Episode 010 – Gradius (1986) and Gradius 3 (1990)
Episode 010 – Gradius (1986) and Gradius 3 (1990)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we pew pew pew with our space shootin’ Vic Viper-line ship past flying enemy fighters, sand dragons and giant, pulsating alien hearts. We’re playing the classic side scrolling shooter series Gradius, focusing on its first and third installments, for the NES and SNES respectively.
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TIMESTAMPS
- 0:00 – The intro, which is a Japanese commercial for Gradius 3.
- 35:00 – The return of the Toddbitskit!
- 39:15 – Emails. The return of Scooterbutt! Ole Scooty.
- 54:15 – Snifferoo.
SHOW NOTES
– The 30th anniversary of the Gradius series was this year, and Kurt Kalata had a great article on its development for Gamasutra. You can read it here. He gets into how it developed from an earlier game, Scramble, and served as the Konami answer to Namco’s Xevious.
– The lore and backstory for the Gradius series is really quite superfluously wonderful, considering it’s a game about shootin’ down space alien ships. The Wikipedia article on the series gets into it, and it’s also a good source for the tangled naming web Steve mentions on the show.
– There are many, many, many people who can play Gradius way better than us three schlubs on this show. YouTube has many of their speed run videos, which I recommend checking out because they’re ridiculous.
– Wanna buy Gradius for the NES? Loose carts run from $8 to $13. If you want the box and manual as well, it runs from $17 to $30. For Gradius 3, carts run from $8 to $15. Despite being younger, boxes and manuals are rarer for Gradius 3, and prices run from $37 to $53. Various forms of Gradius are available on current generation systems in their online shops, again in the $8 to $15 range.
Vidya Game News – July 2, 2015
Hey, it’s July! Bask in the summer heat with some hot video game news! Good times, good times.
– A slew of old Sega games are getting released on the 3DS eShop in the next couple weeks, according to Nintendo Life. First up is Streets of Rage 2 on July 16, followed by Gunstar Heroes in August and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in September. Sales on those games will determine whether additional games get pumped out. (The latest Sega-related app game though, Sonic Runners, got a negative review from Touch Arcade.)
– The classic Atari series Battlezone is getting rebooted by Rebellion for the PC and Playstation 4, according to International Business Times.
– Nintendo fans are pissed about the early videos and screenshots from Metroid Prime: Federation Force. It’s supposed to be a multiplayer-focused game on the Nintendo 3DS, which basically means it doesn’t sound like a Metroid game at all. Forbes.com has an article on the controversy. Wired has an interview with the man behind the game, Kensuke Tanabe.
– Speaking of the Big N, their next console could hit stores in July 2016, according to Digitimes.
– The developer of Mario Strikers pitched Nintendo a volleyball and wrestling game, according to Gamespot. It didn’t get picked up.
– From Siliconera, a fan is doing a new indie version of the Mega Man series, Mega Man X: Corrupted. Read more here.
– The Sporting News is doing a best sports video game bracket. They’re down to the final, NBA Jam vs. NHL 94, which might be familiar to Your Parents Basement listeners. Check out our NBA Jam show here, and the NHL series here.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Pretty much zero games of significance were released in the United States. This is probably because it’s the middle of summer, and on top of that, two days before a major holiday. Even in Japan, this is a traditionally light release day. The only one I ever really played? Nolan Ryan’s Baseball, one of the early SNES sports games from 1991 and 1992, and it isn’t anything impressive.
– July 2 does have one big event from a gaming history standpoint though. Warner sold its home computing and game console divisions, which included a company named Atari, to Jack Tramiel, in 1984. This was after the video game crash of 1983, so Atari wasn’t in great shape, and Tramiel had a spotty reputation in the gaming industry as the former owner of Commodore. Atari and everyone else was run over by the NES juggernaut after the industry recovered from the crash. For more, check out Wikipedia.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games.
Vidya Game News – June 26, 2015
I remember where I was that fateful day.
It’s the last week of June! By this time next week, we’ll be close to celebrating America’s birthday. Because freedom. And Merrica. And burgers and hot dogs and good times.
– As reported by pretty much every blog about vidya games on the Internet, GameStop now has a classic games section. For the most part, their prices seem on par with eBay and Amazon, so feel free to scoop up some games the next time you get a gift card from a relative. The “PowerUp Rewards” discount does apply, and you do get points for buying used games.
– Andrew Schartmann at Slate has a cool article on how Koji Kondo composed the first true video game score, the “Game Over” theme from Super Mario Bros.
– Some people like to mod their NES with skins. Here is one with an apocalyptic theme.
– On Digg, the very first Japanese commercial for Super Mario Bros. (Speaking of Mario’s creator, he’s interested in designing theme parks.)
– And on MTV.com, they have nine things you can throw away after graduating college, instead of keeping in your parents basement. (They’re totally wrong on that Bluto from Animal House poster though, that’s gonna be a babe magnet.)
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– In 2000, Kirby 64 and Crystalis for Game Boy Color were released. The latter is a cool cult classic that originally came out for the NES in July 1990. Unfortunately, the GBC version is a bit inferior overall, changing some elements of the game, but it or the original are still worth hunting down and playing in some sort. The game also somewhat famously predicted that the Earth’s axis would shift and cause mutations in 1997, which we’re a little bit past at this time…
– Astrotit came out in 1987 for the PC computer. I never played it, and apparently, it’s a topdown arcade adult shooter. And it has a silly name.
Episode 008 – Kid Icarus (1987)
Episode 008 – Kid Icarus
This week in Your Parents Basement, we go soaring through Angel Land as Nintendo’s most-recognized cherub! The gang plays Kid Icarus, and has fun, despite dying way too many times even with the help of save states and strategy guides.
To listen to this week’s show, click here! And as always, you can listen to this week’s show by downloading from the iTunes store – be sure to give us some starrrrssss! (In fact, you don’t even have to listen to give us stars, you know.) To manually subscribe to the pod, input this link to your device of choice. You can also follow us on Twitter, or ‘like’ us on Facebook.
On this week’s show, we were joined by Paul Christian Glenn, who someday hopes that his progeny can fulfill his dream of defeating Kid Icarus. Paul is the co-host of AfterPod, which is a daily podcast show about The Adam Carolla Show, The Mystery Show, and when it comes out, Serial’s second season. If you like the clever shut-ins of Your Parents Basement, you should give AfterPod a listen-and-subscribe as well.
Show notes for Kid Icarus:
– The list of characters and enemies that we mention on the show. The green-haired lass is Palutena (Pail of Tuna). For a helpful chart of the enemies with their appearance, check out the invaluable Kid Icarus page on Strategy Wiki.
– Since we didn’t mention it on the show when we usually do… Because it was a cult classic, an NES copy of the game is somewhat rare now. On eBay, the game alone goes for between $10 and $20, with the manual alone costing around $20. A complete game, manual and box combination goes for $50 to $100, depending on what condition you want it in.
– Want to play Mother 3? You can find details of the fan translation here. It’s a solid, but maudlin, Game Boy Advance RPG. It’s not quite as good as the Super Nintendo Earthbound, but it’s still definitely worth playing if you liked that game.
– Other games briefly discussed on today’s show, in the Video Game News Rewind segment: Diablo 2, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Jet Set Radio, Ultima VI and Wing Commander.
Vidya Game News – June 11, 2015
The weekly news post! Good times, good times. It’s a bit shorter this week, because we’re all still decompressing from traveling, and Steve either has a sinus infection or black lung or the plague. Looking around at classic video game news and tidbits…
– Eight Bit Cinema presents… Jurassic Park.
– Via Destructoid and some other sites, there is the “Fake Nintendo releases at E3” generator. My best results? Yarn Splatoon Party and The Legend of Zelda: Disgusted Appendix.
– Ars Technica’s Kyle Orland has a fascinating article on the long, twisted path it took for Chip’s Challenge 2 to see the light of day, more than 15 years after it was completed.
– Kotaku, via iRetroGamer.com, has video of a kid opening a SNES on launch day in August 1991.
– A cool story about a guy buying some of the garbage from the infamous Atari 2600 cartridge and E.T. dump in New Mexico.
– Exactly what it says on the tin: Watch Teens Fail Hard At Contra.
– The usually stoic Washington Post actually has a neat story on how to play the first six games inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. (Oh, you wanna know the games? No big surprises – Pong, Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., Tetris, Doom and World of Warcraft.)
– Bloomberg says that leaving your parents basement is good news for the economy, which seems like hogwash to us…
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– In 1983, Capcom was formally established.
– The Legend of Dragoon, an RPG that was not Final Fantasy 7, came out for the Playstation in 2000. It is a somewhat mediocre game, with a MetaCritic score of 74, although it has its fans.
– The Game Boy Advance came out in 2001. Although it was only out for three years before the DS came out, it still sold 81.51 million units.
Vidya Game News – May 28, 2015
“I love the Power Glove… I’m the only one. It’s so bad. Like you really can’t do shit with it.”
It’s the debut of a semi-new feature! We’ve scoured some online sites in an attempt to find some retro gamin’ news you might find interesting, to whet your appetite between shows. Except to see regular news posts on Thursdays for the next couple of weeks as we try this out. So, without further adieu…
– Remember how cool The Wizard was? Well… Not actually. But similar to that movie, there will be a 2015 Nintendo World Championships, as reported by Games Radar and tons of other sites. The entry rounds being held at eight Best Buy locations. For more info, go here.
– Just as a technical project, someone is porting Wolfenstein 3D to the Genesis. Like… they’re doing it now, in 2015. You can see a YouTube video here, and there is a message board posting about it here.
– For the Genesis and the SNES, there is a vibrant homebrew / indie scene. Example: here is a Kickstarter for a new SNES (and possibly NES) platform game.
– A port of Dragon Quest VIII is coming out for the 3DS.
– Sega is pulling a bunch of different games from its iOS offerings, per Pocket Gamer. Games removed include Streets of Rage 2, Gunstar Heroes, Shining Force and Sonic Spinball.
– On Reddit’s GameCollecting subreddit, someone managed to get their hands on TWO copies of DuckTales 2 at the same time! The subreddit itself has some other nice finds.
– A deep dive from Nintendo Life on the cancellation of Star Fox 2, from someone who worked on the game and played a completed Japanese ROM of it. However, a release and translation are probably unlikely, given legal issues with the now-defunct Argonaut Software.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– … Well, kind of. Super Mario Bros. the movie was released in 1993, and it bombed. Per Box Office Mojo, it only made $20.9 million on a $48 million production budget. It only opened fourth on its first weekend, behind “classics” like Cliffhanger, Made in America and Dave. It was out of theaters in about four weeks. The full movie is often posted on YouTube, and really, that’s a better option that expending any cash for that trash.
– Notable game releases: Mass Effect (2008), Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (1999), Crazy Taxi 2 and Dark Cloud (2001).
For the full list of history items, check out Moby Games.
Episode 003: DuckTales (1989)
Episode 003: DuckTales (1989)
In Duckburg, life is like a hurricane – race cars, lasers, airplanes, it’s a duck-blur! You might solve a mystery, or re-write history. DuckTales! woohoo!
That fine hamlet of Duckburg is the subject of this week’s Your Parents Basement, as our third episode tackles 1989’s DuckTales for the NES. You can listen to the show by clicking here.
Like what you hear? You can subscribe to future episodes via the iTunes Store, or manually add this to your podcast listenin’ device: https://ypbpodcast.com/category/podcasts/feed/
We are absolutely looking for guests and ideas for future shows! For both, please email them to us – parentsbasementpodcast@gmail.com – as opposed to leaving them as comments. You can also follow us on Twitter.
Show notes for this episode:
- Jessica Nigri is the cosplayer that was the visual inspiration for Lollipop Chainsaw. OneeChanbara, the other chainsaw character mentioned by Todd, is barely able to link to. Here is the Wikipedia entry, because anywhere else you look on the web is pretty much NSFW.
- The snifferoo from last week comes from this YouTube video, which is the memorable Moon Stage theme. The remastered version is also quite good. The main NES theme can be heard here.
- Someone beating DuckTales in about nine minutes can be seen here. A more leisurely 30+ minute play is here.
- Want to buy DuckTales? The remastered version is your best bet, with hard copies in the $15 to $20 range, and digital copies ranging from $5 to $15, depending on whether there is a sale or not. As Todd mentioned on the pod, it’s currently on sale on Steam for $7.50, through Tuesday.
- The NES cart ranges from $5 to $20 on eBay, depending on what condition you want it in. And as with most NES games, you can up the price to around $40 to $60 if you want the box and manual.
- As mentioned on the show, DuckTales 2 for the NES is hard to find. A complete package of the box, manual and cart are going for $400. The cart by itself is in the $150 to $200 range. Just the manual is selling for $138. There don’t seem to be any plans in the works to give it a remaster or port treatment.
- An explanation of how DuckTales came to be remastered is on this message board.
Episode 001 – Super Mario Bros. + The Lost Levels
Episode 001 – Super Mario Bros. and The Lost Levels
Your Parents Basement is meant to be a fun podcast project, where some folks talk about their favorite classic games. Click here for our first episode on Super Mario Bros., as well as its way-too-hard counterpart, The Lost Levels.
Want to follow along to future episodes? Add this feed to your podcastin’ device: https://yourparentsbasementpodcast.wordpress.com/category/podcasts/feed/ We are absolutely looking for guests and game ideas for future shows! For both, please email them to us – parentsbasementpodcast@gmail.com – as opposed to leaving them as comments. (Mystery is good for the rest of the listening audience!) You can also follow us on Twitter. Supplemental material for today’s show:
- The opening theme comes from this helpful YouTube video.
- The Super Mario Bros. Super Show with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper.
- Console Wars by Blake Harris, which was the first book I read that really focused on the rise and fall of Sega during the Genesis era from that company’s perspective.
- “The Secret History of Super Mario Bros. 2” from Wired, which talks about that game’s true origin.
- A deep dive on the failures of the Super Mario Bros. movie on Grantland. The movie rights changed hands in December 2014, suggesting that a second attempt might be coming soon.
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