iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

My read of AB 2074 is that it sounds like a big deal because it allows some rather tall heights, but the specifics mean the cities impacted don't actually have to change their existing zoning much. Is this correct?

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The Hidden Palace @handle.invalid · 20/09/2026

A really cool find from Discord member gageiro: A custom Mega CD BIOS made especially for Sonic Team's creative director Kazuyuki Hoshino! Check it out in action below!

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 17/09/2026

California's law prematurely forcing transit agencies to adopt zero-emission busses was ill-advised for a lot of reasons, but given recent diesel prices it's kind of unfortunate the BEB rollout isn't further along. Even with 2024 prices, AC Transit was seeing better cost per mile with Gillig BEBs

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 16/09/2026

I got my solar and storage system through the Bay Area SunShares program from Solar Technologies who are participating again this year. My experience was positive

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 12/09/2026

I promised a new BlastEm release on September 11th... and it's still September 11th here in PST... by 16 minutes anyway. Presenting BlastEm 1.0.0 - supporting most of Sega's 16 and 8-bit hardware. It includes some new features and debugging improvements too www.retrodev.com/blastem/anno...

retrodev.com

BlastEm 1.0.0 Release Announcement

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 12/09/2026

retrodev.com

BlastEm 1.0.0 Release Announcement

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 08/09/2026

Made some good progress on adding CHD support to BlastEm over the holiday weekend. Not integrated into the emulator yet, but I was able to decompress some CHDs (though only ones that use zlib and/or FLAC). Should be able to get it finished up in time for the 1.0 release on Friday

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 04/09/2026

This is now a week away! I haven't done a lot to prepare since this last skeet, but I have taken both the 10th and the 11th off which should allow some time for last-minute fixes and improvements

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 31/08/2026

Man, I am so glad I built a new PC and splurged on 96GB of RAM back in April 2025. I was worried about tariffs and not shortages, but the timing worked out anyway.

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 24/08/2026

Feels like every time I see a neat retro Sega project these days, once I look under the hood it's obvious it's AI generated. Latest example is a port of emuTOS to Mega CD. Not disclosed, but a quick look at PLAN.md in the repo makes it fairly obvious

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MatteusBeus Retro Developer @matteusbeus.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

If you want to support someone trying to make their childhood dream to publish a sega mega drive game and be successful at it then now is your chance ❤️ wishlist: store.steampowered.com/app/4909120/...

store.steampowered.com

Chords on Steam

Chords is an authentic retro 16-bit cyberpunk visual novel. Dive into a twisting, deceptive story packed with pixel art, chiptune energy, and classic adventure vibes where nothing is quite what it see...

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 21/08/2026

I spent over 6 years of my life working on a game very loosely based on Waterworld. Over 7 years later, I'm finally watching the movie for the first time.

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Warren Wells, AICP @warrenjwells.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

It really is crazy that we need winq do-or-die election to keep Bay Area transit alive, all while the state's unelected DOT staffers pour billions into a sinking roadway.

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 18/08/2026

I've just been cursed with the knowledge that I live within a short walk of the "AI safety" sex cult headquarters...

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Brandon Sheffield @brandon.insertcredit.com · 13/08/2026

Alright y'all, this is it! The final stretch for the game industry hardship fund. We've got $13k to raise in 14 hours to meet the final goal, I think we can do it. itch.io/b/3802/game-...

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 13/08/2026

Shadow of the Colossus. It's a game with interesting ideas and was technically ambitious, but I did not enjoy it at all. Boss fights are usually the part of a game I like the least and it's basically just boss fights with long uneventful horse rides in between.

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 11/08/2026

In exactly 1 month, I'm going to release BlastEm 1.0! This will be the first "stable" release since 2019 and will mark exactly 13 years since the release of BlastEm 0.1.0. Compared to 0.6.2, this release adds support for Sega CD, 32X, Sega Pico, Yamaha Copera, Game Gear, SC-3000 and Colecovision

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 03/08/2026

I don't really get the thesis behind the "SaaS-pocalypse". Like I get that certain types of software development might be uniquely under threat due to the ability to have an LLM quickly churn out code that does roughly what you want, but why SaaS specifically?

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Keith Kaisershot @blitter.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Tomorrow (Sat 8/1) at 4:30pm PDT during the Vintage Computer Festival West, I will be moderating a discussion and Q&A with Ron Wayne, the oft-forgotten third cofounder of Apple Computer. vcfed.org/events/vinta...

vcfed.org

VCF West — Speakers – Vintage Computer Federation

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Brandon Sheffield @brandon.insertcredit.com · 30/07/2026

In response to the unprecedented number of game developers laid off this year, we have created a bundle on itch to benefit a Game Industry Hardship Fund, managed by @videogameworkers.bsky.social. More than 100 games for 10+ bucks! Please share widely and donate generously! itch.io/b/3802/game-...

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 23/07/2026

I think if I had to name a villain for the woes of the game industry (beyond the obvious RAM shortage one), I would probably pick performance marketing. This is what drives the economics of the typical F2P game that represent an increasingly large share of industry revenue

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 20/07/2026

One of the downsides to hosting your own Bluesky PDS, is that when the server it's hosted on is unreachable you can't post to let people know that your server is down. Anyway, my hosting provider suffered a DDOS over the weekend that took down the BlastEm website and my bsky PDS.

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Anaël seghezzi @anaelseghezzi.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Small update on the Megadrive *rally game* ? I added sprites and did some optimization so CPU is still at 70% usage with a stable 60 fps. I'm a bit disappointed by the sprite width limit per-line. I wanted a lot more dense vegetation but it's not possible with sprites. I'll try other methods.

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 09/07/2026

Interesting that residential solar actually does so well here. I was under the impression it was kind of marginal and maybe in comparison to utility-scale it is, but $3.86 of benefit for each dollar isn't bad. Also surprised weatherization is the only one that's worse than break-even return.

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 06/07/2026

This feels relevant again in light of today's sad Xbox news. I don't know if 1 billion DAU across all Xbox properties is actually realistic, but people comparing it to Steam and WoW's DAU sound like they're ignoring the mobile game elephant in the room.

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 04/07/2026

I would totally watch this anime

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 02/07/2026

One thing that bothers me a bit about state of the game industry discourse is it often treats the mobile market like it doesn't exist despite it making up over half of industry revenue. You don't have to like it (I sure don't), but hard to have a good picture of what's happening if you ignore it.

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

5-4 for what it explicitly says in the constitution is incredible. They were this close to undoing the civil war entirely. bsky.app/profile/mjsd...

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

this is worth reading both for its own sake and as a reflection on the absolutely batshit process issues in California state governance that can lead "im stridently opposed to the ballot measure I authored" to actually make sense

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 20/06/2026

Improved 32X timing accuracy in BlastEm a bit and that fixed NBA Jam Tournament Edition. I think at this point the only 32X games that aren't playable are CD-based ones that need disc swapping (e.g. Fahrenheit). There are a few more with some minor graphical issues though.

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 15/06/2026

Some jerk ran a red light on University Avenue and hit my car. I'm okay, but the automated claim thing thinks it might be totaled. It's 9 years old, but it only had ~43K miles and the battery had considerably less due to the recall. Liked this car a lot so I'm really bummed.

A metallic orange 2017 Chevy Bolt Ev with a bunch of damage to the front

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 12/06/2026

My lukewarm CA election take is that in principle, it would be nice if we were at least as fast as other states with similarly permissive mail-in ballot rules like Oregon and Washington, but not terribly convinced it buys us much beyond what AB 5 already accomplished.

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Brandon Sheffield @brandon.insertcredit.com · 10/06/2026

1/3 of the game industry has lost their job in the last two years. Ubisoft closed two more studios today. Everyone is out of work. To that end I'm starting a new bundle to benefit a layoffs hardship fund. Game devs: please consider submitting your PAID games to the bundle, which will launch in July.

itch.io

Game industry hardship fund

A game jam from 2026-06-10 to 2026-06-24 hosted by Necrosoft Games. PREMISE: The game industry has a problem. Too many people are out of work (reports say 33% of the industry lost their jobs in the la...

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Chris Kohler @kohler.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

This is amazing. I saw "8-bit console" and figured it HAD to be a NES ROM because why would you do anything else? Instead they're doing a physical Master System game. So much respect for this

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 05/06/2026

I will verbify any noun. You can't stop me

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 04/06/2026

Got my Copper Charlie induction range installed today. My home is now fully electrified

A Copper Charlie induction range installed in a kitchen. It has the optional Black Walnut knobs and handle

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 04/06/2026

Zelda: BotW is a very overrated game. Still fun, but I enjoyed Horizon: Zero Dawn a lot more. TotK fixed a lot of the issues I had with BotW, but I found the way they purposely gimped the construction mechanics to avoid breaking the game too much frustrating

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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

In the first batches of votes counted in the 2022 California primary, Rick Caruso led Karen Bass 42/37. The final result of the primary had Bass ahead 43% to 36%. In the November election, the first batch had Caruso up 51/49. Bass won 55/45.

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 03/06/2026

I think the current CA primary results are probably a good bit more conservative than what we'll see when all votes are counted. Here's the current state of the Controller race. In 2024, Harris won 58.5% of the vote in CA and Trump won 38.3%. Do you think CA got more or less GOP friendly since?

Screenshot of current state of the CA Controller primary. Malia Cohen, the incumbent democrat has 54.8% of the vote. Herb W Morgan, a republican has 41.0% of the vote

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 03/06/2026

Yay, my ballot has been received and accepted. Still time to vote in the CA primary. Polls close at 8PM. Go to an in-person polling location or use a ballot drop box before then if you haven't voted already

Email screenshot, the text reads:

Hello MICHAEL PAVONE,

This is a message from the California Secretary of State on behalf of Alameda County Registrar of Voters. Your ballot for the June 2, 2026, Primary Election was received and will be counted. Thank you for voting!

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Anarcho-Crust Demon Hunter @jamesaskew.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Preemptively tapping the sign

Bernie Sanders "I am once again asking" meme that reads "I am once again asking all pundits to not make broad generalizations about California elections based on the first ballot drop tonight"

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 29/05/2026

Fixed what is hopefully the last SH2 core bug (at least until I write a dynarec and make a bunch of new ones) last night and now Shadow Squadron works in BlastEm

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 28/05/2026

I don't understand why all the "OMG Chinese EVs are going to destroy all western car companies" coverage is so focused on BYD when it seems like Leapmotor is the one that's had the most success competing in western markets. The T03 is the 6th bestselling EV in Europe behind Tesla and VW group models

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 27/05/2026

Huh, I wonder if this is why the Fuddruckers in Concord didn't have any tomatoes in their topping bar this past weekend

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 25/05/2026

Managed to get Star Wars Arcade running in BlastEm today

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Cαrínα ᓚᘏᗢ @carina.delachancla.com · 24/05/2026

Torasu Warp 9 is finally done! Can say the game is 25% done. Yay milestone! 🎉 Goal is ~36 warps (5 stage bosses and a final boss). Here's short clips showing what I can in 3 minutes. Wish me luck on my future work 🤞🤞 (currently uploading full vid to youtube)

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 23/05/2026

Been a little bit since I posted some BlastEm 32X progress. As of tonight, it successfully plays everyone's favorite not quite a Sonic game

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