You are going to be trapped in a room for 12 hours with a mid 2000s office desktop with no internet connection and an external hard drive; what are you putting on the hard drive?

I’ve got some DOOM WADs I have been meaning to play so I would probably grab Trench Foot, Total Chaos, and the sequel to Ashes 2063, Ashes: Afterglow with a portable install of GZDoom to play them.

After that I’d probably bring Star Trek TOS and a MOBI copy of Neuromancer by William Gibson combined with a portable install of VLC and Calibre in case the computer didn’t have applications that support the file format.

What about you?

I wanted to phrase this in a way where it isn’t a prolonged or desert island style question where the responsible idea would be to bring Wikipedia ZIMs and educational PDFs. It’s just an awkward amount of time to kill. The mid 2000s office desktop stipulation is just an additional challenge so you can’t just bring in a copy of Baldur’s Gate 3 or Cyberpunk 2077.

Edit: By mid 2000s I meant around 2005; the XP or Vista.

EchoCranium,

I’d probably sit and play Unreal, or maybe Riven if I was feeling more chill. Could easily burn through 12 hours like that. Just need to be able to take a case of Jolt, a few bags of chips, and some Skittles along and I’d be set.

spasticeightball, (edited )

Emulators definitely should still run fine for GBA games I’d think. So there’s a lot to choose from already in that library. If not, then SNES. even a potato from the mid 2000s can run SNES games.

Other than that, I’m thinking I would load up my entire calibre Epub library so I can read books. I have so many books I want to go through that I have collected over the years. Want to go through the entire Dune series for the first time among other books.

I’m also quite certain a mid 2000s office PC can run VLC. I have many older series I have yet to watch still because I’ve been so busy. Stuff like The Shield or The Wire that I have downloaded but never got around to watching.

I don’t think I would get bored without internet for 12 hours at all with all that media at my disposal. Even on a 128gb thumb drive, I can easily bring in 2-3 full 1080p tv series. Epubs and retro system ROMs take no space at all so that’d be easy.

And if I get bored of all that media somehow, I’d just use an offline copy of wikivoyage to plan my next vacation.

mctoasterson,

SNES 9x ran great on systems of this era. I spent days playing all the Megaman titles and save-scumming or scanning memory to make infinite health cheats.

Cethin,

I’m currently listening to the Children of Dune audio book. That alone is 16h. I think Messiah was around 8h and Dune was around 12h. Basically, 12h is nothing.

crimsonpoodle,

Can it be running some unix derivative?

Nomecks,

12 hours of trying to overclock a mid 2000s desktop as much as I can

Avg,

Memtest on a floppy and superpi or prime95, atitool on the drive, maybe a few games to benchmark? Can’t forget a soldering iron and defroster repair kit. 12 hours is not going to be enough.

ColdWater,
@ColdWater@lemmy.ca avatar

Surprised no one mentioned GTA series

CorrodedCranium,
@CorrodedCranium@leminal.space avatar

Someone further down did mention the 3D GTA games. I’m assuming they mean 3 and VC

neocamel,

Bro remember the top-down GTA games?! Those were legit.

brax,

12 hours? Lol probably just some stuff to code on and screw around in. I’ll probably take a nap in there somewhere to kill time

Daxtron2,

12 hours? I’m sleeping through that whole thing

mudle,
@mudle@lemmy.ml avatar

You are going to be trapped in a room for 12 hours with a mid 2000s office desktop with no internet connection and an external hard drive; what are you putting on the hard drive?

Nothing, because I won’t have an internet connection…

CorrodedCranium,
@CorrodedCranium@leminal.space avatar

Part of the reason I posted it here specifically is because you wouldn’t need to worry about the limitations of online DRM.

If you wanted to you could read a book, watch a TV show, or play a game. A lack of internet doesn’t need to be all that limiting.

klemptor,
@klemptor@startrek.website avatar

Winamp with my favorite skin

Entirety of my mp3 collection

All 7 seasons of DS9

All 5 seasons of Kids in the Hall

Davidchan,

Someone explain to this guy how long 12 hours actually is.

klemptor,
@klemptor@startrek.website avatar

I like to overprepare - if I get tired of one thing I can switch to another.

drwankingstein,

Neverwinter, will entertain me all day long

insinsanity,

Angband or umoria

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Without an Internet connection? Nothing.

CorrodedCranium,
@CorrodedCranium@leminal.space avatar

You’d rather spend the 12 hours just using whatever is on the computer than bring in some of your ill-gotten gains for some guaranteed entertainment?

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Can I take the external hard drive to my own PC before hand? I just don’t have shit to use to load anything into it from outside. lol

zaknenou,
@zaknenou@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Tutorial videos for programming

pastermil,

I could bring the whole Person of Interest series and wouldn’t finish a season. That, or any TV series with reasonable length. I was thinking:

  • Dark
  • Breaking Bad
  • Fringe
  • Mr. Robot
  • Hannibal
  • Battlestar Galactica
  • The Expanse

Speaking of, I wonder what the mid-00s performance for decoding HEVC.

Also, what do I get from this, anyway?

CorrodedCranium, (edited )
@CorrodedCranium@leminal.space avatar

Also, what do I get from this, anyway?

You don’t kill your family or get arrested if you are in this person’s position I guess

sh.itjust.works/comment/10506722

Speaking of, I wonder what the mid-00s performance for decoding HEVC.

That’s a good question. I hadn’t thought of how that would play into things

pastermil,

Yeah, my collection is now on either AV1 or H265. Otherwise that 2TB won’t last.

I was hoping someone with a retro PC could answer.

entropicdrift, (edited )
@entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Rollercoaster Tycoon 2

ADoM

Donkey Kong Country and SNES9x

2005, you say? I bet KOTOR could run on low on a shitty office PC.

Master of Orion 2

Patches,

Check out OpenRCT. It’s RCT but improved for the modern age.

entropicdrift,
@entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I’m well aware, thank you

ArmokGoB,

GalCiv 2?

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