Retronauts

Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, and Henry Gilbert grab a laser rifle and angrily scream each other's names in celebration of one of the all-time great animated movies—Akira—as well as the manga it was based on, and the games it inspired. TETSUOOOO!

Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, and Art of Nintendo Power (twitter.com/artofnp) curator Stephan Reese take a trip back through gaming's greatest propaganda rag: Nintendo Power. For the full episode, subscribe to the show at: patreon.com/retronauts

After more than a decade in game development, enigmatic creator Suda 51 had his American debut with Killer 7, but 2007 would bring about his first mainstream splash with No More Heroes. This series launched on the Wii when it was still white hot, and managed to distill the off-the-wall and often alienating ideas of Suda into a personality-driven action game. Nearly 13 years after we first met Travis Touchdown, just where has the series been, and where is it headed with its upcoming third game? On this episode, join Bob Mackey, Maddie Copp, and Matt McMuscles as the crew delves deep into the Garden of Madness to discover what makes this offbeat series so compelling. Retronauts is a completely fan-funded operation. To support the show, and get exclusive episodes every month, please visit the official Retronauts Patreon.

Jeremy Parish takes a trip back 20-odd years to the early days of the World Wide Web to revisit the era's online culture with two pioneers of the games internet: Andrew Vestal (The Unofficial Squaresoft Homepage) and Brandon Teel (Zany Video Game Quotes). Cover art by John Pading.

You're listening to a free preview of Retronauts Episode 328: Batman: Arkham Asylum. To hear the rest, and get two exclusive extra episodes every month, access to our previous Patreon-exclusive episodes, and early access to ad-free podcasts, please visit the official Retronauts Patreon.

Jeremy connects with the minds behind Numskull's ever-expanding collection of classic arcade mini-cabinets, then tags in Chris Sims to discuss the history and wonders of Spike Chun Soft's Fire Pro Wrestling franchise. Cover art: Greg Melo.

Jeremy Parish, Stuart Gipp, and Digital Foundry's John Linneman master the art of counting to four as they deliver a video game history beatdown in the form of a comprehensive retrospective on Sega's Streets of Rage franchise. Cover illustration by Leeann Hamilton.

Our final "Before Times" recording! Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, Nadia Oxford, and Jared Petty convene in (mostly) the same physical space to discuss the history and highlights of Coleco's almost-successful bid at console gaming fame, the ColecoVision. Art by Amanda Pruitt.

Whether or not you know her name, you've definitely heard Jennifer Hale's voice if you played a video game in the past 25 years. Named "the most prolific video game voice actor" by The Guinness Book of World Records, Jennifer has an IMDB page that stretches on into infinity, with hundreds of roles in both video games in animation. On this episode, join us as we chat with Jennifer about her long career in video games, how her roles and voice acting technology have changed in the passing decades, and how voice acting is adapting to a COVID-19 world. And be sure to check out Jennifer's role as the narrator for the audiobook version of Christopher Paolini's To Sleep in a Sea of Stars! Retronauts is a completely fan-funded operation. To support the show, and get exclusive episodes every month, please visit the official Retronauts Patreon.

Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, Henry Gilbert, and Stuart Gipp hop in their telephone booths to discuss the classic Bill & Ted films and their not-so-classic game tie-ins. Then Jeremy chats with Henrique Olifiers about the ZX Spectrum's return via Kickstarter. Cover art by John Pading.

You're listening to a free preview of Retronauts Episode 322: Dragon Quest: Your Story. To hear the rest, and get two exclusive extra episodes every month, access to our previous Patreon-exclusive episodes, and early access to ad-free podcasts, please visit the official Retronauts Patreon.

Matt Alt, author of Pure Invention, joins Jeremy to discuss his research into the impact of technological innovation on the growth of Japanese society in the 20th century, and how it shaped video gaming. Cover art by Nick Wanserski.

Jeremy Parish, Shane Bettenhausen, and Nadia Oxford break quarantine to return to Transylvania for an in-depth look at the original Castlevania for NES and its many, many alternate versions and remakes through the years. Art: Greg Melo

Come sail away with Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, and Henry Gilbert as we turn back the hands of time more than a decade, somehow, to revisit Mario's most cosmic journey of all time: Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 for Nintendo Wii.

Believe it or not, there are topics we've never covered in the past 14 years of Retronauts, so it's always a treat to shine the podcasting spotlight on a subject that's gone untouched. And this week, we're talking all about cowboy games: the genre that traces its roots back to the very beginning of the medium, and only recently came back into vogue thanks to the wildly popular Red Dead Redemption series. On this episode, join Bob Mackey, Jeremy Parish, Henry Gilbert, and Nina Matsumoto as the crew looks at the rootinest, shootinest Western games made between 1975 and 1991. And stay tuned for part two, ya varmint! Be sure to read Nina's newest book: Sparks! Double Dog Dare. Retronauts is a completely fan-funded operation. To support the show, and get exclusive episodes every month, please visit the official Retronauts Patreon.

Jeremy Parish crosses realities to recruit Nadia Oxford and Jared Petty for an in-depth discussion of controversial Squaresoft RPG classic Chrono Cross on the occasion of its 20th anniversary in the U.S. (No weird accents or speech quirks… we pwomise.)  Artwork by Leeann Hamilton. Retronauts is a listener-supported show. Please help keep things running and get early access/exclusive backer-only episodes/other goodies by subscribing at https://patreon.com/retronauts!

You're listening to a free preview of Retronauts Episode 316: Nintendo Leaks. To hear the rest, and get two exclusive extra episodes every month, access to our previous Patreon-exclusive episodes, and early access to ad-free podcasts, please visit the official Retronauts Patreon.

Jeremy Parish and Diamond Feit set the wayback machine for feudal Japan to learn about the secrets of the Samurai Shodown series from Brandon Sheffield, who trawled the SNK archives to research and write the Samurai Shodown Collection. Art: Shaan Khan.

A diverse double-header this week as Jeremy Parish fields a patron request from Joseph Wawzonek to discuss Sony's Ape Escape before a chat with game archivist Leonard Herman about the history of chronicling game history. Art: John Pading.

The exciting conclusion to the saga we began back in... episode 283?! We talk about—yes—more really bizarre and nonsensical gaming input devices. For the full episode, go to patreon.com/retronauts