iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Variant @vxyz.me · 27/08/2026

I find myself writing python scripts constantly for this type of stuff. It's actually one of the most portable options for tooling I've found, other than having like conforming pre-C98 stuff. I got Python 3.14 building for OSX Tiger, and I've seen people build it for windows 98 👀

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Variant @vxyz.me · 17/08/2026

Absolutely adore this game. I haven't been able to get into an Atelier game since Mana Khemia/Atelier Iris, but I think when the patch for this came out I replayed through like every ending in a week.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 17/08/2026

No fucking way, Nora and the Time Studio's OST is on apple music. Heard this start playing on my auto-play station and had to grab my phone to check. What a baller soundtrack.

Apple Music album view of Nora and the Time Studio OST

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Variant @vxyz.me · 08/08/2026

The hybrid switch 1/2 carts or games with switch 1 carts and sw2 free upgrades rule. Switch 2 too chonky, my lite is the perfect travel companion.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 08/08/2026

Finally beat Hacker's Memory. Solid enough game, though I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. Oh well, not super interested in finishing the post-game right now so on to Time Stranger.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 06/08/2026

Wouldn't it make more sense to just have it do something indefinitely so it would exhaust all of their tokens/compute?

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Variant @vxyz.me · 02/08/2026

It's got good guides. I always feel like it ends up being more trouble than it's worth when you're just trying to get a functional machine up for stuff though. Maybe I'm just old and impatient now, but I just use Debian with KDE Plasma and it's pretty sick.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 29/07/2026

A relevant article: onepixeljumpdotcom.wordpress.com/tag/making-o... And a funny photo:

Caesar's arm being stretched out for the cool pose in the part 2 opening of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 26/07/2026

I do like some parts of the plot though. Character design is good, and the general concept is cool, and CS/HM really have some peak moments.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 26/07/2026

I ran out of time and my Switch copy of Time Stranger came in. Now I'm working through the last two chapters of HM. It's pretty good but man I really hope Time Stranger's plot is more interesting and the writing and/or localization doesn't kill it.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 26/07/2026

"Immutable root of trust" turns into a threat when it's written by Microsoft.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 25/07/2026

Oh you have the same color DSi as I do! Metallic blue ftw.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 23/07/2026

I use my DSi a ton. It's rad. I used to have an XL and I think those are real good screens for DS games but I prefer smaller handhelds anyway. Compared to a dual IPS 3DS and Lite, my DS games just look way better on the DSi. You can setup homebrew on it for some emulation too. Highly recommend.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 23/07/2026

Ima be real I just XVI32 under Wine and write python scripts to parse binary formats if I need anything more.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 19/07/2026

I quite like the concept of Tangled (the coding platform) too.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 19/07/2026

I really think software people should start thinking about naming if they actually care about adoption. Search for Codeberg and Github? First results on like any search engine. Search for Tangled? Get the Disney movie. Absolutely terrible decision for discoverability.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 12/07/2026

me trying to clear the first stratum:

Kid angry with caption "why the fuck does everything cost money"

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Variant @vxyz.me · 12/07/2026

I actually originally started with EO Untold, but I tend to appreciate environmental storytelling a lot more. Untold is great and it guides you, but I think the original really just lets you flex your imagination and analysis skills a bit.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 12/07/2026

#RandomGameSaturday this week is definitely Etrian Odyssey 1. God this game is so brutal. Got my ass beat in the first stratum because I went in unprepared. Love it though. Difficulty that feels manageable with foresight and writing and setup that makes it feel like a good tabletop campaign.

Game case for Etrian Odyssey (1) on the Nintendo DS

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Variant @vxyz.me · 12/07/2026

Thanks to LSP support, KATE is also just a phenomenal IDE alternative too. I think there's a lotta room for improvements but it's real solid.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 10/07/2026

HM isn't a bad game by any stretch but damn I put a lotta hours into it already.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 10/07/2026

I want to start time stranger but I'm so close to the end of Hacker's Memory I should just power through... But also I kinda want to play some more Etrian Odyssey 1.

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Reposted by Variant

Python Hub @pythonhub.dev · 08/07/2026

Python 3.14 compiled to metal – no interpreter github.com/can1357/pon

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Variant @vxyz.me · 09/07/2026

Like man, how is your leadership so bad. Decades of lessons to pull from, solid revenue streams, enough money to put countries to shame, and you guys can't figure out middle-management issues without doing the most inefficient thing (firing people who you will inevitably have to replace)? Insane.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 09/07/2026

I've been a Microsoft hater for decades on the grounds of their software engineering decisions being ass, but man I have to assume they have some extremely competent people that hold everything together given how badly their upper management seems to fumble everything.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 09/07/2026

Tangential to the gaming-related layoffs, we occasionally get people interviewing at work that were hit by the "regular" Microsoft layoffs. It's wild hearing about these because it's people who got laid off and their managers didn't even know til the day of.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 03/07/2026

Handheld Mode Boost on Switch 2 is pretty slick. Pretty much just forces console mode but in handheld.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 01/07/2026

Growing old is realizing you can't keep up with higher frame rates anyway so it's ok to stick with your 10 year old PC.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 28/06/2026

Found my copy of EO untold (1) and I left It half-completed... tempted to restart from scratch.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 23/06/2026

I've got one and I gotta say it sorta sucks, definitely not worth whatever the market price is. I get more out of my backlit-modded NGPC.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 22/06/2026

I don't struggle financially by any means but being able to grab games I'd never go out and buy and being pleasantly surprised by them is rad.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 22/06/2026

It's funny that most of the comments are just piracy with hackable hardware, but a Switch Lite will probably run you 100$ and I've been able to find games at my local library and fairly cheap used carts at local shops.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 15/06/2026

One of my favorite parts about Windows is that 'Update and Shut Down' is the same as 'Update and Restart', so I can't actually just trust that my PC won't be on for 8 hours when I try to run an update in the morning. Microsoft does not get enough shit for their absolute dogshit quality control.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 15/06/2026

Looks pretty sick. I've been looking for a good music player.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 14/06/2026

Oh, I didn't mean it negatively lol. I wasn't sure if you were comfortable with me using them in a patch.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 14/06/2026

Oh these could work well even as placeholders. I needed something to verify the VWF code for double-height text too. Do you mind if I use them? it's for SWGB2 github.com/VariantXYZ/s...

github.com

sakura-wars-gb2/gfx/tilesets at tr_EN · VariantXYZ/sakura-wars-gb2

Disassembly/translation of Sakura Wars GB2 for the GBC - VariantXYZ/sakura-wars-gb2

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Reposted by Variant

Sami @samitron.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

after years of looking, i found one of my all time favorite pictures

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Variant @vxyz.me · 13/06/2026

Also I think Google's been doing some updates to improve clang-cfi in llvm upstream. Backward edge portable solutions still feels weenie but I guess you can still have ShadowStack.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 13/06/2026

I'd been thinking about this a bit a while back and I think that you can actually do a lot with C++20 and above with toolchain features like sanitizers (ASan/UBSan with fuzzing is really useful). It's not perfect, but it is practical.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 13/06/2026

Hmm, does anyone have a good 1bpp 16x8 variable-width font?

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Variant @vxyz.me · 13/06/2026

I've got some project priorities ahead of this, but I want to get back to DW3 GBC with VWF and other enhancements. Had VWF mostly working but a lot of random menus still need work. Also, I think it might be possible to keep the enemy animations and have battle backgrounds...

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Variant @vxyz.me · 13/06/2026

I'd been working on another GBC project and got VWF working properly and remembered I had posted this on Twitter but not here. This was like 5 minutes after I'd gotten proper text dumping/replacement working :')

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Variant @vxyz.me · 11/06/2026

I see you too picked the name based on Pankraz's suggestion at the start lol.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 11/06/2026

For the record, I love Python and use it a ton. So much stuff is already handled for you and yeah idc I'll slice a list in a loop or have list elements differentiated by type instead of creating a class. Doing cursed things with Python is undoubtedly an exercise in creativity.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 11/06/2026

My hot take is that there is no "good" or "bad" Python but just "functional" or "not functional". The language excels at quick iteration, research, and every attempt to make it something able to function as a stable/fast production solution devolves into rewriting parts in a compiled language.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 10/06/2026

Took me like 3 years to finish DQ7, and even getting Cyber Sleuth done took a while. I don't think I'll get to the games in the direct I was interested in until like 2030 (I want to get into all the Tales games eventually).

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Variant @vxyz.me · 10/06/2026

Ima be real, I know a lot of the Direct was remakes and older stuff... but I don't think I even remember most of them coming out. Between work/social life/hobbies, have people just like... found time to play everything when it comes out?

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Variant @vxyz.me · 07/06/2026

Not to say the full-width font doesn't have its charms though. I think it might actually look better in a cinematic like this.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 07/06/2026

I've been doing this as a hobby for a little over a decade now and it's still nice to see the space efficiency of VWF on old games. Had trouble with getting the interrupt handlers all safe, but BGB's reverse tracing functionality is a godsend.

"A year ag" in a full-width white font on a black background.

"A year ago" in a variable-width white font on a black background.

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Variant @vxyz.me · 01/06/2026

I played PSO GC with some friends couch coop recently and it was super fun. BB is just that but online and more. Def old world jank, and combat is much slower and more deliberate than PSO2, but it's a real good time once it clicks. I guess it's not crazy different from PS0.

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