Waiting for an LLM to respond is dead time. A new React library called **react-waiting-game** offers a fix: one-button mini-arcade games to play while you wait. It ships five games including a Flappy Bird-style jellyfish swimmer, a dinosaur runner, and a rhythm tapping game. All run on a single canvas with zero runtime dependencies.

Integration is simple. Drop in and you've got a game running. The library handles combos, power-ups, and achievements. It persists high scores to localStorage. It also auto-pauses when the browser tab loses focus, a practical touch. The 1-bit pixel art style tints to any color, so it won't clash with your app's design.

There's a historical footnote worth knowing. Namco held US Patent 5,718,632 for 20 years, covering minigames during loading screens. Remember playing Galaxian while Ridge Racer loaded? That was patented. The patent expired in 2015, which is why loading games can now exist without licensing fees or legal threats. It took nearly a decade for the concept to resurface in web development.

The Hacker News thread showed genuine enthusiasm for the idea. Multiple users recalled loading screen games from the PlayStation era. One commenter used a coding agent to record, edit, and upload a gameplay demo video to the repository. That's a small but real example of how AI agents are already contributing to open source projects in practical ways.