As my mastery of the Famicom Excitebike tape format continues, I have moved on to doing stupid things. For example, this is a track that is 26,265 tiles of grass. The bikes move super slow and it is so long that the timer maxes out and ends the level before you can finish it.

I love the look of the red glowing eyes. #Dracula isn't playing around here! He wants his blood! #AkumajuDracula #Castlevania #Canvas #Famicom #NES #Art

Family Basic Tape Tool v3.1 has been released! This is a bug fix and code cleanup release. Access the tool and/or grab the source code (MIT license) at: hvc7.dev/fbtt/readme....

For #RandomGameSaturday , here is Sqoon. It features a red LED that lights up when you power on the console, like your own personal HAL 9000.

I don't know how you guys pulled off the cartridge-swapping sequences for the DVD menus, but it remains the coolest DVD menu i have ever encountered.

I'm going to fight claustrophobia with jazz.

Also at MAGfest: if you visit the museum, you'll be able to try out a selection of Family BASIC games! The folks on the @gamingalexandria.bsky.social discord have been typing in these obscure Famicom games and bringing them back to life, and now's a good chance to give them a shot!

Haunted tree: Buttercup Festival 3-362

I liked this part because it sounds so real. The whole "our producer put down an asterisk as a placeholder, and then the label called us asterisk, and we just rolled with it" feels like such a believable "how did you come up with the band name?" story. Almost a bit Spinal Tap.

Each of the character singles came with an A Side, B Side, Drama track, and karaoke track for the A Side. None of the booklets had a transcription of the Drama track except for Ranko's. Even better, it provided a kind of modern translation (訳) for each of her lines!

Ah man, this thread takes me back; watching fansubs and importing CDs 😸

Hmm...it must be trying to give 110%.

For #RandomGameSaturday I present to you: Bird Week. Concept-wise feels more like an Atari 2600 game, but it's fun for a little bit.

I've just released v3.0 of my Family Basic Tape Tool! hvc7.dev/fbtt/readme.... This version includes a UI refresh, support for a few more emulator tape formats, plus visualizations for Family Basic BG data, Lode Runner levels, and Excitebike tracks!

Happy New Year! I figured out the Excitebike level format.

Sunshowers by Woody Shaw is perhaps the last awesome song I will hear for the first time in 2025. music.youtube.com/watch?v=IC8K...

Ringing in the new year reverse engineering the level data format for Excitebike. As one does.

Has anyone ever used It's a Shame About Ray for an Evangelion AMV? music.youtube.com/watch?v=ianM...

I had a lot of fun with this one. By the end I was looking at my notebook the entire time and never at the screen. Get it, it's free!

How to use your new chainsaw to defeat unwanted joggers.

Heck yeah, Santa delivered.

I love that I'm married to a woman who is likely to enjoy this Tim Curry memoir.

To dust, I guess

That's what I do. I drink and I dance to The Cure.

Drinkin' Mad Elf. Dancin' a little.

Wrappin' presents after midnight. Listening to The Mountain Goats.

I thought I'd share my Christmas playlist. It's titled "XMAS 2020" since that is when I first started throwing songs onto it. Song-by-song commentary in the thread 🧵 music.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

My ChatGPT year-in-review picture hallucinated this weird Family BASIC all-in-one unit, like one of those Russian famiclones.

Beer Review: Ever Grain Diabolus Barrel Aged Stout 15.2% ABV. Ｉｎｃｒｅｄｉｂｌｅ artwork. Reminds me of 90s PC game box art where the game can't possibly live up to the promotion. Smoother than you might expect. Reminds me a lot of Mad Elf, but with the consistency of a stout.

I'm considering getting an Index 01 ring, so I 3d printed one of their sizers; cool that they provide this! Been wearing it for like an hour and it's making me really aware of all the things my index finger comes in contact with. This bit of plastic is taking a real psychic toll.

Speaking of Flash websites, wow did they break the Internet archiving efforts of the day. I had these old Flash animations because I am a weirdo who saved them back in like 2001 and never gets rid of old hard drives. Many old Flash websites did not have a weirdo like me to manually archive them.

I made a mini website hosting nine old Flash animations that used to be on the Smashing Pumpkins website. Check it out if you're into that sort of thing: thru-the-empty.space/machina/

Potatoes in your instant ramen? It's more likely than you think.

If you need a last minute Christmas gift for friends, family, or other loved ones, consider giving them a link to this B-52's performance. It's complete pantomime, yet mesmerizing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=swBD...

Another year in review, and Steam has once again pinpointed my predisposition for rhythm games and cats.

Sigh. My second Keychron K5 Max is dying just like the first one did. I love this keyboard but it has some kind of flaw that keeps it from living more than six months or so. (1/3)

The "The Grinch™ 10 pc. Chicken McNuggets® Meal", at approximately $20, is perhaps the worst dollar to nugg ratio I've ever encountered.

When you have weirdo music tastes and the Uber driver asks you for an artist.

For #RandomGameSaturday here is Every Extend Extra for the PSP, looking all stylish and futuristic. I think UMD is the most "this is what the future looks like" media. Like when people drew what future technology would look like, you see something like a UMD.

I wrote a thing. A #famicom thing! Not a very long article, but hopefully informative for anyone who wants to see an early assembly routine in a Family BASIC type-in. Part 2 (and 3?) coming soonish. hvc7.dev/notes/how-di...

I got this CIB at a flea market in the late 90s. Had no idea what it was. Potentially my best random game purchase ever.

Yet another reissue of MCIS. Lovely album art. 🎧 I would recommend the live tracks on the back half of this edition to anyone even remotely curious. It's a good representation of what a weird and monstrous entity the Smashing Pumpkins were the 90's. music.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

For #RandomGameSaturday I present to you WarioWare: Snapped! for the Nintendo DSi. It uses the DSi's camera to perform head and hand tracking, so you are going through the minigames by moving your hands and tilting your head. It's a bit janky due to the hardware limits, but *super* creative.

> I do wonder where they found out about these hardware registers back then 🤔 I think I have a pretty solid theory now, after reading over Backup Katsuyou Technique Vol 3 last night.

Wait, Momoi Haruko released a new mini album in October and not a single one of my feeds mentioned this? Every algorithm is broken. #桃井はるこ www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Gg...

Yeah, this one is notable for having a small assembly routine that updates the PPU scroll register so that the background scrolls as you fly through space. Nifty hi-score name entry, too. I do wonder where they found out about these hardware registers back then 🤔

The PRINCE of FLUID BEEF.

It is November, and there is time for Klax. #RandomGameSaturday

One last Halloween beer review. Spring House Brewing Company Braaiins! Pumpkin Ale Lovely can art. Hits the Halloween beer flavor profile, but not sure how else to describe it. It's good.