Podcast for 02-18-08 | Dissecting Geeks

Also this podcast has a SUPER SECRET easter egg! At least it did for me. I wondered why it was 2 hours long.

I love this podcast. :D Professor Layton is awesome and, yes, it will be a classic. I'm talkin' to you Qais.

Professor Layton is god.

Though I did by and large "miss" the NES/SNES era of gaming (The first system I played with any regularity was the Playstation and the first system I owned was the PS2), I've got a lot of nostalgia that is similar to the nostalgia many people have for Chrono Trigger or Phantasy Star or Actraiser, but it's focused on much newer games. I remember the countless hours my friends and I sunk into Dark Cloud or Grandia or Ratchet and Clank, and how amazed was when I first saw the Bouncer.

For a long time, I had to rent not only games but the systems as well, so the four or five games I played a year had to be cherished. Shit, I completed World Destruction League: Thundertanks (if you can't remember it, it's because it was really terrible). Though I think that a lot of people won't experience this style of video game upbringing, it does still happen from time to time.

Since you guys invited stories of our own geek pasts, I thought I'd share a little. Listening to podcasts like this one and Retroforcego, it seems to me that most gamers had to deal with parents who didn't understand gaming at all. That's the complete opposite for me. To frame this for you a little, I'm 22 now, and my parents were both in their early 30's when they had me.. whatever that means. But anyway, my dad will tell me stories about how they used to go to this one diner just to play the Donkey Kong machine there because it had an extra level that none of the other ones had and stuff like that. So when the NES came out they thought it was amazing to get that stuff at home and they had all the classics. I have memories of being 3 years old and watching them play the original Zelda. I absolutely loved it, but I had no desire to play. I didn't play video games for years and I think Link to the Past was the first Zelda I was able to play with any degree of competence. I loved watching though, and I would always be playing with plastic swords and humming the music pretending that I was Link. I remember getting in trouble because I found a bunch of old glass bottles my dad was saving behind the shed in our yard and I smashed them all because that's what Link does. I remember getting the SNES for Christmas and it was just a family present that we were all excited about. My younger brother was different from me because even when he was tiny he just wanted to play the games himself, he wasn't interested in watching. My parents got Final Fantasy II (IV) and I was just totally obsessed with that game. I couldn't play it myself until I was in middle school, but I loved watching my dad play it. I thought the story and characters were great, and watching the battles was great. Unfortunately for my dad, after months and months of playing, my mom accidentally erased his game and I know now that he was at the very final boss and was just having trouble beating him.

Games continued to have a big effect on my life and to this day I still get more into RPGs with good stories. My parents don't play video games much anymore. They're very put-off by things being in 3-D. They seem to think that it's too complicated for them now and they won't be able to do it. So they'll say it looks really cool and whatever, but they're not usually too interested in playing themselves. (There's been a few exceptions like Zelda: 4 Swords Adventures, Pac-Man Vs., and Wii Sports/Play/Crossbow Training etc.)

Sorry if this is long and ranty, the podcast just brought up a lot of memories haha. One last thing to Chris, I too played and loved Maniac Mansion on the NES but have never gone and played through the other LucasArts games.

Couple of points:
1) The book series you refered to early in the podcast was Mysteries of the Unknown by Time Life books. I can assuredly say that series had a formative effect upon my geekery upbringing
2) Yo Noid! was a Dominoes product, not a pizza hut product.. But we'll forgive, because it was the 80's

Like alot of you, I too found the nes/snes era to be VERY formative upon my life as it is now. Early RPG's like FF1 and Wizards and Warriors led to my love of D&D now. LucasArts adventure games on my PC led to many, MANY hours lost into Loom, Maniac Mansion, and Full Throttle. Although, the biggest influence early gaming had on me, has to be the inclusion of Anime cut scenes into middle generation and later RPG's. Lunar and Xenogears remain in my all time favorite games list due to the inclusion of this mysterious art form. In fact, along with a dimmly remembered viewing of Robotech when I was 5, these games led me to rediscover Anime, and in fact, start a club at CWU dedicated to exactally that. So, yeah. I'd say that early experiences playing video games with friend, renting them from the corner store, and subscribing to early issues of nintendo power, EGM, and other gameing magazines had a profound effect upon who I am today.

Loving how much time you spent talking about adventure games. I could talk about those games - especially ye olde Lucasarts adventure games forever.

And Chris, you may want to check out the new Sam & Max games from Telltale. Season One has a really nice learning curve to it that just might get you into the adventure gaming mindset.

Lies! I had my own copy.