WHAT: Our "Final Fantasy VI: 30 Years of the Greatest* RPG of All Time" panel, live at MGC 2024
WHERE: The Panels and Presentations Room at Midwest Gaming Classic 2024
WHEN: Saturday, April 6th at 3:00pm
WHO: Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, Diamond Feit, Nadia Oxford
Please check out 2024-03-29 22:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
I’ve been a fan of Evercade for a while now and this episode has been something of a long time coming. I was concerned to some extent that I like Evercade a bit too much, and that any interview would be essentially me saying “why are you so great?” over and over again, but I think this turned out more interesting than that.
If you’re not familiar with Evercade, it’s a system that primarily sells itself on compilation cartridges, a few of which are discussed here. What...
2024-03-25 12:06:18 +0000 UTC View Post
March 19, 1994: In space, no one can hear you screech
by Diamond Feit
Silence is underrated. I'm not talking about the complete absence of all sound, I'm talking about the bliss of not speaking aloud. Human beings love to laugh and sing and ta...
2024-03-24 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Did you know there's a new Final Fantasy game out? (No, not Final Fantasy VII Rebirth—but good guess!) This past summer, the latest mainline Final Fantasy released to near-universal critical acclaim, but seemingly not a whole lot of enthusiasm from fans. So is this stunning spectacle in an Ivailce-style world worth the 60 hour (and 70-dollar) investment? On this episode of Retronauts, join Bob Mackey, Will Hughes, an...
2024-03-22 07:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Jeremy: Patron Scott Rothman joins us (myself, Kevin Bunch, and Stuart Gipp) again for this episode, wherein we take a dive into the weirdly innovative Toe Jam & Earl series. It will never cease to amaze me that the first proper distillation of Rogue's principles into an action milieu came in the form of a wacky action game about weird-looking aliens with a predilection for rap music. An unlikely pairing! But, as we explain here, an extremely good one.
Art by Greg ...
2024-03-18 11:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
March 17, 1994: Requiem for the Unsung Castlevania
by Diamond Feit
Amongst the many legends and superstitions in human history, I find vampires forever fascinating. They're just like us regular people except they drink our blood to live forever. Everyt...
2024-03-17 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi, Diamond Feit here, indulging myself again with a podcast about survival horror—oh wait, no, I'm sorry, this week we're talking about Resident Evil 5 & Resident Evil 6. You know, two mainline installments in Capcom's famous franchise that ramped up the action at the expense of less-sexy elements like "atmosphere" and "tension."
Don't worry though, I didn't gather my friends 2024-03-11 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
March 9, 2004: I'm seeing double! Four Snakes!
by Diamond Feit
Given the increasingly stagnant state of mainstream pop culture, we should have seen the current regurgitative climate of big-budget video games coming. Every year as development costs rise...
2024-03-10 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Jeremy: I realize this episode is a little shorter than usual, but considering that (1) it's about a game that can be completed in roughly 45 minutes and (2) contains maybe five total moments of interactivity, you will believe that we can talk about Plumbers Don't Wear Ties for longer than it takes to play Plumbers Don't Wear Ties. Doubly impressive given that this episode features the man who had to help spearhead Limited Run's remaster of the game and came up with...
2024-03-08 02:08:54 +0000 UTC View Post
Back in December, we thrilled you with the first 20 years of Bowser's history. And, given that he's nearly at the "lordy, lordy" stage of his life, we still have a few more decades to discuss. On this episode of Retronauts, join Bob Mackey, Henry Gilbert, and Drew Mackie (of Gayest Episode Ever) as the crew discusses that large lizard's adventures in the 21st century.
2024-03-04 08:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
March 2, 2004: How do you get to the ninja fortress? Practice, practice, practice
by Diamond Feit
I wasn't there to witness it, but I'd wager that within minutes of Spacewar!'s release into the world, someone tried to play the landmark compute...
2024-03-03 12:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Game music hits different from, uh, "real life music," or whatever you want to call it. Many of us '90s kids who felt like pop music belonged to the popular kids at school (it's right there—"pop!") slid video game soundtracks into our Discmans to satiate our hunger for music. And what a time it was, for with the advent of the compact disc in music and video games alike came the addition of lyrics to game music.
It's true that some Super Famicom RPGs have entire pop songs enfolde...
2024-02-25 23:51:43 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings from Diamond Feit! I hope everyone reading this is enjoying their super-sized February (now with 29 days). I know Stuart Gipp and I certainly enjoyed ourselves recording this, our latest community podcast. You left a ton of comments and feedback to cover this month and it was a delight to read!
Truth be told both Stu and I are recovering from ailments...
2024-02-25 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
In 2023, the world was blessed with two fantastic remakes. Nintendo's Super Mario RPG remake left the original game almost entirely intact while giving the presentation a thoroughly modern coat of paint, while Capcom's Resident Evil 4 remake rebuilt its predecessor from the ground up to suit today's sensibilities. And somehow, both approaches were entirely successful and vaild! On this episode of Retronauts, join Bob Mackey, 2024-02-23 08:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Jeremy: In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, there exists a goddess known only as The Lady. She is, in fact, Lady Luck. But the Lady's favor is fickle: She only grants her blessings to those who never invoke her name. She finds it amusing to help those who muddle through life never daring to contemplate their luck—but never consistently or predictably. And when someone calls upon her for help by name, she turns her back on them, leaving them to their own wretched devices...
2024-02-19 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
February 16, 1999: she syphon' me 'til I filter
by Diamond Feit
After decades of Cold War paranoia cast the Soviet Union as an "evil empire" across the breadth of American pop culture, the 1990s brought about a period of narrative turmoil. With our tra...
2024-02-18 12:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Stuart:Hello there, my darlings. Would you like to listen to a really, really long mega-ranking of every single Contra game ever? You’d think myself, John Linneman, Thomas Nickel, and Audi Sorlie might tire in the process of such a task, but… we didn’t. The energy stayed high, the opinions and anecdotes stayed flowing, and… in my admittedly biased opinion… I think we got a pretty damn good episode out of it!
See, WayForward are beavering away on a br...
2024-02-12 12:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
February 7, 2014: Mission: Impeccable
by Diamond Feit
I'm not sure if the timing of my childhood or my Jewish upbringing caused me to grow up in a parody-rich environment, but I feel like I was inundated with satirical takes on pop culture from a young...
2024-02-11 12:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Jeremy: Another day, another massive file download. I hope you're not on a limited data plan for your Retronauts bonus feed, because this one's a doozy—as usual for Retronauts Radio episodes, I've posted this in stereo at maximum MP3 bitrate quality so that you can appreciate the tunes ripped and posted here in the best fidelity possible. Although this episode does include a brief except of the 1942 "soundtrack," so perhaps that effort is inherently wasted? Well, we'll see...
2024-02-09 12:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Jeremy: Good morning (or whatever), friends. Welcome to our therapy session.
This week I've gone and invited three of my closest friends (read: fellow podcasters) to help me work through some video game neuroses. We've all played video games that randomly just decide "Hey, I no longer want to be fun or enjoyable" and inflict on players pure, abject cruelty. Join us (read: Myself, Ray Barnholt, Jess O'Brien, and Stuart Gipp) for two hours as we express pure, unvarnished ra...
2024-02-05 12:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
February 3, 1994: Whither South Town?
by Diamond Feit
Hordes of developers tried their hand at making fighting games in the early 1990s but no one did it quite like SNK. Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto, two former Capcom employees who helped cr...
2024-02-04 12:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings, Diamond Feit here! This podcast was a labor of love for me, a chance to highlight a series that deserves more attention. I hope after listening you'll agree with me, or at least feel curious about seeking out these underappreciated video games.
Three games on three different handhelds; that's the breadth of Slime Morimori Dragon Quest. Thankfully I found two DQ fans (2024-01-29 11:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Diamond Feit here and it's my pleasure to kick off another year of community podcasts made just for you, our supporters. While not a jumbo-sized episode the likes of last month's, Stuart Gipp and I do run through a great many of your comments and all your picks for Game of the Year 2023. Please enjoy the musical choices this month, I tried to get creative giv...
2024-01-28 12:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Wowie zowie! After the untold tyranny of 15 years of New Super Mario Bros. games, Nintendo's flagship series returned with a bang in the form of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. This absolutely charming collection of 2D platforming ideas stunned the public last fall with its sheer abundance of variety, all executed to the standard of excellence we expect from a Mario game. But how did it all come together? And, most importantly, did we actually like it? On this episode, join Bob Mackey, Kevin Bunch,...
2024-01-26 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Kevin: You may recall that I recently hosted an episode about the Magnavox Odyssey2, the silver superstar sold and supported by Magnavox in the late 1970s and early '80s. While that far-ranging conversation touched on many aspects about the platform's history and what makes it interesting, it was centered on the American Odyssey2 experience. Given the console's success in other parts of the world—particularly in Europe under the Videopac name—I wanted to give space for that story...
2024-01-22 10:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
January 1989: Neither a bird nor a plane, it's a mediocre game
by Diamond Feit
I love superheroes, though I don't really think I had a choice in the matter. The sheer timing of my birth meant I grew up as these characters exploded in popularity, both o...
2024-01-21 12:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Note: Audio error has been corrected in this new upload! Apologies for that, and for the fact that Patreon's system refused to let us simply update the existing post.
Stuart:Look, we’re three parts deep into what has ended up being five. You cannot claim that we did not go deep and hard on Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Sorry for saying “deep and hard”, it implies that we experienced the game sexually, which I am sure is not true of my esteemed guests....
2024-01-15 14:39:31 +0000 UTC View Post
January 13, 2014: A good death is its own reward
by Diamond Feit
After millennia of research, countless hypotheses, and straight-up speculation, the human race remains unaware of what happens to us after we die. I can think of no more important questio...
2024-01-14 12:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Jeremy: Yes, I know, we've talked about Zelda II before... as part of a double-header... way back in episode 66? Whew, so it's been a while. And that means I don't need to feel bad about revisiting the topic, on its own, with a completely different crew of people (which means different experiences, opinions, and facts). But it's not as though Kevin and Nadia and I (along with Tomm Hulett, returning to the show again in near-record time from the recent Operation Galuga 2024-01-12 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Jeremy: Technically, that header should say 1984 & 1994. But we don't talk that much about ’84. It's more of a mop-up, really. A quick wrap-up that takes, uhh, about a third of the podcast's total running time. Barely anything, really.
Diamond Feit, Stuart Gipp, Kevin Bunch, and Jared Petty join this episode for a rather crowded room... or a room that would be crowded, if only we weren't all very separate from one another (in some cases by a matter of th...
2024-01-08 12:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
