Vidya Game News – November 24, 2016
A short one today, because it’s Thanksgiving, after all!
– The Ringer had a cool retrospective on Tecmo Super Bowl, because it’s the 25-year anniversary for the game. Check out our show on the game here!
– Also on The Ringer, their podcast network now has a vidya game show! It’s called Achievement Oriented, and they had Jennifer Hale on to talk about the vidya game voiceover artist strike.
– From Polygon via Variety, the Mortal Kombat movie reboot might be directed by Simon McQuoid. Read more here.
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was released in 1992. It added Tails as a secondary character, as well as the “dash” ability thing when you’re in a ball, which was actually hella helpful.
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 – November 12, 2015
“Over the centuries, mankind has tries many ways of combating the forces of evil… Prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun.” – Terry Pratchett.
– Remember a couple months ago, when some dudes claimed to have found a prototype of the Nintendo-Sony CD project? Well, Engadget has an awesome follow-up by Richard Lai, and the system actually works! The CD drive doesn’t function, but it’s backwards compatible with some SNES games. If you’re unfamiliar with the backstory, Nintendo and Sony were originally going to collaborate on a system, but Nintendo was allegedly uneasy with Sony’s dominance in the tech industry already and pulled out. This led to Sony creating the PSX.
– Also in “cool older game news,” the Genesis port of Duke Nukem 3D is now available worldwide for $39.99.
– Radiant Historia was an awesome RPG for the Nintendo DS that had a Chrono Trigger-like game element that allowed you to manipulate the timeline. Now, according to Nintendo Everything, the director is interested in making a sequel.
– On the latest UpUpDownDown podcast on YouTube, Xavier Woods and Curtis Axel played each other in “Super Tecmo Bowl,” a.k.a. Tecmo Super Bowl, which we played a few weeks ago.
– From Now Gamer, a neat feature on six games that pushed hardware to its limit. Included are Mayhem in Monsterland (Commodore 64), Under Defeat (Dreamcast), Street Fighter Alpha 2 (SNES), Conker’s Bad Fur Day (N64), Adventures of Batman and Robin (Genesis) and Solaris (Atari 2600).
– On James and Mike Monday (Angry Video Game Nerd) this week, they played Power Punch II, a bizarre sequel to Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out. For the NSFW video, click here.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Metal Gear Solid 2 was released for the Playstation 2 in 2001. It has since gone on to sell seven million copies, and it was one of the first to heavily involve cinematics with a shooting sort of game.
– In 2007, Super Mario Galaxy was released for the Wii. It was super well-reviewed and remains a beloved vidya game.
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 – October 22, 2015
“COMMUNISM IS A LIE. DEATH IS A PREFERABLE ALTERNATIVE TO COMMUNISM. DEMOCRACY IS NON-NEGOTIABLE.” – Liberty Prime, Fallout 3. Fight the red scourge by enjoying this capitalistic vidya game news!
– Good news for Todd Brisket! The Sega Genesis version of Duke Nukem 3D is now available.
– On Digg, an amazingly “so bad it’s awesome” commercial for the Atari 5200. It features some legitimately hot, way too enthusiastic babes in bikinis! Check it out here.
– Pretty much every major tech site had some sort of piece on the 30-year anniversary of the NES, but Mashable had a neat retrospective on the 18 launch games for the system. Among them: Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Wrecking Crew and Clu Clu Land.
– Nintendo has opened up its development process slightly, and it’s also quietly sending out development kits for its next system, according to several different websites.
– From many different sites, but created by Sports Illustrated’s Cauldron, it’s the Colts bizarre fake punt recreated in Tecmo Super Bowl – view it on YouTube.
– There could be a new Valkyria Chronicles game in the works, as Sega has registered the name Valkyria of the Battlefield with the Japanese patent office.
– My Parents’ Basement is a new restaurant open in Avondale Estates, Georgia. For a review, click here, and the restaurant’s website is here.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Grand Theft Auto 3 was released 14 years ago on the PS2, which was followed by PC versions in 2002 and Xbox in 2003. It was the first REALLY good game of the series, and as of 2011, it had sold more than 17 million copies, in addition to being the best-selling game of 2001.
– Fallout: New Vegas came out on Oct. 19 in 2010, but it’s close enough to include right here, especially since there weren’t many other significant games released on Oct. 22. Also, Fallout 4 comes out on Nov. 10. (Speaking of, the “PipBoy edition” went back on sale yesterday, and supplies lasted for five minutes, per Polygon.)
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 – September 10, 2015
Hey, you know what starts tonight? Football! Football, football, FOOTBALL! Tom Brady, football, Deflategate, FOOTBALL!!! #hottakes. Oh, and here is some vidya game news:
– The original PlayStation was released 20 years ago, roughly, as it hit American shores on Sept. 9. Mike Minotti of the Gamesbeat column at Venturebeat has a piece on the mediocre launch titles. “Highlights” included Ridge Racer, NBA Jam Tournament Edition and Battle Arena Toshinden.
– Similarly, Entertainment Weekly online’s Aaron Morales has a look at the Dreamcast’s super sweet 16.
– Project X Zone 2 is an odd, mash-up tactical RPG. Among its playable characters are Captain Commando, Heihachi Mishima from Tekken, and now, Segata Sanshiro from Sega Saturn ads. Sato at Siliconera has a summary here.
– Chelsea Stark at Mashable has grouped together 10 cool Super Mario Bros. music covers here. And in a video for Eurogamer, the developers of SMB talk World 1-1.
– In a great column idea, whodeyfans at SB Nation uses Tecmo Super Bowl to project games.
– From Reddit, a Super Mario Bros. video is used to announce a pregnancy.
– U.S. News and World Report has an article on moving out of your parents’ basement. Ugh, who would ever want to do that?
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Hey, some actual games of significance were released! You know, like Kid Klown in Crazy Chase for the SNES in 1994! Big time stuff! (JK on that one, but for reals…)
– Spyro the Dragon came out for the Playstation in 1998. It was an incredibly popular platformer, and along with Crash Bandicoot, the closest thing Sony had to a proper mascot.
– The third volume of the .hack//G.U. series came out for Playstation 2 in 2007. Entitled Redemption, it closed out the last console version of that games series, which has some intriguing elements.
– In Japan, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest came out in 1993. Oddly, this was an inverse of the usual practice, as the North American version came out in October 1992. The game tends to be viewed dismissively by Final Fantasy fans, but it’s a perfectly average RPG for the time, with surprisingly good music. Also released in Japan on this date in history: Mutant League Football in 1993.
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 019 – Tecmo Bowl (1989) and Tecmo Super Bowl (1991)
Episode 019 – Tecmo Bowl (1989) and Tecmo Super Bowl (1991)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we’re getting ready for the start of the NFL season by fading back with classic signal callers like Boomer Esasion and QB Eagles! We’re playing Tecmo Bowl and Tecmo Super Bowl, both for the NES, from 1989 and 1991, respectively.
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TIMESTAMPS
- 0:00 – Intro. Going through a play and scorin’ a touchdown, from this YouTube video.
- 49:00 – Emails. The gang talks Crusader Kings 2 and their “favorite” movies from vidya games.
- 1:11:00 – Snifferoo.
SHOW NOTES
– For the version of Tecmo Super Bowl with updated rosters, check out the invaluable website resource for the game, TecmoBowl.org. Rosters for the 2015 season aren’t out quite yet, but it’ll probably be any day now, with the season about to start. This is also the site to go to if you’re looking for some online head-to-head, or anything else Tecmo Bowl-related.
– The mini-documentary on Tecmo Bowl and Tecmo Super Bowl is available to watch on YouTube. It’s a 25-minute film by ESPN2, the NFL Network and NFL Films, and has interviews with competitive players and the most well-known players from the game.
– ESPN covered Bo Jackson on their awesome documentary series, 30 for 30. The name of the documentary was You Don’t Know Bo. For more info, check out their website.
– The ESPN show on John Madden Football didn’t run for two years… It ran for four god damn years! Good lord. If you really want information on Madden Nation, Wikipedia has a rundown.
– There hasn’t been an especially exhaustive oral history on Tecmo Bowl or Tecmo Super Bowl yet. Uni Watch has an OK one here, which gets into the licensing issue with Randall Cunningham and Bernie Kosar a little bit.
– According to Price Charting, used carts for the original Tecmo Bowl are pretty affordable, at around $7. If you want the manual and box, the price increases, from $15 to $20. Tecmo Super Bowl is pricier, around $15 for just the car, and $25 to $30 for the box and manual. (It’s worth it, though.) The Genesis and SNES versions are more expensive, with the second one costing around $35 for the loose cart, and $60 to $100 for the box and manual. The second one only had a limited run, and isn’t really any better than the third, just rarer.
– The game Brisket mentions in the email segment, Crusader Kings II, is on sale at WinGameStore for $7.99. It’s also available in various collections on Steam for the full price, which is around $40.
– The Mega Man movie was first reporting by a site called the Tracking Board. Their news item on it is here. The site that reported a Golden Axe movie has since taken it down, and the Borderlands movie has been rumored on tons of places on the ole Internet.
GUEST REQUEST
For next week’s show, we’re covering River City Ransom! If you’re interested in guesting, shoot an email to parentsbasementpodcast@gmail.com.
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