Tales From the Bargain Bin #24 - Demon's Crest (SNES) w/Julian of Stage Select

[00:00:17] Hello and welcome to episode 24 of Tales from the Bargain Bin. I'm Bill Tucker and today we have an exceptional guest on the show. A guest who hasn't been on the show for quite some time. Well, he's been on the Final Fantasy stuff extensively, so I shouldn't say that. I don't think he's done one of these in a while, if ever. The one and only Julian Titus from the Stage Select podcast. What's going on, man? Oh, I'm blushing. That's such a nice intro.

[00:00:45] I try to go as over the top as possible. Then that way, if people like leave after the first minute, they've already hit the peak that that's they've hit the best part of this. So I got your click. So hey, it's it works all the way around, man. We are here to talk about Demons Crest.

[00:01:02] Yes. Capcom game from 1994 late in the Super Nintendo lifecycle. And so why? Oh, why did you have me play Demons Crest? What's your history with it? Where'd you? Yeah. What's the story?

[00:01:17] Yeah, you you know, you reached out and asked if I wanted to come on a bargain bin episode. And there's actually fairly few games that I picked up from an actual bargain bin, mainly because, you know, I spent so much time in gaming retail and stuff like that. So I wouldn't really, you know, I wouldn't call like grabbing a steal on a trade in, you know, at my store, like a like a bargain bin situation. But this is a game that I actually got from a bargain bin.

[00:01:46] I remember it very distinctly because I, you know, so we've talked about this in the past, but you know, raised Jehovah's Witness. So, you know, birthdays were out, Christmas was out. So it wasn't like I was getting those, you know, kind of guaranteed two games a year, like, you know, a lot of people in your audience and a lot of your other guests have talked about in the past, right?

[00:02:11] Right. So I was always like pretty like I we rented a lot and and it was pretty rare that I would get a game. And I was I was very like, like, I can almost count them on on one hand, like the new games that I, you know, got my mom to purchase for me.

[00:02:33] Sure. But I remember this very distinctly because we were at Target and there was an actual like bargain bin and we like she let me pick the games were like $20 in that in that bargain bin. Wow. That's super cheap. Yeah. You know, like back then. Yes. Like for cartridge games that didn't happen very often. No, no, it did not. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you know, once you got to like PlayStation one and PS2, like $20 games were like just all over the place.

[00:03:01] Like, yes, correct. Super easy to come by, but not not for like Super Nintendo and Genesis stuff. No, no way. Once CDs made those made games much more affordable, but they're actually I wouldn't say much more affordable. They're much more discountable. You know what I mean? Like they're much more discountable. They were still 60 bucks, but at least they would they would go down to a couple bucks in a bargain bin. You're right. Cartridges were not like that. That's so interesting. Yeah. So they were 20 bucks a pop.

[00:03:28] And, you know, so I got to get to which was which was crazy, you know, because like, you know, it was still cheaper than buying a brand new release. Right. Because those are going to be like 60, 70, $80, depending on what game we're talking about at that time. And so I picked up True Lies for Super Nintendo and Demon's Crest for Super Nintendo.

[00:03:53] True Lies just I think that one was more of like the oh, if I can get to this one looks kind of cool type of thing. Right. But Demon's Crest was like right up my alley because I loved Gargoyle's Quest for the Game Boy. Yes. Loved, loved, loved, loved it. Great game. Yes. I didn't. I don't think that I had played. No, I take that back. I think I had rented Gargoyle's Quest 2 for the Nintendo, but I think I only got to rent it once. That's also a pretty rare game. Is it? OK.

[00:04:22] Gargoyle's Quest 2 came out also kind of late in the NES lifespan and then Demon's Crest, which is the third in the series, which, you know, it's weird that they changed the name. Yeah. And I'm honestly, honestly kind of surprised that I got away with it now that I think about it. It had Demon right in the name. I was thinking that was one of my questions I had queued up in my brain because I do remember your background. You came from a very religious family.

[00:04:48] I am surprised your mom was or your parents were OK with this demon on the cover. Very devilish. Yeah. I'm wondering if I pitched it to her that. No, I've played this before, but it was called Gargoyle's Quest. He's a gargoyle. I'm wondering if that's what like. I wonder if we had a conversation like that because. OK. That would make sense. It would make sense. Yeah. But yeah, now I think about it.

[00:05:15] Like, I don't. Yeah, I don't know how that happened, but no, got to go home with those two games. Sweet. Both good games. One very, very far away better than the other. Yeah. Which is why we're here. I've never played True Lies on the SNES, right? Super Nintendo. Yeah. I've never played True Lies, but I do know this game has a following. And this is one of those games that popped up on NSO, right?

[00:05:41] Like when the Super Nintendo, it's available to play on the Switch now. And I saw it and I'm like, ooh, I remember that game from Nintendo Power. That game looked really cool. And then I kind of forgot about it, like everything else in my life. And I then, when you brought this up, I was like, oh, I know that game. This will be fun. This is a really good game. Like, this is really quality game.

[00:06:07] Obviously, Capcom, you know, we all, we, you know, as soon as I, that, the Capcom sound in the beginning, I was just like, oh, just wrap me up in this blanket of, of nostalgia. This is a, this is lovely. But, um, this is really solid. So what was your first impression when you, when you played it, when you popped it in? Not expecting much, right? $20 game. Hey, it's a game. Oh, well, here's the thing though. Capcom is my favorite game developer, like full stop. Okay.

[00:06:37] And again, huge fan of Gargoyle's Quest to begin with. Um, I think, and you know, like you big, big magazine consumer, right? So I kind of knew what to expect. It still blew me away. I think this might be a hot take. I'm not sure. I think this is the best looking Super Nintendo game. I, I think it's got the best sprite art on the console. Gorgeous. It's what I loved about it. When I, my first, let me just jump right into it. We can just pinball everywhere. That's totally fine.

[00:07:05] And what I really struck me at first was, was the sprite work. That was the first thing that hit me immediately. Like, wow, they're, they're just the right size to they're not too big. Cause I've played Super Nintendo games, especially late Super Nintendo games, where they were really feeling themselves with sprite sizes where sprites would be too big. Kind of like Ren and Stimpy. I remember that distinctly. The sprites are too big. So your character's unwieldy and it's not terribly fun to navigate.

[00:07:32] Uh, it was a perfect size for the arena. They're in the control is just simple enough to be able to figure it out almost immediately without having much trouble. I love the idea of hovering with a tap, not even to hold the button to hover. That may be a little thing. Um, it controls great. Uh, I learned real quick. The goal is to get as close to the, to your enemy and shoot, get close. Don't try to range them because you can only shoot one projectile at a time if I remember correctly.

[00:08:01] But, um, I remember the game looks beautiful. Like some of the, some of those bosses are genuinely terrifying. There was some, I was like, Ooh, this is cool and gross, gross and goopy. Even that very first level, right? With that, like a zombie dragon that you fight. Yeah. Yeah. What an open. Yes. And the, you know, phenomenal music. The music is extremely good. I put this, I put this kind of on par with like symphony of the night because it's also a similar structure.

[00:08:30] It's not, it's not a full on like Metroidvania, vania slash search action game because there's separate levels. Yeah. But the, but you do return to the levels as you gain new abilities and have more to explore. Yep. I would love to see this on like the DS or the 3DS. I think this would have been a great game because that was the one thing that was a bit of a drag for me, which it is what it is, is going back and forth to that inventory screen over and over again. The game does a pretty good job of making it. I would love to just have that on a second screen.

[00:09:00] Oh, sure. That inventory screen on the second screen. I am now that is like next level for me. Uh, yeah, the music is fantastic. Uh, very impressive. This is one of those games where I don't know if we can quite call it a hidden gem, but it's one of those that doesn't get talked about a lot, which is an assuming why you wanted to talk about it here. Yes. I, the whole series for me is a hidden gem. This is the like when, so, you know, Capcom actually, I think was the beginning of last

[00:09:28] year, they did a survey, like a really big survey where it was like, it was like what I was waiting for. They were like, Hey, you know, if we were gonna like remake or remaster something, what should we remake or remaster? And then it was like, if we brought something back, what should we bring back? And Gargoyle's quest slash demons crest is always at the top of my list. Yeah. It's like, it's like this it's only Mousha it's Dino crisis.

[00:09:55] Um, like, uh, Maximo is like kind of close to the top of that list. Breath of fire. Like there, you know, Capcom has so many amazing legacy franchises that have been dormant for so long, but this is the top of the list for me, but it's also like the one where I'm like, it's never going to happen. Like, you know, I, I would be happy. I would, I would be over the moon if they just gave me like a, like a, like a collection that's playable on modern systems of all three games. And I'd be, I'd, I'd be happy with that.

[00:10:23] Like, you know, I think that they should have done a new game ages ago. It's never going to happen, but I want more people to experience these games. Cause I think they're incredible. But, uh, I think the only one that really got traction was Gargoyle's quest. And I think it's because of when it came out on the game boy. But then, like I said, Gargoyle's quest to really late on the NES. I actually thought Garg, I actually thought demons crest was 95.

[00:10:49] So, uh, I thought it was later than this, but I probably didn't pick it up until like, you know, it was probably like late 95 or something like that. Yeah. This was November 94. Okay. So yeah, still pretty, still really late. And yeah. Also talk about being born under a bad sign. There's a lot of good games coming out for the super Nintendo in late 94, early 95. 94 was kind of a big year. Yeah. That was a biggie. I, that's one of those where all our podcasts or shows will be like, you know, best year ever.

[00:11:17] Like 94, 95 are usually in those conversations. Uh, so which can, which is why, which can explain why it was a bit of a commercial failure. Uh, it did not do very well. According to Wikipedia, it says the Capcom rejected a potential port to the game boy advance by a studio that would later become renegade kid for this reason, a studio evidently that was based in Austin. I don't know what they did. I remember the name renegade kid. Oh, wait. Oh, I do know renegade kid.

[00:11:47] Um, they, they, uh, like jewels, uh, watch him. The, uh, the head of that studio used to shop at my store and there they did Dementium the ward. Yep. There you go. I love talking to you, you know, all the ladies. Yeah. Dementium the ward, Dementium two. Yeah. And I'm just reading these. I have no idea what any of this madness is. Yeah. Dementium was actually a pretty big hit on the DS. Um, okay. Jewels used to work at a claim Austin.

[00:12:16] And so he was a regular at our store back in the acclaim days. And then after a claim shut down, we kind of, we kind of lost track of him for a little bit. The last time that I saw him was actually at like E3, uh, 2004. Okay. No, no, no, no, no. I take that back. I think it was actually, no, yeah, it was the 2004. Uh, and I think he had started his own studio at that point, but then I kind of lost track of him and then I kind of found him on Twitter again years later.

[00:12:46] And by that point, like Dementium had already come out and stuff like that. But yeah, uh, uh, Londoner, like, you know, by way of Austin, but, uh, cool guy. And yeah. So man, yeah, they would have done, they would have done right by, by a demon's crest port. That that's a shame. Yeah. They were a guana, which was a claim. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I always go by a claim Austin cause I think it's easier for people to, and they were a claim Austin right before the end. It's funny on your show and the last, last most recent episode, I believe y'all were talking

[00:13:16] about how, how it's funny. People of our generation remember who made the games and Mike Fallick was saying, I don't remember who makes my games. I don't know who makes my video games. And we're like, Oh yeah. Iguana entertainment and this guy. And for some reason I, that really hit home with me when I was listening to that last night or two nights ago, I was like, Oh man, he's right. He's right. For some reason, gamers of a certain vintage or age, we remember where those come from. That's so funny. Yeah.

[00:13:45] I, it goes back, I think to a lot to the magazine stuff. Right. And he did mention that on our show. Cause like, yeah, like, you know, you would EGM, right. It'd be like, Oh, you know, here's the developer, here's the publisher. And then like in the, in the preview, it's like, Oh, well, so-and-so, you know, it's known for this. And it's like, Oh, right. And you would start to like connect those dots and, and, and realize like, you know, who made the games that you liked. And like I said, Capcom is my all timer. Like, even though as much of a fan of final fantasy and RPGs as I am, Capcom has been consistently

[00:14:14] like on the mark for me, you know, with just incredible series after incredible series. Uh, I do think the name change probably hurt this one. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Cause, cause you probably have people who knew the Nintendo game and the Game Boy game, but all of a sudden demons crest comes out and you know, it's just, you have that disconnect. And I wonder why that happened. Um, there's no information as to why on, at least on the wiki, but, um, I'm curious, it'd be interesting to know why.

[00:14:40] Cause they use the fire brand is the name of the, the red dragon that you're demon rather that you're using. And I remember that name from the other games. So that stays consistent, but for some reason the title doesn't, which is weird and strange. Also, you know, I, I mean, people listening to this probably are aware, but it is, uh, you know, a spinoff of the ghosts and goblins franchise as well. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. That was the spirit cause firebrand is, is that little demon dude that, that, uh, just

[00:15:06] punished me mercilessly whenever I played ghosts and goblins at my cousin's house and said, Oh wow. I thought I was good at games until I can't get past the first level of this one. Great. Thanks game. So, uh, yeah, no, this is a, this is a joy to play. It's got a cool story. It's got an actual, like actual lore going on. Did the other two have any sort of loose lore for Nintendo Game Boy times?

[00:15:31] No, actually the first two games are pseudo RPGs. Wow. Okay. So, uh, they, the, the first two games actually have overworlds a la like dragon quests where you're walking around and talking to people and buying items. I think, I think the first game actually has like, you know, you can search around the ground for stuff, but then when you would get into like a random battle, uh, it would turn into a side scrolling action level and it is like tiny little level.

[00:16:01] Um, but you would, you would get into random fights on the overworld and then you would go through like a little platformy bit where you're like killing X number of enemies and then you would leave and then you would go into a dungeon and then the dungeon would be full on exploration and hovering around and fighting enemies like you're doing in this one. Okay. So almost like a, um, Oh man, what's the act like an activator almost kind of a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. It was like a really cool, like RPG hybrid back when those weren't very prevalent. Yeah.

[00:16:30] No, that sounds really cool. That's actually really, really interesting and good. Um, but yeah, it's got a cool story. You know, uh, the Thalnex, uh, has stolen the crests, the six magical stones that represent the, uh, fire earth, fire, earth, water, air, time, and heaven. And then the crest of infinity will appear, which will give infinite power to whoever wields it. Uh, our, our pal, the red, the red demon has, has everything.

[00:16:56] And then he gets snuck up from behind in a really cool cinematic and a really cool in engine cinematic gets snuck up from behind and loses all but a fragments of the fire. And it's your quest to get everything back. Um, again, I think the enemies look fantastic. The sprite work is, is great. Um, I really wish. Yeah, go for it. Yeah. I just, I just had a thought. So I, I did, I did not get to play this for this episode. I'm going solely on, you know, nostalgia and memory.

[00:17:26] But the more that we're talking about this game, the more I'm like, oh, uh, Ega totally was like inspired by demon's crest when he made symphony of the night. Wasn't he? Cause there's like a lot of parallel here. He had, he might've been, there is a lot of, there are a lot of parallels. Absolutely. And, and I, again, especially in the enemy design and the sprite design. I remember the one in particular is there's this goopy eye monster that comes up from the

[00:17:52] bottom and then you, it becomes, you kind of chases you up this corridor and that the very top is start spinning its eyeballs at you. I'm like, this is so fun. As somebody who enjoys that sort of thing, like just appreciates it. Um, there's that one enemy that's called the crawler, I think. And I like at the end, they give you all the names of the bad guys, which I always, I always love when games do that. Oh, me too. I love when they do that personalized them for me. So when I go back through, I know what they are.

[00:18:19] There was one called the crawler, which is like has 85 rows of teeth and slid around on the ground. All disgusting. Really cool stuff. Really cool stuff. For sure. Uh, and again, it controls well too. And there's a lot of, um, opportunities for, um, expressive play. You have, um, you, the different crests that you receive will give you different forms. So the crest of water allows you to navigate the water. Uh, the flying, there's a flying one allows you to fly more easily.

[00:18:47] Um, really just a lot of fun. Do you remember? Um, did you, I'm sure you beat it as a kid because it sounds like you had it as a kid. Yes. You took care of it. Yeah. I beat it, but I was not able to 100% it. I remember trying really hard to get everything. And there was just like a couple things. I remember scouring previous levels, looking for those last couple of things and just could not find them. I watched a, I got through maybe a third of it or so. And so I got the feel for it. And then I just watched like a let's play of it. There you go. There are some of those.

[00:19:16] Some of those are really oddly hidden. There's one of the, um, life expanding items, power-ups that expand your life bar. It's hidden in a bell and you have to head, but a bell in like one of the last dungeons to make this thing just pop out of the bell. Like, how are you ever, ever going to discover that on your own? There's no chance. There's no chance. Oh, well, I mean, once I got, cause that's the earth form. That's his headbutt. Like he headbutts into the background. Which is cool.

[00:19:45] But so once I got that out of power, it's like, well, I'm headbutting everything. Everything. Headbutt it all. Why wouldn't you? Um, and that's another thing too, is just like, yeah, having all those forms with like all of the, you know, bespoke sprites and animations, right? Like, you know, it, it's a, it's a impressive display for, you know, late era Super Nintendo. Yeah. It's, it's really good. I would say it looks better than, I mean, Super Castlevania was early as Super Nintendo, but when you look, I'm thinking about gothic games of that style.

[00:20:15] There weren't a ton on Super Nintendo, more on Genesis probably than, than Super Nintendo, but I would put it up against, you know, the, the, the greats of, of, of that genre. I think it's a, it's a really solidly made game. So let's talk a little bit about some of the other things in this game. I I'm always struck by how you said, this is a bargain bin game. You pay $20 for it back in 1995 ish. Yes.

[00:20:43] Just based on your extensive knowledge of video games, how much do you think this is worth now? Loose on price charting. What do you think? I'm going to, let's see. Cause I haven't, I haven't been paying attention to like post COVID bubble. Cause I know things went crazy there for a while. Yeah. I'm, I'm going to hazard a guess at 350. Okay. 350 loose. Okay. So if you say 350 loose, how much do you think complete? Five. Okay.

[00:21:13] So the loose price right now, according to price chart in which course is an aggregate is one 40. Oh, not bad. See, I'm still thinking of like the last time I was really paying attention where everything was like just redonkulous. Insanity. Yeah. Yeah. I think it, it peaked in 2023 ish at around one night, about 200. That's considering how, how late in the generation and how poorly it sold. I'm actually surprised. Yeah.

[00:21:41] Because I, I, I used to own, I, and I didn't know what I had at the time. I bought it at game fellows. It was a complete copy. It's, it's one of my secret shames. Uh, Hagan a for super Nintendo. Uh, just, you're there, Bill. Look up Hagan a for, for complete, uh, for super Nintendo and, and, and hurt me. Please. Pagane. Pagane. Let's see. H-A-G-A-N-E. Oh, Pagane. I'm sorry. Yes. Pagane. Pagane.

[00:22:10] The final conflict. Let's see. Is that it for super Nintendo? Uh, yeah. Loose, uh, 1098. Yeah. About $1,100. Loose. Mine was complete, Bill. Can you tell me the complete price? You can just bump that right up to, uh, if it's complete $2,800. Oh, gosh. $2,800. Pagane, the final conflict. I don't, I don't mean to, to hurt you on these shows, but you know, that's wow. Good game. Good game. Is it? Okay. Yeah. At least it's good.

[00:22:40] Yeah. It's, it's, it's, wow. That is insanity. I can't imagine. I can't imagine. That's like a down payment on a car. You know what I mean? Like that's, that's, that's crazy. Um, one of the things I love to do, and I try to do this beforehand, uh, is look through the manual. I'm a big fan of video game manuals. If I collected things, I would collect video game manuals. I, that's, that's, that is the thing I would do. Um, this is a color one. I love a color man. It is a color one. Yeah.

[00:23:09] It's a color one has the story here. I can throw this into the chat so you can enjoy as well. I think I have the manual for my copy of it, but, but my super Nintendo games are, uh, packed up right now. Oh, to pack that. Oh, okay. I just, I just, I just, I just never like finished unpacking from, from when I, uh, moved into this house three years ago. That's totally fair. I, I, you'll never, you'll never, you'll never unpack fully. And then eventually it'll just throw those things away.

[00:23:38] Uh, it's a pretty decent. I, I just got done playing again, doing an episode on King Griffey Jr. presents major league baseball. And that manual is immaculate. It's an amazing, I just did a tick tock on it. It's a phenomenal manual. This one is pretty solid. Has all your powers, has the story, a couple of screenshots, nothing too outrageous, which is why not as much art as I would like. Yes. That's the problem. There's not as much art.

[00:24:06] Um, there is a, a thing called trio, the pay goes gaming shops. Did you remember that from the game when you actually go and do that little head butting mini game where you'd wager, you know, whatever amount of money. And then you'd have to like head, but the skulls that come out of the wall in a certain amount of time. Yes. I do remember that. Yes. So that's a surprise that Nintendo allowed a somewhat kind of sorta gaming shop in their video game. That's always fun. Uh, yeah, nothing, nothing too crazy in this manual. This one's a disappointment.

[00:24:36] So I see, that's why I usually do that ahead of time. So I don't bring it up. But, um, if I swear, I, I, uh, I actually have a, like I have the original box to my copy of final fantasy three for super Nintendo and it's in perfect condition. It was in a plastic bag for three decades or whatever it is. Yeah. Oh, actually mine is too, because it's, it's the one that it's my copy that, that my mom bought for me. Yeah.

[00:25:02] So that one, like what I would buy, when I got new games, like I kept the plastic, I kept, you know, I kept all of the material in there. So yeah, that one, that one is still like that. Very, very cool. Yeah, man. I think this is one of those games. It was released on the, so it's been released and it was playable. It will now, of course it's playable NSO, but it was also released on the different Wii shops. So it was on the Wii, on the 3ds shop and on the Wii shop. So hopefully people were able to play it that way.

[00:25:32] But yeah, but right now it's available on, on NSO and you can just play it. If you have an NSO, I think it's worth, I totally think it's worth playing. Oh, absolutely. I, it's funny. Cause I also own the Japanese version simply because I thought, so my store, we, we, we had, we imported games and I saw that we, like there was this time where like one of our distributors just had like, oh, Hey, we've got like some super Famicom games. Do you all want them? And I was looking at the list and I was like, is, is that like the sequel to demons crest?

[00:26:01] So I picked it up and cause it's called demons blazing. And I was like, huh? And so then I get it, you know, like, like it ships to us. I buy, I buy it from the store. I, I, and I'm like, oh no, it's, it's just demons crest. But now I have the Japanese version also. Oh yeah. Okay. So here demons blazing. Yeah. Okay. So it's just demons crest. Well, that's cool. At least that's neat that you have both. And I'm sure you still have that somewhere in the archives. Yeah. Yeah. Knocking around for sure. Oh, let's see.

[00:26:32] Yeah. Virtual console, 3ds, all that fun stuff. The first mention of this game in Nintendo power, which was again, where I first saw it was, was issue 67. They gave it a, the same, uh, same issue as earthworm gym. So it's the earthworm gym cover issue of Nintendo power. Um, and I, what I like about this is that I'm going to, I'm going to read the first opening crawl here. Um, which is they don't do reviews in Nintendo power.

[00:27:02] They never reviewed. They would write copy. That was kind of marketing, kind of not. And I think this is a good example, but even though they put this in, this got like 16 pages of coverage that this got, Oh, now mind you, it's Capcom. So I'm sure that had a lot to do with that, but, um, must've been a slow month. Um, it says firebrand soars on the super NES, a tale of great battle and revenge. Is that really say battle? Yeah, it does. A tale of great battle and revenge is told at the beginning of Capcom's demon's crest.

[00:27:31] Whatever the story demons crest is cool. It's got great graphics, a Capcom standard, good play control and lasting interest because of all the hidden areas and items. A player doesn't have to complete every single area to finish the game. It may be a little confusing in that respect, but still a cool game. So that is the official entry review in Nintendo power. Oh man. I love, I love, I love mid nineties magazine writing.

[00:27:58] I love it because it was still like, they were so much aiming it at like the, the, you know, the kid and teen demographic. Like I, so, you know, I, for a while there, I was trying to collect every issue of EGM and I've got a, I've got a good chunk of EGM and I love to read EGM from like 93 to like 96 because like everything is all caps and like triple exclamation marks. Yes.

[00:28:25] Lots and lots of, lots of ellipses and all, yeah, it's all that stuff that your, your, your teacher, your literature teacher would be really upset if you bust it out into a term paper. Yeah. But they were so excited. Oh, totally. This was the December 94 issue, which means they're probably, that's interesting. This is December 94. Huh? Okay. So this was, this was not quite the holiday stuff yet. Cause they were always, I guess a month behind. Yeah. At least. Yeah. At least. Right.

[00:28:51] So in this issue, in this issue of volume 67, since how much more can you talk about demons crest, uh, demons crest led off on the reviews. There was earthworm gym part two. Oh, earthworm gym part two. Yeah. That makes more sense. Yeah. Yeah. Earthworm gym part two. Yeah. Okay. Then we have zero, the kamikaze squirrel, which I know nothing about. I don't know what that is. I've never heard of such a senseless thing. It sure is a mascot platformer.

[00:29:19] I was going to say, it sounds like a humdinger of a mascot platformer. And then we move on to a super return, the Jedi, which is great. Mm-hmm. And then uni racers, which has been featured on this podcast before. Also great. Love that game. And then 10 star. Remember 10 star. I do remember 10 star. I never played it. Yeah. Is that, that's the one, isn't it where you're like part of it, you're playing with the controller and part of it, you're playing with the super scope. Ooh, is that right?

[00:29:48] Let me say, let me, let me go. Uh, in an archive is not good about moving forward and back because the pages never line up. 10 star. Let's see. Yeah. Yes. That is the one you're right. You play, you do some of it with this, with a super scope and some of it is played elsewhere. I don't know why my brain works like this. I don't know either. It's pretty amazing. It's pretty incredible how I can bring up mostly anything.

[00:30:14] Uh, there were still Nintendo games can be getting, coming out during this era, which was odd. Uh, Wario's woods for the NES was the NES game feature that month. And then for Game Boy, there's still Game Boy games getting put out as well. Samurai showdown, Wario blast casino fun pack. Huh? I think Samurai showdown on the Game Boy. I can't. I rented Samurai showdown on the Game Boy. Uh, why? Wait, no, no, no, no, no. Nevermind.

[00:30:44] I take that back. I think I, I must've played it at our store when we got it traded in. But I did own Mortal Kombat one for Game Boy. That's, I can't imagine. I can't. It's awful. I can't. But it was the only way I could get Mortal Kombat. I love that. Oh, I'm in. Wait, hang on a second. I'm totally. I'm sorry. I'm, I'm sorry. I'm jumping all over the place here. But again, that's what it is. Sorry. Wario's woods is correct. They also have, um, let me back up real quick.

[00:31:10] So Samurai showdown, um, Wario blast is a Bomberman clone. Yes. That's interesting. How are you on Bomberman? I never got into Bomberman. I never got it. I never did either. Uh, part of it is that I played the original Bomberman and I thought it was terrible because like the original NES Bomberman is nothing like what you are thinking of Bomberman in your head right now. If you go look at original NES Bomberman, it has no other than the fact that you're, you're,

[00:31:39] you know, it's the same overhead thing with the bombs, but like the, the aesthetic and everything. And I don't know if that was because of they, they changed the character, uh, for the, the American release, they would do that a lot with sprites back then. Uh, but I hated it and, and I never, so, you know, Bomberman was getting more and more popular and I just ignored it. It's like, no, I hate Bomberman. And then I think I finally, like, I played it with like some coworkers at game fellows cause they were really high on Bomberman. I was like, okay, no, that, yeah, that's pretty fun.

[00:32:08] But like, I, yeah, I never, I never, it was never a thing for me. Now the choices piece of this magazine, again, I'm just going to talk about the magazine for the next few minutes just to fill out the episode. Yeah, fine. I love, I love going, this, this going down rabbit holes is a third, four page spread. Yes. A four page feature on the virtual boy. Do you remember what the code name of the virtual boy was before it was known as the virtual boy?

[00:32:37] That I don't actually, because I like the virtual boy kind of like came and went so quickly. Cause I, I feel that like, it was like a, like, I think it was like it, it was not in like, you know, like preview status very long before it was here. So no, I don't remember. So this one has it as code name VR 32. VR 32. That's the code name.

[00:33:02] That vaguely rings a bell, but it's definitely not as evocative as like project reality or project dolphin or. Yeah, no, it's very, it's, it's pretty lame. I was just curious if, if somewhere in there, but they have this system based on these screenshots looks amazing. I can't, I can imagine reading this as a nine, 15 year old, 14 year old being like, this is it. Nintendo's got it. Got this in the bag. And we all know what happened with the virtual boy.

[00:33:32] Have you ever had your head in a virtual boy or even? Yeah. Once at, at, um, target, like a display kiosk. I remember playing, uh, red alarm for about three minutes and being like, I, that's enough of that. That's enough of that. My best friend, Joey had a, had a virtual boy. He owned one. Yeah. And, uh, so I've had my head in a virtual boy a number of times and I, I could never

[00:33:57] quite just not have a headache after 10 minutes and I could never, and playing tennis and red alert and all these other things. Uh, I could never quite, never quite get my head around the, uh, the, the virtual reality piece of it. Um, I never understood why they went with red for the color that just seemed like the, the most like offensive to the eyes choice they could have made. It's like the highest contrast.

[00:34:27] Like no one read on, I looked at a lot of websites back in the day that we thought they were really cool and would do like red text on black background. Never worked. It was never good ever. So I don't know who thought that was going to be. Uh, they're talking about how expected retail price of $200 will be affordable to everyone. The only remotely comparable products are VR goggles for PCs that cost between 500 to

[00:34:54] a thousand dollars and still require an expensive computer to run the software. That's amazing. Honestly, I'm surprised that there was even like, um, computer. I don't even VR goggles at that time for that low of a price in. I highly doubt that. That sounds cheap. Honestly. Yeah. I don't, I can't. That's what VR ended up coming out at, you know, when they brought it back, you know, now like that, that's what they were running. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Awesome, man.

[00:35:24] Well, that I think does. I think we fully mind the depths. So as I always ask on tales from the bargain bin, I think this is an obvious answer based on your experience and my experience, but demons crest for the super Nintendo. Are we taking it home or are we putting it back in the bin? Oh, Bill, we're, we're taking it home twice. We're, we're buying, we're buying the American version. We're buying the Japanese version. Um, yes. And we're telling all of our friends about it because more people need to know about it.

[00:35:53] I think it, I think it, and you know, like, again, I think it's the best looking game on the system, but I also think it's just one of the best games on, on the super Nintendo. And I do, I do actually think it's kind of a hidden gem because I, I think a lot of people missed it. I'm glad that it is available on Nintendo switch online. And, uh, if you have that service and, and you have not played this game yet, go, go do that right after you finish this, this podcast. Yeah. Don't, and don't, yeah. Don't be like me and just say, Oh, that's neat. And then completely forget about it.

[00:36:23] It is, uh, it's definitely worth your time. You can probably roll through it in like a few hours. It's a great length. Uh, definitely recommend that as well. Uh, before we leave, Julian, why don't you tell the folks if they don't know already what you do at stage select and, um, how they can get ahold of you. Yes. Uh, I am, uh, one of the hosts of the stage select, uh, video game variety show, uh, which is what we are. Uh, I, I always say that the elevator pitch is that we're like the Muppet show, but for

[00:36:51] video games, uh, we have just a crazy menagerie of colorful characters that, uh, work quote unquote for the show, uh, you know, skits, sketches, weird shenanigans. The only guarantee on an episode of the stage select is that you don't know what you're going to get. Uh, but other than that, you know, we're going to talk about video games. That, that is the only guarantee is that, is that we will talk about video games in some

[00:37:19] form or fashion, but other than that, sometimes we go to space. Sometimes, uh, a really aggressive, uh, game show host appears. Uh, we have an elder God living in our bathroom. It's a whole thing that as I was going to mention the elder God in the bathroom. Yeah, that's, that's the thing that occurs. You have, you have a bunch of, it's a really fun. You never know what you're going to get. And I love the randomness of it, but I also love the craft of what you're doing as well.

[00:37:47] Like I really, I, you guys are doing, you guys are really doing really good work on there. It's, it's one of those shows that seems kind of effortless, but I know it requires a lot of effort because it's, it's, it's a great balance. And it's still, if you're, if you remember the old nerds without pants, it still has that kind of vibe, that conversational vibe, but all of a sudden, you know, but the janitor shows up and starts just muttering about something. It's, it's really funny what you guys allow yourselves to do on that show. So I highly recommend everyone check it out.

[00:38:16] Another fun point is that we, me and my, and my cohost, Justin Ham, we do not let each other know what is planned, what we, what we have planned for each episode. So that's part of the fun is Justin occasionally gets that twinkle of mischief in his eye. And, and I'm like, you're going to press a button right now, aren't you? And then he's like, I did a thing. And so he presses a button and then it goes into a new thing. And it may be the only time that ever happens. It might be a new recurring bit. You never know. You never know.

[00:38:47] I think, I don't know. I don't know the last time we used the 311 button. I don't recall if that's been busted out. We try not to remind him about the 311 button bill. Okay. It is a little triggering. I'm just going to say, just going to say, but, uh, may have to whisper that in his ear. Hey, Justin, you do have a 311 button. We need more facts. We need more facts. He's really big about Skaz today these days. Skaz today was, that hit me.

[00:39:15] As a, as a, as an old Skaz fan from back in the day, who was fully, fully in that, in that scene. I, uh, I appreciated. I appreciated that for sure. Uh, and if you appreciate this show, then I highly recommend you listen to all the other episodes that are out there on offer on a Gamer Looks at 40 and Tales from the Bargain Bin. If you go to agamerlooksat4040.com, there's a section for full series playlists.

[00:39:41] You can check out the full series of this show, of this side show, including, and also all the Final Fantasy episodes, all the Legend of Zelda episodes, and the Earthbound episodes, all in one place. They can just binge from one section. So you don't have to cruise throughout the feed. You can just get it all in one place. Um, and other than that, TikTok and Blue Sky are where they mainly hang my hat social media wise. Justin, thank you again for, uh, Justin. Ha! I said Justin. Julian, thank you so much for joining me once again.

[00:40:09] And, uh, until next time, just be kind to yourselves and each other.