Player One Podcast

This week! It’s not really over, and we’re back to talk about video games, babies, Nintendo going third party, people don’t want Vita, Back to the Future oddness/lack of gaming skill, and oh so much more. Welcome back!

Own an iPhone/iPod touch? We’ve got an app for that–the Player One Podcast player app is available now. Play shows new and old, read show notes, access the show Twitter, website, email, voicemail line and more! Plus, you’ll be able to access bonus audio and video content (soon, once we figure out what that is). Click here to download.

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Follow us on twitter at twitter.com/p1podcast.

Thanks for listening! Don’t forget to visit our new web site at www.playeronepodcast.com. Don’t forget to join our forums if you haven’t already!

Direct download: 08_15_11-Episode251.mp3

Running time: 1:04:15

Chris Johnston Episodes, Video Games babycast, Back to the Future, nintendo, Vita

This week! We talk about PSN being down, the Wii successor, the 3DS and, of course, Portal 2. Oh, and Encarta.

Please donate to the American Red Cross’ disaster relief efforts to help those affected by the earthquake in Japan and tsunami in the Pacific. Click here to go to the donation form! You can also donate through your iTunes account by clicking here. Or your Amazon.com account by clicking here.

Follow us on twitter at twitter.com/p1podcast.

Thanks for listening! Don’t forget to visit our new web site at www.playeronepodcast.com. You can leave us a voicemail by calling 713-893-8069 or you can send a comment via MP3 to our email address, playeronepodcast@gmail.com. Don’t forget to join our forums if you haven’t already!

Direct download: 04_25_11-Episode235.mp3

Running time: 1:37:52

Chris Johnston Episodes, Video Games 3DS, nintendo, outage, Portal 2, PSN, Wii 2

The last Metroid is in captivity.
The galaxy is at peace…

Holy cow! We’re finally doing another Game Club!

In celebration of our 200th episode of the Player One Podcast and the upcoming release of Metroid: Other M for Wii, we are taking a look back at one of the most acclaimed titles for the Super NES, Super Metroid.

Despite all of the praise that Super Metroid has gotten over the years, the game is over 15 years old now. Does it still hold up after all this time?^* Let’s find out by playing it together! Bust out your old cartridge or pick up the game for 800 Nintendo Points from the Wii’s Virtual Console.

We’ll be discussing Super Metroid on episode 201 of the Player One Podcast, so get playing and share your comments and/or memories. You can post them in the comments section of this blog post, in the official thread on our forums, drop us an email, or leave a voicemail (713-893-8069).

* Don’t be a fool. Of course it holds up! Still, maybe you have…odd…taste in games and you’re not a fan of Super Metroid. In that case, we really wanna hear from you.

Phil Theobald Episodes, Game Club, Video Games Metroid III, nintendo, Samus, SNES, Super Metroid, Super NES

This week! E3 from the perspectives of four guys who didn’t attend the show. Listen as we go in order of the press conferences from the big three and give our analysis. Who won? Who lost? Which of these motion control solutions has the best chance?  And oh so much more.

Chris Johnston Episodes e3, episode, kevin butler, kinect, Microsoft, move, nintendo, podcast, project natal, sony

Today is September 9, 2009, and I celebrated by rushing out early this morning to pick up The Beatles Rockband. By a strange coincidence, when I pulled a t-shirt to wear out of my closet this morning, I happened to grab my Mega Man 9 shirt. Then, while driving to Best Buy to get my game, I ended up stuck behind the number nine bus. No joke. And did I mention that I had my alarm set to wake me up at 9:00? Too freaky!

Since this is the ten year anniverary of the release of the Dreamcast, every website out there is doing some sort of SEGA/Dreamcast retrospective. You know what? That’s friggin’ boring. It’s been done a million times already, and really, how many times do we need to read that Soulcalibur was a great launch title?

So instead of more redundant Dreamcast nonsense, on this 9/9/09 I offer to you…
nine-year-old gumballs!

The other day, I found a box of toys that I used to have on my desk back when I worked at Expert Gamer/GameNOW. These goodies were from the Oakbrook era before we moved to San Francisco, so they’re pretty old. Among the random action figures and game-branded trinkets, I found a pair of pink gumballs sealed inside a plastic bag that features the logo for Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards for the N64.

I actually wrote a strategy guide for Kirby 64 for Expert Gamer (issue #75, September 2000), and these gumballs were a little promotional item that Nintendo sent along with the game. The sugary orbs sat on display in my cube for about two and a half years until they were boxed up and shipped out to California with the rest of my crap. Now, they have been unearthed once more.

The gumballs themselves have Kirby stamped on them. For all I know, these are the only two Kirby gumballs left on the planet. I figured that I had best photograph them for posterity. They’ve held up quite well considering that they’re nearly a decade old. And no, there’s no way that I’m gonna try chewing these things.

BONUS! MORE OLD CANDY!

While we’re on the subject of expired promotional candy, I would like to present these two pieces of chocolate that Nintendo sent out to the press to promote the GBA’s Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak, which was released in 2003. It may not be quite as impressive as nine-year-old gumballs, but six-year-old chocolate isn’t too shabby. Wait a second…a 6 looks like an upside-down 9. Too freaky!!!

So yeah, as I was taking pictures of the Kirby gumballs, I remembered that I had these guys tucked away in one of the drawers in my refrigerator. I figured that it was time to bust them open and photograph the little buggers.

There’s not a whole lot to say about these pieces of hamster-themed candy. There are two packages: one for the angelic Harmony and one for the devilish Spat. I’ve not played Ham-Ham Heartbreak, so I can only assume that in the game, the two make some sort of Good vs. Evil play for Hamtaro’s soul. The candy itself features raised images of the two characters, and they’re darned cute.

No, I won’t be eating these, either.

Phil Theobald Food, Video Games 9/9/09, Candy, Chocolate, Food, GBA, Gum, Hamtaro, kirby, N64, nintendo

Over the years, I have developed an odd relationship with the Rare-produced, Nintendo-published NES game, Anticipation. As longtime listeners of the show know, that game was the catalyst that led to me going on an angry, youthful rant against my mother in January, 1989. This story was chronicled way back in episode 41 (skip forward to the 1:06 mark to hear it), and I later followed that up with a formal apology to my mother in episode 114 (skip to the 1:19 mark).

Long story short: I really, really wanted the NES game Blaster Master for my 14th birthday. With the newly released Blaster Master sold out everywhere, my mother instead got me Anticipation. When I upwrapped my birthday gift, which I had assumed was Blaster Master, I was livid. And by “livid,” I mean “an assholish junior high brat who chews out his own mother.”

Sure, it made me a terrible son, but it makes for a funny story. If CJ has his Bubsy 3D, I have my Anticipation.

Just when I thought that all the Anticipation jokes had been made, the mailman knocks on my door today and drops off a package for me. I had not ordered anything from eBay in a while, so I was a bit confused as to what this mysterious box would contain. Then it hit me.

Weeks ago, one of our lovely Player One listeners, a fellow who goes by the hacker alias ness08, contacted me to tell about a “present” that he had for me. Could this be it?

Opening the box, I found a note that read (in part):

“(I) know you said you collect Nintendo games, and heard you like this game, so hope you enjoy. Please keep up the great podcast!”

I began tearing through the layers of bubble wrap and quickly realized that ness08 had sent me a boxed copy of Anticipation! Curse him! Must this game follow me to my grave?! Still, it was a pretty funny gesture. Since I do collect NES games, I did eventually get another copy of the game, but it was just the cartridge–I don’t own the game’s box. Now I do. That’s pretty funny.

It wasn’t until I stripped off the final layer of bubble wrap that I got the real joke. This wasn’t just a boxed copy of Anticipation. This was a sealed copy of Anticipation! As is unopened. As in brand-spanking, straight-out-of-1989 new. As in still-has-that-little-hangy-tag-on-it. Where did he find this thing?

Amazing. I must have laughed for a minute straight just looking at the damn thing. Amazing.

In the little world that I’ve created for myself, I like to imagine that this is the very same copy of the game that I made my mother return all those years ago come back to haunt me once again. I know that the odds of this are somewhat low, but there’s always that chance.

Kudos to you, ness08. You have certainly made my day. I’ve already got the game up on eBay, and I will be using the money I get from the sale to buy a sealed copy of Blaster Master.

I’m kidding, of course. I would never part with this thing. It’s the surest way to keep anyone else from ever having to play it.

We really have the best listeners. Thanks!

Phil Theobald Video Games Anticipation, birthday, Blaster Master, NES, nintendo

[NOTE: Since CJ has been slowly republishing previous posts from his personal blog here, I figured that I would do the same. I'll occasionally be posting some of the more interesting entries from my now not-really-used 1UP blog.]

Despite having plenty of competition in the form of the Sega Genesis, the name Nintendo was pretty synonymous with video games back in 1990. Thanks in no small part to Super Mario Bros. 3, the Nintendo Entertainment System was still holding its own against Sega’s 16-bit machine.

Helping to keep the Nintendo hype train going that year was the Nintendo World Championship, a massive video game tournament that was held in over two dozen cities across the U.S. Nintendo nerds would flock to the event to check out tons of NES games (including some titles that hadn’t been released yet), enjoy some Nintendo-themed activities, and potentially compete in the big game competition. For a kid back in those days, this event was a little slice of heaven.

As we were big Nintendo nerds, my friend Jim and I attended the Chicago NWC. Since we were only 15 at the time, Jim’s mom had to drop us off at the event, but admittedly, a videogame tournament isn’t really someplace at which you need to worry about looking cool. The only games I remember playing at the show are Pinball Quest (which I recall enjoying significantly more at the show than when I rented it months later) and Wrath of the Black Manta (which I quickly deemed as not nearly as good as Ninja Gaiden).

I also remember having a 5-10 minute conversation with a Nintendo Game Counselor, one of the good folks you would call when you needed tips on beating a game (I had to call for advice on beating Judge Doom at the end of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?). Like most kids, I was fascinated with the concept of “playing videogames for a living,” and grilled this poor guy about how I could go about getting such a dream job. In my youthful naiveté, I’m pretty sure I asked him what I would need to study in college to land that Game Counselor gig.

He was quite a nice guy, and he seemed genuinely pleased to be talking to a bunch of kids that wanted his job. He was also nice enough to not bother explaining that we really didn’t need a degree to flip through giant binders so that we could tell kids that “Dodongo dislikes smoke” means to throw bombs at the things.

Of course, the main attraction of the NWC was the tournament, which you actually had to pay extra to compete in. At the time, I didn’t want to waste my money competing because I knew that I wouldn’t win. Now, however, I wish that I had dropped the $5 or whatever the cost was just for the experience. Jim entered the contest, though, so I was able to do a little cheering from the sidelines (he lost anyway).

The contest consisted of playing a timed version of a special NES cartridge. The game began by making the player collect 50 coins in Super Mario Bros. and then completing a race in Rad Racer. Once those were finished, the players ran out the clock by playing Tetris. When time ran out, the scores from the three games was tallied up, and the highest scorer moved on to the next round.

The interesting part of all this is that the semi-finalists in the contest were given a copy of the NWC tournament cartridge. The carts are the standard NES gray with a black and white label and a small hole cut into it where you could access a few DIP switches. The switches allowed you to alter the amount of time that you had to play the three games. There were 90 of these carts given out to contestants, and 26 more carts were given out to winners of a Nintendo Power contest. The Nintendo Power carts had a fancier label and were housed in a Zelda-esque gold cartridge.

Not surprisingly, these NWC carts (especially the gold ones) have become incredibly valuable over the years. When one shows up for sale, they go for thousands of dollars. This, of course, puts them well out of the price range for your average gamer, but thanks to the good folks at RetroZone, anyone can pretend that they’re competing in the Nintendo World Championship.

The company has created a reproduction cartridge of the NWC cartridge, complete with adjustable DIP switches, and it’s being sold for only $55. Sure, it’s a bit expensive, but it’s considerably cheaper than what you’d pay for the real deal. The game even comes with a box and an instruction book featuring high score tips from NWC finalists, Rich Ambler and Thor Aackerlund.

To insure that no one tries to pass off this repro cart as a legit version, the cart is housed in a snazzy, clear blue shell. The DIP switches are even located in a different position than on the real cartridges.

The repro cart has been around for a while now, but RetroZone seems to manufacture small numbers of them in bursts. They’ve been out of stock for ages now, but the other day, they put more up for sale on their site. I quickly ordered one, and it arrived a couple days ago.

As an NES junkie, I’m very pleased to have this goodie in my collection. Sure, it’s not as impressive as having an actual NWC cart, but I’m not so nuts that I’m gonna drop a few grand on truncated versions of games that can be bought for a couple of bucks each. This version will do (for now). Special Bonus!!! - On my first attempt at playing the game (using the official NWC time limit of 6 minutes, 21 seconds), I scored a whopping 223,790. Considering that the highest score during the finals was 2,809,995, it was probably for the best that I didn’t enter back in ’90…

Phil Theobald Video Games NES, nintendo, RetroZone, Thor Aackerlund, World Championship

While I feel for those who lost their jobs when Factor 5 closed its doors back in December, there is one piece of good news out of it. That we’ll never play their Kid Icarus game (if that was in fact the Wii game they were supposedly working on). The one where they made Pit look like this:

I mean what the hell, man? Seriously? I mean I respected what Retro Studios did with Metroid because it fit Metroid. But this, this is not what the main character of a new Kid Icarus is supposed to look like. No. It reminds me of this little clip from The Simpsons. Right at the end…

I mean that picture up there looks like it stepped right out of bad ’80s Americanized box art land and became reality. Let’s hope whomever the lucky souls are that eventually do make a real Kid Icarus game make Pit look as he should. Like this:

Now that is what I’m talking about. End of line.

Chris Johnston Video Games kid icarus, nintendo

For lucky Game Club #13, we have selected Super Mario Bros. 2: Mario Madness.

Available on NES, Wii Virtual Console ($5), Super Nintendo (via Super Mario All-Stars), and Game Boy Advance (Super Mario Advance).

One evening, Mario had a strange dream. He dreamed of a long, long stairway leading up to a door. As soon as the door opened, he was confronted with a world he had never seen before, spreading out as far as his eyes could see. When he strained his ears to listen, he heard a faint voice saying "Welcome to Sub-Con, the land of dreams. We have been cursed by Wart and we are completely under his evil spell. We have been awaiting your arrival. Please defeat Wart and return Sub-Con to its natural state. The curse Wart has put on you in the real world will not have any effect upon you here. Remember, Wart hates vegetables. Please help us!"

At the same time this was heard, a bolt of lightning flashed before Mario's eyes. Stunned, Mario lost his footing and tumbled upside down. He awoke with a start to find himself sitting up in his bed. To clear his head, Mario talked to Luigi, Toad and the Princess about the strange dream he had. They decide to go to a nearby mountain for a picnic. After arriving at the picnic area and looking at the scenery, they see a small cave nearby. When they enter this cave, to their great surprise, there's a stairway leading up, up and up. It is exactly like the one Mario saw in his dream. They all walk together up the stairs and at the top, find a door just like the one in Mario's dream. When Mario and his friends, in fear, open the door, to their surprise, the world that he saw in his dream spreads out before them!

Post your comments about SMB2 here. Or, call the voicemail line and leave a message with your favorite parts/memories of the game -- 713-893-8069. Or you can record an MP3 of your comment and email it to playeronepodcast@gmail.com. We'll be talking about SMB2 in Episode 90.

Chris Johnston Game Club game club, mario, nintendo

You've been playing as Pit in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and now rumors abound about Nintendo reviving the little angel's long-forgotten Kid Icarus series.

For our latest Game Club, we're revisiting the original NES title. Opinions continue to be extremely mixed on this game. Is it a worthy classic that deserves new life or is it a busted relic that deserves to be left in the past? Share your thoughts here.

You can play Kid Icarus on the NES (of course) or pick it up for 500 points on the Virtual Console. Just be aware that the VC version doesn't support the handy cheat passwords from the NES original. Considering how difficult the game is, you might need those, too. If you're super-hardcore, you can play KI on on the GBA if you've imported the game's Japan-only release as a part of the Famicom Mini collection.

Chris Johnston Game Club game club, kid icarus, nintendo