Starting with 1973's Maze War and ending with 2013's Battlefield 4, 4096's journey through decades of first-person shooters is a delight of cunning transitions and perfect selections. Here's the full list of picks, for those curious.
A three-minute journey through the history of first-person shooters
Myst Island cake
Mike Ando and Meka Made baked and decorated a cake of Myst Island from the eponymous 1993 game by Rand and Robyn Miller, et al. A detailed after-action report is at Ando's website—the best part about it is that it's a cross-section, so you can see the hidden unground parts of the age that Catherine… READ THE REST
Playing video games makes you happy, say scientists working with EA and Nintendo
A paper out of Oxford University, "Video game play is positively correlated with well-being", reports that playing video games makes you happy. The study tracked 518 players of Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville and 2,756 players of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Key findings include: • Actual amount of time spent playing was a small… READ THE REST
NYT guide to making a Raspberry Pi retro console
At the New York Times, Thorin Klosowski writes about how easy it is these days to set up a fully-armed and operational retro console: all you need is a Rasberry Pi [Amazon] and about thirty minutes. Klosowski posted a straightforward guide to setting it up that even I could follow. ROMs are usually copyrighted material;… READ THE REST
Brew to perfection every time with these coffee and tea essentials on sale for Black Friday prices
Calling all caffeine addicts! There's no reason to pin all your hopes on Black Friday for your new coffee gadget fix. As part of the Boing Boing Store's Pre-Black Friday Sale, you can score a great deal right now on one of more than a dozen different coffee and espresso makers by top brands. With… READ THE REST
Get Black Friday savings on these everyday carry essentials from KeySmart
There used to be a name for people who carried around equipment that could handle almost anything at a moment's notice: Boy Scouts. Now, we're all carrying everyday essentials that will hopefully help us MacGuyver our way out of any sticky situation. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the fight against COVID. KeySmart has… READ THE REST
The DeliverySafe is the ultimate foil for porch pirates and it could save your holidays
With everyone stuck in COVID quarantine for much of the year, online sales for Amazon and other retailers have gone through the roof. That means more and more packages coming right to your door, to the sheer delight of a more loathsome brand of COVID opportunist: the porch pirate. Thieves taking off with delivered packages… READ THE REST