Vidya Game News – December 8, 2016
– Huge news for Todd Brisket, as the new DuckTales is on the schedule for a Summer 2017 release! Read more at Entertainment Weekly, and listen to our show on the vidya game here!
– Cinemassacre (the site of the Angry Video Game Nerd) had a viral video this week, as Mike Matei recreated the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme in Mario Paint. Check out the cool video here!
– Russ Frushtick and Justin McElroy of Polygon have a cool video on the tangled history and development of Super Mario Bros. 2. We also covered SMB2 on a past show, by the way.
– On Polygon and other sites, Crash Bandicoot is coming back in remastered form, for the PS4! Check out our past show on ole Crash here.
– Unfortunately, Konami has sent a cease-and-desist to Dejawolfs, which was developing a remake of Castlevania in the Unreal engine. You can read the story on Siliconera here. And reminder! We covered Castlevania on a past show.
– From Variety, Sega has optioned a bunch of its titles for film and television adaptations, starting with Altered Beast and Streets of Rage. And speaking of Sega selling off its merchandising rights, it has also partnered with Build-A-Bear.
– Nintendo Everything has a translation of a Japanese book about The Legend of Zelda series, which reveals that a sequel to Wind Waker was canned for Twilight Princess.
– Geeks of Doom has a positive review of Art of Atari, a cool book full of Atari art.
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– On December 9, 1997, Quake II came out for the PC. It was the online standard for a couple years of deathmatching, until Unreal Tournament and eventually Half-Life came out.
– Persona 4 came out for the PS2 on December 9, 2008. It’s a hella good RPG by Atlus, and the fifth installment is due out on April 4, if it’s not delayed again.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – December 1, 2016
– The new Pokemans games have sold 3.7 million copies in two weeks, making them the fastest sellers ever for Nintendo, according to press releases given to Polygon and other sites. You can listen to our Pokemans show here!
– In other Big N news: Although they announced a Japanese partnership with Universal for theme parks last year, the effort has spread to the U.S. now too, per Den of Geek and other sites.
– In other, other Big N news… The NES Classic Edition is still impossible to find, but ThinkGeek is doing a sweepstakes for some. They might also have some for sale this week. Huzzah!
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– November 30 is a popular day for PC releases. Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness came out in 1995, Diablo came out in 1996, and Baldur’s Gate and Starcraft: Brood War came out in 1998. You can listen to our shows on Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo here, here and here.
– November 30, 1999 was also popular for RPGs. Koudelka and Vandal Hearts II both came out on that day. They’re both considered cult classics, and Koudelka continued on via the Shadow Hearts series, which is for the PS2 and awesome.
– Quake III Arena came out on Dec. 2, 1999. While it wasn’t horrible, it was a bit of a misstep by id Software, as Unreal Tournament was generally more popular.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Episode 083 – Diablo (1996)
Episode 083 – Diablo (1996)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are clickety clacking our way past the most disgusting evils of the 1990s! From 1996, we’re playing Diablo by Blizzard for the PC.
You can manually download this week’s hellfire podcast here or subscribe to the show via the iTunes store. To manually subscribe, use this link in the device / podcast player of choice. You can also follow us on Twitter, or ‘like’ us on Facebook.
As always, if you like the show, support us by buying from Amazon! You can use this link to go to Amazon, and any purchase you make will kick a couple bucks to the show, with no extra cost to you. It’s a win-win!
Want to have an email or comment read on the air? Send us a message on the ole Twitter or Facebook, or, shoot that mail to parentsbasementpodcast@gmail.com.
TIMESTAMPS
- 0:00 – Intro, which features the excellent title theme from the game. You can find the full version here, since it builds up to a heck of a sound.
- 30:30 – Nobody has any problems with Diablo! Or not laughing at jokes.
- 37:00 – Emails! Four emails sent to two sweet baby boys, while someone else’s box remains empty.
- 54:00 – In Ask the Sweet Boys this week, important questions about self-worth and body image.
- 1:00:30 – Snifferoo. Somehow, we’re playing our second game starring Michael Jordan! If you’re keeping track at home, that’s Jordan 2, Sonic 0.
- 1:02:50 – A little Stinger for all of the fans of the SBBs, MST3K style.
SHOW NOTES
– Diablo is pretty affordable nowadays, as it’s usually bundled with the second installment and their expansion packs in $15 to $30 physical media packages. However, it can be a bit tough to find, since Blizzard doesn’t support it. Diablo 2 is $9.99 for a digital download from the Blizzard website, with the expansion pack another $9.99.
– The Diablo expansion, Hellfire, is actually pretty pricy to obtain legally. A new copy on Amazon is going for $103, and used copies are $46.
Vidya Game News – November 17, 2016
– Polygon has released their massive video game gift guide, which is neat to read just to catch up on all of the cool stuff you didn’t even know existed.
– The new Daytona USA game, confusingly called Daytona 3 Championship USA, has some trailers out now.
– To hype the (incredibly hard to get) NES Classic, Nintendo has interviews with the developers of Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3 here. And hey, check out our episodes for the first and second games of that series!
– In a fun feature, Polygon’s Owen S. Good tallies up how much it would cost to just buy an NES and all of the games on the NES Classic, instead of paying the prices online for it.
– From Motherboard and other sites, a guy is shooting for 2017 for the release of Tanglewood, a new Genesis game programmed on an authentic development kit.
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Mentioned prominently in last week’s show was WWF No Mercy, which was released on this day in 2000 by Asmik Ace and AKI. It’s still considered to be one of the gold standards for wrasslin’ video games.
– The ole Xbox was released on Nov. 15, 2001. That old chestnut didn’t sell well in Japan, and ultimately came out behind the PS2 in America, but it established a firm beachhead in console sales for Microsoft.
– Three days after the Xbox came the Gamecube. Again, it finished behind the PS2 in the sixth generation console wars, but it had some very well-received games, like…
– The Metroid series is kind of a big deal in November. In 2002, both Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion had concurrent releases for the Gamecube and GBA. The sequel to Prime came out on Nov. 15, 2004. (And hey, check out our episode on Super Metroid here!)
– On November 16, 2004, Valve released Half-Life 2. The incredible FPS was followed by sequels, Episode One and Episode Two, and then NOTHING. The third installment will never come out because Valve clearly hates us now.
– Dragon Quest VIII, the first of the series to drop the “Dragon Warrior” name for an American release, came out for the PS2 on Nov. 15, 2005. It was a solid effort, although not as long and deep as previous efforts from Enix.
– In 2006, the PlayStation 3 came out. It was a swell system, but it ceded the control of the market that the PS2 and PSX had established because of a high initial price and lack of third party support. (And by the way, the PS4 came out on Nov. 15, 2013, so Sony likes to push them consoles out in the holiday season.)
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – November 10, 2016
– Unsurprisingly, Gandhi remains an asshole in Civilization 6, per Kotaku. Check out our show on the original Civilization here!
– On Kill Screen, Emma Kidwell has a nice essay about how video games helped with language when she spent her summers in Japan.
– The NES Classic Edition comes out Friday in the U.S., and some reviews are coming in for it. Kotaku also notes that the old Nintendo call-in lines will be active, too.
– Also, as you may have heard, new Genesis consoles are being made… in Brazil. Polygon’s Charlie Hall notes that the system won’t have HDMI support or ship internationally, but it does come with 20+ games preloaded. Sega in Brazil is like Spinal Tap in Japan, or David Hasselhoff in Germany.
– Kyle Orland of Ars Technica writes about four “found” Kirby games for the SNES, and the difficulty of preserving old digital games, here. You can find our Kirby show here.
– From Matthew Figueira and other sites, Blizzard won’t be doing remakes of Warcraft 1 or Warcraft 2 anytime soon. Also, no news on a potential Warcraft 4 either. But hey, listen to our show on the old series!
– Obduction, the new game from Myst creator Rand Miller, will be released for the PS4 and VR in 2017. Read about that and more in Miller’s interview with Dean Takahashi of Venture Beat. And listen to our Myst show here!
– From Kotaku: What should you feed your pregnant characters in The Sims?
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Golden Sun, a popular RPG series by Camelot and Nintendo, first hit U.S. shores on Nov. 11, 2001. It’s 15 now! Almost old enough to drive.
– It was only a year ago, but the sweet baby boys can scarcely remember what our lives were like before the release of Fallout 4 on this day in 2015. We have a lot more time… Stupid, pointless time without Fallout 4. Bethesda’s masterpiece has had several DLC expansions and mod support added, and people are already clamoring for the fifth installment, or a side game, or anything else because Fallout is LIFE.
– Also, Skyrim came out on Nov. 11, 2011. It’s now five years old! A regular sweet kindergarten baby boy. Bethesda sure loves to spoil us in November.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – November 3, 2016
– Daaayyyyyyttttoonnnnaaaa! From Polygon and other sites, Sega has confirmed that a new entry in the Daytona USA series will be coming out. Read more here.
– Apparently, the creator of Balloon Fight first brought up the NES Classic Edition idea about 10 years ago! You can read a translated interview with Yoshio Sakamoto here, via Nintendo Everything.
– The director of Deadpool (Tim Miller) is stepping away from that series, and his next project will be Sonic the Hedgehog, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
– Supermodel Gisele Bundchen dressed up as Luigi for Halloween, because her SBB was dressed as Mario. Popsugar has the story here, based on her ‘stagrams. (And hey, listen to our shows on Mario 1 and Mario 2 here and here!)
– And speaking of the Brady household… From Steve’s home state paper The Providence Journal, what game did Tom Brady like to play with his roommate? Well, Tecmo Bowl, of course! Read more here. And listen to our Tecmo Bowl show here.
– Via Gamespot, Crash Bandicoot now talks! … in the Netflix TV show Skylanders Academy. Check out our Crash Bandicoot episode here!
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Fire Emblem came out for the Game Boy Advance in 2003. While it was the first (official) English localization for the series by Nintendo, it was the seventh main game of the series. Rumor goes that Nintendo finally decided to give it the ole translation try because of the popularity of Marth in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
– Ratchet & Clank came out Nov. 4, 2002 for the PS2. Insomniac’s effort was well-reviewed, and spawned a series.
– Valkyria Chronicles, a solid turn-based, tactical RPG, came out on Nov. 4, 2008 for the PS3. Surprisingly, it was by Sega! A remastered version came out on May 17, 2016 for the PS4, to rave reviews.
– The first Dragon Age game from Bioware came out for the PS3, 360 and PC on this day in 2009.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – October 28, 2016
– Kyle Orland has a good interview with Sid Meier, of Civilization fame, for Ars Technica. You can read it here! And check out our Civilization show here.
– Speaking of Orland, he had a cool link in his weekly newsletter to an older piece about how insider leaks happen. (If you’re not subscribing to Orland’s weekly newsletter yet, you should! That is, if you love vidya games.)
– On Engadget and other sites: A prototype for a SNES version of Rayman has been found.
– In honor of Halloween, Justin Carreiro of The Young Folks has a look at Maniac Mansion. You can listen to our show on it here! Also, Ryan Gibbs of The Young Folks once talked SimCity with us here.
– Pokemon Sun and Moon, which release Nov. 18 for the 3DS, are Nintendo’s biggest pre-ordered games of all-time, per a release by the company published on Polygon.
– Nathan Grayson of Kotaku summarizes some of the issues hitting up mod support for Sega games on Steam here.
– The USgamer team ranks all 30 games in the NES Classic here! Games we’ve covered on YPB: Bubble Bobble, Castlevania, Punch-Out, Tecmo Bowl, Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2.
– On Polygon and other sites this week… The official Sega employee song from the 1990s.
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– The PlayStation 2 came out on October 26, 2000. It was pretty popular.
– In 2002, a little game called Grand Theft Auto: Vice City came out. It was pretty, pretty, pretty popular. Almost exactly two years later, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas came out, and it was also pretty, pretty, pretty popular.
– Another lil game, Fallout 3, came out on October 28, 2008. Again, it was pretty popular.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Episode 078 – Civilization (1991)
Episode 078 – Civilization (1991)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are playing for just ONE MORE TURN, we promise! From 1991, we’re playing Civilization by MicroProse (and later Firaxis and Spectrum HoloByte) for the PC and Super Nintendo. Our special guest is Amanda, Steve’s friend from his college newspaper!
You can manually download this week’s Wonder-building podcast here or subscribe to the show via the iTunes store. To manually subscribe, use this link in the device / podcast player of choice. You can also follow us on Twitter, or ‘like’ us on Facebook.
As always, if you like the show, support us by buying from Amazon! You can use this link to go to Amazon, and any purchase you make will kick a couple bucks to the show, with no extra cost to you. It’s a win-win!
Want to have an email or comment read on the air? Send us a message on the ole Twitter or Facebook, or, shoot that mail to parentsbasementpodcast@gmail.com.
TIMESTAMPS
- 0:00 – Intro, which has a moment of glory from Steve.
- 30:45 – It’s time for another installment of Video Game Theater! This time, with music! AND EMOTION.
- 38:00 – Emails! Who would we rather kiss?
- 48:45 – Hoooo boy, it’s the return of… Ask the Sweet Boys.
- 58:00 – Snifferoo. Things get SPOOKY next week, as in honor of Halloween, we’re playing one of the toughest game series of all-time!
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, the Super Nintendo version of Civilization is about $20 for the loose cart, and $47 for the box and manual. The actual PC game is free on a lot of sites, and Freeciv is (as the name implies) free and awesome.
– Civilization 6 came out last week, and with that, there was a bunch of stuff out on the series. (And hey, that’s why we did the show this week too.) Brian Fung of The Washington Post scored an interview with Sid Meier. And he likes to play as the Romans.
Vidya Game News – October 13, 2016
– Biggest news EVER possibly: The Socks the Cat game for the SNES is probably going to get a release, once it hits its Kickstarter goal! Yay! Read more here. Second Dimension and Tom Curtin, a gaming historian and collector, managed to secure the rights.
– On Kotaku, they have a news item on an NES replica that’s in the shape of a Zelda chest. And, oh, by the way, it has a wireless, floating Tri-force. Read more here!
– Stuff has a cool feature on the history of Nintendo handhelds, including the Game and Watch.
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Mortal Kombat 3 was released for the Genesis and Super Nintendo today in 1995, after its release in arcades on April 15. Its story is completely insane, but hey, it has more buckets of blood, like the previous games in the series.
– Pokemon Gold and Silver came out on October 15, 2000. They sold a billion copies.
– WWF Raw was released for the PC on October 14, 2002. Because it was the last WWF game on the PC until 2015, it was a popular when it came to mods, even though Anchor’s effort received middling reviews when it came out.
– Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne was released October 12, 2004. It was the first game of that series released in the U.S. by Atlus, and it immediately became a cult classic, bought by about 20 people who all happened to be game critics.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Your Parents Basement 
Episode 084 – Space Jam (1996)
Episode 084 – Space Jam (1996)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are the looniest tunes in the bunch! From 1996, we’re playing Space Jam by Sculptured Software, and published by Acclaim, for the Playstation, Saturn and PC.
You can manually download this week’s dunktastic podcast here or subscribe to the show via the iTunes store. To manually subscribe, use this link in the device / podcast player of choice. You can also follow us on Twitter, or ‘like’ us on Facebook.
As always, if you like the show, support us by buying from Amazon! You can use this link to go to Amazon, and any purchase you make will kick a couple bucks to the show, with no extra cost to you. It’s a win-win!
Want to have an email or comment read on the air? Send us a message on the ole Twitter or Facebook, or, shoot that mail to parentsbasementpodcast@gmail.com.
TIMESTAMPS
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, Space Jam is really cheap, in the $7 to $13 range, depending on whether you want a case and manual as well. This is almost certainly because it sucks. In contrast, Looney Tunes B-Ball is the better game, despite being for the SNES, and costs $26 to $70.
– The Ringer’s Shea Serrano has an oral history on Space Jam here. By the way, it’s satire and completely made up.
– From Rolling Stone, the Space Jam website was one of the first for a movie on the Interwebs, and it’s STILL around. Read their piece here, and check out the website here.
– The 30 for 30 on the Space Jam game is incredible.