Listener Feedback on Retro Gaming and Digital Trends

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek. Hello and welcome to Altered Geek. I'm

your host Steve Megatron Phillips and in this

episode of the podcast I'll be flying solo. I'll

be covering some long -awaited listener feedback.

We'll also be having an episode with Birdman

Dodd this coming week and possibly TFU and Mike

to cover... Couple of hot topic issues as far

as things with our dispositions as geeks and

fandoms and polarization with those fandoms.

I think it'll be a pretty interesting topic.

So without further ado, going to jump into the

first bit of feedback. So first bit of feedback

and this is in no particular order because I

I don't I have some of it bookmarked on my phone

some of it bookmarked on my browser This first

batch is from Facebook and from the April 10th

episode a trip to the past finding fun gaming

and nostalgia Brad says the funny thing about

returning to older gaming is that you have are

an ace at it and Discovering you lost that awesomeness

and your son does it better Yeah, the funny thing

is is a lot of my old gamer experiences are on

DOS based systems or old windows and You can't

really play them anymore unless you're on DOS

box or some type of emulator like that and They're

not really something. I'm trying to get my son

into my son has a lot of He's almost like borderline

Autistic in a sense like and it's not like diagnosed,

but like he's very OCD on things and it kind

of reminds me of me And he he attaches and clings

to things really easily and so we're trying to

Not have him do that to try and kind of Help

him be more well -rounded like I I gravitated

to a lot of stuff when I was a kid like particularly

with Games and in pop culture and things because

my parents got a divorce and then like there

was a variety of other factors kind of in there

but I kind of clung to a lot of that as an escape

and We're trying that to have our kids do the

same like there were there were aspects were

like a lot of emotional baggage as kids and so

like we're trying to give them more well -rounded

so like we take them a lot of places, we give

them a lot of experiences and museums, zoos,

all that kind of stuff to try and kind of make

them well -rounded. Not to say that I don't expose

them to certain video games or certain types

of things but a lot of the stuff that I played

way back in the day doesn't even in the slightest

entice him because of the animation style. which

will be kind of a topic of another episode of

animation style in kids and adults. So, yeah,

it's kind of that realm. And then Brad also says

with the lack of space and money, you know, understanding

that, you know, your favorite old games on an

emulator. But he still has an SNES, SNES, Mega

Drive, PS2 set up for gaming. Nothing new game

-wise has convinced him to buy a new system.

I was done with Battlefield after 2, but that

was on PC anyway. I can spend hours on PS2 playing

Need for Speed, Hot Pursuit 2, or many other

games. And I have a 92 laptop with a heap of

DOS based games on it. They are so fun. Kind

of touching on the first part with the gaming.

I sold all my game consoles. I have not a one

left. I have owned all of those systems except

for the NES at one point. I did own a Mega Drive,

I did own a SNES, a PlayStation 2, various forms

of Game Boy. I just, I don't want to spend the

money on them anymore. And basically they're

glorified PCs, like with an OS that's surrounded

around the gaming system. Like I'd much prefer

just to play gaming on my PC at this point. There's

no... no enticing matter for me to do that, to

get a console every couple of years when I can

literally upgrade my PC about every five years

in minimum specs of anything and spend like two

or $300 and get up to date and keep my same setup

essentially. Like I don't have to reformat. I

don't have to really change anything. So it's

kind of of that nature. I just don't upgrade

but Yeah, it's very entertaining with that. I

do love the fact that you have a 1992 laptop

to play DOS games. I wish I had, and my brother

has like virtual console type things built into

his machine, like he installs these virtual partitions

on the PC with the exact specs of our old DOS

based or older computer systems that we used

to have as kids. They play everything. They have

Windows 3 .1 on them or 3 .11. It's kind of funny

to see that come out when he plays. For the most

part, I don't really play games too much anymore,

unless it's on PC. Then Battlefield, I'm entertained

to see what the new one's going to be. I really

don't play all that much anymore. I've played

maybe twice in the last year. I'm pretty much

a Star Trek Online player at this point, and

then really I don't play anything else other

than like tabletop board games. Like Ticket to

Ride, Settlers of Catan, Seismic, King Domino,

and then my wife and I just got this new game

called Splendor, which is pretty fun too. And

that was kind of like the basis like why we were

trying to do like... I was trying to do a board

game podcast once upon a time, which was kind

of dumb, we should have done video. Just because

you really can't explain much on a podcast, whereas

on a video podcast that would have made more

sense. And then it turns out that Nerdist ended

up with the same name, or Geek and Sundry took

the same name of our podcast, so it was kind

of fitting, but we only had one episode, so really

can't say much there. But, yeah, my friend still

plays board games. I still play board games.

Unfortunately, he lives in Wisconsin. He's got

a life. He's happy. He's got a good job. Technically,

I could move anywhere I want with working from

home. I just choose not to move to a colder state.

I'm more of a tabletop gamer now and more of

an occasional gamer on the PC. I really don't...

try and get too much into gaming anymore because

I have a lot of other stuff going on that I'd

like to tackle in my life. Also, back in April,

we had the episode of Why Nostalgia's So Profitable,

The Good, The Bad, and The Hopeful on series

and reboots, revivals and reboots, and Brad kind

of mentions the... Franchises like Hollywood

having their eyes on Max Profit and franchises

seem to be for the most part the place that more

butts go in seats and Reboots You know he says

I prefer just to be able to read or you know

watch the originals like get gargoyles on Netflix

so you can watch that it cost the studio is nothing

and You know he could see his shows like sea

quest or sliders coming back as they've been

talked about for a while, and some of the original

cast have been kind of keen on it. And yeah,

like, I love, and I kind of made this comment

on Twitter the other day that I'm gonna try this

new experiment where I'm not going to pick up

any new television shows. And I'm not sure how

well I'm gonna do with this, but it's kind of

a goal I've been kind of edging towards for some

time. Like, I used to watch about 30 shows a

week, which was a bit... ridiculous that every

time I was on the computer when I wasn't working

or in front of a TV, I was watching a TV show

that I, you know, had queued up and DVR'd and

it was, or just streamed them from the websites

and they, it got to be ridiculous. Like I just

was like, why am I still watching all of these

shows? Like I don't even have life outside of

these TV shows. And so, granted, I can keep track

of all the storylines, it didn't bother me. But

still, and I would even blit some that I knew

were done, but I would do it so that I could

watch what it had and then just to see what it

turned out to be. Because then it was nothing

lost, because I knew it was a limited one season

because it got cancelled. But yeah, I mean, I

quit watching shows like Agents of S .H .I .E

.L .D., like Once Upon a Time, There were plenty

of shows that I was watching and I just ditched

Lethal Weapon just because of the recasting and

they must not have much confidence in it either

because they hacked the episode count from 22

to 13. I just I liked the dynamic of the actors.

I understood why they fired the other guy, you

know, but still I just I don't really want to

see something where they've recast somebody mid

two seasons in and oh we got renewed for a third

but we're gonna replace the actor. It would have

been one thing if it happened in the first season

because they've had so much time to grow it would

be awkward now at this point and you'd have to

kind of get used to everything. So I am a fan

of and I'm going to continue with watching revivals.

of TV shows that I got into, like for instance,

Last Man Standing returning, I'm gonna watch

the revival when it comes back because it was

canceled and then they're just picking it up

where it left off, essentially, which I'm fine

with. But I'm not doing reboots, so I wouldn't

watch things like, you know, Sabrina, the new

Sabrina, or the variety of other shows that are

just being rebooted for the sake of rebooting

them. I'm kind of glad that a lot of the shows

I watched got canceled. I mean, I feel bad for

everybody that was on the shows, but I'm kind

of glad in a sense because then I don't feel

like there's this baggage of me having to watch

them anymore. And a majority of my series have

either been canceled or renewed. Most of them

have been renewed, but some of them have been

canceled. Some of them just had season enders.

But I haven't gone back to watch any of those.

I'm pretty much watching primarily CW related

shows or like the Orville and Discovery and maybe

a couple of animated series like I'll probably

pick up Like the new Star Wars because I it's

not it's kind of a Revival in a sense even though

it's a new series because it's all one continuity

So I don't really it's kind of a edgy area to

be judging the content. But I'll still be watching

the majority of my animated stuff, which is the

new Star Wars show, and then I'm watching Combiner

Wars, the Prime Wars trilogy, Finale, the Prime

Wars, right now on Machinima, which is again

a continuation, it's not a reboot. won't be watching

the new cyberverse more than likely. I get it,

I'm to that age where a lot of things are marketing

past my age point to back to the younger age

point. I get it. That'll be a point of contact

of topics in the near future as well. Moving

on to the episode, why don't comic films bring

people into shops anymore? Essentially, we're

at the end of the collecting era. It's mostly

nostalgia, and those of us that grew up with

comics, as Brad has reiterated what I kind of

mentioned too, was that comics might go into

comic stores, people that grew up with them,

but kids really don't. Especially when the stories

are told, basically abridged in film form, and

they don't need to actually get the book to read

it. And there's, you know, a vast history of

good and bad films already made, and physical

comics will probably go the way of the CD and

just digitize, and I kind of agree with that.

Moving on to another topic, we have polarizing

and welcoming fandoms in social media and unplugging.

This was a little bit back, back in end of March,

and in Brad kind of comments, you know, I'd just

seen Thor 3 and the trailers. I was angry and

then, you know, saw the first two and then 3

seemed to be a major shift to follow and fit

in with the Guardian films and it would be like

if Ant -Man 3 was directed by Joel Schumacher

and was aimed at selling toys. It was enjoyable

and Ragnarok made sense even though I was thinking

how could this happen to a powerful race? I don't

know. I know how I feel about Hulk talking, I

don't know how I feel about it, and the issues

with focusing on comedy is subjective and a few

of the jokes fell flat, but watch Justice League,

not a fan of the Man of Steel and some of the

Batman series. I don't get the love for Wonder

Woman, don't care for Darkseid, Steppenwolf,

or the Dragonfly army, but I won't crap on the

franchise because I don't understand it or know

it. We're coming to this phase in social media

and a lot of the franchises and genres that people

are just interested in, and there's a lot of

polarization and a lot of infighting of things

that should be celebrated. Again, this will be

something that gets talked about. Another topic

that I'm kind of hinting at has to do with Thundercats,

and I'll just leave it at that for right now.

And then another episode, what's the deal with

mobile gaming and transactions? And Jennifer

says, trying to get into text -based adventure

games, since I always loved those types of books

when growing up. I remember a lot of those text

-based adventure games, like Hugo, there was

one called that, I used to play that. My mom

was pretty good at it, it was a DOS -based game,

and you kinda, you know, look in the closet,

look at this, you know, it was almost like a

pre -Sims, in a sense, but using text to tell

it where to go. Kinda like Myst. where you kind

of go over and click on things and it tells you,

you know, yay, nay, things like that. Or seventh

guest, that was freaky for back in the day. says

guilty pleasure refers is that many of your female

listeners may know as mystic messenger it's a

visual novel dating sims game that does the concept

really well there are a lot of stories and choices

you can pick from when you start getting into

the crazy soap opera like plots with multiple

endings from getting the guy or ending up with

something very bad happening plus I'm really

far into the game without paying a dime and that

can happen you can you can play games a lot without

paying anything on a lot of these mobile games

but A lot of times if you want a specific feature

or something that's built into the game or you

want to advance yourself faster or get a certain

thing, then you have to play the gambling roulette

and see if you'll end up with what you want with

loot boxes or specifically pay for what it says

to get things. She says, I've thought of lots

on mobile gaming, but I will try to do them in

different posts. She says, I have... Only done

it for Pokemon Go and it was like 20 to 30 dollars

tops and thinking about Random loot box in games

I wouldn't mind paying a couple of bucks for

a full game if I loved the demo version But I

won't do it for the random chance in gotcha games.

I'm shocked when I see huge amounts of money

Some people may spend on these games some examples

are from here now. I did do this I'm horrible

with it When when I have gotten involved with

microtransactions, and they do work they're addicting

I did it in Transformers Earth Wars on mobile

game and I spent I would say upwards to $150

maybe to get Multiple characters multiple things

edge my characters along. I don't even play the

stupid game anymore. It was such a waste It's

I played it for a year and a half. I got bored

it essentially like it's still installed on my

phone. I refused to remove it because I paid

all that money to have this stupid game and it's

going to stay on there. But it's a principal

reminder to me not to do that again. Now, Star

Trek Online and Battlefield V. Battlefield V,

I bought the expansion to premium. It was like

$50. It didn't feel bad about that. I think I

bought the game too. I don't recall. I think

my dad bought the game, but I think I paid for

the expansion of that, which wasn't a big deal.

50 bucks for the entire premium package, early

access to everything. I mean, 100 bucks is terrible

anyway for a game, but when you get $50 to get

that, it's not bad. So I did that, and then Star

Trek Online, I've probably dumped maybe 200.

200 plus something into that game and I feel

horrible about doing that as well. I was trying

to get a stupid ship and opening the loot boxes

and then I realized at some point it was futile

for me to go in there and try and win these loot

boxes because majority of the time you're not

going to get what you want. 99 .9999 % of the

time you're not getting what you want. There

are people that are lucky, their accounts are

lucky. I opened maybe 50 of those boxes, never

got what I wanted. I never got anything other

than resources. I started selling the resources

and then I eventually came to this conclusion

that if I get Xen or I get Dilithium to turn

into Xen, I can buy keys. And you can turn around

and spend those keys. Now, I've never bought

a ship from the Z Store. I've bought like the

additional costumes. I've bought shuttles. I've

bought a specific bridge design because it looks

like the Enterprise A, the Constitution refit.

I bought an expansion for the bank because they

only give you like 10 million that you can hold

maximum, which is ridiculous. And you can hold

up to 2 billion. credits in game if you upgrade

it, so I did that, which has helped, but the

exchange is a little bit inflated at times depending

on the time of year you're logged in. It's about

to go back up again because summer's coming,

but I was trying to get a ship and I figured

out it was easier to buy keys or save up and

get keys and barter them on the exchange, although

it crashed hard. After I did it last year and

it's not regained itself since so it's really

hard to gain Credits from selling keys unless

you earn the dilithium to trade in but the I

spent a lot of money doing that and then I started

bartering the system with the exchange and playing

you know stock marketing the the game and I ended

up getting as an amount to get the Kelvin universe

Constitution class I was trying to get the original

Constitution like a t6 tier 6 ship And it failed

miserably and it was like six times the cost

of getting the the Kelvin one and I was like,

you know what? I'll just subtle I'll get the

Kelvin because at least then it's a full Tier

six ship and it's at least looks similar. So

I just I subtled But I've not dumped any money

in it since and I've not felt any regret on it

plus I don't have any money so it was kind of

beneficial to not do that again, but Yeah, I

don't know. I've got this thing now that I try

not to dump any money into any of these stores

anymore. I don't expect you to listen to any

of a possible subscription service, not using

Patreon, just using just basic setup for the

backend, but also there'll be certain custom

things built into the site that we will kind

of deliver based on the type of feedback and

the type of subscription service. I'm kind of

toying with it. I don't know if it's actually

going to fully take effect. but it would be nice

to kind of cover some of the costs of various

aspects. We are looking into app development.

We're looking into a variety of other things,

but I would like to listen to more podcasts again,

honestly, because I feel like sometimes these

that I do get stale because I don't have time

to listen to a lot of other podcasts, and I do

when I go on trips, like when I know I'm going

on vacation and I have to drive. I will purposely

load up podcasts of things that I've kind of

been interested in but not really had the chance

to listen to, knowing full well I'm gonna listen

to it on the drive there and on the drive back,

so that it gives me this outlet to kind of tune

in, think about it, and drive at the same time,

so I try and do that, but... Yeah, I mean, I

really don't get that many requests from people

to listen to their content. I do get people that

listen to our content. I do get people that listen

to other people on the network's content, but

I wouldn't mind possibly like, whoring myself

out or using myself as a help tool or guide.

for a variety of podcasts that may come our way.

I'm kind of interested in doing that, kind of

a consultant role, as it were, where I would

listen and kind of give critiques of certain

things I've noticed that I've done wrong over

the years that may be possible to correct elsewhere.

But yeah, that's kind of my thoughts on that.

Moving on, on another episode I had a kind of

or another comment on Twitter anyway. I had a

comment saying, I really dislike my AT &T service.

The speeds intermittently go down and then sometimes

websites don't load or refresh. I go mobile and

no issues. Looking forward to my Comcast install

and half the cost. So I essentially set up my

Comcast now and it was, I was paying 40 bucks

a month. It was about to go up to 70 for a 30

megabyte download speed or 25 megabyte and I

got a special for Comcast and I set it for like

a three week ahead install date. It was free

installation, free everything else, and I own

my own modem, my own router, which I'm smart

in the sense that I keep, when I get a device

specifically from like AT &T, I keep the same

wireless name and password so that when I reconnect

to the next device, all of my devices in my house

automatically connected the connection or reconnect

and don't have an issue because I've had this

thing in the past where I had to reconfigure

all of my devices and it was a royal pain. And

I have two phones, I have a tablet, I have actually

two tablets. They're a Kindle Fire and a Kindle

classic. I have my portable computer out in the

living room, I have a laptop and I have a desktop,

and they all have to connect to this one access

point. So, it was so much easier to just keep

them all the same. That being said, I hooked

them all up, did an upgrade on my router. It

took about 20 minutes for me to do the self -install.

I called Comcast on the phone, disconnected AT

&T, and yeah, I've got Comcast, and so actually

everything runs faster and more quickly than

it was before because Comcast has like the speed

boost technology. It's essentially I pay for

the same service, but it's $19 .99 a month instead

of $40 a month. So that means that when my one

year is up of that, it'll go up maybe $10, $15,

but it's still affordable. I won't, and I'll

be able to get higher speeds more than likely

because they'll have a special going on. So it's

definitely something I enjoy. But Scanner 51

says, sometimes I wish I had half the problems

with AT &T that others have, but I don't. Been

with them since 2000, while the only one I have

is they can't find the wire hub in my house,

but then again, neither can I. But yeah, I mean,

I don't really have a problem with AT &T per

se. I just, I have a problem when the company

screw the customer after they've been in a company

for a while. and don't really want to work with

them. They gave me suggestions, they're like,

hey, have you disconnected yet? And I'm like,

well, or have you had somebody come install your

service? Well, I did the self -install. It's

already set up. And the guy on the phone's like,

oh, he says, well, you could do the double play.

And I'm like, no, I really don't want to do the

double play. I already pay cheap enough on my

cell phone. I don't want to bundle it because

then it goes up. And then you still got to pay

for the stupid phones if you want a new device.

And we're still using Galaxy S5s because it costs

nothing to own them. They may suck by today's

standard with camera quality and functionality

and signal, but they're still functional, so

there's no point in throwing them away. And I

don't have $1 ,000 per person to throw away on

two cell phones, to be honest. And I would much

rather, if I'm gonna blow $1 ,000, there's many

things I could think of to spend that on. One

of them would be upgrading my PC, buying my wife

a new laptop, and saving some of the money for

vacation or something. We just had to replace

our stairs in our house because they were caving

in. The ones that go up to our upstairs on our

tri -level, and that cost us a thousand dollars.

I just don't see the point spending a thousand

on one cell phone as opposed to fixing things

that need to be fixed. I've got a leak somewhere

in my house too, and I've got to figure out How

bad that's that's leaking and where it's leaking

from and if I fixed it So it's there's money

better spent elsewhere. I don't feel the need

to own the latest and greatest piece of technology

I never have I'm like especially with my PCs.

I'll buy top of the line, but it's like the bottom

tier So it's the cheapest price, but it's like

the most forward compatible version so I can

buy whatever I need in the future and massively

upgrade even though It's not up to date, it's

still faster. So like I have an i3 processor,

12 gigs of RAM, and I have 120 gig SSD hard drive,

and I have 500 gig SATA 3, and my PC works fine.

I have an Nvidia video card, and it works great.

So I mean, everything works fine with everything

I do, so it's not that urgent for me to upgrade.

Yeah, that's some of the news, anyhow. And we

were featured on Blog Talk Radio with our Power

Rangers episode recently. And then kind of rounding

it out, I saw somebody asking a question on Twitter

of, have you ever bought a record album just

for the cover art? And I said, well, no, but

I've bought comic books specifically for the

cover art because honestly, I like comic book

cover art. I haven't bought any like that in

a long time. In fact, I've had to sell most of

them, but it's not the same owning the comic

as to downloading a picture. It's not the same

thing. I'd prefer just to own it. for display

purposes, but I don't really have any of that

anymore, so. But yeah, I thought it was kind

of an interesting thing. So if you guys have

any comments, questions, or suggestions, feedback,

whatever, topics, you can contact everywhere,

whether it's Facebook, Twitter, or various other

places, at AlteredGeek. You can also get ahold

of me at scp21, and until next time, get altered,

get geeky with the AlteredGeek.