Arcade Bookshop

In Episode 3 of Arcade Bookshop, Bryce and Caleb reach for story in Deja Vu: A Nightmare Comes True, a point-and-click crime-noir video game made for a variety of platforms. They discuss the version made for the NES, which was apparently much less graphic than the version released for other platforms. Nevertheless, this was the one Caleb played before, so that's what we agreed to talk about.

As a point-and-click game goes, the only story you get in Deja Vu is in the brief description which trigger upon inspecting objects and entering new rooms. The co-hosts use these bits of text along with the brightly-colored, yet gloomy, visuals of the game to talk about this game's story. They may even get a bit ahead of themselves by elaborating on details and adding character traits and plot elements based on what they know of other crime-noir storytelling to make the given plot more interesting that it actually is. 

In any case, Deja Vu is a sweet little video game with its own set of frustrating gameplay mechanics and awesome music that's worth a few short hours of your time to play, though you'll probably have to emulate, since it's not really available to purchase anywhere.

Stay tuned for the next episode of Arcade Bookshop, when Bryce and Caleb discuss the text they decided is Deja Vu's literary counterpart, Raymond Chandler's short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot," arriving Monday, 9/25.

Bryce and Caleb think it would be fun if you played and read along with them. See the show schedule for the next 7 episodes below and send them a letter about your experiences!

Show Schedule:

9/25: Blackmailers Don't Shoot by Raymond Chandler

10/9: Final Fantasy 9 for Playstation

10/23: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

11/6: Super Metroid for SNES

11/20: At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

12/4: Oxenfree (Cross-platform)

12/18: Riverdale Comics Vol. 1

Send game and book pairing suggestions or comments to [email protected].

Find us and send us a message @arcade_bookshop on Instagram.

UPDATE!

Bryce talks about when and how often an episode of Arcade Bookshop goes live, sound quality, the Cleveland Gaming Classic, and asks to hear from the Arcade Bookshop community. 

Stay tuned for the next feature episode about Deja Vu, which was made for a variety of platforms, but your hosts played the NES version.

Listen to chats about stories in video games and their literary counterparts every other Monday! 

Play and read along with Bryce and Caleb. See the show schedule for the next 8 episodes below and send them a letter about your experiences!

Show Schedule:

9/11: Deja Vu for NES

9/25: Blackmailers Don't Shoot by Raymond Chandler

10/9: Final Fantasy 9 for Playstation

10/23: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

11/6: Super Metroid for SNES

11/20: At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

12/4: Oxenfree (Cross-platform)

12/18: Riverdale Comics Vol. 1

Send game and book pairing suggestions, comments, or friendly messages to [email protected] or @arcade_bookshop on Instagram.

Bryce and Caleb talk about Earthbound's literary counterpart, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. The discussion addresses Bradbury's writing style, the history of this famous novel, and what he might be saying about parenting, making choices, coming of age, and how it all ties in nicely after playing Earthbound.

Listen to chats about stories in video games and their literary counterparts every other Monday! 

Bryce and Caleb think it would be fun if listeners played and read along with them. See the show schedule for the next 8 episodes below and send them a letter about your experiences!

Show Schedule:

9/11: Deja Vu for NES

9/25: Blackmailers Don't Shoot by Raymond Chandler

10/9: Final Fantasy 9 for Playstation

10/23: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

11/6: Super Metroid for SNES

11/20: At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

12/4: Oxenfree (Cross-platform)

12/18: Riverdale Comics Vol. 1

Send game and book pairing suggestions or comments to [email protected].

Find us and send us a message @arcade_bookshop on Instagram.

Arcade Bookshop debuts with co-hosts Bryce Johle and Caleb James, who talk about why video games are special to them and how their stories are generally underrated. They discuss their backgrounds in writing and literature, and what this podcast means for themselves as they provide this as a fun, occasionally intellectual conversation for listeners to feel a part of. 

In the meat of the show, they talk about the cult classic Super Nintendo video game, Earthbound, which saw an increase in popularity with the release of the SNES Classic. Earthbound has a surprising amount of depth which requires much speculation with the simplicity of its storytelling, but it provided for a great discussion for the first episode.

Stay tuned in right after this episode comes to a close for Earthbound's literary counterpart, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury!

Listen to chats about stories in video games and their literary counterparts every other Monday! 

Bryce and Caleb think it would be fun if listeners played and read along with them. See the show schedule for the next 8 episodes below and send them a letter about your experiences!

Show Schedule:

9/11: Deja Vu for NES

9/25: Blackmailers Don't Shoot by Raymond Chandler

10/9: Final Fantasy 9 for Playstation

10/23: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

11/6: Super Metroid for SNES

11/20: At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

12/4: Oxenfree (Cross-platform)

12/18: Riverdale Comics Vol. 1

Send game and book pairing suggestions or comments to [email protected].

Find us and send us a message @arcade_bookshop on Instagram.

Arcade Bookshop co-host Bryce Johle introduces the podcast and talks about what to expect in each episode. 

Listen to Bryce Johle and Caleb James chat about stories in video games and their literary counterparts every other Monday! 

First two episodes covering the Super Nintendo game, "Earthbound," and the classic spooky novel, "Something Wicked This Way Comes," by Ray Bradbury drop August 28th!

They always keep a controller in one hand and a book in the other.

Feel free to send game and book pairing suggestions to [email protected].

Find us and send us some DMs @arcade_bookshop.