Podcast: GBA Forever
This week the boys are talking all about the Gameboy Advance. Nintendo’s successor to the extremely popular Gameboy was touted by many as the SNES in your hands. Well it was a lot more than that and we’re talking all about the crazy library of games that reminded us how fond we were of the 16 bit era.
Gaming History 101 
Great episode, I still need to find the Final Fantasy GBA Micro model.
Freddy SMT (@F3nian)
August 8, 2014 at 10:40 pm
This is why you don’t host a podcast when you’re high as a kite. I mean, I like what they tried to do but there was a serious lack of focus on the part of the host, and he obviously didn’t check facts before listing off bits of what he thought he remembered regarding GBA console and games history. This podcast seems like a wasted opportunity and a disappointment to fans of the system.
Spirit Mask
August 8, 2017 at 6:31 pm
Sorry to hear you felt that way. For the sake of other listeners, can you tell me what you think we got wrong? I was the host and I can assure you I don’t do drugs and definitely wasn’t high, but either way I clearly failed at what I was hoping to accomplish. Your feedback would be appreciated.
Fred Rojas
August 8, 2017 at 9:04 pm
Fred, firstly, I apologize for my rudeness. My day was rough and I took it out on an innocent podcaster. Of course you were not high. However, since you asked for my feedback I will do my best: I got the impression from this podcast that it was more of a loosely structured open forum for discussion of GBA memories and surface-level knowledge of notable games and hardware, when what I was expecting was more of an in-depth analysis of the system, its development, the various influences on its games and lifecycle, the hype leading up to it, competition, aftermath, etc. It was maybe wrong of me to expect this though, because I have never listened to Gaming History 101, and only landed here because I googled “Gameboy Advance podcast”. Now, for what I implied about a lack of focus: I noticed that you in particular seemed very distracted, and therefore were distracting from the subject matter. To be honest, it did remind me of someone who is high and has trouble concentrating, although I think it’s more likely that you were keeping up with the live communications or checking facts in real time. There were several times when you gave inaccurate information about a game or some hardware and were corrected by another member of the cast. It wasn’t a horrible podcast though. Like I said, my own expectations may have been off-base. But I hope that my feedback is useful, or at least inoffensive. Podcasting is hard work and I do appreciate what you guys did here, even if it wasn’t exactly what I had been looking for. I would suggest that maybe you research the topic a little more and develop a more concise method of organizing the taking points to eliminate distraction. Maybe… lead the podcast by giving a bit of history. Set the scene pre-GBA, Where was the industry, what were people expecting, what was the landscape like when GBA was announced? State some interesting factoids, quotes from industry influentials, etc. Then lead into a discussion topic like “your first experience with GBA” or “how did you feel the when you first heard the announcement or saw the reveal” and then give each member a moment to speak his bit on that topic, then go back into the next phase of history, where you expound on the next part of the GBA lifecycle. Then open the floor again to each caster’s experiences. Do this kind of rhythm of history-reflection back and forth until you get to the end, then maybe do a speculation segment about the influences of GBA on the rest of gaming and how the DS changed the landscape or something. I don’t know man. Those are just some suggestions. I’m not a podcaster, so I will sit back and listen to what you guys post, and I’ll try to be more respectful of your work in the future, rather than flying of the handle and accusing you of drug abuse because I don’t like your format, haha.
Spirit Mask
August 9, 2017 at 12:01 am
First off, thank you for your response, it is much appreciated. Second, I do not take offense to the claim of “sounding high” especially when you give clear and concise reasons for stating so, regardless of whether or not I was. If you wish to create content and put it on the web, you better have thick skin, and again the biggest reason I asked was it sounded like you wanted to say so much but kept it brief. This later response, on the other hand, is exactly what I wanted.
All of your claims are correct. This was recorded just about three years ago and I forget whether we were somewhat new to the live format or not. It has always been hard for me to not engage people talking in chat – and those that are regular listeners probably engage me because they know this – so it comes off as distracting when my actual goal is to cover all sides. It doesn’t play once the live show is over, however, and this is not the only show flawed by this format. These days we are no longer live (for the most part) but with over 300 episodes, those new to the show will not really see the progression outside of listening to everything. As for research, I go out of my way to do extensive research on topics but sometimes I feel confident in a subject and end up ill equipped. That may have happened here, but I honestly can’t remember. For what it’s worth I was not really into gaming from 2000-2005, and I even somewhat allude to it in the episode, so I spent little time with the GBA despite having one. We also do suffer from our format being highly academic one week and then laid back the next, which was probably because we did a weekly retro show that was extremely researched. Finally there are just some realities of doing a show like this live every week, which is that in an attempt to keep cranking topics and doing the best research I can, it all falls short. We are slowing down these days and doing more constructive and thorough topics.
There are strong episodes of GH101, many of them, in fact I may even be so bold as to say most of them. When we first started, it was a response to Retronauts ending and many forget that those first episodes were a lot less researched and a lot more about the co-hosts’ experiences. I did that for a while and then eventually ran out of stuff I personally knew off the top of my head and started tackling more researched items. We also struggle with a mixed audience – many love the random chit chat of a normal podcast format whereas others want hardcore facts and research (more my speed). I’d also like to add that we are in a niche market where most of the other retro shows are rather poorly produced. There are some amazing shows out there and they have Patreon campaigns to prove their audience. Our show is free – we had a Patreon for a short time but it wasn’t that successful despite some very generous listeners – and you may notice that none of our podcast, written, site, or video content has a single ad. Additionally I acknowledge that when you grew up with a certain console/portable/computer you have a connection to it that I simply won’t have. That’s why I’m now looking to get listeners involved that have that kind of context so that we can get a feel and accurate view of exactly what you’re referring to. I do hope you’ll give our show another chance, perhaps on a different topic. Here are a couple of examples that I feel are both accurate and well researched: Birth of the Playstation (https://gaminghistory101.com/2012/09/13/birth-of-the-playstation), Saturnday (https://gaminghistory101.com/2015/05/20/saturnday), X-Treme – The Story Of Sonic, Part 2 (https://gaminghistory101.com/2013/07/24/xtreme-the-story-of-sonic-part-2), and The Life of Hiroshi Yamauchi (https://gaminghistory101.com/2013/09/25/the-life-of-hiroshi-yamauchi). Keep me posted and thanks for the feedback.
Fred Rojas
August 9, 2017 at 10:35 am