Arrggh! A Video Game Podcast from The Waffling Taylors

Intro

This is a new type of shorter episode that we'll be putting out each month, called "THE LOOK BACK!". In these, we'll be looking back at the previous month's episodes and giving you a rundown of them. That way, if you somehow missed one, you can get the low down on what you missed. Pretty handy eh?

We'd still recommend that you check out the podcast proper. And if you haven't already, then look for us on your podcatcher of choice and subscribe. It's 100% free to do so, you know.

Before we , we’re a week late with the look back this month. The reason for that is super simple: I edit everything, and a fair few podcasters have reached out to have me edit their shows; including one who will be producing a physical product - which is exciting.

Anyway, tell the people what we released last month Jay

Episode 125 - Chief Andrew is Lost in Cult

This past month - September 2021 - we put out two brand new episodes. The first episode was an interview with friend of the show

We didn't release a teaser for this episode, because it would have been exceptionally difficult to distil all of the humour and deep game narrative analysis (sometimes happening at the same time) into a 2 minutes clip. Squidge actually tried to to this, and it ended up being a copy of the episode - in all its 95 minute glory.

Andrew Dickinson. We called this episode Chief Andrew Is Lost in Cult, as it was all about Andrew’s many, many, many many projects. These range from being the Editor in Chief of the Lost in Cult publication Lock-On, to being one of the hosts of Lost in Cult’s official podcast (Cult Cast), and writing volume two of his Dreamcast Years book and hosting the podcast of the same name.

We discussed the games we’d been playing recently, MiniDisc players (because both Andrew and I are fans of the format), the SteamDeck, and we gave him a chance to revisit the Thunder Plains and swap some of the games he’d be taking with him - this is due to the recent controversy with Activision, Ubisoft, and others.

We also came up with a long list of podcast ideas - all of which are in the show notes, so do give them a look. The last time I checked, there were around 13 new ideas in the episode.

Episode 126 - Locked On with Jason Maddison

Next up was an interview with another friend of the show Jason Maddison. Jason is the Technical Director at Lost in Cult

Indeed Russell.

Anyway, the episode with Jason was called: Locked On with Jason Maddison. It was the first episode to include a wonderful intro performed by our friend Morgan .

Keen listeners to the show will know that we’ve already spoken to Jason about Lock-On. Back in March, we had a chat with him and Jon Doyle in a bonus episode we called Bonus: lock-on Volume 1 - A Discussion on Passion.

But in this episode we discussed how Jason got involved with the Lost in Cult crew, his piece “I Have Lived” and how close to home it felt for both Jay and myself, and the phenomenon of some people not wanting to read their physical copies of Lock-On for fear of somehow destroying them.

But before we could get on to that, Jason and I had this exchange:

Once we’d figured out that philosophical problem, we asked Jason to give us the low down on the “I Have Lived” piece.

Coming up This Month

We thought we’d give a little teaser on what’s coming up this next month (October, 2021); remember to subscribe if you haven’t already.

First off, we’ll be finishing out trifecta of our interviews with Lock On folks with an interview with the big boss himself: Jon Doyle. In this episode, we’ll be talking about how Lost in Cult came to be, covering a little on his passion for design, and we’ll be ta...

This is a new type of shorter episode that we'll be putting out each month, called "THE LOOK BACK!". In these, we'll be looking back at the previous month's episodes and giving you a rundown of them. That way, if you somehow missed one, you can get the low down on what you missed. Pretty handy eh?

We'd still recommend that you check out the podcast proper. And if you haven't already, then look for us on your podcatcher of choice and subscribe. It's 100% free to do so, you know.

Intro

We usually do these Look Back episodes together, but Squidge was quite ill when we were planning to record it and ended up having to bow out in order to get better. So it's just me and RUSSELL this week folks. Anyway, roll the intro music RUSSELL.

This is a new type of shorter episode that we'll be putting out each month, called "THE LOOK BACK!". In these, we'll be looking back at the previous month's episodes and giving you a rundown of them. That way, if you somehow missed one, you can get the low down on what you missed. Pretty handy eh?

One quick note: we ended up putting out fewer episodes than we'd planned last month. We went into the reasons for this in our previous Look Back episode - so definitely give that a listen if you'd like to know why.

We'd still recommend that you check out the podcast proper. And if you haven't already, then look for us on your podcatcher of choice and subscribe. It's 100% free to do so, you know.

Make sure that you check out the show notes which should be showing in your podcatcher. There are a tonne of links in this episode, and they'll all be right there in your podcatcher. You can also read along with the episode if you wish.

We're also going to be doing something a little different with this month's Look Back, so stick around to find out what.

Episode 123 - Ten Minutes of TV Time with Morgan Ritson

This past month - August 2021 - we put out two brand new episodes. The first episode was an interview with a new friend of the show: Morgan Ritson; we called it Ten Minutes of TV Time with Morgan Ritson. Morgan is one heck of a funny guy, and we tried not to edit out too many of his jokes and skits.

We didn't release a teaser for this episode, because it would have been exceptionally difficult to distil all of the humour and deep game narrative analysis (sometimes happening at the same time) into a 2 minutes clip. Squidge actually tried to to this, and it ended up being a copy of the episode - in all its 95 minute glory.

Like I said, Morgan is an exceptionally funny gentleman; but he's also a very deep thinker. We met Morgan on the discord server for [lock-on] - a new gaming journal from the folks over at Lost in Cult. As a side note, if you've not heard of them then you should listen to our interview with them, from February.

Anyway, we talked about Sekiro and the lack of narratives which focus on reluctant footsoldiers, the Final Fantasy series as a whole and the trope of the tragic villain, Dragon Quest and the birth of the JRPG genre, and we dropped him off at the Thunder Plains for a spell.

Morgan is also a talented voice artist, and you should consider hiring him. You can contact Morgan on twitter: @MorganRitson

You'll definitely have to give this episode a listen if you haven't already, because it was so much fun to make and listen back to. Check your podcatcher for a link.

Episode 124 - Mad Max in Bright Colours with The B

🎵Gotta catch 'em all, doo dee doo.🎵

A week after Morgan's episode, we got together with The_B and tackled the fact that Pokémon turned 25 this year.

We had one heck of a conversation with The_B about the global phenomenon that is butterfly catching... I mean Pokémon. We called this episode Mad Max in Bright Colours with The B. And when I say episode, I really mean it: the final edit of the episode was 2 hours and 12 minutes. But don't let the length of the episode put you off, it's split into easily digestible chunks.

We had Squidge run this episode, because he knows WAY more about Pokémon than I do. At the time of recording the episode, I had only ...

This is a new type of shorter episode that we'll be putting out each month, called "THE LOOK BACK!". In these, we'll be looking back at the previous month's episodes and giving you a rundown of them. That way, if you somehow missed one, you can get the low down on what you missed. Pretty handy eh?

We'd still recommend that you check out the podcast proper. And if you haven't already, then look for us on your podcatcher of choice and subscribe. It's 100% free to do so, you know.

A Little Explanation

So before we begin I wanted to explain why we've been off the air for a while.

We'd originally planned to release an episode with new friend of the show Morgan Riston, and a look back at what Pokemon means to us (what with it being 25 years old this year). However a family event got in the way, and that lead to us having to go into mourning.

Those episodes are indeed completed, but we didn't want to release them whilst everything was going on, as it would have felt a little disrespectful.

Anyway, let's talk about what we did release:

Episode 121 - Getting to know MazGamingUk

This past month - July 2021 - we put out two brand new episodes. The first episode was an interview with MazGamingUk: Getting to Know MazGamingUK. Maz is one of the most positive people we know of in the UK video gaming scene. He releases tweets and videos with some of the most positive messages we've ever heard.

But not only that, he has recently taken some time to film some very ambitious videos for his YouTube channel - which you really should subscribe to, by the way. Maz had studied film making and has won a few awards for his films, so the new direction that his channel is heading in will be amazing.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about this episode was the discussion on using the Sega Saturn Steering Wheel accessory to play Virtua Fighter 2 back in the day. We only had the one controller and the steering wheel, you see. So we would take it in turns to use the steering-wheel when fighting each other. It was a lot of fun.

But what was even more mind-blowing was when Maz told us that the official Dreamcast fishing rod accessory can be used to play Soul Calibre.

... I know, right?

Episode 122 - Outbreak: Endless Nightmares with Evan Wolbach

One week later, we had an interview with the developer behind the Outbreak series of games : Outbreak: Endless Nightmares with Evan Wolbach.

Evan, like Jay, is a full time developer. But unlike Jay, Evan has pivotted his work from business line applications to video games with the Outbreak series. This series of games combines rogue-like elements with survival horror to create something really rather unique - think Dark Souls meets the late 90s Resident Evil games.

This episode was the latest in a series where we interview developers about what makes them and their games tick. Check your podcatcher for a link to the entire series, by the way.

Evan was kind enough to let us drop him off at the Thunderplains, and even discuss some of the inspirations behind his outbreak series of games and how the series has evolved.

One of my favourite parts of this episode was the discussion around difficulty levels and different play styles in his games. There's a mode in the latest title (Endless Nightmares) which equips the player with enough guns to make several Rambo movies, and drops the difficulty through the floor.

Jay also discussed the Classic REbirth mods for the PC versions of the original Resident Evil trilogy. These mods, made by Apple of Eden, make the game work on modern versions of Windows, and include some quality of life fixes - and even a way to get the Director's Cut Dual Shock soundtrack working in the game for that dooty doot goodness.

Coming up This Month

We thought we'd give a little teaser on what's coming up this month (August, 2021); you heard it here first.

First off we have a conversation with Morgan Riston about what keeps him gaming. Morgan is a wo...

This is a new type of shorter episode that we'll be putting out each month, called "THE LOOK BACK!". In these, we'll be looking back at the previous month's episodes and giving you a rundown of them. That way, if you somehow missed one, you can get the low down on what you missed. Pretty handy eh?

We'd still recommend that you check out the podcast proper. And if you haven't already, then look for us on your podcatcher of choice and subscribe. It's 100% free to do so, you know.

Episode 115 - Raw With Jay: Graphics vs Gameplay

This past month - May 2021 - we put out four brand new episodes. The first episode was a Raw with Jay about Graphics vs Gameplay. You can think of the Raw with Jay episodes as either a series of rants, or things that he wants to cover outside of the rest of the show. There's nothing stopping us coming back to them, but he wants to take a whack at them first.

This episode was actually inspired by a tweet by friend of the show Jason Maddison where he had said that most gamers these days are focussing on features that Jay would call secondary, if not completely unimportant. This one tweet took Jay on a journey of wanting to ask listeners, and journos, and the majority of gamers what _THEY_ think Ray Tracing is. According to them it's a super important part of the gaming experience, right?

Pro tip: it's not.

So Jay spent this episode outlining why he thinks that, whilst graphics can be impressive, they aren't required in order to enjoy a gaming experience.

Episode 116 Catching Up With The B - Part One

Next was a two part discussion with The_B. We'd felt that it had been a _very_ long time since we'd had The_B on the show - in fact, it had only been a few months, as his last appearance was in January. In this first part of our conversation with him, we wanted to find out what he had been playing recently; and he delivered in spades. In those 50 minutes, we mentioned 25 games in total - most of which aren't the games he'd been playing, but they are related.

Other things that we covered were the fact that we're now two years into the launches of the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles, the so called CMOS "timebomb" which is present in all of Sony's consoles from the PSP and PS3 onwards. And of course, we talk about Nightdive's Shadow Man remaster.

One of my favourite parts of the episode was when The_B started talking about '90s TV adverts and said "REMEMBER GAME GEAR'S MAN!" Nothing like a bit of "old man yelling at cloud" to brighten your day.

Episode 117 Catching Up With The B - Part Two

While part one of our catch-up with The_B was all about what he had been playing recently, part two was almost dominated by talk of Nightdive Studios. We started by talking about what happened when Acclaim went belly up and this inspired me to come up with a completely new segment as we were recording:

This reminded Jay of the story of the original source code for Prince of Persia being found in a garage, and how it took months to read the data off of the floppy discs. This, he reckons, will happen more and more over the next few years because games devs in the '80s and '90s weren't terribly great about keeping the source code for their games safe. Which lead to us trying to figure out how Nightdive keep finding the source code for the games that they remaster.

The discussion on which games Nightdive should remaster next lead to The_B setting us up and knocking us down within one sentence: Nightdive haven't done anything with The Operative: No One Lives Forever (aka NOLF) and me asking whether Cate Archer is a Disney Princess now.

One of my favourite parts of the episode was when I stole all of The_B's ideas for Nightdive Studios remasters. Seriously, I listed all the games that he was going to mention before he had the chance.

Coming up This Month

We thought we'd give a little teaser on what's coming up this next month (June 2021); you heard it here first.

We have another Raw with Jay, but we're keeping the topic close to our chests at the moment. You'll have to subscribe ...

Multiplayer babysitting, zero-g clown physics, cute animal discussion, goat yoga, and the many uses of food bribery; all this can only mean one thing: Mo is back to talk about Stardew Valley.

Remember that you can always get in touch with us on our Facebook page, on Twitter, or with our Contact page.

Content Warning

This episode contains spoilers for Stardew Valley and a few swears.

Please listen responsibly.

Show Notes

Because Squidge and Mo needed a long time to discuss Stardew Valley, it had to be split into two halves. Make sure you check out the first part here—you could just listen to the recap at the start of this part, but part one is way more than just the recap.

In this second serving of bite-sized banter with a side of gaming goodness, we catch up with Mo from The Squank and the Hag podcast to talk about all things Stardew Valley. We cover everything from multiplayer babysitting, the many uses of food bribery, and zero-g clown physics. Yes, you heard me right.

Without further ado, sit back, grab some snacks, and get ready for this episode entitled "Exploring Stardew Valley: Stories from Pelican Town - Part Two"

Take it away, guys

— Squidge

The episode hadn't even started properly yet, but Mo leapt in with more helpful hints:

...

So sometimes if you're talking to someone, they'll be like, "oh, my God! Did you know Emily likes..." and stuff like that. So you can find out what gifts to give people without having to go online and find. just. Like I said, I know off the top of my head, Shane, because he loves pepper poppers and beer.

And there's other stuff, too. And then there are some gifts that everyone loves and everyone hates. I forget what they are, but like I said, you'll learn that out. And, like, the thing is, if you go and you give her a gift and she doesn't like it, she will tell you.

— Mo

Multiplayer?!

— Squidge

And Mo had indeed played Stardew multiplayer, but..

...

It was a few of us, because I think you could have up to four people. So one was our friend Elena, and she loves farming in that game, so she immediately we set up the farm, went to work on crops, set it all up, did it all; and I was like, "I will let you do that."

The other person was Kraken, the co-host of my podcast. And so anytime I talk about Kraken, I do have to preface, he legitimately is my best friend. I love the dude. He's like a brother, but he drives me crazy like a brother. So it was just running around, stopping him from causing chaos. So basically, multiplayer was just me babysitting.

But it is fun. It is always fun to play with your friends like that. I just, in terms of why I like to play the game is it's chill and relaxed and all that stuff, which is not what happens when I play games with Kraken.

...

But it, like, it was a lot of good laughs and stupidity, but, yeah, I think it would depend, like, if, you know, if there was another person, like, kind of like Elena, where it was just like, really chill, just doing our thing, cohabitating, you know, we would do whatever.

So, yeah, it really does depend on who you would play with. But I. I think I like that that's available. I like that it is something that now can happen, because when it. When the game first came out, you couldn't do multiplayer at all, and now there's mods and whatnot.

— Mo

Full Show Notes

Check out the full show notes for the full list of Squidge's questions, some extra stuff, and some links to related things.

Do you have a favourite cute animal video? What would you do if you were suddenly made the mayor of Stardew Valley? Did you ever go 100% evil in the game? And what does a duck's quack sound like in t...