Boojum's recent activity
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: Voting topic in ~games
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: Voting topic in ~games
Boojum Link ParentI don't think your ballot will be counted by the script. The vote numbers need be in parenthesis to register. Try: Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (5) The Way (5) Chrono Trigger (4) Castlevania:...I don't think your ballot will be counted by the script. The vote numbers need be in parenthesis to register. Try:
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (5)
The Way (5)
Chrono Trigger (4)
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (3)
The Secret of Monkey Island (2)
Beneath a Steel Sky (1) -
Comment on Taco Bell rethinks AI drive-through after man orders 18,000 waters in ~food
Boojum Link ParentAt least one fuzzing tool seems to be trying to fuzz classic games to improve their tool. (I've never used their product, so I'm not trying to shill; I just think their blog posts are neat.)At least one fuzzing tool seems to be trying to fuzz classic games to improve their tool. (I've never used their product, so I'm not trying to shill; I just think their blog posts are neat.)
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: Voting topic in ~games
Boojum Link ParentWay too many good ones to choose from! I think I initially had something like 31 that I'd have been happy to throw some votes to. I had to iteratively whittle down my list. With a few exceptions,...Way too many good ones to choose from! I think I initially had something like 31 that I'd have been happy to throw some votes to. I had to iteratively whittle down my list. With a few exceptions, I voted for new-to-me things, though I'll happily replay some old favorites on here if they get voted.
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: Voting topic in ~games
Boojum (edited )LinkKaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls) (5) Lode Runner (3) Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (1) Mr. Defaxxonobbleoid (1) The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (5) The...Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls) (5)
Lode Runner (3)
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (1)
Mr. Defaxxonobbleoid (1)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (5)
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (5) -
Comment on Survey results on books that people identify as shaping their life/personality after reading them in high school in ~books
Boojum LinkIt was never assigned reading, but L'Engle's Time Quartet was a pretty big influence on me when I was young. That was probably my introduction to the tension between freedom and fate, for example....It was never assigned reading, but L'Engle's Time Quartet was a pretty big influence on me when I was young. That was probably my introduction to the tension between freedom and fate, for example.
Select favorite quotes
"Can't she see what's going to happen?" Calvin asked.
"Oh, not in this kind of thing." Mrs. Whatsit sounded surprised at his question. "If we knew ahead of time what was going to happen we'd be--we'd be like the people on Camazotz, with no lives of our own, with everything all planned, and done for us."
-- "A Wrinkle in Time" Madeleine L'Engle
"There are fourteen lines, I believe, all in iambic pentameter. That's a very strict rhythm or meter, yes?"
"Yes." Calvin nodded.
"And each line has to end with a rigid rhyme pattern. And if the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet, is it?"
"No."
"But within this strict form the poet has complete freedom to say whatever he wants, doesn't he?"
"Yes." Calvin nodded again.
"So," Mrs. Whatsit said.
"So what?"
"Oh, do not be stupid boy!" Mrs. Whatsit scolded. "You know perfectly well what I am driving at!"
"You mean you're comparing our lives to a sonnet? A strict form, but freedom within it?"
"Yes," Mrs. Whatsit said. "You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. What you say is completely up to you."
-- "A Wrinkle in Time" Madeleine L'Engle
And I finally made through LotR in middle school after a few false starts while in elementary school. (I loved Book 1 so much, but had a hard time getting past The Council of Elrond in Book 2 at that age.) Eowyn's line to the Master Warden in RotK has long informed my views about bullies (after being bullied in school when younger), and later a general "Si vis pacem, para bellum" philosophy. (I still like to play my 4X games as a no-first-strike pacifist but with the largest military.) And the theme of secretly protecting others from dangers they don't even realize so they can live in peace has come to be a part of how I see my duties as a parent these days. I want my kids to have a happy childhood; there'll be time enough for a darker world later.
Select favorite quotes
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
-- "The Fellowship of the Ring" J. R. R. Tolkien
"And yet, less thanks have we than you. Travellers scowl at us, and countrymen give us scornful names. 'Strider' I am to one fat man who lives within a day's march from foes that would freeze his heart, or lay his little town in ruin, if he were not guarded ceaselessly. Yet we would not have it otherwise. If simple folk are free from care and fear, simple they will be, and we must be secret to keep them so."
-- "The Fellowship of the Ring" J. R. R. Tolkien
"But do not give up hope! Gandalf is greater than you Shire-folk know--as a rule you can only see his jokes and toys. But this business of ours will be his greatest task."
-- "The Fellowship of the Ring" J. R. R. Tolkien
"That is the purpose for which you are called hither. Called, I say, though I have not called you to me, strangers from distant lands. You have come and are here met, in this very nick of time, by chance as it may seem. Yet, it is not so. Believe rather that it is so ordered that we, who sit here, and none others, must now find counsel for the peril of the world."
-- "The Fellowship of the Ring" J. R. R. Tolkien
"The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is often the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."
-- "The Fellowship of the Ring" J. R. R. Tolkien
"But I suppose it's often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that's not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually - their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn't. And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on - and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same - like old Mr. Bilbo. But those aren't always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we've fallen into?"
-- "The Two Towers" J. R. R. Tolkien
"It is best to love first what you are fitted to love, I suppose: you must start somewhere and have some roots, and the soil of the Shire is deep. Still there are things deeper and higher; and not a gaffer could tend his garden in what he calls peace but for them, whether he knows them or not. I am glad that I know about them, a little."
-- "The Return of the King" J. R. R. Tolkien
"It needs but one foe to breed a war, not two, Master Warden," answered Eowyn. "And those who have not swords can still die upon them. Would you have the folk of Gondor gather you herbs only, when the Dark Lord gathers armies?"
-- "The Return of the King" J. R. R. Tolkien
Regarding assigned books in high school, I'd say that A Separate Peace was the one that probably stuck in the mind the most. Particularly, the one quote about sarcasm. To this day, I still find myself trying to be judicious about using sarcasm (only for clear joking, never when serious).
Select favorite quotes
As I said, this was my sarcastic summer. It was only long after that I realized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak.
-- "A Separate Peace" John Knowles
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Comment on Survey results on books that people identify as shaping their life/personality after reading them in high school in ~books
Boojum Link ParentI didn't read Narnia until I was in college after learning some Christian theology at a Christian high school, but I read this part of the books as Narnia importing and affirming the concept of...I loved the idea that good people of any belief would be welcomed into heaven, assuming there was a heaven.
I didn't read Narnia until I was in college after learning some Christian theology at a Christian high school, but I read this part of the books as Narnia importing and affirming the concept of the virtuous pagan and/or the anonymous Christian.
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Comment on Tildes' Colossal Game Adventure: Inauguration and nominations in ~games
Boojum Link ParentIn college, a group of friends of mine played Zork collaboratively one evening. Someone had a copy of it for an ancient luggable C64 they'd found somewhere. We turned off the lights and lit a few...In college, a group of friends of mine played Zork collaboratively one evening. Someone had a copy of it for an ancient luggable C64 they'd found somewhere. We turned off the lights and lit a few candles for mood lighting. Then one person drove the keyboard and read the screen, one person was our cartographer sketching maps on paper by the candles, and everyone else helped brainstorm the next command to enter. It was an absolute blast!
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Comment on Tildes' Colossal Game Adventure: Inauguration and nominations in ~games
Boojum (edited )LinkMain Games The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Super Castlevania IV Though these franchises got their start on the earlier NES, I feel like the SNES entries are where things really kind of...Main Games
Though these franchises got their start on the earlier NES, I feel like the SNES entries are where things really kind of gelled and the series took off: there's enough machine oomf to allow for more interesting graphics and variety in the enemies and areas. And some of the rougher edges had been polished off of the game play, with more options for overcoming the obstacles.
These are also relatively short and sweet games compared to later entries in their series. (ALttP is a comfort game for me, and one that I still like to play as a palate-cleanser between others every now and then.)
Arcade Special
This is kind of a grab bag, but I remember enjoying ports of all of these as a kid. Arkanoid to me is kind of the trope codifier for the Breakout style of games and one that I played the heck out of. I still remember the sound effects of Defender. Zaxxon was by far the first isometric perspective game I ever played and was pretty neat at the time for its pseudo-3D.
And Bubble Bobble... this one is still something a guilty pleasure for me. For some reason I tend to find myself firing it up most whenever I'm procrastinating from some task.
Rummage Bin
I'm recording here all the other games that I thought of, but didn't nominate this time around. I may rummage through this to nominate some of these in the future, or perhaps they'll inspire someone else. I'll likely to edit this comment to keep adding as things occur to me.
Rummage bin...
- Arcade
- Boulder Dash
- Dig Dug
- QIX
- Galaxian
- GORF
- Rampart
- Xevious
- Apple
- Oregon Trail
- DOS
- Commander Keen
- Jazz Jackrabbit
- Duke Nukem
- Hocus Pocus
- Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure
- Doom
- Quake
- Rise of the Triad
- Kingdom of Kroz
- ZZT
- One Must Fall
- Tie Fighter
- Dark Forces
- Worms Armageddon
- Magic Carpet
- Unreal
- Half Life
- Unreal Tournament
- Hover Craft
- Civilization
- SNES
- Star Fox
- Super Metroid
- Final Fantasy IV
- Final Fantasy VI
- Chrono Trigger
- Secret of Mana
- Illusion of Gaia
- Terranigma
- Breath of Fire
- Various
- Zork
- NetHack
- Archon
- Lode Runner
- King's Quest
- The Secret of Monkey Island
- Arcticfox
- Ys I and II
- Spectre
- XKobo
- The Incredible Machine
- Choplifter
Logo / Splash Screen!
This business has inspired me to create a little splash screen for CGA.
Disclosure: I'm not much of an artist when it comes to drawing, so I did start with generative AI as a base. But I know my graphics programming and did a lot on top of that to try to achieve the proper CGA graphics retro look. If an artist wants help CGA-ifying an image, let me know!
- Arcade
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Comment on What are the standards for a good father/husband? in ~life.men
Boojum LinkI think a big factor is also proactively identifying and stepping up to do random chores. I've seen posts about households where the husband is "willing" to help but has to be explicitly asked...I think a big factor is also proactively identifying and stepping up to do random chores. I've seen posts about households where the husband is "willing" to help but has to be explicitly asked every time, like programming a robot. Unfortunately, I've also known more than one family where that's the case. That's just crazy to me!
So personally, beyond a fair division of the contributions to the household, that's where I draw the line for a minimum standard. (And it's something my spouse and I have been trying really hard to instill in our kids; they shouldn't just wait for someone - i.e., one of use - to ask before pitching in.)
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Comment on Do you share your location with your friends? in ~tech
Boojum LinkOh, hell no! Even my spouse and I don't do that. (FWIW, we're xennials.) If I take longer than expected running errands, for example, a simple "Back soon?" text is plenty. And if I don't answer...Oh, hell no! Even my spouse and I don't do that. (FWIW, we're xennials.) If I take longer than expected running errands, for example, a simple "Back soon?" text is plenty. And if I don't answer immediately, it's understood that it's because I'm probably already on the way home and driving. (Besides, I normally keep location services and location history off on my phone, since I'm fairly privacy minded.)
I don't even have location sharing turned on on my teens' phones. I never had that growing up, so I refuse to inflict it on my kids. I'd much rather trust them and not be a helicopter parent until they give me a reason otherwise. My parents trusted me at that age and I survived, so I'll extend that courtesy to my kids in turn.
That said, there've been a couple of times where I've temporarily turned on location services and location sharing remotely (through the Google Family app) when a kid has been way late, hasn't checked in, and hasn't answered calls or texts. But I can count the numbers of times I've had to do that on one hand. -
Comment on Guilt and video games in ~health.mental
Boojum LinkThis is one of those things that I've wrestled with myself. It may be a bit of a rationalization, but I view it somewhat in terms of those studies that show diminishing returns in productivity...This is one of those things that I've wrestled with myself. It may be a bit of a rationalization, but I view it somewhat in terms of those studies that show diminishing returns in productivity somewhere past 40h/wk of work and where the additional hours spent eventually start to become net-negative.
Yes, I probably could spend my gaming time doing something more productive on work stuff or on one of my personal projects. But at some point, those "productive hours" would start to be lower quality due to fatigue and possibly burnout.
I do sometimes think about how I probably have some X hrs of my life remaining and that I should try to maximize what I accomplish in them; but I also try to recognize that maximizing the hours spent trying to be "productive" is not the same thing! Mistaking them for each other is a cognitive bias.
And incidentally, I've noticed that if I try to code or do work stuff right up until the moment I go to bed, my brain will just keep spinning on the problems, keeping me awake and impacting my sleep. A bit of light gaming (or some other form of recreation) as a buffer before bed helps tremendously.
So some time ago I decided to give myself permission to take some gaming downtime as a form of self-protection. (That said, I do try to make sure to reserve it for after the kids are asleep and when my spouse is occupied by other hobbies; never when anyone needs me for something.)
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Comment on What is the most insane, tedious, difficult, and/or noteworthy gaming achievement you have completed or given up on? in ~games
Boojum Link ParentI kind of feel that way about Civ 6 vs. Civ 5.I kind of feel that way about Civ 6 vs. Civ 5.
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Comment on xkcd: Undocumented Feature in ~tech
Boojum Link ParentChanging the www to an m (as in m.xkcd.com) gives you a nice mobile-friendly version. Tapping the (alt-text) superscript to the right of the title reveals the alt-text.Changing the
wwwto anm(as inm.xkcd.com) gives you a nice mobile-friendly version. Tapping the (alt-text) superscript to the right of the title reveals the alt-text. -
Comment on Zootopia 2 | Trailer in ~movies
Boojum Link ParentCall me traitorous since I was working at the other Disney-owned studio at the time, but I was rather cheering for Kubo and the Two Strings to win the Oscar for Best Animated that year. (Though...Call me traitorous since I was working at the other Disney-owned studio at the time, but I was rather cheering for Kubo and the Two Strings to win the Oscar for Best Animated that year. (Though Red Turtle was great, too.)
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Comment on What happens when a Windows virus runs on Linux? in ~tech
Boojum LinkHow old are we talking? DOSBOX (or a fork), as an x86 emulator rather than a virtualization layer is likely to be pretty safe, for example.How old are we talking? DOSBOX (or a fork), as an x86 emulator rather than a virtualization layer is likely to be pretty safe, for example.
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Comment on What is your criteria for what counts as a "retro" video game? in ~games
Boojum LinkMaybe it's my age, or the fact that I'm a graphics person who now does GPU design for a living, but I'd probably draw the line at whether it relies on (even if not fully exercising) a graphics...Maybe it's my age, or the fact that I'm a graphics person who now does GPU design for a living, but I'd probably draw the line at whether it relies on (even if not fully exercising) a graphics accelerator capable of fully-perspective correct 3D with texture maps above 64x64. Basically, post-N64 and PS1 on console, or requiring OpenGL/D3D/Vulkan on PC.
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Comment on Who’d be into a book club but for retro games? in ~games
Boojum LinkI've already commented in a sub-thread on this post, but here's a top-level comment to explicitly note interest.I've already commented in a sub-thread on this post, but here's a top-level comment to explicitly note interest.
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Comment on A cat named Leonardo da Pinchy doesn’t want your affection. He wants to steal your underwear. in ~life.pets
Boojum LinkOne solution to this might just be keeping him as an indoor-only kitty. (Though on second read: "Still, North has tried everything to curb her cat’s laundry obsession, from attempting to keep him...One solution to this might just be keeping him as an indoor-only kitty. (Though on second read: "Still, North has tried everything to curb her cat’s laundry obsession, from attempting to keep him indoors..." I wonder why that didn't work?)
...she was also unwilling to risk an online suggestion that Leo simply needed another playmate.
“He might teach another cat to do this,” North said.
That's not been my experience growing up with cats, and now having a bonded pair. They each have their own quirks, but they generally don't copy those behaviors.
(For example, my kids have a bag of assorted pompoms for crafting with. One of my cats has a quirky habit of stealing the biggest ones out of the bag whenever she can, calling loudly and repeatedly in a very distinct way, and then coming up the stairs and depositing them on a particular spot at my desk. Or leaving one outside my eldest's closed bedroom door. "Pompom delivery service" is how I usually refer to this, though I strongly suspect it's her substitute for gifting me with a kill since she's an indoor cat. But her sister kitty has yet to copy this behavior.)
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Comment on Recommendation Request: New Mouse in ~comp
Boojum Link ParentNot the OP, but for what it's worth, the last time I bought a mouse, I had a toddler in the house. I was worried that a fancy wireless mouse might get carried off when I wasn't looking, and I'd...Not the OP, but for what it's worth, the last time I bought a mouse, I had a toddler in the house. I was worried that a fancy wireless mouse might get carried off when I wasn't looking, and I'd never see it again. (And beyond keeping them tethered, I do like never having to worry about batteries on my desktop's mouse and keyboard.)
Yeah, the two per month was something that I was thinking of suggesting too. Not so much for the idea of playing both (that that's certainly an option for those with the time), but for having a bit of a choice. Maybe game A is an a genre that I know doesn't appeal to me and I'd rather play game B. I think we have enough interest in participating that we could afford to split, especially for the top-voted games.