The panel reviews Cookie’s Bustle, a Japanese PC adventure game hindered by endless copyright strikes and finally freed by the Video Game History Foundation.

Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, and Brandon Sheffield. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.

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SHOW NOTES:

1: How did we get here? (05:53)

2: How hard is it to get this Japanese abandonware game from 1999 running on your PC in 2026? (11:38)

3: What is happening in Cookie’s Bustle and what are you doing in it? (18:18)

4: Apart from financial cost, what are the material advantages of keeping a development team small? (36:43)

5: Chopemon asks: If you were to go on an adventure, what items have video games taught you to take that you wouldn’t normally think to take? (43:26)

6: Developer Keisuke Harigai once said in a 2001 interview that he designed Cookie’s Bustle with the European market in mind. What do you think that means? (49:51)

7: Do you like Cookie’s Bustle? (56:07)

8: Let’s talk about the mystique of inaccessible games (01:04:24)

LIGHTNING ROUND: Recommendations (01:15:56)

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