The Frugal Blog

I follow a number of blogs and forums, and I've been looking for a while for a good way to pull the RSS feeds from most of these into one place for easy reading. On my Linux machine, QuiteRSS works really well. I like the features and interface, but I work on multiple computers throughout the day, and at night I read on my phone, so I really wanted one central place to go for checking up on things. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, I went looking at the existing options, focusing on self-hosted solutions, because I really didn't want to throw all of that data into another for-profit site that would use my feeds to throw ads at me. And while I can deal with using a private server to install a fully-fledged RSS reader, I didn't really want to bother with logging into another service, then worry about updating it, and seeing that it is still maintained, etc. An RSS reader that stores a username/password combo is just one more security issue to worry about, and means that I'd have to make sure it's not easy to hack and get into. I'm not super concerned about being able to add new feeds on the fly, because I'm usually pretty close to web development tools, or I can wait until I get around to them--it's not the end of the world if I can't add something immediately.

So instead I decided to build my own. The scripts I've put together and modified work without a database because you must edit the file directly in order to add them, so the collection of feed is as secure as your site hosting is, plus there are no SQL calls to worry about. It's viewable anywhere you can run PHP, so there's no bother with logging into anything, and of course that means you can share it all you want just by sending people the link. Since it's all processed server-side, it basically acts like a static site for all intents and purposes, which was exactly what I wanted. There are some small downsides--right now it doesn't support Atom feeds, and there aren't any sorting options, but I'll probably come back to it and add those in the future.

I figured I might not be the only one wanting to do this, so I figured I'd share it here. Under the cut I've put a download link and a short explanation on how it works, so that you can add it to your own site if you like. Feel free to leave any questions you have in the comments. Continue reading "Making a database-free online RSS reader in PHP"

Today's review is about a handheld virtual pet made by Radioshack back in 1997. If you don't know about these, there were three different models: the Micro Dino that I have here, a PC Puppy, and the Data Cat. You can see the packaging for those pets below:


If you're familiar with virtual pets, especially "odd pets," which is the internet term for pets that aren't made by Bandai, you'll recognize that the cat and dog are apparently Nano pet clones, while the dino is different. According to what I've seen online, this one shares the same ROM as the MGA VR Creatures dino, though I haven't been able to verify this myself. You'll also notice that the cat, puppy, and dino trio are some of the most commonly made virtual pets, along with a baby/human type creature, although I don't know if Radioshack ever made one of those.

If you're interesting in seeing a ton of photos of this one and reading my thoughts about it, click through the cut to the rest of the entry.

---

Continue reading "Virtual Pet Review: Radioshack Micro Dino"

While I haven't been playing anything I'm ready to write up a full-length review on, I have been playing through a few things here and there that I wanted to highlight and link to. The following games are either too short, didn't feel worth a completely review, or are too mainstream to really be featured here.

Here's a list of the games below:

• Peckin' Pixels
• Plant Therapy
• Gourdlets

Continue reading "Games I've Been Playing"

I've mentioned that I have an old laptop that I do most of my web development on in various places, but I thought it'd be nice if I went over its specs and why I use it. I think it's pretty important to minimize the amount e-waste I generate for a lot of reasons, and one of the ways I do that is by trying resurrect old hardware. Now, I didn't rescue this particular laptop off of the street or anything; I actually bought it new from the vendor when I had nothing else to work on. But instead of throwing it out after Windows 7 was clearly causing more issues than solutions, I decided to throw Linux on it instead of calling it trash. So far, my experience with it has been pretty great, and I'm glad I kept it around.



Click the link below to see what it's on it and how I use it from day to day.

---

Continue reading "A look at my old laptop"

https://supertuxkart.net/ - Main_Page
https://online.supertuxkart.net/ - Add-on content

Super Tux Kart is a cart-racing game similar to games like Mario Kart and Diddy Kong Racing. It is free and open source, and runs really well on both new and old PCs. I actually got it running with ZERO issues on my Linux laptop, although it did initially complain and tell me that my graphics driver was really old. I'll include some side-by-side screenshots for comparison, but let me just say that I'm incredibly impressed. Most 3D games do not run on this thing!

Anyways, SuperTuxKart is actually based on an older game called TuxKart, which appears to no longer be available. This one was also free and open source, but the developers weren't able to continue the project and had to abandon it back in 2004. Fortunately for all of us, some lovely new developers picked it up and forked it, creating the game we're able to play today. In fact, if you've ever looked into Linux gaming you've probably come across this one, since it's pretty popular among Linux gamers.



Click the link below to check out my review and thoughts!

Continue reading "Tux Games: SuperTuxKart Review"

Maybe it's just because I've been spending a lot of time on the fediverse lately, which is usually embraced by folks who like open source alternatives to things, but it seems like Linux gaming has really been taking off recently. The Steam Deck, of course, has helped with some of this, due to the fact that it's Linux-based, but we're all becoming more mobile and remote these days, and making software that's OS-independent is more important now than ever.

But in the past, when it came to gaming, Linux users didn't have access to nearly the same array of options that the rest of us folks have. Because of that, many game makers created Linux-friendly clones of popular types of games, which has led to a fun collection of what I'd like to call "Tux Games."

Each of these PC games features the adorable little penguin mascot, named Tux, who was created in 1996 by artist Larry Ewing as an entry to a logo contest for the open-source operating system. Surprisingly, he didn't actually win the contest, though clearly he won hearts, since he was remembered and named shortly after by the Linux community, and has been used unofficially as a brand mascot ever since.

As a result, he's been used as the main character in a number of games for the system, and I'm going to be looking over and reviewing them here. There are a quite a few of them, so I'm going to break them up into separate posts, and today's entry is for a 2D platforming game called Super Tux.



Click below to read the whole thing!
Continue reading "Tux Games: Super Tux Review"

PeerTube is a decentralized alternative to Youtube that does not (currently) support monetization, and is not controlled by a single entity, and also happens to be my current obsession. Although the official website goes over the basics of how to use it, the official documentation assumes something of a technical background and a lot of people remain confused. I know I had a number of questions that weren't answered by the website.

So I'm not going to write up a complete, comprehensive introduction to how to use PeerTube, because it seems you can find those on every blog on the internet. If you're looking for that, there's a good one written up on Medium here:

https://medium.com/we-distribute/getting-started-with-peertube-ec5dbf007058

But I am going to answer a few of the questions I had that I had to search around for, and hopefully this will help someone out there. Continue reading "Answering questions about PeerTube + Curated Playlists"

Ever wanted to play around with vintage computing, but don't have the time/money/space? I get you. I love old PCs and other gadgets, but I'm really pretty limited on space and what I can bring into my house. And in some cases, I just don't have the money or time to devote to keeping them in running condition.

Fortunately a lot of really great, smart folks have taken the time to emulate a variety of different systems and you can run them right in your browser! I love playing around with these things and using them to run programs. A few of them let you upload and download files to them, so you can run your own applications and download any files you've created. I really like playing around with the paint programs in these in particular.

https://system7.app/ - Emulates MacOS 7
https://macos8.app/ - Emulates MacOS 8
https://macos9.app/ - Emulates MacOS 9

These MacOS emulators are great, and even let you add and remove files from them. They even support networking! Unfortunately I've had some issues with them crashing after a little bit of use in my case (on Windows 10). Hopefully you'll have better luck than me.

https://archive.org/details/win95_in_dosbox - Windows 95, courtesy of archive.org
https://jamesfriend.com.au/pce-js/ - This is another MacOS 7 emulator, but also contains links to many others!
https://classicreload.com/Windows-1-01.html - Windows 1.01. It's got a lot of ads, though, and I couldn't find it hosted anywhere else yet.
https://classicreload.com/win3x-windows-31.html - From the same site. Turn your adblocker on!
http://retroweb.maclab.org/ - Little hard to use, but this one has several emulated systems
https://www.pcjs.org/ - More emulated systems. There are a TON here and they're lots of fun to play with!

MacBat 64

First up today I'll be talking about an adorable little game called MacBat 64. It’s clear from the start that the goal was to emulate the style of early Nintendo 64 games, and in that aim it succeeded very well! I mean, the whole thing gave me warm feelings while I was playing it, and I loved the character designs and fuzzy textures. The music nailed the style of Kirkhope’s old tunes, to the point where if I had heard them on their own, I would genuinely have wondered if they were outtakes from Banjo-Kazooie or its sequel.

As far as the gameplay goes, well it’s very simple. For me, this is not a problem, because I like chill experiences that are about more than just skill. As someone who makes games myself, I’m always interested in seeing how developers can keep gameplay fresh while only using a few tools--in this case, movement and jumping controls. There is no punch or attack, except for a few special sections, and I was impressed by how many different puzzles the levels were able to throw at me with only that set of tools.

There are a lot of easter eggs that you can find after you’ve completed the experience, which is about an hour long, maybe. It’s clear from all the little extras that there was a lot of affection put into this game, and I love to see it. After having enjoyed both this and the Toree 3D, which I’ll also be reviewing below, I’m officially a fan of this developer.

Overall Impression: Very cute! Fun and simple
Time to complete: About an hour, maybe more, but not much.
You'll like this if you like: Old Rareware games, nostalgia trips, simple platformers

Toree 3D

Toree 3D is a cute little retro-styled platformer with very simple controls that can be completed in an afternoon. The style is cute and very reminiscent of games from the PSX era--maybe a little too cute if you’re not into bright graphics. You play as the titular Toree, a little yellow bird who can run quickly and jump, and you’ll be trying to collect all the little stars in every level in order to complete them. The levels are laid out in a way that makes me want to speedrun them, so although the game isn’t on rails, I kind of think of it as a runner game. There’s no story or anything, although some of the characters show up in more than one place, so…I guess there’s some kind of idea behind it? I don’t know, that part kind of confused me, but I enjoyed the game nonetheless.

I will say that the music, while good, doesn’t really match the game much. Since the game is pretty laid back, I would have preferred a soundtrack that was a bit less…boisterous. Not that the music is bad or anything, I just felt it didn’t match.

The game also has the ability to unlock a few characters (one of them is Macbat!), and you do this by meeting different challenges on every level--I think you either collect all the stars or try and complete them in a certain amount of time, although I haven’t unlocked everything yet so I can’t be sure. All in all, I really enjoyed my time with this game, and I’ll probably come back to it again in the future.

Overall Impression: A little “loud” visually and musically, but lots of fun
Time to complete: an afternoon, maybe more if you want to 100% it
You like this if you like: VERY BRIGHT COLORS, games like Bit.Trip Runner, low stakes gaming

Greeting card software is such a weird niche to me. I think partly it's generational—the act of giving greeting cards seems to be less common than it was, and more and more people (of all ages in my experience) are forgoing the act of including cards with gifts as time goes by. I think this is probably because we're more connected than we used to be. I suppose the act of using greeting cards grew from the practice of letter writing, and since that has mostly moved online, giving decorative cards seems out of touch and unnecessary, especially when we have better ways of sending each other pictures, sentiments, songs, video, etc. This is a shame in a way, because looking at greeting card art throughout the years is an interesting window into the styles and customs of the time.

That said, there's probably always going to be a card section in most stores, at least as long as gift cards remain popular and need to be shoved into something. I don't think most of us really fret over which ones we're going to buy as long as they match the sentiment we're going for, so buying dedicated software for making custom cards is going to be left to hard-core card senders only. And that of course leaves out all the folks who would simply use an online card maker, of which there are TONS. How many of you even purchase software anymore? The few necessities, like office products and the ever-growing Adobe suite, are all going subscription only, and have scaled-down free versions for people who don't need full functionality. I've purchased a few things myself for specific hobby needs, but I'm weird and I like retro stuff, so I don't think I'm a typical consumer.

So when one of my family members found the "Christian Greeting Card Factory" at a local thrift store for a whopping two dollars, we all giggled and marveled at the novelty of not only a dedicated software package for making cards, but a niche religious one at that! And of course I had to install and review it. So if you're interested in old software and kitschy clip art, click below! Continue reading "Software Review: Christian Greeting Card Factory"

Over the years I've accumulated a number of games over at Itch.io, some free, some paid, and some part of the many bundles they do. Since the site is geared toward indie developers and encourages users to post works in progress and experimental games, many of these aren't quite long enough to do a full review or web shrine like I have over at my Games page. But being short on play time doesn't mean you can't still create something meaningful or fun, so I figured I'd feature a few that I've played here, and maybe help people wade through the huge library Itch currently has and find something they like.

Today's entry is about a walking "abandoned mall" simulator called Self Checkout Unlimited. It's high on visuals and vibes, and low on difficulty. Very chill. Click through to read the whole thing and see screenshots!

Continue reading "Tiny game review: Self Checkout Unlimited"

Doll enthusiasts and collectors know that one of our favorite pastimes is scrolling through AliExpress to see what weird hybrids and cast-offs they have available for sale. This is how the doll community discovered the Catwalk Kitties and the Trashion Alley dolls, and many of us have discovered different brands after they’ve been ripped off or sold as extra stock through the site.

This is also how I discovered UCanaan/Doris dolls a while back, but not before I had purchased a “factory” doll under a generic name, covered with a few defects here and there but otherwise fine. This used to be the most commonly found doll body sold under the “BJD” label that wasn’t actually a resin BJD, but now they seem to be using Xinyi bodies, which are slightly different. There's been some discussion about these in the doll community and how they're all rip-offs of the original Night Lolita dolls, and how these companies keep getting bought out and/or changed. I'm pretty ambivalent about it myself when it comes to non-resin dolls, because I suspect these companies trade and sell things to each other behind the scenes, and business tends to work differently over there, and we'll never really figure out what belongs to who.

Anyway, I paid a grand total of around $20 for this girl out of curiosity and then threw her in my closet after looking her over, because I didn’t particularly feel inspired by her at the time. I don't like to start work on a doll until I have a clear idea of what I'm aiming for, because I feel I run the risk of not liking the end result. Under the cut, I'll talk a bit more about my process and what I finally decided to do with this one.
Continue reading "Aliexpress 1/3 Doll Review and Customziation"

I'm obsessed with podcasts and have been for a while. Parts of my job see me working long hours alone updating tons of machines at certain parts of the year, and it can get pretty boring, so I keep my earbuds on me and listen to different things as I work. It's also an excellent way to keep chores and shopping interesting, and now I'm invested in a number of them, so you know how that goes...

Anyways, I'm always interested in trying new ones, but once you get past a dozen or so it gets difficult to keep track of which ones you've liked and which ones you have yet to listen to, so I've been keeping a massive Google Spreadsheet with info, links, ratings, and short reviews on all the ones I've listened to and have on my "to listen" list. Lo and behold, Google Spreadsheets also has an excellent "Export to HTML" function that means I can pull it out and upload it here!

So if you're looking for a curated list of podcasts that I've found interesting, check out the page below. Do note that it's always going to be a work in progress, so some of the info won't be filled in until I get to that particular podcast. But I currently have over 300 podcasts listed, so I'm sure you'll be able to find something you like!

FrugalGamer's Giant Podcasts Masterlist

Today I'm going to be talking about an odd pet that I found on AliExpress a while back, the Zodiac Friends/Hatchihoni vpet that's currently only available in Chinese. Here's the link I purchased it from if you're interested:

Zodiac Friends Electronic Pet on AliExpress

I picked this one up because the screenshots looked very different from the pets I've seen on there before, although I half expected it to be a Touma/QPet clone when it arrived. Fortunately, I was wrong--this pet is actually quite unique, and although it uses several stolen Tamagotchi assets from different color editions, the individual pets are unique, and the gameplay is very different.

There is no English option on this pet, and it’s completely in Chinese, so I’ve been relying on Google Translate and context clues to figure it out. This hasn’t turned out to be too much of a problem so far, although it did take me like two days to figure out where the stats screen was (press the left button on the Pet Info screen), because I’m…special. I've created a menu tree for you to reference below the cut. Continue reading "Hatchihoni Review and Guide"

Much like the Getting Ghostly Draculaura I blogged about recently, this Rochelle doll was part of an Ebay purchase I made ages ago. I've opted not to remove her factory paint because I love the little cracks all over her face and body, but I did want to make her a custom dress. And since Rochelle is a gargoyle, what better to use as inspiration than a dark cathedral? I've always loved studying architecture, and gothic architecture in particular is so much fun. So extra! This theme let me go crazy with the ornamentation, and fits especially well with the spooky season this month.



Click through the cut to see the rest of the TONS of pictures I took, plus details of how I made everything!

---

Continue reading "Dark Cathedral Dress for Zombie Shake Rochelle Goyle"