Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 6h

Gosh, there's a memory. I listened to this when it first went out in 2008... while on the ward of my local hospital, recovering after nearly dying of viral meningitis. It struck me at the time as probably the best adaptation of the Discworld that I'd ever encountered, in any medium.

1

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 13h

Just started ONML last night - something about the nights drawing in called me back.

Tore through the first 10 levels in as many minutes! Looks like the Tame setting is there for people who never played the original Lemmings, very basic. Odd to find yourself looking forward to feeling frustrated.

1

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 14h

In terms of currently playing, as the old rhyme goes, “Something old, something new, something to play on the loo”.

Recent completions (and ratings) include River City Girls (8), Donut County (6), Gris (7), Lara Croft Go (8) and Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (9).

A screenshot from How Long To Beat showing my active games, which are:

- Donkey Kong Bananza (Switch 2)
- Oh No! More Lemmings (Amiga, via MiSTer)
- Please, Touch the Artwork (Mobile)

1 1

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 14h

TBH, you'll probably have a better time if you use ScummVM rather than the Steam executable. Instructions here: wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Th...

ScummVM also supports RetroArch shaders now, so as well as vanilla pixels you can (optionally) use some very decent CRT emulation.

Dig Man, star of highly memorable Lucasarts game The Dig, in ScummVM rendered using the crt-caligari shader.

1

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 1d

The 1994 Rolling Stones CD reissues had this after the band name on the spines. Awful.

The spines of three Rolling Stones albums from the 1994 CD reissue series on Virgin. They all have a ™️ symbol after the band name. Rock and fucking roll.

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 1d

Weird, my whole life I’ve used the term “spong” for any kitchen tool of unidentifiable purpose. I had no idea it was an actual kitchen tool brand. I wonder if I subconsciously magpied it from somewhere?

Dave Bulmer @demontomatodave.bsky.social · 1d

I already thought these looked like cool little guys before I saw what their name is

I think they're garlic grinders or something, but they affix to the table and you turn a handle to either rotate a drum in the front or grind whatever's in a sort of basin they've got - which means they all have wide bases, thin forward-leaning necks and robot heads with different kinds of mouth. The name for all of these is given as "SPONG"

1 2

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 1d

It was a computer, with a Z80 CPU and an OS, just one laser focused on a target market - I think it booted into the word processor. A lot of people kept using them long after they were obsolete.

You could get games for it, there’s an interesting looking hi-res version of Head Over Heels.

1

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 1d

Amstrad PCW8512. My novelist neighbour had one.

1 1

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 1d

“Toasty!”

1 1 3

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 1d

Ha Ha Ha is so good! You’re in for a treat. Love early Stereolab too.

1

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 1d

The return of the silver disc
Throwing darts in streamers’ eyes

1984(?) WG RCA CD. The masters for this series have murky origins, but the end result sounds great. One of the later STS deluxe sets actually included a digital clone of this disc alongside various flavours of remaster.

#cdFriday

14

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 2d

LA is certainly standing on the shoulders of giants, but by doing so it’s objectively taller.

I’ve never played its other parent, The Frog For Whom The Bell Tolls. On the list for one day.

1 1

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 2d

Generally speaking, I can resist the temptation of the new, and stick with games until I finish them, but the exception is games my kids give me for birthday or Christmas, because they want to see me enjoying it! Hence Triangle Strategy being up on blocks while I play Donkey Kong Bananza.

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 2d

Welcome back!

I found it hard to get into for years, as I grew up with Link’s Awakening, which does a lot of the same things better, particularly combat. The near uselessness of the postage-stamp shield in ALTTP drove me nuts.

It finally clicked last year, and I got 70% through… then TOTK arrived.

1 1

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 3d

Ooh, I’d have snapped up that Coleman, even though I suspect it’s too free for me. Innocenzi mastering on Atlantic?

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 4d

If you trifold British bank notes, they’re a little narrower than a credit card and easily fit into card-only wallets as a backup.

Reposted by Alex Holland

Nigel Auchterlounie @n-auchterlounie.bsky.social · 5d

"IT ABSOLUTELY WILL STOP!!!"

16 250 490

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 6d

My AirPods have a Conversation Awareness mode, where they duck your music for 10s or so when you say something.

This is useful, but I just found out that if you sing along with your music it goes quiet on you, like a punishment for your lapse of headphone etiquette. I felt like I’d been shamed.

1

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 6d

It lasted me well into the GameCube era, and I beat Metroid Prime and Wind Waker on there. I remember I had to pick between playing at 60hz RGB on the little screen or 50hz RF on the big old telly that came with our student digs.

2

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 6d

Anyway, I can easily put a date on it - 2000.

Although my memory must be a bit faulty, as based on release dates, it can’t have been FFIX I had my dad pick up. Perhaps it was just the hardware - I already had an import copy of Xenogears, which I bought from a local shop out of sheer fascination.

1 3

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 6d

That’s the one I had! I used money from my summer job before Uni to buy this, and get my dad to pick up a US PSOne with FFIX while on a business trip to the states. Then I burnt through most of my student loan buying import NTSC US PSX RPGs on eBay, and failed my first year.

Uh, good times… ?

1 4

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 6d

Ooh, I possibly owned this model. Will we get a shot of the front?

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 7d

I end up buying this from the car boot sale for £1 every four years, listening to it once, then remembering why I got rid of it.

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 9d

Imgur being blocked in the UK is a disaster for the usability of the web. The few surviving forums that exist outside the walled gardens of social networking rely on tools like these. This will just accelerate the death of the open web and give US tech giants even more control over our lives.

Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 10d

Is that the one caused by the cursed dog painting? Maybe it’s returning to haunt you for Halloween. Check the loft!

1 1