Video Gamers Podcast - Time Machine To Childhood Gems - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and John are in our DeLorean and jumping back in time to video games that stuck with us after all these years of gaming. What classic or niche video games have helped make us what we are today? What was gaming like “back in my day” and what graphics or gameplay really hit home? Take a nostalgia trip with us on this episode of the Video Gamers Podcast!   Thanks to our MYTHIC supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’Jake, Gaius and Phelps   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, Patrick and PeopleWonder   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Community: ⁠https://discord.com/invite/Dsx2rgEEbz 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/⁠ Follow us on Twitch: ⁠https://www.twitch.tv/videogamerspodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello fellow gamers and welcome to the Video Gamers Podcast. There's something about the magic and wonder of discovering video games as a kid. Our first RPG, the first time you get to play with friends, sharing a controller or taking turns trying to beat a boss, gaming has transformed over the years, but the childlike wonder of experiencing these fantasy worlds never fades. On today's episode, we're taking a trip down memory lane and discussing our most memorable childhood games.

The ones that stand out to us the most, the ones that shaped our love of gaming. But before we get to that, some introductions are in order. I am your host Josh, and joining me, he's the youngest host, so he'll probably bring up, growing up with like the Xbox 360 and the ps4 or something. It's Ryan Everybody listening to that intro if you think it's weird think how I feel

Listening to that because that totally threw me off. I'm like, well, what are we npr now? What the heck is going on here? I gotta keep I got every now and then I gotta just mix it up man He was on her toes, man I I I really hope that like Thousands of people like look down at their phone We're like what the heck is this like tonight did I click on the wrong thing? Well, don't worry. I know I'm younger, but I got some moji bangers I I have faith in you Ryan that was more just a you know a joke that it's like there's gonna be listeners where they're

Like yeah, I got a vore on the ps4. You know and it's like oh, no and where they're like, yeah, I got a Vore on the PS4, you know, and it's like, oh no, yeah, no. And joining us, a man with a true appreciation of the finer points of nostalgia, a man who used to dominate the arcades and knows what an Atari is, it's John. Dominate is a strong word. I survived the arcades. I don't think at any point I felt dominant. I don't I don't think people realize the amount of like swagger and ego that existed in like the arcade days, man. You know, that one guy that was just wrecking a machine or made it to a super like far point in a game or was like near the end level or something like that like dude

Those guys were a sight to behold dude. They're like the og like twitch streamers Yeah, just people would stand there and watch them. Yeah Yeah, and I think it only really existed or I shouldn't say only but primarily existed in fighting games There are certain games that were created back in the arcade quarter gobbler days that were just designed to make you fail. Like one of the proudest things I did with my old company was we turned our break room into like a little arcade and we bought like all these snacks and just kind of fed people for free.

But we bought arcade cabinets because it was always my dream to own an arcade. And one of them that we bought was the the x-men arcade game that old Like for x-men arcade game Dude the end game of that is impossible It would it would cost you like twenty to thirty dollars in quarters to actually beat it You're it's just spamming you with all the bosses over and over again like there would be no way to get through that without dying Oh, these things were absolutely intended to just gobble up quarters dragons layer You know the famous cartoon looking game from the I think the mid 80s

Maybe late 80s the whole premise of that game was you had to just tap a direction on the controller and hope that it was like the right decision So it's like you had a 50-50 chance of being wrong And if you were wrong your guy would die and then you'd have to put in another quarter. And then I was just like, this is the most like, you know, we talk about micro transactions, man. Microtransactions have been around since like gaming started, man. Oh, yeah. Yeah, this is not a new thing.

Guys. OK, look, I know as the elder statesman, the OG gamer of this bunch, you know, that maybe, you know, a nostalgia episode hits a little bit different for us, but on today's episode, we are going to be talking about the childhood games that we remember the most, the games that formed our childhood, the games that when you go. You know, what does little kid Josh remember about gaming? You know, what games just instantly come to mind and why?

Like, that's the stuff we're going to be talking about today, man. And I do. I made this list and I instantly got excited and I was like, I want to play all of these games again. Right. Fully understanding that these games probably suck in today's gaming world, but like, man, they were just the, the, at the time, they were the most mind blowing things that, you know, we had ever seen or experienced or remember with like our friends or your

parents or something like that, man. So we are taking a trip, you know, into our childhood and the games that we just are the most memorable games that we grew up with. Uh, and I am super excited to talk about these, but guys, we got to thank somebody, man, we got, and dude, I freaking love this because this guy was in the Halo community night that we had, just having a blast chatting away with people. I mean, several times made me absolutely just crack up.

But a huge shout out to Bengalicious for signing up for Rare Status and helping support this podcast, man. There's very little that gives me joy of somebody joining into the community and then realizing, I missed this, man. I missed playing games with people. I missed hopping into a competitive game and just having a blast with my friends

or just joining our Discord and talking to to people and realizing like this place is great yeah and then they kind of go like wow like I feel like I want to like support this man because this actually is something special so there's that little extra something where it's like you know somebody has a great time they have a great conversation and then they're like let me let me support this man I want more of this in the world. So thank you, Ben Galish is for supporting this show. Yeah. So, all right guys, let's, let's get into this man. Um, John,

let's start with you, man. On this one, we're just going to be going. This is very informal. It's more just, you know, what games do you remember? Why did they stand out to you? What about, you know, childhood, John, uh, made you remember this game or something like that you? What about you know childhood John? Made you remember this game or something like that. So what do you got for us John? What's the first one that comes to mind for you? So the first one that comes to mind we kind of like briefly touched on it here But the the arcade experience specifically with fighting games is like that is like the quintessential Arcade experience for me when I think about like some of the most impactful moments in gaming I've ever had, it was literally that social experience of meeting people in the arcade, putting your quarter on the screen and waiting for your

turn. And although there's a lot of games that I could put into this category, the one that really stands out to me the most is actually Mortal Kombat. My grandma as a treat from picking me up from the after school playground in elementary school used to be going to Pizza Hut and getting a personal pan pizza and giving me a couple of bucks in quarters

to play Mortal Kombat. And before Mortal Kombat, it was Street Fighter or something along those lines. Then I love Street Fighter, still love Street Fighter. But there was just something about that enhanced digitization of real people on screen plus the blood and the fatalities that really hooked me. That cemented a love for fighting games that exists for me through this day We kind of mentioned it but like, you know, everybody in the world knows what twitch is, you know Content creators streaming watching people play games and stuff like that What people don't understand about the arcades was and you mentioned this John those that was the original like

You had a crowd and I'm talking like 20 to 30 people crammed three and four layers deep, like watching the screen of this arcade machine to watch these two guys like just face down and see who was the better player. You know, you had a line behind player one and player two, which again, like you said, was the people that put the quarters up on the machines

and you knew which quarter was yours and everybody went in turn. Nobody broke line or anything like that. But like there was magic there, dude. People, it was having a live audience. Like people would cheer. They would be like, Oh, when they saw some nasty combo, I will never forget seeing my first fatality. Like mortal combat fatality to this day. I remembered it was sub zero. It was the freeze. He rips the dude's spine out and holds it up. And like, do you know how long ago that was, man? That just happened. It's like decades ago. And I still remember it like it was yesterday

because everybody was just like, whoa. And like, was a there was an energy. There was a vibe to the arcades. I it is look, I get it. It was the original that you got served. Yeah. Like it was like, Oh man, you got stumped bro. Yeah. And it was just, but it was cool too.

Gamers have usually like back then, I don't, you know, we're cool because you were together. It wasn't like this dude wasn't like berating his opponent and talking trash, you know? It was like this like, you know. Nah, maybe. Fist bump. I never witnessed that, but like a fist bump or like a, you know, a high five or something.

I'm imagining Josh in the nineties, uninstall bro, uninstall. Yeah, yeah. No, it's, that's such a good one because like growing up too, I played a lot of Mortal Kombat 2 because my good friend growing up across the street a few houses down, his name was Tommy, love you bud, and he had a Mortal Kombat 2 cabinet in his garage. Oh, God.

In the amount of hours. What a dream. What a dream. And I, dude, it's Phoenix, Arizona, man. It was 118 degrees the other day and we would go out there and we would just be soaked in sweat but we were playing Mortal Kombat too, because it was just so much fun. Like those standup cabinet games were just something else,

especially in that time. Yeah. Oh, it was, I wish people could understand, and I know it's gonna be like, oh, this is like, you know, a bunch of old guys talk, but if you lived or experienced the arcade days, and I'm talking the days before Dave and Busters, and the only thing you got from playing these things

were tickets, you know? Like you actually got the entertainment of a game and a beating a level and things like that, dude. Throwing your name up on the high score. Oh man, if you got to put your initials in on something, that's really old school. I miss those days, man. I fear they're gone forever.

You know, it's like try to do an arcade here and there, but they just aren't the same anymore, man. they're gone forever. You know, it's like tried to do an arcade here and there but they just aren't the same anymore Man, just not the same. No, although we did get to experience that game on Expo in Phoenix We got to experience the there's still a lot of energy and fighting game tournaments. It's just not as it's not as common You can't like just go down to the local shop and watch people compete but like go to those tournaments You get a lot of the same energy even more. So we had fun watching the Street Fighter 6 tournament Yeah, we got into it real fast, man. It was pretty cool to say I wouldn't beat you right after And then I wouldn't beat you Ryan

Through a conversation about arcades and Street Fighter without Ryan bringing this up man. So that's all right. I got you I got you. I got you, Josh. He avenged your death. Thank you, John. Thank you for humbling him where he needs to be. So Ryan, what do you got, buddy? What's the first game that comes to mind for you on this? So I'm going old, old school. And this one, for whatever reason, just stuck with me really, really hard. I don't know if it was just the look or the atmosphere. And you guys, I don't know if it was just the look or the atmosphere and you guys I don't know if you remember this or even remember Seeing it at all, but it's the 1990 Sega Genesis Batman game

Oh Interesting you you may recognize it if you see it But for whatever reason I remember renting this from a little game store called gamers by my house as a kid because we had a Sega Genesis and I just thought it was the coolest, like darkest looking Batman game and I loved Batman as a kid and it just for whatever reason I have the most fondest memories and is one of my younger memories of playing video games. It just I remember it was so hard for me because I was you know I was a little kid and the boss fights were difficult and I just loved the look of this game more than anything else and it's vividly stamped in my brain

Is this a Batman game based on the comic book or on one of the movies? Um, it was based on the movie. I think it was based on the movie. Yeah, it says it was fired by Tim Burton's Batman film Okay, gotcha. I never played that one. I did play the Batman forever game Oh, okay that one dude. It was I thought it was awesome, man. Like, I loved the movie. That was like peak campy comic book movie, but it was one of the first movies where you could basically, or games where you could play as any of the characters in the game. Like, it would unlock the ability to play like Riddler and toothpaste and stuff.

Oh, nice. This game released in 1990, but like, you got to be a superhero, man. That was part of it, is that was not such a common thing back then, to be able to be Batman in these games and get his abilities or get access to some of his vehicles in these stages and stuff like that, man. So there kind of was a magic to being like,

I get to play as Batman. This is so cool. I only have three buttons, but this is awesome. Yeah, exactly. It's Punch, Kick, and Batarang. Oh man, I've never played that game and I had a Sega. So this is crazy to me. Cause it was like, I never heard of this. Yup. It's yeah, there's going to be a few of those. And I tried to with mine too. Obviously there's the standards and we'll hit some of those at the end. But I try to do ones I really fond of but like aren't just the normal huge big you know type games. Yeah. So well I am going to go back

before the days of graphics guys. I know this is this is if look if you're over 40 like I am then you probably remember these a little bit. I got your stone tablets. I got super, super into these games, guys. So I'm just gonna call them the text-based games. So I don't know if you guys, most people have heard of Zork in some fashion or another. They know the name Zork, like what is this?

But there was a series of games where it was literally 100% text-based. Zork is probably the most famous one. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was another one that was very popular because the books were popular back then. There was a really old one called Wishbringer that I remember came with a glow in the dark stone

in the box when you bought the game box. It had like this glow in the dark stone and it was like, this is the Wishbringer stone. And I remember my brother and I making it glow all the time and stuff. But the premise of these games were, you had to type in what you wanted to do. So you would type in, look,

and then it would give you a text description of what you saw in front of you. And then you would have to go examine table, and then it'd be like, on the table you see a recess where it looks like there's something, you know, in it, or this one plank is standing out or something, and then you would be like, push plank, and it would be like, that does nothing,

and then you'd be like, pull plank, and then it would be like, you pull the plank up from the table revealing a key underneath, and then you'd be like, take key. And so, like, this was what you did, but I was a huge fan of, like, number one, gaming, and this was like was what you did but I was I was a huge fan of like number one gaming and this was like an interactive story this kind of fell into the choose your own adventure era as well with books where you'd be like if you want to

go down the tunnel turn to page 28 oh yeah but I've always loved sci-fi and fantasy and reading those books and losing myself in those worlds and these text- based adventure games were basically an interactive story with challenges and puzzles and things that you had to do. And so part of the fun of that was like, you had to use your brain. You had to think.

They had insanely complicated puzzles. Sometimes they had combat. Zork had a horror element. So I remember it was like, if your light ran out and you were in the dark, you'd get eaten. And I thought as a kid that was like terrifying and stuff. But these text based adventures were one of the first glimpses into interactive gaming.

And I remember playing like all of these, dude, all of them, the problem solving, the the like the living the world in your head, it was like reading like an awesome book and stuff. My grandpa who would visit once a year was super into these and he had a big notebook of like things that he had discovered or steps to take in a puzzle and stuff. I thought that was super cool

that grandpa liked these games too. And yeah, dude, they were one of my first forays into gaming and I still remember them to this day about just having my mind blown that like people could be so creative and like create these stories that you could play do you think that kind of contributed to your love of like Dungeons and Dragons oh absolutely there's there's like synonymous experiences I was gonna say the same thing.

Using your imagination. You know what I mean? Like that as kids, that's what we did. And we played and we imagined and stuff. And it's like, we didn't just get to have everything on a screen in front of us. And yes, absolutely. Like games like this absolutely led to my love of, like I said, fantasy, sci-fi, D&D,

because it was like, if you could use your imagination, it just catapulted these things to another level, man. That's awesome. So, yeah, tech space games. Old pick, but good pick. Old, super old, man. Like I said, there's a few people out there that are like, I remember that.

But not many. All right, I'll tell you what, we gotta take a quick break, and then John, we're gonna come back to you right after this. So wheat. All right, we're back. We're still taking this trip down memory lane.

John, what's another game from your childhood that stands out to you? So I had a hard time picking which one of the series to really talk about. So I think I'm gonna go with the one that was sort of my introductory to this particular series. But most of my gaming was done on Sega Genesis and most of it was done at my friend Spud's house who I've talked about a few times during the show. I love the name Spud for a friend, dude.

Yeah, dude, I just recently met up with him again. He turned into a rad adult, man. But but anyway Sonic the Hedgehog 2 man him and I would spend literally all night long playing this game over and over and over again we would challenge each other to like literally stay awake for 24 hours and play it all night long to the to the chagrin chagrin of his parents and older brothers but man there was just something about it. It was like the first time that it really came to appreciate like graphics in a game.

And I know that sounds kind of weird, like coming from like our modern era where we have games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead 2 that are like just- Sega was 16 bit, man. Well, it was 16 bit. And like, I just remember being able to appreciate the fact that waterfalls moved in several different layers in the background and the clouds moved independent

of the landscapes and stuff. I really had a fond appreciation of it. And then of course, the fact that him and I could play together where you've got Sonic and Tails and you've got the split screen, it was tough, but not too tough. It was fast, but you could slow down. There were secrets to explore and things to level up.

And then God mode. Do you guys recommend or remember God mode where you could like unlock, you know, spamming, uh, rings and bricks and stuff all over the levels and golden Sonic, I don't know, man. That was like peak, peak platforming for me at the time. I still like, I get anxiety just thinking about the, um, the water music where, where, where you're like underwater and it's like, no more anxiety inducing music in the world, man.

For sure. Look, let your kids or your wife listen to this, the Sonic drowning music without any context and just say, how does this make you feel? Yeah. And everybody is gonna be like, I don't like it. Oh, that's a good one. Solid pick. I had a Sega Master System back in the day.

Wow. And so like there were a few, well, that's not, the Genesis was better, man. But so like there were a few. Well, that's not the Genesis was better man. But yeah, there were a few Sega games that I thought about bringing up. And then I was just like, other than Sonic and maybe Phantasy Star, they were all terrible, dude. I don't know.

No, no, they were great, man. Echo the Dolphin and Alex Kidd, like, come on. Echo the Dolphin. Alex Kidd's big thing was you can punch. You can punch stuff. And I'm like this guy sucks man. Why am I not Mario? Cause I bought this stupid master system instead. Echo was rad bro. Echo was chill actually. I am like personally offended that you didn't like Echo.

Nobody knows what the heck you were supposed to do in Echo. Yes you do. You swim and you know I- And you jump. And you jump. Yeah, that's fine. You know it's it's I don't think I ever beat that game I think there was one beat it. Yeah, I think there was a level. Yeah where I just absolutely got stuck Oh, man, and then you drown cuz you were a dolphin and you had to breathe man. Oh Goodness. All right, Ryan. What's up next for you buddy? I am gonna go with one that everybody in the world is familiar with this character and, um, everybody probably did a lot of the same things I did with this character. If

you played this game, but I'm going with the OG 1996 Tomb Raider. Oh, nice. It was fantastic. That was one of those like, okay, I've upgraded. I got, I don't have a second anymore. I got a PlayStation man. I'm going big time and I, and you know, I've upgraded. I got, I don't have a psych anymore. I got a PlayStation, man. I'm going big time and, and you know, playing that game, I just, your kid, you have all the time in the world and you can do the stupidest things. Like when you can get to the manor, I'm sure everybody took the butler

and walked him into the freezer and locked him in the freezer at the manor on the original Tomb Raider. Like everybody did that. It's just one of those games, graphics were horrible if you look back on it, but it felt so good at the time. At the time, they were mind blowing. Yeah, at the time, they were like, oh my gosh, these are the best cubes and triangles ever.

Look at it. So yeah, that's mine. That one, I have a lot of very, very fond memories of the OG Tomb Raider. The verticality in that game and the fact that you could climb and hang from ledges, I remember being like really impressive at the same time. Because for the most part, we had gotten, you know,

maybe the occasional 3D platform or something like that, but like Tomb Raider kind of took things to another level with the amount that you could interact with the environment and the like the actual levels that you were on at the same time. So, all right, so for me, you guys are gonna see a natural evolution here because I went from text-based games

to the incredible, the amazing, and I'm just gonna group these, the Sierra games, dude. So, you know, I was a kid, I'm playing these text-based adventures, I'm reading these things, I'm solving these problems, and then lo and behold, Sierra Games comes out with, I mean, people have heard of these, Heroes Quest, Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry.

They came out with dozens of these games, man. And I remember it was basically going from imagining these things to actually seeing them on screen. And one of my first experiences was a game called Heroes Quest, where you could be a wizard, a thief, or a fighter. I loved fantasy. I was getting into D&D. And then all of a sudden it was like, wait, I get to pick a class and decide how I want

to play this game? There were puzzles that you had to solve or quests that you had to solve. You could approach them in multiple different ways. If you were a fighter, you could try to throw a boulder to knock this nest down out of a tree. If you were the thief, you were agile, so you could try climbing the tree. And if you were a wizard and you saved up enough money

to buy the fetch spell, you could just cast that spell and pull the nest out of the tree and get the key that was hidden in the nest or something like that. But this just took it to another level. It was, like I said, it was the visual representation of these characters, these classes. This game had combat and monsters that you got to fight.

Leisure Suit Larry was completely inappropriate for a child to play. I used to sneak playing it, you know? And then it was like, this game's crazy. Like like this guy's, it was comedy, you know, but it was just like, it just started to show you that like gaming can be whatever anybody can imagine. And people were imagining so many different crazy things. What a time to be alive, man.

But to see these representations, Sierra games had the market just cornered insanely popular, insanely memorable. I love them. If you were to give Leisure Suit Larry a ESRB rating, ERSB whatever, yeah rating these days what do you think it would be? Yeah, rating these days, what do you think it would be? PG-16. PG-16, yeah. They really didn't show very much. It was more just the subject, like the content.

Like Leisure Suit Larry was just trying to get him some ladies, man. And while it was very mature in its humor and the idea of what Larry was trying to do, they really weren't like over the level of like, you know, too too adult. Like, you know, yeah, the subject matter was there, but they didn't really, I mean, maybe there was one game where it was like, you know, somebody was half naked and I remember like, you know, kid Josh was like, oh my

gosh! Yeah, I never had a childhood experience with those games, but they did a revival of that game of Leisure Suit Larry on the Dreamcast. And I remember going like, oh wow, this is like, they had this like when I was growing up, like it seems very risque. They had what, like family friendly show, but like Atari had some like like some straight up M rated

content. I only know this because I snuck around in my dad's closet and found some Atari games that a kid should not find. And you know, this was like, this was kind of mind blowing that people were making adult themed games, you know, and we were like, Oh my gosh, but yeah, leisure suit Larry definitely not engendered for children But probably not as mature as a lot of people think or at least what I remember Maybe it isn't somebody's gonna be like oh Josh. I don't remember But you know it was I mean at the same time gaming was always like a kid's thing And so here's somebody came along and said no this is meant for grownups. And grownups were like, this is great.

Like, we love this. This is fun. So, all right, John, back to you, buddy. What do you got next? So the next one for me, this actually kind of taps into what Ryan was talking about earlier when he mentioned the Batman game.

I grew up with comic books. I still love comic books. I read two to three comic books a day basically. And one of my very favorite comic book characters growing up was Spider-Man, is Spider-Man. And there was a game that was released on the Genesis that was a all-consuming addiction for me for a good period of time. It was released around Christmas and it was based on a Spider-Man storyline that it was very invested in. And that is Spider-Man Maximum Carnage.

Did you guys play that? I remember this game, dude. Sounds familiar. Yeah. Let me see. Dude, it was rad. It was one of the first games where you got to take the vantage point of a hero and a villain. So you got to be, you got to be Spider-Man and you

got to be Venom during the game. And between Spider-Man, Venom, who's really more kind of an anti-hero and Carnage, who is one of the most psychotic villainous antagonists in comic books, was just such a cool thing. And there was a great cast of characters from like really prominent well-known ones to like less well-known ones at the time like you had Cloak and Dagger and you had Mobius and it was just such a fun complete gaming experience for me. They really tapped into that kind of like comic book motif where like they had text bubbles and they had you know the the sound effects like bursting like the pow and boom when you're at punchin and

kicking people the web swinging was a lot of fun or you know it's probably quite dated I have I have went back and played some of these games and they're like unplayable for me now but at the time it was absolute peak gaming. This was the era of like the street brawler, like Double Dragon, Streets of Rage. I mean, yeah, the beat em ups. Side scrolling beat em ups, Turtles was another one. I mean, these games were all,

I mean, exactly the same in gameplay. It was just, did you wanna be a Ninja Turtle? Did you wanna be Spider-Man? Did you wanna be, you know, this Hagar, Homer Simpson streets of rage or something? Yeah. I mean, but what an era, man. These games were all fantastic and they were so fun to play with a friend to that. What a, what a good time, man. Yeah. I actually have double dragon on my like extended list. I'm not going to bring it up cause you know, time wise, but that has streets of rage on mine. Yeah. Exactly. So, all right, Ryan Ryan what's up next for you all right well the the Pokemon

fans are gonna be happy with this one cuz I am gonna go with Pokemon yellow for Gameboy this one I just it I played the originals but this was such a step up for me because you got, you know, you had Pikachu following you around and it was like the coolest thing ever. He's cruising with you and you're mobile gaming. I can play this game now anywhere, you know, and it was just something that was so, to me as a child, revolutionary to where I don't have to be at home. I can be drug to the store with mom and dad or whatever and I can park it somewhere and

just sit and play Pokemon. You know, so I have more hours than I could ever remember of just battling in, you know, an old Macy's or at, you know, the church kids area or wherever all over, all over the town. I was playing this dang game. And so it stuck with me big time. All right. I gotta bring this up,. Okay. All right So you mentioned having the Gameboy right and your parents would bring you Bro back in our day if you had something that kept you busy our parents were 100% for that. Yeah, right. You want to sit in the car in? 115 to play your Gameboy while we go shopping Okay, we'll be back in an hour, you know

Recently like iPads come out and parents are like, oh, no, we got to limit this game time like one hour a day. We can't fry your brain. Parents back in the 80s and 90s were like, you play as much as you want as long as you leave us alone. As long as you're not bothering us, like have a great time, man. It's just so funny because that made me think of that like, oh, we got a limit screen time now guys. Or where they say, uh, you know, you know, don't sit too close to the TV. And then now they do VR and it's just planted to your face. Yeah. I have a 45 inch screen inches from my face right now.

Exactly. Oh, I don't know why that made me chuckle, but it was back then. It was like parents were like, okay, good. This is keeping them busy. You know, uh, yeah, I never got into Pokemon, but like, I know people absolutely love it. The turn-based stuff. I imagine there's millions of like childhood memories revolved around playing the Pokemon. The only turn-based I ever loved. Yeah. Did you know that Pokemon is the highest selling IP of all time?

Like even compared to like Disney and like Mickey and Friends. Like if you compare it against Mickey and Friends or Ninja Turtles or Warner Brothers or whatever, Pokemon is the highest selling IP of all time. I believe it. I mean my kids are probably responsible for 10% of their- When I heard it beat Mickey Mouse, I was blown away, man.

Yeah, I mean it's worldwide, man. And like I said, my kids, it it doesn't they don't even play the game They just spend money on cards, and that's it. They hoard them There's a lot of people like that man If you think about it though like I used to collect baseball cards and like you didn't you didn't necessarily have to like you don't play With them like it's just kind of cool to have the card. Yeah. Yeah, it's childhood gambling Alright, this is this is niche, guys. But man, if these games didn't just spawn my absolute love

of turn-based games, tactics, and again, Dungeons and Dragons type games, role-playing games. I mean, these were one of my first forays into role-playing games. I'm going to call them the SSI Gold Box Games, because older people like myself will know exactly what those are. These were straight up D&D interpretations of video games.

They spawned from the world of Dragonlance. The most popular ones are Pools of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, and Pools of Darkness. These pulled straight out of Dungeons and Dragons. You started off as a little level one guy. You built your party. You built your party the way you wanted. So it's like, do I want a ranger and a rogue

and a fighter and a cleric? They were the most purest forms of Dungeons and Dragons in video game form. The really awesome part about these were you had first person exploration. So you actually would step in this grid and then you could turn and look around and you'd see a door and you could open the door and go in. And then when you got into combat, it would go into a like third person grid type thing,

top down view to where you could move your characters around and stuff like that. I cannot tell you guys how much I freaking loved the ability to play Dungeons and Dragons in a video game. It was one of the first, or at least my first forays into like a true role playing game where you started to get, your weapons got better, your armor got better, you got more spells, your characters got stronger.

And the beauty in these games is that they were one of the first examples where you could actually save your character and then import it into the next game. Hmm. That's pretty rad. Yeah. If you played through pools of radiance with your little level one characters, by the end of that, they were level six and they were getting stronger. And then if you played Curse of the Azure Bonds, it would let you save your guys and import them. And so you got to play through all of these games with the characters that you had built up to in pools of darkness. You're fighting, you know, Queen Tech hisses and like, you know, these gods and stuff.

And it was like your characters were super strong and you're fighting dragons. And as a D&D nerd, it was like, this is the greatest thing ever, man. And I to this day, I credit my love of RPGs and turn-based combat to these games, man. They were not very good looking, but at the time, it was like you got to see your characters

and they were little sprites and they had different colors and you know, that kind of thing. But the tactical combat, the exploration being first person, the progression, I mean, all these things that Josh loves, these games had it all, and it's literally carried through my entire life to where you give me a game like this, I'm gonna like it right away, man.

They molded your gaming. Baldur's Gate 3 is the perfect example of going from, they still have the heart of those games, like legitimately. It is the most incredible Evolution to see the old SSI gold box games and then have Baldur's Gate 3 being like the most modern futuristic version of these things But man, it's like kid Josh and adult Josh just got to meet and have my favorite style of game Just be current man. I freaking love those things so much, dude So good. All right, we're running along. Let's do one more guys John. What's what you got? What's one more for you? of game just be current man I freaking love those things so much dude so but

alright we're running long let's do one more guys John what what you got what's one more for you it's funny that you mentioned that because my next pick is kind of the exact same thing for me but for tabletop wargaming it's a niche niche niche niche Sega Genesis game called Herzog Zwei or Herzog yeah I've heard you mention this before. Yeah, and so it is the, I believe it is the first real-time strategy game. It is like the prototype from which StarCraft

and the original Warcraft games were sort of built on. But it gave you this sort of system where you acquired bases and you built resource engines and tanks and infantry that had different strengths and weaknesses and cost to build and time to build and stuff like that, that lended itself into a lifelong love of tabletop war gaming where you're like building an army to combat Another army and pitting strengths and weaknesses against one another. It is a rad game It is one of the only ones of these

Retro games that we're talking about today these nostalgic picks that I think still holds up It was it's look, you know It's pixel gaming at this point. Like anybody playing it would chalk this up to like a very retro experience, but it still plays pretty smooth. If you can find a good controller to play it with, it almost looks like it's like an RTS in a way it's the top down, like, you know, is it straight up in RTS? Was the combat the same too? Like as it is, it is a real time real-time strategy game okay yeah I mean it is the first real-time strategy if this doesn't have

the picture perfect like pixel like Sega Genesis type graphics man like you can tell the second you look at this game where it's like yeah that's a Genesis game yeah super saturated colors like in pixels oh Oh man. Yeah, I get that man I mean real-time strategy when it first came out was a brand new genre and nobody had done anything like it was my favorite John or for a long time. I couldn't get enough of it. Like again Starcraft Warcraft Command and conquer man, the command and conquer games are awesome They they ate up a lot of my time as a child and were some of my very last PC gaming experiences until very recently. Oh wow.

Yep. Alright Ryan, one last one for you buddy. What's what comes mine? If you don't hear Metal Gear Solid reference on this show I'm gonna be amazed. You know you know your boys gotta go back to the cream of the crop, the top tier ones. I'm going with Metal Gear Solid 2. For me I still remember because you guys talked The cream of the crop the top tier ones I'm going with mega solid to it it for me, I still remember because you guys talked about Leaps and steps forward and in types of games or graphics or anything like that to me This is what I vividly remember as thinking we made it guys. We made it graphics are the best they'll ever be You're you're starting you start

This game and you're in this like dark rainy land and, and, and you have a poncho and you jump off this bridge onto this tanker. And I just remember Snake like looking to the side and the rain's falling. And I was just like, this is, this is just a masterpiece. This is the best looking thing I've ever seen in my entire life. I was so blown away as a kid and it still sits with me, but I That game just it holds the biggest place in my heart I played it so many times so many hours and I still love it and it's still in my opinion

You know holds up pretty well But yeah, that's that's a childhood core memory is no you're solid to the solid game, too We're probably gonna get a remake if if Delta if solid that'll get a solid Delta snake eater does well I do that buy it take my money. They totally should remake it. Yeah, absolutely I agree with you Ryan that that is one of those games that stands out and tomb raider Which we talked about earlier that really Opened up what gaming could be as josh mentioned earlier in the show like in the 16-bit era, you had like

a few general categories of what games were. You had like a platformer, you had a beat them up, you had a shoot them up, which is beat them up with guns. Yeah. You know, Metroid vania, which is kind of just a combination of the two. And then like some sports games and fighting games and that's it. When he started seeing games like Metal Gear come out where it was like there's stealth, there's combat, there's platforming, there's like dialogue. I mean, there was just so many facets of the game that it really opened up and evolved what gaming was.

And that's just Kojima. He was always like cutting edge, you know, of graphics and just of pushing the boundaries. He still is, you know, with Death Stranding 2 now and stuff. So yeah, that one is just like an all-timer. Yeah, I knew I was like, bro, if Ryan doesn't mention a Metal Gear game, but I mean, this is true.

We talk about some of these games because they were our childhood, man. These are the memories that we've taken with us over the decades of gaming and stuff. And it's like, sure, some of my favorite games of all time are Absolutely modern games, but they don't have that like nostalgia factor either man So all right last one for me boys people have heard me talk about this one the x-wing TIE fighter games were absolutely on another level you got

Number one is huge fan of Star Wars The ability to actually pilot an x-wing or an A-wing or a TIE fighter or a TIE interceptor. Oh my goodness, dude. Like, you know, you had to have an actual joystick to play these things on any like level of competency. They were brutally hard. You would fail your missions multiple, multiple times.

But the feeling of dog fighting in an X-Wing against a horde of Thai fighters, or the first time taking on a Star Destroyer and realizing this was actually the mission, was incredible to me. I cannot tell you how much I loved these games. I played them an insane amount of hours. This franchise did really, really well

because they had, you know, X-Wing and then they had X-Wing Alliance maybe, and then they had TIE Fighter, and then they had X-Wing versus TIE Fighter. I mean, they just kept going and every one of them was a little bit better. You know, they were just incredible games, man. I wish I could experience that again.

And that was probably all within like two years. They didn't used to take like 10 years to make a game. Yeah, I mean legitimately, they did not take five years to develop these games, man. But yeah, the X-Wing TIE Fighter games were some of my favorites of all time. It also is, again, one of those things that made me insanely stubborn to where it was like,

I am going to beat this mission. I don't care if I fail 500 times, I'm going to beat it. And that stayed with me my whole life man. Conditioning for Elden Ring. Yeah, I did. But it was the same like that just brain dopamine hit of beating this challenge and this difficult level and accomplishing this thing. My goodness, man. I love those games. And then Star Wars Squadrons comes out

and I think it's gonna be this like throwback and it was okay, but it just wasn't the same. I agree, man. I was really let down. I had the same level of enthusiasm you did. Like the Starfighters are my favorite part of Star Wars. Honestly, the ships are my favorite part of Star Wars. When I think about like, man, I would love to be in Star Wars

It's like I want to I want to fly starfighters Dude the Galactic battles like return of the Jedi when just all I mean All those cruisers and star destroyers and X-wings and TIE fighters just I mean it doesn't get better than that I think that over the lightsaber duels any day same same and one of the best audio things too like the tie fighter screaming the screaming of like All right guys, I'll tell you what we got we got like one minute let's do some quickfire honorable mentions We don't have to get into them, but is there anything else on your list that you you got to throw out there? Yeah for me it's I mentioned Streets of Rage,

which when I got- I love the Streets of Rage, dude. My Sega Genesis came with Streets of Rage 2, and I kinda got a Sega late in the game, but that was a real big one for me. I put in countless hours because we couldn't afford to get games all that often, so I played the crap out of that.

And then X-Men versus Street Fighter, like that first crossover in the arcades. So good, man. And it's produced so many awesome Marvel and Capcom crossovers since then. Yeah. What about you, Ryan? I got a roller coaster Tycoon. Oh, cool. That's a cool pick.

I know people love it. I've never played it, dude. You never played roller coaster Tycoon? Oh, never. I didn't like sim games, dude I figured it out very early that I didn't like sim game They all came like with pre pre set like coasters and stuff But you could also design your own so you could just make the most ridiculous things But if you made it too crazy, then nobody would ride it because they were scared. It was just it was so awesome To play that game back in the day. And then old school NBA Jam.

Oh, NBA Jam was awesome, dude. That's, he's on fire. Yeah. Boom, show it a lot. Yeah, those are great. The announcer back then. For me, the Might and Magic series, I am not talking about Heroes of Might and Magic,

which the series, the franchise kind of switched over to. I'm talking about the original Might and Magic games. These again were first person exploration dungeon crawler type games. Made a party, progressed from level one characters up to like you're really strong. Street Fighter 2 was, I played that game more than just about any other game for years. Double Dragon we talked about. Final Fantasy 7 was on my list of like childhood memories because at the time it was one of the grandest,

greatest games ever made. Also one of the most overrated. And then a fun just man, I still love this, is Punch Out to me. I don't know why, but the characters, the gameplay in Punch Out, the difficulty level, it just fit everything that, you know, younger Josh wanted. So we want to hear from you we want to know

what your childhood memory games are so if you're listening to this on Spotify scroll down a little bit there's a comment section that you can leave a comment if you would like to have a further discussion on this join our discord server I we can't wait to hear what games come to mind for people when they think about these childhood memories. And no matter your age, I don't care if you're 14, you've got a memory of playing some game at some point. No, if your game's past 2005, instant ban.

No, don't listen to Ryan. It's probably Minecraft if I had to guess, if anybody's under the age of like 20. That's aces, I know that's aces. Or Fortnite, right? Right, yep. But we wanna hear, so leave us's aces. Like after Fortnite, right? Right, yep. But we wanna hear, so leave us a comment, we see and read every single one of those,

come join our community, let's talk about how fun these things are, don't miss out on another community night, these things are freaking a blast, dude. I mean, yes, they actually do exist. We had 20 people playing Halo Infinite last night. Just cry laughing and having a good time, man. Sorry I ran you over, Pyro.

Yeah. And if you enjoy this podcast, please remember to rate our show five stars, write us a review so that people that are looking for a good podcast know to check this one out and hopefully stick around as well. If you want to support the show, there is a link in the episode description. Takes about two to three minutes to sign up. Goes a super long way to helping out the show and you can be awesome and get a shout out like Bengalicious did at the beginning too. We're dancing to John's Disco. I like this disco look. Yeah segue into just so everybody knows we do have video now. So you can see John's light disco ball here. All right, that's gonna do it for this one everybody until next time happy gaming see ya tootily-tootily