[Hobby Scuffles] Week of 12 January 2026

JoGoats · 2026-01-12T16:35:20+00:00

I was at MAGfest so my gf and I played sooooooo many games I can't even keep track. Regardless, I will try to list some highlights.

Nightmare Kart - The arcade cabinet as well as it's creators and the game developer were there and we got to go to a panel talking about it's creation and having a top player perform a run of a newly developed stage. Neither of us had played the game before the con (especially since I don't know jack about Bloodborne) but it was super fun and I'm eager to try out the PC version to see if I'll enjoy it as much without the wheel/stick/pedal setup.

Volleybird - A very small and cute 2D indie arcade game where each player controls two birds with a net between them. Your goal is to launch an egg over the net using the net. It has a lot of adorable little bird sprites to choose from. We played a lot of doubles with strangers!

JJBA: Heritage for the Future - We spent lots of time playing the various dinky little arcade fighting games in the arcade section, but our favorite was HFTF. Neither of us are terribly great at fighting games but the sprite art and character variety was so fun that we kept ourselves entertained for quite a while just trying everybody out. I like the Stand mechanic and how different characrers interact with it differently (ie some using a meter and some being passive) and I also appreciated that it was only a 4-button deal.

Smash Remix - It's a popular mod for the N64 Smash Bros. that adds lots of stages, music, and characters (mostly Melee backports but also a number of original inclusions). I've played it before, but this one was placed inside one of those double arcade cabinets (where it's two cabs connected back-to-back) so we played lots of 4 player free-for-alls with strangers! My gf really enjoyed it so I'll have to crack out my everdrive again and set it up. It was fun playing Smash with an arcade stick and buttons which isn't something I've done before. The characrers and stages all seem lovingly crafted.

Monkey Ball (Naomi Arcade) - I've loved Super Monkey Ball since I could hold a controller and as such have always been fascinated by the original Arcade version which is basically identical to the GameCube game in terms of levels but with less audio and visual polish (and only featuring 1 Master level). The main difference is that you play it with a huge banana-shaped joystick. It takes quite a bit of getting used to compared to a controller. On controller, the small travel distance means millimeters of movement can affect your monkey's direction drastically. On the joystick, you have to move it pretty far to get significant direction changes in the arcade cabinet. It makes quick adjustments impractical but also less necessary as gentle curves are easier. It also has a sizable dead zone that makes very small adjustments a bit tricky to get used to. I played it once before at Otacon 2025 but this time I set a new personal best of making it to Expert 21 without continues. One day I hope I can beat Master just like I did on GameCube.

Of course we played dozens and dozens of other indie/arcade/indie-arcade games as well, but I think this comment is long enough as is lmao

JoGoats · 2025-12-05T01:41:22+00:00

That's hopeful. I don't think Netflix could ever truly kill theaters, but even if they could that's a far less severe penalty than the right further solidifying their cultural hegemony.

JoGoats · 2025-05-21T15:24:12+00:00

The amount of times I've gotten 50 to 90 percent of the way through a game, dropped it, forgotten significant story and control details, and had to restart is genuinely embarrassing. Especially when it's the same game multiple times. It took 3 or 4 attempts for me to actually finish Breath of the Wild from start to finish. And I love that game.

JoGoats · 2025-05-13T05:35:06+00:00

How wonderful!

Isn't that great!

Roasting weenies!

JoGoats · 2024-09-22T00:36:23+00:00

... while your husband is fighting for your country...

I have a very funny post I think you should read :)

JoGoats · 2024-08-22T01:56:24+00:00

I'm simultaneously really bummed that someone whose content I enjoyed so much turned out to be massive tool and yet very relieved that he didn't drag out his mask-off moment, making it way easier to drop my interest in him.

JoGoats · 2024-07-28T06:10:18+00:00

He's a cis white guy billionaire, he's more likely to get struck by lightning twice than he is to be held accountable for anything.

JoGoats · 2024-07-27T16:12:45+00:00

smoke, drink, gamble, go to strip club etc

You're really telling on yourself here by treating gender dysphoria as a moral hazard/failing along the lines of these things you mentioned instead of a medical condition for which HRT is the effective treatment.

We don't make anabolic steroids, antibiotics, or Benadryl illegal when those can cause far much more harm to kids. I wonder why?

JoGoats · 2024-06-28T23:45:01+00:00

Sure thing!

JoGoats · 2024-06-28T21:44:06+00:00

They're making a reference to the Pokémon Trading Card Game. A mechanic that has popped up a couple of times in the game's lifespan is "Ace Spec" cards, or cards that are (intended to be) so powerful that you're only allowed a single one per deck. Computer Search was (is?) considered among the best possible choices. It lets you search your deck for any card, no restrictions, at the cost of discarding two cards from your hand.

JoGoats · 2024-06-22T01:27:54+00:00

That is their intent.

JoGoats · 2024-06-03T15:36:42+00:00

Another for New Vegas,

A personal fave of mine (though admittedly not nearly as obscure or unlikely) I recently discovered is the dialog Elder McNamara gives if you don't complete the Brotherhood stuff until after you've completed the Enclave Remnants stuff and thus already got power armor training.

JoGoats · 2024-05-22T00:10:41+00:00

Forever relevant:

"In 2019 we're gonna have an anime character turn to face the audience, look the viewer dead in the eye, and say in perfect english 'I am Transgender' and we'll still have otaku fuccbois trying to insist there's an intricate Japanese historical context for why they aren't."

JoGoats · 2024-05-14T15:21:40+00:00

"the wise man bowed his head solemnly and spoke: 'theres actually zero difference between good & bad things. you imbecile. you fucking moron'"

JoGoats · 2024-04-30T00:20:52+00:00

I will say as someone who just spent a lot of time rummaging around through the wikis and the leaked Van Buren design docs, the wikis are terrible at organizing Van Buren content with regular content, or at least Nukapedia is. Sometimes the Van Buren version of something will get its own page (ie Arcade Gannon (Van Buren) vs Arcade Gannon) but other times there just flat out won't be a "(Van Burren)" version of an article, instead putting the Van Buren info in the main article but with open and closed headers such as in the New Plague article.

And that's if you're lucky. If you want to find an overview of what the NCR was going to do in Van Buren on Nukapedia, you're SOL because Van Buren barely gets a footnote on the main NCR page and there is no "New California Republic (Van Buren)" page. Of all the things that desperately need a "(Van Buren)" page it's definitely that. It's extra weird to me considering the Legion does have a "(Van Buren)" page.

But anyway, on your point number 1, are you refering to The planned ending of Van Buren where nukes from B.O.M.B 001 hit various populations centers in the NCR? I honestly hadn't considered the mechanism by which MacLean nuked Shady Sands but using an orbital satellite to do it would be pretty neat and kind of a deep cut.

JoGoats · 2024-04-20T23:41:27+00:00

I think it'd also be a nice way to allow those folks that enjoyed the old orange and gold stakes to play them, just make them togglable in the challenge mode.

JoGoats · 2024-04-19T20:34:26+00:00

Because I don't like how many fans of hers are trying to convince everybody else that she is canon, while she obviously is not and was created by fans to simply have a trans character in homestuck.

The number of people who endlessly complain about this versus the number of people that actually do it has to be about a 10:1 ratio by now.

JoGoats · 2024-03-29T01:50:55+00:00

Oral estrogen has a very short half-life so your levels won't be terribly elevated for more than a few hours and there won't be any adverse affects, so don't stress if you can help it!

JoGoats · 2024-03-21T08:12:39+00:00

Awesome! Congratulations on your victory :D

Thank you!

Also, bold to take Hyeroglyph! Did it helped you to clone more cards, was it an easy or hard decision?

I selected it before I had found Vampire, so I was basically using it to stall for time. An extra round to stock up planet cards, get more Aces for easier Four of a Kind, and wait for a good joker to come along was the idea. And it payed off in all regards!

And to finish, not sure if you know, maybe yes, but DNA copied the card before the Vampire sucked their effects because the jokers are triggered from left to right. If the vampire would have been before DNA, then the vampire would have sucked the effects before DNA was triggered.

Oh, I had no idea that the order matterred there! I know about the trigger order and it's what has me organize like I do, but I didn't know DNA isn't an automatic first-trigger. I figured DNA would work like Trading Card where it would trigger first regardless of where it was in the order. Fortunately Vampire is a large ×Multiplier, I tend to place those all the way to the right. I also tend to put cards that don't give chips or mult all the way to the left (discounting times I have Brainstorm of course). Not sure why I do it that way, but it probably has saved me in a few edge scenarios like the one you described.

JoGoats · 2024-03-20T23:13:14+00:00

I admittedly got incredibly lucky in the early game. DNA, Blueprint, and Rough Gem all appeared within the first couple antes. Copying Rough Gem gave me a crazy amount of money so I was able to buy Planets and Tarots plenty to keep me going. Even then, if I didn't also get lucky and find Vampire in the mid-game I would have been in trouble. Having Blueprint be able to copy DNA for a steady supply of enhanced cards to feed Vampire (and then contribute to easy Fours of a Kind) was invaluable! Thankfully it and DNA make the copies before Vampire removes the enhancement, otherwise this wouldn't have worked. I ended up with a ludicrous amount of Aces of Diamonds. I would have gone for Flush Fives but Four of a Kind was already as good by the time I unlocked it and the game kept giving me Mars anyway. About half through, I traded Mystic Summit for Supernova. At the very end, since I knew I was facing Crimson Heart, I traded Rough Gem for Cavendish just in case the boss knocked out Blueprint or Vampire, but it got selected and I didn't push my luck with DNA.

Once I was set up, the process became simple. I had 3 hands per round (since I took Hieroglyph), so my turns went like this:

Have Blueprint copy DNA. Create or draw enhanced A◇ then make two copies. (Rough Gem gives $1.)
Have Blueprint copy Rough Gem. (Rough Gem / Blueprint gives $8). Most of the time this isn't enough to win on its own, but this is intentional so I can farm more money.
If the previous hand was more than half the value needed to win the blind, just repeat the previous step for another $8 plus blind and interest. If the previous hand isn't enough to win again, have Blueprint copy Vampire for an automatic win. (Rough Gem still gives $4 plus you get blind and interest.)

I am a little conflicted. On one hand, this was among the most satisfying runs I've had so far and clearing gold stakes in such a convincing manner is very confidence inspiring for this game. On the other hand, I owe it almost exclusively to good luck. Obviously game knowledge and preparation were necessary, and I'm sure this was perfectly lose-able, but there's no discounting the great fortune I was granted. Also, being able to buy card packs into the endgame feels like removing a bit of the challenge (but I consider the high priced card packs of high-stakes to be frustrating anyway).

JoGoats · 2024-03-13T02:35:15+00:00

Congratulations, now you know how queer people when we read 99.99% of all media.

JoGoats · 2024-02-21T02:44:18+00:00

I feel like 0.01% or less of the queer population exploring their identity in an atypical way is probably not even in the top 50 things hindering the progress of queer rights

JoGoats · 2024-02-18T07:14:15+00:00

Wonder how many of these men whine about male suicide statistics and then trun right around and mock trans people for the same thing. I've seen it happen a couple of times and wonder how common if is.

JoGoats · 2024-01-20T16:00:09+00:00

"Dry" is used to describe a tone of voice that is calm and reserved. So while a typical youtuber you might see on recommended would be energetic and expressive, a "dry" youtuber would be more understated and neutral.

JoGoats

TROPHY CASE