Mouse: P.I. for Hire, Money for Nothing and sidekick episodes in retro cartoons (ReBoot s1e6)

After a slightly time-bending return (it’s been a year… sort of), Chris and Peter are back in the system and catching up on what they’ve been playing. Chris dives into the cartoon-styled shooter Mouse: P.I. For Hire, a rubber-hose animated throwback in the spirit of classic 30s cartoons, while reflecting on difficulty, storytelling, and the strange modern obsession with bolting extra systems like card games onto everything.

From there, things spiral (as they tend to) into a deep and entirely necessary discussion about lockpicking mini-games, wrestling briefcases, and why some mechanics stick in your brain long after the rest of the game has faded.

They then jack back into ReBoot to tackle Season 1, Episode 6: “The Belly of the Beast.” It’s another surprising departure from the expected “game of the week” format, instead focusing on Enzo and Frisket in what feels like an early sidekick episode. The brothers question why the series pivots away from its core concept so quickly, explore the odd low-stakes nature of kidnapping in Mainframe, and inevitably Chris brings up the topic of bowel movements inside a computer system.

Along the way, there’s talk of the origins of CGI animation (including connections to the iconic Money for Nothing music video), the quirks of 80s and 90s kids’ TV structure, and the enduring mystery of why sidekick characters are almost always the worst.

Noobs by C.G. Regan

Cover Art by Charlotte Regan

Music by Peter Regan

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to Noobscast, the podcast where two lifelong gamers discuss video game adjacent media. I'm Chris Regan and I'm joined by my brother Pete. In this first season we're talking about the 90s TV series reboot, which was a kids' TV series set inside a computer system. Pete's seen the whole thing, I haven't. Each episode reboot featured the characters playing a video game, so as well as discussing the episode itself, we'll also use the games featured in the episode to talk about our video game memories. If you enjoyed the episode, please do follow us on whichever platform you're listening on and also consider leaving us a review. Hello. Yeah, I guess you have to ask me what game of them. I see. Do I see? I mean, uh I don't know if it's worth saying we haven't recorded in about a year. I think we probably should, because I can't remember what I don't know what death is. No, so there was a bit of a gap because my original plan was to record the whole season of reboot, but then life and job stress happened. So as it often does. We stopped after five episodes, but then I didn't release them until recently. So to to normal view listeners, it's going to seem like a seamless, but in real life there's been a gap of a year. It's like time travel. It is like time travel. So yes, good. So what have you been playing recently? What have you been playing? I've been playing Mouse PI mostly. Mouse PI?

SPEAKER_03 1:39

I don't know if I'm supposed to pretend that I don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Okay. I'll explain what Mouse PI. Oh, they came out last week. This is like very relevant. What is Mouse PI, Chris? It's a first person shooter in the style of a cartoon. What decade would you say? What's that like where they jump about? I heard the the official term for this apparently is rubber. Rubber decade.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

Dad always used to call it bendy legs, but I think it is like there's a there's a terminology for it. It's like rubber rubber band animation or something.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

It's in the style of cuphead, which is in the style of animation from a certain era where it bounces up and down. I want to say thirties, and that's what I keep saying, but then I think I just say that because it's an old decade.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

It is, it's like it's the old Felix the Cat and Betty Boop and some early Disney.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

So it's set in that era and but is a first person shooter. It's it's good. I would say do I I'm in I'm enjoying it, it's a lot of fun and it's quite easy, and it's just like playing Doom but with Cartoon Mice, so that's that's good. And I like the setting. I think it's a bit overwritten for a game about Cartoon Mice. Because they've got Troy Baker doing the main doing the voice of mouse PI, which is good, because he's good. But I think I think because they've got Troy Baker, they've felt the need to write quite a lot of dialogue. And even though I I I'm enjoying it and I I did want a game about Cartoon Mice shooting each other, but I don't really like cartoons because I I really struggle to to take cartoons seriously. There's like a really involved plot and I'm just not that like I'm like, it's about mice. But it's about mice. It's but it's about mice. So when there's like, you know, five minutes of dialogue about Cartoon Mice, I'm sort of and I'm not I mostly play games for stories, so I won't I won't I refuse to skip dialogue, but then sometimes I'm like I'll get to the end of a chunk of dialogue and go, I didn't listen to any of that. And then because the game is just go over here and shoot some other mice, that's it's sort of I don't know, I can't really complain. It's fun. And it's sort of what I needed at the moment, because I needed a game. I just finished Resident Evil Requiem, which was which was really good, but quite sort of intense. And needed a game that wasn't intense, which is this is not not intense. Does it what was I gonna say? Is it is it is it easy? I probably easy. I think there's been a couple of boss fights where I've had to restart it a couple of times, but mostly, yeah, it's quite easy. And there's a bit where I got lost for ages.

SPEAKER_03 4:13

I think it's because the last first person shooters I played, I I I was playing bolt gun.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

It's similar to bolt, it reminds me of bolt gun because it is that sort of 2D, like the moving ground is 3D, but the enemies are 2D, so it's yeah, it feels like bolt gun in a way.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

I played I played a Doom. There was a Doom that was on PS Plus, but I can't remember which one it was. And because everything on PS Plus, you tend to give it five minutes because it was free, technically. What Doom? Don't know. Because I c I'm gonna just Google Doom, which is better.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Was it Doom? The one where they re-released it and just called it Doom. It could have been. Like like they rebooted it. Because I've still got that one to play because I'm still stuck on Doom 3 because I'm insisting on playing Doom 3 in VR. I just remember playing it for uh sorry, carry on.

SPEAKER_03 4:58

No go you go I was gonna say I was like, I remember playing it and I just couldn't it it didn't seem to work as a traditional first person shooter, so I ended up giving up quite quickly. Yeah. There was something weird about it, like it wasn't it didn't seem to be go and get some ammo and shoot people, it seemed to be really hard instant like instantly.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Oh, okay. Well I think you're supposed to be good at stuff. Like I think that's the problem with first person shooters when they're like proper.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Could have been Doom Eternal. They give that away. I'm sure I haven't got that.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Unless I missed it. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 5:31

I don't have the answers. I feel like I need to find out though.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

Where's the easiest?

SPEAKER_03 5:34

I don't know how to find that out. I don't know. Unless you'll pause and I'll put the PlayStation on.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

No, it's fine. We don't need to know which Doom that you've got.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

Everyone is waiting to find out which Doom have I got for free that I didn't play. Anyway, it was one of them. It was a new one and it was hard, and I was like, I've got other things to do.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

Yes, because also because it's a game and all games have to have this now. There's like a in my in Mouse PI, there's it there's like a deck building card game. Excellent. That seems unnecessary. It's quite fun, but it's not as bad as Gwent, but it's uh it's still quite it's still like sometimes I'll just play that for ages and think, what what am I doing with this? Because it's not clear what you get what you're getting out of it. You have to earn tokens, but you need loads of tokens to win anything, and I don't want to spend my whole time playing a card game.

SPEAKER_03 6:26

That sounds like someone sat down and said we need some kind of replayability.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

Yeah, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 6:31

What what can we do? Well, if we put a deck building card game in there where they can win tokens.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:37

And then when you get 40,000 tokens, you can buy your mouse a new hat.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Hmm.

SPEAKER_03 6:42

That's how games work.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

The best thing about it is the lock picking because in order to pick locks, he puts his tail inside the lock. And then you have to like navigate a sort of lock maze with your tail. So that's quite good. That's quite innovative. It's quite easy as well. So I feel like we could do an episode on lock picking. Lock picking. I was gonna say now I can't think of any. What was The Last of Us one?

SPEAKER_03 7:06

The last of us had one, didn't it?

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Probably.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

I'm gonna Google Lockpick mini games.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

You probably do the top ten lockpicking. I mean, Splinter Cell had one, yeah. Metal Gear had one, I think.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

I'm on Reddit. Bioshock apparently had one.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Can't remember that. Normally there's ones, what's the one? I'm sure one of them has like two sti the two sticks. You have to point the two sticks in opposite directions or something. Or like feel the vibrations of the sticks. What's that one? That's one. That might be a hacking minigame, which I guess it might be different. It feels like something. See Batman.

SPEAKER_03 7:45

Outlast has Outlast. Yeah, Outlast the Trials has a stressful lock picking minigame.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

Well that's the one hang on. No, I'm thinking of the armrest like what is the is the lock picking. No, it does, isn't it? That one with spins round. Is it just spin around?

SPEAKER_03 7:58

No, that's the spinning around one.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

No, that's the one. I can't think of it.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

I think maybe we've we've found a gap in the world.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

We'll do a different a different episode about lockpicking mechanisms. Yeah. Because uh but yeah, Mouse BI has a good lock picking mechanism.

SPEAKER_03 8:13

I can't remember.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

It was a lock picking. Well, the Sherlock Holmes one has one where you sort of turn a key around until it's the right shape or something. Is that Sherlock Holmes? It could be anything.

SPEAKER_03 8:24

It's not really lockpicking, but this is a massive tangent we've gone down. But the WWE Do you have to pick locks and WWE? You have to if you do one of the money fights where you have to put the ladder up. Oh, okay. And grab the suitcase. Yeah, yeah. Classic. Yeah. You've got an opponent trying to knock you off a ladder, and all the while you're trying to get a little ball. It's like a s it's like a concentric circles, is that the right phrase?

SPEAKER_02 8:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

Right. But there's like a hole in one of the circles and then a ball that goes around and you have to press the button at the right time so the ball jumps into the next layer.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

Is this to to represent opening the suitcase or is it just to represent how annoying the to is to get uh that that they can't just grab the suitcase?

SPEAKER_03 9:10

I think both. I think they they obviously felt you can't just grab the suitcase because that's not how wrestling works.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Yeah, because I think if you know the one on WrestleMania they did it where you have to grab the belt. They have a ladder match and you have to grab the belt. I didn't realise they had to like like actually unclip it. Like I thought you said to grab it and you could just like then your weight would bring the belt down, but you have to actually unclip it. So that's annoying.

SPEAKER_03 9:34

That'll be a hidden wrestling rule unlike unclipping.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

Yeah, that's probably all I need to say about math, but I'm still playing it. It's good. Yeah, that's where my game playing is at now. Right, I want to get my notes up for the reboot episode.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

I I've made one note.

SPEAKER_02 9:52

So this is I've made two notes. Episode six. Oh yeah, we're not talking about binomes yet.

SPEAKER_03 9:58

Okay. No, we're talking episode six, Belly of the Beast.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Belly of the Beast, which is a Stephen Segel film. Is it? Most of this podcast is me googling things. Call that out. For pause when you're doing it, then I'll cut it and put it out as a as a necessary pause.

SPEAKER_03 10:13

Belly of the Beast, 2003, is a director of video action film starting Stephen Siguel as well. Of course he is.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Yeah. He's an ex-CEA CIA agent. He always is. On a quest to find his kidnapped daughter. Oh, is it the one with um who's that guy? Byron Mann. I started watching this one once. I remember Byron Mann in it. I don't know who that is. Well I can't remember if it's one where he's in it for five minutes or not. 2003. Was he still kicking people then or was he just walking into rooms close up and then going somewhere else? He might have been policeman. Don't know. Anyway, good. But that's not what this is. That's not what this is. This is Belly of the Beast. Yeah. So this is one of those. I mean, I don't know what's going on with this series because as like, did we talk last episode or the episode before about how they started off sort of with game of the week and then did the odd episode where there wasn't a game of the week. And now there's two episodes in a row where there's no game of the week. What's going on? Why, why, why do they give up on the game of the week for me? This episode, right, value of the beat. I'll explain what happens. Six episodes into the series, they gave up on game of the week. Well, they've also done the thing that I'm sure most series do later. So this one, I mean, how do we can I so Megabyte loses he's got like a what's he call it? He's got an unformatting thing. It's a lot of MacGuffins. Another McGuffin. It's got another MacGuffin which unformats and like yeah, so Bob's trying to get it, and then but then Frisket, the dog, eats this gem thing that's Megabytes unformatting MacGuffin. And then in order to get the dog, Megabyte decides to kidnap Enzo. I mean, this seems to happen a lot as well, is is various kidnappings. Right. So that's a kidnapping.

SPEAKER_03 12:03

Yeah, it's all quite it's all quite sort of. It never seems to be much threat. Like he'll kidnap Enzo, and Enzo will be like, Oh, you big man, you've kidnapped me.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:12

And they'll be like, oh Megabyte, don't do that.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

So I mean, basically, it's an Enzo and Frisket episode. Like they'll always do an episode where they just focus on the sidekick or the comedy or the comedy sidekick, right? There's there's quite a few, because I think not just quite a few can reboot. Is this the first of many?

SPEAKER_03 12:29

I think well I'll tell you why there is that. Is it enzocentric?

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Yeah, but it's because it's because they started too early on this. This is something you should do season two at least. Like I remember there was an episode of Mask where what was what was Matt Tracker's son called? Sorry, I closed the internet. Jeff Jeff Tracker. Right. T Bob, right. T Bob was the little robot, yeah. Matt Tracker Scott Tracker.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

I feel like that I can just type in Google Matt Tracker's son, and it comes up Scott Tracker. Like Matt Tracker knows exactly what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

Right, so Matt Tracker's son and T-Bob had an adventure one episode. Remember that? I I imagine, I don't know for sure, I'm just guessing that there was a snarf episode of Thundercats. It'll be a snarf by the kid and why the cat. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, there will be.

SPEAKER_03 13:24

I can always Dungeons Dragons, there'll be the little kid and the unicorn.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

Was there an Orco episode of He-Man? Probably. So this feels like a late game play, and episode six were already let's focus on the sidekicks. The sidekick with his animal friend.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Yeah, which uh so yeah, that's that's going on. I mean, I don't know. I can't remember much. I watched I watched in preparation. I watched it last night. All I can remember, there was a lot of running around.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

A lot of running around. And then at the end of the episode, Fisket poops out the unformat thing and megabyte steps in it, and then that's that's that.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

That's the that's that's like all it was building towards. Yeah. He get and he gets his unformatting tool, which sort of seems surely we don't want him to have that.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

Well, that well that that was where I was confused because it was like, but does it not matter because it's it's pooped now? It's poops. That's okay. Uh they they they sort of make out that frisket is very unwell because of this of eating this thing. Also, what I found weird is there's a bit where they opened Frisket's nose and he's got like an engine, like he's like he's an automaton in there. And I was like, are they all made of engines? Missed, I missed that. I mean, these are the things I focus on. I mean, uh there was one episode, possibly even the last episode, like I say it was a year ago, but I did listen to them when I was editing. There was one where I got obsessed with Bob's toilet habits, but then this one is very much about Fisket's toilet habits.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

So in some ways it's like It's interesting when we're inside a computer of all the of all the kids' programmes to not have toilet habits, you'd expect the one set inside a computer would be fine.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

Well, it was almost like they were like, right, by episode six they're gonna be asking the real questions, like how did toilet have its work inside mainframe answer the same as everywhere else?

SPEAKER_03 15:17

So my issue with this episode was I couldn't get past the first man that they see, the first binome. Are they called binomes? Is that old man Pearson? Old man Pearson, because as yeah, they were about to say the same thing. Yeah, go on. Because I had to repeat it multiple times, and I put subtitles on, but it did sound like he called him a runny big viral git. He did. But then I put subtitles and it said bit, and I was like No, he said git.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

No, it's totally called him a runny big viral git. Yeah. But I don't know if git's swearing these days, or considered because no one says it. I don't know if that's uh if that's all.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

It seems very raves and mortimer.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

Yeah, yeah, it's like it still seems a bit sort of it's unexpected in a kid's programme.

SPEAKER_03 16:07

I've looked up, it is usually used as an insult. More severe than Twit, but less severe than true profanity, which I won't which I won't read in case we're doing a family-friendly edition.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

I feel like in the eighties and maybe nineties, I think I think there was maybe eighties, it felt like it was true profanity, but I don't then I think that quickly passed. But I think there's probably a bit of that lingering in our heads. So You Chiki Get is slightly less harsh than you cheeky get. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:34

It still seems out of place in a kids' TV show, I would say. It does. It's things like this that I quite like. There's another one in the next episode that I point out, not swear. Okay. But I like it when because it's although it's been a year, I have not kept up like watching the episodes of the the making of behind the scenes. I have no five behind the scenes features though. Okay. But I quite like it when the Britishness of the creators comes through. Yes. Yes, yeah, let's call me cheeky git. Yeah. That's acceptable. And they'll be like, what's this?

SPEAKER_02 17:03

And I'll be like, yeah, it's fine. So I didn't know, and did we, unless we discussed this in episode one, which we might have done, in which case I did know and I've forgotten, that see even as I'm saying this out loud, I'm like, we discussed this. So this is just gonna seem random that I didn't remember it, but maybe I did I put less importance on it. That they worked on the money for nothing video. Did we discuss this? I don't know if we discussed this. I knew this. So I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_03 17:30

But I can't remember. I might have known it last year. I'm trying my best not to look up what a fong is again, because I'm sure we've done all this before where we have to look up what things mean in the episodes.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Yeah, we I don't think we've looked up what a phong is, because I don't really want to get too far into Fong because it's problematic. Yeah, no, they did they did that, but I don't know how they got into it. Well, because yeah, but that sort of answers a lot of questions for me, really, because they're already doing because that's like I mean, I suppose to contextualize it for anyone, I don't know anyone will be listening to this who doesn't know what the money to be nothing video is, but if you were, that was like the first sort of I mean it's like it's it's like one of the it's like one of the quintessential music videos, but it's also one of the first uses of CGI animation.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

I think but I think that's the thing. I think it's it was a time when it was a time gonna sound old though. This is the problem I have with modern societies because everything's been done. Because that I think was a time when it was just two blokes had a computer and they were just mucking about and they managed to make a person, and then they could be like, I could animate this person. And then I think if I remember correctly, they were making there was a lot of adverts, and sound like I think there's like a lot of corporate videos. Yeah, yeah. And then Martin Optha was like, I like corporate videos.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:46

Make me an animated version. I don't actually know how they got the gig to do the Money for Nothing video.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

So you don't hear about Dias Race very much anymore, but I think it's because that's the best song and it has a dodgy lyric.

SPEAKER_03 18:58

It is it it it is sort of annoying that you have to try and find the short version. Cause it's still a good riff. It's the good riff if it's good, if this isn't medically good. But what is good is if you listen to it and turn it up very loud on headphones. Right. Because you never quite know, because it 'cause it has quite a good in volume fade in. Does and you never know how loud it's gonna get. But then when the riff starts, it's quite satisfying, even if you can't hear anything at that point. Good. Federal listening doesn't know money for nothing, go and listen to money for nothing on a loud headphones.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

But yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:41

Also find the radio edit, nothing.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

Imagine that the chorus goes money for nothing, fish and chips for tea, because once someone told me that I could never unhear it.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

Yeah, that's exactly how it goes.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

Yeah. Uh anyway, so they did that. Also, so the guy who directed that, Steve Barron, who then produced Reboot. He's like an executive producer, which presumably means he's just not doing that much. But he directed the Turtles film, like the first Turtles film. What? Yeah. I'm pretty sure I'm right. If I'm not right, then someone will tell me. But I'm pretty sure that that is correct. It's an Irish British film, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

Which is probably how they got him at the talk about Turtles.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

Oh no one is Okay, because yeah, because he did he did the Billie Jean video. He did take on me.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

He was very I mean in the in the back in the that time was common throughout the and then throughout the nineties and probably early two thousands, it was common for people to do do the you either went advertising from advertising into movies or you did music videos into movies.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

That is one because yeah, he did he's done episodes of the storyteller.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

Yes. Well that's what's odd because you go Turtles is very much that first Turtles film is very much a kind of practical effects puppet film. Like the storyteller, I guess. Is the CGI in the storyteller? I can't remember. Do they do any CGI stuff?

SPEAKER_03 21:07

Rebooty, but I don't think it was the Storyteller's 87, 88. Wow.

unknown 21:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

Yeah. What's Dreamkeeper? Dunno, do an episode on Dreamkeeper. Oh I know what that is. Anyway, I just thought it was interesting because I'm yeah, starting to get to understand these people and where they're coming from.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

It is interesting. He's done a lot of he's done like a lot of good music videos. And then but then seemed to go route like he does he did his first film was Electric Dreams, which I always want to s I haven't seen that. I want to see it because it sounds bonkers. Okay. And has a good song by Human League. It's not Human League though, it's just when the guy went off on his own. Can't remember his name. This is a good part of the podcast with What Things Can't Peter Remember. But I need to Philip Oakley. There we go. Philip Oakley. Is it not Phil Oakley? Anyway, what was my point? It is later dreams then turns. And then Coneheads, and then A Weird Adventures of Pinocchio, and then Stuff I've Never Heard of.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

I mean I think the Turtles connection is is like a weird that's to me is like a it's interesting because I like like that film. But like the the Money for Nothing connection is like more that's mind blowing to me because it seems like that they were at the sort of forefront of commu computer animation. Um and because but you know, probably I don't know, I'm massively generalizing here, but I would imagine that without the Money for Nothing video, you probably don't get to Pixar for a a bit longer.

SPEAKER_03 22:40

Like must have like that's Well that's the thing, like the early Pixar story, I think it was one of those things that was happening at the same time. It probably was happening at the same time, yeah. Because making bold statements. Because even I remember watching pics like Pixar, even if you start with Tintoy and Nicknack, yeah, they were still quite late going to the history of computer animation. But like it's things like Tron and Last Starfighter, and they were sort of what you were doing in the 80s. But that stuff was still very much until he's 88. I think like reboots. I think the reason reboot's good is because of the I think that's the first time anyone was like, We can take CG and make it like it's weird that it doesn't really sit in the annals of history in the sense of it's kind of the first time that someone said, Let's make a 30-minute CG animation. Yeah. And now that's the norm. Like now it it'd be weird if someone said, I'm gonna do a hand-drawn Yes, like mouse PI.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

Like Mouse PI callback. Yes. But I think that's why I find it so striking is that that that because so Money for Nothing was 1985. So I still think like it as a consumer, that was just a person on the streets, that was like the first time you've sort of seen anything like that. Like, I mean, I don't even remember at the time being that struck by the Money for Nothing video, but I remember it being, I don't know, because you just didn't have the internet, so you couldn't re-watch videos all the time. I think mostly I remember the weird else spoof of it, but it's sort of I don't know, it's still sort of it's it's it's like in my head of something really important that happened in music video making. So the fact that they all worked on it, yeah, it kind of feels like Or I suppose in an alternate universe they all go and work at Pixar and then that's they do more stuff at Pixar, but instead they go this way. And why is it but maybe, I mean, the fact that this episode isn't great, it maybe maybe answers my question as to why it's not a more important thing. Because if I wonder if don't because one one of the things they said was that the Money for Nothing video was a really hard to because the the result it's a bit like when they were making Tron, the results were so unpredictable with the the hardware and the software they were using that you could never quite guarantee how it was gonna look.

SPEAKER_03 25:01

Well, I was one when I was watching this, because like I wrote down it was it did seem like a filler episode.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

I mean again, which And I wonder if that's the point is that all I remember for when they were making it is they were like hotel rooms with a handful of computers.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:16

So if you've got a bloke animating crazy action game sequences and he's like, This is gonna take me three weeks, you need something straightforward to be like, Well, we've got all the sprites. Yes, you've got the assets, you've got enzo to risk it.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Can we just have them running around?

SPEAKER_03 25:33

We don't need to show him actually pooping out a MacGuffin.

SPEAKER_02 25:36

Yes. Yes, because they don't, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:37

They just and we've got a corridor that they can run down. Yeah. Yes, I think you're possibly 20 minutes. So let's Jeff can work on that. Yeah. While Steve's working on the massive, but I don't know if it was that like that seems like it was massive, it was that organized. It sounded like it did sound, I need to get back and watch watch that again, so I know what I'm talking about. It sounded like it wasn't that thought out, it was more do what you can. But that's the impression I got from it, because it seemed like from the first five episodes, it was, as you said, game of the week. Bit of a story, oh no, there's a game, what's the game gonna be? That's why you watch it, and then you come into this, and it's like not only is it just Enzo and Frisket, most annoying character. It's it is it's what's also odd about the the sidekick, I've never like like we've had conversations about this. I've never liked the sidekick characters.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

No, well, no, I mean this is fun, this is probably a bigger subject as a child, but that is no, I didn't either. I never did. Uh I don't know anyone who does. I mean, like Snarf is an annoying character. Like, why do you need a snarf? Who's that for? Because it's not it's not funny. None of those characters are ever funny. Orco's not funny, like in a in a ha ha actually funny way. And it's like they did like Defenders of the Earth, and they don't really have a kid character, but you do Defenders of the Earth. They had that little little Griebly thing. What was he called? Jeff. I'm gonna have to Doctor Google, aren't I? Defenders of the Earth had one. Defenders of the Earth is too long to type. Pirates of Darkwater even had one. Brave Star had the little little midget people.

SPEAKER_03 27:10

But the problem with the Defenders of the Earth is like you've got Flesh Gordon and Phantom and Mandrake and Lothor. Yeah. And then even then, all the kids have to give them kids. And then you have a random cute sidekick. Just just give us the main Yeah. Sidekick. No, that's about Lothor. Tagonist Lothar, Rick Gordon, different cards.

SPEAKER_02 27:30

I've forgotten their names.

SPEAKER_03 27:31

Zuffy.

SPEAKER_02 27:33

Who is Cashin? Kashin?

SPEAKER_03 27:35

Okay. This is not what this is about. You've got Richard Gordon, is is Flash Gordon's son.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

Yeah. That's fine, makes sense. Richard Gordon, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:48

You've got LJ, who is short for Lothar Jr. Like this is slightly problematic anyway, because Lothar is a strange character. Well, yeah, they did the best. But it's we like this is the bet they they made it better than it was in the comic. Well, exactly, yeah, yeah. Like the fact that he is he's listening as Mandrake's assistant and bodyguard. I mean they've got Ming in this as well. Yeah, that's true. It's more that they were like, we can't think of any more, like, we can't have the shadow because that doesn't fit in the comic.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 28:16

And then Jeddah was the daughter of Phantom.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

Who was the hang on, who was the daughter? Jeddah.

SPEAKER_03 28:21

So Kashin's So Kashin is just a random boy that Mandrake adopts.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

Mandrake's not allowed to have like actual children. And Kashin is the one who has no. Okay, yeah, I've got a picture. Right. Is Cashin problematic? No. No, I mean not really. Uh oh no, it's just a little kid. It's just a little Asian boy. I don't know where the name Mandrake Kashin was from. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:44

I remember him now. Yeah, he had the annoying dog thing, whatever it was.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

I mean all things. Defenders of the Earth are all things weird, really. I mean, Phantom's a bit weird. And then you've got Mandrake, who really is just a stage magician who's then teamed up with like a space pilot. Like it's all very odd. And you know, and and and really because these were old-timey comics that no one remembers even at that time. Yes, you knew Flash Gordon because of the film, but it's sort of like, yeah, no one knew who Mandrake or the Phantom were. Well, that rapper 65. That had a game on the spectrum, I think, yeah. That would be good.

SPEAKER_03 29:19

That'd be good if they in the current in the current retro reboot, make a 3D beat em up, 2D beat em up. Defenders of the earth.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

Yeah, from Defenders of the Earth. Yeah, given they made a Phantom one, I'd think that would have maybe helped.

SPEAKER_03 29:31

Maybe that's what the guys making the Phantom one were gearing towards.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

Oh, there was the one they were doing the Avengers. We'll start with the Phantom and see how far we get. And then we'll do the Defenders of the Earth. And then but at one point they have to do Rick Rick Gordon. Rick Gordon. Court. I think that's probably because Ming had a son. Oh, that sounds annoying. I mean, I can't really picture Ming's son, but even as you say it, I'm like annoyed.

SPEAKER_03 29:57

Um, sorry. It's a Cyberman from the early Cyber faction. What, Ming's son? Hang on. No, this is Doctor Who. Oh, that's confusing. Oh no, because the first picture is from Flash Gordon, but it's Google AI has failed me. There we go, he's the son of Ming the Merciless, because why not?

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:17

I'm gonna stop there. I think we should.

SPEAKER_02 30:22

This episode of Noobscast was sponsored by my book, Noobs. Noobs is a middle grade adventure book about three kids who take on an evil AI at an esports tournament. There's a link to the book in the podcast description, so please check this out if you're interested.