@vga256@dialup.cafe
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

vga256

@vga256@dialup.cafe

indigenous canadian, recovering academic → game dev & interactive media artist with a penchant for dial-up modems, the 4o3 bbs scene, 1-bit art, trackers/mods, classic macs, and 80s and 90s gaming. curator of internet, canadian & gaming obscura.

game development: tomodashi studio
https://tomodashi.com

current major project: tomo, a decentralized discussion group network that's better than reddit https://tomo.city

🇨🇦
#nobot #nobots #noindex
(profile pic: a 1988 red fox 6¢ canada stamp)

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

polpo, to random
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

So yesterday I restocked my very last batch of 2.0 cards on my Tindie store: https://www.tindie.com/products/polpo/picogus-sound-card-emulator-for-isa-retro-pcs/ Once I’m out, I’m out. I’m passing the job of selling cards over to other capable established sellers, such as:
🇺🇸 Joe’s Computer Museum: https://jcm-1.com/product/picogus-v2/
🇪🇺 Serdashop: https://serdashop.com/
🇬🇧 Flamelily IT: https://shop.flamelily.co.uk/picogus
All ship worldwide!

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@polpo cover your bases! glad to hear it.

vga256, to fallout
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

has anyone ever found reverse engineering or decompilation projects for the original Wasteland? (Apple // or DOS)

i'm coming up with nothing, and i'm frankly surprised no one has taken this on

Tijn, (edited ) to random
@Tijn@dosgame.club avatar

So yesterday we competed in Morlvision, the annual online song contest hosted by Sean Morley on twitch.tv/seanmorl

We came in 7th out of 29 entries with our song "Razend Rap (Rather Rapid)" by @BeatlesJane and myself🥳

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQnZ4dvOOJc

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@Tijn 🤣

britt, to edmonton
@britt@mstdn.games avatar

Hey fellow folks, any recommendations on where to shop in town for starter plants for our balcony garden? 🪴 🌱 And more so, what can you realistically grow here on a balcony with the shorter summer?

Thanks!!

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@britt great question!
so a lot of it will depend upon which direction your balcony faces. south, west or east facing will give you a lot more options. edit: i see that you’re facing north which makes things tougher. Hostas tolerate pots and will do well! nasturtium will crawl around your balcony and hunt for light.

herbs like thyme or mint or basil will do quite well. flowers like lobelia and marigolds and nasturtium too.

for starters, it’s hard to beat home depot (surprisingly). the clareview location takes very good care of their plants. their six-packs of starters are dirt cheap and no brainers to grow. there is usually a “discount plants” cart parked near the checkout which lets you try your hand at resuscitating beaten up rescues for $1 😅 (i love these - 100% success so far!)

avoid the massive greenhouses like Holes which have become glorified rich old people resorts. 😫 they’re fun to walk around in, but incredibly overpriced and like a costco on a saturday

one great hidden secret is Zocalo in little italy on 95st and around 107 ave. plants are not cheap, but it’s a great place to sit down with a tea and enjoy the indoor solarium/greenhouse. it also has some of the neatest kitchen items you can’t find anywhere else.

tiny pro tip: i found out that dollarama sells these plastic balcony planters that hang off of apartment building railings for a few $. they are amazing for growing flowers and herbs. depending on the kind of railing your balcony has, it can’t be beat.

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@britt @craftykraken 😆 i'm glad i'm not the only one that avoids weekend-costco like the plague

konstantinosd, to books
@konstantinosd@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

Books can bring a certain peace of mind, and here's a very interesting book excerpt from the unexpectedly scholarly 'Ultima and Worldbuilding in the Computer Role-Playing Game': https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/book-excerpt-ultima-and-worldbuilding-in-the-computer-role-playing-game

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@konstantinosd i really don't know what to make of this based on the intro chapter. grabbed an epub and will give it a read this week. thank you!

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@konstantinosd haha. it's timely, because i started writing a black book on the Ultima VII engine. it's going to be a long grind, so i haven't made any announcements

vga256, to fallout
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

i haven't seen anyone talk about this project, and i can't believe how fast it has matured since i peeked in on it last year.

Fallout 1 & 2 Community Edition are full-on reverse engineered re-implementations of the game engines for win/mac/linux/ios/android.

FO1 was never much of a problem, because it ran very well in dosbox for decades. but FO2 was always another story - it was a 32-bit windows-only title, and it's always been a real pain in the ass to run.

https://github.com/alexbatalov/fallout1-ce/releases
https://github.com/alexbatalov/fallout2-ce/releases

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@aryounce No, they do not.

vga256, to random
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

welcome @thisiskassia to the dialup café!

vga256, to Alberta
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

can confirm. family worked in the wildfire management business for 25 years, back when you could make a living doing it, and retire with a good pension. staff now face a depressing reality.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/whatonearth/wildfire-fighters-alberta-pay-1.7206766

ericsedge, to Camping
@ericsedge@bitbang.social avatar

Instead of a livestream this morning - photos.

Closeup of a wild geranium. The shade of purple fades to a white streaked and green tinted center.
Closeup of a wild geranium. The shade of purple fades to a white streaked and green tinted center.

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@ericsedge a wild geranium! i see them occasionally in the forest here, and always wondered what they were.

vga256, (edited ) to Fonts
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

oh hell yes. i think i just found the original typeface used: it was LTC Spire by the Lanston Type Company

edit: it led to a fascinating web preservation backstory about the origins of the font itself:
https://dialup.cafe/@vga256/112460660100094359

#fonts

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@diogo_matias i just learned that term too - i had no idea those had a name until now

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@ThreeOhFour i've often thought about joining the local printmaking society. they've got some incredible old typesetting and typeface equipment that i'd love to learn how to use. 😻

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@StefanEJones wow! looks like it's out there somewhere still :D

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@nwchapman 🤞 P22 seems to be in the midst of a relaunch, as p22.com was very recently refreshed. i am absolutely fascinated by this convoluted history of ownership

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@ThreeOhFour after all our conversations about heavy machinery and pinch/crush points i am reticent haha

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@ThreeOhFour when i think about the prospect of never making games again because no hands welp 😅

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@ThreeOhFour 😬had a close call like that with a tablesaw a few years ago and that was like having cold water thrown on my face

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@ThreeOhFour haha it felt like a lightning strike for me
and then afterward the heat and the "holy fuck i just about lost my right hand" sweat broke out

vga256, to random
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

fellow geoworks lovers and related operating system outcasts:

does anyone know how/where the GeoWorks 1.x/2.x system bitmap fonts are stored?

i'm speaking specifically about the fonts used throughout the UI, and the one used on the splash screen for "Ensemble 2.0"

i've spent hours trying to figure this out, and i'm not much closer

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@edo999 😆 i think about it every once in a while, and i still adore the pixel art icons it used.

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@ve3qbz i've heard the same from others, many times! it included some pretty incredible fonts too, compared to Win 3.1 at the time.

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@ve3qbz oh wow, yep that was early! I used GeoWorks 2.0 over at a friend’s house at the time, and we had Windows 2.0 at home 😖

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@ve3qbz oh and - i just remembered something: iiirc win 3.1 required a 286! I believe it required the Protected Mode memory map on the 286 and higher

vga256,
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

@ve3qbz yup exactly. we had an amstrad XT at the time, and we could only run win2.0 on it. we made a leap to a 486 SX-33 because my mom needed win3.1 for her SPSS course 😆

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