I caught wind of the BC-250 after the Linux on PS5 post where @moocow1452 posted about them and shared a link. The BC-250 is an APU cut down from PS5s that didn't pass Sony QC, they were originally slated for waste but largely got picked up by crypto miners. I hadn't got myself anything for my birthday or promotion, so when I found a deal, I grabbed it for the HTPC I'd wanted but couldn't justify. (Long post, tl;dr at end)

Specs:
6-core AMD Zen 2, stock clock 3.5GHz
AMD custom GPU, stock clock 1.5GHz*
16GB unified GDDR6 RAM+VRAM
M.2 2280 slot
*Stock lock is weird and limited, will discuss

I'm not sure exactly when they got proper Linux support or folks started using them for gaming but I'm definitely behind the curve. You used to be able to get them <$100 but now they seem to be going for $180. I found a "pre build" for $275 shipped that had it ready to go, including a case, cooling, PSU, 256GB SSD, and unlocked BIOS... this isn't too far from what I would've totalled had I gotten the board for ~$80, and saved me some headaches. While the seller pre installed Bazzite, no way was I trusting the OS installed by a random eBay seller.

So what's it take to make one of these usable, what trouble did the seller save me? Let's start with the BIOS -- this needs to be unlocked by flashing though I'm not totally sure if it's required to use it at all but at the very least it unlocks the dynamic 512mb VRAM. 16GB total is kinda limiting today and the default split is 8/8 RAM/VRAM -- a static split isn't exactly ideal -- depending on your game, you could easily be maxing out one with unused of the other. The dynamic 512 reserves only 512mb for the GPU alone and allows the rest to be properly split as needed (mostly, there's still technically a VRAM cap that can be raised with kernel parameters).

OK next saved headache was the cooling. See, these were built as server units with fans set to blow air through them. The heat sink fins are closed off on the top. One can print a sleeve to have a standard fan push air through, but opening the fins up and letting the fan push air through from the middle is more effective, more like your typical consumer GPU. Seller did a messy job, but it is opened in the middle. Some folks use 2 fans and fully open the fins for a cooler/quieter build.

The final headache was minor but they saved me from sorting out the PSU and power button. Since the board is powered just by 8 pin PCIE, for this PSU, two pins on another header need to be shorted to stay powered on, seller already had this in place. Seller also soldered power and reset buttons to the board.

So with the hardware sorted, what does the software end look like? While it can technically run Windows, but it does not and will not have GPU drivers -- though folks have added external GPUs. The main 2 OS options folks recommend are Bazzite and CachyOS. Folks say Cachy is better but benchmarks I saw weren't that compelling, I already use Bazzite and it seemed to have less extra steps so I went with that, standard installation process went smooth and it was basically ready to go from there... So why am I futzing around so much?

Well, the dynamic VRAM can collide with the default ZRAM swap, causing crashes and other errors. So I went through disabling that, enabling ZSWAP, then tweaking config and kernel parameters according to community info. So part of my futzing was comparing speed and stability with the various RAM settings and swaps.

So the next futzing was the GPU clock. The stock is locked at 1.5GHz over 920mV always no matter if load is high or low, but PS5 runs em around 2.3GHz and higher volts. There's a community governor that can decrease volts/clocks under light load and unlock the stock. Folks easily get 2.0GHz at 1000mV but some push 2200+ at 1150. So testing with that was more futzing around, playing in Expedition 33 for half an hour to see if settings were stable. I found the defaults to be fairly aggressive, causing artifacts and crashing. I disabled all their default points over 920mV, set one at 2.0/1000, and called it a day. Didn't feel like trying to squeeze out another 100MHz. Also boosted the bottom 700mV point up by 20 since I saw some graphical artifacts at low loads and that cleaned those up. (<700 locks it right back to stock parameters so that's the effective minimum)

Next up is the CPU, stock has it at 3.5GHz at 1180mV. Folks have been able to get the same clock down to 1000mV, some mad lads pushing 4.1GHz and like 1.3V. There's another community tool for helping with this where you punch in a target clock, voltage, and temp, then it tests it out. I haven't settled this one out, I may go for a bit of an under volt to help keep it quieter/cooler since it's an HTPC, or may just leave it at stock. Folks also recommend disabling mitigations for Spectre/Meltdown as it significantly slows the CPU and you're fairly unlikely to need it for a DIY Steam Machine.

So I was stumbling through this following the community wiki, it had some good and useful info, but it didn't seem entirely consistent and sometimes was just wrong. Turns out, it's an AI compilation of community info. I'd have saved myself a ton of trouble if I'd found this repo and followed their instructions as that's what I eventually found worked best.

Expedition 33 was my main real world benchmark tool. With FSR+LSFG on medium, I was hitting 1440p@90fps, 1080p@45fps without. The site compares it to a 3060, I thought that was mine until I double checked and have a 3070. It does E33 with DLSS+LSFG at 1440p@120fps cap on medium, or 1080p@60-70fps without either. So while the .info site seems to accurately describe the GPU as similar to a 3060, their benchmarks seem to include scaling and/or frame gen based on my limited testing. However, E33 still looked bad and off compared to my Nvidia at the same settings. After a day of fiddling, I looked it up and turns out, E33 specifically looks worse on AMD.

As for HTPC apps, Jellyfin flatpak works great. Official Plex apps are deprecated, both flatpak and snap, they run terribly. Girens (unofficial Plex client flatpak) seems to work well, but requires a mouse and sub menus don't work in big picture. I plan on using a PS4 controller (touchpad works as trackpad) for the time being so this isn't too big a deal, but it's definitely less polished than the Plex smart TV app. VLC with the network drive mapped so we can play direct from file as back-up. And finally VacuumTube for YT smart TV interface with ad blocking. Hardware encoding/decoding does not work and will not so it's all done by the CPU, but it was enough for my high bitrate 4k HEVC decoding test.

It doesn't have proper sleep states. Can't wake from USB/LAN, power button only, and doesn't actually sleep CPU/GPU so it doesn't really save power in sleep. Shutdown/cold boot is inconvenient for a daily use HTPC. Estimated 60W at idle, about $6 a month left on 24/7 for us, perhaps an extra $50/yr compared to a box with proper sleep. However, most it can pull under load is 235W, less than a typical gaming PC. Not enough to realistically break even versus a gaming PC with proper sleep though, so it's probably an expense worth considering in comparison shopping for a similar usage.

Final Verdict: do I recommend it? Honestly, if you're getting bare board for $180, maybe not, but also depends on who I'm recommending to. I seen someone on the discord selling them for $150, others may be selling too, perhaps prebuilts even. Between case, fan, PSU, and SSD you're ending up closer to $400 for a running build -- and that's before wifi/Bluetooth/controller if you don't have extras of those already. At that rate, you may be better off getting a mini PC + eGPU dock + older graphics card, but I'd need to shop around to see how their price:performance ratio compares. On top of that, you'll likely need to do the trouble the seller saved me. Getting the software going is fairly simple nowadays though, so long as you have the foreknowledge to just use NexGen's repo. If you're curious, do some comparison shopping between what you find for these versus a mini PC + eGPU setup. Don't forget to consider the cost of the BC250's idle draw if you don't want to cold boot each day/use. I wanted a machine that could be a media client, do some modest gaming, and to experiment with AMD and unified V/RAM. I ended up with one that can do that and some AA/A, so I'm satisfied, despite the quirks.

This topic is for the Three Cheers for Tildes mobile app.

I'll summarize the major updates at the start of each similar topic, so people can read the updates and then hit Ignore if they don't care about more frequent updates and user feedback.

Recently:

[iOS] Version 1.6.1 (May 21, 2026): Improves on the Find in Comments feature. Fixes some UI bugs related to the Find Comment bar, and with potentially stale votes showing in the UI. Also adds the iPad pane toggle on iPadOS 18 and earlier, to bring the behavior closer to iPadOS 26, and fixes some iPad animation bugs.

[Android] Version 1.6.3 (May 20, 2026): Added "Find in comments" to "..." menu. Fixed first search position in comments. Fixed tapping links in collapsed details summary. Fixed stale vote rendering.

Version 1.6.0 (May 13, 2026):

• Added Find in comments
• Improved markdown tables rendering performance
• [Android] Fixed drafts not loading in some cases
• [iOS] Fixed keyboard bugs on iOS 26
• [iOS] Fixed iOS 12 support

On iOS, currently TestFlight only for the next week or so.

Following version 1.5's addition of searching for posts, Three Cheers 1.6 adds a bar to find text in comments. It changes the comment bar a bit which took some work, and it was pretty tricky handling the edge cases with highlighting the matched text. Might have some leftover bugs, or configurations I forgot to consider, so please report those here.

There was an Android bug with drafts not loading in some cases, reported last time. Should be fixed now.

Also I'm happy to report that I was able to fix some long-standing iOS bugs, some keyboard bugs specific to iOS 26 that have been reported on TestFlight intermittently for quite a while, and an iPad rare crash that likely went even further back. So this version should be pretty stable on iOS.

Previous topic: March 2026

Where to get it

Android version on Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.talklittle.android.tildes

Or sideloadable APK at https://www.talklittle.com/three-cheers/

iOS version on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/three-cheers-for-tildes/id6470950557

Join TestFlight for iOS beta testing: https://testflight.apple.com/join/mpVk1qIy

This weekend, I've fulfilled a long dream of mine and upgraded my computer to a fully custom waterloop. This is, for a number of a reasons, a complicated process, and outside of general advice, it's difficult to provide an exact guide on how to do this. Custom waterloops are, well, custom. They depend mostly on what computer case you use, and what sort of reservoir and such you've bought. As such, my advice can also only be general.

Plan ahead

Check online for custom watercooling builds in your case. Use those as a guide for radiator and reservoir placement. Sketch ideas out on paper. Measure out the places inside of your case where you intend to place components. Check the your pc case manual, those very often contain info on where you can place radiators and reservoirs.

Some cases are ill-suited for custom waterloops. Consider buying a new case rather than building in an old, ill-suited one. It will save you a lot of pain.

Some cases require modifications. I had to cut into mine with a metal saw to make space for a radiator. Minimal material was removed from the frame, invisible after the case is put back together. I also had to drill into it to place the reservoir. The holes case manufacturers place for reservoirs are best-effort guesses. Unlike for fans, and thus radiators, there are no standards for reservoirs.

Do not rush

Expect a marathon, not a sprint. There will be setbacks. My process, setbacks and all, took me 3 days. And I still fucked up assembling my GPU. The die has bad contact and I'll have to drain the loop, pull it out, disassemble it and put it back together again. A lot of this was also spent waiting for next-day deliveries to show up because I'm dumb and was missing things.

Prefer soft tubing, and do not go for PVC

There are no performance benefits to hardline tubes, and they are a bitch to measure, bend and cut precisely. That 95° angle that was meant to be a 90° is going to be evident immediately, and forever. Soft tubes are forgiving, easy to put into the system and much more time efficient. They also do not require extra equipment dedicated solely to bending hardline tubes. Think about where your build is going to sit. On the floor? Who gives a shit how it looks?

Edit: if you opt for soft tubes, don't get them made from PVC. They very often leak plasticizers into the loop that gunk up your components and reduce performance. You'll need to swap them after some time and they also tend to harden. To minimize maintenance, go for EPDM tubing. It's black instead of transparent, but it's better in the long term.

Custom waterloops are all about you, and if you insist, then you do you. Hardline tubes are the endboss of all pc builds. Be ready for a challenge. Conversely, some folks really want transparent soft tubes. Just know what you're getting into.

Tube sizes

The standard soft tube is 13 mm outer diameter and 10 mm inner diameter, or 13/10. There's a ton of other sizes as well but remember even if the inner diameter is larger, liquid flow improvemets are going to be marginal. Different sizes also need different fittings.

Respect the crink

Soft tubing is a breeze to put into your system, but don't make those corners too tight or it'll crink and cut off flow. Check this especially when you close up the panels of your pc case. Tubing is cheap, comparatively. Don't be afraid to use more than you need.

Money

Custom water loops are pricey. Full copper radiators start at 100€, water blocks are usually hundreds as well, with the tubing, fittings and all it's normal for cooling equipment alone to account for a grand. You're bolting an aftermarket cooling system onto your PC that will turn it into a racecar. A lot of that is finely machined copper. It costs.

Remember the extras

Ya know how I said that I needed to order some extra things last-minute? Thank fuck for Amazon and their fast deliveries. If you live in a larger city, there's also a good chance a specialist computer store somewhere might have what you need.

Leak tester

Those are small air pumps with a pressure gauge. You close of all ports and then pump air into the system, 0.5 bar maximum (!!!), and wait 60 minutes. If the pressure is maintained, congratulations, your system is air- and thus watertight.

Test your individual components before you put them into your case! This way, you know that the components themselves are tight, and you avoid having to pull out a radiator after screwing it in place because you forgot to tighten that one end cap you can now no longer reach. Ask me how I know.

Also test our loop when it's fully assembled. Should you have a leak, divide your loop into two halves and leak test those. Repeat (divide into halves and test) until you have located the leak. If you have tested your comps individually before, it's going to be a radiator fitting you forgot to tighten or your reservoir top 99% of the time. Have a book or a podcast ready because this is a long process with lots of downtime.

Motherboard 24-pin jumper plug

These nifty little things are incredibly cheap and useful. After you wire everything up, you want to fill your reservoir and turn on the pump, but obviously you do not want to immediately electrify your entire system. So you pull the 24-pin motherboard cable of your motherboard and put the plug into it. It bridges specific pins, tricking your power supply into thinking a motherboard is connected. This way your pump turns on without the rest of your system. Once the water is circulating and not catastrophes have occured, you can turn off your power supply and plug the mobo back in.

Common advice

This is advice that's often repeated in watercooling circles for beginners. If you're seriously considering doing this, you will likely already have stumbled upon these. I'm adding these just for posterity.

Do not mix aluminium and copper/brass

Cheaper watercooling components are often out of aluminium while pricier ones are out of copper. You do not want both in your system as they eat each other through galvanic corrosion. If your cooling blocks for the GPU and CPU use copper (they very often do), the rest needs to be out of copper or brass as well, fittings included!

Buy more fittings than you think you need

Remember, per tube you'll need at least two! Check that they have O-rings, as those provide the seal.

Put a drain port into your loop

You should generally drain and flush the loop at least once a year. This will be a lot easier if on low points you have faucet you can attach a tube to and open to drain it. Pulling the loop back apart is generally the last thing people think off when building a custom loop for the first time, so it's useful to know.

Consider quick disconnects

Quick disconnects are special fittings you can put into a tube or attach directly to a port. You can then pull them apart with minimal or no leakage of your cooling fluid without having to drain your loop. Really useful for example the GPU, which tends to be the component that's swapped out most often.

Use cooling fluids over distilled water

Obviously no fucking tap water, ever! But lots of folks also gravitate to distilled water. Cooling fluids like what Alphacool or Aquacomputer make have extra stuff in them, like corrosion inhibitors and biocides that prevent algae build up. You can also mix these yourself if you can get the inhibitors and biocides concentrated but if you're on that level I don't think you need this guide anymore.

Also, colored liquid fucking sucks. Unless you want to pull apart your water blocks and clean them with a toothbrush, use clear liquids. If you want fun colors, put RGB into your case.

120 mm of radiator length per 100 W of heat generation

The two components generating the most heat in your PC are likely the CPU and GPU. Check the specs of those to see how much heat they generate. This number is generally known as the Thermal Design Point (TDP). Radiators come in many sizes fitted to fan sizes, mostly in multiples of 120 or 140 mm, but running this calculation gives you a baseline for how much radiators you need. More is always better! Fit in as many radiators as you can into your case, but if your case can't fit the number of this calculation then you need to look for a bigger case.

Knowing the TDP is rarer for GPUs, you can also use board power or power draw as a substitute. We're doing napkin math here, no need to be precise.

Example:

CPU: 170 W

GPU: 300 W

-> round up to 500 W, which means 5 * 120 = 600. A 360 mm radiator fits 3 120 mm fans. You'd need 2 radiators with 3 fans each to cool your system adequately.

Alternatively, a 280 mm radiator fits 2 140 mm fans. You'd need 3 of those to cool the system.

Radiator thiccckness

Radiators come in different thicknesses. Since what dictates a radiator's ability to dissipate heat is the total surface of it's fins, increasing the thickness improves cooling ability. However, most PC cases, even full towers, are practically limited to 45 cm rad height at most.

Noise

A big motivation for doing this was noise. Cooling everything with a custom loop means that I've lost the 2 fans on my CPU air cooler and the 3 fans on my GPU. What remains are the case fans only, 2x180 mm ones and 3x140 mm. Those can now run at dramatically lower speeds (10% fan speed at idle, ramping up much more slowly) for a nearly silent build even under full load. The pump and reservoir combo I've chosen are isolated from the pc case through rubber standoffs which means that the pump, even when at 100%, runs dead-silent.

Chasing diminishing returns

Switching to a custom loop alone is a massive bonus to the computer's ability to be cooled, because water is a much more efficient way to move heat than air. Case radiators also have much more volume than the heat sinks on your GPU and CPU right now, improving the cooling further.

Once you step into this world, the choices open to you are staggering. Delidding the CPU. Using liquid metal instead of thermal paste, etc. etc. Unless you're planning on overclocking your system, there's no point to doing any of those things that are actively dangerous.

Liquid metal buys you a couple of degrees °C at best, at the cost of being dangerous and difficult to apply and even a tiny escaped drop having the ability to short and fry your GPU for good.

Delidding your CPU is only useful if you plan to overclock. I did it, but only because the company Thermal Grizzly sells delidded CPUs and a fitting water cooling block. If you're doing it at home, the investment is way too large to make sense. Delidding also requires liquid metal afterwards. See paragraph above for that.

If you're in this just because you want a high performing system at less noise, then using a PTM material instead of thermal paste is going to be good enough.

All of these improvements lower temperatures of your components. Delidding the CPU and cooling it directly buys you something like 20°C under load. But the thing is, a good water cooling loop can absolutely cope with a high performance CPU running at 100 per cent. With the IHS on it'll just push 80°C instead of 60°C.

Functionally, there's no difference if the CPU runs at 60°C or 80°C. The only time it matters if if you're over clocking and through that causing the CPU to approach its thermal limit. Then dropping it by a few degrees makes sense.

If not? Skip them.

I hope these help people. Feel free to ask any questions!

Edits in no particular order:

Loop order does not matter

PC custom water cooling loops are not car engines, and as such the thermal differences between coolant and components is much smaller. This means that having a radiator follow a component to immediately cool the water down is much less effective than just adding more rad volume. It also tends to make your tube runs messier and is overall not worth it.

(warning and TL;DR : long and kinda ranty - I do want advice but this also ended up being me venting about my frustrations with two separate medical professionals)

I've suspected most of my adult life that I have some form of ADHD; some mornings I face debilitating initiation paralysis that causes me to be up to 2 hours late for work; I forget conversations happened and my mind is in a constant jumble of starting 5 tasks and finishing neither; sometimes I hyperfocus and sometimes I lack any focus - seemingly at random - and other tiny tidbits that upon a cursory glance through medical material, scream ADHD to me.

I've learned to cope with most of it, and thankfully I have a pretty chill job that lets me be flexible with my schedule without issues, but when you look at everything in context, it's pretty clear that my quality of life could be so much better if I sought professional guidance and medical attention.

So I did just that; went to my clinic, scheduled an appointment with a psychologist, and I dragged myself there.

I did my best to be objective and factual about my behavior, I made notes of stuff I did and symptoms I experienced over the course of a week, and answered every question as openly as possible, and yet everything felt wrong.

The psychologist didn't see ADHD in me, and instead chose to pursue my childhood and familial history, narrowing down on signs of anxiety. That felt viscerally incorrect to me, as it didn't reflect how I perceive my behavior. The way I understand anxiety doesn't align with how I think and behave. I don't worry about things when I am stuck in bed - I am pleading with my body to let me move so I can do the things I enjoy. I don't dread going to work - I want to go to work, and my brain says no. That is not anxiety, no matter how you frame it; at best, any signs of anxiety I may have are a byproduct of my struggles with executive dysfunction.

At the end of the session she recommended I return for a few more sessions so we can build a proper profile of my background and identify what we need to work through. But before that, she mentioned I could also see a psychiatrist, and ask them to refer me to her so the sessions could be paid for by national healthcare (I'm Romanian, for context).

So I did that, booked an appointment with a psychiatrist that seemed alright, and I basically hit the same brick wall I did before. My issues aren't neurological, they're behavioural - and I just need some counseling and discipline. And my inability to make my body move in the mornings could be just a sleep hygiene issue.

You've all heard or read about women having debilitating period pain and just being told to drink water or eat healthier or maybe go for walks more often, right? This felt like that; I'm facing a clear disconnect between my brain and my body, I have my daily life disrupted by things that are 100% out of my control, but apparently I just need discipline and better sleep. I don't buy it, as much as I want to.

I got so frustrated during the session that I started involuntarily masking and going along with the motions just to have it over. Internally I was on the verge of tears but I put a pretty smile on and left the room upbeat. That is not normal. I need help.

But they just don't seem inclined to want to offer it. I am a firm believer of Occam's razor but the psychiatrist's conclusion didn't feel like the simplest one - it felt like a massive oversimplification.

I did get a recommendation to take the DIVA-5 test (because neither of them were qualified to do it) so now I'm searching for a psychologist that is certified (which are rare, and pricey, from what I can see).

But until then, I just feel disappointed, misunderstood, and honestly quite angry. I asked for help and was given what amounts to scraps. My lived experiences were invalidated in front of me, in the places that were supposed to validate them and guide me towards finding an understanding of my behaviors and my mental health, twice in a row.

Those of you who got diagnosed, how many tries did it take? Is this the norm, just hopping from clinician to clinician until you find one that clicks and feels right? Or did I get massively unlucky?

Also, has anyone else taken the DIVA-5? How did it go for you?

Hey everyone!

I know there are some people on Tildes who like making games as a hobby. I’ve had a long-standing passion for game development, but I never managed to finish a project. About a month ago, I decided to push myself to finish a small game and publish it somewhere, and finally that day has come! Orb Sweeper, a 3D minesweeper puzzle on a sphere, is now live on the Google Play Store. Just as a disclaimer: it’s free, has no ads, and works offline by default, so I’m not earning anything from it. I just genuinely wanted to share my first finished project, along with the joy and relief I feel now.

Honestly, I’ve always been more ambitious when it comes to game mechanics. I’m a big fan of strategy games, especially TBS games over the years, so of course I always dreamed of creating a grand 4X strategy game of my own. Over time, I implemented many different systems and mechanics that are complex on their own: generation of realistic and interesting maps, pathfinding, economic models, different variations of game AI, and so on. But since these kinds of projects are huge, I was never able to finish one as a solo developer, or even bring it to a properly playable state. I burned out relatively quickly.

Over time, I realized what motivates me to continue: when somebody else is also working on the project, and when you can quickly see the results of your work. Both things are difficult to achieve. First, it’s hard to find people who are ready to spend a lot of their free time developing a big strategy game while following the same vision. Since it’s a hobby and I cannot pay for development, I also have to spend a lot of energy motivating others, not just myself. The longest I managed to keep a small team of two enthusiasts together was one month.

Second, with complex games like strategies, there are only a few big and impactful mechanics that bring the game to the state of a playable prototype, but getting there demands a ton of polishing. Graphics, sounds, small animations, 3D models… a lot of work that is almost invisible on its own, but contributes enormously to the overall look and feel of the game. Sometimes I feel like I’m drowning in these small fixes, and that also leads to burnout.

So I decided to make my projects progressively smaller until I could realistically complete one from start to finish. It’s a bit sad to see that only a Minesweeper-like game survived this approach, but I feel like it’s an important starting point. Seeing my game actually published gives me a bit more motivation to finish other projects.

But then… it’s Google. All interactions with its platform make me feel a bit frustrated. It’s surprisingly difficult to publish such a simple game. I even had to hire paid testers just to satisfy their entry requirements for closed-test user engagement. There are so many policies regulating data handling that even if your game does nothing in terms of transferring data, handling accounts, or showing in-game ads, you still have to go through all these bureaucratic procedures anyway. I guess it’s probably the same with Apple, but their famous support still hasn’t helped me with account verification after a month, so I’ve yet to experience that side of things fully.

Anyway, I’m glad that the game is available somewhere at least. And I actually play it myself sometimes on my phone. I know some people here are going through similar obstacles, so I have a question for you: what motivates you to continue working on big, complex games? And more generally, how do you avoid burning out on long-term projects?

The last couple of weeks I've been fooling around with different ideas for how to build a chess bot that's fun for beginners to play against. I don't have much real experience with chess, so I've mostly just been testing it against myself.

After looking into the different techniques that are used to force engines to play at a certain level, I put together my own (somewhat silly) approach and have had some fun playing against it. The problem is, as I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to the actual game, I can't be a particularly good judge of how others will feel playing with it.

Regardless of your own skill level, I'd be super appreciative if anyone would give it a try and let me know what they think.

I'm working on a full write up of how it works, but here's the short version:

Hello tilderinos,

I'd like to launch my tab manager soon and to ensure a smooth launch, I'm looking for early users who would be willing to try my app as part of the private beta.

For those who would actually need this product, I'm happy to offer one year free (or more!), but even if you don't need it, I'd really appreciate the help.

I don't really need anything fancy, I'd just like to have some people install the app and try it to know if it works properly for them or if any unexpected issues come up, especially major ones. I'd like to make sure that the actual launch will be smooth, especially considering that I've been working on this project for four years now. It'd be a shame if it all went to waste.

Thanks a lot in advance!

PS - I wasn't sure in which group to post

Apparently my private health insurance covers pharmacogenetics testing to find the best ADHD medication. What is it, is it legit? What's the company going to do with my cheek swabs? How do doctors feel about me going up to them and say hey internet pharma bro tells me I should be taking this instead of what your years of medical school thinks.

What I can't figure out is how my insurance company benefits from this. I'm not paying extra for this service so I must be the product right? Here's part of the marketing FAQ info from my insurance provider:

Personalized Medicine uses advanced pharmacogenetic testing and pharmacist assistance to find the most effective medication for you.

If you’re starting a new medication for a mental health condition (such as anxiety or depression), chronic pain, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or neurological conditions – or taking a medication for one of these conditions and it’s not working or causing side effects – Personalized Medicine could help. It’s offered through your extended health care benefits plan, so the cost of the test may be covered. To see the list of drugs tested, click here.

It involves a pharmacogenetic test. This is a type of test that identifies how you may respond to medications. Your test results are only for you and anyone you give consent to share them with, such as your doctor. The test is run by Personalized Prescribing Inc., a Canadian company. Manulife

(Forgot to mention this is for a Canadian employment extended health insurance.)

With all of the identity verification laws in the pipeline, data breaches, and government overreach (mandated monitoring in new cars in the US), what steps can the average person take to secure their anonymity and data and device privacy?

I’m a tech-savvy person but nowhere near the level of a great many. It seems like in the face of overwhelming odds, making small changes is only a drop in the bucket. I have all the data encryption settings enabled on my phone, but I use services like Dropbox and rely on it heavily. I’ve always thought that if the product is free, you’re the product…but I pay for Dropbox, so they shouldn’t use my data for training AI (but they likely are). Setting up a personal cloud seems like a daunting task, as is getting involved in any of the small projects that people have going (decentralized networks, mesh…things, P2P, etc). I’ve focused more on securing my home networks recently so my Ubiquiti devices are restricted in what they can access, but I haven’t actually pen-tested my network yet. I have PopOS! installed on my home desktop because I got tired of Windows’ invasive…everything, but ultimately I don’t know what I’m doing.

There’s probably a great many people out there that feel like it’s hopeless to try to do anything because it won’t matter as there’s such a heavy push to invade, restrict, and monetize our digital lives. What can the average person do to take control of our devices and data?

For a long time programmers have had two types of program verification tools, static analysis (like a compiler's checks) and dynamic analysis (running a test suite). I find myself using LLMs to analyze newly written code more and more. Even when they spit out a lot of false positives, I still find them to be a massive help. My workflow is something like this:

1. Commit my changes
2. Ask Claude Opus "Find problems with my latest commit"
3. Look though its list and skip over false positives.
4. Fix the true positives.
5. git add -A && git commit --amend --no-edit
6. Clear Claude's context
7. Back to step 2.

I repeat this loop until all of the issues Claude raises are dismissable. I know there are a lot of startups building a SaaS for things like this (CodeRabbit is one I've seen before, I didn't like it too much) but I feel just doing the above procedure is plenty good enough and catches a lot of issues that could take more time to uncover if raised by manual testing.

It's also been productive to ask for any problems in an entire repo. It will of course never be able to perform a completely thorough review of even a modestly sized application, but highlighting any problem at all is still useful.

Someone recently mentioned to me that they use vision-capable LLMs to perform "aesthetic tests" in their CI. The model takes screenshots of each page before and after a code change and throws an error if it thinks something is wrong.

Predicting the NBA MVP with Machine Learning

Thesis

Every season, basketball fans debate who deserves the MVP award. We built 3 machine learning models that attempt to answer that question using box score statistics. At the end of each season, this award is determined by a panel of voters.

Methodology

Each model is trained on every NBA season from 1974 to 2017. For each player season, it looks at nine statistics:

• Points, assists, blocks, defensive rebounds, and field goals per game the core production numbers
• Win Shares (WS): an estimate of how many wins a player contributed to their team
• Value Over Replacement Player (VORP): how much better a player is than a league average replacement
• Box Plus/Minus (BPM): a player's net impact per 100 possessions
• Usage Rate (USG%): what share of team plays run through that player

From those nine numbers, the model learns what a typical MVP season looks like versus a non MVP season, then applies that knowledge to current players. Each model outputs an independent probability that a given player wins MVP, not a share of a single pool, so the values do not sum to 1. Think of it as each player's individual odds.

Three Models, One Question

Rather than relying on a single approach, the system runs three different models and lets you compare:

Logistic Regression

The simplest of the three. It draws a straight line through the data, each statistic gets a weight, and a player's score is the weighted sum of their stats. It's easy to interpret (a higher coefficient means that stat matters more).

Win Shares (WS) is by far the most influential feature, with an absolute coefficient of ~1.85, nearly double the next most important feature. Box Plus/Minus (BPM) ranks second at ~1.0, followed by Defensive Rebounds per Game (DRBPG, ~0.85) and Assists per Game (ASTPG, ~0.70). VORP and Field Goals per Game (FGPG) contribute moderately at ~0.50. Blocks per Game (BLKPG), Points per Game (PTSPG), and Usage Rate (USG%) have minimal weight, all under 0.15.

Random Forest

Builds hundreds of decision trees, each one asking a series of "is this stat above or below X?" questions and averages their answers. It handles complex relationships between stats well and is less sensitive to any one unusual data point. Think of it as a large committee of simple rules voting together.

WS again dominates at ~0.31, accounting for roughly twice the importance of the next feature. VORP (~0.15) and BPM (~0.125) rank second and third. DRBPG (~0.10), PTSPG (~0.08), BLKPG (~0.07), FGPG (~0.065), and ASTPG (~0.06) contribute in a fairly tight mid-range band. USG% is the least important at ~0.05. Compared to logistic regression, the Random Forest spreads importance more evenly across features.

Gradient Boosting

Also uses decision trees, but builds them sequentially: each new tree focuses on correcting the mistakes the previous ones made.

This model is heavily concentrated on just two features: BPM (~0.47) and WS (~0.41) together account for roughly 88% of total feature importance. All remaining features, PTSPG, VORP, ASTPG, DRBPG, contribute ~0.02–0.03 each, and BLKPG, USG%, and FGPG are effectively unused (near zero). This suggests the gradient boosting model learned that BPM and WS alone are nearly sufficient to separate MVP candidates.

Historical Results

The models were trained on data through 2017, so every season from 2018 onward is a genuine out of sample test, the models have never seen these players or seasons before.

Top-1 accuracy: LR 5/8 · RF 5/8 · GB 6/8

Top-3 accuracy: LR 8/8 · RF 7/8 · GB 7/8

Top-3 accuracy: LR 8/8 · RF 7/8 · GB 7/8

For five straight seasons (2019–2022 + 2024), all three models agreed on the same #1 pick, and were right every time.

In 2023, every model ranked Nikola Jokić #1, and by the numbers, he arguably had the better season. Joel Embiid won the award anyway, the kind of outcome that may reflect voter narrative/fatigue and team performance rather than pure statistics. In 2025, Gradient Boosting ranked Shai Gilgeous-Alexander outside the top 500, while Logistic Regression and Random Forest had him at #3 and #2 respectively. I have no idea why GB did this. Likely a bug.

Future Direction

No model is perfect, and these have known blind spots. Team record is not included, MVP voters have historically punished players on losing teams regardless of individual stats. Injuries and narrative don't appear in a box score. And the training data skews toward an older era; the three point revolution and the rise of players like SGA have introduced statistical profiles the 1970s–1990s data doesn't fully capture.

Current Season Predictions (2025–26)

Two of the three models have Nikola Jokić as the frontrunner. Random Forest is the dissenter, putting Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ahead. Victor Wembanyama appears in all three top 3s in just his second season, which is notable. Before running the models, I expected him to be #1 for all of them considering the way the models use advanced stats.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading. I hope you found this interesting. Basketball reference also has their own model if you would like to see a different result. Please do not gamble on my models!

I've been thinking a lot about LLM assisted development, and in particular why I keep dropping the available tools after a few attempts at using them.

I realized recently that it's taking away the part of software development I enjoy: the creative problem solving that comes with writing code. What's left is code review tasks, testing, security checks, etc. Important tasks, but they all primarily involve heavy concentration, and much less creativity.

Why aren't agents focused on handling the mundane tasks instead? Tell me if I've just introduced a security vulnerability or a runtime bug. Generate realistic test data and give me info on what the likely output would be. Tell me that the algorithm I just wrote is O(n^2).

Those tasks are so much more applicable to matching against existing data, something LLMs should be extremely good at, rather than trying to get them to write something novel, which so far they've been mostly bad at, at least in my experience.

But First, These Brief Messages

If you were a hip gamer back in 1989, your first point of contact with our game of the month, Space Rogue, might have been this video ad (timestamped) that explains exactly why Origin's new space adventure is the hottest thing in gaming right now. Or you might have marvelled at this magazine ad.

I'm starting with these ads because the game is currently on sale on GOG! The sale ends in just two days, so get it while the getting is good! And while there, consider also grabbing Sid Meier's Pirates! Gold Plus (the 1993 remake) and/or Sid Meier's Pirates! (the 2004 remake) for our next month's gaming, as both are also heavily discounted. Thanks to /u/J-Chiptunator for the heads-up!

All of these do exist on Steam as well, of course, and don't cost much even when not discounted. I will write more about platforms and general availability later. But now, back to our regular programming.

Introduction

So, this is what it's come to. You in the pilot's seat, surrounded by the vast emptiness of cold, dead space. A row of cryptic console buttons. A user interface that seems to come from an entirely different era, if not species. One wrong move, one mistaken button press, and you are probably dead. Great. Just great.

It's not even your seat, or technically your spaceship, just something that you stumbled into when the aliens blew your crewmates into smithereens. You are the sole survivor, alone on board the Jolly Roger (who the hell named this ship?) and now seriously evaluating your life choices.

Go to space, they had said. Space is exciting, it's fun, it's different, they had insinuated. You specifically remember the poster screaming that it had "everything for everyone".

Bullshit.

Instead, you find yourself hunched over the console with a thick manual in one hand and a glass of the galaxy's worst gin in another, trying to figure out how this piece of crap Jolly Roger functions. You don't feel jolly at all. Or roger.

Just as you are about to give up and slip into cryogenic sleep for the next thirty days until that vacation in the Caribbean, you notice something buzzing on a side table. It's the quiet, gentle buzz of a smallish electronic device. Friendly, inviting. You pick it up and the screen lights up. It's a warm, welcoming glow of an e-reader. It is here to help. The page it opens simply reads:

Welcome to Space Rogue

In my CGA lobbying post, I wrote that although Space Rogue was a fairly major release at its time, for modern tastes, it can feel a little clunky, perhaps difficult to get into. It is not only the oldest game that we have played so far, but also the first one on our list that was designed with a personal computer and its keyboard in mind, rather than something that would be controlled purely with a controller, joystick or mouse. If you are not familiar with this era or style of gaming, it may take a bit of a mindset adjustment to get going.

I will try my best to help you get started without too much headache. Just trust me that there really is a very good game in there, in fact one that has been voted as one of the best Commodore 64 games of all time. It is a galaxy spanning scifi RPG that mixes the space sim combat of Elite and Wing Commander with the adventuring of Ultima and Mass Effect. A game that combines some of the best of late 80s design while paving the way for what was to come.

📚 Reading materials

Although the game starts with a cutscene that sets up the story, it still very much expects you to take a look at the documents that originally came in the game box. As so often with games of this era, these are not "supplementary" materials but an actual part of the game. Both Steam and GOG releases should contain the following:

• Quick Reference Card
• Novella (Stars of Opportunity)
• Manual
• Map
• Ship Models

With GOG, you should be able to download the files directly from the website. With Steam, the Manual shows up in the "Additional Content" section of the game page, while the rest can be found in the game's installation directory under the directory "Bonus Content".

The original game box also included an advertisement for the game-within-a-game arcade hit Hive!, but the GOG and Steam releases seem to not have it. You can find a copy here. And you can also find all of these documents in one package on scribd.com, although the manual there lacks colour and the reference card is for the Amiga version.

That's a lot of materials, I know. But you don't need to study them all at once. Here's what I suggest you do:

🕹️ Start by figuring out how to control the ship

Once you are through the opening cinematic, begin with the Quick Reference Card and its section titled "Commands Used in Space Flight". This will teach you how to move your ship in the cockpit view. Don't worry about the dashboard information right now, just concentrate on controlling the Jolly Roger. You should be safe to experiment at this point as you are in empty space and no one is going to be bothering you. I personally use the WASDZXC keys, but I know some prefer mouse controls.

When in the Cruise Flight mode (the default mode), the STOP key (S or 5) is very handy. It stops all of your turning and rotation immediately. Learn to use it.

💾 Saving and loading the game

Note also the Quick Reference Card's section titled "Saving the Game". In addition to remembering the keyboard command Ctrl+S, it is important to keep in mind that you can only save when you are in space. It's a good idea to save before docking at bases.

You need to give your save game a name. Remember that name because you need to type it again when you want to load it. You can only load games when starting the game. Loading a game asks a copy protection question that requires the manual.

If you forget your save file name, you can find it in the game's installation folder as a SAV file.

🧑‍🚀 Suggested first actions

Next, take a look at the section called "Quick-Start Instructions", still in the Quick Reference Card. It is like a tutorial, telling you what to do first so that you get used to the game's UI. For you convenience, below is what is says, together with my additional notes:

🪐 Learn more about the game world

After you have explored the Hiathra Starbase a little bit, it's a good time to learn more about the world in which the game takes place.

The novella gives you background information about your character and the world. Unlike the intro cutscene, the novella also gives you a goal. It's worth reading not just for the flavour but also for the information and guidance that it provides.

The manual also gives you background information about the universe. Take a look at these three sections to better understand the world that you inhabit:

• Information about the setting (41-46)
• Descriptions of location types available to you and hazards to avoid (36-38)
• Information about game mechanics (47-48)

Additionally, take a look at the map provided and figure out where you are.

🚀 Master your ship

After you have an idea of the world that you inhabit, start to learn everything you can about your spaceship. While this is an RPG, you will actually not be levelling your character; instead, you will be upgrading your ship. So, sooner or later you should know the Jolly Roger inside out. At the very beginning, avoid combat and hazards and instead get accustomed to:

• Your cockpit view (pages 3-7)
• The two flight models (page 8)
• How to dock at bases (pages 10-11). Keep in mind that you cannot land on planets.
• Navigating within a solar system (pages 21-23)
• Wormhole travel between systems (pages 24-25)
• Space hazards to avoid (38-39)

It is also a good idea to leaf through the rest of the manual, and to check out the hand-written notes that the previous owner of Jolly Roger jotted down. Once you get the hang of flying and docking and encounter some enemies, pause and read the remaining sections about combat and ship types.

👍 Early game tips

In case you feel a little aimless and/or overwhelmed, here are some further tips for the early game:

🎶 Music

Space Rogue has little sound and no soundtrack, apart from the Japanese versions which are no longer available. In case you would like to listen to some music while adventuring, I have put together a Spotify playlist of tunes that might work. You can find it here. I hope you like it. You might be able to convert it to your preferred streaming service somehow.

Historical Context

Developed by Origin Systems towards end of the golden age of the Commodore 64 and Apple II, Space Rogue was something of a pioneering hybrid that bridged the gap between the space flight simulator genre, led by titles like Elite, and the deep narrative-driven RPG systems found in Origin's own Ultima series. The game was marketed as the first of Origin's "cinematic experiences" and while I don't think Origin ever used that marketing term again, their wildly successful and quite cinematic Wing Commander series launched a year later and in many ways stood on the shoulders of Space Rogue.

Space Rogue was created by Paul Neurath, who later went on to found his own company that developed a number of influential titles such as Ultima Underworld I & II, Thief I & II and System Shock 1 & 2. Meanwhile, a young Origin Systems designer by the name of Chris Roberts was quite influenced by Neurath's work and took its combination of 3D space flight and cinematic storytelling to create the Wing Commander series. These days, Roberts is perhaps even better known from his crowdfunded in-progress magnum opus Star Citizen, which in many ways seems to continue the Space Rogue legacy.

Game Information

Platforms & Versions: The game was originally released for Commodore 64 and Apple II. It was later ported to Amiga, Atari ST, DOS, FM Towns, Macintosh, PC-9801 and X68000. The versions are largely the same, with minor graphical differences, apart from the Japanese releases, which feature some music and improved cutscene visuals.

Genre(s): Space combat simulator, RPG

Links: Mobygames, Wikipedia

Stores: GOG and Steam. Note that the game is sold as "Space Rogue Classic". Don't confuse with the unrelated game from 2016 called "Space Rogue".

Game Setup

The main purpose of this topic is to get people up and running with the game.

On Windows and Linux, the game should run directly from Steam and GOG without problems.

On a modern Mac, you likely need to extract the DOS files and run them in a DOSBox emulator.

For other versions and platforms, I'm afraid you are on your own. But do tell us if you decide to do something funky like run it on a C64 or hunt down and emulate an FM Towns or a PC-9801 version!

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
• 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.

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

<details>

<summary>Spoilers</summary>

Spoiler text goes here.

</details>

FAQ

This topic is for the Three Cheers for Tildes mobile app.

I'll summarize the major updates at the start of each similar topic, so people can read the updates and then hit Ignore if they don't care about more frequent updates and user feedback.

Recently:

[Android] Version 1.5.2 (Apr 8, 2026): Fixed username display bugs in inbox, fixed "Tildes" user display bug in topic OP such as in the April Fools megathread

[iOS] Version 1.5.1 (Apr 8, 2026): Fixed pagination in main feed, fixed "Tildes" user display bug in topic OP

Version 1.5.0 (Mar 21, 2026):

• Search for posts
• [Android] Fixed touch ripple on inbox conversation rows
• [Android] Fixed support for high-RAM devices
• [Android] (1.5.1) Fixed comment reply sheet on Android 11-14
• [iOS] Fixed blur on Sort button on iOS 26
• [iOS] Fixed ugly shadow between panes on iPadOS 26
• [iOS] Fixed overly large vote label on own comments

Edit: Currently on TestFlight only on iOS for the next week or so.

[iOS] Version 1.4.5 (Jan 2026): Fixed UI bugs on iOS 26

[Android] Version 1.4.5 (Apr 2025): Fixed YouTube bugs, voting bugs on Android 11 and earlier

Search has been near the top of my to-do list for a long time, so it feels good to finally release this feature.

I did some custom UI this time and I'm pretty happy with how it came out. Despite its basic appearance, it required a decent amount of detailed UI programming on both Android and iOS, to avoid breaking the adjacent Sort feature. I also had to redo the search results screen a few times, due to navigation quirks on each platform.

There are a couple related features that didn't make it this time: Searching for posts and comments within your own profile is not possible yet. Also "find in page" for comment text is not here yet either. These are both pretty high priority to me, and as usual it's a matter of making time and finding motivation to work on it.

Also on Android, expect a hotfix v1.5.1 coming out soon, to fix the comment reply sheet on Android 11-14. Big thanks to the user who reported this bug! The hotfix is already available to sideload, and under review on Google Play, as of this writing.

Previous topic: April 2025

Where to get it

Android version on Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.talklittle.android.tildes

Or sideloadable APK at https://www.talklittle.com/three-cheers/

iOS version on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/three-cheers-for-tildes/id6470950557

Join TestFlight for iOS beta testing: https://testflight.apple.com/join/mpVk1qIy

I have a bare bones prototype of a game made in twine and I will be honest it needs a lot of work.

The story and main architecture of the game is already planned and I am happy with it. It is the story hooks and pathing that I am looking to improve and for that I would like to give out a early Alpha build for volunteers to critique and provide any dead ends, errors and story beats they find engaging.

Please feel free to send a message if you would like to participate. Thank you for your time.

Edit: Thank you for your interest in the game the final build should be ready for volunteers in one week. I will send links to you directly at that time. Thank you again for your interest this is much better than I hoped for.

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'm frankly all out of ideas on how to solve an issue, so I'm hoping that the Tildes community might have a suggestion for solving this issue.

I have an 8tb HDD that spins up and is recognized by windows when plugged into a USB HDD dock, but in another machine (also running windows 10) the drive can't be seen (**this is using data connections directly to the motherboard).

There is:

• Nothing mechanically wrong with the drive as it reads/writes on the HDD dock.
• I've tested the drive as an NTFS formatted drive and as unallocated.
• Neither Disk Manager nor the bios sees the drive.
• Multiple SATA cables and Power jacks tested on working drives and the non working drive.

Open to thoughts, prayers or possible solutions.

Thank you!

So I recently put out a custom map for Beat Saber that I had started work on when the internet was cut for 14 days 20 days in Iran to pass the time.

Gameplay video of the map, Odysseus from Epic The Musical

Everyone I sent it to enjoyed it a lot and I got the happiness that I needed.
One of them recommended to send it over to some twitch streamers as well because some of them have a bot that lets you recommend maps.

I've never used twitch, I found a steamer, made an account, sent it in the chat and had my chat at messages tts'd in the stream. It was absolutely lovely seeing their reaction and it had made my night.

Then I noticed that my 'thank you!' messages didn't tts, huh weird. After watching them for a bit longer I thought maybe I'll send some other stuff I've made their way too. Aaand it didn't send, the chat message sent but the bot response didn't come, a bunch of testing later I found i was shadow banned.

A bit more searching and I found that VPNs are the cause. So changed from TOR to Express and tried again, no dice.
Made a new account with Express and tried and success! But only for 4 messages total, then shadow banned again.

I got a friend's dedicated v2ray server and tried with a new account and my messages were sent again. So I went to a bigger streamer who was also doing the map requests and sent my map... Only to see I'm shadow banned again.

At this point the joy I had felt from seeing others enjoy what I made was gone, replaced by a familiar sadness, the same type of sadness I had gotten when the internet was cut and essentially a one way communication not too long ago.

It's a pain. these sites don't load without VPNs, I had already spent a whole hour trying different VPNs to get the 7mb map to upload to the site (and experienced like 30 errors in the process), then had to try out a bunch more to get the file to upload in Discord (with a bunch of VPNs I can only send messages, files don't upload), and then I experienced the happiness that came from seeing a live reaction and wanting to experience it more, only to have it wiped away.

I want to start work on the next project, i have so much in my mind that i want to put out into the world, but it takes time to switch back to the mentality of "I'm making this for myself and others may never see it" that I had to adopt to get back to creating.

Edit: seems a whole week has been removed from my memory, the outage wasn't two weeks

Hey everyone,

I’m currently running Schwalbe G-One Bite 40mm and I’m thinking about moving up to 50mm for a bit more confidence off-road. Where I ride it’s not groomed gravel or proper official well-kept MTB trails, just typical unmaintained forest trails: holes, roots, loose rocks everywhere, some of them golf-ball sized. On descents, it feels pretty sketchy with the 40s.

The problem is, I don’t have long stretches of continuous/unbroken nature. It’s more like short nature pockets in between civilization so, I still need to transverse a few roads (tarmac and cobbles). So I’m trying to find something that’s still reasonably fast rolling on road. I was hoping to find something up to 20 watts of rolling resistance. I think I saw somewhere that my tires are around 25 watts, so some improvement in this area would also be nice.

I started investigating tires on bicyclerollingresistance.com website and started looking at measured knob height (center and edge), trying to pick something with more bite than what I have now. But the more I read, the more I see people saying knob height alone doesn’t mean much and tread pattern matters more. At this point I’m not even sure what I should be looking for.

These are the ones I’ve selected for the moment:

• Schwalbe G-One R Pro 50
• Schwalbe G-One RX Pro 50
• Schwalbe G-One Overland Super Ground SpeedGrip 50

Alternatives slightly above 20 watts:

• Continental Race King Performance ShieldWall 50
• Pirelli Gravel M (tested in 45mm, but there’s a 50mm version too; hopefully they perform similarly)

Maybe other brands or models I should be considering that aren’t on BRR?

But honestly… I don’t really know what I’m doing. I started by filtering by wattage and knob height, but it seems the tread design or compounds are even more important.

So, in conclusion, what I’m after is:

• More confidence on rough, loose forest descents (I'm not doing jumps. Let's say, more like XC)
• 50mm volume
• Still decent on road sections
• Not feeling like I’m dragging an anchor on pavement

If anyone has experience with these in real, messy forest conditions (not nice smooth gravel), I’d appreciate some advice and recommendations. What should I actually be looking at when choosing?

Thanks in advance!

This interesting article provoked a lot of thought...

We Are Witnessing the Self-Immolation of a Superpower .... archive.is link

You want to destroy the Western rules-based order that has preserved peace and security for 80 years, which allowed the US to triumph as an economic superpower and beacon of hope and innovation for the world. What exactly would you do differently with your marionette other than enact the ever more reckless agenda that Donald Trump has pursued since he became president last year?

Nothing.

For the 80 years since the end of World War II, the US model of innovation, trade, and economic hegemony has been built on a foundation of six seemingly inviolable traditions and policies held steady across both Republican and Democratic administrations:

(1) easy access of immigrants to the US, particularly its unparalleled world-class schools and universities;

(2) rich and steady government support of higher education, medical research, and laboratories;

(3) broad and ever-more-frictionless trade access to US markets and, reciprocally, a flow of US products to the rest of the world;

(4) a firm, unyielding, and unquestionable adherence to the rule of law at home that made the US a predictable and safe place to create, build, and do business at home; and

(5) a similarly firm, unyielding, and unquestionable network of geopolitical alliances abroad that knitted together a security blanket that stretched around the entire globe, backed up by the most powerful and widest-ranging military ever seen in human history.

All five of those pillars helped firm up and underpin another equally critical pillar:

(6) a politically independent and fiscally prudent monetary policy that established the US dollar as the world’s safest reserve currency.

This made US Treasury bonds the savings bank for the entire world—for democracies and authoritarian regimes alike!—and made US banking networks and capital markets the place to be for any company looking for access to investors.

This last point is particularly interesting. Janet Yellen warns the $38 trillion national debt is testing a red line economists have feared for decades

I can't imagine a better way to create a sovereign debt crisis than Trumps policy of politicizing the Fed Reserve, sudden tariff flip flops, coercing partners, making then breaking agreements, pushing deficits to new highs, committing to unfunded tax cuts, weakening anti-inflation institutions, reducing transparency by pushing crypto, weaponizing sanctions and creating policy chaos.

Sovereign debt crises aren't a problem until they suddenly are, then all of a sudden you are in a world of hurt.

Yet most of Donald Trump supporters don't seem to care about any of this, the tea party protestors now only seem to care about hating anyone who doesn't look, act or think like them.

Once trust in institutions, alliances, and monetary independence is lost, rebuilding them takes decades and often requires crisis to force alignment. If history is any guide, that crisis wont be pretty, and might cause America to dive deeper into Authoritarianism.

I am really not sure if this topic belongs in ~tech or ~society or ~talk but I trust the moderators to re-assign accordingly.

So, this is the layout of the "development" team of my companies.

there are 4 "development" teams which reports to the development manager who also occasionally codes.
There is one team, that's the one I am on. 7 people, 6 males.
there is another team, 4 people, 3 males.
there is another team, 5 people, 4 males.
The last team, I don't really consider "development" team. its a team of 4 females. What they are best suited for is QA in the sense of manually testing the product to ensure the experience is sufficient for push to PROD, But because of budget restrictions, they are being forced to learn code and testing suites so they can be the people to develop our testing structure. They are great people and excellent Manual QAers but they really are not developers.

All our tech managers and team leads are men with the exception of the team lead for QA (obviously).

And just to be clear, the culture is friendly and respectful and no complaints. It's just the gender ratio is pathetic.

So our tech gender ratio is really 17 people and 3 women which is 17%.
If you want to consider the QA team a dev team to bump up the numbers, you get 21 with 7, that's still only 33%.

At a recent company meeting, they were talking about how diverse our workforce is and blah blah blah (I tune out most of that stuff as we are fully remote and I spend most of my time coding), but then they showed a slide that claimed our gender ratio for tech roles was like 50% or something.....

I message a colleague at work, being like "where on earth did they get that number??", he was like ":shrug: maybe they are counting the people who use the product we are making?"

To clarify that, the product we work on is rarely used by external customers. Instead we have employees who know how to use our product and correspond on our behalf with external customers. So all these employees are doing is using a webapp the real tech employees develop.

So long story short, my company pulled a number out of nowhere to claim we have gender equity in the tech roles and now I dont know how to trust any stats a company puts out about how equal the gender roles are in their "tech" departments.

Here's a a double feature about game console history: two YouTube videos that were released in the past few days. While the videos are unconnected, both are great quality little documentaries and I think when watched together offer an interesting contrast between the two worlds that existed at the time.

The Untold History of the Nintendo Entertainment System (45 min) by The Video Game History Foundation documents how the NES was launched in the US 40 years ago. While I was familiar with the main story, many of the details were totally new to me, including the prototypes and the initial ideas of what the NES might have been, and could well have been had the market and initial test audiences reacted differently.

The Hunt for the Lost Communist Console (18 min) by fern looks at the BSS-01, a video game console manufactured in East Germany in 1979. It was the only game console released in the country and I think somewhat similar to the Soviet console Turnir, as both used the same AY-3-8500 chipset imported from the West and offered a collection of Pong clones.