datarama - Network

One game has a bunch of references to one fictional developer's old summer job as a delivery driver. Another has characters based on...

One game has a bunch of references to one fictional developer's old summer job as a delivery driver. Another has characters based on fictional developers' fictional family members. (Were those in turn based on the actual developers' families? I have no idea!).

Some of them have weird, weird stories. Ever wanted to play a strategy game where tribes of post-apocalyptic birds battle it out while worshipping their dinosaur ancestors, long after the fall of mammalkind? Or how about Pong, except with samurais and ninjas? Or controlling a sleeping walrus' spiritual journey in his dreams? Or a lizard beset by predators, whose only defense is colour-changing to blend into its surroundings?

(The latter is fun enough that I almost forget to be that pedantic herpetology nerd asshole who has to point out that no lizards can change colour to camouflage themselves - chameleons and anoles use colour change entirely as a means of communication. And not even voluntarily - it's controlled by their hormones, not directly by their brains.)

I also like the progression - both technically and in execution. "Barbuta" (the first game by "LX Software", made by...

I also like the progression - both technically and in execution. "Barbuta" (the first game by "LX Software", made by some of their devs in their time off from making business software) would have been a mediocre game even in 1982, with all the frustrations typical of that era. The last game by "UFOSoft" - LX rebranded themselves when they pivoted to becoming entirely a game company - is "Cyber Owls", which wouldn't have been out of place in an 1989 arcade machine.

But I especially like that fictional developers left easter eggs in the games.

Let's make a retro game? No, let's make 50 retro games! No, let's invent a fictional 1980s game studio and release their entire...

Let's make a retro game? No, let's make 50 retro games! No, let's invent a fictional 1980s game studio and release their entire catalogue complete with fictional historical anecdotes about each game! Wait ... also, let's invent a fictional game console hardware platform that they made their games for.

I love that sort of thing.

On a more positive note: UFO 50 is a god damn work of art.

On a more positive note: UFO 50 is a god damn work of art.

I used to calm my mind (right from when I was a little kid worried about bullies up to being a middle-aged man sitting all alone in pandemic...

I used to calm my mind (right from when I was a little kid worried about bullies up to being a middle-aged man sitting all alone in pandemic isolation) by programming. Diving into some personal coding project let me slip my mind into something that *made sense*, to the way I think. But that has felt increasingly meaningless over the last couple of years. I rediscovered pixel art last summer (after something like 20 years of hiatus) ... but, same thing. Feels meaningless.

Currently, the only thing that really calms me is tending to my bonsai. But you can't do that all day.

I'm worried about whether AI is going to eat up my profession and leave me (and millions of others) without a livelihood. I'm...

I'm worried about whether AI is going to eat up my profession and leave me (and millions of others) without a livelihood. I'm worried about the climate disaster. I'm worried about the hard authoritarian takeover of the US, and the risk for terrible war.

And I am exhausted.

I am terribly worried about the future.

I am terribly worried about the future.

(and I'm practically doxing myself by the skyline. :-P )

(and I'm practically doxing myself by the skyline. :-P )

Left to right: Carmona retusa (fukien tea), Buxus harlandii (Chinese boxwood), Portulacaria afra (South African dwarf jade), Sageretia...

Left to right: Carmona retusa (fukien tea), Buxus harlandii (Chinese boxwood), Portulacaria afra (South African dwarf jade), Sageretia theezans (Chinese sweet plum).

The view from my desk.

The view from my desk.

The full setup from back then (2016), taken on the PotatoCam on my old work phone:

The full setup from back then (2016), taken on the PotatoCam on my old work phone:

As for my old scratch-built case: Here it is! It was terrific fun to make, and it was quite satisfying to have standing around. From a more...

As for my old scratch-built case: Here it is! It was terrific fun to make, and it was quite satisfying to have standing around. From a more functional perspective, it sucked though. :-)

I put some older hardware I had lying around in the Define - a Ryzen 1700 and an AMD RX4080. They used to be the innards of my scratch-built...

I put some older hardware I had lying around in the Define - a Ryzen 1700 and an AMD RX4080. They used to be the innards of my scratch-built case that I made to look like a CM-2 Connection Machine - and the cooling on that thing was *abysmal*, much worse than the Define. It now gets some more years of service life, as my mother's new desktop PC.

(Her needs are more modest than mine - but if I'm perfectly honest, except for compiling large piles of code, something like 99% of my own day-to-day computer use could be served perfectly well by a Raspberry Pi.)

I'd previously used a Define 7 (also by Fractal Design), but I don't really think the heavily sound-dampened design (with...

I'd previously used a Define 7 (also by Fractal Design), but I don't really think the heavily sound-dampened design (with necessarily high insulation and very little airflow) of the Define series makes a lot of sense with typical modern PC hardware inside - at least not with what I stuffed in mine. There's simply too little air coming in, so the fans all have to spin up under even relatively little load. The sound dampening helps ... but at that point it's basically fighting a problem that it itself is causing. When I was compiling code (or even playing some less frugal games than my usual fare) it got terribly hot and noisy.

...and fully assembled, it looks almost offensively Scandinavian.(well, Fractal Design *is* a Swedish manufacturer.)

...and fully assembled, it looks almost offensively Scandinavian.

(well, Fractal Design *is* a Swedish manufacturer.)

Almost assembled, it looks like a wind tunnel.

Almost assembled, it looks like a wind tunnel.

(I'm not using the fanbus because that would actually make things *messier*! I have a 1-to-3 daisy chain cable for the front intake...

(I'm not using the fanbus because that would actually make things *messier*! I have a 1-to-3 daisy chain cable for the front intake fans, and a Y-splitter for the exhaust fans. This is the only thing where I managed to end up with cabling I *didn't* hate.)

The other side.This is probably the least terrible I've ever managed to get cable management inside a computer case, and I still hate...

The other side.

This is probably the least terrible I've ever managed to get cable management inside a computer case, and I still hate cables.

Also, I hate cables. I am *never* satisfied with my cable management.(I especially hate the stiff, annoying ones that came with the PSU.)

Also, I hate cables. I am *never* satisfied with my cable management.

(I especially hate the stiff, annoying ones that came with the PSU.)

I've moved my computer into a new case.(and I also replaced the grey pads on my Noctua chromax fans with brown ones from older Noctua...

I've moved my computer into a new case.

(and I also replaced the grey pads on my Noctua chromax fans with brown ones from older Noctua brown-and-beige fans I had from older computers. I like the brown accents on an otherwise black pile of components.)

Footnote: When I built this thing originally, I actually spent a little bit extra for components *not* full of RGB LEDs.)