A look at gaming in September 1998

September 1998 is one of those months where the gaming world feels impossibly stacked, and we wanted to revisit it the way it actually happened: what we played, what we wanted, and what the magazines told us mattered. We start with the everyday texture of the late 90s, that Saturday-morning feeling, the controller in your hands, and the first wave of “I’ve got a paycheck now” game-buying decisions. From there we get into the games that shaped the moment, including Tiger Woods 99 on PlayStation, the cult appeal of Future Cop LAPD, and why Rainbow Six on N64 feels like a technical miracle and a compromise at the same time.

Then we zoom out into the bigger identity stuff that defined the PS1 vs N64 era. We talk Spyro as a genuinely smart 3D platformer and use it to trace studio trajectories, especially Insomniac’s rise against Rare’s absolute N64 dominance and what happens when talent gets absorbed by corporate plans. We also hit the arcade side of 1998 with House of the Dead 2 and that dream of bringing a light gun shooter home, plus a quick stop in the weird corners of the era with titles like Parasite Eve and LSD Dream Emulator.

The nostalgia is fun, but the real time capsule is the “news” and charts: Lara Croft movie hype before casting is even locked, GoldenEye scooping major awards, and a letter that captures the end of the bit wars while accidentally calling the Dreamcast’s future. We even read the best-selling games list to see what was truly dominating shelves, and we draft our October 1998 “paper round money” picks like Metal Gear Solid and MediEvil.

If you love retro gaming, PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast history, and 90s video game magazine culture, come hang with us. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend who lived through 1998, and leave a review telling us which game you’d put back at number one.

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!

Transcript

Welcome To September 1998

SPEAKER_06 0:31

Hello and welcome to Flash Page. The games you loved, the stories you forgot. This is episode 14, and we are in September 1998, and it's me, RGT, and I am joined by the D-Pad destroyer, the single player Supremo, the Menace of Master. It is UCP George. How are you doing, George?

SPEAKER_04 1:02

I am built out of uh light gun peripherals. Um and I present myself to you as such. Yep. I have Super Scope add-ons for eyes. I'm good. I'm ready to hit the road and talk about 1998 and all of its really late 90s glory. Brick pops in the air. I was burning down the back streets in an A-reg Nova with a cherry bomb. It'll be a rear brown interior, cherry bomb exhaust. I didn't have the guts to put that on, but I did slap a 1.4 on it. Oh yeah, I did. I got racy. Yeah. Because it blew me 1.2 up, freshen it five up. And it was never gonna last, was it? Really fully loaded like that. Um, but yeah, these were good times, these were simple times. These were times of waking up on a Saturday morning, picking up the D-pad and picking up the pad and just cracking on with your latest favourite game. Um I was a X N64 guy in this moment, I think, from memory. So yeah, very exciting times.

The Show Format And Rules

Tiger Woods Makes Golf Cool

SPEAKER_06 2:10

Yeah, there was plenty of games about, and um, as we'll get into in a moment. If if you're new to the show, um our format is we'll be looking at what we would have been playing in September '98, what games we probably would have had from the previous couple of months. We'll do a bit of news that's about at the time from the magazines or early internet, and it was about, and we'll finish up what we would have been hoping to play or hoping to purchase with our paper and money at the time. Um some interesting games um that we probably would have been playing at the time. Um and I think because I think this is where I this is where I first just started the job that I am still in 97-98. So I was then starting to actually earn some decent money. Uh but I still remember two or three of these games are games I put hours in. Now I'll start with Tiger Woods 99 Pro Tour Golf on the PlayStation. Now this is my first. May I ask? Yes.

SPEAKER_04 3:11

Is this the first one that was a bit kind of I think I had one on the PlayStation. It was it was what I would call a little bit kind of ridiculous, where it was like hitting the balls and they'd go on fire all the time. And was it a bit more arcadey?

SPEAKER_06 3:26

No, this was arcadey, but I don't think it was down them levels. What I always remember this was used to start, right? This was EA, and you'd start, and that'd have a vintage golf video at the start, and that'd say, Oh, this is how we used to play golf with plus fours and blah blah blah, and then we go, That's not how we do it, and then you got Tiger Woods smashing it down a fair way, and you know, and they try and make they try and make golf really cool. And but I remember actually because if you'd gone from sort of actual golf or the earlier PGA games, and you come to this, this actually looked really good on original PlayStation. And it I mean, me and you in the last few years have played actual golf. I mean, you need reactions of a sniper to try and hit that ball correctly because of that goes, but on this, it was slowed down a bit more. You had sort of a top-down view of Tiger and he swang like uh swung, swang, swung, swung. Let me club.

SPEAKER_04 4:21

I think you swing RGT, but you sw he swung. I swung, swung, and swing.

SPEAKER_06 4:27

Um and I but I just remember going from actual golf to going to this thinking, oh, this does look very good compared to that. This actually looks really decent golf game, and it it it sort of simplified controls a bit more, but actually improved graphics.

SPEAKER_04 4:43

Did you not set the ball on fire if you got it perfect?

SPEAKER_06 4:46

Maybe. I mean, I remember that in the PS2.

SPEAKER_04 4:48

I just remember coming to it from two I had 2004 on the PS2, I think, and I was like, well, yes, it's proper big boss simulation golf. I'm um a proper gamer, look at me. So I got it for the PS1 for while I was away, and I I distinctly remember loading up a tiger was being oh my god.

SPEAKER_06 5:03

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was different. And I'd uh the only time I remember the ball being on fire, I mean you might be right. I can remember it with everybody's golf, used to be able to do that, and used to do the backspin that used to leave a scorch mark.

SPEAKER_04 5:16

Maybe maybe as as I have done recently, I might have misremembered it because I've gone away and sat down and uh thought, What did I and I've Google gone no, that didn't happen.

SPEAKER_06 5:28

But this is sort of I think from that generation, one of the sort of first golf games I really remember how actually I you can really play this, whereas the other ones were just uh you'd have the odd round here and there because they were a bit complicated, a bit of a laugh, as this one you could actually think, oh hang on, I can go around under par on here, I can actually do a good score. Um, and that was the first time I then because after then I was always buying the Tiger Woods games. I don't know if I bought them yearly, but I bought them regularly enough.

SPEAKER_04 5:56

Um another one that was a shot in the arm it needed.

Future Cop LAPD And Collecting Prices

SPEAKER_06 6:00

Yes, definitely, definitely. And they did, you know, for love them or hate them EA, there were certain franchises they did take and make popular and make them playable, and you know, golf being one of them, they really took it to another level, I think, with the golf games. Um another one I was looking at on here, which now I thought I had, but I couldn't see in my collection. Um, which I hope I have still got in storage because it's quite an expensive game now, which it wasn't when I bought it. Sure, sure. That was Future Cop LAPD. Um where's that on the list? Uh is on there somewhere, I think. Well have I imagined that I'm sure it is. Oh, it's Future Cop LAPD. August 31st, 1998. Um I've got it and I I've seen loads of videos on this, and it's always looked good. That sort of isometric um top-down view. Um it was an EA game again, um, so they done really well with that. Um and I always remember I don't know why, it was I'm sure I remember it being around the same time as Colony Wars and that sort of thing, and that was that setting 2098, and you had sort of a mech that could uh either put it in chase, you could put it in chase mode or you could put it in like combat mode, right? Still looks really good graphically for the genre, really, really good game. Um, but like I say, it surprised me because I always thought I had it. I haven't got it on the shelves. I think I've got a I must have it in storage somewhere, but then I just checked on CX and it goes sort of 65 quid on there. Does it really? It does, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:43

It's a good job you told me it was a good game. I sort of snipe me with the quality holds now, you know, there's no respect.

SPEAKER_06 7:48

I'm sure you must have that, and yeah. I think that's a bit of a story.

Rainbow Six On N64 Compromises

SPEAKER_04 7:52

I don't think I have, to be honest. I only pick up PS1 games that I have like nostalgia for. Like I grabbed Transport Tycoon the other day, because I thought, yeah, I ain't got that on anything, and I I quite like the fact that you can have like boats, trains, trucks. That's cool. Some other form of transport I've obviously forgotten. Um no, so I don't have that. One thing I did have at the time, and I think you maybe had it because I think everybody had it at that at some point in time, sort of wanting a militaristic shooter of some kind, is Rainbow Six, Tom Cluncy's Rainbow Six. Now I had what can only be described as it wasn't the PC version. No, that would make sense, wouldn't it? No. No, I had the N64 version with the expansion pack.

SPEAKER_06 8:39

And on a I didn't realise that was on the N64.

SPEAKER_04 8:42

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 8:43

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 8:44

Oh yeah, it's stripped there, but it's there.

SPEAKER_06 8:48

Because I think um it was quite groundbreaking, weren't it, the Tom Clancy's Rover 6 games at the time. I think they'd done something a bit different, didn't they? Did you control your squad or something?

Snooker Physics And Simulation Nostalgia

SPEAKER_04 8:56

And I can't really remember it. It was one of those games that I think I maybe picked up right towards the end. I remember cousin Matthew had this. Um, and with with the expansion pack, it didn't look half bad, but there was like times where if you had like night vision goggles on, uh, I think there was a lamp with a load of mozzies buzzing round it that you looked at, and it looked, you could convince yourself. Obviously, night vision is the cover of many sins, um, that this was a pretty sexy-looking game. It certainly made you feel like your expansion pack was uh worth it, kind of, maybe. Um, but I can't remember the shooting being terribly amazing, to be honest with you. The whole game felt a bit of a compromise getting it on there. Um, in terms of other things, there's Jimmy White's cue ball. I don't know what format that's on. I think you said let's not, but it must have come out on something at this point.

SPEAKER_06 9:55

Yeah, I think at most, especially over here, it was about 99 it came out, so I know it came out on Dreamcast.

SPEAKER_04 10:00

I played I think it probably came out on PC before. Maybe don't forget the Dreamcast was a it was a big PC port machine. It was um and I I quite enjoyed that game, found it uh pretty decent round of snooker. I always you know what I want though, don't you? If I'm honest with you. I don't know if this is the actual sequel to the OG or whether there was another one that this is a sequel to, but the one that was on Atari ST in Amiga, Whirlwind, Jimmy White's Whirlwind.

SPEAKER_06 10:35

I played that to death on my Amiga. What a great game that was.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Let's give it its props.

SPEAKER_04 10:41

I'm sure we'll do it one day. But if we're gonna bring up this guy and we're gonna talk about Snooker game, we have to talk about the NG. That moment when someone in the school said to me, Oh, if you don't like do anything with the balls, like the Red Bulls, like like do a little funny face at you, and I was like, No, no, they don't. It's a simulation game, that wouldn't happen in the night. That's that's ridiculous. Go home playing the Jimmy Wise, a pirate man. I had, yeah, yeah. I don't mind sailing the seven C's back in the day. I do now, but back then, always Jolly Roger, my friend, and I thought, no, alright, I'll prove him, I'll show him, left the mouse alone within seconds. Alright, it does it. But that game, mate, the way you position the shots, the way you have to chalk the queue, I think, from memory.

SPEAKER_06 11:40

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Add the spin.

SPEAKER_04 11:42

Add the spin, gauge the shots, the way the ball's shot. I quite liked that it was in, and this improved on the later versions, this cue ball one that they that we should be talking about. You know, they gave you a like a room to play it in. This one, I don't know what it's like on Amiga, but on Atari ST, it was just literally this snooker table just floating in the black abyss of nowhere.

SPEAKER_06 12:04

Yeah, I think yeah, it was, and I think it was just because they were doing that sort of sudo 3D, it was just too much to put a room around it. Yeah, and the physics was absolutely brilliant. Because we I was right into Snooker and Paul at the time, so me and my mates ahead of me because we all had this, and we used to play this to death whirlwind. It was just, you know, because we were like, oh, this is so realistic, you know, nothing's not gonna get any better than this, you know, seeing that 3D world, a bit like when you played Drift Cramon's F1, you know, just that 3D world being brought to you on your computer, oh Mega Drive in doing this, you know. That was that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_04 12:39

Well, there were a few games that I sort of had, like that I used to sort of sit the box, the boxes are fabulous. There was Did I have Jimmy White's in the end? I need to check in the loft. Maybe I did have a copy of it, I don't know. Maybe I did. But like F1, that's like the pinnacle. That's not being better on anything else, and I'd have that on my shelf or something. Yeah, F19, that's a pinnacle, that's not really being better anywhere else. Jimmy White's that's the pinnacle, that's not really being better anywhere else. And you had these like, and this is this is where I now in retro, this is like counselling flashback for me. Silent strike, box perfect, nothing better. Is this why I'm a simulation weirdo now as an adult? Is this why I'd lean to and look for these games that have like the simulation edge to them, like E Voyager?

SPEAKER_06 13:31

You always found back in the day the simulation games, if you went for sort of the flying games, some of them were so overcomplicated as too hard to do. But then you really wanted that realism. There is nowadays on modern consoles, they can sort of give you that like Microsoft flight simulator. So you get the simulation, yeah, and it's doable, but you don't need to have uh you know uh uh plane license to actually do it. But as in the day, I mean I remember my my brother-in-law was telling me a story the other day, I know I'm going a bit off piece, but he had Commodore 64 and he his dad actually built uh his dad used to love the flight simulators, and he built a full cockpit out of cardboard with the windows, he'd made his own for the keyboard, everything marked up, and there he goes, transatlantic flight on his Commodore 64, where he went, you know, as his cardboard proper cockpit.

SPEAKER_04 14:20

And he had a wife.

SPEAKER_06 14:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:23

So he made that for his kid, or the dad made that for himself.

SPEAKER_06 14:26

Oh no, for himself. I think I think my uh brother-in-law is probably the co-pilot. So uh you know you had to be well into the flight sims of the time in the simulation games to be into them, so I think that's probably why you uh you liked simulations back in the day, and now you're all over them now, you know, you're the ten of the game.

SPEAKER_04 14:48

Thing is, I wouldn't I wouldn't go out there, I wouldn't look for anything heavier than Microsoft Flight Simulator if I'm honest with you. I wouldn't, and I still have sort of resisted downloading that because I'm kind of waiting for that VR pop. Um I wouldn't, you know, U-boats the closest I've come. But then again, I'm playing farming simulator all the time. Can't talk about that on the main show, so I'm bringing it here, can't really talk about it here. We'll move on. What other games?

Spyro And The 3D Platformer Wars

SPEAKER_06 15:15

Um I was also looking at um Spyro um Insomniac. I mean, what a great game that was, and I mean, even you know, I was um sort of 20 years old, just over 20 years old at this time, coming up for the 21st. So, you know, Spyro wasn't a cool game to play, but then when I actually did play it, I thought this is brilliant. 3D platformer, different using a dragon, bit of a collectorphon, just a really well-made platformer game. And yes, there was quite a few of them out at the time, but I think you know, the ones like Spyro, the ones that really stuck, you know, it had Mario 64 as well on the N64, but there were certain games you just thought, yeah, that's been made really well, you know, great quality to the game and the coding. And I always thought Spyro was one of them that you could see why ended up having the trilogy and spin-offs on handhelds and bits, but great game. Obviously, then had to remaster later down the line, but yeah, brilliant games. Um did you ever play Spyro back in the day or were you later to it?

SPEAKER_04 16:17

No, I didn't play Spyro back in the day. I think um, as I professed, I was deep in the N64 kind of ecosystem, so I was kind of probably still deep on. I think we talked off there, I'd have been playing like 1080, GoldenEye, Mario WCW game, probably something along those lines. I was probably playing a lot of WWF if it had come out by now, Attitude. Uh or RAW is war is the first one, is it? Yeah, that's it. I might have been playing a lot of that. I'd been really poorly actually at this time, and I've got an N64 as I was in like my I'd been that poorly, I hadn't gamed. I'd already sold my I think we've talked about in a flashback a few ago, I'd sold my PlayStation 1 to get a money for a lad's holiday very in between us, and then I hadn't replaced that until I got poorly, and as I was sort of coalescing and um able to sort of sit up a bit more, I um I got hold of an N64 and I was like I was playing catch-up, I was like, oh wow, this is great, you know. I've got these games and I had a like a glut of games to play on it, uh, and then obviously these games kept coming out, so I was like fat dumb and happy to be fair, mate. Yeah, uh a little bit sore, didn't really know what I was kind of getting really at the time, but I just kind of went in and thought, well, I just know it's back in the day, this'll do. Uh it's the most powerful thing because it says 64 on the front, so hopefully this won't get superseded or have me laughed at. Hmm, yeah, both. That's cool.

SPEAKER_06 17:59

Well, I think even now, like Spyro, I mean, like we said before that the the Mega Drive Super Nintendo generation who who've had to disposable income is fading away. The people on the PS1s N64s are coming into it. I mean, Spyro now is a 20-25 pound game.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Is it really?

SPEAKER_06 18:16

Yeah, and you think there's probably millions of copies of that about, but it just is that's just the way it's going now.

SPEAKER_04 18:22

I bet there's loads, I bet there's even more platinum copies of that about.

SPEAKER_06 18:25

More than likely, yeah, without doubt, more than likely. Um, but yeah, Spyro is just a great series, and you know, that's when you could really see the the early signs of Insomniac, and they knew really what they were doing when they got a system, they knew that. Yeah, I better do that.

SPEAKER_04 18:39

That's something you make a good point there, because look, they kind of built Spyro and then look look where they are now, and some would probably get be angry with me for this. But on the other side of the fence, I was playing things like Banjo Kazooie, and then in the end, finally Donkey Kong 64, which I did see as a better product. I did kind of look down my nose at kind of Spyro and Crash a little bit because it was a bit like look at that, you know, all its warping textures and blah blah blah. And yeah, I've got my expansion pack in, I'm a big boy, look at me. And ultimately, rare of kind of they've had moments, haven't they? That team is no longer there, really, anymore.

SPEAKER_06 19:18

So just in name in it nowadays, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:20

So it's interesting to see the kind of trajectory of those two companies, both bought by two competing contour manufacturers.

SPEAKER_06 19:28

Very true, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:28

Yeah, both stabled up to work on their kind of nostalgia heritage angle a little bit and then try and bring something forward into the new era, which they both did and attempted. Um, but rare kind of yeah, you see a thieves, awesome, grandpa the gauli is a personal favourite of mine, but probably nobody else. Uh Viva Pinata was a high point, but they've not really pushed the needle that much. Whereas in Somnet, I I think you could argue they're pushing the needle. Correct me if I'm wrong.

SPEAKER_06 20:04

Definitely. I mean, you think the hits they've had um have had some big games and then trusted with big games as well, and trusted with big IPs. So um, yeah, Rare was I don't know, it seemed to be weird. They sort of the the I think the core of them was gone, and then they sort of spent years doing CFEs, which struggled for the first few years, but now it's quite popular, and that's all a bit mismatched where they kind of got stripped out and became a little bit of a skunk works, kind of a Peter Molyneux toy for a while, didn't they?

SPEAKER_04 20:33

Where the oh Milo look out and then it's like well no, and then yeah, and then pay one no, and all these ideas that never really came to uh to a lot.

SPEAKER_06 20:43

So and the shame really, you know, I think it was originally the uh was it the Stamper brothers had rare, started as Ultimate played a game on the spectrum and then, you know, like I say, I just tarred them up with that connect garbage, so I do apologise, that wasn't there. But um no, but I mean they came adrift.

SPEAKER_04 21:01

They were like that.

SPEAKER_06 21:02

I think they they sold it for Xbox and went we're we're done, you know.

SPEAKER_04 21:07

And what did they do? They made didn't they design the avatars as well as soon as they kind of got their hands on what was left of rare? They had them working uh their socks off, kind of doing back room stuff, and it's like wow, how the mighty have fallen in a way, you know. Now they're designing t-shirts at avatars, like what the what the frick?

SPEAKER_06 21:23

Yeah, from games like Goldeneye and things like that.

SPEAKER_04 21:25

And we want a game, we don't want more avatar hairstyles from rare, we want to see something pumping out. Um yeah, oh we got uh didn't we get Banjo Kazooie nuts and bolts on 360 as well?

SPEAKER_06 21:38

Banjo, yeah, there was Banjo Tui, weren't it? Was it called Banjo Tui, or was that on N64?

SPEAKER_04 21:42

That was on N64, Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts. Um, but yeah, so treated by Microsoft like a little bit of Skunkworks and and and really bit of an admin type kind of team in a way, which I thought was a bit of a mismatch.

SPEAKER_06 21:55

Yeah, it seems though you've you'd you'd sort of buy a well, we're sitting up recently actually, but you think if Buying a very successful development studio, you'd have a plan for it in place before you bought them, but that's not really worked with all of well, apart from Nintendo. Sony and Microsoft have late have uh been quite good at Pan Studio.

SPEAKER_04 22:12

When you buy someone or a business, you normally insist that the people stay for a transition period. Now I'm sure Microsoft probably even in this era were savvy enough to do that, but uh yeah, they they left uh you know how we got here from Spyro, I don't know, my bad. Um I've retrospectively played Spyro and found it to be um to me on PS1, probably the best 3D platformer, if I'm being honest. It's the one that gives you the most freedom of movement into the level.

SPEAKER_06 22:48

People say crash, but obviously crash is you fix behind camera or camera from the front, whereas Spyro done that more sort of open world, not open world, but open map kind of thing.

SPEAKER_04 23:00

Explore more yeah, by crash three things are starting to free up a little bit, but it still feels very tied to that original uh incarnation of what Crash is, whereas Spyro very much felt like a a really good stab at no disrespect intended, an N64 style 3D platformer, which I think is actually what it was aspiring to be able to bring across to the PlayStation gamers.

House Of The Dead Arcade Dreams

SPEAKER_06 23:27

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Um, also now the arcade version of House of the Dead 2 was out. Now I I think I remember playing this in the arcade, thinking, oh, that would be when I heard that's coming to Dreamcast the next year. I thought, oh, can you imagine having this? And yeah, I never did end up getting a Dreamcast first time round. Now I have got it with the gun and the game. Absolutely brilliant. Um, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_04 23:51

The House of the Dad do you use, the official Dreamcast gun?

SPEAKER_06 23:54

Yes, yes, that real sort of galactic looking.

SPEAKER_04 23:57

The white one.

SPEAKER_06 23:58

Yeah, yeah, good gun, actually, really nice gun.

SPEAKER_04 24:01

Um what I like is I think you had to put the rumble pack in it to get the rumble, didn't you? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:07

Yeah. Yeah, it's brilliant. Um and I just think the House of the Dead series were uh doing, you know, that sort of zombie shooter that no one else really seemed to have been doing. I mean, I know.

SPEAKER_04 24:19

Yeah, it was like a Shocky B movie style, wasn't it? Yeah, it was quite cool.

SPEAKER_06 24:24

And we we spoke about this the other week, you know, Resident Evil, they done the Survivor games where you had a gun and that, but it just wasn't House of the Dead. House of the Dead had a s almost own genre, and I still think maybe my favourite light gun shooters to this day. I just think they're brilliant. I mean, they've got the gore, they still hold up. I mean, we go sometimes to a retro arcade near us and they've got a House of the Dead machine.

SPEAKER_04 24:49

Nostalgia will always discredit me by saying that I think Die Hard 2 die out of the Die Hard trilogy is the best light gun game ever. But do you know what? When I put my big boy head on, you're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_06 25:02

And I know this is going off piece a bit. I spoke about it before, but we played the House of the Dead director's cut on the Pierce 3 with the move and the move guns on a projector, 100 inch. I mean, what an experience! Absolutely brilliant. Few mates standing up, clear the living room, playing on a big screen. I mean, that is bringing the arcade home and it plays so well. And even the dream, the dream card. Well, it is, it is you you think how how you know you got an HD projector and that plays so well.

SPEAKER_03 25:30

That's bringing the arcade home, baby.

SPEAKER_06 25:32

It is, it is. That would have been young RGT would have been dreaming of that. So uh yeah, I was very excited. But yeah, hey, so dead two great game.

SPEAKER_03 25:40

Slides over in a bar. Ever played House of the Dead 2 on a hundred inch screen. Slap.

Parasite Eve PAL Confusion

SPEAKER_06 25:46

Drink up, you're pulled. You've already been slapped. Um I also see on here um turn around to the boy's thumb up. I'll come in here. One lens out of my glasses. Um I also see on here Parasite Eve. No, I've never I've never played Parasite Eve.

SPEAKER_04 26:12

Um I think can you get even get the first one over here?

SPEAKER_06 26:17

Not sure.

SPEAKER_04 26:18

Um I don't think you can. I think the first Parasite Eve we were able to actually get as PAL users was Parasite Eve 2. I think then that got a follow-up in Power Territory to the PSP game called Is it Third Birthday?

SPEAKER_06 26:34

I think Am I dreaming this? No, I think you are correct. That is just rung a bell with me. I think you might be correct on that. Yes, you are correct, it was North American Japan, Parasite Eve came out. Um I never played the second one either, but I think that was a tank control sort of survival horror, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_04 26:49

Yeah, I think from memory it was. Resident Evil same on PSP.

SPEAKER_06 26:55

Yes, yes, because yeah, the PSP version. Um always been quite interesting though, with that they've obviously would you go as far to say Resident Evil clone?

SPEAKER_04 27:04

Uh or do you think they've I suppose tank controls was sort of I think you could call it survival horror without calling it a clone of anything if you want to fit it into a genre, I suppose.

SPEAKER_06 27:15

Yeah, I suppose it that they'd seen the success of Resident Evil and and try their own hand at it. Um but obviously I know people speak hardly of it. Like I said, I never never really played it myself, but um anything else.

SPEAKER_04 27:28

Do you want me to give it a whirl on behalf of the show?

SPEAKER_06 27:30

Have you got it?

SPEAKER_04 27:31

Have you uh might have the sequel? I've probably probably got the one on PSP because you know what I'm like for a box set on there. I've seen it cheap along the time, so I'll have a little look.

SPEAKER_06 27:46

Have a little look, see what you got. Um is anything.

SPEAKER_04 27:49

I've totally forgotten, by the way, everything that I've got. I keep stumbling across things and being like I do the complete opposite.

SPEAKER_06 27:55

I do. I've got that, I'll get it off a shelf, not there. Hmm. I still thought I've got stuff in the street.

SPEAKER_04 28:02

Although I did that the other day. I went on a hunt for what, prey.

SPEAKER_06 28:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:07

Mm-hmm. Went on a hunt for psychonauts.

unknown 28:12

Not there.

SPEAKER_04 28:12

Found an old list on my phone. Yep, it did say I needed to buy that. I obviously never did. I obviously never did. Let me remedy it immediately.

SPEAKER_06 28:22

Is there anything else on there you want to speak about there, George?

SPEAKER_04 28:25

Uh no, I think that's uh like I say, as we finish, as we go through, uh there's a section in the news that I think will be my news actually, depending on how we go in this. Uh I don't know whether it's news or or what, but um there's plenty for me to talk about there, if that's the news. I think we're just generally a little schmishing around on that one. Yeah. Go for it, mate. Yeah, take us there.

September 1998 Gaming News

SPEAKER_06 28:49

Right. Well, uh, that's now time for the news. We scoured the very darkest back pages of the game and mags and even delved deep into the interweb to bring you what was the latest stories in September 1998. All stories this week are from EVGM. So, first up, do you want me to read this one? Or do you I better read this one because as you can tell he's laughing everything?

SPEAKER_04 29:12

No, I just I was looking through a gaming mag from 98 myself the other day. It was an early copy of the PlayStation magazine. And I I only laughed because you said the very back, the very darkish back pages of the gaming mags, and as I was flicking through this mag.

SPEAKER_06 29:28

Oh no, I can imagine what was in there.

SPEAKER_04 29:31

In the last few pages, it was like, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 29:41

There was some there was a lot of phone numbers in there that you could read, put it that way. And reintained we've had to scan through those. Yeah. We've done some work, boy. There was definitely some dark pages. I see why you were laughing there. Um, because yeah, researching this show, mmm, I've seen it all in the pages in magazines.

SPEAKER_04 30:02

I've never seen Joe Guest in so many different different ones as different people, like bored housewife of the next one, like 18-year-old. You're like, Joe Guest, 18, like down here somewhere else. There's a page of Joe Guest as all these different people in all these different scenarios. Oh, she's got a shirt off her shoulder. Oh yeah, holding a phone. Yeah, what's up?

SPEAKER_06 30:23

Lying on a fur rug, of course she is, yeah. 199 the first minute, then 1999 every minute after that.

SPEAKER_04 30:29

99.99.

Tomb Raider Movie Hype Begins

SPEAKER_06 30:34

Anyway, first story is Lara Croft set to hit the big screen in '99. Um, she's a hit on the small screen. Some game players idolise and worship her, didn't they just? She's been on scores of magazine covers. She's not real. Yet, if you ask the average person who Lara Croft is, they probably wouldn't know. That is until next summer, when Paramount releases the Tomb Raider movie. While the role of everyone's favourite buxom polygonal babe hasn't been cast yet, Paramount has already begun promoting the movie which is scheduled to hit theatres summer 1999. Hope it doesn't open on the same weekend as episode one of Star Wars. That'll be a losing battle. The posters which started appearing on the web and in movie theatres in June ask the question who is Lara Croft? Of course, we'd all like to know which actress will be playing her for fans. The casting of Lara will make or break the movie. Sites like The Croft Times are following the movie closely, and so are we. Keep your eyes glued to videogames.com and future issues of EGM, and we'll report report it the middle uh the minute we know. The Tomb Raider movie is just the first of a series of movies based on video games that include Doom, Wing Commander, and the recently announced House of the Dead. Um got a little picture there of Nell McCandrew, if you remember her, is the new face of Lara Croft for now. Um but yeah, so she was doing movie posters, but obviously it ended up, as we all know, being Angelina Jolie in the movies. Um yeah, it's a weird one because this that is at that time, unless you're a gamer, you wouldn't know who Lara Croft was. And reading this, I suddenly thought, God, yeah, I suppose that would have been uh sort of one of them early times where not many games were transferred to movies at the time. Um and obviously had Chris Barry in as well in the series, but he carries that movie, dude.

SPEAKER_04 32:46

Without him, that movie would be dead.

SPEAKER_06 32:48

Yes. I mean, you go back to watch because it was did he did they do three um Angelina Jolie and Chris Barry? Was it three movies they'd done? I think it was, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_04 32:59

Mate, I've just gone on a deep dive. I'm sorry to let you down.

SPEAKER_06 33:02

I know I thought you'd I thought I'd lost you there when I was reading the story.

SPEAKER_04 33:05

I wanted to see what was left of the Croft Times. What a strange time in the internet in 1998 when someone probably made this website in their bedroom and it became probably one of the most looked at websites. Closest thing I can find right now is to some dude professing to be the Croft Times on Facebook, so he's obviously got bored of trying to keep his website funded and he's moved it over to facey B with 164 likes. He's pushing the upper limit of what it's all about. Uh apparently some sort of Tomb Raider forums mention it there. I love that it's been cited as the hallmark of all knowledge because Lara Croft at this time was everywhere, mate, wasn't she? I think we said it before, she was on your Lucasave bowl, she's lying on a poster, she was in Loaded Magazine. Getting a movie was big time. What we got was a shame. I think I think, in all honesty, people like Nell McCandrew kind of knew that they were never going to be in line to play it in a big movie. But yeah, it's nice to see this getting some headlines. I don't know when it came out, but I don't think it competed with Star Wars, did it? Did it?

SPEAKER_06 34:18

Did it know? I I mean I I can't remember if it was the first movie or second movie, but where they lost it for me was where she was deep down in the sea, lost the scuba gear, which was like, well, you're gonna get the bends anyway if you're coming up that quick, but that didn't apply. And then she needed to get the surface quick, so she cuts her arm, waits for a shark to smell the blood, and as it comes, she does a quick manoeuvre, holds its fin, and rides it to the surface. And I'm like, right, I'm out, I'm out.

SPEAKER_04 34:46

I haven't you ever done that.

SPEAKER_06 34:48

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just down on the Suffolk coast, quite often grab a Dover Sole and drag myself back in.

SPEAKER_04 34:58

I was gonna go on a mad tail, but yeah, no, you're right. That's even better. Yeah, and I was just like, mmm, yeah. Having ridden the Dover Soul yourself, though, why did you think it's so unrealistic that she would ride a shark?

SPEAKER_06 35:14

Um I it was just so stupid. And the problem is these early video game movies took the actual how unrealistic video games are and put them straight into films. There's no sort of, you know, you need to have a little bit of uh realistic stuff in there because it doesn't translate very well. They literally just took actions from games, put it straight into the movies, and then you just end up people who didn't know who Lara Croft was watch as a Tomb Raider movie and go, What the hell is this?

SPEAKER_04 35:46

I came for dinosaurs, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 35:48

Yeah, you want the T-Rex chasing you or shooting it with double handguns. Um that would work. But I'm sh I've got a funny inkling that I went to the cinema to watch this. I'm sure I went to the cinema at least one of them I went to see. Um was this a date scenario, do you think? Or oh god, no, I'd have been on my own.

SPEAKER_04 36:14

Have you? You've been to the cinema. I've never been to the cinema on my own. It's not I ain't got a problem with it, I've just never done it. And I want to know in your life twice.

SPEAKER_06 36:23

Twice, and this was one of them. And the other one I went to see Grand Trino with Clint Eastwood, there you go.

SPEAKER_04 36:30

What moments arise where you're like, mmm, I'm off to see Lara Croft to the But I'm gonna do it on my own.

SPEAKER_06 36:39

I mean that's it. I think people called off, so I went anyway, because the cinema's just down the road from me, so it's only a two-minute walk. So are you okay? Just a run ticket, please. Lee Evans line.

SPEAKER_04 36:55

Um what about Gran Sorino? Because you brought it to the table, let's look at it.

SPEAKER_06 36:59

Um I was on a training course um in Ipswich and my wife was working until half five. The train course finished at two, so I needed something to do. So I wandered to the cinema and watched a film Man About Town taking a highbrow film. Yes, so what a great film that was brilliant. But um yeah, so did you watch this back in the day, or did this something you saw later on?

SPEAKER_04 37:23

It was a film that uh sadly I kind of zoned out to because it was a film that was always on rotation. Uh I was in the Navy, and that was a film that for some reason was always uh a coaster on the mess deck table. It was the DVD that was slotted down the side of the TV, it was always in the machine because there was nothing else on, and I kind of just watched through it. There are a few bits in it that was like, Whoa, wow, that looked cool. Now, many years later, I thought, I'll give that two-made a movie a go off. I've never actually watched it to be fair. Maybe it's alright. Thank God for Chris Barry. Yeah, love that guy, glad he got some Hollywood recognition by being in a semi-big movie by some level of a standard. Do you know what? He meets and exceeds what you expect from him in terms of that movie, and he he does look a bit small for it at times, I think. He does, um, but at other times, coming in with the this prove but this proves both my points. Coming in with the um bulletproof vest on that's a bit of a struggle for in both ways. But do you know what? He gets a laugh and I like it, so yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's probably in two now after all this. Yeah, yeah, it was a strange time with with you know with the I recently watched Resident Evil to be fair, um, the first movie. Which is better, this Resident Evil Tomb Raider, because it's a hard line to call that is. And it's not aging that well.

SPEAKER_06 39:18

No. They were and not so I just don't think they knew how to make video games into movies at the times. I mean they still struggle nowadays because it's what what we play on games doesn't always translate to the big screen very well. And we did a show about this.

SPEAKER_04 39:34

Two shows.

SPEAKER_06 39:36

Yeah. So uh don't talk about that.

SPEAKER_04 39:40

No, I won't. No, no, you can't talk about that. No, I don't I don't. I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 39:44

Unofficial Troller Podcast. There you go. Drop it in there. Look on the back catalogue, download them all, please. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 39:49

Well, actually, that's one of the ones that we did with Harvey Retro, who and and and Johan and Greg, who are actually you know proper film buffs. They actually know what they're talking about.

SPEAKER_06 40:00

Yeah, yeah, very true.

SPEAKER_04 40:02

And and they're gamer, gamer, proper gamer people.

SPEAKER_06 40:04

Mm-hmm. They definitely are. And Johan and Harvey are currently playing Resident Evil Requiem as well. I keep seeing that. Yeah. Brilliant. I love watching them play the game. Um, but yeah, so Tim Raider, interesting, interesting thing they tried to do. I think they got the PlayStation was then becoming successful, you know. It wasn't just nerds in the bedrooms with consoles, it was getting bigger and it was in nightclubs, PlayStation, wipe out. So they're trying to make cash in on a success, and I'm not sure the movie was it was emerging cool.

SPEAKER_04 40:38

I think Tomb Raider Lara Croft, maybe you could argue more essentially, had like reached this kind of critical cultural mass where even your dad would know who she was.

SPEAKER_06 40:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:51

So it's time to do a movie.

SPEAKER_06 40:53

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 40:54

Yeah, yeah, cash in on it and let's get in now, because no one else has done it before someone else does.

SPEAKER_06 40:59

Yeah.

unknown 41:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:00

You ready for your next bit of news?

SPEAKER_06 41:02

Yeah, what we got next to George.

GoldenEye Awards And N64 Dominance

SPEAKER_04 41:03

So these are all from EVGM. So this one's called Honored. A load of people were standing holding something or other. Rares GoldenEye received four awards at the first interactive achievement award ceremony held in Atlanta during E3. The game took interactive title of the year, console game of the year, action game of the year, console, and outstanding achievement in software engineering. Other winners included Final Fantasy VII, Adventure Game of the Year, and Role Playing Game. Uh, WCW vs NWO World Tour, N64, Fighting Game of the Year, damn straight. Now, this is an award I can get right behind. Um International Superstar Soccer, Sports Game of the Year, and Parappa the Rapper Outstanding Achievement in Sound and Music, and Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Design. Powerful. As reported last month, Shigeru Miyamoto won the Hall of Fame Award. Boom, so much. So much going on.

SPEAKER_06 42:00

Diddy Kong Racing got racing game of the year. Which is uh Where's that? Diddy Kong Racing is straight after uh the walk. That's the best cart racer on the system, so um it is, it is.

SPEAKER_04 42:17

But it's not the best racer.

SPEAKER_06 42:19

No, but it's the best kart racing. It's better than Mario Kart 64.

SPEAKER_04 42:24

Okay, is that a fact or is that just your opinion?

SPEAKER_06 42:27

In my opinion, I think it's quite a lot of people's opinion actually. Diddy Kong Racing's a very, very good game, and you've got planes and boats, and you've got a little career mode in it as well. So get on that Diddy Kong. No, I've now said that, it's probably about 300 quid to buy Diddy Kong.

SPEAKER_00 42:40

No, it's not, surely that's 50 P card only.

SPEAKER_06 42:44

I've got a look dumb. People don't want it. I added this in with um the era UN64. Goldeneye, we've got a challenge on at the moment on our challenge, except that this month on the city is garbage at that on the Fish Controller Podcast um Discord and check out.

SPEAKER_04 43:00

I play Goldeneye, I sneak slowly. Hours minuscule in compassion.

SPEAKER_06 43:05

It's three hours because the challenge is you've got to do the first level as quick as you can. I think currently the top one is about one minute eight, something like that, which is actually quick because I think the world record is like 50 odd seconds, so they're doing well, LaBoys, on that. So if you want to check it out, if you're good at Goldeneye, jump on our Discord, have you got our challenge accepted? But that's why I added this in because you could see how you know everyone says now, oh, you know, Goldeneye is one of the best N64 games, blah blah blah. But you can see here how good that game actually was at the time. I mean, four awards, um um, what did they get?

SPEAKER_04 43:39

A god uh best action game for one, which I think is a great thing because it's an FPS to be fair.

SPEAKER_06 43:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:46

So to pull up with that accolade, and I know a lot of games presented themselves like that at the time, but you know, it's beating out your traditional sort of more third person games. I think that's a bold a bold move, and it's a good win. And I think it's deserved. That game turned up looking a million dollars, no word of a lie. Yeah. Definitely looking like something that couldn't have happened on the PlayStation. And that's a fact. And that's why it shifted consoles and it moved the needle for it for Nintendo. In the UK, I I can definitely say it did. Um, the golden joystick had a little bit of kind of buzz to it, didn't it? And and then as to the other winners in here, I mean Final Fantasy 7, it goes without saying, Oh, it won adventure game of the year. So, what did this win? Action game of the year. There you go.

SPEAKER_06 44:32

Okay, as I say, a lot of MC4 on here as well, which for two right this was like the PlayStation dominated.

SPEAKER_04 44:39

This was my kind of era, and I really felt like it was in full swing at this moment. WCW vs NWO World Tour, I absolutely loved that game. Played the absolute wheels off of it. Yeah, it had a better sequel, but at the time that's all I knew, and I loved it. I think I played uh WC vs NWO Revenge, which was like the full fat version, but World Tour, I think, was the OG. I learned my craft on that game. So when I first got it home, I was annoyed I couldn't play it. It was I didn't know what to do. It was so I put it on easy and then just played it over and over again, looking at the buttons and working it out. Like, how do you play this game? Like, how do you do this? I punch, okay, that's punch, punch, punch, hold it down. Oh, I hold it down. You didn't do a harder one, okay. Right, okay. Grapple. Oh, I just did a little, but why? I want to do a suplex, hold it down and then do it. And I kind of learnt it with this aggression of like hold it down and then do the move. And it kind of all felt much more because the comparison was you were playing games like um WWF, and this is what bugged me because I love the WWF or WWE at the time. Attitude was like Mortal Kombat. When you got went to put someone in the headlock, it was like down, left, right, up, down, left, right, circle X, BAM, and it was like that's not how you do a DDT. Whereas this really felt like you were kind of more connected to it, felt more visceral, it was quicker, easier to play, admittedly, um, but still great. Diddy Kong Racing I railed on a little bit just because it was like I see it everywhere. It doesn't mean it's not a great game, it's just I'm sick of people talking about it.

SPEAKER_06 46:23

Another rare game as well.

SPEAKER_04 46:25

Oh, it they carried the N64 like an absolute brute, dude.

SPEAKER_06 46:31

Perfect dark, didn't they? Goldeneye.

SPEAKER_04 46:33

Perfect dark, golden eye, Banjo Kazooie 1 and 2, Jet Force Gemini, one of my absolute favourites, absolute favourites. Yeah. I'm sure there's a couple more that I've forgotten.

SPEAKER_06 46:44

God, they did, didn't they? They had no idea. They were beasts.

SPEAKER_04 46:47

And you knew when you saw that logo, Donkey Kong 64, How Dare I Forget? As soon as you saw that logo fire up, you knew whatever it was was gonna be good.

SPEAKER_06 47:02

You can see why Microsoft bought them, can't you?

SPEAKER_04 47:05

You can understand it. They kind of got their wings clipped in the GameCube era, so kind of Microsoft kind of bought a bit of a flapless dog, but it's been a rumour at the time they actually tried to buy Nintendo, didn't they? That's been proven to be a true story, is it not?

SPEAKER_06 47:20

Yeah, I think so. So whether that was the because that didn't go through and then they bought rare instead is if to say, right, well, we can't buy you, we'll have your best studio. But you never know.

SPEAKER_04 47:29

But yeah, yeah, they're about done anyway, guys. Take them.

SPEAKER_06 47:32

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we're just absolutely worked them to the bone on the M64.

SPEAKER_02 47:37

Make sure you pay as much as you can, yeah. Real st real stumble on it, yeah, choke on it, yeah. Shoo it.

SPEAKER_06 47:43

But yeah, that's interesting to see what what games are winning at the time. And when when I was reading this, I was thinking, wow, you know, you had Final Fantasy VII PlayStation, obviously, was gonna get it.

SPEAKER_04 47:52

That feels out of time. That doesn't feel in my mind, that doesn't exist in the same sort of time ecosystem as Goldeneye.

SPEAKER_06 48:00

Yeah, it's weird, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 48:01

Yeah, I don't know why. I I don't know why. Just kind of feels like they're kind of a little they should be more separated in time than that.

SPEAKER_06 48:09

But but then you had obviously your WCW NW, was that multi-format, or was that just N64?

SPEAKER_04 48:14

That was just on N64.

SPEAKER_06 48:15

Yeah, it was N64, fighting game year, Diddy Con Race and N64. International soccer was on different consoles, but N64 had a port of that. It was best on N64, by the way.

SPEAKER_05 48:28

Yeah. It was.

SPEAKER_04 48:31

Not forgetting it had like Nintendo roots, you know, it kind of has that kind of hint to it.

SPEAKER_06 48:37

Yeah, there's certain bits I they're different games, but they're not. There's there's certain things I like. You had the bigger sprites, bigger cat, uh not sprites, bigger polygons, bigger characters on the N64. The indoor, when you can play indoors, really good fun on that. Clunky, but it makes it fun being clunky. Then the the PlayStation version was a bit different, but it seemed to be the outdoor game is better. So they they've done different things in different ways, but it was definitely a good game to play on the N64.

SPEAKER_01 49:04

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_06 49:05

Um that was PlayStation, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:08

Um for deservedly so. I mean, that is a mouthful. Outstanding achievement in sound and music, and outstanding achievement in interactive design. I guess that's two awards, and quite rightly wins both of them. Yeah, very fair. And Shigeru Miyamoto in there at the end, picking up the Hall of Fame award, which I think is quite an early recognition nod to him, to be fair.

SPEAKER_06 49:27

Definitely, yeah. Um and proves how long he had been had been working doing the games at the time, you know.

SPEAKER_04 49:32

Definitely unbelievable.

SPEAKER_06 49:33

Yeah, but what a lineup of games, and you could really see at this point, you know, although yes, N64 didn't have nowhere near the exclusives that the PlayStation did, they didn't have nowhere near the games the PlayStation did, but they were really fighting here, you know, 98, picking up awards, they were going toe-to-toe with PlayStation.

SPEAKER_04 49:52

Mate, what is this next bit of news? Huh? What is this?

SPEAKER_06 49:59

Have we finished with the last one then?

SPEAKER_04 50:02

I just like thought, well, what is there any more? Oh, hang on, what letter of the month? What? Which bit are you reading? Which bit are we doing? Is it letter of the month?

PlayStation Vs N64 And Dreamcast Doubts

SPEAKER_06 50:10

It's letter of the month. Um, I've added this in as something a little bit different because I found it quite interesting because of where what people thought at the time and the comparison between the consoles and going from the awards ceremony to see what the actual game is for.

SPEAKER_04 50:24

Um this is great because I've said to you before, it there's these isolated moments in time. We look back and we say, Oh, yeah, this is how it was. N64 was great at the PlayStation, yeah. But in that moment, when you didn't know about the future, things felt like your console's about to go in the pin. It's a weird time.

SPEAKER_06 50:40

Yeah, yeah, and you know, and going for them awards where you could really if if you actually look at them awards, N64 probably earned them awards over the PlayStation, which was quite surprising for the time. And then I got I saw this letter and thought I've got to put it in. So this was a this was their letter of the month, and uh this was titled So What You Want?

SPEAKER_04 50:59

Um it says every day I hear about the big debate Oh mate, no, you've got to tell you you've got to tell people who wrote it in first.

SPEAKER_06 51:08

I can't even read that. Leaky Leak leaky P1PE at AOL.com. There you go. Rip this letter in.

SPEAKER_04 51:25

Leaky pipe could be a plumber.

SPEAKER_06 51:29

Well, I thought I would. Um, what do you want? Every day I hear about a big debate over which system is better. Is it a PlayStation or Nintendo 64? Well, in the video games game business today, somehow or another a 32-bit CD-based system fries and is dominating in its competition. And it isn't the best system out there when you're talking about specs. How how is this possible? How can I how can a less superior system be dominating over a 64-bit system? I'll tell you why. Marketing. Sony and its associates took the knowledge they have about marketing and jumped into the video game business and took over. This should be a message to Sega when he introduced their new system. They should take some pointers from Sony or else their system will fall even um fall even before it comes out. But if you consider the history of Sega, the system is already doomed, in my opinion. They may have a bigger and better system coming out, but will people actually buy it? When it does finally come out, the PlayStation and N64 will have taken a firm grip on the market. Why would people go out to buy something that they think in the back of their minds will fail? So, Sega, if you really want to succeed with Dreamcast, think about what the people want, then make the logical steps to please them. Don't take this new system and do what you want, because what you want isn't necessarily what the people want. Um do you want to read the reply from EVGM?

SPEAKER_04 53:03

What is this? Is this in a magazine or a website? This is in EVGM. How much does this feel like a an official Xbox thing with that colour in?

SPEAKER_06 53:15

Yeah, it does, yeah, yeah, yeah, it does. Yeah, it's just it was just green because it was lit with a map. They just made the green from the It's good though, innit?

SPEAKER_04 53:20

And then that pad down in the bottom, that uh Barracuda PS controller almost looks like uh an Xbox 360.

SPEAKER_06 53:28

Yeah, it does, it does, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:30

Anyway, I don't know what universe I've woken up in. Here's the reply. Is this by anyone? Oh, they've not signed off, so Leaky Pipe didn't get anyone's name to this, but here we go. Let's hope Sega's learned a lesson from its previous three not so successes, Sega CD, 32X and Saturn. From listening to Sega of America's president and CEO Bernie Slater Stella, we find we feel fairly but not completely confident that Dreamcast won't suffer the same fate as the last three Sega machines. But as always, only time will tell. He recognises that Sega has made big mistakes in the past and he knows that Dreamcast might be the company's saving grace and last hope. Heyburn even admitted that RPGs are an important part of Sega's game plan. It's not a sign of a new attitude at Sega's helm. What is?

SPEAKER_06 54:27

And now I found this interesting because this uh Leaky Pipe had almost predicted this. He almost knew this was coming out to fail. Whereas the magazine were like, Well, now hold on, we've spoken to the CEO, we think it's gonna be alright, you know.

SPEAKER_04 54:42

I wanna I wanna say that by the time I knew the Dreamcast was coming out and I'd seen the edge of the marketing, it wasn't quite here yet, it wasn't quite tickling us over on the shores. Um I remember going into New Year 1999 playing Donkey Kong 64, enjoying it but feeling like I was missing out, but knowing like a PlayStation wasn't gonna cut it. Then this Sega thing turned up, and I have to say, at the beginning there was a lot of hope. A lot of hope, and there were a lot of proud Dreamcast owners buying games. I mean it took off like an absolute storm, but then it got dropped like a hot stone. Yeah, so it was destiny fulfilled, but nearly not quite, you know, saying goodbye gave it one last go, didn't they?

SPEAKER_06 55:29

They had problems, I think, with stock as well, didn't they? Because I think it actually took off a lot better than what they thought in the early stages, yeah, and you just couldn't get one, and so they they could have even been, you know, that could have been a save and grace if the stock was there, but they just didn't have the stock from launch, and yeah, it's it's very odd. And like old League was saying on there, I was thinking, you know, he was saying about the 64-bit system. Obviously, we'd done the awards and they were clean up and them awards, but obviously for games on the system and variety and and console sales. I mean, the PlayStation just smashed it.

SPEAKER_04 56:04

And he's well, that's one thing I would say. I had an N64, so I sat outside the PS1 at this time, so I had one when it first came out, sold it, got on N64, was always looking over at the games with the FMV and the music was better, and the textures looked a bit nicer, and yeah, the worlds weren't as big, but PlayStation kind of is it better? I don't know. But then you'd like to play Ocarina time, and you're like, No, this is not on there, got nothing like this, got nothing like this to say, okay, stay where you are. Grand Charismo 2. God, I want that game. Now later on, I got a PS1 as well, again, um, slim version. But yeah, there was um there was always times as an N64 owner if you didn't have both systems where you were looking over thinking, oh crikey, I wish I had that.

SPEAKER_06 56:55

And I think this this letter says to me this was the end of the bit wars. This is when bit wars died. It was always 16 bit, 32 bit, 64. Once you got the PS2 X original Xbox, no one's really talking about bits anymore. That wasn't a part of that. Yeah, imagine if it still was now. Yeah. Yeah, but my PS5 was 32,000 bits, so was it so many billion though, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_04 57:21

I think paired in real time.

SPEAKER_06 57:22

You know, and this is sort of the end of it because people realise you could you can shout, you've got as many bits as you want, it doesn't necessarily make a bit a better system, you know.

SPEAKER_04 57:31

Yeah, well we we saw some, I think we started to see the false dawns come true, didn't we? Because we had the Amiga C D 32 from memory, but it it wasn't really, was it? And we had the Jaguar that professed to be 64, and it it definitely didn't do anything that looked even mildly impressive. So we'd had these false starts before. So the N64 came along sticking itself in that like top dog wheelhouse. Now, don't forget, before all this happened, we had all the project reality hype, all the talk about using the same silicon graphics engine as the Jurassic Park. There was all this talk about how powerful it was gonna be. As a game, if you get told, especially you're a teenager, the next Nintendo console is basically gonna be using the same tech inside as the silicon graphics machine that they made Jurassic Park with. Oh, where's your mind go? Tell me where your mind goes when you get told that. Yeah, yeah. What do you think that's gonna look like? Yeah, Mario 64 is absolutely incredible, but I tell you what that ain't the Raptors from Jurassic Park, Pala, it's not even close. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, there was a disappointment level for some of us immediately.

SPEAKER_06 58:43

Yeah, it was, and also I think companies started to realise um PlayStation were probably a bit more on the ball. They realised you didn't need to go to 64 bits, they could make 64 bits, Nintendo made 64 bits, Atari sort of did on paper, but if you haven't got the developers that can make these games, you're not gonna have them. Atari just had 16-bit ports slapped on CDs, Amiga CD was just Amiga games on CDs, there was no 32-bit on them. Whereas Sony thought, well, hang on, we've we've got the tech gear to do 32-bit games, we'll keep it 32-bit, you know, keep CD, get the sound, get the audio in, get the soundtracks. Nintendo went stayed with cartridge, went 64 bits, but just having 64 bits without all the rest of it necessarily doesn't make the games better. You still had that sort of Vaseline look. You had cleaner looks on some games, but it it sort of like I say, the bit wars were then right, they're done now. Do you know what I mean? Where I I remember early Dreamcast, they were saying it was 128 bits, weren't they? Dreamcast. And PS2 was as well, I think.

SPEAKER_04 59:48

But other than that, PS2 came in on the back end of that.

SPEAKER_06 59:51

Yeah, it wasn't splashed all over the consoles, it wasn't used as a as a selling tool anymore, the bits, it was more about you know, Sony went down at FMV and original CD soundtracks and stuff, and that's what sold it for them. And yeah, so I think old uh Leaky Pipe was quite clued up there.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:08

I think he was uh he could see where the future was going, and it is a well I tell you what, if he was clutching his bookie ticket, he wasn't punching the air to start with. He was a bit like, oh, what, drink a success? Oh. 18 months later, down the bookies, happy days.

Best Sellers And Review Scores

SPEAKER_06 1:00:25

I'm glad I bought them 20 copies of E VGM. But yeah, um they were the news. I've got one more bit to add in. Um I thought was quite interesting uh in this magazine. Um, but obviously we covered obviously Lara Croft and and sort of the early days of of video games coming over to movies. I know it had Mario Bros and things like that, but yeah, that was that trying to cash in as games got more popular. We had the awards obviously um with N64 doing very well and rare, especially. Um, and then we had that letter of the month, which I thought was quite very observant from our old mate Leaky Pipe there at AOL.com. Uh send him a link. Um, but what we're adding on at the end here, I saw um in it obviously this is September issue 1998 of um BVG.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:13

Um I also had the top 20 uh best-selling games of this was of so much good stuff on this one page RGT. It's literally blowing my mind.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:22

This is of they obviously do it every few months, so this was from May. Um I'll just read the list from 20 to 1 of the top.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:32

Can we do one each?

SPEAKER_06 1:01:33

Yeah, we'll take in turns and we'll do it from 20 back to one. Um, this is a list of games to be fair. Um, but I'll I'll start, I'll go with um number 20 coming in. It was Twisted Metal by Sony.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:48

Coming in at 19, down five this week.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:51

We've got WCW versus NWO World Tour on N64. Who's next our GT?

SPEAKER_06 1:01:58

We've got Flying In at 18, we've got WCW Nitro by THQ.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:04

We've got last week's number 12, this week's 17, it's a tumble down for Kraft Van der Coop on the PlayStation.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:11

Let's come roaring in at 16. We've got Rampage World Tour drop down six places from Ted by midway. This is amazing.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:24

I've lost the place. 15. Speeding up the tracks, but losing two places this week in a 15 Mario Kart. 64.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:36

Dropping six places to 14 for threatened evil two by Capcom.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:46

In at 13, the chart's half drier. Super Mario 64 sticking around down two from 11.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:54

Roaring in at 12, we've got Breath of our 3 by Capcom, and that's a new entry.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:02

Riding in on 11 but slipping down a pole. Yoshi's story on N64 was last week's number five.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:10

Tomb Raider. One with a movie coming out by Edos is at number 10, dropped three places from seven. Let's hope the movie gets him back up the charts.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:18

Swinging for the big leagues at nine, it's MLB99 on PlayStation by Sony. Climbing the charts up from 16. Bada bada bing.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:28

Triple play 99 by Electronic Arts has fallen four places from four down to eight.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:37

Climbing up the charts on the back of the MLB99 by Sony. We've got MLB featuring Kenny Griffey Jr. on the N64.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:48

Staying just exactly where it is, holding its own. Number six is GoldenEye 007 from Nintendo.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:58

Need for speed in a five. Number two, hot for two. Down two from three.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:05

Rising up from 20 to 4th place, boom jaka-lucker, as Kobe Bryant in NBA courtside on Nintendo.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:15

Disappointment at the Mountainside is this week's number three 1080 snowboarding on the N64 on switch down from number one.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:24

Entry. Number two, for entries, mobile stern computer entertainment. Although the VGM has actually put a second symbol next to that. It wasn't on there, fellas, it was PlayStation. Number two, and it's a new entry.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:36

Which means there can be only one, and it's Tekken 3 on PlayStation 1. Last week's number two, this week's champion. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:47

No, that was the of my.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:49

You didn't think that was going to happen, did you?

SPEAKER_06 1:04:51

No, and also the you know, the games as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:55

It's just Are you gonna put some music to that in the edit?

SPEAKER_06 1:04:58

I'll see what I can do. If I get time, I will. You need to. Um but I found this interesting because the only Saturn title that was in there, they've accidentally put us Grand Turismo. Other than that, there was no Saturn games in there. That went from one down to 20, went PlayStation, PlayStation, N64, N64, PlayStation, N64, N64, PlayStation, PlayStation, PlayStation. It's you know, just dominated.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:21

It's a shame, really.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:22

Yeah, but I mean, some games there. I mean Crash Bandicat, I mean, Rampage World Tour surprised me. That was in there. I mean, that was obviously a popular game. I mean, that's not a bad game, it's just a rampage.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:33

Resi 2, I mean, there's just so much. Every single pretty much every game we read out, or every other game we read out, was one that you'd want in your collection of those respective systems.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:41

Without a doubt, yeah, without a doubt.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:43

Tekken 3 was a banger, Grand Turismo was a banger. So if you've got a PlayStation 1, you probably need to have those two games at least. Um 1080 is snowboarding. I I profess to really like that game, so then if you've got an N64, you need that. Um Kobe Bright, I think, yeah, it's a surprise.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:00

One explosion and the triple play 99 was quite a surprise. One that is an interesting one.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:04

Need for speed hop pursuit. Obviously, it doesn't surprise me, it's always going to be big, but that's one you can avoid having in your collection. But Goldeneye 007 is one for the ages. Um, MLB featuring Kenny Griffey on the N64, I think is what is one for the bargain bin. Um MLB 99 is nothing more than a curio. Two raid is one for the ages, though, right? Um Yoshi's story, as far as I remember, on N64, is set in a pop-up book. I think that's a real nice looking thing. Breath of Fire 3, I think, from memory of my eyes can read that. Uh um that's one game for all time. Mario 64, obviously, is Resi 2. Mario Kart, I know you kicked it on the way in, but it's a worthy game.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:49

Oh no, no, he's a brilliant game. Yeah, he's definitely a brilliant game.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:52

Rampage World Tour, I think, is is a fun game on the N64 and a fun game to have in your sort of travel pack, I suppose.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:58

I think I've got the next one of that on the PS2. They'd done a PS2 rampage, didn't they? But quite good fun, you know, for a bit of a game night with friends.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:06

Crash Bandicoot, you've got to have in your PS1 collection. I think that's why the price just keeps edging up on that. It shouldn't do, but it does, especially if you want the double box version. Um, WCW Nitro on the PlayStation 1 is probably one for the bin, but WCW versus NWO World Tour, I think if you've got any sort of wrestling nostalgia at all, that might uh tickle your nodes. Um, and then twisted metal, like mileage may vary on that as as time uh hasn't hasn't been kind to it in some regards, but um definitely one you'd want in your collection as a curio, if nothing else. So that's a pretty stacked month, really.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:41

Yeah, it was, and obviously, you know, this was from May. I know this is September's issue, but they were just showing what what the best games were of you know as they calculated the the figures. But I mean, there was something for everyone. You had racing, you had fighting, you had basketball, you know, you had first-person shooters, tomb raiding of adventures, you had RPGs. I mean, there's so much on there. I mean, we weren't short of picking games at the time, were we, in 1998?

SPEAKER_04 1:08:08

And and just to add a bit of kudos to the the buyers of the time, um, they've added their review scores in for each of these games in the top five. So Tekken was probably an average of 9.5 or 9.9, you could argue, depending on the average of these four aggregates scores from the four different reviewers. Gran Turismo is probably looking an aggregate of what 93. Um, 1080 snowboarding's been pulled down a bit to maybe 9.9 or 9.2. Um Kobe Bryant's sort of surprised me with the score it picked up. It's probably going to end up scoring something like 8.2 as a combined score Metacritic there. And then Need for Speed 3 Hot Pursuit probably ended with a little bit slightly more, probably an 8. Maybe an 8.2 again. So these reviews aren't even bad reviews for the game wise, and it's just people who've bought them up because of the next iteration or the next game from Nintendo or Namco or whatever. These these are games that have come, they've reviewed well, and they've gone to the top of the charts for that bloody reason.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:16

I mean, yeah, tech and three. I mean, obviously, Grand Turismo was a new entry, then I would imagine as the weeks went on, Grand Turismo sat quite proudly at number one there. But tech and three, I mean, the four four guys who who scored it in EVG was ten, ten, ten, and nine point five.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:32

I mean real.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:33

You know, three of them are not a perfect game and a near perfect. I mean, even Grand Turismo is a 9.5, 9.5, 9 and 9. But that doesn't surprise me because that game is.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:43

I always have a bit of an issue with a 10. It's like stop, no other game ever needs to be made or anything ever again because this is the perfect game. I know what you mean, because it's it like I can see a 9.9 and be like, I see what you're doing there. I see a 10, it's like bloody hell.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:02

That's gonna be flawless, and and um them judges as well. I think they must have at one point gone, oh, I wish that weren't like that, but that's not a 10 then. Even if it's just a menu sound, even if it's just a menu sound, it's not a ten. You need a clean across the wall.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:15

Even if at one point you go like, huh, that ain't a ten. Yeah, is it? I don't know, maybe it is. Games are a bit frustrating at times, anyway. Um, want to round out that last little section, they're talking about the most wanted games. Uh, there's a pie chart here because everyone knows a pie chart RGT, and we can see the various different uh colour gradings here. So I think the most wanted game according to this chart by 32% of the hundred people that they presumably asked, or however many they were divided up by that to get to this percentage. The next most wanted game is Metal Gear Solid with 18% of the vote.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:55

Then we have that Zelda, weren't it or Green of Time was number one, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:00

Yep. Uh two was Metal Gear Solid, bits being cut off, I think, which is a shame. So there was another couple, but we've got um five is tomorrow never dies, which is either the N64 or the PS1, which is you know, people shouldn't be left alone. And then the sixth most popular game is Turuk 2 Seeds of Evil, which is barely playable, I think, without the expansion back on N64.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:26

So what an absolutely diabolical. I think people who voted for these were quite disappointed when these games did show up, even out.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:33

They had really good marketing and I mean Ocarina a time, yes, I'm stoked. Metal Gear Solid on Buzzing. I don't know what three and four are, probably FIFA and ISS, but um Five is Tomorrow Never Dies. That was a shame when that one turned up. I should imagine. Although it have you played it because it's not terrible as Bond games go, it's not it's not gonna poke your eye out and make you feel like you've been robbed. Well, partially, partially just poke one eye out, part yeah, it's it's just gonna probably wipe a something on you.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:06

Okay, um yeah, well, I hope you enjoyed that. Sound a little bit different attack on the end of the news there, and uh, you know, just to see you're not asking me, are you?

SPEAKER_04 1:12:14

I'm just asking them the listener.

October 1998 New Releases Draft

SPEAKER_06 1:12:16

Masking everybody, um but yeah, so that was that's just nice to see what was popular, what was selling, what people thought of the charts, what they were rated at, and uh yeah, a lot of games there. Um quite interesting stories as well from the time. Um, but it's now time for what we affectionately call Stingway's boot, what's nestled between some counterfeit nappies and a dodgy copy of Battle for Endor is some of the new releases for October 1998. Um there's a few here. Well, I think what we'll pick a couple out each and then we'll do some honourable mentions. I think I'm gonna have to go with Gauntlet Legends because that is a great game. Great game on the N64 as well, PlayStation. Um, if you've got four of you, I think there's four players on the N64 you can do. Um if you want to play through that, and if you played the Gauntlet games, similar premise, but this is 3D, you could play together and go through. Oh, I know why. Hang on.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:15

Spring stop stattle springstop back to Gauntlet Legends.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:25

Uh oh, actually, we need to do the Ray as well. Sorry, do the Ray. Come on, how you seeing the Ray?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:32

You paid me big money for the Ray, bring him out of retirement. Obviously, didn't put him on Flashy B. No, you keep forgetting. How am I seeing the Ray? I tell you how I'm seeing it. It's 1998. I'm seeing him and Wayne come out as two members, unknown names to be, of Bewitched. They're singing Cell A V. The boots popped open and come out like a couple of can can girls in the denim singing Cell of V. Say you will, say you won't, say you do, uh you won't, you owe me for last week, Steve D.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:16

Wow. Brilliant. You've practiced that, you've been waiting for this moment, and you've had that song written for years for this moment. Um for me, he's um he's got out dressed as Lara Croft, but he's done he's dressed as mate, yeah. He's dyed his hair, he's tied it back, he's even gone as the polygon, Lara Croft though, so he's got a triangle. Oh yeah. Are they real? They look like cardboard, but I'm not quite sure. Um the hot pants leave a lot to be desired. Um and he's sort of just put some holes in a pair of wellies and pulled some laces through to make them look like they're sort of combat boots, but they ain't quite got the look because it looks like he's cut off some waders. Um but little Wayne's come out as Chris Barry, the butler, but uh he's quite small and he keeps dropping all the glasses. Um but yeah, good effort there, Wayne. Obviously, he's uh Ray obviously getting on the uh bandwagon and the movie coming out, so he's even sort of took pictures of himself and he's seller taped them to old Lucasade bottles. So trying to sell them as Lara Croft Lucasade. So great work, great work. Um we'll crack on to I was just then talking about Gauntlet Legends sorry.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:38

I want to talk to you about little uh little Wayne for a minute.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:42

He's dressed as Chris Barry. Does he look exactly like Chris Barry to you? Because obviously I'm looking at the Be Witch girls and I can't tell the difference.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:49

Um he's he looks like Chris Barry, but when he was ace rimmer, so he's got a bit of a sort of uh mousy blonde. Wow, how tall ball is he? Um he's two foot three. So yeah. Yeah, he's got a bit confused because he keeps saying uh smoke me a kip, I'll be back for breakfast, but he's he's got the wrong show there. Um anyway, Gauntlet Legends, yes, if you haven't got Gauntlet Legends, I'd get that because I love that game. That's that's a brilliant game.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:22

I had this on Dreamcast, did I?

SPEAKER_06 1:16:24

That's probably the best port, I would imagine, innit, Dreamcast? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:29

What else was it on? N64, I think, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_06 1:16:31

N64, yeah, yeah, great game. Was it did it get a PlayStation port? I think it might have got a PlayStation port.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:38

I can't tell you actually. I'll tell you that's probably one of the only places where I've probably not played it.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:46

Yeah, I thought it did, but I might be wrong. Um but yeah, let's face it.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:51

If it didn't, it made no bank anywhere, did it?

SPEAKER_06 1:16:53

No. Um so what else are you gonna pick, George?

SPEAKER_04 1:16:57

Um I picked them earlier, didn't I? Now I can't find them because I can't get zoomed in enough. Oh, I'll tell you what I'm gonna pick, I'm gonna pick the OG Mel because solid. It's a game Do you know what? It stands a test of time. It's it still holds up now. Um no matter which version you play, GameCube or whatever. Obviously, the GameCube's slightly different, but it's probably is that the best place to play? Maybe. Um absolutely brilliant game, genre defining. It didn't start his career, but it certainly got him even more recognition than he already had. Yeah, definitely. Um what an absolutely great game.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:45

Um yes, it was on PlayStation Dreamcast as well. The Gordon. Oh, it was, I thought so.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:50

And then he got an N64 because I remember Gauntland being.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:53

I've got it on the N64, that's the copy I've got. I think I might have the PlayStation one, I'm not sure, but same game as well, unbelievable. Yeah. Um, I will go next up then. I'm gonna pick medieval. Um, what a great one.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:05

That's what I was gonna pick.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:07

Oh, sorry. No, it's okay. Um, medieval great game. That obviously got a remaster on a PSP and then got a remake as well in the last few years, which I believe was probably the PS4 Xbox One era community corrections on Arnifficial Controller podcast, if I've uh I've got that wrong. But yeah, what a great little sort of tongue-in-cheek Halloween sort of hack and slash platformer, really. I I think it was quite unique, medieval. You don't see many games like that nowadays. I mean, um, another one I was gonna pick here. Um, I've never played. Um I've seen quite a lot of it on YouTube and different people playing it, and that's that LSD Dream Simulator. I've never played the colour.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:53

I've seen people talk about that.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:55

Yeah, I've seen people play through it, and I mean, how or why or actually something that you play through, is it?

SPEAKER_04 1:19:03

It's just like a it's an experience, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:05

It is that. I mean, I think they were at the time, this was probably aimed at you know, PlayStations of White Band that were getting into you know nightclubs and rave scenes and bits and pieces, so I think this was all sort of spilling off that sort of psychedelic time. Um, but yeah, if you've ever if you've not seen LSD. You had this, did you? No, no, I I haven't had this.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:29

I thought you'd bang this on for a couple of hours, then go up Dreamscape.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:32

I'll if I'll if I banged this on for a couple of hours, I wouldn't need to go to Dreamscape. Yeah, I'd be phoning the doctors rather quick, I think.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:40

But yeah, if you haven't seen the Qatar as one of them LSD experience guys, look at him here. He comes.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:48

Yeah, if you haven't seen it, just load up YouTube and watch someone play it. It is random and weird, but it's it's it's an odd one. It is an odd one. Um, what else are you gonna pick in George?

SPEAKER_04 1:19:59

Um there's a couple I'm gonna grab here just on the way out. So I'm being greedy really. And get off rate, I don't care. Cell of V. I'm taking Fallout 2, the 3D isometric version of Fallout. I did have this for a little while on PC.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:15

Oh, did you?

SPEAKER_04 1:20:16

I did. Um yeah, it was a it was a hard game for me to work out, to be fair.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:22

But yeah, they were quite in depth at a time, aren't they, those PCs?

SPEAKER_04 1:20:24

Oh, it was, yeah, it's a proper big boys game. Um I got it later than this, much later, but I still kind of found something in there to enjoy. But this is one of the problems where you're trying to install things on a work laptop, you you know you shouldn't, and it kind of doesn't work right. And you know you need to kind of go in and hack it a bit to make it work, but you know that's not acceptable, and I'm not into that, as you know, so you're kind of googling things or whatever it would have been at the time, asked Jeeves, and you're like, okay, maybe you're like no, and you're worried in case you break the works laptop, how did you break it?

SPEAKER_06 1:20:57

I was trying to write it.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:58

And then the first thing they do is turn it on, and it's like what is uh oh I uh I installed a game.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:09

Gee, why? I I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:12

You click that page off, then you got a picture of Joe Guest.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:18

Hey, mate, say three times in the show and she turns up. Exactly. That's true, that's true, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:23

Joe Gu Guest, she can read the charts next week.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:27

She's here for she's uh I wish she was. I don't is she alive?

SPEAKER_06 1:21:35

I would imagine so.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:38

I'm allowed to be edgy, you're not, so you better Google that and send an apology and flowers to the family, the estate.

Beatmania Curios And PC Deep Cuts

SPEAKER_06 1:21:43

Just gonna move on to um some honourable mentions, I think. Um we had uh we had games like uh a beatinator uh beat mania, sorry, came out. I mean, I've got the accessory for that as well, quite mint in a box, beat mania.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:57

So that's I just absolutely uppercutted my mic stand.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:01

I did see you do that. I think you've hurt your knuckle a bit because you're doing the little kiddie thing of putting your arm under your armpit.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:06

Oh no, I'm doing that to make sure I don't um I was gonna say a naughty word, uh knock it again.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:14

Um yeah, so beat mania was sort of them early sort of music making DJ sort of accessories for the PS1. Um quite interesting, and gaming was trying different things.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:25

Yeah, I bet you've got this, haven't you? Didn't you have a little peripheral, little keyboard?

SPEAKER_06 1:22:29

Yeah, I've got that the big box of it.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:30

I've got a mint box of it as well, and I just saw it and grabbed it because I feel is that on display or is it in the sh in the lock-up?

SPEAKER_06 1:22:37

It's in the the lock-up of shame, is it?

SPEAKER_04 1:22:41

I don't see it like that. I see me cutting a hole in the roof of this lock up with a with an oxygen settling and then like dropping in like Tom Cruise. Well, knowing it's probably more like an episode hauler to drop a face in straight away straight into a face of dirty nappies and like the odd N64 leaves.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:57

I'm sure there ain't none of them in there, but uh he's uh yeah, he's uh backlog of shame, I would just say, in there. It's a lot of stuff gotta go. Sting right, put the seats down. You've got some good treasure in there still. Yeah, I've got some good stuff. A lot of it's gonna go, but I have got to say I'll keep beat, I'll keep beat maniac. Shotgun on beat mania. Oh yeah, no, no, no, that's staying. Unfortunately, I've never played it. Huh?

SPEAKER_04 1:23:23

I've never played it, it's always been a curio to me. I always saw it more as like that DJ game that came out on PS3.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:30

What was that called? And 360 um DJ Hero, which is actually really good. It was like rock band, but with DJ decks. That is really good game because you can mix some great tracks together on that. That's really wasn't there another one. It's DJ Hero. Um, there was a game that Rockstar had done called Beat Mania on the uh no, not Beat Mania, Beatonator. Was that a rhythm game on PSP? Was that what you're thinking of? Or maybe. DJ Hero, actually. DJ Hero is really good, and actually done a revised sort of one for the that was PS2 and they done a revised one for PS3 as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:05

That's what I'm thinking of. It is DJ Hero. I remember the box now. It looks really you know what, that was really cool.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:11

It's really playable as well. The the songs you can mix on there are so good together. That is so so much fun. If you liked Guitar Hero and Rock Band, then uh yeah, but B Mania was not that, was it?

SPEAKER_04 1:24:22

So, how did Beat Mania work with the keyboard and all that?

SPEAKER_06 1:24:25

Yeah, I think it was it was more of um producing your own sort of songs, if I remember rightly, um, with the little keyboard. I think it had a little key little circular thing that was like.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:38

I think so, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I always looked at it and thought that looks cool. I've no idea what it does, but that looks really cool. Looks like a sort of thing that you'd see someone in the corner of a bar playing on like Blade Runner.

SPEAKER_07 1:24:52

That's yeah, it doesn't matter headphones like 2049, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:01

It's exactly like that with a beat mania deck, but we also had Test Rive 5 coming out.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:06

I mean, I forget I can't speak for that. Test drive was dead to me by then. Hey, I'll tell you a shout out. You want to give a shout-out? I'll tell you what. There's one here that you could give a shout-out to. It's Grim Fandango, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:19

Grim Fandango, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:20

You like that? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:22

Also had Xeno Gears. I mean, obviously, quite a popular RPG series, J RPG series.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:28

Apocalypse, Bruce Willis, a tie into the film. I think that might be trash, but please let me know if it's not.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:35

Actual Golf 3.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:37

Yeah, that's the other one. I was scanning all over it.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:40

Would imagine that probably died a death after that because Tiger Woods was out.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:45

I do believe Actual Golf was the game that kept suffering from ever declining review scores, even though they kept adding more things to the game. Like the quality of the game by the time you get to actual golf three is 100% better than the game that you played in actual golf one. Uh, there's more commentary, the graphics are improved, I think there's more gameplay, it's a little bit more structured to what you can do within the game. Um, but I do remember the scores going from like actual golf maybe getting 70, 80, maybe early 90s, actual golf two, maybe getting the same, but a little bit less, really, across the board. I think actual golf three ended up getting like a really garbage score, RGT if memory serves.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:23

Unsurprising. I think you're right. I think I remember seeing it with the old sort of 38% or something badly slapped across the magazine.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:30

I think who was it, Gremlin?

SPEAKER_06 1:26:33

I believe it was actually, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:35

Yeah, I think they were maybe struggling a little bit about this time. I mean, they came out, they came out of the era the transition between 16 to 32 bit. They came out strong. Actua soccer was probably one of the only football games worth its worth its weight, and it played a good game of soccer, Achua Soccer, if you remember. I had that in the early days and actually thought it to be pretty impressive. Atua Golf was the was the swing for the stars. That was the money shot. That was absolutely incredible.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:05

Yeah, it received an average of 70% actually. Same as Extra Golf 2.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:10

And what did one get?

SPEAKER_06 1:27:12

Uh extra golf one. Oh, it doesn't say the scores on here.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:18

I think that reviewed well because it was early days and it was a bloody impressive showcase of the console that was.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:25

Um computer and video games gave it five out of five.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:29

That's what I'm saying to you, brother.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:31

Yeah, seven out of ten, five point GameSpot only gave it five point seven out of ten, but it's an eight out of ten, ninety-two per cent, ninety per cent. So it's got some good scores there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:40

Um I'd have been reading the sort of local joke or paper mags at the time, so they would have reviewed that really well.

1998 Movies And Godzilla Soundtrack

SPEAKER_06 1:27:49

Yeah, yeah, I think you're right, that would have done. What race are you gonna grab off, Ray? Um, I am going to go with um this film I think came out in the September. September as well. Um I picked it because I a few years ago I watched a series, the first two uh seasons of the series, and I really enjoyed it. And that is uh the film of Babylon Babylon Five in the beginning, which is a prequel to the um the the series that was quite popular. I think they'd done a five series in the end, so I really enjoyed the first two seasons. I'd like to go back and watch Babylon Five again. That's really good. So this is a prequel to lead into the series, so yeah, I'm gonna go with Babylon Five in the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:33

I'm picking a song that's very firmly rooted in 1998. In fact, a song a movie, sorry, but I need to talk about this through the medium of two songs. Tell two stories. Okay? Now one of them for the film Godzilla, Going Deeper Underground by Jamaragwai, is still an absolute classic, a banger. But I also would argue, unfortunately for Godzilla, is that uh Sean Diddy Coombs' Come With Me is equally as a strong tune.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:12

Or rather you went with America, if you don't mind, but down, down owl.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:18

Come with me, bow, down, down, down ow, down oil, down owl, down, down. I'm going deeper underground.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:33

There's too much panic in this town. I think that movie with those.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:38

If you're still listening, this is flashback, by the way.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:40

Oh mate, we're getting in the moment of 98. I got as soon as I saw Godzilla on there, I was like, oh, I can't wait. This film is so cool. The I know it bombed, and no one no one really likes it, but I've got a soft spot for this movie, and I'll stick it on on Sunday afternoon.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:56

I've never watched a Godzilla movie, it's never interests me whatsoever.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:00

If you want to get into the lore and the true origins of Godzilla and be respectful to the OG source material, do not watch this. It's about what you're about to say, watch this, but through that lens, this is absolutely diabolical. It's a disgrace. But on its own, Sunday afternoon, raining outside, nothing better to do, stick my feet up on the puff or whatever it is, the coffee table thingy, right? Kick back and watch Godzilla. It's it it's it's got that Independence Day energy on GT. Um but it's it's a monster movie, but it plays it in that way, you know, with the big buildings coming down, super realistic, loads of carnage on the ground. Obviously, predates 9-11 as well, so there's a lot of like weird New York iconography going and get you know getting absolutely decimated by this creature. So that's got a bit of a weird, weird vibe to it as well. But yeah, get in on it, it's great. Jean Renault as well.

Website Discord And Listener Mail

SPEAKER_06 1:31:06

So brilliant. Um, so good film choices there, some good games that we would have been playing as well. Um, before we go, we'll do a little bit of housekeeping. Um, don't forget to check out our website, which is unofficientrollerpodcast.com. Um I noticed the traffic was getting down a little bit on that, so go and give it a look. There's loads on there, there's hidden gems, there's challenge accepted, there's yeah, flashbacks on there, bits and pieces of everything.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:32

It's definitely worth a weekly check in.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:34

Uh definitely, definitely. From the different changes and bits are adding to it. And I mean there um there's even going to be the few of us went to, as I spoke about before, we went to the Bristol Games Expo, there's gonna be a little gallery of that on there as well, and photos we took. Yeah, so we'll we'll update as well the law. Marvellous.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:58

Um made the lawsuit easy.

SPEAKER_06 1:32:00

Yeah, dinner just. Um also if you think there's anything we've missed or you want to contact us, you can do it through our fan mail on the uh the bus break that we use, but you can also email us at questions at unofficial controllerpodcast.com.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:15

Um if you do use Plus Spark Mail, please do if you want to get shouted out on the show. You don't have to, it is meant to be anonymous, but if you do want to shout on the show and you and uh that recognition, you're gonna have to put hyphen in your name.

SPEAKER_06 1:32:28

Okay. Because they don't they do it as just a way of you communicate with us and then we reel out on the show, but there's no names or anything tied to that. So if you'd like a shout out, yeah, put your add your name on and we'll get it. Or should I run it? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Um also got our Discord, which is the Unafficial Controller Podcast Discord, and there is a section on there for flashback as well. Um, but there's everything on there. For like I said, we're doing GoldenEye Challenges Month. We've just uh been doing a playthrough on our Gen 7 playthrough, which is RGT back in the past of Remember Me. Um, the generation seven Capcom game that everyone seen. I've finished it, yeah, I've completed it. So finished it last week. What did you think of the ending? Uh um I I enjoyed the ending, I thought that was good. Um I thought as a un uh I said this on on our Discord, uh done a little mini review at the end, and I said I really enjoyed the game. It had many different genres in there from uncharted with the climb and to the combat, which was very time-based, sort of Arkham Knight, Spider-Man sort of combat. It was all loaded.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:29

You have to build your own combos, don't you? Which are a bit restrictive.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:34

In the end, I'd done it.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:36

Kick, kick, kick, kick, kick.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:37

No, no, no. I'd done so I built a combo for health and a combo to get the warm down, the cooldown done quicker.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:44

So I did one combo to build my health up and one and and just alternate, but very unique game. Graphically, um, very, very good. Um, I'm lucky because I've got a TV that upscales it anyway, but it looked superb, really did look superb for that generation. But a unique game. Um, I it just wasn't quite there. It was a good solid seven out of ten game.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:05

There's something with that game that bugs the living daylights out of me back with the control inputs. I don't know if it's framerate, I don't know if it's controller or what, but half the time it feels you like you're playing it through like not visually, it feels like you're playing it through a fish tank. Yeah, I mean porridge.

SPEAKER_06 1:34:24

Two bosses from the end, absolutely brutal. I had about 20 goes, couldn't do it, turned it off, went back the next day, second attempt or managed to do it, but then you get to the end boss and breeze through first time. So it was a bit unbalanced.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:37

But I didn't I think I I can't remember now, it's been a while since I played it, but I think I struggled with the last boss a little bit.

SPEAKER_06 1:34:44

There was supposed to be in a second game out in 2015, but it got cancelled. Um quite right. Yeah. So but yeah, unique games. Anyway, if you like anything like that, we're playing, like I say, Generation 7.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:55

What was done for that for me? He didn't have the legs to carry a sequel, you would have cared.

SPEAKER_06 1:34:59

No, it's just a little curio that Capcom made, which is quite interesting, different sorts of things.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:03

Well, they didn't make it though, it did make it.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:06

Oh, I did know, I can't remember, I did put it on there. They they were publishers, weren't they, Capcom?

SPEAKER_04 1:35:11

But they were um Yeah, I'm trying to remember now. It's a publisher that we know of that we've talked about all the games are there.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:17

But if you like the sound of that and you want to join in, we we vote on a game. Once everyone's finished it, we'll have a vote. We put four up. Me and uh Zan Geef on there, we put four up and we have a vote and whatever wins we play for and chat about it together. And then we've got challenge accepted, the golden eye challenge. We've got everything else on there that we chat about and bits and pieces we do. Um Digital Micro. That's it, yes. Um, because once that got cancelled, they went on and done the sequel for Life is Strange instead. Interesting, yeah. Um, so um yeah, so DM also does um the weekly quiz as well. Let's get quizzical, so you can have a little go on a quiz on there once a week, which is great fun as well. So there's plenty to do on there. Come and join us on our Discord.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:56

And that's no stress as well, that's just you versus yourself.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:59

Yeah, exactly. You just have a you just uncover the answers as you go down and see how you do.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:03

That's really cool, and I love that. You know, I a bit nervous quiz, I'm not too big on quizzes, I always get nervous and put the wrong answer, but I know what it is. But this is just chill, it's like get up, let's have a look, let's get quizzical, no stress in.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:16

Oh, yeah, I did know that. Oh, bloody hell, I didn't know that. Yeah, you know, it's a nice little fact dump. I love it. More of them. More.

Reviews Support And Sign Off

SPEAKER_06 1:36:22

Yeah, and if you want a link, you would say an email us, we can give you the link to the Discord, or if you check out Do I think let's get quizzical here or on the main show? Main show. Um nip that in a bud. Um if you want a link as well, if you go to Under Controller Podcast Instagram, there's a link tree there. Do that, or you can go to RetroGamer Thomas, which is mine, there's a link tree on there to join. Or like I say, if you get if you're not on Instagram anything like that, just email us or we'll ping you a link over. Uh yeah, but thanks for listening again. Uh, thanks for downloading, thanks for the positive feedback. I hope you're enjoying the show because we're enjoying doing it, we're enjoying researching it, we're enjoying the nostalgia trip that we're doing with this. Um, it's great fun, and we want to keep doing it. So let us know. Give us a little review, give us a like, give us a download. Um, it all helps to for the algorithm and keep keep us going and keep make it worthwhile doing it. So um, yeah, thanks again. Thanks, George.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:16

Well, thank you to you, and thank you, as you say, to everyone that's listening. And um I love recording these flashbacks, it's a nice change of pace.

SPEAKER_06 1:37:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:25

Uh if you're hearing this now, we're a little bit late, and that's my bad. Sorry, get back to normal from next week.

SPEAKER_06 1:37:30

Yes, yeah. So that's just when you're just a few hours late. So it's that same day, but um, yes, just a little bit late, that's all. But um, yeah, so thank you all. Thanks, George, and I will um I will see you next week.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:44

Take care, everyone.