Nick returns from Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2025 with several short interviews featuring some very neat people.

Optomon (Chris Lincoln) is a ROM hacker and the developer of the NES homebrew game Rollie. You can find his work at Optovania.com.

Clyde Shaffer is the creator of the Game Tank. Find out more about this project at gametank.zone.

Ellen Cooper is a board member at Hit Save, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of video games, and the administrator of Keitai Wiki. Check out her work here:

• ​Keitai Wiki
• ​Keitai Archive
• ​Hit Save!

Music credits for this episode:

• ​Gameplay (From Below Pocket) by Pegmode (arr.), Tui
• ​Beat 7 by Nikku4211
• ​Minddrug (Layla: The Iris Missions) by Supper
• ​Homebrew Game Club Redux by Raftronaut

As always, find links to our social media and more at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://homebrewgameclub.com

The gang reviews Justice Duel, a Joust-inspired arena combat game for the NES from 2017, set in a techno-dystopian America dominated by unhinged AI presidents riding giant eagles. Or something like that. Wait, is this still satire?

Physical versions available from Mega Cat Studios.

Download the free demo here.

As always, find links to our social media and more at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://homebrewgameclub.com

The gang interviews Chris Totten, Associate Professor of Game Design at Kent State University and the creator of recent Game Club pick Kudzu. This far-ranging conversation touches on GB Studio development, game design as a field of study, publishing indie games, introducing Gen Z students to retro gaming, a possible Kudzu sequel, and many other topics.

This episode has a transcript! You can download the PDF here.

Browse some of Chris' other projects at the Pie for Breakfast website.

You can also follow him on Bluesky.

As always, find links to our social media and more at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://homebrewgameclub.com

Nick and Bart discuss their trip to the 2025 Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a convention that's surprisingly become an annual destination event for homebrew fans. After the break, a special guest returns to the podcast (with a slightly deeper voice than last time).

Cover image drawing by Nate Ehlers.

Music break: Shooting Starlight by Tappy - 8 Bit Music Power Final (RIKI Collection, Famicom, 2017)

As always, find links to our social media and more at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://homebrewgameclub.com

Bart, Conor, and Nick don their detective hats for Inspector Waffles: Early Days for the Game Boy Color. Tune in as the gang solves the paw-some mystery of just how many cat puns three grown men can handle. Can they make it through with their wits intact, or will it be a cat-astrophe?

Still need to play the game? Find it on Steam or GOG, or get the ROM (and a free demo) at itch.io.

Physical copies are available from Broke Studio.

Our next game is Sam's Journey for Commodore 64 and NES.

Get the C64 version here.

Get the NES version here.

As always, find links to our social media and more at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://homebrewgameclub.com

The gang takes on The Storied Sword for NES and Dreamcast, a Princess Bride-inspired tribute to Ninja Gaiden and Sunsoft's Batman. Is "NES hard" too extreme for modern gamers? Inconceivable!

Still need to play the game? Get links to all physical and digital versions (including a free demo) at Bitethechili.com.

We did a livestream playthrough of this one back in April 2024. Check it out here.

Here's the video trailer Bart and Nick made for The Storied Sword's Kickstarter campaign.

Our next game is Inspector Waffles: Early Days for the Game Boy Color. You can find the digital on Itch.io or Steam, or get a physical copy from Broke Studio.

Recommended by Nick's wife, here's a Pumpkin Old Fashioned cocktail you can impress your friends with over the holidays.

As always, find links to our social media and more at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://homebrewgameclub.com

CHAPTERS:

00:00:00 Thanksgiving In the UK

00:07:30 Holiday Gaming

00:15:15 Intro: The Storied Sword

00:20:19 Describing the Game

00:36:30 How Did We Play This?

00:38:25 More About Difficulty

00:48:16 What Worked for Us

00:59:10 Signposting and Easy Mode

01:11:16 Working as a Tester on a Tough Game

01:15:01 Other Nitpicks

01:21:28 Music Break

01:23:33 Comments from Discord

01:31:51 Final Thoughts On The Storied Sword

01:37:39 Our Next Game Is...

After a long, unscheduled break, the Game Club grabs their gardening hats and Birkenstocks to take on Kudzu, a top-down Game Boy adventure set among the vines. Also: Should Nick get another Switch? Or a Steam Deck? A short discussion with an obvious conclusion.

Still need to play the game? Find links to the demo, digital, and physical versions here.

For more about Chris Totten and his work, check out his website.

And you can wishlist Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends on Steam.

Our next game is The Storied Sword for NES and Dreamcast. Get it here.

We actually did a livestream playthough of The Storied Sword back in April 2024. You can watch it on Youtube here.

As always, find links to our social media and more at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://homebrewgameclub.com

Bart and Conor seize the mic to fill dead air with topics suggested by the HBGC Discord audience. Enjoy the ride as our mutinous hosts chat away in the spirit of "We can say whatever we want, because Nick's never going to post this."

This episode has chapters, so feel free to skip any of it. Or all of it. Topics include:

Generative AI (The forbidden topic)

Hot sauces

Coffee

Irish and / or English Breakfasts

Ethnic food in the UK

Wagyu beef

Favorite movies

Favorite animations

Collecting physical media

The history of the Napoleonic Wars

Listener medical advice, or not

Bart's famous kimchi fried rice

Things to collect besides video games

The Zen of pinball machines

Questions for Nick (to be added in post)

Here's that YouTube clip Conor mentions from Sharpe.

The next Game Club pick will be Kudzu for the Nintendo Game Boy. No, really. Episode coming soon, we promise.

As always, find links to our social media and more at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://homebrewgameclub.com

In this episode of the Game Club, the gang takes on Courier, a cyberpunk adventure for NES by Khan Games. There’s also a half-baked conversation about AI-generated art that should be inconclusive enough to irritate our entire audience. After the end credits, please enjoy Bart’s short and sticky review of “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.”

Still need to play Courier? Get the game here.

For more Khan Games, check out Kevin's website.

Our next Game Club pick is Kudzu for the Game Boy. Find the Switch version on the Nintendo eShop, or get a physical cartridge from Mega Cat Studios.

As always, find links to our social media and more at: ⁠⁠⁠http://homebrewgameclub.com

The Game Club takes on Flea! and Tapeworm Disco Puzzle for NES and Dreamcast, two entertaining games about adorable parasitic vermin.

You can find links and information for both at the Lowtek Games website.

Our next Game Club pick is Courier for NES. Get it here.

Check out Nick's livestream playthrough of Flea! on the HBGC YouTube channel.

Here's a shot of that limited edition transparent cartridge (including audio cassette) from the Tapeworm Kickstarter.

You can watch Innards, Bart's 16-minute short film about a less friendly type of parasite, right here.

GitHub page for Short Stack by loopj (aka the "Wee Wii").

As always, find links to our social media and more at: ⁠⁠http://homebrewgameclub.com