iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 04/08/2026

We clean up alright🍾❤️

A polaroid photo of me and my partner dressed up at a wedding. We're posing side by side in front of an array of flowers in a garden. My partner is wearing a black dress and I'm wearing a dark grey suit with a red tie.

Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 03/04/2026

@tolkoto.com @grubb.wtf @giantbomb.com flew all the way to Hanoi, Vietnam and still couldn't escape Mr. World-wide. What's he not telling us??

Photo of a restaurant called Minotti in Hanoi, Vietnam.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 25/02/2026

Felt kinda dirty but I just bought a two pack of knockoff Pentel p205s for like $3 at the dollarstore while looking for something else and they actually feel fairly decent... #pencilcrimes #sketching

Photo of a white hand holding two knockoff Pental p205s mechanical pencils, one black and one grey.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 15/01/2026

Little bit of fun with a new micro 4/3rds camera #photography

A photo of a line of three identical white-framed windows in a salmon coloured stucco wall. There's a small pipe or conduit running from the top of the frame to about two thirds down to the right of the leftmost window, it is also salmon coloured. A bit of the ground is visible in front of the wall along the bottom.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 27/12/2025

There are far too many cool ships to pick just one but it's the Bluenose.

Black and white photo of the original Bluenose fishing schooner

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 27/12/2025

And a photo of the cut, to prove that I did achieve at least some spiral. The filling was a Kahlua and cacao whipped cream with chopped hazelnuts.

Photo of the cake showing the exposed cut face. There is a visible if somewhat lopsided spiral of light brown cream filling surrounded by darker brown chocolate sponge, covered in a layer of ganache. All in all, this thing was quite rich.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 26/12/2025

I was in charge of bringing Christmas dinner dessert this year so tried my hand at a first Bûche de Noël (yule log). A bit clumsy, as is my tradition, but I was fairly happy with the result. Taste and texture were both quite good. #baking #holidaybaking #bakersofbsky

Photo of my yule log on a serving platter that was maybe slightly too small. It's covered in chocolate ganache with squiggly grooves created by a fork in it to mimic bark texture and decorated with sugared cranberries and rosemary sprigs. I covered the ends in ganache too rather than leaving the spiral exposed because it was a bit messy.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 17/12/2025

We love the Dwarf genre, don't we?

Picture of my Steam Year In Review spider graph that shows the genres I played the most. Action RPG and MMORPG are at the top, then Racing and Dwarf, followed by Metroidvania and Looter Shooter.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 16/12/2025

Not the most reflective of my gaming year as a whole, most of my play was non-steam before the last couple of months. I was so close to completing FFXVI too but then met a woman and yeah... I'll get back to it over the holidays😄

Summary of my Steam Replay 2025.

I played 35 games, 17 of them new, and earned 80 achievements over 155 play sessions. My top 5 most played were Final Fantasy XVI, Final Fantasy XIV, Enshrouded, Peak, and Kingdom Come Deliverance II.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 12/11/2025

Disappointed in these replies

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 11/11/2025

Heck, even The Jetsons already had this figured out

Screenshot of The Jetsons with Rosie the robot doing chores in the centre.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 01/11/2025

A little late but Happy Halloween from everyone's second favourite Burmecian, Sir Fratley! The mask didn't come together but I was relatively happy with how the spear and clothes turned out. Haven't sewed in possibly actual decades so it was great to up that skill a bit. #FFIX #halloween #cosplay

Me posing in my homemade Sir Fratley Halloween costume. Took the better part of three days of crafting after a trip to the thrift store for a few pieces to sew together for the top, ears, and tail. The spear is made out of a 1 and 1/8 inch dowel and a 1 by 4.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 27/10/2025

Joined the bsky ink making club this weekend, inspired and informed by @lorenschmidt.bsky.social. Haven't used it yet, but these weren't black walnuts so it's probably fairly light, we'll see. Time to make a quill pen! (and eventually get a dip pen, not sure I should use this in a cartridge)

A close-up photo of a small glass jar of dark liquid sitting on a white windowsill with some yellowed fall leaves, deciduous trees, and a wedge of clouded blue sky visible in the blurred outside.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 24/10/2025

Decided out of the blue today that I'm gonna be Sir Fratley from FFIX for Halloween. The amount of time left means this could end up really rough but the spear is gonna be sick at least and where I'm going no one will recognise it regardless. Let's see how this goes! #FFIX #cosplay #halloween #games

Art of Sir Fratley from Final Fantasy 9.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 08/10/2025

Prompt: RIZZAR Dictober day 3, to rizzar apparently means to dry in the sun so we've got some salmon hanging up to dry. At the rate I'm going I'll never catch up😓 #drawtober #artober #dictober #sketch #art

A simple, relatively bland graphite pencil sketch of three salmon hanging over a slightly crooked horizontal stick. The fish have been beheaded, filleted and scored across the flesh but the skin and tail were left on to connect the two halves which are draped over the stick, leaving the tail sticking up vertically. This exposes the flesh to the sun and allows for ventilation while the scoring helps to accelerate the drying process.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 06/10/2025

Prompt: GONFALON Dictober day 2, a quick and dirty sketch of my lvl8 Elvaan warrior holding a San d'Oria gonfalon(banner hung from a cross piece) on a pike. Trying to catch up on prompts, it's not my best work and very small so it won't see any ink. #drawtober #dictober #artober #FFXI #sketch #art

A sketch of a male Final Fantasy XI Elvaan character holding a pike with a gonfalon (banner) hanging from it in his right hand. He's got a shield on his left arm and is wearing low level gear. The proportions are a bit off, the legs are too short, and it's very light as it was originally going to be an underdrawing but I decided it wasn't worth it to try and ink. And since I'm playing by my own rules and not doing Inktober, it's allowed.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 05/10/2025

Well. I did my first Drawtober piece, it was going ok until I used some alcohol markers with no experience and fucked it up. Ah well, it's about learning, right? I'm using random dictionary prompts, I'm calling it Dictober!... What? Why are you laughing?? Prompt: TOPE #drawtober #dictober #artober

A small ink and alcohol marker sketch of a Tope Shark. It's a side-on view. The lines aren't too bad but the colouring which is shades of grey is inexpertly applied, to say the least. Probably didn't help that I'm using a cheap sketchbook which isn't intended for this sort of thing, but I wanted to try to markers. Lessons learned... maybe?

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 23/09/2025

A snakefly would work well, I think

Up close photo of a snakefly with its head raised.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 17/09/2025

Post a movie you like with a terrible rotten tomatoes score. (An affront. Especially when a movie like Gladiator II got a 70%. Yes, the Director's Cut is way way better, but still.)

Screenshot of Kingdom of Heaven's Rotten Tomatoes page showing its Tomatometer score of 39% and Popcornmeter score of 79%.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 08/09/2025

Perfect spot for a bit of morning thinking, dubbed "Sky Biffy" by an unknown previous visitor (could be misguided but I'm guessing they were an Aussie or Kiwi). #hiking #camping #canoeing #backpacking #outdoors #adventure

A classic green throne style port-a-potty among mosses and coniferous trees in warm morning light. These normally offer minimal privacy but this one was a bit of an upward hike from the campsite and offered quite a view of Lanezi Lake through the trees. Among the better woods toilets I've ever encountered.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 05/09/2025

A lovely evening view from my recent canoe-camping trip in Bowron Lakes Provincial Park. Red-breasted Mergansers, among other diving ducks, were everywhere! #nature #canoeing #camping #backpacking #tranquility #birding

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 17/08/2025

Alright folks, it's time to post your favourite bridges! Here's mine, the first Hagwilget bridge in northern BC. Built in 1856 by the local indigenous population, it lasted until it was replaced in 1880 by a similarly spectacular effort. A marvel but I don't think I could cross it, personally.

An archive photo of the first Hagwilget bridge taken in winter 1872 as seen from water level just down the river. It was made using only knives and axes of a bunch of intertwined logs and cedar planking that springs forth from either side of the canyon, all lashed together with cedar rope. It has a distinct dip in the middle giving it a very precarious appearance but it lasted 34 years so it must have been quite serviceable. The bridge spanned 150ft, had 6ft wide decking, and was 100ft above water level. Load capacity was estimated to be around 500lbs. I can't help but feel awe when I look at it.

The second Hagwilget bridge built in 1880 was similar, though a slightly more orthodox design as it incorporated king post trusses on either end. It still maintained a pretty wild appearance. The modern, fourth bridge is a single lane suspension bridge that is one of the highest in North America. It's impressive too, but has nowhere near the aura of the first.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 14/08/2025

Ex-fucking-scuse me????

Screenshot of an Independent headline that reads "'Zombie' rabbits with black horns and mouth tentacles are invading Colorado backyards"

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 09/08/2025

Why do you give these idiots the time of day? This is exactly what they want. League should have found out who did it, kicked them out, hit them all with lifetime league bans, and instituted a sexual harassment policy, end of story. Instead they now get to spread their vapid bullshit in the news.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 08/08/2025

Is an Emergoacy just the greatest of all emergencies? I which case I would release the tbairt? Am I getting this right?

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 28/07/2025

How do I make it clear to her that she should stop drinking a bunch of water right after she eats??

Front view of a little tortoiseshell cat sitting on linoleum tile. She's slightly looking up at the photographer.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 25/07/2025

Used to like popping into that place when I lived in Van. Found this on google maps so perhaps all isn't lost.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 14/07/2025

Sometimes a fella's gotta treat himself

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 12/07/2025

Like, this isn't anything and probably looks even worse with the added bsky compression but also what do you mean I can just throw the random photos I've taken on hikes into a little digital world and render it out a 640x360? You think I'm just not going to become obsessed with doing that??

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 27/06/2025

Strawberry rhubarb pie redux! Little more ambitious with the top this time which maybe wasn't the best idea on a warm day, but I just about managed to keep it cool enough throughout. It's still kind of a mess but as long as it tastes as good as the last one I'm happy😁 #bskybakers #baking #pie #food

A picture of a cooling down strawberry rhubarb pie with a cat lurking in the background. This one has a diagonal lattice and a three strand braid around the outer edge of the crust. It's still not the neatest but maybe a slightly superior effort to my previous one.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 16/06/2025

Baked a strawberry rhubarb pie for Father's Day. It'd been a while since I did a lattice so I did the edge wrong, but overall I'm pleased. First fruit pie of the season down! #happyfathersday #baking #bskybakers

An oblique view of a strawberry rhubarb pie with a lattice top that's in the process of cooling off. It's got a little coarse sugar sprinkled on top but the filling has leaked over at several points along the circumference of the pie. Overall it's not the neatest, but a decent looking pie. There's a cat lurking in the background because theyre inescapable.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 10/06/2025

Thanks for the insight! It's good to hear that they're(probably) not cherrypicking symbols at least, though I dare say they could learn a thing or two from Pakistani trucking culture ;)

Photo of an elaborately decorated commercial truck from Pakistan. Sourced from Wikipedia

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 10/06/2025

Played a little Stalker 2 last night. It's only a little skiff (funny enough Skif is the name of the main character) but it has the best model of a wooden boat I've personally seen in a game, and I do pay special attention. Seal of Approval🏅 #stalker2 #gaming #vesselsofvideogames

Screenshot of a delapidated wooden skiff from Stalker 2 sitting on dry land, viewed from the forward starboard quarter.

Screenshot of the same delapidated wooden skiff from Stalker 2, viewed from the forward port quarter.

Screenshot of the same delapidated wooden skiff from Stalker 2, viewed from the hind starboard quarter.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 02/06/2025

A couple of lost, tiny quail babies ran up to me this morning and when I stopped they hunkered down between my feet. Happily I was able to reunite them with the family after a couple of minutes searching but know that it took EVERYTHING I had not to become the quail guy of Bluesky #birdsky #birds

A closeup photo of an extremely cute, very young California quail hatchling sitting among some rocks and pine needles.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 01/06/2025

Snakeflies are back in town!

Relatively close-up photo of a snakefly sitting on the edge of a concrete step, just at the edge of a patch of sunlight. Beyond the step, in the upper half of the photo you can see the blurred greens of varied vegetation.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 25/05/2025

The road goes ever on and on...

A photo of a dirt hiking path snaking along a grassy hillside dotted with fir, spruce, and pine trees of varying maturity. In the valley distant there is a town and beyond it another low mountain carpetted in evergreen. The sky is a rich blue spotted and streaked with light clouds.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 18/05/2025

Uh... Is this good? None are characters I'm particularly familiar with...

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 16/05/2025

Oh dear, someone call an ambulance

A photo of a slightly dirty pink bear-pig stuffy lying on its back in some dry grass and dandelions. There is a grape vine clipping lain across its neck. The scene is a tragic one.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 09/05/2025

Went down a (seemingly) completely unrelated rabbit hole and ended up in a fugue state reading about Mesoamerican archaeological sites for hours yesterday. This isn't an infrequent occurrence and after years of it I still feel I've only scratched the surface. Truly fascinating stuff, every time.

Aerial view of a site called Guachimontones in Jalisco. The site is characterised by several round central pyramids each surrounded by a ring of square platforms.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 07/05/2025

...am I the only one that doesn't know what a frog-type game is?

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 12/04/2025

It's leg day but leg day is filling a backpack with heavy books and lugging it up and down a mountain.😮‍💨 Good stuff. Encountered a Ms Grouse on the trail and managed to get by without flushing her. #hiking #birding

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 31/03/2025

Was digging around my very dusty #blender3D folder and figured I may as well post some of these up here. I sort of developed an occasional habit of modelling small, plan accurate, lowpoly-ish sailboats. Usually they stay slightly unfinished, and have no purpose other than my own amusement. #art

A render of a little lapstrake sailboat. It's still missing a rudder, sails and ropes and stuff but the hull and mast are basically complete. The boat itself is two shades of grey on a background that is a third shade of grey so the whole thing is a bit lifeless. This model is about 8600 tris which could surely be reduced some if desired.

Another render of a different small sailboat. This one has a bit more colour, the hull is mainly white with the top third a light olive-is green. And various pieces like the stems, gunwale, tiller and various other wooden accents are a light brown. The seat and aft decking are a light sandy colour. The boat is also floating in a grey void and is still missing rope and some hardware. Whereas the first boat's hull is pleasingly round, this one has a hard chine(no less pleasing if done right imo), making the hull more angular. This model is roughly 4500 tris.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 30/03/2025

Beautiful Spring day for a hike yesterday. Same could be said for today so I may have to get out there again... #hiking

A view from the top of a small mountain, looking roughly southeast. In the middle distance about 400m below, through a dip in the rock of the summit you can see agricultural fields, mostly wineries and orchards. Between that and the range of low mountains that make up the horizon line you can see the mirrorlike surface of a part of a rather large lake. The sky is largely clear with some fluffy clouds scattered, mostly just above the horizon.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 15/03/2025

Never have I been compelled to make a tier list before now but someone had to speak up for water supremacy.

A quick drinks tier list I made to join in on the fun. My rankings are as follows.

S-tier: water
A-tier: lemonade, sparkling water, tea, coffee, orange juice
B-tier: milk, choc milk, apple juice, iced tea
C-tier: Gatorade, Powerade, fruit punch, grape juice
D-tier: colas, root beer, orange soda, lemon lime sodas, citrus sodas
F-tier: energy drinks

Certainly a lot of drinks missing from the list but the main thing is that water is the only real s-tier drink.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 23/02/2025

#woodworking Realized I never posted that nightstand I mentioned working on over a month ago. It's been done since the end of January but I didn't take good photos of it before putting it into its dark corner so these will have to do. Design and build by yours truly. Let me know what you think :)

I did my design work for this project by just messing around in blender until I ended up with something I liked that more or less met the criteria of the project. It's a great way to quickly try different proportions and (very) rough colours. This image shows three different renders of the nightstand with differently coloured accent woods. The light parts were always going to be a maple veneered particle board but for the accent I had a choice of a few woods. The first accent wood depicted here is sort of a honey/amber colour(alder), the second a dark-brown(black walnut), and the third a very red-brown(sapele). I ended up going with the the black walnut, which ended up being considerably lighter and more brown once it was hit with a finish than what I estimated here.

The front of the finished nightstand sitting in the middle of a room for better lighting. I tried to challenge myself to create visual interest with creative use of wood rather than with shape. As a result the overall shape is very simple, more or less a 500x500x600mm box with 50mm feet. It has a cabinet door with a single drawer above it, both of which have an inset panel.

I sort of had the idea that this piece should look vaguely like a maple box suspended between two arcs of walnut(this might make more sense in the the next picture) but the final appearance of the front of the thing more gives the impression of a vertical icecream sandwich. The light maple wood with all grain oriented horizontally is sandwiched on either side by a continuous, from feet to top, 84mm wide strip of walnut with all vertical grain. This strip has 50mm cutouts where the stiles(vertical pieces) of the cabinet door frame and drawer face are "incorporated" into this walnut strip. It was very important for the final look that the walnut of the face frame and door and drawer lined up well enough that any discrepancies don't draw the eye. The grain of the face frame and door and drawer styles do not match up super well, which is just a result of the materials I had access to but this is something I'd look to improve on the off chance I build something like this again. The feet and are tapered slightly on both sides so that the don't look too chunky.

View is looking at the front left edge so you can also see the left side of the cabinet. Here you can see the walnut strip is carried along the top and down the back of the nightstand too, creating that "arc" I was referring to in the previous photo. You may also notice that some of the wooden joints don't make sense. This is because other than the maple particle board panels, all of the solid wood of the carcass is actually poplar with a 2-3mm veneer of either walnut or maple. Only the door frame and drawer face use solid maple or walnut. This keeps costs down and allows for the more efficient use of finer woods. It also allowed me to make the three separate pieces of the build, the top, carcass, and feet look like a single piece by applying the veneers on the front after final assembly. The final notable part of this piece is the handles which are a sort of clam shell style and made out of walnut as well. They are vertically oriented and aligned along the inner edge of the left walnut strip(the matching nightstand would be mirrored of course). I originally wanted them to look like waves in a ribbon of walnut but they didn't turn out graceful enough. Everyone who has seen them seems to like them though, so I can't complain.

Apologies for all this very confused alt text, I tried my best to describe this thing but it's definitely a skill I need to work on.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 19/01/2025

Trying my hand at a simple inlay this weekend to finish off a little jewellery box I've been working on gradually over the last few months. I don't really know what I'm doing and it's definitely not simple but so far so good. I think the hard part is yet to come, though. #woodworking

Photo of a my inlay panel that I'm making for the top of a little jewellery box. It's a simple sort of compass rose-style design that's twice as wide as it is tall. The points are radically symmetrical and made of half walnut and I believe half western maple though I'm not entirely sure, it could be red alder. There are little cherry wood near-rhombuses tucked in the corners between points so that it looks like there is a cherry octagon in behind the compass cross. It will eventually be set into the panel of eastern maple it's sitting on but I suspect that process is going to be quite a pain in the butt.

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Martin @halfbakedboat.shop · 05/01/2025

Honestly way more than I expected. I have some glaring blindspots though.

A list of 100 well-known video game franchises. Filling in the ones you've played at least one game of gives you your VARIETY gamer score. My VARIETY gamer score is 72 out of 100. Not bad.

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