May 16, 2025 • 24 mins
Sure, Animal Crossing is cute. But what about a Tetris sequel that features Abe Lincolns and Frankensteins? Or a game that somehow blends Honey, I Shrunk the Kids with an anti-smoking campaign? Or the greatest (and maybe only?) game based on Noah's Ark? Today Will, Gabe, and Mango try to outdo each other with funniest, silliest, and most ridiculous video games they can find.
This episode originally aired on September 1, 2020.
Screenshot from Untitled Goose Game. HONK.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Guess what, Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
What's that? Well?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
All right, So I was looking up old video games
and video game systems this week, as we've talked about,
I know, both of our boys are obsessed with video
games these days, and William is trying to find every
game ever made on every system ever made. And they
of course make these like little computers where you can
go back and try these games from pretty much every system,
so it is kind of fun to get into it
(00:35):
with him. But there's one that he's not familiar with.
So I don't know if you know this, but before
they were making graphing calculators, Texas Instruments used to make
a computer for kids. It was actually called the t
I ninety nine.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So weirdly, I actually know this because I had one.
No way, my dad was super into gadgets and early computers,
and so I had one in my room when I
was like four, which is crazy.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
That's fun.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
But you know, the weirdest thing about the system is that,
like the TI definitely had the place for cartridges, but
it could also hook up to a cassette player and
it would play games through like tape cassettes essentially, so
like the cassettes would feed data into the computer, which
is which is nuts. And I actually like thought about
this like a few years ago and and had to
look it up because it felt like a dream, like
(01:19):
it didn't feel real. But but but the weird thing
about my t I ninety nine was I had none
of the fun games. Like everything my parents bought for
me was educational. So I think like the most fun
game I had was Chess. It's a little bit.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Of a relief because I thought I was going to
tell you everything I knew here and you're gonna be like, sorry,
I already knew that. But uh So there's a T
I ninety nine game that's definitely not educational. It's called
garbage Belly, and it's why I brought the system up
in the first place. I was reading about it in
PC mag And this is what the back of the
Garbage Belly box said. It says, help garbage Belly gobble
(01:55):
up the ripe garbage in a field of garbage pails.
But watch out if you make him eat raw garb garbage,
he will die.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Garbage Belly. I feel like I've never heard anyone say
the word garbage so much to like sell a product.
But isn't it weird that the character dies from raw garbage,
like he only feasts on the finest garbage, which is
cooked garbage.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, I mean he's got to die from something. Plus,
you know, just because his name is garbage Belly, I
don't think we can assume like that he wouldn't have
discerning taste, like some garbage does have to taste better
than other garbage.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
That is a good point. So what was was this game?
Any good?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
No?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
It's a terrible game. I mean, you're lucky your parents
brought you the educational games only. But Garbage Belly is
just the first of nine ridiculous video games that we're
going to talk about today. So blow the dust off
that old cartridge, enter the up down updown code, and
let's hit start. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part
(03:08):
Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined
by my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer And on the
other side of the computer screen cleaning house and a
ferocious game of pac Man, that's our friend and producer
loll He is actually guys, he's sharing a screen right now,
and I Honestly, I wish our listeners could see this
because he is tearing through those ghosts, just one after another.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
It's a total blood bag.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, it's really impressive.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
It actually reminds me of that scene from thirty Rock,
just saying the word pac Men, like when someone tells
Tracy Morgan but that the guy who created pac Men
just passed away, and he says to put out a
bowl of cherries and some ghost meat in his honor.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So funny, pretty fitting tribute there, But unfortunately pac Man
is way too mainstream for today's show because we are
on the hunt for some deeper, weirder cuts, and to
help us find them, we brought along our good pal Gabe. Gabe,
thanks for joining us again.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Hey, yeah, it's my pleasure. Thanks for inviting me back, guys.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, of course. So I am curious, like I haven't
played games in forever, and I think Will is the same,
although both our sons are obsessed. But Gabe, you play
video games, right, Like, have you spent all your summer
playing Animal Crossing like everyone else?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
No?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I have not.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
I'm the one person who hasn't, I guess, But I
did play a different kind of simulator game this summer.
It's called untitled Goose Game. Have you guys heard of it?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I have seen my son play it.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yes, actually, yes, right, it's awesome. It's basically a goose simulator,
and yeah, you play as a goose wandering around this
little English village and all you can do is honk, flap,
grab things with your beak, run, you know, typical goose stuff.
And so the goal is really to just annoy the
townspeople and cause as much mischievous possible. It's it's kind
(04:57):
of amazing, and if you've ever wondered what it's like
to be a goose, this is probably as close to
the real thing as you're ever gonna get.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Wait, I'm sold. I feel like this is the reason
to play video games again. But what I really like
about that is, like the concept kind of feels like
a throwback to the early days of video games, when
there just weren't as many expectations and you could get
away with making a game just about anything. So, like,
you know, my first pick for today is actually a
great example of that. It was released for the Atari
(05:27):
twenty six hundred back in nineteen eighty two, and it's
called Sneak and Peak and it was basically Hide and
Seek the video game.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
So why didn't they just call it hide and Seek?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I know, I mean sneak and peak sounds like so
dirty if I can person that does. But I mean,
branding is just one of the game's many problems. You know,
it's a two player game. One player just has to
look away from the screen while the other player hides.
And then the player who's hiding doesn't do anything at
all while the other person looks for them on the screen.
(06:01):
They just like stay put and hope time runs out
before the other person finds them. It's it's kind of crazy.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Yeah. Wait, so this was a game that required one
player to not look at the screen at all and
another player to not touch the controller. I mean, are
we even sure this qualifies as a video game? I
know it's kind of like that. I don't know if
Will remembers this. But when we were like trying to
brainstorm board games, we came up with this idea for
Tag the board game where the only thing inside the
(06:31):
like the box is a cone for base and maybe
maybe like a pin that says it. You know, like,
I feel like this is almost as bad, but you know,
the worst part of the game was there weren't that
many hiding spots in the game. The games set in
the house, but you can only go to three rooms
plus the yard, so finding the hider isn't that much
of a challenge and you'd actually be better off just
(06:51):
going outside and playing a real game of hide and
go seek. Okay, so Sneak and Peek sounds like a
pretty weak substitute for the real thing, but my first
pick for today offers a gaming experience you'd be hard
pressed to find in real life, and in fact, I
do not recommend trying the game's infamous. Now. It's called
Takeshi's Challenge and it was only released in Japan back
(07:13):
in nineteen eighty six. The title refers to a real
life comedian and actor named Takeshi Kitano, and he was
a pretty big star in Japan at the time from
what I understand.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah, he's actually he was a director too, and he
directed this movie Sonatine and Fireworks, the really beautiful but
like violent films.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Oh awesome. Well, according to Legend, the video game company
behind Space Invaders, they wanted to meet with Takeshi, and
so he agreed and they got together in a bar
to see if he'd be willing to make a game
with them, and Takeshi wasn't all that interested. He didn't
even like video games, but the company was picking up
the tab that night, so he's stuck around, and over
(07:56):
the course of a few hours, Takeshi drank a ton
of rice wine and he gave the designers his stream
of consciousness ideas for a video game, and then with
notes in hand, the designer set to work creating what
would become one of the most bizarre adventure games ever made.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
That's going to have to be pretty strange to top
a Goose simulator, because that sounded pretty random if you
asked me.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Well, trust me, this was way weirder. The main character
was an ordinary business man, and while the game didn't
spell it out for you, the ultimate goal is to
make it to a distant island where a cave of
treasure awaits you, and the only way to get there
is basically to have the most extreme midlife crisis possible.
(08:38):
So get this. You have to quit your job, divorce
your wife, get drunk, fight the yakuza, sing karaoke, learn
to hang glide, travel to the South Pacific, and of
course blow up some alien spaceships and sounds about right. Yeah.
And because this was all dreampt up by a guy
who disliked video games, the tasks themselves were not designed
(09:03):
to be enjoyable. So, for instance, to beat the karaoke section,
you have to actually sing into the console's built in microphone,
and then your performance it has to be judged as
good by the computer. And here's the thing, there's no
criteria for the performance. So if the game says you're
singing is lousy, then you just have to do it
(09:23):
again until you get it right. Oh, if that wasn't yeah,
and if that wasn't infuriating enough. Once you actually beat
the challenge, the reward is a treasure map, but it's
written in invisible ink, so the player has to sit
there without touching the controller for an entire hour while
you wait for the map to appear, and if you
(09:46):
touch a button any sooner than that, you're thrown right
back to the karaoke challenge. It's sadistic.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
It sounds like such a like big practical joke.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
That's exactly what it is.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Right, yeah. Some people think that, you know, the whole
thing was just Takeshi kind of thumbing his nose at
people who play video games, and the game's ending actually
lends some credence to that. You know, spoilers. But if
you managed to stick with it through all the frustration,
the only reward is a little drawing of Takeshi's smiling
face and a message that says, why are you taking
(10:19):
this game so seriously?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
All right, Well, if you're in the market for something
a little more relaxing and honestly a bit less soul crushing,
I have a recommendation for you. It's a little puzzle
game and it's called Hattrus. And I know what you're thinking.
You're like, this is just Tetris but with hats. But no,
my friends, this is Tetris with hats and the severed
heads of Frankenstein and Abraham Lincoln himself.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
So what was this game? Also designed by a drunk
Japanese comedian.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Now this is actually from the creator of the original Tetris.
So this was back in nineteen ninety. Yeah, this is true.
He went back to the drawing board and perfected his
original idea by swapping different shaped blocks for different kinds
of hats, so the hats would descend the screen two
at a time, and the goal was to place them
on one of six heads lined up at the bottom.
(11:12):
So stack five of the same hat on top of
one head and they would disappear, just like those lines
in Tetris.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So I guess that kind of makes sense. Like how
does the head of Abe Lincoln fit into this stuff?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, that's the part I'm not quite so sure about.
I mean, I guess they wanted some recognizable heads to
stack hats on, and of course Lincoln fit the bill.
We always think of him with a hat on. But
you know, the better you do, the more new heads
you unlock. And so in addition to Lincoln and Frankenstein,
there's also of course Charlie Chaplin and Dracula. Yeah, the
(11:44):
usual crew.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
I like that they picked notable hat wearers like Lincoln
and Chaplain, but then they just throw in a couple monsters,
you know, makes sense. There's one thing Dracula is note
for you, it's his iconic hat.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I mean, the whole concept is a little efusing to me.
But what type of hats are we talking about? Like
baseball caps, berets, Like what is in the mix?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Well, there's Lincoln stove pipe, and of course Chaplain's famous.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Bowler, which which makes sense.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
But but you're right, there is a baseball cap along
with a cowboy hat. Let's see what else, a top
hat and one of those pointy cone hats that like
wizards wear, and so it's a pretty good mix. But
the game never actually explains where this endless stream of
hats is coming from, or of course the severed heads
for that matter.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Which I guess is why you've got to have a
sequel to this, right, But speaking of sequels, my next
pick is kind of a spiritual sequel to that game.
Gabe talked about forever ago, about David and Goliath. It
was we talked about in our Philistine's episode, and I've
kind of been obsessed with it ever since. It was
Bible Adventures, right, Gabe, that's what, Oh, that's the one. Yeah,
(12:49):
So I was, you know, fascinated by it. So I
looked into other Biblical games and a few years after
that came out, the same developers released another Bible based
game called Super three D Noah's Arc. Wow. This one
was actually for the Super Nintendo and it was built
using the same game engine as the first person shooter
(13:10):
game Wolfenstein three D.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Well, he said, first person shooting, Like, was this actually
a shooting game?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Like?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Does is Noah running around through the arc like gunning
down animals or something?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Pretty much, except obviously they didn't have guns back then,
so instead Noah's got this trusty slingshot and an endless
supply of fruit, and the game storyline is that the
animals are sick and tired of being cooped up in
a crowded boat. I guess it kind of feels like quarantine,
and eventually all the animals go rogue, so Noah has
to protect his family by launching fruit at the animals
(13:41):
until they all get full enough to slip into a
food coma.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
So, I mean, I think it's safe to say the
designers took a few liberties there. I mean, I don't know,
maybe it was just my translation, but I don't remember
an animal ran page and a shooting spree being part
of the original story.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Again, Gabe, you just think you forget that part.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah, it's some punch, But when I looked it up,
it feels like the Bible doesn't say anything about what
actually went down on the arc, Like it covers what
happened before and it covers what happens after. The Arcs Voyage.
But you know, maybe this is exactly what happened.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, I mean, you know, you just you never know.
But I feel like we need to take a quick
break so we can all look this up. This game
just seems too weird to be true. But we do
have four more weird games to talk about, so we'll
be right back. Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where
(14:45):
we're talking about some of the strangest video games you've
probably never played before. I think it is your turn
next game, So what's your second pick?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Okay, So, if you thought Noah's Ark was a strange
idea for a game, then brace yourself for nineteen ninety
four Rex Ronan Experimental Surgeon off to a great start.
So this was a Super Nintendo game as well, and
weirdly enough, it was designed as an educational game, or
you know, at least in theory. The game was meant
(15:15):
to teach kids about the real world danger of smoking,
and to help deliver this message, the developers came up
with a pretty out there storyline. So here's the pitch.
A wealthy tobacco salesman is dying and it's up to
you Rex Ronan to save his life. Through the miracle
of experimental surgery. So by shrinking yourself to microscopic size,
(15:39):
you're able to enter the salesman's body and blast away
his sickness with a high powered leader.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Like, I love the detail here. So you basically shrink
yourself down and then you what do you do, you like,
clean out the guy's lungs or something.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yeah, and not just his lungs either, Like another level
has you blasting fatty deposits in his heart. And there's
even a part we have to enter the guy's brain
to quote remove the nicotine addiction. That's sounds works, right,
that's exciting.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Well, the weirdest part, you know, which is saying something,
is that the game has a side story where the
tobacco company finds out about your plan, and then in
order to keep the salesman from talking bad about the company,
they send a bunch of tiny evil robots into his
body to kind of finish him off. So, so not
only are you fighting disease, you've also got hoords of
(16:27):
tiny robots to kentuckt with.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
I feel like that's that's what experimental surgery is, right, Like,
it's what they teach in med school. It's so good.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, that does sound pretty well, but I feel like
it does kind of work. Like I don't think I
feel like smoking after that. But all right, well, from
the exhilarating world of experimental surgery, let's go to my
next game. This is the equally riveting Sensible Train Spotting.
That's actually the name Sensible Train Spotting, and it was
released for Amiga computers in nineteen ninety five, and it
(16:58):
delivered exactly what it a detailed simulation of what it's
like to be a man with a thermos sitting on
a bench and marking down the engine numbers of trains
that pass him by. Doesn't it sound exciting?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Wait, that's what train spotting is. Like, I've heard the
term before, but I honestly never knew what it meant.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I'm actually more interested in the fact that there were
Amiga computers in nineteen ninety five. Yeah, but I guess
you can tackle Gibb's question for.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, I'll tackle that one first. Then we'll talk about
my Tandy from back in the early nineties. But yeah, so,
train spotting is a real hobby for some people. So
what you do is you go to the different stations
and you write down the numbers on the trains as
they pass by, and so people would create lists of
all different engines that operated in a city and then
you try to see them all in person. It was
(17:46):
big in the UK during the mid twentieth century, and
some devoted fans have carried on the tradition ever since then.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
I mean, it reminds me of those families who used
to drive out to airports to see planes take off,
like back in the glamorous era of like air or
air travel.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, and you know, and train spotting is still a thing,
but sometimes you just can't make it down to the
rail yard, you know. So for days like that, there's
this game Sensible Train Spotting all of the fun of
watching trains and marking off numbers from the comfort of
your own living room.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know what's more surprising to
me really, like that this is an activity people actually enjoy,
or that someone made a video game about it, Like
both are kind of baffling, to be honest.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, I mean, it's not an action packed hobby and
that's true of the game too, but there's still some
challenge to it, Like, for example, the longer you play
the faster the trains move and the more there are
on the screen, so it does make it tougher to
cross off all the numbers on your list before the
time runs out. And so weirdly, the game is actually
hyper aware of the fact that train spotting is super dull,
(18:49):
and so if you run out of time before you
clear a train spotting card, a message pops up that
says time's up. Sad man, go back one card, which
you know, of course is pretty depressing, but somehow less
depressing than the message you get for winning that one
just says, well done, my sad friend, onto the next card.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I love that it knows what a sad man you are.
Either way, that's really what you want for a game.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Yeah, it's kind of like Tikeshi's Challenge. Really like it
mocks you just for wanting to play it.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Well, it is funny because the last game on my
list also mocks you for just playing it. And this
one was released in nineteen ninety nine for the sake
of Dreamcast. It's about raising a digital pet and it's
called Seamen.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Okay, and what kind of pet are you raising?
Speaker 1 (19:37):
So in this game Seaman, you're you're basically the caretaker
of a bizarre fish human hybrid. He basically looks like
this bass with a human face slapped on the front,
and the object of the game is to raise this
creature through like all of its upsetting developmental faces, and
until he eventually grows legs and leaves the water to
start a life of his own. But the game does
(19:59):
not mean this easy. For one thing, the only way
you can interact with Seman is by giving him voice commands,
and because the voice detection was pretty spotty, it was
hard to get him to do what you want. The
other downside to the game is that Seaman is kind
of a jerk. Like you're supposed to form a bond
with them by talking to him more and more, but
most of the time he just insults you, so you're
(20:21):
never really rooting for him to make it to adulthood.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Oh wow, So what we have here is basically a
bad parent simulator where you neglectfully look after a fish monster.
Does that sound about right?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
I mean, it's basically my experience of parenting like familiar,
except I forgot to mention that Leonard Nimoy also chimes
in sometimes to give advice and cheer you on that's
the best part.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Oh, I feel like, actually this is getting better.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Okay. So we've talked about a lot of weird games today,
most of which probably don't qualify as good games. But
the last one I want to talk about fits perfectly
and both categories. It is a decidedly weird game, but
it's also a good one. It's called Katamari Dimashi, which
roughly means soul clump in Japanese. This game came out
(21:13):
in two thousand and four on the PlayStation two, and
it's one of the most joyously wacky games I've ever seen.
The backstory is that the magnificent King of All Cosmos
goes on a bender one night, drunk on the beauty
of creation, and during his revelry, he accidentally destroys every
star in the night sky. Oh man, as you do,
(21:33):
yeah huh. And that's where the player comes in. So,
as the son of the King, the Prince of all Cosmos,
it's your job to roll a big sticky ball called
a katamari all over the world until enough stuff sticks
to it that your dad can then launch the whole
thing into space and turn it into a brand new star.
So you know, one by one you're gradually rebuilding all
(21:56):
the constellations using giant balls a junk.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Which you know kind of sounds like a sweet concept.
I vaguely remember this game being sort of a phenomena, right,
But what kind of stuff are you rolling up?
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Yeah? I mean anything you can really like. Each level
gives you a certain size that you have to, you know,
grow your katamari too before the time runs out, So
you start small. You're making a ten centimeter ball with
little stuff like erasers and paper clips. But the more
stuff you roll over, the larger the ball grows, so
gradually you're able to pick up bigger and bigger stuff,
you know, books, bowls, furniture, house pets, motorcycles, city buses,
(22:32):
like you name it. In the later stages, you roll
a katamaris so big that it starts ripping up buildings
and bridges, and then eventually natural phenomena too, like you're
literally ripping clouds and rainbows out of the sky.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Amazing.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yeah, nothing goes to waste.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I do like that you repair damage stars by pretty
much wrecking the earth and then chucking it all into space.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Yeah. Yeah, that's that's about it. And the best part though,
is it's gotten a amazing soundtrack, so the whole time
you're rolling up the world, there's this super upbeat Japanese
pop music playing and yeah, just what you want for
that kind of mass destruction. And by the way, Kada
Mari was actually it was published by Namco, which is
the same developer behind pac Man, you know, another game
(23:17):
where you play as a big circle and gobble up
everything in sight. So yeah, I guess they really know
their brand.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
As strange as that all sounds, I do think Will
should take home today's trophy. One because sensible train spotting
is a game I would never force on anyone, but
I would love to have that like framed on my wall.
And two because he used the word Amiga computers, which
which I haven't heard forever.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yeah, I can agree with that. I mean, really, all
of Will's picks were about like mundane things like train
spotting and stacking hats and garbage eating. Garbage eating very boring.
It went all in on boring. Yeah, I forget that.
Well it really paid off for it.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Well, thank you guys, it is an honor, and thanks
as always to our listeners for tuning in. That wraps
it up for today's part time Genius from Mango, Gabe, Loel,
and myself. Thanks so much for listening. Please stay safe
and we'll be back soon with another episode. Part Time
(24:23):
Genius is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Guess what, Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
What's that? Well?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
All right, So I was looking up old video games
and video game systems this week, as we've talked about,
I know, both of our boys are obsessed with video
games these days, and William is trying to find every
game ever made on every system ever made. And they
of course make these like little computers where you can
go back and try these games from pretty much every system,
so it is kind of fun to get into it
(00:35):
with him. But there's one that he's not familiar with.
So I don't know if you know this, but before
they were making graphing calculators, Texas Instruments used to make
a computer for kids. It was actually called the t
I ninety nine.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So weirdly, I actually know this because I had one.
No way, my dad was super into gadgets and early computers,
and so I had one in my room when I
was like four, which is crazy.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
That's fun.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
But you know, the weirdest thing about the system is that,
like the TI definitely had the place for cartridges, but
it could also hook up to a cassette player and
it would play games through like tape cassettes essentially, so
like the cassettes would feed data into the computer, which
is which is nuts. And I actually like thought about
this like a few years ago and and had to
look it up because it felt like a dream, like
(01:19):
it didn't feel real. But but but the weird thing
about my t I ninety nine was I had none
of the fun games. Like everything my parents bought for
me was educational. So I think like the most fun
game I had was Chess. It's a little bit.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Of a relief because I thought I was going to
tell you everything I knew here and you're gonna be like, sorry,
I already knew that. But uh So there's a T
I ninety nine game that's definitely not educational. It's called
garbage Belly, and it's why I brought the system up
in the first place. I was reading about it in
PC mag And this is what the back of the
Garbage Belly box said. It says, help garbage Belly gobble
(01:55):
up the ripe garbage in a field of garbage pails.
But watch out if you make him eat raw garb garbage,
he will die.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Garbage Belly. I feel like I've never heard anyone say
the word garbage so much to like sell a product.
But isn't it weird that the character dies from raw garbage,
like he only feasts on the finest garbage, which is
cooked garbage.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, I mean he's got to die from something. Plus,
you know, just because his name is garbage Belly, I
don't think we can assume like that he wouldn't have
discerning taste, like some garbage does have to taste better
than other garbage.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
That is a good point. So what was was this game?
Any good?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
No?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
It's a terrible game. I mean, you're lucky your parents
brought you the educational games only. But Garbage Belly is
just the first of nine ridiculous video games that we're
going to talk about today. So blow the dust off
that old cartridge, enter the up down updown code, and
let's hit start. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part
(03:08):
Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined
by my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer And on the
other side of the computer screen cleaning house and a
ferocious game of pac Man, that's our friend and producer
loll He is actually guys, he's sharing a screen right now,
and I Honestly, I wish our listeners could see this
because he is tearing through those ghosts, just one after another.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
It's a total blood bag.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, it's really impressive.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
It actually reminds me of that scene from thirty Rock,
just saying the word pac Men, like when someone tells
Tracy Morgan but that the guy who created pac Men
just passed away, and he says to put out a
bowl of cherries and some ghost meat in his honor.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So funny, pretty fitting tribute there, But unfortunately pac Man
is way too mainstream for today's show because we are
on the hunt for some deeper, weirder cuts, and to
help us find them, we brought along our good pal Gabe. Gabe,
thanks for joining us again.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Hey, yeah, it's my pleasure. Thanks for inviting me back, guys.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, of course. So I am curious, like I haven't
played games in forever, and I think Will is the same,
although both our sons are obsessed. But Gabe, you play
video games, right, Like, have you spent all your summer
playing Animal Crossing like everyone else?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
No?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I have not.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
I'm the one person who hasn't, I guess, But I
did play a different kind of simulator game this summer.
It's called untitled Goose Game. Have you guys heard of it?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I have seen my son play it.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yes, actually, yes, right, it's awesome. It's basically a goose simulator,
and yeah, you play as a goose wandering around this
little English village and all you can do is honk, flap,
grab things with your beak, run, you know, typical goose stuff.
And so the goal is really to just annoy the
townspeople and cause as much mischievous possible. It's it's kind
(04:57):
of amazing, and if you've ever wondered what it's like
to be a goose, this is probably as close to
the real thing as you're ever gonna get.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Wait, I'm sold. I feel like this is the reason
to play video games again. But what I really like
about that is, like the concept kind of feels like
a throwback to the early days of video games, when
there just weren't as many expectations and you could get
away with making a game just about anything. So, like,
you know, my first pick for today is actually a
great example of that. It was released for the Atari
(05:27):
twenty six hundred back in nineteen eighty two, and it's
called Sneak and Peak and it was basically Hide and
Seek the video game.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
So why didn't they just call it hide and Seek?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I know, I mean sneak and peak sounds like so
dirty if I can person that does. But I mean,
branding is just one of the game's many problems. You know,
it's a two player game. One player just has to
look away from the screen while the other player hides.
And then the player who's hiding doesn't do anything at
all while the other person looks for them on the screen.
(06:01):
They just like stay put and hope time runs out
before the other person finds them. It's it's kind of crazy.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Yeah. Wait, so this was a game that required one
player to not look at the screen at all and
another player to not touch the controller. I mean, are
we even sure this qualifies as a video game? I
know it's kind of like that. I don't know if
Will remembers this. But when we were like trying to
brainstorm board games, we came up with this idea for
Tag the board game where the only thing inside the
(06:31):
like the box is a cone for base and maybe
maybe like a pin that says it. You know, like,
I feel like this is almost as bad, but you know,
the worst part of the game was there weren't that
many hiding spots in the game. The games set in
the house, but you can only go to three rooms
plus the yard, so finding the hider isn't that much
of a challenge and you'd actually be better off just
(06:51):
going outside and playing a real game of hide and
go seek. Okay, so Sneak and Peek sounds like a
pretty weak substitute for the real thing, but my first
pick for today offers a gaming experience you'd be hard
pressed to find in real life, and in fact, I
do not recommend trying the game's infamous. Now. It's called
Takeshi's Challenge and it was only released in Japan back
(07:13):
in nineteen eighty six. The title refers to a real
life comedian and actor named Takeshi Kitano, and he was
a pretty big star in Japan at the time from
what I understand.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah, he's actually he was a director too, and he
directed this movie Sonatine and Fireworks, the really beautiful but
like violent films.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Oh awesome. Well, according to Legend, the video game company
behind Space Invaders, they wanted to meet with Takeshi, and
so he agreed and they got together in a bar
to see if he'd be willing to make a game
with them, and Takeshi wasn't all that interested. He didn't
even like video games, but the company was picking up
the tab that night, so he's stuck around, and over
(07:56):
the course of a few hours, Takeshi drank a ton
of rice wine and he gave the designers his stream
of consciousness ideas for a video game, and then with
notes in hand, the designer set to work creating what
would become one of the most bizarre adventure games ever made.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
That's going to have to be pretty strange to top
a Goose simulator, because that sounded pretty random if you
asked me.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Well, trust me, this was way weirder. The main character
was an ordinary business man, and while the game didn't
spell it out for you, the ultimate goal is to
make it to a distant island where a cave of
treasure awaits you, and the only way to get there
is basically to have the most extreme midlife crisis possible.
(08:38):
So get this. You have to quit your job, divorce
your wife, get drunk, fight the yakuza, sing karaoke, learn
to hang glide, travel to the South Pacific, and of
course blow up some alien spaceships and sounds about right. Yeah.
And because this was all dreampt up by a guy
who disliked video games, the tasks themselves were not designed
(09:03):
to be enjoyable. So, for instance, to beat the karaoke section,
you have to actually sing into the console's built in microphone,
and then your performance it has to be judged as
good by the computer. And here's the thing, there's no
criteria for the performance. So if the game says you're
singing is lousy, then you just have to do it
(09:23):
again until you get it right. Oh, if that wasn't yeah,
and if that wasn't infuriating enough. Once you actually beat
the challenge, the reward is a treasure map, but it's
written in invisible ink, so the player has to sit
there without touching the controller for an entire hour while
you wait for the map to appear, and if you
(09:46):
touch a button any sooner than that, you're thrown right
back to the karaoke challenge. It's sadistic.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
It sounds like such a like big practical joke.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
That's exactly what it is.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Right, yeah. Some people think that, you know, the whole
thing was just Takeshi kind of thumbing his nose at
people who play video games, and the game's ending actually
lends some credence to that. You know, spoilers. But if
you managed to stick with it through all the frustration,
the only reward is a little drawing of Takeshi's smiling
face and a message that says, why are you taking
(10:19):
this game so seriously?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
All right, Well, if you're in the market for something
a little more relaxing and honestly a bit less soul crushing,
I have a recommendation for you. It's a little puzzle
game and it's called Hattrus. And I know what you're thinking.
You're like, this is just Tetris but with hats. But no,
my friends, this is Tetris with hats and the severed
heads of Frankenstein and Abraham Lincoln himself.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
So what was this game? Also designed by a drunk
Japanese comedian.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Now this is actually from the creator of the original Tetris.
So this was back in nineteen ninety. Yeah, this is true.
He went back to the drawing board and perfected his
original idea by swapping different shaped blocks for different kinds
of hats, so the hats would descend the screen two
at a time, and the goal was to place them
on one of six heads lined up at the bottom.
(11:12):
So stack five of the same hat on top of
one head and they would disappear, just like those lines
in Tetris.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So I guess that kind of makes sense. Like how
does the head of Abe Lincoln fit into this stuff?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, that's the part I'm not quite so sure about.
I mean, I guess they wanted some recognizable heads to
stack hats on, and of course Lincoln fit the bill.
We always think of him with a hat on. But
you know, the better you do, the more new heads
you unlock. And so in addition to Lincoln and Frankenstein,
there's also of course Charlie Chaplin and Dracula. Yeah, the
(11:44):
usual crew.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
I like that they picked notable hat wearers like Lincoln
and Chaplain, but then they just throw in a couple monsters,
you know, makes sense. There's one thing Dracula is note
for you, it's his iconic hat.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I mean, the whole concept is a little efusing to me.
But what type of hats are we talking about? Like
baseball caps, berets, Like what is in the mix?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Well, there's Lincoln stove pipe, and of course Chaplain's famous.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Bowler, which which makes sense.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
But but you're right, there is a baseball cap along
with a cowboy hat. Let's see what else, a top
hat and one of those pointy cone hats that like
wizards wear, and so it's a pretty good mix. But
the game never actually explains where this endless stream of
hats is coming from, or of course the severed heads
for that matter.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Which I guess is why you've got to have a
sequel to this, right, But speaking of sequels, my next
pick is kind of a spiritual sequel to that game.
Gabe talked about forever ago, about David and Goliath. It
was we talked about in our Philistine's episode, and I've
kind of been obsessed with it ever since. It was
Bible Adventures, right, Gabe, that's what, Oh, that's the one. Yeah,
(12:49):
So I was, you know, fascinated by it. So I
looked into other Biblical games and a few years after
that came out, the same developers released another Bible based
game called Super three D Noah's Arc. Wow. This one
was actually for the Super Nintendo and it was built
using the same game engine as the first person shooter
(13:10):
game Wolfenstein three D.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Well, he said, first person shooting, Like, was this actually
a shooting game?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Like?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Does is Noah running around through the arc like gunning
down animals or something?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Pretty much, except obviously they didn't have guns back then,
so instead Noah's got this trusty slingshot and an endless
supply of fruit, and the game storyline is that the
animals are sick and tired of being cooped up in
a crowded boat. I guess it kind of feels like quarantine,
and eventually all the animals go rogue, so Noah has
to protect his family by launching fruit at the animals
(13:41):
until they all get full enough to slip into a
food coma.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
So, I mean, I think it's safe to say the
designers took a few liberties there. I mean, I don't know,
maybe it was just my translation, but I don't remember
an animal ran page and a shooting spree being part
of the original story.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Again, Gabe, you just think you forget that part.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah, it's some punch, But when I looked it up,
it feels like the Bible doesn't say anything about what
actually went down on the arc, Like it covers what
happened before and it covers what happens after. The Arcs Voyage.
But you know, maybe this is exactly what happened.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, I mean, you know, you just you never know.
But I feel like we need to take a quick
break so we can all look this up. This game
just seems too weird to be true. But we do
have four more weird games to talk about, so we'll
be right back. Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where
(14:45):
we're talking about some of the strangest video games you've
probably never played before. I think it is your turn
next game, So what's your second pick?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Okay, So, if you thought Noah's Ark was a strange
idea for a game, then brace yourself for nineteen ninety
four Rex Ronan Experimental Surgeon off to a great start.
So this was a Super Nintendo game as well, and
weirdly enough, it was designed as an educational game, or
you know, at least in theory. The game was meant
(15:15):
to teach kids about the real world danger of smoking,
and to help deliver this message, the developers came up
with a pretty out there storyline. So here's the pitch.
A wealthy tobacco salesman is dying and it's up to
you Rex Ronan to save his life. Through the miracle
of experimental surgery. So by shrinking yourself to microscopic size,
(15:39):
you're able to enter the salesman's body and blast away
his sickness with a high powered leader.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Like, I love the detail here. So you basically shrink
yourself down and then you what do you do, you like,
clean out the guy's lungs or something.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yeah, and not just his lungs either, Like another level
has you blasting fatty deposits in his heart. And there's
even a part we have to enter the guy's brain
to quote remove the nicotine addiction. That's sounds works, right,
that's exciting.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Well, the weirdest part, you know, which is saying something,
is that the game has a side story where the
tobacco company finds out about your plan, and then in
order to keep the salesman from talking bad about the company,
they send a bunch of tiny evil robots into his
body to kind of finish him off. So, so not
only are you fighting disease, you've also got hoords of
(16:27):
tiny robots to kentuckt with.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
I feel like that's that's what experimental surgery is, right, Like,
it's what they teach in med school. It's so good.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, that does sound pretty well, but I feel like
it does kind of work. Like I don't think I
feel like smoking after that. But all right, well, from
the exhilarating world of experimental surgery, let's go to my
next game. This is the equally riveting Sensible Train Spotting.
That's actually the name Sensible Train Spotting, and it was
released for Amiga computers in nineteen ninety five, and it
(16:58):
delivered exactly what it a detailed simulation of what it's
like to be a man with a thermos sitting on
a bench and marking down the engine numbers of trains
that pass him by. Doesn't it sound exciting?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Wait, that's what train spotting is. Like, I've heard the
term before, but I honestly never knew what it meant.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I'm actually more interested in the fact that there were
Amiga computers in nineteen ninety five. Yeah, but I guess
you can tackle Gibb's question for.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, I'll tackle that one first. Then we'll talk about
my Tandy from back in the early nineties. But yeah, so,
train spotting is a real hobby for some people. So
what you do is you go to the different stations
and you write down the numbers on the trains as
they pass by, and so people would create lists of
all different engines that operated in a city and then
you try to see them all in person. It was
(17:46):
big in the UK during the mid twentieth century, and
some devoted fans have carried on the tradition ever since then.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
I mean, it reminds me of those families who used
to drive out to airports to see planes take off,
like back in the glamorous era of like air or
air travel.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, and you know, and train spotting is still a thing,
but sometimes you just can't make it down to the
rail yard, you know. So for days like that, there's
this game Sensible Train Spotting all of the fun of
watching trains and marking off numbers from the comfort of
your own living room.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know what's more surprising to
me really, like that this is an activity people actually enjoy,
or that someone made a video game about it, Like
both are kind of baffling, to be honest.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, I mean, it's not an action packed hobby and
that's true of the game too, but there's still some
challenge to it, Like, for example, the longer you play
the faster the trains move and the more there are
on the screen, so it does make it tougher to
cross off all the numbers on your list before the
time runs out. And so weirdly, the game is actually
hyper aware of the fact that train spotting is super dull,
(18:49):
and so if you run out of time before you
clear a train spotting card, a message pops up that
says time's up. Sad man, go back one card, which
you know, of course is pretty depressing, but somehow less
depressing than the message you get for winning that one
just says, well done, my sad friend, onto the next card.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I love that it knows what a sad man you are.
Either way, that's really what you want for a game.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Yeah, it's kind of like Tikeshi's Challenge. Really like it
mocks you just for wanting to play it.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Well, it is funny because the last game on my
list also mocks you for just playing it. And this
one was released in nineteen ninety nine for the sake
of Dreamcast. It's about raising a digital pet and it's
called Seamen.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Okay, and what kind of pet are you raising?
Speaker 1 (19:37):
So in this game Seaman, you're you're basically the caretaker
of a bizarre fish human hybrid. He basically looks like
this bass with a human face slapped on the front,
and the object of the game is to raise this
creature through like all of its upsetting developmental faces, and
until he eventually grows legs and leaves the water to
start a life of his own. But the game does
(19:59):
not mean this easy. For one thing, the only way
you can interact with Seman is by giving him voice commands,
and because the voice detection was pretty spotty, it was
hard to get him to do what you want. The
other downside to the game is that Seaman is kind
of a jerk. Like you're supposed to form a bond
with them by talking to him more and more, but
most of the time he just insults you, so you're
(20:21):
never really rooting for him to make it to adulthood.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Oh wow, So what we have here is basically a
bad parent simulator where you neglectfully look after a fish monster.
Does that sound about right?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
I mean, it's basically my experience of parenting like familiar,
except I forgot to mention that Leonard Nimoy also chimes
in sometimes to give advice and cheer you on that's
the best part.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Oh, I feel like, actually this is getting better.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Okay. So we've talked about a lot of weird games today,
most of which probably don't qualify as good games. But
the last one I want to talk about fits perfectly
and both categories. It is a decidedly weird game, but
it's also a good one. It's called Katamari Dimashi, which
roughly means soul clump in Japanese. This game came out
(21:13):
in two thousand and four on the PlayStation two, and
it's one of the most joyously wacky games I've ever seen.
The backstory is that the magnificent King of All Cosmos
goes on a bender one night, drunk on the beauty
of creation, and during his revelry, he accidentally destroys every
star in the night sky. Oh man, as you do,
(21:33):
yeah huh. And that's where the player comes in. So,
as the son of the King, the Prince of all Cosmos,
it's your job to roll a big sticky ball called
a katamari all over the world until enough stuff sticks
to it that your dad can then launch the whole
thing into space and turn it into a brand new star.
So you know, one by one you're gradually rebuilding all
(21:56):
the constellations using giant balls a junk.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Which you know kind of sounds like a sweet concept.
I vaguely remember this game being sort of a phenomena, right,
But what kind of stuff are you rolling up?
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Yeah? I mean anything you can really like. Each level
gives you a certain size that you have to, you know,
grow your katamari too before the time runs out, So
you start small. You're making a ten centimeter ball with
little stuff like erasers and paper clips. But the more
stuff you roll over, the larger the ball grows, so
gradually you're able to pick up bigger and bigger stuff,
you know, books, bowls, furniture, house pets, motorcycles, city buses,
(22:32):
like you name it. In the later stages, you roll
a katamaris so big that it starts ripping up buildings
and bridges, and then eventually natural phenomena too, like you're
literally ripping clouds and rainbows out of the sky.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Amazing.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yeah, nothing goes to waste.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I do like that you repair damage stars by pretty
much wrecking the earth and then chucking it all into space.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Yeah. Yeah, that's that's about it. And the best part though,
is it's gotten a amazing soundtrack, so the whole time
you're rolling up the world, there's this super upbeat Japanese
pop music playing and yeah, just what you want for
that kind of mass destruction. And by the way, Kada
Mari was actually it was published by Namco, which is
the same developer behind pac Man, you know, another game
(23:17):
where you play as a big circle and gobble up
everything in sight. So yeah, I guess they really know
their brand.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
As strange as that all sounds, I do think Will
should take home today's trophy. One because sensible train spotting
is a game I would never force on anyone, but
I would love to have that like framed on my wall.
And two because he used the word Amiga computers, which
which I haven't heard forever.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yeah, I can agree with that. I mean, really, all
of Will's picks were about like mundane things like train
spotting and stacking hats and garbage eating. Garbage eating very boring.
It went all in on boring. Yeah, I forget that.
Well it really paid off for it.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Well, thank you guys, it is an honor, and thanks
as always to our listeners for tuning in. That wraps
it up for today's part time Genius from Mango, Gabe, Loel,
and myself. Thanks so much for listening. Please stay safe
and we'll be back soon with another episode. Part Time
(24:23):
Genius is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
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Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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