Boojum's recent activity
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure Schedule: April - September 2026 in ~games
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure Schedule: April - September 2026 in ~games
Boojum Link ParentI agree about the eliminated games, since I'd happily play a number of them. But I'm liking the fact that with the stronger decay now, all of those eliminated games still have an excellent chance...I agree about the eliminated games, since I'd happily play a number of them. But I'm liking the fact that with the stronger decay now, all of those eliminated games still have an excellent chance if renominated next time. Any single ballot could now compensate for what they lose in rollover points, so it hurts much less. And the ones that advance feel more like mere suggestions or a primer to get us started for next time rather than dead certs.
The lobbying topic was fun! It definitely swung some of my votes to same games I wouldn't have otherwise considered. (And as a bit of enlightened self-interest, I was thinking the lobbying posts could also make for a good rough draft for hosting topics if they won.) I'd definitely lobby to keep the lobbying round. I suppose it could be folded into the nomination topic, but I think it's more fun separate.
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Comment on The average US college student is illiterate in ~life
Boojum Link ParentOn the flipside, with regard to driving, pedestrians stepping off the curb into an intersection and meandering through a crosswalk with their eyes glued to a phone is one of my major pet peeves...On the flipside, with regard to driving, pedestrians stepping off the curb into an intersection and meandering through a crosswalk with their eyes glued to a phone is one of my major pet peeves when I'm trying to make a turn. Put the damn phone down and have a little situational awareness; the phone can wait until you're out of the street and back on the sidewalk!
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Comment on Color game — how well can you remember colors? | Dialed in ~games
Boojum LinkFun! https://dialed.gg/?c=P8JN79. 46.73/50, 98%. https://imgur.com/oDqf3A5. This was after moving to my main desktop and monitor and setting the website to dark mode so that the swatch would have...Fun! https://dialed.gg/?c=P8JN79. 46.73/50, 98%. https://imgur.com/oDqf3A5.
This was after moving to my main desktop and monitor and setting the website to dark mode so that the swatch would have a neutral surround. On my first try on my phone last night, I think I got a 45ish and 94%.
Nerding out because digital color science is something of a sub-hobby of mine:
I do wonder how they're computing the color difference. Since they report the original and guessed colors as HSB, I really hope that it's not just Euclidean difference in HSB. At a minimum I'd expect them to use Euclidean distance in the L*a*b* colorspace (i.e., CIE 76). My current go-to color difference metric is CIE DE 2000, but that one is way, way more tricky to implement and complicated to calculate. That one can give inconsistent values if the reference and test colors are wildly far apart, but it's fairly well tuned for when they're pretty close. The nice thing about both CIE 76 and CIE DE 2000 is that they at least try to approximate the perceptual difference. CIE DE 2000 in particular aims to model or predict the MacAdam ellipses, where a color pair with a CIE DE 2000 score of 1.0 corresponds to the Just Noticeable Difference (JND) threshold, where the pair is just on the edge of what a typical person can tell apart.
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: February 2026 Voting Topic in ~games
Boojum (edited )Link ParentPatch notes! Hah! I love it! (You could call it a hotpatch.) I checked the updated numbers, and they look correct to me except for the last two. Each of those are one lower than they ought to be:...Patch notes! Hah! I love it! (You could call it a hotpatch.)
I checked the updated numbers, and they look correct to me except for the last two. Each of those are one lower than they ought to be:
- Threads of Fate should be 6 (matching The Colonel's Bequest, where both had 21 votes in August.)
- Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater 2 should be 5 (matching Freddy Pharkas, where both had 18 votes in August.)
Current tally with 14 ballots, as of this comment
Game Votes Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow 31 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 29 Sid Meier’s Pirates 26 Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater 2 26 Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals 25 Space Rogue 23 The Grue That Binds 22 Another World 19 Back in a Flash 18 Tetris 18 Mother 3 17 The Genesis of Treasure 17 Descent 16 Resident Evil (REmake) 16 Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist 15 Beneath a Steel Sky 13 Crystalis 13 Maniac Mansion 13 Red Dead Redemption 12 Scroll Lock-on 10 The Colonel’s Bequest 10 Threads of Fate 10 Behind the Wheel 9 Metroid 9 StarTropics 9 Metroid Prime 8 JSRF: Jet Set Radio Future 7 Lode Runner 7 Meta: One thing that I've just realized about the heavier decay is that, while it does help with new nominations not being at such a disadvantage, it also means that any games that get cut now can be renominated next time and still have a fighting chance. Getting cut right now would cost at most 4 rollover votes, which a single ballot could undo.
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: February 2026 Voting Topic in ~games
Boojum Link ParentFWIW, there's a typo in your Lufia II that was picked up by the tallying script. It should be Sinistrals.FWIW, there's a typo in your Lufia II that was picked up by the tallying script. It should be Sinistrals.
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: February 2026 Voting Topic in ~games
Boojum Link ParentAs of the time I post this comment, here's the current tally under that plan: Standings Game Aug. Votes 70% Decayed Boosts Feb. Votes Total Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow 25 8 3 20 31 Sid Meier’s...- Exemplary
As of the time I post this comment, here's the current tally under that plan:
Standings
Game Aug. Votes 70% Decayed Boosts Feb. Votes Total Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow 25 8 3 20 31 Sid Meier’s Pirates 30 9 6 9 24 The Grue That Binds 17 5 3 14 22 Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater 2 18 5 0 17 22 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 17 5 3 13 21 Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals 16 5 9 6 20 Another World 27 8 0 10 18 Space Rogue 0 0 0 18 18 The Genesis of Treasure 0 0 0 17 17 Mother 3 0 0 0 17 17 Tetris 19 6 0 10 16 Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist 18 5 0 10 15 Back in a Flash 32 10 3 0 13 Crystalis 21 6 0 7 13 Beneath a Steel Sky 20 6 0 5 11 Descent 25 8 0 3 11 Resident Evil (REmake) 0 0 0 11 11 Threads of Fate 21 6 0 5 11 The Colonel’s Bequest 21 6 0 4 10 Maniac Mansion 0 0 0 10 10 Scroll Lock-on 20 6 0 4 10 StarTropics 22 7 0 3 10 Behind the Wheel 21 6 0 3 9 Metroid 20 6 0 3 9 Metroid Prime 27 8 0 0 8 JSRF: Jet Set Radio Future 17 5 0 2 7 Lode Runner 17 5 0 2 7 Red Dead Redemption 0 0 0 7 7 -
Comment on What's an obscure book/series that you've read that you would like to recommend? in ~books
Boojum Link ParentI need to read that one, since I've heard good things about it and liked the Zelazny that I've read. I found "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" in an anthology in my middle school...I need to read that one, since I've heard good things about it and liked the Zelazny that I've read. I found "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" in an anthology in my middle school library. And in college, I picked up Amber and enjoyed it greatly. (Walking through shadow is such a cool concept!)
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Comment on What's an obscure book/series that you've read that you would like to recommend? in ~books
Boojum (edited )Link ParentIt's definitely one of my favorites of his. Out of all his works of fiction that I've read, it's the one that feels the most "mature". And by that, I mean that it seems like in many of his books,...It's definitely one of my favorites of his. Out of all his works of fiction that I've read, it's the one that feels the most "mature". And by that, I mean that it seems like in many of his books, he's trying to be accessible to as wide an audience as possible - keeping the language and the metaphors fairly simple, etc. Whereas in Til We Have Faces, it feels more like he put everything he had as an author into it and wasn't holding anything back trying to make it accessible. I love the richer, deeper "texture" of it for that. It's like dark chocolate compared to his normal milk chocolate.
(It's also not surprising that it's deeper in that - while he wrote the first draft in a matter of weeks - he'd been mulling over the idea for decades by the time he finally wrote it.)
(And I've long thought that if the mental dictionary in my head had an illustration for "oneiric", Part 2 of Till We Have Faces would be it.)
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: February 2026 Voting Topic in ~games
Boojum Link ParentI voted for games that I wished to play! I'll admit that back in August, I voted more strategically since there were so many more games and not enough votes to go around. So I cut my votes for...I voted for games that I wished to play!
I'll admit that back in August, I voted more strategically since there were so many more games and not enough votes to go around. So I cut my votes for clear losers and reassigned those votes to games that were on the threshold of either top six or the rollover-cutoff.
This time, though, I kept it very simple and just maxed 5 points to my top choice, with the remaining 15 divided as evenly as possible among other games that interest me (largely based on successful lobbying). The only case where the current scores affected my vote was in choosing which game drew the short straw to go a vote short - I picked Lufia II, since it looked like that was already in the lead.
I'd be fine with retconning rollover votes, but it's possible I might want to be allowed to switch up my votes if so.
Regarding /u/vili's suggestion, we had 49 voters in August, and 11 right now. So with that, we'd currently decay the rollovers an additional 78% (i.e., apply an 0.22 multiplier on them). Rounding that to the nearest, here's what the current standings would look like if we did that:
Current standings with vili's scheme
Game Count Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow 23 Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater 2 20 Space Rogue 18 Mother 3 17 The Genesis of Treasure 17 The Grue That Binds 17 Another World 14 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 14 Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist 13 Tetris 13 Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals 12 Resident Evil (REmake) 11 Maniac Mansion 10 Sid Meier’s Pirates 10 Beneath a Steel Sky 8 Threads of Fate 8 Crystalis 7 Descent 7 Red Dead Redemption 7 The Colonel’s Bequest 7 Back in a Flash 6 Behind the Wheel 6 StarTropics 6 JSRF: Jet Set Radio Future 5 Lode Runner 5 Scroll Lock-on 5 Metroid 4 Metroid Prime 4 -
Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: February 2026 Voting Topic in ~games
Boojum Link ParentHere are the standings by a couple of different measures, current as of the time of this comment: With rollover votes / boosts Game Count Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow 41 Lufia II: Rise of the...Here are the standings by a couple of different measures, current as of the time of this comment:
With rollover votes / boosts
Game Count Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow 41 Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals 32 Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater 2 30 Another World 29 Sid Meier’s Pirates 29 The Grue That Binds 29 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 26 Back in a Flash 25 Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist 23 Tetris 23 Descent 21 Beneath a Steel Sky 20 Threads of Fate 20 Crystalis 19 Metroid Prime 19 The Colonel’s Bequest 19 Behind the Wheel 18 Space Rogue 18 StarTropics 18 Mother 3 17 The Genesis of Treasure 17 Scroll Lock-on 16 Metroid 15 JSRF: Jet Set Radio Future 14 Lode Runner 14 Resident Evil (REmake) 11 Maniac Mansion 10 Red Dead Redemption 7 Without rollover votes / boosts
Game Count Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow 18 Space Rogue 18 Mother 3 17 The Genesis of Treasure 17 Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater 2 17 The Grue That Binds 14 Resident Evil (REmake) 11 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 11 Another World 10 Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist 10 Maniac Mansion 10 Tetris 10 Red Dead Redemption 7 Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals 6 Beneath a Steel Sky 5 Sid Meier’s Pirates 5 Threads of Fate 5 Crystalis 4 The Colonel’s Bequest 4 Behind the Wheel 3 Descent 3 StarTropics 3 JSRF: Jet Set Radio Future 2 Lode Runner 2 Scroll Lock-on 2 Metroid 1 Back in a Flash 0 Metroid Prime 0 By current ballots
Game Count Space Rogue 6 Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow 5 Mother 3 5 Another World 4 Maniac Mansion 4 The Genesis of Treasure 4 The Grue That Binds 4 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 4 Threads of Fate 4 Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater 2 4 Resident Evil (REmake) 3 Tetris 3 Beneath a Steel Sky 2 Crystalis 2 Descent 2 Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist 2 Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals 2 Red Dead Redemption 2 Sid Meier’s Pirates 2 StarTropics 2 Behind the Wheel 1 JSRF: Jet Set Radio Future 1 Lode Runner 1 Metroid 1 Scroll Lock-on 1 The Colonel’s Bequest 1 Back in a Flash 0 Metroid Prime 0 (I had raised the issue to /u/kfwyre last night via PM, on noticing that the then-#7 was close to making the top six, despite having only rollover votes and one boost, with no immediate votes this round. It has now fallen to #8. He replied this afternoon that he'd noticed that too.)
(Sadly, my beloved ALttP has fallen a place today as well, and is no longer in the top six.)
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Comment on What would you do with a video game style inventory? in ~talk
Boojum (edited )LinkI would stash every emergency supply, every first aid, and something for every contingency known to man. My inventory would be like Milo Murphy's backpack. And since my bookcases are overstuffed...I would stash every emergency supply, every first aid, and something for every contingency known to man. My inventory would be like Milo Murphy's backpack.
And since my bookcases are overstuffed with books, I might as well take my whole personal library too.
Edited to add: Also, if I didn't care at all about my morals, I suppose I could make a killing as the world's greatest smuggler. Or I could be a kleptomaniac hero.
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Comment on What would you do with a video game style inventory? in ~talk
Boojum Link ParentYeah, I'm thinking of those segments in games where the strip your inventory, give you some presets, and then restore your full inventory later after. I also always liked the silly, in-universe...Yeah, I'm thinking of those segments in games where the strip your inventory, give you some presets, and then restore your full inventory later after.
I also always liked the silly, in-universe way that Monkey Island 2 uses to reset your inventory of the stuff you were carrying after MI 1.
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: February 2026 Voting Topic in ~games
Boojum Link ParentRationale and thoughts: ALttP: I lobbied for it, so naturally I'm going to put as many points in as I can! (For the rest, I just spread the votes as evenly as possible.) Space Rogue: I wouldn't...Rationale and thoughts:
- ALttP: I lobbied for it, so naturally I'm going to put as many points in as I can! (For the rest, I just spread the votes as evenly as possible.)
- Space Rogue: I wouldn't have looked at or heard of this one but for /u/vili's lobbying. Sounds interesting. The description of it dredged up some old memories of playing the shareware game Solar Winds: The Escape
- Another World: /u/CannibalisticApple lobied for this one. This one I have played before, though I don't recall if I ever beat it. I believe I rented the SNES version of it one weekend. I'm also old enough to remember seeing it running on a demo machine at a Babbage's store once, probably on an Amiga. And as a graphics engineer, the fact that the game engine is implemented as a tiny little vector graphics VM ([1], [2], [3]) is just too cool.
- Aria of Sorrow: Lobbied for by /u/Lapbunny. I've played and beat the original Castlevania and Super Castlevania IV. (In fact, I still remember buying Castlevania with my allowance at Babbage's one dark and wet evening. The copy I had was a DOS PC port of all things, if you can believe it. Later, I became a bit jealous of a friend who got it for NES. Such smooth scrolling...) But I've never played SotN or the later games. I do like Metroids, though, so I figure I'll probably like one of the 'Vanias of the Metroidvanias. And if Lapbunny and /u/kfwyre recommend Aria as a good entry point, then I'm game.
- Crystalis: I can't track down who said it, but I could have sworn someone here was lobbying for it as sort of a contemporary of Legend of Zelda with some surprisingly ahead-of-its-time touches. Sounded interesting.
- Maniac Mansion: Nominated by CannibalisticApple and discussed recently. I do think an October spooky-wacky LucasArts trifecta of this, Day of the Tentacle, and Zombies Ate My Neighbors could be amusing. But I'll toss it some votes now.
- StarTropics: I've never played this one that I can remember, but I do remember hearing of it. It sounds interesting as a non-Square early JRPG.
- Lode Runner: I had this one on the family Apple II+ computer as a young kid. And I remember it later inspired some of my experiments in gamedev as a teen. I haven't played it in a very long time, but I certainly wouldn't mind revisiting it.
- Lufia II: Boosted by /u/endymiion, /u/JCPhoenix, and /u/zod000. I once got pretty far playing this, but never quite finished it for some reason. I remember quite liking it, so I think I just got distracted by something else. But I'd certainly be up for giving it another try! (I'd have given this two votes like I did for other games if I could, but I'm at the limit. I had to pick one game to go short and this one's already in or near the lead vote-wise.)
Meta: Voting felt easier this time around than last time due to the shorter list. Counting, I see 28 nominees this time vs. 51 last time. I recall trying to make a short list to figure out how to allocate my votes and then realizing that even if I gave them only one vote each, I still wouldn't have enough votes.
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: February 2026 Voting Topic in ~games
Boojum LinkThe Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (5) Space Rogue (2) Another World (2) Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (2) Crystalis (2) Maniac Mansion (2) StarTropics (2) Lode Runner (2) Lufia II: Rise of the...The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (5)
Space Rogue (2)
Another World (2)
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (2)
Crystalis (2)
Maniac Mansion (2)
StarTropics (2)
Lode Runner (2)
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (1) -
Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: February 2026 Lobbying Topic in ~games
Boojum Link ParentGNU Emacs Tetris! (I'll see myself out...)GNU Emacs Tetris! (I'll see myself out...)
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: February 2026 Lobbying Topic in ~games
Boojum LinkThe Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past I mentioned over in the last topic that after playing Wind Waker, I've now been feeling the itch to play ALttP again. But I'd love to have company for that,...- Exemplary
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
I mentioned over in the last topic that after playing Wind Waker, I've now been feeling the itch to play ALttP again. But I'd love to have company for that, and have a chance to talk about it here with both old hands and newcomers. I can't play it again for the first, so I'm incredibly curious to hear about how newcomers experience it in 2026. So anyway, let me break down a few reasons why I think ALttP is worth looking at and could be fun for us to do together:
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We've done a 3D Zelda game, let's try a 2D Zelda for comparison. Now, obviously we could go all the way back to the original LoZ, or LoZ II. But as the 16-bit entry I think that ALttP kind of sits in a Goldilocks spot, where it strikes a nice balance of still being early enough to kind of establish a lot of what was to come later, but it's not nearly as cryptic as the first two, and the game play is much more refined and accessible than in them.
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It's a shortish game with natural, bite-sized sessions. I don't know about you but I haven't had as much time to play games lately. As I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate medium length games that don't overstay their welcome. Going in cold (no internet walkthroughs then!) when playing it for the first time as a kid, I noticed that each dungeon except for the last took me right about an hour to be. Include the stuff between dungeons, and you get into kind of a natural rhythm of about 1.5 hours per play session, and maybe 15-20 hours to beat it for the first time.
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There are easy options to play it. This game was originally released on the SNES, ported to the GBA, and has been available on the Wii virtual console, as part of the Nintendo Switch Online service, included with the SNES Mini... There are still tons of legal ways to play it. And it's well supported by every emulator if you want to go for the high seas.
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There's a randomizer! For those of us who have played it before and know where everything is, there's a popular randomizer we could use to shuffle things and restore the element of surprise. I've never tried this before, since ALttP is one of my perenial "comfort" games - and part of that comfort is seeing how many of the half-remembered bits I'm correct about. But as I understand it, the randomizer can let us share a seed and options so that we could roll a shuffle that the experienced among us could play through together in common. I'd be up for trying that!
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It's safe to play without a guide. As old as it is, it's rather remarkably ahead of its time in not really having any missables. So for anyone here playing through it for the first time, you can safely play it blind without a guide or walkthrough and not fear that you might be missing things. You can restrict yourself to just consulting a guide briefly every now and then if you happen to get stuck somewhere. The secrets you might not find on your own unless you're very thorough are largely quality-of-life upgrades, so you can still beat the game without them, just maybe not as comfortably. And of course, you can always check a guide at the end of the game and go back for all of them. (There's only one area in the game that permanently locks after you complete it, and it has nothing of note as far as collectables.)
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There's a manual! Remember when games came with printed manuals? ALttP had one. I remember the cartridge that I had even came with a "Top Secrets" hint book for anyone who was truly stuck.
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It laid a foundation for much of what was to come. Do you want to see the game that introduced the friggin' Master Sword to the Zelda series? Heart pieces? Truly thematic dungeons (with the lock-and-key design built around finding the tool that lets you reach the end)? The original Hyrule Castle, Kakariko Village and Lake Hylia? Cuccos? C'mon, of course you do! :-)
This was also the game that introduced many of the iconic musical themes in the series: Hyrule Castle, Zelda's Lullaby, Kakariko Village, fairy fountains, and Ganon's.
And with that, I ask for your vote for ALttP. Whether you're a newcomer to the game or a returning player, there are ways we can all have fun with it.
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: February 2026 Lobbying Topic in ~games
Boojum Link ParentThe sequel that you're referring to is Day of the Tentacle. And if you wanted to make it a fun spooky-wacky LucasArts trifecta for October, you could toss in Zombies Ate My Neighbors, which has...The sequel that you're referring to is Day of the Tentacle.
And if you wanted to make it a fun spooky-wacky LucasArts trifecta for October, you could toss in Zombies Ate My Neighbors, which has become something of a cult classic. I mean, you've kinda just gotta admire a game that taunts you with "Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!" as the boss theme.
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: February 2026 Nominations Topic in ~games
Boojum Link ParentI boosted ALttP for the same reason (top choice), but I'll definitely be voting Lufia II and some of those others during the voting phase.I boosted ALttP for the same reason (top choice), but I'll definitely be voting Lufia II and some of those others during the voting phase.
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: February 2026 Nominations Topic in ~games
Boojum Link ParentOoh, I remember playing that one many years ago. Got decently far but never finished.Ooh, I remember playing that one many years ago. Got decently far but never finished.
Yep, many thanks to all the hosts for the last round.
Also, let me know if I've been getting annoyingly nitpicky and I'll back off (what can I say, attention to detail, particularly in edge conditions is a big part of my day job; and if you prefer a more flattering spin it means you're keeping me engaged), but shouldn't Maniac Mansion have advanced? It tied with Beneath a Steel Sky and Crystalis in votes.
Regarding the pastebin alternatives, I just let Tildes host some of the CSV files I was using to tally by PMing them to you :-).
But an interesting hybrid alternative might be the simple paste system that Eric Wastl, creator of Advent of Code concocted: https://topaz.github.io/paste/. It doesn't actually store or host any pastes itself. Instead, it compresses and then base64 encodes the content straight into the giant URL link it generates for you. Copy that link into a forum post, and now the forum host is storing the paste with the post. Simple. And no possibility of spam.