Probably through marketing and focus groups. Feedback from arcade owners might be like, "hey, this Centipede game really seems to have a lot of girls playing it, we don't usually see a lot of girls here." By that point, video games were definitely skewing male, between the number of shooting and sports games and games like DK that had male heroes.
My first handheld was the original Game Boy, in its launch year. It came with Tetris, but these days I actually remember Super Mario Land more fondly.
The NGP Color looked really good, I was kind of hoping SNK would be able to at least make sales on par with the Game Gear. I also kind of wish we'd gotten a US release for the WonderSwan. I actually saw a lot of SNK arcade games like P.O.W. and Time Soldiers, and almost every arcade had a Neo-Geo system when those came out. Vanguard was one of my favorite early 80s games, but I thought it was made by Atari, who published the home versions in the US.
I actually had mixed feelings on the DS. It had some great games, but too many of them relied on touch screen gimmicks. The DS Zeldas were my least favorite Zeldas (not counting the CD-i games, of course). The games I liked were conventionally controlled. The DS ended up becoming a Dragon Quest machine, owing to the first-ever releases of V and VI as well as IX. The 3DS was somewhat better, as it had a lot more conventional games and some great RPGs. A Link Between Worlds was a definite step up from the DS games, and the 3DS will always get props from me for being the savior of the Fire Emblem series and helping it to become one of Nintendo's tentpole series. That said, I'm very glad that Nintendo mostly seems to be putting dual screens and touch-screen controls behind them. I never did learn to love touch-screen controls, which is also part of why I never got into mobile gaming. I remember reading rumors back in the day that Nintendo was prepping a fourth-generation Game Boy that would have had specs on par with the Gamecube and conventional controls, and being excited.
The PSP had some great RPGs. Valkyria Chronicles 2, a port of FF Tactics that had a competent translation, Crisis Core, Persona, Trails in the Sky, and more. I wish I'd gotten the Bandai LoH games. The Vita was interesting, but Sony's heart clearly wasn't in it. That system ended up being mostly a Falcom machine for me.
I definitely agree with you guys on the GBA. Castlevania and Golden Sun started me out on it, and I got a SP in 2004. Metroid Zero Mission was awesome, and I got the GBA port of Tales of Phantasia not long after I finished Tales of Symphonia. The GBA kept me entertained during my sophmore year of college, when I had to take a night class that was several hours after my last daytime class. I even had the Game Boy Player, which was amazing. Unfortunately, it got stolen, which is a pity, since the boot discs now go for $200 on eBay. I would really like to play Mother 3 on my TV.
My favorite handheld is also my favorite system of all time, and it is none other than the Switch. It made me fall in love with video games all over again after I was kind of becoming a little disinterested. It pretty much stays in its dock at home, and I play it with a Pro Controller. However, it's accompanied me on the many trips I've had to make to Oklahoma this year. Being able to play a few rounds of Donkey Kong and Mario Bros, explore Koholint Island, fight a few Fire Emblem battles, or have a few matches of Smash, really helped me keep my sanity during these difficult trips.
Excellent podcast. Looking forward to more.
Ten years ago, there was a debate as to whether the Newbery awards were doing more harm than good. One expert went so far as to say that he believed that the Newbery medal had done more to turn kids off of reading than anything else out there.
I did enjoy some of these books. One I did enjoy was Johnny Tremain, which was assigned reading at school. As a coincidence, I had to read this book at the exact same time the Simpsons episode "Whacking Day" first aired. In that episode, Marge is home-schooling Bart and makes him read Johnny Tremain. My reaction was about the same as Bart's: "they should call this book, Johnny Deformed!" My mom, naturally, was quick to point out that even the Simpsons were telling me to read "good" books.
Stage Select: Favorite Character Introductions
The opening animation for Donkey Kong, where he's carrying Pauline up to the top of the structure and then stomping on the girders. At the age of 4, when I first played DK, that intro was legitimately a bit scary and added to the overall experience. To this day, DK is my favorite arcade game.
Cloud's flashback that introduces Sephiroth. Everything about the intro is meant to show the player that Sephiroth doesn't screw around. Additional props to the Mako mutant and the dismembered body of Jenova hidden behind the angel statue at the end of the sequence.
The introduction of the Pigmasks in Mother 3. The first time you encounter them is a fairly brief appearance, with a static-filled, faint rendition of the Pigmask Army theme. Subsequently, you get more complete versions of the theme as the Pigmasks encroach upon Tazmily, symbolizing the gradual, frog-boiling style of takeover the Pigmask Army engages in as the game progresses, and the eventual deterioration and death of the village as the villagers submit to the will of King Porky.
On a related but off-topic note, damn, I wish they'd localize this game. I read that Nintendo had recently considered a localization for the Switch, but they tried to look at how certain scenes might play out in the US given the present social climate, and thought about the likelihood that they probably wouldn't win no matter how they approached the project. It seems like they finally said "Nope."
Cage Match:
Mario had AC Odyssey pinned to the ground, stuffing leaves and dirt into its storage case. Peach called Mario and said she had a cake waiting for him at the castle. Mario sternly told AC, "I want you to keep filling your case with crud until I get back." AC Odyssey meekly said, "Yes, sir" and continued to stuff leaves and dirt into its storage case while Mario was gone. Winner: Super Mario Odyssey.
TV Tropes actually has a trope called "Death by Newbery Medal," which covers all of those award-winning books we read as kids that had kid protagonists watching their beloved pets or best friends die in horrible ways, or worse still, having to kill their beloved pets for one reason or another, and those deaths somehow being a rite of passage for the protagonist. The specific book you guys were talking about was "A Day No Pigs Would Die," by Robert Newton Peck. It didn't win and wasn't even nominated for a Newbery, but it was an ALA Best Book in 1973. That book also had a somewhat graphic depiction of the pig being bred by a boar that probably wouldn't fly nowadays because it looks uncomfortably like a rape scene. Even when I read it as a teenager I was like "WTF? This is for kids?"
Incidentally, "Stand By Me" is referenced in Pokemon Red/Blue, in the player's house.
DDT was probably still the best-known pesticide due to the notoriety. Plus, "carbaryl" doesn't fit on a 3-square-wide icon as well as "DDT."
I've never played a Darius title before, I'm kind of interested in this one. There have been a lot of Taito releases lately. I got Space Invaders Invincible Collection on Switch. At $60 I suppose it's pricey, but it contains a lot of different Space Invader versions plus related games like Lunar Rescue, and it's the only legit way I've seen to play the original Space Invaders on modern hardware. Strictly Limited Games has been teasing a physical release forever, but they want an insane amount of money for it. I'm thinking of doing a gameplay video of Space Invaders set to "Tom Sawyer", by Rush. Remember where that came from?
I agree with your brother: We need Metroid Zero Mission on the Switch.
I think I saw Centipede Chaos at Dave and Buster's or Peter Piper Pizza.
Centipede and Millipede were my mom's favorites. We had the aforementioned Caterpillar on TRS-80, and when my mom got an Atari 130XE, we had Millipede on it. Because my mom played these games most of the time, I played them a lot, too, and my mom and I would even have competitions for the highest score in Millipede.
For me, of course, anytime I saw an arcade machine starring a certain mischievous gorilla, I'd jump right on it.
I'm debating on getting Tales of Arise now or waiting until I get a PS5 to play it on. If they had a Switch version I'd be all over that.
Last time I got food poisoning was at the Arby's near my house, which is an old Arby's that's been there since the 60s and still has the old school signage. I didn't eat at Arby's for a long time after that until I was like, "I'm so hungry I could eat at Arby's!"
I'm actually a little sad summer is over. I didn't really get to do much summery stuff this year. No beaches, very little swimming, and no trips to anyplace except Oklahoma to deal with my parents.
Stage select:
I've always wanted The Stand to be adapted into a RPG. King himself described the book as his version of The Lord of the Rings saga. It would be a good fit for a Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest-style game. You'd follow the sagas of Stu/Fran, Nick/Tom/Ralph, and Larry in Part One, Part Two would be set in Boulder, and Part 3 would be the final big confrontation with Flagg. There are so many characters that could act as enemies and bosses. You could probably do a Final Fantasy VI setup with this book. The Eyes of the Dragon, which also features Flagg, might be a good RPG except that the protagonist spends most of the book locked up in a tower, weaving an escape rope out of cloth napkins.
On a side note, my other favorite author, Douglas Adams, was actually adapted into a computer game. There was a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text adventure made by Infocom. It loosely followed the plot of the first book up until the landing on Magrathea.
I remember that Game Informer had the idea of adapting Old Yeller as a first-person shooter in one of its April Fools' issues.
Cage Match:
You know how you said I know a lot about video games? Well that's true, but you managed to find a couple of holes in my knowledge with this one. I've never played either of these games. I did hear of Loaded in the pre-FF7 PS1 days, and I only have the fuzziest recollection of Crusader: No Remorse. I'm going to go with Crusader because it was made by Origin Systems.
