retronauts

This Week In Retro: Wikipedia [2001]

January 15, 2001: The Greatest/Worst Website in the World Debuts [citation needed]

by Diamond Feit

A...

Episode 352: Looney Tunes Games

Though the Looney Tunes characters shone their brightest during the Golden Age of Hollywood, they wouldn't reach critical mass until a few generations later, when seemingly endless reruns, revivals, and spinoffs made them inescapable throughout the '80s and '90s. And with this new era of old cartoons came the rise of video ga...

Episode 351: Gunpei Yokoi (Pt. 2)

Exactly 10 episodes after the first part of this conversation, here is the second. I'm making a serious effort this year to be timely with multi-part topics like this—though of course the best-laid plans and all that. At least it's going well so far! (Less than two weeks into the year.)

Matt Alt, Bill Mudron, and I re...

This Week In Retro: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [1981]

January 5, 1981: Finally, a comedy about Life, the Universe, and Everything

by Diamond Feit

Consider...

Episode 350: Crash Bandicoot

Is 350 a notable anniversary number? It has a multiple of the kind of big round-ish number people like to celebrate. I mean, if my marriage manages to last for 350 years, we're definitely gonna be pulling out all the stops. With podcast episodes, I'm not so sure. But nevertheless, on this possible occasion, we've decided to a...

This Week in Retro: Captain America, the Avengers, and Spider-Man [1991]

January 1991: Marvel Fans Welcome Two New Superhero Beat-Em-Ups to their Universe

by Diamond Feit

We...

Episode 349: Retronauts Radio | Jan. 2021

Good morning (?) and happy new year to everyone! Here's Retronauts doing its best to usher in a happier flip of the calendar for everyone, with a 15-stone first-footer of a podcast. 

This episode is a patron request (thanks Christopher Hansen!), and given its timing, format, and patron-exclusivity, I decided to go ...

Episode 348: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

With the movie series (seemingly) finished, LucasArts capitalized on the public's slowly fading love for Indiana Jones with a brand-new adventure game. And instead of adapting one of his previous adventures, the developer instead developed a wholly unique story for the intrepid archaeologist—one players had to trek through ...

This Week In Retro: 2020 [2020]

2020: My Attempt to Put a Bow on a Year No One Wanted

by Diamond Feit

So...2020.

Christmas has come and gone. New Year's Eve is so close, I've got milk in the fridge that will survive the changeover. This year, this interminable year, is about to end.

For most of us, this year...

Episode 347: Years In Review Revue: 1971 & ’81

We're heading into a new year, and you know what that means: It's time for the annual Years In Review Revue. Remember when we used to hit all the relevant years in the space of a single episode? Yeah, well, you can forget about that this time around. Once again, despite my very careful planning, we end up going into ...

This Week in Retro: Tron Legacy [2010]

December 17, 2010: Disney Tries to Overwrite History with Tron: Legacy

by Diamond Feit

Greetings, pr...

Episode 346: Holiday Special 2020 - Earthworm Jim's "For Whom the Jingle Bell Tolls"

It's the yuletide season, which means it's time to head to the Retronauts Holiday Cabin in Parts Unknown yet again for another look at a Christmas-related video game thing. And even thought this is our tenth (!) holiday special, we haven't hit the bottom of the barrel just yet! This time around, we'll be looking at the Christ...

Episode 345: Doctor Who

Retronauts is all about old stuff and all about traditions, and there aren't many ongoing pop culture phenomena older and more steeped in tradition than the Doctor Who series. After taking a trip over the past year through nearly half the Doctor Who episodes ever created, I figured it would be appropriate to...

This Week in Retro: Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate [2010]

December 9, 2010: Shiren Wanders for One Last Time—Forever

by Diamond Feit

Is there any genre bett...

Episode 344: Die Hard

Yes, this is a Die Hard conversation running in suspiciously close proximity to Christmas. But you know why this isn't some tired "Die Hard is a Christmas movie!" joke? Because this episode was recorded half a year ago with no thought given to timing it for the holidays. It just happened to fall that way—and, reall...

This Week in Retro: Fist of the North Star [2005]

December 6, 2005: Sega and Arc System Works Declare: "You Are Already Dead"

by Diamond Feit

Grab a s...

Episode 343: WAAAAAHrio Land Pt. 1

We recorded a Wario Land podcast waaaay back at the relaunch of the show. 

That was seven years ago. Seven! What the heck? 

Anyway, in keeping with our current approach to podcasting, ergo to discuss topics in greater depth and spend less time breezing through top-level overviews, it se...

Episode 342: Escape from Monkey Island

Our non-chronological exploration of LucasArts adventure games continues with an episode all about the legendary developer's final entry in the genre: Escape from Monkey Island. Unfortunately, EMI ended this era of LucasArts with a whimper, as the clunky 3D interface and questionable puzzles make Guybrush Threepwood's Y2K adv...

This Week In Retro: Double Dragon 3 [1990]

November 1990: Newly-formed Triple Dragons Make it a Trilogy

by Diamond Feit

With video games, timin...

Episode 341: Gunpei Yokoi (Pt. 1)

We have touched on the work of Gunpei Yokoi many times over the years, but this is the first time Retronauts has taken a comprehensive look back at his work and career like this. Pure Invention author Matt Alt shares the extensive historic research he's done into 20th century Japan's post-war industrial revolution to...

This Week in Retro: WWF No Mercy [2000]

November 17, 2000: 20 Years Later, We Can Still Smell What AKI Was Cookin'

by Diamond Feit

Hot take:...

Episode 340: Final Fantasy IX

Back in 2000, Final Fantasy IX represented the end of an era for Square. Series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi was seemingly on the road to becoming a hotshot Hollywood director, and the company as a whole was poised to be an entertainment monolith. But in the midst of all this excitement—and with the long-awaited PlayStation 2...

Episode 339: Trials of Mana Remake

Why should the Final Fantasy VII remake get all the love? Just because Final Fantasy VII is one of the most popular games of all time, sheesh. Overshadowed by that game's release this past spring there was another Square Enix remake for modern consoles: A surprisingly solid 3D recreation of Trials of Man...