iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 30/08/2026

Found a treasure trove of shit me and my best mate were making as teenagers 🤣

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 25/08/2026

I'm not a big food photographer, but loving these chonky halloumi fries

Four massive halloumi chunks, stacked like Jenga

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 08/08/2026

Oh no, I've finally been living in the Midlands too long

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 02/08/2026

Come to think of it, also Hover! That's all I can think of for games starting with "Hover"

The splash screen of "Hover!" for Windows 95

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 31/07/2026

Eldest just sent me this sticker from my wife's phone, and holy shit is that a mood 🫤

Whatsapp sticker of a smiley emoji being removed as a mask from a tired/depressed emoji. Timestamped 17:20

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 20/07/2026

Oh god, oh no, I just paid for a new kitchen! Was kinda hoping this email would come after payday 😅

Partial screenshot of an email from Steam saying "Please confirm your purchase information for steam machine 512GB with Controller"

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 04/07/2026

QTP with a title screen that's iconic to you

The Final Fantasy VII title screen. A Buster Sword leans against something, in the light. Above it are the options "NEW GAME" and "Continue?". A white glove points at "Continue?"

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 04/07/2026

Also the incomplete* but representative Square Enix and Friends disc wallet *I have many of these in multiple releases for multiple platforms 😅

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 04/07/2026

A lot of my older physical games are in the attic at the mo, but I came across a couple of classics while I was up there earlier

An open box of Cannon Fodder for the Amiga, showing the manual and the original floppy disks inside

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 02/07/2026

Doing #FinalFantasy V #FourJobFiesta Iron Claw went well... TBF it's only that bad cos I wanted to learn Death Claw, and (I think?) it has to be used on the actual Blue Mage, and he targeted everyone else first 😐 TIL the Blue Mage can still Learn when dead at the end of the battle 😅

Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster screenshot of the menu.

All the characters are dead except one (Galuf) who has 1 HP remaining

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 20/06/2026

Probably mostly accurate video game firsts for me. - First video game will definitely have been something on the C64 - I played many computer games before I owned a console - Also started playing Warcraft III custom games online around the same time as SOF2 and Valve games (Ricochet anyone?)

First game you played: Galaxy (Commodore 64)

First game you beat: The Secret of Monkey Island (Amiga)

First gaming crush: Aeris (FF7)

First gaming console you owned: my parents bought me a Mega Drive when the PS1 came out 🤷‍♂️

First gaming soundtrack you loved: The Secret of Monkey Island.

First game you played online: Soldier of Fortune II

First game you rage quit: Counter Strike 1.6

First game you were obsessed with: Final Fantasy VII (Now for the PC!) (still am)

First game that made you cry: Final Fantasy X

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 14/06/2026

Important labelling on bits of the kitchen ready for ripping out on Thursday

A shot of a kitchen with some labelled cabinets. 2 drawers are labelled "Weds", 1 "empty", and a cupboard is labelled "Cheese"

Kitchen cabinets labelled. The cupboards are labelled "empty", while a shelving unit with a few tins is labelled "WYSIWYG"

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 13/06/2026

We're getting our kitchen done. Found this while packing stuff up

A Nintendo licensed Mario egg cup from 1992 sits on a grey kitchen counter.

It has a cartoon illustration of Mario with a speech bubble saying "1 EGG PLEASE", next to the Nintendo and Super Mario Bros. logos on a yellow background

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 05/06/2026

Gosh, I wish there were a way in 2026 to play Tomb Raider 1 at a high resolution with modern controls and optionally enhanced graphics or alternative puzzles and mechanics. Shame we'll be forced to wait for next year's "We used GenAI for inspiration" remake, no other choice.

An iconic screenshot of Lara Croft standing at the start of the Caves level in ultrawide resolution from 2007's Tomb Raider Anniversary

An iconic screenshot of Lara Croft standing at the start of the Caves level in ultrawide resolution but original graphics from 2024's Tomb Raider I - III Remastered

An iconic screenshot of Lara Croft standing at the start of the Caves level in ultrawide resolution with enhanced graphics from 2024's Tomb Raider I - III Remastered

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 20/05/2026

Playing it at school banning Odd Job DK and Paintball modes noticing the face on the box...

The cover of Goldeneye 64 with supporting art showing how it looks like Pierce Brosnan's hand is part of his face

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 22/03/2026

Man I'm tired, been building desks this weekend. Pleased with the improvement to the computer setup for both me and the wife though

Photograph of newly built desks that fit the space along one wall. Two computers are connected with two screens each. All good screens sure the login screen for Bazzite. Also visible are a Minecraft pen holder, a Final Fantasy X mouse mat, an M-Audio Oxygen Pro Mini, a 8-Bit Do wireless controller, a Framework laptop...

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 14/03/2026

Kids have a clay club some Saturdays. I usually occupy myself by making a videogame character.

A clay model of Cloud from Final Fantasy VII

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 12/03/2026

Ah, my favourite 90s TV show based on a videogame

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 12/03/2026

Remember when we found out the Mario theme had words?

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 15/01/2026

Weirdly managed to settle into regular monthly Dadhammer with a coupla mates since September. Tonight in the Old World my Skaven looked to be holding up against some skellies, then a unit of clan rats lost combat by 2, so they and the next unit over just legged it off the board! Classic Rats...

Two units of 30 clan rats, with their detachments, in desire finals against various Tomb Kings.

The rats all fled! The second unit of clan rats failed to rally on their next turn

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 29/12/2025

#FFVII update: Finished part one, and then a bit more. Kids took the major spoiler well, but were in disbelief for a bit.

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 27/12/2025

#FFVII update: Got some more characters, had some materia stolen ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ New names: Vincent - DarkSerge (bearing in mind we recently finished Chrono Cross, this was based mainly on his hair) Cid - Captain (resulting in the following hilarious dialogue)

Cid talking to Cloud in Final Fantasy VII, stupid inside part of a Space Rocket, looking industrial and metallic.

Dialogue reads:

Captain
"The name's Captain. Everyone calls me 'Captain', though"

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 26/12/2025

Merry Christmouse! Mousetrap is a legendary game that neither me or my wife got to play as kids. She had friends with it, and my brother has it with pieces missing so we could never play. Today we play it with our kids, and it's gleeful.

The board game mouse trap set up ready to play

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Jon ~ beforan 🎮 Dragon Quest VIII @beforan.jon.gg · 25/12/2025

I have only one non centered switch game due to region availability of physical FFIX ☹️ and yeah, no vending on Switch 2. The FFIX thing is infuriating though, cos Switch has a complete uninterrupted run of FF up to 12, and it's the only one that's different (different font too!)