Android Tablet and LD plans

Posted by Astryl on Dec. 3, 2014, 2:47 p.m.

Last weekend I saw an ad for a tablet that was on promotion at our local Walmart.

(Called Game here, to confuse people living in the UK. :P)

I was talking to my parents about wanting one for a while, but something clicked in my head at that point and I decided to buy the thing… at a cost.

That cost being that I'm going to be eating very simple packed lunches for the next week or two… but that's OK; I needed to break my Soda habit… and Dorito habit…

Anyway… I got the tablet on Monday. It's a Telefunken TEL7JD. I'd seen a few (mostly negative) reviews about its predecessor, the TEL7J, and was expecting a really low-end tablet. But that was fine by me; I really only wanted it for one thing: Reading.

I have a tonne of digital books on my PC, from iTunes and otherwise.

Speaking of iTunes… it's kinda stupid that it doesn't let you read books on your PC. It's just in epub format…

Well, the tablet I received was better than I expected, outdoing what the store catalog said in the item description. It's got a dual core 1.0Ghz ARM processor, 512mb RAM, a 7" display with a crisp resolution (Telefunken know their screens, I'd say), has Wi-fi (No 3G, but that's fine by me. I hate mobile carriers…), and has Android 4.4 installed.

Only 2GB internal storage, but I can get large SD cards on the cheap, and already have a 4GB one installed.

The thing is a little powerhouse. I've installed a collection of emulators on the system, including PPSSPP on a whim… and yeah. Playing Super Robot Wars is now my favorite time-killer at work.

Back to the 'powerhouse' thing… I can play Monster Hunter Freedom Unite via PPSSPP without slowdown. That seriously surprised me, all things considered.

The available DS emulators do a crappy job by comparison; slow as heck.

So yeah… great little device. Got it for the equivalent of $80, which is less than I bought my DS Lite for. Very happy with it, and I may even try harder to develop stuff for Android platforms now that I have a device to play around with.

Ludum Dare plans

So yeah… found out about LD yesterday, and decided to enter again. Mostly because I have this severe urge to make something that isn't related to my job.

Of course, I tend to feel pretty burnt out on weekends. But I'm planning on taking things slowly. I'll shoot lower than usual; make a 1-screen game or something like that, but do it as well as I can.

I intend to use C++; I've been practicing a bunch of rapid (And messy) development techniques using the new C++11 features. Lambdas and auto make for an easy method of passing game logic around dynamically.

Oh, and something about Pokemon ORAS

No, I haven't played it. I don't even have a 3DS. Wouldn't mind getting one though, because I especially want to play this game (Sapphire was the second Pokemon game I ever played, and one I still have good memories of, despite the naysayers).

The other day, a friend of mine introduced me to this:

That friend and I were talking about how this theme sounds somewhat metal for a Pokemon game; sounds more like something out of Super Robot Wars, Street Fighter… that kinda thing.

I jokingly said I'd have to make a Mega Gallade Mecha mockup… and actually started work on that:

Well, that's enough out of me. Got work tomorrow, so I need my rest.

Comments

flashback 9 years, 5 months ago

Wow, KitKat on 512MB of RAM? I am surprised that runs well. It absolutely chugs on my hacked Nook HD+.

Cpsgames 9 years, 5 months ago

Quote:
The available DS emulators do a crappy job by comparison; slow as heck.

Have you tried Drastic? It's probably the best of them all. No slow downs with everything I've run on it.

Acid 9 years, 5 months ago

Definitely impressed by that little thing myself. I have a Kindle Fire HD 2013 that I rooted but there's no working Kernels for custom firmware at the moment. I'll throw wharever open version of android is available once someone with more time than me gets around to fully hacking it.

I have an iPad mini 2 that I use a lot instead, but the Kindle is an impressive piece of hardware for the $100 I paid for it.

Astryl 9 years, 5 months ago

@flashback: Yeah, the system is only using about 80MB of RAM in total, it's pretty speedy. :P

@Cpsgames: No, I haven't tried it yet. I'll take a look at it later. Thanks!

EDIT: Lambdas. Love 'em.

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    GWindow::getInstance().run([](sf::RenderWindow& win){
        win.clear(sf::Color(128,0,0));
        win.display();
    },
    [](sf::RenderWindow& win, sf::Event event){
        if(event.type == sf::Event::Closed) {
            win.close();
        }
    });
	return 0;
}