Month: October 2024

Ypsi Freak Fest 2024 and The Great Album Project (2024-10-08)

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a big circle with colorful half circules protruding from it. It's the cover to the Hohokum soundtrack

Listened to a lot of records this week AND went to the Ypsi Freak Fest. I was only able to attend the first day but it was great. Most of the bands I wanted to see were outdoors and it was free. Got to see a few musicians and bands I’ve wanted to see for a while like Dr. Pete Larson and Tyvek, and discovered new bands like Pet Me, Golden Feelings, and Tanager. If you want to discover a ton of bands mostly local to Ann Arbor, you can check out the list here. Apparently there was some discourse on Saturday when a band pulled out at the last second, citing that the word Freak is problematic, protesting an art grant from the city to pay bands and how it’s not DIY, and privately messaging other bands to pull out, and IMO they should touch grass.

That aside, great festival! It was an incredible experience seeing a band like Tyvek play on a mostly empty street at night to like 20-30 people at most. I don’t go to concerts very often these days because I have 3 kids and don’t want covid, so when I feel safe enough to go it’s an absolute delight and I treasure every minute of live music.

My journey to listen to every record in my collection continues:

The Chameleons: What Does Anything Mean? Basically (1985, YouTube)
Great album. I guess they were doing the punctuation in the middle of album titles thing before 00s era bands. Recommended if you like 80s alternative bands like early New Order. Not that they sound exactly like them but I think that’s the closest comparison point I can think of. I feel like Strange Times or Script of the Bridge are considered to be better but this is my favorite one by them. I think I originally picked it up about 10-12 years ago online, probably from Discogs.

Everything but the Girl: Fuse (2023, YouTube)
After a 20+ hiatus, EBTG finally released a new album. I always thought it was funny that the band was considered broken up since it’s a married couple that has been living together this whole time. I think this may be their best album? EBTG is weird in that I think they generally get better with every album, which feels pretty rare and it’s incredibly rare for a band that has been around for this long. Tracey Thorn sounds amazing, I love the effects they do in some parts to make her voice sound messed up, the writing is up to the standards of previous albums, and the bloops and beats are better than ever.

The Mountain Goats: The Jordan Lake Sessions: Vol. 1 and 2 (2020, Bandcamp)
4 LPs! Not essential listening I suppose but as a long time fan it’s been very fun hearing live-ish (no audience) versions of the songs with a different lineup of the band than when most of them were first recorded. A lot of the new versions have a jazzier sound, which is a fun take on them.

The Faint: Dance Macabre (2001, YouTube)
It’s fine I guess. I loved the album when I first listened to it around 2007 but it actually feels pretty dated to me now and hasn’t aged in a way that I find charming. It doesn’t help that the album feels very front loaded to me with the hits.

The Innocence Mission: See You Tomorrow (2020, Bandcamp)
The Innocence Mission is a long running band from the 90s but I believe the core of the group are married couple Don and Karen Peris. They’re kind of indie/alternative folk music I guess? This album feels more stripped down compared to previous albums but I don’t think that’s a problem. Karen’s singing is still lovely and I think the writing is just as good as ever. I’ve bought two physical albums from the band on Bandcamp and both times I got a really nice note from Karen thanking me for buying the album.

Benoît Pioulard: Caverning (2018, Bandcamp)
This was a nice little 7″ I got for free because he was giving them away at his show at the Ypsi Freak Fest. I assume he just wanted to be rid of them since he performs under a different name now but it’s really a nice duo of songs. Both are ambient but the b-side is quite a bit noiser. I recommend his current project Golden Feelings if you want more ambient from him.

Pet Me: Abomination (2022, Bandcamp)
This was another single that I bought during the Ypsilanti Freak Fest. An interesting thing about this one was that it’s a square? Like the grooves are still a circle but it’s like they didn’t cut off the extra material. I wonder if it’s cheaper that way. The record must be cheaper to produce because getting my record player to play on the grooves was also pretty finnicky. That said, I think this is some very good punk rock. This is a band from Lansing that I wasn’t aware of until the festival but I’ll have to pick up some of their other stuff.

Various Artists: Hohokum soundtrack (2014, Bandcamp)
This is the soundtrack to the video game Hohokum. It’s been a while since I played the game. I remember enjoying it quite a bit and think it’s probably something I could revisit with my kids. But even if you have no interest in ever playing the game, it’s a very good collection of songs if you enjoy more uplifting and generally relaxing electronic music. The album compiles various artists on the Ghostly label and serves as a very good snapshot of who was on the label at the time.

Mint Mile: Heartroller (2018, Bandcamp)
I’ve reviewed Mint Mile albums a couple times here before. It’s the current project of Silkworm/Bottomless Pit’s Tim Midyett. Before they started releasing full length albums, they did a series of four EPs and this is my favorite one. It’s just a really solid set of 4 whistful rock songs and I think the steel pedal guitar in these songs sounds great.

Gobliins 6 Trailer Released

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Because Gobliins 6 search results have somehow become the thing leading most people from Google to here, I feel like I’m required to post the new trailer for the upcoming Gobliins 6.

I think it looks pretty good! I was pleasantly surprised by Gobliiins 5 and this is a return to the characters in Gobliins 2. Since this game only has two goblins, there are now only two I’s in the title. Since I do not speak French, I cannot tell if the appearance of the Prince Buffoon means this is chronologically set in the middle of the franchise. It’s weird to even think about the concept of Gobliiins lore. Anyway, glad he’s still making these. I really should give Gobliiins 4 another shot. I was so put off by the 3D graphics but I heard the puzzles get pretty good in the second half.

Random Computer Store Images Dump

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The dumping of images I originally posted on the CompStoreVisuals accounts on Twitter and Cohost continues. I’ve been looking through both accounts since the Cohost one is shutting down soon and it looks like even the Twitter account is starting to get screwy, probably from the site decaying. All of these are also on the Mastodon account but I would feel better having them somewhere else too.

This one was found somewhere on Flickr

image of a decaying building that just says "Computers"

These were submitted by Martijn of DOS Game Club

photo from across the street of a white building that says "Gooil@nd Computers"
photo but closer from across the street of a white building that says "Gooil@nd Computers"

This is Software Dschungel (Software Jungle) in Vienna, Austria.

Photo found by @/Kloennes on Twitter who said “Great store that sadly closed down about 10 years ago.”

front of a computer store that says Software Dschungel but has a monkey holding the logo and a cd-rom for the O

Blog Roundup (2024-10-06)

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I think I like doing these more on Sunday instead of Monday, so that will be the schedule for now. If you enjoyed these posts, please subscribe to the blogs you like on your RSS feed reader (or start using one if you don’t, I use Inoreader) and consider doing occasional link roundups on your site. Google search is abysmal now and this is kinda the only way people can discover new places.

We got a few Cohost memorial posts this week from Nicky Flowers, Alex Zandra, Aura, Broken Words, and a post here doing a much better collecting other memorial posts.

Renga in Blue goes into the history of GE to talk about the almost lost 1981 text adventure Raspion Adventure.

Mr. Creosote has a list of “The Best C64 Games.” It’s not my list, don’t argue with me.

Zandra put together a list of recommended Mega Man rom hacks.

The Good Old Days reviews a brand new text adventure called Traffic

Austin talks about life as a musician.

Katherine Morayati talks about a bug in Oregon Trail 2.

Debutniverse talks about a Saturday morning cartoon from 1983 that I never heard of called Saturday Supercade.

Sometimes you want to hear someone talking about what makes a killer car movie good. Here’s a review of 1977’s The Car.

The postcard celebrated its birthday and here’s a post talking about an interesting service called postcrossing.

Not blog posts but:

KRITIQAL talks to game dev Kyou System

startmenu has a great review of Halls of Torment and indie game recommendations.

Indie Games+ interviews the designer of Judero.

Indie Game Roundup (Oct. 4, 2024)

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It’s the first one of these in a post-Cohost world. What does that mean? Not much really. This is going to be a big one because I must clear out more the backlog in my list and people keep insisting on making games. Even that Geneforge guy who said there’s too many people making games keeps making them! What’s up with that? Always feel free to reply in the comments with either things you’ve made, or games you’ve been enjoying. I love comments. Anyway, here’s games.

Dodge 1000 Knives (Itch.io) is a free browser game where you must dodge 1000 knives. I’m bad at it but it’s good.

gif of train tracks being put down and a train moving across them
Raide

Raide (Itch.io) is a browser-based puzzle game where you put down train tracks for a train to move from a beginning to start point. I really enjoyed its short levels and artwork.

Backstreet Warriors (Itch.io) is a browser brawler game, like Double Dragon, made in PICO-8 where you must defeat 99 people to win.

The Queer Halloween Stories Bundle 2024 (Itch.io) is a collection of queer games, comics, stories, etc for $60, although there’s a bundle you can buy at a lower price too.

Pinball Spire (Steam) is a pinball game but with a Metroid-like structure. I watched a stream of it yesterday and it looked fun!

first person view of a lizard like monster in a tunnel and combat stats at the bottom, everything is very green
Cyclopean

Cyclopean now has a demo (Steam). It’s a first person dungeon crawler inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and I think the art style looks pretty neat!

Just so you can see how far behind I am, Strange Scaffold has released two games! CLICKOLDING (Itch.io/Steam) is a game where you clicked a counter while a masked man watches you and I Am Your Beast (Steam) is a fast-paced covert fps set in micro sandboxes. Both games seem like they have done very well, which is always nice to see for a studio like Strange Scaffold.

a variety of carved pumpkins sitting on pedestals
Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival

The Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival is open again (Itch.io). This is a Pay-What-You-Want online game where you carve some pumpkins and put them up for everyone to see.

Tiny Glade (Steam) just looks like a very lovely diorama builder where you create castles and cottages where no specified goals or win conditions. It also seems like it’s been a massive success from looking at the number of Steam reviews.

a variety of toys like a little train, and a computer with dials, and some blocks
ODDADA

ODDADA (Steam) looks like an incredibly pleasant music toy that was recommended to me by Flyover Games. Just look at all the fiddly little bits you can play with and bright colors in those screenshots.

The Portal Tomb (physical book) is a tabletop rpg for 5 players and 1-2 sessions that uses Ogham runes instead of dice to generate a story set at a queen’s funeral.

As I was typing this, a new Indiepocalypse is now available (Itch.io). This one features future classics like SNAKEBYTE, a very good Metroid-like game where you explore a computer as an ASCII snake, EyeOS (I think I covered that one before?), and an arcade game called Be Not Afraid, But Run by Renegade Sector Games.

10BF.EXE (Itch.io) is a dual screen bullet hell but you can also capture spell cards and use them on your enemies.

screenshot of a green guy with a giant hat in a store saying "But, crystals...What kind of a jeweler I'd be if I didn't have crystals!"
Melon Head

Melon Head (Itch.io) is a new surreal point-and-click adventure featuring EGA art. I don’t even know how to describe it so you’ll have to check it out yourself. There’s a free demo if you’re interested.

Forever Space (Itch.io/Steam) is a remake of a previously made game by Pinhead Games. I haven’t played it but I’m a fan of their previous games like the Nick Bounty series and this seem the developer going in a horror direction.

Spaces are moments, not abstract or far away (Itch.io) is a free browser game described a poemware. I thought it was a beautiful space to explore and really liked the photography mechanic.

Hamayumishi: Night Parade of a Hundred Yokai (Itch.io) is an upcoming twin-stick shooting platformer by Nice Gear Games that I think looks really nice and it just got a demo.

Linker has a new game in developer that looks like a nice puzzle platformer (Itch.io). No title yet and it’s early in development but everything by them is great.

Here’s some things that aren’t games but I think you’ll enjoy:

If you are a fan of Hypercard then you’ll love Decker (Itch.io). It’s a free browser tool for making interactive documents and we just got a new version.

Wonderful game dev Big Hand In Sky has released 3 short stories that are Pay-What-You-Want on Itch.io: OVERLOAD, Name: [Here], and Looking at Clouds.

If you’re working in Zonelets, here’s a tool to make working with RSS a little easier.

And finally, here’s a couple of indie games that aren’t new but I finally got around to playing them and would recommend:

Here’s a remake of the classic arcade game Berzerk in PICO-8 (Itch.io). Everyone likes Berzerk!

Snoik! (Itch.io) is a twist on the classic Snake game for the Playdate. This time you’re switching between two planes to avoid hitting your tail.

What I’m Up To (2024-10-02)

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Here’s my weekly check in on what I’ve been up to. So far this week has been less bananas than the last couple of weeks, which has been nice, and I’m finally settling into a groove with the kids back in school.

Cohost shut down yesterday and is now read only for the next few months before going down completely. I keep saying I’ll do The Post about the site at some point but hopefully I do make time for that, even if everyone else has already done it and better. It certainly wasn’t perfect but I did like going there and will miss it. I’ve been working on a gigantic blog roll so if you did post there and want your site added, let me know in the comments or social media. Having a giant list of sites to follow in my RSS feed reader has been nice.

Work on the adventure game continues. I’ve made a couple rooms and a character since last week so I’m feeling pretty good about progress. The design of the game’s puzzles is improving too. In theory it’s probably much better and more efficient to design the entire game before doing art for it but I just cannot function like that and it has killed previous projects so I’m sticking with what works for me. But at this rate I feel pretty comfortable about hitting the deadline. Getting better at Adventure Game Studio may be a potential hurdle but people have been very kind about answering my questions about the engine.

The Wall of Buttons continues to grow. It’s been fun doing goofy early internet stuff and then clicking around on other websites.

The Great Album Project (2024-10-01)

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It’s the first day of October. Not a fan! Here are the records I listened to this week. A shorter post this time but that’s alright.

Same Eyes: Desperate Ones (2022, Bandcamp)
I posted about this band before in a previous one of these. This is an Ann Arbor darkwave/new wave band and some other local folks like Warren Defever seem to be involved with the production. It’s good! It’s a little more darkwave than the previous album, which is something I like, but I found the songs to be just slightly less memorable, so they actually sorta rank at about the same level for me. I actually got this one for free when I bought the other album from them on Bandcamp, which was incredibly nice. I guess they have a 3rd album coming out soonish, or they’re at least working on it, so I’ll pick that one up too.

Sad Lovers & Giants: Feeding the Flame (1983, YouTube)
Sad Lovers & Giants is a UK post-punk band that started in 1980. I’m not sure how well known they actually are, but they’re still around today and putting out new music. I don’t know them too well outside of this album and a handful of songs outside of this, but I really enjoy it and should probably listen to more of them. It’s a really strong album that maybe trails off a little towards the end but I’d recommend it to people who liked early 80s post-punk or bands like The Chameleons and Echo & The Bunnymen I guess? It’s probably not the best comparison but it’s what I can think of. I picked this one up at UHF Records in Royal Oak, probably about 12 years ago. For whatever reason I was always there and they seemed to have a great assortment of 80s post punk at the time, before record collecting picked up in popularity again to the state that it is now.