iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nova @novasquirrel.com · 02/10/2026

More toy art by @funnyhat12.bsky.social - this time focusing on characters I've adopted from her. As usual she did a great job with the shading and lighting. #toyfur

Art of a rubber nonanthro Furret character who is colored with pink, cream, and brown stripes. She's laying on her back with her limbs in the air, curled up a bit. She has prominent seams and some flower decorations on her cheeks and stripes, along with a flower in some short hair. She has two earrings on one ear.

Art of a quadruped rubber pony character who is colored light yellow, with bunny ears. She has red ribbons on her mane and tail, and the mane and tail have pink, yellow and blue stripes. She's looking at the viewer and the ears are flopped down. Her cutie mark is a lollipop, a wrapped candy, and a small gumball-ish candy.

Art of another rubber pony character, this time a unicorn with white as the primary color and then pink and brown as additional color. Her mane and tail have those colors plus yellow, making a banana split theme. She has a strawberry and banana charm in her hair. Her cutie mark is a banana split in a bowl.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 23/09/2026

These are probably not particularly surprising. Chip's Challenge keeps influencing my game design so I put it right in the middle. I think a lot of my sense of humor came from WarioWare. my9games.net/en

"My 9 games: The 9 games That Shaped Who I am": Pokémon Puzzle League, Minecraft, WarioWare for GBA, Animal Crossing, Chip's Challenge, Kirby Super Star, Cave Story, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, Yoshi's Island

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 20/09/2026

Drew a 32x32 sprite of @jschmoe.bsky.social for Tilemap Town. Initially tried to draw a sprite that was vaguely centered and then ended up just pushing everything to the side so I could make the tail as big as I could fit, as is appropriate for a Junie. #pixelart #tilemaptown

32x32 pixel art of an orange fox taur with long brown hair, a black shirt, and a very fluffy tail. She has reddish eyes.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 16/09/2026

More art by @funnyhat12.bsky.social - the jelly bean themed rabbit was actually an adopt she designed, that I redesigned a little bit. And I noticed Ichugo was one of the few mascot characters I have that didn't have toy art yet.

A white mouse character made of shiny rubber, squishing into one of her own cheeks while looking happy. She has strawberry theming and has a strawberry vine tail, a strawberry decoration on her chest, and a vine on her head. Art by funnyhat12.

Art of a jelly bean themed lop eared rabbit character who's taking a bite of a big purple jelly bean. She has white fur and has jelly bean themed markings in the fur. There's a fluffy dewlap and bunch of puffy fur on the top, like hair. She's wearing colorful bracelets. Art by funnyhat12

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 16/09/2026

It's fun to get art based on the games I've worked on, and I should do it more often. This picture is by @funnyhat12.bsky.social I will probably continue finding the Volvic bottled water commercials funny forever and keep putting George the Volcano in everything. Also Crusader of Centy sword throw.

Art of a green anthro squirrel character with a blue dress throwing a sword at a large grayish blue volcano who's holding bottled water, and who is sitting on an elevated platform. This is in a forest scene. By funnyhat12

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 15/09/2026

Tilemap Town event tomorrow; going to be funny to treat it like Drawpile, though it should work fine, especially with a feature that lets you have doodle boards appear underneath players so it just looks like floor.

Quest Board
For seeking roleplay participants or who wants to join!
Date: 2026 Sept 16th, 3:00 PM PDT
Host: VAdaPEGA
What if instead of tiles, everything was a big ol canvas?
Hi, let's try to draw on a map using TT's Doodle Board feature.
The only limitation is for everyone to use the same palette (RGB222),
make sure that's selected in your doodle board!
Event will take place in map 1667

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 12/09/2026

My phone had a hard time rendering the crowd at the event. I did log on with my Steam Deck, which worked better, but I don't think the event was such an incredible thing to justify being that guy who has a Steam Deck out at the zoo. At least I stayed for one song.

Screenshot of the Second Life client for Android, in which a pony character is standing next to many human characters. However the world is featureless and all characters are white with no textures

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 09/09/2026

Here's a photo in case anyone is interested. The 2002 date is helpful. I was trying to get in to clean some dust off that got under the screen lens.

Photo of the inside of a Super Mario Bros Game & Watch rerelease. A piezo speaker is visible on the leftand there are capacitors on the board. There is text that says "TD-2NO78AO
2
HS-GOO5S
GAME: SUPER MARIO
CMOS: STK55C423-552
REV: 5"

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 06/09/2026

Trying out an aesthetic for Sliding Blaster 2 in which I use rilden.github.io/tiledpalette... to convert photos to get a look where you're playing with toys on top of a realistic surface, similar to LEGO Loco. Background uses 4-color tiles to save video RAM. #snesdev #gamedev #homebrew

Screenshot of a top-down action game running in a SNES emulator. There's a pink hovercraft looking toy in the middle of the screen, next to some colorful wooden blocks and ammo pickups on the ground. There's cookies and snowmen on snowboards nearby.

Screenshot of the same game, but the hovercraft toy is on some sand dunes. There's some blue swirls around the stage.

Screenshot of the same game, with the background as some sort of green glass-like surface. There's Poo-Chi and balloon and cookie enemies.

Same game, but background is a corn cob.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 29/08/2026

I got my Game Bub yesterday and it's really sleek and cool and the buttons feel nice. I haven't spent a ton of time with the controls since I played docked yesterday, but it does pass my "feels good to play Puzzle League" d-pad test.

Purple Game Bub console showing Puzzle League's title screen

Back of purple Game Bub console, showing Tetris Blast inserted

Purple Game Bub console showing Tetris Blast's title screen

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 28/08/2026

Some NES games do this, like Dragon Warrior and 4 Nin Uchi Mahjong. The latter uses the trick to fit a large amount of 16x16 kanji characters without bank switching.

YY-CHR screenshot, showing Dragon Warrior for NES with a palette that's two blacks and two whites

YY-CHR screenshot, showing Dragon Warrior for NES with a palette that's alternating black and white

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 26/08/2026

It's funny how Thumby is just so small that it makes other consoles that are known for their small size look "jumbo" by comparison

A green Thumby next to a green Pokémon Minj on some cream colored carpet

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 19/08/2026

In case anyone's interested, I have an IRC server set up running Ergo (which has bouncer-like functionality directly built in) and a web client with a silly default theme and deterministically generated unicorns for everyone's avatars. novasquirrel.com/kiwi/ or novasquirrel.com port 6697 with TLS

Screenshot of KiwiIRC that's been zoomed in, with a "radioactive" theme. Three users post sample messages and the avatars are randomly generated colorful unicorns

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 03/08/2026

I also noticed that the tool in SNES Dezaemon for setting up the background you scroll over during gameplay switches the screen resolution to 512x448, in order to show the tile picker and other UI elements next to a preview of the level without cutting the graphics down. That's a clever use for it.

Screenshot of Kaite Tsukutte Asoberu Dezaemon for Super Famicom, showing the editor for setting up the scrolling background for stage 1. There is a selection of graphics tiles on the left that can be placed onto a map on the right.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 02/08/2026

Attack #7: artfight.net/attack/18613... for @vadapega.bsky.social Managed to get one last attack in! Wanted to thank Vivie for a really lovely picture of Sherbet and her buddies. 64x64 feels like a good size for a good amount of detail but still keeping the picture manageable.

A small purple mouse with a very fluffy tail. They have gray fur on their tummy and muzzle and in their ear, and darker gray fur on the paws and tail. There's gray markings on the side of the face and on a leg.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 01/08/2026

Added a quick feature to Tilemap Town where you can set an entity so that clicking on it steps to the next direction in a list of directions you've provided. It does have a more serious use because different directions could be open/close sprites for a door (Brionne from sprites.pmdcollab.org#/0729)

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 31/07/2026

Attack #6: artfight.net/attack/18317... for www.tumblr.com/meejiry Wanted to draw at least one pony, and this was a revenge for a really nice Nova picture. Pony manes always give me a lot of trouble but I'm happy with how this came out. I like all of the fun gradients across the design.

Art of a gray/brown My Little Pony styled character with a magenta mane and tail, and a cutie mark of a milk carton next to a bowl with some cake battery or something being mixed into it. She's wearing glasses.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 31/07/2026

Attack #5: artfight.net/attack/17759... for www.tumblr.com/senseikinder Thought it was fun to try and draw a Kirby OC related to Elfilin; thought about drawing the cuter form but this one looks really cool and I wanted to have a go at trying to make it work in my style.

Art of a character based on the same species as Fecto Elfilis from Kirby, but in different colors (somewhat pinkish, with red as the accent color) and a big fluffy tail.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 31/07/2026

Attack #4: artfight.net/attack/17331... for @chimera.moe Thought it would be fun to try and have him use the Bubbline since it *is* sitting right there in Mimiga Village, so I can imagine at least one Mimiga finding it and trying it out. Tricky to draw a tool like that but I think this works.

Art of a bipedal Mimiga character wearing a jacket and glasses, and holding the bubble gun from Cave Story, which he's using to shoot out bubbles.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 31/07/2026

Attack #3: artfight.net/attack/16520... for @lohlite.bsky.social Had fun setting up a background for this one. I like treating backgrounds like I'm painting, and filling in areas of solid color instead of trying to do lines. And a scene gave me an opportunity to do a simple light effect on antlers.

Art of a bipedal white rabbit character with very long ears that end in an orange marking. They have two crystal antlers and are standing on top of a hill at night, with some fences and mountains in the background. Lots of stars are visible, including a shooting star.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 31/07/2026

Attack #2: artfight.net/attack/15201... for @vwolf5.bsky.social I've wanted to try and draw this character for a few years and finally got around to it this time. I like that she's a quadruped cat that goes to school. Had a tricky time with the wings but I think they look good.

A quadrupedal yellow cat with butterfly wings, and red stripes on the legs and tail. She has short blue hair.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 31/07/2026

Attack #1: artfight.net/attack/15176... for www.furaffinity.net/user/Spotted... Cybunny is my favorite Neopet, and I thought it was fun to try and draw a plushie. The character concept is neat, where she turns into a plush to help her deal with chronic illnesses and some gray still peeks out.

A plush bipedal Cybunny from Neopets, with a body made of slightly purple desaturated fabric, and reddish coloring on the paws and dewlap. The character is holding a plush star with patches on it, and they have an additional pair of ears atop the plush ones, colored in gray.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 24/07/2026

Smash for Wii U let you fight on a stage with Miiverse posts shown in the background. In Smash Ultimate, the Miiverse posts are the foreground that you actually fight on apparently.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 24/07/2026

In an alternate timeline where Data Design Interactive didn't go defunct

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 16/07/2026

I want to mostly focus on Art Fight until the event is over, but because it was only a few days of work, I went ahead and added a feature to Tilemap Town where you can get more control on how your avatar is animated. You can finally control animation speed and have a bigger avatar if you want.

Tilemap Town screenshot, showing a "character appearance setup" window with options for image URL, frame size, typing symbol height, direction count, and further settings for the idle and movement animations

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 07/07/2026

I guess there's always the option of adding a variable to another the way you have to do it in Starcraft, which has similar limitations. 0xeb.net/wp-content/u... is a fun read and it's cool that they bothered to try and port the effects of intentional buffer overflows to a newer version of the game.

Slide from a presentation. Text on the right side is some source code; text on the left side is as follows:

The *a = *b primitive
Trigger condition:
1. Probes the value of src_var

Trigger action:
1. Increments the value of dst_var
2. Decrements the value of src_var
3. src_var's value eventually reaches zero
4. Backup changes into var_copy

The same primitive is repeated to copy var_copy back to dst_var [sic]

This primitive is expensive and generates lots of triggers

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 07/07/2026

In RPG Maker 3, I can insert actions into events that increase or decrease a variable by a specific constant value, but I haven't been able to find a way to do other math operations or use a variable instead of a constant. RPG Maker 2 can do more kinds of math and you can select variable or constant

RPG Maker 3 screenshot, showing the second half of a list of what "property control" actions are available. The relevant ones here are modify shared variable, increase shared variable, decrease shared variable, copy shared variable, modify internal variable, increase internal variable, decrease internal variable, copy internal variable.

RPG Maker 3 screenshot, showing the "increase shared variable" menu, where variable 01 is going to be increased by 123

RPG Maker 3 screenshot. A menu to set up a conditional branch, where there code will go one way if a variable is 123, and another way if it's 0

RPG Maker 2 screenshot, showing a menu for modifying a variable. You can clearly choose whether the left and right values are variables or constants, and choose more types of math operations, like multiplication as shown here

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 06/07/2026

I assume that the back of this Cocoa Loops box putting a toucan named Pluey next to a toucan named Suzy is a cryptic hint about Deltarune chapter 6

Portion of the back of a "Cocoa Loops" box showing cartoon toucans named Pluey and Suzy, with information about them. There's also a suggestion to put Cocoa Loops on cereal or cupcakes.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 05/07/2026

For the eventual SNES version I'll be able to have the floors/walls and decorations on two separate background layers, but can't do that on NES, so my solution is to use MMC5 to get the ability to have 16384 simultaneous tile numbers, and I render floor+decoration combinations at build time.

Screenshot of YY-CHR, showing many duplicate pieces of pixel art with different backgrounds underneath

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 05/07/2026

Decided to try putting the NES town tileset I made in February to use in a tech demo where you'd be able to make a town, copy it to Turbo File, load it up on a SNES and have fancier graphics. But I don't have time for another project right now so I just got it to the point where it can render a map.

NES emulator screenshot showing a bunch of 16x16 blocks at the top, then a grass area below that with some water and some solid looking structures that have edges and corners on them

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 30/06/2026

Added some functions to Tilemap Town's Luau scripting API to make it easier to fake pixel-based movement. There's a tile grid position and a pixel offset, and the new API functions let you work with map pixel coordinates instead (automatically updating grid position and offsets for you).

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 22/06/2026

I'd like to build up more community for my 2D pixel art virtual world tilemap.town - which is made for roleplaying, and is self hostable with an documented protocol and open source code. It's made with roleplaying in mind and you can make your own maps and use your own player and map tile graphics.

Screenshot of a 2D top-down pixel art world, made of 16x16 tiles. There's many buildings and paths linking between them

A simple paint program interface, where you can select a color and draw on a small canvas

Screenshot of the desktop client interacting with a user on the web client

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 21/06/2026

Here's another build because I noticed it wasn't actually copying the file's data when you copied a file between the cart and Turbo File, oops. Also added confirmation screens and a sector browser. code.novasquirrel.com/Maffi/TurboF...

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 18/06/2026

I will have to figure out what wire is what in the controller extension cable I cut before I can plug that into this, but this *should* be everything else? 5V into the 5V pin, GPIO connected through a level shifter, 3.3V and 5V connected to the level shifter. Don't know if I need a capacitor.

Photo of a breadboard with a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 and a level shifter chip on it

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 08/06/2026

I've been working on a file manager and backup tool for Turbo File Twin and Turbo File Adapter, using the same visual style as my previous WildStorage tool for DS. Includes a library for making it friendly to work with Turbo File in SNES homebrew games. #snes #snesdev #homebrew

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 04/06/2026

Cyberchase season 16 is actually pretty good so far; there's some more varied topics and it's doing some interesting stuff with its characters and stories instead of heavy-handed environmentalism stuff. I like these new penguin characters and I hope to see more of them. The animation got a bump too.

A purple penguin character with a cute little hair tuft, some freckles, a long green hat with a ball at the end (a night cap), and some bracelets. She's standing with a flipper on her chest. She's named Miranda.

A pink penguin character (Gabe) with a spiky mohawk hairdo and some red glasses. She's sitting and wearing a yellow uniform with a snowflake on the front. She's sitting next to a blue penguin (Mimi) who's a little shorter and who is wearing a little cap and some bracelets, and the same uniform.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 02/06/2026

I updated Mesen with my findings and added two more tests to my test suite. My Turbo File Adapter and Turbo File Twin have the same behavior for these tests. There are still some unknowns relating to stopping without being aligned to a byte boundary but that's out of scope for now.

MesenCE screenshot showing test results from a test ROM, with all 8 tests passing. The tests are "Should get all 1s past end of controller status report", "Unlock and lock test (how ASCII games do it)", "Unlock and lock test (using increments)", "Write data then read it", "Don't write if locked", "Try wrapping around to beginning of memory" and the two new tests "Flip-flop updated before 4-bit counter changes" and "Flip-flop controls unlock, not the 4-bit counter"

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 02/06/2026

Here's the rest of the stuff in my recent proxy shopping order, minus some stuff that was friends adding their stuff onto my order to save on shipping. Don't know what I'll do with a complete JRA-PAT set but I have it if I come up with anything fun. Game Boy Color for scale.

A lime Game Boy Color next to two JRA-PAT cartridges, a NTT Data Keypad controller for SNES, two Super Joy Card controllers for SNES, a modem, a Brionne figure, an Elfilin keychain, a SNES multitap shaped like Bomberman's head, two Turbo File IIs, two Turbo File Adapters, a Turbo File Twin, a Pachinko controller, and a Pachinko game in a box. There's also a Pokémon Mini with 3 games.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 01/06/2026

Because the board is made from standard parts, I was able to figure out how it works just from looking at the board and drawing lines to help show what's connected to what. I learned there isn't a distinct "unlock" signal preventing writes, rather you can make it stop resetting the address.

Photo of the underside of a Turbo File Adapter board with some of the traces colored in to make it clearer how the chips are connected to each other, and there are labels for the chip pins

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 01/06/2026

I got a cheap logic probe and was planning on poking at the Turbo File Adapter with it to try and reverse engineer it when I got it, but then I opened it up and there's just 7400 series chips. I'll just look at the board and figure out the behavior from that, then.

Photo of the front of a Turbo File Adapter board, showing two HD14021BP chips, and a HD74HC74P and HD74HC161P. There's a Famicom expansion port connector on the side.

Photo of the back of a Turbo File Adapter board, showing traces between the chips.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 09/05/2026

If you want to trigger a breakpoint every time a new note starts, you can set a breakpoint for a DSP register being written to, with the key-on DSP register currently selected. "dspreg == $4C && value && (value ^ [$F3])" for the condition.

Screenshot of a breakpoint editor in the Mesen emulator, showing a breakpoint on address $F3 with the condition set to "dspreg == $4C && value && (value ^ [$F3])"

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 06/05/2026

I implemented NTT Data Keypad support in MesenCE, so you can play raphnet.itch.io/super-sudoku. Would have been nice to have when I previously played with using this controller as a way to do text input. I would like to add Turbo File Twin support but that's going to require some research and tests.

Screenshot of the Mesen emulator, showing the configuration for the NTT Data Keypad controller, with a standard SNES controller setup on top and configuration for the number pad below. There's also buttons for choosing a preset, accepting the new control configuration, clearing the current keys.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 03/05/2026

Noticed a lack of Sherbets in your replies

Illustration of a green fox taur with magenta hair, wearing ice skates on all four feet and skating on some ice in a winter scene. The ice has lots of markings on it from people skating on it. There's snowy hills and trees in the background.

A green My Little Pony character with magenta mane and tail sitting next to an orange colored pony with bee themed coloring. They're having dinner together outside at night, and are sitting at a table together. They both have plates of food.

Green My Little Pony character riding through a minecart in some sort of crystal cave area, with glowing blue crystals. She looks like she's having a good time and seems happy.

Close-up view of a green My Little Pony character's face, smiling with a heart next to her

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 29/04/2026

Just got a rubber Maffi Shinx avatar, by @funnyhat12.bsky.social ! It's been fun playing with having her be a Shinx sometimes, and there's a few more toy Shinx Maffi pictures on the way. Still kind of funny to have an electric type Pokémon made of an insulator. #toyfur

Icon showing a Shinx from Pokémon, made of bluish gray rubber. She's very shiny and reflective and she has bright purple ears. She has dark bluish gray rubber hair.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 29/04/2026

Still have some stuff to fix, but I have MesenCE to the point where it can run two Game Boy consoles and get into versus matches, and you can interact with the two consoles separately. Excited to get this far, though a few games don't work and there's some crashes. I'll try to figure out why.

Screenshot of the multiplayer versus mode in Super Mario Bros Deluxe, showing Mario and Luigi running through a level

Screenshot of the multiplayer mode in Qix

Screenshot of the versus mode in Tetris Attack for Game Boy

Screenshot of the versus mode in Pokémon Puzzle Challenge

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 28/04/2026

Accuracy is a moving target, and you can only match the hardware behavior that's currently known and documented, so accuracy requires continued maintenance. Looks like zsnes 1.51 doesn't even try to do the offset-per-tile feature, and the new one gets it wrong in a way that's distinct from Ares.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 28/04/2026

My offset-per-tile test ROMs (forums.nesdev.org/viewtopic.ph...) showed me that ares and bsnes have inaccurate mode 6 emulation, and snes9x surprisingly actually does it right. And I could try to fix it 3 times and test it 3 times and make 3 PRs in addition to fixing it on Mesen but I'd rather not.

Screenshot of a video capture from a real SNES, showing a test ROM with a checkerboard background where the columns have been shifted differently from each other

Different screen in the Ares emulator; the columns are shifted differently

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 26/04/2026

Here's the Miis, food, and treasure I've made so far. Trying to approach it in an earnest way where there is some silly joke stuff but I'm putting effort into it, and I think it's paying off. And just seeing my characters pop up in random roles like the news reporter keeps making me smile.

Tomodachi Life screenshot showing a page of 12 characters, including some guy with red glasses, Vegeta, Gwonam from Zelda CD-i, a red catsune with a white muzzle (Cherry), a strawberry themed mouse (Ichugo), a blue rabbit with a unicorn horn (Clover), Isabelle from Animal Crossing, a Poo-Chi inspired dog (Cathy), Lotta from Carl the Collector, a holly themed rabbit (Alex), some sort of flying squirrel critter with a horn (Rocket), a pink fox with blue ears (Rosy Sky)

A screen showing Dr. Robotnik from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Hacker from Cyberchase

A shop screen, showing the large soft serve from Tamagotchi Paradise, a yellow can that says "drink Con Cola", and Nacho Cheese Doritos

A treasure buying screen, with a The Lorax DVD, lamp oil rope and bombs, a pink pegasus, a Mareep, a Marill, a Pikachu with a pink scarf, the CUTIEMARKS Vylet Pony album art, and two Switch Consoles with the Wii Homebrew Channel on the screen and one with a section of the Tilemap Town map

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 21/04/2026

The doodle boards have a high color (32x32 max, 64 colors max) mode and high resolution (64x64 max, 4x2 tiles with attribute clash) mode, and I added a grid feature so you can actually see the attribute grid when you use the latter. I have high color as the default since it's simpler to use.

Screenshot of the paint interface with a grid applied over the canvas.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 21/04/2026

I made a client-side UI for Doodle Boards in Tilemap Town, which you previously had to control via clicking on buttons in the chat log. Managed to do it without adding stuff to the protocol specifically for this, which I'm happy about, and a client without this can use the old server-side UI.

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