- In this next panel,
video game historians Jeffrey Wittenhagen and Kyle Gilbert
discussed the 1990s in their Culture Chronicles
of the history of video games.
(upbeat techno music)
(crowd chattering)
- [Jeffrey] Alright, everyone, we can get started.
Welcome to VGBS Live!
We are the Video Game BS Podcast.
This is Video Game Culture Chronicles 1990s
Panel.
What we're gonna cover, just to do a little disclaimer,
we're gonna let the conversation flow as the river goes.
So we may not stick strictly to the year 1990,
we'll hit everything we can go to.
And in VGBS fashion, if anybody's ever listened
to our podcast, we always get some special guests,
and we got somebody sitting here
that wasn't on the panel thing,
he's gonna introduce himself in a minute.
For introductions, my name is Jeffrey Wittenhagen.
I'm a published author.
I have published The Complete NES
and the Video Game Culture Chronicles book series,
that's on Patreon, people can subscribe,
get some physical books based on retro gaming.
Get your retro gaming needs, your fix.
I've also been on VGBS podcast with Kyle over here
for a year.
We cover everything within video games
and we definitely tell personal stories.
We want to have maximum participation,
so we have free games to give away,
and t-shirts to give away.
Anybody who participates, we got some gimme questions.
They're real easy.
Real easy questions.
And I want John White to heckle us.
Yes, absolutely! (laughs)
Big JT, yes!
Alright, so I hand it over to Kyle, introduce yourself!
- [Kyle] I'm Kyle.
I've been doing No Death Runs, High Score Runs.
For a number of years, I've just been a gamer my whole life.
I can offer a perspective.
I was born in 1983 so,
much like a lot of you
were born during that era.
Just adding my perspective there.
- [Martin] Hi, I'm Martin Alessi.
I have been a gamer since I was a very small child.
And I have the fortune of getting a job at EGM
when I was 16 years old.
And I worked there for about five years,
through the 90s.
And I get to play a lot of the greatest Asian 16-bit games
that we all love.
- [Jeffrey] Nice!
So we have somebody here that was the editor in chief,
senior editor of EGM during 1990.
So, I mean, we have these subject matter expert
with us today to answer and tell us some stories.
That's what we're doing, we're just telling stories.
What I wanna do though,
is let me get started off with somebody
to answer a question.
Alright, so name a game
that was ported from an arcade game,
and is completely different for the console version.
We got one hand up.
Alright, come up here.
We gotta get you on the microphone!
What's your name?
- Matt. - Matt!
And what do you have for us?
- [Matt] This one's easy, Punchout.
- [ Jeffrey] Punchout, correct!
Alright, Kyle, grab the bag! (laughs)
He'll be our Vanna White for the day. (laughs)
Okay, you can either grab a t-shirt, game, whatever.
We got here, he picked up a Gamekeeper release.
- [Matt] Thanks!
- [Jeffrey] You're welcome, well done!
Alright!
So games that were ported from the arcade
and are extremely different,
that's the one that's really, really near
and dear to my heart,
one of my favorite games that was ported,
is a hundred percent different,
Double Dragon 2.
I love Double Dragon 2.
Myself and Kyle, we've been playing forever,
we're actually cousins.
We've grown up together and that's how we started
the VGBS Podcast.
In Hamwood, been on the phone,
and BS on the phone for hours
and we always said, "Why aren't we recording this?"
We're always goin' analytically deep in the games,
and when we would get together on the weekends,
we would play Double Dragon 2.
And we would be sittin' here drinkin' our beer,
and we set the world record,
randomly all the time for cooperative Double Dragon 2.
And we would go and do no death runs and all that stuff
just because we played it so much through repetition.
It was always a classic time.
And the best part was when we just sit there,
and if you know Double Dragon 2 on the NES,
how it's a little different from the arcade one,
you do this special move called the hyper knee.
And with the hyper knee, the enemies go flying!
And the sound effect is like, wow, wow!
And the guys they go flying!
And myself and him had it down to a point
where we can do multiple hyper knees in a row.
So the guys with the chins with the sticks would flip,
and we would knee them in the air,
and they go flying and then they get up,
and then Kyle would knee 'em in the air back at me,
and we'd do that for every single one.
They wouldn't even stand a chance.
And they're we're over there, laughing,
goin' nuts.
It's a hilarious game.
- [Kyle] Yeah, we always try to play that one
whenever we get together.
So, hopefully, we can try it tonight,
get the highest score or something.
But yeah, the repetition--
- [Jeffrey] We're doing that tonight, where at?
- [Kyle] Nintendo Age, whew!
Yeah, repetition though is the key.
Like with the Castlevania, I was just playing that all day,
and it took eventually the levels, you know.
They're just smooth,
it's like the nights of blood eventually.
'Cause you know everything that's coming up,
but as far as the arcade conversions,
the NES set sold many of them.
Like Double Dragon.
Like in the first one,
I mean, there were so many,
and they were completely different games
that's kinda what blew me away.
- [Jeffrey] Swan Song 2!
Contra!
- [Kyle] Mm-hmm, yup.
- [Jeffrey] Amazing games.
- [Kyle] And then those went off like Super C and stuff.
So there just went off other sequels.
- [Martin] Yeah, I have to get into this conversation.
Okay.
Yeah, Super C and the NES was greatly different
than the arcade version of it.
I actually, at one point in time,
had the world record on Super Contra in the arcade.
I held it for about 15, maybe 17 years and then,
Pete Haan is a good friend of mine,
he took the record over at the Galvin Ghost Arcade.
I think one of the biggest differences from Super C
to the arcade versions, is the weapons would,
increase in power if you collected them more than once.
And I really miss that in the NES version.
- [Jeffrey] Yeah and one of the things with Super C to me
that was really different was it's like
the characters kinda jumped in an arc on the arcade.
Then you have the classic Contra where you do the roll
in the air.
It always felt more fluid to me on the NES,
the NES version Super C.
It's always pretty cool.
And of course, we always collect the spread. (laughs)
Gotta get the spread!
Alright, so the next question,
right here.
Alright.
Let's see, name an SNES launch title
that's not Super Mario World.
That one!
- [Audience Member] Pilot Wings.
- [Jeffrey] Pilot Wings.
Correct!
Come over and get up.
Take a bag over to him.
So, he said Pilot Wings, is that the only game?
It is not.
There was a bunch of games released,
some of the major ones you had was F-Zero,
F-Zero was released.
In the Famicom land, they had some (mumbles) released
the same way after (mumbles) in the same year.
- [Martin] Jellico's Big Run.
- [Jeffrey] Jellico's Big Run, exactly.
There was a bunch of different games released
but Pilot Wings was the game that was synonymous
with Super Mario World that first day.
The thing that people get confused on,
why they think it was only two games?
Because with the N64 many years later,
it was Mario 64 and Pilot Wings 64,
only two games.
- [Kyle] And people get confused.
- [Jeffrey] Exactly!
So, Super Nintendo though,
that was a system that was near and dear to my heart.
As I'm going through the Video Game Culture Chronicles 1991
has the launch of the Super Nintendo.
And for me, that was the first game system
that I actually went.
And I had to work a part time job to earn,
because it happened to fall on the time
when my parents weren't gonna buy me one for Christmas,
so I was sittin' there and I was saving up money
so I can get this system.
Now, did I get it at launch?
No.
It took me years to save up for the system.
I think I ended up getting it with the Mario World,
Mario All Stars combination cartridge,
which was about four years after it was released,
it took me to save up for the system.
But during that time, I did what a lot of people did.
I would go play it at neighbor's houses
that would have all the systems.
That would include being able to play the,
Turbo Graphic 16, the Neo Geo,
all those systems that there's no way my parents
were gonna buy that for me.
And I would go to their houses and play it.
And it whet my whistle,
it made me want the systems even more.
And I was sittin' there savin' up as much I could as a kid,
we were all terrible with money back in the day.
But I made sure that I was able to get that system.
It was a big, huge deal for me
when I finally got my Super Nintendo.
- [Kyle] Yeah, the other big thing is,
going to their houses because you didn't really know
what all the games look like, as far as the game play goes.
We couldn't look it up on Youtube,
we couldn't Google it.
If you had online, you had what?
AOL and Prodigy, maybe?
- [Jeffrey] Dial up!
- [Kyle] Yeah! (laughs)
So you had still images.
You couldn't have the video.
So when you went to the rental stores, too.
You didn't know,
you had just the screenshots to based it off.
Now, the one cool thing was we did have the magazines.
And the magazines were the things
that you could pick up and say,
"Someone's writing a review on it, okay,
I get it a little more."
- [Jeffrey] For me, it was like going to the schoolhouse
and talking with other kids that might have found
the warp whistles in Mario 3 and myself,
as well as the magazines when you have the counter score
and Nintendo power and all the hints and tricks,
areas and classified information
and all those things as well.
From the NES sessions and all that stuff,
over at the EGM side, too.
Because EGM was your way to get your non-Nintendo fix.
And Nintendo Power had a hold on subscriptions
in my area.
But the guys who went on EGM,
that's when you got your Sega Genesis,
you knew about what Genesis does, what Nintendo don't.
I mean, those were the classic times.
- [Kyle] So, tell us a story of when you started.
- [Martin] Let's just say I was green.
When I got that EGM job it was,
it was luck.
In 1991, I think, it was,
Super Family Com was released in Japan.
And I got the Super Family Com,
I never got a Super Nintendo till years later.
But it's an interesting story.
I bought my Super Family Com in Japan,
and it was my first plane trip ever.
I was only 18 years old,
and I'd never been on a plane before,
so that was a little interesting.
We went to Sinjoku.
It was like a paradise.
I was a part of the magazine,
and Ed would go on a trip to Japan,
so I would read about this stuff and we had copies
of the games at the office.
But to actually be in Japan during the eight and 16-bit era,
that was a real treat.
I bought my Super Family Com in Japan,
I stood in line and bought it in Japan,
and I think that was,
Super Mario World, Pilot Wings and Big Run,
which was just a terrible game.
(audience laughs)
and then I came home.
And I was the envy of all my friends, you know?
- [Jeffrey] That's pretty cool
that you were able to pick up the Super Family Com
before it was released.
And that was the second Run you were talking about in 1991
with Super Family Com comin' out,
'cause even in Japan, it was sold out
during the late 1990 release when it came out.
It was super late 90s,
but the Christmas rush,
they actually closed down and limited the console releases
to a weekend because kids all skipped school
to go to a Super Family Com release back in 1990.
So it was that popular.
So, yeah, by the time 1991 hit,
you were able to get a Family Com when you went over there.
They finally had it in stock in stores!
Craziness then!
So there's one thing Kyle said
that leads into our next question.
This one isn't just one answer,
I wanna hear a little bit of substance
from whomever answers this.
Name a game that you were tricked by from the box art.
'Cause Kyle was mentioning,
that some of the box arts,
you would have to gauge your purchases based on
going to a store.
So, what I wanna hear is somebody who went to a store,
bought a game from box art, come on up,
bought a game from the box art and was completely tricked.
I wanna hear why, though!
These are the glory days right here!
Alright!
What's your name?
- [Tishar] Tishar.
- [Jeffrey] Tishar, alright.
What is your game?
- [Tishar] It was Neon Genesis Evangelion
for the Nintendo 64.
I picked it up, I was a kid,
I couldn't understand a word of it
because it was all in Japanese.
- [Jeffrey] But it doesn't say it.
- [Tishar] It doesn't say that from the box.
Yeah.
- [Jeffrey] So it wasn't even translated.
Wow! (laughs)
- [Tishar] You can read the label on the back
but they didn't have that on the display or anything.
And they just wanted to move it.
- [Jeffrey] That's awesome, though.
So it was like N64 style still got the seed from Nintendo.
- [Tishar] Yeah, it's awesome.
- [Jeffrey] Well, go ahead and go into the bag of tricks
of Kyle.
Excellent.
So one of the main games that fooled me,
there's a million games that were so terrible!
One of them that really, really sticks out,
Phalanx,
on the Super Nintendo, Phalanx.
Where it has the old man playing the banjo
on the front cover,
and the game is a bullet hell shoot 'em up.
And the irony is, you see a bullet hell shoot 'em up,
you think it's cool!
But the irony is, is that it's actually,
Phalanx is actually kind of a mediocre one.
It's not even that good of a bullet hell shoot 'em up.
It's nowhere near like a spriggin' (mumbles),
or a classic shoot 'em up like Lords of Thunder,
and Sega (mumbles).
There's some really good games,
and you see Phalanx,
you see this old man playing the banjo,
and you're like, "What is this?
"Why would I pick that up?"
That game's not as bad though as some of the games
that are on.
- [Kyle] Hydlide comes to mind.
That was the one that got me.
'Cause I always thought that was a great cover.
Deadly Towers is another one, which is like, man.
- [Jeffrey] Well, you always got it
with the medieval style games.
- [Kyle] Right.
Right.
I was just kinda like,
"Man, that's not really what I expected."
Ooh, we have a Hydlide story.
- [Martin] Hydlide, alright.
Well, before I worked at EGM, I worked for FCI,
the publisher of Hydlide.
And I worked on the tipline answering questions
on how to beat the game.
- [Jeffrey] I'm sorry! (laughs)
- [Martin] Me, too! (laughs)
Yeah, those were fun times.
I have not played the game since then, I'll tell you that.
- [Kyle] That music.
- [Martin] Okay, this is kind of a reverse situation.
The most awful box art that I remember purchasing,
probably the first Mega Man.
But the game was solid.
So the box art was terrible,
the marketing on it was terrible,
but the game was great.
- [Jeffrey] We got another one up in the audience.
And if you have a story,
feel free to chime in, you can some free swag!
Alright, so what's your game, man?
What's your name first?
- [Pietro] My name is Pietro.
- [Jeffrey] Alright.
- [Pietro] And this one's a little bit embarrassing
but there's a game for the Nintendo DS
called Feel the Magic, which is essentially a group
of minigames but the box art is a lady in a bikini.
So 13-year old me waltzed into Gamestop,
found this game with the bikini on it,
it was only teen and I said, "Finally!"
I picked it up and it was a bunch of Wario minigames,
so that was very disappointing for me. (laughs)
- [Jeffrey] It still got you, that's awesome!
That was a good one!
If anyone else has any stories just throw a hand up,
and you can come over here.
Hey, Pietro, come over here
and get a game or a shirt or something, man.
This is classic stuff, though.
Alright, so, go ahead, Kyle.
- [Kyle] Yeah, the Mega Man was great.
But Mega Man 2 also was very bizarre.
- [Jeffrey] It was like they gave the artist
the freedom to do whatever they want.
They said, "Hey, there's this game about
"a robot cop that's gonna be fighting off robots
"or something."
And then they drew Mega Man with the little gun
in the first one.
In the second one, they still didn't get it right.
Like they had a guy who never played a video game
in his life.
He's just a good artist who started drawing
for this classic.
Yeah.
- [Kyle] Share your first gaming story.
- [Jeffrey] So share your first time that you played
a video game when video games connected with you.
Just want a story here.
Gonna ask no questions, just a story.
Anybody have anything?
There's some free swag.
No?
I can go into mine.
Alright.
So video game started off with me,
I actually had an Atari 2600 handed over from my brother
and my sister.
Had Pitfall on it, Pole Position,
all those classics.
We actually had an Atari Super Pong in my household, too.
And we went over to the Commodore 64 as well.
My brother actually saved up half for the computer,
and then my parents paid for the other half,
'cause he got it for educational uses, right?
'Cause the Commodore is an educational machine.
And we just played games on it tons.
That's when the first time when you saw
the emulation and bootlegging scenes start.
'Cause somehow, without the internet,
we had hundreds and hundreds of copies of games
for the Commodore 64 in my household.
I don't know how that happened.
That trading scene must have been insane to reach,
Podunk, Indiana where I'm from originally.
And they had a bunch of different versions.
I think we owned three actual Commodore games.
Yeah, we had a big case filled with them.
And it's insane because now I go
and I collect the box art version of the Commodore games,
'cause they're awesome, the big boxes and everything?
They're great!
And they're super hard to find, too, now
for the Commodore versions
'cause it's hard to find PC boxes now.
The Commodore ones are crazy.
Like, as I grew up,
my first system that I got as a kid,
as a gift was the NES.
And I got a hand-me-down NES
from my sister who didn't play it.
And I got it with Ghosts n' Goblins,
T&C Surf Designs and Mario that time.
And that always runs rampant,
and that's why my first book was The Complete NES,
'cause I collect the NES,
that's why I'm apart of the Nintendo Age,
that's my most nostalgia.
It's for the Nintendo,
even though I played all the video games,
Nintendo is what strikes with me.
I mean, that's always been what it is.
And I started in 1990 for my Culture Chronicles
because that's when I really started
to come of age as a gamer.
I started to get pretty good at games,
started to play 'em, started to rent them more.
Having those stories of Mario 3 and all the different shows
that came up that corresponded.
That's what really hit me with gamer stories, man.
But that's me,
so what are yours, Kyle?
And if anybody has a story, raise your hand up,
alright, we got one!
We'll get them first, Kyle, sorry!
Alright, what's your name?
- [Zack] My name is Zack.
So, it's not a console but I had an old TRS-80,
when I was a kid about four or five years old,
and there was a game called Football.
And since I liked winning when I was a kid,
I would always play two-player with myself only.
And what you would do is you'd pick the offensive
and defensive play.
Well, I knew the combination of offense and defense
to make the offense fumble every time,
or to get a touchdown every time as the offense.
So I would do that over and over and over again
because I like winning.
And eventually I moved into NES,
'cause my grandma had a couple,
and my parents loved it and stuff like that.
But yeah, going back to TRS-80,
and Football and cheating.
- [Jeffrey] There's always something about
when you play a game and make it do something
that it's not supposed to do.
Like when you're playing Mario Bros.
and you jump over the World 1-2,
and you jump over and you get to that warp zone.
Doesn't feel like you're supposed to do that.
Feels like you're kinda hackin'.
And then later on they have the minus worlds
and all that, too.
But it's like it was always fun to hack around
and do stuff that you're not really supposed to do.
That's awesome story right there with the Football.
Why don't you grab, from Kyle's bag of swag.
Go ahead, Kyle.
What's your gaming story?
- [Kyle] You also mentioned shows.
Wanna hear the shows?
Like,
Captain N,
but you also had The Power Team. (laughs)
The Game Master, yup.
The cool thing about The Power Team though
is you had that footage at the end
where they show the hints and stuff.
So it was that sacred footage.
You know, you were saying save up,
spend 50 bucks and then you find out
that this game isn't so good.
- [Jeffrey] Does anybody here know what The Power Team is?
No, we got a couple no's.
So The Power Team was a Acclaim knockoff
of the Captain and the Game Master.
Everybody knows Captain N with all the Nintendo characters.
The Acclaim version, you had Bigfoot in there.
You had Kuros from Wizards & Warriors,
you had Kwirk from the Gameboy version.
The irony was that you had the guy from Video Power.
It was Johnny Arcade.
And he's in there playing the Nintendo,
and all of these characters come out of his NES.
And Kwirk, who's a Gameboy handle game,
came out of the NES as well.
There's like little hints there,
like little errors riding back in the day.
You also had Tyrone from Double Dribble,
in that one, too.
And I think there was one more character,
he's from one of the Narc.
He's one of the guys from Narc as well.
Yeah, Mr. Big was one of the bad guys.
And actually right after us,
we're gonna have Eugene Jarvis who did Narc.
So that's a classic little segue right there!
But on the (mumbles) he was classic.
- [Kyle] And then you had the rentals.
So when I started,
I got it about a year later than most people did.
From that point,
my dad who actually was a Social Studies teacher,
his students would tell him,
"You gotta get Contra, you gotta get Final Fantasy."
So, that was cool, he would come home and kinda
give me the scoop on what was a good game.
And that's kinda the thing with the rentals, too,
where our analytical minds really went to work.
With certain rentals,
why are they out every single week?
Why is Contra never in?
- [Jeffrey] It makes you want it more.
It makes you want that game more,
when you see Contra and you can't have it.
Or Mario 2 which we couldn't find at the store.
See Mario Bros. 2 and it's never in!
- [Kyle] It was so hard to find.
- [Jeffrey] Mario 2 was actually hard to find
back in the day and that's when you knew,
when you saw so many copies of Mario 3
that it is a great game.
You never saw Mario 2.
- [Kyle] Yeah.
- [Martin] I have to say, Pitfall 2 on the Atari 2600
was the first platforming game
that I really fell in love with.
It was very advanced for the hardware.
That was the style of game that I really loved
since I was a child.
So when I went into the arcade
and I play it versus Super Mario Bros,
it hit a nerve with me.
I fell in love with that game,
and didn't know there was an NES.
I was just walking through Toys R Us
with my father one day,
we were looking for Star Wars figures
and
basically,
I saw the NES and I saw the control pack,
the controllers,
and then Super Mario Bros.
And I had to have it.
He couldn't get it for me at that exact time,
but, man, Christmas came that year,
and I got NES control pack.
I still have it.
I still have it in the box with the manual and everything.
So that had a huge impact on me
when I was younger.
When I was, I think sixth or seventh grade,
I did a fanzine.
It was called the Elite Players Club.
And it was myself, Ray Price who
I ended up getting a job at EGM,
and then Paul Ojeda, who also I got a job at EGM later,
once I was established there.
I did this little fanzine on a typewriter,
and I would photocopy it,
and I had a friend who was Japanese,
and he's from Famitsu.
So I would get photocopies of games to US magazines
in my little fanzine.
And when I met the publishers of EGM,
and I showed them my little fanzine,
they were like, "You got games in your magazine
"we don't have in our magazine yet."
And that's how I pretty much got my foot in the door.
- [Jeffrey] That's awesome.
So you got your foot in the door
because they already knew that you knew
what you were talkin' about
with games because you were already doing it as a hobbyist.
- [Martin] I was only 16,
so if anyone's out there with the internet and social media,
you can do it.
You can be a part of video game journalism
and you can establish yourself by reporting and stuff,
and being unique.
Right now, Youtube channels are the big thing for the youth.
This was 25 years ago.
I was young and I was able to (mumbles) 25 years ago.
But if you're a young person
and you really love video games,
you can get into the business.
There are more avenues now than there were
back when I was a kid.
- [Jeffrey] Oh, absolutely.
I wanted a Nintendo Collectors Guide
that had pictures in it,
that way it was visually appealing to myself.
That's really the kickstarter,
and that's how this whole thing spit-balled out of control.
Like I was here two years ago just drinkin'
with the rest of the NA guys,
over in the NA room,
that's what I was doin'!
Now I'm drinkin' with the NA guys in the NA room still!
But I'm over here just do a panel, too,
and just talk about stories.
And we did the whole podcast thing,
and then it all just spit-balls out of control,
and it just like,
all you have to do is have the passion
and put force in time.
Now, was it hard?
Yeah, it's hard to do.
'Cause, I mean, I'm sittin' there spending my time,
I spend my time with my family after my job,
and then I edit till midnight or one a.m.
then I wake up and do work again.
I mean, that's what you do though,
when you're passionate about something.
You wanna make it happen.
It's craziness, man.
Craziness, but that's awesome that you were able to start
from a grassroots perspective,
that's really, really cool.
Let's see here, so, the next question,
name four suits from Super Mario Bros. 3.
I wanna hear four, it's an easy question.
Four suits from Mario 3.
Does anybody know suits from Super Mario Bros. 3.
Come on up!
Come on up.
Go ahead!
Nobody's comin' up?
Come on up!
Okay, we got the Tanooki suit,
then we got the Raccoon suit,
the shoe, what's the shoe called?
The boots, Kuribo's boots.
And then, my personal favorite, the Hammer Brothers suit.
He went obscure with Kuribo's shoe.
That deserves a second item, that was good.
And you also have the Frog suit, right?
The Fire clock, as well, yeah, yeah.
So really that keeps six.
I was only gonna go with five,
you wanna get someone else to actually get
all the good answers.
So Mario Bros. 3,
that's where we're segueing into this one.
Obviously that's the cover
of the video game Culture Chronicles,
my buddy drew that.
I keep that as a local artist.
But Mario 3 was the game when I feel like Nintendo
hit the map officially on a Pepsi level,
Michael Jordan level.
Like, they hit worldwide status at that point.
They also led 'em with the movie
that was essentially a giant commercial for Nintendo,
the Wizard?
In 1990, Wizard came to VHS, but 1989
led up to the Nintendo World Championships Tournament
as well.
It spit-balled out of control.
That's what they did.
Super Mario 3 though,
I just remembered,
the first time I watched The Wizard on VHS,
so I didn't get to go to the theaters like everybody else.
And I watched it,
and I was so confused 'cause I'm like,
"How is this kid Lucas, playin' the Nintendo,
"and he's able to find these warp whistles
"the first time he plays it?"
I'm like, I found out through,
it was somebody on the schoolhouse said,
"Hey, all you gotta do is jump on the white block,
"and you can fall through,
"and then right at the end and get a wizard,
"you won a warp whistle."
The craziest thing that I found out on my own though,
through the warp whistles,
I found out that if you use a warp whistle
on the warp whistle screen,
you go right down to world eight.
And I didn't know that back in the day.
So if you collect two warp whistles in world one,
use a warp whistle,
and use another one on the warp whistle screen
and jump right down to the final level.
And that's how you can speed run through the game
being the cheating version.
(audience chattering)
- [Martin] Mario 3 actually came out
I think, before I got the job at EGM.
Isn't it?
- [Jeffrey] Mario 3 was released in 1990.
- [Martin] 1990, so I was already there.
Okay.
- [Kyle] That was one that everybody,
who's everybody had it.
But what was great was it was so hard to find Mario 2
that I think they ordered so many more,
so many extras,
that they had tons at the store.
So I couldn't believe it still when I was riding home.
I was like, "I got me a copy."
And it was one game that everyone knew was good.
And it also spurned on a lot of other,
games with bigger sprites.
Really colorful,
like your Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu,
awesome stuff like that,
Wacky Races,
those kind of things.
Yes,
come on up!
- [Jeffrey] Alright, I wanna hear some stories!
- [Tony] My name's Tony.
You can't forget about the epic commercial
that came out for it,
where everybody's shouting Mario.
And right, before the time of internet,
that was the hype train.
- [Jeffrey] They show the whole world,
the art is based on it,
like somehow across the entire country,
there's people with Mario's face?
It was awesome.
- [Tony] This was well before the internet, of course,
kicked things off.
And that was the biggest thing that I remember
was that, along with The Wizard,
I never got to see it when it originally came out,
but that commercial alone made me want the game.
- [Jeffrey] They were able to build that game up,
like it was the biggest thing ever.
And it was an awesome game.
It's still a lot of people's favorite game of all time.
That Mario World?
They flip-flopped,
with the platform.
It's pretty crazy, though.
Really.
So, what we'll do is we'll go with another one,
you got a Mario 3 story, Martin?
Got none yet?
That's okay.
Not an issue, not an issue.
Alright.
Who can tell by Nintendo, let's veer.
What was the first pack-in title
for the Sega Genesis console?
We got one back here, come on up!
Come on up!
Gotta come on up!
(laughs)
Let's see if he has it.
I don't wanna hit the re-verb.
Here we go.
- [Audience Member] I believe that was Altered Beast.
- [Jeffrey] You are correct, sir!
Go ahead and grab some swag!
So yeah, Altered Beast was the first pack-in.
So ironic, a lot of people considered the Genesis synonymous
with Sonic the Hedgehog.
Sonic the Hedgehog actually was a release from 1991.
A couple of years after the Sega Genesis came out.
It's pretty crazy when you think about it like,
Altered Beast was,
wasn't really, if you play it right now,
it's not that great of a game to play it all the time,
over and over and over and over again.
- [Martin] Rise from your grave!
- [Jeffrey] Yes!
But, yeah, that was the thing though is that,
I remember with Altered Beast?
My parents used to go bowling back in the day,
and we would go to the bowling alley,
and they would set me with a couple quarters,
let me go play arcade games.
Altered Beast is there.
And I always remember the guy over there is like,
"Sell your soul!"
And he was like, you know what I mean, he's like,
"Your soul is mine!"
And when you would fight him,
and I remember with the arcade version,
all the voiceovers, and the Genesis did a decent job
at translating those voiceovers
in a digitalized consolized version.
It was really good.
The irony was is you play some of the other ports now
like the Famicom port?
And they're, oh my goodness, they're bad.
Really bad!
But yeah, I used to play it all the time.
So when I saw that Sega Genesis had Altered Beast,
I always thought, I thought it was really cool!
That was one of those games though
I would play the Sega Genesis at my neighbor's house.
So I always got my fix,
and it wasn't that good of a game like I needed to have it,
like a Mario World or something like that
when I was savin' up for a Super Nintendo.
It wasn't enough to veer me off,
and spend my money buying my Genesis.
But I really, really liked the game Altered Beast,
and now I go to play it,
it doesn't get my attention as much as
all the other games do.
Couldn't hold up as well.
Which one?
- [Kyle] Yeah, as far as the Altered Beast, right.
When you're a kid,
since the game has that gimmick of your guy,
gets this big arm, like steroid style,
then you finally turn into the beast,
so it's kinda cool gimmick,
I think even in the first level,
I even the last level and next to the last level,
they almost repeat the same guy?
I was kinda like, "Oh, you should have came up
"with someone new on that."
Yeah, it's just one of those gimmicky things that's fun,
but when you look back on it,
it's limited, you know, how deep you can get on it.
Yeah, it was as super important time
and as far as Altered Beast, do you have anything, John?
- [Martin] I actually saved up for my Genesis
and bought it, a launched Genesis, when it came out.
To me, Altered Beast was just a bonus.
I liked the game but it wasn't that phenomenal of a game.
I really bought the Genesis for Thunder Force 2.
Thunder Force 2, when I saw that game,
I just had to have it.
It was the first time an arcade game
was available at home,
an arcade style game that's played at home.
And then Ghouls'n Ghosts, of course,
was another phenomenal game.
- [Kyle] Yeah, Ghouls'n Ghosts was interesting,
'cause that was different on every console,
except for the super graphics Ghouls.
- [Jeffrey] Super Graphics was extremely faithful,
but the master system port for Ghouls'n Ghosts?
Yeah, so the master system port of Ghouls'n Ghosts
was different than all the other versions
because as you would do Ghouls'n Ghosts,
you would be able to collect upgrades to your armor.
And they had that green armor, right?
When you would go through the arcade version,
and Super Graphics transfer that's the Genesis version.
The master system version had a separate way
to charge your shots and it was a red armor.
It was completely different how the whole thing worked
with all the other games.
So that game is almost like a fourth version.
The Super Ghouls'n Ghosts was another different game.
And then later, they did an Ultimate Ghouls'n Ghosts,
and that's another different game.
But the Ghouls'n Ghosts on the master system
was like it's own little property,
even though it's a level-by-level,
that's one of those things where
when people would port a game to different consoles,
you would get developers that would put
their own spin on things.
So when people would do ports, it's a pretty cool thing.
And it's actually something that happens now
with people releasing home brews and things,
for current, old consoles,
putting out new games?
You have people that are porting old versions,
like a Frogger or Leisure Suit Larry,
from what certain people put out?
And like Sokoban, like box pusher games,
they put different spins on old tire properties.
That make them interesting, giving them stories and stuff.
And that's what some of those developers back in the day
would do as well.
And the irony was back then 'cause of the box art,
we just thought it was Ghouls'n Ghosts.
That's what we thought it was.
It was just Ghouls'n Ghosts
and then we don't realize until later,
now when you watch Youtube videos with reviews and things,
that, "Oh, wait!
"This was a completely different experience
"than playing the arcade!"
It's a really cool aspect
to the whole gaming collecting scene and everything,
and it gives it a different reason
to have the master system version
even if you have the Genesis version.
- [Kyle] They're all pretty valuable, too.
They've been goin' on.
But they're all great games.
Alright, next question.
- [Jeffrey] Alright, so, name a game based on the license
that is actually good.
Any license.
And explain why!
(laughs)
Eric, come on over, you can tell it!
Tell your story, man!
I love it!
Willow's a good game!
- [Brian] So, my name is Brian Douglas.
So the reason that the Willow game was one of the few
that actually had some doubt to it.
We all know most franchise games,
movie franchise games are terrible,
Willow was actually a proper RPG in the sense that
you could just play through it.
There were a lot of different places to go,
a lot of different environments,
the character development was pretty interesting,
and actually the gameplay in and of itself was fun.
I remember my folks renting it from the video store for me,
and I kept it for a solid two weeks and
told them that I had returned it,
and ran up a huge late bill. (audience laughs)
I hadn't thought about the fact that they could just
have bought it for me.
Bought it for me for a lot less than
what we paid in late rental fees.
So, just a good game.
The graphics were pretty stellar, too.
For a NES game, it was pretty solid.
That's my story, I'm stickin' to it.
- [Jeffrey] Yeah.
How would you compare the Willow Nintendo game
to the movie Willow now?
- [Brian] The game was better than the movie.
(audience laughter) That's just me, though.
- [Jeffrey] I almost think that's a movie now
that's cheesy bad, but it's good.
- [Brian] Early role for Kevin Spacey?
Was it, no, no, no.
- [Jeffrey] Kevin Pollack.
- [Brian] Kevin Pollack, right.
'Cause I met him at the Dr. Who Convention
when I was like that tall.
Yes, thank you, so much.
One too many Miller Lites.
That's why I gotta do another one.
- [Jeffrey] Well, I'm over here drinking a 16-bit
double pale ale right now.
They gave me water and I'm, "At VGBS we drink beer."
That's what we do.
Excellent, go ahead and grab something out
of the bag, man.
Appreciate the participation, yeah!
So, one of my favorite games,
and actually licensed games are synonymous with being bad,
however, when I think of good license games,
I think Disney on the NES.
The best games that were released on the NES
were released by Capcom, and the Disney games.
So you had Duck Tales, you had Rescue Rangers,
you had so many good classics
that were released that had really good game play,
like the graphics,
you had the music was stellar on those games.
- [Martin] I think the Aladdin for the Genesis.
- [Jeffrey] Oh, absolutely!
Yeah, Aladdin for the Genesis was another good one.
And even The Lion King as well on Super NES and Genesis
was a stellar port.
They were decent.
They started to get a little bit off track, I feel,
in the 16-bit when they started to hit some of the other,
like The Bonkers game, Marsupilami,
some of the random Disney afternoon cartoons
that we stopped watching by that point.
But there were so many good games released by Capcom
on the NES.
It was like ridiculousness.
- [Kyle] Yeah, they never seem to miss.
One thing about Capcom, though
is Strider is kind of unforgivable with the glitchiness,
and I actually used to love that game,
as much as I can,
but it's almost like I can't believe
that they just let that stand like that.
- [Jeffrey] So Strider, we actually did
at the VGBS Homework.
So on our podcast, we have certain episodes
that we dedicate to a homework.
So we'll play a game for an entire month, try to beat it,
and Strider was one of those games.
I had never played through NES Strider up to that point.
I've only played the arcade.
And it's a completely different game.
And we're sittin' there glitching things out
to actually progress in the level,
'cause certain enemies would re-spawn at inopportune times,
it wouldn't open up a door that we needed to get through
to get through the level.
It was one of those crazy things like
I actually realized that I didn't really care
for that game much after putting that much time into it.
Pretty cool to pick up and play it for a 15-minute,
30-minute play-through.
But we sit there trying to grind through the game,
it gets a little painful.
And I think one of our next homework assignments,
when we do Gremlins 2 on the NES?
Yeah, we got a Gremlins 2 episode.
What we try to do is we try to hit something that's awesome.
You got something?
Oh, Gremlins 2, yeah!
That's a great game and that's based on the license as well.
Some of the isometric platform is a little suspect,
it's a little bit frustrating at times
trying to move with the moving platforms,
over a black hole, abyss.
And you couldn't really judge your depth
as you would jump,
but it was really cool to play though.
I enjoyed it and,
that'd be why it's on 41-42 up on the podcast.
Something up there.
- [Martin] I'm gonna have to go with Batman for the NES,
from Sunsoft.
Yeah, that was the first licensed game
that I've really, really liked,
that captured the feel of the movie.
Interesting story.
The original version of it had artwork
that was based on the comic book.
And then they switched out the graphics
with the digitized graphics from the movie later.
So the one we played at the EGM office was actually
more based on the comic book.
And I think there's a round floating around
of that prototype.
- [Jeffrey] That's pretty cool.
So there's a prototype of the original graphics
for Batman floating around.
So I don't think I've played that one.
It'll be extreme to hunt around and see.
That's really cool.
Alright, we got a story.
Alright, go ahead, what's your name?
- [Robin] My name is Robin Paul.
I'm drinkin' some Blue Moon that somebody gave to me
because, I mean, otherwise I would probably choose
something else.
But anyway, my thing is,
you guys were talking about Capcom,
one of the best license job of Capcom
is what they did with the Marvel series
and their fighting games,
starting with X-Men: Children of the Atom,
Marvel Superheroes, all the way up to Marvel 2 and 3.
These treatments of the Marvel characters were almost better
than the actual comics themselves.
Like Wolverine's voices and Venom and the characterizations
between the two players and stuff, it was really great.
My favorite is Marvel Superheroes,
'cause it really felt like a comic book.
And as you were fighting,
infinity gems would pop up and everything like that,
and the final boss was Stanos and it was really cheap
and it's really good.
They did those characters right.
- [Jeffrey] What end boss in the old fighting games
wasn't cheap?
I mean, you have played versus Shao Kahn in Mortal Kombat 2?
- [Robin] Yeah, all of them were bad.
Magneto was probably the worst in Children of the Atom,
but yeah, they were all bad.
- [Jeffrey] Yeah, that was awesome though.
Go and get some swag.
Yeah, yeah!
So we have about 10 minutes left in the panel.
I would like to wrap up,
but if we have a little bit of time after we wrap up,
we'll do another question, give away some more stuff.
We got some shirts and things still.
So, basically do a little plug.
That's Snoopy released in 1990,
so it's relevant for the panel!
Like the Gamekeeper game earlier. (laughs)
Is Snoopy a good game though?
What do you think?
- [Kyle] Probably not.
- [Jeffrey] It's a silly sport spectacular, though.
Harry Pizza and go like that with the pizza. (laughs)
- [Audience Member] They all came out in the 90s arcades.
- [Jeffrey] As all classics,
the arcade scene was another awesome version.
So to wrap things up though,
So I'm Jeffrey Wittenhagen again.
I have a book, The Complete NES,
it's an NES collector's guide.
Basically I kept it minimalistic style so it's easy to read,
there's some check boxes if you collect the box manual
and the cartridges so it hits every aspect of collecting.
It's only licensed,
there's gonna be a follow-up
with the rest of the game's missing.
Just be too big of a book for any coffee table
at that point.
The Video Game Culture Chronicles,
I'm doing at Petreon a book subscription.
It is based on per book.
So when you back it,
you get it at cost.
I'm covering, I'm starting with 1990,
and then I'm progressing to 91, 92,
I'm covering every single game for any system,
including arcades, pinball, everything that was released.
So the guy that's following us over here, Eugene Jarvis,
you can SmashTV, there's a SmashTV article right in here,
including Narc from the NES was also released in 1990.
So we got some aspects of every little part of gaming.
No matter what you collect, I'm trying to hit it.
And I also did this one a little bit more artistically.
So I did a little bit more graphically pleasing to the eye
for this book.
And I do have a couple copies up for auction.
It's gonna be in the Nintendo Age Room.
And basically it's a silent auction.
You go there, write a bid, you can get a copy.
I have four copies, they're all numbered and everything.
And you get a copy early.
Early bird before I do a real quick run.
And I do have books for sale.
I'm at the entrance to the seller tent on the right side.
Hardcover for 70 bucks, 30 bucks for the paperback.
I got a bunch of them.
So you guys can go get one, I'll sign them for you.
I do gold signature for the convention
so that way if I ever see them again, I'll know,
"Oh yeah, I was at a convention there."
It's pretty cool.
I know Martin over here.
- [Martin] Thank you.
I'm back in the publishing game.
We're starting something a little different.
It's called Little Player Magazine.
It is a magazine for five to 11-year olds, or older.
And we only cover E-rated titles.
There are no teen or mature video games in this magazine
and it's appropriate for younger players
or older players who wanna collect a magazine again.
- [Jeffrey] Yeah, so to me, Little Player was a good thing.
I know you kick started it before
and what he's doing now is he's marketing it
to schools and things like that.
I have a four-year old daughter,
and I'm gonna teach her how to read,
and she's gonna be able to read this,
and not see a bunch of violence like she's gonna see
in a normal, current gen, (mumbles) style magazine.
I don't really want her subjected to that.
If I can avoid it and she can read something like this,
I know he has some Meebos in there,
and he's covered things like Minecraft,
so it's stuff that the kids really like.
It's a really cool progression.
And I really support that.
I'm actually gonna do some articles.
I'm gonna do video games then and now
in the book starting issue two.
I'm gonna take something that has a release coming up,
and I'm gonna do the classic version.
So there's a new Mario game coming out,
I'm gonna cover some of the old Mario games in there
to give kids a retro aspect of things.
Because as we know,
kids nowadays are startin' to drive up our collectors market
because the teenagers are getting into NES and stuff
because it's really cool and they learn about it.
And that's a really awesome aspect.
And I like that and I wanted
you know, have them learn that at an earlier age.
It's a pretty cool thing to me.
Kyle, what have you got going on with VGBS?
Kyle does all of our editing.
So he has a few episodes comin' up.
What have you got comin' up on the podcast, man?
- [Kyle] Yeah, we got about seven more episodes.
We're into Gremlins, we got Mario RPG,
we're hoping to do some kind of Zelda extravaganza,
spectacular something.
Yeah.
So, stay tuned!
- [Jeffrey] Yeah, the other side of the things is
we do other podcasts.
It's called the Phobos Militia,
and we cover all different aspects.
So we did a Star Wars Episode 7 podcast,
we've done a,
what are some of the other ones we did?
- [Kyle] We did a Jedi Outcast one,
just anything that we're into, really.
- [Jeffrey] We also did a WWF
and what's wrong with wrestling podcast right now.
Like wrestling's getting a little crazy.
Oh, absolutely.
And the thing is, when we record,
we record hours upon hours in one setting.
And Kyle has to break it all out painstakingly.
Basically, we have a lot of recorded information goin' out.
So, does anybody have any gaming stories?
We got five minutes.
Anybody who tells us a gaming story gets a swag,
come on up.
And also, our magazines and books will be here,
so you can come check it out after the panel,
until they kick us off of here and Eugene needs to come up
or whatever.
Come on, check out our stuff.
- [Tony] Hey, this is Tony again.
I was gonna ask you a question
but I'm gonna lead into it first.
I was gonna ask if you guys had any long distance,
kind of video game stories as far as how long
you might have played one for an extended period of time.
Mine, I remember trying to beat with my friend, Josh,
Dragon Warrior in an entire night,
we got about probably three quarters of the way through
until the night right near the very end
where you end up getting the flame sword
for Erdrick's armor.
And we got right up to them.
We ended up hitting that brick wall right at the end.
'Cause he would just totally kick you around
if you weren't leveled correctly.
So, that's my story.
I was wondering if you guys had anything similar to that.
- [Jeffrey] Stories is what we do.
So for mine, I'm gonna keep it short
so it connects Kyle has one as well.
So, The Legend of Zelda.
Back in the day, I actually didn't own The Legend of Zelda.
And I would rent it on the weekend.
When I would rent, I would only get to get one game.
So my game this weekend was The Legend of Zelda.
So I'm playing it,
and I didn't sleep for two days playing
through The Legend of Zelda
'cause I didn't have a walkthrough.
I was playin' and explorin' it just like you're meant to
for the first time.
So I go through,
I had no sleep, I'm tired, I'm going through fighting.
I finally get to Ganon, he gets revealed,
and the NES starts flashing. (laughs)
So, I go, I quickly power it back on,
goes there, all the scenes are wiped,
and so I had no save, I had to restart,
and by then it was turning into the morning,
so I actually didn't have enough time,
I had to take the game back for the weekend.
I was so angry that I didn't play The Legend of Zelda
for five years after that,
until I started to play it one week to the past.
I avoided Zelda 2, I was so angry about The Legend of Zelda.
Now that's my favorite series of all time.
But back then, I just had this,
I was so mad that it did that to me.
It was like fate destroyed my progress.
- [Kyle] Yeah, with no death runs,
as far as that goes,
I remember Gradius.
To no death, I think I've practiced that about two hours
everyday for a month,
until there was a point where I just memorized
every single little point.
I think that's the big thing about those games,
you have to put in the time,
and the rewards are really awesome.
The only thing is,
you almost never wanna pick up that game again
because all you've done is just play it
over and over and over and over.
And it's like, "I'm spent, I'm pretty good."
So, yeah, that's mine.
- [Martin] This one takes us back to the days
when you got to put a password in to continue your game?
Not Metroid but Metal Gear.
And,
man.
Got almost to the end of the game in one sitting,
and then took the password down,
and I guess I took it down wrong, right?
I switched out the O to 0.
And when I was a kid, I didn't know any better.
So I got really frustrated at the game,
and I just put in any kind of code.
Just random letters and numbers.
I ended up at the last boss.
Randomly.
- [Kyle] That's awesome.
That's the weird thing about the passwords
because some games use upper case, lower case,
there were numbers.
And you have to just write it down,
where nowadays, you can just take a picture
with your phone camera, you're good.
So, wow, how things have changed.
- [Jeffrey] How things have progressed.
So we're probably getting a dirty look over here
from the guy we're goin', we're almost goin' over in time,
that's what we do.
So we are VGBS Gaming Podcast.
Thanks, Martin for comin' on.
- [Martin] Thank you for havin' me.
- [Jeffrey] So we appreciate it,
bein' able to come on as our expert panelist.
We do that all the time,
we don't announce things,
then all of a sudden we have people on the podcast,
that's what we do.
You can get us on iTunes.
We're also at hagensalley.wordpress.com,
I have business cards out here, so does Martin.
Please check out our books if you're interested at all.
We appreciate it, we do everything grassroots,
we're not doing anything super commercialized,
so we appreciate it, thanks very much!
(audience applause)
(upbeat techno music)
For more infomation >> Người Đứng Sau - Hz Nguyễn [Video lyrics] - Duration: 3:22. 
For more infomation >> Friday Morning Video Forecast 7-27 - Duration: 4:27. 
For more infomation >> The Kolors e J-Ax nel video 'Come le onde' in versione bambini - Duration: 2:04. 
For more infomation >> Video Tour de France - 19ème étape : 17 hommes à l'avant | 27 juillet 2018 - Duration: 9:09. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét