Life hacks as a concept (or label really) are one of those things I’m almost too old for, in the sense that I’ve lost track of social media platforms. But while the memeification of cheap DIY solutions escapes me, it’s still cool and useful stuff.
So I figured, you know, there are probably a few applicible life hack-style gimmicks with a gaming bent, and I could probably think of a few on my own as well. I tried to put this list together as cheaply as possible, although a couple of them do involve making purchases.
Either way if you’re trying to save space, save money, or make your gaming life a little easier, here are a few great gaming life hacks.
Manage Cords With Paper Rolls
I’d have to imagine paper rolls are some of the most universally common household items one could think of. They even serve several purposes, beyond holding paper and killing the environment. You can give them to animals, like rodents, for chewing and playing, you can use them to smoke weed in a pinch, and you can also use them to clean up your tech.
It’s hard to cleanly store cables without making a huge mess or using annoying things like zip ties, but it turns out paper rolls are perfect. Get yourself some kind of tote or other storage space, save your paper rolls, and gently stuff cables into them, keeping their form when you wrap them.
Manage Retro Cords With Multi-Use Cables
If you’re like me, you not only have a hard time parting with your old consoles, but you also sometimes get more of them. Retro consoles can be a pain in the butt to maintain, especially since many of them require their own annoying power supplies. But these days, there are new ways to cut back on some of that cable hoarding you’ve had to endure all these years. Companies like Retro-Bit have developed power supplies, AV cables, and other solutions that support multiple platforms. These cables won’t let each old console run at once, but it’s a lot easier to just move one cable from one box to another without needing to change cables entirely.
The Rubber Band Trick
This one’s a classic. Ever had something in a game you knew you needed to do, but dreaded putting the time in? Perhaps you had to grind battles in a JRPG or run up your game time in online shooters. There’s no need to sit there and actually be present for hours of repetitive tasks when you can simply snap a rubber band across your joystick and go do something else.Also, like in the picture above from a particularly resourceful Reddit user, rubber bands can also be used in a pinch to address analog stick drift.
The All-Powerful Wii U Gamepad Stand
Lots of modern devices come with their own kickstands, but just as many don’t. And yet, they want you to do things like use bluetooth controllers, watch movies, and more. You could get a case with a stand too, but options are just as limited and finicky. But luckily, there’s a secret solution that only the twelve people who bought a Wii U brand new know about.
The quasi-useless Wii U charging stand, from the brief period in which Nintendo was experimenting with charging docks (there was an even more useless one for the original 3DS), is secretly the best device stand of all time. Seriously, no matter what your device is, this little hunk of plastic and weird moving parts will hold anything. I use it for my Switch Lite, and other people have documented it working great with phones, tablets, random household objects, and who knows what else. That little piece of garbage is magic.
Literally Just Hack Your Stuff
Let’s talk for a minute about custom firmware. No, we aren’t going to talk about piracy, because I know a portion of the gaming community has issues with it. If you have an older platform (such as a PSP or 3DS), chances are the warranty is long dead. When getting a replacement (if needed) is nice and cheap or you’ve done what you’re going to do with it, why not mess around and see what it’s capable of?
Custom firmware does more than just let you steal games. You can customize your device in ways you never would have thought of until the toolls appear in front of you. It’s a great way to personalize your gear, discover new indie games (homebrew), or even use your device to compose music or something.
DIY Mobile Gaming Triggers
With super popular games like PUBG and Fortnite appearing on mobile platforms, along with more and more console-caliber games, control solutions are more needed than ever. It’s so blatantly an issue now that Apple even opened its hardware up to console bluetooth controllers, when it was demanding users use semi-proprietary Mfi controllers before. But not every phone game has controller support, so what do you do to make do with virtual buttons? You improvise, and in this case improvising means taping chewing gum wrappers to your phone. Fold it up, tape down one end over the shoot button, then twist the rest around alongside the phone’s bezel and boom! You have a makeshift trigger. Incredible.
Use Your Phone Chargers for Your Controllers
Consoles typically come with micro USB cables that allow you to connect your controllers to your consoles. For Xbox One pads, it’s an easy way to pair, but you don’t get to charge by default. DualShock 4s have built-in batteries, so leaving the cord in your console is the default way to charge. But those don’t last long, and what if you want to keep playing? You could buy fancy battery packs or other specific solutions, or you could just grab your phone charger. Your Xbox One pad will even still function as long as it’s plugged in, even if it isn’t charging. The only thing you have to look out for is frying the battery, so don’t use any “fast charge” power supplies.
Utilize GeForce Experience
Here’s one for PC players. If you have a recent Nvidia GeForce video card, it comes with some software called “GeForce Experience.” Now we’re all used to crappy, useless software coming with the actually useful tech that is safe to ignore forever. But PC gaming can be super finicky, and this particular software is actually handy.
If you’re over fiddling with games to get them working as best as they can on your setup, you can just boot this up and have it do the work for you. It handles driver updates and will even detect and optimize games for you on an individual basis. It works great, even better than when games try to automatically detect your ideal settings themselves.
Remap Your Controllers
PC players sometimes like to boast about features console players don’t have access to. For a long time, one of those boasts used to be configurable controls. With PC games, typically you can reassign all the button commands as much as you want, whenever you want. Some console games do the same, but much less universally. Many console developers have their controls the way they designed them, and tuck away adjustments due to a lack of time, resources, or interest.
But during this console generation, eventually the platform holders themselves added top-level controller remap settings. On both Xbox One and PS4, you can go into your system settings and tweak the master button mapping, regardless of what each game wants you to do. That’s great not only for general player comfort, but physical accessibility as well.
Banana Stand? Banana Stand.
Apparently, people like to hang their headsets up. I just set mine down on my desk when I’m not using them, but I’m probably a heretic for saying that out loud. Since many gaming headset companies also sell fancy (not fancy at all) headset stands for sometimes dozens of dollars, there’s clearly a demand. But why pay 30 bucks for a hunk of plastic that you hang one thing on, when you could do the same for a lot less? Buy a banana stand. I didn’t even know people bought stands for their bananas either, but hey, you do you.