Wednesday 31 July 2013

Episode 1 - Maybe We'll Leave It In

Celebrating the zeroth anniversary of our new meandering discussion podcast with our first episode, in which we discuss our opinions on things.

Topics include: 
Please let us know what you think in the comments!

Download here: 
Jim-PacBilly-001.mp3

or stream here:



13 comments:

  1. Thanks for the podcast!
    Please, make volume of your voices a bit higher next time.

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    1. Make the pitch of your voices higher, as well. Thanks.

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    2. Hehe! Will try to make sure audio is normalised next time.

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  2. Loved it. I especially loved the part about imagination and immersion. It's very interesting how we all perceive it differently. Makes me wonder how differently we perceive reality.

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    1. For instance, instead of the thing you perceive as the colour blue, I see it as actor Pat Harrington who played Schneider on One Day at a Time. And if you're thinking that Schneider always wore a blue vest, I perceived it as a Pat Harrington vest, so he was effectively wearing himself.

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  3. Needs a health warning - do not listen while consuming food. :) Headcheese when faced with a spoon of yogurt = bad combination :p

    Point 1: of course there is organic salt for sale out there. It is 99.98974389% fat free and has no sugar added too. So there.

    Point 2: I really didn't have a problem with volume, I used the streaming option. There is a very slight hiss, but not too much.

    Point 3: massively excited about Richard Garriot's new project. The Ultima series was my favorite series until The Elder Scrolls came along. I've never been keen on MMOs, this one sounds like it could be different though.

    Thing 4: a good game is certainly not all about the latest platform and the best graphics, even though gaming has always tried to push the hardware limits - at least from the PC perspective AKA my only perspective (GameBoy excepted). On the other hand, certain really great games reach their age limit eventually. I find Daggerfall really fiddly to pick up and play nowadays in comparison to Skyrim, for all that it was quite a remarkable experience.
    Pacbilly's point about certain games being less successful candidates for porting is well made though. Some of them are products of their platform and even if they were ported (and wow, what a labor of love that is) they won't bring hordes of new fans, rather it will be a nostalgia thing for people who already know and love the game.

    Random thought 5: graphics can be hugely effective in games too. I've been playing since the ugly old days of DOS in the late 80s / early 90s; and so I learned to love gaming where the game was a blur of big ole glare-y pixels and text. But for example, in Ultima 9 when I stood before the doors of Lord British's castle for the first time I remember grinning my head off because it felt like it was actually me in front of the actual doors that I had passed through countless time in previous years.
    (Okay, yes, the game was disappointing in many other ways, and didn't live up to 6 & 7. But there was a certain something that the new better graphics added.)

    Addendum: I struggle with first person games, I have no idea why, but I get utterly disoriented. It is useful - possibly even essential - for certain combat scenarios, especially any type of ranged fighting. But ultimately I need to be able to switch to third person if it is a game that requires exploring and roaming around in a large world.

    I apologise for the hubris of the long comment, I was writing this while I was listening. So technically the length is all your fault. :)

    This was pretty impressive for your first podcast, I look forward to the next one!

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    1. Haha, I wonder how that little bit of fat got in the salt.

      I know what you mean about Daggerfall. I knew I would have loved it back in the day but now it just doesn't work so well. I've been spoiled by more robust control systems and instant action. I wish I'd played it back then.

      I never played any of the Ultima games, but I can certainly see why it would be amazing to see an old location in a game after it had been through a graphical upgrade. It's not just about how pleasing to the eye or technically impressive it is, it's about how it changes the nature of the experience.

      Oddly I prefer the first person perspective for everything except driving games. For those I have to be in third person or I can't play it well.

      No worries about the long comment. It's great to get such detailed feedback. Glad you enjoyed the podcast :)

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  4. 1. Organic things have organs. Organic salt has someone's kidney in it.

    2. The hiss is there to give it that warm analog sound that everyone rocked out to in the 70s. So wait until you're in your 70s and rock out. Actually the hiss is the lesser of two evils, the greater being the digital artifcating that comes with noise reduction.

    3. It will be different. Hopefully. The only game in the Elder Scrolls series I've been exposed to is Skyrim, and I have to say it looks great! (I only played a little, when my friend need my help getting her past a bad guy.)

    4. I think it's not just a matter of nostalgia. There's something to be said for having new experiences on old hardware. Obsolescence doesn't invalidate a platform's potential for new enjoyment. You can revisit old friends for new fun. Most won't. I understand. But the hat that I don't actually own is off to anyone who takes the trouble to create the content.

    5. DOS ugly? Not since the advent of VGA, I assure you. Thick and meaty sprites. 256 wonderful colours. 320x200 or something. Graphics needn't have progressed beyond that state and we'd never want for anything. I'm happy they did progress though. Although the polygonal road was long and bumpy in places. Jagged in others.

    I know what you mean about first person disorientation. I get the same thing just walking around in real life.

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    1. Try staring at this for 5 hours, and see how your migraine likes it :)

      Behold the beauty of DOS:
      http://www.abandonia.com/files/games/843/Ultima%20V%20-%20Warriors%20of%20Destiny_5.png

      Also, I am shocked, shocked to hear about your shameful admission about The Elder Scrolls. Won't somebody think about the children?!
      (bad example, actually. The children are holy terrors in Skyrim.)

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    2. All I see in that screenshot is a breathtaking fantasy world rendered simply yet elegantly.

      Yeah I might give Elder Scrolls a go after I beat some of the other epic games I still have yet to finish.

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  5. The Monkees had a movie in 1968 called Head and the radio promos were just people saying, "Head.....coming.....soooooon..." over music and dialog from the movie and never mentioning the Monkees at all. So your dream was not so dissimilar from what actually existed in nature organically. Kind of.

    I didn't listen to anything else you guys said. The Monkees > everything.

    Just kidding, great podcast. Next time, more Monkees talk. Kidding again.

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    1. I'm not familiar with the type of thing you are saying, but I like it. We may or may not talk about the Monkees or the monkeys. The Secret of Monkees Island.

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    2. I've only seen bits and pieces of the movie, but it did give us The Porpoise, a song of which I am very fond. And it was co-written by Jack Nicholson and featured World's Greatest Sinner and two-time Kubrick alum Anthony Carey.

      Come to think of it, why haven't I seen it? I think I've seen every Monkees episode and the odd little reunion special they did a few years before Davey died. I should really watch Head to complete the experience.

      My favorite Monkees song has always been Cuddly Toy, which was penned (and originally performed) by Harry Nilsson.

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