― Just a little guide since my version of Hux is completely novel based prior to my canon divergence mid-TFA. Some of these novel facts may contrast the movies.
✦― Hux was born in the Outer Rim. He is not from a wealthy and prestigious family. Rather he is likely upper-middle class. Any recognition bestowed on the family name was due to Brendol Hux's accomplishments during his time as Commandant at the Arkanis Imperial Academy or Armitage's breakthroughs in technology.
✦― Armitage is a bastard, born to a kitchen women his father cheated on his wife with. Brendol Hux kidnapped Armitage from his step-mother and brought him to Jakku during the Imperial Remnant. Brendol openly despised his son for being too small, weak and delicate. Therefore Armitage's position was primarily earned by his own ambition and dedication rather than nepotism. His father defamed him and was abusive to him throughout his childhood and young adulthood.
✦― Armitage's father created the First Order stormtrooper program and was responsible for developing the indoctrination software and techniques. Brendol was forced to teach his skills to his son by Grand Admiral Sloane. Therefore, this position and segment of Armitage's career path was inherited rather than chosen.
✦― Armitage was mentored by the First Order's original founder, Grand Admiral Sloane. He met her when he was five, aboard the shuttled departing from the war of Jakku during their escape. Sloane was gravely injured and Armitage looked after her while protecting her from the original batch of stormtroopers ( a group of orphaned preteens from Jakku that Brendol conditioned to vicious child soldiers. ) In exchange, Sloane protected Armitage from his father's abuse and eventually grew fond of him.
✦― Armitage spent his childhood on Jakku, in wild space and in the Unknown Regions. He attended a secret on-ship Academy prior to becoming an officer.
✦― Armitage canonically hates Snoke and was plotting to kill him. His allegiance and his ideologies align with those of Grand Admiral Sloane. Sloane was an Imperial reformist who planned to use the Empire's might to create a central government and clean up the Galaxy via military power. Armitage's ideals still align with hers, despite his corruption after she was eliminated from the First Order.
As displayed by his reflection in the TLJ novel : But Hux knew the future would need a different kind of leader—one able to direct the galaxy’s industries and nurture their innovations, while commanding its citizens’ respect.
Although he serves Snoke, he does not agree with Snoke or Ren's ideologies or their use of the First Order's resources.
✦― Hux was a child genius who grew into an accomplished engineer. He was involved in designing The Supremacy, dreadnought that served as the First Order's mobile capital. He was the last Weapons Director of Starkiller. He was the head of development for Hyperspace tracking. And he was involved in developing simulations for the Stormtrooper training program.
✦― Armitage and Phasma murdered Brendol Hux via the use of a poison beetle, and played it off as a natural death. The symptoms of the death read as as unknown illness. The pair have systematically eliminated various First Order officers in order to rise to the top.
✦― Hux is stuck at the rank of General because Snoke refuses to promote him further. Despite commanding a fleet of star destroyers ( the position belonging to and Fleet Admiral ), Serving as Weapon's Director of Starkiller, and taking the lead on several other projects, Hux is condemned to the rank of "General". This rank does not reflect his vast responsibilities, clearance and authority. Rather it is reflective of the duties he inherited from his father ( the overseeing of the stormtrooper program ), which has little to do with Hux's day to day agenda. In truth, Snoke is pigeon holding Hux at the rank of General to keep him in line due to his treacherous thoughts and intentions toward the Supreme Leader.
CFTC chairman Michael Selig sat down with WIRED to discuss how the agency scours Polymarket and other prediction markets for illegal activit
For most of the past year, it looked like prediction markets had kicked off a new golden age of fraud. On Polymarket, traders raked in fortunes from suspiciously timed bets on geopolitical events like the raid on Venezuela and the Iran War. It wasn’t clear whether the US government would bother pursuing some of the most flagrant bad actors, since Polymarket’s crypto-based platform was technically offshore and not regulated or licensed within the country.
Now, however, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees prediction markets, wants you to know that it’s watching very, very closely. The agency is searching for suspicious behavior from traders within the United States who have been sneaking onto offshore markets, including Polymarket’s crypto platform—which is blocked stateside—by using virtual private networks. “We're going to find them, and we're going to bring actions,” agency chairman Michael Selig told WIRED this week, speaking from the CFTC’s headquarters in Washington, DC.
Selig says the agency, which is especially lean right now, is staffing up. Like so many other AI-pilled workplaces, the CFTC is also leaning into automation to handle the growing workload, including tools that analyze trading patterns and flag potential manipulation. “You’ve got so much data,” Selig says. “When we feed it into AI, we get really great information. It can help us understand things, like where we might want to investigate, or when we might need to send a subpoena to a trader.”
In addition to proprietary surveillance systems developed in-house, the agency’s arsenal includes third-party blockchain tracing tools like Chainalysis for crypto platforms, and market abuse detection software including Nasdaq Smarts for centralized markets. (Beyond Nasdaq Smarts, the agency did not specify which AI tools it uses and declined to share more specific examples.)
Prominent prediction market companies have recently started touting all the work they’re doing to catch sketchy bettors. US-based exchange Kalshi, Polymarket’s primary competitor, eagerly announced that it has suspended and penalized customers flagged for insider trading and market manipulation.
In April, after significant backlash over suspected insider trading, Polymarket announced its own partnership with Chainalysis. It was part of a broader push to crack down on market manipulation. While the company’s CEO, Shayne Coplan, had talked in the past about why insider trading could be good for prediction markets, Polymarket changed its approach this spring, updating its market integrity rules and announcing a partnership with Palantir for its US-based sports markets (the Chainalysis deal focuses on the offshore platform). The company did not respond to WIRED’s request for comments for this story.
According to Chainalysis spokesperson Maddie Kenney, the company analyzes the same data for both clients. “The value Chainalysis adds for our customers, including Polymarket and the CFTC, is organizing the data and enriching it with the attributions and insights we've accumulated over years in the space,” she says. Certainly sounds like a good deal for Chainalysis!Got a Tip?Are you a current or former government employee who wants to talk about what's happening? We'd like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact the reporter securely on Signal at Kateknibbs.09.
The CFTC's assurances that it is hunting insiders comes at a moment of intense scrutiny on prediction markets. In March, Connecticut senator Chris Murphy told WIRED that he suspected White House staffers were engaged in insider trading on war-related contracts. At the beginning of April, seven members of Congress asked the CFTC to investigate overseas markets offering war-themed events contracts. In a letter, the lawmakers argued that the commission had the authority and responsibility to curb insider trading, especially on “morally obscene” trades on military action. Selig recently told Congress that the company is pursuing “hundreds, if not thousands” of insider trading tips.
Investigations are not limited to federally regulated exchanges. “We’re surveilling the markets on a global basis,” he tells WIRED.
Selig says that the agency will exert extraterritorial jurisdiction—its legal ability to enforce its laws beyond traditional boundaries—when it finds suspicious activity on offshore platforms like Polymarket, though he says it’s a case-by-case approach. “We use it in extreme circumstances,” he says, with an eye towards whether charges have a strong chance of sticking in court. “In any extraterritorial litigation, there's going to be challenges to our authority, and that could also impair our ability to bring cases in the future.” According to Selig, the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act allows the CFTC more leeway to pursue this kind of enforcement action, by giving it more authority over foreign swap activities that impact the US. When appropriate, the agency works with regulators from other countries, too. “For cases where we’re not sure we’ll win, or it’s less in our wheelhouse and more of a foreign matter, we would relay it to a foreign regulator,” he says. “We’re constantly referring cases.” (The agency declined to specify which cases it had referred.)
So far, exactly one man has been charged with insider trading in the United States. On April 23, federal agents arrested a US Army special forces soldier for trades he made on Polymarket last year tied to the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. After the arrest, Polymarket claimed that it had flagged the trade to the government.
Selig is insistent that the CFTC is only just getting started. The agency will identify wrongdoers, he says—no matter “how large or how small.”
Anton Peraire-Bueno and James Peraire-Bueno stand accused of stealing $25 million worth of crypto from Ethereum traders in a novel fraud sch
Two MIT-trained brothers accused of a $25 million crypto heist go on trial Tuesday.
A federal jury in Manhattan must decide if the 12-second transaction was fraud or fair play.
The Peraire-Bueno brothers are charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering.
Federal prosecutors allege two MIT-educated brothers pulled off a cryptocurrency heist in a matter of seconds, stealing $25 million in a "first-of-its-kind" fraud scheme.
The brothers' defense? There was no fraud at all. All they did was outsmart some "predatory" automated trading bots. In the dog-eat-dog Wild West of crypto trading, it was fair game, not fraud.
That's what defense attorneys for Anton Peraire-Bueno, 25, and James Peraire-Bueno, 29, are set to argue when the brothers' criminal case heads to trial in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday.
If convicted of the conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering charges against them, the brothers — both highly educated in math and computer sciences — face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count.
The trial comes amid efforts by the Trump administration to bring more order to the cryptocurrency world, including through new regulations.
The prosecutors' case
Prosecutors say the pair's 12-second Ethereum blockchain theft in April 2023 was "meticulously planned" over at least three months, right down to their online searches for "how to wash crypto" and "top crypto lawyers."
"Money launder statue of limitations," prosecutors say they searched at one point, misspelling statute.
The brothers, prosecutors allege, used "bait transactions" to find three victim traders and study their trading habits.
They then "lured" the victims' trading bots into a carefully set, fast-acting trap.
The trap was set with an irresistible bundle of crypto trades — the kind of transactions that the brothers correctly guessed the victim's bots would leap at the chance to profit from, prosecutors say.
The brothers then sprung the trap shut. Prosecutors say they exploited a software "vulnerability" that let them quickly glimpse their prey's private transaction information and "tamper" with the purchase in a classic bait-and-switch.
Instead of generating an anticipated windfall, the victims found that their $25 million had purchased a pile of effectively worthless, illiquid junk crypto.
Along the way, prosecutors say, the brothers hid their own identities — and the location of the heist's ill-gotten gain — through a web of shell companies, crypto addresses, and foreign crypto exchanges.
The heist itself, prosecutors say, was executed in just 12 seconds — the brief pause between the moment a crypto trade is made and when it is officially logged on the blockchain.
"Using the specialized skills developed during their education, as well as their expertise in cryptocurrency trading" the brothers "exploited the very integrity of the Ethereum blockchain," prosecutors said in a 19-page indictment.
The Peraire-Bueno brothers "manipulated and tampered with the process and protocols by which transactions are validated and added to the Ethereum blockchain," the indictment alleges.
"In doing so, they fraudulently gained access to pending private transactions and used that access to alter transactions and obtain their victims' cryptocurrency."
The brothers' lawyers have told prosecutors that they are not interested in even considering taking a plea, prosecutors revealed at a hearing on Thursday.
Not backing down
Instead, the defense is set to push back hard against the prosecution's allegations, at trial, before a jury.
"There's no central authority" governing the Ethereum blockchain, Patrick Looby, who represents the elder brother, James, told US District Court Judge Jessica G. L Clarke during oral arguments in June.
"And there's no government regulations. Instead, economic incentives guide parties' behavior," Looby argued. Prosecutors, he said, are alleging conduct that the government has never sought to criminalize, he argued, including taking advantage of a software vulnerability or using a crypto transaction as "bait."
For fraud, "there needs to be a promise to the victim," he also argued.
"Here, there is no alleged communication at all between the Peraire-Buenos and the traders. And for that reason as well, there's no alleged intent to defraud," he told the judge.
The so-called victims "made very risky bets on a strategy that didn't pay out," he added. "But there was nothing stolen and there was no theft, as that word would normally be used."
The alleged victims lost their cryptocurrency "through pre-programmed trades without ever interacting with the Peraire-Buenos, directly or indirectly," the defense attorneys argued earlier this year, in a failed motion to dismiss the indictment.
"Before this indictment, no Ethereum user would have understood that thwarting a predatory attempt by 'bots' engaged in market manipulation could lead to criminal charges," they wrote.
"No court has ever applied these statutes to similar transactions," they argued. "And the Peraire-Buenos had no reason to know that their alleged conduct may be considered unlawful."
Members of the defense team declined Business Insider's requests for comment on the case. A spokesperson for the prosecution did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prospective jurors will be told on Tuesday that the trial may run into the first week of November.
The Best Cryptocurrency Exchange Software for Beginners to Experts in 2024
Introduction
Cryptocurrency trading has grown exponentially, driving the demand for secure, efficient, and feature-rich exchange platforms. Whether you are a beginner looking for an intuitive interface or an expert trader seeking advanced tools, selecting the right cryptocurrency exchange software is crucial. The best crypto exchange software solutions in 2024 must offer a balance of security, liquidity, scalability, and compliance with global regulations. This guide explores the essential features, types, and leading platforms to help traders and businesses make informed decisions.
Understanding Cryptocurrency Exchange Software
A cryptocurrency exchange software functions as a digital marketplace where users can buy, sell, and trade digital assets. The platform facilitates transactions by matching orders and ensuring smooth fund transfers. It implements robust security measures to safeguard user assets and data while generating revenue through transaction fees.
Key Aspects of How Crypto Exchange Software Works
User Registration
Users must sign up on the platform, providing personal details and completing identity verification (KYC/AML) to comply with regulations in regions such as crypto exchanges in the USA, crypto exchange UK, and crypto exchange Canada.
Depositing Funds
Users can fund their exchange wallets using fiat currency (like USD, EUR, or GBP) or cryptocurrencies. Reliable platforms integrate multiple payment gateways, ensuring seamless deposits and withdrawals.
Order Placement and Execution
Traders place buy or sell orders specifying the price and quantity. The platform’s order matching engine processes these orders, ensuring optimal execution.
Transaction Settlement
Once an order is matched, the trade is executed, and the respective cryptocurrency is transferred between user wallets on the exchange.
Fees and Revenue Models
Exchanges earn revenue through various fees:
Trading fees (maker and taker fees)
Deposit and withdrawal fees
Listing fees for new cryptocurrencies
Premium subscription fees for advanced tools
Types of Cryptocurrency Exchanges
Centralized Exchanges (CEXs)
A CEX is operated by a single entity, managing user funds and providing high liquidity and user-friendly features. Examples include Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken.
Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs)
A DEX runs on blockchain technology, allowing peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries. It offers enhanced privacy but may suffer from lower liquidity compared to CEXs.
Hybrid Exchanges
Combining the advantages of CEXs and DEXs, hybrid exchanges provide liquidity, security, and user control over funds.
Essential Features of the Best Crypto Exchange Software
1. Security Mechanisms
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for secure logins and withdrawals
Cold Wallet Storage to protect funds from cyber threats
DDoS Protection against malicious attacks
KYC/AML Compliance to prevent fraud and money laundering
2. Liquidity Management
A high-liquidity exchange ensures seamless order execution. Liquidity pools and automated market makers (AMM) enhance the efficiency of trade matching.
3. User Experience and Customization
User-friendly dashboard for beginners
Advanced trading tools like charting indicators, APIs, and automated trading for experts
White-label solutions for businesses seeking a branded crypto exchange platform development
4. Multi-Currency Support
The best cryptocurrency exchange software should support major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins, along with fiat currency integration.
5. Regulatory Compliance
Adhering to crypto exchange Dubai regulations
Compliance with global crypto laws (USA, UK, Canada)
Implementing robust KYC and AML procedures
Top Cryptocurrency Exchange Software Solutions in 2024
Binance Exchange Software – High liquidity, top-notch security, and an intuitive interface.
Coinbase Pro Software – Ideal for beginners with seamless fiat-crypto trading.
Kraken Exchange Software – Regulatory compliance and margin trading.
White-Label Crypto Exchange Software – Fully customizable platforms from crypto exchange development companies.
Decentralized Exchange Solutions – Secure, non-custodial trading for privacy-focused traders.
How to Choose the Right Cryptocurrency Exchange Software
When selecting a cryptocurrency exchange software solution provider, consider:
Security Features – Ensure robust encryption, cold storage, and 2FA.
Scalability – Choose a platform that can handle high trading volumes.
Customization – If launching a business, opt for a crypto exchange platform development company.
Regulatory Compliance – Ensure adherence to financial regulations in respective regions.
Justtry Technologies: Your Trusted Crypto Exchange Software Provider
Justtry Technologies is a leading provider of cutting-edge cryptocurrency exchange software solutions tailored for businesses and traders. Whether you are looking for a white-label crypto exchange, a secure trading platform, or scalable exchange software, Justtry Technologies delivers innovative solutions with high-end security, liquidity management, and compliance features. As a top crypto exchange development company, Justtry Technologies ensures that its software meets the latest industry standards, making it the perfect choice for businesses entering the digital asset trading space.
Conclusion
Choosing the best crypto exchange software in 2024 requires evaluating security, liquidity, user experience, and compliance. Whether you're an individual trader or a business seeking to launch an exchange, leveraging top crypto exchange development companies can provide tailored solutions. Justtry Technologies stands out as a trusted cryptocurrency exchange software solution provider, offering robust, scalable, and secure platforms that cater to both beginners and experts. The future of cryptocurrency trading lies in adopting scalable, secure, and compliant platforms that enhance the trading experience while ensuring regulatory adherence.
Top 6 Cryptocurrency Exchange Clone Scripts you should know in 2025
In thi Article about Top 6 Cryptocurrency Exchange Clone Scripts you should know in 2025, Read it out.
What is Cryptocurrency Exchange
To purchase, sell, or trade cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, you go to an online marketplace called a cryptocurrency exchange. Cryptocurrency exchanges work much like stock exchanges, except instead of issuing or trading stocks, you trade digital currencies.
In simple terms, it’s where Buyers and sellers meet to exchange cryptocurrencies. You can buy cryptocurrency with ordinary money (such as dollars or euros) or swap one cryptocurrency for another. Some exchanges allow you to store your crypto in secure wallets held on the platform.
There are two main types:
Centralized exchanges (CEX)
Decentralized exchanges (DEX)
What is Cryptocurrency Exchange Clone Script
The Cryptocurrency Exchange Clone Script is a ready-made program that simulates the technical features and functionality of popular cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, or Bitfinex. Compared to developing from scratch, the clone scripts significantly ease and shorten the time required to set up a cryptocurrency exchange network for an aspiring entrepreneur and firms.
These sort of scripts are somewhat equipped with all the basic features to run a cryptocurrency exchange, like user account management, wallet integration, order book, trading engine, liquidity management, and options for secure payment gateways. The whole idea of a clone script is to give you something out-of-the-box that can be customized, thus allowing you to skip the whole painful development process but still be able to modify the script to suit your needs.
Top 6 Cryptocurrency Exchange Clone Scripts
There are many clone scripts for cryptocurrency exchange development, but here are the top 6 of the cryptocurrency exchange clone script.
Binance clone script
Coinbase Clone Script
Kucoin Clone Script
Paxful Clone Script
WazirX clone script
FTX Clone Script
Binance clone script
A Binance clone script is a Pre-made software that is almost ready for use to create your own cryptocurrency exchange platform, along the way simulating Binance, one of the largest and most popular exchanges in the world. This “clone” is a reapplication of some of the features and functionality of Binance, but it can allow for some level of customization depending upon your particular brand and need.
Key Features:
User Registration and Login
Multi-Currency Support
Trading Engine
Multi-Layer Security
Admin Dashboard
Wallet Integration
KYC/AML Compliance
Liquidity Management
Mobile Compatibility
Referral and Affiliate Program
Trading Fees and Commission Management
Live Market Charts and Trading Tools
Coinbase clone script:
The Coinbase clone script is a ready-made solution that allows you to set up a cryptocurrency exchange platform exhibiting features and functionalities similar to the world’s most popular and user-friendly crypto exchange, Coinbase. These scripts are bundled with all the necessary features to run an exchange while still offering ample customization to cater to your branding and business requirements.
Key Features:
User Registration and Account Management
Fiat and Crypto Support
Secure Wallet Integration
Quick Buy/Sell Functionality
Multiple Payment Methods
P2P Trading
Admin Dashboard
Launchpad Functionality
Staking Feature
KYC/AML Compliance
API Integration
Kucoin Clone Script
A KuCoin clone script is a ready-made software solution replicating all functional attributes and operational features of the KuCoin, which can also be customized according to your brand name and business requirement specifications. Fast and feasible for launching your crypto exchange, the idea is to save yourself from the headaches of developing everything from scratch.
Key Features:
Spot trading
Margin trading
Future trading
Crypto derivatives
Advanced security transactions
Escrow protection
User registration
Wallet integration
Advanced analytics
Currency converter
Paxful clone script
A Paxful clone script is a ready-Made platform for opening a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange for users to trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies directly among themselves without any intermediaries. The script replicates the core features of Paxful operated using its server; you can customize it to your brand and business needs.
Key Features:
Secured Escrow Service
Multi Payment Processing
BUY/SELL Ad posting
Real-Time Data
Referrals & Gift Card options
Multi Language Support
Online/Offline Trading
Cold/Offline Wallet Support
FTX Clone Script
An FTX clone script is a ready-made software solution that will allow you to set up your own cryptocurrency exchange like FTX, which was formerly one of the largest crypto exchanges globally before going under in 2022. This script mimics the core features of FTX, such as spot trading, derivatives, margin trading, token offering, etc., so that you can fast-track the launch and operations of your own exchange with customizable branding and features.
Key Features:
Derivatives Trading
Leveraged Tokens
Spot Trading
User-Friendly Interface
KYC/AML Compliance
Staking Functionality
WazirX clone script
A WazirX Clone Script is a pre-made software solution for the creation of your cryptocurrency exchange platform akin to WazirX, one of the top cryptocurrency exchanges in India. The clone script replicating the essential elements, functionality, and WazirX’s user experience enables you to swiftly put together a fully fledged cryptocurrency exchange that would accept a number of digital assets and trading features.
Key Features:
Escrow protection
KYC approval
Trading bots
User-friendly interface
Stunning User Dashboard
SMS Integration
Multiple Payment Methods
Multiple Language Support
Benefits of Using Cryptocurrency Exchange Clone Scripts
The use of a cryptocurrency exchange cloning script entails great advantages, particularly if one is keen on starting an exchange without having to do the full development from scratch. Below, I have listed the primary advantages of using cryptocurrency exchange cloning scripts:
Cost-Effective
Quick and Profitable Launch
Proven Model
Customizable Features
Scalability
Multi-Currency and Multi-Language Support
Low Development Cost
Continuous Support and Updates
Why Choose BlockchainX for Cryptocurrency Exchange clone script
In the opinion of an entrepreneur set to develop a secure, scalable, and feature-loaded cryptocurrency exchange clone script, BlockchainX is the best bet. Since BlockchainX provides a full-fledged solution that replicates the features of flagship cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, and WazirX, the entrepreneur gets all the additional features required practically out of the box. With the addition of certain basic offerings such as spot trading, margin trading, and peer-to-peer (P2P) capabilities along with more advanced ones like liquidity management and derivatives trading, BlockchainX provides a holistic set of solutions to carve out an exchange rightly fitted for newbies and pros alike.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, the Top 6 Cryptocurrency Exchange Clone Scripts in 2025 are high-powered and feature-rich solutions which any enterprising spirit would find indispensable if they were to enter the crypto market very quickly and efficiently. Whether it be a Binance clone, Coinbase clone, or WazirX clone-these scripts offer dynamic functionalities that enhance trading engines, wallets, KYC/AML compliance, and various security attributes.
Choosing the right clone script, such as those provided by BlockchainX or other reputable providers, will give you a strong foundation for success in the dynamic world of cryptocurrency exchanges.
J A P A N o F I L E S # 8 -- Chronicle of Starting a Shina Soba Shop
[ The last JAPANoFILES feature was written eleven years ago. The post reached an audience of many thousands and helped create awareness about a powerful videogame creation left buried beneath the snow: Mizzurna Falls. One of its readers went on to translate the game to English, in fact. This is an impossible act to follow. In reviewing the original intention of these articles, it occurred to me that if I’m to give continuity to this effort, I should carry on seeking items of both cultural and videoludic relevance that have slipped between the cracks of history. Today’s story was one I began writing shortly before this tumbleblog hibernated and that, to my knowledge, has not yet been satisfactorily told until now by any of my fellow japanophiles. As you read it, I hope to instil in you the same gemütlichkeit you’d get from a steaming bowl of noodles on a cold winter evening.]
From the very onset, チャルメラ suggests a fascinating divide: although the title and cover art will hardly resonate with western observers, virtually anyone in Japan will instantly recognize what it is all about. To them, this is as household a name as they come, and one synonymous with precooked noodle deliciousness and convenience for over half a century.
Charumera is a much beloved line of instant noodle products introduced by Myojo Foods, a company whose foundations date back to the mid-twentieth century. Its name is interchangeable for cup noodles in many areas of Japan and the Japanese diaspora, including Brazil. The company grew a reputation for introducing some of the early revolutions in this food category that we now take for granted. In 1961, it was the first to propose the concept of cup noodles, a simplified meal preparation method made possible by ice cream type paper containers capable of withstanding the pouring of boiling water. Many misattribute this invention to Nissin due to the fact that Myojo, who lacked the wherewithal to file for a utility patent, could only profit out of their idea by selling production and commercialization rights to that prosperous food giant. The Tokyo-based company was also the first to usher in the now ubiquitous separate powder flavouring bags, initially under the name Myojo Ramen in 1962, and later rebranded as Myojo Charumera in 1966, with an improved formula that made this a reference to a fast-food seeking population.
The man in the above cover art for this Playstation game adaptation, also titled Charumera, consists of the product's very own mascot, whom the Japanese lovingly call Ojisan (uncle). Few could have predicted that he would ever star in a videogame of his own. Created by Bits Laboratory and published by Victor Interactive Software on November 1999, it is unclear whether the game was sponsored or merely certified by Myojo. In the absence of more concrete information, all appears to indicate that this project was developed with the clear intent to pay homage to the brand and iconic character, only tangentially serving the purpose of advertising.
~ An ageless man carries the weight of tradition ~
In Charumera, the good uncle merrily pushes his Yatai about the streets of a fictitious town at the height of the Shōwa era. Momentarily, if the player relinquishes the control pad, he may feel at ease to wipe the sweat off his face with his chef's side towel. The streets are wide and long and barely any automobiles can be spotted. He does not speak during any of the ample verbal exchanges, although a narrator of unknown origin may on occasion report on his sentiments and reactions. He is simultaneously the central component of the game and a mere spectator to unfolding events.
A map of the aptly-named Naruto town, itself a microcosmic representation of Japan in the fifties and its dichotomy between urban and rural zones.
One part of the game has the player engage in the basic management of a mobile food stand business, starting with an understanding of the different areas of Naruto, its distant farm fields, a fishing wharf, sooty industrial zone and the bustling city centre. Each turn represents a business day, lasting from late afternoon to the wee hours of the night. Different locations at different times of the day represent varying degrees of foot traffic.
When the turn is complete, the player is free to indulge in culinary research and development, customizing all aspects of a ramen dish: the different varieties of noodles, type of bowl, seasonings, stock base and toppings. At first, the selection is limited to a set of base ingredients that can be expanded by the discovery of new areas and characters, some of them tradesmen and produce suppliers. The best selection of components ensures the most customers and, consequently, the most servings. Currency does not exist in the game. Its functional end is reached when enough meals been served for the empty bowl stack to rise above the height of the fabled mount Fuji. No small feat for a self-employed man of advancing years.
The interface for assembling Ramen bowls puts one in mind of Cybernetic’s less-than-stellar Pizza Tycoon, enabled by the overlapping of transparent bitmaps. The final presentation adds a plume of smoke to what may well turn out to be a mouth-watering success.
Charming as the business simulation aspect of the game system may be, at its heart, Charumera is an adventure centred around the exploration of a city and its denizens; one where the main goal is to bring people together through a common appreciation of the quintessential Japanese delicacy that is ramen. Scattered across the different areas, and at different times of the day, exist a number of key characters who, unlike the average passerby, will not only stop for nutritious soup but also prompt a conversation. This is done, primarily, in order for players to receive an assessment of their dishes. Some of these self-professed critics will be quite forthcoming in their comments, suggesting the flavor profile or combination of fixings most likely to please them. Others add difficulty to the game by keeping their contributions brief and enigmatic. By learning of their preferences, the player is invited to adjust the composition of the dishes and return to the same location, at the same hour of the day, to attempt another serving and achieve complete satisfaction.
Customers tasting Ojisan’s cookery will react with different facial expressions. Some, on the other hand, will slurp his stock while remaining silent and expressionless. To captivate the more demanding customers, subtler signals need to be observed.
At times, a fully content customer's quest will be completed with a round of smiles, praise and gratitude. But on occasion, these may set in motion a more layered story to be unfolded over the remaining course of the game. An illustrative example of this is the recluse monk who is undergoing a long prayer exercise, and of whose rigorously vegeterian dietary needs can only be learned through the input from other characters who relate the motive of his abstinence. The developers also integrated a clever mechanism to aid in the understanding of what constitutes a fine plate of noodles by allowing the player to regularly visit the home of one of uncle’s best friends, a taxi driver who will be delighted to perform a tasting and attribute a score.
The evolution of Ojisan’s design over the years observed some changes including a much needed footgear upgrade from hardwood zori to a snug pair of sneakers (left). The alternative, far less inspired cover art for the game's second edition (right). The black cat Suzuneko only makes its first appearance a couple of hours into the game as a part of a substory (bottom).
~ Sweet shawm music ~
The long tradition of Yatai-wheeling cooks is only supplanted in age by ramen itself. Decades before it came to known by its present name, noodle soup was commonly referred to in Japan as Shina Soba, a clear enough reference to its nonetheless opaque Chinese ancestry. Japan’s fast-paced industrial development in the late 19th century caused severe economic and demographic changes. A host of policies adopted by the government expedited the rift between an increasingly impoverished and isolated countryside population, for whom labour-intensive agriculture was no longer a profitable activity in view of neighbouring competition. This resulted in an exodus to the cities, in droves, and the search for the opportunity of low-level employment in manufacturing. The extended work hours and taxing duties of factories paved the way for a new type of meal, one substantial enough to sustain workers and at the same time affordable for regular consumption.
The passing of time is strikingly reflected in the backgrounds, the result of a clever combination of gradual colour scheme alterations and the loading of new bitmaps. The switch of music themes equally signals the change.
Wheat flour imports from Korea and Taiwan being more affordable than Japanese rice, this new noodle soup found its way among the most predominant food offerings of the early 20th century; first introduced by Chinese emigrant-owned eateries and later integrated into even the most traditional Japanese restaurants in view of its high demand. Yatai, already used for many decades in Japan to bring prepared food to residences, were one of the prime vehicles behind the propagation of Shina Soba by keeping this delicacy in permanently close reach.
As illustrated by the emblematic Charumera product logo, the sounding of the horn is an instrumental ritual of food cart owners, enabling their presence to be known. Conversely, this is a recurring action performed in the game with the pressing of the O button. Once the sound plays, bystanders will gather around the ever-cheerful uncle.
The name ‘charumera’ refers to a double-reed woodwind instrument that is said to have derived from ‘charamela’ – Portuguese for shawm -, hinting at a possible introduction to the Japanese by way of Christian missionaries from that provenance sometime during the 16th century. The simplicity of the instrument made it popular among pushcart owners, not only because its sound signalled their impending arrival, but also due to the clever employment of signature melodies in what can only be described as a primordial manifestation of brand awareness. All these practices are exquisitely demonstrated in a scene from Yasujirō Ozu’s 1936 film Hitori Musuko (The Only Son). Needless to say, a viewing of the entire picture is most advised.
~ Ramen as the expression of longing for a bygone era ~
In the present, where connections to history have been severed, ramen is a tool to rearticulate the charm of Japan’s traditions. - Hayamizu Kenrō
There couldn’t have been a more appropriate moment to reintroduce Charumera. Ramen is more of a nipponic cuisine staple than it has ever been before, sustaining its high demand across the islands, each region unyieldingly asserting the superiority of their own rendition. As for the rest of the world, ramen has long expanded beyond the constricted cubbyholes in which it remained for decades, when only urbane gourmets or ablutophobic otakus dared to publicly utter the word above a whisper.
Japan is presently witnessing an intriguing wave of nostalgia for the Showa era, as evidenced by the multitude of visitors to the recently inaugurated Yūhi No Oka Shōtengai (Sunset Hill Shopping Street) at Seibuen Yenchi, a massive theme part located in the Saitama prefecture of Tokyo. The concept behind this attraction is to recreate the life of a small shopping district from the 1960s, faithfully capturing the architecture, décor, fashion, transportation, advertising, stores and products from this period. Visitors seem delighted at the prospect of evasion to what they perceive as an easier, more compassionate style of living. (recommended viewing: NHK feature "Showa Nostalgia", May 2022).
A similar ideal is humbly pursued with this unique software: the use of modern technologies as a medium to connect to younger game-playing audiences, reciting a tale from a time when simple pleasures such as a cup of hot soup were deemed an enriching experience, for those preparing and feasting on it alike. Its only message is the celebration of amity and unity, as conveyed by its ultimate purpose: to weave lasting bonds with the community, establish the business as a local institution by acts of kindness and cooperation, inspire followers through hard work ethics and gain full support of every element of society. Its period recreation prowess may lack the verve of SEGA’s seminal Shenmue, published that same year. The exploits of its game system surely pale in comparison with the gargantuan catalogue of expansive role-playing games for which this epoch came to be celebrated. This is, after all, the product of nearly self-sufficient designers making as good a use of their previously acquired skills and experience as was permitted by the modesty of the budget in reach. In true indie form, it nevertheless excels at what the majority of the towering productions of the day failed to possess – a soul.
~ Heisei 11: the year of digital noodles ~
Though infrequent at the turn of the century, food and cooking themed video games have witnessed a vast expansion in popularity, presently existing in numbers sufficient to constitute a subgenre all their own. The ordinariness of most proposals in this category of late, however, beg for a tribute to earlier accomplishments. In general, food has been a pervasive theme in Japanese games since the early 1980s – after all, what is Pac-Man’s main premise if not to devour? Equally, Kenji Eno's Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World on the Famicom or TNN's Umihara Kawase series are but two renowned references featuring chefs as lead characters. For the purposes of this article, a more refined search is required to single out those pertinent creations still shrouded in relative obscurity.
Ajinomoto's foray into the world of video game product placement may have been the unintentional inspiration for a brave new console game category.
Certainly, one of the first Japanese games on the subject of cooking was Motoko-chan no Wonder Kitchen, a 1993 promotional Super Famicom cartridge obtainable only in return for mailing Ajinomoto mayonnaise cut-out label seals, all part of a contest for which ten thousand units were produced. The relevance of this game cannot be overstated: not only does it produce an early example of a stunningly functional dish assembly minigame, it also represents the early days of that obscure Japanese tradition wherein the video game space is permeated by advertising from large-scale food corporations.
A year later, the doyen of bishōjo games, KID, teamed up with Nissin Foods to give digital life to UFO Kamen Yakisoban, the superhero from their saucer-shaped yakisoba cup noodle ad, this time for an eccentric Super Famicom beat ‘em up in which the kitchen remains off-limits. In 1998 the old Panther Studios, perhaps saturated from specialty mechwarrior game production, released the budget PS1 platformer Kitchen Panic. In early 1999, KID would in turn partner with PepsiCo for the production of Pepsiman on the Playstation, Japan’s most recognizable face for the world-renowned soft drink, a game that garnered cult following among western players in the early 2000s. In 2004, Success teamed up with one of Japan's largest food chain to create Yoshinoya, a restaurant management simulation with a strong cooking component.
It never ceases to amaze how many ports of The Family Restaurant hit the market between 1998 and 2000 alone. Just a year after the original Masterpiece game, a slightly improved version developed by ArtDink also made its way to the PC. There were also three editions of the game for the Playstation, each a unique variation of the base design. Notably, the Human edition included a partnership deal with the Skylark group, advertising a handful of their most beloved restaurant chains. The above cover art boasts the logos for Yumean, Aiya, Jonathan, Gusto and the temple of Chinese food deliciousness, Bamiyan.
Other honourable mentions from the latter half of the decade include Burger Burger, a Maxis/Bullfrog styled fast-food chain restaurant strategy simulator designed by board game designer and 1988 Monopoly word-champion Hyakuta Ikuo; the 1998 Masterpiece personal computer game Za Famiresu (The Family Restaurant), another restaurant business sim ported to the Playstation in 1999 by Human Entertainment, in an edition rececing the sponsorship from the major restaurant group Skylark; and Cooking Fighter Hao, a remarkably unusual Nippon-Ichi combat game in which the player slashes live animals for meals to be prepared. Also that year, the beloved Morinaga ChocoBall mascot, Kyorochan, had its digital debut, one very firmly placed within the platformer advergame tradition which Data East originated in 1988 with its DECO cassette-based Donald Land arcade.
Ore No Ryouru demands impeccable chopping skills at the cost of a few fingers (left). A leering look at historical Japanese society, Ramen Bashi is best described as a game of customs (right).
The year of 1999 represented a peak of creativity within the genre. Invariably, the first piece of evidence sustaining this claim is Ore No Ryouri, the result of a partnership between Sony and Argent intended to support marketing efforts for the original Dual Shock controller. Much like Saru Getchu, the game makes sensible use of the dual sticks in replicating the taxing kinesis that restaurant-grade food preparation entails. The game was a small success in Japan due to its hilarity and frantic pace, meriting a Playstation the Best edition and PS3/Vita rerelease.
Making its appearance mere weeks before Charumera, Ramenbashi (featured at lenght in JAPANoFILES #9), developed by Media Entertainment, is another triumph from that same year, one that remains largely unappreciated even among Japanese players. Unlike the aforementioned oddities, novelties and brazen publicity stunts, this is a game of some depth and complexity. In it, the player assumes the role of a soldier demobilized from Siberia after the war who takes over his father’s ramen shop, finding himself encircled by a society of commoners, thugs and other such unpleasant people that, throughout the four decades during which the game takes place, ceaselessly prey on his Hakaiou-like, short-tempered nature. For every ounce of heart that Charumera possesses, Ramen Bashi matches it with its peculiar brand of satire and sardonic humour. So caustic, in fact, that the studio was forced to tone it down in for their ensuing gourmet series, referred to by some as the holy trinity of PlayStation cooking games - Yakiniku Bugyo, Nabe Kazoku, and Yakitori Musume. An article of similar scope to this one has yet to be written about any of them.
More JAPANoFILES features
JAPANoFILES #7 - Country of Bears and Burgers
JAPANoFILES #6 - Violent Cop
A specter is haunting the modern world, the specter of crypto anarchy.
Computer technology is on the verge of providing the ability for individuals and groups to communicate and interact with each other in a totally anonymous manner. Two persons may exchange messages, conduct business, and negotiate electronic contracts without ever knowing the True Name, or legal identity, of the other. Interactions over networks will be untraceable, via extensive re- routing of encrypted packets and tamper-proof boxes which implement cryptographic protocols with nearly perfect assurance against any tampering. Reputations will be of central importance, far more important in dealings than even the credit ratings of today. These developments will alter completely the nature of government regulation, the ability to tax and control economic interactions, the ability to keep information secret, and will even alter the nature of trust and reputation.
The technology for this revolution--and it surely will be both a social and economic revolution--has existed in theory for the past decade. The methods are based upon public-key encryption, zero-knowledge interactive proof systems, and various software protocols for interaction, authentication, and verification. The focus has until now been on academic conferences in Europe and the U.S., conferences monitored closely by the National Security Agency. But only recently have computer networks and personal computers attained sufficient speed to make the ideas practically realizable. And the next ten years will bring enough additional speed to make the ideas economically feasible and essentially unstoppable. High-speed networks, ISDN, tamper-proof boxes, smart cards, satellites, Ku-band transmitters, multi-MIPS personal computers, and encryption chips now under development will be some of the enabling technologies.
The State will of course try to slow or halt the spread of this technology, citing national security concerns, use of the technology by drug dealers and tax evaders, and fears of societal disintegration. Many of these concerns will be valid; crypto anarchy will allow national secrets to be trade freely and will allow illicit and stolen materials to be traded. An anonymous computerized market will even make possible abhorrent markets for assassinations and extortion. Various criminal and foreign elements will be active users of CryptoNet. But this will not halt the spread of crypto anarchy.
Just as the technology of printing altered and reduced the power of medieval guilds and the social power structure, so too will cryptologic methods fundamentally alter the nature of corporations and of government interference in economic transactions. Combined with emerging information markets, crypto anarchy will create a liquid market for any and all material which can be put into words and pictures. And just as a seemingly minor invention like barbed wire made possible the fencing-off of vast ranches and farms, thus altering forever the concepts of land and property rights in the frontier West, so too will the seemingly minor discovery out of an arcane branch of mathematics come to be the wire clippers which dismantle the barbed wire around intellectual property.
Arise, you have nothing to lose but your barbed wire fences!
Previously on computer literacy: A Test For Computer Literacy
If you’re a computer programmer, you sometimes hear other programmers complain about Excel, because it mixes data and code, or about Word, because it mixes text and formatting, and nobody ever uses Word and Excel properly.
If you’re a computer programmer, you frequently hear UX experts praise the way Excel allows non-programmers to write whole applications without help from the IT department. Excel is a great tool for normal people and power users, I often hear.
I have never seen anybody who wasn’t already versed in a real programming language write a complex application in an Excel spreadsheet. I have never seen anybody who was not a programmer or trained in Excel fill in a spreadsheet and send it back correctly.
Computer programmers complain about the inaccessibility of Excel, the lack of discoverability, the mixing of code and data in documents that makes versioning applications a proper nightmare, the influence of the cell structure on code structure, and the destructive automatic casting of cell data into datatypes.
UX experts praise Excel for giving power to non-programmers, but I never met a non-programmer who used Excel “properly”, never mind developed an application in it. I met non-programmers who used SPSS, Mathematica, or Matlab properly a handful of times, but even these people are getting rarer and rarer in the age of Julia, NumPy, SymPy, Octave, and R. Myself, I have actually had to learn how to use Excel in school, in seventh grade. I suspect that half of the “basic computer usage” curriculum was the result of a lobbying campaign by Microsoft’s German branch, because we had to learn about certain features in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on Windows 95, and non-Microsoft applications were conspicuously absent.
Visual Basic and VBS seemed like a natural choice to give power to end users in the 90s. People who had already used a home computer during the 8-bit/16-bit era (or even an IBM-compatible PC) were familiar with BASIC because that was how end-users were originally supposed to interact with their computers. BASIC was for end users, and machine code/compiled languages were for “real programmers” - BASIC was documented in the manual that came with your home computer, machine code was documented in MOS data sheets. From today’s point of view, programming in BASIC is real programming. Calling Visual Basic or .Net scripting in Excel “not programming“ misrepresents what modern programmers do, and what GUI users have come to expect after the year 2000.
Excel is not very intuitive or beginner-friendly. The “basic computer usage” curriculum was scrapped shortly after I took it, so I had many opportunities to observe people who were two years younger than me try to use Excel by experimenting with the GUI alone.
The same goes fro Microsoft Word. A friend of mine insists that nobody ever uses Word properly, because Word can do ligatures and good typesetting now, as well as footnotes, chapters, outline note taking, and so on. You just need to configure it right. If people used Word properly, they wouldn’t need LaTeX or Markdown. That friend is already a programmer. All the people I know who use Word use WYSIWYG text styling, fonts, alignment, tables, that sort of thing. In order to use Word “properly“, you’d have to use footnotes, chapter marks, and style sheets. The most “power user” thing I have ever seen an end user do was when my father bought a CD in 1995 with 300 Word templates for all sorts of occasions - birthday party invitation, employee of the month certificate, marathon completion certificate, time table, cooking recipe, invoice, cover letter - to fill in and print out.
Unlike Excel, nobody even claims that non-programmer end users do great things in Word. Word is almost never the right program when you have email, calendars, wikis, to-do lists/Kanban/note taking, DTP, vector graphics, mind mapping/outline editors, programmer’s plain text editors, dedicated novelist/screenwriting software, and typesetting/document preparation systems like LaTeX. Nobody disputes that plain text, a wiki, or a virtual Kanban board is often preferable to a .doc or .docx file in a shared folder. Word is still ubiquitous, but so are browsers.
Word is not seen as a liberating tool that enables end-user computing, but as a program you need to have but rarely use, except when you write a letter you have to print out, or when you need to collaborate with people who insist on e-mailing documents back and forth.
I never met an end user who actually liked Outlook enough to use it for personal correspondence. It was always mandated by an institution or an employer, maintained by an IT department, and they either provided training or assumed you already had had training. Outlook has all these features, but neither IT departments nor end users seemed to like them. Outlook is top-down mandated legibility and uniformity.
Lastly, there is Microsoft Access. Sometimes people confused Excel and Access because both have tables, so at some point Microsoft caved in and made Excel understand SQL queries, but Excel is still not a database. Access is a database product, designed to compete with products like dBase, Cornerstone, and FileMaker. It has an integrated editor for the database schema and a GUI builder to create forms and reports. It is not a networked database, but it can be used to run SQL queries on a local database, and multiple users can open the same database file if it is on a shared SMB folder. It is not something you can pick up on one afternoon to code your company’s billing and invoicing system. You could probably use it to catalogue your Funko-Pop collection, or to keep track of the inventory, lending and book returns of a municipal library, as long as the database is only kept on one computer. As soon as you want to manage a mobile library or multiple branches, you would have to ditch Access for a real SQL RDBMS.
Microsoft Access was marketed as a tool for end-user computing, but nobody really believed it. To me, Access was SQL with training wheels in computer science class, before we graduated to MySQL and then later to Postgres and DB2. UX experts never tout Access as a big success story in end-user computing - yet they do so for Excel.
The narrative around Excel is quite different from the narrative around Yahoo Pipes, IFTTT, AppleScript, HyperCard, Processing, or LabView. The narrative goes like this: “Excel empowers users in big, bureaucratic organisations, and allows them to write limited applications to solve business problems, and share them with co-workers.”
Excel is not a good tool for finance, simulations, genetics, or psychology research, but it is most likely installed on every PC in your organisation already. You’re not allowed to share .exe files, but you are allowed to share spreadsheets. Excel is an exchange format for applications. Excel files are not centrally controlled, like Outlook servers or ERP systems, and they are not legible to management. Excel is ubiquitous. Excel is a ubiquitous runtime and development environment that allows end-users to create small applications to perform simple calculations for their jobs.
Excel is a tool for office workers to write applications to calculate things, but not without programming, but without involving the IT department. The IT department would like all forms to be running on some central platform, all data to be in the data warehouse/OLAP platform/ERP system - not because they want to make the data legible and accessible, but because they want to minimise the number of business-critical machines and points of failure, because important applications should either run on servers in a server rack, or be distributed to workstations by IT.
Management wants all knowledge to be formalised so the next guy can pick up where you left off when you quit. For this reason, wikis, slack, tickets and kanban boards are preferable to Word documents in shared folders. The IT department calls end-user computing “rogue servers“ or “shadow IT“. They want all IT to have version control, unit tests, backups, monitoring, and a handbook. Accounting/controlling thinks end-user computing is a compliance nightmare. They want all software to be documented, secured, and budgeted for. Upper management wants all IT to be run by the IT department, and all information integrated into their reporting solution that generates these colourful graphs. Middle management wants their people to get some work done.
Somebody somewhere in the C-suite is always viewing IT as a cost centre, trying to fire IT people and to scale down the server room. This looks great on paper, because the savings in servers, admins, and tech support are externalised to other departments in the form of increased paperwork, time wasted on help hotlines, and
Excel is dominating end-user computing because of social reasons and workplace politics. Excel is not dominating end-user computing because it is actually easy to pick up for end-users.
Excel is dominating end-user computing neither because it is actually easy to pick up for non-programmers nor easy to use for end-users.
This is rather obvious to all the people who teach human-computer interaction at universities, to the people who write books about usability, and the people who work in IT departments. Maybe it is not quite as obvious to people who use Excel. Excel is not easy to use. It’s not obvious when you read a book on human-computer interaction (HCI), industrial design, or user experience (UX). Excel is always used as the go-to example of end-user computing, an example of a tool that “empowers users”. If you read between the lines, you know that the experts know that Excel is not actually a good role model you should try to emulate.
Excel is often called a “no code“ tool to make “small applications“, but that is also not true. “No Code” tools usually require users to write code, but they use point-and-click, drag-and-drop, natural language programming, or connecting boxes by drawing lines to avoid the syntax of programming languages. Excel avoids complex syntax by breaking everything up into small cells. Excel avoids iteration or recursion by letting users copy-paste formulas into cells and filling formulas in adjacent cells automatically. Excel does not have a debugger, but shows you intermediate results by showing the numbers/values in the cells by default, and the code in the cells only if you click.
All this makes Excel more like GameMaker or ClickTeam Fusion than like Twine. Excel is a tool that doesn’t scare users away with text editors, but that’s not why people use it. It that were the reason, we would be writing business tools and productivity software in GameMaker.
The next time you read or hear about the amazing usability of Excel, take it with a grain of salt! It’s just barely usable enough.
