Boojum's recent activity
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Comment on CGA-2026-07 🕹️🔥⚔️ INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals in ~games
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Comment on CGA-2026-06 🦇🧛♀️🔥 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow in ~games
Boojum LinkThis was fun, and my first time playing this game, or for that matter, any of the Castlevania games that lend their name to the Castlevania half of the Metroidvania genre. (I have played and beat...This was fun, and my first time playing this game, or for that matter, any of the Castlevania games that lend their name to the Castlevania half of the Metroidvania genre. (I have played and beat the original linear Castlevania and Super Castlevania IV games, back before Metroidvanias were a thing; so this wasn't my first Castlevania title; just my first of the later era.)
Time-wise, I very much appreciated that this was a shorter game. I'd just come off of a 160 hr play through of Dragon Quest XI S, so this was a nice palette cleanser.
I just finished it last night, rushing through the last few zones to Graham, Julius, and Chaos in one setting. Oddly of the three, I found Julius the hardest. He killed me a couple of times and I had to burn a ton of potions and consumables on him; mostly because he was fast and could be hard to hit. By comparison, Chaos was super easy - there were so many little things that I could attack for hits that I was getting a constant health infusion via the Succubus soul. I think I ended with something like a 99.8% map completion; I'm not sure what I missed.
The difficulty curve was interesting. There was a fun point mid-game where I accidentally found the Claimh Solais once I'd found my way past the waterfall. (Okay, yes, I had to look up the waterfall - it was obvious that there was supposed to be a way past it, given the armor sitting there under it.) That, plus that armor made the game feel brokenly easy for a little bit midway through, until late game the enemies started to catch up again - somewhere around the Arena. And speaking of the Arena - grrr... that one long room with the conveyor belts, spikes, and medusa heads... I can honestly say that room killed me more than any of the bosses! But yeah, that sword carried through the second half of the game. (The chain sword was my main weapon through most of the first half.)
The soul switching mechanic was interesting, but got a bit tedious. I think I like games slightly better where you outright get key powerups rather than having to farm them until they randomly drop. Sure, most of the key ones are given to you outright for defeating certain bosses. But things like the Gargoyle soul sure helped when I finally got it late game and made it easier to revisit areas with medusa heads and cockatrices. I also found myself really wishing the the Skula soul was just one of those automatic permanent upgrades (like the Hippogryph soul which was pretty awesome, but came so late in the game that I didn't real have any use for it, nor did it have any puzzles built around it, which was a shame).
I loved the sprite work/animation and some of the sound design. There was something about the fluidity and style of the sprite work that made me think that I could easily have been playing an arcade game. Especially little details like when you the knock-back as you destroy a torch or sarcophagus and it falls to pieces that bounce a little, with a nice bass thump. Likewise the colors and the shadows. It seemed like it could would have been suitable as a Neo Geo game a few years earlier.
Oh! One thing I did find odd and a bit of a miss was the cut scenes and dialogues with NPCs. I'm not sure what was up with the translation, but I felt like I was getting half the story, and that garbled through a game of telephone or something. So many stilted and random disconnected-feeling sentences. Usually I love a good story-heavy game and savor the dialogue. But on this one, I just kinda started skimming through it, which I pretty much never do. Oh well. It was mostly about the action anyway.
Anyway, those were my first-time impressions.
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Comment on Reddit will require you to be logged in to use old.reddit.com in ~tech
Boojum Link ParentI should probably just move to that, yeah. But no, just vanilla Firefox Mobile in perma-private mode and a blank profile.I should probably just move to that, yeah. But no, just vanilla Firefox Mobile in perma-private mode and a blank profile.
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Comment on Reddit will require you to be logged in to use old.reddit.com in ~tech
Boojum LinkBleh. I'm a weirdo like to use private browsing on my phone for everything, just as a way to help limit my screen time and also in case I ever lose my phone. New Reddit sucks, so now I'll less...Bleh. I'm a weirdo like to use private browsing on my phone for everything, just as a way to help limit my screen time and also in case I ever lose my phone. New Reddit sucks, so now I'll less likely to visit it.
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Comment on I'm looking for an adage or "law" (like Conway's law), but for dealing with AI slop in ~tech
Boojum Link ParentHah! You've just given me a great idea for a new AI startup: a service you can hire to take the mandatory training on your behalf. Let it run your browser to read through all the boring modules...Hah! You've just given me a great idea for a new AI startup: a service you can hire to take the mandatory training on your behalf.
Let it run your browser to read through all the boring modules and transcripts, wait out the tediously slow narration (always generically about "our company"), watch all the videos, and then take the silly quizzes on your behalf while you go get some real work done. :-)
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Comment on Steam Summer Sale 2026: Hidden gems in ~games
Boojum LinkCan I plug one that's not on sale (because it's free) and has more than 1000 reviews, but still seems like it deserves to be better known? Moonring (2,062 reviews currently) This game is basically...Can I plug one that's not on sale (because it's free) and has more than 1000 reviews, but still seems like it deserves to be better known?
Moonring
(2,062 reviews currently)
This game is basically a love letter to the Ultima, Wizardry, and the various other CRPG games of the 80's. Retro-inspired sprite work with stark vivid colors on a black background and a scanline effect, and turn-based with rather little handholding (and no quest markers)! On the other hand, it still does have some modern touches like a built in automatic notes systems, a rather forgiving penalty for death, the ability to respec., and so forth. It's a labor of love by one person, the co-creator of the Fable series. He's described his goal as wanting it to feel like the CRPGs of the 80's, but how you remember them instead of how they actually were.
It definitely has one of the stranger and more unique fantasy world backstories compared to other games that I've played: "Five hundred years ago, the land of Caldera was plunged into endless darkness. Decades later, five moons rose in the sky, bringing light to the world and strange Gods with it." And without spoilers, I'll just say the whole story line flows from this.
The game play is turn-based rogue-like. The overworld has a static, hand-crafted layout with encounters occasionally spawning. The dungeons are all procedurally generated. If you die on the overworld, you just respawn at the last town you exited. And if you die in a dungeon everything resets to just as it was right before you entered it (i.e., you get your consumables back), with the dungeon being re-randomized if you should enter it again. There's no XP or leveling system. Instead, as you do tasks for the gods you gain skill points to spend on abilities. Or you find better equipment. And that's all.
I mentioned it being free. It really is free, no strings attached. The developer explained: "Life is hard, COVID sucked, everyone's poor and stressed. I don't need the $300 this would make me: I'd rather take the goodwill." He later added an optional DLC with a 100 floor mega-dungeon for $5, mostly as a sort of tip jar for those whom requested a way to pay him something for the game.
I played and beat it entirely on my Steam Deck last year, so I vouch for its compatibility there. And being turn-based makes it a pretty good pick-up-and-set-down game.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June 2026 in ~games
Boojum Link ParentSuch a quotable song! And part of the fun of being a parent is getting to use that particular line (and some of the others) on my kids. :-) Fun personal trivia: for my birthday this year, I chose...Such a quotable song! And part of the fun of being a parent is getting to use that particular line (and some of the others) on my kids. :-)
Fun personal trivia: for my birthday this year, I chose a Black Forest cake from the local bakery chain that inspired Valve. And yes, it was delicious and moist.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June 2026 in ~games
Boojum Link ParentI mentioned in my list that I have a spare one to gift on Steam, so if anyone is looking for that other copy...I mentioned in my list that I have a spare one to gift on Steam, so if anyone is looking for that other copy...
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June 2026 in ~games
Boojum Link ParentGreat! You're first to ask, so you get to choose when you wish to claim it.Great! You're first to ask, so you get to choose when you wish to claim it.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June 2026 in ~games
Boojum (edited )LinkI've got a few games sitting around in my Steam inventory. I suspect anyone who might be interested in these has them already, but if you want any or all of them, they're yours: Frozen Synapse...I've got a few games sitting around in my Steam inventory. I suspect anyone who might be interested in these has them already, but if you want any or all of them, they're yours:
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Comment on No, artificial intelligence is not conscious in ~tech
Boojum Link ParentI'd argue that multi-word prediction is still effectively word-at-a-time, just accelerated with a cheap model front-running the main model to break dependency chains and allow for parallelizing...Also important to remember is that an LLM is a machine that generates only one word at a time.
I'd argue that multi-word prediction is still effectively word-at-a-time, just accelerated with a cheap model front-running the main model to break dependency chains and allow for parallelizing the main model. But yeah, when I saw that my mind immediately leapt to diffusion models. That's definitely a different beast.
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Comment on No, artificial intelligence is not conscious in ~tech
Boojum Link ParentWe've seen reasoning before from classical expert systems, planners, Prolog, etc. What makes things like coding agents new to me is how resilient they are now in the face of fuzziness and...We've seen reasoning before from classical expert systems, planners, Prolog, etc.
What makes things like coding agents new to me is how resilient they are now in the face of fuzziness and ambiguity when engaging in that reasoning. I can make a request quite sloppily rather than using precise language that might as well be its own DSL, and they'll generally still be able to follow the intent of my request. Or, as they're running along doing my bidding, they might encounter stuff that's inconsistent/contradictory, implied/unstated, etc. and they'll be able to work around that or otherwise do the right thing. They don't require the whole world to be manually reduced to a consistent set of propositional logic axioms to be able to reason about it and problem solve. It's how well they seem to reason in the face of that fuzziness that I marvel at.
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Comment on ‘Donkey’: Eddie Murphy ‘Shrek’ spinoff sets summer 2028 release in ~movies
Boojum Link ParentEven before Shrek, the irreverent fairy tale thing had already been done by the Fractured Fairy Tales segments from the Rocky and Bullwinkle show back in the 60's.Even before Shrek, the irreverent fairy tale thing had already been done by the Fractured Fairy Tales segments from the Rocky and Bullwinkle show back in the 60's.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Boojum Link ParentThat's good to know between you and Bullmaestro. I've had Mina the Hollower on my wishlist, but I've been taking a wait-and-see approach to actually getting it because I remember some obnoxious...That's good to know between you and Bullmaestro. I've had Mina the Hollower on my wishlist, but I've been taking a wait-and-see approach to actually getting it because I remember some obnoxious difficulty spikes on Shovel Knight, particularly near the final area somewhere between here and the crushing block sequence that followed shortly. It was one of those things where I just ended up pulling up a YouTube video of those last two levels and the boss fight to see what was coming up and then decided right there that that was good enough and I was done with the game.
I love a good 2D Zelda-like, and a like a challenge, but I don't enjoy pain.
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Comment on What are your favorite custom games? in ~games
Boojum LinkBack in the early '00s, I played a ton of Unreal Tournament 99, 2k3, and 2k4. I ended up as co-leader of an Instagib Capture the Flag (iCTF) clan for a while. I loved the purity of the instagib...Back in the early '00s, I played a ton of Unreal Tournament 99, 2k3, and 2k4. I ended up as co-leader of an Instagib Capture the Flag (iCTF) clan for a while.
I loved the purity of the instagib mode. No pickups (weapons, armor, power ups, health, etc.) to worry about. If you got killed and respawned you immediately had just as much of a chance to return the favor. Since everyone was using the same weapon, it was all about your skills at aiming and dodging vs. theirs, combined with how well you know the map.
And occasionally if I felt like something really crazy, I'd go on a server running 150% LG iCTF - 150% speed, low gravity, instagib capture the flag. Everyone would be zooming around like crazy, jumping like fleas, and blasting each other out of the air. Good times.
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Comment on What do you think the top three most used apps on your phone for the past week are? in ~tech
Boojum LinkFirefox by far, then Messages, then maybe Camera, Clock, or Keep. Yeah, the day-by-day activity suggests that's about right. Totaling up the last seven days (rounding up the <1 minutes to one...Firefox by far, then Messages, then maybe Camera, Clock, or Keep.
Yeah, the day-by-day activity suggests that's about right. Totaling up the last seven days (rounding up the <1 minutes to one minute), I get: Firefox, Messages, Camera, Clock, Maps, Phone, Droid48, and Keep. Maps and beyond I used for less than 10 minutes each this week. So the bottom ones are definitely things that can easily rotate. The majority of my usage is clearly Firefox and to a lesser extent Messages.
I generally just run stock, with a few exceptions like Firefox and Droid48.
Speaking of which, I'm really pleasantly surprised at how popular Firefox mobile is here on Tildes!
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Comment on What are some seemingly silly things in your life that have practical purposes? in ~life
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Comment on What are some seemingly silly things in your life that have practical purposes? in ~life
Boojum LinkSome people might argue that making your bed is a waste of time. After all, you're just going to rumple the blankets all over again that night, right? So why do I do it? For my cats! My home...Some people might argue that making your bed is a waste of time. After all, you're just going to rumple the blankets all over again that night, right?
So why do I do it? For my cats!
My home office space is next to my bedroom, so keeping the area tidy is a bonus. But the real reason is that I've found that a freshly made bed is an absolute cat magnet. I love watching them roll around on it, obviously enjoying it, right after I've made it. And they'll often curl up and snooze there, where I can spin my desk chair around and watch them through the doorway.
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Comment on What are some seemingly silly things in your life that have practical purposes? in ~life
Boojum Link ParentMy solution to this sort of thing was to simply flood the house with bookmarks. My younger daughter likes to dog-ear her books, which drives me up the wall. So one Christmas, I got her a pack of...My solution to this sort of thing was to simply flood the house with bookmarks.
My younger daughter likes to dog-ear her books, which drives me up the wall. So one Christmas, I got her a pack of several hundred blank bookmarks in assorted colors (not laminated either - these are designed to be doodled on and crafted with). So now we have a big stash of them, on top of having a bunch of them scattered around the house. No excuses.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Boojum LinkOn Friday night, I platinumed (on Steam), Dragon Quest XI S (Definitive Edition) after defeating the last super boss. I'd had no idea what I was getting myself into when I picked it up back in...On Friday night, I platinumed (on Steam), Dragon Quest XI S (Definitive Edition) after defeating the last super boss.
I'd had no idea what I was getting myself into when I picked it up back in march on sale for $20. I ended up clocking something around 165 hrs, all told, so that works out to about $0.12/hr. I'm pretty sure it's now the longest single game play-through that I've ever done. (I.e., not counting the sort of forever-games like Civilization, Unreal Tournament, or World of Warcraft.) I might have put more hours into my play through of Skyrim over the years, dinking around on random side quests when the mood strike, but I'm not certain.
This was also my first ever Dragon Quest game, so it's been interesting to see how those play. It was surprisingly easy, I'd say, and I perhaps should have cranked up the difficulty rather than leaving it on easy. I didn't actually see a game over screen until my first attempt at the last super boss. Still, considering the sheer length of the game even at that, I think I'm okay with the easier "story mode"-like difficulty.
Things that I liked about it or found pleasantly surprising:
- A quick summary of the story whenever I load my game, along with a reminder of the current goal on the map screen. And if that's not enough, there's the Party Talk, where the party characters can comment on the situation. All good for reminding me what I'm doing when I come back after a break.
- Characters can be set to auto play with different priorities. The default is to put in orders for the main hero, and let the other party members auto play - nice for e.g., just setting my healer to heal and not worrying too much about it when clearing trash. You can change this on the fly during battles.
- Speaking of battles, I can swap my active characters in and out in the middle of battles! (At the expense of their turn.) I can even re-equip them during a battle! And if my first-string group falls in battle, the second-stringers automatically step in. Neat!
- A "heal all" and a "handy heal all" on the menu. Both automatically have your party use their healing spells to heal. The difference is the former 100% tops off all characters
- Automatically purchasing crafting resources while crafting, if you've seen a vendor with them. No need to spend time chasing down the vendors and buying the exact numbers of missing items. Some rare resources do need to be farmed directly, however.
- You can pick and choose your battles. Enemies wander around on the field, and touching them starts a battle with the group of enemies represented by it. But the ones that you see wandering aren't aggressive and don't come after you in any way (unless you have a certain cursed item equiped). So if you just feel like your leveled high enough and they don't have any drops you want, you can just skip right past them.
- When mounted, if you're holding down the button for galloping and you collide with a weak (i.e., below a certain size, plus lower level than you) enemy on the field, you'll send them rag dolling. You can actually get some XP for this, though your characters won't level until you win the next battle. Still, there've been times when I've been lazy and finished off the last chunk of XP a character needed to level this way.
- Speaking of XP gains, all party members alive at the end of a battle gain XP, including the second-stringers who aren't in the active battle group. I really appreciated not having to rotate my party members just to make sure the XP was distributed somewhat evenly. Or end up in a situation where a certainly party member was mandatory but underleveled.
- The story is a fairly simple one of good vs. evil. It had some twists I didn't foresee. But it was kind of refreshing, knowing that for the most part the good guys are the good guys, the bad guys are the bad guys, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. It also felt quite episodic, especially in the beginning. Go from place to place where each town is dealing with some issue and put things right. Spend a couple of hours of play there, maybe a good gameplay sessions, and then move on and tackle the next problem the next day. It all integrated nicely with the recap when you reload. They were clearly not trying to anything groundbreaking here, but rather going for a well done, comfortable, cozy, fairy tale vibe.
- There's a place you can go to rewatch any of the cut scenes! In games that give me enough save slots for it, I often like to have a group of saves at the ends of acts or just before other plot-critical so that I can rewatch those story moments if I feel like it. But it was pretty cool during discovering that nearly every single cut scene was organized by "episode" and available to rewatch in-game once I reached a certain point.
- And speaking of the cozy fairy tale vibes, the "cute" monster design was kind of fun and a nice change from grim-dark JRPGs.
Still, after nearly three months I'm a bit burnt out on it. I think I tend to favor 10-30 hr games as my sweet spot. Long enough to do something interesting with their ideas, but not so long they overstay their welcome. On the shorter side, I started Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow for CGA over the weekend, and I'm making pretty good progress, I think, judging by the map percentage (now at about 70%). It's been a nice change of pace.
I've been looking for to this. I remember playing it on emulator 20 years ago or so and getting decently far but never finishing it. (Avoiding walk-through spoilers by asking Google's LLM based on what I remember of how far I got, it sounds like I had made it perhaps 65% of the way through the game.)
But definitely I do remember enjoying it at the time (especially things like the music theme for the titular Sinistrals), and I've thought of revisiting it. CGA seems like a good opportunity to do so. And this time around, instead of being tied to my desk for the emulator like I was then, I've got my Steam Deck all set up for emulation, along with the dock and a wireless controller. So I can enjoy it both in portable form and from the catch. Should be fun!