Notices by Chris Trottier (atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org)

Barack Obama (@barackobama) is on the Fediverse!

How cool is that?!

@fediversenews

Released in 1994, Wacky Wheels is a kart racer. It is the first game in the Wacky Wheels series.

We don’t need a story for this game. All you need to know is that a bunch of cute animals are competing for the podium. There’s a tiger, an elephant, a shark, and more!

This was a title published by Apogee. I often wonder if this game would have been more well known if they put well-known Apogee characters like Duke Nukem and Commander Keen in this game. Nevertheless, the decision to use animals certainly hit their target demographic.

You see, in 1994, many kids didn’t have a Super Nintendo (SNES). Parents often told their young whippersnappers, “We have a PC that can do everything – go play your games on there.”

And believe me, lots of PC gaming kids envied Super Mario Kart. There was not much like it on PC. Then Wacky Wheels came along.

Is Wacky Wheels as good as Super Mario Kart? Not at all. But for a cheap shareware title with gamepad support – that also had split screen multiplayer – this was a godsend for all those kids who only gamed on PC.

That’s right, not only could you play Wacky Wheels with a keyboard, but you could also hook up a Gravis PC GamePad. Not all PC games did that back then. Even now, Wacky Wheels controls spectacularly with a modern gamepad, and let me tell you, it works like a dream!

The courses are not as varied as Super Mario Kart, but Wacky Wheels makes up for this with many game modes.

You can choose the speed of your karts (or “lawnmowers”, as the game calls them), which drastically changes your winning strategy. If you go for the 12HP karts, you’ll be relying more on your handbrake; with the 6HP karts, lots of power-ups are a requirement.

If you have young kids, there’s a “kid mode” that makes the competitive play more kid-friendly.

Multiplayer is really where Wacky Wheels shined. You had a two-player race as well as a two-player shoot-out. But there was also Comm-Bat play – which allowed you to compete with another player remotely through a LAN. Again, this was available in 1994 – it would be decades before Nintendo would offer such a feature with Super Mario Kart!

Graphically, Wacky Wheels wasn’t as good as its SNES counterpart. The pixels were more chunky, and the frame-rate wasn’t as smooth. But there’s a reason for that. Wacky Wheels was a $5 shareware title that was intended to be played even on a 386 CPU.

It’s the sound department where Wacky Wheels really shines. It’s full of SoundBlaster goodness. And wow! Does the music get my heart pumping when I’m in the midst of a race!

To run Wacky Wheels on modern hardware, you need a 1.8Ghz single core CPU and 512MB of RAM. However, if you want to run this on DOS, you need a 386 CPU, 4MB of RAM, and 6.9MB of space. Wacky Wheels has native compatibility for Windows, Mac, and Linux – although the Steam version doesn’t run on Linux natively. Nevertheless, the Steam version runs well on Linux via Proton. On a Steam Deck, it is fantastic.

Wacky Wheels is a PC exclusive. It has never been released on mobile or console platforms.

There’s no microtransactions, neither is there DLC.

Beavis-Soft developed Wacky Wheels. They made a previous game called Phylox, but this was their last game.

There was some hijinx involved with the development of Wacky Wheels. The eagle-eyed among you might notice this has a resemblance to Skunny Kart. That’s because they share some of the same code. Regardless, Skunny Kart is based on an earlier version of Wacky Wheels – which is why most people prefer Wacky Wheels.

There’s also a modern remake called Wacky Wheels HD. I have not played it, and it’s no longer on Steam – though it is available free on itch.io.

On Steam, Wacky Wheels has an 89% positive rating based on 77 reviews. Meanwhile, GOG.com gives this a 4.2/5 user rating. Most people love this for nostalgic reasons, as it gives them fond memories of gaming as a child. Detractors feel that it has not held up to the modern era.

Personally, I feel like Wacky Wheels has indeed held up. Sure, it’s not the best kart racer ever – not by a long shot. Yet, the controls are tight, and the competition is still fierce. And just look at it. Wacky Wheels is full of DOS goodness!

Wacky Wheels sells for C$5.49 on Steam. Meanwhile, GOG.com sells it for C$8.19, though it has a -79% discount at C$1.69.

I recommend it – perhaps not for everyone, but definitely for anyone who has a fondness for DOS gaming. There are more beautiful, more technically impressive kart racers out there. But how many of them feature VGA graphics with sweet SoundBlaster tunes? And how many of them allow you to control a cute panda who throws hedgehogs at the competition? If this appeals to you, Wacky Wheels is your ticket!

The #RedditMigration just got spicier 🌶

#Lemmy now has 135,369 accounts. That is tracking with my expectations.

But while #Kbin had ~7,000 accounts yesterday, it’s just shot up to 30,930 accounts today.

While Lemmy is the 5th most used server software on the Fediverse, Kbin is now in 10th place and it’s growing at a faster rate than Lemmy.

A few days ago, I predicted that the #RedditMigration would result in 150,000-300,000 new accounts being created on the Fediverse. That expectation has already been met.

This #RedditMigration is fundamentally changing the course of the Fediverse. It’s moved the Fediverse from being primarily about microblogging to having more eclectic use cases.

While the #TwitterMigration validated that decentralized social media can appeal to millions of people, the #RedditMigration has validated that decentralized social media has man varied applications – both in the software and use case sense.

SOURCE: https://fedidb.org/software

Why is #Kbin gaining on #Lemmy? I believe it’s for three reasons:

1- Lemmy is politically controversial with its founders commonly regarded as “tankies”, and the flagship Lemmy instance (lemmy.ml) commonly found on Fediblock lists

2- Kbin is slightly more user-friendly than Lemmy, offers better social discovery options, and integrates much better with the rest of the Fediverse than Lemmy

3- From an end user perspective, Kbin behaves more according to what you would expect from a Fediverse platform, and consequently has less hoops to jump through if you’re already familiar with the Fediverse

That said, Kbin isn’t necessarily better than Lemmy yet. It’s still very much an alpha project. But it’s a damn good alpha project.

Today, I had someone who intended on running a #Lemmy server call me up and say, “I’ve changed my mind. I want to run #Kbin instead.”

They feel that Kbin has less political baggage, more potential, and is easier to use than Lemmy.

That might not be the case from an admin perspective. But if your goal is to appeal to end users, it’s probably better to put up with Kbin’s rough edges.

I know that many people complain about the Fediverse’s Reddit alternatives, many saying they’re not ready.

And they’re right. Neither Lemmy or Kbin are ready.

But you know what? In circumstances like this, nobody can really be ready. You just react to the demand and try to improve as time goes on.

Something that should be apparent from the #TwitterMigration is that the real growth doesn’t start until there’s good native apps from Android and iOS.

Jerboa for Android and mlem for iOS are good starts but they’re both in alpha, and they mainly support #Lemmy.

I’m not aware of a #Kbin mobile app – especially since Kbin is so new.

But I have no doubt someone is building an app, especially since #Reddit is discontinuing free API access for 3rd party developers by the end of the month.

Some of those app developers will probably want to develop for the #Fediverse soon – if they’re not already.

@dansup Jerboa for Android is okay, but it’s extremely alpha. The login isn’t intuitive, but after you get past that, it’s all right.

As I predicted, #Lemmy just overtook #Microdotblog.

It is now the 5th most popular server software on the Fediverse.

https://fedidb.org/software

Tech Press don’t understand the #Fediverse, so how can they understand its growth?

To hear them talk, most of them believe that #Mastodon and the Fediverse are one and the the same. Some of them go so far as to call the Fediverse the “Mastodon network”.

Which means that they don’t have a clue about what the Fediverse entails, nor how it has grown.

Case in point: between Jan-May 2023, #Misskey and its forks grew by 300,000 accounts. No one in the Tech Press reported this.

Okay, perhaps they didn’t know because the bulk of growth happened in Japan. But still, this is fairly important to know since Misskey is now responsible for generating the bulk of Fediverse content. Even so, Tech Press think the Fediverse is about Mastodon.

And now, #Lemmy and #Kbin are experiencing lots of growth, with both collectively gaining 100,000 users in a week. This is quite a noteworthy event since the #RedditMigration is part and parcel of dissension on #Reddit – a pretty major Big Social platform.

Does the Tech Media report on this? Nope. But again, that’s because they don’t understand the Fediverse nor what it entails.

Then Meta signal that a new project they’re making, #P92 (a.k.a., #Barcelona), will be joining the Fediverse. There’s even screenshots that show this app interacting with remote Fediverse servers.

But instead of reporting about how this will affect the existing Fediverse, press such as the #BBC say this is an altogether different social network than Mastodon.

That’s right! Tech Press don’t even realize P92 will be joining the Fediverse – a social network that already exists!

Is this all ridiculous? Yes.

But this is why we have to be forthright about what the Fediverse is, what it entails, and why it all matters.

We, on the Fediverse, must be our own Press.

@fediversenews

Within a week, #Lemmy has grown by 80,000 users.

If Lemmy were a Silicon Valley start-up, this would be big news.

If Lemmy were Bluesky, this would be big news.

If Lemmy were an A.I. company, this would be big news.

However, with the exception of @mmasnick@mastodon.social’s Techdirt, the tech press refuses to cover the #RedditMigration.

#Lemmy just broke 100,000 users!

Right now, it’s the 7th most used server software on the Fediverse. It’s on pace towards overtaking Pleroma and Microdotblog. And we don’t know how much Lemmy growth will happen during the next two days.

The #RedditMigration to the #Fediverse is now in full swing.

https://fedidb.org/software

@fediversenews