HomePodcastsGenXGrownUp PodcastHokum, Afterplay, & Retro Rewind

Hokum, Afterplay, & Retro Rewind

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About This Episode

We watch a new star-studded TV series about a young lady struggling with her finances, check out an insanely useful online service that will let you bring your classic games with you anywhere you go, & play a new game that puts you in the shoes of the proprietor of a VHS movie rental store!

Participate in our listener questionnaire & automatically get entered in a drawing for a $50 gift card! genxgrownup.com/podsurvey

(May contain some explicit language.)

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Show Notes

Transcript

SpeakerTranscript
JonWelcome back, Gen X Grown Up Podcast listener to this episode 209 of the Gen X Grown Up Podcast. I’m John. Joining me as always, of course, is George. Hey, man.
GeorgeHey, how’s it going, everybody?
JonYou know, it would not be a show without Mo. Hey, Mo.
MoHey, how’s everyone doing?
JonGood. In this episode, we watch a new star-studded TV series about a young lady struggling with her finances. Check out an insanely useful online service that’ll let you bring your classic games with you anywhere you go and play a new game that puts you in the shoes of the proprietor of a VHS movie rental store.
JonWe’re going to have those topics and many more in this episode. But first, it is time for some fourth listener email. Guys, it has been a few weeks since we recorded. We had a few rewinds, and so I might be little rusty, but as I recall,
MoYeah.
JonThis is one of my favorite parts of the show. Isn’t that right? I think so.
Moit needs it I think so.
JonFourth listener.
MoYeah, yeah.
GeorgeI always thought you hated it the way you talked about it, but.
Jonthis
MoWell, off mic, he hates it.
JonWell, it’s confusion. There are there are three of us. We likely will listen. If anybody else does, you are our fourth listener. And the fourth listener this time around, we got from YouTube when someone watched the the box office hits of 1985 backtrack from not too long ago.
JonAnd this is a message from Gen X Memories. Appropriate. Uh, here’s what Gen X memories has to say back in the mid nineties. I was selling computers at circuit city. Anyway, they had a couple of big screen TVs on display near the front of the store.
JonThey had a VCR hooked up to one of them playing top gun. When the end of the movie came on with the final dog fight, a crowd of 15 to 20 people had stopped either on their way in or out just to watch that part of the movie there in circuit city.
MoOf course.
JonYeah. Makes sense.
MoGod.
JonYeah. There were, uh,
MoI’m saying I can’t think of anything more to say i was selling computers at Circuit City. That like completely places his but where he was and what time of year.
Jonright and and And watching Top Gun on vg VHS, right?
MoYeah.
MoYeah.
JonThat’s the other one at the front on the VCR, right? Cool. All right. Hey, Gen X memories, we get you. It does sound uniquely Gen X and that makes sense. There were a lot of great films that were in 1985 that we highlighted in that. We’re glad that you listened and on there on YouTube and enjoyed it. Let us know what you thought.
JonFourth listener, if you’d like your email feature here on the show, it’s drop dead easy. You can comment on YouTube like Gen X memories did or hit us up via email at podcast at Gen X grown up dot com. You know, we read every single one and most of them.
JonWe’ll eventually end up on the show. All right. With that good business behind us, it’s time to jump into the body of this episode 209 right after this very quick break.
JonWe’re gonna get the ball rolling talking about media we have been enjoying. There’s a lot to pick from having not recorded in a few weeks. Now, this could be a television or movies or film or comics or podcasts or music or whatever you have been digging. So, George, why we start with you to kick us off. What have you been watching or listening to?
Georgeah A lot. And it’s always difficult when we’re coming into these media segments after we’ve been on for a break, because there’s so many things that I’ve watched or listened to or something I want to talk about, like the the series Paradise that just finished its second season.
JonHmm. Hmm.
JonHmm.
GeorgeThat’s a really, really good series.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeBut this one is one that it kind of captured me out of nowhere. I’ve had it sitting on my Plex server for probably two years and just haven’t taken the dive into watching it. And I was like, okay, it’s got Harold Parno.
GeorgeLet me just take a quick look at one episode.
Moinstance
GeorgeThat first episode, I was like, that’s it. I’m hooked. I’m watching the whole thing.
MoYep.
Jonh
GeorgeAnd I ended up binging seasons one through three of the TV show From.
MoWow. oof That’s a heavy show too.
GeorgeThis, it’s it’s a very heavy show. um Synopsis real quick. ah People of this area, they end up on a road and there’s always a tree that falls across the road and they have to go around the tree and they end up in this little bitty town that they can never leave and everything in the town is trying to kill them.
MoYeah.
GeorgeThere you go.
Jonwow
GeorgeThat’s the TV series.
MoThat’s basically it.
GeorgeIt’s all like supernatural witchcrafty kind of vibes with everything. There are these creatures that come out in the middle of the night that have human form and appear to have been human at some point in their lives or existence, but they’re very creepy.
JonMm-hmm.
MoMm-hmm.
GeorgeThey have smiles like the ones in the movie smile, and they just slowly walk around.
MoOh, yeah.
Jone
MoMm-hmm.
GeorgeAnd if they get ahold of you, you’re done. That’s it. You’re not going to survive. They’re going rip you apart. Um, But then they do like these really slow boil mental torture things that just drive everybody crazy in the town.
GeorgeLike they’ll sit there and they’ll tap on your window.
JonMm.
GeorgeWhy don’t you just come out and talk to us?
MoMm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
GeorgeIt’ll be fine. You’ve got to be so sad in there.
JonMm.
GeorgeWe could show you how to be happy. Look how we’re so just creepy ass shit. And that’s just the start. That’s just episode one, really.
JonMm.
Georgeum The townsfolk have this very unique dynamic amongst themselves. There’s almost two groups of townspeople, but they’re also together in this struggle to survive. Nobody can leave. There’s a group that lives up at this community, kind of compound-y house place that you might think of like some, I don’t know…
Georgealmost like a cult-like group, but they’re very happy and they’re very friendly and they’re real good people. And then there’s the main town that people grow up in that Harold Pernod, he’s kind of the sheriff and you don’t really know why you start to find out out as the series develops. um And it’s just, it’s brutal in the way that The Walking Dead was brutal.
GeorgeLike you would love a character,
JonHmm.
GeorgeAnd 10 episodes later, they’re gone.
JonOoh.
MoYeah.
JonWow. Hmm.
GeorgeThey’re just done. And maybe not even 10 episodes. It could just be two or three. um It’s really, really well acted. The writing in it is, i would say, very solid.
GeorgeAlthough there’s a lot of plot holes that develop that they try to fill in later in the series.
Mothis instance
GeorgeSome successfully, some maybe not as successfully. But it’s still engrossing, it’s engaging, and I definitely give it a high recommendation.
JonDamn. You must be the third person who has mentioned this series just out of the blue. Sorry, I muted my mic. i meant to click the I meant to click the hand and I clicked on the mic.
MoOkay, i was like, I just lost you.
JonSorry. Do it again. Three, two. You must be like the third person in the last couple of weeks that has mentioned this series out of the blue to me, to the point i thought it was a new series. But I guess maybe like the third season just ended it or something, wrapped up.
MoMm hmm.
JonMaybe everybody’s talking about it.
Georgeah fourth season just started.
MoJust started. Fourth just started.
JonOkay. So it’s fresh on people’s minds.
GeorgeYeah.
JonAnd when you said three seasons, wait, what?
GeorgeYeah.
Jonwhat
GeorgeNo four seasons now.
JonBut something must, yeah, something must have happened between three and four to get people excited because I’ve heard a lot of people talking about it that got me just about ready to jump into it.
GeorgeLike, yeah.
MoYeah.
MoYeah, it’s it is very good series. I was very excited to see when season four kicked off. It was. um Hold on a sec. I’m going to kill that dog. Anyway.
JonGotta go kick the dog.
Moum Yeah. So I was really excited when season four started because there’s been a lot of time between seasons also. Like it’s definitely been like of these kind of slow burn sort of shows like you go a year.
JonOh.
MoI mean, that’s next season.
Georgenot Not in the timeline of the story, he’s saying.
MoYou know.
GeorgeIn just how the episodes are released, because there’s only 10 episodes in a season.
MoNo. no
MoYeah, in real life.
JonOkay, right, right.
GeorgeYeah.
Jonthe Those long hiatuses between seasons, you mean.
Moum Yes.
GeorgeYeah.
JonYeah, yeah.
MoBut to me, like the part that always, don’t want to say tickles me, but it’s always fun is like when new people show up, they’re like, okay, new people, they try to explain it to them.
GeorgeMm-hmm.
MoThey know they’re not going believed.
GeorgeYeah.
MoPeople try to escape like, okay, we’ll wait. They’ll be back. And sure enough, they go down the road and circles back and they’re coming back into the same town.
Jonand up
MoLike, what the hell? We’re driving straight. How do we wind up back here? and they’re like, like we tried to tell you.
Jonbut believe me now
GeorgeYeah.
Moyou know, like we tried to tell you.
GeorgeWell, the, I think one of my favorites, that’s a recurring um tool that they use in the series to that is the lady who’s kind of in charge of the commune place called Hill house.
GeorgeWhen she sits down with people to explain to them what’s going on, she like, well, first they oftentimes will tie people to a bed that first night because
MoMm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Georgeone of the One of the rules of this universe is that if anybody opens a door or a window to the house, the creatures can come in and kill everyone.
JonGotcha.
GeorgeSo it’s a self-preservation tool that they tie these new people.
Jonit’s It’s to protect them until they believe it.
GeorgeYeah.
JonGot it.
GeorgeAnd then when she starts talking to them, one of the first things she says to them every single time is, this is going to be the worst conversation of your life.
JonMm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Moah
GeorgeAnd then she just goes into this explanation and they usually do the explanation off camera, which is very fun because then when they come back to that character, because it bounces back and forth between an A, B and sometimes C storyline.
GeorgeWhen they come back to the people, it’s usually the end of the conversation and the person is just mouth agape, wide eyed or completely non-believing, like just like, yeah, you’re full of shit.
MoYeah.
JonHm.
GeorgeThis is, and Every now and then they do something stupid. Like they just go outside on their own. And these people are happy go lucky creatures just walking around.
GeorgeAnd they’re like, we’ll help you. And they walk up to him slowly. I swear to God, it’s the creepiest slow walk you’ve ever seen. Like Romero had nothing on these creatures.
GeorgeIt was crazy. They just walk up to you slowly. We’ll help you, dear. It’s okay. Don’t worry. Come Whack! and just gone, and that’s it.
MoYeah.
Jonah Done.
GeorgeThey just kill him. So… It’s a very creepy series.
JonSounds good.
GeorgeIf you like macabre type of stuff, I think it’s well worth the watch.
JonYeah.
GeorgeHarold Pernod is brilliant in this series. He is the linchpin that holds everything together very tediously, but it’s really it’s really solid.
GeorgeI think it’s a win. i don’t know anything about the ones that you guys want to talk about today, but this one I think is an out-of-the-park thing.
JonNice.
GeorgeIf you haven’t watched it, you’ll definitely want to binge the three and now fourth season.
JonYeah. I think it will.
JonCool.
GeorgeSo John, what about you?
JonThanks.
GeorgeYou got something? Cause I don’t recognize this name at all.
JonSure.
Moc
JonYeah. So, uh, well, you know, it’s a late spring, early summer, so it’s time for horror movies, of course.
MoYeah, best time.
JonSo they new now once again, there’s a, there’s a rash of this and you guys have over the, over the years, we talked about this phenomenon.
GeorgeHmm.
JonYou’ve believed or disbelieved or agreed or disagreed with me of sometimes they just mismarket these movies. They’ll call it horror when it’s not. And I disagree that it’s horror at all. And, and, And for me, that tends to damage the film because you go and expecting one thing.
JonAnd then you find you’re disappointed at first. And then once you get over the disappointment, you’re like, oh, wait, this is a good film, just not what I was expecting. So the film is called Hocum.
MoYeah. Mm-hmm.
JonAnd I think it’s the third… Thriller, I’ll call it. Thriller, mystery, horror type film by this director. And he’s he definitely is an ah up and coming.
JonI think maybe he’s already up and come by now. He is well established as being a great new director.
Moshe
JonAnd so ah Adam Scott is in this movie and he he’s really the big star that, you know, and, you know, I’m
GeorgeNo.
JonI’m really tickled for Adam Scott that he’s gotten the kind of fame that he gets in all these sorts of different roles now. He’s not pigeonholed as just the the Parks and Rec guy or not just the ah the Severance guy, right?
MoYeah.
Mohmm. Severance guy.
JonHe’s all these different things.
GeorgeYeah.
JonSo they market this as a horror movie. And I want i wanna to tell you going in two things. One, it’s good and you should see it. Two, it’s really not a horror movie.
Mohmm.
JonIt is a thriller, murder mystery, whodunit, with a side order of deep fried horror. Like there’s a little scary, something going on, some paranormal stuff with it, but ultimately here’s the premise.
MoYeah.
GeorgeOkay.
Jonum Adam Scott plays the role of this author who is a double duty. He’s going on, on a holiday to Ireland, a to spread his parents ashes at this bed and breakfast or hotel where they once honeymooned at B he’s kind of got writer’s block and he wants to go there and write.
JonAnd while he’s there, he spreads the ashes, but he also gets embroiled in a series of circumstances and things that happen that I don’t want to spoil because each one is a surprise that happens.
MoMm-hmm.
JonBoth what he does and what others do around him in this situation. And what the trailer… purports is like the hotel is haunted and it’s scary. Well, they say it’s haunted and they have a honeymoon suite, very likely where his parents stayed when they were there is, uh, when they were honey honeymooners, but that’s been completely locked up because the owner says it’s haunted. We don’t want anybody going up there and there’s a witch there and something terrible. So Adam Scott gets embroiled in a murder mystery, history, mystery of what’s going on at the hotel.
Jonand, And it’s kind of a one man band. And the interesting thing they do that I’ve always heard when I was in writing classes in high school and college, is they said, the first thing you need to do is make sure your protagonist is likable and relatable.
GeorgeYeah.
JonAnd out of the gate, Adam Scott is the biggest asshole you’ve ever seen on screen.
Georgehe
JonAnd I don’t care if he dies at first.
MoYeah. Yeah.
JonHe’s just not nice to people. But they do a good job of you learning some background and how he got how he is. And it’s not, it’s not forgivable. It’s understandable. And now you can relate to this character as it moves through. And as all the, all these threads cross as as well-written movies do, and it ends up being a really great film.
JonThat’s not a horror movie. You won’t be scared. You will be fascinated. You will be intrigued. You’ll want to know more about the mythology and you’ll want to know what’s real and what’s not. And Adam Scott’s tremendous, as are the other actors in it, frankly. But ah don’t let anybody tell you it’s a horror movie. Definitely see it for what it is. And it’s it’s it’s one of the best horror-ish, thriller-ish films I’ve certainly seen this year.
MoYeah, um I actually saw it with Jon. And let me tell you, there were in it, though, that were particularly creepy, that were…
JonCreepy, for sure.
MoVery, very creepy. a lot of like surprise, like no, no big jump scares, but you’re like, you know, they did a good job of building up suspense, building up the moment, you know, and then when it actually happens, you’re like, holy crap. um But yeah, if I agree, though. I think calling this a horror movie is just ah it’s just just a mislabel. it Maybe thriller horror, maybe…
Momystery thrill of horror. don’t know. It’s some combination of things, you know, it’s it’s hard to pigeonhole it. But again, like he said, Adam Scott knocks out of the park with his character. Cause you’re not supposed to like him at the beginning for sure. But then you, and you should understand why he’s doing some things he’s doing. It kind of, it makes sense, you know, at the end, by the end of the movie, you’re like, oh okay. I get it now. I get why he’s this way. I just understand why he was doing all this stuff, you know?
Moum But it was, it, It was definitely a, like you said, I think it was a very, very good movie. It’s definitely worth the time to see. But there are some parts, though, that will, you know, make it a little bit edgy.
JonYep. I wish they new category. Like, if there’s any horror element at all, they got to call it horror to get in that niche. I wish there was like a new category. Maybe we can make one up. i don’t know what is, but definitely worth seeing.
MoMm-hmm.
JonIt’s in the theaters right now. Be streaming shortly, probably. Hocum. All right, Mo, how about you? let’s ah Let’s wind out this media segment. What do you got?
MoSure. It’s a new TV series called Margo’s Got Money Trouble. And let me tell you, it’s Elle Fanning is the star, the main character in this.
GeorgeYeah.
MoMichelle Pfeiffer plays her mom. Nick Offerman plays her dad.
GeorgeOkay.
JonMm.
GeorgeUh…
MoHa! ah ah Greg Kinnear, I think he passed his last name. He’s in it. um I mean, it’s just this just a star-studded thing. But basically, it’s about a girl, a woman, ah played by Elle Fanning, who named Margo, obviously. She goes to college.
MoShe has an affair. She has a she gets pregnant. And inside, she’s going to keep the baby. um So she’s home. She’s trying to figure out how to make money because her mom doesn’t want anything to do with it. ah Nick Offerman is an ex-pro wrestler who just got out of prison.
Georgeno
MoHe just got out of prison.
GeorgeOh, geez.
JonMm-hmm.
MoYeah. Whose name is his name was Jinx. That’s what everyone calls him. um And So he he comes into the picture after being gone for all this time because she thought he like he stopped answering her emails and messages. And he turns out he was in prison and couldn’t.
Moyou know um So he winds up coming and living with her and helping out. so But to make money, as she’s pregnant, she notices that she says, wow, my my breasts are getting huge.
MoAnd someone says, people pay good money to see those.
MoSo she starts an OnlyFans account.
GeorgeTrue.
JonWhat?
MoAnd so as she’s so as she was to be a writer. So to kind of hit that creative itch, she’s like, if you send me a bonus and a picture of your penis, I’ll tell you what Pokemon it is and what powers it has.
Jonah
MoAnd
Moah And they do. And she does. And she starts like, your power is but bla blah, blah, blah. It’s just really funny. It kind of makes fun of the whole situation. and and And the show also has a lot of heart. Like, you know, at first you think her mom character seems kind of shallow, but then you start getting into and you realize that she’s not like, she’s a layered character. you know, it just kind of takes a little bit to get there.
Moah Nick Offerman is Nick Offerman. I mean, he’s just, ah you know, he’s just great no matter what.
Georgeyeah
JonYeah, he’s tremendous. Yeah.
Georgehe’s a national treasure
MoOh, for sure.
JonYep.
MoAnd then but he gets involved with at some point, like helping her make this stuff. And he brings like his pro wrestling chops to it. Like, okay, you’re the face, you know, that you know, and she’s like, well, why do we, yeah, exactly.
Jonah You’re going to be the heel, right? Here’s the…
MoShe’s like, why do we need that? He says, no, those are important because we don’t know what else to do. there’s something to fall back on. You know, you know that you’re the face, so you got to some this, you know, and and I mean, it’s really funny.
JonWow.
MoAnd said, there’s a whole lot of, you know, smaller stories to hear about relationships and all the all the good stuff in there. Very funny. ah I’m definitely looking to see is based on a book um that my wife actually read.
MoAnd she she was laughing. I see them like, what are you laughing at? and then she told me about the Pokemon thing. and And I was like cracking up.
Georgeuh
MoSo they kept that. But an excellent show. If you want something, it’s. It’s kind of I mean, I would say it’s light, but it’s not like super heavy either. If that makes sense, it’s somewhere in between there. You know, it’s a good balance, but excellent show.
JonLike a, like it’s like a dramedy comedy drama ish.
MoYeah, definitely.
JonYeah. Okay. Yeah.
Moah Excellent show. Excellent. Amazing acting. um Definitely worth the time to catch.
JonIt looks like it’s like brand new. Is it not even through a first season?
MoOh, yeah, it’s.
Jonwas a few episodes in.
MoOh, no, they’re like five episodes in, I think at this point.
JonOkay. All right.
MoSo brand, brand new.
JonIt’s not too late to get in. All right.
MoYep.
JonMargo’s got money troubles. Great. all right. Thanks Mo. Stick around. We’ll be right back.
MoAll right, it’s been a while, so we probably all have a lot Tekken toy stuff to talk about, I guess. i don’t know, we’ll see. But John, what do you got for us today?
JonYeah, you know, like George saying a second ago, there are so many options. It could be a new Docker image I found from my Unraid. It could be a new piece of software website that I found. But I fell back on a a physical piece of hardware that I got. And you might argue that it’s not super exciting, but to me, it really, really is.
JonI spend the bulk of my time in my little front office in my house, and there are many computers in there, and it’s typically about 10 degrees warmer in that room than it is anywhere else in the house because of a lack of circulation.
JonI even had them put a second vent for the air conditioner up there, but the thermostat’s in the back of the house where it’s cool, so it always stays warmer.
MoIs it…
JonSo i’m always trying to fight that, and he used to have a tower fan, you know, one of those cylindrical little towers to help push air in there, but it’s, yes,
Moah
GeorgeWait a minute. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. Four weeks away from this podcast, our YouTube channel has 185,000 subscribers focused on retro gaming.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeAnd you’re telling me you’re coming back with a goddamn fan.
JonI couldn’t have gotten any of those subscribers unless without that fan blowing on me, I assure you.
GeorgeWow.
MoHmm.
JonIt was 88 degrees in there. So you’re right. I am.
GeorgeWow.
JonYeah, I know. So the one I had was just so old because I never turn it off. It’s always got to be cranking air through there. And it got noisy and it wasn’t moving air well. So I did pick up. I found a new fan. Now you can get it for 30 or 40 bucks, but I really needed this to work.
JonSo I found that one’s about 80 bucks. It’s made by a company called Dreo, which is a known ah name for HVAC and fans and stuff. And this one is, it has all the things you would expect that I don’t need. It has a cool little screen on it that goes in a nighttime mode. It’ll get dim on you so it doesn’t light up the room. Most importantly, it is brushless. That means it’s not not so noisy, right? So it’s quiet.
JonIt’s about 20 decibels or lower, even on high volume. And it moves 28 foot
Jon28 cubic feet of air per second through this thing. And it is literally keeping my room now about one degree cooler than the rest of the house instead of 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the house.
Moah that’s not bad. That’s much better.
JonIt is tremendous.
GeorgeYou mean 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the house?
JonYes, yes, right, hotter.
MoYes.
JonIt used to be 10 degrees hotter.
Moccc
JonNow it’s only one degree hotter. Oh, if it’s 10 degrees cooler, man, I would buy three of these and turn off the AC.
GeorgeYou…
JonYeah. Yes. So yes, George, I am celebrating my new piece of tech that is a fan because it’s brought me so much greater quality of life in a room that I spend probably 80% of my waking hours in.
JonSo link, of course, link, of course.
MoThat’s worth it.
GeorgeI mean, I’m sure I could use something like that.
JonYeah, I know.
GeorgeThis room is the same way that I’m in all the time, but I’m not going to talk about it on the podcast.
MoYeah, mine too.
GeorgeSo I’m going to talk about the new tech for games.
JonListen, I’ve done bidets. I’ve done stickers for my oven. if it brings me joy, I’m talking about it here.
Moah Yeah.
JonMo, can you pull us out of this nosedive that George has put me in? See,
MoI’m actually very interested in this fan because I’m i’m actually.
GeorgeI didn’t put you in it, sir. That was all you…
JonMo likes the fans.
Moi’m I’m actually very interested this fan, but what I have is ah something that solved a problem, which is ah my wife has she has tons of pictures on disks like, you know, the USB drives that you buy, you know, you know the two and a half inch ones kind of, you know, um she has just tons of them.
JonSee?
GeorgeOh.
MoAnd so she found one. She was pulling it up and it wouldn’t read. Yeah. So it’s like, she’s like, oh, my God, I got like got it up. So I said, well, you know, it doesn’t work. So you OK if I take it apart and see if I can figure out what’s wrong? You know, she’s like, absolutely.
Motook it apart. It has a small SATA drive in it. So I bought this item, which is a USB 3.2 SATA to USB converter.
JonMm-hmm.
MoYou actually plug the drive in, plug it, and it reads and it just reads it.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeOh, yeah. An adapter. Yeah.
MoYeah, and it just reads it like it’s a regular, like an external drive. um Did that.
JonMm-hmm.
Georgehmm.
MoI was able to pull every single file off of it, which made her thrilled, which it turns out there were like 38,000 files, which is ridiculous.
JonMm-hmm.
Georgehe
Moum Took forever to upload. um But it and it worked and it it is powered as well, which I thought was important. see So when it it actually powers the drive, it’s not using USB power to try to run the the actual hard disk.
JonMm-hmm.
Moum And I’m not sure because, i you know, I took it apart. It’s basically this drive with this little tiny control circuit board. And I figured that went bad at some point. But um it was like a little over 30 bucks for it.
MoBut let me tell you, be able to save data and save these pictures, raw pictures of kids and that kind of stuff, definitely worthwhile.
JonRight.
JonI was going to propose whether or not, ask you whether you had done any like digital detective work to get it fixed, but you just plugged it in and it worked. So it probably was, like you said, just the control board on there.
MoYeah.
JonYeah. Now, does this just work for two and a half inch drives, SSDs or any SATA drive?
Moum and Any side of drive.
JonDoes it have multiple pots? yeah does it have a slot for like a three and a half inch drives too?
MoWell, actually, it’s just it’s just the, you know, the part that plugs in for the side drive just plugs right in.
Jonyou put the bigger one in there? Oh, it just clips on the back. It’s not like a dock.
MoYeah, it’s not a dock.
JonGot it.
MoYou just you just plug it in, set the drive down and it runs.
JonGot it.
JonI used to have one look like a toaster and had a little slot and a big slot for the big and the small drives.
MoSo. Yeah.
GeorgeOh, yeah.
JonBut this one sounds cheaper for one and two, you know, did the trick.
MoYeah.
JonSo, all right.
MoYeah. and And they said worked right off the gate, plugged it in. and I was like, oh, I got the drive. And, you know, and then they started the long thing of copying everything off.
JonYour wife was doing a dance around you celebrating.
Moah she was very happy.
JonI’m sure. Yeah.
MoShe’s like, you picture the kids when they were this age. I’m like, okay, whatever. Whatever.
JonWow. Okay. Whatever.
MoYou know, no, it’s actually lot important stuff.
JonMo forgot that his wife listens to the show.
MoSo I’m glad.
JonDidn’t he
MoShe is also our fourth listener. Love you.
Georgeand
JonOkay, whatever. Pictures of the kids.
MoNo, i was just happy that I went, I got to buy another piece of tech and it works.
JonAll right.
JonYep.
MoSo win-win for everybody.
JonThere you
MoSo George, I know you definitely have something gaming related after all that talk.
GeorgeYeah, you know, leave it to bit by bit to come and save the segment a little bit here. So I found this ah this application through bit by bit. It was something that popped up in the different news feeds that I have on that.
GeorgeAnd when I highlighted it on one of the bit by bit episodes, the person who created it reached out to me, which was amazing. You know, happens once in a while, not all the time, but every now and then, you know, people probably have their own alerts set up for their stuff.
JonMm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
GeorgeLike, hey, if somebody talks about me, you know, let me know.
MoOh, true.
GeorgeSo this is an emulation system for over 30 different consoles that is pretty much completely online. Right.
GeorgeNow there are plenty of places where you can go and play something in your browser, right? There’s whole bunch of different websites out there for that, but they’re on your browser.
Mooh sure.
GeorgeThis one though, it doesn’t have, well, it does. It, it’s very, he keeps evolving it as I’ve been working with him just over the last few weeks.
GeorgeHe’s done changes that he and I have talked about. um It’s called after play.io. So, so
JonOf
GeorgeYou go to this website, you create a completely free account, and then you can upload any legally owned ROMs. I’m saying legally owned because I don’t want to get John sued because it’s not my name on the checks.
Joncourse.
MoMm-hmm. hes
Georgebut ah So you you upload your legally owned ROMs to this system, and now that they’re in their system,
Jonah
GeorgeThey are playable across any device or platform that you can have oh because A, it’s browser-based. B, they have a Windows application. They also have an iOS application. They have an Android application. And all of your stuff syncs across all those devices. It also syncs with retro achievements. So if you’re an achievement person,
GeorgeYour retro achievement account can sink into the system and anything you do in any platform, you get, you know, all the achievements are there.
MoOh. Mm.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeBut they also do a new thing that they started. That’s what, how the system came to my knowledge because it was, that was what the article was about. They’ve put an online store in the system, but only for indie game studios. So no AAA games in this.
GeorgeSo just people like MadCad and other companies like that that are independent, small companies, retro gaming shops that put their stuff in there. And like the games cost like between four bucks and 10 bucks on average. Um, it’s just a really fun system. It’s super easy. You drop your ROM in there, you click the button and you’re playing with either your keyboard or connected controller or whatever you want to play with. It takes no time at all to start playing. And that’s what I enjoy the most about it.
MoSo just make sure I understand. So basically, if I own like a Robotron ROM, right, I could upload to the system and I could play Robotron on my phone, in Windows, on Android.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeYep.
JonYep.
GeorgeYep.
Moand And if I put a high score, it’ll sync across like it’ll show in all those different things.
GeorgeYep.
GeorgeIf that system stores high scores, you know, some of the systems didn’t, but your retro achievement account probably does.
MoIf it stores it, if it stores high scores.
JonYep.
GeorgeI don’t have a lot of experience with retro achievements, but it would save it there, I would think.
MoOK, oh, that’s pretty cool. And so, oh, so replaces MAME and all that stuff.
GeorgeBut it’s it doesn’t just do that.
MoSo it just.
Georgeit’s It’s not just that. Automatic save states. So if you’re in the middle of a level 12 on Robotron and you want to quit and then you pick it up two days later, starts right back where you were at instantly.
MoDoes it handle all?
GeorgeYou don’t have to…
Moi was asking, does this handle all platforms like it’s all ROMs as a support?
GeorgeSo like I said, it’s over 30 systems. It’s not all platforms. Like for instance, um, in television is not on there, but Coleco vision is.
MoHmm. Okay.
GeorgeSo he is adding new systems all the time and he will continue to, but he’s very active.
MoOkay.
GeorgeLike I said, he and I have been talking and we do have an affiliate link. Um, so Mo, I’ll, um, let you put that in the notes for the podcast, but, uh, You can play everything for free.
GeorgeThe affiliate link just comes in because there’s a premium version of it that does like those save states automatically stuff. I was talking about things like that, but it’s incredibly affordable. I want to say it was like $35 for a year or something like that.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeAnd where this thing shines is the difference between this and setting up something with say RetroArch. If you’ve used LaunchBox and it has RetroArch in the background or any other front-end emulator, RetroArch is not the most user-friendly system.
MoMm-hmm. Hmm.
GeorgeIt is incredibly diverse and it does everything and it has cores for all the system and all like that. But this thing takes all of that headache out of your way. So if you just want to play a ROM that you have and you don’t want to have to go through 20 different tutorials to figure out how to to get it to work,
GeorgeThis is a system that makes that possible.
JonYeah. And one of the things you mentioned to me that you may have said it a second ago, but if not, highlight it is a online multiplayer. You can send a friend to invite to somebody.
GeorgeOh, that’s right. I forgot about, yeah, online multiplayer.
MoNo.
JonYeah. Did you say it or miss it? you you know I want to make sure we talk about it, but yeah.
GeorgeI did. No, I forgot. Yeah.
JonSo if there’s a game that has multiplayer, I haven’t tested this myself, but apparently, and even over the cloud or whatever, you can invite a friend with a friend code and both jump into the same game that you both have to have on your system.
GeorgeMm-hmm.
JonAnd then you can play the two player version of that game as one player and two player.
GeorgeYeah, it’s really, yeah, it’s a lot easier than that.
JonYeah.
MoOh, oh, that’s pretty cool.
JonYep.
GeorgeThere was a tool that John and I played around with years ago that, yeah, Parsec.
JonParsec.
MoParsec.
JonYep.
MoYeah.
GeorgeThis takes all of the headache of Parsec out of the way as well. It’s just, it’s a really well put together system.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeNow, this is one thing that I learned because I just made an assumption. You upload your ROM, right? I just made the assumption that it was using just a pointer to ROMs that they had stored in a database somewhere.
GeorgeNo, you’re really uploading your ROMs.
JonYeah.
MoIt’s usually your rum.
Georgebut Everybody has their own individual ones and they have to do it that way for legal reasons.
JonSo if you upload, gotcha.
MoSure.
JonGotcha. So if you had a ROM hack, you could use that too.
GeorgeThey can’t do any deduplication pointer kind of stuff.
JonYeah. Great.
GeorgeYeah. So you’re, it’s actually your ROMs in there.
JonNice.
GeorgeThey haven’t had any issues yet. I’m, I’m wondering if they’re going to just because like the predominant amount of their systems are Nintendo related. So there’s Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, all the way up to like Nintendo 64, I think, NES, SNES, might even have been a GameCube in there.
MoHmm.
JonRight.
GeorgeI can’t remember. Tons of different systems in there. But if you have legally owned ROMs and you want an easy way to play them and be able to take them with you, John and I went to a convention. That was why we were on break for a little while.
GeorgeAnd I showed him just playing a Game Boy game on my little 7. And I like kind of half opened my Z fold so that it was standing up on its own. And I had my little 8 bit do a controller and I was playing a full version of crazy taxi on that thing.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeIt was so much fun.
MoNice.
JonYep. You know, what just occurred to me is if you have one of those Android-based handheld systems, like a GameMT EX-8 or a Trim UI or something, or AmberNik, you could run the Android app on that and augment the games you have on your Android-based handheld with the games you have uploaded to the cloud.
Georgee
GeorgeYes.
Jonwhy And it’s doing some of the processing, so might even, I don’t know,
MoHmm. That’s interesting.
Jonwas theres I was just thinking my phone, but then I realized some of these handhelds are Android.
GeorgeYeah.
JonThat might open up but another world there, too.
GeorgeThat’s a good point as well. And that’s something I’ll talk to him about and see if, you know, what his experience is talking with his users about it.
JonHmm. Hmm.
GeorgeHe he’s got a wide user base at this point.
JonYeah.
Georgeum And hopefully the people listening his podcast will want to jump on because if they jump on and somebody does purchase the premium version of it, cause you can do it monthly or annually either way.
JonYep.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeAnd it’s really affordable.
JonRight.
GeorgeGen X grown up does see a little bit of benefit from that through our affiliate partnership and doesn’t cost you anything extra. but it helps us out, helps keep lights on here at the podcast and the YouTube channel.
JonNope.
GeorgeSo really it’s, yes, ah it’s a good system.
MoSweet.
JonGive George the nickels. Give George the nickels.
MoMm-hmm.
JonYeah, it’s cool.
GeorgeIt’s really worth, like I wouldn’t promote it.
JonYeah,
GeorgeWe don’t promote anything we don’t believe in. i really like this system.
Jonit’s cool. After play. There’s a lot more to explore than that. We’re not done there.
GeorgeYeah, no, no, no.
MoYeah, for sure.
JonYeah, yeah.
GeorgeYeah. Yeah, that’s fine.
GeorgeAll right. Time to talk about games. I know we’ve got two of us with games that we want to talk about today, but John, I swear to God, I thought you already talked about this on the podcast because you won’t shut the hell up about it.
GeorgeEvery time we talk, oh my God, live streams galore on this thing.
Jonbut
JonYep.
GeorgeEvery time I turn around, this game is in your mouth. So why don’t you tell everybody what it is?
JonNothing’s good enough for George. My fan is too boring.
GeorgeNope.
JonMy game is too common. Yeah. Okay. Uh, this, you said I talk about it too much to come.
GeorgeI didn’t say your game was common. i said, you just won’t shut up about it.
JonOkay. I’m talking about retro rewind, which if you ever visited or worked at or ran a VHS rental store in your life, which I think all of us fall in one of those categories,
Jonyou’re probably going find something to like in this game. Retro Rewind. Of course, my throat. Retro Rewind puts you in the feet of someone opening a brand new video rental store. And it starts you like somewhere in the fall of 1984 to get an idea of ah of what’s going on in the world, right? but What kind of the clothes people wear. a where you literally have a shop They give you the money to buy three shelves and give you a box of 30 tapes and go open a store.
JonYou get to, and it’s like this Sim Universe kind of thing. You get to decide what the carpet looks like and the walls look like and the shelves look like and what the signs are. And you buy bonus things to hang up and decorations and stuff.
JonAnd you can buy more movies and you can add. And all of the movies are not real movies, but they’re like movies that you probably know.
MoHehehehe.
JonLike there was a new horror movie that came in called, uh, static ghost that was someone’s hands in front of a TV that was off And I’m like, that’s clearly poltergeist, but I see where you’re going.
Georgeah
Moah
GeorgeRight.
JonThere’s ah a new release came out called forward to the past that had a car on fire. You know what I’m talking about?
Moah
JonAnd you do the things that someone has to make decisions for in a movie rental store. In addition to stocking the shelves and taking in returns and rewinding ones that didn’t get rewound and stock in the back on the shelves, you get to pick what movies to buy.
JonYou get to pick when release, how many you buy. If you buy enough, they’ll send you a standee that helps you advertise them. Later, they get to unlock things like a snack shelves and snow cone machines and a popcorn machine.
JonAnd every Tuesday and Thursday, there’s a shady guy that shows up after closing time in the alley that will sell you discount movies, including triple X rated movies that you can put on the shelf.
GeorgeOh, Lord.
JonThose rent great, by the way.
GeorgeAdult section.
Jonabsolutely.
Georgedo you Do you have to put up the beaded curtains in your store?
Joni I want one. I work really hard. Actually, you do have to keep them away from other movies or people will complain. So I do have them in a corner of my store, but they haven’t sold me a beaded curtain yet. ah I know. Right. And then as you go through the game, you, you gain levels, as you might imagine, any given game like this and the levels add new genres like, Oh, now there’s action. Now there’s Christmas movies. Now there’s whatever, uh, or maybe it expands. Now you can hire an employee to help you stock the shelves, or maybe you can, uh, now you can, you know, expand your store or whatever you can do it. You can customize it as much as you want.
JonAnd it’s, If you at all like that retail juice, you like the idea of running something and getting people to come and and if they’re not going to the doors, you can grab a stack of flyers or run out in the street and throw at people to get them to come in.
MoYeah.
JonI mean, you can do whatever sorts of things you think will make it. Oh, I think if the new releases are in the front, they’re gonna do better. If the snacks are by the new releases, all that is customizable. You make your own little world and it absorbs time.
JonYou can’t just jump in and jump out and do a day. But if you can play just a day, you have more discipline than I do. I typically do two or three at a time because you just want to develop your store. i’m like, I’m so close to the next unlock. I want to get the next cool thing in my store. I want to be able to add these new movies.
JonYeah. And also, if you’re a control freak, I need every shelf to have the same color of sign to have the same font. and And you’re right, George, I have been live streaming this a lot.
JonAnd there’s one of those digital signs you can put up on the on the wall that you could see. It could be a ticker that has new releases or whatever. What I’ve been doing is whenever someone gifts some memberships, I go put their name on that in the game to celebrate that they were there because that’s fun.
GeorgeOh, funny.
JonSo yeah, Retro Rewind. I think it’s it’s only like 20 bucks or so. It’s super popular right now. That’s maybe hearing other people talk about it a lot, not just me. It could be that. don’t know.
Georgeum I mean, I’d like to talk about it myself, but I didn’t get a free copy gifted to me like somebody else on this podcast did.
JonI know. i know.
MoWhat?
JonWell, you you need more fans.
MoWhat? wasn’t me.
JonWhat can I say?
GeorgeNo, no, it wasn’t you.
Jonit was Yeah, it it it is fun. if you If you have any, not nostalgia for that at all, take a look at it Maybe check our live streams and maybe pick it up give it a try. George, how about have you been playing?
GeorgeWell, I’ve been playing it just a little bit because I’m trying not to play this game too much because my goal is that we will play this on a live stream of our very own.
JonYep.
GeorgeIt’s a four player asteroids based game called Asteroid 69. Um, Alliteratives aside, it’s a very fun game so far.
GeorgeI’ve just played it through a few levels to get up to a, like a challenge kind of stage. And it did eventually kill me, which was kind of surprising because at first it starts off slow enough.
GeorgeI think it’s part of the tutorial thing that where it’s allowing you to learn the rules in the universe a little bit. um It’s very ah colorful and,
JonTrue.
Georgeit’s not like vector graphics. Like you think of the original asteroids. It’s more like blastroids. I think John, you mentioned that that’s what it looked like to you.
JonOh, yeah.
MoMm-hmm.
JonYep.
GeorgeUm, and apparently there’s a way to do some kind of four player stuff in it. I haven’t tried that yet. Cause we’re going to, we’re going hopefully do it it on a live stream soon.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeUm, but it, To me, it’s just a fun game. It’s another one of these where somebody reached out to us directly through our Discord server and said, hey, I would love it if you would talk about my game.
JonMm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
GeorgeThey sent me a private message and I’m like, okay, I’ll take a look at it. And I showed it to you, John. And Mo, I think I’m giving you a key or something.
MoYep. Yeah, I played it.
GeorgeIf not, I’ll get you one. i good Okay, good. Um, so it, it’s just a fun, fun game. Um, I think it has potential because if it’s cooperative or competitive or both, I can see the three of us plus whoever we find for the fourth, just screaming and yelling at each other for an hour and a half, uh, live stream. I think it’ll be worth it.
JonYeah, yeah. It’s a throwback to asteroids, which gives you a great starting foundation. So, yeah.
GeorgeYeah.
JonYeah, I think ah i think and it’s, you know, I don’t know George is thinking the the gameplay will be fun or the screaming and yelling at each other be fun. Or maybe it’s a combination of the two.
GeorgeOh, screaming and yelling.
MoBoth.
JonYeah, there’s the one.
GeorgeNo, no, screaming and yelling.
JonIt’s the both. Okay.
Moah
GeorgeYeah.
JonAll right.
GeorgeTwin cop, baby.
Jongoing to try to get that scheduled. Yeah. All right. All right. Stick around. We’ll be right back.
GeorgeYeah, it’s fine.
JonNow, before we let you go, coming to the back end of the show here, we do like to take just a second here to talk about the things we’re looking at right now or looking forward to between now and the next time we get together. And I’d like to see from you first, Mo, what do you have on the horizon?
MoSure. ah The first thing is a Mortal Kombat 2. The movie is coming out May 8th.
JonMm-hmm.
MoActually, should be out today, actually, isn’t it?
JonMm-hmm.
MoThe day we’re recording this, as we record this.
JonThat’s right. As we record this, just drop. Yep.
MoI don’t know if it’s going any good or not. Who knows? ah It looks interesting because it it kind of they went back to Mortal Kombat 2. I guess they’re ignoring like every other…
Moyou know the other Mortal Kombat movies that came out at some point in the past. But it looks interesting. So I’m looking forward to that. um there’s Also, there’s ah Lee Cronin, The Mummy.
JonOkay.
MoSo it’s kind of like a more of a horror-ish kind of take, modern take on The Mummy, which I thought looked pretty interesting as well.
JonMm-hmm.
MoSo i’m looking forward to that. And the last thing I’m looking forward to is the show called Good Omens, which was on Amazon.
GeorgeOh, yeah.
JonMm-hmm. You’ve talked about that.
MoLove the show. They’re doing a season three.
JonYep.
MoAnd season three starts on May 13th. So that should be a lot of fun.
JonOkay.
MoHow about you, george were looking forward to?
JonYep.
GeorgeWell, ah you know, tried and true. Welcome to Wrexham Season 5 starts on FX May 14th.
MoYeah.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeLove how they highlight not only the the story of the team, but also the town and the citizens around it and all fans and everything.
MoMm-hmm.
GeorgeThey just do a really good job with that series. And of course, it’s it’s not Rob McElhain anymore. It’s just Rob M. now. Yeah. So he’s changed his name because I guess his name was too ah difficult for people to say or something.
Moshortly
GeorgeAnd Ryan Reynolds, of course, they co-own the team and it’s just done really well. I’m really looking forward the season because they’re in the championship now, which is one league below the top league of European soccer.
GeorgeAnd I can’t wait to see how all the interactions go in behind the team scenes of the team, because I’ve watched the team this whole season
MoThis can be crazy.
GeorgeAnd they almost made it to the playoffs. They were very, they were one goal away from having an opportunity to be promoted four years in a row, which would have been insane.
JonWow.
JonWow. Yeah, it’s great.
GeorgeBut anyway, looking forward to that. Also on Amazon, Spider Noir drops on May 25th.
JonYeah.
GeorgeSo this is the series based off of the character from the animated Spider-Man films that Nick Cage voiced.
MoOh, yeah.
MoMm-hmm.
GeorgeSo, This looks to be really interesting. I love noir style stuff anyway, and it’s Spider-Man 2 with Nick Cage.
JonWow.
GeorgeI mean, that’s the triumvirate right there.
JonWow.
GeorgeI mean, you’re to have a fun time. And then the thing that I thought I was going to have to be looking forward to, but as I was talking about earlier with the guys, I finished it last night.
Georgeah I finished Darkenstein 3D, I’m looking forward to actually getting to play something different on a live stream.
MoMm-hmm.
Jonwow
Moah
GeorgeFinally, it was a fun game, but after nine live streams, I was like, holy crap, when am I ever going to finish that? So I did finally finish that game. You can check out all the live streams on our YouTube channel if you’re glutton for punishment, but that that’s what I’m most looking forward to, to be able to move on to something else.
JonYep.
JonWas it worth it?
Georgeah
JonAll that i’ll let play? Was it satisfying?
George100%. I’ll go back and play more of it.
JonThere you go.
GeorgeIt’s a good game.
JonThere you go.
GeorgeYeah, it’s it was fun.
JonThat’s worth it. Great.
GeorgeBut that’s me, John. What about you?
JonYeah, so there’s a new game that’s out right now, though I haven’t picked it up yet, called Mixtape. I’ve been had my eye on it for a while. Think Life is Strange in the 80s is kind of what it is.
JonIt’s that sort of structured game. The art style kind of looks like a don’t nod game, though it’s not made by don’t nod. But it’s about this coming of age, last summer together, almost like a Stranger Things sort of a vibe where music plays very heavily into it In fact, they have a lot licensed tracks from the 80s in this, so music…
MoOh, that’s cool. Mm-hmm.
Jonweighs heavily on. I’ve been waiting for it for a while. It’s finally out. I just haven’t had time to play it because Retro Rewind, Utopia, and everything has got my attention right now. But as soon as I have a chance, going to be playing that.
JonSpider Noir, as you mentioned, George, also caught my eye.
GeorgeHmm. Yeah.
JonIt kind of sends City looking in a way.
Georgeyeah
JonYou know, that that old detective look? I love that. so And the thing I’m most looking forward to that I did not see coming, not since the 80s have I given a damn about a Pac-Man cartoon, but…
JonPac-Man Snack Breaks is a new animated short series that’s going to be exclusively on the official Pac-Man YouTube channel starting May 22nd.
JonAnd it looks really cute. It doesn’t remember the Pac-Man ghostly adventures was super kiddie fight.
GeorgeYeah.
JonAnd i couldn’t I tried that and couldn’t watch it.
MoMm-hmm.
JonThis has, it’s hard to describe the, it has little graphical nods to all eras of Pac-Man, just in the trailer that I saw. And it’s not going to overstay its welcome. They’re short. they’re probably going to be, you know, four or five, eight minutes long, I guess, coming out regularly on the YouTube channel. Something to keep track of over there. So Pac-Man snack breaks is the thing I’m most looking forward to. and it’s going free on the YouTube. So.
JonAll right. ah Hey, before we get out of here, I want to thank some new patrons that signed up with us. But before we do, Mo, I know that one of the benefits of being a patron could be why these new folks signed up is they could ask a question for us to answer here on the show. And I see you have one teed up.
MoYes, it’s from Brandon G. And his question is, ah looking back on the days of your youth, what would each of you say your favorite book or series of books would be?
JonYes. Hey. Hey, Brandon.
JonMm hmm.
MoSo and he said he did, though, of your youth. So I’m thinking pre-high school is what I’m kind of translating that to, but we’ll see. Or maybe not. I guess youth is high school.
JonSure.
MoIt just seems so long ago. Yeah.
JonIn the Stone Age.
MoYeah. um John, you want to kick us off?
JonI will. Yeah, it’s going to make me sound really shallow, but I don’t care. It’s okay.
MoGo for it.
Jonah Choose your own adventure books by and above anything else. And I’ve read other books. I’ve read some Bradbury, i’ve you know, Fahrenheit 451 and iRobot series and a lot of Stephen King and stuff like that. But the thing I think about most…
Jonthat I just had fun reading and couldn’t wait to read the next one. And I think it’s because of little bite-sized things, the Choose Your Own Adventure series, and didn’t matter to the topic. It could be a horror, it could be a comedy, it could be a sci-fi, it could be whatever. I just liked that it was kind of like super bite-sized RPG in a way. You get to pick what you’re doing and do that. And it’s still kind of emblematic of the 80s. So yeah, Choose Your Own Adventure, that’s mine.
MoOkay. How about you George?
GeorgeWell, um ah so a little difficult for me because I wasn’t really a reader um up until probably my college age years.
MoMm-hmm.
GeorgeThat’s when I got bigger into reading. I did read the Lord of the Rings series when I was younger, but I don’t remember exactly when.
JonMm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
GeorgeAnd you were talking about pre-high school-ish kind era. So in order to kind of fit in with that, I think I’ll say the only book that I read has to probably be my favorite. And mainly because it pulled me along enough that I actually finished the book.
GeorgeIt was always a chore for me because I felt like books were assigned to me, you know, book reports and things like, and I didn’t like that.
MoHmm. Hmm. Hmm.
Jono
GeorgeI just rebelled against that. But the book that I did finish was the, um, was the novel adaptation of the movie Tron. Um,
JonOh, okay.
GeorgeI don’t even remember if it was really good literature or not, but it pulled me along and made me finish the book.
JonOh, right. Mm-hmm. Yep.
GeorgeAnd I distinctly remember the copy that I had, and a paperback copy, had in the very middle of the book, um like some harder pages, like thicker cardstock pages that were stills from the movie.
Jonoh right o
GeorgeSo it was just a novel thing and it made me… ah enjoy it. Plus I love the movie. So that made it easy to follow along because, you know, it was just a book adaptation of the movie.
JonSure.
GeorgeThey didn’t change anything from the movie. So, uh, one of those rare instances where, um, a young person who hates reading actually enjoyed something to read.
JonSure. Sure.
MoThat’s awesome. Yeah. I was thinking, like I said, I read a lot. So it was like definitely a tough question for me to pick out one thing. I said, yeah I said, read all the Dune books and I read everything else. But one series of books that came out at the time that and they were coming out during that that time. So like a new book would come out every like couple, once a year, twice a year, you’d come out with a book.
MoIt was called the magic of Xanth by Pierce Anthony. Um,
GeorgeMm, yeah.
JonXant with an X, right?
MoYes, with an X.
JonX, Xant? Yep. yep
Moum And the first book is basically land where everybody has magic. Magic is everywhere. And to stay a citizen, have to prove that you have a magic talent. And no two people ever have the same one.
MoLike, ever.
JonHmm.
MoLike, through history. Everyone gets something unique every time. And the main character is somebody who has no magic.
JonHmm. Wow.
MoAnd so it’s basically his quest to try to figure out like what is, how can you get magic basically is what he’s trying to do. This thing it’s, it’s full of like horrible puns.
Moum Like really, really bad puns. It’s has a little bit of a sexist overtone. I was trying to reread one of them recently and i’m like, Oh, this is a little questionable.
Jonthis is
MoYeah.
JonDidn’t age well.
MoIt did not age well, but the series itself, I think he wound up doing something like 13 books or 14 books in this series.
JonYeah.
Moah So, but it was definitely one that it was very popular and a lot of people I knew were reading it at the time. So it was the Magic of Zan series. So, but Brandon, yeah.
JonCool.
MoBrandon, thanks so much for your question.
JonThank you, Brandon.
Moum If you want your question read on this show, it’s super easy. Just go to genxgroomup.com slash Patreon. Little as a dollar a month, submit your question and we’ll probably answer it right here on the show.
JonAnd that’s exactly what Christian S. ah did and Brad B. did to upgrade, which happens sometimes. Brad B. has been notorious for when his finances aren’t looking good. either drops or he drops out, but he always comes back. He goes, things are looking better for me. i want to support you guys. want to support the arts, the things that I enjoy. Christian, Brad, thank you so much. And by the way, you guys make sure, you know, if you’re at that $5 level or above,
Jonyou have access to an advertisement free feed of this podcast that you get exclusively over on Patreon as just another way we have to try to thank you for your support.
MoSo I just got to call out, ah Christian S. is my little brother. So you you better subscribe.
JonOh, is it?
MoNo. hey No, no.
GeorgeWow.
JonWhy did it take so many years to get him in, Mo?
MoHe actually… He actually just started listening to it.
Jonlike ah
Moah He started listening to a while back and he’s, he’s really digging the show.
JonOh, really? Okay.
Mohes He sends me comments.
GeorgeHe’s one up on me, so.
JonOh.
MoYeah. he He sends me comments and stuff on it.
JonOh, right. There you go.
MoI think I might’ve called him out one time on a show, not knowing that he actually listened to the show, but anyway.
Jonoh right
MoSo Chris, if you’re hearing this, love you, man. And thanks for supporting us.
Jonokay There we go. Thank you, Chris. Awesome. joining ah You’re both joining a roster of amazing folks, and we’re so grateful that you’re here. That is going to wrap it up for this edition of the show. If you’re worried that we won’t be back again, we will. Be back again in two weeks. But next week in the interim is our backtrack, where we pick a single nostalgic topic and dig in deep on it. George, would the honors and share what’s coming the fourth listener away next week?
GeorgeYeah, absolutely. Probably one of the most quintessential rom-com with a sci-fi twist 80s movies of all 80s 80s.
MoYeah, really?
Jonyeah
GeorgeShort Circuit is the one we’re going to talk about. This has got Steve Guttenberg, Ali Sheedy, who actually has top billing, oddly enough, and a robot named Johnny Five.
JonInput.
MoWe’ll make
JonYeah. Yeah.
GeorgeWe’re going to dive deep into Short Circuit as deep as we can in such a shallow film, but…
Moyeah really yeah we’ll make it work.
Jonit’s It’s a pretty shallow movie. That’s right. ah
GeorgeWe’re going to figure some stuff out and see just what its ah history was, the people and characters of cast, and a little bit about its legacy afterwards, if you want to call it one.
GeorgeShort Circuit is due up in the next backtrack.
JonYeah. I think it’s there. That’s good. Yeah. You don’t want to miss that one. Until then, I am John. George, thank you so much for being here, buddy.
GeorgeYes, sir.
JonMo, you know I appreciate you, sir.
MoAlways fun, man.
JonFourth listener, it’s you. We all three appreciate most of all, though. We can’t wait to talk to you again next time. Bye-bye. All
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About The Author

Mo As someone who barely manages to squeeze in as a GenXer my memories include more of the 70's than those younger GenXers. Reading and movies are my passions with some video gaming thrown in there for good measure!

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