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Paradise, Roku Ultra, & Looney Landers

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About This Episode

We watch a new series about a secret service agent investigating murder in a seemingly peaceful community, check out a Plex companion app to enrich the media discovery experience, & play a turn-based strategy game spanning the entirety of human history.

(May contain some explicit language.)

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Show Notes

Transcript

SpeakerTranscript
JonGen X grown up podcast listeners to this episode. 185 of the Gen X grown up podcast. I am John joining me as always, of course, my friends and co-host George. Hey man.
GeorgeHey, how’s it going guys?
JonNot a show without Mo. How you doing, Mo?
MoHey, how’s it going, everybody?
JonIn this episode, we watch a new series about a Secret Service agent investigating murder in a seemingly peaceful community. Check out a Plex Companion app to enrich the media discovery experience and play a turn-based strategy game spanning the entirety of human history.
JonJust a very narrow scope game in there we’re going to talk about.
MoYeah.
Jonjust Just all of human history, that’s all. Those topics and many more coming your way in this episode. First though, It is time for some fourth listener email. Look, the three of us are here. We’re liable to listen. If anyone else bothers to take the time and drops us a line, you are our fourth listener.
JonAnd the fourth listener for this episode is Schlumpy. I seem to recall we heard from a Schlumpy before. I remember that cool name.
Moyeah
Jonah So Schlumpy is working his way through the back catalog. He’s another one of those dedicated, you know, Johnny come lately is that found us only the last little bit and he’s been plowing through episodes.
MoYeah.
JonAnd the email he dropped us had the subject line five below slash yard sale.
MoAll right.
JonOkay. Not a backtrack we’ve done, but something, so let’s see what Schlumpy’s up to. He says, hello, guys. First off, love your show.
MoThat was a good start.
JonThank you, Schlumpy. Right? That’s why we picked his email. i I have been listening for over two weeks after discovering your show. The back and forth banter between the three of you is awesome.
JonWe appreciate that. We work really hard and it’s all scripted. None of it’s, yeah, none of it’s separated.
GeorgeYeah, scripting me is easy to do.
JonRight. It’s like, George, I need a few more F-bombs. Can we just pencil those in as well?
JonHe says, I recently visited Five Below and was delighted to see some of my favorite 80s candy was there. Yeah, I’ve seen that too. Like little dots that are on the paper, those little like waxy dot things.
GeorgeOh, yeah.
MoOh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
JonI’ve seen those there.
Moyeah
JonAnd yeah, now and later and stuff like that.
GeorgeYeah.
JonYeah, good stuff there. He says then, I found myself at a local yard sale where I purchased a TV guide for the first time in over 30 years.
GeorgeWow.
MoWow.
Joni You know, you guys know I like to visit thrift stores on the weekends, and it’s not uncommon to find big boxes of TV guides, the little ones before they became magazines, right when they were a little like readers digest size thing.
MoSure.
MoYeah, yeah.
GeorgeRight.
MoMm hmm.
JonWell, before readers digest change size, but you know, the little like Archie digest thing, and ah people pick them up. almost as frequently as you find like Playboy magazines, which of course are very collectible and stuff, TV Guide also.
JonSo yeah, he found somebody yard sale.
MoWow.
Jonum he Last thing he says, by the way, he says, I have an idea for a future show, either 80s action star movies review, Sky, Carl Weathers, Arnold, or a segment.
MoHmm. Hmm.
Jonof So that’s a good idea. I don’t think we’ve done specifically talking about those 80s action stars.
MoYeah, we did.
JonWe did we talk
GeorgeI think we might have.
MoYeah, we did. We absolutely did. We absolutely did.
JonWhat was the angle? Did we pick like four action movies or the stars?
MoIt was Gen X action stars, yeah.
JonAnyway, maybe we did. That’s right. Okay. So there you go.
GeorgeWe probably could do individual ones though, without a problem.
JonSo no kidding.
MoYes, yeah, absolutely.
JonRight. Right.
GeorgeYeah.
JonRight. Uh, Schlumpy goes on to say another idea, uh, as seen on TV commercials and products, what we kind of done, but specifically
MoI thought we did that one too.
GeorgeWe’ve had to have done something on Ron Popile. There’s no way in eight years we haven’t done Ron Popile.
JonI know we’ve mentioned him.
MoYes, we did.
JonI don’t know who done that.
Moyeah had with this it’s The title is As Seen on TV.
JonDo we? Oh, here there we go, Mo. There we go. There we go. So Shlumpy, you still have it coming. We don’t know if we have it in our back catalog. Mo looked it up.
JonSo yeah. So those episodes are out there for you. So good news. you By now you might’ve heard them. Who knows?
MoThat’s right.
Jonah you He wraps up his email saying, look forward to seeing either one or both, or which she both of them are out there, if for you need to check out now.
MoYep.
Jonah Shlumpy, cool. Thank you, Shlumpy.
MoYeah.
Georgewish granted.
MoYeah. Yeah. good keep to Keep the recommendations coming.
JonRight, please choose some things we’ve already done. It makes it way easier on us. Thank you for that.
Georgehe
JonHey, Slumpy, thanks for writing in. Thanks for plowing through that back catalog, man. I’m glad you’re having a good time with that. I really appreciate hearing about your experiences. Listener, if you would like to have your email featured here on the show, as we did with Slumpy, it is drop dead easy.
JonYou know, you can just hit us up via email at podcast at genxgrownup.com. We read every single one of most of them. Like Slumpy’s, we’ll eventually make the show. All right.
JonGuys, if there’s no objection, I’m gonna get jumped in. Try to do something different and it fucks up. It’s always. Guys, if there’s no objection, we’re gonna jump into the body of this episode 185 after this quick break.
JonAnd there was no objection.
JonHere we go then, jumping into media right off the top as we always do. Now, of course, these could be films or television shows or comics or books or whatever.
MoWhatever.
JonFuck, let me try it again. I know I said movies and film twice. Every episode, I’m gonna start, every segment, I’m gonna start twice. Fucking up once. in five, four, three, get the ball rolling here at the top of the show, as we always do talking about media that we have been checking out.
JonAnd as you guys know, this could be music or film or television or comics or books or whatever you are enjoying. And I want to start with you, Mo. What have you been checking out?
MoSure. I’ve been watching a new TV show called Paradise. I don’t know if you guys heard of it or not.
GeorgeHmm.
Moah yeah Yes.
JonParadise.
GeorgeI, yeah, I’ve heard about it. I’ve downloaded it to my Plex server, thanks to the yeah the wide world web of public domain, but I haven’t watched it yet.
JonHmm.
GeorgeSo I’m curious to see what you think.
JonIs that sirens I hear sirens out there?
MoUh yep. So it’s um I’m caught up. It’s about four episodes out now. It’s weekly. I’m caught up on it. It is a a really a very good show. It’s a really interesting show. Um I’m trying to talk about cuz there’s a big interesting twist right the first episode.
MoI don’t wanna give away cuz they’ll kinda like blow the whole thing but the essential story is uh there’s a got uh Sterling K Brown stars in it.
JonOK.
GeorgeOh,
MoUh you’ve I know you have seen him. He’s been in a million things.
Georgeoh yeah.
MoUm Um, he was really, I, lately he was in this, this is us. I think it was the name of the show that was super popular. I never watched it personally, but he was a big star.
JonMm hmm. The relationship show with the families and everything.
MoYep.
JonYeah.
MoYep. He was in that. But anyway, he’s a secret service agent and his job, obviously protect the president as secret service agents do, but they live in like this small town.
JonMm hmm.
MoAnd it’s very, like I said, it’s it’s very i idyllic. Like you walk around this town, everyone’s smiling. Hey, good morning. you know So there’s obviously something weird going on, which is a twist that you could read about later.
Moum and it kicks yeah And it kicks right off with the early on with the president getting killed.
JonYou’re way too nice, you people.
Moyou know Yes, the president of the United States.
JonThe president. Oh, damn.
Moum And so, yeah.
Georgeyeah
MoAlthough,
JonCanceled.
MoOh, my God. um but I mean, but James Morrison does play the president.
GeorgeYeah James Marsden.
MoSo, yes.
JonOh, the dead president, he plays a corpse.
GeorgeOh, okay. All right
MoSo, you know. No, yeah they do a lot of flashbacks, a lot of flashbacks in this one, a lot of flashbacks.
JonOh, they flash.
Georgeand right
JonOK, you see the flashbacks. All right.
MoBut anyway, so it but it’s very interesting because it’s like, you know, because when you have the basic who killed him or mystery and then that first episode, I’m like, OK, there’s something weird going on here.
Molike he’s pissed off at the president and there’s this and they finally at the very end of the first episode they they dropped the bomb so there’s no long wait like you’re not going multiple episodes trying to figure it out but overall though it’s it was like at the end of that episode I was like okay I’m gonna keep watching this because it see suddenly went from just like a normal kind of like missed you to like this weird kind of like, Oh, there’s a lot more to this story than just this one event.
MoYou know, so it’s definitely worth watching.
Jonum good
MoI think, uh, I’m going to give it a few weeks. I definitely don’t want to mess up that first episode for anybody. Cause there is a big twist, right? The first episode.
JonMm hmm.
MoHighly recommend watch the first episode. Wait till the end. If you at the end of that first episode, you’re not like, what the hell and jumping to the second episode, then something’s wrong.
GeorgeSo would you say it’s a police procedural political drama kind of show then, I guess?
MoI’d say more political drama.
GeorgeMore political drama, less police.
MoMore political drama than police procedural.
GeorgeOK, so no, not really a whole bunch of investigation or anything then.
MoYeah, the matter of fact, the only police you see are Secret Service agents.
GeorgeBut are they investigating or.
MoYeah, you have to watch it. All I say is you gotta watch it.
GeorgeOK.
Jonah Yeah, you see something most tip toing around.
MoYeah.
GeorgeSo are we.
Jonto Be careful there.
MoYeah.
GeorgeI was going to say the show’s not trying to figure out who killed the president or it is.
MoOh, they are. They are. They are. I mean, I say they are definitely trying to, but it also that leads into the bigger twist and the whole story that is the whole Archie overarching story.
GeorgeOkay.
JonAh, okay.
GeorgeHuh. I mean, I like Sterling K.
MoSo that’s.
GeorgeBrown ever since, uh, about Black Panther and Hotel Artemis.
JonHmm.
MoOh, yeah.
GeorgeHe’s good in those. Um, and James Marsden just came off of that jury duty show recently.
MoOh, that was amazing.
GeorgeYeah. So.
MoSo, yeah, I would definitely highly, highly recommend you watch it again after we watch the first episode, the guys will sit and talk about it.
JonOkay.
GeorgeCool?
JonAll right.
MoSo besides that, so what do you got John?
Jonbut So I’ll tell you, I did a last second switch. I was actually going to talk about, there’s a new an AI robot movie out there called companion that I saw a couple of weeks ago that was pretty good.
JonI enjoyed it. It’s got the Jack Quaid in it from the boys and from lower decks and a really good kind of AI. It’s like an episode of black mirror, but hour and a half long. It’s very good.
MoOkay.
JonBut then So I’m going to full disclosure how I got here, right? So I’m like, okay, I’m filling out, preparing for the show and I’m going through a little, what are the, what are the ah coming up things?
JonSo I went to releases dot.com website that George showed us here on the site, trying to find things like I’m not fishing for stuff I don’t care about, but I’m looking like what shows are coming out?
Georgework.
MoMm hmm.
JonThat’s how I found out Reacher was coming soon and stuff like that. And then I found this animated show called common side effects.
MoA TV show.
JonAnd I’m like, Oh,
GeorgeOkay.
Jona TV show.
MoOK.
JonIt’s made by Adult Swim. It’s airing all over the place. It’s like on Max and Apple Plus, and depending on what you have. It’s not just in you know one place. And then I saw, oh, Mike Judge is a voice in this.
JonI’m a huge Mike Judge fan.
MoOh, OK, OK.
GeorgeOh,
JonI’m like, well, what is this? So turns out, I went and grabbed the whole first three episodes that are out already, and binged all three of them, and that became the media that I wanted to talk about, because I’m really excited about this.
MoOK.
JonThe other film I saw was good. This, though, really intriguing, and it’s not something you see all the time. The premise of common side effects, like what does that sound like? It sounds like a drug commercial.
MoYeah.
JonCommon side effects include you know bloating, death, explosions, whatever bad things happen to you, you take some drugs.
MoYeah, anal leakage.
JonYeah, ooh, yes.
GeorgeWhat hard left turn.
JonYou went straight to the anal leakage mode.
Mobut That’s a real one. keep going
JonIt is, yeah. Voice of experience there, thank you, Mo.
GeorgeI was going to say.
JonBut so in common side effects, it’s just like, oh, what happened to the guy that was gonna make the car that ran on water, right?
MoRight.
JonOh, he was killed or something because the industry didn’t want this.
Moright
JonWell, the premise with common side effects are all these pharmaceutical companies know about and are trying to contain the knowledge of this panacea cure all little blue mushroom that can literally kill can literally heal like any disease in any species with any problem that you have and they knew about it and they’ve been actively like killing it with pesticides and getting rid of it well this goofball guy who has a weird history they go back on a little bit like he
MoWow.
Jonlearned how to read the barcodes on the back of scratch off tickets and helped him win $11 million. dollars So he’s independently wealthy with no real direction in his life.
Moyeah
JonAnd so he goes off on travels. And so in Peru, he found these little mushrooms, and he actually discovered their ability. And so the show picks up when he meets an old schoolmate of his who happens to work at the pharmaceutical company. And he’s there at this big meeting to go, when, sir, are you going to stop and tell the public about what they did drag him out, of course, because he’s a whistleblower guy. And so he’s talking to this girl. And right away, it’s this MacGuffin is taken away like, is this a thing? Does it work? Does it not? He’s sitting on a park bench with this woman. And this pigeon flies by and he grabs the pigeon and snaps its neck.
MoWell.
Jonand then sprinkles this powder on it. And after this psychedelic little graphic thing, it comes back to life and flies away.
MoIt
JonLike it works.
Mocures death.
GeorgeOkay.
JonYes, like a broken neck or whatever he’d done to this bird, it’s bananas. And so, but this is a cartoon.
MoOK.
JonIt’s not a cartoon. It’s animated in a weird style, but it’s not like a haha cartoon. It’s not a funny cartoon. It’s like espionage. It’s like conspiracy theory stuff.
JonPeople are getting shot. People are getting smashed. Airplane crashes and stuff because they’re all trying to kill this guy because he knows about this magic mushroom that will eliminate the need for all pharmaceuticals whatsoever.
MoOh my, oh my God.
JonI know. Yeah.
MoYeah, they would totally kill him over that.
Jonit’s Yeah, because imagine everyone who makes their living off of ah like not just the guys that make and sell it, but marketed and, you know, oh, yeah, everybody, the doctors and the everyone.
MoOh, I mean, all doctors, right? All doctors, all everybody, right? Wow.
JonYeah. ah So three episodes in so far. um ah Mike Judge does have a role. He’s the head of the pharmaceutical company, but he’s not jokey Mike Judge. He’s not Beavis and Butt-Head, King of the Hill, Mike Judge.
Jonhe’s just He’s the voice you know. He’s the manager from Office Space, Mike Judge. He’s the plain, flat kind of Mike Judge.
GeorgeOkay.
JonAnd he does a great, serious role here. And this is There are little tiny bits of whimsy that you can do in animation, but also there’s amazing effects that you could only do in animation.
MoMm hmm.
JonYou can imagine.
MoSure.
Jonno People want to prove that this works and this guy stabbed himself in the hand, pinned himself to the table, and then popped the mushroom and you watch the the wound heal immediately and it’s to prove these things work.
JonSo I found it because I was like, when are the things I’m already looking forward to coming out? And turns out this is something I didn’t know I was looking forward to. Common side effects, animated series.
JonYou can catch it as I said on Apple, Macs, Adult Swim, wherever you check it out. Highly recommended, especially if you like animation. But this is the kind of kind of show I think a lot of people that like the things we do would enjoy.
JonSo I recommend you check it out.
MoYeah, I’m watching it.
JonCool.
MoI’m going to kick us off with Tekken Toys with a piece with an app that you may really like it or hate it.
JonMm hmm.
Moi It’s going to be we’ll see.
JonOK.
MoSo it’s called Yuka.
GeorgeDoes it involve anal leakage at all?
MoIndirectly, no, it doesn’t.
JonWhy directly?
Moum No, um it’s called
GeorgeIndirectly.
GeorgeI’m not sure I want to know what indirect anal leakage is all about.
JonDelete app, delete app, delete app.
MoWell, it’s called YUCA.
JonOK, all right.
MoNow we are all men of a certain age, right? Getting up there.
JonHmm.
MoWe have to be a little bit more careful about what we eat, you know, and stuff, right?
JonHmm.
JonOkay.
MoSo this app, will you scan any food barcode and it rates it.
JonHmm.
MoHealth-wise, is it good for you? Is it bad for you? And if it’s bad for you, it tells you why. And it gives you alternatives that are better for you.
JonHmm.
MoOK, so again, like you’re like, OK, is this a good app or about it? So obviously, you know, the first thing, you know, ah my wife found it and the first thing she did was scan everything in her pantry and half the crap in there was like horrible, horrible, horrible. But one of the things is that which I didn’t realize is that there are a lot of preservatives and additives that pretty much United States is the only country that still allows them.
MoAnd so it flags those. It says, OK, you know that the rest of the world is not eating this crap, just so you know. So that’s why we rated this low, is because it has this thing that’s been banned in the rest of the world. you know um It rates it on fat and all this all this you know all these negative things. But the thing I like about it, though, is this will just give you a number, say, this is bad, don’t eat it. you know It says, this is bad. Here’s why i we think this is bad. Here are some alternatives. It gives you alternative items that are in the same category of food, but rate much higher. So now you have a choice.
MoSo that’s basically what the app does. It works super fast too. Like you’re super, it takes Louisa like half a second.
JonThat blip.
MoYou scan a barcode, it just pops right up.
GeorgeOkay. Well, I’ve got lots of comments now.
GeorgeUh, first of all, I like the idea of an app that can help us get healthier as people.
MoSure.
GeorgeWhen you said men of a certain age, I immediately went to the him hers platform of erectile dysfunction medication.
MoOh, maybe some of these maybe somebody.
GeorgeAnd I’m like, why are you pitching that?
JonI went straight to prostate. Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.
GeorgeI’m like,
MoWell, maybe some of these chemicals are adding to that.
GeorgeThat was absolutely the wrong way to set this app up in my opinion.
MoI don’t know.
GeorgeBut regardless, I like an app that’s theoretically going to help us to become healthier.
MoSure.
GeorgeI do have some problems with some of the way that you’re describing.
Moyeah
GeorgeIt’s presenting the information, the way it’s being used. You said you scan a thing and it tells you this is bad for you or this is good for you.
MoWell, it gives you a rating from one to 100.
GeorgeRight, right. how does it know what is or isn’t good for me? And the reason why I ask is because I wanna know if it if it does any preliminary work to discover more about you before you start scanning stuff.
GeorgeFor instance, I’m diabetic, so I have different nutritional needs than you might if you’re not diabetic.
MoRight.
JonHmm.
MoOh, no. you It doesn’t do anything like that, for sure.
Georgeah It does not.
MoIt does not. No. But it will tell you the sugar car content. of It gives you the list of all the ingredients and things as well. So it will tell you the content.
GeorgeWell, yeah, but I can read the package for that. I mean, I don’t need an app for that.
JonSee, different interpret that
MoYeah. But you know again, it’s yeah it’s it’s a it’s a us a generic app. It’s really just kind of saying like based on normal health things. like And it’ll say like if something’s high in sugar, it will rate that lower.
MoIt’ll say this is very high in sugar.
GeorgeOkay. I mean, ah when you said it presents it as it’s good or bad for you, the for you part was what stuck in my head.
JonHmm.
MoOh.
GeorgeAnd I’m like.
JonOh.
MoThe royal you everybody.
GeorgeIt would be great if it, if it took a holistic approach where it asked you what’s your height, what’s your weight, what’s your age, what are your medical, you know, things that you want to worry about.
MoActually. It would be bad.
MoHmm.
MoThey said, oh, I’m diabetic, so I’m allergic to peanuts.
GeorgeYeah. And then, you know, gave you so a little bit more detailed information to your specific situation.
MoHmm.
GeorgeThat would be a really great app.
MoWell, actually, yeah.
GeorgeMaybe the YUCA people, if they hear this podcast, they could maybe incorporate that. Cause it sounds like they got a base of a platform already.
MoYeah, really wouldn’t think it’d be much of a push to do that.
JonMm-hmm.
JonYep. It’s talking about scanning a barcode and made me think, is there anything with a barcode that’s good for me? Because that means it’s probably processed. That means it has preservatives in it.
JonSo the things that are good for you, they’re probably fruits and vegetables that don’t have barcodes probably.
MoYeah.
GeorgeWell, they do.
JonSo.
MoI mean, there’s something like.
GeorgeFruits and vegetables have barcodes.
JonOh, I guess they do have a little sticker on there sometimes, don’t they?
MoYeah.
GeorgeMm hmm.
Moah But obviously every fruit and vegetable you scan is going to be fine.
JonYeah.
MoYou know, it’s like, it’s like, if it’s natural, it’s fine.
JonYeah.
MoBut it does do things like, um, like I scan my half and half that I use my coffee. And it said, Hey, this has all these extra, so there’s this other brand of half and half that doesn’t have that.
GeorgeNice.
MoSo it’s like, so, and it tells you the rating of the other brands. So it’s it’s a you have to make the final judgment on that. Obviously you have to decide what’s best for you.
JonSure.
MoAnd some things you eat, like, you’re like, Hey, I know this is crappy. These potatoes are crappy for me. I don’t care.
JonSorry, I’m eating bacon. Just that’s how it’s gonna be.
MoYeah, it it just is, right?
Jonright Yeah, I think what is typically the problem in most of the US especially is that The more processed food is, the less expensive it is because it’s easier to store and keep.
MoThis is true.
JonAnd so in very I bet you that every time it says a better one is here, if you go to Whole Foods and you go to the frou frou aisle and you pay triple for it, it probably is better for me.
MoAbsolutely.
JonAnd it’s going to spoil right away and all those things. That’s the conundrum for most people trying to watch their health is like, this food is cheaper and it’s worse for me, but the stuff that’s better for me, I can’t afford.
MoYeah, it is.
MoMm hmm.
JonAnd then you’re stuck there, but at least you have informed decisions like you said, I understand the value of an app like that.
MoNo, you’re right. Yeah. And you’re absolutely right, I would say at least two thirds of the items are more expensive.
Georgeyeah
GeorgeI would, and not knowing what the app recommends, Mo’s been using it, but having owned grocery stores in our family, i I know a lot about that industry.
MoHmm.
GeorgeThere is a misconception that the things that are better for you are more expensive. The truth of the matter is, a lot of the things that are better for us as human beings in general, not specific people, are the fruits and vegetable category.
JonHmm.
GeorgeMeats are generally not good for us.
JonHmm.
GeorgeWe really shouldn’t be eating meat.
MoNot that much, yeah.
JonYeah.
GeorgeWe really should be more vegetarian and fruitarian, that kind of stuff. That stuff is insanely cheap, but what it requires that’s not cheap is more of our time.
GeorgeBecause to John’s point, the stuff does spoil a lot faster because it’s not generally full of as many preservatives as say my M&M bag over here is.
JonRight.
MoMhm.
GeorgeBut, and I would love to see what the alternative to peanut M&Ms is.
Moor this bag of potato chips I have.
JonDon’t scan that. Don’t scan that. Right.
MoYeah.
JonGrapes.
Georgeyeah Right.
MoYeah. But even I did as a good.
GeorgeBut
MoSorry.
GeorgeI think um it might be a good thing for some of our listeners just to bring forward in their mind something, Oh, here’s an alternative thing.
MoYeah.
GeorgeI would love for it to, it would be nice if it suggested more of those natural fruits and vegetables kind of thing. Because if you started going down that track. You definitely, and I, you guys know, I lost, I went down to two Oh three at one point, and which I’m six one.
JonMm hmm.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeSo in my forties, that was an incredible feat for me.
JonYeah. That was three. Yeah, everything.
GeorgeUm, now I’m Eminem guy and I’m back up to two 32 40, but
JonYep.
JonYou got a bag of M&Ms.
Georgei think ah I think you can definitely afford good food. um i don’t I just don’t want our podcast to put out there the misconception that all things that are good for me are inherently more expensive.
MoRight.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeThey’re really not.
MoYeah.
GeorgeYou just have to be willing to put more time into it, which means taking a little less time with activities that maybe aren’t as important as your health.
JonRight.
MoYeah, you’re absolutely right, George.
JonYep.
MoAnd there were some things like, you know, a particular brand of canned beans, you know, it’s just between one brand and another brand, same price, but they’re like, this one has half the salt, you know, and it’s better for you.
GeorgeMm hmm.
JonSure.
GeorgeRight.
JonYep.
MoSo again, it’s really made you have to make informed decisions which wouldn’t do with this stuff.
JonYep.
MoLike I said, and there are some items I’m like, do not scan that.
JonI don’t want to know.
GeorgeYeah.
MoBecause I’m going to get to you eating it.
JonRight.
MoI don’t care.
GeorgeA Twinkie just makes the app crash your phone.
MoExactly.
JonI just melt it down.
MoIt’s just it just says you’re doomed.
GeorgeYeah.
MoYeah.
JonRight.
MoBut.
Georgeyeah
JonScan a Twinkie. It uninstalls itself. No, I’m don’t belong here.
MoBut said it’s it’s helping just, you know, again, it helps you make more better informed decisions. And I said, there’s some things that it says about it. I’m like, I’m going to eat my ice cream. I’m sorry. But I’m going to try to limit it.
MoYou know, I’m not going to eat 24 seven.
JonSure.
MoRight.
JonI’m moderation.
MoSo we’ll see how it goes in moderation.
JonYeah. Makes sense.
MoSo that’s what I get. So how about you, George? We got first today.
Georgejust a pretty simple, straightforward device that I recently picked up for a specific reason. Um, my wife, uh, watched a lot of TV out in the living room and the TV that we bought for living room was a 4k smart TV.
GeorgeIt had its own built-in apps and the built-in apps that are on this particular TV platform are not updated very often.
MoOh yeah.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeIf at all, you can’t restart the apps.
MoYeah.
Georgewhich is really stupid in my opinion, because every device I’ve had, Amazon Fire or whoever, you can at least go in and and restart an app when it freezes or hangs or something as they sometimes do.
MoRight.
Georgeah So I said, OK, well, I need to get, you know, a fire stick type device out in the living room.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeFire sticks are great, ah but I wanted something a little bit more powerful. I was looking at the ah the Fire TV Cube thing that’s out there, but it’s a couple of years old.
MoOh.
GeorgeThey haven’t put a new generation out, or at least I didn’t see a new generation when I looked on Amazon, but yeah, they’re okay.
JonMm hmm. Yeah, we have one of those. They’re OK.
Georgeum But they ah they have recently released the Roku Ultra new version.
JonHmm.
GeorgeI think it’s a 2024, end of 2024, early 2025 model.
JonOh.
GeorgeSo went in and grabbed it because it was also on sale for like 20 bucks off. Normally a hundred bucks.
MoOh, okay.
GeorgeI picked it up for 80. Um, what I like about the device and John’s fire cube is probably um the same way is that it has a physical connection for your home network, not just wireless.
GeorgeI often feel like that these devices kind of suffer on most people’s wireless, depending upon where you’re at in the house and how many devices are connected at a time and how much internet traffic is going on.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeAnd so. I always wanted to have, at least on my main living room television, a device that has an internet connection, a physical LAN cable connection, and this does.
MoOK.
Georgeum I know John can probably speak to the fire cube. I think it does, but I can’t remember.
Jonin It does, yeah.
Georgeum there’s There’s also a third device that I haven’t picked one up yet, but I’m really interested. Nvidia has a set top box that’s apparently very well regarded you know in cord cutting.
JonReally?
MoNvidia? Sounds expensive.
JonYeah.
GeorgeYeah. Um, I mean, it’s not surprising. I mean, Nvidia makes a lot of GPU stuff and everything.
Jonyeah Yep.
MoTrue.
GeorgeSo, you know, um, anyway, I picked this up for 80 bucks.
MoYeah. yeah yeah
GeorgeI’ve played around with it a little bit. I couldn’t get past the, um, the initial, uh, startup stuff though, because I was trying to do it here in my office. And one of the first things it does in the setup menu is it’s like, okay, let’s configure your TV.
GeorgeSo you’re controlling the volume with your remote.
JonOh, yeah.
GeorgeAnd I’m like, well, I’m not on that TV.
JonYep.
GeorgeI don’t remember what the name of it is. So I’m not going to do that here.
Jonye
GeorgeSo I just unplugged it, but, um, it’ll be a nice addition and ah smart TVs, no matter what platform they’re on. I don’t care if it’s Roku like this device or Amazon, or if it’s their own thing or the Google ones that are out quite often.
GeorgeI just don’t think smart TV app systems seem to work very well or not nearly as well as these extra devices.
MoThey don’t. I agree. Yeah. I agree. And also personally, I don’t like the TV apps because they tend to do a lot of things I don’t like.
MoLike, I’m gonna always start you on this channel, like our channel.
JonYes.
JonMm hmm.
MoI’m always gonna put you on this. I’m always gonna put you on the Samsung thing, which I really hate.
GeorgeYou’re right.
MoI have a question though. The Roku Ultra, does it connect, just control TV volume? If you have like a soundbar or something like that, will it actually control that?
GeorgeIt seems like it could, based on the menu setup that I saw and ah the ports that are on the back, I believe it could control the soundbar as well.
MoOkay.
MoOoh, that’d be cool. Well, unless remote.
GeorgeYeah.
JonYeah, I think we’re not recording, we’re not controlling the sound bar, but I seem to remember long ago when we set up our cube, I think even back then that had the option. and It might’ve even, ours might’ve had an IR blaster separate that you plugged in.
MoHmm.
JonThese days I might have an IR blaster baked into it, I don’t know, it was a little dongle, but yeah, yep.
GeorgeHmm.
MoYeah, probably.
GeorgeRight.
MoCool.
GeorgeIt even comes with a little built in find your remote button on the device. So if you lose your remote, press a button.
MoNo need.
JonOh, that’s handy, yep, I could use that.
GeorgeYeah. I mean, neat little things for $80, it was worth it to me. I do need to get more into cord cutting and not cord cutting. Honestly, guys, we need a whole new term.
GeorgeWe need to get into service cutting. Holy shit.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeThese things are getting ridiculous.
JonRight.
GeorgeThey’re just as much as cable was 10 years ago.
MoOh, yeah.
JonYep.
GeorgeYouTube TV this month in February has announced another rate increase. And then I just got an email like two days ago saying that they’re losing Paramount plus or somebody.
JonLosing some stuff. Yep.
GeorgeAnd I’m like, all right, well fuck you people.
MoWell, what the hell?
JonYep.
MoYeah, really.
GeorgeYou keep adding costs. You’re not giving me new channels, but you’re going to take away channels that are already there. Man, fuck this shit. I public domain all the way.
Jonthat’s a bad look
GeorgeI’m telling you.
Moshe
GeorgeAnyway, John, the thing that you want to talk about is part of our public domain community of apps that we’ve been into. I know because I recognize the last two letters on the end of the software.
JonThat’s right. you’re absolutely That’s a transition, a segue into this is fantastic because this is an app that connects up to our record cutting, downloading of media that we do.
JonSo we’ve talked before about the R series, ah Sonar, Radar, Lidar, Prowler, all these different things.
Mohe
GeorgeMm hmm.
Jonthat They all end with RR, whatever they are, right? and I think it was an article that I came through on my feed that was like, the top 10 Plex extensions you absolutely must have if you gather your own media.
MoYeah.
JonAnd there were things that I knew on there, like Tatulli, which does, you know, indexing and logs and things like that.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeMm hmm.
JonThere were a couple other things and like, nah, that’s not good. One was like to help with metadata or organizing media. We organize our media perfectly at the front end, so it doesn’t matter. But the one that really intrigued me and the one that I have jumped into with both feet with no live preserver,
MoOh, geez.
Jonis this thing called overseer. No, it sounds a little intimidating. It’s errr, with rr on the end, two r’s, that’s right. So if you have, if you run a Plex Media Server, and especially, maybe even exclusively, if you then also share that with anyone outside of your home, but you allow a friend or a coworker or something access into that file,
JonEvery few weeks, you get a text or someone you never talked to that says, hey, George, can you see if you can find blah, blah, blah, and put that on your Plex server, right?
GeorgeMm-hmm.
JonWhich is, it’s, I say that really snarkily. I don’t mean, it’s happy to do it. It’s not a big deal. I’m happy to, happy to help out friends who enjoy this stuff.
GeorgeFuck that, I’m not anymore.
JonWell, George isn’t, so.
MoMm-hm.
GeorgePeople aren’t even helping me out. At least they’re helping you maintain your equipment.
Jonit Yeah, well.
GeorgeMine are just a bunch of family freeloaders.
JonSo what Overseer does, much like the entire RR series of apps, it’s interconnected with APIs. When you install it, you connect it up to Sonar, you connect it up to Radar, you connect it up to your Plex server.
JonAnd it now will index what you have and it becomes like this universal media discovery interface. If you want to search for a TV show or a film or whatever, you just start typing.
MoMm hmm.
JonIt goes out and it finds it with all the images and stuff. It’ll tell you if you already have it in your library or not. If you don’t have it in your library, there’s a little button to click that says request.
Jonand that will then go out and talk to Sonar or Radar and go, we wanna add this movie or TV show, we wanna download it and put it here, all those sorts of things. It has become a replacement to the interface for Sonar and Radar for me because it’s so nice and it’s discovery of like, well, let’s drill in and find, oh, that was a Tom Hanks movie?
JonWhat else has Tom Hanks been in? Just like you do in Plex, but once you discover it, you click to Insta download it and grab it.
MoMm hmm.
JonBeyond that, I have two beyond that. Here’s the first beyond that. Beyond that, you can invite anyone on your server to access this thing. They log in with their Plex credentials, so they know they’re authorized, and they go through and see something they want.
JonThey click request. I get a notification. I can approve or deny that request, so I have a level of approval. You can actually set some people to auto approve if you want.
MoHmm.
JonAnd they have the same access to all the same information that they already have through Plex, but now they can actually instantly request something that you want. And if let’s say, Mo, I add you and say, I want you to auto approve, but you have your own server.
JonYou don’t need mine. But if you did, you could come in and want it. and I could say, hey, he anything Mo asks for automatically approve it. I wanted to go right through. Right. So you trusted people and family.
MoNight.
JonAnd then finally, the second, but plus. is it’s inside of my network. It’s running in a Docker, right? So it’s nobody outside of my house can get to it, but… Everybody knows this is a problem, and it’s not unique to Plex and Overseer. But by doing just a little bit of free work, installing a little more software, creating an account with CloudFlare, I can go in and have a redirect so that anyone inside or outside of my home with their credentials can access this, connect it to the Plex server, and request and see verification that things have gone in.
JonThis has been a game changer in terms of like the ability to communicate with people that are on my server to coordinate with the things that they want. And even there’s a mechanism for if there’s something you already have, let’s say, George, you asked me to download the breakfast club, right? And I did. But then it was in French and you’re like, well, it’s French. You could go in and report issues with pieces of media and say, this is in the wrong language. Can you fix it, John? And when I do, I can respond to you like a ticket system right inside of the thing to communicate with the people who are on your server.
Jonit is I don’t see myself being without this anymore. It’s become such a streamliner of what otherwise are disparate pieces and just knits them together and gives users of your Plex server, including yourself, an easier way to go in and add and update and fresh refresh media.
MoHmm.
MoWow. That sounds really cool. Um, just a question I have is it’s a web-based system, right?
JonMm.
JonMm?
MoSo if somebody wants to get into the internet, does it have like, uh, is the web app or the web on your phone work well with this? Like, is it formatted?
JonIt does, yeah. So on my phone, I went into Chrome and I navigated to this from outside of my network.
MoMm-hmm.
JonAnd in Chrome, you hit the little three dots and say, add to home screen. That’s how you do it on Android. I’m not sure how it is on Apple, but if you don’t do this, you can still navigate through it.
MoYeah.
JonSo now it’s an app on my desktop I click on, it opens Chrome, it goes straight to that site. And it’s, it’s yes, it is tailored as you scale, it ah moves buttons around, does all that cool stuff you would do.
MoYes.
JonSo it’s very mobile friendly as well.
MoOkay. And how long does it take for you to install all this, would you say?
JonWell, I use unraid to the Docker installed in, you know, five minutes. And then I spent probably a couple of hours learning all the cloud fair clear garbage that I learned how to get traffic from outside to inside. But, you know, an afternoon I spent probably with it and it became accessible to all of my users and probably inside of, you know, two, three hours it all took to get me up and running. And I was learning stuff. The actual doing it. I can repeat it now in about 30 minutes. Right. Because I was learning at the same time.
MoCool.
JonMoe’s taking notes.
MoYeah, I am.
JonFoul, overdrive, down there, overseat.
MoLet’s see. No, I’m more my nose. Get John over here to configure.
JonTo do that part. we’ve We’ve all done that cyclically. Like I remember, first I got set up and then George found all the RR stuff and then he remotored in to get me updated that I think I helped Moe.
MoYeah.
JonWe just do this kind of this round robin leapfrog thing as we find new technologies. And it it definitely makes it better. I think you’re gonna enjoy it. Once you check it out, you won’t go back.
MoCool.
JonNice.
GeorgeAll right, guys, time to talk about games. We’ve all three got something to talk about. So let’s quit wasting time and jump right in. John, what have you been playing lately?
JonWell, I’m going to waste your time. I’m talking about something cool. So we’re going to start it off the bat with something neat. Um, you guys remember the game that you hate that I love called donut dodo. Yes.
GeorgeOh yeah.
JonAnd you don’t hate it because it’s a bad game. You guys hate it because it was punishing and difficult. And it is. This is made by a company called Pixel Games. And it’s the ones that look like an old 80s arcade game, both in aesthetic and design and pixel and really the sound effects and just overall behavior of the game. ah They also did one um that we talked about briefly on the show called cash cow DX was another one, same idea. Well, they’ve dropped a third game, a very different game this time around. And it’s called Looney Landers. Now the the pun with lunar lander is intentional. I actually didn’t catch it myself. Someone had to point it out to me. That’s funny. It’s not about lunar lander, though. It’s actually more like
JonRemember the Atari game human cannonball where you had to pick ah like a trajectory and a how but how much you fire and you’re trying to land your guy on a little platform, right?
GeorgeOh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
MoOh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. On the thing. Right. Yes.
JonYeah, it’s kind of like that.
GeorgeRight.
MoYes.
JonSo this is looks like an 80s arcade game behaves like it. It even says insert coin, but you just push the button, of course, and go into it. This is without a doubt designed to be, I’m sitting next to somebody who is ready to get a punch when they when they play and they beat me on this. your The environment is there this crazy clown that is causing all sorts of chaos and these little platforms you can land on.
Jonthat have different value amounts. And there’s a plane flying over overhead, and you hit a button to leap out of the plane, hit the button again to open your parachute, you’re trying to navigate your little guy down to land on little platforms to claim the value of points that are on those platforms.
MoMmhmm.
JonAlong the way, you can pick up bonus items, you can pick up stars from multipliers. And of course, the clown is trying to thwart your efforts at all times by, you know, flamethrowers and cannonballs and stuff all trying to inter intercept with you.
JonBut even if you play this single player, it’s a two player game. You only will ever play this with another person or against the computer. It’s always you and an opponent vying for the highest value targets. And sometimes you’re both drifting toward it. and you Somebody grabs it the last second and you miss out on it. and And then you have this ability to bounce around the screen and vaguely control your little paratrooper.
JonAnd I think it has, I didn’t count, but I think it has about five levels. Each one is takes about 30 seconds, 45 seconds to go through. And then there’s a bonus level at the end for a big potential of a score at the end. And then it’s over. You go to the leaderboard, put in your high score.
JonBut the thing with this kind of game is it’s not over because right away you’re like, oh, i try it again, try it one more time. I did a live stream with this about, I think it was the day before it came out. It’s released on Steam and on the atari the new Atari VCS. And we had a huge, great time looking at this thing brand new. Pixel Games had contacted me and said, hey, you want to check this out? I heard you guys on the podcast talking about… No, no, dodo way back when. And that absolutely, because I love their stuff and it’s more of the same. So if you enjoyed those weird kind of like, I guess I call them throwback or spiritual old arcade games, that’s what this is. But less like a quarter suck kind of thing and more like a skill based. Can you keep all the multipliers? Can you build up a combo to get the highest score possible and do it against a friend who hopefully sitting there next to you on the couch?
JonSo Looney Landers, and it’s cheap, I think it’s four or five bucks as most of Pixel games games are.
MoYeah.
Jonah So give it a look. And Mo, I’ll also throw you the link to our live stream we did.
MoOh cool.
JonIf someone would like to take a better look at it before they decide whether or not it’s gonna be for them or not. Cool, all right. um Mo, how about you? What then have you been playing since we spoke last?
MoSo I’ve been playing the latest installment of the Dragon Age franchise. ah So this new one’s called Dragon Age The Valeguard.
JonHmm.
MoAnd you know I was a big fan of these games. They have some really like very ah memorable characters that you play along the way and you know you don’t want them to die kind of thing. ah very Really good storyline and it’s very, very immersive.
Moah And it’s a role-playing ah third person perspective game, I guess you call it, you know, and you have your party of people, you know, magic and all that fun stuff. So it’s very fantasy based.
JonMm hmm.
MoSo this latest installment, which took a while to come out. So a lot of people have been looking forward to it. For me, I hate to say that I played it. And then I said, Oh, I’ll, you know, play it for a while.
MoHad fun. You know, I played it for a good couple hours and I never went back to it. Like I just, it just never crossed my mind to go back and play with it. Like it just didn’t have that grab factor. You know, when you play a game and it’s like, you know, you’re done cause like, Oh, I gotta get some sleep. I gotta work tomorrow. You know, you know, that kind of thing. You know, it’s, it’s one, I could take it, leave it. I could probably give it some more time, but I, I’m sure I will go back to it at some point because they said it is a pretty great story, but it just didn’t grab me. You know, the, the graphics are really cool. The fights, I mean, all of it’s fine.
MoBut I can’t describe what’s missing, but something is missing.
JonHmm. Did you buy this new? Is this like a brand new release then?
Moah brand brand new game like so it’s one of those like gotta remember like Assassin’s Creed like a new Assassin’s Creed I’m gonna buy it you know I’m just gonna get it as soon as it comes out and this is what I said oh like I gotta get this one cuz even my daughter she really loved these games too and I was talking to her about it and she had the exact same thing she’s like yeah I played it and i you know I played it like one night like played the whole night next day you know I just played something else and just totally forgot that this game was even there like if I played it now I probably have to start over cuz I probably just like what happened you know
JonYeah.
JonIsn’t that the danger these days? of like and Sometimes they’re the big franchises that we’re dying to play the next one of.
Moyou Right.
JonAnd you know sometimes you have the self-control to go, I’ll wait till it goes on sale. We all know about our query system, a dollar per hour kind of thing. You would like to wait and get it when it’s either on a steam sale or through Humble Bundle or one of those when it’s huge reduction.
JonBut this one, that like you’ve played the others and you had a huge investment in them and you figured this was going to be more of the same.
MoOh, yeah.
JonDo you think it’s too much more of the same or is it too different? Or you you said it was hard to put your finger on why it didn’t really grab you.
MoYeah, maybe. It was nothing new. Maybe that’s what it was. like I feel like I’m playing the same game I played before. You know, like it didn’t like grab me, which, which is funny because I could probably go back to the older games and replay them and have a good time.
JonHmm.
MoYou know what I mean? But this for free and this one, I guess my expectation was something more in the story or something more.
JonRight, for free.
MoI said, I’m not sure exactly what it, it got rated very highly from like the big reviewers and stuff. Like they all rated it really high, but even looking online, I looked at Reddit and stuff and a lot of people had that kind of same comment.
JonHmm.
MoSo maybe technically it’s a really, really good game. But just for me, it’s just sort of just lacking. and he goes I’ll give it another a shot, I’m sure, because again, I’m a big fan of the franchise. So I’ll give it a shot and see where it goes.
JonYeah.
Jonmissing some secret sauce somewhere.
MoSomewhere, somewhere. So now I’m really interested about this game that George played.
GeorgeYeah, I kind of thought Moe might be interested in this game a little bit. This is definitely right up ah your alley, Moe. It’s one of those games that kind of harkens back to the early 2000s gaming stuff.
GeorgeSo it’s a little bit like ah Age of Empires or maybe some of the early Civilization games.
MoMm hmm. Oh, OK, yeah.
GeorgeOne difference though, um those games are mostly real-time strategy and this is turn-based strategy.
MoOK, OK.
GeorgeSo that’s why I thought it might appeal to you because I know you like turn-based strategy.
MoOh, yeah, I love those.
JonHmm.
GeorgeI gave this a shot because it was one of the recent freebies. I think this one came in through Amazon Prime over to the Epic store.
MoOK.
GeorgeSo if you don’t know, if you have Amazon Prime, you can go to a website, and I can’t remember how to get there. I always get there when I go to John’s ah podcast edit on Tuesdays on Twitch, and there’s a little icon up in the upper right corner that says, hey, click here for your free Amazon Prime gaming stuff.
MoRight.
GeorgeAnd I do that each Tuesday. um and When I got this game, I was trying to look at the list of free games I got in the last week or so to decide which one to play.
GeorgeAnd there was a couple that were kind of interesting, um but their trailers just kind of, I don’t know, were flat.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeSo I was like, okay, this one, I loved Age of Empires.
MoOh, yeah, that’s great game.
GeorgeI love that game. My wife played them relentlessly. She was just always on those games. Um, and so I was like, I, you know, I could enjoy a game like that again. So I went and downloaded it, installed it.
GeorgeI started to play it and at first I was really intrigued with the whole like introduction segment where it was this you know animated stuff and this narrator talking in a very kind of comically snarky tone so it appealed to me right away.
Georgeah things like there are many stories in the universe but here’s the story on this blue ice ball blah blah blah and it’s your story four million years ago they’re amino acids and it’s kind of boring up until yeah just really snarky british uh accent kind of stuff i was like this seems like it’s going to be fun then they put some thought into this You get to the next screen and you, you know, you configure your character and you can actually configure traits that your leader might, you know, have and imbue into a society.
JonHmm.
GeorgeAnd then it says, okay. have you ah for how you wanna start your skill level in this game, like how difficult the game is. Never played one of these types of games before, played something like this in the past or have played this exempt exact game already.
JonHmm.
GeorgeI’m like, oh, that’s a neat way to ask that question.
MoOkay.
GeorgeSo I’m like, well, I played Age of Empires, Civilization, I’ll pick the middle one. Pick the middle one. So I’m like, okay, I’m gonna get a couple of tutorials just on the mechanics of this system and get to start playing.
MoRight.
GeorgeZero fucking tutorials.
MoOh.
GeorgeJust straight into the game, nothing in the game, for me at least, was intuitive. Now Mo, because you play turn-based strategy, you might have a different experience.
MoYeah.
GeorgeSo that’s why I wanted to talk about it still.
MoOkay.
GeorgeBut for me, it was not intuitive at all. So much so that after about 10 or 15 minutes of trying to figure out what to click to get the little figures to do stuff, I just stopped and I’m like, all right, that’s it.
MoYeah. Yeah.
GeorgeAnd then I said, well, all right, let me give it another chance. Let me restart. And this time let me find the tutorials and go through them without, you know, so I picked like have never played this before.
MoOkay.
GeorgeStill no tutorials.
MoOh jeez.
GeorgeI’m like, okay, what the fuck?
JonWhat?
GeorgeSo then there’s like this little gear icon down in the bottom right corner. You click that. And one of the menu choices is tutorials.
MoOkay.
GeorgeI’m like, okay, well at least I found them. So I click on the very first one, you know, beginning, you know, tips and strategies and how to get, it’s just a fucking video.
MoOh, so I’ll walk you through.
JonI was not like a walk you through, hold your hand.
GeorgeIt’s not a tutorial like we’re used to where it walks you through while you’re playing the game in the beginning stages.
JonYeah.
MoYeah. Yeah. Yeah.
GeorgeIt’s literally just a video, like something that might’ve been out of the late 90s or early 2000s video game thing where you, you know, it’s this guy talking and he’s clicking around and showing you stuff, but nothing you can interact with.
GeorgeAnd I’m kind of a hands-on learner. So this was virtually no benefit to me whatsoever.
JonMm hmm.
Georgeum That pissed me off, as you can imagine.
MoYeah, I can.
JonWe can tell.
MoYeah, I get. Yeah.
GeorgeSo I, but I did learn some stuff enough to at least do a few things. I still don’t understand half the shit I’m doing. I’ve progressed at least through one little stage of one era.
MoHmm.
GeorgeAnd then I’m sitting there like, okay. So I shut it down. I go back into it, start a whole new game just to see.
MoOK.
GeorgeAnd that’s when it dawned on me. There was one other aspect of this game that was really pissing me off. So I went and searched on Reddit, like you did Mo with your game.
MoHmm.
GeorgeTurns out I’m not the only one having this problem.
Jonah
Georgeah This game was released like a year ago.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeIt’s still like $50, which is a little so suspect is why it’s already free.
MoOh, yeah, for a year.
Georgeum And they even have a definitive edition for $100.
JonMaybe that’s why.
GeorgeSo this is not a cheap game.
JonOoh, that one has tutorials if you pay the hundred dollars.
MoJeez.
GeorgeYeah, exactly. um But the problem that a lot of people are having with the game are load times. This is an Age of Empires Civilization game, and i I put a stopwatch on it.
GeorgeIt literally took four and a half minutes to go from that introduction to the start of the game.
JonFour and a half minutes.
MoWhoa! Okay, that’s crazy.
Georgejust the load screen.
JonWhat’s it loading?
GeorgeI’m not talking about four and a half minutes of introduction. I’m saying, yeah, exactly.
JonYeah, yeah.
GeorgeWhat’s it load?
MoWhoa.
GeorgeNow people in Reddit have said they went from HDD to an s STD and they saw an improved load time, but that should not matter, especially with a gaming system like I have.
JonMm-hmm, sure.
MoYeah, but still.
JonNot four and a half minutes, yeah.
MoYeah.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeI mean, it’s,
MoYeah, yeah, yeah.
GeorgeIt’s red ridiculous. Whatever they’ve done with this game, they have done it horribly, not just in execution of the gameplay itself, but apparently in the coding as well.
JonAnd that’s why
GeorgeSo I can’t recommend it even for free, but most that you like turn based strategy, you might have a better experience.
MoAnd you have to have you have to have a good tutorial.
JonRight.
Mobut when it when When it goes free again, I’ll i’ll get it.
JonIf you already know what you’re doing. Yeah.
JonQuick. It might still be there. Check and see what was your, what was the cool app we talked about two weeks ago. Go there. I bet you it’s still on the list.
MoYeah, that’s true.
JonIt might still be around.
GeorgeOh yeah, it’s, I’m sure it’s still free right now.
JonYep.
GeorgeYeah.
JonYep. Jump on it. Yeah. Mo update us if it’s better than we thought it was.
MoYeah, I’ll let you know.
JonAs we round out the back end of the show, you know, we always like to take a few moments here to talk about the things we’re either looking at right now, or we’re looking forward to in the next. We’re looking forward to between now and the next time we get together. And I want to start with you, George. What do you have? You’re looking at her on the horizon.
Georgeah Yeah, um so first off, I’m looking at finally getting to start the final season of Cobra Kai because they released their last block of five episodes this week.
Jonahha
MoOh,
JonRight. Wrapped it up.
GeorgeSo I’m finally going to get the chance to start watching those and I’m really looking forward to seeing how they wind that story up. um Second thing I’m looking forward to, I really want to pick out a good movie in theaters because I want Grace to be able to go back to a theater now that she’s getting more ambulatory and is able to do a lot more things independently.
GeorgeI thought it might be a nice fun thing for her because she used to love going to the movies. We had the am ah the ah AMC plus thing for a long time there and all.
Moright
GeorgeSo this would be nice to get to go back to a movie. uh the thing that i think i am looking forward to the most though is something you kind of real briefly mentioned at the beginning of the podcast and that’s uh Reacher season three starts on amazon prime uh february 20th will actually be over there in jacksonville near jonimo when this uh comes out so i’m sure
Jonyeah
MoYeah.
GeorgeWe’ll ah watch it in the hotel room as a family on that first episode.
JonCool.
GeorgeReacher has just been an incredible TV series.
JonYep.
Moyeah.
JonFun.
GeorgeAlan Richton, the guy who plays Reacher, has been phenomenal and he’s perfectly cast in the role.
JonYep.
MoOh yeah.
Georgeum I don’t think I could ever see anybody being Reacher ever again.
JonYep.
GeorgeUh, and each season they take a specific book and that’s the story for the season so far. I’m hoping they do the same thing with season three. And it’s just a wonderful series.
GeorgeMy son and I are going back right now and we’re in the middle of season one, rewatching it in prep for a season three.
JonOh, nice. Yeah.
GeorgeSo February 20th, Amazon.
JonIt is rewatchable, too.
MoCool. Yeah, it’s very watchable.
JonYeah, it really is.
GeorgeYeah.
JonYeah.
GeorgeYeah. It’s really solid. So Mo, how about you? What are you looking forward to?
MoOh, obviously Reacher as well. You know, that’s it says first two seasons, loved them.
GeorgeRight.
JonYeah, I’d expect so.
MoSo I’m hoping they keep the quality up for this third one. The next one is an animated series that came out probably a couple of years ago called Pantheon. I don’t know if you guys watched it or not.
JonHmm.
MoIt was basically about a little girl.
JonHmm.
MoHer dad had passed away and she starts getting email messages from him.
JonHmm.
Molike even though he’s dead and and it turns out like there’s a whole thing with like AI and his dad or his dad had been uploaded to his computer thing and see was he was trying to reach he broke out and was trying to reach her.
Georgeyeah
JonOh.
Moand Really, really interesting story. You kind of have to pay attention kind of thing have when you watch it. Like you can’t be ah playing on your phone you what when you watch this show because you definitely get lost, but definitely good and something worth watching.
JonYep, some of those.
MoWhat I’m really most looking forward to though is Daredevil born again on Disney Plus.
GeorgeYeah. Hmm.
Moah I love the original Daredevil series on Netflix when they did it.
GeorgeYep.
Moah Charlie Cox. Amazing job, I thought. The guy that who played Kingpin, I forget his name off the top of my head. Amazing.
GeorgeVincent did not for real.
JonVincent D’Onofrio.
MoThank you. for Amazing.
JonOoh, I got it as quick as George, the first time ever.
Moah Amazing.
JonHe usually knows every actor.
Moah Yes, true.
GeorgeI think, I think there was a delay because I said it, then I heard you say it.
JonDid you do it first? Oh, okay.
GeorgeSo yeah.
JonWell, in the edit, I’m gonna say it first by just a little bit.
MoI’m going to call it a tie.
JonI’m gonna fix it.
Jonokay all
MoBut but but they’re both they’re both in it. And like I said, I mean, just the two of them by itself could carry the show. He by far the best kingpin villain.
JonMm hmm.
MoEver, you know, he scares me.
JonHe’s great. Yeah.
MoSo it’s it’s.
GeorgeWell, and it’s also got John Bernthal back is Frank Castle.
MoYeah, as as punisher as punisher.
JonYeah, ah crazy.
MoSo, yeah, absolutely. So that’s what most came forward to. So how about you, John? We looking forward to.
JonYeah, well, also on my list, not coordinated, Reacher season three, that’s on our radars, we all enjoyed that series, or our enjoying, I should say, it’s ongoing.
GeorgeHmm.
Jonah I had heard of this film, and I saw a trailer the other day when I went to see something else in the theater, my dead friend to Zoe, have you heard of this film?
GeorgeHmm.
JonAnd it is, I gotta, sorry, I gotta, there’s a list of people I need, my who’s in it, I gotta to go look that up. Because I forgot, I’ve forgotten other names. Unlike Vincent D’Onofrio, I’ve forgotten other names.
JonYeah. Okay. Here it is. Good. No, the cast. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And first and foremost, it grabbed my attention because it has Sonequa Martin-Green, who play Burnham in Star Trek Discovery.
MoOh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
JonIt’s the first thing I’ve seen her in since then in that, but also has Natalie Morales, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman is in this, Uctarsh Ambikar, who you might not know him by name.
GeorgeMm hmm. Oh.
MoNice.
Jonhe is the he’s the the He’s the guy in Ghost. He’s the husband in the series Ghost.
MoOh, okay. Okay. Yes. Yes.
GeorgeOh, yeah, the one who wears all the cool Atari t-shirts, yeah.
JonHis wife sees Ghost.
MoYeah. Yeah. Yes.
Jonyou all did curl Yeah, exactly. Anyway, the premise of this that they kind of give away in the trailer, but is that Seiko Martin Green plays this young woman who has some post-traumatic stress disorder from being in the military, and she has this good friend, but apparently the friend died there. She’s like an imaginary friend that she sees and talks to, and everyone else is helping her deal with this. And I just saw the trailer and it just looks so It just looks so compelling and it has all these big actors in it who come in for stuff.
Jonand Sometimes you bring in like stunt casting like that and it can be bad, but in the snippets that I saw, like they’re just they’re chewing up the scenery.
MoYeah.
Jonlike They’re exactly what you want to see Ed Harris doing, what you want to see Morgan Freeman doing, you know being these high gravitas kind of characters. so Anyway, that’s coming February 28th. to theaters. And then finally, I mentioned it last time and I’m finally now it’s coming out February 21st, The Monkey.
JonThis is a reimagining of the Stephen King short story. ah The reviews are starting to come out and they’re saying it’s the best description of this film I’ve heard is it’s like an art house final destination.
Moyeah
MoOkay, um I’m good with that.
JonOkay, that sounds all right to me, so yeah. Gonna see the monkey, can’t avoid it. I might see it twice, I don’t know. I had tickets, the moment I ticked the thing that says alert me when you can order them, and I order them as soon as they emailed me like three weeks ago, so eager to go and see that one next Thursday.
JonOkay, before we get out of the show, and I wanna talk about some patrons, but Mo, every once in a while, we get a question from one of our supporting patrons that we try to answer here on the show. Do you have one for us this time around?
MoOh, absolutely. Uh, today’s question is from power driven.
JonOkay.
MoHe’s been a supporter for quite a while and it’s really interesting question.
JonOh, all right. Hey, power. Yeah, very supportive.
MoI really like this one. It is. What is your favorite Atari memory growing up?
JonHmm.
MoSpecifically Atari. So yeah, i i’ll I’ll kick us off because I have one that popped in my head as soon as I saw this was when the first time I saw asteroids.
JonSo many. Yeah.
JonOK, all right.
GeorgeMm.
JonOh, OK, like in the store or.
Moyou know No, no, um like arcade.
JonOh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Atari arcade asteroids.
MoYeah, Atari Arcade.
JonGot it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got you. Not your 2,600. Got it.
MoThat’s a 2600. Yeah, just because um because the only game we saw that was Space Invaders.
JonMm-hmm. I understand.
MoAnd that was pretty much it. Actually, yeah Space Invaders and maybe Breakout, right? And so this was a game that was like, you just felt like, oh my God, like, you know, you’re flying around.
MoIt’s it’s not you know restricted to just one part of the screen and you’re destroying stuff. And it was just, ah I thought it was just, and it’s also the vector graphics, which just look amazing always. You know, um, it was just a game.
MoI saw it. I was like, Oh, I dropped so many quarters. So that was what probably the first time I think I saw Atari is like, it’s only popped in my head is like, Oh, this is a company I need to keep, you know, keep an eye on.
MoSo who wants to go next?
JonThe last time I went ahead of George, I stole his.
MoWell, that’s true.
JonI’m ah i’m not sure.
MoSo George, you should go next.
Jonyou want George, do you have one? You can go next if you want.
GeorgeYeah, I mean, well, a couple of thoughts. I think I’m kind of in the same boat that John is based on the quizzical look when Mo talked about, um, uh, asteroids. When I think of Atari, I’m always going to gravitate toward the home console.
MoSure, that makes sense.
JonYeah, yeah.
Georgeas soon as that name is mentioned, much less so than the arcade, although they had some great arcade titles, of course. ah But when it comes to the home console, it’s kind of a toss up between ah playing the best Pac-Man port ever in history on the 2600.
JonOK, yeah, all right.
GeorgeBut I think my favorite memory might actually be discovering the Atari Force comic book in one of the cartridge boxes.
JonOh, mm hmm.
MoOh yeah.
JonYep.
Georgeah Being a comic book fan and especially early on and as a young person, always getting them off of that little spinner rack at the grocery store when I was a little kid and stuff, the comic books held a special place in my heart.
JonOh, yeah.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeAnd when that kind of got married with having a video game system in my house and those two worlds collided, that was really special.
GeorgeNow, I’m not going to tell you the Atari Force comic books, especially the ones in the cartridges are all that great.
MoYeah, that true. Yeah, very true.
GeorgeThey’re not, but just like we look back on things with a nostalgic eye that we color them better than they might actually have been, that’s the way the Atari Force comic book is for me in this memory.
MoOh, sure, of course.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeSo my favorite Atari memory has got to be getting that first Atari Force comic book. And I still have it, had it graded. It’s a shitty grade because I was a terrible kid back then, but I still love my Atari Force comic book.
JonYeah.
MoNice.
JonAnd didn’t they like some subsequent issues? It was like a half sized book, right? And the subsequent issues like we’re in different cartridges.
GeorgeMm-hmm.
MoTogether.
JonI need to keep buying new games to get the other issues, right?
GeorgeYeah.
JonYeah.
GeorgeThere were, I think five issues, maybe six, four, five, six, something like that.
JonYeah. The sneaky.
JonSounds right. Yeah.
GeorgeThen they went to full size and I think DC maybe was publishing them or I can’t remember, but one of the big companies picked up the license.
Jonso Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, mine is again, I was thinking the 2,600, but not specifically about playing it to ask what’s your favorite Atari memory.
JonIt’s so difficult because it was so integral. It was so integral to my childhood that there’s so many little you like this person I played with or the first time I found the Easter egg in the adventure, the first this or whatever, but the one that is most.
MoMm hmm.
JonMost like easy to remember in my head. That’s most vivid. You know, sometimes you have shaky memories. Sometimes you have really solid ones.
Mosee
JonAnd it really is at a store. We were at the mall. ah Me and my mom, it wasn’t like my birthday or anything. And I’ve been playing Atari’s right. Eighty two, eighty three or something. And I’ve been dying to get Vanguard.
JonThey’ve been showing it in the Atari Age magazine and it looked fantastic.
MoOh, yeah, yeah.
JonAnd I knew that the arcade game And as I still do as an adult, I’ll go into any given video game or toy store to look around. I think we went to like an electronics boutique or babbages or whatever was in the mall there and had a huge display.
Moeasy
JonAnd there was Vanguard. And I remember this had to be like 83, something like that. It was $39.99.
Momove
JonI mean, they weren’t cheap, but this was like a premium game. And I was just, I wasn’t like begging for it or anything. I was just like, oh, here’s the one from the magazine. Here it is. That’s really cool. Whatever. And she said, how much is it?
JonAnd I’m like, uh, and I answered her as to let her off the hook. Oh, it’s 39.99 whatever. She’s like, okay.
MoYeah. Ooh. Whoa.
Jonokay what do you mean okay okay i should forget about it or no no no and so it was maybe she got her tax return i don’t know what the deal was but it was out of the blue normally i would get a clearance one if anything at the store if i begged for it but this was just me not even trying maybe that was the clue i wasn’t being a pest so she was trying to teach me don’t be a pest and you get good good things and so on the way home
MoWhoa.
MoRight.
JonThat was one of those that I can still remember reading the manual, every little monster, what what’s their name, what are the name of the zones, the striped zone and the different rainbow zone and stuff.
Mo<unk>cccc
JonAnd I love the cartridge, but yeah, it was it was getting my mom out of the blue, getting me this Vanguard cartridge. I wish I still had it, sold all my Atari stuff forever ago to buy a computer, but yeah.
JonSo that was it, that was it, cool.
MoAll right. All right.
JonThank you, power driven.
MoThat’s awesome. Yeah, great question.
JonYeah.
JonDo you want to say you can get your,
MoOh, yeah. Great question. And um sorry, that was a great question. And again, anybody listening out there, if you want to get your question read on the show, it’s super easy.
JonMm-hmm.
MoJust go to genexgrope.com slash Patreon as little as a dollar a month.
JonMm-hmm.
MoSend me a note with the question and it’ll probably get answered right here on the show.
JonYep.
JonWell, and speaking of, I said we had a couple of new patrons I want to mention, so many to keep up with. I want to thank two brand new folks who did what Mo said. They headed to patreon dot.com slash Gen X growing up, opened up their wallets and their hearts and signed up for just a few dollars a month.
JonKedrick H. And the second user is DEAD. Now, I’m not saying that the user is dead or that the name is dead.
Mothat’s hope not
JonMaybe it’s an acronym for something. I don’t know. Or maybe the Grim Reaper signed up and joined us. But thank you, Kendrick and DEAD. We certainly appreciate you. You’re adding your name to a roster of other very supportive and just enabling human beings that make sure we continue to do what we do here on the show and over on YouTube.
JonSo we appreciate that you did that. Finally, that is going to wrap up this edition of the Gen X grown up podcast.
MoLet’s hope not.
JonDon’t worry. We have another one coming in two weeks and our backtrack is coming around just next week. Mo, would you be so kind as to tell the fourth listener what they could look forward to next week on the backtrack?
MoOh, absolutely. It’s probably one of the major albums from 40 years ago. If you can remember that, holy crap.
JonYeah.
Moah Whitney Houston, her debut album came out 40 years ago and amazing singer, amazing talent, tragic life.
Jonyeah
GeorgeHmm.
MoBut again, that first album just cemented her immediately into the 80s music scene.
JonYeah. That voice. Yep. We’re going to run through that one. That should be great. I hope you’ll join us for that. Until then, I am John George. Thank you so much for being here, man.
GeorgeYes, sir.
JonMo, you know, I appreciate you.
MoAlways fun, man.
JonFourth listener. It’s you. We all appreciate most of all, though. We can’t wait to talk to you again next time. but Bye bye.
GeorgeSee you guys.
MoTake care, everybody.
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GenXGrownUppodcast

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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