Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
mastodon
4.5.9
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
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Joined December 19, 2017
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Apr 11, 2026
@0xabad1dea it turns out Myst is unbeatable. For him.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Apr 09, 2026
@lritter I have cats for that.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Apr 09, 2026
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Apr 09, 2026
@ZachWeinersmith Small niggle - it wasn't clear that the narrator was a specific person (Mr. Tao) rather than an abstract character. I only realised at the end and had to go back to find their name.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Apr 07, 2026
Revision 2026 PC demos.
It's long, but don't be afraid to use that fast-forward button, and remember they're sorted roughly by quality, so make sure you at least watch the last few!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw4W9V57SKs
It's long, but don't be afraid to use that fast-forward button, and remember they're sorted roughly by quality, so make sure you at least watch the last few!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw4W9V57SKs
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Apr 06, 2026
@jplebreton This is particularly distressing to me. I rather liked both of them, personally. I guess people change.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Apr 04, 2026
This weekend, Subnautica is free to play, and it and the full-sized sequel Below Zero are both 75% off to buy. If you have not tried these you absolutely should - I recently replayed them both and they're still so good.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/264710/Subnautica/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/264710/Subnautica/
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Apr 01, 2026
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Apr 01, 2026
@rygorous Not sure how you forgot to mention the gold gold gold gold, gold gold gold gold.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Mar 31, 2026
@wolf480pl @rygorous I don't know how many used SGI hardware. There were still a fair number of dedicated military graphics systems from various companies, some of whom later moved into the consumer space, e.g. Martin Marietta. I used to know more about this space because 3Dlabs bought a ton of their patents, and one of my jobs was spotting which other companies were violating "our" patents. But time has not been kind to my memory.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Mar 30, 2026
@rygorous I am curious about the use of indexed colour on this machine. Surely it had enough memory and bandwidth to use (at least) 24bpp true-colour for the UI?
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Mar 30, 2026
@rygorous "In February 1995, SGI reduced the entry price of Reality Station to US$179,540"
"Reduced" and "entry price" are doing a lot of heavy lifting here.
At the time, a brand new Ferrari F355 cost $128k.
"Reduced" and "entry price" are doing a lot of heavy lifting here.
At the time, a brand new Ferrari F355 cost $128k.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Mar 30, 2026
@rygorous Interesting:
"true HDTV (1920 x 1035) resolution"
I wonder where that specific rez came from. The 1.85 ratio seems common in cinema, but then they combined it with 1920 wide.
"true HDTV (1920 x 1035) resolution"
I wonder where that specific rez came from. The 1.85 ratio seems common in cinema, but then they combined it with 1920 wide.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Mar 30, 2026
@rygorous As we know, caches are a giant pain in the arse to design and build. So... they didn't!
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Mar 08, 2026
@justdaveisfine This is a completely real story BTW.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Feb 28, 2026
@nash
Sega Japan: we have a new character. He's a fox. Very fast. His name is Miles Prower.
Sega US: he has two tails - that's cool. Let's call him Tails.
Sega Japan: yes, he can fly very fast with them. His name is... Miles Prower!
Sega US: eh, too long. We prefer Tails.
Sega Japan: Miles. Prower. Geddit? It's a pun. In English. Please. We spent so long workshopping it for the US market. So many translators.
Sega US: these crazy Japanese, what are they on about. "Tails" it is!
Sega Japan: we have a new character. He's a fox. Very fast. His name is Miles Prower.
Sega US: he has two tails - that's cool. Let's call him Tails.
Sega Japan: yes, he can fly very fast with them. His name is... Miles Prower!
Sega US: eh, too long. We prefer Tails.
Sega Japan: Miles. Prower. Geddit? It's a pun. In English. Please. We spent so long workshopping it for the US market. So many translators.
Sega US: these crazy Japanese, what are they on about. "Tails" it is!
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Feb 15, 2026
@gsuberland @artemist @ryanc So the first part is not correct - k0 does NOT return all-1s.
But it is correct that "kxnorw k1, k0, k0 sets k1 to all ones"! Because so does "kxnorw k1, k5, k5"
But it is correct that "kxnorw k1, k0, k0 sets k1 to all ones"! Because so does "kxnorw k1, k5, k5"
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Feb 15, 2026
@gsuberland @artemist @ryanc Morbid interest I wondered if Google's AI got this rather esoteric question right. It actually did! Almost. It fell over right at the end on this, which is amusingly "not-even-wrong":
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Feb 15, 2026
@gsuberland @artemist @ryanc "Designer" has a very specific meaning in Intel jargon - those are the people doing low-level layout & timing.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Feb 15, 2026
@gsuberland @artemist @ryanc It was very annoying to have to invent a whole new register file and mini-ISA, but the designers would have chased me with flaming torches and pitchforks if I'd tried to make them do it with GPRs.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Feb 15, 2026
@gsuberland @artemist @ryanc It would have been elegant architecture to use the GPRs, but physically it would have been a bad idea - the two live in very different parts of the chip. I talk about it in my video:
https://vimeo.com/450406346
k0 is a perfectly normal register. The only special thing is that for vector instructions, that ENCODING is used to mean "no mask". This is similar to how SP/BP/R12/R13 encodings meaning special things in MOD-R/M - the registers themselves aren't special.
https://vimeo.com/450406346
k0 is a perfectly normal register. The only special thing is that for vector instructions, that ENCODING is used to mean "no mask". This is similar to how SP/BP/R12/R13 encodings meaning special things in MOD-R/M - the registers themselves aren't special.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Feb 15, 2026
@kenshirriff That is a honking big register stack. I keep forgetting it's 80 bits per reg!
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Feb 15, 2026
@artemist @gsuberland @ryanc I can personally assure you that k0 is a very real and existing register.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Feb 15, 2026
@TimWardCam @ryanc IIRC, the ZX Spectrum relied on the R register for correct screen display? I'd need to recheck the book.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Jan 24, 2026
@juanfr It was strange to have the game be significantly better than the film. Not the usual way.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Jan 24, 2026
@juanfr Fun fact - that "iconic" gun was spectacularly weird and bad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEeEfsY_RBw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEeEfsY_RBw
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Nov 21, 2025
Recent discussion about the perils of doors in gamedev reminded me of a bug caused by a door in a game you may have heard of called "Half Life 2". Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Jul 30, 2025
@eri The International Space Station runs on Linux. That's why In space, no one can hear you scream.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
May 20, 2025
@gwynnion Same with bloody TVs. Just show the picture I feed you! Stop being smart - I have an actual computer for that. Just... show... the... thing.
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Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
Tom Forsyth
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
Graphics coder and HW architect, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus, Intel, Rec Room and Riot.
mastodon.gamedev.place
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place
·
Feb 15, 2023
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