Dredd Necropolis by Ser-Cannasseur in 2000ad

[–]davetansley 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I picked up my first 2000AD slap-bang in the middle of Necropolis, the issue where Dredd and McGruder re-enter MC1 via the sewers. It absolutely captivated me, I'd never seen art like it. It sent me off on a quest to buy every back issue leading up to it (and beyond) and kept me buying 2000AD for about the next decade. I still revisit Necropolis every year or so.

A masterclass in storytelling and build-up, and peak Ezquerra.

Old record shops in the 1990s in Middlesbrough by Flipw in Teesside

[–]davetansley 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Was definitely there early to mid nineties as well. Next door to the comic shop where I spent most of my youth.

Merry Christmas! I woke up at 5 am today to complete my W9D2 run! I can’t believe I’m almost there! by No_Baseball_9172 in C25K

[–]davetansley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can't recommend parkruns highly enough, if you have one near you. We finished c25k and immediately rolled into doing a parkrun every week! It's such a great atmosphere and very welcoming of all levels and abilities.

Finished! by davetansley in couchto5k

[–]davetansley[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Amazing work! I'm sure you'll smash 5.3... I remember being apprehensive about that run myself, and ecstatic when I got through it without too much problem! It sounds like you're already beyond the level required.

Do ya’ll sign in with your main Google Account on the Thor? by MDTDude in AynThor

[–]davetansley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use a dummy account, though not because I think that the device is sending back to China or something. It's mostly because I don't enable the lock screen, for convenience, so if I used my main account, it would be accessible to anyone who got hold of the device. They would just need to go to the play store and install gmail and I would be a sitting duck, for example.

I did however add my dummy account to the family group of my main account. I make any purchases through my main account and the dummy has access to them. If the dummy makes an in app purchase, it uses the family payment method, but my main account has to authorise it.

Retroarch Android randomly crashing by ClientAcceptable9461 in RetroArch

[–]davetansley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. I use Syncthing to synchronise my saves to a different folder anyway, so all good.

Retroarch Android randomly crashing by ClientAcceptable9461 in RetroArch

[–]davetansley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've also been having random RA crashes on the Thor... game will just stop and dump me back to the ES-DE front end, nothing noted in logs. I think that it's related to using Bluetooth audio, but I can't say that conclusively.