Vidya Game News – August 4, 2016
– Holy hell, get at this treasure trove before Nintendo takes it down! Thirteen years of Nintendo Power have been put on the Internet Archive. The covers alone are awesome. Read them alllll here. (Note: Some sites say that Nintendo has authorized the posting, so mayyybeeee they’ll stay up longer than a hot minute.)
– Matt Grosinger of Nerdist has a ranking of all the songs in Mario Kart 64, from worst to best.
– The 54-acre former home of Atari in Beverly is now looking for tenants, per Banker and Tradesman.
– Hardcore Gamer is doing a week-long retrospective on the Metroid series, with the topic of this article being Metroid Prime’s incredible music.
– To the surprise of almost no one, the developer of the new Ghostbusters video game that didn’t tie into the old series OR the new one didn’t have a successful release. Fireforge has filed for bankruptcy, claiming $12 million in debt, only three days after launching the game. Read more on Kotaku.
– Chris Reed at Entertainment Cheat Sheet has a pretty neat list of 10 games millennials have forgotten about.
– Polygon’s Michael McWhertor has eight minutes of Sonic Mania gameplay posted, and shockingly, it doesn’t look bad! Check it out here.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Doom 3, the first attempted reboot of the series by id Software, came out on Aug. 3, 2004. While it wasn’t really followed-up by id, the more story-based game got good reviews, and it was pretty fun!
– Konami’s Silent Hill 3, a direct sequel to the first game in the series, came out for the PS2 on Aug. 5, 2003.
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 066 – The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (1992)
Episode 066 – The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (1992)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are smacking things with our pipes and yo-yos! From 1992, we’re playing The Legend of the Mystical Ninja by Konami for the SNES.
You can manually download this week’s quirky 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 title theme from the game.
- 40:20 – Emails! It’s all about Pokemon love.
- 46:45 – It’s the feature sweeping the nation! Ask The Sweet Boys.
- 58:00 – Snifferoo. Next week, we are experiencing the glory of the Olympics! In 16-bit form.
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, The Legend of the Mystical Ninja is still somewhat pricey. The loose cart is $28.34, and the box and manual ups the price to $84.98. However, it’s available for purchase via the Wii and Wii U virtual consoles.
Episode 065 – Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (1992)
Episode 065 – Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (1992)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are going where no man has gone before! From 1992, we’re playing Star Trek: 25th Anniversary developed by Interplay and published by Ultra (Konami) for the NES. We’re joined by special guest and lover of Ghostbusters (for real), Bob Hanson!
Set your phasers to STUN and 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 tiny bit of the Star Trek theme that is in the game’s main theme.
- 54:00 – Emails! Ole Scooty writes in, and someone wants to know what Steve’s favorite number is.
- 1:03:00 – It’s our fastest growing segment! Ask The Sweet Boys.
- 1:14:00 – Snifferoo. For some reason, we’re actually playing a good game next week! One of the ultimate cult classics for the SNES.
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, Star Trek: 25th Anniversary is reasonably priced, at $10.80 for the loose cart and $29.14 for the box, manual and cart. The Next Generation is a bit more, in the $18.95 to $40 range.
– The Angry Video Game Nerd has covered a couple Star Trek games.
– Ultra was a publishing company for Konami, setup to bypass Nintendo’s strict five-per-year limit for companies in the U.S. Read more about the company on its Wikipedia page.
Vidya Game News – June 9, 2016
– A fun piece from Dany Roth of blastr, as he looks at 10 forgotten NES games that deserve a comeback. Included on the list is The Guardian Legend, which we covered a few weeks ago.
– Joe Juba of Game Informer spoke with Takashi Tokita, one of the directors of classic RPG Chrono Trigger. He’d like to see a “high quality, high end” version of the game. As a comment on the article summed up perfectly: *breathing intensifies*
– Obduction, a spiritual successor to Myst by Cyan, is scheduled for a July release according to Elise Favis of Game Informer. (And hey, listen to our Myst episode!)
– Director Rocky Morton tells Poppy-Jay Palmer of SciFiNow about the horrible experience he had directing the Super Mario Bros. movie.
– Anthony John Agnello looks at the development of story in the Metroid series for the AV Club. (And hey, check out our Super Metroid episode!)
– Jeremy Peel of the PC Games Network has an interview with the current management of Atari.
– Nolan Moore is trying to hack a Power Glove to control robots, drones and other things, which is awesome. Read more about his project here.
– The latest Mike and Bootsy game on Cinemassacre is Swamp Thing for the NES. Check out their video here!
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Hey, the Game Boy Advance came out on June 11, 2001! It ended up selling more than 81 million units, which is pretty, pretty, pretty good. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon was a launch title. It’s a stellar side-scroller with RPG elements, and worth hunting down.
– Also on June 11, but in 2000, The Legend of Dragoon came out for the Playstation. It was a fairly mediocre RPG, but one of the first released for the system, so it sold fairly well as a result.
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 – May 5, 2016
– Of all the things Sega could license… A movie adaption of Shinobi could be coming soon, per Variety. It’s a solid game, but when it comes to story-based ninja games, it’s no Ninja Gaiden.
– Also, Sega has allowed modding to its games on Steam. As you can imagine, this has led to all sorts of fun, like Kirby starring in Sonic The Hedgehog and difficulty hacks for Comix Zone. Zack Kotzer of Motherboard has a good summary article on some changes.
– From Carl Batchelor of Niche Gamer, NES dungeon crawl game Shadow Brain has gotten a translation patch.
– Ryan Shoptaw of Gaming Conviction says a prototype cart for DuckTales 2 is now for sale.
– Nolan Bushnell, the original vidya games guy for Atari, is now working on cell phone games.
– Over on Cinemassacre, Mike and Bootsy play the NES hack Luigi’s Chronicles 2, an ultra-tough remake of Super Mario Bros. 3.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– In 1992, Wolfenstein 3D was released for the PC by id Software. You play as William “B.J.” Blazkowicz and shoot down a ton of Nazis, and it was as awesome as it sounded at the time. It was the FPS game that popularized the genre.
– On May 6, 2001, Mario Party 3 came out for the N64. Yes, there were three Mario Party games for the 64! It was also the last Mario game for the system.
– Konami released Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow in 2003 for the Gameboy Advance. It is one of the excellent Metroidvania games in the series. (And hey, check out our episodes on Castlevania and Super Metroid!)
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 – 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.
Vidya Game News – March 17, 2016
– Hey, the NCAA tournament starts today! While there was a lot of fanfare when the college football series by EA ended, the NCAA Basketball series went with a whimper in 2010. It kind of sucked, since the 2K series was better, but even that ended in 2008. Amusingly, even though it’s not a great game, NCAA Basketball 10 now goes for more than $30 because it’s the last one. (NCAA Football 14 is in the same boat, with prices staying at $25+, although that’s a much better game.)
– Matt Peckham of Time.com, which apparently used to be a magazine, has an interview with Miyamoto on Star Fox Zero.
– I Am Setsuna is the latest new RPG series from Square Enix, and according to IGN, it’s inspired by Chrono Trigger. Nice!
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– We’re finally getting to some decent historical release dates! On this day in 1994, Castlevania: Bloodlines came out for the Genesis. It was the only ’Vania game released for the Genesis, and it was very well-received. (The photo comes from this website.)
– Also for the Genesis in 1994, there was Streets of Rage 3! It was more of the same – basically, that system’s answer to Final Fight – but still good.
– Legend of Legaia, a perfectly average PSX RPG, came out in 1998. From the developer Contrail, it had a sequel in 2001, but otherwise, it hasn’t been prominent.
– Last year, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD came out for the PS4 and Xbox One. It was based on an old Playstation Portable game, and it shows with the weird, frenetic gameplay. Steve just bought it last week for $10 and says it’s pretty passable.
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 – March 3, 2016
– How did 12-year NHL vet Ryan Kesler get involved in hockey? Why, NHL 94, of course!
– Kotaku’s Patrick Klepek has a long article on several different Nintendo hackers.
– FOX Sports had a segment with NASCAR drivers playing Mario Kart 64. It’s on YouTube here.
– From UK site Wow 24/7, Jordan Sims has a list of the horrible attempts by McDonald’s to create video games.
– Whoops! It turns out the Coleco Chameleon system might have been a hoax. Engadget’s Kris Naudus has a good summary on the Internet sleuthing done.
– A fun article from Dan Taipua at The Spinoff on the essentials for an NES collection. Included is the Power Glove, because “it looks f****** amazing.” I can’t disagree with that. Speaking of the Power Glove, Sony has filed a patent for a new glove-based controller, per Uproxx.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Yet again, not much of significance came out, since March tends to be another slow month for games. Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance came out in 2003, but it was simply an expanded version of the original sequel. Helldivers got rave reviews, but it only came out in 2015.
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 044 – The Simpsons (1991 and 1992)
Episode 044 – The Simpsons (1991 and 1992)
This week in Your Parents Basement, it’s the 25th anniversary of the sole early good game in a video game series based on a TV series! From 1991, it’s The Simpsons arcade game by Konami! We also play some of the low lights of the video games – Bart vs. The Space Mutants, Bart’s House of Weirdness and Bart’s Nightmare.
You can manually download this week’s cromulent 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 one of the best TV theme songs in vidya game music glory.
- 43:30 – Emails! We talk Christmas gifts and other important things.
- 1:04:00 – Snifferoo. We’re covering TWO games for next week’s show! One involves the Zapper. Pew pew pew!
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, pretty much all of the games based on The Simpsons are between $5 and $20 for just the carts or discs. As we say on the show, most of them aren’t worth owning, except for Hit and Run, Road Rage and The Simpsons Game.
– The list of video games based on The Simpsons is really long. As is the list of video games on The Simpsons.
– Do you like luxury? What about a Jaguar?
Episode 032 – Metal Gear Solid (1998)
Episode 032 – Metal Gear Solid (1998)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are using cardboard boxes to sneak and strangle our way past terrorists! From 1998, we’re playing a masterpiece from Hideo Kojima and Konami, Metal Gear Solid! Our special guest this week is Dale, who recently played the game for a charity drive.
You can manually download this week’s stealthy 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 about a minute of the main theme from Metal Gear Solid.
- 1:01:45 – Emails. None of them are fake, so the guys talk about their favorite Mario Kart series racers.
- 1:25:00 – Snifferoo. Next week, we’re playing a game from a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, Metal Gear Solid is still priced reasonably, at $10 for just the game CDs and the case. New copies are costlier, at an average sale price of $113. The Gamecube version costs more, ranging from $33 to $80, but it’s available on the last two generations of systems in various collections for around $10 to $20.
– Dale was on a previous episode of the pod, a wonderful show on Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City. You can read more here, which includes a link to the episode to listen.
– On Reddit, AudioRejectz attempts to summarize the Metal Gear timeline through 2014. This would be before the 2015 game, Metal Gear Solid 5, came out. The Metal Gear series article on Wikipedia is a bit more brief, but the entries for the individual games are as insanely detailed as you would think.
– The best Metal Gear spoof belongs to Mega64. View the video here. Also, as you’d expect, the Metal Gear Solid page on TV Tropes is friggin’ huge.
Your Parents Basement 