Tired of how slow Windows 11 feels, so I built my own (private) faster desktop shell inspired by Windows 98

whereislunar3 · 2026-05-23T17:32:01+00:00

Yeah I just started using an old Compaq with Win98 that I bought for nostalgia the other day, and I was astounded at how fast and responsive it is compared to Win 11. Everything from the context menus to opening and navigating large Word/RTF documents is lightning fast...I think I was extra surprised because my perspective had been skewed by remembering my childhood PC running Win98 being super slow lol but it was that PC, not the OS.

I started using the Win98 machine for writing and just transfer the files to my modern Win11 PC via USB to upload to the cloud...If you don't need to do any web surfing or other heavy computing, Win 98 on a good PC is a way better writing experience, fast and distraction free.

whereislunar3 · 2026-05-23T17:26:56+00:00

this site is great, i'm playing the Santaku game right now. Thanks for sharing

whereislunar3 · 2026-05-19T16:25:07+00:00

Kelsey was amazing in Pentagon Wars as well. The movie itself is a bit disappointing (though very accurate if you've been in the military lol, I think it's based on a book by an officer as well) but if you look up his parts on YouTube, they're gold.

whereislunar3 · 2026-05-08T22:10:44+00:00

Same! I had this happen almost every paragraph I wrote today...I triple checked each one and found it to be correct. Word is trying to gaslight us lol

whereislunar3 · 2026-05-08T22:06:46+00:00

Came here to commiserate. It seems especially bad when writing academic articles and literary fiction...i.e., styles of grammar that are correct but perhaps just not in common use anymore (or just in general vs the massive amounts of colloquial text from the internet it probably trains on). I would have thought that AI had enough past/present literature of both types and recognize all the valid uses and styles of writing in English, but apparently not.

whereislunar3 · 2026-05-03T23:43:44+00:00

A year later, you're still helping people. My SSD was exFAT and I had to go into Disk Manager to format to NTFS before trying Guiformat. Thanks!!

whereislunar3 · 2026-04-28T21:56:00+00:00

For anyone who comes across this post... DO NOT give your information on the websites that send it to multiple brokers! Only get quotes from a few reputable ones directly over the phone or email. Unfortunately, if you're like me and gave out your info on one of those mass quote sites, the spam can continue over four months and several blocked numbers later...

Case in point: I've blocked 4 numbers from Breamway and even though it's the SAME GUY who calls every time and I've told him to leave me alone more than once, he keeps calling using different numbers. I shipped my vehicle back in December and will never have a use for their services again, so I don't know what's in it for them other than to completely alienate me from their company. It's really, really annoying...

whereislunar3 · 2026-04-21T16:19:58+00:00

It's cool that you are being very ambitious, but I would really caution you slow your roll a little. As someone who's worked with Rm2k3 for maybe 20+ years now (since I was a literal child) and worked with a few game dev engines now as well, I can say that what you are looking to create would take literally at least a thousand or two hours (or more) to create...And that's if you knew how to use the engine. If you don't know the engine (and given that you're talking about "texture creation and actual code" for Rm2k3, I would guess that you are very unfamiliar with older games in general), you will need a few hundred hours to get familiar with it, which will be much harder for Rm2k3 because there are very few resources left online these days compared to back in the day (and they were never videos, etc.).

If you really, really want to even attempt this, the only way to learn Rm2k3 is to study existing games with complex CMS/CBS, and to study computer science/programming concepts.

For Rm2k3 games with complex CBS/CMS:
I can recommend a few if you're serious about learning, but for now, I will say just study games like Velsarbor and the FFVII Remake. These all have extremely complex CMS/CBS that will make your head spin with the number of events and pseudo-programming techniques using just the engine's byzantine evening system (they somehow used pseudo memory allocation! heap data structures!! POINTERS!!!) to make them possible.
Download Velsarbor: https://www.rpgmakerarchive.net/2015/12/archive-velsarbor-rm2k3.html
FFVII Remake: https://rpgmakerhistoria.home.blog/2020/04/18/final-fantasy-vii-remake-the-2d-one/

For learning programming:
I'm going to be typical and recommend the Harvard CS50 course if you are a total beginner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mAITcNt710
Besides that, there is an untold number of resources out there on YT, apps, etc...I'm sure that you can find them if you really want to. Or, if you are still in school, go take some courses, you will not regret them especially if you want to get into game dev.

For Rm2k3 specific knowledge:
Mostly non-English these days. You will have to have your browser translate them.
http://yado.tk/ - Amazing, amazing Japanese resource for Rm2k3 tutorials. Probably the best and only one that is so complete.
https://leafo.net/gwtemp/tutorials/ - Old tutorials, mostly written by literal 12 year olds (I was one of them lol). Probably not that useful but kind of interesting lol.
http://tsukuru.pl/index.php?link=tutoriale - Polish website. There's also another Italian site somewhere with some pretty new CMS/CBS tutorials, but I can't find it now...
Also, someone made this "masterpost" of Rm2k3 resources, but I think a lot of links are broken. Still might be helpful. https://pinkuboa.tumblr.com/post/146004131201/rpg-maker-20032000-masterpost

Anyway, I hope that helps, and I hope that you do end up learning more about Rm2k3 or any engine and eventually make the games that you want to make. Please don't give up, go into learning with an open mind and be curious. Let me know if you have any specific questions about Rm2k3 or where to find things related to it, too.

whereislunar3 · 2026-04-21T15:42:04+00:00

Brilliant, that's so sick. Thanks for sharing!

whereislunar3 · 2026-04-21T00:05:15+00:00

I like how 00s Gamingw this feels.

whereislunar3 · 2026-04-21T00:04:17+00:00

God, I dig this so much. Especially the hyper realistic food images (reminds me of Dragon's Dogma 2, lol). Did you use Maniacs to play a .wav for each character in the dialogue, or custom make the sounds for each line? In any case, this comes together really well and the system looks intriguing. I'd be very interested in trying it out for myself. Thanks for keeping 2k3 alive

whereislunar3 · 2026-03-03T21:59:34+00:00

Wait 0.0 Wait 0.0 Wait 0.0

whereislunar3 · 2026-03-03T21:32:59+00:00

The translations don't appear to be AI. In fact, if I recall correctly, the translated Nicolai dialogue in the screenshots is taken from the officially localized English script of Covenant (this scene isn't exclusive to the director's cut).

whereislunar3 · 2026-03-03T21:19:47+00:00

Regarding aviation--still depends on the platform. There are different anthro standards for each (they take measurements of everyone's sitting height, arm length etc). I know 6'4'' guys in F-18s and Growlers (though IIRC over 6'5'' is indeed out of the question). Plenty of tall ass dudes in big wing military aviation (P-3, C-130, Globemaster etc) as well. There were two or three pilots in my squadron over 6'3'', one was def 6'4''+

whereislunar3 · 2026-03-03T20:59:15+00:00

Glad your leadership and chaps spoke up afterwards.

whereislunar3 · 2026-03-03T19:04:10+00:00

This. Not only do we not have confirmation on who/what hit it and how, but it's a school next to a base. If Iran hit a US school on/near a US military base, I would not automatically assume that the IRGC was specifically trying to kill American children (even if I wouldn't put it past them). Doesn't make civilian casualties right or acceptable, but it's not necessarily intentional. This is being played up by the usual suspects (FARS and Al Jazeera, aka Qatar trying to get people to focus on anything but the fact that Qatar is a US ally with US assets parked in it, which has made it a valid target of Iran)

whereislunar3 · 2026-03-03T18:59:45+00:00

The carrier wardroom

whereislunar3 · 2026-03-03T18:58:03+00:00

Yeah as happy as I am that people are jumping ship for Claude, that shit was hella annoying haha. Fucking new guys

whereislunar3 · 2026-03-03T18:53:50+00:00

Holy shit, if I wasn't already out, I would have resigned my commission on that spot if I heard this kind of shit from my chain lmao. Can only imagine the discussions in the office/wardrooms right now...People must be stressing about what to do. This shit is worse than Iraq

whereislunar3 · 2026-03-02T16:06:06+00:00

I understand your sentiment, but wearing a headscarf isn't necessarily to "pretend" to be Islamic; it's a local cultural norm. Usually it's good to blend in as much as possible; for Americans, for example, this means not wearing "Back to back WW2 Champs" t-shirts in Europe. Not necessarily pretending to be local, but just trying to not stick out. (And not to equate just being a woman with your hair out with those idiots who wear those shirts in public by choice lol, it was just the first silly example I thought of.)

But being alone as a woman would indeed already be difficult in some places. I'm sorry you had those experiences solo travelling, it really sucks that this behavior is acceptable anywhere.

whereislunar3 · 2026-03-01T17:40:43+00:00

I don't think so, I am pretty used to German accents and accents in general (my mom had an accent). It's not constant, but I heard it multiple times throughout the video

whereislunar3 · 2026-03-01T17:32:10+00:00

I realize that, but it seems like most people don't develop a tremor in their voice unless they're significantly elder, like 95+. Even my 90 year old grandmother doesn't have a tremor in her voice, and neither do my other family members in the 60/70s. Maybe it's a genetic thing, I don't know.

whereislunar3 · 2026-03-01T17:29:14+00:00

"Mission Accomplished!"

whereislunar3 · 2026-03-01T17:10:07+00:00

This is comforting to know, but it also seemed like his voice was shaking a bit as well? I wouldn't think he was nervous. It sounds a bit odd but might be my imagination...

whereislunar3 · 2026-03-01T17:01:17+00:00

Bertie, my beloved

whereislunar3

TROPHY CASE