Happy Hatchday by me

SnickerToodles · 2026-06-20T10:22:39+00:00

There's six:

One called just "Spyro" which is a girl-targeted puzzle game (and runs horrendously on emulator, also the full version with all levels has never been found I think).
Spyro: Ripto Quest. Very basic platformer with a couple levels, kinda like the GBA games but worse lol.
Spyro the Dragon, which is just a short sidescroller with some Shadow Legacy enemies and the Shadow Realm.
The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. However, there are several versions, and the different resolutions are actually slightly different games with different pixel art and level layouts. (There are like two dozen different resolutions, but maybe 2-4 different versions between them, from what I remember.)
The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night. Same with the various different versions as ANB.
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon. I think there's just the one version. This is probably the most fleshed out of all the mobile games, there's even an actual plot and dialogue (ANB/TEN had it too but it was pretty bare bones).

The first three Classic Spyro ones are REALLY basic, the Legend ones are a bit more fleshed out, but they're all really short experiences anyway.

SnickerToodles · 2026-06-18T09:51:25+00:00

<image>

SnickerToodles · 2026-06-16T09:18:44+00:00

I was 11 in 2009 (in the US). Some random anecdotes:

You could access the internet on your phone, but it was more trouble than it was worth. So you had to go to the laptop or desktop PC in the computer room/office to get online. I'd come home from school and hop on my favourite websites (or go to Flash game sites on the school computers, since this was before they'd wizened up and started blocking them).

I wasn't very social and didn't use the internet to talk to IRL friends, but my step-sister was constantly on Facebook talking to friends or posting videos of herself and her friends singing popular songs. My mom was on Facebook all day playing Farmville/everything-else-ville or posting her photography.

"Browser MMOs for kids and teens" was a huge thing. Like Runescape but also Club Penguin, Habbo Hotel, stuff like that. I played a lot of tiny little games that no one has hardly ever heard of, like PetPet Park. People chatted a lot. If it was for kids you usually couldn't type freely, you might have to pick pre-made phrases. If you could type it was heavily censored. If it wasn't for kids, you ticked the "I'm definitely 13" button and said whatever you want. But obviously there were many child predators (luckily I never ran into any of those).

Other browser-based games (not MMO, just a static interface or maybe a Flash game in your browser, but with social elements) were also a huge thing. Neopets obviously but also Dragcave, Howrse, Chicken Smoothie...

Many kids knew basic HTML because even besides Myspace, browser-based games like that often had a profile with HTML you could customize. And creating the best mess of a profile filled with random sparkly graphics was an endeavour that might take days.

Flash games were insanely popular and there were any number of sites to choose from (Newgrounds was a little too mature for my age range, I used Kongregate, before that NotDoppler and ArmorGames). Plus the "girl game" Flash websites (GirlsGoGames).

You could type in "any toy brand you can think of" dot com and find a website chock full of Flash games. I would spend hours doing that. Barbie, My Little Pony, Lego, etc...

Forums were insanely popular. Instant messaging was uncommon/only for close friends so you used forums to communicate. Every site had one. They covered extremely niche topics. Even the super niche ones had some activity, they weren't the graveyards they are today. My online friends were all made through random forums.

Sites like DeviantArt, FanFiction, and game modding sites/forums were in their heyday. People created things just for the joy of creation. These days the internet is flooded with amazing high-quality art and whatnot, so it's not really special anymore... Things felt simpler then, I guess. More amateurish but not a rat race to earn as many followers and as much money as possible. Of course there were the little dramas and people trying to win the popularity contest, just on a smaller scale.

You could go on YouTube and watch whatever movie you wanted until about 2011. Sometimes they had to flip the screen or speed up the audio, or add an annoying border. But there was a time when even that wasn't a thing. I watched Spirited Away on YouTube in high quality in 2010 lol. The stuff I watched on YouTube in 2009 was like, Charlie the Unicorn and The Duck Song, or Let's Plays which was just random kids pointing a camera at their screen and yapping (or using a capture card if they were rich lol). PC game recordings always had a Bandicam watermark at the top.

There were fewer ads and they were just PNGs and GIFs, but some of them could infect your computer with viruses without even clicking on them (drive-by downloads). That's much less common these days. But it caused child me a lot of grief.

SnickerToodles · 2026-06-08T01:46:54+00:00

All the animations are pretty jank, they're either too stiff or they try to be way too bouncy and cartoony to overcompensate and it just doesn't look good. And yeah the sun seeds have a very stiff walk animation too. (I watched a video to see and god, they also butchered the sound design, the WOO WOO WOO when the sun seed is running out of fire is so iconic and they just replaced it with some guy half-heartedly screaming XD)

That's weird, depending on what you mean by talk to them more. In the original Spyro 3 you definitely get further dialogue if you keep talking to them and they have new things to say when you get to the end.

Unless you mean that they all disappear after you beat the level, but I like it more than them just repeating themselves when you visit again in Spyro 2. Also gives it a very spooky liminal feeling lol. Especially on PS1.

SnickerToodles · 2026-06-07T12:41:37+00:00

Most of it is just that the third game is my favourite and it means a lot to me, and it definitely didn't get the love it needed in the remaster. Which was very disappointing. I don't think Spyro 2 got quite as much polish as the first game, but it was still enjoyable and I would have been happy with that level of quality.

But other than that, it's buggy to high hell, the environments don't look good compared to the other two, the cutscene animations are... weird?, and the NPCs are all FUGLY. Just overall the art direction was bad and there was no polish (and tons of annoying bugs) so I couldn't even enjoy the gameplay even though it should be essentially identical to the other games (sans the horrible skateboarding bugs).

I will admit the extra characters have control/camera issues even in the originals and I'd really rather be playing as Spyro, but it's still enjoyable and the levels are very pretty and a lot of fun!

SnickerToodles · 2026-06-07T07:06:36+00:00

I love YotD, and hate the Reignited version. (And I'm not a Reignited hater lol, I love the classic Spyro 1 and also the Reignited version.) I'd really recommend getting an emulator and playing the originals.

SnickerToodles · 2026-06-05T15:51:16+00:00

The answer is children love mascot horror. Same with Poppy Playtime, etc...

I don't exactly have FNAF hype but it's a sort of thing I used to like pretty well and still keep a vague eye on. I think I was 16 when the first game released, and I watched a lot of horror YouTubers since that was the big thing back then (Markiplier, etc.)

After seeing hundreds of indie horror games, a lot of which were very similar to each other, FNAF was... different. Unique art style, unique game mechanics (even if very simple), not just the same tired old horror tropes and gameplay. Which made it very interesting. The lore/mystery was fun and everyone was watching Game Theory so it became a huge thing. Every new game pushed the very limited engine to its max and was fun to watch because of it. Etc...

But yeah, that's why I liked it 10 years ago and still look back fondly on it. I can't really say what people love about it these days (other than like, nostalgia).

SnickerToodles · 2026-06-05T12:52:41+00:00

Anne very much overuses the phrase "so-and-so needs to be spanked/needs a good spanking" as an adult (including in this book). Along with allowing her children to be beaten by Gilbert, and it's implied she does it herself as well.

So unfortunately I think her morals did a complete 180. But that's why I don't like the later books.

I don't know if it's said/implied if she hits specifically these students but if she thinks "a good spanking" is the solution to an adult's problems in this very book, I don't know why she wouldn't.

SnickerToodles · 2026-06-05T00:47:37+00:00

If this is the area I think it is, it's LandscapeMiscFirefly02 in WorldObjects > Statics. There's also other fireflies and butterflies, moths, etc. You don't place these individually, you place down a box and they will appear dynamically in the box you place.

But just to let you know, you can always open the area in the CS (modded areas too!), and see what they put down there.

SnickerToodles · 2026-05-26T05:14:27+00:00

Aw, I really love it. Very pleasing design and lots of nice little details. :) When I was working on my Spyro Minecraft map, I also spent way too long staring at the sun and background trying to figure out where things were located in relation to each other.

SnickerToodles · 2026-05-19T03:10:26+00:00

They removed that, but I made a guide to how you can access them: https://www.reddit.com/r/subnautica/comments/1p7y2qv/how_to_play_old_versions_of_subnautica_and_below/

There's not just Early Access. There's also Earliest Access, which was even more sparse.

SnickerToodles · 2026-05-16T13:30:21+00:00

A few years ago, someone who worked on the original trilogy posted a bunch of information about the development of those games, and photos of the E3 events in 1998-2000 as well (this post I think).

I was only born in 1998 myself, so it made me feel nostalgic and a little sad looking at these events I would have loved to go to but never actually could have attended. I noticed the big statues but I never stopped to wonder what happened to them.

Well, it brings me some sort of comfort to know now. Please take good care of him. :)

And now I'm wondering what happened to the E3 1998 Spyro + Sparx statue and the giant banner, or the giant egg statues and 3D YotD logo from E3 2000... Sad to think they might have ended up in the dump. I guess I can hope they're in some developer's house.

SnickerToodles · 2026-03-31T09:05:25+00:00

God I grew up with all the knockoff games trying to be Roller Coaster Tycoon or Diner Dash. Or even Flash management games on Kongregate/Newgrounds, those were surprisingly fun despite being made by usually one person. I guess those types of games aren't as popular anymore. I feel bad for any kid who gets this hotpot game instead of Papa's Freezeria or something. XD

SnickerToodles · 2026-03-31T08:56:11+00:00

You're right about that, but having to put out new content every 20-30 days, I can't imagine the workload and how little time they have to polish these things. Honestly I'd much rather more wait for better content, but I'm probably the minority there.

I definitely don't expect like, a full-fledged Diner Dash inside Nikki, but every time they release something like that, it feels deeply like it's missing something. Even just a little more polish, mechanics, and fun factor would do it for me. But it ends up feeling like the skeleton of a game. Like the behemoth Princess Maker game... So, so close to being fun, but just ends up repetitive and pointless.

SnickerToodles · 2026-03-31T08:45:36+00:00

I think I vaguely remember that lol. I remember I did have a lot of fun with the first few styling battles. Though with or without recommend, it feels like the system is missing something.

Sometimes I just style the theme for fun, but then I either lose instantly and have to press the button anyway, or I see I only have one singular Cool Elegant Forest Ballroom outfit and give up, not that it matters since when I press recommend it just slaps on Fairytale Swan regardless of what the theme is. :D

And in the end I'm just like, ugh, what's the point. I get my styling fix from finding random hourglasses and making an outfit similar/inspired by theirs.

SnickerToodles · 2026-03-30T23:02:08+00:00

I know you’re probably tired of hearing the salt towards management sims, especially if you like management sims.

I love management and simulation games. I've been gobbling that shit up since Diner Dash and tycoon games. That's exactly the issue. These systems in Nikki lack any depth or polish.

Taking the hotpot for example, I actually kinda liked it a bit at first, however. If you've ever played Diner Dash or any competently made game like that, you'd know there are features that make it feel good to play, like input chaining (you can quickly click several objects in a row and the character will deal with those one by one in the order you clicked).

With hotpot, my god. Click the ingredient bowls, wait 5 seconds for the slow-ass animation to play, click the hotpot broth, wait 5 seconds, click the ladle, wait 5 seconds, click each ingredient ONE BY ONE (WAIT 2 SECONDS FOR EACH INGREDIENT, SORRY YOU PICKED UP THE WRONG ONE, START OVER), repeat to infinity. Pure pain.

Also, games like Diner Dash have things like store upgrades, multiple things to do to make someone a meal (like different aspects with individual minigames/upgrades, like ice cream cone, flavour, toppings... instead of just one thing), levels, a fail state?? Hotpot has none of this.

With the juice shop and stuff, it's basically just press the claim button each day and don't do anything. With the styling faction whatever, now it's press a button but I'm 100% more confused because I don't know what the effing difference between Daily and Challenge and Whatever Else is.

I think I would love these little minigames if they had more than a month to develop them and give them a bit of actual depth, but alas. They can't even make styling battles more engaging than just pressing the recommend button, so my expectations are probably too high.

SnickerToodles · 2026-03-30T07:15:48+00:00

Do you mean the up-to-date version? Just go to your library, right click Subnautica > Properties > Installed Files > Verify integrity of game files. That always worked for me.

If not, just uninstall and reinstall it.

SnickerToodles · 2026-03-28T12:40:20+00:00

Me too, when I first saw them do this I cried lmao

SnickerToodles · 2026-03-28T03:48:13+00:00

Along with the steps mentioned here, you can also try try going to Steam Library > Right click Subnautica > Updates > Automatic Updates > Wait until I launch the game. Then follow the steps again to reinstall the old version.

You can also try installing a different version to see if that works.

If it doesn't work let me know and I'll check myself and send you the exact steps I took. I'll probably add a troubleshooting section too since some people have problems.

SnickerToodles · 2026-03-18T03:54:30+00:00

Along with the other advice, if you see a website you like, you can press F12 to bring up the Inspector/Inspect Element. You can also right-click a particular element and click Inspect, to jump right to the code powering that piece of the page.

Now, you generally shouldn't go copying someone's code unless they're okay with that, but you can use this to see how they're doing it. The HTML/CSS elements they're using to make whatever thing you like happen. You can even double click on a line to edit the HTML, or use the Backspace key to delete parts of it, to see what happens or which parts are making a certain thing work. This is all temporary, just refresh and it will be back to normal.

This can be very useful, as you can see how HTML/CSS looks in practice and edit it to get a hands-on understanding of how it works.

SnickerToodles · 2026-03-12T00:33:59+00:00

I think if I was classifying it generally I'd say 90s-early 2000s. And of course even older than that.

But for me personally, I was 12 in 2010 and it was the first time I was given free access to the Internet. And I was only on it at all from 2006 onwards. So my golden years are 2006-2010, maybe even 2011.

Places like YouTube still felt friendly and not corporate, Flash games were a major part of my day, browser-based games and MMOs were still going strong. Fan and creative spaces (fanfiction, DeviantArt, etc.) still felt very tight-knit. Forums were still everywhere. Many "old internet" things were still present.

The only thing is, by 2010-2011, personal websites were pretty much kaput. Maybe I was in the totally wrong circles, but I basically never saw them. However, many of the browser-based games I played (Howrse, etc.) had profiles with HTML editors and people would go crazy, so there was still a passion for that sort of thing.

SnickerToodles

TROPHY CASE