YPB: Episode 044 – The Simpsons (1991 and 1992)

This week in Your Parents Basement, it’s the 25^th anniversary of the sole early good game in a video game series based on a TV series! From 1991, it’s The Simpsons arcade game by Konami! We also play some of the low lights of the video games – Bart vs. The Space Mutants, Bart’s House of Weirdness and Bart’s Nightmare.

You can manually download this week’s cromulent podcast here or subscribe to the show via the iTunes store. To manually subscribe, use this link in the device / podcast player of choice. You can also follow us on Twitter, or ‘like’ us on Facebook.

As always, if you like the show, support us by buying from Amazon! You can use this link to go to Amazon, and any purchase you make will kick a couple bucks to the show, with no extra cost to you. It’s a win-win!

Want to have an email or comment read on the air? Send us a message on the ole Twitter or Facebook, or, shoot that mail to parentsbasementpodcast@gmail.com.

TIMESTAMPS

• 0:00 – Intro, which features one of the best TV theme songs in vidya game music glory.
• 43:30 – Emails! We talk Christmas gifts and other important things.
• 1:04:00 – Snifferoo. We’re covering TWO games for next week’s show! One involves the Zapper. Pew pew pew!

SHOW NOTES

- According to Price Charting, pretty much all of the games based on The Simpsons are between $5 and $20 for just the carts or discs. As we say on the show, most of them aren’t worth owning, except for Hit and Run, Road Rage and The Simpsons Game.

- The list of video games based on The Simpsons is really long. As is the list of video games on The Simpsons.

- Do you like luxury? What about a Jaguar?

Inexplicable TV Review: Every Bar Rescue episode ever

Jon Taffer.

About two years, I wrote about one of my favorite reality TV shows, Hotel Impossible. Spoiler alert! It’s still an incredible show, and it finished up its sixth season in November. That season is downloadable from iTunes, and season seven premieres within the next few months, according to the Internets.

But, my focus today isn’t on that wonderful show. Instead, it’s on Bar Rescue, which has gotten really stale and boring. The main issue, as I see it, is that they ‘unfortunately’ hit upon a major controversy when they did a show about a pirate-themed bar. It was a huge mess, but, it was sort of the beginning of the end, as the whole thing ultimately felt a bit staged and destined for failure.

The owners were clearly delusional and probably beyond help. However, Jon Taffer’s theme was also a complete dud, and they had to have known that replacing a pirate theme with a corporate theme – literally – was a recipe for disaster. I think they went through with it anyway though, knowing it would be a good TV.

The problem now though is that every episode is an attempt to recreate that ‘shock’ from the pirates episode. It’s 45 to 50 minutes of Taffer yelling at an owner for unsafe liquor service, obvious sexual harassment or ridiculously dirty kitchens. All of these are valid concerns, but the show was much better in earlier seasons, when there was a focus on the business aspects. (i.e. How do you properly setup a bar menu? What are the demographics of an area? What’s the best food to serve with beer?)

Anyway. The show returns on March 6, per Wikipedia, with its 100^th episode. (Actually, it’s 101, but one episode won’t ever air because of bizarre circumstances.) However, if you’re looking for better “turnaround” television, Hotel Impossible and The Profit (CNBC) are much more compelling. I’ll have more on the latter show in a future blog.

Side note – If you do like Bar Rescue, or liked it at one point, one site definitely worth checking out is Bar Rescue Updates. It’s maintained by a fan of the show, and it’s quite thorough, since other viewers submit news items and other tips.

The picture of Taffer is from his website.

YPB: Episode 043 – Street Fighter The Movie (1994)

This week in Your Parents Basement, in honor of the Oscars we’re watching one of the hammiest video game acting related performances of all-time! From 1994, it’s Street Fighter: The Movie, one of the last roles for Raul Julia. (And unfortunately, not one of the last films Van Damme did.) We also play a tiny bit of Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game, a truly awful attempt by a Capcom subsidiary to mimic the Mortal Kombat usage of motion capturing.

You can manually download this week’s overacted podcast here or subscribe to the show via the iTunes store. To manually subscribe, use this link in the device / podcast player of choice. You can also follow us on Twitter, or ‘like’ us on Facebook.

As always, if you like the show, support us by buying from Amazon! You can use this link to go to Amazon, and any purchase you make will kick a couple bucks to the show, with no extra cost to you. It’s a win-win!

Want to have an email or comment read on the air? Send us a message on the ole Twitter or Facebook, or, shoot that mail to parentsbasementpodcast@gmail.com.

TIMESTAMPS

• 0:00 – Intro, which features two hammy parts from Raul Julia as M. Bison.
• 53:50 – Emails! What are our thoughts on collectible items in games? Have we played Hollywood Mogul? Have we seen The Wizard???
• 1:11:30 – Snifferoo. It’s our longest one yet! As next week, we’ll be covering Bonestorm, and Dash Dingo, and Larry The Looter, and Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge…

SHOW NOTES

- According to Price Charting, the Saturn and Playstation versions of Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game go for a surprising amount of money! We’re talking $10 to $17.50 for the disc only, around $30 for the box and manual, and up to $200 for “new” condition copies. This is likely because it ultimately didn’t sell well.

- Copies of the actual movie, whether on Blu-ray or DVD, go for around $4. It’s also available for streaming for about $3, per Can I Stream It?

- The movie, although it made about $100 million, was a famously troubled production because of Raul Julia’s health. For the 20^th anniversary of the film, Polygon’s Chris Plante had a great longread on it.

- Kylie Minogue is an incredibly famous Australian pop music artist. Also, thanks to Michel Gondry, she has one of the most awesome music videos of all-time, “Come Into My World.” (Pretty much all of Gondry’s music videos are really interesting.)