Michael Iantorno❄️🕹️
LightNews LightNews
banner
michaeliantorno.com
Michael Iantorno❄️🕹️
@michaeliantorno.com
1.1K followers 940 following 2K posts
Post-doc at the University of Waterloo. Game history and labour scholar.

🎮Dissertation on SNES/SFC preservation, emulation, repros, and hacking.
🦣TTRPGs at Mammoth Island Games.
🕹️Game industry research on unions, worker co-ops, incubators, and more.
Posts Replies Media Videos
michaeliantorno.com
Hello, here are some games I enjoyed in 2025.
A screenshot from Blasphemous 2, showing the main character hefting a large mace onto an injured helmed giant. Key artwork for Blue Prince, showing a blue-tinged mansion with its front doors cracked open. Light spills out onto a solitary figure. A screenshot from Terranigma where the game's protagonist, a spikey-haired teenager named Ark, fights a large knight with a spear. A screenshot from Final Fantasy Tactics where several characters gather in front of a church. A medieval knight named Agrias says "They bear the great of the Black Lion... Duke Goltanna must be mad!"
January 1, 2026 at 6:50 PM
michaeliantorno.com
Great thrift shop keyboard find (although it was extremely gross before I cleaned it).
An old IBM computer keyboard sitting on a desk
December 29, 2025 at 5:53 PM
michaeliantorno.com
Gonna tell my kids this was Canadian Sesame Street.
A green, spherical, googly eyed, decaying puppet on display in a glass box. Those who were into YTV in the nineties would recgonise the character as Warren from the Grogs.
December 23, 2025 at 6:46 PM
michaeliantorno.com
📝New publication alert!

📡In Satellite Archaeologies, I build upon my dissertation research to discuss the citizen archivists who are keeping Nintendo's Satellaview alive, 25 years after it went off the air.

🔗https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15295036.2025.2591126
A screenshot from an old television advertisment for the Satellaview. In it, Mario (of Nintendo fame) floats in space next to the console and a game cartridge titled "BS-X". The Earth is visible in the background.
December 23, 2025 at 5:50 PM
michaeliantorno.com
"We gotta do this shit every year, Chuck?"
Linus looks at Charlie Brown, disappointed and annoyed, in a scene from the Charlie Brown Christmas special.
December 23, 2025 at 1:12 AM
michaeliantorno.com
The clay model for a "territorial oak", an animated tree enemy from the game EarthBound.
December 22, 2025 at 10:21 PM
michaeliantorno.com
oh no
A simple illustration showing a man looking at a computer with a read spotlight on their frowning face. The text reads "is by tricking you into taking an action, such as opening an infected email attachment."
December 22, 2025 at 6:07 PM
michaeliantorno.com
Big same.
The text on vegan cheese packaging: made with real simple ingredients, CULTURED VEGAN
December 10, 2025 at 9:15 PM
michaeliantorno.com
This isn't an endorsement for Avid/Digidesign, but it's borderline miraculous that my little MBOX2 has now lasted TWENTY YEARS!

This thing (and its @rstevens.bsky.social stickers) predates the iPhone.
A Digidesign MBOX2 sitting on a desk, covered with stickers and probably dust.
December 5, 2025 at 8:54 PM
michaeliantorno.com
Love to see that Final Fantasy Tactics is getting its flowers in a lot of end-of-year game lists!

Its themes feel more poignant and relevant every year, and the remakes have done an excellent job of adding QofL features while keeping the core narrative and mechanics relatively untouched.
A screenshot from Final Fantasy Tactics where a female character says "What flaw do you hold there to be in us? That we were born between a different set of walls?"
December 4, 2025 at 1:37 PM
michaeliantorno.com
So I'm like 90% sure that YouTube lumped Starcraft II (and other game casts) into "Boxing Matches."
Youtube telling a user their "top interests" listed as boxing matches, cooking techniques, sci-fi series, home improvement, lo-fi music.
December 3, 2025 at 11:28 PM
michaeliantorno.com
Christ.
"Competitive per-story rate starting at $50 per news post"
December 3, 2025 at 3:42 PM
michaeliantorno.com
Vintage lab Kirbo.
A very poorly drawn picture of Kirby on a blue sticky note. It is labeled with "Kirbo"
November 28, 2025 at 11:36 PM
michaeliantorno.com
My brother had informed me that I've made a creepypasta.
A blank super Nintendo cartridge that is labeled "Endless Winters" with one of those old clicky label makers.
November 26, 2025 at 11:06 PM
michaeliantorno.com
My favourite review so far.
A reddit post: "Kinda bizarre that somebody made this... But hey, more power to 'em!"
November 26, 2025 at 1:37 PM
michaeliantorno.com
It's finally time to clean @zachweinersmith.bsky.social's name of this SNES cartridge.
A copy of Ken Griffey Jr's Winning Run for the SNES with "Zach w" written in it in permanent marker
November 24, 2025 at 12:55 AM
michaeliantorno.com
National Post competing against itself in a "worst possible take" competition.
Opinion: Canada wasn't 'stolen' from Indigenous people It was built on land that was received from the Indigenous in exchange for benefits that continue today. False notions mustn't balkanize us
November 23, 2025 at 8:32 PM
michaeliantorno.com
End-of-term mood.
An excerpt from the Concordia subreddit. The post is titled "Good places to nap and cry?" and the text below it reads "I'm being serious, I can't do bathrooms anymore."
November 21, 2025 at 8:50 PM
michaeliantorno.com
The "sickos" guy meme, where a weird looking guy with a "sickos" t-shirt on peers through a window menacingly and says "YES.. HA HA HA... YES!"
November 19, 2025 at 5:59 PM
michaeliantorno.com
lo fi winter flyover to chill out to
November 16, 2025 at 8:29 PM
michaeliantorno.com
Your last saved meme is your moral philosophy
A saved picture from a Brooklyn 99 Episode. The character Gina Linetti says "How was I supposed to know there'd be consequences for my actions?"
November 16, 2025 at 5:07 PM
michaeliantorno.com
Back in the hacking dungeon.
A photograph of a very messy equipment depot filled with TVs and cables
November 14, 2025 at 7:39 PM
michaeliantorno.com
Can anyone spot me $2475?
A licensing agreement that asks the user to spend $2475 to make their article open access.
November 14, 2025 at 1:52 PM
michaeliantorno.com
It might be about this.
A screenshot from a Satellaview television advertisement, showing Mario in a spacesuit next to the console. Caption text reads: "Just combine the Satellaview with a Super Famicom and connect it to a BS receiving system!"
November 13, 2025 at 7:26 PM
michaeliantorno.com
Sonic the hedgehog saying "I want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less and I'm NOT KIDDING."
November 11, 2025 at 6:50 PM