#nintendo software technologies

[n64retro]

Ridge Racer 64 (Nintendo Software Technologies, Namco, 2000) magazine ad for Nintendo 64.

[jtgunner]

New video is up on YouTube! I'm out of video ideas… so let's fire up F-Zero 99 and do a Mini Prix! Also, I complain about increasing game prices for like the entire video lol.

FULL VIDEO: https://youtu.be/RnUOahvIYpo

[posthumanwanderings]

1080° Avalanche (NST / Nintendo - GameCube - 2003)

[smartsgeek]

Wireless Controllers for Nintendo Switch with RGB Lights

Perfect for Gamers Who Love Precise & Immersive Controls

Transform your gaming experience with this wireless joypad for Nintendo Switch. This controller features advanced sensor and vibration feedback technology that gives you the ultimate precision, accuracy, and control in your games. The stylish and comfortable design is perfect for long sessions and supports multi-platform connectivity’s, making it ideal for PCs and other mainstream gaming devices. With a built-in rechargeable battery, you can play your favorite games for hours without worrying about power. Whether you’re a beginner or a professional player, this controller is easy to use and provides a realistic and immersive gaming experience. It’s perfect for gamers who love to have fun, whether it’s at home, with friends, or at a party.

-- Buy Now --

Seamless connectivity & advanced sensors

Advanced connectivity at your fingertips: Offers seamless gaming with new chip tech, fixing connectivity for responsive play

360° joysticks: For immersive gaming control

6-axis gyroscope: Ensures precise aiming for immersive gaming on Switch joypad controller

Dive into dual shock response: Experience gaming thrill with double shock response – ideal for Switch joypads

High-quality craftsmanship: Durable, non-slip ABS material for enhanced Switch gaming

Hours of functionality catered to improve your every game

Immerse in vibrant RGB lighting: Enhance your gaming with our RGB-lit controller, crafted specifically for Nintendo Switch joycons

Turbo (T) buttons: Perfect for games that require rapid firing or quick repetitive actions

Press ‘Function key + T’ to activate auto mode

Press & hold T button + joystick left/right to cancel

Multi-functional: Versatile features for wake-up, controller options, and Switch compatibility

Long battery life: Powers 30 hours of gameplay on Switch joycons; no interruptions!

NOTES:

This controller features a split-handle design, offering both left and right units.

Controller ONLY. Nintendo Switch is NOT included.

Specs

Specs

Color: pink

Material: PC

Size: 50*100*60mm

Range: 5-10m

Thickness: 28.76mm

Gyroscope: 6-axis

Lighting effects

Light off

Monochromatic

Colorful mode

Battery capacity: 600mAh

Battery life: 30 hours

Charge time: 3-4 hours

Modes

TV mode

Desktop mode

Palm mode

Connection: wireless

Manufacturer’s 1-year warranty

Compatibility

All versions of Switch

Includes

1x Wireless Controller for Nintendo Switch with RGB Lights

1x Manual

1x Cable

Shipping

Ships to US

Read More Article: https://smartsgeek.com/Shop/product/wireless-controllers-for-nintendo-switch-with-rgb-lights/

[youthchronical]

Nintendo jumps 6% as it says current Switch games will be playable on the console's successor

The Nintendo Switch game console store in Shanghai, Feb 25, 2024.  Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images Nintendo on Wednesday said it will allow current Switch games to be played on the hit console’s successor as it looks to drum up excitement among its current user base for the highly-anticipated device. Shares of Nintendo closed 5.8% higher in Tokyo on Wednesday, after the…

[thevellaunderground]

The Musical Magic of Mario vs. Donkey Kong (2024)

1. The Remastered Soundtrack: A Nostalgic Journey The 2024 version of Mario vs. Donkey Kong features a remastered soundtrack that pays homage to the original NES theme songs. Dive into the melodic world of springy jazz, Latin percussion, and adrenaline-pumping boss-battle themes. Discuss how the music enhances the gaming experience and evokes nostalgia for long-time fans. 2. Composers Behind…

[magz]

Citra, the emulator for Nintendo 3DS, is also shutting down operations alongside Yuzu, the emulator for Nintendo Switch.

This is a result of the settlement to the lawsuit Nintendo did against Yuzu, in claims of infringing on their copyright and DMCA, and "allowing piracy".

The Yuzu team (and Citra team) has agreed to their terms.

This is the statement on Citra emulator website citra-emu.org, quote:

"Hello yuz-ers and Citra fans: We write today to inform you that yuzu and yuzu’s support of Citra are being discontinued, effective immediately. yuzu and its team have always been against piracy. We started the projects in good faith, out of passion for Nintendo and its consoles and games, and were not intending to cause harm. But we see now that because our projects can circumvent Nintendo’s technological protection measures and allow users to play games outside of authorized hardware, they have led to extensive piracy. In particular, we have been deeply disappointed when users have used our software to leak game content prior to its release and ruin the experience for legitimate purchasers and fans. We have come to the decision that we cannot continue to allow this to occur. Piracy was never our intention, and we believe that piracy of video games and on video game consoles should end. Effective today, we will be pulling our code repositories offline, discontinuing our Patreon accounts and Discord servers, and, soon, shutting down our websites. We hope our actions will be a small step toward ending piracy of all creators’ works. Thank you for your years of support and for understanding our decision."

Other tweets with more information from someone that was in Citra discord

[luigiblood]

F-Zero 99 - 1 Year Anniversary and the Future

F-Zero 99 is the best thing that happened to Nintendo Switch Online.

I'm not gonna say it any other way, it's been a bit more than a year, and I have 153 hours. This game is top 2 of my most played games (just under Splatoon 3 which has 253 hours).

I was one of the people who was down for this idea since the moment Pyoro teased it and when Nintendo announced it in the September 2023 Nintendo Direct.

This game received 6 content updates since its debut, and most of them are major updates, and as of October 2024, the latest update was 1.5.0, with the addition of the Ace League, making it the first time that Nintendo has ever rereleased Satellaview content in any way, worldwide.

I gotta be honest here, this game keeps on giving, Nintendo Software Technology, the team behind this game, not Arika anymore, is doing a great job.

I'm gonna talk about how I felt about this game, but also a bit of an history of datamining, about the game's future, but spoiler: I don't think this game will die anytime soon.

Happy One Year Anniversary to F-Zero 99!

Oh, and, to everyone saying this game is pissing on F-Zero's legacy as I've definitely seen a few: Go f**k yourself.

Online Quality

To anyone who loves to mock the online quality of Nintendo, you cannot do it to this game, or even any of the games of the "99" series. If you have online problems, the problem is on your side. 100%.

Either your connection's terrible in which case I cannot do anything for you, but most of the problems that I had with the game, it was all solved with either a fix of my internet connection setup (cables, Wi-Fi setup, etc), or by rebooting the Switch system entirely, this is most likely what you need to do the most.

It's not entirely perfect of course, but for the entire year of its existence, I have legit no serious complaints to make to the game.

Datamining The Future

Now... let's go over what we originally datamined at first.

I'm not gonna go over what was clearly experimental content such as a 3D Mute City I map or other things like that.

Extra Modes

We found code and references to 2 modes that have yet to be added to the game since launch:

Arcade Mode It is believed to work similar to old arcade racing games, where you have a limited time, and you go through Time Gates (also datamined) to add more time to your counter to let you either finish the course, or run out of time and rank out.

Survival Mode We found some references to it for the schedule file, but also what is feeling like to be a circle plane. I speculate it to maybe work like a battle royale where the playable place reduces in size, but it's hard to fully understand how it works at this point in time.

I have no idea when these modes would be added, if ever, actually, it's still subject to interpretation.

Extra Courses

We also found references to 4 placeholder course files:

Sulfur Swamp

Volcania

Fungus Swamp

Forest

Three of them uses recolored Mute City I and a custom but clearly placeholder background. But the inclusion of Forest placeholder was definitely an odd one.

It was actually hard to say what it could have been, but Forest is actually the name of a course in BS F-Zero Grand Prix 2 on Satellaview, and more to that, it's the name of a course that we never actually had recovered until the recent BS F-Zero Deluxe hack that used tons of tools in an attempt to reproduce them. We still don't have the original data yet, though. The bounty for that is still up, by the way.

I did definitely get my chances to suspect that maybe, NST was looking into Satellaview tracks, alongside brand new tracks, but maybe that Forest was just also a placeholder name.

But considering the inclusion of Ace League now, I doubt it is a coincidence. Especially when they bothered to have pretty creative names for the others, Forest just sticks out from the rest for being a pretty generic word, an argument that I had already used back then.

But I also noticed something odd, though, on this one I will DEFINITELY give an update if they ever fix this, but the Ace League's best machine ranks are not saved in the stats. This is odd, I don't know if it's a bug, or if it's actually voluntary... because IF it is, then I think the Ace League will change in the future to include the rest of the Satellaview tracks alongside a new Joker (?) League.

UPDATE from October 16th: F-Zero 99 1.5.1 update just released, and they did fix this so I was just doing copium. Not that I didn't expect it, it was a very shaky thing.

In one of the updates, before the inclusion of Secret Tracks, we had seen what was named Death Wind I Remix, which was the Death Wind I + White Land fusion. It's not unlikely that in the future, we will receive what would be called Remix tracks, for possibly entire leagues, but we might need to wait a while before we get those.

Incoming Event?

As NST is definitely aware of datamining attempts, they have been actually pretty busy scrubbing every unused files related to future content especially.

But then they missed a file in the latest 1.5.0 update that added Ace League:

It seems they are looking into doing a Mario VS Donkey Kong Festival Event in the future, including a Mini Mario League, and 4 Star Rivals called Mario, Mini Mario, Donkey Kong and Toad.

There's not much else to it, as it is just text. This text was not localized in most languages from English.

If I had to guess though, I don't rule out that this event might happen for the anniversary of the Mario VS Donkey Kong remake in February 2025. Mario VS Donkey Kong was also the baby of NST, ever since the first of the series on GBA, so it might just be meant to be a fun thing they wanted to do.

I would expect the Mini Mario League to contain either brand new or modified existing tracks to a newer style related to Mario VS Donkey Kong, new music, possibly new machines, and, definitely to me, new emotes to unlock. I expect that to be a limited time event like the others, though what you unlock will definitely stay to your workshop, like previous events, and possibly Training mode if there's indeed new courses to play that they care enough to let us play after the event.

I wouldn't be surprised if we have to collect Mini Marios or something like that, but either way, it seems NST is trying to be a little more daring to F-Zero 99 and possibly follow the footsteps of Tetris 99's themes.

Depending on the situation of the Ace League machine stats, I might have to update this post if I really somehow went too far with my suspicions. (UPDATE: Yes I went too far, they fixed the bug with 1.5.1.)

I do expect more updates related to Ace League for sure, as I do think we'll get Classic versions of the Ace League tracks, and possibly Mirror versions too.

...but oh my god though there's freaking Satellaview tracks in F-Zero 99 omg omg omg we just need the 5 left now

[evanwhosjusthere]

Video Game Artist Spotlight: Nick Kondo

Nick Kondo is an artist and animator who worked in both the game and film industry. Growing up he loved Jurassic Park and Terminator 2 and they convinced him to join the film world through DigiPen’s digital art and animation program. After graduating in 2003, he would land his first gig working for Nintendo through Nintendo Software Technology Corporation, located within Nintendo Of America. Working as artist and animator on games like 1080 Avalanche and Metroid Prime Hunters. He would continue to work in the gaming space until the mid-2010s where he would join Sony Pictures Imageworks and contribute to the groundbreaking film "Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse"!

Till this day he still works at Sony Pictures Animation as an animation director. Contributing to Spider-Verse's sequel, "Across The Spider-Verse" and "The Mitchell's Vs. The Machines". His most recent work has been with mobile gaming giant, Supercell, and their upcoming game, Squad Busters.

His Twitter, Instagram, archived website, AnimationMentor page, and Vimeo page.

Titles Worked On:

1080° Avalanche (2003) - Art, Models, Texture, Animation

Metroid Prime Hunters (2006) - Concept Art, Animator

Arkadian Warriors (2007) - Concept Artist

Condemned 2: Bloodshot (2008) - Animator, Storyboard Artist

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (2009) - Animator

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North (2011) - Artwork

Toy Soldiers: Cold War (2011) - Animator

Middle Earth: Shadow of War (2017) - Senior Artist, Animator

[n64retro]

Ridge Racer 64 (Nintendo Software Technologies, Namco, 2000) Spanish ad from the early 2000s.

[jtgunner]

New video is up on YouTube! It's Grand Prix time in F-Zero 99 again, so I'm going to try to survive the Mirror Queen League GP! This one gave me a lot of trouble, but I think I'm ready to conquer this!

WATCH IT HERE: https://youtu.be/_lQQp2Lj8ZM

[fostersffff]

As a certified mark, I spent the $10 on the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour software for the Nintendo Switch 2, because I really wanted to know if this could possibly justify the cost of entry.

When stacked against Nintendo's other launch titles that are also essentially just tech demos, I do think this can hang. It's a lot more academic (and masturbatory) than a Wii Sports or a Nintendo Land, because so much of the game is checking out little kiosks that tell you about each component of the Switch 2, like how the mouse sensor works, or comparing the way the HD Rumble 2 is constructed compared to older rumble technology, and then taking quizzes on that information. It’s probably best described as a “playable instruction manual”, and so it serves as a good introduction to the hardware, especially with the slate of literal tech demos and minigames (that are also mostly just tech demos) that get you to engage with features of the hardware in an extremely straightforward way. Like, even though I was aware of the fact that the joycons could be used as mice, this did a really great job of selling the potential of the various control schemes that enables. It's also very nice to have a tech demos that very clearly demonstrate 3D audio, or how much nicer things can look with VRR enabled.

Despite this, I don't think I can ever earnestly suggest that anyone buy this. I can understand why Nintendo wants to charge money for it (plus residual bitterness about Wii Sports), and the price tag is less offensive to me than the $50 they charged for 1-2-Switch back in the day, but it should've just come with the hardware. Especially when you consider that if you don't have a controller with the GL/GR buttons (sold separately), a USB camera (sold separately), or a 4k-ready TV (really sold separately), you literally can't 100% clear the game. It's embarrassing that Nintendo got absolutely mogged by Sony 5 years ago on this point by having Astro's Playroom, which was both a great introduction to what made the PS5 different from the PS4 and a game so good they expanded into a Game of the Year winner at The Geoffies.

[l-1-z-a]

🏙️📒Building SimCity

A deep dive into the trailblazing simulation game SimCity, situating it in the history of games, simulation, and computing.

Building SimCity explores the history of computer simulation by chronicling one of the most influential simulation games ever made: SimCity. As author Chaim Gingold explains, Will Wright, the visionary designer behind the urban planning game, created SimCity in part to learn about cities, thinking about the world as a complex system and appropriating ideas from traditions in which computers are used for modeling. As such, SimCity is a microcosm of the histories and cultures of computer simulation that engages with questions, themes, and representational techniques that reach back to the earliest computer simulations.

Gingold uses SimCity to explore a web of interrelated topics in the history of technology, software, and simulation, taking us far and wide—from the dawn of programmable computers to miniature cities made of construction paper and role-play. An unprecedented history of Maxis, the company founded to bring SimCity to market, the book reveals Maxis's complex relations with venture capitalists, Nintendo, and the Santa Fe Institute, which shaped the evolution of Will Wright's career; Maxis's failure to back The Sims to completion; and the company's sale to Electronic Arts.

A lavishly visual book, Building SimCity boasts a treasure trove of visual matter to help bring its wide-ranging subjects to life, including painstakingly crafted diagrams that explain SimCity's operation, the Kodachrome photographs taken by Charles Eames of schoolchildren making model cities, and Nintendo's manga-style “Dr. Wright” character design, just to name a few.

[rubiatinctorum]

There are two types of Pokémon creepypastas I remember reading as a teenager: creepypastas about the games, and creepypastas about the Pokémon world. Mostly I would remember the ones about the games, because the ones interacting with the fictional world didn't feel like anything I wasn't supposed to know. It's horror fanfiction, which is cool, but it didn't stick with me personally to remember long-term. Some of them had basis in Pokédex entries, and as much as I liked a good horror story now and then based on one of those entries, it felt like normal horror fiction, confined within the garden walls of safe fictionality.

The ones that really stuck with me were about, on some level, Pokémon games being games. Stories about glitches and secret coded threats and adverse effects individual elements could have. To this day, I turn the system volume off in Lavender Town even in HeartGold because I'm so freaked out and superstitious about a made up story I read or heard about a decade ago. After all, having heard about game-breaking glitches and details changed in localization, about MissingNo. and bad eggs and all kinds of shit, it makes a person with very little knowledge of what a game can and cannot do really unsure of which stories are real and which are creepypastas. Add in stories about fake game cartridges (something that do exist) with threats and death and gore to a level which would never happen on a real Pokémon game but could be put in a home-cooked faux-Pokémon game if made by a malicious actor, horror enthusiast, or someone with a rotten sense of humour about to let it fall into the hands of the wrong neighborhood ten year old, and the possibility of what could exist gets even broader.

It gives a person high standards, and multiple sleepless nights.

Maybe it's why the further into these stories I got, the more I would find myself disliking the ones that made absolutely no sense. Oh, your GameBoy bled when you put the cartridge in? Is this fucking Cabinet Man? (accuracy note: Cabinet Man hadn't yet been released, actually, so I wouldn't have said specifically that). The official Pokémon game told you that you were responsible for your dead niece's departure from this world, but displayed nothing when your friend tried to set off the interaction? A game like that cannot tell which user plays it. There's no specialized facial recognition software on a GameBoy or DS, as far as I'm aware, so it shouldn't know the difference between your playtime and your friend's. Until the DSi they don't even have cameras. You know, it's stuff like this, where the technology is doing things that technology literally cannot do, that I started to feel like these stories weren't doing much for me, especially compared to ones that knew their tech and made a plausible, fictional, fucking horrifying story out of it.

I think some of these stories could thrive if they leaned into being generally horror fiction, straying away from attempts at being urban legends. I think some of these stories could thrive if they didn't rely on their core premises being about technology that people knew it couldn't do certain things, even if they weren't 100% sure of what the upper limit is. MissingNo. is real. Lavender Town fooled enough people I still find threads asking if it was real. Pokémon (spins wheel) Skulls and Crossbones where the (throws a dart) player is (picks a slip of paper from a hat) sucked into the game and (consults an augur) forced to be the chimneysweep for the Daycare Centre for all time is a fucking reach, as interesting fictionally as the premise might be to explore in a story if we all play with the understanding it's fiction. There are things we know Pokémon cartridges and Nintendo systems do, and there are things we know they Nintendon't.

I don't think a good story should have to be plausible (duh, I write about vampires and ghosts and witches considerably often). Lots of great science fiction relies on the technology going beyond the normal bounds of what technology can currently and in some cases will ever do. But I think that when you invoke specificity of console and brand, whether that's a Pokémon game and a GameBoy or whether it's Microsoft Outlook and a laptop running Windows 10, people who use those systems and technologies relatively often if not daily will be familiar with them enough to not believe for a minute if a story tells you that's what tried to pull an honest to goodness Cabinet Man or suck someone into an isekai. I'm not saying it will break everyone's suspension of disbelief, but it sure breaks mine, and then it just seems silly and out-of-nowhere.

[archoneddzs15]

PC Engine - Battle Ace

Title: Battle Ace / バトルエース

Developer/Publisher: Hudson Soft

Release date: 30 November 1989

Catalogue No.: HC89026

Genre: Into-the-Screen Vertical Shooter

Format: SuperGrafx

There were rumors of a PC Engine successor brewing up in 1989, as competition was coming from Sega's Mega Drive and Nintendo's upcoming Super Famicom. It was tentatively dubbed the PC Engine II. Something must have gone horribly wrong because instead, the SuperGrafx was born. The SuperGrafx was built on top of the PC Engine's core technology, except with a few upgrades here and there. When it was launched, reception from the gaming press and public in Japan was so cold that NEC and Hudson gave up on the SuperGrafx dream after 2 years and only 7 titles taking advantage of it. Despite the fact the SuperGrafx was backward-compatible with the entire PC Engine library, the price was too high, the software was too few - costing over US$100 each per game, and its proposition to compete against the Mega Drive and Super Famicom was unrealized.

When the system was launched on 30 November 1989, only one launch game was released, and it stayed like this for months, called Battle Ace. The main problem with Battle Ace is that it's rubbish! While I've not got anything against the genre - I love After Burner, and Space Harrier is my all-time favorite arcade game - anyone buying this with their brand new SuperGrafx must have wondered what made them waste their hard-earned cash. The gameplay is mind-numbingly repetitive without being enjoyable, and the graphics are extremely bland - you rarely see the enemy ships as anything bigger than a few dots as you've either destroyed them or they've gone whizzing off. Also, the levels are overly long and while the music is quite racy, it's not catchy or technically good enough to relieve the monotony. Quite how a company like Hudson had the nerve to release this trash is beyond me.

[northwest-cryptid]

The future is now, and a lot of people really don't like it.

It's something I've noticed, I was born just before the turn of the century, and I grew up with a lot of talk about what the future would be like. Computers, the internet, technology itself was still fairly new at least to the everyday consumer. Sure my father had been programming for years, but cell phones were still bricks we had to carry around in our pocket. This isn't a put down, so please don't think I'm using Zoomer as a derogatory term or anything but; Zoomers may not really grasp the fact that our first cell phones were these really chunky bricks that had 2 toned small screens that literally could just make calls or play snake. Texting was a pain, you had to literally hit the same key multiple times to cycle through letters and then wait for it to move to the next slot if you needed a letter on the same key.

And yet, almost everyone around me, and everyone I spoke to online was excited about technology; about the future. Integration of tech into the daily lives of those around you was the coolest stuff you could see, we had classes in school that taught us not just how to type and use the computer, but also things like internet safety and even really basic stuff about how to program. We're talking about elementary school by the way, I was playing computer games in the lab and learning how to type properly, how to stay safe online; and in some cases even how to make games. It was uncommon for anyone even in middle school to own a cell phone, and if they did it was a Nokia. You had people who would swear by Apple products because "they made the iPod!" Which yea, you read that correctly; not the iPhone; the iPod. The iPhone was still just this sort of concept back in the day. The idea of a future where our phones could do more than play snake, send texts, and call people.

You had a lot of people online who made their own websites and were lamenting how easy the internet was becoming for "just any schmuck on the street" to use. It used to be a utopia for only the biggest nerds with their text based computer games and personal websites. However it was quickly becoming more and more accessible to the every-man and people were divided on whether or not that was a good thing. Some didn't care for the direction the internet was going, and others enjoyed the attention the internet and technology by proxy was finally getting.

With more people being able to use technology effectively, the demand for better and better tech was growing. At the time, the capitalistic nature of the industry was fine, it prompted companies to compete for the biggest and the best new stuff to show off. If you were going to spend your money on something; it really had to be quality made. This isn't just about cell phones and computers either, if you look back at how much advancement was made in game consoles back during the time of the Gamecube or Dreamcast eras, you'll see that no one in the console industry could stand by and make sales by just being a brand name. Everything from computer parts to gaming consoles to even software was becoming better, whether that meant faster; higher definition, or even just sometimes having bigger numbers. I mean hell the Nintendo 64 literally put the number in the name to tell you how big of a deal it was.

This was the golden age for technology, and I am genuinely sad that a lot of Zoomers never got to really experience it. We shit-talk Zoomers for growing up without tech literacy, or being iPad babies, but the truth is; they're not taught like we were. Most of the older Millennials, or gen Xers had a lot more understanding of tech because we either were literally raised on it, or we were making it. Zoomers never got to experience what it was like to know the what and why of new tech coming out. The market has become so taken over by capitalistic greed that no one is really happy about it.

We wanted a world where tech made people's lives easier, integration of tech into your daily life was meant to simplify things. Not to advertise 20 different products to you before you can request an uber to come pick you up just so it can ask you if you want to upgrade, only for your uber driver to be so distracted by their phone and the reek of marijuana that they can't drive safely. Which mind you, isn't to say phones or weed are necessarily bad, but hey don't drive under the influence you piece of shit, especially not with passengers; you make the rest of us look bad! Now I gotta go online and complain about this on social media, of course I'm talking about like, maybe one of five social media sites people actually use. Yes it's highly censored and what isn't censored by the people running the site is likely to be caught in the net of the social culture around the website, so of course I have to watch what I say and over explain myself. Then I think I'll reblog that post about how we're all explaining ourselves too much and being too nice and we're too afraid to speak our minds and we really need to stop doing that. Then I'll answer the anon hate I got for speaking my mind and trying to not over explain myself because the social culture net is so broad it encompasses significantly too many different kinds of people who won't see eye to eye...

My point with that whole paragraph is to say that even someone like me, who adores technology and wants it to progress and wants it to integrate more into my life; still doesn't agree with what has become of it. I think the worst part about it is that some of it is inescapable while other parts can be fixed but every time I say that I get yelled at for it. It's like people would rather believe they're trapped here than understand they still have a lot of power over the use of their technology. It's easier to accept the world around you when you don't feel like you could do anything, when you understand that you could do something rather than merely complain it creates a dilemma. Suddenly you know for a fact you could fix your problem, but that requires a certain amount of effort on your part. I've heard people tell me they can't learn to code in HTML for reasons branching from trauma to disabilities. Which is baffling because if you can literally make a text post on tumblr, or send me anon hate to yell at me about how you can't possibly learn HTML; you could easily type out HTML or copy paste it.

However I'm not here to point fingers, I'm here to say I've noticed that the places we can't escape from are getting more and more aggressive, and no one feels like we can do anything. It's rough, because I know if we did try to do something it would be a hell of a lot more effort than just getting people to figure out they could make their own websites if they don't like the ones they are on.

The majority of public transport, businesses, and restaurants have apps that require you to have a smart phone. I sit down and ask for a menu, I'm told there's a QR code on the table I can scan. I once told a waitress my phone couldn't scan QR codes and she made a big fuss about how they don't have physical menus anymore and she wasn't about to tell me what all they had as options. It was my fault for being too poor to afford a good enough phone. Something that was once considered a luxury is now a necessity to eat at an establishment. If you're curious, it was a waffle house. A fucking Waffle House decided to do away with their menus and opted for QR codes. Thankfully I've not seen this catching on with other Waffle Houses, but consider the target audience of a Waffle House. This isn't some fancy classy restaurant, this is a 24/7 diner where you stop in at 3 AM to eat some poorly cooked hash-browns and eggs that were made by a poor college student who isn't paid enough; and hope no one starts a fight because the only other two people in this place are drunk off their ass and getting a little loud with the waiter. When I asked the waitress for literally just hash-browns, a couple of eggs, and bacon; a typical breakfast you could get just about anywhere that serves, you know; breakfast. I was told that's not a menu item and that I'd need to order off the menu if I wanted to actually buy anything. We went back and forth for about 5 minutes and I was doing my best to be polite about the situation because I've worked food service before and I understand too well what it's like to just want a quiet, simple shift. Finally the manager came out, charged me about $7 and made me some food. When they told the waitress to leave me be I heard her remark "alright but they were being rude as fuck" as she walked off. Mind you the only thing I asked for was a menu, then some food; and then asked what the menu item most resembling my order would have been and to just charge me for that. As the waitress stood off in the corner of the Waffle House she literally pulled out her smart phone. Not once did she offer to just scan the QR code for me and help find an order closest to my request, or any such thing. The situation was simple in her mind, I didn't have access to their QR code menu, so I couldn't order anything; end of story.

For many if you take public transport and you need an app for it, your phone needs to be able to run that app. If it can't you're out of luck, it doesn't matter if you have the money for the bus, it doesn't matter if you could pay a taxi. You need to have the app on your phone to travel, you need to scan a QR code to eat, some apps will literally ask for your ID or driver's license, so that's fun. I've literally had apps ask me for my social security information. Yea, remember kids don't give out your personal information to anyone online... unless it's this fun app you use, because remember the guys at [business] are your friends! I know you may believe that they're a business and therefore they have to use your data responsibly, but the truth is that's just not how it works. The people working at Google, at Tumblr, at Uber, they're all just people; people like you and me. Except they have access to your cloud storage, they have access to everything you've ever posted, they have access to your location, they have access to any pictures you've taken that get automatically backed up to your phone with metadata that lists the exact place it was taken; yes that includes your nudes. "For your eyes only... and like all the google employees who see this, and that one creepy guy who screenshot it and shares it with his friends uwu"

Not to be a boomer, but back in my day we were literally taught internet safety in school; and a lot of people cared deeply about this sort of thing. They weren't so apathetic to it all just to get through the day, I hear people say "oh I don't care, I know they're watching, listening; they know everything about me, targeted ads are real; etc." Hell I've been there myself, it's hard to care about it all because it feels like it's everywhere. I understand you may not want to really concern yourself with it, but when you're aware of it you can actually take measures to prevent it where you can. That's literally WHY we were taught this shit in school.

Truth is, I still have those hopes of a future where tech is part of the daily life of those who want it. I love the idea of convenient apps and fun websites. I love the idea of tech advancing and everyone finding new ways to enjoy life. Things like Vtubers, VR/AR tech, video games, and yes even the good things about shit like cell phones, and smart devices. That's all great, but I want it without all the bullshit. I hate using AR tech and going "hi random Meta employee who's likely viewing my data, location, and possibly has random access to my cameras and what I'm running on my own personal tech!" People call me paranoid, they bitch at me for being cynical; and I can't blame them. I really can't, because I know I'd enjoy life a lot more if I didn't think like this, if I didn't know what I know. It's that age old saying that ignorance is bliss.

However, when I see things like the Old Web Movement, and I understand people are trying; they're fighting the good fight and I'm just sitting there? I can't do that. I have to do my part, I have to try as well; or else I have no right to complain, to want for better tech; safer tech, more private tech. I can't scream about something as simple as discord suddenly telling me about everything my friends are playing, or what they're watching in a server I'm not even a part of; unless I'm actively actually doing my part to spread awareness and fight against the violations of privacy that so many tech applications are imposing upon people. I have to speak up even if people hate me for it.

If I was alone on that front, I'd probably let it die; I'd just be some hermit living my own way and not even care. However when I see people trying to fight for others to make their own websites, to give that power back to the public. When I see people trying to teach others how to jailbreak their tech, how to fight back against the automation of data mining and AI stealing your every word to teach some multi-billion dollar waste of electricity. I have to do my part, because I was born just before the turn of the century; and while I'm sure people would tell me it's not that deep. I still dream of the future that was promised to me when I was young, and if I can't have it in my life time, I'll fight for Zoomers; and if they can't have it in theirs, I want them to be armed with the knowledge necessary to help the next generation.