Sea of Thieves, Sid Meier's Pirates!, Monkey Island and pirates being annoying (ReBoot s1e7)

Chris and Peter set sail with ReBoot Season 1, Episode 7, “The Crimson Binome”—Mainframe’s pirate-themed adventure. As Bob, Dot, and Enzo encounter data pirates on the high seas, the conversation naturally drifts into the legacy of pirates in video games.

The brothers discuss Sea of Thieves and how modern pirate games often portray pirates less as romantic adventurers and more as chaotic nuisances. From there, they trace the pop-culture resurgence of pirates through classics like The Secret of Monkey Island, On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, and of course the hugely influential Pirates of the Caribbean series.

They also revisit the legendary Sid Meier's Pirates!, discussing why it remains one of the definitive pirate experiences in gaming, and how pirate fiction has evolved from mythic rogues to loud people stealing your loot online.

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. What have you been playing?

SPEAKER_00 0:48

That's how it worked. We've only established it's been a while. I keep thinking that I could still carry on talking about Dredge. I'll stop playing Dredge. I've been playing, apart from smashing through Spider-Man 2, which I seem to do quite quickly. The game I've played before seemed to take me ages, and Spider-Man 2 over Easter, I just sort of smashed my way through.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

But because it's fitting with this episode, I've been playing Sea of Thieves. Good. Is the game that I wished to talk about?

SPEAKER_02 1:15

I feel like because we played the other night with our other brother, Tim, and I felt like I don't really know what's going on, and you and Tim do know what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

I felt that too.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Was it the fact that I just kept one wandering around the ship playing music, working out what to do? And also long stretches where I sort of just seem to be wandering off or doing something else, and then I'd be like, oh god, you've gone.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

It's an odd one. So for those that don't know, Sea of Thieves was released on the Xbox and was an Xbox exclusive until recently when Xbox needed more money, so they started releasing games on the PlayStation and they released Sea of Thieves. And it is a pirate game where you and I don't know how many. Up to four friends, I guess, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

I think more if you get one of them big ships.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

No, I think that still only has four.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

I thought it was like eight.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Anyway, you need friends.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

You need friends. You can't be a solo pirate. You can but you can it's dead old though. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Basically, you you are a crew of a ship and you can sail around and do missions. And the reason why I quite quite liked it is there were a lot of videos online of it seemed quite chaotic and funny, and it's like I what I I miss, and we probably mention it a lot. I don't know if we mentioned it yet, but we we were both fans of playing Star Trek Bridge Crew.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Star Trek Bridge Crew is the best multiplayer online game ever made. Unless you're the captain. Even if you're the captain, I mean the thing is, it's also of of a time like we thought we were playing it during COVID. And it was in VR, which also adds an element to it. But the fact that in COVID where you couldn't see anyone, we were just sitting on the bridge of the enterprise chatting, that was that added an element of making it good. But then the get I think what was good about that game was that it was truly collaborative without you having necessarily to be good at it. Like I get that probably, I don't know, Overwatch or whatever is probably really collaborative if you know what you're doing. If you're being a sniper man and just standing at the back saying, Yeah, and you have sniper I'm a tank, so I'll run forward and take damage, and I'll be a medic and so I'll run round and heal people. I get that that's a thing that exists, but I think as Star Trek Bridge Crew, it's like, right, you all have your things, it's very clear that you can't progress unless the engineer fixes the stuff that's broken or the pilot man flies round the drawing. The shooter weapons man, I don't know, Davy weapons, Davy weapons. Yeah, I mean the only the in a way the bit that you didn't need, yeah, was the captain because you you could kind of do it.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

I think we reached a point also where we knew exactly what we were doing. So like no one needed to tell me if I was navigating to avoid the giant asteroid. You just avoid the giant asteroid.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

Yeah, but it was it was frustrating because it's such a limited game, like it's almost a bit like like a lot of early VR stuff, it was a bit like more like an experiment than a or an experience rather than the game, and it's you know yeah, there's so few missions on it.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Um Yeah, but it was quite but I like the element, it's the thing of like you had something to do. And Sea of Thieves, I thought because I was wrong, but I thought it was going to be similar. Yeah. Because you have like Jeff Navigator.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Well, someone has to steer the ship and someone has to look at the map and someone can drop the anchor.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Well, this is the thing, it's then things get quite quick, so it's like so the only position is like if I'm steering the ship and Tim's running around looking at the map and dropping the anchor.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

I'm running around playing the accordion.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Then there's nothing left to do but run around and play the accordion.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Because I I tried going up in the crow's nest and being like, oh look, there's a ship, but normally you or Tim had seen the ship before I'd seen the ship.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

But so it's it's interesting, but then I th I find it it's like it's it's really hard. But like we we've been playing on so there's two modes you can play on high seas, which is where you play with other people, which is frustrating in its own right. Or there's safe seas where you get to do the missions and get gold. But even on safe seas, we ran into a ghost ship and a sea monster and got absolutely slaughtered. Yeah. And it seems like everywhere online is like there is no way to improve, like you can't buy better armour. It's all all anything you can buy is all cosmetic. But there is an element of like whenever I played high seas and gone against real players, they do seem better than me.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Well, but I think this is what I always find frustrating about online games, is that really it's a skill thing, like you can't get better by I understand why. I understand that if if you could because you could just grind, get all the best gear, and then beat everyone, so you can't have that. You it has to be a level playing field at all times. I understand that, but then it benefits the people, younger people who've got time to just play it over and over and over again and have the reflexes and be able to do stuff quicker. I think the same thing with Red Dead, like you sort of get into fights with people in Red Dead online and they just be able to sort of one shot kill you all the time, and you just I don't know have the reflexes or the skill to do that. I prefer a sort of an action game with RPG elements, like Red Dead Normal, where you go, I can gradually I mean Red De Red Dead's a bad example actually, because it's it's hard to improve yourself. Games where you can improve your attributes through by just playing it. Uh I prefer because I don't have to be really good at games, I don't have to spend I don't have to spend time grinding, that's the thing. I have to spend time just getting good at the stuff. There is a sort of power fantasy in just oh, I can play for an hour and I've made myself slightly better, my character slightly better at least, and that's going to make the game easier. Um whereas I feel like a lot of online games it's just like, and I think Sea of Thieves is one, it's it's just sort of you just need to play this a lot, so you're really good at it at it.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

There is I did also find out in the ongoing plight of console players that you can it always seems a problem when you're playing console versus PC, because the PC players will always have a mouse and a keyboard.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

And they tend to have better reaction times.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

And I did find that option last time I went on. It's like, oh, we could have turned off, could have put console only.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Oh yeah. I remember that from back when we used to play Star Wars Squadrons, it would always be the you get you you get put in with people on PC and it would just be impossible because there'd be yeah, the I mean they've probably got all kinds of things going on.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

All kinds of things.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Yeah, like I don't know, we just picture that they've got like flight sticks and cop actual cockpits.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Yeah, at least that's what makes us feel better when we can't play the game properly.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

But it was even like it was like, yeah, because I understand that like playing a one player, also you've got a really tiny ship. So I understand that that gets destroyed quite quickly.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Um but it's like, yeah, because we main term carried on a bit longer and we sort of came across because what's sort of funny in high seas is you come across other players and they're always evil and they're always annoying and they kill you straight away and then they nick all your stuff, but you also can't really complain because it's a pirate game and that's kind of what they're supposed to do. You can't sort of sit there going, The pirates stole my stuff because they're like, Well, they're pirates, so I suppose they're allowed. But it was sort of annoying when it's like you're a single player just trying to get a bit of money, because there is a lot of that, like even if you want to put a different hat on, you've got to like everything costs. Like we managed to get money to buy a bigger ship, and I was looking at just the things of let's put a different figurehead on it, and it's like it goes up to like a million coins. Yeah, like it took me months to save up just to get the 300 you need the 300,000 to get a ship, and then you just start going, This is ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Is that because though, is there in-game currency that you can then oh yeah, it's totally.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

I think I think you can use real money. You can use real money to buy that's what I mean.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

Sorry, not in-game currency.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

I mean like is there yeah, can you buy you can, I don't think you can buy gold with it.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

But is it like because Red Dead always had the thing where you could buy gold bars and then you could either pay in money or you could pay in gold. Yeah. So if you have like one gold bar, you could spend two hundred dollars on a jacket or you could just spend one gold bar, but you would have bought that with real money. Yeah. I don't know. No, I don't know either.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

I find I I sort of it's a game that I sort of enjoy. It's gonna sound stupid. I enjoy it until it gets annoying, but it does often get annoying. Like when we're fighting the ship, and that's like we spent ages trying to solve that riddle, and then we solved the riddle, and we got the thing, and then yes, we shouldn't have fired the cannon at the sea monster, but then you're trying to sail back, yeah, because it always feels like in real time, and then a sea monster sinks your ship and you you lose the treasure, and you think, well, that was like that was an hour just wasted.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

I think where I struggled with, I didn't and this is where I struggle with online games is I'm like, what's the what's the overarching purpose of this? Like I mean, this is this is I think this is me problem, but this is why I prefer story games because I want like I want to beginning, middle, and end, and then move on to something else where it's just like right, go on the sea and get treasure and stuff forever.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

I think this is the problem with it. I think because we played like there's a that Monkey Island level and Yeah, which I preferred, but it was so long. I think we liked the first bit because it was like, Oh, you're going to Jeff's Island, that's like Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, you've got to do the spitting contest, that's good. And we did all that, and we did and the first bit was quite short. And then yeah, then we played the next level, and it was like this is bonkers, like this is just us completing Monkey Island in first. Yeah, basically it seems what I think I like about it. The problem is is the size of installed installed games on the PlayStation, but it's quite good to just be like, I think it's a similar thing to me, and this is why I'm not good at them because I don't play them for too long. But it is a similar thing to the law knowing simulator and powerwash. Ultimately, there isn't a point.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

And the problem is when you start to question a point, you go, There's not a point to any of this.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Well, there isn't.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

It's literally just passing time until we die.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

But it's like like but if you think of like and power wash is a bad example because it's weird stories normally.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

I love powerwash.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

But it's like fo like FIFA to pick on FIFA. Yeah. There is a point of like, we are just passing time. Like story-driven narrative games, like playing Spider-Man, it is like an interactive film.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

Yes, you're just passing time, but there is still a story there, and you're and you get sort of I guess like something like Spider-Man, I get emotionally involved in it, so uh it feels rewarding in that way. I don't think I get emotionally involved in I probably I mean, I don't get emotionally involved in power washing, but I think that's well, these things work at different parts of your brain. I think that's an interesting thing. What's interesting about video games is power washing is that you get like an instant sort of dopamine hit of the dings and the cleaning the thing, and it's all it's it it it's a very pleasing kind of experience.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

That's why I got into lawn mowing, it's was to switch off. Granted, again, I think I got into it over COVID and we live in a flat where we don't have a garden.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Yeah, so I play that and I just feel like I should be mowing the actual lawn.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

But I get like when I've been stressed at work, it's quite good just to mow it back and forth because I don't like I want to play a game, but I don't really want the stress of story or having to think.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

Yeah, no, that's true, yeah.

unknown 12:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

I mean, so this is the the before we get into the episode, when did pirates become cool? Because pirates, like as you point out in Sea of Thieves, you sort of realize that pirates in general are just quite annoying. You're just sort of going around and then a pirate will come and steal your stuff, and that's annoying. But I mean, I know there's like old films with pirates, like Captain Blood and stuff, and probably before then. Um presumably there are tales of pirates in literature. I don't know that's where pirates become fun. Given that it's like a thing, like kids dress up as pirates, and it's like a thing considering that real-life pirates exist. Real life pirates exist, you imagine are probably more than annoying, probably actually sort of terrifying.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Yeah. I don't have an answer for you.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

No.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

It feels like it's a whole aesthetic, though. It's kind of uh I think popularized not to just go, oh, Pirates of the Caribbean, but it sort of is.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

I suppose that's where it had there was there's a pirate's resurgence because of Pirates of the Caribbean. But that seemed to make up a load of just lore about from nowhere. I mean, I know they it was based on the ride and stuff. To get to bring it back to video original before Pirates of the Caribbean, aside from like, I mean, it was always the thing with kids, like I had books about pirates, picture books, but I remember that Sid Meyer's Pirates game. That was good. I mean that similarly didn't really have an ending. You just kind of I think eventually you grew old, but it was like you would just set off there was always a story about because there's various different versions of it, it got remastered a few times, but you always start off you inherit a ship somehow, and then you just get started, and you could go and trade stuff, or you could get into fights, or you could take on like forts and things. I mean it all went a bit mad, but it was quite addictive. And that's the thing, I suppose it was addictive in a kind of amassing a fortune type way, and getting bigger, getting a bigger crew and stuff. Yeah, I don't know. What am I getting at? I mean that was but I guess I'm getting at that was pre-Carries of the Pirates of the Caribbean Carrots, but that was pre-Pirates of the Caribbean and was still ticking some well or scratching some sort of an itch that I had about pirates.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Um still banging on about pirates.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Yeah. Well, as the episode of Reboot will show, pirates were were were still a thing in the 90s.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Well, that's the weird thing. Because what are they are they date data pirates? Do they call them? I don't remember. Segway into the episode. But I wonder if it's that. Like it seems to be that it's not they've never been so it's like sorry, I've as just as we were getting into the episode, I'm pulling us back into a tangent. That's fine. I think it's like cowboys. Yeah. Everyone liked cowboys, but then in the 50s, 60s, Hollywood made a million cowboy films, and then I think people got sick of cowboys.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

But they didn't make a million pirate films.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Well, but that's what I mean.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

They made some.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

So cowboys kind of died off. I know Red Dead exists, but that's kind of a blip. Whereas Pirates, I think, just it never never overstays its welcome. And then just as it's sort of disappearing from the zeitgeist, reboot release an episode of let's do data pirates. And then everyone goes, Oh, pirates, that's a fun. Like, who are? That's that's a farmer.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Pirates of Darkwater, as I mentioned last episode.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

And then Pirates of Darkwater comes out and you go, Oh yeah, pirates, that's a thing.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Yeah, they had a sidekick.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

So then I think it sort of just stays afloat, like a pirate ship.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Yeah. And Monkey Island was as discussed was sort of very pirate-based.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

There's a lot, but it just all quite spaced out.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

So Monkey Island, as far as I'm aware, a lot of the inspiration from Monkey Island came from On Stranger Tides, which is a Tim Powers. Powers. Powers, Tim Powers, the Tim Powers book, which I haven't read, I've got, but I haven't read it. So I might be talking. And then they then Pirates of the Caribbean four, I think. One. I wanted to say four.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

It's not three.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

It's not three. Maybe five. I don't know. I get sketch, I mean sketchy on the post-trilogy. Pirates of the Caribbean films. But one of them is on Stranger Tides that is then adapts. But because there was always a thing that Pirates of the Caribbean seemed very Monkey Island based. Yeah. In a way. In fact, because the Orlando Bloom character is very similar to Guy Brush. He's not as goofy, but he's similar in sort of visually to Guybrush. So you sort of have and then you've got the ghost pirates, obviously, Jeffrey Rush and all that. So that's sort of very similar to the Chuck and all of that. So yeah, there are always these clear sim similarities to Monkey Island, which which I think really just came for the fact that they were both kind of referring to the same source material, given the fact that they don't then do an adaptation on Stranger Tides, which I don't think they ended up. Again, I haven't read the book. I don't think it's that close to the book, but that was the source material, was the book. I don't know what I'm trying to say with all this. But that's what but well, it it it is that is that that you've got kind of yeah, key pirate texts coming up over and over and again. Um I don't think this reboot episode is a key pirate text, but it's another example of let's do something with with pirates.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

It is. I quite like this character pops up quite a bit.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

What the pirate character?

SPEAKER_00 18:19

I've said quite a bit. He pops up again at least two seasons from now.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

We're not gonna get as far as these good episodes in this last season, are we?

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Not for a while.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Really? Because I think because it gets really good.

SPEAKER_02 18:32

I know it does, and that's why I'm that's why I'm sticking with it. But this episode I also didn't like very much. I d I liked I mean again it just felt like a bit of filler, and well, it just there was no game, that's the problem. That's my problem with it, is there was no game. And it felt like you got pirates, you could have a good game. Yeah like Sidma is pirates, or you could have a Monkey Island game, but instead there's just pirates who really do come to mainframe. They steal they want to steal glitch and they eventually do steal glitch. They steal Bob as well.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

And they just steal stuff.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

Yeah, because pirates are annoying. And then a profit. Yeah. Yes, so then, yeah, because this one ends so Dot and Enzo charter a ship to go after the pirates. Yes, because they're also obviously haven't played Sea of Thieves enough to have to own a ship, so they have to charter a ship. They eventually they kind of do a deal with the pirates because they have a sort of financial terminology fight. Talking about profit margins and things, and and the pirate is so impressed that that he decides to team up with them. I mean it's good. I like I do quite like Dot's character and how she's sort of organising the whole mainframe and stuff, which you sort of get more and more of as it goes on. And how she sort of like in the episode where she gets hit by the magnet and Bob goes off to save her, but in the meantime she just sorts it out herself. I think she's a good character, and this this is I guess more of a Dot showcase episode. It's just that her powers are the finance.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Finance and business.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Financial services and business. Like she would be good on the apprentice or Dragon's End.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

That episode comes later.

SPEAKER_02 20:15

Yeah. But it's odd that that's her that's her main feature in a kid's guard.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Like, even more so than last episode, it felt like this time they had sprites but didn't have backgrounds.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

So they just went out. It's interesting, because I think it's also every time they have good ideas, I think they come too close to breaking the rule and the world that they've set up. Like off the point. It's obviously this thing like let's have data pirates. That's a joke, ha ha ha ha.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

So they would have had like it normally starts with, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

What's a phong? Yeah, we'll use pong. We'll look at it one day. I think we already have. What can we use? And on a list of computer terminology will be data pirates. Cool, that we'll have, but they can be pirates, ha ha ha. But then you've got to get them there, so then you've got to create a tear in the middle of the sea. You've also got to make the sea massive. But also if you've got a way to get like even now, like not as joined forces with them because they're good at business business and moving the goods and people into the web. And it's like, well, if you can get to the web that easily, I don't know, you just think surely if you're sort of on on you're on the precipice of ruining your world where you're supposed to be like I always it always implied that it was the mainframe was like this stranded place. Yeah. Because every time there's a tear that they want to stabilize to get to the web, I know I'm trying to make sense of it and I think that's the problem. But then if out in the sea there's just all these tears so that they can get portals to the web anyway, you sort of start thinking, well, why doesn't Megabyte just get a ship?

SPEAKER_02 21:56

That's true. That's why it's not even in this this episode. No.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

It's like, well, if he'd kidnapped the pirates instead of mocking about with Enzo.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

Yeah, yeah. So I read on the subject You're probably not supposed to think about it this much as a child.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

You're just supposed to be going finance jokes.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

Yeah. So I got I did some research because I got I got this, I think I stole this from you from your bookshelf at the highest.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

That's that's my book.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

Yes. And then this morning, I was reading it at my connecting station.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

We've done those two episodes.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

Yeah, we have, yeah, yeah. Well that's good because there's no spoilers. So I've only read the first one so far. But I was reading it on at the station this morning, I missed my connecting station. Excellent. And then was like, I can't really tell people that I missed my train because I was so engrossed in the the reboots. Because it's just too too much of a convoluted story to tell. Anyway. But what was interesting is so there's a bit at the beginning where like there's an introduction from dot written by Dot, well, it's Dot explored outlining the world.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

Which is quite interesting because she talks about the difference between binomes and data sprites. So she's a data sprite, so presumably Bob is too. I mean, who knows if this is like canon or not, but um and then binomes are the ones the the the author of the book trying to get his head. Probably. But then the binomes are the ones that do all the work in the city. So so the little robot things presumably are binomes, and yeah, and people, the ones that look like people must be data sprites, is what I would imagine.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

I don't want to say that because that sounds too stupid. It's because they're binary, that's why they're ones and zeros. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

That's funny. But Bob comes to mainframe from the supercomputer. He was a he was a top-level guardian at the supercomputer port. He was basically border control. So he was stopping, yet kind of a cop who prevented illegal entries into the supercomputer. Yeah. And then he has a run-in with megabyte, who's a virus, and it's while fighting to keep megabytes. It's gonna get so confused.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Or I don't know, and w and then just ended up sticking around. Don't I don't still have lots of questions. I feel like I understand a bit more about the the binomes and the data sprites, that makes a bit more sense. He comes from the net. He comes from the net, not the supercomputer, but according to the book, he comes from he comes from supercomputer port.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

Which is another computer joke.

SPEAKER_02 24:31

Yeah, I don't know, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

It's it's difficult because I don't want to moan about because I do really like I did.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

No, it's good.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

Like it does make no sense. And it does get really good. But there are I think I think at this point, even you can see the limitations. Because like I think we did mention this before, like I've got to look it up. But like the episode guide, I think it's something weird where there's like 13 episodes in season one, and then like six in season two, yeah, and then twelve in season three, or something weird. It's not that mental. Thirteen in season one, ten in season two, sixteen in season three, yeah, and we don't talk about season four. Then it's it's the problem, it peaks at season three and then quickly drops off.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

Um I get to season three, we've got twenty-three episodes to get to.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

We can do that eventually. It might take another year or two, three.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Maybe just seven.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

So we average five episodes a year.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Anyway, I've started thinking it. I think season two probably gets okay. I think in season two they've worked out how to make a series and it all gets a bit the stakes kind of get a bit more anyway. I think that's the thing. I think for the first season they were still sort of trying to work out what it was.

SPEAKER_02 25:45

Yeah, I no, I get that. Yeah, and all and also probably looking at kids TV at the time. I mean, give get based on the fact that their background was music videos and stuff. I mean, they're and and also probably heavily heavily kind of technology based as well. Yeah. That that they were probably just looking at at kids TV at the time going, Oh, yeah, some like this is this is a the yeah, I mean I I mean I'm I'm I'm applying kind of modern sensibilities and expectations to a series from a time when you were not I don't I know we mentioned this before, but you were not expected to watch every single episode like we are doing.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

In order as well, I guess. Like it was built, although later on you need to watch it in order.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

Yeah, yeah. But I think I think at uh when it at this point, yes, it was okay to have two episodes in a row without a game because most people would probably might only catch one of those episodes. Yeah. And that was and if they didn't, there was no way of going back to it or binging the series, so it was that was it. So yeah, so I should be I should be more forgiving, really. And I do st I do still think it's uh it's interesting. I thought the designs and the other design is quite interesting. I thought the designs of the ships was cool. The ship design reminded me of Tron, the way the sails sort of shoot out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

I think this is the thing I because I I do like the character when he has in it again. He has a there is more point. I think he does pop up a bit because now he's just trading with Dot. But I think there is and I think this was probably TV at the time. It's like I remember I was watching a video just on TikTok or something, about someone highlighting the fact that in the UK we weren't allowed ninja turtles, we had hero turtles and Michelangelo wasn't allowed his nunchucks and stuff like that. And I think there is this thing with it, obviously, there was obviously something where they were like we we are limited in what we can do, so we can't have fights or the characters fighting because it's because like even even at the height of it like even at not the height of it, but even when you get an episode where like okay, Bob's gonna fight megabytes, he's still it's still they are still limited by the technology at this point. So there's still a kind of he doesn't actually have like a fist fight with anyone, he'll sort of push a car at him because they can work out how to move giant objects.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

So when you're just like, let's have pirates, you go, this will be good, and they'll be jumping around and that's what pirates are and climbing the sails. Oh no, we can't really do any of that because we're still limited. So then it's I think as adults you can look back and it's more I'm seeing that side more than when I was a kid.

SPEAKER_02 28:26

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Oh, they're having like a a fight using finance terminology because that's that'll be that's funny, but it also means we don't now need to animate a massive seafaring fight.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

Yes, that is true, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Like I'm still surprised, and I could just be remembering it wrong, but I'm still surprised how much there's still a lot of looking and gurning into the camera, but how much just standing around there is. Yeah. Like there's a lot of characters just standing there talking, which is fine, because again, I'm not knocking it like that's the technology they had. But it is it is sort of odd looking back and knowing that they do it gets better and they do a bit more. It is, yeah. It does just seem like this thing, it sort of becomes obvious that they are sort of filler episodes of we don't need to do much because it would break computers' rendering. Yes. Saying all that about things I did right, I like that there was a punch in duty that was called Punch Card and Querity.

SPEAKER_02 29:23

Punch card and quiet, yeah. I was getting I did make that note that the seaside scene at the beginning felt very British.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

Yeah, and again, there's things like I also like I think like a lot of the characters, a lot of the binomes, they just put random costumes on them. And I don't know if it's references to things. I'm sure one of them was dressed up like M. Bison from Street Fighter.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

Right. Yeah. Is the because the ship was called the Saucy Mare. Is that a reference to anything? I don't know. No, I don't either. I've just looked up.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

I did think I just looked up Fong.

SPEAKER_02 29:56

We should I did think that's what we could have called our ship in Sea of Thieves.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

I could have called your ship lots of things in Sea of Thieves.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

We could have called it John Wesley's ship, which was my suggestion.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

And I if you were only quicker, because instead I called it the Hong Kong Cavalier, and we are now our guild is the Hong Kong Cavaliers.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

I mean, that's cool.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

Riding the Hong Kong Cavalier.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

So Hong Kong Cavalier is real money.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

That's the problem. It costs real money to rename the ship.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

I might pay just to rename it to John Wesley Ship.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

Five pounds. I did think about it.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

A lot just to five pounds. Just to make yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Like I'd rather just save up and buy another ship.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

Yeah, that's true. Okay, maybe, yeah. Yeah, okay. Maybe I'll buy a ship. Good.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

On this episode, you want to know on this do you want to start a new section called What is a Fong?

SPEAKER_02 30:46

Well, is a Fong a thing?

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

What's a Fong?

SPEAKER_00 30:49

It's quite good and then gets problematic quite quickly. Okay. So a Fong refers to a set of techniques and 3D computer graphics for realistic lighting and shading.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

And you go, okay, that's why he's probably called Fong because he has shading. Invented in 1973 by Boy Chong Fong. And that's when I think it gets problematic.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

Well, it's in some ways, I don't know. Maybe that does make it a bit better.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

I think And when I say it's problematic, I'm pointing out because I'm just checking this guy's nationality. Vietnamese. So it's more it's not that it's created by a Vietnamese guy. No, that's more that.

SPEAKER_02 31:29

Fine. And his name was Fong.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

It's more that they've then made Fong Asian.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

Well, he's just generic, like Asian wise person. So I think that's difficult.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

And I think it's knowing that he's clearly gonna be voiced, not by I don't ever want to know.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

I'm just going down this rabbit hole in case we can be like, oh no, it's actually he's actually the But he was voiced by the descendant of the original Mr. Fong.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

No, it wasn't.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

Yeah, that's fine. I'm happy not knowing.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

Taking a screen crop. Yeah, it's just he's just voiced by a Canadian voice actor. Yeah. Well of Canadian descent.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

The only other thing I have to worry about Captain Capacitor, he was the name of the pirate. Yes. Is so I remember the toys when it came out, they had like really rubbish toys.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

Yeah, I remember I occasionally look those up on eBay.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Like anyone, I was looking at them.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

And then Yeah, because you can get Bob from you can get Bob from the TIFF with old man Pearson.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

Colour changing Bob. That's the one that was.

SPEAKER_02 32:30

Yes, you can get colour changing Bob.

SPEAKER_00 32:32

But later, like so the early toys were a bit rubbish, but then later on they did good toys. And I only know they did good toys is because I bought a load of them from Poundland when I was in university.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

And got very excited. And the guy my course was like, Why are you buying a load of toys? And I was like, because it's reboot. Shut up. But it was always annoying because on the back, I always remember quite clearly on the back of the box you could get Captain Capacitor, and every now and I keep looking for him, and he doesn't seem to exist anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

Nah.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

So it's one of those things where they were like, Oh, we're gonna make this toy. And he could get his ship and Mr. Christopher.

SPEAKER_02 33:08

What is it like mega rare? Is it or is is it like the Boba Fett where he fires his rocket where he did like a prototype?

SPEAKER_00 33:16

I don't even know if they've made it because I've not even seen it's not like the Clash of the Titans toys, which you've sort of seen pictures of.

SPEAKER_02 33:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

This I've never seen beyond a part of on the back of the box.

SPEAKER_02 33:25

Hmm. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

I also quite like Mr. Jimmy. He was my favourite.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

I don't even remember Mr. Jimmy.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

Mr. Jimmy, I think, was the jailer. Okay. Because you're Jimmy the Lock. That's probably why.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

I see. I think maybe I also need to start watching these earlier in the evening.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

I think I was just picking up on anything because there wasn't much else. I couldn't follow any of the finance.

SPEAKER_02 33:46

No. No, well, this is I think this is where I struggle with because the premise of this podcast was like there'll be a game of the week, and then we can use that to talk about different games. Yeah. And when there's not a game of the week, it's like there's not much to talk about other than Fong. But uh hopefully there'll be a game next.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

I've looked it up. I think I think there's a game the next couple of episodes.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

That's good.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

So there'll be things.

SPEAKER_02 34:09

Yeah, that sounds good. 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.