Dumbing of Age Book Twelve

Dumbing of Age

A college webcomic by David Willis
RSS
‹
›
  • Home
  • About/Read before posting
  • Archive
    • by calendar
  • Cast
  • Store
    • Main Store (books and stuff)
    • T-shirts
  • Patreon
    • Patreon (regular)
    • Patreon (NSFW)
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
'david, how much of amber is you' well today was the day i reached a 7-month buffer
First Previous Random 111Comments Share Next Latest
Reddit Digg Facebook MySpace Delicious Stumbleupon Buzz Up! Mixx Technorati Google Bookmarks Yahoo Bookmarks Yahoo MyWeb Windows Live Propeller FriendFeed Newsvine Xanga LinkedIn Blinklist Twitter


BUFFER WATCH Comics are currently drawn and uploaded through:

June 22, 2026

Rote

by David M Willis on June 5, 2024 at 12:01 am
  • 04 – For Me It Was Tuesday
└ Tags: amber, danny, sal

Discussion (111) ¬

[ Comments RSS ]
  1. NGPZ
    NGPZ
    June 5, 2024 at 12:03 am | #

    Sal gonna break the world record aint she?

    • Nono
      Nono
      June 5, 2024 at 12:05 am | #

      She’s on a post-sex high, she can do anything.

    • Some1
      Some1
      June 5, 2024 at 12:18 am | #

      Honestly speaking I really hope not. Sal beating a record that is heavily implied (if not outright stated I don’t remember) to rely heavily on complex glitches to be possible would go right past my suspension of disbelief.

      • Wraithy2773
        Wraithy2773
        June 5, 2024 at 12:20 am | #

        IIRC, the glitch that Amber’s been trying to do is literally impossible to do on the base NES hardware.

        • Rose by Any Other Name
          Rose by Any Other Name
          June 5, 2024 at 12:49 am | #

          So is beating Tetris. Humans lack the reaction time to reach the level where it glitches out and ends (which is considered beating it apparently).

          … except some kid did. It was on the news. A human played Tetris so long and so well that he broke it, a feat that only AI has accomplished before.

          Or, to quote, “Nothing impossible, Mario, only improbable.”

          • Formedras
            Formedras
            June 5, 2024 at 1:04 am | #

            At that high level of Tetris, you’re not reacting to the piece appearing, you’re reacting to it showing up in the Next box. That gives you just enough time. As for Mario, one or two speedup tricks require pressing Left and Right at the same time, which is physically impossible on a stock controller. (Which means that those tricks are actually banned for RTA speedruns.)

          • Cassie
            Cassie
            June 5, 2024 at 1:08 am | #

            You’ve confused a couple things there. See, it’s not that human reaction time is too slow, it’s that the way the game had been played until sometime in the 2000’s was by pressing a direction and holding. At level 29 a piece needed more frames to get over to the side than were possible moving it that way. What happened is people started hyper tapping (I think that’s what it’s called?) and then “rolling” to move pieces faster, getting past the traditional kill screen. What the kid did earlier this year was crash Tetris, which requires you to get to certain levels and clear a specific number of blocks while there.

            • General Tekno
              General Tekno
              June 5, 2024 at 1:23 am | #

              Yeah, the issue with the NES Tetris was that the physical controller response times were too slow to get past a certain point. People COULD respond fast enough but the hardware couldn’t. Someone however figured out a trick for how to get faster reactions out of the controllers by triggering the inputs in a different way. And even then the kill screen only happens at certain points because it’s based on how at certain points in the game there’s a risk of a buffer overflow in memory.

              It’s fascinating stuff, really.

            • someone
              someone
              June 5, 2024 at 8:46 am | #

              Yeah, the repeated input if you keep the pad pressed is rather slow. People started just pressing and releasing repeatedly. But that, too, turned out to be too slow, so they invented a new completely bonkers method where they hold the controller upside-down, have the pad press on a hard surface, and instead they tap with their fingers on the back of the controller, this way they can “roll” by tapping with different fingers and that’s faster than tapping with always the same finger.

              All in all, Tetris championship seems, to me at least, to be very unhealthy for one’s carpal tunnel.

              • Ymbrael
                Ymbrael
                June 5, 2024 at 8:39 pm | #

                Rolling is actually a lot less hand-destructive than hyper-tapping.

          • Cimorene
            Cimorene
            June 5, 2024 at 4:28 am | #

            I know it isn’t certified, but my mom absolutely beat/broke Tetris playing it in the 90s because she would get absolutely outraged at having to start over and couldn’t go farther.

            • Taffy
              Taffy
              June 5, 2024 at 4:50 am | #

              Fuck certification anyway. Oh, some shadow cabal of democratically elected Nerd Chancellors grants this video game legitimacy? Big friggin’ whoop, fight the machine in all its forms.

              • Clif
                Clif
                June 5, 2024 at 11:05 am | #

                I, for one, welcome our new mechanical overlords.

                It’s not like they’re going to do any worse.

              • BohNo
                BohNo
                June 25, 2024 at 10:36 pm | #

                i love thinking of the speedrun certification team as the ‘Video Game Shadow Cabal’

      • BohNo
        BohNo
        June 25, 2024 at 10:34 pm | #

        Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-spension of Belief

    • BohNo
      BohNo
      June 5, 2024 at 12:36 am | #

      Summing Salt Voice: Sal123’s one-handed ‘flip the bird’ strats on the NES controller single-handedly revolutionized the game when it came to Super Mario Bros. 1 speedrunning

      • Gilthwixt
        Gilthwixt
        June 5, 2024 at 2:27 am | #
      • Gilthwixt
        Gilthwixt
        June 5, 2024 at 2:29 am | #

        (“We’re Finally Landing” by Home starts randomly playing out of nowhere)

    • Needfuldoer
      Needfuldoer
      June 5, 2024 at 3:13 am | #

      She might break Amber’s viewership record, if she’s on stream playing video games in her underwear. (She said she left the stream running yesterday.)

      • Rook
        Rook
        June 5, 2024 at 4:21 pm | #

        That would be a fiasco if Danny left his laptop streaming video on, that would mean a lot of people watch them have sex.

  2. darkoneko
    darkoneko
    June 5, 2024 at 12:03 am | #

    uh oh

    • JessWitt
      JessWitt
      June 5, 2024 at 1:11 am | #

      Spaghetti-O’s

  3. Doctor_Who
    Doctor_Who
    June 5, 2024 at 12:03 am | #

    Welp, here’s Amber’s supervillain origin story.

    Gonna be weird with a supervillain and a superhero sharing the same head. Bet they have to tape a line down the middle and everything, like on old sitcoms.

    • True Survivor
      True Survivor
      June 5, 2024 at 12:10 am | #

      Is that what the corpus callosum is for?

      • eh, whatever
        eh, whatever
        June 5, 2024 at 3:10 am | #

        That’s what it’s against.

        • Mark
          Mark
          June 5, 2024 at 6:40 am | #

          🙂

      • NGPZ
        NGPZ
        June 5, 2024 at 4:09 pm | #

        IIRC Einstein lacked an adjacent fissure between the left and right part of his brain, apparently

    • Chiatroll
      Chiatroll
      June 5, 2024 at 12:21 am | #

      Works for sentry.

    • NGPZ
      NGPZ
      June 5, 2024 at 12:39 am | #

      I dunno. Given Amber is confirmed DID, I think that would play too much into the stereotype of there being a “good one and a bad one”?

      • Doctor_Who
        Doctor_Who
        June 5, 2024 at 12:50 am | #

        I’ll agree with you because I love the idea that the only reason Amber ISN’T evil is that she doesn’t want to be a cliché.

    • Max
      Max
      June 5, 2024 at 9:43 am | #

      That sounds like it should be an M. Night Shamalamadingdong movie. The hero can never catch the villain in the act. Then at the end we find out they were the same person.
      what a twiiiiist!

  4. DailyBrad
    DailyBrad
    June 5, 2024 at 12:05 am | #

    Interesting. I know Sal likes Mario Kart, but I sort of got the impression she otherwise doesn’t game much. If this helps her dexterity, though, I’m all for it.

  5. Steamweed
    Steamweed
    June 5, 2024 at 12:05 am | #

    Woohoo! Seven (7) months! :O

    • ktbear
      ktbear
      June 5, 2024 at 12:58 am | #

      Yes, it is so comforting to know that when David dies we still have something to look forward to, if only for the following seven months.

      • Steamweed
        Steamweed
        June 5, 2024 at 7:31 am | #

        Hopefully Willis won’t die until his 90s, or later! By then, the comic should be in the characters’ Junior year of college. 😀

    • Clif
      Clif
      June 5, 2024 at 2:46 am | #

      Seven months is impressive on multiple levels.

  6. Slartibeast Button, BIA
    Slartibeast Button, BIA
    June 5, 2024 at 12:06 am | #

    Just like in “Night Of The Comet.”

  7. Reltzik
    Reltzik
    June 5, 2024 at 12:07 am | #

    And that is how they became mortal enemies once more.

  8. Mel
    Mel
    June 5, 2024 at 12:07 am | #

    No, absolutely not, I’ve watched Summoning Salt and I refuse to believe she can do a TAS level run first go

    • Masha
      Masha
      June 5, 2024 at 12:10 am | #

      Would actually do more damage to my suspension of disbelief than the kidnapping sagas.

      • Shakes
        Shakes
        June 5, 2024 at 12:40 am | #

        “Car surfing superhero car chases with last second motorbike rescues I can handle but a completely inexperienced player with a gammy hand recreating a tool-assisted speedrun is where I DRAW THE LINE!”

        • Mel
          Mel
          June 5, 2024 at 1:42 am | #

          THIS WAS IN FACT THE TRAIN OF THOUGHT IN MY HEAD, YES

        • Da Boy
          Da Boy
          June 5, 2024 at 8:17 am | #

          The key difference is that Amber and Sal already had the skills necessary to pull it off. An inexperienced player pulling off something like this is like Rey beating a Sith on her first try while it took plenty of training for both Anakin and Luke.

          • GingerMadman
            GingerMadman
            June 5, 2024 at 2:12 pm | #

            Yeah good thing that when she finally did actually face a Sith, she had training and pretty much the entire light side of the force helping. Cause Kylo was never a Sith, and she merely fought him to a standstill while he was severely injured.

            • Schpoonman
              Schpoonman
              June 5, 2024 at 4:19 pm | #

              God, Rise was so bad.

              Wider shots of the TFA fight give you a better idea of how both Rey and Kylo fight. Rey thrusts like she’s still holding her staff, Kylo is sloppy not only because he’s bleeding out but because he thinks he’s easily going to win. Then Rey gives herself to the Force which is the classic “I win” button in Star Wars. The Force Awakens has its problems, but they’re almost all entirely tied up in how it’s just Episode 4.1.

              • GingerMadman
                GingerMadman
                June 9, 2024 at 10:56 pm | #

                One of the things I have realized on rewatches is that the fight chorography is very much being used as part of the storytelling. Like some of the stuff with Ben in Rise I initially thought was bad choreography I later realized was trying to show that he was now much more in tune with the force.

                And TFA being 4.1 was a direct result of fan complaints about the prequels. Disney was trying to avoid those complaints and went too far.

          • Taffy
            Taffy
            June 5, 2024 at 4:59 pm | #

            Luke got his ass handed to him every time he fought a Sith. The only time he slightly won was when he started flying into an intensive gamer rage on Vader, and then he got his atoms deep-fried with lightning for his troubles.

            Rey lifted some rocks and got called slurs for it.

    • BohNo
      BohNo
      June 5, 2024 at 12:31 am | #

      a little-known runner by the name of ‘MotorbikeScarQueen69’

    • Sporky
      Sporky
      June 5, 2024 at 12:49 am | #

      Yeah, as a huge speedrunning nerd (who just watches other people do it and content about it), this is like… not a possibility, period

      • Some1
        Some1
        June 5, 2024 at 1:21 am | #

        I think it would make more sense (and be more interesting) if Sal somehow accidentally streamed on Amber’s Twitch account and her cool girl persona combined with her awkwardness with video games made her incredibly popular amongst Amber’s viewers.

    • Bash
      Bash
      June 5, 2024 at 1:13 am | #

      Maybe she’s just going to get really into it and do it after a bunch of practice.

    • Chubseus
      Chubseus
      June 5, 2024 at 2:19 pm | #

      What she just lucks into a random glitch/skip that hadn’t been discovered before? That seems plausible to me.

  9. saltchocolate
    saltchocolate
    June 5, 2024 at 12:07 am | #

    You’re gonna lap yourself if you’re not careful, Willis! (You’re scarily impressive!)

  10. RassilonTDavros
    RassilonTDavros
    June 5, 2024 at 12:09 am | #

    I just know that someone in this comment section is going to know exactly what level Amber’s talking about, even if that someone is not me, and for some reason that makes me happy.

    Also I’m pretty sure that should be “Piranha” Plant, not “Pirana”?

    • betsumei
      betsumei
      June 5, 2024 at 12:14 am | #

      Amber, of course, is using the misspelling that was present in the original SMB manual.

    • eh, whatever
      eh, whatever
      June 5, 2024 at 3:13 am | #

      It’s apparently been fixed…

  11. HueSatLight
    HueSatLight
    June 5, 2024 at 12:09 am | #

    I’m pretty sure that’s a new background, unusual perspective.

  12. Dante
    Dante
    June 5, 2024 at 12:14 am | #

    I mean, if Sal throws herself into this pressing buttons while keeping rhythm and memory in mind, like she would play music…….

    • Needfuldoer
      Needfuldoer
      June 5, 2024 at 3:17 am | #

      She’d probably like Beat Saber.

    • Schpoonman
      Schpoonman
      June 5, 2024 at 4:20 pm | #

      I haven’t played Hi-Fi Rush, but I’m pretty sure there’s at least one character she could cosplay and would never need to work again.

  13. BohNo
    BohNo
    June 5, 2024 at 12:30 am | #

    Home – ‘We’re Finally Landing’ plays on a hacked muzak

    • vlademir1
      vlademir1
      June 5, 2024 at 2:44 pm | #

      Someone had to perform that summoning 😀

      If it hadn’t been here, I’d have done so

    • Opus the Poet
      Opus the Poet
      June 5, 2024 at 9:40 pm | #

      I’m listening to the 1:00:00 loop right now, except to get it all through the last loop they had to make it 1:03:07

  14. BBCC
    BBCC
    June 5, 2024 at 12:30 am | #

    I would ugly cackle omg.

  15. Dara
    Dara
    June 5, 2024 at 12:30 am | #

    oh no

    xD

  16. JA
    JA
    June 5, 2024 at 12:37 am | #

    You just had to say the magic words, didn’t you, Amber.

  17. DorJoJo
    DorJoJo
    June 5, 2024 at 12:41 am | #

    do it sal

  18. Suet
    Suet
    June 5, 2024 at 12:59 am | #

    So a blind speedrun. Imagine…

    ✅ 7 months
    ❌ Buffer has reached 2025

  19. moon
    moon
    June 5, 2024 at 1:11 am | #

    SPEEDRUNNER SAL IS BACK BABEYYY

  20. Francoinblanco
    Francoinblanco
    June 5, 2024 at 1:24 am | #

    in the dark souls scene there was a case where a novice discovered a completely new glitch that turned the entire strategy upside down.
    Recently, the Tetris record was broken due to changing the way the gamepad was held.
    Sal breaking the record is possible, but it’s also very unlikely, plus she’d have to stream it

  21. IntangibleMatter
    IntangibleMatter
    June 5, 2024 at 1:41 am | #

    Someday I strive to have the level of Autism™ that Amber does

    or the sheer luck from the author that Sal does

    • Amós Batista
      Amós Batista
      June 5, 2024 at 8:13 am | #

      Yes! Like, I need to finish the real Hollow Knight ending. If I have only 25% from Amber, I could end it, for sure.
      Sadly, my “level of autism” is tots different.

      • Da Boy
        Da Boy
        June 5, 2024 at 9:19 am | #

        It’s all about training and building up your muscle memory. First time I discovered GodHome I didn’t even dream of trying the Pantheons. Now I have all chains on all of them (only the first two with all chains at the same time though XD). It’s all a matter of training.

      • Da Boy
        Da Boy
        June 5, 2024 at 9:22 am | #

        Also do yourself a favor and don’t unlock Grey Prince Zote yet XD

        • Amós Batista
          Amós Batista
          June 5, 2024 at 9:35 am | #

          Too late. I hate this boss. :,(((

          • Da Boy
            Da Boy
            June 5, 2024 at 9:59 am | #

            Yeah Zote is a PAIN, all my homies hate Zote. I wish you good luck

  22. Clif
    Clif
    June 5, 2024 at 2:50 am | #

    Dum, dum dum!!!

  23. Acher4
    Acher4
    June 5, 2024 at 3:06 am | #

    Oh no!

    This is going to be more brutal than the robbery, ain’t it? <.<

  24. CianM1301
    CianM1301
    June 5, 2024 at 4:08 am | #

    I sense a disturbance in the Force.

  25. DashWallkick
    DashWallkick
    June 5, 2024 at 4:26 am | #

    Sal exists to take things from Amber and I don’t think Amber has grown enough to quite get over that fact. Though it would be a rather nice bit of development for them both to bond over this and become actual friends rather than simply “We used to be enemies but her alter-ego plays roller derby with me.”

  26. Taffy
    Taffy
    June 5, 2024 at 4:47 am | #

    Joke’s on all of you, Sal is contemplating eating that controller. She’s gonna put it in her mouth and chew, and there’s nothing Amber can do to stop her. The taste isn’t an obstacle, the viability isn’t an obstacle. This isn’t a court of law, Sal is just simply going to eat that controller.

    • Needfuldoer
      Needfuldoer
      June 5, 2024 at 5:55 am | #

      Sal’s going to get caught masticating on-stream.

      If she somehow beats the speedrun record that way, she’s going to break Twitch.

      • Taffy
        Taffy
        June 5, 2024 at 7:24 am | #

        Twitch could probably stand a little breaking. I don’t keep up with current events on that website, but it’s gotta have some glaring problem or other that could be helped with a little ruination and decay.

    • Sharaku
      Sharaku
      June 5, 2024 at 7:26 am | #

      Oh i like you.

  27. Newlland(Henryvolt)
    Newlland(Henryvolt)
    June 5, 2024 at 5:07 am | #

    Ah the rivalry continues.

  28. Rabisch
    Rabisch
    June 5, 2024 at 5:31 am | #

    I’m sure have a rival like Sal in her favourite game could help Amber be interested in what’s happening around her again. But I’m worried this could hurt Sal and make her relationship with Danny more complicated.

    • Taffy
      Taffy
      June 5, 2024 at 7:22 am | #

      Why would either of those consequences happen?

      • Bruno
        Bruno
        June 5, 2024 at 8:23 am | #

        Haven’t you seen Reefer Madness? Basically that.

        • Taffy
          Taffy
          June 5, 2024 at 8:46 am | #

          No, I have not seen the 1936 film Reefer Madness.

          • Bruno
            Bruno
            June 5, 2024 at 8:54 am | #

            Me neither.

            • Clif
              Clif
              June 5, 2024 at 11:15 am | #

              What??? It’s a classic!

              Not saying what it’s a classic of.

              • NGPZ
                NGPZ
                June 5, 2024 at 7:29 pm | #

                It’s an anti-weed propaganda film inspired by anti-Mexican and anti-Chinese hate that resulted in the substance being banned in the 1930s

                Not really worth the watch unless you need it for a class assignment or something

  29. Amós Batista
    Amós Batista
    June 5, 2024 at 6:11 am | #

    Congrats on 7 month buffer, Willis. Thinking about it, you’re getting, like, faster than time.

  30. GreyLurker
    GreyLurker
    June 5, 2024 at 8:47 am | #

    Didn’t she say she left her stream running last strip? So everything Sal’s about to do is going to go live isn’t it?

    • Taffy
      Taffy
      June 5, 2024 at 9:27 am | #

      I’m pretty sure Sal is still in Danny’s room? Unless she randomly decided to walk over to Amber’s room in her underwear.

      • thejeff
        thejeff
        June 5, 2024 at 2:38 pm | #

        Yeah, I don’t quite follow what’s supposed to be happening here.
        It’s all narratively set up as if Sal’s going to at least challenge Amber’s speedrun record on stream, but all we’ve got literally is Sal’s thinking about playing something in Danny’s room?

        • thejeff
          thejeff
          June 5, 2024 at 2:39 pm | #

          Okay. Last time we saw her and Danny, they did talk about Amber’s stream, so there’s at least that link.

      • thejeff
        thejeff
        June 5, 2024 at 2:42 pm | #

        Even then it’s weird that she’s still in Danny’s room.

        I could see her walking back to hers without putting pants on.

        • Taffy
          Taffy
          June 5, 2024 at 5:00 pm | #

          What, you’ve never just hung out in somebody else’s room while they went and did some stuff for a while? It’s not that weird.

        • John Campbell
          John Campbell
          June 5, 2024 at 10:17 pm | #

          If she needs pants, she can borrow the ones Joyce left there.

      • HueSatLight
        HueSatLight
        June 5, 2024 at 2:45 pm | #

        pulling a sweet prank by hiding Danny’s ukulele. And blankets.

  31. kaitou
    kaitou
    June 5, 2024 at 3:04 pm | #

    Not only a 7-month buffer, this comic is implying that Willis is drawing it with his eyes closed.

    • Morleuca
      Morleuca
      June 5, 2024 at 5:11 pm | #

      while jumping backwards down the stairs

  32. foducool
    foducool
    June 5, 2024 at 3:28 pm | #

    lmao the nemesis

  33. Nevermaker
    Nevermaker
    June 5, 2024 at 4:50 pm | #

    …Amber’s gonna stab Sal again, isn’t she.

    • Taffy
      Taffy
      June 5, 2024 at 5:27 pm | #

      Amber never stabbed Sal, that was Ethan.

      • Clif
        Clif
        June 6, 2024 at 12:30 am | #

        Why did Amber stab Ethan?

  34. Holly
    Holly
    June 5, 2024 at 5:45 pm | #

    GJ on the 7 month buffer!
    If I had one of those on anything I’d be sorely tempted to take a digital nomad visa in the mediterranean for at least 3 of them.

  35. Yeet
    Yeet
    June 5, 2024 at 9:13 pm | #

    worth remembering that sal is pretty good at gaming from the little we’ve seen
    say what you will about mario kart, you don’t pick up random crazy strategies like bouncing yourself off a moon immediately (and successfully deploying them) without a surprisingly intuitive understanding for someone who, as far as we know, hadn’t been gaming before that
    this could get wild

  36. Zaxares
    Zaxares
    June 6, 2024 at 7:05 am | #

    DRAMATIC MUSIC INTENSIFIES

  37. Victor Riley
    Victor Riley
    June 6, 2024 at 11:51 pm | #

    7 month buffer? Dang, son… rate you’re going, the day you retire, no one is going to notice for 3 years.

CHOOSE A SIDE, NO COWARDS

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive
CONVENTION APPEARANCES


September 13/14, 2025 - Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland

©2010-2025 Dumbing of Age | Powered by WordPress with ComicPress | Subscribe: RSS | Privacy Policy | Back to Top ↑