back to article Feeling a physical present: Ten summer games and gadgets

Bored of summer yet? I'm guessing that you, just like everyone else, assumed that as a lecturer, I get the summer off. No chance. Yet on the days I do escape this hellhole of forthcoming teenage subjugation, I am keeping myself busy – during unpredictable lightning storms, or sweltering and unseasonable conditions – playing with …

  1. Jedit Silver badge

    Exploited Cretins

    Please do not recommend Exploding Kittens to anyone, ever, not even ironically. Not even if you hate them. It is terrible in every way.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Exploited Cretins

      The only terrible thing about it for us is that ours eyes didn't light up.

    2. Duffy Moon

      Re: Exploited Cretins

      Why?

      1. Spleen

        Re: Exploited Cretins

        "Terrible" is a bit strong, it's just Old Maid with some nice artwork. Buy a pack of cards instead, it costs a quid and you can play grown up games with it as well.

  2. Ol'Peculier

    Ferrets

    After watching that video, I really do wish I could keep pets in my flat.

    1. K

      Re: Ferrets

      Ferrets are great fun and live well indoors... but do be aware, they smell and they play rough - they're nicknamed carpet-sharks, and you will get bitten by sharp teeth frequently (not out of malice or anger, its just how they play).

      1. Gavin Chester

        Re: Ferrets

        To be fair they are no worse than other pets, they soon learn that human skin isn't as tough as ferret skin, so it's more a kin to play fighting, ours generally don't play bite hard enough to break our skin, but could do harm if really scared.

        Do they smell, sort of, leave any animal in its mess for a while and it gets bad, ours are cleaned out twice a day and its fine on all but the hottest days, but like any animal (cat/dog) you will generally notice the smell if you go into a house with animals if its not your own pet.

        1. Ol'Peculier
  3. Kubla Cant

    How much?

    I've only so far read about the first three suggestions: a card game for $50, and a couple of sad-looking board games for £75 and £80. The author describes himself as a lecturer. Evidently salaries are booming in the educational sector.

    1. Simon Harris
      FAIL

      Re: How much?

      Himself? I guess you didn't get to page 3 then, or look at the byline.

      1. Mayhem

        Re: How much?

        So are you suggesting Lucy should be El Reg's official Page 3 girl now?

        1. Simon Harris

          Re: How much?

          Me? I was drooling by the time I got to the bottom of page 3 ... but then, that was a very large doughnut!

    2. Camilla Smythe

      Re: How much? That one will be a gift that continues to give...

      I think you may find that Lucy is not a contraction of Lucien but the big give away is that the Ferrets are running about on the floor trying to avoid the flashing suppository rather than being in their native habitat looking to latch onto other balls.

    3. Kubla Cant
      FAIL

      Re: How much?

      Apologies to Lucy. I should have checked the by-line.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nerd punching arm activated....

    must....resist........

    giant inflatable donut? really?

  5. Paul Renault

    Ten summer Games when summer's 2/3 over?

    Wha?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Meh

      Re: Ten summer Games when summer's 2/3 over?

      It's even dafter down here in the lower half of the planet: it's still winter. Bloody hemispherists.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Ten summer Games when summer's 2/3 over?

        You remind me of the People From Away (like me) coming to our state and complaining (which I don't) that there aren't any decent <insert ethnic adjective> restaurants in <insert any number of our cities>, unlike in <insert complainant's densely populated city in a densely populated region>.

        (I know, you just wanted to do the hemispherist joke, but you reminded me of annoying people, which made me grumpy and so you got a downvote anyway).

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Boffin

          Re: Ten summer Games when summer's 2/3 over?

          the hemispherist joke

          Joke? I was deadly serious. Localised dead tree publishing for tech organs went out of the window a quarter of a century ago and yet journalists are still using terms such as "summer" and "tomorrow" which are almost meaningless in global publishing.

      2. Glenturret Single Malt

        Re: Ten summer Games when summer's 2/3 over?

        Why not look on the bright side? If it's winter where you are at present then it won't be long till summer comes.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Ten summer Games when summer's 2/3 over?

          Why not look on the bright side? If it's winter where you are at present then it won't be long till summer comes.

          I'm not sure if your comment was meant for me but if so I can honestly say that winter here is by far the better season.

          Winter here is blue skies, little or no rain, 23 Celsius average and low humidity. Just perfect.

          Summer, OTOH, is mid 30s, >90% humidity, gloomy skies, mozzies, snakes, cyclones and floods.

      3. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: Ten summer Games when summer's 2/3 over?

        It's even dafter down here in the lower half of the planet: it's still winter. Bloody hemispherists.

        Oh, stop complaining. You'll get summer eventually. Probably.

        You don't hear us whinging about having to turn the monitor upside-down just to read your comments, do you?

        1. Lionel Baden

          Re: Ten summer Games when summer's 2/3 over?

          ɹǝısɐǝ ɥɔnɯ 'uʍop ǝpısdn pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ɹnoʎ ǝsn

    2. P. Lee

      Re: Ten summer Games when summer's 2/3 over?

      Summer is never over when you have summer games, though I was expecting something more spectacular like:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxLPuND19uY

  6. Dangermouse 1

    AVP game looks a lot like Space Hulk. Which admittedly owed quite a lot to the Alien franchise in the first place, I guess we have come full circle.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Expect Alien-Hulk crossovers to pop up pretty soon.

      Sadly although you can buy the AvP game in some shops now very few of the poor KS backers have received their copies.

    2. Lamont Cranston

      I used to really enjoy Space Hulk,

      but the disparity between setup time and the time taken for the Genestealers to devastate the Terminator Marines, made it a hard sell to my friends.

  7. Gavin Chester
    Happy

    Ahhh Bandits....

    Wonder if ours will appreciate the Sphero, or get bored of it after 20 minutes like other toys, I see that the Marshall's super tunnels are popular with the ferrets too...

  8. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

    Jam Trance Plus?

    Pfft! Radio Shack made a primitive form of that in the 1970's called the Light Organ. As I recall, you could get it fully assembled or in a DIY kit.

  9. IsJustabloke
    Meh

    I find myself annoying tempted by both the AvP and teh Star Wars board games.... most of my regular crowd are not really board game players so maybe that'll help me resist...

    must resist....

    1. MrT

      Give in early and save the stress.

      I bought myself some LEGO about 30 years ago, because I liked the look of it ("Spaceship! SPACESHIP!!!") and when I went to pay the woman on the till said something like "Birthday time, eh? I love buying presents for the kids...".

      Just buy it. No excuses. \m/

      1. Anonymous Custard
        Childcatcher

        Yeah, but there's no age limit on being a kid is there? At least at heart anyway. :-)

        I'm sure if you ask your mother, she'll tell you you'll always be her little boy or girl (as appropriate)...

  10. MrT

    Ozobot...

    ...is also fun - the kids are enjoying working out how to give their Ozobot commands by using different coloured marker pens at the moment.

  11. ZootCadillac

    Who the hell keeps ferrets in a house? They stink to high heaven. There goes your chance of having a social life at home.

  12. Valeyard

    board games

    Me, ym wife and a few mates play board games every fortnight, glad to see some reviewed here :D

    my summer games this year have been Cosmic Encounter, Viceroy (kickstartered so got it early) and Alchemists mainly

  13. jason 7

    Nice to see...

    in the AvP game they chose to use mostly the original Giger design rather than the bastardised anorexic later CGI designs.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Are these not winter games? - Outside, heard of it?

    BTW Getting a drone stuck will do nothing for the female pilot cause, I'm off to watch some Goblin girls

    (no really, it's a brand, stop it at the back).

    http://sabgoblingirl.com/shop/pilot.php

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Super

    Please stop saying it. It's super annoying.

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