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Episode 123: Breath of the Wild's Zelda heritage

Episode 123: Breath of the Wild's Zelda heritage

Hi everyone, Jeremy here with an earlier-than-usual advance episode. I'm working Portland Retro Gaming Expo all weekend and will be on a plane all day Monday, so I wanted to be sure this made it up on time.

This episode takes an angle I've been wanting to use for a long time. And we have, occasion...

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Retronauts Episode 122: Maniac Mansion

Retronauts Episode 122: Maniac Mansion

30 years ago, Lucasfilm Games gave us Maniac Mansion: an unassuming little adventure created by people who never dabbled in the genre before. But this lack of conventional wisdom caused Maniac Mansion to be an adventure game unlike anything else in existence—and one that would shape the future of ...

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Retronauts Micro 72: Super Mario Sunshine

Retronauts Micro 72: Super Mario Sunshine

Video games! Am I right?

This episode is spillover from the full Sunshine episode, because we received far too many letters to fit into a 90-minute show. Consider this equal time to alternate opinions, as mandated by the FAA. The Sunshine episode cast rolls on into this one, and ...

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Episode 121: King of Fighters/game experiences double feature

Episode 121: King of Fighters/game experiences double feature

I've been a little overzealous putting together Retronauts Micros, and I ended up with a backlog of episodes with no room in the schedule to post them. Whoops! Rather than holding onto these for four or five months, I decided to combine two of them into a single double-feature. 

Two Micro...

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Early Access: Episode 120, Super Mario Sunshine

Early Access: Episode 120, Super Mario Sunshine

Hi all, I'm recovering from both a weekend of podcast recording AND a flu that hit me at the same time we went into the studio. Please pardon my terseness and enjoy this critical examination of Super Mario Sunshine, just in time for its sequel (more or less), Super Mario Odyssey. â...

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Retronauts Micro 71: Iwata, The Switch, and NES Golf

Retronauts Micro 71: Iwata, The Switch, and NES Golf

Thanks to some industrious hackers, we've recently learned that a digital version of Golf for the NES has been secretly implanted into the firmware of every Nintendo Switch as a tribute to Satoru Iwata. But how was it discovered, how can you play it, and why did Nintendo choose Golf of all games? On...

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Early access: Retronauts 118 - SEGA arcade history pt. 3

Early access: Retronauts 118 - SEGA arcade history pt. 3

Well, it looks like we crossed some wires on episode numbering, so uh here's episode 118 to follow up last week's episode 119. Eh heh, heh.

This latest Retronauts East entry sees us once again going over SEGA's arcade output in second gear. We've previously tackled their works up through 1985 in o...

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Retronauts Episode 119: Yoshi's Island

Retronauts Episode 119: Yoshi's Island

Yoshi's Island hasn't been re-released in its original, unadulterated form since its 1995 debut, but the upcoming launch of the SNES Classic promises to make this platforming legend slightly more available (while supplies last). And to mark the recirculation of Nintendo's last hurrah for the Super N...

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Early access: Retronauts Micro 70

Early access: Retronauts Micro 70

For this week's Micro episode, I managed to line up an interview with David Craddock about his new book on the history of video games on the Apple II, Break Out. You might recall I referenced Break Out back in our dedicated Apple II episode; I read through an early draft of the boo...

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Early access: Retronauts episode 117 - Zork

Early access: Retronauts episode 117 - Zork

I'm really proud of how this latest episode turned out! We can pin much of its success on the presence of the one and only Black Dragon: Jeff Green, former editor in chief of Computer Gaming World and Games For Windows magazines. He brings an easygoing familiarity with our topic du...

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Early access: Retronauts Episode 116

Early access: Retronauts Episode 116

Hello! I hate to post and run, but I'm sneaking in work between family affairs on a holiday. Please don't tell; everyone would be so terribly cross with me if they knew. This episode is another somewhat unconventional format from the usual, but I think you'll find it enjoyable — thanks especially ...

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Retronauts Micro 69: Mario Series Listener Mail

Retronauts Micro 69: Mario Series Listener Mail

With the recent release of Mario + Raving Rabbids, and with Super Mario Odyssey's launch  lurking just a few months away, we're currently undergoing a sort of  Mario Madness—much like the same outbreak that attacked several million  children back in '88. To celebrate this resur...

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Retronauts Episode 115: Food Mascot Games

Retronauts Episode 115: Food Mascot Games

(Quick note: This episode was previously posted to the Retronauts Patreon, but was mislabeled number 113 and, for whatever reason, didn't kick over to the RSS feed like it's supposed to. We don't have any control over the latter issue, but hopefully this re-upload will do the trick! - Bob) 

N...

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Early access: Episode 104 - Gradius

Early access: Episode 104 - Gradius

Hello, all. Apologies for the mild tardiness on this advance posting — we had some minor scheduling confusion… but that's what content backlogs are for. We recorded this Gradius episode with the HG101 crew the day before our Long Island live panel (which you've already heard by now), an...

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Early access: Retronauts Micro 68 - Dragon Slayer

Early access: Retronauts Micro 68 - Dragon Slayer

We tried the patience of a live audience this past weekend with a lecture on the history of the incredibly influential yet extremely obscure (in the U.S.) role-playing series Dragon Slayer, created by Ys developer Nihon Falcom. In fact, Dragon Slayer is more relevant than ...

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Early access: Episode 113 - Secret of Mana

Early access: Episode 113 - Secret of Mana

Hi! Have this week's podcast a little early, why don'tcha.

I apologize in advance for the audio distortion that appears constantly throughout the first half of this episode. We're completely baffled by the way it shows up in random episodes, does not appear on the recording levels histogram, and m...

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Early access: Retronauts episode 112

Early access: Retronauts episode 112

Something a bit different this week! 

I had the good fortune to visit with Tetsuya Mizuguchi at Enhance Games last time I visited Tokyo, and he was totally open to the idea of turning the conversation into a podcast. The result is a great listen, despite the slightly janky on-site audio quali...

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Retronauts Micro 67: Little Nemo

Retronauts Micro 67: Little Nemo

Sorry for the brief delay on this one, but I think it's worth the wait. On our latest advance Micro, listen in as we talk about all things Little Nemo: Windsor McCay's legendary, influential comic strip, the 1989 box-office bomb it inspired, and the two Capcom games spun off from that movie.

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Slight Delay on This Week's Retronauts Micro

Slight Delay on This Week's Retronauts Micro

Hey folks,

Due to some scheduling problems, I wasn't able to record today's Retronauts Micro during the week—instead, I'm recording it this weekend. That said, this delay gives me the chance to ask you kind patrons for comments on the subject at hand: Little Nemo. (The NES game, the arcade game,...

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Early access: Retronauts episode 111

Early access: Retronauts episode 111

Like clockwork (and hopefully not like the stopped clock that's right twice a day), here is your advance episode for the week. It's the follow-up to our Metroidvania episode from a couple months back, and it is about... other Metroidvania games. Yep. Kinda predictable, when you stop and thi...

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Retronauts Episode 110: Super Mario Bros. 3

Retronauts Episode 110: Super Mario Bros. 3

We've finally put together an episode on one of the greatest 8-bit games of all time! Join Bob Mackey, Jeremy Parish, Henry Gilbert, and Ray Barnholt as the crew digs into the wonder and wisdom of Super Mario Bros. 3.

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Early access: Retronauts Micro #66

Early access: Retronauts Micro #66

 

I apologize for the lie inherent in this episode's title. This was meant to be a Micro episode, but it clocks in at a full hour — which isn't really Micro, honestly. I hope you don't mind that we have scandalously provided more content than you signed up for.

Anyway, this episode wa...

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Early access: Retronauts Episode 109

Early access: Retronauts Episode 109

Greetings, everyone. This week's advance podcast is now present within the construct known as "da house." It's a pretty fun one, so I hope you enjoy it. And the music is stunningly good, as one might expect from this particular franchise: Dig Dug and Mr. Driller. Yes, they're the s...

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Early access: Retronauts episode 108

Early access: Retronauts episode 108

Well, hope you don't mind something a little different this week. This episode started out as a Micro episode about Marathon, as a tie-in to our Apple gaming episodes... but Ben and I got a little carried away, and the conversation ballooned into something too large to fit into the Micro fo...

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Early access: Retronauts Micro 65 - Farewell, Genyo Takeda

Early access: Retronauts Micro 65 - Farewell, Genyo Takeda

The latest Micro is here, and it's a bit of a loose episode. When Nintendo announced the upcoming retirement of executive Genyo Takeda, I felt we should take a moment to discuss why his decision to step down is a pretty big deal. So, we summoned the biggest Nintendo experts we know — Kotaku's Chri...

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Early access: Retronauts episode 107 — SEGA pt. 2

Early access: Retronauts episode 107 — SEGA pt. 2

Hello, all — here is this week's advance episode, stealthily submitted in between bursts of patriotic fireworks. It's a follow-up to an episode from a few months ago. Enjoy!

Description: Jeremy, Ben, and Benj convene again to continue their discussion of SEGA's chronology of arcade classics....

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Early access: Retronauts 106 - Final Fantasy V

Early access: Retronauts 106 - Final Fantasy V

Another really great episode this week! Although... I kinda feel like I say that just about every time I post these days. I guess that means I'm happy with the way the show's going or something.

Anyway, this resumes the Final Fantasy deep-dive series we started last year, following on fro...

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Early Access: Retronauts Micro 64

Early Access: Retronauts Micro 64

Hi friends, it's, uh, a Kabuki Quantum Fighter episode. Yes, we realize no one asked for this. We did it anyway, because... well, who else was going to?

Description: Jeremy, Benj, and Chris convene again to discuss that all-time classic... no, wait. To discuss weirdo niche NES action game Kabu...

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Retronauts Episode 105: Cancelled Games

Retronauts Episode 105: Cancelled Games

This week's advance episode is all about the vast, vast world of cancelled games! We could only pick a dozen out of the hundreds (if not thousands) of possible choices out there, so let us know if we missed any notable ones.

Oh, and this episode will have an official cover by Nick Daniel by the ti...

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Retronauts #104 early access: Metroidvania origins

Retronauts #104 early access: Metroidvania origins

Good morning and happy E3 week to you. In celebration of all the indie games likely to be demoed at the show over the next few days, we've put together a timely little episode on what inspired most of them in the first place: 8-bit metroidvania games.

Well, sort of. This is one of those cases wher...

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