Retronauts

Now that Disney's live-action Aladdin movie is out, we finally have a great excuse to jump back in time 25 years to examine the animated version of that property—one that was oddly important to the 16-bit console wars. Virgin Interactive's Genesis game mostly overshadowed Capcom's SNES interpretation thanks to some still-impressive technical tricks, but the conventional wisdom about the Sega version being superior might not hold together 2.5 decades later. On this episode of Retronauts, join Bob Mackey and Henry Gilbert as they explore the Aladdin games of the past to find out which one is the true diamond in the rough.

Resident Evil 4 has quietly been one of the most influential games of the past 20 years, and now that a shiny new port is available on the Nintendo Switch, there's never been a better time to dig into the game that redefined the third-person shooter genre. Capcom took an incredible risk by throwing out nearly everything that defined the series for its fourth iteration, and even though it took four attempts to get things right, Resident Evil 4 remains an intensely playable experience nearly 15 years later. On this episode, join Bob Mackey, Jeremy Parish, and Zachary Ryan as the crew dives into the action game that reshaped "survival horror."

Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, Caitlin Oliver, and Brian Clark convene to discuss Nintendo's least-successful console ever: The benighted Virtual Boy. And it's not as dire a discussion as you might expect—in fact, you might even call us fans.

Jeremy Parish and Bob Mackey consult with handheld connoisseur Alex "kraeman" Forsyth about the impressive portable system that beat Game Boy to the punch by five years: The Epoch Game Pocket Computer.

Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, Ray Barnholt, and Caty McCarthy look to the present to talk about a game that succeeds by looking to the past: Sega's 2017 hit Sonic Mania. See, we CAN say nice things about Sonic.

The last survivors of the Nostromo—Jeremy Parish, Benj Edwards, Chris Sims, and Ben Elgin—transmit from deep space to pay tribute to Ridley Scott's film Alien and its influence on pop culture and video games.

This time on Retronauts, we're talking about something that's rarely a featured topic on the show: ourselves! On this special Friday installment, Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross of the Duckfeed.tv network join us in our Midwest Gaming Classic hotel room to discuss the wild and woolly world of being a self-employed podcaster. Is it exciting and exotic, with danger around every corner? Or fairly straightforward, with a lot of staring at a computer screen while concocting elaborate excuses to leave the house? We think you'll find the answer is somewhere in the middle.

Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, and Flip Grip design engineer Mike Choi talk about the most beautiful and memorable game console designs through the years. Even though podcasts, uh, aren't exactly a visual medium.

Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, and James Eldred reminisce about the halcyon days before digital distribution and demo discs... back when we had bike over to the video store so we could rent games we wanted to try out.

Live! Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, Chris Kohler, and Caitlin Oliver discuss the Game Boy's 30-year legacy. Then Jeremy and Bob talk up the magic of Mindware's Heiankyo Alien in an impromptu chat recorded bootleg-style. [Art: Cassie Hart Kelly]