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[jshackles]

One of the biggest complaints I've seen over the years about Retro Achievements is that you have to be online to be able to unlock them. Well, for the first time ever that is changing thanks to the MelonDS dev working with the Retro Achievements team to support offline achievements. Details here:

Offline RetroAchievements have now been unlocked: Here's how they work

🏆 Hello and welcome to a special edition of The Memory Core newsletter! This one is all about RetroAchievements, which is on the cusp of unlocking offline achievements for the first time. And I played a (vanishingly) small role in making it happen! I spent the past few days testing an

www.thememorycore.com

and more info here:

Release melonDS-android v0.6.0 · SapphireRhodonite/melonDS-android

RetroAchievements Offline (Softcore) + Hardcore Reliability Version 0.6.0 introduces full RetroAchievements offline support for Softcore, plus a much more reliable submission / retry flow for Hardc...

github.com

Offline Achievements: Softcore

You can now unlock achievements while offline in Softcore mode.

Requirement (first-time online)

To use Softcore offline, you must open the game at least once with internet so melonDS can fetch and cache the achievement set + conditions.
After that, you can go offline and achievements will still be evaluated and queued.

What you'll see in the UI

• If you launch a game without internet, melonDS runs as Softcore Offline (Hardcore is disabled if there's no internet at start).
• If you have pending Softcore unlocks, the game launch flow can show a prompt asking if you want to sync.
• Achievements that are queued offline are marked "In ledger" in the achievement UI (ROM details + in-game list).

Syncing offline unlocks (Softcore)

You can sync pending Softcore unlocks in two ways:

1. Per-game settings → RetroAchievements tab → Sync now
2. On game launch, melonDS will show a message if it detects pending sync work

Pretty exciting stuff for those of us that like to game on the go.

 

[Yoshichan]

Cheating will become a thing now

 

[jshackles]

Cheating will become a thing now

Per the article, this will store the values in an immutable keystore (TPM and similar) on the device to prevent tampering. It's also for softcore-only achievements anyway which can already have cheats enabled in the emulator, so I doubt anyone would really care to even try. This doesn't support their leaderboard functionality either so

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

"Softcore Mode"

Lel. But hey, this is pretty cool feature. Kinda stopped chasing retro achievements because I'd always be logged out and didn't feel like manually logging back in every time. If this can get around that, no reason to not have it on and just like the achievements track.

Would be nice if the program could detect progress for an in-progress game and retroactively unlock achievements the player may've gotten when not logged in or using the app previously, tho.

 

[MidGenRefresh]

Achievements are lame.

P.S. I'm not taking any questions at this time.

 

[graywolf323]

about freaking time, it was honestly one of the dumbest parts of Retro Achievements IMO

I mean I love the idea but so often if I'm gaming on my retro handheld, I'm not at home on wifi…