Category Archives: Rambling

ZOZS!?

Welcome one and all to 2025! I wanted to give a state of the blog (AKA, a state of me) kind of update, as it’s been a while and I’ve had a lot on my mind regarding my gaming and related blog output lately.

First of all, looking back at my meager updates this year, it’s clear that I need to post more. A lot more. While I doubt I’ll ever return to my original plan of multiple updates a week talking in more granular detail about what I’m playing, I’d at least like to post a lot more. Embarrassingly, I’ve actually played several titles which haven’t made it to the blog quite yet. Even my game of year, Helldivers 2, hasn’t shown up yet. Most of those games are longer single players games that I haven’t quite finished yet, though. So, while not really a new one, my first goal is to finish those games and get some thoughts of them posted here. That’ll be my priority in the next couple of months.

Of course, posting a lot more also means playing a lot more. Now, in my defense, of the two big updates I posted in 2024, each covers multiple lengthy games – many of these games I played for tens of hours each, and altogether, I’d guess would be close to 1000 hours. That said, I’m still not satisfied with the amount of games I’ve played. In fact, my backlog has actually grown so large that I had to stop and document it properly, with a massive spreadsheet detailing individual games and priorities, as well as entire series that I want to play through and write about. Seeing it laid out in such a black and white way only reinforces that I need to make more of an effort to do more gaming. So, my second, to play more games in general.

“Expanding My Horizons”

Somewhat coincidentally, I have more motivation to play more. First, I’ve just built myself a new PC, and while I’ve not even migrated to it full time yet, it’s already breathed some life into some of my old favorites and had me planning to make PC gaming more of a priority this year. I’ll likely post a much more detailed article about this build soon – not because there’s anything all that exceptional about it, but I know from past conversations with friends and coworkers, hearing thoughts about how some part decisions, etc. were made can be helpful to others working on new builds. Selfishly, it can also be kind of useful to have my thoughts on my build detailed for future reference.

This might also be my year of the PlayStation. In addition to picking up a PS3 a couple of years ago to assist with replaying the Metal Gear series and some other exclusive titles I missed, as well as diving into PSP emulation with my G Cloud, I just picked up a PlayStation 5. Now, tempting exclusives aside, I had very little interest in a PlayStation 5, but when I saw the 30th Anniversary edition, I kind of fell in love. Unfortunately after months of monitoring retailer sites and eBay, I decided to take the L. You win, scalpers! Still, I’d already sold myself on the idea of getting a PS5, and at around the same time one of my friends ended up picking up a new PlayStation 5 Pro and offered me his old launch PS5. It took a while to get there, but finally resigned to never getting an Anniversary edition, I ended up getting a great deal on his PS5, monstrosity that it is. It should be noted that a lot of PlayStation 5 exclusives have now found their way to PC, but there are still some that haven’t, and a ton of PS4 exclusives (including remasters of older games) that I’d really love to play that haven’t either.

I feel like, between my PC, my Xboxes, and PS3 and PS5, and my G Cloud, there’s not a whole lot I’ll have to skip when attempting to cover game series in the coming years. Speaking of which, I’ve been delaying it for too long, but I’ll be diving into my Metal Gear / Metal Gear Solid retrospective very soon. While I hope to mix it up a bit by playing other games in between Metal Gear titles to avoid burnout, the Metal Gear games will be my next highest priority. I’m really looking forward to diving into the series.

That’s it for now. Happy New Year!

Cloudbursting

I know it’s been ages since I’ve posted. I’ve been in a bit of a limbo when it comes to gaming for a while now, with several games I’ve been working through at a glacial pace that I really want to finish before moving on to anything new, all of which will be covered here once I complete them. For now though, let me tell you about a new toy of mine.

A few months back I got the itch to start looking at handheld PCs. I have a friend with a Legion Go and at least a couple with Steam Decks. In reality, I probably have very little actual use for one, and I have a history of regrettable purchases related to handheld consoles and the like. I simply don’t play them. Still, it was a fun hole to fall into: consuming innumerable videos, Reddit threads, and Steam Community posts on the subject, and spinning off into unexpected areas, like the vast array of cheap yet impressive emulation focused handhelds that have flooded the market in recent years. In the end, despite the numerous advantages of the Windows based handhelds, given the price, my 20 years of investment in Steam as a platform, store, and community, and various other (mostly minor) quality of life things, I was fairly settled on the Steam Deck OLED.

That said, the one thing that kept coming up was the other platform, store, and community I’ve invested heavily in over the years – Xbox. While I consider myself a PC gamer first and foremost, I also do a ton of console gaming as a means to get away from my PC for a while, relaxing on my couch in front of a nice, big TV. I mostly reserve console gaming for single player games, with more traditional PC genres like FPSes and strategy games, and lets not forget MMOs and other online games, being played on PC. That said, when it comes to my (massive) backlog, I intend to play a great deal of those games on Xbox. I already own many of them, for one, but I also somehow still hold the tiniest flickering flame of the once great torch I carried for building up my Xbox achievement score. One obvious solution was streaming from my Xbox to my Steam Deck over my local network. Could it be done? Well, absolutely! There are third party apps that can do it quite well, apparently.

“Playing Halo Infinite on My Stoop”

The more I thought about it, the more this became one of the most likely ways I’d use my Steam Deck and, frankly, it seemed a little overbuilt (and overpriced) for that purpose alone. I’d also read about how Xbox games wouldn’t use the full screen due to the Stream Deck’s odd 1280×800 resolution which got me thinking that the ideal would be a handheld with a 1080p screen so that The Xbox Series X (or PS5, for that matter) could stream to it full screen in their most commonly used resolution.

That’s when I ran into the Logitech G Cloud. Now, I’ve heard of this thing before. I’m sure it was mentioned on at least one of the gaming podcasts I regularly listen to because of their supposed partnership with Microsoft for the G Cloud to be something of an Xbox competitor to Sony’s first party solution to this problem, the PlayStation Portal. I’m not sure that’s quite how it ended up, but the more I learned about it, the more interested I became. Here’s a quick rundown:

Built and supported by Logitech, who are far more experienced with hardware and much more reputable than the majority of players in the space, outside of the major ones like Asus, Lenovo, and Valve, of course. Accordingly, it feels relatively high quality when it comes to build and materials.
The controls are quite good. The layout closely resembles the standard Xbox controller. The analog sticks are decent, the buttons and triggers feel good, it has a subtle but fully functional rumble, etc. Input lag is close to non-existent too. About the only complaints I’ve heard is that the D-pad leaves a bit to be desired, not being great at registering diagonals, and some people hate the deadzones in the analog sticks.
Additionally, the whole thing is very ergonomic. Most every reviewer mentioned how good it feels to hold. It’s also really light, which is an advantage none of the big boys have. You could definitely hold this thing above your head while laying in bed without giving yourself an unplanned arm workout, and that is one of the use cases I had in mind.
Another point of comparison that is often brought up is battery life, and the battery life of the G Cloud, being basically a glorified Android tablet, and one that is mostly streaming rather than running games locally, is stellar.
Being an Android device, it has a lot of flexibility in terms of available apps, customization, etc. Of course, Logitech provides a custom interface which simplifies and consolifies the whole thing somewhat too. One of the most likely use cases for a device like this, outside of streaming, is loading it up with emulators, and there’s quite a few available for Android. This thing might not be the most powerful handheld by any means, but it’s enough to emulate most consoles up to PS2 quite well.
As mentioned, while it’s not OLED, the screen is quite nice. 1080p native, relatively large at 7”, vibrant. It can also get bright enough to allow you to play outside on a sunny day.
The biggest negative is perhaps the price, which is typically $300. Given the price of handhelds, and Sony’s Portal being only $200, I think that’s a little high given its capabilities and intended use. That said, it regularly goes on sale for $250 or less, and finding them used is fairly easy as well.

I’d suggest TechDweeb’s video on the G Cloud for a better summary. The fact that a dude who probably literally owns every handheld available is so enthusiastic about this thing speaks volumes.

So, I got one! Being an iPhone and iPad user for ages now, it was a bit of a mindfuck setting up a new Android device, but beyond that, it was easy to get going. I tested out Microsoft’s Xbox streaming app, which worked fine, though it only runs at 720p. I also tested out Microsoft’s Cloud Gaming app, which worked far better than I’d have expected, despite also having a similar 720p limitation. Now, I honestly don’t have that much interest in cloud streaming, but given how well it works, I could see myself using it if I were on a relaxing vacation where I had a lot of downtime, assuming I had a good WiFi connection and an even better Internet connection, of course.

Finally, I bought myself XBXPlay from the Google Play store which is a third party take on the normal Xbox streaming app, but supports 1080p and has a lot more options for tweaking your experience. It works incredibly well. While it’s a bit of a bummer I had to go to a third party for a superior solution, I have no complaints. I can now play Xbox Series X (and all of the previous Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Xbox games it supports) while my SO is tying our main TV, in my bed when I just need to relax, or outside on my porch on a nice day. With the Xbox’s remote startup and shutdown, I could also open some ports in my firewall and stream remotely too, if I wanted to. Very cool.

Now, I haven’t dabbled with PC streaming at all yet, but in theory I should be able to get similar performance by using Steam Link or perhaps better yet, Moonlight + Sunshine. The truth is that I don’t have the same use-cases for PC streaming. Generally, if I want to play a PC game I just go on my PC, which is rarely tied up. I don’t play a lot of PC games using a controller; if I’m super compelled to use one, I’m probably just going to play the console version of the game. I’m sure one of these days I’ll have some reason to diving into it. I’d imagine getting an MMORPG to work on this thing could be fun, for instance.

“Metal Gear Ac!d, anyone?”

To expand a tiny bit on the subject of it being an Android device, as mentioned, it’s powerful enough for a lot of emulation, but it’s not up to the task of anything super intensive, like more demanding PS2, GameCube, or Vita games and beyond. It’s also not going to be able to smoothly play later, more demanding Android native games. Now, given this thing’s widescreen format combined with its apparently lacking d-pad, I can’t see myself emulating a lot of 8-bit and 16-bit classics on it either, even though it’s otherwise totally up to the task.

There’s a sweet spot that I found incredibly intriguing though – the Sony PlayStation Portable. The PSP had a 16:9 widescreen display and it had an analog stick (the infamous “nub”) as its main input, so it seems like a perfect match for the G Cloud. The G Cloud is also powerful enough to emulate it using the awesome Android PSP emulator, PPSSPP, being able to 4x upscale most games to its 1080p native resolution. I went from not being aware of or all that interested in many PSP games, to spending days on end cramming a 64 GB SD card with almost its entire library of games, and let me tell you, the PSP had a ton of interesting ports and genuine exclusives, especially to someone who has very little experience with the PlayStation ecosystem like me. Now, I honestly don’t know when I’ll actually get around to playing any PSP games, but this does at least mean I’ll be adding Metal Gear Acid and Acid 2, along with MGS: Portable Ops to my upcoming Metal Gear retrospective playthrough.

In conclusion, success! My original Xbox local streaming use-case seems to have been thoroughly satisfied, and the bonus use-case of opening up a whole new world of games with a high quality PSP emulation experience is also a total win. That said, I should mention that there are indeed other competitors in this space (Android handhelds with similar form factors) such as the Ayn Odin and Odin 2, the Anbernic RG556, and the Retroid Pocket RP4. Some of them are much cheaper, and some of them even more expensive, but more powerful. While I’m happy with my G Cloud for now, this is a space I’m going to keep an eye on for the future… you know, unless I just end up buying a Steam Deck. 😉

Sierra On-line Books

I read and listen to a lot of books related to computer and video games, and having just finished one such book, I figured I’d make a post devoted strictly to books about the history of one of the most fondly remembered classic game companies, Sierra On-line. Fondly enough for me to talk about three different books, at least!

I’ve posted several reviews of vintage computer games over the years, and often gone into my personal history of some of these games. Sierra On-line is one particularly big component of that, as during their heyday they were without question one of my favorite developers (and when you throw in another of my all time favorites, Dynamix, one of my favorite publishers too!) Sure, LucasArts is widely agreed upon to be the victor when it comes to the fanboy favorite argument of which of the two companies made the best adventure games, but in the 90s Sierra held much more territory in the diskette and CD-ROM boxes of my personal game collection; the Space Quest series in particular being an all time favorite.

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Leary is surely one of my favorite non-fiction books; when I eventually stumbled upon it I honestly couldn’t believe I hadn’t read it much, much earlier in life. It covers a lot more than gaming, but of relevance here is the last third or so of the book which focuses on the shift of personal computer software development, while still somewhat rooted in enthusiast hacker culture, to a more commercial direction in the early 1980s. In particular, it mostly focuses on Ken Williams and Sierra On-line. Keeping in mind that this book was first published in 1984, this was a very contemporary look at what was then a fairly young version of Sierra, having only just released the original King’s Quest.

Of course the story of the founding of On-line Systems and the development of Mystery House is covered, but then Hackers moves into chapters devoted to Sierra’s close bonds with their peers, such as Brøderbund and Sirius Software, its “summer camp” like culture, and its gradual shift away from that and “hacker” ethics in general, along with all kinds of now legendary stories including the deal with IBM to develop for the PCjr, Richard Garriott joining Sierra, the noncompete lawsuit against Atari, and a whole lot more. The style of these later chapters is a bit different than those earlier in the book, feeling more like embedded journalism pieces than chapters in a book about computer history. Crucially, Hackers really provides a different take on who Ken Williams was and how he ran Sierra at the time than what I was familiar with. This is extremely fascinating stuff and absolutely essential for providing some eye opening accounts of those typically skimmed-over early years of the company.

I’m sure there had to be some, but I don’t know of anything else significant outside of blurbs posted in Sierra’s own manuals, guides, and magazine until 2018, when The Sierra Adventure was published. I was stoked. At long last someone put together a book about the history of the venerable Sierra On-line! The author, Shawn Mills, is a writer for Adventure Gamers and one of the founders of Infamous Quests, a throwback adventure game developer best known for Quest for Infamy and a couple of notable Sierra remakes. Respectable bonafides!

The Sierra Adventure isn’t quite the exhaustive chronicle of the history of the Sierra On-line and every last one of its products that many might be looking for in such a book. Instead, it attempts to approach the subject almost entirely from interviews with former employees. Quite a lot of notable people contributed the quotes that make up the bulk of the book’s content, though Ken and Roberta Williams themselves, still keeping a distance from all things Sierra at this point, are rarely quoted. Even still, there is enough here and I think the author put it together with enough love to make it a worthwhile read. I have to say, I was a bit annoyed with how the book starts, devoting its first chapter to flashing just a bit forward to talk about Sierra’s first couple brushes with death and how the company survived them before going back and starting at the beginning with On-line Systems and Mystery House in the next one. This kind of literary device often works quite well, but here it just came across like some kind of a bizarre editing snafu. A relatively minor gripe, I admit.

In 2020, founder and former CEO, Ken Williams himself, wrote and published Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings. Part autobiography, part industry insider insight, Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings is the story of Sierra On-line from the unique perspectives of Ken, and to a lesser extent, Roberta. While I did sometimes find the writing in need of a bit more editing (for example, Ken often repeats himself, especially from chapter to chapter) I quickly started to get in tune with Ken’s “voice” and ended up really enjoying his take. By the way, I originally listened to the audiobook version, and when I later got a printed book I was surprised to find it full of interesting full color pictures. Very much an upgrade!

Without a ton of detail, the book sometimes feels like just a bunch of strung together anecdotes, though it was all strung together reasonably well despite its numerous interludes. It certainly succeeded in satisfying my biggest hope for the book by filling in a lot of gaps about Ken and Roberta and the unique company culture that produced the games I loved so much. I was perhaps most intrigued by the conflict between Ken’s cold and detached approach to business: only wanting to work with “A players” and chasing monetary success, at times to the detriment of the company, with his more personable and generous side: hiring random locals to grow into very specialized positions and running the company like a big, fun family, and how that stuff all changed as he eventually ceded more of Sierra’s management and control to others as the company grew. I don’t know that Ken sees this as a “conflict” himself but, especially given Sierra’s eventual decline, it stood out to me. Speaking of which, this book gave me far more insight into the death of Sierra than anything else I’d read, with Ken providing a version of events that no one else has ever, or could ever, fully present around the CUC takeover and subsequent loss of control. It really is, as the title suggests, a bit of a cautionary tale.

Of course, Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings is all from Ken’s point of view but, despite the obvious inherent bias there, his accounts do come across as sincere to me. Regardless, I’d highly recommend reading the sometimes overlapping accounts in all three of these books for a more well-rounded perspective. I’d also recommend reading them in the order I covered here; Ken even references his chapters of Hackers in Not All Fairy Tales. When taken together, we finally have as close to a complete picture of the company as we’re likely to ever have.

There you have it! Needless to say, these are far from in-depth reviews and I’d recommend Evan Dickens’s reviews and comparison between The Sierra Adventure and Not All Fairy Tales over at Adventure Gamers if you want to dive a little deeper than I did here.

This article was actually taken from my other blog, originally posted in March of 2023. Given the subject matter, I meant for this to be more of a cross-post but, hey, I guess I got a little distracted. *shrug*