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@katewillaert
May 24, 2021 • 9 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X
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Last month I told you about the first Easter Eggs in video games, but even earlier Eggs existed in other software.

Who created the first software Easter Egg? I thought this mystery was unsolvable, until a team-up with Ed Fries.
acriticalhit.com/make-love-not-…
This is a two-parter, and you get to pick which order you read them in! Here's Ed Fries' side of the adventure:

edfries.wordpress.com/2021/05/23/who…
Originally my Easter Eggs video was going to be twice as long, and include mention of "Make Love Not War" as well as how the term "Easter Egg" invaded non-computer media, but the lack of info about "Make Love Not War" felt anti-climatic.
acriticalhit.com/ready-player-o…
I decided to narrow in on just video games (to put more of the focus on Moonlander), with the thought of doing a sequel if "Make Love Not War" was ever solved.

So the sequel is on! But I have a few other videos I need to finish up first. Maybe I'll do the sequel next Easter? Image
Despite the gaint tangent in the middle of the William Weiher interview, I did cut a few things. For example, in the Usenet discussion I discovered a similar Easter Egg from 1972 (still before Moonlander) where using the MIC command "GOTO" to "GOTO HELL" results in "Get stuffed." Image
Also on Usenet, Robert Clements hints at quite a tale about installing the PDP-6 at Stanford.

Also: DECUS conferences were video taped? Do computer historians out there know this? Image
Here's an alt photo of the Great New York Subway Race, which I didn't know about until I was trying to find photos of Dick Gruen. You can read Peter Samson's memories of this event from his homepage here: gricer.com/anysrc/anysrc.… Image
There are several photos online of young Bill Gates and Paul Allen at Lakeside School in 1970. Here are two others I considered: ImageImage
Okay, poll time. If you've read the article: Do you think Weiher including the Elvish Feanorian alphabet as a font option in a plotter is an Easter Egg, or just a fun font option?

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More from @katewillaert

May 27, 2024
People keep using charts to say, "Hey look, wages are growing faster than inflation. If you feel squeezed it's just your imagination, so quite whining, you big baby."

But as a designer, I know these charts are bullshit, and I'm going to explain why. 🧵🧵🧵 Image
Problem #1: When the line goes down, prices went down, right? No, when the line goes down, it only means growth has slowed—unless it goes below 0%.

Contrary to popular belief, inflation *can* go negative. It's called "deflation," a word that terrifies executives and investors. Image
Problem #2: In tiny text it says "monthly year-over-year change." This means each month's growth is compared to 12 months previous, not the previous month. But line graphs imply direct continuity, which makes a line graph the stupidest fucking way to represent this information. Image
Read 12 tweets
Sep 5, 2021
This image isn't from a Nintend-related cartoon. It's from Galactic Patrol, a Lensman animated series released two years before The Legend Of Zelda.

This is a continuation of an epic thread started last night. Link below if you missed part one.
Just to be clear, Nintendo's Zelda wasn't blonde until a few games into the series. And Miyamoto says her name was proposed by some PR person who was thinking of F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife Zelda.

Still, it makes you wonder about her later looks.
Galactic Patrol was a spin-off from the movie that used the same character designs but didn't take place in the same continuity. It was slightly more in-line with the books (the Green Lantern origin is gone), but also adds a little Star Trek (like a bridge w/ a Captain's chair).
Read 18 tweets
Sep 5, 2021
Streamline Pictures was founded by two animation-fans-turned-pros who wanted anime to be mainstream in America. Their first U.S. theatrical release was Castle In The Sky.

In 1989, they distributed Akira and Lensman. One is considered a classic, the other mostly forgotten.
In Japan, Lensman was extremely influential. A quick search of shmuplations.com reveals that Gradius' aesthetic was heavily inspired by Lensman, and Capcom's Akiman was "obsessed."

But in America, people who saw Lensman right after seeing Akira were not as impressed.
There are many possible reasons why Lensman has been forgotten, but the biggest factor is that it hasn't been available since Laserdisc.

The reasons why it's unavailable is surrounded in rumor and myth, and taking up way too much space in my head. So here's a braindump thread.
Read 17 tweets
Sep 4, 2021
The only thing I don't like about the word "Metroidvania" is that it falsely gives appearance that Castlevania contributed as much to the genre as Metroid, if only "Metroidvania" didn't sound so much cooler than "Metroid-like."

But I think I've figured out a solution...
What if we just called everything a "-vania"? Okay, maybe not literally everything, but if we could popularize just two other "-vania" genres, the suffix "-vania" would essentially shift to just mean "-like"!

Would you rather play a Roguelike, or a Roguevania?
Pac-Mania? Maybe the maze-chase genre should be called Pac-Vanias!

Kart racers? More like...Kartvanias!

All '90s shooters formerly called Doom-clones are now Doomvanias!
Read 8 tweets
Sep 3, 2021
So I guess Shang-Chi is going to be the movie that breaks my 10-year stretch of seeing every MCU movie in the theater. FOMO isn't enough to outweigh the possibility of a breakthrough infection.
I don't even like theaters, I only go to the theater to see these out of FOMO.

When I went to see Black Widow, Cinemark had multiple "trailers" that were like "aren't you glad the movie theater experience back??" and I was like "NOPE! (But this was cheaper than digital!)"
I'd consider $20, but $30 is too much for me to watch solo. (They're probably imagining a group pooling money to watch.)

Read 5 tweets

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