Retronauts

You're listening to a free preview of Retronauts Episode 292: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. To hear the rest, and get two exclusive extra episodes every month, our previous Patreon-exclusive episodes, and early access to ad-free podcasts, please visit the official Retronauts Patreon.

Live from PAX East, Jeremy Parish, Benj Edwards, and RetroRGB's Bob Neal discuss the evolution of physical media in video gaming and its impact on the tech and design of the medium.

Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, Henry Gilbert, and Cole Jones bop in time to the music as they revisit Mario's ugliest (but arguably best!!) adventures in the New Super Mario Bros. series. Cover illustration: Step Sybydlo

We talk about the handheld consoles that don't deserve their own episodes, from the criminally bad (R-Zone) to the just plain criminal (Gizmondo). For the full episode, subscribe to the show at patreon.com/retronauts! (Artwork: Amanda Pruitt)

It's time for another entry in our ongoing LucasArts mini-series! This time around, we'll be looking at 1995's Full Throttle: Tim Schafer's first project as a solo director, and also the first LucasArts game to blast beyond the barriers of mere diskettes and ship only in the CD-ROM format. Though Full Throttle's design doesn't exactly hold up 25 years later, it stands as a fascinating look at what the multimedia age meant for adventure games, and a path LucasArts explored that ended up being a revolutionary dead end. Joining us on this one is the great Jake Rodkin, of Idle Thumbs and Campo Santo fame! This is the first time we've had an actual designer of adventure games on this miniseries—you might have played The Walking Dead season 1 and his other Telltale work—and we ended up having a great chat (and some friendly disagreements) about what this game does right and wrong. We'll definitely have him on again in the future to discuss some of the more contemporary adventure games he worked on in the future!

Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, Ray Barnholt, and Shane Bettenhausen convene to discuss the legacy of the ultimate NEC and Hudson collaboration: the TurboGrafx-16. Just in time for the launch of the TG16 mini (in a parallel, pandemic-free universe)!

You're listening to a free preview of Retronauts Episode 286: Sam & Max Hit the Road. To hear the rest, and get two exclusive extra episodes every month, our previous Patreon-exclusive episodes, and early access to ad-free podcasts, please visit the official Retronauts Patreon.

Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, Mike Choi, and USgamer's Caty McCarthy chill out for an hour and a half to discuss the low-key world of Animal Crossing, from its primal Nintendo 64 version through its modern-day spinoffs. Music by Mike Choi; art by Greg Melo.

Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, and Shane Bettenhausen continue the journey through the Final Fantasy saga with this side excursion into an abandoned Manhattan and 1998's Cinematic RPG Parasite Eve. (Cover art: Nina Matsumoto)

Jeremy Parish, Benj Edwards, Chris Sims, and Ben Elgin embark upon a comprehensive (maybe) historic overview of weird video game controllers, from punching bags to chainsaws to... butt-poking fingers!? Cover illustration: Shaan Khan

In the not-too-distant past, the year 2000 used to signify the far-off future. But time makes fools of us all, and this mythical date has transformed into a distant memory, just as all years are destined to become. This week, we examine Y2K's fascinating gaming landscape, where the primitive Game Boy Color could compete with the cutting-edge PlayStation 2, immersive sims and life sims were new genres, and the Dreamcast still looked like it stood a chance. On this episode, join Bob Mackey, Jeremy Parish, USgamer's Kat Bailey, and IGN's Zachary Ryan as the crew soaks contentedly in the End of History where nothing could possiblie go wrong. 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, Ray Barnholt, and Chris Kohler abandon color and extra lines of screen resolution to take a deep dive into the 2D portable Super Mario games, from Super Mario Land to Super Mario Advance 4.

You're listening to a free preview of Retronauts Episode 280: Yakuza. To hear the rest, and get two exclusive extra episodes every month plus early access to ad-free episodes, please visit the official Retronauts Patreon.

Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, and Henry Gilbert continue to take stock of the havoc wrought upon pop culture by Hollywood of the late ’80s with an in-depth survey of RoboCop: The movie, the games, the wholly inappropriate toys for kids! Cover illustration: Amanda Pruitt

The Retronauts East crew (Jeremy Parish, Benj Edwards, Chris Sims, Ben Elgin) offer a quick overview of the gameplay and culture behind Atari's Paperboy; then designer John Salwitz shares his memories of its creation. Art: Step Sybydlo

We may not have Virtual Console to dunk on anymore, but gosh darn it if Nintendo Switch Online doesn't fill that same unsatisfying void in our lives. Jeremy Parish, Benj Edwards, Ben Elgin, & Chris Sims banter about NSO's successes, failings, and swerves. Special thanks this episode to Greg Leahy and Greg Melo for editing and illustrating this episode, respectively!

We've got a real blast from the past for you this week—which is kinda the point of Retronauts, but our newest episode is a blast from the past in an entirely different way. We originally recorded this one on December 6th, 2015, exclusively as an episode for our Kickstarter backers, but now so much time has passed that we feel it's the right time to release this podcast to the general public. So join Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, and special guests Steve Lin and Jaz Rignall as the crew discusses Atari's oversized handheld and says things they likely don't remember in the distant year of 2020. Transport yourself back to a time when we were still excited for more Star Wars and get ready for this week's episode! 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 and vintage gaming expert Kevin Bunch turn back the hands of time to an era when the idea of the Atari 2600 was just a twinkle in someone's eyes, putting the focus on two pioneering consoles: RCA's Studio II and the Fairchild Channel F. The Retronauts is supported by listeners! Subscribe to us on Patreon and get early, higher-quality downloads, exclusive episodes, bonus features about gaming history, topic request opportunities, and more! Learn more at http://www.patreon.com/retronauts

You're listening to a free preview of Retronauts Episode 274: Super Mario RPG. To hear the rest, and get two extra episodes every month plus early access, please visit the official Retronauts Patreon.

The Retronauts East crew (Jeremy Parish, Benj Edwards, Ben Elgin, Chris Sims) attempts to explore the highlights and disasters of gaming history in 1980/1990/2000/2010 in our annual by-the-decade recap... but only make it to 1990. It was a big year, OK?