1up's Retronauts Features the TurboGrafx-16, etc.

[MrFulci]

Someone can be a fan of something, yet not know every detail of the system.

All this fuss made me curious to download this mp3 file. I'm curious why so many people are complaining about it, hahaha.

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Though i havent played my Turbo grafx or PC engine games in... maybe 15 months? 18 months? Not sure, I've been busy lately and not had an itch for them lately. Anyway, I still remember most of the ins and outs of the TG-16. I'm curious if I'll be able to pick out any of the errors in the mp3.

An internet broadcast about the PCE, well, yeah, it's a bit geeky. I think even MORE geeky; is this thread 

Still, I'm being a nerd myself, and downloading this thing, so I can skim through it and see what the fuss it about

97% downloaded....

Wow, 80 minutes, yeah, I'll be skimming this one.

Well, I listened to maybe 10 minutes total of it. I didn't notice any big errors. about all i noticed was that they didn't seem aware TZD sold out to Red Frog.

I think it's a good introduction for someone unfamiliar with the system. Though, a person would gain more from reading information about the system, than listening to this internet radio broadcast. That's what I see this doing, making some people curious enough to seek out more information on the system.

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[SignOfZeta]

I don't see why not.  I've enjoyed my limited time in the chatbox, which is roughly equivalent to holding a 'real' conversation (as close as you can get online, anyway); and if they can string together coherent posts on a forum, it's probably safe to assume that they'd be equally capable of speaking their thoughts aloud.  Though perhaps not in Ceti's case - those extraneous u's would be hard to handle.

That is so not a universal truth. When you are typing you have exponentially more time to phrase things, look at stuff before you hit "send", etc. When you are speaking everything in real time you don't really have any time to do anything but talk because dead air is a no no. Have you ever tried looking shit up online while talking coherently at the same time? Its tough. The only break you get is when the other guy talks. In a chat session you can say nothing for a solid minute, nobody's going to notice. I'm not saying you can't do it, I'm just saying that there is a real reason I picked that annoying guy to be on my show with me. All the cooler people I knew had serious problems keeping the ball rolling.

That reminds me, after a year of dead air I need to do an Arivaderchi episode of Game Face Radio and close the shop. If you want to show us how you can be Franz Ferdinand Porsche you can call in via Skype or whatever and be more interesting than me. Its not that hard, usually. Just please please please don't take me up on this unless you have a halfway decent mic.

[Necromancer]

A mainstream gaming site like 1up gives the Turbo some much-deserved attention and rather than saying, "Hey, it's cool that they did that.  Despite a few minor errors, hopefully it'll help generate some interest in our favorite console", we sit here and quibble about relatively minor details that were botched during the course of a recorded casual conversation.  It's a podcast, guys.  Podcasts are not generally high-quality productions with hours upon hours of preparation backing them up.  99 times out of 100 they're loosely-formated recordings of a small group of people having a conversation about a topic or group of topics.  If this was a paid download run by self-proclaimed "experts" in the "field" of TurboGrafx-16 history, I could understand people complaining.  But just appreciate that somebody, somewhere other than this forum, is talking about and appreciating our favorite console.

So podcasts are immune to critical review, eh?  I hope never to be so complacent that I'll just sit around and whenever someone discusses the Turbo.

[KingDrool]

Jeez, man, that's not what I'm saying.  I'm just saying that it's a podcast, not some NPR report.  And podcasts are generally more casual and free-flowing; and if you've ever listened to Retronauts you'll know that it's more of a nostalgic look back at the past, rather than a textbook-read-aloud session. 

And yeah, I think it's nice when mainstream sites at least attempt to cover the Turbo, despite some shortcomings.  So rather than coming down on them like a rabid swarm of uber-nerd Trekkies, it might be nice to just appreciate the effort.

[Necromancer]

Jeez, man, that's not what I'm saying.

Yeah, that second sentence was just a little hyperbole on my part.  That and I just had to throw in a semi-hidden Lonely Island plug for giggles. 

And yeah, I think it's nice when mainstream sites at least attempt to cover the Turbo, despite some shortcomings.  So rather than coming down on them like a rabid swarm of uber-nerd Trekkies, it might be nice to just appreciate the effort.

Most people welcome criticism in the quest to improve their craft, so I doubt they're just sitting back and hoping for a bunch of yes men to congratulate their efforts (either that or they really don't give a shit what we think, as they're only in it for their own enjoyment).  Besides, there's not much crude criticism to be found here anyway.  What's the worst that's been said - that they got some facts wrong, which is unarguably true, or that I was unimpressed?  That's hardly what I'd classify as 'rabid'.

[esteban]

I haven't listened to the podcast yet, but I usually enjoy listening to Retronauts.

Thanks to this thread, I'm going to download the last bunch of episodes that I need to catch-up on.

ON TOPIC: There is an art to making something, anything, that appeals to both a general audience and an "expert" audience. Striking that balance is the formula for success... you have managed to maintain the interests of a wide range of people, who have greatly varying degrees of experience.
 

[exodus]

yo - yeah, I know we made a bunch of errors - that was the last thing I said, but I don't think it's in there.

Basically, christian and I got asked to do the podcast the day before, and the day of, well, we spend that day doing our jobs and such. In terms of research, none of us knew what would be discussed, and the point was basically to reminisce, because as someone said, all the technical info was already in the retrospective.

I think podcasts are silly, but I go on them when people ask. Just so you know, here's how the retronauts postmortem works - the host asks some people to come on, then they talk for a while. Researching is impossible, because who knows what you're going to talk about? I know stuff about the pc engine/tg-16, but certainly not everything. Am I a "big fan?" Well, I've been playing my pc engine several times per week for the last 6 months or so, after a hiatus of about a year. I own about 200 games at this point, two duos, a turbo express, and about 12 million controllers of various types.

It's true that we didn't get all the facts right - it's hard to recall the specifics without the internet there to help you. I didn't do too well in history in highschool, you might surmise. I'm not saying we shouldn't have gotten the facts right - but the podcast wasn't about facts, it was about talking about why we like the console.

Anyway, it's fair not to like it, and I don't really care if people do, cause it's not MY podcast - but I figured I'd let you all know how it went down.

[ccovell]

Hey, don't worry.  I'm sure most of us here enjoyed listening to the podcast but still felt like pointing out the errors.  Just like I am prone to do: Point out mistakes, even if the whole of something is almost perfect, simply because going on and on with superlatives about the good parts gets boring. 

I listened to the podcast when you guys posted it on Retronauts, and had a good time listening.  It wasn't exactly enthralling, simply because most of us have this "history of the PCE/Turbo" stuff memorized, but the meat of the discussion -- how you guys personally were affected by the Turbo -- was what kept me listening.

How about doing a Game Pokekon retrospective next time?   

[exodus]

yeah, I think that's the thing - for people who already know/like the pc engine, the whole thing is pretty pointless...also we were meant to keep it to the turbo grafx by and large, which was tough.

but that's how it goes sometimes!

[esteban]

yo - yeah, I know we made a bunch of errors - that was the last thing I said, but I don't think it's in there.

Ditto everything Mr. Covell said, but, instead of Pokekon, may I suggest a Xavix retrospective?

I think that, despite the flaws, there was a sincerity/enthusiasm that kept things interesting. As Chris said, it would be boring if we didn't offer some constructive criticism .

Anyway, here were a few random things that I jotted down after listening to the podcast in question a month ago (I forgot to post them):

The Valis discussion was fun, as was the love for Monster Lair.

The personal anecdotes were generally interesting, and fostered a "warm and fuzzy" atmosphere during the whole debacle episode.

The brief praise for chiptunes could have been expanded ( )

The show really didn't really address the software. Personal experiences with software can be tricky, though: We all know about Bonk's Adventure and Ys. It would have been great to address the well-known games briefly, but then delve into at least a handful of other titles.

So, when you folks do a second installment for TG-16 (hey, I can dream), see if you can convince Victor Ireland to share some (juicy) stories with you .

This, of course, is in addition to the Working Designs retrospective that has been jokingly suggested on several podcasts.

[exodus]

yeah, a working designs retrospective thing would be cool! Oh, but to be clear, I should note that I'm Brandon Sheffield on the podcast (and also right now!) - I don't work at 1up, so I'm not in any way responsible for these - I just get invited sometimes!

[esteban]

yeah, a working designs retrospective thing would be cool! Oh, but to be clear, I should note that I'm Brandon Sheffield on the podcast (and also right now!) - I don't work at 1up, so I'm not in any way responsible for these - I just get invited sometimes!

Gotcha.

I predict you will be invited back for the highly-anticipated Working Designs/TG-16 Holiday Spectacular...