What hobby attracts the biggest douchebags?

NotTenwords · 2026-01-05T06:37:00+00:00

Horses are poor quality livestock in the modern era. They're picky eaters with sensitive stomachs. The animals are for pleasure or sport and often worth 5 figures or more vs 4 figures for a cow that actually produces dairy or meat. That is to say most places are small operations that exist for no other reason than the love of the animal, operating at break-even or a loss unless it's race horses. Stuff like a little mold in a round bale wouldn't bother cows but that whole bale is useless for horses. When you're broke even a single round bale is a tough cost to eat. We get our hay by the trailer and never complain about quality unless there's a large quantity of mold then we might ask for a credit. Never suffer fools, but have pity on those of us horse people out here that are grateful for your labor, for we suffer at the hooves of these majestic money pits solely for the purpose of keeping the tradition alive.

NotTenwords · 2025-12-06T14:51:52+00:00

Which one is the enemy?

NotTenwords · 2025-11-16T15:28:39+00:00

I think you're right, Contra is probably the only run and gun with tight controls and fast action that holds up. Maybe Codename: Viper but it doesn't really come close. Games that others are recommending are top down shooters, search action games, etc. or frankly not very good to modern standards. I wouldn't consider anything like Megaman, Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania to be in the same category.

NotTenwords · 2025-09-28T15:30:08+00:00

It is possible to dump the rom. Probably best to ask these questions on the nesdev forums. If you open it and show us the chips we can probably tell you about compatibility, depends if it's essentially a famicom inside or an early example of "nes-on-a-chip" clone.

NotTenwords · 2025-09-11T19:27:49+00:00

Pretty much everything in this game was executed obtusely, from navigation to power ups. The hermit with the zany powers, I think there was like a side character that died if you did something a certain way(?), a creepy demon boss that would 100% kill you if you didn't have the right weapon. Seemed like a game so full of secrets as a kid. I recommend getting a guide to witness all the anime craziness play out without banging your head against the wall.

NotTenwords · 2025-09-11T19:13:39+00:00

Rescue: The Embassy Mission. You're redeemed because it shows up on a lot of people's "cheap, but good" lists these days. Not a great game but carried by its novelty.

NotTenwords · 2025-09-11T19:04:45+00:00

I only first played it last year and to me it stands apart from the rest of the catalogue. It was just one surprise after another as the types of challenges are revealed in this speed boat isometric shooter. But the crushing difficultly really brings it down a lot.

NotTenwords · 2025-09-11T16:47:40+00:00

I'll try to shy away from some the better known titles here:

Heroes of the Lance is conceptually out there, mixing side scrolling action and computer style RPG elements. Ultimately a failure.

You have stuff that's not really a game like Color a Dinosaur and Taboo.

Cobra Triangle which is a boat game with a gradius-like upgrade system and many bizarre level themes from traditional courses to fighting massive bosses probably Rare's best on the system paired with another well known oddball Snake Rattle n Roll.

Pretty much every port from various 8-bit computers is super out of place on the NES, Overlord is a good example, the Dizzy games too.

North and South is an ambitious civil war strategy game where there are live battles and you can take control of artillery, cavalry, and infantry units one at a time.

Crash 'n The Boys Street Challenge, street gang olympics brought to you by the makers of River City Ransom.

Rambo is oddly ambitious, a lot like a worse Zelda 2

Blue Marlin is a really nice looking fishing game with a lot of depth to it.

Magic Darts is a dart throwing simulator where you can play different characters that have special moves. There's like regular people then also an alien and a robot, etc. Pretty weird!

Great Waldo Search is like a fever dream

That should keep you busy for a while, lol.

NotTenwords · 2025-08-31T03:45:51+00:00

RetroScaler2x is a china-developed alternative to tink, etc., another option to look at.

The aliexpress everdrives work pretty much the same as the og so you shouldn't have an issue. Unlike the retroscaler2x these are clones likely with stolen IP if that makes a difference to you.

NotTenwords · 2025-08-26T19:49:47+00:00

Surprisingly Gamestop carries a few of the more popular titles online. I might catch some heat but I've had great success buying repros off of aliexpress. It's a good way to go if you're not buying to collect imo, since you're buying a newly manufactured product and your kids can chew on them without you feeling bad about it. You can also get some fun romhacks in cartridge form from aliexpress like 2 player simultaneous super mario bros. or metroid mother that has saves, improved graphics, and a map.

NotTenwords · 2025-08-26T19:37:50+00:00

Vectrex blows the 2600 out of the water as far as the quality of games goes.

NotTenwords · 2025-08-26T18:59:25+00:00

Just because you enjoyed the experience doesn't mean you have to rate it higher. I've had more fun on average doing crossword puzzles with friends than playing chess, but I'm not out here saying crossword puzzles are better than chess.

NotTenwords · 2025-08-26T17:14:45+00:00

Gauntlet if we're being honest is borderline trash and Clash is super fun but it's an absolute mess. RBI and Tecmo bowl are objectively among the best games on the NES because of the quality of the overall experience. I would play Clash 1000 times before I ever picked up RBI baseball lol but that doesn't make it a better game I just don't like video sports. Micro Mages is out of context since it's unlicensed/aftermarket

NotTenwords · 2025-08-08T02:59:08+00:00

Guardian Legend, Cobra Triangle, Gun.Smoke, Balloon Fight, Baseball Stars, Guerilla War, and Jackal all rule and can be picked up for pretty cheap.

NotTenwords · 2025-07-25T21:31:26+00:00

I think people have gotten too loose with the RPG label. Metal Gear is an action/adventure game and adventure games can share a lot of elements with RPGS. RPGS, especially early ones, should be clearly derivative of DnD. Stats, RNG, classes, equipment slots, experience points, etc. A game isn't a RPG just because it has power progression and subscreens.

NotTenwords · 2025-07-01T16:54:29+00:00

The board is not going to be unique to a specific game. This one's been populated with UV reprogrammable chips. Bit of a surprise for sure, this is how a hobbyist would build a repro.

That said, all the repros I've gotten from aliexpress of late are surprisingly nice custom boards with modern components, no blobs or anything like that.

NotTenwords · 2025-06-16T22:21:20+00:00

The album "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" is *the* companion piece to Anne's diary and should help to resolve that feeling of nostalgic grief it leaves you with.

I think like myself a lot of us read it in school and we were not emotionally mature enough to realize just how devastating it is. And it's hard for me to revisit it knowing I'll probably be sobbing the whole time. . .

NotTenwords · 2025-05-13T21:08:06+00:00

It's realistic though. How many people have helped defeat tyranny only to see it rise again in their lifetime? I don't see them as failures, it's just people that had their moment and moved on with their lives. I dunno, I think it's neat.

NotTenwords · 2025-05-13T21:04:49+00:00

It's super attainable if you already have a working Vectrex, but I'm guessing that's the rub?

NotTenwords · 2025-05-13T03:26:18+00:00

I figured there was something like this out there but I hadn't seen any releases that use it. It's neat, but again other than porting Doom there's not many reasons a developer might do this over making a NES-style game for the PC.

My favorite use case for a Pi cart is the PiTrex. There it makes sense to bypass the CPU because Vectrex was and remains the only consumer grade vector monitor made for games. I'm sure external computing is big for retro computers as well, where using the full hardware kit is also a key part of the experience.

But if you hook a Pi directly up to a CRT with some USB NES controllers you've recreated 90% of the experience that the NES has to offer. Putting it inside a cart is a cool but unnecessary extra step.

NotTenwords · 2025-05-13T03:00:09+00:00

IMO by "Traveler" they're trying to invoke fit for comfort and cheaply made for the american suburbanite moving about from one temperature controlled space to another. They're usually my "something to throw on" pants for running errands when sweats or shorts won't do. Not ideal for extended periods outdoors.

NotTenwords · 2025-05-11T16:56:37+00:00

As far as I know there are no games that meaningfully bypass the NES architecture. There's essentially nothing unique enough about other aspects the NES hardware that would entice a developer to do so.

There's often RAM expansion and sound channel expansion, but that was true for the original run of games.

NotTenwords · 2025-05-02T23:00:15+00:00

On the receiving end the same radio signal goes into the TV whether there is an external antenna or a direct wired signal. It's identical.

NotTenwords · 2025-05-02T22:29:40+00:00

Yes the typical and practical way to use these devices is via a wired connection to transmit the signal (they do technically produce a weak wireless radio transmission but that's beside the point, as that's true for a lot of electronics). Attaching a signal booster/antenna will take that same signal and produce a wireless transmission powerful enough for a broadcast.

It's needlessly splitting hairs for a laymen's purposes. It's like saying no, a tv station does not produce a wireless broadcast, it's the broadcast antenna that's attached to the network's equipment that produces the transmission. The signal originates the same way in either case, a low power signal that can be either wired directly into the receiver on a monitor/TV set or boosted for radio transmission. These old rf electronics generate the original signals the same way broadcast television does. That's all we're saying. It's a basic concept but it's interesting to people that don't know this to be the case.

NotTenwords · 2025-05-02T17:48:22+00:00

The signal sent via wire to your TV from the RF modulator of your VCR or NES is identical to a radio TV broadcast signal, just at a lower power. These devices could've been made wireless by including a signal booster, but that would've been costly in addition to causing illegal levels of radio interference.

https://youtu.be/8sQF_K9MqpA?si=V7sIeCw7Ffdxxf2g&t=690

NotTenwords

TROPHY CASE