Retronauts

Jeremy Parish and Bob Mackey travel back (and forward) in time with Kat Bailey and Chris Kohler to revisit one of the greatest RPGs of all time: Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest mash-up Chrono Trigger.

Jeremy drops by the offices of Q-Games to speak to Dylan Cuthbert (and Mark Lentz) about the early days of gaming and how tinkering with Game Boy hardware led to the creation of the first true 3D game on Super NES, Star Fox.

When Mario debuted in 1981's Donkey Kong, he entered a gaming landscape devoid of voice acting, so Nintendo never stopped to think, "Hey, what's this little guy supposed to sound like?" Over the years, though, as Mario entered the world of cartoons, live-action TV shows, and movies, someone had to sit down and decide on the voice of this formerly voiceless character. And decide they did! On this episode of Retronauts, join Bob Mackey and Henry Gilbert as they explore the many voices of Mario, and trace the roots of his current, Nintendo-approved vocal interpretation. Mama mia!

We at Retronauts regret to inform you once again that something is very old. (Hey, we're just doing our job.) That's right: The PlayStation 2 turns 18 this month, and to celebrate its passage into adulthood we've put together two whole hours of podcasting fun about Sony's market-dominating beast of a console. Just how important was DVD support? And will any console ever outsell the PS2? On this podcast, Bob Mackey, Jeremy Parish, Henry Gilbert, and Matthew Jay rev up their Emotion Engines and attempt to describe just how indescribably huge Sony's sequel system was in its heyday. [Note: All of the music in this episode is from the PlayStation 2 game Shadow Hearts: Covenant.]

Jeremy, Chris, and Benj take a wildly disorganized (one might say "postmodern") journey through the original adventure of Indiana Jones... and eventually remember to touch on the games based on the film, too.

The Retronauts East survey of Namco's arcade legacy continues! Jeremy, Benj, and Chris tackle the coin-op doldrums of 1983-1985 while dreaming of more interesting days to come.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the movie that changed the face of modern cinema (for better or worse), Jeremy talks Iron Man—the character, the games, and the weird lack of games—with comics expert Chris Sims and long-time Iron Man superfan Benj Edwards. Also this episode: The end of "Micros"! Now the biweekly Friday episode will just be plain ol' "Retronauts," whatever their length. Because this week's 80-minute podcast sure doesn't look so "micro" to us...

Jeremy and Bob go international to examine the origins of the world's most influential console RPG series. First, we stop in Nagoya to talk Dragon Quest with Alex Fraioli. Then, USgamer's Nadia Oxford beams in from Canada to lament the cruelty of DQII.

When Mario debuted in 1981's Donkey Kong, he entered a gaming landscape devoid of voice acting, so Nintendo never stopped to think, "Hey, what's this little guy supposed to sound like?" Over the years, though, as Mario entered the world of cartoons, live-action TV shows, and movies, someone had to sit down and decide on the voice of this formerly voiceless character. And decide they did! On this episode of Retronauts, join Bob Mackey and Henry Gilbert as they explore the many voices of Mario, and trace the roots of his current, Nintendo-approved vocal interpretation. Mama mia!

The end is nigh! Sort of. Jeremy, Ben, and Benj return to look one last time at SEGA's classic arcade legacy, exploring their coin-on megabits of the late ’90s. From Virtua Fighter 3 to Crazy Taxi, it's like crib notes for the Dreamcast era...