Pretend This Didn't Happen

Stupjam – Swingin' with Swabbie

(I’ve actually met a few acquaintances by way of Sayonara Umihara Kawase’s North American leaderboards.)

Source: Stuplr via Yumi’s Odd Odyssey leaderboards (records) and his comment on my video

Europe and Oceania April 24th

Challenger with Commentary

I like Instagib, but it’s a lot more difficult to get good stream highlights onto YouTube from there. This run of the 1985 Japanese-only Famicom game Challenger was so watchable and the chat was so random that I jumped through the technological hoops to get this posted for all.

Challenger is famous for its control scheme which is backwards compared to modern games. On the NES controller, you would press A to shoot and B to jump. I actually played this on a Power Joy by Trump Grand that I bought for $5 at CORGS-Con, but it has the A and B buttons reversed. It makes the Power Joy terrible for most games but perfect for Challenger.

The video features Skype chat from myself, Jdetan, and Kinkaido, so of course it’s NSFW.

Wow, it's been a long time since I've had an actual image on this blog, right? Anyway, the top of the N64-ish controller actually has a pointy bit that functions as the Zapper. The trigger is where the N64's Z button would be. It doesn't work well.

Source: Challenger with Commentary – YouTube, which is edited from an .flv archive of my Instagib stream (Instagib.tv deletes archives after 24 hours), uploaded to YouTube, downloaded from YouTube as an .mp4, and finally edited in Pinnacle Studio 14 like my other videos. I really need to find a better way to do this. Also, the camera on my phone.

Masahiro Ikariko – Theme of Solid Snake

30-Day Video Game Music Challenge (Super Hard Mode) Day 3: 8-Bit music From Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (MSX2 + MSX-AUDIO, July 20, 1990)

Happy 30th anniversary to Metal Gear 2! Not to be confused with Metal Gear Solid 2, though this is where Metal Gear Solid’s famous sneaking mechanics came from.

Source: YouTube, challenge by OverClocked ReMix I think?, via NintendoCapriSun

Mega Man 1 - Glitchfest

Scykoh‘s Glitchfest series is all about breaking popular games in as many ways as possible. TASVideos’s resources for NES Mega Man games covers several methods for moving through the game quickly, but even that doesn’t explain what Scykoh does in Ice Man’s stage. When I planned the “bugs” in Skeleton Hunter, the first place I looked for inspiration was Mega Man 1’s zipping, pause tricks, and tileset corruption, and they’re shown off very well here.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdqJgCLVR2Q via YouTube subscription via recommendations probably generated from Did You Know Gaming?

PiNe – BirthStones

So here's a mid-page art style shift that the artist uploaded on my birthday.

Source: PiNe – BirthStones via Pixiv

“BirthStones” Acrylic paint, marker, colored pencil and glitter on paper. About 30 hours. From top left to right bottom, May Emerald, June Moonstone, August Peridot, December Turquoise, September Sapphire, January Garnet, July Ruby, February Amethyst, March Aquamarine, November Topaz, April Crystal and October Opal.

Two-Factor Authentication

Equifax just leaked our personal information to hackers! That’s really bad! It’s enough information that an identity thief could steal your cell phone service and start receiving text messages intended for you. It’s time to beef up security with an authenticator app. Most important Internet services allow you to generate codes with your phone that you enter when you log in. I use Authy for this because it backs up and restores all your two-factor tokens when switching phones or doing factory resets.

Since my phone was in the shot, I had to take this photo with my 3DS. That's why you can't read any of the text. (And yes, you can use Authy with Tumblr.)

Source: Authy via Twitch, photo with my New 3DS

Super Mario Land 2 – Memory Exploration

Retro Game Mechanics Explained is an educational video series from Super Mario World speedrunner Dotsarecool. In Super Mario Land 2, it’s possible to glitch yourself right out of the map and into other regions of the Game Boy’s address space. Wandering around those garbage tiles and randomly flipping bits will usually crash the game, but it’s possible to trigger the ending credits from there. This reminds me of the game-breaking screen warp glitch I played around with in The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening v1.0.

Source: Retro Game Mechanics Explained via YouTube recommendation

Laoshu – Foreign Language Roadrunning

Yesterday, we lost a local legend. Moses “Laoshu” McCormick was a giant among polyglots, having developed his own Foreign Language Roadrunning method to practice and speak dozens of languages. He recently became internet famous for finding foreigners and surprising them with conversations in their native languages. I’m fortunate to have met Moses and Marcell at our local fighting game meetups and Asian Festivals, and I’m glad Moses could pass on his knowledge through his online courses.

Source: Laoshu505000 and Foreign Language Running

Katsu Somehira – Harta #91 cover

Oh, hi blog! Katsu Somehira draws the illustrations for the seinen manga magazine Harta. This one rocketed to the top of /r/FloatingIsFun, besting another Katsu Somehira art and another garden in space. I'd totally move to a space station permanently, free from gravity forever. Of course, I'd like to bring my family and raise them in space as Newtypes.

Source: Katsu Somehira's Tumblr via RSS feed; also Twitter

２月１４日発売の『ハルタ９１号』表紙イラストを担当。

目次、背表紙イラストも担当しております。

MixerProductions Sonic Mashups

Video game mashup artist MixerProductions found out that the sound of 16-bit Sonic games makes for natural hip-hop beats. Now every time I play the Flying Battery zone, I’m going to hear MC Hammer in my head. It’s been stuck in my head for days, and now it’s going to be stuck in your head too.

Yo Dawg, I herd you like Sonic, so I put Sonic in your Xzibit track so you can spin while you spin. OK, no fair mashing up Michael Jackson with himself.

Source: MC Hammer vs Sonic – Cant Touch This Battery – YouTube via Backloggery livestream chat. Also here and here.