Yesterday I wrote a bit about how I was wrong, how handheld gaming completely surprised me by remaining relevant and important. It got me thinking about all the places I’ve used my handhelds in the past. And I asked myself the question: where’s the weirdest place I’ve ever played a video game?
I racked my brain.
On the toilet? Yeah, everyone does that.
In airports? Duh.
In bed? God, I’m so boring.
I can’t think of anywhere crazy that I’ve totally played video games.
I once saw a cool pic that a Kotaku reader posted: they were playing Pokemon on their 3DS in a pub one-handedly, whilst drinking. I thought that was pretty cool!
How about you — what’s the strangest place you’ve found yourself playing games?
Comments
49 responses to “Tell Us Dammit: The Weirdest Place You’ve Played Video Games”
Playing video games on the toilet ? Gross
I can see that you’ve never embarked on the magical adventure that is toilet gaming. My 3DS and my toilet are basically never used individually, you’ve got all the time in the world to do the two most important things in your daily life – just remember to move your legs around every so often or you’ll get crazy bad pins and needles when you stand up again. Also, there’s no better way to decimated a particularly hard boss in Bravely Default while decimating another particularly hard boss, ifyouknowwhatimean 😉
I once played this weird game called Maniac Mansion while exploring the Edison mansion in Day of the Tentacle! GAME WITHIN A GAAAAAAAAME! *head explodes* Then there’s the Mrs. Astro Chicken games from Space Quest, walking round the galleria as Roger Wilco!
And all the little minigames in System Shock 2 one could hide in a cupboard and play.
I once played Paddle War on my wristwatch while fighting aliens on another planet. Or was that Commander Keen? I can never remember.
At a club
In hospital, with 3 tubes sucking blood out of me.
At uni one time we were in the middle of a field, under a tree. So we opened our laptops up, created an ad-hoc wifi network, and proceeded to play multiplayer CSS.
Or playing Mario 3 on emulater on my 10inch tablet, using a Dualshock3 controller (wireless ftw), while being served Japanese beer by Japanese flight attendants on my way to Japan.
I have played a Quake III deathmatch while sitting outside during a fire alarm evacuation. We were all using trackpads. It wasn’t very successful.
Ha, fire alarm. When that one went off I just blasted my music louder to compensate.
Indeed, trackpads and FPS is no fun. 🙁 But still pretty fun…
Playing the original Donkey Kong while in Donkey Kong 64 was good fun.
Yo, dawg?
Weirdest place I’ve played a video game? Assuming mobile games count, it still doesn’t get weirder than the bathroom. Where’s a “weird” place to play a video game? It’s not like sex, where people frown on it if it’s done on the steps of town hall while waiting for your friends.
You’re speaking from personal experience, aren’t you! Sounds like a great story!
I don’t know about weird, but I’ve pulled out my phone to pass time while waiting in line more times than I can count. It’s just a great way to fill time.
Hell, I’ve played a DS while waiting for a PC game to load. I have the patience of a mayfly…
in the back of a police van.
This doesn’t surprise me, 35. Not at all. XD
At a T20 cricket match. It was getting boring. I’d never do so during a test match, though!
Once this guy was playing his 3DS in JB Hifi while @sughly and I were looking at DVDs. TRUE STORY!
Actually, this true – pretty much anywhere that I’ve attended a meat. So bars, arcades, restaurants, stores, parks, concerts. But they’ve all become so commonplace that it doesn’t feel like it qualifies as “weird” any more!
Not surprising – Cricket IS boring. Guy throws ball, other guy bats ball, runs back & forth, repeat. I would play ANYTHING (even Dungeon Keeper) should I ever be forced to watch cricket ever again for longer than 2 minutes.
Your loss. Test cricket is awesome. Tactical, ebbs and flows, you can do a crossword in the dull parts and look up when the ball is bowled.
The problem is that T20 is basically a guy swinging the bat as hard as he can every ball, sometimes it connects, cue loud music.
T20 is so close to baseball, it isn’t funny.
Under Serrel’s bed, while he slept
Uh, I’m pretty sure he knew, he wrote that article about it. http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/01/sughly-thats-inappropriate/
In Serrel’s bed while he slept
Not so strange a place, but more the situation: While waiting for a taxi in a parking lot on NYE (it was a loooong wait) at 3am with my partner passed out in my lap. So glad I had my Vita on me, made the time fly. And unlike reading, it didn’t require decent light!
Played games on the toilet, for sure. Can’t think of any ‘weird’ places I’ve played though.
I remember hiding under a table at a family gathering to play my Game Boy when I was much younger though. Family were boring me, and I had stuff to play, man.
The extent of my weird places I’ve played games include such amazing locales as a train station, on a bus, and at school during a free period. Oh what a varied and interesting life I have lead!
My go-to mobile entertainment system tends to be a book.
@sughly !!!@ You’re the person under there? Hi! I’m the dude in the wardrobe!
ZOMG YOU’RE the dude in the wardrobe?!?
I’M THE GUY OUTSIDE THE WINDOW!!!
Reminds me of this Pendleton Ward video 😀
OMG I remember that, thats the best
In church when my Gran used to drag me there every freakin’ Sunday. Bah, boring. I was maybe 9 or 10. Pokemon Red made it better.
I used my 3DS to record video of The Blanks (in THREE DEEEEE!) at their concert a couple of years ago, if that kind of counts.
Otherwise like I’ve mentioned here before, I whipped out and played my Virtual Boy on the train once 😛 That’s about as weird as it gets though. Could do some weird stuff with the Wii U though, what with the off-screen play and everything.
I once played video games at a Luddite convention. No, no. That’s a lie. The most out-of-place-for-me place I’ve played games is while waiting outside a Nando’s.
When the 4 new StreetPass games came out for the 3DS I used to play them while walking to work. Battle, Mansion and Garden were no trouble, but playing that space shooter game while walking …
My brain was fighting between my own movement and the ship’s movement making it very tricky to navigate through the morning crowd
I filmed a doco once that involved a guy playing the V8 game in a v8 with a built in xbox. That was wierd.
Foot of the bed. Anyone who gets the reference gets all my internet points.
Animal Crossing?
Weirdest place I played video games in was at a conference room while in the middle of a meeting.
In the shower. Last year sometime. I was running late and I was up to a good bit in Golden Abyss. Even managed to keep playing while I got dressed and brushed my teeth, but I couldn’t quite keep it going in the car.
On my 12″ iBook in my tent all over Australia while doing the Big Lap on my tricycle on 2005. This would probably be the oddest place I played games – camped on top of this hill by myself, playing Settlers 2 in a VM… they seem to have sealed the little road up to the lookout now. http://goo.gl/maps/AffQD
I once lay in the middle of the motorway at 3am and played Mario Kart DS. There were no cars coming for a while and the sound echoed all around me. It was epic and I’ll never forget it 🙂
A few years ago I hooked up an old 34cm CRT and Nintendo 64 with a power board and 25m extension lead so I could play Super Mario 64 whilst sitting at the outdoor setting. Why? Because it was a lovely sunny day.
Playing Tetris whilst on the toilet at my workplace.. Lol
While having sex. There ya go. Was playing inFamous 2, it started, didn’t want to stop EITHER activity, we lived together at the time, she found it oddly appealing that one time. Go figure.
I was once playing Jetpack joyride at a Strip club in Brisbane…. the girl wasnt that good looking
A year or so ago I spent a stupid amount of time – sometimes days on end, often with no warning – sitting next to hospital – emergency, ICU one time – beds. My 3DS is 100% the only reason I’m still sane.
In the boot of a car..