Ash's Random Ramblings.

Level 2: We shouldn't treat mental health facilities as objects of horror because it stigmatises mental illness.

So this is the Panasonic PRONOTE PD CF-62, it's a Pentium 133mhz running Windows 95, released in August 1996. Panasonic did this sort of trick more than once, they did a similar thing with an under-keyboard CD-ROM drive in the PD CF-41, from 1995.

This one is so fancy because that's not just a self-loading under-keyboard laptop CD-ROM drive, it's a HYBRID PD/CD-ROM self-loading under-keyboard laptop drive! It has to be this complex because it takes PD discs (which are the size of caddies) and caddyless CD-ROMs!

So what's PD discs?

They're an optical format by Panasonic, the Phase-change Dual (or Phase-change Disc). They're from 1996, store as much as CD, but are rewritable... much like the later CD-RWs which used basically the same technology, just in a slightly different format. Unlike CD-RWs (which you had to burn (usually), they acted like a hard drive, fully rewritable at any point. That's why the disc is hard-sectored, which you can see through the shutter gap. Those vertical lines indicate where sectors start and end.

So yeah, this laptop has a complex drive that can take both types of discs, and the whole thing folds under the keyboard. Fucking wild.

But the root reason, of course, is that they did this because it's a cool design, and they wanted to do that. Why did they think this was cool, why did they want to do this?

Pervert reasons.

Like, most of the major story beats, at least the ones that directly affect her, have a prominent visual component so she’s following along with the basics. But she has no idea who cave johnson is, or what wheatley was trying to explain to her, and she certainly wasn’t hurt by any of glados’ insults.

I could SWEAR you’ve made this post before, or perhaps this is such a characteristically “you” concept that I already imagined a world in which you had

<SolarianJustice> 11:03 AM

Ok so we all know Soarin' Downunder is the worst campaign they've ever published right?

mrpp 11:04 AM

oh god

<SolarianJustice> 11:04 AM

Look hear me out

So I've been running a 1e game for a couple months. We've been running Xinshaort's Demise which you know. It's a big dungeon crawl, it gets monotonous sometimes

mrpp 11:05

oh god

<SolarianJustice> 11:05 AM

So a couple weeks ago I'm in my local half priced books, and as I usually do I poke my head into the gaming isle. Usually they don't have anything worth buying but you never know.

And they've got a copy of Soarin'. And I'm standing there thinking "wait don't we have a session on the first?"

mrpp 10:05 AM

and you just dumped them into that????

Zotah2102 11:06 AM

Holy shit that's incredible

<SolarianJustice 11:06 AM

@mrpp#0319 it was 5 bucks!

@Zotah2102#8471 finally someone sees my vision

So anyways

Xinshaort's has a lot of one way portals right? Normally they're just annoying but well...

We'd ended the last session with one of em in the next room

mrpp 11:07 AM

that's still 10 too many man

[:this: 2]

<SolarianJustice> 11:07 AM

So I had that dump them right in the main room of Sy'dni

And man I wish I could've gaslit them about it being a normal session for a bit but wow does Soarin' have no chill

mrpp 11:08 AM

no kidding

<SolarianJustice> 11:08 AM

But man

They were so close to something decent here

[❓ 4]

My players had decent fun with it once they stopped yelling at me for subjecting them to it

ThassalianWarlock 11:08 AM

the fuck you smoking?

<SolarianJustice> 11:08 AM

Look don't get me wrong it was never going to be good

There's some encounters in chapter 2 that look absolutely cancerous

But like if it weren't for the inexplicable Australian theming it would've been salvageable

I N T A L I 11:09 AM

dude's sunk cost fallacying off $5

[😂 3]

<SolarianJustice> 11:09 AM

Look man they might have tried their best to memory hole the whole thing but I think it's telling that they actually kept a bunch of it

2e's Hell-lit Abyss has a basically identical setting but with the Australianisms sanded off

And most of the plot got recycled into Ikala's Fall

I N T A L I 11:10 AM

Ah yes, the famously good ikala's fall

<SolarianJustice> 11:10 AM

Ikala's fall is decent if you skip the first chapter and I will die on this hill

Just start it at level 3! You're not missing anything!

ThassalianWarlock 11:11 AM

🍿

[🍿 3]

<SolarianJustice> 11:11 AM

Look I'm not saying it's great

Yeah yeah, I know

It's just not as bad as everyone thinks

mrpp 11:12 AM

dude you're trying to defend both soarin' and ikala I don't know what you were expecting

<SolarianJustice> 11:12 AM

I could SWEAR you’ve made this post before, or perhaps this is such a characteristically “you” concept that I already imagined a world in which you had

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[21:09] * Topic is 'Loadouts: reactor choice | hydraulics vs. pneumatics | Balance: sprocket expert cost | you have to CRANK it | RDHA general discussion'

[21:09] * Set by cennostar on Thu April 17th 1998

[21:09] <Varilyth> yea

[21:10] <Varilyth> wrenchy knows more about it then me but

[21:10] <taNDy> hey guys

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[21:10] <Sulfur> Welcome!

[21:10] <cennostar> hey tandy

[21:10] <Zalubrio> welcome!

[21:10] <sweetums|AFK> Welcome!

[21:10] <Varilyth> you can make some DISGUSTING fixes when you can ignore chirality like that

[21:11] <Varilyth> like it should be an 8 pt ability at least

[21:11] <Varilyth> hi

[21:11] * Sulfur nods sagely.

[21:13] <Sulfur> Fair enough. I might talk to my group about house-ruling it for our next run. Nobody had any fun this session. Except the wrenchman, that is.

[21:13] <wrenchy|AFK> i had so much fun

[21:13] <Varilyth> right

[21:14] * sweetums|AFK is now known as sweetums

[21:14] <Sulfur> Not you, Wrenchy.

[21:14] <wrenchy|AFK> :'-(

[21:15] <taNDy> hey guys

[21:15] <taNDy> can I ask a rules question?

[21:16] * sweetums rolls eyes

[21:16] <sweetums> oh here we go

[21:16] * cennostar slaps sweetums upside the head with a large trout!

[21:16] <cennostar> be nice!!

[21:16] <cennostar> go ahead tandy

[21:17] <cennostar> ask away

[21:17] <taNDy> thx

[21:19] <taNDy> so im a noob and have only played one session but ive been reading the rules for playing as the chief and

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[21:20] <Sulfur> Sure.

[21:20] <taNDy> and i wanted to ask what happens when the reactor goes critical *during a jump*?

[21:20] <sweetums> lol

[21:21] <taNDy> like it says I can work any system at -1 and do any repair at -5

[21:21] <taNDy> attempt* any repair

[21:22] <Sulfur> Depends on how much of a sadist the captain is.

[21:22] <taNDy> but it also says i can only repair the system im working on right now

[21:22] <sweetums> my first run ended like that

[21:23] <taNDy> so if im working the jump drive and the reactor starts playing up i have to choose between either doing the jump and stabilizing it after, or aborting and stabilizing now, right?

[21:23] <sweetums> reactor go boom-boom, need jump and go buy new core

[21:23] <sweetums> we try jump, captain rolls, captain laughs

[21:23] <sweetums> ship got folded

[21:24] <taNDy> folded??

[21:24] <Sulfur> Folded.

[21:24] <Varilyth> lmao get folded

[21:24] <Varilyth> pwned

[21:25] <Zalubrio> lol

[21:25] <Zalubrio> tandy read tha jumps chapter in tha captain's book and ull get it

[21:26] <Varilyth> or don't

[21:26] <Varilyth> and experience the game the way it was meant to be played :-)

[21:26] <taNDy> oh

[21:26] <sweetums> yea

[21:27] <Sulfur> Seconded.

[21:27] <Sulfur> Or thirded, rather.

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[21:28] <Extronaut> fffffffffffucking dial-up

[21:28] <Extronaut> Hey guys

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[21:28] <Sulfur> Hey Naut. Hey Mrs. Naut.

[21:28] <Varilyth> lmao

[21:29] <Sulfur> :(

[21:30] * Sulfur stares melancholily out of the closest viewport.

[21:30] <sweetums> melancholily isnt a word

[21:31] <Sulfur> Buy a dictionary, sweetums.

[21:31] <Zalubrio> lol

[21:31] <Zalubrio> but yea tandy

[21:32] <Zalubrio> tha good news is that if ur reactor goes critical during a jump

[21:32] <Zalubrio> ur captain is *trying* 2 TPK u already

[21:33] <Zalubrio> so ure dead newai

[21:33] <sweetums> dead n folded

[21:34] <Zalubrio> unless it was obv precrit before tha jump

[21:34] <Zalubrio> like sweetums group

[21:35] <Zalubrio> so dont worry about it

[21:35] <taNDy> oh ok

[21:36] <Zalubrio> besides u shuld have a fields engi on tha reactor n nav on jumps newai

[21:36] <Zalubrio> most important roles 4 shure

[21:37] <Varilyth> yeah forget the reactor and the jump drive, you're forgetting about the chief's most important ability

[21:37] <cennostar> lol

[21:37] <Varilyth> +3 on the best action in the game

[21:38] <Sulfur> Uh oh.

[21:38] <taNDy> ???

[21:38] <Varilyth> hand. cranking. machinery.

[21:38] * Varilyth CRANKS it!

[21:38] * sweetums CRANKS it!

[21:39] * wrenchy|AFK CRANKS it1!

[21:39] * cennostar CRANKS it!

[21:39] * Zalubrio cRANKS IT!!

[21:39] <sweetums> llmmmaaaooooooo

[21:40] * Sulfur doesn't crank anything.

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