A Dance of Fire and Ice is an incredible rhythm game that you buy once and that’s it. I think there’s an expansion pack but it’s a single purchase. Whether that’s your idea of “casual” really depends on what you like. You can always play chill low difficulty levels when you need to zone out, and high difficulty levels when you want a challenge. It can get stupidly hard.

You can try a demo online at that link. It told me webgl wasn’t supported on mobile, but it worked pretty well for me just now on firefox, even if it was a bit laggy. It should work fine on PC.

I pirated it on PC after my kids told me about it and ended up buying it three times on Steam and twice on mobile. It’s just that good. I’ve built a custom digital drum to play it and I’m now making a custom MIDI controller, so we’ll see if that does better when connected to the game.

The game works as well on mobile, if not better because the touchscreen is so responsive.

Yup, no worries, i just appreciate the way he does things and wanted to share the info :)

Just fyi, Randall who makes xkcd has a very permissive approach and offers hotlinks on the site for easy embedding. I think he prefers that you hotlink rather than reupload.

I keep seeing people talk about Rust, and to be honest I never thought much about it because I’ve never had a reason to use it.

But when so many people in a programmer meme sub are saying “actually no joke Rust is amazing” that makes me pay attention.

So I looked into it and found this: https://github.blog/2023-08-30-why-rust-is-the-most-admired-language-among-developers/

I remember seeing a lot about activeX controls as a kid but not understanding them much. As an adult reading this I was like “were they a way to run arbitrary code on a user’s computer?”

Yes, they were a way to run arbitrary code on a user’s computer.

Okay, I think I can see it, sorry. I was tired last night.

If there’s a stand that I can’t see then yeah, I guess I misunderstood. But if not then it would be taking some of the weight. That in itself might not be a huge issue until someone or something accidentally puts undue force on the deck. It’s like looking at a glass on the edge of a table. It’s not broken now, but I’m gonna move it away.

Yes, I know that. And it’s supporting the deck by the USB port, so essentially holding the whole thing up by a handful of small solder joints on a PCB, which if they break will pretty much brick the entire thing.

I don’t know what pointing out the adaptor is supposed to change about this situation.

Cute kitty but the angle of that USB adaptor is giving me anxiety. Like you make your own choices but that USB port is how you keep the thing alive and it’s being propped up on it.

Haha awesome, it will probably be easier than at 8 lol. I got stuck in my early 20s (long after the game came out, I’m not quite that old).

Yup, if you’ve played Obduction it’s like that. Full 3d environments made with modern rendering. I tried the latest Myst remake and this one feels like a modern game, although I imagine most of the early 90s design foibles are still there.

I haven’t played many of the other remakes of the original, there have probably been too many, but it’s nice to see the later games getting this treatment.

Yeah, 3 and 4 were where they hit on a really good balance between the pre-rendered graphics and a smooth experience with the skybox-style wraparound images. In V they went to full 3D rendering which was clunky because the computers of the time just weren’t up to it. I think now we’re finally seeing how good these games can look and work in 3D.

Did you ever finish it? If not the conclusion of the game was pretty satisfying, and nothing is spoiled by being told about the door thing. It’s actually more memorable for me than the following ones, maybe because I spent so long wandering around in despair. I actually tried replaying it a little while ago but just bounced off the extremely clunky 90s design and the technical limitations. I think this remake will be a good chance to try again, and see the environments rendered nicely.

Actually the 3d thing makes a lot of sense. I had a walk around the new Myst game recently and everything’s location was so much clearer when you weren’t navigating it through static screens.

Yup, found out the real answer from a friend who was a little shocked.

I have played through that and I don’t remember that part, did they make it easier to find or something? I’d be shocked if they left it the same, it really sucked.

I don’t remember the second one, but it’s possible I was checking behind every door after that so it would’ve been much easier to notice.

The only similar experience I had with Myst was the rail maze. I didn’t notice the audio cue at all so I just mapped out the whole thing on paper by following the left hand wall. I say that because when I was done, I tried following the right hand wall out of curiosity and it was the shortest possible path. It was like a cruel joke on people who say that you can find your way through a maze by following the left hand wall, just because the “left” wall was the way people phrased that concept.

I finished the whole series and it was better designed later on. None of the other games had such notorious sticking points.

There is a “puzzle” in Riven that I got stuck on for hours, just searching the map looking for anything that I had left to do. I couldn’t find any more interactable things that hadn’t been done. Then I looked it up and found it was a door that you had to enter then turn around and close to find the hidden passageway behind it. There was no puzzling value to it being hidden like that, it was something you either simply found or didn’t. I put it down to old-style game design that hadn’t yet learned what not to do in a somewhat open world game.

Honestly this iteration could move the entrance like one metre to the left so it’s not hidden and it would be a better game for it.

fry_shocked.bat