Ep. 210 - Mario’s Big Spaghetti Time, with Jenna Stoeber
Writer and Video Producer for Polygon Jenna Stoeber joins the panel to litigate whether P.T. is a complete game, milking for sport, and Zapdouglas. Original music by Kurt Feldman.
Questions this week:
K Thor Jensen asks: does your inventory management system reflect your real-world inventory management style? (04:56)
What is the most incorrect prediction about video games you’ve ever heard or made? (10:25)
What video game series should be adapted to young adult novels? (15:35)
Which dormant video game series with three or more entries ended on the highest note? (19:41)
What twitter account would you start to influence a trend in video game development, a la Can You Pet The Dog? (24:32)
Dirtbag MVB asks: What are some good games made from reused assets? (30:09)
What’s some of the juiciest drama you’ve seen in a video game community or message board? (35:16)
What songs not written for video games do you associate with video games? (39:55)
How do you make failure in video games fun? (45:28)
What is the Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho of video games? (50:34)
Recommendations: Frank: The Ink Spots baby, take Frank’s file boxes Jenna: Inscryption Brandon: Get a buyout from your landlord if you’re moving out of a rent-controlled apartment
I‘m having a hard time thinking of a fun little detail in video games I’d want to try and influence with a Twitter account. But I did decide that if I wanted to do a Twitter about whether a given game gives you the ability to fly, I would make my avatar a picture of Kurtwood Smith in Robocop, and the account would be called “Can you fly, Bobby?”
I've always kind of understood the big thing in Psycho to be the way they make you think Janet Leigh is going to be the protagonist and then she gets killed halfway through, in which case the answer might be Metal Gear Solid 2. HOWEVER, Psycho is also widely believed to be the very first American film in which a toilet can be seen onscreen, and also the first film in which we can hear the sound of someone flushing a toilet. Quick, what was the first video game to feature a toilet?!
I’m not sure if it is most incorrect, but Dennis Dyack claiming back in 2007 that by “the next round of hardware” we will be in the One Console Future is at least in the running.
My joke answer would be that John Romero did not infact end up making me his bitch.
Sort of in response to the worst prediction question and also the forums drama question (but also because I want an excuse to bring it up): I‘ve spoken to multiple STG dorks over the last little while who seem to hold a grudge with Brandon over some IC article he wrote twenty years ago about a certain Cave game, and perhaps I shouldn’t be shocked that people are capable of holding onto such petty grievances for so long, but I was.
My response to the music question would be the entire Hotline Miami soundtrack, which is indelibly linked with that game, even if all the songs technically pre-existed (and inspired) the game.
Another forum I'm on does a periodic game music tournament, and I was sad to find that when we got to the 2009-2012 era, Hotline Miami's tracks were largely ineligible due to this technicality.
Also, I obviously don't want anyone actually posting the thing itself, but is there some context for the "right-wing themed let's go [indeterminate noun]" Jaffe mentioned as annoying Brandon? I'm not a Twitter person, so I have no idea what they were referring to.
Wait so was the ending of the making failure fun question a deliberate misdirection from the Ziggurat buzzer or was that just miscommunication leading to the discussion changing topic right before the buzzer was about to play
