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    3. The one-and-done pen?

      ~hobbies Ask (recommendations)
      I am looking for a Buy-It-For-Life pen. I've had the Parker Jotters for years and love them, but I am in need of something with a little longer life expectancy on the barrel. My first thought was...

      I am looking for a Buy-It-For-Life pen. I've had the Parker Jotters for years and love them, but I am in need of something with a little longer life expectancy on the barrel.

      My first thought was James Brand The Burwell, however I am just now really diving into the BIFL Pen world and curious on what you guys suggestion / use.

      Assume the money cap of $100 for now, unless you have some out of this world amazing option over that cap.

      36 votes

    12. CGA-2026-06 🦇🧛‍♀️🔥 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

      ~games Text 1953 words
      COLOSSAL GAME ADVENTURES PRESENTS: 🦇🧛‍♀️🔥 Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Yarrr! Now it be me... [ahem] Sorry, we're out of Pirates!. Now it's ACTUALLY my time to post! Let's set the scene. Looking...

      COLOSSAL GAME ADVENTURES PRESENTS: 🦇🧛‍♀️🔥 Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

      Yarrr! Now it be me... [ahem] Sorry, we're out of Pirates!. Now it's ACTUALLY my time to post! Let's set the scene. Looking for a nice summary last month, I found this one from TCRF:

      Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is a Castlevania game that, shock, isn't about one of the Belmonts! Instead, we get some white-haired emo kid that happens to have the ability to absorb souls.

      ... Thanks, TCRF. I'll spoiler the writeup for the sake of scrolling through twice.

      Some background: Dracula in your Pocket

      Unfortunately, as a slap in the face to my thirties, the GBA is a decidedly proper "retro" console. That shouldn't really be a surprise, though, as it's a distinctly 16-bit console with many parallels to SNES hardware. Sampled audio, mode 7 graphics... But only a little 240x160 screen. Despite that, a few companies managed to pack in some very robust experiences on the hardware.

      Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is the third GBA Castlevania entry; before it came Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance. At the time, these were pretty well-received - Circle was nominated for a few awards and sold ~500k copies. Harmony wasn't quite as universally acclaimed, but sold a respectable 120k in America. It flopped in Japan.

      That said, nowadays the first two titles aren't esteemed quite as well. Circle is a very polarizing title. Some appreciate the mechanics and exploration, while others detest it for some awful control scheme decisions. The GBA display did not suit its dark color palate well, and playing it on original hardware without a backlight is asking for eye strain. Since it was made by a different team than the contemporary Castlevania devs headed by Koji Igarashi, he swept Circle under the rug when it came to establishing a Castlevania timeline. (I have not played it myself yet, though I suspect my wrists are not ready for the impending RSI of a double-tap dpad run command.)

      Where Circle's experimental bits get love, Harmony of Dissonance has really not aged well for many. Igarashi was looking to get a Symphony of the Night experience in a mobile form factor by design, but this meant a pretty conservative approach. He unfortunately left the comparison open - at a time when you can play both games on the same device - to call Harmony "SotN at home". The aesthetics are kind of nutty as well; the team flew in the opposite direction of Circle by making things - especially Juste Belmont - glow with a very garish set of vibrant blues, reds, and greens, on top of purple and sky blue backgrounds. This was to REALLY stand out without a backlight. Boy do they. The soundtrack was also compressed to save room on the cartridge, leading to a reputation as one of the worst Castlevania soundtracks in a pretty musically-storied franchise. (With some proper sampling, I love it! Played back on the little high-pass GBA speaker, though, stuff like this really grates.)

      Igarashi and his team had another shot on the platform. This time, they nailed something special in the coffin.

      Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

      Aria takes place in the year 2035, quite farther ahead than anything else in the series. Japanese transfer student and fashionista boy band dreamboat Soma Cruz is hanging out with his friend and shrine maiden Mina Hakuba to observe a solar eclipse. In doing so, he finds himself warped to the eclipse itself, where Dracula's Castle has been imprisoned. There, an enigmatic man introduces him to his unknown power - the dominion over monsters' souls to use for himself. Trying to find his way out of the castle, he meets a few other mysterious figures who are there for various reasons and agendas... I'll leave the rest of the plot to you to discover.

      Now, we're not quite at 2035. (I think bell bottoms are back? I don't see the fur coats and flame boots yet.) However, it is 2026 now, and much like the cycle of Dracula's castle, last year's most hyped release was a 2D Metroidvania! Konami just announced the first 2D Metroidvania in a very long time, and they and the Dead Cells dev team will be fighting a forest which they all themselves planted. But looking backwards, despite over two decades of iterative work on this genre, Aria has plenty that stands out - not just against Castlevania's run of six games over about seven or eight years, but arguably still today in a very crowded genre.

      First off, this game is eight megabytes small. It's nipping at its big brother Symphony's heels in scope, despite it being a little over one percent of SotN's CD file size, and some crazies like me still prefer it. The team made damn good use of that space after learning their mistakes from Harmony.

      Despite that little size, it's a memorable adventure! I hope you enjoy it. I find Aria's main strength is setting a pace and size which it meets and rarely over- or under-stays. It's also an aesthetic crown jewel for the GBA platform; the colors still accommodate the hardware, but there's much more mastery of the system. Flowing water, the flickering moon, bats flying off in the distance... It captures the gothic feel of the castle in a more subtle way. And while I'm fond of Harmony's, uh. Dissonance, the sound design is much tighter here. Some little bits of lore and character interactions help color the adventure, and it creates plenty of space for your head to fill in the gaps, too. (Konami! J prequel when??)

      The game has a number of neat secrets that I'll let you discover. So - I'll leave you to it!

      ...Or, if you'd like, I won't! Since Aria isn't the most obscure game, some of you may have played it. With that - or, to kick off some discussion of the game's flaws - I'd like to pivot into a new topic here!

      Mods

      Aria of Sorrow is great, but there are a few rough edges. Notably, the stats are a little fucky - Wit barely influences item or soul drop rate. Int is also a little weak, not influencing your bullet souls much. The colors still acquiesce to the mix of GBA and GBA SP screens, a bit too washed on modern displays. Weapon balance is a bit off, due to one particularly dominating choice.

      Of course, with that 8 MB filesize, numerical problems are just a hex edit away! Bump some values around and you maybe can "solve" these problems. But is that better? Worse? In line with the developers, or a bastardization of their vision? The most powerful tool in the hands of modern video game players? Does it ruin a shared conversation of art, or does it stoke it?

      For what it's worth, I personally fell off Super Metroid about three times until I applied a patch that gave Samus movement closer to the GBA games. Modding sometimes just opens up options or tastes to us - and I think when it comes to pure enjoyment, go buck wild. So I invite people to try it and see what you think!

      As always, I'm a slut for randomizers and Aria rando seems fairly robust. But since I suspect I will eventually play that in Archipelago many times, I think instead I'm going to try a slew of new hacks and throw them together to see what happens. Weapons modifications! Color palate changes! Vegan items? Sure, why not! I'll post what I go with in the end.

      As always, mark ya spoilers as such with the following text block:

      <details>
<summary>Spoilers</summary>

Spoiler text goes here.
</details>

      Game Setup

      A couple years ago, Konami released the Castlevania Advanced Collection with Circle, Harmony, the SNES version of Dracula X, and Aria. This is pretty much the only way to legally obtain Aria nowadays - and if I'm not mistaken, it includes the .gba ROM in case you'd like to play it in a way other than the official emulator. (Someone fact check me on that...)

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

      • Share which version of the game you're playing
      • 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
      • Share if you ever cosplay as Soma Cruz
      • 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?
Which Castlevania game has the best Death fight?

      FAQ

      What is CGA?

      Colossal Game Adventure (CGA) is Tildes' retro video game club.

      Each month we will play a different retro game/games, discuss our thoughts, and bask in the glorious digital experiences of yesteryear!

      Colossal Game Adventure is a reference to Colossal Cave Adventure. It's one of the most influential games of all time, one of the first text-based interactive games, and one of the first games to be shared online.

      What do we want to do with this group? Play influential games; interact with each other through text; and share the love for retro games online!

      It also abbreviates to CGA (because we love chunky pixel art), and its name communicates the Colossal amount of fun and excitement that we have with retro video Games in our shared Adventure of playing them together.

      Do I have to sign up?

      No. Participation is open to all.

      There is a Notification List that will get pinged each time a new topic goes up. If you would like to join that list, please PM u/kfwyre.

      Are there restrictions on what/how to play?

      Each month will have a focus game or games that will guide our discussions. Beyond that, there are no restrictions. The philosophy of CGA is to play in a way that works for you!

      This means:

      • Choose whichever version of the game you want.
      • You can use cheats, save states, mods, etc.
      • You can watch a streamer or longplay instead of playing it.

      If you have already played a game and want a different experience:

      • Try a randomizer or challenge run.
      • Play a different version of it.
      • Play a related game (sequel, spiritual successor, something inspired by it, etc.)

      There is no wrong way to participate in CGA, and every different way someone participates will make for more interesting discussions.

      What is the schedule?

      Each month the Insert Cartidge topic will be posted on the 1st, while the Remove Cartridge topic will be posted on the 28th.

      Nomination and voting topics will happen in March and September (every 6 months).

      Schedules are also posted then.

      All CGA topics are available using the colossal game adventure tag.

      What do Insert and Remove Cartridge mean?

      Inserting and removing cartridges are our retro metaphor for starting and stopping a given game or games.

      The Insert Cartridge topic happens at the beginning of the month and is primarily about getting the game up and running.

      The Remove Cartridge topic happens toward the end of the month and is primarily about people reflecting on the game now that they've played it.

      There are no hard restrictions on what has to go in either topic, and each can be used to discuss the game, post updates, ask questions, etc.

      7 votes

    16. What new poems have you come across this year?

      ~books Ask (survey)
      I've made an effort to read some more poems this year and always enjoy finding out any more when I can. In the UK you can find anthologies of "The Nation's Favourite Poems" and "The Nation's...

      I've made an effort to read some more poems this year and always enjoy finding out any more when I can. In the UK you can find anthologies of "The Nation's Favourite Poems" and "The Nation's Favourite Comic Poems" et alia by the BBC, which is where I've learnt most of my new ones this year. It'd be great to see what poems have left an impression on you this year.

      For brevity, I'll put a short one here and then two longer ones I discovered this year down in the comments.

      Two Cures for Love - Wendy Cope

      Don’t see him. Don’t phone or write a letter.
      The easy way: get to know him better.

      11 votes

    22. How to prevent mold growth under weight mats

      ~life.home_improvement Ask (advice)
      Hey all! I'm currently cleaning out the basement and rearranging some things after my brother in law has moved out. He spent the better part of every afternoon down here working out and (I'm...

      Hey all!

      I'm currently cleaning out the basement and rearranging some things after my brother in law has moved out. He spent the better part of every afternoon down here working out and (I'm assuming) sweating (figuratively) gallons. I pulled the mats up to move em around and was hit with a deep earthy smell which made me IMMEDIATELY panic. There was only one super dark spot which was immediately washed off with warm soapy water and steel wool. There are other places that don't look too bad, but I am seeing markings on the floor elsewhere that match the pattern of the interlocking mat.

      I'd like to keep working out down here, but I'd also like to not cause mold problems in my own house. Can anyone think of a way to essentially insulate the mat from the cement floor without creating a different problem where the plastic bottom ALSO creates an environment for the mold to grow? It's also possible that I'm WAY blowing this out of proportion...

      I'll include pics on a follow up post

      12 votes

    23. May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 4 Discussion

      ~games Text 531 words
      Week 4 has begun! Post your current bingo cards. Continue updating us on your games! If you did not participate in Week 1 but want to start this week, that's fine! Reminder: playing bingo is...

      Week 4 has begun!

      Post your current bingo cards.
      Continue updating us on your games!

      If you did not participate in Week 1 but want to start this week, that's fine!
      Reminder: playing bingo is OPTIONAL.

      Quick links:

      Week 3 Recap

      11 participants played 10 bingo cards and moved 37 games out of their backlogs!

      There was one bingo win. Congratulations to u/ShroudedScribe! 🎉

      Team mmmeeeelllllllooooowwwwwww

      Team MO! - TI! - VA! - TED!

      Game list:

      Week 2 Recap

      11 participants played 9 bingo cards and moved 28 games out of their backlogs!

      Team Mellow

      Team Motivated

      All but one are listed above.

      u/Wes

      Is he still Mellow? Or did he join the Motivateds?

      He played three different games, which seems very motivated...

      ...but Mellow is also a state of mind, a pace, a vibe.

      With whom will he stand?

      Game list:

      Week 1 Recap

      Week 1 Recap

      ⚔️🛡️ Battle lines have been drawn. 🛡️⚔️

      Team Mellow

      Calm, easygoing, relaxed (<3 games played this week)

      Team Motivated

      Driven, energized, results-oriented (≥3 games played this week, or, like, only one game played but for a LONG time)

      Who will come out on top? Which team will reign supreme? What metric will we even use to determine what counts as a win? STAY TUNED.

      11 participants played 10 bingo cards and moved 24 games out of their backlogs!

      Game list:

      15 votes

    28. Insomniathought: blocking people in social media can be a positive thing

      ~tech Ask
      Most social media sites have options for muting and blocking people. As we know, muting is one-way (they see me, I don't see them) and blocking is two-way (neither see each other). Recently, while...

      Most social media sites have options for muting and blocking people. As we know, muting is one-way (they see me, I don't see them) and blocking is two-way (neither see each other).

      Recently, while having too much caffeine in my system way too late, I had the thought that "blocking" is a far more negative term than what it should be. Sometimes it's done in spite, absolutely. You wanna slap somebody for being how they are.

      But sometimes you just recognize that there's someone who you have nothing against, whom you might even like if you met them in real life, but in this context of limited human connect, you understand that the only possible communication between you and them would be toxic. That your opinions, your way of speaking, perhaps your whole existence offends them. Or vice versa.

      So you protect them from yourself by blocking them, in lieu of a better word. I think there should be a better word but I haven't figured out what it should be yet. "Spare"?

      (P.S. I think tildes should perhaps have such a functionality)

      21 votes

    39. Do you prefer to 100% games, or to move on to new experiences?

      ~games Ask (survey)
      Once more I come to you with this eternal annoyance of mine, that just won’t go away, with regard to 100%ing games: I own a Switch 2. It’s my one and only entertainment device (I don’t watch...

      Once more I come to you with this eternal annoyance of mine, that just won’t go away, with regard to 100%ing games:

      I own a Switch 2. It’s my one and only entertainment device (I don’t watch shows, movies, or do anything else).

      I already limit myself to only buying Switch 2 games (meaning, no Switch 1 or classics on NSO), so I don’t get overwhelmed with all the options, but good new games come out so quickly now, and there’s so many that I am dying to play, that I’m still feeling like I can barely keep up.

      I never buy a new game (even if on discount) before I roll the credits on the one that I am currently playing. That would kill me, to just have them sitting there, on my digital shelf, collecting dust.

      For me, anywhere between 20 to 40 hours with one game is ideal, but many of the kinds of games that I enjoy and buy take more than 50 or even 100 or more hours to 100%. I don’t buy them because they’re huge. I buy them because I like their worlds, their stories, and/or their mechanics. If I chose my games based on how long it takes to roll the credits or 100% them, then I’d probably not play almost any modern games.

      By the time I roll the credits, I usually feel ready to move on, I feel satisfied with how much I got to experience that world, story, and/or mechanic, but if I do move on, then I also feel bad for not 100%ing the game. It’s some kind of OCD or “all-or-nothing” mental issue that I have. I don’t know.

      I guess there’s nothing that I can do about it, because I’m even less interested in grinding for hundreds of hours to 100% a game. The magic and newness of whatever world, story, and/or mechanics a game has to offer have usually worn off by the time I roll the credits, so I would just be forcing myself to check off a list of chores and that’s not fun at all for me.

      By that time, there’s also usually a new game that I am dying to play anyway.

      So, the choice is between leaving games behind without 100%ing them, or playing two or three games a year, slowly and tediously chipping away at them. The new experiences tip the scale for me.

      How about you?

      I just wish that I could make this nagging feeling in the back of my head go away and accept that moving on from a game that I didn’t 100%, is OK.

      That being said, on occasion, I play a game that is designed to be 100%able on the first playthrough, and those are by far my favorites. Very few games are like that anymore though, which I find sad.

      Edit: A short poem I made (with some inspiration from ChatGPT) to help me get over my desire to 100% games. I entitle it, “An OCD Gamer’s Mantra”.

      Credits rolled, story told.
      New adventures shall unfold.
      Rolled the credits, closed the quest.
      Move on and discard the rest.
      Credits rolled, I’ve seen the end.
      Loose threads I need not to mend.
      Rolled the credits, let it be.
      The next great game is calling me.

      28 votes

    40. Are you ready for it?

      ~music Ask (survey)
      Yesterday the family was driving home from dinner and ...Ready for it? came up in the playlist: In the middle of the night, in my dreams, you should see the things we do So in the vein of A...

      Yesterday the family was driving home from dinner and ...Ready for it? came up in the playlist:

      In the middle of the night, in my dreams, you should see the things we do

      So in the vein of A Speculative List of Jay-Z's 99 Problems, and other than the boring, obvious answer, what do you suppose they get up to in her dreams?

      10 votes

    45. When did you realize you were different?

      ~talk Ask (survey)
      "Different" can be interpreted in any way, in any context, for any magnitude. When did you realize you were different? What prompted it? How did you feel about it then? Has the difference changed...

      "Different" can be interpreted in any way, in any context, for any magnitude.

      When did you realize you were different?
      What prompted it?
      How did you feel about it then?
      Has the difference changed over time?
      Have your feelings changed over time?

      48 votes

    48. What programming/technical projects have you been working on?

      ~comp Ask (survey)
      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...

      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?

      12 votes

    49. What have you been listening to this week?

      ~music Ask (survey)
      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      5 votes

    50. Advice/Venting: My car was destroyed by hail

      ~transport Ask
      So we had baseball-sized hail suddenly come through my city a few days ago, and everyone at my work got to watch our cars get destroyed from the front windows. I opened a claim immediately after...

      So we had baseball-sized hail suddenly come through my city a few days ago, and everyone at my work got to watch our cars get destroyed from the front windows. I opened a claim immediately after the hail stopped and could go take pictures, but still haven't heard anything other than that an agent was assigned.

      City-wide, body shops are already talking about having a year-long backlog and having to triage repairs that don't affect immediate drivability. I've heard people talk about them being totaled already. Rental cars are hard to come by, because they not only have huge demand but had damage as well. The county is petitioning FEMA, because houses were damaged as well.

      I'm just in a depressive waiting state, where I don't know how things will start to play out yet, with my undrivable car sitting at the office with trash bags taped over it while I work from home. And my old backup car (almost 20 years old), which was slated for one of the stepdaughters to receive once she gets her license, also had extensive damage making it unsafe to drive. My fiancée's car survived, being on the other side of town at the time, but she has a very busy schedule to the next few weeks.

      I had the realization that every car I've ever bought myself was just destroyed, and I get fairly attached.

      The Civic Sport Touring (2017), I still owe about $4000 on and expected to pay off this year. It's thoroughly dented across the whole body, with a completely shattered (to the point it's opaque) windshield, broken mirror assemblies, 2/3 cameras are probably broken, a tail light is broken down to the LED board, and the moonroof assembly appears to be bent and sagging slightly, probably from the roof and side parts being bashed so heavily. Not sure how much water got in during the ensuing torrential downpour.

      Realistically, it being to totaled seems likely, given the cost of many of the parts. Which means I'm going to be stuck buying new, because used ones are a relative rarity (I jumped to buy mine when it showed up in stock) and there's barely a price difference these days.

      I'm curious if anyone else here has had experiences with that sort of thing or knows what to expect.

      44 votes