ASUS ROG Ally

[Spalls Hurgenson]

I'm not a fan of hand-held devices. Be it the Nintendo Gameboy, the
Atari Jaguar, the Sony Playstation Portable, the Valve's Steam Deck,
or ASUS's new handheld PC, the ROG Ally, I'm not the market for these
devices*. I just don't find playing games on them very comfortable or
even much fun. They just make too many compromises on the altar of
portability: the tiny screen, the short battery life, limited storage,
cramped controls, limited operating systems.

It's not that I'm opposed to mobile gaming on the whole, but the games
I play 'on-the-go' tend to be developed around the limitations of the
device, intended for quick 'pick-me-up' sessions that last five to ten
minutes at a time. But devices like the Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck
are intended to be played on for longer periods, and I just don't find
that enjoyable.

But I get I'm probably in the minority on that one, and I'm not really
trying to discourage anyone from enjoying them.

Still, I can't help but be impressed by the performance of these new
devices; the ASUS ROG Ally is an incredibly powerful machine for
something jammed into such a tiny package. Quite honestly, I could see
buying a machine like the Ally simply to be used as a tiny desktop PC
plugged into a full-sized monitor and keyboard. Were ASUS to release a
model with more connectivity options but stripped of screen and
battery, I'd think I'd buy one (especially if that excess space was
used to up the device's performance). I can imagine strapping one of
these units to the back of my living room TV for some quick
couch-based gaming.

Just don't make me play holding the whole machine in my hand.



-----
* even if I own a number of them. ;-P

[rms]

>Just don't make me play holding the whole machine in my hand.

What then do you think of that PS5 peripheral, which looks like just a
screen & controller? Should be light-weight and less of a chore to hold.
Is there anything comparable for a pc?

rms

[Werner P.]

Am 27.05.23 um 18:21 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:

>
> I'm not a fan of hand-held devices. Be it the Nintendo Gameboy, the
> Atari Jaguar, the Sony Playstation Portable, the Valve's Steam Deck,
> or ASUS's new handheld PC, the ROG Ally, I'm not the market for these
> devices*. I just don't find playing games on them very comfortable or
> even much fun. They just make too many compromises on the altar of
> portability: the tiny screen, the short battery life, limited storage,
> cramped controls, limited operating systems.
>

Performance unfortunately is not everything, most of those devices do
not get it
that if you just lump a mobile phone factory with an xbox controller
together you basically limit the device to controller games.
Steam has done a ton of things right with the deck given their
experience and failures of the steam controller in this area and it
shows. I have the feeling that the Deck basically was designed actually
by people playing games while devices like the Asus one basically just
are blueprint designs of laptop designers not playing games.

[Werner P.]

Am 27.05.23 um 19:54 schrieb rms:

>
>   What then do you think of that PS5 peripheral, which looks like just
> a screen & controller?  Should be light-weight and less of a chore to
> hold. Is there anything comparable for a pc?

You basically can put an open source client on any mobile pc device and
do the same. PS5 streaming has been available for notebooks via the sony
client or for instance the deck via an open source tool now for quite a
while.
The sony device has one advantage, it is cheap and it does not need an
extra software install to get the functionality running.

[Zaghadka]

On Sat, 27 May 2023 12:21:53 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

>It's not that I'm opposed to mobile gaming on the whole, but the games
>I play 'on-the-go' tend to be developed around the limitations of the
>device, intended for quick 'pick-me-up' sessions that last five to ten
>minutes at a time. But devices like the Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck
>are intended to be played on for longer periods, and I just don't find
>that enjoyable.

Me neither. But a Switch is awesome when you are on a train or at a place
with no TV. Very portable, impressive screen, good battery life.

So if I'm desperate enough for a game, I'll use it that way. Otherwise it
is always parked in its dock. I prefer couch for my consoles,
office/gaming chair for my PC master racing.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

[rms]

>You basically can put an open source client on any mobile pc device and do
>the same. PS5 streaming has been available for notebooks via the sony
>client or for instance the deck via an open source tool now for quite a
>while.

I just read elsewhere that PlayStation Plus Premium will let you stream
PS games without needing an actual PS5, pretty neat.

rms

[Justisaur]

Oh wow! I need to look into that. There's at least the Fromsoft games I'd
like to play that never made it to PC.

- Justisaur

[JAB]

On 27/05/2023 17:21, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> I'm not a fan of hand-held devices. Be it the Nintendo Gameboy, the
> Atari Jaguar, the Sony Playstation Portable, the Valve's Steam Deck,
> or ASUS's new handheld PC, the ROG Ally, I'm not the market for these
> devices*. I just don't find playing games on them very comfortable or
> even much fun. They just make too many compromises on the altar of
> portability: the tiny screen, the short battery life, limited storage,
> cramped controls, limited operating systems.
>
> It's not that I'm opposed to mobile gaming on the whole, but the games
> I play 'on-the-go' tend to be developed around the limitations of the
> device, intended for quick 'pick-me-up' sessions that last five to ten
> minutes at a time. But devices like the Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck
> are intended to be played on for longer periods, and I just don't find
> that enjoyable.
>
> But I get I'm probably in the minority on that one, and I'm not really
> trying to discourage anyone from enjoying them.

I'm very much in the same camp and although I do play games on my iPad
they tend to be either match 3 or choose your own adventures. The latter
I really wish there was more quality ones that took the concept but made
it more this is what you can do with a computer instead of this is a
digital version of a game book. Two examples of this, both by Inkle, are
80 Days and Overboard.

Like you, the problem I find is that twenty mins is generally my maximum
mobile gaming time before I end up doing something else. I've never
really know why that is as I can quite happily read a book for one hour
and still not put it down, well unless it's for a cup of tea!

[Anssi Saari]

"rms" <rsqui...@MOOflashMOO.net> writes:

> I just read elsewhere that PlayStation Plus Premium will let you
> stream PS games without needing an actual PS5, pretty neat.

Seems like the solution to my little Horizon Forbidden West™ problem. I
don't really want to buy a PS5 for one game and the availability of the
consoles is still a little poor. And since I'm pretty picky about games
anyways it's a decent chance I wouldn't find anything else interesting
to play with a PS5.

Paying the subscription for a month or two seems like a decent deal. I
wonder if I can play with my near-ancient Xbox 360 controller though.

[rms]

>I wonder if I can play with my near-ancient Xbox 360 controller though.

Very good question, might be game-dependent, but I'd research it first

rms

[Justisaur]

Apparently yes. Here's a video on how to do it. Warning, I didn't watch
much of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JARgdD5jZc

I'm not sure I'll get around to trying it out as there's so many games
I want to play that aren't exclusive to PS.

- Justisaur

[Anssi Saari]

Justisaur <just...@gmail.com> writes:

> Apparently yes. Here's a video on how to do it. Warning, I didn't watch
> much of it.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JARgdD5jZc

Thanks, so apparently there's an emulator software which makes it
possible to map the features (like touchpads) a non-dualshock controller
might lack to something else. Worth a try although I'm not really averse
to buying a Sony controller. I think I've got my money's worth from the
old Xbox 360 controller a few times over by now...