Vidya Game News – October 20, 2016
– Today has a crap-ton of current video game news. Nintendo says they’re releasing information on their new console, the NX, for realies this time at 10 a.m. EST. Likewise, Rockstar is releasing a trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2 at 11 a.m. EST. What a time to be alive! (UPDATE: The RDR2 link has been updated with the trailer, which looks awesome, and the NX is now called the Switch, and most of the trailer is about friggin’ controllers.)
– From ESPN property FiveThirtyEight, the world record speedrun for Super Mario Bros. continues to go down. And hey, check out our first ever episode, which was on that game!
– Wired.com has translated a really good interview with Miyamoto done by a Japanese publication. Read it here!
– Did you ever wonder to yourself: “Hey, what if the Swedish Chef loved vidya games? And then he hacked passwords for them?” Well, you’re in luck! Bisqwit has a cool video on passwords for River City Ransom on YouTube here. Listen to our past show on that game here!
– The Chicago Tribune has a review of “Merge,” which is a play about the early years of Atari.
– The Verge, via a Nintendo social media account, post a treasure trove of old systems they found in a warehouse.
– Paste’s Jason D’Aprile has a good, long interview with Rand Miller of Myst fame. Check out our Myst episode with Jovial Jackee here!
– A very British dude, Daniel Ibbertson a.k.a. Slopes Game Room, has the complete history of the Shinobi series on YouTube.
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Shining Force 2 came out for the Genesis at some point in October 1994 – the exact date is seemingly lost to time. The Shining Force series is Sega’s version of Fire Emblem, in that both tactical RPG series were ignored and not properly promoted for the longest time. And, well, Sega has kind of ignored it except for more Japanese releases.
– Konami released Metal Gear Solid for the Playstation on October 21, 1998. You can listen to the sweet baby boys and Dale talk about it here!
– Also in 1998, Xenogears came out. It tends to get a bit too much hype, but it’s still a pretty solid PSX RPG by Square. It tends to get more fame because of programming and localization issues.
– Borderlands came out for the PS3 and 360 today in 2009. The first-person shooter from Gearbox Software mixed RPG elements into a first-person shooter, and it had a distinctive art and humor style. It’s sold more than 4.5 million copies.
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 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.
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 – September 3, 2015
While Kanye is running for president in 2020, the only one that’ll get our votes is President Ronnie. Are you a bad enough dude to save him? Prepare for the onslaught of political news with this much more appealing vidya game news:
– The aptly named Steven Lebron of Vice Sports has a lengthy interview with Tim Kitzrow, the voice of the NBA Jam series. Among the neat facts in the piece? He only got paid $900 for his initial voice work.
– The final tally for the first sale of Atari 2600 cartridges from a New Mexico landfill? About $107,000, according to Jacqueline Devine of The Alamogordo Daily News. The lot up for sale was 881 games, with the biggest earning being a copy of E.T., which went for $1,535.
– On YouTube, the iBookGuy has a cool series about how graphics and sounds work in older systems. This week’s topic was Apple and Atari, and you can see it here.
– Are you near central New Jersey at all? Cool! Then you can attend A Video Game Con – AVGC – which is being put on by Paul Solomine. The video game-focused event will have more than 60 vendors and 100 merchandise tables, as well as pretty much every old school console. Chuck O’Donnell of MyCentralJersey.com has a full article here.
– Jaz Rignall at US Gamer has an article on one of those obscure consoles you probably haven’t heard of, the Amstrad GX4000. It also gets into the odd European market, which was not dominated by the NES.
– In celebration of its birthday, Uproxx’s Nathan Birch has a long piece on some of the trivia aspects of the Super Nintendo. Amongst the tidbits: Nintendo never wanted to make a follow-up to the NES, most N64 games started as SNES projects, and yes, the system turns yellow over time.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Pretty much zero games of note came out in America, unless you’re really into NFL Head Coach 09 or Blade II (2002). And if you are, well, it might be time to reevaluate your life and your priorities.
– In Japan, the awesome cult game The Magic of Scheherazade came out in 1987. It didn’t hit American shores until December 1989, but it was a cool game that mixed adventure and RPG elements. And oh yeah – some game called Metal Gear Solid came out in Japan. It became kind of a big deal…
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 