Podcasts about LucasArts

American video game producer

  • 872PODCASTS
  • 1,613EPISODES
  • 1h 16mAVG DURATION
  • 5WEEKLY NEW EPISODES
  • May 28, 2025LATEST
LucasArts

POPULARITY

20172018201920202021202220232024

Categories



Best podcasts about LucasArts

Show all podcasts related to lucasarts

Latest podcast episodes about LucasArts

Dev Game Club
DGC Ep 430: Gone Home/Walking Simulators (part one)

Dev Game Club

Play Episode Listen Later May 28, 2025 77:19


Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we start a new series of explorations on the walking simulator, beginning with Gone Home. We set the game in its time, talk about possible real world experiences, and dive into its restraint and storytelling. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: All of Gone Home Issues covered: walking simulator coverage, the wave of indies and another wave, career changes, Fullbright's early history, leaving the big industry, the value of focus, location-based entertainments and shows, focusing on one thing, having constraints vs not, setting your own constraints, the spooky atmosphere but having restraint, imposing expectations from video games, visiting a previously unknown house, the Ouija board, a literal red hair-ing, stripping out all the video game-isms for interactivity, few mechanics, simple systems and using their few mechanics and verbs, experience-forward, Brett quizzes Tim, narrative richness, the ordering of collectible reading, leveraging non-linear storytelling, using period-appropriate communication, games that make Tim cry, the 90s of it all, letters vs email, waste paper baskets, a visual language and the use of consistency.  Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Death Stranding, Dear Esther, Firewatch, BioShock Infinite, Batman: Arkham Origins, GTA V, Tomb Raider (2013), Dead Rising 3, Dead Space 3, LoZ: A Link Between Worlds, The Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls, AC IV: Black Flag, Rayman Legends, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Battlefield IV, Payday 2, Outlast, Antichamber, The Stanley Parable, Papers Please, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Starbreeze, Josef Fares, Hazelight Studios, It Takes Two, LucasArts, Clair Obscure: Expedition 33, Blue Prince, Animal Well, Balatro, 343 Studios, BioStats, Calamity Nolan, Tacoma, Indie Game: The Movie, Minerva's Den, Bioshock, Kate Craig, Carl Lumbly, 2K Marin, Hangar 13, Fallout: New Vegas, Morrowind, Sleep No More, Macbeth, Antenna Theater, Meow Wolf, George RR Martin, Control, Imagineering, Disney, Fez, X-Files, Resident Evil, Amnesia, Life Is Strange, Leaves of Grass, Hollow Knight, Pulp Fiction, Final Fantasy IX, Shadow of the Colossus, The Last of Us 2, Alien, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.  Next time: Dear Esther (2012) Links: Why Is Gone Home A Game? Twitch: timlongojr https://twitch.tv/timlongojr Discord https://t.co/h7jnG9J9lz DevGameClub@gmail.com mailto://devgameclub@gmail.com

Square Roots - THE Classic RPG Podcast
Grim Fandango Part 2: Johnny Troublehands

Square Roots - THE Classic RPG Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 19, 2025 142:04


Grim Fandango Part 2: Johnny Troublehands Square Roots - Episode 464 Quest Log: 27:11 Level Up: 01:49:50 Who do you call when life gives you trouble? JOHNNY TROUBLEHANDS! And he's joined by Matthew Dangerfist! Jim Blazin! And Vanessa Deathteeth! And we finish the LucasArts adventure classic, Grim Fandango! Is Grim a sociopath? Is Glottis better off without him? Was Meche right in holding him at gun point? YES! Also: The Clicker Genre "And Yet I'm Not." Source: Vanessa A Towel Made of Fruit Roll-Up How To Knock Out A Skeleton This Is Nothing Like The Breakfast Club! Tofu Gwace! This Week: Finish Year III and Year IV in Grim Fandango! Next Week: Wake Up in Prison in Enchanted Arms! Our Patreon: http://patreon.com/squarerootspodcast Thanks to Steven Morris for his awesome theme! You can find him at: https://bsky.app/profile/stevenmorrismusic.bsky.social and https://www.youtube.com/user/morrissteven Contact Square Roots! Twitter: @squarerootspod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/486022898258197/ Email: squarerootspodcast (at) gmail (dort) com

Square Roots - THE Classic RPG Podcast
Grim Fandango Part 1: A Mnemonic Tube

Square Roots - THE Classic RPG Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 12, 2025 156:19


Grim Fandango Part 1: A Mnemonic Tube Square Roots - Episode 463 Quest Log: 29:00 Level Up: 02:05:00 Welcome to the BONE ZONE! This week on the Bone Zone we're checking out LucasArts's pinnacle of adventure gaming, Grim Fandango. In it you start as a reaper, which Matthew informs us is named Grim Fandango.  Join these Hep Cats as we get people murdered, trick penguins, and abuse the trust of your man-child elemental buddy. Also: A Little Tiny Computer! Nice Meche! Matt's Wild and Wacky Florida Tour! It Was Rutger Hauer! MANNY, YOU PROMISED! This Week: Finish Year I and Year II in Grim Fandango! Next Week: Finish Year III and Year IV in Grim Fandango! Our Patreon: http://patreon.com/squarerootspodcast Thanks to Steven Morris for his awesome theme! You can find him at: https://bsky.app/profile/stevenmorrismusic.bsky.social and https://www.youtube.com/user/morrissteven Contact Square Roots! Twitter: @squarerootspod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/486022898258197/ Email: squarerootspodcast (at) gmail (dort) com

The Naked Texture Artist
The Naked Texture Artist - Myriam Catrin - Episode 6

The Naked Texture Artist

Play Episode Listen Later May 12, 2025 55:39


We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text! The Naked Texture Artist is a podcast where VFX/animation veterans have deep and honest conversations about their challenges and growth as working artists.  Welcome to the sixth and penultimate slice from my conversation with the Dragon Lady. In this part I finally bring up the reason I wanted to talk to her: Is Myriam Catrin the world's best texture artist? Her work speaks for itself, but more than ability and talents, it is Myriam's humanity that make her one of the great and truly special artists. I am sure you will agree, when you have listened to her take on all the greatness talk. There is no sunshine without occasional darkness: Myriam shares a very personal episode, where her work broke her and how she managed to steer herself back to health again.  If you want to know the innerworkings of one of the best texture artists in VFX today, the highs and the lows, Myriam shares very generously and fearlessly of her experience. Enjoy! Myriam is a fantastic artist, who's work and interests reach far beyond VFX.  Do yourself a favour, please, and explore and support the amazing work Myriam also does:  https://www.artstation.com/myriamcatrin  Sadly her amazing comic book, Passages, is currently sold out. But look out for new print runs here:  https://shop.publicdomain.paris/product/passages-myriam-catrin  Myriam has also recently contributed beautiful artwork to the Modern Calligraphy Bible:  https://schifferbooks.com/products/modern-calligraphy-bible  As well as the exciting project Nariko's Voyage, which is in development for TV: https://www.narikosvoyage.com/  We also talk about the multi-facetted Martin Hill, who's excellent pottery can be found here: https://www.martinhillceramics.com/ Hokusai of legend:  https://images.app.goo.gl/S1PvUoHf7wVptqNJ6  We refer back to Steven Pressfield's indispensable book The War of Art. Read it many, many times. It will enable you to do your best work: https://stevenpressfield.com/books/the-war-of-art/  Myriam refers to the breakthrough style of Alberto Mielgo, who of course created the seminal Jibaro episode for Love Death + Robots  https://www.albertomielgo.com/  The Naked Texture Artist is produced by Marque Pierre Sondergaard. Support us on https://ko-fi.com/thenakedtextureartist Contact us on thenakedtextureartist@gmail.com Follow us on https://www.instagram.com/thenakedtextureartist/ Music copyright belongs to Tycho for the song Awake - https://tychomusic.com/ Additional sound effects from https://www.zapsplat.com

Dev Game Club
DGC Ep 428: Fez (part three)

Dev Game Club

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2025 69:54


Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on 2012's Fez, looking at coming back to a puzzle game and perception in its many forms, among other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: More cubes! Issues covered: video game development ephemera, coming back to a puzzle game, not enjoying the map but maybe you should be, a text adventure map, secret doors, retraining your brain, key ordering, not knowing if you should walk away from puzzles, developing trust with the game, being motivated to solve every puzzle, when do you walk away, planning for the player to get stuck, adventure game slop, getting stuck in a more linear game, putting in scaled difficulty, getting to a point where you're stuck everywhere, different types of puzzling in the game, the steps of a particular puzzle, a meta discussion, a game about perspectives where the activity is manipulating perspectives, being proud of being in games, recontextualizing your perception, having to retrain your brain, overestablishment of genre, having confidence, working on top of a common language, recognizing that you have the tool, mechanics in a neighborhood, experimenting when you've been away, being able to innovate in more major ways, achievements/trophy hunting, being lost in the realm, Turing-complete redstone. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Sean Vesce, Zack Norman, Interstate '76, VGHF, LucasArts, Space Quest, The Witness, Blue Prince, MYST, Tomb Raider, Zelda, The Fool's Errand, Metroid (series), Hollow Knight, Kingdom Hearts (series), MegaMan (series), Mario (series), Colin from PA, PlayStation/Xbox/Steam, Minecraft, LostLake, Mors, Kaeon, Bvron, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.  Notes: Brett referred to Fez's year as 2013 or 2014, but clearly it was 2012. Whoops. Next time: Finish(?) the game? Twitch Discord DevGameClub@gmail.com

PixelLit
Dig Dug (The Dig: Part 1)

PixelLit

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2025 66:41


Episode 1 of The Dig! By Alan Dean Foster. This is an adaptation of the Lucas Arts game of the same name that was kicked off by Stephen Spielberg in 1989 but it didn't see fruition until 1995.  Our Socials Follow us at patreon.com/pixellitpod and hop into our Discord! Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/pixellitpod.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/pixellitpod   Book Synopsis When an asteroid out of nowhere threatens to hit Earth, a space shuttle is sent to nudge it into a safe orbit. Venturing to the surface, three crew members become trapped as the asteroid suddenly leaves orbit, transporting them to a strange planet light years away.

cd SPILL
The Legend of Kyrandia: Hand of Fate med Erling Rostvåg (#113)

cd SPILL

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 28, 2025 103:38


Det er noen gode eventyrspill gullklumper som ikke er laget av hverken Sierra eller LucasArts. Westwood lagde en litt mindre kjent serie med navnet Legend of Kyrandia. Vi tar for oss oppfølgeren Hand of Fate. Vi har fått med oss den rutinerte Erling Rostvåg kjent fra bl.a. den 18-år gamle podcasten Spillmatic. Les mer om episoden hos spillhistorie. Støtt oss gjerne på Patreon. Følg oss gjerne på Bluesky, Twitter, Facebook, og Podchaser. (00:00) Intro (00:40) Velkommen til cd SPILL (03:19) Kommentarer fra forrige episode (07:11) Dagens spill: Legend of Kyrandia: Hand of Fate (09:45) Hva er questen? (15:49) Brukergrensesnittet (22:32) Litt om ulike boxarts (24:49) Tech Specs (29:12) Musikken (32:19) Mer om grafikken (36:13) Spoiler av hele spillet (43:05) Spoilers: Morningmist Valley (52:44) Spoilers: Volcania (01:00:45) Spoilers: Enchanted forest (01:05:11) Spoilers: Wheels of Fate (01:07:54) Speedrun rekord (01:08:42) Lett å plukke opp ting (01:09:44) Pikselgrafikk og hotspots (01:10:48) Stemmeskuespillet (01:13:49) Spoiler: Hva skjer på slutten? (01:15:03) Minneverdige øyeblikk (01:21:38) Oppfølgere (01:26:37) Spoiler: Blir det et kyss? (01:28:09) Kommentarer fra sosiale medier (01:35:46) Har det holdt seg? (01:39:26) Tips fra Sigve (01:42:00) Neste episode Chapters, images & show notes powered by vizzy.fm.

Dev Game Club
DGC Ep 427: Interstate '76 Interview with Sean Vesce and Zack Norman

Dev Game Club

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 23, 2025 74:45


Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we return with a bonus interview for our series on Interstate '76. We talk about shipping the game's predecessor, pulling together, and making something new. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 1:15 Interview 1:05:22 Break 1:06:00 Outro Issues covered: introducing the guests, having fun making games, great manuals, marrying video games and Hollywood, having more video game applicable experience than you realize, having to right the ship well into development, preordering a game you ended up working on, living in the office, getting enough memory to run the games, opening up space for something new, superheroics and glue, "high polygon counts," muscle cars with guns, being ahead of the curve, sims being in the blood, engine development, come back with your tenth idea, a 28-year scoop on engine work, "I can do that," optimizing and making things up as you go along, making a game like a movie or TV show, a soundtrack that helped drive the game, a team of 12 or 13 people, the few basic bits in a vehicle sim, the players don't know what you've cut, not being arena-based, vigilantes and comic-book heroes, the tools for making the world and a scripted objective system, building from scratch, mission structure, finite state machines and AI, having an identity and character, having a bubble, sticking to your passion, working on a new car game, hearing the chemistry, TTRPGs and alternate histories, our audience maybe not being born yet when this game came out, #minecraft-realm-life.  Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Activision, Mechwarrior 2, 20After1, Cinemaware, Crystal Dynamics, Project Snowblind, Tomb Raider (series), E-Line Games, Never Alone, Colabee, Very Very Spaceship, Niantic, Live Aware, Jamdat, DoggyLawn, Atari 2600, David Crane, Stephen Cartwright, Commodore '64, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, Adventure, River Raid, Bobby Kotick, Mediagenic, Intellivision, Pong, SimCity, Alan Gershenfeld, Howard Marks, DOOM (1993), FASA Interactive, Battletech, Egghead Software, E3/CES, Tim Morten, LucasArts, Totally Games, Larry Holland, TIE Fighter/X-Wing, Star Wars: Starfighter, id Software, Epic, Julio Jerez, Airport '77, The A-Team, Third Eye Blind, Kelly Walker Rogers, Tim Schafer, Carmageddon, Twisted Metal, Watchmen, Jordan Weisman, Microsoft, Wing Commander, Falcon, Fallout, Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, X-COM, Julian Gollop, Alex Garden, Homeworld, Dan Stansfield, Castle Falkenstein, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, Minecraft, mors, LostLake, Kaeon, bvron, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.  Next time: Back to Fez Notes: Julio Jerez appears to be from Dominican Republic Twitch Discord DevGameClub@gmail.com

All Things Star Wars
Episode 364 - Lords of the Sith

All Things Star Wars

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2025 128:30


This week we're discussing the 2015 Star Wars novel, Lords of the Sith. Our stuff! bio.link/thesidebarcantina Special shout out to those who participate in our live chat! The chat is most definitely where it's at! And all of our Patreon supporters! YOU are the reason why we do this! Support our Sidebar Family: ATSW The Escape Pod: Wednesdays live on YouTube at 1905 EST. https://bio.link/atswtheescapepod Support the official Sidebar Cantina band, TILTHEEND! https://tiltheendofficial.bio.link Layman and Layman! On YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@laymansterms3150 The Orange and Fett Show! On Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3XJdyJWBtAtM4dy1a5V4So?si=08dd3e9e7b5e400c  

Cane and Rinse
Star Wars: Dark Forces – Cane and Rinse No.660

Cane and Rinse

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 15, 2025 105:17


“This could be interesting.” Star Wars + DOOM = awesome success. A simple enough equation for mid-90s LucasArts, but is there more to Dark Forces than that? Leon, Chris Worthington, Darren and Tony blast and puzzle their way through this first-person shooter adventure, with missives from Cane and Rinse's community alliance along the way. From the MS-DOS original to the recent Nightdive remaster, we have all planet-destroying bases covered. http://media.blubrry.com/caneandrinse/caneandrinse.com/podcast/cane_and_rinse_issue_660.mp3   Music featured in this issue: 1. Kyle Katarn's Theme by Clint Bajakian2. The Final Battle by Clint Bajakian edited by Jay TaylorYou can support Cane and Rinse and in return receive an often extended version of the podcast four weeks early, along with exclusive podcasts, if you subscribe to our Patreon for the minimum of $2 per month (+VAT).  Do you have an opinion about a game we're covering that you'd like read on the podcast? Then venture over to our forum and check out the list of upcoming games we're covering. Whilst there you can join in the conversations with our friendly community in discussing all things relating to videogames, along with lots of other stuff too. Sound good? Then come and say hello at The Cane and Rinse forum

My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin
Celia Hodent, UX specialist (Ubisoft Montreal, LucasArts, Epic Games).

My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 15, 2025 78:44


Celia Hodent is a French author and former director of user experience at Epic Games. Born in France, she earned her doctorate in psychology in Paris, hoping to become a professional academic. Her childhood love of video games, however, drew her to the games industry, and in 2008 she joined Ubisoft to work on the editorial team. In 2010 she transferred to Ubisoft Montreal to work as user experience coordinator on Rainbow 6 series using her training in cognitive science to help guide the design teams. In 2012 she moved to the US, working as UX lead at LucasArts, then as Director of UX at Epic Games, overseeing user experience on Fortnite. Since 2017 my guest has worked as a UX strategy consultant, publishing several books including “The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX can Impact Video Game Design.” Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Classic Gaming Today:  A Retro Gaming Podcast
Episode 133 - Sam & Max: Hit the Road

Classic Gaming Today: A Retro Gaming Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 7, 2025 86:01


Did you ever want to take a road trip across the USA with a wisecracking dog and a highly sociopathic rabbit?  If so, you don't want to miss this one, as we discuss the LucasArts "buddy cop" classic, Sam & Max: Hit the Road!  Learn about Sam & Max's origins, discover how the game was made, and listen in as we discuss whether it's still worth your time to go on a whirlwind adventure with a couple of anthropomorphic wisecracking detectives, even today. Join the discussion on Discord! Want more Classic Gaming Today?  Sign up as a patron at Patreon.com/ClassicGamingToday!

ATARITECA PODCAST - Il blister di videogiochi
Ep.157 - Intervista a CRISTIANO CALIENDO del CALAVERA CAFÈ

ATARITECA PODCAST - Il blister di videogiochi

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 3, 2025 55:46


[ Vota Atariteca tramite la app di Spotify ] In cui l'Omone sottopone Cristiano Caliendo a un interrogatorio spietato e si fa raccontare l'origine del mito#calaveracafe #cristianocaliendo #avventuregrafiche #videogiochi #retrogamingQui se vuoi contattare il canale Youtube del CALAVERA CAFÈSe desiderate supportarmi: https://ko-fi.com/ataritecapodcastIl gruppo Telegram del Vintage People NetworkIl canale YouTube dei Vintage People La sigla di Atariteca è stata gentilmente offerta da BluefixxerPer tutto il resto c'è il sito di ATARITECA### CONTRIBUISCI ALL'ATARITECA ###### ISCRIVITI ###Omone su InstagramSpreakeriTunesGoogle Podcast SpotifyFeed

Media Industry Guru
Chase Your Dreams and the Money Will Come with Composer and Drummer Mark Griskey |Season 16, Episode 13|

Media Industry Guru

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 1, 2025 33:25


Composer Mark Griskey has scored some of the most iconic video game titles of the last two decades — from the Star Wars universe to Pirates of the Caribbean and Marvel Super Hero Squad. Now, with a fresh master's degree in Music Business from Berklee, he's blending creative mastery with industry strategy.Here we sat down with Mark to talk about the evolution of video game music, his time at LucasArts, and how going back to school is shaping the next chapter of his career as well as his advice for people that want to be in his shoes.

Podcast de Glutenpollo
Juegos Basados en Pelis: Clásicos y Rarezas

Podcast de Glutenpollo

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2025 85:36


En este episodio de Glutenpollo, no nos quedamos solo en los típicos. Vale, sí, hablamos de clásicos como GoldenEye 007 o Spider-Man 2, pero nos metemos también en esas adaptaciones que muchos han olvidado (o directamente no sabían que existían). Desde los gloriosos (y en algunos casos apócrifos) juegos basados en pelis durante la época dorada del software español de los 80, hasta joyas como Jedi Power Battles de PS1 o El Señor de los Anillos: Las Dos Torres de PS2, que aún siguen siendo divertidísimos. Y además, Omar nos cuenta sus primeras impresiones del nuevo Indiana Jones y el Gran Círculo en Xbox Series X. ¿Estaremos ante un regreso triunfal, o mejor nos quedamos con los clásicos de LucasArts? Si te mola lo que hacemos en Glutenpollo y quieres echarnos un cable, puedes invitarnos a un café en Ko-Fi o apoyarnos directamente en iVoox con el botón azul desde 1,99 € al mes, sin permanencia. Todo lo que recibimos lo reinvertimos en el podcast y en los proyectos de Glutenpollo. Suscríbete para no perderte ningún episodio y únete a la comunidad. ¡Arrancamos!

All Things Star Wars
Episode 358 - Rebuild the Galaxy Part 1 & 2

All Things Star Wars

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 10, 2025 125:18


We're taking a look at the new(ish) Lego Star Wars series, Rebuild the Galaxy. Come join us!

All Things Star Wars
Episode 359 - Rebuild the Galaxy Part 3 & 4

All Things Star Wars

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 10, 2025 136:47


This week we're finishing up Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy!  

GamefulHeroes מִשְׂחוּק העתיד עם חנן גזית
76. One Study: How Active Video Games and Music Empower Cancer Patients and Build Resilience

GamefulHeroes מִשְׂחוּק העתיד עם חנן גזית

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 7, 2025 18:50


Hi everyone, I'm Dr. Elhanan Gazit, aka @VRider—short for Virtual Rider—and welcome to my podcast, Gameful Mindset in the Gen AI Era. I'm thrilled to launch "One Study"—a new segment where my AI co-hosts, Marshal and Daphnes, and I unpack one scientific study and uncover practical insights to enhance our daily lives through my Gameful Mindset Method.   In our first corner, I share a decisive personal moment: my son Nir, a talented DJ, played music this week for children with cancer at a Purim event by the Israeli non-profit Larger than Life organization. The organization provides Israeli families affected by pediatric cancer with emotional, logistical, and recreational support.   Seeing the kids and their families dance and smile with joy highlights the profound impact music and interactive shared experiences can have on resilience, well-being, and rehabilitation.   That's precisely the focus of today's study—how Active Video Games (AVGs), a growing field in MedTech, can help cancer patients by improving endurance, reducing fatigue, and enhancing quality of life. I also share the inspiring story of Ben's Game. Ben was a young cancer patient who created a video game with Lucas Arts developer to fight his illness—empowering himself and others with strength, control and agency. I share that story with practitioners, parents, and educators in my keynote talk.   This episode delivers valuable lessons for all of us—not just kids. Tune in, share it with a friend, and discover how to build resilience and well-being through a Gameful Mindset!   "Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and everything." - Plato   ⭐ Enjoyed this episode? Follow, rate five stars, and share it with someone who'd benefit! I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Let's connect:: LinkedIn Facebook Instagram   Want to learn more about The Gameful Mindset for Personal Growth? Talk to me, or book a consulting session today! >>> Juloot.com Subscribe to MetaYeda Newsletter to learn more >> MetaYeda.com   One Study Reference: Peyrachon, R., & Rébillard, A. (2023). Effects of active video games in patients with cancer: systematic review. JMIR cancer, 9, e45037. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10257106/  

Time for Another
Drippy Chaos EP: 213

Time for Another

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2025 65:01


This week the boys are back and we got quite a bit to get to including a few local stories to us here in Idaho, The Vice Prez and his life troubles, Joy Reid getting fired, Kathleen Kelly leaving Lucas Arts, and a weird Ohio law they are trying to pass and much much more. Listen in to find out more...Check us out on all social media at time for another podcast or check out our website at timeforanother.comSend us an email at timeforanotherpodcast@gmail.comSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/time-for-another/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Gimmicks
MANIAC MANSION's first episode is a 10th anniversary clip show (with Chris Cummins)

Gimmicks

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2025 111:13


Maniac Mansion: "The 10th Anniversary Special" In quite possibly the only time we'll ever cover a pilot episode on this podcast, Chris Cummins of Sci-Fi Explosion joins us for this forgotten, but subversive and smart Eugene Levy-helmed Canadian sitcom and its bizarre first episode – a fake clip show celebrating its 10th anniversary. Seriously! We talk about this show's deep connections with Schitt's Creek, Freaks and Geeks, and the hugely influential improvisation powerhouse Second City and SCTV. Plus, a dive into this show's origins as a LucasArts video game adaptation, a brief history of The Family Channel and its religious ties, and the clip show parodies, dream sequences, anniversary special tropes, JFK assassination jokes, and meta references that this truly daring episode offers.Watch Sci-Fi Explosion on TwitchFollow Sci-Fi Explosion on InstagramA proud part of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Glitterjaw Queer Podcast Collective⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tip us on Ko-Fi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Gimmicks Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠gimmickspodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | InstagramTheme song:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠"Disco Tears" by Raven⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Creative Commons Attribution 3.0⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sources: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠1992 Entertainment Weekly piece on “SCTV” alumni are working on the show, Benjamin Scetskey writing for Entertainment Weekly, January 1992The Weird and Wonderful History of Maniac Mansion, Ian Howard writing for Fandom, November 2022Exclusive Interview with Eugene Levy: Creating the Comedy for Maniac Mansion, Dan Madsen writing for Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine, August 1990. Scans from The International House of MojoFamily Channel Strays from Religion, Embraces Clean Fun, Susan King writing for the Los Angeles Times, January 1991The Long, Strange History of ABC Family, Jacqui Shine writing for The New Republic, October 2015Family Channel's Making Of Maniac Mansion Video

The Classic Gamers Guild Podcast
Patches, Mods, Debugs & Cheats!

The Classic Gamers Guild Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 4, 2025 45:44


This week Anna & Paul are talking about patches, mods, things and stuff!    Come for the things, stay for the stuff. Mangia!   Play our adventure game! The Phantom Fellows is out now! GOG  Steam  itch.io Fireflower     Shek out our friends in the Adventure Game Hotspot Network: Space Quest Historian's The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour - do they deserve better? Adventure Game Geek's My Games of the Year 2024 (feat. Paul & The Phantom Fellows) OneShortEye's  Even MORE King's Quest IV Details Adventure Game Hotspot's AGH Network's Favorite Adventure Games of 2024 (feat. The Phantom Fellows)     Conversations with Curtis' Paul Korman & Daniel play The Phantom Fellows! Tech Talk with Daniel Albu's A Conversation with LucasArts composer Michael Land (Monkey Island / The Dig / iMuse) The Adventure Games Podcast - Interview with Paul Korman - The Classic Gamers Guild Podcast & The Phantom Fellows   Say hi I guess! Twitter (Anna) - @CGGpodcast Twitter (Paul) - @PhantomFellows Bluesky ThePhantomFellows.com Send us your words! E-mail:  mail@CGGpodcast.com Become a Patreon to support the show? www.patreon.com/ClassicGamersGuild Join the group and talk about neat stuff! Facebook Page Facebook Group We're also on Instagram & YouTube  "CGG Theme" and "A Minor Concussion" by The Volume Remote Intro greeting (usually) by (and thank you to) Hope Kodman VonStarnes   The Phantom Fellows is available on: GOG  Steam  itch.io Fireflower    

Think Like A Game Designer
Jesse Alexander — Mastering the Creative Hustle, Fighting for Bold Ideas, and Thriving in a Changing Industry (#80)

Think Like A Game Designer

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 27, 2025 70:42


About Jesse AlexanderJesse Alexander is an Emmy award-winning screenwriter and producer with over two decades of experience crafting iconic television series and groundbreaking game content. If you've watched TV over the last 20 years, you've likely seen some of Jesse's work. His television credits include Alias, Lost, Heroes, Hannibal, Star Trek: Discovery, American Gods, and Citadel.A pioneer in transmedia storytelling, Jesse has designed award-winning content that extends narratives across multiple platforms. His work in the gaming industry includes contributions to LucasArts, Predator VR, and animated trailers for Blur, as well as narrative design consulting for Valorant and other Riot Games titles.In this episode, Jesse shares his incredible journey—growing up immersed in film and game culture, hustling as a screenwriter, and navigating the ever-evolving landscape of TV and interactive storytelling. We discuss the impact of AI on the creative process, how he channels ADHD into productivity, and the lessons he's learned from decades of freelancing across television, film, and games. Jesse's relentless passion for storytelling, genre innovation, and collaboration shines through, making this an insightful and inspiring conversation for creators of all kinds.Find more about Jesse Alexander at: https://www.scribblejerk.com/Ah-ha! Justin's Takeaways* As Creators, We Are the Product, Not What We Make: Jesse's perspective on creativity was a huge lightbulb moment for me—he emphasized that formats change, tastes shift, and technology evolves, but the one constant in a creative career is you. Instead of being overly attached to any one project, Jesse has focused on honing his craft, staying adaptable, and evolving with the industry. This reminded me of how essential it is to keep learning and growing, no matter the medium or platform.* Ikigai—Finding Purpose in Creative Work: Jesse's career embodies the Japanese concept of ikigai—that intersection of passion, skill, and purpose. He spoke about staying humble, not taking creative work for granted, and grinding relentlessly to turn his love of storytelling into a career. It reinforced something I've long believed: success in any creative field isn't just about talent—it's about the work. If you love it, you have to show up every day and put in the effort to make it sustainable.* Not Fearing Feedback is a Superpower: One of the biggest takeaways from Jesse's story was how he developed an immunity to criticism early on. He grew up making Super 8 films with his friends, and the brutally honest feedback they gave each other shaped his ability to iterate without ego. This fearlessness allowed him to refine his skills, take risks, and navigate the competitive world of Hollywood and game writing. It made me reflect on how fear of judgment holds so many people back—if you can embrace feedback as a tool for growth, you unlock a creative superpower.Think Like A Game Designer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Show Notes“People started seeing that they could rely on me to generate content of a certain level of quality within a window of time.” (00:12:16)Jesse reflects on his early screenwriting hustle, explaining how his relentless output and consistency helped him break into the industry. He emphasizes that success in creative fields isn't just about raw talent—it's about showing up, doing the work, and proving you can execute under pressure. This lesson is invaluable for aspiring creatives looking to establish credibility and build momentum.“The truth is, you just have to decide how badly you want to succeed at the thing—and then turn everything else off.” (00:29:06)Discussing the impact of ADHD on his creative process, Jesse shares how he managed distractions by eliminating them entirely. He credits his ability to stay hyper-focused on writing by avoiding TV, video games, and unnecessary noise. His disciplined approach serves as a powerful reminder that deep work requires conscious effort to remove obstacles and stay committed to the craft.“I was the guy willing to talk back to executives and say, ‘You guys don't get it, man—this show is great.'” (00:44:32)Jesse recounts his time working on Heroes and how the network initially didn't understand its appeal. He explains the importance of being an advocate for creative vision, even when facing skepticism or resistance. His willingness to challenge industry norms and fight for bold ideas is a valuable lesson for any creator looking to push boundaries.“I just want to keep that beginner's brain activated—because we, as creators, are the product.” (01:03:45)Jesse describes his philosophy of lifelong learning, from experimenting with AI to studying new storytelling formats like screen-life movies. He emphasizes that the entertainment landscape is always evolving, and staying relevant means continually pushing yourself to learn, adapt, and innovate. This takeaway is crucial for creatives who want to remain at the forefront of their industry. Get full access to Think Like A Game Designer at justingarydesign.substack.com/subscribe

The Classic Gamers Guild Podcast
Screensavers And The Screens They Saved

The Classic Gamers Guild Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 18, 2025 58:20


This week Anna & Paul are talking about screen savers! From the origins to the toasters to the sad, slide show end— what a ride it was.   AfterDark for Windows 10/11 Flying Toasters for MacOS     Play our adventure game! The Phantom Fellows is out now! GOG  Steam  itch.io Fireflower     Shek out our friends in the Adventure Game Hotspot Network: Space Quest Historian's The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour - do they deserve better? Adventure Game Geek's My Games of the Year 2024 (feat. Paul & The Phantom Fellows) OneShortEye's  Even MORE King's Quest IV Details Adventure Game Hotspot's AGH Network's Favorite Adventure Games of 2024 (feat. The Phantom Fellows) Save Your Game's Episode 32 - Kings Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella & Paul Korman Laura Cressup's Twitch & YouTube Channels       Conversations with Curtis' Paul Korman & Daniel play The Phantom Fellows! Tech Talk with Daniel Albu's A Conversation with LucasArts composer Michael Land (Monkey Island / The Dig / iMuse) The Adventure Games Podcast - Interview with Paul Korman - The Classic Gamers Guild Podcast & The Phantom Fellows   Say hi I guess! Twitter (Anna) - @CGGpodcast Twitter (Paul) - @PhantomFellows Bluesky ThePhantomFellows.com Send us your words! E-mail:  mail@CGGpodcast.com Become a Patreon to support the show? www.patreon.com/ClassicGamersGuild Join the group and talk about neat stuff! Facebook Page Facebook Group We're also on Instagram & YouTube  "CGG Theme" and "A Minor Concussion" by The Volume Remote Intro greeting (usually) by (and thank you to) Hope Kodman VonStarnes   The Phantom Fellows is available on: GOG  Steam  itch.io Fireflower                      

Abject Suffering
597: Herc's Adventures

Abject Suffering

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 17, 2025 36:44


Hey folks, Herc's Adventures is actually kind of a good game. Made by the Zombies Ate My Neighbors team at LucasArts, it expands on that formula with some neat ideas like its novel death mechanic and its open world. But to be honest, a lot of this episode is informed by residual Guppy Energy left over from recording the Sonic 3 Adaptation Decay with Will.

cd SPILL
Beneath a Steel Sky med Jåddi (#109)

cd SPILL

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 17, 2025 133:06 Transcription Available


Revolution Software utga et legendarisk dystopisk sci-fi pek-og-klikk-spill i 1994. Hvorfor blir Robert Foster kidnappet fra "the gap" og inn til storbyen Union City? Hvem er den mystiske Overmann, og hva er forholdet til datasystemet Linc? Bli med oss til Beneath a Steel Sky og få svarene du trenger. Se intervjuet med Charles Cecil og Dave Gibbons på Youtube. Se kortfilmen Solstice 5: Forgotten archives. Les mer om episoden hos spillhistorie.no Støtt oss gjerne på Patreon. Følg oss gjerne på Bluesky, Twitter, Facebook, og Podchaser. (00:00) Intro (00:35) Velkommen til cd SPILL (04:02) Kommentarer fra forrige episode (15:13) Dagens spill: Beneath a Steel Sky (16:55) Hva tror Sigve spillet går ut på? (20:05) Settingen (26:52) Litt om brukergrensesnittet (29:54) Tech Specs (32:29) Sammenligning med Sierra og Lucasarts (38:26) Hvordan ble spillet til? (42:58) Grafiske stilen (46:25) Slettede originaler (48:55) Spoiler hele historien (01:07:16) Suno/AI sang om BASS (01:12:18) Noen minneverdige øyeblikk (01:26:26) Litt fra manualen (01:32:07) Musikken (01:33:35) Hvordan spille idag? (01:40:19) Litt om stemmeskuespillet (01:47:50) Kommentarer fra sosiale medier (01:59:08) Remastered til iOS (02:01:08) Oppfølgere (02:03:07) Har det holdt seg? (02:05:38) Finnes det noe tilsvarende idag? (02:08:18) Shoutout til patreon (02:09:07) Tips fra Sigve (02:11:48) Neste episode Chapters, images & show notes powered by vizzy.fm.

Save Your Game
Episode 45 - Loco Motive

Save Your Game

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 12, 2025 93:16


Come take a train ride with Matt and Roses and help us solve the murder of Lady Untervald. If only Matt still played adventure games, instead of SGG (Shoot-Gun Games). First, though, some orders of business: We have a surprising TEETH UPDATE. Roses got a new toy! Matt's new favorite game was finally release. And two cool games got release dates. And now, the main event: A retro-styled murder mystery adventure game set on a train that HONESTLY WE SWEAR WE'RE NOT JUST SAYING THIS BECAUSE IT GETS SAID ABOUT EVERY POINT-AND-CLICK GAME has major Lucasarts vibes.And, by popular demand, Ranking Every Adventure Game Ever makes its triumphant return.Email us! mattandroses@gmail.comGames Mentioned: Blake Stone Stardew Valley Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector Kings Quest V Cabernet Rosewater Loco Motive Pine Hearts Orion Burger Valiant Hearts: The Great War Puzzles in Motion: Backstreet Boys Backstreet Boys Save Christmas

ATARITECA PODCAST - Il blister di videogiochi

[ Vota Atariteca tramite la app di Spotify ] Quando sei in LucasArts ti si può perdonare tutto ma non certo la mediocrità. Buon trentacinquesimo compleanno LOOM#loom #lucasarts #lucasfilm #videogiochiLa pagina di LUCASDELIRIUM dedicata ai porting di LOOMSe desiderate supportarmi: https://ko-fi.com/ataritecapodcastIl gruppo Telegram del Vintage People NetworkIl canale YouTube dei Vintage People La sigla di Atariteca è stata gentilmente offerta da BluefixxerPer tutto il resto c'è il sito di ATARITECA### CONTRIBUISCI ALL'ATARITECA ###### ISCRIVITI ###Omone su InstagramSpreakeriTunesGoogle Podcast SpotifyFeed

The Classic Gamers Guild Podcast
The Curse of Monkey Island

The Classic Gamers Guild Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 4, 2025 117:00


(We had some technical issues and this weeks episode was recorded onto a single track. We apologize for any resulting loss in quality and any rather, unsavory, background noises.) (Especially the sexy, squishy ones.)   This week Anna & Paul play The Curse of Monkey Island! Is it the best Monkey Island, or the worst? It's for sure one of those extremes, find out what at least one of us thinks, while the other refuses to rate them, ANNA. Anyway, mangia!     Play our adventure game! The Phantom Fellows is out now! GOG  Steam  itch.io Fireflower     Shek out our friends in the Adventure Game Hotspot Network: Space Quest Historian's The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour - do they deserve better? Adventure Game Geek's My Games of the Year 2024 (feat. Paul & The Phantom Fellows) OneShortEye's  Even MORE King's Quest IV Details Adventure Game Hotspot's AGH Network's Favorite Adventure Games of 2024 (feat. The Phantom Fellows) Save Your Game's Episode 32 - Kings Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella & Paul Korman Laura Cressup's Twitch & YouTube Channels       Conversations with Curtis' Paul Korman & Daniel play The Phantom Fellows! Tech Talk with Daniel Albu's A Conversation with LucasArts composer Michael Land (Monkey Island / The Dig / iMuse) The Adventure Games Podcast - Interview with Paul Korman - The Classic Gamers Guild Podcast & The Phantom Fellows   Say hi I guess! Twitter (Anna) - @CGGpodcast Twitter (Paul) - @PhantomFellows Bluesky ThePhantomFellows.com Send us your words! E-mail:  mail@CGGpodcast.com Become a Patreon to support the show? www.patreon.com/ClassicGamersGuild Join the group and talk about neat stuff! Facebook Page Facebook Group We're also on Instagram & YouTube  "CGG Theme" and "A Minor Concussion" by The Volume Remote Intro greeting (usually) by (and thank you to) Hope Kodman VonStarnes   The Phantom Fellows is available on: GOG  Steam  itch.io Fireflower                      

Dev Game Club
DGC Ep 418: Outcast (part one)

Dev Game Club

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 30, 2025 72:29


Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on 1999's Outcast, from Appeal and Infogrames. We first talk about this past weekend's charity event, before setting the game in its time and discussing its early presentation. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Through tutorial Issues covered: Defeating Games for Charity, variety of streamers, offerings to the foundation, the speedrun seed, commenting on our own game, more memories of Jedi Starfighter, how a developer sees a game vs a player, a big doodyhead, the crossover of European games, setting the game in its time, not fitting in with others of its time, a weird company in gaming history, not being sure what's in the game, a parody of 1980s action heroes, pop culture origins, proper noun soup and a lexicon, waking up in another place, doling out too much worldbuilding at once, othering non-Western cultures, building on golden era science fiction, exploring the starting area, lots of verbs, discovering by exploring, technically first person, lack of quest markers, manipulating voxel density, using voxels differently, using voxels as rendering and simulation vs rendering only, ray-tracing, advances in hardware and looking back on old research, constructive solid geometry and tessellation, finding limitations, popularity in other regions, big in Japan. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: CalamityNolan, LostLake86, Robotspacer, N01sses, Sierra On-Line, Mystery House, Enchanted Scepters, Video Game History Foundation, Trespasser, Tower Song, Omega Intertainment, RPG Maker, Kerbal Space Program, Sol10, Kaeon, KyleAndError, Might and Magic, AgelessRPG, Minecraft, NES, Spelunky, mysterydip, Belmont, Andrew Kirmse, Chris Corry, SW: Starfighter (series), Daron Stinnett, June, Valheim, Dark Souls, Delta Force, Shenmue, System Shock2, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Planescape: Torment, Homeworld, Johnny "Pockets", Civilization, Populous, Tomb Raider, Nintendo, Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Anachronox, Metal Gear Solid, Atari, GT Interactive, Microprose, Hasbro Interactive, Unreal, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Asteroids, Franck Sauer, Yann Robert, Yves Grolet, Lennie Moore, Beyond Good and Evil, Armageddon, Arnold Schwarzeneggar, Sylvester Stallone, The A-Team, Flash Gordon, John Carter of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs, David Lynch, Dune, Mass Effect, Stephen Donaldson, Octavia Butler, Star Wars, DOOM (1993), Morrowind, Stargate, Pat Sirk, Spore, The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, Red Faction, TRON, Enshrouded, Unity, Claudiu, Heroes of Might and Magic, LucasArts, Insomniac, Metroid (series), StarCraft, Uncharted 2, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.  Note: The term I was looking for and remembered at 2 in the morning was "metaballs" Next time: More Outcast Twitch: timlongojr Discord DevGameClub@gmail.com

The Retro Hour (Retro Gaming Podcast)
463: ScummVM: Keeping Classic Games Alive - The Retro Hour EP463

The Retro Hour (Retro Gaming Podcast)

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 17, 2025 90:30


This week, we're joined by Eugene Sandulenko, project lead of the legendary ScummVM, to explore how this essential tool preserves gaming history. From its origins to supporting classics like Blade Runner and lesser-known gems, Eugene shares fascinating stories about reverse engineering, community passion, and overcoming challenges like LucasArts' legal battles. Plus, we discuss how ScummVM adapts to modern trends, supports countless platforms, and even improves the retro gaming experience without losing its charm.  Contents: 00:00 - The Week's Retro News Stories  41:03 - Eugene Sandulenko Interview Please visit our amazing sponsors and help to support the show: Bitmap Books - https://www.bitmapbooks.com Take your business to the next level today and enjoy 3 months of Shopify for £1/month: https://shopify.co.uk/retrohour The Retro Hour Book: https://retrohour.myshopify.com/ We need your help to ensure the future of the podcast, if you'd like to help us with running costs, equipment and hosting, please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://theretrohour.com/support/ https://www.patreon.com/retrohour Get your Retro Hour merchandise: https://bit.ly/33OWBKd Join our Discord channel: https://discord.gg/GQw8qp8 Website: http://theretrohour.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theretrohour/ X: https://twitter.com/retrohouruk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/retrohouruk/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/theretrohour.com Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/theretrohour Show notes Capcom and Bandai Namco handheld: https://tinyurl.com/3nnvwms3 Atari handheld: https://tinyurl.com/2j95myyk Kero Quest 64: https://tinyurl.com/wnb8ay3b House of the Dead 2 remake: https://tinyurl.com/4kjjx8uc Atari prototype found: https://tinyurl.com/5xeszd5s

All Things Star Wars
Episode 354 - Skeleton Crew 5 & 6

All Things Star Wars

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 7, 2025 132:03


Happy New Year! This week we're continuing with Skeleton Crew to get you ready for Episode 7! Our stuff! bio.link/thesidebarcantina Special shout out to those who participate in our live chat! The chat is most definitely where it's at! And all of our Patreon supporters! YOU are the reason why we do this! Programming note: for the foreseeable future, we will be doing every other Monday for our live show! Family time is important time! Enjoy it! And you will do it! Support our Sidebar Family: ATSW The Escape Pod: Wednesdays live on YouTube at 1905 EST. https://bio.link/atswtheescapepod Swede Studios! On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKO2tHtVouka1ZmeX_FqO3A Layman and Layman! On YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@laymansterms3150 The Orange and Fett Show! On Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3XJdyJWBtAtM4dy1a5V4So?si=08dd3e9e7b5e400c

Side Quests Episode 349: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic with Bradly Shankar

"Fun" and Games Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 27, 2024 18:05


Side Quests is back and this episode's host is writer, editor and amnesiac aboard a Republic capital ship, Bradly Shankar! The game he is talking about today is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic by BioWare and LucasArts. You can also read his work here! We have a Patreon! Gain access to episode shout outs, bonus content, early downloads of regular episodes, an exclusive rss feed and more! Click here! You can find the show on Bluesky, Instagram and YouTube! Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts! Rate us on Spotify! Wanna join the Certain POV Discord? Click here!

Breaking Change
v26 - Luigi's Mansion

Breaking Change

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 14, 2024 204:11


I'd write more here, but I've got places to be. Becky, Jeremy, and I are going to engage in some holiday festivities. We have a couple gingerbread houses to make and a tree to trim. And no nog to speak of. Really, that's all you get by way of show notes this time as a result, deal with it. Send your complaints to podcast@searls.co and they will be read on air. Some bullet points below the fold: My 90-minute, outdated guide to setting up a Mac Aaron's puns, ranked Jim Carrey is 62 and can't even retire I bought my 8 year old a switch and didn't realize how much games cost Teen creates memecoin, dumps it, earns $50,000 Startup will brick $800 emotional support robot for kids without refunds Install the Mozi app (manifesto here | app here) Vision Pro getting PSVR2 controllers The 2024 Game Awards news roundup Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet looks badass, but is it too inclusive for The Gamers? We don't talk about Luigi An invisible desktop app for cheating on technical interviews (HN comments) Sora is out, but it's not good yet Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is out, and it is good yet Emudeck is so great it shouldn't be legal, and some people probably think it isn't Pikmin Stay tuned to my YouTube channel for upcoming LIVE streams Transcript: [00:00:00] Thank you. [00:00:29] Good morning, internet. [00:00:32] I started speaking before I realized, as an asynchronous audio production, it's actually pretty unlikely that it's the morning where you are. [00:00:43] Although, if it is the morning, coincidentally, please feel free to be creeped out, check over your shoulder. [00:00:51] Today was, I woke up with Vim and Vigor this morning, super excited to take on the day, thinking maybe I've got what it takes to record an audio production today. [00:01:07] And then we have an elderly coffee pot. [00:01:11] I don't want to completely put the blame on it because we were using it wrong for several years. [00:01:24] And it's a long story that I will shorten to say, any piece of consumer electronics or appliances in America, the half-life keeps decreasing. [00:01:37] And so when I say elderly coffee pot, I mean that we bought this coffee pot post-COVID. [00:01:42] And it's already feeling like, oh, we should probably get a new coffee pot, huh? [00:01:45] What happens is, from time to time, heat will build up in the grounds dingus. [00:01:55] I'm just realizing now that I'm like, you know, I'm not a coffee engineer. [00:01:58] Some of you are. [00:02:00] But, you know, of course, we all know that the dingus is connected to the water spigot, which is above the craft. [00:02:09] And what happens, as far as I can tell, is once in a while, you get all that hot water and grounds swirling around. [00:02:20] And if it clogs at all, like if it doesn't release just so, the whole little undercarriage, again, this is a technical term, just stay with me. [00:02:30] And we'll pop forward like three millimeters, which is just enough for the water to kind of miss its target on the craft and then spray all who's he what's it's, as well as for the spigot to start just kind of like splurring, you know, this water coffee slurry everywhere. [00:02:49] And so I went after, you know, but then you still get the triumphant ding dong sound that the coffee is ready. [00:02:56] So I walked over to the coffee expecting like, yes, it's the best, best way to start my day or whatever. [00:03:06] Pull out the coffee. [00:03:07] And the pot is too light. [00:03:10] And I had a familiarity of like what that means. [00:03:13] It means like there is water somewhere. [00:03:17] And it's not in this pot. [00:03:19] And so it's just like, you know, this big, big machine we actually have we've put because of our Mr. [00:03:26] Coffee's, you know, elderly onset incontinence. [00:03:33] We have we have put the entire coffee pot on a tray, like a rimmed silicone tray that you would use for like, I guess, a dog feeding bowl, right? [00:03:45] A dog, you know, messily eats food and slaps water around and stuff. [00:03:49] And you don't want it all over your hardwood. [00:03:50] Like you'd put this underneath that and it would catch some of the water. [00:03:53] So we I spent the first 30 minutes of my waking life today getting my hopes up that I was going to have coffee, followed by, you know, painstakingly carrying this entire cradle of of of coffee pot full of hot brown liquid. [00:04:10] That would stay in all of my clothes and, you know, get on the cabinets and stuff with a silicone underbelly thing. [00:04:18] And just kind of like, you know, we've got one of those big we're very fortunate to have one of those big farmers, farmer house, farmhouse. [00:04:25] I never know what to call it. [00:04:27] Steel, basically a double wide sink. [00:04:30] So what's nice about a double wide sink is that if you've got a problem in your kitchen and you're only a few steps away, whether it's the coffee pot part of the kitchen or the fridge or the freezer or the God forbid, the range or the oven, you can just sort of strategically hurl whatever it is you're holding just about into the into the sink. [00:04:51] And then once it hits the sink, it's, you know, the the the potential damage is limited. [00:04:57] So I gently hurled my coffee apparatus. [00:05:02] Is that the plural of apparatus? [00:05:04] One wonders into the into the into the sink and then spent the next 20 minutes, you know, scrubbing them and all to make another pot. [00:05:13] And Becky, of course, walks down the minute that the second pot is about to be finished. [00:05:18] And I'm like, I've already seen some shit and I'm going to go record a podcast now. [00:05:22] And that swallow you just heard was me having a sip of coffee that was not disgusting, but not great. [00:05:31] But I'll take it over where I was an hour ago. [00:05:39] Thank you for for subscribing as a as a true believer in breaking change. [00:05:47] We're coming up on one year now. [00:05:49] It's hard to believe that it's already been a year, not because this has been a lot of work or a big accomplishment, but just because the the the agony of existence seems to accelerate as you get older. [00:06:03] It's one of the few kindnesses in life and so as we whipsaw around the sun yet again, we're about to do that. [00:06:11] This is the 26th edition version 26 of the podcast. [00:06:17] I've got two names here to release titles and I haven't picked one yet. [00:06:22] So as a special. [00:06:24] Nearing the end of the year treat. [00:06:29] I'm going to pitch them both to you now, right? [00:06:31] So so we're in this together. [00:06:33] I like to think this is a highly collaborative one person show. [00:06:37] Version 26 rich nanotexture. [00:06:42] And that's a nod to the MacBook Pro has a nanotexture anti-glare screen coding option. [00:06:52] It's a reference to the rich Corinthian leather that was actually it's a Chrysler reference. [00:06:58] It's a made up thing. [00:06:59] There is no such thing as Corinthian leather, but like that's what they called their their seating. [00:07:03] And Steve Jobs referenced that as being the inspiration for I think it was the iPad calendar app. [00:07:13] With the rich Corinthian leather up at the top during the era of skeuomorphic designs back in 2010, 2009, maybe I can't remember exactly when they I think it's 2010 when he had his famous actually leather chair demonstration of the iPad. [00:07:28] Maybe the reason that that stood out to me was the car reference because it is it is an upsell. [00:07:34] The nanotexture $150 if you want to have a don't call it matte finish. [00:07:41] The other one, so that's option one, rich nanotexture. [00:07:46] And I didn't love it because I couldn't get texture. [00:07:49] I couldn't get the same Corinthian, right? [00:07:53] Like you want that bite, the multisyllabic bite that adds the extra, you know, the gravitas of a luxury good. [00:08:04] Yeah, texture just didn't have it for me. [00:08:06] But then if you change that word, it doesn't make sense. [00:08:08] So I mean, the other option two that came to mind version 26 don't don't by the way, don't think I'm going to edit this in post and fix it. [00:08:19] I will not. [00:08:20] I will ultimately land on one of these and that will be the title that you saw on your podcast player. [00:08:25] Or maybe some third thing will come to mind and then this conversation will be moot. [00:08:29] I do not think of this collaborative exercise. [00:08:32] Just imagine it's a it's a it's a quantum collaboration. [00:08:37] So by observing it, that's you actually took part. [00:08:41] You opened your podcast player and then the yeah, the entangled, you know, bits just they coalesced around one of these two names or some third name. [00:08:58] It's all just statistics version 26 Luigi's Mansion, which is a nod to two things at once. [00:09:05] I'm going to talk a little bit about GameCube, but also I'll probably not escape mentioning Luigi Manjoni Manjoni man. [00:09:15] You know, I haven't been watching the news. [00:09:17] I don't know how to pronounce his name, but it looks enough like mansion that I was like, oh, man. [00:09:21] I bet you there's a Nintendo PR guy whose day just got fucking ruined by the fella who is a overnight folk hero. [00:09:30] More attractive than most assassins, I would say. [00:09:35] Great hair. [00:09:36] Good skin. [00:09:37] Apparently, skincare Reddit is all about this fella who murdered in cold blood the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. [00:09:45] If you haven't caught the news, if you're even less online than I am. [00:09:51] And yeah, so I'm trying to decide. [00:09:53] I think Luigi's Mansion is probably going to win. [00:09:56] It's more timely. [00:09:57] It's the first time the name Luigi has come up in the last year. [00:10:00] And I may have mentioned nanotexture before when discussing Apple's very compromised studio display. [00:10:11] So I'm leaning Luigi's Mansion, but, you know, don't tempt me. [00:10:15] I might switch. [00:10:18] I'm going to just keep drinking coffee because I got to power through this. [00:10:21] Let's talk about some life stuff. [00:10:24] I so when we last talked that way back in the heady days of version 25, I had just gotten off a plane from Japan. [00:10:34] I was still a little bit jet lagged. [00:10:36] I recorded later in the evening. [00:10:38] I was tired. [00:10:39] You know, I was still overcoming. [00:10:41] I listened to the episode, realized I was overcoming a cold. [00:10:44] You know, then Becky shortly thereafter, after recording, she developed a pretty bad cough. [00:10:51] And so we've both been sleeping relatively poorly. [00:10:53] And I can't complain about this cough because her having a cough for four nights is nothing like me snoring on and off for over a year. [00:11:02] And I think the fact that her cough is consistent is actually a kindness compared to the sporadic nature of my snoring, where it's like I might go a week without it. [00:11:11] And then all of a sudden there's like, bam. [00:11:14] So she doesn't, you know, it's like sneaks up on her and that's not fair. [00:11:17] So so she's got a cough and I haven't been sleeping particularly well. [00:11:20] Maybe that's it. [00:11:22] I also, you know, I wanted to dry out because I was living on shoe highs, you know, canned cocktails in Japan for way too long. [00:11:30] Just drinking, you know, five whole dollars of alcohol every day, which is an irresponsible amount of alcohol. [00:11:36] It turns out. [00:11:40] Yeah, that's one nice thing about living in Orlando and theme park Orlando is that the average price of a cocktail here is seriously $20. [00:11:49] I think it is. [00:11:51] I am delighted and surprised when I find a cocktail under $20. [00:11:55] That's any good. [00:11:55] In fact, the four seasons right around the corner, their lobby bar has a some of the best bartenders in the state of Florida. [00:12:05] Like they went all kinds of awards. [00:12:06] And so when you say a lobby bar, you think it sucks. [00:12:09] But it's actually it's like it's a it's a restaurant with a room if you're ever around and they still do a happy hour with like $4. [00:12:18] It was $4 beers. [00:12:19] I think they finally increased to $5 beers draft beer. [00:12:23] And it's all craft. [00:12:25] You know, it's all fancy people stuff. [00:12:27] And they do it's I think it's $10 margaritas, French 75s, and they got some other happy hour cocktail. [00:12:37] It was highballs for a while. [00:12:39] Whiskey highballs was like probably centauri toki or something. [00:12:43] I gotta say like that $10 margarita. [00:12:47] They'll throw some jalapeno in there if you want some tahini rim, you know, they do it up. [00:12:52] They do it well. [00:12:54] But that might be the cheapest cocktail I've had in all of Orlando is at the Four Seasons. [00:13:01] Famous for that TikTok meme of the Four Seasons baby, if you're a TikTok person. [00:13:06] Anyway, all that all all this drinking talk back to the point. [00:13:11] I've been not drinking for a week. [00:13:12] And I, you know, I'm back to tracking my nutrients every day. [00:13:17] The things that I consume and adding up all of the protein and carbohydrate and realizing [00:13:21] if you don't drink, it's actually really easy to blow past one's protein goals. [00:13:25] And so I had one day where I had like 240 grams of protein, which is [00:13:28] enough protein that you'll feel it the next morning if you're not used to it. [00:13:34] And I still was losing weight. [00:13:38] I lost like five or six pounds in the last week. [00:13:43] And to the point where it was like, you know, I was feeling a little lightheaded, [00:13:47] a little bit woozy because I wasn't drinking enough is the takeaway. [00:13:52] So so thank God we got to go to a Christmas party last night. [00:13:57] It was it was great Gatsby themed. [00:13:58] And I dressed up like a man who wanted to do the bare minimum to not get made fun of at the party. [00:14:05] So I had some some suspenders on instead of a belt, which was the first time I ever put on suspenders. [00:14:13] They were not period appropriate suspenders simply because they had the, you know, the [00:14:18] little class B dues instead of how they had some other system for I don't I don't fucking know. [00:14:25] Like I, I had chat GPT basically helped me through this. [00:14:28] And it's like, hey, you want these kinds of suspenders? [00:14:30] I'm like, that sounds like an ordeal. [00:14:31] How about I just get some universal one size fits all fit and clip them in? [00:14:36] I also had a clip on bow tie. [00:14:37] So that worked. [00:14:39] When you think clip on bow tie, I guess I'd never used one before, but like it, I always [00:14:45] assumed it would just be like, you know, like a barrette clip that would go in front of the [00:14:49] front button and look silly for that reason. [00:14:51] And maybe that's how they used to be. [00:14:53] But it seems these days, if you want to spend $3 on a fancy clip on bow tie with a nice texturing, [00:14:58] I'll say, uh, it's just pre it's a pre tied bow with a still wraps around your neck. [00:15:04] It's just, it has a class mechanism, which seems smart to me, right? [00:15:08] I don't know what. [00:15:09] Look, if you're really into men's fashion, uh, there's this weird intersection or this tension [00:15:19] between I'm a manly man who, who ties my own shoes and, you know, kills my own dinner and [00:15:25] stuff. [00:15:25] And I, I, for fuck's sake, tie my own bow tie from scratch every day. [00:15:29] Right? [00:15:29] Like there's a toxically masculine approach to bow ties, but at the same time, it is such [00:15:35] a foofy accoutrement. [00:15:37] It's like an ascot, um, that the idea of like a manly man, like a man trying to demonstrate [00:15:43] his manliness by the fact that he doesn't use a clip on bow tie, uh, came to mind yesterday [00:15:50] when I was, uh, struggling even with the clasping kind. [00:15:54] I was like, man, I wish I could just get this to anyway. [00:15:58] Um, I had a vest at a gray vest. [00:16:03] This is all brand new territory for me. [00:16:05] Uh, yeah, I, I've, I've leaned pretty hard into the t-shirt and shorts and or jeans life [00:16:10] for so long. [00:16:12] Uh, the, the fella in front of us when we, when we were checking in, cause they took little [00:16:16] photos of you, uh, all of the women had the same exact flapper dress from Amazon, you know, [00:16:22] with the, the, the, the hairband thing with the, you know, fake, the polyester peacock tail. [00:16:28] Becky's looked the best. [00:16:29] I'm not gonna, I'm not even lying. [00:16:32] Uh, uh, her dress actually fit. [00:16:35] He had some, uh, very ill fitting flapper costumes that these women couldn't even move in. [00:16:40] Um, it was interesting. [00:16:42] Uh, but the, the fella in front of us at check-in was wearing a, a, a full blown, you know, tuxedo [00:16:48] get up that he brought from home. [00:16:50] And he was talking about, Oh yeah, well he's got two of them and his wife, you know, ribbed [00:16:54] him a little bit that he could only fit in one. [00:16:55] I was like, man, owning a tuxedo, that's nuts. [00:16:58] Like, and then it like turns out he's like got all these suits and these fancy clothes and [00:17:02] he's an older gentleman. [00:17:05] Uh, but my entire career only the first few years did I have to think about what I was [00:17:10] wearing and, and it never really got beyond pleated, you know, khakis and a starched shirt. [00:17:18] And, and I had, I had to wear a suit maybe on two sales calls. [00:17:22] Um, and they were always the sales calls that were just, uh, there were certain sales demos [00:17:30] when I was a, a, a baby consultant, these really complex bids. [00:17:39] I remember we were at cook County once, uh, uh, the, the county that wraps Chicago and it [00:17:44] has a lot of functions and facilities that operate at the county level. [00:17:48] So, but of course we're in Chicago in some, you know, uh, dystopian office building. [00:17:54] That's very Gothic, I should say. [00:17:57] And the, the solution that we were selling was a response to a bid around some kind of [00:18:05] document, electronic document ingestion and, and, and routing solution. [00:18:09] And so what, what that meant was it was like a 12 person team. [00:18:14] It was a big project working on this pitch. [00:18:18] And most of the work and most of the money came from the software side at the end of the [00:18:23] process. [00:18:23] It's like, you're going to get IBM file net and you're going to get all these different, [00:18:26] uh, enterprise tools. [00:18:28] And we're going to integrate, uh, with all your systems and, and build these custom integrations [00:18:32] that you've asked for here and here and here. [00:18:33] But the, the, the hard part is the human logistics of how do you get all of their paper documents [00:18:41] into the system. [00:18:42] Uh, and that was my job was I had to get paper and then scan it, uh, with a production, big [00:18:50] Kodak funkin fucking scanner. [00:18:52] Uh, and then use, what was it? [00:18:54] Kofax capture or something like a, like an OCR tool of the era. [00:18:59] And the thing about it is that scanning is not, was not ever a science and neither is [00:19:07] OCR, the OCR stuff and OCR stands for optical character recognition. [00:19:10] So you'd have a form and you'd write on the form, like, you know, uh, uh, uh, uh, some, [00:19:15] some demo address and name and all this. [00:19:19] I spent. [00:19:22] So like the people doing the software, like they, they could just like click a button and [00:19:26] like, they could even just use fakery, right? [00:19:29] Like, Oh, the API is not really there, but I'll always return this particular, like, let's [00:19:33] call it an XML soap message. [00:19:34] And so the, the software guys clocked in, clocked out, got back to their billable work. [00:19:39] I, because the stakes were so high in this particular, uh, and I'm here right now explaining [00:19:46] all of this nonsense because I had to wear a suit and that was also really bad, but I [00:19:51] was in Chicago late at night with a group of like, at that point it was like 9 PM and it [00:19:54] was just me and two partners. [00:19:56] Cause the partners had a sickness called avoid family, stay at work. [00:20:02] And, uh, I, I was just running over and over and over again where I'd like, you know, [00:20:09] I'd take the paper, I'd put it through the scanner and it would get 90% of the OCR stuff [00:20:13] done, or I'd get it perfect. [00:20:15] And it would scan everything just right, which would result in the downstream, you know, after [00:20:21] the capture, like all of my integrations, like would route it to the right thing. [00:20:24] So that like, it was basically a game of mousetrap or dominoes where like my task was both [00:20:29] the most important to being able to demonstrate, but also the most error prone, but also the [00:20:37] least, uh, financially like, um, valuable to, to our services company. [00:20:42] And so I had no support, uh, on top of that, they, the, our fucking it people pushed out some [00:20:49] kind of, um, you know, involuntary security update security and bunny quotes that, that [00:20:57] slowed my system down dramatically in the course of just like a day. [00:21:01] And I had, I had no way to test for this. [00:21:04] So I remember I was up at like 11 PM at that point, trying to make this work consistently [00:21:10] and realizing that the only way to get it to run it all required me to, um, install a virtual [00:21:16] machine, put windows in the virtual machine, install all this software inside that virtual [00:21:22] machine, and then run it there because only in the black box of an encrypted virtual machine [00:21:27] image or, uh, you know, a virtual machine, like disc image, could I evade all of the accountant [00:21:33] bullshit that was trying to track and encrypt and, and, and muck with files and flight and [00:21:38] so forth. [00:21:39] And so it was only around like probably one 30 or two that I got to bed and our, our demo [00:21:46] was like at seven in the morning and I had to wear a suit. [00:21:47] So if you ever wonder, Hey, why is Justin always just in a, a t-shirt and shorts? [00:21:54] Uh, I would say childhood trauma, fuck suits. [00:21:59] The only, the only time I associate like nice clothes, you know, having a lot of [00:22:03] having to dress up is church shit. [00:22:05] I didn't want to go to. [00:22:06] And usually it's like the worst church shit. [00:22:09] Like there's some cool church shit out there, you know, youth group where everyone's a horny, [00:22:14] right. [00:22:15] And singing pop songs to try to get people in. [00:22:17] That's as church shit goes, that's above average. [00:22:21] But when you're talking about like, Hey, you know, this aunt you've never heard of died and [00:22:27] we got to go all the way to goddamn Dearborn to sit in a Catholic mass, that's going to [00:22:32] be in Latin. [00:22:33] And they're going to, you know, one of those, you know, you should feel bad for him because [00:22:39] he's abused. [00:22:39] But one of the altar boys, he's going to be waving that little like incense thingy, [00:22:43] the jigger back and forth and back and forth like a metronome. [00:22:46] And, uh, you're going to get all this soot in your face, all of that, you know, frankincense [00:22:51] and myrrh and whatever the fuck they burn. [00:22:52] And, uh, yeah, then they're going to play some songs, but they're not going to be songs you [00:22:57] want to hear. [00:22:57] And you're going to be uncomfortable because I bought you this suit at JC Penny when you [00:23:01] were like nine and you're 12, you're 12 now, and you've gained a lot of weight, but [00:23:06] here we are. [00:23:07] And then you got to go and, you know, like, don't worry because after the service, there's [00:23:12] a big meal, but it's mostly just going to be, you know, styrofoam plates and plastic forks [00:23:16] and, uh, cold rubbery chicken. [00:23:19] And then a whole lot of family members who want to pinch your cheeks, uh, had an aunt that [00:23:24] always wanted to, um, put on a bunch of red lipstick and kiss me and leave kiss marks. [00:23:30] And she thought that was adorable and everyone else thought it was funny. [00:23:33] And for whatever reason, I wasn't a fan, uh, that's the kind of, uh, yeah, so anyway, moving [00:23:45] right along the, uh, the, the other than having to dress up, the, the Christmas party was really [00:23:50] nice because it had an all you can drink martini bar. [00:23:52] So that, that helped that took the edge off a little bit since I hadn't been drinking for [00:23:57] the previous week. [00:23:57] Uh, and it was, you know, uh, they, they had a great bartender, the, the, I assume that [00:24:07] that people drank gin martinis back in the day of Gatsby, but it seemed to be a vodka forward [00:24:12] martini bar, which I appreciated. [00:24:15] Uh, as I get older and my taste buds start dying, uh, I found myself going from dry martinis [00:24:23] to martinis with an olive to martinis with two olives to me asking for like a little bit of [00:24:30] olive juice and then drinking the martini and realizing that wasn't quite enough olive juice. [00:24:34] So that's just disgusting, but, um, it's where, uh, it's one of the signs of age, I guess. [00:24:43] Uh, so the martini bar was good. [00:24:46] Uh, they also had an aged old fashion that they'd made, you know, homemade, um, with like nutmeg [00:24:51] and cinnamon in there. [00:24:52] That was impressive. [00:24:53] Uh, so yeah, had a, had a big old Christmas party last night, had a couple of drinks, uh, [00:25:00] and, and, uh, because of the contrast, whenever I go, you know, go a week without any alcohol [00:25:06] and then I have some alcohol and then I wake up the next morning and I'm like, oh yes, I [00:25:11] know what people mean now that alcohol is poison. [00:25:13] And it's a mildly poisonous thing because I feel mildly poisoned. [00:25:19] Um, and, and I just usually feel that most days until I forget about it. [00:25:23] So it's a data point, uh, to think about, uh, uh, I, I, I had a good, good run for, [00:25:30] for a while there, just cause like when you live in a fucking theme park and there's nowadays [00:25:34] alcohol everywhere that I go and every outing, I had a good run for a few months. [00:25:40] Um, not last year, the year before where I just didn't drink at home as a rule to myself. [00:25:46] I was like, you know, I'm not going to pour any liquor for myself at home unless I'm entertaining [00:25:49] guests. [00:25:50] And, uh, even then go easy on it because I I'm, I'm, I'm going to just the background radiation [00:25:56] of existence in when you live in a bunch of resorts. [00:25:59] Uh, I'll, I'll get, I'll get, I'll get plenty of alcohol subcutaneously. [00:26:05] Um, a contact tie. [00:26:07] So maybe I'll, maybe I'll try that again. [00:26:10] I don't know. [00:26:11] It's the stuff you think about in mid December when you're just inundated with specialty food [00:26:17] and drink options, uh, do other life stuff that isn't alcohol or religion or clothing [00:26:27] related. [00:26:28] Oh, uh, uh, I've been on a quest to not necessarily save a bunch of money, not necessarily. [00:26:35] Uh, I was going to say, uh, tighten my belt, but, uh, I don't know what the suspender equivalent [00:26:43] is because I did not wear a belt last night. [00:26:45] I just wore suspenders. [00:26:46] Uh, I've been interested in, in not budgeting either. [00:26:52] Just, I think awareness. [00:26:54] Like I want, I know that a lot of money flies through my pockets every month in the form of, [00:27:01] um, SAS software subscriptions and streaming services. [00:27:05] I mentioned this last, uh, last go round that I was recommending, Hey, let's say, go take a [00:27:11] look at like our unused streaming subscriptions of those. [00:27:14] Uh, yesterday I did cancel max. [00:27:16] Cause I realized that, uh, if I'm not watching a lot of news, I'm not going to watch John Oliver [00:27:20] and, and they frankly, a lot of HBO's prestige shows haven't been besides they cut a Sesame [00:27:28] street and it just so happened that I canceled that day. [00:27:31] So maybe there's a, some data engineer at HBO who's like, Oh man, people are canceling because [00:27:37] we got rid of Sesame street. [00:27:38] Uh, that would be good. [00:27:40] That would be good for America to get that feedback. [00:27:43] Uh, yeah. [00:27:44] I just want awareness of like, where's the money going and in what proportion and does that sound [00:27:50] right to me? [00:27:50] Uh, and I've, there are software tools for this. [00:27:53] Uh, they are all compromised in some way. [00:27:57] For example, we just, uh, we'd used lunch money in the past, which is a cool app. [00:28:02] And it has the kind of, you know, basic integrations you would expect. [00:28:06] I don't know if it uses plaid or whatever behind the covers, but like you, you connect your, your, [00:28:11] your checking accounts, your credit card accounts. [00:28:14] It lists all your transactions is very, um, customizable in terms of rules that you can [00:28:21] set. [00:28:21] It has an API. [00:28:22] Jen is a solo co-founder and she seems really, really competent and lovely and responsive, [00:28:27] which are all great things. [00:28:29] But the UI is a little clunky for me. [00:28:32] I don't like how it handled URLs. [00:28:33] It was like, once you got all the transactions in there and, and set up, it didn't feel informative [00:28:41] because there wasn't like a good reporting or graphs that just kind of at a glance would [00:28:45] tell you, this is where your money's going. [00:28:46] At least for me. [00:28:47] Uh, additionally, like it, it can't do the Apple card. [00:28:51] That's the, that's become the crux for a lot of these services is that, um, Apple card [00:28:55] only added support for reading. [00:28:59] Uh, well now you can read, uh, uh, so I, Apple added away on iOS and specifically iPhone [00:29:07] OS to read, uh, transactions from Apple card, Apple savings and Apple cash. [00:29:14] And this was like nine months ago, if that, but copilot, uh, money is one of two apps maybe [00:29:22] that supports this. [00:29:23] And so if you, if you have, we have, we each have an Apple card and we use it for kind of [00:29:29] our silly stuff whenever we're, you know, using a tap to pay. [00:29:33] So, so if, if you want to track transactions and you don't want to manually export CSVs [00:29:40] from your wife's phone every 30 days, which is the process that I'd fallen into with, with [00:29:44] lunch money, then you, you basically have copilot money. [00:29:50] And then there's another one, maybe Monarch, uh, the copilot money. [00:29:53] People are always talking about this other app called Monarch. [00:29:55] I haven't checked it out. [00:29:55] I don't know if that's why they like it or if it's just the other one that's being developed [00:29:59] right now in this post mint apocalypse, as we all grapple with the fact that mint was [00:30:04] always bad, uh, but people got into it and I don't copilot money is like nice, but like [00:30:11] it, like, for example, like if I'm, uh, if I buy a, uh, if I put $10, the equivalent of [00:30:19] $10, so 1000 yen on my Starbucks card in Japan, which is totally separate because of course it [00:30:25] is there's two Starbucks cards. [00:30:27] There's the one in Japan and then the one in the rest of the world. [00:30:30] So you open the Japanese only app, you put a thousand yen on it. [00:30:33] Uh, you pay for that with Apple pay. [00:30:36] So which goes to my Apple card and copilot money will read that transaction. [00:30:40] But if you read like the text in the merchant description, it's literally like [00:30:44] staba day and it's like all no spaces. [00:30:47] It's just like 40 characters in a row to, and if you really squint, you can kind of see [00:30:52] Starbucks, Japan, um, you know, app store payment, which is, you know, like I want to [00:31:00] change that to Starbucks, Japan, and then set up a rule to just like always change that. [00:31:05] So I don't have to like memorize these random ass merchant names. [00:31:08] Uh, apparently like after, after two hours of setting up copilot money yesterday, I realized [00:31:13] that there's like both no way to set up that kind of rule. [00:31:16] The only rule that it supports is categorization of, of spending fine, but then if you set [00:31:22] up a rule and you don't like it, there's no way to edit the rules cause there's no UI for [00:31:25] rule editing. [00:31:26] And so then, you know, where do you go, but read it and you're like, okay, well there's [00:31:30] a subreddit. [00:31:30] And then like, what's half the post in the subreddit? [00:31:32] It's about, Oh, of course it's a bunch of dads who are like, I can't see my rules and I have [00:31:36] to contact support. [00:31:37] And it's been nine months. [00:31:38] And I was like, Oh God. [00:31:39] So that's, uh, if anyone's got any great budgeting software that supports Apple card, you let me [00:31:46] know. [00:31:47] Uh, and also isn't a part-time job. [00:31:50] I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna spend all day on this. [00:31:52] I'm not, I'm not gonna, I'm gonna check in on this, uh, the four times a year that I, that [00:31:58] I wake up in a cold sweat wondering, Oh my God, how many subscriptions do I have? [00:32:02] Which is, uh, I, I really missed my calling by not being a dad, I guess. [00:32:07] But it did land me on looking at rocket money. [00:32:11] Uh, so, so, so there was an app called true bill that marketed heavily with like a lot of [00:32:19] other DTC apps where the pitch was, we will negotiate your bills for you. [00:32:26] And by bills, I think that one of the reasons why this, this, this business probably struggled [00:32:31] is that there's really only two that they could reasonably negotiate on your behalf. [00:32:37] You know, you, you imagine they've got a call center or they've got people who've, who [00:32:40] are trained, who have scripts that they follow, who, who will doggedly keep calling back until [00:32:44] they get what, you know, the discount, the, just the steps that you would have to go through [00:32:48] if you wanted to call Comcast or Verizon, they, they, they, they can basically could basically [00:32:57] only really negotiate your ISP and your cell phone carrier. [00:33:01] Cause those are the two sort of, you know, that are, that are transactional enough that [00:33:08] are regionalized or nationalized enough that they, that they could train on. [00:33:11] And then of course, like they, they're the ones that like get you in with a teaser rate and [00:33:15] then gradually turn up the heat over the course of a couple of years. [00:33:19] Well, Quicken Loans bought, they rebranded as rocket and then rocket fill in the blank [00:33:26] with other products. [00:33:26] And they bought true bill around the same time. [00:33:29] And I, my understanding from a distance is that true bill, uh, uh, that became rocket money [00:33:36] in order to be an entree into other rocket star services. [00:33:41] So like you, you now, when you install rocket money, it's still got the negotiation thing. [00:33:46] Cause that's what they market it on, but you have to slog through so much like, no, I'm actually [00:33:52] all set with credit and, and, and, and debt repayment services. [00:33:57] And I'm, I'm already all set with financial advisors and retirement goals. [00:34:00] I just get me to the, to the thing where I can pay you 35% of whatever you save me on [00:34:06] my ISP bill. [00:34:07] And so of course, you know, like I, I, I signed up for the first time, went through the app [00:34:12] onboarding. [00:34:13] I was not impressed with the bugginess of the app, but I was able to soldier on through [00:34:19] it. [00:34:19] And where I landed was I was, uh, following its little setup wizard for first. [00:34:27] Spectrum, which is my internet provider. [00:34:28] And I was, I'd initially paid a hundred dollars when I moved here in 2021, uh, a month for, [00:34:36] for one gig down, call it 30 megabits per second up. [00:34:40] And I can't get a, another ISP here. [00:34:43] They had an exclusive agreement. [00:34:44] They're building neighborhoods bullshit. [00:34:47] Uh, and I, I, so I can't get higher upstream and that really gets in my crawl. [00:34:53] Nevertheless, they have increased prices about $15 a year. [00:34:59] Each time I'm here to the point now where I think my monthly, you know, debit is like $150, [00:35:05] $145 and you fill it out and you give them your pin number. [00:35:11] You got this customer pin that like, you know, is secures your account. [00:35:14] I'm like, eh, all right, well, that's four digits, you know? [00:35:17] And besides I'm already on like this one dead simple plan. [00:35:20] It's just their normal plan. [00:35:22] And it's, you know, like I'm paying top dollar for it. [00:35:26] So what's the worst that they could do if they, if somebody else were to call and change [00:35:30] my plan up, you know, like it, it wouldn't cause that much lasting damage. [00:35:34] Cause it's not like I'm on some teaser rate. [00:35:36] It's not like I've got a great deal as it is. [00:35:38] So I let them do it. [00:35:39] And three days later, I had low expectations, right? [00:35:42] Cause you go on Reddit, speaking of Reddit, you go on and you, you search other people's [00:35:46] experiences and people will say, oh yeah, well like the, you know, I, some of them are [00:35:52] pretty hyperbolic. [00:35:53] It's like, you know, like they, they changed my plan to this and now I'm stuck with this, [00:35:57] you know, TV subscription for the next four years. [00:35:59] And then they charged me a thousand dollars in imagined savings that never materialized. [00:36:03] I'm like, shit. [00:36:04] All right. [00:36:04] Well, that's, that's not good. [00:36:06] But I, I gave them a shot. [00:36:08] They came back three days later and they said, congratulations. [00:36:12] We saved you $859. [00:36:14] I was like, what the, excuse me over the next 12 months. [00:36:18] And it turned out that they got me from $142, $145 down to 70 flat. [00:36:25] You multiply that by 12 and then indeed comes out to eight something. [00:36:28] And I was like, damn. [00:36:29] All right. [00:36:30] And so I've been, I've been looking for the other shoe to drop like ever since, like something [00:36:36] is fishy here. [00:36:37] Like I, they didn't sign me up for other services. [00:36:39] I did receive, I'm looking over at it now. [00:36:43] I did receive a relatively large box that has a, you know, one of those wifi modem router [00:36:50] combo units in it. [00:36:51] That was partly like apparently part of the deal. [00:36:54] I don't know if they canceled my service and then in one fell swoop also signed me up for [00:36:58] service. [00:36:58] But now I've got this gigantic fucking wifi thing that wouldn't even fit in my patch box [00:37:02] if I wanted it, which I don't. [00:37:04] So I'm, I'm, I'm currently in this ether of like, well, if my modem that I rent is still [00:37:11] going to work, I rent for $0. [00:37:14] It's one nice thing about spectrum. [00:37:15] If my modem that I rent is still going to work, uh, maybe I can just keep this wifi thing in [00:37:20] the box and not call anyone. [00:37:22] And maybe everything will keep working and I'll pay the $70 a month, or maybe I should send [00:37:27] the other one back, but then that might trigger some other thing. [00:37:30] Right. [00:37:30] I, so look like, do I recommend the service? [00:37:36] I don't really, I don't, we'll see. [00:37:38] Right. [00:37:39] Like call me in a year. [00:37:40] I should set a reminder. [00:37:41] Oh, I'm sure if something bad happens, I'll, I'll be right on the airwaves screaming about [00:37:47] it. [00:37:47] Like I, like I do, but even after this experience, saving me a lot of money, like what I trust [00:37:53] them with my T-Mobile account, right. [00:37:54] Where I have been grandfathered in on what was called the one choice plus plan in 2014 [00:38:01] or whatever. [00:38:02] And it's genuine, honest to God, unlimited data without any real throttling. [00:38:08] As far as I can tell, until you get to some absurdly high number where you can watch your [00:38:12] videos in HD on your, you know, like, like it's, it's, it's a good one. [00:38:16] It's better than their magenta crap. [00:38:18] Um, and a lower price than their magenta max thing. [00:38:21] Well, we got three lines. [00:38:22] You got, you know, the watches and I would love to pay less for that, but I just don't [00:38:27] try like you, you, you fill out the rocket money form, uh, with the, uh, the, the, it wants [00:38:34] your T-Mobile, like login information. [00:38:36] And that's, that was a bridge too far for me. [00:38:40] I got there and I was like, you know, I could just imagine this going poorly. [00:38:44] You know, these plans are so complicated and feels like even when I call T-Mobile and I [00:38:48] ask, Hey, how's the weather? [00:38:49] Like they click a button and it fucks up my shit for two weeks. [00:38:52] So I'm, I'm, I'm good. [00:38:55] I can probably afford a cell phone bill. [00:38:57] Uh, I just, I just would prefer not to have to pay it. [00:39:01] Only one other life item in the last week, I was given a special opportunity. [00:39:11] Um, I've talked about massages a couple of times on this program and the, uh, I mentioned, [00:39:15] uh, the one I went, uh, the one I had most recently in a previous episode, I, I, I was, I was wrapping [00:39:29] up my massage with a human like you do. [00:39:31] And the human said, have you, have you tried our robot massage? [00:39:36] And, uh, I didn't know how to take that. [00:39:38] And I said, I, I've heard of it. [00:39:41] I know Becky tried it. [00:39:43] If you check Becky's, um, Becky Graham, you'll see, uh, there's a video of her, uh, getting [00:39:48] felt up by a robot. [00:39:50] Uh, I forget the name of the company, but it's, it's, uh, it's like a robot that tries to simulate [00:39:59] the experience of a human massaging you. [00:40:02] So it's, uh, you're on a bed, you're face down. [00:40:06] It's, uh, got arms that kind of go back and forth, uh, on a track and they, they push and [00:40:13] whatnot. [00:40:13] And it kind of reminds me of the white birthing robot from star Wars episode three at the end [00:40:21] when, when Luke and Leah are being born, it does everything short of make the cooing [00:40:26] sounds to get the babies to calm down. [00:40:28] You know, like I, you do have a tablet and you can, you can pick out these pre-baked Spotify [00:40:34] playlists while it's pushing on you. [00:40:36] Anyway, all that to say, I signed up, um, mostly cause it was free. [00:40:41] So I had a 30 minute trial and, uh, the fact is trying to imitate humans was really interesting [00:40:49] to me because I had just spent a month in Japan, uh, getting, uh, what'd you call it? [00:40:54] Uh, massage chairs, our hotel chain that we stay at has always has massage chairs and even [00:41:01] bad massage chairs in Japan are pretty intense. [00:41:03] Uh, uh, but, but good ones are just like, you know, you go in there and it's just like, [00:41:09] I'm sure there's been, you've probably seen a horror movie image, right? [00:41:13] Where it's like, you sit in a chair and then like 25 hands grab all the parts of your body [00:41:18] simultaneously and that is meant to be horrific. [00:41:20] But if those hands, if there was some nice music playing and it was illuminated and those [00:41:25] hands were massaging you simultaneously all over your body, maybe it would be pretty, pretty [00:41:29] great. [00:41:29] And so that's what a Japanese massage chair is like. [00:41:33] Cause they, they don't have this arbitrary conceit that a massage must happen in a format [00:41:39] that resembles how it would happen if a single human on a bed surface was rubbing your tiddly [00:41:45] bits, which is what this robot is. [00:41:49] Right. [00:41:49] And so it's trying to think of another analog, right? [00:41:55] Like where we, we kind of retain the artifice of the way that it used to be before we automated [00:42:00] it. [00:42:00] And, and in some, sometimes we do that to keep people being comfortable like that rich [00:42:05] Corinthian leather. [00:42:06] It's like, we wanted to look like a traditional calendar. [00:42:08] So people know what they're looking at instead of just a bunch of boxes. [00:42:11] It's like, Oh yeah, this looks like a placemat style calendar that I would have had on my desk. [00:42:15] And then eventually that ages out. [00:42:16] And the younger people are like, I've never seen a calendar on a desk, even though my dad [00:42:20] grew up with one, you know? [00:42:24] So maybe that's it, right? [00:42:25] Like, like sometimes that's why we would have a robo massage that like, you know, pressures [00:42:31] and needs you, you know, kind of with just the two arms up and down in particular points, [00:42:35] sometimes at the same time, sometimes just one arm, you know, it's, it's, it's less efficient [00:42:41] is my immediate frustration. [00:42:43] Cause it's like, you could have 45 fucking arms going to town all over my body and I'd [00:42:49] get way more work done in 30 minutes. [00:42:52] Right. [00:42:52] Cause I'm just trying to min max my existence, but instead by, by, by, by imitating a human [00:42:59] massage, like nothing is really gained because I can't see it. [00:43:03] I'm facedown. [00:43:04] I'm looking at a silly tablet and watching imagery, imagery of forests and, and, and ocean waves [00:43:10] and whatnot, and I'm kind of getting a, you can look at a weird overhead view of what [00:43:14] your body is looking at, looking like right then, you know, like it scans your body and [00:43:19] then has like a little illustration of like, here's where I'm pushing you. [00:43:21] Here I go. [00:43:22] It's, it seems more to me like they designed this, you look at this unit and it's just like, [00:43:31] this has got to cost at least 15 grand. [00:43:34] This is an expensive, complicated piece of equipment. [00:43:38] It feels like a lack of imagination, uh, to, to somebody had the idea, let's take human [00:43:47] masseuses out of the equation and just make a robo masseuse thing that we could put in spas [00:43:53] when, uh, you'd actually have a better experience. [00:43:56] It would be cheaper. [00:43:57] And there's like more prior art at Panasonic or these other companies in Japan. [00:44:01] If you just made a, you know, massage chair, but that would be boring, I guess. [00:44:08] Uh, and massage chairs, like you, you hear the word massage chair right now as you're listening. [00:44:13] And if you haven't had like a real one, you know, at a Japanese Denki-yasan on the third [00:44:17] floor, where all the salary men on their way home tell their wives, oh, I got a, I got a big meeting [00:44:24] with the boss and then they go to, they go to Yamada Denki or they go to Yodabashi camera. [00:44:28] And then they just, you know, they take their briefcase and they set it down next to one of the [00:44:33] trial units of the massage chair. [00:44:34] And then they, they, they, they, they go into this little like sensory deprivation pod and [00:44:39] they get all their bits smushed simultaneously and they got a remote control and they can [00:44:45] say, just do it hard. [00:44:46] And then they can forget their worries for, for 15 minutes until, uh, one of the staff has [00:44:52] to remind them that, uh, they don't live there and that they have to go home now. [00:44:56] If you haven't had that experience, uh, you probably, when you hear a massage chair, think [00:45:02] of like those $2, you know, leather chairs that are, you know, just like our just normal [00:45:08] fucking chairs that may be vibrate, like the vibrating bed equivalent that you see at an [00:45:12] airport. [00:45:12] Um, this is not what I'm talking about. [00:45:15] So get your head out of there and, and go Google, you know, for high end Japanese massage [00:45:22] chair, and you might get some idea. [00:45:24] Uh, also I, uh, in the course of a 30 minute massage, I encountered so many fucking Android [00:45:32] tablet bugs. [00:45:33] I, I didn't, I gave them a lot of feedback cause they, this is sort of a trial that they're [00:45:37] doing. [00:45:37] They wanted to want to know how, what I thought. [00:45:40] And I gave them a lot of this perspective and feedback about like, well, you know, this [00:45:44] skeuomorphic design, yada, yada. [00:45:45] But I didn't even touch any of the software stuff. [00:45:49] Cause like there's an absolutely nothing that they're going to be able to do with that much [00:45:52] less like they won't even be able to communicate this back to the company in a way that's helpful, [00:45:55] but it was, you know, it would freeze or the display would become non-responsive. [00:46:01] One time I had the music just turn itself all the way up. [00:46:05] The, um, the, so many things about this design are meant to make you feel comfortable are [00:46:13] meant to make you feel safe. [00:46:14] Like if, if you, it moves at all, or if it detects anything is off at all, it basically [00:46:20] like will, will disengage entirely and reposition itself. [00:46:23] And then you have to actively resume the massage. [00:46:26] And then it's got to put the little flappy doos back over you. [00:46:30] Like it's really worried about people flipping out about this robot pressing up against them. [00:46:36] And it extends to, to like, you know, you pick your firmness, like light, medium firm. [00:46:41] And I clicked firm. [00:46:42] And then there, you could see there was like a little like pressure bar on the right. [00:46:47] And that even though I'd clicked the firm preset, I wasn't at a hundred percent pressure. [00:46:52] And I was like, well, that, that won't do. [00:46:54] And so I jacked it up to a hundred percent right out of the gate. [00:46:56] And the whole time, 30 minutes, like you could, uh, [00:46:59] Hmm. [00:47:01] It, I knew that a massage was happening. [00:47:05] Like I knew when contact was being made, but like, it was not a massage. [00:47:08] It was, it was somebody kind of like, like, like back rub would be generous. [00:47:14] It was like somebody like took an open palm hand and just pressed it. [00:47:18] Just, just, just an obnoxiously against different parts of my body and no firmness beyond that. [00:47:26] So you got a robo massage. [00:47:29] It's limited in what it can do. [00:47:33] Cause it's trying to imitate a human. [00:47:34] It's very worried about liability, which is why I imagine the max firmness is light pressure. [00:47:39] Uh, and it's fussy and it's buggy. [00:47:42] And of course it can only do very limited regions of the body. [00:47:45] Like if I was a massage therapist, I'd be like, Hey, sweet. [00:47:49] You know, I'm going to keep having a job longer than all these programmer juckle fucks. [00:47:52] You're going to get replaced by a Claude and open AI. [00:47:56] So I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm confident that a massage therapist is going to be a, a lucrative, you [00:48:03] know, going concern as a career for a little while programming. [00:48:08] I'm not so sure of, but most of us listening have already made our choice, whether we're [00:48:14] going to be massage therapists or programmers. [00:48:16] So we're just going to have to see how this, how this plays out. [00:48:19] All right. [00:48:20] Well, that's all, that's everything going on in my life. [00:48:23] So let's, uh, well, let's follow up on stuff that had been going on in my life and is now [00:48:30] continuing or is once again, I started to realize that there's a, there's a certain theme to this [00:48:37] show. [00:48:37] Hmm. [00:48:38] All right. [00:48:46] There's basically two major areas of follow-up today. [00:48:51] Um, but somehow the two of them take up 11 bullet points in my notes. [00:48:59] So I'll try to be expeditious. [00:49:02] The first is I bought a, uh, M4 pro MacBook pro, I guess an Apple nomenclature, a MacBook pro [00:49:13] left parentheses, 2024, right parentheses with M4 pro. [00:49:19] I think is probably maybe the 2024 is at the end. [00:49:22] Maybe they don't put the date now that they have the chip name. [00:49:25] In any case, I needed a computer that was built for Apple intelligence, which is how they also, [00:49:32] they crammed that in the fucking name. [00:49:34] Um, and like the, every subheader says Apple intelligence on it, which, you know, I mean, [00:49:40] if you're, if you're a marketing dude, it's the thing that, you know, like you gotta, every [00:49:48] year is a struggle to goose people into, to buying computers. [00:49:51] And, uh, it's been a while since they've had anything new to say that your computer can do. [00:49:56] So it makes sense, but come on. [00:49:59] It can't even make Genmoji yet. [00:50:02] Uh, just if you've, if you've downloaded it, used 18.2 iOS or iPadOS, uh, go turn on the, [00:50:13] um, you know, the AI feature, if it's available in your region and language, and then you open [00:50:19] the image playground app and you click through there and let it download all of the image [00:50:24] playground shit, uh, in particular, the image playground itself, where you can take a person [00:50:30] and a place and kind of like, you know, create sort of a, uh, a witch's brew of bad imagery [00:50:35] and then, and then have a keep swiping to the right as, as they just all look bad that I have [00:50:43] no, no need for, but Genmoji, or at least the promise of Genmoji, I like quite a lot. [00:50:49] I enjoy, you know, um, typing in little like name, like, so we were at the parks, uh, with [00:50:57] our friends last week and it was a Jollywood Knights event, which is also Gatsby themed. [00:51:06] There's a reason why ordering 1920s era costumes on Amazon in Orlando was like not an overnight. [00:51:13] It was like a two, three day leg because this, this Jollywood Knights 1920s era themed, uh, [00:51:21] ticketed event at Hollywood studios has been going on. And it was one of those nights. And so some [00:51:26] flapper lady in line, she had a purse that had a phone handle on it. And her husband, who now that [00:51:34] I think back on this was dressed very similarly to how I dressed myself last night. So something tells [00:51:39] me he was sort of a long for the ride in this, she picked up the phone handle off of her purse and [00:51:46] handed it to Becky. And then he, you could sort of see him on the phone being a bad ventriloquist [00:51:53] and talking to her on the phone. So like his cell phone was somehow communicating to the purse phone. [00:51:59] It was very, it reminded me of get smart, you know, like that spy TV show from the sixties that was on [00:52:05] Nick at night in the eighties or nineties when I would have watched it. Uh, of course it didn't [00:52:10] work. And then we were just in line and it was like, sorry, we're in line. It didn't work. And then, [00:52:14] and then of course the way that lines work, right. As you turn left, turn right. And now it's up, [00:52:18] here's the same people again. And so they're like, all right, try again. So she picks up the purse [00:52:23] phone and here's the guy talk. And she's like, yes, this is indeed a telephone. That is a purse. [00:52:28] My reaction, my contribution to this experience was to try to generate a Genmoji for the group [00:52:35] that I was with. That was like purse phone. And, uh, wouldn't you know it, uh, it struggled to like, [00:52:43] I was like purse with a phone handle on top. And it was, it gave me like one with like a, [00:52:49] like a locker combination lock instead of a rotary dial in the middle. It was all, it was not, [00:52:54] not good. And, and I think like a lot of these Genmoji, in addition to being bad and not good, [00:53:01] they are when they, there's, they have to be so detailed because usually it's people mashing up [00:53:07] different concepts. They have to be so detailed that when in line with texts, you have to squint [00:53:12] and you can barely see what they are. And then if they're as a tap back, you have no hope of knowing [00:53:16] what they are. Like if it's of a person, for example, like it's, you're going to get like 80% shirt [00:53:21] and then like 10% head. So you're not going to be able to tell who's what. Uh, so those need work [00:53:27] and no one wants my Genmoji. My, my brother has formally requested. I stopped sending them and, [00:53:32] uh, I will, I will take that request under advisement. Anyway, uh, bought a MacBook pro. Um, [00:53:42] Oh, I've got a, I've got a parenthetical as a C notes. All right, well, here's eight more bullet [00:53:50] points. I'm going to rattle through these. So Becky, actually, it was her idea. She wanted to [00:53:54] get me this. We were in Japan. She's like, Hey, you know, I heard you talking about the nanotexture [00:53:57] display. And like, of course, you know, the, the, the brighter screen and us being in Orlando, [00:54:01] you never use a computer outside or out of the house. So she wanted to buy it. And she said, [00:54:06] it was just really complicated. I didn't want to fuck up. I didn't want to get you the wrong set of [00:54:09] options. I asked Aaron and Aaron didn't know either. He said he hadn't really been on top of it. [00:54:16] Uh, and I was like, honey, that's so I didn't say like, bless your heart. I, it was a such a sweet [00:54:23] gesture. And it is true that I've been curious about it. Um, but I didn't feel like, uh, I had [00:54:30] to get one right this minute. Uh, and, and honestly, the, the, the 14 inch MacBook pro is still too heavy. [00:54:36] I, I, I, I lifted tonal my, my weightlifting robot, uh, reported in my tonal wrapped because [00:54:46] everything has to do a goddamn wrapped dingus to try to share in social media as if like, you know, [00:54:52] one assumes that all these wrapped posts just go to the goddamn bottom of every algorithm because [00:54:57] they're all the same. But in any case, it showed me a little wrapped video and it said, I wait, [00:55:02] I, I lifted one and a half million pounds last year or over the course of 2024. And I was like, [00:55:07] that's a lot of weight that I lifted. I, yesterday I did the equivalent of like, you know, 250, [00:55:12] 275 pound deadlift barbell deadlift. And that was hard, but not too hard. It's the max weight that, [00:55:20] that tonal can do. Um, I, I, I, I like to think I'm pretty strong now. Uh, that four pound fucking [00:55:31] MacBook pro is backbreakingly heavy, no matter where I am, I'll pick it up and like, that is denser than [00:55:40] it looks. It's a, it's like when you pick up a baby, that's like a little bit too dense, you know, [00:55:46] and you're just like, Oh wow. I was expecting this to be more fun. This is just going to give [00:55:51] me pelvic floor problems. If I do this for more than exactly 30 seconds and then hand it back to [00:55:57] its mother who surely has pelvic floor issues. Um, I don't want to be carrying around this MacBook pro. [00:56:05] I don't want to carry it with my arms. I don't want to carry it in a bag. I don't want to carry it [00:56:09] into the car. I don't want to carry it, you know, uh, in a Starbucks. I want to hire a Porter to [00:56:16] bring it around to me, you know, from place to place. Maybe, maybe they could also saddle up and [00:56:23] have a, uh, vision pro. So that's what I really want. Uh, at least until, and unless Apple releases [00:56:30] the 12 inch MacBook pro, uh, that we were promised in our early years. [00:56:34] Anyway, when Becky said that it was hard to configure and figure out what she'd want to order [00:56:43] or what I would want her to order. And as a result would have made a pretty lousy gift because [00:56:49] the likelihood of her getting it right. Where if you look at the number of configurations for these [00:56:53] seeing this thing, like astronomically small, I actually spent, I sat down, I look, I, I said, [00:57:01] I didn't need the thing. And then I come home and then within a day and a half, uh, my MacBook air is [00:57:07] crying because it's out of storage to the point where like I composed an email and I hit send on the email [00:57:12] and then Apple mail reported, yo, we just barfed on all this and just deleted all your shit. Cause we [00:57:17] ran out of disk space, no warning. And in modern day Mac OS, you don't get to know how much disk space [00:57:23] you have because all of it is like optimized storage. So like whether it's your iCloud drive [00:57:29] or it's your Apple photos, once the system is under any sort of, um, storage stress, it'll, [00:57:35] it's supposed to detect that and start deleting shit. Your phone does this too. So sometimes like [00:57:41] you're like, like I was importing a bunch of raw images on the phone and it said, Oh, you're out of [00:57:45] storage. And then I knew, because I know how it works under the hood, even though it exposes zero [00:57:49] controls or visibility as to what is going the fuck on. I knew that when it ran out of storage, [00:57:54] the right solution was sit and wait for 30 seconds while it deletes shit in the background and then [00:57:59] just hit import again. Right. Well, I, that didn't work in this case. Like I actually went and deleted [00:58:05] like a hundred gigabytes of garbage. It's a small SSD. It's a 512 gigabyte MacBook air. I deleted all this [00:58:11] stuff, but, um, from my iCloud drive on another computer, because this one was finder was completely [00:58:17] unresponsive. Uh, and it never got better because it had suspended all iCloud drive syncing as a, [00:58:24] probably like some sort of like memory safeguard or storage safeguard to like make sure I didn't, [00:58:27] it didn't fuck up anything in the cloud. And so like even going, I'm not going to, [00:58:33] most of that storage was in my iCloud drive, which is how it got full while I was overseas. [00:58:38] And when I came back, I, I didn't have like, I could, I could have gone through and like run [00:58:47] RM dash RF from the terminal and deleted stuff from the iCloud drive to like as a, as an emergency break, [00:58:52] like get, get this SSD empty enough that the operating system can run and then figure it out. [00:59:00] But then of course it would have synced all of those deletions up to the cloud and deleted the [00:59:03] same things off of my other computers. So this is a tractable problem. And I, I, I ultimately did solve [00:59:10] it, but I, I realize now why Apple markets so much of its pro devices to photos and video people, [00:59:20] because photos and videos take up a shit ton of space. Uh, they have different performance [00:59:26] characteristics than programming and, and the, their needs in many ways are higher than what you need. [00:59:33] If you're just writing Ruby code, right? Uh, it just so happens that Swift, the programming language [00:59:38] that they wrote is also like, we'll, we'll take advantage of all of these cores during compilation [00:59:42] in a way that like a lot of local development in other languages won't. [00:59:45] But in my last year of doing a lot more video work, doing a lot more audio work, I can definitely [00:59:52] understand now like, Oh yeah, like the, the MacBook air actually is inappropriate for a lot of the [00:59:57] workflows of the things that I do. So that experience, I came to Becky and I was like, look, I know I said [01:00:05] I didn't need this, but I think I might need this. Um, where need is in very, you know, very gentle [01:00:12] text. It's, it's a thin font variant to say, I need this. What I mean to say is like, I, it would save [01:00:19] me a lot of time and stress and headache and, uh, uh, rework to have a better computer, a more [01:00:26] capacious computer. And of course you can't upgrade the storage and your existing max. So here we are. [01:00:32] Um, but anyway, I was in the configurator for the new MacBook pro. And the first decision you got to [01:00:36] make is do I want a regular M4 chip, which I did not, or one of the pro ones, which is a, you know, [01:00:43] 12 or 14 core. I want to say a chip, uh, which is a huge upgrade over the M3 pro the M3 pro had a way [01:00:53] more efficiency cores and the M4 pro has more performance score. So it's like a, it's doing [01:00:57] much better in synthetic benchmarking that that's impressive. It's a big year over year change or the [01:01:02] M4 max, which is, you know, uh, an incremental improvement over the M3 max, but to the extent [01:01:10] that it's better than the pro it's like, you know, got another meat and quote unquote media [01:01:14] e

covid-19 christmas america god tv jesus christ ceo amazon spotify tiktok chicago google ai hollywood apple pr japan americans french speaking games story chinese elon musk japanese microsoft italian coffee iphone detroit oscars hbo harvard indiana bitcoin tesla nazis mcdonald ceos exclusive sony os pc catholic android reddit wars vr starbucks singapore ps nintendo switzerland mac cd avengers shit playstation latin ios xbox ipads raiders combat indiana jones sonic e3 ibm mark zuckerberg apple tv whiskey gamers sort steel clinton playstation 5 bloomberg call of duty ram aka swift playstation 4 mccarthy witcher spectrum bill clinton paramount bethesda ups openai grinch vatican atlantis sonic the hedgehog mad max api hawk porsche gta jim carrey uncharted ubisoft luigi harrison ford watts verizon god of war sega davos mansion bluetooth sink hilton game awards naughty ui airpods gpt astro comcast nes technically snoop gothic vanguard iso indigo monarch sas yakuza lost ark t mobile macbook goodreads grand theft auto playstation 3 wwdc mayan dogecoin ultron kodak wii macos truman four seasons adp goldeneye silicon macbook pro sora steam deck googling toys r us bioshock llm macs john oliver cpu corinthian gpu tom clancy nearing u s gerd oled naughty dog dtc imac venn ssd icloud gamecube dali united healthcare oh god panasonic solves psvr dreamcast rm rf gatsby eb rivian chris farley urls kratos sony playstation ocr isp byzantine installing playstation vr wolfenstein hdr ipados pikmin m3 geralt ace ventura tabasco deus ex lucasarts vigor sesame astrobot dearborn furby irr m4 insufficient james spader sarah mclachlan xml ars technica quantic dream vim ciri great circle pmc robotnik searle chris hayes sergey brin batman arkham msrp eggman hn troy baker apple silicon jc penny mco postgres dmg quicken loans daxter gordon gekko keighley swiftui mark gurman mozi uhc gurman o1 adorama vnc ev williams vr vr moom searls izotope rx kofax joel baker csvs nintendo pr
NOCLIP
Episode 181 - It's Jar Jarring - Star Wars Episode 1 Racer

NOCLIP

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 14, 2024 67:46


Do goola podcast sa bantha poodoo. Welcome back to the podcast! As we near the end of the year, we like to look back on a game or two that are more nostalgic for us, and Racer somehow got overlooked until now. Racer is maybe the first of our nostalgia picks that really holds up, at least in our opinion. This is a very straightforward video game, all the things considered, but the focus makes for a surprisingly solid racing experience. True to the movie, podracing in the game is extremely fast and almost 100% guaranteed to end with a lethal explosion. The tracks lose a bit of their focus as the game goes on, but the core mechanics are skill testing in an enjoyable way and the game is short enough that you can get to the point where you're playing it to improve very quickly. It's very mechanics first, but it being Lucasarts, due is paid to making sure that the world, characters and sound design fits with the movies. The presentation suffers in some ways, but the worlds of the game are well realized for the time and also Watto is there, which is great. We're going to talk about the feeling of playing the game for the first time and once you get used to it, the mechanics we did and did not remember using as children, and we spend a decent amount of time just complaining about the prequel trilogy. Thank you for joining us again this week! This is a great palette cleansing game after what has a been a heady year and one that I was really surprised by. I've come to expect the games we liked as kids to pretty much always be worse than you remembered, so for this to hold up as well as it does was pleasant, at worst. If you haven't played this game in a while, or god forbid, not at all, it's surprisingly accessible with a recent remaster and the original PC version on Steam, so maybe give it a look. Post your fond recollections of the N64 in the comments or over on our Discord. Next time, we're going to be talking about Slay the Princess, so we hope you'll join us for that.

Adventure Game Hotspot Podcast
Talking all thing LucasArts adventure games.

Adventure Game Hotspot Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 10, 2024 97:40


In this episode of the Adventure Game Hotspot Joshua and Jack are joined by staff AGH staff member and prolific adventure game reviewer Johnny Nys. They discuss the recent AGH youtube video Ranking the 25 BEST LucasArts Adventure Games - Including Telltale https://youtu.be/bAxo2xwmGzE The guys critique the list and present their own top 25 Lucasarts and LucasArts adjacent games. You may be surprised by the order. Stay to the end because the guys each choose their favorite LucasArts INSPIRED adventure game. Follow us at: Web: adventuregamehotspot.com Discord: https://discord.gg/ZUwXg7qwse FB: adventure Game Hotspot IG: adventure_game_hotspot Twitter: @aghotspot Threads: adventure_game_hotspot Mastodon: @AGH@mastodon.gamedev.place BlueSky: @aghotspot.bsky.social #telltalegames #lucasarts #adventuregames #pointandclickadventure #indiegames --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/weirdgamingadventure/support

MotherChip - Overloadr
MotherChip #503 - Pokémon TCG, Mass Effect, Loco Motive e The Veilguard

MotherChip - Overloadr

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 27, 2024 103:04


PH Brazil nos acompanha nessa edição que tem a ausência da Jeje. O vazador n°1 do país compartilha como foi essencialmente descobrir a série Mass Effect em 2024 e, no embalo de The Veilguard, falamos da BioWare em si. Depois, vamos ainda mais ao passado (ao menos em gênero) com Loco Motive, um point and click bastante inspirado pelos clássicos dos anos 1990 da LucasArts.Participantes:Jessica PinheiroHeitor De PaolaAssuntos abordados:11:00 - Pokémon TCG Pocket33:00 - Mass Effect 358:00 - Dragon Age: The Veilguard1:09:00 - World of Warcraft1:22:00 - Loco MotiveVai comprar jogos na Nuuvem? Use o link de afiliado do Overloadr! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dev Game Club
DGC Ep 411: Dead Rising (part four)

Dev Game Club

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 20, 2024 89:23


Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we conclude our series on 2006's Dead Rising. We visit the end of the game a bit and then turn to our takeaways, before tackling a reader question. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Finished the game! Issues covered: the enemy mix, just being a journalist, being interrupted by Otis, the arrival of the army, captured by cultists, constant use of the chainsaw, adding an enemy and its impact, greater XP rewards, state changes and controlling the state change, an ongoing narrative, how games end, overtime mode, the helicopter arrival, how new game+ or post-game works these days, frustration with unplugging the bombs, vehicle troubles, reach exceeding grasp, having the wrong feelings, the wall mission, early replay to skills gather, the bomb cyclone, the open world structure and its rogue-like nature, picking the good inspiration, weapon variety and payoff, finding new things to do on your run, conducive to achievements, systems over mechanics, different kinds of mastery, getting little bang for buck from first person or special moves, zombies as level design, tuning and balancing, item progression, humans as the real enemies, psychopaths, little survivor stories, balancing silliness and poignancy, when you've changed your mind, individuating the clones, adding humor, using more and less of the language, moving to systems over mechanics, moving away from design documentation, iteration over inspiration, defensiveness, solving for growing team size with documentation. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Dark Souls, MegaMan, Fallout, Bethesda Game Studios, Morrowind, The Witcher 3, Grand Theft Auto, Lost Planet, Monster Hunter, Dragon's Dogma, Resident Evil (series), Dawn of the Dead, Gears of War, Vampire Survivor, Robotron 2084, Fatal Frame, mystery dip, Republic Commando, George Lucas, The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch, Robin Williams, William Shakespeare, Harley Baldwin, Starfighter (series), Soren Johnson, Sid Meier, LucasArts, Halo, Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy VI, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: ??? TBA ??? Errata: You do not in fact have to carry all the queens at once. Brett may not have advanced Isabela's conversation enough. Twitch: timlongojr Discord DevGameClub@gmail.com

The Classic Gamers Guild Podcast
Ranking Non-Sierra/LucasArts Adventure Games!

The Classic Gamers Guild Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 12, 2024 66:54


This week Anna and Paul are ranking some adventure games that weren't made by Sierra or LucasArts. If Paul got his way this episode is called I Have No Willy And I Must Beamish, but I'm guessing it's prolly something clunky and annoyingly descriptive. Anyway this was fun, Mangia!   Play our adventure game! The Phantom Fellows is out now! GOG  Steam  itch.io Fireflower     The Adventure Games Podcast - Interview with Paul Korman - The Classic Gamers Guild Podcast & The Phantom Fellows   Shek out our friends in the Adventure Game Hotspot Network: Space Quest Historian's Tex Murphy: Mean Streets - A Fair & Balanced Retrospective Adventure Game Geek's Some of the Spookiest Adventure Games of 2024 (feat. Paul!) OneShortEye's The Dirty Secrets of King's Quest IV (appearances by Anna & Paul!) Adventure Game Hotspot's The Best Space Quest Game Now Has Voices - SQV Voice Mod Save Your Game's Episode 32 - Kings Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella & Paul Korman Laura Cressup's Twitch & YouTube Channels     Conversations with Curtis' Paul Korman & Daniel play The Phantom Fellows! Tech Talk with Daniel Albu's A Conversation with Larry The O (Escape from Monkey Island / Galactic Battlegrounds / Jedi Knight)   Say hi I guess! Twitter (Anna) - @CGGpodcast Twitter (Paul) - @PhantomFellows ThePhantomFellows.com Send us your words! E-mail:  mail@CGGpodcast.com Become a Patreon to support the show? www.patreon.com/ClassicGamersGuild Join the group and talk about neat stuff! Facebook Page Facebook Group We're also on Instagram & YouTube  "CGG Theme" and "A Minor Concussion" by The Volume Remote Intro greeting (usually) by (and thank you to) Hope Kodman VonStarnes           The Phantom Fellows is available on: GOG  Steam  itch.io Fireflower    

All My Best Friends Are Digital
#21: Still Wakes the Deep

All My Best Friends Are Digital

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2024 59:41


It's Halloween here at AMBFAD, and so we are going to discuss some horror games! The retro run-and-gun Zombies Ate My Neighbors hearkens back to a halcyon period of LucasArts, and Still Wakes the Deep will hit you right in the feels.  What We're Playing01:05 Caitlin: Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred (Blizzard Entertainment, 2024)03:51 Caitlin: Rabbit and Steel (mino_dev, 2024)08:12 Mark: rRootage (ABA Games, 2003)https://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/15:27 GOOF: Zombies Ate My Neighbors (LucasArts, 1993)24:30 Feature Game: Still Wakes the Deep (Chinese Room, 2024)SHOUT55:12 Caitlin: Glyphica: Typing Survival (aliasBLACK)57:40 Mark: NERF Destiny 2 Ace of SpadesAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Nick's Nerd News
Episode 336: Live from New York...

Nick's Nerd News

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 17, 2024 71:59


Did anyone of you know that one of the biggest leaks in Pokémon history happened this past weekend? but hey, now you can buy and play Xbox games right from your phone so that's pretty cool. Disney announces release dates for Lilo & Stich and Freakier Friday, meanwhile Joker 2 has one of the worst second weekends at the box office. That plus a review of Saturday Night.

Adventure Games Podcast
Interview with Paul Korman - The Classic Gamers Guild Podcast & The Phantom Fellows

Adventure Games Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 11, 2024 99:35


That sound you hear is the thunderous crash when two giant podcasts collide as this week, Paul Korman, co-host of the Classic Gamers Guild podcast joins Seoirse on the Adventure Games Podcast to talk about, what else, classic adventure games. Gold Rush and Broken sword are indeed mentioned a couple times as well as others and they discuss the different qualities of Sierra and Lucasarts. They also talk about both their respective podcasts and what they enjoy and the challenges they experience and how Paul and his co-host Anna Vigue continue to come up with topics on classic adventure games every two weeks for their podcast.If that's not enough then Paul also talks about his new adventure game, The Phantom Fellows and what players can expect in terms of story, puzzles and how he learned to make an adventure game after co-hosting a podcast for a few years.All t hat and much more so please enjoy!The Classic Gamers Guild PodcastThe Phantom Fellows Official SiteAdventure Games Podcast Official SiteIf you would like to stay up to date make sure you subscribe to the podcast. You can subscribe and listen to this podcast on Itunes and Spotify and all other major Podcast Platforms! You can also subscribe to our Youtube channel for extra video content such as video reviews, video interviews, trailers and gameplay.You can also support the podcast at our PatreonYou can review this podcast here:https://ratethispodcast.com/adventuregamespodcastYou can also find this podcast on our social media below:FacebookTwitterInstagramDiscordYou can also find the RSS feed here:http://www.adventuregamespodcast.com/podcast?format=rssLogo created by Siobhan. You can find her on Twitter and InstagramMusic is Speedy Delta (ID 917) by Lobo Loco and can be found here:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lobo_Loco/Welcome/Speedy_Delta_ID_917_1724

Stealth Boom Boom | A Stealth Video Games Podcast
CounterSpy Review | DEFCON Delights, Proc-Gen Repetition, Big Vibes

Stealth Boom Boom | A Stealth Video Games Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 1, 2024 96:54


A decade ago, a small indie developer called Dynamighty got a phone call (NB: don't know if it was a phone call.... could've been an email, a fax, carrier pigeon, or many other multiple means of communication) from a large publisher called Sony. And a game about the cold war was born! We're going back to 2014 to look at a 2D stealth-action game about a spy that infiltrates superpower bases. We're talking CounterSpy.On this episode of Stealth Boom Boom, we discuss how the team was influenced by Bond (but apparently there was a much darker version of CounterSpy in the works at one stage, too). We also chat about the founders LucasArts and Pixar heritage and whether or not they named their company after early 00s British singer/rapper Ms. Dynamite.In our review, you'll hear some chat on the Lacanch Range Master; you go from left-to-right, but enemy guards are living in 3D; trying to figure out a safe distance; blowing up safes around the ever-suspicious guards; no real way to break up the pack; cruel AI; the importance of the constant DEFCON levels; isolating and threatening an officer; going into cover when trying to dodge roll or dodge rolling when trying to go into cover; looking at the world from a different perspective (and finding the aiming fiddly) when you're in a shootout; shopping for new weapons and level buffs; Wile E. Coyote; the limits and repetition of procedural generation; PSP video game Coded Arms; the thrill of running for the end of the level once the countdown starts (and also the annoyances you run into here); breezy satire; and big capital v Vibes.After all that, we take you through what some of the critics were saying about the game around the time it came out, and then we give you our final verdicts on whether CounterSpy is a Pass, a Play, or an Espionage Explosion.For those who would like to play along at home, we'll be discussing, reviewing and dissecting Sly 2: Band of Thieves on the next episode of Stealth Boom Boom.IMPORTANT LINKS TO THINGS

RPG Fan's Retro Encounter
436 - Day of the Tentacle

RPG Fan's Retro Encounter

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 26, 2024 69:46


What possible harm could an insane, mutant tentacle do? Day of the Tentacle was a tentpole release in LucasArts's excellent run of classic adventure games from the late 1980s through the late 1990s, and its very specific dialog, puzzle logic, and sense of humor made it a cult classic. But how do two Day of the Tentacle longtime fans and one relative newcomer feel about this struggle of teenager versus tentacle in 2024? Listen to find out, in our final episode of Retro Encounter's September of Adventure! Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Hilary Andreff, Jonathan Logan; Edited by Jonathan LoganOpening and ending music by Miles MorkriGet in Touch:RPGFan.comRPGFan ShopEmail us: retro@rpgfan.comTwitter: @rpgfancomInstagram: @rpgfancomThreads: @rpgfancomFacebook: rpgfancomTwitch: rpgfancomDay of the Tentacle on RPGFan

Dev Game Club
DGC Ep 403: Heroes of Might and Magic (part three)

Dev Game Club

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 25, 2024 76:33


Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we conclude our series on Heroes of Might and Magic. We confess that we should have learned more about this game before we tried it, and then turn to takeaways and email. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played:  Some... more? Issues covered: games we've fallen down on, the commitment, why we don't play certain genres, falling short, the possibility of finding guest hosts, game selection moving forward, having a tech tree in the manual but things we missed, board games and picking up strategy, hot seat multiplayer, modernizing the series, the limits of the audience, adding narrative, the heroes off the battlefield, June alert, whether you should do something, thinking about the computer audience, clarity and taste, how you present the information to the player in the manual, ramping up the campaign, "board games can be fun," creating your own space, learning design from board games, enjoying the tactical map, coming up with the names for things, not overthinking it, deepening and alienating people, machinima, stories from The Sims, boxes from the past. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Waypoint, Austin Walker, Patrick Klepek, Danielle Riendeau, MegaMan, GTA III, Final Fantasy Tactics, Kaeon, Dwarf Fortress, Artimage, The Sims, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Smash Brothers, NES/SNES, Apple ][, Lode Runner, Wizardry, Final Fantasy VI, Ubisoft, Jurassic Park, Jeff Goldblum, Slay the Spire, Civilization, X-COM, Warhammer, Andrew Kirmse, mysterydip, Bethesda Game Studios/Zenimax, Notch, Halo, Call of Duty, Battlefield, Battlefront, Battlezone, Jeffool, Red vs Blue, Quake, Tacoma, PUBG, LucasArts, Father Beast, Margot Robbie, Barbie, Ashton Herrmann, Lords of Magic, Lords of the Realm, Stonekeep, Interplay, Day of the Tentacle, Burn: Cycle, Phantasmagoria, Tony Rowe, Trespasser, Bill Roper, Warcraft, Diablo, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.  Next time: TBA! Note: I think the person Tim was thinking of is Natalie Watson. We regret our lack of memory. Also note: Philip Johnson is the architect Brett was thinking of, with his "Glass House" in New Canaan, Connecticut. Twitch: timlongojr Discord DevGameClub@gmail.com

The SNES Podcast
S1E242 - The SNES Podcast #242 -- Big Sky Trooper

The SNES Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 21, 2024 69:18


In this episode of the SNES Podcast, Greg and Joe cover a obscure and unique game for the SNES -- Big Sky Trooper! Developed by Lucasarts and with the same engine as Zombies Ate My Neighbors, this action/adventure game is weird but interesting in numerous ways. We cover the game and how it ticks in this episode. Any questions, comments, etc can be left on our FB page or e-mailed to thesnespodcast@yahoo.com and as always thanks for your support! The SNES Podcast is proud to be part of the Geekade network! Please check out their fantastic gaming and non gaming related podcasts at geekade.com. Also check out their Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/geekade  Find out more at https://the-snes-podcast.pinecast.co This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Save Your Game
Episode 27 - Dialogue: What Makes it Good?

Save Your Game

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 28, 2024 99:22


PushingUpRoses and Matt Aukamp talk about dialogue trees in adventure games; What makes them good? What makes them bad? Do you skip them? Matt says some stuff that's likely to get him cancelled by Sierra-heads. Plus, PlayDate with Matt and RANKING EVERY ADVENTURE GAME EVER.We don't know. Whatever makes sense.Email us! mattandroses@gmail.comGames Mentioned: The Crimson Diamond King's Quest IV Fallout: New Vegas The Keyper Mars After Midnight Papers, Please Grim Fandango Disco Elysium The Curse of Monkey Island Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Justin Wack and the Big Time Hack The Dagger of Amon Ra Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town The Adventures of the Black Hawk Legend of Skye King's Quest V and VI Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars Danganronpa series Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series Hatoful Boyfriend HuniePop Murder, She Wrote (The Game!) Dark Grim Mariupolis Byzantine: The Betrayal Minecraft: Story Mode

Dev Game Club
DGC Ep 400: Bonus Interview with Tony Rowe

Dev Game Club

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 14, 2024 84:43


Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we revisit our series on Trespasser: The Lost World with an interview with Tony Rowe, who did QA on the title. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 00:49   Interview 1:13:20 Break 1:13:55 Outro Issues covered: time to take out the prehistoric trash, getting in, doubling up the QA team, the clay model of an island, having to rebuild the island, cutting a more open level, the empty plantation house, Microsoft Hiking Simulator, the bowling shirt, how long games took at the time, rising expectations, developing a software renderer, length of time and risk, entirely procedurally driving the critters, using a hill to escape a dinosaur, everything being a box, exploding physics boxes, choosing procedural animation, saying yes to too many things, a richer first person experience, locking the arm, emergent gameplay, a different context, building a separate demo level, overtime/double time/golden time, lack of friction, the floating plants, taking the blame, programming and managing at the same time, video game history and documenting game development, influences later, making it hard for game stores, dinosaur brains and subtlety, cranking up the anger, the importance of preservation, regressing bugs and test plans. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Star Wars, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Jurassic Park, Dreamworks, Electronic Arts, Spark Unlimited, LucasArts, Force Unleashed (series), First Assault, Drexel University, Greg Knight, Interweave, WayForward Technologies, Microshaft: Winblows 98, X-Fools, Star Warped, MYST, PYST, Parroty Interactive, Monopoly, Spielberg, Katzenberg, David Geffen, DOOM, Neverhood, Dark Forces, Skyrim, Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, PS3, Microsoft 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP, AMD, Quake, 3dfx Voodoo2, Dreamcast, PS2, Seamus Blackly, Looking Glass, Terranova: Strike Force Centauri, Richard Wyckoff, Austin Grossman, Andrew Grant, Tai-Fu, Small Soldiers, Crystal Dynamics, Noah Hughes, Kung Fu Panda, Unreal, Clive Barker's Undying, Fall Guys, 3D Studio MAX, Starfighter, Video Game History Foundation, Phil Salvador, Frank Cifaldi, UNESCO, Dinosaur Train, Terry Izumi, Clint Hocking, Far Cry 2, Half-Life 2, Octodad, Eidos, Spectre, Max Spielberg, Jet Lucas, Assassin's Creed, David Wolinsky, Apple ][, The Sims, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: TBA! Links:  David Wolinsky's Interview with Steven Horowitz Twitch: timlongojr Discord https://t.co/h7jnG9J9lz DevGameClub@gmail.com

Dev Game Club
DGC Ep 399: Interview with Jordan Mechner

Dev Game Club

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 7, 2024 73:17


Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we revisit our series on rotoscoping with a fun chat with Jordan Mechner, of Karateka, Prince of Persia, and The Last Express fame. We also talk about his new graphic memoir: Replay, Memoir of an Uprooted Family. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 00:50   Interview 1:01:50 Break 1:02:03 Outro Issues covered: his history, train trips, caricatures and making stuff, not living up to the greats, improvising into his games, animation not holding up, filming his mother's karate teacher, his father, and his brother, handcrafting for rotoscoping, taking silent film classes, cross-cutting and wipes, the moment it came to live, the power of abstraction vs the uncanny valley, the impact on what we wanted for animation, caricature and capturing someone, finding the essence of a person, specialization and stepping into direction, drawing ten real people and getting into the graphic memoir, caricature and selling the big moments of small animations, abstraction and universality, adapting to higher resolution, breaking the illusion of interactivity, not being photorealistic but still having the nuance of real actors, highly compressible art and fluidity, uncanny valley of interactivity, picking the right constraints, the train's limitations enabling the possibility of depth, the fascination of interactive theater, holding up better, physical recording separated from voice, allowing for improvisation or variability, being attracted to historical fiction, his family's history, drawing the real things into the memoir, experience, technical nuance and caricature, moments of impactful character interactions, committing to a high bar. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Karateka, Prince of Persia, The Last Express, Smoking Car Productions, Disney, Replay: Memoir of an Uprooted Family, LucasArts, Space Invaders, Apple, Hitchcock, Thief of Baghdad, Sabu, Conrad Veidt, 1001 Nights, MAD Magazine, Al Hirschfeld, Frank Sinatra, Broderbund, Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud, MYST, Dragon's Lair, Buster Keaton, Robyn Miller, The 7th Guest, Rebel Assault, GTA, Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot, Deadline, The Witness, Infocom, Sleep No More, Assassin's Creed, Zoetrope Studios, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Seven Samurai, Fathom, Michael Turner, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Templar, Count of Monte Cristo, Emily, Michel Ancel, Eric Chahi, Ubisoft, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.  Next time: TBA! Links: Jordan Mechner's website Twitch: timlongojr Discord DevGameClub@gmail.com

Stay Forever
Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (SF 145)

Stay Forever

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 28, 2024 135:00 Transcription Available


Es herrscht im Stay-Forever-Kanon ein leichter Mangel an Besprechungen zu Flugsimulationen, das ist möglicherweise ein bisschen den Vorlieben von Chris und Gunnar geschuldet. Diese Scharte wollten wir auswetzen und haben die Hörer gefragt, welche als Thema gewählt werden soll - und "SWOTL" setzte sich vor Red Baron und Falcon 3.0 durch. Das LucasArts-Spiel ist Teil und Höhepunkt einer inoffiziellen Trilogie von Luftkampfspielen mit Schauplatz Zweiter Weltkrieg, alle entstanden unter der Federführung von Larry Holland. Chris und Gunnar sprechen über das Gameplay und die Entstehung und den geschichtlichen Hintergrund. Unterstützer bekommen noch eine Folge "Wusstet ihr eigentlich ...? Infos zum Spiel: Thema: Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe ("SWOTL") Erscheinungstermin: 1991 (USA) Plattform: MS-DOS Entwickler: LucasFilm Games / LucasArts Publisher: LucasFilm Games / LucasArts Genre: Flugsimulation Designer: Larry Holland, Peter Lincroft, Noah Falstein, Martin Cameron u.a. Musik: Michael Z. Land Podcast-Credits: Sprecher: Christian Schmidt, Gunnar Lott Audioproduktion: Christian Schmidt Titelgrafik: Paul Schmidt Intro, Outro: Nino Kerl (Ansage); Chris Hülsbeck (Musik) www.stayforever.de

The FrogPants Studios Ultra Feed!
PLAY RETRO 126: Grim Fandango

The FrogPants Studios Ultra Feed!

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 21, 2024 68:45


Released by LucasArts in 1998, Grim Fandango is a unique adventure game that combines a rich narrative, memorable characters, and a distinctive art style inspired by Mexican folklore and film noir. Players follow the story of Manny Calavera, a travel agent in the Land of the Dead, as he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens his very soul. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.