LazyGameReviews

LGR Vlogs - Vintage Computer Festival East 2025

https://youtu.be/RzOWmypCiyg

This is the VCF East convention experience! At least as it was for me across here in April 2025. Shoutout to those of you I talked to and hung out with there, it was a great show!

And here is a travel vlog in the same style as those I've done for other VCFs, which I post over on LGR Blerbs. So join me going from North Carolina to New Jersey, getting settled in Neptune, enjoying beachside pinball and InfoAge museums, lots of wandering the event itself, then flying back home and evaluating.

Now that this is done, expect some regular LGR content coming in the next week!

Building a New LGR Gaming PC! Ryzen 9800X3D

https://youtu.be/AEKWyAGCIu0

Greetings! Sorry I didn’t get this posted here till now. It was scheduled to go live right as I was flying out for VCF East, and while I thought it was scheduled here as well, I was mistaken.

Anyway here’s something different! Not only a modern gaming build, which I haven’t done in ages, but also one with a sponsor. One that presented themselves at just the right time and integrated kinda perfectly with the topic. And as a result I have a new PC for playing and enjoying newer titles again, but am also able to pay some more hurricane recovery bills! Yaaaaay.

But for real though, I’m really pleased with how this came together overall, and I tried to make it as entertaining and LGR-like as possible. So I hope you enjoy this one (or already have in the last few days!)

Also a shoutout to all I met and hung out with at Vintage Computer Festival East. It was a great show, and more than that it was wonderful to get away from all the hurricane mess and property repairs for a few days. Currently at the airport about to fly back though, and I look forward to getting to some retro goodness on LGR soon!

LGR - Cross Country USA 1995 Review

https://youtu.be/2KP1IthapP0

Edutainment games on LGR? In 2025?! Yep!

It's been a busy couple of weeks here to say the least. Mostly due to enjoyable things happening IRL, but also because making videos is predictably unpredictable! All kinds of things ended up delaying the next LGR video, with two of them I was working on currently unable to be completed. One of them because old hardware is old and ended up not working, and the other simply needs more time to put together. Plus that one ended up getting a sponsor(!) so that's different.

As a result, I ended up deciding to review Crosscountry USA Home Edition from 1995! A delightful little edutainment gem that was recently given to me by an LGR viewer and one that I've been mighty intrigued to try ever since I learned about it.

If you remember seeing Crosscountry Canada on LGR a decade ago, this is very much the same kind of thing just upgraded in most respects. You drive an 18-wheeler across the country, picking up and delivering goods from one place to the other, all while learning geography and planning skills and stuff! And also getting chased by the cops for speeding and getting held at gunpoint by unscrupulous hitchhikers. At least there's no dysentery!

And that is all for this episode! Revisiting the edutainment genre was a blast for me so I hope it's as enjoyable to watch as it was to make. I'll be back with the next video in the coming week-ish, so stay tuned. And thanks so much for your ongoing support!

LGR Wrap Up - February 2025

https://youtu.be/YYhWV6G8ElE

The next LGR Wrap Up for 2025 is now up for viewing! Including some more updates on the house rebuild and some footage of the progress. Let's get into all that, plus going over the month's videos and 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.

LGR - Minisforum X1 Pro Mini PC review

https://youtu.be/usOsRKEr4gI

Sorry that I couldn't post this episode of LGR early like usual! This is a new product (still technically unreleased publicly) so the press embargo I was under prevented any coverage until today.

That said, I really hope y'all enjoy this look at the Minisforum AI X1 Pro. Because I really enjoyed making the video! Sometimes new stuff is a fun change of pace from all the endless items from the late 90s. Going a bit outside of my wheelhouse with something so cutting edge was a good excuse to catch up on current tech. Honestly before getting this, I didn't even know that 40+ TOPS NPUs or Microsoft Copilot+ PC certification were things anyone cared about! And I'm still not sure anyone does, ha.

But even more important: it gave me an excuse to play some newer games again! Despite its small size, this is an impressively fast Windows 11 PC built around the beefy AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 12-core processor, with a whopping 64GB RAM and the surprisingly capable Radeon 890M iGPU. Like, the fact that (in some tests) this little thing outperforms my giant 32-core Threadripper 3970x workstation PC from 2020 is just nuts...

I'm already at work on the next couple of LGR videos here, and $5+ supporters can also expect the next LGR Wrap Up+Q&A episode quite soon. Take care, and thank you for your ongoing support!

LGR at conventions in 2025

Greetings, all!

I've had a number of folks asking if I'll be able to attend any conventions this year, what with the post-hurricane home repairs and all the nonsense that came with that.

The answer is yes! Although not as many as I'd like.

At the moment I'm confirmed to attend three shows:

VCF East: April 4-5 in Wall, New Jersey
Southeast Game Exchange: July 19 in Greenville, South Carolina
VCF Midwest: September 13-14 in Schaumburg, Illinois

Note that the dates listed are the days that I plan to attend. The actual shows may be longer than that, but I can't guarantee I'll be there on those days due to how scheduling and travel plans worked out.

I would've loved to return to things like Midwest Gaming Classic, VCF Southwest, Retro World Expo, and Long Island Retro this year... Plus visit some new shows that I've never attended! But annoyingly things are still a bit tight with planning ahead and needing to set aside cash for the home repairs and renovation.

Regardless though, I hope to see some of you at these this year. I'm stoked to get away from all this stuff at home for a bit and hang out!

LGR - Tamagotchi CD-ROM from 1997

https://youtu.be/AxO9gxkz1hU

While I can't say I played with Tamagotchis or any of the other electronic keychain pets back in the day, I've come to appreciate virtual pets in the years since. And I very clearly remember the hype and how ubiquitous Tamagotchi toys were for a time. So when I came across this PC CD-ROM version, my curiosity got the better of me! And it sent me down a whole rabbit hole of these things.

And well, that context and history is about half of this video. The other half is just like "ehh, the CD-ROM is fine I guess!" 🤷‍♂️

Still though, I had a lotta fun immersing myself in Tamas and putting this video together and I think it shows. I am now off to the store to see what Bandai's 2025 models are like, because to my surprise they seem to be darn near identical to the old Tamas from the 90s.

I hope you enjoy this LGR retrospective, and thank you for your ongoing support! Now it's onto a few projects that all kinda dropped into my lap simultaneously these past couple weeks. So I don't know which will come first, but whichever it is, there are some rather different video topics in the pipeline on tech both new and old.

LGR - HP Mini 1000 Netbook from 2009

https://youtu.be/FXHQBe0rixU

Got a classic LGR computer retrospective here! And this time it's something that is a tad bizarre to cover, seeing as it was genuinely my most current computer when I started the show in 2009...

Yep we're taking a look at the HP Mini 1000, one of the more popular netbooks from the wildly short-lived era of the netbook! If you could even call it an era, that is. In hindsight, it was all a bit silly, even though the underlying 45nm tech that made it possible was quite exciting at that very moment. So join me in revisiting the Mini 1000 that I had back in '09 (or close to it) and putting it through its paces 16 years later!

The next video isn't set in stone yet, but if things go well it may end up being a late 90s software/application/game thing that I completely missed out on when new. Either that or some complete randomness that I haven't even thought of yet, that tends to happen more often than not. Either way, I hope you enjoy this episode and thank you for your ongoing support!

LGR Wrap Up - January 2025

https://youtu.be/7iHJFQ2xIyE

The first LGR Wrap Up for 2025 is now available! This time with quite the welcome update on the house and some footage of the progress. Let's get into all that, plus the videos from the month and your questions!

Feel free to leave your questions for next month's video in the comment section below this post. Thank you for your ongoing support, it is deeply appreciated!

The Sims 1 & 2 Legacy Collection Review

https://youtu.be/ZUDt4BoMg-s

The rumors were true! EA actually went and re-released the first two Sims games for Windows PCs to mark the 25th birthday of the series. And they even fixed them up to work on modern PCs!

Kinda! Sorta! Almost! Ehh, an attempt was made. A valiant one, I'd say, as these games have always been held together with toothpicks and duct tape and getting them to run on anything beyond an XP PC from 2005 is no easy task. But still, I cannot help but be let down by the way the games function on launch. These first two Sims games deserve better, especially for their big quarter century anniversary, and you'd think a company with a $32 billion market cap would have the resources to do so.

Regardless though I hope that you enjoy the episode! It was still fun to revisit these classics yet again, despite all the crashing and performance woes.

And now it's back to the computer retrospective I was working on before I dropped it temporarily to crank out this review, so expect that video soonish. $5+ supporters will also receive the next LGR Wrap Up episode pretty soon. Thank you for your ongoing support, it is deeply appreciated as I continue rebuilding my house! A process that's coming along nicely so far, by the way.

LGR - The SereneScreen Marine Aquarium Screensaver

https://youtu.be/PprsZgA-kxs

Trust me, you do remember at least one of the screensavers covered here.

This is an episode I've thought of doing for years, and my current situation kind of pushed me towards finally making it happen! To PC users of a certain ilk, the Marine Aquarium screensavers are perhaps most well known by the cut-down releases distributed with certain packs and versions of Windows XP. But there are many more releases and editions beyond those two, plus a whole history going back about 40 years to the Commodore 64 and Amiga days!

I hope y'all enjoy this one, it's certainly been a fun diversion for me. Plus it gave me an opportunity to test a new desktop microphone and set up my capture equipment again, so that's a nice improvement to what I can make here. I've already found five or six things that need to change or be clarified in the final edit, but do lemme know any thoughts.

Also, work on my house has finally begun! Almost 4 months after the hurricane, things are finally in motion to get the dang place repaired and back to a livable state. I am damned excited about it, but it will also no doubt eat into my time, so I'm unsure of the next video's arrival date.

Things are lookin' up though, and no small part of that is thanks to you! Your financial support here is seriously more important than it's ever been, as ad revenue is abysmal this time of year and the home repairs are... wildly costly, sheesh. Even with insurance, there's a lot I'm left paying out of pocket. So yes. Truly, I mean each word: THANK YOU.

LGR - CES 1993 via Computer Chronicles

https://youtu.be/YVViepyE0ug

Got another CC episode here!

Lemme know your thoughts! After the Christmas Computer Chronicles episode of LGR, a whole buncha folks asked for more along those lines. So here's more! This time we're looking at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show of 1993. Since CES 2025 just happened this was on my mind as an obvious choice for the next "LGR Reacts" episode.

On that note, should I call this anything if it becomes a series? LGR Reacts seems gross and too generic. But like, it's also kind of what it is. I'm open to ideas.

Also this is currently copyright struck due to the show's theme song, so... if you can't watch it at all that's why!

LGR Wrap Up - December 2024

https://youtu.be/yF1Ab42gZfs

The final LGR Wrap Up for 2024 is now up for viewing! Annoyingly not a huge amount to update y'all on but I appreciate that I still have the opportunity to do so. Let's get into the videos from the month as well as your questions!

Feel free to leave any questions for next month's video in the comment section below this post. Thank you deeply for your ongoing support, you continue to be my primary income now since normal LGR YouTube stuff remains unstable with most of my stuff in storage, so again — THANK YOU!

LGR - Pixel x86 Retro Mini PCs

https://youtu.be/B8WfiRRvQXo

Happy 2025!

And the first LGR video this year is a review of two nifty little retro Windows 98 computers from Pixel x86: the DX and the Mini. Very much inspired by projects like the WeeCee I've covered before, these two systems make use of Vortex86 SoCs and aim to provide an authentic late 90s PC experience in a tiny package with no emulation and newer hardware.

It's a pretty straightforward video but I hope you enjoy the coverage of these things and lemme know any thoughts! I'll be curious to see what the community response is in general, especially since they cost between $400-500 each.

The next Wrap Up will be coming soon for $5+ supporters, and the next LGR thing is in the works so stay tuned — and thank you for your support!

The End of LGR Donations Unboxings!

https://youtu.be/nk7Y7S7dWAk

I'm calling it, folks! For a multitude of reasons which I go into at the end of the video, this is the final "donations unboxing" thing on LGR.

I will still do individual vids on special items that trickle in through the mail over on LGR Blerbs, but these long mailbag videos are done for the foreseeable future on LGR. Hopefully the reasons I provide in the video make sense!

Also I'm unsure if there will be another LGR episode by the end of December. Seeing as my birthday is tomorrow (🥳🎂) and I'm taking some time away to enjoy that, as well as lots of family and friends holiday celebratory things and hangouts coming up the following week. Eh, we'll see! For now I'm going to spend time with the most important people in my life and enjoy some Christmasy goodness. Take care, and have yourself a merry one till next time!

LGR Wrap Up - November 2024

https://youtu.be/HSQ29-TBe0M

The November 2024 LGR Wrap Up episode is now up for yooooouuuu! Still in the temporary rental location that I'll be in for the next however many months. So let's dive into the few videos from the past month as well as your questions!

Feel free to leave any questions for next month's video in the comment section below this post. Thank you deeply for your ongoing support, you are legitimately my primary income right now since normal LGR YouTube stuff is still iffy with most of the LGR stuff in storage, so once again — THANK YOU!

LGR - Computer Chronicles Christmas 1985

https://youtu.be/f1iIU1Vui2M

Got a bit of a different LGR thing here for this Christmas season!

It's a laid-back, cozy time with the wonderful Computer Chronicles TV show. Watching and commenting on the 1985 Christmas buyer’s guide episode, looking up archives and trivia along the way, and generally just enjoying the comfy vintage vibes. (And eggnog.)

I hope you enjoy, and do lemme know your thoughts! Definitely not planning to become a “reaction channel” or whatever, this is meant as a one time thing for the holidays. But this is something I've wanted to try for a while with Computer Chronicles and this seemed like a good time to do so since there's very little of the LGR collection accessible right now.

Thank you for your support this month and take care till the next one – whatever it ends up being! $5+ members can expect the next LGR Wrap Up episode pretty soon as well.

A trio of LGR Blerbs this week

Greetings! I have been trying to get some LGR videos made for December, but ideas have mostly been elusive and so far nothing's come together quite yet. It's made especially tricky since 99% of the collection is in storage and I don't have my usual setup going anymore while the house is being fixed up... Though I do have two in the pipeline finally, so we'll see what happens there.

In the meantime, I put together some videos for LGR Blerbs to get the creative juices flowing and induce the mood to film! Normally I don't post these here on Patreon but eh, why not?

There are three of them going up this week, two of which are already live and the third one (the cig machine) won't go up till Friday. So I hope you enjoy!

Mini 1:6 Scale Woodgrain Cigarette Vending Machine
https://youtu.be/CSAwvEaTYBk

FUNCTIONAL 1:6 Scale Soda Machine Mini Fridge
https://youtu.be/-zDOzo1vYSs

Duke Nukem G Fuel exists for some reason.
https://youtu.be/0SVP8OEOerc

Unboxing Moldy LGR Things - Part 2

https://youtu.be/YbytSY4dIjA

This is part 2 of the unboxing/cleaning/assessing water damaged and moldy items affected by the hurricane. And it's focused on what's left! The weird mouse collection, random pieces of odd hardware and vintage goodies, as well as my modern gaming and A/V items that were affected upstairs.

I'll also be testing a number of the devices out to see if they still work, so if you'd like to see that in a video lemme know!

Once again I truly appreciate your support through this ongoing and unpredictable recovery period. I'm not sure what'll be next at this point in terms of videos, as I only have certain retro items and systems available to me at the moment. Most of it is currently packed away in storage while my home is being fixed up. But throughout December I'll put together a thing or two for sure. Thank you again, and take care!

LGR Wrap Up - October 2024

https://youtu.be/Y5AtmLsHTtk

The October 2024 Wrap Up episode is now up for LGR supporters, now in the new temporary rental location that I'll be in for the next... amount of time. So let's dive into the videos from the past month as well as your questions!

Feel free to leave any questions for next month's video in the comment section below this post. Thank you so much for your ongoing support, you are truly my primary income right now since normal LGR YouTube stuff is still ramping back up while my house is being rebuilt, so again — THANK YOU.

LGR - Unboxing a PlayStation 2 24 Years Later

EDIT: Added some footage about the console's launch day, a bit about the manual not matching the system, a bit about Swap Magic 3, and trimmed many small things here and there to make it all flow a little tighter.

https://youtu.be/MMW05XnMNlM

Greetings! It's been over two months since the last real LGR video (the Voodoo 3 3500 TV episode) and I'm finally back with something fresh! And by fresh I mean old. Though it's still pretty fresh for being old.

Taking a look at the Sony PlayStation 2 almost two and a half decades later! As with previous episodes on the Xbox, Dreamcast, and GameCube, I'm now finishing out the 6th generation of home consoles with the biggest of them all: the PS2. It's a system I've had many examples of over the years, but never had the pleasure of getting one in the box. So let's unbox the thing, set it up for the first time, and enjoy a buncha classic games! A truly cathartic experience for me in these crazy post-storm days.

For a bit of behind-the-scenes here, this episode was very close to not happening at all. This boxed console and my entire PS2 collection was right below where the trees crashed through my house during the hurricane, in the room that became a wet moldy mess. By pure chance I had moved all this PS2 stuff closer to the door for easy access since I was planning on making this video soon... and if I hadn't, then all this stuff would've been where a ton of nasty storm water leaked in through the busted ceiling. It would have been ruined. Crazy how things randomly work out sometimes.

So yes, I do hope you enjoy this one! I gotta say it's been a surreal experience working on it, seeing as I'm in a completely new location that I never planned to be in, plus still being in the midst of an ongoing water crisis along with all the rest of the storm cleanup/remediation/repairs occurring each day. To be honest I'm not sure if this came together cohesively as it was recorded over the course of several weeks whenever I found a free moment. But hey, this is just one step towards getting back to some kind of videomaking normalcy, so in theory it gets better from here. We'll see!

As always, a huge thanks for your ongoing support. LGR as a channel would be in a rough place otherwise, you are genuinely keeping this ship afloat right now and I thank you!

Unboxing Moldy LGR Things - Part 1

https://youtu.be/5k0EQn67lGo

We're really breaking the mold with this episode! Because the past 6 weeks around here have been utterly ridiculous. Hurricanes, man.

So yeah, this is something completely different while I continue to get back on my feet after the storm! Since I was already going through my damaged retro computer items anyway, I took the opportunity to set up my camera and record the process just in case it might make for a halfway-watchable video or two while I put my life (and house) back together. And so here we are!

This is part 1 of 2, which is focused on the affected retro computers and CRTs. The next half will be the weird mice collection, random bits of odd hardware and vintage goodies, as well as my modern gaming/tech items that were affected upstairs.

I know it's not my normal fare but nothing is normal right now, so I truly appreciate your support through all this. Right now you are GENUINELY my income since I haven't been able to produce regular LGR videos, so thank you so much for your generosity through this bonkers recovery period.

Also, $5+ supporters can expect the October LGR Wrap Up+Q&A episode in the coming week. So keep an eye out for that and take care!

LGR Wrap Up - September 2024

https://youtu.be/a37L9itVgqE

The September 2024 LGR Wrap Up episode is now up for viewing, after finally get a little downtime to record and edit this in between all the, uh... *flails arms gesturing towards hurricane damage*

So let's dive into the videos from the past month as well as your questions!

Feel free to leave any questions for next month's video in the comment section below this post. Thank you so much for your ongoing support, now more than ever. You are genuinely my most reliable income my right now since normal LGR YouTube stuff is on disaster hiatus while my house is being rebuilt, so I cannot say it enough — THANK YOU.

Take care, and here's to a better upcoming month!

What happened to the LGR collection

https://youtu.be/WA2qAfqGLE0

Greetings all, this will likely go public in a day or two but I wanted to post it here while it’s processing. Thankfully it’s overall a good report!

Some shelves of vintage items sure got soaked and nasty, the arcade machines got pretty gross, and I lost a bunch of modern stuff it looks like. But overall I am extremely fortunate in how much survived fully intact. I’d say 95% of the collection is just fine, which is a huge relief considering the sheer amount of damage to my house.

Welp

Hey folks.

Unfortunately LGR will be postponed for a good while I feel.

More details to follow but the hurricane has done *incredible* damage to my place, I won’t be able to live there for a bit. Many folks I know have it much worse than I do too so please keep Asheville in your thoughts.

I am safe, my family and friends are safe.

More details at some point but I mean… with no exaggeration this is worse than imagined it could’ve gotten :/

LGR - The Sims 4: 10 Years of Meh

https://youtu.be/n2pctQYDu0I

Bit of a different one here! A quickly-made rant/ramble video about the state of The Sims 4 and the recent news that The Sims 5 is not in active development.

No early access for the one, as it was just a bit of filler to go up while I continue working on the next main LGR videos.

Back sometime soonish with whichever one is done first. Thank you as always for your support!

LGR Wrap Up - August 2024

https://youtu.be/YiCxn0baEYQ

The August 2024 LGR Wrap Up video is now available for viewing, so let's dive into the videos (all 2 of them, lulz) from the past month as well as your submitted questions.

Feel free to leave any questions for next month's video in the comment section below this post. Thank you so much for your ongoing support, I wouldn't be able to keep LGR going as it is without it!

The Voodoo 3 3500 TV

https://youtu.be/VDkhN-e42A8

Got one here I've been meaning to do ever since posting this unboxing some years back! Taking a look at the Voodoo 3 3500 TV, the top of 3dfx's Voodoo3 line of GPUs back in 1999. It's largely an exploration of its media playback/capture capabilities and the software it came with, but of course ends with a bit of benchmarking against the Voodoo 3 3000 that I normally use on LGR.

A really nice card with one major drawback: THAT DONGLE.

Long Island Retro Gaming Expo 2024

https://youtu.be/aUliKw3ZpoA

Finally done with each of the videos from my time at LI Retro in August!

This one is in addition to my travel vlog on LGR Blerbs. It's an overview of the show itself, what it's like attending and exhibiting, and of course a tour of everything they had on display there this year. Being held within an aerospace museum, it is quite an unusual venue for a convention and the sights are unique, so I hope you enjoy!

I'll be back with something simpler next week if all goes well, and I'm also working on my big Sims 2 Twentieth Anniversary retrospective — coming when it's done. Have a good one till then and thank you for your support!

LGR Vlogs: Long Island Retro 2024 (uncensored)

https://youtu.be/T2HeHnJE8mc

So this is a bit different! Normally I don't post my vlogs/Blerbs videos on here, but this time there's an extended cut available. Perhaps not one to watch with the youngins as it includes content not found in the public YouTube edit – including all of our profanity and crass jokes, as well as a *bit* of adult content that verges on being 18+ due to the, uh... location we stayed at in New York, ha. That hotel was weird.

It's nothing too wild or anything, just stuff that I normally cut out of the public edits in order to comply with YouTube ad regulations and whatnot. But this edit is ad-free and only available unlisted to y'all, so that means FREEDOM :)

The regular family-friendly public upload will be available soon here: https://youtu.be/3x_VYRED6yc