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[nfreakct]

This week's episode is out everyone. It focuses on the history of Rare with an assist from Jaz Rignall!

http://www.retronauts.com/?p=1010

I requested this episode back with the original Kickstarter and I'm really glad they chose this topic. The old Rare games were some of my favorite games growing up, I'm not quite old enough for the old Ultimate days, but their NES games like RC Pro-Am and Battletoads were always in my console growing up.

 

[daydream]

This week's episode is out everyone. It focuses on the history of Rare with an assist from Jaz Rignall!

http://www.retronauts.com/?p=1010

I requested this episode back with the original Kickstarter and I'm really glad they chose this topic. The old Rare games were some of my favorite games growing up, I'm not quite old enough for the old Ultimate days, but their NES games like RC Pro-Am and Battletoads were always in my console growing up.

Great pick for a topic, can't wait to listen!

 

[NekoFever]

Can anyone identify the song that starts around 27:48 in the Rare episode? It's triggering memories but I can't place it for the life of me.

 

[krae_man]

Listening to the Super Mario World episode now. Great stuff. One fact check though: Yoshi Island 1 has a 3up moon you need a cape to get. So there is one secret with the cape in the first world.

Also you say that you need all 96 exits for Mario mask Koopas etc. That's not true, you just need to beat the 8th Special Star World level.

 

[Curufinwe]

Borders went out of business. Barnes & Noble is still around.

 

[Imbarkus]

This week's episode is out everyone. It focuses on the history of Rare with an assist from Jaz Rignall!

http://www.retronauts.com/?p=1010

I requested this episode back with the original Kickstarter and I'm really glad they chose this topic. The old Rare games were some of my favorite games growing up, I'm not quite old enough for the old Ultimate days, but their NES games like RC Pro-Am and Battletoads were always in my console growing up.

Good episode about Rare, had no idea about Ultimate Play the Game. I was afraid you'd get through the whole thing without even a mention of Conker, but you covered all the bases.

Rare's N64 days are, for me, characterized by their excellence in local multiplayer. Not just the dedicated stuff like Goldeneye and Diddy Kong Racing, but Donkey Kong 64 and Conker's Bad Fur Day had a surprising variety of local split screen multiplayer modes. M rating be damned my kids played hours and hours of some variation with raptors in Conker, and something with a terrifying squirrel with a chainsaw or something?

There was no reason to expect these extensive modes in these games that were ostensibly for their single-player campaigns, and Call of Duty would ape this exact model later on adding in online multiplayer.

So in a way Rare's current Kinect gulag is about the only place where local multiplayer is even being actively developed. What's really a shame is to wonder what they could have done developing for WiiU...

 

[krae_man]

Systems I don't own?

You sir have insulted my nerdyness!

I don't own the slim version of the Neo Geo Pocket Color yet since I have no idea how to tell if one is slim or not in photos. So you only get 5.

 

[Mzo]

Easiest way to tell is to look at the back. Both battery covers slide out, no more coin-size screw slot.

Another easy way to tell is if "Color" is written in cursive above the screen, like so:

 

[krae_man]

Easiest way to tell is to look at the back. Both battery covers slide out, no more coin-size screw slot.

Another easy way to tell is if "Color" is written in cursive above the screen, like so:

Someone told me about the cursive before and showed me a photo of the two side by side and I still couldn't tell the difference.

*shrug*

 

[Mzo]

You can't tell the difference between lowercase cursive and capitalized block text?

That's really weird.

The big tells are that cursive slants and the letters are generally connected to one another.

 

[sörine]

Just listened to the Parodius mini/micro/whatever. Kinda sad because I wish it was a full episode of the Parodius series instead.

 

[krae_man]

You can't tell the difference between lowercase cursive and capitalized block text?

That's really weird.



The big tells are that cursive slants and the letters are generally connected to one another.

I meant I couldn't notice the difference in size.

 

[Mzo]

Oh, lol, yeah. It's like a tiny bit thinner.

 

[Suzzopher]

When I saw Parodius pop up in my feed I thought Ray was back

Still enjoyed the episode though Bob.

But is Ray gone for good then?

 

[krae_man]

When I saw Parodius pop up in my feed I thought Ray was back

Still enjoyed the episode though Bob.

But is Ray gone for good then?

Don't know about gone for good or not but he does have some stuff in the can that hasn't aired yet. Said so on nomowo.

 

[Jarnet87]

New episode is up. Topic is the Wonderswan and Neogeo Pocket, features Shane and Christian.

 

[firehawk12]

The weird lawsuit libel stuff aside, has any of the Retronauts people read or commented about that Untold History of Japanese Developers book that came out half a year ago?

 

[Brew124]

Excellent! Will give it a listen a little later on my way home.

 

[krae_man]

Gold subscribers get an episode about Virtual Boy today!

 

[pje122]

The weird lawsuit libel stuff aside, has any of the Retronauts people read or commented about that Untold History of Japanese Developers book that came out half a year ago?

Yeah, whatever happened with that?

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah, whatever happened with that?

I have the book and the DVD, but I was wondering what those guys thought about it.

It's both extremely extensive and also kind of disorganized, but some of the interviews are pretty good.

(The DVD title cards have spelling errors, and I found it amusing that he declares Akiba to be dead. But I guess even Kevin Gifford feels the same way).

 

[avengers23]

You tell me there's a Retronauts episode with Shane and Christian, and I'm there with both ears open.

EDIT: Yes, definitely do a .Hack episode.

 

[Fenster Mayhew]

I have the book and the DVD, but I was wondering what those guys thought about it.

It's both extremely extensive and also kind of disorganized, but some of the interviews are pretty good.

(The DVD title cards have spelling errors, and I found it amusing that he declares Akiba to be dead. But I guess even Kevin Gifford feels the same way).

I actually backed a digital copy of the book before that version was cancelled, and the general consensus among friends was "Yeah, you shouldn't have given that guy your money." (There's a long, ugly story about the production of the book online if you're interested in reading it.) From what I hear, the end result was in dire need of editing, so that kind of killed my interest.

 

[thechristoph]

You tell me there's a Retronauts episode with Shane and Christian, and I'm there with both ears open.

And I'm like "Oh geez, not these two again..." But of course I will listen. Not fair to write them off forever.

 

[The Dutch Slayer]

Really liked the SMW and Rare ltd episode!

 

[ToastyFrog]

I have the book and the DVD, but I was wondering what those guys thought about it.

It's both extremely extensive and also kind of disorganized, but some of the interviews are pretty good.

(The DVD title cards have spelling errors, and I found it amusing that he declares Akiba to be dead. But I guess even Kevin Gifford feels the same way).

Akiba IS dead, man. Or undead. A shuffling zombie consisting of maid costumes and moe panty shots festooned across the skyscrapers...

I haven't read the book yet. I envy John for pulling off a project similar to something I'd been angling to get funded myself for years, but all the unpleasantness surrounding the end product is disappointing. I'd prefer to wait and see how the dust settles first.

 

[Balb]

This episode was filled with CLASSIC Shane-isms. Loved it.

Would really like to dive into the Wonderswan library but the games I'm interested are really expensive

 

[Man God]

A .hack episode would be fantastic. The games get better (and a lot harder) as they go along but only if you keep importing the save (the fourth game is brutal without a character from the third.) and they really are a product of the anime boom days and one of the first cross media launches.

I made a decent reselling the blister pack NGPC console bundles. They were eventually clearanced out for six dollars each, which I could resell for 50+ a few years later. Great console and I even kept a few.

 

[Team Filler]

This episode was filled with CLASSIC Shane-isms. Loved it.

Would really like to dive into the Wonderswan library but the games I'm interested are really expensive

Secret-best episode then, huh?

 

[firehawk12]

Akiba IS dead, man. Or undead. A shuffling zombie consisting of maid costumes and moe panty shots festooned across the skyscrapers...

I haven't read the book yet. I envy John for pulling off a project similar to something I'd been angling to get funded myself for years, but all the unpleasantness surrounding the end product is disappointing. I'd prefer to wait and see how the dust settles first.

Yeah, in terms of games, he says on the DVD that everything he wanted was cheaper on ebay. It feels bad to have missed the early 2000s Akiba that people keep bringing up on retro podcasts.

And that's fair enough. It might be something worth talking about on the podcast at some point later down the line, although this libel thing seems to keep dragging on and on, so who knows when it'll all be settled.

 

[@MUWANdo]

Yeah, whatever happened with that?

The DVD came out, and the first volume of the book (it was split into three volumes fairly close to release) has also been released, physically and digitally.

The DVD is 3+ hours of randomly-spliced handicam footage and something that should have just been dumped on Youtube. The entire package is completely amateurish and I can't recommend anyone spend money on it.

The book isn't terrible but again, it's pretty much just a 500-page word document in physical form. The interviews are hit-and-miss: if the interviewee is interesting and talkative then you'll enjoy the interview, and if they're not you won't; the interviewer/s are deadwood and don't do much to coax anything insightful out of their subjects. The language barrier can't have helped, obviously, but a lot of them read like the guy's just looking to update a Wikipedia article or something and doesn't want to talk so much as glean more data.

(There have also been a few complaints about promised content being shifted to future volumes that KS backers will need to pay for, but I couldn't tell you which ones or how many there were.)

I actually backed a digital copy of the book before that version was cancelled, and the general consensus among friends was "Yeah, you shouldn't have given that guy your money." (There's a long, ugly story about the production of the book online if you're interested in reading it.) From what I hear, the end result was in dire need of editing, so that kind of killed my interest.

He did end up putting out a digital version eventually, if you ever decide to take a look. I don't understand why he cancelled it to begin with, honestly.

Akiba IS dead, man. Or undead. A shuffling zombie consisting of maid costumes and moe panty shots festooned across the skyscrapers...

I haven't read the book yet. I envy John for pulling off a project similar to something I'd been angling to get funded myself for years, but all the unpleasantness surrounding the end product is disappointing. I'd prefer to wait and see how the dust settles first.

The libel case ended a few days ago. The tl;dr is that it was thrown out on a legal technicality and neither side was cleared/vindicated, and while the people who sued him are now open to move their suit to the UK, it's sounding like they'll probably just give up. I'm sure they'll find a way to continue attacking each other but if you're counting on someone to legally decide who's in the wrong, you shouldn't hold your breath.

There are dozens of games writers in your position who'd do a way better job than he did and it bugs me to think that he may have poisoned the well for the rest of you.

 

[firehawk12]

The libel case ended a few days ago. The tl;dr is that it was thrown out on a legal technicality and neither side was cleared/vindicated, and while the people who sued him are now open to move their suit to the UK, it's sounding like they'll probably just give up. I'm sure they'll find a way to continue attacking each other but if you're counting on someone to legally decide who's in the wrong, you shouldn't hold your breath.

There are dozens of games writers in your position who'd do a way better job than he did and it bugs me to think that he may have poisoned the well for the rest of you.

I dunno, if Ray Barnholt could get to Japan to talk about the Summer games with the developer, then I'm sure there will be journalists who can still go if they want to. It's just a matter of whether or not someone wants to put out a "competing" product at this point.

I actually backed a digital copy of the book before that version was cancelled, and the general consensus among friends was "Yeah, you shouldn't have given that guy your money." (There's a long, ugly story about the production of the book online if you're interested in reading it.) From what I hear, the end result was in dire need of editing, so that kind of killed my interest.

It's a thing where the book isn't much of a book, but it has interesting information. Beyond an editor, it needed someone who could handle layouts and presentation as well.

And it was weird that he went from being unable to do an ebook version to putting one out much later. But I have no idea what the story behind that decision was though.

 

[Suzzopher]

Loved the Neo Geo Pocket and Wanderswan episode. I love both of those systems, but NGP is probably my favourite non Nintendo portable.

I first came across Bandai in games with the Game Boy being distributed by them in Europe at launch, all my launch games were distributed by them too.

 

[xir]

This was the episode I've been waiting for for the last 5-6 years. Wish Brandon Sheffield had been on though.

Also wish they had talked about ganbare neo poke-kun (who is the little dude that is my avatar) which is a Warioware like game that doubles as a satirical survey look at the history of games.

I spent way too much money in college to get a UK Faselei! Loved the UK clamshell boxes. Dive Alert is awful. I think Reversi was also pretty rare for some unknown reason, and always wondered about Cool Cool Jam's link cable stuff with the Dreamcast import.

Card fighter is so good. I love when you are in the Resident Evil mansion and battle Mikami

Never felt anything at all for the Wonderswan, but am curious about these super expensive games.

 

[Mzo]

Fun episode on the alternative handhelds. Brought back lots of NGPC memories playing MOTM and CFC; that system was great! Far fewer WS memories, just Klonoa. I want that shitty Rockman and Forte game even more now, lol.

Shocking and unexpected that Mackey owned neither and had nothing to say.

 

[Empty]

lttp but the ngpc and wonderswan episode was wonderful and proper vintage stuff. i was feeling really stressed but listening to shane and christian prattle on calmed me right down. tbh i'd listen to them talk about detergent.

 

[Rlan]

Libsyn (1:18:49 | MP3 Download | SoundCloud)

Also despite what they say, Bonk DID come out in Europe, though not as much as he did elsewhere. He was known as B.C Kid instead of P.C Genjin.

 

[xir]

Bonk is an interesting memory for me. We went to FAO Schwartz in Manhattan when I was a kid and I got to play it for maybe 5 minutes. I thought it was incredible. It was the only time I got to play a T16 as a child. I was probably 9.

I then went to the bathroom and two guys, adults, were talking about AIDS and needle exchange. I used the urinal, washed my hands, and quickly left.

 

[Mzo]

I was stuck at the beach all weekend so I dug into the old Retronauts archives. Holy shit! I can see why people love those so much. I jumped around a lot but the Castlevania and Turbografx episodes stuck out as really fun.

Shit, I learned about a PCE Masaya game I had never even heard of from them! Great stuff.

Jeremy Parish said that he would never use the term Metroidvania in a professional setting. Let's bring that back.

 

[Morfeo]

if you are talking about 1up era Retronauts, Archive.org has your back
https://archive.org/details/Retronauts1-100
https://archive.org/details/RetronautsLivePrimeOther

So, tomorrow Im doing some manual work without internet, so it would be nice to have a few of these, but I somehow cant figure out how to download them. Am I stupid, or is that really tricky?

 

[Suzzopher]

Weirdly Konami released both Metal Gear and Snake's Revenge under the Konami label in Europe.

But across NES, SNES and GameBoy there were only 25 games total released by Palcom.

 

[sörine]

Palcom released Parodius and Twinbee games, Ultra didn't.

 

[AdamT]

Just finished the Bonk and Ultra episodes. I've made it a habit to spend an hour or two on other forums, not rom pages, Ebay, and Wikis to expand my interest. So happy to have this podcast in my life.

 

[brianmcdoogle]

Jeremy's tweet earlier today mentioned they did a lot of episodes, plus "remasters" and "old favorites". I wonder if that means they're just going to revisit old topics and/or have "old favorites" on to talk about stuff.

And, honestly, I just want Shane on to talk/defend Final Fantasy VIII and I can die happy.

 

[Morfeo]

Jeremy's tweet earlier today mentioned they did a lot of episodes, plus "remasters" and "old favorites". I wonder if that means they're just going to revisit old topics and/or have "old favorites" on to talk about stuff.

And, honestly, I just want Shane on to talk/defend Final Fantasy VIII and I can die happy.

Isnt it FFVII he always defends?

Anyways, they tweeted that Grumpygamer would be on next retronauts, should be fun for you considering your avatar!

 

[Mzo]

but but FVIII is broken trash...

 

[Etrian Oddity]

And, honestly, I just want Shane on to talk/defend Final Fantasy VIII and I can die happy.

It's actually Final Fantasy 7 and Kazushige Nojima -- "the best scenario writer in video gaming" -- that he defends.

Anyways bring on the new season

 

[brianmcdoogle]

but but FVIII is broken trash...

I could have sworn he once said FFIX was the worst of the PS1 FF games, so it sounded like he still enjoyed the game to some degree.

Anyway, more Shane on any topic would be good.

 

[Mzo]

I love Shane's passion; I'd listen to him talk about any game he cares about.

 

[brianmcdoogle]

The artwork this week is a fitting tribute to Mad Men.