5 Awesome Online Games You Must Try

The following is a guest post.

   

There are many games online, ranging from good to bad and therefore fun and not fun. But there are games that stand above the rest. Games that have people coming back for years or even decades. Games that are so fun that they're considered classics.

Not that you shouldn't explore yourself on what games to play, but, if that task seems too daunting or you need a place to start, this is it. Chances are you've heard of most if not all of the following games, and there's a good reason for that. They're fun. Many people believe such and therefore it is likely that you will also think so.

Many games are considered classics and if you're ever bored or unsure of what to play, then classics should be a goto. If you don't know what classics to refer to then look no further for the classics that you seek include solitaire, jigsaw puzzles, sudoku, mahjong, and crosswords; while these apply in real life as well, this refers to online for infinite play.

Solitaire

As the above may suggest, the first game you must try is online solitaire. Solitaire is a game of multiple names, two of which being, Patience, or card solitaire. In general, solitaire is a term used for single-player games of concentration and skill involving a set layout of a certain item, which could be tiles, cards, stones, etc. Which is why it can be called card solitaire.

Each game of solitaire acts as a puzzle, every card is laid out in a specific position so as to randomize each solution, which could be in your favor, or not. As said, each card is laid out specifically in a layout, to solve the puzzle you have to sort the cards and conform to the specific rules of the game, whichever it may be. It's a fun puzzle game that is certainly satisfying to beat.

Jigsaw Puzzles

There's a very high chance that if you know any game on this list, it's actual jigsaw puzzles. And if you do know about them then you probably also know that to play jigsaw puzzles you had to buy the different sets and couldn't do other images unless you bought that specific set, well, no more. The era of online fixes that issue.

Thanks to it being online you can do puzzles with any website given image, some even let you choose your own image as well as your difficulty. If achieving a certain goal and also being able to see it right before your eyes is something you desire, then jigsaw is your best bet. Truly a game that will never disappear, and therefore, you should play it.

Sudoku

The game that used to be known as Number Place is as the original name would entail. You are given a grid of 3x3 squares and within those squares, there are 3x3 other squares (boxes). In each square, there is a given amount of numbers within those boxes and the empty boxes are the ones you insert puzzles to complete the square.

You complete the puzzle by having every box within the puzzles filled in with a number. This seems easy at first since you might just be thinking you can repeat numbers, but that's where the rules come in. In each square there can only be a singular number of 1-9, this also applies to rows and columns, no number can repeat vertically, horizontally, or… boxically.

For a game that contains many numbers, you don't actually need to know any math so don't let that frighten you. Sudoku is a game loved by many for many years ever since it was popularized in the late 1980s.

 

Mahjong

A game that was developed in China during the Qing dynasty, Mahjong, is a popular game to this day worldwide. Mahjong is a game of tiles that involves skill, strategy, and just a bit of luck. Commonly the game is played with four people but there are variants for three. The game is set with 144 tiles with Chinese characters and symbols being written on them.

Each player is given 12 tiles, with each turn the players can draw or discard tiles until they have completed a legal hand using the 14th drawn tile to form melds also known as sets as well as a pair, which is known as an eye. The game can also be won with special sets. Which this being online, there should be no shortage of opponents which can include A.I.

Crosswords

A need to play by any sense of the word, crosswords are word puzzles and word search games that take place within a square. The goal of the game is to form words or phrases using the white boxes based on sentences, references, or clues given which pertain to a certain square number. The clues and such are also labeled as being either vertical or horizontal.

The square also contains black or shaded areas that are meant to separate boxes which essentially separate words to make it easier to distinguish the correct answer. The way to complete the puzzle if by filling in each set of boxes with the correct word or phrases. The bonus with this being online is there there will be no shortage of crosswords or topics to choose from.

Must-Play Games

As previously said, there are many games out there both in the real world and online. With online, however, there's no shortage of anything for any of these games which means that you can endlessly play without worrying about paywalls; paywalls being the requirement to buy more sets of puzzles to enjoy said puzzle.

To recap, what you must play include solitaire, the card game, jigsaw puzzles, the puzzle piece game, sudoku, the number placement game, mahjong, the tile game, and finally crosswords which is essentially the word placement game. Each of these games is beloved by many and definitely should be a place to start or go if you're ever wondering what to play.

Swiss Pike Complete

It is with considerable pleasure that I've finished the Swiss pike. I started this project a couple of days before Christmas so am very pleased to have them done by now. They have worked out exactly how I wanted, 6 chunky dynamic units that weren't just blokes standing about with upright pikes

The 6 blocks together.

Still got a way to go with mounted crossbows, more handgunners and foot crossbows still to to do, plus maybe some German ally knights

Up close to the charge

left to right: Schwyz/Basel, Glarus/Solothurn, Uri, Berne, Lucerne/Zurich, Basel-Stadt/Appenzell

Uri Handgunners to the fore

Epic Shadowswords

I finished up the Shadowswords last night. I also went back and painted the headlights on the Baneblades that I missed. Next up are the Leman Russ Exterminators.

Rescue And Recovery

I own a hobby game store but one of my other hobbies, the one that takes all my meager disposable income, is overlanding and off roading. I have been stuck many times in my Jeep. For a while, it seemed like that's what you did, drive until you got stuck. I learned a lot during this time, both about preparation and technique as well as wisdom in avoiding mistakes.

Once I tried to get up a muddy hill and slid back down sideways, nearly over an embankment. I tried several more times and slid into the exact same nook on the hill, a little closer to the edge each time. Eventually I got half way up, avoided the slide, and winched my way over the top. My friend who didn't get stuck was focused on getting me to learn how to navigate the vehicle up the hill. I just wanted to get to the top. My installer thought I was foolish to buy a winch, "I've been off-roading for 20 years and never used my winch." Well, he never went with us. I ended up using the winch several more times that year. There are some fundamentals to off-roading that apply to business.

Be prepared. In my Jeep sliding situation, I had the original, street tires on the vehicle. I had no business being in mud. A wiser me would have looked at that hill and said "Nope! We go around." In business this means having some form of reserve. A cash reserve is the most obvious. Before we had our large construction project, with tremendous debt, I had cash reserves. We would look around and try to solve problems with money, rather than seeing problems and putting them on my white board of shame, a list to be solved another day.

Being prepared also means having a plan. What would you do if you were forced to shut down for a long period of time? Would you continue the business at all? That's the first question. Is it worth it? If so, how? Having checked your resolve ahead of time means you are acting on your plan while others are searching their hearts. This is a discussion I've had with friends and family many times, and the weekend before I was shut down, we revisited this. Is it worth continuing if they shut you down?

Self rescue. Rule zero of survival is nobody is coming. Be self reliant. With rule zero in mind, how are you going to self rescue in a time of crisis? You should certainly call for help, but remember, nobody is coming. Hope they come, expect they won't. My solution was to set up an online store and do no-contact home delivery. The best time to have set up an online store was a year ago, but you do what you can in the time of crisis. In coming days, I will change that to far less profitable, but safer, shipping of all orders. Nobody is coming. I'll believe there is an outside solution when the money hits my bank account.

Call for help. Nobody is coming, but they might. I've got a ham in the Jeep, but I really want a satellite communicator. The price tag and subscription throws me off, but before every big trip, I consider it again. How remote is this trip? Who am I going with?

In the case of the business, I'm refinancing my house to acquire cash out and tapping investors for a "cash call." This alone is probably enough to self-rescue, assuming things go back to normal. They'll never be normal again. When I went to initiate a refinance, the first several days the banks were swamped and stopped publishing rates. The next week, my mortgage broker added me to her schedule. It has been three weeks and she hasn't called me back. I'm half way through a refinance with a second broker. Is it possible this falls through? Absolutely. Should I have relied on the first broker? Nobody is coming.

I'm also applying for an SBA economic injury disaster loan, and was recently approved for one. Next is the PPP payroll protection plan, which really will employ my staff for more hours than I would give them otherwise, probably building a new online store I should have created a year ago.

One of these things needs to happen. I need the mortgage refi or the SBA loan and gravy if I get both. Let's turn failure into an embarrassment of riches. Since nobody is coming, sending out a request for help on every frequency might increase my chances somebody comes. If nobody comes, the online store becomes an even hotter priority. Everyone is screwed. It is to everyones interest to be patient and allow self recovery. It's the best option since nobody is coming.

The time to be prepared with a strong resolve and resources in place, was before this happened. The time to begin the self rescue and call for help was last week. The time to accept nobody is coming and figure this out on your own is now.

The Intellivision Amico - Can A "Family Friendly" Console Succeed?

The Intellivision Amico in Metallic Pearl, courtesy of Intellivision Entertainment

Who remembers the Intellivision today?  Some readers with a sense of history will remember the console as the first console to seriously compete with Atari 2600 before the video game crash of 1983-84.  A few may even have had one when they were younger, have one in their collection or played one at some point in their lives.  To the general public, also-ran pre-crash consoles like the Intellivision barely register in its memory.  Intellivision is posed to make a comeback with the Amico console, a console built with the laudable goal of getting families to play video games together.  But it is a very different market that Intellivision is trying to make a splash compared to ten years ago, never mind forty.  Can the Amico become a success when it is scheduled to launch next year?  Let's explore its prospects in this article.

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You say "obsessed" as if it is a bad thing.