The finest minds in video games assess their feelings on the current state of the medium, how best to scam gamers, and Midwest Zelda. Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, and Brandon Sheffield. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.
in terms of simply being exhaustive, Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition stands out for covering every conceivable base: all the official commercial episodes, a new episode, a GZDoom fan TC, a ton of restored/unfinished content including character sprites newly digitised from the original performance capture footage, toggles and modifiers for any and every fringe detail and a modern level editor, all presented via a modern wrapper that trumps the many existing but very temperamental source ports. There have been so many commercial reissues over the last ~ 10 years that I wouldn’t dare declare this one to be The most comprehensive, but it’s certainly at the top of my list (plus I grade on a curve: the more dubious the game, the more impressed I am when folks go overkill.)
in terms of the closed-ecosystem world interacting with the open-platform space: Capcom Arcade Stadium was notable for being the first big instance of a storied JP catalogue holder being like “yeah we’re using MAME, straight up” (not that the results were optimal, necessarily); more smaller western publishers, and even Sony, have uttilised existing emulators to reissue all manner of games (again, not always to adequate effect); the wider adoption of proven public options for elements like CRT shaders; and perhaps most notably, Digital Eclipse using Atari 50 as an excuse to write a Jaguar emulator that they later made public
in terms of negotiating copyright law: several Japanese reissues have benefited from provisions that allow parties to commercially reissue abandonware, essentially, for which they can make a sufficient claim, the first big instance being certain games on the Shonen Jump Famicom Mini, and more recent examples being certain games sourced for the X68000Z, specific home versions of certain arcade games, etc.
in terms of presenting a “bad” game with some degree of reverence, rather than chasing irony-bucks or simply not giving a shit: City Connection’s very sincere reissue of the notoriously buggy and inscrutable Hoshi wo Miru Hito
the absolute opposite of this: Qubyte & Piko Interactive’s “Thunderbolt Collection”, a two-pack of unlicensed Taiwanese STG that are plainly terrible, packed with stolen assets (one’s literally a ROM hack of a certain Namco game) and certainly could have been contextualised within the history of unlicensed games and the narrow-sighted hegemony that dictates the history of certain software libraries, but is instead presented with zero context beyond a broken-English sentence or two about them being “first time in the Eastern”(?)
in terms of forcing laypersons to reconsider what they want or mean when they talk about “preservation”: Piko Interactive’s “Hoops! Shut Up And Jam”, a no-effort rebranding of Charles Barkley Shut Up and Jam! that replaces all images of Barkley with the first shutterstock hit for “angry black man” (I am lying; aint nobody reconsidering shit and most discussions around “preservation” begin and end with 'can I buy this on my Switch")
my biggest disappoinment/missed opportunity: Tetris Forever, a package that sought to perpetuate the corporate mythology of Henk Rogers over all else, and thoroughly disavowed me of the hope that Digital Eclipse has risen above such dreck
I used to think the uptick in commercial reissues would both encourage higher-quality commercial works and cultivate a more discerning audience, but at this point I just have to accept that there’s way more overlap in the “wants to play weird old crap” and “absolutely will not lift a finger to play anything they can’t buy on a current console” than I ever imagined.
Still listening but I had to run in and express “missing tooth with no dental insurance” solidarity with Brandon Sheffield. It’s rough out there.
Great episode! Catherine sure knows how to ask questions.
So some loose thoughts I had after listening.
For Frank’s comment about how 10 years ago things just didn’t seem interesting, I think the indie scene has really evolved to be more prevalent, which makes games as a whole seem more interesting. I think playing on PC gives you faster insight into what indie games there are (as I’ve seen games release on PC first as opposed to consoles).
To add on to the comment about double-A games being more of a thing now, that’s definitely true. There’s been a good amount of games from big publishers that are successful and stray away from the AAA style games they had been pushing. Two immediate examples include Hi-Fi Rush and Helldivers (the original). Both aren’t the AAA game experience or style, but came from big publishers and were quite successful. (Also Helldivers 2 is definitely AAA in style and budget and it’s a great game.)
Switching topics, at 32:16 Brandon mentions Alex Kidd’s hamburger as opposed to onigiri. Sorry, but I believe you mean donuts?
Lastly, I found it interesting how long Catherine’s first question went on without any credit spent. Feel like there’s some Catherine favoritism going on…
Oh I forgot to put in my two cents on the Snake Oil question.
The answer about it cooling down your PC was perfect. I think we could add in some other things such as:
Better controller grip
Deodorant alternative
Energy Drink (it’s just colored water)
The question also made me wonder: What are some examples of major gaming companies (either in the industry or related to it) selling snake oil? I think one is the original Wii motion control claims, especially around Twilight Princess. Nintendo’s claims on what it did definitely didn’t line up to what happened in practice. I think the Wii Motion+ resolved that, but for the first few years of the Wii, the motion controls felt like snake oil.
The way I feel about video games right now is that I’m going to have to try to not care about new ones for a while. As a non-American person living elsewhere on planet earth in early 2025 I’m going to spend the next four (…?) years trying to avoid putting any of my money into the USA’s economy. As far as games are concerned, this means avoiding any made in America, or published by American companies, or sold through American-owned digital storefronts. This is obviously not going to be 100% successful, and some of my money is going to end up going in that direction whether I like it or not, but as with all boycotts trying is better than not trying. I just want to avoid putting any extra money in that team’s pocket right now.
So I’m going to spend a few years playing old games, hoping the industry and American people I like in there are still around in a few years, at which point I’ll have a bunch of games (and movies, and snacks) to catch up on.
