The show can be downloaded here,
or streamed here:
Here is the famous Dendy elephant:
Here is the link to the YouTube video I referenced on the show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvx4xXhZMrU
And the track list below:
# - Game - Track - System - Composer
1 - Tower of Heaven (天国の塔) - Indignant Divinity - Flash - Flashygoodness
2 - Klik & Play - COND3 - PC - Mel Croucher
3 - The Sword of Lxsor - Wayward Energy - Sharp X68000 - Karuchan
4 - Earthworm Jim 2 (Super Game) - Anything but Tangerines - Dendy - Victor Chen, Ren Youngming
5 - Solvalou - Reminiscences (Character's Data section) - LaserDisc - Hiroyuki Kawada
What a bunch of cool weirdness! The systems were strange. I didn't know Laserdisc was anything other than a format--was Solvalou released for a particular Laserdisc-based system? Ususally they were mergers of existing platforms like the Mega Drive. I know the game also came out for the PS....or at least I remember seeing it in the import ads in magazines back in the day.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the significance behind this episode's title?
Hey hey ND,
ReplyDeleteFrom my understanding, most LaserDisc games were reserved for the arcades. I mention Dragon's Lair on the show, and that has to be the most popular. I know my local Putt Putt had a Dragon's Lair cabinet.
There were home systems like RDI's Halcyon, but I think it only had 2 games for it. The MSX actually had the ability to use some LaserDisc systems to play games too.
As far as I could tell, Solvalou was ported to LaserDisc something-or-other. I found an auction listing with the LaserDisc logo on the cover art, even. I just found this entry on the LaserDisc Database, although it doesn't help much: https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/44900/VILL-71/Namco:-Solvalou. Unsurprisingly, there isn't much information on LaserDisc games out there.
As for the title of the episode, it comes from the character Frank Reynolds from the TV show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. By itself it's basically a non-sequitur. But the line comes after Frank says "I don't know how many years on this earth I got left. I'm gonna get reeeal weird with it." Frank talking about getting "weird with it" is one of those lines that stuck in my brain. I find myself using it frequently whenever something is "getting weird." Most of the episode titles are easter-eggy, oddball word association. A fun new meta game for the listeners!
Here is the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6DbQx4iDa0
I just noticed on the Solvalou link that it classifies it as a "gameplay/playthrough video of the Solvalou arcade game". I was wondering what part of the game relied on LD because although it's a rail shooter, it uses polygons and the perspective changes when you move the crosshairs(meaning it's not streaming FMV off of a disc). An interesting oddity.
ReplyDeleteI do love the concept of LaserDisc games, if not always the implimentation. Aside from the normal ones, I remember they had a Cobra Command at a Chuck E. Cheese we used to visit in Redding, CA, the few times we drove down to L.A. I've also seen a really cool LD game that used Castle of Cagliostro....they had it at that same Chuck E. Cheese, as well as a nickel arcade here in Portland. The last cool LD game I remember is Sega's Holosseum. I was familiar with the term "FMV game" by that time, so I was a little jaded. But it was still an interesting premise, since it married FMV with holographic imaging.
Here's what I was thinking of when I mentioned LaserDisc videogames: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaserActive
I like the title. Very funny.