A middle-aged nerd.

#RetroGaming #VideoGames #MiamiDolphins #Movies #GameDev #ZXSpectrum #Pico8 #GenshinImpact #WutheringWaves #Anbernic #Retroid #parkrun #running

Dice account: https://dice.camp/@luckbringersdice
Dice shop: https://luckbringersdice.etsy.com
Itch: https://dokdave.itch.io/
PIxelfed: https://pixelfed.social/davetansley

Last Notes

Wonder how many people got so spooked by the alert that they dropped their cigarette and caused an ironic wildfire?

2026-04-14 07:30:00 GMT

Help me out, fedi, with some #music recommendations. I'm trying to overcome my middle-aged prejudice that kids these days don't know about good music...
I want to hear some recent (<10 years) albums by recent bands that fit my tastes.
Here's some of what I dig:
70s: Genesis, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin
80s: Marillion, Iron Maiden, Metallica
90s: Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden
00s+: Ghost, New Pornographers
So #Metal, #ProgRock, #Rock.
Recommend away! Will listen to all albums!

2026-03-27 19:33:14 GMT

Imagine if they just start playing every song they ever played on #totp in reverse order from now... and we have the whole Robson and Jerome era to look forward to again 🤯

2026-03-14 10:49:52 GMT

A bit of shameless self-trumpet tooting.
One of the things I love about #running is the amount of data that spews out of my watch in the form of charts and mysterious numbers. It turns exercise into something like an RPG videogame.
You do stuff, a number goes up. It's great to see progress like that, and very addictive.
Anyway, here's my progress in my VO2Max stat - which started around 34 six month ago (poor, lowest 33% in age group) and today ticked over to 44 (excellent, top 20%).
Go me!
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/116/227/112/952/996/372/original/58e45d8c74b6de17.png
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/116/227/113/985/289/588/original/e4f1aff07a9f1bf2.png

2026-01-12 19:00:10 GMT

- reply

I've tried to re-read them before, but could never get into them. Always found the writing to be a bit immature.
I don't know what made them stick this time. Must have been in the mood for them, or something. Or my standards are slipping.

2026-01-12 16:34:04 GMT

I went on a bit of a #Dragonlance nostalgia trip last year. Read both Chroncles and Legends trilogies, and enjoyed both immensely. They're not exactly highbrow literature, but they're very enjoyable.
So next I picked up the first "Lost Chronicles" books, Dragons of Dwarven Depths and... oh boy. I really hated it.
It supposedly fills a blank between the first two books. But there's not enough story to tell, and the result is a very boring book. On top of that, the characters are just plain off.
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/115/883/074/914/724/233/original/5a9eecad6fee5e31.png

2025-04-03 15:53:08 GMT

I'm hopelessly addicted to the #SNES game "Sutte Hakkun". A Japanese-only game released in 1997, SH can be described in a way that only makes sense to videogame fans.
You're a transparent penguin, right, who can suck other transparent objects into itself and position them on the screen by blowing them out. You can also suck paint into yourself and inject it into the objects to make them move in different directions. Your aim is to pick up the 1 or more gems in each level.
#RetroGaming
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/114/274/816/757/863/780/original/57140a1ac23c9c64.png

2025-03-03 12:29:05 GMT

By far my favourite feature of #Linux ;)
#KDE #Dolphin
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/114/098/496/436/725/806/original/f9879e7f6532bb27.png

2024-12-24 08:57:39 GMT

The biggest first world problem retrogamers suffer is choice paralysis. Tens of thousands of games to choose from, a hundred systems, stacks of cheap Chinese handhelds to fondle...
As someone who suffers from this, I've been looking for a way to focus my gaming and play new stuff. Then I stumbled on Club.Retro:
https://discord.gg/td55hSzr8w
A gaming book-of-the-month club. Play from a selection of games, talk about them, compete with retroachievements.
Highly recommend!
#retrogaming #gaming

2024-12-19 17:20:15 GMT

As part of my attempt to play anything (anything!) other than #GenshinImpact, I just finished up a very enjoyable playthrough of #MoleMania on the original #Gameboy.
It's kind of a cross between Sokoban and a Zelda dungeon. A sequence of increasingly difficult single-screen puzzles and an end-of-world boss fight. The twist is that each screen has an above ground and below ground element, allowing you to interact with the puzzles in a way that feels genuinely unique.
#RetroGaming #Gaming
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/113/680/600/888/998/462/original/fda33cb052c23662.png

2024-12-06 18:07:31 GMT

I've been obsessing over this SNES hidden gem. Spanky's Quest from 1991, a game about a monkey, mutant fruit and a bonkers bubble-blowing/sports ball mechanic...
It feels like it shouldn't work, not to mention a little arbitrary, but it somehow does. In fact, it's one of the best games I've played this year.
Its 10 stage + boss structure, reminds me a little of Dark Souls. You have to take your time on the "run back", while all you want to do is rush to get another try.
#Retrogaming #SNES
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/113/607/184/381/476/094/original/ed2258077fca28fb.png

2024-08-11 14:27:27 GMT

I'm not ordinarily a risk taker, but this weekend I took a #Linux laptop to a #LANParty... no back-up Windows partition, just plain old Fedora 40 and #Steam. Crazy, right?
Remarkably, it all worked well. Everything mostly worked. Played games happily on the LAN; hosted a 5p Turtles game with a precarious chain of USB hubs; slurped game files off other machines when needed...
The only issues I encountered were in games where I'd accidentally installed the Linux version (!)
Steam is amazing...

2024-06-22 18:55:25 GMT

#RetroAchievements are great, one of the coolest developments in the #emulation world. They add a rad new dimension to old games, a new dopamine rush when you see that popup appear...
And... I'm disabling RetroAchievements :(
They just don't work well on #RetroHandhelds where you can't guarantee a network connection because RAs require being online when an achievement is gained, there's no offline mode.
And I've just missed a couple of later game ones because I dropped off without realising.

2024-06-17 11:47:06 GMT

Anyone old enough to remember these wonderful magazines?
They were released in 1990/91, a spin-off from the "Mean Machines" section of C&VG magazine.
They were presumably meant to test the waters for a publication focused entirely on the still-miniscule console market in the UK, rather than the more widely popular 8-bit and 16-bit micros.
As such, they felt enormously exotic, with lots of Japanese and American game coverage that we wouldn't otherwise have seen.
#Gaming #RetroGaming #CVG
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/112/631/775/810/866/743/original/7cf1456d2246f0b5.png

2024-06-14 08:11:35 GMT

Here's an easy recommendation...
"The Exit 8" on Steam. It's an observation-based puzzle/horror game where you need to find your way out of a metro station by looking for "anomalies".
It's very effective, creepy in parts, jump-scare-terrifying in others, or just plain weird.
It's only 3 quid and it will take you two hours to find everything in it, which is exactly the right length.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2653790/The_Exit_8/
#VideoGames #Steam #TheExit8 #Gaming
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