I live right next to a lake and water types are never anywhere to be seen. They have forsaken my town. I’ll only get a Gyarados after about 200 more kilometers of walking. Man I wish they’d implement trading already.
I guess, how populated is the area around that lake? b/c the one in our shopping district is all Magikarps, Psyducks, and like one Dratini every three hours. The residential one is a little less so, but then I have to either hike half an hour or run through a treacherous forest to get there so I have less data on it. Friend gets them all the time from the river by his house, tho.
Didn’t they get most of their pokéstop database from Ingress ?
AY
Yes, but Ingress is super hard depending on where you are. My entire hometown is covered in a green field, I can’t do jack about it on my own ? leveling can be a real chore
Pokemon Go is headed that way here. All the gyms around here are level 10 blue. I could spend an hour taking down one, but it would be taken back within minutes, so it’s not worth it (especially when it’s cold outside).
Thing is at least PoGo, even if it costs money, you can still play while housebound (like I was for a solid week of torture), where Ingress is effectively not a game if you can’t get to a portal.
thejeff
What can you do if housebound?
Or is your area busy enough that you actually find Pokemon in the house? I think I did once, but it was probably the GPS shifting enough to put me in a slightly better area.
I have used GPS error to help hatch eggs. It’s particularly amusing when it tells my I’m moving to fast while the phone is sitting on my desk.
Pokémon spawn everywhere there are people (which is weird since canonically the opposite is true), so while it’s harder to get items w/o stops, you can still catch things. I mean, there’s actually an Exeggcute nest in my desk =p
(there was a townhouse for sale literally on top of a stop, and I regret not having the extra $150k to have bought it XD …somewhat)
Lol yeah, I was gonna say, this strip is already out of date.
Leorale
Yeah, odd choice to pick something that’ll be dated before the strip runs, and totally obscure in a couple years. But hey, maybe there will always be a new pokemon, just like there’s always new Mario.
BBCC
Nerds don’t play obscure games from their franchises? Huh. Awkward.
Emperor Norton II
I think Willis chose Pokemon Go because while the particular game might be less popular now (though there are still a few millions playing it, which is still something many companies would kill for), the franchise is probably going to stay with us until the end of time. And even if it didn’t have staying power (so to speak), it’ll probably take about ten years until it is truly obscure.
Regalli
It’s also a game that works really well for someone on a college campus needing excuses to get out and about. It’s not being played by everyone, but it is a good fit for Amber.
JetstreamGW
Dunno what y’all are talking about. I know plenty of people who still play Pokemon Go. Just ‘cuz everyone ever isn’t playing it anymore doesn’t mean nobody’s playing it 😛
I still play (Super) Mario Kart occasionally. On my SNES.
I got an N64, but I never got any games for it other than the Mario Kart 64 it came bundled with. Which was way too easy compared to Super Mario Kart. 😛
(Fave games of all time are Terranigma, Illusion of Gaia, and Soulblazer; all SNES RPGs)
I have actually seen someone playing Pokemon Go more recently than Mario Kart, though obviously that is still around. The initial excitement is gone, and so it isn’t in the news much, but Reports of its death are greatly exaggerated.
I mean I’m not holding my breath or anything but it would be nice
timemonkey
Honestly, it would probably be horrible. Amber can’t even share with herself, Danny would feel like he was cheating on both of them and Amber still has complicated feelings about Ethan.
6Qubed
well I would argue that it’s not cheating if the rules allow for it, but you’re not wrong that the biggest issue that whole dynamic has is that the principles are each and in their own way incapable of nutting up and just *talking* about their issues. in this respect, I think Danny’s actually got the leg up A and E for no other reason than he’s been open and honest about discussing things with others when he thought the moment was right. Amber is still trying way too hard to double-bill as both the hero and the villain of her own story; and Ethan, bless his heart, is just way too damn passive most of the time
Two of my aunts (one of them with young children she plays with) still do regularly, and I make an effort to check in when I’m out and have the battery life to do so. (I keep meaning to get a backup source.) If you’re in an isolated area then yeah, but on a college campus there’s still definitely incentives to play.
Choosing when to walk away Can be a minor act of reclaiming agency for someone who didn’t get to call the shots in the relationship. This is hard for Danny and hard in a different way for Amber, but it needed to happen.
Amber has some pretty self-destructive tendencies that sabotaged the relationship, I kinda feel Danny had to walk away if he was ever going to make a point to her.
Ah, but have you ever done it on a computer with one disk drive and 64K RAM? Insert disk 1… Insert disk 2… Insert disk 1… Insert disk 2…
This would have been around 1984-5. I was in high school.
Yes, computers literally have a million times as much RAM now as they did 30 years ago. And the standard disk held, what was it, 360 KB of data? Vs. at least 360 GB today. Of course, clock speed and access time haven’t advanced as fast – just a few thousand times, even if you count multiple cores.
Hmm, maybe that’s why computers today aren’t much more responsive than they were back then… Or maybe it’s that the number of computer viruses in the wild has probably grown a billionfold, which also requires more layers of security in the software.
Oh, and the number of pixels and colors in the display has also grown… a cheap flip phone today probably has better graphics on its tiny screen than an original IBM PC CGA display (320×200, 2 bits per pixel).
thejeff
You had disks? I had to use a tape drive.
As in a cassette tape deck hooked up to the computer.
I remember when mobile devices did not exist, nor did home computers. I don’t know about any Pokemon games and I still find Dumbing of Age entertaining and relevant. I am just trying to say that the pop culture references don’t matter. The characters and the story matters, and to that end Willis is one of the better authors that I have read.
Clif
We all know that. We just don’t Willis to find out.
142 thoughts on “Magikarp”
Ana Chronistic
“find a lake, they’re Water-type magnets”
*owns three non-caught Gyarados, one of which is rubbish but maybe I can trade it to a non-local living in the desert*
Ana Chronistic
“also, Instinct took over that gym, but there’s only a Ditto in there lol”
Needfuldoer
Nintendo should have partnered with Staples so every copy and print center spawned nothing but Dittos.
RaijinK
I live right next to a lake and water types are never anywhere to be seen. They have forsaken my town. I’ll only get a Gyarados after about 200 more kilometers of walking. Man I wish they’d implement trading already.
Ana Chronistic
I guess, how populated is the area around that lake? b/c the one in our shopping district is all Magikarps, Psyducks, and like one Dratini every three hours. The residential one is a little less so, but then I have to either hike half an hour or run through a treacherous forest to get there so I have less data on it. Friend gets them all the time from the river by his house, tho.
also YES on trading soon pls =<
Emperor Daniel
Aww.
Clif
Danny employs being himself. It is surprisingly effective.
Doctor_Who
Shaggy’s off to get high with his friends at an old amusement park.
BoB Guy’s off to put on his psychotic clown makeup and hang around the old amusement park.
Funtimes ensue.
Jay Eff
Norville and Friends unmask Clown.
Norville and Friends: “Buckets of Blood Guy?!”
Johnny Bravo: “…Who’s that?”
Delicious Taffy
Good ol’ BoBby G.
MatthewTheLucky
Poor Amber. Spending so much time on a futile pursuit. And playing Pokemon.
Ana Chronistic
if she REALLY wanted futile, Ingress =p
DarkoNeko
Didn’t they get most of their pokéstop database from Ingress ?
AY
Yes, but Ingress is super hard depending on where you are. My entire hometown is covered in a green field, I can’t do jack about it on my own ? leveling can be a real chore
cesium133
Pokemon Go is headed that way here. All the gyms around here are level 10 blue. I could spend an hour taking down one, but it would be taken back within minutes, so it’s not worth it (especially when it’s cold outside).
Ana Chronistic
Thing is at least PoGo, even if it costs money, you can still play while housebound (like I was for a solid week of torture), where Ingress is effectively not a game if you can’t get to a portal.
thejeff
What can you do if housebound?
Or is your area busy enough that you actually find Pokemon in the house? I think I did once, but it was probably the GPS shifting enough to put me in a slightly better area.
I have used GPS error to help hatch eggs. It’s particularly amusing when it tells my I’m moving to fast while the phone is sitting on my desk.
Ana Chronistic
Pokémon spawn everywhere there are people (which is weird since canonically the opposite is true), so while it’s harder to get items w/o stops, you can still catch things. I mean, there’s actually an Exeggcute nest in my desk =p
(there was a townhouse for sale literally on top of a stop, and I regret not having the extra $150k to have bought it XD …somewhat)
spriteless
If they ever get back together, they can play mario kart on the switch.
TheAnonymousGuy
Soooo, what are the chances the next time we see lesile and robin their in bed together
Emperor Norton II
More likely they’ll be on the couch watching SU together.
Emperor Daniel
Which is especially funny, because I’m in the middle of a first-time Steven Universe binge-watch right now myself.
AlexanderHammil
Less “funny,” more “mildly interesting,” really. 😛
6Qubed
congressional couch cuddlin’
Dave
There always is Mario Kart. There will always be Mario Kart.
Doctor_Who
Yeah, it actually a less dated reference now. People still play that.
Sporky
Lol yeah, I was gonna say, this strip is already out of date.
Leorale
Yeah, odd choice to pick something that’ll be dated before the strip runs, and totally obscure in a couple years. But hey, maybe there will always be a new pokemon, just like there’s always new Mario.
BBCC
Nerds don’t play obscure games from their franchises? Huh. Awkward.
Emperor Norton II
I think Willis chose Pokemon Go because while the particular game might be less popular now (though there are still a few millions playing it, which is still something many companies would kill for), the franchise is probably going to stay with us until the end of time. And even if it didn’t have staying power (so to speak), it’ll probably take about ten years until it is truly obscure.
Regalli
It’s also a game that works really well for someone on a college campus needing excuses to get out and about. It’s not being played by everyone, but it is a good fit for Amber.
JetstreamGW
Dunno what y’all are talking about. I know plenty of people who still play Pokemon Go. Just ‘cuz everyone ever isn’t playing it anymore doesn’t mean nobody’s playing it 😛
Lumin
What they said. 🙂
Yet_One_More_Idiot
I still play (Super) Mario Kart occasionally. On my SNES.
I got an N64, but I never got any games for it other than the Mario Kart 64 it came bundled with. Which was way too easy compared to Super Mario Kart. 😛
(Fave games of all time are Terranigma, Illusion of Gaia, and Soulblazer; all SNES RPGs)
3oranges
I have actually seen someone playing Pokemon Go more recently than Mario Kart, though obviously that is still around. The initial excitement is gone, and so it isn’t in the news much, but Reports of its death are greatly exaggerated.
Pigeon Pollyx
I hope Amber and Danny make up and stuff, but to be entirely honest for a lot of reasons I don’t want them back together.
Tigsberg
Same, also I want Danny X Ethan to happen.
6Qubed
I’m still holding out for Amber/Danny/Ethan
I mean I’m not holding my breath or anything but it would be nice
timemonkey
Honestly, it would probably be horrible. Amber can’t even share with herself, Danny would feel like he was cheating on both of them and Amber still has complicated feelings about Ethan.
6Qubed
well I would argue that it’s not cheating if the rules allow for it, but you’re not wrong that the biggest issue that whole dynamic has is that the principles are each and in their own way incapable of nutting up and just *talking* about their issues. in this respect, I think Danny’s actually got the leg up A and E for no other reason than he’s been open and honest about discussing things with others when he thought the moment was right. Amber is still trying way too hard to double-bill as both the hero and the villain of her own story; and Ethan, bless his heart, is just way too damn passive most of the time
Schpoonman
What was Amber expecting?
Doctor_Who
Ratata and Pidgey, same as always.
inqntrol
Don’t forget Spearow.
cesium133
And the occasional Weedle. Maybe a Caterpie to really shake things up.
Ana Chronistic
ALL VENONATS >=|
DarkoNeko
“Sod that I’m gonna play with Sal again”
Stephen Bierce
I’ll Be All Right Without You…
Keulan
There’ll be someone else, I keep tellin’ myself
Keulan
Damn, that song is really appropriate for this strip.
lia47
i mean, nobody plays pokemon go anymore, and mario kart 8 deluxe is on the horizon…
showler
Nobody but the author. And me. And the two nerds pictured in the above comic.
Regalli
Two of my aunts (one of them with young children she plays with) still do regularly, and I make an effort to check in when I’m out and have the battery life to do so. (I keep meaning to get a backup source.) If you’re in an isolated area then yeah, but on a college campus there’s still definitely incentives to play.
Badgermole
Choosing when to walk away Can be a minor act of reclaiming agency for someone who didn’t get to call the shots in the relationship. This is hard for Danny and hard in a different way for Amber, but it needed to happen.
Sam
Yea, I am surprised Danny’s the one walking away. And not completely sure why he is doing it.
Ademadis
It’s a sign that he’s matured a lot if anything.
Amber has some pretty self-destructive tendencies that sabotaged the relationship, I kinda feel Danny had to walk away if he was ever going to make a point to her.
Jay Eff
*Reads Alt Text*
Mario Kart? I can remember when they were playing “Joe Montana Sports Talk Football.”
Leorale
But do you remember when Batman played Dance Dance Revolution?
Jay Eff
Oh, but of course!
Reltzik
I remember when the big game for portable devices was Tetris.
…. on the original Gameboy.
…. no high quite so high as knocking out 4 rows with a single long block.
Geneseepaws
Remembers making a 5-1/4″ copy/dup to load the 386, because 5-1/4″ failed so often, didn’t want to lose the real disk.
hof1991
upgrading the Apple II+, using punch cards, playing pong.. Wait…. maybe being old isn’t a game I want to win.
Reltzik
You win. The most geezer points I can claim is that my first gaming console was an Atari VCS. The one with the wood veneer.
DSL
Magnavox Odyssey 4000.
Chris Phoenix
Ah, but have you ever done it on a computer with one disk drive and 64K RAM? Insert disk 1… Insert disk 2… Insert disk 1… Insert disk 2…
This would have been around 1984-5. I was in high school.
Yes, computers literally have a million times as much RAM now as they did 30 years ago. And the standard disk held, what was it, 360 KB of data? Vs. at least 360 GB today. Of course, clock speed and access time haven’t advanced as fast – just a few thousand times, even if you count multiple cores.
Hmm, maybe that’s why computers today aren’t much more responsive than they were back then… Or maybe it’s that the number of computer viruses in the wild has probably grown a billionfold, which also requires more layers of security in the software.
Oh, and the number of pixels and colors in the display has also grown… a cheap flip phone today probably has better graphics on its tiny screen than an original IBM PC CGA display (320×200, 2 bits per pixel).
thejeff
You had disks? I had to use a tape drive.
As in a cassette tape deck hooked up to the computer.
Ana Chronistic
“I can’t imagine anyone needing more than 64kb!” – Bill Gates
Paul
I remember when mobile devices did not exist, nor did home computers. I don’t know about any Pokemon games and I still find Dumbing of Age entertaining and relevant. I am just trying to say that the pop culture references don’t matter. The characters and the story matters, and to that end Willis is one of the better authors that I have read.
Clif
We all know that. We just don’t Willis to find out.
BlackoutCreature
I remember when these two were playing Snoopy Tennis on their Game & Watch… I think.
Skizz