Vidya Game News – February 9, 2017
– Netflix has confirmed that an animated Castlevania show will be hitting their service in 2017! You can read about it on GameSpot, and a bunch of other sites. Its creator has called it “R-rated as fuck,” and based on Castlevania 3. You can listen to our ‘vania 1 show here.
– Enshrined in Stuff’s Hall of Fame now: The Sega Mega Drive. Read more here!
– From Tristan Jurkovich at GameSpew, a good read on the “bizarre localization” of a fun adventure / platform action game, Power Blade.
– Sweet sassy molassy! Source codes for NBA Jam Extreme and Turok: The Dinosaur Hunter were found on some auctioned computers, according to this Kotaku article, which is based on the fine work of the folks at YouTube channel Silicon Classics.
– On Ars Technica, World of Warcraft gold can now be used on other Blizzard titles like Overwatch and Hearthstone. Also, by the way, we’ve covered a bunch of their games – the original Warcraft series, Starcraft and Diablo.
– A slew of Star Wars games are available in this week’s Humble Bundle, including Knights of the Old Republic and Shadows of the Empire. Check it out here! We haven’t covered those excellent games, but we have played and reviewed Rogue Squadron 3D (included in the bundle!) and Super Star Wars (not including, but you don’t wanna murder jawas anyway).
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.
Vidya Game News – September 15, 2016
– Aaron Couch of The Hollywood Reporter has a good, long interview with Darkwing Duck creator Tad Stones, which you can read here. Among the revelations? The show wasn’t a spin-off of DuckTales, as instead, it took place in an alternate dimension. And by the way, check out our DuckTales episode here.
– The AV Club’s William Hughes spoke to Myst creator Rand Miller on his favorite puzzles, and how that game almost became a Disney ride. Read it here! And listen to our Myst episode here!
– In a good interview with MCV’s Alex Calvin, Sega’s European boss Jurgen Post admits that the company was pushing out too much crap during the Wii-era.
– From Polygon and other sites, Blizzard’s Chris Metzen is retiring. He was serving as the senior vice president of story and franchise development, and joined the company in the early 1990s as an illustrator and animator. He was responsible for expanding the lore of Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft.
– And speaking of Blizzard… One of its low lights, the cancelled Warcraft Adventures, has made its way to the Internet. Check out our show on the actual Warcraft series here.
– Did You Know Gaming covers Super Mario World this week, via Nerdist.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Animal Crossing came out today in 2002 in North America. It was yet another blockbuster series established by Nintendo.
– Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance was released on Sept. 16, 2002 for the Gameboy Advance. It was fun! It mixed the classic gameplay with RPG elements.
– A Dragon Quest IV remake, Chapters of the Chosen, came out on Sept. 16, 2008. It took the gameplay of the original, but included manual control for the later chapters (yay!), but also gave everyone weird accents (boo!). New this week is a remake of Dragon Quest VII for the 3DS, which turns it into a much better, playable game, per Attack of the Geek’s Dean James.
– FTL: Faster Than Light came out on Sept. 14, 2012. No, it’s not a classic game, but it’s hella good! You definitely need to play it if you like games.
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 – July 7, 2016
– Polygon has an awesome full-length feature on where Blizzard’s Starcraft: Ghost went wrong.
– Also from Polygon, a good, long read by Colin Campbell on an Atari artwork book.
– A translation for Wizardry Gaiden IV has been released, according to the folks at ROMhacking.net. Check out this “new” SNES game here!
– Hadlee Simons at Gearburn has a look at five failed handheld systems.
– From various websites, Stephen Colbert attempts to eat a Hot Pocket quicker than a guy completes Super Mario Bros. 3. Video here!
– As expected, Nintendo shut down a Kickstarter project for an NES coffee table book.
– The latest video on Cracked from Cody Johnston is about how Christopher Nolan stole his ideas from DuckTales. No word yet from Todd how this infraction ranks on the DuckTales scale.
– From TechTimes, Paul Rudd has barely aged since starring in SNES commercials back in the day.
– Also on TechTimes, Chinese companies are constantly making bootleg games with all the Nintendo characters.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– On July 10, 2001, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec came out for the Playstation 2. The effort from Polyphony Digital set a new standard for realistic racing games. The sixth installment came out in December 2013 to glowing reviews for the PS3, and Gran Turismo Sport is due out in November as a PS4 exclusive.
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 058 – Warcraft series (1994, 1995, 2002, 2004)
Episode 058 – Warcraft series (1994, 1995, 2002, 2004)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are amassing our armies to destroy vile orcs and corrupted humans! From 1994 to 2004, we’re playing the games of the Warcraft series by Blizzard for the PC. We’re joined by special guest Pascal’s Pager, a.k.a. Paul Christian Glenn!
And oh yeah, Todd Brisket is back too, if you’re into that sort of thing.
AT OUR COMMAND, you can manually download this week’s 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 awesome YouTube collection that Huell refers to on the show.
- 1:02:30 – Emails! What IS Q-Bert anyway?
- 1:17:00 – Snifferoo. Maybe we’ll actually play a certain game next week…
SHOW NOTES
– The first three Warcraft games are often available in a “battle chest” edition for modern systems that runs from $10 to $20 new. It can be dicey to buy used copies though, given that Blizzard can be sticklers for authentication codes.
– On the show, we talk briefly about Titan, an ambitious MMORPG that was cancelled by Blizzard despite years of work because it didn’t meet their high-quality standards. Kotaku has an impressive story on the issues of the game here, which sounds ambitious for now, nevermind a few years ago.
– A past episode was about StarCraft! If you missed us talking about that Blizzard game, go here!
– Q*bert is awesome! Here he is.
– You can watch the South Park episode “Make Love Not Warcraft” on the show’s website for free.
Vidya Game News – March 31, 2016
Yearly reminder: Friday is April 1, so any of these stories have a chance of being false in the future, unfortunately.
– From a site called MEL, Sam Stecklow has a great read on Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill, a cancelled video game for the SNES and Genesis based on the Clintons’ cat… OR IS IT CANCELLED?!?! There might be a Kickstarter campaign to get it properly released.
– Sam Machkovech of Ars Technica has a long write-up of some of the cooler panel talks at the Game Developers Conference. Among the revelations: Ms. Pac-Man began as a speed-up kit, and Diablo was originally going to be a turn-based game.
– Atlas Obscura has a good, long read from Eric Gundhauser on the non-rise and quick fall of the Phillips CD-i.
– Speaking of failed systems… Deuce of WRRV 92.7 and 96.9 links to a 30-minute Atari Jaguar informercial, which is crazy go nuts.
– And speaking of Atari, Joey Morona of Cleveland.com has a slideshow of their ads.
– Seth G. Macy at IGN has a neat piece on some trivia about classic NES games. Covered are The Legend of Zelda, Castlevania, Mario, Mega Man, Metroid and the Konami Code.
– In current events news, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice has done about $193 million at the domestic box office, and $501 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. This means we’ll probably get more of them, despite the 29 percent rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Yaaaay… Esquire’s Tyler Coates has a piece that is titled perfectly: “How did Batman go from being fun and gay to sad and boring?”
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Depending on the platform, Lego Star Wars came out this week in 2005. It was the first of many Lego games by TT Games, and almost all of them have been well-reviewed. They’re perfect for your sweet baby boys and girls at home to get into!
– Although the SNES rightly gets a lot of credit for popularizing the RPG genre, the PSX probably remains the platform that just had the most “what the hell?” RPGs, and a surprising amount made it to the U.S. Such as… Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, from Nippon Ichi, the makers of the Disgaea series. It’s the same sort of tactical, turn-based RPG game as later Nippon Ichi titles, but it came out in 1998, four years before La Pucelle: Tactics and five years before Disgaea.
– StarCraft came out for the PC in 1998. For way more on that game, check out our episode from November!
– In 1997, Doom 64 came out for, you guessed it, the Nintendo 64. While it didn’t get much attention, it is Steve’s favorite version of Doom because it adds some weapons and looks a bit nicer than some of the older PC versions.
– And oh yeah, Resident Evil came out in 1996. I guess it’s kind of a big deal, too.
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 039 – Quest for Glory IV (1994)
Episode 039 – Quest for Glory IV (1994)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we’re plumbing through mystical lakes with naked ladies and the sphincters of caves in a quest for glory! From 1994, we’re playing Sierra’s Quest for Glory IV, with special guest Jovial John!
You can manually download this week’s sultry 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 from a treacherous lake in the game. The video is slightly NSFW, and viewable in part one and part two on YouTube. Also, we’re joined by Jovial John this week!
- 49:30 – We say nighty-nite to John, and start readin’ them emails!
- 1:03:00 – A snifferoo from next week’s show. It’s the funkiest game ever for the Genesis!
SHOW NOTES
– As mentioned on the show, the best place to buy the Quest for Glory series nowadays is on GOG.com, which offers it DRM-free for $10. Check it out here.
– According to Price Charting, if you want the boxes and manuals for the games, they’re reasonably priced. The individual games range from $20 to $38, although the anthology is $87, which is a collection of the first four games from 1996. That was the most thorough collection before the GOG version in 2012.
– The Kickstarter-supported spiritual successor to Quest for Glory mentioned on the show is Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. You can read more about it here.
– Also as mentioned on the show, this was the first video game voiceover role for Jennifer Hale, who has since done way more games. Corey Cole, one of the game designers for QFGIV, notes that John Rhys-Davies called it “the CD-ROM from Hell” because of the huge length of the script, in an awesome long piece on the game.
Episode 028 – StarCraft (1998)
Episode 028 – StarCraft (1998)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we’re locked up and good to go! From 1998, we’re playing StarCraft for the PC, because the third installment of StarCraft 2 is finally coming out this week!
You can manually download this week’s roughneck 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! (Might I suggest the second expansion pack for StarCraft 2?) 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 are various marine quotes from this wonderful YouTube collection.
- 51:30 – Emails. The best games from 27 years ago, and the best vehicles in video games.
- 1:10:15 – Snifferoo. We’re experiencing dinosaurs and classical music.
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, StarCraft 64 is very expensive, at $47 for a loose cart to around $100 for the box and manual included. It’s a console port of StarCraft that is seen as OK, but nothing special. The original PC game is sold in a slew of formats, typically with the expansion Brood War included, and ranges in price from $5 to $20.
– This news came out after the show recording, found by Brisket on a site: Blizzard is looking to hire staff for re-releases of its older games.
Your Parents Basement 
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
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.