vili's recent activity

  1. Comment on CGA-2026-05 🕹️⛵🦜 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Sid Meier's Pirates! in ~games

    vili
    Link Parent
    And it's good that you did, because I was fast asleep below the deck and wouldn't have realised that I needed to post something today, had it not been for your post! For some reason, my task list...

    Like a scallywag I jumped the cannons and posted the Arrria of Sorrow post a month early.

    And it's good that you did, because I was fast asleep below the deck and wouldn't have realised that I needed to post something today, had it not been for your post! For some reason, my task list had the posting marked for tomorrow. So, good team work there! I'm sure captain @kfwyre is proud of us.

    I'm surprised they fit Pirates! Gold on the Sega Genesis?

    I was debating whether to talk about this in the introduction, but because it was already so wordy, I didn't. But, here we go: While I mentioned that there are roughly five different versions of Pirates!, those versions subdivide into sub-versions, as each system had its own port, some of which are more unique than others. And even the subversions themselves divide into sub-sub-versions: already with the original Commodore 64 release, the cassette version and the disk version of the game were subtly different.

    The Sega Genesis version in particular is rather unique in some ways, and I have heard it claimed that it's actually the best version of the game (but then again, I think I have heard this said about every version of the game). I've never played it myself, but I'm tempted to focus on that version this month. Not that I own a Sega Genesis, or a Sega Genesis copy of the game, but I count that I have bought the game at least nine times in the past thirty years, so I feel I might be allowed to borrow an additional copy for research purposes.

    4 votes

  2. Comment on CGA-2026-05 🕹️⛵🦜 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Sid Meier's Pirates! in ~games

    vili
    Link
    CGA Announcement: We have officially inserted the cartridge for Sid Meier's Pirates!. Use this topic to get set up for the month, help other people get set up for the month, and start playing! If...

    CGA Announcement: We have officially inserted the cartridge for Sid Meier's Pirates!. Use this topic to get set up for the month, help other people get set up for the month, and start playing!

    If you would like to be added or removed from the Notification List, please PM u/kfwyre.

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    9 votes

  3. CGA-2026-05 🕹️⛵🦜 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Sid Meier's Pirates!

    ~games Text 2620 words
    Introduction I consider myself an author. Not that I have ever published anything that I have written. If I'm not mixing up my timelines, Sid Meier's Pirates! was the basis of my second unfinished...

    Introduction

    I consider myself an author. Not that I have ever published anything that I have written.

    If I'm not mixing up my timelines, Sid Meier's Pirates! was the basis of my second unfinished novel. It was the story of a 17th century French sailor, thrust into the world of piracy as he searched for his long-lost family while trying to acquire a new one by courting the beautiful daughter of the mayor of Caracas. In the end, the only family that he managed to find was the band of rowdy pirates that he captained across the Caribbean.

    This might sound like a good story, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't. I would have been ten, maybe nine years old at the time. I knew very little about family dysfunction, romantic love, or the age of piracy. I understood next to nothing about the demands of narrative style or structure. I simply played the game on my Commodore 64 and wrote down what was happening to me.

    A detour

    Some of the fighting bits were pretty good, though. If I recall correctly, later that year I repurposed bits of them for a novella that I wrote for a school assignment. It was called Knights of the Square Table and featured four French musketeers. I would like to claim that this was a brilliant post-modern blending of Arthurian legend and Alexandre Dumas, but I'm pretty sure I was just quite confused about some of the classics that I had been reading.

    Not that mine wasn't an impactful piece of literature. It made our teacher create a new rule: from then on, there would be a strict upper limit to the length of stories that we could give him.

    I sometimes wonder if you guys feel like my teacher.

    A detour within a detour

    Despite his new rule, later that semester our teacher nonetheless accepted an even longer story where I riffed on the ending of So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams. He really liked it. He was a great teacher.

    So, Sid Meier's Pirates! has been a fairly big part of my life. I have not only played the game (many times), but I have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about it. I could even say that, through the act of creative imagination, I have lived it. It is certainly part of my identity.

    And yet, I have never finished the game. Just like my early novel's fictional French captain, I have never found all of the missing family members. And while I have retired many of my characters, I have never been hugely successful in the outcome. I have never reached an ending that I would consider definitive.

    Just like I have never published anything that I have written.

    And this is exactly the type of game that Pirates! is. It is an open world game in the truest sense of the word: it gives you a world to live in, to sail in, to plunder and fight in, to look for treasure and lost family members in, to court beautiful daughters in and to change the course of colonial history in. But it doesn't give you any definitive goal. The journey in Pirates! matters far more than the destination. Because there really is no destination.

    Just like in my writing.

    Or perhaps also in life, you could say?

     

    The Gameplay Loop

    Sid Meier's Pirates! is a collection of systems that harmonise rather beautifully. It is one of my favourite game designs.

    You start by selecting the era in which you want to play, a choice that determines what the world looks like and how it behaves, and some details about your character. You are then given a ship and a crew, and off you go. You can read the incredibly detailed manual, and you really should because it's wonderful, but you don't have to. It's quite an intuitive game.

    Your crew expects you to provide for them. Their loyalty is for the plunder and the plunder alone, and it is up to you to make them rich. If you don't have enough gold for them, they will begin to mutiny. The bigger your crew is the easier it is for you to plunder, but the more of them there are, the smaller each individual member's cut is, and therefore the unhappier they are. And the longer you wait until you divide the gold with them, the less happy they will be with you. There is this constant push and pull, which is at the heart of many of the game's systems.

    And here is the catch: every time you divide the plunder, time progresses. The game gets more difficult, not only because you can change your difficulty level at this juncture, and not just because you lose much of your crew and fleet, but because your characters ages. And the older you are, the more difficult fighting becomes. Them old bones won't be so flexible.

    You cannot die, though. If you are captured at any point, you go to the gallows. It's not game over, but you lose possessions and time, as you age in prison.

    And at some point, you will just be too old. Continuing the life of a pirate makes sense no more. Age has defeated you. Piracy is a young man's game and it is time for you to retire. And when that happens, the game looks at your possessions and other accomplishments, and tells you what your character's life in retirement will look like.

    Within this overall frame, the game loop itself is basically a collection of mini-games: navigating the Caribbean winds, making decisions in towns, arcade-style ship combat, a light strategy game for land battles, a fighting game for sword fights. And, in a later edition, a rhythm game for dancing that many didn't warm to. You can look at maps and search for lost treasures, hunt for other pirates, do heists on silver trains (for some reason removed from later editions), build your reputation, court governors' daughters, conquer cities, trade goods, micro-manage your fleet and crew, and so on.

    Underneath it all, most events are random, which makes each time you play the game unique. This includes everything from smaller details to the larger geopolitical reality that is happening around you in the Caribbean. Nations go to war, make peace with each other, cities change hands, all without caring one bit about your plans or needs.

    It really is as close to a perfect game that I can think of.

     

    History, Versions & Availability

    Sid Meier's Pirates! was designed and programmed by the industry legend that is Sid Meier. Although Meier was a co-founder of MicroProse and had already created around twenty games, Pirates! was the first game to feature his name in the title; something that comedian Robin Williams had apparently suggested that they should do. Or alternatively, as Meier himself remembers, the marketing department came up with the idea to try to get people who loved Meier's flight simulators to give a chance for this otherwise impossible-to-sell pirate game that Meier had insisted on creating. Whatever the reason, it started a trend. Later on, we would get titles like Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon, Sid Meier's Gettysburg!, Sid Meier's SimGolf, Sid Meier's Starships, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Sid Meier's Colonization and, most famously, a game and series called Sid Meier's Civilization. Not all of them always led by Meier, but always given his stamp of approval.

    The game was something of a departure for the designer, as he had mainly worked on flight simulators and other war games until then. Interestingly, Meier programmed most of the game in BASIC, which means that a lot of the code for the original Commodore 64 version is openly readable. If you'd like to learn more, this 8-Bit Show And Tell video is a really interesting dive into the code.

    Platforms & Versions:

    Sid Meier's Pirates! has had a long history after its initial Commodore 64 release. I personally count five major versions and say that you can decide which one you want to play based on which version of our previous pirate game, The Secret of Monkey Island, you preferred:

    • Sid Meier's Pirates! (1987, Commodore 64 and others, sailing screenshot, governor screenhot, duelling screenshot): This is the original game and, for me, the "authentic" Pirates! experience, if played on the C64. But of course it is, because this is the version I grew up with. The art design is minimalistic, clean and crisp. It is also the blockiest of the versions. Choose this if you, like me, insisted on the original EGA (or CGA!) version of The Secret of Monkey Island without voice acting. A DOS port of this is included in the Pirates! Gold Plus release, where you will probably want to choose EGA graphics, even if the loading screen is in CGA. Make also note of the "Pirates! Cheat Sheet" pdf file in your game's bonus content directory, as you'll need those dates to answer the copy protection question correctly.
    • Pirates! (1990, Amiga and others, sailing screenshot, governor screenshot, duelling screenshot): This isn't really a different version as much as a port. I don't think Meier had much personal input on this one. It's quite similar to the original but with softer graphics designed for more developed systems. Some like them, I'm sort of ok with them. Consider this if you chose the updated VGA version of The Secret of Monkey Island without voice acting. Although I don't think this one is on sale anywhere.
    • Pirates! Gold (1993, DOS and others, sailing screenshot, governor screenshot, duelling screenshot: This is a full remake with improved graphics and tweaked gameplay, again without Sid Meier leading the development. Play this if you went through The Secret of Monkey Island with the VGA graphics and voice acting. Many seem to consider this the definite experience, but I don't quite see the allure myself as in many ways it sits a little uncomfortably between the purity of the original and the modernisation of the 2004 remake. This is inluced in the Pirates! Gold Plus release.
    • Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004, Windows and consoles, sailing screenshot, governor screenshot, duelling screenshot): Subtitled Live the Life, this is a full Sid Meier helmed remake (notice that his name is again part of the title) that streamlined the game, made it more modern, switched to 3D rendered graphics, added some story bits, and notoriously introduced a dancing mini game. I think it's ok, although I feel some of the identity and charm was lost with the newer cartoony graphics and sounds. In this one, I sadly don't taste the saltiness of the sea anymore. It feels more like a game. But you may want to choose this if you were happy to play the remastered edition of The Secret of Monkey Island with its new graphical style and streamlined user interface.
    • Sid Meier's Pirates! Mobile (2008, mobiles): This is a mobile port that I don't think is available any more and that I have never played. I think it's largely based on the 2004 remake?

    Genre(s):

    Open world, action-adventure, strategy, Sid Meier

    Links:

    Stores:

     

    Game Setup

    The main purpose of this topic is to get people up and running with the game. As such, it's recommended that you:

    • Share which version of the game you're playing

    • Share what hardware you're playing it on

    • Share if there are any tools/mods that you recommend

    • Share anything you think is important for people to know before they start the game

    • Ask questions if you need help

    Another purpose of this topic is to revisit the game and its time period:

    • Do you have any memories or associations with this game itself?

    • What about its system or era?

    • What aspects of retro gaming were common at the time?

    • What other games from the same time period are you familiar with?

    • What are you expecting from this game in particular?

    Finally, this topic is the beginning discussion for people starting to play it:

    • Post updates sharing your thoughts as you play.

    • Ask for help if you get stuck.

    • Offer help to others.

    It is recommended that you reply to your own posts if you are making consecutive updates so that they are in the same thread.

     

    Important

    • Any links to the game should be legal distributions of the game only. Please do NOT link to any unauthorized copies.

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

    
<details>

<summary>Spoilers</summary>

Spoiler text goes here.

</details>

     

    FAQ

    What is CGA?

    Colossal Game Adventure (CGA) is Tildes' retro video game club.

    Each month we will play a different retro game/games, discuss our thoughts, and bask in the glorious digital experiences of yesteryear!

    Colossal Game Adventure is a reference to Colossal Cave Adventure. It's one of the most influential games of all time, one of the first text-based interactive games, and one of the first games to be shared online.

    What do we want to do with this group? Play influential games; interact with each other through text; and share the love for retro games online!

    It also abbreviates to CGA (because we love chunky pixel art), and its name communicates the Colossal amount of fun and excitement that we have with retro video Games in our shared Adventure of playing them together.

    Do I have to sign up?

    No. Participation is open to all.

    There is a Notification List that will get pinged each time a new topic goes up. If you would like to join that list, please PM u/kfwyre.

    Are there restrictions on what/how to play?

    Each month will have a focus game or games that will guide our discussions. Beyond that, there are no restrictions. The philosophy of CGA is to play in a way that works for you!

    This means:

    • Choose whichever version of the game you want.

    • You can use cheats, save states, mods, etc.

    • You can watch a streamer or longplay instead of playing it.

    If you have already played a game and want a different experience:

    • Try a randomizer or challenge run.

    • Play a different version of it.

    • Play a related game (sequel, spiritual successor, something inspired by it, etc.)

    There is no wrong way to participate in CGA, and every different way someone participates will make for more interesting discussions.

    What is the schedule?

    Each month the Insert Cartidge topic will be posted on the 1st, while the Remove Cartridge topic will be posted on the 28th (25th for February).

    Nomination and voting topics will happen in March and September (every 6 months).

    Schedules are also posted then.

    All CGA topics are available using the colossal game adventure tag.

    What do Insert and Remove Cartridge mean?

    Inserting and removing cartridges are our retro metaphor for starting and stopping a given game or games.

    The Insert Cartridge topic happens at the beginning of the month and is primarily about getting the game up and running.

    The Remove Cartridge topic happens toward the end of the month and is primarily about people reflecting on the game now that they've played it.

    There are no hard restrictions on what has to go in either topic, and each can be used to discuss the game, post updates, ask questions, etc.

    12 votes

  4. Comment on CGA-2026-04 🕹️🚀🧑‍🚀 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ Space Rogue in ~games

    vili
    Link Parent
    I'm jealous. I too was planning to play Space Rogue and Pirates! on my C64(s), but alas, both my tape deck AND my disk drive have developed some issues. As it stands, I'm left with four C64s and...

    I played the C64 version

    I'm jealous. I too was planning to play Space Rogue and Pirates! on my C64(s), but alas, both my tape deck AND my disk drive have developed some issues. As it stands, I'm left with four C64s and no way to load anything.

    Which might actually be good, as I really should start by upgrading the power supplies. Using 40-year-old PSUs is a one-way ticket to a disaster, or so I hear. I just haven't felt like doing anything about it, because every time I start to think about it, I end up dreaming about a mod that could add an SD card reader, then realise that I could just buy a new C64 instead (like the recently released Ultimate), then remember that I don't have a suitable monitor or CRT TV to really get the authentic experience, then realise that if I were to buy one I'd have to find a place for it, then end up planning a total house renovation. And I'm not sure my wife would approve.

    I bought a strange item, some sort of contact lens set, from an alien. It cost 250 cr and had no effect at all.

    It's actually a quest item that I think is needed at one point to proceed in the story. But you of course couldn't have known at that point in the game.

    Maybe I was doing it wrong, but the only way to see where your enemies are is to turn on the tracking feature, but if you do that, you can no longer shoot lasers!

    Yeah, it can be a bit confusing.

    Page 19 of the manual says this about the tracking feature (Target Acquisition Computer): "For beam weapons, the TAC checks for a clear, line-of-sight path to your target. If the target lies out of the path, is too far away, or is blocked by another object, your TAC will stop the beam weapon from firing. This prevents needless discharging of the beam weapon's batteries (and embarrassing attacks on friendly ships that fly unexpectedly in your path)."

    I tried going through the wormhole near the starting point too, but after a few attempts falling back out I was unable to progress there. I managed to stay on track until near the end once, but my ship's hull didn't last the journey and I got a game over with the end in sight. There is probably some trick to it. Maybe I need more practice, or better shields.

    Perhaps you were moving too slowly? Page 25 of the manual: "Move through the wormhole as quickly as possible. Corrosive gases within the hole damage all known classes of hull armor." It also makes a note that there is a null damper to counter this effect, with the previous owner of the ship having added the helpful words "the black market" in the margins.

    It feels very grindy.

    I agree, it felt more grindy than I remembered. I wonder how much of this feeling came from "having to" play through the game in a month. Normally, I would take several months to get through a game like this, with long breaks in between gaming sessions. Or, alternatively, sometimes I can just get "in the zone" for general grinding in games that I love, and can spend a couple of evenings just doing repetitive tasks and really enjoying it. I didn't get there with Space Rogue this time around. I think the last game that really activated that desire in me was Sekiro. I don't really remember what I was trying to achieve, but I remember spending hours and hours just running the same loop in that game. Probably chasing some achievement or item or both.

    I'd also like free ship repair early on

    Early on this month I was considered creating a web based good samaritan service, where any Space Rogue player could upload their save file and the system would repair their ship (modify the save file). But as there wasn't much activity in the insert cartridge topic, I thought no one was likely interested in the game, so there would be no point.

    And it wouldn't of course have helped you if you played on a C64 like a real pro!

    So yeah, I used to really like this game in my memories, but I don't think it has aged very well.

    Since you mentioned the Ultima series, do you think that it has aged better? And which entry in the series do you think has best stood the test of time? I've actually been quite surprised that no one has (I think?) so far nominated any Ultima game for CGA.

    3 votes

  5. Comment on CGA-2026-04 🕹️🚀🧑‍🚀 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ Space Rogue in ~games

    vili
    Link Parent
    I would say this series of videos is probably the best out there.

    if anybody has any suggestions of Let's Plays or similar, I'd be interested in checking them out

    I would say this series of videos is probably the best out there.

    4 votes

  6. Comment on CGA-2026-04 🕹️🚀🧑‍🚀 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ Space Rogue in ~games

    vili
    (edited )
    Link
    In the insert cartridge topic, I defended Space Rogue for design decisions which might feel outdated now but which, I argued, were perfectly fine back when the game was first released. But there...

    In the insert cartridge topic, I defended Space Rogue for design decisions which might feel outdated now but which, I argued, were perfectly fine back when the game was first released. But there is one feature which I very much grew to dislike.

    When you die, the game just quits. No menu, no option to load a save file. Not even enough time to read the fluff text. Just a quick slap in the face and goodbye.

    It feels needlessly harsh. Especially when you didn't die in space combat, but because you tried to talk to the wrong person at the wrong time, or just walked into the wrong room. Unpredictable instakills are not fun, especially if they throw you out of the game. It was way too tempting to stop playing whenever I was kicked out, rather than going through the hassle of booting up the game again.

    I had less free time this month than I had hoped, so I admit to making the game a little easier for myself. Not only did I use a copy of the trading table found in this Space Rogue walkthrough, but I also made use of a hex editor and this save file editing guide when I got stuck with almost no shields left, my weapons damaged, and no way to get them repaired. And while at it, I also added a couple of thousand credits to my account, as I was tired of repetitive merchant life and wanted to proceed with the story.

    I think the game might have been easier if I had a mouse. I never learnt to control the ship with my trackball, so I was left performing space flight manoeuvres with a keyboard. Every encounter with an enemy was an exercise in finger dexterity.

    And yet, the game still instils awe in me. I know the 3D simulation is crude and the plot a little plain at times, but each successful docking and deep space jump still feels like a religious experience to me, and the game does feature a bunch of wonderfully diverse characters and situations. It's all really well written, occasional typos and all, making it feel like a living universe to me.

    It'll be fun to contrast Space Rogue with Sid Meier's Pirates!. The game design ideas are in many ways very similar. But there is a clear difference in focus and execution.

    7 votes

  7. Comment on CGA-2026-04 🕹️🚀🧑‍🚀 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ Space Rogue in ~games

    vili
    Link
    CGA Announcement: We have officially ejected the cartridge for Space Rogue. No worries if you're not done -- there is still plenty of time left in the month to play! This topic is for people to...

    CGA Announcement: We have officially ejected the cartridge for Space Rogue. No worries if you're not done -- there is still plenty of time left in the month to play!

    This topic is for people to share their parting thoughts and experiences. Spoilers are NOT required to be hidden for this topic, so if you're reading this before you've finished, be careful about reading any comments here.

    If you would like to be added or removed from the Notification List, please PM u/kfwyre.

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    7 votes

  8. CGA-2026-04 🕹️🚀🧑‍🚀 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ Space Rogue

    ~games Text 158 words
    Warning: this post may contain spoilers

    Hello there, space rogue! It's time to dock with the mothership, put a glide in your stride and a dip in your hip, and report to us about your adventures.

    Did you play Space Rogue? Did you uncover the mysteries of the universe? Did you conquer Hive? Did you forget to fill in the friendship book? Tell us about your experiences! Or if you didn't play, tell us why this title didn't pique your interest.

    In a couple of days, we will leave behind the life of a pirate, trader and bounty hunter, disembark from the Jolly Roger and hoist the Jolly Roger for a life of a pirate, trader and bounty hunter, this time in Sid Meier's Pirates!, a game so brilliant that it deserves an exclamation mark.

    See you on the salty seas! Or not, if my lookout spots your vessel before yours spots mine, and my master gunner is on top of their game. Arrrr.

    10 votes

  9. Comment on CGA-2026-04 🕹️🚀🧑‍🚀 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Space Rogue in ~games

    vili
    Link
    How's everyone doing with the game? For anyone interested, here are a couple of interesting podcasts related to Space Rogue. I have linked to the podcasts' own websites, but you should be able to...

    How's everyone doing with the game?

    For anyone interested, here are a couple of interesting podcasts related to Space Rogue. I have linked to the podcasts' own websites, but you should be able to find these also on YouTube or your favourite podcast app.

    • Paul Neurath - Interview by the Video Game Newsroom Time Machine is a 2021 interview with Space Rogue's creator Paul Neurath where they talk about his entire career in the video game industry. If you want to skip to the Space Rogue parts, they start at around 16:45, but the whole interview is well worth your time, as the earlier parts talk about projects that led up to Space Rogue, and the later parts of course go on to talk about his hit game series Ultima Underworld, Thief and System Shock. Among other things, I learnt from this interview that Neurath didn't write Space Rogue primarily for Commodore 64 as I had thought, but the Apple II system.

    • Origin Story by They Create Worlds is an excellent history of Origin Systems, the company behind Space Rogue, Wing Commander and the Ultima series. Space Rogue bits start at around 44:00, but if you have any interest in video game history, this really is a wonderful episode on Origin Systems.

    As side quests, I can also highly recommend:

    • Wing Commander also by They Create Worlds is a great look at the history of the Wing Commander series, which owes plenty to Space Rogue. Space Rogue itself is briefly discussed from 33:30 on, but again, if you have any interest in Wing Commander, the whole episode is well worth your time.

    • Ultima Retrospective (YouTube playlist) by Noah Antwiler / The Spoony Experiment is a series of videos about the Ultima series and one of my favourite things on YouTube. This is not really about Origin Systems or the making of Ultima, but a personal reflection on the games themselves with humour that either works for you or doesn't. It very much works for me.

    2 votes

  10. Comment on Meet Orpheus—A hopper mission built to hunt for life in Martian volcanoes in ~space

    vili
    Link Parent
    While I share your disappointment, I don't think that this is quite a fair statement. NASA needs to prioritise its programmes based on budget constraints and expected scientific return. The...

    NASA continues to ignore the possibility of current life on Mars

    While I share your disappointment, I don't think that this is quite a fair statement. NASA needs to prioritise its programmes based on budget constraints and expected scientific return.

    The general scientific consensus has been that the Viking landers did not discover strong enough markers for life. While this doesn't mean that no life currently exists on Mars (it doesn't even mean that the Viking experiments didn't discover life), it does mean that directly following up on those experiments hasn't been a high enough priority to justify additional resources. In a sense it's a probability game, and there are currently better odds for gaining results from other approaches.

    The focus has shifted to understanding the planet's environment, partly because the confusion around the Viking lander experiments showed us that looking for life may be too difficult without first understanding the environment in which it might exist. So, NASA has instead been focusing on things like water, methane, organic molecules, geochemistry, and other such markers that indicate habitability and potential biosignatures. Once we know to what extent these exist on Mars, and where, we have a better chance of designing experiments to directly search for life.

    I would say that NASA has continued to search for life on Mars after the Viking missions, even if it has done so indirectly.

    9 votes

  11. Comment on How to find (a) new music (community)? in ~music

    vili
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    I too feel it's more difficult to get excited about new music as I get older. But every now and then, something still pops up that hits so hard that it becomes a part of my identity. For...

    I too feel it's more difficult to get excited about new music as I get older. But every now and then, something still pops up that hits so hard that it becomes a part of my identity.

    For discovery, I currently follow these through my RSS reader (links are to websites, not the feeds):

    These are also good sources for discovery but don't have easy RSS feeds:

    I'd like to widen my horizons to more international music, but it's challenging to find good sources, especially ones with RSS feeds. I'd love to hear if anyone has recommendations for publications to follow from their region of the world. Can be in any language.

    I use Spotify and like how easy it is to keep track of new releases from my favourite artists, as it gives me a list of new releases from artists that I follow. It doesn't seem to be filtered in any way, just sorted by date. I check it every Friday.

    In general, I have found that using a streaming service doesn't force one to listen to playlists or bend to the algorithm's wills. I primarily listen to albums, so I just use Spotify's search function to find specific releases and pretty much ignore all algorithmic suggestions. Although, I do find the automatically generated artist compilations ("This Is X") useful when getting to know an artist I haven't listened to before. As for playlists, I rarely listen to those, and when I do, I strongly prefer human curated lists as opposed to ones Spotify generates automatically.

    8 votes

  12. Comment on I’m traveling internationally for the first time and could use tips! in ~travel

    vili
    Link Parent
    I think films in the Netherlands aren’t typically dubbed unless they are children’s films, so if you pick a film that’s originally in a language you speak, you should be ok. Just make sure it’s in...

    I think films in the Netherlands aren’t typically dubbed unless they are children’s films, so if you pick a film that’s originally in a language you speak, you should be ok. Just make sure it’s in the main room.

    Maybe also check if the Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin is open or if its permanent collection is available somewhere. It’s my favourite place in Berlin with its exhibits of the history of German cinema (think Metropolis, Nosferatu, Marlene Dietrich, and so on), but I think they closed it a couple of years ago for renovation or something.

    3 votes

  13. Comment on I’m traveling internationally for the first time and could use tips! in ~travel

    vili
    Link
    I don’t know about hostels, but most hotels I have used around Europe allow you to leave your luggage with them after you check out, and pick it up later. Railway stations and such also often have...

    I don’t know about hostels, but most hotels I have used around Europe allow you to leave your luggage with them after you check out, and pick it up later. Railway stations and such also often have coin operated storage units. But check ahead of time to avoid disappointment.

    I know nothing about cars but if you like statues (statues are a bit like cars, just with less movement and typically with fewer wheels, right?), I would highly recommend the Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo. The Munch museum is also great, and I hear they have expanded it recently. My favourite thing in Amsterdam was the stunningly beautiful Tuschinski Theatre, an old cinema well worth watching a film in if you love architecture and cinema.

    2 votes

  14. Comment on Industry initiative launches Euro-Office as true sovereign office suite in ~tech

    vili
    Link Parent
    European countries have for some years now been talking about digital sovereignty, referring to a goal of reducing their dependence on foreign technology, such as Chinese hardware and American...

    European countries have for some years now been talking about digital sovereignty, referring to a goal of reducing their dependence on foreign technology, such as Chinese hardware and American software and data services. Back in 2021, a group of European prime ministers wrote an open letter about this, and it has either directly or indirectly led to some legislative work such as the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act.

    The perceived need for digital sovereignty has only increased recently as trust towards the US as a reliable partner has eroded, the influence of largely American tech companies in both public and political spheres has become an issue, and the world in general has been less predictable. Many companies and individuals are now considering European alternatives to software, services and devices that they have previously been happy to get from non-European providers. Euro-Office is a part of this sea change.

    The concept of digital sovereignty is older of course, but I would say that it's become part of the political discourse in the past decade or so. Back in the 90s we also talked about the somewhat related independence of cyberspace, as if governments had no sovereignty over the internet.

    It's not unique to Europe or the west, of course. China has its own concept of cyber sovereignty, and I'm sure other countries do as well.

    11 votes

  15. Comment on CGA-2026-04 🕹️🚀🧑‍🚀 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Space Rogue in ~games

    vili
    Link Parent
    I honestly don't know. But some games were indeed pretty creative about it! Our next month's title, Sid Meier's Pirates!, allowed you to play but made the game very difficult. Zak McKracken threw...

    I may be wrong about this, but if you get the copy protection wrong, does it maybe remove items from your inventory? I want to say it did something evil like that, but maybe I am mixing up games.

    I honestly don't know. But some games were indeed pretty creative about it! Our next month's title, Sid Meier's Pirates!, allowed you to play but made the game very difficult. Zak McKracken threw you in pirate jail and gave you a lecture. Earthbound increased difficulty and, I believe, erased your save files towards the end of the game. And while not a game, the first IBM PC virus was supposedly also an attempt at copy protection.

    How do you play games on a 3DS that require keyboard inputs? Do you have a virtual keyboard on the second screen with touch input?

    1 vote

  16. Comment on CGA-2026-04 🕹️🚀🧑‍🚀 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Space Rogue in ~games

    vili
    Link Parent
    I've been thinking about what I wrote above about the game's "rough edges" and I wonder if I was entirely fair to the game, or the era in which it was made. After all, for all of my examples,...
    • Exemplary

    I've been thinking about what I wrote above about the game's "rough edges" and I wonder if I was entirely fair to the game, or the era in which it was made. After all, for all of my examples, there is a simple solution that exists in the game and alleviates the issues. It's called "saving the game".

    We have perhaps grown accustomed to thinking about a game save as analogous to pausing or stopping a film. It halts a linear process and allows us to later continue where we left off. If we fail in something, we expect the game to throw us back into a previous state and we can try to proceed again.

    In many older games, the save feature wasn't just that. It was much more an actual game mechanic that you needed to master. You were often expected to keep multiple save files, try things out, and return to earlier saves as you tried to figure out what works and what doesn't. Instant deaths and unwinnable game states were acceptable design because you could always go back to an earlier save.

    Games in this sense weren't linear, but a network of paths that you were expected to puzzle your way through. Something like the King's Quest series by Sierra is a prime example of this type of game design. Learning when and where to save, and how to manage your save files, was part of the game design.

    Another thing that I've been thinking about while playing Space Rogue is the manual. As some of you may already have noticed from previous months, I love game manuals. I very much miss them. Because a good manual serves multiple functions.

    On the most fundamental level, a manual is an instruction book, it tells the player how to play the game. Back in the 80s, you couldn't just assume that players knew even the most basic gaming concepts. If you sold more than a hundred copies, your game would almost certainly be someone's first gaming experience. So, everything, and I mean everything, needed to be spelled out. One of my favourite examples is the manual for Sid Meier's 1984 flight simulator Spitfire Ace, which goes as far as to literally tell the reader that the sky is blue (see here, the last paragraph in the Game Display section).

    The manual is also part of the game world and part of the game mechanics. As I'm playing Space Rogue, I frequently pause the game to check something or other in the manual. Which faction did this ship type belong to? What was supposed to exist in this solar system? What was the command to switch to Newtonian flight again? And so on. While it's a bit tedious as I only have the pdf copy provided, back in the day, with a physical manual, it would have felt more natural. I wouldn't have needed to break the immersion and alt-tab out of the game itself. The game would just sit there, either paused or running patiently, as I consulted my manual and notes. And since I'm a spaceship pilot, of course I have a manual that I need to refer to!

    It helps your imagination to fill in the gaps. These days, we are approaching near photorealistic representation in games and a practically infinite space into which developers can add lore and other information to enhance our immersion. Soon, we'll have AI assisted systems that can generate anything that developers don't have the resources or priorities for, be it higher graphical fidelity, an endless number of NPCs and dialogue options, background lore that gets generated on the spot based on developers' parameters, and so on. But back in the 80s, resources were very limited, and much more had to be left to the player's own imagination. Despite being billed as a "cinematic experience", playing Space Rogue is still closer to reading a book than it is to watching a film. You need to use your imagination. Rather than a passive recipient, you are very much an interactive part of the act of creation. The manual is there to guide you in this process. It shows you what things should look like or stand for but can't because of the limited tech, and it tells you about the flavour and intricacies of the world that the game code just can't give you. It's your prompt partner in this double act improv performance.

    The manual is also copy protection. Both literally and figuratively. Space Rogue requires you to type in a specific word from a specific page to load your game. But you would also lack all of the context and information that I talked about above if you didn't have the manual, rendering the game almost unplayable. When it comes to the literal copy protection, I don't actually think the GOG or Steam versions require you to fill in the correct answers (at least I don't see any difference in the game if I don't), but back in the day, a copy protection like this was a good way to prevent piracy. By the end of the 80s, the technology to copy a game was quite commonplace even at home, but copying a manual was trickier. And while you could download a pirated game from the internet relatively quickly (a matter of minutes), downloading a scanned or even typed manual would take much longer (a matter of hours), as it would have been a much larger file. And since you paid for your online connection per the minutes used, you were probably better off just walking into a game shop and buying the damn thing.

    2 votes

  17. Comment on Inside the ‘Michael’ overhaul: $15 million reshoots, removing child abuse allegations and what’s in store for sequels in ~movies

    vili
    Link Parent
    It is not just any accuser, though. It is Jordan Chandler. If I count correctly, there have been four major instances of child molestation accusations against Michael Jackson that create the image...
    • Exemplary

    So what, because one of the accusers is banned from appearing or being mentioned, that means the entire ending has to be cut? They can'r dub over his name, or use CG to change his face, or swap out his actor? It sounds more like someone changed their mind about touching the subject.

    It is not just any accuser, though. It is Jordan Chandler.

    If I count correctly, there have been four major instances of child molestation accusations against Michael Jackson that create the image problem where many associate his name with the word "paedophile".

    These cases are:

    1. Jordan Chandler (1993): I will write about this shortly.
    2. Gavin Arvizo (2005): This one went into a very public trial, at the end of which Jackson was found not guilty on all 10 counts. For anyone wanting to protect and profit from Jackson's legacy (let's call this entity "the Estate", although it might not be entirely accurate), it is easy to point to this verdict as a proof of innocence. Or it would be, if not for the shadow cast by the Chandler case.
    3. Wade Robson and James Safechuck (starting in 2013): These posthumous allegations have been dismissed by courts more than once, both for technical reasons and for lack of evidence. Where the cases currently stand, I don't really know, but at this moment at least the Estate can point to these unsuccessful court actions and dismiss the claims. Or they should be able to do that, if not for the public perception shaped by the Chandler case.
    4. The Cascio family (2026): The latest posthumous accusations come from a family who were quite close to Jackson. This is the same family friend who immediately after Jackson's passing claimed the singer had recorded multiple tracks with him, three of which ultimately got selected for Jackson's first posthumous album. Now, the problem with those tracks is that they don't really sound like Michael Jackson. There has been a lawsuit and the tracks have since been removed from later pressings of the album. Depending on how the Estate can and wants to play this, they could in theory point to the family as having lied already once about their involvement with Jackson, and pretty much dismiss the molestation accusations that way. Or at they could, if it wasn't for the shadow of the Chandler case. (Also, I have no idea what has been going on between the Estate and the Cascio family over the years but there is potentially a whole other can of worms there which belongs to an entirely different story, so I won't go into that.)

    So, the Estate might not really have an image problem if it wasn't for the Jordan Chandler case. And the problem with that case is that it was never publicly resolved. Jackson denied any wrongdoing but was advised to settle out of court, and he did so, supposedly to protect his health and finances, and somehow thinking that he could go on with his life and career. But the lack of a definite "not guilty" verdict forever marked him as a child molester in the public eye.

    Now, I don't know what the film that they are making was originally going to be like. Or what the final version will be like, for that matter. But based on what I have read, I had assumed that the original concept of the film was a very definite attempt by the Estate to change the public perception about the Jordan Chandler case by telling Michael's (or the Estate's) side of the story and prove him, or at least portray him as, innocent. To manufacture that public verdict of "innocent". Because if they could do that, if they could make the Jordan Chandler shadow go away, it would help them clear Jackson's name entirely. All of the subsequent accusations would be viewed through a very different lens.

    I was actually quite looking forward to seeing how they were going to attempt this act of image re-building.

    That said, I want to finish by noting that while I have written about these allegations here as if they were just legal cases and an "image problem", they are of course not just that. I have no idea what really happened, but if any abuse occurred, I hope the survivors find justice and peace. These are things that no child, or adult, should endure. At the same time, these are also serious accusations against a global icon who means so much to so many people.

    10 votes

  18. Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴‍☠️🏝️🍌 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games

    vili
    Link Parent
    I feel vindicated. (As a reminder, Ron Gilbert aka GrumpyGamer was the creator of Monkey Island. Not that his opinion necessarily matters more than anyone else’s when it comes to matters of taste....

    I know I've been the annoying weirdo who insists that the best version of The Secret of Monkey Island is the original EGA version

    I feel vindicated. (As a reminder, Ron Gilbert aka GrumpyGamer was the creator of Monkey Island. Not that his opinion necessarily matters more than anyone else’s when it comes to matters of taste. But still. Vindicated!)

    1 vote

  19. Comment on CGA-2026-04 🕹️🚀🧑‍🚀 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Space Rogue in ~games

    vili
    Link
    I must admit, the game is a little bit rougher around the edges than I remembered. A couple of design choices that have I noticed in the early game which wouldn't really pass muster today include:...

    I must admit, the game is a little bit rougher around the edges than I remembered. A couple of design choices that have I noticed in the early game which wouldn't really pass muster today include:

    • Of the two systems that you can jump into from the starting system, one doesn't have any repair services for your spaceship. As your hull can take quite a bit of damage when you go through a Malir gate (especially if it's your first try), you can end up in a limbo state where you are still alive but can't get back into civilisation as you can't survive another jump.

    • Pressing J immediately jettisons all cargo. There is no confirmation step for this action. While it's conceptually quite funny when you accidentally throw all of the manure that you are carrying into the face of a pursuing enemy, that single key press can cost you dearly if you were carrying something more valuable.

    • Some of the cargo types spoil easily and I believe it's totally random when they do so. I have learnt to avoid purchasing spoiling cargo: manure, seaweed, hybrid grain, anaghatics, antibiotics and radioactives (!) are all subject to spoilage.

    • Also, for a major game release, there are surprisingly many typos in the dialogue texts!

    I first encountered Space Rogue on my friend's computer in the early 90s. "What's that?" I asked as I walked into his room and saw him hunched over his computer screen. "Oh, just a new game that I got," he said, casually walking around in a space station and talking to some characters in a bar. He then boarded a spaceship and whoa, we were suddenly in full 3D space! And as if that wasn't enough for my young mind to be blown, we saw two spaceships and some laser action. "They are attacking you!" I gasped. "Naah, it looks like they are fighting each other," he replied. We followed the dogfight until one of the ships got destroyed.

    A game where you can walk around in space stations, talk to all sorts of people and aliens who don't seem too interested in you, fly freely in an incredible 3D space simulation and observe other ships engage in space battle that doesn't involve you in any way? It felt like anything would be possible in this game. That this universe wasn't centred around you and instead existed for its own mysterious reasons.

    But I hadn't cycled 15 km (about 10 miles, or 0.00000010026881 AU) on gravel roads and across a hilly forest landscape for this. We had been planning to play the strategy game Empire, and that's what we would do. And so, the end of that dogfight was the last time that I would see Space Rogue for a very long time.

    Over the ensuing years, an image of the game (my friend's character standing inside the space station) would pop into my head every now and then, but I had no idea what the game was called. I don't think I had ever asked my friend and we weren't in touch any more. He had gone to study in another part of the country, and a little later I would move out of the country entirely. Every couple of years the image of the character in a space station would return to me and I would try to find out what the title of the game might have been, but I always came back empty handed. All I had in my head was that space station, the 3D dogfight, and the impossibly rich universe that I had assumed in my head.

    In the late 2000s, I reconnected with my friend and a couple of years after that, the image of the character in that a space station came back to me again. I asked my friend if he remembered what game it might have been. He told me that it was probably Space Rogue. And it was.

    It was a weird feeling booting up the game. A game that I had thought about so often over almost two decades. A game that I had built up in my head into something that would have been impossible to create in 1989. And yet, I wasn't disappointed. I really liked Space Rogue, even if I didn't finish the game -- I don't remember why in this particular case, but I'm quite good at not finishing games.

    And here we are now. Another almost twenty years later, and I'm playing Space Rogue again. And so are you (perhaps). Thank you for doing the insane thing and voting for a largely forgotten game that is far clunkier than anything that we have been playing so far! I hope you find our archaeological expedition into buried treasures (and mixed metaphors) interesting and perhaps even see a brief glimpse of that rich universe and the endless possibility that I had built in my head. And which, in a sense, actually does exist in the game. Although you do need to work for it a little bit more than with more modern titles.

    4 votes

  20. Comment on Where can I learn about the actual science behind Artemis II? in ~space

    vili
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    Maybe you have already seen these, but: Everyday Astronaut has a 14-minute video called Artemis II: Everything You Need to Know which is a fairly good overview of the crew, the service module, the...

    Maybe you have already seen these, but:

    9 votes