When Noah, better known online as The Scenic Gamer, quit his middle school teaching job and set out from Los Angeles on May 1, he had a plan, a Jeep packed with eight gaming consoles, a TV, two portable power stations, and a dream: play video games in all 50 states.
Now, two and a half months and thousands of miles later, Noah has brought iconic titles like Silent Hill to the rocky coast of Maine, The Family Guy Game in Rhode Island, Pokemon Sapphire to the Delaware Coast, and Cabela’s Big Game Hunter to the Wisconsin woods. He’s filmed in city streets, national parks, and even the parking lot of Arrowhead Stadium outside of Kansas City-until the local police asked him to leave.
“Getting kicked out happens,” he says with a laugh after recounting their forced exit from the Mall of America just the day prior. “You’ve got to push the boundaries... It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission.”
It’s all part of a project that’s as much about adventure as it is about gaming. Noah calls it “The 50 States Series,” but the idea behind The Scenic Gamer has to go deeper than a viral concept, right?
So, I traveled to meet up with Noah and his cousin Liam as they journeyed across North Dakota, becoming state number 42 out of 50.
The Scenic Gamer didn’t start as a cross-country odyssey. Less than a year ago, it was a small Instagram page where Noah would set up retro consoles in scenic Los Angeles parks. He liked the contrast—the chunky CRT screen perched on a beach bluff, putting classic consoles into the beauty of nature. A few friends laughed, followers trickled in, and Noah kept going, thinking how he could expand his idea.
By May 1, the project had evolved into a bold challenge: play video games in all 50 states. Fifty different games, fifty different settings. The road trip kicked off in Arizona. Then Utah. Then New Mexico. By June, Noah was deep into the Northeast, gaming on the Maine coast to Silent Hill after climbing a mile-and-a-half trail to the Kentucky-Virginia-Tennessee border with a GameCube and portable TV in tow.
Every stop requires legitimate planning and preparation: weather checks, scouting locations, power calculations,. “You can’t exactly carry a flat-screen up a mountain without thinking ahead,” he laughs.
In the middle of his East Coast trip in mid June Noah was joined by his brother (scenic skunk) and father when they eventually went through Connecticut. Where more iconic than Yale, notorious Ivy League institution one of America's oldest universities? The Yale courtyard was bustling the evening when Noah unpacked his PS2 and booted up Bully, the 2006 Rockstar title about boarding school life. "I think it would work perfect at Yale because it's, you know, the same kind of structure of school buildings."
Then came the scooter gang.
"We find a grass yard, put the whole gaming set up there, and we see the kids riding around in the scooters, the electric scooters like, once around [the courtyard]." Noah began, "We're like, okay, you know, it's not a big deal. And then they come back while we're set up and playing the game and almost ram the TV and the place. Like, he came within inches and my dad starts screaming at him." continued Noah-(classic dad move).
He continued on, "And right before they started riding at us, I'm like, 'uh oh', this doesn't look good. They're in the grass. So I press record because the phone was in the tripod to get clips [for social media] anyways. And that's where, you know, we just lucky enough to get that clip. And I had people saying, you know, it was fake. We paid the kids to do this. I'm like, no. guy was just flying through. We were very worried about my PlayStation 2 and my dad, yeah, he was genuinely concerned."
The 15-second clip exploded. Over 26 million views and counting. Suddenly, The Scenic Gamer wasn’t just a little niche page for travel-loving gamers, it had a full blown viral clip on their hands. . “It’s always the moments you don’t plan,” Noah says. “Eight months of hard work, and then one random clip blows up.”
Instagram loves the curated shots: the console glowing against sunset skies, controllers resting on driftwood. But the reality is messier.
Noah’s Jeep is a mobile command center packed with eight consoles, 150 games, two power stations, backup screens, and a pile of cords that could probably power a small newsroom. His lodging ranges from budget motels to camping under the stars, to the occasional fan-offered couch. “I try to keep it under $100 a night,” he says. “But with gas, food, and flights to Alaska and Hawaii, I’ve probably spent twenty grand.”
A dream come true and a once in a lifetime experience doesn't come cheap after all.
There have been breakdowns, both literal and figurative. A blown tire in Iowa that forced him to a multitude of small towns in search of a replacement. A flu that sidelined him in Kansas...
Kansas was supposed to be a quick stop, but it turned into one of the trip’s low points. Noah was sick, exhausted, and ready for rest in their run down Air BnB when his friend Adam (Scenic Buffalo), travelling along at the time, FaceTimed him from upstairs: his bedroom door is locked and won't open.
The door handle had jammed, trapping Adam in a sweltering, century-old room with no AC—while urgently needing the bathroom. Noah tried everything: shoulder slams, door kicks. Nothing worked. Finally, they contacted the host who sent someone to break it down.
“When they got him out, Adam just looked at me and said, ‘We’re not staying here,’” Noah laughs. So at midnight, sick and frustrated, they packed up, drove to a sketchy motel, and still had to edit film that night to stay on schedule.
“That was one of my lowest points,” Noah admits. “I just kept thinking, ‘How am I going to do this for two more months?’”
What keeps him going? The landscapes, the people, and the sense of doing something no one else has done. “I had eight to ten people show up in Maine to game with me,” he says. “Like Mississippi, I met some amazing people. I played an open mic there unexpectedly. And then they dragged me out to this underground bar, which had another open mic with the whole band behind me and I was playing music down there. Just jamming out. Those people make some of the greatest experiences, you know."
Gaming isn’t the only creative challenge Noah set for himself on this cross-country trip. Alongside his Scenic Gamer series, he’s writing and recording a rough draft of one original song in every state. The idea came from his lifelong love of music, and under the artist name Fence Badcliff, he’s been producing and performing for years.
Now, the journey doubles as a mobile songwriting lab. “The thing I love about doing this" he explained, "it doesn't have to be in the same place that I'm gaming. So I get to do different spots. You can jump around and that ... helps me explore more. So we went like by a waterfall in a creek yesterday in Minnesota, even though we gamed in the Mall of America."
By the end of the trip, Noah will have a 50-song concept album, which he plans to professionally record back in Los Angeles. The project is as ambitious as the gaming tour, blending scenic exploration with a deeply personal creative outlet. Truly becoming the capstone to his journey.
By the time I publish this, Noah and Liam will likely be leaving South Dakota and on to the mountain West. When Noah hits the Pacific again, he’ll have checked off 48 states. With his flight to Alaska already booked, the final stop will be Hawaii. When/how will that play out?
“Still figuring that out,” he says with a chuckle.
After that, he plans to rest at home and get back to work at his golf game. Then? “I think the possibilities for like the page are endless." Noah explained, "I'd love to do more collaborations with people, and maybe do like a podcast of some sort, like bring on special guests to come out and scenic game with me." He continued, "So whether that's other gamers or, you know, influencers, celebrities. Whatever it might be, any avenue of life, it would just It would just be really cool to bring people ... out and game. I think that's [the goal], build a community that's having fun."
The Scenic Gamer isn’t just about nostalgia or novelty, it’s about more about curiosity, exploration, and beauty. About refusing to let a passion stay indoors, and how far a simple idea can travel, both literally and digitally.
You can be Sure to Follow Noah along on his Journey on:
Facebook
YouTube
Instagram
His Music Channel
Tik-Tok
Twitch
