Video Gamers Podcast - Games Lost to Time - Gaming Podcast [REMASTERED]

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh and Ryan are back with another incredible video game filled episode. What ever happened to that gaming franchise? Remember Turok, or Splinter Cell? We dive into the video games and franchises that have been lost to time, discuss what made them memorable, and just why they aren’t around anymore. It’s another awesome gaming filled episode from the Video Gamers Podcast!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser, and Dettmarp   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder, Bobby S.   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/h2cHKAvSmu Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello fellow gamers and welcome to the video gamers podcast. You know, some games crash and burn. Others burn bright before simply fizzling out into obscurity. I'm looking at you, twisted metal. And yet others might be cult hits, but with a small group of people and just never really warranted a sequel. Whatever the reason on this episode, we're going to be covering the games or franchises that have been lost to time.

ones that at one point every gamer had heard of, but now are just whispers of times gone by. We'll be talking about some of our favorites, some we honestly don't really even know what happened to, and maybe a few or we know exactly what went wrong, but first some introductions are in order. I am your host Josh, and joining me, he had perfect dark at the top of his list

until I reminded him, the remake is coming! And he hasn't stopped smiling since. It's Ryan. This is why I try to not share ahead of time, because that was just preliminary. Like, I know this is coming out, but I'm excited, but it took a long time for them to kind of revitalize this game.

And then Josh, of course, has to just throw a jab, you know. That's not what always is. I hear what you're saying, Ryan. Yeah. It was at the top of your list. because that's what I'm so excited for. Okay, but these are games that are lost at time, not games that are soon to have an awesome looking remake.

Yeah, well, we'll see. I'll believe it when it comes out. That is true. I mean, although we did get a pretty sick-looking trailer. The trailer was pretty nice. The perfect dark remake. I, yo, man. Yeah, that's a game that we didn't even talk about.

I don't think that's coming this year. That's why. Dude, I feel like we talked about it like a year ago, and it's still like, you know, crickets. Yeah. Yeah, there's not much going on there. It's lost again. Where is it?

I can't find it. Is it over there? 2026? You heard anything about perfect dark? No. So welcome in, everybody. Thank you for joining us. We have a fantastic episode for you today.

There's going to be some games that you probably haven't even heard mentioned in a while. There's going to be some hopes about maybe these games will come back at some point. And there's going to be a lot of like, what the heck happened? Like what happened to that game, man? So this is going to be a lot of fun. But man, we are going to start off with a really awesome announcement, something that has us very excited that we kind of want to just announce to the world, to all of our listeners out there. Because this is going to be and has already been the catalyst for a lot of really awesome things that everybody is in store for. So a very good friend of ours by the name of John.

We are actually bringing on in an official capacity on the podcast or for the podcast to help us out. John is an amazing human. He has a heart of gold. Honestly, his true desire is just to help people in the world. And he's got the heart and the brains to do that. And John has been a friend of ours for a long time. We've been chatting behind the scenes for a while. and we finally said, dude, you need to be a part of this.

And he said, I need to be a part of this. And we all kind of just broed out for a little bit. And, you know, went, yes. Like, yes, let's do this, man. So John is officially on board. You will see him in our Discord server. You are going to see his influence on a lot of things for this podcast that are coming up. Maybe you'll see him on a show or two.

He's, you know, we can't get shown up. by other people. So, you know, we're kind of a little hesitant to bring him on the podcast. Um, but just, you know, being a great friend, people have heard Ace of Shame, you know, on the podcast from time to time. And we kind of have a feeling that John will be, you know, definitely on the show so that people can get to know him. We'll probably make him do a draft with us so that we can just crush him, Ryan. Yes. You know, in this draft and then just kind of make sure he stays humble at the same time, you know, so if I, if I just have to keep looking at his abs on Instagram.

It's ridiculous, man. It's annoying. So, it's got an eight pack. Yeah, I know. So like with that, man. Like, if I work out forever, I get like a four pack maybe and he's just rocking the eight pack. Yeah. So we're just going to destroy them in a draft just to bring them back down to earth.

Yeah. You might be like, you know, a perfect human specimen, but we can kick your butt in video game drafts, man. So, but, but honestly, uh, John is. is fantastic. He's the driving force behind a lot of improvements that are coming to the podcast. Like, I don't know, maybe this third episode we're doing every week with these indie games. Maybe coming soon a video podcast. What?

Yeah. So some awesome charity events. I mean, we are hitting it big time. We love the momentum we have. We cannot thank the listeners enough. I mean, honestly, we have been saying this for a while, but we are experiencing something that honestly I think people dream about. You know, we are seeing this just kind of very astronomical kind of curve in people finding the podcast, people supporting the podcast. Our community is growing leaps and bounds every day. It's really exciting times. And honestly, like we could not be more excited.

So, you know, we wanted to just put that out to the world. Thank you, John, for being willing to join us on this adventure. Thank you for kind of kicking Ryan and I's butts into high gear on this. And listeners, you should thank John too because there's a lot of really awesome stuff coming because of him. Good stuff. Good stuff is coming everyone's way for sure. Yeah, absolutely.

It also means a lot more work for me and you, Ryan. So, you know, we can say this now. Check in in like three months. And then maybe we'll do like a re-intro for John. I'll be like, man, that guy's got us doing four shows a week. I can't do it anymore. Yeah, so awesome. But we are very excited.

We hope that you are excited with us. One more exciting thing before we actually get into these games that have been lost to time is we have a new epic supporter to thank. I'm just going to say Ali A because we don't have a Discord handle or anything else. And I don't want to throw your last name out there either. But thank you so much, Ali A, for signing up with Epic. status, make sure you join our Discord server so that we can send you a proper thank you and get you involved in the community as well. Yeah. Allie. Thank you. Yes, absolutely. And thank you to everybody else out there that supports the show. If you have it on your mind or your heart that you

do want to support this show, you can do that over at Multiplayer Squad.com. You can sign up for as little as five bucks a month. But it really does help the show and it helps us just keep putting this content out there for the world. So, Ryan, let's get into it, buddy. Because I do it. You know, there's a certain bit of nostalgia that comes to mind with some of these games. And, you know, we, we like to kind of go down the nostalgia road from time to time. We don't always want to stay there because, you know, not everybody's got the nostalgia for

some of these games. But you're going to have heard of these. And we're going to do our best to explain why they were great. And then what the heck happened, man? Yeah, exactly. Why did they go away? It was so good. Yeah.

So, you know, it's one of those things, too, and I kind of mentioned this in the intro. I feel like some of these games, and not all of them fit into these categories by any means, but there are games that I think were like cult hits. Like, I have one of my lists that I'm going to talk about that maybe not a lot of people know about, but are like, you know, if you know this game, you're going to love this game and you're going to be like, oh, dude, I remember that. Yeah. But I think it just didn't hit real well.

for a large majority of people. A couple of games that come to mind for me like this are like, uh, undertale is a good one where it's like very, very passionate following of people. But if you haven't played undertail, you're kind of like,

dude, I don't get it. If you played undertail like I did and you played a little bit and you went, dude, I don't get it. Uh, you know, that could be one of those examples.

Amory is another game. I'm sure a few people just shouted with joy. Uh, that game is, you know, very beloved by a few people. Um, and then sometimes we have games.

that like released with a bang and then just die off right away. Like it's like they come out firing and then just for whatever reason they just kind of fade into the mist. But we're going to talk about those, man. And we're going to have a darn good time doing it. Oh yeah. Let's get into it, Ryan. I'm pumped, man. I'm excited.

And I should just say we just kind of have a list. We're not numbering these. It's not like the number one game that I want to know what happens. So I think this was more just let's kind of talk about some. of these games and what happened to them and why they're memorable and you know why we're actually bringing them up on the show so why don't you get a start of Ryan why don't you bring up a game that he's just gone man like where to go uh I'm gonna I'm gonna bring up one and I think this will make some of the the listeners happy because it was a recent deep dive um that I had to do

and I'm gonna come out with a bang here and a pun intended um I'm gonna go with red faction like what what happened to to such a awesome game obviously they recreated it to the uh the red faction gorilla um marsters or whatever um like remaster remasters that's what it was yeah remasters which is just so bad so bad that it's good which i love but i was introduced to this because of the deep dive um and and i absolutely loved it i loved the gameplay i loved the gameplay i loved the destructive environments. And it was something that with today's technology and the ability to really create some vast, amazing worlds that you can destroy, you know, create it to knock it down, if you will, like, why is this not like a series that's continuing? Why are they not making more

of this game? It's really weird because I have never played a red faction game and you hadn't either. I mean, we've heard of them. Like, we both are like, dude, I've heard. of the Red Faction series, but then you got forced into playing it. And I think it was Red Faction Gorilla, if I remember, right? Right. Yeah. And then you actually quite enjoyed it. Dude, I loved it. It's weird because it seemed like it was very much ahead of its time with the physics and the destructible environments and all this stuff. And I remember actually watching some gameplay. And I went kind of what, dude, this is this is actually kind of a neat concept. Yeah. And then it just went away. Just poof.

Yeah. Yep. And I think. think because, you know, this is one where they did actually release, if I'm pretty sure that they released one called Armageddon and that Armageddon did not do very well. And so I think what happened is when you start to kind of see, hey, we're onto something and then it declines and then you make a sequel. And then that sequel really underperforms. I think a lot of these studios get shy. And they just say, oh, man, this, this series really is not resonating with people anymore. So let's just, let's just move on. And it's kind of sad in a way because that means like money was the deciding factor on what was a really good series. Yeah. And then just like kind of one bad,

yeah, money moves. So it's, it's just, yeah, it's, if you don't perform, then, you know, it's just everybody looks at that and it's really hard to get that next kind of, okay, I know this one didn't do good, but we got some. really good ideas for this next one, you know, trust me. Trust me, man. You know, and so when people are, yeah, yeah, trust us, guys. Don't even, don't even give me started. But this is a good question, right? Because why isn't EA learning from this? Yeah. Right? Like, why didn't they learn? Like, just let the series die, man. That's what, that's what THQ did with Red Faction. And then EA's like, nah, man, we're just going to keep making these. Well, because you throw it up darts, one of them

will be okay. Dingus is like us will keep buying it. Like, well, maybe. Maybe, you know, you know what I hate. I will absolutely buy the next battle. I know, me too. As much as we trash it, it's like, I know. I'm an idiot, man. You're bringing me down. You're bringing me down.

Let's go to the next one. What are you got? What do you got? Let's go. Okay, so I am going to bring up one of my favorite franchises of all time. Oh. And I actually nerded out the other day because I found out that there is a fan made, like, kind of remaster mod for this game.

Okay. That is free for people to pick up. Um, and that is a series called Deuce X. Dude. Duce X, the original Deuce X. I remember being, I was probably a, uh, the, you know, 12, 13 somewhere around there, you know, kid in the prime of like, oh my goodness, gaming is the most amazing thing ever.

And the original Deuce X is to this day a mind blowing game. It was so. far ahead of its time, it was unreal. All these people that are talking about, dude, your choices matter. You know, you can, you can approach things in, like, all these different ways. Baldersgate three, you know, it's one of the things that people love about Baldur's Gate three is you can approach any mission, any quest, any challenge in a hundred different ways. Your imagination is the only thing holding you back. And DoSex was one of those games where you could actually approach a situation from like four or five different angles. And at the time, that was mind-blowing, dude.

Like, nobody had done that. Uh, it's got espionage. It's got cybernetics. It's futuristic. You know, you're Adam Jensen. You're the super cool neal looking dude who's got this good voice actor and you just sound super cool. And I just remember everything about this game made me feel like I was some kind of futuristic cybernetic spy, you know, hacking terminals and all this stuff. and then they came out with, I don't remember the exact order. I think it's like mankind divided in Human Revolution or the other two.

I might have those swip swapped as far as the release dates. They try to take them to the next level and I think they just didn't quite succeed 100%. I played both of those games and honestly they're both pretty good. They don't have the magic of the original

but they were still very good video games and you can pick these things up super cheap now. And then it's just, just like what the heck happened? This is like Mass Effect or like Witcher or something just falling to the wayside. Can you imagine if after Witcher 3 they just kind of went, we're done. We're not making Witcher 4. We're good.

Now, you know, to be fair, the sequel, Mankind Divided in Human Revolution were not great, but they were still very good video games. Oh, yeah. But it's like they weren't that bad, man. It's not like they killed the franchise. So like, what the heck? Where did they go? It's so weird.

Because if you ask any gamer, you know, like of our age, 30s, 40s, you know, in that genre or type, age type, like, everybody knows the name, do sex. Like, you, you were familiar. You saw that it was released. Even if you didn't play it, like, you were familiar with it. And for something that was that kind of worldwide transcendent, like, to just disappear, it's just so weird. You always wonder, like, what happened to cause this to not be continued? Like, how do they not see money in this to make more? You know, and it's just one of those weird things, especially, like you said, it was totally ahead of its time.

There was, there was so many crazy things that just blew your mind in real time playing that game. And then just to not get a continuation, it's like almost frustrating. You're like, come on, man, what the heck? They had it all, dude. They had stealth. They had combat. They had technology. They had multiple approaches to any.

situation. They had choices that actually mattered and you would find out later on in the game and stuff like that. It was just gaming perfection, dude. And then two sequels that were maybe subpar to the original, but still pretty good.

And then it just gone. That one makes me sad, dude. Two sex was so good, man. It was. Yeah. All right, Ryan, before we get to your next one, let's take a quick break and then we'll see what's up next on your list. Whether it's with your besties or date night,

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Find out more at goadransit.com slash tickets. All right, welcome back, everybody. Ryan, I'm still feeling a little nostalgic for due sex. Get me out of this little bit of melancholy I got going on, man. What you got here? This ain't going to help for sure. Oh, no. Oh, no.

So speaking of like stealth and, and that type of thing, and then just kind of memories and like something that was so big back in the day. And I think a lot of these are going to be kind of, you know, older type games because those are the series that, that after five to ten years, you're like, dude, what the heck? Why haven't you made another game? You know, where is it? So I'm going to go with siphon filter.

Dysif and filter is a game that I've never played, and I see so many people talk about. So you've got to explain this one to me a little bit. You missed out, man. So the original was in 1999. The most recent one they had, I think was in like 07 or something like that, were they the uh some one of the sequels but the the biggest one was the original i remember it was it was that kind of you know you're used to playing uh golden eye or you know as we started the show

perfect dark all these types of uh espionage you know secret agent games and and you're this this cool guy but this was one where you actually it was that next stage in graphics so it was it was that late 90s where where things kind of took that next step up and it was just it was there was something different about it to where you could move throughout the world you could uh traverse with with the night vision and and the combat the gun the gun was this like splinter cell was it was it was very espionage type game spy espionage just a lot like splinter cell i think uh almost i i mean i don't know i may be totally way off base and i'm just going off the cuff here but splinter cell

maybe like kind of the carry on, you know, the spiritual successor, if you will, of, of Seifilter. I just remember playing it as a kid thinking that it was the coolest spy game I had played up to that time and then it just disappeared. I don't remember playing anymore after that. I don't remember hearing anymore after that. And it was one of those that just like, why did this game disappear? Like there was so much there and then it's just gone.

You know, and it was just one of those that I think, I think just fits this mold of, of this was awesome. It hit hard and then it disappeared, you know, like like a one hit wonder type, you know, quote, unquote type thing. Yeah. But this is the thing, right? Because it's like, I have heard a lot of people talk about siphon filter. And I know that this is an older game.

I never, this is one that I'm just kind of completely ignorant to, to be honest, other than the name and other than hearing friends talk about it like back in the day. So it's like, there was obviously. something there that resonated with people. And then it just went nowhere. And it's like, why? You know, was it fighting in the studio? Like is that they just couldn't get along anymore. And they're like, I'm out. You know, and then it's like, the game's just sitting there. Just like reaching out. Like, but what about me? What about me? I'm a good game. You know, make more. Yeah. Yeah, man, you, you missed out for sure. Because it was one of those that,

at its time for sure was was definitely next level it was something that i remember just this this subway level and and you're trying to go through these tunnels and you're fighting through through this train car and the subway and you're it was just something i'd never experienced before and i was like this is going to go on forever this is awesome i love this game and i can't wait for more of it and then i never really had that continuation i know like i said there was more that came out, but it just, I mean, the series just kind of died. And obviously, we don't have any more now. So it fits the mold, but it was just a bummer. I feel like the first splinter cell, and again, I could be wrong on this, but I almost wonder if it was just overshadowed. Like somebody did it

better than them. I feel like, that's the, like the general kind of tingle is like they had something. And then somebody came along and went, let's let us introduce you to splinter cell. Let's do this. Oh, man. Well, because if you hear that sound and I'm going to, I'm going to try to put it in right here. Okay. That's that's the splinter cell sound and you know, you know what that is in what that goes to. It's just like that, you know, and that's, dude, your goggles are up and you're going, you know. You're moving now. Yeah. Yes, stealth mode engaged. Exactly. All right. Well, listen, everybody. I mentioned twisted metal in the intro. People that have been listening to the show for a while know how I feel about twisted metal. I freaking love twisted metal.

I played the heck out of that game. I mean, I absolutely loved it. I played all of them. Yes, they kind of started to fall off. Twisted Metal 2, in my opinion, I think, was the best one. Twisted Metal Black was pretty good. I think Twisted Metal 3 was probably a disaster. That is the one series when people say, what's a series you want to see remade again?

It's my instant answer. But I'm not going to harp on Twisted Metal because everybody knows, but I had to throw it out there because it wouldn't be an episode about dead games if I didn't bring it up. I am going to bring up, and this is the other one that I kind of hinted at early on, Jade Empire. So I don't know if you guys remember this game, dude, but this was the height of BioWare back in the heyday. And, dude, it just came out of nowhere.

Jade Empire was basically the game that BioWare, and I think this came out after Kotowler, if I remember right or Kotor 1. I could have my timelines off a little bit. Honestly, it's not important, but it's like BioWare was in their heyday. They were making just the greatest games

that people had come across. And they made this game called Jade Empire. Dude, I remember this game. Dude, see, this is what I'm talking about, right? You forgot about it, didn't you? Yes. Dude, you got to be like Kung Fu Masters. You could be like, you got all kinds of different weapons.

It was like, you got martial arts. It was your choice. Matter, dude. This was like Mass Effect, but like an ancient like feudal Japan kind of thing. Actually, I don't even know if it's feudal Japan, but it was like action combat to where you were at, like, you were kicking butt. And I just remember thinking like, dude, this game is incredible. Great characters, great choices, great combat, that classic height of the, you know, of Bioware where they were just putting out some of the best games ever. And then it just, that was it.

no Jade Empire too, no anything else. It was just, we made this absolute banger of a video game. Yeah. And then we just never touched it again. Just like, that's it. We're good. That's plenty. I know why.

Like this is one of those ones where like this is Mass Effect. Mass Effect killed Jade Empire. Like they came out and they said, hey, you know what? We have this idea for this space kind of game. But dude, Jade Empire was so good. I loved that game so much, man. It's not like this was a bad game. This game was a banger.

And then they just went, yeah, we're going to, oh, oh, you mean everybody in the world loves Mass Effect? Okay, we're just going to keep making Mass Effect people. And my sweet, sweet Jade Empire was an Empire No More. Empire No More. Yeah, that's, man, that's one of those like, dude, this is, it's, yeah, looking at these pictures, just throwing me way back. It's, that's what happens when you get these forgotten, you know, lost in time.

Like, people wonder, you know, even just with, I'm a big history buff. So, like, you wonder how how certain things in the world are in history just get lost in time. And like a game like this, the second I looked at the pictures, I'm like, oh, yeah. You remember, right? Yeah. Dude. Look this up. I know.

Like, it's going to ring a bell for a lot of people. Exactly. So imagine. That's why I said. Yeah. No. Imagine not having computers or the ability to just kind of pull stuff up. That's how things get lost, basically, is the long of the short for what I'm trying to say. But, man, that is a really good pick. Man, yeah, that's, that's, that one. It makes me almost want to go back and play it, dude, like legitimately just to like, am I looking at it through rose-colored glasses at this point? But I don't think I am, that game was awesome. I think, I think at every level, like, going back to old games, you're always going to have that. If it's nostalgic for you, you're going. going to have that little bit of rose tint to them. But some of them still just, even if,

you know, comfort of life or certain things don't hold up, uh, because it's an older game, some of them you can still appreciate what it was, you know, and what, what it even is today? Like, you're like, you know, this is, this is what it is still, you know, this is still pretty cool, you know, I love it. That's awesome, man. What do you got, what do you got up next, right? Uh, so I'm going to go with one that I just, man, for something that in the, I don't know, I'm not, I'm not that old, but I'm assuming late 80s, but then all through the 90s that just was something that was a mainstay in all video games, I'm going with Mega Man.

Oh my goodness, I freaking love Mega Man, dude. How can you have so many games within such a small period of time? like let's say late 80s to late 90s. Like that span to have so many games that I remember personally playing just as a kid. And then even when I was older going back to play them and I'll even go back here and there now to have so many games and then just poof. Like everybody knows Mega Man. Everybody knows about Mega Man. Every gamer knows of the Mega Man games.

But why is that series just gone? You know, like, where did it go? I don't know. Dude. Where are you? Yeah. And this is weird because I don't, was, was Mega Man like a straight up Nintendo IP? That was Capcom?

Capcom. Yeah, it was Capcom. Yeah, it was Capcom. For sure. Yeah, yeah. And it's weird to me because I remember, you know, playing Mega Man on the old Nintendo. Dude, the premise of those games where it was platforming, it was shooting, it was boss fights.

You got the boss abilities, dude. Like, that's the only, there may have been other games that did it before then, but that's the game to me that's like, dude, you fight this boss and you beat this boss, you get their ability. Yeah. And it was like the leaf shield and the bubble and, you know, I mean, all that stuff. And it was like, yes, you could play that game in any order. And it was super hard to beat some of those bosses like Nintendo hard. Yeah. Or if you did them in the right order and you got the right ability from one boss, it really simplified the other boss.

in that case, you know? And then it was like, oh, I'm an idiot. I should have done this in the first place. I should have done this way. The most recent thing I can remember is it's not even called Mega Man. It's 20X. I think it's free. I can't remember if it's free or not or if it's like very cheap.

But somebody made a like almost like a remake of Mega Man and it was just called 20XX. And I remember playing it and it was so good, dude. Yeah. I don't know what happened to those, man. Like what's not to love? Platforming, shooting. boss fights, upgrades, abilities. Like, can somebody not bring this into modern times and turn this into, we're getting

Mario games, Zelda games, Donkey Kong games left and right? Like, give us a brand new Mega Man. Yeah. And then I know they have like the most recent entry, I believe, is Mega Man 11. But that was like all the way back in 2018. But it's like, man, it's been a while. And it hasn't been that, well, they're making more games. It's not what it once was.

And you're like, Mega Man was huge. It was everything, you know, in gaming back then. And so, so it's just, it feels like it's just, it's just gone. You know, it's kind of that, that lost game. I think if I had to guess in this case, because I do like talking about like what happened to them, right? Like, why did these fail or why did they go away? There's over 130 games in the Mega Man series. Oh my gosh.

So is this just simply like, you flooded the market, dude? You know, when you make 130 Mega Man games, like you're going to have an awful lot of them that just don't hit. And when enough of them don't hit, you probably just go, well, we've tapped this series for all it's worth. Move on to the next, you know, IP and then just kind of go from there. But yeah, that makes sense, man. That's a lot. I didn't realize it was that many. Yeah.

That's crazy. Well, this is between all platforms, Game Boys, Portables, you know, I mean, all that stuff too. But yeah, it's, but that makes, dang it, Ryan. I freaking loved Mega, man. Dude, I loved it. I had a game on PlayStation Mega Man Legends was like, came out in like, I think like 97 or something like that. And it was, it was definitely one of those that's like a core memory of Mega Man. Like the older ones for sure, but that was the one that you could just cruise around. It was like open world almost. But I have this very vivid memory still of being a kid and going over to my best friend's house. And we would all try to like beat the boss. And if you died, you just hand the controller to the next guy. He'd be like, give me a turn. Give me a turn. Give me a turn. turn. And then it was just next guy up kind of thing. And of course, we'd sit there for hours trying to beat it. But then if somebody did beat it, you were so happy. Like you were cheering for your buddy. But then you were also like, dang it. I wanted to be the one to beat him. I wanted to be the one.

You know, that guy got lifted up. And it's like, yeah. And you're like, but I wanted to be the one to beat him. Oh, man. Dude, what a great. I freaking miss Mega Man. Dude, for sure. All right. What do you got? I'm going to go with just a category of games here. And there's going to be older people that really are going to just be happy with me right now. And there's going to be a whole lot of other people that are like, dude, I've heard of these, but I've never played them. So I don't understand. I'm just going to group it as a whole. And I'm going to say Sierra Games in general.

Oh. Dude, when I was a kid, the games that, I mean, I grew up on Atari. I grew up on Atari 2,600, then NES, then Sega. when we had a computer, well, we always had a computer because my dad was kind of a tech guy, but when we got like our first, I think it was like a 386, it could actually do graphics and beep beep sounds and stuff. I remember Sierra was one of the first games that I ever played. And I think the, I can't remember if it was like police quest or Heroes Quest. I don't actually remember the very first Sierra game I ever played. It might have been Kings Quest. These games were the

pinnacle of gaming. they were adventures. They had memorable characters. You had to interact with your environment. You had to solve puzzles. Dialogue mattered. So they were always telling like this really neat story. And then they kind of started to evolve. Right. Like so there was Kings quest early on where you were just this kind of squire guy walking around this kingdom trying to figure stuff out. And it was always these neat little puzzles where you had to kind of observe things and be like, oh, is that a rock over there? And then you could put the rock in your inventory. And then later on, you'd see a bird in a nest with something twinkling in the nest. And it was like, if you had the rock, you could throw the rock and then

the bird would fly away. And then you'd climb the tree and get whatever the thing out of the nest was. And it was like, they were kind of like, I don't want to call them puzzle games, but they had actual puzzles like built into them. And then dude, then they started to evolve. Then they turned into Heroes Quest, um, which got rebranded into Quest for Glory for people that made not remember the old Heroes Quest games. Um, these are the games that I grew up on. Then they started to branch out because we actually had this conversation that got into the, like these really kind of funny games like Leisure Suit Larry where these were like very adult themed. Yeah. But they were hilarious, you know, like I remember my parents cracking up playing

these. And they for being adult, they really didn't show a whole lot in that case, but it was still like just adult themed. And I remember, yeah, I was a gamer. I wanted to see the game. My parents were like, no, no, you're not coming in here. No, you're, you know. But then I played them later on. I'm like, okay, well, these are hilarious, man. Sierra games in my mind were some of the best games that ever existed. The only modern games that I can think of that kind of compare, or if you've ever played like the Monkey Island games, and because they just had one, I think it was two or three years ago, uh, that like kind of they did the final chapter of or whatever. That's the very similar style. I did Sierra games. They were just the, they were like the height of my childhood.

It was, it was this weird thing because not everybody had computers. A lot of people had NES and SEGas, but if you didn't have a computer, you couldn't play a lot of these games. And so it was this rare mix of like almost a little bit exclusive, but people that had computers were playing Sierra games all loved them. And it was just good times, man. Dude, for sure. And it's funny because it shows the, um, kind of the broad reach that they had in the longevity. Um, and obviously they're not anything what they were before. But I mean, you say that that was part of your childhood, but also for me, you know, I was born a little bit later. So like the late 90s was when I was kind of in my youth and in my gaming peak, you know,

no responsibilities. I can just play games. And that's when I had like half life and SWAT three. I remember it was like one of my favorite games as a kid and I'm arresting guys and saving people and just those games play different than everything else. And that's bringing it to something newer. That's what I love so much about oh geez. Now I'm gonna forget with the with the Russia and or not a Ukraine with Oh a stalker two. Stalker two. Yeah. Stalker two.

Stalker two had a little bit of that old school vibe like that old feel that old school kind of not Not to say clunky but like that they didn't hold your hand at all They didn't hold your hand it was that feel of like that old school Sierra game and that's what I love so much. That's why I love Stalker 2. And in those games, you know, late 90s, that was my peak. And I loved them. So, so that's cool to see that you kind of had your, your window with that Sierra games. And I also had my own window with a whole different series of games with the same people, you know, which was so cool, man. It's like, where they go?

make a comeback. And I know actually the founders of Sierra started working on like a remake. I think it was called Crystal Caverns, if I remember that. I need to check back into that. So to, because I like answering this question, what happened to Sierra Games is they got bought out by Activision. They actually merged with Activision. It became Activision Blizzard. So there's like, I don't know if this makes me happy. It kind of does in a way because it's like, I mean, we had some really good games from Activision Blizzard, you know, but it's like there's a little bit of Sierra Games DNA in there. I think. think so and i like to i like to believe that that's what made like you know like some of these games the games that they are that's funny no that's yeah that's a good point for sure all right what's up next

for you man oh man um geez i'm gonna go with one that uh gosh i i don't know i don't know how relevant it is in today's gaming world with with how just quick and instant response everyone wants to wants everything and you can't just go and, you know, do whatever you want in this game. This is, this is strategic. You have to take your time. You have to make sure that you go across the river properly. You don't want to get dysentery, you know. I was going to say, I know what this.

Every kid who had speech class as a child, you know, their speech teacher just shuffled you off to the computer, which is what mine did. And I played organ trail. What the heck happened to Oregon Trail, man? It was something that I don't understand Like it is such a cool premise And thought of you gotta get from here to there You gotta trade, you gotta hunt

You gotta do all these things And they could make it such a cool Like imagine Red Dead 2 But scale down to where You just gotta make this linear path Across the Oregon Trail Why can't we do that? Yeah, dude, there's

There's something. There was something about Oregon Trail because every, it was like the one game that every school computer had hidden. Everybody had it. Yeah. But it was like hidden. They weren't like, it didn't. It wasn't like, hey, everybody go play Oregon Trail.

It was your, you have like this hour in the library that you're supposed to be doing like schoolwork. And everybody would like go over the computers and then the students figured out like, dude, if you do this and you do that, like there's a game on this computer. And you'd be like, what? A game. And be like, yeah, man. just type in like, you know, and this was DOS back in the day.

So it was like, you know, you got to go to the directing. They'd be like, dude, CD backslash, DIR, star dot, you know, and then like, it'd be like, you know, run Oregon Trail. EXE. Like you felt almost like, and then sure enough, the game would pop up. Boom, Oregon Trail. You're like, yes. Yeah.

And then you got to play games during library or whatever it was. Library time. I, dude, I never killed so many rabbits ever in my life. Oh, man. Oh, and then poor Marsha would always get dysentery and die. The beauty of Oregon Trail. I think was that it taught you, especially as a younger gamer, it taught you like, you better think ahead a little bit.

Yep. You know, sure, like buying all the oxen or the food or bullets is a good idea, but like, you better think about some wheels. Yeah. Because if you break a wheel and you don't have one, you're all dead. You're dead in the wilderness, man. Oh, your wagon yoke, you know. Yeah.

Dude, my, my eight-year-old self was like, oh, no, I better prep for this. It's like, yeah. I mean, it's good. What's funny is there. was a recent remake of Oregon Trail. I say recent. It's probably been in the last five or six years. I never checked it out. It's like I don't, it's one of those games. I just want my memories of sneakily playing it in the library, you know, and trying not to get caught by your teacher. Because if your teacher walked by and saw that you were playing video games on this computer,

she'd make you shut it off. And, you know, nobody wanted that. So yeah, Oregon Trail. It's a classic game that oddly has withstood the test of time, even though I don't know if the remakes any good or the graphical improvements that they've tried to make on that. I just never tried it. Yeah, I haven't either. It looks like I've pulled some stuff up here. It looks like they released some sort of remake on the Switch in 2022. Yeah.

It's definitely not, I think, the spirit of this episode. Yeah, I think the magic's gone. I think the spirit of this episode is like, like, these games are not what they once were and like what happened to the series and where is it from now. You know, because people are going to be like, oh, they just released one. this time, but it's like, it's not what it was. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. All right, dude, I'm going to bring out one of my favorite series of, I said this with Duce X, and it's still to me to this day, is one of my favorite series of all time. I'm just going to call it the X-wing slash tiefighter games

back in the day. Oh, yeah. Dude, there was something about being able to pilot an X-wing or a Highfighter in space with a joystick on a computer and just dogfight, like all of these things. They put you in the most impossible situations. These games were hard, dude. Like, I can't tell you how many times I died from just a swarm of tie interceptors or something like that. And then it's like, you just, you started to become the best pilot ever, man. I felt like Poe Dameron, you know, where it's just like, I'm the greatest X-wing pilot alive. And I mean, graphically, they were not much. I know that they've done some kind of fan-made, like,

high-res type stuff on these, but there was some kind of crazy just magic back in the day with playing these games and shooting down Thai interceptors or tie bombers or defending your Mon Calamari Star Cruiser against this big assault or something like that. And then just when you thought like, you know, hey, I'm finally getting good, you get this briefing and this mission where it's like, it's time to take out a Star Destroyer. And you're like, wait, like, wait, really? Like a real one? And then you have to fly your way in. You know, they're sending little squads of interceptors and tie fighters after you. And then sure enough, dude, you were cruising along the sides of this massive Star Destroyer and you're blowing up the shield generators. And it was it was absolutely incredible, dude. I remember begging my parents to buy a joystick so I could actually fly properly. Yeah.

And I thought I was the coolest thing ever when I had the one that had like the little rocket button on it. You know, at the top. Oh, yeah. You can shoot missiles. So does yours actually work? Your joystick worked? Oh, yeah. Okay.

So I was notorious. And in thinking back, God bless my parents for putting up with me because the amount of times at whatever. sales and estate sales and garage sales and everything I'm always like let me get this, let me get that. And this is game stuff and computer stuff components were not what they are today. Ladies and gentlemen, just telling you right now,

things were hard to get working back then. You had all the right ports and drivers and it was a little difficult. So dude, the amount of joystick that I bought to play like, you know, simulation games or PC, you know, F-22, Lightning 3, I was going to fly fighter jets. And I was like, I'm going to have this.

You know, and I went through like three. None of them worked. I couldn't get them to work. My parents didn't know what the heck to do. And I was like, I don't know what to do. And I'm like, well, just go to the next game. But, man, that's awesome that you actually got one to work. And then you were playing, you know, playing that game.

It was so great. And it's really weird to me. They were, and still to this day, and this is not nostalgia, mind you. They are still the best dog fighting space combat games that I have ever played, like legitimately. And I got so hyped when Star Wars squadrons came out because I was like, somebody did it. This is my childhood. Finally. And it just, they didn't.

It wasn't the same, man. I don't know what. It just didn't have the same feeling. Give me a single player game. And I know that game had a single player campaign to it, but it just wasn't. They lost something there. And maybe it was just the difficulty. I don't know, but dude, I really wish that there was an excellent space dog fighting game like that.

And I have tried a few over the years. Some of them are okay. You know, like, oh, they're high speed and this and that. But they're just missing something. I don't know if it's just that they're missing Star Wars or they're missing those sounds of a Thai fighter like screeching. But I don't know. But nothing has ever compared to that. And I have sought it out repeatedly in my adult years.

So if somebody knows of a game that is equal to the X-wing tie fighter games, let me know, because I would love to experience that again, man. For sure, for sure. All right, well, I got one here. I think it'll probably be our last one for this. But I'm going to go with the game that also kind of in that youth time that I thought there was going to be a million in this series because I thought it was such a unique, dark take on just kind of action environment type game.

I'm going to go with Max Payne. Another series I've never played. You never played Max Payne. I'm very familiar with the name. I'm familiar that people love it. I know it's iconic, but dude, just like like Seif and Phil.

I don't know. I need to look back and see what I was playing when all these games came out. EverQuest. You were playing EverQuest. That might very well have been it, dude. I just, I didn't need any other video game for years

because that was the only one, man. That was me in like the late teens of, of recent years is all I played was destiny. So I missed like games for like three or four years. But dude, Max Payne was one of those where, man, it was kind of,

it was that, that it came out in 01. The first one came out in 01. And it was one of those where it just was taking those new kind of game mechanics to the next level to where you could have like that slow motion matrix style, gun shooting, gun battles.

And it was dark. It was gritty. There was kind of some, you know, not the best content for young Ryan, but I was going to play it anyways. And it was, it was just one of those that I thought was going to continue on. They went to Max Payne 3 and it ended in 2012. I think it just kind of bled off and they didn't have any interest in making anymore. But it was one of those that I thought was going to continue on and it just didn't. Were these also like spy type games?

Like, I never played one. So what's, like the... You're more, you're this kind of just kind of beaten up, trotting down detective guy that, you know, no luck. You know, it had that kind of awes chucks, no luck type guy, but you're in this dark gritty world and you're this detective and your family was, you know, killed. And I don't want to spoil things that people want to go back to play these games, but there was something about it. You're basically, you're this detective guy that's going out to kill the bad guys.

and you're not the best guy either. And so there was something to it to where, you know, it was that mix between, you know, towing the line of good and bad. So, yeah, man, there was, there was just something there. I actually looked this up because I wanted to see what happened to the series. And basically with this one, Remedy Entertainment, shifted their focus to Alan Wake in control. So they kind of went, we had this franchise. decisions. I mean, this is an example of like, okay, it's kind of like with Jade Empire. It's like,

I really can't complain that we got Mass Effect. Yeah, out of that. It's like, okay, I'll take it. So it's like, all right. Well, if you guys ever get bored and want to make a Jade Empire too, that's fine. But yeah, sometimes, you know, it's funny because sometimes these studios take what they learned. And then instead of trying to continue like a franchise and saying we're kind of beholden to this, I kind of like that sometimes they'll just say we learned a lot of lessons. Now we're going to make a new IP and we're really going to put everything into into effect on this. I agree. I think it's smart to learn when to realize that this served its time and well, we appreciate it and we love it. We're going to move on to this now and put our efforts into this and we can make something great.

You know, so and not to just, you know, like beat a dead horse Marvel with, you know, their movies. Movies. Yeah. Yeah. Well, speaking of things, uh, reaching the end of the time, Ryan. That is the end of this episode to everybody. Thank you for hanging out with us. Listen, if there's games that you go, how did you guys not mention this or, you know, a game that you really just are dying to talk about? We have a place for that. It is our community. It is over 850 gamers strong at this point. That is an awesome community. It is gamers hanging out, chatting video games, no toxicity, no insulting people for opinion. and game takes and things like that. It is respectful. It is family friendly. There are gamers of all

ages that are there. And if that sounds like it is your place, then we want you to be there. The link is in the episode description. We are so excited about the future of this podcast. I mean, you guys, like I said, people will be hearing more about John as well. But man, just when something awesome comes out and you're like, Josh and Ryan didn't do this before. Like, yeah, you can thank John for that as well. You know, that means we're going to be trying some stuff. You know, we're actually actively working on trying to get some industry people as guests on the show to kind of talk to voice actors and talk to, you know, other people that are in the gaming industry, like, you know, an animator hopefully we're going to have on the show to talk about like game animation and kind of

how that stuff goes too. So we're going to be trying a lot of stuff. We want your opinion. You know, that's how we get better. If we try something and you go, guys, yeah, it's just wasn't. it, let us know. I mean, we are here for the listeners. We do this because we are passionate about it, but we really want to expand the content that we can bring everybody. And we are so excited to do that, man. And we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the listeners. So for every person that is listening right now, like genuinely, we are humbled by the response. We are humbled that we have made so many incredible friends through this just being dumb and talking about video games, man. We say that almost daily where it's like, dude, I don't know how we got here. I don't know how

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