Gamer Origins with Art Danner on Gaming Origins

Hey, this is Steve blue and you are listening

to the geek cast radio network your podcast player,

do not attempt to adjust the volume. Hello and

welcome to Studio 2009. I'm of course TFJ Mike.

And for our latest gamer origins today, I welcome

a GCRN stalwart, someone who hasn't been with

us in a while because I don't know, he's too

busy, you know, eating popcorn off movie theater

floors every year, watching movie 1, 2, 3, 4,

7, 8, 9, 12, 47 of whichever year it is. He is

one of, as you can hear him cackling in the background,

he is one of the co -hosts of Off the Cuff. He

is someone who actually, I don't know if it was

the first thing you and I did together, but I

went back to July 31st of 2013 to re -listen

to your comic reading origins, but now... Art

Danner, the gamer, the movie fan, he is here,

and what is the deal with X -51 the Machine Man?

Where did that name come from? What's the story

behind that? So X -51 the Machine Man is actually

a reference to Marvel Comics, which would be

a character called X -51 the Machine Man, which

also happens to be... My PlayStation gamer tag.

There you go. So so bringing it right back around

to this whole gamer origins thing. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Now, my lovely lady, the chaos queen

will say this is a stupid question. It makes

no sense. She pointed it out to me that when

we did it for her origins and I'm like, yes,

it does. Because not everyone has the same entry

point that everyone else does. Question one.

Did you grow up playing video games in it? What?

Age do you first remember noticing and what were

some of your earliest video game memories. So

yes I very much grew up. Playing games the first

my first interaction in my first. Experience

with gaming was my dad brought home an Atari

2600. And hooked it up to the tube TV and my

introduction into gaming was essentially joystick

art. Atari with see Qbert. And centipede were

were essentially were were literally my first

two games into gaming and it was pretty much

hooked from there and then deep deep deep deep

deep into the well of gaming. I went from there.

Yeah, absolutely. You and I have a similar origin

with that because my mom brought home the 2600

and barnstormers and cuvert were the two that

I used and I'm going to say this now. Me personally

folks this is my personal opinion this is not

this is tf2 and mike here speaking i want everyone

to listen to the sound of my voice i'm not saying

this is a gcr opinion i'm not trying to start

a scrappy do argument about games or anything

like that twenty six hundred superior seventy

eight hundred screw off. I can back that up.

But yeah, I was like, that was that was my dad

was really big into my dad's always been one

of those guys that he was like really into technology.

And he was he was kind of the one who they kind

of introduced it into the house. And then unfortunately,

he kept on feeding it. And for me, I just. It

didn't help with the friend group that I grew

up with that I was like super, super into gaming

as from a very young. Yeah, absolutely. That's

awesome. So what video games were you playing

the most as a kid overall? Were you an Atari

gamer, NES gamer, Sega gamer, or some other game

system type of gamer? So I pretty much grew up

as, I mean the, I really got into the NES, um,

eventually, um, but The Super Nintendo was kind

of like that was the system where I'd like have

the fondest of memories. Legend of Zelda, Link

to the Past, Mega Man X were like two of my favorite

games. For some reason, I also had the Super

Nintendo Jurassic Park game, which I love to

hate play because that game really wasn't great.

But for some reason, I enjoyed playing it because

of how stupidly ridiculous It was in just difficult

to play. Well, it's one of those like it started

out as like a top down and then when you go to

buildings, it goes into first person mode. Yep.

Like it was just had this real bizarre mix of

kind of camera angles and different genre play

in the same game, which I enjoyed. I did play

a ton of I mean, Super Mario Brothers on the

first Nintendo. Yep. Love that game. I also put

way too much time into Battle Toads, which is

another one of those insanely frustrating games

to play, along with another insanely frustrating

game to play, which would be Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles. Like into the to this day like years

in like in the last year and a half that one

damn jump in the damn level that you always fall

through and then you learn that you could have

just walked across it and I think I learned that

in like a gaming tutorial online within like

the last year and a half and it just Still hurt

just knowing that I couldn't just walk across

it the entire time which made me hate the game

even more so And then in a smattering of Mega

Man in there, I was like, I think Mega Man was

always one like on the original Nintendo. I played

a lot of Mega Man one, two and three. And because

of the fact that me and my buddy always hated

putting the codes in, we would actually just.

Shut the TV off and let them stay on because

we didn't want to put in that giant long code

and then we'd just come back to it like days

later where the intent was still on the cartridge

is still in there and Restart the game and go

right back at it. It's over. It's overheating

by that point It's fine. It was like it warmed

the place up in the winter. So There was also

another game that I was very fond of on the Nintendo

called Mighty Bomb Jack that was not a widely

known game, but for some reason I have fond memories

of it despite the fact that with as expansive

and long of the game as I honestly don't think

I ever got past level 10 and I think it's like

a 90 some odd level game. but i enjoyed it nonetheless

and then and then obviously on the regular nintendo

i have fond memories of burger time burger time

i think you i i don't know we only have like

seven or eight of these gamer origin things so

far and luckily joe reid hasn't come on yet he

will be at some point on here but uh i think

you're the only person besides kevin freaking

keen captain and the game master that i've ever

heard anyone mention burger time Oh, I love me

some Burger Time. Dude, I used to play the arcade

version of Burger Time in the arcades. I love

me some Burger Time. Ready to commence gameplay!

All right, this is a side question. This is not

in with the regular questions, but since we're

talking about all these game systems and everything

else, and we're talking about Nintendo and all

that, let's just stick with the NES. Mario, one,

two, or three, if you had to pick one, which

one would you pick overall? So the issue is I

have fond memories of all of them? Right. I'm

really, really partial to Mario 3. And for me,

I think it has a lot to do with the airships

and the Koopa kids and kind of like, dumb as

this is about to sound, I think it was the deepening

of the bench of the mythos of essentially the

Koopas I found really entertaining in that game.

Yes. The other thing specifically that I will

point out about Mario 3 is I got to go with a

friend to a industry gaming convention because

his dad used to actually deal in pinball and

arcade machines, and I actually got to play Super

Mario 3 six months before it actually released

in the United States. Oh wow, that is awesome.

Was it complete? It was complete. The full translation

to the American version wasn't done. But they

had it like Nintendo had a booth there and they

were allowing it because it was essentially that

the portion of that convention and I wouldn't

even say it's a convention back then they weren't

conventions essentially what they were is they

were almost like a buyer's convention or essentially

that they It's a trade show where essentially

they want people to kind of come in there and

see what's coming out So they'll buy units to

put in their stores and department stores and

things like that That's basically what I mean

your comic cons and your your your video game

cons and your board game cons Those those have

all kind of evolved out of that old -school trade

show mentality where everything was set up for

basically people that ran these Stores that were

buyers that come in and kind of, you know, see

the new products that are coming out so they

could essentially prepay for their units to stock

their shelves and things like that. So. But yeah,

it was the yeah, I got to was like that's that's

what I have very few like really semi exciting

things, but a lot of them typically involve that

family and go to cool stuff like that with them

when I was young. Yeah, very awesome. Very awesome.

Yeah, you mentioned the deepening of the Koopa

mythos with the Koopa kids and all as I can hear

in my head. It's not the game I hear. It's Adventures

of Super Mario Bros. 3. It's that opening theme.

That's all I can hear in my head from that cartoon.

Nineteen nine. Ninety or eighty nine, ninety

or ninety one. I forget off the top of my head,

but it's one of those years. It is a legend no

one will forget. Everyone thought King Koopa

had left the Mushroom Kingdom. And then, his

Doomship attacked. King Koopa was back, with

the greatest danger ever known. His Koopa Kings.

Using their new superpowers, the Super Mario

Brothers rescued Princess Toadstool, and beat

back the evil Koopa family. I'm getting the flummies!

Alright, so what was your number one favorite

video game as a kid and what is your number one

favorite video game as an adult? So as a kid

I'm Legend is all the length of the past is still

near and dear to my heart I spent a lot of a

lot a lot a lot a lot of time with that game

and I played it over and over and over again

and I never got sick of that game and I just

that is Yeah, that is my favorite childhood game

would be Legend is only the past and super nintendo.

Yeah i'm right there with you because i man that

that's my zelda. There's like there's no beginning.

There's no middle. There's no end to. I understand

and I respect the first game for, you know, doing

what it did and obviously starting the franchise.

There's no game past a link to the past that

I like more than a link to the past. There is

my there is a close second for me. OK. And it's

Final Fantasy three on Super Nintendo, which

would be official numbering is Final Fantasy

six. Which i will dig my heels into the ground

and still say to this day is the best final fantasy

game that has ever been produced in the series.

I will die on that hill and people that save

seven is the best. Clearly never played in the

original six and their opinion is null and void

and I will not hear their argument. Absolutely.

So so current favorite game. Yeah, current favorite

game. We'll blow past that. I'm very, very and

it's for me, it's more of a game series that

I'm very partial to. I. In in in my my current

age, I don't get a chance to play a lot of video

games, but I like stuff that has very deep world

building. And I have been a insane fan of the

Fallout franchise for a long time. And that is

by far that that's my game series. That's always

been my game series as an adult. I just enjoy

Fallout 3, Fallout 4, Fallout 76 for the most

part, Fallout New Vegas, like those those newer

versions of the Fallout games. And a lot of it

for me is it's the world building. It's the mythos

and it's all of the A lot of the the aesthetics

in the in the world type of a thing that I just

I I enjoy so that's That's kind of like current

currently out there. That's yeah It's hard for

me to pick a game in the series just because

I love the I love the world Yeah Yeah, that's

like asking somebody to pick their favorite Metal

Gear Solid game. That's really easy. It's the

first one I agree. I do very much 100 % agree

with that. Sons of Liberty sucks and Raiden can

jump off a cliff. Hey! Hey now! Wait a second.

Blah, blah, blah. I agree that the first one

is the best one, but Sons of Liberty wasn't that

bad. Raiden's trash. I'm not a Raiden fan. Okay,

okay. I understand that. I get that and I respect

that. Man, we are going off the cuff here tonight,

folks. But that opening scene, though, I remember...

Yeah, the opening scene's great. I played the

demo of it when I bought Zone of Enders, because

it came with Zone of Enders, and I never played...

I don't like Zone of Enders either. And I only

bought it to play that Sons of Liberty, and knowing

that you get to play a snake in the demo, and

I could have probably lived with just playing

the demo and been done with it. Mm -hmm. I played

the entire game. I got through the entire thing

regardless But I digress I do like what guns

of the Patriots did as far as getting to go back

and getting to relive that was really like guns

of the Patriots on its own as a New game at that

time for I think it was three PlayStation 3 is

on that first or was it for I think it was three

I don't remember. But yeah, it was PlayStation

3, right? Yeah, that's what I thought it was.

But yeah, no, I love that game. I love the whole

thing of that game. I love the idea of old snake.

I love how David did the voice for it and everything

else. But I also what I love and really appreciate

more is how they got. The new gamers in with

all of that, but then they get us old heads by

hooking us in and hey, guess what? We're going

back to Shadow Moses. I'm like, you bastards.

How cool. And they didn't change anything. They

didn't like try to redo it. They didn't try to

remap it. They just left it the way that it was

left after the end of the first game. It's a

nostalgia ploy. They just want to make all the

fans. Hey, it doesn't matter. It fucking worked.

It fucking worked. So it doesn't matter. Okay,

what are some other video games you like? Do

you have a favorite video game genre type? I

am I like open world adventure I for some reason

and I don't know what it says about me, but I

am a I'm a basic fetch quest bitch. I love running

around Just collecting shit for no explicable

reason whatsoever. I love to death the Assassin's

Creed games. And it's more so just because I

was like, oh, there's stuff in the world I could

go collect. Oh, banners. Oh, feathers. Like just

I don't know why, but like you set me out a task

to go hunt down a bunch of crap. That's going

to take me 20 hours to do. I'm in like that.

That's my love language with video games like

I I like exploring. Well, let's let me clear

that up. I enjoy exploring and going through

uniquely designed territories that are interesting

to look at, because I could do the exact same

thing about the original Mass Effect that I loved

exploring the planets. But the problem was, is

every third planet looked exactly like one of

the other planets. And the variety got a little

shit in that game. Yeah. In the first one, they

did a lot better later in the series, but. It's

the so kind of the open world stuff I really

enjoyed. Like I will when an Assassin's Creed

game comes out and because of the fact that I'm

terrible at staying on top of games. So it's

one of those I'm usually at least two to three

years behind on any series, like especially with

Assassin's Creed, with one coming out almost

every single year. Like. I haven't even scratched

the surface of Valhalla yet. So that's kind of

like one of the next ones on my agenda to get

through. And then, you know, the new one will

be out. And I still got to play the last one

that they did, too. And I just haven't. It's

one of those. I like to take my time with them.

I'll put like 120 hours into Assassin's Creed

game just because I'll do everything in the world

I can type of a thing. Nice. Yeah, I. Well, I

like story based stuff. I don't mind collecting

some stuff if I have to collect it But if I don't

if it's not required to finish the game, I probably

wouldn't do it But I I completely get that mentality

I've got a bunch of buddies that kind of do the

same thing with collecting and building and do

all kinds of weird stuff and the games that they

play yeah, and the motor like Interesting the

story is like like yeah, I like my fetch quests

and stuff like that. But ultimately when What

really hooked me in like, especially with like

Assassin's Creed Odyssey. I love the story. Story

was fantastic. Like I really got in to the story

and the world building and that one and just

kind of almost. Probably spent more time playing

it than I thought I was going to just because

I was I was just digging the narrative and in

the world building and how everything was kind

of falling in place with with that one and it's

one of those there's a lot of indie games that

I like for those exact same reasons is if you

get a really good narrative and a really good

story even if the game is like with a lot of

the indie games where they're only like Six hours

long they're really short it was like if you

have a good compelling story to say interesting

art style i'm in i love that kind of stuff so

it's one of those if. It's one of those when

it's two dimensional of your characters are hot

garbage and nothing everything seems disjointed

and you can have a really cool looking game but

if it doesn't feel like any of the characters

you're interacting with have any solar any you

know. Actual effort put into them then it's not

gonna hook me. Yeah I get that I completely get

that the story has to come first even in those

collecting you know running gun collect games

and stuff you gotta have a good story I have

been waiting. Waiting and waiting since 2006

I've been playing grand theft auto for since

2000 fucking sex and I. did not care like for

okay so for me and the listeners if y 'all listening

to the sound of my voice y 'all know probably

by now with my cerebral palsy my entire life

i've played video games one -handed whether it

was controller whether it was keyboard mouse

whatever when playstation went to basically a

xbox one size type controller i'm like nope can't

do that anymore uh and i was i never really cared

about xbox stuff but um it is what it is but

So I've been playing Grand Theft Auto 4 for years

and I saw Grand Theft Auto 5 come out and I'm

like, okay, and what I do nowadays is I'll just

find somebody who's doing a long play run through,

not a run through, but a play through, somebody

who's just playing the game normally to do the

story or whatever else. And I watch GTA 5 and

I'm like, I like the references to all the other

games, but I don't give two shits about Michael

and Trevor and whoever the hell else. Like, I

just didn't care. Trevor's a better character

than Michael, even though they're both kind of

evil, horrible characters. They showed a teaser

or something recently in the last, I don't know,

six months, maybe longer than that. I don't remember

how long ago it was. Maybe it was last year at

E3. Well, they don't have E3 anymore. Whatever.

They showed a trailer of GTA 6 and I'm like,

ooh. Interesting. I wonder what they're going

to do now. And I hope it's nothing like what

they did with five. I hope it's completely freaking

different. It's one of those things that I think

it's Rockstar does a really good job of, I think,

pushing the envelope and really expanding upon

what they did previously. So I think it'll be

it'll be interesting to see what they come up

with next. I was like, yeah, for me, GTA four,

it took me I think I started it the day that

it came out. And then I don't think I picked

it back up until almost five or six years later,

then I finally finished the game. And it was

it's I still haven't even finished five, man.

I just I enjoyed the game, but I think we ended

up playing me, Mike and Joe, I think ended up

playing more GTA online just to screw around

with each other and blow stuff up than anything

else. So I think that one, the online feature,

I think kind of overshadowed the game because

of how in depth and could have your own apartment.

You could do make your own place and have it

have your own car garage and things like that.

And then, you know, run into your garage when

they let you in there and then steal all their

cars and mess all their stuff up. So yeah, each

day online is essentially the final fantasy of

Grand Theft Auto, essentially. I mean, they basically

turned it into a role playing game, which, again,

I'm not saying is a bad thing. I don't say that's

fine it's a separate thing from the overall game

but the overall game in the overall story of

five i never cared about it never cared whatsoever

so i'm. I've been on my heat on on the edge of

my seat waiting to see what they do with six

and what what video footage we've seen so far

i'm digging it. It's Rockstar's fault for making

the environment so much fun and the physics so

fun to play in where he just kind of didn't really

care about what was going on in the sword. Yeah,

exactly. Yep. How did your gaming habits change

as you grew up and throughout your life? Played

games a lot as I did a lot of gaming as a kid,

tons of gaming as a kid. So had it had time for

it which is funny because of the fact that most

the games that i played as a kid were all more

of the. Less of a time commitment like what more

fighting games back then and then when i got

into. Then I started kind of getting into the

JRPGs and really into the Final Fantasy games.

So I did more of those long form games. Almost

flunked out of my first semester of college because

they released Final Fantasy 8 the week before

finals week and not a good combination. No. So

yeah, I almost had to oopsie my first semester

at college because of the fact that they had

bad timing on Square Enix's part for releasing

that the week before finals. So when I got kind

of out of college, got more into the online gaming,

played a lot of Call of Duty with my circle of

friends and got more into those types of games.

And now I I'm at a point where I want nothing

more than to not socialize with people. And I

like I like my single player open world games

that I could just explore and take it at my own

pace and not really kind of worry about interacting

with people. And it's just to me like now gaming

is more of a. It's a decompress. It's a. It's

one of those things that, you know, when you've

had a long day and you just need to, you need

something to engage your brain with, but you

need it to be as far away from the reality of

your life as humanly possible. That's what I

enjoy about it. Ladies and gentlemen. Art Danner,

my brother from another mother because holy crap,

I am so, I hate multiplayer. I do not need multiplayer

at all. I need a, that's why I say story is everything

in games. I need a good story. I don't care what

kind of game it is. I will try almost anything.

Not really, but I'll... I stick in my lane like

the Need for Speeds or the Grand Theft Autos

or the, you know, that kind of type stuff. And...

But yeah, I'm all about that single player and

like, I don't care what you're doing with your

friends. That's fine. You go ahead, have fun,

whatever. I don't care what... Yeah, what's gonna

be funny is when I tell you what I spend all

my time Mostly playing when I do play games is

going to be very contradictory to my answer That's

hilarious, but yeah, I yeah, I very much like

I've beaten Grand Theft Auto 4 so many times

I don't even like I get to the end of that game

I get to that last mission right before you go

get Jimmy and go do the helicopter thing like

I'm good I'm just gonna sit here in the in the

police Hummer and just, you know, run down criminals

and get more money than God in a video game,

but I wish it was actual real money in the real

world, because damn. But yeah, that's that's

the yeah, absolutely. So question six and seven

are kind of similar to each other, but they're

not really because question seven has a little

bit more of a thing at the end of it. But question

six, how often do you go back and replay any

of the video games you grew up with? Not too

terribly often, but with that being said, just

last week, I fired up the Mega Man collection

on my PlayStation 5 and started replaying Mega

Man 1 for the first time in like 15, 20 years.

So I, and which was amazing to me is the fact

that I actually like got through the Cutsman

level and actually beat it like right away, which

is not typical. I remember how frustrating those

games are and When I got to the, who did I go?

I'm trying to remember who I went to after Kutzman.

I think I did the electrical. uh guy after that

and that um entire level was just i died so many

times i was so frustrated so i was like okay

this feels more normal like a megaman game i

was like i flew through the first character stage

fine and then i got to the second one and i just

just got frustrated i was like ah there's that

feeling now i remember what this is like um so

i was like i have a tendency to I, if I, I will

get hyper fixated when I start a game and I will

play through that if it's achievable to get,

so for those that don't know and aren't PlayStation

people, you get trophies. If I get a platinum

trophy on a game and I complete all the challenges

on it, I'm done. I'm out. I'm not going back

to it. I will never go back to it. And there's

DLC that came out for it. I'll play the DLC.

But if I get to the point where I've played it

enough that I play it to what I view is completion

and I can do it in a single player mode. If there's

any trophies that that are multiplayer based

for a game, I will go fuck it. I'll get through

the story mode and then I'll be done with it.

Because I was like, if there's the multiplayer

trophies, I was like, I'm not going online. I'm

not going to play those and get those achievements.

Screw that. So they will. I will get hyper fixated

and I will literally start something until I

finish it and get all the way through it is kind

of how I do gaming now. And I if I was to do

that with older games, I think I would go insane

because I don't I don't recall ever beating a

game on. the Nintendo system ever. So I remember

getting close. I remember, yeah, very often getting

close, but I don't remember ever actually completing

a game. So you never went all the way to the

end of Darkland. Come on, man. You never beat

Koopa. What? No, I don't think I have never completed

the original Super Mario Brothers. I've never

gotten all the way through the game. Wow. Damn.

There's a question coming up that that will be

related to not finishing another game that Previous

episodes. I know it's coming. I'll store that

one for later Which video games from your childhood

have you replayed as an adult and see I don't

really like some of our other hosts on the network

like doing this question of which ones held up

the best and or worst I Don't like I look at

the stuff in the time. It was made like Mario

3 mm -hmm You can't compare that to whatever

Mario's out now. You just can't because of technology

and time and whatever. It's one of those things

that going back and talking about what's held

up and what's not held up. I don't think there's

any in the innovation of when it first released

to when it came out. It all has its place in

the history of video games. It all is an art

piece within its own time capsule. And I think

that there you more so I don't necessarily think

there's anything that holds up worse or it just

it feels different but it's more of a nostalgia

pop that goes along with it of to me it's more

about the feelings and emotions of it takes you

back to that you know place when you first played

that game for me it's I don't think it's about

Something essentially holding up i think it's

about does it still invoke a feeling to you doesn't

still take you back to a place when you originally

played it is more what i would get out of it

because no offense. Battle toads is still in

a frustrating piece of shit game from when it

was on the nintendo and it's still frustrating

piece of shit game now i hate that speeder bike

level. nothing but evoke the same anxiety that

I get in my day -to -day life as an adult. And

I blame Battletoads for all the anxiety in my

life, in that level. Battletoads sucks. Battletoads

was just designed to send people to get prescription

drugs to deal with anxiety. I think it was a

conspiracy theory. Through a one of the drug

companies that they're just like how do we super

fuck up kids and just make them really? Socially

awkward and give them like heart palpitations

when they they see a blinking wall coming at

them and how to time Exactly you want to I can

play that game and out of all all of the video

games we had to that point You had a Mario cartoon.

You had a Donkey Kong cartoon. Say what you love

about Donkey Kong. You had several Sonic cartoons.

You had Captain and the Game Master. You had

the Zelda cartoon on Fridays with Super Mario

Bros. Super Show. Out of all the fucking video

games they could have made an animated series

out of. Fucking Battletoads. Are you kidding

me? Well, I think we only got a Battletoads animated

series because of Turtles, honestly, but... Yeah,

probably. Turtles is better anyway. Yeah. So

which video games that have released when you

have been an adult have you liked the most? I

kind of mentioned the fact that like the Fallout

games, I really get into those ones. The franchise,

the other franchise that I think I've enjoyed

the most has been Mass Effect. I mean, I was

excited when the trilogy edition came out and

I immediately bought that right up to play it

again because I really dig. The Mass Effect games,

but it was like recently. I don't think there's

been anything that I've been super psyched or

excited about that that I that I've really gotten

into that. That's a bald face face like Baldur's

Gate three. God, that game is just oh, gorgeous.

Just fun to play. So awesome. I remember the

amount of confusion that the non PC players had

when they announced Baldur's Gate 3 and everybody

thought it was another Dark Alliance game. And

I was like, oh my God, you guys didn't play Baldur's

Gate back on PC. I was like, this is gonna be

awesome. And it was even better than I thought

it could have been. And it's awesome. So yeah,

and probably out of the most recent, like newer

games, I think Baldur's Gate 3 has been the one

that I've enjoyed and loved. the most and I feel

like I've barely played it, but I was just so

impressed with the insane amount of detail and

how good the voice acting is and how just there's

so much shit to do in it. It's just fun. I just

I'm really impressed with how well constructed

that game is. Absolutely. Absolutely. Are there

any video games that you hate or you have been

greatly disappointed by? Where do I start? uh

there has been there's been a lot where it's

the i don't necessarily think i've been disappointed

it's more so i think a you get pressured into

essentially playing certain games especially

in a social setting where you know you get a

group of friends we all hang out online and they

want to play a game and they're like hey you

should play this game with us Every single time

somebody's like dragged me along to play a game

I have a very hard time getting into it and I

don't know if it's necessarily the fault of the

game itself or the fact that when I walk in there

everybody's like level 30 and I'm starting at

one and I was like this kind of this kind of

sucks like everybody's got weapons and I'm here

with a stone I threw a rock at him arc survival

I have friends that just absolutely love that

game Joe Reed specifically loves creating stuff

in that game. He loves the building aspect of

it. I Find it to be the most boring Just there's

no point to the game like I don't understand

nobody could tell me what the story is Nobody

could tell me what the plot is if I don't know

what an objective is or what we're aiming towards

I am I'm out like I don't I don't I can't just

hang out and create stuff and tame dinosaurs

for four and a half hours type of a thing. And,

and that just, that's, that's not fun to me.

So it's one of those, like a lot of the open

world MMOs that a lot of people just get into,

I just, I have a very hard time connecting with

something that doesn't have strong narrative

structure or has a goal that we're aiming towards

when it's just like survive in this world and

things will happen type of a thing. I'm just

i'm out like i can't i have a hard time connecting

with. The game and also the most the mmo is like

it's the controls just don't feel right to me

everything's really wonky control lies and i

have a hard time getting into it so i got dragged

into conan exiles by mike and joe and i got dragged

into arc by mike and joe and i have. detested

both of them. I did not enjoy a single lick of

being in either of those games. It is not my

bag. It is nothing against that game genre. It's

nothing against those games. I'm just not built

for those types of games and I just have a very

hard time getting into those types of games.

So I think another one that I'm trying to remember

every single game that I seem to absolutely dislike

seems to involve Mike Powers telling me to play

it with them. And every single time I get, you

know, asked to do something, I was like, it just

didn't really look all that. I think it was evolve.

Yeah. Was the name of the game. It was the game

where. Yeah. So they were really hyped up on

that one. I think they played the beta and they're

like, you should get that and play that with

us. I think we played it like I spent $60 investment

to play that game, I think all of two times and

I never played it again. So. Yeah, and it just

was like. So one of those things like all these

games try really hard to be left for dead and

they're just not so they are left for dead because

no one wants to play dead games. Yeah, ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha a game that I've

picked up that I was incredibly disappointed

by. Barbie Dress Up Final Fantasy, also known

as Final Fantasy X2. I was like, wait a minute,

when did Barbie have a Final Fantasy game? No,

I've always referred to that as Barbie, Barbie

Dress Up Final Fantasy. I was so excited about

a sequel to Final Fantasy X. And when Final Fantasy

X2 came out, I pre -ordered it. I went and got

it the day that it came out. And then I popped

it in and like one hour and I go. As a white

male, I feel really weird and dirty playing this

game is making me feel weird feelings, and I

don't know if I like the fact that all of your

power sets are attached to changing clothes and

you're playing as a group of three girls. And

I was like, ah, this is really like. Man, just

I don't know who they designed that game for,

but my goodness, it was. That that is a game

that i think will be ultimately always be the

one game i was so excited for and so disappointed

by i was just not what i was expecting it to

be. Yeah that doesn't sound like it's too much

too much fun. No it wasn't i mean final fantasy

10 was kind of crap too but some people will

argue that they like it and they'll always bring

up that. Stupid sports game in there that they

like so much and then it was stupid and walk

us stupid and that entire game was just crap

But anyways any others before we move on no no

yeah, I think that's it I was like that that's

x2 is definitely the pinnacle of disappointing

video games to me You'll get the chance to choose

others later, but who is your end -all be -all

favorite character from any video game? You can

pick a hero and a villain My favorite villain

is Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2. Easily my

favorite villain. My favorite hero, I'm very

partial to Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series.

It has a lot to do with Nolan North and what

he breathed into that character, but those games,

I enjoy the Uncharted games, but I really enjoy

Nathan Drake as a character. I've always enjoyed

that character. That's very cool, very cool.

Who are some other video game characters you

like? Are there any you hate? Hate's a very strong

word. Why, it's there. And we've already covered

Raiden from Metal Gear as somebody that I'm not

very fond of. So as far as characters that I

like, I really... Ratchet and Clank. Love both

those characters. I've always really enjoyed

those games Those have always been if that's

been a fun series for me, and those are two characters

that I've always just really enjoyed man as far

as that I Know you're putting me on the spot.

I was like there's there's a lot of a I was like

I'm trying to think if there's anything like

specifically from fallout of like a character

that I really enjoy besides Cogsworth. Cogsworth

is quite awesome. I was gonna say is hate I think

is a strong word. I was like I would say there's

more people that I'm there's more characters

I'm very impartial to which I feel are characters

that are well loved that I just don't have any

feelings for like Master Chief and Kratos. I

just characters don't do anything for me. They're

just not Yeah, I was like, I know people get

really love their their halo and their Master

Chief, but just not not a series that I wrote

ever really connected with. Hell, I played the

crap out of Halo and I didn't even realize there

is a single player campaign on that game until

six years after it was released. Four years.

Yeah, just I didn't even know there was a campaign.

We played so much multiplayer on it. They didn't

even know. Had no idea Very cool very cool Who

are some of your favorite video game voices and

or voice actors? so um I Really enjoyed the new

Tomb Raider games, so I really liked Camilla

Luddington playing Lara Croft I really I enjoyed

those games. I like Troy Baker who's Joel in

Last of Us and in so many other things. I mean,

Troy Baker, Nolan North, I think are almost,

if one of them's not in a game, the other one

is type of a thing. Like I love Nolan North as

Deadpool in the Deadpool video game they did.

He was fantastic in that. I love him as Nathan

Drake in the third Uncharted game, or was it

the fourth Uncharted game? I think it was the

third one. And the fourth one in the war where

Troy Troy Baker ends up playing his long lost

brother. So Troy Baker in the same game acting

off of each other the entire time. And it's amazing.

So good. And then I think it's Ellen McCleary.

Yeah. who voices GLaDOS in the Portal games.

Did you ever own anything based on a video game?

Toys, comics, that kind of stuff? Statues, if

you want to call them toys with statues. Yes,

I'm currently literally looking at a Nuka Kola

Quantum that lights up that's currently sitting

next to my desk. Nice. So, and a callback to

a previous episode. I was a subscriber to Nintendo

Power. And also calling back to that episode,

I have a correction for you guys. Oh, no. OK.

You guys made the comment about you guys made

the comment about at GameStop. There was a subscription

to a magazine and you called it GamePro. Yeah,

sorry. And it was Game Informer speaking as a.

Right. As a former GameStop employee. As a former

GameStop employee, it was Game Informer. So well,

I am not going to go back and re -edit that episode

to reflect that correction. But I will say, folks,

if you listen, which episode was that? I don't

remember off the top of my head, but a Game Informer.

Yes, Game Informer. You also referred to the

gentleman that was the voiceover actor for Destiny

that passed away that was in John Wick. You referred

to him as the butler and he was the concierge

at the end. So there's two corrections in that

same episode. I was not taking notes whatsoever

while I was listening. Liar! He's been listening

and taking, he has 16 years of notes to correct

me on. I've been podcasting for 16 years. Art

has been stalking me for 16 years. Somebody call

the police. No, not really. Does GCRN need a

fact checker that just goes back and tracks all

the episodes? Hell, I mean, I can't pay you anything,

but if you want to waste your time. I was gonna

say that's a lot of episodes to wade through.

It could take a very long time. Just under 4

,000 episodes. You're damn right. I was like,

I don't have that much spare time. I'm surprised

I have had that much spare time in the last 16

years to record all this stuff. Yeah, but it's

spread out over time, man. I mean, those things

accumulate. And then you also got to remember

that, you know, there is a pandemic where you

could just do nothing but sit at home and record

an episode. And people know that I've said this

before. And I said this in this very episode

that I played video games one handed because

I have cerebral palsy. Come to find out as of

five years ago i guess i should have known this

my whole life but nobody really explain it to

me i was also born with brain damage because

i did brain surgery five years ago. Now the listeners

have already heard this if you start my facebook

at all are i'm sure you've seen my posts about

what i had to have the brain surgery back in

twenty nineteen to get the excess fluid off my

head. Where the hell was I going with this? I

don't see this is what I'm talking about like

oh, yeah the brain damage So it's like it's just

like oh Like I can't keep track of all this stuff

anymore and yeah, no I check me all you want.

Just don't embarrass me. That's all I ask you

You can tell me I was wrong about I can tell

I can admit what I was wrong about something.

That's why yes He is the concierge. I'm sorry

and I I'm a here and this is once again Damn

you booth ninjas all his damn fault. It's his

fault. I like the WIC movies because he was the

first one that told me about them. They're amazing.

They are. I'm not saying they aren't at all.

I still I still need to watch the fourth one,

but I'm not saying they aren't at all. But again,

it goes back to the fact that Michael Powers,

Mike Powers, Booth Ninja 81, whatever you want

to call him. He's corrupted us all. The fourth

one is really good, but do not look too closely

at the first two fight sequences because they

are a little sloppy but besides that I still

I Mean not like X versus sever sloppy fight scenes,

but regardless anyways I I don't know anyone

in the 15 years of this network and me doing

this I don't know anyone besides me that has

probably ever referenced X versus Sever. Oh my

god. I don't think I could burn that memory out

of my brain if I wanted to because of how painful

it was to watch. It is one of those movies much

like House of the Dead that will always live

in my heart is something truly awful that I have

experienced. We don't have much to go on. Someone's

developed a micro device. The perfect assassin.

Injectable. Lies in weight inside its victim.

One touch of a button, you can give a head of

state a heart attack. Two deadly agents. ID?

A former FBI agent named Jeremiah X. Sworn enemies.

Seven. Are tracking it down. We have acquisition

located. Who will find it? I have a situation

and you're my only option. This woman single

-handedly took out a heavily armed escort detail.

I need you to find her. Of course you do. My

daughter wanted to tell him why you look so sad.

I'm told it was because you just got beat up

by a girl. And when the rules change... Positive

visual. Take it down. They find that their enemy

is the only one they can trust. Let's finish

this. There are no innocent people, you know

that. Only killers. Amazingly hilarious, that

is awesome. What is your favorite video game

theme song? Once again, this is going to be very

contradictory to what I said earlier. I really

do say what you will about what I feel about

the Halo series and kind of the the the I don't

really connect essentially with the the the game

at its core. But. It has a banger of a theme

song. I mean, that entire sequence with the choir

and the electric guitar and just how it hits,

I was like, love it. Also, any of the original,

pretty much any of the music from A Link to the

Past, like any of the old The Legend of Zelda

soundtrack stuff, I just, I love that. But ultimately

when it comes down to it, it is the boss fight

music from Super Castlevania. for I think in

the chandelier fighting sequence that is one

of my favorite pieces of video game music and

most all the stuff on if you get a chance to

just go down a YouTube rabbit hole then just

look up all the soundtrack from Super Castlevania

4 and just listen to it just banger after banger

for MIDI music in that entire game it is amazing

how awesome The music is in that game. Yeah,

an old friend of mine, TV's Mr. Neil. He would

do a lot of them. He would get a lot of the MIDI

music and a lot of the other music for when we

were doing pixels in the animation years ago.

And he did an amazing job with it and everything

else. And I still have all of that. And I still

have all of the Zelda music. Oh, yeah, the music

in A Link to the Past is just great. I use all

those sound effects like any chance I can get.

Well, when we did, I think it was. When we did

off the cuff I talked to my buddy who did music

and he actually Did a remix of a Mega Man song

specifically for us for opening sequence so he

actually went in and Mixed it and I was like

I literally use it as a ringtone on my phone

to this day because I just loved it but he basically

did a dubstep version of one of the the Mega

Man tunes and it's just awesome so i was like

i like a lot of that you like the megaman music

the castlevania music like those older midi and

i will say honorable mention goes to one of the

greatest pieces of music ever put together which

would be from portal and the the the still alive

song that they did for that one is amazing i

i that is on my That is with all the heavy metal

music every once in a while still alive just

drops in there on rotation in my my playlist.

Amazing amazing yeah I have. Chaos she always

asked me what is that what is that noise. It's

my text it's my it's my text tone it's basically

the exclamation point from MGS. Because I need

something to like if I'm if I'm asleep and she

texts me or if I'm asleep in any Any kind of

message comes in I need to be able to hear it

so I can wake up and pay attention to whatever

whatever is happening And I'm like, yep, I've

used that forever that exclamation mark will

live on in infamy How big or small is your video

game collection? Oh Oh boy It's gotten a lot

smaller last year I sold off quite a bit of it

at a garage sale because I was really trying

to pare down a lot of the stuff I had. So a lot

a lot of it's gone. With that being said, there's

probably still somewhere in the upwards of 80

to 90 physical copies of games in the house right

now. And if you open my digital PlayStation library,

it's. Seven hundred somewhat games in there.

Maybe more. It's pretty extensive i was like

i have a bad habit of something gets down to

like a really cheap i was like play that eventually

and just. Toss it because it's like something

is on like five bucks and i was like i'm always

wanted to play that i'll i'll spend five bucks

on that i'll get to it eventually ps i never

get to it. But it's in my library. It's in your

library. Yeah, it's, yeah. We were going through

Chaos's library the other night and she was like,

I never play that, I never play that, I never

play that. And I'm like, are you ever gonna play

these? Like, you bought them with the intention

of wanting to play them at one point or another.

Well, and what's funny is the fact that I'm totally

like a, I love the digital aspect of games because

number one, I'm old. I'm never gonna go to a

midnight release for anything ever again. Because

I'm going to get home. It's going to have to

install. I'm going to be sleepy by the time it

even gets installed. I'm not doing it. I was

like, I'd rather if I could pre buy it, it could

pre download and then the keys just available

to play when it when it comes. I'm down like

that. I love that. If I'm at that point in my

life or if I can avoid hanging out in the line

and being around people. Just in getting a digital

copy is the way to do it. I will do it like.

totally just to not have to go deal with humanity

in that aspect. Telling you, man, it's like we

were cut from the same cloth. I don't leave my

apartment. If I don't have to, I do not leave

my apartment whatsoever. Well, I was going to

say on the flip side of things, I am my my professional

life. I work in sales. I talk to people all day

long. I interact with people all day long. And

when I get to my kind of me time. I'm just like

my my social batteries just fucked. It is it

is done. And I just don't. It's one of those.

It's when you when you're out and you meet somebody

new and you got to listen to them, you know,

talk to like I don't do sports. I hate sports.

When the moment anybody gets around me and it's

another dude and they want to start talking sports,

I am. Playing ping pong in my brain, man. It

is just I'm not tuned in. I don't care. I don't

care about your your sports ball team and what

they're doing. I just it's not me. It's not something

that I'm interested in. So. That is what I like.

So. It's in my blood. It's always going to be

in my blood, but because I'm originally from

Massachusetts. I can't not have Boston sports

in my blood, whether they're good this year or

not. It doesn't matter for my entire 44 years.

Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots, Bruins, the four

big teams have just been with me all this time.

But I get it. I completely get it. Not everybody.

And that's fine. That's absolutely fine. I'm

sure you'd still want to destroy somebody. I

will say, I will say on the bright side, my wife

has gotten very into hockey in the last couple

of years. So we do quite a bit of hockey now.

So. Well, hockey is slightly like hockey is it's

different because Yes, it is a sport. Yes, you

are trying to get goals and you're trying to

defend the other. It is a sport. But it's also,

man, it's got some of the most, like hockey's

crowds are like second only rowdiest to wrestling

crowds kind of thing. Like you start getting

a hockey fight on the, you know, you get two

players in a fight in the ice. It's like, yeah,

like the whole damn stadium just like stands

up and like pays attention because it's not just

here let me pass this ball or here let me through

and i'm not saying this to i'm not trying to

be derogatory to football or baseball but let

me run down this field let me round these bases

oh it's like running a rat race or nascar it's

gonna make another left turn that's all they

do is make a left turn you know whatever and

so We do go to a lot of baseball games, but in

my opinion, what I like about baseball, I like

the ballparks. I like the food, the atmosphere.

I could care less about the game that's going

on. Like, I just like the ambiance of a ballpark.

Absolutely. Pretty much the same thing. Like,

live sports are different to me. It's sitting

around the car watching it on TV. I'm just like...

But also I'm also the person that will, you know,

at the drop of a hat, you're like, oh, there's

wrestling in town. Let's go. Like if there's

pro wrestling, I'm down. I immediately let's

go. So yeah, no, I mean, yeah. Watching the sports

on TV versus actually going to an event is like

I said, if you're going to let's just say for.

shits and giggles because I'm in one, I'm a fan

of one town and you're well, you don't care,

but you're in a different town that is also at

a rivalry with like if it was the Bruins versus

the Red Wings, like, of course we're going to

want to go. Of course we're going to want to

either sit next to each other or across the ice

from each other and just scream at each other

as they fight or as they do. Yeah. Live sports

is a whole different thing, but no TV sports.

Like, look, I can watch, but I prefer watching

baseball. and hockey over basketball and football

in general. Basketball, again, if it's my team,

fine, I'll watch them. But unless it's the Super

Bowl, you're never going to catch me watching

any other team other than the Patriots, regardless

of who their quarterback is or isn't anymore.

I don't care. We had 20 years. It was a good

run. It's fine. Last time I was into basketball

Michael Jordan was still playing so Yeah, I like

I said for me it's about the team if the team

wins I know I think it is it is it Jason Tato

I couldn't even tell you who the starting lineup

on the Celtics is now I can tell you the starting

lineup in the Celtics was 40 years ago in the

80s Larry Bird and Danny Ainge and Kevin McHale

and Robert Parrish and all them But I couldn't

tell you who was on what team now for basketball.

But then again, NBA Jam was the jam. Back to

video games. OK, well, that went zoop. Which

game or games had the biggest impact on your

life? I'm trying to think of what would. It's

one of those, you know, the questions coming

type of a thing, but you don't know, still don't

know how to answer that one. I think actually

it goes back to one of the stories I was saving

from earlier. Super Mario 2. Okay. Always regarded

as one of the kind of more odd ones because,

you know, it was another game and it was ported

over and they just kind of copy and pasted Mario

into it. Yeah. Me and my dad both really liked

playing that game. I will... Never forget the

day that I know that I think my dad was in between

jobs and he was, you know, interviewing and he

was currently he was unemployed at the time and

how incredibly disappointed and pissed I was

because I got home. And he was fighting the final

boss in Mario 2 and beating the game, which officially

meant that he had more time to get better at

the game than I did. And for some reason, I was

so And like to this day, annoyed because I after

seeing that he beat the game before me, I never

went back to play the game. I was so mad he got

there before me and I was just like, you know,

so like there's I think it had an impact because

of the fact that it was one of those it was one

of those moments for me where I was just like

it really kind of showed to me. The similarities

between me and my father that I don't think I

really noticed before that day and then kind

of seeing that That I'm just like he's just as

big of a nerd as I am I was like, I'm clearly

cut from the same cloth that he is It's one of

those like that is always a memory that I will

will forever have of him will always be that

damn it he's beating the game that I was trying

to beat and he's doing so much better than I

am and so yeah that is always gonna be a game

that that is always gonna stick out in my mind

is that so the real question here folks is which

character did he beat the game with when you

saw it I think he was Toad That breaks my heart

I was a princess peach player, so She can fly

okay, yeah, you can float that's all you need

just need to float you can float over those damn

birdos Yoshi can float and Yoshi wasn't you know,

she didn't exist at that point in time. That

was pre you okay? Yeah, no, I know but I'm saying

she told the move from princess peach. Let's

be honest yeah that's true that's true well then

again she was you know in the in the castle in

the in the oh god is this the mario world's the

fourth game come on i can't keep game numbers

straight in my head anymore folks it's crazy

it's like it's like my brain's because they stopped

using numbers my brain stops at mario 3 super

mario world super mario kart dr mario this that

the other heaven forbid they make a dr mario

i don't think they've ever done this they probably

have i'm probably wrong you can fact check me

if you want dr mario too i don't know if they've

ever done that but like oh god like i think they

did the updated version of dr mario which was

yeah was on switch and that was man i don't even

remember what they called that one i don't even

know if they called it anything i think it was

just dr mario online yeah dr mario online Yeah,

these pills need telehealth is what they need.

WebMD Dr. Mario. There you go. Absolutely. For

some reason, every single time I put something

in this thing, it keeps telling me I have cancer

the entire time. Let's hope not. That's not good.

WebMD WebMD was we got this covered before we

got this covered was we got. Oh, God, there was

this. That's a discussion for off air. Just remind

me afterward. No, seriously remind me if you

can remember the Ask me about we got this covered

after this because holy crap. They ain't got

nothing covered folks What was the most money

you spent on a video game item ever video game

item could be a print a comic art book a statue

or whatever, so I don't know if the most money

I've ever spent has been a collectible Because

I'm afraid to find out how much money I have

spent on fortnight skins and content for fortnight

over the better part of the last five years I

I'm sure that I'm sure there's a staggering number

Because every single time yeah, I was like every

single time there were leaks of Marvel skin.

I feel compelled so All right, let me ask you

this cuz I'm Fortnite illiterate here. Yes You

is that you like that game because you like that

game or is that because your kids like the game

or? Like I said, I'm not a big fan of when I'm

relaxing, of having kind of that, you know, social

aspect type of a thing. And that's why some of

my answers will probably be a little contradictory

to what I said later. So we as a family, me and

my boys, we play Fortnite together. So that's

one of the things that I do and hang out with

them. So it's kind of like a Saturday, Sunday

morning. If we don't have something going on,

we'll play for two or three hours and just hang

out together and strategize together and play

Fortnite together. Now, with that being said.

I was a Fortnite beta player. So when Fortnite

got announced at E3 that year, I was 100 % all

in and wanted to play the game because it looked

cool. So I didn't even Me and Mike and Joe, I

think all played save the world when it came

out and played it for a long time But we never

participated in Battle Royale So we never got

into that side of it. And then eventually when

the first Marvel season came out that was when

we started playing Battle Royale and I've been

playing since that very first Marvel season came

out and me me and the kids have just They plan

their switches i play my ps five and that's just

kind of are. It's our weekend tradition essentially

that mean the boys hang out we play fortnight

for a couple hours every single weekend that's

just kind of our time to catch up and. Socialize

and then basically until my youngest son gets

starts just yelling about all the sweats and

how things are unfair that's usually when i go

and i'm done so. Get about two hours until he

goes into pure Muppet mode and I can't handle

his emotions that I was like We need to shut

this off because this is getting stressful for

me So you I cannot let you continue out of this

pure Muppet, but which Muppet does he go? Alright,

so I have always so so my youngest son Xander

has a heart condition. So he is because of his

heart condition he looks quite a bit smaller

than a lot of the kids his age so he's a little

more compact but he has big emotions and has

the big emotional outbursts that are bigger than

the size so I've always called him a muppet because

and this is gonna get real nerdy it goes back

to the smile time episode of angel yes Yes! I

fucking love that! I'm sorry! I know you're gonna

want to have me listen to this and so I'm sorry.

I will do my best to believe that. And screw

that. No, I was like, hey, you have an expletive

on your Apple channel. Every single episode says

it's got an expletive tag tag on it. And I haven't

heard any fucking swear words in any of the fucking

episodes I've listened to. I was very disappointed.

do better. I could point you to other episodes

that are not the game of origins. You don't know,

dude. No one I know ever met, like, I don't know

very many people in my circle that ever, like,

for me, and I don't remember, I don't know if

you remember this or not about me. For me, it's

about the entertainment. It's about the show.

It's about the game. It's about the whatever.

I could carry, like, This day, I always use this

example because it's the easiest, unfortunately,

it's the easiest example to use. Yes, in real

life, Cosby is a monster. That still doesn't

mean that at five years old, Rudy and Theo and

Vanessa, everybody on that show taught me that

you use the red bag for houses you know, you

use the purple bag for houses you don't know

at Halloween for getting candy. Like, it's about

the content of the show. It's not about the people.

real life if they but oh my god i love oh god

we did the so we did the comic version of that

on the pull bag after all it's smile time no

it's not it's time to kick your ass all the way

back to hell you I will refer to the smile time

episode as one of the 42 greatest minutes of

television history. I love that episode. I'm

an angel fan, but that is my that that is the

episode that is the pinnacle of episodes for

me. And there is a line in there about him having

an emotional outburst because he has. Human sized

emotions but he's in a smaller framework so they

come out like that so i've always referred to

my son as a muppet because of that episode and

because of that line that was in that episode

about the big emotions in the little body and

my son actually finally came up to me about a

month ago now. because I've been calling him

a Muppet for years now. And he looked at me dead

in the eyes and he goes, so what Muppet am I?

And I looked him dead in the eyes without hesitation.

I go, you're gonzo. You're totally gonzo. Merchant

of Venice, act one, scene one. Antonio speaks

in sooth. I know not why I am so sad. It wearies

me. You say. Oh man, that's hilarious. Yeah,

my buddy Jeremy Fine from the Hunnic Outcast

podcast. We did Smile Time. We did a comic version

of Smile Time on the pull bag. When was this?

Oh God. July 1st, 2015. So one of my greatest

regrets in life. And this is a little divergent,

but it's relative to the story. Right back on

it. Greatest regret in life is I was at a comic

book store in Texas for a wedding and I walked

into that store and there was a smile time commemorative

puppet of Spike in the store. And to this day,

I regret not buying that collectible because

and I and I've never seen it since then and I

may never see it again. But if I ever come across

any Puppet version of spike or angel. I don't

care how much it costs. I will find a way to

make it work Okay, so It's I don't know if this

is official and we'll get your opinion on this

in a moment But this is a totally separate thing

from the video games, but I think if I remember

correctly with some of the free Announcements

for whatever con it was They are coming out with

a vampire spike and a vampire angel funko pop.

Well, they have the yellow eyes and they had

the teeth are out in the district. I don't know

how you feel about funko. That's fine. Whatever,

whether you like him or not, it doesn't matter.

But I saw that and I'm like, Oh yeah, that's

a bye instantly. I'm like, I need. Yes. I was

going to say my, my, uh, Buffy in the the white

dress and the leather jacket Funko pop is literally

like right off to the side of my My monitor right?

Yes, that's amazing. Oh, yeah, that's right We

did that before the show folks. That was hours

ago. I don't remember I barely remember minutes

ago little on hours There was a mini spider going

in front of it. You would have never seen it.

Yeah That's awesome. That's absolutely awesome.

Yeah, I saw that they were doing that and I'm

like No way about freaking because I think there

was only ever one angel funko pop that they ever

did But I saw that and I'm like, oh my god. Yes,

they are doing that Yeah, but but I know in this

world there exists full -size puppet versions

And I was like, yeah if I ever come across one

of those I I'm all in I want him I want him so

bad absolutely that's that's amazing yeah no

I did that is so cool all right do you have a

my parents wouldn't let me play that video game

story never a video game and I and one thing

that I will say is that the the one thing that

I thought for sure they would shoot me down on

they bought for me which was Mortal Kombat 2

on Super Nintendo Because I because I was like,

there's no way they're gonna go for this. So

it was one of those like I fully went into that

situation. I was like, they're gonna shoot me

down and nope, they went for it. So I was like,

okay, so no, I was like they were never there's

never a video game where they said no to they

had never had that issue, but it was like it

also came down to the fact I was like, you know,

I was I wasn't, you know, I was a pretty quiet

kid. I didn't, you know, didn't act out and wasn't

a total asshole. Well, it was not until I was

a senior in high school that I was an asshole.

But the. Yeah, I was like, no, as far as that

type of as video games goes, no, there's never

a thing that they they forewarned me about or

forbid me from playing or anything like that.

They were always pretty cool about stuff. That

is so awesome. What is your opinion on the video

game reboots and which ones do you think have

been the most successful? So I mean, what is

a video game reboot per se? I mean, I mean, I

see them more as re -imaginings type of a thing.

And I mean, different people pull different things

out of certain games. I was like, it's more of

a Was like the only ones that I keep really feeling

like it's kind of like a reimagining constantly

is always been the Prince of Persia games Right

where in my opinion I did have I've always been

more of a console gamer, but I did there was

a lot of PC Interactive thanks to one of my best

friends growing up. He was he was a PC player.

So I did get a lot of time playing PC games and

The Prince of Persia games on PC were amazing.

And it was like the Sands of Time trilogy that

they ended up doing on the consoles. It was decent.

It was good. But I always felt like the PC series

was far superior when they were kind of in that

mode of doing those. And then I got the really

weird cell shaded one. And now the new one is

all side scrollers. So it's like back to kind

of the original format of what it was when it

originally came out. um so it's one of those

i don't i don't fault people for kind of you

know recreating the ips or breathing new life

in the old stories um i thought like technically

speaking of of rebooting they rebooted the tomb

raider series and i love the new tomb raider

games really got into the new tomb raider games

i thought they did a great job with them which

i know people have different opinions of but

i also thought that the original tomb raider

games were all hot garbage, but that's me. They

were very clunky and very hard to control, and

I'd never really enjoyed the control scheme on

them, but I got like the concept of the games

where I thought the newer ones were, I mean,

more in depth and enjoyable. I have more recently

watched a YouTube video that kind of ruined that

for me because they talked about that if you

just close your eyes and listen to all of the

amount of voice acting that Camille Le Ducnid

does with all the heavy breathing in there. It

sounds like you're essentially watching porn

porn. Yeah. In a different room. And I was like,

I never thought about it like that. And I go,

oh, crap, they're right. And I was like, no,

I feel real awkward about it. And it's one of

those. Yeah, it's. Yeah, it's that that's kind

of a. I like it when it works. I mean, some of

the reboot stuff, I'll just like when they do

the remastered editions, I was like, if I already

played it, I'm not going back to play it over

again type of a thing. So it is. It's one of

those. I think it has its time and its place,

and I think certain things do need to be revamped

to fit with the times. Well, not necessarily

to fit the times, but to take advantage of kind

of the newer technology out there. But yeah,

I was like, I don't I don't have any problem

with it. But if people are making money off of

it and people are being employed by it, I'm all

for it. So go for it. Go for it. Absolutely.

Which video game series from the past would you

want to see more of, whether that be a reboot

of the game or a live action movie or any other

form of media? So this is basically you want

to see what happens. after, well you wouldn't

have seen this because you never beat Mario 3,

but like the after adventures of the kids at

the end of Mario 3 or the further adventures

of Niko Bellac and his people in Grand Theft

Auto 4, the ones he has left, they all died.

Jesus, what a depressing is that? I'm a big fan

of downer endings though, so I like those kind

of things. All Jedi had was a bunch of Muppets.

There's one, and it's one of those, I feel like

I'm stealing another one of my other friends

answers, but I fully, I agree with him. I like

the world and I'm pissed that we haven't gotten

more games. I really love the infamous games

and Mike Powers is the one who got me into them.

And that is a world that I would love to see

more stuff in. And I know the studio sucker punches

kind of moved on to kind of doing other things,

but I would I really dug their approach to kind

of the superhero genre games and the fact that

they were doing their own thing and that you

could play those games and you could decide whether

you were the hero or the villain and you could

cheat your way through the game to being one

or the other type of a thing and. They made it

seem like we were gonna get more of the ps4 when

we that when they brought out second son on the

ps4 just never went anywhere after that they

were just done with it it's like. Come on guys

they felt like they were building something with

the original antagonist from the ps3 games and

the. the antagonist from the ps4 game eventually

coming head to head and it just never panned

out never went anywhere so that's one of those

game series that i just felt like there is there

is potential and it just never never got there

it was one of those they did they had such a

good streak of games going and they're just felt

like there was more to explore and just didn't

happen that's one series that i would love to

see more in that series very cool very cool any

others I mean, I'd like another Mass Effect game

that doesn't blow ass unlike Andromeda. But I

mean, you get what you get. So we'll see. I was

like, unfortunately, it seems like we got to

wait through another Dragon Age game before we're

going to see another Mass Effect game. But I

am holding out hope. I was like Mass Effect is

one of those series that I've just I always want

more. Just because I get I just enjoy. The world

and the feel and the look and the sound and the

music there's just everything's working in that

game for me I just really enjoy it Absolutely.

All right now I know that again Chaos pointed

this out to me, but When I say video game sidekick,

I don't mean to say that the other main brother

of the major Nintendo game is a sidekick It's

just a term Like, Mario's the hero, dammit. Luigi's

also the hero in his own right, but, I mean,

come on, when I say video game, like, this question

came from the cartoon sidekicks, and we all know

T -Bob and Scott from Mask are sidekicks at best.

They're worse characters at worst. But anyway,

what is your opinion of the video game sidekick?

Luigi, Tails, Clank, etc. Love them, hate them,

don't care either way. I love them. As is like

clank love clank absolutely adore clank clank's

one of my favorite sidekick characters that's

ever been in video games. I love a sidekick character

when they are either a good part of the narrative

or when they are helpful in the story. Now there's

certain games out there that take the sidekick

and the sidekick either gets in the way is a

huge pain in the ass. or takes away from the

immersion of the game. Those I don't really appreciate.

I just got done. I've been playing through the

Far Cry games recently, and you can hire a secondary

person to essentially join you. And when one

of those guys inadvertently walk in and get you

noticed when you're trying to raid a enemy camp

and they kind of ruin the entire sneaking into

a camp thing. I it makes me not want to hire

them or have a sidekick in that game because

they're screwing up my strategy and I don't appreciate

it. So if if I like a sidekick for comedic relief

in the newer games like and it's one of those

all the examples I keep thinking of are mostly

come out of PlayStation properties like Ratchet

and Clank and Jack and Daxter. Those are the

two that I think were it to work really well.

Mega Man and Rolly. And like when it's when the

sidekick is a support character that adds on

like Tails to Sonic, you know, grabbing grabbing

him and flying like when when it's any support

capacity, like a true sidekick would be like

sky high hero support style sidekick. I'm down

with that. But, if they get in the way, I got

no time for them. If they ruin their burger,

no. Pass. Pass, exactly. Oh, God. I just realized

next year is the 20th anniversary of Sky High.

Oh, fuck my life, I'm old. I still want to see

that movie. I love that movie. Yeah, I don't

think it's like, honestly, unfortunately, sadly,

can't happen now. Is there going to have to recast

jose since kelly preston passed away. That sucks

in your opinion which decade represents the golden

era of video games and why sixty seventies eighties

nineties two thousands twenty tens or today in

the twenty twenties. I'm partial to the to saying

the nineties. And it's more connected for me

but i think it's because of. With the 90s there

is a more of a hotbed amalgamation of eventually

what video gaming became and what it Started

out as they kind of lands in the 90s and and

I could be Very much on the fringe of this opinion

But I have a very strong reason why so in the

90s is kind of when the the hotbed of kind of

council activities happening where we have the

We're in the N64, we're in the Super Nintendo,

starting in the Super Nintendo kind of Sega,

TurboGrafx -16 era, and then going into that

N64 PlayStation era in the late 90s, but it was

also the point where arcades were still relevant,

and pinball was still big, and there was still

this social aspect of arcades where it wasn't

this bullshit David Buster's ticket -oriented

horse crap that's out there now. And it was an

actual gaming environment for people to get together

and go. And I think that's what makes it more

that that golden age is because it's that arcade

style socialization from the eighties that kind

of creeped into that council generation. And

then the kind of the birth of kind of the online

gaming with with like. World of Warcraft 2 battle

that edition and unreal tournament and all those

things kind of amalgamating all in that same

decade I really feel like the 90s kind of has

that hotbed of what it's evolved into today versus

where it was birthed that. I think all of it

kind of hits right in there now I'm seeing a

lot of that because of the fact that my best

friend growing up dad owned. a company in which

he supplied all the arcade machines and all the

pinball machines to all of the local pizzerias,

bowling alleys, whatnot in the east side of Michigan.

And every single one of those machines got broken

in and we got to play with every single one of

them at their house before they ever went anywhere.

I got to learn how to coin up arcade machines.

I got to learn how to maintain and do maintenance

on pinball machines. On top of having console

gaming and all that, so I was like, it was a

spoils spoiling of riches of getting hit by every

single aspect of everything in video gaming at

the exact same time because of who I knew and

where I lived and just by happenstance. So that's

amazing. And I will stick my flag on that. So

and you mentioned David Buster is my only. The

only thought is a really, really and you probably

could throw a quarter literally and hit a really,

really bad arcade. I'm like, oh, great. Chuck

E. Cheese and an actual arcade had a baby and

that was Dave and Buster's and it was the baby

ever. So so this is this is a video game related

story. Oh, OK. And maybe a little bit off topic,

but I think it's worth it's worth saying. So

this friend that I had that I grew up with had

a all these video games at his place. So when

he walked in there, you would literally walk

in the front of the house and there is a Soul

Blade arcade machine. If you don't know what

Soul Blade is, Soul Blade is eventually what

Soul Calibur became. So Soul Blade was the original

arcade version of Soul Calibur. So there was

that machine in there. You go into his bedroom

and then he would have a his his nightstand was

a Ms. Pac -Man. Tabletop so he just had a two

-player side -by -side miss pac -man machine

as his nightstand That's amazing. Yeah, so the

so that's the setup the story so when Showbiz

pizza closed down in Ann Arbor his dad bought

the animatronics all the animatronics the showbiz

band We're in the corner of their basement So

every single time we would go downstairs in the

basement The animatronic showbiz band is in the

corner of the basement and for some god -awful

reason I think he was working to fix them and

get them working again, but all the skin was

off of them So it's just robotic skeletons. I

should you not I don't care what any of these

new kids say and any of these young kids talk

about five nights at Freddy's Lived that shit

man. That was a terrifying portion of my existence

growing up was five showbiz skeletons robotic

skeletons in the corner of a dark basement Constantly

peering out with you because you know when their

furs off those giant ass robotic eyes are just

staring at you and they stare into your soul

and they look right into you And I have I wake

up in cold sweats to this day. I'm a 43 year

old man and I still wake up in cold sweats because

I'm freaked out about inanimate animatronic skeletons

that are in the corner of a room on top of the

fact. He also bought the the entryway because

if anybody's been to a show, a showbiz back in

the entryway, they used to have the hoofs of

all the animals that were animatronic that were

dancing. Those were lining where where the showbiz

band was. So that was That that was my childhood

was growing up and being terrified of going into

my friend's basement which was where the Nintendo

was where the Mega Man game was that we constantly

left the Nintendo on in the basement because

we didn't want to put the code in So I'd have

to pass by that thing every single time but I

had to go into the basement by myself terrified

absolutely terrified so I live that shit, man

That's right, that's right. As gaming has evolved,

what has been your greatest likes or dislikes

in the video game industry? I remember back in

the day when you could pay $60 for a game and

you got the whole game. There wasn't a $30 DLC

later with content that's already currently on

the disc, but it's just behind a code essentially

to get later. That annoys me in live service

games like Justice League. That no suicide squad

killed the Justice League. I'm not a fan of live

service games. I that's a. That is a. Yeah, in

in in pay to win games also not not a fan of.

I'm a big fan of putting your time in the grind.

I don't like that somebody can, you know, throw

100 bucks into a game and be leveled up to level

100 and just there. I think that's the point.

That's lame. That's dumb. That's. Like okay,

I can understand somebody not wanting to put

in like a thousand hours into it and I'm using

that as a you know I'm I'm exaggerating here,

but like I get it, but like if it takes you Regular

just a regular game Super Mario Brothers the

original from almost 40 years ago now If that

takes you nine and a half hours to finish, that's

what it takes you Even with the warp zones the

warp zones aren't cheating if you don't want

to do those levels fine But if you just play

through the whole game Fine, whatever maybe nine

and a half ten hours if you use the warps maybe

to take you six hours I don't know whatever but

like oh man paid away Why would you waste the

money on that and not get the experience of the

game if you like the game and you want to play

the game Yeah, it is one of those, like, I'm

a big fan of the idea of, hey, we're going to

roll out a game, but, you know, we're going to

release content later, but it's included in the

price of the game. Awesome. I think that's cool.

That I can live with. It's the whole. But it's

one of those things. I may not like it, but I

also, every single time an Assassin Creed game

comes out, I totally buy the season pass. So

it's one of those, I may not like it, but I still

feed the beast and I still participate because

quite frankly, I mean, not like something, but

quite frankly, there's certain games I like and

I want the DLC and this is just the world we

live in now and it's just kind of how things

go and I've accepted that. Yeah, well, I mean,

but if you buy this season pass that's an investment

in that bed like that I don't know that that

to me doesn't sound like you're trying to buy

it to win it like We're you know paid it. I don't

know whatever Well, it's one of those things

too If you get to the end of a game and you really

enjoyed it and you want more and there's more

content coming out I get paid more like the first

yeah the first Sony spider -man game when they

did did the DLC for that I didn't know I was

going to like it, so I wasn't necessarily on

board for the DLC at the start and I loved the

game and then I was like, I'll pay for more of

this. This was fun. I enjoyed this and it was

well crafted and well done. But Insomniac is

also a, you know, superior studio to most. So

absolutely they are. All right. Some people view

video games as something for quote unquote children

and don't view gaming as a serious form of media

that adults should consume. Who, in your opinion,

should video games be made for? Video games are

for everybody. I find video games to be a art

form, a form of expression, just like a painting.

I think there are beautiful independent games

that have been put out into this world that are

just as astounding as a piece of cinema or film,

and I don't think it's fair for anybody to drag

down a media just because they think that it

fits in a box for children. I mean, there's one

one indie game specifically I'll always go back

to, which, once again, thanks to Mike Powers,

I played. But Gone Home is probably one of the

best indie games I think I have ever had the

pleasure of playing. And it's not long. It's

very eerie, but it's so well crafted and such

a beautiful story at the end of it. I think fire

watches is another one of those in the games

that also is it just another really cool. Form

of the media i mean forget like the telltale

games are like the new version of a choose your

own adventure book from back in the day like

i love. I love the playing in that genre and

I love especially the weirdness of a lot of the

independent games. Two staples for weird independent

games in my household is from I think it's young

horses or wild horses, sea young horses. There's

a game called Octodad and Bugsnax, both from

the same studio. Two of the most batshit crazy

games ever, but two of the most fun and entertaining

games. I mean, Octodad, you're literally an octopus

pretending to be a father and you have an entire

family and the entire game. You're just trying

to maintain your cover. Absolutely. Just walking

through a grocery store, trying not to cause

any attention to yourself as an octopus or all

aspects of your joystick control a different

one of your limbs. So it's very difficult to

maneuver. It is beautiful, beautifully done.

Insane game. So that's amazing. That's awesome.

All right, folks, we are now entering the gamer

fantasy funland. If you could own any vehicle

featured in a video game, which would it be?

The Normandy for Mass Effect. There you go. If

you could live in any video game world that you

wanted to live, where would you live? Fallout.

As bad as that sounds. Yes, I want to live in

a post -apocalyptic wasteland where the entirety

of society has fallen apart, but it only fell

apart in a 50s post -atomic war universe. I find

the world of Fallout to be absolutely fascinating.

Damn the radiation poisoning or being a vault

dweller be damned as a a ghoul. I mean, I want

to go. I want to participate. I'm I I'm all about

it. I want to pay for things with bottle caps.

I am all in on that one. That's what I want.

Mm hmm. Absolutely. Who would be your top three

gamer pals to join you and become a quartet?

Examples, Mario, Sonic, Solid Snake, etc. Captain

Cork. From the ration claims, I believe his name

is sir. Dan from medieval back on the the PlayStation

He was a skeleton that that was reanimated that

was of a knight So he wears armor and he does

not have a lower jaw and he just has one large

eye and he's very weird But I would definitely

I would totally I would totally party with that

dude. You could tell that that dude totally fucks

so The And, and I'm going to say the mysterious

stranger from the fallout series because you

just want to do that comes in out of nowhere,

unexplicably and just blows another person's

head off to save your life. And I think it'd

be dope to just have that guy just miraculously,

you know, pop up and save you every once in a

while. That's crazy. That's awesome. All right.

I always preface this just in case but you're

not married You can date any video game character

you want. Which one would it be? Well That is,

unfortunately, probably a way easier answer than

I would care for. Let me guess, you married your

favorite video game character. You know, one

of the few video games that have ever made me

cry in my life. I had a very emotional connection

with and it is and it is totally Arif from Final

Fantasy seven who who spoilers if you guys didn't

get there on the original one, she dies at the

end of disc one. Or is it the end of this too?

I don't know, but she does. She she's there's

something about the relationship between Aerith

and and cloud in in that game and even for as

shitty as the graphics were back in the day,

it was just very well conveyed emotionally that

that when she she died, it broke my heart and

I spent literally the rest of the game like the

next 40 hours of that game holding out hope that

for some reason she was coming back. So as sad

as that is, there is an emotional connection

with that character for me. And yeah, if there

was one, that would probably be the one. There

you go. What is the holy grail of video game

artifacts? Examples, the Fire Flower, the Megabuster,

Samus' gun, etc, etc. Portal Gun. Oh, nice. Very

cool. Alright folks, we are now exiting the Gamer

Fantasy Funland. What is one piece of advice

that you'd give the video game fandom in general?

Life's too short. Just enjoy what you enjoy.

Who gives a crap what everybody else thinks?

Also, nobody gives a crap about the Council Wars

anymore. Just play your stuff. If you're on Xbox,

if you're on PlayStation, nobody cares. I lived

through it at GameStop for way too many years.

It doesn't matter. In the long run, it just doesn't

matter. Like what you like. Love what you love.

And if it happens to be one of those creepy dating

simulator games, just keep that shit to yourself.

And my first response to that is PC Master Race.

And we'll be right back right after this. So

folks, yes, we're gonna come back close the show

right after this you're gonna hear some podcast

ads some of the stuff You're also gonna hear

is the Chaos Queen give you all the information

of how you can be on the gamer origins And we

will be right back Hello Geeks and Geekettes!

Looking for a podcast that covers a vast array

of topics? Then check out Altered Geek Unleashed,

where we discuss our thoughts on this week's

geeky news, tech, gaming, television shows, movies,

cartoons, comics, and more. So, Get Altered Get

Geeky with the Altered Geeks, every Friday on

the Geekcast Radio Network. Hey Jared, I have

this idea for a new show for the network Yeah,

what is it? You know how I liked the 1990s comic

book series the new warriors Yeah, yes. Yes.

Mm -hmm. Yep, and you know how at the long boss

crusade. We're trying to get the YouTube channel

going Yes, yes also correct Well, thanks! So,

how about you and me do a live stream show about

the new warriors? You've never read the books

before and I have them, so that's a great setup.

We can give it a catchy name, like, Come Out

to Play. Don't you think that's the greatest

idea? Sure, sure, sure, Delvin, that's a great

idea. Just one question. Yeah? Why do you have

me dangling off this ledge, holding me by only

one arm? Oh, yeah. Well... You'll get it soon,

I hope. Come out to play. A new Warriors podcast

comes to you live on YouTube every second Tuesday

of the month at 8 p .m. Eastern on the Longbox

Crusade channel. If you can't watch it there,

we replay them on the Longbox Crusade Network

podcast feed available anywhere podcasts can

be found. We invite you to come along for the

ride or in other words, New Warriors. Come out

and play! Additionally, you can hear us talk

other movie news, trailers, varying movie series,

or other interesting film -related topics, and

even rants and raves of the week. On top of our

main show every Friday, you can also hear our

extra film podcasts. You can listen to the In

Session Film podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud,

or at InSessionFilm .com. Listen to the In Session

Film podcast every Monday and Friday. Subscribe

today and hear me verbally beat JD like a Cherokee

drum. No, no, no, no, no. That's not how this

works, sir. We brought the entire convention

center to the brink of an inter -genre geek war.

Okay, Michael, if we're going to tackle this

podcast thing, we've got to do something really

special. It has to be cool, daily, in audio form,

and undetectable by radar. Something that screams

summer. I know, let's do a Phineas and Ferb review

podcast. We'll call it the Podcast Organization

Without a Cool Acronym, or Pauka for short. What

do you think? I think if we're not careful, Candice

is gonna bust us. You can find Pauka on the GeekCast,

Radio Network, iTunes, Blog Talk Radio, and all

of the other methods you find podcasts. Would

you like to be on the Origins episodes here at

Studio 2009? Send an email to feedback at geekcaspradio

.com with the subject line Gamer Origins Guest

Spot. You must have one year or more of podcast

experience, have a good night, and be on Skype

or Discord. We are back, and I would like to

thank Mr. Art Danner for taking the time to stop

on by the studio and talk about video games with

me today, tonight, whenever you find people are

listening to this at some point in the future.

Any final words, anything you want to say, Art,

before I run through our closing? Nope. It was

a pleasure to be here, and yeah, it was like

if anybody, you know, wants to get a hold of

me or talk games or comic books, I mean, at Art

Danner. on TikTok or art of AV on X. That's what

it is. I forgot. I thought you abandoned it,

actually, considering. I don't go on X often.

I do find it to be quite the hellscape. Lately

so I'm slowly matriculating towards threads,

but I'm still not convinced that I enjoy threads,

but I really like No, I can't I I'm perfectly

fine with Facebook Instagram and X in that order

and I only really Like X is the out of the three

of them X is the last one I will go to to post

something. Yeah A photo earlier today. I put

it on Facebook first I technically could have

put it on, well, no, I did. I put it on Facebook

and Facebook cross promotes to Instagram because

it's all meta and whatever. But then I, after

that I went on to X and I posted it there. X

is my third in the line. 15 years ago would be

my first. Yeah. I wanna like threads, but unfortunately

it looks like a social media platform that was

designed by me when I've had way too many doses

of Adderall all stacked on top of each other

because it is fucking all over the place. So

I'm having a hard time following things, but

it's just, it's like stream of consciousness

on there. It's kind of what Twitter used to be,

but for some reason it still seems more disjointed,

I don't know. So I think you can put photos on

there now or something. But originally, wasn't

threads just supposed to be text based stuff,

like just like you said, a stream of consciousness.

And I'm like, I don't even check it. Like I'll

see on Instagram, like, oh, you somebody on threads

liked your blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, OK,

sure. Fine. Whatever. Well, I found out that

the way my social media is connected now, so

if I post something on Facebook, it automatically

shows up. Interesting. OK. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

you have the option of turning that off, but

yeah, I'm like, really? It automatically... Okay,

sure, fine, whatever. Yeah, but why? Let's see

what crazy trouble we can get ourselves into.

Yeah, I know, right? Heaven forbid anyone read

a Term of Service agreement. All right, folks,

that's going to do it for us. I believe this

is the final episode in the month of September,

even though we're recording this at the end of

August. We will have one episode in October and

then we will be taking November off so we can

record the final seven episodes of the year in

December. So coming up next, we've got the 25th

anniversary of Batman Beyond, because even if

Warner Brothers in DC aren't going to celebrate

it, I sure as fucking well am. They haven't done

shit. Like they haven't said, oh, return to the

jokers, going back to the theaters or... Oh this,

or oh that, or oh whatever. Well, you know what

today is though, right? Today, as we're recording

this, August 29th, 2024, what am I missing? Today's

Judgment Day, baby. Today's the day that Skynet

falls. In canon, in the Terminator series. Uh

-huh, I gotcha, I gotcha. Good thing that franchise

begins and ends with that movie. Yep. I mean,

okay, all right, I may end up having some sort

of hater come at me saying, what do you mean

it begins and ends with T2? What about the first?

The first Terminator is fine. It's great, but...

It's fine for what the technology was at the

time. Yeah, but like, wasn't that 84? Oh god,

that's 40 years. Oh god. For some reason I still

laugh to this day when I see the original Terminator

that part where Arnold's like the exoskeleton

Pops up in the truck when it's chasing them,

but it was just like oh man. It's so wonky look

looking. I love it. It's so good Well, I saw

that they're putting it up on 4k is I'm I think

you and I and powers and I don't know about Joe,

but we can all talk about the media upscaling

and whatever else if we want to at some point

or another. But like me and Joe have been talking

about the. OK, I told him that I'm coming around

on his whole physical copy thing, especially

after they screwed up the aliens movies and went

back and the film grain out. So. Yeah, I've been

getting 4k copies of a lot of stuff and I like

I haven't had a physical media collection like

a real true like Whole shell like the shelves

behind me that you saw affair They're all fun

clip pops that my physical media turned into

another toy collection. So but I have very like

I have Rusty blues because that's 25 years old

this year. That's on 4k I've got Batman mask

of the phantasm on I've got like a very small

Collection, but I'm like if it's on 4k, I'll

get it if it's on anything else Wait, I got rid

of most of my DV the DVDs I have a ton of blur

I haven't got rid of in the blu -rays but there

was a few DVDs that I kept them just because

I knew That a few of them were out of print Yeah,

I have Apollo 13 on DVD Because it was out of

print at the time I have man thing from Marvel

Studios Which I think was direct to DVD I think

it showed on two screens and it went direct to

DVD and it is Not good, but it is that that's

part of what makes it great I have the Dolph

London Punisher on DVD. And I have the Wizard.

There you go. So. Yeah, good old media. We're

going to have to talk about some media stuff

here on Studio 2009 coming up, folks, but we

got a bunch of stuff coming up, like I said,

next time, 25th anniversary of Batman Beyond.

After that, I don't know just off the top of

my head because I already closed the schedule.

So, as always, we want to thank you for joining

us here at Studio 2009. If you'd like to get

in contact with us to leave feedback for the

show, there are several ways to do so. Visit

the website geekcastradio .com, where you can

listen to and comment on all of our content.

Send us email to feedback at geekcastradio .com.

You can check us out on any of the podcasting

clients you choose to use. I prefer Spotify,

but that's just me. You can follow us on Twitter,

because I still call it Twitter. I don't care.

I like Dave and Craig from the old days, from

the old, uh, super awesome news, whatever, the,

uh, the Twitter fail. It's an old video. Anyway,

at Gecast Radio for the network, at ITS, IT Studio

2009, all one word for the show. I am at TF2

and Mike. He is at Art of AV, like he said. You

can check us out on Facebook, go to facebook

.com slash Gecast Radio Network. You can also

check out Studio 2009 over there as well. We

hope you enjoyed this episode of... So your 2009

wish will join us next time. For now, I am TF2

and Mike with... Art Danner. Thank you for listening.

Until next time. Oh yeah, and unleash the gamer

geek in you. Listen up, you reptiles! The Koopa

family meeting will come to order. So far, I've

sent you Koopalings to pull sneaky little tricks

and medium -sized meanness. Now you're ready

for the biggest badness of all.