Ok, this is only connected with role-playing games in the most tenuous way possible, but there was a Polish chain of gas stations called D&D which even had a logo that reminded me of old Basic D&D logos. I think they were mostly around Lodz, and even when they were around it never was all […]| Stuffed Crocodile
The ZX Spectrum is beloved of British microcomputer enthusiasts everywhere. (Of course the British are everywhere, hence why they had the whole Empire thing)...| nicole.express
Random Tables d72 Squires (Bastionland) D6 Social Media Services of the Near-Future (Archons March On) D6x6 Sanguine Sirens (Archons March On) d100 – Wilderness Woes & Hinterland Hazards (d4 Ca…| Stuffed Crocodile
The personalized nature of custom neon signs makes them an incredibly appealing choice.| Moss and Fog
Though more than two months have passed since a Mavericks player has set foot on the court, like it or not, an unavoidable buzz is building around the team. In May, near impossible odds saw Dallas figuratively and literally winning the lottery, securing the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NBA draft. Last week,…| Fort Worth Weekly
Minimalist living—living more focused on what truly matters and less focused on stuff—has shown me how to break the cycle of consumerism.| Rich in What Matters
Last week I found Wanderer Bill’s Grenzland 5 in my mailbox. Topic “Science Fantasy”. The zine costs 5 Euros for a hardcopy, but can be downloaded for free. As the topic goes into the realm of science fiction there’s plenty of that in this issue. Most of the articles are in German, some are English […]| Stuffed Crocodile
Random Tables d66 Reasons Why the Castle is Totally Deserted (Blog of Forlorn Encystment) Elemental Heretics (Elfmaids & Octopi) d100 Poltergeists (Elfmaids & Octopi) Let’s Build a Thieves Guild (OSRVault) 100 Urban Quest Hooks (OSRVault) Ideas Babies in Dungeons (Prismatic Wasteland) Random Magic User Generator (Remixes and Revelations) Sandbox Settlements: Downtime (Among Cats and Books) […]| Stuffed Crocodile
If you’re feeling weighed down by your possessions, now is the time to start decluttering sentimental items.| Rich in What Matters
fortune is one of those classic unix programs that are available on basically all unixoid systems. The only thing it does is “display a pseudorandom message from a database of quotations”, or as the man-page of fortune for debian says: “fortune – print a random, hopefully interesting, adage”. To be fair, the fortune part of […]| Stuffed Crocodile
The last few weeks I have been posting pretty often, daily even, which is interesting. I sometimes do get these posting spells for a bit with this blog, and that’s quite nice. Anyway, today I had business in Warsaw and wasn’t able to write anything before I was on the train back, so this post […]| Stuffed Crocodile
Ho humm… these link collections are getting a bit long sometimes, especially if I don’t actually post them for a while. Free Stuff Goblinoid Games offers a draft of the Labyrinth Lord 2nd edition on their website Pocket Basic Rules for OSR (drivethrurpg) Random Tables Where Did I Get These Spells From? (Elfmaids & Octopi) […]| Stuffed Crocodile
Adventurer was a rather short running UK RPG magazine. In the last issue, Adventurer 11, June/July 1987, there was an interesting interview with Terry Pratchett, where he recounted his experiences with D&D (he used to play and early Discworld has at least some influences from that) and why he stopped. My favorite part is this […]| Stuffed Crocodile
This is one of those things I did for campaigns before: a small newsletter/zine with infos, hints, and used rules about the campaign. It isn’t strictly necessary, but I always liked the idea to have a physical reminder of the campaigns I ran, even though the campaign itself has a wiki-page on campaignwiki.org. Despite the […]| Stuffed Crocodile
Cauldron 2024: Manor on the Borderlands …of Hessia and Thuringia that is. But that means in living memory the Iron Wall ran merely a few hundred meters away from the location. And I swear I wanted to go there and make a proper picture but there was simply no time. I managed to play more […]| Stuffed Crocodile
Lecture by Dr. Benny Peiser held by Zoom on Wednesday, January 29, 2025 Lecture Slides In this, his farewell lecture as GWPF Director, Dr Peiser argues that for the first time since the launch of the GWPF 15 years ago, climate consensus is breaking down. For too long, climate science and climate policy have been dominated by dogmatism, censorship and eco-socialist control. The main reason for the deepening crisis of unilateral climate policy is the rising cost and financial burden of utopian ...| ClimateCite
The RCA Studio II and its CDP1802 chipset had much more support from enthusiasts than it did the wider video game market. But I shouldn’t put “had” in the pa...| nicole.express
For the better part of three decades, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been the most vilified figure in local sports. A little more than a week ago, the baseline ire routinely focused on Jones hit an all-time high after the front office’s nonsensical solution to the Cowboys’ maddeningly failed “all-in” 2024 season seemed to be…| Fort Worth Weekly
It’s 1977, and you’re in charge of the large Toshiba Corporation. Video games seem to be possibly a real market, and as an innovative electronics firm, you’v...| nicole.express
I told you I was done with Pong consoles, but a spectre has continued to haunt Nicole Express in our Epoch series– the spectre of Pong. Specifically, the Epo...| nicole.express
Oops, that last Cassette Vision post was supposed to be a review of some games for it. This is a fairly historically important console, but not a huge seller...| nicole.express
The Epoch Cassette Vision is often reported as the first Japanese cartridge-based game console. But reality is always a bit more complicated. In 1978, years ...| nicole.express
Recently I’ve had a bit of a fascination with rhythm machines. Not the computerized digital ones like that built into my old Yamaha organ, but fully analog o...| nicole.express
Remember the RCA Studio II? A chipset with a fascinating history and enthusiast cred put into the service of the most disappointing game console of 1977. But...| nicole.express
The evolution of consoles from single-game systems like the Magnavox Odyssey 100 to cartridge-based systems like the NES wasn’t a simple process. The origina...| nicole.express
[Labyrinth Lord] Tomb of the Serpent Kings Session 1 (also MapTool) A while ago I started playing with some people on an online server. That was about the time when I decided that I should maybe be…| Stuffed Crocodile
In 2024, it’s easy to look back at home video games in 1979 and think of it as a time of game consoles; the Channel F and the Atari 2600 (VCS) battling it ou...| nicole.express
Did you ever hear of the tragedy of the Capacitance Electronic Disc? I thought not. It’s not a story MCA would tell you. It’s an RCA legend. It’s said they h...| nicole.express
Many vintage computers have advanced hardware, great software libraries, or even both. But how many of them have gravitas. The desk presence that when guests...| nicole.express
Yes, this post has absolutely nothing to do with what I usually discuss. But, it took a while to find this info, so documenting here for the next time I need it (assuming I remember to check here, that is). Office printers are became a rarity, but if you have one that scans, and want […]| Ben Forta
If we’re doing all these pong articles, we might as well get a real, authentic, Atari Pong. So much like with their Pinball, we’re not, but are doing the nex...| nicole.express
The first video game? Debatable. The first video game console, though, is well-established: the 1972 Magnavox Odyssey, brainchild of Ralph Baer. However, the...| nicole.express
This post will not be remembered for its aesthetic values, but it might be useful for tourists in Tokyo over the eager to get some Christmas shopping done! Feel free to disregard if commercialism i…| Tokyobling's Blog
Space Invaders is an epochal moment in video games. Arguably the first true megahit, it’s credited with starting the shoot ‘em up genre, making Japan obsesse...| nicole.express