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samred.com
Recently: NYT, Polygon, The Stranger, Game Developer, Games Radar. Previously: Ars, American Airlines, The Atlantic. Looking for work! Clips and updates: https://samred.com. Email: my first name at samred dot com. He/him, from Seattle.
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hi from the REAL summer games fest... the NW Pinball & Arcade Show in Tacoma, WA

wake up to these big brown eyes

My 16yo nephew is in town and got to watch The Phoenician Scheme while sitting next to Vern at SIFF-arama tonight. All 16-year-olds should be so lucky. (Also, I very much agree with V's take.)

you're not playing Mario Kart World correctly until you add local players AND a webcam my nephew, seen here gloating about his come-from-behind victory tonight, after we each taunted the other every time our faces appeared mid-race

question for folks with a Nintendo Switch 2 and old GameCube controllers: can you get your GC USB adapter working? mine worked fine on NS1 when I last tested over a year ago, and now I can't connect any of my old GC gamepads on either NS1 or NS2. if Nintendo killed support for these, grhgrhghrh

summer emergency SNL episode tomorrow, plz

"Make the customer whole" is enough of a tone-deaf phrase in a puncture-related fiasco to make me assume ChatGPT was used to craft the statement. Like, you're gonna make them whole after putting holes in the devices they bought? C'mon. (Also, everyone, STOP LEANING ON GENERATIVE TEXT.)

currently my least favorite thing about Nintendo Switch 2 is that when I switch from its dock input to any other input on my TV, my sound bar emits a half-second white noise scream like something out of a Japanese horror film. every single time. bug? or feature?

gosh golly gee, Mario Kart World is nice

40 mins down, and I'm pretty sure not even 40 ppl in my line have paid for a Switch 2 and moved through. I assume Best Buy has switched to those old, thin-paper, ca-chunk credit card dealies

if anybody sees this and finds me in the interminably long "give us money for a Switch 2" queue outside Northgate's Best Buy, I will freestyle rap for you loudly

Nintendo, 64

BB staffer just walked to end of the line and made a mild "whoa" face. I asked how stock was. "We have more Switch 2s to sell than I thought, and I thought this line would get bigger." There's maybe 60 ppl total? So, not a dud launch, but doesn't quite resemble the 2006 Wii midnight launch.

#nintendoswitch2 I'm probably 50th in line at a Best Buy in Seattle's Northgate neighborhood. It is perfect outdoor waiting temperature. Supposedly, they have ~100 loose systems; we shall seeeeeee

I can't remember how long ago I heard the faintest hint that this might be real. At DICE Vegas this year, the whispers got quite loud. This is gonna be megaton. Congrats to @digitaleclipse.bsky.social for finally getting a colle--er, kollection like this together.

just choked on my lunch upon learning that this exists AND is debuting at Tribeca in less than a week. @davidwain.bsky.social please start posting so us bsky losers aren't the last to know!!

just hitting F5 on this tab roughly once every 10 mins as if that will change anything, hbu

Not in this guide: Nintendo's history of "tick" and "tock" systems. So, here, enjoy my thread on the concept, and why NS2 will be interesting. 1/10 🧵

My newbie-friendly primer about the Nintendo Switch 2's launch is now live at @nytimes.com!

Thread with important Seattle political context. Particularly, Moore's choice to step down AFTER a filing deadline means her replacement gets appointed. I'm calling it an unethical play to push off the centrist-majority's accountability for Moore's term and try to claw political points for 2026.

Max Schaefer, a Blizzard North co-founder (ie the fucking Diablo series), was working on SOMEthing for ~4 years at Zynga, and now his team doesn't exist. This whole post-2020 bubble pop.