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The best terminal emulator for games: Cool-Retro-Term
Because text-mode games deserve a little pizzazz (like emulating the look of CRT monitors of the '80s).
October 19, 2023
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Want to truly enjoy text mode games (aka those you play in a Terminal or Command Line)?  You're going to want to have a good Terminal Emulator.  This is critical.

Having a truly great Terminal emulator can really makes those text games POP.

It is the official — and entirely correct — opinion of The Lunduke Journal, that the very best terminal emulator for such things is none other than: Cool-Retro-Term.

Zork played using an Amber, CRT style profile in Cool-Retro-Term.

Available for Linux and macOS, Cool-Retro-Term does an absolutely glorious job of emulating the look and feel of just about any CRT monitor from past years and decades. This capability takes text based games and truly makes them shine — with an aesthetic that feels exactly era appropriate.

It accomplishes this feat of technical wizardry via an absolutely staggering number of settings: ranging from visual effects (such as CRT burn-in, flicker, and static) to retro styled fonts and visual warping and borders. All of which can be saved as individual profiles (which can then be saved as JSON text files for easy backup and sharing).

Some of the settings of Cool-Retro-Term

There’s no one correct profile (or set of settings) to use with Cool-Retro-Term. It all depends entirely on your personal preference — and the era, hardware, and systems you are looking to recapture the look and feel of.

I hop around quite a bit, myself. Sometimes setting Cool-Retro-Term to emulate a Commodore 64 in look and feel… other times a flickery, DOS CRT from the early 1980s.

Sometimes I like a crisp look, with few visual artifacts. Other times I enjoy the atmosphere of a fuzzy, flickery, static-y display (which can truly complement the more spooky games).

All of the screenshots so far have been of Zork — I wanted to show just how different the experience (and even the overall mood) could be with different settings… even when playing the same game.

Here is a screenshot of Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead, just to show how excellent a colorful ASCII rogue-like can look using Cool-Retro-Term.

In short… I highly recommend grabbing Cool-Retro-Term and playing around with some of the user-created themes to find the ones that fit your style (and personal nostalgia).

Note: If you use Windows… supposedly it is possible to install Cool-Retro-Term via WSL. I have not tried it -- as I don't typically run Windows -- so I cannot vouch for those instructions. But it’s worth a shot, eh?

 
 
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A new California Law (AB-1043), signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, requires all Operating Systems (from macOS to FreeBSD) to implement age verification, at the system level, this year.

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November 22, 2023
The futility of Ad-Blockers

Ads are filling the entirety of the Web -- websites, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. -- at an increasing rate. Prices for those ad placements are plummeting. Consumers are desperate to use ad-blockers to make the web palatable. Google (and others) are desperate to break and block ad-blockers. All of which results in... more ads and lower pay for creators.

It's a fascinatingly annoying cycle. And there's only one viable way out of it.

Looking for the Podcast RSS feed or other links? Check here:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm

Give the gift of The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4898317/give-the-gift-of-the-lunduke-journal

The futility of Ad-Blockers
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openSUSE says "No Lunduke allowed!"

Those in power with openSUSE make it clear they will not allow me anywhere near anything related to the openSUSE project. Ever. For any reason.

Well, that settles that, then! Guess I won't be contributing to openSUSE! 🤣

Looking for the Podcast RSS feed or other links?
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm

Give the gift of The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4898317/give-the-gift-of-the-lunduke-journal

openSUSE says "No Lunduke allowed!"
September 13, 2023
"Andreas Kling creator of Serenity OS & Ladybird Web Browser" - Lunduke’s Big Tech Show - September 13th, 2023 - Ep 044

This episode is free for all to enjoy and share.

Be sure to subscribe here at Lunduke.Locals.com to get all shows & articles (including interviews with other amazing nerds).

"Andreas Kling creator of Serenity OS & Ladybird Web Browser" - Lunduke’s Big Tech Show - September 13th, 2023 - Ep 044
17 hours ago

The like button is not holding it's likes from login to login...
I've reliked a few posts for the third time now and they keep resetting on me...
Don't think that I'm unfriendly becuase I don't like your posts...
I'll keep trying!!

Man, do i wish I had the time to play with this:

February 26, 2026

Questions about AI

1) If you create something with AI, who holds the rights??
2) If you do hold the rights, how can you enforce them??
3) If you have no rights, then should anything you create be considered Public Domain??
4) If you want to make something private, how do you tell AI to make it so??
5) How can you be sure that using AI can be totally private??
6) Do you or can you trust any big company to be private and respect your rights??
7) With AI having the right to scrape the internet with out reguard to privacy, what do you do now???

February 12, 2026
4th Wall Almost Full, $89 Lifetime Deal Ends Very Soon

Woo-hoo! The 4th Lunduke Journal Lifetime Subscriber Wall of Shame Awesomeness is almost full!

  • That means that, within the next day or two, the massively discounted Lifetime Subscriptions will go back to their normal price. So if you wanted to snag the $89 / $99 Lifetime Sub (instead of paying $300), now’s your last chance.

  • If you are already a Lifetime Subscriber and want to be added to the 4th (or the start of the 5th) wall, email me (bryan at lunduke.com). There are only a couple of spots left on Wall 4.

  • The new Lifetime Wall designs are locked and loaded, and will make their grand debut at the end of all new shows starting either Friday or Monday.

I also wanted to take a moment to thank all of the non-Lifetime Subscribers. The Lifetime Subs may get a little extra attention at the end of the shows… but every subscriber (Monthly & Yearly) helps to make this work possible.

All of you rule.

-Lunduke

Read full Article
February 08, 2026
79 Million Views in 6 Months for The Lunduke Journal

Welcome to February, all of you amazing nerds!

January was a fun month for The Lunduke Journal (thanks to all of you). For those interested in a little Inside Baseball, I’ve pulled together some stats and charts below.

The short version: Great month. Crazy news stories. Solid growth. Can’t complain!

Revamped Lifetime Wall

Oh! And the “Lifetime Subscriber Wall” is getting a “retro” facelift.

This is what the four Lifetime Walls currently look like:

 

Once that 4th Wall is filled (a little over 75% of the way there as of this morning), I’ll be introducing the new designs (for all the walls) along with the starting of Wall Number 5.

Each Wall now has its own, distinct look and theme. Very Retro Computer-y. You’re going to dig it.

To make that “Wall Number 5” get here as fast as possible, I’ve gone ahead an reinstated the “$89 Lifetime Subscriber” deal. But only until Wall Number 4 is full.

Want to be on the Wall? If you don’t have a Lifetime Subscription, grab one. If you already have one, email me (bryan at lunduke.com) to let me know how you want your name to be displayed.

Once Wall 4 is full, the Super-Mega-Ultra Discounted Lifetime Subscription goes back to regular price. And, the next day, the new Lifetime Wall design appears at the end of new shows.

At the current rate, I expect that to happen in the next couple days.

Stats for January, 2026

Now let’s look at the stats for January.

Can’t lie. I’m pleased.

  • 30 new shows (just shy of one new show every day)

  • 15.2 Million views (including podcast downloads)

  • 2,326 new subscribers

The most popular story of January, 2026:

Taking a high level view: This means that, in the last 6 months (Aug ‘25 - Jan ‘26), The Lunduke Journal has had:

  • 79.4 Million views

  • 21,694 new subscribers

Bonkers, right?

Here’s a chart of “views” for last 6 months:

Image
 

The long-term trend continues to be solidly upward, with February (in the first 7 days, so far) currently tracking slightly ahead of January.

For those interested in the specific platforms: The Lunduke Journal is seeing the most growth on X and the Audio Podcast.

Here’s a combined subscriber chart for January (up 2,326 subscribers from the month prior):

Image
 

Wild. It is truly amazing to me how widely these stories are spreading nowadays.

Over 15 million. In one month.

These are numbers that most of the big, “Main Stream” Tech Journalists could only dream of.

The reach of The Lunduke Journal, thanks to all of you, is now wildly exceeding any other publication I have ever worked with.

Even though most “Main Stream” Tech Journalists are refusing to cover some of the biggest stories in Tech… those stories are still getting out there.

They are being seen. Far and wide.

Thanks to all of you.

-Lunduke

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January 31, 2026
$89 Lifetime Offer Ends at Midnight!

I’ll make this quick: The $89 Lifetime Subscription offer for The Lunduke Journal ends at midnight tonight (Saturday, January 31st).

Once the calendar reads “February” — poof — the deal is gone.

If you wanted to save 70% on a Lifetime Subscription, these are your final hours.

A huge thank you to everyone who has signed up during this crazy deal. We are this close to filling up the 4th Lifetime Subscriber Wall (there’s a possibility it might fill up in the next few hours).

Far beyond anything I was expecting. All of you are absolutely amazing. The Lunduke Journal would not be possible without you.

If you were on contemplating grabbing that Lifetime Sub, I’d jump on it right now. The price goes back up to normal ($300) in about 12 hours or so.

Get it while it’s cheap!

-Lunduke

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