Anecdote about my digital music players

tl;dr: I'm going through a little nostalgia for (of all things) "MP3 players" (hereafter, digital audio player, or DAP).

As a category of devices, digital audio players only really existed for about 20 years, and they all but ceased to be popular consumer electronics in 2007, when the iPhone launched and popularized the concept of folding jukebox capabilities into phones (though many "feature" phones and PDAs had already been doing so for a few years). It took a little while for the devices to stop appearing on most store shelves, but nowadays the only ones worth using are traded on eBay and similar sites or forum groups.

My first MP3 players included my Palm Zire 71 (which required third-party software and an SD card) and a Craig device (which had 256 MB of internal flash storage, and no card slot); but my first "proper" DAP was a SanDisk Sansa c250 - gifted to me for my birthday in September 2007. I loved it - especially since it had 2 GB of built-in storage and a microSD slot for more, plus the fact that I could save my Zire's battery for other things - but after only three months with it, I found myself frustrated with the deeply-flawed shuffle feature and started seeking a fix for it.

And in December 2007, I found Rockbox.

Rockbox is an open-source firmware replacement for DAPs - including most non-Touch iPods - and it introduced me to a project and community through which I learned a LOT of Linux basics, some development fundamentals (I even wrote a section for the manual in LaTeX), and a few other things; I also made some very good friends.

Oh, and I turned my c250 into a powerhouse. Barring some issues with charging and USB transfers (which would be ironed out over time), installing Rockbox was an improvement in every way. It could play more file formats, it had a built-in file browser, customizable themes, simple utilities (like a calculator or stopwatch), games (like a Tetris clone!!), and way more settings than one could shake a stick at.

And yes, Rockbox's shuffle feature worked much better. I used it on every DAP I could since, and still do on the ones I still have.

Time has flown by since. When I got my first smartphone, eventually I started just using that instead of a dedicated MP3 player to listen to music, since it was more convenient to carry just the phone, more convenient to manage one portable music library, and more convenient to charge fewer devices. My current phone has no microSD slot, so right now I rely heavily on streaming/pre-downloading from Google Play Music, but that has its own share of frustrations - so sometimes, I break out the old phone, or even an old DAP, to listen to music instead.

Although the batteries in the DAPs have aged heavily and most of them no longer hold a significant charge. :(

Anyway, if you read all the way to this point, thanks for sticking with me. Feel free to share some of your memories of using MP3 players you may have!

Wizorb review

Note: the following review was copy-pasted from my Steam review.

You should try Wizorb if you've ever played Breakout/Arkanoid/clones and thought, "Yeah, this is okay, but I'd rather play something else." And if you would PREFER to play those over other games, buy this right now. Even if it's not on sale. I mean, c'mon, it's three bucks!

For me, a lot of Breakout games become frustrating or dull, primarily because of choke points in level designs. This game has some of those, but it also gives you *permanent* tools for dealing with them, instead of forcing you to pray for a power-up. True, you have a usage meter that restricts how much/often you can use them, but refills come often enough (at least early on) that it's not too aggravating. You can shoot out bricks, bring in some wind, make the ball plow through breakable bricks (as opposed to the normal bouncing), and straight-up move the ball to where you want. Each technique consumes more of your magic meter, but you otherwise have total control over when you want to activate them.

Plus, there are shops in some levels (which are often locked, but you can unlock them by touching the door with the ball while you possess a key; or just hit a switch) and bonus areas in others. Each offer potions to refill your magic meter, extra lives, stuff like that. Also, at the starting village, you can donate money to the citizens to help them rebuild from a monster raid, which I'm guessing will result in rewards and shops later on.

The levels sets can drag on a bit, but you're given continues for if you run out of lives (you simply restart the current level if you need to use one), and you can save and quit in the middle of a set. Each set ends with a boss fight, and I like how these play out! The first one, at least, has no bricks - just two basic monsters and one large monster with a simple attack pattern. Although I won with ease, it was an engaging first fight, and it leaves me eager to see what's in store.

The game has keyboard controls, but the paddle moves too slowly to catch the ball once it speeds up enough (the ball gets faster the longer it's in play). I strongly recommend a mouse - or a TrackPoint (pointing stick), if you have a laptop with one. (Touchpad players need not apply.)

I really like the visual design. The sprites are fluidly animated, yet the color pallete is reminiscent of 8-bit game machines (I think of the NES, but YMMV). The frame rate is pretty smooth on my 2009 ThinkPad, never stuttering in my 45-minute first play. However, I don't care much for the music (part of that is surely just my tastes, but there are plenty of 8-bittish chiptunes that I've enjoyed over the years; this game's just aren't among them), so I guess this is a good game to utilize Steam's music player with if you find yourself agreeing with me. (You can adjust the game's music and sound effect volumes separately.)

Also, cross-platform support (especially for Linux!) is a big plus in my book. And like I said, the game's cheap. Give it a shot!

Wizorb on Steam