This week is a little special as Jonah, Jordan and Paul discuss some of the things that were common in the golden age of 1990’s consoles that are no longer around.
In addition, the news includes:
The Question of the Week: “What gaming activities do you no longer do?”
No episode this week due to family emergency. See you next week.
This week we’ve got some crazy statistics that says Red Teams beat Blue Teams. According to a study published last week in a Cyberpsychology & Behaviour journal, during a study of 1,347 matches between “elite teams” in Unreal Tournament 2k4 … and all things being equal, the red team won 55% of the time. Huh?
EA Gets Sued by…The People? The class-action complaint focuses on Electronic Arts’ actions since 2004, when Take-Two Interactive’s NFL 2K5 was released at a $19.99 price point and sold more than 2.9 million copies in the US, according to NPD figures.
Wii and USB! Someone browsing the web came across a Job posting for Nintendo of America. The job posting was for a “Software/Hardware Tester” who can execute a “test plan for Wii’s USB devices.”
Analysts baffled that GTA didn’t move Hardware. How does a game with such powers of popularity manage to NOT sell consoles? Truely a mystery, or expected?
This weeks podcast also discusses the best game cinematic sequences, what are your favorite? Leave us a comment!
This weeks flashback is Where in the World is Carman Sandiego and we start our gaming history on Role Playing Games.
This is the first podcast of 2021! It was also recorded a day before people decided to invade the US Capitol. How weird is that, hearing us blissfully unaware of insurrectionists who thought they could terrorize the US Senate?
Anyway, this week’s news includes:
Let us know what you think at the Facebook comment site.
Hey guys,
A short comment on Naughty Dog. While it is true that people often leave studios after the game is completed this is not the case with NG. The game is far from done, with one of the main villains also leaving and being recast. The game seems to be in trouble and will probably come out later than previously expected. Still, I trust Naughty Dog and believe they will be able to put out a quality product.
Onto the ‘gaming nostalgia’ theme. There are many things I used to do as a younger gamer, playing mostly PC games. Mostly, I no longer buy gaming magazines. I used to be a long-time subscriber of one such magazine in Poland but then I lost interest in PC gaming and when I came back to gaming with PS3, I realized I can get all the info online and/or listening to podcasts. I don’t mind reading as a whole but as far as gaming goes I’d rather read books such as ‘The Maters of Doom’, which I just finished, than read gaming magazines.
Also, I very rarely play couch multiplayer games. Mostly because those modes are rare in games nowadays but also because when we meet up with friends, we usually play board games that can accommodate more people and which our wives can enjoy too. However, Move-based games such as Sports Champions or Just Dance, get played occasionally.
I really enjoyed the episode with all the old-school gaming talk and I find it more interesting than reading pre-prepared gaming history segments. This episode had much more discussion and excitement than previously, but maybe that’s just me. Also, there was something different about Paul’s voice. He sounded clearer and less grainy so I hope that’s permanent 😉
Hi guys great show I loved the Top Ten fads article no longer in use.
@Gamestop: that just seems sad, I guess they were going for a joke but it would have been nice to show their actual female execs the ones that Jordan had mentioned.
@Naughty Dog loosing people: That does concern me if people are leaving the franchise which has done pretty well so far. I wonder if the quality of Uncharted will suffer because of this. I have enjoyed all three games so far. If Uncharted 4 is going to be PS4 only I may have to break down and get it. I have enjoyed this series so much, any one of the games would have made a better Indy (this time I really do mean Indiana Jones) movie.
@Top Ten Fads:
1) I don’t remember the blockbuster exclusives and the store exclusives seem to be more recent like when you pre-oder a game from Target versus Best Buy and get a different exclusive depending on where you bought it.
2) I was an abuser and sucker for the hint line before game guides and the internet. I think Sierra and Nintendo, though I love them, was perhaps making some of their puzzles so obtuse you were forced to call their hint line or buy their magazine. I remember having a gotten a lot of game guides both from Sierra and Nintendo. This is one “fad” I am glad is gone thanks to the Internet.
3) Demo discs I remember well, it’s how I got Doom and Hexen. It was a nice way to try out games before buying at least.
4) I didn’t mind physical DRM I thought it was kind of fun. There was a Tabloid space magazine with Space Quest V and in it had a star chart for planets for you to go to. So long as you had those coordinates from the chart you could get to any planet you needed to. I think when the DRM was more seamless and less heavy handed like the enter code from page, paragraph, line and word 3, it was more fun and immersive. The SQV star chart felt like it fit with the tongue in cheek nature of the Space Quest series. You could imagine yourself as Roger using a tabloid magazine to chart his way through space.
5) The slips thing I understand though now these days I am buying my games digitally and less from stores.
6) Can’t say that I played any games from cereal boxes, mostly felt they wouldn’t be good games so why bother? Especially when I could be playing games I knew were good.
7) I don’t remember any pin pads for saving progress in Arcade games, that would have been nice to have had more often. Probably would have helped kids memory if they had to quickly remember a password for their next play session.
8) I do miss having those huge gaming magazines that would just seem full of gaming goodness. The Ads were nice since they were tailored for gaming desires as opposed to things that wouldn’t have appealed to us gamers.
9) I remember the cleaning kits and I’m like Jordan I kept my games in their sleeves when not in use also pins facing down so not to collect any dust on those metal pins. The rest of my room was a mess but my games were clean dammit! I do admit to blowing on them a few times but not a lot. There is an article online showing the affects of a (don’t laugh) daily blowing on the cartridge versus one that just used a cleaning kit.
10) I think a sweet one is the one with Robin Williams and his daughter and him explaining how and why he named her Zelda. I remember Sony trying very hard to make Crash Bandicoot a beloved mascot and failing miserably.
I also remember the game genie and it’s game breaking ways of cheating. I’m glad Jordan mentioned that.
QotW: I had to think about this but I suppose going to game rental store like Blockbuster or even going to a game store period. I do everything digitally now. No more worrying about scratched discs or losing a cartridge or any of those worries with physical media.