Tufty McTavish

🧵 A chance comment in a post has led me down a rabbit warren of Interactive Fiction memories, floppy diskettes, and apps on modern devices. So this is going to be an ongoing thread about text adventure games, such as these “Lost Treasures of Infocom”. 🎮 #VideoGames 🕹️ #TextAdventures ⌨️ #Infocom 🗺️

🎧 The one where @nndroid.bsky.social tries not to spoil a true-life story in this look at sycamore gap devastation. “…bit ironic that magazine and newspaper writers should be complaining about dead trees. Between us, we've killed loads of them.” 🌳 #NonFictionBooks 💡📚💙 #BookSky 🦋 #Podcasts 📻

📬 My copy of the latest #JudgeDreddMegazine just landed on the door mat, and it has an eye-catching cover that made me stop and admire it. 🦹‍♂️ #ComicBooks 📚 #ComicSky 🦋 #OctoberBookHaul 📦

📬 New in this week is “Turn Nine” of @jcmberne.bsky.social ‘s “Hybrid Helix” series, “Mortality Gauntlet” in which our hero, Rohan, is a bit beaten up. But just look at the ridiculously colourful display of these books 🤗🤩😘 📚🚀 #SciFiBooks 🪐📚💙 #BookSky #ReaderSky 🦋 #OctoberBookHaul 📦

💭 Reading an interview with Ben Wheatley in an issue of the Judge Dredd Megazine (488), he mentions splitting the writing and the art in a graphic novel. I got to wondering how one splits the proceeds in such a work where this occurs? 🦹‍♂️ #ComicBooks 📚 #ComicSky 🦋

Netflix. What do you like about it, what do you hate? Has it lost its mojo? For a piece I’m writing (I also have a focus group of 17yo girls, but want the Bluesky take too).

We're looking for volunteers to help us judge the sixth Self-Published Science Fiction Competition. spsfc.space/2026/10/26/j... If you're not entering a novel in the contest when that opens on Nov. 1, we'd love you to join one of our judging teams. #SPSFC

Bluesky has four kinds of users

Look, here's the thing. With layoffs, shutdowns, and GTA coming out in a month: If a game looks cool to you and you have the disposable income: buy it. Don't just cheer on indie games from the sidelines. Don't wait for a sale, or until you have time. Support art that excites you, tangibly.

Solar has overtaken nuclear. A decade ago it supplied 1% of the world's power. In 2025 it met three quarters of global demand growth. Almost nobody saw it coming. I spoke to Jocelyn Timperley at BBC Future about why. www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

👊🥹

📬 Received the gloriously weighty tome that is “Video Game Maps: NES & Famicom” from @retrogamebooks.com 🤗 Just look at this chonky boi! It hefty 💪😍👍 📚🎮 #VideoGames 🕹️ #NonFictionBooks 💡📚💙 #BookSky #ReaderSky 🦋

🔊 The one about the racing, the championship and the paddock politics, that freely offers 🪩 disco dancing 🕺 on the grid as an idea! 🤭 Plus spiritual and writing musings in the Tangents segment at the end 🥹 🏁 #Motorsport #MotoGP #AustralianGP 🇦🇺 #Podcasts 📻

Please spread the love to our Patreon page! www.patreon.com/c/IndieRetro... , over 10,000 articles since the beginning of IndieRetroNews from so many systems, and every little helps even just a cup of coffee! Certainly needed ;) #retrogaming #patreon #amiga #zxspectrum #c64 #zxspectrum

I second that feeling. I have a book to ship to the US, which is OK, I have one or two orders from Ireland which are not. There are more trading changes coming that we need to check and cost up. So if our local MP @danjarvismp.bsky.social or his team reads this - this is a farce.

Terrible day for arseholes across the world. I imagine Trump will react calmly and diplomatically.

🗞️ Many ❤️ issued today across the timeline given the good news from 🇧🇷 🥹 🌎 #PoliticsAndAllThat 🗳️

Hungary - ✅ Serbia - ✅ Brazil - ✅ Machado back in Venezuela - ✅ PLEASE - Israel on Tuesday PLEASE - US midterms Nov 3 Boot all the corrupt, war-mongering, Trump-fawning, right-wingers out.

🗞️ Seeing the 🇧🇷 news bubble up in my timeline, and I am once again reminded that the RW nutters can only win by pressing down hard on the scales of democracy with their schemes, threats, and corruption. But also, that cursed ratio 🇬🇧 folks will recognise 🫣 🌎 #PoliticsAndAllThat 🗳️

WE DEFEATED FASCISM IN BRAZIL, YOU CAN DO IT TOO

🎤 I have a bunch of phrases ➡️ song associations that always erupt out when I hear them. Somebody says “tragedy” or “under pressure” and either the chorus or the riff burst out 🎵 “In a world…” always comes out movie voice style 🗣️ Tonight, a new one, “I wanna hold your hand…” 🎶

📆 End of the weekend reading update has me reviewing my 2026 Reading Challenge to see that my lead is slowly being eroded by the recent collapse of my reading pace 😱 which continues just bubbling along 🫢 Two main books on the go that I’m trying to cram in. 📚🚀 #SciFiBooks 🪐📚💙 #BookSky #ReaderSky 🦋

🔊 My #AlbumOfTheWeek is the new Temperance, “Arcani“. 💿 #NowPlaying 🎶 on 🍎🎵

The government has renewed longstanding advice in disaster preparedness, with a bit more energy than usual because lots of cyber stuff atm, bit of Russia, and particularly el Niño. Have you seen the weather this weekend? The media is doing loads of coverage because you're clicking it.

📋 Okay, the Spitfire is an iconic design and I’ll stop to look as a result, but “in his back garden” really made me boggle 😳 Think I may be in here! 👨‍🏫 #NonFictionBooks 💡📚💙 #BookSky #ReaderSky 🦋

🦠 I didn’t do a good job categorising my board gaming photos from a decade or so ago, but I happened upon my “Pandemic Legacy S2” play-through. Occasionally I find these memories in my camera roll. 🎲 #BoardGaming #BoardGames ♟️

👨‍💻 The deluge of #Slopware on the #SteamNextFest has a certain whiff about it. Just who is this crap for?! I wonder how we’ll curate the nuggets out of the 💩 swamp? I suspect I’ll look into my back catalogue/Pile o’shame more often 😑 🎮 #VideoGames 🕹️

🕰️ Good news, everyone, I noticed it was 12 noon* in the nick of time and was able to fix that one awkward clock in the house that needs manual adjustment as the clocks change. *powering it off and on again resets it to 12:00.

💨 Windy out. Saw a bit of somebody else’s rubbish waft across the patio, presumably blown in on the wind. As I’m grabbing it before it loses itself somewhere else in the garden, I spot a plant that needs re-staking and a couple of net covers that need tightening/clamping. 🇬🇧 #UKWeather 🌦

The whole world is having to deal with the terrifying and expensive chaos caused by this country's temper tantrum, and then we have to hear them mytholigise themselves on top of it all. Just can't be fucking dealing with it.

Scientists took the first photos of Earth from space on this day 80 years ago 🌍

There was a fucking hole in our planet’s *atmosphere* Like a legit, no joke, “this will unravel our entire ecosystem” hole in the world, and then we fixed it by working together across national and political lines As a species we decided, “we will survive” Let’s do that some more

🏍️ Awww, man. Not unsurprised, but after ⏩️ through all the BTTNTHBOSportsMax coverage I recorded overnight, I just got to the bit where I find out it’s all been cancelled. MAR thrown a proper lifeline there 😮‍💨 MAQ could’ve put it out of reach today. 🏁 #Motorsport #MotoGP #AustralianGP 🇦🇺

🛒 Are Shopify dominating in the online shopping arena? More and more of the web-sites I buy from have transitioned away from their own system. Makes sense from a security PoV, but I groaned out loud just now as I found another site had moved as I’ve lost my old wishlist 🫤

📬 Inspired by the range of 🍞 displays in a recent episode of #GBBO 👇 I decided to pick up a bread-themed book which I’d seen mentioned somewhere. Richard Bertinet’s “Dough” got an updated release earlier in the year. Any other recs? 🤔 🧑‍🍳📚💡 #CookBooks ❓📚💙 #BookSky 🦋 #OctoberBookHaul 📦

📆 As the seasons turn I am, as usual, having trouble rebalancing all my media. 😎 Hammock time is clearly 📉 so 📖 reading plummets with it. 🎧 Podcast listening declines as 🧑‍🌾 and 🪴 hibernate for another year. 🎮 Gaming remains fairly steady 🫳 📺 Tellybox and 🎂 baking are 📈 as a result.

"A distinctively British approach to artificial intelligence"

📺 Watching pud-week on GBBO. While I’m very familiar with #MasterChefUK, I’m a complete newbie to #GBBO this year (think of a change that was made this year 😉) so I’m adapting to its format. Kinda prefer the wider range of contestants that get knocked out early doors on MasterChef.

🎸 So I’m watching Ben Eller break down Ghost’s “Cirice” and I’m thinking “I can play that.” Turns out I did once sort of learn it, but maybe back in the late 2010’s or so (ish). So I’ve *completely* forgotten it and I was struggling. Went back to the rhythm track to get it under my fingers again.

1 week to go till Blake's 7 at the BFI!

🌧️ ’Only’ 13.6mm of rain in the McTavish Manor Gardens today, but 82.4mm in the past week of wet weather. 🇬🇧 #UKWeather 🌡️ #WeatherStation 🌦

Here is Storm Boelo seen from space, covering the whole of the UK ⚠️

📬 While @darylbaxter.com is attending #TR30 in Derby, coincidentally @penandswordbooks.bsky.social delivered a copy to myself today! So now I have the full set of unofficial making-of #TombRaider tomes 🤗 Marvellous. 📚🎮 #VideoGames 🕹️ #NonFictionBooks 💡📚💙 #BookSky 🦋 #OctoberBookHaul 📦

Renewable energy.