I figured you meant something like that, but if you’re the kind of person who has cravings for Wipeout and you haven’t played it in VR, it’s something you should aspire to.

That said, I would probably look into emulating the highest possible system, which would be PS3 or maybe fall back to PS2 for a higher framerate. Looks like someone did some testing for you up to PS2 though: https://youtu.be/zlVWdk4i-1Q?feature=shared

If you ask me, get a PSVR set up and play it that way. You might need a strong stomach, but it’s amazing.

So many options. Some deep cuts for you though:

PlayStation:

Rakugaki Showtime - a bizarre four-player arena battle with a ton of zany unlockable characters, this game was never translated but is worth the effort since it was made by the gods of game design, Treasure (makers of Gunstar Heroes, Contra Hard Corps, Silhouette Mirage, Ikaruga, and many other gems - made up of some of the OG designers of Contra).

Trap Gunner - two player split screen 3/4 view game where you lay traps to try and kill the other player. Not a ton of longevity, but worth several fun afternoons.

Blast Chamber - four player frenzied dystopian sportsball game that takes place in a cube-shaped arena with a clever gimmick: any player can run up to a wall and rotate the entire arena 90° and cause their opponents to fall.

Return Fire - frantic two-player capture the flag with a variety of military vehicles and a fun classical soundtrack.

The Unholy War - made by Toys For Bob, which was at the time the home of the creators of Spyro, Skylanders, Archon, and the greatest PC game of all time, Star Control 2 (now free on Steam as Free Stars: The Ur-Quan Masters). A beautifully balanced and fun combination of chess-like board tactics culminating in asymmetrical 1-on-1 live combat.

Genesis/Mega Drive

Gunstar Heroes - a cooperative run and gun game that out-Contra’s Contra. The game that put Treasure on the map.

General Chaos - weird, small scale real time strategy action with cartoony soldiers. Strange but quite fun.

Star Control - two-player strategy/action in a similar formula to Unholy War (these guys loved this formula and made many variations of it), this game has you navigating a small star map to position your fleet. Conflicts are resolved in a top-down ship combat mode that is incredibly fun on its own thanks to a wild selection of unique ships.

Mutant League Football/Hockey - two versions of the same concept, these games really liven up the sports for those who aren’t die-hard Madden junkies. Most of my games I ended up winning by default because too many of the opposing team members had died. Playing against a friend, you really feel it when you get one of your players murdered.

Super Nintendo

Metal Warriors - split-screen, asymmetric, side-scrolling mech combat. Always fun to get the drop on each other.

Bomberman - obviously not a deep cut, but I had to mention it. Controller-throwing four-player competitive deliciousness.

Let’s try this out on a completely random, unbiased sample: Pandora Directive. 7 CDs, features Kevin McCarthy who played the antagonist of Weird Al Yankovic’s masterpiece UHF, and it’s one of the best PC games ever made.

Yep, checks out.

I did play it. It was silly and fun, but the gameplay felt so much more banal than GCK, which was amazingly All The Genres and shockingly successful at it.

Oh man, Giants: Citizen Kabuto is a gem. Nice call.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2645580/Free_Stars_The_UrQuan_Masters/

Hands down. One of my favorite games of all time, an open world, hilarious, fun, sprawling adventure with music that slaps SO hard. Originally titled Star Control 2, went through some crazy copyright hell but now is getting an official sequel soon, over 30 years later.

EDIT: Oh wait, you said Linux. I think it works on Steam Deck and Proton though, does that count?

Yep. Buncha bastards.

Don’t forget Lion King!

https://www.cbr.com/lion-king-brutally-difficult-platformer/

Nothing says 90’s marketing like “we ain’t got time for capital letters.”

Nice metal coins and tokens, organizers, dice towers and trays of they like tabletop RPGs especially…

If you’re REAL spendy though, a 3D printer can be amazing. Although it’s kind of a gift that costs them more money, it is worth it if they take to it. Lots of downloadable organizers, tokens, helpers, etc.

I love Space Base. The designer is a mad genius. But I will say it’s more fun with more people and it has a lot of setup. Mystic Vale is another by him that works well for two and is slightly less piecey. There’s an app if you want to try it for cheap.

But if you want extremely easy to learn, not too hard to set up, and quite fun to play, Santorini is phenomenal. It’s literally about as easy to learn as checkers. The instructions are basically one page for the core game and then you can spice it up by adding special powers. But the core mechanic is so elegantly simple it’s hard to believe how little there Is to learn.

That’s fantastic. That’s exactly the kind of chicanery I would have gotten up to when I was a kid with a PC back then.

As a longtime fan of chunky old-school graphics and the can-do attitude of trying to port games to chipsets less powerful than a modern toaster, I really enjoy your write-ups. Thanks for this!

Speaking as an owner of the FunKey S (same internals, different form factor): yes, a big part is novelty. Pulling out a keychain-sized device that can play Metal Gear Solid is a hell of a party trick.

But that said, if you primarily play games on it that are designed for portables (Game Boy, Game Gear, Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket Color, etc.) and have halfway decent eyesight, it’s actually quite enjoyable. Games designed for a TV often have uncomfortable cropping or tiny text that gets eaten up by the ~256x256 resolution of the display. But pulling it out to play a little Shantae while waiting in a line is a delight.

I love my FunKey S because it literally fits perfectly into the watch pocket of my jeans and is adorable. The nano probably gets longer battery life though. FKS only gets around 2-3 hours, I think.

The Neo Geo Pocket Color has a fantastic card battler called SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters Clash that comes in SNK and Capcom varieties. Great game on a great system. Pairs well with the unbelievably good fighting game on the same system.