Episode 071 – Crash Bandicoot (1996)
Episode 071 – Crash Bandicoot (1996)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are staring at the ass of a marsupial! From 1996, we’re playing Crash Bandicoot by Naughty Dog for the Playstation.
You can manually download this week’s blocky pixels 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 Down Undah theme from the game.
- 33:30 – Emails! Why can’t we be “fun” and “goofy” like the Nerdist boys?
- 43:00 – We have two Asks in Ask the Sweet Boys.
- 49:30 – We are training like hell for next week’s game!
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, the original Crash games have held their value well. The first one goes for $25 for just the game, and $32 if you have the manual. Almost all of the games are at least $12 if you have the manual and box.
– The world of Crash erotica is very disturbing, so click this link with caution. The same warning goes if you run any character from Crash in Google Images.
– Kotaku has covered the Crash Bandicoot remaster, here!
Vidya Game News – August 12, 2016
Today’s roundup is a day late because Steve has a case of OLYMPIC FEVER. It’s unclear if he contracted it from the waters of Rio, or some other way. Without further ado though, the links!
– Anddddd it’s gone. Nintendo Power has been removed from the Internet Archive, per Polygon.
– Band of Savers has a very important article posted: “10 Things Duck Tales Taught Me About Money.” And, check out our old episode on the vidya game!
– Nintendo Everything has a translation of an interview a Nintendo official did about the NES Classic Edition. Apparently, the save states are going to be more integrated and extensive than originally thought, and there will be several new visual modes for the games.
– Fun times, as Entertainment.ie has a screenshot quiz on SNES games.
– From Mike Diver at VICE, a Top Ten list of Sonic games.
– The AV Club has an insanely long roundtable on the camera in Super Mario 64.
– Unsurprisingly, a fan remake of Metroid 2 was quickly taken down, according to Twinfinite.
– Kotaku has a look inside Smash Hell, the server where Nintendo banishes spammers and others.
– Shack’s Arcade Corner on Amazon looks at Black Tiger, a past YPB game! [WARNING – The first is a video link!]
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Hint for next week’s show: August 13 marked the 25-year anniversary for a slew of SNES launch games, namely, F-Zero, Pilotwings and Super Mario World. And hey, the SNES itself came out! Good times, good times.
– System Shock 2, one of the biggest cult classics ever on the PC, came out on August 11, 1999. It was designed by Ken Levine, and developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios, but a sequel has been caught in rights snafus for years.
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 – 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.
Vidya Game News – July 28, 2016
– Nintendo is mining its past heavily for the Christmas season, as in addition to the NES Classic Edition, they also plan to come out with the Playing With Power: Nintendo NES Classics retrospective book on 17 games. Read more on the Prima Games site here.
– Hey, Sega also licensed their systems for new productions years ago! Except, according to Polygon, they kind of suck.
– From Geek, the Retroist has a fun feature on misleading Atari 2600 box art.
– Surprisingly, the new Ghostbusters game is just as bad as the old one, according to Brett Makedonski of Destructoid.
– On IGN and a bunch of other sites, a wireless receiver is now available to use PS4 and other current gen controllers on the SNES.
– Jason Schreier of Kotaku has a good retrospective on Final Fantasy III for the NES.
– Surprisingly, Honest Game Trailers tackles the awful Superman 64 this week.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour came out in 2003 for the Gamecube. It was the second game in the Mario Golf series and well-received during its release.
– Pokemon Crystal came out on July 29, 2001 for the Game Boy Color. Seemingly, Nintendo is the only company releasing good games in the dog days of summer…
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 14, 2016
A sweet baby boy NES!
– Pretty much everyone shared this article with Steve on a mini-NES loaded with 30 games. My mini-review: Eh. It’s kind of steep at $59.99, and there’s no indication whether you can load more games on to it. (Note: Nintendo later told Kotaku that no, you can’t.) The HDMI hook-ups are nice, though. However, it feels like a missed opportunity for the Big N. By offering a viable alternative to emulators – like a device that allowed for game downloads, using your old carts and third-party support – they could have taken a nice chunk away from that market.
– A fox takes a Playstation controller from a house and drops it in a garden. Video!
– From Kotaku’s Patrick Klepek, and some other sites, the Saturn’s copy protection has finally been cracked.
– Tech Radar has an interesting list of the most disappointing games of the past 10 years.
– Because Nintendo needs more of your monies, there is now Mario-themed Hot Wheels cars. Read about them on Gaming With Swag.
– Ron Gilbert, the creator Maniac Mansion, talks to Deveop’s James Batchelor about his new game, Thimbleweed Park.
– Anna Pulley, the author of The Lesbian Sex Haiku Book (With Cats!), loves Duck Tales.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– WWF War Zone came out for the Playstation in 1998. Developed by Iguana West and published by Acclaim, it got pretty decent reviews, but tends to be overshadowed by other, better games.
– This was a popular time of year for NCAA Football games to come out, as 2005, 2009 and 2011 editions came out between July 13 and July 15. Unfortunately, the series is now defunct, as EA Sports couldn’t come to an agreement with some NCAA members.
– Tales of Symphonia came out for the Gamecube on July 13, 2004. It was later ported to the PS2, and then an expanded version came out for the PS3. Namco is now up to seemingly 700 different Tales games, by the way.
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 061 – ActRaiser (1991)
Episode 061 – ActRaiser (1991)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are playing God as we level fields and destroy Satan! From 1991, we’re playing ActRaiser by Quintet and published by Enix for the SNES. The sweet baby boys are joined by special guest Mike Deeney – a fan of finer things in life, like ActRaiser.
You can manually download this week’s holy 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 rousing song from the second stage, Bloodpool.
- 51:30 – Emails! The gang talks video game all-nights, jobs in vidya games, and potential games based on musical figures.
- 1:17:15 – Snifferoo. Next week, we’re bad enough dudes to play the most American game of them all for the Fourth of July.
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, and as discussed on the show, ActRaiser has retained its value pretty well. The original cart goes for $28.50, with the box and manual pushing the price up to $68. The sequel, which is just a straight-up action platformer, goes for a similar price.
– As mentioned on the show, a Kotaku article on randomizing The Legend of Zelda.
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 – May 19, 2016
– As Kotaku’s Luke Plunkett types in his write-up, Sega’s game testing training videos were peak 1990s, right down to Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails background music.
– From Polygon’s Allegra Frank, a remake of cult classic Wild Guns is coming out for the PS4!
– In unnecessary video game movie adaptation news… A Tetris movie is in the pipeline, according to Deadline. And not a documentary about the game’s interested and tangled history, but a science fiction game. A discount film studio has picked up the rights to Atari’s Missile Command and Centipede, also per Deadline. Also, confirming long-standing rumors, Nintendo said it would look to re-enter the ole Hollywood business.
– What was the code name for the biggest heroin bust in Delaware’s history? Operation Duck Hunt, of course. Read more via The Sussex County Post.
– Nintendo Player has an awesome long read on the recently-unearthed Happily Ever After, a Snow White-based NES game from the early 1990s. The game itself is a generic, Nintendo Hard affair, but the story behind it is fascinating. Plus, the ROM has been made available for free online!
– From several sites, a retro 8-bit version of Monopoly, featuring Super Mario Bros., now has a sale slug on Amazon.
– Per Gamasutra and several other sites that got the press release, mod support for older Sega games caused them to sell 350,000 copies on Steam since April 28. For the details, click here.
– For James and Mike Mondays, the guys play Doom 64, which Steve remembers somewhat fondly from his childhood! If you didn’t have a high-powered PC back in the day, it was a fairly easy way to play the ole game. Also from that site this week, Mike and Bootsy play Pinball for the NES!
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– In 1997, Eurocom released the Midway arcade game War Gods for the N64. Because the system was so starved for games at various points, it was hyped for months in Nintendo Power, but it ultimately was just a mediocre fighting game.
– New Super Mario Bros. now isn’t, as it celebrated its 10th year on May 15. (Note: It’s still an awesome platformer for the DS, though.)
– For a brief history in time, people thought they’d get in shape via vidya games. On May 21, 2008, Nintendo came out with Wii Fit and the Wii balance board. Both the balance board and the Wii are now probably in your closet.
– The year after Wii Fit, Next Level Games dropped a remake of Punch-Out!! for the Wii. While it was well-received, it wasn’t the iconic game that the original was.
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 – April 28, 2016
– From Ryan Divish and Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times, Nintendo is selling its majority stake in the Seattle Mariners. The valuation is $1.4 billion, and a follow-up story on how the deal was struck is here. The initial purchase price? Around $100 million, according to a January 1992 New York Times article by Lawrence Malkin.
– Kotaku has an excerpt from Alyse Knorr’s book on the making of Super Mario Bros. 3, and it’s an awesome read! Check it out here.
– Now out: Sega 3D Classics Collection, for the Nintendo 3DS. Games include Power Drift, Puyo Puyo 2, Fantasy Zone II and II W, Sonic the Hedgehog, Thunder Blade, Galaxy Force II, Altered Beast and Maze Walker.
– Pretty much every site on the ole Internet had a piece about the new NES adapter that lets you use some modern controllers.
– Nintendo has a Humble Bundle available until May. Highlights include Retro City Rampage and Citizens of Earth.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Historically, nothing prominent has come out on April 28, so… On April 29, 1998, Tekken 3 came out for the PlayStation. Released by Namco, it’s considered one of the absolute best games for the system, and one of the best fighting games of all-time.
– A little game called Grand Theft Auto IV came out on April 29, 2008. It made a bazillion dollars for Rockstar.
– Similarly: Mario Kart Wii came out in 2008 as well. It was a pretty good day for 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 – April 21, 2016
– As you can imagine, there is a bunch of Star Fox content this week, because a new game in the series is coming out. (The initial reviews seem to suggest it’s good, but weird control-wise.) Kotaku’s Patrick Klepek has a good piece on why Star Fox 2 never made it out for the SNES, even though it was probably more than 90 percent done. Kat Bailey of US Gamer points out that the series has a long history of innovation – some good, some bad.
– Sega has announced that it’ll allow mods to be released via Steam for some of its old games. Polygon has the press release summary here. Sega hasn’t elaborated on the extent of what it’ll allow and won’t, but it could lead to some interesting creations.
– The latest YouTube Teens React video is on Super Metroid! Check it out here. Only one teen out of six (I believe) can manage to beat the second boss, the Chozo guarding the bombs. Also, if you missed it, we recently covered Super Metroid.
– From Chris Reed at The Cheat Sheet, eight SNES games you have to play!
– Sarah Gish of The Kansas City Star looks at some of the cool bars with video games in the city.
– There is a really cool looking Nintendo 64 anthology book on Kickstarter. Check it out here!
– From Jeff Grubb at Venture Beat, what’s the current status of Atari? Well, seemingly, it’s mostly a patent troll company. They’re claiming that they own the trademark for “haunted house” in video game titling. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2013, and now, it only employs 10 people who mostly work to protect the company’s legacy value.
– Aubrey Sitterson of Geek.com has 11 games that “secretly made the Sega Saturn a great console.” While I wouldn’t agree that the Saturn was great, it was a good system, and it unfairly gets lumped into the Virtual Boy / 3DO / 32X graveyard sometimes.
– Breaking, important news! Video game henchmen plan meetup around explosive barrels! Read more here.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– According to Moby Games, Data East was founded on April 20, 1976. The company was one of the early arcade producers, making games like BurgerTime, Cobra Command, Joe & Mac and past YPB show topic Shadowrun. They also did more than a dozen different pinball games, most based on TV shows. However, by the mid-1990s the company’s popularity and series had faded, and their last game came out in 1999. (Revive… Sosei, an adventure game for the Dreamcast, was Japan-only in October 1999. Zombie Revenge, an arcade and Dreamcast release, was the last North American release, seemingly.)
– In 1982, Pitfall! came out for the Atari 2600. It was probably the very best game ever released at the time, and topped the Billboard charts for 64 weeks. The commercial also had Jack Black in his first role.
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 
