Flashback
Take a walk through gaming history as we pick a random date in gaming history and bring you the news from that time as if it was now , different era every week - covering all of gaming history
Flashback
A look at gaming in November 1997
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Step into November 1997, when PlayStation style met N64 power and Sega teased a comeback that sounded too bold to be real. We lock into that exact moment—magazine pages, shop shelves, and CRT glow—to unpack why this slice of time still sticks. Colony Wars shows Psygnosis at full command of the PS1, a space sim that felt elegant and cinematic on a humble television. Tomb Raider 2 delivers the rare sequel that truly expands the vision—bigger spaces, better pacing, and that satisfying blend of puzzles and peril. And then there’s GTA’s top-down debut: a noisy, punk statement fueled by tabloid shock and the thrill of being a villain, long before the series went fully 3D.
We also trace the console battlefield as it really felt. The PS1 didn’t just have games; it had identity—club culture, Chemical Brothers vibes, and packaging that made hardware feel adult. N64 held its ground on character and craft, with Rare turning out playful worlds that made cartridges worth the price. Trade show roundups reveal Sony’s open-door approach to developers, while Nintendo curated heavy hitters. An odd, self-deprecating Acclaim feature says the quiet part out loud about middling tie-ins, capturing the era’s tone better than any press release could.
Then come the whispers about Sega’s next machine: PowerVR silicon, Windows CE, 128-bit headlines that magazines doubted and fans hoped for. With hindsight, you can see the Dreamcast forming—ambitious, ahead of its time, and already destined to shape Xbox’s future. We close with a tour through December 1997’s pickups, from Gran Turismo’s transformative take on racing to WCW vs NWO’s late-night multiplayer grind, and share the small, personal moments that define why 1997 still matters.
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Cheers gamers!
Hello and welcome to Flashback of UCP Productions. The games you loved, the stories you forgot. And it's me, RGT, for episode two of this new show. And I am joined again, and you know who it's gonna be. That's them dulcet northern tones, that lovely Lincolnshire voice, the CEO, the main man. Kevin Cost. Oh, it's you, George. Sorry, I was introducing someone else. Now it's George from uh UCP. How are you doing, my man?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I don't identify as any of those things, but I'm here to have a good time. 1997, as far as I'm concerned, and yeah. Yep. It's it's an interesting time for gaming, and it was an interesting time for me. RGT, where were you in 1997?
SPEAKER_00Um probably raving at a dreamscape thing, I would imagine.
SPEAKER_04Just slow down and think what that feels like.
SPEAKER_00I wouldn't be able to do that now. Nine o'clock, Horlicks, bed.
SPEAKER_04Anyway, just a couple of willing victims you've took to bed. Shame you've had to pay for them there, though, RGT. Yeah. And why are you licking them?
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, each to their own. So anyway, as George Judy said, yes, this is November 1997. I hope you enjoyed the first episode, which we went back to March 2009, where we were discussing all things 7th gen. And this time we've taken a leap right back. So, like I say, this is November 1997. So that's be interesting to see if there's any games you recognise on this list. Any of this news where you think that at the time was cutting edge, but you look back now and think, hmm, yes, uh, our dreams of games were a little bit different then. Um, but yeah, it's good. So, like I say, this will take you back on a little bit of a of a time machine. Um, let you know what we would have hopefully have been playing, a little bit of news, a little bit of what we would uh been hoping to play on the next month. Um yeah, and I hope you enjoy. So um before we start, how have you been, George?
SPEAKER_04Oh mate, it you know, absolutely great in the gaming sphere, I would say. Um one thing I was thinking though, uh we did 2009 episode one and I managed to almost get myself back there time travel wise. One thing that's been a little bit concerning to me is 1997 was a little bit of a deeper dive in the uh grey matter than I expected it to be. Yeah, um, and it's it's a little bit cloudy and it's a little bit sort of washed across with a little bit more nostalgia instead of sort of clinical detail. I just sort of like snippets of games and windows of like, oh, did I was I playing that then? Um we've corraled some games together to discuss that were kind of hot in that moment, and I I was playing these in that moment, but you know, I obviously I've played some of them more recently, so I'm sort of more aware of the game and the levels and different bits and bobs, but some of these ones, and I think back to my memory of what was I doing in '97, and it's starting to get a bit foggy, RGT.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, on with you on that. Um, you know, it's quite a few of the games I recognise when we bring them up, what we would have probably been playing, but even so, I sort of set that stage 97 where I'd known, you know, I knew I've played it, but very hazy on what the game was actually like. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um, but and and and mate, the PS1 has yellowed almost as much as my skin in that time frame. And uh the poor old girl's probably upside down with all the sort of mods that you had to do to get it working. I remember around sort of 1997, I think it was that now I can't quite draw the line, but I had a pretty much a launch PS1 or PlayStation as it was called at the time, because that's the other thing that makes me laugh. Because the PS1 came out, and we all of a sudden this naming convention sort of dropped up, but that was called PlayStation, and we just accepted it. And um this thing broke on me. Obviously, you know, there was a lot of these things happening, and I was initially having to turn the console upside down, there wasn't really any internet, so it was just all sort of word of mouth or just desperation in a teenage boy's bedroom, really, so he could play a bit of die hard trilogy, probably. So, yeah, the um the PS1 is you know, I was there day and day, as I say, but it was around this time that I think I actually sold my PlayStation 1 to my boss, who so I could get some money together for a lad's holiday. So make of that what you will.
SPEAKER_00That's where your priorities were at the time.
SPEAKER_04Rendering the game consoles for the first time in quite some time, or completely game machineless. Uh you know, and uh I don't think I was even thinking about it, I didn't even dust off the only other machine available to me, which would have been an Atari ST. Uh so I didn't get that desperate for gaming.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, I'd had I'd had a bit of a little bit of a break from gaming. I'd I'd been I sort of done it a strange way round. I'd been Mars System Mega Drive, then I went to Amiga 500. Uh a friend friend of mine was selling his Amiga 500, I bought it off him, he went to a 600, then to a 1200. But his dad and his dad's friends used to all do the demo scene, and they used to meet up once a week and create these demos, and that sort of got me. I wasn't into the demo scene, I wasn't that good on the computer, but then I'd sort of waved away from it, and I hadn't really I'd heard about a PlayStation, and it sounded different then to what you know of it now. PlayStation is Sony, you don't think nothing at the time a PlayStation, you think, what's that? That sounds like a like you know, where you get your tickets from in the arcade, you know, when you've been playing on the whack-a mole machine, but it was it was really strange, and then I had a friend um just up the coast from me, and he had a he had a PlayStation. He said, Oh, you'll have to come around and have a go. And I was like, what Sony have made a games console. It sounds ridiculous. What are they doing making a games console? And then I went round and he had I think he had the first I think he had the first ISS Evolution soccer, and he had that looked good. I can't think what other game he had, and then he put it on, and I just remember thinking, Odd, you've got to remember the last games I'd been playing was on an Amiga 500, so it was that sort of gaudy colour palette on a 2D platformer, and I went into I went into ISS Pro thinking, oh my god, this is unbelievable. 3D. Yeah, and you look back.
SPEAKER_04I thought it was the looker as well, to be fair. I thought it was a good looking game.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was a good looking game, and and it was just you you'd always sort of known FIFA as well, so there was this new rival coming in.
SPEAKER_04Um who was you see, that's your angle. Now I I moved away from the Tari ST and managed to bully my parents, which is probably what I did actually, bullied them to get me a SNES, and I got that and I rode that, and I was all over the Super Nintendo ecosystem in terms of news and magazines, you know. In that era, there was like a whole wall dedicated to each manufacturer's magazine section, wasn't there? We were so spoiled, there was unofficial, unofficial, unofficial, unofficial, unofficial section.
SPEAKER_00And the thing was you only had two or three quid to get a magazine, so the hard thing was picking which one you got. Always, yeah.
SPEAKER_04And I normally went with the one I normally want went with the one that told me the lies I wanted to hear, basically.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that one with that real fake screenshot.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, exactly that. Just exactly what I didn't need to see, but also what I wanted. Um so I was all over the whole sort of because as a SNES owner, you felt like a little bit on the back foot because you didn't have a CD add-on as uh per se. So then obviously when the stories were sort of breaking that they were working with Sony for a CD add-on that was gonna bolt onto your Super Nintendo that would have made you even more powerful. Because even though I knew the Mega Drive and the Mega C D was all a little bit smoke and mirrors, there was something cutting edge about having a machine that could play CDs that just made it it didn't matter.
SPEAKER_00It was just it was just that look of Knight Riders dashboard where you thought and you could put a C D in it.
Early PS1 Days And Upside-Down Fixes
SPEAKER_04That was like that was like making love to some sort of 3D AI model now. It's it's ridiculous a concept, it's it's right cutting edge. It is, it was at the time, especially to a god knows what Asia was at that point in time. So then, you know, when Sony brought out the PlayStation and the kind of rumours of it were substantiated and it came to be true, and you know, I was kind of hyped for it. The SNES had sort of run out, it kind of filled the hole I wanted in terms of wanting a console, but the games, the kind of maturity of the games that I've been playing on Atari ST simulators, more heavy, more adult themes, per se. You know, just I'm not saying Mortal Kombat Combat's not an adult theme, but PC or home computers, Amiga ST, they had storylines and concepts that were not available, a little bit like P the PC indie scene now, um and consoles were very locked off, so you always got like a very locked-off, straight down the line 2D platformer. But then the PlayStation was coming through with kind of PC ports and Transport Tycoon and Doom and Wipeout. And although Wipeout was basically just a another racing game, the combination of the graphics, the design, um that's been much talked about. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna waste any time on it now, and the publicity campaign that went with it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that was the thing. That was the thing. Get people like um chemical brothers and people like that to do tracks and then stick stick a stick a kiosk in a nightclub. Exactly that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so then a pretentious young youth who wanted to be cool thought getting a PlayStation and sitting in his bedroom was a fast track to getting a girlfriend, probably. Uh unfortunately, far from it. Uh and um, and there you find yourself. So the PlayStation to me was it was it wasn't an alien concept, it was one I was quite excited by. Bizarrely, I tell you what was an alien concept to considering the penetration Sager had had in the marketplace to this time. The Saturn passed me by like a ship in the night. As far as I was concerned, it was PlayStation, I need that. I never even mo for a moment, and I didn't know anything about the vaunted power difference between the two. I didn't know about the lack of uh sort of vaunted lack of 3D capability in the Saturn. I didn't even really know it existed. And here's me who was looking, who'd previously looked with MBS eyes across at the Mega Drive sort of master system class with the bigger boys, and thought, I need a bit of that, so I don't quite not know what was going on with Sega.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I I I've said this story before on on Unfish Controller podcast, um, but I was I'd had operation at the time, my then girlfriend she bought me a PlayStation after me enjoying at around a friend's house, and she got me a pack with call borders and grand turismo in, and that uh Grand Turismo was if you think if you've come from an Amiga and playing Jeff Grammond and things like that, F1, Grand Prix, and then you go to um you go to playing Gran Turismo, the difference is unbelievable, and I put hundreds of hours in that, and I love that, but all I and obviously the N64 came out um I had maybe one or two friends who had an N64, but because we weren't really into specs at the time, that was just well that's a cartridge, that's so last year we're on we're on disc, so you didn't even think nothing of it. I had a girl on a couple of N64s, but their argument was it was 64-bit, our argument was that we had discs, but the Saturn, I knew there was a Sega Saturn, but at no time did I ever see one for sale, did I ever see an advert, or did I know anyone who had one? That's only since I've been into collecting that I got into the satin and actually realised it for what the the system it is. But there was no at the time you either had an N64, you had a PlayStation. There was no no one ever thought of the Sega Saturn.
SPEAKER_04It's not it's not a conversation piece for today per se, but I only really retrospectively discovered the satin and bought one and got games for it and enjoyed them initially when I when I was the like deep in the dreamcast. I was like, this is great. How come I don't know about what was in between? Let me do some research. Ah, it was that. Oh yeah, of course I've heard of that. Well, I need one immediately because if the Dreamcast is banging, Saturn's gotta be banging. Let's have a look at some of these games. Unfortunately, questions at unofficialcontrollerpodcast.com But the Saturn wasn't banging. Um it had some interesting games and some fun games, but it never it visually it it looked chaotic.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think their problem was they uh they slipped a ball on the 3D, they were going for a real ultimate arcade machine 2D, last minute. Someone went, Oh, by the way, that's Sony PlayStation's 3D. You what? Yeah, that's 3D. So then they tried to do a duplicate chip in, which means to develop 3D, you had to sort of develop for two separate chips, and that was all a bit of a yeah, whereas I think Sony had made it so easy for devs. There's your devs kits, there's make it they even done that. What was that net net net rose? Was it called where you could develop your net your rose, you know, and they were really going hard, Sony, on it, and they were really making it as easy as possible, get as many games on. They were one of the first ones to just literally just say, No, no, no, you don't have to bring the games through us, you know, stick your games on, don't worry about it, we didn't need to see them, just put the games on the system, and that just meant that sales were good. Then they undercut them with the famous 199 at the uh cut them, you know, and it was just and I just the satin was just not put across well at all to the lot I say. I mean, I know I live fairly out in the sticks, but I never knew anyone that had one, I never knew anyone that spoke about them. I just knew that they existed. I don't even I mean I might be wrong, but I don't even remember seeing them in the Christmas catalogues or anything, or no, I don't remember seeing it in K's.
SPEAKER_04I think you know there's much there's much talk of the shadow drop of the Saturn uh affecting many, you know, stockists in the US, etc., and possibly in the UK. Uh, and as a result of that, they kind of got themselves a bit blacklisted. I I don't fully believe that. I can't believe that you know brick and mortar stores were that aggrieved by their relationship with Sega to that point where they couldn't stomach a shadow drop and um you know some egregious pricing, etc. It just you know I don't know why, it just didn't capture the zeitgeist. And I'd love to go back to the time and try and explore what their marketing strategy was because it obviously completely lost on me. Whereas I was totally hook, line, and sinker drawn into the world of um PlayStation at the same time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, with the really obscure adverts, and every magazine you opened, there was that famous one with like Sarah Cox and that other bloke with the nosebleeds sitting in the chair, and that was that very youth, very cool, very you know, dance music. They you know, and then not only that, the actual look of the PlayStation as well. I always thought was really nice.
SPEAKER_04It was really I think the PlayStation OG, we'll call it the PS1 here, just for naming clarity. It looks a bit like a slab of button now, admittedly, but you're right. At the time it was different, it was fresh, it was it was an interesting colour as well. The buttons, the controller icon.
SPEAKER_00I always thought that wouldn't look out of place sitting on like the counter in the Alien film, you know. It was that sort of colour and set as the toaster, yes. Yeah, it had that sort of very minimal but classy sort of look to it at the time, you know.
SPEAKER_04100%, yeah. I think again, story for another time, but I think they probably slightly improved on the looks of it in terms of I think appeal when they did the redesign on the PS1, aka the PlayStation Slim. Um something about that appeals to me, the shirt, the shape, the curves, the kind of simplicity in its baby brother. Yeah. But to move on, when I actually came back to gaming after my teenage hiatus, I would say, I got um very, very ill, and as I was recovering from that, I bought myself an N64. I didn't think to come to PlayStation, I just thought, what's the most powerful thing? That 64 bit, I'm all in, what's this game? Star Wars, I'm all for a bit of that. It was Shadows of the Empire, unfortunately. Um you don't like that game, do you? It first levels great. Um the uh the but the uh I think I got Mario 64 as well, uh and uh and and maybe a month or so later picked myself up Goldeneye. But uh yeah, that's just to probably give everyone a flavour of where we were at RGT, but we've selected a very specific moment in time, haven't we? Um November 1997. So probably most to your original question before I took us off on this probably egregious ramble, I'll be honest. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00Well, no, we did after the first episode, we did have a couple of people saying questions that they'd like to hear a bit of our history as well, so something we can add in to the shows of each year and our little history of that. I didn't get that memo, but it happened organically. It did, you see, you're you're tuned in, you see. And also what I will what I will add in is we we we got a little note from Carlos, who's one of our members over on the Unofficial Controller Podcast in our Discord. Um, if you ever want to join that, that is the Unoffished Controller Podcast Discord. If you ever want to link questions at unofficialcontrollerpodcast.com. Um, and he done a little memory of his own, and he just said uh one memory of 2009, albeit later on than covered now. Obviously, this was from the first episode. Um, was I got the modern warfare two 360 console, my OG White, no HDMI console, had red ring twice, and I upgraded my CRT to a 1080p Sony, got the console on launch day after pre-ordering it. I was very excited for the new game, and I love these little things. If you if you feel like doing that, if you're in our Discord or want to join our Discord, go into the little flashback section after you listen to this show. Give us your little snippets of 97, especially November, but just give us a little snippet of that era, what you were playing, what you bought, you know, what was your favourite game, and we do a little readout on the show.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I was gonna say I want to abuse my power. We'll read the best ones out. I think that's nice. Although they're retrospectively a week late. Maybe we can maybe try and work something in where we can get them in stitched into maybe the episodes going forward. But instead of being this launch wave, um, we'll do them retrospectively. Yeah, exactly. Required reason to go back if you stumbled across it now. Reason to go back and have a little listen, isn't it? Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00If you if you're the first time you're listening to this, go back to our last show, um, March 2009. See what you think of that. Um, but let's jump on to what we could have been playing. So we've we've done a little selective pick here. I'll read welcome here.
SPEAKER_04This is Flashback George, be serious.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna start with November 4th. Uh, a fantastic game came out on the PS1 um called Colony Wars. Um Colony Wars for me is I still think one of the best games on the system. Um, I've had it as one of my hidden gems, graphically, graphically superb, it's Boysognosis, um, and it's a space simulator with missions. Um, still looks fantastic. If you plug a your old original PlayStation into a CRT, and if you've got a decent CRT and you boot this up, you'll think, wow, this is this was ahead of us time. I know I've said this before, yes, you're in space, that's just a black screen with a few stars, but the ships, the ships handle very well, the missions are well based, they're tough, but they've you get a sense of achievement as you get through them. They done three of these games as well, which carries a story on. It's very good, very space movie-esque. Um, and I still think they're pretty reasonable to buy. I mean, if you're if you're now onto the uh the original PlayStation um collecting bug, then and you like space games, do not miss Colony Wars. They're one uh one of the series of best series of space games I think I've ever played. I think they're superb. Um, but yeah, Colony Wars.
PlayStation Cool Vs Saturn Confusion
SPEAKER_04Well, my takeaway from Colony Wars, dude, is that Psychnosis once again proving to be the absolute master class of assigning uh to the brand because they just brought the heat time and time again. Uh, we talk about Naughty Dog now, people like that who know how to get the console to sing for the manufacturer.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_04They knew how to make the PS1 sing.
SPEAKER_00I I can remember as well because I was being late teenager, then you just played a PlayStation, you just wanted good games you wanted to play. You didn't really know about developers and that, but I always knew if I saw that Cygnosis label on a game, that was always a good yeah, that owl, that was always a good sign for me.
SPEAKER_03It's a solid sign that you weren't gonna feel absolutely mugged off. Thousand percent agree.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so that was brilliant, but yeah, Colony Wars, that was out November 4th. Um I I played this a lot later, but it was even now, I still think it's a whale game. Brilliant. Um, another one we noticed came out on November 18th. Um Tomb Raider 2, the second one. Um core design and published by EDOS. Um still had the old tank controls, but I still think they were they were very revolutionary games for the time.
SPEAKER_04Um this was a difficult difficult second album, dude. And I'll be honest with you, in terms of what people wanted from a Tomb Raider sequel, they nailed it. Great critical reception. Everybody I knew who was playing at the time was loving it, the scope of it all just got broadened right out, kind of what you wanted, really.
SPEAKER_00And also, I think the compared to modern game, and modern gaming today is especially I know it's online and things are different. Yes, it's a long time ago, but there's a lot of you know, microtransactions. How can we make money? You know, that's how we we make money off the game. How back then, games like Colony Wars, Tomb Raider, when Colony Wars 2 come out, that was that bit better because they listened to what people wanted in the second game because they know it would make the game sell. Tomb Raider 2. Every little bit was that little bit improved because that's what the gamers wanted, and they knew the gamers would buy it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, I actually think the developments came from within themselves and their own frustrations with their own product, you know. We embraced their first game and so, oh yeah, this is great, it's everything. But to the the creator of the game, think how many things they had to leave off the table as uh you know, concessions to this or a compromise to get that, or you know, there's always a compromise in development. So a lot of these ideas fan fan fueled in one way, but at the same token, they're there ready to pour their heart and soul straight back in with everything that they couldn't squeeze in the first time round. So sequel's normally just brimming with good stuff in a movie. There's no guarantee a sequel's gonna knock it out of the park. But with because of the evolutionary style of video games, it's annoying because I always want to go back to the first game of any series so I can be you know, I'm a true proficient fan of this. I've played the first one all the way through, but sometimes the first game, you're like, Oh my god, but then the magic happens when you get to the sequel, you're like, right, I'm into this now, I understand it. Yeah, they've taken what I liked. Obviously, sometimes they can take what you don't like and broaden that out, as I've experienced some games more recently. It's like, ugh, I didn't ask for this, but I guess some people did. You've got to take the rough with a smooth sometimes, but yeah, Team Raider, and and mate, again, we talk of the era. Sorry, I get so excited when I finally click into that zeitgeist of 1997 on there. Um you think about I mean, not fully at her powers in terms of market sort of recognition, but at this point, mate, Lara Croft getting everywhere.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and yeah, she was on everything from Lugase bottles to posters, you know.
SPEAKER_04To FHM, right? Yeah, yeah. Or whatever it was that she was in, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00But I remember s going back to the gameplay sand to my my daughter, who's you know, she's now come up for 21, and I said to her, I shoo a tomb raider, the first one, and she was like, Oh my god, that looks terrible. I said, Yeah, but remember to put this in comparison, how big this game was, and Tomb Raider 2, even more so, was we'd come from playing 2D games. I said, you know, side scrolls, we could only go left or right. There was the odd faux 3D sort of game at Trida, and that was either one frame per second, or it was just effects to make you feel like you were 3D, like a dungeon crawler with just the with the left. Sonic 3D, yeah, you know. So this was our first time of going into a 3D world, and I said, You got to remember, and then she sort of went, Oh, I see what you mean. I was like, Yeah, this is this was the moment when I remember playing the first Tomb Raider, and at the time didn't think nothing of tank controls, but you had nothing to compare it to, really, so you didn't really know.
SPEAKER_04It felt like the most organic control method to us. I didn't think nothing of I swear to it now because we didn't know any different and we'd come from 2D games, pushing forward felt right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, didn't think nothing of control. And I said, you know, imagine we then could turn and walk into the background, you walk wherever you want. I know you're you're on a you know linear level, but you could just walk round and round her mansion and walk to different. I said, This was just this was another level, this was a massive leap in game and to get to that 3D. But yeah, so Tomb Raider 2, yeah, and they smashed it out of the park with that. Is there anything on there that you can remember? Takes your fancy there, George.
SPEAKER_04Oh, absolutely, dude. Yeah, I mean you you picked out Colony Wars. I didn't play it at the time, but I've gone back and played it since, and everything I said at the stop at the top there stands. Um Sonic R stands out for me, got that on the Saturn. Interesting game. I think it's made by is it Traveller's Tales?
SPEAKER_00Remember their developer? Yeah, that's the exactly racing one, that's sort of racing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, infamously we went on to make the Lego uh series of games, but uh Sonic R was it's an interesting concept, but you know, to the kids that grew up with Sonic, we were into wipeout now, you know, and that's very true, actually.
SPEAKER_00I've never thought of it like that. That's a very good point. Yeah, yeah, where we were, you're gonna have Sonic run around a tube of a few characters you remember, or you're gonna be in an anti-gravity raceship just on in your local knowledge.
SPEAKER_04Which one's gonna have more legitimacy when your mate pops in?
SPEAKER_00Hmm, that's very true.
SPEAKER_04When you're eight, Sonic's badass. When you're 18, Sonic is not badass. No matter how you dress it up. Now you could play yourself off as Kitch Cool, but in 1997 there weren't many people passing myself off as Kitch Cool where I was. No, no, definitely not. Uh yeah, a bit, bit, bit extreme. But you've got to think from uh again going back to Sega's penetration, they really were looking were having to now look to reawaken. You've got two choices if you're a console manufacturer, you gotta either tap into a new audience, a bit like Nintendo, and try and dumb it down and make it, you know, Sonic your mascot and stick that as your temp pole and raise the flag up on it every time, or you've got to go after a new audience. And I think with the Dreamcast they probably went after a new audience, probably to try and regain their core audience, but with the Saturn, very messy implementation, you know, where's your new audience? Where's what keeps your old school boys happy? Banzer Dragons not doing it. Uh Team Raider 2, remember Diddy Kong Racing was an absolute banger and a standout early N64 title.
SPEAKER_00And a lot of people say it's the better version of Mario Kart 64.
SPEAKER_04I wouldn't disagree.
SPEAKER_00No, it's got more, you've got more sort of vehicles, haven't you? And you've got even a bit more of a career mode, would you say, even not a game mode in it, where you actually follow a bit more of a story in it rather than Yeah, if memory serves, there's a bit of a sort of weird story in there.
SPEAKER_04Obviously, it's got Rare's touch all over it, so it's got that kind of nice and it leans into what I call the N64 aesthetic, um, which it's not that nice now, but at the time it was a real cool place to hang out. Like I, you know, I'm often giving Nintendo a little bit of grief, but I had a really great time with the N64. Yeah, I was always looking over at the PS1 I sold thinking, wow, wish I had metal gear. Uh what have I got? Hybrid heaven. Oh god.
SPEAKER_00Uh but you know Yeah, there was things like that, you know, but then And you had your limited, you know, if you played like Tony Hawke's anything that had a license soundtrack, you had to have limited snippets of that because of the cartridge memory, but you know, it was 64 bit. It was a bit of a powerhouse for what it could do.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean, I was there paying the full, I don't know, was it like 90 bucks for Resident Evil 2 on the N64?
SPEAKER_00They were expensive because of the price of cartridges and the manufacture of them rather than a CD, they they were quite pricey still. But that's the thing though. I I always thought I had my PlayStation, sorry to jump in, but I had my PlayStation. And then I'd always there was a couple of guys I knew of N64s who were still rocking the N64 and a cartridge, and I still thought you just seem like quite you know, prestige gamers because you're still Nintendo, you're still cartridge, yeah. But there was that something about the cartridge, and that still felt real gaming, whereas this was almost like a multimedia sort of crossover into gaming, and I always thought, yeah, well, I was just oh you know, I'd I'd darn the sword for the PlayStation, but you still look across and think, Yeah, that is still pretty cool with that weird three-pronged controller.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, mate, I I was all in on it. I had I I would say the N64 was like the first time I had money. Um, the PlayStation one, I had money, but I was a bit too young. I was kind of sort of flitting around. I was trying to learn to drive, I was probably trying to impress girls, but probably spending all the money drinking booze to pluck up the courage and end up spewing all my wages up the back of wagon and horses, mate. You know how it is.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_04Still am true, too, true. Touche. Um so the the PlayStation I had some fun with. Uh, me and Terry played the wheels off certain games, but then I drifted, came back with the N64, went all in on the ecosystem. I reckon I was probably every month there was kind of like a temp pole title I remember picking up. I had a real good reading.
SPEAKER_00Oh wow, really? So you were definitely you were you were spending the bucks on the games then?
SPEAKER_04Oh mate, there was a game a month at least, and then probably whatever I found in the and I was I was going through again, not really relevant for now, but I was rinsing through like Jet Force Gemini. I was just picking up like Banjo Kazooie 1 and 2, Donkey Kong 64, Mario this, Mario that. I was just F0X all over it like a rash, you know. I think there was a GT Racing Club that I picked up in desperation because I wanted Gran Turismo. So I look at some of the games I bought to get myself like the PlayStation Experience on N64, and I now think as an adult, well, that plus that plus that equals the PlayStation one second and then a brand new copy of Gran Turismo, George.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You don't think like that then, though?
SPEAKER_04No, I was locked in. I couldn't think I the the idea that the console and some other games would be cheaper than me trying to replicate it on that system didn't really make any financial sense to my brain. Um, but we get distracted. Uh there's worms two there that's uh had a release on Windows around this time.
SPEAKER_00I do remember playing I played that a lot on the Amiga with my friends.
SPEAKER_04I played Worms either one or two on the PlayStation one a lot.
SPEAKER_00Um great fun party games, still are to be fair. I mean, they've they've sort of lasted longevity, aren't they? And there's still something so good about those games.
SPEAKER_04And there's something great about the noise, the aesthetic. I'll be honest, absolutely no idea what I'm doing. Didn't even then.
SPEAKER_00Um it was it was just uh it was a progression from I remember we used to have these uh computers at school called RM Nimbus, they were called, and they used to have a tank battle game on, and you had to work out your angle and degree. I think that was their way of cleverly sort of educating us that we just thought we were playing video games, but you had to work your angle, and that's that was a reminder me of that, and that's why I sort of got into worms really, because that was that progression of working angles and firing the bombs over.
SPEAKER_04And I'll be honest with you, I sometimes think that games maybe hit in a time where they weren't properly appreciated. Now, I'm not gonna say worms wasn't a massive franchise, but if nothing like worms had existed until smartphones came out, worms would have absolutely decimated.
SPEAKER_00It would have made it not the Angry Birds or the topic.
SPEAKER_04I was gonna say it would have made Angry Birds look daft because there was a lot of that. What a lot of the interactions you had with worms were mouse-based interactions. But I tell you what, those mouse-based interactions would have mapped absolutely silky smooth touchscreen interactions.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And although by the time worms probably eventually got a release on iOS or Android Store, we kind of all knew what it was, and we're bored, and they're on Worms 10 and they'd been through several evolutions. But if we'd never tasted that pie, never had an idea about how sweet that pie was. If we all tasted it today on a smartphone, be game of the year, that's a bit strong, but you catch them adrift. Yeah, and I sometimes think about something like Cannon Fodder as well, like that.
N64 Highs, Rare Magic, And Pricey Cartridges
SPEAKER_00That was a headerous time, you know. And you know, again, I know a different again. That we'll probably get into that on a different show, but yeah, that was that was another game where you just thought there was nothing like this at all, and even that powerful message when someone passed in the game, it was very, very well done. Um, yeah, that's I see what you mean, a worms too.
SPEAKER_04Different era with different tech, then yeah, and the same with Canon Fodder that if you could drag your finger down the screen and tap the enemy, it'd be simple. But keeping it in November '97, uh, a game that's literally got my hands on uh as point of recording. If this was day and date and we were back in the day, uh, I picked it up on Windows. Absolutely no idea why I did that. It's probably during my game in hiatus. Maybe this is when I didn't have a PlayStation one, but we had tucked away in the Spamley study spare bedroom that had become the PC room. In there was a rip snorting gateway PC, I think. It could just about run Grand Theft Auto, and because of the hubbub, I remember being at work and the newspaper was there, and it was like this game, you know, it's absolutely sacrilege, it's it's the most outrageous game ever made. Now we know they paid for that now, but once again, a fish bully. So what we've learnt today is George got a PlayStation because it was 32-bit boo. George got an N64 because it was more paw. George got a Grand Theft Auto because the sun said it was crazy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly what I'd done. I mean, I'd heard of Grand Theft Auto when it came out, and I just sort of thought, hmm, I don't know. For those who didn't know, it wasn't Rockstar then, it was DMA designs, who then sort of fed into um the the Rockstar, you know, Goliath that we know now.
SPEAKER_04Um that name, that logo popped up prior to an absolute banger of a game that we say it's ahead of its time. If that game had never come out but released tomorrow, Lemmings.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, what an absolute that game was everywhere. Yeah, it was, yeah, yeah. That was that was a big game, lemons. Everyone who had a Mamiga had lemons. But yeah, DMA designs, Grandfifth Auto, friend of mine had come round ours. Um, I was sharing a house with my friend at the time. Um, I was sort of late teens, and he came around with his grandfift auto, and I was like, pfft, he said, Oh, you steal cars you could drive round. It's just like whatever. He said, Didn't you see it in the paper? Uh, they would gone mad about it. And I was like, No, no, no, yeah, yeah, yeah. They reckon that's it's really bad, they're trying to ban it, and it's terrible. And people are really protesting. I was like, Right, put it on. As soon as that was on, I was just like, Yeah, I was in, and you know, for obviously people who don't know that was this was top down then, because obviously uh they didn't go for that tank controls, yeah. Tank controls, top down, but it is the essence of Grand Theft Auto Mind based and I don't know whether the PlayStation one did, and you'll probably tell me now.
SPEAKER_04But my PC big box version, and I'd love to know where that bad boy is right now, so that's worth some dollar, came with a CD soundtrack as well of the radio songs.
SPEAKER_00Oh, really? Yeah, I'm not sure. I think the only one I might might do that is the GTA London, the sort of DLC disc add-on sort of one you could get for two, but I'm not sure. Um, but yeah, that was brilliant. I mean, they were they really started to get noticed for those games for just being different and just being almost where everyone else was sort of all the other game companies looking down on them going, what the hell are these guys doing? That's what they're shooting people in the streets and stealing cars and killing policemen.
SPEAKER_04I thought, what the you know, and it was that you forget mowing down the Harry Krishna's for the Garanda or whatever it was bonus. I mean, I didn't even know in 1997 a rural kid like me didn't even really know what a Harry Krishna was. No, no, but by the end we all mowed him, yeah. By the end of 1997, I was probably right up there for deaths, yeah. Uh of Harry Krishna people, yeah.
SPEAKER_00It was it was crazy, and that was just the start of the the you know the juggernaut, which is which is GTA, but um then it was revolutionary. Um you go back and play them now, and you're a bit that's that's a bit you know, but you've got to remember we'd never had anything like this.
SPEAKER_04Yes, you'd had games where you shoot people, yes, you'd had games where but that was that total where you just thought you could do anything, there was not being a game you had to follow a story, but that holds GTA original back is the the lack of technology, and by that I don't mean the gaming technology, I mean as soon as you can give a gaming character a mobile phone, you don't need him to report to a landline anymore. Exactly all of a sudden the gameplay opens up immeasurably, yeah. Uh and that and and and then again you're not locked into needing to visit point A to pick up a mission, your phone just rings, and you know that happens in GTA 3, but uh you can see the evolution of where they're going to with it, and that's the big difference maker. I think GTA 1 for me was it was a bit like a punk track. It was a bit like something by the Sex Pistols, it was rude, it was abrupt, it was raucous, um, it was out of control. You'd never really uh been the bad guy in a game before, and here you were kind of fighting the police and you were taking that stance, and obviously to young teenagers who were probably firing a system or whatever it is that you do when you're young, or our generation did. Uh it felt uh it felt like a good game, but I'll be honest with you, I I didn't I didn't hang around with it too long, the original. It was fun. I don't know many people who kind of I had a mate who went like quite deep on it, did all the story missions and everything, and got really good at kind of those tank controls of threading the car through. I remember once he said, Oh, can I borrow that GTA? I was like, Yeah, of course you can. I'm not replaying it. And um he took it to work, it was like a graphic designer part-time, but basically, because I was on shift, I used to oh pop round, yeah, pop around, mate. I'm at the graphic design place. So, all right, so you'd walk through all these different rooms and get to this back office where it was, like, yeah, yeah, just yeah, shut the door, yeah, yeah. Yeah, look at this, and it'd just be like GTA for two hours at his at his work. So I'll finish my shift, go see what he was up to, say, Oh yeah, come round, I'm at work. So we'd hang out at his work upstairs playing GTA, and he was like an absolute, he was just zoned into it, you know. Like when you see on the modern GTAs people weaving through the traffic, don't get scratch on them, and they're away. Yeah, and he's doing this with keyboard, don't forget, and he is all over it, like, whoa, he is absolutely tapped into it. He was into like drum and bass music as well, so he had a real good choice of radio stations it could get into because you know, rock soul, DMA in that era were you know creating our own music for the game as well, so he kind of had a soft spot for that. And I think he was playing the CD at home because it was in a big box. I mean, that's probably where it still is in that graphic design suite.
SPEAKER_00He ain't still in there playing, is he?
SPEAKER_04He might well be, he might be like the best. He's probably lawnmower man, it's become one. He's like the AI basis at the building GTA 6 off, probably. But in terms of what I've been playing, RGT, I mean that was that was a whistle stop tour. Obviously, we've we've got the mighty ray coming at the end, and there's a couple of games I'm very excited to take home with me out of his boot. Um, but pray tell if that's what we've been playing, what's next?
SPEAKER_00Well, next up, we've uh scoured the very darkest regions of all the gaming magazines to bring you this week's news. First up, um, I'm gonna let you read this one actually, George. We'll do a roll reversal this week. So this one is um this comes from Game Fan magazine with their update on a claim from 97 to 1999.
SPEAKER_04You might need to work with me here, darling, because I uh okay, you can read it. No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're gonna that's a that's a two-page one, so you have to uh that's a bit of a long one, but it's quite interesting to see where a claim were at this current snippet in time.
What We Played In November 1997
SPEAKER_04Okay, well, as RGT did the intro, here are the words. What do you think of when you hear the name Acclaim? A never-ending stream of mediocre movie licenses. Yep, us too. But Acclaim is fully aware of their dodgy reputation and making a comeback attempt in the best possible way by changing their company policy from quantity to quality, by cutting back on the number of games produced, focusing more on their A-grade titles. Acclaim hope to emerge reborn as a respected and successful publisher, and if their latest lineup of titles is anything to go by, they may just pull it off. Um a never-ending stream of media, mediocre movie licenses, quote unquote acclaim. First game out of the trap, Batman and Robin on the PlayStation. A whole Bat family, George, Chris, and Alicia. Now, if memory serves, if you pause this game and look at it, it looks fantastic, it looks way ahead of its time. If you unpause it, so if you pick this game up and look on the back of the box, you'd probably agree with them. If you played it, you might not. Anyway, the whole bat family, George, Chris, and Alicia, we're not even calling them by their uh in universe names, we're referring to them as racing names. Uh, take on Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy. No, no, Paul Lima Thurman and Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't pay obviously enough to get in the acclaimed section of this, but uh yeah, whatever. In this 3D graphic adventure from UK-based developer probe software. Uh I just happened to glance across it and it's shrank, but here we go. So over three days in Gotham City, the game is split into two distinct sections: diehard trilogy style driving bits and tomb Raider style explorational bits, as either Batman, Robin, or Batgirl, you must explore Gotham City, ten square kilometres big by vehicle or by foot, discovering clues that will lead you to the supervillains and then kicking the beejes out of them. You get all sorts of back gadgets to aid you in your quest, and the game runs on a real-time clock, meaning if you're not in the right place at the right time, you could meet some you could miss some crucial event. Currently the game looks great with detailed character models including the digitized faces of True to Life Alicia and True to Life Alicia looks like a stroke victim. This is their own publication about their own upcoming suite of games.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um looks like a stroke victim, a smooth frame rate and environment straight out of the movie. This soundtrack is based on Elliot Goldenthal's original soundtrack, Where Art Thou? Danny Elfman, uh, and Probe has been allowed to use sound bites from the actual actors. Cool, party, etc. But most importantly, Batman's cape moves as it ought to. Right, okay. I I don't know what they're writing here because I can barely get my head around the concepts of the words. Now, if only probe could lend Sony a helping hand with spawn. Alright, Clay, well, I'm sure off the back of Probe's efforts. I mean, reading that as an elevator pitch, I'll be honest with you. I forget the stroke victim reference.
SPEAKER_00It's that's why I put this in, because the way these articles are written and uh about their games, it's almost like they've made it sound like a journalist has written, but it's obviously an ad advert sort of piece in a gaming magazine.
SPEAKER_04Well, they call them advertori, don't they? They're like editorial pieces. Okay, so that's that one game. Uh up next is Riven coming to the PlayStation. I don't know how many copies Mist has actually sold, but whatever the number is, it's way too many. Anyway, Riven, the sequel to Mist, is on its way, and according to a claim, it's gonna hit PS before it hits PC. That should make quite a few people pissed. It's the style of game, as it's the same style of game as Mist. It's a fantasy themed, static screened, point and click, first person adventure with occasion left than the cutscenes. You can bet your life there will be oodles of puzzles to solve, and from the brief playtests that we had, it was apparent that the art and CG were the highest quality. The game comes on five discs and is due for release next month.
SPEAKER_00I I'm gonna carry on because the way these are written is such a time in itself.
SPEAKER_04Never-ending stream of mediocre movie licenses, quote unquote. Well, it might not be a movie license, but it's a tying license. It's Supercross Motocross coming, Super Motocross coming to the PlayStation. Acclaimers push into the sports market, continues with new motorcycle racer Super Motocross, featuring a variety of tracks and two-player split screen action. This title, though early, looks like it may give a VMX racing and motor racer some serious competition. You know that you're on the back foot when you're trying to frame up your products through the kind of lens of your competitors' products. It's a bit like a little version of that. Well, that's a damn good reason not to buy that. Yeah. This is this is what else I had. Um I had Forsaken coming out on the PlayStation, WWF Warzone, which has not aged well, and to be honest, at the time I only put up with it because there was nothing else. Um Shadow Man, which I have a uh pretty fragile relationship with, if I'm honest. I had that on N64, and it is no better on PlayStation. Uh Turek 2 on the N64, which I also have an interesting relationship with because that's one of those ones that you could get the expansion pack for. And I think it became arguably playable. I think Acclaim at this point, don't forget, okay, everyone was a bit edgy. Uh Acclaim seemingly based in America have probably got a bit of a vibe that we're not picking up on as well. This kind of edgy punk vibe. You can probably hear it coming through, and the music that we start to get a bit later. Yeah. I kind of see where they're pitching it, but I don't think I've ever seen a company speak so derisively about their own product before in an advertori as this.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think this probably had about four different writers because at the very start, quote unquote, they said um they're fully aware of their dodgy reputation, um, and their their policy is for quality, not quantity. And then we go down and we've got Batman and Robin, we've got um Riven, we've got Super Motocross, Forsaken, WDF Warzone, Shadow Man, Turok 2. Hang on, I thought you're doing quality, not quantity here, guys.
SPEAKER_04I don't know. Thing is, because of the way it's written, you gotta wonder, are they well aware of this? And they're saying this. I you because based on the rest of the article, I think they're saying we're no, we know we're known for shit movie licence tie-ins, yeah. Um we know that we're known for just shoveling any old drivel out, and we're welcome to this shit this month's drivel.
SPEAKER_00Almost, yeah, it almost feels like an overspill from when we had our crash magazines and early NES magazines and Mars system back in the day where everyone had to be that little bit wacky and a little bit you know on edge all the time.
SPEAKER_04I definitely feel a little bit of mean machines in the writing of that acclaimer.
SPEAKER_00Exactly, yeah, yeah. That almost that's tatting a mick out of ourselves because that's really cool thing to do. Um, because almost you could almost sound like a journalist is slating them and tatting a mic out of them, like who's playing missed anymore? Well, it's one of your games. Do you know what I mean? Exactly. Or are they saying, Oh, if you've got missed, forget that now, you need to get this one. Do you know it's it's a weird way of of putting into words their own games they've got out and coming out? It's almost you nowadays you'd read that and say, I have no interest in any of those, but in the at the in the you know, at the time, maybe that was the way that things were worded, but but we talked at the top of the show about when we saw Sig the Cygnosis loading screen or the owl on the back of a box, we knew it was a hallmark of quality.
SPEAKER_04I by the time I was done with the claim, I knew it was a hallmark of absolute dogmesery.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I remember having I remember seeing a claim on a lot of games. Is there a memorable one to me that a claim made?
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_04NBA Jam?
SPEAKER_00Mm maybe. I'm thinking more in this era.
SPEAKER_04Um, absolutely not. I mean, what did they sit atop of? The EC, all those wrestling games that use the same tired engine, even though they promised it was different every time. You got ECW, I think you got a D WCW one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think their sort of motocross games are similar to that, weren't they? They were just sort of on that engine. Every time you played a new one, you're like, hang on, this is the same game again.
SPEAKER_04Thousand percent. Just Shadow Man was just a polygonal mess that didn't really have any design, it was very brown, it was certainly adult, it was certainly edgy, it was certainly the concept, but and it got remade recently, and I just thought to myself, of all the games that could be hauled from the quagmire, Shadow Man is one that you should have buried six foot deep. Uh message in if you've had a good relationship with Shadow Man, I never have, and I found it to be an interesting concept, but completely unappealing. What's the point?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, sorry. No, I was just gonna say, I've tried playing it a few times, Shadow Man, and um it's very marmite. I know people that think it's absolutely pile of dog doo-doo, but then I know other people say, Oh no, if you get into it, it's a really good game, blah blah blah. And I that's never really hit with me. Maybe I can see a bit of the appeal, but like I said, I think the idea was there, the conviction wasn't really rewarding.
SPEAKER_04I'll tell you what, though, I don't know quite what the era was, but I remember playing Shadow Man and being disappointed, and then picking up um Legacy of Kane Soul Reaver and thinking this this could be Shadow Man all over again. Similar-ish concept, play completely different and absolutely banging game. So I think that Shadow Man has some good ideas, but the execution is terrible.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's next for the boy? Next up, I thought this one was uh very interesting, especially after what I've dribbled on about at the top of the show. Yeah, well, literally I know that that's a weird article, but I put it in there just because the writing was so strange, I just thought this is a little snippet of the era, and what game companies thought would sell, or how they spoke, or how they'll be honest about their own game.
SPEAKER_04When I first sort of clicked on it, do you know one thing uh it might be worth maybe dropping these pictures in the flashback section of the Discord RGT because I'd love to hear other people's opinions on it because that acclaim artwork, the framing, the presentation, the colour palette, it screams OG Xbox. It actually that when I first clicked on it, I thought, hang on a minute, why am I doing an acclaim piece about the original Xbox in 1997? Yeah, and I was like, oh, it's not.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I couldn't think what that reminded me of, but yeah, that you're right. That is that is very that is very OG X.
SPEAKER_04Tell you what, you slap a little hint of orange on there, which I actually got from the lava in one of those Batman shots, and it's it's got the it's it's just reeks of their sort of early branding for the original Xbox and the Xbox Live push. Yeah, amazing.
SPEAKER_00Brilliant. Well, our next story came from um EGM magazine, and this is titled Sega's Comeback: The Most Powerful System Ever Created. The comeback kids of the video game world might not want to call it a comeback, but after a couple of misses, their next system, codenamed, I think it was pronounced, um, looks more and more like the hit Sega needs. Sega being the um Sega began developing multiple hardware designs, one using a 3D FX-based voodoo chipset, uh codenamed Black Belt, the other allegedly utilizing NEC's Power VR Arc technology. The design Sega chose was NEC's and 3D FX's and uh filed a 3 million lawsuit against Sega saying the company uh re uh re I can't pronounce that word, but anyway, went back on the deal. Reneged. Reneged on the deal. Uh sources say the decision to go with Jural over the black belt has caused a rift between US-based black belt team and Sega of America, and the entire team has resigned. In early September, Japanese business newspaper Neon Kazai Shimban reported that Sega and Microsoft are teaming up for a new under$300 128-bit system for which Microsoft would provide the operating system. According to the paper, a deal allegedly will be signed in October and the system will be released in 1999. The report also says Jural software would then be playable on the PC, a first for any video game console. While it seems this news only cements rumours about a hardware relationship between Sega and Bill Gates' powerhouse, the power of the system is still in question. Considering that even the most powerful graphics workstations don't use 128-bit chips, calls into question the valid of the uh report. Neither Sega or Microsoft would officially comment on the story other than to confirm that they are in talking about a partnership. Other than those few facts, Sega has been quiet about the gerale on any new hardware they have been working on. EGM has learned from sources within Sega that the new system is being worked on by Sega, NEC, Video Logic, Yamaha, and Microsoft. Microsoft provide a Windows CE-based operating system, and the system's architecture is derivative of NEC's Power VR Arc technology. The new system is being referred to in Japan as the CLX chipset. Mmm, very, very interesting. Now I chucked this one in. Um these were these early rumors.
SPEAKER_04Do you know what? I'm gutted. When you rang earlier and said and you and we chose the episode we were going to choose, and I sort of started to pontificate. I said, Oh, there'll be there'll be rumblings of uh the Dreamcast, or it might be a bit too soon. No, there will be. And then you didn't say anything, did you? You kept your powder dry, and then I walked straight into this. And I'll tell you what, they pour scorn on all the validity of all the rumours, but the comeback kid almost pulled it off, and every single thing in that article is true.
SPEAKER_00And the thing, do you know what I love about this article? That's why I put it in there. There was loads of articles, rumours about what Sega were doing. The satin, we'd already spoke about the satin, it was it got you know, they needed something big. Now, they had gone really big with this chipset and what they were doing, and even this article's like, they won't do that. 128-bit, they won't do that. They can't do that. They won't.
SPEAKER_04They didn't slap to modem on it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly. You know, and yeah, so I th I think a few of these journalists would have looked when that came out and thought, oh my god, they've done it.
SPEAKER_04I I was um in the midst of a a house sought out and move and change and all that sort of stuff, as people who listen to the main show know. Uh unofficial controller podcast. Go grab it if you're here from if you're here because of flashback, there's a whole sea of content much like this for you waiting behind the doors. Damn near 300 episodes now, depending on when you listen to this. Uh downloaded in over a hundred countries and over 4,000 cities all over the world. Well, I think flashback will be equally as popular, RGT. Um I get distracted. I was having a move around and I was getting all my kind of consoles out and taking them out of Long Cubbard and moving them to move into a different uh area. And I got the Dreamcast out and mate still so good. I've got a couple of loose ones that I just looked at, and then the box that came out. It looks like the blue with the white. I know we're talking about the promise of the Dreamcast now, but for me, no, we talked about how I was in the ecosystem locked in for the N64. I was buying the official magazine, I was getting different coloured controllers, I was I was in the ecosystem. I was so hard in the ecosystem for sounds a bit porno, doesn't it? I was so into the ecosystem of the Dreamcast, it's unbelievable. Dude, it is embarrassing. Uh I got everything uh within reason. I didn't have everything, much like one of our beloved listeners for Space Monkey's now trying to get everything. I didn't have everything, but I had a lot. Uh and I loved it. And I love the talk of these rumours of like they couldn't, they wouldn't, they shouldn't. They're not it's not possible. And it's like, yeah, it is. And we we talked at the top of the show about it takes me a little while to seat myself in the moment. I think Sonic R was one of the last games really that really kind of pushed the needle for Saturn, and after that, it was kind of all a bit downhill. And obviously, with these rumours in the background, it's no surprise. And I have to admit, this is very early, if you think about it, compared to the launch, which is obviously in what '99 famously. Yeah. Uh like and and the evolution of the power, I don't think people quite understand. Like, yeah, we had the N64, but to double that again with a disc-based system, it wasn't.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, even with the N64, it was technically sort of 64-bit, but it was still very restricted, it was cartridge-based, it was a bit misty Vaseline screen. This was a massive, massive leap.
SPEAKER_04Hence why these journalists were unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that's why these journalists are saying, Oh, these are the rumors, but that won't happen because not even these high-end PCs have 128-bit graphics cards in them, but behind the scenes, Sega are like, No, we're doing this, we are doing this, and you've got to remember, we were most people were playing a 32-bit PlayStation. So this job. But um, once I got these rumours of this this Dreamcast, I thought, yeah. You didn't get one. I didn't get one because you just couldn't get them where I live. I didn't know anyone that had them, I didn't know where to get one from. Um, I lived a long way away, but I knew at the time my um that's the same girlfriend I had at the time that bought me the PlayStation. Her brother bought uh a dreamcast, right?
Acclaim’s Edgy Ads And Questionable Catalog
SPEAKER_04I thought I thought you were gonna say her new boyfriend bought one this really hot stud. I was like, all right, tell me more.
SPEAKER_00Lever Jack at Harley. How did you know about all this? No, her brother, her brother bought a dreamcast for virtual tennis, it's his favourite arcade game. He bought it literally, and I just thought, what you bought out for virtual tennis? What are you on about? No one's playing virtual tennis. He's like, grab a controller, sit down, and I was just like, This going from a PlayStation to that was like, My god, this is virtual tennis of the arcade. This is screen for screen, identical. And I'm like, this is pretty special, and then he's like something else fancy going fishing. Did we have the rods for yeah, which I've I've bought in later years I bought myself because Sega Bass fishing with the rods is some of the best fun you'll have.
SPEAKER_04He's removed three rods, two official and the madcats with the little twirling nubbin. I'm not even kidding you, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00It is such good fun.
SPEAKER_04The display box for that Mad Cats fishing uh reel by for the Dreamcast is absolutely first class, by the way. I advise anyone to check it out, it comes in a cylinder clear. Uh I had it originally, I didn't have the official rod because the official rod wasn't available at launch for some reason. Big faux par by Sega, but the Madcats was boom, so good.
SPEAKER_00Brilliant, you know, and they this, you know, I know we're sort of jumping ahead a bit because obviously it was 99 when Dreamcast came out and we're in 97, but it proves how this was the you could see this is Sega's last hurrah because other companies were probably getting rumors. Sony, Nintendo were getting rumors thinking they're gonna kill themselves if they go all in on this, if they go all in with this power, and it's pretty much what they've done.
SPEAKER_04One thing I want to pick up on, though, by the way, in the seeds of the Dreamcast's death, you can kind of uh obviously the death knell of the Dreamcast, their games, the sequel to the games that should have been on their next machine, or maybe even on the Dreamcast ended up coming to the Xbox, and you can see the thread of that starting here. So, like Microsoft has literally stitched themselves into the beginning and end of the Dreamcast and also into the end of Sega as a business as a developer, really. So, yeah, it's interesting to see that even in the very beginning of the death rows, they were right, they were almost they're deaf, aren't they? With a hood up.
SPEAKER_00They were. We were uh I'll tell you what, don't worry about their mothers, don't worry about the lawsuit, don't worry about that, Sega. We'll help you out. Little pat on the back and a grin. We'll help you out, and then next thing you know, original Xbox, and there's a few of the old Metropolitan Street Racer that turns into uh and that's why I followed it because I ended up becoming such a stan for the games that I'd loved on the Dreamcast.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that then kind of left me nowhere to really go. But looked at the biggest thing. A lot of people did to carry on enjoying those games and then kind of ended up locked in that ecosystem being kind of miserable.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, it was a you know that they almost sort of played it across as though, oh no, we're we're helping you Sega guys, you know, come over to Xbox, we've helped them out, although they've probably hit the last nail in the coffin.
SPEAKER_04But well, I think the last nail in the coffin was the PlayStation 2's DVD drive, I'll be honest with you. I know I don't you know Sony stabbed them deep in the gut and then Microsoft laid them down and took their wallet. See you in a bit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Last bit of news, RGT, you ready for this? Uh this is an article from again from EGM magazine, and it's called London Calling. European developers show their stuff at ECTS. Developers in Europe looking for publishers showing up with guns ready at this fall's European computer trade show, ECTS, held September 7th and 9th in London. The major publishers attending showed off the latest versions of their upcoming games, alongside small developers hoping to get their game to the mass market. Nintendo showed up with their next few European N64 titles, which have been out in the US for a while, Lila at Wars, Star Fox 64 in the US, and GoldenEye 007. Sony showed attendees their latest, including Rapid Racer, uh Blasto, Armored Core, Steel Reigns, NHL Faceoff, 98, Broken Sword 2, Everybody's Golf, a Japanese manga style golf game, that'll go nowhere. Cooler Quest and Medieval. Other publishers showed Sony titles in Sony's area, including Sygnosis, MGM Interactive, and Capcom. Smaller developers also showed their stuff. ECTS Dutch developer Project 2. Interactive brought two new PlayStation titles. Dodge Marina, futuristic racing game, was looking good with real-time garage shaded graphics and multiplayer action action. There's a word garage shading, I've not heard that in a while. Their other title was Sign of the Sun, an adventure title set in 2012. When that was the future, yeah. SCI's cartoony air combat game, Freaky Flyers, was early but looked promising. You've my apologies, RGT, I clicked on the wrong part of the script. Combat missions taking out targets such as Giant Sausage Factory to Godzilla. They also had Karmageddon for the PC, which had attracted plenty of media attention. Rage Games Limited had Dead Ball Zone, a violent eight-player sport game for the PlayStation, a helicopter combat title that's headed to the PC and N64. Cryo Interactive had Hardboiled on the PlayStation, a Tommy uh Tomb Raider style adventure game called Pax Corpus and Dreams to Reality. On to the bigger publishers, Ubisoft showed off several games, including Tennis Arena, heading to the Saturn PlayStation, Kickoff 98, thought it was dead by then, but no. Um Tonic Trouble, starring Ed the Extraterrestrial, an F1 pole position for N64. Uh Ocean showed off the N64 puzzle game Wettrix, it's actually quite good. The cartoony multiplayer driving game Motor Mash and Total Driving. IDOS was showcasing Lara Croft and Tomb Raider 2 at their booth. Uh their other titles include Death Trap Dungeon, which is uh a video game version of a fighting fantasy novel by Steve Livingston, if you don't know. Uh I've got the book, it's uh it's quite fun. Um Fighting Force, which I am thinking, is that not the failed 3D Streets of Rage game?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, and they pulled they pulled it and then they had to change the name, didn't they?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. Thank god they didn't put Streets of Rage on it. Although on the Dreamcast, the Dreamcast never capitalized on any of Sega's history. Um, well, they could have done. Uh it's a shame. Anyway, uh Fighting Force, Ninja World League, Soccer and Lunatic, L-U-N-A-T-I-K. Gamers in the US can expect to see some of these titles picked up by publishers in 1998. That's an interesting so you go show your wares in the hope that someone's gonna scoop you up and publish that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and also I think the the thing that I found interesting with this article won us good to see what we were expecting. Now there were these old games, but we were waiting for these then. But also, Nintendo was still in that phase of everything had to go through them, everything had to go on their cartridges, and now whereas Sony had literally just sent dev kits to everyone, make games, you ain't got to go through us, stick it on the system. And so, even when you get to the start of that, um, when you read out and it says Nintendo shoe off Lilac Wars, hashtag you know Star Fox and Goldeneye, and that says Sony shoe, rapid race, a blasto, armored core, steel rack, because it was just so open for them to have all these people making made it so easy for them.
SPEAKER_04One argument I'd say for that is Lilac Wars and Goldeneye, absolute bangers, yes, definitely are etched into the very history of video gaming. Whereas Rapid Racer, Blasto, Armoured Core, you could argue, Steel Rain, NHL face off 98, Broken Sword 2, you could argue, everybody's golf, you could argue, Cool Request, maybe medieval, yes. But there's a lot of tat in there.
SPEAKER_00There is, but I think it was it was very you you had that option as a first time where you know, even Sega back in the day, you bought a master system, you had a generic box on every game because it was it was through them, it was their system, their games. But this was sort of one of the first times you'd really seen, yeah, we'll make the PlayStation, you stick the games on it. Do you know what I mean? And that really opened it up. Yes, there would there would be Tat there, but there was so many different new developers that formed through this early PlayStation that was you know, seeing all these games come through, and also things like they're they're shouting about fighting force, which I mean absolutely bloody terrible, but that then you didn't know.
SPEAKER_04In the world of then, uh fighting force probably didn't seem like such a bad idea, but ultimately terrible.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think also because like we said that was meant to have been, as far as we know, community corrections if we're wrong, it should have been that 3D Streets of Rage. But something like Streets of Rage is really good because it's 2D. You make it 3D, so that in technically I think at the time 3D was new, so they just thought, well, if we take old IPs, make them 3D, they'll be brilliant. Not necessarily because you're forgetting what was good about the game.
SPEAKER_04I think in their defence, and I I would argue this, there weren't enough old there were a lot of 2D it games that were just left to die. Like Streets of Rage, we never saw another one really until what four years ago. Yeah. Um we never really saw a lot of the evolution of some of Sega's Hallmark characters that just got left dead. Um tombstone erected, never to see again. And we we get I get upset that Nintendo does nothing with Kid Icarus, then all of a sudden we're drowning in it. I don't know. Um this was an interesting time. The fact that uh Karmageddon is sort of raising eyebrows, I'll never forget the iconic box art for Karmageddon. Yeah, because uh it was another one of those moments where you look and you're like, Oh maybe I maybe I need to get mum and dad to update the PC in the study because I can't I want Karmageddon. Yeah, um it was Gourad Shaded Graphics. I remember when Gourad Shading was the ray tracing of its time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was gonna say that, yeah.
SPEAKER_04And and now, like, who even knows what it is? And before you know, that'll be something that kids were saying in the playground, yeah. We'll watch Gourad Shaded, all right. Yeah, well it's great.
SPEAKER_00That's what I love about these shows, that it's literally that in this snippet in time of what was in, what was cool, how games were made, how games were shown, what we thought of what the tech was at the time as brilliant.
SPEAKER_04And mate, for all of its garage shading, the futuristic racing game Dodger Marina, which you you could you've got to wonder, that's not a really a very futuristic title.
SPEAKER_00No, uh it did nothing. No, no, and their other games still because they spent all the time shading.
SPEAKER_04Maybe shaded it, garage shaded into the middle of nowhere. Look, I've enjoyed this week's news. I've actually really enjoyed sort of exhibit uh existing in this sort of it took me a while, it's gone back. I think if we go back much further than this, and I'm I'm more than up for it. I think we've got one a little bit further back, maybe scheduled, I'm not sure, but yeah, my my memories of that time take a little bit of time to come through. Just as we're getting out of the news, I'm like, yeah, I'm in 97 now. I remember it.
SPEAKER_00You'll be uh you'll be playing the Dreamcast as soon as you finish this.
SPEAKER_04Well, off the back of the last episode of Flashback, I was all over the PSP and GTA for so um yeah, it looks like well that's yeah, so that's uh that's our news wrapped up for this week.
SPEAKER_00Hope you enjoyed those little snippets. If is anything you liked or any memories you'd like to share, go into the flashback uh area of our unofficial controller podcast Discord. Um drop some little bits in there or games you played or memories you had or systems you had um or any little tip bits or stories, and we'll pick a few out and read out um on the following week's show. Um but now it's time for what we call Stingray's boot. What's nestled between some counterfeit nappies and a dodgy copy for Battle for Endor comes the new releases for December 2007. So we'd go through here and we're gonna have a little look. And if you've not heard the show before, we have a little look here and to see, hmm, I wonder what we would have picked. What would we be playing of this this era? Um, there wasn't too many bangers coming out at the time in December.
SPEAKER_04Um, what are you doing here? Spring stock what a wall, what's the ray been up to this week?
SPEAKER_00Um yeah, I've just realised.
SPEAKER_04Um You resurrect the greatest character the show's ever known, and then you just bring him in as if he's a news reader.
unknownYeah.
Dreamcast Rumors, 128-Bit Hype, And CE
SPEAKER_00What are you doing to him? Sorry, yes. So um for getting- So Ray! Yeah, for December 1997, Ray has turned up. If you haven't heard the show before, Stingrays that guy from round the village, drives right, yeah. And what are you doing to him? He's selling stuff out of the boot of his car, bless him, and you know, he'd always knock on the back of your dad's door and say, Oi, you got do you want anything a bit cheap here? Do you want a do you want a video, son? Do you want a ray uh or to your dad out of the bin? Do you want a bit of blue? So so with some glasses. Niagara. Yeah, yeah. Well, I don't know if that was about then, definitely not. Um what are you doing? But so anyway, so uh I would do you want to say how you see Ray?
SPEAKER_04No, we're not we're saying what he's been up to. So it's 1997, so it's November, so I'll tell you what he's been doing. He's he's been down the local t-shirt printing company. He knows the guy down there, Terence, he's got this t-shirt printing company, and he he he's gone and got himself uh he's gone and got himself a load of knockoff Mortal Kombat t-shirts to go with some of the games that he's got in the boot. Now, his son, Lil Wayne, Lil Wayne Dominicum chat because he's young, obviously, so he will be a fully grown human one day, he has come touching a copy of Wing Commander Prophecy because he's a big fan. He's a big fan of Star Wars, and this is as close as he can get to a Luke Skywalker game.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, very good.
SPEAKER_04So he he's pumped. What what's what do you think what's Ray told you he's what he's been up to this week?
SPEAKER_00What's he been up to in your um well again he's been printing some merchandise. Um he said there's apparently rumours of a new Sega console. Um and he's got t-shirts again, and he's also got key rings, and that's got on them the cast of dreams on it, which is the new Sega console, apparently.
SPEAKER_04That's a shame.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So unfortunate.
SPEAKER_04How can he get so close?
SPEAKER_00He's just Mr. Mark, yeah. Yeah. It's just Mr. Mark, you know.
SPEAKER_04What's Lil Wayne been doing?
SPEAKER_00Little Wayne, little Wayne, even got me sad at that. Little Wayne is um again, like you say, he's a massive Star Wars fan.
SPEAKER_04He's a massive don't piggyback in on Mark Hammond.
SPEAKER_00Hang on, I haven't finished yet. If you can you remember who the bad guys were in Wing Commander games? Oh god, no, I can't. They had the tiger heads.
SPEAKER_04Oh, were they the bad guys? Because you had a mate on your team that was a tiger head. He was a turncoat, was he?
SPEAKER_00I think he was a turncoat, yeah. So what what Wayne has done is he has cut the head off his tiger toy and took the stuffing out and he's just wearing it over the top. So he feels part of Wing Commander.
SPEAKER_04I'm glad that that's what you said, because I thought you were going to tell me he's hollowed out the the village cat.
SPEAKER_00Anyway, do you see any games that you like?
SPEAKER_04Well, I'll tell you what, let's bounce through them. So coming out November 30th, Wing Commander Prophecy. Also November 30th, get your head around this WCW vs. NWO World Tour. You've got Puzzle Bubble Uh 4 coming to the arcade, believe it or not, so you get yourself down there in December. You've got Quake 2 coming out December 6th. Uh so ask Father Christmas for that on your Windows PC or your PlayStation 1. That's brave.
SPEAKER_00Just before you move on on that, Quake 2. So correct me if I'm wrong. Did that come out on Windows DOS and Pierce One all at the same time?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I think you might be wrong. Um, cloner door to Phantomia. You might not be, maybe that's when it came out.
SPEAKER_00Maybe Quake One was staggered and then Quake 2 they just dropped on all three, but can't I just I don't know, I can't get my head around it.
SPEAKER_04Uh December 11th, cloner door to fan to meal to me, yeah. Uh PS1, couldn't quite read it. An absolute banger here on December the 18th. It's grandier coming to the Saturn. Uh there's me saying all the tar not really good. Grand Grandi, grandiose a banger. Uh December the 18th, Mega Man Legends makes its way into PS1. December the 21st, the Grand They uh greet us with Yoshi's story on the N64. Now this dates it. This is this two games on here date this so perfectly for me. Because here's one Gran Turismo, December 23rd on the PlayStation 1, December 31st, Mortal Kombat Mythologies, sub zero on the N64. Now, RGT, I am pumped, hyped, and I'll tell you what, I'm taking home. Because it's I don't really abuse my CEO role too much, at least on air. And uh I'm thinking WCW vs NWO World Tour was a game I played the wheels off. It was a very small game uh when it first came out, but I I saw absolutely everything that game had to offer. Uh, and imagined I was using playing as WWF characters while I was doing it.
SPEAKER_00Really?
SPEAKER_04Yes. Um now I've got a soft spot for Grandia, but I'm not taking it home.
SPEAKER_00I think have you played the Grandia games?
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00See, I've they've always had a you know, I've always thought about them. I've seen Grandier 2 on the PS2 and Grandier on the PS1.
SPEAKER_04I kick Grandia 2, I played on the Dreamcast, and it was it was so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think a lot of people say it's the best version, innit?
SPEAKER_04I I I can't speak for that. Um I think I've also got it on PS2, but Grandia on the Dreamcast just felt so right. Again, I played it on a CRT, it just absolutely everything about it sang. You're selling that to me. I put it in the same kind of when I think back to the Dreamcast and the games I played that were like Grandier, I had an absolutely banging time with Grandia 2 and also Skies of Arcadia.
SPEAKER_00Skies of Arcadia's, you know, I know a lot of people like the GameCube one because a sort of a I personally thought Grandia 2 was up there with it.
SPEAKER_04Just saying. And Grandier 1 is is great. I think you can get it on original PlayStation as well. So look it up if you don't want to grab it on Saturn. Uh but yeah, obviously I'm taking Grand Turismo and WCW vs. NWO World Tour.
SPEAKER_00Imagine, yeah, imagine that Christmas 1997, you get a PS1 with Gran Turismo, because I got Gran Turismo, I don't I didn't get it for Christmas, but I got Gran Turismo with a pack in with my PS1, and I mean that game, I mean, that was unbelievable. Just even watching that title screen with the cars and the CGI and oh, it was just incredible.
SPEAKER_04It it was incredible, but I tell you, like of the two games of Gran Turismo we got on the PlayStation 1, like Gran Turismo was a great first step. But I tell you what, as soon as you put Gran Turismo in that console, you never wanted to look at Gran Turismo ever again. Gran Turismo 2 was just like everything. Gran Turismo 1, though, really bold, really interesting concept in terms of car racing games. We've never had anything like it before. The length and breadth of the roster, the length and breadth of the tracks, the length and breadth of the customisation options available, the length and breadth of the different handling across the different cars that you had. The customization was incredible. We had a custom soundtrack here in the UK, um, and I think in the US as well, which is just absolutely banging. Just set the hairs on the back of your neck.
SPEAKER_00You just didn't get that on the N64, did you? It just wasn't possible on the N64.
SPEAKER_04And I kind of I often talk of him, and hopefully one day you'll hear what these episodes and be like, bloody hell, how embarrassing. But uh, I had an N64, and Terry Blow had an N64 and a PlayStation 1. And I remember maybe one of the last times I saw him, I popped round to his house and he had his PlayStation out, and I thought, hmm, I know he's got both, but why would he have that out when he's got the N64? And I was like, Oh, wait, what's this Terry? So it's Gran Turismo. And I looked and was like, Wow. That's incredible. And then that obviously ended up with me getting GT Racing Club or something on the N64. It might have looked better in some ways, but I tell you what, it wasn't a patch on Grand Turismo. It it was the real deal. So what are you taking home, RGT?
SPEAKER_00Um definitely Grand Turismo again. Um I've always been in tri I've never really been much of a Mega Man player, but I know Mega Man Legends always had that sort of a lot of people didn't like it because it went to 3D, didn't it? The Mega Man Legends, I believe. Is that the one where it went to 3D?
SPEAKER_04Oh, I can't remember actually. I wasn't a compilation piece.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I'd always been interested in that, but definitely Grandia because I haven't played them. Um I find that. Yeah. Um, and I do like a bit of puzzle bubble. I think if I had an arcade machine, I think puzzle bubble would have been it in the time. I used to love all those puzzle arcades, but definitely Grand Turismo, definitely grandiere. Um, maybe Mega Man Legends. Um, are we gonna have a little movie pick from the Ray? I think I'm gonna have a little movie pick to take home to watch this week. Um I'll have a I'm gonna have a little rustle round in here. What you got in here, right? Let's have a look. Um I am gonna go with Event Horizon. I think I'm gonna go with.
SPEAKER_04Interesting choice. Well, it's approaching Christmas in the era and in real life. Um, so I'm gonna have a little rummage in here, and I'm gonna pick out the one die hard film that isn't set at Christmas, Died with a Vengeance.
SPEAKER_00Nice, nice, it's a good movie that is. I like that one. Brilliant.
SPEAKER_04Down somewhere in the city, back of my neck, willin' dirty griddle. Yeah, people gather round, people gather round. It's just it's New York for me, that is, it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00Brilliant, yeah. Well, this is uh like I say, this has been flashback. It's been brilliant looking back to November 1997, looking what the news was, looking what the games were, looking a little bit of our snapshot of what we were playing, what we were doing.
SPEAKER_04Maybe a bit too much of that.
SPEAKER_00Maybe, but if you like it, we'll keep it going in each episode. Um, like I say, if you're interested in what I join the Discord, that's the Unofficial Controller Podcast Discord. Um, we're on Instagram, YouTube, bits and pieces like that. I will start uploading the shows soon to our unofficial controller podcast Discord, and we'll have a um we'll have a little section on there for flashback. Um, but yeah, come along, come and say hi. Hope you you know check out unofficial controller podcast as well. Um hope you enjoy that show. It's nearly 300 episodes of that, been going for six years. Um six years, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's crazy, isn't it?
SPEAKER_04A lot's happened.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, that's yeah, that's that's pretty mad, isn't it, to think. But yeah, so this is our sort of first time we've spun off of a show, and uh now in our second episode. So I hope you're enjoying that. Um just say thanks for listening. Um, like I say, as we're new, please download, go across and download Unfree Controller Podcast if you don't mind, if you haven't listened to that before. Um, leave us a little review if you want on iTunes or Spotify, whatever you're listening on, um, just to you know help us get up the algorithm and people can see us and and you know get in their little suggestions. Um, but other than that, yeah, just thanks for listening. Thanks for downloading. I hope you enjoyed it, and especially thanks to George. Thanks for joining us again on here.
SPEAKER_04My pleasure, thanks for inviting me on. Uh, I've had a great time. Uh and and again, to not to labour the point, but if you've enjoyed this in any way, there is so much content. If you're saw news into podcasts and you're thinking, well, I need a new something, you it's just you that's what it feels like to be Christmas. Yes, uh, because you've just found six years worth of content, so much documentary style stuff going on, which we aim to bring you with flashback going forward. The main show's become a kind of hot news show, as you call it, uh, in the zoo format. And this is a little bit of a nod to the old show, the cozy style. Um, I like it. I've really been enjoying recording it. I've really been enjoying kind of trying to get back in the time. Um, thanks for having me. Here's to the next episode.
Trade Show Snapshots And The Flood Of PS1 Titles
SPEAKER_00Yeah, brilliant, no problem at all. No, it's been absolutely brilliant. Um, really enjoying these, and here's to plenty more. Um, just leaves me to say flashback, the games you loved, the stories you forgot. I'll see you next week, George.
SPEAKER_04See you still. Thank you, everybody.