#Sensible Software

[vgadvisor]

[retrocgads]

UK 1987

[fght-ff-yr-dmns]

An ode to 90's video game developer, Sensible Software.

Creators of the legendary Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder and Wizkid to name but a few titles.

Pixel art is a labour of love.

[nintendumpster]

[z2z-gaming-and-random-art-ai]

Console Sports Games of 1994 - World Championship Soccer II

World Championship Soccer II, also known as World Championship Soccer 2, was released in 1994 for the Sega Genesis. Published by SEGA Enterprises Ltd. and SEGA of America, Inc and developed by Sensible Software, this game is a sequel to the original World Championship Soccer, featuring enhanced graphics and gameplay mechanics.

The game includes teams from the 1994 World Cup as well as teams from the 1986 and 1990 World Cups. It offers various modes like exhibition and tournament play, and expands on the original title by introducing more formations and strategies. One unique aspect of this game is the inclusion of a four-way play option, allowing up to four players to compete simultaneously.

Features

• Released: 1994 on SEGA Genesis • Developers/Publishers: Sensible Software/SEGA of Europe & SEGA of America • Genre: Sports • Sub-Genre: Football/Soccer • Modes: 1-4 Players • Perspective: Top Down • Age Rating: VRC Rating - GA • Moby Score: 6.5 • GameFAQs User Rating: 2.67

1. Intro 00:00 2. Gameplay 00:15 3. Outro 07:12

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For more sports game videos, check out the playlists below:

Console Sports Games of 1993 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFJOZYl1h1CEhIf6hohng9T2IPLCpzn7o

Console Sports Games of 1994 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFJOZYl1h1CGSF_AK734XDflipeUo8Dr9

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #605

Top Ten Videogame Intros

I had a bash on Gotham Knights this week via the medium of Xbox Game Pass (a great place to try out games you’re curious about but which you suspect are a bit pants – I’m looking at you, Marvel’s Avengers and Redfall). Anyway, one of the things that immediately struck me – because it’s, like, the very first thing that happens – is that the game has quite a long, protracted opening cut-scene with no interactivity. There’s a whacking great fight in the Batcave and then the aftermath of Batman’s death, and I swear it goes on for about ten minutes. It’s all in-engine, except it’s that sort of souped-up in-engine thing that looks a lot better than when you’re actually playing the game. And this kind of non-interactivity felt a bit incongruous; most game shy away from removing control for that length of time. Over the last twenty years, the most common form of introduction seems to be to allow you to actually play the game; even if the interactivity is pretty rote, the fashion is normally to present the story to you as gameplay. Think of Half-Life, arguably the great pioneer and also poster child for this method; a long, slow train ride through an expansive underground facility, hinting at the expanse of the game and the environments you’ll later have to battle your way out of armed with only a crowbar and a natty orange suit.

It wasn’t always this way, of course; Back In The Day, a game’s “intro” was often a mark of its quality. When the very notion of animation (and voices!) was a novelty worth talking about on the back of the box, intros were all the rage. Given the limited possibility for narrative in the days before performance capture and CD-quality speech, an intro might be the only way to tell you the game’s story, especially in a more action-focused title.

I say all this as a preamble because this week’s list is my favourite gaming intros. And, wouldn’t you know it, almost all of them are quite old. There’s only one that’s from this century and even that was fifteen years ago and – even back then – felt like a bit of a comedy throwback (which, of course, is part of its charm). I don’t know if it’s just because intros are shorter, more built into the actual gameplay, or because ever since in-game graphics and animation became sufficiently impressive as to actually tell a story, the very novelty of a bespoke animated film to kick off your game – whether sprite-based or live-action or rudimentary CG – has fallen by the wayside somewhat. Games like to thrust you into the action nowadays, explaining their backstory and how to play the game through gameplay mechanics themselves. I guess it’s probably a better, more immersive way to do it (the Gotham Knights intro does feel hella-long) but maybe something charming has kinda been lost along the way.

Back in the Amiga days, an intro might come on a disk all of its own. Just the intro disk. You stick it in, it plays a short film, then you insert disk 2 and the game actually begins. It was exciting! It felt like the future, like games becoming bigger and more artful, more able to express themselves using improving technology. And this list is a celebration of that; of game intros that are, well, just impressive in and of themselves, but also in how effective they are at setting up the game you’re gonna play. And I have made a distinction here between non-interactive intro “movies” – I think all of these are actual videos, so to speak, rather than in-engine, even Grim Fandango – so none of that Half-Life emergent stuff. That could be another list, I guess.

So what are we waiting for? Insert disk one.

Another World (1991): the grandaddy of all evocative intros, this was a masterpiece in subtle animation, world building, and suspense. With a limited colour palette, we see protagonist Lester Chaykin (a name I’ve somehow remembered perfectly over thirty years later) screech up in his Ferrari, descend an elevator, drink some Coke, and run an experiment that goes wrong and transports him to – you’ve guessed it – another world. Where you’re instantly dropped into the thick of it and have to start working out what to do and how to play immediately. The hard-edged polygonal look of the game makes the intro appear “in-game” just zoomed-in, from different angles; it’s a seamless and incredibly impressive feat. It serves perfectly to set everything up, and it just looks and sounds so damn cool.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 (2008): FMV intros really came into prominence in the mid-nineties with the ascendency of CD-ROMs, and all of the Command and Conquer games excel in this area (remember Einstein killing Hitler in the first game?). Here we have some actual movie stars properly hamming it up in extraordinary fashion – Andrew Divoff as a general, Peter Stormare as a mad scientist, and chief among them, Tim Curry as the new Russian Premiere, having the time of his life. The cast also includes Jonathan Pryce, George Takei, and J.K. Simmons.

Premiere (1992): maybe a bit more obscure than the others, this Hollywood-set platform game from Core Design has a sumptuous and incredibly impressive animated intro (which had its own disk!). They clearly tried to evoke the look and feel of a genuine animated movie as much as possible – the loose, floppy, cartoonish style carries over into the game proper – and the results speak for themselves. Also speaking for themselves are the main character (whose name I forgot, sorry; look, this isn’t Another World), a rare instance of digitised speech in an Amiga game. Also of note: the bit where the phone rings off the hook. Loved that.

Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (1997): another FMV affair at the height of the CD boom, this one had the added bonus of being about Star Wars. A bit of live-action Star Wars, including Jedi and lightsaber fights and all sorts, at a time when that hadn’t happened since 1983. It’s impossible to overstate, when a new Star War flops onto TV every other week, just how extraordinary that was, how exciting. Even putting aside that novelty, it’s still cracking, with some great cod-mythological dialogue, genuinely impressive action, and enough entertainment and intrigue to get you started. And, yes, it just feels so authentically Star Wars; this is probably the moment I became a die-hard fan of the franchise.

Cannon Fodder (1993)and Sensible World of Soccer (1994): when I first played these games on the Amiga they just had the songs – terrific songs though they were, hilarious and silly, with daft lyrics (“War, never been so much fun”). These intros, which I think first appeared on the Amiga CD32 and later PC releases, are basically daft music videos, and Cannon Fodder’s in particular is really funny. There’s a sense of a band larking about as the – young, male, white – developers shoot a video in a field where they get to drive a tank and dress up as soldiers. It's supremely silly and fantastic and so evocative of a time, a place, and Sensible Software in general.

Final Fight (1989): so far these have all been games I played at home, but here we have a great – possibly the greatest – example of a succinct arcade intro. These things had to be short – you don’t wanna put 20p in a machine and wait there all day to get started – but also had to set the tone and tell you why you were constantly pushing a joystick to the right while your dad waited patiently behind you with his hands in his pockets. The sheer eighties-action-movie directness of this – some mad gang threatening a city, kidnapping the mayor’s daughter, and the interaction of the identikit heroes, all in simple stills with hardly any animation – is a daft story simply told, and really sets the tone for what’s about to happen.

Syndicate Wars (1996): this one emerged when the concept of “fully-rendered” intros was all the rage; looking back now, the animation, modelling, and overall quality of the video itself (I imagine the resolution and bitrate was, ah, low) makes it feel like a product of another era. But this, again, is great at setting the tone and the place and also offering a more ground-level view of a world we see from above; the depiction of the violent battles of the agents is great, but especially evocative is how the “persuaded” citizens view the world, and what happens when the digital scales fall from their eyes.

Grim Fandango (1998): I feel like even way back when, most adventure games began in media res, almost; think of Guybrush walking up to the lookout on Melee Island. Fandango is a bit different, in that we see a whole animation play out – and this may have been souped-up engine footage, but it was definitely a rendered animation, not just playing out in-game – which explains the backstory of lead character Manny Calavera (remembered his name too!) and the mechanics of the game world. It’s a terrific overview of what could be a strange concept (the bureaucracy of the afterlife, filtered through Mexican traditions and culture, but also a film noir?) and anything that gives us more of Tony Plana’s performance is gold.

Theme Hospital (1997): another great example of one of Bullfrog’s rendered intros: it's very funny, with its depiction of a doctor as a sort of superhero rushing to the rescue, but also quite pointed (as the game is in general with its humour) in the way the poor victim is dumped down a chute if they can’t afford treatment. The rudimentary animation has a dated sort of charm, and I also love the various little gags and in-jokes they cram into such a short intro.

Shadow of the Beast II (1990): another superb and evocative Amiga intro – I actually thought I’d have a lot more from the Amiga era on here, but I guess the mid-nineties PC stuff has stuck in my head more. Anyway, this goes full-bore fantasy lore, coming across like one of Arnie’s Conan movies more than Lord of the Rings; but we get the return of a dark lord, a lonely cabin on the edge of civilisation, and – through some rather simple but incredibly effective animation, and the very evocative thunder and lightning effects – an evil attack and a baby being carried off by a giant predatory bird. Yes, it’s rudimentary, but it’s very effective. This was also one of the first Amiga 500 games I ever saw – it used to run in demo machines in computer shops, along with Days of Thunder – and I used to play it all the time with my cousin, so this dark fantasy opening is seared into my brain. I don’t remember what the main character was called, by the way, but I remember the cheat code for invulnerability was “ten pints”.

Insert disk two.

[mlembug]

I hope Nintendo fucking loses

[gallusrostromegalus]

The Van Has Officially Declared It Spooky Season

---

I've got my parent's van for the week and it seems determined to establish my status as The Local Cryptid by terrorizing an innocent 7-11 clerk.

...I might need to back up a bit.

My mother is an eminently sensible woman who knows herself well, and when The Plauge hit, she knew she'd need some sort of mentally and physically engaging craft project to keep herself from going insane and massacring the local zoning and water management boards (even if they have it coming). So she and Dad acquired a utility van and converted it into a camper van because while they love camping, they're past the age where their joints and immune systems will tolerate sleeping on the cold ground in a nylon tent.

They did a terrific job of it and my mom taught herself woodworking and carpentry and now the van has it's own cabinets, fold-away dining table, and removable queen-sized bed with memory foam mattress. My Dad was already a computer engineer, but he learned the dark magics of automotive software and electronics to install after-market backup cameras, a media player that would take a terabyte hard drive and a solar-powered battery and outlet so they could wake up and just turn on the kettle and griddle for breakfast without having to exit the van into a cold morning on an empty stomach.

Truly, the height of Camping Luxury.

My parents are both in their mid-seventies and my primary life goal is to be at least half as cool and hale as they are when I get old.

Anyway, they take it out at least a dozen times a year and it works fabulously, but, being as I am on good terms with my parents and also finishing the process of moving house, I've been borrowing it to move large and cumbersome objects that will not fit in the back of my equally lovely but minuscule Honda hatchback.

It's a Great Van. Very easy and comfortable to drive. Stunningly good MPG for it's size. The best cruise control I've ever had in a car.

It's just also. Quirky. Mischievous, even.

---

If this van has a fault its that it bears the unfortunate affliction that all lightly used white utility vans have in that the combination of an utter lack of branding features and the large dent/scrape I accidentally put on it while trying to escape a Denny's last Thanksgiving means that this vehicle is one addition of a Badly Spray-Painted "FREE CANDY" on the side away from being the sort of vehicle you see in an edgy horror movie.

It's got the same issue that Doberman Dogs have where they look like the sort of creature that likes to snack on toddler's faces whilst actually having personalities made of marshmallow fluff. This vehicle is unnecessarily menacing and I think nothing short of an airbrushed Epic Van Wizard will correct this. People see this van pull up and lean over and squint suspiciously at me when the driver's side door opens, and then look moderately confused when, instead of Charles Manson, a small, potato-shaped creature with neon purple hair and a statistically unlikely assortment of dogs emerges.

My own two dogs, Herschel the Hanukkah Goblin/Corgi and Charleston Chew The Taco Dumpster Dog, Do Not Like The Van. Even with the bed in it, they have a tendency to slide and roll around in the back, and both WILL chew through dog saftey belts or other attempts to secure them in there.

On the other hand, my house mate's dog, an exceptionally tall standard poodle whom we lovingly call "The Creature", loves the Van because SHE wears her doggy seat-belt with only mild complaining and gets to sit up in the passenger seat like A People.

Also like A People, The Creature likes to stand and walk around on her hind legs. It doesn't hurt her and it's entirely voluntary, but every so often I will feel a hand on my arm and instead of my husband or friend, it's a canine that's taller than I am on her hind legs who wants to stare at my face with soulful, concerned eyes. The Creature's favorite thing is that she is exactly the right height for me to hold her arm in Genteel Fashion and walk around the pet food or hardware store with her like I'm a count escorting a debutante around a royal ball.

---

As it stands, I am set to inherit this vehicle whenever my Honda gives up the ghost, and I fully intend to paint an Epic Van Wizard on it when that time comes.

The other peculiarity of The Van is that while Dad did manage to successfully install all his after-market electronics, not all the electronics get along. Sometimes, they fight for Dominance. The Terabyte Music Player and the Backup Camera have a particularly contentious relationship, and turning on the music has about a 25% chance of turning on the backup camera as well, and turning on the Backup Camera is equally likely to turn on the music.

Firthermore, The Van has a favorite song.

I am not kidding that Dad filled an entire terabyte hard drive with music and the software to sort it via the radio controls, but of all the Early Boomer Dad Rock (Kingston Trio over The Eagles) and Irish Folk and Symphonies and the entire discography of Weird Al Yankovic, The Van's favorite song- The one it picks to play as victory music every time it beats the Backup Camera at their weird electronic game of rock-paper-scissors -is The Liberty Bell March by John Phillip Sousa.

You all know this song already.

...but in case you've forgotten the tune:

Yeah.

The Van's favorite song is the goddamn Monty Python's Flying Circus Theme Music.

It does not play this song at a normal volume.

Every time I turn on the Backup Camera and it manages to turn the music player on as well, The Van insists on absolutely blasting this nonsense on at the maximum volume it's physically capable of producing, which I know is loud enough to be heard from the Denver International Airport's Pickup zone when they Van decided to start playing it from the economy lot about half a mile away.

Perhaps it's The Van's way of honoring the aesthetic sensibilities and sonic enthusiasm of Mr. Sousa.

...I can't help but wonder if the purpose of an Epic Van Wizard is to control this sort of faerie-like malarkey, and channel these chaotic energies into things like Spell of Don't Break Down In Nevada or Enchantment Of Always Have Good Parking.

---

So last Friday the 13th, I get a call from my friend and housemate, at said airport.

It's roughly 11PM at night, and I have already retired for the evening. I am in the exact minimum of clothing required to be a decent housemate and not scandalize the neighbors should I happen to walk by a window. My feet are up. There is a cat in my lap and fictional British people murdering each other in highly inventive fashion on the tv. -But my friend has returned from her friend's wedding,and either American or United Airlines has managed to lose her luggage, including, among other valuable possessions, the keys to her car. ...So she cannot just drive home as originally planned.

There are, as luck would have it, her spare set of keys not eight feet from me.

Being a good and decent person, I agree to bring the spare keys to her so she may get home before daybreak and not spend a semester's worth of tuition on an uber across the greater Denver traffic jam.

Being also that she Loves Activities, and it's her mom we're going to pick up, I elect to take along The Creature.

I am primarily focused on remembering how to get to the airport and not leaving my friend's spare keys on the counter, so I throw on a pair of flip-flops, step outside, remember that it's AUTUMN and my minimal evening attire is not sufficient thermal protection, step back in, grab the first coat in the closet I lay hands on, pull it on, check that I have her keys again and leave.

The trip to the airport is largely unremarkable, save that it becomes necessary for me to put on sunglasses to drive, despite it being nearly the witching hour and almost entirely darker than the inside of a cow.

It's necessary because this blissful darkness of night is violently punctured by a startling number of cars that seem to have installed miniaturized but no less powerful lighthouse bulbs in where their headlights ought to go so the oncoming traffic and sports cars that insist on tailgating me in the slow lane alike illuminate the road and my mirrors with the kind of radiance I'd normally associate with the arrival of a Seraphim.

I arrive at the distant highly discounted airport car lot where my housemate is waiting, deeply apologetic. It's nothing. I say. Once I see that your car starts up, I'm gonna go to that 7-11 across the way that I parked in front of, get a slurpee or something and I'll see you at home.

While she is retrieving her vehicle (an equally eccentric but much more stately Subaru that is old enough to be elected to congress) I rifle through the loose change in the glove box and discover that I have exactly $6.66 in small bills and coins. The Subaru, continuing it's long voyage into vehicular immortality, immediately starts up.

Upon her return, we all remember that my friend had all her camping gear in the backseat of the car and there is no room for The Creature to ride home with her parent, so I again assure her it's nothing, and will just take The Creature into the 7-11 with me. She is trained as a service animal and needs the practice after the plague.

I wave my friend off and turn to enter the 7-11.

I promptly trip over the jutting back bumper of The Van and fall, cartoonishly, face-first onto the sidewalk.

Fortunately, I have a lot of practice falling on my face, and have learned not to throw my hands out but instead cover my face, so my unexpected self-inflicted attempted curb-stomping lightly scrapes my hairline and nothing else -my sunglasses even stay in place- and I get up and resume my quest for a slurpee.

It's well known that the airport is a lawless place, and the 7-11 across from the discounted airport parking at the stroke of midnight is no exception.

I know it's the stroke of Midnight because there's one of those Audubon society bird-call clocks that makes bird noises, and my arrival is heralded by the twittering call of a Summer Tanager. I am almost charmed enough by the unusual choice of chronological device to excuse the exorbitant Airport-adjacent mark-up of Slurpee prices. I stand at the machine for some time, trying to decide on a size for the price and guess what the fuck "Blue Lighting Blast" is supposed to taste like.

The Creature is being Very Polite but is somewhat agitated, I assume because she *just* saw her mother for the first time in three days and then she LEFT with no explanation, so The Creature is on her hind legs, staring woefully into my eyes, asking to be escorted around the 7-11. Even though that's not what she's not supposed to be doing, there's nobody else in here, so I let her hang off my arm and discuss various Slurpee Flavor options with her.

We eventually decide on an experiment in which I try a Small Blue Lightning Blast, and discover it tastes a bit like licking a nintendo cartridge but in a pleasantly satisfying way.

I go up to pay and realize something is amiss.

The Cashier is a young man staring at me with wide eyes, one had over the register and the other wrapped up in his rosary.

I look down at myself.

In my haste to reunite my friend with her spare keys and service animal, I had left the house in the following accoutrements:

Flip Flops. Not matching. It's below freezing outside. That last part is not particularly odd footwear for the weather in for Colorado, but it's an important detail for the rest of the ensemble.

Assorted scrapes, bruises, cuts and welts on my arms and legs that come with doing outdoor work and living in a house with three dogs and a fully-clawed cat that all want to be in my lap all the time. It's cold out, so vasoconstriction has pulled the blood away from my skin, a trait that served my ancestors well during the last Ice Age, but leaves me with pale skin to contrast the various wounds and I look like a corpse that fell out of the back of a pickup truck.

The black Bootyshorts with "CRYPTID" painted in bright red gothic font across my ass, that @theshitpostcalligrapher gave me for my wedding present.

A peculiar but extremely comfortable garment that straddles the line between "Lacy Camisole" and "Industrial-Strength Sports Bra" like the Ever Given straddling the Suez Canal. It is also Bright Red. with black accents.

The Jacket I had grabbed out of the closet, which is in fact, a black Velour Dinner Jacket.

The Tokyo-Ghoul inspired reusable anti-covid mask a friend made me with the set of Coyote Teeth.

My sunglasses, which are shaped like a Halloween Bat. The lenses are the wings and the body is the nose bridge. It is ALSO bright red.

A Very Large and remarkably Humanoid Poodle that I have been audibly affectionately calling "Dear Creature" who is hanging off my arm like she's my Prom Date.

The Very Large and remarkably Humanoid Poodle is ALSO dressed up in a black Dog Sweater that has white bones printed on it to look like its an X-ray jacket showing off her skeleton.

I look like I am taking my Very Fancy Werewolf Girlfriend to a particularly casual Dinner Party for Vampires, but the thing that's really selling it and probably alarming the kid the most is the fun accessory I acquired in the parking lot not five minutes earlier:

The "Small Scrape At my Hairline" is actually a painless but PROFUSELY bleeding head wound that I had somehow entirely failed to notice covering my face, neck, decolletage and magnificent cleavage with blood like a Tarantino Film Extra.

This does explain why The Creature has been delicately trying to use her bodyweight to push me down onto the floor for the last ten minutes. So I don't injure myself while we wait for the paramedics she hoped this kid called to arrive, you see.

The Creature has such a High and Naive Opinion of humanity.

I decide this social situation is already fucked, and the only way out is through, and with haste, before I start dripping on the floor.

"Hi there!" I say cheerfully, to indicate this is a visually alarming but not terribly serious situation. "Just a Small Slurpee!"

The Cashier has entered the relevant code into the register before I finish the sentence. His gaze flicks off me just long enough to look at the total, and he grips his Rosary harder.

$6.66

"Oh cool! I have exact change!" I say, taking the money out of my as-yet-unsanguined pocket without looking and slap it down on the counter. "You have a good night and be safe out there!" I wave, leaving.

I get in The Van, mortified, buckle The Creature up, and as I make to leave, I have to put it in reverse, which automatically turns on the backup Camera.

It also turns on the music player.

I make eye contact with the cashier as the dulcet tones of John Phillip Sousa boom from the van hard enough to make the windshield and the windows of the 7-11 rattle for the nine-and-a-half seconds I have to wait to be able to turn the volume back down. Not knowing what else to to, I give him a thumbs up, and leave.

Anyway, now I know what my Future Van Wizard has got to be dressed like, and what their familiar is.

---

If you enjoyed this story, please consider donating to my Ko-Fi or Pre-ordering my Family Lore Funny Stories book on Patreon

[autolenaphilia]

One thing I noticed talking about Linux and free software is that a lot of people seem afraid of learning things about technology. I constantly read things like "I hate windows, but switching to linux would mean learning a new OS, and you have to be some super-smart programmer-hacker to do that." Or even: "Switching to firefox would mean switching browsers and I don't know how"

And that is precisely the attitude tech companies like Microsoft and Apple try to instill in their users in order to control them. They create these simple and “friendly” user interfaces for their products, but these hide information. From their OS being pre-installed to their settings apps, they keep people from learning things about how their computer works, and letting the companies make the decisions for their users.

I think people are underestimating themselves and overestimating how hard it is to learn new things are. It is like Windows/Macos have taught them some kind of technological learned helplessness. Not knowing how computers work and being afraid to learn how is how companies like Microsoft controls you, and justifies that control.

For example, people hate the forced and automatic system updates on Windows. And Microsoft justifies it as necessary because some people don’t know that their computer needs security updates and therefore don’t update, so they have to force the updates on them. That’s definitely true, and Microsoft’s tech support people is definitely very aware of that but it is a operating system that presumes that the user is incompetent and therefore shouldn’t control their own computer. And of course Microsoft abuses that power to force privacy-invading features on their users. Windows updates are also badly designed in comparison, no Linux distro I’ve used required the update program to hijack the entire computer, preventing the user from doing other things, but Windows does.

This is the dark side of “user-friendly” design. By requiring zero knowledge and zero responsibility for the user, they also take control away from the user. User-friendly graphical user interfaces (GUI) can also hide the inner workings of a system in comparison to the command line, which enables more precise control of your computer and give you more knowledge about what it is doing.

Even GUIs are not all made equal in regards to this, as the comparison between the Windows Control panel and their newer Settings app demonstrates. As I complained about before, Windows have hidden away the powerful, but complex Control Panel in favor of the slicker-looking but simplified and less powerful Settings app for over a decade now.

Of course this is a sliding scale, and there is a sensible middle-ground between using the command line for everything and user-friendly design masking taking control away from the end user.

There are Linux distros like Linux Mint and MX Linux who have created their own GUI apps for tasks that would otherwise use the command line, without taking control away from the user. This is mainly because they are open source non-profit community-driven distros, instead of being proprietary OSes made by profit-driven megacorps.

Still, giving that control to the user presumes some knowledge and responsibility on part of the user. To return to the update example, by default both Mint and MX will search and notify you of available updates, but you will have to take the decision to download and install them. Automatic updates are available in both cases, but it’s opt-in, you have to enable that option yourself. And that approach presumes that you know that you should update your system to plug security holes, something not all people do. It gives you control because it presumes you have knowledge and can take responsibility for those decisions.

All this also applies to the underlying fact that practically all pre-built computers nowadays have an operating system pre-installed. Few people install an OS themselves nowadays, instead they use whatever came with the computer. It’s usually either Windows or MacOS for desktops/laptops, and Android/IOS for smartphones (which are also a type of computer).

Now all this is very convenient and user-friendly, since it means you don’t have to learn how to install your own operating system. The OEM takes care of that for you. But again, this is a convenience that takes choice away from you. If you don’t learn how to install your own OS, you are stuck with whatever that is on the computer you bought. It’s probably precisely this step that scares people away from Linux, few people have installed even Windows, and installing your own OS seems impossibly scary. But again, learning is the only way to take back control. If you learn how to install an OS off an USB stick, you now have choices in what OS to use. (Sidenote: the hard part IMO is not the actual install process, but fiddling with the BIOS so it will actually boot from the distro on the USB stick. This old comic strip illustrates this very well).

That’s how life is in general, not just computers. Having control over your life means making decisions based on your own judgment. And to make sensible, rational decisions, you have to learn things, acquire knowledge.

The only other alternative is letting others take those decisions for you. You don’t have to learn anything, but you have no control. And in the tech world, that means big corporations like Microsoft, Google and Apple will make those decisions, and they are motivated by their own profits, not your well-being.

Computers have only become more and more capable and more important in our lives, and that can enable wonderful things. But it also means more power to the tech companies, more power over our lives. And the only way to resist that is to learn about computers, to enable us to make our own decisions about how we use technology.

[charyou-tree]

I'm doing a periodic maintenance task for work, where I have to rebuild the container environment that our materials science computations get run in to update the versions of some software that we use, and I'm struck by just how much scientific knowledge is packed into this singularity image file that represents the container.

It takes like an hour to compile on modern hardware, from an Ubuntu (ha! the built in spell check in Ubuntu insists on capitalizing itself) base image with dozens of computational materials science simulation packages and supporting dependencies. These all have to be downloaded, compiled, linked, and installed in such a way that they can mutually interface, and take data and return results in the formats we use.

Once the whole thing is built, the final image is something like a gigabyte in size--5x that if we also install CUDA. I know that 1 Gb doesn't sound like that much data these days, some internet connections can download that in less than a second, but think about it:

This isn't a move or an image or a song. This archive contains almost no actual data. That gigabyte of space is pretty much entirely code instead; much of it compiled, executable code at that.

A gigabyte of materials science simulation Code, a billion characters worth of instructions, specifying the very best established practices for modeling the behavior of materials at the atomic level.

I know the digital age is old news, but I can't get over that level of cumulative effort. It represents tens of thousands of person-months of effort collectively, but I'm just sitting here watching my computer assemble it from a recipe that's short enough for me to read and sensibly edit, and distill that down into a finely-tuned piece of precision apparatus that fits on a flash drive.

And that isn't even the important part of our research! That's just all the shit we need installed on the system as background dependencies to be able to run our custom simulation code on top of that! Its so complex that at this point, its easier to run an entire (limited) virtual machine with our stuff installed in it than to try and convince every supercomputer cluster we work with to install every package separately and keep up with updates.

In case you're wondering what a day in the life of a computational materials physicist looks like: trying to do upgrades on incredibly complex machinery that you cannot touch or see. At least this time it doesn't also have to stay running while I do it...

[f1mvln]

Just thinking about the season and more I think about it the more I get pissed off some things are little and basic respect and some are worse let’s give some examples

Start with a smallish one

Piastri in Miami not congratulating Lando or the team in part ferme, basic respect to your teammate who’d won his first race and the team who worked hard, he was never winning anyway with out the contact with Carlos which was pure racing incident. Even Fernando congratulated his old team went over to them. Yes he might have done it in private but it’s always nice to see respect after a race.

Hungary…..pure blackmail and manipulation, I could go on for days about this we all know them radios but the fact Martin Brundle who was commenting at the time said them radios even made him feel uncomfortable tells you everything

McLaren not even thinking about the drivers to priories Lando till BRAZIL when basically was too late and they done it for show you can’t tell me otherwise. People said after Zandvoort to do it race 15 of 24 with 3 sprints.

With a mention of Brazil and the sprint, McLaren hesitating and giving Lando mixed messages, now Max Fewtrell (Lando’s bestie addressed this on stream, he’s also ex racing driver for those who don’t know) saying “what are McLaren doing”, “Lando’s been in dirty air for 7 laps and McLaren aren’t doing anything” then Lando comes on the radio to ask what their doing, max goes on to say “clearly mixed messages again, I know how he’s feeling and he’s sick of it now (he as in Lando) implying that what happened in the briefing wasn’t happening.

Monza next I don’t have a problem with them racing but diving bombing your teammate Lap 1 at turn 4 when everyone is still close together since it’s lap one is stupid, if Lando has t backed out they’d have crashed but as a result of that Charles got past and that cost them the win. A sensible thing would be to let them pull away first Charles in the order they were then race so not risking losing position. McLaren admitted weeks later they went about it the wrong way.

McLaren letting Lando take all the blame, when things happened in racing that weren’t Lando’s fault like the start in Hungary he had a glitch in his starting software they let Lando get ridiculed for weeks by everyone fans, commentators then finally admitted it, same in Brazil race they had break temp issues which was one of the main factors in Lando going off track, the abuse Lando got off that was horrific and Lando clearly wasn’t in a good place after saying some kind of worrying but upsetting things on Max’s stream.

Qatar penalty, Lando should have lifted but didn’t see the flags and they were constantly going yellow,green it was a honest mistake no one came out and said oh it was a honest mistake from Lando instead he he beat himself up again quite harshly and once again we heard that on Max’s stream where Max refused to keep playing with Lando till he ate something,

Im not speculating anything but just from comments on stream which Max said after Lando saying he’s going to starve himself most likely joking but from what Max said it may not have been joking he said “we’re not doing this again” then proceeded to say he’d had too much sugar he had 2 cans of Pepsi max saying that’s hardly too much sugar.

Silverstone strategy giving Lando whole monologues on the radio. He was asked do you want softs to go after Lewis (the leader) or mediums to cover Max (P3) of course he’s going after Lewis but you could clearly see the medium was better before Lando pitted Lando can’t see that the team can, but yet again they let Lando get horrible abuse and take all the blame

Andrea in post session videos he rarely ever complemented or acknowledged Lando’s achievements especially poles he’d always just come up with an excuse for OP under performance or excuse to why he was off Lando. Like how hard it’s it to say Lando done a excellent Lap for pole he’s ina good position tomorrow

Social media Lando all season got horrible horrible abuse online even death threats and McLaren done absolutely nothing, in comparison to this Arrow McLaren (McLarens Indy team) put out a statement regarding pourchaire getting hate and death threats from canapino fans, he’d been with the team one race bare that in mind Lando was getting that for months on end on every social media platform, Carlos even removed himself from their joint Mexico post, which Lando was getting abuse on from races after.

Lando has helped Oscar more than Oscar has helped Lando I don’t know where the narrative came from that Oscar’s lost points because of “helping”

Oscar never once thanked Lando for Hungary, Baku, Qatar which Lando played a vital part in, Lando always thanked or complimented Oscar even when he really didn’t need to like Miami

McLaren and Mental Health, Lando is and always has been very honest and open and an advocate for mental health yet McLaren do nothing to support him until they want him to make a video for it.

Oscar had to be told twice to drive carefully to not cause a safety car or accident when Lando was leading a race, McLaren need to speak about this because it’s twice it’s happened. It was Miami and and Abu Dhabi potentially costing your teammate a win.

I’ve probably missed more because it’s been a shit show but yeah rant over.

[retrocgads]

UK 1987

[fght-ff-yr-dmns]

Sensible Soccer x Soccer Saturday

[ample-parking-in-the-future]

Introducing Lyra, a Post Covid OC of mine who's the adopted daughter of Tweek and Craig! I didn't think they'd have kids at first but she just stuck herself in my brain without permission so I just had to design her. Depicted here I'd say she's between eight and ten.

This is the first of my fankids that I'm ready to post, but it took a while for me to do it despite getting her images back late last year. I guess I was just nervous?

Sorry if the quality is not ideal, I promise it looked perfect in my software, Tumblr just be crunchy. Full res version hosted on Toyhouse is here.

Lyra is my own character and one I'm really excited to show here, but her design was brought to life by the talented @ginjastar through commissioning her!

Transcription of the text on the image is under the cut.

Lyra Tucker, a Tweek and Craig fankid.

Some fun facts about her include:

She's adopted, but distantly related to Craig biologically (it's a long story).

She aspires to be a cryptozoologist, or one that studies animals thought not to exist.

She's extroverted and nosey.

Although her parents are arguably two of the most sensible characters on the show (or at least Craig is, and Tweek can't help his paranoia with parents like his), Lyra is among the most unhinged of the next generation of South Parkers. They love her for it though.

She journals everything to bolster her already sharp memory.

She has a pet octopus that keeps escaping its tank.

[z2z-gaming-and-random-art-ai]

Console Sports Games of 1993 - Championship Soccer '94

Championship Soccer '94 more commonly known as Sensible Soccer or Sensible Soccer European Champions is a football (Soccer) sports game based on the 1992 Amiga and Atari title Sensible Soccer European Champions and retains the top-down fast-paced and frantic matches.

Championship Soccer '94 was released on the SNES, Genesis and Sega CD all in 1993 with releases in Europe for all three systems. A US release of the game on the Sega CD would follow in 1994. 

As with the majority of the Sensible Soccer games, Championship Soccer '94 was developed by Sensible Software and published by Sony Imagesoft. In 2021 Championship Soccer '94 received a re-release for Browser and Antstream, both of these releases were the Genesis version of the game. both of these releases were published by Codemasters who acquired the rights in 1999. 

1. Intro 00:00 

2. Gameplay 00:15 

3. Outro 06:58 

Twitter (Gaming & AI Art) 

https://twitter.com/zero2zedGaming

Instagram (AI Art) 

https://www.instagram.com/random_art_ai/

For more sports game videos check out the playlists below 

Console Sports Games of 1993

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFJOZYl1h1CEhIf6hohng9T2IPLCpzn7o

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA if i cut off someone reaching out for help on tumblr? i am a very anxious person. ive been on tumblr a very long time because most all other social media terrifies me as someone who grew up with the wild west internet a decade past (im in my late 20s) so i feel sometimes with how reckless and spurractic people can be online in chatroom and especially clearly public platforms where any stranger, malicious or otherwise can just archive your digital presence for personal use.

more recently as someone who has been here during the pornban and as an asexual really enjoyed the quiet with no drama farming and a slow pace to talk about more unique political topics in a measured way it is something im strangely nostalgic for and a great example of my sensibilities to people when they insist that i use other platforms like discord or twitter or whatever clone for these services comes out of the old guard introducing feature creep to copy everyone else or any other indi "were the anti corporate version" of the endless scroll apps. i just dont want it. tumblr is special because im desktop only, been here for years, and i have kept track of every single change made so i have manually adjusted the change through hacks to evade every bad decision on here and make my set up look identical to how it was in 2010. so let it be understood that i tend to be a loney person because of this stubbornness. web 3.0 is too dangerous to people with addictive tendencies that my adhd brings out and my need to wear my heart on my sleeve. so i hope i defended my personality type enough to show why someone like me would see a post about some horrible abuses they have fell victim to who also share alot of the marginalized status as me and writing depressive things in the replys of others posts as to attention seek about it.

i directly interact with this person, not only to check if they are real (but wow, modern chat bots make this part horrifying for me. we really cant ever know for sure what is real anymore. trying to find warmth on the internet feels impossible now a days) i have multiple conversations at this point both venting and just casually shooting the shit. but the begging for me to constantly repost their paypal makes me so nervous in a way that i feel so guilty for because it reminds me of all the scams that get associated with this kind of ebegging and the reminder that capitalism takes away all warmth from human interaction to make them purely transnational and conditional. but then it just has been escalating where im so scared that now its not enough that im reposing on my 8 follower, all mutual blog, they are asking me to share it on other socials. accounts i do not have i have a flip phone and a laptop and i am tinkering with a windows 7 tower that will never be connected to the internet so i can always have software sit perfectly in its time capsule for when i need it. i do not have a way to help this person outside of what i learned from collage psyche classes. a part of me is so scared to just abruptly cut them off and just delete my entire account like i tend to do often on tumblr for a multitude of reasons, its a part of what lets people survive being here this long but i worry that would crush them if i did that, i dont want to make them feel more hopeless and unwanted then they already talk about. but i am text on the internet through a screen. i can only do so much. so would i be the asshole if i just deleted my account with a "i hope you hang in there, the world is a harsh place but keep moving" to cut someone so similar to me who is struggling out of my life?

What are these acronyms?