To celebrate the fifth anniversary of our Patreon, we announced some big changes originally planned to roll out on January 1, 2020. Since revamping a whole Patreon campaign takes quite a bit of work, we're going to delay the rollout by a few days—but all the changes should be in place by January 3, 2020. This is the first day of the month that will have a Friday episode, meaning it'll be the very first episode ex...
2019-12-31 20:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Since the dawn of the medium, humans across the globe dreamed of wearing video game representation on their bodies—a practice that's only become commonplace in recent years. We've come a long way since the days of too-large or too-small pre-order t-shirts as the rare video game wearable, to the point where just about any character or logo can be found emblazoned on a well-fitted shirt, hat, or the odd pair of parachute pants. On this episode of Retronauts, special guest 2019-12-30 08:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Prepare yourself for a bit of mental whiplash with this episode. The bulk of the show consists of an interesting interview with Lewis Castle, one of the cofounders of Westwood Studios and a driving force behind the Command & Conquer series. The intro, on the other hand, is rather less informative as the Retronauts East crew was in a particularly punchy mood that day. So prepare yourself for a combination of off-topic nonsense and insider insight. That's, uhhh... the Retr...
2019-12-23 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
It's time once again to head to the Retronauts cabin in Parts Unknown for yet another look at a video-game-adjacent Christmas thing! We've worked our way through quite a few video game cartoon Christmas specials over the past few years, so this time around we're going to switch gears and explore another medium entirely. The late '90s/early '00s Pokemon Boom brought us many cheap cash-ins, so of course it spawned one of the cheapest cash-ins of all time: a cheesy Christmas album! Is it truly t...
2019-12-20 16:02:02 +0000 UTC View Post
This week, we called in some experts! But then, we usually try to do that, so this episode is really just business as usual. Handily, several experts on this particular topic—the holy grails of video game collecting—happen to be friends of the show. So it really is business as usual.
Description: Hide your wallets: Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, Chris Kohler, and Steve Lin discuss the pricing perils, pitfalls, and occasional perfidy surrounding the rarest/costliest/mo...
2019-12-16 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Don't worry—we're not going to put together full episodes on every single Star Wars movie ever (and related games). But, with The Rise of Skywalker arriving next week, we did want to take a look back at the (1) best and (2) second most-influential Star War of all time: The Empire Strikes Back. I think we make a decent case for the quality of the movie and a solid rundown of the games, even if the other podcast participants were doing the...
2019-12-09 15:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
You may notice that this is one of those episodes that includes a few hints of having been recorded quite a while ago, given that the conversation references "upcoming" DLC that, in fact, shipped in late spring. Alas, even with Retronauts amounting to six or seven episodes each month, I still have trouble finding room for all the great stuff lined up to go. I believe there's still an episode or two on the docket that may have been recorded in 2018...
Think of thi...
2019-12-06 14:46:56 +0000 UTC View Post
Two decades ago, Sega summoned into the world the mightiest of its consoles: The Dreamcast. And then, almost as quickly, it took the poor thing into the woods out back and ran it through proverbial the wood chipper. Dreamcast died too young, but its sudden demise wasn’t the end. We pick up the story 20 years later, exploring the ways in which Dreamcast represented Sega’s spirit at its finest and how its legacy persists even today. Panelists: Jeremy Parish, Morgan Shaver, Mike Drucker.
... 2019-12-02 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Five years ago, we made our very first post on Patreon. A lot has happened since then—mostly, hundreds of episodes and plenty of live appearances—and we're very happy to still be going strong in our seventh year as an independent podcast. That said, the Retronauts Patreon has remained mostly unchanged ov...
2019-11-27 18:18:37 +0000 UTC View Post
I've been going pretty deep and obscure with my episodes recently, so this week we're getting back to the basics with a detailed look at one of gaming's fundamental classics: Donkey Kong. And its sequels, I guess. (They're not as interesting.)
Given the classic appeal of this episode's topic, it only seemed fitting to pull together a classic Retronauts lineup. Besides myself and Bob, we also snagged Ray Barnholt and Chris Kohler. The result is, in my profoundly humble opi...
2019-11-25 13:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
It’s the ultimate metroidvania showdown as we settle once and for all which was truly the greatest, the most ambitious, the most influential work of the genre: Nintendo’s Super Metroid or Konami’s Castlevania: Symphony of the Night? Strong opinions will be expressed! Harsh words may be exchanged! Blood might even be spilled (only to be absorbed by a dhampir ensorcelled by Dark Metamorphosis)! Panelists: Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, 2019-11-22 08:00:59 +0000 UTC View Post
This week's episode is a little bit of an interview segment, a little bit of a public service announcement, and a whole lot technical—but that's the nature of this particular topic, and these particular interview subjects. I recently had the honor of attending a small gathering of active tech and content creators called RetroCreate (hosted by RetroRGB and My Life in Gaming). While I was there, I met many of the people whose work has made it possible for me to produce things like my Video Wo...
2019-11-18 13:41:45 +0000 UTC View Post
Our informal LucasArts miniseries rolls on with another episode exploring the developer's adventure game output! This time, we focus on 1991's Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, the second entry in the Monkey Island series, and one that marked the departure of creator Ron Gilbert from LucasArts. Though it only came one year after the original game, LeChuck's Revenge expands on this formative adventure in some big, bold ways, and still remains an incredibly impressive showpiece—in terms of ...
2019-11-11 23:19:58 +0000 UTC View Post
I stopped by the offices of Limited Run Games a couple of years ago to discuss the art of keeping physical media (that most retro of games distribution formats) alive. For my return trip, we had something even more germane to the Retronauts mission to discuss: The reissue of old games, including Star Wars, Monkey Island, and System Shock. What does it take to turn classic games into viable contemporary releases? And just how many hoops need to be jumped through in o...
2019-11-08 15:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Right, so, here we go. 2009. Under the lens of retrospection. Alarming.
This episode obviously follows on from the Years in Review Revue(s) from earlier this year, in which we chronicled years in gaming by the decade, beginning with 1969. We ended up devoting two full episodes to the topic and still didn't make it to 2009, and as it turns out, there really was enough to say about 2009 that we could fill an entire episode all its own.
(Think of the debate over the ex...
2019-11-04 13:30:52 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's another one that's been in the can a very, very long time—I edited this episode for publication back in March! But this one has been on hold for a good reason: I wanted to hang onto it until Death Stranding arrived, to make it all timely and stuff. I have no idea what to expect from that game, but I do know that whatever it ends up being, it will turn out that way because Hideo Kojima basically earned a lifetime free pass to create whatever the heck he wants when he...
2019-10-28 14:00:44 +0000 UTC View Post
Over two years ago, we sat down to gush about The Legend of Zelda's underappreciated Game Boy installment, Link's Awakening. And once again, time has made fools of us all, as the Switch remake of this classic game stands as one of Nintendo's biggest fall titles—so it's safe to say Link's Awakening is FULLY appreciated at this point. But does Grezzo's very literal remake improve on the original experience? On this episode, join Bob Mackey, 2019-10-25 18:11:19 +0000 UTC View Post
I, uh, just realized that this Castlevania-themed episode will go out on the public feed a few days before Halloween. That's so perfect I wish I could say I planned it, but once again, the guiding hand of Retro Fate has led our spirits to a place better than we could have imagined for ourselves. Or something. Anyway.
Like the recent live panels from a couple of weeks ago, Episode 255 was recorded back at Long Island Retro Gaming Expo. Since I had the webmaster of the Castlevania Dungeon...
2019-10-21 14:22:21 +0000 UTC View Post
I realize posting this now that we basically have two Monday episodes in a row doing the "talk about a modern successor to a legacy franchise" thing when we try to space topics like this further apart. Whoops! But this one is long overdue and keeps getting pushed back in favor of other topics. And now that we've hit the one-year anniversary of Mega Man 11, uh... let's just pretend it's timely again. Yeah.
You may be surprised by the results of this conversation! We hold some ve...
2019-10-14 13:53:27 +0000 UTC View Post
This week's bonus episode is... very lengthy. Honestly, I probably could have posted this as two separate episodes, but the thing is that we have so many podcasts in the can that we need to make room for more material to go up. So double-length it is!
These two segments were recorded live in August at Long Island Retro Gaming Expo. It's a small show, but it's a good one. This year, I presented twice: Once with Hardcore Gaming 101's Kurt and Rob to discuss our affection for unlo...
2019-10-11 13:40:33 +0000 UTC View Post
We're coming back to the Portland Retro Gaming Expo this year for another live appearance!
When: Saturday, October 19 at 9:00pm
Where: Auditorium A at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo
What: Our latest live panel, "When Celebrities and Video Games Collide!"
For more info, check out the official PRGE schedule, or 2019-10-08 23:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post
For a little over a decade, Castlevania keeper Koji Igarashi cut his own path with the famous side-scrolling series by backing away from its traditional hardcore action and platforming, and leaning more towards RPG elements and exploration. The result was what we now know as the "Metroidvania," a genre that thrived for the ten years Igarashi found himself away from the style of game he and his team popularized. But does our current glut of Metroidvanias make his newest creation, Bloodstained:...
2019-10-08 20:56:28 +0000 UTC View PostHey all,
Just a quick note/apology that today's episode about Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night will be hitting the Patreon tomorrow in the early afternoon (PT). It's a good one, and it'll also include a special announcement you'll all be excited to hear! Thanks once again for your patience.
- Bob
2019-10-07 16:40:37 +0000 UTC View Post
Ah yes, it's another one of those "not actually about video games, except actually kind of" episodes in which we critically dissect a piece of non-games media, then touch on its related games and game influences. In this case, the movie itself is kind of a wreck that holds up pretty poorly in the modern age of "not treating other cultures as violent savages," but there's no denying its profound impact on gaming. We wade immediately into the cultural critique of the film (Indiana Jones and...
2019-09-30 14:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
As Lucasfilm Games began to refine their philosophy of fairness, designer Brian Moriarty doubled down on this concept with his idea of a video game expressly designed to be completed. This would eventually take the form of Loom, an adventure game far different than anything that would come before or after it. With no inventory, no verbs, and music as your only means of interacting with the world, Loom stands some 30 years later as an interesting evolutionary dead end for the genre. On this ep...
2019-09-27 15:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Finally! We bring our multi-part patron-requested roguelikes series to a conclusion. Including, yes, a segment on Konami's Azure Dreams. This episode covers latter-day console roguelike games, which eventually mutated into roguelites, as epitomized by Spelunky.
2019-09-23 13:31:00 +0000 UTC View Post
I had the occasion to meet and interview Contra overlord Nobuya Nakazato at Tokyo Game Show a few days ago, which was a treat. Sadly, though, it came a little too late for him to provide any useful insights for this particular episode, which was recorded a couple of months ago. Oh well! It is, nevertheless, a pretty good episode, featuring an old-school lineup of participants to discuss a franchise that's been long overdue for examination.
Description: Jeremy Parish, Bob Ma...
2019-09-16 21:56:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey all, I apologize for the late post. I'm currently overseas for Tokyo Game Show and had intended to upload the podcast this morning (my time, which would have been late Friday U.S. time)... but I stupidly left my computer's AC adapter at the hotel I checked out of yesterday and ran out of battery juice before I could upload the file. Zut alors! But all is well: My computer has power, and you have a podcast. Please enjoy.
This episode is, I hope, the first of many to come in a series....
2019-09-14 13:37:20 +0000 UTC View Post
In the past decade, developer From Software went from making poorly reviewed oddities to being one of the most important developers in our modern era. And it all started with Demon's Souls, a humble, slightly janky game that challenged the new standard of frictionless gameplay in the HD era, and delivered an experience we didn't know we were so hungry for. On this episode of Retronauts, join Bob Mackey, Jeremy's Parish, USgamer's 2019-09-09 23:32:23 +0000 UTC View Post
This week's episode may be shorter than most, but it's packed with life-giving nutrients. It was a real pleasure for me to create this one—I have a lot of fond memories of Lemmings, so having the opportunity to chat with one of its designers was a rare treat. This is another Game Developers Conference 2019 interview, and that means it's a conversation with a game creator prefaced by a bit of a "what is this?" explainer by the Retronauts East crew.
2019-09-02 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post