Vidya Game News – September 6, 2018
Another week, another roundup of news links!
- Attack of the Fan has a neat article on Micro Mages, a new game for the NES. It actually looks kind of neat! You can read more here.
- Ryan Smith of Chicago Reader has an article on Josh Tsui, one of the developers behind mid-1990s Midway games and Insert Coin, an upcoming documentary about the company.
- Mashable and The A.V. Club have a good bit of trivia about Bill & Ted – namely, that the first movie had Hitler in the first draft. We covered that bodacious game in, what else, Episode 69.
- Gizmodo reviews a conversion kit to make your SNES controllers wireless.
- Sony is finally ending support for the Playstation 2, per Kotaku.
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance came out 15 years ago. Some people love it, whereas others recognize it for the bizarre, subpar offshoot of a classic game that it really is. We reviewed the original game on Episode 144. Also, Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge came out the same week for the GBA. Check out our show on the proper game here.
- Spore came out for the PC 10 years ago. While it was a fun little lark, it wasn’t quite the gaming revolution that game designer Will Wright had billed it up to be. We covered SimCity in Episode 55.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. When possible, we attempt to link to original sources for all reporting, and we don’t typically link to stupid multi-page galleries. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Episode 159 – Banjo-Kazooie (1998)

Episode 159 – Banjo-Kazooie (1998)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are playing as the best bear-and-bird duo around! From 1998, we’re playing Banjo-Kazooie by Rare for the Nintendo 64. We’re joined by the three folks behind Gravity Gerbil, a fun cell phone game, that have fond memories of this one!
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TIMESTAMPS
- 0:00 – Intro, which features a proper bonkers TV commercial from back in the day.
- 35:30 – Todd has reasons why this is… The Most Best Game of All-Time.
- 52:30 – Emails!
- 1:05:10 – As usual, we try to help some people in… Ask the Sweet Boys.
- 1:16:00 – Snifferoo. Hey, do you like Star Wars movies?
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, Banjo-Kazooie has held its value well, like most good Nintendo 64 games. The loose cart goes for $20, and the box and manual ups the price to $50. The sequel and player’s choice editions are similar prices.
– Make sure you check out Gravity Gerbil! As Steve mentioned on the show, it’s a fun little lark, and very affordable at $1.99.
Vidya Game News – November 19, 2015
“It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.” – The Legend of Zelda.
– A cool project by a programmer dude is detailed on AtariAge, as he modified Dark Chambers into a version of Gauntlet that works on the Atarti 2600! Read about his work here.
– Confirming earlier trademark and copyright work, this week Sega confirmed that they are making a new Valkyria Chronicles for the Playstation 4, and remastering the old games as well. Sega Nerds had a translation of the Famitsu article. The third game never made it to the U.S., so it’s unclear if the new game or the remastered games will either.
– Two big Nintendo items this week. There will be a female Link, Linkle, in 3DS game Hyrule Warriors, per Twitter. Also, per almost every site on the Internet, the original Pokémon games will be getting re-releases.
– Neat advertising stuff, as Gamezone has an article by Samantha Bishop on the cool, old Kay Bee Toys flyers that got posted on Flickr. And from Tech2, they have the six worst gaming ads of all-time.
– Robyn Miller, the composer of Myst, has signed on to provide the music for Obduction. It’s a new graphical adventure that is clearly influenced by Myst.
– Cool Kickstarter project: an illustrated history of game controllers from 1972 to 1989. Check out the project from Player One Books here.
– Very important business from The Chicago Sun-Times, as Chicago Bulls player Tony Snell claims to have loved playing as Michael Jordan in NBA Jam. Say what? Everyone knows Jordan wasn’t in the game! He is probably confusing it with NBA Live 2000, which was the first basketball game in ages to actually have Jordan.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– In 2000, Banjo-Tooie came out. The sequel to Banjo-Kazooie, it was also well-reviewed. The platformer was the second-to-last game that Rare did for Nintendo, before becoming a developer for Microsoft.
– Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was released for the PC in 2003, a few months after its initial release on the Xbox. It was an excellent RPG developed by BioWare.
– Not quittteee this day, but on Nov. 18, 1998, the Game Boy Color came out. It’s a popular day for Nintendo releases, because the Wii came out on this day in 2006.
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.