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About This Episode

We check out a TV series about a young hotshot lawyer facing off against the firm that fired him, unpack a piece of 40-year-old Atari gaming hardware, and play a cooperative board game that will have you deciphering a cryptic alien language

(May contain some explicit language.)

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Show Notes

Transcript

JonWelcome back, Gen X Grown-Up Podcast listener to this episode 218 of the Gen X Grown-Up Podcast. I’m John. Joining me as always here, of course, are my buddies, Mo and George. Hey, George, how’s it going?
GeorgeHey everybody
JonMo, how you been?
MoAnd go good. Do it good.
JonYeah, you’ve been a little under the weather, I hear.
MoYeah.
Jonyou’ve been ah
MoYour wife went to babysit grandkids.
JonYeah.
MoThey had colds. She came home.
JonYeah.
MoYou know how it goes.
Jonjust going around i had the con crud too so we’re gonna But we’re going to muscle through and bring you a new show. In this episode, we’re going to check out a TV series about a young hotshot lawyer facing off against the firm that fired him, unpack a piece of 40-year-old Atari gaming hardware, and play a cooperative board game that will have you deciphering a cryptic alien language.
JonHmm. That and so much more coming your way in this episode. Before we get into those cool topics, though, it’s time for some fourth listener email. The fourth listener this time is from longtime listener and supporter Brandon G.
JonHey, Brandon. Here’s what he has to say. Oh, and the topic of his email, by the way, is. Elf! So now we know what he’s talking about.
GeorgeMm.
JonHe says,
MoThanks, Daisy.
JonYeah. Hey guys, once in a while, you cover something that hits home to me in a special way. And the ALF episode did just that. I liked the Alf show as a young kid and had some of the toys and an Alf lunchbox even.
JonPlease don’t be disappointed that I never filled it with rocks, George.
Moif
JonBut my fondest memory of the show was watching it with my grandfather. When he came home from work in the afternoon, we’d often watch reruns of it together. He’d sit on his recliner. And I would jump up on his lap and fish for candy in the pocket of his work shirt that he had left there on purpose just for me to find.
JonThen he would click on the Zenith TV with a huge two-button remote that sounded like creaking bed springs every time he clicked the channel button, and we would watch ALF.
Moher
JonVivid. Vivid. ah He says, Grandpa passed away in 1989 when I was still young. I didn’t get to have him very long, but some of the best memories I have are watching that shy, reserved church deacon laughing like crazy at the corny antics of that silly alien and dipping into his shirt pocket in hopes of finding one more piece of candy.
JonThanks for the trip down memory lane guys. And as always best wishes to each of you and yours. Faithful fourth listener. Brandon. G.
MoNice.
GeorgeNice.
JonOh, what a wonderful email.
MoYeah.
JonThose are the kind of cool, I love hearing those stories about not just our nostalgia, but… how we experienced it. You know, it’s not, it’s ALF. But how did you? How did you hear Elf? And it’s great to hear your story, Brandon. Thank you for sharing that with us and for our listeners.
JonAnd fourth listener, if you would like your email featured here on the show, it’s drop dead easy. Just hit us up at podcast at genxgrownup .com. but Read every single email and most of them. Just like Brandon’s.
JonWe’ll eventually make the show. All right, with that good business behind us, it’s time to jump into the body of this episode 218. right after this very quick break.
JonIt is time to jump back into media. Guys, we have been off for a couple of cycles. We had some rewinds to fill the gaps, but certainly there’s been some stuff to watch since we last spoke. And I’m going to start with you, George. What have you been tuning into?
GeorgeYeah. Actually, what I’ve been watching goes far beyond our rewinds. It was actually from last year, season one, but I just never got around to watching it on my Plex server.
Moah
JonOh my goodness. Okay.
GeorgeYou know, it’s one of those things where, oh, this thing looks interesting to me.
JonYeah.
GeorgeLet me go ahead and grab it from the public domain and I’ll get around to it when I can, but then you forget about it. And.
JonHmm?
GeorgeLater on, you’re like. scrolling through, ah you know, I don’t want to watch. you know this thing for the 12th time or something
JonYeah.
GeorgeOh, I forgot about… And in this case, it was The Rainmaker, which is a TV show on USA.
JonOkay.
GeorgeThat’s based on the John Grisham novel that also got the film treatment in the mid nineties with ah Matt Damon. If you guys remember.
MoOh yeah, yeah.
Georgethat John Voight, Matt Damon. uh vehicle it’s all about a young lawyer now they set um They changed the location in this one. it’s Now he’s in South Carolina, if I remember right. um As opposed to, I think he was in Memphis in the original one.
GeorgeCause Grisham always sets all of his ah stories in the Southeast of the United States, because this is where he grew up.
JonMm.
GeorgeHe actually went to college at FSU.
JonHmm.
Georgeum So.
JonI’d know that.
GeorgeYeah, yeah, he’s, uh, I believe so.
MoAnd neither.
GeorgeI think that’s right. um I could be right. Somebody will write in and. Tell me you’re wrong. But.
Jonso They’ll tell us for sure.
GeorgeOh.
Jonah
GeorgeUm, This series, it it deviates from the book and the movie. quite a lot, but also keeps things familiar. What I mean by that is, as an example, in the book,
Georgethe Big bad company is great benefit, which is an insurance, a health insurance provider that is not providing benefits to a young dying man. And he ends up dying because of that. And his mother sues the company.
GeorgeIn this case, great benefit is actually a hospital chain conglomerate.
JonMm.
Georgewhere a young man went. to go receive help, and he died while he was at the hospital, and his mother is suing because she believes that the that the reason that they gave her, which is he died from the flu, and it was complicated by heroin use.
Jono
Georgeyeah He was a previous drug user, but according to her, he had been clean for a year, so she doesn’t believe. what they’re saying, because, you know, she’s a mother who loves her son, of course.
JonSure.
Georgeah Rudy Baylor is the main character. And he is this young lawyer who is just getting out of law school. He… In the TV show, he gets hired by the opposition firm.
Georgein the case for one day and gets fired and then ends up signing with what you might call the ambulance chasing firm of Jay Lyman Stone. The difference between the book and the movie in that case is J. Lyman Stone in the book and the original movie is a man. In this case, it’s now played by a woman. John, you might remember, you remember that show you used to like a lot, Once Upon a Time, back in the day?
GeorgeOr once upon a…
JonYeah.
GeorgeNot once upon a time.
JonWas…
Georgeum Or maybe it was once upon a time.
JonWhat?
GeorgeThe one with the fairy tales in real world.
JonThat was a shoot. Yeah, those was I think it was Once Upon a Time.
GeorgeThe evil queen.
Jonyeah it’s close to that yeah
GeorgeYeah, she’s Jay Limonstone in this.
JonYeah. Okay. All right.
GeorgeYeah, so good, solid people.
JonI can picture her, yeah.
GeorgeJohn Slattery plays the opposition-canceled bigwig guy. um You guys remember him from Mad Men and Iron Man’s Father. um He does a really good job with that role.
GeorgeSeries 1, or Season 1, is… all about that same case and that same story from the book and the movie. There’s eight episodes.
George45 minutes each. I ended up watching the whole thing in a day and a half. It’s really really good.
Moah Okay.
JonWow. Pull you through? Yeah.
GeorgeYeah. um ah John Grisham just does. He and Michael Crichton are two of my favorite authors from that time period. I always liked their stuff. They have similar writing styles. quick chapters, very, um, catchy dialogue. They write mystery really well. So I’ve always enjoyed what they do. Good character studies.
GeorgeThis is a good series. It’s on USA. The second season is going right now. There’s been one or two episodes out, I think, at this point. ah so It’s a good time that if you’re interested.
GeorgeIn. courtroom, melodrama, mystery stuff where, you know, fighting for the every man against the big corporate interests kind of stuff.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeIt’s a good time to go back and watch season one and then pick up on season two.
JonYeah, I know it’s it’s it’s your cup of tea.
GeorgeMm-hmm
JonIt’s you know like all the law and orders, procedural stuff like that. I know you enjoy. So that courtroom stuff is just half the law and order, basically, is is are those things.
GeorgeRight, yeah.
MoYeah.
JonAnd those can be really good, especially you get to see smart people. making arguments that are smart, and it can be very entertaining. I get that.
GeorgeYeah, and I really like how in these kind of things they take… Oh. they take the logical non-emotional side of the law and they humanize it with the emotional backstory as they’re telling what’s happening with the characters. I mean, it.
GeorgeThe kid, Rudy, his girlfriend actually ends up working at the opposition council. And of course, they end up having to go against each other during the case at a couple of points.
JonSure.
GeorgeThere’s a lot of like, so. I think the one that gets me the most, the biggest deviation. From… The book, the movie, and this. In this TV series, and g Grisham is an executive producer, so I assume he signed off on the storyline change.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeOne of the people involved in the story is a serial killer. That was not…
JonMm. oo
GeorgeThat was not part of the story, of course, in the original one, but he plays a central role in ways that you might expect and in a couple of ways you definitely do not expect.
JonCurveball?
Moah
JonOkay.
GeorgeSo… It’s got some good legs to it. Eight episodes. It doesn’t take a lot of your time. Like I said, I finished it in a day and a half. So, you know, a weekend is very doable to binge this first season and then go watch the second season. I highly recommend it.
MoOkay.
JonThe Rainmaker.
GeorgeYeah, absolutely.
Jonall right nice
GeorgeJohn, what about you? Have you got anything that… um Is this good as the Rainmaker? I don’t know if it is or not.
Jonyeah i think so i think so and i’ll tell you
GeorgeAll right.
JonThis came out for me the same day. as a big Bigfoot documentary I’ve been eager to see, and I’m going to talk about this instead. So what’s that tell you?
Mowow
GeorgeAh.
Mowow
GeorgeMmm.
JonOkay. We might get around to the Bigfoot documentary, but. I do like documentaries in general, of course. And so I went to see Nathan Fielder’s film. You can see everything.
JonNow, if you heard about this coming up.
MoYeah.
GeorgeMm-mm.
JonSo you may know the story of Elizabeth Holmes. She was the CEO of of Theranos.
GeorgeOh, yeah Theros. Theranos.
MoYeah.
GeorgeYeah.
JonExactly. Theranos. Yeah, you can test everything with the one drop of blood. And it turns out. Now, she she’s now in prison. But she was going to be.
GeorgeMm-hmm. I know what this is now.
JonUh,
GeorgeOkay.
JonYeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. She was, she only got. She went to prison for like fraud. And like defrauding investors, not for all the other lies she told, you know, they do agreements and, you know.
GeorgeRight.
Jonah stuff in law. But anyway. The concept of this documentary, which is going to sound weird. I have to be sure not to spoil it. A documentary.
MoOkay.
JonWith spoilers. Nathan Fielder is an oddball for this documentary going in because he’s kind of he does like comic stuff and bits a little bit. but this is a 24 film.
JonI don’t know how he 24 got involved. It’s a documentary. Funded by A24. where Nathan Fielder was invited into the home. of Elizabeth Holmes and her live-in boyfriend and father of her…
GeorgeRight.
Jontwo children. During the 30 days leading up to her set. Oops. going in and turning herself into prison.
GeorgeI just have one question.
JonYes.
GeorgeDid she use a blood test to make sure he’s the father of her children?
JonProbably. That might have happened off screen, though. Okay. So it’s incredibly awkward. You think you’re going in to see this movie about this woman who you think is this pathological liar.
JonAnd. What you end up seeing is. A different dynamic. around this man she lives with named Billy. And. Kind of a…
Jonalmost controlling personality. like I’m not spoiling anything when I tell you that. Though she’s going to prison, they’re working on how to get this whole Theranos blood testing thing up and running again.
GeorgeMmm.
JonElizabeth Holmes insists she told no lies. She did not defraud anyone.
Mohu Huh.
JonAnd leading up to her prison time, and I’m thinking. This documentary is three hours long, a three-hour running time in a documentary, and I’ve heard people say they don’t feel it.
Mowow
Georgeo
Mooh
JonI wouldn’t say that. Around the two-hour mark, I started to go, okay, where are we going? Because she’s about to go into prison. When she actually is. submitted into prison.
JonThere’s another hour of this film where it takes a couple of crazy turns that people have asked, please don’t spoil. This is one of those. documentaries where you’re like, what just happened?
JonWait, what’s happening with, what did that guy do? Who did you just bring in in the third hour of the film? It’s the kind of thing, like I’m not going to spoil it. I’m not going to tell you what those things are.
GeorgeLike. Did Jeff Gillooly come and hit somebody in the knee? What the hell happened here?
JonKinda.
GeorgeOh wow!
JonKinda. There’s it’s that kind of left field. I didn’t see that coming. Now it’s not earth shattering, but for a documentary, it’s like, wait a minute. This is in the third act and we still have an hour left. So much is still to come.
JonIf you like documentaries, even if you’ve heard the story of Elizabeth Holmes and you know that and you saw the miniseries or you saw the documentaries, the 60 minutes coverage. This is a look into a woman’s life that is so weird.
JonIt’s so bizarre. And Nathan Fielder. I don’t know if he just. doesn’t know he’s being awkward or doesn’t care. What a great interviewer. Some people let stuff go.
JonBut he’ll go, oh, yeah, it was love at first sight. And he’ll go. So how did you… Decide it was love at first sight. Well, i you know, he explains some things.
GeorgeYeah.
JonWell, Was that before or after you knew she was a millionaire?
Moo
JonAnd then they’ll answer some questions and go.
GeorgeRight.
JonSo just make sure you’re telling me this. Like he is not afraid to dig in and ask these embarrassing questions. And it’s so good. for an interviewer to just not care. Or maybe he doesn’t know he’s being that way. it’s unexpectedly.
JonEven better than I thought it was going to be.
MoI heard they’re gonna put this up for best picture. And the Oscars. Not Best Documentary.
JonI can see it.
MoBest Picture.
GeorgeWhat?
JonLet me…
MoYeah.
GeorgeOh, okay.
JonLet me tell you what else. You’ve seen documentaries plenty.
MoYeah.
JonThis thing looks like cinema. This thing is like… Like shot. Lit. It is just its looks so good, too.
GeorgeFirst of all, I’m going to take issue that. It’s a documentary Put it in the documentary category. Those people who work on films don’t get enough credit as it is. A lot of times they just end up.
JonMmm.
Georgeputting the most expensive thing in that award ceremony. It’s very difficult for. other films that deserve best picture the opportunity Don’t take away a slot. That’s just my opinion.
GeorgeAnyway.
JonOkay.
GeorgeBut the one thing you were talking about, about the interviewer not letting go of a thing, it reminds me, I just recently watched a Dark Side of the Cage episode, which is the same.
JonMm hmm.
Georgefrom vice, it’s like dark side of the ring and dark side of comedy. They do a whole series of those things where they tell disturbing stories in a certain.
JonOkay. A wrestling thing? Mm-hmm.
Georgelandscape. This case it’s MMA fighting. And they showed the one about Mark Coleman, who was like one of the original pioneers of the um MMA community. And there’s this one scene.
GeorgeWhere. One of Mark Coleman’s really good friends is being. interviewed. And Coleman walks in.
Jone
GeorgeHe just walks on the set. And. You just start hearing Coleman from the background shouting at the guy. You got it wrong. You need to tell him I was a drunk asshole because that’s what I was.
Jonhe
GeorgeYou’re being too nice. And the the interviewer has to say, Mark, look. You need to stop. I can’t conduct this interview if you’re doing all it. And he stands up to this guy who’s. Literally.
Georgeable to kill him in an instant because Coleman’s no slouch.
JonHmm.
GeorgeHe could, he could just snap his neck, but No, he stands up to him. ah It sounds like it’s that same.
JonNope.
GeorgeOh, no. Oh!
Mobut
JonWe’re good. Yeah, mo Mo popped in and out again. So you’re you’re back. yeah You disappeared from our screen for a second, but you’re back.
GeorgeI don’t know how to pick up Yep.
JonYes.
MoYeah, you hear us okay?
JonYeah, I get you. right
GeorgeYep. Anyway, it just reminds me of that kind of thing.
JonMm-hmm Yeah. The cinematography in this, and I’ll tell you, the people who compared it. You mentioned it shouldn’t be in Best Picture. People compared it like a David Fincher. quality.
Jonof cinematography. So I think that’s why they’re talking best picture, but we’ll see, you know, and I.
GeorgeHmm.
JonI’m kind of on the fence, but I get where you’re where you’re coming from. there’s a doc There’s a category for that. But yeah.
GeorgeYeah.
JonAnyway, great film. Even if you don’t like documentaries, if you do, even more so. You can see everything is the name of it.
MoOkay.
JonAll right, Mo, round us out. What have you been watching?
MoYeah. So. ah um Me and my kids were a big fan of Avatar. Not the movies, the TV show, The Last Airbender ones.
GeorgeOkay.
JonMm hmm. Yep.
MoUm,
GeorgeOh, not the blue people.
MoNot the blue people. they They’re stupid.
Jonah That avatar.
MoThey they came up with um And then they did a few seasons of that. They did another series afterwards. And then they did that live action thing, which is just a freaking nightmare. It’s so stupid.
JonMm-mm.
Georgeah
MoThis is basically retold the exact same story live action, which I’m like.
JonMm hmm.
MoWhat’s the point? You know?
JonYep.
GeorgeSo the Disney motif.
MoYeah, exactly. So instead now, they actually have a new animated series they started called Avatar of the Seven Havens.
Georgeh
MoAnd the premise is…
JonHmm.
MoReally interesting. It takes place 200 years after Korra, who was the last… Airbender. And apparently they say she was the fault that brought a cataclysm to the world.
MoAnd there’s only seven places that people are able to live on this planet.
Georgeah
MoAnd so the Avatar is like the enemy.
JonOkay.
MoLike.
GeorgeOh now the avatars are bad people.
Mois the bad people. Like they say, if the Avatar ever comes back, they have to stop her because, you know, she’ll make it worse or he’ll make it worse.
GeorgeAnd…
Jonah I see.
JonOkay.
MoUm, And it’s… And so that’s the basic story. And then you find out that, of course, there is no new Avatar. Of course, right? Wouldn’t be a thing without a new Avatar. But you find out it’s twins.
GeorgeOh. ah
MoAnd they’re both avatars.
JonInteresting. ah Okay.
Mobut they were separated at some point.
JonAre they both have the same powers or different powers?
MoYeah, yeah, I’ll say.
JonProbably.
Mouh they were separated at some point they get back together like when they were super super young so they didn’t realize the other existed and it comes back
JonOkay. All right.
JonMm-hmm.
MoAnd the story is kind of… It gets dark a little bit. You know, where it has like people getting like possessed and getting angry.
JonThat’s okay.
MoIt’s like almost like it’s taking. um there’s This is… force that they don’t go into yet that Basically, if you’re angry, it makes you more angry. It makes you more crazy. It makes you do things you wouldn’t normally do and all that stuff.
JonHulk out.
MoYeah. Exactly. And so. and and there’s a group of people that are trying to protect the avatar of course you know um But there’s a lot. It’s just a really nice. It’s like they got back to what made the animation fun.
MoYou know? A little bit of humor.
JonMm hmm.
MoYou know? Um. The characters all have very distinct personalities. you know, so that when they behave a certain way, you’re like, oh, that makes sense. you know.
JonYeah.
MoAnd they establish that. fairly quickly.
JonWhat’s the style of animation? well I’ve watch watched any avatar before, which is very little, but I just can’t stand the like three frames per second kind of of kind of anime animation.
MoMm hmm.
JonOr is it is it a modern smoother kind of animation? What’s it look like?
MoIt’s a modern animation. I mean, the original one was pretty smooth. Um. And so it’s it’s on the same par with regular animation, 30 frames a second, I’m sure. you
JonOkay.
MoUh,
JonAll right. So it’s smoother.
MoYou know, it’s, and the the animation in the original was. Pretty simplistic actually when you look at it. This is two.
JonYes. Yeah.
MoThey kept the same style. I think the same people are involved. And I just like how they kind of took this thing and said, okay. We’re going to write a brand new story. We’re going to turn everything on its head. And. Build a story off of that.
MoInstead of rehashing an old freaking story that everyone already saw. and knows and loves for the most part.
JonTwice at least, right.
MoYeah.
JonYeah.
MoAnd just the live action people and just. Because that’s better for some reason. I don’t know.
JonOkay.
MoIt’s kind of silly.
JonHow long has it been running? Is it brand new? is it
MoYeah, it’s yess pretty brand new.
JonYou can sit.
MoI think it’s up to episode five at this point. It’s going to be eight, I believe.
JonOkay. So you brandy, yeah not even full. Okay.
MoYep, so it was the first season.
JonYep.
MoI think it already got picked up for renewal, so… Looking forward to keep watching it. It’s one of those things that you know the kids watch it and we talk about it, so it’s fun.
JonThat’s fun. All right. an Avatar 7. You said Seven Havens.
MoYes, seven havens.
JonSeven Heavens. Seven Havens. Seven Havens. All right. Cool. Stick around. I’ll be right back. Sound like you’re winding up. Is that good? Okay.
MoB. All right, I’m actually going to kick off Tekken Toys today because I have something that is simple.
JonOkay.
MoThat. Anybody who likes board games is going to love this stuff. guaranteed.
Jonwork Okay. All right.
GeorgeOkay.
MoIt’s called Hugo’s Amazing Tape. You’re like, what? Okay.
GeorgeTape for a board game?
MoYeah, tape. So, you know how like…
JonLike a cassette tape? Like a…
MoNo, no, like scotch tape. But.
JonLike sticky tape.
MoWell, let me explain what it is.
JonOkay.
GeorgeOkay.
MoIt’s tape?
JonAlright.
Mothat only sticks to itself.
Jonoh
MoThose it won’t stick to anything.
GeorgeSo…
MoSo if you have a ah board game that has like cards.
Georgeuh-huh
JonRight.
MoUsually you put rubber bands around it her or something, right? But then the cars usually don’t fit anymore because the rubber bands take up too much space.
JonYeah.
MoThis tape is so thin it… Doesn’t make any impact. You could put this tape around it and you could take it off, reuse it. It’s amazing. um i went through a whole bunch of my old board games i just kind of went through and just reorganized stuff so like um you know like there’s i have a bunch of games that all have cards there’s just so many of them um But.
MoYou know, just be able to actually just. ah take a you know cut a little few inches of tape wrap it around and when it holds itself it’s super secure so we pull it out it’s like it don’t come loose it won’t unless you just actually peel it away from itself.
MoAnd then you can reuse it too on top of that.
JonI’m. Okay, I’m… A little confused. I’m going to try to figure it out.
MoOkay, okay.
JonSo. it’s not adhesive tape. It doesn’t stick.
MoNo.
JonLike you couldn’t stick it on the wall. You couldn’t hang up. poster with it.
MoNope.
JonSo it’s like. Super thin. Velcro, kind of?
GeorgeIt’s… It’s a rapper. Yeah, that’s.
MoYeah. but just but it’s But it’s super thin, like saran wrap thin.
JonLike Velcro. i understand yeah yeah yeah But it only will stick to its. So what is. I wonder, does it have like… Does it have like hooks and loops like Velcro would have microscopically or something?
Moi I don’t know why it works.
JonDo you know?
MoIt just does. It just does.
JonWell, now I want to know how it works, Mo.
Georgeso
JonYou can’t just give us that.
Moand I just know it works.
Georgeso it’s so the whole reason why you like it so much though is because of its profile because it’s so thin you can wrap it around the cards you can put them back in their container that they came with and they don’t like get stuck in the container or something like that that’s the whole reason why you like this Do they market this tape?
JonHa ha.
MoThat’s all it does.
MoYes.
MoRight.
Georgefor that purpose or is it marketed for something else?
MoOh, that’s a really good question.
GeorgeI mean, you looked at the Amazon thing you bought it from. What were the pictures about?
MoWell, I just bought it because i so a friend recommended it and I just… Said, oh, cool.
JonOh, someone else told you that it was a thing.
MoAnd I said, Cool. I’m just going to buy it.
GeorgeHa ha!
JonLike, I’ll buy 50 foot of magic tape on sight unseen.
MoExactly.
GeorgeCan I have some beans with that magic tape?
Jonbut
MoAnd it’s…
Jonha
MoYeah, and it’s and also it’s it’s like $10 for 50 feet. Love it.
JonHmm.
MoYou know, so one roll will probably do every game you ever have, you know?
JonAnd reusable. I can see that being good for like. preservation of like board games and things like that you want to Because also rubber bands will bend the edges of like older card games that have cards and stuff like that.
Mom
GeorgeSure. Yeah.
MoAnd they get old too, and they break.
Jonso Mm hmm. Oh, yeah.
GeorgeYeah, right.
JonYep.
MoSo.
JonInteresting.
MoYeah, so it’s called Hugo’s Amazing Tape.
JonTape.
MoIt’s like 10 bucks for 50 feet. It’s like a half inch wide. And at first I was like, huh?
JonInteresting.
MoAnd I did it to one game. I wound up going in and like pulling all my games down and be like, Oh, let me wrap these. Let me wrap these, you know?
JonAnd now you you got to do them all now, right?
MoYeah. I got to do them all because it just works so well. um Especially, ah oh, John, what’s the game we play about the… Uh… And dragging in. um
JonRed Dragon in.
MoRed Dragon Inn. That has a billion cards.
JonMm hmm.
MoYou know that, right? you I mean, you’re familiar with that.
JonMm hmm.
Moand be able to pull out.
JonAnd oddly shaped cards sometimes, like all kinds of different cards and modifiers and yeah.
MoYeah.
MoAnd be able to pull out a single deck and all comes out at once. You don’t have to like futz with it or anything.
JonMan, that’s cool.
MoIt works very well. So.
JonI can see that.
GeorgeHmm.
MoNot terribly exciting, but I bet you people are going to be buying it.
JonHmm.
MoSo…
Joni I bet you’re right. I bet you’re right.
MoHugo’s Amazing Tape.
Georgewe’ll We’ll find out.
MoYeah, that’s true.
Jonright Or we’ll get angry emails.
MoI’ll throw a link of course.
JonWhy are you wasting my time with tape? I think it’s kind of cool.
MoYes, right.
Georgebut
MoI think it’s cool. So anyway, that’s what I got. So George, what do you got for us today?
JonYeah.
GeorgeWell, what I want to talk about, I’m actually wearing on my head right now. It’s the Soundcore Anchor Space One headphones. These are over-the-ear noise reduction headphones. The reason why I picked them up…
Georgejohn and i were of course going to prge and On the last trip when I think, where did we go? It was when we all went to Long Island Retro. And I ended up getting stuck overnight in Washington, D .C.
JonMm hmm.
JonRight.
Georgebecause all the weather and everything. Well, at that point, I just had my JBL in ear. Earbud noise canceling headphones, which were great, but I had a lot of problems on the plane flying back from Washington to Miami and then Miami to Tallahassee.
JonRight.
GeorgeMy eardrums got really pressurized and wouldn’t. pop or anything.
Jono
MoMmm.
GeorgeAnd I just had so many problems for like a week. after that like i thought i had popped an eardrum i didn’t know what was going on um
Jonah
GeorgeSo on this trip, I said, I’m not going to wear those in ear things anymore. I want to. research and do some solutions and they were like Chat GPT was saying, okay, first get these things called earplanes, which are like these little earplugs that regulate the air pressure in your eardrum.
GeorgeThey’re plugs that go in your ear, but they have holes in the plug. So it allows air in, but at the specific amount of pressure that’s good for being on airplanes.
JonOkay.
GeorgeBut then I’m like, well, okay, if I’ve got those in my ear during certain parts of the flight, you know, take off and landing. I still want to listen to the TV show I’m watching or some music or something like that. I need some over the ear earphones. So I started looking around.
GeorgeYou guys know the… sony’s and the bosch and all those they’re like three four hundred dollars a piece for these damn things uh even if you get like a year old model they’re still like 250 or something like that these sound cores from anchor
JonMm hmm.
MoOh yeah.
JonYeah. Oh, yeah. You can pay all you want.
Georgeare $99 at regular price.
JonNope.
Mowow
JonAnd you got a deal, it sounds like.
GeorgeMoth- got a deal, yeah, because there was one of those ah Amazon sales going on, and I think I picked them up for $79.
JonLove it.
GeorgeI’ve done the price history on them, though, and I’ve seen them as low as $69.
JonOkay.
Georgeduring certain parts of certain sales. So like probably the big Amazon Prime Day that happens the once a year, you can pick them up for that. But even at $99. These things are.
Georgeless than half the price of the traditional name brand ones. Anchor’s a solid brand.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeWe all know and use Anchor products.
JonYeah.
GeorgeI will say. For noise cancellation, they have the two modes. like everything else does you know the ambient sound around you or just completely cut everything off
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeI would say they probably cut off 90 or 95 % of the noise around me when they’re. locked down completely. They’re not perfect. But. They’re comfortable.
GeorgeThey have good sound and tone. They’re very flexible. The packing ability of the headphones, because they are large, like an over-the-ear headphone is, you can shrink them and turn the little ear cups in and they can fit in a very small space in your backpack or ah your…
JonMm-hmm.
Georgetech pouch if you well they probably can’t fit in a tech pouch but they can fit in a lot of spaces really easily and they deliver great sound quality they were very comfortable with the airplanes i had no issues with my eardrums on any of the flights now of course I was flying direct this time, so it was a lot different than going up in the air for 30 minutes and coming back down like it was in that last.
JonGotcha.
GeorgeUm, plane ride but i fully believe that the airplane earplugs and these soundcore ones as a combination unit, will work great for people who have problems with air pressurization on planes.
JonMm hmm.
MoYeah, the only question I have is do you have a choice of colors or do you select that?
GeorgeYep. No, I like this color. Fuck you.
JonYeah. Well, they’re like it’s like if you’re if you’re just listening, they’re like baby blue.
MoYes.
GeorgeYeah.
JonLike a real pastel kind of baby blue.
GeorgeAnd I chose that. absolutely i chose that i was very happy to choose that so they do come in different colors though they have um
Moyou
GeorgeThey have the blue. They have like a little. peach color. Then there’s like this little off white. tan thing. um I think there’s even a black.
Georgeas well. what you would expect but
JonYeah.
GeorgeI just like the blue ones because they’re different.
JonBoring colors.
GeorgeI mean, how many times do you go and you see everybody’s got the same color of something? And I’m like.
MoYeah.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeWell, I want to have something that’s slightly different. So I’ll know they’re mine. And if anybody grabs them, I’ll see these damn things all the way across the airport.
MoMm hmm. That’s true.
JonYou look good. Yeah.
MoThis is true.
GeorgeSo.
JonLook like you’re ready for Easter.
GeorgeYeah.
Jonah Yeah.
GeorgeExactly. I’m happy. But there…
Jonit’ so That’s what’s important.
GeorgeThey’re solid headphones. And for the price, I… I don’t know that you can beat the quality. that these deliver for that price in the modern. landscape of name brand headphones.
JonYeah.
Georgeso
JonI do like Anchor. They’re almost name brand these days. They make good electronics.
MoYeah.
GeorgeMm-hmm
MoThey’re solid, too.
JonYeah, they’re kind of like a mid-tier.
GeorgeYeah.
JonI kind of like them.
Georgeyeah Yeah. Very solid. Now, John.
JonHmm.
GeorgeThing you want to talk about in tech and toys is something that ah probably goes with our channel better than any magic tape or headphones. That’s for sure.
Jonbut Well, it’s certainly all right. Yeah. So, ah boy. This is something that I’d wanted for a long time. and i’m I’m not going to bury the lead and and try to tease what it is forever. It is.
JonAn Atari console that isn’t a console. So in 19, I’m gonna say 87. Atari was. look Well past the crash.
GeorgeMm hmm.
JonConsoles were kind of dead. The computer was doing well. And so they tried to make another console in 1987 called the Atari XEGS. which stands for XE Game System.
JonIt was basically.
GeorgeWhat’s the XE stand for?
JonOh, so I’m gonna get again in there. So it was basically the Atari.
GeorgeOkay.
JonThe 65XE home computer, which was the name of their home computer, like the XL, the XE, they had these names.
GeorgeOh, they had a computer at the time called the XE.
JonThey already had one called the 65 XE.
Georgeah
JonI don’t know what the XE stood for, you know, extra exceptional. I’m not sure, but the XE.
Georgeah
Jongame system.
GeorgeWouldn’t it be E .E.?
JonSo is the computer. extra I guess I was using X because it’s more fun. Xylophone exception. I don’t know. I’m limited with X words. All right.
JonI’ve always wanted one. I’ve seen them on occasion. But the thing is, there’s a lot of parts that come with one. And I was lucky enough. Probably. Six weeks ago, I’d visited a gaming store about an hour north of us, and this guy had one in his back room.
JonHe knows me when I come and visit him.
GeorgeMm.
JonHe says, come and see the cool stuff that I don’t have on the shelf yet that I’ve taken in on trade. And one of the things he had was an Atari XCGS. but And it doesn’t have the box box, like the cardboard box, but it has the full constructed styrofoam.
GeorgeOkay.
GeorgeOh.
JonSo all the pieces, like layers of styrofoam, everything just sits in.
MoOkay.
JonAnd these come with. When I say it comes with stuff, it has the console, which is like a console. And you would like the color because it’s all pastel. It’s like a baby blue and a baby pink and a baby green.
GeorgeNice!
JonIt’s all these really nice muted colors. and the the console itself is kind of like a tan color and then it has on a like a telephone cable a keyboard that plugs in, a full keyboard.
JonAnd it has. A CX-40 joystick and a… in a ah gray and black. Remember at PRGE, we saw the new 800XL comes with that two-tone.
GeorgeRight.
JonJoystick.
GeorgeMm-hmm
JonThat comes from the XCGS had that. and two cartridges. And a light gun.
GeorgeWow.
JonYeah.
GeorgeI didn’t know they had of a light gun for Atari.
JonAnd.
MoYeah.
JonI know not only works in CRT. So if I want to play with the light gun stuff, I’m going to have to find that. But here’s the cool thing. It works with all the Atari 8-bit cartridges.
MoThat’s nice.
GeorgeNice.
JonSo when I came back for PRGE, you know what I was high on? The 800XL, thinking about Atari 8-bit stuff.
GeorgeRight.
JonSo I’m like… I’m going to take another drive up to St. Mary’s and visit my guy. And I got back. I’m like, I hope he hasn’t sold it. And I got there and I said, so I’m back thinking about he’s all right. I still got it.
JonI saved it for you. I knew you’d be back.
Moshe
JonSo look, they sell retail usually. uh retail i say aftermarket retail on ebay and stuff for 250, 300, 350, depending upon you know what’s in it, how much is complete.
GeorgeIt’s probably a rare console, right?
JonMine is…
MoMm hmm.
JonSo yeah, it was only out, I think they ended them by 91. So it’s that three or four years is all it was out.
GeorgeHmm.
JonI got this one complete in everything but the box. Is missing a couple of manuals for the games, but the base manuals there. for 200 bucks.
GeorgeOh.
MoOkay.
GeorgeWorking condition?
JonAnd. Yes, supposed to be working additional. I haven’t plugged it in yet because it’s got a 1987 power supply. And they say those can get in a state where they overvolt your computer.
GeorgeRight.
JonSo… The initial power sp supply has the ba break big brick you plug into the wall and everything.
MoYeah.
JonWell, here’s the thing. You plug that into 110 power. Then it does all the power conversion. And you know what comes out the other end?
MoOne time.
Jon5 volt.
Mo5 volts.
GeorgeMm-hmm.
MoFive vaults.
JonSo I got a replacement power supply that goes straight into USB, five volt, the correct adapter.
GeorgeRight.
JonNo brick required, so…
MoNice.
GeorgeNice.
JonYeah, this weekend for me is going to be all about plugging in and playing with this XEGS. You know, normally we could talk about stuff that I’ve been using and playing and stuff, but I’m so excited to have it. I know we’ll feature it on the show more. I i showed it in a a thrift pickups video the other day, but I’m going to do a full video on a feature to talk about.
Jonjust how cool it is. And it’s something to. um that will add some more interest as we lead into the 800XL releasing in the spring.
GeorgeYou know, I took a look while you were talking at some images for it because I didn’t recognize the name and obviously, you know, when I was, but.
JonOkay.
GeorgeThese images. Now I remember the device, not from back then, but seeing it at a whole bunch of different conventions. I’ve always seen this device at a couple of different vendors.
JonSure.
GeorgeIt’s usually very expensive, but I always thought that the coolest thing besides the big four pastel buttons at the top of it were, was the, um, The way that the…
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeThe cartridge slot is oriented.
JonLittle diagonal
GeorgeIt’s not facing you. It’s yeah, it’s at on diagonal.
JonYeah.
GeorgeThat’s a very smart, cute, cool thing to differentiate it from other consoles.
JonIt’s all kind of, could it yeah. Kind of kitty corner. Yeah, a little angle.
GeorgeYeah.
JonThey they just did some real interesting things with it. it’s so It’s a very different kind of console, and I’m so happy to have gotten one.
GeorgeNice.
JonYep. so yeah Keep an eye. We’ll definitely… but You’ll see it at some point on the channel again. Uh, Also. You wouldn’t believe how many cartridges I got for the Atari 8-bit while I was at PRGE added to my list.
Georgehe
JonSo now I got something else they can play on. so All right. Stick around. We’ll be right back.
GeorgeTime to talk about games. Of course, we all three have something to talk about in this segment because games is the best segment of the podcast, ladies and gentlemen.
JonMm hmm.
Jonah
GeorgeSo let’s jump right into it. Now, John, the one that you want to talk about on the list. Correct me if I’m wrong.
JonYeah.
GeorgeI think this is where. You started playing a demo in a live stream.
JonYeah. Yeah.
GeorgeAnd then. ran out of the demo and had to pick something else. And you started playing this. And I think this got a lot of reaction. this game if that’s the right one that i’m thinking of
JonIt did. You’re exactly right. You’re exactly right. Yeah. Yeah. So last we do. Tuesday Night Live, well, just about every Tuesday, except like one week I was sick. But otherwise, it’s been every Tuesday for the last several months. play something, something that’s new or something that we’re enjoying or something to play. And initially we had played this new demo, as you said. And it was only 30 minutes long. and i’m like oh no you know usually we go live for 90 minutes or so and i’m like Well, here’s the funny thing. The weekend before that.
JonI had found this game called We Need More Humans. And it was really cool. I played the demo and I went and bought it. I think it was. you know, $5 or something, $6.
GeorgeMm.
JonIt wasn’t much. And my thought was, maybe I’ll live stream this this evening. on the weekend, Saturday or Sunday, but I still have the energy.
GeorgeRight.
JonI’d set it up ready to do it, but I’m like, yeah, maybe I’ll do it later. Well, just so happens this demo. was over in 30 minutes. So I’m like, hey, let’s try this weird game called We Need More Humans. And it turns out that’s the game I want to talk about. the thing that was the backup for the other thing So…
JonWe Need More Humans is a very simple game. With a. It’s like Bellatro, not in the mechanics, but in the way that it’s fun watching little numbers turn into big numbers, turn into stupid numbers as you.
Jonincrementally or think about those Lego games where you pick up studs and you get 20, 30, 40 studs and then you get all the multipliers and suddenly you get millions and millions of studs because all the multipliers.
GeorgeOh yeah.
Momm-hmm
JonIt’s kind of like that.
GeorgeRight.
JonThe game starts, you’re a little UFO. with a little like down downward firing light and you kind of. pull up aliens from this town.
MoAliens are people.
Jonand every alien.
GeorgeAliens or humans?
JonOh, you pick up humans. Well, I guess they are humans. I’m an alien. Yeah, you’re picking up humans.
MoYeah.
GeorgeRight, yeah, because you need more humans probably for experimentation or something, I’m guessing.
JonRight. Yeah. Thank you. I do. I don’t need more aliens. I i have plenty of aliens. So every every human you pick up gets you a dollar. And you get like 60 seconds to try it.
GeorgeYeah.
JonAnd they go, cool. If you’d like to upgrade your beam, that costs $2. If you’d like to increase the value of humans, that costs $2. That’s expensive. I can’t afford it. And then you go and play a little bit and it amplifies and now humans are worth $4 and then they’re worth $12.
GeorgeRight.
JonAnd then you upgrade your humans. And now they, instead of looking like little. Um, Instead of looking like little meeples, now they look like… like big beefcake chad guys you know or something get more and more valuable and some of them are ah nuclear, the radioactive, and that’s worth more. And you keep adding things. You can add these little extra satellites that will pick up aliens. You can add.
Jonthese vehicles that drive down the the road and suck up humans. You can drop black holes that will absorb people. You can drop aliens that will explode and absorb people. And.
JonIt’s… The entire purpose is to keep adding more and more people to increase your value, to then upgrade your ability to absorb humans in order to then go back and for another 30, 40 seconds and absorb some more people. And eventually…
JonUpgrades can cost millions of dollars. to make to make your UFO.
GeorgeMmm.
Mowow
JonI’ll tell you, by the end of my play, I played for about an hour and a half live. It’s so much fun to pick up these people and slowly, incrementally add your thing. They also add different like looks of the the beam you put down, the looks of your UFO.
JonBy the end. I had a Borg cube. that i was using to pull in the humans and then i take them and Take the value of those and upgrade to more people or upgrade to more tools.
Georgebut
Jonand It’s a simple little game. It’s mindless. You talk about games that are. Easy to get in and out of. And this is, however. Each round only takes about 60 seconds.
JonSuddenly you’re an hour deep because you just keep wanting to do one more little pass because I’m almost to the level to upgrade this to the next thing.
MoMm hmm.
JonIt’s a simple little game and it’s available on all kinds of platforms. I’ll give you the link to Steam. ah We need more humans. It’s a silly, mind-numbing little progressive. uh Fun video game. Not complex. You know how to play it after 30 seconds, and after that, it’s all about upping your…
Jonyour your money and your abilities.
Mocool
JonYeah. All right. So that’s my Mo. How about you? What have you been playing?
MoYeah, it’s a board game called Signal. And it’s…
JonOkay.
MoI’m trying to make sure I can describe it well. So basically, there’s a… You’re trying to talk to an alien. That’s the premise, right?
Jonand Okay.
MoAnd there’s a group of you against. One person is playing the alien. Now, the alien has a card that basically shows… a shape that it wants you to make. And so it’s a small playing field, and you have things like a cube, a small rectangle. Uh, uh…
MoRound piece, you know. all went black and white. And you play some.
JonSo this is this a video game or is this?
MoNo, no, this is a board game
JonOkay. All right. That makes more sense.
MoSo you place it on the board. and then you give them one of these to say okay send this signal And then what the alien has rules on their card that they can see that they have to follow.
MoSo it could be something like. If a black piece is touching a white piece, remove the black piece. If. Two white pieces are next to each other, splim apart. You know, it could be any kind of rule like that.
JonHmm.
MoAnd your goal is to get the. the figure that they are asking for at the end. Now the thing is about this is that The alien wants to communicate with you.
MoSo they’re not trying to screw you over.
JonLike, uh… Like Arrival, that movie where like you’re trying to figure out what the communication is.
MoRight. yeah And they want you to. And they want you to figure it out. so
JonOkay.
MoSo the alien may, because there may be a different way that they could. Apply a rule. And it’s like, OK, if I play it this way, then it’s be super clear what I’m doing. you know. or if i play this you know so the alien person playing the the alien has some options on it as well it’s a small thing. You basically, it’s like one person and as many people on the other side as you want.
MoI’ll… Chipping in.
JonMmm.
MoAnd there’s three sets of rules. So basically, once you figure out the first rule. Then you get all your transmission tokens back and then you have to do. The first and second rule. This new rule gets added.
JonOkay.
MoAnd then you… Once you figure that out, there’s a third rule. And the cards is like 26, 27 cards, I think, in there. And. Let me tell you, it’s… They say that… Ninth graders.
MoDo better at this than adults? Because adults overthink it.
JonHmm. Okay.
MoThey overthink the rules all the time. Like adults may be.
Jonlike Like in what way, for example?
MoWell, it could be like the adult would be like, oh, if I stack. you know, black and white on top of each other, then all the black ones go away or something like that. When the kids like. Oh, if there’s any black on the board, you just remove them. You know, like.
JonOh.
MoYou know what I mean?
JonOkay.
MoLike they just don’t overthink it, which actually the rules are not. meant to be the puzzle itself like you’re supposed to figure it out and again the aliens trying to help you figure it out so What you end up with is on this little board and so it’s a small like a four by six board.
Mothat has like some lines on some circles and it could be rule like if a piece is on a line Move it off the line. You know? If a piece is at the edge, move it to the middle. There’s all sorts of rules that it could be.
MoAnd it’s it’s basically a big kind of… Party game. And you want to look, basically, you want to do something, send it, see the result, and try to deduce what the rule is that the alien is doing to get to that state.
JonSo I’m interesting, but I’m still confused.
MoMm hmm.
JonSo… What is the… Like what? What’s the goal of the person who is the alien? What’s he trying what’s he trying to communicate? Is is there a message you’re entering or is it just…
MoUm. no no he just he just wants you to communicate so in other words if you could give him the the configuration of pieces that he wants. then you’re you’re talking. essentially. That’s what that represents.
JonOkay, so you you’ll and understand the rules of the way he moves the pieces around is what you’re trying to understand.
MoRight, exactly. You understand the rules of that he’s following.
JonOkay. Alright.
Moyou know it’s I know it’s actually much simpler when you actually play it.
JonAlright.
MoUm, It’s… it was we played it when i was actually up at a work thing a whole bunch of us got together and played this thing and It was like. frustrating but very satisfying when you figure it out. You know, and then when you figure it out, you’re like.
JonSo one of those things like you
MoOh, crap, that’s what it was?
JonIt’s…
MoYou know.
JonLike when it figures out you find you feel smart because you figured it out finally.
MoYeah, you actually feel smart for a second.
Jonthat yeah
Moand Then you get to the second rule and you don’t anymore.
JonGotcha.
MoAnd then the alien also has these things where they could… um Give you hints. like the aliases are really struggling and you get point deductions or something like that if you use the hints but sometimes They just need to give you a hint.
Moyou know
JonOkay.
Mowhere the alien can say, OK, I’m going to set up the pieces myself. so you can see the result. So that’ll help clarify the rule. So…
JonSounds like I think i almost under better when you show me when we try it
MoYeah. Yeah, there’s actually videos and stuff. I i found find a YouTube video of people playing it, so I’ll definitely clarify it.
JonMmm, that’d be good.
MoBut it is definitely fun. It’s definitely…
Georgeyou You know, we’re a YouTube channel.
MoNot a game for everybody.
GeorgeYou guys could just create a video.
Mooh yeah
JonEh.
MoHmm.
Georgeoh
JonOh, yeah.
MoYeah.
JonHe’s just remembered.
Moyeah that’s good
JonSignal.
MoSignal.
JonSignal the board game.
MoYep.
JonOkay. Alright. Interesting.
MoYeah, so what do you got for us, George?
GeorgeWell… a Thing I’ve been playing on live stream for the last couple of weeks has really caught my attention. It’s called Warhammer 40k Boltgun 2. So a lot of numbers in that.
JonMmm.
GeorgeI’ll try and explain them.
JonIt is.
GeorgeSo Warhammer 40k is the tabletop game that… Like my son plays with his friends. It’s just. thing where you have to measure distances and my guy’s going to shoot at your guy and he barely can touch him, all that kind of…
GeorgeThe video games. just live in that same universe. And there’s a lot. of warhammer 40k video games they are
JonYeah.
MoOh, yeah. there’s a Billion of them.
JonYeah.
Georgetons of them out there there’s uh rts style and tower defense style and everything what this is though is a boomer shooter style which is why it appeals to me
JonAh, your thing.
GeorgeYeah.
JonYeah.
GeorgeNow. Bolt gun 2? obviously references the fact there was a bolt gun one which i haven’t played yet But Bolt Gun 2 just came out a couple of weeks ago, and I was looking for something to play on the Thursday night live stream.
JonThere you go.
GeorgeAnd so I. you know, went searching. I’m like, are there any new boomer shooter style things that are out there? I want to give them a try. This one popped up. it looked like it was going to be very popular uh so i said okay let me uh talk to the guys see if maybe they’ll let me buy it for gen x grown up for the live stream you know because it was a little expensive it was brand new it was 25 and you guys know i don’t buy anything
JonYeah.
Georgein the video game world brand new certainly not for 25 untested or anything like that because i had played no demo or anything And everybody was like, yeah, go ahead and get it. No problem. So I did.
JonSure.
GeorgeMan. It was the best purchase Gen X grown up has made for me in a long time.
Jonah Good.
GeorgeLet me tell you. This game… is fun It is very much. nostalgic. Play. I guess is what I would call it. it It makes me feel like I’m playing Doom all over again, but with slightly better graphics, not tremendously better graphics, just slightly better graphics, which is what I like.
JonMm.
GeorgeMechanics are easy to pick up on. It was very intuitive. There’s just a few things, you know, reload, engage with your environment, some running and jumping, all, you know, the simple keyboard, mouse.
MoMm hmm.
Georgecombinations that you’re used to for these kinds of things. Oh. Very funny storyline, and I had to ask my son to help explain it to me.
Jonah
Georgeso In this universe, humans all love, worship, and work for this guy called the Emperor. and everybody else that’s not human.
JonHmm.
Georgeare called heretics, and humans go and try and kill them all.
JonOh.
GeorgeSo…
MoOkay.
GeorgeWe’re just going out to these different planets.
JonOkay.
Georgeand
MoAs humans are wont to do.
GeorgeLook. Yeah, exactly. And everybody has this like overtly religious tone to their dialogue.
JonDumb humans.
GeorgeSo it’s all like, we must purge the heretics from this planet. You know, that kind of a thing.
Jonah
GeorgeThere’s taunting available in the game where it’s just your guy saying catchphrases and stuff. You get to play as one of two characters. You get to play as either this big, bulky, suited up space marine guy or this woman who’s part of something called the Sisterhood of Blood or I don’t know what it’s called.
GeorgeI played as the big Marine guy because I didn’t know. What was what and. Let me tell you. The game is fun. I’m playing it on low difficulty. And it’s still a blast.
JonThat’s okay. It’s fine.
GeorgeI like playing on low difficulty for the live streams just because that way I know I won’t get stuck having to repeat something over and over again.
JonYep.
JonMake chris progression. Sure. Yeah, yeah.
GeorgeYeah. And I’ve already completed multiple missions in the live streams and even finished. a whole i guess planet at this point and i’m ready to go back to the fleet at this point but Man, it’s just a ton of fun.
JonI’ll tell you, I watched a little bit of your live stream, as I will will often do, and see to see what but games are like.
GeorgeMmm.
JonI’ll tell you something. Not the game specifically, but some I love about your currently live live stream series that you’re doing is. It was not that long ago, a few months months ago, when you’re like. yeah I’m just not motivated to game games of own.
JonI’m just not motivated to…
GeorgeYeah. mm-hmm
JonWow, sorry. I have not… Okay, sorry.
MoUse your words.
JonIt’s words. It’s words. Now I have a blooper. You have said. God damn it.
Jonwoman to Take seven. You have Tade. Wow, I’m having that dysphagia thing again. Okay, one more time.
GeorgeDo you have aphasia right now?
MoYeah, really.
GeorgeWhat’s going on?
JonMaybe. Maybe. Okay. You have said before that you’ve not been motivated to play games like you used to, like you’re not having the fun that you j you used to.
GeorgeMm hmm.
JonYou don’t won’t take time to play play games. But lately. You have made the times and you’ve enjoyed it.
GeorgeYes.
Jonwhich is really awesome. And I think that’s for me, that’s the coolest thing about you do this Thursday night.
GeorgeYeah.
Jonlive stream is it’s making you to play. make you play games, and then you find you really enjoy them again, again which is really awesome.
GeorgeI do. the i’m I’m just running into a different problem now. So the problem originally, as you explained, I i just wasn’t motivated to play games. I just sit in my chair, watch movies and TV shows, which I enjoy still.
JonMm hmm. Right. which is fine.
Georgeand you know, relax and, you know.
JonDo what you enjoy.
GeorgeBut I wouldn’t have a… I didn’t have a. a need to get up out of that chair, sit in front of my computer. and play a game. Just didn’t really…
JonI like that.
Georgecare.
JonI like that for you Yeah.
GeorgeThe Thursday night live streams have definitely brought that back to me. The problem that I’m running into now is though. I feel like I can’t play the game in between Thursdays because I’m going to advance further in the story.
JonI do the same thing. I do the same you.
GeorgeI’m like, damn it, I want to go play that game, but I can’t because I need to save it for the live stream because that I don’t want to jump forward.
JonYeah, yeah, yeah. Same as you. Yeah.
JonYep.
Georgeit is It’s not that the game maybe in some cases has different save files. Like when I was playing seventh guest, I could do that.
JonRight.
GeorgeI could have a save file for me and a save file for live stream, but some of these games don’t do it that way.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeIt’s just. You either continue or you start over. And.
JonYeah.
GeorgeWell, that’s fine, and that’s good. it it does make Thursday nights feel a little bit more interesting for me. They are looking forward to them quite a bit. And. games like cultic and, uh,
GeorgeWhat was that other one that I was playing there with the, Oh, Wolfenstein 3d. i think it was Was it Wolfenstein 3D? Is that the name of it?
JonIt was if something else, Stein. Uh…
GeorgeYeah. I can’t remember.
JonYeah, I know what you’re talking about.
Georgewas It was the bum with the dog guy.
JonAnother boomer shooter. Right.
MoOh, yeah. yeah
JonYeah.
GeorgeYeah. Those type of games are…
JonYeah. It was something else, Stein, right?
Georgeah Yeah, they’re appealing to me and I really enjoy digging in these games. I get to, um I even set up a little poll in the last live stream to ask people, should I?
JonOh cool.
Georgeplay the same game over until I complete it. in these Thursday night streams, or should I just… you know, pick a different game each Thursday. Cause you pick a different game a lot of Thursdays.
JonYeah.
GeorgeAnd the overwhelming majority is like 73 % at the end of the stream was saying, stick with the same game.
JonMm hmm.
Georgeso
JonYeah.
GeorgeI like that I get to play these games. There’s a ton of them out there that are fun. I have a whole bunch already in. my library thanks to things like humble bundle and green main gaming and you know just even the free stuff that you get through Amazon prime and Epic and whatnot.
Momm-hmm
JonMm hmm. Yeah.
GeorgeSo I have a whole bunch of them. Five. Four. three I have a whole bunch of them that I can play, which is.
JonYeah.
GeorgeReally fun. This was the most that… um I have wanted to spend on a game in a long time and Gen X grownup did it for me.
JonGood.
GeorgeSo that just made it all the easier. I had a blast. I’m going to play it again this coming Thursday. Probably going to be playing it for several Thursdays because it looks like it’s got a little bit of a game left in it.
Jonah
GeorgeI don’t. have any idea how far i am but i’ve only gotten two achievements out of 20 so far and the achievements are all like complete this mission complete that mission blah blah blah so
MoOh, geez.
JonWow.
GeorgeThere’s probably a lot more still to go.
JonYeah. Well, if you’re listening to this the day this comes out. You’re playing it tonight. There you go, because this will be next Thursday.
GeorgeYeah. Yeah.
JonThat’s your Thursday night. Yeah.
GeorgeThere you go
JonI love that you’re finding a way to enjoy games because you’re making the time for yourself. And now you’re getting into it and enjoying it. I think that’s really cool.
GeorgeAbsolutely.
JonYeah, I held it too. All right, stick around. Be right back.
Jon All right. As we come in toward the end of this show, we always like to take a moment here to talk about the things we’re either looking at right now or we’ve been looking for. No, what do you say? What do I say?
JonLooking at now.
MoUntil next time.
JonOr between next time we speak. One more time. Yeah, yeah. Three, two. All right. As we come into the the last turn of the show, this is the part where we’d like to take a moment to talk about the things we’re looking at now, we’re looking forward to between now and the next time we have an opportunity to speak. And I’m going to start with you, Mo. What do you have on the horizon?
Moyeah um originally i had clay face you know the movie they did about the dc villain the batman villain clay face um but i’m seeing the reviews so i’m not at all looking forward to it anymore.
JonMm-hmm
JonUh-oh.
GeorgeHmm.
Moit got tanked and they didn’t even do like a preview for critics.
JonUh oh.
JonReally?
MoYeah.
JonI heard it initially had good reviews, and then, uh-oh.
GeorgeWell…
Jonuh-oh
MoYeah, it doesn’t look like it’s doing good, but anyway. On the plus side.
Jonokay
Moah Netflix is doing a second season of Cyberpunk Edgerunner. If you ever play Cyberpunk…
GeorgeOh yeah.
JonOoh.
GeorgeIt was a good series.
JonReally?
MoYeah.
GeorgeYeah.
MoAnd so there’s a whole new second season, which, you know, if it’s all the first season, you realize that there’s a whole new cast of people.
JonOkay.
MoIt’s a whole different story.
JonMm hmm.
MoSo it’s very, very cool. But no surprise to anybody, what I’m most looking forward to is Godzilla minus zero.
JonHmm.
Mo11-3. That’s a Tuesday, actually. We’re seeing a pre… showing before it releases that Thursday.
JonOh, yeah.
Moum Already got tickets for everybody.
GeorgeNice.
MoAnd if you’re there or not there, I don’t care. I’m going.
JonYou’ll be there. you It’s funny. When I went and saw the documentary, the… Holmes movie? I was the only one that went. i bought seven tickets for our entourage. I’m the one that went. I didn’t care. I still enjoyed it.
MoYeah.
JonSo that’s fine. I get it.
MoYes, that’s right. How about you, John?
Jonah So a few things. There’s a, I think it’s not a series, I think it’s just a film, but it’s coming Netflix October 30th. SCTV, the greatest show you never heard.
Jonof Oh, sorry.
Georgeah
JonSCTV, the greatest show you never heard of. It’s all about Second City Television. So many great, you’re right.
GeorgeRight. Yep.
MoOh, geez.
JonYeah, well we follow SCTV, but many people don’t know it like they know. saturday night live or other things so this is a kind of a historical thing about sctv Definitely want to see. i think it’s I think it’s a standalone movie, not a miniseries, but definitely going to see that. The next thing I’m looking forward to is I finally treated myself to a new smartwatch. I’ve had the same watch since 2018.
Jonah and it stopped doing everything it needed to do because I had to get a new phone and it has the old operating system. so ah Samsung has this new series called.
Georgeah
JonSamsung Watch Ultra. It’s very expensive, but they just came out with Ultra 2. So the Ultra getting cheaper, I’ve got a refurbished one for a third of the price it was new.
Georgeoh there you go yeah
JonYep. ah And I talked to George a little bit. He’s also in the Samsung ecosystem. He doesn’t need these new features.
GeorgeMm hmm.
JonHe doesn’t have a smartwatch. And so I’m going to will him my old Samsung watch.
GeorgeWell, hold on.
JonUh,
GeorgeDon’t say will. That means you’re dying.
JonOh, okay. i I’m going to bequeath.
MoYeah.
GeorgeLet’s…
MoYes, that’s better.
JonI’m going to give.
Georgeyeah That’s the same thing!
JonI’m going to gift. Okay, gift, gift. I’ll gift it to you.
GeorgeThere you go. Yeah.
JonNice. my estate? No, no, it’s going to gift it to you. ah And I’m happy to big to to give that, you know, kind of pass it on to you, but I’m most interested in digging into all the cool features that are in new this new one and the new operating system. um The thing I’m most looking forward to though.
JonOh, my favorite serial killer. Dexter? is back with the second season of dexter resurrection man that first season of dexter
GeorgeOh. Yep.
JonThe first season of Dexter Resurrection was so good.
MoOh, here’s a list now.
GeorgeSo now it’s the third coming of Dexter.
JonWhere.
MoHe has a list, right?
JonYeah, it’s come back again. Yeah, he’s res res resign resurrected again, right?
MoYeah, he’s a list, doesn’t he?
Jonah Yeah, so the first one set up this, oh, here are all these other serial killers that he could try to take care of now.
Mothat’s right
JonAnd. I can’t wait. The first one was so just unbelievably good. Second season coming on Paramount Plus October 30th as well. So that’s looking forward to that a great deal. How about you, George? What do you got coming up?
GeorgeWell, you know, first of all, more bolt gun. I mean, that’s pretty much a no brainer.
JonYep.
MoOf course.
GeorgeI’m looking forward to that every week.
JonYeah.
GeorgeAfter that, Vision Quest, which is already out, but I haven’t started watching.
MoMm hmm.
JonHmm.
GeorgeIt’s kind of like it was with the Rainmaker. And I’m looking forward to that one because I know WandaVision got panned a little bit with some people, especially how it, you know, fit in with the Marvel storylines and whatnot.
JonOkay.
JonOh, right, right, right. yeah
GeorgeI liked WandaVision.
MoI did too.
GeorgeI don’t give a shit if anybody else didn’t. I enjoyed it. This one takes place after that, and it’s specifically focused on Vision along with.
JonGood.
GeorgeUltron and James Spader, which is one of my favorite actors going right now.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeI really like what James Spader does. I think he’s got a lot of. um like a lot of gravitas and he does a good job and him playing Ultron is a really, really solid choice.
MoMm hmm. Snarkiness.
GeorgeI really wish we’d have gotten more than just the one movie. And now we have that. So looking forward to that.
JonHmm.
MoYeah.
GeorgeI think I’m looking forward to the most. It’s a little bit further than our normal two week timeframe. We kind of try and stick within, but. I’m a big zombie fan.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeBig zombie movie fan.
JonWe know.
MoHmm?
GeorgeI’m a big zombie movie comedy fan.
Jonah
MoMm hmm.
JonThe trifecta.
GeorgeAll of those things add up to one series and one series in particular return of the living dead. If you guys remember. That was absolutely one of the funniest zombie series that was ever put together. They did like. three or four of those films i can’t remember exactly how many but they were great well now There’s a new version of Return of the Living Dead coming out November 13th.
JonReally? Is…
GeorgeI can’t tell from the one little teaser that I’ve watched because I’ve purposely not watched anything else.
JonRemake or? uh-huh
GeorgeI can’t tell if this is going to be. Comedic in tone or serious in tone?
JonOkay.
GeorgeI hope it stays comedic in tone because that would. endear it to my heart even more because that’s where the original series made all of its chops and i felt like it was just really well done i’d never forget the whole you know the zombies just screaming brains all the time and
JonMm hmm.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeOh, it- It looks good. The little teaser has a zombie dragging a Christmas tree through the snow-laden cemetery. So… Oh. open it’s got
MoIt’s gotta be a comedy.
GeorgeI hope it is.
JonSounds like is what you want, yeah.
GeorgeYeah, so that’s what I’m looking forward to the most. November 13th.
JonThat’s great. Okay. Hey, before we get out of the show, I do want to thank a new patron who has joined us. But before I do that, one of the benefits of being a Patreon supporter. is the chance to ah ask a question of us right here on the show.
JonAnd a Mo, I see you have one on deck.
MoYeah, this is from Joe H. He asked, what was a piece of tech that came into your house and wowed you? And I’m assuming like in the 70s, 80s.
GeorgeLike… On its own?
MoYeah, just to when it came to keepming your house, you’re like…
GeorgeLike it walked in the door. What?
MoYeah, basically yes.
Jonbut
Moand And just wowed you.
JonYou might’ve carried it in. Okay.
GeorgeOkay.
Mothat came to you as, yeah, that’s something that just, when it came in, it was like, this is life changing.
JonYeah.
MoThis is going to change everything. I know about everything, you know, that kind of. thing. Because we had so many.
GeorgeOh.
MoSo, how but John, do you have anything off the top of your head?
JonI can go. Yeah.
MoYeah.
JonYeah. But. There’s so many obvious ones, and And it’s probably because of how much I enjoyed tinkering with it.
MoMm hmm.
Jonand that was the vhs player specifically the the video video cassette recorder
MoHmm.
JonUm, there’s There’s the joke that like, oh, it’s always flashing 12 and nobody knows how to use it except the kids and whatever. And to some degree, the first one we ever got was from Rent-A-Center.
JonRemember that thing where you’re paying every month because it was a big front loader, top loader, top loader, and it must have weighed 40 pounds.
MoOh wow. Yeah.
GeorgeOh yeah.
GeorgeOh yeah.
MoMm hmm.
Jonand
Georgeah
JonBut when you could. record something and I never use the timer really, you know, kind of like TiVo time shifting. I didn’t do that. I just like the idea of like. This thing, whatever it is, is it this?
Jonepisode of a TV show or a movie you can never find or whatever. And I could record it while I watch it and later that I could. Now it’s mine? Kind of, you know? i could come back and own it and so i had home so many vhs tapes that sharpie on the side and i tried to make professional labels with my sharpie and write because i’m gonna take the tab off and keep this thing forever even though it was still like commercials and crap in it so yeah the the vcr for me and then later copying tapes and stuff was all it just it
Mofifteen
MoMm hmm.
JonIt opened the door to working in broadcasting, really. The idea that I could manipulate the video. The video wasn’t just being fed to me. I could control it.
Mom
JonUm, Yeah.
MoOkay.
JonSo. It’s probably an obvious one. The VCR is probably from mine.
MoThat’s okay. How about you, George?
JonYeah.
GeorgeI’m trying to decide because I didn’t read the question ahead of time. So I’m trying to figure out if I should go. old school tech, like when I was younger, like John just did, or if I should go modern tech now that I’m older and have a lot more experience.
JonOoh.
Georgeum
MoGo modern.
GeorgeI think I might go modern tech and pick one that’s going to be stupidly controversial. Um, because I like doing that anyway.
Jonah
GeorgeI think I’m going to go with. ah Chad, GBT and AI.
Moo ah
JonMm hmm. Yeah.
Georgethat Yeah, you can boo all you want, but it’s it’s helping us out.
Jonah no No, he was oohing.
MoNo, no, I went, ooh, not boo. I went, ooh.
GeorgeOh.
JonHe wasn’t booing. He was oohing.
MoIt was oohing.
GeorgeUh…
MoHe’s just asking for it.
Georgetruthfully. It’s… um I understand. The ramifications. that we’re all facing with the ai boom the problems that data centers are causing. in the environment and with people, I understand the artistic side of the, uh, argument where, you know, it’s being trained and it’s. you know. Stealing.
GeorgeArt. ideas from humans and allowing so I’m not using it for a lot of the stuff that people. are saying are controversial but i am using it and i will say that With all the…
Georgeissues that people complain about with the data centers and everything like look The cat’s been out of the bag for a far longer than anybody thinks about. We’ve had AI around since fucking Clippy. So don’t give me.
GeorgeAny of this stuff about AI is a brand new thing.
JonHmm.
GeorgeIt’s, it’s been around forever. um It’s just gotten to the point where now. It’s really useful. If you’re using it in the right way. I use it a lot for. office tasks stuff that You wouldn’t think.
Georgeyou know, would save you a lot of time. And that’s where it really wows me in how good it is at and interpreting my instructions to create an email I need to send. or a group of emails or at how good it is at helping me create a new spreadsheet database with the proper graphics and things that I want. Cause like I I’m really good with a spreadsheet, but there’s sometimes when I forget how a certain formula works or how a certain thing should link to another. and
Georgerather than spend two hours digging for that information.
JonSure.
GeorgeThe AI gives it to me in seconds.
MoMm-hmm
Georgei I know that a lot of people are going to get mad and write in about it, but I think it’s the tool that has wowed me the most Kind of on both sides of the coin, both in how bad it could possibly be and how good it already is.
MoYeah, thank you.
Jonyeah It is a tool. How do you use it? Yeah.
MoYep.
GeorgeYep.
MoI get that. All right. That’s a great one. So mine, I was up in the air between a couple, but I’m going to go with the Walkman. Actually.
Jonbut Yeah.
MoThat was like.
GeorgeOkay.
MoEspecially growing up in New York City where… you know I didn’t drive anywhere, so I didn’t have like a tape deck in the car that I could play music on as I go place to place.
JonSure. Right.
MoAs always, you were walking, right? And just the idea that you could take music with you. Wherever you were.
JonYeah.
MoYou know, um and you listen to whatever you want.
Jonmm-hmm
Moyet You’re not slaves to the radio stations. You’re not a slave to, you know, you make your own mixtape. So you just have your favorite songs of your favorite albums on one spot.
GeorgeMm-hmm
MoAnd. You know, also just because it just… It’s just a huge impact on everybody. I mean they were everywhere
Georgebecame the soundtrack of your life, right?
MoYeah, basically.
GeorgeThat was the home.
JonYeah.
Georgethe whole marketing campaign.
Jonkind of Kind of like my VCR, right? I was in control of my video and you were in control of your audio. Yeah, I can see that.
Moyeah and also it just seemed like it was a way of before phones and stuff of you know hey i need to I’m waiting at the dentist’s office, you know? Oh, I can listen to music, you know?
JonThat’s right.
MoUm, Unless you brought a book with you or something like that, you know?
JonWhat do you want?
MoSo it was something that was great. And also. Probably there’s a single cause for AAA batteries becoming useful again.
JonHmm.
GeorgeHa ha. feel like that I missed the point of this question because you guys both went with really cool old school tech. Maybe I should have picked something from back then, like the satellite dish or something.
JonYeah, that’s fine.
Mono No, it’s fine.
Jonno you’re good
GeorgeI don’t know.
MoNo, no, no, it was fine.
Jonah
Georgebut
MoIt was fine. It was fine.
JonYeah.
MoSo Joe, thanks so much for the question.
JonYeah.
MoAnd if you want your question, it’s super easy.
JonYeah Joe.
MoJust go to GenXGrowingUp .com slash Patreon. Lulz a dollar a month.
JonYep.
MoSend me your questions and we’ll probably answer them right here on the show.
JonThat’s right. Yeah, and that’s exactly what Brent C. did, a brand new patron that signed up since we last had a chance to speak. Brent went over to patreon .com slash genxgrownup, opened up his wallet and his heart simultaneously, and…
Jondecided to support what we do financially. We’re very grateful for you, Brent. Thank you. Thank you so much. You joined a great roster, which I’m sure you probably have heard if you’re listening here on the show. Okay. That is going to wrap it up for this edition of the show, but don’t worry.
JonIf you were worried, you should not be worried because we do have a backtrack. coming your way next week. We have a regular episode at two weeks from now, but Mo, would you please tell the fourth listener what’s coming their way next Thursday?
MoOh, absolutely. You guys remember when 50 years seemed like a really long time?
Jonah
GeorgeYeah, when I was five years old.
MoYes, exactly.
JonYeah. Mm hmm.
MoWell… Believe it or not, Breakout is 50 years old this year.
GeorgeMmm.
MoAnd we’re going to talk about breakout. its impact, its legacy. And. It’s… Very odd, but very real connection to Apple computers.
JonMm hmm. Yep. That’s going to be good. You don’t want to miss that one. I’m looking forward to the breakout. ah By request, we’ve had several people ask, hey, before, it’s this year, the 50th anniversary, so we’re squeezing it in before the end of the year.
Mofifty
JonI hope you will join us for that one. Until then. I am John. Mo. What is it? I can’t remember to get out of this. It’s been two weeks, clearly, four weeks.
GeorgeYou always go with me, then Moe.
JonThat’s right. Yep. Yep, anyway. You do not want to miss that one. Until then, I am John George. Thank you so much for being here, man.
GeorgeYes, sir.
JonMo, you know I appreciate you.
MoAlways fun though.
JonFourth listener, it’s you. We all three appreciate most of all, though we cannot wait to talk to you again. next time. Bye-bye.
GeorgeSee you guys.
MoTake 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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