Do you have an iPad? Because you can totally play Civ on your iPad.

“WHAT?! NO. CIV REVOLUTION DOESN’T COUNT,” you loudly yell.

JUST WAIT! I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about Civ V (and even Civ VI).

Photo Proof here:

How does this magic work?

Yes, you guys will think I’m crazy but I regularly play Civ on my iPad. (What?!). I’m also a masochist. But you can totally make it work.

There are a few options:

• Through Nvidia’s Geforce Experience app:
• Have a Windows PC with an Nvidia graphics card (What if you don’t have one? We’ll tackle that farther down.)
• Make sure GeForce Experience is installed. This basically allows streaming through the same protocol that Nvidia Shield uses.
• Install Moonlight on your iOS device (iPhone?!?!) or even an Android device. Open source app that can connect / parse Nvidia Shield streams.
• Play Civ! (Via dragging your finger around to simulate a mouse, sometimes tedious, but it works!)

Pros: You get to play Civ on your iPad!

Cons: Kind of a pain to setup.

Through Remotr:

• Have a Windows PC (hmm, there seems to be a pattern here).
• Install Remotr on your PC. It should auto-detect Civ V. It doesn’t auto-detect Civ VI for me though.
• Install Remotr on your iPad.
• Open Remotr and play Civ!

Pros: You get to play Civ on your iPad! And it’s much easier to setup on your Windows PC, plus you aren’t tied to an Nvidia only GFX card.

Cons: The iPad app is free (good!). But whenever you disconnect from your game (or maybe something crashes), it will show you one of those cheesy popup ads that won’t let you click away for 10 seconds or so. You can optionally pay for a monthly pro subscription through an in-app purchase. Also, Remotr tries to squeeze your (probably 16:9) resolution display into the iPad’s 4:3 display. So things will look janky. Just change the resolution of Civ to 1024 x 768 and things will look good on your touch screen device. (Obviously, change it back when you get back to your real machine though).

Through Screens (I also have a Mac) or a similar VNC client.

• Install VNC server of your choice on your Mac or Windows machine.
• Install a VNC client of your choice on your iPad or other mobile device.
• Open and play Civ!

Pros: You get to play Civ on your iPad!

Cons: While Civ isn’t what we think of as a graphically intense game, prepare for a bunch of jerkiness as you move the map around, delays while various modals pop up, screen tearing. But… you get to play Civ.

Well… not really. Just via a table.

A colleague brought a new board game to work that they just got from Kickstarter. Scythe. It features farming, mechs, and takes place in the 1920’s!

Those who know me are aware of my intense love for the Dodgers. Despite living in the San Francisco Bay Area for 10 years now, it’s something that I haven’t been able to shake.

This year marks the 25th anniversary since the Dodgers last won the World Series. Because of this, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to read Miracle Men, which takes a look at the scrappy Dodgers team that ultimately went on to win the World Series in 1988.

For the most part, the book is fairly dry read, mostly rehashing play-by-plays from various games during the course of the 1988 season. I’d wager this sort of thing is less exciting than reading a game recap from the night before. That said, it was fascinating to read about so many baseball players that are tied to some of my earliest memories of baseball: Steve Sax, Orel Hershiser, Mike Scioscia, Ramon Martinez, Tim Belcher, Mikey Hatcher, and more.

The areas where this book excelled and became completely interesting were in some of the deeper stories — Hershiser’s pursuit of the consecutive scoreless innings streak, early clubhouse shenanigans during spring training that offended Kirk Gibson, interviews with players on other teams 25 years later, and of course reflections on Kirk Gibson’s incredible home run in game 1 of the World Series.

Some of my biggest takeaways were how different the game was played only 25 years ago. Managers completely abused their pitchers (130 and 140 pitch complete games were the norm, pitching on 2 or 3 days of rest were fine). It surprised me to find out how often balks were called (over 900 times in 1988). Insane!

Bottom line, you’ll probably only enjoy this book if you’re a Dodgers fan. On top of that, you’ll most likely only want to read it for some of the more interesting stories that happened in 1988. It’s a quick read and provides some interesting context on how a scrappy team wound up beating on of the most intimidating teams in baseball in the World Series.

3 stars.

I rented a Sony RX1R II. Obviously, I had to test it with my patented Canine Camera Calibration System. It seems to have passed.

Benson meets Quinn after we bring her home for the first time.