LazyGameReviews

LGR Wrap Up - October 2025

https://youtu.be/DyB2GjQ4TSE

The next LGR Wrap Up is here! With an update on the LGR storage/workshop/warehouse building, the usual commentary on the month's episodes, and all of your questions from last time.

Please leave your questions for next month's video in the comment section below this post. Thank you very much for your ongoing support, and sorry for the delay on getting this one out there! November sure turned out to be a busy one.

Work on the next LGR space begins!

Work on the next LGR space begins!

I am so ready to say goodbye to storage units after renting those for 10 years. It's ridiculous that I've spent about as much on storage fees as it'll take to do this entire building 😩

When it's done this will be an 1,800ft² (167m²) metal climate controlled warehouse kinda thing, acting as both storage for all the LGR stuff and a nice open space to work on video projects.

Yeah after I emptied out my house post-hurricane and put everything back into storage units, I knew it was time to finally construct a building since I did not want to bring things back into the house. And now that the house is rebuilt, I wanted to start on this straight away. So here we are!

There will be some updates along the way, but I'm sure it could turn into a dedicated video sometime down the line, so lemme know your interest in that. And thank you so very much for your ongoing support here! It is absolutely vital in making this possible. I've been setting aside funds to build this for years now and I am stoked to show y'all the end result. Here's looking forward to a much bigger and more open place to create in 2026!

LGR - 3 Weird Mice - Wheels, Water, WOOD

https://youtu.be/YWpeCw_H0Zw

Wow, it's been nearly two years since I did one of these episodes. The last one was in January 2024! Finally felt like doing another one so here we go again.

Time for three weird old computer mice! An Aqua Mouse, a PT Cruiser, and an Oberhofer solid wood mouse mentioned in the recent video about the Mitsubishi Oberhofer LCD monitor. Let's see if these oddities are any good!

The next few videos for November are well into the filming and editing process, so if this kind of silliness isn't your jam then you don't have long to wait. I hope you enjoy this trio of unusual input devices regardless, and take care till next time!

LGR - Cities Skylines 2 Two Years Later

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsRek_Q3Jfg

TWO YEARS ago I reviewed the sequel to Cities Skylines. And it has finally received an expansion! Seemed like the ideal reason to dive back into this thing and see how it might've improved (or not.)

The next three LGR videos are all in various stages of progress so expect those in the coming weeks for sure. And $5+ supporters can expect the next LGR Wrap Up episode pretty soon as well. Thank you for ongoing support, it's set to be a busy month for LGR things!

ScreenToyz Stitch - LGR Halloween Thing

https://youtu.be/bevfaEbteGU

Spooky greetings! Happy to be back with another thing I've put off for years, found again in storage while moving back home, and dug up way more interesting stuff about its history than I ever intended when I first acquired it.

Taking a look at Screen Toyz from 1994! Which are gimmicky peripherals plugging into a computer's keyboard port that allow you to control interactive screensavers... so uh, just a game then, right? What even is an "Interactive screensaver" other than a game by another name! Yeah they sure tried something, charged $50 for it, failed spectacularly, and that's how you end up on LGR 30 years later.

Hope you enjoy this bit of seasonal silliness! If anything I sure had a lotta fun putting together some Halloweeny visuals and stuff. I rarely do anything for the holiday so this was just a good time, so hopefully that comes across. Stay tuned for the next LGR things in November, it's shaping up to be quite a full month!

LGR - Returning to VCF Midwest 2 years later

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTKnv4LoAjY

Greetings and welcome to another LGR convention thing! Can't believe it's been two whole years since I last did a Vintage Computer Festival video like this, but here we are.

I've done vlogs of course, some at other VCFs even, but the last time I was at VCFMW was in 2023. And WOW have things changed! This feels like an almost entirely different show now and it is truly bigger and better than ever. I wish I could've seen more of the exhibits and tables in-person, but even just going through the footage while putting this together was an absolute treat.

I hope y'all enjoy this early edit! The final version will go up publicly in the next couple days and I'm already onto the next LGR videos as I type this. I have so many things in the backlog at this point that it's ridiculous, but with this one finally being done I feel quite free to try and tackle everything I've been putting off. I appreciate your patience while I've been moving back into my home the last month or so, and thank you so much for your ongoing support!

LGR Wrap Up - September 2025

https://youtu.be/qVaan7U91pc

The next LGR Wrap Up is here! With an update on my next build project, the usual commentary on the month's one lonely video, and all of your questions from last episode. Now from within my home — again, finally!

Please leave your questions for next month's video in the comment section below this post. Thank you very much for your ongoing support! It's been a ridiculous month with VCFMW and moving back home and all that, but I more than ready to get back to business here. Things in LGRland are lookin' up :)

LGR - 1999 Oberhofer Walnut Burl Monitor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTE7_gqnSLk

Ahh it's good to be back! Back from VCFMW and back into my house, heck yes.

And here we are with the first video from the new space! Or really, the old but newly rebuilt and refurbished space. Either way it's an exciting day. Is the video subject exciting? Possibly! It's certainly very LGR, ha.

Taking a look at the Mitsubishi Oberhofer Edition monitor, a 15-inch LCD from 1999 encased in a glossy walnut burl bezel intended to fit in with fancy '90s executive decor. Hollywood home offices in particular, it turns out. And selling for just $1,800! Considering their previous solid wood monitors were $5,000 this was basically a steal... if you lived in Beverly Hills, I guess.

And yep, that's what this is! A straightforward, classic LGR thing to get myself back into the groove of making videos at home again with a slightly different setup while I continue to get my old office workspace back together. I hope you enjoy this one despite its simplicity.

I'm stoked to get working on the next videos straight away, and $5+ supporters can expect the latest LGR Wrap Up episode this weekend if all goes well. Thanks so much for your ongoing support! Can't even say how good this post feels to write. Feels like home.

LGR Vlogs - 2025 VCF Midwest & Knobcon In Chicago

https://youtu.be/yIwXQicYClw

Greetings, all! Very glad to be back with a big new video: a new 2.5hr travel vlog! Covering my recent trip to Chicago where my brother and I enjoyed the crap out of the Knobcon synthesizer and electronic music convention, the increasingly epic Vintage Computer Festival Midwest at its new locale, and of course the beautiful city of Chicago and many of its amenities.

Although it's not a main channel video, it's still one that's taken a fair bit of time to assemble and the results are quite fun, if I do say so myself. So I really hope you enjoy this one! Chapters are provided if only certain bits are of interest.

I'll be back with an LGR video of some kind in the coming week or so, along with the next monthly LGR Wrap Up video for $5+ supporters quite soon.

TBH I'm not sure when I'll have the "proper" VCFMW video put together for the main channel, but hopefully by the end of this month if all goes well? Eh. Could be November, we'll see. The vast majority of my time is being taken up with moving back into my house and getting home life set back up, so things are still relatively slow on the video editing front. I only got my office put back together this week! But you have my word that I am absolutely getting as much done as I can and I'm beyond energized to get back to work.

The more I finish up my home the better headspace I'm in to make things again, so I hope you stick around. And thank you massively for all of your ongoing support! Shoutout to the hundreds I got to meet at VCF and Knobcon, too. What an awesome time it was.

I've moved back home!

https://youtu.be/6Lmi_b0REW0

Just realized I didn't post this update video here a few weeks back, oops. But yeah, things have certainly progressed a whole lot since then so I wanted to check in real quick.

I am officially moved back home and am fully out of my post-hurricane rental situation. FINALLY! I've spent practically every waking moment since returning from VCF Midwest packing up, cleaning up, and moving out of there and back into my freshly repaired house. It's been a hell of a year to say the least and I am BEYOND ready to get back to normal and start work on LGR again in the next week!

...I mean, hopefully... So yeah you may have seen there's not one but two slightly concerning storms growing larger out in the Atlantic right now and chances are high that it'll affect us here in Western North Carolina. At least somewhat. Just how much is hard to predict at the moment. To be honest I expect to lose power/water for a time considering how fragile the infrastructure still is in the entire area. Things just simply are not fully rebuilt or ready for another big storm, not by a long shot. The area is still rough overall. Heck I still have neighbors who haven't been able to repair their houses yet, not even a roof.

That said, even if things get a bit hairy (and there is a chance) I am far better prepared this time around. I've cut down and trimmed all the riskiest trees, got lots of supplies, all the things I can do really. It's just a waiting game now to see where things go over the next few days.

While we know it will not be anywhere near as bad as last time, there is a notable air of anxiety for myself and everyone in the area, especially with it being 1 year to the day tomorrow since Helene hit us so hard here in Asheville. So I truly appreciate the kind words and concern expressed by those who've reached out already! Here’s hoping it won’t be anything too wild this time.

I'll hope for the best, deal with whatever happens, and ideally be back to making LGR things quite soon. Thank you so much for sticking with me through all this and for your support on here and elsewhere. Your concern, understanding, patience, and offers of help when things go nuts means the world to me.

Fingers crossed the next update will be a fun LGR episode and we can leave all this storm stuff behind for a while 🤞

LGR Wrap Up - August 2025

https://youtu.be/6v1CzJzNhWg

The latest LGR Wrap Up episode is now available for viewing! Some near-final home rebuild updates, along with the usual commentary on recent videos and each of your questions left last time. All coming to you from VCF Midwest last weekend!

Feel free to leave your questions for next month's video in the comment section below this post. Thank you very much for your ongoing support! I'm so very excited to finally be moving back home soon, argh... what a year it's been! The next month will be extremely busy with finalizing the house and moving back in so I appreciate your patience and understanding.

The OG Vortex86 DX Mini PC from 2008

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZcmCQdSbAk

Goin' all the way back to the source with this one!

Much as I enjoy retro mini PC projects like the WeeCee, TinyLlama, and PixelX86? Yeah I've always wanted to go back to where it all started: the eBox, which was one of the first machines designed around the DM&P/ICOP Vortex86 DX system-on-chip. In particular I was wondering just how similar it was to the modern Vortex86 projects, considering how an eBox can be bought for a TENTH of the price currently. And I gotta say, I was pretty surprised in some ways and fully whelmed in others.

But yeah, just a simpler yet classic kind of LGR video for the end of August here. Still hoping to get one more video finished and released before I leave for VCF Midwest soon, but we'll see how it goes! I'm fully into the prepping stage of getting ready for that show and all it entails, plus finishing the last bits of my house rebuild and getting ready to move back home again in the coming weeks. Busy times indeed.

Thank you very much for your ongoing support!

LGR Wrap Up - July 2025

https://youtu.be/zC6JImYTg1I

A fresh LGR Wrap Up episode is now available! More home rebuild updates this time since that has picked back up, along with the usual commentary on recent videos and all of your questions of course. Now with less hair!

Feel free to leave your questions for next month's video in the comment section below this post. Thank you very much for your ongoing support and I hope to see many of you at VCF Midwest in a handful of weeks!

A bit of Y2K-era stereo system appreciation on LGR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kou7K93iEw

Something a little different this time!

I've had an eye out for a nice example of my first "real" stereo system from when I was a teenager for quite a while. And recently one came up for sale still sealed in its original packaging from 25 years ago! So there was no way I could pass up the opportunity to not only revisit that setup but relive the unboxing experience I first had at the turn of the millennium.

Unfortunately, I also got to experience the entirely expected disappointments of doing such a thing a quarter century later. The things that one anticipated perishing by now have very much done so and require some attention and parts. But hey, overall this is a fantastic place to start and should be entirely fixable once I get what I need. And in the meantime I had a ton of fun with this episode.

Hope you do too! Lemme know your thoughts, both on this video and any memories from this era of "XTREME BASS" mini-systems from the early aughts.

$5+ supporters can expect the next LGR Wrap Up episode in the next day or so! And the next main episode is already in the works, or really a couple of them. The Analogue 3D console being one of them, which is exciting considering I have yet to cover one of their FPGA things at all. Thank you as always for your support!

LGR - Barcode Basics from 1994

https://youtu.be/ng-qtQbMC9w

BARCODES! No one gives 'em a second thought, despite them once being exciting cutting edge tech. And that makes them interesting! To me at least.

Especially since there was a whole cottage industry around barcode scanners and interfaces for PCs back in the day. When reading through old computer magazines I always pause when I come across entire sections dedicated to advertising nothing but UPC readers and software. So I finally decided to grab one of those barcode kits myself and try it out!

And yep, that's what this is. BARCODES. Started off as a Blerb and ended up as a bit more so here we are.

Next video is most likely about a classic (to me) stereo system, so I hope y'all are down for something a tad different along those lines. And $5+ supporters can expect the July LGR Wrap Up episode this coming week as well. Thank you for your ongoing support!

The 1989 Chaplet Halikan... or pieces of it anyway

Greetings and welcome to some LGR sadness!

https://youtu.be/YXFa1HD4PKs

Can't say this the video I wanted to make this week but here we are. So it goes, right?

The Chaplet Halikan LA-30A is a fascinating machine from the late 1980s, being one of the first laptops to combine a backlit display, hard disk drive, and two ISA expansion slots into a machine that ran entirely on battery power. Neat!

Unfortunately, while this rare beast was in pretty great shape before shipping, ehhhhh suffice it to say it did not look so great once it arrived on my doorstep. Which really, truly just absolutely sucks. I hate seeing such historic and hard-to-find machines in pieces like this. Especially since it was packed decently well and the box didn't show any external damage! I really thought that it would hold up just fine. But the plastics on these things are increasingly brittle to an insane degree, so if anything, I want this to act as a kind of LGR public service announcement: USE EXTREME CAUTION WHEN SHIPPING OLD PLASTIC COMPUTERS. Even better, don't ship them at all.

And that's it for this week, lemme know your thoughts! Especially if you have ideas and/or skills to put to use on rebuilding this thing. I'd love to get a 3D printed case or turn it into a makeshift desktop/luggable/something along those lines. May as well make weird lemonade from my fragile plasticky lemons, I say.

LGR - I'm Back Film Review - 35mm to Digital

https://youtu.be/kEjMwuwjzwo

Had this in one in the works for a while! I first got the ball rolling in 2023, finally received the thing earlier this year, and I've been working on it off and on in the months since then. So YEAH, it sure is nice to have this one marked off the the list.

So this is a review of the I'm Back Film! A super neat-looking device that goes inside a 35mm film camera and replaces the usual film, swapping it with a 20MP Micro Four Thirds CMOS sensor. Nifty idea! Kinda crap execution, with results that are as lackluster as you might imagine for a bog-standard image sensor smooshed against a 35mm camera shutter.

But hey, considering I haven't seen a single other review of this thing yet I was more than happy to provide one. And hopefully save some folks some money that may be eyeing one...

Hope y'all enjoy this one, it's a bit lengthy! Headed off to Greenville, SC here pretty soon to make an appearance at the SEGE convention on Friday night/Saturday, so feel free to stop by and stay hi if you're there. And thank you very much for your ongoing support!

LGR Wrap Up - June 2025

https://youtu.be/d0K92KJAbNo

The latest LGR Wrap Up episode is available now! No home rebuild updates this time since that has unfortunately stalled, but plenty of the usual commentary on recent videos — and all of your questions of course.

Feel free to leave your questions for next month's video in the comment section below this post. And thank you very much for your ongoing support this month!

LGR - Dazzle Parallel Port Video Capture in 1997

UPDATE: The final edit here has another minute added and a few other things truncated/re-recorded throughout the video for clarity. The biggest being the section about capture results starting at 16:29.

The next LGR episode is here! This time all about the original Dazzle analog video capture device, which uses the parallel printer port for transferring video data.

https://youtu.be/hKif5gEV6kc

This original Dazzle hails from the few brief years where it actually made sense to pack an MPEG-1 encoder and some memory chips inside of a parallel port device, acting as a stopgap before USB 2.0 came along and better capture devices hit the market, rendering the entire parallel port capture category outdated overnight. Though even with its printer-adjacent connections, the thing is still surprisingly capable for what it is!

Hope you enjoy this brief detour down one of the many, many dead end things from the late 90s. Stuff like this captivates me, it's the kind of device that only could've come out and seen success during a short period of time at the end of that decade, with plenty of competing parallel port products all vying for attention. Then they were gone in the blink of an eye! That late 20th century march of technological progress, man was it relentless.

LGR - RG Slide Handheld Review

https://youtu.be/CAflIvXxMk8

Finally back with a new video! After getting the flu and bein' all sick for a week this will be coming out a week later than I wanted. Annoying. But I'm feeling much better with only some congestion and a cough remaining, so as soon as I felt half decent I went ahead and finished up this thing up.

And what a nifty little thing it is! Despite not really being all that little, at least compared to the mid-2000s devices that inspired its design. The Anbernic RG Slide is one of the very few modern ARM-based retro handhelds that has grabbed my attention enough that I'd wanna review it. The sliding mechanism and overall form factor really sealed the deal!

Hope y'all enjoy this one, whether or not you're into these portable console things. There are still some bits of b-roll to do and details like video game titles to add in, but it's pretty much done. Honestly I'm just happy to be feeling better after days with a 103° fever.

Thank you for your support and I'll be back in another week with some late 90s hardware and software goodies!

16 Years of LGR!

https://youtu.be/1gNoeCP1SCU

Just a simple one here marking the relentless passage of time!

It's been SIXTEEN years of LGR existing, wow. So this is just thinking back on how it's been, evaluating how it's been going, and how I hope things might go in the future. Especially the last part because things are changing — for the better, I hope! Also some home rebuild updates 8 months after the hurricane for those of you who haven't seen them in the monthly LGR Wrap Up videos.

Back in the next week or so with a review of a rather unanticipated but highly exciting bit of new tech that speaks to my 2000s-loving soul.

LGR Wrap Up - May 2025

https://youtu.be/H8DNfYGSDbE

The latest LGR Wrap Up episode is available now! With a few new updates on the home rebuild along with the usual commentary on recent videos and life an stuff. Let's get into all that and then dive into your questions!

Feel free to leave your questions for next month's video in the comment section below this post. And thank you so much for your ongoing support — on here and elsewhere!

LGR - Hyperbowl PC Game Review

Ahh I dunno what it is about this game exactly, but it's one of those that I think about every so often ever since first playing it 20-something years ago. In my mind it's a staple of the early Windows XP days, but it turns out it was much more than that!

https://youtu.be/i3-3dvgYt7c

Though it was perhaps most well-known for its inclusion in the Windows XP Plus! Packs and Media Center Edition in the 2000s, HyperBowl was originally a (literally) massive arcade game attraction in 1999 created by Sony for use in their Metreon entertainment center in San Francisco. And while I've never been lucky enough to play one of the arcade editions, I absolutely played the crap out of the Arcade Edition! Which, confusingly enough, is what they called the home edition of Hyperbowl. So let's take a look at each of the different home versions, including the newer Unity Engine remakes.

Hope y'all enjoy the early edit of this one! It's a classic kind of LGR gaming retrospective, and while I don't expect it to do gangbusters with the algorithm, it was super fun to return to this game and learn a whole lot more about it. This era in PC gaming is increasingly becoming one of my absolute favorites to revisit.

$5+ supporters can expect the next LGR Wrap Up episode in the coming week, complete with some enjoyable house rebuild updates. And the next main LGR video is in the works, all about some weird modern analog-to-digital camera stuff. Thank you for your ongoing support!

LGR - The Magic Eye/Stare•EO Workshop Story

FINALLY. This is a video that's been on my agenda for five years now, and has actively been worked on between my other projects for the last two months.

https://youtu.be/uvXY99HysrU

This is the story of those Magic Eye images from the 90s — but also MUCH more, what a fascinating rabbit hole full of random research diversions! This all began in 2020 when I was sent a copy of Stare-E-O Workshop for MS-DOS, a program I'd never hard of at all and couldn't find much about online. But knowing it was from the same company that made the first Magic Eye books, I had to know more! Sadly the software didn't work so I set it aside, but after doing a tiny bit of research back then I was absolutely dead set on finding a working copy so I could someday make a video.

Then when I found another copy of the software at the end of last August, it finally arrived juuust in time for the stupid hurricane to wreck my plans, ha. Eventually I began working on it again this past March and BOY did the scope of the project increase the deeper I dove into research. The first half of this video isn't really about the software at all, it turned into a Tech Tales type of episode about SIRDS, N.E. Thing Enterprises, and many related ventures. Then I had to know more about the creation of patterned autostereograms once I saw how limited Stare-EO Workshop's dot patterns were... then I ordered more books, old postcards, VHS tapes, obscure old software and on and on, etc etc, until I cut myself off a few weeks back and truly dove into assembling this video for real. With stuff like this it's hard to know where to stop, it could easily be an hour-long documentary if I continued following all of the unexpected twists and turns this uncovered.

So with all that said, I hope you enjoy this scattered bunch of ideas that eventually coalesced into some sort of LGR thing!

LGR Wrap Up - April 2025

https://youtu.be/904M96ejOfM

The newest LGR Wrap Up episode for 2025 is here for your viewing pleasure! With fun new updates on the house rebuild along with the usual commentary on recent videos and things. Let's go into all that stuff and then get into all your questions!

Feel free to leave your questions for next month's video in the comment section below this post. And thank you as always for your ongoing support on here and elsewhere :)

LGR - Doom The Dark Ages Review

Putting that new PC build to good use with this one!

https://youtu.be/imFr96t_XuA

Bethesda hooked me up with an early review copy of the newest Doom game from id Software, which was nice to see. I started to wonder if they'd forgotten about me since I didn't hear anything from them about it, but then just last Tuesday night a key arrived in my inbox. So I busted my butt getting this put together in time for the game's release!

It's a wildly enjoyable experience, with its shield-based parrying and medieval melee combat. Though it's quite a huge departure as well, both in gameplay and overall theme, and I remain back and forth on bits of it. All stuff I get into in the review, so I hope you find it informative and/or entertaining and stuff.

$5+ Patrons are getting the next LGR Wrap Up video this evening, and then I'll be back in about a week or so with (what I think is) a darned fascinating video on old school autostereogram software. Take care till then, and thank you for your support!

LGR - Datadesk Trackball Keyboards

EDIT: The video has been tweaked and added onto in a few ways. Mainly adding some more context about the LittleFingers concept being rejected by 262 companies, showing a couple inventions that were seen alongside it at Epcot in 1998, and what happened to its creator Dennis Nusser.

https://youtu.be/Z_Rd38K5U0M

Back with another LGR thing that started off simple and turned into an enjoyable retro research rabbit hole.

These are the late 90s Datadesk Trackboard+LittleFingers keyboards! Rather well-built keyboards with a trackball built into them. And they look very similar, until you place them right next to each other and the difference is huge. Or small? Either way, size matters.

I hope you enjoy this one! And while the next episode was supposed to be a look at some weird old graphics software, it may now end up being a review on an upcoming PC game. Depends if I get the code in time, we'll see. Thank you for your support regardless!

LGR - Sony MDM-111 MD Data Drive

https://youtu.be/vXezgCFvuwI

Tying up loose some ends from a past LGR Oddware episode here!

MiniDiscs are awesome and MD Data is even more so, from a vintage computer dork perspective. And while I've covered the external MDH-10 MD Data drive on LGR before, I completely missed out on the MDM-111 back then. Well, I finally got one!

And man, having a 3.5" drive bay populated with a MiniDisc drive is just the coolest feeling, allowing both audio MD playback and file storage on MD Data discs. So let's install it, mess with Sony's MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 software, and run some PC games from MiniDisc!

There are also some nifty new episodes over on LGR Blerbs lately if you haven't seen then, but I'll leave that to you if you wanna track 'em down and watch. Suffice to say it's been a busy week or two :)

Thank you as always for your support on here, and have a good one till next time! Got three different retro topics in the works for the next episode, just not sure which one will come together first: a trippy DOS graphics application, a parallel port video capture device, and a pair of bonkers 90s keyboards. Stay tuned!

LGR Computer Chronicles Commentary - COMDEX 1994

https://youtu.be/jgTY_zDTves

Back with another Computer Chronicles watchalong episode! Figure I'll do one of these every 3 or 4 months until people get tired of 'em. But so far I'm only getting requests for more so here we are :)

Hope you enjoy this one! Their 90s COMDEX coverage has always been some of my favorite stuff. What an incredible show that must've been to visit in-person.

LGR Wrap Up - March 2025

https://youtu.be/38OHS6dK_5M

The latest LGR Wrap Up for 2025 is now up for viewing! Including so many updates on the home rebuild along with the usual commentary on recent videos and things. Let's go into all that stuff and then get into all your questions!

Do feel free to leave your questions for next month's video in the comment section below this post. And thank you as always for your ongoing support, it is what keeps this channel going right now.