I enjoyed creating this episode, which gave me the excuse to finally play Monster Party. It's pretty good! This is not a game that I went into blinded by nostalgia, so the fact that I enjoyed it (except for the accidental "gotcha" in the penultimate stage) speaks well to its fundamental quality.
I did enjoy playing Street Co...
2024-01-31 13:15:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Another 4K LaserDisc rip, this time of the Sega Taiken Special disc that featured Galaxy Force front-and-center. It also included the same Out Run material that I have on something like three other VHS tapes. Recycling was big business in the ’80s, I guess.
Once again, this is another case of me doing something...
2024-01-27 13:13:57 +0000 UTC View PostHere's a look at what absolutely HAS to be the world's first 4K capture of game footage from a composite-modded Casio PV-1000.
The last of the equipment I need to put together a brief bonus video series on the PV-1000 arrived yesterday. I don't think I'm going to be able to knock out the first episode by the end of the month, but stick aro...
2024-01-26 12:40:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Man, what's up with all these long videos lately? I try to target 10 minutes as my ideal length, but just look at this mess. Stupid NES publishers, releasing games that generate interesting commentary.
Anyway, Hydlide is another one of those NES carts that kind of sucks, but in an interesting way. In this case, it fails as an NES ...
2024-01-24 12:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Another LaserDisc for you. Packed with all kinds of game-breaking exploits as punk teenagers absolutely humble some of the most challenging games of all time. Once again, in 4K. I love that these LaserDiscs existed. Bubble-era Japan was out of control.
I hope to have a proper monthly bonus episode for you next weekend. I've been held up by...
2024-01-20 06:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
It's a video game retrospective and a look at the historic and cultural trends that shaped so much of what we saw in the media during the 1980s. I wish the games in question were better and that the trends were more cheerful, but this is the material I have been given by history.
Personally, if I were on the public relations...
2024-01-17 12:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Apologies for not getting this up sooner! I lost track of time over the weekend while preparing for a trip and juggling podcast stuff. But here is last weekend's bonus upload: A rip of an hour-long LaserDisc called The History of Video Games II: Namco 1 & 2. It is... an hour of footage of Namco's arcade games. Nothing really excitin...
2024-01-16 14:12:30 +0000 UTC View Post
I am not a lawyer, and I don't even play one on TV, so you're about to watch a 20-plus-minute documentary on Tengen Tetris that almost entirely elides over the complex legal issues surrounding this version. In place of me rehashing court summaries offered extensively by a bajillion other people, I threw in a discussion of Bullet Proof's...
2024-01-10 13:03:34 +0000 UTC View Post
Aaaand with this upload, I have now ripped and posted the entirety of the Famimaga Video series. All 12 tapes. Are there more out there? Not that I've been able to find! But who knows. Seemingly lost stuff pops up all the time.
With that series complete, I'll switch things up a bit for the remainder of the month before delving int...
2024-01-07 21:46:03 +0000 UTC View Post
I'd like to say that this week's episode brings you the sweetest taboo, but it doesn't! Taboo: The Sixth Sense is not all that sweet: A lightweight fortune-telling program masquerading as a video game. Imagine being the child who purchased this as the only game they could afford from several months' allowance based on the sweet-as-hell ...
2024-01-03 12:02:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi all, I just realized that I didn't post this past weekend's bonus item over the weekend. I had so much going on with a family visit for the New Year holiday that I totally brainfarted—sorry about that! This is a rip of the next-to-last Famimaga Video tape. I'll be finishing that series up soon so that we can move along to weirder and more i...
2024-01-02 16:46:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Sorry about ending the year on a pair of stinkers. But on the plus side, it means things can only get better in 2024. Right???
I did not deliberately pair these games based on their mutual theme of heroes who turn into a raging monster of a man. It just kind of worked out that way. Sometimes, the universe is funny like that. Although hones...
2023-12-27 13:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Merry Chronomas!
Here is another bonus VHS rip for you—a tape promoting the eternally popular Super NES RPG Chrono Trigger. This was distributed by V-Jump magazine, because their boy Akira Toriyama helped with the game. As you well know! Can you spot any differences from the final game? The main theme certainly sounds different to me...<...
2023-12-24 20:49:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Apologies for the lack of a bonus video last weekend. I promised myself I wouldn't let the process of selling my home and moving to a new one impact my output. And yet! I let that one video slip. Oh, woe. The shame. The humiliation.
Anyway, I'll post two this weekend to make up for it.
Today, we have another Famimaga Video. ...
2023-12-23 21:13:05 +0000 UTC View Post
NES Works returns to its regularly scheduled, uh, schedule here with episode 120, which covers a game I have a lot of fondness for: Adventures of Lolo. HAL Labs made some great games back in the day, and buying a copy of this one from my local rental shop (who would put used rentals on sale for hilariously good prices after a few months...
2023-12-20 12:58:44 +0000 UTC View PostWelp, Christa Lee of Sound Retro Co. has gone and modded yet another weirdo console from the early days of Famicom for me, allowing video capture at a much higher level of quality than its creators ever intended. In this case, we have a Casio PV-1000, which now can output a composite signal rather than mere RF. With only 13 games in its library,...
2023-12-16 17:02:34 +0000 UTC View Post![December Bonus #2: Famimaga Video Issue 9 [Jan. 1990]](https://img5.samukata.com/storage/3/jh/el/4e9b88-019e8a33-df0b-7825-9588-e3e806d07a74.jpg)
We're nearing the end of the Famimaga Video series, and this one has some really cool stuff in it. Not least of all a conversation between Yuji Horii and Shigesato Itoi about, one assumes, Dragon Quest IV and EarthBound Beginnings. I've asked for help with a formal translation of that segment, but you can get the gist of it by watching the auto-...
2023-12-14 00:12:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey, so a bit of a change-up this week. Since I've published a video under an embargo here, this week's video goes live for Patrons and normies at the same time, a couple of days earlier than usual. I hope this is not too distressing for you.
Turbo Works won't actually begin until next summer, but I've been immersing myself in the...
2023-12-11 16:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
It's pretty easy to call games like Ninja Gaiden and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles major releases. They enjoyed plenty of hype leading up to their release, sold impressively, and continue to be fondly regarded by fans. Legacy of the Wizard, though? I don't really know where to pin this one. I feel like it's fared better...
2023-12-06 13:38:21 +0000 UTC View Post
Another bonus video, a week after the last? Yes, well, this is my last chance to get Epoch-related content out ahead of RndStranger's daily video series. That rascal, undercutting my years of planning like this.
But also, I felt pretty inspired by the quality of the games in question. Well, the game. Comic Circus turned out to be ...
2023-12-02 14:44:44 +0000 UTC View Post
I remember one time I babysat my then-elementary-aged nephew. He was undergoing a brief fascination with 8-bit games because the pixelated look reminded him of Minecraft, so I sat him down in front of my NES capture station so he could have a proper experience. We played a few familiar games like Mario, but eventually he wanted...
2023-11-29 12:48:23 +0000 UTC View Post
The Super Cassette Vision returns at last after the Gakken hiatus. I don't love either of these ports, but after the TV Boy's agony, they both feel like an absolute oasis in the desert. Hopefully you will agree that, if nothing else, at least it's nice to have some vibrant RGB video output.
2023-11-26 01:09:18 +0000 UTC View Post
Well, what is there to be said about this game that I haven't already said in this video? And the Metroidvania Works video it showed up in? And the many articles I've written over the years singing its praises? And... [wanders off, mumbling incoherently]
It's always nice when I can upload a video about a good game on the same week as one o...
2023-11-22 14:13:12 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a little something to whet your appetite for an upcoming video. I have been working on the Legacy of the Wizard episode this weekend, and it reminded me of the game's excellent soundtrack. As it happens, James Eldred snagged a copy of the game's OST on tape a few months back, and I have digitized it. You may have heard snippets of this on...
2023-11-19 13:05:30 +0000 UTC View Post
There's something a little poignant about this episode arriving in the midst of Horrible Internet Discourse about The Marvels, because I think the legacy of Dance Aerobics has suffered due to the fandom perception that it's for girls and therefore inferior and probably infested with cooties. And yeah, it's cer...
2023-11-15 14:12:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Well, look at that. Another bonus. It's almost like a regular feature of this channel, or something.
I thought you might enjoy a little break from the video magazines for some pure, simple video game stuff. This time, is the Konami Best Selection LaserDisc, which features superplay footage of Thunder Cross, Haunted Castle, and Super Contra...
2023-11-12 17:10:18 +0000 UTC View Post
Good morning! And indeed it is good, because I finally feel alive enough to sit in front of a camera again and record hosting segments after my beloved partner in marriage decided to take the "in sickness" part of our vows seriously and pass some kinda sinus crud along to me. I can't promise that this video was necessarily worth the wait, as I'm...
2023-11-11 12:52:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey all, I'm running a little behind this week due to illness. I should have your regularly scheduled NES Works up by the weekend. In the meantime, here is a make-good: A VHS rip of a V-Jump promotional video tape for Final Fantasy VI. Now, you may be saying to yourself, "Self, why would I possibly care about some huckster promoting an old video...
2023-11-08 13:21:19 +0000 UTC View Post
We've entered the back stretch of Famimaga Video's brief but beautiful run of providing me with cool B-roll footage while also helping to document the evolution and transition of Japanese console gaming from the 8- to 16-bit era. You can really see that in effect here, with the bulk of this tape focusing on PC Engine games! A thing like...
2023-11-05 18:58:18 +0000 UTC View Post
OK! Back to business as usual. It's Wednesday. Enjoy your danged video, consarn it.
The talky bits for this episode (and a few others to come) were recorded on-site at Portland Retro Gaming Expo this year (with my coworker Joe Modzeleski handling camera duties). Apologies to those of you who had hoped never to see my face in HD again! I've...
2023-11-01 12:15:09 +0000 UTC View Post