Kerry Wall
LightNews LightNews
banner
kerrywall.com
Kerry Wall
@kerrywall.com
330 followers 480 following 210 posts
Web developer/writer/content producer. Researched and wrote 23,000 words about game hardware mods. Enjoyer of JRPGs, VGM, yarn, and tea. She/her. Ace.
Posts Replies Media Videos
kerrywall.com
Deliaaaaaaa—I had these at my desk when I worked at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. I really need to figure out the wall space situation at home so I can get them (and other things) back up.
A photo of my desk space from when I worked at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra featuring my Music Theory Examples by Women posters of Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, and Delia Derbyshire. Also a computer and some wires, and a pink ballpoint pen.
March 5, 2025 at 5:48 PM
kerrywall.com
Not my home, but I know my way around
The overworld map from Final Fantasy IV (SNES, SquareSoft, 1991)
March 3, 2025 at 12:55 PM
kerrywall.com
What an adventure. Thanks, MAGFest.
A photo of my MAGFest attendee badge, which features illustrations of characters in the style of Sonic the Hedgehog, and my panelist ribbon, hanging from my suitcase handle.
January 26, 2025 at 10:15 PM
kerrywall.com
It happened! Thank you to everyone who attended and asked great questions. And thanks to @arrowned.bsky.social for this photo!
A photo taken from the back of the Panels 6 room at MAGFest while I (very small at the front) present my research on hardware mods.
January 25, 2025 at 1:20 AM
kerrywall.com
Soon! And by “soon” I mean “at 5:30 ET.”
A photo of a display at MAGFest noting the next set of panels in room Panels 6. My panel, Hack “Start” to Continue: Why Video Game Hardware Mods Matter, is at 5:30pm.
January 24, 2025 at 9:40 PM
kerrywall.com
I think I'm happy with the slides. 2.5 more weeks!
A screenshot of the title page of my upcoming presentation at MAGFest titled Hack 'Start' to Continue: Why Video Game Hardware Mods Matter. It also lists my name, the presentation date of January 24, 2025, and the room, which is "Panels 6." It's just text on a dark blue background.
January 7, 2025 at 4:08 AM
kerrywall.com
@laurentheflute.bsky.social You've probably already gotten this from a million people, but I obviously can't take the risk and not also send it
A graphic featuring the t-shirt art for the two daily Yetee shirts for December 18, 2024. They feature very nice stylized artwork of Celes and Locke from Final Fantasy VI.
December 18, 2024 at 5:43 PM
kerrywall.com
I will not be divulging how many attempts this took.
A screenshot of the NES version of Tetris, now available on Nintendo Switch Online, showing the “success” screen after beating b-type level 9 high 5 A screenshot of NES Tetris’s victory screen following completion of b-type level 9 high 5. Various other Nintendo characters (Princess Toadstool, Donkey Kong, Bowser, Samus, and Link) play instruments. St. Basil’s Cathedral is in the background. It turns into a rocket. Don’t question it, it just is.
December 12, 2024 at 11:29 PM
kerrywall.com
Me welcoming all of my new followers.
A screenshot from the video game OMORI. Omori, Kel, Sunny, and Hero find their path through the Junkyard (a lavender area featuring many colourful cars) blocked by a giant cylinder of cheese. Kel says "Okay, guys. Hear me out. This might sound crazy but... What if... we eat the cheese."
November 17, 2024 at 11:40 PM
kerrywall.com
One of these things was never true and the other is still true, and if it ever gets wiped from the internet I will be truly sad.
A screenshot of the end of Sound's effects, a feature article I wrote for CBC News Online in 2010. It says "Kerry Wall is a writer for CBC news" (that's the untrue part; I worked there and I got to write there but I was never strictly speaking a writer). "Her ringtone is the Wind Scene music from Chrono Trigger." (Still true.)
October 17, 2024 at 3:39 PM
kerrywall.com
Unlike you I get my news from a reliable source
A screenshot from the SNES version of Paperboy 2 depicting the Monday edition of The Daily Sun with the headline "GHOST SIGHTING FREAKS TEEN!" and a photo of a stern-looking police office pointing at broken windows, which has nothing to do with the ghost sighting—or does it? Three lines of placeholder copy are repeated across three columns, referring to a "daylight robbery", which has nothing to do with the ghost sighting and probably nothing to do with the broken windows. Unless the ghost broke the windows while participating in the robbery. Look, this is actually one of the more reasonable Paperboy 2 newspaper screens because it actually addresses the fact that THE TOWN HAS GHOSTS. There are ghosts, the gargoyles outside the church shoot lightning at you, there are monsters in the sewer, and people have been allowed to build castles from which they shoot cannons out into the street -- and another headline actually says "Property Tax to Increase". Priorities.
August 9, 2024 at 3:54 AM
kerrywall.com
We need to talk about the Mary Maxim "Computer Game" design, which is clearly legally distinct from any specific computer game. Obviously.
The cover of Mary Maxim pattern no. 4343, which is for the sweater version of the "Computer Game" sweater pattern, which is very obviously heavily influenced by Pac-Man. A blanket also appears to be featured. A small child is modelling the sweater.
July 22, 2024 at 11:08 PM
kerrywall.com
From the archives (such as they are), the first thing I likely wrote about planned obsolescence. Apparently I started preparing for the major research paper I wrote at 37 when I was 10.
An excerpt from something I wrote for an assignment in grade 5 (1995/96) printed in a monospaced font on a dot matrix printer. “Technology is all developing so quickly. Maybe the future will be too fast for us: we may learn how to use one new technology, and sooner than we know it, there will be another to replace it. Like, computers have already replaced type writers, but will there soon be something to replace computers? This is a question of the” (and then it cuts off but I think the next word would have been “future”).
February 23, 2024 at 8:34 PM
kerrywall.com
I was nine when these game out so I remember the advertising pretty vividly. Nintendo Power went really hard on promoting them. They were kind of assigned characteristics, even though the only difference between them (and between the original) was the shell colour.
A photo of the back of Nintendo Power issue 72, featuring the “what flavour is yours?” ad for the Play It Loud line of DMG Game Boys. The clear, green, red, black, and yellow shells are likened to condiments. The original light grey model is described as “the usual”. A scan of an ad for the Game Boy Play It Loud! series with the caption "What color is yours?" and photos of the yellow, transparent, and green versions sitting on top of the heads of people with yellow hair, a shaved head, and green hair. The full set of five colours (black, red, yellow, transparent, and green) appears in the corner.
February 9, 2024 at 4:26 AM
kerrywall.com
Finally resumed Cassette Beasts. I finished the ranger training but then this dialogue sent me down a rabbit hole and now I'm reading about Walkman mods.
A screenshot from Cassette Beasts. The playable character is challenging Ranger Captain Codey as part of her training. He says "C'mon, I bet you're desperate to see my modded cassette tapes! Are you gonna take my ranger captain challenge or what?"
February 3, 2024 at 5:16 AM
kerrywall.com
The day called for major 16-bit JRPG energy. I don’t make the rules.
I have a Yetee Final Fantasy VI holiday sweatshirt featuring pixel art of a chocobo, Carbuncle, Moogles, Celes, Terra, Locke, and the Magitek mounts from the opening cutscene. I also have a Chrono Trigger phone case, which would normally not be visible but I took this photo in a mirror. My phone tried to autocorrect “moogles” to an all-caps version of the word. I must yell about Moogles a lot? Kupo.
December 15, 2023 at 5:59 PM
kerrywall.com
Even the original Super Mario Bros. manual had a “kids these days won’t get this reference” vibe. ‘Twas ever thus.
A photo of a page from the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt manual. This post is about the bullet point that includes the line “Use the old ‘Domino Effect’ (ask your parents)”.
November 28, 2023 at 5:20 PM
kerrywall.com
A scene from the Simpsons featuring a flashback of Homer and Marge trying to buy a house. The house is full of cats. The real estate agent says "Actually, according to the will, the cats own the house. You'd be their tenants!"
October 21, 2023 at 9:08 PM
kerrywall.com
I laughed too hard at this. Also, I was prepared to say that people getting graduate degrees should be able to layer all the relevant gowns on top of each other but it was also very warm in there.
A photo of the inside of my grad gown which reads “Master 5’3” to 5’5””
October 13, 2023 at 4:43 PM
kerrywall.com
I think of this moment every time I get out of the chair after a dental cleaning.
A screenshot from The Simpsons. Lisa is sitting on the floor in her Sunday best and has kicked off her shoes. The caption reads "It's the longest possible time before more church!"
September 28, 2023 at 7:53 PM
kerrywall.com
Funnily enough, I recently came across this one-handed, double-sided controller while going through old Nintendo Power issues (June 1993).
A photo of a page from Nintendo Power volume 49 describing the Super L5. The writeup says “The Super L5, marketed in Japan by Ascii, is a controller made specifically for Role-Playing Games. It’s designed to be held in one hand, leaving the other hand free to draw maps or perform other necessary chores, like eating, perhaps, without interrupting game play. The A, B, X, and Y buttons can be turned on and off with the toggle switches on the lower edge, and the buttons themselves are on the back of the controller. The centre plate with the Control Pad rotates so you can adjust it to fit your hand.”
September 24, 2023 at 1:54 PM
kerrywall.com
Hyperbeam is a cooler name than Bluetooth.
Another part of the “Take Control” feature from the June 1993 issue of Nintendo Power, this one detailing the only-in-Japan “Hyperbeam”. The description reads “Konami Japan markets a remote controller there that can be used with both the Famicom and the Super Famicom. It transmits an infrared beam to a dish-like receptor, which plugs into the controller part of the Control Deck.”
September 18, 2023 at 4:50 PM
kerrywall.com
It’s interesting that the SN ProPad’s clear shell is what’s emphasized here.
A photo of part of the “Take Control” feature from volume 49 of Nintendo Power. The SN ProPad, an aftermarket controller compatible with the SNES, has a clear outer casing and blue, dark pink, yellow, and green ABXY buttons. Each button has a corresponding Turbo switch. The write-up says “If you’re one of those players who wants to know how everything works, pick up the SN ProPad from STD Entertainment. It has a clear casing that lets you see the pad’s innerworkings. It also features 25-shot-per-second Autofire, Semi-Automatic Fire and Slow Motion. Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price: $19.95.” That’s in USD, of course, and not adjusted for inflation. (One also wonders whether the company bothered to workshop its name AT ALL.)
September 18, 2023 at 4:41 PM
kerrywall.com
These looked kind of cool, actually.
A photo from a NES retrospective that appeared in an issue of Nintendo Power. The photo caption says “The early designs for the NES were sleek and cordless. The infrared components, it turned out, didn’t work when moved around during game play.” The displayed concept art is of a sleeker console and Zapper than the eventual release. The article explains that the sleek designs also didn’t test well with kids, so the eventual NES design was a compromise between these sleek mock-ups and the more colourful design of the Famicom.
September 17, 2023 at 4:59 PM
kerrywall.com
This has taken on new layers of meaning for me.
A photo of a page from a 1996 issue of Nintendo Power offering a first look at the N64 — then called the Nintendo Ultra 64 — controller. The text includes the sentences “It’s real. It’s exotic. It’s so advanced you practically need a degree to even think about it.” I just wrapped a master’s degree focused on game hardware modifications, including controllers. It’s funny. (Well, I think it’s funny.)
September 11, 2023 at 5:05 PM