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A few years ago I bought the Android version of Bully, one of the better GTA games. It's kind of charming to play a hooligan when instead of murdering people and smashing cars you're just riding around on a bike and throwing eggs at grown-ups. I tried to reinstall it on my new phone recently and it just crashes back to the app launcher instantly. Doesn't even get to a load screen. The app page is completely bombed with 1-star reviews because apparently it has been this way for the last two versions of Android and Rockstar hasn't seen fit to patch it. Just a completely non-functional piece of paid software. Awesome
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Feb 21, 2022 18:03
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| # ? May 15, 2024 02:24 |
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you already bought the game and your purchase contributed to the revenue during the quarter in which it was released. why would rockstar update it for you for free? 
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Feb 21, 2022 18:19
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Goes to show what a nightmare it is to release something for Android. No guarantees that anything will work in the next version, and you don't want to break compatibility with devices that are already running it just fine. And if you release any changes or updates, you have to compile it with a recent API (for now, it's Android 10, released in 2019): https://developer.android.com/google/play/requirements/target-sdk Which means fhat undoubtedly something will fail to compile, or behave differently, or will stop working on older devices. And you have to go through the whole QA and release rigamarole. No product manager would put their career om the line for the mobile version of Bully. RockStar would rather just pull it off the shelf than update it, I'm sure. Compared to Windows, I'm sure there are still some indie games that would run just fine on Windows XP or 7. World of Warcraft will still run on Windows 7. And DOS games are still quite prevalent on GoG. sb hermit fucked around with this message at 19:00 on Feb 21, 2022 |
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Feb 21, 2022 18:57
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Sagebrush posted:A few years ago I bought the Android version of Bully, one of the better GTA games. It's kind of charming to play a hooligan when instead of murdering people and smashing cars you're just riding around on a bike and throwing eggs at grown-ups. Bully's OST has no business being so good e: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M2BBHoiUDc
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Feb 21, 2022 19:11
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I think the best that would happen is if there was some sort of streaming service so that the code didn't have to sit on the actual android device. Like a service that RockStar could use, where they just have to do the back end that runs on a server, and the front end client could be developed by Google, so that only Google has to worry about API changes. And RockStar would be encouraged to maintain the backend because they get a cut of a subscription service that Google would sell to consumers in a Netflix-like all-you-can-eat service. Or Google could just hire some better architects and developers and stop forcing upgrades, but that's not gonna happen. They would probably prefer programs getting recompiled on the reg so that it uses yet another compiler feature or another system architecture or some other crazy new tech. Actually, now that I think about it, I bet the real problem is that JNI libraries have to include 64-bit versions. That would probably screw up the tooling if the game is old enough. That's a crap ton of work if they have to source some new binaries because they use a proprietary tech they got from someone else.
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Feb 21, 2022 19:12
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The exact same poo poo happens on iOS. there is no good phone os.
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Feb 21, 2022 19:38
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My Pixel 3a (released in 2019), which I've purchased new, is about to enter EOL in May. On the other hand, I have a hand-me-down iPhone 7 which I got at the start of the pandemic and is still going strong (the pixel is my daily driver and the iphone is used for miscellaneous things). Now, I'm gonna have to retire my pixel and start using the iPhone as a daily driver and it really hammers home how dumb android is. Oh, and fun fact: I had to buy my pixel because I accidentally put my iPhone 6S (released 2015) in the wash. And the iPhone 6S is STILL compatible with the latest iOS, 15.2. I know that google is making inroads into making it easier to support phones for a longer lifespan but, for now, Apple has Google clearly beat.
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Feb 21, 2022 20:20
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Jenny Agutter posted:The exact same poo poo happens on iOS. there is no good phone os. That's very true. I don't fault any developers for choosing to develop an app that uses web browser rendering because of app api idiocy.
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Feb 21, 2022 20:22
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the web browser rendering stuff is even worse unless you're just making straight up mobile websites. it's all the same garbage of the api changes coupled with another layer of terrible "bridge" adapters 
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Feb 21, 2022 20:31
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Jenny Agutter posted:The exact same poo poo happens on iOS. there is no good phone os. at least ios eventually tells you the app no longer works on your phone. there's several old apps that plain won't install, in my purchase history. if they're still on the device they show 'needs to be updated' with a keep or delete option not that the experience is great. it's better than leaving a pile of languishing apps for people to buy then refund when they find out it hasn't worked for several years, i suppose, but it's disappointing to find an otherwise undemanding game is now unplayable
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Feb 22, 2022 07:45
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yeah, though ultimately it has never really been a thing that any game gets long-term support unless you are paying some subscription. only real reason games often keep working on some platforms (windows, consoles) is the platform not breaking backwards compatibility (through engineering effort or through simply updating extremely conservatively in general). which i think is fair enough for the most part, the expectation that the much larger and more expensive/valuable body of software, all things that can run on the platform, should onboard the compatibility responsibility themselves is mostly the wrong way around. to some extent anyway.
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Feb 22, 2022 11:41
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Agile Vector posted:at least ios eventually tells you the app no longer works on your phone. there's several old apps that plain won't install, in my purchase history. if they're still on the device they show 'needs to be updated' with a keep or delete option eventually I guess, but I have apps on my phone that just don’t work when you start them, chief among them ridiculous fishing which was critically acclaimed when it was released. there’s at least some effort at preservation, https://gameclub.io/, but it sucks that there are generations of games that just are not playable anymore. Android has fast pc emulators, can you set up anything similar for iOS?
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Feb 22, 2022 13:15
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not that i know of, which means that, yeah, those ios games are gone unless you have an old device i ran into the same issues looking up old games like zen bound, which you can't even view the listing for historic reference. others were in the same games club group, but sometimes rehosted without a change to the old version (fargoal, versus the modified spider: the secret of bryce manor) at least a few made the shift to a console, like zen bound 2, so there's a chance at future emulation or backwards compatibility. in this case, the developer also brought it to windows and mac via steam
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Feb 22, 2022 13:36
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Cybernetic Vermin posted:yeah, though ultimately it has never really been a thing that any game gets long-term support unless you are paying some subscription. only real reason games often keep working on some platforms (windows, consoles) is the platform not breaking backwards compatibility (through engineering effort or through simply updating extremely conservatively in general). even windows isn't great about this. there's plenty of games you can technically get to run, but the experience will be poo poo since it hasn't been updated to run on anything more modern than when it was launched. this is better than simply not running, but barely
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Feb 22, 2022 14:37
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sb hermit posted:I think the best that would happen is if there was some sort of streaming service so that the code didn't have to sit on the actual android device. stadia for apps????
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Feb 22, 2022 15:12
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Cybernetic Vermin posted:yeah, though ultimately it has never really been a thing that any game gets long-term support unless you are paying some subscription. only real reason games often keep working on some platforms (windows, consoles) is the platform not breaking backwards compatibility (through engineering effort or through simply updating extremely conservatively in general). though the main examples of “walled gardens” are gaming consoles and part of the point of the certifications process for games there is so that they will continue to run for the life of the console despite updates. however, consoles do not promise compatibility between hardware generations and it’s generally a selling point and limited to certain games when it does happen. I’m not sure how that would translate to phones
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Feb 22, 2022 15:24
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goblin week posted:stadia for apps???? Yes, that was the joke. Or at least, just Stadia itself.
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Feb 22, 2022 18:28
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Agile Vector posted:at least ios eventually tells you the app no longer works on your phone. there's several old apps that plain won't install, in my purchase history. if they're still on the device they show 'needs to be updated' with a keep or delete option that's specifically for 32-bit apps which were never upgraded to 64-bit. it's not a general upper bound of supported ios version feature.
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Feb 22, 2022 18:39
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if ios would remove the walled garden poo poo and let me sideload things i'd probably drop android in a heartbeat (other than using google fi because it's cheap as poo poo for someone who uses little data)sb hermit posted:I know that google is making inroads into making it easier to support phones for a longer lifespan but, for now, Apple has Google clearly beat. this falls flat because, as you mention, google's own phones don't even see updates for more than two years or so. they could easily support pixel hardware for longer, it's just that google has the attention span of a toddler
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Feb 23, 2022 18:26
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i hope they never drop it tbf with that said what are you looking for app wise? is it something you can’t build and instal via xcode on your personal device?
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Feb 23, 2022 18:35
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Zamujasa posted:this falls flat because, as you mention, google's own phones don't even see updates for more than two years or so. they could easily support pixel hardware for longer, it's just that google has the attention span of a toddler
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Feb 23, 2022 18:42
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mediaphage posted:i hope they never drop it tbf the walled garden poo poo is dumb as hell and this thread has multiple examples of why that said i'm not going to go through the trouble of setting up an entire environment to build and install apps on a phone when the current alternative is a far simpler and less hostile "toggle a checkbox on, install, toggle the checkbox off"
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Feb 23, 2022 18:50
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the only people i see moaning about walled garden stuff are android powerusers, like who gives a gently caress if you can't play your sonics hedgehog games on every device you own
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Feb 23, 2022 19:00
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Zamujasa posted:this falls flat because, as you mention, google's own phones don't even see updates for more than two years or so. they could easily support pixel hardware for longer, it's just that google has the attention span of a toddler Google has google branded phones but they're not manufactured by them. The pixel 3a is manufactured by Foxconn, and uses a Qualcomm SOC. And the real issue is Qualcomm refusing to provide updated software for newer android releases. The new changes for gki and related solutions are still being implemented, but hopefully in the end it will greatly reduce dependence on Qualcomm so that vendors are better equipped to release newer software at a faster cadence on a long term basis. So I'm gonna give google the benefit of the doubt here. They wouldn't be plowing all these engineering resources into this thing for no reason. But changes like longer support terms will probably take awhile to show up. And it would probably be nice if the device hardware actually lasted longer than 3 years for once.
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Feb 23, 2022 20:38
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Zamujasa posted:if ios would remove the walled garden poo poo and let me sideload things i'd probably drop android in a heartbeat (other than using google fi because it's cheap as poo poo for someone who uses little data) you can side load using altstore, there is an 10 app limit and it has to be refreshed every 7 days, but you can run emulators
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Feb 23, 2022 20:47
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sb hermit posted:So I'm gonna give google the benefit of the doubt here. They wouldn't be plowing all these engineering resources into this thing for no reason. But changes like longer support terms will probably take awhile to show up. And it would probably be nice if the device hardware actually lasted longer than 3 years for once. if you pay a vendor to build something you sell directly with your name on it maybe like pay attention to how it will come out and don’t just go “oh ok” when they tell you it’ll be the same poo poo as everybody else?
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Feb 23, 2022 21:25
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sb hermit posted:So I'm gonna give google the benefit of the doubt here. They wouldn't be plowing all these engineering resources into this thing for no reason. But changes like longer support terms will probably take awhile to show up.
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Feb 23, 2022 21:28
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sb hermit posted:So I'm gonna give google the benefit of the doubt here. They wouldn't be plowing all these engineering resources into this thing for no reason. lol. lmao.
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Feb 23, 2022 21:41
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google, well known for not dumping resources into projects that have no payoff the angry ghosts of motorola and htc just wailing away in the background there
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Feb 23, 2022 21:43
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sb hermit posted:Google has google branded phones but they're not manufactured by them. The pixel 3a is manufactured by Foxconn, and uses a Qualcomm SOC. And the real issue is Qualcomm refusing to provide updated software for newer android releases. go back to iyg
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Feb 24, 2022 03:20
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I’m sure the next android will get 7+ years of support like Apple they’ve only had 11 years to figure it out
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Feb 24, 2022 03:50
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Perplx posted:I’m sure the next android will get 7+ years of support like Apple they might do it if support is delivered by a new chat app.
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Feb 24, 2022 04:52
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Perplx posted:you can side load using altstore, there is an 10 app limit and it has to be refreshed every 7 days, but you can run emulators of all things i use poo poo like droidsound-e for weird / obscure music players, torque + an obd adapter, and some other odds and ends. i don't actually have any emulators on my phone. and even if i did, who gives a poo poo Midjack posted:they might do it if support is delivered by a new chat app. chat apps, the only thing google makes with less support than andoid 
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Feb 24, 2022 05:33
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sb hermit posted:So I'm gonna give google the benefit of the doubt here. They wouldn't be plowing all these engineering resources into this thing for no reason. lmao. angdoird Defend Your Purchase is in another subforum thanks
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Feb 24, 2022 06:26
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alright Mozilla seek to be committed to making Firefox on Android as bad as possible, stuff now randomly breaks or has defaults that can't be changed and half their docs are out of date since they moved to fenix or whatever it is. at the moment bookmarks won't load 80% of the time, I guess because it's loading them from their sync service or something? And every typed URL or opened favourite opens a new tab which it seems to be impossible to turn off and has been a bug for like 6 months so I end up with like 30 tabs open so I guess my question is, are there any other not garbage browsers anymore? years back I used Opera but lol at going back to that.
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Feb 24, 2022 17:52
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Powerful Two-Hander posted:alright Mozilla seek to be committed to making Firefox on Android as bad as possible, stuff now randomly breaks or has defaults that can't be changed and half their docs are out of date since they moved to fenix or whatever it is. at the moment bookmarks won't load 80% of the time, I guess because it's loading them from their sync service or something? And every typed URL or opened favourite opens a new tab which it seems to be impossible to turn off and has been a bug for like 6 months so I end up with like 30 tabs open edge. i mean, not a very satisfying an answer, but the least bad atm if you already exclude firefox.
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Feb 24, 2022 17:56
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opera gx, op. it'll go well with the rainbow leds on the asus rog phone
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Feb 24, 2022 18:09
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vivaldi might be the least bad at the moment
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Feb 24, 2022 22:45
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Uhhh are you talking about Android browsers? Because then try Samsung's, it has addins like AdBlock to make internet usable. The desktop Firefox works fine for me still. Otherwise I'd second Vivaldi out of the chromium stuff
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Feb 25, 2022 10:44
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Powerful Two-Hander posted:making Firefox on Android mobby_6kl posted:Uhhh are you talking about Android browsers? it is the thread for it. when i have to use android i just gave in and chomed
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Feb 25, 2022 13:14
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