🕹️☎️ Some gaming history for your Thanksgiving week. In the early 1990s, programmers writing online games for BBSes faced a LOT of constraints, from slow modems to extremely limited sound and graphics. How did they work around those limitations? (1/x) #retrocomputing #gamedev #retrogaming #bbs

Time to update the Kannons ‘N Katapults wiki @kirkman.bsky.social! KNK25 is here with multiplayer kastle wrecking action! The legendary game BBS Door game has been remastered! @a-net-online.bsky.social @hypernode.bsky.social #knkremastered #bbsdoor

4-5 in Webster, super wet already starting to melt a little. A Slushing if you will.

About 6-7" of snow in my Ferguson yard! How's it looking in other parts of St. Louis? #stlwx #snowmageddon #stl #noco

Dry and 37 degrees up her North of Seattle right now. We lived in St. Louis from 1986- 1990. Miss the big snows you have. I don't miss the summer heat and humidity though. Stay warm.

Just went out to the back yard and measured: 4.5" (around south city)

About 5” in Kirkwood

4-5" here in south city, judging by how our bird bath looks!

About 6-7" of snow in my Ferguson yard! How's it looking in other parts of St. Louis? #stlwx #snowmageddon #stl #noco

Fractal turkey feathers t.co/kqCE1doTRE #mathchat #thanksgiving #turkeyday t.co/WBpYZvCI6n #fractals

🦃 Happy Thanksgiving from FPF! We are thankful for the brave journalists and whistleblowers who put their lives on the line every day to bring truth to the public. In the spirit of giving, please donate to help sustain our work in 2026:

Some decided to break free of the limits of BBS technology by creating their own custom terminal programs ... front-end clients. In 2020, I wrote a case study titled "A different way to play" looking at several of these computer curioisities. breakintochat.com/blog/2020/09... (2/x)

One of the better-known examples is "Pit Terminal," which added EGA graphics to classic combat game "The Pit." (Surprisingly, though, the pixel art of the combat arena where most of the action happens is not much more detailed than the ANSI text version.) breakintochat.com/blog/2020/09... (3/x)

In contrast, OOIITERM for Operation Overkill II didn't add pixel graphics, but it did enhance the experience with much faster ANSI menus, and cool SoundBlaster effects. The modern-day terminal SyncTerm has built-in support for OOIITERM's special effects. breakintochat.com/blog/2020/09... (4/x)

Meanwhile, GTERM for Land of Devastation added a high-resolution SVGA interface to the game. In retrospect, I wish they had devoted less real estate to displaying inventory, and much more to the viewer that shows images of the game world. breakintochat.com/blog/2020/09... (5/x)

TradeWars 2002 was so popular that it spawned an entire cottage industry of third-party helper programs. One of those helpers, TWTerm, automated repetitive tasks so players could quickly build wealth. It wrapped a GUI around the ANSI text interface. breakintochat.com/blog/2020/09... (6/x)

Thieves' Guild for the Atari ST is my favorite example of a front-end for a BBS game. It added pixel art, voice samples, and sound effects to what was normally a plain-text fantasy adventure. I cannot overstate how cool the art is in this front-end. breakintochat.com/blog/2020/09... (7/x)

Playing (and finishing) "Thieves' Guild" with its front-end was difficult, but a worthwhile adventure. I loved it so much, I also interviewed its creators, recovered its source code and posted it on GitHub! breakintochat.com/blog/2020/09... (8/8)

🕹️☎️ Some gaming history for your Thanksgiving week. In the early 1990s, programmers writing online games for BBSes faced a LOT of constraints, from slow modems to extremely limited sound and graphics. How did they work around those limitations? (1/x) #retrocomputing #gamedev #retrogaming #bbs

@kirkman.bsky.social Figured you might appreciate that I have this.

Getting MS-DOS doors working with Linux, dosemu2, and Synchronet was a challenge for me. So when I finally got it working, I put my notes together. Hopefully it helps someone. #bbsdoors #synchronet www.bbswordle.com/dosemu2.html @kirkman.bsky.social @hypernode.bsky.social @a-net-online.bsky.social

James F. Conway, who as mayor of St. Louis from 1977 to 1981 fought to stem the exodus of residents and businesses from the city, died Tuesday.

A 155-unit apartment development is slated to replace the St. Louis Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America' headquarters in the Central West End.

🧵 The Winged Monkeys in Baum’s Oz weren’t followers of the Wicked Witch – they were compelled by the magical Golden Cap. Whoever wore it could summon them three times. The Wicked Witch used it first, then Dorothy. 🐒🪽More Oz in the #publicdomain ⤵️ blog.archive.org/2025/11/17/t... #Oz #Wicked

Property taxes are rising across the region, but nowhere more than in a handful of neighborhoods in southeastern St. Louis, where residents have been shocked to receive statements with eye-popping increases in bills. From @kelseylandis.bsky.social and me. www.stltoday.com/news/local/g...

It’s not that the insurance companies are dishonest. This is America, this is big business, this is capitalism — everyone is trying to make money." My latest with @drebjournalist.bsky.social. www.stlpr.org/economy-busi...

Data journalism for the train nerds! It me, the nerd who would give my kingdom for high speed rail between DC and NYC and Chicago. 📊

A very happy 101st birthday to Christopher #Tolkien! Most of what we know about Middle-earth is thanks to Christopher who posthumously edited over 20 books. He sadly passed away over five years ago, but please raise a glass, and toast Christopher's service to us all. Namárië. #BookSky

The city has a year more spend the cash. But data show it has only spent a little more than half.

I entered the #ATASCII compo for the first time this year. I came in 2nd-to-last, but I was happy with my drawing: X the Owl from "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." Results video here: youtu.be/1HiR0Jndvt0 It's been a while since I tried drawing with the #Atari 8-bit computer's unique character set!

(As the guy who developed the AtasciiTube site for viewing ATASCII animations, it does seems like I should have tried this a long time ago.) breakintochat.com/collections/... #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #textmode #bbs #textart

I entered the #ATASCII compo for the first time this year. I came in 2nd-to-last, but I was happy with my drawing: X the Owl from "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." Results video here: youtu.be/1HiR0Jndvt0 It's been a while since I tried drawing with the #Atari 8-bit computer's unique character set!

Still waiting

I can't decide if it looks more like Lutz is testifying in court or sitting in a bar

The report chronicles accusations against 20 employees of Union-based Niños de México, including its Franklin County founders, that go back decades.

Kansas’ Marion County paid $3M for forgetting the First Amendment. After their illegal raid on the Marion County Record in 2023, local cops got their First Amendment lesson the expensive way. Police elsewhere should take note.

Hit 500 miles on the e-bike on my ride home from work on this unbelievably warm day. (Morning ride was pretty cold though)

"[T]he former police chief and administrator of Velda City pleaded guilty to stealing more than $300,000 in taxpayer money ... "How does this happen? "It happens because the people who are supposed to look at the bills — boards of aldermen — don’t get them or don’t pay attention."

As long as City SC has been in the league, I've said it's ridiculous that the team makes six and now seven trips to the West Coast each season for games while playing Chicago once and Nashville, Cincinnati and Columbus maybe once and probably none. A Central Division would do so much for City SC

To get an idea of the sheer scale of this change. 👇 Props to the reporters who were not allowed to film inside the courthouse but still managed to get some key glimpses of what is happening behind closed doors.

Here is the state wide map for SNAP. If you click on a census tract. you will see that attribute table show up. SNAP 18 is in proportions but that is the percent of SNAP households that have children under 18. slustl.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant...

This is so dumb. The next movie will have a new actor. Just start a new continuity.

BREAKING: We won! Today the 3rd Circuit Court ordered the @post-gazette.com to restore our contract it illegally tore up 5 years ago. That’s our health care, PTO, right to a 40-hr. work week, short-term disability and so much more we’ve struck for 3+ years. pghguild.com/2025/11/10/p...

If you have to add a note like this to the front page of your website, it's a pretty clear sign you should rethink your approach to usability and accessibility. Missouri's Casenet website is amazing and a miracle in some ways -- but they've taken a few steps backward recently.

ICYMI: Rents across the #StLouis region are soaring but nowhere more than the neighborhoods targeted by real estate investors. And rents at single-family homes are rising faster than other types. From @stephkukuljan.bsky.social and me. www.stltoday.com/news/local/g... #STL #housing #datajournalism

Ten years ago, I made my first parallax-scrolling ANSI art animation. Today I cleaned it up, made it smoother and added titles and credits. The original was a user-controllable tech demo I made for my late daughter Jadzia on our BBS, "Guardian of Forever." #bbs #ansiart #textmode #retrocomputing

You may be thinking ... "ANSI? BBS? What?" ANSI art was a text-based art form prevalent on old IBM PC bulletin board services of the 1990s. This demo was one of several "Jewel Mountain" experiments I made for my late daughter Jadzia back then. Learn more here: breakintochat.com/blog/2015/01...

Later in 2015, I would teamed up with Whazzit to make another ANSI animation using similar parallax techniques. We called it "Under the Sea," with a mermaid swimming through the ocean. It was released in Mistigris' 21st anniversary artpack. More: breakintochat.com/blog/2015/10...

In 2017, I got more ambitious: I adapted the asteroid scene from "The Empire Strikes Back." This time the sprite wasn't fixed in place — the Millennium Falcon needed to zip around. This piece was released in Blocktronics' "Detention Block AA-23" artpack. More: breakintochat.com/blog/2017/05...

Ten years ago, I made my first parallax-scrolling ANSI art animation. Today I cleaned it up, made it smoother and added titles and credits. The original was a user-controllable tech demo I made for my late daughter Jadzia on our BBS, "Guardian of Forever." #bbs #ansiart #textmode #retrocomputing