NES 40th Anniversary Roundtable

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
This special episode of the Channel 3 What are Your three
podcasts? Is brought to you by Depends for
Men. Are you 50?
Do you not want to pause your game?
Try Channel 3 Depends for men's and chairs.
Need to sit down? Find a chair.
Chairs and by naps. Had a long day?

(00:21):
No, just need a nap. That's fine.
Take a nap. You're old, you deserve it.
Channel 3 is the future Welcome crew to one of your 3A

(01:01):
Channel 3 podcast having a special episode today.
Since we're upon the 40th anniversary of just as we have a
panel of olds, I'll just say of the anniversary of Nintendo, not
as a company, just what we call the Nintendo, the Nintendo
Entertainment System. October 18th, 2025 will be 40
years in the US As such, we haveassembled a panel of old men who

(01:24):
have been there from the beginning.
This is the the oldest panel that we're legally allowed to
have on the Internet. Undoubtedly, injunctions are
being filed against us as we speak, but such is life at this
point. You go around the room,
introduce our group. Here you go.
Go. Brian McGinnis.
Laugh at Brian. I don't know who he is.
There he is. You know he's he's the big
Muppet sound of 1. You know the voice.

(01:47):
I'm going to just I, I, I will, I will say he's, he's he's got a
show coming up on October 26th. So he will be at at good night's
comedy club in Raleigh. I mean, retro bitch, you're
doing, do you know what games you're doing or you're saving
that for that night? We usually save this for that
night, but yeah, me and Cliff Burzynski and a couple other
comics. We riff on really bad video
games and it's a very, very fun show like Mystery Mystery

(02:09):
Science Theater 3000 bad video games.
It's. Awesome.
It's the best, yeah. Plenty of pain and suffering to
be had. Yes.
And most of the crowd, the crowd's always like, is this a
real game? Like now these are real games.
They're just very, very bad games.
That would be a lot of effort togo in and make a game up to the.
Long time, yeah, right. Fortunately, we have the bits

(02:32):
boys with us. We have, we have both.
The elder, we have the elder Mr.Bit.
We the elder Bits, Dad we call him.
Mr. Bit, Mr. Bits in this case. We've got, we've got the
younger, we've got Mr. Cheats aswell.
Say hi boys. What's up, fellas?
Let's go, everybody. JDS we we had him one last

(02:54):
episode. He's back already gaming off the
beaten path this year, radioing in.
Yeah, glad you liked me so much.You asked me to come back.
Usually the first time I go on something.
They asked me to never come backagain.
And and finally we, we had to have him tricked in because we,
we finally got CRT rescue on here.
I will again as he shakes his head to me, he knows I'm going

(03:15):
to identify him as Mr. LL Cool game so people understand.
But CRT rescue is here as well, with a with ACRT in the
background on brand. Yep, right there.
Absolutely. What is the saying?
Depending on what state you're in, you're never too far from a
lake or whatever. I'm pretty sure in my house
you're never more than three yards away from ACRT pretty
much. So it's it's a thing.

(03:37):
If anybody needs X-ray exposure,you know where to where to go
you. Have 3 tons of television in
your basement. Absolutely, Absolutely.
I just need the the Lowers family to record like a Sarah
McLachlan esque video cuddling ACRTTV on his lap with with some
little Theron in the background saying for just just a dollar a

(03:57):
day you can help CRTS find a good.
Home too. You too.
That's right. Now My, the, my, the, the LL
Cool Games has threatened for a long time.
You know, they have those like Springer rescue stickers or
whatever. You know, I saved them or they
saved me or whatever. So she's threatened, but but she
she knows, she knows if she doessuch a thing, it has to be like,

(04:20):
you know, a discriminatory like shape of ACRT just generically
making a screen is is insufficient.
So she, she knows don't do it ifyou're going to do it, you know,
unless you're going to do it thoroughly so.
And The thing is, like I you can't use the antenna anymore,
but like you need the Bunny earsfor that to really be effective.
I feel like, but I nobody, my kids don't know what those are.

(04:40):
They wouldn't know if they saw it.
Yeah. But that on that note, that's
why we assembled a panel of people of a certain age, got men
of a certain age together, because we've we've been there
our whole lives. We were there before it was
cool. We were there before it was
accepted. Ryan's a big dude, but he was
getting shoved to the lockers. Wasn't easy but he was there for
it in the games early. Greg and Nisner shoved me in the

(05:01):
lockers then. Oh my God.
Yeah. So this is what?
Sorry, Use this one's. This one's for us olds, so I'm
going to ask. I'm just going to start off with
like, you know, it's 40 years. What?
What was your NES story? Who wants to where'd you?
Where'd you begin with the Nintendo?
I remember my older brother, 2 years older, his friend down the

(05:21):
block, our neighbor had it, and I remember just going up in
their room one time. I guess I was probably 6:00-ish,
right? He was probably 86 and seeing
Mario play for the first time. And I was just, I was literally,
I remember sitting there just for two hours just watching them
play. I don't think they let me play.
I don't think I touched the control that night.
But I just remember, like, and Ialways wanted to go back to his

(05:43):
house down the street. I never could really until,
like, when I was with my brotheror my mom.
But yeah, I remember just sitting there watching Bowser.
Just that the first time you seehim in level 14, like, this is
crazy. Like, what is this thing?
Yeah, it's the best. They knew what would have
happened if they had a six year old controller.
You would just ran up to that first Goomba and just gotten bit
and been done. So they just they saved you from

(06:03):
it. Yeah, it was, it was, it was
mind blowing to see because I had like the little, you know, I
had like those little mini cabinets of Donkey Kong and
things like that. Like I don't know if you have
tiger handles to wear around, but I had like things like like
tiny electronic things like that.
But Nintendo just blown out of the water, you know?
CRT Where'd you come in? You're you're I I have to say I

(06:24):
I for full context. Also, I I shot your wife a note
in an attempt to not have just the old dude panel here.
And she said no, no, but my husband's first love, Shamir
said. Only love.
I don't know if if she said first or only, but she said his
first love. Only is probably more
appropriate, no I. Should we declare our age?
By the way, I just realized to make it people.

(06:46):
People give math that I'm sure, Brian.
Though my, my first exposure we had well, right, big extended
family. So it would have been kids that
were in high school when I was in elementary school.
They're actually like my dad's generation, but they were, we
talked to him like they were cousins, even though they really

(07:08):
weren't our cousins kind of a thing.
But yeah, they in their basement, their house was like,
they live just down the road from us.
We lived in the country. So it wasn't like you go walk
there, but it was just down the road.
And their basement was like the total 80s hangout basement.
I mean, like real wood panels, not like this pool table, right,

(07:28):
a bar that I think my great uncle probably like clear coated
75 times or something, right. Like you look at it and you, you
feel like you can touch the woodgrain, but you know, there's
like so many left between you and the wood grain.
Anyway, they had a they had ACRTin the one corner and and any S
on it. And I think just just like
Brian, I, you know, I was so little.

(07:49):
It was like, yeah, don't, don't subject him to the most deadly
enemy in video games. Just let him sit and watch the
older kids play. And yeah, it was it was Mario
one, Mario 2 and Contra. Like I can remember, like them
punching in me code. Like that was one of the first,
like exposures I had to, to like, what do you mean this

(08:11):
isn't part of the game? It's a no, it's a secret, you
know, blah, blah, blah. Right.
So, but, but yeah, I didn't, I didn't get an NES till probably
89 maybe. My brother was a year older than
me, so he went seven and eight at the time.
And we got it because we always bugged our parents about going
down the street to Uncle Dale and Aunt Judy's house to go to

(08:34):
go watch Nintendo is actually what we said at the beginning.
But but yeah, so that's where itstarted for me.
JJD, how about you? Well, yeah, my story is a little
bit different because I am, you know, I guess I'm a little on
the younger side for this panel,which isn't saying a whole heck

(08:54):
of a lot. But you know, I didn't come into
a new until 1992. I was five years old at the
time. So.
But remember, as Dan kind of alluded to, it was a different
world of gaming back then. You didn't just instantly
upgrade to a new console. You like it?
It it was a challenge to convince your parents?

(09:15):
Hey, this Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo has 16 bits.
Well, what the heck are bits? I don't know.
I don't move. Your devil box in my home.
Right, and that's the way it wasfor me for as long as I can
remember until and I actually told this story on my my what
are your three episode which youshould go and listen to if you

(09:36):
haven't yet. My cousin received a Sega
Genesis for Christmas and of course this.
Back in the day families often had a A11 console per household
rule, so as such the his NES andall 18 games he had with it were

(09:57):
forcibly gifted to his younger cousin.
I was happy as a clam. He didn't love it, but he was,
you know, complacent at least cuz he could play it at my
house. My mother absolutely hated it.
But you know, once, once that happened, I, I, I never went
back. Nice now now the the bits is I I

(10:20):
believe does bits that have the original still.
Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We actually, we just moved. So I'm in my new basement and I
don't have it set up yet becauseI'm not really sure where I'm
putting everything, but it'll beset up by the end of October for
sure. Hopefully, God willing,
hopefully by the end of this week.
But anyway, for us it was it wasalso family related.

(10:42):
I I wonder if Teets actually remembers this, because he would
have been. Aunt Bunny's house.
You probably would have been like, oh, or two years old.
But you wonder, it was not Aunt Bunny's house, it was Uncle
Bill's house. It was so like my Uncle Bill had
gotten one in Christmas of 85, Iguess.

(11:03):
I mean, it was, it was pretty new and we always take Christmas
night at Uncle Bill's house. And so when we got there, he had
it and all the kids got a chanceto play it and we all died
immediately. I mean, barely anybody was
making any progress at all. But I mean it, it was just that
little bit of play time. And you know, Pete's going to
test this. We have a lot of cousins.

(11:24):
So there was a lot of turn taking.
It was a disaster. But I think by that next
Christmas, by Christmas 86, likethat was the thing that we, we
just wanted it. But no matter what, that's what
we wanted. You 2 the ones the cousin who
got in trouble for fighting overit like that threw the first
punch somebody. Had not too much, not too much

(11:45):
fighting. It was more of the line was
exhausting. I mean, we would go turn by turn
by turn by turn and it was just like, come on guys like die
already so I can get in there. I'm just saying I have a huge
family too, so it was the same way at my house or my cousin's
house for Christmas. It was just twenty of us just
waiting our turn, You know, our oldest got to go first.
Over and over again until we gotto the youngest dude.

(12:07):
Yeah. It worked out great for me
because I was just downstairs eating cookies while these
idiots are in line, you know, waiting to play Mario.
What's What's the first game youremember?
It's definitely Mario and I remember, I guess it's that year
we got it for Christmas bits that I'll remember.
I mean, we, we played as much aswe could.

(12:27):
And then of course, you got to go to bed and we wake up in the
morning and my dad is still awake playing Mario Brothers.
And he could not beat the water level.
He could not, you know, he, he just didn't get it.
And that like that's what I that's my first big memory for
sure. You never might.

(12:47):
Go ahead, Brian. Go.
No, I was saying my my dad nevertouched our Nintendo.
My mom beat him in like Pac-Man on the Atari in like 1982 and he
didn't touch a video game systemever since.
I think that was just my mom played Tetris with us every now
and then, but that was it. But I hear stories of our mom.
My dad played this. I'm like, my dad would never
like he's a caveman, but for himto play video game would be the
most amazing thing ever. He would never do it.

(13:07):
One stick, one button. That was the most he could
handle. Once it went beyond that, it was
done. That was the end it.
Was done. It was like, no thanks, Yeah.
Mario 3 is my first memory. I was, I was 2 the day it came
out. I am October 18th.
That's my birthday. But at 83, so I was two, I was
two years off. So two years to the day.
That's the reason I could alwaysremember Nintendo very easily.
The day like, oh, it's two yearsof the day.

(13:27):
But it wasn't until like 89. Yeah, because I was in like
first grade, I think. And I remember Super Mario
Brothers three. That was the, that was the big
one that my parents had also gotten.
There was a Sesame Street math and a Sesame Street letter game
too. JD, I get some head shakes.
Yeah, OK. They all know that.

(13:48):
To this day, I probably still have late nightmares about the
moon angry at me in the game because like I would, I would
dive into multiplication in the game, which I don't know why
they had like multiplication in a Sesame Street game.
If you're a multiplication, you're probably out of the
Sesame Street age by that point.I'm like, I can figure out
multiplication and he's like, no, you can't shut up, kid.

(14:11):
And I'm like, Oh, I, I don't like this angry moon at all.
I'm going to stick to, I'm goingto stick to little math and I'll
be fine. So it was, it was one thing to
like see the, the pixelated Sesame Street characters on
there, But, but Super Mario's three, that was the, that was
the, that was the big one. I, I will, I will tell the story
now too, that it was it was not often my parents got babysitters

(14:33):
for myself, my brother and my sister.
We were Irish triplets. So just in a row, it was just
too problematic to have to have somebody else come and watch us
because something would go horribly wrong probably.
But there babysitter day and my brother and I spent the entire
time my parents were gone playing Super Mario Brothers

(14:54):
three. I've joked before, like this is,
and I've tried to explain to my son who, yeah, he'll play either
the NES Classic now or you play on the Switch and you get these
save States and they're like, no, you didn't have a save
state, bro. You had to play that whole thing
through or pause the game and leave it running.
And I can smell the exact combination of fiery dust that

(15:16):
happened as you left the Nintendo running for probably a
few too many hours as you sat there.
Like I, I, I do need to go to the bathroom.
I do need to go eat. You shut it off.
I'll turn the TV off so you don't burn the screen because
that's another way they'll figure out you're on there too
long. But definitely beat beat Mario
three first an an early early memory on the Nintendo of that.
But good good times. Definitely had it taken away for

(15:38):
a while and and had time rationed at the time, but.
Yeah, that was a worse punishment.
It it didn't matter. Like, you know, go to bed with
no dinner. So what do this?
So what? No, Nintendo, I'm sorry.
Yeah, I, I, OK, so 10 minutes, Ican't anything.
And that was the funny part. So you've been playing.
We did. We did clear Mario three world
One on the NES Championship Edition at PGX yesterday.

(16:02):
Is the challenge like no, no problem.
I didn't like 4-4 minutes. Like I only had 10 minutes to
play. Of course I could clear one
world one in like 4 minutes. Yeah, it's no problem.
I got this. What?
What other? So what were the it's just, you
know, here's here's the point. We're just going to give the
ball give what's the what's the NBA turn right?

(16:24):
We just throw the rock to to bits and let him go ISO on on
Mega Man. Is that the Yeah, that's the
game you think of when you thinkof the NES.
Yeah, I mean, there's there's somany great games on the system
and yeah, I'm proud to say I have 105 cartridges in in my
possession, which is nice. But the Mega Man series for sure

(16:48):
is got to be up there with my favorite, especially Mega Man
three. If you're on Channel 3 and you
see my post, I'm posting about it all the time.
I love that stupid game. It's so much fun and I enjoy it
a lot. But there's just something so
unique about, at least it was back in the day.
You know, a lot of those platformers is just sort of
advanced through the level get to the end, maybe there's a boss

(17:10):
or maybe there's something therethat you have to finish at the
end. But with Mega Man, it was really
interesting. Pick the stage that you're going
into. You got to gain weapons and then
try to use those weapons againstdifferent bosses.
And so there's there's a puzzle aspect to it.
And so they are excellent platformers.
The challenge is just right where you can go back and go

(17:32):
back and go back and you feel good about it.
It never gets to the point whereyou're like, man, these controls
kind of stink, which is true fora lot of NES games.
It's just, it feels great. It has great.
Series of games and. I highly recommend them to
anyone. Yeah, I'm going to have to go
ahead and 2nd this again. This is another story that got

(17:52):
told on my What are your three? But Mega Man 3 is essentially
the reason I continued to play video games, right?
Like that is what, you know, I loved all the different little
titles that came with my NES, the Mario's, you know, all the
whatever quirky stuff that came with it.
But Mega Man 3, I saw somebody playing that and I was that was

(18:13):
the first game I ever remember being like I have to have that
and I just I play it still to this day constantly.
It holds up extremely well. Like you said it controls better
right then. I just finished up Mega Man 11
review coming out tomorrow but and it was fine.
It was a very good game, but like something about how it

(18:35):
controlled on on a modern console which was just just felt
odd to me and maybe. You get that animation on a
living. It was a step too far also, I
think. Yeah.
I agree. Yeah, the latest Mega Man's were
so hard and I think like annoyingly hard versus Mega Man
two and three, in my opinion, which are the two best ones?
I think it's just like it's likeeven though it's the exact same
type of game, looks the same, sounds the same, two and three

(18:58):
are just like, man, they nailed that.
And it's funny because 1 is fine, overly difficult, but the
fact, but the fact that it spawned 350 sequels is
impressive. Like the first, like it's OK,
like it's not. But then it's like, wait, hold
on, let me let's tweak a little bit here.
And they just nailed it with twoand then fought up again with
three. You know, 4 all and that whole

(19:20):
all six of those games. I wouldn't say all six.
I wouldn't say all six and 55. None of them are bad.
Yeah, that's, you know, the. Word.
They're all great. I I enjoy all six.
Of them after 5 or 6, it's like it's the same thing.
Like it really is very repetitive.
It's cool, but it's like 2 and three were so like wow, this is.
So yeah. What's the name of the fire guy

(19:40):
this time? What's the name of the water guy
this time? Like, oh, he's bubble man this
time. Oh, it's, it's whateverly lava
man this time. Like there's, there's some sort
of fire guy. Yeah, yeah.
Always. Yeah, I mean like.
Always nice. Yeah, it's funny because Mega
Man 2, it makes me think of Blockbuster Video because that

(20:01):
was, it was among the first games that we rented from
Blockbuster. The first game we actually
rented from Blockbuster was Gunsmoke, which is a great
title. You should.
But yeah, I think with Mega Man 2, that that was my first
exposure to Mega Man. I think most people's too.
I mean, the first Mega Man wasn't widely available.
Yeah. It was very under the radar.
Yeah. And I got it home.

(20:23):
I didn't know anything about it.I put it in the, the, the
Nintendo and I start playing it.And I thought that the, you
know, the stage selection screenwas like a character selection
screen. And so, you know, here's you,
however old I was, and I'm picking, you know, quick man or
whatever. And I'm like, when the stage

(20:43):
starts and I'm like, well, I don't look anything like quick
man. Like what is this?
I'm a some blue guy. Like, what did I do wrong?
And then, you know, after you play a little bit, you kind of
figure it out. But that was that was sort of my
my first exposure. To it.
That's funny. CCRT what's your what's your
game that you like? This is this is my irreve.
Whatever my connected game. I try to use some fancy word,

(21:06):
whatever. It's too late for fancy words,
so. Sticking with the theme of
series of games so I access for me to get games as a kid was
super duper limited. I was late to the scene where we
lived in Michigan of outlets. There was a Funko land, but my

(21:26):
mom was like staunchly against like those types of places right
there dirty. There's unsightly people there.
You know you're buying somethingthat's going to contaminate your
virgin that. Man has a piercing we can't
have. This right, she wasn't wrong.
She's. Not wrong text, she's not.
She's not wrong, right? But my my virgin NES and I did

(21:48):
such a good job taking care of even though I had absolutely no
idea for something that even looked like at the time.
But so I just real quick on the Mega Man two thing.
So one of the outlets I had to buy games that was deemed
accepted by the Ministry of Finance was they had like at at

(22:09):
like Walmarts and Kmarts in our area, Kmart RIP.
They had these like stack stock boxes of like NES games that
have these cards grab to the back of them.
And of course I have like a whole fistful of these things,
but I don't know you could see it.
But here's my one for Mega Man 2.

(22:32):
So it's so it was like this company that would like buy
games and then refurbish them, turn off these little like 1
pager instruction manuals, shrink wrap it to the game and
then load like a carton box fullof these things like you'd see
like at a con or whatever. Now just totally random.
Sometimes the box would have like 3 copies of Mega Man 2IN

(22:53):
it. Sometimes it'd be all just duck
hunt, you know, whatever. But you'd I'd go to the store
and like rifle through this thing.
And that's how I got Mega Man 2.But anyway, in that same time I
got Mega Man 2 and I got Tecmo Bowl, the first one and I played
the living daylights out of thatgame.
And I remember like saying to myself, you know what would be

(23:13):
great? As if they had a version of this
game with all the teams in it and one that kept track of stats
'cause that would just be amazing.
Just wait a year. Boyfriend, right?
So Fast forward to I think it was like junior high school,
right? Everybody else has moved on to
like the Super Nintendo and the Genesis and at some point even

(23:33):
the 64 and the PlayStation weren't that far away.
And I, I became this kid that was known within school that
it's like, Hey, if you want to dump your old Nintendo, this
idiot will pay you actual legal tender for this thing.
So well, I'll never forget. I was in geometry class and this
one kids like, Hey, I hear that you're, you buy Nintendo games.

(23:54):
I said, sure. He's like, what do you have?
And he's like, well, come to my locker after class.
So I come to his locker and he had Tecmo Super Bowl and I'm
like, holy cow, what is this thing?
Right? So I mean, to this day, I mean,
if I'm stranded on deserted island and there's one game
there to be with, it's going to be Tecmo Super Bowl.
I mean, grown up in Detroit area.

(24:15):
Barry Sanders is in that game. You know, I, I one time rushed
for 5000 yards with Barry in oneseason 1 game.
I handed him the ball every single time.
And if cell phones were a thing,I would have taken a picture of
the end of season stats just to prove it.
But like so many games played, saved, injured the second play,
restart, run it again, right? Don't.

(24:38):
Don't let the RNG monsters keep you from your goal, making your
dreams a reality. But.
It's like that. That wasn't boring, either.
Running 100 yards every single play was.
It wasn't. It was.
Fun. Never a single.
Time. Never just crazy.
Never ever, never. Well, and.
You're always like you're I, I feel like even to this day, if I
go play Tech 1, I feel like I'm going to try and break a button

(24:59):
trying to like, I just need to like push the button a little
harder. Little faster.
That's been There's no Juke, there's nothing.
But nothing just. Like, you know, you make that
noise attack to break a tackle, but.
Yep, it's. It's one of the best games.
Ever Yeah, the playbook, the players, the the stats.
I mean, I 1 summer again, I I didn't have anything else other

(25:20):
than a Nintendo till I got my 64actually, and that was late in
the 64 life cycle as well. SO11 glorious summer between
like working whatever else. I actually won the Super Bowl
with every single team in Tecmo Bowl.
That's a bit much. Doing it with the Patriots in
that game was about impossible, but I did do it.

(25:40):
No resets, but crazy. So yeah, so for me it's
definitely Tecmo Super Bowl. I mean, no question.
I remember like recording myselfdoing play by play with my talk
boy and all that crazy nonsense.I mean, it was it was life for
for real for me. So but I agree with everything
you guys said about the Mega Mangames.
I just Mega Man 2 was the only one I knew of till I was in

(26:03):
college basically. And then I, you know, dipped my
toe into the lake of eBay and I still haven't emerged.
But anyway, so but yeah, it's techno.
Super Bowl is my one hand for sure, Brian.
Brian, what's yours? Oh, sorry, JD, go ahead.
I just wanted to ask has anybodyplayed like any of the the
roster updates that? Absolutely, I'm so into those

(26:26):
things. I'm waiting for my 2025 roster
update version to show up here like anything now.
So. Yep.
Awesome. Giant.
As a Giant fan, sometimes I justprefer the the 90s roster.
It's rough playing with the Giants.
I could see that. Yeah, my, my.
I mean, I have a couple. I mean, Turtles 2 is a game I

(26:47):
think I can always go back. I can always go back to even
though I'm never getting it and like seeing how bad it looked
compared to the arcade, which isliterally perfect.
I was like, I was like, this is terrible.
Then you start playing it like, oh, it's pretty darn good.
It just looks like crap comparedto the arcade.
You know, I love punch out. I love double dribble.

(27:08):
I love Tecmo Bowl and and pro wrestling, the original pro
wrestling. It's still such a fun game I
think. A winner is you.
Yeah, it's really good. I love Battletoads, so there's a
couple of those games like that that I think I just go back to
and play all the time. It's there's there's like 6 to
10 games where I'm like, no matter what the mood is, I can

(27:31):
pop it in or I can load it up onthe emulator and just play it
like it's like it's 1987 again, you know?
But yeah, Tecmo punch out. I still love going through those
a lot regularly now. How come when, when you guys
would say Mega Man 3? What did you think of two,
though? I'm just curious.
Like, oh, loved it. You loved it, but you felt like
3 was just tweaked. It was 3 was just tweaked a bit

(27:53):
more. Was it the?
Was it the enemies? The villains?
The bosses? What it was when you get to the
end of the game and then you go through those last four stages
again and it reintroduces the Robot Masters from Mega Man 2.
Like when that happened the first time I saw that, like it
blew my mind. I was like, Oh my God, they're
from the other game. This is awesome.

(28:14):
And see, I because of when I came into it and how I actually
played three before 2 and yet I still have that same experience
because I was like who the heck are these guys?
You know, and that made me seek out too, which is also
exceptional. But I mean just a lot of it is a
little bit I guess is can be balanced right?
Because metal blade just. I use it the whole time.

(28:37):
Oh yeah. The whole time.
It's equipped the whole time pretty much.
Some playthroughs I love it, right?
Like you just RIP through that game and other times it's like I
have to do a no metal blade challenge.
Boomerangs are powerful too. But you know, I think 3 was a
little more kind of like balanced.
It had some weird stuff of its own.

(29:01):
Robot Master battles I think were, I don't know, a little
more like kind of right in the mid like 2 I feel like had some
real tough ones. I still don't know how you're
supposed to jump over Woodman, right?
Like to this day how you're supposed to jump over him or his
shield. 3 like. Tough ones too, but not.

(29:24):
This this kind of leads into Dan's next topic, I think, like
Megman 2 and three were so good,but also so hard.
That point like that that that the gauntlet is just like what
the are you serious? Like this is like and while he's
castle is so hard too. But I feel like as far as
infuriating, that was the first game to be like, I love this
game, but I cannot, I can't. It's like, it's driving me nuts,

(29:46):
you know? That was one of the first ones I
just remember being so mad at. But eventually meeting, it's
like, thank God. See, to me, one of the stories
that I I told on my What are your 3?
Was like as challenging as it was, I always felt like I made
like an inch of progress every time I played it, like a lot of
other games, like it just felt like a straight up wall.
I I mentioned this Dan when on the three, but one of the games

(30:10):
that came with my NES was SilverSurfer.
I that that's on my, that's on my list, I was going.
To talk about was just to. Say, but yeah, so.
So I won't steal your Thunder. We'll get to that later.
It's like, 'cause that game was so impossibly hard.
First of all, Silver Surfer backthen wasn't like a main big
character, but I got it. I think it's like a gift.

(30:30):
First of all, the the box, the the box art looked sick.
It was awesome. The logo on the game was boring
as heck. It was just nothing.
It was just a stick with his name Silver Surfer, right?
And he put he put it on looks kind of cool.
The title screen music's awesome.
And then you start and you want to murder everybody in your
vicinity. It is the hardest, worst game

(30:50):
ever played and to on the on theflip side of that, another in
super infuriating game that isn't hard.
That's just I hate how bad it is.
Is Roger Rabbit for NES. I if you've played it, it's so
bad and it's one of my favorite movies of all time still, But
the fact that they made such a bad game about it, like it makes
no sense. It's hard.

(31:11):
You don't know what to do half the time.
Like if you don't know, if you don't have a Nintendo power, you
have no idea what to do in that game.
It's one of those games where it's like, how was I supposed to
know that? Like they said, you just make
notes, drop the wallet and go tolike, it was it was.
It was so stupid, but super curating.
Yeah. I hate Silver Surfer.
Yeah. When you showed up in the video

(31:31):
I. Was like you.
Know. Yeah, it's so ridiculous.
So ridiculous. We're getting a lot of echo now,
Dan. Yeah, I think, I think teet's
like reappeared sort of maybe. His his phone died and he said
he was trying to get back in. So I don't, I don't know what's
going on there. I think he's on the switchboard
trying to get the old ladies to connect the wires for him.

(31:52):
Hello, hello, video dot. Video Audio IV 6300 Please put
me through. Yeah, I yeah, I I took control
and we're most inferior, by the way, if you.
You know what, listen, I, I, I have to just shout out that
Silver Surfer because retroactively I hate that game

(32:14):
so much. I didn't even play it until like
2 weeks ago. I had it.
I just picked it up and I I diedinstantly.
I played it for like 15 minutes,died 175 times and I could not
get past. One, it's one hit kills.
You don't know what the background is, what the
foreground is. You know what's going to kill
you. You can barely fit at the time.
The weapon is the most under. He's what live one of the most.

(32:36):
Powerful, cosmic, he's. One of those powerful, powerful
beings ever. It is the most powered weapon
ever. And I played the game a lot.
I was so determined. I maybe beat two or three of the
levels, if that. Like I never beat at all.
Yeah. It's all I used.
Cheats recently, you have like a5% space give in like Canyon.

(32:57):
You're trying to navigate, you can't miss and you're being shot
at by three enemies while you'retrying to navigate that from the
side you're being shot and you can only shoot straight like
that's stupid. But I, I, I want to shout out
because like when I finally figured out how to play it later
in life, I enjoyed it, but fax Anadu was a game where I was

(33:17):
like, I don't know what is had like again, I was like 6 like
what, what is why do I have thisbread?
What am I supposed to do with it?
Like what is happening here? And so I, I had that and Zelda
2, the adventure of like that were games that I was like,
what, what am I? What am I doing here?
And I just like playing the Zelda games And Zelda 2 is like

(33:40):
this entirely different departure as every Zelda game
ends up being. But I remember going, I'm like
fighting the Black Knight or whatever it is, and I'm just I'm
getting just murked. It's over and I have nothing to
say for it and forget like I'm just here to defend battle tunes
because that that's one of the notorious game.
No, that's that games. I have no problems whatsoever.
I get I picked battle tunes up acouple weeks ago.

(34:00):
I was like, I still got it, baby.
I can still play battle tunes. If you do this day, I really
genuinely get mad at people who think the speed tunnel is hard.
It is. I could do that blindfold.
It's not hard. That game becomes impossible on
the on the the hand bike, the two players also also that
little hand bike thing going around the when that when that
ball is chasing you, that level is impossible.

(34:22):
The the sewer level is impossible.
The last level is not that bad. If you get if you get to that,
you're going to beat the game. But it's a three before that
that are just mind bogglingly hard.
But they're perfectly designed too.
Yeah, like by, by, by maniacs, by lunatics.
But it's a very good game. Much of genres mashed together

(34:43):
type of thing. Looks great, sounds great, all
that stuff. I love Battletoads still to this
day, Yeah. Teach is alive.
I'm here. He's.
Back. What game drove you nuts man?
Drove me nuts. Was Battletoad so I don't know.
What it is. But we'll dunk.

(35:03):
We will now dunk on you. That's fine.
It too. It drove me nuts also.
But beating it was the most time.
Yeah, that's one of those best days of my life when I beat it
without Game Genie. It was Thanksgiving.
People are screaming at me. They're like, it's dinner time.
I was like I'm almost. Done.
I remember that. Like they go, we leave me alone.
Yeah, right. And then Ninja Turtles.
The the first Ninja Turtles I still to this day have not

(35:24):
beaten so. I haven't beaten it clear.
I haven't beaten it like withouta game journey, that's a hard
and me as you know, I'm the I'm the turtle guy.
That's my yeah, it's hard, man. That's one.
Of those, that's one of those you sent a mission and you say
I'm doing this no matter how long it takes and eventually it
works out. The the, the glitches, the slow
down if you missed the squirrels, all that stuff is

(35:46):
just like makes it so much harder than it has to be.
And that game should not have been that hard.
It was, it was a turtle game, you know.
But yeah, disappointing but still a good game.
You know. Any any other games you want to
shout out that were like just there for you?
There for me or are we going back to infuriating?
Take your pick. Yeah, infuriating.

(36:09):
Here's one my LON, Secret Castle.
Now, let me tell you, that game should have been pretty good.
It should have been a fun puzzler.
But you can't figure out how to even get through.
You go in the door, you beat a whole stage, you come out a door
and you're right back where you started.
It doesn't make any sense. That game is so infuriating.
It drove me nuts. I hated it so much.

(36:31):
That's it. That's all I'll say.
I thought Secret Castle. It shouldn't be like crazy for a
bunch of kids. Yeah.
I yeah, for me, one game. I will always, I can't believe I
have to talk about this again, but I have to talk about it
here. Has anybody ever played the
Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle that I received that

(36:53):
that was the first video game I ever received as a birthday
present from like, not a family member.
And I was like, so cool. Like none of the other kids,
they never get you a video game.You always get something else.
This is awesome. I got a nice new video game
here. I popped that thing into my NES
and I lasted about 10 seconds before I.
That was when I realized video games could suck like.

(37:19):
What is Rocky and Bullwinkle? Why would they scrub Rocky and
Bull? Why would they scrub Roger
Rabbit? Like, why would they take one of
the greatest noir movies coveredin cartoon coding that ever
existed? And no.
Why would they do that to us? No.
I can't imagine the the sounds that that game produces.
It should be against the law. I'm.
Trying to remember is, is is Bullwinkle very like floaty

(37:41):
like, like his, he's hard. He's very floaty and fast, like
too hard to control. Yeah, right.
OK, Yeah. Impossible to control, he can
throw bombs that have like a twosecond detonation timer in a
game where the enemies move around like crazy.
He can also head butt with his horns if he but he takes damage
from doing it. You can switch to rocky and fly,

(38:04):
but Rocky and and here's one foryou.
Rocky cannot climb stairs. So if you have to switch, if you
have to climb stairs, of which there are many, you have to
switch to to bullwinkle who you barely control.
There's death traps everywhere, like tiny little platforms with,

(38:26):
like you said, floaty, awful jumping controls.
And that's set the the first level is like a two second loop
that just you know, it's normal everyday bad.
But when you get into that second sawmill level, that's
this screeching. I can't even describe the sound

(38:48):
it makes it it just like a isn'ta it's it's in my head now and I
can't get it out. I have to stop talking about.
This game, it's really, it really made no sense why they
made some of these things so freaking hard.
It just doesn't. It was, it was just a thing to
do. They thought, OK, this has to be
impossible I guess. Well, some of it was like you.

(39:08):
Had that like that arcade mentality.
Yeah, exactly. It was it was the quarter sucker
mentality like of ghosts and goblins.
Like that wasn't built to be a home console game.
That was built to suck quarters up in an arcade and like they
just pour it into homes. And then people just like, oh,
this is just meant to be hard, OK.
That's what video games are. They're meant to suck, you know,
be hard and be difficult. Like it's another thing too.

(39:29):
My kids, just my, my, my son in particular has a tough time
wrapping his head around. He's like, what is game?
What do you mean game over? Like do I go back to the
beginning of the world now? He's like, why am I back at the
beginning of the game? I'm like, bud, this is how it
worked, man. You got it.
You're lucky if you got to continue.
Your lives are what they are. He said, well, why?
It says 1 left on the screen. Does that mean I have one life
still or is this my last life? I said guess you're going to

(39:52):
find out when you fall in the pit in a minute otherwise.
You know, so if I, I I think CRTmentioned Contra was that you
earlier and. It, I remember getting that on
like Easter morning as like a gift.
And then me and my brother went to the basement, put it in and
we immediately put in the Contracode.
Like I don't know how we knew it.
We just knew it. Everyone just knew it back for

(40:12):
some reason. I don't know why I didn't think
we, we took out a magazine, likewe just knew what it was, beat
the game in 30 minutes and went upstairs.
We were like, cool, great game everybody.
Every Konami game had it. So no, but yeah, it was one of
those things like no one cared about Gradius.
Like the first one people used it on was was Contra.
And so it's like everyone just knew that was a Contra code.

(40:32):
But I'm trying to think like, how do we even know?
Like we didn't I, I remember looking it up.
I think we just put it in, Oh, cool, it worked.
Let's let's play 30 lives, you know, but it was wild that that
was. It was that kid at school whose
uncle worked for Nintendo. You know, that's just the.
Magazine. It was Nintendo Power right
here, you guys. It was that magazine, Yeah.
What we had. So I, I tried, I, I tried.

(40:53):
I, I have to think a sidebar here because I was trying to
convince my wife to come in and tell a story and that way.
But she, she was more concerned about just violating the group
of men here and just that I was saying she's going to keep us
out of Internet jail, but she refused.
Yeah. I only, I only bring her up
because it's funny to this day. She won a Nintendo console at

(41:15):
like a church raffle or something like that.
Like something happened. Can you imagine how cool you
would feel as a kid back in the 80s winning a Nintendo console?
Oh my. God, Well, there's a but to this
story, Brian. Oh boy, let's hear it.
They, they, they gave it away. They wanted nothing they didn't
want in the home. They wanted nothing to do with

(41:36):
it. CRT is crying.
The tears are rolling down like the old Native American had from
the time of the NES. Like I would have paid 20.
Good. Dollars for that.
So so they had her, they had herget rid of it.
It was it was not not the devil,but I wasn't like it wasn't like
that, but it was, you know, likethis.
This produces nothing useful, nothing positive.

(41:56):
Fast forward, you know 35 plus years later that.
And look at us now, guys, look. Not but not only that, but my
son gets my in laws the NES classic when that's in
circulation. So they have that in the house
now. My father-in-law loves just
chilling with the kids and playing Nintendo and my wife's

(42:18):
like, what is what is it like? What is this?
And like she does not, she'll play Rock Band and that's the
extent of her, her video game involvement to this day and joke
and we still joke. Like did my kids hand eye
coordination come from me or come from the fact they play
video games? A little bit of both.
Who knows. But she certainly does not have
it and had nothing, had nothing.She did not have Tetris to train

(42:40):
her in how to pack the car properly.
That's why I pack the car. That's why I take care of the
fridge and the groceries in the pantry because I know how to
play Tetris. So alas that that is in lieu the
the 42 year old woman's story isin lieu of having an actual 42
year old woman on the podcast, so.
Then my wife's dad came home oneday when they had a Nintendo,

(43:01):
saw them playing it for a minute, and then just threw it
out. Like he took it out of the wall
and threw it out. It's like, yeah.
It's a devil box. It's.
Oh, man. Different world.
Yeah. Any other?
Any other? What are any underrated gems
that you feel like this is a game nobody else knows about
That they should? I knew Brian.

(43:22):
Brian. Brian's got a stack of this.
Undoubtedly. Ready.
I I worked on a couple Caveman games, Arkanoid, Bat Batman,
Return of the Joker. No one ever talks about.
It's a very good Batman game. Bucky O'Hare the first GI Joe
Tecmo World Wrestling also is, is a really cool wrestling game.

(43:45):
It's it's got a bunch of characters.
They're all different and like half the screen is you is where
you play. And the bottom screen is it has
announcers and they're commentating the whole time.
Not, not like voices, but just like the words on the on the
match. And it's really cool.
I wrote down WCW Wrestling and Zen Intergalactic Ninja are
really good games. CRT you're you're old man.

(44:08):
Just you did. Did he just play Friday the 13th
on the NES? He picked up he.
He did so we we picked that up aPGXI don't know how it came up,
but he's like, we have to get this game.
OK, I mean, this doesn't seem appropriate for a child at all,
but you know, Jason Voorhees 8 bit, how bad can it be, right?
So. That's bad, yeah.

(44:30):
But but no, he, he, we, we picked it up that day when we
saw you, Dan, and he actually finished it today when he got
home from school. I saw that picture.
It's incredible. There's a certain, there's a
certain like strategy to it, butthen you got to like do pittance
to the RNG gods and if they shine down upon you, then you
will be victorious. And that's exactly what he did.

(44:51):
So but but no, for me, I mean, Speaking of games that just
recently come to me, I actually found out about this from from
square pigs on YouTube. But the dusty diamonds All Star
softball and if you guys ever heard of that game, but it's
you, you draft your team at the start of every game.

(45:12):
Like so there's a cast of like 30 something players.
They all have different abilities, interestingly enough,
in the US version right there, like they're meant to be like
pop culture character, you know,kind of references a lot of
them. But they had different pitching
modes. And evidently when they

(45:33):
programmed that on the Famicom version, there is no different
pitching modes. But on the US version, there's a
lot of common sprites and there's the like, The way the
game plays is fun, but graphically it's not impressive
at all. But on the Famicom version,
they're all animals and it makeseven less sense.
And their abilities, unique in the Sprite field, are totally

(45:54):
bonkers. And it's just, it's, it's no
reason to be as fun as it is. But over Labor Day weekend, we
had some out of town friends that were here.
We actually did a round Robin tournament, a Dusty Diamond.
And I'm happy to report that I did not play a single game
before the tournament, but I wasthe winner of the winner's
bracket and the ultimate champion.
So I'm going to wear that that medal proudly.

(46:16):
But my kids going into that though, well, Dan, you know, a
lot of them, I mean, they, they were like training and they got
their phones out and they're like, Oh, I'm going to, you
know, nowadays there's all theseFAQ websites to say, you know,
draft these players in this order and all.
I mean, it's just the the meta game of any game is just crazy
nowadays what people can come upwith.

(46:36):
But but yeah, they're all about just like find some obscure
thing, you know, figure out the things that we had no chance of
discovering as kids, right? I mean, for me it was like word
of mouth on the playground, those random consumer guides,
right? That would be like at book fairs
or at the book, like at the library or whatever.

(46:57):
And that was it. And and just real quick, not to
jump back, but game I absolutelyhated, still hate to this day.
You guys hit on a bunch of them Framed Rodger Rabbit just like
just like Brian said. Amazing movie, still one of my
favorites. One of the best movies.
One of the best movies ever madestill holds up.
Game is awful, like absolutely awful, but Skate or Die was in

(47:21):
all those stupid guidebooks. Garmin sounds so cool.
Garbage. Stuff and like it was another
one of those games I bought. I still have like the little
paper card thing. I love these cards.
Yeah, and it says challenge yourfriends or up to 8 can play or
challenge Bionic Lester and his pals in some of the most radical

(47:41):
events ever. Why?
I read that as like a 10 year old and thought like this game's
probably legit right? Hell yeah, brother, let's go.
Right. Even these people that ended up
with a bunch of these cards likeon on however they got to it,
like we got to write something cool so that we can move these
things because nobody's actuallygoing to want to play this.
But another one of those games where it's like you start, you

(48:04):
start the joust, do you start whatever, and it's like, all
right, go and I just fell down. Why?
Well, there's turns out that at this thing you're supposed to
hold down and how do you know that?
Like it's just anyway. So I've noticed those guys on
YouTube, right, that are like they're out there just playing
these games, figuring out these things.

(48:25):
Like, I, I mean, I admire that they have time to do that kind
of stuff, but some of the thingsthey stumble across, they're
just crazy and the fact they made a second skate or die like.
I did. Based on what?
The success of the first one clearly.
So we we need to return to to magazine ads for video games.
I love I, I, I shared that I share, I share them a lot on on

(48:47):
Channel 3. I love looking through the EGMS
and, and just seeing like a weird, these weird coked up,
coked up Nintendo power ads or whatever.
Back in the day, they were just like they were wild.
Beyond splattered bikini clad colours that make no sense.
Like just. And it always makes no sense to
the games. It was basically like, what are
you like? That's basically what every ad
was insinuating. Sorry.

(49:09):
Officially the Sega ads. Yeah, it was just like, come on,
you dork, like buy this game, gosmack the mom in the face, steal
your mom's pocketbook and buy this game.
Like that's me. I mean that was that was the
tone of every ad back it. Was a very launch.
Hang on, before I go back and ask anybody else about
underrated gems, I have to ask because now that you've brought
talk about like stealing your parents credit cards, did

(49:31):
anybody call like the 1900 numbers for like game tips and
stuff? I never.
Did I don't. I I never did.
It was always there. What did you what did you call
for? One time for one time and
actually actually this is a super NES story, but Mega Man
soccer of all wow, of all, of all games.

(49:52):
I wanted to figure out how you could use your, you know,
because the computer would use it's the powers to destroy the
goalie and I couldn't figure outhow to do it.
That's. So funny.
That is the one time. And.
You hold L&R while you're while you're pressing shoot.
And I don't think I've lost the game.
I don't think I've lost the gameof that since because it's

(50:13):
incredibly too easy and just. $19.00 well spent.
Were there? Were there repercussions?
With the phone bill as my followup question.
No. Or did it get do do they know to
this day that it happened? Yeah, oh, no, they, they, they
know what happened. But it, it, it turned out to not

(50:34):
be as bad as as was anticipated because I did not for their
sake, just because I wanted to get back to playing.
I did go as fast as I possibly could and.
Mom, can I borrow $32 for a for A1900 number?
Don't ask questions. How?
Do I ride the Super Shot? To me, whatever, yeah.

(50:55):
It wasn't a collect call, Dan, come on.
What's? The 1900 equivalent of a collect
call where you mom come pick youfrom work.
I'm done. Click.
Like. But yeah, that that was the one
time I ever used one of those and do.
You have any other underrated gems though too?
I, I got to, I got to get to hate with that.
Yeah, so couple. I mean, it is kind of my thing,

(51:17):
right? Always liked a Boy and his BLOB.
It's kind of like a real adventure game, almost kind of
like a puzzle. It doesn't tell you what the
Jelly beans are, though. That's like the manual.
It's the there's a Game Boy version of that game, by the
way, which is this yes, which isso stupid because you need 10

(51:39):
other colors. It's like Gray, light Gray, dark
Gray and checkered. That's that's like like the
difference. So made no sense for a Game Boy.
Game that I might avoid, but yeah, no, definitely there was
definitely something's wrong with it.
It didn't really give you too much direction, but it was
pretty big in scope for what it was and and very interesting.

(52:00):
Brian alluded to the first GI Joe I great game, but I'm
partial to the the Atlantis factor for sure.
Second one. Just.
Kind of like non linear and likea lot of different joes to
choose from. You get to slice and dice as
Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, which, you know, ninjas are

(52:21):
always gonna be cool. Did anybody have, did anybody
have the old GI Joe game for like a Commodore 64?
Anybody in here? I did, dude.
It was so much fun. It was you could choose like
between 10 different Joes or cobras and you fight at
different levels and it was really awesome.
It was just like a one-on-one one V1 bet like single screen
battle and you put like blowtorch or snake eyes and you

(52:43):
fight Zartan or it was really awesome.
Sorry, keep going. I just got really excited about.
That yeah, I'm gonna have to check that out now, but yeah,
another license game. But Gremlins too.
Shockingly. Good.
Another. Another game I just sort of sort
of rented on a whim and was likehooked on just there's no need

(53:04):
to go that hard on a Gremlins video game.
And yet they did it anyway. And the last one I'll kind of,
you know, jump over to Famicom games, you know, play this any
way you can. But if if you've not played
sweet home, you know the game. I think we all know that is now
you know has gone on to like inspire Resident Evil.

(53:25):
If you're an RPG person, it's very ahead of its time and worth
it. You get about two seconds into
it when and realize exactly why it never would have been
released in the United States. And it's genuinely shocking to
see that level of kind of gore and violence in, you know, that

(53:50):
art style. But I managed to track it down,
I think two years ago at this point and play it.
And I, I, I was like, I don't know what I'm getting into.
Like, I'm a big Resident Evil fan, so I feel obligated to do
this. But yeah, it was actually quite
good if you're if you're a patient gamer.

(54:14):
Oh, Brian, go ahead. Add one thing to Roger Rabbit as
we're on the subject. Not really.
There's, you know, the Bugs Bunny crazy Castle games where
you're just. Like, yeah.
There's like 12 of them. Yeah, yeah, there's a Famicom,
you know, You know what the Famicom version of that is?
It was, it was a reskin. Well, Bugs Bunny was a reskin of
Crazy Castle, right? Like.
It's it's actually Roger Rabbit.Right.

(54:34):
It's Roger. The Famicom version is Roger
Rabbit, not Bugs Bunny. Same exact game but you're Roger
Rabbit and the weasels. It's it's awesome.
Which is part of the reason it doesn't make any sense is Roger
Rabbit, but anyway, irrelevant in fact.
That was Roger. We bought it anyway, right?
It's the best Roger Rabbit game technically.
Yeah, unfortunately, you're my favorite daughter.

(54:54):
You're my only daughter, Yeah. It's boys.
Any other? Any other gems?
Oh sure, our favorites. Around the house and and
hopefully you guys didn't talk about these while I was off are
Captain Skyhawk for me. That was a game Big Brother got
me hooked on and I I could stillplay that as much as possible.
It's it's fantastic. It's just, it's good.

(55:17):
Marvel Madness was a go to for. Oh yeah.
Marvel Madness is fantastic. It is a.
Great one-on-one actor. Just played it last week.
It actually kind of holds up andwe need back.
I'll give it a chance. Again.
And then if you change the controls just to kind of mess
with each other and change it up, that just gets weird and
crazy. Yeah, somebody brought up RPGs

(55:41):
earlier. If you love RPGs, certainly
don't go play Pinball Quest RPG mode if anybody's ever played
that because. That game such crap and.
I spent way too much time playing it and I I have a really
weird hate, love, hate relationship with that game.
Yeah. And then one more did that.
Oh, cool game. Sorry, Mike was posted about

(56:04):
this the other day and it's a game that I never see anybody
talk about that I personally love is Jackal.
Eric Cousin. Dan Paul had that game and I
just remember, yeah, that's that's such a fun game.
Go to. This yeah no I I add 1 to it.
Clash of Demon Head, if anybody's ever played Clash of

(56:24):
Demon Head, that game is, I mean, it's almost, it's almost
like a Metroidvania where you have to retrace your steps and
go back down different pathways and come back out and there's
those goofy shops and power meets.
That game is just incredible that it was on the Nintendo and
how how fast it is and how crazyit is.
But I always like that one. That was a fun one.

(56:46):
I I have to shout out only because it came came when JD
brought up Gremlins 2. The one I forgot about that kind
of like ties my my NES story together is the Goonies 2, which
was actually a pretty good game,but also extremely difficult to
figure out because yeah, we we do not have like go around and

(57:07):
run around and get a video. We didn't have, you know, CRT
money where we could go buy the used games of the fancy
refurbished repackage. They just.
They kind of repaired from my uncle or like $10 a piece
everyone. So every time I had 10 bucks,
I'm going to the store, going tothe trip all the way to town all
afternoon. Don't even care just for that.

(57:29):
Just. Goonies 2 is so confusing
because there's no Goonies 2 movie.
We thought it was a sequel, but apparently Goonies one only came
out in Japan I think, and they and the Goonies, Goonies 2 that
we got was a sequel to that. So it was very confusing to us
dumb kids over. Here I I was trying to figure
out where the movie was that thegame was tying into.

(57:50):
That was my other problem. Like, I love The Goonies.
Where's the movie? I'll take a sequel.
Never happened. Yeah, it was this Back to the
Future that game had essentiallyno ties to other than a couple
scenes here and there. Speaking of infuriating.
Yeah, it's serious. But that.

(58:12):
The other fun part, the other fun problem with that game was
like you need a manual for thesegames too.
Like you need a manual to know what you're doing.
And I had to explain it to my subject because there was some,
I can't remember what game therewas he was trying to play.
I'm like, I need to see the manual because the manual has
the answer for like what you're supposed to be doing.
I can't tell you like what's happening here.
There's like a 20 page book thatcomes with it that tells you the

(58:34):
lore and like where you're supposed to go.
And like the Goonies, like you don't know what the back story
of the Goonies 2 is because likeyou said, it's for a game.
It's not a sequel to the movie. It's a sequel to the game that
didn't come out here. Like how am I supposed to know
what I'm doing? But like we just had this like
cardboard box of games that likesome of them were from an uncle,
some of them are for like dad's friends that like didn't like in

(58:55):
fact, Santa dude was another oneof those games.
Like probably would have helped if I had a manual for the game.
I understand. I just I just have this game and
the artist burned into my memoryfor it.
So it's one thing we just have like a platform where like OK,
run fast, jump, smush things andand beat boss at the end.
It's another one. You have these like role-playing
games and fantasy games and stuff where you're like, I don't
know what I'm doing, but I'm going to figure it out.

(59:17):
You just kind of like kind of wander your way through and and
go through and even like Castlevania 2 is another one too
that like I loved what took me awhile because I didn't know what
a Metroidvania was then. Like that was where the Vania
comes from because even the first Castlevania was like, no,
that's just straight, like go straight hit things and.
This thing we had to kneel for three minutes and have it turned

(59:40):
like complete you. Have to have found somebody to
tell you that. Completely stayed the 1st.
Person who figured out. What a night.
That always stuck in my head. That's exactly.
And like, listen, I, I always make this joke like there are
parts of Philadelphia that I'm like, it's like Castlevania 2
and nobody ever understands my reference.
So I'm like, you may think you're fine in in in the

(01:00:01):
daytime, but at night time it's like Castlevania 2A scroll comes
down and tells you get out of dodge.
It's time to go. And and and but but anyway like
I that's why. I'm just thinking with the.
Help for three minutes. But yeah, it, it's just funny
how many of those gaugers in this like dusty cardboard box.

(01:00:22):
So I'm like, I don't, I don't even know what this game is.
I don't know what's going on here, but they they stuck with
it. And I have to shout out what
everybody else. It was a terrible game.
But actually I, I beat a couple of times.
He was the hook tie in game for Nintendo.
I, I, I don't know if anybody else played that one, but like
that was, I don't. Think I ever played that one.
I never gave a lot of time. Yeah, you were probably just
like just a few years too old for that one.

(01:00:45):
Like I I'm the target demo of like hook defenders.
The Superintendent one was actually I think pretty decent
of hook, but. That's right.
I forgot they had the they had the upgrade.
But that was the other funny part about some of those late
Nintendo. Like they had the Battletoads
and Double Dragons on NES also, which was terrible, but on
Genesis it was great. Superintendent Yeah, kind of
play the 8. Version was.
Not good. Same thing with Turtles

(01:01:08):
tournament fighters, they had a Nintendo version which is not
which is fine, but the one for the Super Nintendo was so much
better. It's still oddly rare that
tournament fighters like they have that at my gaming club and
like we, they keep that behind the desk.
They let us break that one out once in a while just and like
it. It's actually it's actually
better on the. NES please remaster that.
Just please, one day, that's allI want is a remaster of a
tournament. Fight yeah, no, I don't I don't

(01:01:29):
want the I don't want the repackaged version give me an
upgrade. Give me a 2026 version of that.
Let's go it'd. Be amazing, it'd be the best
game ever. As long as they don't.
New turtle. Like this new stuff my kids
watch. Like it's got to be the old
school turtles. You.
Need everything, I don't care what it is, give me some.
Because of what? Because of what Injustice 2 did

(01:01:50):
with the turtles DLC. Whereas it is perfect.
Knowing what they can do. I'm like, God, if they made a
whole game, a whole roster. With this, it'd be amazing.
I'd lose my mind. Criminally underrated tournament
fighter. Yeah, for the Super NES at
least. It's very good.
And all three were different. Genesis, Super and Nintendo are
all different. They're all different rosters.
It was crazy, Yeah. Well, I, I will begin to wind us

(01:02:12):
down with my, my parting thoughts.
Our Nintendo just died someday like we we we moved on to my dad
got a Genesis eventually my my brother and I, we chipped in
together bought a Super Nintendoat some point that we still play
the Nintendo, but at some point it just it just couldn't make it
anymore And it went to the farm upstate with the rest of the old
electronics gear that. You guys go on without me.

(01:02:35):
I'll be over here. You did.
You did good. You did good.
We thank you for your service. But it was.
Just. Yeah, it it died.
So I was I was not someone who got to keep got to keep that one
to the future and I it wasn't much better.
It probably caused me to then sell future systems that I, I

(01:02:55):
don't sell things anymore like that.
But unfortunately I did sell things like my Super Nintendo
down the line. But I just have to shout at the
Nintendo because as many like I think we spent more time talk
like dunking on bad games that I, I but but like that was also
part of the beauty of it. Like every time somebody
complaints now, but like, oh, there's DLC for this.
I'm like, we bought a game for 50 bucks back then.

(01:03:15):
It was like 120 now and it sucked and that was it.
I see it for like 5 months to buy this game and it sucked and
it was like that. So that was also part of the
Nintendo experience. But like the, the good games
were so good that it just, you know, hooked me again.
I Tetra. So I got hooked on Tetris for
life. I, I still to this day, I, I was
playing Tetris 99. I needed like 5 minutes to chill

(01:03:38):
earlier. I pop on Tetris 99.
That's that's what happened. So I, I, I thanked Nintendo for
its service. I still called Nintendo, which
were also the other day. My son said you call it
Nintendo, you're oldest. Thank you, buddy.
I I appreciate that is Nintendo,but yes, any, any other parting
thoughts? JD, you want to kick this part
off? Yeah, I mean, you could argue,

(01:04:01):
right, that especially when it comes to the American gaming
scene, the Nintendo is the most important console ever released,
right. One of the things I've found,
you know, in, in, you know, online gaming discourse is this
is a a lot different in different parts of the world.
But have any of you guys, did any of you guys growing up know

(01:04:24):
anybody that owned a Sega MasterSystem or had even heard of it?
I had one friend who. I had a cousin.
I had a cousin who did late. Like they got it late, yeah.
We never played it, but yeah. But right like it just you know
which. Is under.
It's underrated. There's a lot of good stuff.
Yeah, by the way, a lot of cool.Stuff I'm pretty.
Exciting. World, Yeah.

(01:04:45):
There's a lot of cool stuff. But well, you know, coming off
the video game crash there, there was a real good chance
that video games were never going to be a thing in the
United States, right? And the Nintendo, the NES,
whatever you want to call it, was played a large part in kind

(01:05:06):
of why we're all here today. And, you know, look how many
franchises that started there that are still iconic, you know,
40 years later. My kids know Mario and Metroid
and all those you know, Jelly Boy.
Did they get it in? My, my, my kids have a
collection of Nintendo toys. It's like, I'm just like,

(01:05:27):
there's like they have Princess Peach's Castle and Bowser's
Castle. Up there, yeah, right.
You know, all from a Gray box that, you know, our parents told
us they didn't want in the house.
You're going to rot your brain. It's going to be a fad.
No one will play video games in 20 years.
All things that have actually been told to me.

(01:05:48):
And it just, you know, it walkedso, so many of these other great
consoles that we have today and we had nose, you know, up
leading up to it could run. I mean, it is shocking.
You talked about it being part of the experience, right?
You just spent every hard earneddime you had on this game and

(01:06:10):
you bought it home and it just sucked, right?
That was part of the experience.You never knew what you were
going to get. They didn't know what they were
doing. And it's really shocking in a
good way how many of these gamescame out as great as they did
from people that at the time just did.
We're clueless. Like this was all very new to

(01:06:32):
them, the crew, some of the creativity that was shown, some
of the chances that were taken. And, you know, that all kind of
started at least in the United States here.
And I'm sure you know, North America will say because of the
Nintendo, at least I think so. Yeah.
Business party thoughts? Pete, you got anything?

(01:06:58):
No, I mean, it's, it's the system that brought it home,
right? Like I think you just said that
and it's it's what got us all into gaming.
It definitely shaped the framework for where we're at
today with gaming. And I think Nintendo early on
really nailed it and stuck to the idea of gaming being for
families. And I think they've kind of
stayed true to that. So I think that that will never

(01:07:18):
change and I thank them for it. It's it's a goat.
It's the GOAT of consoles and it'll never be beat.
The NES is the greatest thing. It is not an understatement to
say that they changed my life for sure.
I mean, it is part of who I am and has been for what, 40 years

(01:07:41):
now? That's what we're saying.
Holy cow, that's unbelievable. But I love it.
And I will say this one more thing.
That controller, that beautiful rectangle, so simple, so purely
good. I love it.
It sits in my hand perfectly. Nothing will beat it.
It's the GOAT. That's all.
I get it. Right here on my 2 middle

(01:08:01):
fingers. To this day I have like an
indent from the rectangle that like the NES the the Switch
Nintendo controller just sits perfectly in my hands to this
day in that little nub I've created in my bone CRT.
Yeah, I mean, my, my ending is kind of a happy one.

(01:08:22):
I still have the childhood NES and I I was lucky enough to get
to the KB toys in our area. I think like a 94.
So was doing a fire sale on top loaders.
I think I paid 40 bucks for minebrand new in the box.
Then I should have bought like 50 of them to see how many they

(01:08:44):
had. But all of you heathens with
your square controllers, I, I learned to love the dog bone
then and that's been my, my jam ever since.
I don't have the indentations inmy fingers.
But the one thing for me you guys talk about kind of the
lasting legacy and stuff like that, like just the, it's been

(01:09:06):
remarkable. I don't know if you guys are
aware of, like, the world of Nintendo books that like, Andy
Cunningham's putting together and some of those compilations
of just the history of, like, the merchandising and all the
stuff that they did. But as somebody who didn't grow
up in a major metropolitan area,like, it's shocking to read
about, you know, like. Oh yeah.
And, you know, in 1985, there was this limited thing they did

(01:09:29):
out in the East Coast and you know, there was these people
that access to these things like3 or 4 years before everybody
else did. And I'm just like it, it's
insane. But you just, you think about,
you know, like you, you kind of mentioned, you know, the, the
video game crash and all that stuff.
And there were there were like real adults, like attaching
their professional livelihoods to making this thing go.

(01:09:51):
And it just the fact that, you know, I don't know, I feel like
that's one thing that that's kept Nintendo Nintendo right, is
that they're still worried about, you know, second quarter
results and delighting the shareholders and all this crazy
corporate nonsense. But at the end of the day, like
it's still at its core, it is what it is.

(01:10:12):
And somehow they keep it right. Some people chalk it up to weird
Japanese stuff, but I, I more than that, I think it's just
they, they somehow, they understood what made it work
then and they've somehow been able to keep that DNA alive.
And you know, some of it's the, the brand and all that stuff.
But I just, I like, if you haven't checked it out, if

(01:10:32):
you're into that sort of historical stuff, can't
recommend the Andy Cunningham stuff enough.
There's, there's a second book that I think is due to come out
here at some point. One of those, you know, kick
started a couple years ago. And is it even still a thing
kind of a deal? But but just some of the stuff
I, you know, I can't imagine walking into some of those like
world of Nintendo kiosks that existed at some of those places

(01:10:54):
as like A7 or a 10 year old kid and just like have your mind
blown? Because maybe, maybe the adults
in our lives would have had a different opinion about it,
right. If it wasn't just some random
box hooked up to the TV that kept them from watching the
Evening News. But anyway, so I'm, I'm big into
that stuff, though, just the history and how much stuff is
out there. You talked before about the

(01:11:15):
Nintendo Power stuff. I'm five issues away from having
all of them. And I remember as a kid, like
begging my parents to have that thing and just Nope, not
important, which I mean, OK, fine, whatever.
But you know, Bryant, to your point, just the animations and
even the the writing and some ofthe stuff that's in that, you

(01:11:38):
know, again, there were people really like grown adults.
Professions were based on makingthis thing go.
And the results, again, it's theGOAT, like you said.
So I'm, yeah, 40 years. I'm here for it.
Here's the 40 more. I I got to shout out Brian and
Brian has I think bitch, you gotthis also right the the NES

(01:11:58):
Compendium from Bitmap Books is.Another.
I have 5 bitmap books. They're awesome.
They're yeah, I'm, I'm a sucker for all that stuff.
Every con, if they have it, I'm buying it.
I mean, I'm, you know, I've got more pounds of books that I may
have CRTS, honestly, but it's it's it's just the thing.
I love that stuff. It's awesome.

(01:12:19):
Yeah, me too. All right, Brian, Land, land,
land the plane. What are your?
What are your final? 2 two things.
So one of the best memories, I think I remember, I don't know
if you guys did this, but going to Toys-R-Us, like they had you
go and you get the, you get the tag, like the ticket, you have
all the game and like that was just like, I hate, I hate that
my kids can't do like experiencelike it was, it was the most

(01:12:40):
amazing thing. You just get the and when if the
ticket wasn't there, I'd look through 100 other things and see
if it was and you'd yeah, like I, I, I would have them
sometimes I would if I, if I couldn't get it that day, I'd go
put it like you just. Think you had?
I just remember it was just likesuch a fun experience than that.
And then one thing about Nintendo that I'll say like, I

(01:13:04):
know I joke around like how it, you know, things like, but I do
love it, obviously. And like I think we're starting
to see Xbox kind of maybe being done soon and PlayStation maybe
one day. I feel like I, I, I can never
imagine Nintendo being done doing this.
You know what I mean? Like I feel like, I think, like,
I feel like in 100 years when they inject the games right into

(01:13:26):
our brains, into our Nintendo brains, it'll be them doing it
like, and I feel like that like unless, unless it's like their
terms, like, hey, this is our last console where but they
won't be pushed out or make a bunch of billion bad mistakes
like Xbox did, you know what I mean?
Like Sony one day may do something different, but I feel
like Nintendo will be here forever.
Nintendo making Louise responsible for the downfall of

(01:13:47):
the Xbox. That's all you can.
You can track the dominoes back.That's all I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah. So it's, it's, it's it's because
of them, you know, I, I hope hopefully they keep doing it
for, like we said, 100 more years.
We'll see. Well, that.
There's no PlayStation World at Universal, I know that much.

(01:14:08):
It would it would be very sad and like too artsy but even
though I would love it but it would be like I just want a fun
amusement park. It would be.
It would be poorly cast. Also, for some reason Tom
Holland would be involved and I don't know why Tom.
Holland does that. Sure, boy.
I said that I'm not sure. The movie is not terrible, it's
just not. It's just weird it.

(01:14:28):
Feels weird. Which one?
Which one? Uncharted.
Movie with. Uncharted.
Yeah. Yeah, it was a good movie, but
it didn't need to be Uncharted. Yeah, exactly.
I liked it. But like, if you didn't call it
Uncharted, I would have liked ita lot more probably.
It would have been fine. It would.
Have just as fun. We're not here.
We're not here to lament the state the the status of Sony's
cinematic projects. But I'm gonna, I'm gonna go

(01:14:52):
thank our panel. Brian McGuinness laugh at Brian
again. October 26th.
You go see, go to rally, go to good nights, see those retro
bits, get the see find out what game they're going to.
They're going to be having a little fun with down there and
having a little commentary alongwith there got our bits boys
here we got. The legend, The legend Cliff

(01:15:13):
Burzynski, by the way, with the legend Cliff.
Cliff Blazinski's on the panel with me.
So I, I apologize, I don't bringhim up.
I I not here it's. OK.
But we got the bits, boys, bits.Dad Petes here as well.
Thank you, JDS Gaming off the beaten path.
And the last we have dragged CRTRescue in and we learned

(01:15:33):
something. I guess I learned something
today with those, those cards that you had in your that you've
got. Yeah.
Man, I got a little gaggle of them here.
Castlevania. I just saw I saw Castlevania.
Fly by. This is it, man.
That's. It Simon semester it is.
I'll give you 10 bucks. One of those.
I need one of those. He's not kidding.

(01:15:54):
He's he's not kidding. You guys talk offline?
He he wants one. Yeah.
Booby, booby. I hear myself.
Oh God. That's a fun echo.
I'll record that later. I'm done.
I'll add that in tomorrow. Do it now, We'll do it.
Live. We'll do it live.

(01:16:14):
Do it. Later, it went away.
We'll do it live. Land on the plane.
You'll find the plane cast. This is Rey's part, not mine.
C3 dot GG slash podcast 3:33 AM Eastern every Wednesday morning.
All the majors are home on Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple.
I'm Dan Ray's not here. He's in, he's in universal
still. Today was his, I think second

(01:16:36):
day at Super Nintendo Land. So he he's living the dream in a
different way. Shout out to Joel, shout out to
Castor Garden. Shout out shout out to Laughing
Brian. This is my This is my krank
stressful. Krank making appearance, but
have a good day everybody thank you boys appreciate it This will

(01:17:04):
be out. This will be out Wednesday.
I appreciate it that was fun. There were some, there were some
games, I, I, there were, there were core memory unlocks that
happened and certain games therejust like, oh God, I forgot
about that. So.
Can you do have can you do a fake like this is sponsored by
like depends or something like that.
This is the beginning doing a fake ad target demographic ads.

(01:17:26):
This special episode of the Channel 3.
What are your three podcasts is brought to you by depends for
men. Are you 50?
Do you not want to pause your game?
Try Channel 3. Depends for men's and chairs.
Need to sit down find a chair. Chairs and by naps.
Had a long day, no? Channel 3.

(01:17:59):
Is the future.

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