1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:06,360 Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Chuck here again, continuing on with our twelve 2 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:10,440 Speaker 1: Days of Christmas Toys playlist. Right now, I'm going to 3 00:00:10,520 --> 00:00:14,280 Speaker 1: serve up a delicious serving of nostalgia for anybody that's 4 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:18,079 Speaker 1: probably Gen xers would be my guest. But the episode 5 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:23,079 Speaker 1: is how the Nintendo Entertainment System changed gaming forever because 6 00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 1: oil Boy did it. Please enjoy. 7 00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:37,000 Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 8 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:42,240 Speaker 3: Hey, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's Chuck 9 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:44,880 Speaker 3: and we're ten years old right now, and this is 10 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:45,920 Speaker 3: stuff you should know. 11 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:49,640 Speaker 1: Can I go ahead and admit something? 12 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:53,880 Speaker 3: Oh? Yes, I'm nervous though, but yes, go ahead. 13 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:58,800 Speaker 1: Well, I was a little bit old for Nintendo the 14 00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:02,560 Speaker 1: Nees system. And that's not to say that kids my 15 00:01:02,600 --> 00:01:05,880 Speaker 1: age weren't playing it, but like it really boomed in 16 00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:08,640 Speaker 1: popularity right when I was sort of like fifteen sixteen 17 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:11,800 Speaker 1: and starting to sort of drive and get out in 18 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:16,280 Speaker 1: the world. And I also did not own one, so 19 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:21,560 Speaker 1: like I never played Mario Kart and Zelda and sort 20 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:26,880 Speaker 1: of these classic games. Eventually, in college, I remember it 21 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:30,160 Speaker 1: had to have been a Super Nintendo in like ninety two. 22 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:33,520 Speaker 1: My roommate had one, so that's where I first started 23 00:01:33,560 --> 00:01:38,800 Speaker 1: playing Super Mario World, and I played stuff like Tetris 24 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:42,120 Speaker 1: and Mario and the game Boy that my brother had. 25 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:44,480 Speaker 1: But I've never owned a Nintendo. 26 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:48,040 Speaker 3: Well, I can tell you that Nintendo came out and 27 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:51,560 Speaker 3: I was ten eleven years old, not driving yet, and 28 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:55,360 Speaker 3: it was and I owned one too, so it was 29 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:56,960 Speaker 3: definitely in my wheelhouse. 30 00:01:57,240 --> 00:02:00,720 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean later in college, my my good friend 31 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:04,600 Speaker 1: Clay got a the first PlayStation and that's where we 32 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:08,080 Speaker 1: started going with Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. And then 33 00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: I got on the PlayStation train. But it's just funny 34 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:12,920 Speaker 1: reading through this. I was like, I played some of 35 00:02:12,919 --> 00:02:15,480 Speaker 1: these games here and there, but I was not Nintendo kid. 36 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:18,360 Speaker 3: Yeah, I have to say I jumped from Nintendo. I 37 00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:21,040 Speaker 3: never had a Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis, but I 38 00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:24,359 Speaker 3: have friends who had those. Went off into the N 39 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:26,840 Speaker 3: sixty four world with the GoldenEye. 40 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:29,280 Speaker 1: Yeah, I played that, right. My friend John ed one 41 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:31,119 Speaker 1: of those, and I played a lot of that. 42 00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:33,120 Speaker 3: That was so great. And then I got the first 43 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:36,560 Speaker 3: PlayStation too, the first PlayStation, I mean, not to be confusing, 44 00:02:37,919 --> 00:02:41,280 Speaker 3: and at that point I realized that I was thinking 45 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:44,120 Speaker 3: about how to play games while I was not playing games, 46 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:47,079 Speaker 3: Like when I was just walking around living life and 47 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:49,639 Speaker 3: I made a decision, a very faithful decision that I've 48 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:52,400 Speaker 3: never regretted, that I was going to give up video 49 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:55,120 Speaker 3: games because I was too addicted to them. Oh wow, 50 00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:58,120 Speaker 3: this was college and I never looked back. 51 00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:00,120 Speaker 1: Wow, so you were into them, huh? 52 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:03,200 Speaker 3: I was big time into him. Yeah. It was like 53 00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:06,440 Speaker 3: this is if it's reaching out from beyond the time 54 00:03:06,520 --> 00:03:09,160 Speaker 3: I'm playing it, then Yes, I was a little too 55 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:11,359 Speaker 3: into him if you ask me, was ever a gamer 56 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:14,080 Speaker 3: or anything like that. I just really enjoyed playing games. 57 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:15,320 Speaker 3: Maybe a little too much. 58 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:18,160 Speaker 1: In your favor. In your defense, rather, I would say 59 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:21,280 Speaker 1: that I think everyone who's ever played like Tetris has 60 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:24,960 Speaker 1: Tetris dreams and sees the world has like Tetris boards 61 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:29,160 Speaker 1: occasionally if you're into it. Yeah, and you know my deal, 62 00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:32,760 Speaker 1: as you know said before, as I was heavy Atari kid, 63 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:36,480 Speaker 1: big time arcade kid, and then played this kind of 64 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:39,480 Speaker 1: stuff with friends here and there. And then now every 65 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:41,680 Speaker 1: year I'll usually or every couple of years, I'll get 66 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:44,440 Speaker 1: two or three PlayStation games, playing them obsessively for a 67 00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:47,000 Speaker 1: couple of months, and then it sits for nine months 68 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:47,440 Speaker 1: to a year. 69 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:50,200 Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm with ye. I think that's healthy. That's a 70 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:51,760 Speaker 3: healthy way to play video games, you know. 71 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:54,320 Speaker 1: Yeah, I still enjoy it though. It's a lot of fun. 72 00:03:55,160 --> 00:03:58,119 Speaker 1: But yeah, my buddy Doug Dillard growing up, had one 73 00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:02,600 Speaker 1: rich friend and he had a and television, and so 74 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,200 Speaker 1: I had kind of some fun today watching the old 75 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:08,360 Speaker 1: because I remember thinking the in television football was really great, 76 00:04:08,640 --> 00:04:10,640 Speaker 1: and when I looked at it today, I mean it's 77 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:13,480 Speaker 1: very very basic, but it was pretty good still, like 78 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:17,600 Speaker 1: your calling plays and all the sounds came flooding back. 79 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:19,280 Speaker 1: It was a big rush of nostalgia. 80 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:23,200 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's somehow two bit graphics, I think. 81 00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:25,400 Speaker 1: Yeah, And this, to be clear, what we're going to 82 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:29,440 Speaker 1: talk about today is the original NES. This could have 83 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:30,880 Speaker 1: been a two parter if we would have gone down 84 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:33,480 Speaker 1: the road of the sixty four. Like we're not even 85 00:04:33,520 --> 00:04:36,560 Speaker 1: talking about the music today at all. No, So there 86 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:38,520 Speaker 1: was plenty more material here. But this is just a 87 00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:41,440 Speaker 1: bit of an homage for the Christmas season. 88 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:45,080 Speaker 3: Yeah, because I mean it's the holidays, So one of 89 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:47,320 Speaker 3: the greatest things you can do during the holidays is 90 00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:52,880 Speaker 3: reminisced nostalgically about holidays past. And I definitely associate the 91 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:55,719 Speaker 3: NES or other. I didn't realize this until I started 92 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:57,800 Speaker 3: researching it. Some people call it the NESTS. Did you 93 00:04:57,839 --> 00:04:58,080 Speaker 3: know that? 94 00:04:58,240 --> 00:04:58,320 Speaker 2: No? 95 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:02,719 Speaker 3: Really? Yeah, Some actual like legit gamers call it ness. 96 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:06,080 Speaker 3: Other people call it NES, and apparently there's some big disagreement. 97 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:09,440 Speaker 3: I've always called it NES. Yeah, but I always associate 98 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:12,839 Speaker 3: the NES was a pretty significant portion of my life. 99 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:15,960 Speaker 3: But like it always is tied to Christmas as well. 100 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:18,400 Speaker 1: All right, well, you're gonna wax nostalgic a bit more, 101 00:05:18,520 --> 00:05:20,240 Speaker 1: even though I did play a little bit of ease 102 00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:20,720 Speaker 1: here and there. 103 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:25,799 Speaker 3: Okay, So one of the things, like the Nintendo Entertainment 104 00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:30,520 Speaker 3: System has an amazingly great story to it, like it's 105 00:05:30,640 --> 00:05:34,039 Speaker 3: it's just so fun to tell because Nintendo came along 106 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:38,280 Speaker 3: at a time when the video game market in North 107 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:43,599 Speaker 3: America had so totally bottomed out. Yeah, that people looked 108 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:46,800 Speaker 3: at video games like imagine think about how big Atari was. 109 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:50,280 Speaker 3: People looked at it. It crashed so hard that it 110 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 3: was a fad that was never coming back, like it 111 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:55,880 Speaker 3: had already lived its life. Yeah, and Nintendo walked into 112 00:05:55,920 --> 00:06:02,480 Speaker 3: this burning city that was the video game industry and said, 113 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:07,080 Speaker 3: let's give this another shot, And they actually managed to succeed. 114 00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:11,440 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean Atari was dead as disco. We talked 115 00:06:11,440 --> 00:06:14,039 Speaker 1: a little bit about it before, especially in the ET episode, 116 00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:19,560 Speaker 1: and I did a full Atari guest two parter with Strickland. 117 00:06:20,279 --> 00:06:22,520 Speaker 1: Yeah back in the day on tech stuff. 118 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:24,039 Speaker 3: I'll bet that was a fun one. 119 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:26,760 Speaker 1: It was a lot of fun. But yeah, ET came 120 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:30,320 Speaker 1: along and certainly didn't kill Atari, but it helped usher 121 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:33,480 Speaker 1: in the end of Atari. And it wasn't just this 122 00:06:33,560 --> 00:06:36,760 Speaker 1: one game. It was sort of a flash in the 123 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:38,960 Speaker 1: pan for a few years, and parents were also weighing 124 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:43,839 Speaker 1: in and saying, you know, I don't like my kid 125 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:48,240 Speaker 1: playing this much garbage on the television, Like, I don't 126 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:50,320 Speaker 1: think it's good for their brains. I don't think it 127 00:06:50,320 --> 00:06:53,279 Speaker 1: was a part of the Satanic panic necessarily. It was 128 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:55,679 Speaker 1: pre Satanic panic that it was more along the lines 129 00:06:55,680 --> 00:06:58,279 Speaker 1: of your writing your brain, right. 130 00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:02,039 Speaker 3: So I was that the thing that triggered it? Or 131 00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:05,040 Speaker 3: was it the terrible, terrible games that really triggered the 132 00:07:05,320 --> 00:07:08,000 Speaker 3: what's called the North American video game crash of nineteen 133 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:10,080 Speaker 3: eighty three. It was the games, wasn't it. 134 00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:11,960 Speaker 1: Well, I mean I think it was the two part thing, 135 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:14,160 Speaker 1: Like kids got a little less interested because the game 136 00:07:14,240 --> 00:07:17,840 Speaker 1: started to suck quite frankly, and then I think you 137 00:07:17,880 --> 00:07:21,040 Speaker 1: also had parents beating the drum of okay, hey, and 138 00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:24,120 Speaker 1: Atari wasn't really coming out with you know, the new 139 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:26,920 Speaker 1: systems weren't that great. The twenty six hundred and the 140 00:07:26,960 --> 00:07:29,960 Speaker 1: fifty two hundred came along, I mean, rather the fifty 141 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:32,760 Speaker 1: two hundred followed up, and it was just okay. So 142 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:35,920 Speaker 1: they needed something needed to happen, and that thing that 143 00:07:35,960 --> 00:07:37,160 Speaker 1: needed to happen was Nintendo. 144 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:39,800 Speaker 3: Yeah. And also at the same time, one of the 145 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:43,560 Speaker 3: other things that had ushered helped usher out video games 146 00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:47,920 Speaker 3: was the personal computers starting to come into the world absolutely, 147 00:07:48,280 --> 00:07:51,320 Speaker 3: and with the personal computer, you could like do your taxes, 148 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:55,160 Speaker 3: your kid could like practice math, and they played games 149 00:07:55,160 --> 00:08:00,720 Speaker 3: on floppy disc too. So exactly, yes, I played Wolf 150 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:03,440 Speaker 3: and Oh. I'm so glad you said that, because I 151 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:06,720 Speaker 3: was looking at Castle Vania on floppy disk and I'm like, 152 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:09,240 Speaker 3: it came out in nineteen ninety, like I was definitely 153 00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:12,040 Speaker 3: playing it before that. It was Wolf and Style. Thank you, man, 154 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:15,960 Speaker 3: you just made a really great neural pathway circuit, like 155 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:17,640 Speaker 3: connect completely in my brain. 156 00:08:18,080 --> 00:08:18,240 Speaker 2: Good. 157 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:20,960 Speaker 3: But I saw it described by a guy named Chris 158 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:23,520 Speaker 3: Kohler who wrote an article on this and wired back 159 00:08:23,520 --> 00:08:27,560 Speaker 3: in twenty ten. He said that video games were dead, dead, dead, 160 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:31,520 Speaker 3: personal computers were the future, and anything that just played 161 00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:35,520 Speaker 3: games and couldn't do your taxes was hopelessly backward. That 162 00:08:35,679 --> 00:08:38,880 Speaker 3: was kind of like the premise. So just to get across, 163 00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:40,880 Speaker 3: I don't want to beat this jrump too hard, but 164 00:08:40,960 --> 00:08:44,360 Speaker 3: to get across how huge the crash was. The video 165 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:48,480 Speaker 3: game crash of North America. In nineteen eighty two, Atari 166 00:08:48,600 --> 00:08:52,560 Speaker 3: raked in two billion dollars. Atari alone in nineteen eighty 167 00:08:52,559 --> 00:08:57,079 Speaker 3: three they lost five hundred and thirty six million dollars. 168 00:08:57,160 --> 00:09:00,760 Speaker 3: That's a swift fall, yes, but that's how quickly that 169 00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:04,920 Speaker 3: it happened, and so people basically, if it crashes that hard, 170 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:07,959 Speaker 3: people hate your product. And I think that's kind of 171 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:09,839 Speaker 3: where we were at in nineteen eighty three. 172 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:12,960 Speaker 1: Yeah, but as you pointed out this, we need to 173 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:16,080 Speaker 1: keep pointing out this was the North American crash. 174 00:09:16,200 --> 00:09:16,800 Speaker 3: Yeah, good point. 175 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:19,480 Speaker 1: It did not happen in Japan in nineteen eighty three. 176 00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:21,560 Speaker 1: They were just like, I don't know what you're talking about, 177 00:09:21,600 --> 00:09:25,839 Speaker 1: because we have arcades over here that are flourishing. We 178 00:09:25,880 --> 00:09:29,840 Speaker 1: invented Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior. It's still a 179 00:09:29,880 --> 00:09:31,679 Speaker 1: lot of fun to play. Those games are still fun 180 00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:34,960 Speaker 1: to play, yeah, for sure. And in nineteen eighty this 181 00:09:35,080 --> 00:09:38,800 Speaker 1: was a few years before the United States crash, they said, hey, 182 00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:41,360 Speaker 1: you know what, there's this gaming thing going on, home 183 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:44,640 Speaker 1: gaming going on in America, and maybe we should get 184 00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:47,040 Speaker 1: together a team over here to just sort of poke 185 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:50,120 Speaker 1: around because we're Nintendo. We make a lot of toys 186 00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:52,319 Speaker 1: and we have for a long time, and we're big 187 00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:54,120 Speaker 1: in the arcade world, but we don't have really a 188 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:59,520 Speaker 1: console system going. And that led to I think actually, 189 00:09:59,559 --> 00:10:03,600 Speaker 1: there was a console called the Epoch Cassette Vision in 190 00:10:03,679 --> 00:10:05,880 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, and it was sort of the biggest 191 00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:07,400 Speaker 1: thing in Japan at the time. 192 00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:09,080 Speaker 3: But well I think it was kind of the only 193 00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:10,439 Speaker 3: thing in Japan at the time. 194 00:10:10,280 --> 00:10:12,079 Speaker 1: Too, well, which makes it the biggest. I guess you 195 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:14,600 Speaker 1: could also say it was the smallest. That's true. But 196 00:10:14,800 --> 00:10:17,040 Speaker 1: it was not a Nintendo product, right. 197 00:10:18,120 --> 00:10:21,400 Speaker 3: No, it absolutely wasn't. In fact, it was Nintendo came 198 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:25,600 Speaker 3: along his rival to this cassette vision, Epoch Cassette Vision. 199 00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:32,280 Speaker 3: So the head of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauchi, he apparently was 200 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:36,280 Speaker 3: this driving force. He had some really great people working 201 00:10:36,320 --> 00:10:39,200 Speaker 3: for him in Japan and in North America, but he 202 00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:42,320 Speaker 3: seems to have been this person who would be like, 203 00:10:43,480 --> 00:10:46,400 Speaker 3: do this enormous undertaking and do it in an hour 204 00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:48,920 Speaker 3: kind of thing. He kind of seems to have had 205 00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:52,640 Speaker 3: a sense that there was a really narrow window that 206 00:10:52,760 --> 00:10:54,959 Speaker 3: was open right now that could close at any time, 207 00:10:55,360 --> 00:10:57,040 Speaker 3: and that they needed to get this stuff done, but 208 00:10:57,080 --> 00:11:00,480 Speaker 3: they also needed to do it really well and wright 209 00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:03,120 Speaker 3: basically out of the gate. And they actually managed to 210 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:06,199 Speaker 3: because in nineteen eighty three, after just a couple of 211 00:11:06,280 --> 00:11:09,160 Speaker 3: years of research and development, they released what's called the 212 00:11:09,160 --> 00:11:13,240 Speaker 3: Family Coom or the Family Computer, which was essentially the 213 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:17,480 Speaker 3: direct predecessor of the Nintendo Entertainment system that they released 214 00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:19,520 Speaker 3: a couple of years later in North America. 215 00:11:19,960 --> 00:11:22,560 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's not very often that a head 216 00:11:22,559 --> 00:11:24,760 Speaker 1: of a company or a boss comes along and says, 217 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:28,679 Speaker 1: I want to do something better and cheaper than what 218 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:32,439 Speaker 1: is currently out there, and it actually happened. And listeners 219 00:11:32,440 --> 00:11:34,800 Speaker 1: at home, if you can look this stuff up as 220 00:11:34,840 --> 00:11:38,120 Speaker 1: you go safely, please do because just seeing these all 221 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:40,600 Speaker 1: these various units we're going to talk about is really 222 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:41,440 Speaker 1: a lot of fun. 223 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:45,360 Speaker 3: Yeah, they teeter on the edge of being creepy. They're 224 00:11:45,400 --> 00:11:48,439 Speaker 3: like at that age, they're not quite wicker wheelchair creepy, 225 00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:50,600 Speaker 3: but they're getting there. Give them another decade or so, 226 00:11:50,679 --> 00:11:51,199 Speaker 3: you know what I mean. 227 00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:53,719 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think they're cool looking. I mean, this is 228 00:11:53,720 --> 00:11:55,400 Speaker 1: the kind of thing that would look cool sitting on 229 00:11:55,440 --> 00:11:57,400 Speaker 1: a shelf as a collector these days. 230 00:11:57,480 --> 00:11:59,080 Speaker 3: I think there's a lot of people who have that. 231 00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:02,200 Speaker 1: Actually, oh I'm sure, so look up the epoch cassette 232 00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:04,600 Speaker 1: vision because that's kind of fun. But the Famicon was 233 00:12:04,600 --> 00:12:08,680 Speaker 1: this red and white box. It top loaded, It had 234 00:12:08,679 --> 00:12:12,560 Speaker 1: two wired controllers, and it had very importantly on the 235 00:12:12,559 --> 00:12:15,120 Speaker 1: control pad it had. It had the dpad. It had 236 00:12:15,160 --> 00:12:18,240 Speaker 1: the directional pad on the left with the up and down, 237 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:21,240 Speaker 1: left and right arrows, and then an A and B button, 238 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:24,120 Speaker 1: which no one knew at the time, but that would 239 00:12:24,200 --> 00:12:27,000 Speaker 1: kind of revolutionize the gaming world. As you know, they 240 00:12:27,040 --> 00:12:28,920 Speaker 1: got a little fancy over the years, but it's still 241 00:12:28,960 --> 00:12:31,760 Speaker 1: sort of that's still the bones of what a controller is. 242 00:12:32,320 --> 00:12:35,960 Speaker 3: Absolutely like it was. I can never remember the full quote, 243 00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:39,240 Speaker 3: but somebody said it was like they invented the airplane 244 00:12:39,960 --> 00:12:42,520 Speaker 3: and got it right fully out of the gate, like 245 00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:46,200 Speaker 3: tray tables and everything Essentially, it was like, that's what 246 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:50,520 Speaker 3: they did with that controller design. And now you think 247 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:52,559 Speaker 3: about it, you look at it, like the Nintendo brick 248 00:12:52,600 --> 00:12:58,439 Speaker 3: and especially the Famcom controllers, they look so old fashioned. 249 00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:00,480 Speaker 1: Yeah, but if you could put. 250 00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:03,200 Speaker 3: Yourself in the mindset of somebody in Japan in nineteen 251 00:13:03,240 --> 00:13:07,240 Speaker 3: eighty three, if you looked around at the other stuff available, 252 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:10,560 Speaker 3: it was it was just from the future. And that 253 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:13,240 Speaker 3: was one of the things that Nintendo did really really 254 00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:17,080 Speaker 3: well during this period. They figured out what everyone thought 255 00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:21,400 Speaker 3: the future was, what it contained, what it looked like, 256 00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:24,280 Speaker 3: and they gave it to everybody. It was a really 257 00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:27,439 Speaker 3: like exuberant time. It was like the future had been 258 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:29,800 Speaker 3: brought to the present and it was all thanks to 259 00:13:29,920 --> 00:13:30,920 Speaker 3: Nintendo basically. 260 00:13:31,280 --> 00:13:33,400 Speaker 1: So it retailed for about one hundred and fifty bucks 261 00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:36,760 Speaker 1: back then, which is what close to five hundred. 262 00:13:36,440 --> 00:13:38,800 Speaker 3: Today, Yeah, four hundred something like that. 263 00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:41,600 Speaker 1: All right, So, I mean kind of on par with, 264 00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:45,400 Speaker 1: you know, the range of even modern gaming. I mean, 265 00:13:45,400 --> 00:13:49,120 Speaker 1: what's the new PlayStation like five maybe I don't know, 266 00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:50,679 Speaker 1: I'm not sure. I think it's somewhere in there, five 267 00:13:50,760 --> 00:13:51,680 Speaker 1: or six hundred bucks. 268 00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:54,600 Speaker 3: Do you remember that PlayStation ad that was like for 269 00:13:54,679 --> 00:13:57,320 Speaker 3: PlayStation seven it was just people running around the real world. 270 00:13:57,400 --> 00:13:59,880 Speaker 3: It was all like VR and augmented reality. 271 00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:00,720 Speaker 1: I don't remember that. 272 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:02,760 Speaker 3: It was pretty cool because it came out in like 273 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:05,720 Speaker 3: the nineties and you're like, whoah, and we're pretty close 274 00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:07,120 Speaker 3: to that now already, you know. 275 00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:11,520 Speaker 1: Oh for sure. They bundled the Donkey Kong and Donkey 276 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:15,600 Speaker 1: Kong Junior games and the Popeye games, which were basically 277 00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:17,880 Speaker 1: about the same quality as you would get at the arcade. 278 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:19,320 Speaker 3: Yeah, it was huge. 279 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:20,960 Speaker 1: It was a huge deal. I mean, especially if you 280 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:25,520 Speaker 1: grew up playing Atari. I loved Atari, but Atari was 281 00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:27,640 Speaker 1: Atari and it had a lot of limits. And this 282 00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:29,640 Speaker 1: was you know, you went to the arcade so you 283 00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:31,720 Speaker 1: could play games better than Atari. Now you could do 284 00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:32,360 Speaker 1: it at home. 285 00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:35,720 Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, so that was an enormous progression. But it 286 00:14:35,800 --> 00:14:39,040 Speaker 3: wasn't just like the graphics the quality of the look 287 00:14:39,080 --> 00:14:41,760 Speaker 3: of it. It was also the gameplay too, Like it 288 00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:44,280 Speaker 3: was way more fun than most of the games you 289 00:14:44,280 --> 00:14:45,920 Speaker 3: were going to play on an Atari. It was just 290 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:50,400 Speaker 3: funner to play some of these famcom games. And it 291 00:14:50,760 --> 00:14:54,640 Speaker 3: took off like a rocket. It knocked the epoch cassette 292 00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:57,640 Speaker 3: vision right off of the top place into the history books. 293 00:14:57,640 --> 00:15:01,840 Speaker 3: Basically essentially. Yeah, they saw half a million units in 294 00:15:01,960 --> 00:15:05,080 Speaker 3: two months after its release. I think by the end 295 00:15:05,080 --> 00:15:07,160 Speaker 3: of nineteen eighty four, they'd sold two and a half 296 00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:10,520 Speaker 3: million units, so in about a year or so. And 297 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:13,560 Speaker 3: they were like, Okay, I think we're definitely onto something, 298 00:15:14,240 --> 00:15:18,120 Speaker 3: and they had enough hubris enough I guess, at least 299 00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:22,480 Speaker 3: self assurance that they set their sights on North America again, 300 00:15:22,800 --> 00:15:26,320 Speaker 3: which was a tattered, burning ruin as far as video 301 00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:27,520 Speaker 3: games were concerned. 302 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:29,240 Speaker 1: It's a great spot for a break. 303 00:15:29,800 --> 00:15:51,720 Speaker 2: I think so too, all right. 304 00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:54,800 Speaker 1: I think where we left off the United States was 305 00:15:54,800 --> 00:15:59,080 Speaker 1: a version of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Yeah, yeah, and 306 00:15:59,160 --> 00:16:02,240 Speaker 1: The Walking Dead. And Nintendo came along and said we 307 00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:05,200 Speaker 1: are going to save you and bring you into the future. 308 00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:07,880 Speaker 1: And it was a tough sell at first in the 309 00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:12,440 Speaker 1: US because, like you said, the video game craze for 310 00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:14,400 Speaker 1: lack of a better word, had kind of come and gone. 311 00:16:14,760 --> 00:16:18,320 Speaker 1: This was nineteen eighty five. Parents were still not you know, 312 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:21,120 Speaker 1: they were like, I'm glad that went away, basically, and 313 00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:23,160 Speaker 1: now we have these PCs in our homes and my 314 00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:25,640 Speaker 1: kid can play Oregon Trail or whatever. And they seem 315 00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:29,600 Speaker 1: happy enough with that, and Nintendo knew all this was 316 00:16:29,640 --> 00:16:30,920 Speaker 1: going on. They knew it was going to be a 317 00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:32,960 Speaker 1: tougher sell that they knew, so they knew they had 318 00:16:32,960 --> 00:16:35,960 Speaker 1: to come up with something awesome. And their first crack 319 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:40,160 Speaker 1: at that was something called the AVS, the Advanced Video System, 320 00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:42,440 Speaker 1: And they said, we'll give it a keyboard, so it 321 00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:45,720 Speaker 1: looks like a computer. It'll have a little cassette disk drive, 322 00:16:46,360 --> 00:16:49,440 Speaker 1: it'll be able to do some stuff. It'll but you know, 323 00:16:49,480 --> 00:16:51,360 Speaker 1: they bundled it with all kinds of fun stuff. It 324 00:16:51,360 --> 00:16:54,400 Speaker 1: had a joystick, it had a keyboard like a musical keyboard, 325 00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:58,360 Speaker 1: and it had this wireless which is we'll explain how 326 00:16:58,360 --> 00:16:59,920 Speaker 1: all this works in a little bit. It's pretty cool. 327 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:02,240 Speaker 1: But it had a little raygun, a little zapper. 328 00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:07,160 Speaker 3: Yeah, and you really said a mouthful with the word wireless. Man. 329 00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:10,760 Speaker 3: This was nineteen eighty five, and this Advanced Video System 330 00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:15,359 Speaker 3: came out with wireless controllers like it was. That's really impressive. 331 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:19,879 Speaker 3: And it was really slick looking too, like really futuristic looking. 332 00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:24,800 Speaker 3: But also yes, they put enough computer peripherals in it 333 00:17:25,080 --> 00:17:28,200 Speaker 3: that it did it didn't look like a video game system, right. Yeah, 334 00:17:28,240 --> 00:17:32,399 Speaker 3: So they took it to CEES. The January version that 335 00:17:32,400 --> 00:17:35,960 Speaker 3: I think even back then was in Vegas. But it's sorry, 336 00:17:35,960 --> 00:17:39,080 Speaker 3: it's the Consumer Electronics Show, right. 337 00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:41,720 Speaker 1: Yeah, I've never been to that, of you. 338 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:43,439 Speaker 3: No, huh. Stricklin has great stories from it, though. 339 00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:45,639 Speaker 1: Yeah, he goes every year, I think, I think so. 340 00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:49,159 Speaker 3: But at CES in January nineteen eighty five, they're like, 341 00:17:49,240 --> 00:17:52,920 Speaker 3: here you go, everybody, here's the future, the advanced video system. 342 00:17:53,359 --> 00:17:57,359 Speaker 3: And no one cared at all about it. They didn't 343 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:00,000 Speaker 3: even get people coming over to play, to mess around. 344 00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:03,960 Speaker 3: No one could have cared less about that thing. 345 00:18:04,320 --> 00:18:08,040 Speaker 1: Yeah, which is a little bit surprising looking back, because 346 00:18:08,080 --> 00:18:11,000 Speaker 1: the games were good and they knew that. I guess 347 00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:13,359 Speaker 1: they were just a little gun shy, But it seems 348 00:18:13,359 --> 00:18:16,560 Speaker 1: like Atari made so much money. I'm surprised there wasn't 349 00:18:16,560 --> 00:18:19,959 Speaker 1: someone that was like, hey, maybe round two is going 350 00:18:20,040 --> 00:18:21,480 Speaker 1: to be a real thing. But it, you know, it 351 00:18:21,520 --> 00:18:23,080 Speaker 1: didn't work. They didn't get any response. 352 00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:25,440 Speaker 3: No, And I think that really goes to just kind 353 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:30,439 Speaker 3: of underline just how bad a reputation video games had, because, 354 00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:34,880 Speaker 3: you know, Dave points out that the consoles that had 355 00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:36,960 Speaker 3: been going for like one hundred, one hundred and fifty 356 00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:40,639 Speaker 3: dollars the year before, these retailers were stuck with them, 357 00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:42,960 Speaker 3: and they were selling them for like forty bucks, which 358 00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:45,280 Speaker 3: is how much the games used to go for. Now 359 00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:48,119 Speaker 3: the games were like four dollars. So the retailers have 360 00:18:48,200 --> 00:18:50,560 Speaker 3: been so badly burned. I think they all got caught 361 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:53,000 Speaker 3: with these hot potatoes when the crash happened that they 362 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:56,040 Speaker 3: were like never again. Yeah, and that's what Nintendo was 363 00:18:56,080 --> 00:18:59,320 Speaker 3: working against, which is as Dave Dave again, Dave helped 364 00:18:59,359 --> 00:19:02,240 Speaker 3: us with this, as you were either a very foolish 365 00:19:02,280 --> 00:19:05,360 Speaker 3: company to try this or a very smart one because 366 00:19:05,480 --> 00:19:08,160 Speaker 3: again it had a terrible reputation, but that also meant 367 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:12,160 Speaker 3: that there was no competition in this enormous market right now. 368 00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:16,439 Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, So they knew they had to have almost 369 00:19:16,440 --> 00:19:18,280 Speaker 1: like a trick to get their foot in the door, 370 00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:22,640 Speaker 1: and they came up with one and they found this. 371 00:19:22,760 --> 00:19:25,320 Speaker 1: Uh is Gaming Historian Is it a I know it 372 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:27,439 Speaker 1: had a YouTube channel, but is it also just a 373 00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:28,280 Speaker 1: full website. 374 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:31,440 Speaker 3: I don't know. All I know is of the YouTube 375 00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:34,840 Speaker 3: channel where they make really high quality YouTube videos that 376 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:35,840 Speaker 3: are really interesting. 377 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:38,239 Speaker 1: It's good stuff. But someone at Gaming Historian came up 378 00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:40,919 Speaker 1: with this very app metaphor about a trojan horse, and 379 00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:42,960 Speaker 1: that's kind of what they were looking for was a 380 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:45,960 Speaker 1: way to get these things in the home by almost 381 00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:49,520 Speaker 1: tricking parents into thinking it wasn't a gaming system and 382 00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:51,359 Speaker 1: it was more just sort of like a toy because 383 00:19:51,440 --> 00:19:54,760 Speaker 1: kids still got and bought or you know, received toys 384 00:19:54,760 --> 00:19:57,359 Speaker 1: and stuff. It's not like they shut down the toy industry. 385 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:00,600 Speaker 1: It was just home video game. So what they invented 386 00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:04,320 Speaker 1: was the ROB the rob the robotic Operating Buddy, which 387 00:20:04,359 --> 00:20:08,000 Speaker 1: is a very sweet name. You should totally go look 388 00:20:08,119 --> 00:20:12,040 Speaker 1: at ROB online and especially YouTube videos of rob and 389 00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:19,560 Speaker 1: action and just be prepared for the speed of ROB. 390 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:24,520 Speaker 3: Right. But the thing is ROB was a robot. He 391 00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:27,320 Speaker 3: moved and he functioned, He interacted with the games that 392 00:20:27,359 --> 00:20:28,000 Speaker 3: they came up. 393 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:30,880 Speaker 1: With very slowly, right, very slowly. 394 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:33,640 Speaker 3: But this was a time where like robots were kind 395 00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:36,080 Speaker 3: of hard to come by. Yeah, they were not like that. 396 00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:38,320 Speaker 3: It was not an easy thing to get your hands on. 397 00:20:38,520 --> 00:20:40,680 Speaker 3: And now all of a sudden there's this company saying like, hey, 398 00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:43,360 Speaker 3: we have this whole thing and it has a robot too. Yeah, 399 00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:46,720 Speaker 3: and it was one of the greatest strokes of marketing 400 00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:49,520 Speaker 3: genius that any company's ever come up with. As we'll see. 401 00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:51,639 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean what they ended up with was a 402 00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:56,080 Speaker 1: robot that didn't I mean, it functioned as it should, 403 00:20:56,080 --> 00:20:58,560 Speaker 1: but like I said, it's super super slow. They only 404 00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:00,560 Speaker 1: ended up having a couple of games you could use 405 00:21:00,600 --> 00:21:02,880 Speaker 1: the robot, and it was just sort of a sneaky 406 00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:07,120 Speaker 1: way to get these consoles in the door. And because 407 00:21:07,160 --> 00:21:10,240 Speaker 1: it was all part of the same system and that's 408 00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:12,560 Speaker 1: how it worked, they managed to get the little Trojan 409 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:16,600 Speaker 1: Horse robot through the door. And thanks to a guy 410 00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:21,560 Speaker 1: named Lance bar he helped design a lot of this stuff. 411 00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:23,600 Speaker 1: He designed the Zapper ray gun, which we'll talk a 412 00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:26,320 Speaker 1: little bit more about in a sec but he designed 413 00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:29,119 Speaker 1: it as a front loading system, which made sort of 414 00:21:29,119 --> 00:21:32,440 Speaker 1: people think of VCRs. It was also a very they 415 00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:35,280 Speaker 1: call it zero four solution, so there wasn't a lot 416 00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:39,200 Speaker 1: of wear on the on the cartridges and it just 417 00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:40,080 Speaker 1: worked really well. 418 00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:43,280 Speaker 3: Plus it looked like you said, it looked like a VCR. 419 00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:46,480 Speaker 3: Those were wildly popular at the time, and I don't 420 00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:50,879 Speaker 3: think we said chuck. So that January CEES was just 421 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:54,840 Speaker 3: a complete like catastrophe for Nintendo. They'd spent all this 422 00:21:54,920 --> 00:21:58,600 Speaker 3: time coming up with the advanced video system and it 423 00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:02,200 Speaker 3: went nowhere. So again the head of the company Hiroshi 424 00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:06,359 Speaker 3: Yamauchi told a couple of people like, hey, redesign this 425 00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:08,720 Speaker 3: in an hour, and they did. And Lance Barr was 426 00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:10,880 Speaker 3: the guy who did it, and he knocked it out 427 00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:14,000 Speaker 3: of the park because the NEES as it debuted later 428 00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:17,760 Speaker 3: on in North America was essentially what he came up 429 00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:19,879 Speaker 3: with in that one hour that he was given to 430 00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:24,560 Speaker 3: do it. So they had they did all this and 431 00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:28,840 Speaker 3: had it done in time for the July nineteen eighty 432 00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:32,600 Speaker 3: five CEES like six months after that huge colossal failure. 433 00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:35,000 Speaker 3: They went back to the drawing board and came back 434 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:39,600 Speaker 3: in six months with the Nintendo Entertainment System fully fleshed out, 435 00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:42,080 Speaker 3: including Robot and zappor Gun. 436 00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:45,640 Speaker 1: Well notably Robot, because that's what it all. Anyone cared 437 00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:46,000 Speaker 1: about it. 438 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:47,520 Speaker 3: First, Yeah, for sure. 439 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:50,399 Speaker 1: Like at CES, the NES system was sort of to 440 00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:53,000 Speaker 1: the side and everyone was just trying to get their 441 00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:58,520 Speaker 1: hands on Rob and play Gyromite, which I'm telling you 442 00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:01,560 Speaker 1: you got to just spend five minutes watching Rob play 443 00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:05,720 Speaker 1: this game, because he shows a split screen of the 444 00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:07,880 Speaker 1: the TV screen of what's happening on the game, which 445 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:11,800 Speaker 1: really isn't much, and then Rob just very slowly picking 446 00:23:11,880 --> 00:23:14,760 Speaker 1: up these spindle tops and making them spin. 447 00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:20,479 Speaker 3: Yeah, and I wasn't the the game historian video that 448 00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:22,440 Speaker 3: that really kind of went into detail about how Rob 449 00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:24,520 Speaker 3: played and setting up his accessories and everything. 450 00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:25,439 Speaker 1: I watched a bunch of them. 451 00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:27,560 Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not sure, Okay, I think it was that one. 452 00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:29,280 Speaker 3: If not, it was another one I saw it where 453 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:32,680 Speaker 3: they really kind of showed like the idea of Rob 454 00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:36,359 Speaker 3: was pretty ingenious. He was player too, but you were 455 00:23:36,359 --> 00:23:40,080 Speaker 3: actually playing together like you in gyro Might. You were 456 00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:42,479 Speaker 3: kind of running through this maze and there were like 457 00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:45,400 Speaker 3: pillars that you couldn't get past. You had to get 458 00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:48,159 Speaker 3: Rob to do it for you. And again he got 459 00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:52,880 Speaker 3: some lunch so slowly. Yeah, good, get an eye, examine 460 00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:55,920 Speaker 3: your glasses. Made in an hour or two and then yeah, 461 00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:58,280 Speaker 3: he would have completed that and you could advance to 462 00:23:58,359 --> 00:24:00,600 Speaker 3: the next column or whatever. It was a great idea. 463 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:03,119 Speaker 3: It was a cool concept, but it just the execution 464 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:06,480 Speaker 3: was terrible. But he essentially just pushed the buttons on 465 00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:08,919 Speaker 3: the player two controller, So if you got tired and 466 00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:11,520 Speaker 3: frustrated of waiting for Rob, you could just push the 467 00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:14,399 Speaker 3: buttons on the player two controller yourself and play gyro 468 00:24:14,520 --> 00:24:18,640 Speaker 3: Mighte that way. But the point was They don't seem 469 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:21,480 Speaker 3: in retrospect to have really thought Rob was going to 470 00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:25,960 Speaker 3: take off. In fact, the games that they he came 471 00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:29,400 Speaker 3: with in North America were the Japanese versions. They hadn't 472 00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:31,840 Speaker 3: even bothered to make the North American version of these. 473 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:34,760 Speaker 3: They just put like kind of this like like fix 474 00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:39,119 Speaker 3: on it that made it compatible with the North American system. 475 00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:44,000 Speaker 3: But when you loaded up gyro Mighte, the intro screen 476 00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:48,000 Speaker 3: showed the Japanese name for it at the very beginning 477 00:24:48,119 --> 00:24:48,359 Speaker 3: of it. 478 00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:50,560 Speaker 1: I feel like I saw other games that had Japanese 479 00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:54,760 Speaker 1: writing and stuff. Yeah, I don't know, maybe it's a memory. 480 00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:57,679 Speaker 1: It may have just been like boot up screens or something. 481 00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:01,639 Speaker 1: So they decide it was such a you know, I 482 00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:04,800 Speaker 1: grabber at cees that they decided, all right, let's go 483 00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:07,280 Speaker 1: to New York City and let's test it out there 484 00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:11,040 Speaker 1: in one city, roll it out, see what happens. The 485 00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:15,639 Speaker 1: New York retailer said, hey, buddy, I got look at this. 486 00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:17,679 Speaker 1: I got a warehouse full of Atari's over here that 487 00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:20,080 Speaker 1: I can't even give away, like I don't know about 488 00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:22,880 Speaker 1: a new gaming system. And they said, all right, here's 489 00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:25,919 Speaker 1: what we'll do. We will ship them to your store 490 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:30,080 Speaker 1: from Japan for free. We will. You can just sell 491 00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:32,879 Speaker 1: what you sell and pay us for those. Whatever you 492 00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:35,520 Speaker 1: don't sell you can return to us. We'll take them back. 493 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:39,160 Speaker 1: We'll send over a team in your store to set 494 00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:43,200 Speaker 1: up these big marketing interactive marketing displays, and we'll we'll 495 00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:45,119 Speaker 1: take on all of the risk and all you guys 496 00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:47,440 Speaker 1: got to do is try and sell some of these. 497 00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:49,720 Speaker 1: And they went, yeah, all right. 498 00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:53,440 Speaker 3: That was a great Joe Pesci by the way, saw 499 00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:56,720 Speaker 3: Joe Pecchi. So yeah, they did this in five hundred stores. 500 00:25:56,720 --> 00:25:58,639 Speaker 3: And normally, when you when you did like kind of 501 00:25:58,960 --> 00:26:01,560 Speaker 3: a soft test release of something like this, you might 502 00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:04,600 Speaker 3: choose like to Peka Kansas, or's somewhere that no one 503 00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:08,840 Speaker 3: cares about, right, But they went full bore and hit 504 00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:11,280 Speaker 3: New York City. And I think I've seen it, you know, 505 00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:13,920 Speaker 3: mentioned a few times that like it was based on 506 00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:16,080 Speaker 3: that that Frank Sinatra song, the idea that you if 507 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:18,080 Speaker 3: you made it in New York, you could make it anywhere, 508 00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:21,880 Speaker 3: and they they did make it in New York. Oh, 509 00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:22,520 Speaker 3: I can't remember. 510 00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:29,160 Speaker 1: I want to rock one, okay, I want I want 511 00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:29,960 Speaker 1: to hear that version. 512 00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:33,680 Speaker 3: Man, I've got that MP three. It's so good. It 513 00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:34,639 Speaker 3: still holds up. 514 00:26:34,800 --> 00:26:35,640 Speaker 1: I want to rock. 515 00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:37,360 Speaker 3: Yeah, the Twisted Sister song. 516 00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:41,560 Speaker 1: You got that MP three or MP four, I don't 517 00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:42,440 Speaker 1: know what they buy it. 518 00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:45,320 Speaker 3: I bought it at Toys r US. 519 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:46,720 Speaker 1: Very cool. 520 00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:51,840 Speaker 3: So they they didn't knock it out of the park necessarily. 521 00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:54,760 Speaker 3: They sold about half the units that they had produced 522 00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:57,800 Speaker 3: for this test market in New York. Yeah, I think 523 00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:00,960 Speaker 3: like fifty thousand, but it was enough for Yamauchi to say, 524 00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:03,520 Speaker 3: let's give this a try. Let's roll out to the 525 00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:06,880 Speaker 3: rest of the country. Another bold move because normally, after 526 00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:11,840 Speaker 3: your first test, like run your first test market, you 527 00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:14,919 Speaker 3: do like four or five more And he said, now, 528 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:17,080 Speaker 3: let's skip that, Let's just go right to the rest 529 00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:18,440 Speaker 3: of the country. And he did. 530 00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:23,119 Speaker 1: Yeah. And that was the Christmas season too, So I 531 00:27:23,119 --> 00:27:28,120 Speaker 1: get the feeling that they were They weren't super disappointed, 532 00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,199 Speaker 1: but they weren't super pumped either. It felt like it 533 00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:34,119 Speaker 1: was right in that area. And it's funny looking back historically, 534 00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:36,119 Speaker 1: like it was right in that zone where it was 535 00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:38,800 Speaker 1: just enough to keep it going. And you wonder kind 536 00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:42,400 Speaker 1: of the sliding doors pathways that the gaming world would 537 00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:45,159 Speaker 1: have taken had it sold thirty thousand units, you know. 538 00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:49,480 Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. I saw somebody say, like Nintendo. Had 539 00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:52,800 Speaker 3: Nintendo not been successful, like the games as we know 540 00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:54,800 Speaker 3: them today would definitely not exist. 541 00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:57,399 Speaker 1: We'd still be playing checkers like a bunch of dopes. 542 00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:02,760 Speaker 3: Yeah, and going outside and needs it. So that was 543 00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:08,119 Speaker 3: nineteen eighty five holiday season. By nineteen eighty six, they 544 00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:11,440 Speaker 3: hit on something else. So like one of the things 545 00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:14,080 Speaker 3: that they did was take a poll of that people 546 00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:16,800 Speaker 3: in the test market who had bought the Nintendo and 547 00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:19,879 Speaker 3: I think like the vast majority of them said that 548 00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:23,320 Speaker 3: Rob the Robot was the reason they had bought the 549 00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:27,600 Speaker 3: whole system to get that robot. That's how well that 550 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:32,120 Speaker 3: marketing ployee worked. So Rob had kind of served as 551 00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:34,679 Speaker 3: purpose though everyone knew he was slow, they weren't releasing 552 00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:38,360 Speaker 3: more games for them, so they came up with Originally 553 00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:42,080 Speaker 3: the way you bought Nintendo, it was the Nintendo Entertainment 554 00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:47,080 Speaker 3: System console, two controllers, the zapper gun, Rob the Robot, 555 00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:51,000 Speaker 3: and all of Rob the Robot's accessories, and then two games, 556 00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:53,880 Speaker 3: one of which was gyro mighte that game you play 557 00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:57,479 Speaker 3: with Rob, Right, Yeah, Okay, that's a lot of stuff, 558 00:28:57,520 --> 00:28:59,920 Speaker 3: and of course it was pretty expensive at the time. 559 00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:03,040 Speaker 3: So for the national rollout, they kept the Deluxe set, 560 00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:06,200 Speaker 3: but they also came up with something called the ANS 561 00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:11,080 Speaker 3: Control Deck, which was just the console, two controllers, and 562 00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:15,840 Speaker 3: very very importantly Super Mario Brothers. And that was ninety 563 00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:19,760 Speaker 3: nine bucks. And they sold those things as fast as 564 00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:22,080 Speaker 3: they could make them for the holidays that year. 565 00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:26,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, you really can't overstate the importance of Super Mario Brothers. 566 00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:30,360 Speaker 1: That was a game that came along and with actually 567 00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:33,360 Speaker 1: with a Famicon in nineteen eighty five, and it was 568 00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:36,959 Speaker 1: just it was the most advanced looking game and playing 569 00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:41,760 Speaker 1: game that any kid had ever seen. It was as 570 00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:43,720 Speaker 1: day points out. It was the first game that you 571 00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:48,720 Speaker 1: could play and have fun playing forever. Like you could 572 00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:52,160 Speaker 1: go on and on finding the hidden worlds, finding the 573 00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:56,360 Speaker 1: easter eggs, dropping down pipes into other sections that you 574 00:29:56,560 --> 00:30:00,560 Speaker 1: and other levels that you never even knew existed, banging 575 00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:03,920 Speaker 1: away hidden bricks, like there were so many discoveries and 576 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:09,440 Speaker 1: places to go in Super Mario Brothers. They created sort 577 00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:12,240 Speaker 1: of a new way of gaming, which was like, Hey, 578 00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:15,080 Speaker 1: how would you like to be little Josh Clark? How 579 00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:18,440 Speaker 1: but put your cigarette down? How would you like to 580 00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:21,120 Speaker 1: play a video game? The same one for the next 581 00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:21,920 Speaker 1: seven hours? 582 00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:26,920 Speaker 3: Hot Dog? That's what I would have said, and that 583 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:29,360 Speaker 3: really hot dog. 584 00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:33,760 Speaker 1: It was a whole new deal though, because even when 585 00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:36,880 Speaker 1: I played Autari, like we played for hours at a time, 586 00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:39,880 Speaker 1: but I don't know, you played a game for thirty 587 00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:41,840 Speaker 1: forty five minutes and you'd pop in another. And that's 588 00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:44,280 Speaker 1: why you had like forty games in your in your 589 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:47,680 Speaker 1: controller box, because none of them you could play for 590 00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:49,840 Speaker 1: hours and hours and hours in a row and not 591 00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:52,320 Speaker 1: eventually be like, Okay, this is getting a little bit old, 592 00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:53,440 Speaker 1: even as a kid. 593 00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:56,480 Speaker 3: Yeah, so the gameplay was just light years ahead of 594 00:30:56,520 --> 00:31:02,000 Speaker 3: anything I've almost every single source that I've seen on 595 00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:05,000 Speaker 3: the Internet that talks about how Super Mario Brothers change 596 00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:08,360 Speaker 3: things uses the word light years ahead, yeah, of everything else, 597 00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:12,080 Speaker 3: because it really was. There was a guy named Shigeru Miyamoto. 598 00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:15,920 Speaker 3: He designed the game very famously. He obviously became a 599 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:17,560 Speaker 3: legend overnight because of it. 600 00:31:17,880 --> 00:31:21,120 Speaker 1: They were also smart enough to do some really savvy 601 00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:23,880 Speaker 1: marketing moves which kind of rolled out in a few 602 00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:26,440 Speaker 1: different ways. They well, they had a lot of advertising money. 603 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:28,360 Speaker 1: That was sort of a given. They had about twenty 604 00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:31,240 Speaker 1: million bucks to spend off the bat, which is a 605 00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:34,720 Speaker 1: ton of money for advertising now and then. But they 606 00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:38,880 Speaker 1: created a call center. They trained these players and these 607 00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:42,760 Speaker 1: gamers basically to master these games and sit on the 608 00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:45,440 Speaker 1: phone and you could call a number if you got 609 00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:48,440 Speaker 1: stuck and talk to a human being that could walk 610 00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:51,560 Speaker 1: you through a level that you couldn't get through. They 611 00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:54,120 Speaker 1: had Nintendo Power magazine, which is a very big deal. 612 00:31:54,840 --> 00:31:59,160 Speaker 1: And they created the first you know, gaming championships where 613 00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:02,240 Speaker 1: and these are still just huge, you know, where kids 614 00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:05,040 Speaker 1: and adults alike. You know, now adults from all over 615 00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:08,120 Speaker 1: the world come together to battle each other out. And 616 00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:11,800 Speaker 1: the very first ones were created by Nintendo with the 617 00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:15,280 Speaker 1: Grand Championships at Universal Studios, Hollywood. 618 00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:17,680 Speaker 3: Yeah. I hadn't thought about that, but yeah, you can 619 00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:20,520 Speaker 3: make the case that they created the esports phenomena. They 620 00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:22,520 Speaker 3: lead the groundwork for it to come at least, right 621 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:26,440 Speaker 3: I would think, so, yeah, that's pretty cool. So there 622 00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:29,560 Speaker 3: was a poll of Nintendo players after the national rollout 623 00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:33,680 Speaker 3: that found that ninety five percent of teams polled said 624 00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:36,720 Speaker 3: that they recommended the nes to their friends, and I 625 00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:39,520 Speaker 3: think eighty three percent of adults and eighty five percent 626 00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:43,560 Speaker 3: of little kids. That is eye popping, and that that 627 00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:46,000 Speaker 3: means that they were successful. They used rob to get 628 00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:48,000 Speaker 3: their feet in the door, and they knew that if 629 00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:50,720 Speaker 3: they just got their console in the hands of Americans, 630 00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:53,480 Speaker 3: they would change their minds forever about video games. And 631 00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:55,200 Speaker 3: that's exactly what happened. 632 00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:59,840 Speaker 1: And they avoided the Atari mistake, which was they did 633 00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:03,040 Speaker 1: their best to try and keep bad games from being 634 00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:04,560 Speaker 1: able to play it on their system. And that's what 635 00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:08,680 Speaker 1: happened with Atari. With the games got so bad. I 636 00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:11,000 Speaker 1: mean there are hundreds and hundreds. We talked about this 637 00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:15,400 Speaker 1: in the ET game episode, like ET gets unfairly piled 638 00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:18,400 Speaker 1: upon because it was just such a big release, but 639 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:23,200 Speaker 1: there were far worst games released on the Atari system, 640 00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:25,920 Speaker 1: hundreds and hundreds of really really bad games that just 641 00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:29,120 Speaker 1: no one even remembers. And Nintendo saw this play out 642 00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:32,280 Speaker 1: in America and knew that they couldn't let that happen 643 00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:37,040 Speaker 1: to them, So they designed a proprietary system where you 644 00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:40,520 Speaker 1: could only play officially licensed Anys games. It created a 645 00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:45,240 Speaker 1: lock chip on their circuit board and only Nintendo officially 646 00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:48,920 Speaker 1: licensed games or manufactured games had the lock key or 647 00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:53,200 Speaker 1: the key chip to unlock it. And that really kept 648 00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:56,160 Speaker 1: quality control, you know, under their wing. They said even 649 00:33:56,200 --> 00:33:58,840 Speaker 1: to third parties, they said, you can only make two 650 00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:01,840 Speaker 1: of these games a year, Like, don't come at us 651 00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:04,320 Speaker 1: with two hundred games, Like make something really really good 652 00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:07,480 Speaker 1: that will approve of and we will put the Nintendo 653 00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:09,879 Speaker 1: Celo of Quality on the front of the cover. 654 00:34:10,719 --> 00:34:13,920 Speaker 3: Yeah. Like they were really nitpicky too, Like as you 655 00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:17,239 Speaker 3: were developing the game, you needed to send Nintendo like 656 00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:22,080 Speaker 3: explanations of the gameplay, the characters, the design, all that stuff, 657 00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:24,160 Speaker 3: and Nintendo would make notes and send it back and 658 00:34:24,200 --> 00:34:28,200 Speaker 3: make you change stuff. And that's what you could do 659 00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:31,160 Speaker 3: if you had eighty percent of the market as far 660 00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:34,279 Speaker 3: as video games were, because people had to come to you. 661 00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:36,759 Speaker 3: And it was really smart for them to just kind 662 00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:40,520 Speaker 3: of protect their intellectual property like that because it was 663 00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:47,040 Speaker 3: so good. But they were basically so heavy handed about it. Yeah, 664 00:34:47,080 --> 00:34:49,719 Speaker 3: that they were actually investigated by the FTC at one 665 00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:52,120 Speaker 3: point for their licensing practices. 666 00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:54,800 Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, anytime you control that much of a market, 667 00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:56,320 Speaker 1: the FTC is gonna sniff around. 668 00:34:56,840 --> 00:34:57,040 Speaker 3: Yeah. 669 00:34:57,280 --> 00:35:00,000 Speaker 1: And there were other companies out there trying to boo 670 00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:03,719 Speaker 1: led games still. There was one called ten Gen that 671 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:06,760 Speaker 1: had a few license games, but they wanted more money, 672 00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:10,000 Speaker 1: and so they went to the patent office and said, hey, 673 00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:12,239 Speaker 1: can we take a look at that patent for these 674 00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:14,879 Speaker 1: lock and key chips, and they said, sure, here it is, 675 00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:21,520 Speaker 1: and so they I guess illegally because they ended up 676 00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:24,960 Speaker 1: getting sued and Nintendo won. So, I mean, I don't 677 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:27,600 Speaker 1: know how that patent law works. I wasn't. I'm surprised 678 00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:29,319 Speaker 1: that you could just go get a patent and rip 679 00:35:29,360 --> 00:35:29,719 Speaker 1: it off. 680 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:34,560 Speaker 3: Well, you're supposed to improve upon it. They seem to 681 00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:36,719 Speaker 3: have just ripped it off. But I think it's one 682 00:35:36,719 --> 00:35:38,960 Speaker 3: of those things that I was like, gray illegal, gray 683 00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:42,040 Speaker 3: area that wouldn't be decided anywhere outside of court. 684 00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:44,000 Speaker 1: Okay, makes it, you know what I mean. 685 00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:46,920 Speaker 3: Yeah, So they just tangan rolled the dice and they 686 00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:52,400 Speaker 3: lost essentially, Okay, I think. So, I see, I've actually 687 00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:54,520 Speaker 3: heard it both ways. I just wanted to fill it 688 00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:58,280 Speaker 3: out by saying the other. So there's this YouTuber named 689 00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:01,520 Speaker 3: Ninten Drew and he has a called ten Weird nes 690 00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:05,120 Speaker 3: Facts and he talks about that that key chip thing 691 00:36:05,239 --> 00:36:07,239 Speaker 3: where people were trying to get around it, and he 692 00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:11,440 Speaker 3: said other companies didn't even bother to come up with 693 00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:14,520 Speaker 3: a chip. They just used a low voltage spike to 694 00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:19,000 Speaker 3: scramble the brains of the lock chip so that it 695 00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:21,400 Speaker 3: wouldn't work anymore, and now the game could be played. 696 00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:25,240 Speaker 3: And as an example, he used he used a game 697 00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:31,960 Speaker 3: from the developer tree and it was for Bible Adventures. No, 698 00:36:32,040 --> 00:36:33,719 Speaker 3: I've never even heard of it, but if you put 699 00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:36,759 Speaker 3: Bible Adventures in your NES, it would scramble its brain 700 00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:38,600 Speaker 3: so that you could play Bible Adventures. 701 00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:41,280 Speaker 1: I would think some of these might endanger the game 702 00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:42,800 Speaker 1: console itself. 703 00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:45,520 Speaker 3: You'd think, so, yeah, it's pretty pretty reckless. 704 00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:47,560 Speaker 1: Yeah, Jesus killed by Nintendo. 705 00:36:48,360 --> 00:36:48,640 Speaker 3: Right. 706 00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:53,319 Speaker 1: Uh so Rob did not work out. Poor Rob did 707 00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:55,919 Speaker 1: its job and got its foot, the little robotic foot 708 00:36:55,960 --> 00:36:59,640 Speaker 1: in the door. But kids were like, this is not 709 00:36:59,719 --> 00:37:03,040 Speaker 1: so playing these games, these two games with Rob isn't 710 00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:05,480 Speaker 1: where it's at. It's really Super Mario and all these 711 00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:08,920 Speaker 1: other games, and so Rob, you know, Dave kind of 712 00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:12,200 Speaker 1: funnily points out Rob inevitably ended up kind of in 713 00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:15,239 Speaker 1: the closet of every kid that probably owned one, and 714 00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:19,400 Speaker 1: it just became about that NES system. But that's not 715 00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:22,840 Speaker 1: to say all those peripheries were not a success, because 716 00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:26,960 Speaker 1: that zapper and the game Duck Hunt were both big 717 00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:30,200 Speaker 1: deals that kids loved to play. 718 00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:34,400 Speaker 3: Yeah, and I did not realize this, but the laser gone, 719 00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:38,319 Speaker 3: what was it? Called the zapper. It was not. It 720 00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:41,000 Speaker 3: didn't shoot anything at your TV because if you stop 721 00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:42,680 Speaker 3: and think about it, your TV's not set up to 722 00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:45,160 Speaker 3: accept that kind of thing, or your TV screen certainly is. 723 00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:48,239 Speaker 3: So what happened instead is it was a light detector. 724 00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:52,239 Speaker 3: So when you pulled the trigger on the zapper, your 725 00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:56,920 Speaker 3: screen in just a nanosecond, maybe a little slower than that, 726 00:37:57,080 --> 00:37:59,720 Speaker 3: but still faster than you could register it, the screen 727 00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:02,239 Speaker 3: went and whatever ducks are on the screen turned into 728 00:38:02,239 --> 00:38:06,680 Speaker 3: white squares. And if you had the zapper pointing at 729 00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:09,600 Speaker 3: the duck when you took the shot, the zapper would 730 00:38:09,680 --> 00:38:12,600 Speaker 3: register that white flash of light that was a duck 731 00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:15,600 Speaker 3: that square, and it would register it as a hit. 732 00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:18,760 Speaker 3: That's how the zapper worked, which is pretty ingenious. 733 00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:21,879 Speaker 1: Very ingenious. And the kid thinks it's a laser gun 734 00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:24,160 Speaker 1: because they don't know how that stuff works exactly. 735 00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:27,520 Speaker 3: There is no kid who picked up the zapper and 736 00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:28,680 Speaker 3: didn't go beep beep. 737 00:38:30,239 --> 00:38:32,040 Speaker 1: All right, I guess here a minute forty, we'll take 738 00:38:32,080 --> 00:38:35,799 Speaker 1: our second break, and we'll come back and talk a 739 00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:38,080 Speaker 1: little bit about what happened next. 740 00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:02,680 Speaker 3: Okay, Chuck. So there were a couple of other peripherals 741 00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:07,000 Speaker 3: that came along that were as man as Rob was, 742 00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:10,080 Speaker 3: maybe even a little Mayor. One was the power Pad, 743 00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:12,960 Speaker 3: the other was the power Glove. And again these were 744 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:15,879 Speaker 3: things that were really cool and helped advance the any 745 00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:17,960 Speaker 3: system and made a bunch of money for everybody, but 746 00:39:18,560 --> 00:39:20,279 Speaker 3: when you played with them, they weren't very good. 747 00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:24,879 Speaker 1: Yeah, the power pad is was a pad. It had 748 00:39:24,920 --> 00:39:27,759 Speaker 1: another use from another company. It was called a fun 749 00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:31,799 Speaker 1: and Fitness pad from Bandai, and Nintendo bought them out 750 00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:35,160 Speaker 1: and basically repackaged it and said, hey, now you can 751 00:39:35,200 --> 00:39:37,799 Speaker 1: do like track and field games by running on this 752 00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:41,680 Speaker 1: dumb thing. And that technology is still very popular, like 753 00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:45,479 Speaker 1: if you go to arcades, those dance games, and there's 754 00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:47,640 Speaker 1: still like I played one not too long ago with 755 00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:50,400 Speaker 1: my daughter, daved Busters, where you do like track and 756 00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:54,080 Speaker 1: field stuff is still around. But at home a kid 757 00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:57,239 Speaker 1: isn't going to do like they're inside kids because they 758 00:39:57,239 --> 00:39:59,600 Speaker 1: don't want to be outside running around. Yeah, they want 759 00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:00,919 Speaker 1: to be on the ca ouch. And so the power 760 00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:02,920 Speaker 1: pad didn't go so well. It ended up in the 761 00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:08,279 Speaker 1: closet with Rob almost called him a rod. And then 762 00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:12,480 Speaker 1: that glove though, the power glove, it was really cool 763 00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:15,759 Speaker 1: and it looks cool today like if imagine people buy 764 00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:19,120 Speaker 1: these just for Halloween costumes because it looks kind of neat. 765 00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:24,120 Speaker 1: But Punch Out, which is a great boxing game, Power 766 00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:26,160 Speaker 1: Glove was kind of the only game where you really 767 00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:29,720 Speaker 1: maximized what you could get out of the glove, right. 768 00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:33,719 Speaker 3: I also saw there's a scene in the Fred Savage 769 00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:36,239 Speaker 3: movie The Wizard where this kid pulls out a power 770 00:40:36,239 --> 00:40:38,719 Speaker 3: Glove and plays rad Racer. So he's using it like 771 00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:42,520 Speaker 3: he's he's steering. But it just they didn't really develop 772 00:40:42,560 --> 00:40:45,719 Speaker 3: any game specifically for the power Glove, so it ended 773 00:40:45,800 --> 00:40:49,919 Speaker 3: up it was a little bit because they da've likens 774 00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:52,640 Speaker 3: it to WE. Eventually Nintendo came out with the WE system, 775 00:40:52,680 --> 00:40:56,919 Speaker 3: which used essentially the same kind of technology, but yeah, 776 00:40:56,920 --> 00:40:58,480 Speaker 3: it was ahead of its time, so it ended up 777 00:40:58,560 --> 00:41:00,680 Speaker 3: in the closet with the power pad and. 778 00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:02,000 Speaker 1: Rob no Man clause. 779 00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:06,759 Speaker 3: It's kind full exactly, but as kind of clunky as 780 00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:11,480 Speaker 3: those were. That controller we talked about that was revolutionary. 781 00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:13,880 Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a writer, a game pro named ty K 782 00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:16,799 Speaker 1: Kim who came up with this cool analogy that they found, 783 00:41:16,880 --> 00:41:20,040 Speaker 1: which is that what Nintendo had landed on with that 784 00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:25,680 Speaker 1: controller was what Kim referenced as the language of console gaming, 785 00:41:26,480 --> 00:41:29,120 Speaker 1: and that really kind of locks it down as to 786 00:41:29,160 --> 00:41:31,560 Speaker 1: what they did. Like you know, we were talking earlier 787 00:41:31,560 --> 00:41:35,000 Speaker 1: about that first nes brick. You know, it was all 788 00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:37,960 Speaker 1: kind of there, like they grew and morphed, but that 789 00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:43,120 Speaker 1: directional pad was revolutionary. Those buttons were revolutionary, and they 790 00:41:43,200 --> 00:41:47,560 Speaker 1: landed on the idea of a kid holding something in 791 00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:51,960 Speaker 1: their two hands and mainly using their thumbs to operate it. 792 00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:55,680 Speaker 1: Thumbs and pointer fingers, I guess now, but mainly thumbs. 793 00:41:55,920 --> 00:41:58,719 Speaker 3: Yeah, because with the Atari joystick you would use your 794 00:41:58,719 --> 00:42:01,240 Speaker 3: thumb for the red but but you used your whole 795 00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:05,160 Speaker 3: hand to move the joystick. This was just totally different, 796 00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:09,320 Speaker 3: and it was really simple. It was really sleek. Everything 797 00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:12,400 Speaker 3: was laid out just right, and it was it was 798 00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:14,719 Speaker 3: just so perfectly made out of the gate that, like 799 00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:18,040 Speaker 3: you're saying, it just laid the groundwork for all of 800 00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:22,280 Speaker 3: the console controllers to come even today still it's based 801 00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:22,920 Speaker 3: on those. 802 00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:25,560 Speaker 1: Yeah, they had. It didn't start there. They had it 803 00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:28,840 Speaker 1: initially on this handheld game called a Game and Watch, 804 00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:30,960 Speaker 1: which if you look this it looks like it's sort 805 00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:33,839 Speaker 1: of the predecessor to the game Boy, and it's called 806 00:42:33,840 --> 00:42:38,280 Speaker 1: a Game and Watch because it had a clock on it, 807 00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:40,360 Speaker 1: so it told told the time in it was a game, 808 00:42:40,719 --> 00:42:42,080 Speaker 1: so they call it the game and Watch. But that's 809 00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:46,600 Speaker 1: where the dpad came from. And Donkey Kong is a 810 00:42:46,640 --> 00:42:51,839 Speaker 1: game that really took great advantage of the D pad, 811 00:42:52,040 --> 00:42:55,920 Speaker 1: and it was it just seemed like the natural. And 812 00:42:55,960 --> 00:42:59,480 Speaker 1: now they make the little mini joysticks which are which 813 00:42:59,480 --> 00:43:04,160 Speaker 1: are great, but some I think the I think the Xbox. 814 00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:06,359 Speaker 1: Do they have joy stix or do they still use 815 00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:06,960 Speaker 1: that depad? 816 00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:10,080 Speaker 3: I don't know, remember addicted, so I gave it up. 817 00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:12,240 Speaker 1: So you never played an Xbox? 818 00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:16,800 Speaker 3: No, No, I've seen ads for it, but I can't 819 00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:17,920 Speaker 3: recall the controller. 820 00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:21,960 Speaker 1: Yeah, I played a lot of my same friend John Pindell, 821 00:43:22,120 --> 00:43:25,239 Speaker 1: who you know. John's backstage in New York. John, he 822 00:43:25,600 --> 00:43:28,800 Speaker 1: had the N sixty four. He was my Golden Eye partner. 823 00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:32,000 Speaker 1: But he also got an Xbox and we were both 824 00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:36,279 Speaker 1: addicted to the Tony Hawk skating game for about a year. 825 00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:39,320 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that was a good game. 826 00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:41,080 Speaker 1: And that was a game that carried with you in 827 00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:43,440 Speaker 1: real life because if you played enough Tony Hawk, you 828 00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:45,760 Speaker 1: would just someone who'd never skateboarded. You would be walking 829 00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:47,720 Speaker 1: around in the world and going like I could totally 830 00:43:47,800 --> 00:43:52,200 Speaker 1: grind that gutter on top of that that roof. It's 831 00:43:52,239 --> 00:43:52,880 Speaker 1: pretty funny. 832 00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:57,120 Speaker 3: So the another thing that those controllers did was give 833 00:43:57,200 --> 00:43:59,799 Speaker 3: us the cheat code. Yeah, I guess you could conceivably 834 00:43:59,800 --> 00:44:02,240 Speaker 3: do it on like an Atari joystick. But they really 835 00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:05,960 Speaker 3: came along thanks to the NES because there was a 836 00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:09,759 Speaker 3: developer who was trying to turn the arcade game Gradius 837 00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:13,520 Speaker 3: into a Nintendo game, and it was really hard, so 838 00:44:13,719 --> 00:44:16,880 Speaker 3: he created this cheat code to make it easier to 839 00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:18,800 Speaker 3: kind of game test for him so he wouldn't have 840 00:44:18,840 --> 00:44:24,680 Speaker 3: to start over every time, and is extraordinarily famous. Up up, down, down, left, right, left, right, 841 00:44:24,719 --> 00:44:28,200 Speaker 3: be a start. And that's called the Konami code because 842 00:44:28,239 --> 00:44:30,680 Speaker 3: the guy worked for Konami and it worked for Gradius, 843 00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:33,160 Speaker 3: but he became much more famous with the game Contra. 844 00:44:33,719 --> 00:44:35,920 Speaker 1: I never I guess you played a lot of Contra probably, 845 00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:38,480 Speaker 1: huh for sure? Now what was Contra? I don't even know. 846 00:44:39,400 --> 00:44:43,480 Speaker 3: It was a really kind of groundbreaking shooter game where 847 00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:47,280 Speaker 3: I saw it described well as like a cross between 848 00:44:47,400 --> 00:44:51,880 Speaker 3: Rambo and Aliens. Ah. Okay, so if I remember correctly, 849 00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:54,080 Speaker 3: you're into some sort of weird other world and you 850 00:44:54,160 --> 00:44:56,400 Speaker 3: and your buddy are kind of like buff and where 851 00:44:56,440 --> 00:45:00,600 Speaker 3: like headbands and you have like spiky blonde hair. Oh yeah, 852 00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:02,480 Speaker 3: but and you just shoot all sorts of stuff and 853 00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:04,680 Speaker 3: it's really neat because you get different kinds of weapons 854 00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:07,440 Speaker 3: that shoot in different ways. And now you're like, this 855 00:45:07,560 --> 00:45:10,040 Speaker 3: is clunky and old, But at the time it was, 856 00:45:10,239 --> 00:45:13,080 Speaker 3: there was just again, nothing like it on the market, 857 00:45:13,480 --> 00:45:15,600 Speaker 3: Like a lot of the games that we understand today 858 00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:18,040 Speaker 3: originated on the NES. 859 00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:21,160 Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, I think I've seen Contra that sounds familiar. 860 00:45:21,640 --> 00:45:24,239 Speaker 3: But if you did the up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, 861 00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:27,040 Speaker 3: BA start with Contra, if you did it at the 862 00:45:27,120 --> 00:45:31,160 Speaker 3: intro screen right before the game started, you would get 863 00:45:31,160 --> 00:45:34,360 Speaker 3: thirty extra lives which you could use to great effect. 864 00:45:34,800 --> 00:45:39,200 Speaker 1: Oh that's great. They ended up it's a staggering number, 865 00:45:39,280 --> 00:45:42,400 Speaker 1: still considering that they were kept a sort of a 866 00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:44,960 Speaker 1: heavy hand on the amount of games being produced, but 867 00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:48,680 Speaker 1: they ended up with close to seven hundred games for 868 00:45:48,800 --> 00:45:54,640 Speaker 1: the original NES. And I think in ninety five is 869 00:45:54,640 --> 00:45:57,640 Speaker 1: when they launched the sixteen bit No No No Super 870 00:45:57,680 --> 00:46:00,680 Speaker 1: Niningenda was ninety one, and that was the one that 871 00:46:00,760 --> 00:46:02,560 Speaker 1: I guess my roommate had where I ended up playing 872 00:46:02,600 --> 00:46:05,919 Speaker 1: a lot of Super Mario and then Super Mario two 873 00:46:05,920 --> 00:46:09,200 Speaker 1: and three of course came along. We already mentioned punch Out. 874 00:46:09,239 --> 00:46:11,560 Speaker 1: That was I remember playing punch Out. That was a 875 00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:14,719 Speaker 1: great game. Mike Tyson was the biggest boxer in the 876 00:46:14,719 --> 00:46:17,479 Speaker 1: world at the time. But there is a little fun 877 00:46:17,480 --> 00:46:19,600 Speaker 1: fact that Dave dug up and I think I remember this, 878 00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:23,960 Speaker 1: but the arcade punch Out had a boxer. The Russian 879 00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:29,960 Speaker 1: boxer's name was Vodka drunken Ski, so great. 880 00:46:30,160 --> 00:46:33,320 Speaker 3: And he got changed to Soda Popinski very famously. Anyone 881 00:46:33,320 --> 00:46:36,359 Speaker 3: who played punch Out is very familiar with Soda Popinski. 882 00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:40,319 Speaker 3: And one of the big revelations of my childhood was 883 00:46:40,320 --> 00:46:42,880 Speaker 3: that the great tiger who wore a turban with a 884 00:46:42,960 --> 00:46:46,040 Speaker 3: gem on it. His gem flashed before he came at 885 00:46:46,080 --> 00:46:48,840 Speaker 3: you to throw a punch. When I realized that you 886 00:46:48,880 --> 00:46:52,040 Speaker 3: could pretict it, yeah, it just changed my life. 887 00:46:52,600 --> 00:46:54,360 Speaker 1: That's funny. It changed your line. 888 00:46:54,680 --> 00:46:55,000 Speaker 3: It did. 889 00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:57,960 Speaker 1: Hey, you might never become a podcaster. You never know. 890 00:46:58,239 --> 00:47:02,719 Speaker 3: It's possible. That whole glass or the sliding doors, glass. 891 00:47:02,440 --> 00:47:05,399 Speaker 1: Doors, yeah, the glass ceiling, yeah, different thing. 892 00:47:06,120 --> 00:47:09,160 Speaker 3: So what else, Chuck, There's some other ones too that 893 00:47:09,200 --> 00:47:10,120 Speaker 3: we have to shout out. 894 00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:12,560 Speaker 1: Well, I'll shout out Tetris because that's a game I 895 00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:16,200 Speaker 1: played a lot on the game Boy talk about addictive, 896 00:47:16,280 --> 00:47:20,440 Speaker 1: Tetris was super addictive. I think I literally owe Tetris 897 00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:24,120 Speaker 1: to my car packing skills today when we go on 898 00:47:24,239 --> 00:47:26,160 Speaker 1: road trips and stuff, Emily, I always still jokes like, 899 00:47:26,239 --> 00:47:29,479 Speaker 1: Chuck is going to Tetris this thing. It was great. 900 00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:33,680 Speaker 1: Tetris is a very simple game. If you've never played it, 901 00:47:33,680 --> 00:47:37,120 Speaker 1: it's uh oh, I don't even know if it's worth describing, 902 00:47:37,200 --> 00:47:40,400 Speaker 1: but it's It's a game where you stacked different shaped 903 00:47:40,440 --> 00:47:43,480 Speaker 1: blocks right, and when you got solid lines, a line 904 00:47:43,480 --> 00:47:46,040 Speaker 1: would disappear, and the whole goal of this game is 905 00:47:46,080 --> 00:47:48,439 Speaker 1: to to keep those lines low. And as it built 906 00:47:48,520 --> 00:47:50,960 Speaker 1: higher and higher and higher, there was less room for 907 00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:53,560 Speaker 1: those blocks to drop, and it would go seemingly go 908 00:47:53,640 --> 00:47:54,400 Speaker 1: faster and faster. 909 00:47:56,120 --> 00:48:00,040 Speaker 3: Very yeah, especially as they just kept building up and 910 00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:03,480 Speaker 3: they're dropping then it's like it drops right onto another block. 911 00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:06,399 Speaker 3: You're up that high. It's just like you know, it's 912 00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:08,600 Speaker 3: just it is very stressful, it is, but it was 913 00:48:08,640 --> 00:48:09,200 Speaker 3: fun well. 914 00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:12,279 Speaker 1: And it's also I think one of the more satisfying 915 00:48:12,320 --> 00:48:15,919 Speaker 1: games ever invented in that when you would things would 916 00:48:15,960 --> 00:48:18,680 Speaker 1: get a little hairy, and if you got like two 917 00:48:18,719 --> 00:48:21,000 Speaker 1: in a row of the exact ones that you needed 918 00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:23,680 Speaker 1: and made I think it was a Tetris when you 919 00:48:23,719 --> 00:48:25,799 Speaker 1: got like was it like five or was it four? 920 00:48:26,440 --> 00:48:29,200 Speaker 3: I don't remember, blobably four because the tallest block was 921 00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:29,719 Speaker 3: four high? 922 00:48:29,840 --> 00:48:31,879 Speaker 1: Was it four high? But it would make all four 923 00:48:31,920 --> 00:48:33,640 Speaker 1: disappear at once, And if you got a couple of 924 00:48:33,640 --> 00:48:37,000 Speaker 1: those and you went from like seventy percent high to 925 00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:40,080 Speaker 1: down to like twenty percent in an instant, there's no 926 00:48:40,160 --> 00:48:41,279 Speaker 1: feeling like that. 927 00:48:41,840 --> 00:48:44,759 Speaker 3: No, No, Tetris was pretty good. I loved it too. 928 00:48:44,840 --> 00:48:45,480 Speaker 1: It was awesome. 929 00:48:45,960 --> 00:48:47,520 Speaker 3: I want to shout out some other ones. There was 930 00:48:47,560 --> 00:48:52,759 Speaker 3: another one, Metroid, which I rented countless times for an 931 00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:55,960 Speaker 3: entire weekend from Blockbuster, and it would spend the entire 932 00:48:56,000 --> 00:48:58,600 Speaker 3: weekend with friends trying to beat it. And if I 933 00:48:58,640 --> 00:49:02,120 Speaker 3: remember correctly, I never beat Metroid. But it was really 934 00:49:02,120 --> 00:49:04,719 Speaker 3: groundbreaking in that there wasn't like some path you had 935 00:49:04,719 --> 00:49:07,239 Speaker 3: to stick to, like you were meant to explore these 936 00:49:07,320 --> 00:49:11,359 Speaker 3: vast areas and find stuff before you could advance to 937 00:49:11,400 --> 00:49:15,000 Speaker 3: the next level. That was pretty new actually, So Metroid 938 00:49:15,040 --> 00:49:16,960 Speaker 3: was groundbreaking too. And then there are other ones that 939 00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:19,319 Speaker 3: were just fun to play, like ice hockey. Did you 940 00:49:19,320 --> 00:49:19,959 Speaker 3: play that one. 941 00:49:21,360 --> 00:49:23,440 Speaker 1: I was always into sports games, so I was. I 942 00:49:23,480 --> 00:49:27,319 Speaker 1: played hockey and golf and what about tennis? Tennis? I 943 00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:27,919 Speaker 1: played all those. 944 00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:30,720 Speaker 3: It was fun. Did you play the MLB Baseball game. 945 00:49:31,120 --> 00:49:32,520 Speaker 1: I'm not sure if I played that one. 946 00:49:32,840 --> 00:49:36,759 Speaker 3: That one was very addictive. RC pro Am Ductails was 947 00:49:36,800 --> 00:49:39,279 Speaker 3: actually a lot of fun. And then there was an 948 00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:41,799 Speaker 3: army one called jack Hole. And then if you liked 949 00:49:41,800 --> 00:49:44,200 Speaker 3: skateboarding at the time, which I did, there was Skate 950 00:49:44,280 --> 00:49:46,680 Speaker 3: or Die, which was pretty good, but my money was 951 00:49:46,680 --> 00:49:50,600 Speaker 3: on Town and Country Designs Skate and Surf I think 952 00:49:50,640 --> 00:49:53,160 Speaker 3: it was called, and you could skateboard and then you 953 00:49:53,160 --> 00:49:55,040 Speaker 3: would go surf and it was a lot of fun 954 00:49:55,080 --> 00:49:55,640 Speaker 3: to play too. 955 00:49:55,840 --> 00:49:59,120 Speaker 1: Yeah. I was so into the sports games, and I 956 00:49:59,160 --> 00:50:04,719 Speaker 1: still play the PlayStation what is it, PGA two K 957 00:50:04,880 --> 00:50:06,359 Speaker 1: for their golf game. It's still a lot of fun. 958 00:50:06,360 --> 00:50:09,480 Speaker 1: But I played. I was addicted to the Atari Beach 959 00:50:09,560 --> 00:50:14,440 Speaker 1: volleyball game, wherein it was two players aside and both 960 00:50:14,520 --> 00:50:18,839 Speaker 1: players were connected to one another. They could not move independently, 961 00:50:19,719 --> 00:50:22,200 Speaker 1: so when you're moving your joystick around, they're both running 962 00:50:22,239 --> 00:50:23,600 Speaker 1: in the exact same pattern. 963 00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:27,000 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's hilarious. That sounds. It reminds me of another 964 00:50:27,040 --> 00:50:29,520 Speaker 3: game that Dave dug up called Chase the Chuck Wagon, 965 00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:32,000 Speaker 3: which was just about as bad as it got for 966 00:50:32,040 --> 00:50:35,080 Speaker 3: atari where a dog chases the wagon from the chuck 967 00:50:35,120 --> 00:50:36,000 Speaker 3: Wagon commercials. 968 00:50:36,040 --> 00:50:37,000 Speaker 1: It's a branded game. 969 00:50:37,320 --> 00:50:40,120 Speaker 3: Poop out, Yeah, who would have thought? And then it 970 00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:42,279 Speaker 3: would poop out like food and the dog would eat 971 00:50:42,320 --> 00:50:44,080 Speaker 3: the food. That was like the point of the game. 972 00:50:44,800 --> 00:50:46,560 Speaker 1: You should speak a little bit about Zelda though, the 973 00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:49,000 Speaker 1: legend of Zelda. That's a game again that by the 974 00:50:49,080 --> 00:50:51,799 Speaker 1: time that came out, it felt like a kid's thing, 975 00:50:53,440 --> 00:50:56,560 Speaker 1: and again we couldn't afford an nes So what was 976 00:50:56,640 --> 00:50:57,680 Speaker 1: Zelda all about? 977 00:50:58,239 --> 00:51:03,319 Speaker 3: So I never liked Zeldah. It did something to my 978 00:51:03,520 --> 00:51:06,880 Speaker 3: mind or my brain that was not comfortable. I don't 979 00:51:06,920 --> 00:51:09,879 Speaker 3: know why. Wow, It's almost like have you ever what's 980 00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:11,640 Speaker 3: your grocery store? Kroger, Republics? 981 00:51:11,640 --> 00:51:14,280 Speaker 1: I can't remember both, but generally publics. 982 00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:17,080 Speaker 3: Okay. So there's a lot of people out there who 983 00:51:17,080 --> 00:51:19,680 Speaker 3: are only publics and only Kroger. And I think my 984 00:51:19,840 --> 00:51:22,000 Speaker 3: theory is is that they're laid out in a certain 985 00:51:22,040 --> 00:51:24,560 Speaker 3: way that they appeal to one type of person and 986 00:51:24,600 --> 00:51:26,560 Speaker 3: then the other one appeals to a different type of person. 987 00:51:26,840 --> 00:51:29,080 Speaker 3: So if you are a public's person and you go 988 00:51:29,120 --> 00:51:32,480 Speaker 3: into a Kroger. It feels weird and out of place 989 00:51:32,520 --> 00:51:35,800 Speaker 3: and reality is just slightly askew. That's how Legend of 990 00:51:35,840 --> 00:51:38,000 Speaker 3: Zelda Baby feels. So I never got into it, but 991 00:51:38,280 --> 00:51:41,240 Speaker 3: I know some people like have essentially dedicated their lives 992 00:51:41,280 --> 00:51:45,240 Speaker 3: to that game, like beyond playing, it's like probably dress 993 00:51:45,320 --> 00:51:48,080 Speaker 3: up as link the main character, have like all sorts 994 00:51:48,120 --> 00:51:50,360 Speaker 3: of toys and stuff like that. Like, Legend of Zelda 995 00:51:50,480 --> 00:51:51,279 Speaker 3: was really big too. 996 00:51:51,520 --> 00:51:54,279 Speaker 1: Yeah, and it was certainly not the first open role game, 997 00:51:54,320 --> 00:51:57,920 Speaker 1: but and I think there's not a solid agreement on 998 00:51:57,960 --> 00:52:01,200 Speaker 1: what that was. There are some arguments for the Great 999 00:52:01,560 --> 00:52:05,239 Speaker 1: Atari Game Adventure that was the first open world game 1000 00:52:05,280 --> 00:52:10,560 Speaker 1: I played, right, Really, your avatar was a square, but 1001 00:52:10,640 --> 00:52:12,840 Speaker 1: it was so much fun because you could go anywhere 1002 00:52:12,840 --> 00:52:14,959 Speaker 1: for the first time. It was really different and new. 1003 00:52:15,400 --> 00:52:18,120 Speaker 1: But I think Zelda is kind of regarded as the 1004 00:52:18,200 --> 00:52:21,840 Speaker 1: Legend of Zelda as one of the first open world 1005 00:52:22,360 --> 00:52:25,120 Speaker 1: like really good open world games. I guess right, Yeah, 1006 00:52:25,320 --> 00:52:26,440 Speaker 1: it advanced. 1007 00:52:25,960 --> 00:52:28,359 Speaker 3: Ones and it was by the same guy who did 1008 00:52:28,360 --> 00:52:32,719 Speaker 3: Super Mario Brothers, so that's not surprising. Yeah, what else 1009 00:52:32,760 --> 00:52:35,520 Speaker 3: you got, Chuck, I mean, not a whole lot else. 1010 00:52:35,560 --> 00:52:37,560 Speaker 1: I guess we should. We should definitely talk about blowing 1011 00:52:37,560 --> 00:52:40,720 Speaker 1: in those cartridges, because I even made that joke before 1012 00:52:40,760 --> 00:52:44,839 Speaker 1: we recorded because my microphone wasn't working and Dave, who's 1013 00:52:44,840 --> 00:52:47,400 Speaker 1: sitting in for Jerry, said, unplug the cable and just 1014 00:52:47,440 --> 00:52:49,200 Speaker 1: plug it back in. I said, should I blow in it? 1015 00:52:50,120 --> 00:52:52,680 Speaker 3: Right? And you don't want to? Actually? So did you 1016 00:52:52,760 --> 00:52:53,560 Speaker 3: know about that? Right? 1017 00:52:54,080 --> 00:52:57,080 Speaker 1: I blew in a lot of cartridges Atari cartridges too. 1018 00:52:57,560 --> 00:53:01,160 Speaker 3: So that was the thing. If you're Nintendo cartridge didn't work, 1019 00:53:02,200 --> 00:53:05,799 Speaker 3: you would take it out of the VCR like entry 1020 00:53:05,840 --> 00:53:09,399 Speaker 3: point and you would blow on it. Everyone blew on it, 1021 00:53:09,480 --> 00:53:11,160 Speaker 3: and you put it back in and it would work. 1022 00:53:11,600 --> 00:53:14,920 Speaker 3: The thing is, it wasn't doing anything when you blew 1023 00:53:14,920 --> 00:53:17,160 Speaker 3: on it. You weren't helping it. It just hadn't made 1024 00:53:17,200 --> 00:53:19,520 Speaker 3: the correct connection the first time. So when you took 1025 00:53:19,520 --> 00:53:22,160 Speaker 3: it out and put it back in, the chances were 1026 00:53:22,200 --> 00:53:24,520 Speaker 3: that you were making the correct connection then and then 1027 00:53:24,560 --> 00:53:26,839 Speaker 3: the game would work. But you, being a dumb ten 1028 00:53:26,920 --> 00:53:28,680 Speaker 3: year old, thought, well, I blew on it, so that 1029 00:53:28,760 --> 00:53:33,560 Speaker 3: fixed it. But the Nintendo long said do not blow 1030 00:53:33,600 --> 00:53:36,360 Speaker 3: on these things. It's actually bad for them, and no 1031 00:53:36,440 --> 00:53:38,960 Speaker 3: one listened until there was this guy who came along 1032 00:53:39,040 --> 00:53:42,319 Speaker 3: and actually ran a study, the first, the world's first 1033 00:53:42,360 --> 00:53:46,160 Speaker 3: study on what blowing on a Nintendo cartridge. 1034 00:53:45,680 --> 00:53:48,640 Speaker 1: Does, and it didn't work. This is in twenty twelve. 1035 00:53:48,640 --> 00:53:51,759 Speaker 1: His name was Frankie Bitruelo. And you know it's a 1036 00:53:51,840 --> 00:53:54,319 Speaker 1: very rudimentary study, but I mean, how else you gonna 1037 00:53:54,320 --> 00:53:56,359 Speaker 1: do it. You're gonna have a control game you don't 1038 00:53:56,360 --> 00:53:59,240 Speaker 1: blow into, and you're gonna have a game you blow into. 1039 00:53:59,800 --> 00:54:02,960 Speaker 1: And after how long did he do this? 1040 00:54:03,160 --> 00:54:05,440 Speaker 3: Thirty days? Every day for thirty days. 1041 00:54:05,719 --> 00:54:08,439 Speaker 1: The guy spent a month blown on this game. Took 1042 00:54:08,480 --> 00:54:11,600 Speaker 1: this the blown cartridge out at the end and showed 1043 00:54:11,600 --> 00:54:15,120 Speaker 1: that it was. It was corroded and kind of gross. 1044 00:54:15,360 --> 00:54:19,080 Speaker 1: And it's funny, like you don't know what kid. You 1045 00:54:19,080 --> 00:54:22,520 Speaker 1: always wonder who invented this, because every kid did it, 1046 00:54:22,560 --> 00:54:25,560 Speaker 1: because every kid saw another kid do it, who just 1047 00:54:25,600 --> 00:54:28,120 Speaker 1: got it from some other kid. But it was just 1048 00:54:28,160 --> 00:54:29,960 Speaker 1: sort of known, like you would take it out and 1049 00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:31,600 Speaker 1: it was always the same thing. You would do it 1050 00:54:31,640 --> 00:54:35,520 Speaker 1: really quick and just go and like run the cartridge 1051 00:54:35,520 --> 00:54:37,319 Speaker 1: back and forth in front of your mouth and then 1052 00:54:37,480 --> 00:54:38,160 Speaker 1: stick it back in. 1053 00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:41,799 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that sound just triggered a tidal wave 1054 00:54:41,840 --> 00:54:44,799 Speaker 3: of nostalgia and Chuck, that was amazing. I don't remember that, 1055 00:54:45,680 --> 00:54:49,200 Speaker 3: so don't blow in your Nintendo cartridges people who still 1056 00:54:49,200 --> 00:54:51,680 Speaker 3: play Nintendo Original nes. 1057 00:54:51,320 --> 00:54:53,320 Speaker 1: Maybe should follow this up again one day. 1058 00:54:54,080 --> 00:54:55,960 Speaker 3: To do one on the music of Nintendo. 1059 00:54:56,239 --> 00:54:58,120 Speaker 1: Well, it just sort of everything we didn't cover because 1060 00:54:58,160 --> 00:55:00,800 Speaker 1: the n sixty four was such a big deal. And sure, 1061 00:55:01,440 --> 00:55:03,080 Speaker 1: I don't know, this could be a two part a 1062 00:55:03,160 --> 00:55:04,440 Speaker 1: separated by time and space. 1063 00:55:04,880 --> 00:55:07,640 Speaker 3: Okay, I like that idea, Chuck, Let's definitely do that. 1064 00:55:09,080 --> 00:55:11,040 Speaker 3: And in the meantime, since Chuck and I just hashed 1065 00:55:11,080 --> 00:55:14,080 Speaker 3: out a second part to this episode, of course, that 1066 00:55:14,280 --> 00:55:16,640 Speaker 3: means we've just unlocked listener mail. 1067 00:55:20,040 --> 00:55:24,319 Speaker 1: Maybe next Christmas it can be our you know, because 1068 00:55:24,320 --> 00:55:25,920 Speaker 1: this is kind of every year we try to do 1069 00:55:26,120 --> 00:55:27,440 Speaker 1: a toy, a famous toy. 1070 00:55:28,719 --> 00:55:30,720 Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I have the same thought. I just didn't 1071 00:55:30,719 --> 00:55:31,800 Speaker 3: want to spill the beans. 1072 00:55:31,960 --> 00:55:34,760 Speaker 1: Oh all right, consider them spilled. 1073 00:55:35,160 --> 00:55:36,600 Speaker 3: Yeah, they're spilled all over. 1074 00:55:36,560 --> 00:55:39,759 Speaker 1: All right, speaking of spilling all over, this is a 1075 00:55:39,760 --> 00:55:42,759 Speaker 1: correction that on something you said that I don't know 1076 00:55:42,760 --> 00:55:45,640 Speaker 1: how I didn't catch this, but it's the we'll call 1077 00:55:45,680 --> 00:55:51,520 Speaker 1: it the Great nutter butter Controversy of twenty two. Hey, guys, 1078 00:55:51,560 --> 00:55:53,399 Speaker 1: At the end of the Vaudeville episode. Josh said, it's 1079 00:55:53,440 --> 00:55:56,400 Speaker 1: weird how there were two types of Nutter butters and 1080 00:55:56,440 --> 00:55:59,520 Speaker 1: they're totally different, the wafery kind and then the peanut 1081 00:55:59,560 --> 00:56:02,080 Speaker 1: shaped cook And I don't remember what I said. It 1082 00:56:02,160 --> 00:56:06,000 Speaker 1: must have just been like, huh, I think that's exactly 1083 00:56:06,000 --> 00:56:08,120 Speaker 1: what you said. And you mentioned both of the same logo, 1084 00:56:08,200 --> 00:56:11,359 Speaker 1: same packaging, which is not true, just two different types 1085 00:56:11,360 --> 00:56:13,719 Speaker 1: of peanut butter cookies. And I guess this is what 1086 00:56:13,719 --> 00:56:15,160 Speaker 1: you're talking about beause we had a bunch of people 1087 00:56:15,239 --> 00:56:18,800 Speaker 1: right in. The peanut shaped cookies are the Nutter butters, Josh, 1088 00:56:18,840 --> 00:56:23,439 Speaker 1: but the other wafery treats are nutty buddy bars. Did 1089 00:56:23,480 --> 00:56:24,719 Speaker 1: you look? Is this what you meant? 1090 00:56:26,080 --> 00:56:26,160 Speaker 2: Now? 1091 00:56:26,239 --> 00:56:28,239 Speaker 3: I think this person is from an alternate Bear and 1092 00:56:28,320 --> 00:56:31,759 Speaker 3: Saine Bear's dimension, because in in our dimension that there 1093 00:56:31,840 --> 00:56:34,840 Speaker 3: it's the same thing, same package, same names, everything, just 1094 00:56:34,880 --> 00:56:35,600 Speaker 3: different cookies. 1095 00:56:35,680 --> 00:56:38,400 Speaker 1: But is the is the nutty buddy what you were 1096 00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:38,759 Speaker 1: thinking of? 1097 00:56:38,800 --> 00:56:38,960 Speaker 2: Though? 1098 00:56:39,040 --> 00:56:39,759 Speaker 1: Is what I want to know. 1099 00:56:40,600 --> 00:56:43,920 Speaker 3: In that person's dimension? Yes, okay, okay. 1100 00:56:44,560 --> 00:56:46,640 Speaker 1: It's easy to get a mixed up guys if you 1101 00:56:46,680 --> 00:56:53,200 Speaker 1: are not a true nut specialist. And Chuck didn't pick 1102 00:56:53,280 --> 00:56:55,880 Speaker 1: up on it, which was weird. Because I love both. 1103 00:56:56,120 --> 00:56:58,600 Speaker 1: I don't never buy these, of course, but boy, a 1104 00:56:58,600 --> 00:57:02,080 Speaker 1: little Debbie Nutty bar who so good. 1105 00:57:02,440 --> 00:57:04,920 Speaker 3: I think you would like the other version of Nutter Butters, 1106 00:57:04,920 --> 00:57:06,560 Speaker 3: the kind of wayfer you one. I think you would 1107 00:57:06,600 --> 00:57:07,279 Speaker 3: really like it. 1108 00:57:07,320 --> 00:57:10,040 Speaker 1: That's the Nutty Bar or the Nutty Buddy. 1109 00:57:10,840 --> 00:57:13,000 Speaker 3: No, that's the Nutter Butter. But I know what you're saying. 1110 00:57:14,239 --> 00:57:16,560 Speaker 3: Oh man, who wrote this email? 1111 00:57:16,840 --> 00:57:18,720 Speaker 1: This is George. I think George is going to be 1112 00:57:18,760 --> 00:57:19,760 Speaker 1: more confused now than ever. 1113 00:57:20,240 --> 00:57:24,400 Speaker 3: So George says, PS, gotta go, it's raining donuts again outside. 1114 00:57:26,400 --> 00:57:29,880 Speaker 3: Thanks a lot, George. We appreciate the dispatch from your dimension. 1115 00:57:30,320 --> 00:57:33,479 Speaker 3: Hopefully you guys are having a happy holiday season there too. 1116 00:57:33,960 --> 00:57:35,840 Speaker 3: And if you want to be like George and reach 1117 00:57:35,880 --> 00:57:38,880 Speaker 3: out and say hello, you can do that in an email. 1118 00:57:39,200 --> 00:57:45,720 Speaker 3: Send it to Stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. 1119 00:57:45,840 --> 00:57:48,720 Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For 1120 00:57:48,840 --> 00:57:53,000 Speaker 1: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 1121 00:57:53,120 --> 00:57:54,960 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.