Nostr notes by Games That I Missed

"If you're willing to throw maturity out the window ...

2026-07-19T13:01:07+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…hnzp
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"If you're willing to throw maturity out the window ..."

What an awful way to think and live. I'm a middle-aged straight man, and I've been a hell of a lot happier in my life because I'm not concerned over whether Rocket Slime was mature or manly enough for me to play it.

The entire "bright and colorful games are immature" cohort has done immense damage to the gaming hobby for decades, and needs to either get therapy or walk into the sea.

(Rocket Slime is a great game.)

Thief, because of its amazing sound design, is the scariest game ...

2026-07-16T13:59:26+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…8qw4
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Thief, because of its amazing sound design, is the scariest game I've ever played. There's no jump scare quite as terrible as the creak of a door opening right behind you, when you thought you were safe.

😬 I'm sorry to hear it. Good luck. I hope tech or customer ...

2026-06-17T21:03:31+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…7ql8
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😬 I'm sorry to hear it. Good luck. I hope tech or customer support can help quickly.

Is that for the remote management? Can you still print to it ...

2026-06-17T18:13:30+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…jn3l
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Is that for the remote management? Can you still print to it locally, from a USB stick?

I am up earlier than I would like on a Saturday, so I checked out ...

2026-06-13T13:47:33+02:00

I am up earlier than I would like on a Saturday, so I checked out the Free section of Boston Craigslist again.

Does anyone have any use for old IBM punch cards, and a steel carrying case for them? This seems cool, just not my niche.

https://boston.craigslist.org/sob/clt/d/plymouth-free-many-many-ibm-hollerith/7940562092.html

#Boston #Retrocomputing

Yesterday, my kid's friend raided my front garden after ...

2026-06-05T17:33:56+02:00

Yesterday, my kid's friend raided my front garden after finding out that much of it is edible. They chowed down on aniseseed leaves (which are astonishingly sweet!), white clover, wood sorrel, and edible stonecrop. I had to stop them from stripping some of my plants bare.

Their dad leaned over and quietly whispered, "Thank you for getting my kid to eat a salad."

#Parenting #Gardening

Tamarind is a brown fruit that I've never had fresh, I know ...

2026-06-04T19:55:41+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…3vfe
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Tamarind is a brown fruit that I've never had fresh, I know it as an ingredient in Thai sauces. The soda is good, it's refreshing and fruity, slightly spiced? Only a little sweet.

@npub1hzy…wwp4 After your recent posts, I snapped a photo of ...

2026-06-04T19:50:25+02:00

Ari [APz] Sovijärvi (npub1hzy…wwp4) After your recent posts, I snapped a photo of the Jarritos soda selection at my local grocery store.

I'm sure I could find more flavors at a specialty shop, but this is pretty good.

There comes a point at which cool free stuff on the curb ...

2026-05-28T02:38:44+02:00

There comes a point at which cool free stuff on the curb (https://mastodon.social/@GamesMissed/114706137345375394)starts to make my back ache.

No, still worth it. A 27-inch Toshiba, manufacturing date of October 2003.

#CRT #Retrogaming #SidewalkTreasure

I only discovered NES PinBot last year, after I recapped my ...

2026-05-24T18:52:42+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…san8
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I only discovered NES PinBot last year, after I recapped my spouse' childhood NES and then someone here in the Fediverse recommended it. It looks, sounds, and plays like something from a different hardware.

Video pinball in the garden is a time-honored tradition (likely ...

2026-05-24T18:30:22+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…lyjf
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Video pinball in the garden is a time-honored tradition (likely not, but it should be). After cleaning up the back garden yesterday afternoon, I brought out the TV and Nintendo and spent a few minutes with PinBot before cooking dinner.

#GardenPinball

We have tamarind Jarritos, in addition to those you've ...

2026-05-19T04:21:00+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…rvg0
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We have tamarind Jarritos, in addition to those you've already listed. I'm sure there are even more I've never seen.

Currently taking refuge from the vacuum cleaner. #CatsOfMastodon ...

2026-05-14T20:05:07+02:00

Currently taking refuge from the vacuum cleaner.

#CatsOfMastodon

That's my guess, too. I got a laugh out of it, at least.

2026-04-16T05:09:52+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…q37u
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That's my guess, too. I got a laugh out of it, at least.

I am not sure why deleting a page break in AppleWorks for the ...

2026-04-16T03:43:42+02:00

I am not sure why deleting a page break in AppleWorks for the #IIgs can reliably reproduce this error message.

But, I can say that I do love that I am presented with a second option.

("OTHER button" sadly does nothing. It would be even more entertaining if it did something.)

#AprilApples #Retrocomputing #VintageApple

Anyone in Boston want an enormous digitized drafting table, for ...

2026-04-01T17:20:39+02:00

Anyone in Boston want an enormous digitized drafting table, for free?

https://boston.craigslist.org/nos/zip/d/woburn-quickpen-digitized-drafting-table/7916864221.html

#Boston #Bostodon #Retrocomputing

If you're at #PAXEast today (Thursday) and see a large, ...

2026-03-26T16:25:11+01:00

If you're at #PAXEast today (Thursday) and see a large, middle-aged man dressed this garishly, it's me. Say hello, if you like!

I have so many Professor Layton games to get through, still.

2025-11-28T14:25:37+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…zezy
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I have so many Professor Layton games to get through, still.

I once rented a place that came with a microwave oven. The WiFi ...

2025-10-14T21:56:49+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…ashq
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I once rented a place that came with a microwave oven. The WiFi (a WRT54G running DD-WRT, so normally solid as a rock) would drop out immediately if the microwave was in use, and return nearly instantly as soon as it finished. It was predictable and repeatable. Whatever shielding it had was worthless.

I recently bought the new book "Overscan" from Nantucket ...

2025-08-25T15:29:13+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…6dgw
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I recently bought the new book "Overscan" from Nantucket Lit ( Nantucket Lit (npub1jvf…8etj) / https://nantucketebooks.com/ ), and it was delivered as an .epub and an Apple II floppy image. Maybe they'd have information about formatting for older computers and floppy distribution.

We have two snapping turtles, big but not that big, in the ...

2025-06-09T23:28:40+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…atpy
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We have two snapping turtles, big but not *that* big, in the waters near our home. They're like something out of the kids' books of prehistoric life.

Also, the hatchlings are impossibly cute.

Lastly, the power supply label. Mac people, should I be ...

2025-05-26T04:55:57+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…pfr2
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Lastly, the power supply label. Mac people, should I be concerned? I haven't tried to power on the system yet -- the seller assured me it works, but I wanted to inspect it first.

For an ATX power supply, I know how to short the green wire pin to ground to start it up so that I can check voltages. Is there something similar I can do with this?

This does not appear to be 64 MB of RAM. Nice. Along those lines, ...

2025-05-26T04:52:15+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…wzad
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This does not appear to be 64 MB of RAM. Nice.

Along those lines, that isn't a 10 GB hard drive, either. And a 7200 RPM Barracuda, no less.

I can't say I feel a lot of nostalgia for ATi Rage 128 cards, ...

2025-05-26T04:48:37+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…7thf
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I can't say I feel a lot of nostalgia for ATi Rage 128 cards, but I'm not figuring on focusing too much on games with this system.

First thing was to yank the PRAM battery. It hadn't leaked at ...

2025-05-26T04:46:42+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…gph9
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First thing was to yank the PRAM battery. It hadn't leaked at all, but it is *dead*, a perfect 0.0 V on my multimeter. Where does one get a replacement for these nowadays, anyway? Is it a terrible idea to use a coin cell with an adapter?

It opens up with no trouble at all. The design of these cases was ...

2025-05-26T04:40:42+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…9kpd
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It opens up with no trouble at all. The design of these cases was amazing. One button to release the latches, the side folds down and everything is accessible. Cable routing was so clean.

I saw the inside of computer before I bought it, so I knew it looked good. A few small dust bunnies and a general dusty coating, but nothing bad I could see.

The case is in very nice shape. I'm handling it gently, ...

2025-05-26T04:37:12+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…yyyg
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The case is in very nice shape. I'm handling it gently, convinced that the plastic handles on this aren't to be trusted to bear any weight, but it all seems very solid and not brittle at all.

Also inside the box are these 5 sampler discs. I assume by now ...

2025-05-26T04:30:54+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…6cvg
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Also inside the box are these 5 sampler discs. I assume by now that everything like this has been uploaded to archive.org, but I will check.

Tag on the inside of the box, confirming the original specs. ...

2025-05-26T04:26:41+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…7ger
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Tag on the inside of the box, confirming the original specs.

A week ago ...

2025-05-26T04:22:45+02:00

A week ago (https://mastodon.social/@GamesMissed/114530343518610810), I failed to resist the temptation to bring home a lovely Power Macintosh G4 tower. Today, with the rains over and some quiet time, I finally took it back out of its box to give the insides a better inspection and blow out the dust bunnies.

(My brain is rebelling against tagging this with "Retrocomputing." The G3 desktop from my relative didn't have that effect, but this absolutely does. Interesting.)

#Macintosh #PowerPC

Ok, I found the Apple System Profiler (bear with me, please). It ...

2025-05-19T23:34:08+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…smk4
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Ok, I found the Apple System Profiler (bear with me, please). It has all that additional RAM beyond its original 64 MB, but this says the CPU is in fact the 300 MHz PowerPC G3. Unless that's just being read from a system file?

I remember using a friend's 233 MHz original iMac, it felt much slower and worse than this.

This thing is definitely not stock. I'm not familiar with ...

2025-05-19T23:26:39+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…95vv
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This thing is definitely not stock. I'm not familiar with Macs of this era -- I mean, at all -- but I was already pretty sure that this wasn't the original CPU.

Also, this thing is snappy! It's much, much faster than I was expecting.

To anyone reading this: is there a program I can run on this computer that can get me the system information? I'd love to see what this processor is. Without taking off the heat sink, I mean.

The first adapter didn't seem to be working (see the attached ...

2025-05-19T23:20:59+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…82kw
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The first adapter didn't seem to be working (see the attached picture) no matter what DIP setting I tried, but the second proved much better. It's running!

And I don't have a keyboard or mouse attached, so I had no way to shut it down gracefully so I can plug those in. I pulled the power cable from the back, plugged in the ADB input devices that were delivered with the computer, and started it up again.

The OS complained about being shut down improperly, but the system check came out fine.

At this point, I figured it was looking good enough to risk ...

2025-05-19T23:15:29+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…hjg6
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At this point, I figured it was looking good enough to risk powering it on. Plugged it in, hit the power button on the front, and immediately got the startup "BONG" through the case speaker. Nice. Now, I just needed to try out one of those Mac-to-VGA adapters I bought at the #MITFlea yesterday, paired with the AOC flat panel monitor I picked up off the curb earlier this month.

This would be much more fun to work with if I weren't worried ...

2025-05-19T22:58:21+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…68g9
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This would be much more fun to work with if I weren't worried that anything not made of metal was about to crack off in a stiff breeze.

In what is practically blinding speed for me, I have already ...

2025-05-19T22:52:04+02:00

In what is practically blinding speed for me, I have already started poking at the Power Macintosh G3 desktop that was delivered by relatives over Mother's Day weekend (https://mastodon.social/@GamesMissed/114492147791660882).

It's this lovely example of beige right here. Note the correct Apple case badge in the upper right corner of the front bezel (even my kids, who were born well into this century, feel strongly about this).

#Retrocomputing #PowerPC #Apple

Relatives who showed up today delivered unannounced devices! This ...

2025-05-12T02:58:52+02:00

Relatives who showed up today delivered unannounced devices!

This #PowerMacintosh G3 desktop looks, from the outside, to be in good shape. It even came with a keyboard and two mice, and the "getting started" box. No idea where the optical drive went, though.

Update: there's a DVD drive! It's just pitch black and recessed far back into the case.

I'm not going to even connect a power lead until I open it up and check the motherboard. Fingers crossed.

#Retrocomputing #Macintosh #PowerPC

When I got my #IIgs earlier this year, one of my goals was trying ...

2024-12-01T04:21:50+01:00

When I got my #IIgs earlier this year, one of my goals was trying out #HyperCard. I've only ever heard of it before, never had any exposure to it. Life is busy, but after 6 months I finally got around to running the software.

This is cool. I want to see what I can do with this.

#Retrocomputing

So, this afternoon, a kindly neighbor left out on their fron step ...

2024-12-01T00:24:09+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…88x6
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So, this afternoon, a kindly neighbor left out on their fron step a Dell U2410f, manufactured in 2009.

This thing has *all* the ports.

#SidewalkTreasure

I read up on the common problems with these drives before I ...

2024-10-28T21:50:58+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…jkf8
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I read up on the common problems with these drives before I bought the IIgs. I am pretty sure where this is going.

Time to tear it down.

For my Apple IIgs, I usually use a FloppyEmu ...

2024-10-28T21:42:48+01:00

For my Apple IIgs, I usually use a FloppyEmu (https://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu/). It works, and it works well. But, it has the limitation that it can't emulate different drive types simultaneously. It can give me SmartPort hard drives, and it can give me 3.5-inch drives and 5.25-inch drives, but it can't do more than one at a time. And some software, such as PrintShop, will give an error message if there's no 3.5-inch drive connected to the computer.

#AppleIIgs #Retrocomputing #Floppy

(In all fairness, more time was spent looking for the blasted ...

2024-10-16T18:33:44+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…fp5j
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(In all fairness, more time was spent looking for the blasted heat shrink tubing than anything else. Poor organization bites me again.)

I blew out all the dust and wiped down the inside of the steel ...

2024-10-16T18:30:50+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…gcsj
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I blew out all the dust and wiped down the inside of the steel case. I hadn't expected, before I opened the power supply, that there was a heat sink screwed to the power supply wall (to the left of the fan mount location, if looking at the power supply with the DC output area to your right). It had some thermal grease at the point where the heat sink contacted the plate, so I cleaned the old stuff off and applied new thermal paste before reassembling the 3D puzzle that is the power supply case.

Speaking of which, prying the old, noisy fan off the power supply ...

2024-10-16T18:16:13+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…tw25
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Speaking of which, prying the old, noisy fan off the power supply was much more of an ordeal than I had anticipated.

I printed up a quick replacement battery cover to cover the ...

2024-09-17T19:16:57+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…t4fm
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I printed up a quick replacement battery cover to cover the left-side compartment. It fits very well, and the latching mechanism feels to be robust.

If anyone needs replacement battery covers for a Game Gear, this is what I used: https://www.printables.com/model/537618-sega-game-gear-battery-covers

Following a comment left by a previous person, I printed this vertically on-edge, with organic supports.

#Retrogaming #3Dprinting #GameGear

I never used this version of WordPerfect -- I was typing out my ...

2024-09-14T03:46:18+02:00

I never used this version of WordPerfect -- I was typing out my school papers on WordPerfect 4.11 for MS-DOS. This is a good deal prettier.

#Retrocomputing #AppleIIgs #IIgs #AppleII

I returned yesterday to the Electromagnetic Pinball Museum in ...

2024-08-24T20:38:32+02:00

I returned yesterday to the Electromagnetic Pinball Museum in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA (https://www.electromagneticpinballmuseum.com/). A lot of things had been moved around, and the first thing the proprietors did when we walked in (aside from greeting us) was to give us a quick tour so we knew what tables had arrived since our last visit, and where they were.

This is such a great museum.

A brief thread of some photos from the visit:

#Pinball #Retrogaming #RhodeIsland