(Game Sack Theme)
- Hello and welcome to Game Sack.
Again, we're talking about some of
our fondest memories when it comes to video games.
- These are always fun to make
even though this is our only second episode of this,
but it's always fun to reminisce about
all those old times that we had
and some good ones, even some bad ones.
- Yes indeed, and so, without further ado,
let's get into it.
(F1 Challenge - BGM 1 - Saturn)
(upbeat music)
- [Dave] One day back in 1989,
I was outside my house playing basketball
on the hoop over our garage.
My dad came out of the house
and we started to play a game of Around the World.
He said that after we were done
we should go to the game store
to see if they had Pac-Man on the NES
because he apparently liked that game.
This was news to me since I've never seen
my dad pick up a game controller
and play a game before in my life.
I said, yeah, definitely, let's check it out
thinking that Pac-Man would be his
and maybe I could get him to buy me a game too.
When we got to the store, sure enough,
they had a used Pac-Man but it was 35 bucks though.
Once I saw how reluctant he was to buy that game
I didn't even ask if I could get a game for myself
because it was clear that the answer was gonna be no.
So we went home with our new purchase
and plugged it in and played for a while.
We had a fun time as he was actually pretty good at the game
which made the competition entertaining for me.
I still wondered how he got good when I've
never seen him playing it, or any game for that matter.
Maybe there was an arcade close to his work
that he'd go to on lunch with some co-workers or something.
Or maybe he was just a natural at the game.
Either way it never occurred to me
to just ask where he got his skills from.
Well we played the game every now and again
for a few months together, which was cool,
but I've never seen him play the game by himself.
By 1990 we hadn't played the game for a while
so I figured he'd had his fun
and wasn't gonna play anymore.
This was fine because Sega had released the Genesis
and I really wanted it, but of course,
I had no money to buy one.
So I did what any kid would do at the time.
I put all my Nintendo stuff in a box,
including that Pac-Man, and sold it all
to fund my new Sega Genesis.
I was a happy dude that day.
I brought the black box home and hooked it up
in glorious RF and played Altered Beast over and over.
I think that was the only game I owned
until I could afford Ghouls 'n Ghosts and Golden Axe.
Anyway, wouldn't you know it,
one day my dad really wanted to play Pac-Man.
He was probably thinking about it all day long
hoping he'd get to the board with the peach on it.
It wasn't easy for me to tell him
that I'd sold Pac-Man along with my
other games to buy this new system.
He wasn't happy and boy did I catch it hot that night.
If I wasn't 17 years old, I'm pretty sure,
I'd have been spanked and sent to bed without dinner.
He went on and on about what a waste of money it was
for him to buy Pac-Man, only for me to sell it later on
for less money than he paid for it.
And how it was the only game that he'd ever liked
and he wasn't able to play it anymore.
Well he eventually got over it,
and to my knowledge he's never played a video game since.
Sorry Dad.
♪ Pac-Man fever ♪
♪ Driving me crazy ♪
♪ Pac-Man fever ♪
♪ Going out of my mind ♪
♪ Pac-Man fever ♪
♪ Going out of my mind ♪
(Soul Calibur music)
- [Joe] My first memory involves
the Sega Dreamcast console itself.
As you might be aware, each Dreamcast in North America
came with an included modem which was amazing for the time.
I had actually used it to play
random games online here and there.
Online gaming was pretty new to consoles
and I found it fascinating.
Plenty of games worked online like Quake 3,
Daytona USA, Alien Front and many more.
Of course, this was back in the day
when dial up was the norm and anything
faster was considered a luxury.
Anyway, one night a storm came in
and it was really intense.
There was lots of thunder, and it was raining really hard,
and it just went on and on.
(lightning crashes)
During the storm, I suddenly heard
the loudest thunderclap that I had ever heard
in my entire life, even to this day.
What happened was that lightning had struck a nearby tree.
Very nearby. And what the lightning also did was pretty much
destroy anything connected to the phone line.
It fried all of the phones in my house,
my computer's motherboard, and yes, my Sega Dreamcast.
Well actually, the Dreamcast itself was fine,
believe it or not, it worked great,
but the modem, it bit the dust.
I was easily able to replace my phones
and even get my motherboard repaired
because somehow it was still covered under warranty.
But I did not want to buy a brand new Dreamcast
just to get a working modem,
and they didn't sell 'em separately
because every Dreamcast already came with one.
But come on, I had to get it replaced.
What I did next was actually Dave's idea, so I blame him.
I went down to my local Target
and bought a brand new Sega Dreamcast.
I took the new modem from that console
and replaced it with my nonworking one from my system,
and then I returned the console to the store
the very next day, claiming it was a present
for my nephew, and he already had one.
And yep, I got a full refund, and no, I don't have a nephew.
So, was I evil?
Well, kind of.
I just hope that the person who bought that Dreamcast
didn't have any interest in playing games online,
But if they did, hopefully Sega
replaced it for free under warranty.
Didn't matter though, because I had
my working Dreamcast modem and I was content.
What's kinda funny is that same year
I eventually upgraded to fiber optic internet
with a blazing 10 megabits per second speed,
and I bought the Sega Dreamcast Broadband Adapter.
So I no longer really had much use for my modem.
I continued to enjoy certain games online at better speeds.
It's just too bad that not every
online game supported broadband.
Nowadays, I actually don't care
about playing online games at all.
Especially since you have to pay extra for it.
So, sorry everyone who befriends me on
whatever random console, you'll probably
never see me in any of your matches.
Trust me, it's nothing personal.
Back when online gaming was new,
it was interesting and unique.
I obviously felt it was worth going outta my way
to deceive Target continue doing.
But I think I'm just too introverted
to really appreciate online gameplay
with people I don't know these days.
- [Announcer] Check point.
Your time's extended.
(sweet, jazzy music)
Check your position.
Check point.
Your time's extended.
This is the final lap.
- All right Joe, you had a WWDWD moment, right?
What Would Dave White Do?
(laughing)
- That's exactly what you did, because if I recall,
you replaced your import Dreamcast with a U.S Dreamcast,
with that very same method, right?
- I did, and you know, sneaky guy and it worked for a while,
and I do remember at one point I did try
to return another system, but the bar, or the--
- The barcode, yeah. - Yeah.
It didn't match up to the box, the one in the system,
and they were like, "You can't, this doesn't match."
I'm like damn
they're getting smart. - Called you on it.
- Yeah, they're getting smarter.
- Well. - But anyways.
- We've got more memories, we can remember things,
so, back to it.
(Pebble Beach Golf Links - 3DO)
- [Dave] Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo
was one of my favorite games back in the mid 1990s.
Since I was still fairly poor
and didn't have a lot of games.
It was always in my rotation of titles I'd play
over and over along with Castlevania IV
and Super Mario World among others.
So yeah I love Super Mario Kart a lot.
I love the premise of characters from the Mario universe
battling it out in a grand prix.
When I had friends over, Mario Kart would be
one of the games we'd always play.
I had one guy who's still a friend to this day,
let's call him "Wario" for the sake of this story.
He had a Super Nintendo and asked to borrow Mario Kart.
And he said he'd bring it back the following weekend.
I was pretty reluctant but I agreed
and let him take it home with him.
The long week passed and it felt like it took forever
since I was having withdrawals.
I saw Wario on Friday and he brought back my game
and said thanks, and that was the end of it.
The next day I went to play it and noticed
that the cartridge had some scotch tape
on it by the label on the top end.
As I inspected it a bit further I noticed
that the top back of the cartridge was cracked
like a piece was breaking off.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing
since Wario didn't mention anything
when he gave the game back to me.
Of course I called him right away
and asked him what he knew about it.
He nonchalantly said that his brother had stepped
on the cartridge when it was on the floor.
He did the best he could to fix it by putting tape on it.
He didn't even apologize!
I asked why he didn't tell me about it right away,
and he said that he didn't think it was a big deal.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
One of my favorite games of the time was just marred,
and he figured it wasn't a bit deal?
Well it was a big deal to me since I
really like to have my games in good condition.
Especially ones that I buy brand new.
The game still played fine but aesthetically
it bothered me every time I plugged it in.
I hated looking at that cartridge
knowing that it was forever broken.
It really hurt my fragile feelings knowing
that my friend could to this to my property
and act like it was nothing.
You know I eventually got over it
and like I said I'm still really good friends with this guy.
But dammit I couldn't get over looking
at that hideous broken cartridge.
I eventually did what anyone in this situation would do
and I replaced it with another copy of the game
so I didn't have to look at the ugly broken shell again.
And being the good friend that I am,
I gave Joe that cartridge and he still has it to this day.
Now he can be the one to stare at that disfigured game
that I never want to see again in my life.
(Super Mario Kart sounds and music
- [Joe] This is Gangster Town on the Sega Master System.
It's a game that requires the light phaser gun to play.
And it can be enjoyed by a whopping
two players at the very same time.
You didn't see Zapper games doing that on Nintendo.
Anyway, this story involves some good ribbing from
someone else on YouTube that you may be familiar with.
Pat Contri, also known as Pat the NES Punk.
A few years ago there was a show produced
by Retroware called The Video Game Years,
which, as the name implies, chronicled noteworthy
games and events to the years in which they happened.
Pat was a producer on the show,
and I was one of the video editors,
along with the likes of Coury and Try
from My Life in Gaming and others.
In addition, Dave and I occasionally appeared on camera
to discuss subjects that we felt we could contribute to,
as did Pat and plenty of other YouTube "personalities".
- Obviously the marketing was terrible.
I mean look at this box, you can't even really see
the system, the games, you see some kid's face.
- Look at him, he's having a great time.
- That's 'cause he's playing the TurboGrafx-16.
- Yeah, rightly so.
- [Joe] One time in 2014 or so, we were all brainstorming
what should and shouldn't be discussed on the show.
I happen to opine that perhaps we were taking a look
at too many things that people were already familiar with
and not enough things that might offer
new knowledge to the viewer.
Basically I was saying that the show
was far too Nintendo heavy and that we should look at
other significant games on other platforms.
Like Gangster Town here on the Sega Master System
as no other light gun games at home let two players play
at the same time and it might be fun
for people to learn about for a minute or so.
Well Pat disagreed and that was that, or was it?
No, it did not end there.
So in order to make the show, people would send in
raw videos of themselves talking about various subjects
in front of a green screen, and then
the editors would get to work.
I really wish I still had them, but
in a couple of these raw videos, Pat would give me
a little bit of flack about Gangster Town.
And as for me, I tried my best to sneak references
to Gangster Town into the Video Game Years episodes
and even Game Sack episodes.
Oh, but it didn't end there either.
The next convention that we were both at,
Pat made sure to bring a copy of Gangster Town
and offer it for sale at his table.
Near the end of the con, I walked up to him
and pointed it out, and of course he made sure
to let me know that nobody was interested in buying it,
despite being priced very very low.
Well I thought it was funny and I laughed.
The thing is, though, is that I really should have
bought it from him and had him autograph it.
But of course by the time that thought entered my head,
I was already on the flight back to Denver.
But yeah, Gangster Town is a thing between us.
And I think that we should bring
the Video Game Years team back together
to create a half hour episode solely on Gangster Town.
Which is about three times longer than the game itself.
(Gangster Town music) (White noise gunshots popping)
Aw Dave, I know what it's like to have a broken game, so--
- It is.
- And I'm sick of having yours so here it is.
- The thing is I don't want it, Joe, so you have to have it.
- Oh, oh well.
I don't really have Super Mario Kart otherwise,
this is my only copy, so I'll take it.
- You're welcome.
- Thank you actually.
(laughing)
- But still, we have a few more memories to go, so
let's finish this up.
This next story involves several games,
the first of which is Batman on the Game Boy.
This is because I went with some friends to
the Nintendo PowerFest in Denver back in 1990,
and this was one of many games that
was being shown there that wasn't released yet.
One of the friends that went was Dave.
And I remember pointing out how the stages flipped in
with a similar affect as Castle of Illusion.
We were both blown away that the Game Boy
was even doing this super powerful effect.
I played the game for a short while
and I thought it was pretty fun.
Though I felt that the sprites were incredibly small
and simple looking even for an early Game Boy title.
(ominous music that makes you feel like Batman)
Another game that we saw there that wasn't quite
released yet was Mega Man III.
At the time I still didn't have an NES of my own.
But I was already a huge fan of Mega Man 2 anyway.
So, of course I was eager to see what Mega Man III offered.
It looked really cool and the music was good
but I could tell that it wasn't quite as good
as the music in Mega Man 2.
Overall I liked what they let me play there.
But I walked away feeling that
Mega Man 2 was still the better game.
And yes I still feel that way.
(tense music that makes you think of robo-snakes)
(dramatic music)
After the Nintendo PowerFest was
over we all went to my house.
I think this was probably the first
time Dave ever came over.
And of course what did we do?
We played Golden Axe on my 16-bit Sega Genesis.
I know I'm only showing single player gameplay,
but you get the idea.
I had it hooked up to a little black and white TV
in my room 'cause that's all I had.
It didn't matter though as we all still had tons of fun.
In fact I remember one of my friends remarking that
you don't even notice that it's in black and white
after a while because you're just too busy having fun.
We of course played this game a few times
and eventually beat it.
And I'm sure we played other Genesis games as well.
But Golden Axe is the one I remember the most.
And after we were done my mom
made us all spaghetti for dinner.
That was a good Friday and honestly
I'm surprised I remember it so well.
But when you're experiencing brand new Nintendo games
and then playing Sega Genesis
right after that who wants to forget?
(awesome Golden Axe music crushed by the TV's tiny speaker)
- [Dave] One week in the late 1990s,
I was on a camping trip with my family.
We were headed to the mountains of
northern Central Colorado and decided to eat dinner
at a tiny little town called Walden.
The population is less than 1,000, and the only
restaurant that was open was a small pizza place.
We went in and ordered our pizza and as we were waiting,
I saw a single arcade cabinet on the far side wall
and I had to know what game they had.
It was one that I never heard of before
called Three Wonders and it was by Capcom.
It's essentially three different games wrapped into
one package and you choose which one you want
to play after you pop in your quarter.
The three games are in action platformer
are called Midnight Wanderer which I like the best.
A shooter called Chariot, and a puzzle game
called Don't Pull which isn't that great.
The platform are in shooter and have awesome graphics
and huge character sprites that look really cool.
I must have put $3 into that machine
playing those game over and over again.
I'm not even sure if I ate any pizza that night.
When we were camping all I can think about
was this game and how did it end up in this tiny town
and how had I never heard of it before.
Ultimately though I was wondering if it ever had
a release on a home system.
When I got home from that trip the first thing
I did was hop on the internet to learn more about it.
I found out that it did get a release on
the PlayStation in Saturn in Japan.
Oh, there was hope for me to find this game on eBay then.
Every day I searched that site but
no copies ever came up for auction.
I was getting really frustrated and it got to
the point of me posting on forums,
asking if anyone had a copy that they'd want to sell.
Of all places somebody on GameFAQs had a copy
for the PlayStation and was in the market to get rid of it.
This person didn't want cash but
wanted to trade something for it.
He asked if I had any TurboGrafx games.
He said he wanted Lords of Thunder
and guess what, I had a copy!
This was when I first said to myself,
hold on now you're about to trade a game with
somebody from a freaking forum that you've never met before.
How could I possibly trust that this person
wasn't gonna totally screw me over
and just take my game and not send his to me?
But who knows maybe this person was having
the same thoughts about me.
I thought it over and decided that I needed to have this
game and went through with it.
We exchanged addresses and the next day I sent my
copy of Lords of Thunder to him.
About a week went by and in to my great happiness
I got the package with Three Wonders.
My faith in my fellow human beings grew that day
and I was beyond happy.
It was almost as fun as I remember
from the little pizza place.
And its only drawbacks were a long loading time
a lot of slow down and very shrill sound effects.
It didn't matter though as I was happy.
Oh and I was able to quickly replace my copy
of Lords of Thunder with a new one.
At that time a little online store called
Turbo Zone Direct had it in stock
and I didn't hesitate to buy myself another copy.
That transaction with a random stranger
will always be in my mind as one of the
strangest things I've ever done for a game.
(mediocre music)
- [Joe] My final story is about
Virtual Hydlide on the Saturn.
Now you may think this story is full of laughs
because Virtual Hydlide is so bad right?
Well maybe you'll laugh but it's actually something
I feel really bad about even though it's a long time
in the past and it no longer matters at all.
Basically this a lesson in how not to treat your girlfriend.
The year was 1995 and the Saturn was still new.
I was itching to play every new game that came out for it
so I'd rent every game that I didn't buy.
One Saturday I was out with my girlfriend at the time.
It was fairly early in the day and we both had off.
This was pretty rare as we both worked at the United Artists
Greenwood Plaza 12 as projectionists.
This was the most state of the art movie theater
in the Denver metro area at the time.
I loved working here.
This is the same theater where in a previous episode
I mentioned playing Mario Kart 64 on the big screen.
Which you simply couldn't do at most theaters at the time.
We had a video projector that I was told cost
more than $100,000 that we used
to do this and other things with.
Well we weren't suppose to play games on it but we did.
Anyway, there were only three projectionists for the entire
building and my girlfriend and I were two of 'em.
So getting a significant amount of time off together
didn't happen a lot unless the other guy worked a double.
So as we were out we stopped at a
local game store called Buy-Back Games
in Englewood and I rented Virual Hydlide.
It should be noted that when I rented games at this store,
I only ever rented them for one evening
at a cost of $1 per game per night.
That's why I rented everything that I
could because it was really cheap.
So after this we eventually make our way back to my place
and well, guess what happens next.
That's right, I go straight to my Sega Saturn
and start playing me some Virtual Hydlide!
I wasted literally no time because come on it's
Virtual Hydlide, it's gotta be good.
As you'd expect my girlfriend was pretty upset
that I was spending my time playing with this turd
instead of spending it with her.
So she just got up and went home as I was playing the game.
And you know what, I didn't even
really feel bad about it at the time.
But I also had no idea had pissed she was.
I probably only played the game for
about 15 to 20 more minutes after she had left.
And then never played it again until
it showed up in Game Sack episode 177,
Games that Make the Console Look Weak.
Seriously watch that episode.
I'm really happy with the way the Virtual Hydlide
segment in that one turned out.
So there I was sitting by myself
with nothing to do for the rest of the day.
And no girlfriend to hang out with.
I apologized but even to this day,
I feel that was definitely a dick move on my part.
I mean what guy basically ditches his girlfriend
for a chance to play one of the worst games to exist?
We truly do grow wiser as we age.
Actually no, I take that back, I'm still an idiot.
And since then the old Greenwood Plaza 12
theater has been closed down.
As of the making of this video it's been gutted
and remains empty hoping for a buyer.
Oh and look when they took everything out of the place
the left behind the video projector
that we used to play Mario Kart 64.
That's how useless this thing is in today's world.
The building is in very rough shape now
and it'd take a lot of money to
fix her back up nice and good.
There's no fix for Virtual Hydlide though.
(wimpy music for a wimpy game)
- All right there we have it
some more awesome gaming memories.
And well for us anyways.
- Yeah.
- And I totally remember that PowerFest, that thing was
so much fun I had a great time
and coming to your house for the first time.
- Now, I've got a question, do you think that's
where your love for Golden Axe started?
- It very possibly could have, you know.
I mean, I had a great time playing on your little tiny,
little, little TV, about this big.
(laughing)
- Right, anyway let us know some of
the gaming memories that you have.
I mean we'd love to hear 'em so let us know
and in the mean time thank you for watching Game Sack.
(Game Sack Ending Theme)
Dave, wanna play Gangster Town
on the Sega Master System?
It's two players simultaneously
and I have the rapid fire unit so we can cheat to win.
- I'd like to, Joe, but Pat Contri The NES Punk
says nobody cares about Gangster Town.
- Nobody, huh?
- Nobody.
- Well nobody is pretty all-inclusive,
so that means I don't care about it either.
I wish I knew earlier.
It'd save me a lot of grief.
- Well, how about we go play
some Bob Barker's Trick Shooting?
- Okay, I mean if the price is right.
For more infomation >> 2/16/19 11:46 AM (2537 Edgcumbe Rd, St Paul, MN 55116, USA) - Duration: 12:03. 
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