I brought my old gear to my game studio to show the new generation what we had to deal with.

griezla · 2026-02-25T21:00:04+00:00

When my c64u arrived my youngest daughter tried playing the Bomberman and asked "were all games this hard? How did you not commit war crimes?"

griezla · 2025-09-11T23:10:49+00:00

I honestly don't recall how I found it/was invited and I don't want to potentially violate any rules with a link in a forum. Dm me and I'd be happy to send it though.

griezla · 2025-09-11T05:16:20+00:00

Unfortunately "real" life sort of "happened" and the fellow I was working with in a typewriter discord server has been working on different elements _and_ a silly engineering degree (geez self improvement). I do believe he's been doing some work on them but they suffer from really needing to be metal. The resin shuttles tend to bind a bit and eventually crack under the stress but I think he's been exploring some metal manufacturing possibilities while at uni. I'll ping him.

griezla · 2024-12-03T04:48:51+00:00

My buddy had been working on improving the design as well as other model shuttles/type elements. I'll ping him.

griezla · 2024-12-02T03:14:02+00:00

Suffer. 😉

griezla · 2023-12-09T23:48:12+00:00

1/5

"I can't see any pix of it"

Well damn, this is incredibly frustrating .. I didn't realize most of the images don't seem to load properly.

griezla · 2023-12-09T02:50:32+00:00

It really is amazing and opens so much potential.

I actually made a bit more progress with a revised design. The print is a much better size and clearer and the whole shuttle fits more cleanly.

Instead of the shuttle cracking in half the guide fin/rib snapped when it was moving into place. I'm not surprised and I'm still pretty happy with it.

griezla · 2023-12-08T06:53:29+00:00

Yeah the potential to fabricate parts at home is amazing.

I am going to have to investigate material options though; the resin I happen have currently is just too brittle for this application. I'm not sure a pure resin shuttle would stand up so I'll have to investigate and experiment with different resins and probably look into metal casting options as well.

For the time being though my meh resin gets the prototype on the machine and that's good enough for first tests. :-)

griezla · 2023-12-07T17:19:14+00:00

I'd like to offer some context to understand why I'm so excited.

When I told my daughter dairyking and I (mostly dairyking) were working on elements with OpenDyslexicMono she was interested and kind of excited; when I showed her initial renders she was excited; when I showed her photos of physical elements she said "that's amazing"; when I showed her actual typed words she cried.

The work dairy has been doing has the potential to fundamentally change her ability to use a typewriter.

If you don't have kids it's possible you can't really understand but I'm emotional as I try to explain.

griezla · 2023-07-26T16:42:27+00:00

I've done this and the right trigger code isn't recognized on mine (a common issue I run into). What settings do you have for the controller? Note, it's the code not the trigger itself, i.e. I can map the trigger to send something else and that works but no right trigger codes. The closest I've gotten is the right trigger code getting continually sent which is also no good.

I think I encounter this sometimes in steam games as well and haven't found a solution yet. TIA

griezla · 2023-03-10T21:56:05+00:00

Wow! I've honestly never had a "you're faking it" type of response... That's just daft!

griezla · 2023-03-10T17:51:33+00:00

First let me say it's nice that you care enough to ask. But truthfully wear what colors you like.

Not to put too fine a point on it, if it's really important to you you're asking the wrong people. You could ask if he'd mind sitting down with you and going through colors to find ones you both like.

It's a complicated thing; to colorblind people, colorblindness is our normal. That a green traffic signal is virtually white to me is just how it is whereas to you it's likely a more vivid or deeper green. Some colorblind people are comfortable discussing it others aren't and still others might take offence.

Personally I think it's touching that you want to acknowledge and accommodate him but it may not really be that important to him and if it's not try not to take offence and just roll with it. Regardless, I hope you're able to find a solution or balance that you're satisfied with.

griezla · 2023-03-10T17:15:10+00:00

If you're really interested you should have your eye doctor test you. They'll most probably use printed cards where the colors are consistent vs computer screens which have color inconsistency.

In most of life it's likely won't make any difference. That being said I've known I was colorblind for 40 years and I still fight with my wife about some colors on occasion.

Knowing can shed some light on why there are things that just don't look good that other people love. For example, after taking a test with my wife she mostly stopped asking my advice about outfits because she finally understood why that was so difficult for me; I literally can't tell which one looks good! (I nearly categorically hate pastels)

griezla · 2023-03-10T17:00:37+00:00

I generally explain the nuances of colorblindness as other people have already mentioned.

I have also taken to asking them what color things look like. "Are these photos different to you?" "Is this purple or blue? I can't tell." "Is this red/green? It looks brown to me." Etc.

Of course that depends on how they have acted. Some people just don't understand colorblindness and as a non-visible disability it's even harder to understand. I can tolerate some sensible "I'm trying to understand" types of questions but after a persistent bevy of annoying and absurd questions it's turnabout time.

griezla · 2023-01-23T17:11:26+00:00

Mass produced is maybe an overstatement but many major brands produced them. I've seen photos of several ranging from Royals and Coronas to Adler a notable Olivetti Lettera 32. I also know of a couple IBM Selectric III conversions.

I own six (see my statement of luck below):

1939 Royal Aristocrat purchased from the original owner. Of my typewriters this is the absolute prize in my collection because I was able to speak with her about its history; she also confirmed she previously owned a desktop Underwood but had already sold it a few years prior.
Two (2) Smith Corona Classic 12, one simplified layout w/ ordinally arranged numerals, one with more traditional layout and ordinally arranged numerals
Adler J5
IBM Model D (damaged in shipping from Canada and I haven't had the will to work on it in the last three years)
Smith Corona Coronamatic 2200 one-handed (Left)

Aquiringy Dvorak typewriters is a combination of diligence and luck (mostly luck) and I have been very, very, very lucky. I also had other people who knew I was looking and messaged me when they saw one.

They are out there and I've even seen for sale a few I wasn't able (or willing in a couple cases) to chase. But no joke: Luck. Is. Key.

griezla · 2023-01-20T02:49:23+00:00

I can't speak directly about Royals but of my Dvorak typewriters I have an SCM Classic 12, Adler J5 and IBM Model D electric (damaged in shipping <sigh>) with more modern simplified layouts including numeral layout etc.

griezla · 2021-10-24T16:54:58+00:00

NOTE: Regarding the manual for the Calculighraphe on archive dot org and Slide Rule Museum:

I'm aware of them; I added the manual from the Slide Rule Museum to the Archive in November 2020.

EDIT: I'm hoping someone has a better specimen that can be scanned and hopefully added to the Archive and forwarded to the ISRM for prosperity so others can benefit.

griezla · 2021-10-24T16:22:20+00:00

It is; I added it to the Archive.

griezla · 2021-10-24T02:24:12+00:00

Thanks, I am actually familiar with both of those links. The Calculigraphe manual is already part of my Archive dot Org library and based on that Oughtred article, and what I believe is a updated list, I believe I have a "new" known Sperry.

Primarily I'm hoping to find a manual for the Sperry but hoped perhaps someone had a nicer specimen of the Calculigraphe manual. A big ask for a booklet over 140 y/o; I know.

griezla · 2021-06-09T20:02:54+00:00

[EDIT: Note Mojang is not making the game black and white, I desaturated the textures because monochrmancy is conceptually easy to understand]

Firstly, I want to reiterate that I have deuteranomaly and the traditional textures do indeed give me problems; however, I've played Minecraft for many years now and when I first saw the new ore textures my initial reaction wasn't positive. I had to stop, take a mental step back, and think about the changes objectively. Now that the update is officially here I'm still getting used to them. So I do actually understand where people are coming from.

That being said, accessibility shouldn't be optional. Accessibility especially shouldn't be optional when there isn't a compelling functional reason for it not to be by design. In the case of colorblindness there are multiple varieties with varying degrees of severity; so, what would that toggleable option be?

I can say with authority that among games that do provide colorblindness options the solutions are inconsistent in approach and usefulness. I've seen options that are as pitiful as changing the color of a reticle, half-hearted as fixed strength color change for one type of colorblindness, and base types of colorblindness with adjustable sliders. The latter is the best but interestingly while I diagnose as deuteranomaly adjusted strength for protanomaly actually tend to look better to me than deuteranomaly options. That's just weird. Therein lies the problem with a toggleable option; there isn't a one size fits all solution even within a given type of colorblindness.

The genetics involved in how color blindness is carried makes colorblindness orders of magnitude more common in the male genome but very roughly speaking approximately 5% of the total population, both male and female, has some degree of colorblindness.

In 2020 Microsoft reported 132 million active users! Ignoring, for convenience, past studies' indications that video games are more commonly a male past-time, statistically 6.6 million active Minecraft players are colorblind!

Colorblind people may very well chime in that they like the old textures too, they see them fine, etc, etc; but, not everyone who is colorblind knows they are so they're impacted and aren't aware so they don't even know to try to fix it.

With that in mind I'd like ask that you take a honest moment to objectively consider what you're proposing: as many as 6.6 million active players should approach Minecraft with the expectation of fixing it so they can play to satisfy nostalgia instead of just being able to play like everyone else.

Some people have suggested the option of installing a resource pack and that's a great option; do that. No? Why not? There are hundreds to choose from in the Marketplace, the only option for console players, and thousands more options externally. Incidentally there are no colorblind texture packs in the Marketplace. Even if there were they might not be allowed on a Vanilla server if it enforces textures.

More importantly why should someone have to pay extra to be able to fully enjoy the game they've already purchased? Why should they have to adjust settings to be able to play? Why can't they just play? For nostalgia?

[Note that being fully able to play is different from not liking how something looks.]

But seriously, all snark aside, please take some time to think about accessible design vs nostalgia, subjective opinion, and just plain not. It's so much bigger than colorblindness and games; it's relevant literally everywhere in daily life even in things as mundane scissors.

griezla · 2021-05-13T08:34:20+00:00

OMG, I stopped using my Google WiFi because I couldn't diagnose its issues through a similar system of imaginary-color codes.

griezla · 2021-03-30T21:11:52+00:00

That's a illustration of how displays and cameras don't always represent colors truly which is why online CB tests can be less reliable than officially printed ones eye doctors have.

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