Vidya Game News – March 10, 2016
– Cyan, the makers of Myst, have released a teaser trailer for their new game, Obduction. Check it out on their YouTube channel.
– There are a bunch of new screenshots and tracks released for the new Toejam and Earl game, per TechnoBuffalo.
– Amazingly, you can still play Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast! Well, if you’re willing to buy some modded games and/or systems. But, hundreds of people still do, and Jason Evangelho has the details on Forbes.
– Atlas Obscura’s Eric Grundhauser has an awesome read on the “treasures” offered in an old Atari contest for Swordquest. It’s long, but good. (For some of the neat-looking ads, including the one on this entry, go here!)
– Today’s “Shut up and take my money!” moment: Nintendo plans to open up a theme park at Universal Studios Japan. The Telegraph in the U.K. has a good write-up here.
– Bryan Cranston has been in a lot of commercials, including one for the Atari 2600 game MegaForce. Zap2It has a listicle here.
– From Allegra Frank at Polygon, and a bunch of other sites, the Coleco Chameleon is now dead.
– Per some mod makers, Microsoft wanted $500,000 to license Shadowrun for an X-Com 2 mod. Niche Gamer’s Carl Batchelor has a summary of the Twitter stuff here.
– On Kotaku Australia, Jason Schreier has a 20-year retrospective on Super Mario RPG.
– From The Wrap and a bunch of other sites, DuckTales is getting a revival! The first image is out, and it doesn’t look bad. Hopefully, it will lead to more splendid video games to review…
– Are you going to SXSW? (Sweet baby boy Huell is!) Well, they’re having a bunch of video game and tech-focused panels! Check out the list here.
– In re-releasing news, the rumored Valkyria Chronicles Remastered is now a reality for North American audiences! Per Sega and Sony, it’ll come out May 17, and feature upgraded graphics and full trophy support.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– On March 11, Mega Man & Bass came out for the Game Boy Advance in 2003, which is close enough for our purposes. It was the only main series game for the GBA, and was generally well-received.
– PlatinumGames’ MadWorld, an incredibly ultraviolent game, somehow came out for the Wii in 2009. It’s one of the few Wii games that is not kid or family-appropriate, as it is about a murder-related game show. Think of Smash TV, but gorier, and more of a beat-em-up.
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 045 – Duck Hunt (1985) and World Class Track Meet (1988)
Episode 045 – Duck Hunt (1985) and World Class Track Meet (1988)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are focusing on two pack-in games for the ole NES! From 1985, we’re playing Duck Hunt with the NES Zapper, and from 1988, we’re playing World Class Track Meet, both developed in part by Nintendo.
You can manually download this week’s gimmicky 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 title theme from World Class Track Meet.
- 39:00 – Emails! A special friend wants to guest on the show, and the return of a length emailer.
- 1:06:45 – Snifferoo. Next week, we’re playing a fun, esoteric game that makes Jurassic Park look cheap. (Well, not really. But it’s a fun game with a great soundtrack!)
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, loose carts of Duck Hunt are super cheap, and only cost $3.35. The same thing goes for the combo packs with Super Mario Bros. and World Class Track Meet. However, the Duck Hunt box adds another $100 on to the price, because it’s so rare. (I can’t remember ever seeing JUST Duck Hunt for sale in a store…) World Class Track Meet seemingly didn’t have a proper release, and it’s not really for sale on eBay as a result.
– Stadium Events, the game that World Class Track Meet was repurposed from, goes for an insane amount of money now. GameSpot has a good article on the latest $35,100 auction here.
– From YouTube, modern day teenagers try to play Duck Hunt. Hilarity ensues!
Vidya Game News – February 25, 2016
– The BBC has an awesome story and interview with Howard Scott Warshaw, and the headline says it all: “The man who made ‘the worst video game in history.’” And by that, of course they mean E.T. for the Atari 2600. You can read the story here. It gets into some of the troubled development, and also that Atari paid $21 million (!!!) for the rights to the game. (And the awesome image on today’s post comes from that story. They definitely don’t make game ads like they used to.)
– Reddit user dolopodog has posted a list of the banned words for the 3DS.
– This week, the IGN show Nintendo Voice Chat covers the 10 awesome games that never left Japan.
– The co-creator of the Atari Lynx and a programmer for the Amiga, Dave Needle, has passed away, according to a Facebook post.
– From a translation of a YouTube video, Geno of Super Mario RPG was considered as a DLC for Smash Brothers.
– Nathan Birch of Uproxx has a good beginner’s guide on retro gaming and collecting. Of note is that it’s focused on the systems that are the best to collect and play, not necessarily the ones that hold their value the best.
– TechTimes has a link and write-up to one of the old commercials for The Legend of Zelda. It features rapping. It’s ridiculous…ly awesome.
– From JackTech on YouTube, it’s an autopsy of a Game Boy! Also on YouTube, a SNES Counter Console, via Nintendo Enthusiast and Rerez. It was used to test broken systems.
– The Mega Man Legacy Collection came out this week for the 3DS, so there are some reviews of it floating around the Internet, like on Kotaku. There are frame rate issues, just like the original games! Huzzah!
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Pretty much nothing of significance came out today. Sorry! Tekken 5 came out on Feb. 24, 2005 for the Playstation 2, so that’s about the best I can do.
SHAMELESS PLUGGING
Steve is selling a bunch of video game stuff on eBay; mostly older, cheaper stuff for PS2, XBox, and the 360. Check it out here!
Vidya Game News – February 18, 2016
– Nintendo is finally bringing some classic games to the 3DS in North America, per Destructoid and other sites.
– From Gamespot, a dream of a producer from The Lego Movie would be a similar project with Nintendo characters. Unfortunately, no such project is in development… yet.
– A Chrono Trigger tribute album is now available.
– This week on Steam, Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe and Streets of Rage 2 are free for download! More games are also supposed to be unlocking. For some details, check out this piece on Fortune.
– Next week, the neat Gameological column on the A.V. Club is devoting itself to The Legend of Zelda. However, it has started out this week, so be sure to check out the link!
– From The Sun Sentinel, a southern Florida museum now has an exhibit on video games. Exhibits include Piftall!, Space Invaders and Super Mario Bros.
– Although it’s been mislabeled on a bunch of websites, Hat-Loving Gamer has made an animation of what Super Mario Kart would look like with 101 racers. Check it out on his Facebook page.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Historically, it’s a weak day for game releases. In 2009, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II came out for the PC, which might be of interest to one of the SBBs of YPB. (Huell.)
– Dark Chronicle, better known as Dark Cloud 2, came out for the Playstation in 2003. It was very well-received and a cult classic for years, and it’s now out for the PS4.
– Coming out in the same year was Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter, which got a so-so reception. As a result, the series pretty much went dormant. Per Wikipedia, the sixth installment is coming out next week in Japan for PCs and cell phones, with no news of a translation.
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 – February 5, 2016
News is short today!
– Eurogamer, citing sources close to Nintendo, reports that a proper localization for Mother 3 – the Game Boy Advance sequel of Earthbound / Mother 2 – is underway. Read their news item here. A fan translation has been available for a few years, and it’s not bad.
– Capcom is now developing a Mario Party arcade game, according to the Anime News Network.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Paper Mario, a spiritual successor to Super Mario RPG, was released for the N64 in 2001. There are now four games in the series, with the last being Sticker Star in 2012 for the 3DS.
– In 2007, Final Fantasy VI Advance came out. The re-release of FF6j/3e added a new bonus dungeon and a couple new espers.
– Devil May Cry 4 came out in 2008. Steve hasn’t ever played any of the series, but he used to have a “hand me down” cat named after the lead character.
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 – January 14, 2016
“Please adhere to the following rule of the city square: No swimming, No swearing, No laughing, No crying, No talking out of turn, No line dancing, No moose calling, No sword play, No pumpkin carving, No mummified cat juggling, No wallowing in your own self pity, No circumstantial evidence, No walking on the grass, No pancakes on Monday, No dessert until you eat your vegetables, No slapstick comedy, No balloon animals, And absolutely, positively, No barking like a seal. It upsets me.” – Secret of Evermore.
While following the rules, enjoy this vidya game news.
– Cool old game news, as Natsume has their own eBay store now. This includes new, boxed copies of things like Pocky and Rocky, Lufia II and Harvest Moon. Check it out here.
– Nintendo has joined legions of teenage girls and the year 2007, as they have a Tumblr account now, per Destructoid. Check it out here.
– Also from Destructoid, the fresh screenshots from the PS4 remaster of Valkyria Chronicles!
– From Kotaku ’Stralia and some other sites, a gamer totally broke Secret of Mana the other week during his speedrun. Also, the original game of the series, Final Fantasy Adventure, is getting a re-release on phones and iOS devices, per Polygon’s Allegra Frank.
– Also, publicized on the Mary Sue, NES30 has released a wireless NES controller that works with modern systems. It’s a bit pricey, at $36.99, but pretty damn cool.
– UK site Digital Spy has 11 horrible realities of old school gaming.
– If you live in Barrie, in Central Ontario, congrats! There is a new board game and video game group you can join.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– In 2002, NBA Courtside 2002 was released for the GameCube. As you can imagine from this game being included, it wasn’t a great day for releases, historically…
– The fourth installment of the second .hack series came out in 2004. Quarantine was a weird game, even by Japanese RPG standards. The games go for a pretty penny now, so if you see them, snatch them up.
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 – January 8, 2016
Oh man… We took a bit of a news break the past few weeks, because of The Holidays and what not. And also, Steve is sicker than the Noid after eating Pizza Hut. Regardless though, he’s powering through to deliver the first vidya games news of 2016!
– Brad Fuller, the composer for classic games like Tetris and Donkey Kong has passed away. Develop’s Matthew Jarvis has the full story here.
– A Reddit dude posts cool images from his collection of odd gaming systems. Check it out on Imgur.
– Super Metroid is a lot of fun, and you can self-impose new difficulty challenges via sequence breaking. But if you’re a complete masochist, a new hack tilts the game on its side.
– Also in bizarre hacking news: Windows 95 now works on the 3DS.
– This week’s game for James and Mike Mondays (Angry Video Game Nerd) is Killing Time for the 3DO. As one of the 20 people who own a 3DO, of course I’m linking to it.
– From Nerd Reaction, you can buy your own Star Fox statue for “just” $79.99! Story is here.
– Ken Griffey Jr. was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame this week. His SNES game was weird, and Tech Times’s Jason Serafino has a rundown here.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Much like the motion picture industry, January can be a dumping ground for the vidya game industry. The most significant releases? Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law came out in 2008 for the PS2, PSP and Wii, and Total Eclipse came out for the 3D0 in 1994.
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 033 – Super Star Wars (1992)
Episode 033 – Super Star Wars (1992)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we’re playing a game based on events a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… From 1992, we’re playing the impossibly tough Super Star Wars for the Super Nintendo from LucasArts! Our special guest this week is Beeney, who is a big Star Wars fan, and we have a special-special guest, her son, Beeney Junior!
You can manually download this week’s galactic 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 Imperial march from a little film series called Star Wars.
- 32:15 – Our YPB padawan learner, Beeney Junior, comments on the game!
- 52:15 – It’s the fastest growing game show of the last five minutes, Adobo Abobo! With guest contestant Beeney!
- 1:06:00 – We say a heartfelt goodbye to Beeney, and a heartfelt ‘hello!’ to some important asks in the emails, which again, are in no way made-up.
- 1:19:30 – Snifferoo. We are playing an iffy game from a great holiday movie series! Ya filthy animals.
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, Super Star Wars is somewhat affordable if you want a cart version, as prices range from $8 for just the cart to $45 for the manual and box, in new condition. The sequels, which are a bit better reviewed, range from $11 to $75. As mentioned on the show, downloadable versions are available for the Wii and PS3/PS4 online shops.
– Here is the list from Blastr of 50 Star Wars games, ranked. There are more than 50 games in the series, but the list is a little bit old, and they didn’t seem to delve into the handheld and mobile and fringe system games as much. Wikipedia has a full list here, separated by the film they’re based on.
– The SNES series has its own page on TV Tropes. As you can expect, the series itself has wayyyy too many pages on TV Tropes.
– In case you haven’t heard, the new Star Wars movie is out Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, depending on what country you are in. Unless you’re very lucky, tickets are probably sold out for an opening weekend showing in your area.
Vidya Game News – December 10, 2015
Not much news this week, so really, focus on some holiday shopping! Can I recommend our linkthrough via Amazon? It doesn’t add anything to your purchase price, and it kicks some cash to us. We promise to use the money on inappropriate gaming purchases, like Cool Spot.
– Geek.com and some other sites bring up that the original Super Mario Bros. theme DOES have words. Check them out here.
– From various fashion sites, there is now a Mario and Nintendo-themed Italian fashion line. Read more and check out some photos here.
– IGN’s Jared Petty has an interview with Shaq on Shaq Fu. Also, a new trailer for the game has come out. And as always, check out our past episode on Shaq Fu.
– From The Escapist, “5 Video Game Consoles That Almost Hit The Market.” Read it here!
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– In 1993, DOOM was released, and pretty much became the first megahit for the first-person shooter genre. It expanded on the gameplay of Wolfenstein 3D, and features more weapons and more enemies to blow up real good! Thanks id!
– Breath of Fire 2 came out for the SNES in 1995. Steve was one of 10 people who owned this obscure console RPG! It was better in some ways than the first, since it had a town you could recruit people to, but there was soooo much level grinding, and the game would often leave you no clue about how to do things. Re-releases for the Game Boy Advance and other systems made it much more playable.
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 – December 3, 2015
“Get over here!” – Scorpion. And, uh… read these news stories.
– On our Shaq Fu episode, we talked about how development on the crowdfunded sequel was oddly quiet. Well, according to IGN and other sites, piggybacking on Shaq’s twitter, a release date might be announced today. (And to check out our episode, which was one of our favorites, go here!)
– Know a hipster who loves old SNES RPGs? Then the perfect gift for him might be a Mother 2 (Earthbound) soundtrack on vinyl, as first publicized by Carlos Cadorniga of the Anime News Network.
– What’s the Angry Video Game Nerd up to this Christmas season? Why, examining bad cover art, of course! And it’s probably not a surprise that the second game he features is Mega Man…
– A fancy Super Mario Bros. watch can be yours for just $18,000! Good times, good times.
– Grey Carter of The Escapist has a modern review of Myst, and he’s not all that impressed in the game except as a fossil.
– T3 Online has a really awesome and exhaustive piece on the Dreamcast, and they even open up the system and look at its guts!
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– On TV Tropes, there is a concept known as Early Installment Weirdness. This definitely applies to Duke Nukem II, as most people don’t remember it started as a platform game in 1993. Apogee was an awesome developer of platform games back then, though. Since then, they’ve changed names to 3D Realms and done way more FPS stuff.
– Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire came out 19 years ago, in 1996, for the Nintendo 64 by LucasArts. While the interface is clunky at times, it features a cool-named character (Dash Rendar!) and serves as a neat side story between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
– Yesterday, 14 years ago, Pikmin came out for the GameCube. It’s kind of a cult classic for Nintendo, in that it “only” sold about 1.1 million copies back in the day. It has spawned two sequels, but it remains a minor series for the Big N.
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 