Gaming

With an ever-growing backlog and less time than ever to play, I still find myself enamored with the medium, despite my relationship with it evolving over the years.

While games have continued to serve as a place of creativity and refuge for me since picking up my first Genesis controller, I now find myself more interested in the history, preservation, and technical aspects of the medium in addition to shifting back towards single-player and local multiplayer experiences.

Emulation and Game Preservation

As gaming has matured, the sentiment of "games as art" has become more prevalent, and the importance of preserving these works, like that of other more traditional art forms, has become increasingly important.

In my opinion it is not only your right, but obligation for gamers to contribute to this overall effort by freely being able to hack the systems that they own as well as dump/back up those games that they bought.

All storage mediums have a lifespan and as time progresses those cartridges and CD roms aren't getting any easier to read, nor is the hardware to replace faulty components that have reached their end of life.

Emulation of game backups is completely legal, despite ongoing corporations' best efforts to change that. We simply cannot rely on companies to preserve their own games nor ensure they're properly accessible and playable via future-proof means, so it's up to us to do it.

Console Modding

Check out my detailed list of Modded Consoles to see my favorite exploits, mods, homebrew, and more!

Local Multiplayer - Split Screen and Couch Co-Op

I grew up playing split screen and going to LAN parties, switched to playing tons of online multiplayer, and have ultimately come full circle back to local co-op experiences later in life.

Whether for a party setting or relaxing on the couch with a partner, I've compiled a detailed list of split screen / couch co-op games that I've enjoyed over the years.

Gaming on Linux - Proton and Wine

I also do a fair amount of gaming and game hosting on my Linux PCs and servers. The progression of Wine and Valve's Proton over the years has been incredible and has cemented Linux as a viable OS for gaming - just look at those Steam Deck sales!.

Having compatibility layers like Wine and Proton has been a game-changer for the industry as developers can now focus on making their games work on Windows, where the majority of users reside, and let the compatibility layers handle the rest.

I recently completed a fully-functional Linux arcade cabinet which you can check out on the projects page here!

Games by Me

Poser Pummel is a terrible 2D platformer/shooter written purely in Python (PyGame), has hand-made pixel graphics, and a chiptune soundtrack all by me.

It sucks, but I was young. Check out a bad web port here. which uses a really cool Python to Web Assembly build tool called PygBag.