Recent content on Ratheronfire's Assorted Collection of Odd Projects
Hey, happy Pride Month! Admittedly this month is kind of a weird topic for me because I’ve never really considered myself much of a member of the community. I don’t have much interest in attending pride events, I don’t really do anything relevant on social media or anything like that, but I like to consider myself generally supportive. I hesitate to use the term…
So after the last post I thought I’d try and tackle some of the Game Gear/Master System games, just to quickly 1 get them out of the way. For this post, I ran through the six mainline 8-bit platformers, which actually ended up being better than I expected overall, though not by a ton. Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit) The first 8-bit outing is… fine. It starts out pretty solid with levels…
Wow, another one of these, huh? I think I said that I was going to do more 2024 review posts, but, uh, happy 2026 I guess! Movies Shin Godzilla After seeing Minus One a couple years back I’ve been interested in checking out more Godzilla stuff because I had never really engaged with it before, and so when Shin Godzilla came back to theaters this year I made a point to check it out. Now,…
One Battle After Another ★★★★★ Wonder if that Nazi cult ever gets into arguments over whether or not Die Hard counts as a Christmas movie. #movies
Stupid Mario Brothers: The Movie ★★★⯨✫ When Stupid Mario Brothers started making the rounds again I found myself a bit worried that I’d end up hating it and wondering why I ever enjoyed it, but honestly? Forget all that, Stupid Mario Brothers still rules just as hard in 2025 as it did in 2009. Obviously it’s a low-budget YouTube series filmed in some California suburb about video game…
On Her Majesty's Secret Service ★★★★✫ Somehow the most fun Bond movie yet, despite having what I expect will remain the lamest Bond. #movies #james-bond
Shin Godzilla ★★★★★ Unstoppable object (Godzilla) versus immovable force (bureaucracy). #movies
To see the individual review pages, check here: Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 S A B C D E #gaming #sonic-the-hedgehog #ranking-of-sonics #tier-lists
Intro So, after writing up part 1 of my progress log of the NES emulator I’ve been writing with Godot, I’ve made a pretty significant amount of progress. To start, I’ve made it a bit easier to load in ROMs and cleaned up the code a bit, which allowed me to put a basic pattern table viewer together, which shows all the 8x8 tiles a game uses to build sprites and background tiles.…
Jurassic World Rebirth ★★★✫✫ Pretty dumb but I had a good time. #movies #jurassic-world #jurassic-park
Intro A few years back I started toying with the idea of making an NES emulator in Godot. Since then I’ve stepped in every once in a while to poke at it and move it along a bit more. At the moment it doesn’t have input or output, so instead the program window just shows a readout of the system memory and registers. Now I’m admittedly far from an expert at these things, so I…
Top Gun: Maverick ★★★⯨✫ I wasn’t quite as over the moon about this as I expected based on all the rave reviews, but it’s still worlds better than the original by virtue of at least being about something and having some kind of meaningful stakes. #movies #top-gun
Star Trek: Insurrection ★★★✫✫ Shaving Riker’s beard is the most evil thing a Star Trek production has ever done. #movies #star-trek #star-trek-tng
EDITED 5/11/24 – NEVERMIND WE’RE GOOD NOW, GIANT BOMB FOREVER AND ALL THAT It was a website about video games. Well, seems like it’s finally happening. After 17-odd years, numerous hosts joining and departing, and an unimaginable amount of videos, it appears that Giant Bomb is facing its final days, being run aground by soulless corporate executives motivated only by lines on…
Star Trek: Generations ★★★✫✫ Decent movie, but in a few years Star Trek X Babylon 5 Generations is going to blow your mind. #movies #star-trek #star-trek-tng
A group of Hooligans rushes towards you and your allies, but Macho Man suddenly runs straight into them and quickly swats away all four with a single sweep of his ghostly arm. The hooligans go flying into the grass, and as soon as they land they begin scampering away to escape the carnage. You see another pair of wrestlers who were charging you begin to slow down and veer off upon seeing Macho…
As you pull yourself up from behind the bushes, you take hold of your crossbow and gesture for The Rock to do the same. You look over to The Undertaker , who spends a moment digging through his pockets before producing another pair of enchanted orbs . He grips his flame orb in one hand, while in the other he appears to have an orb of darkness similar to the one you found in Wrestlympus . Across…
It’s that time again when I, the sole arbiter of correct opinions, present the final and absolute truth of the Sonic series. Or maybe this is all wrong, I dunno. This time I decided I’d like to mix in some of the non-game Sonic media as well, because after all what’s another three or ten posts? Not like I’m going to be finishing this any time soon either way. Sonic…
Not wanting the Hooligans to get the drop on The Rock Tribe , you decide the best option would be to wait until their backs are turned, then hit them with a surprise attack. Fortunately it seems your hiding spots are working, as the hooligans and their fake leader seemingly haven’t noticed you or your allies as they march down the road past you. They walk by at a fairly leisurely pace, and as they…
Star Trek: Section 31 ★✫✫✫✫ I tend to be a defender of modern Trek, but stuff like this really makes it hard on me. I had very little expectations going into this knowing how Discovery (a show I generally enjoyed, with a ton of caveats) handled Emperor Georgiou and Section 31, but even putting that all aside there just was nothing for me to enjoy in this movie. It’s hollow, boring, annoying,…
And just like that, it’s all over. 60,000 points! I’M FINALLY FREE This event has been both some of the most fun I’ve had in OSRS, and also some of the most frustration between the long wait for random drops and just the sheer amount of time it took to finally hit Dragon rank. I’m not sure if I’d want to do this whole thing a second time, but I’m glad I finally…
This is really the endgame now. As of this post, I’m now 2,970 points away from Dragon rank, effectively the end of Leagues as far as I’m concerned. I really didn’t think I’d get this far! I finally managed to get a Twisted Bow, and as expected it’s made the rest of the game way easier. Since then, I’ve touched most if not all of the bossing content available to…
So this post was originally supposed to go up in late December and also cover a lot more than just movies, but a *ton* of stuff came up that distracted me, so I’m just gonna break it up into multiple parts so I can finally get at least something posted. Since it’s already that time of year again, I thought I’d sit down and write up a quick post about some of the stuff I’ve…
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ★★★⯨✫ Nice to finally have context for that bit about the jar of dirt that everyone on YTMND was losing their minds over. #movies #pirates-of-the-caribbean
Oh right, I was posting these at one point, wasn’t I? So, I’ve done, uh… quite a bit since the last post. I finally managed to beat not only the regular Colosseum, but also the echo version of Sol Heredit. I’ve also gotten a bunch of runs in at some raids, particularly Tombs of Amascut, which I’ve managed to get almost all the drops from. Unfortunately I’ve had…
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl ★★★★✫ I want to play Return of the Obra Dinn again. #movies #pirates-of-the-caribbean
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim ★★★★✫ A lot of the 3D CG stuff looked pretty rough, but the painted/animated stuff looked really nice. Maybe could’ve done without the more direct “don’t forget we’re trying to find that ring” stuff though it was nice hearing Christopher Lee again, I guess. Turning the king into some kinda mythological legend/undying…
With the voices piquing your curiosity, you decide to keep your eyes and ears open as you continue your sprint towards Wrestlympus . Despite not wanting to concern the rest of your party just yet, you quickly realize they’ve noticed your slowing pace. “ Yo Gregory , you good? ” The Ultimate Warrior calls out as he and the rest of the gang begin to slow down to a jog. “…
Recognizing the potential danger, you actually agree with The Undertaker for once. “ Alright, you’ve got a point. Let’s hurry up and hide, hopefully whoever’s coming hasn’t heard any of us. ” With that you and your allies quickly run to the sides of the road and look for cover. You, The Undertaker and The Rock end up ducking under some shrubs and thicket along…
Click here to see my source code for this day’s problem. If you haven’t solved today or any day’s puzzle yet yourself, there’s bound to be spoilers in these writeups. Boy, this one was rough. Part 1 On paper, this doesn’t seem too bad. We’re given a grid (as is tradition) containing two different things: a guard represented by directional arrows ( <>^v ), and…
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ★★★★✫ And to think this all started with Sonic as the solo guest on Scott Aukerman’s podcast. #movies #gaming #sonic-the-hedgehog
With your dealings with The Rock Tribe behind you, you and your allies make your way to the main road and look north towards your final destination. The dimly lit plains of Wrestlemania look almost serene in the early morning light, but you know there’s no serenity to be found where you’re going. “ Alright kiddos, this is it. Time to get up to Wrestlympus and end this war. We all…
“ Alright Mr. Counselor , you’ve been nice enough so far, so I guess we’ll take a look at this gift of yours. ” The counselor smiles and nods to you, then turns to address The Rock . “ My brother, in spite of the circumstances it has been good to see your face amongst our people again. While I could never speak against the will of the tribe , I never truly believed…
I feel like my solution for today was a bit unconventional, but it worked out pretty well. Click here to see my source code for this day’s problem. If you haven’t solved today or any day’s puzzle yet yourself, there’s bound to be spoilers in these writeups. Part 1 For today’s puzzle, we’re given two sets of data. First, a series of number pairs divided by | ,…
I massively overcomplicated this one. Pretty simple problem in retrospect, but my attempt to write a smart solution backfired super hard this time. Click here to see my source code for this day’s problem. If you haven’t solved today or any day’s puzzle yet yourself, there’s bound to be spoilers in these writeups. Part 1 To start, we’re given a grid of text we’re…
Speed Racer ★★★★✫ This movie is the dividing line between the weak and strong Wachowski fans. I wasn’t quite as into it as the rest of the internet made me think I would be, but it’s really good. And how could I not love something as janky and earnestly self-serious as this? I am a Sonic fan after all. #movies
Interstellar ★★★★✫ Equal parts traumatic, optimistic, and exhausting. I want to watch it again. #movies
(Editor’s note: I meant to post this a few days ago but it didn’t actually go up. Whoops!) I’ve been a bit backlogged on getting to these puzzles due to the new OldSchool RuneScape Leagues event so I’m going to try and catch up a bit today if I can. The key to a lot of these puzzles is that they often present themselves as being more complicated and thorny than they really…
I’ve been busy the past few days. It’s been a little bit since my last post, and in that time I’ve… Completed the Fight Caves. Gotten a few kills on Echo Hespori and got the unique drop. Advanced to the final ranged mastery and the second melee. Gotten some kills on the Echo Kalphite Queen and got her unique drop. Gotten to the 6th and 7th Relic tiers. Selected my third…
Not too bad today! It seemed like this problem was going to be more complicated than it was at first, but the solution I ended up with was pretty straightforward. Click here to see my source code for this day’s problem. If you haven’t solved today or any day’s puzzle yet yourself, there’s bound to be spoilers in these writeups. Part 1 For this puzzle, we’re given a…
Making pretty decent progress now! One more ranged mastery in the tank, and I’m also closing in on the next area and relic unlocks. Now that I’ve gotten a kill on Scurrius, I’ve been able to make ranged much more of a priority. My current goal is to finish off the Fight Caves, which I think is doable with what I’ve got currently, though I’m considering getting my…
Somehow it’s already been a year since the last Advent of Code , which of course means it’s once again time to see how much brain liquefaction I can tolerate! I started doing writeups last year , and while I never actually finished, I had a ton of fun doing and so naturally I’d like to continue the trend this year. Click here to see my source code for this day’s problem. If…
THE RAT IS DEAD Managed to level herblore just enough to get a handful of prayer potions, and with that I was able to defeat Scurrius, meaning I finally have my third ranged mastery! And with the Desert unlocked, I’ve started working on getting outfitted with darts. Look at how fast this pitiful creature dies at my hand now Lots of options to play with now! Next I think I’m going to…
Not as exciting as day 1, but I made progress on some pretty important skills today. First off, new unlocks! I got my 5th relic tier today and I decided to go for Slayer Master . Last time I went for the clue relic, which was fun for a time, but the realization set in very quickly that I did not want to do very many clues, beyond what was necessary to get a bunch of tasks knocked out quickly. I…
Here we are again! Hardly feels like any time has passed, and yet it’s now just about a year (almost to the day) since my last OSRS Leagues post . I had a ton of fun last time, and this year I want to try and push even further than I did in my first attempt. I’d also like to try and make daily-ish progress logs as I go. So, here’s where I’m standing so far after the first…
Alien: Covenant ★★★✫✫ Spoilers ahead. If not for the last couple minutes I would’ve said this was underwhelming and a little boring, but the ending reveal with David taking the ship was nice (a bit obvious I guess, but that’s by no means a bad thing). Not sure how I feel about the reveal that David bio-engineered all the stuff in the original Alien but think I like it? #movies #alien
Over the past month or so I’ve become obsessed with Balloon SMP , an improvised story told through Minecraft RP streams on Twi- wait hang on i'm being serious come back where are you going Okay, look, I get it. Telling someone to check out a Minecraft RP stream in 2024 is about the hardest sell there is. But believe me, this one is actually good (you can tell by the fact that most of the…
After taking a moment to consider your options, you decide it’s probably best to leave sooner rather than later. “ Sorry Undertaker , I think I’m gonna have to agree with The Rock and Macho Man . We already have a pretty good idea of what we’re gonna be up against, and I don’t think we should risk getting on the tribe’s bad side again. Let’s just go meet…
Alien Resurrection ★★⯨✫✫ Somehow both the goriest and the campiest Alien movie yet? #movies #alien
You take one final glance around the armory before turning to address the armorer . “ I think we’re good, thank you for the equipment and your hospitality. ” The armorer grimaces and crosses his arms as he replies. “ Whatever, don’t sweat it. Just try to get out of there in one piece, that’s all good equipment that the rest of the tribe could’ve used, I don’t wanna see any of it going to waste.…