1Upsmanship: F-Zero (Feat. DJ Danl)

Start your engines shipheads, because 1Upsmanship is taking on its first ever racing game and they picked a classic! Co-piloted by special guest co-host DJ Danl, our boys boost past futuristic space gambling plots, Mode 7 graphical innovations, the history of racing games as a genre, and Adam’s dad hogging the controller. But will F-zero pass the great checkered flag in time to win its place on the Celestial Hard Drive? Tune in and find out!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, I love them. You know that's opening to start

(00:27):
this show. There's a there's a few things we do
a lot of it. I feel like it's because Mike
has a musical in his heart. He's never written I'd
like to hear it hit the musical. That would be wonderful,
wouldn't it. By the way, if any, if any game
should have a musical dedicated to it, that's like a

(00:47):
dormant franchise. It's f zero, right. Do we agree on
that there's some bops? There are some bops in this
The music was absolutely a standout. Was lutely a standout.
Such really good. The vibes are immaculate for what it's
trying to do. Yeah, okay, great, I mean yeah, very cool.

(01:08):
By the way, welcome, This is our intro to one
Option Ship. I hope you enjoyed that conversation. That's what
we're doing today. I'm one of your regular hosts, Adam Ganzer,
joined with one of my favorite guests and colleagues. Introduce yourself, sir. Hello,
my name is DJ Daniel Goodman and I am absolutely
thrilled to be here on the Mike today with to

(01:30):
to do some one Uption Ship. We have like a
gentle bromance going. Is that? Okay? I think that's just
I think that's completely fairs Like, it's not Last of
Us A three, but it's like like have speed. I
oh gosh, it's wasn't it? First of all? Okay, so
full disclosure, I haven't watched the show yet because it's okay,

(01:53):
it's okay, okay. I mean, of course I've been exposed
to every Twitter thing and whatnot. And also I played
the first game, so I was like, I have a
feeling I know what's going on here. But I also,
full disclosure, finished the Last of US two for the
first time. Oh great, what a how are you even
awake this morning? Like you just need to go into
cocoon for twelve hours through never I mean it was

(02:16):
I had to get on the phone with some friends
and talk for a little while. It was really incredible.
It was really really, I mean absolutely skyrocketed to the
top of my I mean, I think it's my favorite.
It's definitely my favorite story in a video game I've
ever played. Easy Call. Easy Call, for sure. That's a layup.
So before we get too much further, some of you

(02:36):
are probably wondering, where's Mike and a great question. So
Mike has just a little bit of personal business you
needed to take care of, which means he's not going
to appear on a few episodes because we record one
up and ship like on a weekend, we'll do like
five six episodes in the which is yeah, well, you know,
it makes it more manageable for us. So he's gonna
he's gonna miss a series of episodes, but it's really

(03:01):
just because he needed this weekend to do something. So
I fear not. He's fine, We're fine. He loves video games.
I love video games. He'll be back. But we are
thrilled to be joined by DJ Daniel on this podcast
to talk about a game that I have been trying
to get on this podcast for at least a year,
and I think I maybe I'm sneaking one past Mike

(03:22):
right now is what's happening? And the game is F
zero F zero zero? Had you ever played it before
I talked to you about this? No, I had. I
was an F zero X person as a young child.
That was my entry to the series. Um, but but
then seeing this was on switch thanks to thanks to

(03:44):
your call out wash was eye opening. I would say
in a lot of ways. If you have a switch,
you can play this game for free right now. In fact,
you can play F zero and I believe zero X
for free right now if you have an attend of
sixty four expansion right yeah, if you have an expansion
pack right So, like, if you've never played anything in

(04:07):
this franchise, I think you're gonna you're in for a treat,
I would say, because I think F zero is is
kind of an underappreciated gem at this point, and we're
going to talk about it at length today, starting with
getting right into our format, passing our first first ever checkpoint,
right into tell me like I'm a bit? Yes, Daniel,

(04:29):
do you feel like telling us like rapit? Like what
the hell this is? I do feel like telling you
like I'm a bit, or like they're a bit or
whomever is eight bit like someone's eight? Um okay, great zero.
F zero is a futuristic racing game for the Supernintendo
Entertainment System that Gan said came out. Uh. It is

(04:53):
revolutionary in a number of ways, um, but mostly in
this use usage of this graphical mode called Mode seven,
which I know we'll talk about today, but it is.
It is revolutionary, and that it is one of the
first racing video games to kind of define the format

(05:14):
of what racing behind a car looks like. Every other
racing game up to this point had been kind of like,
you know, you're looking at a static image of a
track and you're controlling a car, I think your track
manias or whatever. And this was one of the first
ones to be actually behind the car, like you're in
that third person view driving around that I think anybody
who has ever played a racing game is the most
familiar with and this was the start of that. So

(05:36):
if you're thinking where did this come from, it came
from F Zero, a futuristic racing game on the SNS,
one of the launch titles for the Super Supernintendo Entertainment System.
And um, and I think that's that. Yeah, you did great,
Thank you, you did absolutely great. Thank you. I only
want to add because I think it will. It's just
one of those moments I like to shout this out, please.

(05:59):
It was designed I should grow mi Amoto like like
everything good. It's like literally everything good. YEA man, that
guy anyway, he really does Like I feel like there's
a lot of people who I love who I probably
wouldn't heard out if I met them, Like I could
meet Tom York and be normal. I think I don't
know if I could be normal if METO. I don't know.

(06:21):
I completely agree. This is this is something that like
in my personal life I tried to do where it's
like if I see a famous person, I'm like, you
don't want to bother people. It's like everybody's a human being.
You don't want to be a jackass. So I try
to think about what I'm going to say before hand,
so I can go up and be like, not a
frothing fan, but game developers. I just lose my ship.
It's like, I love your thing you do so much.

(06:42):
I can't even I don't even know what to say
to you. You made Mario Man, you made Mario Bro,
you made Zelda like man, that's my entire childhood. Like
you did it anyway. He wouldn't care, and I don't
blame him anyway. Let's pass our next, our next checkpoint
right into the game or rants. Typically when we have

(07:04):
a guest, we make the guests do a sandwich. But
I think this time obviously that since there's just the
two of us, I will start how about that please okay, great,
so player one Adam games are plugging in F zero Man,
what a game? Uh okay, first thing, and I feel
like it matters just for context. This is my dad's
favorite game. Like it's yes, so like my dad used

(07:26):
to play video games with us when I was a kid,
and but he wasn't great at him and he was
you know, he was at the age where it was
too late to get into video games for him and
he was just busy. But F zero when we bought
that game, he was like what he got there? And
he and we would play it and eventually he just
like that, he took over that game, like he just
like anytime we came home and he was playing games,

(07:46):
which is occasionally, it's this game Master level Firefield Baby,
he was like he was so good at it, um,
And like there's just something warm and nostalgic for me
about that that, like, you know, this is the one
that captured someone who was basically too old for video games,
like just sort of missed. It wasn't in their life, um.
And I think that tells you something about how fun

(08:06):
it is to play. That it really captured, uh, something
that anybody, even if they like video games or not
can get excited about. So, like, we've never really covered
a racing game on this podcast, and the reason is
that racing games tend to have a kind of uniformity
and there's a little bit of of a continuum, and
the continuum basically goes either they are in the Mario

(08:28):
Kart range like, which is to say, they're not just
about racing. They're also about items and like being able
to actually harm or or impede your opponent's progress, like
you know, they they gamify it some or it's about authenticity.
And on that other end, I put for Za or
Grand Turismo or some uh, some racing sim that's about

(08:50):
simulating actual cars, how they work on actual tracks, creating
as much fidelity to reality as possible. And both are
completely viable, uh, they are completely viable endeavors, and they
both have great strengths and weaknesses. And I like both
ends of the continuum. F zero is fantastic because it's
really right in the middle. It's right in the middle.

(09:12):
It is primarily racing. You don't really get too far
away from just racing other opponents. Especially in the first one.
They started to gamified a little bit more as they
went along, but they added a few gamified elements that
made it more competitive and less sort of uh, and
less about the art and fidelity of the race experience.

(09:33):
Things like the walls are they hurt you? You hit
a wall, it hurts you, and it'll send your ass
spinning out of control if you get too if you
get too much Fiendish speed going at it right. So
they have traps, they have like mines, they have like
magnetic walls, they have jumps, uh, they have like you know,
just like slippery surfaces and stuff which are closer to

(09:53):
things that might happen in a real raising simp. And
I think most importantly, they give you speed boosts that
you can deploy at any time once you complete a lab.
Every lab you complete gives you a speed boost. So
I mentioned this because I think for young people who
don't who were who when I was going up, were
not attached to car racing as a sport. Like I've
never been attached to NASCAR or whatever like that. I don't.

(10:15):
That doesn't do anything for me or to like f
wand or daytone or any of that stuff. F zero
is a great entry point because the gamification of it
makes it more accessible and fun and makes the racing
part of it that's like the primary loop, more engaging
if you're not interested in racing. See like when I
play Grand Tarisimo or four as the Horizon or whatever

(10:37):
it is, after a while get bored with those games,
even though I'm like, dude, I'm gonna get that fuckingality
and I'm gonna see it and it's and it's awesome.
It's awesome. Um and those games rule, especially if you're
a gear head, Like they are really cool, but they
they're fundamentally pretty much the same, like like mastering It
is ultimately mastering like the same basic set of moves,

(10:57):
and F Zero throws just a little bit of chaos
and air to make it feel like it will never
always be the same, you know, like they throw actual
obstacles and you know, and sometimes the computer can cheat,
by the way, the computer cheats all the time. Uh
in a way that's like what and and and I
think that's good. It's good for the game that it
does that. Um. So the last thing I'll say before

(11:19):
I turn it over is, uh, somehow They've also created
some enduring characters from this franchise, which is weird when
you think about it because there's not a lot of
story here. Um. But they this game started with four
characters and the only one everyone would know is Captain Falcon.
But Captain Falcon one of the best Smash Brothers characters.
F y, I uh, Falcon punch a new one, thank

(11:39):
you so great. Character has really endured. And I think
that's another way that Nintendo understood for us to care
about a racing game, you have to create some narrative,
some personality connection point. That's actually why people care about
F one and stuff. It's the it's the oh, I'm
rooting for you know whoever, I'm gonna name a person
who's not a person like Joe Gore or whatever. Right, guy,

(12:01):
I love Jill Gordon, but I'm rooting for him and
his team, you know what I mean. Like, that's how
we get into racing. And they smartly recognized we needed
sort of like at least playing card versions of characters
to connect to and decide do I want to be
this kind of guy or this kind of guy? Right?
And uh, it was rudimentary but effective. That's my rant,

(12:23):
sensational rant. You couldn't couldn't have felt it more on
a deep level. Um, and before and before I jumped
into my rant per se, I just want to point
out something that's so like, the first thing I did
was play the game. I guess this is my rant.
The first thing I did was play the game. The
second thing I did was read about the game, and
and I would say my opinion on the game kind

(12:44):
of like flip flopped after playing it and then reading
about it interesting and not and and and and kind
of in a way where I was like there was
things that I was annoyed at that I was like, wait,
I actually really appreciate this. Um So, firstly, outside of gameplay,
the name F zero comes from this. The the the

(13:06):
story is the quote unquote story is like these futuristic
you know, billionaire people make this sport that is supposed
to be like F one but future, so it's F zero.
The fact that I never put that together in my life,
I was like, oh my god, the of course of course.

(13:28):
So really that was something very fun to me, And
as a big F one fan, I was like just
just kicking myself that I literally never put that together.
F zero, F one, F zero perfect of course. Anyway,
um So, my experience playing F zero, like I said,
I think maybe this is included in the intro. I
started as an F zero x UM. My first zero

(13:48):
experience was on the N sixty four UM, when it
had definitely kicked up in terms of the um, the
lore and the represent the physical manifestation of the characters
your Captain Falcon of course, Falcon, Punch Um and if
you and and and even more characters, a much larger
roster of people to to race as. And jumping into
a zero was something that you know. Also, like I
said earlier, the gans put me onto via the SNS

(14:10):
app on the switch and getting to play it as
more of you know, an adult with more years of
video game experience behind me, and playing a game like
this when you are someone who didn't grow up with it,
I think the frustration kicks itself up a little bit
extra because you're like, we have developed so far past this,
Like I'm doing all these things. I'm like this, I

(14:31):
feel like we we moved past this thing. We've had
this thing or bl blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
But then you take a second, you put the controller down,
you release the frustration, and you go, oh my god,
this is the first time any of that was happening.
This is the first time ever we were racing behind
the car this way, with a track that's moving around
and seeming like we're moving in a three D space,

(14:53):
and there's so many and and as I played it
again and more and more, I was like, truly, everything
has come from this. Everything that I love about racing games,
whether it's your Mario Karts, whether it's your grands rismos,
whether it's your your wipeouts, your zero g s, your
burnout paradise is whatever it is, there's an element of
that in this F zero game that seems so simple

(15:14):
on its surface, but is so incredibly important to every
other racing game. They all owe an essence of their
mechanics to this game, and so experiencing that after having
my first round of frustrating beating my first Grand Prix
and being like, oh, yes, I did it, in realizing
a it was the first Grand Prix and the easiest one,

(15:37):
was like, oh man, this is really tough. Learning about
it and picking it back up again, I felt like
I was truly playing something that it very much took
me back to, like, Wow, this is what it was,
This is where everything else came from. If I was
now playing every other racing game after having played this
as a kid, I would be like, got from zero,
got from zero, from zero, from f zero. It's just

(15:59):
like it's feels so deeply important and rooted in the
history of racing games that like I felt that very
in the core of my bones as I was flicking
around the track. So I guess that's my rant I felt.
It's a great it's a great observation because like a

(16:21):
lot of I was thinking of racing games before this,
and I don't want to get into the next section,
but like I remember a lot of games that were racing,
because there was a lot of them at the time,
were side scrollers or overhead like that was that was
kind of like how racing was consumed until this point.
And this is sort of an in between moment when
we started to get into three dimensionality. Uh, And we'll

(16:44):
talk about that a little bit on the other side
of the break. And that break is happening after this
word and this we're brought us right back here. We
are lap lap four or five, by the way, they

(17:04):
have five laps in this. Did you notice that weird? Right?
I wonder if I wonder what the the what do
you call it? When you do like a consumer testing
or something, when you have like a bunch of people
sitting in a room and it's like they played the
first game, They're like, so, how did you like? Five laps?
Maybe four laps, three laps. It's like every game from

(17:26):
now on is a three lap game. That's right. I
would guess if I was a betting man, that they
probably designed five laps because it was weird and because
the tracks were so short, and then in subsequent in
subsequent outings, they're like, we have to design a track
that feels satisfying enough. Only three laps, three laps? Right? Um.

(17:47):
I do want to talk a little bit about the
next half zeros because I think that some of the
seeds of it are here and it's worth talking about.
And I'm not sure when we'll get back to zero.
It's been five years and we just got to this one,
so I don't know, So I'm I'm we can talk
a little bit about F zero X, but before we
do that, I just want to pass our next checkpoint

(18:08):
and get right into game on. Uh. This is where
all opinions are welcome, though not equally valid of course,
and all interruptions are tolerated, and we really get into it.
Uh So, can I ask you, I think, just point
blank question, yes, did you have fun playing it? Yes? Yes? Okay,
I think if we're talking binary one or zero, did

(18:29):
I have fun? Yes? There are things that, like every
video game I was annoyed by, well, tell me tell
me some of those things. So I mean, I, okay,
spinning out, bumping into bumping into another opponent, the fact
that there's certain points where the tracks are so thin

(18:50):
and you're just trying to sneak by somebody and your
hip box seems to be just that much bigger, where
you're like, I don't think I was going to hit
that person, and then bing bong bing bong, bing bong,
bing bong, ping ponging all over the place, and then
you have because one HP and you have another lap left,
and you're like, yeah, again, this game is extremely punishing.

(19:12):
You can take a wrong term. And then it's been
so long since I have played this and like not
known how to play it, that I forgot how steep
the learning curve was. As a kid, it was like, man,
this game is not screwing around and each difficulty setting,
by the way, gets like exponentially harder. So like, yeah,

(19:34):
on Master Quest or whatever they call I think Master
is the final version of it. You have to beat
all the circuits on Harder, Expert or whatever. Master. Here's
what they're doing to you there. It's all the same
things you've been experiencing. Everybody. Everybody is better than your
urns okay. And they're constantly throwing exploding cars in there,

(19:54):
like there's just so many cars on the virtue, on
the verge of explosion, just about to a splood. Come on, man.
Uh And you know, uh, that's why they have the
phrase Nintendo Hard, because that's what this is. It's hard.
I'm sure that it's designed that way to keep it

(20:19):
engaging for people. And like, honestly, and I say this,
you know with love in my heart. My dad is
the test case for why that works. You know, he
doesn't like video games. This game was interesting to him
because he likes racing stuff, and he played it for
years with the Master setting because it was that difficult
and it kept him engaged. So like, as a design philosophy,

(20:41):
I guess it's you know, for some people, it's working totally.
I mean, I think that is you know, we see
that contemporarily in your dark souls, in your games that
are just unforgiving, and they're like, this is how the
game is, and you either rights to the challenge or
you don't get up. Yes, exactly, suck it up. And
I think it's the kind of the same thing with

(21:02):
with with you know, um, more of the simulation style
racing games, like I think you'll always have your Mario
Karts and you're more contemporarily Cartwriter Drifts for the PC,
which I'm playing a lot. But it's like you're playing
these games that that we can talk about that later,
but the they not force you, but like you are
really encouraged to get good, Like it's about It's a

(21:25):
game where it's like this is this is racing. This
is about finding the best line. This is about breaking
at the right time. This is about you know, knowing
the limitations of your vehicle and really like you know,
and using it to your advantage to best the other opponent. Um.
And I think that this game offers such a like
a super concentrated version of that that is like, if

(21:47):
I may put it into one moment, it's you can
take a turn better than somebody else. And when you
get that muscle memory down, it's like you don't forget.
You're like, this is how you take the turn. I
know how to take the turn. It's just like this,
and if I do it the right way, baby does
it feel so good? Baby doesn't. I think that's the

(22:07):
joy of racing, period, totally. Like I think that's the
distilled joy of racing is like nailing it on, Like, ah,
I got every single piece of that just right. So
and you just you brought out something that I think
is completely worth discussing in the racing game genre period.
So you're right, like racing is generally a get good,

(22:30):
uh like endeavor. That's that's what it is like, especially
on the on the fidelity scale right where it's like
the closer gets to sim it's like, look, you want
to race with the big boys. You gotta take this turn, right.
That's it. It's a game. It's over. That's interesting because
Mario Kart, which I think is the exact opposide end
of the continuum. The base point of Mario Kart is

(22:53):
to never make a race a certain outcome. Yes, like Mario, Yeah,
Mario Kart is about che so that there is no
way like there's no certain victory, and there's never a
way to not catch up. You can always find a
way back in the race, you know. Um, And I
think F zero interestingly is designed so that that's still

(23:15):
kind of true for most of these tracks. You can
still get back into the race on the lower difficulties
with the tools they give you and the way the
tracks are designed to curb your speed in like really
dramatic ways, right like every every every circuit at the
end has a track that's like similar to the one

(23:36):
I'm gonna mention, which is silence. You played the first
so silence. They name it science got weird music. And
also the track is shaped like a gun. What's that about?
I did not put that together, but wow, you're a
thousand percent right? Okay, so fine, So here are children

(23:57):
navigating the twists and turns of a gun. Okay, fine, So,
but all the final tracks in in each circuit are
like this in that you can never really get going
top speed, you know what I mean. So if you've
if you've picked Samurai Gora, my particular favorite, who's the
top speed guy, You're always going to be fighting the

(24:18):
doctor guy who's in the yellow car who has great
acceleration but no top speed, right, So, like they are
designed to make it so that by the end you
can't you can't just run away with it, you know
what I mean, Like you do have to get better.
There's like there's a training ramp even within each circuit. Yeah,

(24:39):
I think, I mean, I think that's absolutely. One of
the great successes of this game is how you know,
how balanced it feels around the shape of the tracks,
around the powers of the racers, like it feels you know,
everybody has a favorite Mario Kart person totally and and
even with that zero you probably have a favorite racer,

(25:01):
but this one feels so much more like you know,
everybody has an equal shot. Everybody really feels balanced, but
they also have strengths and weakness. Is totally which I
would say Mario Kart is slowly getting away from because
the best of everything, there's there's there's a there is
a top tier in Mario Kart. Well that's interesting because

(25:22):
like I feel like Mario Kart has added customizability in
such a way that I can choose bowser, but I
can get my top my acceleration up if I use
these tires until this card shape, whereas with zero because
of the lack of choices, like every you know, this
driver has this car. That's it. Like you are deciding
where on the continuum is this do I want to play?

(25:45):
Do I want to be like a guy who jets
around corners or do I want to be the guy
who doesn't just right so you can hit that straight
away and fucking nail it. It's up to you. Yeah,
I think, I mean, I think that's like I think
as we move forward in terms of developing new games,
I think as a like a successful change, like people
want to customize, people want to make whatever they want.
But I also think that kind of contributes a little

(26:06):
bit to like the get goodedness of like, oh, well
you're not racing with Rosalino with the bike. Well then,
I mean you know you're you're not racing. Then you're
not racing, so like sorry, like you can have fun
with your little kiddie game. But like also you at
the Finnish line and it's like, all right, well that's annoying.
You never have you ever seen Days of Thunder? No,
you've seen that movie Days of Thunder. Days of Thunder

(26:27):
is basically top Gun but for NASCAR racing. Okay, and
so Tom so Tom Cruise is our our pilot, you know,
the driver, and he's it's Tom Cruise in this movie
as well, Tom Cruise. Baby, it's early nineties. It's also
he was with Nicole Kidman. It was their first movie
they were in together. So yeah, yeah, this is this

(26:48):
is a real treat. Anyway, there's a fantastic quote from
it that I just need to get just right. Okay, boy,
So Days of Thunder because it has uh the other
big actor and whose name is flying right out of
my head. It was in The Godfather as the Concieri
who is Robert. So Robert Duval is like on the

(27:11):
headset with Tom Cruise, right, and Tom was getting hit
by like he you know, his car is getting hit
and he's like this guy hit me and then Daval
is like, no, no, he rubbed you. And rubbing is
racing and that's like ingredient zero rubbing, that's what it is.

(27:32):
How many times did you die on a jump in
this game? Did you get did you get into any
of the series. I'm trying to yeah, because the jumps
are UNWHEELI they're super unweeldy. I think this is him
really deeply counting him up because because here's the thing,
here's the thing. It's the exact kind of mechanic that

(27:54):
frustrates me to the point of I need to get
this fucking right where it's like where it's like it was,
it was the kind of thing. It's like, I need
to be able to nail this. I love racing games.
I love Mario Karts. I'm less about the fours A
side of it, but I'm way more about the Mario
Karts side of it. So that felt into the caliber
of like, this is a mechanic that I want to
fucking nail. And so I think the answer to your

(28:16):
question is a lot, but I will tell you it's
something that I started to fucking nail. Towards the end,
I was like, that's the And also when you do
nail all the speed up and jump stuff, the stuff
that's like extra racing, you start to feel like like
the game really starts to lift your spirit. Man, You're like,
this is fucking rules, you know, it really does. There's

(28:38):
a track called Red Canyon, which, by the way, home
track for Samurai Gora. That's how much I say Canyon,
Red Canyon is the one that has all the jumps. Yes, yes, yes,
as a child, like it took me, i don't know,
like a solid week of like playing this game and

(29:01):
dying at that track over and over because the jumps
are so unwieldy because it was kind of a new
system in racing, you know what I mean, like, and
so it really takes you a while to like get
your head around the weight of it and how it
like plays out and stuff. And F zero is like
that with kind of all of its, all of its,

(29:22):
like the minds, the magnetic fucking side railing, every of them,
are like, fuck you, It's gonna be hard for you
for a week. That's how it is. It puts you
in discomfort the entire time you're playing, Like the second
that you know you finished your first Grand Prix by
the last race, you're like, you know, I think I
actually got it. I think I got the controls of
the game. And then you get minds and you're like, oh, well,
fuck me. And then you get magnets and then you

(29:42):
get jumps and you're just like, I just learned one thing.
Why are you doing this to me? Let me have
a victory lap and no, no, no way. But that's that,
that is that is part of the that is part
of the reward of this game. I can see why.
It's so just like, you know, drawing you back in
because you want to beat this thing. You've got to
beat this thing. Yeah, it has to be hard enough

(30:04):
that you're going to play it for more than an hour,
but it has to not be so hard that you're
gonna quit because it's like this is not fun or competitive.
And they, to me, they nailed that balance. But that
is a tricky balance. So can I talk about like
this may seem like the most obvious observation ever, but
like it doesn't matter. This game is very fast, you

(30:28):
know what I mean. It's very fast. So like compare
it to I don't know, Excite Bike, which was a
generation earlier but not a lot earlier, or like any
of the r C car games that used to exist,
or really anything in the time. It's very very fast
and it runs really well, super well. Right, yes, as

(30:53):
a pro as an engine, like a game engine, it's
like this thing, like they cared about. It has to
run just right. It never has frame skips, it never
slows down. It's like no, no, no, it's it's gonna
go real, real fast. And I would say as a franchise,
that's the thing that makes F zero stand out is
that it is very fast. Like it's like you're not

(31:15):
in control all the time. It's going that fast. Oh,
no doubt? Right, would you agree with that? Oh? Agree
with that? And I think that's one of the elements
that's UM spawned. It's almost like spawned its own genre
of game. Like did you ever play wipe Out? Yes?
But see, and this is why, that's actually why I
brought this up. Wipeout doesn't have the speed that Zero has.

(31:37):
That's so interesting and to me when I play, and
maybe it's you know, maybe it's like a previous experiencing.
It's an affriori thing. But wipe Out is in the
same genres of Zero, no doubt. It's like it's a
hover car space. Yeah, it's in the same genre, but
it doesn't have the breakneck speed that F zero brings. Okay,

(31:59):
I'm gonna gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna propose own to
propose something to you, and you tell me if you
agree with this statement. UM. Part of the breakneck speed
of F zero is due to the fact that you're
still racing on a course that requires your full attention.
And what I mean and what I mean by that
is that wipe out will generate the feeling of speed

(32:23):
on a course that doesn't require as much brain attention.
It's not attening where you're like, pardon me, that's interesting, Yeah,
where it's like you can just you can kind of
it's not like a turn your brain off. It's not
like a farming simulator. But it's the kind of game
where it's like you're making gentle turns and you're kind
of like soaring through space where it's like it is
giving you the sensation of speed without the need to

(32:47):
keep paying attention. And I think that kind of like
I need to be consciously aware of when this next
turn is going to be while also maintaining this breakneck
speed is part of what contributes to F zero's super
fat past feeling that you're absolutely right there you don't
get in a lot of other games. Right, It's like,
in a way, it's like the sprinting and mass effect

(33:08):
that everybody loves so much as a meme, Like the
in mass effect, when you sprint, you don't actually go faster.
They just added like with like streak lines and stuff
to make it feel like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's
a really dumb bit and it's funny, but it's funny
because it satisfies this thing in your brain. We're like, well,
I'm finally going fast, even thought exactly, F zero is

(33:30):
creating narratively and emotionally tension. It's creating tension because in
tension makes things feel like they're going faster because I'm
going to crash into this wall or that exploding car
is going to hit me or that or whatever, and
I can't slow down enough to feel comfortable, you know.
So that's a really good observation. I would also say

(33:52):
F zero is has a concept in it that it
explored more fully in later iteration, which is the tracks
are supposed to be roller coasters, which is not It's
not true of uh, certainly this first one, but also
of other racing sims totally like you play F zero X,
for instance, and like Big Blue, which has sort of

(34:14):
been one of the you know tracks that stretched across
all the F zero entries. Is a cylinder and you
can let it fly off with some tripital force any
which way, you know, or they have one that's like
literally like there's loop de loops and ship you know,
And I think that tells you they always thought of
and this game has little pieces of like the experience

(34:36):
of this is supposed to be h. You're being whipped
around in a way that you're not entirely in control
like a roller coaster. Other games don't do that because
they want it to feel like controlling the car feels
good and your and it gives you it makes you empowered.
I don't think that zero cares about that. That's interesting,
you know. I I'm I agree. I agree wholeheartedly that

(35:00):
you know, it's a it's a role that the future
of these games was definitely this roller coaster experience. Um,
but I do think control of your car, and maybe
I misunderstanding, but I do think control of your car
is like tantamount to your feeling of success in this game.
That it doesn't offer you a ton of control, despite

(35:20):
the fact that yes, it is kind of like a
a speed simulator, but it is that control that like
gives you the satisfaction of, oh, I'm playing this game. Well,
I agree with that. Let me actually make a very
very like a like a hair splitting Lee free distinction.
So I think that the best moments in F zero
are the moments where it got so hard you almost

(35:43):
lost control, and then and then it like and then
you barely got through with like just health or just
in front of that guy, right, the same, the same experience,
by the way that a lot of ws and Mario
Kart happen. It's the gamification part of it is the
like I I overcame the chaos of this just enough

(36:04):
to get through, as winning in grant in Grand Tarismo
or enforce a Um is not about I barely got through.
It's about like it's about like I did that of
course perfectly, and everyone else is in my wake exactly like.
I don't think the tension of just beating a guy
is the same level of satisfying. And I think that's

(36:26):
on purpose, That's what I mean. Does that make sense
that that that totally makes sense to me. Yes, If
you wanted it to be about controlling the car, you
would not design the game this way. I don't think
interesting interesting like Firefield, for instance, the last course in
the game is fucked up. It's like what they have

(36:49):
like s curves and ship and you're like how can
I what And they have like they have everything everything
evil in a racing game and it's amazing, of course,
and like you don't do. I'm that if you're trying
to make the fundamental experience of like exerting complete control
over the car and mastering how to drive it, you

(37:10):
create it to rip that away from the player and
make them struggle to have it to get it back.
That's the that's interesting. Okay. I hear that. I hear that. Yeah,
I hear no, No, no, I think that's I think
that's very fair. Yeah, okay, okay, here's just an arm
I mean, of course, somebody's gonna and they're welcome to,
uh tweet, tweet me and say I am in complete control.

(37:33):
That's why I'm Captain Falcon all the time, and I'll
say great, you know great. I mean I think all
every every video game rewards or should reward being like
mastering it, being perfect at it, right, and racing games
are the most that, you know, that's that's definitely, you know,
that's the whole point kind of right. But I think
like what makes it fun is not the same thing

(37:55):
as what makes it fun to master. Necessarily, those might
be interesting to loops or experiences. You know, I think
that's I think, you know, you can kind of look
at the culture of speed running with a similar less
where it's like those games in a sense, it's like
those people are mastering the completion of the game. Is
it the most fun way to play the game? Well,

(38:16):
I mean I don't know. Maybe for them, but like
probably not how the designer intended it or like, what
is the quote unquote most fun way to play it?
Watched this fucking Acarina of Time speed runs and he's
just going to It's like, I don't want to do that.
You know, those frame perfect like sword slashes through a
door and it's like this actually unlocks another door that

(38:36):
takes you to the end of the game. It's like, Okay,
the elden Ring ones were like legit sorcery. It's like,
how are they How how did anyone figure this out?
It's insane. Yeah, I don't think that's the same joy, no,
you know, for them, for them, maybe maybe, But yeah,
I'm with you on that one. Yeah, I definitely take

(38:58):
it from them, like please have it, have it friends,
But no, I'm totally with you. I think that's a
very apt observation that the fund the fun is not
in the mastery. The fun is in conquering. It's like
it's in like beating the it's in beating the game,
not being like the best driver per sect. This is
gonna sound extraordinarily condescending, and I just mean it as

(39:20):
a joke. So have you seen the menu? Have you
seen the men? You know? I haven't yet, but I'm
not un familiar about it. All right, Well then I
won't Well I won't, I won't say the thing. Then okay,
it's okay, No, No, it's about this guy. There's one
character in the menu who shows up who like is
just obsessed with cooking stuff, like, but he's like a
fan and thinks he knows everything, and like it's very

(39:43):
clear he's there because in his heart he believes, like
I could do this, and it gets undermined in this
amazing way. And I sometimes feel like, not everyone, but
I sometimes feel like there are speed runners out there
who like like to think they're better than the game
designer in a way. Not all of them certain, And
of course, of course, of course I get that sometimes
from them. Yes, totally menu moment for me, Oh yes,

(40:06):
And that's funny. I see you're just saying, so, who
did you race? As did I went? I went straight?
I did try everybody. But when I was when I
was like pushing to actually complete the Grand Prix, and
full disclosure, I could not complete the third. I was
just not good at it's hard as it's it's hard,
But I did Captain Falcon. I really like a balance

(40:28):
when I play racing games. I love a balanced racer. Um,
I'm I'm a I'm a Yoshi in Mario Kart, I
am a I'm trying to think of what else. Oh yeah,
big big Yoshi guy. I will say, okay, so Yoshi
in every Mario Kart except for Double Dash, which is
my favorite Mario Kart and which I am baby baby
Toad and toad at in the little um in the

(40:50):
little what we call it in the funk, what's it
called the train? There's like a little train car tops
will not be touched. But anyway, max out on that,
love maxed out on that. But yeah, I played. I
played Captain Falcon throughout the entire thing, nice and balanced.
Um it was, I mean that was that was. I

(41:10):
was like, let's get the experience that this game wants.
Me to have by playing the main character and like
you know, character one. So here's this is another case
of perhaps Nintendo tricked our brain, right, because I think
you've wisely pointed out that's a lot of what's going
on here in some ways, right. I think also Captain Falcon,

(41:31):
because he's the balanced character, became the main character of
F zero, and I don't think that had to be true. No,
I think you're right. Like, I know he's the protagonist
in the in the narrative as trade out in the
control book, because I've read it, but like it gives
I mean, I was kids, so I read it and
I remember it, so that tells you something. But like

(41:52):
kind of who gives a ship? You know what I mean? Like,
like the narrative never coalesces into literally anything in the
game at all. So like, yeah, I would say like
subsequent of Zeros did a little better at making a
narrative out of it. I think that the reason we
care about him and he stuck around is because his
car was so well balanced that it was front to play. Right.

(42:14):
It felt the most like you I mean, you know,
back to the whole control thing, It felt like it
reacted to how you played at the most evenly, like
the turns was the most even, the acceleration, the top speed.
It always felt measured in a way that was like
fully within your grasp. Yeah, that's right. They So there's
a couple of mechanics in this game that I think
are just I think they're really interesting, and I don't

(42:36):
I can't think of other games that I've seen them in.
Uh So one of them we've talked about a little
bit is the walls repel you. Yes, you know what
I mean, like as though you were as though you
were literally shoved. Uh. And it's uh, it's a great
experience because it's a little bit like pinball almost, but
like you can like, goddam for real, I love this though.

(43:03):
It's where it's like it was pinball. All right, Yeah, okay,
I'm gonn get past this personal past and then for
god yeah one hpm onlat three gods. That's the thing
is that they Yeah, it'll it'll really really punish you
health wise, yes, if you if you hit that too
many times. Also, it has health, yes, health yes, like

(43:26):
almost no racing game has health. And the idea that
you're sort of managing a health bar is an interesting idea,
and they took it further in F zero X, where
not only are managing a health bar, your boost is
your health bar. So there's a risk reward element to
the game. Oh my god, I forgot about that. Yeah,

(43:48):
and it really changed, Like they went further with that idea,
and that's cool, right, that's really cool. That's yeah, yeah,
I agree. I think it's better because if you're like me,
you hold onto those boosts to the last round and
then boom boom boom, let's make it. Let's do it,
which is dumb. It's like, that's not the funnest way
to play it, you know, but that's what But you

(44:10):
know what, go off, play play your way. Um, but yeah,
I think you know. Mechanically, another mechanic that I think
is really worth talking about is I don't know if
they would call it this necessarily, but the way your
car is able to drift when you make a turnhard
it carries your momentum. Yes, yes, that like, well, they

(44:32):
designed it in a way where you don't have tires
and friction, right yeah, like, which is really cool because
it is unique to the premise of the game and
it totally works. And then they do something that I
was going to add that you're right on my wavelength
here they have a course where there's wind. Oh yes,
and the wind really yeah, it really affects the way

(44:56):
that your car handles and the way it's it's not
just turbulent, it's it's like you're like you literally like
it's like you're sliding around on ice. Oh, sliding around
on ice. And then sometimes you're like you're you're kind
of doing like a half like turning one way and
still drifting and moving forward. I absolutely love that, and
that really activated, you know, for me, as you just
mentioned before, Double Dash is my favorite Mario Kart. It

(45:19):
was it was the one that I think, in my
personal opinion, does the best drifting. I'm not an in
drift person, I'm an outdrift person. And that it was
that Mario Kart was all out drift. Was like this
is the one thing exactly just yeah, um and um.
I was totally playing this being like, oh my god,

(45:40):
this is where people this is where people saw like
obviously it's not intended. I mean to say, it's not intended.
I don't know, I'm not your memo, but like it's
intended that your car is without wheels, and it is
moving through air and it's thus having to carry momentum
because there's no because there's no friction from the wheels.
But I can't see I can't see this game and

(46:02):
think that other designers were like the way the car
moves around the corner carrying a momentum, we need to
preserve that, we need to preserve that in some way,
and whether they were like, you know, it's not like
anybody invented drifting. It's like drifting has been a thing
since cars had tires and wheels and like breaking of
innersial blah blah blah blah blah. But like, um, seeing
that was like this is such a crucial part of

(46:23):
the experience of like correction and mastery of like you
turn your car one way and then you need to
adjust to keep it going straight. Like seeing this is
like the progenitor of every other game that does that.
I was like, this is like one of my favorite
mechanics in racing period, And to see it this earlier,
I was like, oh my god, this is it. I'm

(46:45):
playing the first drift. I'm playing the first like carry
your momentum oversteer, understeer. It was like this is the
kind of techniquo and a master forever. And it's interesting
because Mario Kart came out later on this console general,
but it didn't have the same drift mechanics because I
mean sure they overlapped enough that they didn't think of it.

(47:07):
But it's very clear Mario Kart understood we need to
take that. Yeah, and the and that's the one, by
the way, if I that's where I feel like Mario
Kart really became what it is. You know, Like we
can talk about that on some other podcasts and probably will,
but I feel like Mario Kart sixty four added key,
key elements that make Mario Kart into this monolith of

(47:30):
carding that has become its own genre. Um. And people
can argue with me about that. Some other done, but
clearly they stole from V zero like or I mean borrowed.
It's the same designer probably, uh, And I mean you
can see why because it's like really fully formed in
this game, you know, but it's insane. It's insane. I'll

(47:54):
say one of the one of the comment about zero
x and then maybe we'll hit the break, and that
is zero X. Uh. Clearly believed that this like slipping
sort of like the momentum thing and speed where the
fundamental aspects that made F zero what it is because
in the things that they ramped up were almost all

(48:17):
in that like direction, like they have half pipe you
know that, like half pipes and and you know, stuff
like that. And uh, that is one of the only
games in the Tennis sixty four library that ran at
sixty frames a second. Yes, and that's why that's why
the art is so shitty on it. It's that like

(48:37):
and you know, for the time, because they wanted they
wanted it to run at sixty frames a second like
it running consistently is a huge thing about F zero
you know. Um, it's funny like that it took. Maybe
it's kind of shames actually, what I really mean to
say that like this that Nintendo and Sega didn't collaborate

(48:59):
on the franchise from the get go, because I feel
like they both had pieces of the puzzle that would
have made a perfect racing game. Yeah, you know, and
I know they speak later. Yeah, I want to say
g X is a Sega collaboration with Nintendo. Yeah, F
zero g X, we look that up. What you're talking.
I believe it is, and I just there's a part

(49:20):
of me it's like, what if they had managed to
make F zero like back in the day together, Like
how how much slicker would that be? You know? Us?
The Tri Force Arcade system board, conceived from a business
alliance between Nintendo, Namco and Sega, was released alongside this.
You nailed it. That's really cool, Yeah, because I know

(49:42):
Sega was really interested in how do we like put
push the technology to its absolute limited terms of speed
obviously sonic and other things, and it just, you know,
it seems like both both companies were interested in that,
and this was Nintendo's version of that project. But so
maybe a little bit too geeky to to wash that
geek taste out of our mouth. Let's let's run over

(50:06):
a few breaks, like a break right now, and get
some ads in our system and get ready to boost
through our final segment keeper delete after this and zoom.
We're bad hitting all three boosts. We're going to lightning

(50:30):
Fest now, hopefully we don't rock it out of control
off of the cliff. It sounds like my first couple
of playthroughs. It sounds like every play through I've ever
done this game. Did you have something you wanted to add,
I'm sorry, Daniel, I cut you up. No, not at all. Um.
The only thing that I wanted to add that like
so I think I said at the beginning of the episode, Um,
I felt one way about the game, and then I

(50:50):
learned about it. I felt another way about the game,
and I played it again. I'm like, okay, this this
fucking rips um. But the one thing I learned about
was what's called Mode seven, and Mode seven is one
of the is the seventh graphical mode of the Super
Nintendo Entertainment System. Now, just to just to be just
to be clear, I'm gonna say this super basically because
I'm not a programmer. This is just something that I
looked up because I was like, okay, what is this.

(51:11):
So the different modes of graphics on on the Nintendo
Entertainment System are basically how it renders graphical information, and
each one gets progressively more and more complex. But the
ways it gets more and more complex is just like
one pixel, one color, four pixels, four colors, like sixteen pixels,

(51:34):
eight colors, sixteen colors, two and fifty six colors. It's
just about updating, like you know, how wide of a
swath you can use to create an image. So like
when you're playing a game like this, you'll see that
there are certain palettes that are very basic and then
there's certain things that are like a lot more like
you know, a detailed when you look at this. And
then the final mode is what's called Mode seven. And

(51:55):
Mode seven is actually not about what the graphics look,
it's how they interact. And Mode seven was a way
to allow a two D surface to rotate and appear
as three dimensional and that was revolutionary to the Superintendent

(52:16):
Entertainment system. This game, as a launch title, was the
first one to use Mode seven and make a racing
game appear in such a way that you're behind the
car and the world is kind of rotating around you
and create what is, you know, essentially today how everybody
experiences a racing game, Like that's sure, that's huge, it's

(52:39):
inorm and that's like, you know, I think it's part
of the I think it's you know, I will say,
as as someone who didn't grow up playing this game,
it's something that you take for granted in racing games
where it's like, well, this is just how racing games work.
It's like they're all they're they're all like this, but
the fact is they weren't like this until they were
and that was F Zero and thinking about how every

(52:59):
other race same game is like, I mean, sure, you
can do it in the first person perspective where you're
actually in the car, but I think like, which is cool.
Most which is cool, very cool, no doubt, But most
racing games take place in a in a in a
third person camera space where you're looking at the car
racing and like you're basically the track is moving around
as your car is moving. And of course the graphics

(53:20):
have gotten better where you're seeing the car turn a
little bit, et cetera. Blah blah blah. I'm not here
to get a nipicky about that. What I am saying
is that this game so revolutionized how we look at
a racing game. It like changed it forever, where every
game after that was like, oh, this is how we
got to do it. It's got to look like this, Dan,
and not just like straight up blew my mind. So

(53:41):
I didn't know that I knew as a kid when
I played A Zero it really stood out as like wow, um,
and I know that I've also never been that attracted
to racing games by and large, I've owned many Mario's
Kart uh Like like cart racing in general, it's the
thing I can play with friends, you know, whereas like

(54:02):
I don't know if any I don't have a single
friend who's like I am going to get the McLaren
edition of you know, F zero or sucking Grand Treason
or whatever. I don't know anybody like that. Uh yeah.
And also you're right, the third person is the default
in racing. You maybe now more because the car models

(54:22):
are so sick. Yeah, yeah, we'll look at their wi
that's what you're paying for, literally paying for in a
lot of cases quite quite yeah, I mean for real,
you know, like try try unlocking some of those higher ends,
you know, Porsches or whatever infors a good luck without money,
or imagine you just did a bunch of Heikes and

(54:45):
g t A and buy yourself one of the fancy
new cars. You're gonna sit inside that thing the whole
time and not actually like thing you just spent like
two million dollars on. No, you will fucking not. I'm
looking at that, babe, exactly. Santo's customs putting a new
paint wanted. I'm gonna spend that thing around a hundred times.
I love this so much because I also did that
ship it actually in Grand Theft Auto four. Anytime I

(55:07):
saw like the Ferrari or the Lamborghini or whatever, I
dropped whatever mission I was doing, steal it, save it
in front of my apartment, like get another car. I
needed it. I have to have a sports car. Got
put in your love that that's the way. Well, we've
had a lot of fun here, but I think we've

(55:28):
crossed our final checkered flag, and it's time to decide
do we keep this game or delete it? Yeah? Do
we keep it or delete it? And Daniel, you have
full voting power here. I'm not gonna lie. I'm very
I'm very nervous about that. I feel very this this community,
which I'm very thankful to have become a part of

(55:51):
this community via social media, via you know, you know,
publishing the episodes that you guys make and like be
yes and and and our streams and like getting to
know over buddy. And people take the keeping and deleting
very seriously, and I have so much respect for that.
So they do you want to go first? You want
me to go first? I'm gonna first. I'm gonna make
it first because I think it will make your life easier. Okay,

(56:15):
is that Okay, sure, go for it, because I also
want you to feel like you can do it. Man,
whatever you want, I'm gonna tell you what. And I'm sorry, Mike.
If you don't like this, I'm sorry, buddy. I'm keeping it.
I'm keeping this game, and I'll tell you why it was.
I was not going to keep it until this Mode
seventh thing you just said. I was not. I was
not going to. I was like, you know, it's a

(56:36):
great racing game and I love it, but it's an
nostalgic and blah blah blah. But man, that Mode seventh
thing really matters. It's super matters, you know, like, and
it does define racing, like it legitimately defines racing. And
it's still an excellent video game. It's still really fun
to play. I was just playing it yesterday on a
stream briefly to get warmed up for this, and I

(56:56):
was like, this game is still great. Yeah, it's still
plays great. It's not clunky at all, Like, it still
runs great. Uh, you know, like, certainly I expect more
from a game I pay sixty dollars from now. Of course,
this game is like thirty years old, but like for
a free game, what else do you want? I mean,
like it's it's pretty epic. Captain Falcon also matters canonically

(57:21):
because of Smash Brothers. I think it's uh. I'm I'm
happy to replace it someday down the line with the
definitive racing game, whatever that is. Um. I am also
happy to say this would not preclude me from keeping
a Mario Kart and will not preclude me because I
think Mario Kart belongs um. But for now, I think
for racing this belongs. What are your thoughts? I mean,

(57:43):
without revealing exactly what I'm gonna say, I completely agree
with you. I think that there you know, the genre
of racing game is so vast, and to pick to
pick one on this hard drive of hundred games, I
feel like it's a little bit of it. And that's
not saying this is what you said or what has

(58:04):
been done yet, but I think that would be a
disservice to the racing game genre, which is so which
is so vast. It has really has spanned every single
console generation. It's not like racing games are from ex
generation or YE generation. You have you have the silly
to the super serious. You have your eye racing, and
you have Diddy Kong like you have everything in between

(58:25):
that that makes up the genre of racing, and so
much of it comes from this game. And I think
that that kind of importance lends itself to I mean,
it's a piece of history that I think anybody who
likes a racing game, especially with access to it for free,
as you mentioned, and this is and and again not

(58:47):
like freemium free. Like if you have a Nintendo Switch
and you go to the Nintendo Store, you can download
the s C N S S N E S emulator
for free and play this game for free. Like it
is just a it up free game experience. It's like
go to that museum, open your switch to that museum,
have a good time playing this game, and be like, Wow,

(59:10):
everything really came from this. Yeah. It has the Casablanca
thing where it's like you've played so many you've played
so many things and really and don't realize, Oh, they
all came from this, They all came from this. Yeah.
And I think I think, I think Film is totally
a good comparison, especially because it's like you see things
like techniques, you see things like story. It's like you

(59:33):
don't have the Last of Us two without Casablanca, Like
you don't have you don't, you don't, you don't have
so many things without their progenitor, without where everything came from,
where people said that was done right, and let's keep
doing it. And so when it comes to this game
and the genre that it spawned, in my personal opinion,
this is a fucking key. This is a key, This

(59:56):
is a big key. Yeah, so I'll just say this, Uh,
since my illustrious co host is not here, if he
decides to overrule that, I want to leave him the
space to do that. Of course, you can always vote
to delete if he wants to, of course, But for now,
even if it's just for one lap around the course,
my friends at zero is triumphing baby Zeros a baby boy.

(01:00:23):
It's just like it's so really, I'm not gonna lie.
What sealed it for me was honestly, like the second
time the second Grand Prix, hitting a perfect turn to
pass somebody where I just felt I was like, the
mechanics are acting the way that I want them to,
or like that that the game is telling me if

(01:00:43):
you do it this way, it's going to respond that way.
And that like skill expression. Skill expression is one of
my favorite phrases in video games when a game allows
you to express your mastery in it in a way
that is satisfying, where it's like, you do this thing,
this thing happens, and every time you do that thing,
it's going to happen again. This game does that, It

(01:01:03):
perfectly in the way that it does that way that
it did that for every racing game going forward, it's
to keep to My dad will be very happy. He
also he also probably doesn't care because he has he's
I don't know if he's ever listened to call after
this Adam was going so was it to keep. I

(01:01:24):
would be surprised if he had ever listened to this podcast.
I would be because he has a play video games.
Why would you stay? I mean, that's my that's my
that's my dad in my stream. I'd be surprised if
he literally ever watched it. Why would he? Why would
her stream? I really feel like you should take this
moment to plug anything you wants or oh sure, well,

(01:01:47):
first of all, thank you for having me. I'm such
a I'm such a huge fan of the show. Um,
I I love listening. I'm I mean, despite being the
one who publishes it, I'm an every week listener. I
love the show so much, So thank you so for
trating me pleasure that you could appreciate that. You can
find me all over the internet at DJ Underscore, Daniel

(01:02:07):
d A n L. I'm on Twitch, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok
a little bit regrettably, but I gotta get this micro
content out somehow, so it's going out everywhere. Um. But yeah,
I stream on Twitch Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Um. Usually
I'm just streaming Rocket League. Um, I'm working on a
trivia show that I'm kind of putting together. That is,
you know, I'm beta testing. It's like it's like I've

(01:02:29):
tried a format and I'm ultimately going to switch the
format entirely. But it's still been fun. Um. But the
thing that just happened, which you may have heard, is
talking about the beginning, I don't I don't know if
that didn't make it in, it doesn't matter. But I
just finished playing the last of his part two as
a segment on my stream called the backlog Backlogs, where
I go through single player games I haven't finished and
play them all the way through on stream and just

(01:02:49):
you know, beat these games that are so good that
I've been meaning to play and just haven't. It started
with Do Maternal, it was then Spiderman, Miles Morales, Super
Mario Odyssey, Red Dead, Redemption to Ghost of Ushima, and
then we just beat The Last of Us Part two,
a bunch of amazing games. Literally, I mean it's thrill.
It's It's one of these games where it's like where
I say the list and some people go, you hadn't

(01:03:11):
played those games yet, and I'm like, I'm a little
embarrassed to say that, like, yeah, I just hadn't finished them.
There's a lot of video games, man, there's a lot
of I mean believing. Mike and I have to have
lots of conversations about are we going to play this?
Like is this thing that you know? And then there's
things like I just started Breath of the Wild this morning,
like you know, and I'm like, why did I do this?

(01:03:33):
I'm gonna I'm gonna have to play it like it's
I'm already hooked. I'm like, man, I got a party
back and ship. Oh it's so good. It's games are great. Yeah,
well yeah, games are great, dude, what a great conversation. Yeah, man,
you're such a such a wonderful guy and a great producer.
And also, I'm serious one osmanship fans, ship heads if

(01:03:57):
you will. His stream is very professional and legit, like
when I whenever I check in, I'm like, I should
be doing any of that and I'm not. He's taking
really really good stuff. So please check it out. And
that's all we got for now. Friends, uh, feel free
to join us for the intermediate course next time around.

(01:04:18):
On one Upsmanship were complete