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[LayLa]

Just listened to the Activision show and have to come to the defence of their Space Shuttle game.
As a kid obsessed with space and video games this sim game was utterly mind blowing.
It used nearly every button and switch on the console to simulate the controls on the shuttle.
The manual was absolutely essential, and rather than a hindrance using it mirrored the way that astronauts trained to carry out tasks by using written instruction sets.
I don't know how many trips I took into space and back, it really caught my imagination as a kid and looking back on it now I'm amazed by how ambitious the whole project was for the time.

 

[krae_man]

Jumping in out of the blue here, but we'd certainly love to participate if you do choose to pop Gurumin into a future episode.

I'm still mad I didn't win Poco's boombox!

FYI I'm not Bob or Jeremy.

 

[krae_man]

Good job on the music episode again Jeremy.

Oh and that "What is the sound of one party forming" track sure sounds like the title screen for Siren New Translation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDP6PowkWLQ

 

[Jarnet87]

The Radio episodes have been awesome so far, lots of cool music to check out. Really interested in that Zodiac FFT collection.

 

[krae_man]

$22 more dollars until Micro's return.

Soon Bob and Jeremy will never be able to leave the recording studio!

 

[krae_man]

Loved the Apple II history. Never played one so I can't really comment. I do remember playing a game very similar to Choplifter on my grandpa's 286 though called Striker.

It was basically a mash of Scramble and Choplifter since you controlled a helicopter, dropped bombs onto gas tanks to refuel yourself *somehow*, and had a landing pad at the end of levels where you had to pick up or drop off people.



Also, the Atari 8 bit episode is coming soon I can feel it

 

[ironjoe989]

This was a great episode that really brought me back to my time in the computer lab at school, desperately trying to play games and ignore my teachers. I remember vividly naming my characters inappropriate things in Oregon Trail and then trying to kill them as fast as possible, just so I could see bad words on the tombstone. Those were the daaaaaaaaays.

My only minor complaint wasn't so much the audio, which I know will be fixed, it was the odd cross talk that happened when Jeremy would speak. I think it was when your two guests,while very knowledgeable and great picks for the episode, were looking up facts on wikipedia to date things better. It made it uncomfortable to listen to at those points.

Otherwise this episode was a lot of fun to listen to and I look forward to more untapped topics like this one. Not that I wouldn't like a modern mega man episode.

 

[FN-2187]

I really enjoyed the Activision episode. I didn't realize how much personal experience Bob had with the Atari 2600. Can't recall an episode where he talked much about that before. Like Bob, I was also born in '82 and even though Atari was largely before my time, I played a TON of 2600 and later Atari stuff because my family had one of these beautiful babies:

That was our family's primary computer until the 90s.

It was awesome because you could plug 2600 carts in the back and we had a big box of them. Of course, we also had a disk drive and hundreds of pirated games on floppies. I continued to play Atari stuff into the mid-90s as I have always found playing retro games fun and interesting.

And a recent personal anecdote from this past Christmas on the power of the Activision brand for kids in the 2600 days: My brother who is in his 40s and has barely touched a video game in 30 years noticed that his son's copy of Skylanders had the Activision logo on it, and he was stunned "Wait!! Activision is still around?!" He then lovingly looked to his daughter sitting next to him and started telling an old man story about how "Honey, when I was kid, Activision made the best games! Whenever you saw that logo, everyone knew you were getting the absolute best!"

That's all there is to the story, but I just found it fascinating that my brother who probably hasn't picked up a controller since he was 10 would still have such a strong reaction to the Activision brand.

Edit: The internet is telling me that the 130XE did not support 2600 cartridges, so I was misremembering that. It only ran 800 carts, and looking at pictures of 800 carts, those were the type we had a bunch of. The floppies of pirated games would have been where we had all the 2600 games.

 

[RadarScope1]

I'm catching up on recent episodes and just listened to the first radio episode. Great stuff. Definitely looking forward to more of this. Nice mix of retro tunes with a current news/relevancy peg. Love it.

 

[Suzzopher]

That first East episode was fantastic! I know nothing of Apple II, growing up in the UK, from what they were saying reminds me of Acorn BBC Micro, a home computer that was huge here in schools and was in production from 1981 until 1994!

 

[ToastyFrog]

Weirdly, my middle school computer lab in Texas had BBC Micros for a year or two. I've always wondered how that came to pass.

 

[krae_man]

We just had one MacIntosh computer per classroom and you got to play it like once or twice per year in K-6. I remember playing Shufflepuck and some game where you took photographs of different parts of the world.

In 7 and 8 there was a computer lab but my class went in it like once ever. I remember playing a hot dog cart game.

Then in High school, we finally had proper computers and an abundance of them which back then were 486's and up to 90mhz Pentium's. My computer access in school sucked.

 

[BearChair]

When I was in Middle School in the late '90s, there was still an Apple IIe in every classroom and maybe 24 in a computer lab. We actually used the one in my homeroom class to play games in 6th grade.

By the time I was in 8th grade, the school finally started to transition and bought a bunch of eMacs - a variant of the iMac for the education market.

The first episode of Retronauts East was amazing. Keep it up!

Jeremy, it's good to be generous, but maybe don't hand out quite so much gin next time, though.

Edit: I just looked it up, and the eMac was introduced in 2002 when I was in high school. Must have been an iMac G3 in middle school.

 

[ToastyFrog]

The first episode of Retronauts East was amazing. Keep it up!

Thanks! I'm really happy so many people enjoyed it.

Jeremy, it's good to be generous, but maybe don't hand out quite so much gin next time, though.

I thought it might help loosen up the newcomers, but maybe they ended up a little too loose...?

 

[krae_man]

Micro's are back!

 

[Suzzopher]

Weirdly, my middle school computer lab in Texas had BBC Micros for a year or two. I've always wondered how that came to pass.

My wife who went to one of them fancy schools had Apple IIs she just told me.

Much like where you grew up, I grow up in Cambridge where Acorn and Spectrum were from and that was reflected in the local schools and homes. My dad had a BBC Micro for "work" and I had a Speccy for games.

I only ever saw my dad playing Samantha Fox Strip Poker....Unless that was his job.

 

[Scirm_Layton]

I like Retronauts Radio, I hope it will be more and more like a FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN with Kev Gifford.

 

[.JayZii]

The games press of that era (and earlier) definitely had much more of a "macho" vibe to it. I remember many of the Wii conversations on podcasts devolved into jokes about how the WiiMote looks like a penis and OH NO did you actually touch it? Gay! So it's not surprising to see so few people from that time actually deign to talk about the Wii's finer points.

It's definitely a different experience when you go back and listen to a 2006 era gaming podcast now. A lot of people sound a lot more insecure about what kind of games they like and there's certainly a lot more "gay" and especially "retard" getting thrown around than I remembered. It's interesting to remember that was just how many guys spoke back then. Turns out 10 years is a long time, and at the same time, not long at all.

 

[ToastyFrog]

I feel like the reaction to that era — in which the old guard of media was suddenly thrust into a two-way dialogue with readers (and listeners) online, where before it had largely been a one-way transmission — resulted in the schism we've seen in recent years in games culture. Some people heard their audience say, "Hey, those words hurt me," realized, "Oh, we should do better," and tried to become more considerate. Others bunkered down, offended at what they viewed as being told how they should think and talk, and surrounded themselves with others who shared their refusal to change.

Anyway, I could never listen to my ZD-era episodes. I'd be too angry at the thoughtless shit I said from time to time.

 

[.JayZii]

I feel like the reaction to that era — in which the old guard of media was suddenly thrust into a two-way dialogue with readers (and listeners) online, where before it had largely been a one-way transmission — resulted in the schism we've seen in recent years in games culture. Some people heard their audience say, "Hey, those words hurt me," realized, "Oh, we should do better," and tried to become more considerate. Others bunkered down, offended at what they viewed as being told how they should think and talk, and surrounded themselves with others who shared their refusal to change.

Anyway, I could never listen to my ZD-era episodes. I'd be too angry at the thoughtless shit I said from time to time.

I never really found Retronauts to be nearly as bad of an offender of any of the things I mentioned – which is just one of the reasons why I think it still holds up today – but I completely understand not wanting to go back and listen to your own podcasts from a decade ago. That's the old recorded voice "Is that what I sound like?!" feeling taken to a whole other level.

 

[bigkrev]

Finally got to listen to the Wii Episode!
The one thing I kind of disagreed with was the talk about how Wii Sports was the Mario to a whole generation of people, because of Minecraft, which seems to be all kids even care about these days.

Anyway, I could never listen to my ZD-era episodes. I'd be too angry at the thoughtless shit I said from time to time.

I was listening to one of the This Year Collection's of 1UP Yours earlier this year on a long drive. At some point, someone who will remain nameless goes "...It was super gay. No, wait, I'm trying not to use that word anymore. It was retarded"

This was 10 years ago.

 

[.JayZii]

I was listening to one of the This Year Collection's of 1UP Yours earlier this year on a long drive. At some point, someone who will remain nameless goes "...It was super gay. No, wait, I'm trying not to use that word anymore. It was retarded"

This was 10 years ago.

I'm guessing Shane, but I could be wrong. I always found it odd when he would use gay as a pejorative since he and Christian Nutt were former roommates, coworkers and apparently good friends. That was just male culture vernacular up until the last decade or so, though. Thankfully we all grew up a bit.

 

[krae_man]

Ah yes, the days when the Xbox 360 Core was the tard pack. Everybody said dumb shit back then.

Speaking of immature stuff, I've actually played Softporn Adventure. I didn't have a computer growing up(well besides my 800XL), and no internet access at home until 2007 when I got my PS3 and discovered stealing wifi so I would go to an internet cafe or the library to use the internet. Anyway in high school my grandparents got us an old 486 with a printer just so we could use a word processor for school. Of course the first thing I did was try to figure out what games I could get to run on it. I remember trying Duke Nukem 3D and getting a whopping 10 frames/minute. Before I hit the motherload discovering nesticle I found and downloaded Leisure Suit Larry. Played all the way through that and enjoyed it. After that I went back to the net cafe to try find and download the other Leisure Suit Larry games and I failed but found Softporn Adventure.

Since I had already beat Leisure Suit Larry, I already mostly knew what to do but I got stuck at the end. There was a difference at the end with the Apple. In Softporn the apple was rotten so you couldn't give it to eve. I figured out you had to look at the apple to find the seeds, but I never figured out what to do with the seeds. Now that I think about it, you probably had to plant them to grow a fresh apple, but I didn't think of that back then.

 

[Neifirst]

Anyway, I could never listen to my ZD-era episodes. I'd be too angry at the thoughtless shit I said from time to time.

For me, the 1up crew's knowledge and first-hand experience with retro game series and systems more than compensates for the occasional wince-inducing word choice.

 

[BearChair]

While I still have the entire archive of 1up-era retronauts on my computer, I really enjoy the way Jeremy's voice has evolved over the last decade.

Back then, he largely talked about Japanese console games, but the modern retronauts has really expanded his horizons with stuff like the recent Apple II episode, having Jaz Rignol talk about British gaming, and Jeremy's foray into RGB-modded consoles.

The raw-ness of the old episodes are still fun sometimes (and I can get past the language that's offensive in the modern world), but I really dig the broader scope that Retronauts has cultivated.

 

[ToastyFrog]

I really dig the broader scope that Retronauts has cultivated.

That's been a goal of mine for a long time — to move beyond my own experiences. The problem has really been a matter of logistics. Now that I've made Retronauts my primary focus, I can spend more time on research for unfamiliar topics and, hopefully, find a wider array of guests to bring knowledge of a new array of topics.

Both Bob and I adopted a sort of rhythm to our respective episodes last year, actually: For every two comfortable/familiar subjects, we try and focus one episode on something more esoteric. Glad to see our decision hasn't gone unnoticed.

 

[Curufinwe]

It's definitely a different experience when you go back and listen to a 2006 era gaming podcast now. A lot of people sound a lot more insecure about what kind of games they like and there's certainly a lot more "gay" and especially "retard" getting thrown around than I remembered. It's interesting to remember that was just how many guys spoke back then. Turns out 10 years is a long time, and at the same time, not long at all.

It was only a few years ago that Mark MacDonald was still casually tossing out the word rape on 8-4play podcasts, e.g. that new raid in Destiny raped us so hard. Maybe he moved to Japan right before videogame podcast language toned itself down.

I think someone had a word to him, because he doesn't do it anymore.

 

[bigkrev]

That's been a goal of mine for a long time — to move beyond my own experiences. The problem has really been a matter of logistics. Now that I've made Retronauts my primary focus, I can spend more time on research for unfamiliar topics and, hopefully, find a wider array of guests to bring knowledge of a new array of topics.

Both Bob and I adopted a sort of rhythm to our respective episodes last year, actually: For every two comfortable/familiar subjects, we try and focus one episode on something more esoteric. Glad to see our decision hasn't gone unnoticed.

Yeah, I'm happy to hear new voices. I think for a topic like Guitar Hero (which is somehow only 11 years old even though it feels a lot older than that!), you would want someone who was younger to speak to it. And don't even get me started on how impossible it will be to do a Retronauts episode on Minecraft years from now!

 

[Jugendstil]

That's been a goal of mine for a long time — to move beyond my own experiences. The problem has really been a matter of logistics. Now that I've made Retronauts my primary focus, I can spend more time on research for unfamiliar topics and, hopefully, find a wider array of guests to bring knowledge of a new array of topics.

Both Bob and I adopted a sort of rhythm to our respective episodes last year, actually: For every two comfortable/familiar subjects, we try and focus one episode on something more esoteric. Glad to see our decision hasn't gone unnoticed.

I love the broader scope of subjects and focus on history and preservation in gaming and computing. It's really informative and fascinating. I think the Apple II episode was especially interesting because so many of us only experienced the computer in an educational setting, but it was the first experience using a computer for many of us. I know it was for me. It gives me new perspective about the computer class I took in 7th grade where we learned to program on an Apple IIgs... even though it was 1995.

 

[ToastyFrog]

When Minecraft comes due (it's eligible in like... 3 years? Jesus), it'll be a cinch. I'll just have some of my young cousins and nephews on the show. They're all addicted.

 

[brianmcdoogle]

When Minecraft comes due (it's eligible in like... 3 years? Jesus), it'll be a cinch. I'll just have some of my young cousins and nephews on the show. They're all addicted.

Make it a call-in show so people can put their children on to talk about it like Sonic.

 

[Fenster Mayhew]

It was only a few years ago that Mark MacDonald was still casually tossing out the word rape on 8-4play podcasts, e.g. that new raid in Destiny raped us so hard. Maybe he moved to Japan right before videogame podcast language toned itself down.

I think someone had a word to him, because he doesn't do it anymore.

I think he might have referenced not using this word anymore at some point on the podcast. It definitely makes me appreciate him more that he's not a dude who dies on stupid hills for the sake of "free speech" or whatever.

 

[bigkrev]

So, now that we got the Patreon to the level for Micros, when should we expect them to start again?

 

[ToastyFrog]

So, now that we got the Patreon to the level for Micros, when should we expect them to start again?

I'm hoping to have one out THIS WEEK. Who knows!

 

[Imbarkus]

Mike Mika posted a bunch of cool old Epyx stuff on Twitter earlier today. When the Atari episode did a fly-by in talking about the Lynx, I really got a hunger to hear some guests or something dive into Epyx, as IIRC no one on the team seemed to have a lot on them in their noggins.

A lot of interesting stuff there, back to Impossible Mission on C-64, Summer Games which launched became a whole thing as a multi-platform hit in the form of California Games, and then of course the Handy hardware design of theirs which Atari drove into the ground--which at launch hosted the best version of California Games, to date.

I guess we're reaching far enough back that these game designers aren't overwhelmed with recognition, because a couple have been nice enough to accept a friend request from a random old fan like me. One of them is apparently the head of a huge gaming-focused division at Google now.

 

[krae_man]

When Minecraft comes due (it's eligible in like... 3 years? Jesus), it'll be a cinch. I'll just have some of my young cousins and nephews on the show. They're all addicted.

And Sharky. Don't forget Sharky.

 

[krae_man]

I never played Yoshi's Island back in the day. I don't know why, I just never rented it. Recently I decided to play Super Mario Advance 3 since it was just sitting there on my 3DS.

I really enjoyed it and it seemed to play fine, but maybe I don't know the difference.

 

[charlequin]

Both Bob and I adopted a sort of rhythm to our respective episodes last year, actually: For every two comfortable/familiar subjects, we try and focus one episode on something more esoteric. Glad to see our decision hasn't gone unnoticed.

Yeah, the subject matter as a whole feels noticeably better from this effort, just because there's more stuff I don't know anything about that I can learn a bunch from these eps, as well as totally fresh stuff like the Radio episodes. (Not that I don't also enjoy the deep dives on the classics too.)

 

[krae_man]

GameHistory.org is launching on Monday the 27th.

 

[bigkrev]

QUALITY awkward moment at around the 45 minute of the Yoshi episode this week.

 

[Fenster Mayhew]

QUALITY awkward moment at around the 45 minute of the Yoshi episode this week.

I went back to this point in the show and didn't pick up on anything awkward?

 

[bigkrev]

I went back to this point in the show and didn't pick up on anything awkward?

When talking about the Yoshi's Island team still working at Nintendo
"...You never leave Nintendo if you do a good job, I think. The only way you leave Nintendo is in a bodybag, really" Ray starts to giggle, Henry is talking, and you just hear Jeremy give a really loud "ummmmm" in the background, and then you say "Oh" in the background a second later.

It made me laugh!

 

[krae_man]

Video Game History Foundation is up and running:

http://gamehistory.org/

and they have a Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/gamehistoryorg/

 

[Dylan]

I tend to catch up on the podcast once every month or two. Is there any plans to add a button to the main page that allows me to see only posts associated with episodes? Currently I have scroll through a bunch of text in order to find the ones associated with episodes, or I can go to the Libsyn page but then I miss out on the episode description!

Keep 'em coming 'nauts.

 

[Dylan]

It's definitely a different experience when you go back and listen to a 2006 era gaming podcast now. A lot of people sound a lot more insecure about what kind of games they like and there's certainly a lot more "gay" and especially "retard" getting thrown around than I remembered. It's interesting to remember that was just how many guys spoke back then. Turns out 10 years is a long time, and at the same time, not long at all.

Count me in as someone who has gone back and been pretty amazed at the language used in those (mostly 1upYours) Ziff era podcasts. But at the same time, I fucking miss that era. It was the best. It wouldn't fly now and I wouldn't want anyone to try, because the world is different and people know better. But at the same time, there was a certain innocence to the sheer ignorance. It really did sound like a bunch of drunken friends trying to get each others goat.

I do remember at some point they had Flynn from gaygamer on as a guest co-host. It was sort of a way of saying "yeah we said some really stupid shit, but we stand with the gay community and we value their voice." I thought it was handled well. Oh, and there was also homoerotic jabbing on that episode too which Flynn himself was apart of and seemed to also serve as a reminder that yes, not everything has to be super serious all the time!

 

[krae_man]

I tend to catch up on the podcast once every month or two. Is there any plans to add a button to the main page that allows me to see only posts associated with episodes? Currently I have scroll through a bunch of text in order to find the ones associated with episodes, or I can go to the Libsyn page but then I miss out on the episode description!

Keep 'em coming 'nauts.

There's a backer rss feed.

 

[Dylan]

There's a backer rss feed.

I don't use rss!

 

[Fenster Mayhew]

I don't use rss!

Not trying to be rude, but you're probably in the minority when it comes to listening to podcasts like this. It honestly wouldn't be a lot of work to grab a podcast app and subscribe to Retronauts and save yourself a whole lot of hassle. You can also just go to our SoundCloud page, seeing as all the episodes exist there in one convenient location.

 

[Dylan]

Not trying to be rude, but you're probably in the minority when it comes to listening to podcasts like this. It honestly wouldn't be a lot of work to grab a podcast app and subscribe to Retronauts and save yourself a whole lot of hassle. You can also just go to our SoundCloud page, seeing as all the episodes exist there in one convenient location.

Yup that's what I do. I don't mind, I was just curious if I should bother checking the homepage at all in case that functionality was on its way. I do miss out on the text preamble for each episode but I suppose that isn't a huge loss.

As for RSS, yes I'm probably in the minority but I bet there are still at least some old fashioned dudes like myself! We are set in our ways and we never want anything to download automatically. I prefer to seek out individual episodes when I want to listen to them, download them manually into a folder on my PC, and then sync them to my dedicated mp3 player (not phone!) in a way that let's me control the whole sequence of events 100%! I know it probably sounds crazy to people but that's just how I like to internet! I like to pick and choose which files I receive, and where they go.

Anyway thanks for all the great episodes! And I would like to suggest an episode dedicated to figuring out the extent of Mark Mothersbaugh's influence (direct & indirect) on video game music and design. Feel free to dress up in yellow jumpsuits while you record to really live the experience!

 

[BearChair]

I really enjoy it when bob talks animation, but I appear to be missing some of his holiday episodes. Is there anywhere I can get them all?

Also, has he talked cartoons anywhere other than laser time (like talking simpsobs) and retronauts. I remember hearing him on animation aficionados a few years ago discussing ren and stimpy