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Thomas Nickel

@tapirfortuna.bsky.social

1.4K followers 480 following 1.9K posts

Writer, teaching game design & history. M!- & book-author, occasional Retronaut and dabbling in localization. Also somewhat making games - http://coria.itch.io/coria! Fck nazis, fck bigots. he/him

coria.itch.io

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · Dec 8

So many new people here! So... who am I and what do I do? Well, my name´s Thomas and I´ve been writing about games since the late 90s in English and German. I localized various cool games, supported and worked on a few projects and I´ve also been teaching game-design and history for many years now!

Issues of AnimaniA and M! Games, the Mega Drive Pixelbook and the Guide to Japanese Role Playing Games

Screenshots of Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore, The Edge of Allegoria, Heart of the Woods and Trip World DX

A lot of students in a lecture-room. Faces are obscured.

A Screenshot of Coria and the Sunken City on Game Boy Color.

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 8h

One random game for #randomgamesaturday - The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky for PSP. This came 7 years after the original japanese PC-release and marked the first steps into Zemuria. The modern remake was only released recently and like the original, it is fantastic!

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 17h

Then there's Hirayasumi by Keigo Shinzo. It's about a 29 year old slacker who inherits a small house in Asagaya. Then his cousin, an art-students moves in. So far it's a very charming, small story - let's see where this goes!

Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 17h

I bought new manga! How about that? First is Short Game, a collection of baseball-themed short-stories by Mitsuru Adachi. I just don't understand why his work isn't available in german and hardly in english. There's a ton of releases in french and italian... his TV-Show Miyuki aired on german TV!!

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 1d

Proof!

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 1d

From Tokyo, Japan to Dieburg, Germany: I saw this poster at a park in Shibuya, right next to a playground and thought it was fun. I took a picture and when the party for the new semester loomed, I remembered it and made a couple of prints - and now it's all over the A&G rooms. I like that!

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 2d

The new semester has really begun. The first-semesters had their first day, the higher semesters pitched projects and Studimon-cards were made and traded. Bureaucrats might try and szrangle us with their austerity rules and some professors are still stupid gits... But we're making the best of it!

Reposted by Thomas Nickel

Aidan Moher @aidanmoher.com · 4d

Did you know I’ve got a starter pack of awesome people who make awesome video game books and magazines?

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 3d

Next week my elective starts, preperations are well underway!

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 3d

I think the new semester is off to a good start. The students are going into it with juuuust the right spirit!

Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 4d

It came to Wii Virtual Console in 2010. But that's long gone of course...

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 4d

Four RPGs to get to know me.

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 4d

25 years ago strategy-fans could ask themselves if they are actually a Person of Lordly Caliber. Ogre Battle 64 is a true standout-game - not only on N64, but for its whole generation. It combines the systems of Ogre Battle with Tactics Ogre-style storytelling and looks and sounds really great!

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 4d

We ordered a copy for the Magazin-review and already got the PDF.

Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 4d

Dieses Thema liegt mir am Herzen. Bitte hier unterzeichnen: weact.campact.de/petitions/ch...

Chatkontrolle stoppen!

Die EU-Kommission will Messenger-Dienste wie WhatsApp und Signal zwingen, alle privaten Nachrichten und Fotos in Echtzeit zu scannen. Angeblich zum Kinderschutz. In Wahrheit bedeutet die Chatkontrolle...

weact.campact.de

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 4d

The sheer amount of baboonery about this whole thing is mindboggling. Bitmap Books is torching their whole reputation for this utterly shambolic, navel-gaze-y hack-job of book by a guy who at every turn makes sure he comes across as a complete bell end? That‘s certainly a choice.

Bitmap Books @bitmapbooks.com · 5d

Monday 6th October 2025

Dear supporters of Bitmap Books,

Although I stand by the fact that Moses’ comments were ill-advised and insensitive, the whole thing blew up and was made much bigger than it needed to be. Moses has publicly apologised for any offence caused, as has the original poster of the comments who did not intend to cause this much trouble. I do not feel that this warrants an author losing his livelihood and ruining years of hard work to produce the book.

Despite multiple accusations to the contrary, Moses freely agreed to donate his royalties to charity. There was no coercion from me, however we both recognise that due to an increasingly stressful situation that decisions were rushed on both sides. I’m pleased to say that Moses and I have spoken again today, we stand together, and have agreed that he will receive 100% of his royalties.

Maybe I was hasty in my response, and I’m happy to admit to that. At the time I sincerely thought I was doing the right thing to diffuse an increasingly difficult situation. I will commit to donating all company profits from this first print run to the charity, Special Effect.

The bottom line is that is that Moses has apologised for his original comments, and will now be paid the royalties that are rightfully his.

Moses and myself have received a large amount of personal abuse and threats over the past few days. We hope that this statement will bring some closure to what has happened.

Sam Dyer, founder of Bitmap Books

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 5d

What a game... I only played it after FF Tactics and it still blew my mind. I probably would have simply exploded if I would have been able to Play the SFC-original in 1995...

Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 5d

Tactics Ogre is turning 30 today - it's not just an incredibly fun, beautiful game that feels as fresh today as in 1995. It also had a profound impact on the whole turn-based strategy-genre and inspired countless other developers since then.

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 6d

The japanese release of Eternal Arcadia, known in the west as Skies of Arcadia, was 25 years ago today. At a time when I was rather burned-out at Square's lavish, but also often quite meandering PS1-epics, this breezy sky-pirate-adventure was JUST what I needed to get back into the RPG-groove!

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 6d

8-4 is turning 20 today and I was surprised how many games these great folks worked on I've played! Their level of localisation is something I can only aspire to and their podcast @84play.bsky.social is a regular companion on my way to university! So happy birthday, @8-4.bsky.social !

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Reposted by Thomas Nickel

Rebecca Heineman @burgerbecky.bsky.social · 7d

I’ve started a GoFundMe to help with my cancer battle gofund.me/6850175a3

Donate to Help Rebecca Ann Heineman Fight Aggressive Cancer, organized by Rebecca Heineman

I’m Rebecca Ann Heineman. The very first video game champion, creat… Rebecca Heineman needs your support for Help Rebecca Ann Heineman Fight Aggressive Cancer

gofund.me

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 7d

Ich hab da erstmal ausgesorgt.

Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 7d

Happy 34th birthday, Chohmakaimura/Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts! This console-only 16Bit-masterpiece by Tokuro Fujiwara and his team really showed of the audiovisual capabilities of the Super Famicom, helped make the double-jump mechanic popular and was hard as hell. Still absolutely worth playing today!

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 8d

... -version the previously Master System-exclusive Fantasy Zone II M2 made by themselves on bespoke arcade-hardware because they were rather miffed that there wasn't a proper 16Bit-version of this excellent shooter. Sadly, this version is not very accessible today, being locked to PS2 and 3DS.

Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 8d

I was really happy to find an affordable copy of M2's Sega Ages 2500 Fantasy Zone Complete Collection. I think this is the game that really led to the M2 we know and love. It contains not only fantastic emulations of the classic games (in crispy 240p), but also a completely reimagined 16Bit...

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Thomas Nickel @tapirfortuna.bsky.social · 9d

Another cool thing I bought in Tokyo: Parodius for Famicom. German press skewered this port back in the day. And sure, compared to PC-Engine oder SNES, this one is far less impressive and it has tons of slowdown. But it's still impressive how ok this runs - and more important: It's also really fun!

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