Gaming Street Irregulars

The Strong Museum of Play is a point of local pride for James and Krissi, and we love talking about it and the Toy Hall of Fame. So we're starting a series on every inductee into the hall, starting with the massive first class. This episode features crayons, the Etch-a-Sketch, Play Doh, Barbie, the yo-yo and the Hula Hoop.

Peacock recently began airing a Wipeout style game show based on Konami's 1981 breakout arcade hit, and our hosts take the opportunity to both talk about the show and the game that inspired it. Hop on in for a fun time, where we promise the frog puns from this description don't carry over at all! ... mostly. The ones that do are the game show's fault.

After our hiatus went a little longer than we expected due to, well, life, Krissi and James return to quickly take stock of the world of gaming and their own month or so of events, plus prepare for another year of podcast adventures into the world of all things gaming. We hope you'll come along for the ride!

Boing! SMZeldaRules returns to the podcast to discuss the cult favorite SNES RPG, its prequel and sequel, and the numerous oddities surrounding it. Zombie making tents! Psychic powers! Blues Brothers homages! And the inscrutable Mr Saturn! It's all here, to tide you over while we all wait for this game to arrive on the Switch. Which is totally happening, right? ........... right??

Tooth decay! Out of control luggage! Off Brand Hobbits! Rubik's Cube! All this and more as Krissi and James chat about the most unusual games to come from the era where game makers were still learning what worked and what didn't. Plus, listen as they awkwardly dance around the subject of one of the most notorious X-Rated games of all time in a PG-13 podcast!!!

Appearing in such games as Harthorn, Unavowed, Apotheon and Dust: An Elysian Tale, Amanda has been acting since 9 years old and is rising the ranks of independent voice artists. Krissi and her go way back, so she was more than happy to take some time to answer some questions about her roles and the business!

The Strong Museum of Play, in Rochester NY, is home to the Toy Hall of Fame, which every year inducts three to four notable, long lasting, influential toys, games and what not. This year the inductees are the board game Risk, the American Girls line of dolls, and sand. Krissi and James discuss the importance of all three and how they all have their unique ties to the hobby of gaming.

Castlevania, released in 1986 in Japan and 1987 in the US, was a major turning point for Konami's home efforts, transitioning them from merely porting their arcade experiences to creating games with the home market in mind. The story of Simon Belmont battling Dracula in the latter's castle has been retold in five different games, each one with the same underpinnings but still very different based on what platform it appeared on. James and Krissi crack the whip on this landmark series for the first of many, many times to come.

Krissi and guest Mike Cusey take James on a journey to Arkham, and we don't mean the place where Batman's baddies get locked up for a week or so. It's all about the influence of HP Lovecraft and his concepts on the creepier corners of gaming, including both tabletop experiences and video games. Will his sanity survive the experience? Will yours?! ... yes, yours will, but we're not sure about James.

James' torture this month continues as Krissi takes him to a spooky mansion on the outskirts of Raccoon City, where agents of STARS came face to face with the first modern Survival Horror game. Resident Evil was Capcom's first truly massive breakthrough success on the PlayStation platform, and set the tone for multitudes of games from them in the future, in spite of voice acting that would make Tommy Wiseau sound more like Sir Lawrence Olivier by comparison.