vili's recent activity
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Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴☠️🏝️🍌 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games
vili Link ParentYeah, I think Part One is the reason why people love the game so much. Certainly it is for me. If the first part was similar in quality to the later parts, I honestly don't think the game would be...Yeah, I think Part One is the reason why people love the game so much. Certainly it is for me. If the first part was similar in quality to the later parts, I honestly don't think the game would be such a classic.
Spending over half of your time in Part One is, I think, quite normal, even for speedrunners. The current world record spends about 13m 20sec on the first island, and about 11 minutes on the rest.
Speaking of speedruns, it's been three years since it came out, but I remember the mini documentary Secret of Monkey Island Speedrun History being really good. As was the channel's later interview with Ron Gilbert, where they talk about game design and the concept of speedrunning adventure games, which is sort of the exact opposite approach to what these games were designed for. The channel in question, OneShortEye, also has a lot of other adventure game speedrunning documentaries, including on Monkey Island 2. Highly recommended, if the topic interests any of you.
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Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴☠️🏝️🍌 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games
vili (edited )Link ParentNot obvious to me I'm afraid, even with the original release. I too was stuck with this for more time than I care to admit, and I have played the game at least half a dozen times before. The issue...I didn't even notice the hatch on the ship until I consulted the guide! It's obvious with the original graphics
Not obvious to me I'm afraid, even with the original release. I too was stuck with this for more time than I care to admit, and I have played the game at least half a dozen times before. The issue here, I would say, is that the graphic design shows us two directions that you should be able to go but have no reason to (fore and aft), and then not only places the hatch next to another, more prominent exit, but also hides it behind a bunch of characters and a mast. It's just too hidden in the midst of other visual information. Part Two is, in my opinion, already easily the weakest part of the game, and this only adds to the frustration.
Part Three also has its own issues with movement, like @Dr_Amazing pointed out in another comment. The puzzles in that part of the game are better (edit: than in Part Two), but for me at least the island suffers the most from it being too easy to miss things. I think a lot of it could have been better had the island been just one screen, like Mêlée Island.
Actually, a fun (?) question for everyone: which in your imagination is the bigger island, Mêlée or Monkey Island™? For me it's definitely Mêlée, even if it takes less space on screen. It has more happening, there are more locations, and a city. I guess they were going for an exploration feeling for Monkey Island™ but the design doesn't quite do it for me.
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Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴☠️🏝️🍌 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games
vili Link ParentI think it's a great example of a language puzzle which, once you have thought of it yourself, is really difficult to "unsee" to understand how it actually works for other people. So if I had to...do wonder how some egregious puzzles slipped through the cracks. The monkey wrench puzzle in MI2 is especially notable. What was Gilbert thinking when he designed that one?!
I think it's a great example of a language puzzle which, once you have thought of it yourself, is really difficult to "unsee" to understand how it actually works for other people. So if I had to guess, I suppose they got tangled in that a bit.
While not really answering your question, Gilbert and Grossman were asked in an interview a couple of years back if they had any regrets about puzzles from the first two games and this is what they had to say:
GamesBeat: Are there any puzzles from the original games that you regret making too difficult/too easy?
Gilbert: Two words: Monkey Wrench.
Grossman: The Monkey Wrench puzzle from LeChuck’s Revenge is notoriously unsolvable and was not a good design on several levels. Even if you are an English speaker from a location where the tool in question is commonly called a “monkey wrench,” and you realize that that’s what you need, you still have to make an astonishing predictive leap about how your actions will create that tool. Nothing in the game sets any of it up adequately. I use it to this day as my go-to example of what not to do with puzzle design, and it has influenced my thinking ever since. The player has to be able to somehow visualize what to do, and if they do give up and look at a hint, I want their response to be, “Oh, that makes sense, I should have thought of that!” rather than “How on earth was I ever supposed to think of that, you ridiculous, unfair clowns?!”
Conversely, I can’t think of anything I regret making too easy. The consequences are much less severe for that. It doesn’t bring the game to a grinding halt, at worst it’s just not very interesting, and you forget about that as soon as you start thinking about the next puzzle after it.
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Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴☠️🏝️🍌 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games
vili Link ParentLike @Boojum mentioned above, this sort of stuff was pretty much what Ron Gilbert was trying to change with The Secret of Monkey Island. Around the time they were working on the game, he wrote an...How was I supposed to know that the ant colony wanted to see my royal scepter?
Like @Boojum mentioned above, this sort of stuff was pretty much what Ron Gilbert was trying to change with The Secret of Monkey Island. Around the time they were working on the game, he wrote an article that laid down what was wrong with adventure games at the time and what rules of thumb should be followed going forward. A lot of it sounds very obvious these days, but we have come to take much of these for granted only because game design has changed for the better.
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Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴☠️🏝️🍌 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games
vili Link ParentThere is definitely plenty of shared DNA there. I remember Ron Gilbert had fun at the time of the first films' release writing that he's expecting a cheque in the mailbox any day now, but I think...There is definitely plenty of shared DNA there. I remember Ron Gilbert had fun at the time of the first films' release writing that he's expecting a cheque in the mailbox any day now, but I think he kind of summarised the situation in this interview, saying that "Well, I mean Pirates of the Caribbean is a rip-off of Monkey Island that was a rip-off of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride [at Disneyland], so it's hard for me to get too mad at Disney for ripping Monkey Island off when I just ripped them off initially."
Nowadays, Disney of course also owns both IPs.
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Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴☠️🏝️🍌 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games
vili (edited )LinkI've now played through Part One. My reaction to the game has been pretty similar to what I can remember from my previous playthroughs, the most recent of which was probably about ten years ago....I've now played through Part One. My reaction to the game has been pretty similar to what I can remember from my previous playthroughs, the most recent of which was probably about ten years ago. The writing, humour and creativity are on a level few games have come anywhere near since this game was released. And I also have pretty much the exact same main criticisms as always:
Spoilers for Part One: The Three Trials
While the gag where Guybrush auto-adventures himself through various obstacles and challenges behind the wall at Elaine's mansion is one of the highlights of the game, the file puzzle that results from it is not. The issue with it is that, in the EGA version at least, it's entirely abstract and text-based. We never see the reason Guybrush needs the file, we never see the cake that contains the file (and while the idea of prison cakes containing files is understandable, it's not all that clearly established that this will), and we never see the file itself either.
Additionally, if I remember correctly, if you are a 10-year-old player who doesn't speak English and plays the game with a dictionary, you will spend a lot of time walking around trying to do something with the various documents ("files") that you have collected from elsewhere, thinking that those are somehow the solution. All in all, I think it's not a particularly well designed puzzle.
I also very much dislike the haggling puzzle with Stan. It's just tedious, poorly signposted and it's not that funny. Or maybe it's funnier if the player has first hand experience with car dealers or some such. For me, it's just always felt like a gag that's drawn out far too long.
I had forgotten how quiet the game is. I guess the music is so memorable that I remembered it to be everywhere, while in reality there are a lot of rooms that have no background sound. I'm playing the original EGA version, so I have no voice acting either.
I also made something of a major discovery. Well, for me anyway. Elaine Marley, as she is depicted in the EGA version, looks quite a lot like my wife. Whom I married about twenty years after I first played the game. I'm now almost tempted to get a therapist just to hear what they would have to say about this.
I never really liked the red-haired imposter Elaine that appeared in the VGA version's close-ups. Her hair colour doesn't even match the character sprite in either of the first two games.
I actually don't care much for any of the character portraits in the VGA releases. They just feel off to me. But here's a bit of interesting trivia in case you didn't know: the guy who did the VGA portraits is a concept artist who has also worked on Terminator 2, some Star Wars films, Harry Potter films, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Infinity War. Here's an article about him, including comparisons between Monkey's EGA and VGA portraits.
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Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴☠️🏝️🍌 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games
vili Link ParentIt would be interesting to hear more about your history with the genre. Based on what you wrote, it sounds like there is intriguing tension in there. What adventure games do you remember playing,...my disdain for point and click adventure games ... I played quite a few back n the day ... I don't like the genre ... still quote a bunch of the games
It would be interesting to hear more about your history with the genre. Based on what you wrote, it sounds like there is intriguing tension in there. What adventure games do you remember playing, did you like any of them, and why do you think you had such a negative reaction to the genre?
It is often said that adventure games never really died, their design conventions just morphed into other genres such as action adventures and rpg games. Do you see modern games use old adventure game conventions in a way that you dislike, or like?
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Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴☠️🏝️🍌 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games
vili Link ParentWell, ya see... ya gotta squint and sorta turn your head and... ooooooooh! It's just SO good! The Curse of Monkey Island humour, sorry.- Exemplary
Well, ya see... ya gotta squint and sorta turn your head and... ooooooooh! It's just SO good!
The Curse of Monkey Island humour, sorry.
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Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴☠️🏝️🍌 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games
vili (edited )LinkSince this is the first game in our CGA journey that actually has a CGA version, and since I have never played The Secret of Monkey Island in CGA, and since I have been wanting to explore CGA...Since this is the first game in our CGA journey that actually has a CGA version, and since I have never played The Secret of Monkey Island in CGA, and since I have been wanting to explore CGA graphics for a while now, I thought I'd be clever and play the game with CGA graphics.
To my great disappointment, it looks like The Secret of Monkey Island's CGA support is very basic. By which I mean, if you remember CGA as being an ugly four-colour palette of black, white, cyan and pink, that's exactly what CGA Monkey is. It's still fairly tastefully done, but it's not particularly interesting.
"Well, duh. What were you expecting?" I hear some of you ask. Well, first of all, rude, and second of all, some clever programmers used colour bleed in the CGA composite mode to produce a fuller range of colours, even when running in a graphics mode that technically only offered four. Earlier adventure games from Lucasfilm Games such as Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders did interesting things in this CGA composite mode, and Sierra was also very good at manipulating the palette. But either I don't know how to get DosBox to properly emulate CGA composite, or Monkey Island's composite mode is just a blurrier version of CGA's default cyan and pink hellscape. Which I suppose makes sense, since by 1990, CGA was pretty much at the end of its lifespan and there was no point putting too much effort into it.
So, I guess I'll upgrade to my favoured EGA version of Monkey Island 1. But if you are interested in learning more about this CGA composite mode, The 8-Bit Guy had a pretty good video about it some years back. And if you want to try out Monkey's CGA mode yourself, note that the currently sold Special Edition doesn't include it (or an EGA mode). You'll need to dig up the original EGA release from somewhere and force it to run in CGA.
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Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴☠️🏝️🍌 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games
vili Link ParentI think this is something worth reflecting on when playing old games. How their pacing was a product of a world that functioned with a rhythm slightly different from ours. What have we gained and...biggest change from my memory of the game is how slow it feels. Maybe I used to be more patient but I'm begging for some sort of fast travel here.
I think this is something worth reflecting on when playing old games. How their pacing was a product of a world that functioned with a rhythm slightly different from ours. What have we gained and what have we lost with that change?
For me, a big part of the charm of adventure games is the world building, the sense of being there. If I could just jump from one place to another, I fear that feeling might be lost. It certainly happens to me in many modern games that allow fast travel or split their world into seemingly unconnected areas separated by loading screens. With some of these older games, what you lose in terms of your time, you gain in terms of your sense of space. Whether it is a fair transaction of course depends on your preferences.
That said, if you are playing in ScummVM, you can press Ctrl + F to toggle fast mode. Or if you are running the original version in DosBox, you can enter debug codes. Not sure if the Special Edition has something like this.
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Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴☠️🏝️🍌 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games
vili LinkArs Technica has just published a new interview with Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert where he talks about the series, adventure games, his new indie action game, and the challenges of being a...Ars Technica has just published a new interview with Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert where he talks about the series, adventure games, his new indie action game, and the challenges of being a developer these days. A nice read.
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Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴☠️🏝️🍌 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games
vili Link ParentI have never played the Mac version but I believe it was indeed similar to the enhanced VGA version, with the nine-verb interface and icons for inventory items, rather than just text. Does...Let me know if you have any insight into what version I was actually playing.
I have never played the Mac version but I believe it was indeed similar to the enhanced VGA version, with the nine-verb interface and icons for inventory items, rather than just text. Does (potential spoilers in the videos) this look and sound familiar, or this?
If you compare the Mac version in the first video to the PC CD version, I think you can hear the reason why the Mac fit onto disks and the PC version didn't: the Mac has midi music vs the CD version's recorded sound.
I now wonder if they also removed the (potential spoilers in the video) stump joke, which was missing from the PC CD version. Some say it was removed because the game no longer used disks, others insist it caused too many people to call LucasArts asking about disks that they didn't have in their box.
I strongly encourage my fellow CGA friends to avoid spoilers when you get stuck
I very much agree. I think the puzzles are pretty fair in this game.
If any of you find yourselves stuck, something like the Universal Hint System is a good resource. It works a bit like a hint book, where you try to find the problem that you are facing and can then get progressively more specific hints to point you into the right direction.
Or, you can also open the official hint book from 1990.
And I think the Special Edition also has a built-in hint system. Not sure how good it is.
(Also, balooga: a great intro!)
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Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴☠️🏝️🍌 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games
vili LinkYou know how you have a particularly deep connection with certain things because you were there when they were released? As opposed to something that you also love, even consider part of your...- Exemplary
You know how you have a particularly deep connection with certain things because you were there when they were released? As opposed to something that you also love, even consider part of your identity, but which either came out before your time or you for whatever reason discovered only long after everyone else. And how your relationship between the two groups of things is often a little different?
Monkey Island is the earliest example that I can remember of a game series where I had played the first game and was excited about its first sequel coming out. I even vividly remember the very moment that I became aware of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. This spread in a Finnish gaming magazine from March 1992, which I just saw for the first time in over 30 years, seems forever burnt into my visual memory.1 I was ten years old at the time.
The magazine reviewed the game with scores of 91 and 96 out of 100. That's two individual reviewers, one of who was Niko Nirvi, a man whose name every Finnish gamer from the 1980s and 90s is likely familiar with. He's an absolute icon and a big part of my childhood as well.
The list of games reviewed in that issue of the magazine is actually pretty insane. In addition to Monkey Island 2, they have reviews of Civilization, Populous II, Another World, Eye of the Beholder 2, Wing Commander II: Spec Ops 1 and F1 Grand Prix, all of which would deserve a month in the CGA schedule. Now, I think this was the first issue of a new magazine that partly replaced an old Commodore magazine, so I suppose they collected all of the best games from late 1991 to make their first issue as good as possible. But still, that's an insane collection of now classic titles to have come out around the same time.
I now also remember the primary reason why I picked up the issue all those years ago: it included walkthroughs for the first three King's Quest games, and I was quite stuck in King's Quest II. It was fun to read their solve now.
Anyway, that's a pretty long and rambling way to start a post about The Secret of Monkey Island without mentioning the game itself. And the funny thing is, while I vividly remember my reaction to the magazine's review of Monkey 2 being "oh my god, there is a sequel to his game that I really liked", I don't actually remember my first encounter with Monkey 1. Now, based on my reaction to the review, I must not only have played the first Monkey Island before the magazine came out, but I must also have quite liked it. And yet, I remember absolutely nothing of when or where or how I may have first played The Secret of Monkey Island.
I very much remember playing Monkey Island 2, though. First in the summer of 1992 with my friend on his computer, and the next year again on my own new PC. An English-Finnish-English pocket dictionary in one hand and no access to walkthroughs or online help in the other, we somehow managed to get through the game. Monkey 2 was the first in the series that introduced an easy mode, described as a welcome addition by the Finnish reviewers as it allowed access also for "beginners, game reviewers and wussies". But if you want a real challenge, try playing these games without speaking the language.
I also remember playing The Curse of Monkey Island some years later. This was together with my sister when I visited her in the late 90s. We debated the new graphical style. She loved it, I didn't. Guybrush looked like he had swallowed a rake. I was very snobby about series creator Ron Gilbert no longer being involved. Neither were Tim Schafer or Dave Grossman. Many of the jokes felt derivative. We also played through Discworld II on that same visit. I liked it more. She had her computer in a basement. It was a great trip.
By the time I got to Escape from Monkey Island, a year or so after its release, I had switched continents a couple of times and now found myself in a new country, a little lost, like a stranger in a strange land. I remember the chair (well, an ottoman, really) that I sat on in the evenings as I stumbled through the game. The controls were a bit odd, the 3D graphics nauseating. I wasn't much into gaming at that point in my life but a new Monkey Island title was still of interest to me, even if this one wasn't a particularly good one. It was most likely the only game that I played that year. Perhaps it reminded me of my childhood. Although, looking back now, I consider that version of vili still to essentially be, if not quite a child, not all that much older either.
I also distinctly remember struggling with Telltale's purchase system later that decade. Something to do with my credit card. I never really got too excited about their episodic Tales of Monkey Island and found it terribly inferior to their Sam & Max games. And so, my focus was instead on the remakes, the first of which came out around the same time as Tales started. Might have been the same week or something?
That said, I didn't care for the Monkey 1 Special Edition graphics or animations. They felt generic and soulless compared to the original pixel art, while the revamped user interface was frankly just stupid. The Monkey 2 remaster was a bit better in every way, although I still preferred the original releases, which by this point I had played through multiple times. Still, I was excited to play the games on my Xbox 360 in the living room, and I continued through Curse and Escape to replay them all. I remember my wife-to-be teasing me as Guybrush's voice actor kept going "Mmmmm.... nope", over and over again, as I tried out everything. We married a couple of years later. It's still a line that she says every now and then at an opportune moment. I'm glad she didn't say it on the wedding day.
That said, I can't for the life of me remember which Monkey game actually has that voice line. Anyone happen to know?
Those Special Edition releases are now almost as old as the originals were at the time the Special Editions came out. Time is weird. And for a while, it seemed like the story of Monkey Island had ended with the remasters. Then, one April Fool's day, Rob Gilbert, who had for almost 20 years declared his blog free of April Fool's nonsense, announced Return to Monkey Island. Some took it as a joke, but those of us who had followed him through the years were instantly celebrating. It was the best April Fool's day ever.
Since it's been just a couple of years, I naturally remember Return very well. I believe it came out on a Monday. A childhood friend and I, living in different countries, exchanged notes every evening that week as we played the game after work. Despite being stuck with a seagull puzzle for quite a while, I finished Return by Friday after dinner. I loved it. I was perhaps a little disappointed that I wouldn't be spending my weekend with it like I had planned, but the game was everything that I had hoped it could be, and more. I know a lot of people had a less positive reaction, but Ron and Dave's take on the legacy of the original story really resonated with me.
I'm tempted to replay Return this month, as it's the only good Monkey game that I have played only once. Could I somehow find the time to go through the whole Ron Gilbert trilogy? I would love to.
Anyway. All this goes to illustrate that I have plenty of great memories connected to my first playthroughs of Monkey Island games. Those memories feature many people that I love, various places that I have visited and lived in, different decades and varying phases of my life.
And yet, I remember absolutely nothing of my first encounter with the series. Funny, that.
Especially as it's probably my favourite of the Monkey games.
I believe I was there. Or I would at least very much like to insist that it is true. But I just can't remember any of it.2
1: This paragraph is almost certainly, while not a lie, at least a carefully worded representation of the past that aims to mislead you for narrative purposes. Yes, I do vividly remember when I first became aware of Monkey Island 2. And yes, that magazine spread is something that I remember all the way back from 1992. However, the two sentences are not directly connected. I am about 90% certain that the first time I learnt about the existence of the game was actually the February 1992 issue of another Finnish computer magazine, and I am equally certain that I remember how that article looked as well. However, as I couldn't find an online copy of that issue, I can't be sure, and for the sake of narrative flow, I decided to word things the way I do above.
2: With footnote 1 and its suggestion of my brain's preferences for slight autofiction in mind, I suppose it is possible that I didn't play Monkey Island 1 until after Monkey Island 2. However, I genuinely think that I did. I just can't remember. I do recall my reaction to the magazine(s) just as I describe them above, which should mean that I was familiar with the first game at the time the second one came out. And I do remember re-playing Monkey 1 before Curse came out, and it specifically not being my first time of playing it. But I also can't always trust my memories. It's been over 30 years of monkeys, after all. They do something to your brain.
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Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴☠️🏝️🍌 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games
vili Link ParentYou might be able to run the Special Edition on a Mac with Porting Kit, which allows you to run Windows only games in a compatibility layer, a bit like what Proton does on Linux. For Steam games,...You might be able to run the Special Edition on a Mac with Porting Kit, which allows you to run Windows only games in a compatibility layer, a bit like what Proton does on Linux. For Steam games, you first install Steam as an app (this is what I use), or if you buy the game from GOG, you can just run it directly.
I haven't got all Windows games to run, but the Steam version of The Secret of Monkey Island at least started without issues for me when I tried it on my M1 MacBook Pro.
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Comment on Have you ever designed/created a spaceship for fiction, RPGs, etc? How did you do it? in ~creative
vili LinkI have designed some for 2300AD, the Traveller adjacent hard scifi tabletop rpg which, for me, is probably the greatest scifi setting ever created. The older source books had information about...I have designed some for 2300AD, the Traveller adjacent hard scifi tabletop rpg which, for me, is probably the greatest scifi setting ever created. The older source books had information about spaceship design scattered here and there, while the current stewards of the series, Mongoose Publishing, have put out an entire book focused solely on spaceship and space station design, called the Aerospace Engineers' Handbook. Their Ships of the Frontier includes existing ships from the universe.
It's a hard scifi setting originally imagined in the early 80s that, by and large, follows the laws of physics. There is no artificial gravity, ships are rare, travel is not particularly fast. It does have faster than light travel, but I think through a fairly clever solution to maintain a hard scifi feel.
Real life physics limit what spaceships in 2300AD can be like and what they can do, and this in turn shapes its entire known inhabited universe. This kind of interplay between a mode of transportation and the entire world is something that you might also want to keep in mind when you do your worldbuilding. Just think how much our world has changed in the past century, as we have gone from horses to commercial airlines.
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Comment on Treadmill advice in ~health
vili Link ParentAnother Concept2 owner here. I just thought I'd add that the rower actually packs up into a corner relatively neatly and takes less than a minute to set up. It's my go-to exercise if it's raining...rower, although they are pretty big
Another Concept2 owner here. I just thought I'd add that the rower actually packs up into a corner relatively neatly and takes less than a minute to set up. It's my go-to exercise if it's raining outside and I don't feel like doing strength training.
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Comment on Advice request: potentially adopting a cat in ~life.pets
vili LinkAs a counter-example to @RheingoldRiver's comment on your bedroom plans, I have lived with various cats for 20 years and the bedroom has always been off limits for them. They can only visit the...As a counter-example to @RheingoldRiver's comment on your bedroom plans, I have lived with various cats for 20 years and the bedroom has always been off limits for them. They can only visit the room if we explicitly invite them in. When they do, it always seems like an exciting adventure for them.
This of course becomes more challenging if your cat learns to open doors. Luckily, ours never have. And you also need to consider the size of your house, if enough space remains for them to roam with one room (or more) off limits.
Ours have also learnt that kitchen counters are not available for them, but all other counters are fair game. My experience is similar to @NeonBright's: cats are good learners if there is a bond between you. Some voice commands (well, requests) are also handy to have. For instance, all of our cats have learnt that a gentle "out out" means that they need to exit whatever room you are in. It is handy if you need the room empty for whatever reason. For instance, if you work from home and need to clear a room before an online meeting.
Others have mentioned toys, and playtime is important, even with older cats. Especially if you end up with just one cat, and especially especially if that cat has always lived with other cats to play with. In addition to making sure that they always have access to toys, we play with ours every morning while having our coffees.
When you buy toys, don't throw away the boxes and wrappers they come in. Cats often find those more interesting than the human designed toys. Which sometimes begs the question why even buy toys for them if they are happy with just a plastic wrap. (The answer: you might prefer looking at cute soft toys rather than pieces of plastic and cardboard littered all over your house.)
Often it's also a matter of agency and ownership: if our cats discover a toy on their own (whether it's some random thing we have dropped by mistake, or some new "actual" toy that we have hidden for them to find), it becomes a favourite for a while. Because they found it. If I just give them a toy, it's more of a hit-and-miss situation. Just think of cats as eternal teenagers who don't want adults to tell them what to do and like but are often happy to engage with the same things on their own terms.
Also, try to rotate toys to keep things fresh. Bonus points if you can store "resting" toys outside of your apartment, where they can acquire some new and exciting smells.
We have never had issues with cats scratching furniture, apart from one poor Ikea storage cube that our current male cat claimed and which we have accepted is now his. I suppose it's debatable if cheap Ikea stuff always counts as furniture, anyway. We have plenty of scratch posts, scratch plates and cardboard scratchers available for them. I would think that if you can find a scratcher that the cat likes to use, your furniture will be safe. But you need to give them alternatives and find out what they like. Our two cats have completely different preferences: one likes extra tall posts (and the Ikea cube), the other only uses horizontal cardboard scratchers.
A good trash can system for poo makes things much better. We use LitterLocker (I think LitterGenie in some other countries) and it's a great system. The official bags are costlier than they should be, but you can find cheap alternatives.
For litter, definitely start with the same litter than the cat has been using until now, as change is difficult for them. But down the line, consider trying wood pellets instead of clay or silicon, if that's not what the cat is already using. We switched to wood fairly recently and it's been amazing. No smells, easier to clean, cheaper, and I would at least like to think that it's a little more ecological as well. But it totally depends on the cat and whether they accept it.
I must say that I would be a little worried about your wife's allergy. It's not fun for anyone if she is constantly reacting to the cat. She might end up avoiding or pushing away the cat without even realising it. Definitely try to talk to an allergist if it's an option.
And finally, be patient. It can take months for strong bonds to form. Let the cat take its time to adjust, as its entire life will be turned upside down when it moves in. Also keep in mind that, especially with an adult cat, there can be a lot of history and experiences that you are not aware of and which can cause what to you may seem irrational behaviour, but for the cat is logical. Try to learn those triggers and reactions and take them into consideration.
To give an example, our male cat was absolutely terrified of blankets, sheets and even dresses when he moved in. I suspect that there was some event in his kittenhood that left a mental scar. He was a stray, so maybe he was caught with a blanket or a net. I don't know. He's been with us for a year now and it's getting better, to a point where he's still giving us a suspicious eye whenever we (ever so gently) pick up a throw blanket, but he no longer panics and runs out of the room. Just the other day, he even dug himself under a throw blanket to sleep, the first time I've ever seen him do that.
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure Schedule: September 2025 - March 2026 in ~games
vili Link ParentIt's perhaps also worth noting that there are even deeper discounts elsewhere: IsThereAnyDeal lists the Special Edition for just under 2€ at various reputable sellers. The second entry in the...It's perhaps also worth noting that there are even deeper discounts elsewhere: IsThereAnyDeal lists the Special Edition for just under 2€ at various reputable sellers.
The second entry in the series is priced similarly low, and you can even buy the two as a bundle for about three Europeans, or whatever your local equivalent is.
The third game in the series is available for even less, as are the fourth and the fifth.
And the most recent game is also 75% off.
Basically, if you shop around and are ok with Steam keys, you can currently get over 30 years of Monkey Island for about 14 euros or some such. I don't think I'm spoiling anything by pointing out that the series protagonist Guybrush Threepwood declares in the first game that we should never pay more than 20 bucks for a game. Little did he know how cheap his life story would actually end up being.
Prince's 2007 Super Bowl halftime performance is often considered not only the greatest Super Bowl halftime show of all time, but also one of the greatest live music performances of any kind. Now, Prince has been a huge part of my life and identity and yet, for some reason, while I see merit in the performance, I have never thought of it being even among Prince’s own best live shows. For me, it’s just Prince being Prince on a particularly rainy night. He’s done better. I suppose it also matters that I have no emotional or cultural connection to the Super Bowl.
I don’t typically watch “reaction video” type content on YouTube, but Elizabeth Zharoff’s The Charistmatic Voice channel is an exception. She is not only educational and knowledgeable about vocal tracts and techniques, but also such a source of positivity and pure love for good music and vocal performance. She can make me smile and warm inside even on a bad day. I’ve often thought about sharing her videos here but never pushed the button until now.
Watching her react to Prince’s Super Bowl performance actually made me tear up. Not only because I genuinely miss the guy, but also because Elizabeth’s analysis helped me understand what other people see in that performance and why so many consider it so amazing. I hope you will too.