We may often play games because they affect us, because they allow us to be someone fantastic and unassailable. But games are also ancient, and ancient things teach us humility. Just as often, we play games because they are there to be played. Because we want to feel what it’s like to play them. Because we are not clever or strong or fast, but because we can move stones on wooden boards or shift cards between virtual spaces on cardboard or tap a capacitive display to flap a tiny bird.

Thinking back to most of the games you played on the NES, it’s easy to remember the 8-bit library as being simple and possibly even primitive. However, if you dig deep into the library, there is a surprising amount of games that maxed out the NES hardware to produce some impressive graphics and sound (See […]

Usually, when you get a new-to-you console or you boot up an emulator for the first time (try NesterDC, for instance), you can usually find or remember the major games to check out. But what happens when you need something different to play? This is where the “Hidden Gems” come in. Read More About My […]

Focusing exclusively on feelings to the detriment of realizing the reality of failure is good for nobody.

Too many to ever play them all, but a good place to look if I’m hankering for something new.

Awesome flash game.

dys4ia is an autobiographical game about the period in my life when i started hormone replacement therapy.

‘A complete from scratch recreation of Super Mario Bros. with a focus on perfectly imitating the feel the 1985 classic gave us. Then give Mario a portal gun, add puzzle game mechanics from Portal and there you go. And if that wasn't crazy enough, play 4-player coop, with everyone having their own Portal gun!’

‘Most gamification sucks because it breaks down our humanity like it is no more than a computer program that needs to be understood and then rewritten for maximum reward—reward for the company behind it, rather than for the player. That's how gamification is disrespectful: because it no longer treats us like people.’

Fake old video game animations. ‘olegco gaming experiences are listed in chronological orders. safe winds guide you.’

The story of Jason Rohrer’s ‘Chain World’, a customized fork of Minecraft of which there is only a single copy available on a USB stick and which is meant to be played only once, following a strict set of commandments, and then passed on to someone else. It’s meant to be a game about religion.

The creator of 'Passage', that life-story game-as-art Flash game.

“I stumbled on this unsettling story of an obscure Pokémon bootleg/art-hack that I thought might be neat to share on here. I think this originated from 4chan, so I’ve no idea if this hack actually exists. It probably doesn’t, but it’s still a great concept/tale!”

A running and jumping game with one button that I can't stop playing.

Donkey Kong, Mario, and other classic game bits Photoshopped into photographs. Well done.

Just like the good old days.

Spectacularly awesome homespun sprite-anime disco gore apocalypse. With happy metal hardcore soundtrack to boot.

Creatively-captioned NES screenshots. "The problem with me and video games is that I want them to love me as much as I love them and they can't, so I have to fill in the blanks myself."

The page that holds the top scores of Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell, the "Kings of Kong."

Absolutely ridiculous. Master Tetris player beats the entire game in record time, including the "invisible tetris" that plays behind the end-game credits.

First-person pinball.

Racism in video games (LotR, WCIII, WoW).

"21,000+ Game Music MIDI files." From NES to Xbox 360.

"One Quarter. Two Days. No Pause Button." Breaking the twenty-year old Missle Command record.

"This is a neverending massively multiplayer pong game. Yes, it's real, and for this I apologize."

An infectious disease in World of Warcraft is wreaking havoc. All right! How spontaneously cool.

Real-life enactment of classic videogames.

"...she would whisper 'Yeah, ...Stylish' in her best Issac Hayes impersonation; or scream wildly at the television 'AWESOME, ASSHOLE!!'"

"An illustrated listing of virtually every character, item, and enemy from the Super Mario Universe."

"The ultimate source for Halo speed runs."