It's the year 20XX and the economy sucks, warfare is spreading, and terrorism is rampant. No, we're not doom scrolling, we're talking about the Psikyo/Capcom collaboration Cannon Spike!How long can we talk about a game that takes 15 minutes to play? Is Cannon Spike primarily a shmup or a beat 'em up? What's the correct way to describe a single ski? Is the Dreamcast version better than the arcade?So strap on your motor boots and get ready to hear the tale of ARS-Force along with discussion about middle aged boys and their toys, screaming over a Naomi fan, very muscular dolphins, ruining Blitz, and supporting your local arcade. Special thanks to YouOldSoAndSo for nominating this game for the Listeners' Choice series.

We hope you saved room for the final course in our Blue Collar series because it's a whopper. We're talking about the deliciously classic food service game by Data East - BurgerTime!Peter Pepper packs a lot of peppered pickles in his burgers, but how many peppered pickles can Peter Pepper pack? How did PastBlaster score a free BurgerTime? What are the hosts' picks for their favorite burger chain? Does Mr. SNK have any new moves to add to his repertoire of bun bounces and weiner wiggles?So join us for a very filling episode about cassette tapes, making hamburgers with your feet, a new subreddit, how beer can open long closed doors, BOB SUX, and a recollection of some of our favorite arcade and pinball game buying stories.

We grab the Blue Collar miniseries by the handlebars and cover the game that seems to be the talk of the town, Atari's Paperboy.How did this game deliver something fresh and newsworthy to the mid-80s arcade? What makes the technical descriptions in Atari manuals so delectable? Will you choose to play Paperboy as a Paragon or Renegade? How did Paperboy's evolution into Atari System 2 sacrifice some of its identity?Thanks to the nasty 'rona we're recording remotely this episode which poses some interesting challenges for one of us. We explore breaking and entering (but for good reasons), describe what a newspaper is, and how bad we are at this game. There's one more episode left in this miniseries before we cover our next Listeners' Choice so get your nominations in now on Discord or Twitter!

Stop us if you've heard this one before: a crazy monkey has kidnapped a girl and it's up to our hero to get her back. And the girl is Zelda. But we're not talking about a Nintendo property here. We're talking about Taito's Zoo Keeper.Who was the Zoo Keeper co-creator that drastically altered the face of arcade history in the U.S.? What non-video arcade game released just before this is a Podouken favorite? How did crabs and tadpoles lead to a breakout for Taito?

We count all of our Florida Man fingers and make sure they're still intact after July 4th, think of other Z names (and fail), create some new band names, experience some arcade amnesia, and dream up some new miniseries. Psst, no one tell Pastblaster that turtles are reptiles because he's really keen on this Amphibian miniseries.

Pull a stool up to the bar and prepare to be overpoured as we talk about Bally Midway's ode to the service industry, Tapper.

Who was actually behind this strategic bartending simulator? How did a marketing opportunity lead to a lot of bad PR? Exactly who is this overworked bartender? How did Yakity-Yak Talking Teeth lead to Wacko, Timber, and Journey (and even to Golden Tee and Street Fighter: The Movie)?

Plus plenty of chit-chat like a cautionary tale about clearing your Game Boy camera's memory before selling it, rocking out to some Clown Core, reminiscing about being tricked into learning stuff when playing Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, and discussing the love letter to 90s beat 'em ups that is TMNT Shredder's Revenge.