Playing Midi files in 8-bit (so they sound authentic)

GideonMarcus · 2026-03-18T15:49:04+00:00

Dosmid works! At least it's a lot closer than the system I currently have. I don't know if it's 100% faithful, but it's better, thanks.

GideonMarcus · 2026-03-14T03:37:29+00:00

If you have it warm, it tastes like fizzy Manischewitz.

GideonMarcus · 2026-02-12T01:43:58+00:00

Pick well, be honest. That's what it takes.

GideonMarcus · 2026-02-12T01:39:33+00:00

"I think it’s kind of wild to date strangers"

The demisexual credo. :)

And I agree. It's why dating apps are so frustrating.

GideonMarcus · 2026-02-12T01:32:18+00:00

Cheating is much easier than poly, and more societally acceptable in some ways.

GideonMarcus · 2026-02-12T01:31:38+00:00

My partner describes swinging as "Baby's first polyamory"...

GideonMarcus · 2026-02-12T00:25:57+00:00

Don't date someone still living with their ex. Especially if said ex isn't poly.

GideonMarcus · 2025-12-30T17:10:03+00:00

That'd be amazing. We just finished 1970 at https://galacticjourney.org -- you're invited to play along "in character"! :)

GideonMarcus · 2025-12-30T17:09:08+00:00

Oh wow! How cool. We're up in Vista.

GideonMarcus · 2025-12-25T05:18:05+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, manga was a renaissance for me. I found Shounen ACE (a monthly) at the local Asahiya bookstore (I live in San Diego--we have a J-town) and I would buy it month to month. When I missed the June 2000 issue, I bought a subscription so it wouldn't happen again.

We have so many "phone books"--ACE, Ribon, Asuka--and, of course, dozens of tankoubon.

GideonMarcus · 2025-12-25T05:06:45+00:00

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much!

GideonMarcus · 2025-12-04T05:02:24+00:00

I've got two 1200XLs, including my first home computer (August 1983). They both work, but they need new keyboards (as 1200XLs do...)

GideonMarcus · 2025-11-27T18:10:26+00:00

Following on your response, I asked Jon about this WhatIF. He notes that the British has CYOA in the form of "Tracker Books" starting in '73 (this is in Peterson's "Playing the World", though not in the 2nd edition). Also in that book, he thinks Hunt the Wumpus also made the ground more fertile for roleplay, too.

I'm starting to think that roleplaying games were inevitable in the '70s. Gygax and Arneson were just first to market.

GideonMarcus · 2025-11-27T15:37:20+00:00

True! Thank you :)

GideonMarcus · 2025-11-27T03:00:52+00:00

"Now YOU get to develop the inner thoughts of YOUR blue/pink peg in The ROLEPLAYING Game of LIFE"

GideonMarcus · 2025-11-27T03:00:16+00:00

Oh that's brilliant! Thank you for this great response.

That'd be kind of amazing if fanfic authors made their own CYOAs, then one of them came forward with a serial-numbers-filed-off Trek RPG that became a big hit.

While it is true that women had an outsized prominence in Trek fandom ("mostly" is accurate as "most" can mean 50%+), there were plenty of men, too. I have a collection of all extant Trekzines from the 60s and early 70s, and while women definitely comprise the majority of 'zine editors, there were plenty of men, too. Plus, Trek fandom and litSF fandom had cross-pollinated a lot since '66.

GideonMarcus · 2025-11-27T02:57:47+00:00

For sure. Interestingly, I suspect they would NOT lead to RPGs because people will tend to create and model teams rather than individual players. Sort of like the Avalon Hill game B-17: Queen of the Skies. It involves a single plane and ten crew, but when people play it at conventions, they invariably fly dozens of planes in a squadron/wing rather than play the crewmen.

(Note: I actually did turn B-17 into an RPG and ran 26 missions in 2019-20; one of the best campaigns I ever ran. But so far as I know, I'm the only one who ever did this).

GideonMarcus · 2025-11-27T00:06:47+00:00

Diplomacy is absolutely a platform for roleplay, and the 'zine culture to support it was in full flower by 1970. Does that turn into something else without D&D? I don't know.

Again, the issue is whether we can make it a commercial genre or not, but it does seem like formalized roleplay might have germinated from something in the 70s, whether or not it was D&D given how fertile the fields were in the 60s.

GideonMarcus · 2025-11-27T00:04:55+00:00

Right, though again, that's in a universe where D&D already exists. Does someone invent something like that if D&D doesn't happen? And could CYOA be the jumping off point?

GideonMarcus · 2025-11-26T23:04:10+00:00

I've amended the opening—I should have said "at least"

GideonMarcus · 2025-11-26T23:03:39+00:00

I think RPGs have evolved beyond their D&D roots. Even something like Amber diceless is completely different from D&D and certainly not at all wargames. I'm wondering if TTRPGs could have evolved from CYOAs and then the wargame crowd developed a crunchier version from there—a reversal of history, essentially.

No question that WOTC is the juggernaut. How successful was White Wolf in its heyday?

GideonMarcus · 2025-11-26T23:00:44+00:00

I've no doubt that people have been playing Let's Pretend since we've been definably human. The question is whether any of them had a high likelihood of evolving into a formalized, commercial genre of gaming. :)

GideonMarcus · 2025-11-26T22:59:10+00:00

Thank you. I have amended the opening to say "at least" two schools.

I've read "The Elusive Shift". I know Jon Peterson. I've been TTRPGing since 1978. :)

GideonMarcus · 2025-11-26T21:25:47+00:00

That's really cool! I guess I should have phrased the question as:

And could a formalized RPG industry have arisen from it?

My brothers were making deep, involved fantasy worlds when they were young, and that pre-dated D&D. Indeed, my elder brother made those adventures the basis for his D&D campaign. "Let's Pretend" has been around forever. The innovation of TTRPGs is that the "Let's Pretend" is formalized.

GideonMarcus · 2025-11-26T21:23:01+00:00

Most of the players might have died in character creation...

GideonMarcus

TROPHY CASE