Welcome to Curate of Curiosities!
This is where I write about the strange, the obscure, or just whatever interests me.
News
November 4, 2024
Finally, I can log back into Internet Archive! Don't expect any new video uploads soon, though.
October 29, 2024
Over this past week, I've had a few hiccups involving OBS and my graphics drivers, but now I've recorded all the footage and screenshots I need from Memody: Sindrel Song, Tobias Cornwall's most recent published game. After more than a year of documentation, I've finally reached the home stretch. All that's left is to upload the footage (which could be tricky given the IA issue) and finish the writeup.
October 23, 2024
Looks like I have another comic from Google Play to burn off. Here's Baldy, and would you look at that, it has an English translation, and is region blocked to boot!
October 22, 2024
I've got a few things to share with you this week:
First off, I started an account with Bluesky. Here's hoping it doesn't end up being the Scylla to Twitter's Charybdis.
Next, I'm playing through Sindrel Song, Tobias Cornwall's most recently released game. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel regarding the Cornwall writeup.
Finally, on the gamedev side of things, I just added stage 2 to Trial of the Hierarch. Not just that, but I also added a whole bunch of new mechanics to the game!
October 15, 2024
New page for I Hate You, Please Suffer! Now that we've seen what happens when Ramona succeeds in paying off her rent, where else can her and her friends' quest go? I'm sure the ghost that lives in Ramona's head has the answer!
By the way, the creator of the game now follows me on Twitter!
October 10, 2024
First off, wow, that stuff with the Internet Archive is really something, isn't it? And just when I had the idea to upload all my videos there, too.
Second of all, I'm working on the next page for I Hate You, Please Suffer. It's going to be another doozy, just not quite in the same way as the Taming Dreams writeup.
October 5, 2024
Just added a new page to my documentation of the long, long history of a developer of silly Flash RPGs. It's not much, seeing as most of the games mentioned on that page aren't accessible, or even playable at any point.
By the way, if you look up Taming Dreams on Bing or DuckDuckGo, my writeup for the game will be among the top results. That's what happens when you're one of the 12 people or so who have actually played the game.
September 25, 2024
Here's a new page on I Hate You, Please Suffer! Just because we've paid our rent doesn't mean the fun has to end!
September 17, 2024
After two weeks, I've finally published the writeup for Tobias Cornwall's Taming Dreams, the long awaited and very unfinished reimagining of MARDEK, the hit browser RPG. Since the only way to play this game anymore is through a slightly laggy emulator, and the third episode is completely inaccessible, I couldn't take that many screenshots for this page. For now, please enjoy the writeup of a game that attempts to incorporate deep spiritual themes into the reimagining of a silly Flash RPG.
Man, it really has been more than a year since I started writing about his guy's games, hasn't it?
September 11, 2024
This next page I'm working on is a bit of a doozy. It might be my longest page so far in terms of word count. And all this for a game that none of you can play anymore.
September 3, 2024
It looks like the creator of I Hate You, Please Suffer had a lot more to say about society, that they mainly chose to express through RPG Maker games. If you wanted to know how today's world would adapt to suddenly turning into a JRPG, then come right this way.
August 31, 2024
Just because I've finished with Cornwall/pseudolonewolf's magnum opus doesn't mean I'm done with him. With that said, here's my writeup of Miasmon. It's like Pokemon, but with sex jokes.
August 22, 2024
In the continuing adventures of Ramona and friends, we break into the house of some dead rich guy, and finally pay off our landlord. Of course, this is far from everything that the game has to offer.
On another note, I just made an account with the Internet Archive, and will be uploading most of my videos from Odysee over there.
August 15, 2024
Boy, it sure takes a lot of effort to end up no closer to your goal than before! Just ask Ramona and pals!
July 29, 2024
At last, the final part of the MARDEK writeup! Boy, for a Final Fantasy pastiche, this game sure had a lot things going on, in both plot and gameplay.
July 21, 2024
Finally done with MARDEK! Had a few technical difficulties near the end, but at least I have the material I need. Writeup coming soon.
July 18, 2024
Boy, am I sure on a roll with this game. We get our third party member, take on a few black-market bounties, hand the souls of our enemies to a furry, go fishing, and meet a man whose name means penis.
July 16, 2024
Since I've already made some progress on I Hate You, Please Suffer, the RPG that brutalizes the player at every corner, I feel it's time for a retrospective on the one that started it all.
July 10, 2024
Like quite a few properties that originated around the turn of the millenium, The Bellybuttons has a number of browser games based on it. View the page here and behold Murphy's disgusting, acne-covered face!
July 7, 2024
Here's more of I Hate You, Please Suffer. Now that Ramona's a licensed adventurer, she can now start her new job of getting sliced up by bandits and stung by poisonous insects! Good thing we have some mute guy with a magic cellphone on our side!
On the game dev side of things, I just updated the demo for Trial of the Hierarch. This update fixes a few gameplay elements, and fixes a bug that causes powerup chests to drop more items than they're supposed to.
July 1, 2024
The page for volume 1 of The Bellybuttons is up! You've noticed that I've titled the page "Like A Lioness In Heat." You might think that the title is a bit outrageous for a page about a tween comic, but there's a good reason it's called that. It's because the album has a 15-year-old presenting to a lifeguard on panel (though you won't get to see it on the page). Looks like I was right about the suspect content.
June 16, 2024
First, I've made progress in Chapter 3 of MARDEK. The gang's all here, we're ready to start gathering the crystals, and we deal with the fantasy TSA!
Second, the tie in album for Tamara's first live-action movie...which is just stuff that was already in the comic, but that Google region blocked for whatever reason. Boy, European comics are really something else, aren't they?
June 12, 2024
On top of maintaining this site, I also develop indie games using Godot Engine. I am pleased to announce the release of a playable demo for a game that I've been working on for the past few months. Trial of the Hierarch is now available on itch.io.
June 5, 2024
I think the writeup for chapter 3 is going to be a three-parter, rather than a two-parter like I was expecting.
May 26, 2024
So, here's the page for the first part of Mardek's third chapter, covering up to the first elemental temple. I can tell you that I enjoyed it more than the second half of chapter 2.
May 21, 2024
Looks like chapter 3 is longer than chapters 1 and 2 put together, so I'll be dividing it into two pages. You can expect the first page to be up by the end of this month.
May 18, 2024
Finally got chapter 3 running! Expect the page to be up sometime next month.
May 16, 2024
Slight change of plans. I'll be using Newgrounds Player instead. Ruffle crashes when you attempt an end-of-chapter save.
May 15, 2024
I've already mentioned that it will be a long time before the page on chapter 3 of Mardek is ready, but I've run into a pretty major problem. Up to this point, I have been playing the game using Flashpoint. However, with this game in particular, the files it uses are hosted on Kongregate, and for some reason, the file for chapter 3 is inaccessible there. Fortunately, I have a possible solution; download the game files from somewhere else, then load them using Ruffle. Sadly, I can't access my previous saves with Ruffle, so it looks like I'm going through the first two chapters all over again.
May 7, 2024
So, here's the page on the first 20 minutes of I Hate You, Please Suffer. I could have covered more of it, but there's been a whole bunch of changes since this game launched, so starting out has gotten just a bit more aggravating than before.
April 29, 2024
It's been quite a while since we've covered any new content on this site, so this month we have new pages on the following:
- The Bellybuttons, another European comic aimed at tweens, but this this time, one that some English speakers know about,
- I Hate You, Please Suffer, another indie RPG maker game that...well, just look at the title, for one.
In the meantime, since it will be a while to get through chapter 3 of Mardek, here's a page on some of the other games that the creator published around the same time.