Gaming Street Irregulars

We chat with the mastermind behind the popular Living Roster YouTube videos!

We recorded this waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in November of last year, and things got... hairy for me, and this episode got pushed back... and pushed back some more. But it's here now! Linwood Knight and Justin Toner return to the podcast and we had a grand old time talking about our dreams of what this game could include way, way back in the days before the Alpha tests.

While many licensed games were terrible dreck from the likes of LJN or Acclaim, Disney and Capcom bucked the trend with these brilliant releases based on their weekday syndicated cartoons. Ducktales, Rescue Rangers, TailSpin and Darkwing Duck hold a special place in the hearts of 80s and 90s kids, and these games (mostly) lived up to their series' reputation. So step right up and come on in, here's where the fun begins!

James and guest Tajy Venom dive into their memories and considerable affection for SNK's premier fighting game franchise. KoF is the first crossover fighter, probably the first team based fighter, and hosts some of the most vibrant stages and brilliant music in any fighting game series in the 1990s. We will return to this topic at some point, naturally, but after all, "It all began in 94"...

Civilization! Ms Pac-Man! Dance Dance Revolution! Words with Friends?!?! These and 8 other games are on the ballot for the Video Game Hall of Fame at the Strong Museum for the Class of 2022. What do your hosts think of their chances? Tune in and find out!

James and Krissi continue their Lego-themed journey talking to Steve Offeman, a Lego artist who specializes in recreating classic arcade cabinets using the toy bricks. We talk about his process, his own gaming memories, his take on current arcades, and much more! So join us, won't you?

James and Krissi put their bricks into place with guest Christopher Frank! It's the perfect podcast to listen to while building the latest set you've purchased at your local toy shop!

Yeah, this was supposed to go up a few weeks ago, but James' mental health went a little pear-shaped recently and he's been trying to get back into the rhythm of things. It is what it is, and Episode #50 is finally available to the masses! Enjoy as he and Krissi talk about what made the original Super Mario Bros game work, their memories of it, and the various other versions we did and didn't see!

You've probably noticed we have SMZeldaRules and Hurricane Kitten (and her husband Dobbalicious) on a good bit. Well, that's because we think they're fun! And this time we talk about what got James' attention about them in the first place: cosplay. It's a nice, relaxed, funny conversation about the hobby and the games that inspire their costumes.

Krissi and James talk Monopoly, the View Master, Lincoln Logs, Lego, Erector Sets, Tinker Toys, Frisbee, Roller Skates and more! We think we got everything now from that first group of inductees.

The Strong Museum of Play is a point of local pride for James and Krissi, and we love talking about it and the Toy Hall of Fame. So we're starting a series on every inductee into the hall, starting with the massive first class. This episode features crayons, the Etch-a-Sketch, Play Doh, Barbie, the yo-yo and the Hula Hoop.

Peacock recently began airing a Wipeout style game show based on Konami's 1981 breakout arcade hit, and our hosts take the opportunity to both talk about the show and the game that inspired it. Hop on in for a fun time, where we promise the frog puns from this description don't carry over at all! ... mostly. The ones that do are the game show's fault.

After our hiatus went a little longer than we expected due to, well, life, Krissi and James return to quickly take stock of the world of gaming and their own month or so of events, plus prepare for another year of podcast adventures into the world of all things gaming. We hope you'll come along for the ride!

Boing! SMZeldaRules returns to the podcast to discuss the cult favorite SNES RPG, its prequel and sequel, and the numerous oddities surrounding it. Zombie making tents! Psychic powers! Blues Brothers homages! And the inscrutable Mr Saturn! It's all here, to tide you over while we all wait for this game to arrive on the Switch. Which is totally happening, right? ........... right??

Tooth decay! Out of control luggage! Off Brand Hobbits! Rubik's Cube! All this and more as Krissi and James chat about the most unusual games to come from the era where game makers were still learning what worked and what didn't. Plus, listen as they awkwardly dance around the subject of one of the most notorious X-Rated games of all time in a PG-13 podcast!!!

Appearing in such games as Harthorn, Unavowed, Apotheon and Dust: An Elysian Tale, Amanda has been acting since 9 years old and is rising the ranks of independent voice artists. Krissi and her go way back, so she was more than happy to take some time to answer some questions about her roles and the business!

The Strong Museum of Play, in Rochester NY, is home to the Toy Hall of Fame, which every year inducts three to four notable, long lasting, influential toys, games and what not. This year the inductees are the board game Risk, the American Girls line of dolls, and sand. Krissi and James discuss the importance of all three and how they all have their unique ties to the hobby of gaming.

Castlevania, released in 1986 in Japan and 1987 in the US, was a major turning point for Konami's home efforts, transitioning them from merely porting their arcade experiences to creating games with the home market in mind. The story of Simon Belmont battling Dracula in the latter's castle has been retold in five different games, each one with the same underpinnings but still very different based on what platform it appeared on. James and Krissi crack the whip on this landmark series for the first of many, many times to come.

Krissi and guest Mike Cusey take James on a journey to Arkham, and we don't mean the place where Batman's baddies get locked up for a week or so. It's all about the influence of HP Lovecraft and his concepts on the creepier corners of gaming, including both tabletop experiences and video games. Will his sanity survive the experience? Will yours?! ... yes, yours will, but we're not sure about James.

James' torture this month continues as Krissi takes him to a spooky mansion on the outskirts of Raccoon City, where agents of STARS came face to face with the first modern Survival Horror game. Resident Evil was Capcom's first truly massive breakthrough success on the PlayStation platform, and set the tone for multitudes of games from them in the future, in spite of voice acting that would make Tommy Wiseau sound more like Sir Lawrence Olivier by comparison.

Konami threw their hat into the survival horror genre in 1999 with the first Silent Hill game on the original Playstation. When it became a huge hit, they quickly greenlit a sequel for the then new Playstation 2. Now Krissi guides a reluctant James through the dense psychological terror of a little town in Maine where average people must face their darkest fears. 

The blue blur marked Sega's most effective attempt to become a major player in the console space, and for a few years in the 1990s the first entries in the series made the Genesis (or Mega Drive) a close competitor to Nintendo's home systems. James and Krissi are joined by KrunchyLex to chat about the hugely successful and highly influential first two games in the series. You don't gotta go fast to tune in, just so long as you do check this podcast out!

Today we reflect on, amongst many others, Jakks Pacific's plug and play controller devices, the NES Classic, the myriad releases from the not always reliable AtGames, and much more. Come join us!

Casual gaming is a... contentious subject at times, shall we say. A lot of hardcore gamers deride the people who play them, and far too many of them are mired in microtransactions coupled with other sneaky tricks. But there are some legitimate gems amidst the dross out there, and Krissi is going to share what she believes to be the cream of the crop while she and James get both get annoyed at EA and Konami for their ill effects on aspects of this business. Yes, again. We promise we'll try not to go off on that tangent too much after this episode.

Justin Toner pinch hits for Krissi Harding while she continues to sort out her internet matters, and he discusses Koei's long running spin-off of a game series based on a novel based on actual history. With intense hack and slash action and voice acting that's often straight out of a badly dubbed martial arts movie, Dynasty Warriors may be an acquired taste here in the West, but it's one that just keeps coming back for more, like so many waves of soldiers for you to mow down.

With Krissi in the process of moving, James goes solo for a quick review of a tower defense game he's spent over 160 hours playing. Plus a couple other things!Check out Flamecraft on Kickstarter: http://kck.st/3fPxD5c

Eating a ghost in Pac-Man. Picking up a treasure in the Legend of Zelda. The smack of a fist in Street Fighter II. These sounds (which don't actually appear in the episode, but plenty more do!) have meaning attached to them, whether implied or informed by experience. James and Krissi look at some that work great, and some that don't, and have a grand old time doing it.

Can't get the whole gang together? Waiting for a delayed dungeon master? Don't pull out your cell phones, pull out a deck of cards and enjoy some of these games! Krissi shows James the ropes of a variety of standard 52 card deck games and regales us with stories of her youth playing these with friends and family. Come join us!

One of the most stylish arcade games, well, ever, gets the GSI treatment, which means lots of tangents, lots of awkward laughter, and lots of your hosts' making goofs of themselves! And joining them are the equally willing to be goofy Pembroke W Korgi, Kurricane Kitten and Dobbilicious! It's a dream team of Irregulars talking about one of the most visible ninjas in gaming, both figuratively and literally!

James brings on one of his longest friendships, Justin Toner, for the second turn with him and Krissi picking the brains of our favorite guests from previous episodes. Find out what foul fate befell his early Atari systems! Discover the arcade game he spent $5 trying to defeat in college! Enjoy a relaxed conversation about our favorite pastime!

It seems in the quest to claim your leisure spending money, board game makers and media IP holders have found common ground by combining their ideas into variations of classic games you never knew you wanted, and in some cases never wanted in any way, shape or form! We're talking stuff ranging from misanthropic Monopoly editions to the baffling idea that is Space Invaders Jenga, all in this episode, folks!

The Electronic Entertainment Expo has come and gone once again, and James and Krissi are picking up the pieces of what was feeling like only a semi-decent year until Nintendo put on their presentation. From old school Final Fantasy to all the new Game Pass offerings, from the non-bender Avatar to Metroid Despair, we cover as much as we can before we passed out on the night we recorded this. Enjoy!

Was it Col. Mustard in the Conservatory with the Rope? Perhaps Mrs. Peacock in the Library with the Wrench? (Or Spanner in the UK) Maybe it was Little Miss Muffet right on her tuffet with her curds and... okay now I'm just being silly. Clue is one of the most popular board games in the world, with a lot of spin offs, meaning a lot of ground to cover. So join Krissi and James as they explore Boddy Manor and try to figure out if communism is indeed a red herring.

The trackball is a piece of arcade hardware that is evocative of its time, and in particular a quartet of legendary games from Atari: Missile Command, Centipede, Millipede and Crystal Castles. James has so much fondness for these games, that Krissi indulged him by letting him devote an entire episode to them. Okay, she didn't need much convincing, as you'll no doubt hear when you join us on this monumental 25th episode of GSI! An occasion so minor we forgot to mention it ourselves. Oops.

We're hoping to make this a reoccurring episode format, because sometimes we want to cool down on the heavy research and just have a good time talking to a friend. Seth was gracious enough to join us and kick off the series, as we trade tales of tabletop RPG experiences, trying to remember arcade games of our youth, and more! Stay awhile and listen!

The 800 pound gorilla of massive multiplayer on-line games comes to the Irregulars podcast! Christopher Frank and Tanya Metras, our Mighty Monkey compatriots, join us to talk about Blizzard's long running, ever changing game and its influence on their lives. If you've ever driven miles to visit someone who did guild raids with you, this podcast is for you!

Jenn Acomb joins James and Krissi to dive into the first game in the Mass Effect trilogy. Jenn has a LOT to say, thankfully for James, as she guides this rookie through the basics of the franchise. The notorious controversy is also discussed, naturally. Come join us!

James, Krissi and Pembroke W Korgi embark on a journey through all the crazy rumors surrounding the digital past time. From land fills in New Mexico to blood codes on the SNES, from saving Aeris to finding Mew under a truck, we look back on the stuff we bragged about on the playground and gossiped about in study halls.

From inauspicious beginnings to the height of the video game zeitgeist within a short span of a few years, Capcom's Blue Bomber was an institution in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. Krissi and James explore the first three games in the series, and talk about the stuff that really matters, like why an entire line of enemy robots were surnamed "Joe"?

Games creep into the arts more often than we might think, and nowhere is this more evident than in improvisational comedy. Guest Sean Michael Smith guides James and Krissi (but mostly James; Krissi's done this before too!) through a few different games in this completely unrehearsed, unedited podcast! If you never laughed at our jokes before... well, maybe this time?

As revered as the Zelda games on the NES are, these two titles introduced multitudes of new elements to the series, ranging from deeper storytelling to several techniques and items. They're two of the most fondly remembered games in the series. They're games one of our hosts hasn't played in forever!! In this episode, Krissi guides James through a series she has a tremendous passion for.

Eight fantasies were not final enough, and thank goodness for that! This game is a loving tribute to so much of what the series was before the PlayStation era, introducing folks who became fans with the seventh game to concepts and designs and reinforcing their iconic nature. Also Vivi is cutest boy, fight me on this if you dare. Cosplayer and Twitch Streamer SMZeldaRules returns to the podcast for much fun and our DARK FANDOM CONFESSIONS!

Krissi and James are joined by Monkey Business Podcast co-host Billy D'Ettorree to get down to some real monkeying around! Donkey Kong was the inflection point for numerous gaming firsts and standards, and we'll try and hit as many as we can. Plus a discussion on the King of Kong documentary!

It's the New Age of Heroes! The crossover many never dreamed possible! Until Capcom decided it was a good way to get more money off of already created assets! I kid, I kid, Marvel vs. Capcom has a long, storied history both as a series and as a game in competitive tournament play. To explore both sides, Krissi and James recruit Dobbilicious and Hurricane Kitten, two mega fans of the franchise, to talk about all that and more. Not included: James' theory that the next boss in the series is Spragg the Living Hill...

Krissi and James just did an appearance on the FC3 Monkey Business Podcast, this show's parent program, to discuss the Netflix documentary High Score. As a follow up to that, our intrepid hosts are here to offer up some suggestions for more watching if you want to go deeper into video game history. Check them out!

Couldn't get enough of James ranting about wrestling on the Monkey Business podcast? Neither could he! He and Krissi are joined by Justin Toner to talk about the cross section between wrestling and gaming, specifically favorites like No Mercy, SD v Raw 2006, Wrestlefest and more. Guaranteed to be less painful to listen to than a Giant Gonzalez match is to watch!

Cold weather got you down? Tired of the same old Monopoly, Clue, Scrabble, etc? Krissi and James are joined by their buddy Mike Cusey to talk about some board games you might not have heard of that can freshen up your game nights! All this, and blatant Pepsi advertising, too! ... no, really, James isn't making a strange joke, that will actually happen in this episode.

Arcades are the foundation of many of the video game franchises we cherish today. Krissi and James are joined by Linwood Knight to look back at their memories of places like Time Out, Chuck E Cheese's, Chinatown Fair and many more. Sticky buttons and broken coin slots not included, thankfully!

In February, the cosplay community celebrates 28 Days of Black Cosplay, where Black creators in that space are celebrated and highlighted through the month. James had the honor of talking with three such creators about their experiences in cosplay: Galaxie the Mythical, Knightmage and the returning Akakioga.Want to see their work? Check them out at the following links!Akakioga: https://linktr.ee/AkakiogaGalaxie the Mythical: https://www.facebook.com/galaxiethemythicalKnightmage: https://www.facebook.com/Knightmage1

Nintendo made a game featuring paying rent, pulling weeds and having awkward conversations with your neighbors. It became a runaway hit. As reductive as I'm making it sound, Animal Crossing's sense of community, modes of expression and collection aspects combined make it like few other games franchises. James and Krissi are joined this time by cosplayer Northern Belle Rogue to discuss the intricacies and oddities of this charming series.

Kyle Peffers, aka OlafSlayer86 the host of the Official Mutant Football League Podcast, joins James and Krissi to talk about the uproariously wild arcade-style football game where the hits are killer, the field goals reward bigger risks, and the Snuffalo Thrills Mafia are armed with tommy guns! It's a football game that even non-football fans like our hosts can enjoy!