August 1990: Pit-Fighter Beats Mortal Kombat to the Punch
by Diamond Feit
In the long history of video games, innovation doesn't always guarantee a legacy. Being first can be nice; it ...
2020-08-23 13:05:17 +0000 UTC View Post
Yes, we've talked about the original Castlevania before, but the last time was as part of a general survey back in the Kickstarter era, which was—brace for it—seven years ago. It's almost retro itself at this point.
I was motivated to create this episode once I learned that I'll be involved (to some small degree) with the Castlevania collection release at my day job, Limited Run Games... though we recorded this show before that had been announced or even 1...
2020-08-17 14:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
August 13, 2000: Capcom & SNK! Fighting Together! Mass Hysteria!
by Diamond Feit
Media conglomeration has done irreparable damage to our society as a whole, but one of the lesser-discussed impacts is the erasure of what used to be a very special event: The crossover...
2020-08-16 14:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
We keep hearing rumors that Nintendo's going to remaster its 3D Mario games for Switch—an enticing prospect, although the tendency of these rumors to group them all into a single collection makes them a little suspect. These are big, meaty games that would require a fair amount of tinkering, which means a piecemeal approach seems more likely. Case in point: The Super Mario Galaxy duology, which put Mario back on the right track after the ambitious but messy Super Mario Sunshine...
2020-08-14 12:09:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Believe it or not, there are topics we've never covered in the past 14 years of Retronauts, so it's always a treat to shine the podcasting spotlight on a subject that's gone untouched. And this week, we're talking all about cowboy games: the genre that traces its roots back to the very beginning of the medium, and only recently came back into vogue thanks to the wildly popular Red Dead Redemption series. On this episode, join Bob Mackey, Jeremy Parish, 2020-08-10 07:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
August 4, 2010: Konami Shrugs the Final 2D Castlevania Game Into Existence
by Diamond Feit
Tell me, Castlevania fans, what is it that you love best about this series, which dates back to 1986? Is it the sense of advent...
2020-08-09 12:07:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's an episode near and dear to my heart. I could explain why, but then this episode (wherein a rave about Chrono Cross for an hour and a half, and Nadia Oxford and Jared Petty listen with bemusement) would be redundant. So, instead, please buckle in and enjoy the show. I'm sure there will be some "not a fan" responses on this one, as it's quite a controversial game—and that's fine! Differences of opinion make the world go 'round. Well, actually, I think that's more down to cent...
2020-08-03 13:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
July 27, 1990: Nintendo Invents The Only Good DRM
by Diamond Feit
Does Mario make games better? Nintendo's original mascot hero was envisioned as an everyman, a character who could be anyone and do anything. Today we consider him a "plumber" entirely because of a couple...
2020-08-02 13:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
In just the past week, the world of retro games has been rocked and shocked by a data breach that's revealed some tantalizing Nintendo information to the general public. But what are the ethics of talking about illegally stolen data? Do we have the right to pore over historically important information obtained through nefarious means? And, most importantly, are you a cop? On this episode of Retronauts, join Bob Mackey, Henry Gil...
2020-07-31 16:31:42 +0000 UTC View Post
To tie in with the recent launch of SNK's comprehensive Samurai Shodown Collection, this week sees myself and Diamond Feit (Neo•Geo fan supreme) connect with friend of the show Brandon Sheffield to discuss the series' history. Brandon, who worked extensively on the Collection, has spent plenty of in-depth time with the franchise after working as an embedded historian at SNK's offices and spending face time with both the Samurai Shodown creative team and their arch...
2020-07-27 13:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
This week's patron-exclusive column contains an audio element—let us know what you think in the comments! Is this something you'd like to see (or, uhh, hear) more of?—Jeremy
July 25/26, 1995/2000: The King of Fighters Dabbles in Fire and Ice
by Diamond Feit
The pandemic has had quite an impact on Retronauts—there's only one podcast recording remaining from The Before Times, when we could all sit in the same studio!—but it's not all bad. This week's episode is a case-in-point example. I interviewed game historian Leonard Herman (author of the groundbreaking book Phoenix) a couple of years ago at Long Island Retro Expo, but that recording has languished in the vaults since then. It was just a little too short to work as a standalone e...
2020-07-20 12:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostJuly 14, 2000: X-Men heralds the coming of the modern comic book film industry
by Diamond Feit
Let's open this week's column with a disclaimer: It's fine if you don't like comic book movies. It's also fine if you liked them but grew tired of them as they grew in dominan...
2020-07-19 15:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Well, this is it (...maybe). The final journey of the Retronauts East crew (...probably).
This follow-up to the first "Weird Controllers" conversation (from 30 episodes ago!) is a blast from the past that sees the East ensemble banding together, unknowingly meeting for the last time before the world went topsy-turvy to become a planet where we can no longer record shows together in the same room. It's a sad state of affairs, but I'm happy to report that we did at least wrap up our...
2020-07-17 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
We're just a few days out from the release of Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise, so it's about time we take a look back at the first game that just happened to turn ten years old earlier this year. Back when it launched in 2010, Deadly Premonition stood as a budget oddity, at first only seen as a wacky, broken game that cribbed a little too much from Twin Peaks. But over time, this open-world mystery became something of a mini-phenomenon, and generated a small cult of fans willing ...
2020-07-13 07:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostJuly 6, 2000: Enix welcomes us to the new millennium with a bang
by Diamond Feit
When we laud the video games of the 1990s, we don't talk enough about the creative freedom that came about due to the birth of the CD-ROM format. Once publishers were liberated from Nintend...
2020-07-12 15:30:21 +0000 UTC View Post
I have had a note jotted down in the columns of our Retronauts planning docs to put together some episodes focusing on Mario spinoffs focused on minor characters for several years, but they always get pushed aside in favor of bigger topics. With the surprise announcement of a new Paper Mario game due out in a couple of weeks, though, now seemed the perfect time to make one of those intended topics happen—one focused, quite fittingly, on Toad, one of the franchise O.G.s. After all, ...
2020-07-06 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostJune 29, 2000: Sega Releases, Does Not Condone Jet Set Radio
by Diamond Feit
It's not uncommon while revisiting old video games to encounter material or subject matter that has become dated. Everything is a product of its time, of course, but quite a few games see...
2020-07-05 17:26:11 +0000 UTC View Post
It's been nearly nine years since we touched upon Silent Hill, so it's high time we revisited Konami's beloved series by focusing on its finest moment. Way back in the fall of 2001, Silent Hill 2 was truly ahead of its time in both storytelling and production values, giving the world an unforgettable sequel that would inspire many games to come. And on this episode of Retronauts, we're bringing back our 2011 guest VoidBurger 2020-07-03 07:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Once again, we're squeezing lemonade from the pandemic lemon with another episode in which the remote segment format opens up an opportunity to tackle a couple of topics that might be much harder to arrange with the traditional in-person recording process. First, I finally get my former USgamer collaborator Mike Williams on the show (after years of good intentions and near-misses!) to talk about one of his all-time favorite games: The original Assassin's Creed. And the back ...
2020-06-29 12:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostJune 1980: Sky Rockets in Flight, Arcade's Delight.
by Diamond Feit
One of the funnier contradictions in world history is the rise of computer technology during the Cold War. For decades American kids (and Soviet kids as well, perhaps?) were born and raised being told t...
2020-06-28 15:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
The topics covered in this week's two segments may not seem too closely related, but in point of fact there is a common thread linking them: Specifically, long-time friend of the show and regular guest Shivam Bhatt has made both topics into a life-long passion. In our first hour, he schools me in the ways of Sid Meier's Civilization; in the second, he teams up with Patron Bill Nielsen to reveal the mysteries of Magic: The Gathering (which is not technically a video game, but...
2020-06-22 11:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostHey folks,
As of today, we're very close to hitting our next Patreon goal of $13000 a month! We set this seemingly pie-in-the-sky goal back when we announced the Patreon revamp in November of 2019, with the idea that we likely wouldn't hit that number until some point in the distant future. ($13000 was basically double what we were making at the time, after all.) Well, thanks to your generosity, we're nearly there! So we're thrilled to know we're doing something right.
Un...
2020-06-22 00:12:46 +0000 UTC View PostJune 27, 1995 Street Fighter Counts Backwards Into Anime
by Diamond Feit
How do you follow up on a video game that redefined video games? It's a fair query, one devoid of hyperbole when the game in question is Street Fighter II. Capcom's 1991 ...
2020-06-21 14:32:48 +0000 UTC View Post
You know, I wasn't really sure how things would work out for us in the Pandemic Times—I still don't have a clear sense of when I'll be able to record with Bob in person again—but much to my surprise the need to podcast remotely at all times has actually been somewhat liberating. I've been able to tackle a lot of subjects and speak with a lot of different people who might not otherwise be accessible for the show, which... I don't know, it seems like backward logic a bit, but it's true.
... 2020-06-19 13:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
We've got a mighty haul of listener comments and questions from our last three Monkey Island episodes, so this week we've brought on series expert Nina Matsumoto (Thimbleweed Park cover artist and designer at Fangamer) once again to help us make some informed respon...
2020-06-15 07:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostJune 9, 2005: Master! We're in a Tight Spot! Our Game is 15 Years Old!
by Diamond Feit
Did you see the "future of gaming" presentation regarding the forthcoming PlayStation 5 this past week? I was awake at 5 a.m. on Friday for no reason at all, so I sat through the enti...
2020-06-14 11:42:35 +0000 UTC View Post
Our Years In Review Revue series for 2020 was derailed somewhat (well, OK, a lot) by the pandemic, but I'm happy to have put a bow on it before we get halfway through the year. Chris Sims and Ben Elgin and I convene virtually for the first time ever, so this is both a series wrap-up and a bit of a learning process for future installments. It's also the last time the Years in Review Revue will take this form; we're getting to a point in game history where the latter years have too damn man...
2020-06-08 13:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostJune 1 1990: Sega's 16-Bit Cyber Police Outrank Their Arcade Brethren
by Diamond Feit
Excuse me, dear reader, do you have a moment to talk about Robocop? The ultra-violent, ultra-satirical 1987 film about a police officer who is killed on the job only to be reborn as a ...
2020-06-08 00:05:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Great Scott! It's time to go back in time 35 years to revisit a classic movie that went back in time 30 years and forever changed the way we think about time travel throughout all forms of media. On our latest Patreon-exclusive episode, we shine the Retronauts spotlight on Back to the Future, a simple sci-fi comedy that unwittingly became a blockbuster trilogy and—unlike some franchises—has mostly maintained its dignity over the passing decades. Henry Gilbert joins us as we discuss this 1...
2020-06-05 07:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
