Kerry Wall

@kerrywall.com

345 Followers 484 Following

Web developer/writer/content producer. Researched and wrote 23,000 words about game hardware mods. Enjoyer of JRPGs, VGM, yarn, and tea. She/her. Ace.

A screenshot from a Simpsons episode featuring a flashback to Homer and Marge trying to buy a house early in their marriage. They're standing with a realtor in the middle of a room filled with cats and have just mused that the house won't be so bad once the cats have been removed. The realtor says "Actually, according to the will, the cats own the house. You'd be their tenants!"

A photo of my desk space from when I worked at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra featuring my Music Theory Examples by Women posters of Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, and Delia Derbyshire. Also a computer and some wires, and a pink ballpoint pen.

The overworld map from Final Fantasy IV (SNES, SquareSoft, 1991)

A photo of my MAGFest attendee badge, which features illustrations of characters in the style of Sonic the Hedgehog, and my panelist ribbon, hanging from my suitcase handle.

A photo taken from the back of the Panels 6 room at MAGFest while I (very small at the front) present my research on hardware mods.

A photo of a display at MAGFest noting the next set of panels in room Panels 6. My panel, Hack “Start” to Continue: Why Video Game Hardware Mods Matter, is at 5:30pm.

A screenshot of the title page of my upcoming presentation at MAGFest titled Hack 'Start' to Continue: Why Video Game Hardware Mods Matter. It also lists my name, the presentation date of January 24, 2025, and the room, which is "Panels 6." It's just text on a dark blue background.

A graphic featuring the t-shirt art for the two daily Yetee shirts for December 18, 2024. They feature very nice stylized artwork of Celes and Locke from Final Fantasy VI.

A screenshot of the NES version of Tetris, now available on Nintendo Switch Online, showing the “success” screen after beating b-type level 9 high 5

A screenshot from the video game OMORI. Omori, Kel, Sunny, and Hero find their path through the Junkyard (a lavender area featuring many colourful cars) blocked by a giant cylinder of cheese. Kel says "Okay, guys. Hear me out. This might sound crazy but... What if... we eat the cheese."

A screenshot of the end of Sound's effects, a feature article I wrote for CBC News Online in 2010. It says "Kerry Wall is a writer for CBC news" (that's the untrue part; I worked there and I got to write there but I was never strictly speaking a writer). "Her ringtone is the Wind Scene music from Chrono Trigger." (Still true.)

A screenshot from the SNES version of Paperboy 2 depicting the Monday edition of The Daily Sun with the headline "GHOST SIGHTING FREAKS TEEN!" and a photo of a stern-looking police office pointing at broken windows, which has nothing to do with the ghost sighting—or does it? Three lines of placeholder copy are repeated across three columns, referring to a "daylight robbery", which has nothing to do with the ghost sighting and probably nothing to do with the broken windows. Unless the ghost broke the windows while participating in the robbery. Look, this is actually one of the more reasonable Paperboy 2 newspaper screens because it actually addresses the fact that THE TOWN HAS GHOSTS. There are ghosts, the gargoyles outside the church shoot lightning at you, there are monsters in the sewer, and people have been allowed to build castles from which they shoot cannons out into the street -- and another headline actually says "Property Tax to Increase". Priorities.

The cover of Mary Maxim pattern no. 4343, which is for the sweater version of the "Computer Game" sweater pattern, which is very obviously heavily influenced by Pac-Man. A blanket also appears to be featured. A small child is modelling the sweater.

An excerpt from something I wrote for an assignment in grade 5 (1995/96) printed in a monospaced font on a dot matrix printer. “Technology is all developing so quickly. Maybe the future will be too fast for us: we may learn how to use one new technology, and sooner than we know it, there will be another to replace it. Like, computers have
already replaced type writers, but will there soon be something to replace computers? This is a question of the” (and then it cuts off but I think the next word would have been “future”).

A photo of the back of Nintendo Power issue 72, featuring the “what flavour is yours?” ad for the Play It Loud line of DMG Game Boys. The clear, green, red, black, and yellow shells are likened to condiments. The original light grey model is described as “the usual”.

A screenshot from Cassette Beasts. The playable character is challenging Ranger Captain Codey as part of her training. He says "C'mon, I bet you're desperate to see my modded cassette tapes! Are you gonna take my ranger captain challenge or what?"

I have a Yetee Final Fantasy VI holiday sweatshirt featuring pixel art of a chocobo, Carbuncle, Moogles, Celes, Terra, Locke, and the Magitek mounts from the opening cutscene. I also have a Chrono Trigger phone case, which would normally not be visible but I took this photo in a mirror. My phone tried to autocorrect “moogles” to an all-caps version of the word. I must yell about Moogles a lot? Kupo.

A photo of a page from the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt manual. This post is about the bullet point that includes the line “Use the old ‘Domino Effect’ (ask your parents)”.

A scene from the Simpsons featuring a flashback of Homer and Marge trying to buy a house. The house is full of cats. The real estate agent says "Actually, according to the will, the cats own the house. You'd be their tenants!"

A photo of the inside of my grad gown which reads “Master 5’3” to 5’5””

A screenshot from The Simpsons. Lisa is sitting on the floor in her Sunday best and has kicked off her shoes. The caption reads "It's the longest possible time before more church!"

A photo of a page from Nintendo Power volume 49 describing the Super L5. The writeup says “The Super L5, marketed in Japan by Ascii, is a controller made specifically for Role-Playing Games. It’s designed to be held in one hand, leaving the other hand free to draw maps or perform other necessary chores, like eating, perhaps, without interrupting game play. The A, B, X, and Y buttons can be turned on and off with the toggle switches on the lower edge, and the buttons themselves are on the back of the controller. The centre plate with the Control Pad rotates so you can adjust it to fit your hand.”

Another part of the “Take Control” feature from the June 1993 issue of Nintendo Power, this one detailing the only-in-Japan “Hyperbeam”. The description reads “Konami Japan markets a remote controller there that can be used with both the Famicom and the Super Famicom. It transmits an infrared beam to a dish-like receptor, which plugs into the controller part of the Control Deck.”

A photo of part of the “Take Control” feature from volume 49 of Nintendo Power. The SN ProPad, an aftermarket controller compatible with the SNES, has a clear outer casing and blue, dark pink, yellow, and green ABXY buttons. Each button has a corresponding Turbo switch. The write-up says “If you’re one of those players who wants to know how everything works, pick up the SN ProPad from STD Entertainment. It has a clear casing that lets you see the pad’s innerworkings. It also features 25-shot-per-second Autofire, Semi-Automatic Fire and Slow Motion. Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price: $19.95.” That’s in USD, of course, and not adjusted for inflation. (One also wonders whether the company bothered to workshop its name AT ALL.)

A photo from a NES retrospective that appeared in an issue of Nintendo Power. The photo caption says “The early designs for the NES were sleek and cordless. The infrared components, it turned out, didn’t work when moved around during game play.” The displayed concept art is of a sleeker console and Zapper than the eventual release. The article explains that the sleek designs also didn’t test well with kids, so the eventual NES design was a compromise between these sleek mock-ups and the more colourful design of the Famicom.

A photo of a page from a 1996 issue of Nintendo Power offering a first look at the N64 — then called the Nintendo Ultra 64 — controller. The text includes the sentences “It’s real. It’s exotic. It’s so advanced you practically need a degree to even think about it.” I just wrapped a master’s degree focused on game hardware modifications, including controllers. It’s funny. (Well, I think it’s funny.)

A photo of a page from the Super Mario Bros. 3 user manual. “To Mario’s Players: Thanks for selecting Super Mario Bros. 3. We’ve been working hard to make this game even better than Super Mario Bros. 1 & 2. In addition to the action scenes, we’ve added a World Map on which you can plot your progress as well as play a new 2 player game. In Super Mario Bros. 3, you will find many more hidden things than in the first two games in the series. We think that you will find it much more challenging as well. Have fun! Yours truly, Mario’s Staff”

A photo of the back of Nintendo Power issue 72, featuring the “what flavour is yours?” ad for the Play It Loud line of DMG Game Boys. The clear, green, red, black, and yellow shells are likened to condiments. The original light grey model is described as “the usual”.

A screenshot from Cassette Beasts. The NPC Plato says "We are philosophers, Socrates, not fighters. Hardly any human being is capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly" moments after my team has defeated theirs in Pokemon-style turn-based combat. We are in a green park with pink trees. The game is very funny.

A sentence from my major research paper acknowledgements: "I am grateful to too many online communities and friends to be able to mention them all by name, but I will enigmatically reference salt, swag, kelp, baguettes, and getting underground now (not sorry) and trust that they know who they are."