@imalcolm@mastodon.social
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

imalcolm

@imalcolm@mastodon.social

Writer, editor, game designer. Occasional bass and uke player.

Worked in game dev as a designer from Star Wars and Nightshade on NES through to Need For Speed: Shift on iOS, with 30+ titles in between.

Freelance writer and editor on various books and publications.

Bassist for several bands you never heard of.

And so on and so forth...

#reading #writing #books #fantasy #scifi #videogames #retrogames #boardgames #ttrpg #MacGaming #music #movies #photography

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

llamasoft_ox, to random
@llamasoft_ox@toot.wales avatar

Blimey what a struggle to reactivate my account on the geocaching site. Kept insisting it'd sent me a "validation email" which never arrived. Tried password reset and that email never arrived. Installed the app on my phone and that did send a password reset, which I did, and then that started moaning about a validation email, several of which did arrive, none of which did a thing when I clicked on the link except send me to another "Check your email, we've sent a validation code" page.

imalcolm,
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

@llamasoft_ox

Have fun! I recently got back into geocaching after a fairly long layoff and am finding it a great reason to get out and about and also get some exercise.

stefan, to accessibility
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

Hm. I wonder if I can get any fediverse admins onboard to disable all images on their instance on the World Sight Day in October, so that only alt text shows up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Sight_Day

#accessibility #a11y #ImageDescription #AltText #FediAdmins #MastoAdmins

imalcolm,
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

@stefan

As a semi-obsessive alt text-er, I endorse this message.

(Partly cos it's part of my current day job anyway, and partly as my mother is now legally blind and I understand the real-world ramifications of online accessibility more directly.)

RL_Dane, to fediverse
@RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

#Fediverse #Fedifriends

imalcolm,
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

@RL_Dane

I have rarely felt so seen, dammit!

cstross, (edited ) to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

I have seen part of, one, or both of the Doctor Phibes movies (The Abominable Dr Phibes, and Doctor Phibes Rises Again):

imalcolm,
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

@cstross

Seen the first multiple times (it was occasionally on TV in Australia in the late 70s/early 80s) but wasn’t aware there was a second until now. Time to track it down…

alexkidman, to australia
@alexkidman@aus.social avatar

Updated my streaming set top box shootout, so it's now Chromecast vs Fire TV vs Apple TV vs Shield TV vs Fetch Mini vs Hubbl.

That's a lot of TV watching. I think I need a break. Maybe I'll watch some... AAAARGH!

#Chromecast #FireTV #FetchTV #Foxtel #Hubbl #Australia

https://alexreviewstech.com/which-smart-tv-set-top-box-should-i-buy-google-chromecast-vs-amazon-fire-tv-vs-apple-tv-vs-nvidia-shield-vs-fetch-mini/

imalcolm,
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

@alexkidman

I'm probably not really the audience for this, given for the last six or seven years I've done all my streaming from the PS4, and only got that to replace the PS3 which did the same job (plus played games) for 3-4 years before that.

Which does make me wonder - is there any benefit to having a dedicated box, instead of just using whatever console I have hooked to the telly at the time? Or is it more that it's a less expensive way in for non-console peeps?

timrichards, to random
@timrichards@aus.social avatar

Can't wait for daylight saving to be over. We're getting up at 7.45am this week so we don’t wake in darkness, but that throws the rest of the day's schedule out (normally we get up at 7am). Four days to go!

#DaylightSavingTime

imalcolm,
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

@timrichards

I love daylight saving time over summer - being able to finish work, drive down the coast and surf or dive for several hours in daylight several nights a week makes a huge difference to my quality of life and sanity.

But yeah, by this point it really needs to switch back. Getting up in the dark sucks. 😉

golgaloth, to mastodon
@golgaloth@writing.exchange avatar

This is it, folkes! My debut novel has hit KS! Jump on over and check it out, back it for all you can afford, or at the very least, give this a boost. While you're there, mention you saw the link on #mastodon in the comments and we can cross promote this platform!

A trashy tale of blood and betrayal, great summer reading with a bit of bite in the theme.
https://kickstarter.com/projects/1496661694/cruel-provocations

#WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WritersCoffeeClub #WordWeavers #writing #books @bookstodon #reading

imalcolm,
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

@golgaloth @bookstodon

Congratulations on getting this up! Read the first chapter, loved it, backed it! 😎

kcarruthers, to random
@kcarruthers@mastodon.social avatar

ERMAGHERD a Leyland P76 in the wild

The driver is a total ocker character

imalcolm,
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

@kcarruthers

Strewth! 😲

golgaloth, to books
@golgaloth@writing.exchange avatar

Tech bros should not be in charge of anything.

#books #reading #AmReading #yikes

imalcolm,
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

@golgaloth

Yep. I love the sheer ignorance of failing to understand that LLMs (autocomplete on steroids) cannot possibly "know" what the most salient points of a given book are, because no cognitive analysis of the meaning of any of the content is occurring. At all.

imalcolm, to animals
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

Spotted lurking in our back garden this morning. Not 100% sure, but suspect we may have an imposter... 😉

#easterbunny #easter #dogsofmastodon #dogs

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Weeknote!

💰 What the Canva buyout means for the future of Serif
🕹️ Why the Atari 400 Mini is now my favourite mini console
💬 Messaging apps for iPhone
🤖 AI is not democratising film making
📝 Writing without worrying about traffic
👾 A Netflix for classic games? Impossible! Yet it already exists

https://reverttosaved.com/2024/03/30/weeknote-30-march-2024-the-fight-to-save-old-games/

imalcolm,
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell

The Atari 400 Mini is tempting. would have killed for an original A8 400 BITD, crap membrane keyboard and all, but the cost was just insane, so ended up with a Speccy then a C64 instead - then obsessively got C64 versions of as many A8 games as I could.

Your parents going backwards from a 400 to a Vic-20 was an "interesting" choice, I have to say... 😉

TiciaVerveer, to Archaeology Dutch
@TiciaVerveer@mastodon.social avatar

A busy day at all British henge sites, as staff work to move the stones forward an hour. Twice a year the stones at Avebury are moved for Daylight Saving Time.

Photograph: National Trust
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/news #archaeology

imalcolm,
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

@asparagi @TiciaVerveer

Image description (respectfully edited for context)
A black work truck with a National Trust logo towing a utility trailer, which due to position and perspective creates the illusion it is carrying a trailer-sized grey stone past several widely spaced standing stones, each about twice as high as the truck. Only the truck, trailer and standing stones on bright green grass are visible, looming out of thick fog.
#Alt4You @TiciaVerveer

imalcolm,
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

@TiciaVerveer

My pleasure! It's a great shot, gave me a laugh! 😁

(And also gave me fond memories of visiting Avebury many years ago. It was a similar level of fog when I first arrived, and saw stones looming out of the mist either side of the car!)

imalcolm,
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

@asparagi

No trouble at all - my pleasure! 😊

I'd actually debated a while before hitting 'send', but finally did as I reasoned you'd written the text being a lovely and helpful fedi person, but to be totally accurate the illusion also needed to be noted. Just relived you weren't offended by my small tweak!

@TiciaVerveer

alexkidman, to retrogaming
@alexkidman@aus.social avatar

This week's Retro Game Of The Week features spaceships. And pigs. And penguins. And mermaids, babies, draculas and paper planes.

It's the truly wonderful, slightly weird Gokujō Parodius for the Super Famicom!

#retrogaming #snes #nintendo #retro #konami

https://alexreviewstech.com/retro-game-of-the-week-gokujo-parodius-super-famicom/

imalcolm,
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

@alexkidman

I've loved the Parodius games ever since an old workmate discovered a Parodius Da! cart in a filing cabinet at a studio we used to work at, and we sat down one night with a bottle of Wild Turkey and a Japanese SNES to give it a whirl.

This article gave me all the nostalgia feels, and sent me off to give Gokujō Parodius a play for the first time in ages. As in the past I went straight to Takosuke - still love my ripple lasers. 😉

PiecesOfKate, to random
@PiecesOfKate@mastodon.social avatar

Happy birthday Thimbleweed Park! One of my all-time favourite adventure games with great writing, humour and replayability. This one means a lot to me.

If you haven't played it yet, for goodness sake check it out a-boo.

Cc @terribletoybox

Cemetery in Thimbleweed Park
Quickie Pal in Thimbleweed Park

imalcolm,
@imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

@PiecesOfKate @terribletoybox

Happy birthday, Thimbleweed Park!

The most enjoyable adventure game of recent-ish times. Might be time to finally triple-dip. Played it on Mac originally, then iPad. Now thinking it might be nice to have on Switch as well... 😉

flockofnazguls, to random
@flockofnazguls@mastodon.flockofnazguls.com avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    imalcolm,
    @imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

    @flockofnazguls

    Ooh, nice one. Very much a sonic trip to another realm. I also esp. loved the visuals from about 50:30; the more brown coloured elements were a contrast to colour-assault psychedelic fare (not that there's ever anything wrong with that - I do love my colours!) but it gave a distinctly different feel - like being in an alien world constructed from cardboard, which somehow (possibly counter-intuitively) made it feel more "real" for me. 🏆

    imalcolm,
    @imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

    @flockofnazguls

    No worries! And thank you again for the experience! 😎

    golgaloth, to random
    @golgaloth@writing.exchange avatar

    Hitting the button on a day of relaxation and cake.

    #birthday

    video/mp4

    imalcolm,
    @imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

    @golgaloth
    Happy birthday! Embrace the cake! 🎂

    Bobbins, to random
    @Bobbins@bobbinsrobots.com avatar

    No new space stations and shipbuilding for me yet.

    Honestly don’t think I’ve regretted buying a console as much as getting the Xbox whilst I still had the money to buy myself a next gen console and there being no PS5s around. Stuck with the thing now though even though I only play like three or four games on it.

    Seeing Chris Dring’s observations about people questioning the worth of supporting it yesterday checks out with the experience of using it.

    imalcolm,
    @imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

    @Bobbins

    Weirdly I've never been tempted to get an Xbox of any gen. Somehow there's never been a genuine system-seller for me on any of em. 🤷‍♂️

    Mind you, I don't have a PS5 yet either - odd for someone who uses PS4 daily and with PS1, 2 and 3 in storage, but nothing on 5 represented enough of a leap from 4 that I cared. Prob will if the 4 dies, cos then I'll need a new streaming box that doubles as a console.

    Meanwhile, the technically inferior (from launch!) Switch is still in daily use...

    flockofnazguls, to random
    @flockofnazguls@mastodon.flockofnazguls.com avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    imalcolm,
    @imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

    @flockofnazguls

    Oh damn, now that's a find.

    Weird to feel nostalgia watching a clip I've never seen before, but (prob TMI, but what the hell, haha!) I can pretty much trace the exact moment of my childhood sexual awakening to watching a Hot Gossip clip on the Kenny Everett show...

    Kind of funny in hindsight - I went from thinking, "I wish this boring dancing girls song would hurry and end so we can get back to the jokes and skits" straight to "Oh. Hang on a minute..." Libido whiplash! 😜

    imalcolm,
    @imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

    @flockofnazguls

    Wow, yeah it's actually kind of insane, when you frame it that way, in that time-period. 🤯

    I loved the Kenny Everett Video Show so much. Absolutely iconic must-watch TV for that period of my life, along with The Goodies, Doctor Who and Monkey. (Which is a bizarre mix when you step back from it a little, but it still all feels part of a continuum to me now.)

    flockofnazguls, to random
    @flockofnazguls@mastodon.flockofnazguls.com avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    imalcolm,
    @imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

    @flockofnazguls

    Ooh... Lustmord is one of those artists I was into about.. cough cough years ago, having found CDs of 'Heresy' and 'The Place Where the Black Stars Hang' in a second-hand shop and snapped them up on the basis of word of mouth recommendation.

    They disappeared somewhere along the way - it was the share house years and CDs had a habit of vanishing or somehow being left behind, so I'm quietly stoked at being able to get these albums again via Bandcamp, and more. Cheers! 🏆

    imalcolm,
    @imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

    @Jorsh @flockofnazguls

    Having come back to it after a long accidental break I'm feeling the same thing. And there's so much to explore now. 😎

    imalcolm,
    @imalcolm@mastodon.social avatar

    @flockofnazguls

    Oh weird! I remember seeing the Melvins at the Corner Hotel in Richmond (inner Melbourne suburb) in... '97 I think.

    Went entirely on the basis of them being name-checked by Mike Patton, haha. 😉

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • megavids
  • thenastyranch
  • rosin
  • GTA5RPClips
  • osvaldo12
  • love
  • Youngstown
  • slotface
  • khanakhh
  • everett
  • kavyap
  • mdbf
  • DreamBathrooms
  • ngwrru68w68
  • provamag3
  • magazineikmin
  • InstantRegret
  • normalnudes
  • tacticalgear
  • cubers
  • ethstaker
  • modclub
  • cisconetworking
  • Durango
  • anitta
  • Leos
  • tester
  • JUstTest
  • All magazines
    •