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