Some of My Favorite Retro Gaming Podcasts


There are a lot of retro gaming podcasts out there. I have dabbled in and out of many over the years, and I find myself liking the following podcasts, for different reasons. Some are primarily informational, like review podcasts and collecting podcasts. Some are lighter on the details but more about community and entertainment. Depending on my mood, the amount of time I have, and who else may be listening, there are a lot of options to choose from. These are in no particular order.



Worth It or Worthless

This is a fairly standard retro game review podcast with a slight twist. After thorough discussion a game's merits and demerits, they pit is against its current market value and make the call as to whether they would pay the asking price (worth it) or not (worthless). It's a slant that may date itself as time goes on, due to to astronomical increases in retro game prices, but nonetheless a very thorough and informative review show. 



Retro Warriors

When I first saw the original Retro Warriors logo, which consisted of the NES Ikari Warriors cover art, I knew I had to give it a listen. It has been six years, and I am listening still. Justin and Chris cover the wide gamut of retro gaming news, analysis, discussion, and all related talk to those following the retro gaming scene. They have an easy going, discussion format that is easy to listen to and often highly informative. Chris Saturn is the veteran gamer of the pair, and he base of knowledge is deep and accurate. The show format opens with news in the retro gaming scene, followed by the weekly topic at hand. Shows average a little over an hour, and is released weekly. Time flies, and the language is mostly decent with occasional swearing. 



Retro Game Squad

Alex, John, and Jeff create a themed list of several games to play and digest, and reconvene to review them together in these long form episodes. Alex is the primary host, John is the resident "genius", and Jeff is up for anything. They are united by a passion of retro games, and it shows.  There is a balanced chemistry here, in which each person brings a different background and perspective. Alex is the seasoned veteran gamer, John is down with new and old tech as it pertains to gaming, and Jeff is a wildcard of sorts, with less experience but having the most enthusiasm. Since each episode is themed, and often includes a long list of games to explore over the course of a month or two, they tend to run between 2-3 hours each. The time will fly by as each personality offers different perspectives on each of the games, leaving no stone unturned. The overall tone is polite and cordial, and unoffensive (but not in a lame way). 



RetroRGB

Bob Neal's website, www.retrorgb.com, was a strong influence on me to get my gear operating to its full potential. It was here where I learned about RGB video signals, scart connections, console mods, and all of the bits of knowledge on hardware that can be known. A pioneer in the retro gaming scene, Bob's credibility is as good as it gets, and the information is vetted and highly accurate. In recent years a YouTube channel is born from the website, as well as a simul-cast podcast. A plethora of information is provided weekly, on the happenings in retro gaming. Content such as interviews, reviews, news updates, editorials, how-to's, and much more. If you can, watch the videos on YouTube as many topics benefit from the visual aides, but Bob's narration makes the information listenable as well. Language is news-styled and appropriate.



Emulate This

Ryan, Rory, Eric, and Mike are four dudes who somehow manage to make a retro gaming themed podcast. It's a little hard to describe, actually. I think it goes like this. Early on, Rory built Raspberry Pi gaming consoles for the four of them, and they would pick a couple of games, play them, and discuss. As the years progressed, the show has evolved to include some of the strangest non-scripted content ever heard on a podcast. Much alcohol is involved with every episode and you can tell. Stories start leaking out that one cause one to look sideways at them. Themed games are often included, like guess what game this music is from while listening to bathroom noises at full blast, what happened here, and others that are NSFW. Actually, it's all NSFW. They all have very unique personalities, in that you can probably related to one of the four, and you definitely know someone like the other three. My only gripe is that they do mix in a lot of discussion of modern games, which I'm not there for, but to be fair, "retro" is not in their title. Episodes range from 1-2 hours, and are currently released monthly. 



The Collectors Quest Podcast

If you think you are a hardcore collector, you don't know anything. These guys have multiple complete collections of the popular consoles, and they have the experience and knowledge to fill books. There are details about games, and then there are DETAILS. These guys know it all. Things like extra contents of complete games besides the manuals, variants of covers and boxes, etc. The passion is clearly evident, and debates about minutia are daily fodder. When I initially started listening to them, I thought they were collecting elitists. As time has passed, I realize that they are so immersed in what they do, that things that may be obvious to them are esoteric to most, there is no intent of being condescending. You may end up feeling that your game collection is small potatoes after listening to these guys, but that passes. Whats more, their rants and diatribes are commonplace and amazing to take in. Language is unfiltered and not safe for little ears. Episodes are on the long side, averaging about 2+ hours, and are released biweekly. 


So, those are some of the podcasts that I find myself listening to lately. There are others, but these are the ones that I felt compelled to include. 

Sega Genesis Black Grid Subset Complete!

When I first got back into retrogaming, my first goal was to reacquire the games I had as a kid. That didn't take long, as I just didn't own that many games. My strongest gaming memories were with the NES and the Genesis. I started buying these up by the bucketful, as they were abundant in the early 2000's. My collection grew rapidly, but soon I was buying games because I didn't have them, not because I wanted them. Collecting started to loose meaning, and it was burning me out. One can get lost in this hobby, just trying to collect for every console is in my opinion a lost cause. Rather than have a collection that is spread out, a smaller set you passionate about is much more appealing. Time has matured my preferences for games and consoles, and I realized the kinds of games that I actually enjoy. I made a decision to thin out the herd, and only collect subsets. Having collection goals was a way to refocus, and bring back the fun in collecting. 

The first generation of black grid (1989) is my favorite style

I made a goal to complete the original Sega Genesis "black grid" box style games. For those who don't know, the games that were published by Sega had a very sleek and characteristic style: Black background with a gray grid pattern, and unique marquee art for the title. The front cover would have artwork framed in a consistent manner. This was the signature look for Genesis games. This style did not extend to third-party publishers, those games designed their covers any which way, but there are some companies that did make some attempt to resemble Sega's in-house brand, like Razor Soft did with Technocop, Jerry Glanville's Pigskin Footbrawl, and others. 

Note the enlarged logo (1990), now with "16-Bit Cartridge" subtitle

This box style is very striking, and personally nostalgic to me, as it was the primary style used when I first bought my Genesis. I vividly remember walking through the aisles of Toys 'R Us and seeing that sheen black grid on the Sega game purchase cards. It kinda makes sense, as the predecessor to the Genesis, the Master System, had a white grid style on their game boxes, although with overly rudimentary art. This was an evolution of their brand.

in 1991, the logo size was reduced

Depending on your need for order and organization, this can be taken further. I have reorganized my Genesis games shelf to reflect the changes to the box art style over the years of the Genesis releases. It may not be obvious to some, but to Genesis collectors it is an oddity that subtle changes were made to the Genesis logo size, placement, and UPC placement on the boxes. This change seems to have occurred at the start of each new fiscal year, but that's just a guess. In 1993, the black grid was eschewed for a glaring red box color. I'll never understood why Sega made this change, to me it ruins the iconic look. In addition to the color change, both first and third-party publishers were now uniformly boxed in one color and style, which is nice for organization, but a bit too late in my opinion.  

In 1992, UPC codes were placed on the spine of the box

Because I organized my Genesis games by spine theme (inspiration from Chris at Classic Gaming Quarterly), there is no unifying alphabetical order to my collection, except within the variations of subsets. This might be crazy to some, and people ask me how I find a game that I'm looking for, amidst the chaos. I just know where it is. I know the relative year, and recall what the box looked like, so it takes me no time at all to find it. 

1993 saw the emergence of the red box color

I am not interested in collecting the full Genesis set. The black grid subset is a perfect set for me that his the nostalgia nerve, as well as boasting unrivaled style. Here are the games' covers.