Gaming can be deadly. Oh, we’re not preaching about violence in games becoming violence in real life. More about self-inflicted injury — like playing Starcraft in an internet cafe for 36 hours straight until your heart gives out. Sean and Vinnk discuss their narrow brushes with that big game pad in the sky by way of a variety of titles mobile, PC, and console.

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The Christmas season, in the video game industry, is more about big sales of blockbuster titles, console launches, and a bit of rubbing-it-in-the-face for people who perennially spell Nintendo’s doom. (The 3DS is already outpacing sales of the DS in its first year.) If you’re a kid, subsequently, it means new video game time! Vinnk and Sean talk about their favorite Christmases, the games they got, their favorite Christmas games (yeah, there are a few), their most HATED Christmas games (there are even more), and more!

[Listen to the episode after the jump…!]

When did video games start using “lives”? More importantly, when and why did they stop? With this changing, what does it mean to die in a game? Vinnk and SeanOrange examine the games that pioneered this mechanism, and take a look at when and why it started changing. Was it with games like Myst, or did adventure-style games always buck this trend? Has the fall of arcade gaming lead games to be easier, and therefore no longer need “lives”?

(Listen to the episode after the jump)

[Listen to the episode after the jump…!]

Did the Cold War make early video games unintentionally bleak? Or was the “kobiyashi maru” style of gaming in the 1970s and ’80s more a function of limited memory space and the need for arcade machines to get kids to keep pumping in the quarters?

Direct Link: Famicom Dojo Podcast 06: Bleak Games of the Cold War

Also in this episode: Rebel in Japan “Poop is Funny”, and the premiere of the first audio version of Famicom Denshimail!

Complete show notes at FamicomDojo.TV:
http://famicomdojo.tv/podcast/6

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