Matt Wirkkala
mwirkk.bsky.social
Matt Wirkkala
@mwirkk.bsky.social
Lifelong PNW native.
Interests: sports, outdoors, science, tech, history, gaming, aviation, travel, reading.
#GoCougs! (R.I.P. PAC-12)
Reposted by Matt Wirkkala
December 22, 2025 at 4:37 PM
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The hex code FF in Bard’s Tale was for the Spectre Snare, the endgame weapon you got for defeating Mangar.

My friend Tony and I sector edited BT to learn all the item codes.
i was going through my X archives and found this by @superpodsaga.com, which I qrt'd at some point years ago

so, let me bring the question back: what is the most useless piece of video game knowledge you know?
December 22, 2025 at 7:32 PM
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#C64 #Kouyate #RPG progress: desert dungeon levels all defined (minus enemies for now), with stairs all connected so it's navigable. Script code for triggering the boss is in and working, with just a small cutscene sequence left to add.

311K out of 960K cartridge space used, so no worries yet!🙂
December 22, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Reposted by Matt Wirkkala
In case you missed it…
December 21, 2025 at 12:38 AM
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It all started in 1955 with a misprint in a Colorado newspaper and a call to Col. Harry Shoup's secret military hotline. Shoup played along with the tiny voice who called, and a tradition was born. From the NPR archives.
NORAD's Santa Tracker began with a typo and a good sport
It all started in 1955 with a misprint in a Colorado newspaper and a call to Col. Harry Shoup's secret military hotline. Shoup played along with the tiny voice who called, and a tradition was born.
n.pr
December 21, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Reposted by Matt Wirkkala
So, I purchased the center and the land it sits on — the best $2 million I can imagine spending.

🧵 6 of 9
December 21, 2025 at 2:51 AM
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NEW: @patrickwyman.bsky.social has a history podcast not on great leaders, but more common folk. The theme for this season? World slavery:

“Power is inseparable from labor. Power is inseparable from work. Slavery, studying it, what it tells us, is just how inseparable those two things are.”
December 16, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by Matt Wirkkala
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league will decide within the coming year whether to expand from 30 to 32 teams.

If the NBA does expand, Silver indicated Seattle and Las Vegas remain the favorites to land teams.
sports.mynorthwest.com/seattle-spor...
NBA commish: Decision on expansion coming in 2026
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league will decide within the coming year whether to expand to 32 teams. If so, Seattle and Vegas remain the favorites.
sports.mynorthwest.com
December 17, 2025 at 4:34 AM
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December 13, 2025 at 7:55 PM
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I’d download now just in case
December 13, 2025 at 12:51 AM
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Is this also true for The Fall of Rome?
December 13, 2025 at 12:28 AM
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I'm hoping to address this more, but there are contractual issues at play, so I'll say this: If you want to listen to Tides of History, or you have a backlog to get through, you should probably do it now. We'll be making episodes through April, but I can't speak to their availability.
December 13, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Reposted by Matt Wirkkala
the new Divinity trailer was great, but it is wild what people will get upset about in games, content-wise, and then be completely fine/enthusiastic about Wicker Man x Event Horizon.
December 12, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Matt Wirkkala
🙏
a lovely snippet from our latest episode which shows the importance of developers sharing their creative process.

Without @obsidianent.bsky.social showing their work via devlogs, we may never have gotten the beautiful isometric world of Disco Elysium.
December 12, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Matt Wirkkala
I'm now making two podcasts simultaneously (Past Lives and Tides of History) plus Masters of Our Domain and I've got a book coming out in May. It's a lot like playing in a pool with a group of kids: They're clambering all over you, you're having a great time, and you're also definitely drowning.
December 12, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Reposted by Matt Wirkkala
Past Lives bonus episode - Nanaya'ila'i, Sosias, and Slavery. How do we know what we know about these two people? What's the state of scholarship on ancient Assyria and classical Athens? Some thoughts and a bibliography: www.patreon.com/posts/source...
Sources: Nanaya'ila'i, Sosias, and Slavery | Past Lives
Get more from Past Lives on Patreon
www.patreon.com
December 11, 2025 at 3:28 PM
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Why Are Modern Games So Big?
YouTube video by Timothy Cain
www.youtube.com
December 11, 2025 at 9:12 PM
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New Past Lives: Sosias, Silver Mining, and the Wealth of Classical Athens. One of the hidden drivers of Athenian wealth during the city's golden age was silver mining, and Sosias, one of the most expensive slaves sold in the city, oversaw 1,000 enslaved miners. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...
Sosias, Silver Mining, and the Wealth of Classical Athens
Podcast Episode · Past Lives · 12/10/2025 · 26m
podcasts.apple.com
December 10, 2025 at 3:11 PM