The call-ins were usually fine, but for the Sonic episode Sega promoted the number on their Facebook page and we were Extremely Not Prepared for the results.
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Retronauts Podcast Thread
- Thread starter Dream Machine
- Start date
- OT
Oh man, would the calls would be just as disappointing and bloated as the game?
Please make sure you add great music to the email or call segment so it's completely wasted to really emulate the true Chrono Cross experience.
If we're going for REAL authenticity, the episode would be hosted by people you've never heard of, and Bob and I would show up as ghosts to explain how we died in the final 5 minutes.
OP
OP
Catching up on my backlog. Ray is bringing some big No More Whoppers energy to this Sonic Mania episode, haha
nobody was
that moment where it dawned on chris that the xenomorph is basically a metaphor for rape was pretty good haha
Just wanted to throw some love out for the non video game episodes you guys have done.
Totally dig the hell out of the prog rock, Star Wars, and Alien episodes.
Love the idea of Retronauts expanding out of the video game world from time to time. THere's all sorts of things which are retro that I'd love to hear the regulars muse about.
So, thanks.
Totally dig the hell out of the prog rock, Star Wars, and Alien episodes.
Love the idea of Retronauts expanding out of the video game world from time to time. THere's all sorts of things which are retro that I'd love to hear the regulars muse about.
So, thanks.
Agreed. I haven't listened to the prog rock one, but I really enjoyed Indiana Jones and Star Wars. I'm about halfway through Alien now and enjoying it as well.
Can we speculate about others in the pipeline? Ghostbusters? Total Recall? [super late edit, just noticed there already is a Ghostbusters episode, lol smh]
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They're doing a three parter on the subtleties of Logan's Run. Jeremy snuck into my DMs
I know that was meant as a harmless joke, but "a games media figure slid into my DMs" has a LOT of baggage at this point and is realllly not a look I want to be associated with, even in jest.
I am glad you like the tangential episodes, though! I think it's important for us to explore the influences that shape games.
I am glad you like the tangential episodes, though! I think it's important for us to explore the influences that shape games.
Finally someone agrees about SNES Aladdin.
I was 14 when the games came out and 13 when I saw the movie that I was dragged to by my family for my little sister's birthday. Ended up being my favourite Disney movie (still is to this day).
My first experience of Aladdin the game was at the Future Entertainment Expo 93 at Earls Court ( I also beat Halo's Frankie O'Connor at Street Fighter II Turbo there whilst he was editor of Total Magazine) I waited in line for an hour to play the Mega Drive version of Aladdin and was blown away by the visuals but struggled with the game, it felt a bit off, like the opening level had no real design. Then I walked over to the Nintendo booth and there were three empty Aladdin stations, I went over played the demo, then played through it again and again until I was called away for my Street Fighter II Turbo tournament match.
Seeing as I was a huge fan of Aladdin I got my mum to get me the SNES version to play at home for Christmas (also got the VHS) and then asked my dad for the Mega Drive version to play on my Mega Drive at his house.
Ended up thinking I was going crazy as magazines were all saying how much better the Mega Drive version was, but it really wasn't and nobody would agree with me not even my friends or siblings.
David Perry not Doug ;)
I was 14 when the games came out and 13 when I saw the movie that I was dragged to by my family for my little sister's birthday. Ended up being my favourite Disney movie (still is to this day).
My first experience of Aladdin the game was at the Future Entertainment Expo 93 at Earls Court ( I also beat Halo's Frankie O'Connor at Street Fighter II Turbo there whilst he was editor of Total Magazine) I waited in line for an hour to play the Mega Drive version of Aladdin and was blown away by the visuals but struggled with the game, it felt a bit off, like the opening level had no real design. Then I walked over to the Nintendo booth and there were three empty Aladdin stations, I went over played the demo, then played through it again and again until I was called away for my Street Fighter II Turbo tournament match.
Seeing as I was a huge fan of Aladdin I got my mum to get me the SNES version to play at home for Christmas (also got the VHS) and then asked my dad for the Mega Drive version to play on my Mega Drive at his house.
Ended up thinking I was going crazy as magazines were all saying how much better the Mega Drive version was, but it really wasn't and nobody would agree with me not even my friends or siblings.
David Perry not Doug ;)
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Just listened to the RE4 episode and am super disappointed that they never even mentioned the astounding work of the RE4 HD Project.
Those guys have literally spent years redoing every single texture, model, lighting to utterly transform the game into something remarkable.ĺ
The game has been reborn by their extreme dedication but they didnt get even a shout out.
Those guys have literally spent years redoing every single texture, model, lighting to utterly transform the game into something remarkable.ĺ
The game has been reborn by their extreme dedication but they didnt get even a shout out.
OP
OP
I can't think about Resident Evil 4 without thinking about Jenn Frank and Scott Sharkey talking about him not progressing past the beginning and just "walking around kicking cows in the wombs until they died" on that classic survival horror episode
Thanks, Retronauts
Thanks, Retronauts
Looks like I ended up in the Dimension of Rude Comments again :(
Nah, you guys are great. I love the podcast! Keep it up, don't let them take away any of your Bob-ness (Carl-ness).
Ha same here.The KS backer DVD arrived today for me.
I could tell a package was arriving but I thought it was something else. A pleasant surprise.
Wow, almost 6 years later than scheduled. Haha, I'm happy it wasn't forgotten.
So here is the weird thing- for the GBA port of Aladdin, they actually added new levels- if you consider each 4 level chunk a "world" in the game, they added 1 new stage to each world. The new stages are terrible- they just copy and pasted elements from other stages in that world and created no new assets, so each one is incredibly forgettable and feels stale
My guess as to why you had a bunch of weird Disney things come back in the early-mid 2000s was due to the success of Kingdom Hearts
My guess as to why you had a bunch of weird Disney things come back in the early-mid 2000s was due to the success of Kingdom Hearts
How does it play though? I'm genuinely interested in getting it.
Apart from the bad added levels, it's just the SNES version with slightly worse music
Great to hear.
Speaking about hearing the real claim to fame for Chocobo Dungeon Wii is how awesome the soundtrack is! It's seriously the best FF arrangement album.
Also I think it was brought up in another episode but the PS1 version of Ehrgeiz is basically a roguelite.
The mining in the Story of Seasons games from Back to Nature on are also very rogueish. Mining existed in Harvest Moon GB and HM 64 but those were too small and simplistic compared to the behemoth 255 floor uber mines of later games. Plus the various procedurally generated item worlds found in the Disgaea series that only got more and more complicated as the series moved on.
I can't wait for 10 years from now when I can hear you guys discuss Cadence of Hyrule as it quickly became my favorite roguelike ever.
no DVD yet, but the shiren talk was great. I was at TGS once for work and our camera guy was a local, Japanese, guy, and I asked if he thought TGS was cool and he said he didn't really play games, but anytime we had downtime he was playing shiren on his flip phone
OP
OP
Seiken Densetsu 3/Trials of Mana should be a great episode. I'm sure an episode is far off, but that was definitely the coolest retro dream release since Earthbound Zero being released over here a few years ago (but honestly much more exciting).
Do this count as a roguelike?
You just reminded me of how much time I spent playing Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventures as a kid. I used to love that game. I never realized I spent so much time playing a roguelike back then.
Also, wow, googling that game showed me that a LOT of people hated it. It was named 15th worst PC game of all time? What?
I for one am astonished a game designed as a light diversion for casual and younger players would not be received warmly by the PC gaming crowd.
Jeremy, is there any chance we get one more Evangelion content drop with you and Christian Nutt in this time of Eva-naissance?
Christian became something of media recluse after GG hit five years ago and he got a job outside the press. He has disassociated himself from most people in games journalism. He's highly uninterested in being associated with Retronauts now, and I respect that desire for distance.
I remember an episode from way back with CN talking about Valis, he seemed fairly distention about the state of video games at that point in time. I wish him well as I do all world weary peoples.
yeah i remember asking about christian a year or two ago and getting the same response. such a fucking shame
Just listened to the Console Launches episode. Good stuff!
*deep breath*
I'm about to do a big info dump on a subject that very few people care about, but I spent hours tumbling down this rabbit hole and wanna get this info out there!
Chris brought up The Mystery of Fighting Street (aka what's up with the re-titling of the PC Engine CD port of Street Fighter?). Last month, I stumbled upon some info regarding this. If you dip your toe into the Japanese-language internet, a basic explanation is readily available. I've seen as a factoid on a couple blogs, and it's even on the Japanese Wikipedia page for the game!
The "ports" segment of the Street Fighter 1 JP Wikipedia page.
Regarding the PC Engine version's title, it states something like "The release title is 'Fighting Street' because the US-based Charles A. Eaton Company registered the trademark 'Street Fighter' on October 8, 1979." (Google translate will give you "Charles A. Aiton Company," which is not a thing). The page sources J-PlatPat (Japan's electronic library for such things). You can't directly link to it, but the registration number is provided (1585715). You can search it and verify this, see the original announcement listing the Charles A. Eaton Company, and see that the trademark is now held by Capcom.
What I haven't seen on the Japanese internet is anyone with a clue what this Eaton company would've filed the trademark for. Well, looking at English-language resources on this company, it most likely would've been...
(print ad for Street Fighter running shoes)
Shoes. Yeah, it's a shoe company (Etonic - Running Shoes by Eaton!).
Did Etonic/Eaton have a Japanese presence? Apparently so. Did they end up actually selling this particular style in Japan? I can't find any evidence of that, but they at least went as far as registering a trademark.
Now, you may know that trademark is divided into classifications, and you may think that a trademark for a shoe wouldn't necessarily prevent someone releasing a video game of the same name. Well, that's where it gets a little fuzzy for me, because I can only think about IP law so long before I start to get queasy. But, as I understand it, Japan finally adopted internationally standardized trademark categories (laid down in the 1950s) in 1990 (finalized in '92?). Before that, their categories were kinda weird and really broad.
So, this Eaton company's "Street Fighter" trademark under the old categorization covers pretty much anything related to recreation: sports equipment, sports clothes, play equipment, games, toys... basically seems like it could to apply to anything from sneakers, to mahjong tiles, to children's toys, to scuba gear, and I guess home video games as well! In fact, the current Japanese trademark (taken over by Capcom) still applies to most/all of this stuff, but under the post-1990 definitions it has to cover three (more narrowly defined) categories to be equivalent to the old broad one (I guess that's how they handled the transition for pre-Nice stuff).
*Phew*
So, would Capcom (EDIT: or Hudson, who originally published the CD version) really have made themselves vulnerable by releasing a home port as 'Street Fighter' in 1988? I doubt it, but we all know how risk-averse Japanese companies can be about stuff like this. Why was the original arcade game called Street Fighter if it was a pre-existing trademark in Japan since 1979? Also dunno, but perhaps arcade games were established or at least thought to be under a different category at the time (the old TM seems to be only consumer-level products).
Funny thing, I don't think there was anything stopping them from calling the Turbo CD version "Street Fighter" in the United States (the earliest American trademark I can find is for the 1987 arcade, and the categories are different anyway), but I suppose the SF name wasn't really valuable as a brand at the time (also that would've required editing the game). I'm assuming it was decided to be just not worth changing for the later Western release.
I'm not sure how it worked out exactly, but by the time of Street Fighter 2010 (late '90) and then Street Fighter II (early '91), Japan was in the middle of adopting new classifications and the Eaton company's trademark would've been expiring. Surely they didn't re-up it. I don't even think they ever even ended up selling the damn shoes over there. I can't figure out exactly when Capcom took over the original TM, but I assume it would've been around this time... However, I'll note that "Street Fighter II" is a separate TM.
Mayhaps this whole trademark mess influenced Street Fighter '89 becoming Final Fight???
Also, if anyone who actually genuinely understands this IP law stuff (I only barely do) wants to chip in and clarify, I'd appreciate it.
*deep breath*
I'm about to do a big info dump on a subject that very few people care about, but I spent hours tumbling down this rabbit hole and wanna get this info out there!
Chris brought up The Mystery of Fighting Street (aka what's up with the re-titling of the PC Engine CD port of Street Fighter?). Last month, I stumbled upon some info regarding this. If you dip your toe into the Japanese-language internet, a basic explanation is readily available. I've seen as a factoid on a couple blogs, and it's even on the Japanese Wikipedia page for the game!
The "ports" segment of the Street Fighter 1 JP Wikipedia page.
Regarding the PC Engine version's title, it states something like "The release title is 'Fighting Street' because the US-based Charles A. Eaton Company registered the trademark 'Street Fighter' on October 8, 1979." (Google translate will give you "Charles A. Aiton Company," which is not a thing). The page sources J-PlatPat (Japan's electronic library for such things). You can't directly link to it, but the registration number is provided (1585715). You can search it and verify this, see the original announcement listing the Charles A. Eaton Company, and see that the trademark is now held by Capcom.
What I haven't seen on the Japanese internet is anyone with a clue what this Eaton company would've filed the trademark for. Well, looking at English-language resources on this company, it most likely would've been...
(print ad for Street Fighter running shoes)
Shoes. Yeah, it's a shoe company (Etonic - Running Shoes by Eaton!).
Did Etonic/Eaton have a Japanese presence? Apparently so. Did they end up actually selling this particular style in Japan? I can't find any evidence of that, but they at least went as far as registering a trademark.
Now, you may know that trademark is divided into classifications, and you may think that a trademark for a shoe wouldn't necessarily prevent someone releasing a video game of the same name. Well, that's where it gets a little fuzzy for me, because I can only think about IP law so long before I start to get queasy. But, as I understand it, Japan finally adopted internationally standardized trademark categories (laid down in the 1950s) in 1990 (finalized in '92?). Before that, their categories were kinda weird and really broad.
So, this Eaton company's "Street Fighter" trademark under the old categorization covers pretty much anything related to recreation: sports equipment, sports clothes, play equipment, games, toys... basically seems like it could to apply to anything from sneakers, to mahjong tiles, to children's toys, to scuba gear, and I guess home video games as well! In fact, the current Japanese trademark (taken over by Capcom) still applies to most/all of this stuff, but under the post-1990 definitions it has to cover three (more narrowly defined) categories to be equivalent to the old broad one (I guess that's how they handled the transition for pre-Nice stuff).
*Phew*
So, would Capcom (EDIT: or Hudson, who originally published the CD version) really have made themselves vulnerable by releasing a home port as 'Street Fighter' in 1988? I doubt it, but we all know how risk-averse Japanese companies can be about stuff like this. Why was the original arcade game called Street Fighter if it was a pre-existing trademark in Japan since 1979? Also dunno, but perhaps arcade games were established or at least thought to be under a different category at the time (the old TM seems to be only consumer-level products).
Funny thing, I don't think there was anything stopping them from calling the Turbo CD version "Street Fighter" in the United States (the earliest American trademark I can find is for the 1987 arcade, and the categories are different anyway), but I suppose the SF name wasn't really valuable as a brand at the time (also that would've required editing the game). I'm assuming it was decided to be just not worth changing for the later Western release.
I'm not sure how it worked out exactly, but by the time of Street Fighter 2010 (late '90) and then Street Fighter II (early '91), Japan was in the middle of adopting new classifications and the Eaton company's trademark would've been expiring. Surely they didn't re-up it. I don't even think they ever even ended up selling the damn shoes over there. I can't figure out exactly when Capcom took over the original TM, but I assume it would've been around this time... However, I'll note that "Street Fighter II" is a separate TM.
Mayhaps this whole trademark mess influenced Street Fighter '89 becoming Final Fight???
Also, if anyone who actually genuinely understands this IP law stuff (I only barely do) wants to chip in and clarify, I'd appreciate it.
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I just know that last 3DS entry was basically the opposite of the TV ending of Evangelion
Gameplay-wise, PMD is both very impressive and kind of wasted potential. On the one hand, they made a very valiant effort to adapt every existing move and ability faithfully to an RPG genre they weren't designed for. On the other hand, with you playing as Pokemon directly instead of a trainer, it ends up being pretty simplistic without the ability to change your active Pokemon (and in Explorers of Sky at least there were large stretches where you couldn't even choose your party).
With the story stuff though, the whole alternate universe premise is pretty wild for how much of a departure it is from regular Pokemon, and the story had more actual stakes for more of the game than I've ever seen in one of the regular games (Explorers of Sky was pretty much Pokemon Chrono Trigger).