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VIDEO WIZARDS PODCAST – Episode 19: Winter 1990 / 1991
In the 19th episode of Video Wizards, we again travel back to 3 months in one single episode: December 1990 and January and February in 1991. And we find ourselves in a tumultuous time, with a lot of political twists and turns on the world stage and the arcade industry being on the brink of changing forever, with the impending release of Street Fighter II, in March.
As if they sense the big shift coming, Japanese STG (or shoot ’em up) developers push out a slew of releases: Taito releases the crazy passion project Gun Frontier and Technosoft bring their Mega Drive hit Thunder Force III to the arcades in the guise of Thunder Force AC, all following the likes of U.N. Squadron follow-up Carrier Air Wing by Capcom and Raiden by Seibu Kaihatsu.
But there is more than just shooting games in the arcades in this winter as we also get 8 player linked up sit down cab racing with Namco’s Final Lap 2, monster brawling action with Mutant Fighter by Data East, ecological activist fire fights and fisticuffs mayhem with Taito’s Growl and an oddball trackball affair called Rampart by our old friends at Atari… that actually kind of works!
Gaming in European homes, meanwhile, is undergoing a transition as well, as consoles such as the Master System, Mega Drive and even NES are gaining more of a foothold over the home computers, which are of course still very much around, making for a varied palette indeed.
In the world of music we see that the cold winter months off 1990/1991 are getting heated up by sexually explicit material from the likes of H.W.A., Madonna and Candyman and there is your usual quality selection of Hip Hop and Metal to go over as well. And in cinemas we can enjoy yet another varied palette in the form of Kindergarten Cop, Lionheart and Silence of the Lambs… with a nice glass of Chianti, of course!
We say this every time, but get comfortable and savour yet another record breaking Video Wizards episode, in terms of length, density and variety!
The top billing arcade games of the era we discuss on Episode 19, L-R-T-B: Thunder Force AC, Gun Frontier, Final Lap 2, Mutant Fighter/Death Brade, Rampart, Growl
Show theme tune: NEON CITY, composed by Ed 「イートレム」 Tremblay for Mudprints Music and licensed exclusively to The Video Wizards Podcast, ©2019 Mudprints Music, all rights reserved.
Baller of the Month Jingle composed by Yuli Anna and licensed exclusively to The Video Wizards Podcast, ©2022 Yuli Anna, all rights reserved.
Other music used in this episode:
And finally: our special thanks to Andy Hofle.
Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Android, Google Podcasts, Player FM or via RSS.
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By Michiel Kroder, Ben Cartlidge
5
88 ratings
In the 19th episode of Video Wizards, we again travel back to 3 months in one single episode: December 1990 and January and February in 1991. And we find ourselves in a tumultuous time, with a lot of political twists and turns on the world stage and the arcade industry being on the brink of changing forever, with the impending release of Street Fighter II, in March.
As if they sense the big shift coming, Japanese STG (or shoot ’em up) developers push out a slew of releases: Taito releases the crazy passion project Gun Frontier and Technosoft bring their Mega Drive hit Thunder Force III to the arcades in the guise of Thunder Force AC, all following the likes of U.N. Squadron follow-up Carrier Air Wing by Capcom and Raiden by Seibu Kaihatsu.
But there is more than just shooting games in the arcades in this winter as we also get 8 player linked up sit down cab racing with Namco’s Final Lap 2, monster brawling action with Mutant Fighter by Data East, ecological activist fire fights and fisticuffs mayhem with Taito’s Growl and an oddball trackball affair called Rampart by our old friends at Atari… that actually kind of works!
Gaming in European homes, meanwhile, is undergoing a transition as well, as consoles such as the Master System, Mega Drive and even NES are gaining more of a foothold over the home computers, which are of course still very much around, making for a varied palette indeed.
In the world of music we see that the cold winter months off 1990/1991 are getting heated up by sexually explicit material from the likes of H.W.A., Madonna and Candyman and there is your usual quality selection of Hip Hop and Metal to go over as well. And in cinemas we can enjoy yet another varied palette in the form of Kindergarten Cop, Lionheart and Silence of the Lambs… with a nice glass of Chianti, of course!
We say this every time, but get comfortable and savour yet another record breaking Video Wizards episode, in terms of length, density and variety!
The top billing arcade games of the era we discuss on Episode 19, L-R-T-B: Thunder Force AC, Gun Frontier, Final Lap 2, Mutant Fighter/Death Brade, Rampart, Growl
Show theme tune: NEON CITY, composed by Ed 「イートレム」 Tremblay for Mudprints Music and licensed exclusively to The Video Wizards Podcast, ©2019 Mudprints Music, all rights reserved.
Baller of the Month Jingle composed by Yuli Anna and licensed exclusively to The Video Wizards Podcast, ©2022 Yuli Anna, all rights reserved.
Other music used in this episode:
And finally: our special thanks to Andy Hofle.
Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Android, Google Podcasts, Player FM or via RSS.