An exploration of the history of video games told through the stories of the every day people who lived it. Join me along with a rotating cast of friends, family, gaming journalists, and industry types as we share personal recollections from the last thirty years of gaming, one story at a time.
Send us a Text Message.Final Fantasy 6 is a tale of two stories. In this episode of A Gamer Looks at 40, we look at the first half of this epic tale, The World of Balance. Starting as a traditional rebellion vs the Empire story, the tale quickly morphs into a character study worthy of books, poems a...
Send us a Text Message.From the second the title faded from my 19 inch Zenith CRT and the opening montage began, I was an insta-fan of Fina Fantasy 3/6. Nothing could have prepared me for the epic adventure that awaited me. An experience rich with high drama, interesting characters, engrossing gamep...
Send us a Text Message.Before I spend the next month and a half speaking all sorts of sugar about Final Fantasy 6, I figured I'd fill in the time with a quick pod update and AMA session. Silly questions get answered seriously, life mistakes are shared, and somehow I end up blathering about Cheez-Its...
Send us a Text Message.When I asked Justin Hamm of The Stage Select Podcast which game he would like to do for Tales From the Bargain Bin, he immediately responded, "NBA All Star Challenge on the SNES". Almost too quickly.Turns out, Justin was trying to exorcise some 16-bit demons 'cause this is - w...
Send us a Text Message.While North American gamers dined on Mystic Quest, our pals in the East were chowing down on Final Fantasy 5. Full of customization, intrigue and a killer soundtrack, this game was often considered unattainable aside from emulation and a handful of re-releases. Is this game wo...
Send us a Text Message.While Final Fantasy was already a Japanese phenomenon, things here in the states were slower to gather steam. FF4 did well in stores, but nowhere near the numbers overseas. So, what to do with Final Fantasy 5? Release this complex, job heavy dungeon crawler to a market not rea...
Send us a Text Message.As we put a bow on our virtual round table regarding Final Fantasy 4, there's still so much to discuss. In this, the third and final installment on FF4, we take a shotgun approach to the stories by sharing - well - all the things we didn't on the previous episodes. We talk the...
Send us a Text Message.Last week, we started the FF4 fire by documenting our initial impressions. On this week's episode, we go deeper into the big (and small) moments that left an impact along with the characters that made this SNES launch title a game to remember. STARRING (all handles from Twitte...
Send us a Text Message.In the winter of 1991, Final Fantasy 2 stormed onto North American shores as an SNES launch title and was met with middling enthusiasm. US gamers were too busy stomping Goombas and driving hovercrafts to worry about turn based combat and wandering in circles.But for those who ...
Send us a Text Message.Wrestling and videogames. The two combined conjures up images of late night sleepovers hopped up on Jolt Cola, Pixie Sticks and sweaty man-beasts. But for two brothers in Northern New Jersey, our first blush with digitized pugilism was M.US.C.L.E. on the NES. Join Bobby and I ...