5 ms·

The Sword of Kumdor

177 points by meatjuice 2y ago

moxvallix 2y ago
What is wrong with the font? the site is nearly unreadable. The font seems to fix itself when zooming in a bunch.
- ReleaseCandidat 2y ago
  That's the result of `-webkit-font-smoothing: none`
- calgoo 2y ago
  No issue on Linux / Firefox for me... Side note, looking at the source there is a spoiler commented out!!! "<!--<details><summary>Spoilers!</summary>....."
  - Thorrez 2y ago
    No problems on Chrome on Windows either.
- willvarfar 2y ago
  Same problem with font being unreadable unless zooming in on Chrome on Mac
  - ReleaseCandidat 2y ago
    Either switch off `-webkit-font-smoothing` in the CSS of the site or use Firefox (Safari also uses `-webkit-font-smoothing: none`).
- __jonas 2y ago
  would be interested to see a screenshot, a bit hard to imagine what the problem is from a text description
  - ReleaseCandidat 2y ago
    Non-antialiased, scaled text: https://i.postimg.cc/28ZWKHFK/Bildschirmfoto-2024-06-03-um-13-01-51.png https://i.postimg.cc/28ZWKHFK/Bildschirmfoto-2024-06-03-um-1... With normal anti-aliasing (`-webkit-font-smoothing: none;` disabled, or set to `-webkit-font-smoothing: auto;`): https://i.postimg.cc/g0NLZ1mn/Bildschirmfoto-2024-06-03-um-13-03-57.png https://i.postimg.cc/g0NLZ1mn/Bildschirmfoto-2024-06-03-um-1... Lynn wanted the font to look like an "old", pixelated one, I guess. And instead of using a font that would work anywhere, they have chosen to set `-webkit-font-smoothing: none;`, which works on Chrome and Safari in a certain font size only and not even on every OS. I guess it should look like this (scaled to 110% in my browser): https://i.postimg.cc/rsmpLprJ/Bildschirmfoto-2024-06-03-um-13-21-34.png https://i.postimg.cc/rsmpLprJ/Bildschirmfoto-2024-06-03-um-1...
    - __jonas 2y ago
      Ah interesting I see, I guess the webkit vendor prefix explains why I'm not seeing this on Firefox
      - ReleaseCandidat 2y ago
        > I guess the webkit vendor prefix explains why I'm not seeing this on Firefox Yes, Firefox has `-moz-osx-font-smoothing`. Which's name at least makes it clear that it -- like `-webkit-font-smoothing` -- only works on OSX (AFAIK).
- r00fus 2y ago
  I ignore such fonts, I simply use reader mode on almost all sites.
  - hollerith 2y ago
    Is there a reader mode that works on almost all sites?
    - r00fus 2y ago
      I've had good luck with Safari or Firefox's reader mode on most content that's long-form. Obviously web-apps don't apply.
psini 2y ago
What a cute and charming game! Love the aesthetic of 90s Japan-only PC market. Looks so familiar and foreign at the same time, some type of electronic alternative-history; only it is conventional-history for so many :-). Thanks to the author of the patch (and description page, which is equally charming). Her homepage highlights many other "quirky" projects which I will enjoy taking a look at!
aloisdg 2y ago
Upvote for Lynn. She is incredible in codegolfing
jhoh 2y ago
Reminds me of https://vim-adventures.com/ https://vim-adventures.com/. Playing that game made me become very proficient with VIM. I can recommend it to anyone who wants to get started with it.
ethbr1 2y ago
>> F walks forward and Space turns you 90° clockwise. You get used to it, sorta. It's stuff like this that makes me love early games. Things that seem bizarre now, but at the time were "Sure, that more or less works!"
orliesaurus 2y ago
This requires https://gang-fight.com/projects/98faq/ https://gang-fight.com/projects/98faq/ which in itself is a work of art
__jonas 2y ago
I'm curious: Did they add a latin font to the game then? Or did the game font somehow already support latin characters? Or is the font provided by the platform (PC-98) in this case? The game looks gorgeous. Edit: I figured it out myself, the font is provided by the platform but is commonly patched: https://gang-fight.com/projects/98faq/#changeFont https://gang-fight.com/projects/98faq/#changeFont I wonder what font the author used in their screenshots, definitely not the default one from that emulator and doesn't really look like the one from that link either.
- chordbug 2y ago
  Hi! The "real" PC-98 font (FONT.ROM) is different from the font bitmap that often ships with emulators. Kumdor comes with its own font data, though. My patch changes its single-quote character to look more like an actual apostrophe. The PC-98 actually comes with a "kanji ROM" chip, that you poll 16x16 characters from one at a time. FONT.ROM is the data used to emulate this chip. Loading an entire font into RAM was not practical on old Japanese PCs. The earliest models, like the MSX, had 64kB of RAM, which was no match for the 3000×16×16 bits = 96kB of font data! (On the PC-98, it's something like 282kB of font data that would eat up half the available 640kB of RAM.) I've seen games that have their own font data for drawing stylish hiragana/katakana/Latin characters but fall back to the "kanji ROM" for kanji. Kumdor's custom font only covers Latin characters. The typing tests in the game progress from QWERTY nonsense (sdfjkl jklsdf) to little texts in English and rōmaji. My translation patch leaves them perfectly untouched :)
  - __jonas 2y ago
    Oh that's amazing that this is the original font from the game, it looks so good. And great work on translating the game and writing about it!
chordbug 2y ago
Thank you all for your comments and for reading about this weird little game :) I've disabled `-webkit-font-smoothing: none;` on the page.
tveita 2y ago
The combat reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Typing_of_the_Dead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Typing_of_the_Dead, a touch-typing game that plays the cheesy zombie genre oddly straight.

The Sword of Kumdor

177 points by meatjuice 2y ago

moxvallix 2y ago

What is wrong with the font? the site is nearly unreadable. The font seems to fix itself when zooming in a bunch.

ReleaseCandidat 2y ago
That's the result of `-webkit-font-smoothing: none`
calgoo 2y ago
No issue on Linux / Firefox for me... Side note, looking at the source there is a spoiler commented out!!! "<!--<details><summary>Spoilers!</summary>....."
- Thorrez 2y ago
  No problems on Chrome on Windows either.
willvarfar 2y ago
Same problem with font being unreadable unless zooming in on Chrome on Mac
- ReleaseCandidat 2y ago
  Either switch off `-webkit-font-smoothing` in the CSS of the site or use Firefox (Safari also uses `-webkit-font-smoothing: none`).
__jonas 2y ago
would be interested to see a screenshot, a bit hard to imagine what the problem is from a text description
- ReleaseCandidat 2y ago
  Non-antialiased, scaled text: https://i.postimg.cc/28ZWKHFK/Bildschirmfoto-2024-06-03-um-13-01-51.png https://i.postimg.cc/28ZWKHFK/Bildschirmfoto-2024-06-03-um-1... With normal anti-aliasing (`-webkit-font-smoothing: none;` disabled, or set to `-webkit-font-smoothing: auto;`): https://i.postimg.cc/g0NLZ1mn/Bildschirmfoto-2024-06-03-um-13-03-57.png https://i.postimg.cc/g0NLZ1mn/Bildschirmfoto-2024-06-03-um-1... Lynn wanted the font to look like an "old", pixelated one, I guess. And instead of using a font that would work anywhere, they have chosen to set `-webkit-font-smoothing: none;`, which works on Chrome and Safari in a certain font size only and not even on every OS. I guess it should look like this (scaled to 110% in my browser): https://i.postimg.cc/rsmpLprJ/Bildschirmfoto-2024-06-03-um-13-21-34.png https://i.postimg.cc/rsmpLprJ/Bildschirmfoto-2024-06-03-um-1...
  - __jonas 2y ago
    Ah interesting I see, I guess the webkit vendor prefix explains why I'm not seeing this on Firefox
    - ReleaseCandidat 2y ago
      > I guess the webkit vendor prefix explains why I'm not seeing this on Firefox Yes, Firefox has `-moz-osx-font-smoothing`. Which's name at least makes it clear that it -- like `-webkit-font-smoothing` -- only works on OSX (AFAIK).
r00fus 2y ago
I ignore such fonts, I simply use reader mode on almost all sites.
- hollerith 2y ago
  Is there a reader mode that works on almost all sites?
  - r00fus 2y ago
    I've had good luck with Safari or Firefox's reader mode on most content that's long-form. Obviously web-apps don't apply.

psini 2y ago

What a cute and charming game! Love the aesthetic of 90s Japan-only PC market. Looks so familiar and foreign at the same time, some type of electronic alternative-history; only it is conventional-history for so many :-). Thanks to the author of the patch (and description page, which is equally charming). Her homepage highlights many other "quirky" projects which I will enjoy taking a look at!

aloisdg 2y ago

Upvote for Lynn. She is incredible in codegolfing

jhoh 2y ago

Reminds me of https://vim-adventures.com/ https://vim-adventures.com/. Playing that game made me become very proficient with VIM. I can recommend it to anyone who wants to get started with it.

ethbr1 2y ago

>> F walks forward and Space turns you 90° clockwise. You get used to it, sorta. It's stuff like this that makes me love early games. Things that seem bizarre now, but at the time were "Sure, that more or less works!"

orliesaurus 2y ago

This requires https://gang-fight.com/projects/98faq/ https://gang-fight.com/projects/98faq/ which in itself is a work of art

__jonas 2y ago

I'm curious: Did they add a latin font to the game then? Or did the game font somehow already support latin characters? Or is the font provided by the platform (PC-98) in this case? The game looks gorgeous. Edit: I figured it out myself, the font is provided by the platform but is commonly patched: https://gang-fight.com/projects/98faq/#changeFont https://gang-fight.com/projects/98faq/#changeFont I wonder what font the author used in their screenshots, definitely not the default one from that emulator and doesn't really look like the one from that link either.

chordbug 2y ago
Hi! The "real" PC-98 font (FONT.ROM) is different from the font bitmap that often ships with emulators. Kumdor comes with its own font data, though. My patch changes its single-quote character to look more like an actual apostrophe. The PC-98 actually comes with a "kanji ROM" chip, that you poll 16x16 characters from one at a time. FONT.ROM is the data used to emulate this chip. Loading an entire font into RAM was not practical on old Japanese PCs. The earliest models, like the MSX, had 64kB of RAM, which was no match for the 3000×16×16 bits = 96kB of font data! (On the PC-98, it's something like 282kB of font data that would eat up half the available 640kB of RAM.) I've seen games that have their own font data for drawing stylish hiragana/katakana/Latin characters but fall back to the "kanji ROM" for kanji. Kumdor's custom font only covers Latin characters. The typing tests in the game progress from QWERTY nonsense (sdfjkl jklsdf) to little texts in English and rōmaji. My translation patch leaves them perfectly untouched :)
- __jonas 2y ago
  Oh that's amazing that this is the original font from the game, it looks so good. And great work on translating the game and writing about it!

chordbug 2y ago

Thank you all for your comments and for reading about this weird little game :) I've disabled `-webkit-font-smoothing: none;` on the page.

tveita 2y ago

The combat reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Typing_of_the_Dead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Typing_of_the_Dead, a touch-typing game that plays the cheesy zombie genre oddly straight.