dvertov

I had a great conversation with Francesco Bacchelli, creator of the Game Boy series Flying Arrows, about his new Kickstarter campaign (live right now!) and his efforts to save a retro gaming community center in Bologna, Italy.

Grab your tweeter and channel your inner pirate radio broadcaster as the gang covers What Remains, a walkie-talkie adventure game for the NES. Conor digs the 1980s vibes, Bart gets duped by a false ending, and Nick brings back the beeps... or, at least, one big one.

New episode! This was recorded in mid-January and was supposed to go live several weeks ago, but circumstances led me to push off finishing the edit until this week. It's a bit less organized than what we usually publish but it's a good time regardless.

Conor seizes control of the host mic to send the Game Club on a long, rambling, lightly edited conversation about several titles we played in 2022 that deserve more attention. Old games, new games, indie games, mobile games, AAA games – everything is up for discussion. (We even throw some homebrew games in there.) Other topics include game preservation, preorders, a debate about Patreon, online gaming with kids, and... lots of other stuff we'd usually cut.

Sales pending on Amondus, Mappy, and Yume Penguin Monogatari.

Edit: Sold!

Sales pending on GGGG, Haradius Zero, Alwa digical, Traumatarium, and KKSNDX.

Edit: Sold!

Folks, it is sadly time for me to part with a portion of my collection, in order to fund future Homebrew Game Club podcast exploits.

Sad for me, but great for you to get to buy these excellent games!

All items are "like new" except where indicated. Photos available on request. Prices do not include shipping.

Homebrew for Sale:

Swords and Runes (NintendoAge Version) - $80
NES - CIB

Switch Games:

Axiom Verge 1 + 2 (New / Sealed, Limited Run Games, includes trading card) - $60

Celeste (CIB, Limited Run Games, Best Buy cover variant) - $100

Panzer Paladin (CIB) - $50

Dragon Quest XI (CIB) - $30

Hollow Knight - PAL Version - New / Sealed - $30

Other items for sale:

Flea! (Dreamcast, CIB) - $25

Battletoads / Double Dragon, Retro-Bit Collector's Edition Reprint - $65
NES  - New / Sealed in hardcover packaging (larger than a standard NES box)

Gradius II with custom clamshell case, no manual (Famicom) - $35

And here's our most recent numbered episode, where we cover L'Abbaye des Morts, a Gothic tribute to ZX Spectrum platformers that's been ported to just about every imaginable retro console. We cover the original PC game, as well as four of the ports: Spectrum, NES, Mega Drive, and Commodore 64. (The Amiga port was intended to be console #5, but as my co-host reports after many lost hours to that emulator, "Amiga sucks.")

Hey! I'm bad at updating this thing! Anyway, here's an episode where we played all 67 NES demos between the 2022 NESDev competition and the NESMaker Byte-Off III game jam. Lots of interesting and creative ideas out there, and it will be fun to see where some of these projects go. 

Wow, that looks great.

Just a reminder to enter our Twitter and Discord pint glass giveaways if you haven't yet. Deadline is noon EST on Friday, Nov. 4 (less than 24 hours from this post). There aren't a ton of entries, so you've still got a good chance of winning!

Happy Halloween! It's a great time to check out our new episode on Traumatarium and Phobos Dere .gb, two spooktacular titles for Game Boy!

Just a quick heads up to anyone who hasn't seen it yet -- our podcast is one year old as of November 1st, so to celebrate we're giving away two of our snazzy HBGC logo pint glasses on social media!

The first giveaway is on Twitter. Check out this post for more info.

Our second giveaway is only for fans who follow us on Discord. We have great discussions going for every game we cover, so jump on the server with this invite and follow along! Contest info is in the announcements channel.

Make sure to get your entries in by noon EST on Friday, November 4th. Good luck and thanks for listening!

I'm late to update this thread, but we've got a new full episode up about the skull-crushingly good Dungeons & DoomKnights!

Now live on the podcast: We interview @Raftronaut about adapting his NES game Space Raft for arcades, its upcoming Switch release, and a new project inspired by Ninja Gaiden!

Thanks for the feedback!

22 hours ago, tigerwolf said:

I appreciate the banter - it's refreshing to have that UK voice in there.

Thank you! Conor would probably want me to specify that he is Irish, but he has been based out of the UK since July.

22 hours ago, tigerwolf said:

I wonder if it would be helpful to include a comparison point in the title of each episode? Instead of just the title of the game by itself. That way there's more of a hook to learn more about what the game is about. Like if you said "Alfonzo's Arctic Adventure: Like Nobunaga's Ambition but with Waifus!" or something more accurate but gives me more reason to listen.

Just for you, I will try to come up with a comparison to a different Koei game for each episode! In all seriousness, of the three of us I'm the only one with long-term experience in the homebrew scene, so we actually talk about comparisons with other games quite a lot because that's how my co-hosts tend to approach these titles. With that said, I try to avoid pushing this aspect too hard when promoting episodes... I think a lot of developers work hard to make sure their games can stand on their own merits, and I feel like it detracts from that work to only showcase it in light of other, more popular games.

22 hours ago, tigerwolf said:

Also, where do I get my HBGC pint glass?

Why, you can get one of those beauties right here! They are quite sturdy and the print is surprisingly good quality. I recommend hand wash only: https://www.zazzle.com/store/homebrewgameclub

Check out our new episode on the NES puzzle platformer Alfonzo's Arctic Adventure! There's also a long conversation about the odd regional cuisine of St. Louis, Missouri, with an emphasis on pizza. You know, if you're into that.

Our latest episode is a short review of Ruby & Rusty Save the Crows, a cute new platformer out soon for Game Boy Color.

Not a great pic, but this is in fact from the ending credits for Pocky and Rocky: Reshrined.

On 8/13/2022 at 4:59 PM, FireHazard51 said:

Pssss.... The Shapeshifter 2 is available for pre-order from the same link for The Shapeshifter.  Though I'm not sure if you list pre-orders.  BUT I'm about to tweet about this thread and also tweet about The Shapeshifter 2 so figured I should mention it.

I believe physical CIBs are shipping soon for Kickstarter backers. Looking forward to mine... I love the dual cart idea.

Oops... I forgot to post a blog entry for our latest episode, Xeno Crisis! Please enjoy listening to how this intense twin-stick shooter for the Genesis absolutely kicked our asses.

Well that was fun. @Infitekbested me but at least I lost respectably that time. Thanks @Jeevan and @RogerBidon for hosting, and good luck to everyone still in it!

Beat Cotton Fantasy (aka Cotton Rock ‘n Roll) with every unlockable character at least once. Very fun cute ‘em up that might be even better than Cotton Reboot.

I'm in 

I don't have screenshots, but I've gotten several endings in Deathsmiles I + II, which is getting a NA physical release later this month (although I thought it came out already so I'm not sure if I've got the dates wrong).

Just added a short episode covering Diamond Thieves, a new puzzle platformer for Genesis and Mega Drive. If you haven't heard, this game is being published through a collaboration between Mega Cat Studios and Video Game Sage. Thanks to @Scrobins for the review copy!