gaming

Text Adventure Party

By Tara in Parties, Recipes 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Text Adventure Activities Last week, I gathered some of my gaming-loving friends together for a Text Adventure Party. Yes, a party based on those text adventure games from the 80′s. The activities of the night centered around playing Parsely, a live-action game based on the text adventures. We started with Action Castle, which is their recommended beginning game, and ended up graduating onto some actual text adventure games on our main computer (including one Mr. Geek whipped up that focused on the players going through the rooms in our home!). Want to throw your own Text Adventure Party? Take a look below for pics and tips!

Activities
As mentioned above, you’ll want to get your hands on at least one Parsely game (they’re available online for only $5 each!). If your friends are experienced with text adventures, you may end up going through more than one.

Want to make your own text adventure game like Mr. Geek? You can use Quest, a free online program that makes it super easy!

Decor
Print out descriptions of your rooms in the text-adventure style. If you want that old-school font, use Press Start 2P. Mr. Geek wrote ours, as you could probably tell from the description of the kitchen, above. Don’t forget to label your food items as well!

I continued with the retro gaming theme with these fun Space Invaders drink markers and integrated some bright colors to match up with the Mountain Dew Bar.

Food
Food and drink is my favorite part of any theme party, and it’s the part I give the most attention to. I wanted to take nostalgic gamer food and make it a bit more “grown up.” I did this by creating a Mountain Dew bar with a variety of mix-ins, baking my classic Mountain Dew cupcakes, and making homemade Cool Ranch Doritos and Hot Pockets. They were a hit!

Mountain Dew BarI chose mix-ins I thought would be delicious with Mountain Dew and would allow my guests to make their own versions of Mountain Dew “Code Red”. What else should I include for my next Mountain Dew bar? Let me know in the comments!

Mountain Dew CupcakesI revamped the Mountain Dew Cupcakes frosting recipe a bit by adding in some orange flavoring in addition to the lemon and lime. It tasted much more like Mountain Dew!

Doritos and Hot Pockets Cool Ranch Doritos
I had never fried my own chips before, but it was much easier than I expected. These chips were being munched on all night, and guests seemed to love them! They’ll turn out a bit thicker and greasier than your average CRD, but they’re pretty tasty. I used a recipe from Macheesmo.com and it was fantastic. Sure, eating Doritos straight out of the bag is easier, but these are cheaper, most likely somewhat healthier, and MUCH more impressive to have at or bring to a party.

Homemade Hot Pockets
Homemade Hot Pockets are pretty much just tiny calzones. Tiny, delicious, rectangular calzones. The ingredients you put inside are all interchangeable based on your tastes; I went for a classic Pepperoni Pizza Hot Pocket experience.

Ingredients:

  • Uncooked pizza dough (I made mine from hand with the instructions off of a packet of Pizza yeast, you can also buy some pre-made dough from the store.)
  • 1 cup marinara sauce
  • 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  • Thin-sliced pepperoni, diced (I used around 30 pieces)
  • Seasonings to taste (I used a dash of oregano and dried red pepper flakes)
  • 1 egg
  • Shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Prep a cookie sheet with a quick spray of cooking oil.

Divide your pizza dough into 16 equal sections and roll them into their own individual balls.

Roll the balls out as thin as you can while still maintaining some structure (around 1/8 inch thick). Keep in mind that the dough will fluff up considerably!

Mix the sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, and seasonings together in a small bowl to make the filling. Using a small spoon, scoop out a bit of the filling and place it in the middle of the rolled out dough.

Using a burrito-method, fold in the sides of the pizza dough and roll it up to create a small hot pocket-shape. Press the edges lightly with your fingers to make sure everything is closed tightly together.

Carefully place the “hot pocket” onto the cookie sheet. Continue with the 15 others.

Whisk one egg, and brush the egg onto the tops of the hot pockets. (This will give it that browned top). Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes. Let cool slightly (we all know what happens when you bite into a hot pocket first thing!) and serve!

Any other suggestions for hosting a text adventure party? Leave them in the comments!

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Nintendo Cartridge Jewelry

By Tara in Geeky Fashion, Gift Ideas No Comments Tags: , , , , ,

NES Jewelry

 

Etsy shop OhMyGeekness has come out with the cutest little pieces of nostalgia: NES cartridge jewelry. The pieces range in price from $14-45, with most items around $16. In addition to NES, she’s got N64, Xbox 360, PS1, and PS2 cartridges, and a variety of cute geeky and game-related characters and references. These would make a perfect inexpensive and unique gift!

Check out the full selection at Etsy.com.

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NES Living Room

By Tara in A Geeky Home No Comments Tags: , , , , , , ,

NES Living Room 1

Feel itty bitty next to a giant NES system, cartridges, and controllers with this amazing living room set. The table has an NES and SNES built in to it, so it’s ready to go for all of your nostalgic needs. For $1,350, you receive the table, two cartridge end tables, two giant controllers, and two 8-bit wooden wall pieces. Not too shabby if you’re in the market for new furniture!

NES Living Room 2

Find more details and pre-order a living room set on PixelArtStudios’ Etsy page.

(Source: Nerd Approved)

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Geek Etiquette: Game It Forward

By Tara in Geek Etiquette No Comments Tags: , , , ,

I spent the weekend playing games (and cooking video game-themed food) to raise money for the Seattle Children’s Hospital through Extra Life. My team and I had a great time and ended up raising $2,722! One of the highlights was when Brandon Bozze, founder of Game It Forward, joined us for some charity-based gaming. We played Free Rice while talking about his new company and their first game, Tringo (a cross between trivia games and bingo). Tringo is a casual, competitive game where you score points based on your trivia knowledge, and those points end up turning into money donated to the charity of your choice. They’re already partnered with Seattle Children’s Hospital, and hope to partner with more charities in a range of areas soon.

You can check out Game it Forward on their IndieGoGo page, and if you feel so inclined, you can donate to their campaign. They need our help to help others!

Between Game It Forward, Free Rice, and Extra Life, I’m pretty excited about the charity-gaming partnerships out there. Are there other games or companies out there I’m forgetting? Leave them in the comments! And then go game–it’ll make the world a better place.

Stay tuned this week for recipes and info on the meals I cooked during Extra Life, and a big thanks to everyone who tuned in during the 24 hours!

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Extra Life: 24 Hours of Gaming for Kids

By Tara in News 3 Comments Tags: , , , , ,

Extra Life is coming up on October 20th, and I’ll be doing it bigger and better than ever this year. I’ve teamed up with Team Hypercube, Satire, and a whole bunch of special guests to game for 24 hours straight. We’ll have an amazing tech set up with multiple cameras streaming live the entire time. PLUS, I’ll be cooking video game-themed meals throughout the day and into the night. This will include:

Breakfast #1
Lunch
Snack
Dinner
Caffeinated Snack(s)
Breakfast #2

I have a couple ideas, but I’d love to hear what you’d like to see me make. All meals will be recorded, live streamed, and turned into individual videos and posts after the event. Is there a certain meal or food from a video game that you’ve always wanted to see made in real life? Leave a comment below and it may be included in the schedule!

Lastly, we’re putting on this event as a fundraiser for the Seattle Children’s hospital, and we can’t do it without the help of some donors. If you’re interested in pledging a bit of money to make us go through it, you can do so on my fundraising page. If you do donate, let me know in the comments as well as a request for a type of food to make or game to play. We want to keep our donors happy!

I’ll post the schedule and link to the livestream on October 20th. Stay tuned–I hope to see you cheering us on!

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Atari Business Card Holder

By Tara in Gift Ideas No Comments Tags: , , , , ,

PRINTandGRAIN have some amazing designs and letterpress stationary/business cards in their Etsy shop, but the thing that really wows me is this Atari business card holder. You tell them your favorite game, your name, job title, and email address, and they’ll make a ridiculously awesome customized holder for you. This would be the perfect thing for a video game store owner, blogger, or professional geek.

Atari 2600 Business Card Holder, $75 at Etsy.com.

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Geek Etiquette: How To Deal with Smelly People

By Tara in Geek Etiquette No Comments Tags: , , , ,

On Friday, I appeared on the Geek Nation podcast to talk a bit about geek etiquette. We revisited an old post topic on gaming too much, and also tackled a new one: what to do if someone you know is smelly. You can check out the podcast here, I come in at around 18:30.

Here are some of the main bullet points on the “smelly” issue:

To Keep Yourself From Being Smelly:

  • Shower daily
  • Wash your clothes regularly
  • Use deodorant
  • Use fragrance if you’d like, but be conscious of how much you use. If you can still smell it on yourself without trying after 5-10 minutes of applying, you’ve put too much on.
  • Traveling/at a convention? Keep a travel-sized deoderant with you. I keep one in my glove compartment–it’s come in handy often!
  • Febreeze works wonders for hard-to-clean costumes or while traveling.

Does Someone You Know Smell?

  • If you’re really close to them, talk to them. Make it a private but direct conversation. You’re there to help them.
  • Not as close to them? Have someone who is talk to them, or present them a small fragrance gift that “made you think of them.” (ThinkGeek has some sweet Avengers Cologne available!)

Have you dealt with the smelliness issue before? How did you handle it?

Don’t forget to check out the full conversation I had with BJ Shea’s Geek Nation!

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Geek Etiquette: Do You Game Too Much?

By Tara in Geek Etiquette 1 Comment Tags: , , ,

The Geeky Hostess is gonna help you get your manners on! Each Monday, we’ll focus on a topic of etiquette. We’ll take a look at the classic rules (using Emily Post as a guide), and then evaluate the rules for our daily lives, creating a guide to “Geek Etiquette.” Have an etiquette question or topic suggestion? Email tara@geekyhostess.com!

 

The release of Mass Effect 3 this past week has prompted tons of “you won’t see me for a week” comments on social networks. It’s always fun to hole up and play a game straight through if you can, but does it effect your relationships with your partner, friends, or family? What about other online obsessions? Do you spend hours on reddit or pinterest every night?

I asked all of you on Twitter to let me know how you play video games–do you look for moderation or play it in one sitting? Most folks responded that they want to play for as long as possible. If this is just an occasional thing (when new games come out or you’re having a LAN party) those living with you should be able to support you. You’ve been looking forward to this moment, and as long as you let people know what’s about to happen, you should be ok. Majin72 says: “I give them fair warning that I’m going into straight gamer mode. Any complaints will be dutifully ignored.” When Mr. Geek got Skyrim, I was prepared for him to get sucked in, and I let him spend a Saturday playing the game. I made him a nice meal that was easy for him to eat while gaming, and checked up on him to see if he needed any snacks/beverages throughout the day. By letting him spend the day gaming, he was able to see that I was supportive, he was able to get a lot of gaming out of his system, and I was able to have a quiet day to myself to run errands.

Of course, if your partner or friend acts like this every day and begins avoiding obligations or activities IRL to play games, you may need to chat with them and encourage them to set up a schedule for their gaming. Or you can check out the blog My Partner is a Gamer and learn a bit about the games they’re playing (and commiserate with other gamer widows/widowers).

But what if everyone in the house wants to play the hot new game, and you only have one console, desktop, or sweet monitor? Scheduling time is a must. It can be as casual as staggering things you need to do that day so one of you can be on the system/computer while the other one’s gone, or as official as a calendar set out with hours marked off for each person. OhAmy alternates nights when she has to share a game. The beauty of playing the same game with others is you can talk about the story, the strategy, and how things are going with someone who’s going through the same thing. I’d even encourage the non-gamers in the house to check out the game that’s got your partner so enthralled, maybe you’ll surprise yourself and enjoy it!

Are you guilty of spending too much time gaming or online? How do you keep your relationships strong? Let us know in the comments!

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“Man Table”: Amazing Side Table for Lazy Geeks

By Tara in A Geeky Home 1 Comment Tags: , , , ,

In an intense gaming session or movie marathon, and not in the mood to get up from the couch for another beer or Mountain Dew? With the Man Table, you don’t need to. This unassuming side table holds a hidden fridge, ensuring your next beverage and snack is never too far away.

My only complaint: the name. Unless it can chill a man for me, it shouldn’t be called a man table. Ladies like cold beverages too!

Man Tables are available in colors Tobacco, Espresso, and Black and range in price from $329-359. You can purchase them at their site, www.mantables.com.

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