Zen and the Art of Minimalist Gaming
How I decompress without a big gaming rig while living abroad.
A Past Life Regression
Before I moved to Europe, Spain as it would happen, I decided my big gaming rig wasn’t coming along.
I didn’t intend to build a new one, either.
Being a nerd who’s built PCs since I was thirteen, professionally repaired them once upon a time, and whose passion has involved gaming and creating software with a thrumming, RGB-vomiting air conditioner, this was no trivial oath of poverty. My most recent build featured a wall-mountable case. My tempered glass bastard weighed around 50lb, requiring quite the wall mount to attach inside of the closet I’d converted into an office. My life depended on proper installation of the bolts, since I’d be sitting below my own handiwork. A risk I was willing to take, if that’s any indication whatsoever of how much I value this particular life.
A little factoid about me: I have no intention of spiritually transcending samsara any time soon. It’ll be trillions of years before I’m one of the last souls in line to become a bodhisattva, undoubtedly due to my preference for managing a virtual society of technologically-advanced beavers over interacting with other people.
Anyway, it’s not that I couldn’t bring the parts to Europe.
I took moving abroad as an opportunity to miniaturize, minimizing the complexity of relocating and living here as a gamer. My reasons were twofold: one, I wasn’t sure how much I’d move around after arriving; two, I was sick and tired of forking out the dinero to change out parts on my Rig of Theseus. Upgrading one component often necessitates upgrading another, and so on, amidst rapidly evolving standards and advancements.
Had I not moved abroad, I’d have gone “minimalist” anyway... eventually, or so I would’ve told myself. But then there would’ve been no pressure to change.
This is commentary on what I did and why. Maybe you just want to downsize. Or perhaps you’re moving abroad. And in that case, if you can’t part with your monster PC, you could ship the parts. That’s really expensive, though, and may involve paying an import tax depending on where you’re going. Other than the power supply, which likely uses differing electrical standards (replace it!), I recommend securely packaging your components in luggage. Bring your motherboard, processor, video card, RAM, hard drives, etc., and put them back together. You could sell everything and buy replacements, but in Europe, for instance, electronics tend to be more expensive than in America.
Fashion upgrade: I’m relieved I brought mostly non-clothing items to Spain, by the way. I had more room to bring stuff I care about, while at the same time benefiting from the fact that the thread count-to-price ratio is difficult to beat here. I’ve been gradually replacing my wardrobe so I can blend in with the daywalkers in comfort and style.
All the Small Things
So then, what does miniaturization entail?
For me, it was migrating to a mini desktop computer I can carry in one hand, although that’s an inadvisable way to lug it around. My wife and I had committed to moving abroad a year in advance of doing so. Thus, I bought my shiny metal computer well before moving to take advantage of Spain’s customs exemptions for personal electronics.
The problem with my particular little computer is game compatibility, even though it runs many games very well (muy bien). Often, developers don’t target the underlying platform. Makes sense, as the business decision of supporting a platform, and the labor that goes along with that, must be balanced against speculative sales. What’s one to do, then? Sure, I can do all of my work with my computer, but can I play all of my games with it?
No. Well, yes, actually. I’ll explain soon.
Allow me to now present two ways in which I game “minimally,” and maybe they’d work for you too.
1. Streaming games
Did you know you can directly stream games to your computer, phone, or TV? Processing a game doesn’t have to happen on your device. It can be offloaded to another computer someplace else, a remote server, that you effectively rent with a subscription fee. There’s a big catch, but I’ll get to that — and my recommendations — soon.
First, here’s how streaming works: you upload input such as button presses, and download output including video of the game and even vibration.
Offloading processing isn’t the only dimension of the value proposition.
What primarily wears down electronics over time? Heat. Modern devices don’t generate much by decoding video, but processing a game absolutely can. There’s a certain elegance to leveraging the economy of scale that is a server farm, because cooling management is no longer your problem. It gets better, because centralized data centers can manage heat far more efficiently with industrial cooling than hodgepodge PC builds distributed about a given region.
Aging nerds unite: I’m old enough to remember when Microsoft transitioned away from lead-based solder for the Xbox 360 to comply with EU law. Say what you will about lead, but for solder, it preserves malleability over a wide temperature range. Consoles with lead-based solder, such as the original Xbox, had excellent longevity. Nevertheless, the pervasiveness of the subsequent 360’s disappointing “red ring of death” was by and large attributable to a defective post-lead soldering compound.
Anyway, when you offload game processing to a data center, you need not monkey with a PC anymore, or choose between myriad video game consoles on a release cycle that never conforms to whatever hostile force is annexing your life. Even if money is no object, you can end up with old stuff that piles up if you don’t sell or donate it. All of these electronics are prone to breaking by simple accident, too. If you’ve ever lived with someone whose fetish is to precariously position valuables on edges or corners of tables, then we are more similar than we are different.
I have enough problems as it is, so that’s why I love Boosteroid.
Full disclosure: I’m not affiliated with Boosteroid, but I could be. 😉
This is footage of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — a 2025 turn-based role-playing game by the French studio Sandfall Interactive — streamed with Boosteroid:
Boosteroid has servers in Madrid, while competitor GeForce NOW doesn’t — at least not at the time of this writing. It matters because the closer the server, the less latency. Too much latency and the game won’t feel responsive enough. Plus, Boosteroid has more cost-effective plans, in my opinion. GeForce NOW probably has a graphical advantage, although I’ve never noticed a difference for the games I play. Both services allow access to a Steam library, meaning you’re not locked into either.
Modern TVs can run apps for these services and others, and even connect to a controller via Bluetooth or USB. The TV with webOS that was included in my furnished apartment can handle this as if I were playing on a beast of a gaming PC in the same room.
Nevertheless, I must address the catch.
It’s my opinion that a fiber internet connection is a must for cloud gaming services — and a wired Ethernet connection — not Wi-Fi. That’s how I play. I have fiber, and use a wired connection. I’ve never had much luck with Wi-Fi, fiber or not. By all means, for those with posh routers conversant in the 6GHz band, give it a shot. Although, I’d venture to guess for most, the results would be predominantly disappointing.
Anyhow, it just so happens I explained in detail how Spain has some of the best fiber infrastructure in the entire world. Let me tell you, it’s top-tier for streaming games. Back when I lived in the States, I tried different cloud gaming services with cable. The result? Horrendous if not intolerable latency. In every test I conducted, the servers were closer than Boosteroid’s Madrid servers are to me today. So, cable just kind of sucks.
⚠️ It’s expensive to be American: I actually got charged extra by my cable provider for using over 1,000 gigabytes of data by way of a cloud gaming service — they have high usage demands. My current fiber provider in Spain doesn’t pull that bullshit.
There are other cloud gaming services out there, but Boosteroid and GeForce NOW are popular while at the same time enabling Steam library access. Everybody’s preferences are different, so I recommend evaluating these services and others based on their strengths and weaknesses. I think they’re ideal for “minimally” gaming while abroad, but your opinions may differ.
2. Handheld games
…I’d also be misrepresenting my situation if I didn’t mention I still play handhelds! They’re an excellent solution for gaming “minimally.” Perfect for pixel junkies abroad…
Okay, so yes, I did bring my Steam Deck across the Atlantic Ocean. What of it? What did you expect me to do? Not bring it? Haha, lol.
Full disclosure: I’m not affiliated with Valve, purveyor of Steam, the Steam Deck, and other hardware they just announced.
The Steam Deck is one of the most impressive handhelds ever, and this is coming from a guy whose childhood involved playing every major release of the Game Boy on the bus. I won’t pretend like the Deck is more user-friendly than the Nintendo Switch. It’s not, and I think the Switch is great, but here’s the thing: it’s as if the Deck were fine-tuned for my particular placement on the spectrum; a hackable, repairable, and couch-friendly device. Meanwhile, as you might’ve guessed, it works with Steam, the platform brimming with indie games both my wife and I love.
The Deck comes with SteamOS, a usability-centric operating system for gaming based on (Arch) Linux. Yet, it can play most Windows games on account of Proton, an abstraction derived from a software called WINE that remaps Windows-specific ways of doing things to Linux-friendly equivalents. CodeWeavers is the employee-owned company that spearheads this effort and is contracted by Valve to improve gaming interoperability. WINE and Proton work on Linux for software in general, not just within a gaming, Steam, or SteamOS context!
For the techies in the house: I’ve been converted to the Cult of ARM, the popular implementation of the reduced instruction set computer (RISC). ARM-based desktops are replacing x86 (complex — CISC) alternatives on the market. ARM can be more efficient in terms of cost, electrical consumption, heat production, and form-factor. While the ARM-based Apple M4 system-on-a-chip (SoC) with its integrated graphics cores has been a surprising bright spot for gaming, new affordable competitors such as the Minisforum MS-R1 — with dedicated PCI-E x16 slots — are emerging.
Recently, CodeWeavers began offering x86 emulation on ARM via CrossOver, the Windows-inoculating brew for Mac and Linux gamers. This is my roundabout way of suggesting ARM-based gaming is preparing for takeoff. Relatedly, how interesting it is that Valve’s recently announced Steam Frame VR headset will run games stand-alone, yet it uses a 4nm Snapdragon 8 Series Gen 3 (ARM) processor. Translation: Valve is betting on ARM. Ongoing collaboration between them and CodeWeavers seems to prove more and more fruitful for ARM-based and Linux gamers everywhere.
Update: relatedly, not a day after this post was published, an interview revealed that Valve has been funding open source x86-to-ARM emulator FEX for years.
With tinkering it’s possible to stream games to the Deck via a cloud service, because the Deck’s hardware isn’t always optimal for the latest and greatest titles. Through Steam, streaming games from one’s own PC has been possible for quite a while. Similarly to the Switch, the Deck can be docked snugly beside one’s TV, or wherever. The point here is not to advertise the Deck — which I am for some reason doing in an unpaid capacity. I simply have a parasocial consumer relationship with Valve.
Watch out for the Steam Frame: I never cared for virtual reality (VR) headsets, because they’ve been historically gimmicky, uncomfortable, and prone to spiders nesting inside of them. Spiders and I aren’t on great terms. That said, Valve’s new Steam Frame VR headset is making me turn my head (no pun intended). I suspect it may be a compelling minimalist alternative to handhelds, but I’ll hold my breath until release.
The Deck is amazing, but any handheld is suited for “minimalist” gaming.
Not long ago in Santiago de Compostela, I stopped by a used video game store. They were selling what I used to play all of the time: a purple-tinted, transparent Game Boy Color, and a copy of Pokémon Yellow to go along with it. I fondly recall standing in line — at 4am — with my mom at a Target in Everett, Washington. In the chaos of that 1999 Black Friday bonanza, I didn’t know I’d soon walk out with a game I’d use to torch hundreds of hours of my life.
With a gun held to my head, I could probably still recite the names of all 151 original Pokémon. Thanks, Mom. And thank you, Pikachu — he’s basically my dad, just like Mr. Mime is Ash’s dad.
And hey, the older stuff continues to work in all its lead-solder glory, and it’s affordable despite much of the supply residing in the accursed depths of your local dump. Reusing bygone handhelds is a thriving hobby. Be aware: there’s a scene for modifying old handhelds with quality-of-life improvements, if you’re a tinkerer.
Zen sashay away
An alternative to cloud gaming or handhelds is playing whatever your computer or phone can handle, like… solitaire. My computer can in fact play a lot of pretty cool games, but your mileage may vary depending on your hardware and platform. Or, you know, just stop playing entirely. That’s the most “minimalist” option of any. Unlike true Zen masters, however, that’s unthinkable for those of us who refuse to be alone with our thoughts for more than a few picoseconds.
We find our Zen in video games.
And… with (legal, well-regulated) psychedelic therapy!
But that’s a post for next Tuesday. Patience. This is a one-man operation. Despite the unparalleled production value, the only help I receive is curiously delayed feedback from my wife. Why get media training when she can instead tell me to “stop inserting imagery of genitalia in your writing” after I’ve already published it? I was put on this Earth to learn, dear reader. Just like you.
No matter what you’re learning in our shared human journey, subscribe for more random infotainment I tangentially shoehorn into this publication that is ostensibly about living abroad in Spain. 😏