Text
Ancients 1: The Death Watch was the first CRPG that I finished on my own. It has no sound, no map feature, combat is super clunky and random, graphics are ugly and gameplay was tedious… but I liked it. I spent *so* many hours glued to my uncle’s i386DX DOS PC until I killed Binatuus and Arulus, the main big bad evil guys who err… kidnapped a fairy? 🤨
Most of my time was spent cheesing the character creation until I had an overpowered party, and save scumming outside Lockleaven’s casino in order to afford gear.
Text
this is MIDI music from a really bad shareware disk that I had in the early 2000s. It has no right to go this hard.
Text
a retrospective on cave story i wrote for the 20th anniversary of its english translation in 2005*, putting it in context as part of the transition from the post-shareware limbo phase of independent game production to the indie boom.
Cave Story brought all of this development with it when it arrived on the shores of the players who would become indies. Its emphasis on depth over breadth in design can be considered a tendency of the doujin sphere as a whole, down to the handcoded sprinkler effect seen in just two areas of the game. There are essentially two ways a program can be impressive. It can either be a very large system with lots of moving parts that nonetheless hold together well, or it can be a very small, very subtle thing with a million different facets that become apparent only after you’ve seen it from as many different angles. Doujin gamemakers of the ‘80s and '90s, without the resources to make the first, tended toward the second, and by the time Cave Story had come out, they had become very good at it.
*this is a lie. it had actually been meant for the 20th anniversary of the cave story itself last year, but the scope of the project expanded. better late than never. this is actually me fitting the theme, if you think about it.
Text
failing brain implants and house falling apart
most things haven’t worked out, a science fiction novel
wondering what’s gone wrong with the economy and our society ? most things haven’t worked out is a gothic science fiction novel about brain implants romance and our breaking world
Michael has everything that many other mid-level corporate managers have, a devoted professional wife, a nice car, a job everyone wants, and a great home in a safe neighbourhood, all signs pointing to a life trending up. he also has a net-connected brain implant and a bad day at work that goes viral. not everything happens as expected, in fact most things haven’t worked out. a novel about love labour and loss in a future so near we may have already passed it, presenting a corporate world of wonder and misery where machines have a better chance of connecting with each other than people do
read the first 100 pages now for free (PDF, no account necessary just click the blue ‘download’ button): https://tinyurl.com/y6ke36fw
support the kickstarter (now live) to read the rest of the novel: https://kickstarter.com/projects/recycledcan/most-things-havent-worked-out-a-science-fiction-novel
Text
Something I keep thinking about in regards to the rise of American fascism is just how important shareware and decentralized online networks are.
Think about it. Imagine if the worst happens. What percent of online platforms and subscription software is an American company or relies on services like AWS? What happens when these companies don’t just enshitify, but are fully compromised by fascism?
Text
Ok guys this is kind of insane. I was looking into my online file hosting to post more stuff, and I realized I wasn’t using my main email for it. My main that I’ve had ever since I was like 6 years old. So I try to check if I have an account, and try to reset my password
AND I FIND THIS. A bunch of emulators from 2012 that I uploaded myself way back then, over 10 years ago when I was active on hispanic gaming forums
Even all that time ago when I was 12, I was already sharing games online. This is a tiny treasure of a time capsule