Tales From the Bargain Bin #19 - The Rocketeer (SNES)

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Episode 19 of Tales From the Bargain Bin, The Cursed Edition.

[00:00:20] This recording has been fraught with errors that you will hopefully never see or experience.

[00:00:27] From broken mics to internet cutting out, the very fact that Michael Albertin and I are

[00:00:33] conversing at this very moment is a miracle.

[00:00:35] It's like beating the first level of this game.

[00:00:39] Just like beating the first level of the game that we're about to talk about which is The

[00:00:42] Rocketeer on Super Nintendo.

[00:00:48] So Mike first off welcome to the show.

[00:00:50] Thank you.

[00:00:51] Thanks for coming by Mr. Mike of Games My Mom Found Of Course.

[00:00:55] Mike this was your pick.

[00:00:57] Unfortunately.

[00:00:58] I desperately need to know why you selected this title.

[00:01:02] Well, I know that you like to do random bad games or that people got like a gift or something.

[00:01:10] This wasn't exactly a gift.

[00:01:12] Me and my father picked this game out and I don't know why but we got it from...

[00:01:17] So back in the long time ago in the 90s we used to go to Blockbuster and this

[00:01:22] was one of those random games that we had picked up because we had codes.

[00:01:27] I've never seen the movie The Rocketeer.

[00:01:28] I didn't even know it was a movie for the longest time.

[00:01:31] I just saw the cool cover and I liked seeing the guy with a helmet on on the cover.

[00:01:37] I'm like this looks cool.

[00:01:38] He's going fast.

[00:01:40] And so we rented this game, we played it and we could not beat the first level

[00:01:46] for the life of us.

[00:01:47] Just could not do it.

[00:01:49] Interesting.

[00:01:50] So this was like a wasted rental.

[00:01:52] This was a rental.

[00:01:53] It was wasted, a weekend wasted.

[00:01:55] But we kept trying and we even with games and codes with like because I could give

[00:01:59] myself infinite health and everything else.

[00:02:01] I could not beat those first level where you have to race or with that stupid yellow

[00:02:05] plane.

[00:02:06] Yeah.

[00:02:07] So just some people just give a little bit of context.

[00:02:09] The Rocketeer is a game that was released in 1992 by a company by the name of Nova

[00:02:16] Logic.

[00:02:18] We will explore.

[00:02:20] I'm surprised they still exist.

[00:02:22] In a bit, yes, we will explore them in a bit.

[00:02:25] So it wasn't exactly a wasted rental.

[00:02:28] I mean, well, it kind of was, but I usually used to rent like I think

[00:02:31] sometimes we got two games and I had my certain go-tos.

[00:02:34] But with this one, we ended up buying it at some point for dirt cheap

[00:02:38] because we always wanted to get past it.

[00:02:41] Oh, OK.

[00:02:42] And we did somehow.

[00:02:44] I don't know if it was a game genie code or what we did, but we got through

[00:02:48] it. It's just really difficult because the other two planes are much faster

[00:02:52] and I don't understand how the control work like I was for this episode.

[00:02:56] I was like, I'm going to play Rocketeer.

[00:02:57] I haven't played in years.

[00:02:58] I'll beat it quickly.

[00:02:59] And I could not figure it out and I just gave up.

[00:03:03] So I didn't even play it again.

[00:03:04] I couldn't because this level.

[00:03:06] It's just so hard to fly this crappy little plane in a circle

[00:03:10] and beat the other racers.

[00:03:12] And if you screw up at all, you won't make it.

[00:03:14] You have to start off good and not lose your momentum.

[00:03:18] It's ridiculous.

[00:03:19] So so the opening level.

[00:03:21] So you've never seen the rocket.

[00:03:22] I have on the movie.

[00:03:23] No, I mean, game, but not the movie.

[00:03:25] You've never seen the movie.

[00:03:26] Do you realize like half of this episode is going to be us talking about the movie?

[00:03:30] There's not much to talk about the movie existing.

[00:03:32] I am curious about it.

[00:03:35] Like it's on Disney Plus.

[00:03:36] I've seen it. I looked at like I should watch that.

[00:03:38] I know Ken has talked about doing it on games my mom found.

[00:03:41] I'm like, you should one day.

[00:03:44] I just I've never seen it.

[00:03:47] So now so this is going to be a very interesting, interesting episode

[00:03:50] because we're all going to be able to do is talk about this game,

[00:03:53] which is an incredibly, incredibly bad game.

[00:03:57] And now let me just kind of frame it this way.

[00:03:59] So I like the Rockets here a lot.

[00:04:01] I watched the Rockets here a lot as a kid was one of those VHS tapes that I had.

[00:04:04] And so I've seen the Rockets here a number of times.

[00:04:07] And it is a fun movie.

[00:04:10] I want to say dumb.

[00:04:11] It's just a fun, swashbuckling old fashioned adventure movie has lots of charm.

[00:04:18] It was directed by Joe Johnston, who is most well known for Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

[00:04:24] Jumanji Jurassic Park Three.

[00:04:27] OK, and a little movie that you love dearly.

[00:04:30] Captain America, the first Avenger in 2011.

[00:04:34] That's awesome. I do love that movie.

[00:04:36] And I do remember bringing up the Rockets here

[00:04:38] when we talked about Captain America many, many moons ago,

[00:04:42] because it has a very similar feel like it feels something out of not a home movie,

[00:04:48] but something out of that era has what's like a soft look to it.

[00:04:51] Well, isn't it the Rocketeer him fighting Nazis too?

[00:04:54] Like, isn't it? Well, yes.

[00:04:56] OK, it's Nazis, right?

[00:04:58] It turns into so basically the Rocketeer is the story

[00:05:02] of a young man by the name of Cliff Seiford,

[00:05:04] who you meet in the cut scenes for the game itself.

[00:05:07] And he's a pilot who has a friend.

[00:05:13] I got the inventor friend who invented a rocket pack.

[00:05:16] And after some hijinks go on, Nazis get involved and realize,

[00:05:22] ooh, if we had a rocket rocket pack,

[00:05:25] we could launch an army of rocket people

[00:05:28] and take over the world with rocket people because

[00:05:33] and I'm sure they'd be fine against anti aircraft.

[00:05:36] I had guns.

[00:05:38] It's a very silly premise, but it's got so much heart.

[00:05:41] It's a real fun movie.

[00:05:42] I like the Rocketeer quite a bit.

[00:05:44] I watched a few clips.

[00:05:45] I didn't watch the full movies today,

[00:05:47] but I just was reminded how much fun it is.

[00:05:49] It's I think you should definitely do it on games.

[00:05:52] My mom found I think you'd actually enjoy it.

[00:05:54] Yeah, because it's a director you like.

[00:05:55] I want to see it anyway.

[00:05:56] It's just I don't know why I've never had like.

[00:05:58] I don't even know why I own this game or had a toy.

[00:06:01] Like it's just as weird and I have a weird association with the Rocketeer

[00:06:05] because of this bad game.

[00:06:06] And the thing is, like I like this game once you get past that first level.

[00:06:11] I think it's a fun game.

[00:06:12] I because the next level is like one where you're kind of like in a shooting

[00:06:15] gallery where you move your character back and forth and shoot,

[00:06:17] not suit the Nazis that pop up.

[00:06:20] And then you get to race with the jet pack on.

[00:06:23] And that I didn't won the first time I did it.

[00:06:25] The only time I did it.

[00:06:26] Yeah. So just to kind of give some context.

[00:06:29] So basically the way the Rocketeer, the game starts,

[00:06:31] it starts kind of sort of like the movie.

[00:06:34] The movie has an opening.

[00:06:35] It's the movies main action opening is a air race and it's like

[00:06:41] an open area air race.

[00:06:42] And there is a race and Cliff Seaford has a buddy who's in an airplane

[00:06:48] that's in trouble and in order to save him, he dons the experimental rocket pack

[00:06:52] and saves today. Spoiler alert.

[00:06:55] Of course, it's a day.

[00:06:56] It's a PG, maybe PG 13 movie, probably PG.

[00:07:00] No one's head explodes.

[00:07:01] He saves the guy.

[00:07:03] And that's like the first time the Rocketeer is seen in person.

[00:07:07] It's a lot of fun.

[00:07:08] It's a lot of fun.

[00:07:09] So this study open with a basically a by plane race between three planes.

[00:07:16] You're playing and two others.

[00:07:17] You are piloting the yellow and there's a red in the blue

[00:07:20] and the object that it's so hard to describe how this is because

[00:07:24] imagine a side scroller that's going in a long oval around two poles,

[00:07:30] like an oldie time airplane race, right?

[00:07:33] Like like something out of planes.

[00:07:36] But it's kind of sort of mode seven.

[00:07:39] So it's going foreground then background, foreground then back.

[00:07:43] You also foreground the back.

[00:07:44] Have to watch the bottom screen to see where your plane is.

[00:07:47] There's a little like camera.

[00:07:48] It's it's the stupidest.

[00:07:51] It's the stupidest thing.

[00:07:52] It is the stupidest thing you have to control.

[00:07:55] You first you have to increase your velocity.

[00:07:58] You have to like push your lever up so you get full speed.

[00:08:01] And the idea is that you can pitch up and down.

[00:08:03] I think it's inverted.

[00:08:05] I'm pretty confident it's inverted, too, which of course is just

[00:08:08] quite lovely minute.

[00:08:09] And then I love it off.

[00:08:11] Lovely is inverted.

[00:08:14] And you go up and down as you would.

[00:08:16] And but like you said, there's a depth.

[00:08:19] There's a depth to it.

[00:08:20] So as you're going foreground background in this kind of like large oval

[00:08:25] like mode seven oval, you also have to control how close you are

[00:08:29] to the poles and how far you are.

[00:08:31] The further you are from the poles, the quote unquote slower you are

[00:08:35] because that's how a race works.

[00:08:37] You got to stay tight to the poles.

[00:08:40] If the closer you are, you're at the risk of hitting the pole.

[00:08:43] If you hit the pole more than I don't know twice, you're doomed.

[00:08:47] There's nothing you can do.

[00:08:49] You cannot come back and win if you hit the pole more than twice.

[00:08:52] And you have and you have to win two races.

[00:08:54] You just do 11 laps, 10 laps and then a 15.

[00:08:58] OK, that's what you see.

[00:08:59] I didn't. Did you be able to get through it even?

[00:09:02] Yeah, I was. I actually was.

[00:09:03] I got the feel for it.

[00:09:05] I actually once I got the feel for it and I knew exactly what I needed to do on

[00:09:10] the end again, once I figured out, OK, every time I turn, I dip automatically.

[00:09:15] So I have to make sure I'm pulling up as I turn.

[00:09:18] And then when I do the right word flip and if this is confusing to

[00:09:22] anybody, just look up a replay.

[00:09:23] There's literally 30 minutes of gameplay in this entire game.

[00:09:26] And there's only a few videos.

[00:09:30] You can get through this game in a half an hour.

[00:09:32] No problem if you know exactly what you're doing.

[00:09:35] Or if you're like me, you just find some

[00:09:37] game genie codes online and your emulator do emulator stuff.

[00:09:40] That's what I should have done with the first thing.

[00:09:41] I mean, that's the only way we played this game.

[00:09:43] I just remember when you get past that the gun gallery level was cool.

[00:09:48] I like that you say the word cool.

[00:09:51] I sometimes wonder if you know the word cool.

[00:09:53] It was cool to 90 OK, OK, OK, OK,

[00:09:58] see, I didn't I didn't look up back at anything about this game,

[00:10:01] even though I gave you the idea that we should talk about it.

[00:10:04] I did not watch anything until we sat down

[00:10:07] and now I'm watching a video of this game being played.

[00:10:10] But I mean, I want to give you that bargain bin type mentality

[00:10:14] of why I was in the 90s.

[00:10:15] No, I love it. OK. So like, no, I came with cool as hell in the 90s.

[00:10:20] So after this first part, the idea is you have to win two races.

[00:10:23] You have three chances to win two races.

[00:10:26] It's like three lives once I figured out the pattern.

[00:10:29] And once I realized there's this little

[00:10:31] a little square in the bottom, like you said, Mike,

[00:10:33] it's a little boat seven square that you can see how close your plane

[00:10:37] is actually to those poles.

[00:10:40] So you use your left and right to gauge how far or close you are from

[00:10:43] the poles up and down to control your height and your pitch.

[00:10:46] And with a combination of some really tricky controllers, shenanigans,

[00:10:53] you can then maneuver yourself around these things and win.

[00:10:57] Once you get into the rhythm of it, it's actually not bad.

[00:11:01] I actually thought it was kind of neat.

[00:11:02] And like now I got the hang of it.

[00:11:03] Once I got the hang of it before Chico's game.

[00:11:07] I got I got I was able to figure out its dumb logic

[00:11:11] and I was able to get through that.

[00:11:14] So once you get through that part, you say, yeah, we won the race.

[00:11:18] Hooray. Now, this is where it deviates wildly

[00:11:22] from the movie because the movie doesn't introduce the Nazis until much later.

[00:11:27] All of a sudden, because this is Nintendo, they don't call them Nazis.

[00:11:31] You actually don't call them anything.

[00:11:33] They also give them a squirt gun instead of a real gun.

[00:11:35] Yeah, they have a squirt gun instead of a real gun.

[00:11:38] And in you then go into a situation where, OK,

[00:11:41] now it's time to get the Rocketeer pack.

[00:11:44] And I think the idea in the game is, hey, if you can win the race,

[00:11:48] I'll let you fly around in the rocket pack.

[00:11:51] I'll let you bust it out for the first time.

[00:11:53] This is not how it works in the movie.

[00:11:55] In the movie, the rockets here is thrust into action

[00:11:58] because someone's in danger like a hero is, you know, a hero story.

[00:12:03] In this case, that's not the case.

[00:12:05] You then go to the hangar

[00:12:08] in which you are then presented with what I can only describe as like

[00:12:13] maybe a Gears of War style behind wild shooter for certain.

[00:12:17] And oh, like perfect example, it's like a wild guy or like a punisher for any

[00:12:22] S or something of that nature where you have a character

[00:12:24] that you can move around on the screen and then you target

[00:12:27] and you have you also have your target, your targeting reticle,

[00:12:30] that you use to shoot the enemy.

[00:12:32] Right. And you're shooting the enemy in like the background

[00:12:34] and you are kind of in the foreground.

[00:12:36] You have the rocket pack so you can like boost up into the air,

[00:12:39] which is really awkward and weird.

[00:12:41] The way it works is you hit the A button, you start shooting in the air

[00:12:44] and then you have to tap it again to drop.

[00:12:46] It's very odd and you have fuel.

[00:12:48] You have unlimited ammo in your gun.

[00:12:51] And for some reason, you are just mowing down.

[00:12:54] I don't know, armed assailants of a certain type.

[00:12:57] Now, again, these are intended to be Nazis.

[00:12:59] There are there are known.

[00:13:00] There is no Nazi imagery in this game because it's Nintendo.

[00:13:03] You know, the word Nazis until some some point later on,

[00:13:06] I realized this movie takes place like around World War Two.

[00:13:10] And I'm like, oh, yeah.

[00:13:12] Oh, no, this is the actual movie, the Rocketeer, full of Nazi imagery.

[00:13:17] It is super duper not that Nazis want the rocket pack as a prototype.

[00:13:21] It makes sense so they can build flying soldiers for Hitler.

[00:13:25] That is what they asked.

[00:13:26] That's the goal.

[00:13:28] Yes. And again, it sounds ridiculous, but it's actually a really fun movie

[00:13:31] and you should really see it for games by Montville.

[00:13:33] We're going to. So in this in the second section,

[00:13:36] you are literally you went from

[00:13:38] model mannered pilot to I don't know, commando

[00:13:43] like sorts near commando, murdering hundreds of assailants

[00:13:47] of unknown origin because it's just like, hey, we want that rocket pack

[00:13:52] in a comic book style framing of a cinematic.

[00:13:56] And then you you have to then fight these bad guys.

[00:14:00] This is not terribly challenging either.

[00:14:03] You then have to take on.

[00:14:05] Then you didn't fly around as the rock as that you fly around again

[00:14:08] as the Rocketeer, which are faster and you're able to easily beat it.

[00:14:12] And then you go back to the hangar

[00:14:15] to shoot more bad guys like I could.

[00:14:18] All I could imagine was after shooting the bad guys

[00:14:20] was like just piles of bodies like everywhere in this hangar.

[00:14:24] Like a hundred guys you killed.

[00:14:25] But just yeah, just around and and they're shooting like crazy.

[00:14:30] It's an airplane.

[00:14:32] Another helicopter comes in.

[00:14:33] You have to destroy a helicopter with their little pew, pew, pew six shooter

[00:14:38] of which you have infinite ammo for.

[00:14:41] And of course, it's using an SNES controller

[00:14:44] to move a reticle around the screen, which we all know is a joy.

[00:14:47] You see, young Mike thought it was so cool.

[00:14:50] And I can see my thinking that's cool, because honestly,

[00:14:53] it doesn't look half bad.

[00:14:54] It's very unique to me.

[00:14:57] I rented a lot of Nintendo games like many kids did in the 90s.

[00:15:01] And to me, I mean, still, I played tons of games.

[00:15:03] This is still a kind of unique game.

[00:15:05] And I also have a thing for games that change

[00:15:09] the the gameplay throughout the game.

[00:15:11] I still like when games do that.

[00:15:14] Like when they do it good, I'm like this game, but I like it.

[00:15:17] Yeah, it's it's it's fun.

[00:15:20] Again, these shooting galleries, my thumbs, I'm like this man.

[00:15:23] Mike Albertin think you can be purple tunnel syndrome.

[00:15:25] I don't have a turbo controller.

[00:15:27] This game was made for like a NES Max or I go,

[00:15:30] whatever the equivalent would be for a Super Nintendo.

[00:15:32] I had games in my bed and so yeah,

[00:15:34] like auto an auto fire was definitely required because you can just

[00:15:38] fire away and it's it's just it's just it's just boring.

[00:15:42] And it's just but again, as a kid,

[00:15:44] I could totally see like, yeah, this is cool.

[00:15:46] I'm like shooting bad guys.

[00:15:47] It's super boring.

[00:15:48] I'm I'm watching it as we talk and I'm like, my God,

[00:15:51] this game is boring.

[00:15:53] I did.

[00:15:54] I went through a whole thing.

[00:15:56] I also did as part of it, too, without without game genie and made it to the

[00:15:58] third level.

[00:16:00] The third level is you are as the rocketeer in what might be

[00:16:04] the worst Schmup ever made on a console system.

[00:16:09] It's a left to right shoot them up where you are the rocketeer.

[00:16:12] You still have your little pew pew pew gun with infinite ammo

[00:16:15] and you're taking down, I don't know, bombs that are floating

[00:16:19] on dirigibles and airplanes and then you got rocket men.

[00:16:26] Just madness.

[00:16:27] And again, at this point, this is when I engaged

[00:16:31] a game genie, Co's gave me infinite super shots and you need to

[00:16:35] because if I I'm assuming this is hard as hell.

[00:16:39] This is possible.

[00:16:40] It's impossible if you don't have the sheets on the spray.

[00:16:42] Oh, but they actually do use German image or like in the level after that

[00:16:46] you fight planes while you're in a plane and they actually have

[00:16:49] the German cross on the planes.

[00:16:52] OK, OK, they don't say it.

[00:16:54] It is not something that you would know.

[00:16:55] I mean, everybody would know, but somebody who knows way too much

[00:16:58] about World War Two and Germans, that's a German flick.

[00:17:02] So the idea is your your track, the villain is made off with your best gal.

[00:17:07] Oh, that's what's happening.

[00:17:08] You're off to save. Yeah.

[00:17:09] Yes. And you're off to savor.

[00:17:10] So OK, the idea is you're going to trade the trade.

[00:17:13] I think it's trade the the rocket pack for the gal.

[00:17:17] But you know that's not going to happen.

[00:17:19] Anyway, so you're in this very basic Schmup

[00:17:23] that makes James Bond, Jr. look like a masterpiece.

[00:17:26] It is a it is so hard.

[00:17:29] There's things flying everywhere.

[00:17:31] The control is extremely slippery and imprecise, which is exactly what you want.

[00:17:36] When you when you're in as the rocket here,

[00:17:39] the controls are up is up and down is down.

[00:17:43] In the next level, it's the same exact thing.

[00:17:46] Only you are in another air helicopter.

[00:17:49] So you don't get to be the rocket here anymore,

[00:17:52] which is just weird helicopter that that's where they go.

[00:17:55] Because it's a bigger sprite and now it's inverted again.

[00:17:59] Down is up and up is down.

[00:18:00] So now like your whole life is screwed up again.

[00:18:03] I actually today now let me just preface this by saying

[00:18:06] I feel like I'm dominating his conversation,

[00:18:07] but I really thought you actually watched the movie.

[00:18:09] No, it's fine.

[00:18:10] I mean, that that is a logical explanation to think a guy who was born in 87

[00:18:15] who watches a lot of movies who likes World War Two stuff

[00:18:18] loves a movie that that guy directed first Avengers Amazing would have seen

[00:18:21] a movie that's a comic movie based about Germany.

[00:18:24] You it's a very it's not perfect.

[00:18:27] So I'm going to play the video and play the video game.

[00:18:30] So anyway, so.

[00:18:33] Anyway, so I was at work.

[00:18:36] I don't play games during work.

[00:18:38] I really don't. I try not to.

[00:18:39] I don't I don't if I need a brain break and I'll play the initial ninety four.

[00:18:44] That's fine. But I don't play games during work.

[00:18:46] I that's however today I was doing this right before a meeting.

[00:18:52] And I got on the meeting.

[00:18:53] I was talking with my co-worker on our stand up or one on one

[00:18:58] with the controller sitting to my left and me just tapping a

[00:19:02] just tapping a and I was doing OK.

[00:19:05] I mean, I gained genie on so I wasn't going to die.

[00:19:07] But I'm like, I'm not going to sit here and what I could just let it go

[00:19:10] on its own. But I was able to conduct a very nice phone call

[00:19:15] and just tap a on the left hand side.

[00:19:17] Because I'm like, I'm not restarting this.

[00:19:18] So I'm not going to save stated.

[00:19:19] I'm just going to I think I'm almost done with it.

[00:19:22] It's really challenging.

[00:19:23] Game isn't it?

[00:19:23] Especially with your teeth.

[00:19:25] It was much more cheating. It was wonderful.

[00:19:27] So the final level after the two Schmupp levels,

[00:19:29] the final level is again, is actually very accurate to the movie.

[00:19:36] That's cool.

[00:19:36] How the movie ends.

[00:19:38] This is this is kind of sort of if I remember correctly, how the movie ends.

[00:19:43] You're on the wing of the giant original.

[00:19:46] Again, it's supposed to have a Nazi symbol, but it does not.

[00:19:48] It has some two lightning bolts I saw and that uniform that the sprite is wearing,

[00:19:53] that is a hundred percent a Nazi uniform.

[00:19:56] You can't I mean, again, you wouldn't know.

[00:19:58] That's uniform. Is that an SS thing?

[00:19:59] Yes, it is. They both are.

[00:20:01] I mean, I don't remember if they had like the lightning bolt for the SS.

[00:20:04] I mean, they altered it, but the color scheme and the way that the font.

[00:20:08] I know a lot about Nazi Germany, by the way.

[00:20:11] Yeah, you are an official.

[00:20:13] Not I love World War Two stuff like I actually had a conversation

[00:20:18] with this is topical with somebody once where her her father was one of the guys

[00:20:24] on the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.

[00:20:28] And we just started talking and reasons

[00:20:31] and I had asked if they were a veteran and she started talking about that.

[00:20:34] And she's like, yeah, he was there like, what the hell is this thing

[00:20:37] on the plane? Because they're like, they didn't know that she's like,

[00:20:39] they were just bunch of kids and it made me think about it.

[00:20:41] But yes, I love World War Two and like I'm looking at that sprite

[00:20:44] and I'm like, yeah, that's 100 percent.

[00:20:45] All this is Nazi stuff, but to hide it enough because they can't have it.

[00:20:51] You know, so at this point, I'm still so at this point,

[00:20:53] I'm still on my call, I think.

[00:20:55] And now I see I have to like fight bad guys.

[00:20:57] So you have the main bad guy with your main gal

[00:21:00] at the top of this dirigible wing kind of like the rotor of the wing.

[00:21:04] And if you've seen the movie, it's basically the end of the movie.

[00:21:06] I need to see it. And it's a good movie.

[00:21:09] And you're on the wing and he's henchman.

[00:21:11] Just keep coming down to fight you and you move forward extremely slow.

[00:21:18] Like you inch forward, which in the games world makes sense.

[00:21:22] You are on the wing of a flying dirigible.

[00:21:25] Like, yes, you wouldn't be dashing back and forth,

[00:21:27] but that's not terribly fun to play.

[00:21:29] And you're kind of swinging your hands and you're punching the punches

[00:21:32] barely connect and I'm sitting there going, oh, do I have to move?

[00:21:37] Then I see a ladder to the right hand side.

[00:21:39] I sat there for like 10 minutes and like, and just I have to go for that ladder

[00:21:43] because I'm just sitting here fighting these and they're not stopping.

[00:21:46] There's no counter.

[00:21:47] Sure enough, you have to make your way and fight your way to the right

[00:21:50] to go up a ladder.

[00:21:51] You chase the bad guy up to the very top.

[00:21:53] The tail of the dirigible starts going on fire.

[00:21:57] And that's when you go fist to cuffs, face to face,

[00:21:59] fist to cuffs with the end bad guy and save your best gal.

[00:22:03] It's actually a pretty neat ending to a video.

[00:22:06] It looks cool like when I was watching the video just now,

[00:22:10] because I as a kid, I I had forgotten all this.

[00:22:13] But as a kid, I remember like it stuck with me at this game.

[00:22:15] It's cool, besides the first level being terrible.

[00:22:18] It's it's actually not bad.

[00:22:21] Again, if you if you lean into the idea that you're on this dirigible,

[00:22:25] you can't dash back and forth.

[00:22:27] So you slowly centimeter your way towards this

[00:22:31] the towards the ladder.

[00:22:34] I it's actually kind of neat.

[00:22:36] And the last final minute were again, like the tail of the planes,

[00:22:41] the tail of the dirigible starts getting on fire.

[00:22:44] And it's pretty it's actually kind of neat.

[00:22:49] And that's it. That's how the game ends.

[00:22:51] Ta-da. And it has comic book little like panels to put between the scenes

[00:22:56] to kind of explain to you the story.

[00:22:57] There also is an NES version of this game that I didn't know existed

[00:23:02] until about five minutes ago.

[00:23:05] We started recording.

[00:23:07] That's what I thought.

[00:23:08] I've played the Rocketeer on any S and it's actually OK.

[00:23:12] It just looks like a standard platform.

[00:23:15] Side scrolling, shoot them, shoot them, punch them up.

[00:23:17] Yeah, it was.

[00:23:18] Yes, standard kind of side scrolling platform, shoot them thing.

[00:23:21] But this this is a unique.

[00:23:26] It is. I will say that for it.

[00:23:28] It is unique.

[00:23:29] They went for it.

[00:23:31] Didn't think I would be getting to plane races and my fun Rocketeer game.

[00:23:34] But OK, I guess I saw the movie.

[00:23:36] I should have seen that coming.

[00:23:38] I just I need to see the movie now.

[00:23:40] Now here's my question for you.

[00:23:42] Have you ever been to the World War Two Museum in New Orleans?

[00:23:47] No, I've never been to New Orleans yet,

[00:23:48] but I was actually supposed to go this year, but that didn't happen.

[00:23:51] But now that I know it exists,

[00:23:52] that's probably going to happen in my lifetime.

[00:23:54] The National World War Two Museum,

[00:23:57] you you may need at least two days for you.

[00:24:00] You may need at least two days to get through it.

[00:24:03] It's actually incredible.

[00:24:04] It's worth spending an entire day at.

[00:24:07] I believe this is the one that has as the has has is.

[00:24:12] Gold. I have been on a sub before at a museum at a.

[00:24:18] I don't remember what museum there was in Chicago,

[00:24:20] but they had a submarine.

[00:24:21] I don't know if it was what what vintage or anything like that.

[00:24:25] But I had been on a submarine before.

[00:24:28] When I was parking.

[00:24:29] Yeah, I think and again, I'm trying to remember too.

[00:24:31] I think there's the USS Tang submarine experience is literally

[00:24:35] a thing where you go inside a fake submarine

[00:24:38] and experience what it's like to be in the middle of battle.

[00:24:42] Oh, on a submarine and you are

[00:24:47] you you go on the US Tang

[00:24:49] and I believe you're on its final mission

[00:24:52] and I don't believe you survive.

[00:24:54] You actually get a little card that has your name and dossier,

[00:24:58] the person you are on the on it's really intense.

[00:25:01] And it's actually amazing.

[00:25:04] Like it's really cool.

[00:25:05] Like you have if you haven't been to the World War Two Museum,

[00:25:08] it's it is incredibly interesting, especially as a World War Two buff.

[00:25:12] I think you would be now have to do that.

[00:25:14] I think I think your wife would be almost annoyed.

[00:25:16] She will. 100 percent.

[00:25:17] She will be annoyed, but that's OK.

[00:25:19] She she put it really cool.

[00:25:22] It's incredible.

[00:25:23] You could do you could spend two days there.

[00:25:25] I think I think when Jamie and I went, we spent an entire

[00:25:29] almost an entire day. Yeah, it was really cool experience.

[00:25:31] So what's not a cool experience is this game.

[00:25:35] It's not great.

[00:25:35] And again, I think the rhetoric about it again, there's a

[00:25:40] it's Navy Gn game.

[00:25:41] Yeah, that years ago.

[00:25:42] She doesn't mean nothing to me like I know what you're talking about.

[00:25:45] Like, I know it's that idiot and your video game nerd on YouTube

[00:25:48] that made made games famous at certain times because he would just get angry

[00:25:52] and play a character like I know of him, but I'm never watching any of his videos.

[00:25:57] And I have no interest in it.

[00:25:59] I was very and I mean very into the angry video game nerd

[00:26:04] when he first came out in 2000.

[00:26:08] Oh, six, I want to say 2005.

[00:26:10] Something like that.

[00:26:11] 2000s. I know that pretty early Internet.

[00:26:14] I was really into the AVGN for quite a bit of time.

[00:26:17] I've seen his movie.

[00:26:19] I might have contributed to the Kickstarter for it.

[00:26:21] Maybe I might have.

[00:26:22] I was a big fan and I think I've not watched an AVGN in years.

[00:26:28] I think I lie.

[00:26:29] I think I popped one on maybe a few months ago, just like,

[00:26:32] what's all James Rolf up to these days?

[00:26:34] What's he doing?

[00:26:35] Oh, the same thing he's done since 2005.

[00:26:38] If it works, cool.

[00:26:39] It works.

[00:26:41] And I it's kind of not my humor style anymore.

[00:26:45] It's I think I've grown out of that a little bit, which is again,

[00:26:49] if you're really into the AVGN again, that's no shade.

[00:26:51] Hey, click work.

[00:26:53] I can't do it.

[00:26:54] Yeah, but it's fair.

[00:26:55] Hey, click to work for people.

[00:26:57] If you if you want to you bitch about something there, people are like,

[00:27:00] oh, I want to know like that type of content.

[00:27:02] So yeah, I just it's not the kind of thing I enjoy

[00:27:06] ingesting anymore.

[00:27:07] But there was a season of my life when I was really, really into angry video game

[00:27:11] nerd as a matter of fact, when I was if you listen to the PR GE episodes

[00:27:16] when I was at PR GE, I saw him and met him very briefly.

[00:27:20] OK, friends, friends of the show and friends of my the Gamer's Week

[00:27:25] Community Pixel Ponds they did.

[00:27:28] They were doing the production in-house production for PR GE this last year.

[00:27:32] And when James Rolf showed up with his band, Rex Viper,

[00:27:36] Rex Viper was performing and when he walks into a convention

[00:27:39] like that the C's part, like you would think you would think the pop shows.

[00:27:43] Well, he's a celebrity to me.

[00:27:45] He is extremely influential.

[00:27:46] Like he was the first big, almost professional video game YouTuber.

[00:27:51] Like he made a brand.

[00:27:52] Like you got to give him his his props and hasn't done anything super controversial.

[00:27:57] I'm pretty sure I don't think so.

[00:27:58] So like no, as far as I know, he hasn't done anything really crappy.

[00:28:02] He hasn't he is his craptitude has not been on display.

[00:28:05] But it's but it turns out that he is actually a extremely nice person.

[00:28:10] Like he so so my friends ended up shooting

[00:28:14] like the entire concert because he did a concert with his band, Rex Viper.

[00:28:18] They are a cover band of video game music and other things.

[00:28:21] They are very, very fine and OK.

[00:28:24] If I was at a bar and they were playing, I would not leave.

[00:28:28] But I wouldn't come back to see them.

[00:28:29] So that's kind of where they rank as far as a band goes.

[00:28:32] They are perfectly fine.

[00:28:34] Everyone was having a good time, but they got to shoot like his entire

[00:28:39] shoot his entire concert and then he produced the video of that's really cool.

[00:28:43] And evidently, they spent the entire day with him and his band

[00:28:46] and they were nothing but nice.

[00:28:48] We saw them at the hotel bar afterwards.

[00:28:51] I said hello.

[00:28:52] But very again, my social anxiety kicked in really not.

[00:28:55] I get it. It's hard.

[00:28:57] I'm a high person I've seen on the screen before.

[00:29:01] Hamanahamana, that's even your family.

[00:29:03] Like, I mean, I know a long, like a long time ago, you were a fan.

[00:29:05] It's an effect.

[00:29:07] Oh, but it was I mean, yeah, AVGN was very formative again

[00:29:10] when I was a younger lad.

[00:29:12] So but I said hello and I could have definitely

[00:29:17] yeah, had a conversation.

[00:29:18] But evidently, he is an extremely nice guy.

[00:29:20] I'm glad. Very genuine nice guy, which is cool to hear.

[00:29:23] It's cool to hear he's not a jerk.

[00:29:25] The Novelogic, the company that developed this game

[00:29:31] started in 1985 and went out of business in to let's see.

[00:29:40] Looks like in 20 20.

[00:29:42] Oh, the Thq Nordic.

[00:29:44] OK, I got bought out at some point.

[00:29:46] They got bought out by Thq slash active.

[00:29:48] Oh, that they got bought up by Thq.

[00:29:50] Got folded in.

[00:29:51] They developed such classics for the game

[00:29:54] where like chess master never for the game gear,

[00:29:58] Captain Planet and the planet here for the Genesis.

[00:30:00] I played that, unfortunately.

[00:30:03] Jigsaw, the ultimate electronic puzzle for the Phillips CDI.

[00:30:07] And then a whole mess of Windows games,

[00:30:09] a whole stack of Windows games.

[00:30:11] Oh, they did Delta Force Urban Warfare for the PlayStation.

[00:30:16] Never played it.

[00:30:17] No, no one has.

[00:30:18] Again, a lot of like flying command F 14, F 22 Comanche.

[00:30:23] Lots of you can tell they had a type.

[00:30:26] They made helicopter shoot them up games, basically.

[00:30:29] Some of those can be fun.

[00:30:30] I was a big fan of Jungle Strike in that series.

[00:30:32] Jungle Strike was a good series.

[00:30:34] They almost made a Super Mario's wacky worlds for the CDI,

[00:30:37] but it was canceled.

[00:30:40] And then evidently they attempted to sue Activision

[00:30:43] when Modern Warfare 3 was released

[00:30:46] because they use the words Delta Force and they

[00:30:50] in 2012, Nobologic attempted to sue Activision

[00:30:54] for its usage of the Delta Force name within its game

[00:30:57] called Duty Modern Warfare 3,

[00:30:59] alleging that the usage would confuse consumers.

[00:31:02] I would also damage Novologic's reputation.

[00:31:05] I'm sure that worked out real well for them.

[00:31:08] One year later, Novologic lost the case in court

[00:31:11] as their judge ruled in Activision's favor.

[00:31:14] One, you have a giant conglomerate

[00:31:17] and if history has taught us anything,

[00:31:20] courts will sigh with the giant corporations.

[00:31:24] Yeah, it's like if I love that Novologic,

[00:31:28] hey, Activision, you are going to ruin our good name

[00:31:31] by using Delta Force in your, I don't know, blockbuster

[00:31:36] franchise. You are going to sully our good name, sir.

[00:31:39] Oh, he did the page master too.

[00:31:42] This director. Yeah. OK. I.

[00:31:45] Yeah, you're right. October Sky.

[00:31:47] I've seen that movie in theaters.

[00:31:48] I like that movie.

[00:31:49] Just Park 3. I like that movie.

[00:31:52] Never seen Hildago. Never seen the Wolfman. OK.

[00:31:58] Yeah, he's a very, very prolific director, Jim Johnson.

[00:32:02] And unfortunately, Nova Nova.

[00:32:06] What's their call in the end? Novologic.

[00:32:08] Not so much. They were acquired in 2016 by it looks like

[00:32:13] Gatsy HQ. Oh, and random fun fact.

[00:32:15] While I was on a plane recently speaking to Captain America,

[00:32:18] I didn't know what to do and I wanted to put something on in the background

[00:32:21] while I was playing Final Fantasy one on my steam deck.

[00:32:24] And I put on they didn't have First Adventure,

[00:32:25] but they had Winter Soldier and every time you kept saying best gal

[00:32:28] all I could think of was when Chris Evans says it about Haley Atwell's character

[00:32:32] every time. OK.

[00:32:35] And also by the way, Winter Soldier still fucking amazing, even on a plane.

[00:32:39] Easy. Oh, Winter Soldier is that was my number one.

[00:32:42] That was my favorite.

[00:32:43] I think for the entire MCU.

[00:32:44] I think First Adventure was mine.

[00:32:46] I can't remember, though.

[00:32:47] Oh, I don't remember. I don't know.

[00:32:48] Those those those a pandemic ago.

[00:32:50] I don't know.

[00:32:51] I'm getting the kid by the way.

[00:32:53] The interesting I know, I know.

[00:32:55] Spoiler alert.

[00:32:56] I'm getting the it again for MCU.

[00:32:58] I'm like, I'm good.

[00:32:59] I'm down. I am very much so down.

[00:33:01] I am I am I'm ready.

[00:33:05] But I think that basically sums it up for the Rocketeer

[00:33:09] for the Rocketeer for SNES.

[00:33:11] Would you, Mike Alberton, after playing it, even as a kid or even now,

[00:33:14] would you would you take it home or would you throw it back in the bin?

[00:33:19] Throw it in the bin.

[00:33:20] In the bin, it goes, I have to agree with you.

[00:33:22] I think it is unique.

[00:33:24] I think you have to give it some credit for trying.

[00:33:27] Like there wasn't many pop and stop shooters,

[00:33:29] even though you do no popping or stopping

[00:33:32] in those segments in the hangar.

[00:33:34] But there was not much quite like it.

[00:33:36] And they kind of went for it.

[00:33:37] They were given a license and they said, hey,

[00:33:41] we make helicopter games that shoot things.

[00:33:44] And we could the Rocketeer shoots things.

[00:33:47] They make something unique.

[00:33:48] Let's do that.

[00:33:48] So they made something pretty unique.

[00:33:50] I have to say, they really did.

[00:33:52] But unfortunately, the game as a whole is not worth the time.

[00:33:57] No, yeah, not worth the time at all.

[00:34:01] All right.

[00:34:02] Thank you very much for checking out this edition of Tales

[00:34:04] from the Bargain bin.

[00:34:05] If you're here expecting Final Fantasy.

[00:34:08] Oh, don't you worry in a couple episodes, Final Fantasy will return

[00:34:12] with Final Fantasy four next week.

[00:34:15] We have a very exciting interview for episode 100.

[00:34:20] It was supposed to be Final Fantasy four.

[00:34:23] Then something happened that preempted that and said, OK,

[00:34:27] this is now episode 100.

[00:34:28] It kind of lines up really cool.

[00:34:29] So look forward to that next week, week after,

[00:34:33] probably one more Tales from the Bargain bin.

[00:34:34] And then we will jump into Final Fantasy four

[00:34:36] because I need more time to get that together.

[00:34:39] So that's what's going to be for the next few episodes.

[00:34:42] But thank you for listening to this episode.

[00:34:44] Thank you for your thank you for listening and sharing

[00:34:47] and all the fun stuff you do.

[00:34:49] And until next time, just be kind to yourselves and each other.

[00:34:52] Thanks a lot, y'all.