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Alt-tabbable, easy to pause laptop games?
Talonrazor
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I'm taking this incredibly dull course where the professor lurches into long rants about her days working as a Theatre director. Basically, everyone brings laptops and plays Hearts or some such. I don't want to skip the class because I'm paying money for it and I can only do homework when I have essays to write.
So, I need something I can play on my laptop that I can alt-tab out of it quickly if the professor mentions something important to jot down in Word, doesn't really require hearing anything and can be paused easily.
Enlighten me.
So, I need something I can play on my laptop that I can alt-tab out of it quickly if the professor mentions something important to jot down in Word, doesn't really require hearing anything and can be paused easily.
Enlighten me.
Talonrazor on
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Castle of the Winds. Simple Windows interface, no sound, turn-based so you're not tapping the keys suspiciously and jumping in your seat. Probably the easiest and simplest of all roguelikes, a great introduction.
This may be an odd thing to recommend, but it was the first thing to pop into my head.
There is so much depth and kickass gameplay. But it is wrapped up in ANSI graphics and one of the harder to learn interfaces of all time.
edit: http://bay12games.com/dwarves
You know you can just click and hold the mouse, right?
I've been recommending this so often of late that I'm going to have to play it more.
Playing any game in class instead of paying attention isn't the right move, so splitting hairs about individual ones is kind of silly.
Oddly enough, I was just about to suggest that as well.
> get ye flask
And even if people see you playing it it doesn't look all that suspicious anyway. Looks like a normal computer screen. Just a bunch of lines and shit.
You can't post on these forums anymore!
lol nub!
Has a nifty "boss mode" hotkey for hiding/closing it in a hurry if the prof comes around. Alt-tabbable, windowed by default anyway. You're a nimble walljumping ninja dodging various enemies' attacks and trying to escape the level by opening the door and going through.
Dismount/Truck Dismount (Porrasturvat/Rekkaturvat)
Nifty physics-based damage simulator. The first lets you push a guy down the stairs by applying a chosen level of force to a specific part of his body at variable angles and pitches. The second is a truck-vs-wall crash simulation where you set the velocity of the truck, placement of two separate ramps, initial location of the "passenger", and whether or not the truck has a windshield.
The nice thing about Rekkaturvat is that it allows you to re-watch your highest score replays.
Planescape: Torment
Icewind Dale 1/2
Baldur's Gate 1/2
Space Station 13 would be perfect to kill some time if you can find a server/don't mind the public servers. Also if you don't mind being killed while you've got it minimized.
Yea, not advocating wasting class time by doing this but so far, we haven't learned a single thing in class. I do as much homework as possible on my laptop while sitting in there but other then that, it's a complete waste of time. Only reason I'm taking it is because it's a required for my major. But nothing builds on it and I don't need to know anything from it, so a whole bunch of money just for paperwork. :?
Fallout is a great idea, haven't played the games
You guys are awesome, keep 'em coming.
As an undergrad student, I never really thought it was an issue. We payed good money for classes, if we wanted to distract ourselves, then who really cares?
But now I'm on the other side of the fence, I have to say that it is damn hard to give a lecture or tutorial when you realize that most of the students aren't paying attention, and are web surfing or chatting on IM programs while the class is going on. I wish I had some sort of portable WiFi blocker that I could turn on for the duration of the tutorial or lecture, so that I don't feel like I'm talking to myself.
The most bizarre trend is that students are now attending tutorials and lectures, and relaying the important points (via IM programs) to their friends who are too lazy to attend. There have been a couple of times now, where a situation has arisen like this:
Student: Umm... can you clarify that point?
Me: Which point?
Student: <On Keyboard> TAP TAP TAPPITY TAP.
Student: Long pause while waiting for IM reply.
Student: Ummm... the one about the diagrams.
Me: Hmm.... OK.
Of course, they assume that academics are too stupid to know what is going on. :roll:
Yea, I kinda feel guilty. I'd skip the class but damnit I'm paying good money so I'm sitting my ass in that chair. Problem is, she hasn't covered anything. I could understand anger if students were doing that during something important, but it's an Intro to Theater class (so frustrating, had no idea my FA credit was missing so here I am stuck in this thing) and she even told us in the beginning that we could "sleep if we wanted". All she does is play movies of plays and talk about her experiences. Today, we spent the entire time stuck on the point of what "method acting is" because she talked the whole time about people who review plays.
Really is pissing me off.
Hmm... that sounds pretty terrible. By the sounds of it, even I'd be tempted to bring my DS along
I'd make some smartarse remark regarding the arts vs the sciences, and the relative content levels in the courses of each... but that wouldn't be diplomatic.
Back on topic... if you really want to have something to distract you from the fine-arts dreck, then turn-based games really are the go.
As mentioned, roguelikes are good, as are PC-based board games (Risk, Chess, Go, etc). Civilization will soak up as much time as you want. One of the HoMM games is another option.
There are a lot of decent indie turn-based games, like: Dominions II, Lux, and Battle for Wesnoth.
Me and some freinds played Mario Kart during some dull lectures. Not advisable if you are prone to swearing loudly when you get a red shell up the tuckus.
I plan on having a big wireless Mario Kart DS-athon during my graduation just because
Castle of Winds is pretty cool.
And does Diablo 2 work well for on-and-off again attention span? Thinking of picking it up.
http://anywherebb.com/
Click on the link for Noctis at the top.
Basically a galaxy with 78 BILLION star systems to explore. Star systems are as varied as reality. Some with no planets,s ome with numerous. Some planets have moons, some have rings, etc.
The game is exceedingly exciting as you can explore and name this vast universe. In my first hour of play, I landed on an unexplored system and discovered ancient ruins
As a taste of the worlds in the game....
Pretty cool stuff as it is ALL procedurally generated, but each universe is identical for all players. So if I said, I found ruins on the third planet's 4th moon of the Cheesecake Thief star system at coordinates 030:044, then you could find the exact same ruins.
Nothing to kill or the like, but lots to see, name, claim, and explore.
This is awesome.
You are awesome.
Man this is cool!
I can understand how that would suck for the lecturer, but if you're engaging and informative and interesting, you should have nothing to worry about. I have one really great prof that never fails to hold my attention, and I also have one that's horribly boring and I always tune out completely by about 30 minutes into the lecture. There's a facebook community for people who hate her class, so it's not just me.
It all comes down to the professor, really. The tubes keep me sane in some classes, but in others I pay attention the whole time.
XBL |Steam | PSN | last.fm
It got me through a few dull courses in college. FFT is perfect because it's turn based, so an emergency alt-tab won't hurt at all. And using the combination above is completely legal.
Well, the way lecturing works is that the academic generally get assigned a couple of subjects each semester. If you are a junior/part-time academic, you will generally get assigned the crap subjects.
(And half the time they are subjects that you didn't take as a student, or which have changed dramatically since you took them. So you have to frantically read the textbook before the semester starts).
So, if you are lecturing on something innately dull, then you really struggle to make it interesting. There is a big list of things you have to cover to prepare the students for future subjects, so you have to pack your slides with that. In between, you try to include some interesting examples to hold their attention.
With subjects like that, it is easy for the academic to overcompensate for the dry material by injecting some attempted humour, but the problem is that this backfires half the time, and leaves the students with the impression that the lecturer doesn't take the subject seriously (which is often correct, but not the impression you want to leave) or that they are totally eccentric. So, the safest path to take with this material is to just present it as-is, and to stress the importance of the material (despite its dullness). The academic is bored silly by the material, and so are the students, but it has to be taught since it is the foundation for later subjects.
On the other hand, if the subject in itself is interesting, then most academics can keep their students' attention. Academics also put more work into their presentations for interesting subjects, since they find them more interesting too.
There are some academics that can make all subjects interesting, but they are few-and-far between. Most academics aren't natural entertainers (and many get nervous before every class, even after teaching for years). Academics generally don't really want to teach, they want to do research. But teaching is part of the job, so they just try to do their best and hope that they get the chance to teach an interesting subject once in a while.
Are there any other good ones like this?
I like the roguelikes, but my eyes aren't really good enough for the ascii, plus I prefer the ease of mouse ui.
does anyone have anyidea how to save in this? I've played this game since I was a little kid, but I've never figured that out.
My sweet, untouched Miranda
And while the seagulls are crying
We fall but our souls are flying
I don't remember exactly how to do it, but I remember it being fairly easy, to the point where it gave me a bit of a saving addiction for at least a couple of months after I finished it. You can of course play it like a real roguelike, but being able to try on everything you find with no penalty is just too tempting.
Edit: Downloaded just to check. There's a save button right on the interface.