It was time again for EtherLAN this last weekend, and it was a little less exhausting than it has been due to more people on the admin team to share the load. So that’s nice. My emcee-ing was weird as always, but hopefully passable. The more important news from the weekend is that I…
Completed my first “normal” difficulty Super Metroid Randomizer Run! For the uninitiated, you submit an unaltered ROM file to this site and choose your seed and difficulty settings. It spits out another ROM in which all the items are moved around, and the ammo pickups are shuffled (so they may be the same and may not). I have a pretty set path that I’ve developed over the years for completing this game, so it’s really exciting to re-route things based on my available options, and come to bosses without the equipment I usually rely on. Some encounters were actually far more exciting than they’ve been in years, and I get to learn some new techniques and tricks for moving around the world. I loved it and will definitely try it again!
Not really a lot else to say today. Just recovering from the weekend and making a note of the Smetroid thing.
Thing I Saw: EtherLAN has a boardgame side as well as a videogame side, and whilst travelling from one to the other I randomly stumbled across a D&D session in progress. “You’re all awesome” I shouted in passing, probably to their confusion.
Thing I Learned: It’s common to use certain dried spices, like dill weed, to affordably add grassy texture to the base of your Warhammer figurine miniature. Bonus fact: after mistakenly calling them “figurines” while judging a painting contest, I was firmly told that they were in fact miniatures. Double bonus fun fact: The Australians call them “war dollies” and I am not making that up
I’m Grateful For: Clever programmers that make our lives better and our games more exciting!