LinkFest 2020-10-02

Seeing Our Own Reflection in the Birth of the Self-Portrait

A fascinating look at Albrecht Dürer’s slightly scandalous self-portrait.

ASTEROIDS: BY THE NUMBERS

A detailed look at Asteroids by RETROGAME DECONSTRUCTION ZONE. Asteroids was meant to be something of a physics simulator, but with interesting adaptions to make the game fun.

Two Week Megadungeon

A megadungeon, in some ways the real heart of D&D as played by Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax, can seem intimidating to create, but it doesn’t have to be.

The Progressive Case for Empire

Ed West points out that Empires, in the sense of universal states, tend to be multicultural and tolerant. And he also points out that the development of democracy and liberties was done in monoethnic states.

What we talk about when we talk about color

A clever textual analysis of what different languages mean by color words.