Gaming Stories - Father's Day Edition

With Father's Day right around the corner, Ryan and James sit down and reflect on some of their fondest gaming memories shared with their dads. Ryan is thrust into a surprise shift as a tour guide for Timber's Island, assisting James on a walkthrough of Diddy Kong Racing.

IG: @ella787 's Olimar Colossalcon cosplay https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZBy5hmtMvI/?igsh=MWg5bHg3M3kzMzBrYg==

Games Discussed

The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion
Mina the Hollower
Diddy Kong Racing

Special Thanks To

• Cover Art - @Falah
• Logo - @Psyonyx
• Music - Robotic Park by Kyon

 Wanna Reach Out?

• Send us a BlueSky message @coopcampfire.bsky.social
• Send Us Fan Mail
• Linktree

Stay Cozy!!

Transcript

Intro and Oblivion's Mace of Doom

Ryan 0:00

Now, James, are you familiar with the mace of doom?

James 0:03

It sounds familiar.

Ryan 0:05

It was this crazy ass thing that came with the DLC. It was the Wizard's Tower DLC. What you'd have to do is use that paintbrush trick. You go into this wizard tower DLC right in front of the doorway. You have to have paintbrushes that let you go up just above the doorway, and then you uninstall the DLC. You uninstall the DLC, you reload your game, and it puts you in this black skybox, but there is a house that's about like 10 meters from you, and you're stuck in the air, and you have to jump, which will move your body ever so slightly towards this house until you jump on top of the house. Like the gravity, the physics just starts working normally around the house, so you just fall. And if you miss the house, you have to reload. So you have to make sure you're high enough. That's why you use the paintbrushes. Oh my lord. Stay with me. You fall onto the house. Now you're outside the house, and you have to look into the house and hit a bench so that you sit in it, and then it clips you through the wall into the house. So then you stand up, you leave the house, and you are outside at the base of a mountain. It's all snowy and white. There are like four other houses around you. You can get those things that at the end of every oblivion gate, you get like those stones that give you the deedra stones or whatever. Yes, the deedra stones. There's a few of those like randomly lying around, or it's like randomized of what you get. And then there's an item called the mace of doom lying next to a fireplace. And it is like the best mace in the game.

James 1:40

This sounds like a playground rumor. This is like something you would have told me in like in like elementary school, where it's like, dude, if you cut the if you cut the tire outside of Vermilion City, there's a Mew under the truck. It's like there's no fucking way. That's a real set of instructions you just gave me.

Ryan 1:56

You can also play as Yoshi and Mario 64. Hello, hello, hello, campers. Welcome to another episode of the Co-op Campfire Podcast. If you're wondering what in the heck was that about, stick around. Maybe James's section in the future will clarify what game that was actually from.

James - Colossalcon

Ryan 2:24

But James, you've had a busy couple weeks. What's been going on, buddy?

James 2:28

Yeah, so uh life update, I guess. Uh this is me coming back from Colossal Con. Very fun time. That is has to be one of my favorite uh conventions, maybe ever. It was just so relaxing. It was so chill. I went with two of my best friends, and it truly is if you're not familiar with Colossal Con, I always think of like comic conventions and anime conventions, you know, but a great time. You go to panels, you meet voice actors and actresses, you check out the dealer hall, and this convention has all that. This is par for the course, uh, but truly this is like the party convention. And all intents and purposes, if you like to go to raves, if you like dancing, if you like drinking, Colossal Con is the place to be for that. There are so many good community events that are run. There was like a Beyblade tournament that was happening all weekend. That was just like a rad thing to see on the schedule. Oh they had cosplay wrestling, they had uh like an idol showcase you could basically do like a lip sync choreography to, you know, and people were in cosplay. Like they had all kinds of crazy events that were happening. We went in on a Thursday evening and sort of pre-gamed with Beerio Kart as you do. The staple. You gotta you gotta pre-game a little bit. So back at the room, we played Beerio Kart, and my friends had not really played it a lot, but you know, brought some cider, brought some fireball.

Ryan 4:07

Ooh, fireball. Ooh.

James 4:09

Yeah, we need I wanted to have options. So booted up Mario Kart 64. They quickly realized, man, this game does not control as smoothly as the other Mario Karts do. And then we just played Mario Kart 8. I don't even think we really kept track of like who won the races, but it was just fun. It's a fun format for Mario Kart. Uh Friday, I mean, a lot of the time we just really were people watching. Uh, we had these nice like 24 ounce refillable mugs that you could get frozen drinks, and they had like theme drinks for the weekend and stuff. Uh sat at the bar, just had a good time, relaxed. I cosplayed Prometheus from Hades 2. That was like one of the first big cosplays I've put together, and I had a photo shoot done on Friday, so that was fun to really just go. Yeah, it was a little, I was it was a lot to put together. I definitely feel like I could have done better with it, but I'm still happy with it. I got a lot of help on it. I had some help with the wig, I had some help with the skirt being sewn, and it was like it all came together and worked out, and the photos came out great. I was I was happy with it.

Ryan 5:20

You looked great, bud. I saw those photos, you did a good job.

James 5:23

It it looked awesome. Thank you, bud. I worked really hard to get that together, so I'm happy it kind of came out okay. Friday highlights did some people watching. We checked the dealer halls and stuff. Going to Canes in cosplay was really fun. Uh simult simultaneously at the hotel next to us was the Harley Davidson bike week. So if you want to imagine going to a canes and just seeing a bunch of Harley bros and their families and stuff just look at cosplayers come in and just eat chicken. That was that was fun. Wow, two worlds coming together. I feel like it's always that way with conventions. It's always like there's a girls' dance competition plus the anime con or something happening, but that was kind of the flavor of that. We went to a rave on Friday night that was like EDM and techno, and it was a ton of fun, a lot of wild people on that dance floor, but I remember there was a giant inflatable Pikachu cosplayer just going ham in the middle of that dance circle. That was so fun. Somebody had a SpongeBob's Krusty Crab uniform and a bubble machine, and it just it was like such a fun night. It was such a vibe. We were out till like 2 a.m. One of my favorite things I started doing starting that night was I brought my 3DS for spot passes. You do that at the convention, that's kind of a niche fun thing to do nowadays. People were going nuts for me having the 3DS out, and I started just taking pictures. So I have like pictures and videos of Colossal Con through the eyes of a 3DS. I was in the middle of the dance circle spinning it around, and like it was so cool. It was such a it was such a vibe.

Ryan 7:07

Oh my god, you need to share that video. That is about as authentic and on brand of an experience to have.

James 7:14

It makes me really want to lean into it next year and go like all in on it and not just do the light amount that I did. Like, I absolutely need to do more.

Ryan 7:22

Have like four portable charges on you so you can just keep it on all day.

James 7:27

Uh yeah. Saturday we did some more, you know, just kind of people watching. We did a couple community panels and things, but that was water park rave in the waves night. This is being held at a hotel that has an indoor water park and outdoor pool and stuff. So from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m., we had access to the indoor water park and rode everything. We just got to ride all the rides. I was in a Mario Sunshine cosplay. That was fun. I had the the Hawaiian shirt and the hat and the glasses, and so that was fun to just do that. We had the lazy river. There was a a whole group of cosplayers that went in cubone helmets from Pokemon and they had like the little bone club. We went around in the lazy river, we exit the lazy river, seeing I I kid you not, probably 80 of these people just banging their heads, like their skulls with the bones and yelling, Q bone, cube. It was just so weird. We had uh we spent a lot of time in the wave pool. They had a DJ set go in, everybody was bouncing around beach balls. It was super packed. It was so fun. There were cosplayers that had super soakers that just had like tequila and stuff, and it just like opened wide and just it was super in the pool, yeah. In the wave pool. Oh my god. So just an absolute blast. We did some few things. There was like a cool flea market thing on Sunday. I picked up a couple of like old original run Final Fantasy figures that was like a cool find. So, like from like Final Fantasy VIII when it first came out, like I had this squall figurine, which was pretty cool. They had some fun finds, like just some weird retro merch. There was one I was considering getting for you, but it was it was I was priced out of it just in general. It was like a 3DS controller mount in Japan, but it was like a monster hunter one, and it fit like a 3ds XL. It was just like such a like I need this, I'll never use this, but this is sick. It was a really fun time. I was really sad to leave, but that was really the highlight of my weekend.

Ryan 9:37

Dude, that sounds like a blast. I I mean, I've been to cons, but after you described this con to me a few times now, I think it took this time to really understand like how unique this one was and how it's just like a party con with people who love anime and video games and just like pop culture stuff, and it sounds like a blast.

James 9:57

It was truly some of the the coolest cosplays you've ever seen. Like, definitely there's a lot of like adult cosplays, or you know, like I that's just what it is. That's just kind of the convention.

Ryan 10:09

It is I mean, it's a go wild kind of weekend.

James 10:12

It really is, but you know, I think one of my favorites, uh, they posted on Instagram. I'll have to link that post in the description. But there was an Olimar cosplayer that ran around and had like 30 people in like skin tight suits that were like Pikmin, and she would like direct them around and stuff, and it was just they would you'd literally just be walking down the hall and you'd hear a whistle and you'd see all the Pikmin running down the hall like just regular size people. It was so crazy. It's just like so fun.

Ryan 10:43

Oh, that sounds awesome, buddy. I'm glad you had fun.

James 10:46

Well,

Ryan - Mina The Hollower

James 10:47

what about you, bud? Have you been playing anything lately? You told me you got Mina.

Ryan 10:51

Yeah. Oh my gosh, the wait's finally over. It's it's kind of bittersweet because it finally came out, and I'm just coming off of a burnout of like souls-like and hard games. So I want to play Mina so bad, and I've already dabbled in it. It's just so well polished, and it's been throwing me surprises right away, and it's really bringing me back to that original time of like, oh, Shovel Knight came out, and this appeal of nostalgia kind of looking games was still like super fresh. Not as much as it is anymore today, unfortunately. But it's it was still just so exciting to have Mina come out and to to be a game that's like inspired off of one of my favorite Zelda series, the Oracle games, which they do not get talked about a lot, if at all.

James 11:41

They should be great games.

Ryan 11:43

They're amazing. When they first announced Mina and they announced, like, oh, we're going for the more like Game Boy inspired stuff. It was just like, oh, I'm backing the crap out of this. Like on Kickstarter. Like I got on one of the highest. Shut up and take my money. They they sent me the code that's like it's it's really unique. You have to like enter your name, like this password as your name, and then it'll give you a chance to actually name it. But they sent you questions in the Kickstarter that's supposed to tailor a kind of custom skin or something. I haven't gotten to it yet in the game, but it's supposed to do something unique to how you answered questions.

James 12:22

Huh. That's really that's such a cool backer reward. Yeah, it's it's great. God, I love how polished and amazing and fun and awesome this game is, but I fucking hate it.

Ryan 12:33

But I I hate the state I'm in right now of like I I need to take a break. I need to play something a little more chill so I can return to Mina and give it my proper love. I don't think I'm at that point yet, but I do want to safely avoid burnout and I might try something else. For people who are wishy-washy about Mina, please buy it. It's it's amazing. You're gonna have fun, and it's gonna be hard, but stick with it. It's it's really cool.

James 12:56

That's awesome, man. It's been on my radar for a long time. I'm happy to see it finally come out, and it looks so, so, so incredible. It's tough. We've sort of had this conversation loosely of like trying to schedule out our gaming sessions and like what do we want to play? I'm like, I need to finish Chrono Cross before I start anything else. The second I pick up Mina, it is over for Chrono Cross. So I like, you know, I bought it, it's it's on my switch, but it's just I I I gotta wait, you know.

Ryan 13:27

Yep. The gosh, the curse of the backlog, man. It just things prioritize and it keeps growing. But we'll we'll get there, we'll get to the end of it one day, right? Yeah, yeah.

James 13:37

Eventually, it's okay, it's okay, bud.

Father's Day Story Time

Ryan 13:51

Father's Day is just around the corner. If you are listening to this episode on Friday when we usually release, then this is indirectly a reminder to celebrate your dad in a couple days. While you do that and figure that out, we were talking so many gaming stories that we couldn't fit them all in into episode four. But we want to bring back two in particular that highlight our fathers. So please sit back, relax, and enjoy stories of our dear old dads. One game

Diddy Kong Racing Memories

Ryan 14:23

that has always stood out to me and is a personal favorite between us is Diddy Kong Racing. Most of the time when people bring up Diddy Kong, it is in comparison to Mario Kart 64. And why Mario Kart 64 is so much better. That is false. But that is another conversation. Every time I see Diddy Kong, it's always a personal memory. My dad, my sister, and I have such fond memories of playing this together. My parents were always like very supportive of my gaming passion, but there wasn't a lot of times growing up where like all four of us, let alone like three of us, really played together frequently. I know like when we got Wii Fit, that was a big one. We we got the Wii, we did the whole Wii Sports stuff, and we all played Wii Fit, and we all had our little me's and our weight goals and things on that. That was a fun like family memory. But going back to Diddy Kong, I would always play every game with my sister, and that was a game my dad would also play with us. We got to a point where we went to Barnes Noble specifically to find a Nintendo Power Guide for Diddy Kong Racing. And as you brought up this topic, I was going in to find it, and it was bringing back so many memories. Because in Diddy Kong Racing, there is a place where you can enter cheat codes, and what you have to do is beat the game, and at the credits, at the very end, it'll give you just a random cheat code.

James 15:42

Ryan, are you suggesting that this game was pay to win? The disguised pay to win. What if I had a guide that just gave me everything? Dude, that was the OG pay to win that when you think about it, isn't that wild? Campers at home. We don't have like the video for the podcast, but seeing you pull up that guide, I felt like I got hit by like a nostalgia truck, dude. I loved those old strategy guides, like full color, just going through. They had all the weird CG art that they just had to like plop in on random pages for no reason, like just to fill the space.

Ryan 16:19

Like the renders that weren't used for the box art or what dude, I would love that. I remember going on trips, and the reading material I would bring was all of my game guides.

James 16:30

One of my favorite things to do when you got a game from the store was open it up and just read the manual on the way back. That was like one of my favorite things to just get a jump on like what am I getting into? It was always fun when it was full color, and just it just it's like a different time. Like we just we don't have these guides anymore. Everything's online. Most games don't even come with a manual anymore. So it's just really fun to go through that stuff. We're lucky to get like good box art. No kidding.

Ryan 16:56

When you open up a Switch game and you have like inside box art, we're like, oh wow, what a treat. So true. So going through this manual, aside from looking at all the pages that are falling apart and stuff, it was so funny. So on the very last page, it's called Magic Words. It's a whole list of all the cheats of what they can do, but not the actual cheats themselves. So, first of all, first funny point is that the game guide does not tell you the cheats. Like you it's still like, no, you gotta play them. Like, if you want to do any of these, you gotta figure it out. So on one of these lines, we have big characters, and in highlighter specifically, we have Arnold written out. So that was the cheat to make like big characters in the game. For the rest of them, we have my dad's very clean capital only writing and pen. As far as I remember, dad, you'll have to, if you're listening, you'll have to correct me on this, and we'll we'll get a fact check on the next episode. What I think happened is that we figured out we earned Arnold specifically, but then we were like, well, we want the rest of these cheats. Let's just go to Barnes and Noble and figure out like what they are. And sure enough, another little treasure that has been kept in here. We have all the cheats written down there, but I have a brochure from Barnes and Oval that is Barnes and Noble Kids Book Clubs, chapter book club, second Monday, 7 p.m. And on the back of it, we have all of the cheat codes written in my dad's very clean lowercase handwriting as well. He's got had very good penmanship. We have all of the codes for Diddy Kong Racing.

James 18:34

FU library. I'm taking I'm taking a trip to Barnes and Noble, and we're gonna get this right now.

Ryan 18:40

So I can only assume we went we found like a relevant Game Shark book. If this one didn't have it, we bought this guide, but we wrote down all the codes from the Game Shark book and then we transcribed it into this guide later.

James 18:52

Oh my gosh. I feel like we could have a whole topic just on like old guides and Game Shark. You know, you had those cheat books and stuff that you would like go to sift through if you were trying to find a specific thing that's so funny.

Ryan 19:04

Dude, yes. If we ever get to video podcasts, we need to have like a review of our gaming magazine collections and our favorite parts.

James 19:11

Yes, please.

Ryan 19:12

So anyway, that was just like the first part. It was just a very funny observation of uh us buying that. I do remember that day where we were there. There's not a lot of other memories I remember playing this game besides maybe flashes of racing the first boss. Tricky. He was like this red dinosaur going up a mountain where you're currently it's like a spiral mountain and you have to keep going left up the mountain. But when you get like up to the top, the peak, you're going like almost it feel it felt like you were going like 70 degrees up. And it like, and it was always like the last little turn you needed to make, and you wouldn't turn fast enough, and you'd get flung off the mountain, and you'd see Tricky run and across the finish line. I remember doing that with uh my sister and my dad quite a lot. A ridiculously hard boss fight so early in the game. It's the first one, it's from the first area. That is brutal. But talk about difficult boss fights as I remember it was the first time you get to wiz pig. Fucking pig, dude. Dude, fuck this pig. Hell. He was insane. I vividly remember my dad trying what felt like a hundred times, like for hours. We were just watching him trying to beat this in pig for so long. And honestly, I think that's also what prompted us to go to Barnes and Noble to buy the strategy guide. What we didn't find in the strategy guide, but we found in Game Shark, was to use Pipsy, the mouse. And that was the day our eyes were opened to how godly Pipsy was, which is a whole other topic. She has the highest acceleration, lowest speed, but she has the best handling. And to this day, she is just amazing at going through the game. She was like my main from then on out. I think we primarily played Tip Tup the Turtle, who was like second best to Tipsy. That's your main, James.

James 21:04

Yeah. As a kid, my favorite color, I mean, my favorite color is blue, but I love turtles. You could not have created a better video game racer for me as a kid, was Tip Tup the Turtle in his little light blue car.

Ryan 21:17

But anyway, to wrap this up, we we got all the details. We went to Barnes and Noble we got the whiz pig thing. So we got back that night, and dad was going at it, going at it for more hours with Pipsy now. And finally, after like the hundredth try, he got it. And it was just like pure elation. And we were all just jumping around. It was exciting. He was very excited. And then he wanted to give like us a chance. So uh my sister jumped on, and I think it took her about like 10 tries, but she got it, and that was amazing, and we were just like, oh, amazing. So then it was my turn, and I think I got it on like the first or the second try, just after absorbing all that knowledge and like watching them for so long. It was just great. Like we all subsequently beat WizPig, like one right after the other.

James 22:04

You were Doctor Strange watching every multiverse of like losing to WizPig before it's like we finally got one. We got the one that worked. And then you just had the knowledge.

Ryan 22:15

Holding up the one finger.

James 22:18

We we lose this race in a million timelines, but this is the one where it happens.

Ryan 22:25

So yeah, Diddy Kong Racing has a very special place in my heart. Not because it's superior to Mario Kart, but it is. It is. That's okay. It's on a hot take. Um, but it's it's just so special because of that memory specifically. Any like gaming-related family time memories I have are very precious to me. So that one is my number one.

James 22:47

I loved hearing all of that, man. That like you think back to like how you played games as a kid, or just how you experienced life through the eyes of being a child and like the things you did, or like having to rely on your parents to help push you through those tough moments. Or I love that you still have that cheat book to this day. That makes me so happy that like that's still preserved through the years.

Ryan 23:09

Dude, the pages were falling apart, even just opening it just now. I could feel the back page like slowly tearing off. So I'm like being very delicate with it. Campers, it's disintegrating real time. We need to move on. We gotta read it fast. But like if it felt like playing detective, because I was like, why was this written in highlighter? Oh, well, we must have just gotten sick of it and like had to go look up the rest of the codes and having two copies of the codes, like it was all sort of coming back to me, but it was also like playing detective.

James 23:39

And something I love about this game too, I didn't have that. I mean, I had this game as a kid too. This is not quite the same, you know, everybody has their own experiences with games, but I love that this game has just in general stood the test of time. You and I have probably played through this game co-op three or four times that I can think of at least, and it's just a blast every time. And it's so fun to like go back to having such a whimsical and fun time and then getting to wizpig and hating your life and being stuck for like an hour or two until you get the the swing of it.

Ryan 24:15

Well, especially when we chose Krunch to try to play WizPig, the opposite the complete opposite of Pipsy.

James 24:21

That is still something we've yet to do, which I'm scared to come back to.

Ryan 24:26

One day. I'd rather play a 200-hour RPG than try that again, frankly. Oh, I'm gonna put a pin in that. I'm gonna put a pin in that.

James 24:34

No, no, no, no, no, no. Mark this, mark this. Yep. Uh-huh. We heard it here first. James smashing the save button. I can't wait. I can't wait. I have so many to recommend to you, Ryan.

Ryan 24:49

All

James's Dad + the Dreaded ESRB Ratings

Ryan 24:50

right, but well, you want to take the next story?

James 24:53

The game I really wanted to gush about was Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion. Way back in the day when the 360 was yet to be released, I remember seeing a trailer for Oblivion. I had not played an Elder Scrolls game before, like Morrowind or any of the PC ones that first came out. I saw a trailer for Oblivion when they were like previewing, I must have been at like an E3 or something. And I saw the trailer and I was blown away. I said, I don't know what this game is, but I need to have this game. I need to play it. It sold me immediately, just this first person fantasy world, you know, kind of having like the dual wield of like sword and magic. And I remember there was like a troll that kind of zoomed in on him like, dude, I'm all in. I'm all in on this game. I have no idea what it's about. So why does that have like a personal chord with me? Wasn't I just excited about a game? My dad was very stingy on M-rated games, which is fair. You know, that's like a reasonable conversation as a parent you should have with your kids or just be mindful of before they play anything. Just whatever. You know, look at it, see what they're playing. I get it. But he was very like, you are not playing M-rated games, son. It's not happening.

Ryan 26:04

But dead or alive is fine. Stepdad.

James 26:10

The contrast is just so black and white. Did you miss a word in there, Ryan? Anyways, so now you might be thinking, so James, this copy says T for teen. What are you talking about? M-rated. He would have let you play this. If it was rated T, my dad didn't care. It was blood and gore language, sexual themes, use of alcohol, violence. Whatever. James, you got it. This is your cool little fantasy game. This copy specifically, I don't know. It's really hard to see. Again, I know we're like zooming in on the camera for our own personal purposes. Hold on. Campers, he's finding his own copy.

Ryan 26:47

Uh, this actually might be different because my copy is the game of the year edition, your favorite edition.

James 26:53

I hate this so much.

Ryan 26:56

So, what does your copy say?

James 26:57

Okay, so this is the original copy. This was a like original release copy of the Elder Scrolls for Oblivion. Now yours, Ryan, is rated M. Now mine is rated T. It is. Wow. Isn't that weird? Also, look at this. Do you see how beat to shit my copy is? Look at look at the label there. It looks like you took a cigarette and just shoved it all over the bottom of the label.

Ryan 27:23

Yeah, campers, it looks like there's black smudges all over the ESRB rating specifically.

James 27:29

So take a quick step back. This was the reason I wanted a 360. It was not Halo. I had played Halo at a friend's house and didn't tell my dad rated M. You get the picture. Not the alien blood. I know. Well, that's a funny story too. I have a lot to talk about here. So this game eventually got re-released with an update. It was found out that in a PC mod that you could have the character models basically be nude. And so that was that that was still pretty early on in like game mods and stuff, but like they were there, but they weren't as like easily as accessible. And for whatever reason, Bethesda took the high road and said, you know what, we got it. It's rated M. We'll fix it. This is for the PC only, but whatever. They just kind of accepted like it's M-rated now, that's okay. So there were some copies that when they were re-released, they had a sticker on the back of the label where the teen rating would go that was just like an updated label that just said rated M with all of the stuff. Oh, no kidding. That's wild. So my copy, when we had gotten it, when we got our 360, and when we had gotten oblivion at the time, and I had to explain to my dad, I'm like, there's no way I can access this. I even showed him the article. I'm like, there's no nudity in this game, like, there's no way I can access this mod. There's no, you know, I was doing my best to try to explain to my dad who had no idea what I was talking about. Like, this is rated M for the PC release, but they just put it on everything.

Ryan 29:02

James was Phoenix Wright before Phoenix Wright.

James 29:05

As a weird compromise, and I don't know if this was just like, hey, if like other people come to my house, I don't want them to see that I'm letting my kid play M-rated games. Like, I don't know if that was his mindset, but he literally took the time to like take like a nickel and like scrape off that label. So like hard peel, he like absolutely destroyed the back of the case to get that M rating off of it. Just that sticker. So, like, I don't know if he figured it out, but like the game was originally rated T, right? So, like, congrats, you've scraped off the sticker, and now it's the game that you would have let me play anyway. You know, it's just such a weird I would love to talk to your dad to get his opinion on that. So he actually would let me play M-rated games, but I would have to do it. He made me do like a sales pitch on it. He would make me do like a presentation. So as a kid, I used to make these like I used to love playing in PowerPoint. I used to make almost like animation where I would do like, oh, there's a guy in like a little ski slope, and I would like do the animation and draw it out and like make just like little weird animations and stuff. I would just love playing around with PowerPoint.

Ryan 30:12

The ski slope thing is so real.

James 30:14

Yeah, and I would just love playing around with transitions and effects and all this like weird art and stuff. So to bounce off of that, he would basically like, Hey, if you want to play this M-rated game, you have to tell me why it's okay. Can you give me a video? Can you give me a PowerPoint? You know, so I would have like these PowerPoints ready. I had one for Halo, and I remember when I gave him the presentation and played through the first level, he was just asleep on the couch. So he was awake for the presentation and then immediately, and I remember I'm like, Dad, dad, are you okay? And he's like, Oh, yeah, it's fine. Yeah, I don't, it's whatever, it's like purple blood or whatever.

Ryan 30:50

Yeah, the purple blood. So dude, that is hilarious.

James 30:54

Yeah, so it's just funny, like with the whole M-rated thing where it's like, I don't know if I had to do a presentation for Oblivion. I probably had to explain the whole M-rated mod update thing, PC only, but I just remember him scratching off that and I remember watching him do it too, and I was just like in shock. I'm like, why? Why is this necessary? Like in case he changes his mind last second.

Ryan 31:16

You're just like, okay, just give me the game.

James 31:17

Just give me the game after you do whatever you need to. Oh my gosh. Yeah, and he didn't even care. I played, I played the crap out of this game. I mean, when I think about like games I've replayed over my life, I think of so many times I have restarted Oblivion and just made new characters. I've told people, like, I don't think I've ever I don't have one save file that has a hundred percent everything, but over the course of my playthroughs, I have 100% of this game. I'm sure of it. But I loved starting back, I loved that intro. It was so memorable escaping the prison and going through the sewers, like such a good intro. It was really exciting to play through. You know, Patrick Stewart and everything voicing was fun. It was just a really cool like I never got tired of it, and I always loved the character creation, I always loved picking your like feats and starting abilities and things. Like, I just loved a good character creator, and that was like a way for me to like jump in fresh. So I would always replay this game. I'd probably have like a dozen characters over the years of just different builds, different races, different whatever, and just so much of this game. Like, I I would love to actually go through the uh remastered version to like see it from a fresh coat of paint. Oh my god, dude, it's amazing. It's so true to form. It is so funny when I read the back of this box. There's a quote from xbox.com Oblivion is the best looking game I have ever seen in my life. And you think about some of those character models now, and you're like, There's no fucking way, dude. There's no way they looked at these people. The environments specifically. To be fair, I remember, and I even remember my dad because we had like a plasma TV at the time and like at his house when I would come over and visit. And he even said, He's like, I can't believe games look like this now. Even just getting out of the sewer and just looking at the world map and just like looking around, it was like crazy. It looked so good for the time.

Ryan 33:18

That green of the trees is such a I don't know how else to put it. It's just like when I think of that green, I think of oblivion.

James 33:25

It's vibrant, it really pops, it pops, and it just and I love that they start you out, and it's not this is not unique to oblivion per se, but like I love that they start you in like the dank, dark dungeon that's just like really grimy and kind of so when you do get out, when you see that light of like getting out of the sewer, and you get out, it's like I'm here, man, I'm out in the world, and it's just such a it's like it's that instantaneous moment that is like so impactful to get out of that intro. So that was kind of like my personal memory was like even just looking at the the cover, the case, my game case of like my dad peeling off this sticker and remembering like why I wanted it, what was the thing that sold me on it, you know, uh trying to sell this game and stuff. But

Gushing About The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion

James 34:14

a couple more quick things I wanted to touch up on. Just I loved the arena quest line, I loved the escalating fights, I loved the tragic way you could end the quest where you could like get to know the Grey Prince, the champion, the current grand champion, and his dark upbringing. And like if you wanted sort of the easy way out, you could have him just like succumb to his guilt. Just interesting, you know. It was a really cool questline. You have the adoring fan that gets injected into later Bethesda projects. Hello, guys. I also remembered uh I don't know how many of these you utilize, Ryan, but all of the glitches because this is a notoriously polished video game experience.

Ryan 34:55

Oh boy, and James, some of those glitches are faithfully reintegrated into the if you ever if you ever get to go into it, it's like they're all it's just the same experience.

James 35:07

Can I climb to any elevation with paintbrushes? Just stacking paintbrushes.

Ryan 35:13

That okay, ironically, no, and that was that was my first thought too. Most of the other like quest glitches are still there, but yeah, the paintbrush having zero weight and you being able to use it as like a painting.

James 35:26

Infinite stepping stools like to just get anywhere. I used to do this item duplication glitch, and I think it got patched out, but it was something weird where you would like drop an item while you're swinging, and then like it would hit out, and then you would have a million of them.

Ryan 35:41

Yeah, yeah, it's like you hit it like breaking glass, and then it just like shatters it to like a million watermelons.

James 35:49

And the game is running at like 10 FPS processing all the watermelons that just exploded out onto the floor. Hey

The Great Diddy Kong Racing Tour

James 36:06

Ryan, uh, do you know what time it is? Is it Reyn time? It is not Reyn time. Uh my pamphlet, it's I I spilled a drink on it. You know, I had I had this on my calendar that there is a Diddy Kong racing tour, and you're my guide. What? Yeah, I'm super excited for you to tell me all about Diddy Kong racing. And I just I'm so excited. I booked this tour and they pointed me right to you and said, This is the guy.

Ryan 36:31

Oh god, well, I I need to maybe talk to your references, but uh yeah, sure. Let's go on a tour, whatever.

James 36:37

Yeah, yeah. Um, I being one of your favorite games that you hold up so highly, you know, I just I I'm excited to get lost in this world and I can't wait for you to show me around.

Ryan 36:46

Fantastic. Oh god, help me. Oh, yeah. What was that? I'm sorry. All right, let's get the tour started. Um, can you remind me where we're going?

James 36:54

Yeah, well, actually, that was my question to you. See, you know, I'm super clumsy, you know, I was really thirsty getting on the way over here. Isn't there a name for this island that's you know, Diddy Kong racing? Is there like the name of the island? Uh yes, that would be Timber's Island. Ah, Timber. Okay, cool. Is he like a tiger or something? Or he's cousin of Tony, but yeah, he's a tiger. Okay, that's great. Um, it seems like there's a lot of really interesting locations here. Uh I gotta tell you, Ryan, I've been a huge fan of dinosaurs since I was a kid. And turtles. What would you say is is better? I mean, I'm a big turtle fan, but I love me some dinosaurs, and I'm looking, you know, again, it's a little grainy, it's a little tough after I spilled my drink on it, but I can pick out that there's somewhere called Dino Domain, is that right? That is correct. That is hidden behind the one balloon door. So, quick question for you, Ryan. Um, how many dinosaurs should I expect to see in Dino Domain?

Ryan 37:59

Oh my god, are you kidding me? Sheesh. All right, well, let's see. So are these alive or like bones? Alive, yes.

James 38:09

Alive dinosaurs, and for clarification and just like in general, this these are playable segments. So not in a cutscene, not at like the menu, not in like any other part. It's like you are driving, flying, or whatever can be applicable.

Ryan 38:26

Alright, so if we start at the first one, almost called an ancient domain. Ancient like we got big, oh, like probably the pivotal dinosaur you see is like the big green stegosaurus. So that's one. Um stegosaurus, you say. Yeah, he's a big green guy. He could stomp on you. But yeah, so there's one there. I know there's a pterodactyl somewhere, but it might have been in like fossil canyon. Golly, I I don't know. I mean, we got Tricky, we got the boss, we got uh the Stegosaurus in the first level.

James 39:00

Let me I you know, I'm going through it, it's pointing out some of the locations. So you say there's there's one big green dino in Ancient Lake. Ancient Lake, yep. Fossil Canyon, I think is one of them. Is there anything there? Do you think there's anything flying around or stomping around there? I'm pretty sure there's a pterodactyl in Fossil Canyon. So give me a number. Are you thinking one? Are you thinking two, three?

Ryan 39:24

What are we? I want to say three, but there might be one I'm missing, like in Hot Top Volcano. Maybe like another pterodactyl. No, I'll I'll lock in three, but I think it's wrong.

James 39:34

Okay, so three on Fossil Canyon.

Ryan 39:36

No, no, no, just three in general in Dino Domain.

James 39:39

Oh, three, three total dinosaurs in Dino Domain. I'm gonna go four because I think three is wrong. Jungle Falls, any more dinosaurs? I'm just we're we're I I'm just looking at my list, and I know you're the expert, so far be it from me to correct you. I hate you. You're the tour guide. And so jungle falls, uh hot top volcano, anything there?

Ryan 40:01

I don't remember anything in jungle falls, and I think there might be another pterodactyl in hot top, but I'll I'll I'll lock in five as like a final thing.

James 40:10

I'm excited to see all these dinosaurs. You said there was a triceratops, a stego uh stegosaurus, pterodactyl. That sounds awesome, man. Yeah, how wrong am I? No, I'm I'm on I'm just I'm along for the tour. I don't know why you're I you think I'm grading you? I'm here because they push me to you. So I also, before we go more on the tour, I want to ask one question. I love thrill rides, but I tend to get really sick when there's any kind of loops. Can you point out any of the places we might stop at that have them so I can just maybe stay back? Absolutely.

Ryan 40:44

Alright, so you're if you go into the the icy place, there is walrus cove has one huge loop right at the beginning. You want to avoid that. Uh, if you happen to hitch a ride on a rocket and go to space, there's actually two in a row in Dark Moon Caverns. Wow. On a rocket? Yeah. You go on a rocket and then you go in some purple caverns, and if you finish the race, it's like right near the end. You got two, you got a blue one and a red one.

James 41:17

Wow. That sounds really exciting. I'll have to put a pin on that rocket thing. I don't know how we would even get there. I mean, crazy if they like put it in like a building or like a lighthouse or something. That would be wild. I heard Elon has some connection. Yeah. There's a lot of weird funding on this island, apparently. Um, I'm going through my pamphlet. You had mentioned in Dino Domain there was a uh triceratops I can meet. There's a walrus, an octopus, and a dragon. Do these guys have names? Well, there's Tricky.

Ryan 41:49

Yeah. He sounds cool. I'm just gonna inch for my player's guide that's sitting right here.

James 41:56

Uh yeah, the they said it was like I I don't want to be rude. They said it was like a pretty timed event, so you know, I I don't, you know, we might just need to kind of keep moving.

Ryan 42:04

Fair fair, fair, fair, fair. Uh shoot. Uh yeah, it's it's Tricky the Triceratops, it's uh Wally the Walrus, um Orange the Octopus, and Wheezy Dragon. Okay. Um just you know disappointed.

James 42:29

Just no, no, those are great names. Those are great names. Um, if there was um maybe like a popular kid show that's on right now that might strike a chord with like maybe the name of the walrus, is that does that sound any like anything for you?

Ryan 42:46

The wiggles starts with a B. Uh uh uh boggy? Close. Oh, Bluey? Yeah, yeah, that's right. Sorry, I was a little misinformed. Yeah, it's Bluey the Walrus.

James 43:02

That's okay. I was starting to rub on the pamphlet a little bit, and I got the stain out and it said uh it said bluey. So I just want to make, you know, just uh, you know, just for the next tour.

Ryan 43:11

We'll make sure that's edited in correctly on the brochure.

James 43:14

Yeah, he yeah, first try. Um, so my friend is uh coming after this. Uh, I don't think he has you for the tour guide, but he he's a huge pirate fan. Loves pirates. He's always wanted to visit some cool ships, and Sherbet Island might be the place to be for that. Do you know how many ships we might bump into while we're there?

Ryan 43:37

Uh Sherbet, let's see. Let's see. There's one in Whale Bay that you can actually hop onto if you're very nice to a whale. Whoa.

James 43:46

Um I didn't know we were gonna be getting involved with like the the fish and stuff. That's cool.

Ryan 43:51

Oh, yeah. When you're in the water, we got all sorts of touristy attractions for you. Uh there's one on What's it called? Pirate Cove? You can actually drive right through it. Whoa. I'm gonna say one more. I'm gonna say one more for like I think there's three total ships that you can see. Okay, it's cool. I'll be looking out for them. I'm sorry, did you want more?

James 44:14

No, I was just uh I'm I'm just excited. You know, I'm excited to tell my friend because he loves pirates so much. I gotta say, I I I've really been enjoying the tour so far. It's been a blast. I can't wait to stop at some of these places, but I got maybe one more question for you. I keep seeing this place on my brochure called Future Fun Land. I'm looking at the description here. It says, Marvel at the unique transportation of the future. What a wild sentence for them to print like that.

Ryan 44:41

I mean, when you put Buzz Lightyear wings on a lighthouse and it has a collapsible roof that allows it to turn into a rocket, I mean, that's prettiest futures you can get.

James 44:50

And we're going all the way back to the past and like the prehistoric times and Dino Domain, and now I'm flying into space on Buzz Lightyear Wing Lighthouse rocket ship. That sounds like a day to me. So for my expectations, you know, before because like future fun land sounds really hyped up, you know. That sounds like the the end of like our tour, right? Oh, yeah, that's the grand finale. Yeah, great. Uh, besides like maybe the usual cars, hovercrafts, airplanes, like what kind of futuristic transportation am I expecting to see there? And like maybe how many?

Ryan 45:22

What an obtuse question. Um, well, there are rockets that a certain bully pig keeps coming in and riding as like the final grand finale. Sounds like a major tool in someone I would hate to meet in person. He is a tool, you're right.

James 45:43

Oh, weird.

Ryan 45:44

Oh, there's also UFOs. So we got we got UFOs that come at you, we got a rocket that you can ride, and I think that's about it.

James 45:54

It says uh keep your head down on Space Dust Alley. Is there like a weird like firing hazard or something, maybe? Oh gosh, yeah.

Ryan 46:03

There's like a whole shooting range that you have to Death Star trench run your way through, essentially.

James 46:09

Okay, okay. That's um that's pretty scary, but kind of sounds exciting. They mentioned a spaceport alpha. Is that where you're talking about for this Death Star trench run? Yes, yes, sir. Okay. Uh Space Dust Alley, it looks like that might be more of just like there's like a weird tunnel you go through, and then there's like kind of shots from above. I don't know. I just I'm I'm going by what the pamphlet says.

Ryan 46:31

Yeah, Space Dust Alley, uh, there's a UFO that comes at you and shoots down at you at one point. And you have to you have to like fly in between it, but there's two rows of bullets that are coming on either side of you. Pretty scary scenario to be in, but you know.

James 46:45

Yeah, we we like to keep it lively. Okay, so we've got a rocket. Is that the one that's so that's the one that our our pig friend is riding? So we've got one of those. We have seems like just one spaceship that's kind of shooting down on you. One UFO, yeah. One UFO. Um, oh, oh, right, oh my gosh, I'm looking at the pamphlet and I see Dark Moon Caverns. That was the place you were talking about earlier. That's got the loop.

Ryan 47:08

Yeah, just watch out for those now. You can go through most of it, but break before you get to the end, or else you're gonna be sick.

James 47:15

Very smart. I really appreciate that. Uh, do you think there's any spacecraft there? Anything I should be mindful of?

Ryan 47:21

Oh, I know there's stuff that shoots at you at like a couple turns, but I've never actually like looked at how we installed that.

James 47:30

You know, future fun land is very bold, pretty ambitious in like its design, but you know, maybe some things to just double back on, maybe some safety violations here. They're you know, minor stuff. Yeah, well, as long as we're getting away with it. So you say there's nothing flying around in that area? Uh, not that I've seen legally speaking. Okay, good to know. I'm glad we're uh we're keeping that front and center there. Okay. Star City. That's where I'm gonna be shopping later. It sounds like there's all all kinds of crazy nightlife. Is there anything there I should be kind of keeping an eye out for?

Ryan 48:04

We have this really cool triangle lightning grid that you might not want to fly into.

James 48:09

Yeah, that sounds pretty scary and dangerous to my health, but there's nothing that's like getting me around over there.

Ryan 48:15

Oh no, I misinformed. Sorry, that's that's a different level. Um Star City just has a bunch of zippers and some tight corners that you gotta hit.

James 48:23

Yeah, I mean, enjoy your shopping. I can't wait. You know, it's always nice to take a break, you know, take a stop on the tour. It just sounds like the place to be. Uh, this whiz pig guy seems kind of like a jerk, maybe even has like his own level, perhaps, his own flight zone. Do you think that there's anything flying around shooting at me in there or anything I should be worried about? Oh gosh, is there?

Ryan 48:45

Uh yeah. Oh geez, yeah. His ship is flying around in there too.

James 48:50

You gotta watch out for that. Maybe I don't know. I just I get jump scared pretty easily. So, you know, if there's anything like shooting at me, I I would like to know kind of like a number, just like an expectation.

Ryan 49:01

Yeah, so we got the UFO, we've got WizPig's ship in the final battle, and you said the rocket.

James 49:09

You're if you're counting the rocket that he flies, like that's one. Oh, okay, okay. Then yeah, uh, I'll lock in three. You lock in three for that? Okay. Well, Ryan, uh, Timber's Island seems awesome. I'm so glad that they put me with you. It's been super exciting to learn about this place. It seems like really one of your favorite places and somewhere I just can't wait to get going on. I can't wait to just get in my plane, get my flight license, and just fly on over to Frosty Village for a hot chocolate.

Ryan's Tour Guide Performance Review

Ryan 49:37

Thanks for stopping by. It's been a pleasure. And uh once again, if you can just let me know who your references were, I would love to have a chat.

James 49:45

Ryan, sorry, I'm getting a call. Yeah, hello? Oh. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, he's here with me. Yeah, you want to talk to him? Okay, sure. We're not done with the tour yet, but uh, yeah, if you want to talk to him, that's fine. Ryan.

Ryan 50:01

Hello?

James 50:02

Uh, what information did you give that boy?

Ryan 50:05

The best I could, sir. Who the hell are you?

James 50:08

I'm your boss.

Ryan 50:13

What's my employee number?

James 50:26

Alright, I you know what? I'm I'm just gonna I'm gonna break it. It was fun. Um, so that was my idea of like you gave me the quiz on corn eria, and I said, okay, let's give them the whole game. So would you like to know how you did?

Ryan 50:42

I would like to address how we just dove straight in. And uh, campers, I hope you kind of picked up what we were putting down there. I guess we went on an impromptu, an impromptu tour, good lord, of uh good old Diddy Kong racing. So I'm uh eager to see how wrong I was.

James 50:59

I I sort of posed it as like, oh, I could just like give me name all the courses, but I was like, no, we can do something more fun. So I thought it would be fun to do in a context of like you're the tour guide. This is like your one of your favorite experiences, so take me on the tour. I love it, that was great. So, first question what is the name of the island? You got it right, that is Timber's Island. Woo!

Ryan 51:23

You had to read the manual to get that story bit. I don't think they ever tell you that in the game.

James 51:28

Thank God for that book right next to you. That probably helped you and the manual. How many dinosaurs should you expect to see in Dino Domain? And I hate to tell you, but it is 13.

Ryan 51:40

Holy crap, what?

James 51:42

So, to review, the one you got correct was in Ancient Lake, the big Brontosaurus, and I would say it's more of a Brontosaurus than a stegosaurus. It's like the the one. I mean, we're nitpicking here, but yeah, you're the dinosaur guy. The I'm a big fan. I told you this. Um, but big green dinosaur, you did get that. That was the visual you were looking at in your mind. So yeah, there's one in Ancient Lake, there's three in Fossil Canyon, there is a Brontosaurus in that level, but there's also two pterodactyls. There's one on that shortcut before like you get into the cave, and then there's one on that path like you're going outside before the starting line.

Ryan 52:22

Man, that was such a good question. I remember visualizing like purple pterodactyls, but never focused on like where they popped up.

James 52:30

You got two in Jungle Falls, and I'm glad you asked the question, not fossil bones, because I liked where your mind was going. Like you think about a lot of these things on the track and like some of the dinosaur footprints and stuff. So there's two pterodactyls on Jungle Falls where those fossils are, and that's it. There's no Brontosaurus, there's four in hot top volcano. There's the Brontosaurus at the end, and there's three pterodactyls throughout the level. Hot top volcano.

Ryan 52:56

Damn it.

James 52:56

I knew that one had a lot. I'm glad you said tricky because I did count that as a number. That is a unique and and also there's no, I was like double checking to make sure that there wasn't like a random pterodactyl or like a model of the Brontosaurus in the background. It's like, no, it's just him in that level. If you want to be cheeky, if you do the Fire Mountain challenge, there's a Brontosaurus in the single player version and a pterodactyl that flies around as well.

Ryan 53:21

Oh, I knew there's a pterodactyl.

James 53:23

I forgot about the Brontosaurus. But like you said, when you do multiplayer, he's not in there. So five was your number, and it was 13 was the total. And there are only two tracks that have loops in them, and you got them. It was Walrus Cove and Dark Moon Caverns. So congrats on that. You'd think it'd be higher, but I thought there were more, but there aren't. It's just those two. I felt bad at this point because one again, this was very like you had no context of what this even was, and we jumped right into this. So I was trying to put in, like, hey, how can I help you? You know, how can I like maybe jog the brain?

Ryan 53:56

Appreciate it.

James 53:57

So you missed two. We I I'll give you bluey because we both got that together. So it is tricky bluey. The octopus's name is Bubbler.

Ryan 54:08

Ah, bubbler.

James 54:09

And I was gonna say, if you I think you were trying to just get out of the question, but I was gonna be like, what does he lay for you? Does he like blow something that like you know, maybe try to like if you think of the bubbles, you're like, sure. But the dragon's name is Smokey, not Wheezy.

Ryan 54:25

Damn it. I knew it was something with an E at the end, and it was something to do with breath. Yeah. God damn it.

James 54:33

And then um, so the um Sherbet Island quiz. Um, you were close. There you really do say Sherbet. I do, and I'll say it again, you son of a bitch. That's so good. Where's the R? Where's the there's no E R T it's Sherbet. Hold on, hold on. Fucking read it.

Ryan 54:52

I'm gonna Sher Sherbert Island. Sherbert. Sherbert.

James 54:57

Oh my god, dude.

Ryan 54:59

It's this is uh hold on, James. I I gotta clarify something. I'm the idiot. You're right. It's spelled Sherbet. Oh, oh, I'm sorry. Oh isn't that weird? I you you know what? When you're right, you're right. That's not that's not important. We're we're the bosses doing this. Pretty critical information. This is a little mind-blowing. This is Did you not know that? Is that real? No, I'm genuine. I never I thought it was Bert this whole time. Sure Bert Island. Wait for Bert! No Bert, it's not abort! Abort Bert! Oh my god. Okay, so if you learn nothing from this episode, learn that it's sure B-E-T.

James 55:38

Holy shit. Okay, we gotta keep going. We're getting this is getting out of it, this is getting off the rails. You named three different levels of Sherbet Island Cove, and I was trying to be like, none of them are cove, actually. So oh no, it's okay. So you did have Whale Bay, correct? There is the one there. You said Pirate Cove, which is called Pirate Lagoon. So that is the the hovercraft only level. Do you remember where that pirate ship is at the end of that level?

Ryan 56:07

Hovercraft all oh, oh, uh yeah, hold on. Let me let me run. Is it in that really wide open area to the left, or is it more to the right, like just as you're about to make the final turn?

James 56:18

That one. It's on the top of a rock. It's actually like shipwrecked on the top of a rock. Yeah, you're looking at your map now.

Ryan 56:25

Dude, this this guide is coming in clutch for content and this quiz.

James 56:29

While you're searching, there's one on Crescent Island. That's the I I don't think you named Crescent Island in there, but that's the one on the car where you drive through it. That's the one that has the key in it that you have to get for Darkwater Beach. I love that key location, by the way. It's so ridiculous. Yeah, like who would think to do that? But then the tricky part of this is uh treasured caves, there's three. There's one that's off the side of the map. When you're coming out of the first part, there's like a little water area you don't drive through, but it's just like there's a pirate ship there. And then when you go through the cave part, there's two downed ships in the water.

Ryan 57:08

Oh, yeah, on either side, right?

James 57:10

Yeah, there are no boats in the bubbler race or Darkwater Beach, so it's just six. So you got three of six.

Ryan 57:17

Wow, out of all the places not to have a boat like Darkwater Beach.

James 57:21

I had a weird moment where I was like, surely I'm missing it. Surely they just didn't drive over here yet in the video, but it's just there's not one in the map. And then last but not least, future fun land. That one was hard. We got the one in Space Dust Alley. That's the plane level that you usually do, but there's like that it comes down and it shoots you in like that tunnel, and like it's just like a weird. Oh, you know what?

Ryan 57:44

It's not a UFO, it's it's WizPig's ship there.

James 57:47

Yeah, so uh I I give it to you. You had the right idea, but like, yes, there's a thing that shoots at you, and that like little it flies down and hits you. There are two and they're unique, they are not the WizPig ship, they are their own unique non-firing spacecraft on each loop of Dark Moon Caverns.

Ryan 58:06

They're actually spacecrafts, yeah.

James 58:08

There's one and they just kind of like float over.

Ryan 58:10

No kidding. I've never even seen that ever. I I would have to like stop the map and turn around.

James 58:16

Just look up like a time trial of Dark Moon Caverns and just pause when you get to the loops and you'll see. It's weird. They're they don't appear anywhere else in the game, they're their own unique designs. I was trying to see if you remembered it. So Star City, you have like that little kind of path at the beginning, and then you kind of go into the Epcot ball, right? You like there's that part of the map.

Ryan 58:38

Yeah, and you can get fucked if you fall over on either side.

James 58:42

Yeah, I was trying to see if you would remember it. It's kind of a weird detail, but there is a monorail in that level.

Ryan 58:48

Oh yeah. Oh my god, you're right. Yeah, that's like a staple image of that level.

James 58:54

Before you get into the city, there's the monorail. So that I counted that. Would you believe it if there are seven ships in the wizpig race?

Ryan 59:03

No, what are they all wizpig ships?

James 59:06

They are whiz pig looking ships that there's four. So when you go through that first big curve where it has like that big stone thing on the left, there's four that come down and swoop down, all shooting at you. And then at the very end, when you're in like that generator room where there's like that pillar in the middle, there's three that swirl around and shoot. Oh my god, I'm just always so like, I gotta get the hell out of this room as fast as I can. Well, and to be fair, there's lasers that are not being fired by those ships, but there are three that are flying around swirling in that room.

Ryan 59:39

Okay, that was my next question. Is like, well, maybe I should consider what's shooting the lasers.

James 59:44

If you look at Dark Moon Caverns, those shots are just in the sky. Like they're you don't even see, like in Spaceport Alpha, you can imagine like it's like the Death Star run. There's probably like some turret or something like that makes sense there.

Ryan 59:58

I think there's holes in the wall where it's implied that's where they're coming out of.

James 1:00:02

And then um, Dark Moon Caverns, they're just like from the sky. There's you don't see something swoop down, they're just shooting at you. Wild.

Ryan 1:00:13

Well, James, I clearly have to get recertified on this tour, but I still hope you had a enjoyable time and maybe you'll learn Timber Island better than I can.

James 1:00:21

The guy on the phone said something about a performance review, but he uh he said just you know, uh, no, I had a great time. I'm super excited. I like I told you, I'm excited for that hot chocolate in Frosty Village. I'm excited to check out all the dinos, all two, all three of them in Dino Domain. We had some budget cuts. Come on. Yeah, we can only Jurassic Park was only so far along. Good job. I really put you through hell there. So really appreciate you you jumping along with that. But

Fan Mail

James 1:00:53

uh, how about some fan mail? Yes, please, let's get into it.

Ryan 1:00:58

First, fan mail was responding to the four retype games episode. This comes from a Half-Life fan. Really fun topic for this episode. This might be slightly off topic, but fan mod remakes like Black Mesa deserve some attention. They totally overhauled the Zen chapters, which was unambiguously the worst part of the original game. We touched on ROMs and like ROM hacks. I believe in our comfort games episodes, and we were talking more about like the purity of the playthrough, but like ROMs can still enhance the gameplay. This camper is talking about total remakes made by the mod community. And that brings up stuff like Sky Wind or what's the other one? Sky Blivion. Oh, yeah, yeah. All fan-made. So that's that's a great point. I mean, that's just another form of remakes, and it's sense.

James 1:01:53

I love it when there's like so much passion and stuff poured into it. Unfortunately, it gets messy when companies unfortunately will like DMCA some of those projects. Now, a lot of them do Metro 2 remake. Yeah, I didn't want that's a that was literally my first thought.

Ryan 1:02:10

We can say the name now, they've already been DMCA'd.

James 1:02:12

Rest in peace, guys. Sorry, sorry. Thank you for your service, your attempted service. Two things can both be great. You can have the fan project, which explores its own unique look at events and you know, remaking the game from like their own perspective, and then you also have the original version. So it doesn't replace or overwrite anything, but you know, it's a great, fresh, new way to look at it. And those are such a cool community-focused way to do that.

Ryan 1:02:41

Talk about true lovers of gaming, trying to like take the original experience and just remake it into something more modern and better, and does and dedicating all their free time to it too, like to deliver something so cool. Kudos to all of you. Never stop. So then we got another fan mail. They were replying to our Star Fox series review episode. And even though we didn't touch much on Star Fox Adventures, they had a lot to say about their experience. This camper says, Ah, Star Fox Adventures. It was my first Star Fox game and remains one of my favorite games today. The sound effects of the staff, the music, the vibrant colors, it was even one of the few games back then that had voice acting. The memories that stand out to me most playing this game growing up were that darn shopkeeper. He lives rent-free with those phrases he's always shouting at you. And then the darn pit that you had to spam A to push the warrior dino into. That was brutal. Yes, Camper, I remember that shopkeeper. James, it was like a genie shopkeeper, and they'd always be like, Welcome to my store. Would you like to buy this item? And then if you try to haggle, like too, like if you go too low, he'll be like, No, that's too low.

James 1:04:01

I vaguely remember this. I I didn't play a lot of Star Fox Adventures, but I remember that your explanation of general scales was like on point. Literally, how they implemented the Dino language and then just name-dropped pro like proper nouns in English. But I do remember the shopkeeper and I remember that weird haggle mechanic. But I do remember that mini-game sounds familiar. Like there were a couple mini games that I just remember being so brutal in execution.

Ryan 1:04:33

Bro, if you weren't good at that tapping minigame, there was a part where you had to like push this buff dinosaur into a pit, and it was just like a really fast, like tap the A button repeatedly game. I think that might have trained me to be as good as I am as it today. Like, I had like a little pencil or something technique that I would use to like just rapidly hit the button over and over. And that that's a hard mini game if you're not good at that kind of stuff.

James 1:04:58

So prepped you for those Mario Party mini-games where that's the only goal is to hit A as fast as possible. Dude, thank you, Fox. Thank you, Star Fox. In tricky voice. Thanks, Fox.

Ryan 1:05:12

And I just want to finish this camper had one more thing to say. Uh, spoilers for the end of this game. I remember finally beating the game years later as an adult and feeling cheated with Andros as a boss, cryface, cryface. I love the story so much, but excuse me, what? Yep, I'm sad too. General Scales got shafted so hard there. For all the build-up they had for him, the whole game sucked.

James 1:05:38

I mean, what for Andros to be resurrected? I mean, we're we're already talking about the end of this game, right? Yep. This clearly a product of this game being morphed into a Star Fox game, and that had to have been some sort of time constraint factor. Like, I have to believe that because like I don't know what else you do. They have introduced other villains very loosely in other Star Fox games, like in the in the DS one in command, there is a new threat that is not necessarily Andros, but still like that's few and far between. So to see him at the end of like a cool dinosaur-themed adventure is just kind of unfortunate.

Ryan 1:06:19

Yeah, honestly, I thought it was cool back then, but that was like my first intro into Star Fox. And now that I think about how shafted general scales got, it's like, damn, they they could have just done that, it would have been fine. At least, at least let him have a little bit of a fight. They didn't even give you that. He just kind of kills over and dies when you get the last spirit, and then you go right on to Andros randomly.

James 1:06:43

One of my biggest pet peeves in gaming is menacing or threatening villain that just keels over without like a second thought. Whether they were actually menacing, did something, or just dead very quickly, and it's like, oh, we're not doing anything with them. It's insane.

Ryan 1:07:09

Oh

Outro

Ryan 1:07:10

my gosh. I'm I'm so glad things worked out where we can celebrate our dear old dads of gaming and just tell more stories because that's just such a I think this is gonna be a recurrent segment. Like we're gonna have to just have more gamer stories, and I hope our campers send in some of their stories of our own, because this is just perfect campfire vibes.

James 1:07:31

It yeah, I was gonna say, I mean, what better way to spend time at a campfire than share stories and experiences and moments like that? It really is just like some of my favorite gaming conversations, you know, more so than just like analysis or deep dives. It's just like it's just the real moments that you have playing these games, whether it's like with a friend or by yourself, like an own personal experience, or you know, with like a family member. It's just it's good stuff.

Ryan 1:07:57

Hell yeah. And again, on that note, campers, if you want to send in your stories, please we will read them. We will absolutely go through every one of them, put them on the show. It's always such a treasure to have share these stories. So please, please, please go in the show notes, send us some fan mail, or comment your story on Blueski. We would love to hear from you as always. Thank you once again for joining us at another campfire. We're gonna call it here for now, but we will see you at the next campfire.

James 1:08:30

Stay cozy campers,