Episode 087 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989)

Episode 087 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are embracing the best aspects of turtle power! From 1989, we’re playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Konami (Ultra) for the NES.
You can manually download this week’s kung-fu 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 hypnotic 15-second loop from the first stage.
- 39:50 – Emails!
- 53:30 – It’s time to… Ask the Sweet Boys.
- 1:01:00 – A snifferoo, as well as an outtake!
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, TMNT is pretty affordable by itself, just $7 for the loose cart. It’s $29 for the box and manual as well.
– Wikipedia has a good entry on the Konami vs. Ultra distinctions.
– Hardcore Gaming explains why TMNT is so “weird” versus other Turtles media.
Vidya Game News – December 8, 2016
– Huge news for Todd Brisket, as the new DuckTales is on the schedule for a Summer 2017 release! Read more at Entertainment Weekly, and listen to our show on the vidya game here!
– Cinemassacre (the site of the Angry Video Game Nerd) had a viral video this week, as Mike Matei recreated the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme in Mario Paint. Check out the cool video here!
– Russ Frushtick and Justin McElroy of Polygon have a cool video on the tangled history and development of Super Mario Bros. 2. We also covered SMB2 on a past show, by the way.
– On Polygon and other sites, Crash Bandicoot is coming back in remastered form, for the PS4! Check out our past show on ole Crash here.
– Unfortunately, Konami has sent a cease-and-desist to Dejawolfs, which was developing a remake of Castlevania in the Unreal engine. You can read the story on Siliconera here. And reminder! We covered Castlevania on a past show.
– From Variety, Sega has optioned a bunch of its titles for film and television adaptations, starting with Altered Beast and Streets of Rage. And speaking of Sega selling off its merchandising rights, it has also partnered with Build-A-Bear.
– Nintendo Everything has a translation of a Japanese book about The Legend of Zelda series, which reveals that a sequel to Wind Waker was canned for Twilight Princess.
– Geeks of Doom has a positive review of Art of Atari, a cool book full of Atari art.
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– On December 9, 1997, Quake II came out for the PC. It was the online standard for a couple years of deathmatching, until Unreal Tournament and eventually Half-Life came out.
– Persona 4 came out for the PS2 on December 9, 2008. It’s a hella good RPG by Atlus, and the fifth installment is due out on April 4, if it’s not delayed again.
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 – June 30, 2016

Image from MobyGames.
– The Nintendo 64 turned 20 last week, which led to retrospectives from plenty of places, like Nerdist and Tech Insider.
– The fine folks at Shmuplations are dong the lord’s work, as they’ve unearthed an old interview from developers on Super Mario Kart. You can read it here.
– The new Toejam and Earl game has gotten more funding, and it’ll see a console release! Read more about it in a piece by Brandon Orselli from Niche Gamer. And, check out our episode on the original!
– RZA will be doing some music inspired by old Atari games, which actually sounds kind of cool. Read more on Billboard here.
– Good news, everyone! Adventures of Mana, a 3D remake of the old Game Boy game Final Fantasy Adventure, is now out for the Vita. Read the release from Sony here. It’s the first game in the Secret of Mana series, which we covered in the past.
– From MCV, via Famitsu, the new Harvest Moon game for the 3DS is #1 on the Japanese sales chart. It’s scheduled to come out in America at some point in 2017.
– It’s short notice, but Nintendo is hosting a festival in Montreal this weekend! For more details, go here. And if you’d like to head Down Undah, there is an 8-bit festival in Melbourne later in July, according to Time Out Melbourne.
– Yougurtland is partnering with Nintendo.
– A Final Fantasy VII version of Monopoly is coming out in April 2017. It’s by Merchoid, and you can read more on Examiner.com here.
– A Kickstarter campaign has been launched for a “complete remake” of System Shock. Read more on the project page here.
– The producer of the Tetris movie now claims it’ll be a three-movie series! Yikes. Read more on Empire.
– The Angry Video Game Nerd re-visits Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES, 10 years after he first covered it. Check out the video here. For James and Mike Mondays, they played Alex Kidd in Miracle World.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Star Fox 64 came out this day in 1997. And hey, we reviewed it! Check out our show here.
– On June 29 in 2000, Icewind Dale by Black Isle Studios was released by Interplay. It was a well-reviewed game based on Dungeons and Dragons.
– In 1996, Bruce Jenner’s World Class Decathlon came out for the PC. It was 20 years ago Jenner won a gold medal in the decathlon, so, that was kind of weird.
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 – June 2, 2016
– It’s been on a bunch of different sites, but I believe Julian Horsey of Geeky Gadgets first reported about a coffee table, non-digital version of Pong. Read about it here!
– FiveThirtyEight has an entire piece on Your Parents Basement! Unfortunately though, it’s not about, well, this show.
– This week on Cinemassacre’s popular Mike and Bootsy segment: Win, Lose or Draw for the NES! Yikes. Check out the video here.
– There are now action figures based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game.
– Vans and Nintendo now have a partnership, if you’d like some 8-bit themed kicks! Read more from Engadget’s Edgar Alvarez.
– Worlds colliding! Artist Adam Lister does 8-bit watercolor paintings of popular movies. Check them out on Creative Boom.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Huell favorite Quest 64 came out for the Nintendo 64 on June 1, 1998. While the Imagineer-developed game isn’t all that good, gamers were so starved for content for the N64 that it still was a moderate financial success.
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.