I've never heard of it before, but now I have a mighty need as well

Captain Kirk to dispensary. Captain Kirk to dispensary.

Cover, with an ASCII illustration of a hand with long pink nails holding a blue 3.5" floppy disc. The label on the disc is the trans flag. Title: "Shareware Made Me Trans."

Grid showing the layout of the 24-page zine, plus front and back cover.

"Gallery of shareware amazons" featuring images of four women warriors from various games.

As a pre-teen author undergoing the incorrect puberty, my own ZZT games circled the same themes again and again, at first with a layer of distancing irony that slowly eroded like the mountain being pecked away by that bird in Hell: they were fetish games. They revolved around captured princesses, with bare feet and torn dresses, chained in ASCII dungeons, punished and degraded, threatened with torture and hardship and peril. These were, in essence, all manifestations of the submissive woman, the painslut and pillow princess I would eventually become, but could not yet admit to wanting to be, could not yet admit that such a thing could be wanted.

everyone is currently obsessed with *checks notes* a 1997 game called Moon Child. but did you know other weird games came out in the 90s? you can read about some of them in my new 24-page zine, Shareware Made Me Trans, coming to itch next week!

Beta and Alpha

The date :3

Chopper, listen up...

For some reason, I'm thinking about Starlancer this morning, an attempted spiritual successor of sorts to Wing Commander. The English release was well received by critics, but flopped commercially. But the German dub made it an overlooked gem in my opinion. Let me tell you why. 1/

Full disclosure, I don't think a lot of people share my opinion. The German dub was widely panned by reviewers and players at the time - I'm not sure how many of them realised that the stereotypical accents were in the original as well (and thus presumably part of the creative vision).

Thus, without making any changes to the story or the content of the dialogues, the dub essentially becomes the Hot Shots! to the English version's Top Gun. And I tip my non-existent hat to the localisation team for this stroke of genius.

The narrative is still played completely straight. After setbacks, treachery and tragic losses, the Alliance forces rally back and eventually win the day, with an obligatory heroic sacrifice. But the ridiculous accents - which are maintained throughout - are enough to change the tone completely. 7/

It makes them almost impossible to take seriously, and as a result, the game feels like a parody of Hollywood action blockbusters that glorify the US military.

Then you meet the Germans, and they're the only ones who speak "properly". That's when you realise they're 100% in on the joke. 6/

They never roll their r's (usually pronouncing them like in the English word "red" instead), they slur complicated words like "Brennstoffzellen", and for words that are close to the English equivalent, like "Schiff" and "Reaktor", they simply fall back to the English pronounciation. 5/

The German dubbing team went: "You want to play it like that? You're on." So all the Americans, which includes most of the other pilots on your side as well as the news broadcasters and your CO, talk like someone putting on a voice to make fun of American tourists, but in a deadpan tone. 4/

So far, so trite. Everyone who isn't American - including the good guys, like the squadron of German ace pilots - speaks with thick accents to make sure you never forget that America is the leader of the free world.

This is where the localisation team made a brilliant decision, IMO. 3/

The story of Starlancer is a pretty tired "red menace" narrative. The commies are finally ready to sign a peace treaty - oh no, they lured us into a trap and betrayed us! The good guys are an alliance of Western nations, led by the US of course, and the bad guys are a Russia-led coalition. 2/

For some reason, I'm thinking about Starlancer this morning, an attempted spiritual successor of sorts to Wing Commander. The English release was well received by critics, but flopped commercially. But the German dub made it an overlooked gem in my opinion. Let me tell you why. 1/

like its literally fine #capydraws

It gains a rather horrifying dimension when you consider that it's basically a satire of the actual criminal justice system in Japan (which I can only hope has been improved a little since the release of the first game)

r/UberEATS u/litaps_Missiciv • 51d • i.redd.it Top 1% Poster Customer reduced tip and gave me negative rating because "i shattered their backboard dunking on their son" HE PASSED ME THE BALL!

sorry to this guy but this is unfortunately extremely funny to me

"Your test results came back. There's no easy way to say this - you're online."

"Oh my god. How bad is it?"

"I'm afraid it's terminal."

Infograph about censorship. It compares it to magnets.

Sorted my thoughts about censorship, so I can stop thinking about it.

"We'll always be friends, right, Steve?"

"Yes, I promise. Even though you keep chewing through my HDMI cables."

What if we all just, like, took five or six years off from meme humor. We're probably due for a tolerance break.

generation lead never fails

• Delivering single-sex spaces on the basis of biological sex, in NHS wards, schools, sport and everyday life by upholding the Equality Act and delivering clear instructions to public services on how to comply with their legal obligations to women and to trans people. • Keeping women's prisons for women, instructing the Scottish Prison Service to remove all biologically male prisoners from women's prisons within days of the election. • Recommit the NHS to delivering single sex wards on the basis of biological sex, and ensuring patients can request same sex provision wherever possible.

Scottish Labour manifesto is out, don’t vote for them

Private firms providing services to NHS made £1.6bn profit in two years, research finds Exclusive: MPs say profit-making levels in England are ‘scandalous’ and call for cap on amount private companies can make from NHS

NHS staff have been saying for decades that we were being rinsed by private equity. But your market ideology came first.

I cannot even blame the businesses that profiteered (I'd have done the same in their place). This is on the establishment for encouraging it.

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

After the results in Hungary, can JD Vance please give some public support to Reform UK and AfD next?

Understanding that this is entirely me-specific and likely not replicable, here's my process:🧵

1. Build an on-ramp. Plan out a series of routine and trivial tasks to do before starting the Big One. In today's case I decided that I was going to make a fancy lunch, take a shower, get dressed, and

Happy birthday, boss!

watching baseball