Vidya Game News – October 22, 2015
“COMMUNISM IS A LIE. DEATH IS A PREFERABLE ALTERNATIVE TO COMMUNISM. DEMOCRACY IS NON-NEGOTIABLE.” – Liberty Prime, Fallout 3. Fight the red scourge by enjoying this capitalistic vidya game news!
– Good news for Todd Brisket! The Sega Genesis version of Duke Nukem 3D is now available.
– On Digg, an amazingly “so bad it’s awesome” commercial for the Atari 5200. It features some legitimately hot, way too enthusiastic babes in bikinis! Check it out here.
– Pretty much every major tech site had some sort of piece on the 30-year anniversary of the NES, but Mashable had a neat retrospective on the 18 launch games for the system. Among them: Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Wrecking Crew and Clu Clu Land.
– Nintendo has opened up its development process slightly, and it’s also quietly sending out development kits for its next system, according to several different websites.
– From many different sites, but created by Sports Illustrated’s Cauldron, it’s the Colts bizarre fake punt recreated in Tecmo Super Bowl – view it on YouTube.
– There could be a new Valkyria Chronicles game in the works, as Sega has registered the name Valkyria of the Battlefield with the Japanese patent office.
– My Parents’ Basement is a new restaurant open in Avondale Estates, Georgia. For a review, click here, and the restaurant’s website is here.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Grand Theft Auto 3 was released 14 years ago on the PS2, which was followed by PC versions in 2002 and Xbox in 2003. It was the first REALLY good game of the series, and as of 2011, it had sold more than 17 million copies, in addition to being the best-selling game of 2001.
– Fallout: New Vegas came out on Oct. 19 in 2010, but it’s close enough to include right here, especially since there weren’t many other significant games released on Oct. 22. Also, Fallout 4 comes out on Nov. 10. (Speaking of, the “PipBoy edition” went back on sale yesterday, and supplies lasted for five minutes, per Polygon.)
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 025 – Bases Loaded (1988)
Episode 025 – Bases Loaded (1988)
This week, we morph into Your Parents Baseball, as we’re slingin’ pitches toward the plate and trying to strike out Paste, Norkus and Star! From 1988, we’re playing Bases Loaded, one of the two best early baseball games for the NES, along with R.B.I. Baseball, which we touch upon briefly. (And Base Wars.)
You can manually download this week’s ballistic 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 is a combination of the home run and bullpen music from Bases Loaded.
- 1:10 – A public service announcement, thanking our many YPB contributors.
- 47:30 – Emails. The guys talk Pokémon, vidya game weapons, and shows about vidya games.
- 1:11:00 – Snifferoo. We’re playing a spooookkkyyy game for next week.
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, most of the prices for the Bases Loaded series are pretty reasonable. The loose carts go for $2 to $8, whether we’re talking NES, SNES, PSX or Game Boy. The price of box and manual shoots it up to the $25 to $100 range, like most older games. The exception is Bases Loaded 4 for the NES though, which is $25 for a loose cart, since it came out late in that system’s lifespan (1993).
– Video Power was a somewhat deranged, public access (seemingly) version of Nickelodeon’s Arcade. You can see an example of it on YouTube here. And yes, the host was that insane and creepy all the time. However, it had a cool end-game feature of getting to run through a mall, snatching games. Arcade was more normal and kid-friendly, and it can be seen here.
– As usual, Wikipedia is a perfectly fine source for the Bases Loaded series, and what Jaleco is up to now.
– Base Wars isn’t nearly as cool as Steve made it seem on the show, since the actual baseball of the game is kind of bad. But here is a YouTube video showing some of the different player types and gameplay aspects. One thing Steve forgot to mention on the show – You can throw at players with low HP, and they will explode into pieces at the plate.
Vidya Game News – October 15, 2015
This week’s news is from Russia with FUN!
– Some guy named Steve Colebert had the Zelda orchestra on. You’ve probably heard about it already, but if not, it’s totally on Youtube.
– From Kotaku, Brian Ashcraft has a re-post of a popular old post that has a tour of Nintendo’s original headquarters in Japan.
– A hardcore Japanese gamer has kept his SNES on for 20 years because he’s worried that his save game data for obscure game Umihara Kawase might be at-risk. Preston Phro of Rocket News 24 has a good write-up here.
– If you’re in the Portland, Oregon area, then you still have time to check out the annual Classic Tetris World Championship! It takes place this weekend, Oct. 17 and Oct. 18, at their own yearly Portland Retro Gaming Expo. There are prizes ranging from $125 to $1,000 for top-four finishes.
– Uproxx and plenty of other sites had this item on someone mashing up Kendrick Lamar and Super Mario Bros.
– Per the official Natsume Twitter account and some other sources on the Internets, Nintendo is moving on from re-releasing older games (SNES, Game Boy, NES) on the Virtual Console. Along similar lines, hackers discovered a list of about 70 future online releases by Nintendo.
– Gamasutra’s Christian Nutt has a really good Q&A with producers who have worked with Nintendo before about the process of creating games in conjunction with the company.
– CinemaBlend has a write-up of a nifty YouTube video that re-imagines Star Wars Battlefront as a SNES game, Super Star Wars Battlefront.
– WHO’S A GOOD DOG? Atari is a good dog, and he’s available for adoption!
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver came out 15 years ago for the Game Boy Color. These were the first proper, full sequels to the original blue and red installments, and solidified Pokémon as a phenomenon.
– Wild Arms 3 came out in 2002 for the Playstation 2. It’s a niche RPG series with a sort of Western feel and theme, and worth checking, especially the later games that iron out some of the kinks of the first installment.
– The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released 13 years ago for the Playstation 2. While it received mediocre to bad reviews, this was still way better than the SNES installment that was a past YPB game.
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 024 – Kirby’s Dream Land (1992)
Episode 024 – Kirby’s Dream Land (1992)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are doing our best to suck and blow, and to make immature jokes and innuendo about a cute Nintendo mascot! From 1992, we’re playing Kirby’s Dream Land, one of the best platform games for the Game Boy.
You can manually download this week’s apple-filled 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 is the main title theme from Kirby’s Dream Land. It’s a fun, jaunty little tune that will stick in your head for days. (Sorry.)
- 41:30 – Emails. Huell gets a text message, and the guys are asked about You Don’t Know Jack.
- 55:00 – It’s the return of the Toddbitskit!
- 59:00 – Snifferoo. It’s time for us to embrace America’s past time as we head further into October.
SHOW NOTES
– Per Wikipedia, the Kirby series now spans more than 20 games, and its sold more than 34 million units. That figure doesn’t include his appearances in the Smash Brothers series, either. Kirby also has his own portion on the Nintendo website.
– According to Price Charting, sales for just the loose cart of Kirby’s Dream Land are pretty stable, in the $5 to $10 range. It’s also available as a downloadable title at a similar price point for all of Nintendo’s consoles. The sequel runs a few dollars more, and as usual, if you want the box and manual, that’ll be a surcharge. Most copies of the original are around $30, and up to $100 if you want it new.
Vidya Game News – October 8, 2015
“When life gives you lemons, don’t make lemonade! Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don’t want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life’s manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I’m the man whose gonna burn your house down – with the lemons!”
Here’s some news to go with them lemons:
– The lead designer from Earthworm Jim says he would be open to doing a sequel. That, and more, are in the linked Reddit AMA.
– Also on Reddit: Is it possible for Scrooge McDuck to swim through the gold coins in his money vault? Probably not.
– Via Twitter, Sega has announced there will be a Game Gear theme available the 3DS, which would have seemed impossible in the early 1990s. (Then again, so would the 3DS, and smartphones, and the Internet…)
– Cassidee Moser of IGN.com has a heads-up about this Reddit user, who’s turned an old NES cart into a working NES.
– From Kotaku and several other sites, there is a really cool box art book coming out for the Super Nintendo. It’s from this guy.
– The 8-Bit Guy has a YouTube video about how the music was made on the NES and Commodore.
– Good times, good times! From Destructoid, a guy pawned a Genesis, not knowing there was meth inside.
– WDRB has a story on getting out of Your Parents Basement. Ugh, why would you ever want to do that?
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– NBA Live 2003 and NBA 2K3 game out for the Playstation 2, Xbox and Gamecube in 2002, oddly enough. Of course, NBA 2K3 was better.
– Although they’re not classics, Beyond: Two Souls and Disgaea D2 came out in 2013.
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 023 – The Lord of the Rings: Volume 1 (1994)
Episode 023 – Lord of the Rings: Volume 1 (1994)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are doing our best to survive more god damn snake bites, and wolves, even though we’re supposed to be in the Shire and Hobbiton… From 1994, we’re playing one of the worst Super Nintendo games of the era, The Lord of the Rings: Volume 1.
You can manually download this week’s bug-filled 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 is the main title theme from Lord of the Rings: Volume 1. Well, a snippet – the actual song is five minutes of looping music.
- 43:30 – Brisket has another new segment, to help cheer us up after an awful game play experience. It’s the Most Best Game of All-Time review segment!
- 49:30 – Emails. Huell gets a text message, and the guys are asked about You Don’t Know Jack.
- 55:45 – Snifferoo. We’ll be playing our first Game Boy game next week!
SHOW NOTES
– Brisket’s Twitch account is available here, where you can see footage of him and Steve playing The Lord of the Rings: Volume 1. It’s really, really, really bad. It is also on YouTube, with the best part probably being the five-minute password segment here.
– As mentioned on the show, Lord of the Rings is surprisingly expensive! The loose cart goes for about $10, but the box and manual in new condition ups the price to around $100. That’s the only way to play it legally, too, since it’s too horrible to be ported.
– Surprisingly, given that every game on the Internet has a backstory written about it, there is nothing about this one. No real “making of” stuff, and it isn’t really recognized as one of the worst games ever.
– Secret of the Stars is a fringe SNES RPG. You can check it out here.
– Obitus is the worst ranked SNES RPG, but it is seemingly better reviewed for other platforms.
– You Don’t Know Jack is a splendid trivia game series, but as mentioned on the show, it used to have issues running on newer machines. However, there is a Steam release that seems to have fixed up some of those issues. The individual games run from $1.99 to $3.99, with a collection available for $19.99. There are about a million annoying “Let’s Play!” editions online, but here is a decent normal version.
Vidya Game News – October 1, 2015
The cake is a lie. These stories are not.
– Nathan Birch of Uproxx has some facts you might not know about Super Mario 64. Such as that Luigi and flagpoles were originally going to be in the game, as well as a horse for Mario to ride.
– Sega’s profits are down company-wide, and they’ve asked for 200 early retirements as a result.
– Andrew Serafin of BREATHEcast notes that Microsoft has renewed the trademark for Battletoads, hinting that it might want to do something with that IP in the future.
– Hey, a new Dreamcast game is out! Ghost Blade is a side scrolling shooter, and Roger Hargreaves of Metro gives it a positive review.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Pretty much no games of signigance were released. So, uh… Go play The Oregon Trail instead.
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 022 – The Oregon Trail I and II (1971-1996)
Episode 022 – The Oregon Trail I + II (1971-1996)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are doing our best to survive snake bites, drowning, snake bites, cholera, snake bites, dysentery and snake bites! Originally released in 1971, and with many good re-releases culminating in a second installment in 1996, we’re playing The Oregon Trail and The Oregon Trail II!
You can manually download this week’s rugged 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 is the main traveling theme from The Oregon Trail II. It varies depending on the condition of your group.
- 49:45 – Brisket has a new game that’s already sweeping the nation, getting fanfare and triumphant applause. It’s !
- 58:30 – Emails. We hear from an old friend, and talk about our favorite Mario accessories.
- 1:13:45 – Snifferoo. (It’s from here, not the actual game, unfortunately.)
SHOW NOTES
– Brisket’s Twitch account is available here, where you can see footage of him playing The Oregon Trail II and past YPB games.
– As mentioned on the show, you can play The Oregon Trail and its various incarnations online for free nowadays. If you’re looking for a specific hard copy, the price tends to range from $3.50 to $10 for the game itself. If you want the box and manuals, it ranges from $4 to $22, according to Price Charting.
– Rare has made a ton of games. Wikipedia has the full list here.
Vidya Game News – September 24, 2015
Would you kindly read these news stories?
– The U.S. never got the SNES game The Amazing Spider-Man: Lethal Foes. Until now! A translation patch is out for the Japanese ROM, which is said to be one of the few 16-bit licensed games that didn’t suck. It was done by kepeb.
– Jacob Kauffman of an Arkansas NPR station has a cool interview with Dona Bailey, one of the few female programmers for the Atari 2600 and the creator of Centipede.
– From Sonic Retro and other sites, a lost arcade game, Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car, is going to be preserved soon via backup means. The game itself isn’t all that good, but hey, it’s a neat bit of history.
– Amanda Bell of MTV.com has a collection of modern songs done by the ole Game Boy.
– The Local Voice of North Mississippi has a piece on Daniel Lee Perea, who’s an expert NBA Jam player and who holds 72 different video game records. You can read it here.
– Jonesing for a modern day version of Myst? Then the long-developed The Witness might be up your alley. It finally has a release date of January 26.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
-Hey, speaking of Myst… It was released on this day in 1993. If you didn’t catch our episode on it, along with special guest Jovial Jackee, check it out here.
– In an actual bit of history, on that day in 2002 Rare was purchased by Microsoft for a reported $375 million. Thus began an “interesting” phase for the company, as games have generally slid in quality and sales since that time, instead of being a killer first-party developer for Microsoft.
– Speaking of weird departures from established standards and practices… Star Fox Adventures came out 13 years ago for the GameCube, between Sept. 22 and Sept. 27, depending on the country. It took Star Fox into the area of Zelda games, and away from traditional space shootin’. And another shameless plug! Check out our Star Fox and Star Fox 64 episode here.
– Ico, a well-respected, unique puzzle platformer, came out 14 years ago for the Playstation 2. It was considered one of the games of the year.
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 021 – Black Tiger (1987)
Episode 021 – Black Tiger (1987)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are skulking about neon-lighted dungeons and whipping with our flail past zombies and Venus fly traps! From 1987, we’re playing Black Tiger, an arcade classic for special guest Paul, a.k.a. Pascal’s Pager. NOTE: This week’s episode contains some especially blue language, especially toward the end! You’ve been warned.
You can manually download this week’s zenny 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.
Today’s guest is the co-host of AfterPod, which is a daily podcast show that reviews The Adam Carolla Show and other podcasts. For more information, check out their website, and if you like Paul be sure to subscribe to AfterPod on iTunes as well!
TIMESTAMPS
- 0:00 – Intro, which consists of the triumphant ending music from the game.
- 58:00 – Emails. We hear from an old friend, and talk about our favorite Mario accessories.
- 1:20:45 – Snifferoo.
SHOW NOTES
– The main image comes from an old sales flyer for the game, from this site.
– Unfortunately, there are no arcade cabinets for Black Tiger on eBay currently. Another game that Paul mentioned, Rastan, is going for $300 and it doesn’t even work. As mentioned on the show though, it is available in the Capcom Classics Collection for the Xbox and Playstation 2. According to Price Charting, it goes for around $25 used, $40 new. If you’re fine with not having a physical copy, it is included in the Capcom Arcade Cabinet, which is downloadable for most systems.
– On the show, Steve mentioned the ridiculous outfit of the female lead in Tales of Hearts R. You can see it here. There are also alternate costumes like a swimsuit and schoolgirl outfit, if that’s not weird enough for you.
GUEST REQUEST
This week, we’re recording a show on The Oregon Trail. If you’re interested in taking part, either via comments or guesting, shoot us an email!
Your Parents Basement 
