Hello, and welcome to episode 01 of the SGJ Podcast. Join Jim from the Bad Movie Podcast and me as we try to adapt something of a format in order to have some more focus and structure! ;) We talk about some news, some games we’re playing, and our topic for this week, which games that are still worth playing even though their graphics and UI are on the archaic side. We also look at the opposite side of the coin, games that have held up well over the years.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:44:22 — 47.3MB)
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We also have an iTunes page now, as well as our RSS feed! Yay! Thank you for listening, and please find our show notes under the cut. :) Also, since I’m still pretty new to this podcasting thing (it’s old hat to Jim, thankfully), please don’t hesitate to give me constructive criticism on how I can improve my performance either in the comments below or in the forum. :) Hope the length is okay with y’all, but again, new to this stuff, still trying to be efficient. ;) Thanks again! :)
Podcast #01 Show Notes
News
- Drox Operative Expansion in The Works
- Rogue System and Beyond Beyaan Kickstarters
- Ring Runner Semi-Finalist on The Next Game Boss
- Endless Space Expansion #4 – Virtual Awakening
Space Games We’re Playing
- Brian – TIE Fighter, Kerbal Space Program
- Jim – Wing Commander Prophecy, System Shock 2, Starlancer, Freelancer, TIE Fighter, Independence War 2, Privateer Gemini Gold, Homeworld 2; all over the place with my whole collection this week trying to get everything installed and working again.
What Non-Space Games We’re Playing
- Brian – Teleglitch, Battlezone 2 + Updated Patch
- Jim – System Shock 2 (+ SS Rebirth Mod + SHTUP texture upgrade), As much Mechwarrior Online as I can manage to squeeze in.
Games That Haven’t Aged Well Graphically – Are They Still Worth Playing?
- Rules of Engagement 1/2
- Starflight 1/2
- Sentinel Worlds
- Star Command (1988)
- Star Fleet 1/2
- Wing Commander 1/2
- Elite
- Space Rogue
Games that have held up well graphically over the years
- X-Wing Alliance
- TIE Fighter
- Wing Commander 3/4
- Homeworld 1/2/Cataclysm
- Freelancer
- Starlancer
- Freespace 2
- Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates
Other mentioned links:
- nGlide 3DFX wrapper
- Din’s Curse
- Starjacker Q&A
- Rogue System Q&A
- Star Citizen Guild
- Abandonia abandonware site
- DJ Oldgames.sk abandonware site
- Replacement Docs
- Good Old Games (GOG)
- Desura
- XWA Upgrade Project
- Freespace 2: Open Source Project
- Limit Theory Kickstarter
- Freeworlds Freelancer Mod
I think there are a few links in the show notes.
Yeah, a couple.
Oh, and I could I interrupt you any more than I already am? I need to get better at that. :)
Just realized that while it’s displayed on this RSS Site, this podcast did not show up in my Podcast RSS feed – just in the normal Space Game Junkie News feed.
Did you use this feed?
https://feeds.feedburner.com/spacegamejunkiepodcast
Yub, looks like this: ndnw.net/no-hp-stuff/SPGJ.jpg
The hell? I just looked at the feed and it’s showing both entries. Could you refresh your reader and try again, please?
Made it work by using: https://feeds.feedburner.com/spacegamejunkiepodcast?format=xml
Instead. Never had problems with that kinda stuff before though.
Huh, glad you got it working, but I need to look into this and try and fix it. Thanks so much for letting me know!
Podcast shows up as Flash…. sorry not installing that… pity it wasn’t native or HTML5
What’s wrong with using the mp3?
What’s wrong with flash?
Flash is the devil! But there’s a nice “Download” text link in plain HTML for you. Ancient Aliens!
Wait, why is Flash the devil?
Finally managed to listen to the podcast (well most of it), but my critics on it are basically the same as on the first one.
It might be because I expect something else. And well, it’s your podcast and you do it as you want of course.
However if you ask me what I wished from the podcast it would be:
-don’t jump that often from one topic from another. jumping is ok, but not if it’s just “I managed to install this or that” – and then right off to the next game
-even if the topic is just a guideline, it didn’t really feel like something “productive” with arguments for different things. More of “this game looks good, which reminds me of this other game which also looks good and I got to run under program x”
-don’t throw around names of games in the amount you did. For someone not playing all of these games himself it becomes gibberish and uninteresting
-and therefore please explain games which aren’t that well known. I mean I guess most people know tie fighter. But there are tons of games you mentioned I did not have a clue about. Would be great to describe the game a bit and then talk about why it’s relevant concerning the topic. For me the most interesting part was actually your description of teleglitch which I didn’t know before.
-normally people get offtipic and then realize it would be a good topic for another time and stop at that point. I think in this podcast it was the case twice that you said like “this would be a great topic for another cast” and >then< talked about it for a couple of minutes which felt kinda stupid
Personally I am a big fan of the Three Move Ahead Podcasts, for example this one: https://www.idlethumbs.net/3ma/episodes/a-million-little-plastic-pieces
And well, I guess that is a good example of what I mean. Of course this guys have somewhat of an advantage, not just by being professionals but also by having developers in their casts quite often.
As I said, it's your podcast and of course you can do it like you wish to. But maybe you can take at the 3MA episode I linked for "inspirational" reasons.
Workin’ on it man. I am VERY new to this stuff so I’m learning as I go. Thanks for the critiques!
Great suggestions Kordanor! I’m enjoying listening to this tons, but perhaps a bit less content per podcast would make it easier to follow. Thanks for the hard work Brian!
We’re working on it. :) This is a learning process for me as much as anything else, so eventually we’ll find that sweet spot of length vs. content, I’m sure. :)
Rough, but entertaining. Listened to the whole thing (in segments). It probably helped that I was at least moderately familiar or better with most of the games you talked about.
The bad:
– Too much jumping around. At a few points I wasn’t sure which game you were talking about, but fortunately I could always rewind a bit and find out.
– Sometimes I couldn’t tell what was being said due to the speaker’s voice dropping out or distorting (mostly Brian). I dunno if you guys just leaned away from your mics while speaking or what, but it was irritating.
The good:
– Plenty of game chatter, which I always enjoy (when I like the games, at least).
– You both have clear, concise voices (mic issues aside). Great for recording!
– The general format is pretty good (news, games played, topic), and it can only improve from here.
Bonus points for the Emperor of the Fading Suns mention at the end. Hopefully it’ll be discussed a bit in the next episode when the music is brought up. Don’t forget CFW’s music either! ;)
I’m generally not a fan of podcasts, but SGJ’s is one I’ll keep coming back for. Looking forward to the next episode!
Thanks for the critique! I can be a bit rambly, and I’m again VERY new at this, so I’m sure I’ll get more efficient as I go on. :)
Good show, definitely getting better. I tried out the last version of Gemini Gold a while ago. While it’s definitely much prettier, the mission generation and encounter generation algorithms are definitely a mess. I have played Privateer many times over the years and have noticed that those algorithms scale with the age of the player’s game pretty well. In the beginning, most jump points are single-ship encounters and you almost never see Kilrathi. The missions are predominantly weighed toward the sector you are currently in with easier target. As you play the game, encounters at jump points ramp up to 3 or 4 ships, and they seem to get stronger, too. I’m not exactly sure how Origini coded it, but a learning curve ramp up was definitely in the game.
Something else your conversation reminded me up. A few years ago, someone created a sci-fi roguelike that’s very similar in style to Starflight. You have to purchase a crew and equipment in a starting base, explore a randomly generated universe of systems and planets, then land on the planets to collect and catalog things. It had some major issues with difficulty in the beginning, but they manage to scale that a bit. Check it out! https://code.google.com/p/rlprospector/
I also had to grab a Genesis emulator and Starflight rom to relive the good ol’ days of that amazing game. I used to the cart and fantastic manual that came with that game.
Yeah, when Jim said he got Kilrathi right out of the game I was astonished. NOT supposed to happen. And I’m well aware of rlprospectr, game kicked my ass last time I tried it. ;)
Only listened to the first 15 minutes so far, loving it. Very much appreciate the list of links on this page, helping me follow along much better. At times you mention the game you’re discussing several times, other times you mention it but once, and 60 seconds later my ADD brain has forgotten which one you’re talking about. I know it gets old to the two of you hosting the podcast, but it really helps listeners to continue referring to the game.
My pleasure man, we’re gonna do our best to make the show notes as thorough as possible. :) Glad you’re enjoying it, and thank you!