The Insert Credit Show

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 190 - Crazy Taxicab Confessions, with Kelsey Lewin Jun 21, 2021

Show notes

Co-director of the Video Game History Foundation Kelsey Lewin joins the panel to discuss how weird the letter 7 is, the WonderSwan, and Metallica covers of Barney songs. Original music by Kurt Feldman.

Questions this week:

Brandon Sheffield asks: What is the best video game console nobody actually plays? (03:56)
What would be the best way for a disgraced indie developer to announce his retirement? (09:19)
What are the pros and cons of controlling multiple party members? (14:14)
What’s the next ubiquitous video game trailer song? (20:11)
Improv Zone – Museum Tour (26:13)
Dirtbag Anonymous asks: What is the best callback joke in video games? (31:13)
Which video game went through the most interesting development cycle? (37:06)
Famicom Feud – Wonderswan Top 15 (42:53)
What is the oxford comma of video games? (51:45)
How do you really appraise hard to find retro video game ephemera? (51:59)

LIGHTNING ROUND: The Discourse – How Cunning A Linguist? (57:09)

You know, you could always discuss this episode in the forums!

A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED:

Recommendations:

Kelsey: Video Game History Foundation, Video Game History Hour, Blind Box Vintage Video Game Magazines, One Punch Man season 1

Brandon: Ginger Root - Loretta (Official Music Video)

Frank: Loki, Sweet Tooth, look up fan edits/restorations of work

Edited by Esper Quinn. Original Music by Kurt Feldman.

Ep. 189 - Purse Owner 5, with Dami Lee Jun 14, 2021

Show notes

Questions this week:

From Frank Cifaldi: What’s up with E3? (03:47)
How is the Korean video game industry different from other parts of the industry? (09:45)
What are the biggest headaches in the world of video game translation and localization? (14:38)
What’s the ugliest video game hardware you’ve ever seen? (19:42)
What video game eggs would make the best omelettes? (24:13)
Dirtbag Kory asks: How do you define the Japanese use of the word ‘gear’? (29:45)
Which two game industry figures have never worked together, but really should? (34:51)
Design a 90’s Master System clone. (39:34)
Is there such a thing as a good webcomic about video games? (44:14)
Who is the Nathan Fielder of video games? (48:35)

LIGHTNING ROUND: Name Design – Dame Judi (52:45)

Are YOU a bad enough dude to discuss this episode in the forums?

A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED:

Recommendations:

Brandon: The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001), Evil Dead Trap 2 (1992) if you have a strong stomach, Oh, DEER! Soundtrack

Frank: A Forensic Analysis of Earthbound’s Deepest Secrets, The Video Game History Hour

Dami: Trick, Vincenzo

Don’t miss our watchalong for the Morton Jankel Cut of the Super Mario Bros movie, Friday June 18th at 6:30p/9:30e!

Edited by Esper Quinn. Original Music by Kurt Feldman.

Ep. 188 - Mariountain Dew, with John Linneman Jun 07, 2021

Show notes

Questions this week:

From Brandon Sheffield: How would you run a cafe-arcade hybrid, and what would you call it? (03:10)
How would video games be different if Microsoft bought Nintendo twenty years ago? (10:33)
What factors decide whether a video game should be first person view or third person view? (15:02)
What historical video game hardware breakthroughs are bigger deals than people realize? (20:26)
What scenes do you hope to see in the new restored version of the Super Mario Bros. Movie? (25:29)
What video games suffer the most from being played on unintended hardware? (30:37)
Dirtbag Devils Blush asks: Who is your favorite developer of games you aren’t interested in playing? (39:33)
As a player, when can you feel the absence of a cut feature the most? (43:21)
How do you make a cool video game desert? (48:01)
Who is the Guy Fieri of video games? (53:02)

LIGHTNING ROUND: Product Placement (58:47)

Discuss this episode among generally polite and universally cool people in the forums!

A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED:

Recommendations:

Frank: Video Game History Foundation “Blind Box” Vintage Video Game Magazines

Brandon: Enjoy the media you’ve collected over the years, The Brat - Attitudes EP

John: DF Retro, Retrotink 5X

Edited by Esper Quinn. Original Music by Kurt Feldman.

Ep. 187 - Revealed: What War Is Actually Good For, with Gene Park May 31, 2021

Show notes

Washington Post Video Games Reporter Gene Park joins the panel to cover 3D growing pains, Magic: the Gathering card theft, and the return to that mountain of murder, Violence Island.

Questions this week:

From Mathew Kumar: What’s your “ol’ trusty” game peripheral? (03:34)
Which franchise presented the more exciting future this week: Dragon Quest or Sonic the Hedgehog? (08:37)
How has eBay’s recent reorganization impacted game history preservation? (14:04)
Violence Island: Sonic’s Best Friend (19:39)
Dirtbag Official_Danimalz asks: When was the “awkward puberty” of video games? (31:35)
What makes a video game timeless? (36:05)
What are the best murders in video games? (41:29)
What should you never do when titling a video game article? (45:39)
What is the Dragon Quest of movies? (51:27)

LIGHTNING ROUND: Achievement Unlockers (57:07)

What are YOUR answers to these immaculate questions? Share in the forums!

A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED:

Recommendations:

Gene: Subscribe to your local newspaper only if they’re good, twitter.com/genepark, Launcher,

Frank: The old Perry Mason is on Paramount+, though note that this is not a recommendation of Paramount+, Good Deal Games

Brandon: Slay in Hell by Steel Bearing Hand, mention insert credit when buying Genesis games from Good Deal Games for $5 off

Edited by Esper Quinn. Original Music by Kurt Feldman.

Ep. 186 - Dirtbag Strikes Back, with Alex Jaffe and Mathew Kumar May 24, 2021

Show notes

With our regular host recovering from vaccination, Riot Games’ Alex Jaffe steps in along with Insert Credit correspondent Mathew Kumar to dig into our Dirtbag of Patreon subscriber submitted questions. (Content warning: conversation takes a pretty morbid turn in question 5. Also it’s a Mathew Kumar episode, so there is some swearing.)

Questions this week:

What should Brandon do with all these copies of TV Sports Football and Hockey? (06:37)
TheFragranceOfDarkCoffee asks: Whats the best heist in video games? (12:17)
Yeso asks: What personal problem in your life would make a good Yakuza sidequest? (17:57)
Shun asks: Design a Kanye West-focused Nintendo game (23:53)
Ravioli asks: What video game attack move would you want to be killed by? (28:23)
Billy asks: Name two video games each in ten seconds each, then rank those games (34:29)
Kyle in Montreal asks: if the main character of a game were to become the director of a sequel to that game, what would it be like? (40:14)
Skebump asks: What would a new Panzer Dragoon game look like in 2021? (44:34)
Shin asks: What is the most engaging video game credit sequence? (49:13)
Sam B asks: Who is the Marcel Proust of video games? (53:49)

LIGHTNING ROUND: Emptying the Dirtbag (54:36)

Think YOU have better answers than the panel? You don’t! But you can discuss the episode here in the insert credit forums.

A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED:

Mario Monsters, which DOES feature our usual host Alex Jaffe
Project L
Friend of the show Patrick Miller
Alphabear
Road Not Taken
Steambirds Alliance
Bushido Bear
Alex Jaffe’s GDC talk, Cursed Problems in Game Design
TV Sports: Football
TV Sports: Hockey
Cody at Pink Gorilla
22cans
96 Tears by ? and the Mysterians
Corpse Killer
Maniac Mansion
Monaco: Whats Yours Is Mine
Shots by LMFAO ft. Lil John
Due Process
Frozen Synapse
Grand Theft Auto Online
Tender
Major Minor’s Majestic March
Blazing Lasers
Ninja Spirit
THE TOP SIX GAMES OF QUESTION 6:
Super Mario Bros.
Sensible World of Soccer
Mega Man 2
Earth Defense Force 2017
Android Assault
Cuthbert Goes Walkabout
Frank’s Cuthbert tweet and game covers
WarioWare series
Antstream
Panzer Dragoon: Remake
Moebius
The Incal
Sable
Space Harrier
Katamari Damacy ending credits
Super Monkey Ball ending credits
Metal Slug ending credits
The Mitchells vs. The Machines (2021)
What Remains of Edith Finch
Jonathan Blow’s jar of pee (warning: photo of jar of jonathan blow pee)
Esper Note: the correct answer to question 9 is NieR: Automata. No I’m not going to link it, go beat NieR: Automata.
Marcel Proust
David Cage

Recommendations:

Mathew: Check out decolonizepalestine.com, BDS, donate to Palestine Children’s Relief Fund

Brandon: itch.io Solidarity Bundle for Palestine

Edited by Esper Quinn. Original Music by Kurt Feldman.

Ep. 185 - Newman On The Toilet, with Kazuma Hashimoto May 17, 2021

Show notes

Translator and media critic Kazuma Hashimoto joins the panel to cover zabbing bloboids, the three hundred and twenty six pathways of Shadow the Hedgehog, and The Masked Tuber.

Questions this week:

Liz Ryerson asks: What’s the hot new genre of video game in the year 2050? (06:11)
Is there a spectrum of quality for pachislot games? (11:02)
What defining element of a video game series do you wish the developers would be more flexible with? (15:43)
What were the most self-ruinous business decisions in video game history? (19:59)
Friend of the show Ash Parrish broke a story this week about a $10 calculator app for the Switch. What features can we expect? (24:42)
Dirtbag Deadbeat asks: What is the most interesting reason you have stopped playing a video game? (30:24)
Repeat from last week now that we have an expert: what are the components of an ideal RPG party? (35:45)
What are the best video games you can’t play anymore? (40:06)
When will we know vtubers have officially peaked? (45:18)
What is the Jurassic Park of video games? (50:14)

LIGHTNING ROUND: Review Scale Calibrations (56:31)

Think YOU have better answers than the panel? You don’t! But you can discuss the episode here in the insert credit forums.

A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED:

Ys series
Yakuza series
Yanya Cabalista
Resident Evil VIllage
Mancala
PACHI-SLOT biohazard
PachiPara series
Shadow the Hedgehog’s 326 Pathways
38 Studios
N-Gage
The Wait Is Over: Calculator Debuts For Nintendo Switch by Ash Parrish
Nier Replicant v.1.22474487139 is the square root of 1.5
Donkey Kong Jr. Math
Mavis Beacon
Undertale
Beyond Good & Evil
Genshin Impact censors “Hong Kong” and “Taiwan”
Final Fantasy XII
Vaan
Fran
Lulu
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
World of Warcraft Classic
Lineage II
Ragnarok Online
MapleStory
P.T.
Metal Gear Online
Kizuna AI
Hololive
Inugami Korone
Gawr Gura
Final Fantasy VIII Intro
Mr. Bones
Wayne Knight
Bullit (1968)

Recommendations:

Brandon: Dreams of the Carrion Kind by Disincarnate, G2 (1999),

Frank: A big book of unreleased NES games Esper can’t find a link to because Frank doesn’t even attempt the title

Kazuma: +81 Podcast, Shusenjo (2019), HazVsRPG, Kagenaga on twitch

Edited by Esper Quinn. Original Music by Kurt Feldman.

Ep. 184 - Gamer Type Gamers, with Liz Ryerson May 10, 2021

Show notes

Liz Ryerson triumphantly joins the panel to cover DDR dance pads, Batman games, and Burger Time Royale with Cheese.

Questions this week:

What are we learning about the video game industry from the Apple v. Epic court case? (03:52)
What would be an interesting game series to play a Shuffler of? (09:04)
Is there something you’ve wanted to see video games do for a long time, but once they finally did it you weren’t that impressed? (15:25)
Which property-based video games take the greatest liberty with their source material? (20:33)
Design a new non-dance game for the DDR pad. (26:25)
Dirtbag Spencer asks: What makes a definitive edition of a video game definitive? (31:07)
What game has the best party members? (36:41)
Is there anywhere for the Battle Royale genre to go from here? (41:47)
When have you had to lie about how you felt about a video game? (46:43)
Who is the John Swartzwelder of video games? (52:34)

LIGHTNING ROUND: Donkey Kong Universe - Phase 1 (57:11)

Think YOU have better answers than the panel? You don’t! But you can discuss the episode here in the insert credit forums.

A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED:

Recommendations:

Frank: Beat Nier Replicant, get bored on the second playthrough and watch the endings on YouTube (both Jaffe and Esper strongly recommend against this)

Liz: Tomato Way trilogy

Brandon: Touch and Go by Toshiki Kadomatsu, Returner (2002), Get your parents and grandparents vaccinated

Edited by Esper Quinn. Original Music by Kurt Feldman.

Ep. 183 - We Need To Talk About The Noid, with Jim Stormdancer May 03, 2021

Show notes

Jim Stormdancer, developer of Frog Fractions and host of Topic Lords joins the panel to hearld/warn of the return of The Noid, how to craft an ARG, and The Insert Credit Greatest Game of All Time (ICGGOAT). (Content warning: This episode contains strong language.)

Questions this week:

We Need To Talk About The Noid (00:57)
What game did you have to learn to like before liking it? (06:29)
Is there a line between surprising players and not giving them the game they paid for? (09:34)
What do we have to say about NFTs? (15:27)
Which game series have the most interesting naming and numbering conventions? (20:08)
Dirtbag Kory asks: What are the best games about electricity? (25:52)
What are the game design principles behind a good ARG? (31:39)
What would your video game vanity license plate be? (37:53)
What’s the best Star Wars game, and how could you make a better one? (40:57)
What is the Paddington 2 of video games? (46:13)

LIGHTNING ROUND: Adjectivity (51:33)

Think YOU have better answers than the panel? You don’t! But you can discuss the episode here in the insert credit forums.

A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED:

Recommendations:

Brandon: Dance Volunteer by Portable Rock, Pensieri di Nessuno by Words And Actions, Gozu (2003)

Frank: Play video games on easy

Jim: The Hat DLC which is no longer on sale, Topic Lords

Edited by Esper Quinn. Original Music by Kurt Feldman.

Bonus Credit - Crazy Horse As Well Apr 26, 2021

Show notes

A half hour bonus episode of unaired material, previously exclusive to Patreon subscribers. Subscribe now for more like this! Original music by Kurt Feldman.

(Ep. 175) Brandon explains who could potentially enjoy the film Pyscho Gore Man and talks about how incredible Mark Dacascos is. Special Guest Topher Docfuture Florence explains what he would have liked Batman: Soul of the Dragon to be and discusses Hong Kong filmmaking economics. Frank identifies which Daredevil comic Brandon is talking about.

(Ep. 176) Brandon is frustrated by a Metal Gear Acid purchase and discusses The Grapes of Death. Frank makes a pun and recommends Metal Gear 2.

(Ep. 176) Extended break. Frank doesn’t know what to do with the phrase “Golden Teet” and the strip club Crazy Horse Too. Special Guest Ash Parrish knows which one of the panel doesn’t write erotic fanfiction. Jaffe is upset about by A to X Video Outlet. Brandon solves the problem.

(Ep. 176) Jaffe’s chewing again. Brandon just watched Reign of Fire. Frank was talking with a couple guys from Rare about Dinosaur Planet. Special Guest Ash Parrish has seen all the Olympus Has Fallen movies.

(Ep. 176) Extended post-show. The panel, joined by Special Guest Ash Parrish, absolutely dogs on the box art for Monster Maxx. Jaffe asks a question he almost saved for a future episode: What is the qualitative difference between a 94% review and a 96% review? We make fun of the British again.

(Ep. 178) Extended break. Special Guest Mathew Kumar discusses how we’re all going through it during the Pandemic and breaks down the No Woman No Cry equation. Jaffe makes a pun. Special Guest Kris Graft is taken aback by the hatred for Geometry Wars. Brandon explains how Insert Credit show works.

Subscribe at any level to receive monthly episodes just like this, and much more exclusive content!

Edited by Esper Quinn. Original Music by Kurt Feldman.

Ep. 182 - Chipfaced, with merritt k Apr 26, 2021

Show notes

Fanbyte writer and podcaster merritt k sits with the panel to cover the darkness within Viva Pinata, Bad Boy Reggie Fils Aime, and an explanation of what Touhou actually is. Original music by Kurt Feldman. (Content warning: This episode contains strong language.)

Questions this week:

From Ash Parrish: Congress has a button to destroy all video games, and you’ve been brought in to convince them not to press it. What’s the worst game to present? (03:25)
What are the most egregious cases of falling upwards in the video game industry? (08:47)
What game did you come around to liking after vocally disliking before playing? (14:12)
How do video games express extreme speed, without sacrificing control? (20:06)
Leaving aside Lester the Unlikely, what is the most unlikely video game? (24:45)
Dirtbag Derek asks: What do you predict will be the cause of the next video game renaissance? (32:16)
What’s happened in the Japanese indie game scene since Cave Story? (38:14)
What examples of fans officially taking a game forward have worked out? (42:58)
What is the Alvin and the Chipmunks of video games? (48:52)

LIGHTNING ROUND: Seven Virtuous Minigames (54:40)

Think you have better answers than the panel? Politely discuss this episode in the Insert Credit forums.

A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED: