Gaming

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

While games have consistently served as a place of creativity and refuge, starting as soon as I picked up my first Genesis controller, I now find myself more interested in the history, preservation, and technical aspects of the medium. I've also found myself 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 with that the importance of properly preserving these works and experiences, not unlike that of more traditional art forms, has become clear.

In my opinion it is not only the right, but the obligation of gamers to contribute to this overall effort by freely hacking and modifying systems that they own as well as dumping/backing up games that they have purchased.

All storage mediums have a lifespan and as time progresses cartridges and discs aren't getting any easier to read, and the finite amount of hardware to play them on is slowly dying out. This is where emulation comes in.

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.