There’s no accounting for taste, but that doesn’t stop Angela, Robert, and Zack from taking turns trying to express and explain our love for our favorite video game characters, heroes and villains and little oddballs alike. Fair warning that due to its nature this podcast will potentially contain spoilers for every character discussed, with the exception of Final Fantasy XIV’s Emet-Selch, who is discussed only vaguely.

Timestamps

0:00 - Introductions and what we've been playing (Hotline Miami, Murder By Numbers, Great Ace Attorney, Silver Case).

Nintendo had a virtual monopoly on console gaming in the NES era, to such an extent that in the 90s "Nintendo" was a colloquial term for games in general. By the time they rolled out their 16 bit successor, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the world had started to change around them, both in terms of stiff competition from Sega and the proliferation of unofficial resources and devices, from GamePro to Game Genie. Thankfully, developers stepped up to the challenge with some seminal titles that are still revered today, like Super Metroid, Earthbound, and ... Cool Spot? Zack, Angela, and Robert revisit a console that was formative for all three of them in different ways.

Timestamps:

Adam finally gave us permission to release our 35th anniversary Metroid podcast, so here we are. Robert, Zack, and Angela methodically bomb jump their way through the canonical series. Superfans of Metroid Prime Pinball, Metroid Prime Hunters, and Metroid Federation Force are advised to look elsewhere for their fix.

Timestamps:

There’s a lot of received wisdom among both gamers and the games commentariat regarding what counts as good or bad game design, and sometimes the line between a real flaw and a pet peeve is extremely blurry. Angela, Robert and Zack run through a hit list of classic “bad design” complaints and talk them out.

Timestamps:

From cheat codes to hidden items to entire inverted castles, games have always been saturated with secrets. In the era before the Internet, these were slowly propagated via playground blacktop, print magazine, and BBS. GameFAQs changed the game by giving an entire Internet’s worth of weirdos a gathering place for sharing discoveries, and secrets have become much harder to hide, although vague patch notes and live service games add their own wrinkles. Zack, Angela, and Robert shine a light on the history of secrets in video games.

Timestamps:

For our giant-sized episode the group turns the camera around and discusses different types of gamers, what makes us tick, and what we get out of games. Robert, Zack and Angela take two tests of gamer psychology/motivation and discuss the results. Play along at home!

Bartle’s Taxonomy of Player Types: https://matthewbarr.co.uk/bartle/

Timestamps:

Welcome to the first bonus episode! While our podcast is not a reaction-heavy “news of the week” roundtable, Summer Games Fest and E3 were sufficiently packed with announcements that we had had quite a bit to say and decided to inflict that on our listeners rather than just each other. Because this is an unusual approach for us and a bit shorter than our regular episodes, we’re counting this as our first bonus episode.

Timestamps:

The gaming landscape has included multiplayer experiences for as far back as anyone can remember or bother to document — Tennis for Two (1958) and Spacewar! (1962) are among the oldest works in the medium, older even than game consoles, arcade games, or personal computers themselves. Angela, Robert, and Zack are all at least a little introverted when it comes to play habits, but would be remiss to ignore the wide world of multiplayer.

Timestamps:

30 years ago, being informed about upcoming video games largely meant looking through monthly magazines or getting the information in those magazines secondhand. Those magazines, though, were getting their information from PR professionals, trade shows, and so forth, and for most of the last 30 years the biggest event in video game news has been E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Zack, Angela, and Robert discuss their own histories with E3 and other industry events (including time spent working both sides of the booth), and also talk about how games marketing and cycles of hype have changed over time.

Timestamps

Arcades and arcade machines haven’t disappeared, but they have grown less culturally prominent since their Space Invaders/Pac-Man peak, as console games, computer games, online games, mobile games, and streaming culture have all risen in relative prominence. Robert (ROB), Zack (ZAK), and Angela (AMM) talk about formative arcade experiences, the unique value of arcades, and how the scene has changed.

Of special note: while dedicated spaces to gather and play arcade games are much scarcer than they used to be, they’re still around, and we have a local place in Alameda that has been on the ropes due to the pandemic. Consider lending a helping hand if you’re able, or at least make a note to visit after they reopen: http://www.highscoresarcade.com/

Timestamps