We are joined by our close, personal friends who are real and alive, the Lone Gunmen, in S09E15 "Jump the Shark". We chat about this send off for The Lone Gunmen (the show) and the Lone Gunmen (the trio), our personal last meals, and post-9/11 The X Files.

Apologies for the weird sounds in the part when Shelby's cat got on her desk, he doesn't behave.

Tune in next time when we watch I Want to Believe and follow us on Twitter @condensedtruth!

When I was a young boy, my father took me into the city… to see the marching band… or rather, “vaguely aspirational hero characters from the mid-aughts that were marketed to boys of about our age”. Cough. Plenty of deep cuts this ep: David frames a discussion on the titular Action Man in musings on plastic capitalism, while Sam beams a computer-generated spotlight at the BBC’s long-buried kids’ multimedia outfit, Ace Lightning. There’s also our essentially live reactions to the now-infamous “Willy McDuff” AI-generated nightmare from a couple of weeks back. Let the truth go out that we bought stock early in The Unknown!

Follow us on Twitter, Bluesky and Backloggd: @GamerEraPodcast

Games discussed: “Willy’s Chocolate Experience” in Glasgow, Red Viper (Virtual Boy emulator for 3DS), Action Man: Robot Atak (also mentioned: Search for Base X; Operation Extreme; Destruction X), Ace Lightning (both the TV series and the games for GBA/PS2)

Brief mentions: Westlife Fan-O-Mania, What Remains of Edith Finch, Football Manager 2024, Virtual Boy Wario Land, Wario World, Waterworld (Virtual Boy), Blitz Games, Magic Pockets (developer), Thunderbirds, Piczo (website builder), Tiertex, BBC Multimedia

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It was a day like no other - the winds of trouble blew into my office like a bad dream, and it’d take one hell of a pinch to wake me. The case was double dutch all the way down; pages and pages of total nonsense. Our first informant, Sam, re-briefed us on one hell of a bad memory from ‘93 - the disastrous alliance of the Philips and Nintendo families. Then, the vigilante David turned the tables - promising us they could finally bring down the Hollywood Noire syndicate with one unassuming link. Could these two crazies have a point? Would it be worth risking it all in the pursuit of justice? What’s that old saying - “where there’s smoke”…?

Follow us on Twitter, Bluesky and Backloggd: @GamerEraPodcast

Games discussed: Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore, the Philips CD-i (and the early development of the Sony PlayStation), Animation Magic, Link: The Faces of Evil & Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, Hotel Mario, L.A. Noire, James Noir’s Hollywood Crimes 3D

Brief mentions: Jusant, Mad Dog McCree, Let’s Make a Soccer Team, Football Manager, Action Max (VHS-based games console), Sony Imagesoft, Mighty No. 9, The Getaway, Duke Nukem Forever

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Monsters? In MY pocket? It’s more likely than you think... United under a Pokémon flavoured theme, our brave hosts both venture into strange new lands this week; while David toils in the mines of touchscreen-flavoured mediocrity, Sam takes a flight of fancy through the real-world Japanese legends that inspired the beasts. Includes a whole-ass bumper quiz segment!! Goodness!

Follow us on Twitter, Bluesky and Backloggd: @GamerEraPodcast

Games discussed: Pokémon Legends Arceus, Pokémon Ranger

Brief mentions: X-Men Legends, Pokémon Rumble World, Yo-Kai Watch, Pokémon Sun & Moon; Sword & Shield; Scarlet & Violet, Monster Hunter Rise, Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins

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“The name’s Games. James Games…” Your mission, should you choose to accept it - infiltrate the European Games Manufacturing Complex and retrieve valuable secrets from a family shrouded in secrecy. Agents Sam and David will be your local guides, but take great care. Beyond this point, few have returned…

Follow us on Twitter, Bluesky and Backloggd: @GamerEraPodcast

Games discussed: NCIS 3D (3DS), James Bond 007 (GB), James Bond Jr. (NES), 007 Legends (Wii U), What’s Cooking? with Jamie Oliver (DS)

Brief mentions: Lego Avengers, Lego Star Wars, Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda, Oddworld Adventure (GB); James Bond (Atari 2600), Embracer Group, Alex Rider: Stormbreaker (2006), The World is Not Enough (N64), 007 NightFire, Quantum of Solace (PS2), GoldenEye 007 (Wii)

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A capsule containing such power... Gamer Era continues into its sophomore offering as David extols the virtues of "Shrek Treasure Hunt" for the PlayStation (and its deeply troubled developer) and Sam continues the handheld love with an ode to Panic's Playdate. All this as decade-old social media drama and the looming presence of a revered Nintendo fantasy series threaten to derail the very structure of the pod itself. Will our brave heroes resist the temptation of barely-related tangents, and deliver us to coherence?! Not if they have anything to say about it.

Follow us on Twitter, Bluesky and Backloggd: @GamerEraPodcast

Games discussed: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (et. al), Shrek Treasure Hunt (et. al), the Panic Playdate

Brief mentions: Lego Marvel Superheroes 2, Jussant, Donut Dodo, Lego Star Wars, Libble Rabble; Vivendi's The Hobbit (2002), Dalmatians 3 (The Codemonkeys/Phoenix Games), Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue, The Simpsons Wrestling (and various Acclaim Simpsons games); Casual Birder, Root Bear, Resonant Tale (and discussion on Link's Awakening), the ONM Facebook page, MAZE, P-Racing

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A podcast you can hold in your hands! Join Sam and David in this inaugural edition of Gamer Era as they invoke handheld gaming guilty pleasures, puzzling over the Evercade's insanely niche appeal and a carefully curated selection of licensed paff for the Game Boy Advance. All this and more wrapped in unexpectedly violent public domain newspaper cartoons, truly toe-curling childhood anecdotes and nonsensical British pop culture deep cuts. Attention Gamers - your Era has arrived.

Follow us on Twitter, Bluesky and Backloggd: @GamerEraPodcast

Games discussed: Lego Marvel Superheroes 2, Donut Dodo, the Evercade handheld, The Incredibles; A Series of Unfortunate Events; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (GBA)

Brief mentions: Shrek 2 (and various similar movie tie-in titles for GBA), Gremlin Collection 1 (Evercade), PIKO Interactive, Barkley/Hoops Shut up and Jam, Devil's Third, Nitro Rad's Jimmy Neutron reviews, Helixe, Griptonite Games, Digital Eclipse, American Idol (GBA) 

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Vincent (@scullygirl96) joined us to examine the numerology of S09E13 "Improbable". We meet the lovely Reyes as she solves a serial killer case using numerology and owning those psychologist bozos at the FBI. We talk Reyes as new Mulder, Burt Reynolds as God, and Scully as perpetually annoyed by 9 years of this.

Check out Vincent's X Files archive! https://thexfileswebarchive.neocities.org/

Tune in next time when we watch S09E15 "Jump the Shark" and follow us on Twitter @condensedtruth!

Since the dawn of time, humanity has tried to establish just what it is about gaming that draws us in, shapes us, drives us to greater things. Whether it be the simple pleasure of Mario, the complex twists and turns of Master Chief, the beauty of Chuckie Egg, we have all been defined by what we play, in a way, wouldn't you say? No? OK, well, look you could've just -- this is ad copy, you could've just agreed with me and moved on, it's not like--oh, oh I see how it is, I get it. You know what else I get? The fact we all have GAMER ERAs. Yeah! So join Sam and David as they delve into the games, consoles, and phenomena that have defined their lives and explore just what makes their Gaming Eras tick. Oh, now you're back. Got you eating right out of my hand, don't I? Good! Gamer Era premieres February 7th, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Woof! We're back in a SURPRISE drop! Join us as we certainly talk about K-9 episodes Liberation and the Korven, and about everything to do with those episodes and those episodes alone. And Ian Levine.