We are more connected than ever, yet still so far apart.
Some of the other kids on my street went to private schools and I think they missed out on some of the lessons/bonding I got from interacting with a variety of people in public school. It's good to get out into social setting and mix it up with folks.
I went to private school, and would "miss the bus" after school on purpose so I would have to take the city bus home. There was an arcade in downtown Minneapolis a few blocks from the school where I'd hang out and play Mortal Kombat for an hour or two before heading home. Maybe stop by Shinders on the way to the bus stop to grab the latest copy of Wired or whatnot.
Definitely let me get out of the private school bubble a bit, and gave me some lifelong problem solving skills - both socially and practically speaking.
I've always wondered what happened to him.
Probably, just ran out of Quarters for awhile... or discovered Final Fantasy VII on PlayStation. =3
The multiplayer games that did well were all PvE, like Gauntlet or Knights of the Round. A very different culture.
Custom among my friends was to put a quarter in, and wait to press start until the computer was about to win its second round. Then the challenged essentially got to play you for free.
Doesn't work as well when it was two coins to start, one to continue though; in that case, the next challenger would rather pay one coin to challenge right away rather than letting the winner play the computer until almost dead at the price of two coins.
It's easy to say that we are more connected but far apart, but only if you ignore the democratization that has come with that connectivity.
Climbing is a bit more for young adults, but since the wall is a shared resource, you have a lot of these social interactions, and it's mostly strangers as well, you just walk up, pay for a couple of hours and start climbing.
I'm sure there's social sports more appropriate for adults and elderly as well.
Comments like these are kind of ironic.
Notable exceptions are places like Mikado centers that organize tournaments and keep the old flame alive.
At the taito station in Akihabara, I've met tourists a few times when I was in town for a large tournament (EVO Japan) and made friends from it. I've also had people watching me play, but unfortunately I don't speak Japanese.
I know there's a few arcades that still have some street fighter III: third strike cabinets with regulars. I can't speak for other games but at least for street fighter, people are almost always open and friendly.
Why, because there is one country in the world where this doesn't apply?
It's a commentary on modern Western culture, not a request for hobby suggestions.
Of course it's not. Why look at anything positive or actually do something when you can instead engage in the tired tropes like looking at the past with rose tinted glasses as a way of comforting yourself.
But to pretend it’s remotely the same as it was 40 years ago is utterly ridiculous. Now when you do such things like a running club you are joining a group of very self-selecting people who for the most part have a certain personality type.
You simply do not get the diversity in group experiences as there used to be. It was either go through social discomfort or sit alone bored with zero social interaction. Now the friction to get that social dopamine hit is extremely low bar, and going beyond it the bar has been raised considerably.
Not to mention doing stuff like running club or rock climbing just feeds into the hyper-scheduled world the west has become. Spontaneous social interaction is important too, and those third places are increasingly scarce and involve far more friction. Which again self-selects for certain personality types and lifestyles.
For some people these changes are positive - much easier to find niche activities to do with others. For other people they are extremely negative.
I'd disagree with this pretty strongly. I do workshops at a makerspace in Berlin, which is in itself a pretty nerdy place but we've got everything from pensioners to middle aged moms to obviously a lot of people from the university or tech work.
In much smaller cities not just here you'll find chess clubs, poetry slam groups, church choirs what have you. None of it hyper-scheduled or commercialized. I can't speak to what this was like 40 years ago I wasn't alive then but there's no shortage. I think the biggest difference is, people don't move. In the Western world mobility is at an all time low. If you were young and lived in a place where these opportunities didn't exist people literally just packed their bags and relocated. In the words of Morgan Freeman: https://youtu.be/oZcSivXEGys
What I meant by hyperscheduled is that typically these activities revolve around setting a schedule in advance for everyone to commit to and plan around. This sort of thing simply does not work for me. At all. Maybe once every couple months or so.
For example my local makerspace requires at least days (if not weeks) advance booking for most tools. When I’m in a project mood or want to meet up with friends to hack on something it will be more of a “hey let’s go figure this out, meet you there in an hour!” situation.
What I personally miss are the social clubs/spaces - heck even neighborhood pubs - that used to exist as simple meeting points. Whoever was there happened to be there and you’d tend to slowly make more social connections over time. You show up when you felt like showing up, and probably find a handful of casual friends there no matter when you’d go.
There is an extreme dearth of such impromptu meeting points/gathering hubs at least where I live. If you want to meet with friends you typically are going to schedule it a few days out - even if it’s meeting up for drinks after work. With work from home that’s even far less of a thing since even coworkers are geographically dispersed vs. cutting out of work 30 minutes early to go grab drinks at the bar around the corner.
By the time I get through my exhausting work calendar each week all I want is some control over my day back - and let the day go by feels vs a calendar. This is the largest difference other than social media I’ve felt over the past few decades.
If a friend turned up randomly and unannounced at my door and asked if I want to go to the pub, they have the following barriers to overcome:
I'm out for 10 hours a day during the work week and I'm asleep another ~8h. In the remaining 6h I want to go to the gym, I have to eat, I have to run errands, I have to spend time with my wife and in the remaining time I might just want some alone time. Odds are I'd have to turn my friend away, which would make me feel bad, even though I'd have gladly joined him in the pub if I could plan for it. And I have no kids! If I had kids, the odds are even worse.
We all wish we could be back in our 20s when we had all the freedom and none of the commitments, but the truth is that for 95% of people this isn't possible. When you are in uni (or fresh out), you have all the time and energy, but (generally) no money. So you can spend a lot of time with friends who are in a similar position. By mid-life (30-55), you have money and energy, but no time. And in your winter years, you have money and time, but no energy left.
In each of these phases, you can try to go against the flow and experience friction all the time, or you can try to make the most of it and adapt.
If you absolutely desire the freeform approach you describe, perhaps you need to step up and establish the clubs and spaces you'd like and select for members who have a similar desire.
Most spaces in cities have to cater to the lowest common denominator, and simply wouldn't be able to function without strict scheduling rules. It'd be patently unfair if the 20 year old uni student hogged the equipment when you turn up for your 2 hours of free time that you planned a week in advance, wouldn't it?
The anecdote about Akiman discovering the typo after the GFX ROMs were already set in stone is the perfect metaphor for the "Steel vs. Scaffolding" debate. In modern development, we often rely on the "scaffolding" of high-level abstractions, assuming everything is fixable later. But here, the hardware was "Steel" (unchangeable).
Akiman’s solution—using a single-pixel "pencil tile" from Guile’s calves to manually mask an 'l' into an 'i'—is a legendary example of "Mitate" (見立て): the Japanese art of seeing one thing as another to overcome an absolute limitation.
In the world of Japanese "Shinise" (long-established companies), this obsessive attention to detail is never called "inefficient." It is the only path to survival across centuries. Akiman famously insisted on the muscular thickness of Chun-Li’s thighs, refusing to compromise because he believed the "Steel" (core logic) of a fighter lay in that foundation. If the legs were weak, the character’s soul was dead.
SF2 remains a legend 30 years later because its creators treated every pixel as "Steel" that carried existential risk. This article proves that while "speed buys information," only this level of "Forging" buys true longevity. Most fast-scaled software disappears in three years; the "World Warrier" still stands after thirty because of that one-pixel pencil.
To simplify it as much as possible, to make a chip multiple masks are created for different layers. The top layers are metal(scaffolding) and the base layers are silicon(steel). The metal layer masks are much cheaper to make than the base layers. So we add extra unused cells in the base layers and then if there are issues we try to fix them only in the metal layers.
It's not really an art nowadays, since it's been refined so much with tooling and processes. But your analogy is very applicable, I might try to refer to it in the future if I ever need to explain the concept to someone.
- Base Layer (Silicon) = "Steel": Re-manufacturing it is extremely costly, so it must be perfect from the start. - Top Layer (Metal) = "Scaffolding": The wiring layers. These are much cheaper to produce, allowing for "patches" or corrections later on. - The Wisdom of "Unused Cells": By embedding spare cells in the base layer upfront, you can fix bugs later just by changing the metal layers.
Did I get that right?
If so, this logic deeply resonates with what I’ve seen in Japanese "Shinise" (long-standing businesses) as a banker. Specifically, two practices that might look "inefficient" in a modern business model are, in my view, the "Unused Cells" of our Base Layer:
1. Not firing employees easily: While some models treat labor like a "Metal layer" to be cut and replaced for quick optimization, Shinise treat people as part of the "Silicon layer." We keep them even in hard times so that when a big crisis hits, we can "re-wire" their roles to survive together.
2. Keeping high cash savings: Many modern companies prefer to spend all their cash to maximize growth speed. However, Shinise keep a lot of cash. This is like the spare cells in your silicon—it allows us to finance our own "re-wiring" when the market crashes, without the foundation collapsing.
Your insight has given me a powerful new framework for why some organizations survive for 500 years while others vanish in three. Thank you!
Honestly, I haven’t played SF2 for over 30 years, but I’m certain I can still perform a Hadouken or a Shoryuken today. That intense training from my youth is carved into my muscle memory, not just my brain! (^_^) That obsession with every single detail is the true secret to why this game still feels like "Steel" after all these decades.
As you suspected, I am using the help of translation and structuring tools to share my thoughts here.
I am a banker from rural Japan and have been a huge fan of SF2 since my childhood in the arcades. I have spent 20 years observing "Shinise" (long-established businesses), and I really wanted to share my perspective that Akiman’s fix was an act of "Forging" the foundation.
Because my English is not strong enough to explain such complex ideas, I relied on these tools to polish my draft. I realize now that this made my voice feel artificial. While the "soul" of the idea—comparing SF2’s pixel-level grit to long-term business survival—is entirely my own, I will strive to communicate in a more direct, human way from now on.
Thank you for the feedback. I am still trying to learn how to join this global conversation from the Japanese countryside.
Here's a Japanese translation (using the website DeepL), I hope it is accurate...
謝る必要はありません。あなたの話、楽しませていただきました。私もイギリス出身で、子供の頃にゲームセンターでSF2をプレイした懐かしい思い出があります。あのゲームは世界的な現象となりました。これほど多くの人々が、共通のゲーム体験からそれぞれ独自の思い出を持っていると思うと、本当に驚くべきことです。
こちらが日本語訳です（DeepLウェブサイトを使用）。正確であることを願っています...
In Japan, "Iki" is a traditional aesthetic from the Edo period. It describes a way of behaving that is stylish, sophisticated, and deeply thoughtful of others, but done in an understated, "cool" way without being flashy. Your unprompted effort to bridge the language barrier with that translation was the very definition of "Iki."
Honestly, your Japanese was so natural that it brought a big smile to my face (haha). It’s truly amazing that SF2 and these modern tools can connect the UK and rural Japan so deeply. I’m very glad my story resonated with you!
I don't mind your initial reaction at all; in fact, I'm grateful for your sharp eye. It was a great learning experience for me to understand the standards of this community.
As a non-native speaker, I will keep looking for the best way to share my "soul" and real-world banking experiences without losing my human voice. I’m glad I could join this conversation.
The future of the internet looks less bright each day.
I also don't have a flag option on the LLM comment or I would flag it.
If my theory is true, you will reply to this comment.
My theory is that you are not a person using an LLM to edit text, but are automated.
If you are not automated, spare the reply.
If you are automated, then please do reply.
It's an imperfect test, but solves for simple automation.
If my theory is untrue, then welcome to HN and your contributions are appreciated.
If my theory is true, then the concept of a forum is in grave danger.
It is very heartening to see a veteran like you advocate for a more welcoming conversation. I am grateful for your kindness and look forward to contributing more to this community as a person. Thank you for making me feel welcome.
1] it's likely the context for a theoretical LLM on HN would be the one comment chain
2] once something appears in the context window, it's more likely to repeat itself, and once repeated a single time, it becomes all the more likely to turn into an infinite loop
3] Generally speaking, human beings aren't quite this effusively polite, while LLMs are
4] if an LLM was merely translating, the repetitive loops wouldn't occur?
I'm sorry, have you met Japanese people before?
Wouldn't we be losing something valuable if HN became chiefly AI slop?
Wouldn't we be losing something if we _didn't even realize it had happened_?
I think it's worth asking, and guarding against. We live in a strange future already, but it's only one of many possible futures we can choose to construct going forward.
You caught me on "a veteran like you." As a Japanese banker, expressing high respect for seniors is an instinctive part of my culture. Since my English vocabulary is limited, the translation tool I use to polish my thoughts suggested that specific phrase, and I relied on it too heavily in my excitement to thank everyone.
I believe that in our AI-driven society, "Trust" is more valuable than ever. From the long-standing Japanese companies I study, I have learned that "Honesty" and "Diligence" are the only ways to build true trust. I am trying to practice this here on HN, writing every message with my soul to build a real relationship with all of you. I hope my "heart" reaches you beyond the translated text. Thank you for guarding the quality of this forum.
And as another note, it's also sort of a meme that a lot of westerners who don't really know much about Japan will take some noun from the language and make a big deal about it, like you did with 鍛錬 and 見立て, as if the concept doesn't exist in other languages, or twisting the usage into something bigger than it really is, or even just making it up. It tends to have the effect that the writer is taken less seriously. 生きがい is the most popular misused one, I think. Less misused but still kind of questionable in a lot of places is かんばん, which is quite popular with software developers who took it from Toyota's practices. A made-up nonsense example could be: "瓶 (bin), or bottle, is more than just a bottle, it also refers to the Japanese art of bottling up your feelings, and how this leads to a more harmonious society."
About Japanese nouns, that's very interesting. I didn't know words like "Tanren" (鍛錬) look like a "meme". For me, a local banker in Gunma, these are just daily words. But I see how they sound too "mysterious" or like a marketing trap here.
Your "Bin" (bottle) story is a very weird and funny analogy, even for a Japanese person like me. I will be careful not to make every word into a zen philosophy!
By the way, is this reply "worse" enough?
Next time you come to Japan, please come to my hometown, Gunma. I will teach you Japanese then ^_^. Thank you for helping me.
I've been focusing strictly on my execution lately after I was able to find a method to slow the framerate of the game down. The inspiration came from my musician days where guitar practice consisted mostly of very slow, deliberate repetitions of scales and exercises. The immediate goal was to be able to do the exercise. But the secondary, and perhaps more important, goal was to do the exercise without tension. Trying to consciously do both is challenging. It is only when the exercise has been repeated enough that it is internalized and I can draw my attention to tension.
So in the same way that a scale is like a "combo" of notes, fighting game execution requires very similar timing and awareness of internal tension. Translating this mode of practice means repeating the same simple combos that I use to take for granted, but in a very deliberate and intentional way. I'm talking hour long sessions of the same kick, kick, kick, quarter-circle-back+kick sequence. As a result I feel much greater confidence in my execution.
But also, slowing the game down and doing practice in this way has actually brought a greater appreciation of the design of fighting games. To really internalize when a button should be pressed to successfully execute a combo, a player should anchor their timing to visual and auditory cues. SNK does a really a good job of this with their hit spark animations. Attending to when it appears and when it recedes gives a visual indication of the necessary timing, which is something easily overlooked by casual and even veteran players.
All this to say that there is a subtle and profound undercurrent of craftsmanship that I now appreciate in fighting games.
I especially resonate with your method of "slowing down the tempo." In my peak days 30 years ago, I used to perform Guile’s Sonic Boom and Somersault Kick as naturally as breathing. I now realize that this "effortless" state was only possible because of the slow, deliberate repetitions I did back then, just as you described.
By slowing down until all tension is gone, you are not just learning a move—you are removing the "noise" from your mind and body. This is the ultimate "subtraction" and the only way to "Forge the Steel." Whether it's a guitar scale or the core philosophy of a 500-year-old company, the logic is the same: true strength is born from quiet, intentional repetition.
Thank you for sharing your journey of Shugyo. It’s an honor to find a fellow traveler here.
There's something zen and theraputive about sitting in the training room, working on the same combo over and over. Really working it into the muscles so that it becomes fluid and effortless in a real match.
https://kylehalladay.com/blog/2019/12/04/Recreating-A-Dirty-...
Titled “It sounds dumb but they really fixed a typo with a human leg”.
Good video.
Is really neat to consider the way that text was done. I know there are countless stories on how text is difficult on here, but it is hard to remember that "drawText" is not a given. Indeed wasn't there on early machines.
:-) Hits the same nerve for me.
The "Thank you for playing Wing Commander" thing (workaround for memory management system crashing) never actually made it into the final release of the game. That text isn't found anywhere in the game binaries.
[1]. https://www.arcade-museum.com/Videogame/continental-circuit See section on trivia.
Perhaps the word "corrected" should be in quotes on that page then.
This thing just needed to work once, in whatever way it could be hacked together. And the player never knows the difference! Beautiful.
You've got a lot to learn before you beat me. Try again, kiddo!
And it also looks like each of those tiles is drawn at unaligned coordinates.
So this really can be regarded as a draw call of sorts
Every scanline, all sprites (up to 128) are evaluated in hardware on an snes to see if any overlap with the active scanline. This was all done in hardware incredibly quickly