Region Free Gamers: The Podcast Fluent in Gaming!

What Have We Been Playing? Final Fantasy, Bloodstained, Zelda, Gears and more!

The crew welcomes Anthony Arriaga a/k/a Polybits into the permanent rotation of hosts, making the podcast 20% more Puerto Rican. And what better way to start it off than by chatting about what the crew has been playing lately. The crew first starts chatting about the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo, which Arnie, Anthony and Ozzy recently attended. Arnie then talks about his quest to complete all the mainline Final Fantasy games, starting with the very first one and then reminisces about the death of arcades (24:00). Geoff then lets out all his (very British) rage that he has accumulated after playing Bloodstained, but not before ending on a delightfully cheery note with the Zelda Link's Awakening remake (42:45). Anthony rounds it out by chatting about A Way Out, Gears 5 and his impressions of the Sega Genesis Mini (1:15:20). 

Interviewing Cult Game Developers: A Q&A with Patrick Hickey Jr.

Arnie, Paul and Ozzy change the format from the usual to bring you an interview with Patrick Hickey Jr., author of The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews with Cult and Classic Video Game Developers. A lifelong gamer, Patrick currently spends his time teaching and talking to video game developers that have worked on some of your favorite games like Bully, Doom, Deus Ex and Mutant League Football and maybe not so favorite games like E.T. the Extraterrestrial on the Atari 2600. Patrick goes into his process of interviewing game developers and provides a ton of fun anecdotes about what he has learned so far finding long forgotten developers and digging up their stories.  

The Sega Dreamcast's 20th Birthday!

Typing up the title of this episode makes us feel old, but talking Dreamcast instantly makes us feel twenty years younger! The guys start off talking about the Sega Saturn's demise leading up to the Dreamcast launch, and Paul's perhaps unhealthy obsession with former Sega president Bernie Stolar (4:00). Our first experiences with the Dreamcast are up next as well as a chat about the corporate politics at Sega at the time (8:20). We discuss the memorable launch (31:00) and then the era of unparalleled creativity in the system's video games! (45:00) But every good thing must come to an end as we discuss the reasons for the Dreamcast's failure and the legacy the system left behind. (1:36:00)

Which 16-bit Castlevania Is Our Favourite?

Ozzy and Paul are joined today by previous guest Cam and new permanent addition to the RFG crew, Geoff Ivatts, to talk about the three 16-bit Castlevania games (and Dracula X for SNES, I guess...) First we start off re-introducing Geoff to everyone and congratulating him on his poor choice of podcast to join before moving on to Castlevania IV for the SNES (7:30) and in particular its stellar sounDtrack (25:00). Rondo Of Blood for the PC-Engine is next (46:00) with a quick rundown of its uglier brother, Dracula X for the SNES (1:17:30). The show is finished up with Castlevania Bloodlines for the Genesis (1:23:30) and our picks for the top 16-bit Castlevania game (1:48:30)

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Music:

Castlevania IV - The Submerged City

Castlevania IV - Bloody Tears

Castlevania IV - The Chandeliers

Castlevania IV - The Cave

Castlevania IV - Dance Of The Holy Man

Castlevania IV - Dracula Battle

Castlevania: Rondo Of Blood - Bloodlines

Castlevania: Rondo Of Blood - Vampire Killer

Castlevania Bloodlines - Dance Of The Holy Man

What Have We Been Playing? Tetris 99, Blazing Chrome, Persona 5 Dancing, and more!

Arnaldo, Ozzy, and Paul get together for a rare evening recording that sees strange, sleep deprived ramblings from Ozzy about Chinese surveillance before moving on to the video games, starting with a look back at the entire Persona Dancing series from someone who fell while playing Dance Dance Revolution (10:00). Ozzy is up next with Front Mission DS (36:30) and scratching that retro video game itch with Blazing Chrome on the Switch (54:30). Paul finishes up by redeeming a previous Ozzy shaming with Gradius V for the shmup fans (1:07:30) and a discussion about Tetris 99 (1:21:30) that causes us to come an inevitable conclusion:

We are all Tetris.

 

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Instagram: @regionfreegamerspodcast

Twitter: @regionfreegamer

Email: regionfreegamers at gmail dot com

 

Music:

Persona 5 Dancing - Hoshi To Bokura To - Tofubeats remix

Blazing Chrome - Snow Base

Boom Shakalaka!! What Happened To NBA Jam?

Arnaldo, Ozzy, and Paul are joined today by special guest Cam (@sixteen_bit on Instagram) to talk about the genre defining video game, NBA Jam and its various spinoffs and clones. The guys start off introducing Cam before moving on to some of NBA Jam's weird sports game predecessors like Cyberball, Arch Rivals, and Basewars (13:00). The 16-bit era and how it led to NBA Jam is next, but not before discussing the evil Bill Laimbeer and his awful video game (34:00). The guys start heating up when talking about the star of the show, NBA Jam (50:15) and the various video games it inspired, like NFL Blitz. They finish up the show ON FIRE when talking about how and why this subgenre of sports video game vanished from the landscape (1:46:00), and.. could it make a comeback?

 

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Region Free Radio Vol. IV - Unsung Soundtracks

In celebration of the Instagram retro community's #RCEweekofsound, Ozzy takes a look at soundtracks that have gone unnoticed for far too long. These are soundtracks connected to games that were not well-received at the time or that just seem to have been forgotten by time. More importantly, we will consider composers like the Follin Brothers, Dean Evans and Kota Hoshino, who remain fairly unknown, but have made great contributions to the world of video game soundtracks.

This is a particularly exciting episode for us, as there is a lot of music for our listeners to discover, so sit back and tune in to to the smooth sounds of Region Free Radio.

Fire Emblem's Collapse And Awakening

Join Arnaldo and Paul as they follow the rise, and fall, and rise again of the Great Lord of SRPG video games, Fire Emblem! The guys start off talking about the core gameplay mechanics of the series and the key minds behind it (amid some horribly dated Toronto Raptors references) before moving on to the Famicom Fire Emblem games (24:00). After the break we get into the Super Famicom era and the amusing way Thracia 776 compares to Final Fantasy XV (34:00). This is followed by lawsuits, the aborted Fire Emblem 64, and the Gameboy Advance entries in the series (54:30). The not-so triumphant return to consoles with Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn is next followed by the series on life support with the Nintendo DS entries (1:06:00). However, the series is resurrected by the masterpiece, Fire Emblem: Awakening, followed by Fates and Echoes (1:28:00). And we can't finish up this show without taking a trip on the hype train for Three Houses! (2:03:00)

 

So many games!

 

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Music:

Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryu to Hikari no Tsurugi - Title Theme

Smash Bros. Melee - Fire Emblem Theme

Fire Emblem: Genealogy Of The Holy War - Crossing The Desert

Fire Emblem Awakening - Prelude

What Have We Been Playing? Persona Q2, Lapis X Labyrinth, Paper Mario and more!

Arnaldo and Paul are on deck today talking about what video games they've been playing, but not before talking about the Toronto Raptors winning the NBA title, followed by some Canadian beat poetry by Arnaldo, because this is a video game show, right? It doesn't take long to get back on track with Paper Mario on the Gamecube (14:00), followed by Persona Q2 (33:00). Paul then mangles the pronounciation of Lapis X Labyrinth, but barely redeems himself before talking about 428 Shibuya Scramble (50:30). The guys then move on to E3 and what they think of games like The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Cyberpunk 2077 and the Final Fantasy VII remake (1:16:00) and finish up the show talking about the era of mini videogame consoles with the announcement of the TurboGrafx-16 Mini (1:52:00).

Genesis Mini - What Would We Have Added?

Arnaldo, Ozzy, and Paul are joined by good buddy Mike and start off the show talking about Mike's unusual road to developing video games at Ubisoft before talking about their favourite entries on the Genesis/Mega Drive Mini (33:00). Ozzy then takes the reins and talks about which games he would cut and which ones he would add in their place (1:08:30) followed by Mike doing the same (1:24:30). Arnaldo starts a heated video game controversy with his cuts (1:39:00) while Paul wraps things up discussing how one of his additions would be applauded at a wedding reception (1:55:30).

 

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