KnockBack: The Retro and Nostalgia Podcast

Latest Episodes:

#109: Divorce Mar 19, 2020

Show notes

It's true: We would have never chosen to do this topic on our own. But when our beloved audience voted on Patreon to hear this discussion, we simply had to oblige. In 1992, the Moriarty Brothers' parents split. In the wake of that event, our lives were reshaped forever. This isn't an uplifting episode of KnockBack by any stretch of the imagination, but it's most certainly a candid and honest one, one about loss, pain, choice, and consequences. We are who we are, in part, because of this traumatic event, one that occurred when we were 18 and 7. Two wildly different ages packing two radically different perspectives.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#108: Cuphead Mar 12, 2020

Show notes

The so-called run-and-gunner Cuphead is hands down one of the most beautiful video games ever created. Crafted in the spirit of the rubber hose cartoon stylings of the 1920s and 1930s, Cuphead is a rarity in the modern industry: It's drawn and animated by hand, and it's brutally (and we mean brutally) difficult. It's also charming, artfully designed, funny, and full of lush detail that truly showcases the sheer amount of work and energy that went into making it. Thus, we simply had to dedicate an episode of KnockBack to Studio MDHR's masterpiece, and we hope you enjoy it. Without further ado: Here's a real high-class bout!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#107: Birthdays Mar 05, 2020

Show notes

No matter who you are (unless you were born on February 29th!), your birthday rolls around once a year, every year, without fail. That's how calendars work, after all. What you do with that most sacred of days is, of course, entirely up to you and yours, but in our younger years, birthdays tended to mean a whole lot. There were presents, cake, family, friends, and a ton of attention. (Possibly too much attention.) And so we thought we'd spend an entire episode of KnockBack reminiscing about all things birthday-related from the days of yore, from the parties, to the gifts, to the rituals, and of course the cursed Happy Birthday song, arguably the worst piece of music ever written. So put on your party hats, grab a fork or spoon (for your dessert, doofus!), and gather 'round so we can blow out these damn candles.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#106 | Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens Feb 27, 2020

Show notes

The infamous Prequel Trilogy of Star Wars films left a bad taste in many enthusiasts' mouths, particularly those who have been fans of the space opera franchise going back to the '70s and '80s. That's why it was so amazingly exciting when -- in 2015 -- Star Wars appeared primed to return to form with a JJ Abrams-led movie that had the entire galaxy eager to see what happens next. The result was something safe, but solid, with a returning cast of familiar faces joined by a new generation of rebels, imperials, pilots, scoundrels, and would-be Jedi. Join us for a discussion (nearly twice as long as the movie itself!) about the ins and outs of the plot, characters, worlds, and more than make The Force Awakens tick... and why it's perhaps the greatest shame of all that such a promising start to something new was quickly squandered only a couple of short years later.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#105: When I Grow Up Feb 20, 2020

Show notes

The Brothers Moriarty ended up with pretty awesome jobs, one of us in the gaming industry, the other in animation. But it's also true that, in our younger years, we aspired to some other professions. We ultimately found our way towards what makes us happy, but there were deviations along the way, and this week's episode of KnockBack is dedicated to the what-ifs that could have had us doing something totally different with our lives. Colin was nearly a historian; Dagan thought about law enforcement. Colin wanted to go to the stars; Dagan wanted to skate firmly on the ground. Let's chat about what we wanted to be when we grew up, and hear from the audience on the subject, too. Shall we?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#104: The Warriors Feb 13, 2020

Show notes

New York City has long been one of the world's most important and renown cities... it just wasn't a very nice place to be for a few decades in between World War II and the 21st century. The seminal 1979 picture The Warriors captures NYC's decay and despair through a unique lens of youth and camp, and it does so with great visual flair, solid acting, and a surprising story that actually asks an interesting question: Could street gangs take America's most populated metropolis over if they put aside their differences and fought the law as a single unified army? Based on an obscure mid-'60s novel, The Warriors is a must-see film about betrayal and survival, and we're thrilled to talk about it. So come out and play for a few hours, won't you?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#103: Final Fantasy VII Feb 06, 2020

Show notes

With thousands upon thousands (upon thousands!) of video games released since the 1970s, it's easy for some (well... many) to fall through the cracks. Very few are seminal titles that helped to define their era, genre, or hardware. Yet, 1997's Final Fantasy VII is undoubtedly one of the most important games ever released. It brought JRPGs from niche to mainstream, put Squaresoft on the map for millions of new customers around the world, helped solidify the original PlayStation's place in a competitive and changing market, and spawned a globally-viable franchise that only saw limited western releases in the years prior. Beyond that, though, Final Fantasy VII is deep. Like, really deep. It's a story about eco-terrorism, environmentalism, capitalism-run-amok, power, fear, and more. It also has a wonderful cast of characters -- from the evolving Cloud to the dangerous Sephiroth -- buttressed by what was at the time world-class 3D graphics and a still-amazing soundtrack. There's so much to say, really, and while we can't say it all, we can certainly say something. And that's what this episode of KnockBack is all about.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#102: Fast Food Jan 30, 2020

Show notes

They say that nothing's better than mom's home cooking (and in the Moriarty's case, that's very true). But when we're young, we seem to have an insatiable appetite for fast food. McDonald's. Burger King. Taco Bell. Whatever junk we could shove in our fat faces, we wanted. And the worst thing that could happen is hearing our parents say, "but we have food at home!" What a deathblow that was. A deathblow, indeed! So let's fondly remember the days of Happy Meals, paper crowns, ball pits, and burger patties with so much salt in them that you could have mistaken them for cured meats from Magellan's trip around the world. For as much as we loved a meal at the table with our family, we loved McDonald's inevitably crack-doused fries even more.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#101: The Matrix Jan 23, 2020

Show notes

The 1999 sci-fi film The Matrix was released at an interesting inflection point in the history of nerd culture. It launched at a time when -- with the help of Star Wars' resurgence, the soon-to-be-released Lord of the Rings movies, and others -- dorkiness went mainstream, and The Matrix might have been the straw that broke the camel's back, in this regard. The story of Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity, and their battle to break out from a computer simulation and into a horrifying reality, is considered a genre classic, and with good reason. More than two decades later, it holds up shockingly well, with deep philosophical, technological, and even religious messaging that seems to uncannily predict at least one permutation of our actual future. So let's chat about The Wachowski Brothers' (now Sisters') stylish tour de force, and maybe learn some kung-fu along the way.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#100: 100 Video Games We Adore Jan 16, 2020

Show notes

It seems like only yesterday that we launched our retro and nostalgia podcast KnockBack, and yet it's been nearly two years since our maiden voyage. A hundred weeks on, we've naturally arrived at our 100th episode, and to celebrate, we thought we'd talk about our greatest shared love: Video games. More specifically, we thought we'd talk about 100 games we absolutely adore, 100 games any aficionado of the medium should check out. Enjoy our longest episode of KnockBack to date (four hours!), and thank you so much for supporting our show, and making it the hit it has become. As usual, we simply couldn't do it without you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

KnockBack: The Retro and Nostalgia Podcast

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected