I had planned to do a big gift guide here on the site, but I suddenly found myself late to to the table — many sites have already done them, Black Friday has come and gone, and a lot of people have already given their friends and family their gift ideas anyway. Half the time, gift guides are filled with things you would never get anyway. “Check out this home theater setup — and a house to go with it! Awesome gift!” Yeah, if your dad’s last name is Warbucks.
The reality is that when you are desperate enough to turn to a site like mine for gift advice, you already have your dreams — what you need are solutions. You need last-minute, platform-agnostic stuff on the cheap — and something that isn’t just “hell, I’ll get them PS Store/Xbox Live/Wii Points.” Lucky for you, I am all about practical gifts. Don’t give me doodads that you spent too much on that I’ll never use — give me something I can appreciate on a daily basis.
And it’s in that spirit that I present the nothing-over-twenty-bucks One of Swords 2010 Gift Guide. Everything a gamer can use, from everything another gamer can afford. Mind you, if you expected my guide would be full of Black Ops controllers and t-shirts and stuff, go for it. Otherwise, let’s go with something a little less obvious…
A Guitar Strap That Isn’t A Piece Of Crap
I don’t care if you play Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Power Gig, even Rock Revolution — your plastic guitar controllers came with crappy 1″ nylon straps, which instantly get tangled and look like crap. What you want is a real guitar strap, 2″ wide, made of nylon or cotton. That’s easily under $5 in a solid color, and you will pay only slightly more if you prefer cotton and still only $10 for leather — but you can hit $15 if you want patterns, designs, or attitude, like this or this or this or this or this. Bottom line: Friends don’t let friends suffer through lousy guitar straps, even when the rocking is pure plastic.
The Ultimate History of Video Games
Steven Kent’s aptly titled book traces the origins of gaming back to the very roots, documenting the Atari era, the NES 8-bit glory years, and the resulting 16-bit and 32-bit showdowns in exciting, highly readable detail. Kent did tons of excellent interviews, so along the way, you’re hearing straight from the people who lived gaming’s history, both the highs and the lows. This is the book I always wanted to write, but Steve beat me to it. Damn his talent!
USB Squid
Let’s say you want to play Guitar Hero with all four players as vocalists (yes, you can do that!) and you have four wired mics. Uh oh — Xbox 360 has three USB ports, PS3 has two. How do you get everybody singing? The USB Squid is one of the handiest USB hubs I’ve seen — four ports from one, perfect for snaking USB mics (or other wired controllers, if you want) around the living room. It’s $10 but if you need even more connections, try the USB Octopus, which offers 7 ports for $5 more.
Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System
Podcast co-host Hugh Sterbakov is reading this book now, and he recommends it — so do I, because I read it first! It’s no exaggeration to say that modern home gaming began with the success of the Atari 2600 — which, it turns out, was a beast to program and wound up doing a lot of stuff it was never designed to do. Racing the Beam is slightly technical but still very readable book that offers a close look at several of the games that helped define the system (yes, including Activision’s Pitfall!), using their creation to illustrate how the platform evolved over time. I found it absolutely riveting; every example is in context, and you really walk away with a great appreciation for what the programmers pulled off.
Bawls Guarana
Back in the day I didn’t just consume energy drinks on a regular basis — I reviewed them. And if I had to choose one energy drink to enjoy while gaming for the rest of my life, it would be Bawls Guarana. The caffeinated kick is not as sharp as some other drinks, so instead of causing you to spike and fall, Bawls keeps you consistently alert over long gaming sessions (and I’m speaking from experience). The original flavor is a light tropical/citrusy thing — just sweet enough — but I also like the cherry flavor, and the G33k B33r is one of the best root beers I’ve ever tasted — for real. A weird perk: the sugar-free variant contains more caffeine. You can get an eight pack of any flavor, in 10-ounce bottles or 16-ounce cans, for under $20 either online or in your local beverage store. And if you haven’t heard the slightly salacious Bawls Christmas song…you should.
Geeky Wrapping Paper
So now that you’ve found a groovy gift for your gamer friend, what do you wrap it in? Robots, zombies, binary code, internet memes, and snark, courtesy of ThinkGeek’s Geeky Wrapping Paper. Yes, one of them says “Have a Satisfactory Non-Denominational Capitalist Wintertime Gift-Giving Season.” I like the one that just repeats the phrase “Can Has” all over it. In any case, you get a few sheets for $6. Thank you, ThinkGeek — and thanks to Kat for spotting it in the first place.
If you want even more suggestions, check out this week’s podcast. And whatever holiday you celebrate, make it happy, for yourself and others.
