Enjoy this collection of blog posts I liked reading this week! This one actually probably has more things that aren’t technically blogs but I liked reading them and want others to see.

Video Games

Rob at Punching Robots is one of my favorite game devs/writers/Dizzy fan art creators so I enjoyed reading his post about another game dev and their weird, rambling post about how Wholesome Games = Fascism I guess?? It also kicked off discourse on Bluesky because that’s what that site is built for. But Rob’s post is great, go read that one.

Misty wrote a tool to convert BIN/CUE disc images to CloneCD. It’s all a little bit over my head but it seems very useful for the people who need it and I still liked reading the post and nodding along like I got it all.

This history about the creation of Kid Pix by the program’s creator is fantastic. I used Kid Pix all the time on my school’s Mac and then Kid Pix Studio on my home computer, so it was very important to me.

FFVIII is the Best is still going and has a nice holiday themed appreciation post for the incredible fan art by Skribleskrable.

Inverse has an article ranking 10 of this year’s hidden indie gems. Always nice to see a list where you don’t know a bunch of the games. Got this from Yaffle’s blog.

Folks are playing Ultima Underworld for the next 3 months in DOS Game Club and this playthrough report is reminding me I need to start playing it too. Come join us!

Everyone is talking about Ireland’s game dev community! Shacknews has an article on industry’s growth and startmenu does as well, although it’s maybe more focused on highlighting individual developers.

Michael Coorlim does a narrative analysis of Questprobe: The Hulk.

startmenu revisits Indiana Jones And the Infernal Machine.

The Imaginary Engine Review is one of the best new sources of games crit writing. This month it’s their article Genre-Queer about Heisei Pistol Show.

TTRPGs

Tot’s Character Compendium goes through the character creation process in Upriver, Downriver, a game I’m not familiar with but sounds lovely.

The Oracle Engine writes about the modern classic Together We Write Private Cathedrals

200-Proof Games posts The 1E Manifesto. I won’t say that more game devs should write manifestos, because that seems like a monkey’s paw situation, but this one is good.

Music

Yaffle wrote a list ranking 69 versions of Wonderful Christmastime. I am a hater of the song, sorry Yaffle, but it’s a good list.

The Morning Music blog continues to post bangers on a near daily basis. It’s very rare when it’s something I’ve actually listened to before like Jean-Michel Jarre’s Oxygène 7-13.

Tech

Adam wrote an incredible bookmarklet for randomly choosing between buttons on those 88×31 button walls like the one on my links page. Just use the bookmark on one of these pages and it will randomly select one. It truly replicates the experience of “surfing the web”

Leaded Soldier talks about FujiNet, which adds internet support for old computers through wi-fi.

Brain Baking examines link rot on their own site.

Poetry

A new issue of ALOCASIA is out! Every issue features queer plant-based writing and available for free, although it does take donations.