Retronauts - Retronauts Micro 040: GamePro TV

Episode Date: June 13, 2016

Despite the fact that video games have been a household mainstay since the '80s, they've been mostly absent from TV programming until fairly recently. But before G4 emerged in 2002, there was GamePro TV: A short-lived, syndicated show from 1991 that existed as an extremely literal interpretation of the popular magazine. On this episode of Retronauts Micro, join Bob Mackey, Dave Rudden, Chris Antista, and Henry Gilbert as the crew explores this relic of the '90s and tries desperately to write down J.D. Roth's codes in time. It'll be totally tubular, bud! Be sure to visit our blog at Retronauts.com, and check out our partner site, USgamer, for more great stuff. And if you'd like to send a few bucks our way, head on over to our Patreon page!

Hello everybody and welcome to a brand new episode of Retronauts Micro. I'm your host, Bob Mackey, and if you're new to our show or new to Retronauts Micros, these are smaller episodes that we do on the off weeks that cover subjects that couldn't necessarily fill a 90-minute episode, especially this one today. Today we'll be talking about GamePro TV. If you couldn't hear the stifled laughter, the stifled laughter, the stifled laughter in the background. I'm hardly keeping it together. We're talking about Eddie Deason earlier.

We are here at the Lasertime bedroom studio. Who is here with me? Let's start over here. Henry Gilbert, hi. Who else is here? Hey now. Christopher Antista. And? Former Game Paro editor, David. And he knows the secret hiding place of Bernan, I'm guessing.

So yeah, like today I did want to talk about, I feel like our laser, not laser time, our Nick Arcade episode was such a success. I had a lot of fun talking about Nick Arcade doing research. And believe it or not, today's subject is even more lost to history. I could barely find an episode guide online. In fact, it took Dave's secret

contact for me to know how many episodes of the show were actually produced, because everywhere I went, Wikipedia, IMDB, every date was wrong, every listing was wrong, like, just like no one cared about this show. And of course, it's GamePro TV, it was aired from 1991, 1992, one season, 14

episodes, and it was essentially, literally a TV version of the magazine, in the most literal interpretation you can think of, yes. Like the same, because I was watching it with Dave, I'm like, that's just a section of the magazine. Swat Pro, Pro Reviews, all the stuff. And in terms of, I guess, branding, if we want to call it that, it is very on brand. It's like, yeah, again, these are the...

Same fonts. Exactly the same fonts, the same colors, the same, like, disgusting 90s art that I kind of love. If I ever have another room, I will make it look like the GamePro TV set. Sorry, I'm stammering because I'm just, like, imagining, like, living in a world of pipes and smoke and blocks. Yeah, and if you look at the two hosts side by side, they're literally the one. And the five on the game pro scale. Oh, really? Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. So you're saying J.D. Roth needs to liven it up a bit. J.D. Roth slam. Who you might remember from what? Funhouse? Finders Keepers. And the white kid on Captain Planet. Yeah. Now he hosts...

Oh, he really played Wheeler? Yeah. He's an executive producer on a lot of reality shows nowadays. He did, like, Kid Survivor. It was called Mula Beach. I did look that up. Apparently, for the past six years, he's been executive producer on My Cat from Hell. And his entire adult life, if you look at all of his reality shows,

he's produced. They look like parodies of reality shows the Simpsons would make. They all have the insane names. This could not possibly have been a show, but it's like, no, 30 episodes, J.D. Roth. I got... I got the feeling. I have affection for this guy. Yeah. I did. I had it, but I got the feeling from

just watching it that, like, I think him and his co-hosts were not friends. Oh, no. Oh. Yeah. With the Game Lab Gizmo Tech here. We're going to see what they have for us today. Okay, bud? All right. What do we got that's chilling and hot today? Give it to me. Yes. Oh, baby, you know what this is?

You want to hold on to it for me? Sure, dude, psych! This is the Ace Moore Game Action Replayer. Wow. Yeah, it's basically a device that gives emulation-style tricks to your console. Just save states by plugging in a go-between. Nintendo would consider that illegal probably. They would hate you and you would void your warranty.

Jay-Roehl said it was chill and hot. He did. But I just love it, that's the beginning of the episode. They threw it out there. We were like paid placement and like, no, no, they're saving it for like the last segment. This is a tease. Get ready for this. I guess it could be both that it's like this is a...

I think I ran into the same conclusion I did with Nick Arcade in that unlike magazines, editorial outlets, and websites, they actually had to get permission for what they showed, and it looks like a lot of people said no. Because the games they discuss are garbage. But GamePro TV sold it in a different way, apparently, according to Dave's Secret Contact. Can we say his name, Dave?

Yeah, his name is Michael Myers. Not the Michael Myers are thinking of And not the other Michael Myers You're thinking of Not the murderer or the actor Who could be a murderer He was an editor at GamePro Like way, way back when

I don't know what's his name was Yeah Yeah And now he does PR He's like the He does PR For an organization named after Michael Myers PR

They represent like 1C And a bunch of other developers And yeah I just reached out to him Because I saw his name in the credits And you know I knew a bunch of old GamePro editors And I knew of his PR

So yeah I hit him up he sent us an email and maybe we can read it more related but you're an editor and you didn't you didn't work with many or any people involved with this right I guess it would have been like 20 years later

yeah because this was like 1990 91 it was like that game and former like dynasty of people who've never left well like most senior editors there were probably like 92 93 93 94 but yeah and

this was just right before their time but yeah I was able to reach out to this one guy and you know they did interface with these guys and try to add some legitimate it seems like if you were to build a bad game show right now, while doing your best, this is the best you could have

done. Yeah, it's way better than Nick Arcade, Chris. It actually shows the games but we are bearing the lead here and that lead is Bernan, rather, the co-lead who I was ready to hate until I did some research on him because as a kid this character embarrassed me and he is playing a character. He's very much

a Wayne and Garth, Bill and Ted. More of a Ted. He reminded me of Cody from step by step. Although I think he might have predated Cody, but again, he's got the surfer lingo, he's got this weird, like, I just stuck my hands in a doorway posture. What is that posture? Polyshore posture?

I guess. Is he, what's that called? Chillin with the Weas? It's like Kramer Origins. Yeah. And his hair is like that, and you can tell he can come over to my place, play some John Madden football. And, like, this is what makes this clip Shakespearean in that this is a real review

buried under, like a bro stereotype. He actually lowers the browness for the spoken narration but when he's playing the character he's like, whoa dude that was totally awesome. And I'm like, no, there's real information buried in here that like I'm guessing Madden wouldn't have wanted you to hear. This game because it is truly my

all-time favorite sports cart. I played this game over and over and over and I'm still heavily into it. I'm talking about the all-time great. John Madden football! Yeah! Touchdown! Dude, it's coming out on the Super Nintendo and it is better

than ever. So I thought like this is going to be hysterical embarrassing and then it's just like, no, that's how you would review the Super Nintendo version of a Genesis game. They can show more people in the field, a little bit of slowdowns now gone, and finally you can play with more than 17 teams.

I'm like, that's, that all checks out. That's a real review. How did you do that? It's a review from an excited teenager, and I think you're right, Chris, whoever said it, that I can sense some animosity between J.D. Roth and this guy, because this guy is a trained actor he went on to produce in direct his own independent films.

he trained under Jeff Goldblum and other famous actors so I can see this guy just being really method on the set like oh god he's in his he's an insipernon character again guys just heads up okay Brian and I saw your review

I could totally see there being Stop to think of you show I could definitely see a difference between the two of them just like if he's being super method or at least he's like I'm a professional actor and the other is a child actor or a former child actor

that's two very different schools of actoring yeah and J.D. Roth has this really awshucks, like, Disney Channel presenter like, hey, guys, we're going to talk about some fun games today. I'm squeaky clean, but I've got an inimitable voice coming up next on Finders Keeper. He is the universal suburban white every team that we all

wanted to be, like, he represented the, like, Uber gamer, I guess, at the time. He's like a nice version of Budnick, I'd say, yeah, for salute your shorts in case this you're saying that because he has the devil's red hair. But I will say, Bernan keeps referring to the viewers as But, like, come on, bud, check it out. But he also calls the audience dudes and dudettes. So he's extending all the branch to women on this very manly show.

I don't think a woman appears on the show. No, no, no. They can only for two actors. Only in like a sizzle on the Immortals. I can tell his fallback anytime he doesn't know exactly what to say, he's just, yeah. Not I, but check it out. The S&ES version has made major improvements in the defensive game. The defense is not only smarter, but the computer's defensive backpass coverage is the real raw deal.

This is a real boring Madden review. It is. It's incredible. I feel like you could hear a very similar review to this now, for a Madden game. They're talking about the difference between last year's iterative version and saying the same stuff of like, this problem from last year finally got fixed. They added this new thing and I really like it.

This is really cool because, see, this was a problem on the Genesis game because you'd be right on the receiver and somehow he'd manage to catch a pass when he had no chance. And that was completely bogus. I think that's the real boring nature of it. This is an upfront, earnest game review, but it's television. And, like, even as a kid, like, fuck, Madden, I'm out. The man's the best part of the episode.

It is the only part that's not repeating itself. Yeah. So kids can write it. You're right, Dave. I swear 60% of this episode is them reading letters or numbers and then repeating them. Just hit A-up, C-4, and then down. Get a piece of paper. If I don't have Shadowgate right now.

Yeah. And you're saying this twice. Why wouldn't I leave? I can't remember this. We are living in a three-channel world. And I do remember this was like the quintessential three o'clock syndicated thing. It was for me, it was a Saturday morning thing. And I was like, I'm too tired to write this down.

I'll just have to remember it. I felt like for me it was like a six in the morning show or something. Oh, yeah. I mean, it was the earliest thing on Saturday. Yeah, it was the syndicated stuff that would happen before the network Saturday morning stuff. And I get that it felt so long how they had to repeat every code. but when you think about a world where you can't pause or rewind every single thing, kids do need two chances to write it down. This is J.D. Roth.

J.D. Roth, I love how he's inserted blue screen style into every green. I did like that. Tip for the Genesis system game ground that'll give you total level selection capability. All right, listen up. First, bring up the option screen. Now make sure that the arrow is pointing at level and press these buttons in the following order. AC, B, C. If you did it right, round select will now pop up below sound test.

There is actually... Oh, that the Batman part. There is a tip on how to unlock the music sound test and Batman for Game Boy. We're going to show you once and show you again. And at the end of this, you'll see us unlock sounds. I prefer to hear zero times. And this does, again, it reeks of that Nick Arcade thing like Nintendo was not cooperating. Japan was largely not cooperating.

These are all the immortals? What the hell is the immortal? It's the immortal. It's a notoriously difficult, like, isometric game. Yeah, for Genesis? With really convoluted puzzles and possible combat. There's great let's plays a bit. It's brought up three times.

That was a Genesis port. It was a PC game. It looks like a vision game. I mean, it looked hideous, like just boring even for its time. Though that's why, as a kid, at least this episode, the second episode of the show, would have annoyed me because I, even then, I was a total webe who loved colorful Japanese games and other than the licensed game Brown. Brown. Other licensed game in this, it's all brown garbage. Yeah, I should

say where we did. American garbage. For this one, we did watch what's called on YouTube episode two, sup edition because there's no official like episode production numbers I could find, but there's a second review in this that I want to bring up about Bucky O'Rear. And I find this gave me more respect for Bernan because he gave a real review and then J.D. Roth completely undercut everything he said. Because Bernan's like, it's got great graphics, all these characters, bro, all these great levels. And then J.D. Ross's like, graphics get a three. Sound, a three. Gameplay, a three.

Fun Factor, three. All in all, a great game. It's like, no, three is not good on the Game Pro scale. Yeah, I don't know if Bernan actually, like, did he put scores on his? I don't know. No, the band thing did not have a score. So this was an early debate between scored reviews and non-scored reviews. Oh, yeah. But I just remember.

I literally remember... Because his section was called 16-bit that's right. He's talking about the differences between the Super Nintendo and Genesis. It is more of an editorial. I think so. I vividly remember actually watching this as a kid and like wanting to get Bucky O'Hare so bad

because just that like that one scene where like Bucky like he's in the ice level and he changes it into another one of the Bucky O'Hare characters. I'm like that is the coolest thing. I always wanted to change characters in the middle of a level in a game. It looks a lot like tiny tunes. I thought that now Dave. I was like I want to play this.

I haven't played this yet. And I totally forgot that like right afterwards it gets threes across the board. I think that's like. The sound effects are okay, but, well, nothing really special. Since this card is aimed at the younger game players, it's no real surprise it's going to be an easy play for the more season game pros like us. I got to say, though, I checked out the giant mechanical snake maze on the blue planet

and the flowing lava on the red planet, and dude, I don't care how hot you are, you better power up because these situations will put you through some serious moves. That's right, Bernan, I scored a review. Go to hell. You're going to be off this show in six episodes, They're spinning three, threes, and you can see the result the whole time. We know what's going to happen now, and then when the dust settles on our generation, we're all dead.

The only reason GamePro will be remembered is it's five score system, which I really... What of Scary Larry and Bobonic the Bullfrog? It's just like... You know how they used to, like, they still... Do they do that somewhere? Print magazine ads with review quotes and scores on the page. Is that still happen? Right into us at Retronauts.com.

C. Gamer? I wrote for that. I should know. Wait, was Mike Myers Major Mike? No, no. Okay. But the number, seeing the number five guy as someone's quoted review in an ad for a video game. GamePro gave it a... I feel bad I never gave out a five at GamePro. Not even for sound or challenge?

No, but by the time I got there was just one score that was... It was still on the five-point scale, but it was... Did you notice on the thing they didn't show the one, and they didn't explain what the one? one was like I feel like that was having worked in an advertorial game like what if it's that bad it wouldn't make for good TV having worked to review an advertorial

one games don't get published yeah yeah I know I am aware of that but I yeah all the rest of the games that were just like so bad especially the 16 bit hits thing that's in the Sonic Genesis collection isn't it? I think so I think it's one of the earliest RTSs actually

but the 16 bit hits just reminded me of just like yeah this is 92 and predominantly you're talking about NES games. Why are you not talking about the current system? It's not just, the only NES game they brought up was Shadowgate and the Rocketeer. Only the bona fide classics. Rocketteer had the best green screen where

Jaddy Roth is sitting in an airplane. It's so adorable. I liked when he was actually in the mouth of the skull on the immortal like peeking out like this guy's got bad breath everybody. In Rocketeer each chapter is a different level. For direct entry into level five. At this point I'm like shut up JD Roth. We hear the rocketeer music. It sounds pretty good.

I think it's about the same guy who did the Maniac Mansion music, actually. It sounds like. That was J.D. Roth reading a code. I've never been so thankful for the internet. Think about how old that makes us. We have to listen to a man read us code.

Is this the war? I would have to go to school to hear a rumor that J.D. Roth might read a code on a show that might air at some point that day. How do When do I get this code? It would hopefully talk about a game I own.

Hopefully it'll be the Rocketeer, which is hard as balls. It's pretty hard, yeah. And, well, I, though, my favorite green screen trick of his was the Battle Toads one. I loved his Battletoads swinging thing. That was, that was a nice action. I was impressed by the low-tech they use. But I didn't want to talk about the hilarious user videos. You submitted.

Like, sorry. I guess viewers submitted videos where they're so awkward, I assume Isis is going to come out and decapitate one of these kids because it's just like, they're like just standing straight, staring at the camera, like, reading something like, unconvincingly? It's just like, what's going to happen next? Oh, my God, that's right. So many mullets.

There was, yeah, there were, like, one kid sent in a question. Yeah, I don't know if it's this guy the other one, but, like, literally asking them, how do I do this game for him? Oh, and they were like, I don't know. Yeah. Well, no, they said, it took our game guys

a real hard time. I'm up to airing how to do this, but we've got the answer, and it's, and then they cut to his explanation. If you're a kid whose parents are rich enough to afford a video can, camera in 1990 and to be able to send it in and all that, you probably could just afford to call Nintendo and ask.

I would have to imagine, like, if that was the second episode, unless people were told through the magazine to send that to them, then I guess, I think, oh yeah, and I guess everybody got a free t-shirt or a subscription, which is, that was the only way I could figure out how to incentivize it. I used to, like, what, not frame things, fake things for America's Funniest Home videos, like my boogie board hitting me in the face or falling down the stairs. The free t-shirt I got one time as a kid from, it was a Doug t-shirt. It was, if you guys remember when the Nick T-Tunes premiere, they had a send-in and you'll get one of a hundred free t-shirts.

And I got a Doug t-shirt, and I treasured that Doug, original Doug t-shirt. I sent in my pizza points from Ninja Turtles for a nice Leonardo shirt and some Cheerios UPC code for a Bill and Ted's excellent adventure shirt. and I wore it to school proudly that day and then after that, look at this. Mama Mia! I think Bill and Ted is awesome. Oh, no. And then I became known as the fucking Bill and Ted idiot.

Woo! We're going to bleep one of those words, by the way. My bad. No, no. You're recounting a situation. It turned way more horrifying that I could possibly imagine over one of the most innocuous things ever.

That almost became a hate crime, Chris. The names I got called for wearing a shirt with the poster from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. So I actually looked up one of the people who, submitted their tip, the very first one. Okay, Dave, I know who you're talking about. Please tell the story. It's the magic of the internet that, like, the kid's name was like, this sounds distinctive enough. His name was Kia Babzani. Yeah, so I'm like, you know what, I bet I could find him

on the internet with a simple Google search, and I did, and he runs a denim restoration company. Yeah, he's a jeans magnates, apparently. I did, like, the second kid with the video, he was very, like, blue, like, here's a tip of Star Trek for the SNS. Throw the refuse over there And the refuse spot will pick it up What a cocky little kid who thinks He knows more about Star Trek the game than me Than till the Klingon

I'm walking over here That fucking Star Trek game It's so infuriating It looked bad It looked bad Make sure at the beginning You pick up a piece of trash Why?

Because you'll need it later Because it's an adventure game Yeah Well same with that Shadowland tip That was like I hope you got a bottle And picked up some rocks with your sling Then throw the sling at them

Then stab them in the chest You did it Oh yeah That one was extra long Like a wait For him to repeat himself Because you knew that you have to write down The exact instructions

You have to do it in that order Yeah Well wait Did Mike Myers offer any other insight into the church? Yeah actually I have a few Quotes from him Thanks to Dave for reaching out to him He said 14 episodes of the show

Were filmed over a one week period That's the entire run of the show One week, this must have been Like a shoestring budget operation Well I would guess then For both the stars involved They're just like this is nothing Like I'll put this in a week

and no one will remember. It's probably like four 10-hour days for them or something. Did Brannan get fired halfway through or did he have to like go like... He's only on, like, six episodes, I think. Maybe he did just like storm off the set one day and be like, fuck it. He is that one guy... To be your JD, man. Who no one remembers to Ryan Seacrest.

Oh, yeah. That day remembers, Ryan Dougalman. So Michael Myers goes on to say, we filmed at a TV station in Sacramento, California. We'd spend all day filming a couple episodes, and I get to prove the next day's scripts while eating dinner in my hotel room. So it was just a pure, just work, work, work, and then we have a whole season after a week. After a week. They're PO boxes in Venice, and I was like, well, I know where the game pro offices is.

Yeah. I don't know if they were ever in, like, SoCal. Well, but back then, like, you make TV in L.A. Yeah, but they, well, they did this in Sacramento. Not that this is interesting, but I just went to Venice recently this year. It was everything like every MTV 90s. Roller skating and Lamborghinis. I'm not a terrible looking dude.

I look like a mutant on. on Venice Beach. I'm sure we all would. Like, yeah, right outside L.A. on a beach. Did you go to Hulk Hogan's restaurant? Wait, wait, it's the spaghetti place? No, that's in Florida. Pasta mania.

Yeah, sorry. It's not abandoned. It's on Venice Beach because that's where he's booked from. Well, so first he had, first Hulk Hogan and Pasta Mania in the Minnesota Mall of America, which lasted like a year. Then he had the Hulkomania bar and grill or whatever in Florida, which had famously, like, racist sign up that was like, hey, have you come in here with baggy pants or whatever?

No bandanas by Hulk Hogan. Wow, really? It was everything in a dress code that you're like, what would a racist think a black man would wear? And it was just, you can't wear these things in here. If I can see your crack, I'm sending you black. I mean back, brother.

Oh, Halster. Let's get off of this. Yeah, we should get off of this. So we have more quotes from Mike Myers who might not want to be associated with this episode anymore, but he says one of the best things about GamePro TV was the leverage that it provided us against our competitors at the time. EGM and Ultra GamePlayers magazine and a few others. GamePro and the other

top magazines had each around 300,000 readers, so we were constantly fighting over the best cover story exclusives. When we started talking to game publishers about the opportunity to have their games previewed on a national television show, we were pretty much able to get any exclusive we wanted. So that's how they leverage it. I'm sure Nick Arcade did the same

thing. Nintendo was probably like, nope, sorry, get your own games. Yeah. We have Nintendo Power. What do we need you for? I remember I was the biggest fan of ultra game players which I only wanted. That was my magazine. I thought that was the best magazine, which I know I got free by my mother's frequent flyer points that transferred from another magazine

to another until it was like, this is the best game magazine there is, and I would eventually go work with those guys. Yeah, no, me too. It was such an honor at the time, until I started to hate the company. But yeah, ultra game players, I'm just remembering it though, that ultra game players, if you want to know what that was, the cover of the

Super Nintendo Earthworm Jim, I was just looking into it and it has like the ultra game player seal of approval, and I know EGM got that kind of treatment in GamePro, but rarely, rarely ultra-game players got the box street the front of box street i think people were outraged when uh i think cron cross did not get the platinum because one guy gave it a nine instead of a ten it's like god it's still not that's still not over yep uh so uh let's talk about other things i do want to talk

about like okay so dave talked about it was the six a m show or maybe that was henry yeah that's when it seemed like i i remember sunday afternoon so this is all this is on tv for all of us like at the time yeah for me it was uh not consistent not consistent times though because i know i tuned in again with like a VCR tape and I couldn't. I was actually reading GamePro at the time too so I think something like it told you when it would air I guess maybe like where the issues were sent

would have additional information. We say this on 30, 2010 all the time but most of my life, most of my Sundays were spent studying the TV guide trying to figure out when things I like were coming on and whether or not they were new which it gave you no indication of. Yeah for me I was on this NBC's last year

they actually had cartoons so the cartoons will be over then it would be NBA Inside Stuff and then it would be GamePro TV Yeah, 91, 92 was the last year NBC had any cartoons, yeah, so I would I mean that was the worst, they had the, always had the worst cartoons. I think it was like Space Cats was the last one. Yo, Yogi. Oh, Yo, Yogi was

one of the last ones too. And a 3D episode, man, that episode was great, yo. But again, I like this show, I kind of, I'm slightly embarrassed by it now, but it did what it was supposed to do. It wasn't interested in having trivia or any other BS. It was just like, here are the games, show you the games, tell you codes about the games,

review the games. It was literal, and that's fine. It's an admirable effort. And I can see why it failed just because, like, I'm not sure you could, Siskel and Ebert at the movies worked because they're talking about new movies and they're only doing reviews. Now imagine they were trying to supplement

the show with like, and here's this here's an Easter egg from an old movie that we're going to take 40 minutes to find. That's not Ted Danson's ghost and look who's talking. Well, I think Ebert did have the video pick of the week on his show, but that was like the one extra segment they did. They highlighted new releases instead of like games

had so many other things like this is my high score this is how you skip a level this is how you beat a boss that part where the kids were saying their high scores like where's the proof where's the proof and one was like I'm heavyweight champion and Buster Douglas like what does that even mean

like I beat a piston Honda what's your point? Yeah it sounds like he completed the game yeah but I think for yeah for GamePro TV to actually work on the same level that GamePro magazine did it would have to be four hours long because that was the thing like when I got an issue of GamePro or EGM when I was a kid

first of all they were like thick as hell like novel sized you'd get like a 200 page issue and you would read everything even the games you had I would not the first time no you would skip to the thing oh no I mean just eventually

by the time I would read the whole thing I would read everything I would read the ads I was anal retentive too Dave so I just read every even like the mast head I'm like ooh who's editing this week yeah on the first read yes I would pour through everything and like I better go back and read that going to go back and read that. I was more on Chris's side

where I would know what sections I wanted to read and I would zip around through those and then I would double back and be like all right I still have more time with my brain and I want to just read like I have to preoccupy my brain so just read more of this

though in I think it was an ultra game players they had an anime review section that turned me on to a lot of anime that's PSM maybe or is PSM Polish Pope.com Bill Donahue is selling CDs I don't know what that means Oh, Bill Donahue, yeah, the guy

Sorry, sorry, sorry So I want to know like I think I can never forget it's an ultra game players reference By the way, you're wondering And I do want to know like The show should have lasted I think I mean it did what it was supposed to do And then when it disappeared I was like

Where did this show go? Because you would never know Until the internet came around I wonder what happened to this show Only only one season But again it would take another decade Before video game program would come back And the people, I mean it's no longer really around

But those people are now the most powerful people in the universe In terms of the game industry Like if you were on cable TV once You are now the overlord of all video games Which doesn't make any sense to me Like I've been attached to major failures too You are the Dorito Pooh Why am I not the king?

If you were on cable TV in 2006 You are now the most powerful person Yes GamePro did come back Like there was some kind of half-fast show In like 96 You're right actually it was a paid infomercial for the magazine did It was on a sci-fi channel

Yeah I would watch the late 90s I assume I did watch it like after an MST 3K rerun or something. I watch this and it speaks to the need of an internet we didn't totally know existed yet. And just how much better the internet was for compartmentalizing. I believe it was ARPANET, Chris.

That's my algernet by the way. It sucked. 1960s, I know all about You know the internet has no back on. I've got some blueprints that's in you. But more that like you're still seeing like a culture war, that dumb little cultural war with video games on the side and it's sort of like video games

is just a big giant genre for you can't possibly like All of this stuff. Yeah, it feels like a real grab bag. Yeah, and that's, I don't understand how you would, you would make a movie show. It's like, well, we got to talk about the Kate Hudson movie, the long-lost animation from a couple of years ago. Charlie Chaplin and Poseidon. Like, we're going to do all that in this episode and assume the whole, that the Venn diagrams will come together and people will be interested.

That can't happen. In 22 minutes, like, how many things can you hit that I will absolutely love? Whereas, like, an issue of GamePro, there's probably a third of that magazine I will, like, is directly important to me. then eventually everything will be read. There's no previews in the show. And that's one of the things I think is really weird. Well, with the lead time, they can't do that out. Yeah, they would get unfinished games, Michael Myers told us.

They would have them three to six months ahead of time. But still, I don't know what, I mean, the show was probably recorded like in August or July and then ran for like that fall season. So who knows what was in the works then? Though I don't know if this was every episode, but in this episode two, it felt weird of like what they're, you know, the important question, what you demo? But in this case, it was like, so they had Batman and Battletoe. they have Bucky O'Hare

So that's the difference The immortal twice And they have Rocketeer They have all those like These are licensed things that kids will love But then they have like Shadowgate And the Immortals and Game Ground Which are like violent like for their time

Pretty violent game And for grownups And that's I think the whole problem You see video game websites covering other things And it's just because like well There's no one kind of gamer And they're actually never was There never was at all

And you can't service everybody I feel so bad watching it Just like you know this is what they had to deal with But still like with Nick Arcade I watched this just to see what video games look like Because it would be another year before I entered the 16 bit era And not until Christmas of 92 So I'm like oh a Genesis game cool

I can't wait to play this It's been repeating in my head I don't know if we said it on the last episode That on just due to production schedules like this In Game Pro TV You saw Nick Arcade on your television It's five hours away from my house You want to go be on Nick Arcade

And the reality was, they've shot everything, and that'll never happen. It was over before you knew it existed. They shall fill more back in the vault. I think it got two or three more scenes, but that's how most of those shows worked. You'd see them in like, yeah, you would have to have been a lucky tourist. Begin the thawing of J.D. Roth. So, yes, we do have to record some Talking Simpsons. Thanks for joining us, everybody, for a slightly silly episode of Retronauts, Micro.

Hope you don't enjoy our giddiness. I think, joking about Eddie Deeson so much right before recording time. I'm talking about video games, guys. It was a quintessential nerd in 80s movies. See? We have skills that cannot be employable at all. So, as always, you can find us on the internet at usgamer.net and retronauts.com, and we have a Patreon. Go to patreon.com slash retronauts.

Even just a few bucks a month can really help the show. It's completely supported by you guys. We could not do any of this without your money. So please support the show if you can. We've been getting a lot of attention lately. So anything helps, and we want to keep doing this. So please give it if you can. Up Rock's best video, one of eight, best video.

One of ten. And I don't want to say that here because I feel like Michael got screwed. Because Viggin Apocalypse is a great podcast too I'm pretty sure they only heard the one episode that we hosted Oh wait I hosted Oh no now we're throwing Dave under the bus But again I'm on Twitter as Bob Serbo I'm out of plugs

Pull out and whip out of Patreon To one another Hey guys you got any plugs Hey guys you got any Patreon plugs Henry I mean we are support Patreon.com slash Lyser Time If you liked this silliness We're so red

And backwards looking at things like you will enjoy a lot of our podcasts, including laser time, but also talking Simpsons where we go through every episode of Simpsons 1 at a time. Bob Mackey is always on that show. And we also do 30, 2010, where we talk about the events

in the year each week. 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 10 years ago. Yeah. I can think of it as a little portal into exactly what was happening. 30, 20, and 10 years ago, exactly at that time. I guess soonish we're talking about the new Super Mario

brothers coming out 10 years ago. You guys enjoyed this. Maybe we could start talking GamePro TV. We're already 113th done with it. For one of my favorite things we did on 30, 2010, that I think is just in the very recent past of the show, it was the American reveal in the 90th segment, the 20 years ago, of Super Mario 64. And I've seen the videos of E3 where Zelda is revealed, the Wind Waker is revealed,

and then Twilight Princess, and you can hear gas from the audience, but like, you seen Super Mario 64 in magazines. You knew what was happening. Space World, I believe it was revealed. Yeah, from like Space World 95. And E396, when they show it moving to the public, and people lost their fucking mind. Some guy snuck in a camcorder, and you can see, you can see people like slapping their heads as Mario moves in a third dimension.

Before we all got jaded, yeah. Yeah, yeah, but like just being able to go back to that point. And the audio, I don't, it's not very good, but like, it was one of my favorite things to find that reminded me of this that like that, we didn't know what Mario 60. I didn't know what Mario 64 looked like in motion until it was at a Walmart kiosk. Yeah, I just saw a fuzzy picture.

Yeah, what's the heck? Like terrible photographs from E3 or Space World. I worked at Capcom, they have all the old boxes there and you look at the, and we were talking about that with GamePro TV. Like you could, had they get this footage, I believe somebody said kind of sillyly like maybe Dave or Henry and like a VCR. But how do you get a screenshot from that footage? Oh, and all the old boxes at Capcom, all of them,

Are somebody pointing a camera at a television? You could tell. It's like it has like the warp screen and everything too. And that's all the U.S. I'm sure Japan had some other means of doing that. They had a magic machine. Had to deal with? Oh, what?

Should I shut up? Have we done all our plugs? We just, we did a show that you guys might like retro Notties. I don't think is the right word for you guys. We still need a term for our fans. I like Retro Notties. Retro Notties. That's a great episode.

I did a, did you like it? I did, yeah. I like the spooky wax, not wax cylinder. I thought that was the most terrifying thing ever. The fake ear voice. To dig up the oldest recording of a human being that dates back, I believe, to 1860. I think into movies on vinyl and UMDs and the failingsest physical media formats ever. I expect to hear that voice right before I die.

Singing, oh, Claire DeLu. Yeah, and that fuzzy haunting voice from the 19th century. And I host a cheap podcast, a pro wrestling podcast, but one more GamePro TV anecdote. Yeah. Back when, like, a lot of websites use the conno. code to have certain little jokes here and there. GamePro.com, we had it so if you enter the Konami Code, the first episode of GamePro TV, like a YouTube embed,

would just like pop up. Wow. So it was a neat little thing that we had for a while. That's awesome. But unfortunately now that the site is dead. So instead of 30 lives, it's no light. Yeah. Ah.

I hate myself, too. Don't worry about it. Henry, did you have a plug? A.G and E.R.YG on Twitter. Follow it, baby. Awesome. Thanks for joining us. And if you're out there, Bernan, we miss you. want you to come home. Thanks, everybody.

We'll be back next week with a brand new full-length episode. Love you. I'm not doing a burn on intro. I'm not doing a burn on intro. Uh, can I, can I start? Hey, man. I can't, you have to have like the, the, like, what is this, okay, I'll get into his posture in a second. I have no idea what's happening, but, uh.

the Pepsi generation. We co-opted black culture to the max. All right, that's going to be like a clip that people are going to get mad about. I'll put in after.