Weekly Rewind for the Week of February 4th, 2024

Toby Keith (1961-2024)

One new computer classroom with super sweet Mac Studio Ultras, Apple Studio monitors, and 27″ Wacoms done! And now I might have another space with Apple Studio Maxes and high end PCs for realtime rendering. Should be interesting.

Anyway, enough about “the job.” This week I got at least another week scheduled for social media posts across Nostalgia Drop, Cringe Media Club, and Super Cool Game Club. I’m going to that that as (barely) a win!

And the February playlist on YouTube as well:

Weekly Finds

I pull a lot of the items about gaming and movie news here from a number of sources: The Atari Age forums, Retro Indie News, Time Extension, IGN, Retro Hour podcast, Itch.io, Facebook, Twitter, etc. What shows up here will change weekly depending on what I happen to find in the wild. I try to include the original sources in the links.

Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! free on Epic Games

Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! is the free game this week on the Epic Games Store.

One of the best horror games with a twist you cannot unsee…

Epic Games Store

Lost Castle free on Epic Game Store

Lost Castle is a RPG beat-em-up with roguelike elements and random dungeons. It also has 4-player Co-op.

Epic Games Store

Feed It Souls

Feed It Souls is a free Game Boy title with a number of easter egg unlockables. It is a precision platformer.

Itch.io page

Swordbird Song: The Iron Owl Tower

Swordbird Sons: The Iron Owl Tower is a free Game Boy title is a short action RPG. It is a fun little Zelda-like!

Itch.io page

Daily Drop Roundup

You can get daily drops in your socials wherever you live. First Facebook link is the the Nostalgia Drop page, and the second is to the group. The group is more fun.

February 4th, 2024

Lisa Loeb – “Stay (I Missed You)”

Drive Yourself Crazy

It’s kind of crazy what we played with in the 70s and 80s. This damn toy probably drove us there.

Asterix (1991)

Asterix is a popular comic book character from the 1950s, and has been featured in over 40 videogames for nearly every system in existence. He first hit my radar with the Sega Master System because of the unique sprites.

Funny Games (1996)

Funny Games, whichever version you watch (both by the same writer/director) is extremely brutal and has one of the most ingenious twists. If you check DoesTheDogDie.com, then let me tell you: yes.

February 5th, 2024

Frente – “Bizzare Love Triangle”

Castle Grayskull

I really liked Masters of the Universe, but I never had any of the action figures or environments. Which makes me jealous to this very day.

Phantasy Star (1988)

Phantasy Star (1988) is a classic in the same way that Final Fantasy is a classic. It was never as huge as Dragon Quest (or sometimes Wizardry), but it was big. And as a sci-fi adventure, it fulfilled a different fantasy than those that were Final. My favorite is Phantasy Star IV, though I also have a huge soft-spot for III.

Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)

Critics love it. I thought it was boring as hell. But the actors do a hell of a job. I just felt watching it was like watching paint dry, even if the actors were being amazing. It hit a sexual spot in the late 80s that would hinge on sometimes cringe-worthy films of the 90s.

February 6th, 2024

The Breeders – “Cannonball”

Wooly Willy

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

For a terrestrial, E.T. was so extra. He was eating Reese’s Pieces, or for some reason, an emphatic hill so many people I knew wished to die on: Reec-ees piec-ees. When digital editing became a thing and they unvaulted the film for release, Spielburg edited out all of the guns, putting in walkie-talkies. He regrets that decision now. But still we do not have a 9k remaster with the guns restored. Conspiracy? I think not. Also, for reference on the pronounciation watch the video below. Oh wait. This was about the Atari game that was created on a one month caffiene bender of development to meet the deadline. The game is not anywhere near as bad as publicised, but it became known as the biggest failure of videogame history with returned carts buried in a landfill. As cool as all of game Howard Scott Warsaw made, E.T. is probably the biggest one people remember, and not for the right reasons. And replaying it years later, sure it’s clunky, but most Atari 2600 games feel clunky and “not like we remember them.” But it actually plays better than so many other 2600 games on the market.

UHF (1989)

Wierd Al made a movie at the height of his 80s success…and it was, of course, weird, and wonderful. And so many people I know either loved it or hated it.