Maybe this doesn’t count as recent, but, as someone who only came on board in 2020 or 2021 after the revival, I did listen from Episode #1 up to the revival a few years back.
Even if I fully understand why Alex Jaffe, someone directly involved, would vociferously disagree for reasons not even related to the occasional problematic word choices or conversations1 that would be embarrassing for anyone to have such things remain in the public record (like pacing or audio quality or tone), I think they certainly have entertainment and/or historical value for anyone listening actively to the podcast today.
I agree with @wickedcestus and approached it and experienced it much like how I engage with a lot of retro games. I think the original run of the show is interesting and amusing as a historical record of conversations about videogames from that time period, from people who were more thoughtful, insightful, and worldly than, without getting too sappy in complimenting the host and panelists of the Insert Credit show, a whole lot of people with public platforms, within videogames but even just kinda in general.
Are the pre-revival episodes essential? On a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is that only the most desperate fans with a completionism complex should ever subject themselves to it, and 10 is that every human alive with even a dash of a passing interest in it would have their lives further enriched by listening, and 5 is, like, you can expect that if you like the show now you’ll like the pre-revival show a precisely equivalent amount, the pre-revival episodes probably range from, like, idk, a 3.5 or a 4, maybe? Maybe a few stinkers dip to the 2.5-3.5 range.
1
For those not curious enough to listen yourselves, it’s nothing all that scandalous, so mild as to not even stick in my mind enough to remember anything specific. Maybe I’d put it at the level of an eyebrow raise and then getting to have a slightly sardonic chuckle at the expense of the speaker for being a goober like a decade ago, while then also reflecting on how, most likely, you were also a goober during that time in your life, and while you don’t regret the chuckle, you also affirm to yourself that it should be the one who is without sin to cast the first stone, even if you have long moved out of your glass house.
Just, you know, little affirmations that it’s fun to grow and change as a person!
