Nerds Amalgamated

Lucas Scheffel's latest project is Ned Kelly: Blood and Thunder, a comic about bushranger Ned Kelly fighting aliens. We spoke to him about his projects and how he got to where he is.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from the Rez website at www.drinkrez.com

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Resources Mentioned

Developers are dropping Epic Games Store in favor of releasing on multiple platforms. Can Epic keep throwing money at the problem, or will they admit defeat?

You'd think being hungry for snacks would make you fat, but rats treated with marijuana extract stayed thin. Ozempic, watch out.

AI driven Anime avatars might be the next way for psychologists to reach their clients. Things are gonna get weird.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from the...

Sega are pivoting away from free to play games after poor performance. They're also pivoting away from AAA games after unrelated poor performance. What's left in the middle?

Why are crickets born, just to suffer? Turns out they feel pain and karma may be coming for you for stepping on an ant.

Recent anime trends indicate that fans are going for anime without violence and battles, and darker anime. Again, what's left in the middle?

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type...

If you've heard anything about Build a Rocket Boy, you know that things aren't going well. Here's why.

Sitting near a window makes you smarter. Time to encase yourself in a glass cube so you can windowmax.

Sag-Aftra have reached a deal with studios to restrict the use of generative AI. Samwise Gamgee has led us through the darkness again.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from the Rez website at www.drinkrez.com

Hollywood have been trying to make video game movies a thing for decades. Finally, they're actually good. Why?

Beer has some nutritional value. But science is easy to misrepresent, so is it actually good for you?

Crunchyroll came out on top in the anime streaming wars. But they have a dark secret in their history. Did they actually earn their position or did they get there by making choices others were too scared to?

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS...

The Stop Killing Games movement is heading to EU parliament and the UFS-Que Choisir is suing Ubisoft over the delisting of The Crew. It's been a long road and there's a long way to go, but it's great to see some movement.

Artemis II has launched on their trip around the Moon. Everyone get ready to prank them on their return.

Crunchyroll have announced the nominees for their anime awards. DJ's favourite got snubbed, so he's very upset and not taking it well.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of...

Flinders University have worked with a team of researchers to model an ancient Roman board game and find out how it would have been played.

Cloning is not the secret to immortality we thought it might be. Repeated cloning leads to increased mutations and eventually sterility, preventing the clones from reproducing further.

Stephen Colbert has announced that he is advising on a new Lord of the Rings movie about the Hobbits in their old age. It's rare to see such a turbo nerd working on a project like this.

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Firefly is most likely coming back. The original crew are all on board and they're just looking for a place to show it. Professor is very excited.

ChatGPT didn't cure cancer, and LLMs aren't as miraculous as they say. Still, they can finally give us a use for all this extra water and electricity we have, right?

Anime thrives on adaptations of other works. But one creator thinks that's a bad thing and could lead to the death of the industry.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can...

Valve are being sued by everyone, for different reasons, some reasonable and some not so reasonable. Let's hope the reasonable cases get applied to the entire industry.

Stars might be making it hard to hear ET phoning home because of their effect on deep space radio waves. I guess SETI will have to start looking again.

Samurai Champloo is becoming a live action show. Only time will tell if it succeeds or joins the pile of terrible adaptations.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount...

This week we were joined by historian and indie game developer James Bailie to talk about his game projects and how he adapts historical fact into entertaining gameplay.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from the Rez website at www.drinkrez.com

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Resources Mentioned

There's been a massive Stop Killing Games update, and things are looking good. Ross Scott has presented the petition to the European Commission.

Life on Mars might be frozen deep in the ice. Apart from being the plot of horror stories, how might this affect our society?

Paramount have won the bidding war for Warner Bros. The consolidation of the media continues unabated.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from the Rez website at www.drinkrez.com <...

The latest news in the great ramageddon of 2026 doesn't look good. Now we can expect to not buy hard drives for a reasonable price.

Scientists discovered a new bacteria that comes with massive antibiotic resistances. Madagascar, it's time to close the borders.

Film Professors are complaining that students aren't paying attention to films. Is it because films are too long, or is TikTok really ruining everything?

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from the Rez website at...

UK courts have determined that stealing in game gold is a real world crime. That wasn't on my bingo card, and it has some interesting implications for other games like EVE Online.

Would you recreate the smell of ancient times to find out what it was like? Some scientists are trying. Professor is really not convinced though.

Markiplier released his Iron Lung film. Is this the new rise of indie films?

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout...

Valve are going to court in the UK for locking gamers in to buying on Steam. Can the saviours of mainstream Linux gaming really be the bad guys?

Terry Pratchett's work might hold the key to diagnosing dementia early through breadth of vocabulary. We're yet to see if this research can be applied to your DMs.

DC admit that Manga is great and superheroes are rubbish. Enough said there.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from the...

Hytale has finally launched just when we thought it might never happen. How did we get here, and is it just Minecraft at Home?

A new sugar substitute provides almost as much sweetness, with 60% of the calories. And it's made by bacteria. Yummy.

Comic crossover events are hugely popular, but are they actually a bad thing?

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from the Rez website at www.drinkrez.com

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Resources Mentioned

Game devs suck at cybersecurity and we're all paying for it. Not only does it ruin the gaming experience, it puts us at risk of fraud and theft.

Leonardo Da Vinci's DNA might have been found on an old drawing. Maybe. Or maybe it's just someone else's. Hard to say.

Sword Art Online's director says anime shouldn't try to appeal to the west. That won't stop anime from trying though.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from...

Computer hardware has increased in price by 300% recently. We talk about why it happened and why it won't improve any time soon.

Wombats poo cubes. There's a good reason for that.

Boston Dynamics have announced their new robot model. Behind the CGI, what can it do?

Indian TV is going to be bigger than China's soon. DJ has some thoughts about that.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from the Rez website at www.drinkrez...

We're joined by Mr Rant from Lights, Camera Rant for our review of the year that was.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from the Rez website at www.drinkrez.com

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Resources Mentioned

Lights Camera Rant (weekly pop culture fix, where I dish out reviews of movies, TV...

Warhammer is the biggest tabletop war game around. How did they get to the top?

Viruses suck. But they can also be modified to collect rare earth elements from mines.

Netflix has purchased Warner Bros, giving them the largest share of the streaming market. This can only be good for consumers, right?

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from the Rez website at www.drinkrez.com

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Resources Mentioned

A new study found that subconciously perceiving Batman on a train makes people more likely to give up their seat to a pregnant woman. Is it because he's going to break your back?

Sega has been publishing definitive editions of games they've released. Could that actually be harming sales of their games?

Death games have been around for thousands of years, but Quintin Tarantino has gotten his knickers in a knot over Hunger Games ripping off Battle Royale.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount...

Valve have finally announced the new Steam hardware, including the Steam Frame, Steam Machine and the Steam Controller 2. We're hyped.

My Hero Academia is getting a live action adaptation. Live action ALL THE THINGS, while at the same time, anime ALL THE OTHER THINGS. Surely one of the two will work.

The Universe is decelerating, according to a new study. That means we're a few billion years closer to the end of the universe than we thought. Don't Panic.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10...

A recent survey found that Steam is considered a monopoly by developers. What are the implications?

Anime has a long history of adult content. Now it's going mainstream and the world isn't ready.

These are the kinds of science experiments vampires might think of. They're intended to last longer than a human lifetime, and they're the only way to study some things.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from the Rez website at www.drinkrez.com 

Live Service games with an ongoing story have to end sometime, right? Destiny 2 did, and suddenly nobody wants to play anymore. Does this mean future games will drag on forever? Hopefully not.

The BBC and Disney have officially split, meaning we won't get Doctor Who for over 12 months. Is it time for another charity single to save the Doctor?

Mirror life is a hypothetical form of life which is molecularly reversed compared to existing life. Scientists think this could be apocalyptic, so what are they doing to protect us?

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We enjoyed...

The Protoclone is an android based on human muscles. DJ thinks this thing might be too lifelike, and it's time to call Rick Deckard.

EA are being bought by a consortium of investment firms. Do they still have a future, or will they be killed off?

Tilly Norwood is an AI actress created for the sole purpose of starring in real movies. As any first gen tech, it'll be rubbish, but if you combined Tilly and a Protoclone body, DJ would probably be very scared.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of...

A new study tells us all the statistics about Australian gamers. Turns out we're all getting older and less social. We have some theories why.

Dance Dance Revolution can be adapted into a memory trainer for people with dementia, and it actually works to reduce the rate of decline.

A fully AI movie will be presented at Cannes soon, and we expect it to be bad.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from the Rez website at...

Things get wild when Professor and DJ talk about stopping children from accessing in appropriate games.

Warner Bros are suing Midjourney for ripping off their art. With the recent case against OpenAI for pirating books, the precedent might not be on their side.

Science is hard to do objectively. There's always a bias, and good scientists find ways to minimise that. The Nerds talk through creating science to push a narrative, and why that's a bad thing.

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We enjoyed a nice drink of Rez which you can get a 10% discount when...

Mojang are being sued for breaking the laws of the European Union by changing their terms of service to ban gun mods. Spearheaded by a mod developer, this lawsuit is adjacent to Stop Killing Games but not quite part of it.

Google has announced a plan to block indie developers from publishing apps for Android without giving away their personal details. Professor is mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore, and is seriously considering switching to a Linux phone.

Child stars and social media sounds like a bad time. Stars with...

This week we interviewed Isaac Fox, creator of popular comics like SuccuBUSTED and Cremisi about his new project, The Manti-Corps.

We enjoyed a nice drink of rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from the Rez website at www.drinkrez.com  

Astral Tickets Comics

Website - https://www.foxxycomics.com/ 

Youtube - Astral Ticket Comics - YouTube

Facebook - ATFoxxyComics

Instagram - Izumi Fox (@atfoxxycomics) • Instagram photos and videos

X - https://x.com...

This week we interviewed Savas Savidis about his game Tales of Grimace and what it takes to be a an indie game developer in high school.

We enjoyed a nice drink of rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from the Rez website at www.drinkrez.com  

Tales of Grimace The Game

Website - https://www.talesofgrimace.com/

Steam Page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2223310/Tales_of_Grimace/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/people/Tales-of-Grimace-Video-Game/61563844233175/

Tw...

The famous modder behind the Special K mod has deleted their steam account and written a manifesto about why Steam is evil. We disagree.

The resurrected Direwolves are doing well, and Peter Jackson is promising to bring back the Moa next. Let's just skip straight to the dinosaurs.

Movies used to be based on comics. But now movies are bigger than comics, and people think comics are worse for it.

We enjoyed a nice drink of rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout...

Stop Killing Games has reached 1 million signatures on the European Citizens Initiative. But the battle isn't won yet. Due to invalid signatures, the petition could use as many extra signatures as it can get.

Microsoft have laid off 9000 people from their gaming division, while also planning for a third party Xbox handheld. Could this be the end of the Xbox hardware?

Killer Whales are not whales, but they are indeed killers. They also want to have lunch with you. All around the world, killer whales have been bringing fresh seafood to humans.

Stop Killing Games has nearly reached its conclusion, unless hundreds of thousands of European gamers come out of the woodwork. Aaaand here they come.

You will soon be able to buy lab grown meat in Australia. Will you eat it?

Duke Nukem is coming to TV. Maybe this icon of the 90s should have been left there though.

We enjoyed a nice drink of rez which you can get a 10% discount when you type NERDS at the checkout from the Rez website at www.drinkrez.com 

Stop K...

This week we're interviewing Neural Forge, creator of the board game Nimbus.

Neural Forge official website

– Neural Forge 

Neural Froge Etsy Store 

– NeuralForge - Etsy Australia 

Neural Forge Facebook page

– Neural Forge 

Neural Forge Instagram

– Neural Forge (@neural_forge) • Instagram photos and videos 

Neural Forge Nimbus Kickstarter 

– Nimbus by Neural Forge — Kickstarter 

Full Show Notes : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-4d6ovrzeZNYDK5ijlDwTPkji3B4iX3rNQypRL29Xes/edit?usp=sharing

Fo...

The Switch 2 is not without controversy. The big issues center around hardware ownership. So why are Nintendo getting this wrong?

Happiness is tricky to pin down, but the latest research gives some hints on how to get there.

Years ago, Captain America was revealed to be a Hydra agent. This led to no end of problems for the writers, mostly caused by the fans. Let's hope their next big plot twist goes better.

Nintendo Switch 2 early bricked

- Nintendo Switch 2 is already in some users’ hands, but a ma...

Crunchyroll have published a report on anime revealing that a majority of people under 50 watch it. Yet the company still wants growth. What are the implications?

Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take Two has some thoughts on the games industry, and they're... interesting. Is he completely out of touch, or is it the kids who are wrong?

A supervolcano might wipe all of us out. The good news is scientists are discovering ways to defuse it before it happens. Let's hope they manage to save us all.

Crunchy roll report on...

Wow 250 episodes and we are still going…what an achievement...We would like to thank each and every one of you for being part of this magical journey

Finally, Valve are releasing SteamOS onto third party devices. Is this finally the year of the Linux gaming PC?

The Large Hadron Collider has turned lead into gold through shooting two lead atoms at each other and missing.

Europe has achieved a victory over generative AI dubbing through unions and laws. Yay.

We enjoyed a nice dr...

There's a variety of reasons consoles are getting more expensive instead of cheaper, and they aren't all because of greed. Chips just aren't improving like they used to.

Marvel has a new strategy. Will they finally start making good content?

A new technique from MIT allows scientists to photograph atoms with a microscope. Finally, we can see what they're up to.

Why are consoles getting expensive

- Chips aren’t improving like they used to, and it’s killing game console price cuts - Ars Technica 

Mar...

A new analysis indicates that subscription gaming has no room to grow. Of course, that won't stop them trying to take away our game ownership.

Humans have been using fire for hundreds of thousand of years. But during the Ice Age, there's a gap in the evidence. What were humans doing with fire during that time?

Netflix's CEO claims that Netflix is saving the movie industry. Of course he would say that. What's the truth?

Subscription gaming and its failures

- Subscription spending has been flat since 2021, analyst...

At last, the Oscars have added a rule that voters have to watch the movie. Somehow, people are complaining about doing their job.

Ubisoft are being threatened with a complaint about their data collection. The GDPR hammer is raised and ready.

Scientists want to grow astronaut food from scratch using bioreactors. This totally won't make a giant meat blob that consumes the Earth.

We're supported by Rez, which you can get from the REZ website at www.drinkrez.com and with a 15% discount using the code w...

We enjoyed a nice drink of rez which you can get from the Rez website at www.drinkrez.com and with a 15% discount using the code word : NERDS15

DJ went wild and mixed a sachet of REZ with a bottle of coke, while the professor went with the traditional approach of mixing a sachet with water....how did it pan out? Find out....

Gacha games have seen rising popularity in the past few years, but with that comes a new wave of concern. This time it isn't over your anime waifu, but the r...