Episode 342: Arcade Memories

Gaming Podcast is back, as Jonah and Jordan discuss arcade games from yore. This week’s Gaming Flashback is the classic Half-Life 2 by Valve, which ushered in a new age of shooters that get massive delays.

This week’s news includes:

  • Twitch coming to Xbox One on March 11
  • Microsoft appoints Stephen Elop to head Xbox
  • King files to abandon controversial “Candy” trademark in US
  • Nintendo wins 3DS patent dispute
  • Layoffs at Sony Santa Monica

Also included is Listener Feedback and the Question of the Week: “What was your favorite coin-op arcade game?”

0 thoughts on “Episode 342: Arcade Memories”

  1. @Rushed next-gen consoles
    You’re absolutely right that the media streaming functionality is painfully missing from the new consoles. I can only speak about the PS4, which is the one I got, but the fact that I can’t stream stuff from my PC to the PS4 is horrible. #FirstWorldProblems However, the backlog of PS3 games is deep enough that I don’t feel the need to box the console up anytime soon.

    No CD playback was also something I couldn’t get my head around. It can’t be that expensive to implement… Is it a hardware or a firmware issue? Anyway, I rarely used my PS3 to play CDs – my stereo has a CD player so I use it instead.

    Poland has never had much extra multimedia support. There’s no Hulu, no Netflix, no Amazon Prime… Even the YT app has been added just recently to PS3 in Europe (still missing on PS4). That’s why it’s not as bad here. I’m happy that the NHL Gamecenter App was available almost day 1 and I can watch the games on the PS4, even though it seems to be more glitchy than the PS3 version.

    @Vita multiplayer
    I played some LBP on the Vita and had some connectivity problems but not to the extent Jordan talked about. I played a lot of Killzone Mercenary, though, (Platinum, yo!) and it worked very well. Not laggy at all, usually full or almost full games. I played 100+ matches needed for the trophy and I got disconnected only a few times.

    @Sony Santa Monica
    I believe I heard in another podcast, but was to lazy to verify it myself, the studio is still hiring new people. One opinion I heard is that they’re not only trying to cut back on costs but also mix things up a little bit after the recent failures, i.e. GoW: Ascension. That’s why they laid off some people but will bring some new faces, although in limited numbers.

    @QOTW
    The arcades were not very popular in Poland in the 80’s and 90’s. I remember a wagon, similar to a cricus wagon, with some arcade games inside that we used to go to with my friends back in the day. I don’t remember many games, though but one of them was Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. There were also some Metal Slug machines. All the PacMans, Tempests and Defenders were slightly before my time, I guess, or this era of arcade games simply skipped the communist Poland in the 80’s. However, I remember playing tons of Terminator 2 pinball but that’s a different QOTW.

  2. @Rushed next gen consoles: The more I hear about the lack of features and functionality of both the Xbox one and PS4. The more I am glad I choose to stick to PC gaming.

    I think the aspect also that you talked about with people in charge not knowing or not liking their product is very telling of the state that these consoles have come to. They are out of touch with their customer base.

    @Thief: This game is looking great from the LP video’s I have seen of it so far. I find it amazing anyone was under the impression Garret was some sort of assassin or warrior. That was an aspect I didn’t mind in the original series, you shouldn’t be fighting so getting caught and subsequently killed is the punishment.

    Maybe those that think like that are those who are stuck in only playing action FPS games.

    @Half-life: This is a series I haven’t been able to get into yet. but I could never figure out which was first Half Life 1 or Half Life 1 episode 1?

    Freeman’s mind is awesome to watch as well. A fun way to do a LP I think.

    QOTW: I love this question I used to spend many hours in various arcade games. I tried to avoid coin gobblers like Gauntlet, I would play those that had a end goal. Like Willow, Simpsons, TMNT, Xmen vs Avengers, Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom, and Dungeons and Dragons. I loved playing pinball machine games as well, and the air hockey games. Arcades just aren’t doing as well as they used to do though. We had one in my local mall called the Nexus that even had lan PC games but it shut down unfortunately.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Episode 312: Dare You To Press the ButtonEpisode 312: Dare You To Press the Button

This week’s episode is the final episode before E3, and next week, an outtakes episode filled with Dr. Who and Game of Thrones discussion will run. After that, we’ll have some serious E3 2013 discussion, especially about what happens with Microsoft and Sony in particular.

No Gaming Flashback, but news includes:

  • Pachter predicts $349 for PS4, $399 for Xbox One
  • World of Warcraft movie ‘begins shooting‘ in Q1 2014
  • Robert Bowling’s Robotoki raided by LAPD, mistake COD figure as armed intruder
  • Documentary seeks to unearth 3.5M E.T. cartridges from landfill
  • Oculus Rift developer Andrew Scott Reisse, 33, killed as bystander in police chase
  • Shadow of the Eternals Kickstarter fundraising struggling

All that and Listener Feedback.

Episode 503: Battlefield LadyEpisode 503: Battlefield Lady

This week, TD Gaming Podcast talks about Battlefield V and how a certain part of the gamer population completely lost their minds over it. There was also a half-hour discussion of Second Life, shoot-em-up, and developer Treasure, with web searches and aimless conversation that went nowhere.

This week’s news:

  • The Steam Link Mobile App has been blocked by Apple
  • Killer7 is coming to Steam this Fall
  • The Wolf Among Us 2 coming in 2019
  • Mega Man X-inspired roguelike 20XX coming to consoles
  • WWII-themed Battlefield V drops October 19, abandons paid expansion model

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Star Wars Galaxies Shutdown BacklashStar Wars Galaxies Shutdown Backlash

Despite the announced shutdown of Star Wars: Galaxies and the approaching new Star Wars-based MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, loyal subscribers don’t want Galaxies to end. They’ve begun a petition to try to convince Sony to let the MMO live on as a free-to-play MMO.

The petition asks Sony to convert the game to a ‘freemium’, microtransaction-based MMO, and that Sony consolidate players onto a smaller number of servers and facilitate character transfer to reduce operational costs in order to keep the game running. The petition has already gotten thousands signatures in a few days.

One of the petition leaders posted:

We are not your typical gamers.

We are not a commodity.

But if you look at the recent decision by Lucasarts to shut down Star Wars Galaxies, you might be inclined to think we are both of those things. Lucasarts thinks that we are a non-perishable commodity that can be shoved into a shipping crate and moved down the road to their next project. That is not the case. Not even close.

We are a vibrant community. We have seen our ups and downs, but we are only stronger because of it. We have endured all manner of broken promises and misleading “improvements” to this game, and throughout all of it, we have continued to build our community, and show support and loyalty to this great game. But we didn’t do it because of a game. We did it because of our community here.

(more…)