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 July 1993
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Step into July 1993, when 16-bit consoles ruled the living room and game magazines shaped what we bought, argued over, and dreamed about. We revisit the games that defined the moment—Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back with its screen-filling sprites and uncompromising challenge, and LucasArts’ Zombies Ate My Neighbors with co-op chaos and perfect B-movie swagger. We talk why these titles still hit, how music and transitions sold the fantasy, and why some “tough as nails” design actually deepened the magic.
From there, we pull on the threads: Konami’s Rocket Knight Adventures and what made it sing on Mega Drive; Final Fight’s home ports, the eternal tug-of-war with Streets of Rage, and the sticker shock of collecting in 2026. We get into Yoshi’s Safari—the most Nintendo way to justify a shoulder-mounted bazooka—and Soccer Kid, the game that seemed to be on every magazine page with its brickworks, terraces, and ball-as-weapon gimmick. Along the way, we open the big boxes in our minds and remember manuals that taught systems thinking long before tutorials did.
Then the culture storm rolls in. Night Trap’s tabloid panic, awkward “guidelines,” and cheeky magazine snark remind us how games were policed, sold, and sensationalized. We unpack the Barcode Battler craze—kids scanning noodles for stats, a proto-loot hunt in plain sight—and the hilariously earnest “screen warrior” fashion push that tried to dress gamers like cyber ninjas for Tiny Toon sessions at Nan’s. It’s messy, confident, and captivating: an era where constraints pushed creativity and where the line between toy, tech, and culture was gloriously blurred.
We close with Stingray’s Boot—our picks from August–September 1993—and a couple of VHS nods that completed a weekend’s entertainment. If you love retro game history, big-box nostalgia, and the strange brilliance of the 16-bit scene, you’ll feel right at home with this time capsule. Subscribe, leave a review to help more retro fans find us, and share your toughest 16-bit level or most cherished big-box manual—we’ll feature the best replies in a future episode.
Join our fantastic discord
https://discord.gg/v7RFSUcG
If link has expired then message us at questions@unofficialcontrollerpodcast.com
or click the linktree on our instagram.
or DM us on instagram or X and we'll send you an invite.
Cheers gamers!
Setting The Stage: July 1993
SPEAKER_03Hello, welcome to Flashback. It's me, RGT, and as always, I am joined by the Gaming Guru, the Knowledge Meister, the man with 3,000 games and nowhere to play them. It is the legend himself, George. How are you, George?
SPEAKER_00Some of that's true, some of not that's not true. I'm doing well. That bit is true. I say I'm doing well. It's a typical thing a podcaster's gonna say, isn't it? But uh yeah, I'm doing good. I, as always, am excited to rip in to this episode because uh I live in nostalgia.
SPEAKER_03Good. Yeah, so this is episode eight. How are you? Flashback. Um, I'm very good. Thank you very well, very much. Very well. Yeah, thank you very much. Yes, you're looking well.
SPEAKER_00You look young, you look handsome.
SPEAKER_03I don't feel young, and I don't feel handsome, but it's very kind of you to say.
SPEAKER_00Everyone who's listening right now is young and handsome. Definitely here to find out about some very antique time in video games.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, this is a bit of a leap back, this one. I'm not saying this is episode eight. This is July 1993.
SPEAKER_00I remember it, son, I was there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so uh yeah, this is the early 90s here, and um it was interesting putting this show together. Um, it's always tougher the further you go back to get the info, get the bits and pieces. So I tend to use proper uh media on this, get the magazines out and have a look through and see what the time was. The news on this week is uh of the era and absolutely fantastic.
SPEAKER_00Can I go first and third, please?
SPEAKER_03I have done it so you go first and third because I knew you'd that first one I gave you a sneak peek off air, and you were like, please can I read that?
SPEAKER_00Third one's just as good.
What We Were Playing Then
SPEAKER_03They're brilliant, they are brilliant and and of an era. Um, but yes, so this is July 1993. Um, if this is your first time flashback, we will be um going through what we would have been playing in this era. We've like we said, we've got three news stories of the time from the journalists or magazines or online, whatever you know, whatever era in what the best news to come from, and then we finish up with what we would have hoped and been playing with Stingray's boot. Um, but yeah, let's get into what we would have been playing in July 1993. So there's some interesting games here, some games here I knew, some games I'd like to play, some games I have played. Um but yeah, it's it this takes you down memory lane here.
SPEAKER_00Um I'm gonna sit down, cowboy GN's coming in hot, right?
SPEAKER_03So I'm gonna sit down interesting.
SPEAKER_00You had an amiga. Did you have Space Hulk? Because I want to get into the round with you about that.
SPEAKER_03The thing is, I cannot remember the Space Hulk game, but I swear I had Space Hulk, so it'll be interesting if you rock my memory on that.
SPEAKER_00Right. Well, I'm gonna come at you from this angle. I didn't have Space Hawk. I wanted Space Hulk, I coveted Space Hawk. Now, what I had in the board game sphere was HeroQuest, and I love HeroQuest to this day. I've still got my original set, admittedly, I bought another set to cannibalise to make it up. But the other uh board game on the Horizon in the UK was HeroQuest. I do believe it also got an American release. It's like a simplified DD, basically. Now I played on the Atari ST Hero Quest the game. It basically meant that I didn't have to moan at my mum and dad to set this elaborate board game up, and my mum pretends to be the dungeon master while me and my dad rolled sixes to uh see where we got to. Um, as I say, over here I think they're released by MB Games in conjunction with uh Warhammer or Games Workshop. Space Hawk is exactly that. I think it was a board game version of Space Marines versus Tyranids. Um and it's it plays out, I think, in uh like a tactical RPG style, so isometric with the squares and memory.
SPEAKER_03And if you have the arrows, you move them to the book.
SPEAKER_00Or did it, or did this game because I've got a space hawk game on Vita, where it's a first-person shooter that's in a similar style to like Corporation on the Mega Drive or those early Dungeon Master games, or it's a small screen where you kind of walk forward. Uh, either which way, both of those games, the board games, are very much in my wheelhouse. Like I say, I was more of a hero quest guy, which was sort of isometric. It had always reminded me of the game. You must have had this on Amiga because I think everybody had this in the 16-bit home computer news. Did you ever ever have a game called Cadaver?
SPEAKER_03Oh, was that like a dungeon crawler?
SPEAKER_00It was an isometric style dungeon crawler, and you were like a small kind of footed figure.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Always gave me kind of in the modern sphere, kind of Lumo vibes in a way.
SPEAKER_03Yes, yes, I do believe I had that. I don't think I had a legitimate copy, I think it was on a floppy with the.
SPEAKER_00Oh, right. See, I had a legit copy of Hero Quest, because it was a it was a smaller box, it wasn't one of the big box releases, the one I had anyway, and it had the artwork from the board game on the front, um, and then in a disc, and the manual looked a little bit like the instruction manual from the game as well. So there's some cool nods for whatever time that was, but admittedly, Space Hulk and Space Marines were for the bigger, cooler boys, they were kind of into that ecosystem as well.
SPEAKER_03Um, like you say as well, that era of when you got especially when you did get the big boxes. I mean, there was just something about getting that big box Amiga game, and sometimes when they had the extras in like a cloth map, and you would sometimes have your your um security disc to make sure that was copyrighted and code wheel and all that. Yeah, um, I think I I might have put it on on our Discord a few years ago, but I've got a um I've got a I think it's a spectrum game I've got which has got that on for some reason, even a cassette tape, and you've got a little card with all the letters on in the insert, and then you've got a pair of red glasses you have to put on to pick the letters out to type in to get the game to play.
SPEAKER_00I can't remember what game it is, and I was just like copy protection in those days was quite advanced in the fact that you would need to find letter seven of word five on page nine of the manual and all that sort of stuff. But it was so easily circumvented by the pirate scene that it didn't really matter how elaborate your anti-piracy thing was at the front. It yeah, I think if you were into the ecosystem and you were you were kind of wanting to have nice games on the shelf or get the games at launch and have something tangible. Like I always remember I had a lot of pirate games on those three and a half inch floppies. I I did, there's absolutely no doubt about it. But I did have a slew of big box games that I had bought with birthday money. The MicroPros games are top of the tree in terms of the manual, the box, the slip case. I had a copy of Monkey Island on the Atari ST that was always a nice box art. I had that one.
SPEAKER_03It's a nice box one to have Monkey only.
Space Hulk, HeroQuest, And Isometric Memories
SPEAKER_00I had the Kix version of Future Wars, is it that turn-based one where you start in an office as a window cleaner or something? I remember that being quite poignant. I had a big box version of Epic, a star shooting game by Ocean. I had a big box version of Robocop 3 that was really nice. Uh I'd love to know where these are. I know I've got some of them, uh, but I don't have all of them. But I guess they were just things that I'd have just been at the time it would have just been bin. Talking of like nostalgia, and you know, you've taken me to a place where I can I think the desk that I'm recorded on now was the sort of desk that I had my Atari ST on then. No way, that's it. Which is which is kind of nice. It's a battered old school desk that's found its way in here. Uh all the very best recording equipment available for flashback UCP productions. Um but um I had a Super Nintendo, and the next game I'd really like to talk about is Super Empire, Super Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back. I was a big Star Wars nerd as a kid, have the Kenner toys, all that sort of stuff, and my first kind of proper brush with the Star Wars game was Super Star Wars, the original on Super Nintendo with all the mode 7 goodness. Now that game was cool as all beans, but it was super nails to a young kid.
SPEAKER_03As brutal to me now, let alone then.
SPEAKER_00Well, true, to be fair, I dust it off on Vita every now and then because it's like the easiest way to flick it on, you know, in an easy-to-play format. Bizarrely, it got a release on there. I don't know why, because none of the others did. Uh and yeah, that first level alone will certainly reset your expectations about the fun you're gonna have with the game within the first 10 seconds, probably. Um but but um the mode 7 level, you know, when the land speed are in one, and then obviously the different aspects that you get to play in Super Empire Strikes Back, the way the game introed, which was a nod to the Nest titles from lore past, but the way this one kind of announced it was going to be in stereo sound, and if you had the right setup, obviously you could enjoy that, and you know, this the way that the the stills told the story, the way the levels kind of tongue in not tongue-in-cheek in a taking the Mickey kind of way, but within the framework of how a 16-bit platformer movie tying game worked back in the day. It certainly wasn't an absolute retreading of the movie, you were going to be shooting some random creatures that you'd never seen before, but uh all within the spirit of the game and moving forward, and then a boss that was normally tied to some form of thing from the getter from the movie. But yeah, I remember that really well. I remember feeling quite proud of having the full trilogy up on the shelf in there in the Smashboxes, and I mean I remember these as well.
SPEAKER_03I mean, I've got two of them now, I think, but the weird thing is technically the games aren't that good. They're the hitboxes on them is very random, they're tough as nails, they're but I always remember remember them fondly, and I think it's because we were into sort of Star Wars. I mean, you're obviously into Star Wars more than me at the time, but Star Wars was a cool thing to be involved in and enjoy, and this was the way of this is sort of one of them that was more aimed at our age group at the right time on the systems we were playing, rather than big boy first person shooters on PCs that the old ages were doing. This was about where we were, so we had a Star Wars game, and you had the characters and that had a similar intro, and it it took you in it. That was as close as we could get to being in Star Wars. They are brutal, they're they're tough, they're tough.
SPEAKER_00They are brutal. The only other skew of that that I kind of played in and around this era slightly before was X-Wing versus TIE Fighter, and then the TIE Fighter spin-off game that came with it. I didn't own those, I didn't have a machine that I could play them on, but I had a friend who played them. So, in terms of like resetting expectations for Star Wars games, I think this was that moment. Either they they started it over there and and these guys carried it on. These guys had to put something out on a I say it and I mean it with all the best will in the world, basically a kid's toy. So there was gonna have to be some sort of compromise on how it presented itself and how the gameplay worked, and that's the Super Empire Strikes Backs or the Super Star Wars series. But yeah, I I love it, the different characters. I think it it nods nicely to the lore. I think it I think the sprite work in it alone is is a thing of joy.
SPEAKER_03Well, it's a good-looking game for the year, I think. Is well given that that was a very good looking game.
SPEAKER_00I think I've talked about either this on Flashy B or or the main show, the unofficial controller podcast, of course. But um I remember getting a Games Master magazine, it was either a review or a guide where they'd literally took each screen that you move through and assembled the whole of the uh Jawa sandcrawler in the magazine as one composite shot, and it looks great, and you can comp some of their other levels, like one of the other levels that they comped, I think, and this was for a um a guide was the interior of the sandcrawler. You know, you kind of go through and you dodge under and over the little flame bits and bobs, and that was all laid out in this magazine.
SPEAKER_03Imagine if you get that nowadays as one print and then put it in a frame. Oh, that'd be awesome.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, yeah. Some of those early issues of Games Master were absolutely on point. And again, we've talked about this before, but games media was in its absolute ascendancy, or maybe even at its critical mass at this point. There was a lot of um published material. Do you want to is there anything on here you want to because I could go quite hard on this list, friend, if I'm not careful.
SPEAKER_03Well, I'm gonna jump onto this as one of my hidden gems over on the Panel Fish Controller podcast. Uh oh, as I call it, the mothership. This is well, we know it as zombies. Uh so zombies ain't my neighbours in in the States. Um great game if you haven't played. I know the second one was at Gall Patrol didn't go down as well, but yeah, I don't know why.
SPEAKER_00It's just the same game. Yeah, I don't know why, but I think it probably came late in both of these 16-bit consoles' lives, so yeah, it made it look maybe a bit gaft if you were looking for a PlayStation.
SPEAKER_03It's a very cool um, if you haven't heard of it before, it was on the 16-bit consoles. It's a um it's literally like um almost like a Halloween game.
SPEAKER_00Um with a big Disby movie aesthetic, which is what really zings to me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, this this mad scientist is infected and all the dead are coming back to life, but you've got people living their lives in the swimming pool, you've got kids about, and you go along with your with your water pistol and your cool 3D shades on, you're the cool kid, and you're going around rescuing people, shooting these zombies. You have to find keys to open doors to get to the next level. Very good game. If you play at multiplayer, it's a great fun game. Really good.
SPEAKER_00It gives me multiplayer, it always gives me toe jam and earl vibes. It's just got that real nice, steady sort of smooch through the screw smoothness.
SPEAKER_03Really good, you know, and very playable today.
SPEAKER_00Nice sprite work on trampolines, even on Mega Drive and Bits and Bobs. Brilliant. It's got some cool stuff going on. Um I bought the SNES with my own pocket money copy, it was on our pride's possessions because it was made by LucasArts, so it had it fit next to the Super Star Wars trilogy really nicely on the shelf. So there was I've got to get all the LucasArt games to get the I was weird then. I'm weird now. There's no excuses for it. I know there's not, but this game, you slap it in your Super Nintendo, you slap it in your Mega Drive. I think aesthetically they both have aspects that I enjoy on both systems. I'll be honest with you. I think they look different, but they play the same and they they look they look the same, but they just look slightly different in places, but nothing to really, depending on what side of the camp you're on, you'll be completely happy. And yeah, there's some of that opening level alone where you're walking around the gardens with the swimming pools, and there's people in like um flamingo sort of hoops from memory, and then um the second level, I think you're walking round a shopping mall, etc. And yeah, there's a lot of good stuff. It's a supermarket, I think. Maybe there's a lot of really cool stuff going on. Sprite work, it's a fun game to play. I think if you've got younger gamers in the family as well, like this game is not too intimidating, you've got time within the game to make choices, it's not overly oppressive.
SPEAKER_03And I think there's this little window at the moment where younger gamers will probably fit in well with this, being with so many games of pixel art nowadays. A lot of young people play Stardew Valley. Well, this is in the same aesthetic as Stardew Valley, so it's not it doesn't feel like an old game, it plays a lot of modern games on the game.
SPEAKER_00Well, one thing that does this game a lot of favours is the sprites are actually big and chunky, they're not like small modern day pixel art sprites. These things are gonna dominate, you know, a big chunkier screen, and they look great.
Super Star Wars And 16-Bit Brutality
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, great. They said I always like when 16-bit games, I I think the music's so important in 16-bit games and 8-bit because the tech wasn't there to give you, like nowadays, if you're playing like a dead space remake, the atmospheres in the graphics. I know music's an important part, but you've got the drip and blood and the water and all the rest of it, didn't have it in them days, so the music had to be equally as good. So if you got them gems of 16-bit games, like you're like you say, this was a 50s B movie aesthetic, they got the music right, they got the ghouls and the ghosts and the zombies and everything linked into this experience, and they absolutely nailed it with zombies. Such a great game.
SPEAKER_00The opening screen with the with the name, whichever version you've got on whichever platform with the red and black swirlies, and the start of the game, and then the transitions between that. I'm I'm gonna go out there and say it's all it you know for a 16-bit game, it's almost doing the equivalent of persona-like transitions with between you know, it's it's a slick product for its time, but it maybe doesn't get the kudos it deserves for what it's doing. It was up against some you know tough competition back in the day. Yeah, but I think cream rises to the top, and Zombies Ate My Neighbours is definitely the cream of the 16-bit generation.
SPEAKER_03There's two or three games, I mean, two in particular, that I always look back to that really set the tone and got you into the game. One of the first games I'd ever known to do that. Um, one of them was Super Metroid, um, land on that planet, the rain, and there's music you knew about it.
SPEAKER_00The video game box dude set the tone.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. But as soon as you plug that game in, you think, oh, this is good for a 16-bit game. And zombies is equally as good as that because this is the aesthetic they wanted, and the sound and the game, and they just everything works. Such a great game. Um, another one I'm gonna mention, I haven't played this. Um I've always wanted to, but it's it's it has rapidly gone up in price, and that is Battletoads v Double Dragon.
SPEAKER_00Oh yes.
SPEAKER_03I've played Double Dragon the first game I've ever completed on my spectrum. I've played Battletoads, especially how hard it is with them bloody bike levels that you have to jump. Um, because my mate's a big fan of Battletoads, but I've never played a Battletoads Battletoads Double Dragon game.
SPEAKER_00Mate, me me neither. But I tell you what, if you pick a magazine up from nineteen ninety three, you're gonna see an advert for this game. It was everywhere. Um Battletoads were You know, big in terms of the franchise look good in magazines, and this was a crossover I never saw coming as a kid.
SPEAKER_03Um, it's weird, you almost beat them up rivals, you know, and it just seems strange that they went together, and it's just like what? How are battle toads in Double Dragons World? You know, as but I've never played it, I don't know what the game's like. I mean, Super Nintendo, you're looking probably 150 quid for this game nowadays. Oh, really? Yes, expensive game. Um yeah, yes.
SPEAKER_00Should be 50p, really, shouldn't it?
SPEAKER_03Well, that's the same with Nintendo. You'd probably pick it up 50 quid for a cartridge, but you have to add the other 100 pound on for the cardboard. But you guys, um, but yeah, I've always been intrigued. If you are listening and you've played this, let us know. Uh, questions at unofficialcontrollerpodcast.com or jump onto the unofficial controller podcast Discord or um Instagram or Twitter, anything like that. Let us know if you played this. Let us know what you think of it. You know, is it worth picking up, especially at that price nowadays? But it's always that interesting crossover. We had a few of these in the era where they sort of joined forces, and yeah, that's one I've always fancied. But anything else on there for you, George?
SPEAKER_00Yes, please, sir. Uh, I would like to talk about a couple of titles. One very briefly, which is Yoshi's Safari, which is the add-on for the Super Scope. Probably the only game really Nintendo made that you could use it for.
SPEAKER_03Because it was, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And you basically rode around on Yoshi's back on like fixed platforms shooting at gates and your generic Super Mario baddies. Terry Blow had this. I managed to talk him into putting it on one time. I think he was maybe a little bit embarrassed about it because Terry was very cool. Um, but I had a blast with it back in the day. Um, I think it's a fun thing for the Super Scope. If you've got a Super Scope, you need Yoshi's Safari. Um, the packing title that came with it from memory, um, Super Scope 6 or something it's called, or it's got like six little fun titles. Exactly the same. Uh, and Yoshi's Safari is that one game that you can use your scope with that's Nintendo based and have a little bit of fun. It's got some mode seven trickery going on, and it's quite unique that you're riding Yoshi's back in third person from memory.
SPEAKER_03But uh Marlet also makes me laugh as well. Sorry to jump in. But you got you played a Yoshi game with a rocket launcher on your shoulder.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't know what the in-game description for it was. I I think there probably was pictures of it there. I don't know whether it was Mario's love cannon or what, but uh this in the UCP, George, simmer it down at the same time.
SPEAKER_03I was strange how they made that fit, and at one point did anyone intend to go, well, hold on. We're we're playing the cutesy Yochi game with a rocket launcher on our shoulder.
SPEAKER_00Well, don't forget you're Mario on a safari in Mario World, so you're basically just going to roll around shooting the local wildlife, aren't you? I think it's very much in keeping. And to keep that spirit going, he's shooting them with a bazooka RG2.
SPEAKER_03Why not? I mean, why not?
SPEAKER_00Why not? Uh one the other game I wanted to talk about, if I may be so bold and indulge me just for a moment, is Rocket Knight Adventures. A really, really, really great pixel art game. Uh Mega Drive exclusive. This one, I think, from memory.
SPEAKER_03I really didn't buy this, and I I think I might have left it too late.
SPEAKER_00I've got this, and I've also got the follow-up Sparkster.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah. I forgot all about that.
SPEAKER_00Might if you want to get on they're a little bit different game, don't get me wrong. Similar, but no, I say that's wrong. Uh mechanics are slightly different in Sparkstar, but very similar. I suppose if you want to get on board with this, maybe get that. But Rocket Knight Adventures is the true OG. Uh a great looking game, doing some really great stuff with the Mega Drive. If you're if you're in the Mega Drive, Mega Drive ecosystem, I think you need this. I think from memory RGTs are just not made by Konami.
SPEAKER_03Uh I've got a few.
SPEAKER_00I think I remember their name on the box. Really great, uh, lovely game. Can't it's a little tough, you know. It's a 16-bit era. It's it's not Konami yet. It's maybe not quite uh yeah, okay. Um and it's maybe not quite as horrific as Super Star Wars. It's certainly gonna make your thumbs sweat a little bit.
SPEAKER_03That's not as expensive as I thought.
SPEAKER_00What Rocket Knight Adventures? Yeah. How much would that set someone back in the year of 2026?
SPEAKER_03Uh loose cartridge£15.
SPEAKER_00No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_03Um complete inbox£50.
SPEAKER_00So if you want to know the God's honest truth, I think I bought it back in the day, not back in the day, but maybe sort of 2013. Probably bought that for about 12 quid.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah, but I'm sure that when that more than that, I'm sure that a lot of Mega Drive prices have stagnated a bit.
SPEAKER_00Oh definitely, it's kind of a bit of a I love the Mega Drive, so I don't want to take anyone to take this the wrong way, but I think of all the systems because Sega kind of obviously exited the market, kind of I think it's killed young aspiration to see what they're about. I can see some young lad having a Switch and looking at Switch online and thinking, oh, I wonder what it'd be like to have the original console and going out and getting a Nintendo, NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, something like that, maybe even a Wii. Um, but it's another step beyond to go get the the the Black Assassin, the Mega Drive, the 16-bit, as you would call it, RGT. Back in the day, it was the same high definition graphic system.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh that probably looks a bit of an alien out there concept to a young kid out on the street wanting to get a bit of a retro well or intrigued in the antiquity of gaming as they would see it.
SPEAKER_03And also, I think young people have switches or switch twos um will look back and think, oh, what else have Nintendo made and go back? No one's got a say, yeah, no one's got a say, Graves, you're not gonna look them up.
SPEAKER_00So no, so the nostalgia for the Sega system is fuelled by people like you and I and the other people that had mega drives or aspired to have mega drives, I guess, is probably another fuel of nostalgia, wanting to have the things you couldn't have. We're the only people that would be interested in buying those games.
SPEAKER_03Very true. Shame. Another one that intrigues me, um, because I've never played this either, but I've always wanted to. Uh Final Fight 2. Now I have what I think is the best version of Final Fight, which is the mega CD version.
SPEAKER_00Um well, the arcade would be the perfect version.
SPEAKER_03Well, yeah, but I mean for home ports, um, because I I think the Super Nintendo one didn't have multiplayer, did it? Single player.
SPEAKER_00No, I no, it didn't. And the and do you know what? The mega CD version is the place to play it, you know. Don't get me wrong, but I think if you've got a Super Nintendo and Final Fight, you probably don't have friends around that often. You you know, you you'd feel happy enough.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, still a good port of of that game. But I've never played Final Fight 2, and when doing the research, I didn't even realise it was a Final Fight 3 as well on the Super Nintendo. I've never played either of those. Um got me sort of going down a bit of a bit of a hole working all these out and where they're from and bits and pieces. So I thought, hmm, might have to pick those up. But yeah, I just because I had Final Fight and Omega C D, I just assumed, you know, I did remember hearing about Final Fight 2, but and I know obviously Final Fights was supposed to be the walk and beat em up of Street Fighter, but obviously changed the name.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_03Like I mean, it's still a bit of that font in there, isn't there, on the Final Fight games. But um great fun beat-em-ups. If you like beat em ups, you like Streets of Rage games, and you haven't played Final Fight, definitely definitely.
Zombies Ate My Neighbors: LucasArts Charm
SPEAKER_00I think what stood Final Fight apart from like I I prefer Streets of Rage and technically could say Streets of Rage is a copy of Final Fight, but Streets of Rage has a more cohesive, feels like a more cohesive structure. I know a lot of it's nailed on and bits and bobs, but it feels I don't know what it is about it, whether it's the camera angle, maybe it's a slightly smaller sprites. I was gonna say in the defence of Final Fight, the sprite work is big and it looks good, you know, it dominates a large portion of the screen, whereas Streets of Rage is slightly smaller in the sc in the in the sort of landscape of the shop more, um which gives more freedom, but yeah, each to their own. There were certainly two big camps out there in the wild, weren't there? Final fight sort of mega or versus the mega drive Streets of Rage boys. So yeah.
SPEAKER_03And also, um yeah, I don't think I'll be getting Final Fight 2.
SPEAKER_00Why not?
SPEAKER_03A little bit pricey, young George, a little bit pricey.
SPEAKER_00Um what price are they in 2026, Steel Lord?
SPEAKER_03Um if you wanted a mint boxed CIB Final Fight 2, you'll be looking over£400. Um if you want Final Fight 3, uh let's see what a mint one is. That's about that's over£300. Um you're looking£160 for cartridges only each. So I'll stick with my um final fight CD, I think.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, have you finished that?
SPEAKER_03Um I have finished that, but well, then you need two, don't you? That was a long time ago I finished that, so I think it's long enough ago for me to forget so I can play it again and pretend it's gonna be. Oh okay. Yeah. Um is there anything else on there for you, George? Or should we not for me, mate?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's a couple of curios, but I don't have any personal experience with them. A little bit like space or I looked at the some of these games on the shelf in the shops at the time, um, with jealous, envious eyes. Um, but yeah, didn't pick them up. I do obviously goof troop maybe just well, yeah, goof troop just for the fact that the cartoon was banging. I do remember this on Super Nintendo, I think, from memory, it's gonna be about the right time.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, there was just something fun about that cartoon. It translated quite well into video game from the stills. I remember looking at and kind of fawning over. But I was kind of at that age where I probably shouldn't have been watching Goof Troop with the sort of ferocity that I watched it, and certainly wouldn't be able to uh navigate the kudos destroyer of having Goof Troop up on the shelf of my Super Nintendo games. Talking earlier how I curated them with the LucasArt thing and bigger boy games and you know exhaust heat and goof troop, but whoa, hang on a minute, no.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, turn the box around the other way.
SPEAKER_00Um I think of the games I had on my shelf now. I had Secret of Mana, at some point or other, I've had these games on Super Nintendo boxed, maybe not Mario All Stars because it was a pack in, but um Secret of Mana, I think I had Pilot Wings, I had Donkey Kong Country 1, I had that Super Star Wars trilogy, I had Exhaust Heat.
SPEAKER_03This is quite impressive for your age at the time. These games were 60-70 bucks a pot. That's that's impressive. I used to have like one or two at a time and trade and sell to get the next game.
SPEAKER_00I I shoveled chicken poo for seven pounds a weekend. Ten weeks later, one could buy a game, coupling that with a little bit of pocket money, couple that in with a little bit of vouchy there for birthday or whatever, because you're never too far away from a I am lucky enough to have a birthday right in the middle of the year, which means by the time Christmas rolls round, it's it's it's it's game on.
SPEAKER_03It's game on. I love stories like this. Think of you doing that awful job for seven quid for a weekend to get the games that is dedication to be.
SPEAKER_00Did I say I some of them were secondhand, don't get me wrong. A lot of the stuff that I was buying was pre-owned, so I'd I'd probably get a couple of weekends in my pocket and go in into town with 14 quid and come back with a ratty copy of Uni Rally or something, you know. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that glorious. Um, I had Mario Kart, definitely. I had FIFA, the first FIFA, thousand percent. I had that. I used some birthday money to go into Woolworths and get myself a copy of Jurassic Park on the Super Nintendo. I think I might have had Wolfenstein, which wasn't that great on there.
SPEAKER_03A few, I mean that's a good little collection.
SPEAKER_00Oh, and the last game I bought with my first proper wage as a grown-up at 16 for the Super Nintendo was Yoshi's Safari 70 books. Oh no, sorry, no, baby Mar uh Yoshi's Island Yoshi's Island, yeah, ba Super Mario World 2, the Baby Mario one. Um yeah, yes, I had that, and as a 16-year-old, that screaming baby absolutely did my nut in.
SPEAKER_03The rest of your money went on cider in Farm and Village.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, cider. Cypher for something, I don't know. Uh, and aspirations of the PlayStation 1, I think.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, give a few uh honourable mentions that also was out at this time. Um there was Disney's DuckTales 2, yeah. Um Manic Mansion, Manic Mansion, the uh Data Tentacles, there was Bubble Bubble Part 2, NHL Stanley Cup. Um, some good games here.
SPEAKER_00Um Freddy Farcast Frontier Pharmacist. I remember that in magazines. Um Samurai Showdown.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, Shine and Force. We had Shinobi 3 Return of the Ninja Master.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and to tell you what, there, I don't know whether it's the power release, probably not, but Saturday Night Slam Masters, the Mega Drive kind of beat 'em up phased around the pro wrestling scene, um, which I always wanted back in the day and as an adult, but have never actually summoned up the Cajonas to grab it. I should think it's probably quite a pricey title now because I don't imagine many people would have bought that back in the day. So I'd imagine Saturday Night Slam Masters is probably north of 60 quid, probably knocking on maybe over 100, I don't know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, maybe nowadays.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, that's there's my journey.
SPEAKER_03Well, that um takes us on to um the news. We scoured the very darkest back pages of the game and mags and even delved deep into the interweb today, not then, um, to bring you what was the latest stories first up. Um, the all three of these stories are from Nintendo Zone magazine, July 1993. So this is the one you wanted, George. Read away.
Crossovers And Collecting: Battletoads Vs Double Dragon
SPEAKER_00Um right, so first story up. Uh great big censored headline. Uh just gonna make this slightly bigger RGT so I can get the whole article in one shot. Okay. After naughty old Sega's attempt to avert our youth with porno filth, such as Night Trap, there are moves afoot to draw up some self-censoring guidelines for software developers before the government gets shirty and changes the law. At the Mo, games are exempt from the Record Video Recordings Act and whatnot are submitted to the British Board of Film Classification. But there's a very real danger that with all the adverse publicity from Princess Die and Michael Bond and questions in the house and all, that this special status might go. If that happened, it could mean Mary Whitehouse having to play every platform romp to the end to check for gratuitous smut and lectures from digitised Simon Bates when you put the cart in. It could be Kafka-esque 90 and no mistake. Hopefully, though, with the software industry trying to put its own house in order, the lawmakers will cut us some slack. We'll have to wait and see how this affects the games themselves, but already Nintendo have scrapped their controversial CD game Super Mario Snuff, where a mustachod chum goes bonkers in a girls' school with a grouting gun. Open brackets, this is a fib. Game zone lawyers, close brackets, but they've also provided us with some guidelines. Now these aren't my guidelines, these are the guidelines that uh Nintendo Zone magazine proposes, or someone's proposing anyway, and they are the guidelines in full. These are as they're written, no derogatory references to the church, baby Jesus, Allah, Buddha, etc. No references to fags, and I must say here that this is 1993, so they're referring to the nicotine-filled cigarette, nothing else, may I add. So no references to fags, booze, drugs, blood, dismemberment, nudity in any form, obscene gestures, political statements, you know, dirties, vomiting, defecation, flatulence, hell, Satan, and Thora Heard. This is definitely an article of its time.
SPEAKER_03Yes, very much so. This is brilliant.
SPEAKER_00And may I re-emphith re-emphatise that we are trying to bring you a very real look at the gaming media of 1993, and we are just presenting it to you as evidence. Yes. We are gonna leave it there.
SPEAKER_03Yes. I d the thing I love about this is as I said before, this is Nintendo Zone magazine, who as soon as uh the night trap conspiracy all started kicking off, they're like, right, we need to get a write an article against Sega on this one.
SPEAKER_00When you showed me this article, Nintendo, obviously, this magazine is filled with what can only be described as the strongest fanboys that are a little bit butthurt at the edgy adult games that they wish they could play over on Sega's Mega CD add-on. Yeah. Uh knowing that they're stuffed with uh the aforementioned probably Yoshi's uh Island 1 uh and feeling a little bit mugged off with Cry Mario and they look round the corner at Sega Zone and that dude's like navigating a couple of chicks around a house. It's like uh goodness. Yeah, dude filth. Look at that filth. And I'll be honest with you, anyone who's played Night Trap knows that yes, it got slapped with an 18 rating, but for what reason on God screen earth, I do not know.
SPEAKER_03I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00Worldwide media for Raw, I would say, more than actual content within the game. I would not describe it as porno filth. At most, I would say it was an edgy teen romp and probably slap a 12A, which were 12 rating, which existed at this time, which was made for um Bobby's favourite Michael Keaton Batman or a 15 at a maximum push.
SPEAKER_03And the thing is, they still hadn't caught on at this time. This was a bit like Mortal Kombat being in court. If you publicize it and you keep talking about it and you put it in the media, more people want to play it.
SPEAKER_00Oh, let's let's look at it from my point of view. I had a Super Nintendo, therefore, I was locked in the ecosystem of the games that were provided to me. Do you not think I would pick up a magazine like this and be like, Oh yeah, that might Stitch up the mega CD boys, that might hold them back a bit. Maybe I might get a chance to see a game that I want to. No, it's not going to happen like that, I'm afraid. But it was, I mean, they're preaching to their audience. Obviously, there's a few people that are a bit sort of edged out by that. I very much doubt the way this article's written, that they aren't pressing their tongue firmly in their cheek because what comes for one end of the business comes for the other end of the business. Um, so yeah, and some of the way they've written this, it's definitely not to be taken seriously. Although this is how magazines were in 1993, even when they were making a serious point. Let's not forget, these were probably six formers, equivalent, right? Chucking this out, giving it the big hoo-ha.
SPEAKER_03So this reminds me of when you get, and I know this is a bit random, but this reminds me of recently my football team, I support, signed a player from our closest rivals, um, which didn't go down very well. So when that was announced he was signing, all on my football team's page was the old the other team saying, Oh, you've got a terrible player, uh you know, I hope he breaks his leg, and I hope all this, and I hope all that. And then it was just one of my fans just put underneath, you wouldn't be that triggered if he was rubbish. And that's a bit like this you wouldn't be triggered writing an article if you thought it was pornofilm for no one should be playing it. It's more that you're triggered because you think, Why haven't we got that on our system? Yeah, it's what it is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and sadly, that didn't come for the Super Nintendo. Uh that became the PlayStation.
SPEAKER_03So Yeah, you could just imagine three of these journalists standing around saying, Well, yeah, I'm no, I wouldn't want to play that either. No, that's ridiculous. I mean, who wants games on CDs anyway? Yeah, you're right there, Jeff. Yeah, who wants games on CDs? I'm gonna write an article about it. Yeah, do it, go on.
SPEAKER_00Low times, Jeff.
SPEAKER_03I mean, really, yeah, ridiculous. Who who wants official, you know, stereo sound music on there when we when we've got the you know, cartridge chip tunes and we've got you know the FX chip? We don't need a CD.
SPEAKER_00Jeff, who wants to upgrade from tapes in the house so they can listen to the latest of these substantial TD on their own stereo anyway? Who who wants that, Jeff? I want it.
Yoshi’s Safari And The Super Scope Oddity
SPEAKER_03I told you before, Jeff, CDs are a fad, they'll be gone this time next year. No one's gonna use them.
SPEAKER_00They're not far off, are they? No.
SPEAKER_03But nah, that is a uh that is a brilliant story. That is so of the time. Um next up we have same again from Nintendo.
SPEAKER_00Um can we just go back to that actually? Because we're missing an open goal here. Like the zeitgeist of the video nasties was in its full effect here. The reference to Mary Whitehouse, the the sort of Furore of Mortal Kombat, and and some of the other games that are yet to come out or are around at this era that were really sort of grabbing headlines, sort of terrifying and demonizing children, Doom as an example, those sorts of things. There was a genuine media, whether it was generated for advertising or not, but there was definitely a lot of column inches and TV killjoy, people like that, you know, Mortal Kombat made my son, you know, worship the devil or some drivel like that. It was everywhere, wasn't it? Um you know, we know that a similar kind of furraw is better remembered being attached to like the original launcher Dungeons and Dragons game in the United States.
SPEAKER_03Oh god, yeah, they said it was dev devil worshiping and everything, didn't they?
SPEAKER_00But a similar kind of Furore definitely kicked up about our beloved hobby in the mid-90s or the early 90s, off the back of the blood and gore and ever-increasing realistic aesthetic of the games.
SPEAKER_03And also the way the companies went where Sega thought, right, let's go, we're gonna have the blood, we're gonna have the edginess. Yeah, and then Nintendo said, No, no, no, no, we're not having that, we're gonna stay trying to stay the right side of the tracks, and it's just the different paths. And at the end of the day, they were still neck and neck, weren't they? Really, what they were doing, they were still neck and neck with who Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I think obviously in that moment, Nintendo doubled down on the family safety and even obviously caused Mortal Kombat to have to re-engineer the game so it was green blood instead of red blood, etc. But by the time it very quickly fired up and then very quickly faded down because even Nintendo allowed Mortal Kombat to come full full gore, pretty much, to Super Nintendo, which you know you could argue at that point which is a better version. I think that Street Cred says the Mega Drive version, but reality says Super Nintendo, but you know, uh what's this next bit of news hero?
Rocket Knight, Final Fight, And Price Shock
SPEAKER_03Um I'll put this one in because this is this is so of the time, um and that took me back. This took me back. Um this was by well, that's a company called Future Shooter, Cloven for Screen Warriors. Um articles called Street Cred Threads, and it says here at Game Zone, there are two schools of thought as to what you should wear when playing games. Andy favours going butt naked, but for a stocking mask, a pound of goose fat, and a pair of boil in the bag, Damart Thermal Tangers, while everyone else enjoys the cozy comfort of a pair of cords and an old woolly pulley. Apparently, though, we're all the other only. Yeah, we're all behind the times. Future shooter is a new range of threads designed with game players in mind and builders' clothing for screen warriors. I might imagine the advert clothing for screen warriors. I mean um look at this bloke. There's a picture on there. Uh he is sat on a Saturday night round his nan's house playing tiny tunes, and yet he still looks like a complete ninja, and you will too. Future shooter are planning on a whole range of other hip garments, probably that beanie hat or the eye patch, maybe uh a twin set. But but at the m at the moment, yeah, just flogging the long and short t uh sleeve t-shirts. We've got four of each to give away to fashion conscious readers. All you have to do is send us a postcard marked Mr. Byright is God. Tell us why your image needs to get funky, and we'll pick the best eight. Get to a screen warriors. I mean, this is uh I know I always say a window looking back, and a snap, a little snippet of time. This is a snippet of time.
SPEAKER_00You've got to look what this is, though, because even though this is like what looks like an editorial, some sort of promo, some I mean, no disrespect to the artwork, but it certainly looks like you know, some six, fifteen to eighteen year old kid's got a bit of money behind him because that drawing of that character there, it it's not exactly the best, is it? I wouldn't call it a lot of it. No, it's like my my first graffiti artist, in it as uh it is a bit, it's edgy, it's obviously been inspired a little bit like m by manga or anime of some kind, and he's he's got a nice looking logo. He's obviously somehow got in touch. Maybe it's an older, maybe a 20-year-old or something or whatever, and he's got in touch with this magazine and said, Look, here's a promo, give these away. Uh, no way of getting in contact with Future Shooter to find a way to order these things organically, though, if you happen to not win one. Um quite where they're advertising this shtick at, I don't know. It's very much of the time, but it also feels to me like the magazine's not taking this promo too seriously either. Um, whether it's like the editor's sons decided he's going to bring out a clothing range on his gap year from uni, um, it's got that feel to it, hasn't it?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yes, it has, yeah. Um, and also it it makes me laugh, they're just moaning about Sega's porno filth, and they start the article by saying Andy Favo's going butt naked just for a stocking mask and a pound of goose fat and a pair of paw in the and you're like, Well, hold on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but then I think you need to reframe your viewpoint on the original story. It seems to me like maybe they aren't maybe you could read that as though they aren't that bothered about the fact that Night Trap sport no filth and they're saying it's hilarious either way. Um but uh yeah, I'm not who's wearing a hat with F stroke S on it to play a video game?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's they're trying to link two things together there. I mean I've tried looking up um and there's just literally I think they're advertised in the odd manga magazine, they're in this magazine, but I can't really find too much of anyone or pictures of anyone wearing futures shooter cloven. Um but it's also like what was cool at the time because the tagline is cloven for screen warriors.
SPEAKER_00I mean you were kind of like that. Uh I think.
SPEAKER_03But you'd have loved that in the day.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's kind of pitched it's kind of pitched a bit weird because this is pitched at younger lads, gamers, maybe you're arcade warriors more, uh future shooter. I I don't know, it's he he looks like he's holding a space marine bolt gun.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I mean I think their image was that you'd have the kid in the arcade playing final fight with his F FS Beanie on and a few other kids come in and go, Oh, he means business. He's got a future shooter hat on, he's a screen warrior. We need to get some of this gear, and I suppose they thought that would circulate round gamers as you know, this meant you were a real gamer. Yeah, you didn't wear cordroids and a woolly jumper anymore, you were future shooter because you're a screen warrior, you know.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's either you're gonna wear in 1993 you got three choices as a gamer. You can either go all in on the future shooter gear, you can wear your aforementioned cords and woolly pulley, or it seems your only other option, the third option, is to go butt naked, bar a stocking mask, a pound of goose fat, and a pair in a pair of ball-in-the-bag damn art thermal tangers.
SPEAKER_03So I know this is weird, isn't it? But the the thing is as well, don't you think, right? The way this article is written, the way the artwork is, the company called Future Shooter Cloven for Screen Warriors, this is a Sega magazine written all over it. So I find it quite weird having it in a Nintendo magazine. It seems quite against their sort of family-friendly. No, I don't think it is.
SPEAKER_00It's and it feels to me like it's part of a wider magazine entity that probably because you've got your game zone lawyers, whereas the magazine is Nintendo Zone. So is there a wider game zone publishing house that has Sega Zone, Nintendo Zone, whatever?
SPEAKER_03I think there was, weren't there? I think there was a few. So that's probably why these articles probably the same apart from the editor's name change, I suppose.
SPEAKER_00Maybe, yeah, maybe they didn't even bother with that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, maybe we'll have to look into that. But what's this last one then, George? I'd put this in for you because this would have been and I wouldn't surprise me if you've got one of these.
SPEAKER_00Let's clarify before we go in. I don't, but I do have first hand experience of one.
SPEAKER_03Did you have one?
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_03But you have played on one.
SPEAKER_00Kind of watched one be used.
SPEAKER_03Oh right. I've never held or had one. I was so tempted to buy one, but I'd never use it. I'd be doing it for just a curio. But in the day, I've got I wanted one of these.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I've got some we can talk about this, so let's get let's get it out there for the listeners. So Paddington author slams barcode battler. And I have to say, I read this article off there and it did make me giggle. Michael Bond, creator of Paddington Bear, has spoken out in the Sunday Times against Tomi's barcode battler, branding the toy Sinister. Apparently, there's a growing body of teachers, authors, and TV cops who are anxious about the scenes of panic buying witnessed in Japan when a desirable barcode was discovered. Rumour has it at least one supermarket over here is preparing to cash in by sticking additional codes on some products tailored for the game. I'm glad she probably gave her name to this, uh, but believes the game is a threat to families. It makes children see their parents simply as providers of goods, she shrieked. Open brackets, so what's your point? Editor close brackets. We're a bit perplexed because gameplay wise, the battle's on a par with programming the video. Still, we're not ones to jump on the bandwagon, but we would like to point out the barcode on our cover gives you a wellard super weapon, though. Um let's start off. If listeners, maybe maybe some of the younger listeners aren't uh fair, or maybe some people just weren't checked into the zeitgeist at the time. The barcode battler was this strange looking machine, came in a box that looked like it had a kind of robot with red eyes overbearing this piece of black plastic, which was itself at the same time, and you basically got this little reader out and scanned barcodes in it. Now, the barcode battler had gained this notorious um must-have title, as as the magazine describes, the scenes in Japan pouring out were of kids going crazy to get the barcode battler, buying all these different soups and canned goods to get the barcode that was the ultimate barcode. Now, I do believe the ultimate barcode ended up being on a pack of noodles or something ridiculous, but either which way, I'm sure that's a story for another day. My experience with the barcode battler was that my friend Martin, who you've met, his parents owned a shop. So the barcode battler was his ultimate toy. Now, I don't think anybody else ended up with a barcode battler, but Martin had a shop of at his disposal and a flurry of barcodes. They even rented videos from Martin's shop, so he probably even had those barcodes. It was milk, bread, every chocolate bar you could imagine, every sweet confectionery, chicken, all the meats, all of it, you know, central stores, which was his parents' sort of you know, mum and pop central, you know, general outlayer of goods in um village few over from mine. Um, you know, there was everything in these stores back in the day, and so this was his perfect foil. It didn't really take over here the way it took over in any other market. I just don't think so.
SPEAKER_03Can I clarify that barcode battler had a game on it, and then when you scanned barcodes, it gave you extra weapons and arms.
SPEAKER_00I I believe it. My memory is hazy, and as I say, I didn't have one. I think each individual barcode represented a different kind of warrior.
SPEAKER_03Right, okay.
SPEAKER_00So certain foodstuffs or certain barcodes produced different stats on different characters. Like I say, the ultimate barcode I do, but the the ultimate barcode, whatever you want to call it, ended up being on a pack of nudes, some bizarre pack of noodles or something like that, and it was like quite the sort after you know food stuff for a while. Not for the food inside it, but just for the bar for the kids to get the barcode on the back.
SPEAKER_03Because when I was a kid, I was I wanted one because it was sort of sold over here as it was a bit hazy as to what you could do with it.
SPEAKER_00But I was under hazy.
Magazines, Music, And The 16-Bit Aesthetic
SPEAKER_03I was under the impression I begged my mum and dad to get me a barcode battler because I thought I'd never have to buy a game again. I thought you every item you scanned on a barcode gave you a brand new game to play on your barcode. I thought this I'll have thousands of games, I'll just scan what's ever's in the panel.
SPEAKER_00I think it more that you had like a selection of barcodes in your pocket and you put those in, you scan those into the battler with an opponent to fight your barcodes off to determine which was the better one. I do believe that's how it played. Right. I think it was, if anything, it was a red sort of LCD dotted screen maximum.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was just a little L C D screen, right? More like some tiger handheld, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_00Basically, yeah. Tomy were like the masters of what I would say uh smoke and mirrors as well. A lot of Tomy's technology from that day was clockwork bits happening in the background to make it look like electronic goods. Yeah, like when you had your 3D glasses and it was just the LED sort of and Tomy had the Street Racer, Tomy had quite a few early kind of um games that weren't games that were really more just dressed up as a console, but not quite. Yeah, more a toy. Um uh that you're right, they had the 3D glasses that were all the rage, not the glasses, the little diamond-shaped things that you wore on the neck around your neck. That was a Tomy Vision Tron or something. Yeah, I had a few sort of Tomy. Didn't Tomy make the the water puzzle games as well?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I had a Tomy pinball machine as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so and that underneath that was a lot of trickery going on. It it wasn't as electronic as you thought. Faring a silver marble up into a thing that sounded like you're smashing the back out, and you were turning flippers and things that made it seem more technical, but behind the scenes it was very, very, very, very rudimentary, really. But it gave us that kind of kick we wanted at a price point that was affordable in the home. And Tony, you know, they were there, they were on the white hot edge of uh certainly technological toys, which were a kind of curio of the time. We were kind of sat in a world where computers and technology was ever advancing, but it wasn't that powerful. And as a kid, you wanted to have something that felt powerful or cutting edge in your hand, and Tomy's trickery and packaging things up in a different way certainly made you feel like you had your fingers in the hooks of the future. But even as a kid, you knew with these Tomy things that you were a bit mugged off, you know. Yeah, and I mean you all got nostalgia for that little racing game where you're with steering wheel and it looks like a Porsche, and I got one for my kids, and you know, my cousin had it, but ultimately you just were steering the technology, was nothing, you were steering a backlit car on a slider between other cars that kind of were on a rotating film. Yeah, it didn't matter if you drove through them, I think it just knocked your speed down a little bit. So there must have been little cogs associated with the cars on the rotating loop that if your slider interacted with, it would knock your speed down. But there was no my point is there was no microprocessing technology happening, it was all cogs and whe whizers. The barcode battler, I guess, was their first attempt at something that was on the edge. You know, the barcode Reezers certainly felt like to a young me anyway, like cool laser technology. So for them to package that into was expensive, but the thicker end of a toy price. Yeah, almost impulse money.
SPEAKER_03When you're talking about little Tony Porsche, I remember when I had mine I used to play with it all the time. So I loved cars, I was sort of thinking I was driving, and I remember actually going round to the front of it and in the headlights when it was driving and putting my ear on it 'cause I thought I could for some reason I'd be able to hear an engine, and it sounded like a cuckoo clock and then hitting the hour. It you could hear it going all the cogs and there it goes. And it Would kill batteries, destroyed batteries.
SPEAKER_00Well, it took a nine volt, one of the big nine volt chunkers, and it took three or four type C's as well, I think, from memory. This thing was a beast.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, my mum. My mum used to limit RGT's game time on it because they couldn't avoid the batteries.
SPEAKER_00Tell a lie, I think it was just the type C's, but it was certainly chunky.
SPEAKER_03There was low, I remember there was a whole line of them. There was a whole line of them.
SPEAKER_00I remember when I put it in the loft, I made sure I took all the batteries out. Because when I got it, it was non-working because batteries had leaked and I had to do some jiggery pokery, take it apart. And then when I opened it up, when I opened up that Tomy Racer, I oh my god, I was like, oh that's when I realised that's when I started because I was collecting toys at the time and I had a few Tommy Gizmos, and that's when I started to put two and two together about the clockwork shenanigans that's inside the smoke and mirrors, because I lifted that off, and it was like you were looking into a Swiss watch. I was like, I really hope that part of this isn't broken and we're just talking about like this battery box feed because if something in this is done, I'm done.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because also that's like plastic cogs as well. Where are you gonna get a plastic cog from?
SPEAKER_00I had a similar issue trying to repair a Teddy Rook spin.
SPEAKER_03Only on this show does that work.
SPEAKER_00Exactly, yeah.
News Time: Night Trap And Censorship
SPEAKER_03Uh but going back to the article, this this thing here where it says Andrea Pound, a top shrink at the London Royal London Hospital, believes this guy that believes the game is a threat to uh families. She quote says it makes children see their parents simply as providers of goods, she shrieked. Now I'm thinking one Andrea Pound doesn't exist, and two, journalistic license has made this up. I don't think there probably was an Andrea Pound working at the at the Royal London Hospital. And I can imagine them sitting around, what name should we give her? What name should we give her? Come think of a name, think of a name. Um we'll go Andrea, that sounds quite, you know, intelligent. And you just think you Googling it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm intrigued.
SPEAKER_03Because in the day there was a lot of journalistic license, and it just seems a random statement to make. And they've actually got in contact with Royal London Hospital to find out what she thinks of a barcode battler. Sounds a bit um unrealistic.
SPEAKER_00So I've got something here from the Camden New Journal. It says, Daughter of Clinical Psychologist tells how Andrea Pound can comforted little. I'm not going to go into the whole article, but the the first paragraph is two months ago. Andrea's breathing became heavy as she went to Royal Free Hospital. So obviously, where she got better only a week later, she began to feel ill. So it's not looking great for uh Andrea uh Pound right now, but confirmation that she was the top psychologist at the Royal London Hospital. So therefore, I would argue gave the soundbite. Now, whether she gave this directly to GameZone or whether it was just a generic in another magazine that they've co-opted.
SPEAKER_03They hassled and phoned up the hospital and said, Can someone give us a quote? Someone give us a quote, someone what what do you want a quote about? Come on, we'll start. Um Barco Batley, you have to go in and scan all these things. Oh probably didn't understand it and said, Well, that sounds ridiculous. That's just gonna make kids want to, you know, see their parents as providers, and that was it.
SPEAKER_00You can imagine Do not do kids not see their parents as providers?
SPEAKER_03Well, exactly. I don't it's just a random thing to say.
SPEAKER_00They've they've uh yeah I think it's completely out of context. Now, don't forget, as I've said a couple of times on flashback, these guys were technically you could argue journalists.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and law pretty lawless at the time as well.
SPEAKER_00Pretty lawless, yeah. This this level of print media was under no scrutiny other than their own editors. And if your own editor is in your same uh maelstrom that you are, where you're not taking life too seriously and you're playing Mega Drive Super Nintendo games four out of eight hours of your working day, this is what you're gonna get.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and also I would imagine there was probably if if this had been an actual proper conversation sitting down explaining to Andrea Pound, there probably would have been a nice paragraph explaining what she thought of the Barcode Battler, not just one sentence that they've obviously caressed out of a phone call that she probably didn't understand what she was doing.
SPEAKER_00In some way, it's kind of hear me out. In some way, you could argue it's highbrow journalism that's been redressed in a way for the target audience of the teenage reader, the angsty teenage reader they thought they were maybe speaking to. So top shrink, Andrea Prown. Like if you put we're talking Game Zone magazine, Nintendo Zone magazine. Andrea Prown, Andrea Prown's top child psychologist at the Royal London Hospital. We sat down for a brief chat with her, read our four-page expose on what she thinks about games' effects on children's mental health. Boom, dead article. More likely inside screenshots of you know latest Mario game or Mortal Kombat game, plus some token garbage about barcode battler.
SPEAKER_03And also, I think there was probably a wider part to this, and they'd thought, hmm, this doesn't really fit in here. Grab a bit, grab a bit. She's probably said it maybe could make children see their parents as simply a provider of goods, but you know, they've just snipped that bit out, that'll do a treat. Yeah, barcode battler, you're going down.
SPEAKER_00In a way, you know, as we said before, there's possibly another thing here where is the rise of the barcode battler and the domination of kids' time in Japan seen as a threat by the video game magazine community who could see their magazine falling prey as Barcode Battler becomes like the ultimate zeitgeist, as it kind of seems it is in Japan. Maybe we should talk this down a bit.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and also I think they've also thought as well, it's getting very popular. How can we sell a magazine? Well, just tell a lie that the barcode on this magazine has got Yeah, or or you know, do you know what?
SPEAKER_00Maybe I don't know because I haven't seen the physical copy you've got. Maybe they put barcode battling who's on the front, and this is their ode to the uh the£3.50 you had to spend to get this magazine in your mum's uh shopping trolley.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, there isn't I'm just checking the magazine now, snuffing on the front, but I'd be tempted to scan that barcode. See if it was, that'd be interesting. If you could get a list.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'd it'd be interesting. It won't be. Well, get yourself a barcode battler and report back next episode.
SPEAKER_03It's still quite cheap to buy, I think. I don't think they're expensive.
SPEAKER_00I think that really sings I when I sort of flirted with the idea when I was collecting toys and sort of flirting with nostalgia. I thought, oh, maybe a barcode battler, and I think Gotham Games, who we interviewed when they were still open, we interviewed in the early days of the unofficial controller podcast. I'm sure he had a barcode battler on the shelf for the longest time, and it stayed there for the longest time. And I think when the shop closed, it might have still been there.
SPEAKER_03It's literally just a bit of a curio you're gonna have on the shelf. It's it's Tony's someone will ask you about it and just say, Oh, what's that Tony thing up there? He said, Ah, well that was a barcode battery, you know, as a talking point, that's about it.
SPEAKER_00In this in this day and age, it's nothing more than gamer object da.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, well, I think that wraps up our news. I hope you enjoyed them articles from July 19, 1993. Um, hope you weren't offended by any of the references in there, but it was of the time, and we've read it as it is, from naughty naughty Sager, who's perverting the teenagers of the time, to to the teenagers that are wearing street cred threads because they are screen warriors, all the way through to the Paddington or for jumping in on the barcode battler because it's um to phrase to phrase this up with 90s British 90s tude, all three of those articles could have been been written by Nam Rude from uh Bad Influence. Nam Rude. What was his name and anagram of uh Dorman. That's it, yeah. Yeah, because he didn't he end up being in Emmerdale or something as well, didn't he? I believe.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Nam Rood was an actor, I can't remember his name quite well to do from the Manchester scene where uh Bad Influence was filmed with Violet Berlin and Andy Crane.
SPEAKER_03Um I used to love that bit waiting to see if there was any cheats for any of my games.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, imagine for imagine being the kid watching that with an Atari ST though, RGT.
SPEAKER_03Bless you.
SPEAKER_00Um there's one episode where they mention Atari ST, but it's a game I didn't have.
SPEAKER_03They did mention on another episode, but it was all about the music capabilities of it, which it was, they went into it, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Which gave me a little bit of like kudos, not kudos, but I kind of went in with shoulders back a bit the next day at school. But ultimately knowing that the rhyme was on the wall for the Atari ST, really.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, well, when you think Norman Cook, aka Fat Boy Slim, done nearly all his albums on an Atari ST, I would say even when it was well out of date, he still uses one, he's still got one in his studio.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think Prodigy Experience, Jilter Generation, most definitely Atari ST, maybe some elements of the Atari ST's mini functionality on Fat of the Land. I would say most of the music you were dancing to at Dreamscape had probably been pushed through an Atari ST at some point in time.
SPEAKER_03Look back at some of the old top of the pops, you had like Orb all layer on there with an Atari ST, an Alt and 8 layer on there with an Atari ST.
SPEAKER_00Apart from Terry Blow and Stephen Pratt's house, the only other place I saw an Atari ST was in the the lab area of the music room at school where they had an Atari ST FM, I think it was, plugged into a synth of some kind in like a mini recording studio.
SPEAKER_03Well, because they just put that MIDI port on the back. What a different one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, basically, yeah, game changer.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely, yeah. What a I bet whoever put that on the back, I bet they think the Lucky Stars he did.
SPEAKER_00Well, it was always the sort of fight in school ground between the Atari ST and the Amiga boys. Now, the Atari ST had MIDI, but it didn't use any of that functionality in the games. So although the Atari ST boys like me and Terry Blow were like, Yeah, you ain't got MIDI though, you know. Terry Blow would often say, Well, you know, they're using this to make albums, the Amiga music was by far better. Even though I think the Amiga did actually have some what one version of the Amiga did actually have some MIDI uh port um functionality to it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think something or something. Yeah, I think the 1200 because they went sort of more they had that special ACA chip in, didn't they, for graphics? And they also I think they thought, hang on, we can really corner the market now if we put a MIDI port on. But I think a lot of people by that time had gone over to PCs for their um music and bits and pieces.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, all the ST was just doing such a bang up job, but it'd already been bought.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. You know, people were still making albums on that 20 years after it's released, so it's yeah, you know, it's it's obviously a very, very usable system.
SPEAKER_00I think it just laid that kind of the bare bones of the on-screen editing like we'd never really had before. I mean, yeah, to you or me, we'd have spent probably three months trying to make a 10-second jingle, but I'm sure Norman Cook presses F12 and shift f2, and it's suddenly he's got a song.
SPEAKER_03I do like as well. There's um there's a couple of DJs. I know Ravi from um Retro R podcast, and his name escapes me. He's a DJ as well. He goes all round the country plan and they play with Amigas as the decks, and they mix with amigas and they do all their demo stuff and mix and their albums, and a lot of their stuff are released on vinyl, and not so much Ravi, but the other guy, and they even DJ with Game Boys as well, have the chip tunes sitting.
SPEAKER_00It's very, very impressive to check it out on um chip tunes and what's the other one called where it's called something bending, like chip bending or something, where they kind of like stretch out the they they've somehow soldered a rotary dial on top of the Mega Drive's MIDI like FM chip, and they're literally squeezing the very last vestiges of life out of it.
Street Cred Threads: Fashion For Screen Warriors
SPEAKER_03I mean, if you ever I have to I can't remember the guy's name now, does he? Me he's one of the biggest in the country who does it, he's a games programmer as well. He's done um he's done a few um ports of games. I think he got the MSX version of like Metal Gear and got it onto another system, and um he's very, very good at his music as well. Um, and when you s when you hear the music, you're thinking, oh well, this is just like uh acid house house DJ doing music. And then when you actually watch the video, and he's got two Amiga 500 or two Amiga 1200s there with a mixer and he's mixing between the screens as that's impressive to watch.
SPEAKER_00I've got uh I've got a you just reminded me in the kind of maybe 2012-2014 when I was trying to pick up like DVDs that I wanted to collect and um mega drive games and bits and bobs, I got friendly with the CEX Lincoln staff, they've all changed now. There's maybe a face uh I in there I recognise from the old days, but uh there was this lad in there called Deck Ackroyd, who was uh Declan Ackroyd, who was an artist, I think he maybe still is an artist, and he was into that chip bending to make images on the screen which he would print as art. Yeah, and to me, like uh an archivist of retro equipment to be friendly with a man who took said same equipment and uh just dry soldered sort of switches and dials on to make the screen glitch and break. It was a it was a strange relationship. But look at this, this is well cool, and I'm like, it is cool, but what the hell?
SPEAKER_03Why would you do that?
SPEAKER_00I don't know. I remember taking him, he got his art on display in uh a museum in Birmingham. I think from member. I remember he couldn't drive, so I remember taking him there. Uh, it was quite a heady day to be fair, quite good fun, but yeah, there's certainly a a vibrant scene for destroying our beloved retro gaming machines in the name of art, which yeah uh I've remembered the DJ's name is Hoffman.
SPEAKER_03If you look up Hoffman, oh wow yeah, he does he's making he's done a you know, he's a developer as well and writes games for old systems, amigas and bits and pieces, but also um yeah, he's DJ'd, he's been on um Retro Mangay, which is now Retro Collective, he's been on there and DJed there at the museum and bits and pieces, but very interesting to watch and um seeing this old tech being used in a modern way, I think I think it's absolutely brilliant. But yeah, that was um that was our news. I hope that was good, and like I say, gave you a little look back at Angria Pound is a real person. And Andrea Pound's a real real person. Probably not her full quote there, but when you call me Thomas, I felt I was in trouble then. Um but called his own name and put his own pants. It's now time for what we affectionately call Stingray's boot. What's nestled between some counterfeit nappies and the dodgy copy for battle of for Endor is some of the new releases for August slash and a little bit of September 1993.
SPEAKER_00I've had a little bit of September in because it wasn't a lot being released, but I am having everything out this boot.
SPEAKER_03There's a little bit of Star Wars goodness in there for you, fella.
SPEAKER_00Oh, so much games I had, games I aspired to own, games that dominated magazines back in the day. Uh, what am I doing?
SPEAKER_03Well, um, first of all, we need to see how you're seeing Stingray.
unknownSpring.
SPEAKER_00Springstop quite a wall, mate.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly. Springstop quite a wall.
SPEAKER_00I'll tell you why I'm seeing the Ray. It's jumped out of the car, looking fresh. He's got a hat on with FS on the front, so he's obviously the guy behind Future Shooter clothing. I have to admit, I thought it had a little bit of a hint of the Ray to it. Um, so he's wearing the aforementioned future shooter hat, but he's wearing a global hypercolour t-shirt that's got a little bit manky under his armpits.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, that did give away that a bit.
SPEAKER_00He's wearing a couple of uh pieces of a luminous rock climbing cord tiding a knot around his arm, so he's got a green, a pink, and an orange. It's a vibe that's very 1993 and didn't exist outside of that ecosystem. He's wearing some baggy jeans and what look like Reebok pumps. His son, who is but a glint in his eye at this moment, but he's very real in front of me. He's dressed as um Cyril Sneer from the Raccoons.
SPEAKER_03Cyril Sneer. Wow. What uh what intro music that had. Fantastic. An outro music. Run with us. We got everything you need. What a song. Run with us. We are free. Well, for me, um Wayne's got out of the car first. Um and I tell you what, he's proxy dyed his hair. Whoa! He's got a flat top, he's got 3D glasses on, he's got a water pistol. Yeah. He's looking very cool. So he's uh he's rocking the old zombies out my neighbours. Um whoa. Wow. Stingray. Jeez, Stingray's got out. I mean, he's had a perm, he's permed a mallet, and he's he's looking like the lead roller night trap here. Um I don't know where you got that dress, Stingray, but that's it might be a bit small. That's short. Giving a lot of way and a short.
SPEAKER_00I now I'm intrigued by this night trap because I did think you were gonna say he's sprung out of the car covered in goose fat, wearing a stocking over his head and a pair of thermal tangers.
SPEAKER_03I wish I had a done. Imagine that. That article, my god. Um but right, I'm gonna let pick a couple. I'm gonna let you pick a couple, George. Go on, what you're going with, because you're gonna you're gonna struggle to pick anything out of this, right?
SPEAKER_00Okay, just to let everybody know what's in the boot this week, okay.
SPEAKER_03So this is one we why don't we pick two each and then we'll uh read out all the others afterwards. So pick your two. Come on, you can do it, son. See what you got.
SPEAKER_00Uh two seconds, good sir, because I am also looking in his DVD section. Uh well, that seems like a no-brainer to me. So God, mate. I've I've I've got a few of these, um and there's some on here that are just absolutely banging. It's actually quite a hard choice. So for nostalgia purposes, because this would have been around the time that I picked up my Super Nintendo, uh, so it would have been it would have been this Christmas. We've got, I believe, anyway, um, because we've got Super Mario All-Stars coming out, and that was the pack that I had. Um and also not for nostalgia, but because I've bought this as an adult after aspiring to own it, and it is actually pretty good. Oh no, it's not what I thought. No, I don't want that. Uh so I shall pick. Uh I'm gonna take Jurassic Park Sega Genesis version. Um as a Nintendo owner, I had what I consider to be the best. game but I did look at the Mega Drive Boys Sega Genesis Boys version of Jurassic Park with the T-Rex at the beginning saying Sega with your pretty much to my eyes photo realistic looking Alan Dr. Alan Grant and or you know photo realistic raptor running around the levels this was the game to own yeah so I I'm gonna go with one because I've always fancied excuse me fancied planet um I don't think it's the the the best of games but I know it's a very very pretty game to look at and that's soccer kid. Ah that's one of the ones I wanted to talk about because this was on every magazine in 1993. Every time you finish reading one article you turn the magazine over and as a soccer kid advert.
SPEAKER_03Every other page yeah yeah and this was like an attempt at football come platformer where you would use your ball as a weapon the only thing is you had to then go and retrieve your ball after you kicked it and but they had that um almost 70s eighties England aesthetic to this was a banging game.
Barcode Battler Hysteria And Media Spin
SPEAKER_00Yeah with the um you know with the sort of the towns and the brickworks in the background and everything and it yeah it looked really good and I've always fancied having a go at that although I know it's not you know the best game but it's it's it's intriguing as to how much they put into the graphics I believe we in the episode where we had Mike Rouse on aka Retro Gamer Boy aka the man who invented PlayStation home aka the man who invented PlayStation trophies if you're interested in that go dig through the UCP uh unofficial controller podcast back catalog and find a Mike Rouse episode I think he did a trilogy of episodes with us but Soccer Kid is one that me and him I think talked about at the time and he he enjoyed it I think he was talking about it from an ant stream point of view he mentioned the same aesthetic that you mentioned um and I think I it reminds me very very for very similar reasons of the comic relief game Sleepwalker yeah yeah that especially that aesthetic yes very much so a lot of games look had similar art styles even if they weren't technically from the same house and the other one I'm gonna pick um rock and roll racing where's that on here because I had that yeah I've got here's some games I forgot I had rock and roll racing I definitely at one point I will say went very expensive and is now it yeah that was even before before covert and lockdown it went to£150£200 boxed and it's now yeah but it's dropped right off now I think it's like£50 boxed and you can pick it up£20 for a cartridge I had it on I had that on Super Nintendo I bought it on the on a family holiday to the Isle of Wight and had to look at it for six weeks until I got home was able to put it in the machine that was painful that was painful I've never read a box so many times for an isolated racer when I finally put it in and heard the SNES version of Bad to the bone you knew you're onto something special that music was great I've more recently bought it during my Mega Drive collecting phase the chip tunes are not even close. Bad to the bone more like bad to the moan on Mega Drive yeah and I don't think the Mega Drive version's even as playable as the Super Nintendo one you could pick that up for less than£10 if you look at it is it's playable but it's sort of and it is close to the Super Nintendo version but it is starting to go down the roots of the street racer debacle you know where it was one game on the PlayStation one game on the snares one game on the Mega Drive one game on the Game Boy it was the the it had edges of that to it.
SPEAKER_03But it was playable but it was not as tight as the Super Nintendo and I think with the Super Nintendo rock and roll racing as well I can't quote for the Mega Drive on so I've never played it but we've gone back to it and played it many times since but I think for my memory in the day I had a friend who had this and he put it in that was the first time I'd learnt of upgrading a vehicle and that was very addictive for the first time to get a bigger engine and a better weapon and a and I suddenly thought hang on this I've never seen upgrading cars before I didn't know about this extra page you little snake well in my fault you ain't fingered down enough bit more there um you dog.
SPEAKER_00Well we'll do some we'll do some other mentions there was Star Wars arcade was out Wing Wing Commander Academy the Legend of Zelda Link's awakening which again another game I had yeah um Mick and Mac the McDonald's tying game Mick and Mac as the global gladiators needs a shout yeah I've got that got it on the NES I believe I think that's made by the guy um Dave Perry not to be confused with the UK game journalist gave per um Dave Perry I think it was his one of his fledgling games before he did Aladdin and then did Earthworm gym yeah from memory. Again this is all from memory if we've got it wrong please feel free to put me right in every single way possible we had like Top Gear 2 quite a popular racing game at the time Star Trek the Next Generation if that's the hollobite Spectra hollowite game for the Super Nintendo I I actually had that as well I have to confess I did.
SPEAKER_03Also we've got a game here which um my mate has he has got a very small mega drive collection he just wanted to get the games he played in the day and Mutant League football is one of those.
SPEAKER_00Oh I thought you were going to say Gunstar Heroes.
SPEAKER_03No no he loved his mutant league football which I do believe they're remaking I believe mutant league football you can get like is uh Blood Bowl basically um yeah sort well yeah sort I think blood bowl's a bit more tactical in it where this is more a almost this is like a violent speed ball basically you know more violent speed ball I was gonna say hang on a minute yeah more violent I should say I mean when you I remember playing this and then you see the first one when you actually um you're playing on a space pitch and a meteor hits and blows your guy running with a ball to bits and his arms and legs are everywhere you're like what this is awesome mate we need to do an RT2 episode where we can talk about speedball too oh my goodness um because they also done mutant league hockey as well didn't they yeah they did quick note on Gunstar Heroes if you want to get that in an affordable way it's part of a four pack that's actually very affordable on Mega Drive or it was yes um don't go getting the full copy of Gunstar Heroes if you genuinely want to play it.
SPEAKER_00If you want an investment piece go get it yeah if you want to play it get the four pack I think bizarrely it's like packed in with some really weird games and the fact this was pushing the Mega Drive allegedly and was a 60 was it like a 60 it was like a big cart Gunstar Heroes.
SPEAKER_03It was a big cart and even then I mean when there was a lot going on you've got some slowdown I remember that was that an R type was the first two times I'd seen slowdown or knew what it was so I kept thinking oh is this game meant to do that or you you get the chugger you suddenly think oh actually I think there's a lot going on here for M the and Gunsai's got a lot going on so the fact they were able to then squeeze that into a multi-cart pack is is unreal to me. Yeah but yeah there's some interesting games out there um what what movie are you going for? It's obviously gonna have to be a VHS because it's 1993.
SPEAKER_00I'm going to take a home a copy a cam copy VHS of the Fugitive starring Harrison Ford I do believe that came out in 1993 him and Tommy Lee Jones in a movie remake of an American TV series by the same name I do believe the film pays off really well. Actually in the series if anybody knows anything about wrestling um they'll know that Mick Foley has a special move or Mankind has a special move called the mandible claw and that has its roots in the because the guy who plays the fugitive is a medical doctor he's escaping and in the series he knew that the weakest most nerve ridden part of the body was the fleshy piece under the tongue so if you inserted two fingers under the tongue and then gripped with your thumb underneath it was like this paralysing pain like never experienced before great wrestling move great history of that story tied into a a movie tied into a TV show from the 60s I believe. No wait see that's what I said last week this is why you're here because I remember these let's face it I've probably misremembered every single story I've told today.
SPEAKER_03I mean you could have made up and just completely lied to the city Terry Blow probably had a menacer yeah yeah definitely or a real rocket launcher. Yeah probably you've blown the Terry up the telly up Terry Telly Terry Terry Waite moving on I am um going to pick Groundhog Day um as my 1993 movie um love this movie did it come out in ninety three yeah did it really guess me now if I'm wrong questions because you know doubt of me now was that well mate did the fugitive to come out in ninety three who knows I'm guessing but a great film and um very close to how I feel with my work at the moment but um the U Flashy Boo uh the you to be honest Groundhog Day is an absolute banger if I'm ever feeling a bit down it's a great go-to movie.
SPEAKER_00Yeah it was 93 sorry yeah wow we were sport for choice yeah great film if you haven't seen that it's uh very well worth a watch with Bill Murray absolutely brilliant um another banging episode by the way RGT uh enjoyed that that's nice when we go really back I mean there's probably um a few of our listeners who um it's probably a bit beyond them but this gives you a little little look back at what we were doing at this time what we were playing reaching because although I was in my teens for argument's sake it it feels like another life in a way.
SPEAKER_03Yeah yeah definitely because and and the thing I like as well is when I'm researching this and finding these games so many times it's like no way I had that I forgot about that especially with the the obscure amiga stuff and bits oh yeah and then I'll then I'll Google a clip and then you'll hear the music from it or the sounds of the game and you're like oh my god and that just takes you back. Absolutely brilliant yep so yeah really really enjoyed that um I'm not saying that's a it's an early one I mean it's not you know I think we've done 92 so it's our second earliest one we've done but um hope you enjoyed that I'm campaigning for an 80s episode you want me to do an 80s one I can do I've got I've got the material to do an 80s one what what would you theme it round what are we talking spectrum spectrum C64 um deep cut that is yeah BBC Micro yeah Crash magazine I mean there'll be some um there'll be some interesting articles in those but if you want an 80s one let us know if you're with George want me to do an 80s one I'm nervous now I'm like oh mate you know I had a VIC 20 prior to the Atari ST so my I you know I had family members with other gaming machines but you know my own clad a grandstand 5 Fox F7 which I ended up inheriting but that that's not a game that's a little bit more L C D wizardry uh I or LED wizardry um yeah I might be struggling there.
SPEAKER_00But I want to go there because I still think there's there's I think it's important for what you're doing. Yeah there's lots to discuss and I think that I would have been in a round staring aspiringly at the tape carousels I would be you know if I remember the game of like how to be a complete and utter bastard or whatever it is or Rockstar ate my hamster I was cognizant enough to be on the periphery of that stuff that I think that yeah I think we could I could probably put some words to some drivel that you brought to me anyway.
SPEAKER_03Yeah well we'll have a look if if that you know if that's something you think you'd uh like us to do let us know in the Discord or Questions at Unafficient Controller Podcast dot com. Um let us know. Another thing I'd like to ask you would you like us to do uh a special you know a Pacific show around one theme the early days a game and a console a game series a developer let us know. If there's any if there's something you'd like to hear let us know. Like I say question at Unafficient Controller Podcast dot com our Discord or Instagram or X or you know contact us on any of those. I'm on there as Retro Gamer Thomas you can message me as well.
SPEAKER_00And may I chuck in actually on your previous request if that is something that um appeals those specials don't even don't think for a moment that because we've covered it on the main show so we've done obviously the history of the Mega Drive how it was put together blah blah blah I think we could do a flashy B rehash revisit and project completely different documentary this time.
SPEAKER_03I do believe that possible yeah if that's something you're interested in let us know we can get to work on that um they're big shows to write but it's something we we're passionate about so we could do um yeah and I think that winds us up July 1993 thanks for listening thanks for downloading um thanks for all the support we're having if you are liking the show if on your podcast provider give us a like give us a little comment we're desperate for those for flashing aren't we yeah we need some reviews give us a review even if it's just a few words to say you're enjoying it and it's good and give us a little bit more of that pushing us up the algorithm um pass us on to your friends give us a little plug on Instagram if you could if you're on there give us a little bit in your story or how you enjoyed the show please um yeah like I say just thanks to everyone um keep the listens coming keep the little bit more housekeeping if I may RGT yeah you probably want to get dusted off so you can go stare at a 400 year old games magazine but uh oh yes just want to just want to thing is I'm not joking.
SPEAKER_00No uh I just want to check in with everyone that you're finding this show on a Tuesday and that's that's working for you. We said you wanted to give you some breathing room between the main show uh and the UCP spin-off like aka flashy flashback as we lovingly call it flashy b for an abbreviation RGT so we're hoping that's giving you the chance to digest both shows fully definitely and then be ready for flashy B.
SPEAKER_03But we we could continue this it seems to be working for the show doesn't it RGC out a bit gives you a bit to listen to in the middle of the week um gives flashy be the chance to shine on its own legs yes definitely um and if you're listening to this and you haven't heard of the UCP as the unofficial controller podcast 301 episodes on there go and check us out we've been going a lot of years there's a great back catalogue there that's out every Sunday that gives you a bit more of a modern take bit of indies bit of Nintendo bit of PlayStation bit of extra if you if you want a gentle uh move over as we mentioned they could go as a flashback listener and do history of the Dreamcast Mega Drive Game Gear Game Boy History of Capcom Dreamcast did we ever do SNES?
SPEAKER_00I don't know but PS2 I believe PS2 PS Bomb GameCube the original Xbox was a real highlight I think that was a banging show brilliant show yeah um all of those sort of retrospectives for a flashback listener yeah perfect fodder yeah some good crossovers there so yeah go and check out UCP and like I say we've we've got a very welcome alternative control would be a good one for a flashy B listener.
Stingray’s Boot: August–September 1993 Picks
SPEAKER_03Yeah alternative control is a good one yeah but like I say if you know if you want you know if you're new to this want to come and check us out we've got a great community over on Discord and I've controller podcast come and join in um we've got bits going on there with challenge accepted which is a monthly high score which at the moment is um blast corpse on the N64 yes we've also got a Gen 7 playthrough going which we change up and vote for between us um every few months great chapter yeah we're doing sleeping dogs there's a lot of people involved we're playing up to chapter 10 and all having a chat great fun what happens if you go past chapter 10 in other words you've gone past chapter 10 I never said that well you have though aren't you yes right we'll speak about this off air um we'll wind to show up now so like I say thanks to everyone um thanks for listening um and as I always say flashback the games you loved the stories you forgot thanks everyone and see you later George thanks everyone see you on GTA