[HN Gopher] The Sword of Kumdor
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       The Sword of Kumdor
        
       Author : meatjuice
       Score  : 160 points
       Date   : 2024-06-02 08:13 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (lynn.github.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (lynn.github.io)
        
       | moxvallix wrote:
       | What is wrong with the font? the site is nearly unreadable.
       | 
       | The font seems to fix itself when zooming in a bunch.
        
         | ReleaseCandidat wrote:
         | That's the result of `-webkit-font-smoothing: none`
        
         | calgoo wrote:
         | No issue on Linux / Firefox for me... Side note, looking at the
         | source there is a spoiler commented out!!!
         | 
         | "<!--<details><summary>Spoilers!</summary>....."
        
           | Thorrez wrote:
           | No problems on Chrome on Windows either.
        
         | willvarfar wrote:
         | Same problem with font being unreadable unless zooming in on
         | Chrome on Mac
        
           | ReleaseCandidat wrote:
           | Either switch off `-webkit-font-smoothing` in the CSS of the
           | site or use Firefox (Safari also uses `-webkit-font-
           | smoothing: none`).
        
         | __jonas wrote:
         | would be interested to see a screenshot, a bit hard to imagine
         | what the problem is from a text description
        
           | ReleaseCandidat wrote:
           | Non-antialiased, scaled text: https://i.postimg.cc/28ZWKHFK/B
           | ildschirmfoto-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/g0NLZ1
           | mn/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-1...
        
             | __jonas wrote:
             | Ah interesting I see, I guess the webkit vendor prefix
             | explains why I'm not seeing this on Firefox
        
               | ReleaseCandidat wrote:
               | > 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 wrote:
         | I ignore such fonts, I simply use reader mode on almost all
         | sites.
        
           | hollerith wrote:
           | Is there a reader mode that _works_ on almost all sites?
        
             | r00fus wrote:
             | 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 wrote:
       | 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 wrote:
       | Upvote for Lynn. She is incredible in codegolfing
        
       | jhoh wrote:
       | Reminds me of 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 wrote:
       | >> _F walks forward and Space turns you 90deg 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 wrote:
       | This requires https://gang-fight.com/projects/98faq/ which in
       | itself is a work of art
        
       | __jonas wrote:
       | 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
       | 
       | 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 wrote:
         | 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 3000x16x16
         | 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 romaji.
         | My translation patch leaves them perfectly untouched :)
        
           | __jonas wrote:
           | 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 wrote:
       | Thank you all for your comments and for reading about this weird
       | little game :) I've disabled `-webkit-font-smoothing: none;` on
       | the page.
        
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       (page generated 2024-06-03 23:02 UTC)