Might consider getting something that only plays well on keyboard/mouse. Factorio comes up off the top of my head. Shooters also generally translate poorly to controllers, so perhaps that?
Honestly, we all can’t be much more useful than any of the “Top 10 games of 2024” YouTube videos because we don’t really know your friend or his tastes.
A Steam gift card seems like a good idea? Let him pick his own games?
I think this was an Atari 2600 on a chip though, not emulation, although I’m not 100% sure. Wikipedia states that the successor from 2005 used such a design, but surely this must have been the only way of creating this kind of low-cost device in 2002. I doubt there was anything cheap enough that could emulate even a system as basic as the 2600 in software back then.
The 2600 used a MOS 6507, which is a cut-down 6502, which had ~3500 logic transistors (not counting the ones necessary because NMOS), running at a max of 3MHz. Add very primitive graphics and 8k RAM.
Can’t be arsed to slog through suitable processors but ARM cores back then could kill that thing dead. 2002 is six years after the Palm Pilot while Moore’s law was still in full effect. The 2600 is from 1977, two decades more ancient.
There should even be more than enough cycles left over to generate the video signal in software.
Sure, but 2002 was a bit too early for ARM chips in what was essentially a cheap children’s toy. They were still too complex and expensive for this kind of thing at the time - not to mention, there were few emulators that ran on this architecture available, so it would have to be specifically developed.
Also, if he’s a bit of a tinkerer, he might be interested in trying shooters using gyro+flick-stick, which he probably didn’t have access to before. Witchfire, Deep Rock Galactic, and Deadlink can readily play that way once set up in Steam Input. Some games you only need to set up the gyro-to-mouse and flick-stick, whereas others (eg Vermintide 2) you have to map the entire controller manually.
So, most of my recommendations are going to be FPS or first person. For Valve related stuff:
Half-Life 2 is pretty much a must have along with Episodes 1 and 2.
Black Mesa is a remake of the original.
Entropy : Zero 2 is a fantastic fan made mod that’s a good follow up after finishing Half-Life 2 and the episodes.
The original Entropy : Zero is pretty good, but the default difficulty is hard as hell.
Portal 1 and 2 are also a must have
Portal: Revolution is an independent mod that’s a good follow up after 2.
As for non-Valve games and related:
Crab Champions - fast paced, third-person, rogue-like shooter.
Talos Principle 1 and 2 - first-person puzzles with a serious philosophical scifi story. It actually gets a bit heavy when it discusses mortality and death. 1 is being remade into a “definitive edition”.
Untitled Goose Game - Honk!
Gnorp Apologue - fun little game
Pineapple on pizza - it’s free. I would describe it as games-as-art.
Any of the Serious Sam games. They were made for PC.
Fallen Aces is still in early access, but a good story driven retro FPS with sprites and multiple ways of navigating each level.
Trepang2 - a bit of an odd FPS with bullet time.
Roboquest - rogue like FPS
Exit 8 - horror walking simulator. Kinda short once you figure it out.
APE OUT - Ape smash! Top down “shooter”.
Hotline Miami 1 and 2 - top down shooters with fast deaths and excellent soundtracks
The Binding of Isaac - has always been popular if a little dated
Gunpoint - stealth puzzle third person. Came out a decade ago, but a good game.
Party Hard - little indie murder-everyone-and-don’t-get-caught.
The Stanley Parable - walking simulator with some interesting dialog and interactions. 9-to-5 office people can relate.
Dusk - awesome boomer shooter
Antichamber - came out a decade ago, but it’s mind bending first-person puzzles.
Hades and Hades 2 which is in early access. Third person isometric rogue-like.
The Invincible - Story driven walking simulator based off the book of the same name. Good story.
Firewatch - story driven walking simulator
Deep Rock Galactic - wasn’t my pint of beer, but a lot of people like it.
Gift him a Starsector code or share your own if already have one.
Gift any super moddable games he likes. If he enjoys Bethesda games on consoles, he will definitely love PC only mods. Also explain to him what Big Picture Mode on Steam is. I wish I knew it existed when I started. Get the same console experience and seamless controller integration even if the game doesn’t officially support it.
Edit: Also any super pretty games would probably be a nice gift. Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the first I installed. Really nice realizing how much better looking games can be with a powerful computer.
Big shout out to Beyond All Reason. It’s an RTS game that’s free and open source that I’ve been playing with my friends for a few weeks now. Not even a fan of RTS games, but it’s a lot of fun to play co-op matches against AI. www.beyondallreason.info
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