A world without wii

December 22, 2008 12:26 PM

Office party in the morning. My wii just kicked the bucket. I have pcs, net and a projector, suggest group merriment? Difficulty: no karaoke.

I Can probably get my mitts on a webcam at a push, but am otherwise fairly limited. Am open to various suggestions, the funner the better!
Can attach two projectors to two computers if needs be.

Don't need help with the wii thanks.

posted by Iteki to computers & internet (12 comments total)

pin the tail on the donkey
posted by rhizome at 12:45 PM on December 22, 2008

Apples to Apples?
posted by Dr-Baa at 12:46 PM on December 22, 2008

Frets on Fire + USB guitar hero / rock band guitars.
posted by utsutsu at 12:47 PM on December 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

Verbal charades.
It's so fun! You can just play one round, but going all three is even better.

Round One: Proper Clues.
Split into two teams. Give each person 10 small slips of paper. On each slip, they secretly write the name of a famous person, a movie or book title. It's also funny to write the names of well-liked people in the office.
Fold all the slips in half and dump them into a hat.
Set a timer for 1 minute.
One person from Team A pulls a handful of slips and verbally gives proper clues to make their teammates guess the name on the slip. "Bald kid from comics!" "Charlie Brown!" "Shark Movie!" "Jaws" "She's the wife of the current French President!" "We don't know!" "Okay pass. Bartender on Cheers!" "Ted Danson!" "No!" "Oh, Sam Malone!" Etc.
At the end of the minute, count how many correct guesses & record the score. Keep the slips that were guessed right in a separate jar for that team; incorrect guesses go back in the hat.
Then Team B does the same thing.
Repeat until the hat is empty. Count points. Gloat.

Round Two: Single Word.
Throw all the correct guesses back in the hat so it's the same as it was at the start.
Teams alternate with guessing again, but this time the only clue you can give is a single word. "Bald!" "Ted Danson!" "No!" "Oh, Charlie Brown!" etc.

Round Three: Caveman.
All guesses go back in the hat and you play one more round, and this time the only clue you can give is a gesture or non-word sound. It devolves into hilarious madness at this point.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 12:50 PM on December 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

You Don't Know Jack is pretty awesome, but not sure about how much time you have / your budget.
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 12:52 PM on December 22, 2008

Do you have access to digital images of the partygoers? There are sites for using/distorting such things (e.g., VP head on Paris Hilton body).

P.S. When I read your post, I thought you said your wife had just kicked the bucket. And I thought, it's a wonder he's even going to the party.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 12:52 PM on December 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

Just to clarify, I am looking primarily för computer based games. Frets on fire would be great cept i cant get guitars. No time and no budget, 10pm here :( that is the absolute right firecrion though. I appreciate the other suggestions and will use them another time. I have some bests marked but please keep em coming!
posted by Iteki at 12:59 PM on December 22, 2008

How about classic board games on the PC? There are free versions of Risk, Connect 4, Trivial Pursuit, etc. You can download MAME and play classic video games like Pitfall or Tetris. You might want to visit newgrounds.com or some other flash-based game site and see what you like.
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:50 PM on December 22, 2008

Borrow someone else's wii? Worth a shot
posted by By The Grace of God at 1:58 PM on December 22, 2008

Find an emulator for The Oregon Trail and have teams of people try to make it to Oregon as the night goes on? It would be hilarious to watch your coworkers hunt for buffalo and die of dysentery. Depending on the age group of people at your party, it could be very nostalgic. I'm guessing people in their late twenties to early thirties would all have fond memories of this game.
posted by bristolcat at 2:03 PM on December 22, 2008

Bolo! 8-bitty goodness all around.
posted by fiercekitten at 5:31 PM on December 22, 2008

Thanks guys, ended up playing Tekken 3 on a PS1 and Shinobi on mame. Fun was had :)
posted by Iteki at 1:32 PM on December 24, 2008