GWJ Conference Call Episode 512

Headlander, Battlezone 98 Redux, Quadrilateral Cowboy, Your Twitter Questions, Your Emails and More!

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This week Shawn, Julian, Allen and Amanda answer your burning twitter questions and more!

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.

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Riding High - Echoside - http://echosidetracks.bandcamp.com/ - 27:14

Squeaky Clean - Echoside - http://echosidetracks.bandcamp.com/ - 46:06

Comments

Did the quickest of quick looks here for the quad cow!

00:01:16 Headlander
00:08:42 Quadrilateral Cowboy
00:15:34 Battlezone 98 Redux
00:20:21 Magic the Gathering
00:21:52 MarsCorp (podcast)
00:23:07 DOTA VR Viewer
00:27:17 Your Twitter Questions
00:46:07 Your Emails

When they were talking about Battlezone, I almost remembered playing that exact game, except it was called Uprising. It was released about the same time and played with a similar premise - you're in a tank, you have to defend your base, you can call in troops that you can then micromanage, or go off on your own and attack the enemy forces.

I remember playing the hell out of it when it first came out, but unfortunately they've never made a modern update. If it's similar, I'm really interested in checking out the Battlezone remake.

There's definitely some really good 'radio' drama stuff out there. Right now I've got The Black Tapes season 2 and Tanis season 2 in my feed, along with Alice isn't Dead which just wrapped up their first season and The super weird but really clever Within The Wires (the latter two being part of Night Vale presents). All good stuff and worth a listen!

The terrible characters conundrum is why my wife bounced off Mad Men and House of Cards.

I played almost one level's worth of one of the recent Hitman games and had to bail. I killed a room full of guards, and then felt really bad for their families. It's the same reason I'm loathe to steal from random settlers in Fallout. Only, in Hitman I'm a monster.

In regards to Matt's issue,

I suffered the same thing via a via constant headaches and dizzy spells.

Headaches, vertigo and dizzy spells may be vestibular migraines. Bring that up with your doctor and they may have a better idea where to look.

Check your diet. There are a surprising number of foods that are migraine triggers. Mine are caffeine, aged cheeses, chocolate, yogurt and, believe it or not, bananas. I also have a big problem with salmon and other fish that couldn't reasonably be called "scrod" in New England.

How much sleep are you getting? I find I'm much more susceptible to headaches and migraines when I'm getting fewer than 7 hours per night.

Dehydration is also a factor. If you're drinking a lot of coffee remember that caffeine is a diuretic, so it is actually worse to drink coffee than to drink nothing.

I started going to bed earlier, drinking more water and avoiding migraine triggers and I haven't had a major headache in months. When I feel one starting to come on I immediately drink a bottle of water and try to find time to take a nap.

I still haven't tried VR, because I'm not convinced the migraines are really gone, but it may help you.

Question for Shawn--if I heard right he said he streamed a session of Battlezone 98 Redux, but I couldn't find it on the GWJ Plays YouTube channel. Did I hear wrong, or if not, where would I find that? Twitch perhaps?

Never mind, it was in fact on Twitch.

pyxistyx wrote:

There's definitely some really good 'radio' drama stuff out there. Right now I've got The Black Tapes season 2 and Tanis season 2 in my feed, along with Alice isn't Dead which just wrapped up their first season and The super weird but really clever Within The Wires (the latter two being part of Night Vale presents). All good stuff and worth a listen!

We're alive is still one of my favorite radio plays. I had a hard time getting into Night Vale. Either way Nice recommendations I will give all of those a listen.

the two night vale presents ones are very different beasts to Night Vale itself (they are witty in their own ways but not really surreal comedies in the way Night Vale is - Alice is straight up stephen king-esque Americana Horror and Within the Wires is...difficult to pin down initially, but it's more sci-fi orientated...probably? I think?). So you may have more luck with them. Alice especially.

pyxistyx wrote:

the two night vale presents ones are very different beasts to Night Vale itself (they are witty in their own ways but not really surreal comedies in the way Night Vale is - Alice is straight up stephen king-esque Americana Horror and Within the Wires is...difficult to pin down initially, but it's more sci-fi orientated...probably? I think?). So you may have more luck with them. Alice especially.

Alice sounds right up my alley..but I will be sure to give within wires a fair shake as well. This topic kinda made my day because I've been looking (not hard enough obviously) for something to listen to along these lines during my daily commute.

For other radio dramas, I would recommend Limetown:
http://www.limetownstories.com
and Decoder Ring Theatre:
http://decoderringtheatre.com
(my preference leans to the Black Jack Justice series rather than the Red Panda)

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

In regards to Matt's issue,

I suffered the same thing via a via constant headaches and dizzy spells.

Headaches, vertigo and dizzy spells may be vestibular migraines. Bring that up with your doctor and they may have a better idea where to look.

Check your diet. There are a surprising number of foods that are migraine triggers. Mine are caffeine, aged cheeses, chocolate, yogurt and, believe it or not, bananas. I also have a big problem with salmon and other fish that couldn't reasonably be called "scrod" in New England.

How much sleep are you getting? I find I'm much more susceptible to headaches and migraines when I'm getting fewer than 7 hours per night.

Dehydration is also a factor. If you're drinking a lot of coffee remember that caffeine is a diuretic, so it is actually worse to drink coffee than to drink nothing.

I started going to bed earlier, drinking more water and avoiding migraine triggers and I haven't had a major headache in months. When I feel one starting to come on I immediately drink a bottle of water and try to find time to take a nap.

I still haven't tried VR, because I'm not convinced the migraines are really gone, but it may help you.

I suffer from constant headaches too. They don't go as far as a migraine, but they are always there. My doctor prescribed Propanolol which has been very successful at reducing the intensity of these headaches.

I am going to dive into VR (I am used to the headaches so I just tolerate them when they happen) and can report my findings here. I hope to have my set in a few weeks. Where I differ though is I don't get dizzy spells or any visual issues in association to my headaches. It is just a constant throbbing in the front part of the brain. So it might not effect me the same way.

juv3nal wrote:

For other radio dramas, I would recommend Limetown:
http://www.limetownstories.com
and Decoder Ring Theatre:
http://decoderringtheatre.com
(my preference leans to the Black Jack Justice series rather than the Red Panda)

thanks for sharing....so much to check out now!

Re: the headache guy. Two things to pursue:

1) Get checked for a Chiari Malformation - that can cause constant head pain and dizziness. You'll need an MRI of your head to see if you have one.

2) If that's not it, then check out this site for more help getting a proper diagnosis: https://www.crowdmed.com/

Awesome video game soundtrack in an indie game that really helped sell it: Rogue Legacy. Soundtrack by A Shell in the Pit. Coincidentally, I started playing the game about the same time I found the Smarter Every Day youtube channel, which was using a version of the main theme from RL in the videos. It was pretty cool since I wanted to listen to it a lot at the time, too.

Amoebic -

I LOVED your video introduction. I could listen to you describe making bread.