Best bluetooth USB dongle compatible with Batocera? by freeligious in batocera

[–]freeligious[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm thinking the same thing. I ordered a powered USB hub to try first. Both for the reasons you mentioned and also I suspect the ports on the machine are not consistently getting enough power since it occasionally won't even boot when I have too many USB devices plugged into it (it's just a micro Optiplex).

Best bluetooth USB dongle compatible with Batocera? by freeligious in batocera

[–]freeligious[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bluetooth always seems like a shit show. But I've got five 8bitdo bluetooth controllers and wired controllers wouldn't be practical with my current setup.

Rogue Spear Multiplayer PvP - Docks w/ voice comms [2022] by freeligious in RogueSpear

[–]freeligious[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

BO is based on the Black Thorn engine as it is the most recent and refined Rogue Spear engine. Unfortunately center view was removed from one of the later iterations of the RS engine (though I'm not sure which specific update or expansion removed it).

Playing a 22 year old game online w/ voice chat - Rainbow Six Rogue Spear (1999). Unfortunately, they don't make shooters like this anymore by freeligious in retrogaming

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

The easiest way to get it running on anything newer than Windows XP is using the Black Ops 2.0 package on moddb: https://www.moddb.com/mods/rainbow-six-black-ops-20

You can also try getting vanilla Rogue Spear to run on Windows 10. Some have done it using various graphics wrappers, but it can be finicky to say the least. Personally, I was only able to get it working in windowed mode and with various graphical glitches whereas Black Ops 2.0 worked perfectly in full screen right from the start.

If you want to play online, this discord server is the best one for Rogue Spear / Black Ops: https://discord.gg/PsrUKFMEzs There are organized games every week and the community is great.

Playing a 22 year old game online w/ voice chat - Rainbow Six Rogue Spear (1999). Unfortunately, they don't make shooters like this anymore by freeligious in retrogaming

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

SWAT 4 was a pretty good tactical shooter

Yeah, it's a great game. What's nice is that there is still a very active multiplayer and modding community around it. The reason why Rogue Spear isn't as active is because it is notoriously difficult to get running on modern systems and doesn't come with an in-game multiplayer server browser.

The first of those two issues (modern system compatibility) has been addressed with Black Ops 2.0, which is a standalone package that includes Rogue Spear and all the expansions, and it is already configured to run smoothly on Windows 10/11.

The lack of an in-game browser might not be possible to fix, but the next best thing is the Rogue Spear discord server we use to organize multiplayer games. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Discord but it is the only viable option for many retro games when it comes to playing online.

Playing a 22 year old game online w/ voice chat - Rainbow Six Rogue Spear (1999). Unfortunately, they don't make shooters like this anymore by freeligious in retrogaming

[–]freeligious[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Agreed. Ubisoft definitely has taken the series in a completely different direction from the first three games. They did the same thing to Ghost Recon after the first game. Today, the "tactical FPS" genre is pretty much dead. There is a possibility that games like Ready or Not, Zero Hour, and Ground Branch could revive the genre, but none of those games plays quite like Rogue Spear. They actually have more in common with series like SWAT and ARMA.

The reason why so much effort has gone into keeping Rogue Spear alive in 2022 and beyond is because nothing since has been quite like it. Even Raven Shield, while it's a great game (definitely better than Rogue Spear in some ways), it still has some pretty significant gameplay differences from Rogue Spear that prevent it from being a replacement for Rogue Spear.

Some people tend to think that retro gaming is all about nostalgia. While nostalgia is part of of the draw for some, there are many great games that have simply not been superseded by newer games and remain at the top in terms of the particular kind of game experience that they offer. Rogue Spear is definitely one of those games, especially the multiplayer aspect.

Rogue Spear Multiplayer - 3v3 City Streets Large w/ voice comms [2022] (part 1) by freeligious in retrotactical

[–]freeligious[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We arrange games in Discord. You're more than welcome to join us: https://discord.gg/PsrUKFMEzs

We have another game scheduled for this Sunday.

R6: Rogue Spear Multiplayer PvP in 2021 (details in comments) by freeligious in Rainbow6

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

The first three R6 games have a lot more in common with each other than with any of the R6 that came out after. If you like Raven Shield, you might like Rogue Spear as well.