Namco Museum: The PlayStation Era - Pt. 3 | Forgotten Worlds

[00:00:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Hello party people, it's your boy Dre. This is part 3 of Namco Museum The PlayStation Era.

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_01]: If you haven't heard parts 1 or 2, you can check the description of this podcast to find links to

[00:00:23] [SPEAKER_01]: those. But if you're all caught up with us, let's continue to part 3 right now.

[00:00:39] [SPEAKER_01]: All right, we're at the last one. Namco Museum, volume 5. That's what it says right on the gate

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER_01]: here. Namco Museum 5 with a big five on it. The literal gate, yeah. On the title screen.

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Those are like very ornate museums on those title screens. No museum looks like that.

[00:00:59] [SPEAKER_01]: That shit's like a castle. Okay. Front desk. Where's that bell? Let's ring it and find out

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_01]: line up for Namco Museum, volume 5. Games include Metro Cross from 1985. Also from 1985,

[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_01]: we have Barra Duke. From 1987, we have both Dragon Spirit and Pac-Mania. And from 1989,

[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_01]: we have The Legend of Valk. And in Japan, The Legend of Valkyrie is known as Valkyrie

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_01]: no Densetsu. And it never came overseas. So there's no official English title for it,

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_01]: but it is listed as The Legend of Valkyrie within Namco Museum, volume 5,

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_01]: as well as subsequent releases such as arcade archives. But officially,

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_01]: officially, it has never really been translated to anything.

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a fitting title for that's pretty much what it means from my understanding.

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Right? Yeah, that's a very literal translation. God, I'm so deeply, deeply happy that this

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_01]: game is on this volume and got released here. But we'll get to that later because

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_01]: you know what we have to do first. We got to talk about that CGI intro

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_01]: to Namco Museum, volume 5. I'm going to give you the honors for this last volume then.

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm flapping my wings for this computer graphic extravagance.

[00:02:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Are you going to say computer graphic masterpiece?

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_00]: You can stretch the definition of masterpiece, I guess, only what you guys judge. But,

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_01]: okay, let me let all of me hit that music.

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Pac-Man is in an open dirt scape next to a sign pole pointing towards the museum.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_00]: He seems quite lost when all of a sudden a two headed dragon pops up from behind him and chases

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_00]: him. Pac-Man trips and falls and looks hopelessly frustrated when all of a sudden,

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Valkyrie flies through the sky and stabs the dragon who then explodes into a bunch of coins.

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER_00]: But their dilemma isn't over yet. The ground vibrates and a giant eyeball appears and begins

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_00]: charging a laser. All is not lost when a dragon arrives on the scene with the Metro Cross crew

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_00]: in its claws. The giant eyeball fires its laser at Pac-Man and Valkyrie, but the Metro

[00:03:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Cross guy runs and saves both of them in the nick of time. And then all of a sudden,

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_00]: their giant green friend takes a hit before the blue dragon shoots the eyeball as it explodes.

[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_00]: The dust nearby magically changes into Namco Museum.

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_01]: That, you know, I'll tell you this. Out of all the stupid intros, we've said a lot of

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_01]: stupid shit over these five volumes. The dust, the mountain itself just becoming the

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_01]: museum. That makes the least amount of sense out of like any of these. None of them made

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_01]: any sense, but that one was like, what? How did it just become the museum?

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_01]: It's magical. Thanks. Appreciate it. Thanks. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_01]: For Namco Museum volume five, there's no more animated character again, so that doesn't come

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_01]: back. So there's like a mix of Pac-Man holding the now loading sign and like related art

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_01]: screens, like volume four for loading. Some games like Pac-Mania also feature a bespoke

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_01]: loading screen before the action gets started. So it's just like, you know, the game itself,

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_01]: the museum has a loading screen and then the game itself has a loading screen.

[00:04:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Most museum sections now load with very short pauses without the need for a loading screen

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_01]: at all. It's just a black screen for a second and then boop. So again, just a testament

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_01]: how they kept improving this over time is really crazy. They kept iterating on this so fast.

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's just pretty stark improvement over volume one and two. That's for sure.

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_01]: So the layout once again has been totally changed. So volume one and two had a motif,

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_01]: volume three and four had a motif, volume five goes off the rails like in a good way.

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_00]: It's super off the rails. Yeah, it looks more like a mansion than a museum this time around.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_00]: There's ornate touches like vegetation on the railings and even like a spiral staircase.

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's like the vegetation is super extra. And this volume five museum plays a lot more

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_00]: into floors like there's a there's a Barra Duke basement, which sounds weird.

[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Pac-Mania, Metro Cross are on the first floor and Dragon Spirit and The Legend of Valkyrie

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_00]: on the second floor. So like you actually like traverse a lot of ground to get to these games

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_00]: and then you can also even take an elevator to get to the gallery in like the opera house.

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Right. It's like it's like a glass like sort of like a semi-transparent like glass sort

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_01]: of looking elevator. It's like, OK, I guess. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, it's strange, but it's so

[00:06:28] [SPEAKER_01]: cool. It's such a cool layout. Everything you just said is such a joy. The game moves a lot

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_01]: faster because you move a lot faster as presumably Pac-Man. You can still strafe

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_01]: the movement speed is just jacked. And like again, I didn't really mind the slow movement

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_01]: speed before, especially in the first two, because again, it's museum. You're not really

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_01]: going to be like running through the museum. That doesn't make any sense. Right. But

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I have to say the movement speed boost in volume five is much appreciated. Yeah,

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's I appreciate for sure. And like I get it much like you, I didn't really mind

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_00]: the first four volumes too much, but like I think I think this does help. And another

[00:07:09] [SPEAKER_00]: thing I thought was really interesting is that the walls actually have like art. So

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_00]: this art is like really off the rails to the top floor has like Mappy chasing Goro,

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_00]: the boss cat. But then there's an indoor fucking Genesis from Xevious exploding your body.

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there is a there is an indoor fucking Genesis right there. And it is strange. Yeah,

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_01]: I noticed the back wall of the main lobby has the toy pop kids on it. Yeah,

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_00]: that somebody so many deep cuts in like I think that stuff is like really, really cool.

[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Even if it makes it look like Mappy doesn't give a shit about a ship exploding. But I mean,

[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_00]: details details. Yeah, whatever. Yeah. The one thing that is pretty ghetto though is that so

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_00]: the of course the original Legend of Valkyrie like art would have been a Japanese logo. So

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_00]: they had the change for us. So if you go to those door, it's like a door that has like

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_00]: a black rectangle and then with the white font says the Legend of Valkyrie.

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of ghetto. It's kind of more. I mean, like, I feel like it's more ghetto

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_01]: than Genji and Hickey Clans. I mean, super ghetto. Yeah, it's really stupid. So there's

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_01]: something interesting here to reach the gallery and the opera house. You have to take this glass

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_01]: elevator that we mentioned earlier to the third floor, and you go up there and you're greeted

[00:08:37] [SPEAKER_01]: with a message when you walk in. It's like a you see a house in the background. It's like

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_01]: a green lawn before you before you can do anything. A message pops up and it says

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Hiroshi Fuji's world of Chana, the Mazekeeper in the diorama world. Dr. Fuji presents Chana

[00:08:56] [SPEAKER_01]: in 3D. Chana and Oru Oru present game notes. What the fuck?

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_01]: So OK, so when I first saw this, I thought they were trying to tell me

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I was about to do some sort of like adventure mini game within the museum,

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_01]: like in the long, but that's not the case at all. So what the hell was that?

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_00]: What does that even mean? I don't know who the care.

[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_00]: None of those words are in the Bible. Yeah, I don't really know who any of those characters

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_00]: are. I mean, like there is in fact a 3D character inside. I guess that might be the titular

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Chana. I don't like or or it's like what I don't understand anything that was said there.

[00:09:44] [SPEAKER_01]: They should look maybe that made more sense in Japanese or there is something

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_01]: went along with it or I don't know. Maybe they could have just cut that message for us.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know. I don't know why it said that.

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I guess it's a testament to how much they want to lead into like their history,

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I guess. But we don't understand that history.

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I didn't understand was too if that was a deep cut that was too deep for me.

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_01]: So the opera house, by the way, is like the new version of the theater in previous volumes.

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_01]: So I guess since you walk into the mansion to get to it,

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_01]: it makes sense that it would be an opera house. It would make sense to be a theater.

[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, when you go in there, there are 3D models of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man doing like

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_01]: the balcony scene for Romeo and Juliet. Dude is so crazy.

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, they animated the whole thing. Yeah, there's like a spotlight on Pac-Man.

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_01]: He's like, you know, on one knee and the there Ms. Pac-Man's up there.

[00:10:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah. Yeah, the whole the whole bit. It's weird.

[00:10:42] [SPEAKER_00]: It's super extra considering that really ultimately this just lets you see movies,

[00:10:46] [SPEAKER_00]: right? And like others and it's the sound test. But for some reason,

[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_00]: they added like this whole like scene and I guess that's cool.

[00:10:52] [SPEAKER_00]: But it's just like it's super over the top, right?

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a lot of fun. Another point I wanted to bring up was

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_00]: that there's more interactive touches this time around compared to the other four volumes.

[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_00]: It almost makes us feel like an adventure game in that, for instance, when you go into

[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_00]: the Dragon Spirit hallway, there's like a dragon head on the ground.

[00:11:26] [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, what's going on here? So you interact with it and the thing

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_00]: that comes out devours you. It's like it sucks you in.

[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, what? And so you actually go inside of the Dragon Spirit space

[00:11:38] [SPEAKER_00]: and it's this fancy looking room. It's got like these dancing figures.

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_00]: It's got stained glass windows and like, what are these doing here?

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_00]: So you can press a button and they'll actually do like a miniature play.

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, like, what the hell is this? I'm doing Dragon Spirit.

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_01]: That's like so weird. It's like you're inside of a.

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_01]: What would you call it? A music box, right?

[00:12:00] [SPEAKER_01]: With like turning figures on top, right? Exactly.

[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. And it's very it's very quiet and like,

[00:12:05] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, it's the two it's the male and female character from Dragon Spirit

[00:12:08] [SPEAKER_01]: before he becomes a blue dragon. Yeah.

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_01]: You know what, though? I kind of love it.

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Like I'm a Dragon Spirit sicko. Everyone knows this.

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_01]: And that hit me really deep down. I loved it.

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_01]: I love looking at it. It's kind of perfect.

[00:12:24] [SPEAKER_01]: It gets me right. I don't expect 99% of people to give a shit,

[00:12:27] [SPEAKER_01]: including yourself. But if you if you if you feel that game

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_01]: the way I do, it's it feels kind of special.

[00:12:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Even like I said before, it's just PS1 graphics from what? 1997.

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_01]: It's still so super effective of what it does because the art style

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_01]: and that's not easy to do. You know, they're trying to convert

[00:12:46] [SPEAKER_01]: all these like different types of arcade games into like 3D models

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_01]: and representations. And that's not easy work, man.

[00:12:55] [SPEAKER_01]: That's not just this isn't just a collection of games.

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_01]: They just slapped on a desk like they did later for Dreamcast.

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_01]: They put work into this and they didn't have to, you know?

[00:13:04] [SPEAKER_01]: And I again, I love it. I know I keep saying that,

[00:13:07] [SPEAKER_01]: but I really appreciate it. And like the fact that it does

[00:13:10] [SPEAKER_00]: feel like an adventure game, that's actually really,

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_00]: really captivating, right? And you have to set up your assets

[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_00]: to even like feel that way. And that's like that's really respectable.

[00:13:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Even let's just recreate an art style in general,

[00:13:21] [SPEAKER_00]: like really hard, let alone like crafting like a whole spiel.

[00:13:24] [SPEAKER_00]: And speaking of like the whole spiel, I mean,

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_00]: we'll get more into Valkyrie later, but it's room like teleports you

[00:13:30] [SPEAKER_00]: to there's a portal that teleports into a forest.

[00:13:33] [SPEAKER_00]: You see all the different like characters like like the fairies

[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_00]: and the old wise man or like whatever, right?

[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_00]: But to actually like leave, you actually have to walk up to

[00:13:41] [SPEAKER_00]: a bunch of bushes. And then when you interact with it,

[00:13:43] [SPEAKER_00]: you look like you're pushing them to a side so that you can pass through.

[00:13:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, you know, like that's actually like a lot of detail.

[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's not that's not a cheap animation, you know?

[00:13:54] [SPEAKER_01]: It's it's that's a lot of that's really cool that they did that.

[00:13:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. All the rooms in this are just cool.

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Do you remember the the Pac Mania room?

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like a swing like party cabin for some reason.

[00:14:06] [SPEAKER_00]: It's like it's so weird. And to actually reach it,

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_00]: you have to eat three fruits. So you actually do like press

[00:14:11] [SPEAKER_00]: the button three times to actually like eat the fruit.

[00:14:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And then and then it warps you like, wait, what?

[00:14:16] [SPEAKER_00]: But then you go inside and it's party time in there, like,

[00:14:20] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, like Blinky and Clyde and stuff for like playing cards at the table.

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Inky is jumping up and down on the couch for some reason.

[00:14:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why that's happening.

[00:14:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Sue was like serving drinks or whatever.

[00:14:35] [SPEAKER_01]: It's weird. But then you pick up the power pellet on the ground

[00:14:38] [SPEAKER_01]: and they're like, oh, shit, bye, bitch.

[00:14:40] [SPEAKER_01]: And they're just like, leave the window.

[00:14:43] [SPEAKER_01]: They all turn blue and they leave except Sue or whatever still serving drinks.

[00:14:47] [SPEAKER_01]: But if you interact with her, she'll also turn blue and leave.

[00:14:51] [SPEAKER_01]: It's weird. But yeah, Sue should pick up that pellet.

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_01]: They're like, oh, crap, Pac Man.

[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_01]: So why are they just partying in his cabin if they know he's going to get

[00:14:58] [SPEAKER_01]: he's going to come home and munch on them?

[00:15:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I don't know why that was a good idea.

[00:15:03] [SPEAKER_00]: They thought he was spending a lot of time getting that leg enhancement.

[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_01]: You and the leg man, the legs.

[00:15:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think he's that jealous of Ms.

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Pac Man's legs. Maybe he is.

[00:15:14] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[00:15:15] [SPEAKER_00]: They're pretty long.

[00:15:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I think you're transfixed with Ms.

[00:15:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Pac Man's legs. Admit it right now on the on the air.

[00:15:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I want some wispy pal legs.

[00:15:27] [SPEAKER_01]: That's not what I asked at all.

[00:15:29] [SPEAKER_01]: That is literally not what I asked you.

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER_01]: The Metro Cross room is pretty incredible, right?

[00:15:38] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's a pretty faithful recreation of the game.

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's like you have that checkered floor

[00:15:43] [SPEAKER_01]: and you have everything from the game, like interactable objects

[00:15:46] [SPEAKER_01]: like the yellow launch ramp.

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_01]: And you do an actual flip like the camera actually spins around.

[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_00]: That's crazy. Yeah.

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_01]: The camera first person when you do it.

[00:15:54] [SPEAKER_01]: You can get ran over by the barrels.

[00:15:56] [SPEAKER_01]: And again, it's from first person.

[00:15:58] [SPEAKER_01]: So you're like you flatten is like, you know, like that cartoon.

[00:16:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Like I got flattened and you're like flat in like a piece of paper or something.

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_01]: And you see the Metro Cross guys on either side,

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_01]: like running their courses as you're like there's a lot going on in there.

[00:16:12] [SPEAKER_01]: That's so cool.

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_01]: It's so cool.

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_01]: You would never be able to do that 60 frames a second, I think.

[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_01]: So I guess I guess it's I guess as much as I want to bet.

[00:16:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I guess they made the right call.

[00:16:22] [SPEAKER_01]: You can make much more detailed rooms.

[00:16:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Fine. You got me.

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_01]: But also in there, there's like a song that plays in there

[00:16:30] [SPEAKER_01]: that sounds nothing like the Metro Cross theme,

[00:16:34] [SPEAKER_01]: which is a classic composition by Nobuyuki Onogi.

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_01]: But it doesn't sound anything like that blues tune.

[00:16:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Sounds like something like an alternate take a Press Your Luck or something.

[00:16:44] [SPEAKER_02]: It's like what?

[00:16:47] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.

[00:16:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe they're trying to sell the tone of the whole thing.

[00:17:02] [SPEAKER_00]: But like the funny thing is that we very quickly looked over at YouTube

[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_00]: and you're not the only one that mentioned Press Your Luck.

[00:17:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, look, yeah, I'm a Press Your Luck guy, right?

[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I love the aesthetic of that show and the music.

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, that's what's on my mind.

[00:17:16] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know it'd be on anyone else's mind,

[00:17:18] [SPEAKER_01]: but maybe there's more sickos out there than I thought.

[00:17:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I guess so, too.

[00:17:23] [SPEAKER_01]: So I want to I want to read something because in the how to play section for Metro Cross,

[00:17:28] [SPEAKER_01]: it was very bizarre.

[00:17:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So this is what it says in the story section.

[00:17:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just going to read it verbatim.

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Metro is abandoned.

[00:17:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Save a lone runner.

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Suddenly green tiles appear in the street.

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_01]: The slip zone.

[00:17:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Jump.

[00:17:45] [SPEAKER_01]: He must dodge obstacles to reach the goal before time runs out.

[00:17:50] [SPEAKER_01]: The exhausted runner can neither stop nor retreat.

[00:17:53] [SPEAKER_01]: This is a game he cannot die, but game over as a sentence as terrible as death.

[00:18:00] [SPEAKER_02]: What does this mean?

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Folks, I got nothing.

[00:18:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know what to say about that.

[00:18:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I think that just speaks for itself.

[00:18:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe we should just move on.

[00:18:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I got absolutely nothing.

[00:18:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Don't game over, I guess.

[00:18:19] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a sentence as terrible as death, don't you know?

[00:18:21] [SPEAKER_00]: It is.

[00:18:22] [SPEAKER_00]: You want to talk about other bizarre stuff, though.

[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_00]: The bar Duke Room is the one that kind of stands out the most to me in volume five

[00:18:30] [SPEAKER_00]: because it's super trippy when you go in there.

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER_00]: There's a song in there with echoey vocals saying like, um, your friend echoey,

[00:18:39] [SPEAKER_00]: but like that's one of the lines from the game.

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_00]: But then it's followed by the end game like, I'm your friend.

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like this.

[00:18:47] [SPEAKER_01]: It's so weird.

[00:18:48] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like this drum and bass thing, which of course is popular in the second half

[00:18:51] [SPEAKER_01]: of the nineties.

[00:18:52] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's not too strange that they did that, but it's really telling

[00:18:56] [SPEAKER_01]: that they zeroed in on the I'm your friend.

[00:19:14] [SPEAKER_01]: The one clip, the iconic part of Barra Duke that people remember.

[00:19:21] [SPEAKER_01]: It's so shrill.

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_01]: They try to put it in the background of the song, but it's still shrill.

[00:19:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's just, man.

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Like the soundscape wise is bizarre, but not only that, you can go down like a

[00:19:33] [SPEAKER_00]: separate pipe in this room and it takes you to some space where there's enemies

[00:19:36] [SPEAKER_00]: flying above you.

[00:19:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And I have no clue what's going on here.

[00:19:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I have no clue if there's anything else that you can do in here.

[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_00]: And like, I just don't know.

[00:19:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just like getting the vibes, I guess.

[00:19:48] [SPEAKER_00]: But it's the bar Duke vibes room.

[00:19:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Because I don't see any other reason for this room to be here.

[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_00]: It's like kind of like what's happening, man?

[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_01]: It's it's strange.

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I was hoping you would tell me what you do in there, because I thought I was too dumb

[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_01]: to figure it out, but apparently you didn't either.

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_01]: So I don't know.

[00:20:10] [SPEAKER_01]: It's a mystery to me.

[00:20:11] [SPEAKER_01]: It looks cool, I guess.

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I guess maybe they just wanted you to like experience the warp pipe thing,

[00:20:18] [SPEAKER_01]: like in 3D.

[00:20:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, but it should lead to something that is the thing that you do in bar

[00:20:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Duke.

[00:20:23] [SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, it's just like, I couldn't figure out something

[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_00]: to interact with.

[00:20:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it was just really weird.

[00:20:30] [SPEAKER_00]: So that was cool.

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for sure.

[00:20:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Strange.

[00:20:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I was flipping through the issues of NG magazine in the gallery as I do with

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_01]: every museum.

[00:20:41] [SPEAKER_01]: And I got to the October 1992 issue and the entire image was basically

[00:20:47] [SPEAKER_01]: pixelated out.

[00:20:49] [SPEAKER_01]: So I was like, what the hell is going on here?

[00:20:52] [SPEAKER_01]: So I looked it up online.

[00:20:55] [SPEAKER_01]: This cover of NG magazine features Godzilla and Mothra.

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_01]: What?

[00:21:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, that's weird enough, but this is even weirder.

[00:21:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Godzilla and Mothra are there for no discernible reason.

[00:21:10] [SPEAKER_01]: It's not like Namco ever made a Godzilla game or anything.

[00:21:14] [SPEAKER_01]: So like, why the hell are they here?

[00:21:17] [SPEAKER_01]: And I finally got my answer when I zoomed in on the fine print all

[00:21:21] [SPEAKER_01]: the way at the bottom of the magazine, which are still readable.

[00:21:25] [SPEAKER_01]: And to the best of my Japanese, my mediocre Japanese, it says Namco

[00:21:30] [SPEAKER_01]: is in cooperation with the Toho movie Godzilla versus Mothra opening

[00:21:34] [SPEAKER_01]: nationwide on December 12th.

[00:21:37] [SPEAKER_01]: What a load.

[00:21:38] [SPEAKER_01]: So it was a tie in.

[00:21:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Now I don't know if they like help finance the movie.

[00:21:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know within cooperation means.

[00:21:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I don't know.

[00:21:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I can't really speculate as to the nature of that cross

[00:21:50] [SPEAKER_00]: promotion, but I think it's interesting that they're covering their bases

[00:21:54] [SPEAKER_00]: legally, right?

[00:21:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Because that's why they had like pseudo censoring it out or whatever.

[00:21:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:21:58] [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, it's fascinating to me that they would even cross promote

[00:22:02] [SPEAKER_00]: with that in the first place.

[00:22:03] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I can't imagine what was the basis for it.

[00:22:07] [SPEAKER_00]: But I mean, it's interesting, right?

[00:22:10] [SPEAKER_01]: It sure is.

[00:22:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I just had to know.

[00:22:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, what the hell was on here?

[00:22:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't even really think it necessarily that it would be something

[00:22:17] [SPEAKER_01]: licensed.

[00:22:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I thought maybe it would be something too sketchy for like a game rated E for

[00:22:22] [SPEAKER_01]: everyone or something or maybe.

[00:22:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.

[00:22:25] [SPEAKER_01]: As it would be back then.

[00:22:27] [SPEAKER_01]: So I thought I thought maybe like, OK, they don't want to show

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_01]: whatever this is because they might get a teen rating or something.

[00:22:34] [SPEAKER_00]: But mommy, this house is splattering too much.

[00:22:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, there's a reason why Spider-Hells never appeared on any of these.

[00:22:43] [SPEAKER_01]: OK, so.

[00:22:48] [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, it's it's it's fascinating.

[00:22:51] [SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I hope my Japanese wasn't too far off base, but I'm pretty sure

[00:22:54] [SPEAKER_01]: that's what it said.

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER_00]: That's cool, though, man.

[00:22:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's an extra context because the game description sure as hell

[00:23:00] [SPEAKER_00]: doesn't really tell you what the magazine is about.

[00:23:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I think it just says like this is about final lap three, but there's

[00:23:05] [SPEAKER_00]: just a bunch of pixels and like, OK, yeah, it just says it just says

[00:23:09] [SPEAKER_01]: the games that are featured in there doesn't again, the cover doesn't have

[00:23:12] [SPEAKER_01]: anything to do with the contents inside.

[00:23:14] [SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:23:17] [SPEAKER_00]: One real weird point I go on to make, I got to make really quick is that

[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_00]: so each of the five volumes does have a little arcade history,

[00:23:24] [SPEAKER_00]: time like in browse.

[00:23:25] [SPEAKER_00]: But this like includes more granular details.

[00:23:29] [SPEAKER_00]: It has like DX and SD's like Cyber Commando DX

[00:23:34] [SPEAKER_00]: and Cyber Commando SD on like separate lines.

[00:23:36] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, are they just trying to be as comprehensive as possible

[00:23:39] [SPEAKER_00]: for the last volume?

[00:23:40] [SPEAKER_00]: It's like that was like we I'm like.

[00:23:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Did they have to do that?

[00:23:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[00:23:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Kind of extra.

[00:23:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think they I don't even think I know what that means.

[00:23:46] [SPEAKER_01]: So this like does that mean like standard SD standard and deluxe cabinets?

[00:23:51] [SPEAKER_01]: It's got to be.

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, right.

[00:23:53] [SPEAKER_00]: It's just like is that does that mention warrant being mentioned

[00:23:56] [SPEAKER_00]: separately, like a separate like game entries, like I guess if the cabinets

[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_00]: are different enough, but almost like also what the fuck is Cyber Commando?

[00:24:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I've never heard.

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I had never heard of it before looking at these some like, I don't know.

[00:24:10] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[00:24:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but yes, I thought that was an interesting like point just because

[00:24:15] [SPEAKER_00]: like they could have just said Cyber Commando, but they did.

[00:24:19] [SPEAKER_01]: They did it.

[00:24:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[00:24:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't know why they like differentiated that that was where

[00:24:23] [SPEAKER_01]: that they need to say like, I mean, it doesn't say like

[00:24:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Suzuka eight hours full scale and whatever.

[00:24:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Not that I don't know there's any other type of

[00:24:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Suzuka eight hours cabinet outside of full scale, but I mean, like it's

[00:24:34] [SPEAKER_01]: it's really strange thing to include, but I guess for thoroughness.

[00:24:37] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[00:24:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's talk about the games here more in depth, and I think this is going

[00:24:47] [SPEAKER_01]: to be the volume where we touch on all five of these games.

[00:24:50] [SPEAKER_01]: This is without a doubt.

[00:24:52] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know about you.

[00:24:53] [SPEAKER_01]: This is the best lineup of the five Namco Museums easy for my money.

[00:24:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Every single game here is an absolute winner.

[00:25:01] [SPEAKER_01]: So like I want to touch on all of them, but before I do,

[00:25:04] [SPEAKER_00]: you tell me like what you think, you know, honestly upon first glance,

[00:25:09] [SPEAKER_00]: these seem like some pretty crazy deep cuts and I can't imagine like

[00:25:13] [SPEAKER_00]: your average like enthusiasts is going to all five.

[00:25:16] [SPEAKER_00]: But like I think to me, like these five are the most consistent

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_00]: quality wise because in the other four volumes, there are some things

[00:25:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't call them like stinkers or like bad games, but some that

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_00]: we wouldn't necessarily gravitate towards such as like we're not going

[00:25:31] [SPEAKER_00]: to be playing like like Drago or like return of Ishtar necessarily.

[00:25:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Those are the only two I would call bad.

[00:25:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't even say Dragon Buster is bad.

[00:25:40] [SPEAKER_01]: I just don't really like to play it.

[00:25:42] [SPEAKER_01]: You're in Ishtar.

[00:25:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I would actually say are not good, but that's it.

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_00]: So like but yeah, again, like there are titles that we are less

[00:25:51] [SPEAKER_00]: inclined to revisit such as like the original rally X and then

[00:25:54] [SPEAKER_00]: like Dragon Buster and stuff like that.

[00:25:57] [SPEAKER_00]: But I'd say all five of these are warrant, you know, playing

[00:26:00] [SPEAKER_00]: like the all five of them are standouts in their own right

[00:26:03] [SPEAKER_00]: mechanically and aesthetically.

[00:26:05] [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, they're they're cool.

[00:26:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I absolutely agree.

[00:26:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I think all five of them are stupendous.

[00:26:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I want to touch on them all real quick if you don't mind.

[00:26:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Metro Cross is just so much fun.

[00:26:18] [SPEAKER_01]: I had never played it before I got this volume five.

[00:26:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Barra Duke and Metro Cross were the ones I had never played before.

[00:26:24] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's it's just you can almost say Metro Cross is like

[00:26:28] [SPEAKER_01]: the ancient archetype of what we might now call the endless runner.

[00:26:32] [SPEAKER_01]: That's an interesting way of putting it.

[00:26:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:26:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Is that fair to say because it has like great score play

[00:26:38] [SPEAKER_01]: and tension against the clock, you know, like almost like a

[00:26:42] [SPEAKER_01]: futuristic game show.

[00:26:43] [SPEAKER_01]: You could you could call it.

[00:26:45] [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, I like that motif.

[00:26:46] [SPEAKER_01]: That's the motif that grobda has as well.

[00:26:48] [SPEAKER_01]: That sort of future like blood sport kind of thing.

[00:26:51] [SPEAKER_01]: And I love that shit.

[00:26:53] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's just an incredible design, man.

[00:26:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Also, maybe one of the best Namco main BGM's ever again,

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_01]: composed by Nobuyuki Onagi.

[00:27:03] [SPEAKER_01]: He's done Mappy.

[00:27:04] [SPEAKER_01]: He's done liberal rabble.

[00:27:06] [SPEAKER_01]: He's done many things at Namco.

[00:27:08] [SPEAKER_01]: But like Jesus, man, I honestly think Metro Cross takes the cake.

[00:27:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's catchy, man.

[00:27:36] [SPEAKER_00]: It's earworm.

[00:27:36] [SPEAKER_00]: It's an earworm.

[00:27:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's really, really good.

[00:27:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's already amongst the whole linear just stacked BGM.

[00:27:42] [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah.

[00:27:49] [SPEAKER_01]: You you were not really a fan of Pac Mania before, were you?

[00:27:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Or am I misreading that?

[00:27:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for a long time, I wasn't really necessarily a Pac Mania fan.

[00:27:58] [SPEAKER_00]: It was actually took a few plays like kind of like understand it.

[00:28:02] [SPEAKER_00]: But like I think by the time like I started playing Pac Man Museum Plus

[00:28:06] [SPEAKER_00]: and stuff like that, I was really into it.

[00:28:08] [SPEAKER_00]: But like for a long time, though, just like this is just a weirdo isometric Pac Man.

[00:28:13] [SPEAKER_00]: But no, it holds its own.

[00:28:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And it holds its own.

[00:28:17] [SPEAKER_01]: It's really deceptively simple design as Pac Man usually is.

[00:28:21] [SPEAKER_01]: But like you think because Pac Man can jump in this game.

[00:28:25] [SPEAKER_01]: That's kind of the gimmick of it.

[00:28:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Pac Man can jump in a maze game, not like Pac Land, which is a science

[00:28:30] [SPEAKER_01]: cooler, but a maze Pac Man game or Pac Man can jump.

[00:28:33] [SPEAKER_01]: You'd think that would trivialize everything, right?

[00:28:35] [SPEAKER_01]: You can just jump over all the ghosts and you can do that.

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER_01]: But the ghosts are so much smarter than they were before.

[00:28:41] [SPEAKER_01]: They'll chase your ass down.

[00:28:42] [SPEAKER_01]: There's also many more ghosts.

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_01]: So the game does balance out.

[00:28:46] [SPEAKER_01]: And then if you get really far, some ghosts are also able to jump.

[00:28:50] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's it's it balances just because you can jump doesn't mean the game is easy street.

[00:28:55] [SPEAKER_00]: And also like you don't have full visibility of the maze on like earlier games as well.

[00:29:00] [SPEAKER_00]: So that you kind of have to think on your feet sometimes.

[00:29:02] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's an interesting decision making at play, too.

[00:29:05] [SPEAKER_00]: So what would you call Barra Duke?

[00:29:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't really know what genre it is.

[00:29:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I guess it's just a action game.

[00:29:14] [SPEAKER_01]: It's not really a schmup.

[00:29:16] [SPEAKER_01]: It's it's it's what the hell is it?

[00:29:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, obviously my comp is Air Fortress, but nobody knows what that is.

[00:29:23] [SPEAKER_01]: So I don't really I don't I don't really know how to describe it.

[00:29:27] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, a free flying side scrolling shooter.

[00:29:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but sometimes you go up and down.

[00:29:34] [SPEAKER_01]: You do kind of go around a map sometimes as you go along.

[00:29:38] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's like, yeah, it's not really sites.

[00:29:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[00:29:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, man.

[00:29:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but it's kind of a dungeony kind of shooter game.

[00:29:48] [SPEAKER_01]: It's it's fantastic, whatever it is.

[00:29:50] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's artistically fantastic.

[00:29:52] [SPEAKER_01]: It plays great, too.

[00:29:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I love it.

[00:29:54] [SPEAKER_00]: It also deserves that crazy room.

[00:29:59] [SPEAKER_01]: The I'm your friend room.

[00:30:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the vibes room, the bar Duke vibes room.

[00:30:04] [SPEAKER_01]: I was looking up the soundtrack to Barra Duke.

[00:30:07] [SPEAKER_01]: It's in Japanese, but the I'm your friend sound bite says I'm your friend in English.

[00:30:12] [SPEAKER_01]: It's that's the only part that's in it.

[00:30:14] [SPEAKER_01]: All the rest of the soundtrack is in Japanese.

[00:30:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, really?

[00:30:17] [SPEAKER_00]: This is they kept it all.

[00:30:18] [SPEAKER_00]: That's interesting.

[00:30:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but I'm your friend is in because it's it's it's it's in English in the game, too.

[00:30:23] [SPEAKER_01]: So you may as well just write it that way.

[00:30:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, indeed.

[00:30:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Of course, I've already spoken about it.

[00:30:28] [SPEAKER_01]: But Dragon Spirit may be my favorite schmup ever.

[00:30:31] [SPEAKER_01]: We probably don't have the time to go into why I like that game so much.

[00:30:34] [SPEAKER_01]: But just I'll say this just as like a visual thing.

[00:30:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's so cool, especially came out in 1987.

[00:30:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[00:30:43] [SPEAKER_01]: So you had things like our type and Gradius was cooking right or salamander

[00:30:48] [SPEAKER_01]: life force, if you will, and plenty of these other like hard sci fi themes.

[00:30:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Dragon Spirit was completely different because it's like a

[00:30:56] [SPEAKER_01]: it's like the first fantasy schmup I can think of with like with like mountains

[00:31:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and grassy plains and volcanoes and like shit like that, like fantasy settings,

[00:31:08] [SPEAKER_01]: a snowy field.

[00:31:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[00:31:10] [SPEAKER_01]: You didn't see that in other schmups and you're a dragon.

[00:31:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Of course, she plays a dragon.

[00:31:15] [SPEAKER_01]: So already you're like it's just so different and it feels so different.

[00:31:20] [SPEAKER_01]: And Shinji Hosoi composed the soundtrack to this.

[00:31:23] [SPEAKER_01]: And the sequel Dragon Saber, some of the best, some of my favorite music of all time.

[00:31:29] [SPEAKER_00]: It's so memorable.

[00:31:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:31:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And even the opening scene, like you're flying over this ocean

[00:31:34] [SPEAKER_00]: look in place too, and that's already pretty distinct as well.

[00:31:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And like, yeah, like just everything ties together so cohesively.

[00:31:41] [SPEAKER_00]: You power up and get like two heads or like whatever stuff

[00:31:44] [SPEAKER_00]: like that really feels empowering.

[00:31:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And the game is hard to kick your ass.

[00:31:50] [SPEAKER_01]: It's not easy.

[00:31:52] [SPEAKER_01]: You've played the NES version, right?

[00:31:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Dragon Spirit, the new legend.

[00:31:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Yep.

[00:31:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Which is a lot easier.

[00:31:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Honestly, I almost recommend people play that just because you can actually beat it.

[00:32:01] [SPEAKER_01]: But it's a great conversion for a lot of different reasons.

[00:32:05] [SPEAKER_01]: But the arcade version should be experienced too.

[00:32:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Any version of Dragon Spirit is a good version.

[00:32:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Never played it.

[00:32:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.

[00:32:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:32:13] [SPEAKER_01]: So there's one game we didn't mention yet, and that is Legend of Valkyrie.

[00:32:31] [SPEAKER_01]: For those who don't know, it's a top down action game.

[00:32:34] [SPEAKER_01]: And it has an RPG feel, even though it's not an RPG.

[00:32:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, it's an arcade game.

[00:32:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:32:40] [SPEAKER_01]: But it's very unique in the arcade space.

[00:32:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Could we start there?

[00:32:45] [SPEAKER_00]: I would definitely say it's unique because yeah,

[00:32:48] [SPEAKER_00]: it almost feels like an action RPG of sorts.

[00:32:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, fundamentally, it's about, you know,

[00:32:55] [SPEAKER_00]: like stabbing with your sword or whatever, right?

[00:32:57] [SPEAKER_00]: But you can do all sorts of things aside from that as well.

[00:33:01] [SPEAKER_00]: You actually pick up gold,

[00:33:03] [SPEAKER_00]: which once you purchase power ups and stuff like that.

[00:33:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:33:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And then so like that in itself already suggests some degree of

[00:33:10] [SPEAKER_00]: inventory shenanigans, which kind of isn't really the most consistent

[00:33:15] [SPEAKER_00]: mechanic in arcade games.

[00:33:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[00:33:17] [SPEAKER_01]: And well, you don't really I mean, like I'm trying to think of stuff

[00:33:20] [SPEAKER_01]: like Kadaj or whatever where you'd have to hold the fire button if you were the mage

[00:33:25] [SPEAKER_01]: to get and a thought bubble appears over his head like fireball or potion or this.

[00:33:30] [SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

[00:33:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And then you have to let go at the right time.

[00:33:32] [SPEAKER_01]: So that was kind of awkward, but it works, you know?

[00:33:34] [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, sometimes for that kind of like thing where you're trying to use spells

[00:33:38] [SPEAKER_01]: or whatever doesn't always come off the best in a arcade game

[00:33:41] [SPEAKER_01]: because you don't have the buttons.

[00:33:43] [SPEAKER_00]: But I think this game controls really well with attack and jump.

[00:33:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Like it's simple, right?

[00:33:48] [SPEAKER_00]: That's at the heart of any arcade game that's actually worth its salt

[00:33:51] [SPEAKER_00]: worth its weight in salt and like and just because like

[00:33:55] [SPEAKER_00]: you do have to hold the button to like use your spells.

[00:33:57] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't I never really particularly minded.

[00:33:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And those are spells that you can actually acquire it like during your run.

[00:34:02] [SPEAKER_00]: So there's a there's a feeling of progression, right?

[00:34:05] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's that is really, really fascinating to me.

[00:34:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't call games special very often, but maybe I should.

[00:34:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I think Valkyrie is special.

[00:34:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I am again, I'm super grateful it's on here.

[00:34:16] [SPEAKER_01]: And I love again, I love the feeling that it's not an RPG, but it feels like one.

[00:34:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I just think it has the hallmarks of like a really solidly crafted like arcade

[00:34:27] [SPEAKER_00]: game, like everything is extremely like vibrant and readable.

[00:34:30] [SPEAKER_00]: The game really leans into the sort of aesthetic, like even from the very beginning,

[00:34:34] [SPEAKER_00]: you're jumping down from high up above down below to the earth.

[00:34:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And I that is arguably the most iconic opening in an arcade game to me.

[00:34:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Like I like it's like I can't even think of like too much else like that kind of does that.

[00:34:48] [SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, like it sets the tone right away, right?

[00:34:53] [SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, it's I'm trying to stand.

[00:34:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sitting here trying to like answer your question.

[00:34:57] [SPEAKER_01]: What is more iconic or memorable than that?

[00:35:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'm sure there is stuff, but like that's what that's up there.

[00:35:03] [SPEAKER_01]: That's definitely up there.

[00:35:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I first played Legend of Valkyrie actually on MAME, I would say the very early 2000s.

[00:35:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Back in my message board days, we used to do this like monthly score attack thing

[00:35:27] [SPEAKER_01]: for an arcade game on MAME.

[00:35:29] [SPEAKER_01]: We wouldn't try to pick anything too popular like Pac-Man.

[00:35:31] [SPEAKER_01]: We didn't want anyone to like, you know, ace everybody else who happens to be good at it.

[00:35:35] [SPEAKER_01]: So we pick stuff like but we did also didn't want to get too obscure.

[00:35:39] [SPEAKER_01]: We so we did stuff like Donkey Kong Jr.

[00:35:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Or like whatever stuff that's not like, you know, of course, everyone knows the

[00:35:45] [SPEAKER_01]: doctoral junior is, but nobody's going to like, you know, come in here and fucking,

[00:35:48] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, destroy us on score.

[00:35:51] [SPEAKER_01]: One one month we did use Legend of Valkyrie.

[00:35:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I had never heard of it before and I played it and I was floored like,

[00:36:01] [SPEAKER_01]: you know how you hear like three seconds of a song and you go, whoa,

[00:36:05] [SPEAKER_01]: because you know, it's going to be like the absolute shit again.

[00:36:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Like you were talking with that intro as soon as the game starts, you're like,

[00:36:11] [SPEAKER_01]: holy shit, this is incredible.

[00:36:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Like everything looked yeah, everything was perfect.

[00:36:17] [SPEAKER_01]: So how did you play first play Valkyrie?

[00:36:19] [SPEAKER_01]: It definitely wasn't from now, but Museum volume five, right?

[00:36:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:36:23] [SPEAKER_00]: So I kind of remember I kind of struggle to remember the specifics,

[00:36:27] [SPEAKER_00]: but I mean, I think I tried it arcade ROM.

[00:36:29] [SPEAKER_00]: I would probably say in the early 2000s or something like that.

[00:36:32] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, like, yeah, I primarily played it via volume five later in life,

[00:36:36] [SPEAKER_00]: as well as the later Arcade archives release.

[00:36:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, I had heard of those score play message board competitions,

[00:36:42] [SPEAKER_00]: but I had never participated in one.

[00:36:44] [SPEAKER_00]: So that was kind of how I got my licks in.

[00:36:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I think I just saw the title one day and probably was just curious about it.

[00:36:50] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's just my pure happenstance.

[00:36:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I even like played it originally.

[00:36:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Interesting.

[00:36:54] [SPEAKER_01]: So you just decided to pick it up?

[00:36:55] [SPEAKER_01]: No one said, oh man, this game is the shit or something.

[00:36:57] [SPEAKER_01]: So you just kind of played it on your own accord randomly.

[00:36:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, here's a Namco game I never heard of or some shit.

[00:37:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

[00:37:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:37:03] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, like what legend of what Valkyrie?

[00:37:06] [SPEAKER_00]: That's kind of a weird, interesting title, right?

[00:37:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I think it was just based off of that.

[00:37:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:37:11] [SPEAKER_01]: So I love when a game tells a story with visuals, especially arcade games.

[00:37:18] [SPEAKER_01]: And what I mean by story is not literally the plot of the game,

[00:37:22] [SPEAKER_01]: although I guess it could be that too.

[00:37:24] [SPEAKER_01]: But what I mean is visuals that move the player mentally to like the next place

[00:37:34] [SPEAKER_01]: and space in the world.

[00:37:36] [SPEAKER_01]: That probably doesn't make any sense.

[00:37:37] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's probably, it's like the best way you could describe it.

[00:37:40] [SPEAKER_01]: That feeling of movement and like not progress because progress seems like a

[00:37:45] [SPEAKER_01]: stat thing or like leveling up.

[00:37:47] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't mean it like that.

[00:37:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, progress in the game world, you're moving towards something.

[00:37:53] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's kind of really hard to do in any 2D top down game, but I think Valkyrie manages.

[00:37:59] [SPEAKER_00]: It really, really does manage it because of the setup really takes you from locale to locale.

[00:38:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[00:38:04] [SPEAKER_00]: So it really gives the impression of a sweeping epic journey, even though like

[00:38:09] [SPEAKER_00]: on a sheer technicality, this is an eight stage game, but like you really feel like

[00:38:13] [SPEAKER_00]: you're going towards a destination during those eight stages just because of how unique

[00:38:19] [SPEAKER_00]: each world is and like into a degree, like it really all falls in the same motif.

[00:38:24] [SPEAKER_00]: So it feels coherent at the same time.

[00:38:26] [SPEAKER_00]: It feels cohesive at the same time too.

[00:38:28] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's like pretty hard to do.

[00:38:31] [SPEAKER_01]: You are absolutely correct.

[00:38:32] [SPEAKER_01]: And I just love the part where I'm thinking of the part early on

[00:38:36] [SPEAKER_01]: where you start going up a mountain path on the right side of the screen.

[00:38:41] [SPEAKER_01]: And on the left side of the screen, you see like a miniaturized version of the

[00:38:45] [SPEAKER_01]: that you just started in and scaling further and further out as you keep going up this

[00:38:51] [SPEAKER_01]: mountain path.

[00:38:52] [SPEAKER_01]: So it gives us a sense of scale.

[00:38:54] [SPEAKER_01]: And then all of a sudden, you're at the top and then you're like jumping on platforms.

[00:38:58] [SPEAKER_01]: You're doing platforming in the sky way up in the sky now.

[00:39:04] [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't use this word very often, but it's majestic.

[00:39:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Video games are fucking magic basically is what I'm saying.

[00:39:28] [SPEAKER_00]: And when you have the direction like this, it really sells that magic.

[00:39:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:39:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's really, really cool.

[00:39:33] [SPEAKER_00]: There's a whimsicality to this game that feels very widely universally appealing.

[00:39:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And it almost seems kind of reminiscent of the way like Dragon Quest monster designs

[00:39:44] [SPEAKER_00]: are very universally appealing in that regard.

[00:39:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And so far as like volume five is concerned, it has a straight up pictorial script that

[00:39:53] [SPEAKER_00]: goes for multiple pages telling about how the game's backstory was set up.

[00:39:57] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's essentially a storyboard.

[00:39:59] [SPEAKER_00]: So they really thought about this stuff.

[00:40:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they really did.

[00:40:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Because having those kind of storyboards doesn't mean you're going to have like

[00:40:07] [SPEAKER_01]: tons of text or something in the game.

[00:40:09] [SPEAKER_01]: It just means that like when you do that, you have a game flow.

[00:40:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Storyboarding is important for just about any medium.

[00:40:15] [SPEAKER_01]: But like, you know, especially if you're making something that's supposed to be

[00:40:19] [SPEAKER_01]: digested real fast, like an arcade game or a music video.

[00:40:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[00:40:25] [SPEAKER_01]: You need to get the point across to whoever's watching it immediately.

[00:40:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And that and Valkyrie manages to do that really.

[00:40:32] [SPEAKER_00]: It's very well planned and it conveys a sort of setting like immediately.

[00:40:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, there's a lot of thought put into it.

[00:40:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And furthermore, like if you look at the gallery, there's a whole sequence of

[00:40:43] [SPEAKER_00]: like 22 concept art images that tell you like the game's backstory.

[00:40:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:40:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think it says like origin of Valkyrie or whatever.

[00:40:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And this stuff is like really, really crazy.

[00:40:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And there's a painterly look to these images.

[00:40:55] [SPEAKER_00]: It almost seems like as magical as like a Studio Ghibli like animation or something.

[00:40:59] [SPEAKER_00]: That's like crazy, man.

[00:41:01] [SPEAKER_01]: It's wild.

[00:41:02] [SPEAKER_01]: It's so cool.

[00:41:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I think the lasting impression for me about Legend of Valkyrie is

[00:41:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's just like a grand testament to like art direction and ingenuity being

[00:41:16] [SPEAKER_01]: forever.

[00:41:17] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, almost like we talked about, like these museums hold up as like fun

[00:41:22] [SPEAKER_01]: celebrations of Namco history.

[00:41:24] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, despite its PS1 graphics or whatever the art holds up, Valkyrie

[00:41:29] [SPEAKER_01]: leverages that same scaling and rotation used in Assault as we talked about

[00:41:34] [SPEAKER_01]: earlier.

[00:41:34] [SPEAKER_01]: And like you said, you start the game, you go, you come down to Earth,

[00:41:37] [SPEAKER_01]: like zoom, you zoom right in and it uses it to really great effect here.

[00:41:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's the lasting impression to me of Valkyrie.

[00:41:47] [SPEAKER_01]: It's just, you know, one of those games that just feels like everything

[00:41:50] [SPEAKER_01]: it should be.

[00:41:52] [SPEAKER_00]: It has that feel down and yeah, there's some sequences where, yeah, you can like

[00:41:56] [SPEAKER_00]: totally like jump up into the sky and it'll really like have that scaling, which

[00:42:00] [SPEAKER_00]: that's just really something magical in like the video game space.

[00:42:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And I really like thoroughly enjoyed like the setting and it has like these

[00:42:11] [SPEAKER_00]: elemental fairies and restoration talk of restoration and stuff like that.

[00:42:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And it just feels like a really, really solid journey all around.

[00:42:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[00:42:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:42:21] [SPEAKER_00]: I in a manner of speaking, it almost feels like a precursor to like the

[00:42:24] [SPEAKER_00]: manna series in terms of just that sort of motif.

[00:42:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Kinda kind of where like the art direction carries now, of course,

[00:42:33] [SPEAKER_01]: man, a games or some of them anyway do have good gameplay as well.

[00:42:37] [SPEAKER_01]: But like, and so does Valkyrie, but like, you know, yeah, it really

[00:42:42] [SPEAKER_01]: does carry it and you really feel that.

[00:42:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's a good, I didn't really think of manna.

[00:42:46] [SPEAKER_01]: That's actually a kind of a perfect comparison.

[00:42:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Do you before we shut up about Legend of Valkyrie, do you think

[00:42:53] [SPEAKER_01]: we could possibly speculate why this never came out here in arcades?

[00:42:57] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, like we said, Manco Museum Volume five is the first release of this game here ever.

[00:43:03] [SPEAKER_01]: What happened?

[00:43:04] [SPEAKER_01]: I can't believe they sat on something so special.

[00:43:08] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, like in the late 80s, early 90s, I think there was a sort of sentiment

[00:43:13] [SPEAKER_00]: where like some companies might have been scared about like an anime

[00:43:17] [SPEAKER_00]: esque sort of like aesthetic doing well over here.

[00:43:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, this game's got that in spades, right?

[00:43:22] [SPEAKER_00]: So that may have been part of it.

[00:43:23] [SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, like, I feel it could have succeeded.

[00:43:27] [SPEAKER_00]: They gave it a chance, but they would have needed to take that step first.

[00:43:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't I just can't imagine like even if Namco didn't want to do it themselves,

[00:43:37] [SPEAKER_01]: I think there were self publishing way to this point.

[00:43:39] [SPEAKER_01]: And like, I don't know why would Midway and Atari and everyone pass on this or

[00:43:45] [SPEAKER_01]: or whoever publish stuff here for other people.

[00:43:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Like, it just seems that no one would bite on this game.

[00:43:52] [SPEAKER_01]: That's so weird.

[00:43:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think like a two player cooperative top down RPG ish game.

[00:43:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I would have ate that up, but I mean, I guess I mean,

[00:44:02] [SPEAKER_01]: maybe not everyone would have ate that up, but I think that's a hit game here.

[00:44:06] [SPEAKER_01]: If Kadesh was big here, I don't see why this couldn't have been.

[00:44:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's such an accessible game too.

[00:44:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think this game is particularly prickly.

[00:44:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And so, yeah, I don't really understand.

[00:44:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, like it does have a decent amount of dialogue and like some translation to do,

[00:44:24] [SPEAKER_00]: but that doesn't really stop other companies.

[00:44:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:44:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, like, so I don't know.

[00:44:28] [SPEAKER_00]: It's just weird.

[00:44:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I definitely don't think it's a case where they didn't want to translate any text.

[00:44:32] [SPEAKER_01]: That seems silly.

[00:44:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I don't.

[00:44:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, again, Kadesh had hella text or like other games of its like,

[00:44:40] [SPEAKER_01]: we're bringing over plenty of games that have this level of text or more into an arcade.

[00:44:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's fine.

[00:44:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Just got to give it a chance, but you know.

[00:44:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I don't know, man.

[00:44:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Marketing at the time was finicky and weird.

[00:44:54] [SPEAKER_00]: So that made them.

[00:44:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that is true.

[00:44:56] [SPEAKER_01]: That is true.

[00:44:57] [SPEAKER_01]: We will never know, I guess, but I'm glad it came here eventually.

[00:45:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm glad I got to play it.

[00:45:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.

[00:45:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Me too.

[00:45:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, before we wrap up just real quick question.

[00:45:24] [SPEAKER_01]: All five volumes feature at least one Pac Man game, which is not something I really thought of when

[00:45:31] [SPEAKER_01]: I these originally came out.

[00:45:32] [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, all of them have a Pac Man.

[00:45:35] [SPEAKER_01]: It's that's got to be by design, right?

[00:45:37] [SPEAKER_00]: So they always say, hey, there's Pac Man.

[00:45:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, Pac Man's easily far away.

[00:45:43] [SPEAKER_00]: The most recognizable Namco character, right?

[00:45:46] [SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, like, I guess they're just leaning into it and maybe to some degree

[00:45:50] [SPEAKER_00]: they felt they had some material to like make some zany rooms.

[00:45:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that's part of it, too.

[00:45:55] [SPEAKER_00]: But like maybe it's a combination of recognition and like just having the flexibility to build

[00:46:01] [SPEAKER_00]: some weird shit.

[00:46:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, maybe I don't know.

[00:46:04] [SPEAKER_01]: I guess.

[00:46:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:46:06] [SPEAKER_01]: It's just weird that they had the wherewithal to be like, hey, Pac Man should always be in

[00:46:11] [SPEAKER_01]: our shit.

[00:46:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, because if you look at all the covers of the magazine, they literally all have

[00:46:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Pac Man on them to varying degrees.

[00:46:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's like the mascot, right?

[00:46:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:46:21] [SPEAKER_01]: These never not there.

[00:46:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[00:46:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:46:24] [SPEAKER_01]: The stuff I made to mascot have a name, by the way, I never.

[00:46:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, they do.

[00:46:29] [SPEAKER_01]: But I don't remember their name.

[00:46:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:46:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[00:46:31] [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I it's again, that's just something I didn't notice until I was playing all

[00:46:35] [SPEAKER_01]: these back to back to back to back to back for this project.

[00:46:38] [SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, oh shit.

[00:46:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that all well, they didn't represent pack and pal though.

[00:46:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Pack and pals missing.

[00:46:43] [SPEAKER_00]: What the fuck's up with that?

[00:46:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Pack and pal can stay missing for all I fucking care.

[00:46:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, look, it's not a terrible game, but like honestly, I'm not like

[00:46:52] [SPEAKER_01]: clamming for it.

[00:46:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, man.

[00:46:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Pack and pill got robbed.

[00:46:55] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think you'll ever hear me say that.

[00:46:57] [SPEAKER_02]: So I got it.

[00:46:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Got it.

[00:47:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Has hashtag a pack and not your pal or something.

[00:47:04] [SPEAKER_01]: They're not their douche.

[00:47:05] [SPEAKER_01]: They're a douche.

[00:47:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[00:47:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Before before we get too pissed at packing, pal, let's take a quick break

[00:47:14] [SPEAKER_01]: and then we'll wrap up fine.

[00:47:51] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:47:52] [SPEAKER_01]: We're back and we're refreshed.

[00:47:54] [SPEAKER_01]: We're back from our Namco museum tour.

[00:47:57] [SPEAKER_01]: How do you feel?

[00:47:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Pretty exhausted.

[00:47:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's so there's a lot of museums.

[00:48:01] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a lot of museum.

[00:48:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I think my wings carried me through some of it though.

[00:48:04] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's not too bad, but I love your new fairy lore.

[00:48:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Honestly, it's a pretty good.

[00:48:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[00:48:12] [SPEAKER_01]: So we wanted to wrap up and just talk about these volumes in general

[00:48:16] [SPEAKER_01]: and maybe rank them at the end or in fact, probably rank them at the end.

[00:48:20] [SPEAKER_01]: So I just, I guess we just have a series of talking points here.

[00:48:24] [SPEAKER_01]: And my first one is should people go back and play these PS1 iterations

[00:48:31] [SPEAKER_01]: of Namco museum?

[00:48:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Should people in the year of our Lord, 2024 go back and do this shit?

[00:48:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Man, you know, that's a tough question because I mean, for one, they're not exactly the

[00:48:43] [SPEAKER_00]: most accessible.

[00:48:44] [SPEAKER_00]: So I would, I wouldn't say these are worth it for most people

[00:48:47] [SPEAKER_00]: cause you got to go through some lengths to like access them.

[00:48:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's probably not really the best use of one's time

[00:48:53] [SPEAKER_00]: in the grand scheme of things.

[00:48:54] [SPEAKER_00]: You got to be like a hardcore Namco enthusiast to get, you know, your mileage out of these.

[00:48:59] [SPEAKER_00]: But honestly, if you really want to experience some of the history and like the worlds of

[00:49:08] [SPEAKER_00]: these games, these are extremely fascinating time capsules.

[00:49:13] [SPEAKER_00]: The concept art and the promo materials are unique even among Namco museum titles.

[00:49:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And I would say even compilations overall.

[00:49:21] [SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, like I learned a lot just replaying these

[00:49:24] [SPEAKER_00]: and I haven't really seen a lot of this content elsewhere.

[00:49:27] [SPEAKER_00]: So there's that.

[00:49:28] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, that's a really good point because, okay, let me start here though.

[00:49:35] [SPEAKER_01]: No, I don't really think people should go back and play these iterations of Namco museum.

[00:49:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Arcade archives exist nowadays.

[00:49:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Emulation exists as much better to play on modern hardware.

[00:49:47] [SPEAKER_01]: I just feel like the promotional material is like too low resolution to say it's worth it

[00:49:54] [SPEAKER_01]: for just that.

[00:49:56] [SPEAKER_01]: However, it's like you said, there's a lot of stuff

[00:49:58] [SPEAKER_01]: here I never seen before and would have never known existed if not for these iterations

[00:50:03] [SPEAKER_01]: of Namco museum.

[00:50:06] [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, they're low res.

[00:50:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just going to combat myself right now.

[00:50:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they're low res but they're worth seeing because they're so unique.

[00:50:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Again, if you just search for stuff online, again, I didn't even know what a pop card was

[00:50:18] [SPEAKER_01]: or whatever.

[00:50:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Like I learned that from this.

[00:50:23] [SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, when you think of more modern approaches to this stuff though,

[00:50:26] [SPEAKER_01]: again, like the developmental drawings and sketches and like street fighter 30th

[00:50:31] [SPEAKER_01]: anniversary and stuff like that, it's hard to recommend playing Namco museum

[00:50:36] [SPEAKER_01]: to the common person.

[00:50:39] [SPEAKER_01]: But if you're a sicko, if you're a crazy person like us, absolutely, absolutely go

[00:50:46] [SPEAKER_01]: seek these out.

[00:50:47] [SPEAKER_01]: You will have a lot of fun.

[00:50:50] [SPEAKER_01]: But if you're not, if you're just like casual, like I play an arcade game or

[00:50:54] [SPEAKER_01]: on my current console sometimes don't bother just play arcade archives or

[00:50:58] [SPEAKER_01]: something like that.

[00:50:59] [SPEAKER_00]: But the one thing arcade archives can't get you is those Baraduke vibes.

[00:51:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Baraduke vibes are very important, but yeah, you can play Baraduke, but you

[00:51:11] [SPEAKER_01]: won't get the Baraduke vibes room.

[00:51:17] [SPEAKER_01]: And quite frankly, and I don't know what you think about this, I feel

[00:51:21] [SPEAKER_01]: like we're lucky to have ever gotten all five volumes on PlayStation here

[00:51:26] [SPEAKER_01]: because this era, this PS one Saturn era saw a lot of different companies

[00:51:32] [SPEAKER_01]: making classic game compilations, probably most notably Capcom generations.

[00:51:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Do you remember that shit?

[00:51:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Capcom.

[00:51:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I remember that.

[00:51:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:51:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So I think we got volume five here because they had like Street Fighter

[00:51:45] [SPEAKER_01]: two turbo and like, is that the one that has Street Fighter two alpha

[00:51:47] [SPEAKER_01]: gold or something or?

[00:51:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Um, I believe so.

[00:51:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think they also rebranded it.

[00:51:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't even think it was called Capcom generations when they gave it to us.

[00:51:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I think they know it wasn't called that.

[00:51:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I just knew it was called that for magazines.

[00:52:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, we're getting the fifth Capcom generations here as so and so.

[00:52:05] [SPEAKER_01]: That's the only reason why I know that I think it was called Street

[00:52:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Fighter collection or something.

[00:52:09] [SPEAKER_01]: So I don't know.

[00:52:10] [SPEAKER_01]: But like in Japan, they also had a five volume thing.

[00:52:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I think they came out in Europe as well where here was like ghosts

[00:52:17] [SPEAKER_01]: and goblins, ghouls and ghosts and super ghouls and ghosts, even though

[00:52:19] [SPEAKER_01]: it's not an arcade game.

[00:52:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[00:52:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Here's a couple of schmups like Volga and whatever they had.

[00:52:25] [SPEAKER_01]: They had collections.

[00:52:25] [SPEAKER_01]: They were a lot smaller and they were cheaper and didn't have much production

[00:52:29] [SPEAKER_01]: to him as an ad Namco museum because what does but that existed and we

[00:52:33] [SPEAKER_01]: didn't get those.

[00:52:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Do you?

[00:52:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, did SCA that Sony Computer Entertainment America cock block them

[00:52:40] [SPEAKER_01]: because they were 2D games, right?

[00:52:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Because that was the thing.

[00:52:45] [SPEAKER_00]: They were so anal about 2D stuff, man.

[00:52:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Didn't they also get finicky about like Mega Man X4?

[00:52:50] [SPEAKER_00]: I think at first I think that I vaguely remember.

[00:52:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, Mega Man 8.

[00:52:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I think they were fussy about or something.

[00:52:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe Mega Man 8.

[00:52:55] [SPEAKER_01]: They got fussy about the rumor has it back in the day that Capcom

[00:52:59] [SPEAKER_01]: threatened to withhold Resident Evil 2 unless they unless they stop being assholes.

[00:53:06] [SPEAKER_01]: That was such a great.

[00:53:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I can see it though.

[00:53:09] [SPEAKER_00]: I can see it.

[00:53:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, who knows if that's true, but that that was the rumor.

[00:53:15] [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, but Namco Museum actually has production and 3D elements to it

[00:53:19] [SPEAKER_01]: and everything and a whole thing.

[00:53:21] [SPEAKER_01]: So they left Namco alone about it, right?

[00:53:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe that's why we didn't get Namco Museum on core because there's no museum.

[00:53:30] [SPEAKER_00]: It's essentially an over glorified game list.

[00:53:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:53:33] [SPEAKER_00]: So maybe that's part of it.

[00:53:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe Nintendo didn't give a fuck or I mean, then it's on in 64.

[00:53:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, back then they were taking any Namco game they could get right.

[00:53:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Ha ha ha ha.

[00:53:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.

[00:53:46] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's just I don't know that that thought kind of occurred to me on this.

[00:53:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, maybe maybe it's a 2D thing.

[00:53:51] [SPEAKER_01]: We didn't get the Capcom Generations, although I would have eaten the hell out

[00:53:54] [SPEAKER_01]: of a Makay more collection here.

[00:53:57] [SPEAKER_00]: But you know, hey, yeah, oh Sony.

[00:54:01] [SPEAKER_00]: It's so weird.

[00:54:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I kind of have another like shower thought I want to throw at you and you

[00:54:10] [SPEAKER_01]: interrupt me as much as you want and talk about however you feel about this.

[00:54:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[00:54:16] [SPEAKER_01]: As I think back on it, Namco Museum Volume One really taught me a lot about

[00:54:23] [SPEAKER_01]: arcade game design and gave me like this much deeper appreciation for it.

[00:54:29] [SPEAKER_01]: If I ever had appreciation at all, because like, as anyone knows who listens to the show,

[00:54:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I was an arcade head growing up.

[00:54:35] [SPEAKER_01]: That's what is my favorite thing more than any console more than anything.

[00:54:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I loved going to the arcade to play games.

[00:54:41] [SPEAKER_01]: That was my bread and butter.

[00:54:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I was also a Nintendo kid, and I played plenty of games at home.

[00:54:46] [SPEAKER_01]: But you know, their arcade was my happy place.

[00:54:48] [SPEAKER_01]: It was the best graphics, the best sound, the best flash and sizzle

[00:54:53] [SPEAKER_01]: and all that shit you couldn't get at home.

[00:54:55] [SPEAKER_01]: But I think when I was a kid, that was all it was to me.

[00:54:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Flash and sizzle.

[00:55:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know, as far as your kid, that's what you're getting.

[00:55:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but exactly.

[00:55:04] [SPEAKER_01]: I loved Shrider on an audiovisual level, and I still do, obviously.

[00:55:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's one of the best games of all time in that regard.

[00:55:11] [SPEAKER_01]: But I didn't appreciate it for its gameplay.

[00:55:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I just love the way it looked and sounded.

[00:55:17] [SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's hard to understand the design philosophies of something like Pac-Man

[00:55:22] [SPEAKER_01]: when you just put a quarter in play and then lose and then move on to the next machine.

[00:55:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, that was fun.

[00:55:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Next.

[00:55:28] [SPEAKER_01]: But when you have it at home and you get to learn how each ghost moves,

[00:55:32] [SPEAKER_01]: learn how long it takes for a fruit to appear and like all that nitty gritty shit,

[00:55:37] [SPEAKER_01]: it takes on a whole new life of its own.

[00:55:40] [SPEAKER_01]: I guess I'll just stop there.

[00:55:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Do you understand what I'm saying?

[00:55:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Is this just?

[00:55:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it sort of teaches the the manor speaking.

[00:55:50] [SPEAKER_00]: It literally teaches the mechanics via the how to play section

[00:55:52] [SPEAKER_00]: and also has the tips to help me bolster your game.

[00:55:56] [SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, like arcade cabinets have a how to play, of course.

[00:55:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Just the way this is set up, I think it really sort of cultivates this care and love for the

[00:56:06] [SPEAKER_00]: game just the way it plays.

[00:56:10] [SPEAKER_00]: And just the fact that's like, well, I mean, you're paying for a compilation,

[00:56:14] [SPEAKER_00]: so you're going to get that curated list and you can't just like blow them off.

[00:56:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, like you're going to learn today, boy.

[00:56:25] [SPEAKER_01]: You're going to learn how to play pole position, dude back then.

[00:56:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I've just played it over and over and over again to like a good at pole position.

[00:56:33] [SPEAKER_01]: I did.

[00:56:33] [SPEAKER_01]: That's how I mean, you just crash over and over and over until it's like,

[00:56:37] [SPEAKER_01]: oh man, I can really play this.

[00:56:39] [SPEAKER_01]: It ain't easy.

[00:56:40] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's not at all.

[00:56:43] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's what you had to do back then.

[00:56:44] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's what they did on Namco Museum, volume one.

[00:56:46] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, well, there's only seven games on here.

[00:56:48] [SPEAKER_01]: May as well try to make the most of them.

[00:56:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Try to get good at this shit.

[00:56:52] [SPEAKER_01]: And what I said earlier about like the real deal at home.

[00:56:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, arcade ports of Pac-Man and Galaga existed.

[00:56:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like any essence ship.

[00:57:01] [SPEAKER_01]: But like, come on, those weren't the real thing.

[00:57:04] [SPEAKER_01]: And we all knew it.

[00:57:05] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, they were pretty good approximations, but that's all they were approximations.

[00:57:11] [SPEAKER_00]: They look the part, right?

[00:57:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Because I think Pacman NES like it on a sheer superficial level.

[00:57:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, sure.

[00:57:17] [SPEAKER_00]: It looks like Pac-Man.

[00:57:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it really plays like it though, could I think the ghosts

[00:57:21] [SPEAKER_00]: don't really chase you as much or something, right?

[00:57:24] [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, yeah, it's not the place.

[00:57:27] [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, this was like Namco Museum was the first real deal.

[00:57:31] [SPEAKER_01]: First time ever at home, the real arcade game.

[00:57:34] [SPEAKER_01]: And when you learn the real game, like you said,

[00:57:38] [SPEAKER_01]: ghosts have different behavior and shit in like other ports.

[00:57:41] [SPEAKER_01]: You learn why it works.

[00:57:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I was I was like 14 when volume one came out.

[00:57:46] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's about the age when you start to become like

[00:57:49] [SPEAKER_01]: more discerning about the art you enjoy, I guess.

[00:57:52] [SPEAKER_01]: And why you enjoy it.

[00:57:54] [SPEAKER_01]: And Namco Museum Volume One provided that for me

[00:57:57] [SPEAKER_01]: in just re-evaluating basically some of the best games of all time.

[00:58:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's a great format for it too.

[00:58:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's just so fascinating that like, you know,

[00:58:07] [SPEAKER_00]: the PS1 was some generations removed from like the original releases,

[00:58:10] [SPEAKER_00]: but like it wasn't like that removed as we've said.

[00:58:13] [SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[00:58:13] [SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, like it's a good it's good timing.

[00:58:16] [SPEAKER_00]: It's yeah.

[00:58:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Something that's extremely curious to me is that, you know,

[00:58:22] [SPEAKER_00]: successive compilations after these PlayStation volumes,

[00:58:27] [SPEAKER_00]: successive compilations don't really encapsulate the museum experience.

[00:58:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And so like the question I have is that do you suppose

[00:58:35] [SPEAKER_00]: they're just too afraid of like needing to like build out

[00:58:39] [SPEAKER_00]: like current visuals during like the PlayStation 2

[00:58:42] [SPEAKER_00]: or the GameCube era or something?

[00:58:47] [SPEAKER_01]: That's a really interesting question.

[00:58:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it's a matter of having to step up the graphics necessarily,

[00:58:55] [SPEAKER_01]: especially not in the early PS2 era where we were having games like

[00:59:01] [SPEAKER_01]: look at any of those like early from software games like Eternal Ring

[00:59:04] [SPEAKER_01]: or like Armored Core 2 which is which are basically

[00:59:07] [SPEAKER_01]: like warmed over PS1 graphics at 60 frames a second.

[00:59:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they are.

[00:59:14] [SPEAKER_01]: That's true.

[00:59:15] [SPEAKER_01]: It's true.

[00:59:15] [SPEAKER_01]: They ran so well and they looked they looked cool for what they were.

[00:59:19] [SPEAKER_01]: But man, that early PS2 shit, man, it's something it is.

[00:59:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Even Namco's own Ridge Racer 5 had that like clean high frame rate,

[00:59:29] [SPEAKER_01]: like not aliased kind of look to it.

[00:59:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's clean.

[00:59:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:59:34] [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that would have been fine for a Namco museum.

[00:59:37] [SPEAKER_01]: At least it would have been for me.

[00:59:39] [SPEAKER_01]: But there might be other factors at play too.

[00:59:43] [SPEAKER_01]: You say what you think.

[00:59:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Why do you think we sort of abandoned the museum?

[00:59:49] [SPEAKER_00]: To a certain degree, like I mean, they built a lot of like unique assets

[00:59:55] [SPEAKER_00]: for each of the games in here.

[00:59:57] [SPEAKER_00]: So I wonder if it's just a matter of like just simply not wanting to like rebuild

[01:00:03] [SPEAKER_00]: all of it because I mean, like this is a very distinct PS1 look to it.

[01:00:08] [SPEAKER_00]: So and it works.

[01:00:11] [SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, I kind of wonder like,

[01:00:14] [SPEAKER_00]: well, maybe they just didn't want to pour that literally right over.

[01:00:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[01:00:18] [SPEAKER_00]: That might not necessarily have carried the same impression,

[01:00:21] [SPEAKER_00]: even if like it wouldn't necessarily have been ghetto to us.

[01:00:25] [SPEAKER_00]: But maybe to like the common person be like,

[01:00:28] [SPEAKER_00]: well, I bought a PS2 disc to look at these things.

[01:00:32] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's like I wonder if they were scared to like some degree,

[01:00:35] [SPEAKER_00]: but also just from a development perspective,

[01:00:38] [SPEAKER_00]: maybe they just didn't feel like rebuilding everything.

[01:00:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I guess so.

[01:00:44] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, and also well, there's a couple of factors at play too, I think.

[01:00:50] [SPEAKER_01]: One, they may have started to run out of games.

[01:00:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Like now you could have done a PS2.

[01:00:55] [SPEAKER_01]: There was a PS2 in cube at Namco museum in like what 2002 or three or something like that.

[01:01:02] [SPEAKER_01]: But like they just sort of like mashed together games that were in the previous

[01:01:07] [SPEAKER_01]: like PlayStation era.

[01:01:09] [SPEAKER_01]: So so basically they would have been retreading like the same motifs,

[01:01:14] [SPEAKER_01]: like, OK, here's a Pac-Man room.

[01:01:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, we already did that.

[01:01:17] [SPEAKER_01]: So like now what do we do?

[01:01:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Now what do we do for a Gallagher room?

[01:01:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Now, again, personally, I wouldn't have minded if they did the same shit

[01:01:26] [SPEAKER_01]: only with upgraded graphics.

[01:01:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Honestly, I wouldn't have.

[01:01:29] [SPEAKER_01]: That would have been perfectly OK with me.

[01:01:31] [SPEAKER_01]: I think other people would have been like, well, we already saw the stupid Miss Pac-Man

[01:01:35] [SPEAKER_01]: with legs and like Pac-Man on the toilet or whatever.

[01:01:37] [SPEAKER_01]: But so like who cares?

[01:01:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know for me that would have been cool.

[01:01:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I've always liked seeing stuff from the like stepped up a generation,

[01:01:45] [SPEAKER_01]: especially at that time when technology moved faster

[01:01:47] [SPEAKER_01]: and the difference between generations were more.

[01:01:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I would have been cool with that.

[01:01:52] [SPEAKER_01]: But again, maybe they didn't want to be like, OK, we have to make a toy pop room

[01:01:59] [SPEAKER_01]: again or something.

[01:02:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Now what do we do?

[01:02:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe maybe that was the case.

[01:02:03] [SPEAKER_00]: I just wonder if they would have felt compelled to like actually build out

[01:02:07] [SPEAKER_00]: like a tricked out set like, oh, this time we better make a bunch of

[01:02:10] [SPEAKER_00]: presents and toys on the side.

[01:02:12] [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, but you don't have to.

[01:02:14] [SPEAKER_00]: But maybe expect they're just like afraid of the expectations out there.

[01:02:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I don't know.

[01:02:20] [SPEAKER_01]: But that is true, I guess.

[01:02:23] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[01:02:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it would have been a problem.

[01:02:25] [SPEAKER_01]: They could have done any number of things with these rooms to like

[01:02:29] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah, we already played these games to give us something new to look at in the museum.

[01:02:34] [SPEAKER_01]: But there was no museum.

[01:02:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Also, I guess you could say by the time we got to Namco Museum 50th anniversary,

[01:02:40] [SPEAKER_01]: I think that was in 2005.

[01:02:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there started to be too many games like by the time we got there,

[01:02:47] [SPEAKER_01]: there was like what?

[01:02:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Like 15 games on there.

[01:02:49] [SPEAKER_01]: It's a big fucking ask to be like he'd make 15 game rooms and this giant museum

[01:02:55] [SPEAKER_01]: and stuff like that's a big undertaking.

[01:02:58] [SPEAKER_01]: It is.

[01:03:00] [SPEAKER_01]: So maybe maybe that was part of it, too.

[01:03:02] [SPEAKER_01]: By adding more games, they had the ditch to museum.

[01:03:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I guess it's a better I wouldn't necessarily say like quantity over quality.

[01:03:10] [SPEAKER_00]: That might be slightly dismissive, but yeah, it's just maybe the trend was

[01:03:15] [SPEAKER_00]: towards just like cramming it full of games to like, I don't know,

[01:03:19] [SPEAKER_00]: because they probably didn't really want to also be like, well, here's multiple volumes

[01:03:23] [SPEAKER_00]: of a PS2 disc or a cube disc.

[01:03:26] [SPEAKER_00]: That will be kind of maybe a little weird.

[01:03:27] [SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, maybe this one will maximize the value.

[01:03:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe yeah, taste were changing too.

[01:03:32] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like I said earlier that first Namco Museum almost felt like again,

[01:03:37] [SPEAKER_01]: the platonic idea of like CD, Rom multimedia type of shit.

[01:03:42] [SPEAKER_01]: But we were already way past that in the early 2000s.

[01:03:46] [SPEAKER_01]: So maybe it's just that kind of idea doesn't really work anymore.

[01:03:51] [SPEAKER_01]: If an interactive disc where you can do this and that and play games,

[01:03:54] [SPEAKER_01]: it's not really maybe what people wanted.

[01:03:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Could be now also, I guess I don't know if you've ever played any of those

[01:04:02] [SPEAKER_01]: like PS2 compilations like Activision Anthology or like Intellivision Lives

[01:04:07] [SPEAKER_01]: or whatever and like no, those aren't museums either.

[01:04:10] [SPEAKER_01]: But Activision Anthology is fucking incredible with the way they present

[01:04:14] [SPEAKER_01]: the material to you.

[01:04:16] [SPEAKER_01]: They even have stuff on there like commercials like old commercials from

[01:04:20] [SPEAKER_01]: the late 70s early 80s.

[01:04:22] [SPEAKER_01]: It's so cool.

[01:04:23] [SPEAKER_01]: It may be the coolest thing Activision's ever done.

[01:04:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I've dabbled in the Activision Anthology on PS2.

[01:04:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I remember it was pretty jam packed with content in other respects.

[01:04:35] [SPEAKER_00]: I think I had a lot of games on it if I'm not mistaken, too.

[01:04:38] [SPEAKER_01]: It had a lot of games and the presentation was so cool that honestly,

[01:04:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't miss the museum because it had its own way of presenting things.

[01:04:46] [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's what people gravitated to with Atari 50.

[01:04:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[01:04:51] [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah.

[01:04:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.

[01:04:55] [SPEAKER_01]: And maybe that leads into my next question about like, can a Namco museum work today?

[01:05:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Think about it in today's technology.

[01:05:04] [SPEAKER_01]: However they want to build it out.

[01:05:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Unreal Engine 5.

[01:05:06] [SPEAKER_01]: You can do the max too because there's nothing else going on.

[01:05:09] [SPEAKER_01]: You're just in one environment.

[01:05:11] [SPEAKER_01]: They can make 120 frames a second.

[01:05:13] [SPEAKER_01]: They use Lumen and Nanite and stuff it to the brim and make it look crazy.

[01:05:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Yo, that sounds great.

[01:05:19] [SPEAKER_01]: That sounds amazing.

[01:05:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[01:05:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Would you could you I don't I mean, it's kind of putting you on the spot.

[01:05:23] [SPEAKER_01]: What could you think about in a modern Namco museum?

[01:05:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, a modern Namco museum could really just be a ginormous sort of interconnected space.

[01:05:35] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you could have theme sections of the museum.

[01:05:38] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, if you go to like any sort of art museum, they have like

[01:05:43] [SPEAKER_00]: theme sections based on like different areas of art history or like whatever.

[01:05:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[01:05:47] [SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, like, you can lean into that just like really make it expansive because

[01:05:53] [SPEAKER_00]: these PS1 museums are cool, but they're relatively constrained.

[01:05:57] [SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, you could jump off the rails and really

[01:06:00] [SPEAKER_00]: kind of build up a physical space to the max.

[01:06:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[01:06:04] [SPEAKER_00]: That Lumen talk though.

[01:06:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh my God.

[01:06:07] [SPEAKER_00]: That's that got you hot.

[01:06:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I got you hot in the pants.

[01:06:11] [SPEAKER_00]: It's lit spaces.

[01:06:12] [SPEAKER_00]: So you could wait.

[01:06:13] What?

[01:06:16] [SPEAKER_01]: I just think it would be so cool.

[01:06:18] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like you said, you could make like true like art installations,

[01:06:21] [SPEAKER_01]: almost like what we said with the what was the gapless room?

[01:06:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[01:06:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Is it the galaxy room?

[01:06:26] [SPEAKER_01]: One of those where it's like, you know,

[01:06:27] [SPEAKER_01]: you have that tractor beam right in your face right when you get in there.

[01:06:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[01:06:31] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's like, yeah, so right in your face.

[01:06:34] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's like maybe imagine that done like now what?

[01:06:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Five, four or five generations later done to the max like crazy.

[01:06:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[01:06:45] [SPEAKER_01]: That would be incredible.

[01:06:46] [SPEAKER_01]: The particles too.

[01:06:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Like that would be my God.

[01:06:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh my fucking God.

[01:06:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Imagine like a I don't know, a tech into room

[01:06:54] [SPEAKER_01]: where they have like the old characters or something kind of in the background doing

[01:06:57] [SPEAKER_01]: God knows what they could just stuff it with all the characters because they're

[01:07:00] [SPEAKER_01]: made out of like 50 triangles anyway.

[01:07:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Who cares?

[01:07:02] [SPEAKER_01]: You just put them all there and then like, I don't know.

[01:07:05] [SPEAKER_01]: There's like different ways to flex right?

[01:07:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Like you they could they could do that.

[01:07:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I was thinking holograms actually.

[01:07:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh man.

[01:07:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Just just there's so much cool stuff.

[01:07:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's funny, you know, like thinking about Tekken 2.

[01:07:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously there was like a new game as like these Namco museums are coming out.

[01:07:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Is there anything that could be like obviously like Mr.

[01:07:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Driller would be in there, right?

[01:07:30] [SPEAKER_01]: If we did look at modern Macco Museum, what could what could also

[01:07:36] [SPEAKER_01]: like I'm trying to think of like current we obviously couldn't do any

[01:07:40] [SPEAKER_01]: of the light gun stuff, right?

[01:07:41] [SPEAKER_00]: So like, oh man, see, that's the that would be cool though.

[01:07:45] [SPEAKER_00]: If you have like a time crisis room or a point blank room.

[01:07:47] [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I can't really do that.

[01:07:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Can't really do it.

[01:07:51] [SPEAKER_00]: What?

[01:07:53] [SPEAKER_00]: There's got to be something right?

[01:07:54] [SPEAKER_00]: There's got to be.

[01:07:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I can do like a I mean, see, I guess fighting gives with like the easy example.

[01:08:00] [SPEAKER_00]: But I mean, like a soul like room put like a like a soul edge slash caliber room.

[01:08:04] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that would be pretty cool too.

[01:08:05] [SPEAKER_00]: But I guess that's kind of basic answer.

[01:08:07] [SPEAKER_01]: But no, sure.

[01:08:08] [SPEAKER_01]: No, that's that I'm just trying to think if there's anything from the 2000s,

[01:08:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I would actually I guess you could do like a

[01:08:15] [SPEAKER_01]: it doesn't even have to be arcade games.

[01:08:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, at this obviously used to get into the 2000s.

[01:08:20] [SPEAKER_01]: We would have to abandon that idea because arcades are not the shit anymore.

[01:08:25] [SPEAKER_01]: But right.

[01:08:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't know.

[01:08:26] [SPEAKER_01]: It would be it would be super cool to see something like that.

[01:08:30] [SPEAKER_00]: My bets on a long gone midnight room with cars around you on a virtual track.

[01:08:37] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why I thought you're going to say with Yuzo there.

[01:08:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, throw them in there.

[01:08:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, throw the music in there.

[01:08:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Why not?

[01:08:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Great.

[01:08:46] [SPEAKER_01]: He's just on the turntable like playing some hot like.

[01:08:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[01:08:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Like he's just there.

[01:08:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that's too cool for school.

[01:08:57] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, just just going back to again about the museum concept and presentation

[01:09:03] [SPEAKER_01]: at the time being so important just as far as like bringing in casuals

[01:09:09] [SPEAKER_01]: and like packaging games that way was such an incredible sell to the public.

[01:09:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Just the package of it because it wasn't just like, hey, this disc has Miss Pac-Man on it

[01:09:21] [SPEAKER_01]: because casuals don't want to spend fifty dollars in 1997 on a PlayStation

[01:09:25] [SPEAKER_01]: just to play fucking Pac-Man.

[01:09:27] [SPEAKER_01]: You can do that.

[01:09:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they've done that right.

[01:09:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So they're by they're clearly buying the Namco Museum and that shit mattered.

[01:09:37] [SPEAKER_01]: And I just again, I keep thinking back to the sales

[01:09:40] [SPEAKER_01]: and how like volume one and volume three just popped off.

[01:09:43] [SPEAKER_01]: And I just I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wish more developers

[01:09:49] [SPEAKER_01]: and publishers for that matter would understand that bringing stuff

[01:09:55] [SPEAKER_01]: to the public like that is something you can always do.

[01:09:58] [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't always have to be like, I don't know,

[01:10:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Radalika out here just like publishing like random Turbo CD games.

[01:10:06] [SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, God bless them.

[01:10:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad that they do that.

[01:10:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Or like hamster out here with Arcade Archives.

[01:10:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Like retro content doesn't just have to be that it can be this too.

[01:10:17] [SPEAKER_01]: And I wish it could be that again, maybe not a Namco Museum, but just stuff like that.

[01:10:23] [SPEAKER_01]: I hope in other words, I hope Atari 50 ignites like some sort of revolutions

[01:10:27] [SPEAKER_01]: that makes everyone realize, hey, there's better ways we can do this.

[01:10:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's already 50 is the big standout example, right?

[01:10:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Because I mean, digital close has been doing wonders for a while.

[01:10:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, she for a 30th and SNK 40th are so jam packed.

[01:10:40] [SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, it's just like I feel like Atari 50 takes that one step further

[01:10:45] [SPEAKER_00]: with all the virtual timelines.

[01:10:47] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a literal playable space like the timelines let you just jump in.

[01:10:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And there's this chock full of interviews and like all sorts of historical information.

[01:10:57] [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I really hope that does sort of like spearhead a sort of revolution where,

[01:11:03] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, we don't just have to cram roms into a disc or whatever.

[01:11:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[01:11:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I've heard really, really fantastic things about like their their gold master series,

[01:11:11] [SPEAKER_00]: like the making of Karate is also similar along those lines as well.

[01:11:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it just seems like I think we're reaching a point where or rather where

[01:11:22] [SPEAKER_00]: we have reached a point where we don't just want to like literally play this stuff.

[01:11:25] [SPEAKER_00]: We want to like know more about the background and that's fantastic.

[01:11:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's the push and pull, right?

[01:11:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Because you get people into the games via that content.

[01:11:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Like I was so interested in seeing all that.

[01:11:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Like when I first got volume one back in the day, all that Bosconian content

[01:11:43] [SPEAKER_01]: and they're going into the gallery and being able to play all the stupid voice clips

[01:11:48] [SPEAKER_01]: and figuring out what they sounded like and like whatever, you know,

[01:11:51] [SPEAKER_01]: like you don't get all that stuff.

[01:11:52] [SPEAKER_01]: And again, with all the promotional material and all that stuff,

[01:11:56] [SPEAKER_01]: you really dive into, you know what?

[01:11:58] [SPEAKER_01]: That's what people want.

[01:11:59] [SPEAKER_01]: They want the era, right?

[01:12:01] [SPEAKER_01]: It's not just the game they want.

[01:12:03] [SPEAKER_01]: They want 1981 or whatever.

[01:12:05] [SPEAKER_01]: You want to get a glimpse of that era of Bosconian.

[01:12:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I feel like and for me, it's not just about the game, too.

[01:12:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I do like to get into that era.

[01:12:13] [SPEAKER_01]: That's why I play games without doing modern stuff like safe stating or

[01:12:18] [SPEAKER_01]: rewinding or whatever.

[01:12:19] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's not because there's any exactly because there's nothing wrong with that.

[01:12:22] [SPEAKER_01]: If you do that stuff, there's 100% nothing wrong with that.

[01:12:25] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not trying to gatekeep, but I don't do it because I want to play

[01:12:28] [SPEAKER_01]: the game as originally intended as much as I possibly can.

[01:12:32] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, and that's the most important part as much as you possibly can because

[01:12:36] [SPEAKER_00]: there are some exceptions that we make from time to time.

[01:12:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Like I either for potentially though for mention,

[01:12:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Jericho, right?

[01:12:42] [SPEAKER_00]: But in general speaking, yeah, we come from the era of like

[01:12:46] [SPEAKER_00]: expecting to replace some stuff and that's plays into the whole field of

[01:12:50] [SPEAKER_00]: learning the game or like whatever.

[01:12:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[01:12:52] [SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, I would have never begrudge someone for like using

[01:12:55] [SPEAKER_00]: modern amenities either.

[01:12:57] [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, it's just of course what we're looking for.

[01:13:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[01:13:01] [SPEAKER_01]: So if you could get the feel of that of that era, the best you can.

[01:13:06] [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's what Atari 50 does for people.

[01:13:12] [SPEAKER_00]: One more question I've got is that I'm generally fine with these

[01:13:17] [SPEAKER_00]: game selections across the five volumes, but would you have swapped out

[01:13:21] [SPEAKER_00]: anything for another title or rather do you feel like any other games

[01:13:27] [SPEAKER_00]: deserve spots across these five, which potentially could be rude.

[01:13:33] [SPEAKER_01]: But I mean, swapping out is tough now, obviously like again,

[01:13:41] [SPEAKER_01]: it's like I said when we were talking about the next generation

[01:13:44] [SPEAKER_01]: review, if you will, of volume three, I don't feel like any of these

[01:13:49] [SPEAKER_01]: don't deserve to be here.

[01:13:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I feel like even ones I don't like like drug and ishtar.

[01:13:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't I wouldn't say like we should just completely get rid of them.

[01:13:59] [SPEAKER_01]: What I would say is I think we should add Namco Museum Encore had seven

[01:14:06] [SPEAKER_01]: games on it.

[01:14:06] [SPEAKER_01]: They were Dragon Saber, Wonder Momo, rompers, modos, Sky Kid,

[01:14:12] [SPEAKER_01]: King and Balloon and Rolling Thunder.

[01:14:15] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think Rolling Thunder should have absolutely been on one

[01:14:20] [SPEAKER_01]: of these.

[01:14:21] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's kind of criminal that they left that off.

[01:14:24] [SPEAKER_01]: That's a classic.

[01:14:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, again, if that were on volume four, Rolling Thunder, that would

[01:14:29] [SPEAKER_01]: have upped the value of that for me significantly.

[01:14:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, right.

[01:14:34] [SPEAKER_01]: It's still kind of fine as it is because he has a salt and

[01:14:36] [SPEAKER_01]: ordine and stuff.

[01:14:37] [SPEAKER_01]: But like Dragon Saber, absolutely Wonder Momo kind of sucks, but

[01:14:42] [SPEAKER_01]: at least it's like interesting.

[01:14:44] [SPEAKER_01]: It's got vibes.

[01:14:45] [SPEAKER_01]: It's got vibes.

[01:14:48] [SPEAKER_01]: King and Balloon is like an oldie.

[01:14:50] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's like from like 80 or 81 or something like that.

[01:14:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I believe so.

[01:14:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, Sky Kid is great.

[01:14:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I love Sky Kid.

[01:14:57] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, man.

[01:14:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I just feel so.

[01:14:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[01:14:59] [SPEAKER_01]: To answer your question, I don't think I would eliminate anything

[01:15:02] [SPEAKER_01]: because again, it's a museum.

[01:15:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I feel like everything deserves to be seen even if it's not

[01:15:08] [SPEAKER_01]: that good.

[01:15:09] [SPEAKER_01]: But I would have definitely beefed volume four and volume five

[01:15:15] [SPEAKER_01]: to add at least one of these games each for that ended up

[01:15:19] [SPEAKER_01]: on Namco Museum Encore.

[01:15:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that would have been great.

[01:15:22] [SPEAKER_00]: I think that would have made already fantastic volumes pretty

[01:15:26] [SPEAKER_00]: rounded out or even more rounded, I guess.

[01:15:29] [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I think the selections they made are solid as a whole.

[01:15:36] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's like we don't really complain.

[01:15:39] [SPEAKER_00]: We're not really going to really complain about these, but

[01:15:41] [SPEAKER_00]: it's just interesting because Namco history is so extensive.

[01:15:46] [SPEAKER_00]: As mentioned before, it's like encapsulating Namco history

[01:15:48] [SPEAKER_00]: and just five volumes.

[01:15:50] [SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of hard, man.

[01:15:51] [SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of hard.

[01:15:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Is there anything that's not on encore, though, that you could

[01:15:55] [SPEAKER_01]: think of that like could have been again, Splatterhouse

[01:15:59] [SPEAKER_01]: feels like out of question because of age rating stuff.

[01:16:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, the liberal rabble control wise might have

[01:16:07] [SPEAKER_00]: been a little bit logistically challenging.

[01:16:10] [SPEAKER_01]: But I think I still think they could have done

[01:16:13] [SPEAKER_01]: liberal rabble if they if they wanted to.

[01:16:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to think of anything I don't.

[01:16:20] [SPEAKER_01]: It may be a thunder scepter thunder scepter.

[01:16:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, man.

[01:16:26] [SPEAKER_00]: That's so hard.

[01:16:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's it's yeah, that would have been interesting.

[01:16:32] [SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of an asshole game.

[01:16:34] [SPEAKER_01]: But I mean, like that could have gone on the sick of

[01:16:36] [SPEAKER_01]: they could have been on like volume two or something.

[01:16:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the secret unlockable sicko title.

[01:16:42] [SPEAKER_00]: But oh wait, who said that?

[01:16:43] [SPEAKER_00]: But what you call it?

[01:16:46] [SPEAKER_00]: I guess the easy answer, just because it's on Namco Museum

[01:16:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Switch is perhaps Tank Force might have been an interesting

[01:16:53] [SPEAKER_00]: inclusion in one of these.

[01:16:55] [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, this seems like Battle City would have been more

[01:17:01] [SPEAKER_01]: like if they wanted to do another tank game, I feel

[01:17:04] [SPEAKER_01]: like Tank Force is like from the 90s, right?

[01:17:06] [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, most of these are 80s.

[01:17:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[01:17:08] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's the thing.

[01:17:09] [SPEAKER_00]: It is like after.

[01:17:11] [SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know in terms of like time range what they

[01:17:13] [SPEAKER_00]: want to include, but it is true that it is after.

[01:17:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[01:17:18] [SPEAKER_01]: But that's also why I might not say Rolling Thunder 2,

[01:17:23] [SPEAKER_01]: which is like from 90 or 91.

[01:17:25] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean the original.

[01:17:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Sure.

[01:17:28] [SPEAKER_01]: But again, I think that's the most egregious one.

[01:17:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Rolling Thunder.

[01:17:31] [SPEAKER_01]: I keep coming back to that in my head.

[01:17:33] [SPEAKER_01]: It's just come on guys can't believe this get out on

[01:17:36] [SPEAKER_01]: that.

[01:17:37] [SPEAKER_01]: That's so yeah.

[01:17:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Can you imagine the room though?

[01:17:40] [SPEAKER_00]: The monitor would like light up and stuff.

[01:17:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Interact with it.

[01:17:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh my God.

[01:17:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah.

[01:17:46] [SPEAKER_01]: The get where that green guy comes on and goes,

[01:17:48] [SPEAKER_01]: ha ha ha ha.

[01:17:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And like those Nazi salute guys are just like, you know,

[01:17:53] [SPEAKER_01]: just sitting there like, oh yes, our master of this

[01:17:56] [SPEAKER_01]: green alien dude.

[01:17:58] [SPEAKER_00]: That would have been a really fun interactable space

[01:18:01] [SPEAKER_00]: actually.

[01:18:02] [SPEAKER_01]: But oh man, imagine the imagine the arrange in there.

[01:18:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Imagine the oh that spy thing.

[01:18:10] [SPEAKER_01]: It's already so swing.

[01:18:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there would have James bonded the fuck out of that.

[01:18:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[01:18:14] [SPEAKER_00]: They would have like, yeah, that'd be great.

[01:18:20] Alas.

[01:18:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that sucks.

[01:18:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Actually, that's a good experiment.

[01:18:23] [SPEAKER_01]: What other like a sky kid room would be fun, right?

[01:18:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Or like, uh, yeah, I would have loved to see that.

[01:18:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, for sure.

[01:18:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's not a motos room.

[01:18:32] [SPEAKER_00]: You can push some fools off the edge.

[01:18:36] [SPEAKER_01]: You know what?

[01:18:37] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't like motos, but I definitely that would be a fun

[01:18:41] [SPEAKER_01]: room.

[01:18:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I will admit that I do not miss the inclusion of

[01:18:46] [SPEAKER_01]: modus that it was only on, uh, on cord.

[01:18:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sad about that at all.

[01:18:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I do like modus will not sad about it, but at the same

[01:18:53] [SPEAKER_00]: time, yeah, you know, I wouldn't have minded the

[01:18:56] [SPEAKER_00]: room.

[01:18:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it would have been cool.

[01:19:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I guess maybe if they wanted to get like into

[01:19:07] [SPEAKER_01]: midways other creations like junior Pacman,

[01:19:10] [SPEAKER_01]: maybe something.

[01:19:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Dude, I wonder if that would have worked out logistically.

[01:19:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they did make miss Pacman work.

[01:19:19] [SPEAKER_00]: So presumably they could make it work.

[01:19:20] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know the rights behind those other ones.

[01:19:22] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like kind of probably a right.

[01:19:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think they've ever appeared again.

[01:19:25] [SPEAKER_01]: I think the only one, the only one they ever claimed

[01:19:28] [SPEAKER_01]: was miss Pacman.

[01:19:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because I don't think the other ones they gave a

[01:19:34] [SPEAKER_01]: shit about.

[01:19:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[01:19:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, that's probably mechanically the best

[01:19:37] [SPEAKER_01]: one anyway, but yeah, I mean,

[01:19:40] [SPEAKER_01]: probably because there's like that junior.

[01:19:42] [SPEAKER_01]: There's like Pacman plus.

[01:19:44] [SPEAKER_00]: There's something right.

[01:19:45] [SPEAKER_00]: I forgot.

[01:19:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, there's like all sorts of like variations

[01:19:49] [SPEAKER_01]: at midway were tinkering with.

[01:19:51] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's so weird.

[01:19:52] [SPEAKER_00]: How's a lot of Pacman?

[01:19:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Why not?

[01:20:07] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[01:20:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I guess we should get to some rankings, huh?

[01:20:11] [SPEAKER_01]: So I didn't really come into this having some

[01:20:13] [SPEAKER_01]: strict rankings.

[01:20:14] [SPEAKER_01]: So let's just talk it out here and maybe I maybe

[01:20:16] [SPEAKER_01]: we can figure it out.

[01:20:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[01:20:18] [SPEAKER_01]: So I do have some bullet points about things that

[01:20:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I do think overall.

[01:20:22] [SPEAKER_01]: So I'll say this.

[01:20:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I think volume four has the best presentation

[01:20:27] [SPEAKER_01]: and game rooms and stuff, but the worst games.

[01:20:31] [SPEAKER_01]: So that's like a big conundrum for me.

[01:20:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I would agree.

[01:20:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Could you possibly say how you're going to weight

[01:20:37] [SPEAKER_01]: this?

[01:20:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Like because obviously we don't want to just do

[01:20:40] [SPEAKER_01]: the best games because that's not really we're

[01:20:42] [SPEAKER_01]: taking the whole museum into account.

[01:20:44] [SPEAKER_00]: So you can't judge purely off the game list.

[01:20:49] [SPEAKER_00]: So the presentation has to account or the

[01:20:54] [SPEAKER_00]: presentation has to impact the ranking to some

[01:20:57] [SPEAKER_00]: degree, right?

[01:20:59] [SPEAKER_00]: So I think like a volume four has got my

[01:21:03] [SPEAKER_00]: favorite library man, like the cool sort of

[01:21:07] [SPEAKER_00]: like glass windows with like looking out at

[01:21:10] [SPEAKER_00]: like like this nighttime sky and stuff like

[01:21:13] [SPEAKER_00]: the character and personality is amazing.

[01:21:16] [SPEAKER_00]: That is cool.

[01:21:17] [SPEAKER_01]: That is that is cool as hell.

[01:21:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think I had gone in that library until

[01:21:20] [SPEAKER_01]: you told me about it.

[01:21:21] [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, oh what?

[01:21:22] [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, oh shit.

[01:21:24] [SPEAKER_01]: This is actually really cool.

[01:21:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[01:21:26] [SPEAKER_00]: It's my favorite library of the five.

[01:21:28] [SPEAKER_00]: So I mean like that has to factor in right

[01:21:30] [SPEAKER_00]: that has to but at the same time it's just

[01:21:33] [SPEAKER_00]: then there's also a pack land and return.

[01:21:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[01:21:39] [SPEAKER_01]: The games are like the best, right?

[01:21:41] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's like, yeah.

[01:21:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Um, I it's yeah.

[01:21:46] [SPEAKER_01]: So like volume three obviously has my

[01:21:48] [SPEAKER_01]: favorite library.

[01:21:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I spoke about it.

[01:21:49] [SPEAKER_01]: The vaporwave dream as I called it but like

[01:21:52] [SPEAKER_01]: I as I said, I think the museum articles and

[01:21:55] [SPEAKER_01]: stuff in there are the least interesting.

[01:21:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[01:21:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Such a conundrum unless you love Jiraga

[01:22:01] [SPEAKER_01]: which you clearly do.

[01:22:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I love Jiraga.

[01:22:04] [SPEAKER_01]: It's my absolute favorite game of all time.

[01:22:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Um, but see even like the Jiraga room is

[01:22:10] [SPEAKER_01]: kind of cool.

[01:22:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I will admit it, especially like the hallway

[01:22:13] [SPEAKER_01]: where it's like the bricks and like it

[01:22:15] [SPEAKER_01]: looks cool.

[01:22:16] [SPEAKER_00]: It's great.

[01:22:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Give it that it's fantastic.

[01:22:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[01:22:19] [SPEAKER_00]: It's uh, it's it's got a sort of atmosphere

[01:22:22] [SPEAKER_00]: to it right?

[01:22:23] [SPEAKER_00]: That seems pretty appropriate.

[01:22:24] [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, like uh, it's it's it's so hard.

[01:22:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Um, so I'll say this even though the

[01:22:32] [SPEAKER_01]: first two volumes have the exact same

[01:22:33] [SPEAKER_01]: aesthetic, I think I prefer volume one

[01:22:36] [SPEAKER_01]: because the games are more interesting

[01:22:38] [SPEAKER_01]: and therefore it leads a more interesting

[01:22:40] [SPEAKER_01]: museum obviously because of the game

[01:22:42] [SPEAKER_01]: rooms.

[01:22:43] [SPEAKER_01]: So like even if those game rooms are

[01:22:44] [SPEAKER_01]: pretty like quaint compared to later

[01:22:47] [SPEAKER_01]: entries, I do feel like they do have

[01:22:51] [SPEAKER_01]: something to them right?

[01:22:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Like am I making that up?

[01:22:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[01:22:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I feel like no, you're not.

[01:22:56] [SPEAKER_00]: There's a there's a there's a

[01:22:57] [SPEAKER_00]: personality to those two spaces and

[01:22:59] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean like they they are tricked out

[01:23:01] [SPEAKER_00]: like considering you know, the

[01:23:03] [SPEAKER_00]: relatively straightforward sort of like

[01:23:05] [SPEAKER_00]: layouts or whatever right?

[01:23:06] [SPEAKER_00]: So I mean like I think a good I think

[01:23:08] [SPEAKER_00]: all those are pretty memorable,

[01:23:10] [SPEAKER_00]: especially so far as like well,

[01:23:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean the pole positions and the new

[01:23:14] [SPEAKER_00]: rally X stuff really make you feel

[01:23:15] [SPEAKER_00]: like you're in like a like a racetrack

[01:23:17] [SPEAKER_00]: kind of space and it really sets it up.

[01:23:19] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's cool.

[01:23:21] [SPEAKER_01]: I love the shitty ass visibility in

[01:23:23] [SPEAKER_01]: the rally X room with the cars like

[01:23:25] [SPEAKER_01]: racing by because they don't want to

[01:23:27] [SPEAKER_01]: show too much right?

[01:23:28] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like they disappear into this

[01:23:31] [SPEAKER_01]: like white mist or whatever.

[01:23:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I get it has to be 60 frames a second.

[01:23:34] [SPEAKER_01]: That was your target but but still

[01:23:36] [SPEAKER_00]: the 60 frames per second feed out.

[01:23:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, 60 60 frames a second fog.

[01:23:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god, that's great.

[01:23:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I will say this though,

[01:23:47] [SPEAKER_01]: even though I didn't find the like

[01:23:48] [SPEAKER_01]: the actual like museum articles that

[01:23:51] [SPEAKER_01]: interesting I see the appeal of

[01:23:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Volume 3 a lot.

[01:23:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I get why that was the most popular

[01:23:55] [SPEAKER_01]: volume.

[01:23:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the cross section of games is

[01:23:59] [SPEAKER_01]: so appealing has really good game

[01:24:01] [SPEAKER_01]: rooms and I do understand.

[01:24:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm not sure I would

[01:24:05] [SPEAKER_00]: personally rank that one that high.

[01:24:07] [SPEAKER_00]: But I mean like the delay,

[01:24:09] [SPEAKER_00]: the new layout was fantastic and

[01:24:11] [SPEAKER_00]: like amenities like the faster loads

[01:24:13] [SPEAKER_00]: for the museum content.

[01:24:15] [SPEAKER_00]: That was nice for sure.

[01:24:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Man dude, it's it's tough because

[01:24:20] [SPEAKER_00]: that also kind of factors into it.

[01:24:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Just like the way it like handles

[01:24:23] [SPEAKER_00]: too so it's just yeah.

[01:24:26] [SPEAKER_00]: But okay, go ahead.

[01:24:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like well,

[01:24:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Volume 5 has got the layout

[01:24:32] [SPEAKER_00]: and the games so alongside the sort

[01:24:36] [SPEAKER_00]: of walls that are that really set

[01:24:38] [SPEAKER_00]: the tone for the whole thing.

[01:24:39] [SPEAKER_00]: So I mean like I feel like

[01:24:42] [SPEAKER_00]: aesthetically in by game selection

[01:24:44] [SPEAKER_00]: five is probably the best one.

[01:24:46] [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's right.

[01:24:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I get I mean it would have

[01:24:51] [SPEAKER_01]: to be right because again,

[01:24:52] [SPEAKER_01]: so we're not trying to make it

[01:24:53] [SPEAKER_01]: all about the games,

[01:24:54] [SPEAKER_01]: but it's so it's so up there.

[01:24:58] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, the games are so quality.

[01:25:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Everyone is a winner.

[01:25:02] [SPEAKER_01]: And like I don't know.

[01:25:04] [SPEAKER_01]: See the only thing I would say

[01:25:05] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know if this is a bad thing.

[01:25:08] [SPEAKER_01]: The museum in Volume 5 is so fucking wacky.

[01:25:12] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, is this really it feels

[01:25:13] [SPEAKER_01]: more like an entire art installation

[01:25:16] [SPEAKER_01]: like the other ones actually feel

[01:25:17] [SPEAKER_01]: like museums.

[01:25:19] [SPEAKER_01]: This one is like, oh, eat the fruit

[01:25:21] [SPEAKER_01]: to go into this room magically.

[01:25:22] [SPEAKER_01]: You're like the the dragon

[01:25:24] [SPEAKER_01]: heads going to eat you or something.

[01:25:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Even though it is really off the wall.

[01:25:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, just the fact that like

[01:25:31] [SPEAKER_00]: the space is like interestingly decorated

[01:25:35] [SPEAKER_00]: like with that spiral staircase

[01:25:36] [SPEAKER_00]: in the in the vegetation.

[01:25:38] [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like that kind of balances

[01:25:40] [SPEAKER_00]: some of the wackiness of the game

[01:25:42] [SPEAKER_01]: rooms out, but it's I don't know, man.

[01:25:48] [SPEAKER_01]: OK, OK, I'll say this five is the best one.

[01:25:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Presentation games.

[01:25:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I think five is at the top

[01:25:54] [SPEAKER_01]: no matter what.

[01:25:56] [SPEAKER_01]: OK, I'll just say that below that.

[01:25:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I would probably put man four so strong,

[01:26:02] [SPEAKER_01]: but the games are not man.

[01:26:04] [SPEAKER_00]: It's so personal disposition

[01:26:06] [SPEAKER_00]: like what you way more,

[01:26:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I guess to some degree,

[01:26:08] [SPEAKER_00]: but we're trying to keep it

[01:26:09] [SPEAKER_00]: kind of like balance

[01:26:10] [SPEAKER_00]: because it's not just about the games.

[01:26:12] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not just about the museum.

[01:26:13] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's like, I don't know.

[01:26:16] [SPEAKER_01]: I think I would have to say three

[01:26:18] [SPEAKER_01]: is probably not.

[01:26:20] [SPEAKER_01]: So I would say Volume 5, Volume 3,

[01:26:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Volume 1, Volume 4,

[01:26:26] [SPEAKER_01]: and then Volume 2.

[01:26:27] [SPEAKER_01]: This probably what I would say.

[01:26:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I can agree with that.

[01:26:31] [SPEAKER_00]: That's just because you can't put

[01:26:33] [SPEAKER_00]: for the bottom because well,

[01:26:35] [SPEAKER_00]: the the rooms are together.

[01:26:38] [SPEAKER_00]: The rooms are together,

[01:26:39] [SPEAKER_00]: but on the flip side,

[01:26:41] [SPEAKER_00]: like you can't put four in the middle,

[01:26:43] [SPEAKER_00]: though, because of the game lineup of one.

[01:26:46] [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I feel like I feel like,

[01:26:50] [SPEAKER_00]: yeah, I would agree with that five,

[01:26:52] [SPEAKER_00]: then three, then then the one,

[01:26:55] [SPEAKER_00]: four, then two, though interesting.

[01:26:57] [SPEAKER_00]: I think also part of the reason

[01:26:59] [SPEAKER_00]: for that though is because the games

[01:27:00] [SPEAKER_00]: and two are kind of as we often

[01:27:02] [SPEAKER_00]: like to say, a kind of sicko nature.

[01:27:04] [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, but I like them though.

[01:27:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I like Robed I like Gatless,

[01:27:10] [SPEAKER_01]: you know?

[01:27:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's just oh my God,

[01:27:13] [SPEAKER_01]: you're going to work today,

[01:27:14] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, like tell me about it.

[01:27:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, but obviously too

[01:27:18] [SPEAKER_01]: being at the bottom doesn't mean

[01:27:19] [SPEAKER_01]: it's about obviously all of these

[01:27:20] [SPEAKER_01]: have something to offer.

[01:27:21] [SPEAKER_01]: But if we if I had to rank them.

[01:27:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and also like I think

[01:27:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I'd have to put three up there

[01:27:26] [SPEAKER_00]: just because of the just the way

[01:27:29] [SPEAKER_00]: it handles like in terms

[01:27:31] [SPEAKER_00]: of like menu functionality and like flow.

[01:27:33] [SPEAKER_00]: It's got that good balance

[01:27:34] [SPEAKER_00]: of features and stuff like that.

[01:27:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[01:27:36] [SPEAKER_00]: So I think that also adds to it too.

[01:27:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I just like navigating

[01:27:40] [SPEAKER_00]: that space you can't strafe,

[01:27:41] [SPEAKER_00]: but you don't really need to.

[01:27:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I guess right now you sure don't.

[01:27:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, man.

[01:27:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so I think that's it.

[01:27:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[01:27:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's all I agree.

[01:27:50] [SPEAKER_01]: We agree.

[01:27:51] [SPEAKER_01]: OK, yeah, I'm surprised we came up

[01:27:52] [SPEAKER_01]: the same order volume five, three,

[01:27:55] [SPEAKER_01]: one, four than two.

[01:27:56] [SPEAKER_01]: That's that's interesting.

[01:27:57] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't really think we do that.

[01:27:59] [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I you know,

[01:28:01] [SPEAKER_00]: that's just what we've come to

[01:28:03] [SPEAKER_00]: with so we can back it up.

[01:28:06] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[01:28:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I think we've said so much

[01:28:09] [SPEAKER_01]: about Namco Museum more than

[01:28:10] [SPEAKER_01]: we ever thought we would.

[01:28:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's time for us

[01:28:14] [SPEAKER_01]: to get the fuck out of here.

[01:28:16] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to flop my wings

[01:28:17] [SPEAKER_01]: and float away.

[01:28:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you saw the wings.

[01:28:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I thought you were just a fairy.

[01:28:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, shit.

[01:28:23] [SPEAKER_01]: With fairy shit.

[01:28:25] [SPEAKER_01]: I forgot.

[01:28:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Damn.

[01:28:26] [SPEAKER_01]: You're right.

[01:28:27] [SPEAKER_01]: My name is fairy shit.

[01:28:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Fairy shit.

[01:28:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I thought you lost your fairy shit

[01:28:31] [SPEAKER_01]: after we left the Namco Museums.

[01:28:33] [SPEAKER_01]: I thought like that was just

[01:28:34] [SPEAKER_01]: for traveling between them.

[01:28:35] [SPEAKER_01]: So you have them forever.

[01:28:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[01:28:37] [SPEAKER_00]: The wispy pal wings will stick with me

[01:28:39] [SPEAKER_00]: for the rest of until the next

[01:28:42] [SPEAKER_00]: curmudgeon show.

[01:28:45] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[01:28:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for joining us.

[01:28:48] [SPEAKER_01]: If you took this entire three

[01:28:49] [SPEAKER_01]: episode journey with us,

[01:28:51] [SPEAKER_01]: thanks a lot.

[01:28:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Check the description of this podcast

[01:28:54] [SPEAKER_01]: to find us on social media.

[01:28:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Until next time, see you later.