bestiaexmachina

bestiaexmachina, 1 hour ago to random

Why do translucent yellow dice always come with white numbers? Who hurt you? :thisisfine:

derthomas, 2 hours ago to random German

Sir and Lady #Redstart have some news!

May I present: a little birdie 🐦

#BirdContent #Redstart #Hausrotschwanz

thomas, 8 days ago to random German

Hab nen Besucherzähler gefunden! Als hätten wir das Jahr 2005. Nice.

https://www.pizzeria-sorrento.de

kaiserkiwi, 13 days ago to random

🍜🌶️

bestiaexmachina, 1 month ago to Podcast German

Hey Fediverse, was sind eure Lieblings-Podcasts? Ich suche Empfehlungen für einen lieben älteren Menschen, der aus medizinischen Gründen neuerdings viel Zeit totschlagen muss.

Genre erstmal egal, aber deutschsprachig sollte es sein. Freue mich auf eure Empfehlungen!

#Podcast #FragFedi

thopan, 1 month ago to random German

YouTube geht scheinbar wieder gegen Invidious vor oder hat was geändert.

thopan, 1 month ago to pnpde German

Wieder paar neue W6 gekauft, damit ich den Scheiß bei dämmrigem Licht am Tisch besser ablesen kann. 😄

Ich mag die zusätzlich aber auch total gern.

#RollenspielImAlter #pnpde

Kitty, 1 month ago to random

Moin!

As @bestiaexmachina 's mom still does the viral rounds on the fedi I'm imagining the family Easter Sunday scene.

Mom: Who you talking to now sweetie?
Sciasm: Kitty still won't shut up about the time their moss photo got over 50 likes
Mom:I don't have an account or anything, but hold my beer....

bestiaexmachina, 1 month ago to random

My Mom built an analog ad blocker for her favorite tablet game and while I cannot stop laughing, I'm also hella proud of her. Go Mom! Stick it to the man!

#FuckTheSystem

The same tablet corner close-up, but with the cardboard piece flipped down. It now exactly covers the ad in the corner of the screen.

ADHDefy, 1 month ago to Flowers

deleted_by_author

bestiaexmachina, 2 months ago to random

I Have No Spoons, and I Must Clean

bestiaexmachina, 2 months ago to random

Fairy forest clearing... or is it? 🧚‍♀️

#Mosstodon

Macro shot of some more cute moss and tiny green leaves growing out of a chunk of soil. In the foreground there's a branch of the rosemary "tree" from the first picture.

thopan, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random German

Hab eben meinen ersten Pull Request auf GitHub erstellt. Deutsche Übersetzung von #HTMLyCMS aktualisiert.

Bin ein bisschen stolz.

Wäre vielleicht auch mal cool, https://ohmygit.org (#OhMyGit) auszuprobieren, um besser zu verstehen, was ich da tue.

bestiaexmachina, 3 months ago to random

Better late than never: my #BandcampFriday haul! 💸

Bury Me in the Desert – Void (Or the Eternal Struggle of Being Alone)
https://burymeinthedesert.bandcamp.com/track/void-or-the-eternal-struggle-of-being-alone

Weedreek – Fascist Reek EP
https://weedreek.bandcamp.com/album/fascist-reek-ep

Vinnum Sabbathi – Live at Channel 666
https://vinnumsabbathi.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-channel-666

4 Ci​é​negas – Cuatro Ci​é​negas
https://4cienegas.bandcamp.com/album/cuatro-ci-negas

Fires in the Distance – Wisdom of the Falling Leaves
https://firesinthedistance.bandcamp.com/track/wisdom-of-the-falling-leaves

And for music production:

Sub Terra Sample Pack #1
https://subterra666.bandcamp.com/album/sub-terra-sample-pack-1

#SludgeMetal #Industrial

kerfuffle, 4 months ago to ai

I'm seeing more and more updates by companies adding some form of AI to their services, but I'm not seeing half as much news regarding solutions to the unauthorized use of training data.

Who has good news sources on

• Companies like Midjourney taking measures to avoid training their models on others' art without permission.
• Companies like Microsoft taking measures to avoid training their copilot on others' code without permission.
• Glaze
• AI user-agent blocking through robots.txt

#ai

atomicpoet, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago) to random

Released in 1994, Wacky Wheels is a kart racer. It is the first game in the Wacky Wheels series.

We don’t need a story for this game. All you need to know is that a bunch of cute animals are competing for the podium. There’s a tiger, an elephant, a shark, and more!

This was a title published by Apogee. I often wonder if this game would have been more well known if they put well-known Apogee characters like Duke Nukem and Commander Keen in this game. Nevertheless, the decision to use animals certainly hit their target demographic.

You see, in 1994, many kids didn’t have a Super Nintendo (SNES). Parents often told their young whippersnappers, “We have a PC that can do everything – go play your games on there.”

And believe me, lots of PC gaming kids envied Super Mario Kart. There was not much like it on PC. Then Wacky Wheels came along.

Is Wacky Wheels as good as Super Mario Kart? Not at all. But for a cheap shareware title with gamepad support – that also had split screen multiplayer – this was a godsend for all those kids who only gamed on PC.

That’s right, not only could you play Wacky Wheels with a keyboard, but you could also hook up a Gravis PC GamePad. Not all PC games did that back then. Even now, Wacky Wheels controls spectacularly with a modern gamepad, and let me tell you, it works like a dream!

The courses are not as varied as Super Mario Kart, but Wacky Wheels makes up for this with many game modes.

You can choose the speed of your karts (or “lawnmowers”, as the game calls them), which drastically changes your winning strategy. If you go for the 12HP karts, you’ll be relying more on your handbrake; with the 6HP karts, lots of power-ups are a requirement.

If you have young kids, there’s a “kid mode” that makes the competitive play more kid-friendly.

Multiplayer is really where Wacky Wheels shined. You had a two-player race as well as a two-player shoot-out. But there was also Comm-Bat play – which allowed you to compete with another player remotely through a LAN. Again, this was available in 1994 – it would be decades before Nintendo would offer such a feature with Super Mario Kart!

Graphically, Wacky Wheels wasn’t as good as its SNES counterpart. The pixels were more chunky, and the frame-rate wasn’t as smooth. But there’s a reason for that. Wacky Wheels was a $5 shareware title that was intended to be played even on a 386 CPU.

It’s the sound department where Wacky Wheels really shines. It’s full of SoundBlaster goodness. And wow! Does the music get my heart pumping when I’m in the midst of a race!

To run Wacky Wheels on modern hardware, you need a 1.8Ghz single core CPU and 512MB of RAM. However, if you want to run this on DOS, you need a 386 CPU, 4MB of RAM, and 6.9MB of space. Wacky Wheels has native compatibility for Windows, Mac, and Linux – although the Steam version doesn’t run on Linux natively. Nevertheless, the Steam version runs well on Linux via Proton. On a Steam Deck, it is fantastic.

Wacky Wheels is a PC exclusive. It has never been released on mobile or console platforms.

There’s no microtransactions, neither is there DLC.

Beavis-Soft developed Wacky Wheels. They made a previous game called Phylox, but this was their last game.

There was some hijinx involved with the development of Wacky Wheels. The eagle-eyed among you might notice this has a resemblance to Skunny Kart. That’s because they share some of the same code. Regardless, Skunny Kart is based on an earlier version of Wacky Wheels – which is why most people prefer Wacky Wheels.

There’s also a modern remake called Wacky Wheels HD. I have not played it, and it’s no longer on Steam – though it is available free on itch.io.

On Steam, Wacky Wheels has an 89% positive rating based on 77 reviews. Meanwhile, GOG.com gives this a 4.2/5 user rating. Most people love this for nostalgic reasons, as it gives them fond memories of gaming as a child. Detractors feel that it has not held up to the modern era.

Personally, I feel like Wacky Wheels has indeed held up. Sure, it’s not the best kart racer ever – not by a long shot. Yet, the controls are tight, and the competition is still fierce. And just look at it. Wacky Wheels is full of DOS goodness!

Wacky Wheels sells for C$5.49 on Steam. Meanwhile, GOG.com sells it for C$8.19, though it has a -79% discount at C$1.69.

I recommend it – perhaps not for everyone, but definitely for anyone who has a fondness for DOS gaming. There are more beautiful, more technically impressive kart racers out there. But how many of them feature VGA graphics with sweet SoundBlaster tunes? And how many of them allow you to control a cute panda who throws hedgehogs at the competition? If this appeals to you, Wacky Wheels is your ticket!

thomas, 5 months ago to Metal

Omnium Gatherum promoted Fall of Serenity on Bandcamp, so I promoted back.

Sent them an email and asked them whether they would like to join metalhead.club :)

#metalheadclub #bandcamp #metal

bestiaexmachina, 6 months ago to random

Using my free evenings to play through my #IndieHorror pile of shame, because what better time of year than this? 🌃

Will turn this into a thread for mini reviews. Filter #SciasmPlaysGames if you don't wanna see 'em. ✌️