Ep. 364 - Way More Chooms, with Kieron Gillen

The Insert Credit Show

Author and journalist Kieron Gillen joins the panel to cover the golden age of games journalism, Squaresoft’s 1996 SNES licensed X-Men JRPG, and the mysterious Hat Man. Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, Brandon Sheffield, and Kieron Gillen. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.

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SHOW NOTES:

• Riders on the Storm
• Ghost Riders in the Sky
• The Doors
• Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance (2011)
• Mutant
• Amiga Power
• Eisner Awards
• Hugo Award
• Amiga
• Mister Sinister

1: What’s the difference between game culture and comics culture? (04:44)

• Jack Kirby
• Twine
• Al Ewing
• Marvel Cinematic Universe
• Gamergate (harassment campaign)
• Sad Puppies
• Jim Rossignol

2: In tabletop game design, how do you make a game that allows players to do anything, while maintaining a unique identity? (10:03)

• Mörk Borg
• OSR
• Dungeons & Dragons
• Baldurs Gate III
• Baldur’s Gate 3 is a masterpiece built on a bad tabletop game

3: What’s the closest a video game has come to ruining your life? (17:19)

• World of Warcraft
• World of WarCraft: The Burning Crusade
• Clash of Clans
• Princess Pajama
• Infinity Nikki
• Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2
• Sonic Advance 3
• Nintendo Official Magazine UK
• Circuit City
• World of WarCraft: Wrath of the Lich King
• MUSH
• Space Invaders
• The Sims Online
• Grand Theft Auto IV

4: The year is 1996. Squaresoft wants you to design their final game for the SNES, a licensed X-Men RPG. What have you got? (27:22)

• Squaresoft
• Super Nintendo Entertainment System
• X-Men
• Image Comics
• Jim Lee
• X-Men 2: Clone Wars
• X-Men: The Animated Series
• Storm
• Rise of the Robots
• Wolverine
• Princess Maker
• Charles Xavier
• Final Fantasy
• Sentinel
• Spider-Man
• The Punisher: The Ultimate Payback!
• Days of Future Past
• Chrono Trigger
• Callisto
• Marrow
• Giant-Size X-Men
• Cyclops
• Colossus
• Thunderbird
• Jean Grey

5: PersonalMatthew asks, how important is it that someone writing about videogames be “good” at videogames? (34:33)

• Madden
• DLSS
• Digital Trends
• Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster
• Demonschool
• Final Fantasy Tactics
• Persona
• Shin Megami Tensei

6: What was the golden age of video game journalism? (40:53)

• Spider-Man 3
• Mad Men
• PC Gamer
• Tomb Raider
• Rock Paper Shotgun

LIGHTNING ROUND: High Scoring (47:22)

Recommendations and Outro (57:22):

• Kieron: The Power Fantasy, We Called Them Giants
• Frank: Go read Kieron’s comics
• Brandon: If you’re feeling cold tuck your shirt into your pants, Manga documentary 1982, The Great Cleric if you want some extremely mid anime, follow Brandon on Bluesky
• Ash: Game Changers on HBO Max

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