iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2025

[grisly pixel art] DreamWeb got a generally lukewarm reception from many gaming mags at release, but almost all of them mentioned how extreme some of the depicted violence was. one of the early scenes in the game has some incredibly detailed animation worthy of […] [Original post on dialup.cafe]

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2025

@jsstaedtler the experience has obviously paid off!

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2025

@jsstaedtler wow! i had just assumed this was algorithmically accomplished - hand drawn is a crazy feat 🙏

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2025

@jsstaedtler nice work with the cloth deformation!

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2025

in case anyone is curious about the underlying cause of it being impossible to migrate a mastodon server from one domain to another, this limitation is due to the activitypub protocol itself, which (simplifying for brevity) uses the equivalent of absolute/hardcoded URLs for posts @silverpill […]

dialup.cafe

Original post on dialup.cafe

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2025

i have no idea if graffiti gear was a thing outside of canada, but i hope it was 🙏 it enjoyed a brief fad in my elementary school, until someone realized writing swear words in permanent marker was much more appealing than their autograph. #canada #1980s

A "Design Your Own Jacket" pack titled Graffiti Gear. It shows two kids wearing tyvek jackets, decorated with cartooned objects.

The copy from the rear of the box:

It's Graffiti Gear! A special lightweight Tyvek jacket with permanent color markers so you can design a one-of-a-kind jacket that tells the world who you are! Show 'em your favorite stars, bands, teams, hobbies, events. Get your friends to autograph your jacket or just go crazy and make your own unique designs.

This Graffiti Gear kit contains one jacket, six color markers, plus a full color idea poster with designs to inspire you and instructions to make your own terrific Graffiti Gear jacket.

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2025

Due to technical limitations with mastodon's architecture - which does not support domain name changes or data migration - dialup.cafe will be closing permanently in one month. Dialup.cafe instance users: please see the server announcement and get thine affairs in order. 💀

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2025

@Tijn i have read dozens of posts/feature requests and they all appear to say the same thing: change the primary web domain, and your instance is hosed. there appear to be no workarounds.

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2025

holy crap: mastodon server does not support domain name changes. 😆 i now have to give some serious thought to migrating dialup.cafe -> dialup.party it would mean setting up a new server from scratch, migrating users to the new server, and losing all of their post history in the process. i am […]

dialup.cafe

Original post on dialup.cafe

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2025

@tomjennings go back to your timeline - Notifications is its own icon - a bell, right below the Home icon. on the Notifications page, click on the options icon which looks like a group of small sliders in the top right.

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2025

500+ canada geese on the trans canada trail #canada #animals #yeg

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2025

two years ago our resident hare dug herself a soft spot on the front lawn, and sat in it for weeks. twice a year - in the spring and autumn - she returns to that exact spot and has a good sit for a few days. she arrived this morning #rabbits #urbanAnimals #animals #yeg

A white tailed jackrabbit (prairie hare) sits comfortably on a lawn covered with elm leaves.

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2025

@Tijn i had completely forgotten about those two companies. bioware is a local employer here, but they already massively cut their staff after multiple stillborn projects

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2025

@Tijn i haven't had any interest in their products in 25+ years, but they own an unbelievable amount of IP, including the ultima series.

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2025

@tomjennings amazing to see someone shooting on 4x5!

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Reposted by vga256

Martijn Frazer @tijn.dosgame.club.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2025

Last weekend of the month, and I finally have the time to check out our @dosgameclub September game: Ascendancy. It's a space-themed 4X game from 1995, very much in the same vein as Master of Orion, and it rules. What's especially great imho is how wild and […] [Original post on dosgame.club]

Screenshot of Ascendancy. The top left contains a star map, with the Panacea system selected, along with a bunch of buttons with icons on them to navigate the map. Besides the buttons is a round image showing the face of a sort of rat-like alien. In the top right is another alien, resembling a tree somewhat. Below the alien on-screen text says: "Ah yes, the Govorum. We knew we'd run into you sooner or later." and my only reply option: "We look forward to many interesting encounters".

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2025

@Tijn absolutely memorable soundtrack by the same composer who created the Ultima VIII ost

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2025

@kalleboo it would earn you a new entry on that page fwiw, it’s entirely possible someone is running appletalk on an IXP. i recently found out that my 30 year old cisco integrated services router supports appletalk out of the box, natively!

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2025

@kalleboo indeed. those improvements didnt show up in (western) canada until the early 2000s

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2025

@kalleboo wow! that is fascinating. i had assumed everything there was concrete by the 70s. i forgot that earthquake proofing was a relatively recent development across the world

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2025

@kalleboo wild. totally nonexistent out here!

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2025

@kalleboo i imagine it’s a lot of concrete and rebar?

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2025

this interview with jeff vogel has a fascinating 15-minute tour of jeff's homebuilt IDE and engine for building spiderweb software RPGs in an age where the vast majority of developers are building games using general purpose platforms like unity/godot, it's fascinating to see how jeff has […]

dialup.cafe

Original post on dialup.cafe

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 20/09/2025

on the prairies of western canada it is harvest time for hops and apples with the hot and dry autumn, we got a surprisingly bountiful harvest of both #gardening #bloomscrolling #autumn #fruit

cheerful deep red delicious apples on a tree, in the morning light.

A hops pod has grown fat from a hops plant, and shines green in the morning light.

A huge bag of apples of various shades of red and green.

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2025

@gabrielesvelto good point! i’ll have to load it up on my A1000 and take some pics

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2025

The Invisible City Beneath Paris by Robert Macfarlane, The New Yorker Under the southern portion of the city exists its negative image: a network of more than two hundred miles of galleries, rooms and chambers. archive.ph/0Z2g9 photo credit: Gaspard […] [Original post on dialup.cafe]

A chamber in the paris mine, titled "Hydraulic system". It shows a small channel of water connected to a much deeper well. The water is a clear blue.

A tunnel disappears into the distance, its walls of quarried stone.

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2025

today's software preservation task one of the great crimes of the 21st century was that Mark Jones' (Core Design) Darkmere - an isometric adventure-RPG for the amiga - was poorly visually documented by the usual places like lemonamiga/mobygames/etc. perhaps for […] [Original post on dialup.cafe]

The wizard gildor, sitting in a stone throne, gazing into a crystal ball as electricity comes out of it.

A forest scene with a massive skull cavern, in greens and greys.

A comfy interior of a home, with a large wall fireplace and hearth; a fire burns cheerfully within it. In front of the fire sleeps a tan dog, alongside a human skull.

Around the room, torches burn.

A waterfall flows quickly along a river, spilling its water onto the rocks below. The forest around it is full of gnarly, friendly trees.

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2025

Back when I bought my iMac G5 as a grad student, I could never have afforded Macromedia Director - even with its heavily discounted “academic” license. finally acquired it today, complete, so I can begin turning my upcoming book Mages & Modems, into an […] [Original post on dialup.cafe]

A very large and heavy box containing Macromedia Director 7 for PowerPC macs. A 20-inch iMac G5 is in the background.

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2025

a 20km hike through prairie deciduous in the autumn. this is the strathcona regional trail, which recently connected edmonton to fort saskatchewan. difficulty: easy distance: medium surface: 10-20mm gravel pic 2: there is a well hidden footpath connecting the […] [Original post on dialup.cafe]

A view of the north saskatchewan river, facing southwest into the sunset.

A footpath has been carved between the main path and the trans canada trail through a prairie meadow.

A dozen mallard ducks happily eat in a pond full of algae.

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2025

IN case, like me, you have the dvd set and yearn for that katana letter opener, please mail in your store receipt and the form below: web.archive.org/web/20050311161005/…

A screenshot of GrabTheAdventure.com from 2005, showing a very 1990s style website advertising a free pen knife for owners of Xena and Highlander.

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2025

finally know what it means to be rich i didn’t choose to rescue canadian culture from the landfill - it chose me #canada #tv #highlander

Four seasons of Highlander the tv
series, showing Adrian Paul in various cool-guy poses.

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2025

discovered this ad for a Panasonic PV-SD4090 in a march 2000 issue of Wired mag 99% of the time i see sony mavica posts for retro digicams, but this one is a real treasure. those LS-120 drives did not really catch on at the time, and it’s a shame because iomega […] [Original post on dialup.cafe]

An ad for a megapixel digital camera with 3x optical zoom.

The copy reads:
Panasonic introduces the first digital still camera that can capture up to 1500 images on one disk.

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 10/09/2025

@alec welcome to the dialup café! :)

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vga256 @vga256.dialup.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 08/09/2025

found a 20 year old receipt for my iMac G5 20-inch, ordered brand new from the apple store when i was a grad student. this was their flagship imac at the time. it has been a long, long time since i even imagined spending that kind of money on a new computer 🤯 […] [Original post on dialup.cafe]

A web order from apple.com for an iMac G5 20-inch 1.8 ghz superdrive, with:

256 MB DDR400
AirPort Extreme
Bluetooth Module
Keyboard/Mouse/Mac OS X
160GB ATA Drive

for $2233 CAD + tax and shipping.

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