Coffee Talk #406: Gaming During Unexpected Delays

Last Monday I went out for a quick errand that turned into a long outing. I had to deposit a check into my business account. Under optimal conditions it’s five minutes there on the LA Metro Purple line, two minutes…

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Last Monday I went out for a quick errand that turned into a long outing. I had to deposit a check into my business account. Under optimal conditions it’s five minutes there on the LA Metro Purple line, two minutes in the bank, and five minutes back. Due to track issues, I was stuck in the subway car on the way back for well over an hour. Most of my fellow passengers were irritated, but thanks to videogames on my T-Mobile G2x, I wasn’t bothered.

As people were bitching and getting stressed out, I was serenely playing Meteor, Real Blackjack, and Angry Birds Rio. Videogames turned an annoying situation into a fairly entertaining (but certainly wasteful) hour. Part of me felt guilty that the other passengers were getting amped up while I was gaming. Most of me was grateful that my phone was loaded with games to pass the time. It was the latest of many situations in my life where I had to smile and say, “Thank God I’m a gamer!” (I didn’t actually say that out loud, btw.)

Do any of you guys and gals have stories like that? Have games ever helped you wait out an unusually long line? Perhaps a delay at the airport? Kindly share your tales in the comments section!

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

50 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #406: Gaming During Unexpected Delays”

  1. If im stuck somewhere, i usually just check in on my fantasy football league, check this page or facebook..not a real big mobile gamer. That being said, i can find ways to entertain myself for hours online.

    BTW guys…Dark souls may literally be the best game i have ever played in my life…this should hold me over nicely until the next greatest game of my life comes out Nov. 11 (SKYRIM!!!!!!! :D )

      1. It's a brand new game. I didn't realize it's a port. Are you confusing Dark Souls with Demon Souls?Sent from my iPhone 4

      2. I thought Dark Souls was the follow up to Demon Souls.

        In which case, I just figured it safe to assume that it was developed for PS3 with a port version to 360. Kinda like how LA Noire did it.

      3. I didn't say sequel, I said follow up.

        I guess that's a generic term that encompasses all that including prequels.

      1. Just tell me you didnt love me when you thought i was a goat herder, and i will never bother you again

        sorry for the randomness, i gotta catch up to Sandrock on the top 10

      2. +1 to you, sir.

        Damn, I miss Eddie Murphy.

        Like, "back-when-he-was-relevant" Eddie Murphy.

        -M

        P.S.- Also; Arsenio Hall

      3. I gave this a thumbs up too, but I can't quite remember where the reference is from…

  2. I get stuck on the bus, train, and trolley on the regular. I put on some music and play Angry Birds, next thing I know I'm at my destination.

  3. One time, I was on a bus and some crazy old dude rigged a bomb to it so that the bus would explode if it went under 40 miles per hour.

    While the driver and some surfer cop who I kept expecting to bust out an air guitar had their little love affair in front, I played Tetris for like 2 boring hours.

    1. Didn't you tell me that you bumped into the driver again but on a cruise ship going to the Bahamas??

  4. I listen to my podcasts and try to comment on this site when I'm commuting. I don't have that many games that I've transferred over to this iPhone 4 yet.

  5. Oh, God. How about an airplane flight being delayed 3 hours, THEN cancelled and rescheduled for the next day? That was terrible.

  6. This other time, I was on a plane and everybody who ate the fish got food poisoning, including the pilots.

    Turns out this dude I was sitting beside was a pilot with a bit of a drinking problem. He landed the plane safely and everything was okay and all… but before all that happened, he was going on and on about him and some chick named Elaine and whatever… I lost interest and played like 200 levels of Unblock Me. I'm amazed I didn't kill myself.

      1. Oh, yeah. Sorry, I couldn't get past the part of: "Does anyone in here speak Jive?" and:

        "Can you fly this plane and land it?"
        "Surley, you can't be serious."
        "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley."

        -M

  7. Whether or not it was capable isn't the issue.

    I considered a port the secondary medium from which the game was developed for.

    I used LA Noire because that was made for PS3 technology and then that coding was retranslated to run on 360. I want to say FFXIII was the same deal, but I'm not sure.

    Most of the time it's either developed for 360 or PC and ported to wherever. I was under the assumption that all multiplat games had this element to it.

    Other examples are just about anything Valve does but we'll only look at Portal 2 since it's the only oneI think of on PS3. Obviously it was coded for MS systems and then retranslated (I say ported) to PS3.

    I may be confused though.

    1. No, the White Engine (FF13) was developed on a PC.Btw…Portal 2 is on sale for $15 on Steam til tomorrow evening if anyone is interested. Easily worth the money.

    2. The Crystal (code named white) Engine was made to produce code for all three platforms at once. It does not develop for one platform or another and port to the rest. Instead, it developed for itself and ports to all the platforms.

      1. That seems frugal, but I could see instances where potential quality could suffer.

        But, that explains the majority of multiplat games. Thanks.

  8. This one time I got abducted from the space ship I was serving on by a mysterious alien race. Somehow our wisecracking pilot managed to escape and help our Captain retake the ship, but by that point the rest of the crew and I had already been taken aboard the enemy ship and flown off to an unknown location. It was days before the captain could rescue us from that place and all I had was Civ. 53.761 to play. And there wasn't even an extranet beacon in that sector…

  9. Does anyone find it ironic that Steve Jobs was killed by a PC?

    (pancreatic cancer)

    IKID

    1. You should trademark that because you know some prick is going to tell that joke on some late night talk show and make money off of it.

      -M

  10. You guys may not know this about me… but I used to play rugby. I was pretty good too. Furthermore… I used to live in Uruguay.

    One time, the plane the team and I was on crashed in the middle of the Andes. I was stuck there for 72 days. To make matters worse, the only game I had was Cooking Mama.

    At least the food wasn't too bad though. Pete made for some awesome shish kabobs.

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