I’ve got some DOOM WADs I have been meaning to play so I would probably grab Trench Foot, Total Chaos, and the sequel to Ashes 2063, Ashes: Afterglow with a portable install of GZDoom to play them.
After that I’d probably bring Star Trek TOS and a MOBI copy of Neuromancer by William Gibson combined with a portable install of VLC and Calibre in case the computer didn’t have applications that support the file format.
What about you?
I wanted to phrase this in a way where it isn’t a prolonged or desert island style question where the responsible idea would be to bring Wikipedia ZIMs and educational PDFs. It’s just an awkward amount of time to kill. The mid 2000s office desktop stipulation is just an additional challenge so you can’t just bring in a copy of Baldur’s Gate 3 or Cyberpunk 2077.
Edit: By mid 2000s I meant around 2005; the XP or Vista.
Zsnes and a few roms
Civilization 3, and I would accidentally stay 20 hours
Civ is a good one. I have done the same. Would you prefer 3 over 4 if the computer could run it?
I’d take 3 over 4 anyday. 4 always felt like it was designed around Multiplayer.
Either would be fine, but I liked the look of 3 a lot better.
Alpha Centauri. Just oooooone more turn
This is a fun question!
So, in the mid 00’s I worked for a pretty large software company doing mid level tech support for enterprise customers. One unassuming weekday, we get a notice that the building is going in to lockdown. Nobody in, nobody out.
Not long after we’re told to contact our families and anyone that may be depending on us after work. There’s a communication stating “we have a strong reason to believe anthrax was released in the building and no one is leaving until the CDC takes a sample and tests it”. Awesome.
After the initial chaos wears down the dawning realization that there are a few hundred (well closer to a thousand of us) now stuck in a multi- building complex with fuck all to do sets in. This is before YouTube really had anything and Netflix was barely serving up a few streaming movies. Plus, there’s no way I’m installing Silverlight on my production box. Dark times indeed.
In a stroke of pure luck, I stil had a couple of burned “backups” in my backpack from the previous weekends LAN party (jesus, this story just keeps getting more and more ancient).
A few short moments later and the ISO’s were dumped and it was game time. Now, we were all saddled with Dell Optiplexes of some random flavor (620’s maybe… this was pushing 20 years ago, details are a little sketchy) so there wasn’t much we could really run but anything in a pinch, yeah?
Long story long, I’d spend that time playing C&C Renegade, Quake 3 Unreal Tournament and maybe speed run Duke3D one more time. All while listening to some flavor of Scandinavian metal to truly flesh things out. If that got boring, I’d likely watch Ricky-O again or maybe throw on whatever else I happened to have dumped at the time (likely something from Tartan Asia Extreme or an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm).
Despite what an utter shit show this moment was, I have so many vivid memories of playing those games on the test network with a bunch of other 20 something people barely navigating through life while being scared to death that we may never see our families again.
That and trying to teach Ted how to copy a crack to the install folder… again… wtf man, directions are right there in the readme.nfo
That’s one hell of a story, thanks for sharing!
Absolutely! It was a pretty fun moment in my early years in this industry. Now, after 10 or so years working from home, I almost get nostalgic for an office.
What a ride. Someone asked what they get for doing this. I guess the answer was not killing your family or being arrested.
It ended up being some jackass on the SoCal sales team sending a “joke package” to one of our local sales guys. As far as I remember he was let go and no criminal charges were pressed. I think everyone involved was just relieved it was a hoax.
So eh, obviously you survived. But what about the rest?
Ended up being a hoax. The crew is still around and we occasionally get together to golf or drink at tailgaters when it’s football season. Time and children have taken their toll on the LAN’s and other drunken tomfoolery of those days. That’s always the thing about the “good times” they just seem like life when we’re in it.
Ted is now paying every last dime he makes for entertainment and gaming streaming services
Goddammit Ted.
Actually checking on Steam that appears to be a pretty accurate statement. My man’s got a hell of a library built up.
Hahahahaha poor guy
Stuck? Sounds more like a gift to me.
I’d probably not waste any time and play minesweeper
A few movies on the drive and I’ll take a nap to waste some time
Not sure 12 hours is enough time for me to grab much. Perhaps my backlog.
You don’t have 12 hours to grab anything. You’re stuck in the room for 12 hours
That part was understood. I don’t think I could complete 1 game in that period of time.
Fair enough. I’m not sure what’s in your backlog but there are some gems that can be beaten in a single play session. Titanfall 2’s campaign for example only takes 6 hours.
If we are talking about modern games
Uncharted series is pretty short
Dark Souls game+ can be beaten in some hours if you know what you do 🤭
Thanks. I didn’t know, it is also on my list.
No worries HowToBeat is a good website if you want to gauge how long a game might take you.
Every so often I feel fatigued by long games so I’ll look for something shorter.
Elder scrolls morrowind. 12 hours should’nt be a Problem.
Nothing I can explore the PC for 12 hours. Sounds like fun. Maybe play some pinball.
Please not Vista
Windows ME it is!
Okay I have never used it I think that will be interesting!
It was windows 98 but worse. It ground my GF’s Compaq cheapo college computer to a halt at the time.
A whole 11.5 hours of extra sleep next to a nostalgia machine?? Count me in.
just put a big pillow ‘on’ the external hard drive.
Max Payne 1 and 2, F.E.A.R, Far Cry, MAME with a couple of arcade roms like Galaga, Tetris, Pang, Puzzle Bobble, Metal Slug.
And if I get bored with those there is always Microsoft solitair, mine sweeper and mayong to fall asleep on the keyboard.
probably some snes roms, an emulator, and some ebooks
12 hours of trying to overclock a mid 2000s desktop as much as I can
Memtest on a floppy and superpi or prime95, atitool on the drive, maybe a few games to benchmark? Can’t forget a soldering iron and defroster repair kit. 12 hours is not going to be enough.
Without an Internet connection? Nothing.
You’d rather spend the 12 hours just using whatever is on the computer than bring in some of your ill-gotten gains for some guaranteed entertainment?
Can I take the external hard drive to my own PC before hand? I just don’t have shit to use to load anything into it from outside. lol
Around 2005?
TES Oblivion
I could bring the whole Person of Interest series and wouldn’t finish a season. That, or any TV series with reasonable length. I was thinking:
- Dark
- Breaking Bad
- Fringe
- Mr. Robot
- Hannibal
- Battlestar Galactica
- The Expanse
Speaking of, I wonder what the mid-00s performance for decoding HEVC.
Also, what do I get from this, anyway?
Also, what do I get from this, anyway?
You don’t kill your family or get arrested if you are in this person’s position I guess
https://sh.itjust.works/comment/10506722
Speaking of, I wonder what the mid-00s performance for decoding HEVC.
That’s a good question. I hadn’t thought of how that would play into things
Yeah, my collection is now on either AV1 or H265. Otherwise that 2TB won’t last.
I was hoping someone with a retro PC could answer.
