Famicom Dojo Video Game Podcast

Most games are made with some kind of crunch to meet sales targets and match up with buying patterns, but sometimes the motives of publishers (and it's almost always the publishers) can be more nefarious. Why does crunch happen, and how can consumers stop it, if at all? Would you pay more for a game that was made ethically?

Vinnk and Sean recount stories of developer woe, and ways to combat the scourge of "crunch". In Future Retro we go back to two second sequels: Myst III and Pikmin III. And we answer your questions with our "live" audience, from our Discord, and more!

"One More Continue" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. Vinnk and SeanOrange pixel art by Louis Lloyd-Judson: https://louistrations.co.uk.

This podcast is brought to you by the Nerd & Tie Podcast Network. Listen to other great shows at http://nerdandtie.com.

Video game sequels weren't like movie sequels. Technical improvements and customer feedback almost always mean better games, and more money to make them. But sometimes it doesn't work out that way.

Sean and Vinnk try to one-up each other with progressively worse video game sequels, we take suggestions from live viewers, Vinnk's Future Retro is VERY retro, and Sean's Pile of Shame is inspired by his now-weekly live streams, but focuses on Night in the Woods.

"One More Continue" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. Vinnk and SeanOrange pixel art by Louis Lloyd-Judson: https://louistrations.co.uk.

This podcast is brought to you by the Nerd & Tie Podcast Network. Listen to other great shows at http://nerdandtie.com.

New console games have a standard price point every generation. With the introduction of the 9th generation, will that price eventually go up? What does that mean in a world of DLC, special editions, and a practice of dropping to $20 or $30 a few weeks after release?

Sean and Vinnk discuss whether a raise to a $70 makes sense, or of games are already overpriced. Sean talks Riven: The Sequel to Myst in Future Retro, and Vinnk reviews a Cyan game from even before Myst.

"One More Continue" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. Vinnk and SeanOrange pixel art by Louis Lloyd-Judson: https://louistrations.co.uk.

This podcast is brought to you by the Nerd & Tie Podcast Network. Listen to other great shows at http://nerdandtie.com.

Why do some video game genres endure, when others fizzle out? What happens when one of the genres that dies is one that you really happen to love? Graphic adventure games gave us a scare for a while, but text adventures are toast.

Sean and Vinnk talk about Myst, its remake realMyst, its re-remake (also) Myst, and try to pin down its categorization. Is it a walking similuator, or is Myst its own genre now? We discuss other genres that are gone or have changed fundamentally so as to no longer be any fun. And we answer your questions in our latest Denshimail segment!

"One More Continue" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. Vinnk and SeanOrange pixel art by Louis Lloyd-Judson: https://louistrations.co.uk.

This podcast is brought to you by the Nerd & Tie Podcast Network. Listen to other great shows at http://nerdandtie.com.

Gone are the days that shipping a game meant it was "done", and the development team would move on to a new project. In the 2020s, like other software, distributing games over the internet can mean spending more time and money creating a new experience than what lead up to the launch date. Games that were "finished" years ago can see updates that fundamentally change the experience. Sometimes this is by design. Sometimes it's because the game that was launched was a dud.

Vinnk and Sean discuss whether this behavior is throwing good money after bad, or if it's a model that's here to stay... and whether that's a good thing, plus games we wish we could play as they used to be, but no longer can. In Pile of Shame, Sean describes getting back into No Man's Sky for the first time in nearly four years, and Vinnk shares his newfound love of Chess and 50 other worldwide classics with Clubhouse Games for Nintendo Switch.

"One More Continue" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. Vinnk and SeanOrange pixel art by Louis Lloyd-Judson: https://louistrations.co.uk.

This podcast is brought to you by the Nerd & Tie Podcast Network. Listen to other great shows at http://nerdandtie.com.

On this episode of the Nerd & Tie podcast we dig out our biggest secrets. Those would, of course, be The Secret Podcasts. For those unaware, we often record secret ten minute shows while at cons which get posted to a hidden part of the site. Rather than make you hunt for them though, we've created this special of some of our favorites (including a never released episode which features Sean and Vinnk of Famicom Dojo). We've previously released some compilation episodes which were available temporarily, but this one's sticking around.

Another new generation of gaming is nearly upon us, but what value does it bring? What does it mean? And how the heck do you remember the progression of Xbox names?

Sean and Vinnk feel their age as they discuss what the ninth generation of gaming may bring, try to differentiate from the "pro" versions of the eighth generation, and worry about yet another push towards digital-only consoles. We talk about Animal Crossing again in Future Retro, this time with Sean's perspective, and Vinnk surprises himself, and us, with his latest review.

"One More Continue" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. Vinnk and SeanOrange pixel art by Louis Lloyd-Judson: https://louistrations.co.uk.

This podcast is brought to you by the Nerd & Tie Podcast Network. Listen to other great shows at http://nerdandtie.com.

When we last talked about the various video game ratings systems, we concluded that they were useless. Now that we're older and wiser, our perspective has evolved accordingly. What if video game ratings are good, actually?

Vinnk and Sean dive into the history of Night Trap (now that Sean's actually played it), and how the congressional hearing lead to a surge in sales that may not have happened for such a... mediocre game. Sean reviews the 2014 Shadowgate remake on his Nintendo Switch, and Vinnk tries to convince Sean why he should play Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

"One More Continue" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. Vinnk and SeanOrange pixel art by Louis Lloyd-Judson: https://louistrations.co.uk.

This podcast is brought to you by the Nerd & Tie Podcast Network. Listen to other great shows at http://nerdandtie.com.

Does anyone of the generation who grew up with video games have an excuse to not understand how much (or rather, how little) video games affect people? So many buy Rated M games for their kids, completely ignoring the rating altogether. Which begs the question: just who are these ratings for?

Vinnk and Sean go over a completely non-linear history of video game ratings, how Night Trap for Sega CD helped start the ratings firestorm, and they have evolved more into advertisements than effective parental warnings.

"Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net.

This podcast is brought to you by the Nerd & Tie Podcast Network. Listen to other great shows at http://nerdandtie.com.

We're still stuck at home (well, some of us are), wondering how the closure of non-essential businesses is will affect not just giant video game retailers, but our home-grown favorite resellers, such as the eponymous Famicom Dojo.

Sean and Vinnk recover from a failed live stream to ponder anew the physical vs digital question. In Future Retro we take a Journey, and Sean learns from Vinnk what Ron Gilbert was up to after his LucasArts days.

"One More Continue" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. Vinnk and SeanOrange pixel art by Louis Lloyd-Judson: https://louistrations.co.uk.

This podcast is brought to you by the Nerd & Tie Podcast Network. Listen to other great shows at http://nerdandtie.com.