Episode Two: Gotta Catch ‘em All

I almost cried during that speech at the end.

Could some one tell me the origin of it?

Dr. Max Chill fills my prescription.

i can’t get enough bobito in my diet. you bring a refreshing npr look at the gaming world. keep’em coming robert!

On the origin of the speech at the end, that is from our capture of the last minutes of EA-Land. You can see the full video at the Archiving Virtual Worlds website mentioned in the podcast. Not sure if this forum will take links, but here is the direct URL for to the page for this video:
http://www.archive.org/details/EALand_FinalCountdown

@superbrothers: Awesome. I really dig your videos.

@the soc: Here’s a link to the video that I got that from. It’s the game Lowood is talking about in the show. http://www.archive.org/details/EALand_FinalCountdown

I honestly never comment any podcasts that I subscribe to, but I felt the need to do so on the one. I just wanted to say that this is the best podcast that i’ve listened to in a long time. Thank you for this great episode, and keep it up!

This is the kind of podcast I’d shell out money for. High-quality, original takes on niche culture (like gaming) are few and far between.

great stuff robert! i miss the GFW days a lot, glad to see you’re still providing great podcasts for the fans, keep it up man

Will you just stop dicking around and add a donation button already? I know this clearly takes a lot of work and if there’s one video game podcast that deserves monetary compensation, it’s yours.

Robert, you HAVE to make this show in video. This episode, the intro sequence alone (entering the collectors vault, the music, your narration) gave me the goosebumps. Your laughter at the time you see the room makes it so clear in my mind, but also makes me crave for images. Great work! Keep them coming! Peru *hearts* ALWW!!!!

Great stuff, really interesting to listen to and I love the editing.

Keep it up!

great job! looking forward to the next one. how about a show on what its like to be married to someone who plays videogames? sometimes i find my wife actively competing for attention.

Robert -

This is probably one of the most enjoyable gaming podcasts available on the net. You’ve created something unique and wonderful. Can’t wait for Ep. 3.

Best,

JW

Simply the best podcast going at the moment. Blown away by the work here. Please make more.

Robert, I love what you’re doing. The editing is really smooth and tight. (Though what’s up with the 2 minute musical break at about 30:00? I feel like I’m waiting for my local NPR station’s weather forecast or something.) I work at a radio station, and I wish I had the opportunity to do something this fun.

Even if you don’t get picked up by a large site to produce something smilar for them, this is something that’s worth doing for as long as you can take it.

This was great, well done I’ll be tuning in again.

I just had to come on to say I really enjoy your podcast so far and it’s the most original podcast I’ve ever heard. I like the incorporation of music. Keep goin’.

Re: The request for donation option. What I’d really like to do is sell some kind of merch. I’m thinking about having a t-shirt design contest, maybe, then selling the shirts. But maybe that’s too obvious. Any other ideas? Thanks. –Robert

Robert, you have by far the best podcast on gaming available. Thank you for producing quality shows that don’t just spend every minute mocking everything.

I know you can be as crazy as the next guy but it’s clear you take this very seriously.

I appreciate it.

Gary

Great Podcast, I wish you had a way to make it more frequent, but i will take the quality over quantity.

Well Robert, this is probably the best gaming related radio programme I’ve ever heard. Just two episodes in and I can already tell this is going to be a very special series of pieces.

It’s just really really solid and I hope you’ll continue doing it for ages yet.

Plus I’m definitely buying the I Come To Shanghai album

Amazing stuff, Robert. Its the focus on creating a meaningful human element that separates it from the rest. As humanity is hard to find in our hobby, your work here occupies a much needed space. Can’t wait for the next one!

It might feel dirty, but why not just allow people to give you money? You put a month of your life into this show and it’s obviously worth something to a lot of people. If you want to feel like you’re giving us something for a donation, you could set up a donators’ message board, send them a nice letter or email, or a 5-minute phone call like Josh Freese is doing.

Or what about letting people download some of the source material for the podcasts after they donate? I’d love to hear some of what you have.

You’re going to end up selling T-shirts and trinkets if you keep doing this, anyway. I’d like to see you do something fun for donators while you’re still in the early days.

If you made a new one of these every day, I would look forward to it every night.

Robert, after listening to both episodes now, I just want to encourage you. Your show is so well thought out and really pushes forward how we process our experiences with gaming. Keep up the excellent music and your insightful topics.

And also, I too would totally subscribe monetarily to a show like this. I’m just throwing it out there.

This podcast is a work of art.

Feel free to not “sell out” by selling “trinkets”. We’ll donate anyway just to be involved.

You set the bar so high that others should (almost) give up.

Robert,
If you are going to do this monthly, it needs to be longer. This episode was amazing and such a shame that it was only 45 minutes long. By far the best “non-news” gaming podcast out there. Bring on Ep 3!!

Dear Mr Ashley,

Thank you, thank you for reinventing the gaming podcast scene. I was getting bored with the standard gaming podcasts with news and “what you’ve played” sections, your show is along with GAMERadio the best ones I have on my subscription list.

I like your whole layout of the show, its really clever and the topics are interesting as they are things no one has talked about before and it makes me happy to be part of the gaming culture and understand what the real gamers are like.

Keep up the good work and I hope you do another RebelFM show, GFW-Style moddafokka! Also, I would love to listen to a show with yourself, Shawn and chuff discussing random shit so if you could arrange that I will have my millionare master wire you 1000 dollars (Zimbabweans ones)

Peace bitches!
Zilla Manslay
Sweden

The music is fantastic and very well integrated.

I usually don’t like music playing while anyone is speaking but I simply adore it here.

This podcast came out of nowhere for me or rather from someone that I didn’t realize had the itch to make his own podcast and dude, honestly, it’s the best I’ve ever heard.

Fantastic podcast. Great production values. Really good content. I’ll be recommending this to people I know.

So well produced. If it weren’t for the cussing it’s easy to imagine that this could be on NPR. If the quality stays this high I don’t mind waiting for weeks before episodes, this is what podcasts should be.

just hot off the gaf: hey man, edit the shows to your liking. you were able to create a master piece with out a wingman to knock you our during the process, so i believe you’ll do just fine with the upcoming episodes.

“to knock you out”

Ive been anxiously awaiting the latest pod cast installment. The first one was a gem! I have never listened to a pod cast that had so much heart in it. I am betting the second installment is just as good! thanks again!

Great show once again Robert, really love your production. However, I can’t resist commenting the fanaticism of the people and how important they feel their work is. Scary stuff.

The only negative thing I can think to say about the podcast is that it’s a shame someone as talented as you, one of the few videogame journalists out there actually doing geniune journalism and creating such a high quality show, has to do it with his own free time and on his own expense instead of having publications rushing to throw money at him.

Maybe one day the gaming enthusiast press will mature to the point that your effort will be appreciated(as well as the audience, obviously).

Well done. Well done, indeed.

Bobito, this is some quality stuff! Easily the most enjoyable podcast I have on my subscription list.

This is the best podcast out there.

Thank you for all of your hard work. If you ever go subscription, this is the only podcast I’d have no hesitation giving money to.

your last podcast returned me to childhood so polished like a great doc you guys got it please keep it up

I’m hooked, officially now. Thanks so much for doing this — both episodes are greatly enjoyable from beginning to end. Can’t wait for more!

Awesome, pure and simple. I wanna buy a T-shirt or something.

An excellent programme, extremely well written and put together.

I’m already looking forward to the next one.
These deserve a very wide audience and I will be recommending to anyone who might be interested.

I would happily buy and wear an ALWW T-shirt.

Just got a chance to listen to this…thanks for making me care about things that I never would have known about otherwise. Extremely well done and excellent production values. Thanks for putting your heart and soul into this!

Great webcast!! Reminds me of “This American Life”, only gming themed. My only suggestion is that you stretch out the topics a bit. You could have gone more into the pinball segment, and made a whole episode out of preserving online gaming, or the final days of EA Land or others. Keep up the great work, I’ll keep listening!!

Really really great, I’m just incredibly impressed with this podcast. Whoa.

Just wanted to take a minute and let you know that I think your first podcast was great. Some of the music was really depressing.

I’ve listened to you on GFW and after that I’ve always looked forward to what you’d say next. The Rebel FM appearance was hysterical.

Hope you keep making guest appearances on other podcasts where you act like a total fool.

Wow, Robert. This episode was amazing. I have to give you so much credit for talking with that guy from Stanford — the work they’re doing seems really interesting. As an archivist (I finished my Masters in archival studies just last year), I’m confronted almost daily with the inherent problems caused by trying to preserve digital materials (games, word documents, spreadsheets, raw digital images, whatever) over the long term.

I often worry a bit about the fact that most people, other than archivists and librarians, however, don’t really consider those difficulties too much. It’s a bit nervewracking when you think about all of those digital downloads happening on Xbox Live and PSN. Will be be able to play these games we’ve downloaded on the next iteration of consoles? Hopefully, but I don’t think there are any guarantees.

We all take permanence for granted when it comes to digital materials, regardless of what form they might come in.

Anyway, I could ramble forever about this crap, but I just wanted to say thanks for putting that aspect of collecting and preservation out there — I hope that it might get the people who listen to this podcast thinking a bit more about what’s going to happen to what they download in the future.

Wow, even better than the first one. As for possible future topics, what about the rise and fall (and rise?) of adventure games…Zork, Sierra Games (you could interview the Williams’, Al Lowe, etc.), the LucasArts people. Anyway, I and many others were completely wrapped up in those games as kids and teens. They were a real metric at the time of how graphics and sound and narrative were progressing…until they crashed head first into CD-ROMs and FMV and died a slow and painful death. That, and how the puzzles were sometimes completely broken and illogical and as a kid I’d blame myself for not being clever enough. Now I know better; those devs have explaining to do!