We love anniversaries here on Retronauts and we love movies, so I (Diamond Feit) couldn't resist podcasting about both this Halloween as a formative film celebrates 55 years of frights: Night of the Living Dead. Writer/director George A. Romero gave us one for the ages with his debut feature film, delivering plenty of scares and defining the "zombie" as we know it, permanently altering the landscape o...
2023-10-16 12:00:06 +0000 UTC
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October 13, 2008: CUT THEIR OFF LIMBS
by Diamond Feit
The Resident Evil series lives rent-free in my head, as evidenced by its frequent a...
2023-10-15 12:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Nadia: Final Fantasy? Dragon Quest? That stuff's for chumps. We're talking about Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for the GameCube, one of the system's most celebrated games. Also, it might be the first RPG capable of giving you a paper cut.
The September Nintendo Direct shocked the world when none other than a Thousand-Year Door remake was revealed and pegged for a 2024 release. The roar of approval was deafening; it's almost unbelievable h...
2023-10-09 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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October 8. 2003: When there's no more room in hell…
by Diamond Feit
I never expected to develop a deep appreciation for horror as I grew older. As a scared little kid, the barrier to entry seemed unsurmountable. If I could barely look at the screen with...
2023-10-08 12:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Jeremy: OK. It's time to come clean. This episode is not about Super Mario Wonder. The title this week? Absolutely and shamelessly an attempt at search engine clickbait.
It is, however, about Super Mario Bros. in a more general sense. And about other games and series that landed at the perfect time and place to become classics. It's about the circumstances of their release, the particulars of their design, and the concepts and qualities that make them en...
2023-10-06 11:00:05 +0000 UTC
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WHAT: Our "Many Adaptations of Mario" panel, live at PRGE 2023
WHERE: Panel Room 2 at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo
WHEN: Saturday, October 14th at 5:00pm
WHO: Bob Mackey, Jeremy Parish, Gary Butterfield, Henry Gilbert
Please check out <...
2023-10-03 19:00:02 +0000 UTC
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In 1998, Tim Schafer left LucasArts on a high note with Grim Fandango: the Day of the Dead-themed adventure game that leaves pointing-and-clicking in the past—for better or worse. This one-of-a-kind experience mixes the trappings of film noir with Mexican mythology, resulting in one of the greatest gaming backdrops of all time. But after 25 years and despite the endless acclaim, it's hard to ignore the fact that Grim can't help but stumble over itself in its desire to innovate.
On thi...
2023-10-02 07:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Oh hi, Diamond here. We're getting this one out just under the wire because I didn't want to release two monthly podcasts in a row in the following month, but this year September ends on a Saturday so I had to get creative with the scheduling. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Stu as a prelude to Spooky Season because we talk about ghos...
2023-10-01 03:59:01 +0000 UTC
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September 24, 1993: Take a look, you're in a book
by Diamond Feit
I fell in love with video games at an early age and in some ways, it has afforded me certain privileges. My kids may have access to more games of higher quality than I ever could have imagi...
2023-09-28 12:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Hi! Diamond Feit here, back from Tokyo, ready with another Retronauts about a topic that's larger than any video game—and yet its history is as closely tied to video games as it is any other medium.
As we have done in past episodes about JoJo's 2023-09-25 12:00:00 +0000 UTC
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When Valve released their incredible The Orange Box in 2007, an audience hungry for more Half-Life content had no idea the main attraction would end up being Portal: a mind-bending first-person puzzle game tied to an inventive and empowering new style of play. And after one brilliant sequel, this unique series left us forever—only to exist in the form of content found in other video games for the past decade-plus. On this episode of Retronauts, join 2023-09-22 07:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Ridley Scott's 1982 cyberpunk classic came into being as a total flop, yet managed to claw its way into our collective psyches as the definitive portrayal of a dark future that would shape all sci-fi (and reality) to follow. Over the past 40 years and multiple revisions, this former cult favorite has become a respected part of the canon, but does it truly deserve its lofty status? On this episode, join Bob Mackey, <...
2023-09-18 07:00:03 +0000 UTC
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September 12, 1983: Yo Joe!
by Diamond Feit
Years before I grew wise to the meaninglessness of schoolwork outside of school itself, my first clue that I didn't jive with the American education system was when I attended my first pep rally. I couldn't tell...
2023-09-17 12:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Jeremy: Hello again! Another live presentation for you. The sound isn't quite as crisp on the first segment as the second simply because it involves so many people, but the tradeoff is that you get a recording with five Retronauts and friends of the show in a single in-person conversation. The banter, knowledge, and conversation absolutely justify the situation.
The second section takes a more modest approach. Rather than five people debating the evolution of an entire genre fo...
2023-09-11 11:00:05 +0000 UTC
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September 1983: Heiankyo Harlequin
by Diamond Feit
In 1982, Japanese hardware manufacturer and game publisher Universal released Mr. Do! in arcades. In keeping with th...
2023-09-10 12:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Jeremy: Hey, I think we've finally figured out this live setup thing. After years of making do with whatever haphazard recording system a venue's organizers can bodge together (be it a pro setup or some guy's iPhone), now we just bring our own excellent portable recorder. And it sounds pretty good! So you can enjoy the energy and interplay of a live presentation, but you don't have to wallow in the sadness of godawful audio quality.
Anyway, this episode combines two panel...
2023-09-08 12:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Hey, Mickey! You’re so fine! It seemed pretty apt that I (Stuart Gipp; hullo) eventually got around to an episode about Sega’s totally iconic Thingummy Of Illusion series, given that one of them is my favourite game of all time and one of the reasons I got into this whole “computered games” lark in the first place. Joining me in this extremely important endeavour are the roguish presences of John Linneman and Thomas Nickel, the three of us mutually engaged in our persistent t...
2023-09-04 17:34:49 +0000 UTC
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Kept you waiting, huh? I (Diamond Feit) have returned from my month abroad and I bring a small gift: Jeremy and I recorded a podcast just for you, our loyal Patreon supporters, while hanging out in our designated booth at Retro World Expo in Hartford, Connecticut. It's on the short side compared to our other monthly episodes, but I think the presence of Jeremy and the raw experience of hearing NBA Jam's Tim Kitzrow riffing in the background make it a fun listen. Don't forget to answe...
2023-09-03 12:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Jeremy: Here's a topic we surprisingly haven't really tackled before across more than a decade and a half of making these podcasts: Why is video game history worth talking about in the first place? Why even make these podcasts?! There was no monetary consideration in mind when I first started recording Retronauts at 1UP.com; I just knew that all the other podcasts were talking about new releases and current-at-the-time-generation software, and no one was talking about the things that...
2023-08-28 11:57:53 +0000 UTC
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In 1988, filmgoers around the world were introduced to a little guy named Roger Rabbit, who seemingly promised to usher in a new Golden Age of animation. But in terms of this medium's history, he was just a blip on the radar; after five short years and three short shorts, Roger Rabbit left us entirely. (And then came the dawn of Bonkers...) But, believe it not, this half-decade spawned five distinct Roger Rabbit games that tried their best to adapt the frantic adventures of this flailing floo...
2023-08-25 07:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Greetings fight fans, Diamond Feit here. It's nice to see so much enthusiasm for the recently-released Street Fighter VI in 2023. New and old button-mashers alike seem pleased by Capcom's latest kick-puncher after the lukewarm reception to Street Fighter V.
With that in mind, I'm joined on the podcast once again by Shivam Bhatt and <...
2023-08-21 11:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Nadia: Children of the '80s learned a valuable lesson early in life. Why make your parents agonize over a Nintendo addiction or a comic book addiction when you can do both and make them rend their clothes over your enthusiasm for Nintendo-themed comic books? Truly Satan came to our houses disguised as Valiant's Nintendo Comics System, a short-lived series produced by some surprising comic legends. Nadia puts her head together with fellow weirdos Ma...
2023-08-14 12:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Jeremy: Greetings, patrons, and welcome to your semi-annual Wow That's A Lot Of Music episode. As usual for Retronauts Radio, this file is much larger than usual in order to preserve the stereo soundstage and convey the original quality of the audio rips here as much as possible without excessive compression. And, as usual, this episode features lots of short excerpts of music but certainly not enough to replace or substitute for the actual albums being discussed here. Please support...
2023-08-11 11:59:01 +0000 UTC
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Guest host Jess continues her extremely specific fascination with point-and-click games from the waning years of Full Motion Video games! (Actually, this came out the same year as the other one she's covered: Toonstruck! Boy, 1996 was a big year for big failures.) And this time, she's bringing along two of the actors from the game: Curtis Craig (Stetler) and one of his many in-game romantic interests, Therese (Sigrunardottir)! They discuss this bizarre game and the strange hybrid of movie and...
2023-08-07 11:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Jeremy: Just a quick heads-up before you begin listening to this week's episode—there's a lot of background noise this time around, and that's because Diamond and I recorded this on the spot. We literally left the convention center as BitSummit closed its doors and immediately began recounting all the cool stuff we saw while said stuff was still fresh in our minds. That means there's a lot of street noise and, later, café noise, but sometimes you gotta strike while the iron's hot. There's ...
2023-07-31 11:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Diamond Feit here: We are BACK and I'm (relatively) disease-free! I feel like I've been podcasting non-stop this month but hey, chatting with Stuart Gipp and recording the community show for you fine people is always a privilege. You gave us a LOT of material to go through this month, so this is an extra-long episode too!
Please make sure to leave your ...
2023-07-30 12:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Kevin: Earlier this month, our friends at the Video Game History Foundation published a scientific study finding that 87% of retro video games are commercially unavailable in the United States, with no legal way to access them short of shelling out for old hardware and physical copies. Joining host Kevin Bunch to talk about why this research is important and what it means for preserving these games and making them legitimately accessible are VGHF's Co-Director Kelsey Lewin and Librarian Phil ...
2023-07-28 14:00:00 +0000 UTC
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Stuart: Remember that bit in the best movie ever made, Freddy Vs. Jason, where Freddy pings Jason around like a pinball and there are actual pinball noises, and then he growls, “Tilt”? It makes no sense, I know, but it’s up there with the finest moments in cinematic history for many, many reasons, the most compelling of which being that it reminds me of pinball. Which is what this episode is about!
Sort of. It’s about pinball what’s on the telly, so the sort of pinbal...
2023-07-24 12:34:14 +0000 UTC
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July 1983: Does a bear collect gems in the woods?
by Diamond Feit
Old video game genres don't die, they just fade away. I've seen my share of fads in my time. The fighting game boom, the "Doom-clone" era, the race for the next Grand Theft Aut...
2023-07-23 12:00:06 +0000 UTC
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