One of the biggest games of this season required an expert. To talk about the huge, dialogue-driven computer RPG Fallout 2, we got the help of ZA/UM writer and narrative designer Justin Keenan! Our #1 game, Disco Elysium, certainly has a lot of the DNA of games like Fallout 2, but are these old RPGs TOO MEAN to stand up to today's perhaps more inviting entries? Also, the Fallout universe stands alone in terms of style and tone, so that has to count for something! To see the most up to version of...
Jun 20, 2023•1 hr 46 min•Ep. 89
We're knee deep in our 90's PC Game season: Now That's What I Call PC Games, but today also feels like a sort of conclusion of a trilogy. You can draw a direct line from Doom, through Quake, and end up at Half-Life and tell a complete story, and today we finish that story. Valve changed the way many people think about story in games and "immersion," but how does it feel to return to that sense of mind 25 years later? Also why aren't Valve games good on Valve's Steam Deck?? To see the most up to ...
Jun 14, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 88
An episode we promised for this season was an undetermined "Indie Game of the Moment," which was our way of waiting around until one of those Indie Games shows up that no one can stop talking about. Tchia isn't really that game, but it IS the indie game Matt most wanted to play and talk about. So come learn about New Caledonia with us and just chill out for a while, mmkay? To see the most up to version of the list and this season's schedule, visit https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/194Zs7HY9...
Jun 06, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 87
Hunter has the week off while we bring in EJ to talk about the family friendly murder simulator Roller Coaster Tycoon. This game has it all: Windows '95 window layouts, Excel spreadsheets, 2d graphics, and theme park patrons drowning to death! Is it the greatest simulation game ever made? Why Roller Coaster Tycoon is a Game Development Masterpiece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESGHKtrlMzs To see the most up to version of the list and this season's schedule, visit https://docs.google.com/sprea...
May 30, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 86
It's back to back remake weeks! Capcom blessed us with a remake of it's highly regarded classic Resident Evil 4, prompting many people to ask how can you make one of the best games of all time better? To answer this, we employed the help of resident expert in all evil media, Jenna Stoeber! Is Resident Evil 4 even horror? Is it funny on purpose? If you need these questions answered, we've got somethin' that might interest ya'! For more of Jenna, visit her on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@the_...
May 23, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 85
We've returned again to the fertile ground of Final Fantasy 7. In the past, we have covered the original with mixed feelings between our hosts, but today we offer a unite front. Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a good video game, a cool idea, and an important thing. At least for now, until they make it's sequel and completely botch the whole idea... To see the most up to version of the list and this season's schedule, visit https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/194Zs7HY9o2y4dgOQLsQXT0Q0cBW_Q1WZzkwqG-A...
May 16, 2023•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 84
One of the challenges of this season is getting old PC games to run on modern hardware. It's interesting that as emulation has improved, it seems our ability to play some old PC games has fallen by the wayside. But today's game was a surprise. Not only does it run well on modern devices, but it is perhaps the best it has ever been on the most modern of devices, the Steam Deck. Let's talk about how this old game can possibly feel wholly new again! To see the most up to version of the list and thi...
May 09, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 83
It's high time we returned to the wonderful world of LucasArts and classic PC adventure games. Grim Fandango marked both the ending of an era while also ushering in 3D graphics for the genre. But it's too hard for us to unpack the weight of this game without consulting some of the people who were there. First, friend of the show Ezra Fox is here to share his experience growing up with this game and spending a lot of time with his dad, David Fox, at LucasArts. And Ezra was kind enough to call in ...
May 02, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 82
This is one of the earliest games we'll be exploring in our 90's PC season, and yet Another World is perhaps the most timeless and important game we have to discuss. It is a game that in many ways feels like a modern indie gem made by one person, but instead it's an early 90's indie gem made by one person. It is also one of the most commonly cited inspirations for game designers, and yet it's a game that is still criminally under-talked about. So here we are, doing are part to talk about this be...
Apr 25, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 81
It's time to hug your friends with your fists, swords, and guns. Hunter is taking another journey into the work of Like a Dragon (formerly Yakuza), this time with OGA veteran Sun Sanders! This game is like a side quest inside the world of the side questiest games we know of. Does that mean it feels right at home, or is this a bit TOO far to the side? To see the most up to version of the list and this season's schedule, visit https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/194Zs7HY9o2y4dgOQLsQXT0Q0cBW_Q1W...
Apr 18, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 80
Back into the 90s PC project and this week is our first dip into the RTS genre, that's the one we called the definitive PC gaming genre. We've had a number of strategy games we've wanted to play over the course of the show, and the first proper RTS on our list is Command & Conquer. In many ways, it was a major leap forward, but it is trapped in a genre that did a lot of evolving beyond it. Can we ever forgive it for being old? To see the most up to version of the list and this season's sched...
Apr 11, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 79
It's our first Off-Topic episode of our 90s PC Game season, as well as our first game from the Every Wheel of this season. Whitebush has generously suggested to us Crystalis for the NES, and I think they're on to something! This is an action RPG that feels like Zelda meets Dragon Quest with a delightful little story and a wonderful use of color and art. It's such a good NES game, Matt even liked it! To see the most up to version of the list and this season's schedule, visit https://docs.google.c...
Apr 04, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 78
90's game #2 is another week spent in 1993 with the much slower paced puzzle classic, Myst. This is one of the most well-known PC games of all time as it managed to break into a mostly untapped demographic for the time. And how convenient is it that that demographic was OLDER PEOPLE. This is the Old Gamer's Almanac, so sounds like this one's for the home team. To see the most up to version of the list and this season's schedule, visit https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/194Zs7HY9o2y4dgOQLsQXT...
Mar 28, 2023•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 77
We finally get to kick off this new season in earnest and we decided to start with a behemoth. Doom is one of if not the most important first person shooter ever made and it's legacy covers both level design and perfectly optimized system design. It almost seems like an insult to try and cover it in just a little over an hour, but we'll do our best! To see the most up to version of the list and this season's schedule, visit https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/194Zs7HY9o2y4dgOQLsQXT0Q0cBW_Q1WZ...
Mar 21, 2023•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 76
With one season fully under our belt (as well as a "season 0") it's time to begin our next project! The Old Farmers over at our Patreon decided on 90's PC Games months ago, but we haven't decided what exactly that entails until today! This is one of those episodes that's sort of like a company meeting that you get to listen to, but it's also more fun than that. We draft a handful of games and make deals to decide what 15 90's PC games we'll play, we pick 8 off-topic games, AND we spin The Every ...
Mar 14, 2023•2 hr 9 min
Thank you to the patrons of Old Gamers' Almanac! They helped us reach one of our Patreon goals and as a reward, everyone gets a bonus episode. This time, we've invited Sun Sanders on to help us with the clash of the video game publishers. The Old Farmers (patron) helped us select and seed the top 16 video game publishers and today we will go through a series of matchups to rank only one of them supreme. In addition, once we have our Top 6 publishers, we'd like to invite all listeners to join in ...
Mar 10, 2023•2 hr 28 min
You made it! You've come a long way traveler, but we have finished our season exploring the year 2001 in video games. It wasn't enough to get all of those games added to our list though. So we sat down and held ourselves an old school awards ceremony. We'll put on our best EGM Editor hat and pretend we're calling the shots to determine the best games of 2001, FROM a 2001 perspective (except for when we also want to talk from a 2023 perspective) Music by nightcorey. https://soundcloud.com/nightco...
Mar 07, 2023•1 hr 52 min
We have finally arrived at our final game of 2001: A Game Odyssey and we're going out with a bang. Ico gave one of Sony's most legendary development studios its name and provided Fumito Ueda with a massive boost to his budding career in the game industry. Depending on who you ask Ico is either the overshadowed little brother of Shadow of Colossus, or the cliché video game hipster opportunity to say "I liked it before they were cool." Either way, it's a legendary game with aspects of its design f...
Feb 28, 2023•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 75
It's the penultimate entry for 2001 and it's a BIG OL' DOOZY. We've got a long JRPG for this week and Matt is trapped in the dadlands, so we had to call in fellow JRPG lover Sun Sanders to help Hunter make sense of this game's legacy. Where does it rank amongst Final Fantasies? Where does it rank amongst 2001 games? Where does it rank amongst 73 seemingly random games? Well I hope you'll stick around and find out. Music by nightcorey. https://soundcloud.com/nightcorey Consider contributing to ou...
Feb 21, 2023•2 hr 28 min•Ep. 74
It's time for the run up to the finale of our 2001: A Game Odyssey season and we kick things off with one of the highest reviewed PC games of 2001 from one of gaming's most infamous creators, Peter Molyneux. Molyneux has been known as a brilliant game designer but also a bit of an over-embellisher and it's time to examine how that legacy looks 20+ years later... Music by nightcorey. https://soundcloud.com/nightcorey Consider contributing to our show on Patreon . Email us your thoughts on the ong...
Feb 14, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 73
Our second spin of The Every Wheel for season 1 gave us Dead_Bob's To the Moon! It's a short, narrative focused independent game about life, love, loss, and like...memories and all this real, human stuff. What are we trying to say over here? That games is art or sumthin? Music by nightcorey. https://soundcloud.com/nightcorey Consider contributing to our show on Patreon . Email us your thoughts on the ongoing list at oldgamersalmanac(at)gmail(dot)com. Or come talk to us on our Discord . The List ...
Feb 07, 2023•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 72
We're continuing two projects at once this week: the continuation of 2001: A Game Odyssey as well as our closer look at Hideo Kojima. That's right, Metal Gear Solid 2 is the best of both worlds! It's a critically important follow up in one of the biggest franchises of all time, and this is the game where the rails really come off. How does "the ending" feel now 22 years later? Music by nightcorey. https://soundcloud.com/nightcorey Consider contributing to our show on Patreon . Email us your thou...
Jan 31, 2023•1 hr 47 min•Ep. 71
We pretended like you asked for this. It's like some sort of cruel joke we've played on ourselves. We went to our local Dave & Buster's and played as many games as we could muster and this is the chaotic downward spiral into madness that came about. This episode was recorded because we reached a goal on our Patreon. You can sign up for our patreon at https://www.patreon.com/oldgamersalmanac . We already owe another bonus episode: Ranking Video Game Publishers, but you can help us reach our n...
Jan 27, 2023•2 hr 2 min
Don't mind the weird American release date on this episode title. This game is 1988 through and through. This is Kojima's adventure game, cyberpunk masterpiece Snatcher and it's been referenced about a million times in every Kojima work since it's release. It's also an interesting peak into a world of more complicated adventure games and hopefully serves as a potential bridge to those older games. Or it would if Konami had any interest in making it accessible to a modern audience. Music by night...
Jan 24, 2023•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 70
2001: A Game Odyssey continues with our only mobile entry for the year, Advance Wars! This is a beloved classic but at least one of our hosts has never touched it. It also has the issue of being a tactics game in a world where we all have access to Into the Breach...and buddy that's a tough mountain to get over. Music by nightcorey. https://soundcloud.com/nightcorey Consider contributing to our show on Patreon . Email us your thoughts on the ongoing list at oldgamersalmanac(at)gmail(dot)com. Or ...
Jan 17, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 69
Today is an introspective trip down memory lane. No game from 2001 has more time spent from both our hosts (together) than Super Smash Bros. Melee and that is a source of great joy and, as always, in Matt's case some skeletons deep in the closet. How will this monolith stand up to the march of time and can we still look at it fondly? Music by nightcorey. https://soundcloud.com/nightcorey Consider contributing to our show on Patreon . Email us your thoughts on the ongoing list at oldgamersalmanac...
Jan 10, 2023•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 68
One more hiatus week before we return on topic to 2001: A Game Odyssey and this week we much go backwards to go forwards. (Which is also backwards) Matt is on the hunt for a 16-bit racing game that he actually likes and today's choice is Nintendo SNES launch title F-Zero. It's a strange game that hasn't had a new entry in many years and at this point feels like a forgotten relic. What's even more forgotten is how this game felt on SNES since the developers went in a vastly new direction for its ...
Jan 03, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 67
It's the holidays and that means we didn't specifically HAVE to play a video game this week. Instead, we saw our close friends and we wanted you to join in on a brief bit. We decided to hold our own little awards show. It's most about the games WE played this year, not necessarily the games that came out this year. But even that definition is a bit too restricting so just come along for the ride, alright? Music by nightcorey. https://soundcloud.com/nightcorey Consider contributing to our show on...
Dec 27, 2022•1 hr 42 min
Today, OGA gets political. And by political, I mean legal. And by legal, I mean Matt is suing Elden Ring for it's crimes against his psyche and free time. But with Hunter as defense attorney and Sun Sanders as judge, I can't imagine his case will hold much water. The only saving grace is a jury, bailiff and stenographer of his peers in E.J. Sanders.. Music by nightcorey. https://soundcloud.com/nightcorey Consider contributing to our show on Patreon . Email us your thoughts on the ongoing list at...
Dec 20, 2022•2 hr 22 min•Ep. 66
We're on hiatus for 2001: A Game Odyssey and today specifically we wanted to play another entry for 2022. Neon White is a surprise hit published by Annapurna Interactive that is impressing everyone despite it's bold choices in story and art direction. It's a game all about speedrunning that is deeply entrenched in the history of speedrunning and I think that bodes well for it's chances on this list... Music by nightcorey. https://soundcloud.com/nightcorey Consider contributing to our show on Pat...
Dec 13, 2022•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 65
