Show HN: Tom Nook's Laptop(tomnookslaptop.bert.org)
tomnookslaptop.bert.org
Show HN: Tom Nook's Laptop
https://tomnookslaptop.bert.org/
129 comments
> Don't cheat, it's a nice game.
Cheat if you want to, or need to, or whatever. If it makes the game more enjoyable for you or if you need an accessbility assist for any reason or just because you like to see content that might be locked behind arbitrary gates.
Not everyone approaches games with the same intent, and not everyone can approach games with the same abilities. Cheating is a way to both experience games differently (e.g. speedrunning) or at all.
Cheat if you want to, or need to, or whatever. If it makes the game more enjoyable for you or if you need an accessbility assist for any reason or just because you like to see content that might be locked behind arbitrary gates.
Not everyone approaches games with the same intent, and not everyone can approach games with the same abilities. Cheating is a way to both experience games differently (e.g. speedrunning) or at all.
Cool, just stay offline if you do though.
I don't want people dropping hacked in items on my island, it kind of defeats the purpose of progression for those who aren't cheating.
I don't want people dropping hacked in items on my island, it kind of defeats the purpose of progression for those who aren't cheating.
You think these people just go around to strangers' islands and drop hacked items all over the place? Sick prank.
This reminds me of the original Dungeon Siege. My friends and I always played on password protected servers hosted by one of us because there were so many cheaters out there and we wanted to feel like we'd earned our levels and equipment.
Sometimes we forgot to set a password and invariably some max level character would join and kill absolutely everything, then offer us cool items with impossible stats they'd "found". I never understood the appeal.
I actually had printed out a big stack of papers describing all the prefixes and suffixes in the game along with on which item types they could appear without cheating. Most of the time I didn't need to consult it since most cheaters would offer you the same item: "of Agony Ring of Agony".
Sometimes we forgot to set a password and invariably some max level character would join and kill absolutely everything, then offer us cool items with impossible stats they'd "found". I never understood the appeal.
I actually had printed out a big stack of papers describing all the prefixes and suffixes in the game along with on which item types they could appear without cheating. Most of the time I didn't need to consult it since most cheaters would offer you the same item: "of Agony Ring of Agony".
By the way, how can we visit other players' islands? We don't have any friends with a Switch with whom to exchange invitation codes.
I read that people are exchanging codes on Twitter etc.
There is no way to arbietrarily visit someone else's island, you have to be invited somehow.
If you don't have friends with a Switch, you can visit someone's islands with a "Dodo code" (i.e. a unique-ID for that island). As someone mentioned, some folks have gone via Twitter and I magine Reddit has a subreddit for it too.
One good thing is unless you are "best friends" on the game (this is a an additional step to being Switch friends), they cannot do many things on the island (chop down trees is the main thing I noticed).
If you don't have friends with a Switch, you can visit someone's islands with a "Dodo code" (i.e. a unique-ID for that island). As someone mentioned, some folks have gone via Twitter and I magine Reddit has a subreddit for it too.
One good thing is unless you are "best friends" on the game (this is a an additional step to being Switch friends), they cannot do many things on the island (chop down trees is the main thing I noticed).
I didn't read the GP's comment the same way you did.
Cheating in a single player game is like looking up a spoiler for the end of a movie. There's nothing wrong with it, but you should be aware the game may not be as much fun afterwards.
Cheating in a single player game is like looking up a spoiler for the end of a movie. There's nothing wrong with it, but you should be aware the game may not be as much fun afterwards.
I played Skyrim on god mode. Plenty fun for me.
I don't think that's a fair comparison, especially when it's a game that has a rich story. Running a cheat might get you to the end of that story faster or easier, but for some that's the only way they will complete the game and get that payoff.
Personally, I'm the type who will play a game straight through for the story and experience of it, then go back and do cheats to expand my enjoyment of the journey.
Again, this is all talking about single player games; cheating in multiplayer games is inexcusable as it will always negatively impact other players and their enjoyment of the game.
Personally, I'm the type who will play a game straight through for the story and experience of it, then go back and do cheats to expand my enjoyment of the journey.
Again, this is all talking about single player games; cheating in multiplayer games is inexcusable as it will always negatively impact other players and their enjoyment of the game.
I mean, no analogy is perfect. The point I went to get across is, it's fine to both say (A) there's nothing wrong with cheating if you need to do it, but also (B) you really should try to hold yourself back if you can.
To use a real example, Celeste is a very difficult single player game, and so the developers actually built in a cheat mode that any player can enable. I'm not going to lie, there are times I was tempted to turn it on.
But, personally, I'm really glad I held myself back! If I had turned on Celeste's assist mode, it would have cheapened the entire experience for me.
And to mention the other side again: Celeste's developers purposefully added Assist Mode for a reason, so anyone who truly needs it should go ahead and use it. Just, make a real effort to persevere if you can—you just might find yourself doing something that seemed impossible at first.
To use a real example, Celeste is a very difficult single player game, and so the developers actually built in a cheat mode that any player can enable. I'm not going to lie, there are times I was tempted to turn it on.
But, personally, I'm really glad I held myself back! If I had turned on Celeste's assist mode, it would have cheapened the entire experience for me.
And to mention the other side again: Celeste's developers purposefully added Assist Mode for a reason, so anyone who truly needs it should go ahead and use it. Just, make a real effort to persevere if you can—you just might find yourself doing something that seemed impossible at first.
We all come to games with different skills, different amounts of free time, different levels of anxiety and capacity to learn. The only thing you "should" do is play the game at the level and for the reasons that are fun for you.
AC seems to me like a sandbox game, so there is a lot to enjoy just by interacting with the game that doesn't necessitate grinding for bells or whatever to be able to enjoy it. That doesn't really apply to Celeste, where the fun is mainly in the challenge
There are people that don't plan to watch movies either but want to know how they end. I personally know someone that didn't want to take the time to watch all of "The Infinity Saga" Marvel movies before watching Infinity War/Endgame and looked up plot summaries.
Animal crossing is paced incredibly slowly. I have been playing for weeks and still don't have the landscaping or path tools. I can certainly see how some people just want to play for the town design and decoration aspects without wanting to sink months in to the game.
Sure, but it's harmless compared to cheating in a multiplayer game. Cheating in a single player game may or may not impact your enjoyment, but cheating in a multi player game will almost certainly reduce the enjoyment of others (even if it may increase your own).
Would you classify mods as cheating?
In every open world RPG I will always give myself unlimited inventory and durability, I can't stand those mechanics.
In every open world RPG I will always give myself unlimited inventory and durability, I can't stand those mechanics.
It really depends on the mod. The one you describe here I would personally consider cheating if there was a reason for the limitation in the first place. If it saves you multiple dangerous trips for instance.
Cheating is "act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage."
You're not being dishonest or unfair when you mod or (use a) cheat in a single player game, you're free to do as you please, however if other players are involved, there are categories of mods that would fit that description.
You're not being dishonest or unfair when you mod or (use a) cheat in a single player game, you're free to do as you please, however if other players are involved, there are categories of mods that would fit that description.
Some people believe that if you cheat, even in a single player game, it lessens the reward for them.
FWIW: I've experienced "cheating" both utterly ruining and enhancing a game.
FWIW: I've experienced "cheating" both utterly ruining and enhancing a game.
Animal Crossing is multiplayer but even if it were single player, it's a game that spans real time.
Cheating typically involves skipping that wait, which means people start talking about events in the future with certainty, technically spoilers that have to be avoided for a fixed amount of time.
Cheating typically involves skipping that wait, which means people start talking about events in the future with certainty, technically spoilers that have to be avoided for a fixed amount of time.
That actually heightens the reward for me to cheat in a single player game, so I guess it all evens out.
It lessens the lesson in delayed gratification and that perseverance yields results.
However if you already know those two lessons, and might find it more rewarding to play with other aspects of the game to reap other benefits - let no one stop you.
However if you already know those two lessons, and might find it more rewarding to play with other aspects of the game to reap other benefits - let no one stop you.
For the person playing or the person doing the judging?
That sounds more like modding than "cheating"
I saw it for sale in the shop for 70k bells
I just bought this game for the family.
When I was younger, there was a game called Animal Crossing Wild World for the Nintendo DS that is still one of my favorite games of all time. For all of the things that Nintendo gets wrong, Animal Crossing Wild World was very advanced for a game that came out in 2005.
You mentioned extracting save data from Animal Crossing for Switch and a smirk ran across my face. I have a very intimate and detailed history about the online community surrounding this game, script kiddies, Action Replay, and damaged game carts.
Does anyone remember Carlos and Nintendo-Play.com?
https://www.google.com/search?&q=acww+brick+seed
When I was younger, there was a game called Animal Crossing Wild World for the Nintendo DS that is still one of my favorite games of all time. For all of the things that Nintendo gets wrong, Animal Crossing Wild World was very advanced for a game that came out in 2005.
You mentioned extracting save data from Animal Crossing for Switch and a smirk ran across my face. I have a very intimate and detailed history about the online community surrounding this game, script kiddies, Action Replay, and damaged game carts.
Does anyone remember Carlos and Nintendo-Play.com?
https://www.google.com/search?&q=acww+brick+seed
This is why I visit HN, the little side projects like this are simply delightful.
This is however not rendering anything but the controls on mobile so I will have to take your word for it.
This is however not rendering anything but the controls on mobile so I will have to take your word for it.
Hunh, that’s strange. Works fine on my iPhone. What are you running?
Firefox Fennec on Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Android 10
Desktop Firefox works fine.
Desktop Firefox works fine.
I think I'd really like Android if all my experiences with it weren't on Samsungs
This is exactly how I feel about Android; it's a little frustrating to me, looking at my family's Android phone usage, that most peoples' experiences of Android are solely on Samsung devices with extremely heavy modifications to the interface. It's great that companies are allowed to customize the interface to fit their devices, but at the same time, it can create a skewed perspective of Android devices as a whole.
My parents both liked Android all right, but had issues with Samsung-specific interface choices, and eventually switched back over to Apple as a result. Same with my sisters (who only experience very early Android phones), etc. Same issue with my wife, except she finally got a Pixel, which fixed her skewed perception of Android devices.
My parents both liked Android all right, but had issues with Samsung-specific interface choices, and eventually switched back over to Apple as a result. Same with my sisters (who only experience very early Android phones), etc. Same issue with my wife, except she finally got a Pixel, which fixed her skewed perception of Android devices.
Switching to Lineage OS after using bloated stock ROMs is a breath of fresh air, both in terms of performance and simplicity.
Works fine for me on Firefox mobile, on lineageos on a oneplus6
Working fine on my Android 10 phone in both Firefox 68 and Chrome 80
Same issue with Fennec 68.7 on a Gemini PDA running Android 8.
Works for me on fennec_aurora, Android 8
Works great on my iPhone 6S, even, here.
3 full size USB ports, a USB-C port (could it be Thunderbolt?), a 3.5mm headphone jack, and an SD card reader. All in all, Tom Nook’s laptop appears to have pretty decent connectivity options for a modern laptop, while still remaining relatively thin.
Look again. It's an absolute tank of a laptop with dimension proportions you'd only see in gaming laptops.
Well, I was using the USB port as a frame of reference, since obviously external size references in the game are unlikely to be consistent... to me it looks somewhere along the lines of X1 Carbon size based on that. Maybe smaller. It’d be easy to derive more from the texture.
Using one of the USB-A ports for scale, the base seems to be 1.2 centimeters thick-- which I guess is more than a Macbook Air, but certainly not "a tank", IMO. For reference, my 2014 Thinkpad 440p has a base thats slightly more than 2 centimeters thick, and my Minecraft FPS can corroborate that it was never much of a gaming laptop ;)
And is that an ethernet port on the right?
Ohh, good call: I wasn’t able to readily identify it. Now all I wonder is what the other 3.5mm looking hole is... maybe power?
Maybe the inside is bigger than the outside to fit all of that stuff in ;-)
Given the apparent prevalence of Time Lords and Tardises in the Animal Crossing universe (looking at you, Blathers), it wouldn't surprise me.
Connectivity like that is common outside the Apple world. See Lenovo Thinkpads, HP Elitebooks, most gaming laptops. It's the fashion statement computers like Macbooks that have remoted ports for no good reason.
I was mostly being silly, because I personally use mostly thinkpads, and honestly mostly pretty thick ones. However just to add: my current perception of thin laptops is mostly based off of Microsoft Surface devices rather than Apple devices. (I dropped out of that market after the 2015 Macbook Pro or so.)
I would say it's 2 full size USB ports and 1 HDMI.
I don't play this game, but I have heard of it. Took me way too long to figure out what the discussion was about. It's from Animal Crossing game on Nintendo Switch.
Okay, I have to ask - are the app names from the game, or your addition?
I took some creative liberties there.
You did an excellent job naming these. This made my day.
Sorry for everyone who couldn't open this, I tuned some apache settings and the site should load much faster now!
Just a heads up, OpenDNS blocks your domain for "Web Spam". You might want to poke around and make sure you don't have unprotected comment forms or open redirects.
https://domain.opendns.com/bert.org
https://domain.opendns.com/bert.org
At my work: This site is blocked due to a security threat that was discovered by the Cisco Umbrella security researchers.
Yikes, thanks, I'll submit that for re-review.
I don't mean to start a flame thread, but people moved away from Apache precisely because it's too heavy and slow. Nginx should work much more smoothly, unless there's some dynamic backend bottlenecking instead (and even then, Nginx' buffering frees up the backend faster).
Is this being served off of a Switch or something? Because it's sure not loading for me.
Ooh, it looks like the black MacBook from 2007! Definitely my favorite Apple laptop I've ever used. Less plasticky feeling than the iBook it replaced, more comfortable to use than the metal unibody machines that replaced it.
I had the plain old white version and stuck a bunch of blackbook replacement parts on it to make it look kind of like an oreo.
I had the plain old white version and stuck a bunch of blackbook replacement parts on it to make it look kind of like an oreo.
Totally, something like a mix between that and the Sony TZ series.
Also gives me flashbacks to the Google CR-48, which itself looked like a Blackbook but a bit sexy-fied.
Also gives me flashbacks to the Google CR-48, which itself looked like a Blackbook but a bit sexy-fied.
Was that the model that introduced the magnetic power cables? I got one of those right out of high school and it was the first laptop I'd owned that wasn't a 3+ year old hand me down. It was magic.
That sounds like it'd look awesome, do you have any photos of it? :>
I'll check when I get home-- I probably still have most of that computer. It's similar to this[1] but the non-letter keys are also swapped for black keys like this[2]. I was super into chessboard pattern at the time so I wanted everything to be black and white.
[1] https://osxdaily.com/2010/10/30/mac-setups-oreo-macbook/ [2] https://www.blogger.com/profile/01006273801333641372
[1] https://osxdaily.com/2010/10/30/mac-setups-oreo-macbook/ [2] https://www.blogger.com/profile/01006273801333641372
The desktop background also reminds me of Tiger.
Looks to me like a Windows UI or one that was influenced by Windows.
Very nice work! How did you narrow down your search to extract the laptop model specifically, among what must be thousands of 3D assets.
I'd love a breakdown of your process!
Seconding this! It'd be great if you could include the extraction process from the beginning too for those of us who are unfamiliar.
So it looks like they use ethernet and SD cards in the Animal Crossing universe too (right hand side)
(the middle is probably USB but rectangles aren't very diagnostic)
And I think there's HDMI and a 3.5 mm headphone jack on the left? :P
And I think there's HDMI and a 3.5 mm headphone jack on the left? :P
Small space bar, weird enter key.
Other than that only thing I'd really want is a trackpoint.
It's extremely similar to the Japanese MacBook layout:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KB_Japanese_Mac_-_Apple_K...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KB_Japanese_Mac_-_Apple_K...
.svg){kind=link}
That style of enter key is common on European and Japanese keyboard layouts.
Similarly, the small spacebar is common on some Japanese keyboards to accomodate for extra language input keys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_input_keys
Similarly, the small spacebar is common on some Japanese keyboards to accomodate for extra language input keys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_input_keys
Ask and ye shall receive. I love how the answers are always provided :)
Is Noom Stonks different from the Turnip Stalkmarket?
Very fun :) ...weird flex, but ok!
There’s a slight reflectivity to the laptop. At certain angles I can see a white light reflection but I can’t quite make out if there’s any shape to it.
I’m sure it’s nothing, but perhaps you could embed an Easter egg of your own?
There’s a slight reflectivity to the laptop. At certain angles I can see a white light reflection but I can’t quite make out if there’s any shape to it.
I’m sure it’s nothing, but perhaps you could embed an Easter egg of your own?
What was the process for extracting the file?
So much this. Is the Switch really that insecure that there are ROMs floating around of this already? o.o
Yes, there's already emulators able to run the game (if barely and not really playable)[1]
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EdJ2dfL9S8
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EdJ2dfL9S8
Well that's a 2500U, almost nothing but the simplest games are playable on that chip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhdDfcEkxXM
This one looks more playable albeit still very choppy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhdDfcEkxXM
This one looks more playable albeit still very choppy.
There was a hardware boot ROM exploit a while ago that enabled arbitrary code execution, and I am presuming that is allowing the ROM dump.
Judging by the output folder structure, it was likely done with KillzX's Switch Toolbox
https://github.com/KillzXGaming/Switch-Toolbox
https://github.com/KillzXGaming/Switch-Toolbox
Seconded. I'd really love to know more about how it's done.
Has Mario Broth seen this?
https://twitter.com/MarioBrothBlog
https://twitter.com/MarioBrothBlog
I wonder how the Noom Stonks are doing in ACNH?
> So I extracted the model resources for his laptop from the game binary and rendered it here. Weird flex but ok.
Best faq ever
Best faq ever
Wild that it's "noom" and not "nyoom", tbh.
"Weird flex but okay" I love it!
Can someone write a song about this to the tune of John Brown's Body?
Gave me a smile and a quiet chuckle, thanks for this little bit of fun OP.
The app labeled "noom" looks like Skype, not Zoom.
Runs great on my 2017 One Plus, good job!
Can anyone translate the text?
Seems to be broken on Firefox.
Works for me, v75.0 (64-bit) on MacOS Catalina. You were probably experiencing the hug of death.
yep. opening in FF 75.0 on Linux shows a white blank page. Opening in chromium renders properly.
Looks like it's three.js failing to initialize webgl in firefox. Probably some firefox webgl issue.
Looks like it's three.js failing to initialize webgl in firefox. Probably some firefox webgl issue.
Same here. Broken on FF 75, works on Chromium 81
Tom Nook's Chromebook
hug of death for me, will bookmark and see if it's up later
thumb up for doing this.
Also, nootube is great. Cat video is going on ;)
Also, nootube is great. Cat video is going on ;)
Weird flex, but OK.
That spacebar.
Just why?
Classic Nintendo fan. Not enough content to satisfy, make your own entertainment.
Quite the opposite. So enthralling one obsesses over it and incorporates it into their own dreams and fantasy.
Nintendo is quite special. The Studio Ghibli of gaming.
Nintendo is quite special. The Studio Ghibli of gaming.
I'm pretty objective since I've beaten every Zelda and I can't agree. Their games just aren't at the same level as anything modern.
They use a big marketing budget to push their otherwise medicore platform.
Although I think n64 was decent.
They use a big marketing budget to push their otherwise medicore platform.
Although I think n64 was decent.
> I'm pretty objective since I've beaten every Zelda and I can't agree. Their games just aren't at the same level as anything modern.
A lot of "modern" games come with rough edges. I'm not saying that they're not good games, but you can tell it was a bunch of people working to crank out features, exercising every new capability their engine provides.
There's a level of polish that a lot of Nintendo games have. They don't necessarily try to push technical boundaries. They'll take a simple concept or gameplay paradigm and then attempt to be fully immersive within the scope of they've defined.
Modern AAA games feel like summer blockbusters. Marvel superhero films.
Nintendo games feel like Miyazaki. Breath of the Wild legitimately felt like playing through one of his films.
A lot of "modern" games come with rough edges. I'm not saying that they're not good games, but you can tell it was a bunch of people working to crank out features, exercising every new capability their engine provides.
There's a level of polish that a lot of Nintendo games have. They don't necessarily try to push technical boundaries. They'll take a simple concept or gameplay paradigm and then attempt to be fully immersive within the scope of they've defined.
Modern AAA games feel like summer blockbusters. Marvel superhero films.
Nintendo games feel like Miyazaki. Breath of the Wild legitimately felt like playing through one of his films.
>There's a level of polish that a lot of Nintendo games have.
I'm not sure what games you are referring to, unless you are talking about n64 and GameCube era.
Botw was empty and Animal crossing has huge problems. Not to mention the failures of Mario party.
I'm not sure what games you are referring to, unless you are talking about n64 and GameCube era.
Botw was empty and Animal crossing has huge problems. Not to mention the failures of Mario party.
What are you even talking about lol?
Animal Crossing has huge problems? Like what? It's a simple game about managing friendship and an island. It does that perfectly. There was some issues with multiplayer, but even those where minor and are being fixed.
BOTW is empty????? Have you never played a large map game ever? It's absolutely amazing and one of the top rated games of all time.
You're just being an iconoclast for no reason but to get downvotes?
Animal Crossing has huge problems? Like what? It's a simple game about managing friendship and an island. It does that perfectly. There was some issues with multiplayer, but even those where minor and are being fixed.
BOTW is empty????? Have you never played a large map game ever? It's absolutely amazing and one of the top rated games of all time.
You're just being an iconoclast for no reason but to get downvotes?
Ac,- Multiplayer is unpolished, and you can only have 1 main player. Also https://www.wired.com/story/animal-crossing-i-am-not-relaxed...
Botw is empty. Yes, large maps are common in 2020. Elder scrolls, assassin's Creed, and GTA come to mind as full but large worlds. Instead of walking to a destination, you'd often run into side quests.
I'm wondering if you've only Nintendo gamed and are just unaware.
Botw is empty. Yes, large maps are common in 2020. Elder scrolls, assassin's Creed, and GTA come to mind as full but large worlds. Instead of walking to a destination, you'd often run into side quests.
I'm wondering if you've only Nintendo gamed and are just unaware.
> Elder Scrolls
The sheer seriousness with which that series takes itself and how ridiculously cringey it ends up being, due to broken AI and a host of other problems, is something of a hilarious meme:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcybVOrBgpzUxm-mlBT0WTA/vid...
If that's your idea of "anything modern" then yikes, pass.
The sheer seriousness with which that series takes itself and how ridiculously cringey it ends up being, due to broken AI and a host of other problems, is something of a hilarious meme:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcybVOrBgpzUxm-mlBT0WTA/vid...
If that's your idea of "anything modern" then yikes, pass.
>I'm wondering if you've only Nintendo gamed and are just unaware.
That is unnecessarily patronizing. Just because someone does not agree with your opinions does not mean they are ignorant.
And just to take the example I'm most familiar with from your list, sure you occasionally run across a side-quest in Skyrim, but most of the time the world is just populated with the same small set of spawning NPCs who exist to add the 12 or so big quests to your journal.
That is unnecessarily patronizing. Just because someone does not agree with your opinions does not mean they are ignorant.
And just to take the example I'm most familiar with from your list, sure you occasionally run across a side-quest in Skyrim, but most of the time the world is just populated with the same small set of spawning NPCs who exist to add the 12 or so big quests to your journal.
7 of the top 25 highest rated games are Nintendo. Of course whether or not you like a game is personal and subjective but only pointing out lots of people disagree with your assessment
https://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/all/...
For me BotW is my favorite game ever. Not saying it's a perfect game or that you should like it but for me personally I got 120 hours of pure joy from that game. Where as I didn't get into Witcher or Skyrim etc.. (not saying those are bad games, just didn't do it for me).
https://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/all/...
For me BotW is my favorite game ever. Not saying it's a perfect game or that you should like it but for me personally I got 120 hours of pure joy from that game. Where as I didn't get into Witcher or Skyrim etc.. (not saying those are bad games, just didn't do it for me).
"I'm pretty objective" - the beginning of a pretty subjective comment ...
> anything modern.
Which is? What makes it modern?
Which is? What makes it modern?
I'm not sure how you can acquire it by normal/elgit means, but if you are able to extract your save file from Animal Crossing New Horizons you can use a save editor (google kwsch/NHSE) to add this item to your inventory.
ps. Don't cheat, it's a nice game.