A Bunch of Shit

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For those new to my blog, I occasionally do review of shit on my hard drive — weird files or programs that have made their way onto one of my computers that I’m currently messing around with. It’s been a while since I’ve done one, so I’ll do a bunch of mini-reviews.

Writemonkey

I have been skeptical of the so-called “distraction-free” word processors for some time. It seemed to me to be a gimmick, yet another piece of software that tries to “trick” people into writing. But I kept seeing recommendations for Writemonkey on my Twitter feed, so I decided to give it a try. And for first drafts that are nothing but prose (like my episodes of Whitechapel), it’s really not bad. The export to MS Word is a bit wonky for me (at least, it looks wonky in OpenOffice), but that’s a minor quibble — for something like this, I expect to do rewriting and reformatting anyway. It really is that middle ground between Notepad and OpenOffice that I was looking for. Plus, it doesn’t install on your computer, so I can drop the folder into Dropbox and use it on any computer I have Dropbox on. (I could even drop it onto a USB if I needed to.) Oh, and instead of a bunch of “features” that are pointless, this one actually has features that are useful and contribute to my process. (Well, and a few that I don’t use.)

Desktop Dungeons

I like roguelikes, but I often don’t have the time to devote to them that I would like. Once in a while I’m looking for a short dungeon-crawling experience that plays quickly. I found Desktop Dungeons over at IndieGames.com, and I’ve been loving the hell out of it. It’s actually pretty strategic for a roguelike, but you can play a game in about 10 minutes or so. And like most roguelikes, you’ll die a lot.

Tales From The Floating Vagabond

Tales From The Floating Vagabond is one of those games that, for many years, I swore to people existed but no one believed me. I used to play this game a fair bit when I was in college (usually while drunk), but whenever I would talk about it in later years, I would just get strange stares from other games. And then, on a hunch, I found out that DriveThruRPG has a PDF copy of it. For really, really cheap. I’m pretty sure I burned a hole in my credit card in my eagerness to get a copy. The game is a little clunky in the age of super-fast comedy RPGs like Risus, and it’s a bit more punny than funny at times, but there’s still a lot of entertainment to be had. The schticks alone are worth a look.

Retro Wallpapers

I’ve been looking for some new wallpapers for work and for my netbook, and I’ve been really grooving on these next-gen remakes of old-school games. I’m currently rocking the Castlevania one.

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16 thoughts on “A Bunch of Shit”

    1. Eddy Post author

      Yeah, I love the gun sizes. I even made a reference to it in Mind's Eye Theatre: The Awakening. :)

      Let me know what you think of Writemonkey. I'm wondering if it's really an awesome program, or if it just happens to scratch a very specific itch.

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  2. Scionical

    Will do – I'll probably poke around with it tomorrow. Today I've been trying out what Justin Achilli is doing with the Chrome/Google Docs setup, and while I am definitely digging on Chrome over Firefox, there's just something about Google Docs that I don't like, and I can't really put my finger on it. I am typically happy with Word, but for the last few months it's been taking a dump all over me every couple of times I try to save and close a window.

    Anyway, will try it; I gave PageFour a test-run, and while it seemed kinda of nifty, it just didn't hit it for me. Maybe Writemonkey will be The One.

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    1. Eddy Post author

      I'm with you on Chrome over FireFox and not digging Google Docs. Have you looked at OpenOffice for a high-powered word processor?

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      1. Scionical

        Yeah, but OpenOffice tends to crap my computer out in very weird ways (this thing was top of the line seven years ago, now not so much). I was going to look deeper into it, but I am upgrading near the end of this month so there is no real need. While everything about OpenOffice seems really cool, it also seems like some of the functionality I like from Word I can't find there – like a direct blog template, and the ability to export to WordPress or whatnot. I understand that OpenOffice is really modular and configurable though, so it's like I just haven't discovered how to do it.

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        1. Eddy Post author

          Hrm. Copying and pasting from OpenOffice works just fine for me when I write Whitechapel. But yeah, if you've already got Word, you probably don't need OpenOffice — I just didn't want to pay for another MS Office license for my netbook.

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          1. Scionical

            Yeah, I got Word as part of the install partition on this computer; I am debating if I want it for the new one or not. I'm definitely going Windows 7, but I don't know if I want to fork out that much money for Word in addition to everything else I'll be throwing cash at.

          2. Eddy Post author

            I will say that Windows 7 is SO worth it. It spend up my netbook something fierce.

            And I'm actually poking around with Windows Live Writer now. I didn't even know this thing was on my system. It looks really cool, though.

  4. @karohemd

    Heh, I have TotFV (and various supplements) in my box of old RPGs in my parents' attic. The glue binding of the book was so bad it cracked during the first reading. I had to take out the pages and put them into individual ring binder sleeves.
    I even wrote a short campaign for it in which the PCs had to find the ingredients for the Pan Galactic Gargle blaster. They almost died on Fallia from happy marsh gas poisoning. ;o)

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    1. Eddy Post author

      I also used TftFV to run a Hitchhiker's-style campaign! I think that's why I remembered it so fondly — it was the closest to a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy RPG as I've ever found.

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  5. Alma

    Writemonkey is a magic program. I do not know why but it helped me a lot. And I agree – some features are incredibly innovative and useful. If you care about your writing – do try it.
    Alma

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