iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Sure, why not. 9 games (of many more) that influenced me.

9 games that influenced me. Law of the West, Adventure, Zork, Silent Hill, Morrowind, Day of Defeat, Grand Theft Auto IV, Guild Wars 2, and Darktide.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

show me your fave game skeletons

Weird skelly from the Temple of Apshai Trilogy (C64).

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

me: I want realistic and lore accurate outfits also me:

Kitty cat backpack on my Division 2 character. An orange tabby peers through the bubble window looking at the ruins of NYC.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Discovering all sorts of weird stuff I never played as a kid, like BAD CAT. Seems totally radical and/or bad to the bone.

Load screen for BAD CAT on C64. Protagonist is a gray cat with a bandana and suspenders or something and looking a bit derpy.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

(I'm super dorky about Commodore if you didn't already know)

Bobby wearing a rainbow chicken lips C64 shirt while doing an interview for the Rise of Multiplayer documentary. A bunch of retro consoles and computers can be seen in the background.

Bobby wearing the Commodore BASIC READY. prompt shirt for the 25 Years of ArenaNet documentary. A bunch of tabletop and board games are on shelves in the background.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Had this as a kid and pretty much destroyed it during my "student filmmaker" era. Heard from my buddy @brantfitzgerald.bsky.social they'd been reissued and of course I had to have it. Question now is if I take it out and play with it or not. 😂

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

slopfoot was tempting, but I couldn't resist stupid sexy Flanders

AI slop Bigfoot calendar complete with fever dream anomalies. Can you spot them all?

AI slop generated feet melting into rock. It's art!

Simpsons calendar featuring stupid sexy Flanders.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

dorky vacation project: upgrading an Atari VCS and installing Bazzite

32 GB RAM upgrade next to a WD Blue 1TB SATA SSD.

Took a few tries but I finally got an older version of Bazzite running on the SSD. Install tended to bork the Atari internal drive so I had to restore that to factory state a few times.

Guild Wars 2 running at the lowest settings, 1080p resolution. Not an ideal way to play it, but I can at least say it runs on the Atari. ;) TheC64, TheA500, and the 8BitDo Commodore keyboard can be seen on a cluttered TV stand with a Wii off to the side. The Atari symbol can be seen glowing on the middle shelf.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

I might have to check some of those out. I did pick up this one off Amazon a few months ago from a different publisher.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Huge thanks to everyone who donated, signal boosted, and joined us today! We each beat our individual fundraising goals and the studio raised more than $105k across all teams! Best community. ❤️❤️❤️

Bobby's Extra Life fundraiser stats. Goal was set at $2k. Final total donated by our kind and generous community: $2,285.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Celebrating the GW2 team's Visions of Eternity launch with a shot of caffeine. 🥳

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

got it running on an older gaming laptop lol

Commodore OS 3 home screen running on a laptop, chicken lips branding and all.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

the unexpected sequel to the book

Black cat piggy bank with the words "save with the cat" written on the side.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

took my kid to a great lunch spot

Business sign for YGF Malatang in the Shoreline/Edmonds area.

The finished product: dry spicy ramen noodles with meats, veggies, shrimp, and a few different toppings. Was outstanding.

Kiddo got thick noodles in chicken broth with tofu, fish balls, and rice cakes.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

weekend project: restoring the cast iron grill

Cast iron grill hadn't been properly cleaned or seasoned in years. There was a buildup of rust on the grates.

First I power washed it to free up the buildup. Then I used a wire brush with a drill to buff out as much rust as I could.

Heat the grill at 300 degrees F for an hour. Cooking surface is now ready to be used again.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

weekend score in preparation of the C64 Ultimate

Black QuckShot II joystick with 9-pin Atari style connector, two red fire buttons, auto-fire switch, and suction cups for table mounting.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

found this at Pink Gorilla yesterday and my buddy got it for me as an early b-day gift sunk dozens of hours into this at my friend's house back in the early 80s

Old videogame box for The Empire Strikes Back on Atari 2600 featuring an AT-AT being shot by a rebel craft.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

this episode is an all timer 😆

Bobby to his dad: "You couldn't resist one more chance..."

Hank, while soaking in an ice bath: "I did go pro, Bobby."

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

"unbelievable fact" that this was 43 years ago ☠️

"In the late 70s and early 80s, before the widespread use of disks, computer magazines would publish program listings. Readers would then spend hours manually typing pages of BASIC code into their home computers just to run a new game or utility."

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Still have to finish the new one but I grew up on the 1980 miniseries.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

McPixel 3 is totally worth full price but it's a steal at $1.49. Loads of retro-style mini games. www.xbox.com/en-US/games/...

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Picked up Cats and the Other Lives over the weekend and man this game is cracking me up. 😆

A lawyer having difficulties on the toilet while Aspen, the game's protagonist cat, stares him down. "I already have enough problems with my hemorrhoids..." toilet lawyer says.

Toilet lawyer has had enough of the cat. "GET OUT!"

One of the characters is "working on a project" in her spare time--a DOOM-like game where she shoots at her sibling.

The game lets you do cat things like knocking stuff over, scaring humans, chasing mice, and other mischief. In this scene you get to interrupt a rather tense post-funeral dinner by swatting at the turkey. Shannon, one of the adult children, loses her temper. "GET THE FUCKING CAT OUT OF HERE!"

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

I think my wife is trying to tell me something

Two packages with sticky notes attached that read: "Like, seriously? Another one?" and "I love you but you need to stop buying shit. lol"

Newest controller purchase: Hyperkin Xbox Controller S ("the Duchess").

Unlike the original Controller S, this remake added the now ubiquitous "bumper" buttons on the front.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Avowed has to be the prettiest game I've played in a long while. Having so much fun exploring this world.

Looking across the chasm in the Eothasian Temple in Avowed. Twisted vines hug a rugged valley adorned with ancient structures, bridges, and plantlife.

Close-up of a statue schematic in a cluttered fantasy library.

View from the lighthouse of the port city, mountains behind.

More vines and waterfalls found in the Eothasian Temple.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Picked up Beyond a Steel Sky for 4 bucks the other day and had a grand old time. Beautiful aesthetic, fun writing, excellent voice acting. Laughed a lot but also cared about the characters. Highly recommended at this price if you're looking for 10 hours of adventure gaming.

Humorous moment in Beyond a Steel Sky where "good Joey" exclaims to Foster, "EVERYTHING I EVER LOVED IS DEAD! Oh, hey Foster. You're here too, huh?" Joey's circuit board has been inserted into a cleaning bot with a wooly cap on it and he looks ridiculous.

Foster chatting with a fancy poet bot who says, "One has decided to continue working on the fart poem." The robot is the warm up act for a famous local poet at the evening's Aspiration Day Celebration. Foster must inspire the bot by stealing another poet's work. Comedy ensues.

Foster listening to the info bot talk about a particularly messy bit of history. "This old city refrigeration unit is one of the last known relics of the Great Gastroenteritis Crisis. A particularly dark piece of pre-Joey history."

Foster checking Graham Grundy's emails. He reads the last message from Grundy's cleaning bot, which reads, "My battery is low and it's getting dark."

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Team "released" Janthir Wilds. LOL Also: * Donated time & money to charities * Dabbled in retro gaming * Sold 1 bass, bought another * Explored more (hiking, walking, trying new restaurants) * Befriended many crows, squirrels, and cats * Met some cool people * Supported by amazing friends & family

Squirrel buddy standing on his hind legs begging for a peanut.

Dozens of crows perched on power lines against a cloudy blue sky.

Black Ibanez semi-hollow bass guitar hanging vertically on the wall.

Magnificent fluffy black cat looking up at me. Met this kind soul while out on a walk early in the year.

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Bobby Stein @bobbystein.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

2024 highlights: * Visited Japan, Greece, and Italy for the 1st time * Mentorship chats * Team Janthir Wilds * Stepped into a new role * Worked on [redacted] stuff * Saw family, celebrated their bdays * Played LOTS of games * Exercised * Parenting! * Powerwashed the deck 😆 * Limited my social media

Bobby standing amidst thousands of reflective glass globes in a mirrored room at the Teamlab Borderless experience in the Azabudai Hills building in Tokyo, Japan.

Interior of the Messina Cathedral in Sicily. Rows of empty seats in the foreground. Columns and arches draw your eye to the ornate altar in the distance. Statues line the walls.

Playing GW2 on the Steam Deck while docked somewhere in Italy. Fireworks pierce the dark evening sky.

Two square birthday cakes adorned with berries on an antique table. The left cake has candles marking 70 years. The right cake marks 80 years.

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