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Author: Invisible Editor

Episode 157 – Licking Controllers

Episode 157 – Licking Controllers

Wendy Crewson and Tom Hanks in a promotional still from Mazes and Monsters. Source: CBS

GAMES AT PAX WEST: We sent our man on the scene, Andrew, to PAX West while our Man in California, D. Bethel, watched on the internet. Now, they talk about the games they saw. Andrew muses over gameplay quirks in Stone Story RPG and Aground, while D. reacts to the strong sprites ethic in Get in the Car, Loser! and Star Renegades. Also, Andrew reflects on a series of panels he saw at the event, all of which focus on not just tabletop role-playing games, but specifically––and surprisingly––just Dungeons & Dragons.

Dan can’t get over these sprites! GIF from Star Renegades. Source: Massive Damage, Inc.

Also, D. Bethel will be exhibiting at the 2018 Crocker Con in Sacramento! It is on Thursday, September 13th, from 6-9:30pm at the Crocker Art Museum in Downtown Sacramento. For more info, click here, or check out the Facebook Event page.

The poster for this year’s Crocker Con event. Art by Melissa Pagluica.

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Shortcast 68 – Swinging Gates

Shortcast 68 – Swinging Gates

art by Darwyn Cooke, from DC: The New Frontier. Image courtesy DC Comics

STOP BEING MEAN: Of the many “-Gates” that exist in the nerd world right now, some ticks in the “good” column happened recently in the fight called “ComicsGate”, an online harrassment campaign against diversity and representation in both the fiction and creation of mainstream comic books (meaning, mainly, books made by DC and Marvel).

The full panel from DC: The New Frontier. Art by Darwyn Cooke. Image courtesy DC Comics

RELATED EPISODES:

RELEVANT LINKS:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Shortcast 67 – Baguettevania

Shortcast 67 – Baguettevania

WEEK IN GEEK: It’s an indie game kind of week as Andrew reports on the Zelda-like shop sim, Moonlighter, by Digital Sun while D. Bethel starts a conversation about everybody’s current favorite rogue-like platformer (kind of a Metroidvania, kind of not; definitely not a “roguevania”), Dead Cells, by Motion Twin.

RELATED EPISODES:

RELEVANT LINKS:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Episode 156 – River City Rampage

Episode 156 – River City Rampage

It’s the return of NERD LAW!

A MARVELOUS MONSTER: After a long gestation and some delays, Disney has officially acquired 20th Century Fox assets, comprising of Fox’s film and tv properties. This means everything from the Alien franchise to Bob’s Burgers and even The Simpsons are now owned by Disney. Of course, for comic book fans and fans of comic book movies, the biggest part of this deal means that the X-Men and the Fantastic Four film rights are now under Disney/Marvel control. But it’s a much bigger––and more complicated––deal than just the superhero franchises and make some people a little nervous.

WHAT NINTENDON’T: Emulation software has been on the internet for at least twenty years at this point, allowing people to download and play often near-perfect versions of games from the NES, SNES, and many other classic consoles. While playing emulated games have always been legally murky, Nintendo’s big legal smackdown of a few emulator and ROM sites in particular have really shaken the whole community in more ways than one.

RELATED EPISODES:

RELATED LINKS:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Shortcast 66 – Trusty Rusty

Shortcast 66 – Trusty Rusty

WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew finally plays Asmadi’s One Deck Dungeon by playing Handelabra’s One Deck Dungeon, a rogue-like solo/co-op card game that has been adapted into a video game version while D. Bethel follows Laura Kinney’s continuing post-Wolverine adventures in X-23 by Mariko Tamaki and Juann Cabal.

RELATED EPISODES:

RELEVANT LINKS:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Shortcast 65 – Find a Cheap Show

Shortcast 65 – Find a Cheap Show

GOING BACK: Having played Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, D. Bethel has since gone back and played the first game in the Uncharted series and was rather frustrated by it. This experience got our hosts thinking about entering series (of games, movies, tv shows, etc.) mid-stream––what’s the value of going back to the start?

RELATED EPISODES:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Shortcast 64 – The Humming Incident

Shortcast 64 – The Humming Incident

IT’S A PANDEMIC PARTY: Andrew and D. Bethel bring on friend-of-the-show and all-star contributor to the site, Taylor Katcher, to discuss Andrew and Taylor’s full playthrough of Pandemic Legacy: Season 2

RELATED EPISODES:

RELATED LINKS:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Episode 155 – Captain Host

Episode 155 – Captain Host

WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew braved populated movie theaters to see Ant-Man and the Wasp while D. Bethel eagerly went to the theaters to see Incredibles II.

DISNEY FLOOD: This summer was a packed house in terms of big-budget blockbuster-intended films with Avengers: Infinity War, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Incredibles II. But with Solo and Ant-Man and the Wasp underperforming, it has Andrew and D. wondering, did we have too many big nerd movies this summer?

RELATED LINKS:

  • Brad Bird defends his approach to animated films on Twitter:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Shortcast 63 – Editing is Magic

Shortcast 63 – Editing is Magic

image source: Boss Fight Books

A BOOK CLUB [ , ] FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES: In a rare moment where Andrew and Dan’s reading habits align, they spend this episode discussing Chris Kohler‘s addition to the Boss Fight Books line, focusing on Square Enix’s (simply Squaresoft at the time of the game’s initial publication) Final Fantasy V. The first half has the hosts discussing the game itself, while the second half talks about the BFB line and written gaming criticism.

RELATED LINKS:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Shortcast 62 – Not the Episode Title

Shortcast 62 – Not the Episode Title

WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew finds fitness inspiration in the modular experience of Zombies, Run! while D. Bethel can’t stop thinking about Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon.

Watch D. Bethel play (with the aid of his dog, Rusty) through the opening levels of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/