What do you do when you can't do what you want to do?

Backstory, my PC is dying, something to do with the graphics card i think, it's old enough that i've already ordered a whole new PC which will be arriving next week... hopefully.
So instead of playing Modern Warfare and Assassin's Creed: Origins as i have been doing recently, i'm now playing Headhunter on the Dreamcast?

I have other backup hobbies, browse the internet, watch movies, listen to music, if the power dies i can grab my guitar, failing that... learn to dance? Go play Snooker with friends? I might need some better backups.

Anyway, what's your first backup hobby when you can't do what you intended? What's your backup's backup? What's your backup's backup's ba...

Games are definitely my default go-to but there are parts of the year when I'm watching a lot of movies or shows. If I can't do either, I'll read stuff. I like reading but I really don't do it enough so it's nice when, by some chance, I can't do what I want to do.

I've always wanted to play Headhunter. It seems pretty cool. How are you liking it?

When my PSU blew up and took the motherboard and GPU with it, I made LEGO kits all week and started learning origami. That was a really awesome time, actually, and it made me realize how much this digital world can make you forget the physical one a little.

When the internet was down in my street for 13 days . . . ooo boy, that was rough. I ended up listening to my Mum's entire CD collection and found some gems like McAlmont & Butler, Grandaddy, Four Tet, a bunch of Motown I'd never heard (Martha and the Vandellas, The Marvelettes, etc.), a Faithless album I'd not heard. I was going crazy with internet withdrawal, but it made me lie on my bed and just digest album after album like it was the '70s or something. I hadn't done that since I discovered Mellon Collie... and Lateralus when I was 15, it was great.

So, long story short, but still long, because I just told it: Music, LEGO, origami.

Edit: oh, I also got a glockenspiel and taught myself some easy songs like "No Surprises" and "Once Upon a December."

Read a book.

I usually interpret moments like that as the universe's way of telling me to get off my ass and do some housework. Chores don't seem as bad when the thing that you'd rather be doing is temporarily impossible.

I usually travel but in the boring local way like, "Man, I haven't been to X in a while. I wonder if they still have a Y?"

@liquiddragon said:

I was 10 when i first played it but didn't get far, probably because i couldn't find an item or something, it tries to mix elements of basic Resident Evil puzzle solving with an awkward implementation of Metal Gear Solid 1 mechanics (i literally just did a dumbed down version of the Vulcan Raven fight).
It's novel, i love the Dreamcast "aesthetic" so i just kinda get a kick out of looking at this game, i also get a kick out of slightly janky third person shooters of the era so it suits me, but i can understand if others think it's weird.
I enjoy riding the motorbike between missions, that's probably where the game feels the most Dreamcasty.

Using widescreen hack and 1440 internal resolution, yes i still own a Dreamcast and Headhunter, but i like up-rezzing old games.

Wife time

Kids time

Dogs time

Livestock time

Games

Movies

Music

TV

Books

Lift Weights

Run

Break out the laptop and get some career work done

Yard Work

House Work

There’s always a backlog...

Games are definitely my main hobby. Reading used to be a close second, but at this point all my reading is done via audiobooks either during exercise or commute. If a show or movie has my attention, I'll find time for it, but that doesn't happen too often.

My local region (Whatcom County, WA) has a lot of great hiking trails and a wonderful music scene, so there's some good options available if I have some time on my hands, or when my block inevitably loses power the second the wind picks up.

Honestly. Since I pretty much never get rid of old books or games, and I've been working on rapidly increasing my backlog stack for AT LEAST 10 years now. I will actually legitimately never run out of something to play or read even if my two most modern playing devices and my internet broke at the same time. So I honestly don't need a backup hobby. I've got corporate 4G internet I can use as well so I technically have a backup for my connnection too..... This question is weirdly unrealistc to me, which, uh, I'll try not to think too hard about what that means.

All that said. If my PC would break, the first thing I would do is try and fix it as much as I could as soon as I could. Not because I need to go back to games, but rather because it would bug me that I had a broken computer in the house when my job is making sure computers aren't broken.

If that then ends up being a thing where I have to wait for parts to deliver or shops to open or whatever. Then I'm p likely to just do house work or something, might as well. If I want to fix somehing it's much harder to relax and play games, so I'd rather do something constructive that demands at least a little concentration.

When the TV is occupied my brain honestly breathes a sigh of relief because i gain some more focus and just curl up with my kindle. I used to be a great bit fat person and downtime is hard because food fills it, so I try to be constantly engaged in something, but ultimately its videogames and books that dominate my life. I work 830-630 6 days a week though so honestly this time is not so vast haha.

God, Headhunter.

I truly loved that game. The soundtrack kicking in whilst you were riding the most noisy, throaty bike was banging.

Update, graphics card is now completely dead, the lights on it are still on but it's not showing up in device manager at all, i had to plug my monitor into my motherboard to get an image.
Doesn't bother me too much, i can still use multiple monitors and intel graphics, downside is i can't continue playing Headhunter, so now that's on hold too.

Anyone know any good podcast friendly Mega Drive games? Something fairly simple i don't have to pay too much attention to?

I train for ultra marathons.

@cikame: I read that it was a MGS ripoff but I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that given how different the setting is. I too have a fondest for the visuals of that era. Maybe I'll track it down for the PS2...I heard Dan did a play through of it at Game Informer so maybe I'll watch that.

@liquiddragon: Just a heads up, i couldn't get the PS2 version running well on PCSX2, so that would be one to play on actual hardware.

@cikame: o ok. Yeah, I'd be playing on a PS2 if I got it. Totally forgot they made a sequel also.

Watch YouTube videos, look at fanart, and post on MAL.

When I can't do the thing that I want to do, it's usually because I'm not doing the thing I don't want to do but could. So I use the thing I want to do but can't as motivation to do the thing I don't want to do but could. That makes me do the thing I don't want to do so that it becomes a thing I did and then I can get back to doing the thing that I wanted to do but couldn't.

Does that make sense?

@liquiddragon:Don't play the sequel... i mean you could... but it looks sooo awkward, specifically the shooting.

Small update, graphics card is working again for now :P, so i can get back to Headhunter.

Also
@therealturk: I think so.

When I feel like playing something in particular that I just can't or would be a hassle to set up, I just look up a QL if there's one. I can't imagine I'd run out of things to do if my main gaming platform died all of a sudden. My backlog of podcasts, books, films, and shows is fairly deep. I haven't even seen Kerbal Project B.E.A.S.T.

@bonelessspirit said:

This. Preferably in a hot bath.