We're back with another episode of our ongoing LucasArts miniseries, and this one's all about the 1993 classic Sam & Max Hit the Road! The canine shamus and hyperkinetic rabbity thing duo has quite a fascinating history going back to the 1960s, but it wasn't until the early '90s that the two ...
2020-03-13 07:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
We hear there's a huge game coming up next week, and we wanted to jump in and record a related episode! But we didn't have the right combination of people to talk about Doom, so we chatted about Animal Crossing instead.
Just joshin', of course. We've wanted to tackle A...
2020-03-09 13:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostMarch 4, 2000: Sony Cements Its Place in History with a Second PlayStation
by Diamond Feit
Our steady march through Final Fantasy's history (which we began, what, four years ago?) continues with this side excursion into a not-Final Fantasy game which is, at the same time, extremely Final Fantasy. And Chrono Trigger. It's swell, is what we're sa...
2020-03-02 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostFebruary 24, 2000: The Vs. Series Jumps the Shark with Marvel vs Capcom 2
by Diamond Feit
This week's patron-exclusive episode is the first part of two—our look at strange and exotic controllers was so involved we ended up splitting the conversation into two shows (the second of which will show up... eventually). I'm a little buried in PAX panel prep at the moment, but I'll be posti...
2020-02-28 15:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
In the not-too-distant past, the year 2000 used to signify the far-off future. But time makes fools of us all, and this mythical date has transformed into a distant memory, just as all years are destined to become. This week, we examine Y2K's fascinating gaming landscape, where the primitive Game...
2020-02-24 08:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostFebruary 23, 1990: Code Name: Viper Straddles An Invisible Inspakuri Line
by Diamond Feit
Video game history is built on clones. Every hit game has opened the door to dozens...
2020-02-23 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
It's a suitably old-school Retronauts lineup (consisting of myself, Bob, Ray, and Kohler) that perfectly fits the old-school topic in store for this week: Mario on Game Boy. And Game Boy Color. And Game Boy Advance. Yes, we take a close look at the Super Mario Land duology (before Mario ...
2020-02-17 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostFebruary 12, 1990: America Does The Mario
by Diamond Feit
Since there is no point in me explaining what Super Mario Bros. 3 is to pay...
2020-02-15 21:45:56 +0000 UTC View Post
Thanks to the generous patronage of patron Bobby Najari, on this latest Patreon-exclusive episode we're digging deep into a series that gave a 21st-century Sega something to do outside of Sonic the Hedgehog: Yakuza. Though the series had a clumsy start in America with an incredibly late PS2 relea...
2020-02-14 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
The latest in our media ’n games series; this one's kind of a companion piece to the episode on The Running Man we did last year. Henry Gilbert joins me and Bob to discuss the magic of RoboCop; and by "magic" I mean "bloody giblets and ultraviolence making a political point". A good ti...
2020-02-10 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View Postby Diamond Feit
The arrival of Resident Evil on the Sony PlayStation in 1996 brought a true sea change to video games as both a hobby and a medium. Debuting mere months after the system's U.S. launch, ...
2020-02-08 17:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
The last of my interviews from 2019's Game Developers Conference has arrived at last... with barely more than a month to spare before the next Game Developers Conference. Well. You already know the deal with the content backlog I'm juggling, so I won't bore you with the details. And this...
2020-02-03 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View Postby Diamond Feit
The year 2000 was, for a lot of reasons, a very strange time to be alive. The ’90s had ended, and there had been no apocalypse, either biblical or technological. For many Americans, we were riding high, and everything looked ...
2020-02-02 12:58:33 +0000 UTC View Post
This week's patron-exclusive Friday episode should be comforting and familiarly to long-time listeners. We may not have Virtual Console to dunk on anymore, but gosh darn it if Nintendo Switch Online doesn't fill that same unsatisfying void in our lives. Anyway, the Retronauts East crew finally ge...
2020-01-31 14:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
We've got a real blast from the past for you this week—which is kinda the point of Retronauts, but our newest episode is a blast from the past in an entirely different way. We originally recorded this one on December 6th, 2015, exclusively as an episode for our Kickstarter backers, but...
2020-01-27 08:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostJanuary 1980: In the Legacy Wars, Rogue Won
By Diamond Feit
Consider for a moment the number of video game genres that existed in January of 1980. Pong had hit it big, so there were many paddle-and-ball games. Breakout went global, so there ...
2020-01-26 17:09:22 +0000 UTC View Post
This week's episode title is a little deceptive. It is not a comprehensive overview of all pre-Atari-2600 consoles; instead, it's specifically focused on the Fairchild Channel F and the RCA Studio II. But they're not as well documented as Magnavox's Odyssey, so consider this a public ser...
2020-01-20 15:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostHello everyone! Jeremy here, announcing a new weekly feature that will be exclusive to patrons who pledge at the $5+ tier: Diamond Feit's "This Week in Retro" column. This is a little bonus in addition to the exclusive Friday bonus podcasts that should be running every Saturday, or thereabouts.&n...
2020-01-18 20:55:36 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey all—Bob here with a little note for anyone who recently joined the $5 exclusive episodes tier. Being that this is one of our fabled "every other" Fridays, you might be wondering where today's Patre...
2020-01-18 00:49:19 +0000 UTC View Post
It's that time once again: Time to do the Revue. In keeping with our grand tradition, Retronauts once again takes a trip 10/20/30/40/50 years into history to mark the beginning of a new year, making note of all the important stuff that happened decades before the present. And, as you might expect...
2020-01-13 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostHey folks,
As of today, we're changing the Retronauts Patreon to a "charge up front" payment system. What this means is our Patreon now acts like every other business transaction you make on the internet: you pay for something, and then you get it. With our past system, a new patro...
2020-01-09 03:11:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Since I decided to drop the Super Mario RPG episode two weeks early on a whim, resident Retronauts artist Nick Daniel was still hard at work on the cover when this podcast went live. Now that it's finished, you can behold it in all...
2020-01-07 22:31:12 +0000 UTC View Post
No one can tell you what The Matrix is... unless you happen to listen to this podcast, wherein we do precisely that. This episode dives into the cultural significance and impact of 1999's surprise blockbuster, and (this being a video games podcast) it also digs into the games that were b...
2020-01-06 13:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey folks—Bob here. No, you're not seeing things; I decided to post January's second Friday podcast WAY ahead of time as a special bonus to all of you early adopters of the new $5 tier, and to also give you a sense of the kinds of podcasts we'll be offering at this level. Thanks so much 2020-01-04 04:27:37 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello, friends. This is the video version of Episode 271. It is also available in an audio-only companion post if you prefer!
If enough people enjoy this test pilot effort, we'll keep going with improvements, i.e. tidy up the recording space, arrange the crew so the wide-angle lens do...
2020-01-03 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Welcome to the first post of 2020 and, by a complete coincidence of timing, our very first patron-exclusive episode. I know our decision to offer patron-exclusive content doesn't sit well with everyone, but this episode neatly demonstrates what this move allows us to do. "List Inventory" is somet...
2020-01-03 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello folks, and welcome to our slightly revamped Patreon! As always, we greatly value your support and thank you for sticking with us. Let's get some important things out of the way first.
Hey folks, we've been getting a bit of feedback from those who signed up for the $5 tier after it went live last week. It turns out some previous episodes were missing for patrons accessing our exclusive RSS feed at the $5 level. I've went and checked all of our posted episodes against what's ava...
2020-01-01 04:58:33 +0000 UTC View Post