Lazy Game Reviews

Not only was the IBM PalmTop PC 110 the world's tiniest DOS and Windows subnotebook in 1995 but it also functioned as a telephone handset! Let's take a look at this fantastic little 33MHz 486 computer from the mid '90s, which also strove to be a personal organizer, a digital notepad, a desktop clock, a portable fax machine, and a digital camera all in one handheld device.

Let's assemble a MIDI RackMountain! The idea is the same as the first MIDI Mountain: combine a bunch of MIDI synths together to make a mountain of musical goodness. But instead of just stacking it all up, this time it's going in an 8U rack-mount case! Plus a few upgrades, like a rack-mounted Roland MT-32, an 8-channel mixer and MIDI thru box, a clicky power strip, and more vintage General MIDI modules. Also a stupid equalizer, ha.

In 2003 Hewlett-Packard released the Photosmart Mobile Camera for iPaq Pocket PCs running Windows Mobile. And the entire thing is on an SD card! Or more specifically SDIO. It's got a 1.3 megapixel sensor, 4x digital zoom, manual focus with macro, and a surprising bit of versatility for such a tiny device.

I've put off talking about this stack of synthesizers, drum machines, and audio gear for long enough. Let's dive into the main LGR synth setup and what I do with it! I'm still an amateur with this but here's a bit of a studio tour anyway. Weird electronic music and cool sounds of all kinds, I just can't get enough!

The Ad Lib Gold 1000 sound card from 1992 sells for crazy high prices. But why? Let's unbox one and see if it lives up to its legendary reputation by delving into its history, determining why it failed, and seeing how it actually performs on early 90s PC hardware. And of course, play Dune.

"Nobody registers WinRAR." So let's register WinRAR! It's notorious for its infinite 40-day trial so I've been curious what activating it is actually like. I also wonder how old of a version of WinRAR can be activated using a 2021 registration key! Let's find out with Windows XP, 98, 95...

A review of Need For Speed 2 from 1997, focused on the Special Edition presented in all its 3dfx Glide mode glory. And it is a downright goofy game when compared to its predecessors! A dozen supercars and one-off concept cars to drive, plus dinosaurs and outhouses. Superb.

The Yamaha CRW-F1 drive from 2002 introduced the ill-fated Disc T@2 system, letting you "tattoo" CD-Rs. On the *DATA* side, not the label side! It lasted barely a year on the market before being discontinued, so yeah, let's dive into this bit of Oddware.

Let's encode some PC data on tape using the Kansas City Standard! Dozens of retro computers used audio cassette tapes as their method of loading and saving software, but using reel to reel tape? Now that’s more exciting -- and complete overkill with 10.5" reels at 15 inches per second.

An LGR retrospective about Fujitsu's Fin Fin on Teo the Magic Planet, a (sort of) voice-controlled virtual pet for Windows PCs from 1996! Specifically the 1997 US Deluxe Edition that came with a plastic bird whistle and its own microphone. The press were enamored with FinFin for a time but it seems to have disappeared almost entirely from the public consciousness in the years since. So let's befriend this weird alien dolphin bird from the 90s!

Dang, it's been a while! Finally got together enough footage for a full, real episode of LGR Thrifts. I've been visiting stores here and there this whole time, but nowhere near as often as I used to. And even then, it's been pretty slim pickins whenever I did go out. Whatever though, here we are with a bunch of thrifty thrift store stuff I've run across over the past however many months. Enjoy!

Checking out the IBM 7532 Industrial Computer, introduced in May of 1985 at $6149. Prices only went up from there, easily surpassing $10000 for a decent setup with EGA and a hard drive! It's one monster of a rackmount 286, built for use in professional environments like factories, power plants, and alongside mainframes.

First LGR donations unboxing for 2021, and it's a big one! All kinds of classic computer hardware, software, oddware, retro games, and vintage technology. Massive thanks to everyone who contributed — and also made offers to do so! Can't wait to dive deep into all this stuff as time allows.

Sound Blaster over the parallel port?! YEP. This one's all about the DSP Solutions Digispeech Plus, a sound device for DOS and Windows PCs that connects via the parallel port. It's not restricted to simple OPL2/3 stuff, nor is it a Covox Speech Thing/DSS clone. The DS311 simply plugs in, runs a TSR, and lets you select Sound Blaster mode in classic computer games using nothing more than the humble printer port. Fantastic.

Experiencing the Creative Labs 3D Blaster VLB, a $350 graphics card from 1995 and one of the earlier attempts at a consumer 3D graphics standard. And specifically meant for 486 DOS computers! While others were catering to Pentium PCs and their fancy PCI slots, Creative took another route through this collaboration with 3Dlabs. So let's admire the card itself, go over some history and context, get things installed and configured in the LGR Woodgrain PC, and play some mid-90s 3D accelerated DOS games!

Well this is a rare treat! Thanks to a generous loan from an LGR viewer, we've got the opportunity to enjoy a new old stock IBM ThinkPad computer. Costing nearly $4,000 in 1997, it's a mid '90s notebook PC with a 166MHz Pentium MMX, 16MB RAM, 3GB hard drive, and a built-in floppy and CD-ROM drive. Fantastic. Apparently it's spent a lonely life in the back corner of an office storage area, just waiting for someone to take it home and give it some love. And after over two decades, that day has finally come.

An LGR Retrospective on the Cybiko: a neon PDA-like handheld device providing wireless mobile computing for tweens and teens! This episode's got it all, folks. Tech history, monochrome gaming, a road trip, unboxing, teardown/repair, dumb 2000s marketing, wireless chat rooms, Frankie Muniz, Windows 98 serial cable shenanigans and more. CYBIKO.

This is a Lian Li PC-6010 aluminum ATX tower case from 2003, but with the optional $99 fish tank side panel! It holds water, pebbles, plastic fish, and a bubbly pipe thing to get things moving. Yes, that means there's an air pump inside, right next to the IDE hard drive and PCI expansion cards. And it is precisely as loud and vibration-inducing as you'd expect.

Review of Unreal Tournament 1999 from Epic Games. Facing Worlds, Deck16, Morpheus, assault mode, instagib, ahh good times in PC gaming. Let's take a nostalgic look back at Unreal Tournament Game of the Year Edition!

Assembling a 1997-era Socket 7 system running an AMD K6 processor paired with the classic Asus P/I-P55T2P4 motherboard! Of course, it's also packing a 3dfx Voodoo card, a wavetable-capable sound card, and good old Windows 95. And it plays POD. Lovely!

Taking a look at the Radius Pivot Full Page Display! You might've seen monochrome Radius Portrait displays for the Mac, which were permanently mounted sideways. But not the Pivot! It's an SVGA color computer monitor that rotates 90 degrees for a vertical display in Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS.

An LGR retrospective on Iron Assault by the Italian developer, Graffiti! Compared to MS-DOS competitors in '95 like MechWarrior 2 and Earthsiege, it's not super impressive. But part of it worth looking at, namely its full motion video cutscenes with miniatures and stop motion animation! The gameplay itself may wear out its welcome before long, but those miniature giant robots are too adorable to miss.

Aw yeah, yet again a bunch of awesome items have showed up in the LGR mailbox over the past few months. Plenty of vintage computer hardware, software, oddware, games, and tech goodness. Fantastic stuff all around, thank you for your kindness and generosity!

When I covered the Radius Pivot on LGR Oddware, I showed how games like Doom aren't designed for portrait mode. But then I said it would be dumb/fun if something like 'Tate Doom' actually existed, and WELP. Developer Matt Phillips took it upon himself to make that happen, and TOOM is the result! A vertical Doom conversion that runs in MS-DOS on original 486 PC hardware.

Checking out the usual thrift stores in my area and seeing what kind of retro tech and random old weirdness I can find. Then I ended up taking a bit of a detour and dropped by a local gaming and collector's event! And I figured hey, why not roll it up into a Thrifts episode? Let's go thrifting!

Gameplay and overview of the ELEVENTH expansion pack to The Sims 4. This time it's an English countryside farming thing of sorts. Livestock to raise, eggs to hatch, critters to befriend, and I spose there's a cottage or two to live in. Let's just see if it's worth that $40 price tag.

Exploring a multimedia PC from the year 2000: the Sony Vaio PCV-MX2! And it's a beautiful silver hi-fi beast of a thing. Not only is it a Windows 98 desktop computer, but it's packing a built-in amplifier, CD/DVD player, FM radio, and a MiniDisc drive, all usable via remote control. Fantastic hardware that was only sold in Japan, let's test it out!

This is the STS Tecom CKS-05V from 1997, a 5-inch amber monochrome VGA CRT monitor that fits into three PC drive bays! And it is a delight to use with both retro games and modern software. Surprisingly sharp image and that beautiful orange glow, ah, just a fantastic oddity.

2X CD-ROM! Sound Blaster 16! Speakers! Tons of software! This time on LGR we're revisiting the mid 1990s to unbox and install a Creative Sound Blaster Discovery CD bundle — new old stock! I drooled over these as a kid but owning one was never anything more than a dream. Until now, 26 years later!

Looking back at Broderbund's The Print Shop Deluxe from 1993! Growing up in the 90s, I had an oddly fun time playing around with the program making all kinds of random signs, banners, cards, and calendars, for no other reason than because I could. And if nothing else, Cool Crab™

Opening and setting up a new old stock NEC AccuSync 70 display from 2001! One of my older CRTs was kind of under the weather and I needed a reliable monitor for VCFMW, so I bought this one still sealed in box. Testing with a Windows 98 PC!

Unboxing and testing these weird old mice! Computer mice, of course. Checking out the Burger Mouse, the Corvette Motor Mouse, and the Media/Melody Mouse, along with their included software. All from the mid nineties and all kinds of gimmicky.

Checking out VCFMW 16 near Chicago in Elmhurst, Illinois! It's a weekend full of classic computers, retro tech, hardware and software sales, panels, gaming, and overall good times and chill vibes with tons of technology enthusiasts. Let's go t̶h̶r̶i̶f̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ conventioning!

Unboxing and setting up a new old stock Davis Instruments Complete Weather Station from 1997, plus WeatherLink hardware and software for Windows 3.1 PCs! I've always found weather equipment oddly enjoyable, but logging data on a 486 PC via the serial port? EXTRA FUN.

Opening up a new old stock original Xbox! Microsoft released the system nearly two decades ago, and with that anniversary coming up I figured it's as good a time as any to set it up and play some games. Plus I needed to check on the clock capacitor, so yeah. OG XBOX TIME.

Likely the world's first palmtop, the Atari Portfolio is a computer packing a 4.92MHz Intel 80C88A CPU, 128 whole kilobytes of RAM, and a proper DOS operating system capable of running (some) PC software alongside its built-in applications. And according to Terminator 2 it even acts as a quick ATM hacking tool! To quote young John Connor: "Easy money."

Final LGR donations unboxing for 2021, and it's a huge one! All kinds of vintage computer hardware, software, oddware, classic games, and retro technology. Huge thanks to everyone who contributed — and also made offers to do so! Super psyched to make videos about these things.

Fus Ro Dang, it's time for an LGR review of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim! It's now one decade old (wut) so let's take a look back the original game from 2011 in celebration of its 10 year anniversary. Wow time flies, that midnight launch on 11-11-11 still seems like yesterday.

Checking out the wee little weeCee! It's a mini PC capable of running MS-DOS and Windows off a MicroSD card that plays well with tons of classic PC games and software, boasting Sound Blaster Pro and Wave Blaster/GM compatibility, along with SXGA 32-bit color graphics with VGA out. Awesome stuff, so let's try it out with some DOS and Windows 98 games!

Let's build and review the MiSTer Multisystem hardware expansion kit! In addition to its 3D printed case, the Multisystem is a board adding tons of functionality and quality of life improvements to the MiSTer FPGA experience. Plus it has all kinds of nifty upgrade options with a modular expansion slot and integrated SNAC ports and things, so things only improve from here.

3D Lemmings (aka Lemmings 3D) was released in 1995, and it wasn't long before it got its own Christmas holiday themed edition, "Winterland." As far as 90s 3D updates to classic 2D games go, it wasn't awful! Assuming you can solve its biggest puzzle of all: the early 3D camera.

Taking a look back at the holiday editions of Outlaw Golf, 9 Holes of Xmas and 9 MORE Holes! These Christmas themed demos for Xbox were exclusive to Blockbuster video rental stores in the 2000s. Prepare for snow, Santa, sand traps, and stupidity. Let the gratuitous beatings commence!

Unboxing and testing more of these weird retro mice with a Windows 98 PC! Checking out the Star Trek Next Generation Phaser Mouse, the Boss Super OverDrive Mouse, and the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe Mouse, plus included software. All from the 1990s and early 2000s and all kinds of gimmicky Oddware.