The end has come!

Nate, Sebastian, Jordan, David, and Ryan all convene to discuss the games that surprised them on their seven-year podcast journey, the games from our chronology that they MOST recommend everyone try, and some games which we didn't touch on but which we couldn't finish out our tour without at least mentioning. Along the way, we're joined by several previous guests and friends of the show who have recommendations of their own -- come join us for one last chat about games and what we like about them.

Nate, Ryan, Jordan, and David gather for the last game on our whirlwind tour of game history -- Supergiant Games' 2020 rogue-like HADES, about a young god just tryin' to get out from his father's shadow. We discuss synergy, sexy deities, incredible jams, and the magic trick of a persistent narrative doled out in pieces in a run-based structure. Nate gushes about Supergiant's other games, David turns up the heat, and Jordan gets in good with Sisyphus's good friend Bouldy.

Nate, Sebastian, Ryan, and David all gather to discuss NO MAN'S SKY, 2016's procedurally-generated space exploration and survival game from Hello Games. We discuss the game's awe-inspiring trailers, its turbulent launch and reception, and the incredible strides it's made in the years since. Nate points out the importance of having two moons in the sky, Ryan defaces a friend's stellar outpost by terraforming, and Sebastian isn't mad, just disappointed.

Episode 50! Join Nate, Sebastian, David, and Jordan as we discuss eight games we've skipped over in our journey so far, with special bonus pre-recorded segments from Ryan and Kari! Our extremely disorganized conversation covers:

E.V.O. - SEARCH FOR EDEN

ACTRAISER

TERRANIGMA

DONKEY KONG COUNTRY

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARMEN SANDIEGO?

FINAL FANTASY LEGEND III

XCOM: UFO DEFENSE

ULTIMA V: WARRIORS OF DESTINY

Is this in any way a comprehensive or meaningful assortment of games? No! Except, of course, that they're games we love. Come listen to us attempt to explain why!

Nate, Sebastian, and David are joined by new guest Andrea to discuss EARTHBOUND, a Super Nintendo RPG unlike any other. We discuss sentient piles of vomit, terrible ad campaigns, a man who becomes a dungeon, Canadian whiz kids, and whether dogs are an essential part of the American Experience. Andrea explains her childhood obsession, Sebastian draws comparisons to The Blob, David gets teary-eyed remembering his wedding, and Nate infuriates Andrea by finding the Sword of Kings unreasonably quickly. 

SHOW NOTES

Nintendo localize Mother 3 you cowards

Nate and David sit down to unpack THEME PARK, Bullfrog Productions' amusement park management simulator. Nate explores the limits of his tastes in games, David explains his curious predilections for order as a child, and they both recoil in revulsion over the tasteless game over cinematic. Come for the unpacking of a unique sub-genre of videogames, stay to find out who Nate calls "a cross between Willy Wonka and Clippy the Paperclip from Microsoft Word."

SHOW NOTES:

The morbid “Game Over” cinematic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmc5KR8dEJE

Planet Coaster trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o16e9daqGko

Buy THEME PARK on Gog.com:

https://www.gog.com/game/theme_park

Nate and Sebastian are joined by Ryan and David to discuss SUPER METROID, the seminal space bounty hunter adventure from 1994. We discuss the birth of the "Metroidvania" sub-genre, sequence breaking, and some things that games can do in ways that other media can't. Warning: Nate says "Heavens to Super Mergatroid" once, which seems inadvisable. Due to user error, Sebastian continually refers to Kraid as "Graig." 

SHOW NOTES:

The Metroid comic that ran in Nintendo Power:

https://imgur.com/gallery/yQiV9

Nate and Sebastian are joined by Lucy, who knows more about basketball than the two of them put together (which isn't saying much), and Ryan, who recorded his audio in his bathyscape at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, apparently, to discuss NBA JAM, Midway's extreme basketball extravaganza from 1993. Listen in to discover who is on fire, who's heating up, who's making shots FROM DOWNTOWN, and whether any of our hosts have enough money to buy a bucket. 

Boom shaka laka. 

SHOW NOTES:

GDC postmortem on NBA Jam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp3Os2kk6V4

Sports Illustrated oral history of NBA Jam:

https://www.si.com/longform/2017/nba-jam-oral-history/index.html

Nate and Ryan are joined once again by Em Marko of Abnormal Mapping to take a look at the most influential game ever named after a throwaway line in a Tom Cruise movie: DOOM. We discuss WADs, deathmatch, and Ryan's deep love for Star Wars: Dark Forces. Come for the discussion of how a couple dudes in Texas revolutionized the way we interact with virtual environments, stay to find out what the heck Ryan is referencing when he labels something "That Thing You DOOM."

SHOW NOTES:

“It Runs Doom!” Tumblr

http://itrunsdoom.tumblr.com/

Liz Ryerson’s article at Waypoint about “Absolute Life Conversion” and DOOM WADs

https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/paq5bz/alt-doom-mod-stalker

The video that Em referenced with BioShock and John Romero:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUbk98uZjso

Nate, Sebastian, and Jordan sit down for a brief dissection of VIRTUA FIGHTER, Sega's ground-breaking 3D fighting game from 1993. We talk about the metaphor of a game "camera," Jordan's "ground game," and getting a "ring out." Being "wrung out?" Look, I'm no fighting game expert. I just mash the buttons and hope I flip somebody. 

Nate, Sebastian, and Ryan gather to discuss RIDGE RACER, Namco's arcade racing game from 1993. Or, maybe not. We talk about arcades, early polygonal games, and the ushering in of the 32-bit era (a little ahead of schedule). Nate tells the story of how he got his PlayStation, Sebastian and Ryan learn about the theme song to Daytona USA, and a special guest appearance is made by William, age 2.

SHOW NOTES:

Ridge Racer soundtrack:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5MAATZlrqOhGQ6trLJ-iFCg2_TrGuEOU

The Ocean Hunter:

http://theoceanhuntergame.wikia.com/wiki/The_Ocean_Hunter 

Nate, Sebastian, and David are joined by special guest Em (of Abnormal Mapping) to discuss Cyan's seminal adventure game MYST. We talk about escape rooms, linking books, abandoned places, and terrible FMV acting. 

SHOW NOTES:

Em's playthrough of Myst:

https://t.co/RZRiXVF7Gu

Abnormal Mapping (support their Patreon!):

https://www.abnormalmapping.com/ 

Nate and Sebastian are joined by Jordan and Ryan to pay respects to the late, great SEGA GENESIS, a console which was otherwise going to be given short shrift by our episode schedule. Come for Sebastian's effusive praise for Uncharted Waters: New Horizons, stay for Nate's attempt to describe the physical appearance of Vectorman. We touch on the trend of environmentalism in Genesis games and Nate gushes about the soundtrack to Streets of Rage 2.

Also, sorry about the eight million music cues in this episode. You can blame Nate for that one. WARNING: This episode contains fifteen full seconds of the Sonic Spinball options menu music. 

SHOW NOTES: 

Proof Nate wasn't lying about the Rings of Power title screen cheat code: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyBB8Dr4JSI

Several of the games discussed in this episode are available on Steam: 

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/102625/ 

Nate, Ryan, and David are joined by newcomer Jenn to discuss POKEMON GO, Niantic's AR-enhanced monster-collection extravaganza from 2016. We discuss how a live service game can change and evolve over a seven-year lifespan, the intricacies of catching pocket monsters, and how Eevee is just the darn cutest. Jenn relates a nice dream about what happens to all those Pokemon you "transfer" to the professor, David tells a story about the most awkward Magikarp in world history, and Ryan believes he knows who trained the Pokemon guarding the gym at the White House to defend America's honor. 

Nate and Ryan go mano-a-mano to discuss MORTAL KOMBAT, the 1992 arcade game from Midway and Acclaim that introduced the world to Fatalities and spearheaded a moral panic about the state of the medium. Nate endures the filmic adaptation, Ryan calls Sub-Zero a "frost wizard," and Kari manages to put the baby to bed long enough to pop in to tell a story about how her mom put the kibosh on her brother's copy of MK for the Sega Genesis. TOASTY!

SHOW NOTES:

1993 New York Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/16/nyregion/video-violence-it-s-hot-it-s-mortal-it-s-kombat-teen-agers-eagerly-await.html?scp=9&sq=mortal%20kombat&st=cse

Mortal Kombat: The Album (YouTube):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL577E545387C04A3E

Mortal Kombat series Fatalities compilation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ6G2Lau9EE

“Mortal Monday” TV spot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8V7TwlYCt0

Nate, Sebastian, and David gather to discuss SUPER MARIO KART. Nate plays the contrarian, David advocates not drinking and driving, and Sebastian marvels at yet another early-'90s TV spot. Nate proposes a new podcast specifically dedicated to kart racers, and Sebastian claims that racing is "boring" and "not fun." David hits him with a red shell.

SHOW NOTES:

Super Mario Kart TV spot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fgg1t_pnR4

Nate, Sebastian, and Ryan sit down to discuss WOLFENSTEIN 3D, the grandfather of the first-person shooter. We talk schlock, grindhouse aesthetics, and how deeply ingrained genre-specific controls have become in gaming. Sebastian refers to musical stylings as "tang" for the second consecutive episode, and Ryan watches too much History Channel. Nate gushes about Bj Blazcowicz's soft voice.

SHOW NOTES:

Manual PDF: http://www.abandonia.com/files/extras/23636_game_extra_1.pdf
Browser version: http://3d.wolfenstein.com  

Nate, Sebastian, Ryan and new guest Kari tackle 1992's THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK TO THE PAST, the most delicious(?) game we've yet encountered. We talk about the advent of lore and world-building in games, "canon," and whether the impulse to arrange all the Zelda games into a coherent timeline is reasonable (Nate: no, Ryan & Kari: absolutely). 

SHOW NOTES:

Illicit scans of some Zelda comics:

http://www.zeldacapital.com/comics.php 

Buy Shotaro Ishinomori's manga legitimately:

https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Zelda-Link-Past/dp/1421575418/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1515962715&sr=8-4&keywords=link+to+the+past 

The SNES manual in PDF form:

http://www.gamesdatabase.org/Media/SYSTEM/Nintendo_SNES/Manual/formated/The_Legend_of_Zelda-_A_Link_to_the_Past_-_1992_-_Nintendo.pdf 

The ROM hack that lets you play co-op LttP:

https://kotaku.com/new-link-to-the-past-mod-lets-two-zelda-players-share-i-1797019696 

In our last episode of 2017, Nate, Sebastian, Ryan, and David all gather to discuss ANOTHER WORLD, or OUT OF THIS WORLD as it was titled in the American market. We talk about how games borrow the language of cinema, games made by a single creator, and failed science experiments from our youth (stay for the story about boiled hamster brains). 

SHOW NOTES:

GDC post-mortem talk w/ creator Eric Chahi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjnUUIPIMn4

Nate, Sebastian, and Jordan gather to discuss SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, the debut game of Sega's mascot who was custom-built to take down a certain mustachioed plumber. Nate and Sebastian discuss being on the Sega side of the "console wars," Jordan dunks on the battery life of the Game Gear, and Nate gushes about the musical stylings of Masato Nakamura. Also there are some technical difficulties.

Nate, Sebastian, and Jordan sit down to discuss STREET FIGHTER II: THE WORLD WARRIOR, the game that started uncountable arcade brawls and heralded the arrival of a new genre: the fighting game. Hear us try to sort through the nine different iterations of the game, find out who's "the Taylor Swift of Street Fighter," and discover which classic combatant Jordan feels comfortable comparing to Eeyore. Then, after you're done listening, go home and be a family man!

SHOW NOTES:

The inspiration for Dhalsim, from "Master of the Flying Guillotine":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGkn8TFaySg

Polygon's excellent oral history of SF2:

https://www.polygon.com/a/street-fighter-2-oral-history

The final dumb tableau of the Street Fighter live action film:

https://youtu.be/VKsGYhb3g7g?t=1m21s

Nate and Ryan sit down this episode in bat and mist form, respectively, to discuss 1990's CASTLEVANIA III: DRACULA'S CURSE, the most fun you can have with a whip without bringing Devo into the picture. Hear discussion of Universal movie monsters, find out which host loves the Netflix Castlevania and which hates it, and discover the secret love that binds two men together (it's manticores). 

SHOW NOTES:

Castlevania III on the Nintendo eShop:

https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/o1RG7sVLN_8mkQ2I31JCx7ZDVPofx1KG

I couldn't find the picture of the manticore that we referenced, sorry.

:(

Nate, Sebastian, David, and Jordan gather to discuss LEMMINGS, the 1991 puzzle/herding game from DMA Designs. Hear Nate's frustration at trying to play the game with a controller rather than a mouse, David's defense of actual lemmings (the animals), and Sebastian's theory that the Lemmings are Fraggles who have joined a cult. Also, we ponder what "Lemmings: Tactics" might look like.

SHOW NOTES:

Here’s a history of Lemmings in Mike Dailly’s own words: https://web.archive.org/web/20150627001229/http://www.javalemmings.com/DMA/Lem_1.htm

Apple’s 1985 “Lemmings” Ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_9lT7gr8u4

Jordan returns to join Nate and Sebastian in discussing SUPER MARIO WORLD, the flagship title of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and one of the best side-scrolling platformers ever made. Come for the discussion of SMW's elegant level design, stay for infighting about the console wars and banter about swears. Jordan tells us about nightmarish ROM hacks, Nate tells a story about mushrooms in bubbles, and we make Sebastian watch the Super Mario World cartoon show. 

SHOW NOTES:

An attempted Kaizo Mario run at AGDQ:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkMuNRjodCQ

Another Mario ROM hack, “Super Panga World”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt-unq5i_oU

All 13 episodes of the Super Mario World cartoon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCgS64Le_PA&list=PL7F9A88911148633F

“The Mama Luigi Project”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liqrfUYsOtA

Nate, Ryan, and David gather to discuss UNDERTALE, Toby Fox's RPG(?) from 2015 in which you do not have to destroy anyone. We discuss lo-fi aesthetics, the teenage desire to experience darkness in stories, and choices that matter. Nate keeps a Spider Donut for a convenient moment, Ryan commits some accidental murders, and David bristles at permanent consequences for embracing the dark side. Listening to this podcast episode... it fills you with determination.

Nate, Sebastian, and Ryan gather to discuss THE SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND, a piratey point-and-click from LucasArts that still stands up as one of the funniest games in the medium. Nate discusses his love for interface jokes, Ryan seethes over a particular kind of gag, and Sebastian tells some heinous lies about episodes yet to come. Come for the discussion of comedy in videogames, stay for the rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle. 

SHOW NOTES:

Play the original Monkey Island at the Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/details/012360 

Or buy the Special Edition on Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/32360/The_Secret_of_Monkey_Island_Special_Edition/

Here's Sam & Max Hit the Road:

https://www.gog.com/game/sam_max_hit_the_road 

David joins Nate and Sebastian to discuss FIRE EMBLEM: SHADOW DRAGON AND THE BLADE OF LIGHT, the Japan-only title that first blended the delicious chocolate of tactics with the peanut butter of JRPGs. Nate laments the lack of kissing in this first entry, David wonders about abstraction and scaling, and Sebastian takes every opportunity to turn the conversation toward SHINING FORCE, the tactics RPG that shaped his childhood. Come to hear the origins of one of our favorite genres of game, stay to listen to the legend of Jogurt.

SHOW NOTES:

Gaze upon the face of Jogurt:

https://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/shining/images/6/60/SF_Yogurt.png/revision/latest?cb=20160325141857

Nate, Sebastian, and Ryan gather to discuss JOHN MADDEN FOOTBALL, the 1990 game for the Sega Genesis. Join us as we discuss how football is a hybrid real-time/turn-based strategy game! Mourn as we reveal the childhood trauma caused by being Cleveland sports fans! Hear a story about Sebastian's job interview! 

SHOW NOTES:

Madden NFL 18 - "Longshot" trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBZwjP6MpZo

Madden NFL 15 - "Madden Season":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJGhwKMax3I

Nate, Sebastian, and Ryan all gather - in one place this time! - to discuss SIMCITY, the revolutionary open-ended city simulator by Maxis Games. Come to hear about the bias inherent in the simulation, stay to learn which one of us compulsively added island prisons to his cities as a child. 

SHOW NOTES:

SimCity at the internet archive:

https://archive.org/details/msdos_SimCity_1989

"Micropolis":

http://www.graememcc.co.uk/micropolisJS/

SimCity SNES manual PDF (note Mr. Wright on the cover!):

http://www.gamesdatabase.org/Media/SYSTEM/Nintendo_SNES/manual/Formated/SimCity_-_1991_-_Nintendo.pdf 

Paolo Pedercini's essay on the bias inherent in the Sim-ulation:

http://www.molleindustria.org/blog/multiplicity/

Nate, Sebastian, and David gather to discuss POPULOUS, the progenitor of the God Game. Thrill at the raising and lowering of land! Hear Sebastian shout "Volcano!" several times! Find out whether we think its creator, Peter Molyneux, is a visionary or a huckster! Discover what it means to "Shoot the Hooch!"

SHOW NOTES:

GDC Postmortem on Populous featuring Peter Molyneux -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIaK6y5kdro

Nate, Sebastian, and David spend some time reminiscing about FINAL FANTASY, a game near and dear to their hearts. Come for the discussion of how the game unfolds itself before the player, stay for the sordid tale of the boys' proudest and most shameful undertaking. Also, we discover how much it would cost you to buy an intact box of Swedish Chef-themed breakfast cereal "Croonchy Stars."

SHOW NOTES:

Here is that picture Sebastian insists that Nate share with the listening audience. A truer portrait of pride and shame was never captured on film. 

https://gobackandplay.tumblr.com/post/162679733026/the-podcast-hosts-having-just-finished-a-five-day 

Nate and Sebastian are joined by newcomer David to discuss MANIAC MANSION, the game that put LucasArts on the map and spawned a new genre: the "point-and-click" adventure. Come for the jokes, stay to find out which one of us microwaved a hamster. 

SHOW NOTES:

YouTube playlist of Maniac Mansion TV series episodes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqA06yA79_IkUWxugT-RSkP6diKpo1Hib

Hint poster:

http://www.maniacmansionfan.50webs.com/images/pc%20hint%20poster.jpg

Alarm book cover:

http://www.maniacmansionfan.50webs.com/images/nukem2.jpg

Nintendo Power cover:

https://countzeroor.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/magazine-nintendo-power-maniac-mansion-v3-2-of-6-_9-page-1.jpg

Nate and Sebastian have a quick discussion about R-TYPE, one of the best shmups of the 1980s. Learn about Nate's encounter with Edward James Olmos, Sebastian's favorite game box art of all time, and how games can be overwhelming in a way much different than other media. 

SHOW NOTES:

Sebastian's favorite game box art of all time:

https://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/9/93770/2364533-snes_phalanx.jpg

Nate, Sebastian, and Jordan gather to discuss METAL GEAR, a game about being sneaky and talking on the radio. We discuss donuts, the commonalities of codec conversations and Shakespearean soliloquies, and how a game can be anti-war but pro-soldier. Jordan tries not to get too deep into the weeds of Metal Gear lore. 

SHOW NOTES:

A picture of the Metal Gear cover next to a promotional still from Terminator:

http://www.cannotunsee.net/post/1051633464/metalgear

A Kotaku UK article about "Worlds of Power":

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2015/07/21/the-metal-gear-novelisation-is-super-weird 

Nate, Sebastian, Ryan and Jordan all gather to discuss Dragon Warrior, one of the earliest breakout JRPGs. Come for discussion of grinding and exploring, stay to hear a long digression about slow TV and to find out who drank an entire boot full of beer this weekend (it was Sebastian). 

Nate, Sebastian, and Jordan gather to discuss UNTIL DAWN, Supermassive Games' 2015 horror adventure classic. We talk about branching narrative, the surfacing of information to the player (or the obscuration of it!), fiction which is genre-aware, and horny teens. Nate extols the virtues of 1999 cannibal thriller RAVENOUS, Sebastian marvels that a slasher story can hold his interest, and Jordan experiences the butterfly effect.

Nate, Sebastian, and Ryan gather to discuss The Legend of Zelda, the biggest open-world game they've encountered so far and the origin of yet another of gaming's longest-running series. Come for the discussion of the dichotomy between textual and meta-textual information, stay for Ryan's daddy issues and to find out what kind of bed sheets Sebastian had as a child. 

SHOW NOTES:

Original NES manual:

http://legendsoflocalization.com/media/the-legend-of-zelda/manuals/ZeldaNESManual.pdf

The opening to the Zelda cartoon that ran as part of the SMB Super Show:

https://youtu.be/OE4VkfYaP1w?t=1m

Playlist of episodes:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1B7BC2060D8E1FD9

Nate, Sebastian, and Ryan are joined by special guest Lucy to discuss The Oregon Trail, staple of all '80s elementary classrooms. Come to hear about the hardships of cross-country emigration in the 1840s, stay to find out why Ryan means to take pictures of his local Cinnabon. 

SHOW NOTES:

GDC Post-mortem of The Oregon Trail with Don Rawitsch: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdGNFhKhoKY

Game Informer's history of the MECC:

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2017/04/07/a-pioneer-story-how-mecc-blazed-new-trails.aspx

Play The Oregon Trail (MS-DOS) at the Internet Archive!

https://archive.org/details/msdos_Oregon_Trail_The_1990 

Nate, Sebastian, and Ryan gather to discuss Gauntlet, the arcade game that popularized four-player co-op and raised the bar for game narratives with classic lines like "WIZARD NEEDS FOOD BADLY." We discuss the tensions between cooperation and competition, four-player games we've loved, and Ryan's nostalgia for sword and sorcery. 

Nate, Sebastian, and Jordan convene to discuss Super Mario Bros., one of the truly revolutionary games. Naturally, they quite bungle it. Learn, in this episode, how Nintendo revitalized the home console market, why Sebastian thinks SMB is an "elegant" game, and why Nate would be comfortable being married by the ghost of Captain Lou Albano.

SHOW NOTES:

Super Mario Bros. 3 commercial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrATmeFoJPE

"Super Mario Bros. Super Show" intro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkQTgjGboWQ 

Nate, Sebastian, and Ryan discuss Tetris. Maybe the best game ever made? Listen to Nate relate the mixed-up story of the game's intellectual property rights, listen to each host's pitch for the filmic version of Tetris, and find out which block Ryan thinks "has a nose."

SHOW NOTES:

Tetris on an oscilloscope:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmFPQJRkb5s

"Tetris: From Russia With Love" (BBC Documentary):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhwNTo_Yr3k

Box Brown's "Tetris: The Games People Play":

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M28OM76/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Commercial for Jurassic Park Tiger handheld game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phV1bV1aHeE

Nate, Sebastian, and Ryan gather to discuss Marble Madness, gaming's most spherical pastime. Come for our discussion of the game's awesome music, stay for the beginning of Sebastian and Ryan's life-long blood feud over whether or not Star Wars is trash. All hate mail can be delivered directly to the @GoBackandPlay twitter account, addressed to Sebastian.

Show notes:

You can play the original arcade version of Marble Madness for free at the Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/details/arcade_marble

Here's a link to Mark Cerny's GDC post-mortem of the game on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klPs3KrXiJE

Here's a link to a video by Gaming History Source showcasing tons of different ports of MM to various systems:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvzrn2sxEOY  

Nate, Sebastian, and Jordan gather to discuss Dragon's Lair, the arcade game that ran on Laserdisc and looked just like a cartoon! Because it was a cartoon. We talk about Don Bluth films, "Quick Time Events," and problematic damsels. 

All four boys sit down to unpack E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600, frequently saddled with the title of "Worst Game Ever." We discuss whether we think that's a fair assessment, as well as why the videogame market crashed in 1983 and whether we were ever gifted any terrible games. Ryan makes several off-color jokes, Jordan brings up "Custer's Revenge," and Nate eats from a bag of Reese's Pieces to regain his energy.

Nate, Sebastian, and Ryan return from holiday hiatus to discuss Robotron: 2084, the apocalyptic action classic that popularized the twin-stick shooter. Come for a discussion of robots and flashing lights, stay to learn Ryan's grievous misconception about the Williams Sonoma corporation and Sebastian's morbid fascination with Sean Connery's outfit in "Zardoz." 

This episode is rated "Explicit" because Ryan says a swear once and also uses the term... ugh... "Thick Dad."

Nate makes a terrible financial decision, Sebastian loses it at a commercial for breakfast cereal, and Jordan reveals which terrible videogame console he owned as a child. All in the pursuit of a malevolent ape named DONKEY KONG. This episode is rated T for Teen, because Jordan says a swear. 

Relevant clips from the 1983 Donkey Kong Saturday morning cartoon show:

https://youtu.be/B2ks97n8x8M

https://youtu.be/PPodjspYk08

The Donkey Kong cereal commercial:

https://youtu.be/dEdDWb7RYcQ

Nate, Sebastian, Ryan, and David convene to discuss THE WITCHER III: WILD HUNT, a 2015 open-world RPG from CD Projekt Red which instantly became the benchmark against which other open-world RPGs were measured. We discuss renaissaince festivals, open-world bloat, and the difference between polish and Polish. Nate describes the game as "a Mass Effect the size of a Skyrim," Sebastian feels uncomfortable playing it with his wife in the room, and Ryan's medallion vibrates.

Nate, Sebastian, and Ryan discuss the origin of interactive fiction, the efficacy of weasels as a rat-control solution, and whether Dolly Parton is a time traveler from the future. Along the way, they consider Infocom's seminal classic text adventure: ZORK. Join us as we dive into the Great Underground Empire, and stick around to see if anyone gets eaten by a grue. 

Guest starring Kari as the voice of Zork.

LINKS:

You can play Zork online at the Internet Archive (Apple IIe version):

https://archive.org/details/a2_Zork_I_The_Great_Underground_Empire_1980_Infocom (Beware, to my knowledge you can’t save.)

You can also get the Lost Treasures of Infocom on the App Store here:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lost-treasures-of-infocom/id577626745?mt=8 The original Zork is a freebie.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy text adventure, courtesy BBC4:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN2PLZG/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-game-30th-anniversary-edition

Ryan extols the virtues of the first scrolling shoot-'em-up, Sebastian wonders about the morality of sacrificing the people you're meant to save rather than letting them become mutants, and Nate wonders if Defender is the origin of videogames' accessibility problem. Come for the historical context, stay to learn the title of Nate's hit R&B single from 1996.

Nate and Sebastian are joined by Jordan Fehr to discuss Missile Command, the premier mutually-assured-destruction anxiety simulator! Hear the boys talk about the fear of imminent nuclear annihilation, the angst of choosing between protecting soldiers or saving millions of innocent lives, and how nice it is to play an arcade game with a trackball. 

Rated explicit because Jordan says a swear.