I wish I lived in the alternate timeline where the USSR was putting out a new Lada EV that still has all physical controls and the only user-facing tech stuff was a head unit with Bluetooth and a small screen for the backup camera. If it made any economic sense, my ideal car would be some low tech 2000s subcompact like a first gen Scion xB or Honda Fit retrofitted with a modern EV powertrain. Well, I guess my ideal car is no car at all, but y’know.
Ooh, Metal Gear Solid is another one I’ve been meaning to play—it seems to be the kind of series that people get really invested in. And I definitely intend to play Majora’s Mask next! I’ve heard it can be polarizing, partly because of the time limit mechanics (I only vaguely know that it’s three days, but you can reset it or something? Guess I’ll find out in due time!), and also that it’s darker than OoT. I truly know almost nothing about Majora’s Mask, so I’m really excited to go in and experience it for myself!
There is no permanent lockout in this game.
Phew, that’s a relief! Part of why I was constantly scouring Hyrule for every last collectible is that I thought you could miss items (although I’m also just a completionist); perhaps I’m misremembering something I heard about another Zelda title, or I just imagined it entirely. With that, after a tiny bit more cleanup, I went forward with the story with confidence, so thank you for disabusing me of that misconception!
I missed this when reading the comment for the first time and you suspected correctly—I did not realize what the lock was (maybe you can’t immediately place the Master Sword back in the pedestal to go back?)
I find the secret holes very picky
Can I just ask point blank:
are all instances where the Stone of Agony activates secret holes? Because besides that Goron City trouble, I also could not for the life of me bomb open secret holes in these locations:
It does seem a bit picky, but the ones that I did open only required maybe two or three bombs, which is what makes me wonder if there’s another mechanic. No need to reveal the other mechanic yet if there one, but it’d be helpful to know so I can save myself some bombs and some time.
Oh, I knew where the entrance was, but I hit what I thought was a dead end because I was relying on what I think is a visual artifact not seen when playing on console: the paths between rooms are pitch black, whereas you can actually see the triangles in the ones that lead you out of the Lost Woods. But when you’re going to the Sacred Meadow, it also has the triangles, and when I went through the wrong one (a two in three chance) and it spit me back out, I assumed I was in the wrong place and just gave up…very silly, in hindsight. You don’t have the musical cue after the first time as far as I could tell, so I just had to guess. And I made a proper flow chart so I can easily make my way through again if need be!
…oh wait you covered the visual distinction in the next spoiler lol. Although maybe this bit was edited in, because I don’t remember seeing it the first time.
Also, I did make extensive use of the “call Saria” feature—I guess it’s meant to tell you how to progress, but I was mainly using it for roleplaying purposes.
That info is in the save file, and Ship of Harkinian can show you how many there are and how many you have, but it also names every region and dungeon…
Ah, I guess I’ll hold off until I’m doing the endgame cleanup, then. As it is, I’m already up to forty-odd Skulltulas and plenty of extra Heart Containers, so I think I’ll be okay.
It’s the other thing in the Water Temple that scares me :scared: I recommend filling all your bottles with Fairies…
So, like I said, after a bit of cleanup (including getting Bombchus) I went ahead and leapt forward through time (or…I guess, went into stasis?)! I actually got goosebumps when I opened the Door of Time and stepped across the threshold—proof that you don’t need raytracing and 12K textures to create a mood. I’m not sure if I got all the lore, though, and after my confusion, I’ve finally decided to switch to English for the remainder of the playthrough. I know this isn’t exactly highbrow literature, but I still want to make sure I’m not missing any important story beats or lore dumps. Given how much I’m enjoying this, I’ll very likely replay it in the future (maybe a Master Quest run?) and I can always flip things then, playing in English for the Young Link section and Japanese for Adult Link. Hopefully my reading speed will have improved by then so I’m not scrambling every time auto-advancing text pops up…
Anyway, I immediately ignored Sheik’s recommendation that I go to Kakariko Village and went wandering all around. I was pretty shocked by just how grim things were—I did vaguely know that some things were in ruin, but the ReDead in the town square caught me off-guard as did the maelstrom over by the castle. I think the first thing I did was go to Goron City, where I got the Goron Tunic and Giant’s Knife, and then I headed over to Zora’s Domain, which I was surprised to see had iced over (and where I promptly broke my Giant’s Knife on a wall, it never having tasted the blood of my enemies). I tackled the Ice Cavern, making a note of all the currently unreachable Skulltulas and filling all three of my bottles with Blue Fire. I used one of those to free King Zora and receive the Zora Tunic, although not before testing my new Iron Boots in Zora’s Fountain on the way over and immediately drowning…whoops.
After that, I heeded your advice and went to Lon Lon Ranch, where I unseated the comprador Ingo and got Epona pretty easily but then took an embarrassing number of tries to clear Malon’s trial (maybe a half dozen, and I just squeaked by with a second to spare). Sure, BotW’s horses are lovely, but seeing as you already have fast travel before you get one I think Epona in OoT still has the greater impact! I went to Lake Hylia and Zora River to check on what I thought would be beanstalks but actually ended up being moving platforms—definitely a surprise!—as well as learn the Scarecrow’s Song (thanks again for saving me some tedious backtracking!). I then went to Kakariko, where I talked to everyone and collected everything that I could (including the Hookshot and multiple Pieces of Heart). After going back to get my Ice Cavern Skulltulas and entering the Water Temple for about 5 seconds before coming to my senses, I returned to where it all started: Kokiri Forest.
Again, I was pretty surprised by how my home had become such a hostile place! After visiting my trophy cow, riding the weird bean platform in town, and paying my respects to the Great Deku Tree, I finally made my way to the Lost Woods, which I carefully mapped out as mentioned earlier. I was surprised to be attacked by the Skull Kids, but it seemed to sad to fight them, so I just ignored them and hurried onward. Both the bean platforms I encountered in the woods seemed fairly pointless: there’s one that takes you above the bridge to Kokiri forest and one that puts you up on a ledge in the Business Scrub room where there are no items to be found. Am I missing something?
Anyway, after taking an embarrassingly long time to get through the maze, I finally started the Forest Temple, and…boy, was it harder than I’d expected! I knew the dungeons would get more complex, but there were multiple points where I got stuck for a bit, and I also now realize how useful Farore’s Wind is when you hit a door that you don’t have a key for but want to be able to return to it quickly to keep progressing. I won’t bore you with the details (other than that it took me way too long to realize I was supposed to shoot the portraits), but I eventually made it through, and after dying to Phantom Ganon once (in my defense, I went in with like 5 hearts and no healing items!), I successfully vanquished him. Suddenly seeing Ganondorf was definitely an “oh shit!” moment, since I assumed it be some unrelated thematically appropriate boss. And while I did get a bit frustrated at points in the dungeon, it was very satisfying to clear it all out!
I’m definitely glad that I RP-visited Saria one last time in my previous session because I was gutted to find out that Saria had become a Sage and would be forever separated from Link from then onwards. Again, I know that the writing isn’t super deep (Saria cheerfully says that she’s glad to be helping you save Hyrule when you call her afterwards), and maybe I’m just a sucker for this stuff, but it hit me surprisingly hard. And the Mido’s dialogue after that…my heart!
After recovering from that emotional blow and chatting with the rest of the Kokiri, I returned to Kakariko to claim the 40x Skulltula reward (it just said “Bombchu”, but I think it was an upgrade from 20x to 30x capacity?). I also did the fetch quest (which was a breeze, thanks to obtaining Epona early) to get the Poacher’s Saw, which was darker than I expected (poor guy, I was really rooting from him the moment I met him as Young Link…), and I was also sad to see that despite me never laying a hand on them, the Skull Kids didn’t return to the Lost Woods, not even after I played Saria’s song on their stumps. But on the bright side, at least the Deku Tree has been reborn!
Obviously, I don’t expect you to reply in any detail whatsoever to my summary of my playthrough, but I just thought it’d be fun to share (and it was also a nice way for me to reflect on the day’s progress). I’ve probably been playing a bit too much, so I’m going to try to dial it back a bit and savor the rest of the game.
You can click the ⋮ below the comment and then “Comment Moderation History” to see the original comment + the reason for its removal
Through yuri, all things are possible
Thank you for all the tips, especially the one about the original song! I knew about it as a vector for weird glitches, but not its actual gameplay function. As for the 20x Skulltula Token reward, unfortunately Ship of Harkinian won’t make my controller rumble for some reason, but thankfully there’s an option for a visual indicator (they really do have everything!) and I’ve already used it to find two locations that would have otherwise been impossible. Well, maybe 1.5 is more accurate…see the spoiler below.
The first one was the one right past the tree in Kakariko Village. I’d just scored my 500 rupee bag, so a cool 200 rupees was the perfect reward!
The second was in front of the entrance to Goron City, which I always thought was suspicious since even before I got the Stone of Agony I’d worked out that a circle of stones is an indication of a secret hole, but I bombed the absolute hell out of that platform to no avail. What gives? The only thing I could think of is that I need to place the bomb in such a way that I destroy all of the stones simultaneously, but the blast radius doesn’t seem big enough.
Also, unfortunately save states are pretty jank in Ship of Harkinian and not officially supported (I thought I’d permanently borked my save right before the third dungeon and was panicking for a good few minutes), but they’re still useful for when you need to do stuff like repeat one of the minigames without having to farm a bunch of rupees. I haven’t really felt the need to use them much, thankfully.
After thinking on it, I guess one justification behind always loading you at the starting zone is the fact that
the Lost Woods are connected to Goron City and Zora’s Domain once you’ve obtained each of their respective items, so you can travel to those places relatively quickly. I haven’t played any of the 2D Zeldas yet (although I’d like to!) but it’s similar to the NES Super Mario Brothers titles and their warp pipes/warp whistles—there were no saves or passcodes, but a skilled player armed with game knowledge could get wherever they wanted to go pretty quickly.
Actually, speaking of the Lost Woods: can you reach Saria again after visiting her deep in the woods but before going to the Temple of Time with all the Spiritual Stones? I’d wanted to stop by just because it seemed like what I would do in Link’s position, even if it doesn’t actually unlock anything, but I can’t seem to get back to the maze no matter how many times I try (although everyone in Kokiri Forest still assures me that Saria is there waiting for me).
I’m glad I did try, though, because I realized that 1. I’d missed some upgrades because I was skim reading the Business Scrubs’ text (like I said, I’m playing in Japanese, so my skim reading skills aren’t the best and I didn’t realize that some are selling upgrades and not just refills) and 2. I stumbled into completing the second mask trading quest, but not before I’d also stumbled into getting a Deku Stick upgrade using said mask.
As for your extra tips:
Way ahead of you on the bean thing! I bought his entire stock out as soon as I could and I’ve planted all of the beans I could (still have two left).
Noted on early Lon Lon Ranch and the final cleanup. While I had heard about the Stone of Agony, I genuinely have no idea what you’re referring to in terms of songs that will help with item collection, so I’m curious to find out!
And that’s interesting about the 100% reward! I’ve heard that it’s a bit tedious and that most people just go for all of the “regular” rewards (which I think requires 50/100?), but I don’t actually know what the rewards are beyond maybe more wallet space and I have no idea what the 100% reward is. I guess I can save before I collect it and see what I think!
And here’s where I’m at, currently:
I collected the last Spiritual Stone and am basically done scouring Hyrule:
Upgrades:
I have one burning question: can I return to Hyrule Castle Town after collecting the three Spiritual Stones without locking myself out of anything? As soon as I started to approach to go and get the next mask, it triggered a cutscene, which spooked me, so I reset. I was operating under the assumption that I’d be okay until I go into the Temple of Time and do the timey-wimey thing, but I don’t know if I get put on rails as soon as I let that cutscene play out. At the very least, I wanna go play my fifth song (presumably the Song of Time?) for that last frog in Zora’s River!
I have no idea if it’s possible to do this using only a save file, but I’d love to make a little program that will take your save file as input and tell you exactly how many Skulltulas you’re missing in each area, allowing you to view individual hints relevant to your current item loadout (so it won’t rob you of the opportunity to figure out things for yourself or burden you with irrelevant information). Ideally, it would be a series of increasingly specific hints to maximize the chance for the player to still feel some satisfaction for solving the puzzle. I would assume that there’s a flag in the save file for each individual Skulltula so the game can check if its token has been collected to prevent it from spawning, but I haven’t dug into the code yet.
Anyway, sorry for writing such a long comment! It’s been quite some time since I got really immersed in a game like this, and I really appreciate the advice you’ve already given! I remember hearing kids at school talking about Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask when they came out, but I never saw either with my own eyes, and so I only learned about them obliquely—characters, stages, and trophies in Super Smash Bros. Melee, retrospective comparisons with later games in the series like Wind Waker and Twilight Princess (the former of which I still need to beat, and the latter of which I still need to play), speedrunning glitches, and the like. It’s been so gratifying to finally get my hands on it and experience it for myself all these years later.
Manga is Dore ga Koi ka ga Wakaranai (I Don’t Know Which Is Love) (MAL, Anilist), and the illustration is from the cover of the June 2022 issue of Comic Cune.
A leaked email published by Die Zeit last year revealed Dopfner ending a summary of his political beliefs with the phrase: “Zionism uber alles. Israel my country.”
Two screenshots of an Instagram story (I think that’s the term?) posted by the account big_truckmemes. The Instagram story consists of two images of centered white text on a black background, which read:
hey all, for those who still care/haven’t figured it out already, BTM is pretty much finished. there are many reasons for this, some which Vic shares, but I’m out. Vic may or may not continue in the future.
one thing that became clear to me toward the end of the account’s life is that only a handful of maybe 100 of y’all at a peak of 12k followers ever took this account seriously. to the rest, it was either an ironic joke or a way to reinforce artificial wokeness thru social media aesthetics, or both. our “swipe up” numbers on important articles, fundraisers, actions, were always pathetic. Vic & I worked hard to get our follower count up to 10k to be able to share those with you easily, and they went essentially ignored. the memes were supposed to catch your attention and push you toward action, not be a substitute for it. that’s just narcissism. but that’s the template laid out for y’all by the narcissistic creators on this app, so idk what i expected. when people calling themselves leftists are messaging us or tagging us in stories with pictures of random trucks with no context, or people are commenting “there’s no truck in this” on slightly “off-brand” memes, it becomes obvious that y’all are missing the point. the truck was never the focus.
i’ve mentioned this in captions a few times but the whole point of BTM was to boil Communist, specifically Leninist/Maoist, theory down to its basic parts to make it understandable & accessible on a free, widely used platform to those who may not otherwise access or understand it. i still firmly believe that these ideologies, my ideologies, hold the only true malleable tools to emancipate the poor, the working class and the exploited Third World from our chains. but they gotta be used. there’s gotta be applications & upgrades of thought. there are no easily digestible solutions to the ills of America in 2020 and beyond.
we also aimed to show that anyone, regardless of any category of background, can be radicalized against Capitalism. but i’m realizing under the conditioning of American individualism, the scourge of the Earth, radicalization now has its own bastardized definition. it’s now only 1/13 or 1/4 of the battle. i’m gonna have to do a lot of reading to convince myself of the worth of the work to be done toward a realistic American collective.
anyway, for those who are serious, you will
hear more from me, just not here. read
everything on marxists.org. give every
homeless person you see your cash, even if
you’re broke. make sure everyone around
you is fed. ignore the sham of voting, fuck
radlibs, create revolution today thru
changing the material means around you.
✌ - JM
Started finally properly playing Ocarina of Time via the Ship of Harkinian PC port (and in Japanese, for immersion practice)! Over the years, I think I’ve watched at least half a dozen streamers play through the first couple of dungeons or so, but this will be my first time experiencing more of the game, and I’m right on the cusp of that new material having finished Dodongo’s Cavern and picked up my two Great Fairy Fountain upgrades. Thankfully, my knowledge of the Adult Link portion of the game is very limited, so I’ll be experiencing a lot of that completely blind.
At any rate, even though a good chunk of what I’ve played is stuff I’ve seen before, I’m really enjoying myself. I love the sense of wonder and exploration that you get skulking around the alleys of Hyrule Castle Town or wending your way through the Lost Woods. I can’t remember where it was, but I read/watched something recently talking about how fixed camera angles are a legitimate artistic tool and not just a relic of a resource-constrained past, and the Temple of Time exterior is a perfect illustration. You just wouldn’t get that same sense of awe and foreboding with a standard 3rd person camera. It’s really making me want to go tackle the original three Resident Evil games, since I’ve played all the mainline games from RE4 onward including the REmakes (and excluding RE9, so far) but haven’t had the guts to tackle the fixed camera titles. Honestly, even more than the fixed camera, I think it’s the limited saving that has me quaking in my boots, since I tend to be a save-every-thirty-seconds kind of scaredycat.
As far as my Ship of Harkinian set up goes, I have only a very minimal set of Quality of Life tweaks applied:
and then I have the resolution and FPS cranked up + LOD and draw distance disabled, but it’s otherwise a vanilla experience—no texture packs or major modifications.
I’m trying to use guides as little as possible, so I’m taking lots of notes so I know where to backtrack and which items I’ve collected where. I’d love to have a very spoiler-reduced checklist kind of thing that would just tell me, say, how many collectibles are in a given location, and allow me to progressively drill down in something like the below structure to minimize future spoilers and give me a chance to attempt find things on my own if I know they’re in a certain area without risking missing something completely because I tripped some progression flag:
If anyone knows of something that already exists along these lines, definitely let me know! And if not, who knows…maybe if this playthrough turns me into an OoT superfan, I’ll end up making it myself.
Anyway, Ship of Harkinian is an incredibly cool project that’s emblematic of the wonderful things that people can accomplish working together without a hint of a profit motive. As the quote on their homepage proudly states, “Proof that the unofficial option is sometimes the best option”—Nintendo could never. I only listed a few tweaks, but there are literally hundreds of little flags you can toggle, and extensive support for randomized playthroughs and mods. Probably just about anything about the original game you can think of that you’d want to change, there’s a way to do so.
I’d figure it’d be the opposite—regardless of whether they enjoy it or not, the Feds would literally be getting paid to read theory, whereas the rest of us have to do it in our free time, so they’d have an edge.
0118 999 88199 9119 725…3
Oh god, from the title I thought it was mandatory but it seems to be an opt-in limited edition (…at least for now).
Also, from the caption in that article:
A oassport processing employee
I know that copyediting is dead, but come on now—a spell checker from the 80s would catch that!
Full poll results (abandon all hope, ye who enter here)
They’re listed separately in the source, although I still think there’s some missing historical context (probably a strong link between “gaming” and the other two activities banned, as has been said elsewhere in the thread).
9. Peasant Bans and Prohibitions
When the peasant associations, under Communist Party leadership, establish their authority in the countryside, the peasants begin to prohibit or restrict the things they dislike. Gaming, gambling and opium-smoking are the three things that are most strictly forbidden.
Gaming. Where the peasant association is powerful, mahjong, dominoes and card games are completely banned.
The peasant association in the 14th District of Hsianghsiang burned two basketfuls of mahjong sets.
If you go to the countryside, you will find none of these games played; anyone who violates the ban is promptly and strictly punished.
Gambling. Former hardened gamblers are now themselves suppressing gambling; this abuse, too, has been swept away in places where the peasant association is powerful.
Opium-smoking. The prohibition is extremely strict. When the peasant association orders the surrender of opium pipes, no one dares to raise the least objection. In Liling County one of the evil gentry who did not surrender his pipes was arrested and paraded through the villages.
The peasants’ campaign to "disarm the opium-smokers’! is no less impressive than the disarming of the troops of Wu Pei-fu and Sun Chuan-fang [27] by the Northern Expeditionary Army. Quite a number of venerable fathers of officers in the revolutionary army, old men who were opium-addicts and inseparable from their pipes, have been disarmed by the “emperors” (as the peasants are called derisively by the evil gentry). The “emperors” have banned not only the growing and smoking of opium, but also trafficking in it. A great deal of the opium transported from Kweichow to Kiangsi via the counties of Paoching, Hsianghsiang, Yuhsien and Liling has been intercepted on the way and burned. This has affected government revenues. As a result, out of consideration for the army’s need for funds in the Northern Expedition, the provincial peasant association ordered the associations at the lower levels “temporarily to postpone the ban on opium traffic”. This, however, has upset and displeased the peasants.
The People’s Liberation Army’s latest weaponised container ship could play a key role in deterring foreign intervention at a low cost during a Taiwan conflict, according to a mainland Chinese military magazine.
The Zhong Da 79 is a medium-sized civilian cargo ship capable of carrying containerised vertical missile launchers, radar sensors and self-defence systems. It was first spotted at the end of last year at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding’s yard in Shanghai.
An article by Ordnance Industry Science Technology earlier this month referred to the vessel as a “containerised destroyer”, noting its firepower matched that of the PLA’s Type 052D destroyers.
The civilian cargo ship is around 97 metres (318 feet) long with a displacement of about 9,000 tonnes and a top speed of roughly 20 knots, or about 37km/h (23mph), according to the magazine.
Its deck is loaded with 15 standard shipping containers, each housing four vertical launch systems (VLS) identical to those found on Type 052D and Type 055 destroyers.
In total, the vessel carries 60 VLS cells, capable of launching HHQ-9B and HHQ-9C surface-to-air missiles, YJ-18 anti-ship missiles and CJ-10 cruise missiles.
The launch of the ship came as Beijing has been testing using civilian vessels such as “roll-on/roll-off” ships in joint transport and landing drills with the PLA as tensions across the Taiwan Strait have grown.
The launch of the Zhong Da 79 shows Beijing’s ability to convert civilian ships for military use by placing container units directly onto the deck of transport vessels for naval combat.
According to the magazine, the ship could supplement the PLA’s main combat vessels in the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.
However, its effectiveness on the high seas is currently limited by its speed and civilian-grade hull.
In a Taiwan conflict, the Zhong Da 79 could hide in commercial vessel fleets and attack adversaries in key areas, the magazine said.
“One can imagine future naval warfare where multiple unassuming containerised destroyers cruise at normal commercial speeds of 20 knots, hiding within bustling commercial shipping lanes to serve as firepower nodes in vital sea areas and chokepoints,” it said.
“Its speed is well-suited for near-shore air defence and missile interception, blue-water commercial escort and the protection of critical shipping lanes. This would deter foreign intervention in reunification operations and ensure key trade routes are not cut off,” the magazine said.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China and has not ruled out the use of force to reunite it with the mainland.
Most countries, including Taiwan’s main international backer, the United States, do not recognise the self-governed island as an independent state. But Washington is opposed to any attempt to take Taiwan by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.
The article said that using the Zhong Da 79 could preserve the PLA’s most valuable naval assets – such as the Type 052D and 055 destroyers – by freeing them from routine tasks, allowing them to focus entirely on decisive battles.
It added that the core strength of the Zhong Da 79 was its low cost backed by Beijing’s strong shipbuilding capacity.
“Leveraging China’s status as the world’s largest civilian shipping fleet and its modern shipbuilding industry, a vast number of ordinary merchant ships can be transformed into combat assets in an extremely short time frame,” the magazine said.
Liberals and fantasizing about losing (“I dissent.”), name a more iconic duo.
A worker dust [sic] the purple fur of a car decorated to look like a purple unicorn at the BYD booth during Auto China 2026 in Beijing, Friday, April 24, 2026.
Um, ackshually, she’s an alicorn, not a unicorn.
(more pictures of the car/booth on Equestria Daily)
The artist (木内信夫/Nobuo Kiuchi) has a website which has translations in English, Italian, Russian, and Chinese; to view the illustrations, click “Enter” and then select one of the stories from the right hand column (it’s a classic old website with separate frames for navigation and the main content). The quality of the English translation is passable but not great, so you may want to try the other translations if you speak those languages or see if using the Japanese version of the website and running it through machine translation yields better results.