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Health update and the hospital handheldsPost 00053 | October 13th 2024… And I’m back! I hope I didn’t leave anyone worried in my absence. The fact of the matter is that I have been keeping extraordinarily busy this past month. Between training with a physical therapist twice a week and going to the hospital every other week for checkups and getting started with my medication, there hasn’t really been much time for my usual lazying about. The days of letting sick people stay in bed all day are apparently over… That said, I can definitely feel that it is paying off. When I was admitted to the hospital, I could barely walk; Instead I kind of lifted a hip and threw my leg forward. I didn’t want to stray too far from the wall, as I wanted something to lean on when I inevitably lost my balance. The PT got me started with a cane, which made a world of difference - I could suddenly stand in the middle of a room! I could go to the shops, and comfortably stand in a queue without people thinking I was a swaying drunkard about to pass out. It was absolutely amazing. I would walk till my legs got numb. Every day I was able to go just a little further, with a little more confidence in my gait. Eventually, I would start to subconsciously forget my cane when leaving, and eventually after that, I would not go back to pick it up. Now I only bring it on longer walks (and only use it if I feel I need to) and to the shops where there’s a lot of standing still which can still produce a bit of swaying. My gait has also massively improved. At first when I started walking again, I would overstretch to lock my knee joint to avoid collapsing from my weak legs. While it worked, it wasn’t healthy, or for that matter confidence-inspiring to look at. We have been gradually working on getting rid of this habit, which is also staring to show. It’s so wonderful hearing a coworker exclaim how great it is to see me, “walking up a staircase like that” and such. It sounds a bit patronising but I’ll take it. In general, it’s so uplifting to meet people who were visibly worried about me a month ago now meet me with the biggest of smiles. It really makes such a difference. Also, as I alluded to earlier, I have started my medication. It’s a pen, like those diabetes patient get with insulin, that I am to take every month (though every week during the first month). It weeds out my immune system, basically disabling the cells that can attack my nervous system. It’s a fairly idiot-proof mechanism. I just plonk into my thigh or belly and the needle pops out with a click. When it clicks again, the needle pops back in the pen. At no point to do you get to see the needle. There are no side-effects worthy to mention: I get a light headache and blush like crazy for the rest of the day. All in all, the only negative thing about the pen is the price. It looks like the hospital pays about €2000 per pen! I am eternally grateful that I have not had to get my wallet out to pay for it, I do feel somewhat ashamed that I am not a net profit for my country. That said, as my PT pointed out: I would a lot more of a strain on society if I relapsed further to the point where I couldn’t work, walk or even do anything without assistance. Anyway, tonight is the first time I am to take my medication at home (at €2000 a pop, its fair enough that the hospital staff wanted to make sure I was able to use them properly before letting me take some home). Speaking of hospitals, before I got into the training regime, I had started writing about the handhelds I brought along when I was hospitalised. This was my first time getting hospitalised, which was made evident with all the stuff I packed. I got the essentials like a toiletries, but packaged way too much clothing. I was also worried about being too far away from outlets which made me bring far too many power banks. In my defence, I only had ten minutes before my ride arrived to pick me up. In case you ever need a quick checklist:
I found myself playing a lot of Breath of Fire during my stay. Both consoles are sporting aftermarket SNES-style buttons from Etsy store sakuraretromodding Anbernic RG353VThis is actually a machine I have been using for a while. The RG353V features an RK3566 ARM processor which has comfortable run Dreamcast games and below (although it struggles with Nintendo 64 and Saturn games). It comes with Android 11 built in, but personally I prefer running it with ArkOS, which is a light-weight Linux distribution especially made for these kinds of devices. Apart from its Game Boy Color inspired form factor, its main attraction is the 3.5” 640x480 IPS screen which is great for the systems it can emulate. Dreamcast and some PlayStation games will be able to take full advantage of the resolution while 8 and 16-bit systems that ran at 240p or thereabouts can take advantage of a 2x integer scale with little to no wasted screen space. The RK3566 also has enough oomph to apply some lighter shaders to make the games look even better. The RG353V also comes with Wifi built-in, which brings a couple of features: First up, you can log into Retroachievements which is a community-based service, that lets you earn achievements in supported emulators. Also, and somewhat more importantly, you can use Syncthing to keep your game saves in sync across devices - perfect if you have a media centre set up with your TV at home but also want to continue playing on the go. ArkOS doesn’t come with Syncthing by default, but I have made a guide here how to install and set it up. What I love the most about these Linux devices though is how they invite for some homebrew tinkering. It kind of reminds me of when the PSP was first hacked; It almost became a competition to see who could bring the most out of little handheld. ArkOS comes with Kodi preinstalled, which is a media player which was initially created as a media centre for the original Xbox. It has tons of plug-ins and extensions that I don’t use, but I have transcoded some of my favourite TV series and anime so I can watch it on there. The 4x3 screen lends itself better to older shows, but in my experience, most widescreen content is perfectly viewable with a bit of cropping. As for pushing the hardware though, the Ports section is where it’s at. ArkOS comes with Portsmaster support which is essentially an App Store for homebrew and wrappers for commercial games. A lot of the games on Portmaster are free and runs out of the box, while the commercial games will require you to transfer a couple of files to the install folder yourself as an anti-piracy measure. This can of course be a little tedious, but the results speak for themselves; It’s was pretty amazing to see GTA Vice City booting up and running better than it usually does on a modern PC. Of course, there are a lot more modern games as well, and while some are crated for widescreen displays, there are some real gems in there. It’s definitely worth checking Portmaster out if you get the chance. Powkiddy RGB30In my ways there aren’t that many differences between the RG353V and this handheld as they both have a RK3566 processor. While it doesn’t support with Android, it has another ace up its sleeve: A gorgeous 4” square display with a resolution of 720 x 720. I thought it was the most ridiculous thing, but the more you think about it, the more it makes sense. Of course, the square display lends itself extremely well to Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, as they were already pretty close to being a square aspect ratio. Also, while console games would have been displayed in 4:3 on a CRT, internally the NES and SNES were rendering their graphics in 7:8, which is a lot closer to the square aspect ratio. It doesn’t seem like there is any consensus among on which is “correct” aspect ratio; People who grew up with CRTs tend to prefer 4:3 while people who grew up with emulators were used to 7:8. Furthermore, not all developers took it into consideration that graphics would be stretched when displayed on a TV. If you ever see a circle that looks slightly oblong in a NES or SNES game, now you know what’s going on. A final benefit of the square screen are vertical arcade games. They won’t fill up the screen, but they will fill up as much of the screen as they would with a horizontal game. The controls also feel very nice on the RGB30. While the Anbernic has a characteristically firm D-pad, the one on the RGB30 feels a lot more like a worn D-pad on a retro console. Being a horizontal console, it feels a lot less cramped than the Anbernic, and as the processor is further away from your hands, it doesn’t get as warm to the touch when playing either. I can’t decide if this point is a good or a bad thing, but I would be amiss if I didn’t point out the RGB30 is slightly cheaper. This cost comes at a cost though: There’s no Android support, and the console needs a few modifications in order for it to reach its true potential:
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