Gaming History 101

Know Your Roots

Archive for the ‘Neo Geo’ Category

Podcast: Test Your Might

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This week Fred and Jam are throwing around fighters of the 90s (that aren’t Street Fighter II or Tekken, we did a show for those already).  In the 1990s, the fighter genre was the most popular type of game available (like First Person Shooters today), and among those that have withstood the test of time there were plenty of others that played the field.  From Mortal Kombat to Soulcalibur you had plenty of arcades (and home ports) to drink your quarters in arcades.


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Podcast: Data Easy Meets West

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No it’s not a typo (just an inside joke), but we are actually talking about Data East and Data West.  This includes the games they developed, published, and even the pinball titles available.  It may not seem it, but Data East was a limited and significant developer of the mid-late 80s and just about all of the 90s.

Special thanks to Retronauts Episode 88 (1up Run), Brandon Sheffield (and his blog/podcast Insert Credit), as well as Topless Robot for your Data East and extensive Data West information.

Also be sure to check out the ASCII RPG/roguelike Sanctuary, for free, at the following address: http://blackshellgames.itch.io/srpg


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Written by Fred Rojas

June 25, 2014 at 12:50 pm

Podcast: One Disc to Rule Them All

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This week Fred (@spydersvenom) and Jam (@Jamalais) are celebrating the compact disc, or CD.  Aside from the various movie and music industry uses, commercial CD video games changed the face of gaming and drastically increased potential content in retail games.  Join us as we make new site announcements and celebrate one of gaming’s most pivotal technology upgrades.


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Written by Fred Rojas

March 19, 2014 at 1:02 pm

Podcast: CIB – Complete in Box

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This week Fred is joined by Chip Cella of the B-Team and Derrick H of All Games and Dead Pixel Live fame to discuss how games used to come packaged.  This includes the box, instructions, and a bunch of freebies we pay good money for today.

Opening Song – Joe Esposito You’re The Best

Closing Song – Iron Maiden Run to the Hills


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Written by Fred Rojas

September 11, 2013 at 11:00 am

Hardware Profile: Game Cartridges

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It’s hard to believe, but the typical cartridge game began to phase out of gaming in 1995 when the new wave of consoles and the subsequent movement to disc-based media began. I’m sure plenty will be quick to point out that the N64 was a cartridge-based console, but I truly believe this decision was the result of Nintendo not wanting to give up the control over manufacturing and sordid history making a machine that read discs. This change happened 18 years ago, which means there is a significant number of gamers that are now in their early to mid 20s that have never played games on a cart. This is truly a shame because the versatility of cartridges is much more abundant than most people realize, but the crutch will always be that carts offer little storage for massive prices. In today’s lesson we will discuss what makes up a cartridge, benefits/setbacks, and how the cartridge was used to literally upgrade consoles for more than two decades.

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Written by Fred Rojas

July 30, 2013 at 8:35 pm

Podcast: 4 White Buttons and 2 Joysticks

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This week we celebrate the release of the Neo Geo X Gold by celebrating the original Neo Geo hybrid console/arcade.  We discuss the launch, initial pricing, history and iterations of the console, and eventually get to the many games you can enjoy.  As the holy grail of my 16-bit gaming as a child, I always dreamed of (and now currently cherish) my Neo Geo.

Song in the opening and closing is Keith Apicary’s Neo Geo Song (Music by FantomenK) and song info, album info, and music video can be found here.


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Written by Fred Rojas

December 19, 2012 at 11:58 am