Episode 228 goes back to the beginnings
We take a new angle on the topic of console launch titles and lineups.
Guess what we have this week for you? If you guessed "another Patreon backer request" topic, dang, you're like a genius or something. This week, Jeff Vlasek has requested we tackle the rich subject of video game console launches... and it's a good thing it's a rich subject, because we've actually already touched on this material. If you think waaaay back, almost exactly six years to July 2013, our very first Retronauts relaunch episode topic was also about console launches.
That being said, this new episode is not just a rehash or redux of the older conversation. For one thing, the older episode was only about the 30th anniversary of the Famicom/MSX/SG-1000 launches in July 1983. We have approached this material from a fresh angle here, stepping back all the way to the Atari 2600's launch and covering nearly a decade and a half of major console launches (we made it all the way to Super NES this time around). This is less a discussion of games or consoles than it is a survey of what the games with which these systems debuted said about the nature of the console in question, and what they said about the state of the games industry as a whole at the time.
Thanks to Steve Lin and Chris Kohler, who brought their collector's perspective and experience to the table here. And, of course, thanks to Jeff Vlasek for challenging us to come up with a fresh perspective on a familiar topic.
Retronauts Episode 228: Console Launches
MP3, 49.1 MB | 1:45:31
Direct download | Retronauts on iTunes | Retronauts on Libsyn
Episode description: By patron request, Jeremy Parish and Bob Mackey revisit the topic of classic console launch lineups from Atari 2600 to Super NES with Chris Kohler and Steve Lin. How did these first games speak to their systems—and to the state of gaming at the time?
