Pandemic Tech, Transformers Nostalgia, and Retro Gaming

Hey, this is Steve blue and you are listening

to the geek cast radio network You are tuned

in to Steve Megatron on altered geek Hello and

welcome to altered geek I'm your host Steve Megatron

Phillips and joining me in this adventure into

geekdom is Hi, I'm Mike and I'm a retired podcaster

That's right, he's never tired I'm retired No,

you're not I Record one podcast a week where

his last year. I was recording about seven a

week. So yeah, I'm semi retired Okay, anyway,

you're pretend retired so So it's another week

of lockdown World Edition or the video or the

board game pandemic take your you know choice

there But on lighter notes other than the fact

that uh, I read that AMC theaters may Have to

declare bankruptcy Uh -huh. Yeah, I read because

they they went from like an a -minus on the Better

Business Bureau to like a CC C or something like

triple C or something so Because of this whole

thing. It's like honestly, they should have just

paused all payments Yeah, why just no payments

like unless you physically buy something You

know like no rent no, you know, yeah, but um

Yeah, the government should have instead of giving

everybody $2 ,000 should Just paid everybody's

rent for the next you know during the the during

the shutdown Okay, so this is coming from my

wife Karen. She told me tonight as of Tuesday

April 7th, 2020 that supposedly They're doing

the stimulus checks are gonna be a part of Basically

a tax write -off kind of thing is what she said

Oh, basically, if you get the stimulus check

and you file taxes next year and you don't, I

don't know. It's some weird thing. Yeah, basically.

And I'm like, it's a long. Yeah. Yeah, it's like,

here's the thing. OK, I've done payday loans

before. I'm sure everybody has. I'm sure you

have at some point have done a payday loan through

a pawn shop or whatever where, you know. you're

short on cash for two weeks or whatever it is

in between your paychecks and then they get your

information, whatever else you pay it back in

two weeks or in my case, a month to month basis

on social security. So, you know, that's essentially

what this is too. And I'm like, The American

people at this point need help. They have no

jobs. Most of most of them have no jobs because

most of them had non -essential jobs, according

to the government. Well, and I get it from the

stance of they're trying to flatten the curve

as it were. The only problem I have with that

is they're screwing the entire they're screwing

the entire world. Yeah. The economy is going

to be garbage when we get out of this. And yeah.

I really don't want to drag this episode down

with all of that, but because I know this is

your show and we need to talk about this anyway,

but it's just crazy. Like, okay, look at me.

All right. I am, I was born disabled. So my disabilities

include a missing piece of my brain. Quite literally.

It did not grow when I was inside my mother.

I have a mild case of cerebral palsy. I have

dexterity issues. I have mobility issues. I had

to have brain surgery. 29 days from now will

be one year since I had brain surgery. Crap,

where did this year go? And I've been on SSI,

Supplemental Security Income, my whole life.

I have worked here and there. Look at the last

11 years of what I've done with GCRN and what

we've created. It's not that I don't have work

ethic. It's just the jobs that I'm qualified

for. I either have to stand eight hours a day

or I have to do something that I'm not qualified

to do kind of thing. True. So for me, it's like,

do I want free money? Yes, everybody wants free

money. But here's the thing. I don't believe

I'm entitled to anything if they give it to me.

Great. Absolutely. I will take the help. But

I see it as it needs to be help for those who

can't help themselves. It does not need to be

something that I should have to pay back the

government. No, it's kind of like being being

laid off and then being on unemployment and then

they heavily tax you when you file your taxes.

Yeah, kind of. It's It's a crazy world we're

living in and I've seen so many stories and This

just boggles my mind, you know, I've been waiting.

I'm not okay I know you're gonna pull a mic and

I'm gonna say this reminds me of Milo Murphy's

world Yeah, that's right Milo Murphy's law. It's

my world and we're all living in it. Yep. Sorry

and go wrong will Pretty much. Yeah Know you

and your wife and your family have your religious

and spiritual beliefs and whatever else but I

have been waiting my whole life Because I'm spiritual

but I'm not like I don't do the whole church

thing. It's just I'd read quite literally on

Sundays in the 90s I was at home in the afternoon

watching reruns of classic Star Trek on CBS or

whatever station it ran on in the 90s Versus

being at church. I'm just not a church person

having said that I've been waiting my whole life

for churches to just be closed and yet I see

it I see five articles a day lately Where pastors

in whatever states or whatever? Oh, we're gonna

open the church up to everybody There's a no

Push in the envelope because it yeah, and I'm

not trying to get overly religious, but if if

you're If you follow the teachings that are in

it There's there's it's twofold it's go and make

disciples and You know, you know obviously with

following the commandments and everything else,

which nobody does and There's there's the other

side of things which is you don't Supercede the

law as long as it's not Preventing you from practicing

your beliefs right which It's a common -sense

thing. It's like the the thing with the taxes

where they you know The the parable of the taxes

kind of thing where it's like well you pay Caesar

what Caesar's and God's what's God's? With the

taxes like you don't try and stiff the government

because it's you know a different entity It's

like no you live in it you do you know anyways

what I'm what I'm trying to get with that is

If they tell you to be closed, it doesn't say

you can't have church. You just can congregate

in the building. So like what we're doing in

Colorado is they're all closed. We're all doing

Zoom meetings. Exactly. You can do online sermons

and live streaming and nothing. Exactly. It's

just there's not an audience. Like, yes, there

are your 10 people that are in the church that

are running the service, you know. But there's

nobody there. So they're looking at a screen

and looking at the feedback on Facebook. Yeah,

exactly. And there's nothing wrong with that.

You're still getting your message out. You're

still getting the message out. So but like some

of these people, those people are just purposely

trying to push the envelope and they're clearly

not getting. You know, it's like, OK, knucklehead,

you you do have to listen to the government.

In that instance, it's not like they're saying

you cannot legally practice your your beliefs.

They're saying you cannot congregate right now.

Yeah. Until this blows over and then you can

go back to normal. Exactly. And then there are

the complete. Okay, I'm just gonna say it you

can beep it if you want I know you probably won't

but I'm not gonna say I'm not gonna pull a dot

But I'm just gonna say then there are these dumbasses

out there Licking ice cream going around stores

saying they have the coronavirus and coughing

on people and whatever like oh my god those people

are just inconsiderate fools that are Fools,

but it's like really you want to go to jail It's

like they allow you to go to the grocery store.

They allow you to, you know, go to the gas station.

They allow you to go for a walk, you know, in

the neighborhood or or, you know, in the park

or, you know, just as long as you're not on playground

equipment or any of that kind of stuff. But it's

not. Now, whether they relinquish the control

after all of this. That's what we'll be telling

one way or another. But as long as everything

kind of goes back to normal afterward, I don't

see any of this being a big problem. So it's

and they're saying that we're getting close to

being on the other side of the hump. So they're

saying by like May, we should be starting to

start seeing things open back up. So maybe I

personally, if. the bad stuff keeps happening

and people keep making it worse. I've told my

wife, I said, I don't foresee any of this stopping

before Christmas. Well, the thing that'll happen

then is that it'll completely tank every business

because none of them can survive without being

able to go to a building and work. Like it will

shut down the supply chain. There will be nothing

left. and so they eventually they're going to

have to hedge their bets and just let people

out. Kind of like the toilet paper aisle. Otherwise

it's going to be complete anarchy like I mean

really any of these movies that are dystopian.

I mean you're going to end up with a bunch of

people that are just it's going to be complete

anarchy after you know the summer is done because

people are just not going to deal with it anymore

they're going to become just kind of anyways

we've Anyways, yeah. So funny thing that that

kind of popped up over this last week, and I

don't know if you saw it or not. The Queen of

England. Yes, I did. OK, she she got on television

in a green dress, which is not very bright on

broadcasting. At least she wasn't in front of

a chroma cat a chroma key screen and then they

could have made her a floating head You know

like the PB Herman thing where like his head

bounces along the words. Oh, yeah, so anyways

Either way you could still kind of do that but

people were having fun with it on Twitter and

they put like, you know a crazy cat Picture on

there a dog iron maiden they put ministry of

silly walks they put the The season one star

trek the next generation uniform on her which

that one seems to have hit the main target Wow

like people are that one is the one that is just

everywhere And Yeah, somebody was like they should

have just put her in an admirals uniform Because

she's in a just a regular Starfleet uniform,

but it's but it's funny, you know, and then they've

put her in all kinds of things You know like

Animal Crossing or me before I drink tea in the

morning. It's good picture a baby Yoda or You

know just literally any animal picture under

the Sun So it's it's it's quite humorous somebody

actually she I guess she wore a green one too

like on a another occasion like on Like an open

car ride Okay, and I just saw this one it oh

it hit today. That's why She's wearing green

and they Photoshopped pizza on her. So it looks

like she's It's but I mean it's it's it is crazy

when you you stop to think about it Here here's

my thing, okay And I'm not going to go too far

into this and whatever else, but compare what

the Queen said to everything our leader has said.

Everything I see Trump doing, everything I see

videos of him talking, like somebody asks him

a serious question. Instead of actually answering

the question, he'll attack that person or attack

their news organization that they're from. Meanwhile,

the Queen whether she wrote it or not, whoever

wrote the speech for her that she made, like

that gives me more hope than anything Trump has

said. Well, yeah, I mean, when people have asked

him how, how would he, how would he not necessarily

soothe, but how would he Help the American people

understand this and whatever else. Well my my

thing is is when he doesn't read the teleprompter

it It yeah, it doesn't bode well for him, but

the same token They can say all they want like

anything it doesn't fix the problem It's it's

like no it doesn't fix the problem, but we need

hope and positivity more than anything and I

get that but The and I'm not defending him either

because like I don't know what he said because

honestly I don't watch any politician because

they're all full of crap Yeah, are you every

single one of them? So it's it's an equal opportunity

dislike I don't like any of them, so I don't

pay attention any of them Because they're all

needing to be voted out everyone that's in now

needs to be gone Yes, they are doing what they

Quote -unquote need to do as far as some of the

stuff for the economy, but it's not it's not

helping stuff. So But yeah, so it's it's funny

when you keep scrolling down and she's just got

Whether it's advertisements or actors or animals

Somebody actually inverted her head back up on

itself on one they put a Various Queen like a

Queen card or like the Queen music group Wow,

yeah, so it's it's I mean it in all honesty,

it's It's in a word disrespectful Yeah, but and

everybody's taking it in good stride Like as

far as is making fun of her for wearing that

But uh You know, I don't know it's just funny

how like on this side of the pond Everyone makes

fun of everyone like it's in gets offended but

on that side of the yeah, he's offended We're

green bad Photoshop idea lady But other things

that were that are kind of funny about this whole

Time anyway is They What was it? Oh And this

happened in Toronto Someone was projecting video

games on a Toronto apartment building. I don't

know. Yeah, I saw that Yeah, I was one of the

ones that shared it. Yep. It yeah I think that

that is by far the most inventive way of getting

away with playing And and you're providing entertainment

for the neighborhood. They don't even have to

get exactly. They don't even have to use Internet

for for Twitch or anything. It's exactly. They

can watch, you know, Mario Kart or Bubble Bobble

on the side of a building. And then there's the

fact that apparently it took a pandemic to get

L .A. to clean, have the cleanest air and over

a generation. Well, it also doesn't help that

there are way too many people congregated there.

True and the same thing happens with you know,

Chicago or New York Yeah, it's it Yeah, it just

didn't need to be that bad in any way but because

people just You know Well, let's put it this

way there's a lot of businesses that people could

work from home and can't Yeah, so like I kind

of get it You know if you have to go to work

you have to go to work But like there's there's

a lot of instances where people could work from

home and the business just doesn't do that Mine's

kind of hit -and -miss like I could realistically

work from home like half the week and then the

other half be in the office so it's kind of a

Like I mean I don't care either way but it's

you know in that instance there's or businesses

could instead of having five days a week, six

days a week, seven days a week, you know, maybe

four. Like where I work, like we work Monday

through Thursday, and that's it. The rest of

the week is yours, which could be beneficial

to the whole world if it went that way. You know,

you work for 10 hour days. Boom, you're done.

Yeah, what was the other thing? Oh, there was

a lady that accidentally turned herself into

a potato. My god They were having Was it This

is Millennials were told we could be anything

so she became a potato It was it was like a political

director at people for the American way It was

for like Latinos or whatever for progressive

candidates and elections and stuff. So anyways

They were doing a virtual happy hour for community

leaders and They it's it turns out that the person

accidentally downloaded some funny filters to

use during these happy hours the problem is forgot

that she had done that and no morning meeting

where they do try and do camera when they started

the meeting and they said they saw her as a potato

and Like eyes mouth and potato like it looked

like a diglet so people were uh from pokemon

so they were like photoshopping it as like diglet

um wow and she was like i'm so confused as to

why it was a potato of all the things why a potato

potato potato and uh so she was trying to fix

it and says i just gave up state of potato for

the rest of the call um And then if they have

like screenshots, like of her her colleagues

that had screenshotted her and they're like trying

not to laugh the whole time and looking down

and away from the camera so that they're not

looking at her. But it was funny because it went

viral and everything. Yeah, I had a pizza on

my face at one point. That's funny, actually,

is a Facebook. It was a Facebook messenger. picture

emoji thing. It's, it was weird. Uh, all right.

So let's see here. Legend of the white dragon,

the white dragon is back. So I believe, let me

just double check this because I know they had

another campaign, uh, white dragon. Okay. So

originally. Last year that in the Sun along with

Jason David Frank Johnny Young Bosch Launched

on Kickstarter Legend of the White Dragon The

funding was unsuccessful. Sadly, it ended on

August 11th of last year. Well recently I noticed

that it was back and I'm like really it's back

They made the funding this time. So now it's

all about stretch goals to figure out what this

is going to be and whatever. The videos basically

says that JDF is either going to make it a feature

-length film or a mini TV series kind of thing.

They don't know. Right now they are at 1 ,440

backers, 49 days to go, $132 ,109 raised. So

they had a goal of 100 grand and they made that.

And I'm really excited about this because When

they first announced this last year, I'm like,

oh, that looks really cool. Yeah, for five minutes,

you can get your name in the credits. Mm hmm.

For anyone that doesn't know, bat in the sun

are the people behind superpower beat down and

things like that. They do really, really good

work. And I still watch the original trailer

to this that's on the original campaign. And

it is so good. Although I don't know why Adam

is in the pink costume anyway He felt like changing

designs for once I guess No, but I think that's

gonna be really cool once they actually Eventually

get it done kind of thing. So I like the the

whole dystopian Yeah, yeah And then Kind of complete

like kind of picks up like it makes you feel

like it's decades later Mm -hmm of Tommy and

you know, he's mm -hmm Almost kind of like that

that whole future timeline of the comic. Yep

But I'm definitely interested in this yeah, I

mean five bucks is just you know Know not a lot

of us have five dollars right now But just to

get your name in the credits or just to be able

to see the film like that That's not just not

to get the film though 20 sure 20 bucks 20 get

the digital download of the series slash film

You get a digital download of the original soundtrack

the download of the script and the poster and

name in the credits and six digital backgrounds

Yeah, I wish that they would say who's doing

the soundtrack because I hope to God it's Ron

Wasserman That would be actually really cool.

Yeah, he did the score behind Shattered Grid.

He did the music for Kyle Higgins' Shattered

Grid video that they put out with Tommy in there

as Lord Draken. It says that they hit their goal

in the first five days. Yeah, they did. Which

is insane. I think it's because everybody's home,

so everybody's more aware of things. And everybody

wants something like, look, I mentioned this

somewhere else. I forget where it is, but I mentioned

it to somebody else. We all need entertainment,

whatever entertainment you love, whatever entertainment,

you know, whatever you consider your entertainment,

video games, comics, movies, TV, cartoons. Newspapers,

whatever you want to read or whatever. We all

need entertainment right now because we're all

I mean me I'm used to being home. So it's it's

no You know, it's not really any different for

me, but most people Get up go to work come home

eat dinner Maybe watch Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy

and maybe one episode of a show put your kids

to bed Get up the next day and do it all over

again You know, that's that's the routine Well

now everybody in the world practically is home,

so we all need something to entertain us oh Yeah,

and all honesty like it's The way the whole world

is like and especially with production shut down

everything it means we're gonna be dealing with

reruns for about a year oh Guess what CB is this

yes CBS CBS is bringing back Sunday night movies

They should because honestly like they don't

need to produce new stuff all the time Well,

I think it's just in between you know during

this I don't want to say downtime but You know,

I saw a news story I forget who I saw it from

but I did see a news story about how they were

Going to bring it back. It was probably my buddy.

Andre that shared that, but yeah. That NBC Universal

is going with. Less commercials. They they said

that to alleviate during this time and also for

the fact that right now. commercials are irrelevant

So yeah, it's it's it's actually quite humorous

The the whole thing That A lot of commercials

like for instance, you're not gonna care about

plane tickets. You're not gonna care about Things

things like that So it's it's it makes sense

that a lot of commercials are just not going

to Show up Because it really a lot of it's just

totally irrelevant like hotels. Yeah, you're

not gonna be Mm -hmm. You're not gonna be paying

anything attention to that because you can't

go anywhere. Yep, so So it is CBS they're gonna

launch Sunday night movie night on May 3rd for

a five week initial run Tapping into the vault

of corporate sibling paramount pictures. The

night will feature five iconic titles From the

Paramount Library Forrest Gump, Indiana Jones

and the Rays of the Lost Ark Which is how that

franchise started now, but it's marketed Indiana

Jones and Indiana Jones' Last Crusade, the first

Tom Cruise Mission Impossible, and Titanic. On

May 24th and 31st, the movies will air where

original episodes of CBS's Love Island had been

scheduled. The network still plans to run a second

season of the reality series this summer, but

with all Hollywood production on hold, as you

already said, its fate is currently to be determined.

So I think that's really cool cuz not and I'm

sure they have to use the TV versions cuz hello

It's it's you know well honestly like I I enjoy

the TV versions more to some degree like I didn't

realize Like my wife really like Shawshank Redemption

Mm -hmm, and I really enjoyed too. However, I

don't particularly care for the amount of the

f -bomb that's dropped in it Like I don't know

so much. It's it I didn't realize how vulgar

it was until we went Oh, yeah, and I was like,

I don't remember it being this and I was like,

oh TV version Mm -hmm. So I was like, yeah, that's

kind of I kind of Yeah, there's no way to watch

it unless I get the TV version and so like I

because you can't just readily get your hands

on something like that Yeah, it just yeah, it

basically means that I don't get to watch the

movie I knew it was I've always known it was

a rated -r movie and I read our movies from the

90s and 80s and 90s they have a bunch of f -bombs

and S bombs and A bombs and whatever bombs you

want to call them in them. So I always remembered

and I always watched the regular theatrical version.

It's funny. They just had it. Was it the 90?

Yeah, last year was the 25th anniversary of it.

Karen and I went to see it in the theater. They

had another one of those special limited engagement

things. So I finally got to see Shawshank in

the theater in its full glory and wow. Yeah.

I mean, I know it's pretty brutal anyway, but

it's still something cool. Yeah, very cool. So

yeah. As far as other things, speaking of the

whole scenario with the projecting things. It

was an April 3rd. I saw Brian Kildee Yeah Batman

the animated series on a projector on a projector

screen in his backyard That's cool. Yeah, and

I was like, that's awesome Yeah, like home movies

in the backyard and then and then he shows it

later on when it's dark outside and you can see

it He's like, oh, yeah Much better. Yeah, and

then then he's like time for the last crusade

and then he puts the Indiana Jones back there

Very cool. It was like yeah, that that's really

cool, man Oh This one I bet you haven't heard

of 220 former 21st century Fox executives charged

with bribery and FIFA corruption case Oh Lord,

oh it gets better It's Hernan Lopez and Carlos

Martinez were charged with bribing soccer officials

with millions of dollars in exchange for lucrative

broadcasting rights. Now mind you, this happened

while they worked there. It says that they were

charged with wire fraud, money laundering, and

accused of using shell companies and sham consulting

contracts to conceal or disguise their bribes

and kickback payments over a period of more than

20 years. In return, prosecutors said that their

bribes helped them obtain confidential bidding

information of the U .S. broadcasting rights

for Fox to the 2018 to 2022 World Cup tournaments.

Lopez, who is the founder and CEO of podcast

network Wondery, is the former CEO of Fox International.

Now, the more interesting thing about this. um

that i find entertaining is that um the um the

article itself um or or the the lopez guy that

that's the ceo yeah he's the guy that's trying

to start the um Basically the podcasts like those

podcast award thing where mm -hmm Let me see

what yeah, it's still fresh enough in my feed

that I can pull it up Yeah, he was he was the

founder of the Golden Mic Awards Which which

hey he launched this whole new podcasting endeavor

at January's podcast movement And it kind of

just royally upset the entire podcast industry,

especially the Indies. And because they're like,

because this guy created it, the CEO of Wondry.

And so that means a big company, not an Indy

is running this because like, you look at Blueberry,

they're a distribution platform. They're not

a media company. right, they do produce their

own podcast, but that's just second fiddle to

what they actually do and right, so they They

even were apprehensive about the whole idea and

they do an indie podcast awards called the podcast

awards Which has been going for 14 years now

So it's entertaining to me to see this whole

thing have a colossal shutdown and Hank Davis,

the guy that does the TP Entertainment, he says,

I'd assume they'll either remove him from the

board or shut down the entire thing. And then

the other podcasters were like, personally, I'd

like to see both. You know and I said and this

is why corporate bigwigs shouldn't be associated

or controlling anything associated with the podcasting

awards or golden mics I have zero confidence

in it anyhow as it's another pay to display service

Makes it almost fishy like I heart radio awards

where the only thing that wins are people that

are these big Conglomerates that can pay to shovel

their way to the top You don't see indies in

there. It's always the ones that have money back

in them So I said it doesn't surprise me. This

stuff is coming out though. Eventually the rooster

crows and Hangs like great points. I'll be honest

by saying I would have thought of dozens of other

charges before bribery. This is bonkers his character's

shot and And so Another guy was like He calls

himself Pod Vader. He used to work for Spreaker.

He got laid off about the same time I did from

the Blaze. He's like, it's almost definitely

too soon to ask, but what will this mean for

wondering in the podcast academy? He says, there's

going to be a long trial, I'm sure, and a whole

bunch of other questions. The use of shell company

is just the part I'm really intrigued with. And

so yeah, I'm... I'm very, very interested in

how this all plays out because either way you

look at it, it's not good. No. And honestly,

I really didn't like the idea of the podcast

Academy because they're like, oh, we promise

it's supposed to be the world leader in podcast

education. God. And they've they've they've revamped

their website since the last time I've seen it.

Um, and they do a few online, but, um, a lot

of it's in Australia. Here, give me just a second.

I just, I'm curious to see if this costs money.

Of course it costs. Well, no, well this, the

podcast Academy is from Australia. So it's, it's

kind of funny that this whole thing exists. Um,

but yeah, they're supposed to teach you everything

you need to know to produce launch market and

monetize your podcast like Yeah, I mean I get

it like um, and then they've got some testimonials

on there and everything but saying uh, but yeah,

so I I don't know. Um It's crazy like I don't

yeah, i'm they Okay, there's a different site,

but still um Yeah, it says membership Academy

memberships will be accepting in spring 2020.

Well, you might have to bump that one now Yeah,

but they're gonna launch an annual awards program.

So basically They're gonna nominate people that

are you know Money backing them because a lot

of the let me see if they even have their Their

board of directors they're saying that they're

gonna have two -year elections of it. Nine members

of the board will be voted on by members in even

numbers, years. Eight members of the board of

governors will be voted on by the members in

odd years, and then it says any active member

in good standing may run for term or something,

but you know it's gonna be people with money.

Yeah, it is and and you know that they're gonna

charge a membership fee for this they're saying

that the benefits will host monthly webinars

on topics and Things like that and basically

teaching tutorials plus being eligible for their

award program But honestly like I don't I don't

have confidence in it because they and neither

do a lot of other podcasters because they have

not disclosed who is eligible or who is on the

board. And so it's already like really fishy.

Yeah, it's very sketchy. So, yeah, so nobody

has much confidence in it. So if it bombs completely,

this will be a bonus. There ain't no awards like

the GCR in awards. No, especially when especially

when it puts the stomp down on stuff. you know

like IGN and stuff like that so so maybe we should

jump to the gaming aspect so I don't want to

put a little disclaimer out here first folks

cuz we're not gamers I know I I know We're not,

okay, I'll say this. We're not fully modern gamers.

Like you have a PS3, you have an Xbox 360. I

don't, do you have an Xbox? I actually don't

have a PlayStation. I have an Xbox One that died.

Okay. So. Okay. So, but you had a 360, you had

a PS2 at one point. Right, right, right. See,

we're more old school gamers, folks. And that's

part of this whole gaming community, I believe.

You have people like Mike Booth, Ninja Powers,

Art Danner, who are kind of like, you know, the

modern gaming type people. And we would have

loved to have brought them on this episode, but

time zones and whatever. And Mike's on a sabbatical

from social media, too. Oh, that's why I haven't

even heard from him in months. He's like, all

right, peace out. Well, here's hoping we can

get this episode to him and he'll laugh out of

it Hopefully So I was just going through my Google

feed or something or other or something popped

up on my phone because inevitably some sort of

news story pops up on my phone and It's for I

was from some website, but it basically directed

me to the PlayStation blog Introducing DualSense,

the new wireless game controller for the PlayStation

5. The reason why I'm not a modern gamer, folks,

is because of one simple thing, as I mentioned

earlier in this episode. I was born with a mild

case of cerebral palsy. This affects the right

side of my body. My right hand and foot are smaller

than my left hand and foot. I have no I have

no control over what my right hand does. My left

hand controls what limited function my right

hand has. So I play video games one -handed.

There are pictures somewhere online with me with

a Super Nintendo controller, how I usually have

to hold it in my left hand. Basically, I palm

the bottom of the thing, I use my thumb for the...

for buttons, you know, X, Y, A, B, whatever they

call them now, triangle, square, circle, X, whatever

it is. And then I use my ring finger and my pinky

finger for the D -pad. Controllers nowadays and

the controllers for the past almost 20 years

have analog sticks and they are wider than the

Super Nintendo controller. So everything is wider

now. Well, I got a big left hand, but it ain't

that big where I can stretch my all my fingers

out and plus have my thumb on the button. So

that's mainly why I'm not really a modern gamer

is because the main companies that make these

systems are not making controllers for disabled

people. I know there are probably some third

party companies that have made. Very like I know

you have said and I know dot is said in a couple

of people I think even booth ninja has said Mad

cats or whomever. I'm just only throwing them

out there because I know it won a while back

right So yeah, I mean one that was more accessible

right So I love the way the dual sense looks

and I love what it says here in the article about

What it's going to be Basically, what it says

is, let's see here. They talk about how they

want to improve on what the DualShock 4 did with

the PS4 and how this provided them with an exciting

challenge to design a new controller that builds

off of the current generation while taking into

account the new features that they were at wanting

to add. For example, With adaptive triggers,

we had to consider how the components would fit

into the hardware without giving it a bulky feeling.

Our design team worked closely with our hardware

engineers to place the triggers and actuators.

The designers were then able to draw the lines

of how the exterior of the controller would look

and feel with a challenge of making the controller

feel smaller than it really looks. And they also

talk about how they want this to have an audio

feel and a touch feel. It says, we had a great

opportunity with the PS5 to innovate by offering

game creators the ability to explore how they

can heighten that feeling of immersion through

our new controller. This is why we adopted haptic

feedback which adds a variety of powerful sensations

you'll feel when you play such as the slow grittiness

of driving a car through mud and other other

examples so they want you to be able to feel

it's called dual sense so they want you to be

able to feel what you're actually playing as

in the game and i think that's really cool i

think that's great Think that's gonna be a fun

for a lot of people. Meanwhile, I'll be playing

my nests and SNES classic See I what's funny

is I care nothing about the haptic feedback I

Actually turn all of that off because I hate

the controller moving Like when I'm playing I

don't want to feel it. I just want to play the

game so Plus, when that stuff's going off, it

eats into your battery life when you have a remote

wireless controller. Yep. So, like, if you turn

it off, it's good. You're fine. There's no reason.

Like, it's ultimately... I get it for those that

want to feel all that. I honestly could care

less about having it. I think it's funny that

they used to have because I haven't followed

PlayStation in a while So I think it's funny

that they used to have a share button on there

and now they have like a create button So you

can still do the something similar But Yeah,

it sounds like you can do ways to create epic

gameplay content to share But I don't know I

really like the design of it it kind of gives

me like an Xbox feel to it instead of that that

classic blocky PlayStation look that they've

had for so long. Yeah, I like the sleek design

of it. I do. I like the way it looks. I think

it would be more comfortable on the hand than

the PlayStation ones, which to be honest, I like

my Xbox 360 controller still. Not that it's much

different from the the Xbox one, but still the

fact of the matter is like I enjoy the fact that

it's comfortable. Still one of my favorite controllers

is the GameCube one. Quite funny to me. But yeah,

I mean, I still like the place, the Xbox 360

as far as the controller is concerned. But yeah,

I don't know. I think this is really neat and

it's a nice innovation. Yep. So I know this is

not this is Altered Geek. This is not all things

Transformers, but. I know I was going to bring

this up. Is this the thing with Neil? No, you

didn't see that one or you did? No, I didn't.

OK, so this is first and then I'll go. Sorry.

No, it's fine. I was going in the Transformers

realm anyway. OK, BotCon is back, folks. It's

been back for a while now this year, but the

BotCon official page is back up. Supposedly BotCon

2021 is happening. According to their page, but

they've Because we don't have March Madness this

year folks because there's no NCAA basketball.

There's no whatever for the month of March They

did the bots and bracket a 2020 bots and brackets

tournament. So they had all the transformers

basically a GCR in wars but bots and brackets

And they had all the all the characters they

had like evil Rodimus versus Animated Megatron

or something or other I forget what it is. But

basically any Transformer character from any

universe they had go up and and whatever so we're

getting down to the nitty -gritty in two hours

ago as of this recording The winner has been

Announced it is official as voted upon by thousands

of fans over the course of the 63 matches the

winner of the 2020 bots and brackets Tournament

is none other than Optimus Prime from the generation

one Sunbow universe Go figure There have been

many of Optimus Prime's Megatron's Grimlock Starscreams

and various other characters from across dozens

of timelines but over the course of 36 years

the one variation of those characters stands

out as the Defining robot from the Transformers

franchise 1980s Optimus Prime is voiced by Peter

Cullen So, you know who he beat Actually, I know

I actually voted for the other guy so in the

finals it was G1 up G1 Cartoon Optimus versus

Beast Wars Dinobot I voted for Dinobot I Would

vote Beast Wars regardless I Was mad Megatron

got booted out early. Yeah, the only way I would

have voted Generation 1 as if it was like Astro

Train or Soundwave or Hot Rod slash Rotomus.

Look, I love G1 Optimus, Cartoon Optimus. I really

do. But over the years, I've come to see the

flaws that he has as a character. Yeah, well,

Primal took risks. Prime was like, well, we can't

do this anymore. OK, Eeyore. So what's your transformers

thing? What did Neil do now? What didn't he do?

I'm just joking So he's he posts this thing on

April 5th You commented on it. Oh It says is

transformers energon the worst transformer series

of all time. Yes question Am I humorously insinuating

something by posing it as a question to which

I've already clearly drawn a conclusion The answer

to all these is yes There are all sorts of reasons

why I hate Transformers Energon, from the writing

to the character models to the awful, awful voices,

iron -hide whines, but I think the show's biggest

sin is the animation. To draw a contrast, watch

about five minutes of Beast Wars, then jump over

to Energon. You will notice a stark difference.

And what's really bizarre about these two shows

is that they were produced eight years apart,

yet Beast Wars looks a million times better,

even with its plastic -looking rendering and

flat texture mapping. They just look better and

move more fluidly. The overall composition of

Beast Wars is more dramatic. By contrast, Transformers

Energon looks like you're watching an in -engine

cutscene rendered on the PlayStation 2. The animation

is dreadfully repetitious, as only bad looping

animation can look in CGI. Character models are

blocky and appear to be slavishly based on the

toys, which is never a good idea. Their mouths

are a flat texture, rendered onto the face. Why

does it look so bad? Why does an archaic CGI

cartoon from 1996 look a million times better

than the one made in 2004? If I really want to

be mean, I compare it to Beast Machines, which

blows Energon even further out of the water.

And then he says, did I also happen to mention

that Ironhide whines like, beep, is undeserving

of the name Ironhide? Worst Autobot stands wheelie.

And then you put Beast Wars or Beast Machines

rules. I'm rewatching it right now. Yeah. Yeah.

It's it's I don't know. It's OK. So so humorous.

I've said this before on all things transformers

over the years since we've been podcasting and

whatever else I Don't know you still there. Yes

Okay, I accidentally closed the Skype window

on my phone. That's not what I wanted to do I've

said this for years on all things transformers

Fuck! What the hell? You don't have to talk about

it anymore. Just talk, man. You're still here.

Yeah, no, I know. I'm trying to form a thought.

I know I'm still here. You have a thought? Yeah,

I know, right? Shocker! For me, personally, and

I respect anyone who likes the various things,

I'm not just like, oh, Beast Wars, no, G1 forever,

forget Beast, I'm not like that. For me, I've

said this for years. Generation 1, Beast Wars,

Beast, these aren't any, I'm just listing them

when they came out. G1, Beast Wars, Beast Machines,

Animated, Prime, Those five are the US Transformers

car the unicorn trilogy to me personally doesn't

exist That's great. If other people grew up on

it and they like it You're entitled to like bad

stuff. I'm a huge fan of Nickelback everyone

else under the Sun that I know Hates Nickelback.

It's fine. It's okay. We all can like different

things, but Neil is not wrong in the fact that

The quality of the Unicron Trilogy some of is

specifically Energon is bad animation No, I totally

I totally agree like it's sad when RID looks

better Mm -hmm. You mean RID 2001. Yes, not RID

2015 That one's not great, but it's still infinitely

better. Yeah Have been watching I Catching episodes

here and there at some point. I probably will

go back and watch the the actual full seasons

on YouTube I have been watching cyber verse a

little bit only because hot rod and Cheetor showed

up But it's not It's not like anything else that's

come before it but it's not bad either Whomever

they have as optimists I think it's probably

the best Optimus Prime Truck character since

Peter Cullen. Okay. As far as how the voice is,

as far as how the characterization of Optimus

is, it's just really, really good and it fits

the series very well. But we'll do more stuff

with that on ATTF. Yeah But yeah, it's it's still

It's something I got to catch up on honestly

I I watched the first season and then I kind

of blipped out because I was like, ah It's just

bumblebee trying to remember who he is and I

don't really care about it right now because

there was nobody I recognized for the most part.

So Yeah, there is Yeah, it just didn't resonate

with me so I kind of dropped it I'm like, I know

they're gonna introduce him eventually because

they made toys Yeah, but it wasn't something

I cared about And part of the reason why I kind

of I mean I'm giving it a fair shake I never

said anything The only thing I said about cyberverse

at first was like, oh The animation is not really

my favorite. So I probably won't check it out

kind of thing but I never made any reservations

or judgments on whatever the story was gonna

be or the Or the characters, the voice cast,

or whatever. Voice cast are pretty much all brand

new people. One of them we actually know. Who?

Mark Swint. He goes by The Engineer. He used

to do Twig stuff all the time. Really? For us?

Yes. And I'm friends with him on Facebook. So

at some point, once we actually watch the whole

series, we can have him come on and talk about

stuff. Who does he play? Soundwave. Really? Yeah.

That's damn good job of it too. I mean, it's

not Frank Walker sound wave But it's a sound

wave that actually talks and has a voice versus

just being silent if they ever get Megatron and

Beast Wars and They don't get David Kay. I need

to be on there Uh -huh. Yeah, otherwise There's

going to be things to pay. Yes, it's going to

be There's going to be Trump to pay That was

actually really good That was I'll give you that

I Know like I said, I've been going back and

watching through I actually just finished a 26

episodes of a show that I really love takes me

no time and I have all the time in the world

most of the time so But I've been watching Beast

Machines for like the past I think I finished

it in five days. I think I finished it in the

last full week here. David Kay, once he got to

the point where he was just a spark, his Megatron

got so much more sinister and it is so good.

I always knew it was so good, but I really paid

attention to it this time. Well, I honestly wouldn't

mind going back and watching select episodes

of Beast Wars and Beast Machines and doing commentaries

on them. Only only for the fact that I haven't

rewatched the series recently and I know that

they have it on on 2B. Yeah, that's where I watched

it. I still have the DVDs. It's the only DVDs

I still own. are Beast Wars and Beast Machines.

I don't have the Shout Factory Beast Machines,

but I don't think I'm missing much because a

lot of the interviews that are on the other set,

I don't feel like I would get. I would be down

for more Beast Wars and Beast Machines. to be

honest. So we only did the podcast like 10 years

ago, so. I know, right? Yes. Well, well, well,

I need a soundtrack for that show. Dude, I have.

OK, so again, I know it's Altered Geek, but we're

hitting into Transformers territory here. The

Hasbro YouTube channel puts out, because they

put out this record through every tunes or enjoy

the ride records or whatever it is, enjoy the

tunes. We did an episode of All Things Transformers

about the LP release of the G1 soundtrack. And

I'm like, okay, great. Where's Beast Wars? How

about you do it digitally and not have to worry

about... getting an LP play, you know, getting

a record player and whatever else. They're also,

they also have these tracks from this, um, from

the record on their YouTube channel. They do

it as sound transformer soundtrack Saturdays.

So I've been listening to some of those. They're

fully clear, clean audio of the G one score.

Can we get beast wars? Can we get beat like beast

machine? I've been screaming for a beast machine

score soundtrack. since we started the network.

I remember every time I watched that show, that

music. Oh, my God, it is so good. Yeah, I'm I'm

a huge fan of of of Beast Wars, and I have the

rips that Brian Kelby gave me a while back. But

there's still something missing. Because a lot

of it's ripped from audio from the episodes.

Mm hmm. So and I still have them. I can set you

up with what I have, but it's still not. Yeah,

it's OK. It's I want I want the real deal. Yeah.

Yeah. Clean and crisp as ever as I can get. So

because that music deserves the clean, crisp

release. It does not, you know. well and then

beast machines even wasn't all that bad no that's

what i'm talking about the beast machines music

um i mean it had a lot of good beats to it um

i know that there were some things that um i

forget who who scored it um i know phantom planet

did the main theme i don't know if they actually

did the whole score they did not it was the same

guy that did beast uh beast wars Okay, because

I I found it on his site a while back and honestly

I think I talked to somebody because I think

he did some of this stuff for reboot to I Think

what happened is mainframe owns the rights to

all of it. Mmm, unfortunately So they have to

get permission from them and then from Hasbro

and then in order to convert it and Yeah, and

mainframes kind of shy story anymore. So it's

kind of Debatable. Well, yeah, it'll go anywhere

Like ever since they got bought up and turned

a rainmaker like they've been hot garbage Which

is what? Reboot the Guardian code which is like

Like a bad like Trying to think of the name of

the show Superhuman samurai cyber squad. Oh,

yeah, it's like it was like that and then they

bastardized the The the reboot characters in

one of the episodes they're like, oh, here's

your fan service and then they had a guy that

wrote an episode and he was like Oh, you guys

are stupid Like for, you know, the fans just

live in their basement and it was just, the whole

episode was an insult and then they miswrote

all the characters, like they were, like Bob

and Zo and Dot were like completely cowards,

which was like totally anti how they were in

the actual show. And so, yeah, it was just, it

was not very well written. so yeah, I I Wrote

long way of saying I I hope that uh They can

actually get the rights and get this thing done

within the next couple. Yeah, because I absolutely

review that Yeah, that would be super cool So

a meme I just saw on Facebook there is no social

contact only zoom Neil said the ultimate in social

distancing and it was a picture of Ryu using

the Hadouken on like one of the Street Fighter

characters. Yup. He's like, it's the ultimate.

I was like, yeah, that was pretty good. Although

it's not social distancing, it's physical distancing.

Like, we're still being socially connected. Funny

that they're they're like, oh you you can't touch

people. You can't be within an arm's reach There's

only one place out in the world that you really

can't physical or social distance very well in

And that would be dull. Well grocery stores you

can It takes you two hours longer because you

have to avoid people But really like the whole

six feet apart thing The one store that doesn't

really work well in is the Dollar Tree stores.

Yeah, I mean I could kind of see that. It's crazy.

I don't know. The world's destroyed. We're all

living in it. It's my world and we're all living

in it. Yeah, I can't get that out of my head

now. Yeah, so I saw, and this was just kind of

the last coffin in the box here. Somebody said

on Facebook, and I don't know where I saw it.

It was some nerd place. Oh, I'm friends with

him. Oh man, it's a podcaster. That's probably

why I joined a lot of podcast groups. He says,

be thankful for the tech we have during this

time. You could be having to swap these in and

out to get your work e -learning done. And it

shows like nine floppy disks. Oh yeah. And then

somebody says, you need to upgrade to CD -ROM.

It's amazing. And then they had pictures of their

CD -ROMs. And then somebody else goes. I've got

some spares, you know the other guys like I've

got a zip disk and somebody else is like I've

got a jazz he says that's and then Somebody else

puts a picture of an abacus and says we were

thinking about upgrading from this at our house

Yeah, if something like this happened when we

were growing up in the 80s everybody would be

completely effed Oh yeah, people would be totally,

like, not knowing what to do. It's, yeah, it's

crazy for sure. And to send this out on a light

He says, maybe the dumbest person I've met on

the internet in a long, long time. So this guy

is on a group I follow saying that the SNES PlayStation

prototype is probably a fake. I could be really

pedantic and ask what he means by probably. i

.e. how was he determining this probability?

But he got bad it seems, so I'm left to just

point and laugh at him for this. For context,

his prototype was disassembled by famed modder

Ben Heck, and the innards of the machine reveal

that it's clearly a prototype board, complete

with bodged wiring and blown capacitors. Someone

would really have to go to a lot of effort to

fabricate a board for a fake prototype console,

especially since the console was already famous

before it was opened up. To be clear, this is

not the PCB of any model of retail Super Nintendo,

and it's definitely one of a kind. It's definitely

a real prototype. Nobody could fake this. It's

not possible. Oh, and it also comes from a functioning

boot cartridge for the CD. So to be clear, for

this to be fake, the faker would have to make

a custom board from scratch. and put it in the

case made from oxidized plastics, and artificially

add prototype mistakes, and insert blown capacitors,

and wire a CD -ROM to the console, and create

a working operating system. Folks, there are

9 -11 conspiracies that are less elaborate than

this. Yeah, so, and I've seen this thing before,

so it's, I don't know. Yeah, I have too. I love

it when Neil goes on a tirade. Oh yeah. As long

as he's not tirading at me, I'm good. Of course,

I usually end up, you know, invoking his wrath

at some point or another. I mean, hell, if I

just say that I enjoy Transformers Season 4 Rebirth,

he'll point out every reason why I should never

love that thing. Incidentally, I just watched

that on Tubi earlier today. I'm really loving

to be lately, even though there's a couple of

ads on there. Like my whole watching of Beast

Machines, I maybe watched 10 to be ads within

26 episodes. So that ain't bad at all for a free

service. And they've got so much good stuff on

there. So yeah, I've been watching the geek show

that's on there with Bruce Campbell. um it's

uh last fan standing yep because i want to see

if i'm better smarter than everybody else and

in most probabilities i am i'm sitting there

going man they're missing this one man they're

missing this one and there's like franchises

i have no idea because i've never watched them

but i still know the answer somehow like it just

comes to me and i'm just like oh blah and then

they like some of them they're they're having

to go to the audience and i just i find it humorous

that would be something funny oh let's do an

episode of stump steve ask a bunch of questions

and i'll answer them live on the air and not

google them beforehand yeah the other thing i've

been watching is andromeda which is A Kevin Sorbo

show? Yep, it's a concept that Gene Roddenberry,

the guy that created Star Trek, came up with.

It came out in 2005, right around the time Enterprise

got canceled. And his wife, Majel Roddenberry,

pitched it to Sci -Fi Channel. And it looks like

a Sci -Fi Channel show. Except back in the day

where Sci -Fi Channel shows weren't completely

horrible. You mean where they were like, oh.

giant monster tarantula or you know yeah yeah

whatever they they do um but anyways i watched

it and the storyline is pretty good uh and it's

kind of funny because it shows this great um

it's it's actually really funny because i didn't

realize the the thing with star trek picard and

why it bothers me and why discovery bothers me

because they're very dystopian. And it's basically

the anti of what Roddenberry created Star Trek

with. And the beautiful thing about this show

is it is a dystopian future because it has, it's

basically, it's called the Confederacy or something.

And it's like the Federation essentially. And

he goes hundreds of years in the future. And

this is where I'm going to beat on Discovery

for a second here because I don't think Don and

Alex have figured this one out yet because it

came to me just now. They have this Confederacy

and the captain gets stuck in a time warp and

he's he's the only one left on the ship and then

he has to retake it because he scavengers trying

to take his flagship ship. From 400 years in

the future or 300 years in the future. Well,

it's funny because Discovery season 2 Or season

3 is going to take place 900 years after the

era of Kirk So what's funny about it is it's

a dystopian future because even more so than

Picard because the Federation only has four planets

left in its Federation Which is not much different

than this Roddenberry show So I find it quite

humorous that they're basically borrowing an

old Gene Roddenberry plot device from the 70s

and 80s that didn't amount to much except for

Andromeda and they're recycling it for discovery

and they're, you know, they're having this like

highly advanced ship that, you know, is only

helmed by like a certain amount of the crew.

Like it's not even a full compliment. So It's

basically the same thing like so it just makes

me laugh when I see stuff like that That's crazy,

yeah, but I enjoy Andromeda more Yeah, granted.

I haven't seen season 3 obviously because it's

not out yet, but I I just I don't have high hopes

So Andromeda season 3 isn't out yet. No, I'm

saying discovery Oh discover I was like wait

a minute Andromeda ended years ago Yes, it burned

in the fire. But yeah, so I mean, I don't know.

I'm just... Yeah. So anyways, I think that about

wraps this up. Yep. So, anything that you would

like to say before we go? No, I don't think so.

Alrighty then. So you can get a hold of us on

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Please comment on the website people. Yes, and

if you'd like to see more of Mike on the podcast,

let us know too. They can't see me. Yes, I know

what you're doing. They can't see me. There's

fingers in the air. I know. It's a whole hand,

dude. They can't see me. Yes. If he could reach

through and grab you, he would. Eww, no. Not

like that. Physical distancing, please. as holographic

art for your phone. Alright, so until next time,

get altered, get geeky with the Altered Geeks.