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The Wild Robot, RetroFab, & Baller Installer

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By Mo
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About This Episode

We head to the theatre for a new animated film that follows a high-tech robot lost in the wilderness, explore a website that puts all of those vintage handheld gaming toys at your fingertips, and check out an all-in-one configuration wizard to fast-track new virtual pinball installations.

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Show Notes

TRANSCRIPT

Jon Welcome back Gen X grown up podcast listeners to this episode, 177 of the Gen X grown up podcast. I am John joining me as always, of course is Mo.
Jon Hey man, not a show without George.
Mo Hey, how’s it going?
Jon How you doing, George?
George Hey, how’s it going, guys?
Jon In this episode, we head to the theater for a new animated film that follows a high-tech robot lost in the wilderness, explore a website that puts all of those vintage handheld gaming toys at your fingertips, and check out an all-in-one configuration wizard to fast-track new virtual pinball installations.
Jon Guess who that’s? No, I wanna say it’s a joke about George. Guess who’s gonna talk about pinball? Anybody wanna guess?
Mo Hmm.
Jon Anyone? I know who it is. George, the pinball bug has bitten George.
George I think it’s going to be somebody on 1980s now myself, but you know, I won’t, that’s what.
Jon No. that Well, you won’t hear it then if if that’s the case. Yeah. Before we get into those topics and many more though, it is time for some fourth listener email. The fourth listener this time around is Brandon G subject line of his email, the dukes of hazard, plenty of dukes of hazard email coming in.
George Wow.
Jon Brandon says, Hey guys, another great episode. And yes, George, I’m referring to y’all’s podcast. ta Ha ha ha. Brandon listens, he’s paying attention. ah He says, this episode brought up many fond memories from my childhood.
Jon I spent many hours watching the Dukes and then going outside with my General Lee matchbox car to reenact things in my sandbox.
George Mm hmm. Yep.
Mo Nice.
Jon He goes on to say, I’ll just hit a few points here. Daisy was super hot, Koy and Vance sucked, and the direct-to-DVD movie Dukes of Hazzard the Beginning was actually not bad.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Okay.
Jon You know, I pulled it, I pulled it down to my library. I haven’t watched it yet, but I, I have heard good things. It’s like the third person that said, yeah, not bad. I guess we’re all expecting it’s garbage, right?
George Let’s, your qualification for I’ve heard good things is a little suspect there. I’ve heard good things.
Jon I’ve heard, I’ve heard less than bad things.
George It’s not that bad.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Yeah, it could have been worse.
Jon That’s, that’s, that’s good for this. I’m expecting. Yeah. He goes on to say, I’ll also point out that the Whelan Jennings theme song, if listened to fully, kind of pokes fun in itself as Whelan sings these words at the end.
Jon I’m a good old boy. You know, my mama loves me, but she don’t understand. They keep showing my hands and not my face on TV, which, which is him.
Mo Oh.
George Yep.
Jon That’s all you see is his hands until he’s told us George in the backtrack.
George Mm hmm.
Jon It was one of the last season episodes.
George Yeah.
Jon We actually saw him or something, right? Yeah.
George Yeah.
Jon ah Anyways, he says great episode guys. Thanks for the memories and keep doing what you’re doing. But one last thing. Why was there no mention of Roscoe’s dog Flash? That dog was so cool.
George We didn’t talk about the Basset Hound, really?
Mo I guess we
Jon Yeah, that was an oversight without a doubt.
George Huh?
Jon Yeah, you’re right, Brandon.
George Yeah.
Jon he wraps it up saying besh He wraps it up saying best wishes, Brandon G. Brandon, thank you so much for dropping us a line. Also, before we get out of this opening segment, it’s been a while, a new Apple podcast review that I wanted to share with you.
Mo Wow.
Jon Yeah, yeah. This is, of course, what else would it be? A lovely five star review comes on. i Look, I’ll read the one stars too. I’m just um not saying to do it. It’s not a challenge, but we’ll read those two.
Jon but ah This is by Vince B Frisco over on Apple Podcasts. Subject of his review was the Gen X perspective on pop culture old and new. Sounds like us.
Mo Okay.
Jon His review reads, I started listening to this podcast for a dose of nostalgia. But what really kept me coming back is the great dynamic between the hosts and the fact that they also cover many new topics, the latest games, TV, movies and technology from a Gen X viewpoint.
Jon They’re likable, informative and well worth your time. Wow. Thank you, Vince.
George Wow.
Mo Wow. Yeah. Gee.
Jon What does it know what to say?
Mo Yeah.
Jon He’s like this.
Mo I’m humbled.
Jon And yeah George is thinking, are you sure that’s about us? I know that’s the same thing that Brandon was talking about, of course.
George Yeah, I mean, at this point, it kind of goes without saying, I just need like a little, a little flashcard beep thing that pops in and everybody goes, that’s what he means.
Jon Yeah.
Jon Just a sound effect. that We know that’s what you meant. yeah ah Thank you, Vince.
George see
Jon That was very kind of you. We appreciate you dropping us online. Hey, if you listen to the show and you have not yet left a review every place humanly possible, please think about doing that the next time you’re surfing the internet.
Jon It really does help people discover us because the more reviews and the higher the ranking, the more likely we are to get recommended to people when they’re browsing for new stuff. So thank you, Vince. And of course, thank you back to Brandon for your fourth listener email.
Jon We love it every time the fourth listener drops us a line. let us We appreciate it every time the fourth listener drops us a line that, wow, li la let us know how we’re doing. We love it every time the fourth listener drops us a line to let us know how we’re doing. If you would like your email, wow, God damn it. If you would like your email feature here on the show, just hit us up at podcast at genexgrownup.com. We’ll read every single one. And most of them, like Brandon’s, will eventually make the show. All right, with that good business behind us, time to jump into the body of episode 177 right after this.
Jon Let’s get going then talking about media, of course, that we have been enjoying.
Jon Now this could be a film or television or comics or books or music or whatever it is. And Mo, it’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve spoken.
Mo Yeah.
Jon What have you been checking out?
Mo Yeah, it’s a show that’s actually in its fourth season, just found out about it because it was up for a bunch of awards this year, like the best supporting act, all that stuff.
Jon Mm, okay.
Jon Mm hmm.
Mo It’s called Slow Horses. I don’t know if you guys ever heard of it.
George Oh, yeah, the Gary Oldman show.
Jon No, all right.
Mo Yep.
George Yeah.
Mo Uh, yep.
Jon George knows.
Mo So there you go. Yeah. So it has Gary Omen as the lead character. So basically it’s about like, you know, MI five, you know, the British CIA group and all that stuff.
Jon Mm hmm.
Mo So if you screw up, they send you to basically this other building and you’re under basically Gary Omen’s in charge of that building. And his name is a Jason lamp, Jackson lamb, excuse me.
Mo And basically all the screw-ups wind up there. And they call it Slough House, which this is a British thing, which apparently Slough is like really far from London. So even though that building itself is only a few blocks away from the MI5 headquarters, you might as well be in Slough.
Jon Ah.
Mo And they call them slow soul horses because that’s how the good MI5 people refer to them. Like how are the slow horses doing?
Jon Oh, right. Like the untrainable animals, the ones that don’t.
George derogatory term yeah right
Mo yeah and Yeah, basically.
Jon Yeah. Okay.
Mo So it’s, um but it’s actually each season, like a lot of British women, it’s like one kind of plot, like through the whole thing, like you’re following like one story, to the whole thing like they kind of do.
Jon Mm hmm.
Mo And let me tell you, it’s, we saw the first season, we were just hooked. um Gary Oldman is one of the most How do I put this? Just a guy who has given up.
Mo Opening scene is him in the office, cigarettes, he’s feet up on the desk, holes in his socks, him farting.
Jon Mm hmm.
Mo That’s the whole thing.
Jon And this is it was at work, right? this is Yeah.
Mo Does it work? Oh yeah, it’s in the office. Like, you know, the MI5 building, you know, it’s a modern glass, all this stuff.
George Thank
Mo They walk into that building, they have to get the key and they have to kick the bottom of the door to get it open because it sticks all the time.
George you.
Mo ah You know, it’s just like, they’re just like the worst. But the thing is that they get involved in all these big profile cases either by accident, like they’re told some stupid job that turns out to be important, or they’re thrown into it because they need a scapegoat later.
Jon Mm hmm.
Jon Yeah, yeah.
Mo So we’ll use one of the slow horses for that. you know so So basically that’s how they get involved in all these things, but it’s it’s a great story.
Jon Yeah, got it.
Mo And the character, Gary Olman’s character is a guy who used to be like a super agent during the cold war, that you don’t know what happened to him, but he just sort of…
Jon Oh, so he’s fallen far.
Mo He’s fallen, yeah.
Jon Oh, I see.
Mo um But every now and then you hit the old him comes out again, like when he needs it. you know um Because whenever one of the slow horses gets in trouble, like he always comes to the rescue.
Mo You know, even though he calls them names all the time, he just, just, he’s just rude as hell to them. Just all this stuff. And someone says, you know, why do you care? You know, they’re all, you know, well, you just word, I’m using this just to keep his sightly PG.
Mo You know, they’re all screw ups, you know, and his old line is, yeah, but they’re my screw ups.
Jon Hmm language.
Mo You know, there are my screw ups and you don’t mess with them. You know, um So it’s a great great show a lot of intrigue like the stories like so they start like pretty basic then they get kind of copy it and they It all comes to really good conclusions at the end like you kind of see and it’s like there’s a politics involved There’s all this other stuff involved into as well So if you leave for just a great kind of thriller spy show With a little bit of humor thrown in there, you know, it’s not a comedy but it has a little bit of humor thrown in there slow horses definitely one to watch
Jon Gotcha, and that was on it’s on Apple TV you said, right?
Mo Apple TV. Yep. And then the fourth season.
Jon Yeah.
Mo So if you’re, especially if you’re looking for something, you know, to binge, you got a lot of seasons to watch.
Jon yeah
Mo So that’s what I got. So how about you, John? Actually, the one you have is one I really wanted to see you get a chance to.
Jon Yeah, so we had a a rewind cycle. So we haven’t spoken in a few weeks actually. So I had picked one movie to talk about, but then I changed my mind when I saw a second movie. So I’m gonna pull kind of a half George here and talk about two. I’m only gonna mention,
George yeah
Jon because yeah because it’s Halloween time.
George I’m pretty sure that I’ve got that phrase and stuff copyrighted. I don’t think you’re allowed to do that without giving me 25 cents for a game of Galaga.
Jon Oh, do you have the half George? I knew you had the George. I don’t know if you had the half George also.
George I’ve got it all.
Mo Is that, what’s a full George?
George I mean, it’s all derivatives of the same thing.
Jon Is it like cyber squatting? Do you have the domain yet? What are you picking?
George Yeah, we’ve got dot .net, dot .school, .au, whatever I need.
Jon Yeah, okay.
Jon Well, ah mainly I want to talk about the wild robot. But before I do, just 30 seconds to mention because it’s Halloween, it’s the spooky season. I saw probably the most underground, little talked about, but most amazing body horror and social commentary horror movie I’ve seen in a long time.
Jon starring Demi Moore called The Substance. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this or even seen it.
George Mmm.
Mo Ah.
George Yeah.
Jon And it’s she’s basically she’s playing herself. She is an aging actress who is dealing with the body standards and beauty standards of Hollywood. And someone she doesn’t know kind of contact her and recruits her for this program where you have this drug you can take that can create the best version of yourself.
Jon And it does, but the way it does it, and it’s all like a black mirror kind of situation where, oh, that’s not what I wanted, you know, a bad genie wish.
Mo Okay, okay.
Jon And it I’ve not seen this much spraying blood in the finale of a film, maybe ever.
Mo Oh, my God.
Jon It was crazy. I heard people walking out, but it’s a great film called The Substance. I won’t talk about it more here, because I do want to talk about, I saw another movie.
Mo OK.
Jon It doesn’t fit in the spooky season, but I think it deserves talking about. And that’s the latest from DreamWorks Animation called The Wild Robot.
Mo Hmm.
Jon Now this stars the vocal talents of Lupita Nyong’o and oh, who was the Mandalorian?
Mo This this one, I like everybody.
George Oh, Pedro Pascal.
Mo Pascal, Pedro Pascal.
Jon Pedro Pascal. That’s right. Yeah. And a lot of other actors, of course, to the voice actors. But um like I started hearing good things about this animated film. The premise of the movie is ah this robot who is basically ah ah like an assistant robot. It’s like I will always complete my task. And I thought it was going to be, oh, this, you know, it’s going to be mithrigan again right oh a robot goes crazy and you know tears up everything because it’s misprogramed but it’s actually the opposite. This robot was programmed to work for a human owner and complete whatever task it’s given. But it, the the shipping container crashes on the shore of this little island. no people there. It’s all just wildlife. And so this robot is dying for an owner and for a purpose. And so it perks itself and learns the language of every animal on the island so it can talk to the animals and then befriends animals. It has to care for this little goose egg that it finds and it becomes the mother to this goose. Pedro Pascal is the wolf comes in because it was going to eat the little goose. But of course, you know, the robots being a mother,
Jon You can imagine what might happen in a movie like this, but everything that’s that you think is a ugly twist or is gonna be a crazy, you know, dangerous thing, it never happens.
Jon It’s always more and more heartfelt. It’s more and more touching. It’s an allegory for parenthood as this robot. You know, I wasn’t ready to take care of an animal like this.
Jon I’m like, nobody’s ever ready, dude.
Mo Right.
Jon You get to just have to take care of kids. That’s how it is. and You know, as this robot is kind of learning what it means to do something outside of its comfort zone. It’s raising a child, basically, it’s figuring out how to deal with the world and responsibilities and all those sorts of things.
George Thank
Jon And it take your hankies, man.
Mo Oh, really?
Jon It’s it’s a tearjerker.
Mo It’s one of those.
George you.
Jon It really is. And it’s the last thing I’ll say about it is that for a movie like this, that there have been so many animated movies that are full of it’s for kids or it’s for adults or the few adult jokes thrown in or some fart jokes or whatever.
Jon This is one of those movies that never goes in the gutter for its humor. It’s all just straight, smart humor.
Mo Thank you.
Jon And it’s one of those movies that you can take your kids to see and they’re going to love it. and you’re gonna love it. But when your kids see it in 10 years, they’re gonna see what you saw, a whole other movie that was layered in there. It’s such a smart, written sir it’s such a smartly written movie, it’s such a smartly performed movie, the animation’s gorgeous. It’s maybe one of the top films of the year and it’s October, it’s phenomenal.
Mo So you say it’s a tearjerker. Does it go for like the easy ones? You know what I mean? Like the, you know, is this go for that or is it a little more sophisticated?
Jon I do.
Jon Oh, this character died. One of those? No, no, no.
Mo Yeah.
Jon It’s the tear out your heart thing where I have to let go of this thing I love because it’s the best thing for, you know, one of those deals.
Mo ah
Mo Yeah. Oh God.
Jon It’s like, oh, like you can feel it, right? yeah I said it’s smartly written. It doesn’t go for the cheap stuff.
Mo Okay. Good.
Jon Yeah, yeah, so you said, Mo, you’d heard of it, you know, George, I’m sure it’s on your radar, you’re aware of it, you don’t get to the theater much right now, but man, the minute that you can see this thing, when it hits streaming or you have a chance to go out, run, don’t walk, it’s well worth, I can’t wait to see it again.
Mo Yeah.
George oh yeah
Mo Okay.
Jon So in the theater now, the wild robot. So George, how about you? What have you been watching, man?
George Uh, well, I’m going to pull half George as well, since it’s my, uh, TM, but, uh, no, so there, there was a movie that I went to Netflix recently.
Jon Dot com.
George Cause I was like, I haven’t been on Netflix in a while. Let me see what’s over there. I like to watch a lot of other documentary series and sometimes they pop out a.
Jon Hmm.
Mo yeah
George unusual movie once in a while that you don’t expect. It comes out of left field.
Jon Yeah.
George ah That happened in this case, but I didn’t end up watching the movie. I just saw it listed. I’m going to go back and watch it. Maybe I’ll talk about it in the next podcast, but you guys remember, I think it was around 2015 or 16 or 17 somewhere in that area.
George There was a Spanish film called The Platform that was really
Mo Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s like one of those like, yeah, it moved. Yeah, I know what you’re talking about.
George Yeah. So people voluntarily enter this, uh, psychological experiment, supposedly they’re on different levels and there’s usually two people on each level.
Mo Yeah, or a game over there.
George And this granite platform levitates down through the middle of each one of these levels and floors. And while it’s there, they can eat all the food they can.
George But as soon as it goes away from their floor, they can’t have any food in their level and they have to wait for the next cycle.
Jon Hmm.
George Now that sounds great. That sounds easy. If you’re on the top levels, if you’re down on level one 50, you’re screwed.
Mo Right.
George There’s no food left. All kinds of murderous, weird shit happens. People get moved between levels randomly while they’re sleeping. So it’s a very psychological taught thriller kind of a well platform two apparently has been released.
Jon Oh, okay. Another one.
Mo okay.
George So that should be on everyone’s radar if you were a fan of the first one, but I ended up watching something that John, you pointed out to me, uh, I think in one of our discord, uh, DM chats or something like that, uh, new series about the pro wrestling world called mr.
Jon Okay.
Jon Hmm.
George McMahon.
Jon Oh, yeah, you were looking forward to that last time we talked. In fact, yeah.
George Yeah. Well, I watched it. Um,
Jon Oh, you were worried.
George Whoo!
George How do I describe this? So they started ah doing the interviews to create this series multiple years ago. Some of the interviews date back, I think I saw like a 2017 in there and a 2018, 2021’s a lot, 2022’s.
Mo Okay. so
George ah For those who don’t know, ah the last few years, especially 22 and through today, there’s been a lot of turmoil with Vince McMahon himself.
George He’s been accused and is currently under investigation for sex trafficking, rape,
Mo Jeez.
Jon Oh, really?
George all kinds of things he has not only stepped down from the WWE as like the leader of the organization he’s even sold his shares in the company that now owns WWE wwe so he now owns no part of w WWE is no longer involved in any way shape or form now this is a man who ran that organization for 40 years and for those people who are fans of professional wrestling
Mo Yikes.
Jon Hmm.
Mo Jeez. Wow.
Jon Mm hmm.
Mo Hmm.
George You know Vince McMahon, both as a character, Mr. McMahon, which the series is titled after, and as the man behind the scenes, Vincent K. McMahon, who runs the day-to-day operations of the organization. um What I thought was really smart that they did with this series, throughout all six episodes, which are about an hour a piece, so you know it’s it’s a grind to watch the whole thing,
George um They point out at multiple places. Okay. Vince McMahon gave us most of these interviews before the current allegations.
Mo Oh, okay, okay.
George And then later on in some of the episodes, they say Vince McMahon canceled all his future interviews with us after this thing came out or that thing or stuff like that.
Jon so
Mo Leesh.
Jon Right.
Jon right
George Um, but they continued even after. some of the scandals started hitting really hard in 2022, 23, and 24 to talk to close associates and ah family members, essentially, top wrestlers who you know were very close with him, people like The Undertaker, John Cena, The Rock, ah Hollywood Hulk Hogan.
Mo Oh, OK.
Jon Right.
George They kept doing interviews with all of these people. It is an expose, but it’s also really good at showing two sides of the story. Most of the time you get these documentary expose pieces that are just really like lamb blasting the subject, whoever it is, right? Like this person’s evil. We’re going to tell you all the evil things they do. So you want to keep watching the documentary. In this case, they kind of play a pretty good job of
George Playing it even like they show you him a lot and let him tell his side of the story.
Mo Okay.
George Mostly uninterrupted for large portions of a time. Now there are some edits and you can tell where they were editing for for salaciousness or cut or content or whatever.
George But I think they do a really good job um at keeping the panel the piece as balanced as possible.
Jon Good.
George That being said, there’s not a whole lot of a lot of balance to go for that man right now.
Jon Damn.
Mo Yeah, really. yeah
George Um, I don’t know how much you guys know of the current allegations, because I know neither of you are really pro wrestling fans, but currently the woman who has filed a lawsuit against him, who was paid hush money several years ago, that is now the subject matter of the federal criminal investigation into him has said that as an employee,
Mo No, not much.
Mo Mm.
Mo Oh, geez.
Jon Wow. Yeah.
George She was sexually abused by Mr.
Mo Geez.
George McMahon in some of the most horrifying ways you can imagine.
Jon Right.
George All subject to her keeping her job and being promised promotions to vice presidents of this and paying large salaries and so on and so forth.
Jon right
George to the point that even one of their larger stars was given nude photographs of her by Vince McMahon and told through texts that he could do whatever he wanted with her because he owned her.
Jon Oh, Jesus.
George Uh, that individual, which might not come as a surprise if you know anything about his public persona is Brock Lesnar.
Jon Hmm.
George Now, Brock Lesnar, well, you guys are shaking your head, so I guess you guys still know him.
Mo I have no idea.
Jon Well, I know, I already know the name.
George Brock Lesnar, he’s a world famous amateur wrestler who’s won multiple national titles, professional wrestler, obviously with the wwe WWE and other organizations, and a UFC heavyweight champion.
Jon I don’t know his reputation.
Mo Yeah, yeah, same.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Oh, OK.
George So this man has been involved in all forms of combat sports, but his attitude has what been what’s defined him for years. He is ah aggressive. He is a caveman in the modern era. A guy who loves being on the farm, hates people, you know just just horrible. I can’t imagine being a part of his life.
George I know he has a wife and maybe he’s a very sweet individual to her, but that’s not the persona that he gives off in any avenue that he’s ever been a part of.
Jon All right.
George All of this to say, the one thing that wrestling pundits have believed for years is that there was no way Vince McMahon would ever leave w WWE until he was dead.
Jon Hmm.
George One of them even says, I think it would take a nuclear bomb to get him away from being in charge of WWE. wwe And then they flash up, Oh, here’s the lawsuit. Like, well, there’s your nuclear bomb.
Jon Right.
George So, uh, if you are a pro wrestling fan, this is a documentary worth watching.
Jon There’s the bomb, right?
George If you’re not a pro wrestling fan, it’s probably a documentary worth watching just to see commentary on our society throughout 40 years worth of a person’s life because things changed.
George from the time he took over the WWF until now, things that were acceptable back then, of course, aren’t acceptable now. And this documentary does a really great job of exploring the entire history of the subject matter.
George So I’ve talked a lot and I didn’t mean to, but it’s a solid documentary.
Jon Yeah, that’s okay. Yeah.
Mo All right, cool.
Jon Yeah. Well, sounds thorough. And I know when you said you were looking forward to it, you were concerned, like, how are they going to handle it? So from what I’m hearing you say, they treat it fairly. You got to see the story. It was somewhat unbiased and seemed to have a side.
Jon And i you can’t ask for much more than that out of a documentary, especially a bio doc about a person.
Mo Yeah.
George Yeah.
Jon So yeah, very cool.
George Yeah.
Jon All right. Well, hey, I’m glad it panned out for you.
Mo So I’m gonna start today’s tech and toys actually with, I guess it’s tech, but um i was in um i’ say this because I was recently in Korea, you know first time I’ve ever been there.
Jon Right.
Mo And I have to tell you, shopping there is really different. they ah Oh, I mean, just like going to restaurants, ah going to just convenience stores, you know coffee shops, all that stuff, yep.
Jon What kind of shop? I mean, what kind of shopping did you do? Did you like oaks all sorts of not like electronic shopping or tech?
George Okay.
Jon Okay.
Mo So the way you actually shop there is one is, It’s almost cashless as far as society.
George Hmm.
Mo like you It’s like almost everything.
George Okay.
Mo A lot of stores, you can’t even pay with cash anymore because one of the reasons why you can’t is you have to do everything through kiosks.
George Well,
Jon Okay.
Mo You order everything through them and you know he picks up and even restaurants had them, which is I thought was kind of weird.
George ah
Mo the um
George so no waiter.
Mo ah Well, I’m talking about like like a hamburger joint or like a restaurant.
George Oh, like fast food.
Jon ah Like a McDonald’s kind of fast food.
Mo Yeah, I know.
George Okay.
Mo And actually, even the ones with waiters, they had one had a waiter.
Jon Okay.
Mo if they The order went back to the kitchen. He brought the food. I mean, it was. ah
George So it was like, he was like a food runner more than a waiter.
Mo Yeah, pretty much, you know, so um ah very, very.
Jon Okay.
George Huh.
Jon kind
Mo Slick and wait. And the the reason I bring up is that we went to this one coffee shop. Um, and of course it’s all written in Korean, right? I have no fricking idea. I’m looking at the pictures. Like, you know, I feel like I went to McDonald’s and that sort of picture menu. Cause I’m like, you know, I can’t read. And so where’s me, my brother trying to figure this thing out. And the lady behind the counter looks at us, sees us struggling, walks over to us, very politely kind of pushes us away and pushes the button that says English.
Jon ah ah well Was the English button not in English or did you just not see it?
Mo No, it it was, it was at the bottom quarter, ENG. I didn’t see it. And so I was in there and she goes, English. I’m like, thank you. He’s like, oh, exactly.
Jon Stupid American.
George And you know that was her thought. Like these dumbasses can’t even press a button.
Jon and Oh yeah.
Mo Without. without a doubt. um But it was just interesting because I felt like an idiot. And of course, I realized that after that, every single place we went to had a kiosk.
Mo Hey, English, this makes it so much easier to did to order these things. you Even though somebody it was obviously like doing a direct translation, so some of the stuff definitely was not translated well, but at least…
Mo Oh, okay.
Jon Enough.
Mo That’s beef.
Jon yeah
Mo I got it.
George Yeah. Cause I was trying to come up with a technological solution in my head. As you were talking about, I was like, what about that Google camera thing where you can hold Google up and it shows you the text translated to English on your screen?
George Oh, just press E and G on the screen. Dumbass. And you don’t have to worry about any of that.
Mo I’ll just do it for you.
Jon just George going to reinvent the wheel for you. And they had the wheel right there on the screen.
Mo Right there. Although we did use that Google translate quite a bit, actually, you know, ah you know, because, you know, restaurant names, I’m like, I don’t know what kind of food it is and hold it up like, oh, OK, chicken.
George That’s funny.
Jon Sure. I’m sure. Yeah. The lens.
Mo Yeah, let’s go there. um But I’d say one thing. Technology made it so much easier than I’m sure 20 years ago, going like ah we were able to get by without speaking Korean.
Jon Oh, yeah.
George Mm, yeah.
Mo You know, um, you know, sometimes we even spoke into our phones, had to do the translation, handed it to the person. They look, read it, spoken to the phone, handed it back, you know?
Jon Yeah.
Mo Um, and that was the thing I actually, it was amazing. It’s just like how much technology I think is making things easier. Like I said, it’s like kind of in a way it’s almost like if you’re a foreigner in another country, it just makes it so much easier than 20 years ago, trying to do the same thing.
George I know a person who has bought a Google flip specifically for that purpose because they can fold the phone halfway, speak to the front of it and they see what they say.
Jon Mm.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Oh, on the backside.
George And on the backside screen, it shows the translated language for the other person and vice versa.
Mo Oh, that’s pretty cool.
Jon Yeah.
George So there, it’s like a little universal translator in your hand.
Jon Yeah, that’s right.
Mo Yeah.
George I mean, it’s, it’s getting close to what we saw on Star Trek or Hitchhiker’s guide, but yeah.
Mo Yeah, it’s getting there. It’s getting there. Yeah, not Babblefish, but it’s getting there.
Jon As long as you can read the button that says English, you’ll be in good shape, though.
Mo but
Mo Yeah. Yeah. so So thanks to technology and some really, really patient people in Korea, we really get by. So, you know, but that’s just one kind of mentioned exit. That was interesting. But so John, what do you have for us today?
Jon Yep. I have something that on two fronts, you’re going to appreciate it. One, it will suck up tons of your time and give you infinite entertainment.
Jon And two, it’s entirely free.
Mo Good thing. That’s a better thing.
Jon So I forget where I came across this, but in in my reading of message boards and comments and stuff, someone mentioned to me a site called retro fab, F-A-B, like fabulous, right?
Mo Okay.
Jon This is a site, and and go to the link in our show notes. It’s not what you think it is. It’s not retrofab dot.com, unfortunately, it has a longer URL, but here’s what they have done here on this site. And after I tell you all about it, I have an extra bonus at the end you’re gonna like even more.
Jon So the purpose of RetroFab is this site where you can go and they have playable 3D simulations of vintage electronic games.
Mo Huh?
Jon So I’m talking,
Mo um
Jon all the game and watch, all the little ah tiger electronics, all the Coleco games, all of the Connect Four and Yahtzee, and every game that has ever come out in a handheld or tabletop or a watch format like little LCD or VFD screens, they’re all reproduced in three dimensions and you can click on it
Mo When you say 3D?
Mo Uh-huh.
Jon look at the box in a 3D format, look at the toy in a 3D format, and then configure and play the game right there on your browser as if you owned the game right away. It is so fun and it will suck up so much of your time.
Mo So OK, so make sure I understand. it So if I had like one of the old handheld LED football games, like the like those guys, it would actually have like that would be the 3D thing and ah hit the buttons on it to play it just like I would.
Jon Yep.
Jon That’s right, exactly.
Mo Really?
Jon Everything you you think of what I said and wonder if that’s right, it’s there. Yeah, you keep like all the, you know, the virtual quarterback or whatever in the basketball game and all those.
Mo Yeah.
Jon ah They even have some Game Boy games like the Game and Watch Gallery. They’ve done so much. I don’t know how they’re not shut down yet. So play it quick while you can, right? But even when you go into any one game, as I said, it’s not just the game. It’s not just emulation. They have recreated the the unit that you can move in space and see what it looked like brand new in the box and all that. And I promised you a kicker at the end of this. Not only are they configurable, so whatever buttons you want to hit the A and the B button in the directions, these games have been optimized to work with a touchscreen.
Jon So you can do it with your phone and your tablet.
Mo ah Oh my god.
Jon So if you want, you can physically push the little buttons on the screen that are the buttons of the game, just like you had it in your hand. I can’t imagine how much work has gone into this thing. But if you click on the link here and listener, when you get a chance to look, you’ll just scroll and scroll and scroll.
Jon You know how you scroll like a website and it’s oh, four or five pages. The scroll bar on this is about three millimeters because there’s so many games available for you to try.
George I just took a look at it because I saw it in the list. So I clicked on it before we started the podcast and I’m kind of in the camp that John’s talking about. I’m already kind of hooked on it. Uh, Mo just to give you an idea.
Mo i’m looking at now i’m looking at it right now actually
George Yeah. The page, you know, you click on it and it opens up another page when you click on a specific one that you want to play and then you press play button and it loads in a browser. So it’s almost like the old Java experiences for games.
Mo yeah
Jon yeah
George but your mouse and your left click hold drags the thing around in three dimensions and all like you would expect. ah You can even zoom in or zoom out on it. I love that. But what gets me the most I think so far are the details, descriptions and gameplay instructions underneath the ah window to play the console in because I think that stuff is more lost than the consoles themselves or the little handheld devices.
Mo I’m looking at it now, I’m looking at it right now actually.
Jon The game itself.
George How many times have we seen a video or even one of our own videos where it’s like, Oh, this is a great thing, but the box was destroyed and the instructions are, and we don’t have them anymore.
Mo Right.
Jon Yeah.
George So we just have to figure this out. It looks like at least on the majority ones I’ve clicked on, they have all of that information already, which is tremendous.
Jon Yeah. A staggering amount of work has gone into this creation of retro fab. And it’s it’s so easy to you know, you’re on a conference call or you’re in the middle of something or watching TV and you bring it up on your phone and you’re playing some silly little race car game from 1981 or something.
Mo yeah Did you ever dig and see like, was this a labor of love from somebody? Is it just a community thing?
Jon I think it’s largely done by a small team of two or three people, someone mentioned to me. I haven’t dug in myself to find out. It’s either just like, like I think it’s one primary person and then several people that contribute.
Jon So i and it’s not for pay, ah it must be a labor of love. It’s definitely labor, that’s for sure. It’s so much here, yeah.
George Yeah, I love the fact like they have them in groups by I guess the companies that published them and one of them that’s at the beginning ah or at the top of the list is Electronica and it gives you a little bit about them.
Mo Wow.
George Electronica was a Soviet electronics manufacturer that entered the electronic video game market in the mid 80s with a series of Nintendo game and watch clones.
Jon The company.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yep.
George I’m like that stuff that is probably lost to most people’s history
Jon Yep.
George Or who never even heard of it or saw it, but here on this site, it’s all collected for you.
Jon Right.
George It’s a great little treasure trove of nostalgia.
Jon yeah Or you find one of these toys at a flea market like I know nothing about this or the company that made it or anything.
George e
Jon You scroll down farther and there’s a Konami put out a Garfield handheld game and I see that I’m like, Oh, George is gonna try that one just because of the branding, you know,
Mo Jeez.
George Yep. ah yep
Jon Yeah, it’s one of those things is if you’ve ever enjoyed or played those little handheld or tabletop games ever, and you remember one or two that you love and miss, it’s probably here.
Jon Please check it out. It’s called RetroFab. Mo, you’ll have a link down in the description.
Mo Oh yeah.
Jon I just searched for RetroFab and finally found it, but use our show notes. You know, it’s it’s there for you. Take advantage of it.
Mo Yep.
Jon um And you can click on it now.
Mo Jeez.
Jon You thank us later.
Mo Man, that’s a lot of work that went into that thing.
Jon Cool.
George Really sad that for the Mattel one, they only have three listed there.
Jon It is this beautiful.
Jon Yeah, like I didn’t see like the that the some of the main ones, but maybe they’re still working, I don’t know, but possibly, yeah, I don’t see the Mattel football yet, right?
George Yeah. And maybe it’s that they’re focusing on the obscure ones first, which is cool.
Mo yeah Yeah, that’s true.
George I love the Microvision ones. That’s cool.
Jon Yeah, yeah, the baseball, but I remember that auto race.
George Yeah.
Jon Anyway, so I’ll close this, so I’ll stop doing that.
George yeah
George Well, we just finished up talking about games in the last segment, so let’s continue the fun and talk about games in this segment.
Jon Let’s do some more. Why not?
George Let’s jump right in with Mo Mo. The title of the game that you want to talk about has me captivated.
Mo Yeah. Yeah. Let me tell you, it’s, yeah, me too. And I just found this out. So we do a family game night every now and then.
Jon Hmm.
Mo And so, um, my, my, well, my son-in-law and my daughter, they came over with their child and they brought a game. It’s a kid’s game and it’s called, I kid you not, uncle Wiggly.
George Yeah. Right there. When you started talking about family game night and this and the other, I was getting creep vibes already.
Mo I try. I don’t know.
George Cause I’m like, this is the creepiest title imaginable for a game.
Mo And I assume, yeah, I assume neither of you guys have heard of this game, right?
George No.
Mo It sounds it’s from looking.
Jon Now I’ve heard the name, is Uncle Wiggly, isn’t it like a like a children’s book character, a rabbit or something?
Mo OK.
Mo Oh, there’s a whole story, but but it is a.
Jon Or no?
George I, maybe you’re conflating it with some childhood trauma or something.
Jon Don’t know. Okay, I never heard of a board game though.
Mo Yeah, so you’re looking.
Jon Maybe so.
George I don’t know.
Jon right Show me on the doll where Uncle Wiggly played board games with you.
Mo I was trying to find a game that we wanted to play with the, with the grandkids and, and you know, Brandon’s like, uncle Wiggly. I’m like, excuse me. What did you just say?
George yeah
Mo You know, I know.
George You kids want to come play with uncle Wiggly?
Mo ah Yeah. Tell me about it. This is ridiculous. So he brings up this, apparently this was a kid’s game that he had when he was young, which not compared to us is not that young, you know, but you know, he was young.
Jon OK.
Jon yeah
Mo It turns out this game came out in 1916.
Jon 16.
George 1916 like one six.
Mo 1616. I was doing some history on this.
Jon OK.
George Wow.
Mo That was when it was first introduced by Milton Bradley.
Jon This is like pre Candy Land, I think that’s ancient.
George I guess that’s why it never fell into cancel culture. Apparently it was.
Mo Yeah, exactly.
Jon It got grandfathered in.
Mo And and it’s…
Jon It got great-grandfathered in maybe.
Mo Everyone says, you just have to understand the time.
George Grandpa wants you to play uncle Wiggly with him tonight.
Mo So
George What?
Jon oh
Mo And all of this is just a a board that has like one to a hundred and you have characters and you basically pull cards and every card has like a little rhyme like, you know, like you want to stay alive, you know, you get to move forward five.
Mo Like in all those, each card has one of those things, you know?
Jon Okay.
George Oh, Oh, okay.
Jon Oh.
Mo And so, and so you just move forward in the first one to get to a hundred wins. I mean, that’s basically the game as you go down this path and there’s things like, oh, you jump here, you can skip ahead to 85. If here you have to go back three, you know, all the usual kind of game stuff on it.
Mo Um, it was, um, one is a game that could potentially last forever because you have to have the exact number to win.
Mo Like you can’t, like, so you gotta to keep pulling the card and so you get a three, if that’s what you need, you gotta wait for that three, you know?
Jon Mm hmm.
George All right.
Jon Aha. Yeah. Oh, it’s that trivial pursuit problem.
George Right.
Jon Like I know something, but I know the right thing at the right time.
Mo Yeah.
George e
Jon yeah
Mo You know, and and quite actually, you know, thinking about it, it wasn’t a bad game for children title separate, you know, just as a because, you know, my granddaughter was she’s just learning to read.
George Okay.
Jon Notwithstanding.
Mo She read the cards.
Jon Mm hmm.
Mo little bit of math. You got to count up and count back. You’ll go back three. You have to understand what that is.
George okay
Mo You know, um, you know, so all that.
Jon Oh yeah.
Mo So it was actually was a game. It’s, I said, it was just such a weird, i I mean, I can’t believe this game is this old. I have never in my life heard of it or seen it or anything.
Jon Hmm.
Mo It’s gone through, I think four or five revisions, you know, um, Parker
Jon They had to rewrite the rhymes as they became inappropriate over time.
Mo Well, that’s true. You know what? I’m really curious about that. I’m going to see if I can find some original rhymes.
Jon Right.
Mo They were probably, you know, God knows that they were talking about.
Jon Right. In the nineties, they may have had Andrew Dice Clay write the rhymes. You never know.
Mo Yeah, who knows?
George Oh, Lord.
Mo But ah but again, I mean, i’ and this is kind of one of those things I kind of just out there to the Gen X growing up crowd. If you’ve heard of this game, I would really like to know your experience behind this.
Jon Wow.
Mo Cause again, this is a game that’s been out for over a hundred years.
Jon Wow.
Mo that I’ve never heard of and you could still buy today on Amazon. So Uncle Wiggly.
Jon All right.
George Wow.
Jon There you go. So fourth listener, Mo wants to hear all about your experiences with Uncle Wiggly. So.
Mo and I hope you don’t have an uncle by that name. So that’s what I got. so
Jon That’s funny.
Mo ah you charge
George Yeah, ah the name of the thing I want to talk about isn’t any better. Unfortunately, in this context, it’s definitely going to roll some eyes. I want to talk about baller installer.
Jon Wait, is this an expansion pack for Uncle Wiggly?
George ah that’s I know, right?
Mo ah
George It’s what it feels like it should be.
Jon is DLC.
George now so As John alluded to in the tease earlier, it’s a pinball thing.
Jon No.
Mo Oh yeah.
George You guys know I’ve been into the virtual pinball.
Mo yeah
George I’m barking on ah Endeavor to try and build a virtual pinball cabinet out of an old Atari cabinet that I’ve recently picked up.
Jon Mm hmm.
George and um The biggest part of getting started with virtual pinball can and probably is software configuration.
Jon Now a lot.
George Now, if you want to just play virtual pinball on one of the professionally put together platforms like um like the Zen Studio stuff, pinball FX or pinball M, that kind of thing.
Jon Mm hmm.
Mo Oh, yeah. yeah
George it’s pretty straightforward and simple. And there’s a few other smaller companies that do the same thing and you can check them all out on Steam. They’re just typing the word pinball and three or four of them will pop up. All the bases are free to download and then you pay for the tables as you want to add them to your collection. Those work great. They’re straightforward. They’re simple configuration. The menus are all easy, but that’s not where 90% of virtual pinball tables live.
Jon Yeah.
George that’s a very limited subset so the largest part of the virtual pinball table universe lives at virtual pinball universe oddly enough which is a website that puts out a piece of software that’s now labeled vpx it used to be vp virtual pinball now it’s vpx as they’ve gone up through multiple iterations
Mo or not Ali.
Jon Mm hmm.
Mo Extreme, sorry.
George Well, the X kind of stands for 10 because they were VP8, VP9.
Mo ah Okay.
George When they got to 10, they relabeled it VPX and now there’s like 10.7, 10.8 are the more common platforms versions of that. um And there’s hundreds, thousands of pinball machines out there for that platform.
George What’s extremely difficult for that platform, just like early days of MAME is getting it set up and configured so that you can play it properly either on your PC with a keyboard or in one of these virtual pinball cabinets that you might want to build.
Mo Mm-hmm Sorry
George Well, let’s get back to Baller installer. Baller installer kinda is doing what Launchbox is doing for the arcade side.
Jon Okay. and kind
George It’s a front end that
George creates another well it’s an installer that allows you to have installed not only a front end called pin up popper that’s the front end that it installs um which would be like launch box but it also installs in base configures vpx another one called future pinball ah you can also import your zen studio stuff like pinball fx and that kind of thing into it as well um but it’s not quite as mature as Launchbox.
George So I put this out there with the caveat that don’t expect a Launchbox experience or the same level of support that you would get with Launchbox because unlike Launchbox, this is totally 100% free.
Jon yeah
Mo Mm, got it.
George And the people who ah are creating this are doing it of their own volition, of their own will, just because they love pinball. So it’s kind of those old days of MAME, right?
George When MAME was first coming out and we had things before companies came in to try and start capitalizing on the nostalgia with, ah you know, like, oh, here’s this, what was that one you used to use, John Hyperspin, I think, and you paid a fee for it and you had it for life, that kind of thing.
Jon Mm hmm. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
George um This is kind of closer to that experience. Now, their Discord server is extremely active.
George They are super willing to help. And in matter of fact, you kind of have to go to the Discord server to get the software to begin with, because it’s kind of hard to find.
Jon Hmm.
George But in the Discord server, they have a pinned comment on the proper channel. You click that pinned comment, you go to the GitHub, you download it.
Jon Yeah.
George There’s instructions and videos. Now, the videos are old.
Jon I see.
George They’re not new. ah They’re like three years old when they first created this thing. um But people have done videos of this since on their own YouTube channels, including up to the last ah upgrade versions, which were put out about 11 months ago. So you can find YouTube videos that are around that time frame that will get you started.
Jon Okay.
George It updates the systems automatically. It does not download the visual metadata that you might expect like with a launch box or like the box art or the table glass or any of that kind of stuff.
Jon Hmm. Right.
Mo Mm hmm.
George You kind of still have to go do that yourself but it helps you to find where it’s at, gives you links when you find it so you can go and click and download and shows you how to put it in. um I would say it’s probably 60 or 75% of the way there for a complete noob to use.
Jon No. Okay.
George So you do have to learn a little bit, but it’s 100% better than what you would have to go through without it, which I did at first until I found this installer.
Jon Let’s. It’s a head. Yeah.
Mo Okay.
Jon I remember probably five years ago or so, I was kind of in the groove you’re in right now, kind of enamored with pinball. And and I said, oh man, I want to give pinball a really deep tribe with you know virtual pinball on my computer. And I spent a couple of days And I finally got to the point where I’m like, I don’t want to play that bad.
Jon um just I just can’t figure out how do you get this?
George Right.
Jon You can figure that there’s a wireframe you have to get and there’s a model for this. And and it was sent me all over the place.
George Yeah.
Jon and I’m like, I just don’t have my my desire to play was overwhelmed by my frustration with figuring out how to get going. And so even in it’s not, you know, like as you describe it, not fully hand hold mode yet, it would might get me over that hump again.
Jon So it might be worth trying again. You know, someone like me tried and gave up.
George I think so and the nice thing is this installer has a couple of great little features in it when you run through it.
Jon Yep.
George One of the the best features that I think it has because virtual pinball can be played in a multitude of ways as you might you know you might expect. um when you first launch the installer it runs through and it looks at whatever system you’re installing it on it looks at things like your monitors and your configuration of those monitors what order they’re in what resolutions they have what zoom level they might have it’s it’s built for windows i need to say that first i’m sure there are versions out there for linux or something else but i only have found the windows version um but the very next thing it does after that it says
Jon Mm hmm. Yeah.
George What type of virtual pinball are you trying to play? Are you playing it on a single screen desktop computer or are you playing it on a cabinet with one monitor? Are you playing it on a cabinet with two monitors or three? And all of those are just radio buttons to select one of them. And whichever one you pick, that’s what it configures for you.
Jon Yeah, I remember those being INI files that I gave up on.
George Yeah.
Mo Yeah, actually, to answer my question, because I was thinking like, is it built to for the virtual cabinets? Is that really what it’s mostly used for?
George yeah so it’s kind of built for both right so there are a lot of people who are like me or john we want to test it out on our computer first right we want to see if it’ll work right you want to see if you can press the two shift keys for flippers the enter button for the plunger see what these virtual pinballs are really kind of like like are they really worth it because
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah.
George You guys remember back in the Windows days or even the Amiga days, that little virtual pinball that you would get installed with the operating system.
Mo Oh, yeah, yeah.
George The physics were fun, right?
Jon Space cadet. but
Mo Yeah.
George They were fun, but they weren’t true to life. They weren’t great.
Mo No.
George The physics in these are outstanding these days, as you might imagine.
Jon Yeah. Yeah.
George Now, Uh, there are a lot of caveats and addendums to what you’re talking about, Mo. Like, um, for instance, the size of the monitor can greatly determine your experience with the physics.
George Uh, because pinball.
Jon Yeah.
George Like any pinball can you look at it, you take that monitor, turn it to its side.
Mo Mm hmm.
George That looks like a play field, but pinball is not 16 by nine ratio, which 90% of the monitors and TVs out there are.
Mo Right. It’s the wrong ratio. Mm hmm.
Jon Yeah.
George Uh, so you’re going to have some of that letterbox stuff like we got back when DVDs and movies were first conforming to television.
Jon Mm hmm.
George Right. Um, so having a one-to-one ratio. on your monitor makes a big difference in how the physics feel when you’re pressing the flippers and whatnot.
Mo Makes sense.
George um But you can start off with just a single monitor on your computer and play and get the feel and get the understanding of it to decide if it’s worth it for you to continue you know further with the hobby.
Jon Yeah.
George um You can go all the way up to um plungers in a virtual table that have like little electronics that when you pull the plunger back on your physical table, the virtual pinballs plunger pulls back the exact amount and delivers the exact amount of force that that plunger would have in a physical world.
Mo Mm hmm.
George When you press the flippers, little solenoids underneath your virtual cabinet can be fired so that you feel like what the flipper feels like in a real pinball machine.
Jon Hmm.
Mo Cool.
George You can take it to the extreme. in that area, if you like, or you can just start off simply with your desktop computer. Baller installer is great at helping you figure out and configure from level one to level 10.
Jon Sounds like
Mo Cool.
George So fun system. If you’re interested in virtual pinball, it’s a good place to start. Head over to their discord server. You have to search for it um and, you know, go in and whatnot, do the rules, but it’s a lot of fun.
George John, the thing you’re wanting to talk about though, is something we just had you play on a live stream that has kind of come out of nowhere and taken over your gaming life, I think.
Jon Yeah.
Jon Yeah, it has, it has. So is the game it started, I just hit early release a month or so ago, and now it’s in its version 1.0. So it’s a brand new game that already has a roadmap of improvements are going to add to it. It’s called utopia must fall. It’s a pretty dreary kind of topic. So whatever, whatever your topia is, it’s going to be gone eventually. This is a very simple arcade shooter.
Jon The goal in the game is to get the high score by defending your city by any means and necessary.
Mo Yeah.
Jon It looks for all the world like an old school vector game.
Mo Oh, yeah.
Jon in fact In fact, there’s even options in there to change what the vector looks like. Does it flicker any? Does it look like you know this kind of device or a Tektronix this or a Vectrex or you know what is the design?
George Mmm.
Jon Is it green on black or whatever, whatever kind of vector system you want. But the game itself is a very simple mashup of games like, and elements from games like Tempest and Gravatar, Missile Command, Protecting Your City, of course, Centipede, Galaga, Asteroids, and a heavy dose of Tower Defense.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Effectively, you have a city at the bottom of the screen under this dome, and you have a single turret, you move with your mouse pointer or your touchscreen or whatever you’ve got. And you’re just shooting down wave after wave of various different kinds of enemies and obstacles and asteroids and robots and monsters and things that are coming down at you day after day after day.
Jon And that in and of itself would pretty much be a traditional arcade game. Put in a quarter, see how high you can get, and that’s it.
Mo Mm hmm.
Jon The really cool swerve in this game is every level is called a day. and At the end of the day, you earn points to upgrade something about your city, either its shield or its defense or your turret or watch towers or special paths you can go down if you resist the urge to use nukes or like smart bombs for a few days.
Jon It has absolutely, and you said, George, it has absorbed my my leisure time because it’s the kind of game you could just play for 10 minutes, for 15 minutes, and the end of the game, you’re gonna die.
Mo Yeah.
George Right.
Jon Utopia must fall. It’s gonna end.
George Right.
Jon And then, how is your high score now? Let’s see how it’s going. And something they’re still adding is like, you have a local high score, they have like a global leaderboard that’s coming, additional enemy enemy types that’s coming, additional additional enemies and and weapons and stuff that’s coming.
Mo ah Okay.
Jon But even as it is, it’s already more intricate and involved and complex in that you can, every time you play, have a different game because of those mid-level upgrades and what they can do.
George Yeah.
Jon Now, as soon as I got addicted to this,
Mo No.
Jon I bought a copy and I gifted it to each of you.
Mo Yes.
Jon So I’m curious to hear what your experiences are.
George Yes.
Jon And if you’re as enamored as I am, or it’s just one of those things that I’m addicted to and not you.
Mo Well, I’ll start. um Yeah, I mean, vector graphic game, first off, that’s that that hooked me right away. I love vector graphic games.
Jon That’s a tick box. Yep.
Mo Yep. Definitely tick box. At first, I was a little worried because I thought it was going to be like missile command, which just stressed me out. That’s all I can ever do is just stress me out. But it’s like, it’s not, it’s, it’s, like you said, it’s a mashup of all these different games.
Mo You know, there’s little things here and I’m like, eh, I wish I did this, but really nitpicking. I’m very, very nitpicking on this.
Jon Mm hmm.
Mo I love the fact that when you pick some of these upgrades, you could see the difference. Like the next time you play and next time you play it, like, Oh, I, I increased the rate of fire.
Jon Yes, visually.
Mo I’m like, Oh, wow. This makes a difference. You know, I got double that.
George Mm hmm.
Mo Oh, that makes a big difference. You know, and I also love the the way like, you know, it kind of like gala ish, like things will fly in and like in a pattern, but the last few don’t follow that path.
George Right.
Mo Like there’s always some that kind of break away and strangles that do something else, which annoy the crap out of me, but it makes the game fun.
Jon stragglers, yeah.
George Yeah.
Mo You know, and let me tell you, yeah, I’ve been playing the crap out of this game.
Jon Yeah.
Mo I mean, it’s like my go-to, I have, I need to play something for 10 minutes, you know, five minutes, you know, just play a quick game.
Jon Mm hmm. Oh, good.
Mo And it’s, oh, it’s just a blast, you know, and I can’t, if there’s making more changes, that’s even to be better.
Jon There had more. Yeah. How about you, George? Have a chance to give it a shot.
George I did. um As soon as I saw it pop into the email, I went and clicked and added it to Steam and downloaded it and started playing it. And um yeah, it was very addicting right away because for me, I think the most addicting factor is the ease of ah jumping into the game. Some games, you got to go through these crazy ass tutorials for 20 minutes just to figure out how to play the game. And oftentimes I’m just like,
George I don’t want to spend 20 minutes figuring this shit out. If you can’t get me into the game in the first five minutes, I probably don’t feel like sitting there playing it.
Mo Yeah.
George ah This game is not that at all. This game is 30 seconds you’re playing.
Jon Yeah.
George It’s very intuitive. It’s very user friendly. It’s well designed. I think they did a great job of making sure that things that you assume will do certain things actually do them because
Mo Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
George Often in gameplay, um we get used to tropes, just like we do in a horror movie, right? Horror movie, you know there’s going to be a jump scare as the music intensifies.
Jon Yeah.
George Well, in a video game, if you click the last the left mouse button, you know that’s going to fire, right? Or if you press WASD, you know that’s going to move your character. Now there’s no rule that says WASD have to be the directionals and stuff.
Mo but that’s, yeah, that’s the way it is, right?
George But because this game leans heavily into those ease of use systems for gameplay, It gets you in right away. It’s frenetic.
George It’s fast paced. It is to most point a little bit stressful because you’re trying to protect your city, uh, but in a fun way. And I know Mo doesn’t like missile command.
Mo and
Jon Yeah.
George I do like missile command. So to me that made it even more so when I, I basically felt like it was a Galaga, Galaxian missile command kind of mash up for me. And then I got to add features as I completed levels.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Mm hmm.
George So yeah, when, when, when all the way around, I thought it was great.
Jon Yeah. Yeah, you know, and and to that point, the other thing, as frenetic as it is, and as crazy as it is, it doesn’t feel unfair. Like somehow i’m like, oh, I’m screwed.
George No.
Mo No, no.
Jon But if you just pay attention, you probably aren’t. Now, eventually, it will overwhelm you because guess what?
George Yeah.
Jon Utopia must fall. But until that point, it’s surprisingly fair.
George Right.
Jon And your firepower is probably sufficient to do most things if you prioritize.
George Yeah.
Jon It’s pretty cool.
Mo Yeah. Yeah. I like the, just the variety of upgrades too that you can get, you know, is this it just keeps, it makes it fun.
Jon Yeah.
Mo You know, there’s one actually, I realized that this was my favorite one, which is like the nuclear bombs. You just get these super bombs, right? Which basically destroyed an area.
Jon Yeah.
George Right.
Mo They have some of that actually have like a gravity effect and pull things in.
Jon Mm hmm.
George Yeah, yeah.
Jon Yeah.
Mo The first time I saw that, I’m like, Oh, this is cool. Unfortunately you have a limited number of those things, which is the bad part.
Jon but
Mo But while I had them, they were really fun. you
Jon Yeah. Yeah. So mo I’ll give you a link right now. I know it’s on Steam. I don’t know where else it is. I’ve heard people verify you can play it on the steam deck if you have it. But utopia must fall.
Jon I think it’s gonna it’s gonna have legs. I’ve been going back to this more than most games I go back to and you never done. You can always go back and try for the high score again.
Mo Yeah. Yeah.
Jon So yeah, listener.
Mo I want a friend. i’m Sorry. We need to have like a friend leaderboard.
Jon They’re adding one. It’s coming.
Mo OK, that’s that’s the one thing I miss.
Jon It’s coming.
Mo I’m like, oh, you know.
Jon I know. Yep. It’s coming. So fourth listener, if you want to play with us, get on our leaderboards, go ahead and check it out. It’s like five or six bucks. It’s not even that expensive. ah Utopia must fall. Oh,
Jon As we come into the last segment of this episode, you know, we always like to start off by talking about what we’re looking at now. We’re looking forward to between now and the next time we have a chance to sit down and speak. ah George, let’s start with you. What do you have on the horizon?
George Well, I think first up, I’m kind of looking forward to the new TV fall lineup. And by that, I mean, last year we had the writer strike that was going on throughout the large part of 2023 and ended up truncating a lot of the seasons for shows that I really enjoy.
Jon Mm hmm.
Mo Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah
George They ended up, instead of being 20 episodes, they were 10 episodes. ah This year, I believe we’re going to be back to most of the.
Jon That’s right.
George like the syndicated and the regular ABC, NBC, CBS kind of TV shows being in the 20 episode range or so. ah So I’m looking forward to that. Some of them have already started as we’re recording this.
George I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. After that, I’m really looking forward to Venom The Last Dance on October 25th. I think that’s a fun little quirky, Marvel-ish superhero kind of film franchise that they’ve done.
George um I’m interested to see how this film is going to turn out. I think it’s the third one now in the series.
Mo Yeah, yeah, it is.
Jon Yeah, you’re right.
George ah They’re always kind of off center, just a little bit like five degrees to the right with these, with the Venom films.
Mo Mm hmm.
George So I’m interested to see how they do this one.
Jon Yeah, I like that about him.
George Yeah. ah However, the thing I think I’m looking forward to the most comes out on Netflix, October the 17th, the day that this episode drops. It’s the Lincoln Lawyer season three.
Jon Okay.
George The first couple of seasons of this ah series have been outstanding. The original movie with Matthew McConaughey was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it.
Jon Mm hmm.
George But these TV shows, ah they’ve done two seasons on Netflix so far, they’ve been just outstanding. They give you a lot more depth into the characters. You get to see a lot more about the people around the main character, which is a lot of fun.
George um And they have, they’ve just done a great job with the production of this thing. So if you enjoy kind of a, a thriller who done it, a series where like Mo was talking about with slow horses, where it’s one story arc throughout the entire season, ah the Lincoln lawyer is not a bad way to spend your time.
Jon Mm. Okay.
Jon Yeah. Okay.
George All right, John, how about you?
Jon Yeah, a few things, all happening in October. First, October 11th in the theater, actually by the time you hear this episode, it’s available in the theater, ah Saturday night, which is effectively a docudrama about the origin of Saturday Night Live and Lorne Michaels and the cast they have playing that original lineup of of SNL alum alums.
Mo Yeah.
Jon it’s just They look amazing, like at a glance. I’m like, holy crap, that looks like it’s them young and they’ve done a good job of casting.
Mo Yeah.
Jon And it looks like it’s going to be nitty gritty kind of like digging into the challenges they face. That looks tremendous. ah The mockumentary series, what we do in the shadows.
Mo Oh, I was coming back.
Jon is entering season six, October 21st, over on FX.
Mo Wow.
George Wow.
Jon If you haven’t seen it before, we’ve talked about it a few times on the show. It’s ah vampires living in modern time in ah somewhere in New York. I forget, Long Island or somewhere.
Mo Satin Allen. Satin Allen.
Jon Yeah, Staten Island, thank you. And yeah, they’re just trying to deal with being vampires and there’s other mythological creatures. There’s werewolves and other things in the world, and but they’re trying to stay stay on the DL.
Jon So anyway, the thing I’m most looking forward to is a game I played the demo for a few months ago, but now an indie title called Tormenture, which is a mashup of adventure and torment is going to be released October 21st.
George Mmm.
Jon And it’s just it’s it’s just Bo, you’re laughing. It’s just that, though. It’s imagine like a rewrite of adventure, the video game, the to Atari 2600 title. and you’re playing it, but sometimes weird things happen and you click on your thumbstick and you come out of the screen and you’re a kid in your room playing the game and you can look around your room and pick up the instructions and look at them and pick up a say and spell or whatever they’re called, speak and spell. There’s things in your room you can play with, but creepy things are happening both in and out of the game.
Jon Great for October, but in full release, ah October 21st. I have a pre-release key on Steam, but I’m gonna wait and play it live on release day, because I want to experience the cool stuff ah firsthand with our viewers.
Jon So we’ll ah get that scheduled shortly. Keep an eye on that, but Tor Menture. It’s on Steam for sure. I don’t know what else is coming out on, but you can catch it there. Mo, what about you? What do you got coming up?
Mo ah Well, one, yeah, definitely Saturday night, ah because everything I’ve read, that just looks amazing, because I guess it’s everything leading up to the first show, I guess is what it was.
Jon Oh yeah, yep. Mm-hmm.
Mo It’s like like the cast of what was going on behind the scenes.
Jon Hmm.
Mo So yeah, I’m really, really curious to see how that goes. um Next one is a show I didn’t even realize was coming up. It’s called Tomb Raider, The Legend of Laura Croft on Netflix. It’s an animated series that they’re doing.
George Hmm.
Jon and Okay.
George Oh.
Mo Yeah, and it’s come out October 10th. So by the time you listen, this is already be out.
Jon All right.
Mo Um, and the thing I’m most looking forward to is in a few days I’m going on our vacation. Yay. Uh, so me and Amy are hitting the road, ah leaving the country for awhile. And so, you know, we try to do this once a year, a big vacation.
Mo So a big vacation is coming up and this year we’re going to Spain. So that’s going to be very cool.
Jon Oh, wow. All right. A week in Spain for Moe.
Mo Yeah.
Jon All right. Well, have a good time. I’m sure you’ll message us and tell us what a great time you’re having and send us pictures to make us jealous.
Mo That’s what he did last time, right?
Jon That’s how you vacation. I think that’s fully 30% of the vacation for you.
Mo That’s half the enjoyment.
Mo But anyway, also, you know, we like to end this, sorry. Anyway, also, you know, we also have some amazing, amazing patrons out there. And one of the benefits of being a patron is that you get to ask us questions that we answer right here on the show.
Jon Hmm.
Mo So this week’s question is from Matt.
Jon Yep.
Mo And he asked this question when I mean first saw it, I was like, huh, this is kind of interesting. I’m kind of curious to see where you guys go with this.
Jon Okay.
Mo And there’s some preamble to this I’m skipping, but basically he said kids can be really opinionated. Oh shit. Can you, but he says, can you think of it anything that you would have emphatically disagreed on the way back?
Mo That’s how you phrase like when we were kids that you’ve now come around to.
Jon Mm hmm.
Mo So like, so basically anything as a kid, you’re like, there’s, you know, this is a core belief, I guess, or something like that, that now you’re like, you know, eh, now that Mulder is a little different.
Jon Yeah.
Jon What do you got, George?
Mo Let’s go first.
George Um, I feel it’s unfair to go to the most opinionated guy first because you’re kind of burying the lead with that, but that’s okay.
Mo Yeah.
George Uh, you’re leading with the lead.
Jon I think I’m leading with the lead, quite frankly.
Mo Leading with the lead.
Jon ah
George Is that what it is? All right. ah There’s a lot of stupid shit that I thought of when I was a kid that I was 100% convinced of that now that I’m older I realize how dumb it was, which also makes me realize the stuff I think right now is probably stupid as well and as I get a little bit older I’m gonna rethink all of this stuff.
Mo Mm hmm.
Jon You’ll learn?
George um I guess the one that just turned out to be ironic, given my career path and everything else that I’m doing, including this podcast and the YouTube channel, is that I was convinced, maybe even hopefully so, that computers were a fad and were not going to last.
Jon Really?
Mo Really?
Jon As much as you enjoyed them, still.
George Yeah.
Mo Wow.
Jon Wow.
George I did not enjoy them. at the beginning.
Jon Oh, okay.
George I, you guys remember, I was kind of an athlete kid. I was baseball and you know, all that kind of stuff.
Jon Mm hmm.
George Uh, and I remember distinctly, and I might’ve told the story on some podcasts in the past. Uh, I distinctly remember having an argument with one of the kids who I was friends with, uh, but who was a big computer nerd, had a Vic 20, you know, play D and D the, that kid, right?
Mo hu
Mo Mm hmm.
George From stranger things. Um, I had a big argument with him one day because he was making fun of me about not understanding what he was trying to explain to me in the computer world.
George And I was like, computers are a fad. They’ll never last another year. Obviously that didn’t age well.
Jon Oops.
George So I guess that’s probably the one that I’m most embarrassed by at this point.
Jon now Yeah.
George So there you go. John, how about you? Any ah computer fallacies that you held as a young child?
Jon Yeah.
Jon and No, it wasn’t a computer fallacy. Yeah. That’s like like the Bill Gates thing.
George Okay.
Jon No one will need more than four megs of memory, right? and Ever.
Mo Yeah, ever.
Jon Yeah. Mine is very simple. It’s very, very simple. Naps. I remember hating going down for a nap.
Mo Yeah.
Jon and it was at the time when I least needed a nap. I understand now that that a nap wasn’t for me, the nap was for my parents, so I would be in a good mood, so I wouldn’t be tired.
Mo yeah
George Right.
Jon I had the energy, but I would just be a cranky energy. And now I wish someone would come in and go, all right, well, Johnny, it’s 1.30, time for your nap. Like, yes, it’s finally time for my nap.
Jon I am so ah angry all the times that I railed against naps. And now I see the light. Naps are fantastic, especially now that we’re older.
George Yeah, like why aren’t naps a part of the regular workday?
Jon Why is it just a thing?
Mo Yeah, yeah.
Jon Right. Right. Midday, you have lunch, then a nap, then back to work. That should just be how it works.
George Yeah.
Jon Yeah. Yeah. Mo, how about you? What do you got?
Mo So but I had two, but one, actually, you sort of as long your lines, which was bedtimes, but since you kind of did naps, it’s all on the same line.
Jon OK. Yeah.
Mo So I’ll do my second one. The second one is um going to faty going to family gatherings as like a fun activity as a kid. like you know As a kid though, like i mean I didn’t mind them, but they’re always like, oh, we’re going to Grandma’s again this Sunday.
George Oh, so you didn’t like them then, but you like them now.
Mo Yeah, you know, and I was just ah because, uh, you know, it was just like one of the things that’s like, uh, you know, okay, let’s go to grandma’s.
George Oh, see, I still agree with the kid in you.
Mo Like, it’s one of those things that, you know, my dad always had like, yeah, we’re going to your grandma’s house and we’re like, Oh, okay. And we all get in the car all like grumbly, but then of course we go there. We have a great time, you know, and everything was great.
Mo So, but now these days, I’m actually the personnel making everybody do the family time. You know, I’m like, okay, we’re doing family dinner. we Everyone come over, you know, whether you like it or not, because I realized how in high state looking back that those were.
Mo probably some of my best memories as a kid was doing those things. you know that’s Even though it was every Sunday at my grandma, it was a thing that we did that just hung out with my cousins. i hung out with you know We saw the occasional relative that we wouldn’t see for two or three months at a time. And you know and it was just a time I realized that, you know especially these days, it’s just harder and harder to bring your family together because of geography.
Jon Mm hmm.
Mo people are just moving so much further apart, that I’m actually a little fortunate that I have quite a bit in Jacksonville, so we could still kind of pull everyone together and have these times.
George Mm hmm.
Mo So, you know, as a kid, yeah, now I really appreciate it.
Jon Yeah. Now you appreciate it. Yeah.
Mo And every single time we have what I’m like, you know, even doing the dishes afterwards, because we’re at my house, that is not, you know, I’m still happy we did it, you know, just because it’s like a time to give one together that I know that at some point they’ll look back and be like, those are good things to do.
Jon Yeah. Yeah.
Mo So, so yeah, so that’s ours.
Jon Excellent. Thank you, Matt.
Mo So again, keep those questions coming. And again, if you want to give a question, super easy, all you gotta do is go to Janice, sorry, all you gotta do is go to Janice Scott. Oh my God. All you have to do is go to JaniceGrownup.com slash Patreon, even for a dollar a month, you know, whatever you can do.
Jon Hmm.
Mo We don’t want anyone to break their bank, but wherever you’re comfortable doing, you know, you can submit a question and we’ll probably answer it right here on the show.
Jon Yeah. And speaking of, we have a couple of brand new patrons that I want to thank who last time we spoke, they were not yet patrons and now they are. I want to thank Steve H and Nathan Z.
Mo Wow.
Jon I don’t ever give out last names because you never know what people want to have publicized.
Mo Yep, yep.
Jon But anyway, Steve H and Nathan Z, they did just what you said, Mo. They headed over to genexgrownup.com slash Patreon, opened up their wallet and made a regular monthly pledge for as little as a buck a month.
Jon to support what we do on a regular basis because they enjoy what with the content we put out and they want to support it. So we can’t thank you enough, guys. Thank you so much for that. And that note and on that note, it will wrap up this edition of the show before we forgot how to end the show two weeks off and I’m screwed.
Jon And that will wrap up this episode of the show. But don’t worry, we’ll be back in two weeks with another one. And next week is the backtrack edition of our show where we take a single nostalgic topic and dig in deep. Now, Mo, you told us you’d be a away to Spain.
Mo Yeah.
Jon So you’re going to miss out on this one.
Mo Yeah.
Jon We’re going to have a surprise third guest host sit in your chair.
Mo What? You replaced me?
Jon Yeah. Well, you’re not replaced, you’re temporarily supplanted, we’ll say.
George Hell yeah.
Jon Anyway, but we’re gonna be talking about the Generation X Halloween experience, how it’s changed now, what’s different.
George Damn it.
Mo What?
George we we miss We’re missing an opportunity.
Jon To do.
George We could have waxed poetically about American Ninja Warrior while he was gone.
Jon Well, he’s away.
George Damn it.
Mo ah
Jon Well, he had really hurt his feelings then.
Mo Oh, I’d be thankful actually we did it when I was away.
Jon Yep.
Jon Right, he said, I don’t want to fight, I don’t want to fight. You don’t want to miss that one and our surprise guest host. You’ll find out all about that when you tune in next week. Until then, I am John.
Jon George, thank you so much for being here, man.
George Yes, sir.
Jon Mo, you know I appreciate you.
Mo ah Always fun, man.
Jon Fourth listener, it’s you. We all appreciate most of all, though. and We can’t wait to talk to you again next time. but Bye bye.
George See you guys.
Mo Take care everybody.
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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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