Episode 122 – Road Rash (1991)
Episode 122 – Road Rash (1991)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are whipping other racers with chains and tearing down the highways of America! From 1991, we’re playing Road Rash by Electronics Arts for the Sega Genesis. We’re joined by special guest and Texas dreamboat Barrel!
You can manually download this week’s leather-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? Want to have your voicemail played? Send all mails and audio files to parentsbasementpodcast@gmail.com.
TIMESTAMPS
- 0:00 – Intro, which features the very 1990s title theme from one of the CD versions.
- 34:00 – Todd has reasons why this is… The Most Best Game of All-Time.
- 40:00 – Voicemail! We hear from one of the greatest heavyweight champions of all-time.
- 46:00 – Emails! Captain Benjamin Rivera writes in with a question we’ve never received before, because he is a trustworthy individual and he is not an Internet scammer.
- 1:00:00 – As always, we can’t sign off without helping someone in… Ask the Sweet Boys.
- 1:05:00 – Snifferoo. Next week’s game has a very funny announcer.
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, most of the Road Rash games are affordable, at $7.50 to $25 depending on the platform. As usual, the Sega CD version is rare and costs $70.
– There is a surprising amount of Shaq Fu talk in this episode, because that game still hasn’t come out. (In case that FB page changes: As of May 2017, there isn’t an official release, for a game that was originally supposed to come out sometime in 2015.) We first mentioned the sequel during our show on Shaq Fu, which amazingly was our ninth episode ever back in June 2015.
– We mention the Road Rash spiritual successor, Road Redemption, a tiny bit on the show. While it has also had issues getting released – it is still in pre-release on Steam – at least it is getting very positive reviews.
Episode 036 – 2015 Awards – Part 2 (2015)
Episode 036 – 2015 Awards – Part 2 (2015)
This week in Your Parents Basement, it’s the continuation of a celebration! We’re covering the rest of the favorite games we played in 2015, and also, touching on some of the worst games we played. And also, of course, emails!
You can manually download this week’s prestigious 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 an opening from the Academy Awards.
- 1:05:30 – From Todd Brisket, he has the nominees and the winner of the Sweetest Baby Boy of Year!
- 1:07:30 – It’s a big ole expanded email portion this week, as we hear from some of the greatest friends of the show.
- 1:13:00 – A musical interlude, based on an email.
- 1:32:00 – A snifferoo from next week’s show, which is a cult classic SNES action-RPG based on a tabletop game series.
SHOW NOTES
– All of the games mentioned on the show are current and not especially pricey. So if they sound interesting, be sure to help us out via Amazon!
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.
Episode 016 – Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City (1994)
Episode 016 – Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City (1994)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we’re throwing down dunks for fire basketball power-ups! From 1994, we’re playing the much-forgotten Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City, a SNES-exclusive from Electronic Arts. Today’s special guest is Steve’s buddy Dale!
You can manually download this week’s wonderful 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 – The intro, which is not The Police, but is from a stage in the game.
- 1:00 – Todd’s not here, man.
- 46:00 – Emails. There could be foul play involved with this week’s show, and not enough video game questions.
- 60:30 – Snifferoo.
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, a copy of Chaos in the Windy City costs about $7 for the cart itself. If you want a new copy, or just one with the box and manual, it’s around $20 to $40.
– For a play-through of the game, with some commentary, check out this YouTube video. The speed run video is around 44 minutes, and available here.
– There isn’t much info on this game available on the web, since it isn’t “so bad it’s funny” like Shaq Fu. (And hey, reminder – We reviewed that one too!) However, as mentioned on the show, this game was the first one designed by Amy Hennig, who would go on to design and develop some much better games.
GUEST REQUEST
For next week’s show, we’re covering Smash TV! If you’d like to participate, shoot an email to parentsbasementpodcast@gmail.com. Recording time will be 11 p.m. EST Wednesday.
Vidya Game News – July 16, 2015
Now this looks PRETTY legit.
It’s way too friggin’ humid in New England, but despite the condensation, we’ve prepared only the best news for you to enjoy today! Here are some of the stories about classic games and series we’ve culled from around the Interwebs:
– In last week’s “Four of a Kind” feature on Purple Revolver by James Brookfield, they cover bad celebrity endorsed games. The finalists? Shaq Fu, Chuck Norris Superkicks, Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City, and William Shatner’s TekWar, which apparently exists!
– Looking for some classic game recommendations? Nicholas Bitonti of The Detroit Metro Times has some good recommendations. While I don’t agree with all of them, they’re more obscure and interesting than the usual ones you see floating around the web, and cover a variety of systems.
– For the upcoming release of Pixels, Chauncey Alcorn of The New York Daily News has a ranking of his favorite 10 arcade games of all-time. Spoiler alert: Tekken 4 is way too friggin’ high, and while it’s nice to see Virtua Cop get some love, there is no Time Crisis on the list, which is just silly.
– Continuing with controversial #hottakes: Lizzy Finnegan of The Escapist has an article, “When the sequel is worse than the original.” Unfortunately, her examples are The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros. and Castlevania, and I’d say that only the latter is actually bad.
– IGN.com’s Cam Shea has a good, longer read on the downfall of the SEGA Rally Championship game series. Warning though, a video autoplays from that link!
– On the Gradius episode, we mentioned that it was seen as Konami’s response to Namco’s classic Xevious. It’s probably for the best that an Atari 2600 port of Xevious never saw the light of day, because the recently unearthed prototype copy is pretty horrible. (Via Kotaku Australia’s Mike Fahey.)
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Again, it’s a fairly crappy day for video game releases, because it’s the summer. The Game Boy Color version of Dragon Warrior III came out 14 years ago. The original was an incredible RPG that featured multiple classes for the first time in a Dragon Quest / Dragon Warrior game, and even better, you could change at-will once you reached a certain point in the game. However, it originally came out in Japan in 1988, and in June 1991 in North America, and didn’t have much of an impact in the states. On Amazon, GBC prices range from $19.99 (used) to $149.98 (new). Want a boxed copy of the NES edition? It’s only $1,499.95, with used copies starting at $47.95.
– One major studio game released in the summer back in the day: NCAA Football 2004, which came out in 2003 on July 16 for the Playstation 2, Xbox and Gamecube. The cover athlete was Carson Palmer, who is now 35, and the game sells for $1 or less pretty much everywhere in the god damn world.
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 009 – Shaq Fu (1994)
Episode 009 – Shaq Fu (1994)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we study Shaqido. It’s a deadly and ancient martial art, dating all the way back to the 1990s. The history of this dangerous form of fighting in explained in 1994’s Shaq Fu, which was a real thing that happened, along with Shaquille O’Neal’s rapping career and him playing a god damn genie.
To download this week’s show, click here! As always, you can listen to this week’s show by downloading from the iTunes store – be sure to give us some starrrrssss! (In fact, you don’t even have to listen to give us stars, you know.) To manually subscribe to the pod, input this link to your device of choice. You can also follow us on Twitter, or ‘like’ us on Facebook.
TIMESTAMPS
- 0:00 – Intro, brought to you by the Wu-Tang Clan, followed by Shaq Fu chat.
- 41:30 – Tales from the Arcade with Huell.
- 51:45 – Emails.
- 1:07:15 – Snifferoo.
SHOW NOTES
– For information on the Shaq Fu sequel, check out the website on it. Like we get into on the podcast though, there isn’t an announced release date, and it’s now been more than a year since the project was initially announced.
– The Shaq Fu Liberation Army seems to be mostly dormant now. But if you’re interested, check it out here. (Note: Sound.)
– Want to play Shaq Fu? It’s not especially tough, if you still have your old systems. Copies of the game range from $3 to $8 for cart only. Even if you want the box and manual included, the price ranges from $8 to $20, depending on condition. As we say on the show, the Genesis version is surprisingly superior to SNES, thanks to more character and smoother (relatively speaking) animation.
Episode 005 – NBA Jam (1993)
In this week’s Your Parents Basement podcast, the gang tackles NBA Jam on the eve of the NBA finals! Like all good sports programmes, they use the game to predict the final of the series, and they also talk about their other favorite basketball-based video games, like Scottie Pippen’s Puzzle Challenge.
To download this week’s show, click here! You can also subscribe to the show via iTunes, or manually use this link. If you like the show, be sure to give us some starrrrssss. You can also follow us on Twitter, or ‘like’ us on Facebook.
The show notes for this week:
- A download of NBA Jam for iOS devices is free this week. This is the On Fire edition we mention at the end of the game discussion. It’s quite splendid on my PS3, although I’m not sure how well it translates to iOS.
- At one point, Huell mentions a ranking of the “best” NBA Jam teams by Deadspin. You can find that here. It is humorously presented with absolutely no summary information for the decisions.
- Mike Iuzzolino’s NBA career was so short that his Wikipedia entry has a mention to his appearance in NBA Jam. It’s an unplanned career highlight!
- When NBA Jam was being remade for the Wii, ESPN.com ran a good interview with a producer from the game. He gets into how EA Sports procured the rights for making a new version of the game, which evolved from a prototype clone called Bounce. The Wikipedia entry on the series also has some information on the Midway and Acclaim split.
- Unfortunately, Scottie Pippen’s Puzzle Challenge and Space Jam Basketball do not exist (yet). However, Shaq Fu, Michael Jordan: Chaos In The Windy City, and Barkley Shut Up and Jam! do absolutely exist. They are varying degrees of “meh,” although Sir Charles’ game is actually kind of OK… it just features no other NBA players, so why would you ever want to play it instead of NBA Jam? And shockingly, Pippen DOES have his own video game: Slam City With Scottie Pippen on the Sega CD. It is not well-reviewed.
- Finally, a fun list from a blog: The 11 Current NBA Players Who Have Never Dunked.
Your Parents Basement 