It may take us six months, but we eventually hit you back with a show…!
When we realized (upon gorging on pizza and beer) that the core group was actually all together at the same time and had a free evening, we decided we may as well just go ahead and record a show! Episode nine of the podcast is the embodiment of everything the show aims to be — a bunch of friends sitting around pontificating about video games. Sometimes we say stupid things and sometimes we say brilliant things, but the end result is a good time, and hopefully with a few guys you want to hear from.
Andrew told us about playing everything from DJ Hero and Civilization IV. Jeff has been playing everything from Angry Birds to Boom Blox. Mike has been playing everything from Heavenly Sword to Final Fantasy 1. You all had e-mails with some top ten lists, and questions about everything ranging from English translation ambivalence to relationship advice.
For your amazing convenience, here are some of the iPhone and PC games we spoke about during the show, as well as one article:
Special thanks to all the folks who hung out with us the other night during the live recording of the episode! After you listen to the show to let us know what you think (and chime in on any of the opinions or questions), let us know how you best want to be notified about new posts and live recordings. Does the site warrant its own Twitter feed? A Facebook fan page? What do you think?
Enjoy! Hopefully we’ll see you again sooner than six months’ time! Expect some blog posts from all of us in the meantime, of course!
Can you believe it’s been ten years? Neither can we.
Marking the system’s tenth anniversary, we are all incredibly happy to bring you a new podcast episode looking back on the little system that could… well, it couldn’t in the end, but it sure did its best. We will probably be busy playing The Beatles: Rock Band tonight, but it makes sense to light a candle to remember the Sega Dreamcast. In this case, the “candle” is a new podcast episode. Work with me here, folks.
Our buddy Bryce was aching to join us for this one, but although he couldn’t make it, prior guest Meri stepped up to fill in. The usual cast of Mike, Andrew, and Jeff fleshes out the cast to talk a little Dreamcast. What made it so special of a system? How was the launch compared to prior and more recent hardware launches? How did the games compare to others of the time? Which still hold up to this day, if any?
With so many games released, it would be impossible to cover them all. None-the-less, we feel we did the system justice in our conversation, and round it all out with our Top 10 Dreamcast Games. You can read it now if you want, but it’s way more fun not to spoil it for yourself!
A couple extra notes:
- No, Soul Calibur in the arcade did not run on the Naomi hardware (as much as we may have indirectly said it did). It ran on the System 12 board, which was essentially a beefed-up PlayStation.
- Never see the NiGHTS analog controller for the Saturn before? Here is the Japanese controller next to the American Dreamcast controller. Unless you’re blind, the relation should be quite clear.
- Each of us still has a Dreamcast hooked up somewhere. Here’s my little buddy, right next to his daddy.
Thanks go out to everyone who joined us for the live recording, and even more thanks to all of you sticking it out with us and patiently waiting for another podcast episode! Hopefully the couple blog posts every now and then are keeping you busy! Enjoy!
Hey, lookie here. It’s a podcast episode! That’s right, we finally got off our butts for the first time since February to record a show. We had a whole slew of ideas kicking around, but ultimately decided to discuss how online services for consoles have really changed the playing field. Whether it’s exclusive demos, downloadable content, further making magazines irrelevant… services like Xbox Live and PlayStation Network (and perhaps to a lesser extent WiiConnect24 and Nintendo’s Wi-Fi connection) have created an entirely new vocabulary gamers must be familiar with just to exist these days.
There was just so much content cover, we didn’t even get around to discussing things like the reliability of services (PSN run slow for anyone else?), paying for access and the future of paid services (Gold, anyone?)… and on and on and on.
We were happy to bring Meri on to shoot the shit with us this episode, and can’t wait to have her on in the future, again. In addition to talking about the games we’ve been playing and our main topic, we also gave our Top 10 Console Download Games.
As always, big special thanks to everyone out there sticking with us while waiting for a new episode by contributing your responses on the blog posts and continuing to drop us a line. Whether it’s your own Top 10 Games or a question for us, we would love to hear from you.
The three of us got together this weekend and recorded episode six of the show, had a blast doing it, and are extremely happy to bring it to you so quickly. We are easing our way back into a normal schedule, and while we don’t have a standard Top 10 list this episode… it ended up being a normal length, anyway!
Since people seem to agree that talking about the games we have recently been playing is an integral and interesting part of the show, we definitely kept it in there. We have some pretty diverse gaming experience going on with Jeff focusing on the iPhone, Andrew dabbling with some sports games, and Mike playing a few games of yesteryear. For our topic portion, we decided to turn the previous discussion on its head and talk about the new games we played in 2008. We concluded the show picking our favorite game(s) of the year, and gear up for another batch of blog entries and podcast episodes coming your way.
Big special thanks to everyone out there sticking with us while waiting for a new episode by contributing your responses on the blog posts and continuing to drop us a line.
Conversation 006: We're Back With A Discussion Of The Games We Played In 2008[ 2:12:51 ]Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
It came a little later in the month than anticipated, but hey… everyone’s got busy lives going on right now. Thankfully we were all able to get together and record a great episode, including our buddy Bryce, who’s back once again to shoot the shiz with us.
This time around we had a nice long discussion about all the games we’ve been playing (especially Andrew, who seems to have become a different man). Phones, handhelds, last-gen, current-gen, PCs… we have it all covered. We moved into our discussion about crossover games, and specifically why and how they are created. Is it a simple money-making machine? Is it beneficial to all parties involved? Do they get better over time? We finished up with a very fitting Top 10 list: the Top 10 Special Guest Appearances. Not specifically from crossover games, these characters took a special role in the games they did a guest stint in, and they are all memorable in their own ways.
We’ll hit you back again soon with some regular blog entries. In the meantime, enjoy the show, and let us know what you think about everything! We have big plans for the site (including blog entries, podcasts, design, community, etc.), and we’re thrilled to have you along for the ride.
Conversation 005: Crossover Games and Our Top 10 Special Guest Appearances[ 2:36:47 ]Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
It’s that time of the month, again! We’re pretty much on-schedule, and here to hit you back with another podcast episode.
Since I’m getting married next week, and therefore all parties involved are pretty busy right now and will be out of town (Hell, Jeff’s down in Virginia as I type this for AnimeUSA), we had to decide what we were actually going to do for a podcast episode this month. Would we just do a cheap cop-out episode? Would we record anything? You can’t do nothing for an episode, and you can’t do a clip-show after only three episodes!
What we decided to do was have a split show. The first part is going to be as-per-the-norm, with the regular intros and talking about what we’re playing right now (along with any fun stories to be shared). We also wanted to address some of the feedback we’ve been getting (thanks for all the blog comments and e-mails, everyone!), so we hit up one e-mail and gave some suggestions based on their questions.
The “conversation” for this episode, however, is actually a topic portion of my main show, Daizenshuu EX, from nearly two years ago (January 2007). In it, we all talked about old video game magazines (specifically EGM from the early-to-mid-1990s) and their coverage of import video games. There was (obviously) a huge DragonBall slant to the discussion, but it’s actually general enough that it makes a lot of sense over here in the vgconvos style. I think you’ll all find it incredibly interesting! The only downside is that I guess this was recorded before I got the new mixer and mics, so the sound quality is quite a bit different than you may be used to. I re-balanced it, though, so it should be slightly better than it was two years ago.
You may also want to check out the page I set up back when we first recorded the episode which showcases a whole crap-ton of scans from those magazines. There’s stuff in there ranging from the very first issue of Nintendo Power (July/August 1988) up through stuff in 1997.
So there you have it! Next time you hear from me on the show I’ll be a married Mike… which isn’t all that different from how it is around here right now, except that it’ll be legal on a piece of paper! Sweet! Hopefully Jeff and Andrew can keep things going with some regular blog entries over the next couple weeks. Catch you later, everyone!
Conversation 004: What's Going On Right Now and An Old Discussion About Video Game Magazines and Import Game Coverage[ 1:20:00 ]Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Here we are with episode three of the podcast! It’s somewhat strange that episode two went up right before an anime convention, and here we are ready to take off to Anime Weekend Atlanta this week and the podcast is done…
This time around we wanted to talk about peripherals and peripheral-based gaming. Whether it’s the NES Zapper or even all the way through today with the various music games, peripherals have certainly evolved over time. What were some of our favorite ones, and how did they change the industry (if at all)?
In addition to all that, be sure to also read along with our Top 10 Peripheral-Based Games. It’s an interesting list, and probably includes a couple games you had either forgotten about, or WANTED to forget about!
We brought on our buddy Bryce this show to talk things out with us. He’s actually over at Otaku Generation every week doing that podcast, so if you like what he has to say, be sure to check him out over there. We’ll definitely have him back on in the future.
That’s it for us this time around. I’ve personally got a wedding to attend next month (that being my own), so we’ll try to figure out exactly how we’re going to handle the next episode. Maybe it’ll be a short episode, maybe it’ll be even longer… who knows?! Until then, enjoy this episode, and we’ll catch you soon for some more regular blog posts.
Conversation 003: Peripherals & The Top Ten Peripheral-Based Games[ 2:22:48 ]Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
I told you I’d get this done before Otakon! OK, so we’re leaving for the convention later today, but that’s still on time…
That’s right, the second episode of our show is all up and ready for listening. We had an awesome time with this one, and I think that’s reflected in the content of the show. This month we took a look at backwards compatibility: what is it, how does it affect us as gamers, and where on Earth is is heading? We go all the way from the very beginning of console gaming, up through today and various, confusing SKUs that have either full, half, or no backwards compatibility what-so-ever.
In addition to that, you’ll hear a little bit about some updates in our gaming lives (new systems, beaten games, etc.), as well as our Top 10 list… The Top 10 Games We’ve Never Played. That’s right… after trying to establish some credibility in the first episode, we’re completely destroying all chances of that with this list.
Enjoy! See you down in Baltimore, or see you next month on the show!
(I owe you guys the top ten list of the PS2 games I own and have never played… that’ll come soon! Don’t worry!)
Conversation 002: Backwards Compatibility & The Top Ten Games We've Never Played[ 1:46:38 ]Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
We have finally done it! The first episode of our podcast is available for download!
While we apologize in advance for some of the IE-only display problems, we simply could not wait on debuting the show any longer. Some random pages may also be found in a state of near-completion. Myself, Jeff, and Andrew have been really excited about doing this for so many months. We have these types of conversations all of the time, and it made such perfect sense to turn it into a new podcast series.
Oh, right… hello, there!
My name is Mike. I typcially go by “VegettoEX” on these here intartubez. My main podcasting gig is actually over at a DragonBall website that I have been running for over a decade. Jeff comes to us from around the corner from me, but also from guest appearances on my show, as well as his own indie-music podcast. Andrew comes to us from many years of chillaxing with video games throughout high school, college, and our post-educational adult lives.
With this first episode, we do some additional introductions (covering all sorts of aspects such as current gaming, consoles owned over the years, and gaming habits and their evolutions), as well as go over our “Mutual Top 10 Games”. What does this mean, you ask? The three of us came up with our own, individual lists of our favorite games. We came together not knowing what the others listed, and fought long and hard until we were both (a) exhausted, and (b) satisfied with the result. You can read all of our individual lists (as well as the mutual list) right here on the site, an added bonus for checking us out.
Until the podcast shows up in the iTunes store, you can see other subscription methods on the “Podcasts” page, and can also just subscribe to the general feed of the site:
We thank you for waiting so patiently for this episode to come out. We are psyched to have you with us, and we will work hard on making future episodes as engaging as they can be. Drop us a line; we can’t wait to hear from you.
Conversation 009: Shooting the Shit and E-mails: (Download MP3)
About "Video Game Conversations"
We are just another blog and podcast about video games. What makes us different, though? We are not 12 years old, do not necessarily have the same "gamer interests" most people think of, do not even necessarily have the time to be playing these games in the first place... but have a ton of fun doing it, anyway.
