smolZINE - Issue 33

2022-09-01

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Hidden (and not so hidden) Gems

Emanations

Recreation

Community Contributions & Discussion

Introduction

I'm going to be straight with you. My energy and time levels were well below 50% for this issue so I just winged it and wrote a quick thing straight out of my grey matter because that's what I was interested in during the 24 hour period leading up to smolZINE release day. If you get tired of hearing about the things that *I* find interesting...I don't blame you and you're very welcome to submit something *you* find interesting for a future issue. Solicit someone else to write something you'd find interesting even! Ok, lets get on with it.

Hidden (and not so hidden) Gems

Hackers.Town

If you happen to partake in the fediverse you've probably already run across a few of these cool cats. A gemini extension of their fedi server home to some of their members' capsules. There's already some good stuff in there but I bet it will be worth checking back in every now and then too.

Hackers.Town

Cebalrai orbiting Ophiuchus

A new capsule with a nice intro post and some good stuff on its way from the looks of the sections that are yet to be populated.

Cebalrai orbiting Ophiuchus

Saayaa Space

This is a real nice capsule with a gemlog and lists of podcasts and shows they like.

gemini://gem.saayaa.space/

gem.awk

This is not a capsule pick but a really neat gemini client pick. It's whole gemini client written in about 250 lines of awk script and it's pretty darn functional even. A nice one to check out for fun and maybe even throw in your how directory as a backup client that requires only awk and openssl to be installed.

http://git.vgx.fr/gem.awk/

Emanations

Classic Videogame Reboots and Reimaginings

A thought kind of hit me the other day when I was playing some retro games on one of my handhelds. There was a time period roughly in the 2000s where rebooting classic game franchises on current consoles was all the rage. We're talking early videogame franchises such as Pong, Pac-Man, Frogger and the like. These endeavors were not just to pretty them up with better graphics for a quick buck either. Many of them added whole new concepts to the original gameplay or greatly expanded on it. The new graphical power was welcome of course but also allowed for some new possiblities. Going 3D gave game developers new horizons to explore and starting from a solid classic core game mechanic was understandably an attractive way to jump in.

It turns out that, at least to me, it ends up being pretty fun too. There are a whole lot of these classic reboots and new installments that I really enjoy. Those game franchises I listed in the previous paragraph all have multiple "new age" releases that are really good. I absolutely loved The Frogger reboot that brought it into the 3D realm for the Playstation. There are other excellent Frogger games in both 3D and 2D for the GBC, GBA and PSP. Pac-Man too had some great modern releases. Some of them stray pretty far from the original formula but hey, sometimes that results in fun and unique new game concepts. Like the 3D stylus controlled Pac 'n Roll that is more of an adventure game but still has you chomping on dots the whole way. Lets not forget about grandaddy Pong. While one of the simplest and most barebones classic games to try to fancy up there were actually some quite enjoyable Pong games. Pong: The Next Level added all kinds of new mechanics and game modes to the classic concept like curved, tilted and sticky paddles, two levels of paddles to control and trying to score goals in a game of pong soccer.

There are a lot of other classic games that have had similar reboots and a lot of them are excellent games. I think remixing and adding new spins on existing games is a good thing. Heck, I think that's a good and healthy thing for all kinds of media not just videogames and I'd like to see more of it. Do yourself a favor and pick one of your favorite games from the early days of gaming and see what kind of reboots it has had and give them a shot. I don't think you'll regret it.

- kelbot

Recreation

Chess Puzzle

by carriunix

Solution

Stinky Pinky

by kelbot

To play Stinky Pinky you will need to read the two descriptions below. They each describe a word and the two words rhyme. Example: 1. Smelly, 2. Finger; Answer: Stinky Pinky. Get it? You can email your answer to the address found at the bottom of each smolZINE to confirm if you are correct. The first to answer wins...uhhh I haven't figured that out yet so my congrats will have to do for now.

1. Small-legged lizard

2. One-eyed facial expression

Community Contributions & Discussion

Please consider taking part in making this zine better and more diverse by contributing your thoughts and finds. If you are interested in contributing a short article or capsule picks email me at: smolzine (at) cyberbot.space.

If you have any feedback or just want to discuss anything related to gemini or smolZINE hit me up at the above email or ping me on the fediverse at kelbot@retro.social and/or use the #smolZINE tag.

Thanks

Thank you to the following geminauts for their contributions to this issue of smolZINE.

carriunix (chess puzzle)