Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 214

Half-Life, Thief: The Dark Project, Everquest Beta, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Baldur's Gate, The Best Games of 98, The Future of PC Gaming, Your Emails and more!

What would happen if the GWJ Conference Call was recorded in 1998? Let's find out!

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind. You can even send a 30 second audio question or comment (MP3 format please) if you're so inclined. You can also submit a question or comment call in to our voicemail line at (612) 284-4563!

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Everquest Main Theme - Sony Online Entertainment - http://www.everquest.com/everquest.vm - 31:04
Fallout 2 Main Theme (Louis Armstrong - A kiss to Build a Dream on) - Interplay - http://www.interplay.com/ - 1:00:53

Comments

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Certis wrote:

We talked about both Fallouts on the show ... how could we not?

It just seemed weird to have a conversation about how there hadn't been a good RPG on the PC in so long without someone mentioning it. Even though you went on to talk about both Fallout games, it stood out.

Love the talk about Thief: The Dark Project. I guess no one has played Metal Gear Solid yet? That's the closest comparison I can think of.

Yup, the qualifier "fantasy" would have fixed it right away

Only quibble with Baldur's Gate's voice-acting: the same damn "You must gather your party before venturing forth." Okay, maybe that's an AI issue, but it's annoying.

And "real" actors not doing video game voice overs? Hello, are we forgetting MacGyver in Fallout?!

Rat Boy wrote:

Only quibble with Baldur's Gate's voice-acting: the same damn "You must gather your party before venturing forth." Okay, maybe that's an AI issue, but it's annoying.

And "real" actors not doing video game voice overs? Hello, are we forgetting MacGyver in Fallout?!

Luke Skywalker was in Gabriel Knight! Worf was in there too!

Guys...and Lara,

Truly a phenomenal episode.

Not only did you manage to stay in character but, you also managed to have your usual clever commentary that despite the temporal distortion was still relevant. Thank-you, very much.

I had been thinking that it might be a good idea for a podcast series to talk about older games and analyze their influence.

This was a fun show, though a little too much irony to do every week methinks.

Sean had sent us an email prior to recording to help get our heads in the game. You really gotta immerse yourself to do something like this and keep it "off the cuff" so to speak.

Some things to put us in the timeframe mood:

Nov 1998:
Pres Clinton is facing impeachment for perjury
Pakistan and India are the latest nuclear nations
McGwier has broken Roger Maris' record of 61 home runs in a single season (pretty much no one is talking about steroids)
John Glenn has just returned as the oldest man in space
Jesse Ventura is -- embarrassingly -- just been elected governor of Minnesota -- Ahnold won't be elected in California for 5 more years
Y2K is just starting to get attention
Star Trek Voyager is in its 5th season
DS9 is in its last season
Buffy is in the crappy first half of its 2nd season
Babylon 5 has just aired its 2nd to last episode

Games:
Duke Nukem 4 has been announced for more than a year and a half, and has already missed its first ship date
Daikatana is 2 years from release
Baldur's Gate is 2 weeks from release
Windows 98 is a hot item on the shelves amid the Department of Justice suing Microsoft for anti-trust
The big discussion for tech is the Browser Wars (tied into IE's integration into Win 98)
Google has just been founded, but no one would have heard of that yet.
The big search engine is AltaVista
Geocities is the 3rd largest website on the internet -- which has about 250,000,000 users worldwide
Napster doesn't exist yet
56k is the standard
Low Ping Bastard means something!
The Voodoo 2 is 3DFX's big video card release, allowing for the first SLI and resolutions of upto 1024X768
OpenGL is the big thing in video, though DirectX6 has just been released and is opening the doors for companies like RIVA and ATI to get in the game

[font=Impact][size=18]What's up, GWJ? The new site is SWEET and earns some major dap by moving out of the old ezboards, for real. I hope you can find a way to stream the show through something else other than Real Audio, though. (Yeah, I know that like peeps can just install Realplayer through their 98 disc, but that application is the most bloated piece of ish out there.) Maybe you can release it in a MP3 song file? I downloaded a couple tracks from Spacehog's Chinese Album off a website that was set up like in a couple of hours with Gozilla, no sweatin' it.[/size][/font]

[font=Impact][size=18]Anyway, the show was P.H.A.T. as always, but where was the [color=green]GLIDE[/color] in that 3D accelerator discussion? My rig can take any protocol to Mega Mountain, but when I run Q2 benchmarks, it just don't get any cleaner or faster than running on 3Dfx's juice. Even the pocket protectors at Tom's Hardware are talking like how the lack of CPU overhead makes Glide all that and a bag of chips for Unreal:[/size][/font]

IMAGE(http://img.tomshardware.com/us/1998/10/07/nvidia_vs/image56.gif)

[font=Impact][size=18]I know you guys probably don't take your PC gaming seriously -- after all, you Gamers got Jobs to worry about, LOL -- but there really ain't a question that 3Dfx is leading the 3D charge the rest of the way, is there? All those open protocols are going to school Glide's sheer advantage in performance? SIIIKE.[/size][/font]

[font=Impact][size=18]And voice acting in a FINAL FANTASY game? Just like how Take Two thought that Christopher Walken could save Ripper, right? AS IF. And they're already talking about making the next Final Fantasy a "love story" anyway. That's sooooooo cheese.[/size][/font]

[font=Impact][size=18]Anyway, time to
R
O
L
L
out and kick some XvT. Peace...[/size][/font]
_____________________________________________________

[font=Impact][size=18][color=green]I[/color][color=red]C[/color][color=green]Q[/color]: 2642292[/size][/font]

[font=Impact][size=18]\/\/!©|<3|) ®!9≥:
Pentium II 450mhz, RIVA 128, Voodoo2 12MB
- Quake 2 [color=red]58fps[/color]
- Shogo [color=red]52fps[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Impact][size=18]"I met a gypsy and she hipped me to some life game
To stimulate then activate the left and right brain
Said baby boy you only funky as your last cut
You focus on the past your @$$'ll be a has what"
[/size][/font]

IMAGE(http://screenshot.xfire.com/clan_logo/160/tiefighter.jpg?v=82d3)

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Certis wrote:

We talked about both Fallouts on the show ... how could we not?

It just seemed weird to have a conversation about how there hadn't been a good RPG on the PC in so long without someone mentioning it. Even though you went on to talk about both Fallout games, it stood out.

Love the talk about Thief: The Dark Project. I guess no one has played Metal Gear Solid yet? That's the closest comparison I can think of.

It stood out so much, that I even bought it, and hated it, and tried many times to find some enjoyment out of it and eventually just try beat it and never could/did.

They also talked about Thief AND MGS and mentioned how MGS was different. I hated both of those, too.

/haterade

I loved me some Ocarina of Time, FFVII and absolutely Half-Life (which I've played through as recently as earlier this year. Just had to balance out all the negative.

So Lara's comments about the Ocarina in the new Zelda game got me thinking... The Playstation and Saturn both run off of CD-ROMs. CDs were designed for music. Do you think we might ever see any good games about music? Rock & Roll Racing on the SNES proved that good music can make a decent game much better, and X-Wing would dynamically generate music cues and shift the music on the fly in response to the game's action. The technology is there... I guess the real question is would anybody be interested?

Podunk wrote:

Aw man, I've totally got some music from 1998. It would have been awesome to have an alternate universe late 90s theme.

I just got done listening, and that was my first thought when the theme came in at the end. Well, not the "I've got some music" bit, but the whole alternate theme song thing.

I loved the outtakes for this one. Not that I don't love all the outtakes.

The podcast took all night to download, but it was worth the wait. I was glad to hear some attention to Thief: The Dark Project. After their string of top notch releases like Ultima Underworlds: II and System Shock, its clear Looking Glass Studios will be a force to reckon with for years to come, far beyond "The Year 2000".

OzymandiasAV wrote:

[font=Impact][size=18]What's up, GWJ? The new site is SWEET and earns some major dap by moving out of the old ezboards, for real. I hope you can find a way to stream the show through something else other than Real Audio, though. (Yeah, I know that like peeps can just install Realplayer through their 98 disc, but that application is the most bloated piece of ish out there.) Maybe you can release it in a MP3 song file? I downloaded a couple tracks from Spacehog's Chinese Album off a website that was set up like in a couple of hours with Gozilla, no sweatin' it.[/size][/font]

[font=Impact][size=18]Anyway, the show was P.H.A.T. as always, but where was the [color=green]GLIDE[/color] in that 3D accelerator discussion? My rig can take any protocol to Mega Mountain, but when I run Q2 benchmarks, it just don't get any cleaner or faster than running on 3Dfx's juice. Even the pocket protectors at Tom's Hardware are talking like how the lack of CPU overhead makes Glide all that and a bag of chips for Unreal:[/size][/font]

IMAGE(http://img.tomshardware.com/us/1998/10/07/nvidia_vs/image56.gif)

[font=Impact][size=18]I know you guys probably don't take your PC gaming seriously -- after all, you Gamers got Jobs to worry about, LOL -- but there really ain't a question that 3Dfx is leading the 3D charge the rest of the way, is there? All those open protocols are going to school Glide's sheer advantage in performance? SIIIKE.[/size][/font]

[font=Impact][size=18]And voice acting in a FINAL FANTASY game? Just like how Take Two thought that Christopher Walken could save Ripper, right? AS IF. And they're already talking about making the next Final Fantasy a "love story" anyway. That's sooooooo cheese.[/size][/font]

[font=Impact][size=18]Anyway, time to
R
O
L
L
out and kick some XvT. Peace...[/size][/font]
_____________________________________________________

[font=Impact][size=18][color=green]I[/color][color=red]C[/color][color=green]Q[/color]: 2642292[/size][/font]

[font=Impact][size=18]//!©|<3|) ®!9≥:
Pentium II 450mhz, RIVA 128, Voodoo2 12MB
- Quake 2 [color=red]58fps[/color]
- Shogo [color=red]52fps[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Impact][size=18]"I met a gypsy and she hipped me to some life game
To stimulate then activate the left and right brain
Said baby boy you only funky as your last cut
You focus on the past your @$$'ll be a has what"
[/size][/font]

IMAGE(http://screenshot.xfire.com/clan_logo/160/tiefighter.jpg?v=82d3)

This post deserves a round of applause.

subspace, hell yes! cheers to that, elysium. i must have poured hundreds, maybe thousands of hours into that game back in the day. i even wrote a paper on it for a class in college: http://snarfed.org/subspace . (granted, it was a class *about* games, but still!)

Meta-podcast...this is the future.

Excellent job with this! Very convincing and entertaining.

I gotta admit: I was entertained. But where's the 1988 retrospect? Wasn't Cabal awesome?

Favorite moments so far:

"I think this thing might hit 100,000!" regarding Everquest, and pretending that nobody knew the word "steampunk" when referring to Thief.

Podunk wrote:

Aw man, I've totally got some music from 1998. It would have been awesome to have an alternate universe late 90s theme.

My favorite band, Third Eve 20!

Certis wrote:

Sean had sent us an email prior to recording to help get our heads in the game. You really gotta immerse yourself to do something like this and keep it "off the cuff" so to speak.

So now that you've done a time travel episode, how soon before we get the parallel universe episode? Or the court room episode?

No "Female Doggoes"?

Quintin_Stone wrote:

No "Female Doggoes"?

Yeah, I was hoping for a Marvel-esque origin story for that one, perhaps a first glimpse of her fall toward the dark side

FatConan wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

No "Female Doggoes"?

Yeah, I was hoping for a Marvel-esque origin story for that one, perhaps a first glimpse of her fall toward the dark side :)

Maybe save that for the 1988 week mmm... Wasteland

Tanglebones wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:
Certis wrote:

We talked about both Fallouts on the show ... how could we not?

It just seemed weird to have a conversation about how there hadn't been a good RPG on the PC in so long without someone mentioning it. Even though you went on to talk about both Fallout games, it stood out.

Love the talk about Thief: The Dark Project. I guess no one has played Metal Gear Solid yet? That's the closest comparison I can think of.

Yup, the qualifier "fantasy" would have fixed it right away

While we're at it, might as well through Tenchu (summer 1998) on the pile.

FatConan wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

No "Female Doggoes"?

Yeah, I was hoping for a Marvel-esque origin story for that one, perhaps a first glimpse of her fall toward the dark side :)

As Michael Ende, author of Elysium's favorite book, once wrote:

But that's another story, and shall be told another time.
KaterinLHC wrote:

As Michael Ende, author of Elysium's favorite book, once wrote:

But that's another story, and shall be told another time.

You are the most awesomest person ever.

wordsmythe wrote:

While we're at it, might as well through Tenchu (summer 1998) on the pile.

Obviously we've gone back in time to a point before the 'smythe's high-falutin' schoolin'.

LiquidMantis wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

While we're at it, might as well through Tenchu (summer 1998) on the pile.

Obviously we've gone back in time to a point before the 'smythe's high-falutin' schoolin'.

And one that doesn't know a PC RPG from a console RPG.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Certis wrote:

We talked about both Fallouts on the show ... how could we not?

It just seemed weird to have a conversation about how there hadn't been a good RPG on the PC in so long without someone mentioning it. Even though you went on to talk about both Fallout games, it stood out.

Yeah, I agree. Slight misstep there, but otherwise it was very, very tight.

I'm 16 minutes into the CC and when you guys brought up Ocarina a tiny little nuke of memories blew up in my brain. A million flashbacks flooded my head and all of a sudden I was 13 yrs old playing by N64 and playing that game all day long for a month. I don't think I spent more time with one game than I did with Ocarina of Time on my N64.

Well that was a fantastic episode.

My favourite part was the $15/month Everquest subscription fee because of the crummy Canadian dollar.

On the other hand, the podcast made me realize I was already a gaming curmudgeon back then. That makes me sad.

edit: removed embarrassing details of curvaceousness