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Watcha Listening to: Myself (Again)

Three months ago, the amiable Kole Ross invited me onto his Stand Under the Don't Tree and Riddle Me This program as a special "celebrity" guest to discuss the recent 1UP buyout and the calamity that followed. We laughed, we cried, and some would say the world was changed forever. These people may have a serious problem with overestimation.

Well, it seems as if Kole must not have received too much hate mail from my appearance, because last week I was once again invited to be a special call-in guest--though under much happier circumstances. The latest episode's video game-related discussion deals mainly with all of the good (and a few bad) things that came out of this year's Game Developers Conference. If you listen, you may hear Kole and I talk about the following things extemporaneously:

- The magic of OnLive.

- The Punch-Out trilogy and my sick fascination with the SNES sequel.

- Hello Kitty MMORPG? (Yes.)

- The trials of being a Rock Band nerd with no tolerance for Pearl Jam.

- Various ramblings, stutterings, and misinformation on my part.

- And many more!

Posted Apr 07 2009, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments

Filed under: bob mackey, watcha listening to, podcasts, gdc 2009

Watcha Listening To: Rebel FM's Bully Game Club

One of the best parts of the short-lived 1UPFM was the Backlog segment, where the crew played through and talked about games from the not-too-distant past over multiple episodes. For a press that normally centers so much on the here-and-now, it was refreshing to hear discussions of fantastic games that were only a few years old, like Shadow of the Colossus and Psychonauts--titles like these may have dropped off of our gaming radars, but that doesn't mean they still weren't worth talking about. Thankfully, this favorite segment of mine has been reborn with RebelFM's (essentially, the non-1UP affiliated sequel to 1UPFM) Game Club; and while the last featured game, the 2005 Xbox Call of Cthulhu, wasn't really up my alley, their current Game Club game certainly is.

Posted Mar 27 2009, 04:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments

Filed under: rockstar, Grand theft auto 4, bob mackey, watcha listening to, rebelfm, bully

Watcha Listening to? A Life Well Wasted

If it seems that I’ll I’ve been doing lately is pimping out podcasts, I have no choice but to plead guilty. It’s just that after the 1UP/EGM/UGO hullaballoo, there’s been a lot of podcast-related news to talk about—which is perfect for people like me who can’t spend a waking moment of the day without their headholes plugged with earbuds. But I must point out that today’s bepimped podcast is notable for not featuring a bunch of dudes gathered around a microphone for 90 minutes—not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Former Ziff-Davis (and, presumably, current UGO) freelancer Robert Ashley’s new podcast, A Life Well Wasted, has already been compared multiple times to NPR’s This American life, but the comparison is so apt that I feel no shame in making it again.

Posted Jan 29 2009, 01:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments

Filed under: 1up, bob mackey, egm, games journalism, watcha listening to, podcasts, ugo, robert ashley

Watcha Listening To: The Final 1UP Yours

If you're a podcast-savvy gamer, then you probably know that Friday is very special; for on this day, over the past one-hundred-and-sixty-some weeks (give or take a week), we saw the release of a new episode of 1UP Yours, 1UP.com's flagship podcast before the UGO buyout. Now that 1UP is under new management, things have changed a little; the site's once-robust collection of weekly podcasts has now been whittled down to just one. The fine folks at other 1UP productions like 1UPFM, Lan Party, and The 1UP Show might not have gotten a chance to say goodbye, but, with this Friday's final episode of 1UP Yours, host Garnett Lee and company provide what feels like the final chapter of 1UP's Ziff-Davis era.

You might want to have a Kleenex handy.

Posted Jan 26 2009, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments

Filed under: 1up Yours, 1up, bob mackey, watcha listening to, podcasts

Watcha Listening To: Into the Score

I'm a podcast fiend, and if my ears aren't necessary for a task, then they're probably busy listening to something nerdy. So it should come as no surprise that Into the Score is one of the dozen-or-so podcasts I download as soon as a new episode is available. As far as gaming podcasts go, it's completely unique; Into the Score is the only one devoted to the academic study of video game music--but don't let the word "academic" throw you off. A musical layman--like me, for instance--can safely go into an episode of Into the Score and actually learn something. Scary, I know.

Even though I lack the vocabulary to talk about video game music, I've always been obsessed with it. All you need to do is take a look at my iTunes library (though I never let anyone do this) or travel back in time to 1994 when i was making my own Final Fantasy III soundtrack by holding a crummy casette recorder up to my TV's speakers. So, needless to say, I'm consistently amused and educated by every episode of Into the Score. Host Kenley Kristofferson uses each episode to explore a different soundtrack while tying in a discussion about the prevalent musical concept(s) used within said soundtrack. I daresay it's given me greater respect for soundtracks I like, and has even shown me the greatness of soundtracks I wasn't aware of.

Posted Nov 03 2008, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: music, bob mackey, watcha listening to, podcasts

Watcha Listening To: Retronauts Episode 55: Snatcher Edition

This podcast is dedicated to all those cyberpunks who fight against injustice and corruption every day of their lives.

That wasn't how the latest episode of Retronauts began--but it should have, damn it! Sorry, I got all worked up there. But there's a good reason to get excited: Hideo Kojima's Snatcher is an awesome game, and people are talking about it. On the Internet, no less! In the latest episode, Retronauts ringmaster Jeremy Parish leads an Interesting discussion of a game made at a time when Hideo Kojima wasn't the Bono of his respective industry. And as a bonus, the podcast also includes a brief chat with localization producer Jeremy Blaustein, who worked on the ahead-of-its-time English language version of Snatcher. If you can't believe the awesomeness, check check out the game's intro:

All of this Snatcher chatter got me thinking of the Policenauts (AKA Lethal Weapon in space) translation, which was announced as "complete" 20 months ago, but has not yet been released to the public. Since it's a game made by Kojima very much in the style of Snatcher, I'm dying to play it. Maybe we need to helicopter over some of those Mother 3 translation guys to whip them into shape.

Posted Oct 30 2008, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: jeremy parish, hideo kojima, retro, bob mackey, watcha listening to, podcasts, snatcher

Watcha Listening To: The Final GFW Radio

I'll admit that I'm a lapsed PC Gamer; there was once a brief period when I split my time equally between computer and console gaming, but my meager budget eventually made me cut the more-expensive option out of the equation. It wasn't until a little over a year ago that I was brought back into the PC gaming fold--budget be damned--by a little podcast called GFW (Games for Windows) Radio; and now that it's over, I am very, very sad.

The death of GFW Radio comes at a surprising--yet somewhat expected--time; with keystone member and 17-year Ziff-Davis veteran Jeff Green leaving to work for EA last week, I immediately thought, "Co-host Shawn Elliott is going to leave for Valve next." I was half-right--he's leaving Ziff, but to work for Ken Levine at 2K Games in Boston. There's no doubt these guys are lucky bastards; but in exchange for their personal success, we're losing out on one of the best gaming podcasts in the universe (you heard me, outer space). We, the listeners, are merely victims of this job-leaving spree. I ask you, when will it all end?

Posted Sep 18 2008, 02:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments

Filed under: 1up, bob mackey, watcha listening to, gfw radio, podcasts

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.