Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

March 2026's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games.

Does anyone have experience with any of the games and, if so, would you recommend them? Is there anything in here that you're particularly excited to play?

Lately I’ve been experimenting with different desktop monitor setups, primarily for productivity-focused work as a systems engineer (coding, writing docs, Slack, email, terminals, etc.). Over the past few years, I’ve rotated through:
• 3× 24” 1080p monitors
• 2× 24” 1080p monitors + laptop display
• 1× 32” 4K monitor + laptop display
• 1× 32” 4K monitor
• Laptop display only (on a stand)

Surprisingly, I’ve found that I feel the most focused and productive when I use only my laptop display and rely on Alt-Tab to switch between apps.

With larger monitors or multiple displays I start to feel scattered. It almost turns into sensory overload, and my focus drops off.

Has anyone else experienced this? Do you find that larger or multiple monitors decrease your productivity? What setup works best for you?

This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

Introduction

switches to a dramatic music

Once upon a time, aboard a humble and perpetually cursed train, you unraveled its hidden mysteries and stumbled upon a battered yet magnificent vessel, the fabled Epoch, known to drift through the rivers of time.

With courage and a bit of chaos, you wrestled with its failing gears, tumbling through one strange era after another, from glittering ages of kings and heroes to worlds of shaky shapes and flickering lights. When at last the poor machine gave out, it left you stranded upon a world that shimmered with hope, one where humans could live once more.

But strength alone could not carry you through. Words held the power to wound anyone, and with a talking boat as your guide, you braved vast and endless seas. Along your travels, you witnessed wonders beyond counting: dazzling sunsets, curious creatures, and riddles that twisted like waves upon the ocean breeze.

One day, your voyage brought you to an island grander than imagination, crowned with towers of steel and roads that roared with life. Here, you discovered a new kind of magic: a gleaming machine called a car, and a city that pulsed with speed, shining light and the ability to snatch vehicle parts. Against all odds, you mastered the art of racing, earning cheers from strangers and respect from rivals.

And how did such triumph end? With celebration, of course! A raucous party full of laughter, music, and friends who toasted your name. Yet among the clinking cups and glowing lamps, one curious drink caught your eye; warm, green, and gleaming like liquid emerald. "Nothing to worry about!" you said with a grin, before the world began to swirl and fade...

When next you opened your eyes, you awoke in a quiet hospital filled with echoes of distant wars. Your reflection showed smooth, unblemished hands, your face untouched by time. Days passed before truth finally dawned, the doctor's wild tale was no fantasy.

"WHAAT?!"

You had been reborn as the Prince of Sablé, bound for the Millefeuille Kingdom in search of the boastful Prince Richard and the princess who vanished by his side. Ahead lay a land of talking frogs, slithering foes, glittering treasures, and tests of both heart and wit. So begins your tale, of friendship, rivalry, and a destiny spun from courage and wealth.

Welcome, noble traveler, to the world of wonder and whimsy of...

Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls)

IN GAME BOYS 2026.03.01

switches to a much, much less dramatic music

Aaaaaand that's enough wacky storytelling for now. Time to jump into my personal experiences!

My first brush with Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru came back in 2008, when I randomly pulled a Sabure Prince sticker in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. As years went by (and thanks to our good old broadband Internet), I started connecting the dots, especially after noticing all the interesting nods to this mysterious game hidden in Link's Awakening.

Remember that suave guy surrounded by frogs in a villa in the middle of nowhere? Yep, that's Prince Richard, and his appearance in Link's Awakening isn't just some random cameo.

In fact, Link's Awakening actually runs on a modified version of Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru's game engine. You can even see the connection in the way both games handle screen transitions between areas.

Fast-forward to October 2012: I imported a Japanese 3DS to get around the region lock and play Japan-only titles. The first thing I did? Jump onto the eShop and grab the original Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru.

I fumbled my way through the story with almost zero Japanese knowledge, relying on a GameFAQs guide to make sense of what was happening. It was charming and funny even then, though the language barrier definitely made me appreciate the idea of a second playthrough with a fan translation someday.

Around that time, I was also forcing myself to learn hiragana and katakana, mainly to understand what Gulliver (aka Johnny) was rambling about in the Japanese version of Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Reading the low-res Japanese text on a tiny screen was another story, though, it made telling certain characters apart a real challenge.

Jumping ahead to 2025, one of my two CGA suggestions for the voting thread surprisingly made it through in a three-way tie! Naturally, I fired up the English patch using the bgb emulator and revisited the game, doing some extra reading online along the way.

I even gave Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls a try to see what inspired the title. Honestly, though, I couldn't stick with it; the dense descriptions and grim themes of war stories just drained me. Two hours of reading for ten pages and remembering nothing? Not the best time. Still, it helped me appreciate how The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls borrows the title, then hops off in a totally different, more lighthearted direction.

This month, I'm planning another playthrough, this time the old-school way. A genuine DMG-CPU-07 Game Boy, pea-green screen, four fresh AA batteries, and a good light source. A full run only takes about six hours, so battery life won't be an issue.

With that, it's time to ribbit our way into Millefeuille Kingdom!

Game Information

Year of the release: 1992

Platforms: Game Boy

Genre(s): Action role-playing

Links: Mobygames, Wikipedia

Where to find the game:

• eBay (Original Release): Prices fluctuate due to the game's uncommon status. A loose cartridge is usually much cheaper than a Complete-in-Box copy (which includes the game, manual, and box).
• Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Classics: Game Boy App: The Japanese version of the app currently includes this title. You can access it by setting your Nintendo account region to Japan and having an active Nintendo Switch Online membership.
• Nintendo 3DS - Virtual Console: The game used to be available here, but since the 3DS eShop shut down in March 2023, it’s no longer accessible. Still worth mentioning for the sake of completeness.
• Sailing the Seven Seas: If you're comfortable navigating the more questionable parts of the internet (and the legal risks that come with it), this is another way people have found the game, though obviously not the recommended route.

Patching the Game in English

If you manage to acquire the game's ROM file, make sure its CRC32 checksum matches with C18CD57A before applying any translation patch. Then, apply them in that order:

1. ryanbgstl's English translation patch for the ROM
2. Hamikon's Addendum if you want a more faithful title logo

Can't get any ROM-patching program running? Feel free to use Marc Robledo's Rom Patcher JS website!

Game Setup

The main purpose of this topic is to get people up and running with the game. As such, it's recommended that you:

• Share what hardware you're playing it on
• Share if there are any tools/mods that you recommend
• Share anything you think is important for people to know before they start the game
• Ask questions if you need help

Another purpose of this topic is to revisit the game and its time period:

• Do you have any memories or associations with this game itself?
• What about its system or era?
• What aspects of retro gaming were common at the time?
• What other games from the same time period are you familiar with?
• What are you expecting from this game in particular?

Finally, this topic is the beginning discussion for people starting to play it:

• Post updates sharing your thoughts as you play.
• Ask for help if you get stuck.
• Offer help to others.

It is recommended that you reply to your own posts if you are making consecutive updates so that they are in the same thread.

IMPORTANT: Any links to the game should be legal distributions of the game only. Please do NOT link to any unauthorized copies.

IMPORTANT: Put any spoilers in a dropdown block. Copy/paste the block below if needed.

<details>
<summary>Spoilers</summary>

Spoiler text goes here.
</details>

FAQ

Without further ado, let's all pop the cartridge in, and power that chunky brick on!

> CONTINUE

(Credit to @Boojum for the splash screen. Can't dive deep into pixelated adventures without this masterpiece!)

I was never a wordle fanatic, but I am hooked on this Alphable game now https://geoffpevlin.com/games/alphable/. I also play https://cluesbysam.com/.

Do people know of other web-based (hopefully free) logic puzzles like these? I like the daily format, but wouldn't limit myself to that if there are others that are also interesting.

I've done all of the https://www.rustylake.com/ games too, which I quite enjoyed, but these types of puzzles require a little bit more time investment that I don't really have right now. (I also hated that some of the "logic" in those games did not seem to make sense to me, and I'd have to google the answer to continue with the game.)

I also like https://timeguessr.com/ but don't return to that one as frequently because I can't play it on my phone.

I really like in-person escape games but they are expensive and vary drastically in quality, so was very happy to find these types of games scratch that same itch.

The rules are as follows:

• If you can lift an object above your head unassisted, you can put it into your inventory.
• There is no limit in the total quantity, volume or weight of objects in your inventory.
• You can immediately store or produce a stored item to and from your inventory at will.
• Objects will remain in their original state when stored in an inventory. From their perspective, no time has passed.

Basically, where do you go online or on your phone when you just need a distraction and don't have the energy or mental bandwidth to read something in-depth? Games and apps are okay, too.

I appreciate the community and the quality of discussions that are had here on Tildes, but sometimes, I just want to veg. I basically want to scroll through a large supply of pictures, memes, short-form videos, but without the toxicity and manipulation that comes with the main social media platforms. I don't think I need to create a whole list, I think we all know what the main social media sites are to avoid.

And I also want to distinguish this topic from other "where do you get your news from" or "what are some interesting feeds you're subscribed to" topics. I'm looking for easily digestible and mostly positive/happy/funny things to consume. Where do you regularly turn to when you just want a distraction?

For me, the biggest is definitely Modern Baseball.

To set the scene, it's 2016, I was in high school, and a girl I was friends with told me about this band Modern Baseball. I liked them a lot, but I wasn't quite at my peak emo phase (that would come about a year later during my freshman year in college lol), so I didn't get super into them or anything. Anyways, a few months after that, MoBo came through our city on tour and that girl and one of our other friends literally offered to pay for my ticket to the concert if I DDed for them... and I said no.

Fast forward like 7 months and Modern Baseball goes on hiatus in early 2017, a hiatus that continues to this day, though they played a few one-off shows throughout 2017. Anyways, fall 2017 comes around and I listened to Modern Baseball more and realized I really liked them... but they're on hiatus and I missed my chance to see them!

Anyways, I mostly made this thread because the fact that I turned down going to that concert is something I still think about from time-to-time and I wish I went, but I'd love to hear if anyone else has similar stories or just stories of bands you wish you could have seen.

This is the first Tildes Book Club Discussion for 2026 and the twentyfirst overall. We are discussing Fire on the Mountain by Bissen. At the end of February we will discuss The Truth by Terry Pratchett.

This is the first time that I as your coordinator have not finished the book myself. It was not my cup of tea and I might or might not add my impressions to the discussion.

I don't have a particular format in mind for this discussion, but I will post some prompts and questions as comments to get things started. You're not obligated to respond to them or vote on them though. So feel free to make your own top-level comment for whatever you wish to discuss, questions you have of others, or even just to post a review of the book you have written yourself.

For latecomers, don't worry if you didn't read the book in time for this Discussion topic. You can always join in once you finish it. Tildes Activity sort, and "Collapse old comments" feature should keep the topic going for as long as people are still replying.

And for anyone uninterested in this topic please use the Ignore Topic feature on this so it doesn't keep popping up in your Activity sort, since it's likely to keep doing that while I set this discussion up, and once people start joining in.

This topic is part of a series. It is meant to be a place for users to discuss creative projects they have been working on.

Projects can be personal, professional, physical, digital, or even just ideas.

If you have any creative projects that you have been working on or want to eventually work on, this is a place for discussing those.

Steam Next Fest is currently underway, lasting until March 2nd. Coincidentally, I had just been thinking a little while ago that I kinda miss game demos. About a month ago I came across a little twin-stick shooter called Minishoot' Adventures and ended up paying it more attention than any other random game I see that looks kinda cool, because they had a demo available. I installed it, played it for a couple hours, and instantly bought the full game once I was done. It's quite a good game, but they got my money primarily because the demo was able to hook me into making an impulse purchase, totally defeating my usual standard of decision-making about buying games.

For Next Fest, Steam is recommending me a deluge of indie 2D platformers and metroidvanias, and I'm not sure if that's because those are the games in development that tend to have demos or if Steam thinks that's all I'm interested in (spoiler - I'm not). So, have you discovered any truly noteworthy upcoming games in this year's Next Fest? Also, what was the last demo to win you over?