Lazy Game Reviews

Checking out the 2024 models of Pixelx86 computer systems! Each is an aluminum mini PC running DOS and Windows 98 off an SD card, playing tons of classic PC games and software from the 80s and 90s. Sound Blaster Pro and DreamBlaster compatibility, VGA output, ISA and mPCIe and more.

CES 2025 happened. So let's go back to the Consumer Electronics Show 1993 instead! A tour of the convention show floor and many of its marvels through the lens of Stewart Cheifet and the Computer Chronicles TV show. 3DO, Sega CD, MiniDisc, Laserdisc, PDAs, DOS games, and much more!

To many, SereneScreen Marine Aquarium screensavers are most well known by the versions for Windows XP. Or perhaps the Aquatic Life version on Roku 4K devices. But there were many more releases and editions in the 2000s, plus a whole history going back 40 years to the Commodore 64 and Amiga days!

The rumors were true! EA re-released the first two Sims games for Windows PCs to mark the 25th birthday of the series. And they even fixed them to work on modern PCs! Kinda. Sorta. Ehh, an attempt was made. Still, I'm happy to see these exist on Steam and whatnot, so let's dive in and take a closer look at The Sims Legacy Collections from 2025!

LGR retrospective on the HP Mini 1000, one of the more popular PCs from the short-lived era of the netbook! If you could even call it an era. In hindsight, it was all a bit silly, even though the 45nm processors making it possible were quite exciting at that point in time. So join me in reviewing the Mini 1000 that I had back in 2009 (or close to it) and putting it through its paces 16 years later!

I missed out on Tamagotchi in the 1990s but I vividly remember the hype and being curious about them. So when I came across this CD-ROM version for Windows 95 PCs by 7th Level my curiosity got the better of me! So let's dive into some history and context with the electronic keychain toys, as well as the gameplay of this 1997 computer version.

Review of the Minisforum AI X1 Pro from 2025! A new Windows 11 mini computer built around the beefy AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 12-core processor, with 64GB RAM and the surprisingly capable Radeon 890M iGPU that gives it legit PC gaming possibilities. NEAT! Oh and it also does some Copilot AI stuff I guess.

Looking back at the 1995 Home Edition of Cross Country USA for MS-DOS PCs! This update to the original 1985 Apple II edutainment game has you traveling from state to state in an 18-wheeler semi truck, picking up and delivering commodities at 90mph. Just don't forget to wear a seatbelt — and maybe body armor.

So after the stupid hurricane last year wrecked my gaming PC (and my home) I've been wanting to build a new rig. And with those new AMD Ryzen Zen 5 CPUs now released, this seemed like the time! So let's pick some parts, assemble and test things, and push the system to its limits with newer PC games at 4K! Oh and do stupid stuff with that LCD CPU cooler, ha.

Video tour of the huge COMDEX convention show floor and its many marvels through the lens of Stewart Cheifet and the Computer Chronicles TV show, with LGR commentary along the way. Pentium laptops, Windows 95, PowerPC systems, PDAs, early wireless tech, odd devices and more!

Years before Hi-MD, Sony took a stab at Mini Disc storage for computers with the MD Data format. I've covered the MDH-10 on LGR but completely missed the MDM-111 — until now! Let's install it, mess with DOS and Windows 3.x software, and run games from MiniDisc.

This odd 90s thing is the Datadesk Trackboard. No wait, it's a LittleFingers trackball board? Both are similar yet VERY different! Diving into the rabbit hole of computer history in this LGR episode, plus testing the keyboards on a Windows 9x PC with typing and gaming.

Reviewing the newest Doom game from id Software and Bethesda, now with shield based parrying and medieval melee combat! A wild departure from previous games, but is it for the better? Let's find out in this LGR review!

Exploring how N.E. Thing Enterprises came up with and created Magic Eye pictures in the 90s! Their 3D illusion books, posters, calendars etc were everywhere for years. But did you know they sold a program to generate your own SIRDS images on a PC? Let's dive into the history of stereograms, how Magic Eye dominated, and how to make your own!

Hyperbowl is perhaps most known for being in the Windows XP Plus! Pack and Media Center Edition in the 2000s, but it first was a (literally) huge arcade game attraction created by Sony for use in the San Francisco Metreon Center in 1999. While I've never experienced that machine, I played a ton of it on PC! So let's look at each different home version, including the newer Unity Engine releases.

Marking SIXTEEN years of LGR existing! Thinking back on how it's been, how it's been going, and how I hope it might go in the future. Especially the last part cuz things are changing — for the better, I hope! Also some home rebuild updates 8 months after the hurricane.

LGR review of the Anbernic RG Slide emulation handheld thing! There are tons of Android consoles built for emulating vintage games, but this one with its sliding mechanism and big 120Hz 4:3 LCD screen stands out from the rest! With compromises that make it my favorite emulation device I'll rarely ever use.

This original Dazzle hails from the brief few years where it actually made sense to put an MPEG-1 encoder inside of a parallel port device. But even with its printer-adjacent connections, the LAV-1000 is surprisingly capable! Let's set it up, record VHS and PS2 video footage, and use Windows 98 to edit the resulting video and image files.

Review of the I'm Back Film kit! A bit of modern oddware that goes inside a 35mm camera and replaces the film, swapping it with a digital 20 megapixel Micro 4/3 sensor. Nifty idea but is it any good? Let's set it up, test it with an SLR, compare it to film, and see it it's worthwhile.

I did NOT wanna make this video but here we are. This is the Chaplet Halikan LA-30A, or pieces of it anyway! A fascinating 1980s machine, one of the first laptops combining a backlit display, hard drive, and ISA slots into a system that could run entirely on batteries. Neat! Unfortunately, while this rare beast was in good shape before shipping, it did not look so great once it arrived. The plastics on these things are increasingly brittle, so if anything I want this video to act as an LGR public service announcement: USE EXTREME CAUTION WHEN SHIPPING OLD PLASTIC COMPUTERS. Even better, don't ship at all if it can be avoided.

BARCODES! No one cares about 'em. Yet they were once exciting, cutting edge tech. Heck, old computer magazines often had entire sections dedicated to UPC scanning and software. So I finally got a PC barcode reader kit from 1994 and used it with some POS applications! And Duke 3D.