02/28/2025

You Can Now Play the First LGBTQ Computer Game, For the First Time

‘Caper in the Castro’ was thought to be long lost.

Caper in the Castro is a legendary video game, not because legions of die-hard fans continue to play it, but because it was thought to be lost forever. Now, what is largely considered to be the first LGBTQ-focused video game (it was released in 1989) is on the Internet Archive for anybody to play.

The game is a noir point-and-click that puts the player in the (gum)shoes of a private detective named Tracker McDyke who is, in case you couldn’t guess by the name, a lesbian. McDyke must unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of Tessy LaFemme, a transgender woman, in San Francisco’s Castro district, an historically gay neighbourhood.

OOOOOHhh!

The game was released as charityware – freely, with a strong request to give a donation an AIDS Charity of their choice. I’d like to push towards still following that and donating, if you’re able.

(And you might also want to donate to the Internet Archive, who is hosting it now, while you’re at it – they’re in the middle of a donation drive, and could use your support.)

Screaming crying because I hate every piracy guide I come across on here.

An organization I like to donate to is the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, the only org in the US that works to defend victims of domestic violence who have been charged with crimes, usually for harming their abusers in self-defense, “failing to protect” their children in dv situations or “kidnapping” their children while fleeing violence. Thinking about them as we’re thinking about legal retaliation against domestic violence victims!

How I pratice drawing things, now in a tutorial form. The shrimp photo I used is here Show me your shrimps if you do this uvu  PS: lots of engrish because foreign 

cats...?

Resources #2: Automatic Generators

Generators are awesome. It requires no thinking on the part of the author (except for the actual writing), and for names and prompts, they’re absolute gold. Here’s some of my favorites I’ve found and put to use.

Names:

Fantasy Name Generators: Dozens and dozens of every fantasy generator you can possibly think of. Behind The Name: A good, plain, name generator. Place Name Generator: Names for places. Like towns or streets. Fake Name Generator: More detailed than the rest, it includes height, weight, name, address, and more. Nymblr: Can save/block names, and switch between male, female, or both. City and Town Names Place Names: Includes ‘real’ and ‘nonsense’. Elizabethan Place Name Generator

Characters:

Character Profile Generator: Includes odds and ends that includes personality, back story, etc. Quick Character Generator: Has name, age, birthday, religious view, notable traits, and more. Appearance Generator: Can be simple or detailed, and the options male, female, or intersex. Motive Generator: Personality Generator Character Traits Everyday Problem Generator

Plot:

Plot Generator Random Plot Generator: Includes options for 1 to 6 things that can be added, left out, or changed without interfering with the rest of the plot. Fairytale Plot Generator Horror Plot Generator Random Adventure Generator Make Your Character Suffer First Line Generator Random Dialogue Generator Another First Line Generator Story Starting Sentences

Titles:

Story Title Generator Title Generator Random Title Generator Title Generator: This one gives you a title and a series name.

Other:

Anagrams Monster Generator Subjects To Write About Random Word Generator

I think most of us should take the whole ai scraping situation as a sign that we should maybe stop giving google/facebook/big corps all our data and look into alternatives that actually value your privacy.

i know this is easier said than done because everybody under the sun seems to use these services, but I promise you it’s not impossible. In fact, I made a list of a few alternatives to popular apps and services, alternatives that are privacy first, open source and don’t sell your data.

right off the bat I suggest you stop using gmail. it’s trash and not secure at all. google can read your emails. in fact, google has acces to all the data on your account and while what they do with it is already shady, I don’t even want to know what the whole ai situation is going to bring. a good alternative to a few google services is skiff. they provide a secure, e3ee mail service along with a workspace that can easily import google documents, a calendar and 10 gb free storage. i’ve been using it for a while and it’s great.

a good alternative to google drive is either koofr or filen. I use filen because everything you upload on there is end to end encrypted with zero knowledge. they offer 10 gb of free storage and really affordable lifetime plans.

google docs? i don’t know her. instead, try cryptpad. I don’t have the spoons to list all the great features of this service, you just have to believe me. nothing you write there will be used to train ai and you can share it just as easily. if skiff is too limited for you and you also need stuff like sheets or forms, cryptpad is here for you. the only downside i could think of is that they don’t have a mobile app, but the site works great in a browser too.

since there is no real alternative to youtube I recommend watching your little slime videos through a streaming frontend like freetube or new pipe. besides the fact that they remove ads, they also stop google from tracking what you watch. there is a bit of functionality loss with these services, but if you just want to watch videos privately they’re great.

if you’re looking for an alternative to google photos that is secure and end to end encrypted you might want to look into stingle, although in my experience filen’s photos tab works pretty well too.

oh, also, for the love of god, stop using whatsapp, facebook messenger or instagram for messaging. just stop. signal and telegram are literally here and they’re free. spread the word, educate your friends, ask them if they really want anyone to snoop around their private conversations.

regarding browser, you know the drill. throw google chrome/edge in the trash (they really basically spyware disguised as browsers) and download either librewolf or brave. mozilla can be a great secure option too, with a bit of tinkering.

if you wanna get a vpn (and I recommend you do) be wary that some of them are scammy. do your research, read their terms and conditions, familiarise yourself with their model. if you don’t wanna do that and are willing to trust my word, go with mullvad. they don’t keep any logs. it’s 5 euros a month with no different pricing plans or other bullshit.

lastly, whatever alternative you decide on, what matters most is that you don’t keep all your data in one place. don’t trust a service to take care of your emails, documents, photos and messages. store all these things in different, trustworthy (preferably open source) places. there is absolutely no reason google has to know everything about you.

do your own research as well, don’t just trust the first vpn service your favourite youtube gets sponsored by. don’t trust random tech blogs to tell you what the best cloud storage service is — they get good money for advertising one or the other. compare shit on your own or ask a tech savvy friend to help you. you’ve got this.

‪The incorrect and negative beliefs we can get from years of negative feedback not knowing we have ADHD or how it affects our lives. While not everything is solely caused by ADHD, it can affect us and our comorbidities in many, many ways. Good news is, treating ADHD can do wonders for Anxiety and Depression!

Please do not let debt collectors play in your face.