Games

739 Articles

A Steam Machine Clone For An Indeterminate But Possibly Low Cost

January 2, 2026 by 28 Comments

For various reasons, crypto mining has fallen to the wayside in recent years. Partially because it was never useful other than as a speculative investment and partially because other speculative investments have been more popular lately, there are all kinds of old mining hardware available at bargain prices. One of those is the Asrock AMD BC250, which is essentially a cut down Playstation 5 but which has almost everything built into it that a gaming PC would need to run Steam, and [ETA PRIME] shows us how to get this system set up.

The first steps are to provide the computer with power, an SSD, and a fan for cooling. It’s meant to be in a server rack so this part at least is pretty straightforward. After getting it powered up there are a few changes to make in the BIOS, mostly related to memory management. [ETA PRIME] is uzing Bazzite as an operating system which helps to get games up and running easily. It plays modern games and even AAA titles at respectable resolutions and framerates almost out-of-the-box, which perhaps shouldn’t be surprising since this APU has a six-core Zen 2 processor with a fairly powerful RDNA2 graphics card, all on one board.

It’s worth noting that this build is a few weeks old now, and the video has gotten popular enough that the BC250 cards that [ETA PRIME] was able to find for $100 are reported to be much more expensive now. Still, though, even at double or triple the price this might still be an attractive price point for a self-contained, fun, small computer that lets you game relatively easily and resembles the Steam Machine in concept. There are plenty of other builds based on old mining hardware as well, so don’t limit yourself to this one popular piece of hardware. This old mining rig, for example, made an excellent media server.

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Playing A Game Of Linux On Your Sony Playstation 2

December 29, 2025 by 15 Comments

Until the 2000s, game consoles existed primarily to bring a bit of the gaming arcade experience to homes, providing graphical feats that the average home computer would struggle to emulate. By the 2000s this changed, along with the idea of running desktop applications on gaming console for some reason. Hence we got Linux for the PlayStation 2, targeting its MIPS R5900 CPU and custom GPU. Unlike these days where game consoles are reskinned gaming PCs, this required some real effort, as well as a veritable stack of accessories, as demonstrated by [Action Retro] in a recent video.

Linux on the PlayStation 2 was a bit of a rare beast, as it required not only the optional HDD and a compatible ‘fat’ PS2, but also an Ethernet adapter, VGA adapter and a dedicated 8 MB memory card along with a keyboard and mouse. PS2 Linux users were also not free to do what they wanted, with e.g. ripping PS2 game discs disallowed, but you could make your own games. All of which had to fit within the PS2’s meagre 32 MB of RAM.

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Moving Mousepad Is An Elegant Aimbot

December 27, 2025 by 12 Comments

These days, it can be hard to remain competitive in online shooters without spending your entire life dedicated to the sport. This leads some to explore the world of competitive aids. (AKA: cheating.) A great example is [Nick], who built a mechanical aimbot to help in this regard.

[Nick’s] build moves a mousepad underneath the mouse opposite to the desired movement direction, in order to simulate the mouse movements required to aim at targets in game. This is achieved with the aid of a XDraw A4 pen plotter, which served as a cheap prebuilt X-Y motion platform. The plotter responds to simple serial commands, which makes it easy to control. The X-Y gantry was mounted underneath the desk so the mousepad sits seamlessly on top of the desk, sliding neatly on low-friction mouse skate stickers.

With the mousepad control system built, it was then necessary to figure out how to turn it into an aimbot. [Nick] already had a machine vision tool to detect enemies in shooting game, so it was merely modified to make the right mousepad movements to get the crosshairs right where they needed to be before firing. In testing, it proved more than capable at helping a new player achieve far superior aim, as a good aimbot should.

We’ve featured similar projects before that use complex mechanical contraptions to aim for you. Yes, it’s still cheating, but it’s a lot harder to detect than a traditional aimbot. That doesn’t make it right, per se, just more subtle. Video after the break. Continue reading “Moving Mousepad Is An Elegant Aimbot” →

Building A High-Performance Shifter For Sim Racing

December 25, 2025 by 10 Comments

These days, sim racing is more realistic than ever. There are better screens, better headsets, and better steering wheels with better force-feedback, all of which help make you feel like you’re driving the real thing. If you’re looking for a stick shifter to complete such a setup, [DAZ Projects] might have just what you’re looking for. 

To create a robust shifter with great feel, the build relies on 3D printed parts as well as lots of quality metal hardware. At the heart of the build is a linear rail for the front-to-back movement, with a printed slider on top with a carefully-profiled indexer to ensure the stick properly ca-chunks into the right gear. A ball joint locates the shift lever itself, while allowing for smooth movement left-to-right. Centering is via simple extension springs. The H-pattern shift is enforced with machined steel rods. Detecting the position of the stick is handled via microswitches, with an Arduino Leonardo reading the switches and reporting itself as a USB device that should work with any modern sim.

It’s funny to think that such a mechanism would once have been a very serious machining job. These days, you can just squirt all this stuff out on a printer in a few hours. For the parts that can’t be extruded, [DAZ Projects] has provided a parts list on Google Docs.

We’ve featured some great racing sim builds over the years, from button pads to pedal boxes.

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Internet-Connected Consoles Are Retro Now, And That Means Problems

December 22, 2025 by 25 Comments

A long time ago, there was a big difference between PC and console gaming. The former often came with headaches. You’d fight with drivers, struggle with crashes, and grow ever more frustrated dealing with CD piracy checks and endless patches and updates. Meanwhile, consoles offered the exact opposite experience—just slam in a cartridge, and go!

That beautiful feature fell away when consoles joined the Internet. Suddenly there were servers to sign in to and updates to download and a whole bunch of hoops to jump through before you even got to play a game. Now, those early generations of Internet-connected consoles are becoming retro, and that’s introduced a whole new set of problems now the infrastructure is dying or dead. Boot up and play? You must be joking!

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Interactive Hopscotch Tiles Make The Game More Exciting

December 18, 2025 by 8 Comments

Hopscotch is a game usually played with painted lines or with the aid of a bit of chalk. However, if you desire fancier equipment, you might like the interactive hopscotch setup from [epatell].

The build uses yoga mats as the raw material to create each individual square of the hopscotch board. The squares all feature simple break-beam light sensors that detect when a foot lands in the given space. These sensors are monitored by a Raspberry Pi Pico in each square. In turn, the Pico lights up addressable NeoPixel LED strips in response to the current position of the player.

It’s a simple little project which makes a classic game just a little more fun. It’s also a great learning project if you’re trying to get to grips with things like microcontrollers and addressable LEDs in an educational context. We’d love to see the project taken a step further, perhaps with wirelessly-networked squares that can communicate and track the overall game state, or enable more advanced forms of play.

Meanwhile, if you’re working on updating traditional playground games with new technology, don’t hesitate to let us know!

Virtual Pet Responds To WiFi

December 16, 2025 by 4 Comments

When the Tamagotchi first launched all those decades ago, it took the world by storm. It was just a bunch of simple animations on a monochrome LCD, but it had heart, and people responded to that. Modern technology is capable of so much more, so [CiferTech] set out to build a virtual pet that can sniff out WiFi networks.

The build employs an ESP32-S3, perhaps the world’s favorite microcontroller that has WiFi baked right in from the factory. It’s paired with a 240×240 TFT LCD that delivers bright, vivid colors to show the digital pet living inside. Addressable WS2812B LEDs and a simple sound engine provide further feedback on the pet’s status.

The pet has various behaviors coded in, like hunting, exploring, and resting, and moods such as “happy,” “curious,” and “bored.” For a bit of environmental reactivity, [CiferTech] also made the local WiFi environment play a role. Nearby networks can influence the “hunger, happiness, and health” of the pet.

Incidentally, if you’ve ever wondered what made the Tamagotchi tick, we’ve explored that before, too.

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