Searching for Grog

The boys recreate the road trip from 25 years ago where they first discovered "Trog." Over the course of week they drove across the country from California to Chicago, stopping in Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Nebraska, and Iowa and recording their adventures every night as podcast episodes. Except all those recordings somehow got BALEETED! Here we recount our tale of our epic cross-country, soul-searching road trip. The trail for season one and season 2 both lead to Chicago, so it is a fitting conclusion to those quests.

After a long hiatus, the boys circle up the wagons to find a path forward.

The boys discuss the Konami run-and-gun games Mystic Warriors (1992) and C.O.W. Boys of Moo Mesa(1992) and which is the true successor to Sunset Riders. The conversation meanders around lofty topics such as games as literature, the death of Superman and circles the drain of pornographic Atari games like Custer's Revenge.

The boys discuss whether a cross over between between TMNT and "Friends" would be possible and whether or not they exist in the same universe according to the Tommy Westphall theory. They also discuss Captain Planets strange off-brand episode about AIDS awareness, and Cartoon All-stars to the Rescue.

X-Men producer Masahiro Inoue holds the patent for multi-screen arcade cabinets, but on a recent trip to Tokyo, Adam finds a machine with THREE monitors that predates X-Men by 5 years! The boys get in touch with folks at SVI, and are introduced to The Talent Group, an agency that may have found the voices for X-Men...??

Adam makes some forward progress by contacting the Blaustein brothers - Jeremy who worked as a voice director and localization director at Konami in Tokyo, and Michael who was a producer at Konami in Chicago. They determine the studio and voice agencies behind many Konami games...but are they the games we are looking for?!?!

The boys celebrate Andrew's birthday in true "Searching for Grog" style with M.Bison and Rhinox. Adam gets a surprising email from composer Kenichiro Fukui, and the boys employ the classic search and destroy algorithm.

Adam talks to the X-Men developers to figure out why the credits are such a mess, why Lethal Enforcers director Y. Hatano is thanked in the credits, and the back story behind the classic line "Welcome to Die."

The boys circle the wagons to check in on their progress. Norton has another swing and a miss, Brandon hears back from Bill Archer, and Evan regales everyone with the extreme, possibly illegal lengths he went to to hunt down his contact.

Adam sits down to talk with Asano Yuji, the artist behind Konami's arcade classics X-Men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They discuss his past as an animator, the process of creating pixel art in the 90s and how the team came-up with the iconic Colossus mutant power move!

At MAG Fest, the Colossus roar has become a battle cry and a sort of secret-handshake that reverberates through the hallways of the festival. Evan and Adam go in search of the story of this MAG Fest tradition, and have a colossus-off with the originator!

The team divides and conquers - Evan follows up on a lead with a former Konami employee, Andrew chases down a sound producer/talent agent, and Brandon gets in touch with the possible sound engineer who recorded voice work for Konami!

Evan digs through old Konami games and finds a surprising link between X-Men and Lethal Enforcers. Adam goes down a different path and uncovers some unexpected clues through the world of professional sports.

The boys check out MAG-West, the sister festival to the long-running MAG-Fest where the Colossus Roar has become its own cultural meme. Nostalgia abounds with Mario Kart competitions, Dance Dance Revolution, and early 00's LAN parties.

Adam switches from researcher/reporter mode to full-fledged stalker mode. In the process, he hits pay dirt and has a chance to talk with the producer of X-Men (as well as TMNT, Sunset Riders and other hit titles). The boys gain insider info about the game including who the real director was, why everyone used pen names and most importantly info about the voice work.

Adam and Evan sit down with Susan Silo to discuss her career that spans decades and genres. From her days as a child performer to her stint on Broadway as Rosalia from West Side Story, Susan has been entertaining generations on shows like Bonanza, Dobie Gillis, The Love Boat, Darkwing Duck, An American Tail, and so much more. Out of her illustrious career, the boys pick her brain about her role as the White Queen in Pryde of the X-Men.

A miraculous clue drops in Adams lap from the depths of a YouTube comment thread that ties up some loose threads.

Evan and Adam go back to the "Pryde of the X-Men" pilot and talk to some of the voice actors including Susan Silo, the voice of the White Queen.

Tony Daniels is the man of 1000 voices, including the voice of Tony the Tiger and Gambit from X-Men the animated series. He has voiced countless cartoons and video games, but did he do the 1992 X-Men Arcade game?!

Based on a tip from Dan Gilvezan, the boys learn about how Marvel was once owned by Revlon, and how they came to acquire Fleer, Toy Biz and other companies making them a "mini-Disney." They track down another possible voice actor who played multiple X-Men characters on TV and videogames.

Evan and Adam report in their visit to the bar-cade Miniboss in downtown San Jose, where they tried to recreate the memories of playing the machine together as children.

Adam talks about his clandestine info gathering with former Konami employee "Agent Clockwall" and sheds some light on the mystery of who might hold the license to the original voice of Colossus.

Evan and Adam sit down with voice actor Kyle Hebert, who voiced every character in the 2010 release of X-Men for Konami. Kyle has voiced characters on Dragonball, Bleach, One Piece, Naruto and countless other anime, as well as video games such as Ryu from Street Fighter. Listen to the end to hear Adam and Kyle have a Colossus-Off.

The boys hear from Dan Gilvezan, voice of Colossus from the TV pilot "Pryde of the X-Men." The also talk to members of the original team at Konami that made X-men and discuss the Kukeiha club, Konami's in-house band, as well as the square waves behind digital music.

Adam explains the beat-em-up/brawler boom of the 80s~90s and Konami's place among them. Meanwhile Evan may have found a lead to the voice of Colossus!

The boys are back to discuss another arcade game from their youth, the 1992 Konami classic, "X-Men" which comes with a mystery of its own. This season we're joined by a new co-host, Evan.

The boys visit the private collection of vintage arcade enthusiast Keith Galocy, which includes an original, dedicated TROG cabinet. Old memories are jostled, and a new found appreciation for pinball is discovered. Opening and closing theme are by Captive Portal, used under Creative Commons Sharealike license

The boys sit down with George N Petro, the creator of such games as NARC, Revolution X, Terminator 2 and of course the game TROG. The conversation bounces from Aerosmith to Terminator, and what a unique and special game TROG is to the creators and fans alike.

On a tangent about crypto currency and the Google graveyard, the boys tell stories about their childhood babysitter and other various denizens of their old neighborhood. Theme music is by Captive Portal. End music by Visager is licensed under a Attribution License. Based on a work at http://visager.bandcamp.com/album/songs-from-an-unmade-world-2

An unexpected phone call reveals some interesting information, and opens a discussion on family super powers such as savant-like memory, navigating while asleep, and impersonating obscure game characters.

This week in lieu of a full episode, we've rescued a couple of stories that were left on the editing room floor. Find out about LeBron's famous 178 bug and why Drew hates La Bamba

Grog himself plays reporter this week digging up some dirt on potential locations and distribution channels. Adam chases leads from the other side, from the top down. Brandon ponders his own contributions.

Things get surprisingly emotional when the boys uncover some old photos and make some unexpected breakthroughs.

The boys lock down the Who, What, When and Why of their epic roadtrip, complete with photographic evidence! Adam unlocks some forgotten memories of disgust and humiliation that were best left undiscovered. To see some of the photos mentioned on this episode, follow us on Instagram at @searchingforgrog https://www.instagram.com/searchingforgrog

Out of over 80 candidates, the boys find cavemen named Grag, Brog, Grunk, Gork and even a Grog, but none feel right. Perhaps they should be searching for . . .Trog ?!

After a long sidetrack about mermaid genitals, the boys discuss possible game machines that they might have encountered on their road-trip as well as "The Wacky World of Mini-golf featuring Eugene Levy" for the Phillipt CD-i.

Adam, Brandon and Andrew discuss their memories about a roadtrip from almost 20 years ago to piece together the common elements. Teenage heartbreak, sleeping pills and cavemen playing minigolf are on the docket.