A major factor of retro gaming isn’t just what the games themselves are so much as the context of where they were played. Kyle Orland’s Minesweeper from Boss Fight Books is an excellent demonstration of this philosophy in action, simply because Minesweeper isn’t really the kind of game that comes to mind as a retro gaming classic. What, that cheap pack-in game that used to be bundled in old Windows operating system packages? No characters, no plot, just left clicking and right clicking your way through a minefield grid? What kind of a story can you get from a game like that? As it happens, quite an elaborate one. Orland denotes a fascinatingly circular route through the development, not just of Minesweeper, but the same style of minesweeping games that predate and postdate it. Somewhat comically, both Minesweeper’s ancestors and its descendants did and do have plots. They revolved and revolve around trying to find a path through a minefield, as opposed to just locating every single mine on the grid. They were and also are nowhere near as popular as Minesweeper was in its heyday, because as pack-in software, nearly everyone who owned a Windows operating system in the nineties at least tried to play it. This also led to the great forgotten moral panic of the nineties, about how games like Minesweeper and Solitaire sapped worker productivity in the office because office employees could take a break at any point and just open up those games. I was surprised to find distinguished columnists in the New York Times and similarly lofty publications writing screeds against the addictive power of these games. I was maybe not quite so surprised to learn that Bill Gates had such a strong addiction to Minesweeper that employees had to conspire to keep him from wasting quite so much on the game. In Orland’s conceptualization, Minesweeper is significant not just because of its ridiculous availability, but also due to the fact that its simplistic design is perfect for the classic two button mouse. Left click steps on a piece, giving clues as to how many mines are on adjacent spaces, and right click flags a confirmed mine there so you don’t have to worry about stepping on it later. For people who had never seen two button mouses before, and thus couldn’t quite see the purpose of them, Minesweeper is a great tool for understanding their functionality. So it was that Minesweeper experienced a slow downfall in the modern era. Newer Microsoft operating systems do not include Minesweeper as pack-in software, and even if newer versions of the game can be downloaded for free via the Microsoft Store, the experience just isn’t the same. Not as convenient. There’s also the matter of how modern tablets and cell phones do not have two click functionality. With only a single click, there just isn’t any coherent way to play the game. Alternate touchscreen controls simply don’t work well for the sort of perfect play that Minesweeper requires, as a single misclick blows up the whole board. Orland also gets a lot into the competitive Minesweeper community, which died out for many of the usual reasons yet also had its own intriguing drama about Minesweeper boards only really being pseudorandom, as opposed to properly random, a common glitch in many games from the nineties, with technical explanations so comically arcane Orland gives up trying to give a fully in-depth accounting for how it happens. The question begged, in any case, is what does it mean to have a world record in Minesweeper? Or a personal one? Is it skill if you’re just memorizing boards, however inadvertently, or is mastery of the process what really matters? I couldn’t get past how engaging all of these questions and history were when, once again, the book is about Minesweeper. Minesweeper! The very name is synonymous with low effort gaming, dreaded casual gaming even, yet the story of even a simple game like this and the cultural movements it inspired is remarkably complex. Nineties computing was a major moment of cultural history for video gaming, and while more sophisticated titles like Doom get most of the historiography, Orland makes a compelling argument that if you wanted to know what gaming life was like for the more typical computer user back then, you have to dive deep into the glory earned by clearing a Minesweeper board.   The post A review of Minesweeper from Boss Fight Books appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

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A Prayer to Let Go When You’re Trying to Hold it All TogetherBy Heidi Vegh “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the livestock, all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'” – Genesis 1:26 This world is a harsh place. When we aren't leaning on Jesus’, our to-do lists can be overwhelming, especially when we feel we must do it all. Perhaps you have a lot on your plate. You are responsible for a lot, and you fear that if you let go, everything will crumble and fall apart. When God created us, He made us for Himself. He created us to live in harmony with Him and rely on Him entirely for our needs. We are created in His image, and He cares for us. He has jobs for us to do. But He wants us to do them beside Him, for His glory, not for selfish gain. When we only think of ourselves and what we will personally gain from striving to be in control, we will stumble.  When sin entered the world, so did pride and self-sufficiency. We are told to grin and bear it, to lock in and hold on, gritting our teeth as we strive to manifest, control, and keep all things in place. At some point, we will break. All of us. We are not created to endure, control, and hold everything together, and when we strive to do these things, we will eventually break under pressure.  In Isaiah 40: 29-31, we read, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and exhausted, and young men stumble and fall, but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.” When you feel like your own strength is failing, call out to Jesus. When you feel like the world and all its expectations are crushing you, call out to Jesus. When you feel like you can’t go on, call out to Jesus. Let’s pray: God. It's too much. I am crushing under the weight of all the expectations. I am crumbling under the weight of what others expect of me, and I am suffocating under the expectations that I have put on myself. I can’t do it alone. I am trying to hold it all together, but my weak grip is weakening. I need you to hold me up, Jesus. I am calling out to you in my time of need. I can’t do this anymore. I want to rely on you solely for my strength to avoid getting to the end of myself. However, I understand that sometimes it is the getting to the end of myself that draws me to you. I thank you for pursuing me, Lord. Thank you for loving me enough not to let me continue walking a road of self-sufficiency that leaves me dry and maxed out. Lord, please renew me today. Show me what to let go of. Show me where I being prideful in my actions, and forgive me for not relying on you. Thank you for your patience while waiting for me to rely on you. Thank you for loving me enough to extend your hands to help pull me from the pit. Thank you for your peace, your joy, your strength. I trust that when I let go, you will catch me. When I let go of all the things I have the illusion of controlling, you will still have your hand in every detail. I don’t have the strength to do it all; I know that is not how you created me. Help me to let go.In your precious name, we pray, amen. Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/PeopleImages Heidi Vegh is a writer, speaker, and ministry leader living in Western Washington. She is a remarried mother of four, navigating the blended family life after the loss of her first husband to cancer in 2013. She longs to use her writing as a way to encourage others who have experienced loss and guide them on the road to healing. She contributes to her blog found at www.mrsheidivegh.com , sharing stories and devotionals of faith stemming from her loss and healing, mothering, and her blended and complex family. She graduated from Southern New Hampshire University with a degree in Creative Writing and English and is working on her first book. Heidi is the Women's Ministry Director at her local church and has a deep heart for sharing Jesus with women and encouraging them in their faith walk. When she is not writing, she loves to travel, read, craft, and experiment in the kitchen. Visit her Facebook and Instagram (@mrsheidivegh) to learn more. Related Resource: Remember God’s Enduring Love for You in this Guided Meditation on Psalm 100! This guided Christian meditation from Psalm 100 will help you experience and praise God for his unending love for you. Become aware of God's presence with you, and praise God for his loyal and enduring love from the beginning of time and into the future. Listen to every episode of the So Much More Podcast on LifeAudio.com, or subscribe on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode! Now that you’ve prayed, are you in need of someone to pray for YOU? Click the button below! Visit iBelieve.com for more inspiring prayer content. The post A Prayer to Let Go When You’re Trying to Hold it All Together – Your Daily Prayer – August 15 appeared first on GodUpdates.

After A Night At The Opera, Queen had the world at their feet. But how on Earth do you follow such an album?