November 4, 2010: Microsoft Invites Gamers to Stand Up and MOVE (to a larger home)
by Diamond Feit
Did the Nintendo Wii really debut just 14 years ago? Nintendo's fortunes have risen and fallen so many times already this century, the Wii phenomenon feels like it was som...
2020-11-08 14:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone, my apologies that this is a bit of a hit-and-run post for this latest patron-exclusive episode—it's been Quite A Week, on every possible level. However, the good news is that this is a pretty great conversation about a series that ’90s Kids will remember as being a pretty big deal for fans of both Sega and Sony platforms of the time: Game Arts (and Working Designs') Lunar. Enjoy!—Jeremy
2020-11-06 15:15:02 +0000 UTC View Post
We're going back to the Back to the Future trilogy for a podcast discussion about what could be the most interesting sequel of all time! When Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale put together the original Back to the Future in 1985, they had no idea they would have such a massive hit on their hands—or that their joke ending would set the second movie's plot in stone. But by working against adversity, the two crafted a highly satisfying sequel that doubled down on time travel antics, and even added ...
2020-11-02 08:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
October 31, 1995: Harlan Ellison Delivers Terror At the End of the World
by Diamond Feit
It is traditional this time of year to embrace horror in its many forms as Halloween is in the air, but I've struggled to find a taste for the macabre in 2020. I don't think I need ...
2020-10-31 12:54:46 +0000 UTC View Post
It's time once again for me (Bob) to put together a new mailbag episode, which I like to do every six months or so. As usual, I'll be reading and responding to your comments left on some of my recent episodes—but this time, I'll also be reading and responding to your responses to the following prompt:
How has quarantine and/or the pandemic affected your retro gaming habits? 2020-10-29 20:46:56 +0000 UTC View Post
Like Square Enix, we are determined to milk Final Fantasy VII for all it's worth! Nah, just joshin' ya—this episode comes to us as a patron request. Well, kind of a double request, actually. Bobby Najari asked us to tackle Crisis Core (the PSP-exclusive prequel to Final Fantasy VII)... and as it so happens, while we were planning this episode, Bill Nielsen asked to be on a Crisis Core episode. There's not quite enough substance to Crisis Core...
2020-10-26 13:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
October 24, 1995: Capcom Embraces Marvel to Infinity (and Beyond?)
by Diamond Feit
Let me know if this sounds familiar: There's this thing you like, but which most people just don't care about. It may be popular within its own sphere of influence, but to the majority of...
2020-10-25 13:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
About halfway through our first cowboy games episode back in August, we realized we'd only gotten through a little more than half of our notes as our time was coming to a close. So instead of rushing through the rest of the selections on our list, we decided to wrap up around the year 1991, and reconvene for a part two to discuss the history of cowboy games up to Y2K—while including a few selections omitted from the first episode. On this installment of Retronauts, join Bob Mackey, Jeremy P...
2020-10-23 07:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
One thing I really enjoy about Retronauts is the flexibility it provides from episode to episode. Not even taking into account the different approaches Bob and I take, the show can be wildly different from episode to episode in terms of both structure and content. Take this week, for example, which consists entirely of an interview between myself and George Gomez, an arcade veteran who played a huge creative role in bringing several of my favorite early ’80s coin-ops to life. It's an intere...
2020-10-19 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
October 1980: Before Making Them Infamous, SNK Invents the Video Game "Boss"
by Diamond Feit
Just one week ago I had the privilege of discussing one of SNK's earliest NEO•GEO releases, and ...
2020-10-18 13:04:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira is one of those weird cases of life imitating art. It was wild enough when the 2020 Olympics ended up being awarded to Tokyo, as in the manga (which debuted nearly 40 years ago), but when (just as in the comic) the 2020 Olympics ended up not actually happening—at least not yet, anyway—it was kind of hard not to be overwhelmed by the synchronicity of it all. Hopefully that's as much overlap as we're going to see, though. I for one could stand not to have ar...
2020-10-12 13:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
October 8, 1990: SNK Invents the First-Person Shooter (and Brawler, and Stabber)
by Diamond Feit
Are you as excited as I am, folks, to discuss a genuinely innovative and ground-breaking arcade game from SNK? Because this week The Super Spy turned 30 years old, ...
2020-10-11 14:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
We've talked about Nintendo Power before, but never with an expert who has dedicated himself to tracking down the stories behind the magazine. Well, folks, that's exactly what episode 331 is. Tons of fascinating anecdotes, some outsider knowledge from myself and Bob, and some ridiculously good cover artwork. What more can you ask for?
Description: Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, and Art of Nintendo Power (twitter.com/artofnp) curator Stephan Reese take a trip back through gaming...
2020-10-09 13:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
After more than a decade in game development, enigmatic creator Suda 51 had his American debut with Killer 7, but 2007 would bring about his first mainstream splash with No More Heroes. This series launched on the Wii when it was still white hot, and managed to distill the off-the-wall and often alienating ideas of Suda into a personality-driven action game. Nearly 13 years after we first met Travis Touchdown, just where has the series been, and where is it headed with its upcoming third game...
2020-10-05 07:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
September 28, 1990: Before There Were DMs, Mega Man Slid Into Our Hearts
by Diamond Feit
I don't think we as a society talk enough about Mega Man. Before Monster Hunter, before Resident Evil, and before Street Fighter II, Mega Man was a star o...
2020-10-04 14:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
A somewhat belated upload for last week's columns!
Alors! Thanks for bearin' with us through this small delay.
2020-10-01 11:52:03 +0000 UTC View Post
This week, instead of focusing on the usual topics of games, platforms, creators, franchises, or genres, I felt like putting together a bit of a memorial to something long-vanished: A bygone era of gaming culture. Being online in video game spaces today is very different than it was 20 or 25 years ago, when people like myself and guests Andrew Vestal and Brandon Teel decided, "Hey, we should make websites about the things we like."
In a lot of ways, the current online video gaming...
2020-09-28 13:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostNote: The audio portion of this entry is running behind and will be uploaded once it's available—thanks for bearing with us!
September 19, 1985: Capcom adds boxer shorts to the annals of Arthurian legend
by Diamond Feit
What was in the air 35 years ago ...
2020-09-27 19:18:35 +0000 UTC View Post
Fans of The Dark Knight had to suffer through roughly 20 years of bad Batman games (after a few notable 8 and 16-bit adaptations) before Arkham Asylum arrived on the scene in 2009 and proved that Bruce Wayne simulators could once again be worthwhile. Combining the finest elements of Zelda, Metroid, and Metal Gear, while innovating with a great combat system and bringing on one of the most notable writers of the franchise, Arkham Asylum surprised us all and laid the groundwork for a four-game ...
2020-09-25 07:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Another remote two-parter this week—but is there ever anything else these days, really?
For the first segment, I chat with the folks at Numskull, a collectibles firm in the U.K. that has been producing some impressive, high-quality quarter-scale playable arcade cabinets of some of my favorite classic coin-ops (including this very frivolous Polybius "repro...
2020-09-21 13:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
September 1985: Carmen Sandiego Pits Books Against Crooks
by Diamond Feit
Forgive me if this all sounds familiar, but it's still "bac...
2020-09-20 13:19:36 +0000 UTC View Post
It's time for another journey into the mysterious realm known as... SEGA. Note that you are bound by law to read that name loudly and melodically, like the Genesis startup screen, because we're talking about a classic Sega Genesis franchise this week. Or should that be a classic Mega Drive franchise? After all, two of the three contributors to this week's episode—Retronauts contributor Stuart Gipp and Digital Foundry wizard John Linneman—hail from the continent of Europe (or ther...
2020-09-14 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
September 13: Ranking the Super Mario anniversaries
by Diamond Feit
If you're reading this column on its original publish date, today is September 13, which means that Super Mario Bros is 35 years old. You're likely still reeling from the recent Nintendo Direct announcing an array of special anniversary g...
2020-09-13 12:05:05 +0000 UTC View Post
End of an era here, friends. This is the final recording we had in the bag from the "Before Times." Back when I felt safe jumping on a plane to fly to the other side of the country, when it wasn't at all dangerous to sit in a small, ventilation-free room with other people for hours at a time to record podcasts. I've been sitting on this recording for a long time, because there's a certain symbolism in letting it free into the world... but, well, the world needs to know about the Colecovision....
2020-09-11 13:37:37 +0000 UTC View Post
Whether or not you know her name, you've definitely heard Jennifer Hale's voice if you played a video game in the past 25 years. Named "the most prolific video game voice actor" by The Guinness Book of World Records, Jennifer has an IMDB page that stretches on into infinity, with hundreds of roles in both video games in animation stretching all the way back to 1995. On this episode, join us as we chat with Jennifer about her long career in video games, how her roles and voice acting technolog...
2020-09-07 07:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
September 1985: The Oregon Trail Teaches America's Youth About Dysentery
by Diamond Feit
We can't be sure of the exact date, but we know for certain that the most important video game in American history celebrates the 35th anniversary of its commercial release th...
2020-09-06 12:32:39 +0000 UTC View Post
I suppose it's only fitting that this episode would have become unstuck in time, huh? We planned and recorded this look back at the Bill & Ted films and games a couple of months ago with the intent of running it immediately before the launch of Bill & Ted Face The Music, only to have the film's release leap forward in time a couple of weeks and cause our podcast to come out a little belatedly. Wibbly-wobbly indeed.
Regardless, there are the usual notes...
2020-08-31 14:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
August 24, 1990: Children Are In Danger and Their Only Hope is... Michael?
by Diamond Feit
This is not going to be easy.
Writing about old video games is straightforward for me. I remember a lot of them, I can read about or watch the rest, and I can offer pe...
2020-08-30 13:14:41 +0000 UTC View Post
2020 brought us many calamities, but on the bright side, Netflix has a CGI adaptation of Dragon Quest V! (You takes what you gets.) Square-Enix's legendary RPG series rarely receives an animated anything, let alone a direct adaptation of a nearly 30-year-old game, so having this widely available feels truly magical—though there is a bit of a catch. On this episode, join Bob Mackey, Jeremy Parish, Nina Matsumoto, and Henry Gilbert as a crew traces the history of Dragon Quest media adaptation...
2020-08-28 07:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
This week's episode is a little more on the academic side than most, which should be a good thing. Variety, spice of life, all that. Also, the topic is fascinating.
I invited Matt Alt (a Tokyo-based translator/pop culture historian/fellow gin maven) to talk about his findings and experiences putting together his latest book, Pure Invention. I read through Pure Invention recently and found it to be, quite simply, the best-researched and most engrossing treatise I've see...
2020-08-24 13:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
