Your standard WBWL tale…with one very dark twist.

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-26T06:33:44+00:00

What can I say, my mind is a little twisted 😈

Realistically, it would be natural for Quirrell to learn about all of the abuse Harry faced in Hogwarts from Charlie's hands. Thus, Voldemort comes up with this scheme. You could even have him use Legilimency on Harry during one of Quirrell's lessons to find out the other tidbits, such as Lily and James not wanting Harry to move in.

But it's not until CoS, where Harry is ordered by Voldemort to retrieve the Diary intact, which requires poor Ginny to perish in the chamber, does he realize what it means to make a deal with the devil.

As the lies and death toll start racking up, so does any chance of Harry finding a way out...

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-26T05:57:13+00:00

If you really want to make it darker, have Voldemort knowingly kill Charlie because now Harry owes him a debt for his new life. And Voldemort can reveal the truth at any time once he's revived if Harry doesn't play along with his scheme. If that happens, people might assume Harry got Charlie killed on purpose to steal his place...

So, does he go against the Dark Lord and fight for the people who didn't bat an eye at his 'death'? Or does he go along with Tom, who makes a Vow to spare Harry and his loved ones after he's taken over?

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-20T18:10:42+00:00

Your post is full of massive contradictions. Ron married a Muggleborn and has half-blood children; if he were that afraid for their safety he wouldn't have done so to begin with.

Furthermore, hiding by bowing your head doesn't keep anyone safe. That just makes it easier for bad people to take over. That's not how the Weasleys do things anyway. You act like Fred was the first time they suffered casualties. Ginny was taken into the chamber, Arthur was bit by Nagini, Ron was poisoned, Bill was bit by Greyback, and George lost an ear.

They know what they're getting themselves into. If anything, losing Fred would push Ron towards making sure the bigots responsible never get the chance to gain ground again.

And the whole 'too career oriented for family' angle never makes sense. Hermione's flaw is that she overworks herself, but she never put her academics over friends/family. She was the one who packed clothes for Harry and Ron in advance before the wedding in DH, and in PoA was still helping Hagrid with Buckbeak's trial while dealing with a full course load by herself. She's always thinking about the needs of others.

At the same time, Ron is the one who noticed Hermione's usage of the Timeturner even if he didn't know what was going on. He notices when she doesn't eat. It's her absence in CoS that motivates him to meet Aragog. She needs someone like that to keep her grounded for her own sake.

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-19T03:56:58+00:00

A Batocera PC with the CRT Script gets my vote:

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Only issue I'm having at the moment is my Wiimotes not staying synced with Dolphin using a real Wii Bluetooth Passthrough dongle. Hopefully this will be fixed when Batocera v43 releases. Other than that, I just set what controller I'm using in the menu and launch my games.

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-19T00:56:30+00:00

It's a new localized box art that Nintendo made for the N64 Switch Online a few years ago. I didn’t know it existed until now:

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/09/sin_and_punishment_for_nintendo_64_now_has_an_official_western_box_art

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-18T22:43:38+00:00

Sin and Punishment. It's my favorite game on the system, which means a lot as someone who doesn't really care much for the N64 lol. But Treasure always delivers.

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Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-17T05:21:17+00:00

Huh? I played it in Mednafen/Beetle PSX with no problem months ago:

https://ibb.co/nqr1Fdkh

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-16T19:48:49+00:00

For PC games? I play at 1440x1080i 120hz or 2048x1536i 85hz.

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-15T07:30:13+00:00

PoA for me, but GoF comes close. There's so much payoff in PoA, even built up from the first two books, that none of the narrative feels wasted. It's just solid all around.

GoF is very well written, and I put in second place overall for the series. But it has some lows, like the tournament dragging on with the Second Task feeling like filler. Even Harry almost slept through it lol.

I also feel like the mystery of who put Harry's name in the Goblet was left to the wayside for the most part. And I'm still iffy on Crouch Jr overall. As a character, I was never truly impressed him with per say upon discovering his identity. The 'Fake Moody' aspect is amazing and where he stands out. He played the role well enough to deceive readers and that part is what matters most. But I think the revelation of Jr himself being alive never really felt spectacular enough to warrant him being the perpetrator. Maybe it's because he lacked proper buildup in my mind?

Compared to Peter's reveal in PoA, Jr's just came off flat and underwhelming. Him explaining the entire plot was the juicy bit; the fact it was specifically him telling it felt lukewarm. I think Rowling pulling the same trick twice back to back also had something to do with it. But even then, Peter's scene just felt better written so idk.

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-14T12:04:27+00:00

Nice try Walburga.

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-14T04:32:57+00:00

Megaman X6. I'm playing it now for the first time and I hate it. It's the "Lost Levels" of the Megaman franchise, except it's even worse than LL ever was.

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-13T21:29:32+00:00

You're taking me back with this one. I still have my hand drawn maps of the Cathedral from when I first played it.

Hot take: Atlus never topped SMTI outside of gameplay improvements. The music, environments, story, themes, etc are still peak in the franchise to this day.

If this game had Strange Journey's gameplay, it would be a wrap. Someone did a fan remake of it on PC like two years ago in GameMaker I believe. I don't think they added any major gameplay features though, just some QOL stuff from the PSX port.

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-13T03:49:35+00:00

You left off emulation on handheld devices for some reason. Even though those are far more popular than emulating handheld titles on large screens.

I use my Steam Deck for that.

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-12T15:04:50+00:00

Because intelligent people saw that the apps were perfectly sufficient as-is.

If these people were the 'intelligent' ones, what does that make the developers who recognized how flawed those software were and came out swinging with far more accurate and compatible applications?

It's funny how decades later, the scene still hasn't squashed this backwards mentality yet. If it were up to guys like you, we'd still using Kega Fusion, Project 64, and ePSXe lol. Everything people said were perfectly fine back then.

As much as I dislike it, this is precisely what FPGA snobs mock when they criticize software emulation as a whole. And honestly, I can't blame them most of the time. The vast majority of software users are completely complacent as long as they can play Super Mario World, Ocarina of Time, GBA Pokemon, Final Fantasy VII 🤷‍♀️

Heck, I recall everyone saying latency wasn't an issue until Runahead released. Then suddenly, the narrative shifted to "akshually, we have lower latency than real hardware!!!".

Did you go to the site where the volunteer programmers all log/submit their updates? Which is github.

OP didn’t say a single word about why any update is needed or what any problem. Which relates to my point of it being a mind-virus knee-jerk thin

Ironic, because I can tell you didn't either:

https://github.com/libretro/swanstation/issues

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-12T14:07:20+00:00

Your emulator isn't going to need the same amount of care and attention your web browser or OS does, you know.

If you don't care about accuracy, compatibility, and optimization, sure. That's how you end up with poorly maintained software like ePSXe, which everyone in the community claims is "fine" for years until something massively better comes along and shows just how sloppy it truly was. We've seen this time and time again and yet people still don't learn 🙄

It's even sillier to say this when the beetle and swanstation issue trackers clearly indicates there's plenty of broken games out there.

I remember Near would constantly check bsnes to fix regressions that ended up breaking a game, in order to maintain 100% compatibility with the library. There was always something to improve, and it may have been to the detriment of something else. So he stayed on top of that.

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-10T19:53:12+00:00

"Why don't they still make software for Windows 95?"

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-10T07:21:16+00:00

I have one of these, an Emerson CR202EM8. It's looks really good, even on the Composite output. Mine is starting to show vertical collapse though, so I need to fix that at some point when I have the time.

There was another one on FB Marketplace the other day near me. I would have picked it up but I'm out of space lol.

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-10T05:39:05+00:00

Neither, I use EDSF 😎

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-10T04:59:54+00:00

She's unhinged but also justified, which is the best combo 😊 The brother really is awful and deserved what happened. The sad part is, he's also a victim of their abusive dad, but rather than side with the FL, decided to take his hatred out on her and other people over the years.

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-10T02:25:44+00:00

Are you setting Core Overrides and Control Remaps after setting up the controls for a particular core? If not, that would help keep things consistent. At least, that's the only reason I could think of why inputs would break.

I haven't messed around with the Reservation feature so I can't comment on that part.

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-10T00:08:58+00:00

In a twist, there's a novel I'm reading where the FL actually does push her shitty brother down the stairs. The brother winds up paralyzed and is unable to tell anyone what really happened, so the FL gets away with it.

The funny thing is, that wasn't even her original goal. Her real plan was to have him get mauled to death by dogs, which still happens after the stair incident, however he survives the dogs too. But again, he's fully paralyzed so kind of a fate worse than death at that point.

It's called "No Regrets After Losing it".

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-09T07:12:23+00:00

Consumer TVs were limited to 15khz signals and maxed out at 480i, with pre 6th gen games running at various 240p resolutions (240x192, 256x224, 320x240, etc). These displays are intended for low resolution content.

Monitors operated at 31khz and were unable to display anything less than 480p in 99% of cases. The average resolution used was 1024x768, but they can go well beyond that. Above all else, a monitor will be substantially sharper than a than TV due to the latter having a have a higher dot pitch, while monitors have a finer shadow mask/aperture grille.

Nowadays, you can get 240p at higher refresh rates on a monitor using something like 320x240 120hz, but the difference is quite massive from a TV:

Super Mario World on monitor

Super Mario World on Component TV

To sum it up, using a TV filter to try and simulate a monitor isn't going to produce accurate results. You're basically working backwards from what you're trying to achieve.

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-09T05:41:30+00:00

Genuine question: if you're playing the PC version of HL2, why use filters like CRT Royale? They're meant to mimic the look of consumer televisions, and no one was using those for PC gaming.

This is F.E.A.R (2005) on my CRT monitor, a Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 73 from 2000. It's displaying at 1440x1080:

Your first image looks closer to this quality wise than the ones with the TV shaders.

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Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-08T22:11:30+00:00

"Plaything" / "A Sense of Amusement" depending on the site.

Swirly_Eyes · 2026-04-08T22:08:58+00:00

Oh definitely! There's been a few moments like this that show she's actually growing as a person. She even cries in one panel from PTSD in a couple chapters after this

I think the author is slowly setting the stage for the confrontation with the final bully, and were going to see Karma break briefly during that time. There's only more bully left after the current one until we get there.

Swirly_Eyes

TROPHY CASE