Hacker News: msephton

New comment by msephton in "Babies born under sugar rationing grew into adults with lower cancer risk"

msephton — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 01:03:10 +0000

I gave up sugar something like 8 years ago, accidentally, during an illness. Best thing I've ever done. The most noticeable benefits were: increased focus (by a startling amount), and absence of joint pain (I used to wake with aching knees, which nobody could explain). The pain thing I guess was inflammation, and it makes avoiding sugar such an easy decision. Of course, I don't think you can avoid it completely, but I'd say I have no more than a couple of grams a day? I don't eat fruit, cakes, chocolate, etc. When I go out for a meal and forget to check, or it's undisclosed, it's quite a wake up call because my body just can't cope: if I don't want to go to sleep immediately then I awake the next day with those aching knees and something like a hangover that lasts for several days.

Starting a Decompilation Project from Zero

msephton — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 18:32:44 +0000

Article URL: https://gambiconf.substack.com/p/starting-a-decompilation-project

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49335584

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by msephton in "A third world engineer responds to “RISC-V: They should have known better”"

msephton — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 18:55:40 +0000

This is the sort of content I endure this place for. Thanks for posting.

New comment by msephton in "Ultrarare Nintendo Mario game cartridges discovered in Wisconsin"

msephton — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 01:07:05 +0000

Previously https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49105476

They seem to be trying to drum up interest in their auctions.

New comment by msephton in "Beltrunner: Game Design Postmortem"

msephton — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 21:49:07 +0000

No worries at all. It's a wild time we are living in, so it's good to be sceptical and question everything. I always try to keep in mind that at the other end of the wire is (usually!) another human.

New comment by msephton in "Beltrunner: Game Design Postmortem"

msephton — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 21:05:00 +0000

In fact, I wrote that because that's what I think. It's a summary of the game design and flow—the preceding several sections—in a single sentence.

New comment by msephton in "Beltrunner: Game Design Postmortem"

msephton — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 21:03:21 +0000

It's a game design postmortem; probably most interesting to game developers and designers and/or people who have played the game it is describing. I imagine that it's not very readable if you've not played the game, or have no reference to game design.

New comment by msephton in "Beltrunner: Game Design Postmortem"

msephton — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 21:01:51 +0000

I find this quite amusing, because my blog turned 30 years old last week: it was started in 1996 which is 27 BC (Before Claude).

I'm sorry that you find the topics uninteresting, the rate of my output challenging, or my enthusiasm for my own work grating, but I'll keep writing anyway.

My goal is to simply write about the stuff I am doing, creating, solving…because it's fun! I don't expect anybody to clap, but you are correct that I am incredible—so thanks for the compliment!

And congrats on your shiny new HN account!

New comment by msephton in "Beltrunner: Game Design Postmortem"

msephton — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 20:53:53 +0000

It's not a wrapper around raylib; raylib is just one of several thin shells or platform presentation layers. Only the standalone desktop builds (macOS/Windows) use raylib. The macOS IDE renders the live game view with SpriteKit/RealityKit; the web player is WebGL2/wasm; Linux handheld builds use SDL2/GLES2; Wii uses SDL2 over GX; Dreamcast uses KOS.

The engine isn't the new part anyway—the way games are written is, which I'll say more about once things settle down. It's just me working on this, so I'm taking my time with the work and the rate of releasing information. But of the information on the website: I don't know of any other game dev tool that shows you theoretical maximum score based on the game rules, as one example of the type of things this new way provides.

And I'm not aware of any other engine that can hit these platforms, and there are more coming.

New comment by msephton in "Making difficulty curves in games"

msephton — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 01:09:41 +0000

I use the "saw" stepped difficulty curve (it's a very Nintendo thing) in my recent game BELTRUNNER (Web, Wii, Linux handhelds) https://blog.gingerbeardman.com/2026/07/30/beltrunner-game-d...

New comment by msephton in "Let's all meet up in the Y2K"

msephton — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 13:07:52 +0000

I've added a mention of the Cold Fusion book, with a little anecdote about its owner. Thanks for spotting it! I must have had something in my eye whilst looking at that photo.

New comment by msephton in "Let's all meet up in the Y2K"

msephton — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 13:06:23 +0000

I tried dating that issue of Metro, but was unable to!

New comment by msephton in "Let's all meet up in the Y2K"

msephton — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 13:05:23 +0000

Thanks so much for your kind words, glad you enjoyed them!

New comment by msephton in "Let's all meet up in the Y2K"

msephton — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 13:04:54 +0000

I played all the first five albums! The Deepest Cut Vol 1 (1995), Haunted Science (1996), Skeleton Keys (1997), Byte Size Life (1999) and Even Angels Cast Shadows (2001) which was brand new as the boom was imploding.

New comment by msephton in "Let's all meet up in the Y2K"

msephton — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 13:01:36 +0000

Thanks for this recap. I'd heard much about their demise over the years, so it's good to hear it first hand!

New comment by msephton in "Let's all meet up in the Y2K"

msephton — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 13:00:42 +0000

It's wonderful how they kept the name of the company where she worked, Magic Button, and Blueberry, out of the press. And the veil of mystery concocted by the crack marketing team has since seen the event cross the line into possible hoax. Time marches on never-ending!

New comment by msephton in "Let's all meet up in the Y2K"

msephton — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 12:32:53 +0000

Y2K is a strange half familiar, half alternate timeline sort of nostalgia, isn't it?

New comment by msephton in "Let's all meet up in the Y2K"

msephton — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 12:27:35 +0000

Please, just for this one thread, let's keep it on topic!

New comment by msephton in "How to Make a Nintendo 64 Game in 2026"

msephton — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 12:17:09 +0000

Each person that dies by his weapons of war makes him stronger.

Let's all meet up in the Y2K

msephton — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 06:43:38 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.gingerbeardman.com/2026/08/06/lets-all-meet-up-in-the-y2k/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49193314

Points: 120

# Comments: 87