web01.fireside.fm Wed, 08 Apr 2026 22:50:33 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Topic Lords - Episodes Tagged with “Esper” https://topiclords.com/tags/esper Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0800 Every week, Jim invites different friends to guest on Topic Lords and be excited about whatever they've been fixated on this week. en-us episodic The only place on the internet you can hear topics discussed! Jim Stormdancer Every week, Jim invites different friends to guest on Topic Lords and be excited about whatever they've been fixated on this week. yes Jim Stormdancer jim@goombas.org 319. Rolling Dice Like Mozart https://topiclords.com/rolling-dice-like-mozart dde14b3d-f862-491c-991a-6358ebbfd632 Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0800 Jim Stormdancer full Jim Stormdancer 1:06:00 yes Lords: * Esper * Cort Topics: * Building your identity around a thing that you're kind of not as excited about lately * Stateless procedural music * Hulu can't decide whether it has X-Files * Offering, by Ursula K Le Guin * https://fleurmach.com/2016/09/28/ursula-k-le-guin-offering-2012/ Microtopics: * Figuring out new ways to make video games more expensive. * Puzzled Pint. * Oh man, this one's a real quart! * Puzzled Pint getting you through to the next MIT Mystery Hunt. * Blippo Plus. * If you're going to watch TV, why not watch TV from another dimension? * Capturing broadcast artifacts and CRT fuzz on a 1-bit display. * An amateur DSPist. (Such as myself.) * Whether Lucas Pope took time away from his busy life as a pirate actuary to make a video about temporally-stable dithering. * Dr. Richard Garfield, who loves lasagna and hates Mondays. * Final Fantasy espers vs. Magic the Gathering espers. * All the different licenses Wizards of the Coast is using to fuck up Magic the Gathering. * How to play Magic the Gathering without getting your ass kicked by a SpongeBob deck. * Splitbeard, my nemesis. * The Kickstarter backer tier that nobody pledged to get. * Jim's beard braids, still floating around in a Ziploc bag somewhere. * Electroswing Jackson. * Trying to continue to evolve as an artist after you named yourself Chrono Trigger Remix DJ. * A sci-fi weird constructed zone. * The guy on the team who comes up with names like "banalia" * Fake scam Oxford English Dictionaries. * A Finn named Viznut. * The C program on Viznut's business card. * Recognizing the twelfth root of two in an obfuscated C program. * Bytebeat. * Generating audio in ShaderToy. * A closed form function of T that produces the Terminator theme. * Learning how to put GLSL into the GPU. * Needing the preceding 200 samples to produce the current sample so you just start at T-200 and start crunching numbers. * The oldest film on Netflix. (From 1987.) * Trying to finish X-Files before it leaves your streaming service. * Esper's power over the Futurama production schedule. * Why would you attack and dethrone God when you could summon God to help you fight a slime? * Trying to summon your god in a tough JRPG battle and she's like "not right now I'm editing a podcast." * Trying to describe a vocal sample without saying what the voice is saying. * The bitrate itself shaping new phonemes. * Wahoo vs. wahey vs. waheh. * The great darkness where sleep goes and farther death goes. * The gods choking on all the dreams you forget. * The dump trucks of tasteless gruel keep coming. * How to prevent the data miners determining exactly how far the mystery goes. * You Can't Data Mine Fallen London. * The character who doesn't exist in the game, only the game data files, because he erased himself. * Media where you can predict how much longer the story goes and media where you can't. * The forty second episode of Topic Lords. * The episode of Game Changer that had the fake "end of video" screen before the episode continues. * Hitting tab to switch to the next field. * Hitting tab to highlight the secret clickable button. * Bittorrenting all eight hours of Bandersnatch and watching every scene in random order. * How many names does a Seaman know? * Escaping the internet. * Binge watching the PiCoSteveMo development thread. Lords:

  • Esper
  • Cort

Topics:

Microtopics:

  • Figuring out new ways to make video games more expensive.
  • Puzzled Pint.
  • Oh man, this one's a real quart!
  • Puzzled Pint getting you through to the next MIT Mystery Hunt.
  • Blippo Plus.
  • If you're going to watch TV, why not watch TV from another dimension?
  • Capturing broadcast artifacts and CRT fuzz on a 1-bit display.
  • An amateur DSPist. (Such as myself.)
  • Whether Lucas Pope took time away from his busy life as a pirate actuary to make a video about temporally-stable dithering.
  • Dr. Richard Garfield, who loves lasagna and hates Mondays.
  • Final Fantasy espers vs. Magic the Gathering espers.
  • All the different licenses Wizards of the Coast is using to fuck up Magic the Gathering.
  • How to play Magic the Gathering without getting your ass kicked by a SpongeBob deck.
  • Splitbeard, my nemesis.
  • The Kickstarter backer tier that nobody pledged to get.
  • Jim's beard braids, still floating around in a Ziploc bag somewhere.
  • Electroswing Jackson.
  • Trying to continue to evolve as an artist after you named yourself Chrono Trigger Remix DJ.
  • A sci-fi weird constructed zone.
  • The guy on the team who comes up with names like "banalia"
  • Fake scam Oxford English Dictionaries.
  • A Finn named Viznut.
  • The C program on Viznut's business card.
  • Recognizing the twelfth root of two in an obfuscated C program.
  • Bytebeat.
  • Generating audio in ShaderToy.
  • A closed form function of T that produces the Terminator theme.
  • Learning how to put GLSL into the GPU.
  • Needing the preceding 200 samples to produce the current sample so you just start at T-200 and start crunching numbers.
  • The oldest film on Netflix. (From 1987.)
  • Trying to finish X-Files before it leaves your streaming service.
  • Esper's power over the Futurama production schedule.
  • Why would you attack and dethrone God when you could summon God to help you fight a slime?
  • Trying to summon your god in a tough JRPG battle and she's like "not right now I'm editing a podcast."
  • Trying to describe a vocal sample without saying what the voice is saying.
  • The bitrate itself shaping new phonemes.
  • Wahoo vs. wahey vs. waheh.
  • The great darkness where sleep goes and farther death goes.
  • The gods choking on all the dreams you forget.
  • The dump trucks of tasteless gruel keep coming.
  • How to prevent the data miners determining exactly how far the mystery goes.
  • You Can't Data Mine Fallen London.
  • The character who doesn't exist in the game, only the game data files, because he erased himself.
  • Media where you can predict how much longer the story goes and media where you can't.
  • The forty second episode of Topic Lords.
  • The episode of Game Changer that had the fake "end of video" screen before the episode continues.
  • Hitting tab to switch to the next field.
  • Hitting tab to highlight the secret clickable button.
  • Bittorrenting all eight hours of Bandersnatch and watching every scene in random order.
  • How many names does a Seaman know?
  • Escaping the internet.
  • Binge watching the PiCoSteveMo development thread.

Support Topic Lords

]]> Lords:

  • Esper
  • Cort

Topics:

Microtopics:

  • Figuring out new ways to make video games more expensive.
  • Puzzled Pint.
  • Oh man, this one's a real quart!
  • Puzzled Pint getting you through to the next MIT Mystery Hunt.
  • Blippo Plus.
  • If you're going to watch TV, why not watch TV from another dimension?
  • Capturing broadcast artifacts and CRT fuzz on a 1-bit display.
  • An amateur DSPist. (Such as myself.)
  • Whether Lucas Pope took time away from his busy life as a pirate actuary to make a video about temporally-stable dithering.
  • Dr. Richard Garfield, who loves lasagna and hates Mondays.
  • Final Fantasy espers vs. Magic the Gathering espers.
  • All the different licenses Wizards of the Coast is using to fuck up Magic the Gathering.
  • How to play Magic the Gathering without getting your ass kicked by a SpongeBob deck.
  • Splitbeard, my nemesis.
  • The Kickstarter backer tier that nobody pledged to get.
  • Jim's beard braids, still floating around in a Ziploc bag somewhere.
  • Electroswing Jackson.
  • Trying to continue to evolve as an artist after you named yourself Chrono Trigger Remix DJ.
  • A sci-fi weird constructed zone.
  • The guy on the team who comes up with names like "banalia"
  • Fake scam Oxford English Dictionaries.
  • A Finn named Viznut.
  • The C program on Viznut's business card.
  • Recognizing the twelfth root of two in an obfuscated C program.
  • Bytebeat.
  • Generating audio in ShaderToy.
  • A closed form function of T that produces the Terminator theme.
  • Learning how to put GLSL into the GPU.
  • Needing the preceding 200 samples to produce the current sample so you just start at T-200 and start crunching numbers.
  • The oldest film on Netflix. (From 1987.)
  • Trying to finish X-Files before it leaves your streaming service.
  • Esper's power over the Futurama production schedule.
  • Why would you attack and dethrone God when you could summon God to help you fight a slime?
  • Trying to summon your god in a tough JRPG battle and she's like "not right now I'm editing a podcast."
  • Trying to describe a vocal sample without saying what the voice is saying.
  • The bitrate itself shaping new phonemes.
  • Wahoo vs. wahey vs. waheh.
  • The great darkness where sleep goes and farther death goes.
  • The gods choking on all the dreams you forget.
  • The dump trucks of tasteless gruel keep coming.
  • How to prevent the data miners determining exactly how far the mystery goes.
  • You Can't Data Mine Fallen London.
  • The character who doesn't exist in the game, only the game data files, because he erased himself.
  • Media where you can predict how much longer the story goes and media where you can't.
  • The forty second episode of Topic Lords.
  • The episode of Game Changer that had the fake "end of video" screen before the episode continues.
  • Hitting tab to switch to the next field.
  • Hitting tab to highlight the secret clickable button.
  • Bittorrenting all eight hours of Bandersnatch and watching every scene in random order.
  • How many names does a Seaman know?
  • Escaping the internet.
  • Binge watching the PiCoSteveMo development thread.

Support Topic Lords

]]> 296. Do You Know About the Sun? https://topiclords.com/do-you-know-about-the-sun cbbe72d8-3c4c-4dfd-aae8-2718bfe383d2 Mon, 23 Jun 2025 00:00:00 -0700 Jim Stormdancer full Jim Stormdancer Lords: John and Esper. We discuss Chess the Musical, live television as the most exciting thing humans have invented, Blaseball's multi million dollar VC funding, Pad, Pad by Stevie Smith, RSS for text, and officiating weddings for your friends. 1:20:24 yes The video of Charles Martinet puppeteering Mario around the screen: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyezQsI-v-s Lords: * John * Esper Topics: * Chess, the Musical: a show that is universally acclaimed but no longer performed because it consistently loses money * I believe live television to be the most exciting thing humans have invented * Blaseball had $3 million in VC funding * Pad, Pad by Stevie Smith * https://allpoetry.com/Pad,-Pad * Why not RSS for text? * Officiating weddings for your friends Microtopics: * The video of Charles Martinet puppeteering the Mario head. * Who gets to say "roll theme song!" * A community where the chances of someone acting in bad faith is negligible. * DC Action News. * All human communication is technicallt advertising. * The generous Haste demo. * A skipping stones on water kind of game. * Sonic/Klonoa/late 90s/early 00s aesthetics. * A karaoke favorite that is not very reasonably sensitive. * All the Tims who did not work on Chess the Musical. * The guy from Rent whose name you can't remember. * Breakdancing while arbitrating a chess match. * Internet radio stations. * A Windows 95 theme of Chess the Musical. * Installing Windows 95 themes on your Picotron desktop. * Sex, Death and Live Television! * Live TV mishaps that ruin entirely the wrong career. * HQ. * At five o'clock, there's gonna be a guy. * The sense of spectacle you get from a live broadcast with a big audience. * The time one of the leads forgot his entire monologue. * The thrill of being part of a live performance as it's going wrong. * Listening to Shoutcast channels on Winamp. * Winamp's Shoutcast station registry. * The childhood dream of owning a TV station and getting to make all the little station IDs. * Netflix's abandoned "just fuck me up" button. * Six episodes of Deep Space 9 on a single VHS tape. * Drop 7 vs. Dropout TV. * Getting entirely the wrong information from your survey about what people like about your product. * Trying to sign up for Blaseball and failing. * Funny names such as Dominic Marijuana. * Jumping in and forcing some actions to happen. * Needing your game to break so that you can write the way it breaks into the narrative of the story. * Blaseball-likes. * Terrorball. (Short for Territory Ball.) * A list of all locations. * The Scarborough Fairies. * Resurrecting Jaylen Hotdogfingers. * An online text mode football manager with a live chat. * Fish Center. * Determining which fish is best. * Bringing a little bit of the live frisson to a fake live broadcast. * Whether it's okay to read a poem more than once. * Softly I go now, pad pad. * Cats you had together. * The cat that Hatricia Hop-Meow is based on. * Blogs: do they exist? * Making a point of finding an open source way to do your shit. * A 24 hour cycle of live podcasts. * TiVo for podcasts. * Edging the feeling of whether you're watching live TV or not in a slip slidey timestream. * Asking chat a question and then waiting 15 to 20 seconds for the response to come back. * Bringing back RSS readers. * The New Old Reader. * Opening with the mawwige joke. * Wanting people to want things. * Going back to your old life except now your friends are married. * Protecting The Lord from unauthorized clergymen. * Paying $20 to the Universal Life Church so you can perform weddings in most states. * Keeping the card in your wallet in case anyone tries to claim that you're not really an ordained minister. The video of Charles Martinet puppeteering Mario around the screen:

Lords:

  • John
  • Esper

Topics:

  • Chess, the Musical: a show that is universally acclaimed but no longer performed because it consistently loses money
  • I believe live television to be the most exciting thing humans have invented
  • Blaseball had $3 million in VC funding
  • Pad, Pad by Stevie Smith
  • Why not RSS for text?
  • Officiating weddings for your friends

Microtopics:

  • The video of Charles Martinet puppeteering the Mario head.
  • Who gets to say "roll theme song!"
  • A community where the chances of someone acting in bad faith is negligible.
  • DC Action News.
  • All human communication is technicallt advertising.
  • The generous Haste demo.
  • A skipping stones on water kind of game.
  • Sonic/Klonoa/late 90s/early 00s aesthetics.
  • A karaoke favorite that is not very reasonably sensitive.
  • All the Tims who did not work on Chess the Musical.
  • The guy from Rent whose name you can't remember.
  • Breakdancing while arbitrating a chess match.
  • Internet radio stations.
  • A Windows 95 theme of Chess the Musical.
  • Installing Windows 95 themes on your Picotron desktop.
  • Sex, Death and Live Television!
  • Live TV mishaps that ruin entirely the wrong career.
  • HQ.
  • At five o'clock, there's gonna be a guy.
  • The sense of spectacle you get from a live broadcast with a big audience.
  • The time one of the leads forgot his entire monologue.
  • The thrill of being part of a live performance as it's going wrong.
  • Listening to Shoutcast channels on Winamp.
  • Winamp's Shoutcast station registry.
  • The childhood dream of owning a TV station and getting to make all the little station IDs.
  • Netflix's abandoned "just fuck me up" button.
  • Six episodes of Deep Space 9 on a single VHS tape.
  • Drop 7 vs. Dropout TV.
  • Getting entirely the wrong information from your survey about what people like about your product.
  • Trying to sign up for Blaseball and failing.
  • Funny names such as Dominic Marijuana.
  • Jumping in and forcing some actions to happen.
  • Needing your game to break so that you can write the way it breaks into the narrative of the story.
  • Blaseball-likes.
  • Terrorball. (Short for Territory Ball.)
  • A list of all locations.
  • The Scarborough Fairies.
  • Resurrecting Jaylen Hotdogfingers.
  • An online text mode football manager with a live chat.
  • Fish Center.
  • Determining which fish is best.
  • Bringing a little bit of the live frisson to a fake live broadcast.
  • Whether it's okay to read a poem more than once.
  • Softly I go now, pad pad.
  • Cats you had together.
  • The cat that Hatricia Hop-Meow is based on.
  • Blogs: do they exist?
  • Making a point of finding an open source way to do your shit.
  • A 24 hour cycle of live podcasts.
  • TiVo for podcasts.
  • Edging the feeling of whether you're watching live TV or not in a slip slidey timestream.
  • Asking chat a question and then waiting 15 to 20 seconds for the response to come back.
  • Bringing back RSS readers.
  • The New Old Reader.
  • Opening with the mawwige joke.
  • Wanting people to want things.
  • Going back to your old life except now your friends are married.
  • Protecting The Lord from unauthorized clergymen.
  • Paying $20 to the Universal Life Church so you can perform weddings in most states.
  • Keeping the card in your wallet in case anyone tries to claim that you're not really an ordained minister.

Support Topic Lords

]]> The video of Charles Martinet puppeteering Mario around the screen:

Lords:

  • John
  • Esper

Topics:

  • Chess, the Musical: a show that is universally acclaimed but no longer performed because it consistently loses money
  • I believe live television to be the most exciting thing humans have invented
  • Blaseball had $3 million in VC funding
  • Pad, Pad by Stevie Smith
  • Why not RSS for text?
  • Officiating weddings for your friends

Microtopics:

  • The video of Charles Martinet puppeteering the Mario head.
  • Who gets to say "roll theme song!"
  • A community where the chances of someone acting in bad faith is negligible.
  • DC Action News.
  • All human communication is technicallt advertising.
  • The generous Haste demo.
  • A skipping stones on water kind of game.
  • Sonic/Klonoa/late 90s/early 00s aesthetics.
  • A karaoke favorite that is not very reasonably sensitive.
  • All the Tims who did not work on Chess the Musical.
  • The guy from Rent whose name you can't remember.
  • Breakdancing while arbitrating a chess match.
  • Internet radio stations.
  • A Windows 95 theme of Chess the Musical.
  • Installing Windows 95 themes on your Picotron desktop.
  • Sex, Death and Live Television!
  • Live TV mishaps that ruin entirely the wrong career.
  • HQ.
  • At five o'clock, there's gonna be a guy.
  • The sense of spectacle you get from a live broadcast with a big audience.
  • The time one of the leads forgot his entire monologue.
  • The thrill of being part of a live performance as it's going wrong.
  • Listening to Shoutcast channels on Winamp.
  • Winamp's Shoutcast station registry.
  • The childhood dream of owning a TV station and getting to make all the little station IDs.
  • Netflix's abandoned "just fuck me up" button.
  • Six episodes of Deep Space 9 on a single VHS tape.
  • Drop 7 vs. Dropout TV.
  • Getting entirely the wrong information from your survey about what people like about your product.
  • Trying to sign up for Blaseball and failing.
  • Funny names such as Dominic Marijuana.
  • Jumping in and forcing some actions to happen.
  • Needing your game to break so that you can write the way it breaks into the narrative of the story.
  • Blaseball-likes.
  • Terrorball. (Short for Territory Ball.)
  • A list of all locations.
  • The Scarborough Fairies.
  • Resurrecting Jaylen Hotdogfingers.
  • An online text mode football manager with a live chat.
  • Fish Center.
  • Determining which fish is best.
  • Bringing a little bit of the live frisson to a fake live broadcast.
  • Whether it's okay to read a poem more than once.
  • Softly I go now, pad pad.
  • Cats you had together.
  • The cat that Hatricia Hop-Meow is based on.
  • Blogs: do they exist?
  • Making a point of finding an open source way to do your shit.
  • A 24 hour cycle of live podcasts.
  • TiVo for podcasts.
  • Edging the feeling of whether you're watching live TV or not in a slip slidey timestream.
  • Asking chat a question and then waiting 15 to 20 seconds for the response to come back.
  • Bringing back RSS readers.
  • The New Old Reader.
  • Opening with the mawwige joke.
  • Wanting people to want things.
  • Going back to your old life except now your friends are married.
  • Protecting The Lord from unauthorized clergymen.
  • Paying $20 to the Universal Life Church so you can perform weddings in most states.
  • Keeping the card in your wallet in case anyone tries to claim that you're not really an ordained minister.

Support Topic Lords

]]> 273. Why Isn't Dracula Good at Anything? https://topiclords.com/why-isnt-dracula-good-at-anything 591d8ea2-099b-4bb1-a29f-20208d171baf Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:00:00 -0800 Jim Stormdancer full Jim Stormdancer Lords: Esper and RT-55J. We discuss poorly-constructed memes, making ZZT games in 2024, porting Mario 64 to the Commodore 64. "I like to think that in another universe," by ailbey, what counts as a plausible Dracula, and introducing licensed characters into a game that has previously been itself. 1:02:47 yes Lords: * Esper * https://ourbroadcastday.com/ * RT-55J * https://rt-55j.itch.io/ Topics: * Memes where the specific instance of joke customization is frontloaded, while the punchline remains the same every time. * Making ZZT games in 2024 * https://stale-meme.itch.io/the-king-in-yellow-borders * It's 2024 and still nobody has ported Mario 64 to the Commodore 64 * https://abbydenton.itch.io/the-blade-of-cutiepants-a-very-cutie-christmas * What I Would Tell Eve by Maegen McAuliffe O’Leary * https://www.reddit.com/r/Poetry/comments/1ez31sh/poemwhatiwouldtellevebymaegenmcauliffe/ * "A vampire with a cheque-book, a solicitor, and a balance at the bank is not a plausible kind of creature." - Andrew Lang (contemporary reviewer of Dracula) * Do you think there were any Fortnite die-hards who got really upset when Fortnite started introducing Marvel and Star Wars guys to the game? Microtopics: * A Muppet Christmas Carol. * Gradations of Michael Caine oldness. * The Museum of ZZT. * Wizened ZZT Wizards. * Taking a common idea and altering it in an interesting way. * Why do plays still exist? * Making up an audience to applaud you. * Rehearsing a conversation in a low-oxygen environment. * A guy walking around touching things in the world and flavor text appears. * The ZZT aspect ratio problem. * Sneaking into the office at night and playing ZZT in silent mode so you don't bother the janitor. * 8-way movement in ZZT. * Reasons to stick with a certain set of constraints. * WeaveZZT. * Making a deck builder RPG in ZZT. * The safety and romance of a good set of constraints. * The King in Yellow Borders. * Oktrollberfest. * A found object horror game built in a fake ZZT engine. * Wario doing a ground pound and breaking the Youtube interface around the video. * Reading like 200 pages of Problem Sleuth and never getting around to Homestuck. * A program you can install to make your computer look like it's still running Windows Vista, and another you can install to make it feel like Obama is still president. * Porting ZZT to the Commodore 64. * An economy of people enjoying themselves. * Porting Mario 64 to ZZT and ending up on the front page of Planet Quake. * Tux Racer. * Scoping your game just big enough for people to see screen shots and get excited, but small enough that it's still finishable. * Mario 64's British Platformer Energy. * Whether Argonaut or Rare was a bigger influence on the design of Mario 64. * 3D Construction Kit for the Commodore 64. * Trying to build a scene in PovRay. * What iPad kids were like in the mid-90s. * Whether or not Eve ate the best possible apple. * Plausible and implausible vampires. * Ahistorical vampire analysis. * Why there's chicken on the Streets of Rage * What the Antediluveans got up to. * The 14 million year war for Cybertron. * What did you eat for 14 million years? * Subsisting on pure unfiltered Sparklemotion. * Two robots punching each other in the face for millennia. * Nike sponsorships in Magic the Gathering. * A roadmap of Magic the Gathering Crossovers. * The Guitar Hero game where you could make Kurt Cobain perform Run DMC. * Rated E for Explicit. * A PubG with fort building mechanics. * Winning your first game of Fortnite and retiring forever. * The Super Smash Instinct. * Monetizing a child's insatiable gambling instincts. * Playing a video game and worrying about the developer's immortal soul. Lords:

Topics:

Microtopics:

  • A Muppet Christmas Carol.
  • Gradations of Michael Caine oldness.
  • The Museum of ZZT.
  • Wizened ZZT Wizards.
  • Taking a common idea and altering it in an interesting way.
  • Why do plays still exist?
  • Making up an audience to applaud you.
  • Rehearsing a conversation in a low-oxygen environment.
  • A guy walking around touching things in the world and flavor text appears.
  • The ZZT aspect ratio problem.
  • Sneaking into the office at night and playing ZZT in silent mode so you don't bother the janitor.
  • 8-way movement in ZZT.
  • Reasons to stick with a certain set of constraints.
  • WeaveZZT.
  • Making a deck builder RPG in ZZT.
  • The safety and romance of a good set of constraints.
  • The King in Yellow Borders.
  • Oktrollberfest.
  • A found object horror game built in a fake ZZT engine.
  • Wario doing a ground pound and breaking the Youtube interface around the video.
  • Reading like 200 pages of Problem Sleuth and never getting around to Homestuck.
  • A program you can install to make your computer look like it's still running Windows Vista, and another you can install to make it feel like Obama is still president.
  • Porting ZZT to the Commodore 64.
  • An economy of people enjoying themselves.
  • Porting Mario 64 to ZZT and ending up on the front page of Planet Quake.
  • Tux Racer.
  • Scoping your game just big enough for people to see screen shots and get excited, but small enough that it's still finishable.
  • Mario 64's British Platformer Energy.
  • Whether Argonaut or Rare was a bigger influence on the design of Mario 64.
  • 3D Construction Kit for the Commodore 64.
  • Trying to build a scene in PovRay.
  • What iPad kids were like in the mid-90s.
  • Whether or not Eve ate the best possible apple.
  • Plausible and implausible vampires.
  • Ahistorical vampire analysis.
  • Why there's chicken on the Streets of Rage
  • What the Antediluveans got up to.
  • The 14 million year war for Cybertron.
  • What did you eat for 14 million years?
  • Subsisting on pure unfiltered Sparklemotion.
  • Two robots punching each other in the face for millennia.
  • Nike sponsorships in Magic the Gathering.
  • A roadmap of Magic the Gathering Crossovers.
  • The Guitar Hero game where you could make Kurt Cobain perform Run DMC.
  • Rated E for Explicit.
  • A PubG with fort building mechanics.
  • Winning your first game of Fortnite and retiring forever.
  • The Super Smash Instinct.
  • Monetizing a child's insatiable gambling instincts.
  • Playing a video game and worrying about the developer's immortal soul.

Support Topic Lords

]]> Lords:

Topics:

Microtopics:

  • A Muppet Christmas Carol.
  • Gradations of Michael Caine oldness.
  • The Museum of ZZT.
  • Wizened ZZT Wizards.
  • Taking a common idea and altering it in an interesting way.
  • Why do plays still exist?
  • Making up an audience to applaud you.
  • Rehearsing a conversation in a low-oxygen environment.
  • A guy walking around touching things in the world and flavor text appears.
  • The ZZT aspect ratio problem.
  • Sneaking into the office at night and playing ZZT in silent mode so you don't bother the janitor.
  • 8-way movement in ZZT.
  • Reasons to stick with a certain set of constraints.
  • WeaveZZT.
  • Making a deck builder RPG in ZZT.
  • The safety and romance of a good set of constraints.
  • The King in Yellow Borders.
  • Oktrollberfest.
  • A found object horror game built in a fake ZZT engine.
  • Wario doing a ground pound and breaking the Youtube interface around the video.
  • Reading like 200 pages of Problem Sleuth and never getting around to Homestuck.
  • A program you can install to make your computer look like it's still running Windows Vista, and another you can install to make it feel like Obama is still president.
  • Porting ZZT to the Commodore 64.
  • An economy of people enjoying themselves.
  • Porting Mario 64 to ZZT and ending up on the front page of Planet Quake.
  • Tux Racer.
  • Scoping your game just big enough for people to see screen shots and get excited, but small enough that it's still finishable.
  • Mario 64's British Platformer Energy.
  • Whether Argonaut or Rare was a bigger influence on the design of Mario 64.
  • 3D Construction Kit for the Commodore 64.
  • Trying to build a scene in PovRay.
  • What iPad kids were like in the mid-90s.
  • Whether or not Eve ate the best possible apple.
  • Plausible and implausible vampires.
  • Ahistorical vampire analysis.
  • Why there's chicken on the Streets of Rage
  • What the Antediluveans got up to.
  • The 14 million year war for Cybertron.
  • What did you eat for 14 million years?
  • Subsisting on pure unfiltered Sparklemotion.
  • Two robots punching each other in the face for millennia.
  • Nike sponsorships in Magic the Gathering.
  • A roadmap of Magic the Gathering Crossovers.
  • The Guitar Hero game where you could make Kurt Cobain perform Run DMC.
  • Rated E for Explicit.
  • A PubG with fort building mechanics.
  • Winning your first game of Fortnite and retiring forever.
  • The Super Smash Instinct.
  • Monetizing a child's insatiable gambling instincts.
  • Playing a video game and worrying about the developer's immortal soul.

Support Topic Lords

]]> 222. Barkley in Retrograde https://topiclords.com/barkley-in-retrograde 0c93519c-5ae2-4568-bd7a-566d7b9501d3 Mon, 22 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0800 Jim Stormdancer full Jim Stormdancer Lords: Chris and Esper. Topics: Geocaching, the Miyoo Mini, my lost career as a Super Mario Bros. 35 Coach, There's Not a Person Alive by David Donihue, the semiparasocial relationship between a podcast editor and the people on the podcast, and struggling to relearn high school Spanish 1:13:23 yes Lords: * Chris * Esper Topics: * Geocaching * The Miyoo Mini and other handheld emulation consoles * I still think I could've made it as a highly paid Super Mario Bros. 35 coach. I should've gone for it. * There's Not a Person Alive by David Donihue * https://medium.com/@daviddonihue/theres-not-a-person-alive-poem-by-david-n-donihue-a1fcd714cc99 * The strange semiparasocial relationship between a podcast editor and the people on the podcast * Struggling to relearn high school Spanish Microtopics: * The editor of a podcast. * The #1 podcast for topic fans. * Chopping at some audio until it becomes a podcast. * Editing a recording into a podcast that's nothing but ums, mouth smacking noises and uncomfortable silence. * Zoom dynamically sensing when you're saying something dumb or boring and muting you. * Saying yes with the Sonic ring noise and no with the Sonic taking damage noise. * A cozy pleasant show full of fun facts. * Prepping for a paradigm. * How to put audio on film. * Going on a web forum and receiving a quest to find a magnetic box stuck underneath a metal staircase. * Geocaching on the Moon. * Geocaching vs. Geohashing. * A French pun for your board game night that nobody can remember because it's in French. * c:geo. * Finding a geocache by climbing a tree and pulling a paperclip attached to a fake piece of bark. * What to do if you're the one who picks up a travel bug. * Fake bolts where the center unscrews and it's hollow inside. * Developing a sense for when a geocache is nearby and always being wrong. * Miyoo Mini Plus. * Custom firmware that fixes your terrible handheld game system. * The Dream of the Playdate. * The Anbernic R something something letters numbers. * C-ctrl. * Going back to the Tekken 3 well. * A video game bar in Japan that only has Americans in it. * A very reasonable number of video games to flip through. * Emulators with daily runs. * Multi Bowl. * A game that legally can not exist. * Johann Sebastian Joust and its meta. * Getting one point in Rampage. * Advice that can literally no longer be helpful for anybody. * How to be an effective Goomba. * Looking at Jim's win/loss ratio and being inspired. * As Garfield said, "nothing good can stay." * A stainless soul lying inspired. * Bad experiences shared by every human. * A very smooth-brained day * Rampant poetry plagiarism on TikTok. * A food ASMR video where someone is repeatedly stabbing chicken with a fork. * Videos of hamsters running in wheels while listening to Dragula by Rob Zombie. * Whether the fish enjoys playing Pokemon. * A sweet 16 bracket of Best Kinds of Shark. * Rerecording the Topic Lords jingle with a swarm of bees. * The qualifications required for the person who designs electric car backing up noises. * Which apps to use to help you remember Spanish. * Speedrunning High School Spanish. * Learning Japanese from anime. * A 24/7 Livestream of digital cats lying around the house. * Hallucinating new languages around the house. * 52 Pickup with Gita Jackson and Alex Jaffee, about the most important comic book series of this century. Lords:

  • Chris
  • Esper

Topics:

Microtopics:

  • The editor of a podcast.
  • The #1 podcast for topic fans.
  • Chopping at some audio until it becomes a podcast.
  • Editing a recording into a podcast that's nothing but ums, mouth smacking noises and uncomfortable silence.
  • Zoom dynamically sensing when you're saying something dumb or boring and muting you.
  • Saying yes with the Sonic ring noise and no with the Sonic taking damage noise.
  • A cozy pleasant show full of fun facts.
  • Prepping for a paradigm.
  • How to put audio on film.
  • Going on a web forum and receiving a quest to find a magnetic box stuck underneath a metal staircase.
  • Geocaching on the Moon.
  • Geocaching vs. Geohashing.
  • A French pun for your board game night that nobody can remember because it's in French.
  • c:geo.
  • Finding a geocache by climbing a tree and pulling a paperclip attached to a fake piece of bark.
  • What to do if you're the one who picks up a travel bug.
  • Fake bolts where the center unscrews and it's hollow inside.
  • Developing a sense for when a geocache is nearby and always being wrong.
  • Miyoo Mini Plus.
  • Custom firmware that fixes your terrible handheld game system.
  • The Dream of the Playdate.
  • The Anbernic R something something letters numbers.
  • C-ctrl.
  • Going back to the Tekken 3 well.
  • A video game bar in Japan that only has Americans in it.
  • A very reasonable number of video games to flip through.
  • Emulators with daily runs.
  • Multi Bowl.
  • A game that legally can not exist.
  • Johann Sebastian Joust and its meta.
  • Getting one point in Rampage.
  • Advice that can literally no longer be helpful for anybody.
  • How to be an effective Goomba.
  • Looking at Jim's win/loss ratio and being inspired.
  • As Garfield said, "nothing good can stay."
  • A stainless soul lying inspired.
  • Bad experiences shared by every human.
  • A very smooth-brained day
  • Rampant poetry plagiarism on TikTok.
  • A food ASMR video where someone is repeatedly stabbing chicken with a fork.
  • Videos of hamsters running in wheels while listening to Dragula by Rob Zombie.
  • Whether the fish enjoys playing Pokemon.
  • A sweet 16 bracket of Best Kinds of Shark.
  • Rerecording the Topic Lords jingle with a swarm of bees.
  • The qualifications required for the person who designs electric car backing up noises.
  • Which apps to use to help you remember Spanish.
  • Speedrunning High School Spanish.
  • Learning Japanese from anime.
  • A 24/7 Livestream of digital cats lying around the house.
  • Hallucinating new languages around the house.
  • 52 Pickup with Gita Jackson and Alex Jaffee, about the most important comic book series of this century.

Support Topic Lords

]]> Lords:

  • Chris
  • Esper

Topics:

Microtopics:

  • The editor of a podcast.
  • The #1 podcast for topic fans.
  • Chopping at some audio until it becomes a podcast.
  • Editing a recording into a podcast that's nothing but ums, mouth smacking noises and uncomfortable silence.
  • Zoom dynamically sensing when you're saying something dumb or boring and muting you.
  • Saying yes with the Sonic ring noise and no with the Sonic taking damage noise.
  • A cozy pleasant show full of fun facts.
  • Prepping for a paradigm.
  • How to put audio on film.
  • Going on a web forum and receiving a quest to find a magnetic box stuck underneath a metal staircase.
  • Geocaching on the Moon.
  • Geocaching vs. Geohashing.
  • A French pun for your board game night that nobody can remember because it's in French.
  • c:geo.
  • Finding a geocache by climbing a tree and pulling a paperclip attached to a fake piece of bark.
  • What to do if you're the one who picks up a travel bug.
  • Fake bolts where the center unscrews and it's hollow inside.
  • Developing a sense for when a geocache is nearby and always being wrong.
  • Miyoo Mini Plus.
  • Custom firmware that fixes your terrible handheld game system.
  • The Dream of the Playdate.
  • The Anbernic R something something letters numbers.
  • C-ctrl.
  • Going back to the Tekken 3 well.
  • A video game bar in Japan that only has Americans in it.
  • A very reasonable number of video games to flip through.
  • Emulators with daily runs.
  • Multi Bowl.
  • A game that legally can not exist.
  • Johann Sebastian Joust and its meta.
  • Getting one point in Rampage.
  • Advice that can literally no longer be helpful for anybody.
  • How to be an effective Goomba.
  • Looking at Jim's win/loss ratio and being inspired.
  • As Garfield said, "nothing good can stay."
  • A stainless soul lying inspired.
  • Bad experiences shared by every human.
  • A very smooth-brained day
  • Rampant poetry plagiarism on TikTok.
  • A food ASMR video where someone is repeatedly stabbing chicken with a fork.
  • Videos of hamsters running in wheels while listening to Dragula by Rob Zombie.
  • Whether the fish enjoys playing Pokemon.
  • A sweet 16 bracket of Best Kinds of Shark.
  • Rerecording the Topic Lords jingle with a swarm of bees.
  • The qualifications required for the person who designs electric car backing up noises.
  • Which apps to use to help you remember Spanish.
  • Speedrunning High School Spanish.
  • Learning Japanese from anime.
  • A 24/7 Livestream of digital cats lying around the house.
  • Hallucinating new languages around the house.
  • 52 Pickup with Gita Jackson and Alex Jaffee, about the most important comic book series of this century.

Support Topic Lords

]]>