134. Xmas special

Welcome to a special episode with three dudes that brought you the live summer show of the years. It's DJ Daemon, would be me, Baron of Dubstep and Choreus Online.Hello, Erics.How are you doing?Yeah, it's fine actually. It's snowing here in Stockholm, so we get a white Christmas.Wait.speaker-2

That's ChristmasX.com.Yeah! Wow!Congratulations!Thank you. I hope to snow here. It's mostly ice. It was snowing a bit earlier.wasn't snowing today, it was icing.speaker-2

That's weather, I guess.It came down instantly froze and mean my poor windscreen. my god. That was not goodYeah, it's icy, but it's winter, it's cold and the Christmas lights in my street have all lit up. So that's giving that Christmas feeling, which is what we're trying to do here in this Christmas special podcast episode.Exactly. And we are going on with some more music. The Eric Aid Radio Network wishes all its listeners a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.speaker-2

That was Christmas card 95. So we obviously, this is more of an ad hoc podcast episode, but we thought that, for the end of the year, we should do something special and bring the guys, the trifecta back together for another round. for like DJ Demon, you're turning 50 this year, actually on Christmas Eve. How does that feel?Yeah.speaker-0

It feels great. When I was a kid, I didn't receive that many presents because, you know, all other kids needed also a present. So I kind of was lacking there and I hated that nobody would remember me because everyone was on vacation during Christmas. But today it's okay and I have kind of done good with my 50 years on this planet.And now random strangers on the internet are remembering your birthday.That's something. That's something. That's great.But you have been in the radio business or broadcasting business for a long time, like setting up your own stuff and showing interest or how broadcasting works. I've read a bit on Ericade.radio, the history of how it all began. But like when I first discovered Ericade,I didn't realize that you've been doing this for a very, very long time. Can you just tell us, go through a bit of your history, how it all started and just the main points of what you've done? Because I think that's interesting to all of us to just get an insight into that. But why don't we listen to a bit of music first and we'll come back and you can tell us all about it.speaker-0

Absolutely.speaker-1

you youspeaker-1

youspeaker-1

Welcome back to Erickhead Radio. This is DJ Demon, Aureus and Baron of Dubstep. And we were talking about DJ Demon turning 50 on Christmas Eve. with that in mind, something actually comes to mind. it's apart from the intermezzo of a song from The Killers. It goes like this.He doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but he talks like a gentleman like you imagined when you were young. How do feel about that, DJ Demon?Well, I don't know actually. I don't feel very old. I know it's kind of like now in Swedish we say nu är du på dödssalvan. Now you are in the dying house. And I don't know.I guess that pretty much goes for everybody here. It's like we're closer to 50 every one of us than we are closer to any other healthier age. Yeah. And I mean, you're definitely way past the halfway point to being a pensioner.Yeah, absolutely. We'll see when we get there, I guess. But all I can say is, it feels kinda nifty to be 50, so to speak. Yeah, there's some news from...speaker-2

Nifty to be 50You've done a lot of things through the years. Can't you just go through the main points of what you started, what you've done and what the future looks like?Absolutely. And we're talking about radio right now. I started in 1994, I have, know, with a community broadcast station called Radio Syd Oost. They kind of lost their...Radio, radio,Peace.speaker-0

Now, now, Sydost, which is kind of southeastern. yeah, it'sIt's cheese from the south.Yeah, exactly. But that's kind of how it's pronounced. And then I later on became a DJ on my own show, which I did for 11 years on Radio Sudöst, which was the other radio station in Southern Stockholm. Wow.So this was like a regular radio that you can tune into in your kitchen or your car.On this to God FM radio.speaker-0

Yeah, 88.9 was the megahertz.it and what kind of program was it?It was mainly music and speech, not too unlike what we're doing with the station now, but it's kind of like we played real music or non-track music, we played commercial music.Sure, but to your guests, what kind of content would you provide?Scientific lectures actually, short scientific information about, we had an editorial board so to speak with like seven people that recorded scientific tidbits, small parts of interesting subjects and we put that on there.speaker-2

So what was the name of the radio program?It was called UFS Primetime.UFS primetime.UFS was Unga Forskare Stockholm or the Young Researchers of Stockholm. That was the organisation I was broadcasting for.Okay, and you did that for 11 years?speaker-0

Yeah, I didn't get tired until then.That was your main job then?No, wasn't. mean, my main work has been as an IT administrator and later pen tester and what do you call it?So this was just like an interest.Yeah, it is. So I never had a salaried position, so to speak, in the radio, always being community broadcasts or anything.speaker-2

So what year have we reached now?Well, about 2006 when I stopped doing recordings, sorry broadcasts. And then it was kinda like I had already created a arcade radio network in 2005, but it was a Winamp list playlist, that's all it was.Bye.One of the things that I never understood was the name, because it implies that there was a network of things, like you would have a lot of services and the radio was one part of the network. What spurred the origin for Erickade radio network?It was an old BBS called the Arikay network BBS. And it was called a network because it had Fido net, which was kind of like a use net of its day, where you could talk and it's transmitted the information to other computers.speaker-2

So this would be like the radio counterpart to the BBS name and ecosystem that already existed.Yeah, pretty much. That was the idea at least. I didn't think it through.That's cool. When I first heard Erickade, that was actually the first job that me and Baron met. I'm not sure if you listened to Erickade. Did you listen to Erickade back in the day?Back in the web dynamic days?Yeah, back like in 2006.speaker-1

Yeah, back then I was listening to something called Club 977, the 80s channel that were playing pretty much non-stop 80s music altogether, like 80s pop rock. And I mean, that was what I did listen to back then.Okay. So, your station at that time was pretty new and it was like a selection of, if I recall correctly, 200, 250 songs or so.300 but okay. The thing was I shut it down in 2015 when I shut down my server network. But then came a little bug called Corona and we were all kind of confined to our home and I was bored. I wonder what am I supposed to do now? Working of course, but that's only kind of covering the day part.Yeah. So what other natural thing to do then to relaunch a radio station because you're bored? I I can get down with that.And Ispeaker-0

YeahYeah, the reason was also that at first I had an idea to make a podcast, so I actually made a precursor to the whole thing on YouTube where I played Amiga music and took in requests and stuff. But the software I used to...fixed the music, it turned out to be a very good program for making radio. And as soon as I understood that you can use this program to make a radio station, I was sold. I was hooked. It was like, I want to make a radio station.Yeah, that's a good cue to play a little more music and then we'll come back to the very first, because I've listened to the podcast on like the very first broadcast of when you kind of relaunched Ericade Radio Network. So let's have a listen at what Joget Liljedal has to say about Christmas and we'll come back.youspeaker-0

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Yeah, it was very simple because there wasn't supposed to be a podcast. I was happy with the radio station and kind of giving up on the ideas. Then I made a program on a, I don't know if was Firsty or something, and Koreas listened to it and said, hey, make a podcast out of it. And I said, yeah, why not? So I started up and the idea was that I would make one podcast every Friday, one Saturday and one Sunday, but it's kind of too much to work. So Idecided we are doing it just once per week and it became Saturday at 9 p.m. Central European time and when I kind of got the idea that I should use the podcast to add new music it gained a purpose. So all songs you hear on the podcast are brand new on the station.Yeah, exactly.Not today though.Let's jump back to the first day you broadcasted because there was a lot of issues from what I gathered. you you planned on broadcasting at midnight, but you started one hour before.speaker-0

Yeah, that was not the podcast. That was the real broadcast. I actually totally screwed up. I was working at a very high pace and I didn't notice that I was actually putting all the tracks into the hour that starts on one o'clock a.m. When I saw that, I was almost at the time where the recording should start. So I had to, just in total panic.The real broadcaster is what I'mspeaker-0

try to record the correct information because I didn't know at the time that you can move the settings that you have recorded. So I had to do everything from beginning and I worked until the sweat coming out of my pan, my sweat coming out of my brow. exactly.So what's the date and time, what's the setting here, where are we in time and space?We are on the 13th of September 2020.So that marks the first day of the new Arikade radio.Yeah, it does. Totally.speaker-1

This actually just sounds like a memorable experience, not only for us listeners, but also for you. mean, do you actually at that time, were you concerned about how this was going to impact your future, how this was going to impact your popularity? Were you afraid to screw up? And how do you feel like things actually turned out in the end?I wasn't scared. I kind of felt that this is cool. See if anybody's listening. And it turned out that we did get a little bit of listeners during the years. So it kind of became more and more popular. But when I started out, I hadn't had any thought. I just wanted to make a radio station. And I didn't care much about anything else. And in the future, if you ask that, we're going to continue like we're doing and more focus is going to be on the station now.the podcast will be monthly and not weekly because I don't have time to make one podcast every week. So that's kind of where it's at right now. But the station is going to remain on and playing all the good tunes in the whole year of 2025.Yeah, that's good to hear. We'll have a segment later about where we're moving with Ericade. But just a small tidbit on how your broadcasting or the broadcasting form in the beginning of the new station was compared to how it is now. Because when you started, you had an idea from what I gather of like people would hear you want to hear you talk in a way. you would get upearly in the morning and start like six o'clock from what I gather. And remember you would get up and actually be active in front of the microphone before going to work, talk and stuff. How was, how was that experience?speaker-0

Well, that was the experience called voice tracking where you can pre-record stuff. And I went up at different times and recorded half a day. So I could take like 15 minutes of a coffee break from work. And then I just recorded, let's say four hours worth of material. Voice tracking means that you can record between the tracks without having to listen to them. That means that you just kind of step forward very fast.And I did like you would have, I remember you would record or play something in the middle of the night because in the middle of the night at one specific time, there is one tune that is very special to Eric Aide. And you should talk a bit about that after we come back from the next song, which is Steve Ross with Lappa Valley Express.speaker-1

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We're back. You're listening to Erickade Radio with DJ Demon, Choreus and I'm the Baron of Dubstep. So we were listening to Projex and Michael of Nuance Christmas Dance Mix. Right before the song, we were talking a little bit about the song that's special for you, DJ Demon. Would you mind shedding a little bit of light on that particular song and telling us a little bit more about it?was a joke! Actually, it was because when I was recording, I made sure that I started recording at six o'clock in the morning, as you said. And in order to get that to work, I actually got the idea that I would put the song called My Wolf Two with Arpeggiator at three o'clock, because here in Sweden we call three o'clock in the morning AM the wolf's hour.So that's kind of the joke. And also it's a fantastic song. It's one of my favorite Amiga modules. It's so good that it sounds like it's been made in an impulse tracker or something, but it's a very simple song. So it was part, I loved the song and part it's a joke.It's so fun because sometimes you would get up, I remember actually listening in late night, back when you talked on the radio, you would actually remember an episode or a segment where you just, yeah, it's three o'clock and you know what time it is. Yeah, it's my wolf tooth.Yeah.speaker-2

That was so fantastic. even though our program now has a different song, I think we should play Arpeggio or Crisis, My Wolf 2, here right now because everybody should get a feeling of what it is.Here it is.speaker-0

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This was it, the joke song so to speak, My Wolf 2 with our pediator of crisis.Kind of funny because what you told us about this being somewhat of a joke to you and especially the hour of the wolf it reminds me a little bit about an old sci-fi TV series called Babylon 5 and I'm everybody here listening to this has probably heard of it or have loved it to some extent and I think it was either first or second season there was this oneepisode where one of the main characters, think it was commander Ivanova, he was sitting up late at night talking about how it was the hour of the wolf but she was sitting there with a glass of vodka in front of her and it was reminiscent to what her dad used to do when she was a little girl and it's a long completely useless explanation to it.But eventually one of the characters, I think was a side character called Lenear, asked her what was the significance of the glass of vodka. And Commander Ivanova just raises her gaze a little bit and says, you might have cubs.Youspeaker-1

But yeah, I just kind of remember that fondly when you were explaining it, so yeah.It's, yeah, Erikan has a long history and we have, I think, at least I've listened to and a lot of people have listened to you over the years. How do you perceive the landscape for track music stations? Do you see them as like a flourishing one or are they just very few, clinging on to...exist or do feel like people are that it's gaining interest and traction in the community? How is that landscape?I don't know actually, but I can guess if I may. First of all, I think it's doing quite well. mean, there's new songs coming up on Mod Archive every week and that's something we haven't seen changing. But I do feel that most people that listen to track music are in our age, somewhere between 30 and 50. And we were the generation that grew up with Mod and Impulse Tracker and Fast Tracker and everything. So my guess is that in the future,The whole retro era is going to end because this will be the next generation and they will probably feel like iTunes, iPad, podcasts were cool because that's what we did back in 2020.speaker-2

You shift in kind of the meaning of retro.Yeah, I think it will be doing that because generally today when we talk about retro, it is everything from 2000 and earlier. But in 20 years from now, we're going to say like 2020 was where they started the retro era. And by then I don't thinkIf you talk a little bit to Gen Z people today, you might actually hear that they talk about everything pre-2015 is sort of retro in their eyes. And wrapping my head around that, I'm having problems with it because it's so difficult to understand that you might actually consider something that new to be retro. And it's kind of a humbling experience for me to actually realize thatYeah, yeah,speaker-1

crap, I'm actually growing old. And I guess it's the same for all of us here actually, know, hearing the kids talking about things that were yesterday to us and that's like the new retro, that's the new old. I mean, these are kids who haven't even heard about the glorious wonders of Duke Nukem or Doom or...speaker-2

But it's also, yeah, on that notice, it's quite funny. Just ask a relative young, like people under the age of 30 or 25, ask them if they know what a telephone book is. Yeah, it's surprising. And yeah, a lot of things like I actually explained to one of my kids thatback in the day you would have a phone that was firmly attached to your house. So you would actually pick it up and call from there, but you can't put it in your pocket and you can't move it around. That was so surprising. So yeah, we're moving of course what the meaning of retro is, but we'll come back. Yeah, sorry.Yeah, speaking about retro and things growing old, I can say the same thing about my memories because while we were talking, I was looking up that particular quote because I think I misspoke it. If you guys actually want to hear the hour of the wolf speech that I remembered. It was like this. Yeah. Susan Ivanova. Have you ever heard of the hour of the wolf? No. My father told me about it.Yeah, sure.speaker-1

It's a time between three and four a.m. in the morning. You can't sleep and all you can see is the troubles and the problems and the ways of life, or the ways that your life should have gone but didn't. All you can hear is sound of your own heart. I've been living in the hour of the wolf for seven days, Lita, seven days. The wolf and I are now on a first name basis. In times like these, my father used to take one large glass of vodka before bed.keep the wolf away, he said. And then he would take three very small drinks of vodka just in case she had cubs while she was waiting outside.She takes a drink and then she says it doesn't work.No, no, doesn't.is Track Music Station and Aerokade Radio. we'll end the history lesson here, but yeah, just I think speaking for both me and Barry and all the listeners, like thanks so much for doing this. It's just so, so the, of course the amount of work you put in, but also justspeaker-2

A lot of the tunes, you've heard them, if you listen to track music in some capacity, you remember hearing them, but you have no idea what they're called. just having that rejuvenation of old songs, like, right, that's the key generator music I remember, or it was an intro song from some kind of cracked game on the Commodore 64.Yeah, it's very humbling and it's very comfy kind of if you enjoy track music.Thank you.speaker-0

Yeah, I think that when you think about mod files or tracker and stuff, most stations, they are kind of sticking to one and one alone. For example, Nectarine Networks play mod files, if I remember correctly, and Amiga stuff. Whereas Slay Radio, they play remixes of C64. And Colors. Whereas Ericade is more like demo music.track music, mod files, impulse tracker, fast tracker, whatever youbut mostly files in their original format, right? This would be like a song, I think that would be a song that is directly from a game or directly from a demo or intro. It's not something that people have, well, actually it might be remixes when I start to think about it, but it feels like it's straight out of a system more thanMP3 file as a cover or like the mod files in Nectarine, I guess that might also be from games, but track music, feels like it's more directly from wherever they were played from, if that makes any sense.I understand. Well, it's been quite a joyful ride actually. I I love track music to bits.speaker-2

It's two bits, exactly. So, this is a Christmas episode, of course, so we need to talk about games, but we also need to listen to a bit of music. So, we will have more Christmas, and this next one is called Belated Christmas by Mick Rippon.speaker-2

We're back. You're listening to a special Christmas podcast episode from Errikhead Radio. The three dudes are still here. That's myself, Chorius. That's DJ Demon and Baron of Dubstep. Now we're shifting gears into the theme that we're actually here for, Christmas. There's a lot of good memories from Christmas and gaming.his memories from Christmas is what we're talking about next. So guys, games that you've played during Christmas, either now or way, way back when you were young, do you recall any games that stood out?Yeah, I actually played Christmas Lemmings during Christmas. That was kind of fitting. Most games don't have Christmas feeling to it. So when I got Silent Service, the submarine simulator, I actually replaced the lights in my home, in my room with red bulbs so that I would have a red light on when I was playing the game, just to give it that correct submarine feeling.But I it's... But I also guess that kind of got it a little bit of a crystal feeling as well.Submarine and Christmas. Two flies in one hit. What about you, Baron?speaker-1

Well, I have a lot of different Christmas games, but if I'm going to pick one out, one that's kind of an epitome of Christmas. And I know that a lot of you guys are going to be in a heated debate over this particular claim of mine. But I'm going to say there is only one movie out there, which is a Christmas movie and that's Die Hard 1 and Die Hard 2.Those are pure Christmas movies. There's no questions about it. But we're talking about games. And I'm mentioning Die Hard. And I want to make a little announcement. Yes, there is a Die Hard trilogy game out for PlayStation, but that's not the first Die Hard game that ever came out. They actually have an MS-DOS game called Die Hard, which is actually...rather intriguing. The graphics is both a mixture of 1980s, like hardcore bad polygon attempts of trying to create depth perception, mixed in with video, sprites, bitmap animated characters that actually look quite well made, which just amplifiesthe difference between the quality of the background surrounding areas like the scene, then you have the characters which are pretty much video animated. You see everything of that and it's just hilarious and it tries to follow the same story as you have in Die Hard on Nakatomi Plaza.memorable on all possible levels. mean, the graph, you know, the dualism or to say the dichotomy of the graphics is so bad. Yeah, I'm just going to say that dichotomy is so present. It's you just feel like that in itself is entertainment enough. then you have the cheesy plot. And then you have the animations that just doesn't make any sense with regards to where they'respeaker-1

placed in the scenery. mean, everything is just equally entertaining as the whole concept of that. My heart is actually a Christmas movie. yeah. Yeah, that's pretty much. That's pretty much what I have to say on that.Yeah.speaker-0

That's a game so bad that it's good, right?Yeah, I mean, it's so abysmal that it kind of creates a buffer under running, you know, or should I say, the buffer underflow and then just keeps on to the positive scale of the site from the bottom. is something you definitely have to look into.Yeahspeaker-1

The part of this is that the graphic in itself compared to its time is actually groundbreaking. I'm just going to leave it out there and hope someone picks it up.Yeah, okay.Five years after the movie, but still give it a shot. Try it. mean, you will be impressed. You will be perplexed. You will be disappointed. at the same time disgusted. No, at the same time intrigued like nothing has ever intrigued you.Alright, that's quite a tall order you got there.Yeah, I mean seriouslyspeaker-2

I've never heard about that or see that game before. But from the pitchers alone, I'm not sure it does die hard the proper service it deserves. it's from Dynamics, the company that created a lot of simulator games and pinball games. They created Aces of the Deep and a lot ofWarfare games, but then again, they also created this atrocity. It's a fine mix in their portfolio for sure.Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.But for me, had like these, back in the day, had these collection CDs with a lot of games and some of them were either strategy or adventure games. of course, one thatI mean, a lot of people have played this. It's the secret of Monkey Island, the first one. what's, it's the, we didn't have VGA graphics back in the day. We had EGA and Monkey Island, as you may know, has EGA graphics like a lot of, like the Die Hard game is also EGA. It's, but the, the, how they use the palette there is just so,speaker-2

Incredible. And that's something we used to play during Christmas, at least some Christmases I remember. Just brewing up grog and that the end there, the end cut scene where it says that nobody should pay more than $20 for a video game, Guybrush says to Elaine. And she says, what do you mean? He says, I have no idea.That was very memorable. It's just like everything has been piratey up to this point and ghosts and grog and monkeys and digging for the big work, the treasure, the eluded treasure or the mysterious treasure on the island. And then the game ends with the fireworks and Guybrush and Elaine looking into the sunset and Guybrush says you should never pay more than $20 for a video game.Yeah, it's hilarious. So, and Loom, I also remember Loom, which was from the same developer, Lucasfilm, which was the name of LucasArts back then, which I'm not sure really exists in any, I guess Lucasfilm exists, but that's Star Wars and the movies.Yeah, I it.speaker-1

Lucasfilm exists, LucasArts still exists.YeahSure about that. they are on the disneyYeah.So there's still subdivisions of Disney.speaker-2

And I also remember playing a lot of Double Dragon 2 on the Nintendo with friends. And we got really good at that. So that's an iconic Christmas experience for me. And lastly, strategy colonization.Okay.speaker-2

and civilization, the first ones.Yeah, they were great.They were so kind of special. You could take your time creating your civilization and the Roman wise men discovered the secret of horseback riding. I never understood the, even though our listeners can't see it, I'll post you an image of the, from civilization where you build your palace.The Wheelspeaker-0

Yeah.But I never understood how often you got that. Sometimes I got it like almost after every turn. Sometimes it would take like weeks or months or years for the next part. And I never understood how that worked. And also in the beginning, I also didn't understand that if you clicked something, there was no undo. So if I clicked in the image here, four, that's the pathway to the palace. If I click that, would upgrade the road withoutme just, I just want to see what that is. So that was kind of, and then you had to wait unknown amount of time before you could upgrade again.Nahspeaker-0

YeahThis game was this again?Stabilization.Yeah, that was actually discovered that somebody had ported that to Linux and made a multiplayer version of it.I think it's called Sylvnet.speaker-1

I like that,Yes, that's Civ.Net, think. Obviously, the later ones became more advanced and I think Civilization 2 lost its charm. Civ 3, I never played much. 4, I played a lot of and 5, so. But the firstI really had a thing for, or should I say, really had a hard on for Alpha Centauri.Yeah, same here. It's an awesome game. Really, really nice.play that during Christmas though.speaker-1

Actually, it was during New Year's of 2005. That counts. I remember.Yes. Yes.I think I played that. It had like a haunting soundtrack in a way.Yeah, and the fact that your colony could be overgrown and eaten by fungus.Yeah.speaker-2

But you mentioned Christmas Lemmings, DJ Demon. So why don't we listen to Christmas Lemmings, a medley of from Christmas Lemmings 1991, I think this is. There was, if I recall, let me look up on Retro Spirit, how many Christmas Lemmings there was. There were at least,Let's see, there were at least three of them. So it was first Christmas Lemmings in 91, then the same name in 92. And then they switched to holiday Lemmings in 94.Okay.speaker-0

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that old debate if it's called Christmas or Happy Holidays. That's a religious debate.Yeah, almost. And then Holiday Lemmings. Sorry, they changed to Holiday Lemmings in 1993. I see that we haven't actually added that properly to the universe or the series. anyways, here's the soundtrack for the first Christmas Lemmings from 1991, which features, I believe, four songs. So enjoy.speaker-1

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And we're back. Welcome back to Erickhead Radio Christmas Special Edition podcast. And today in front of the glorious microphones, we have DJ Demon, Aureus and me. That is not a DJ Funtumen nor Dr. Bacterius, but the Baron of Dubstep. We were going to talk a little bit about, we have been talking a little bit about games that we've been playing through Christmas that we have fond memories of. But no.talk about Christmas games would be complete without us actually recommending some good ones. So was going to think, I was thinking DJ Demon, do you have any Christmas games that you want to recommend to our listeners?I don't know really. mean, we spoke about Christmas Lemmings a few minutes ago, so no need to kind of mention that. I'm to have to say hard pass on that one, because I don't know.I have some if you want to hear. the one that you should, it's, if you like platformers and if you like a fat Santa Claus that just collects presents and runs around platforming his ass off and falling down. And it's also very unforgiving. There's a game called Santa Claus in Trouble, which is nowso abandoned where it's almost cryptic. it's made by, I believe it's a German defunct company, CDV Software Entertainment. sorry, that was a publisher, Joymania Development. It's very German in a way. The 3D is serviceable, but thespeaker-2

the levels and the checkpoints and all that is very unforgiving, but still it's a freeware game. it's at least now it must be because it doesn't exist. So, well, it's a bad and where, but still you, you couldn't buy it. So I guess that qualifies as a ban, oh, freeware, I guess, or perhaps you could call it a demo, but yeah. So I, I did actually revisit that game.of Banor.speaker-2

some years back in, let's see, when did I play it last? I played it last year actually and it's Hunn in a weird way. It has of course all the check marks of a Christmas game with Christmas music and fireplaces and jolly festive levels.but it's also very unforgiving. it's something that you can play in between like the dinner, Christmas dinner and unwrapping the presents or waiting for Santa Claus to come down the chimney. So that's a cool one. They actually made a sequel to this as well, which can you guess what the sequel name was?Santa Claus still in problem.Yes, almost. It's Santa Claus still in trouble and then two. So it's Santa Claus in trouble two, still in trouble or something like that. So that's, I haven't played that one and we don't have that on Retro Spirit yet.Yeah.speaker-1

I'll have to change that.Yes. And if you're into more like old school platform, a 2D platform, because Santa Claus in trouble is 3D, then the days before Christmas, which was never released in the West, it was only in Australia and Europe, it's actually a game made by Fönsöf.Funsoft are the guys who made Conan the Barbarian, they made The Longest Journey, the fantastic adventure game, but they made the... Days before Christmas. it's actually very... The graphics are joyous each and festive and before each level you have like a...a very fun kind of intermeso or introduction screen. I'm sending you an image now of just like, here's Santa Claus in a ice cave and there's an evil shadow of a big rat somewhere in that cave. So it has a lot of charm and it's, yeah, the animations and the graphics are beautiful. So that's...That's another one to definitely get your Christmas spirits up. And lastly, here's one that was on the Sega Saturn, which was made by the Sonic team. So that's of course the same team or developers that made the Sonic games. It's actually a special version of a game called Nights into Dreams. So it's Christmas Nights into Dreams is the name of the game released back in 96.speaker-2

And it was released during the holiday season for Sega Saturn. This is a bit... It's a game hard to describe. If you look at the game page here, you control knights, which is like... It looks like a jester.that flies around collecting presents. However, you have a timer and once that timer goes out, you turn back into either the girl character, I think her name is Clarice, or a boy called Elliot, depending on who you choose. And if they have to get back to basically the start point to transform back into knights.And there's like this back and forth of keeping the timer, collecting all the presents to get to the next level. And if you run out of time, you have to avoid all the monsters as a regular human. It's very, very colorful. If you look on the game page, the screenshots have a hard time describing what's going on on the screen, because when you're in a level, there's just so many arrows, so manynumbers, so many weird things to pick up that you don't know what's really going on. However, it has a fluidity to it. That's really, and it's 3D of course. So the performance is excellent and the soundtrack is very festive. So that's another one to put on your, not wish list, because I saw on eBay, if you want to buy this is pretty expensive.But yeah.speaker-1

mean, seriously, this actually throws a little bit of credibility onto that claim that Stegas Saturn was ahead of its time.Mm-hmm. Yep.But what about you, Byron? Do you have a...don't get me started on this. I have a small gospel list of things. Basically, let's start off with one of my fondest memories from when I was 13 years old. My dad brought me my first computer. It wasn't a Pentium. It wasn't a 486. It was the American Megatrends.586 without the co-math processor, just saying. It was the bastard in between the Pentium and the 486 that eventually turned out a couple of years later to become what we know today as AMD. What he bought with the computer and Windows 95, my dad, it was one of the best games I remember and it's one that I associate withspeaker-1

Christmas, simply because I got it around Christmas time. It is, however, not a Christmas game. But instead of just saying the title out loud, I want to present it in a more dramatic way, if you guys don't mind. Sure, go ahead. Whenever I smell asphalt, I think of Maureen. That's the last sensation I had before I blacked out. The smell of asphalt. And the first thing I saw when I woke up was her face.She said she'd fix my bike, free, strings attached. I should've known then that things are never that simple. Yeah, when I think of Maureen, I think of two things. Asphalt and trouble.And I guess the game.Yeah, good.Full throttle.speaker-1

Oh yeah, and you have another memorable quote there I just want to go with. And it's between Ben and Maureen Corley. It goes like this. Why'd your dad keep you a secret for so long? Maureen answers. I didn't want the people to find out about my mom. What was wrong with Mrs. Corley? She wasn't my mom. Ah.I mean, seriously, getting that as a 13 year old shit kid on Christmas. my God. That is, yes, you can call it retro game, but it has been revamped and they have remastered the audio so you can actually hear the wonders of Roy Conrad, which happens to be one of my most favorite voice actors ever.that game.speaker-1

You can hear his voice and how he portrays so many of the characters in the game with such a degree of liveliness. mean, seriously, you'll just love it from the audio altogether. And I'm not talking about music, I'm just talking about like the voice effects and the narrative. You will just love it and all the cameo appearances of all kinds and all the references they make.all the tongue in cheek remarks. mean, seriously, that game is a masterpiece. And if you haven't gotten around to playing it ever, you seriously just get your ass over to steam and buy it. This is worth the money. And no matter the price, what you're getting here is quality and value for every buck you spend. This game is a must during Christmas time. AndAnd you know, a couple of you guys who have been listening to me talking about music and read my reviews on retro spirit knows that if it's one thing that I have a little thing for, it's the musical side of the games. I mean, seriously, they actually took a biker and...and had to make a CD for the game with the music and it's a band called the Gone Jackals. The name of the album is called Bone to Pick. And seriously, the music, my God, it's just, think about it right now gives me goosebumps and makes the hair stand on my back, you know, on my neck just by remembering the first feeling I had listening to it.speaker-1

yeah, yeah, just and the fact that, yeah, the pickle, sorry, sorry, not the pickle, the cherry on top of the icing here is the voice actors. It's not just Roy Conrad. You actually have one person that everybody knows about doing the best villain impersonation here. And we're talking about Mark Hamill.Mark Hamill as Adrian Rippberger.Star Wars.Yeah, he's a WITBURGER!speaker-2

The story is there is something like a corporate business wants to buy all the motorcycle gangs or take over.Yeah, it's like a biker, sorry, not a biker, but it's two executives from a motorcycle manufacturing company, Corley Motors. They're riding down the highway to their annual shareholders meeting and they're having these two executives, that's Malcolm Corley and Adrian Ritberger. They have a little bit of differences going on and the thing is that Malcolm Corley, he used to be a biker.He's a biker turned corporate executive. He's the owner of the company. And then you have Rick Berger, who is pretty much like a C-level suit carrying, you know, those people that you don't want to associate with on the corporate level. He's one of those. And he has an idea of how to take the company further, which Corley doesn't like.I'm not going go into details here, I don't want to spoil it, but there's like in intro, mean, seriously, the intro, I think if I'm going to be honest with you guys, you haven't seen an intro prior to Full Throttle that was of that caliber and that really just messed around with normal concepts orhad a motorcycle gang ride or drive literally over a limousine, crashing the, you know, the front figure on the limousine as they were coming down over it. I mean, everything about it was outrageous. And it was outrageous in a very, very good way. And it's not only that full throttle.speaker-1

Coming to think about it, it's a Tim Schafer game. And everybody knows one thing about Tim Schafer. Tim Schafer and all the games that he was a director and writer of, seriously, those games kicked ass. They were on a different level. Nothing besides them, nothing above them. They were up there, no questions asked. So, yeah.Yeah, it's a very good game, stands the test of time, even the original. And it's widely available also in Contra and GOG and other outlets.Have it on Steam.speaker-1

Yeah. So seriously, spend your money on it. There's no reason not to. And the money here goes back to developers who definitely deserves every buck they can get for it. That's my personal opinion.with that we'llShots.No, not... I have one more I want to mention before we go on. And this one will blow your mind.Okay.speaker-1

Yeah, so everybody heard about Commander Keen, right? So if I say there's a game in the Commander Keen series called Commander Keen Christmas.Yeah, yeah.speaker-0

No, not.I'm not kidding. It's not an old game, but it's new one. Well, I'm going to go Gen Z on you guys and I say, but still it's retro, man, because it's 2011.The game is called C'mon and Keen Christmas 2010.Give it a shot. It's actually rather intriguing seeing that you're back to the old Commander Keen. And Commander Keen, everybody loves Commander Keen, by the way, who doesn't? And they've made a modern throwback with the old school graphics and everything. It's just like for modern computers, I think. And give that a try.Absolutely.speaker-1

And yeah, definitely. mean, seriously, Commander Keen and Christmas, kind of, that's just like, I would say, burning matches and gasoline, would say.Back in the shareware days, Commander Keen was up there just like with Gears of the Jungle, Jim Power.Duke's Nokia and original Nokia.Duke Nukem, original ones, 1 and 2, yeah.Yeah, Duke Nukem. Not Nukem, but Nukem.speaker-2

Nucleum, yeah. Okay. Yes. Now, do you have any more?I was going to say something about earthworm Jim, but seriously, we need some music. Yeah.speaker-2

youspeaker-0

youyouspeaker-0

That was Christmas Snow, before that you had a T-Tracker and JPK with Christmas Silence. Well, we got some interesting things to talk about, don't we? So we got something new coming your way. It would be the new brand new spanking design of Ericade.radio. Well, it's called, you can see and test it, it's in beta status right now. If you go to v2.ericade.radio, v2.and it has some really, really nice functionality that the old one didn't. And it also has compacted everything to a very, very easy to work interface. And most of all, it also is possible to go around in all features and still listen to the station. You don't have to set up another tab, yes, because you need to...know what because you want to continue listen to the song or whatever you are listening to. So that is kind of good. And when we're talking about future features, it's generally the news coming so that you can read the news. And of course, you can set stars, but most of the other features are already there. So please go and take a look at it. It's really worth it. And it's being created mainly by Koreas.who has a good experience in creating web pages.Yeah, the old Eric K radio has been, I mean, it's not very optimized for things like mobile phones. it's, we've been talking about it when we did the live shows that people have a hard time figuring out where to go, where to click to listen to us live. So on that note, we started a project earlier this year, me and DJ Demon tospeaker-2

basically freshen up and we've done a lot of work behind the scenes as well, like upgrading the APIs and creating both graphics and content that isn't immediately visible here, but there are a lot of new functionalities or continuation of existing functionalities that's being incorporated in here. So we hope that people will enjoy it once we launch, hopefully.We can get something out this year, but I'm not promising anything yet. However, as DJ Demon said, you can go to v2.erik.radio and check it out for yourself right now. So there are a lot of functionalities that aren't in or lot of pages that aren't in yet, but you can request and search for songs. You can add to favorites.And you can listen to whatever channel. So, Ericade has two channels. It's live and the best of channels. And then we have the podcast, obviously, that you can listen to now directly in your browser or on the website.Yeah, and you also have favorites, as you said. That means you can favorite such a hard song so you can remember the songs that you want to request in the future. Very nifty little thing, function.It's only in your browser though, but still it's a way to kind of keep track of like, this song is cool. I want to remember it or perhaps request it later. it's a cool feature, I think. We'll be working on this even post the first launch version to ensure that we have all the...speaker-2

The content that we think should be moved and still kept from the old AriK.radio website.Absolutely.So that's, yeah, hope everybody likes that. Fire away.I think it's very aesthetic feeling on it that's better. The old design wasn't very good and what you have created with the new V2 is beautiful. It's really, really nice and it scales very well when you compact it in a mobile phone. So as you said, the current design doesn't work.I've done this, actually, I developed a site for Yggdrasil radio in the States. They also kind of suffered from the 1998 syndrome where everything was tables and it didn't really scale well. And it just bombarded with information immediately that wasn't necessarily important to you. And it was a bit hard to just...speaker-2

click play on the site. And that's one of the things that I kind of look for in a radio site. If I want to listen, I want a big play button somewhere, pretty easy to click and just listen and see what's being playing right now. And that's something that we're now bringing over to Erricade.Great work.Yeah, which is a good it's it's actually looking quite good. And I got to say a little props to Corius here. I mean, when I go into a site where you have a radio station, I don't give a shit about reading. I want to listen. And that goes for pretty much everybody who wants to listen when you go into radio website, what you're instinctively looking for is the listen button. And once you click that, you don't care about what's written on the page becauseMm-hmm.speaker-1

You're not going to be sitting there reading the page while they're talking. No, you're just going to sit back and relax and actually listen to the, to the radio's music and the voice of the hosts and everything. And what you've done there, Corius, I got to give you mad props. That looks great. And you've definitely done one hell of a good job.Yeah, I totally agree with that. It's a very nice dark design, which is cool, really looking fine. I mean, it makes the old version, the ones we're running now, look very obsolete.Thank you.Not only that, I mean seriously, you're sticking to the dark theme standard here, which is actually way more easier on the eyes than the usual white based themes most, I would say most sites still uses. This looks so good and it's pleasant to the eyes. seriously. Seriously, this is a good job.That's good to hear. But yeah, we still got more stuff to add in. one thing that I didn't have planned but never made for Yggdrasil radio was a Zen mode where you basically remove everything except the play button, the graphic and the meta information of the artist and the song name and nothing else. And then of course, an exit button so you can return back to the original.speaker-2

Because a lot of like a Roku player, if you remember that, they have, can just, I guess, Apple music as well. You can put it on when you have that on your TV and it's playing. The cover art and the song Meta information is the only thing that's covering your entire screen. that's it's very Zen like. And I wanted that in a radio site as well, just to.have it kind of like you could have it on a big screen and just play for instance, one of our live events for instance, you could just have it on the screen playing and people could come by and see just like a extra bit of incentive to show people what we're doing and that Eric is kind of forever. But yeah, so hopefully we'll get thatYou what? Yes.speaker-2

out this year, but no promises. There's a lot of things going on. I'd actually did a massive upgrade to the Retro Spirit just yesterday. We'll talk a bit about the special event going over at the Retro Spirit, which is my site that I've run. But we have some music of the Christmas.Yes, we do.speaker-0

Santa Claus comes tonight. No more days to count, but the even longer wait begins. The suspense of having to wait from bedtime till morning.Yes, kids all over the world say their prayers and go to sleep knowing that when they wake up, the little fat man with the long white beard will have stopped by their houses and left the answer to a wish from the most wonderful magical sack there ever was. It is important to remember the true meaning of Chris.Thankspeaker-0

It's important tospeaker-0

This is Chris!speaker-0

No place to go Let it flow, let it flow, let it flowspeaker-1

Bye!speaker-1

to Ericade Radio, the Christmas radio station and podcast for you guys. We've been listening to a lot of music now and I guess all the music that we've listened to have pretty much one thing in common. It starts with the name Christmas. So let's just say that you've been listening to Christmas music. Yeah. Would you say guys?Yes.They all start with Christmas underscore something.Yeah, it's a bit of laziness on my part. I haven't really brought out the full name of it.do have a little thing for Christmas underscore orgy. I'm a little bit curious about what is the real name of that song.speaker-0

Yeah, it's one classic songI think you can, once you listen to this in your player or over at YouTube, just check the description for the proper names there.Yeah, definitely. And yeah, we were talking a little bit about things going on with new websites and everything. And we were also going to cover a little bit of an interesting phenomenon that's been going on on the retro spirit. And there is nobody more qualified to talk about this and actually explain everything that's going on there. And Corius, take it away. Well, days of Christmas.It's a bit of a shameless plug in a way, but it also, the Retro Spirit, which is all games website that I run, has been running now. We have an event every Christmas called 12 Days of Christmas. And that has been running next year, will be 10 years. So we have the idea is that we haveOne game every day from the 12th of December until the 23rd. And they can be anything. some years we're focusing on specific things. Other years it's more of like a shotgun approach. This year there has been a focus on both PlayStation games and anniversaries. So we hadspeaker-2

Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy. Not Final Fantasy, but Chrono Cross, which I celebrated anniversary just recently. And then some games that I wanted to add to the site for a long time. Things like Sanitarium, which is a grotesque point and click adventure game from 98. We've had flight simulator. have, like, we tried to coverdifferent genres and also different platforms. last year we've had, yeah, you guys have also contributed to 12 Days of Christmas and also like the content on the Retro Spirit. Last year you helped out with little computer people.Yeah, that precursor to The Sims, if you remember. The guy who created The Sims much later, he was inspired by little computer people and it was a very cute little game. It doesn't have it too much, so if you're easily bored, it's not for you.will write thenYeah, that's the name. That's exactly right.speaker-2

And I saw that I remember, hmm, we don't have the Sims on the site. So this year, just a couple of days ago, we actually added the Sims to the site.At least the first one is retro today,The first one is also impossible to buy, so it's a banner where it was released in 2000. It's a fun trip down memory lane. This year, Baron, you helped out with the flight simulator, isn't that right?best installment of Flight Simulator ever. We're talking about Flight Simulator 4, which unlike any other Flight Simulator actually featured some of the most disturbing add-ons you can ever imagine, such as the aircraft editor. And the reason why I'm wording it like this and describing it like this is because endless hours of fun can be had withtweaking all kinds of planes and aspects of the planes. You can create like murdering machines, things that are virtually unstable flying everywhere, but all things considered, the game itself, once you get past the antics and everything, it's a pretty good game. Yes. hate calling a simulator a game.speaker-2

Ispeaker-2

I remember having that game, I played it some, but yeah, at the time it was impressive. I don't think I ever created a custom aircraft. But yeah, and this year, DJ Demon, you're also helping out with the 12 Days of Christmas. that game comes tomorrow at the time of recording.I wanna tease what it is.I... What's about? Absolutely. It is System Shock 2, the second installment in a series of games which features the evil villainess called Shodan. And also it features cyberpunk aesthetics if you want to. It's a very late cyberpunk game if you want to say it like that. You wake up in a cryo chamber with no memory.and any identity. You just don't know where you are, who you are and why. Then you are told to get away from the cabinet as it's falling apart and you sprint over to a big bulk door and when it closes the game starts and you are being helped by this mystic female voice that tells you what you should do all day and how to proceed.It's a very complex game and you end up in the middle of two fighting powers that try to take control of the spaceship.speaker-2

How? And that game is, it's much like Deus Ex, which I believe came... There, I'm not sure. Actually, I have to check that.So.speaker-0

Bye-bye.There's something in the of the game again.System Shock 2.System of Chalk 2 came out before Deus Ex I.Yeah.speaker-2

But let's see, it's Rational Games and Looking Glass Studios and alright, it's the Ion Storm developed with Deus Ex. But there's a lot of freedom in System of Drock 2, isn't there? Like how you want to develop your character.Yeah, it's a very simplistic way. You can either go with a Navy hacker style, you can go with soldier with good weapon skills, and you can go with psionics, which means that you are able to control things with a device that you have in your hand.Yeah, it looks like a ball with a wire hanging out.Yeah, exactly. And you hold it up like, I don't know, you want to show up the impressive weaponry. I think that part is the least interesting. I generally go with the hacker route because I like that you can hack turrets so they become friendly and then start aiding you in.fighting the bad people. And the sound games give you lots of ammunition and weapons and stuff and just sleet you with newer, better upgrades. Season Shock 2 does the other way around. You're always out of ammo and you're always having to repair the weapons because they become shoddy.speaker-0

And I mean, you have a lot of ammo. Five minutes later, you're kind of in total panic. How the hell should I get any ammo, any clip, any new weapons? And I think that's a good thing because generally games become tedious when all you do is shooting. I mean, if you remember the old Doom game, you never had any lack of...of finding ammo.now and I like that it kind of adds I mean season shock 2 is more of a role-playing game in that remark in that way.Because you can play it in different ways, right? If you go with a Marine, you have more focus on gunplay. But as you said, you chose... Is that not right?The Soldier is more gunplay, whereas the Marine is more hacking stuff.speaker-2

Oh, OK, so the Marine is a hacker. OK, but yeah, from what I recall, I've played it a bit, and that game isYeah.speaker-0

Gary. Yeah.course when you wake up in a derelict spaceship in the middle of nowhere then. But you've written a review for that game and that game ishighly recommended actually very good gameYeah, you gave it a golden spirit. So that's very, very cool. Yes, so it goes until the 23rd. Today, we added Megami Ibon Roku Persona, which is the first Persona game. It was released in the West as Persona Revelations with various changes during the translation process. ButYeah, it's also a game that I've been wanting to add for a long time. yeah, keep a lookout for that and hope you enjoy it. I think we were like a couple of years back, we were on the radio with 12 days of Christmas. Isn't that right, Erik?speaker-0

Yeah, that's true. We had a talent called someone named Nate that helped us giving the voice to voiceovers, which meant that every hour or every second hour, I think it was, the message came on that 12 days of Christmas over at Retro.gg and then a short summer of the game.This is the Ericade Radio Network. It's Day 11 of the Retro Spirit's 12 Days of Christmas. Alex, a young boy from the city of Berg, travels out in the world with his friends to become the next Dragon Master, just as his hero Dine once was. Lunar Silver Star Story is a forgotten JRPG gem with excellent graphics, music, and gameplay.The Retro Spirit is a great archive of games from the old time. Visit them at retro.gg.speaker-0

Quite the feeling of Christmas here at Ericade Radio. And we heard Christmas 2 and the latest one was Go to 80 with Xmas or Christmas maybe I should say. At any rate, let's talk about more games. This is the final roundup with games that we remember that plays well for Christmas purpose if you want to. We're going over to Baron of Dubstep. What's your suggestion?I have a couple of games that I want to suggest. One of them is actually the very first game that I added and reviewed for 12 Days of Christmas. was, I think it was in 2014. It was, I can't remember the date. Yeah, 12th, no 14th of December actually in 2014.The game is Duck Hunt. We actually cover such old games. This is 1984, And we added the game and we actually did a decent review of it. And I would say Duck Hunt is actually not a single and simple and low-content game. Actually, it's so groundbreaking because they did something unbelievable with it.First of all, they came up with the non-player character ever. Who has been deemed the most annoying non-playing character ever in a computer game. And yeah, you're right. The goddamn dog.The Dole.speaker-0

And you shoot the dog eventually when you get tired of him laughing at you because you failed.Yeah, but you can't shoot the dog either. Which just adds insult to injury while the dog is laughing at you. But the best part about it is that it was actually one of the first computer, or should say one of the first video games that actually introduced multiplayer. And not necessarily cooperative, but you had the option of going cooperative with it.Aha, okay. I didn't know that.Yeah, this is one of the secret and hidden parts of the story that most people aren't aware of at all when it comes to Duck Hunt. You had mode A, mode B and mode C when you started Duck Hunt. Mode A was there's one duck, you have three rounds in your chamber and you're shooting the duck. Mode C.That was clay shooting. You shot like these clay disks out from the sky as they were shot out. Also, just like mode A, that was a piece of cake, walk in the park, whatever. The interesting one is mode B, because then you had two ducks that flew up at the same time. But if you plug one of your controllers into port two while you had the sapper in port one,speaker-1

The player who was using the controller or like the pad, he could control these birds. And that player had the option of either helping you hit the birds or making the birds fly so erratically across the screen that you weren't able to hit them at all. That's why you had actually the first case of a cooperative multiplayer system.I would actually recommend people giving it some... If you have a NES system that is with a sapper that works, give that a little bit of love. If you have Duck Hunt, course, plug it in, play it and enjoy it and look at it with reverence because that is the first game that actually introduced us to shoot at the screen style of gameplay.It is the first game that introduced multiplayer, as far as I can tell, which was definitely the first one with cooperative multiplayer play. It is the game which is the earliest where they have been able to introduce an annoying character like the dog, and it is the game with the most annoying character at all.Yeah, sorry. just wanted to quickly jump in. It's not entirely correct that it's the first co-op game on the Nintendo. There were many others, Tennis for instance, but also Mario Bros, which was released like 41 years ago in 83. So a year or so before Duck Hunt.Then I stand corrected on Mario Bros. But yeah, Duck Hunt, was early 1984.speaker-2

One of the earlier ones for sure.youYeah, definitely. Okay, I stand corrected on that one. So you guys just hang me and make fun of me. I deserve it. Another one that I really want... Thanks. Another one that I want to mention here. And this is also another one which also has been mentioned on Retro Spirits. It's not part of the... It was actually mentioned.prior to the 12 days of Christmas, but it has been reviewed there. And this game is another golden little nugget in the repertoire I have of good games worth playing. We're talking about Alien Breed Tower Assault.Yeah, that's a special game.speaker-1

Yeah, and mean, whatever you do, don't download the Amiga version because that version is actually corrupted. And it's, believe it or not, it is one of the retail version was corrupted because I don't know actually what happened, but some of the resource files from thethink it was some sort of recompiling of resources on one disk that failed and that got shipped as a massive bug, so to speak, which means that you can't actually clear the game with the Amiga version unless you choose one specific path. And that's the part of the game. It's obnoxiously hard. If you get the...the version, like the DOS version, you don't have that bug anymore. Which means that you are free to take whatever path you want towards the end goal, or should I say, the sinister central tower, so to speak. The game itself is so bloody hard. It's difficult, it's obnoxiously difficult, and you will scream at the computer eventually.because aliens keep spawning. Aliens come out of the walls, come out of the floors, and ammunition is few and far between. Credits to buy ammunition is few, well, there's little credit, and it's far between it. It's the, well, with a couple of exceptions, but I'm not going to spoil the game. And whatever you do,The game pretty much starts out with the following message. Nash is dead. You're on your own. And as sinister as that sounds, that just sets the starting atmosphere for what is going to be the most disgustingly difficult experience you've ever had. And seriously, whatever you do, you will enjoy it if you like.speaker-1

grind the games where you really have to think which path am I going to take? Because the game itself is like a base on a planet. The base is a set of buildings, you should say towers. One tower for engineering stuff, one for science, one for military, one for security, one for stores, and of course the civilian tower.And I mean, between these towers there are walkways and when you get into the walkways you realize that you have to rush through them for one obvious reason I'm not going to go into details about. yes, aliens. Thousands of them. And if you shoot one, two more pop up everywhere.It certainly has that atmosphere of dread that's very enveloping.Yeah, and I mean, the most lovable thing about the game is actually that little digital sound when you log on to an Intex terminal and the female voice says, Intex terminal logging on. That's like whenever you're being overrun and you're low on health, you have almost no ammunition, you have no armor and you find Intex terminal and you just activate it prior to dying. And it's like,text network logging on and you realize that yeah I have credits I can buy ammunition I can buy body armor I'm gonna survive this that's just the life so yeah give that one a shotspeaker-0

FeelYeah, it's also the narrow field of view and creates that tense atmosphere that made it very iconic. have two games in the last round of games for Christmas. They're not Christmas E, but I remember playing them during Christmas. One of them is from a Russian developer called Nival Interactive. They created a lot of Nival entertainment. They created a lot ofgames like Evil Islands and I think you are empty also, but it's one that was released back in 98, it's called Rage of Mages. It's a game about Mages basically. It has horrible voice acting, deplorable click actions, and it's totally unforgivable, just like Alien Breed.But it has that kind of charm. It has that kind of charm of still trying, just like Aetherlords, if you ever play that game. And it just runs with it, which is quite cool. And it has pre-rendered backgrounds and stuff in between missions. You go back to town. It has still that charm. And sitting in your room during Christmas and playing this, it has kind of a warm feeling to it, even though it'sIt sucks in many ways. And then one game that doesn't suck. well, actually, this is a sequel to a game that's hailed as an iconic cult classic. It's the sequel to UFO XCOM Defense or UFO Enemy Unknown. It's XCOM, Terror from the Deep. That game I remember playing. It's also, it's called, it's high quality, of course, just like the previous one, but itspeaker-2

changes certain core elements like what kind of weapons work where because you now you're underwater something something has survived from the previous game and it's 40 years later and terror has arrived from the deep so it's it now has underwater and land-based missions and i i even x-com and ufo ufo games after this didn't tackleunderwater missions. And I really hope that the new XCOM games, which are great, would add in underwater missions, but they didn't. So it's, it's still, it's the same composer from that made the music for Transport Raccoon, which I forget what is, but let me see if I can find it.that made the soundtrack for both UFO and Enemy Unknown and Terror from the Deep. Let's see if I can find the name of the composer. he has that kind of... The thing that you identify the composer as. Just like with John Williams, you can hear that this is a John Williams piece. And with this guy, you...could also hear that this is his work. John Broomhall is his name. So he made the music for Transport Acune and he made it for UFO Enemy Unknown and Terror from the Deep. So yeah, there's a sense of dread here as well, but it's underwater and it's hard as nails. So it's...Perfect. Time folder for Christmas.speaker-1

being somewhat of an aficionado for difficult games, I wholeheartedly agree with that.youspeaker-0

everything good has to come to an end and this show that you've been listening to ends with Christmas Beats the song and from all of us to all of you Merry Christmas and Happy New YearMerry Christmas and a Happy New Year.Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year guys and hope to catch you guys on the flip side.Absolutely.one.