Every year my friend group and I have a long weekend meetup where we rent a house and communally nerd out with each other. Lots of tabletop gaming; plenty of Magic matches; handheld consoles everywhere; etc.

I always bring my Steam Link so people can cast their Decks to the TV, and I'm looking for recommendations for games that would be good for hotseat play where people can pass around a Deck and each play a little bit of. (So, specifically single player games rather than multiplayer games.)

In past years Peggle and Peglin have been big hits with the group. They're immediately pick-uppable even by people who don't play a lot of videogames (of which there are a few in our group). They're also eminently entertaining to watch because it's easy to tell what's going on.

I'm looking for other games that would fit the bill: casual, simple, fun, easy to hand off to others, relatively quick intervals between players. If you have any recommendations, let me know!

Yesterday I did something stupid. I went to reddit and responded to a comment. The comment in question was talking about how popular the PS2 was because it also functioned as a DVD player. I pointed out that few people would have bought a PS2 because it was more expensive than a standalone device, and didn't come with a remote. People often get confused about this because the PS3 basically fit this description: it was one of the best and cheapest blu-ray players for quite a while. Naturally when I went back to look at reddit today I found a bunch of people saying "nuh-uh" and my response had negative karma.

There's a lot of revisionist history when it comes to video games. For the earlier generation, there seems to be this idea that the Sega Saturn couldn't do "real" 3D graphics and the Playstation couldn't do "real" sprites - in spite of a massive library of titles that directly prove that they both draw 2D and 3D graphics just fine - heck, there's a bunch of people out there who think Symphony of the Night on PSX is one of the best pixel art games of all time.

I don't really care much about these specific examples, because they're ultimately meaningless. It's not remotely likely that these "factoids" will make a difference to anyone's life. What I do care about, however, is what it says about society. We already know reddit is an echo chamber, but if we can't figure out what the actual truth of history was, we're doomed as a species.

My keyboard is breathing its last, and my mouse probably isn't far behind, so I plan to replace them. I have a K70 (cherry MX) and some expensive light-up mouse.

When I bought these ~10 years ago, it seemed a truth universally acknowledged that a person who used their desktop computer "seriously" for, oh, video games, must be in want of wired peripherals—and never wireless. Supposedly wireless latency was unbearable and device batteries died quickly.

Is this still true? (Was it ever?)

If not, I'd like to try a wireless mouse and keyboard. Cable management is a hassle. My AirPods have been excellent and I don't miss the tangles of old, so I imagine I wouldn't miss these either.

My computer is a workstation which I use for documents, spreadsheets, and video conferencing. Even as a relatively fast typer, I can't imagine wireless latency would exceed the speed between keystrokes. I occasionally play co-op video games games with friends, but nothing intense.

Is there some other drawback I'm missing?

Racing Lagoon

Versions: The only official release was the release of PlayStation 1 disc version in Japan.

Platforms: PlayStation

Genre(s): Racing/Driving, Role-playing

Links: Mobygames, Wikipedia

Stores:

• Regrettably, there is no modern digital distribution for this game, so as much as I hate to say it, we're all on our own acquiring it. It should be noted that a fan translation exists, for which the patch is available here (it's a patreon link, but it's not paywalled), but as usual for translations released in patch format, you will still need to acquire your own copy of the game to patch.

Game Setup

The main purpose of this topic is to get people up and running with the game. As such, it's recommended that you:

• Share which version of the game you're playing
• Share what hardware you're playing it on
• Share if there are any tools/mods that you recommend
• Share anything you think is important for people to know before they start the game
• Ask questions if you need help

Another purpose of this topic is to revisit the game and its time period:

• Do you have any memories or associations with this game itself?
• What about its system or era?
• What aspects of retro gaming were common at the time?
• What other games from the same time period are you familiar with?
• What are you expecting from this game in particular?

Finally, this topic is the beginning discussion for people starting to play it:

• Post updates sharing your thoughts as you play.
• Ask for help if you get stuck.
• Offer help to others.

It is recommended that you reply to your own posts if you are making consecutive updates so that they are in the same thread.

Important

• Any links to the game should be legal distributions of the game only. Please do NOT link to any unauthorized copies.

• Put any spoilers in a dropdown block. Copy/paste the block below if needed.

<details>
<summary>Spoilers</summary>
 
Spoiler text goes here.
</details>

FAQ

Note: I couldn't decide whether to post this to society or to health, in the end I think it's more important that people interested in the protests see it, but feel free to move this.

I have not seen an LRAD from up close, I'm going from what is available online and my knowledge of acoustics. There's a lot of misinformation floating around that could be dangerous for protestors, so I'm trying to clear up the worst of it.

What are LRADs/sound cannons?

LRADs are incredibly loud highly directional loudspeakers capable of reproducing medium to high frequencies. They can be used for communication, but they can also be used for playing tones or alarms at volumes so high that it completely paralyzes a person even with ears covered or earplugs inserted. This mode can easily cause immediate permanent hearing damage.

This is what they look like (sorry for daily mail link, but it's a decent current article)

The police in Minneapolis did not use it as a weapon yet afaik, they only used it to amplify voice and threaten to actually use it, so hopefully there was no harm done unless someone was standing close to it. However I think that in current political climate we have to assume that this can change at any time.

Benn Jordan's video on LRADs is wrong

I have seen links to a video by Benn Jordan on LRADs posted again in various places. Ignore this video and warn anybody who posts it as it's completely wrong and you are going to get hearing damage if you listen to it. Benn Jordan did not do his research and is shockingly lacking some fundaments of acoustics, I could write a whole post on that, but let's focus on the most imporant thing:

The video is about ultrasonic modulation speakers, whereas afaik all of the common LRADs are "just" incredibly loud normal loudspeakers. Here's a teardown that makes it obvious, some evidence can be found on the manufacturer's website as well.

Which means that most of what he says in the video simply does not apply. Most importantly, a piece of stiff glossy paper or plastic foamboard, which people on reddit or youtube keep posting about, will not help at all, it will do nothing, and if you ever try to rely on it, you're going to get hearing damage!

What does help?

The only thing that truly does help is always keeping your distance from an LRAD and/or at least standing far enough from the angle in which it produces maximum volume, which is about 15°. I believe a relatively safe distance without any hearing protection would be about 200 meters (about 650 feet) for the loudest models, but even then it just gives you time to GTFO.

If you need to be closer, wear earplugs. Soft foam earplugs cost almost nothing and may prevent hearing damage (but not if you're close and the LRAD is used at maximum volume). Something like this will provide more isolation. If you expect to be close to an LRAD, wearing large over the ear protection, as strong as you can get, with earplugs underneath is a good idea. Even that won't shield you from 150+ dB, so do not ever get too close.

A stiff, large and heavy shield will help. There's a link at the bottom with more information. However this only shields direct sound, and sound reflects off things, so if you're near a wall, or in a narrow street, you may still get dangerous volume levels just from reflected sound. I think it's usually safer to stay mobile than to carry around a heavy shield.