Happiness through digital bullets

 I suspect I need to write another emotional post because I am not processing fully. Realizing that, I got myself up early this morning. I spent some time of self care. Then I made myself a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs with a few slices of Spam. I shaved. I realized I need a haircut, but that will be waiting for a while. I cleaned up my office a bit. Then I sat down and had a long debate with myself on if I should write this post, toy with my Steam Deck, or play some Diablo 4. 

Diablo 4 won out. It often does. I played for a bit and then got to work on some of the real world stuff that needs my attention. I did a little eBay work. I cleaned and organized the house a bit. I conceptualized a really neat idea to change up my bedroom. Then I got my Steam Deck out for a bit of an update. 

I enjoy my Playstation 5 although I am not the primary user. Ashley plays some games on it. Teagan has put hours into Astro's Playroom and a bit of Hogwart's Legacy. I enjoy that she is enthusiastic about gaming. I encourage this. I will eventually sit down and spend some time on God of War, God of War Ragnarok, Strager of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin, and Final Fantasy XVI. Currently I am really focused on my Xbox Series X and Diablo IV. 

Those statements might lead you to believe that I am a diehard console gamer. I love both of the modern consoles. I love my Nintendo Switch. All of them pale in comparison to my Steam Deck. On its own merits as a handheld gaming PC it is one of the coolest systems I have ever owned. 

I spent several weeks figuring out how to turn my Steam Deck into a portable emulator for the Nintendo Wii. It wasn't enough to be able to play titles that work with standard video game remotes. I wanted to be able to Wii Bowl or shoot in Link's Crossbow Training. 

An cheap bit of Amazon shopping for a Mayfair Dolphin Bar, a brief wait for shipping, and some fumbling later I figured out the Steam Deck doesn't have native support for the Dolphin Bar. I spent a little time getting proof of concept worked out on the gaming PC. Plinking targets and rolling strikes on my laptop was pretty darned cool. It wasn't the fruition of project WiiDeck. 

Yes, I name my silly little projects when I do them. 

All signs pointed to the concept of working out an SD card dedicated to the Linux OS of Batocera. I worked out a boot drive for Windows a few months after getting the Steam Deck just because I wanted to play the original Diablo from GOG on a handheld PC. Yes, sometimes I do things just because I can. Okay. Okay. Often I do things just because I can. 

I spent a little time learning about Batocera. I built a boot drive and set about loading up games. The Wii Deck concept came together really, really quickly afterward.  I docked the Steam Deck popped on Wii Bowling and gathered the family to marvel at me being clever. I had visions of camping outings gone very right when a rainy day at camp was turned into a quite fine afternoon of Wii Bowling and shooting Link's Crossbow. 

The interesting and unintended side effect of this was me finding out I could play all sorts of different retro Light gun games. I raced to get Duck Hunt loaded up. The Wii mote can emulate a mouse pointer which means I can point and click using a gun rig and it feels as if I am shooting with the old Nintendo Zapper. 

Guess what? It works for all of the NES Light Gun games. I lost some time to that joy. Then I decided to try out Super Scope Six Games. Now, I admit that makes me totally want to do a craft project to make a Super Scope Six Wii Mote hybrid. It may be silly, but I miss the peep sight on that goofy bazooka. Sure, I can absolutely play Battle Clash with a WiiMote. It works. I just wish it were shoulder mounted with the scope. 

What I have managed to do is create a divide in my emulation library. Now the light gun games, Wii games, and a few other pieces of emulation work in Batocera. Everything else (think more traditional games) works in the Steam interface using EmuDeck. 

I spent an hour or so this morning sorting out digital files. I did some game testing with my EmuDeck build out. I also have spent most of the day building a digital back up of my gaming files. I have made some surprisingly silly moves in my time that have wiped out digital media. I build for redundancy these days. 

Honestly, if I had my way at this point I would also be building out a Steam Deck carrying case. It would need to be very sturdy like a hard sided Pelican case with custom cut foam. I want to be able to put two controllers (One Xbox series X. One PS4) plus the Mayfair Dolphin Bar, power adapters, WiiMotes, HDMI cable, Dock, Portable Keyboard, mouse, dock, all needed cables, dongles, and SSD portable drive. Jesus. I just wrote my way into a new project. For now we will code name is Project Steam Vault. This will have to remain a mental exercise for the moment. 

I am going to clean up my Batocera drive... Come to think of it I may simply rebuild it completely tonight. Then I will need to get into some playtesting. I have a little side thing that Project Wii Deck brought about during implementation. Honestly, I need a Steam Deck dock that has at least one more USB 3.0 port. 

I know all of this sounds super nerdy and scatter-brained but that is a good sign I am enjoying myself. Being productive is a really good thing for me. It helps keep me happy, healthy, and fairly well-adjusted which is something I have not been lately. 

See, video games are good for you after all.