Flashback
Take a walk through gaming history as we pick a random date in gaming history and bring you the news from that time as if it was now , different era every week - covering all of gaming history
Flashback
A look at gaming in February 1999
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
February 1999 is one of those months that looks quiet on paper and then suddenly floods you with memories. We jump back into the late PS1 era, the early Dreamcast glow, and an N64 scene that’s still trying to keep up with the “serious” racing conversation. Along the way we swap picks, argue about what holds up, and chase the feeling of playing something new when the internet couldn’t tell you how to feel yet.
We start with deep cuts and fan favorites, from World Driving Championship 64 as the N64’s would-be Gran Turismo to Re-Volt and the lost art of great RC racing. Then we hit heavy hitters: Final Fantasy VIII’s huge presentation swings and its famously fussy systems, ISS Pro Evolution Soccer 2 as a reminder of how good couch competition used to be, and Crazy Taxi as the purest Dreamcast arcade rush. That energy spins into a bigger question that every retro gaming fan has asked at least once: what happened to arcades, and can that kind of “you can’t get this at home” magic ever come back?
The back half goes full time-machine with 1999 gaming news: Majesco teasing bargain hardware re-releases, one of the earliest mainstream crackdowns on emulation and ROM sites, and Square trying to break out of the RPG box with weird Japan-only experiments. If you’re into retro game history, Dreamcast nostalgia, PS1 classics, N64 oddities, and the ongoing debate around emulation, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share the show with a friend who lived through 1999, and leave a review with the game you’d bring back first.
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Welcome To February 1999
SPEAKER_00Hello and welcome to Flash Play, the games you love, the stories you forgot. This is episode 32, and this week we're in February 1999 on RGT, and as always I'm joined by the man who loves his physical over a digital. One of the first games he always installs is MLB baseball. Shows his retro flex when he plugs in his 32X. That's UCP George. How are you doing, my man?
SPEAKER_05Wow. I've already forgotten the first thing you said, so it was obviously a courageous intro. I'm into it. I fired up it's 1999. I'm a little bit edgy because I'm a raucous teenager with a driving licence and disposable ink or pair yourself.
SPEAKER_00Yep, I'd be cherry bomb on my metro and set the street to like.
SPEAKER_05Not literally.
SPEAKER_00Not literally.
SPEAKER_05I mean a fuel leak and a static anti anti-static strip charge. Bam! It's gone up like something out of diehard two. You can motherfuck made you roll out.
SPEAKER_00Oh dear, what a starting show. You're back, baby. Um, but yes, so uh like I say, it's episode 32, and we're in February 1999. Uh another repeat of a year. Um surprise me with the amount of options we had of games because um I was starting looking through and researching this, thinking first couple of pages I was doing, not a lot there, not a lot there, and then suddenly all the games started coming out. Um what
N64 Tries To Do Gran Turismo
SPEAKER_00are you going with first, George?
SPEAKER_05I'm gonna go with World Driving Championship 64. It's not possibly the best game, but if you had an N64 in 1999 and you'd seen all your bigger boyfriends playing Gran Turismo and talking about its upcoming sequel, you'd you you needed this game.
SPEAKER_00But let me tell you now, you needed this game.
SPEAKER_05I needed this game. You listener, dear listener, viewer, you don't need this game. Uh if you're looking to complete your N64 library, it's competent enough driving simulator. It's competent enough racing game. I had some fun with it, admittedly, only because there was literally nothing else. I mean, what else was of the F1 World Championship games, which on the N64 were a tour de force with the expansion pack, but this no. Um it kind of tickled my switches, but the lack of anything going on it was a was a big drain. I'd like to play it now. I should imagine it looks probably worse than Grant's resume too from being brutal, but um there you go. What's you I guess you weren't really an N64 aficionado, so you probably don't know about this game.
SPEAKER_00No, I did not have an N64 back in the day, only about 10 years ago, no, more than that now, 12-14 years ago when I started collecting, I got one. Um, and I only know of this game from me and you chatting on here. Oh, talking about you know, you had the N64 and your friends were getting Grand Turismo, you were thinking this is gonna be my Grand Turismo. Um, obviously, it it's not that. Um, I've never actually watched footage of it.
SPEAKER_05I might actually have to be honest, when official Nintendo magazine probably gave it like late sevens, it even they were pushing, they were reaching because they wanted a Grand Turismo cloud.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, oh yeah, this this will show them 32 bit boys.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it it really didn't, unfortunately. But you know, I'm not here to yarp on it. If you're getting a full collection, you need it. If you're mildly curious and you totally dedicate to Nintendo uh systems, then you fancy a driving game you could do worse. It's certainly better than the GBA uh driving games for sure, but uh
Re Volt And The RC Racing Gap
SPEAKER_05yeah, handle with caution. RGT, what's your first game?
SPEAKER_00Um it's a game I've played again when I started collecting, but only very briefly loved it, and I haven't gone back to it, and I keep meaning to go back to it, hence why I've mentioned it here, because hopefully I will, and that's Revolt. Um I think I've got the Dreamcast version or PlayStation, I can't remember which one. Um, but it's always quite intrigued me. I think this was a claim, um, Claim Studios London done this, I think. Um and it always looked awesome fun, it always looked really good. There was that RC sort of vibe to it that you know you're right.
SPEAKER_05It gave me Toy Commander vibes when I played it back in the day.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I I remember when the only thing that made me think back to it again was when um I remember when Motorstorm done their Motorstorm RC and I downloaded that on my Vita and playing that, and I still on my Vita now to this day.
SPEAKER_05It's one of the best Vita games, dude.
SPEAKER_00That's why it's a brilliant game, and it suddenly made me think, what was that RC game I played? And that was Revolt. Now, I haven't played enough of it to know if it is really a game worth going back to. If you you know, if you're on YouTube listening to this, or you know, if you're listening on your uh podcast supplier, let us know. Let us know if you've played this. Um, contact us, questions at unfinished controller podcast.com. Um, and just say, yep, give it a go. It was a really good game. It was um you didn't see too many RC games, you don't really see too many RC games now, but uh I always thought that looked quite good for the time.
SPEAKER_05Um I've always wondered why they haven't done more because that style of play, which is like micro machines where you're kind of locked and it is kind of tank controls, sort of like Iron Hoffman's games like that, they kind of felt like the precursor to remote control racing games. You had a fixed perspective. Your controller was locked, left is left, right is right. So even if you're halfway up the course or coming back the other way, your controls kind of get flipped. Well, they don't, but they kind of do it in your head, and um yeah, to me, they're like what you would call remote control controls. So, like, why don't why don't we see more of it? It seems like something that you could do relatively easily, and graphically is me knowing absolutely nothing, but you'd imagine graphically like not that intense to just draw a fixed level where you move the cars around it like you would in real life.
SPEAKER_00Well, there is that new one coming out on Steam. Um, me and Broad Border and also um Captain Scarlet were talking about it as well. Um, I can't remember what it's called now, and that's that's kind of Steam, it has come to PS5 and things as well, and that's where you play almost like a way out style. You play online with your friend with your two RC cars, and there's something to do with a scientist who's died, and you're in the two RC cars in his house, and you have to negotiate the house and work puzzles out and stuff, and that looks quite good and unique. But yeah, another one that gave me vibes of this revolt, but yeah, because I think this goes around sort of like museums, doesn't it? And um, is it like big steamships and that where the levels are? And so you're in there.
SPEAKER_05It always gave me like toy commander vibes because you were low down in like realistic settings, everything's big, uh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Definitely, but yeah, revolt. I'm definitely gonna have to uh dig that one out and have another player. What's uh what are you looking at next, then,
Final Fantasy VIII Looks Incredible
SPEAKER_00George?
SPEAKER_05Next on my list is a game that uh came out worldwide around this time, Final Fantasy VIII. We always go with a worldwide release date. So um, a game that if you listen to the main show, the unofficial controller podcast, you'll know that I've been playing or flirting with. Um I like this one. I've moaned before about seven with a Chilby style and FF8 solved all of that and then made itself very hard to love with its magic and battle system. Nothing's easy in Final Fantasy VIII, and nothing comes for free. I'll tell you that now. Um graphically, they've kept the backgrounds that they had in the original Final Fantasy VII, the first 3D PlayStation iteration of the franchise. Um, but the character artwork has gone through the roof. There's times where you're like, oh, am I in game now or am I in a game cutscene? Obviously, the CGI cutscenes are something else, and I I talked on the main show about um there was a section early in the game, and it does give me um Expedition 33 vibes, especially that first part. You go in, you get to the top of a tower, you get chased by a spider, and the way Final Fantasy VII mixes the CGI and the in-game levels, like there's a part where a spider comes crashing out of a building that you've literally just walked down. It's it's very clever, and they're pulling a lot of fancy trickery in this game. Like I say, the only thing that I and I don't think I'm alone when I say this, I can't be. Um like the battle system is is hard to love, it's confusing, and like I love the summons, I really do, but you know, when you lock in to fight someone and you're working out how much damage your summons are doing, and you think to yourself, hang on a minute. I've got to see this unskippable summon emanation 25 times. Wow, that's a lot. And I I playing it on the Switch where you can put it on sort of fast forward mode. That saves this game's arse, RGT, because without that you would you would go insane, especially if you die in an encounter and then you've got to do it again. You know, okay, so I only got halfway through that encounter, so I've only already seen 12 summon animations. Here we go for another 20.
SPEAKER_00I thought of you the other day saying that because I was watching a video on um some of the Star Ocean games, and there was a guy on there who was going back and reviewing the Star Ocean games, you know, really big JRPG gamer, and being square as well, square enix as well. Um, and that suddenly made me think of what you said because he said going back to the game's really good. Down points is the summons in that game, you have to watch the animation all the way through over and over again.
SPEAKER_05I suddenly thought what was he reviewing? Four or one?
SPEAKER_00What star Ocean? He was re uh which one was he reviewing at the time? I can't remember if that was Star Ocean R or Um the one on the PS2. What was it?
SPEAKER_05The time mate, that one on the PS2 is iconic to me. Just a box art. I don't know why, but it's one of those games we often talk about them where they were it was everywhere. Every time you walked into game or game station, this had like a wide-ass display, probably because it didn't sell any, but the box art grabbed you from 20 paces where it was like, You want a bit of this? So I I do, yeah, uh, but I don't.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I keep debating whether to play it, and that's why I I've been watching the reviews of it, and he'd done a few other, like I say, other Star Ocean games, but straight away he said the same thing, and a stranger from the same developers as well, that yeah, them summons were long, and he said, Going back now, it's a great game to play, the combat's good, but when you're doing your magic or summons, I think they called summons in that as well. He said that that long ass video clip, you know, to watch each time.
SPEAKER_05I mean, even in the day though, RGT, you'd look at it and you'd be like, Oh wow, you know, graphically that's incredible because the summons are normally a tour of force. But who in their right mind, even then, with them looking like cutting edge graphics, would be like, Oh wow, let's watch this video again.
SPEAKER_00Or at least give you a skip option.
SPEAKER_05It wouldn't hurt, would it?
SPEAKER_00No, no, definitely not. But nah, good choice, Final Fantasy VIII. Are you still playing or have you fell off a bit now?
SPEAKER_05Um, I've kind of fell off. I've just forced so many things back in my rotation, as we know. I had a backlog of shame that would, you know, probably make Jesus weep. So um, so yeah, I've got plenty going on, but that's sat on the switch. I've got the card version, so I have to put it in every time I want to play, which is a little bit of a uh mood killer, but it physical baby, we love the physical. Yeah, you got to swap the bit of plastic in the back that says yes, game's all good. Um but no, I mean I've I think I'll continue with it just because it's one of those relatively pick up and play sort of things. Like I've my understanding of the magic summons, blah blah blah, is to a decent level now. Some of my sort of synergies I'm doing, I'm I'm kind of getting there. I just wish it was a bit more user-friendly. I guess if you say FF7 was a bit too basic, they're gonna go away with that feedback and go, like, alright, okay, let's make this super complicated. That's not what I asked for.
SPEAKER_00To me, it almost sounds like a sort of made for the hardcore, hardcore JRPG fan.
SPEAKER_05I think it like seven thing is seven's not like a lightweight game.
SPEAKER_00No, no, definitely not.
SPEAKER_05And I never felt like the combat was like a cakewalk. So what's going on? Not that I'm a big seven expert, mate. I mean I bounce off that very hard because the graphics just even in the day, I was no. But eight is a sweet spot. Obviously, we know nine is the magic touch, but um we're talking about eight
ISS Pro Evolution Soccer Memories
SPEAKER_05here. What's your next game, sir?
SPEAKER_00Um, quite an obvious one, I think. Um January 1st, 1999, world ride release of ISS Pro Evolution Soccer 2.
SPEAKER_05Um, what's this on? Like PS1 and N64 or something?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, PS1. I can't remember if I got it was uh I know there was one on N64, weren't there? I can't quite remember.
SPEAKER_05Um yeah, it might just be labelled 64.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, this one was just PlayStation. Um yeah, so I remember first time I saw Pro Evo, a mate was playing it round up another mate's house, and he was standing there and brought the game with him, and I was like, that looks that suddenly that football game suddenly looked like something different. It looked a step above anything else when I first saw Pro Evo. That was the first one. Watched him play it for about an hour and thought, right, I need to save some of my paycheck next week and get this game for my PlayStation, which I did. So then when when ISS 2 come out, I was straight on buying that day one. Um, again, we just loved the Master League. We were all in on it. We would have um I shared a house with my mate, we would have this was on the later ISS pros, but we would have um days where we'd get like 20 of us round and we'd have a competition, like a World Cup, and see who could get through to a final, we'd have a barbecue and everything. There's so many good memories. I know most people listening who don't play sports games are thinking of just a football game, but Konami really smashed it with ISS. That was that whole playing with friends, a community feel, and it was like there wasn't online then. So you if you wanted to play competitively with friends, you had to get around the house, and that just made it all so much more worthwhile. And they really started getting in their stride with two. Um, the graphics were brilliant, and they even done things like I know this sounds basic now, but they even done things like really good net physics that looked the net looked more real, and as the ball hit the net and everything, and the crowd, and yeah, I don't know, they weren't licensed, so you had to spend your time going through and changing Man Red to Man United and Merseyside Red to Liverpool, and but we would go through and design the shirts as they were, they give you all that option because they knew you would do it, but you they knew you would. I mean, it was once we that was a bank holiday, I think. It was a Sunday, we were off work, and my mate said, Should we actually play a full 90-minute game against the hardest level on the computer and see how many goals we could score? We're like, Yeah, all right then. So we had a full 90-minute match with a few beers, and I think it was something like that was something like 65-4 or something like that. Ridiculous, but we did it. We played full 45 minutes at half time, played another 45. But yeah, you I just haven't, although I do play FIFA's, I haven't found that connection with the game that I did with the ISS, and and two was just that start where that was really, really getting in a stride, so yeah, great game. I don't suppose you ever played those, did you, George?
SPEAKER_05Or yeah, Terry Blow was a massive fan of ISS. He never really picked up FIFA, he kind of swerved it. I think I said to you before, I'm sure he had it on the Super Nintendo and would like gather me around to look at that or probably serve me up as a willing victim for him to absolutely annihilate. Um and then I've always followed it through to me. ISS. Like I got FIFA when it first came out on the Super Nintendo. Of course, I did. I didn't really know anything. Um, but you know, Terry showed me ISS and ISS has got this look, even like now, it's got this look that looks different to FIFA, the graphical style of the way it's drawn. Yeah, it always will look different, it looks a little bit more caricatured, which which I've got no problem with. Um, I always felt the game carried, and again, I'm not a football fan, so this is particularly objective, but I always felt that it carried the spirit of football way better than any other of the games that were out in that era.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're right, because FIFA was more about getting the teams right, the badges right, it's all about the players' um rights that they have to pay for as well. Whereas Konami didn't have none of that, they just concentrated on making a really good football game, yeah, and they'd done it, and that always had something about it. And even back in the day, there was always it was like your spectrum in Commodore 64, you were ISS or you were FIFA. But every guy I knew who was really mad on FIFA, not so much later on when that started fading to ISS, they that you know, FIFA was the more way to go. But even back then, you'd say to them, Yeah, have you actually played ISS? And they'd be like, No, I was like, come on and have a look, and you'd get them to play it, and I guarantee you they went and bought it. Soon as they saw it, they were like, Oh, actually, there's yeah, this is about trying to get realistic gameplay, this is about actually getting the game right. And yeah, and I know Ginge, if you're listening, I know you'll agree with me as well, because he was a big ISS fan as well back in the day. A man of quality and respect.
SPEAKER_05That's exactly why I've attached my name to him, my family's name.
SPEAKER_00Just to add before I finish on that, sorry, I've now I've gone on a bit about this, but um, a couple of years ago I had a friend from work round when I had my game shed, and he said, Should we just go through loads of old football games and see if any are still good? We went back through some old FIFA's and stuff, and oof, it was arcadey sort of glitchiness at best. I stuck the first ISS on, and I think we we had a game, I beat him 2-1, and at the end of it, he just went, This is actually really good for today's standards. This is a proper football game, and I was like, Yeah, it has and graphically it has, but the actual game itself gameplay hasn't aged that much at all.
SPEAKER_05Graphically, I think ISS gets away with it more because it went down that caricatured style. The the way the stadiums looked, the way the players flowed up the pitch, it looked more of a recreation of actual football, and that's to me the layman, what always had me doting my cap to it.
SPEAKER_00I mean, even if you look at the PS2 entries, you know, what three, four, five, six, um they they looked good on that system, they really smoothed the graphics off and looked at the city.
SPEAKER_05It really it it it it climbed to unbelievable heights at that point. Obviously, when the PS3 came along, it the argument was starting to get watered down and watered down and watered down and watered down till obviously pop goes the weasel. Um but yeah, I've that era with that box art of the ISS that they had with the players on it that they had at the time, it made FIFA look like garbage. It just felt like a real classy, well-executed product, and that's why I think it's probably still the test of time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitely, yeah, great game. Um what you're picking next in, George.
Crazy Taxi And Dreamcast Devotion
SPEAKER_05Come on over, have some fun! It's crazy taxi. Now I got this in 2000 on the UK launch, but it seemingly had a worldwide launch sometime in February 1999. Um I loved this game when I first got my Dreamcast, whenever it was early part of 2000, I think it was. Like I brought Sonic Adventure back, and I was like, Oh, okay, you know, fine, this is okay, and I was enjoying it, but then I was thinking, what have you done? And then Crazy Taxi came out, got an absolutely banging review in official Dreamcast magazine. I went and got it, brought it home, and I'll be honest with you, I've never had as much fun with an arcade game. There's something about it the music, the little shortcuts, the way you can learn how to do the boosts and the brakes, how you can use like lampposts to stop you dead in a zone so you can get the ultimate time, the different um themed sort of 90s venues you could go to, like the record store and KFC and all that sort of. Dribble. It felt and it still does feel like an absolutely rip roaring time. Crazy Taxi to me, it will always be synonymous with the Dreamcast, but I also know that the wider game is synonymous with arcades, had a really great um arcade cabinet with like a the used a similar one for 18 wheeler where it wasn't a full seat, the crazy taxi cabs I saw, it was like a 45 decline 45 degree incline sort of posted bench you kind of lent into. Then you could use your feet on the pedals, and then you also had the um gear stick, which was used to give you your super boost and your super brake and all that sort of stuff. Um I love the game. This as soon as I turned that on, there was my little white dream cast. I'd said goodbye to all the N64 stuff. I was maybe having a bit of buyer's remorse. Soon as you press, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Scenes of the car in awesome graphical style, jumping up in flash cuts to the music, and then that bam, that raw yellow sign with crazy taxi written on it. I was like, right, okay, at this point, I'm all in on this freaking console. I love it. It's literally written a love letter to my heart about Japanese consoles and arcade games and things that I've maybe never really understood before, but Sega really brought the juice here. I mean, we didn't know at the time that they're in the fight of their lives, but they threw everything at the wall, and in my opinion, for the most part, is stuck. Um, I love the Dreamcast. It's an era that it's an era in gaming that I'm a little bit sort of mournful about because I kind of know that I will never ever get that experience again. I was the right age, the console was the right moment, it probably didn't sell very well, so it felt very exclusive to me. There was no social media, so it felt like you were having this singular pillar experience on your own. Well, never I will never ever get that again, and for that reason, you know, the Dreamcast always comes up when says, 'Oh, what's the best console of all the time for you?' Like, oof, uh oof. That's hard. N64 was a big moment for me. Dreamcast was a big moment for me. PS1. But the Dreamcast just arrived. I've gone on time memorial about the PAL, blue spines, the pal blue-topped magazines, the theming of the blue swirl, the online, all of it. Um beautiful, beautiful, beautiful console, and one of the most premium experiences you can have on the Dreamcast Crazy Taxi RGT. Tell me, you probably arrived to this on the PS2.
SPEAKER_00No, I I think I played the arcade before I played the Dreamcast version. No, definitely. And I'd I'd loved it in the arcade. I was I was a big fan of driving games. I used to always play driving games, really into them, outrun, all the rest of it, chase HQ, you know, played Crazy Taxi and thought, oh, graphically, I can't remember what board they use, they use quite a powerful. That's it. And um remember thinking, oh, this stands out in an arcade, the sounds of speaker, boom, boom, really good. And then when I saw it was on Dreamcast, I thought, ooh, having that on a home port is pretty special. And I remember thinking all these other consoles were trying to be open world RPGs, grown up, you know, these big games that would have the occasional arcade game on, but you just bought that as a bit of shell filler. Sega were like, no, no, no, this is an arcade machine in your home. We'll put this at the front, you know. Tracy Taxi is
What Happened To Real Arcades
SPEAKER_00what you what you want at the front. You don't want that to sitting in the back if you remember it in an arcade.
SPEAKER_05Well, you know, I've been on holiday and I happen to walk through a few arcades. What a tragic fucking sight that is. Sorry, sorry, flashy bee listeners, right? But that just underlines how morose it is to walk through a modern arcade. Angry bird, like throw things, stupid little tap-tap-tap games, all for the tickets. Also, you can get a massive bundle and find out you can buy rubber. I turned to my wife, Rachel, and I said, I don't understand arcades. When I was a young lad, they'd take something that you couldn't ever even imagine at home. Graphically, gameplay, everything. It was the Uber premium experience. Now that I don't know what happened first. It's a chicken and egg scenario. Did we stop going or did the games die? I actually think the games died.
SPEAKER_00That is, yeah.
SPEAKER_05The world of like episode one racer never reared its head again with episode two Coruscant Chase, did it? It didn't. And I think now, if they built a one-off cabinet, literally rammed it with the latest supercomputer, and did an experience in that arcade that you could not get at home, or be re if they did like a PS5 port of it, immediately you'd be looking at it and you'd be like, bloody hell. You know, like when they did a Mega Drive port of a game that was in arcades at the time. Um, Super Thunderblade is a great example. In the arcade, you've got the big seat, you feel like an absolute hero when you play it at home, it's like blah blah blah blah blah blah blah cow, absolute garbage. They tried, but it's garbage. I want to see a arcade game cabinet that the PS5 port looks like you really shouldn't have bothered. Now that would pull people back in, but they're not willing to do it. So I sorry it's a bit of an aside, but you talked about crazy taxi and all the games that you played in there, and it just took you back to walking through that arcade. I mean, there was a few legacy survivors RGT, like from our era, but they were unloved and unused, and everyone was smashing the living daylights out of an Angry Birds thing or a flappy bird like port in the arcade, which spat like what is happening?
SPEAKER_00And the thing is as well, I don't think they should be called arcades because they're not, they're just like amusement ticket hall or something like that. But we've been to retro arcades, we've been to arcade club at Berry and places like that. I mean, they do well, they do free play, you pay for a day and you go and you have fun. I mean, if you're seaside resorts, someone took a gamble. I know the machines are expensive, but that's gonna pay you back. If you've done that on the seafront, because of the amount of people who now have nostalgia for that, I think you'd do quite well.
SPEAKER_05I I'm happy to doff my captain nostalgia, but I'm also sat saying, show me the bleeding white hot edge of what you can do now.
SPEAKER_00Can they though? Can they actually do it? That's the thing. Have we gone too far at home that nothing's gonna be that much better than home? I mean, you've got to remember in our day, I was playing school days on my spectrum, and then I was going to the arcade and playing Operation Wolf, full colour graphics. You know, it was the leap was amazing, absolutely brilliant. And then with the Dreamcast, filtering that back in, but the Dreamcast was then they done the opposite and then brought that back home for you, and that's when it all started blurring itself.
SPEAKER_05Almost arcade, almost arcade perfect. The Dreamcast was like a Naomi-based machine, it wasn't very good. It wasn't the full rip snort that you got in the arcade, so there were some like clawbacks that had to be, but for the most part, really great looking games. Yeah, I think the prime example of like really guys is yeah, no, no, actually, every single port they execute was good.
SPEAKER_00It used the original material really well. They knew what they were doing.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, they did. I was gonna get a bit harsh, but I actually retract all statements. They actually did a good job. I mean, just because the arcade game isn't Michael Petit per se, that doesn't mean it wasn't brilliant. Um, and it was so yeah, yeah. Um
GTA 2 And Early Open Worlds
SPEAKER_05what's your third pick then, RGT?
SPEAKER_00Um, I think I'm gonna go with Grand Theft Auto 2.
SPEAKER_05Um there's a game that felt markedly different from its first game.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. Um again, top down when GTA was top down. You young youths will probably not remember that. You probably don't remember GTA 3 to be honest. You're probably from about five onwards, but anyway.
SPEAKER_05Um, I'm Retro, I played four, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um GTA 2, yeah, top down again. Um it was just one of them games that when you first saw it felt like to me anyway, it felt like it was one of them lot of legal games that hasn't been certificated or anything. You know, you're driving around mowing people down and shooting people and stuff, and you're like, are they allowed to do this? Is this it's just illegal to hold this game? Yeah, it's one of them. And again, it was yes, it was all that, but they it was them early attempts at an open world, you know, even though it was top-down, um, being the wrong side of the law, and then when they started doing like your your DLC, but was on a disc with GTA London and 1967, whatever it was, or whatever I can't remember.
SPEAKER_05GTA London 1969 or whatever it was, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So you had them add-ons as well, which could I think was a bit confusing at the time. I think you had to put GTA 2 in and spin it up to make sure you had the game and then put the other game in to play. I think some sort of copyright way of doing it, but anyway, you could then add to that experience, which I always remember as well, because I'd never heard of anything like that. I wasn't a PC player, so when I just played a game till I completed it and left it, but when you could have this add-on to a game that you bought and then expanded the world or to a new story, I always thought, how incredible was that? And you could see these early. I mean, this was DMA at the time before Rockstar, but there was that early signs of there's something brewing here with Grand Theft Auto, there's something special coming here, and there weren't nothing else like it.
SPEAKER_05It was a leg up from Lemmings, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_00It definitely um brave of them to do it, you know, went down that route of you know, let's cause a bit of controversy, see what people think.
SPEAKER_05Um, and I remember well famously, you know, was the game really that controversial, but they paid Max Clifford to put a load of stories in the newspaper about how it was like awful and blah blah blah, and shut this game down, and obviously it it famously worked, yeah. Um kind of like makes you wonder like, hang on, if that was happening in 1999, Max Clifford was paying someone off. Hmm.
SPEAKER_00Does make you wonder that, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_05It does, but yeah, that's a great pick. I mean, I I had the original on PC, and I still always have a soft spot for that. Driving around the WASD keys, it's not normal.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, maybe you're sad about that.
SPEAKER_05Um, my mate Ewan, he he he took the game and went crazy with it. He became absolute expert on it. He should have been doing some graphic design, and he just shut himself away in this really sort of posh office. I used to go and see him sometime, and it felt that he went upstairs, there's all carpeted wood loft conversion, walked in this place it was working at. I'm like, all right, oh come and have a look at this. You get round the other side every single time it's GTA, and he was like spinning round. You know, the things that you do in like the 3D version that you take for granted, a really decent player or someone who put the effort in on GTA 1 and 2 of London could be literally dancing circles around the police with the car, and then bam the other way, fight the oversteer, bam gone, and it's like, oh wow, and this is really incredible. The music playing, it was there was no licensed music in the first two games, as far as my memory serves. And um I'll speak for one more, like the the music that they wrote for that was actually really quite good. I mean, that's the other thing. You know, we talk about the open world or semi-open world nature of these original two three GTA games, two and a DLC if you call it that. And they had working radio stations, they had they had it all, you know. Um, I think the first game was probably slightly limited. In the second game, do you get the mobile? I think you do, don't you?
SPEAKER_00I think so, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, which frees things up a little bit because the first game you was all you were always tied back to a payphone.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, a payphone, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Um, which to me kind of stilted the mission structure a little bit. I've noticed in modern GTA games. Can you imagine if you had to like hammer back somewhere all the time to like no do your edding? So yeah, it's a good old, it's a it two was the legs, although it started to feel a little bit classic British developer, they were maxing out the original formats. I think started to feel a little bit hovakari and futuristic in the second one. I was like, oh god, no, I'm not too sure about this. But then everything calmed down, they gave us GTA London and then they gave us the beautiful Sublime. Still to this day, I believe it a work of art GTA 3. I know we got surpassed by the other two, and my favourite is San Andreas, but it's a straight shot out the gates three, translated one and two, and even gave players the option of a top-down camera. Yeah, as if Rockstar were freaking out that you might not be able to play GTA if it wasn't top down or some drivel. I don't know whether that was just like a nod to the enthusiasts or the history, but yeah, that top-down view in GTA 3 is actually playable bizarre. Um, talking about remote control car games as well, RGT, GTA 1 and 2, yeah, control.
SPEAKER_00Without a doubt, without a doubt, yeah, definitely. Um, and also rocks well, DMA design before they went to Rockstar, but they're always a company that would go as far, like you say, go as far as they could with a game. They've done GTA 2. What else can we do? Well, let's do a spin-off London. They've done that, maxed that game out and thought, right, new system. We need to then take this to the next level, and then, like you say, GTA 3 because if you track that like a normal British developer, the next stop off for them in their evolution would have been a top-down game, but it would have been like GTA 2050 where people had lasers and trouble like that.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, right. Uh thank god they were like, No, no, we're gonna take this into a crime scene and we're gonna make it 3D, we're gonna make it this, because it would have been very easy to continue down that lineage.
SPEAKER_00They just built a whole new engine, 3D world, and even to this day, I still remember when I first saw it, be jaw dropped, just thinking that how have they gone from that to that? That is incredible, and rest is history.
SPEAKER_05You know, you've got to argue that that game probably killed the competition, like that had to be the nail in the coffin of like Dreamcast, to be fair. And I do believe GTA 3 started as a Dreamcast game because now this you know historically it's been kind of been ported over.
SPEAKER_00Someone's done it, yeah. That's actually decent, really decent, decent port on there, actually. That plays okay.
SPEAKER_05Yes. To be fair if you need to play it on there, it's amazing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and so play it on PS2, yeah. Play it on PS2, but as it's great that someone's ported it on there and it will run it, which is quite impressive, really. Yeah, I saw some early screens where I was a bit like I've seen gameplay footage of it now, and it's apart from the odd little glitch I got on out, it plays pretty well. It does play well, they've done well with that. But yeah, GTA
Honorable Mentions Rapid Fire
SPEAKER_002. So I went a bit off piece there. Um, you haven't another pick, George? Or do you want to get onto news?
SPEAKER_05No, I think we'll do some honourable mentions if you fancy it, because obviously, yeah, definitely we don't want to kill everybody with our stories, do we? Um, I'll tell you what, I'll do my first honourable mention. It's Power Stone on the Dreamcast. I think it's a game everybody loved a slice of. Um, probably give Silent Hill and Castlevania 64 a shout out as we work up the page. Yeah, yeah. Um, and I think I saw on here me and you talked about it. Siphon filter somewhere.
SPEAKER_00Yes, siphon filters on there.
SPEAKER_05So a packed month, you have to admit, or a packed sort of build-up to this moment.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there was a lot of I mean I was gonna shout Harvest Moon 64. They managed to give you that that lovely 3D sort of Harvest Moon on your N64 if you're into those sort of games. Hydro Thunder, where we know that was a great Dreamcast game as well.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, evolution as well on the Dreamcast, and I saw an obviously we've got Armoured Core Master of Arena coming out, Sid Meyer's Alpha Century, and I did see, yeah, siphon photo confirmed. And yeah, that might be it. RGT oh one thing worth noting Fighting Force. The original was meant to be a lineup of Streets of Rage 3D. Yeah, I don't think it did particularly well, but well enough for them to decide to do Fighting Force 2. Um, go figure RGT. I exactly can't work that out.
SPEAKER_00I was just gonna say there was Worms Armageddon. Um, I know people love the Armageddon one, and Digimon World as well, so there was a lot to choose from.
SPEAKER_05Or the snowboard kids too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So there was a there was a lot about at the time this month. Um it seems though everyone they were then releasing the games ready for people to spend their Christmas money, I suspect. So they were uh loading the games out, but
Sega Budget Relaunch Rumors
SPEAKER_00yeah, we'll get on to the news now. Um we scoured the very darkest back pages of all the game and mags and delve deep into the interweb to bring you what was the latest stories in February 1999. First up from Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine. It's not over for Saturn. While Sega of America turns its attention to Dreamcast, another company is looking to reopen some of Sega's previous markets. Majesco Sales, a New Jersey-based company, introduced the Genesis 3 last summer and licenses and releases older Genesis and Super Nintendo titles. They have also published three titles for the Game Boy Color: Frogger, Super Breakout, and Centipede, all available now. The big story, however, is that the company is bringing back both the Game Gear and Saturn next year. Game Gear will arrive on store shelves at the beginning of February from MSRP of $29.95 with games from $9.95. The Saturn will arrive in the spring from MSRP of $49.95 with games at $14.99. Majesco will be re-releasing top Sega titles and publishing new games, which will probably include Frogger. In addition to those, Majesco will bring out a new lower price version of the Sega Pico for $49.95. The game's running in the $14.99 to $19.99 range. New titles from Japan will be brought out along with this system. Um this amazed me, firstly, for the price.
SPEAKER_05It seems rather books for a satin.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, I knew I never realized that was Majesco, so I would imagine when they said the Mega Drive 3, which was obviously popular in Brazil. Yeah, um, I would imagine this was where their main market was. I would imagine, the Safe American market.
SPEAKER_05It just I've never heard of this, so hold on for turning this up. You know, bringing back the Game Gear, which I kind of do remember it making a return around this time, 1999. I remember still seeing it for sale. Um, game used to have packs of the Neo Geo Pocket all badged up in a clear plastic case with like two or three games around this era. It was about 50 quid or something like that. So things like this were happening. I just didn't believe it would ever happen on this scale. I mean, the Genesis 3 is enough. Um, did this ever actually happen though?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um, I looked into it a bit, and you can see pictures of the um people have compared the Majesco Sega Game Gear to the actual Sega Game Gear and sort of screen differences, and I mean they're all badged up as Sega, so probably Wow. Yeah, I think there's maybe.
SPEAKER_05I'd love to get my hands on a Majesco satin for $49.95. I mean, they might have just been selling off old stock at that point.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean that there's a slight the one I was looking at, the slight different colour in the game gear. It was a slightly different shade, but other than that, I think to the untrained eye, I don't think you'd you'd really know. I mean, the satin I found hard to find anything on. There's loads of Sega Genesis and Game Gear ones, but I never really did see the the Saturn. So whether the Saturn actually happened or what, I don't know. Um, yeah, it's it's a strange one. I mean, I know the Genesis 3 done pretty well, I think.
SPEAKER_05And I think this three makes sense, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I think they still sell them Genesis 3s now in Brazil. I think you could still buy them, whether that's Majesco, I don't know. Um, but I know this there's a really good homebrew market for Master System and Mega Drive in in Brazil. Um, but yeah, this just fascinated me because I just thought, God, back in the day, if you hadn't if you'd missed out on the Saturn and you're on a strict budget and you were, you know, you had the latest stuff, but thought, oh, there's so many games I missed on the Saturn. You suddenly thought, 50 bucks for a brand new Sassin. I mean, what did that release at? 300 bucks when that came out?
SPEAKER_05299.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I mean, you know, and then the games as well for the thing is at this point, like Sega had killed it. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Like they publicly killed the people that it'd be like it'd be the equivalent of Sony literally double fisting the people that kept the PS3 alive in the end of its life, you know. Yeah, yeah. It was still concurrent, like they'd like you know, it felt like it was all but lost, and the community pulled together and dragged Sony out of the dirt, and Sony made some pretty good games as a result of it. But um, I mean, I think Sagan weren't that kind, they absolutely killed the Saturn.
SPEAKER_00And it almost seems to me like they jumped onto the Dreamcast, we're all in, and we've got, like you just said, we've got a crap load of old stock here. Sell it cheap to Majesco, and they can make out their relaunching it. Yeah, it's just old stock, you know.
SPEAKER_05I see a little bit of that going on, I see clearance going on. So recall all the worldwide stock back to its original point. You're gonna do a write-off of that stock, but then you're gonna sell it all for like a penny a console or something to Majesco. It's the sort of thing that would go on, and yeah, and it seems as well.
SPEAKER_00I mean, you can't really call them a clone because they're they're badged to Sega licensed by Sega, but are they a clone console or are they original?
SPEAKER_05Do you have evidence or do you own a Majesco Satin? Uh, we've seen, as RGT says, physical evidence of Genesis 3. I could probably walk down to the garden, dig a one-foot hole, and stumble across a Genesis 3. But the Majesco Game Gear is a lesser spotted cat, but the Majesco Satin now, that that's a cat that's rarely seen apart from on the full moon every 10 days, every 10 years. I mean, get me the evidence I want to see it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because I couldn't really find a lot on the satin. I could lot sat on the game gear, but not the satin. So an interesting one. Let us know. I'm sure um Carlos will be all over this. He knows his stuff when it comes to uh old consoles and bits.
SPEAKER_05He's he's gonna literally slather us up with some um you'll probably just pull one out.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I've got the Majesco Saturn. There you go, pick your Discord.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you're right, I'm scum.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, there's only one of one, but yeah, why haven't we got one?
SPEAKER_05Um next up from EGM, let's move things on. We've we've gone quite far on the episode with before I got labelled as scum.
SPEAKER_00Um we need to change that. We need to we need to get you called scum earlier on.
SPEAKER_05I was kind of happy with what I was getting away with, to be honest. I felt like I I was like I'd done all right for myself. You're not scum, my love.
SPEAKER_00You're not scum.
Emulation Panic Starts Early
SPEAKER_05You're subscum. Uh next up, also from EGM. Putting the brakes on emulation. The IDSA puts one foot forward and closes down a major emulation website. This is 1999, so buckle up for this. If you're a fan of retro game and have access to the internet, there's no doubt you've been introduced to emulators. Emulators are programs for your PC that can run software made for older computer or console systems, from the Atari 2600 to the Super Nintendo. To make them worthwhile, you need what are commonly called ROM images. The program files are originally created to run the system, but these ROM images are illegal. And the Interactive Digital Service Association, the IDSA, which we'll refer to them going forward, because we didn't have the abbreviation before, has been cracking down on their distribution, trading it like another form of software piracy. United States copyright and intellectual property law that governs copyright material, intellectual property, does make the copying and distribution of these ROMs illegal. Despite disclaimers on just about every ROM site explaining what seems to be reasons why these are legal, more than 95% in fact not. Some state you can keep you can only keep them on your computer for 24 hours if you don't own the actual game, but there is no law to support this claim. As Catherine Carg, Director of Intellectual Property and Public Policy for the RDSA explains, when you make a copy without permission, it has no bearing on the law, whether you keep it for five minutes, five hours, or five days. You made a copy. And the act of copying is the part that's illegal, and how long and not how long you keep it. As for these games being public domain, many are no longer available for purchase at your local video game store, but that does not mean they're up for grabs. Sawn owns the rights to the titles in mid-November, the popular classic gaming site, Dave's Classics, was shut down through IDSA Actions. The ROMs present on the site were removed and the site was since resurfaced. Dave of Dave's Classics told us that I think emulation helps the video game industry, it allows games of the golden day, gamers of the golden days to relive some great times of their younger years. Especially now with remakes of such games as Asteroids, Frogger, Centipede. Well done. I think emulation helps these to sell better. Karg told us the IDSA is not trying to get rid of classic gaming. What they're trying to do is protect the rights and investments that people have in these games. It's important for the future of the industry and the next generation of consoles, etc., for those protections to stay in place. Because of the worldwide and vast nature of the internet, it's doubtful that this campaign, much like other more active campaigns to stop software and biopower, still prove fruitful. More likely, that emulation of ROM sites will pop up faster than the RDSA can act to close them down. Surely emulation of older arcade and console titles is not as serious an offence as pirates in today's software is. If you love video games, buy them is the best support you can give your favourite game makers. Thank you. Um Electronic Gaming Monthly for that stellar article. A sign of the Times RGT.
SPEAKER_00I put this in here because again, 1999, you don't really think of people well, I didn't myself think of retro gaming being cool. You want the latest stuff. I didn't really think again. I think the the youth of today are probably still think like that. We're a bit older, so the emulation and that was I'd never even heard of emulation back in 1999. But I thought from a modern view, looking back, we all know what the minefield is with emulators nowadays, you know, hacked consoles, bits and pieces. I mean, you've got a handheld emulator yourself as well. I have filth, but it's it's and even then when they were trying to enforce the law on what is what is just, what's right, do you protect the rights? What is you? I mean, there's even people getting muddled up saying you can do it as long as you keep it on your con on your machine for 24 hours, that's not illegal. That was fake. And I still don't think that it's still is that clear today. I don't think um I mean that's like for the A500 Amiga, I've got one of those or for the the Spectrum by Retro Games Limited, blah blah blah. They got SD card, they got USB slots, sorry, and you can just go on Amazon and buy a USD stick filled with every game made, and it says on there, these are public domain now, the licenses have ran out, blah blah blah. You can buy them, but are they uh is that legal? Is it you know it's a minefield?
SPEAKER_05The the strange thing about video games is your first iteration that you spoke is correct. Video games age like gone off milk. As soon as the next shiny thing comes along, we reach to it. We very rarely assess our back catalogue till we're a bit older and we we want to maybe regain some of that nostalgia. The movie industry, completely different, the music industry, completely different. If there was a movie from 1975, pirating it would seem a bit obscure, to be honest. Yet doing a ROM from 1985 seems completely normal. If an album came out in 1969, the difference between music and TV compared to video games is more often than not, these whole catalogues get repressed on the latest formats. It does happen with games, and maybe this is the remake, remaster scenario coming back to haunters. I don't know. But in terms of sort of extracting revenue from games that probably an era of game that's never really gonna really get played again, like what what rights are they protecting on a 2600 version of asteroids? Whose rights are they protecting? And if you're playing it there, you've got to be a big fan or sort of half curious, to be fair. Uh although what's asteroids, what's a version of asteroids on the PS5 gonna set you back? 299? Yeah, you know a clone. I I don't I don't know. RGT feels like at the time they had been given a little bit of power and got very hoven's hot and heavy on poor old Dave of Dave's classics. Um I think he took a bit of a kick in there. I think the internet was even in 1999 was full of people that were sharing files and software.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05I don't know about emulation, like half of me says, like, I've got half of these games, and if the console that I had it on died, what would I do? Well, if I really wanted to play, I mean RGT will put these up, it looks like Sonic Drift on the Game Gear on the article. If I really wanted to play that piece of garbage, I'd probably emulate it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, I know you're right. It's it's such a funny thing because you've got to remember as well, a lot of gamers who were in their prime at this time came off the back of Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga. I mean, how many people scene as well? Exactly, that's what I mean. And it this is probably a step in a better direction than piracy is the emulation, and and I always think it's quite sad the companies didn't jump on board with emulation, and even if they had a not a subscription, but a uh you know, you could download the games for uh from the original suppliers, you know, from the designers for a cheap price onto your PC rather than just cut it all out. We want to play the games, there's no other way of playing them, but you're not letting us. There's you need to have that sort of balance.
SPEAKER_05There is like a lot of abandonware, which I think someone in this article made the claim that the license had run out and blah blah blah, and that becomes abandoned wear. That's a legitimate thing. There's uh abandoned wear websites. I think probably the most prestigious reimaginer of abandoned wear is Antstream and our good friend um Mike Rouse. They are doing the emulation scene a a good service. You're able to download that on PS5 and on Xbox, download it to your PC, obviously, and it gives you a myriad of these old games that you can stream. You don't even need to download them nowadays, yeah. And I've got to say, I think in the modern era that would be the way I'd go, um, or I'd get one of those, or you know, a rather unclassy individual would get one of those really garbage um Game Boy looking Amber Nick clones filled with some.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I had I had Antstream just on my Smart Telly. Did you? I had it on my Smart Telly and I just had an 8-bit do uh Super Nintendo controller, wireless controller, and they play fine. And because the good thing with Antstream is they add in competitions and they take sections of the game and recode them a bit.
SPEAKER_05There's something that me and you shouldn't be really with our accents, we shouldn't be allowed to say 8-bit do. Sounds a bit 8-bit do, yeah, yeah. It's like someone asks you the due date of a camel. It's 8-bit do what simesters that 8-bit do. Well, anytime now we'll see little Humphrey kicking around. Little Humphrey. It's a camel joke, do you know?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_05Um just simple for the younger audience.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, interesting. Um, that emulation was even causing a problem in 1999.
SPEAKER_05Um, yeah, I don't I think like maybe someone like, yeah, you're gonna run this department, but nothing ever happens here. Yeah, well, make it up. Like, right, I'm cracking down. Just feels like someone's gone a little bit heavy-handed.
SPEAKER_00I think probably there was probably very few sites that done it, but I think they were trying to stamp down their authority and then saying, right, these are our properties, you can't just put them out for free, blah blah blah. But that's when this is going off pizza a bit, but this is all where I always think back, these sort of things when I think back to Capcom. There was guys who were making a remake of Resident Evil 4. Um, they'd got so far they were on their YouTube channel making this game. I think they were in France, I believe. I might have got that wrong. Capcom come and put the brakes on it, um, stopped it. Do you think, well, it is their property, it's fair enough. But they then said, no, don't stop. We're flying you over to Japan. We'll show you why we're doing it because we're already remaking it. But if you stay at our offices, we'll help you finish your game and we'll call it a new name. And that was Day Mare 1994. And you think that's how you do it, don't shut everyone down, work with them. You're all in the same industry, work together.
SPEAKER_01It's good.
SPEAKER_00Day Mare 1994, and it was going to be the Resident Evil 4 remake, but they worked with them, done it all for free as well. They said, We'll help you, we'll get a couple of devs on with you, let's get the game done, we'll publish it for you. And they did, and then you just think, and it reminds me a bit of this. Yes, okay, shut these sites down if it's your properties, but maybe work with them, get older, Dave, and say, Right, well, why don't we get put some up on a storefront? You've obviously got them running on a PC, let's put them up on a door storefront for a couple of bucks each. And then people are still getting their games and emulators, and we're still getting a little bit out of our license.
SPEAKER_05So it kind of swerves into the digital ownership scenario as well. Like if that if Dave had a site up and running in that time and you'd bought for £2.99 Sonic Drift and the Game Gear emulator. Would you still own that now? I doubt it.
SPEAKER_00Oof, that's another rabbit hole.
SPEAKER_0520 some odd years later, like, where's the digital rights to that game now? I mean going on about people's rights. I mean, you own this game already, just choosing to play it on your PC through a ROM. This ROMs are illegal. I've, you know. I do believe it was talked about for a while about how it is legal to make copies of your own games, backups.
SPEAKER_00It's yeah, it is legal. You can you can download ROMs as long as you have the original copy. But I think it's at the moment, as I understand it, I think it's illegal. If you know, comment down below, let us know. But I think it's illegal if you make profit off that copy.
SPEAKER_05And that's where I feel in this article the IDSA has gone off a little bit, gone off cox, why they flipped it to protecting the rights of the original owners. Because it's quite clear to me in this that no one, and this is a problem for emulation and sh and ROMs, is no one seems to be profiting.
SPEAKER_00Exactly, yeah.
SPEAKER_05It was like back in the day with pirates, like, yeah, I'll probably retrospectively become aware that you could probably have gone to a car boot in the early 90s and got a copy of an Amiga game. But to me, it was all hand to mouth in the school playground. Someone had got a copy of a crack game, they copied it for you, you took it home. No one's I mean, I think I remember paying someone a couple of quid for a floppy at one point in time, but like that was it. Um a floppy disc. Yes, thank you. Um yeah, I So did they profit or did they probably no? So Yeah, it's it's a weird one.
SPEAKER_00You're you know, and it's I would imagine that the games they're cracking down on and here, probably half of them looked at them thought, oh god, I forgot we'd done that. Yeah, you're not doing anything right, and no one's making an offer.
SPEAKER_05You know, when they looked at what emulators were like what was being played. How many people in the world right now are emulating Sonic Drift? 50. I can't even get that many, you know, Pod 4 can't even get that many people in its freaking multiplayer on PS3, yet there's probably 50 people playing Sonic Drift at the work laptop. I mean are they worth monetizing?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_05It's probably not.
SPEAKER_00It's a weird one as well, and because it's an emulator, you're not going to be copying them, are you? So I don't know. It's it is a weird one, you know, and I find I find that's a bit like like I said, the A500. They can't call it Amiga because I think someone in Italy owns the Amiga name.
SPEAKER_05I don't think they do anything with it, but they I think that's been one of the biggest struggles for Mike Rouse with his Ant Stream thing. It's like, oh okay, there's that game that everyone loves that we want to get on the service, absolutely brilliant. Bit of a rabbit hole because that company went pop, but the rights to their games got bought by this company, but then they got bought by this company, and now they're like a company that's not even really related to video games that we're gonna have to approach to ask them.
SPEAKER_00And they don't even realize they got it, they don't even realize they've got it.
SPEAKER_05They don't even know they've got it, they've accumulated the rights over years and various buyouts and bankruptcies and bits and bobs where they've ended up with the rights to sleepwalk of the comic relief game or something crazy, you know. It doesn't make any sense, but it's it's mad. Much like the music industry, I feel like people are gonna start buying up some of these old rights so they can, you know, lock down. Oh, you're remaking that are you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We love it. Like no one's ever well I'm let me introduce yourself. I'm Mr. Massive Media Conglomerate. Oh yeah, how are you getting on? Oh, I'm suing you because you've got our game.
SPEAKER_00Who even are you?
SPEAKER_05Blackrock.
SPEAKER_00I don't Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, it's a weird one, and I still don't think it's really that clear or sorted now. And I think it will be.
SPEAKER_05There's never been that full battle, I suppose, back to your original point because everyone's chasing the hot new thing, and if you're gonna pirate anything, you might as well pirate the hot new thing or crack the hot new thing, like PS5, people have put money up now, a reward of however many thousands to crack it finally. Um it's just a totally different kettle of fish, innit?
SPEAKER_00I mean, Nintendo are always they're hot on it, they close a lot of stuff down, but yen you buy you buy a little emulator and it's got Mario about 20 times on it, you know. And from what I heard, they shut down these emulator companies in in China and then they restart the next day under a new name. Absolutely, it's it's obvious. So interesting one now.
SPEAKER_05I played a little bit of Mario on my little Amber clone while I was away. Terrible, just deep add it right, yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's just not the same. I don't they don't look right either.
SPEAKER_05They're a bit of screen tearing and that you kind of like for the most part, the SNES games look flawless, and the screen on it, I have to admit, looks great. So these 16-bit things sat purring on that screen the way they do with that 4-3 aspect ratio, like wow, this is great. Then as soon as you start picking up the controls, it feels a bit laggy. The button kind of catches on the side of the plastic, and that was never an issue on the original Super Nintendo. It's not an issue on the Switch when you're playing Mario All-Stars on there as an example, or similar. So, some of these some of these emulation devices are up against the hard edge of someone like Nintendo going, do you know, we can do that ourselves and we'll kind of monetize it, but also kind of give it as a value add at the same time. I I see like that Nintendo Online, they've got Sega Mega Drive, although that's slowly thinning down to like nothing, but they've got their own games up on there, and that's what they should be doing.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_05Sony have kind of half-assed it with their classics thing that they're doing, but that's emulation, but not even very good. And then Microsoft have always kind of had an eye, like they probably regret the day they came up with the word backwards compatible at um Microsoft because when I had an original Xbox moving to the 360s, said oh, it's gonna be backwards compatible. I was like, Yes, unzip, have a little go at it, you know, knock yourself out. But when you get a bit closer, it's like only these select games, and like less and less and less as you get. And the list of the original Xbox games that were compatible with the 360. Oh, you brought over all the bangers. No, none of the bangers, but I will be able to play like that really garbage game that no one ever bought, and I can play Fusion Frenzy. Like, what was the freaking point of this? Yeah, you're either back compatible or you're not. Oh, selectiles, seleptiles, right? Okay, we moved to 360. There, we've moved to Xbox. Oh, backwards compatible, backwards compatible. The wedge gets slimmer again and slimmer again, and now obviously it's all held together by the architecture kind of running on similar things so you can get away with it. But the only person I see honouring their legacy decently is Nintendo. Yeah, and I think if the others caught up and offered those same bundles the way that Nintendo is, they would start to earn some favour because to access those games that's use PlayStation as a prime example. You could you could mop this across to Xbox with games pass access those games. You're paying damn near £20 a month. Nintendo will charge you £39. For the whole year. Yeah. Admittedly, you don't get the smorgasbord of the new game access, but Nintu are never going to give me that. You bloody idiot.
SPEAKER_00And and and they seem to do it right. I've been playing Luigi's Mansion on the GameCube one and uh looks great, plays great. You can custom the controls. Yeah, just flip the controls which are down. Yeah, you can you've got your you you've got your sort of virtual GameCube save card, but you've got your live saves as well, so you can save as you go along. Brilliant. They're done so well, they are brilliant.
SPEAKER_05We're going off piece a bit, but no, I think we've we've gone full circle. We've we've probably covered where emulation is now. I mean, let's face it, you were your pocket go and all that with the gizmo. You could be loading emulators on there and doing it on there as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, there's there's ways of doing it now.
SPEAKER_05That's probably where most people are playing retro on the Steam Decks and whatnot now. But yeah, yeah. I feel like modern emulation and retro playing is about it's more about having an absolute stack of games. Like, oh, I've got the full library. Okay, what ones do you play? Oh, I don't really, not very good. Uh okay, interesting. So you put all the effort into making it launch like it's a Super Nintendo, you put all the effort into making the games rotate on a carousel with all the Avamat, but that wasn't the idea. That was the only idea you had. You never intended to play them. No, absolutely not.
SPEAKER_02No, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05I love to fiddle with technology, but sometimes you've got to put the brakes on, ask yourself what the f you think you're doing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, definitely. No, you're
Square Tries Weird New Genres
SPEAKER_00right. What's this last bit? Um, last bit of news again from uh Electronic Games Monthly. This is Square diversifies lineup, long known for RPGs. Square does something new. Square is some synonymous with Final Fantasy that that may change in the future as the company forges ahead into other genres. Recently, the company announced uh two original titles uh IS Internal Section and Cyborg. IS is a space shooter which Square describes this digital art shooter. It looks like a combination of a 3D shooter and impressionistic art video trippy, huh? During the game, you can put in your favourite music CD to listen to while playing. Those weird-looking characters will probably be dis displayed according to the music you choose. IS will be released on January the 28th. In Cyborg, um a sci-fi 3D action game, you can play as three different characters TJ, Gigante, or F uh Fiosis? Phocis, I would say. These three characters have been assigned to search for a missing spaceship. Each character has its own weapon and ability. For instance, TJ can use a gun and martial arts attacks, or Gigante can attach different kinds of equipment to his arm. Phosis uses remote bombs. You can explore various 3D dungeon-like areas and complete different missions to progress through the game. Cyborg for the PlayStation is slated for release in uh next spring in Japan. Um, I thought this was strange because that was almost like Square were trying to move away from RPGs a bit here. They were trying something really different. Um, I looked them up and both these games come out, but they only did come out in Japan. Right. Um, but very unique. I mean, it was nice when companies tried something different, you know. They didn't just make a different genre, they went all on for something completely different.
SPEAKER_05Completely. The IS, the space shooter IS is the one that's probably got the most like props to it. It's got like that Bib Ribbon style to it where you can put your own CD in it and great idea, yeah. Recreates levels around you. I think that's a great one for a shooting game. Imagine slapping in some Chemical Brothers album in there and then just flying through it as you go. I don't think enough's been done with that, but to be honest with you, it's the sort of thing that someone would come up with in a jazz club, and it probably shouldn't survive outside of the jazz club to be fair. But someone at Square managed to last long enough outside the jazz club where they could actually get IS running. Um fair play to you, it's uh an artistic endeavour. Cyber Org. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It's a great idea on paper, but I from what I've seen of it, it doesn't seem to like stand up to the test of time very well now. Um it's definitely one of those PlayStation 3D games. I've never played it, and I should think the amount of people that have played it that would confess to it's countable on one hand. Um I agree with you, RGT, they're obviously trying to pivot here. They've probably got a little bit boxed in and felt that we don't want to be the game, we don't want to be known as that company. So they've they're experimenting. Like I say, should I S ever have made it out? No, that that should have been an internal sort of test that could have evolved into something else. And Cyber Org, there's a reason it didn't get ported, and I don't think it's that great. So I like URGT, I have to say, fair play to you for having a go. You've took some of your Final Fantasy money and you've you've gone down to the guy who normally cleans the vending machine and said, What do you think would be a good game? I was thinking we should make a visualizer game. Great, is is Arthur Mill knock yourself out. What do you reckon, Dave and the canteen? Oh, I I I want to make a 3D space game where we search one of the characters' got to be TJ. Oh dear, okay. Here's a quarter of a million.
SPEAKER_00And the thing is as well, I mean, at this time companies did try, you know, genres weren't so much of a thing. And like we always say back in the day, you sold games for them being different and good. You didn't sell games because corporations wanted to just go down a genre of a FPS and make loads of millions off it. And at this time as well, Square would release a lot of stuff in Japan and and make money off it nowadays. It's it's gone a full switch. You need to now release in the West. That's where your big bank is. So it's almost changed a bit where you had a lot of these Japanese-only releases. Yeah, don't seem to see so much of that now, especially with consoles being multi-reached in there.
SPEAKER_05I think we've talked about it on the main show, the unofficial controller podcast, but we we talked about how like gaming in Japan is obviously on the bit of a turn. The traditional console that you thought would be doing well there, the PlayStation is like not doing well, and the Switch and Switch 2 are doing well. We've said before it's yeah, it's to do with the size and the house. I don't think it is. I I think it's just more to do with the fact that the Japanese just have always gamed differently to us, and PlayStation's migrated towards the Western RPG, which has left a gaping hole back home. Nintendo never really left its Japanese roots, and therefore and like Nintendo is firmly Japanese. We talked recently about them building that new office, the R D centre, the built a theme park there, they're really moving Mario into a whole new brand.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It's yeah, it is I know what you mean. It's you don't get this you don't get the sort of risks nowadays with new titles. It's no you have to be pigeonholed in a certain genre or certain to make the money back because games now are costing 250, 300, 350 million, even to make well, they are for the Western RPGs, yeah.
SPEAKER_05But Mario Wonder couldn't have cost that much money.
SPEAKER_00No, definitely not.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, Mario Wonder's return on investment's probably great.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, no, you're right. You bang on. Yeah, it's uh yeah, very interesting, but fair play to square for trying.
SPEAKER_05No, I like I say, I always I've always got to give me props. It's unfortunate that these two little nuggets ended up being uh footnotes in gaming history.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, very true.
SPEAKER_05Imagine if we'd like this was you saying, Oh, this is where that banger PlayStation game that we love started. It was called Cyber Org in Japan. Like, wow, was it really unbelievable?
SPEAKER_00Well, I think even when I looked into these, they haven't even appeared on. I think on PlayStation in Japan, they have a sort of a PlayStation sort of history bit where you can play and download, and they haven't even appeared on there, so they're I think they're rare even in Japan if you wanted to get a copy or well.
SPEAKER_05I saw a physical copy of Cyber would set you back about 50 quid. Something more than that, I'd have thought. Never imagine that price of a retro game is a hallmark of quality, it is not, definitely not. Um that's a nice little bit there, though. I like that. Like I say, it's a shame that it probably didn't work out for him, but you know, it is what it is.
SPEAKER_00Exactly, yeah. Um, but that's the end of the news. I hope you enjoyed them from sort of uh Majesco selling their own satins or game gears, or were they Sega's old stop? No one knows, but apparently they are out there. Um, to emulation causing problems even in 1999, right down to uh square, even sort of just to go back to that, mate.
SPEAKER_05In 1999, I could get an IGM video working on a computer about two inches by two inches. How the frick were these people emulating?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, that's crazy. So it's probably a very small percentage of gamers were um right up to our last bit of news, which was obviously about square
Stingray’s Boot March Picks
SPEAKER_00and uh trying something different from RPGs. Um, but I think it's now time for what we affectionately call Stingray's boot. What's nestled between some counterfeit nappies and a dodgy copy for Battle for Endor is some of the new releases for March 1999. Spring stop whattle wall. Are you seeing the Ray this weekend, big boy?
SPEAKER_05Well, he's climbed out the driver's seat, and he he's got some big white shoulder pads on, he's he's dyed his hair red. Um like a blue sort of bodice on, and then some trousers. Uh oh Ray. Ray's gone down a little bit of a rabbit hole. He's come dressed as TJ from Cyber Org. He's got a gun and he's doing some sort of roundhouse kicks in the air. He's looking at me, he's staring at me while roundhouse kicking permanently. Um so that's an interesting thing. It looks like a pirouette in ballerina. So there's Ray. Out the back comes Gigante, except his tiny version of him. He looks like a six-inch Kenna action figure, does little Wayne. Um, but he's come as Gigante, which is humorous in itself. He's come as a giant character, but he is only a six-inch Kenna figure. And he's got these different things he can attach on his arm, different bits of equipment. Um Wayne, that is not the sort of thing that you would bolt on your arm. What do you mean you got it from Mummy Trace's drawer? Just don't use that at the youth club disco. Okay, Wayne. That's fine. I didn't realise that you were older than you were and you've been in a two-year relationship with uh Trace. I mean Debs. Because Trace is your mother. Uh look, mate, I don't want to cast aspersions, because that's a pretty big attachment that you've got there. Speaking from experience, RG2 back me up here. Debs aren't feeling it.
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_05How are you seeing the gruesome Tucson this week?
SPEAKER_00For anyone that hasn't and doesn't know the lore of UCP, you do know. Um well it's funny because hang on, Ray's got out. Um he's got a green cap on back to front with sort of a yellow brim. What is he wearing? He's got blue braces on, a red shirt, black wellies, white gloves. What are you doing? Hang on, where's where's Wayne? Ray, show us Ray, show us Wayne. Wayne's dressed as a little dog. Oh, hang on. You're flogging Harvest Moon 64, aren't you? Yes, yes, yes, yes. Very good. I'm not sure you needed the manure. I mean, that's a bit extreme. We get the idea, yeah. The bluebird stinks, mate. You didn't need that in the boot. And we've now got to pick through that to see what we're gonna get. So yeah, nice try, but this hit manure.
SPEAKER_05This is a scraping from Farmerson Sewage Farm.
SPEAKER_00I know it grows grape tomatoes sting, but yeah, no, no, you need yeah, no, that's not from cows. Jeez. Right, hold your nose. Have a dig in. What are you going for?
SPEAKER_05I'm gonna fire up the 286 because Ray's come packing heat. He's got roller coaster tycoon deluxe. Uh I'm sorry, Ray. Deluxe. Deluxe. Uh I might have made that last bit up, but I think it is roller coaster tycoon deluxe. I'm taking it. I'm taking it.
SPEAKER_00Nice. Well, I think Hang on a minute.
SPEAKER_05Mumsey, you're gonna have to go down PC World. It's 1999. Get me a new graphics card. Voodoo.
SPEAKER_00Voodoo, yeah. You're the voodoo voodoo you do people.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's the power of the voodoo. Who do you do? Reminds me of a baby. If we were doing two different songs. I was doing Labyrinth and you were doing voodoo people.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was doing prodigy.
SPEAKER_05Remix cooler.
SPEAKER_00Mix it up.
SPEAKER_05Um Power of the Hoodoo Voodoo people.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna go with Woohoo! I'm gonna go with Roll Cage. Why? Because I liked racing games and this was a bit different. Because you could drive on the ceiling.
SPEAKER_05What's your second game?
SPEAKER_00My second game, I think, you know, this has got a bit of a uh oh, do I go for it? This has got a bit of a um sort of collector status to it now, even though I know it's not that great, but it's always intrigued me for the Dreamcast Blue Stinger.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00It does something about it.
SPEAKER_05Blue Stinger's good. I just didn't expect you to go for it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, go for the bit of the old studio.
SPEAKER_05I say it's good. In view of the modern era, with everything to play on everything, Blue Stinger would be an acquired taste. Yes, yes, definitely. But it is good.
SPEAKER_00Yes. What you're gonna go for for your second one?
SPEAKER_05My second one is Beatle Adventure Racing, an N64 classic. Uh great game built around the new Beatle, not the old Beatle, but the new shaped Beatle that was around in 1999. Um it's a little bit like Porsche Boxter. What is that called?
SPEAKER_00Porsche Challenge. Porsche Challenge.
SPEAKER_05A bit like Porsche Challenge, but it's way more Nintendo fied. I mean, you are ripping through, these places look crazy, but there's alternate routes, and it's all a bit of fun. Um I highly recommend it for the N64 if you see it cheap, car only. Pick it up. Watch your movie pick, RGT.
SPEAKER_00Um, let me just have a look. God stinks in here, sting. Jeez, yeah. Um, what's this under here? Just get the straw off. Um, I'm gonna go actually pick this because me and Mrs. RGT do like a horror movie. We can get the popcorn out, turn the lights down low. We're gonna watch Bride of Chucky.
SPEAKER_05Who said romance is dead? Exactly. That's exactly what I'm gonna do. Because underneath this used prophylactic is copy a galaxy quest. Uh I'm gonna take this. Tim Allen Sigorney Weaver, I think it's even got Alan Rickman in it. It has. It has, yeah, yeah. Yes, memory kicked in right at the last moment. So I'm gonna take that because I I find that quite fun. It's about a TV series um that ends up in space.
SPEAKER_00Hmm.
SPEAKER_05That's a simplified version.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitely. Big budget as well back in the day, I believe.
SPEAKER_05It was it was on movies, games, and videos and looked, you know, it got the big talk, so fair play to it. Is there any shout-outs you want to do on your way out the door before race shoots off?
SPEAKER_00Um, there was a few on there. There's a few golf games that sort of took my eye a bit. Pro 18 um well, golf, world tour golf. I don't I think I remember having that. I just remember that cover. Um, Jack Nicholas Golf as well, load run of 3D.
SPEAKER_05Uh, talking of you took Blue Stinger, there's also um Silver, which ended up on the Dreamcast as well. It's probably its release there. Yeah, um X-Wing Alliance, Star Wars, Commandos Beyond the Call of Duty, great game.
SPEAKER_00Were you playing triple play 2000 on your N64? I gather from that. No, you weren't. No, mate. No, there was GX3 as well, the mascot that weren't a mascot that sort of faded away.
SPEAKER_05Um Micro Machine 64 Turbo, good to see. No box art, but yeah, and Gallup Racer, yeah, EverQuest, Aero Wings, yeah, some good stuff.
SPEAKER_00Pepsi Man. There you go. Look at that. That Pepsi Man was out.
SPEAKER_05Wow. Yeah. You think you said Aero Wings, didn't you? So everyone's had a nice shout now, everyone's happy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Uh surprised you didn't go for Need for Speed High Stakes. Never heard of that before.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was a bit dubious because I never heard of that, so I didn't know.
SPEAKER_05Like a Porsche on the front cover, and that looks those round lights to me suggest that's an F355 Berlinetta. Uh F1 edition, probably. Snappy paddle gearbox, absolutely hammering up that road. What looks like a tunnel. This is where someone will message in now, but like, George, that's not Ferrari. I'm sad to say it's not a Porsche either.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's a Mr. Maestro, George. I don't know. You need some glasses.
SPEAKER_05So sorry. I look now and it's an Allegro, so I don't know what's going on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. That's the power that's the power of a sting. Um he sells you a Ferrari when you get homers and Allegro. Um I mean, go figure.
SPEAKER_05Is it that Pro 18 World Golf saw you were talking about?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I recognise that cover. I used to at this time I used to always try different golf and different tenants.
SPEAKER_05Look in the bottom right hand corner. Look at the developer. Mmm, psychnosis. Research that. Let me know when, where, and how. Because how that must be a PS1 game. Yeah, it is, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, leave it with me.
SPEAKER_05Um, we'll get it ordered on eBay tonight.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Both of us. Probably bidding on the same copy, and that cost one of us about 50 quid, but it's worth about 299. You yeah.
SPEAKER_05I'll bed it up and then walk away.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you would as well. Um, yeah, so I think that's the end of Sting. Thank you very much, my man. See you later. See you next week. See you right. See ya, see you, Wayne. You don't have to bark, you're not really a dog.
SPEAKER_05Um careful because you don't want Tim to come at you with the way I saw him.
SPEAKER_00Definitely not.
SPEAKER_05Uh I imagine you'd masquerade it as a slit, but I think it'd be 100% a pushback.
Housekeeping Discord And More Shows
SPEAKER_00Definitely. Um steady, it's not UCP. We'll go on to housekeeping. Um, we say UCP. Um, Unofficial Controller Podcast, our main show. This is our spin-off show, show number two. Go check that out if you like anything modern and um like I say, early days. We had a bit of lore in there as well. Well, over 300 episodes, plenty to go and check out, plenty of back catalogue to download.
SPEAKER_05How many episodes have we done? Have we got like to the 330s yet?
SPEAKER_00Next episode is 330.
SPEAKER_04Oh my god, I feel old. Yeah, so divide that by 52.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It's been a slog, but we've done well. Um website unaffished controllerpodcast.com. Go check it out.
SPEAKER_05It's been a slog, but we've done well. Thanks, thanks, Dad.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no problem at all. Yeah, yeah, we're done well. Um yeah, uh check our website uh and Unaffished Controller Podcast.com for anything from you want to know what's happened on the show to the later shows with the links to them from challenge accepted, CR winners from uh game reviews. It's a bit going on all the time, it's constantly evolving, constantly improving. Go and check that out. Um, we've mentioned it a few times, but if you want to contact us through email, you can. Questions at unofficialcontrollerpodcast.com. Um, let us know your name, any of your queries, what you want to know, anything you want to tell us about this show, or any of the other shows. Um, we'll read you out as well if you want. Um, we have Discord, um, Unofficial Controller Podcast, Discord jump on there. Like I say, that's where all the things are going on. Like I say, challenge accepted, let's get quizzical, monthly, uh, weekly quizzes. Um, to our playthroughs at the moment, we're playing Heavenly Sword, and we're all really stuck on one boss. Um, so at the end. No, we're stuck on the end of um area two or chapter two boss. We have to do the quick time really fast. Get it wrong. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05It's great, it's not age particularly well, but my god, it can be hard at times.
SPEAKER_00Oh god, you get this end boss and you get one wrong. You drop back in the arena to fight him, and he gets full power again, and you're like, and if you die, you have to go back through all the three stages of enemies to fight him. And it's good, and it's got Anna Corvin as well, one of my favourite actresses, so it's great. And uh Maggy Boy Gollum, Peter Circus is in it. Andy Circus, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Andy Circus, that's it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think there's I think um Alfred Moline is in it as well, or something as well. Really? Yeah, I think so. Whether he'd done a voice for a different character in a different region or something, but yeah, he's he's listed on there something like that.
SPEAKER_05So their next game that they produced after that one was the uh Odyssey of the West. What's it called? Is it Odyssey?
SPEAKER_00Enslaved.
SPEAKER_05Uh Enslaved, Odyssey to the West, yeah. Odyssey to the monkey story. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's it, yeah. So But yes, so um yeah, over Discord that's all going on. Come and check out on there. We always welcome new people. And like I say, we've got TikTok. There's videos going on on there, Instagram and X, or as old people say, Twitter. So there's plenty going on, plenty to check out. Just type the Nana Fish Controller podcast and it will come up on any of those things. Um and I think I think we're about there. George, do you want any shout-outs, anything you want to say, or any sorry to you?
SPEAKER_05I took time off. I came back this week, I was hard on you. Not in that way, not actually. Yeah. I enjoy I love this show, and I'll make it continue.
SPEAKER_00You do not need to apologize, you deserve a break, and uh the helm was held, so don't worry.
SPEAKER_05I saw it. The grip was so tight I felt it.
SPEAKER_00I did grip hard, I am a hard gripper.
SPEAKER_05So vibration levels were a little bit too high for me to relax.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well you'll get used to it, so you'll get used to it.
SPEAKER_05No, but a great couple of solos that you ended up doing last week. Um solo. Oh no, yeah, because we've got the awesome digital monkey on there for flashy. And to be honest with you, you know, the ratings tell the story. I guess I'm not long for this world.
SPEAKER_00Jesus.
SPEAKER_05If the ratings design it, then there's only one place for me to go.
SPEAKER_00You're not going out easily, you just stay putting. The captain stays with the ship. Wow. It means it's more cool to see how long we can last. Um but yeah, so thanks again, George, for joining me. Pleasure, love it.
SPEAKER_05I think everyone's loving it as much as we love making flashback, it's been a real joy. It was good and wow, Flashy B got its origin. Or I stayed one day that I wanted to do a PS3 show.
SPEAKER_00It sort of evolved from it, didn't it? And then that sort of spun into my head, and then I come out with a maybe uh uh uh an old format of UCP spun into a retro style, and then you come back and say we should call it Flash Bat, and and then we kept humming and harring and humming and harring a written a few shows and we went for it, and the rest has been history and people seem to really enjoy it, and we love doing it.
SPEAKER_05So we're still working on a third show as well, guys, so don't panic. We're still working on that. So you'll get I'm hoping you'll get UCP, you'll get flashback, and you'll get the new show. How much is all this?
SPEAKER_00Um no, this is nothing. It's free. Completely free. Yeah. You want another show? Yeah, no worries, we'll do that. You want three shows? Fine, we'll do that. I can't go being to work today, I'm recording another show. Um yeah, so anyway, thank you, George, for joining me. That was good. Enjoyed that, as always. Um, I hope you enjoyed that. I hope you enjoyed February 1999. Um, we had great fun looking back. Um, and it just leaves me to say, flashback, the games you loved, the stories you
Final Thoughts And Sign Off
SPEAKER_00forgot. See you later, George, and see you later, everyone.