117 · JEOPARDY

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00:00 This is Jeopardy!

00:18 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm your host, Michael Esposito, and joining me are our two contestants. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. And we have a bit of a special episode today. We've decided to take a, what should be a relatively easy game to discuss, Jeopardy! on the NES, and we're going to turn it into an actual game of Jeopardy! How do you guys feel about that? Sounds fun. It seems too complicated. We're going to fail. Yeah, I feel like even though this is going to translate really well for us, the listeners at home at some point are going to be like, what? Why are they talking about this now? They're like, huh?

01:05 But we'll see what happens. Chapters are dead. Yeah, there's no chapters for this one, that's for sure. But there will be a winner, and there will be no prize. I just want to get that out of the way. I have no money to give.

01:18 We barely make any money on this show to begin with. It's true. But one thing I wanted to clear up is that instead of doing our usual developer things, or talking about the music and stuff, we're going to hop around a lot, because there's a bunch of different categories that we're going to go through, similar to a real game of Jeopardy! So you're really going to want to listen to the entire episode if you're at all interested in any of this stuff. And I think you'll find some fun things in there too. So you guys ready to play? Let's do it. Who goes first?

01:46 Alright, so I think we'll have, since Sean always introduces himself first, Joe will go first. And Joe, the categories, just so you know for this round, are Play the Game, Trust Your Mechanic, Developing Situation, Get Nostalgic, and I Am 8-Bit.

02:07 Yes, I'll take Play the Game for $400. Alright, this is Play the Game for $400. A plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim? Yeah, I got nothing. Alright, we were looking for what is strategy? And that is Webster's definition of strategy. And this would be a great time for us to talk about our strategies when playing Jeopardy! here. So guys, what did you do to best the computers in Jeopardy?

02:38 What I did usually is I would only buzz if I was pretty sure I knew. Because, you know, like in regular Jeopardy! it does subtract points. And sometimes you'll get the computer to buzz in and they'll get it wrong. And the way that they do it in this game is they don't like guess something else. They just type in computer gibberish but with like some of the letters from the actual answer. So it was an interesting way to go about that. I don't know what you guys did, yeah. Yeah, I think using that a little bit, like if I don't know something,

03:22 kind of definitely taking advantage of the fact that they will type in parts of the answer. Which I think was their way to show like, oh look, they guessed wrong but like got some of it right. It's a little, it's a little like, not, doesn't translate exactly to how it would be in real Jeopardy! But it's definitely, definitely helps you get answers that you didn't get on your first read of the question.

03:45 Yeah. And I think one thing that I stole from is the James Holzhouser strategy of playing Jeopardy! Where you play through the bottom first. So you go for the 500 questions in each category to try to get, like to see if you know them and can make the most money off the bat. Because if you get the 1500 right there, at least in the first round, it's going to be very hard for anybody else to make up the difference. True, but you could also put yourself in a huge hole. But I guess that's why smart people play this.

04:17 Yeah, and that's another thing too since we're talking about, so we're talking about smart people. How did you guys feel about the questions themselves and the relevancy of this now 30 years later? I mean, you could definitely feel that it was, you know, made in, you know, 1988.

04:36 But I also was impressed that, or just surprised that they didn't make them like all like really kind of general categories that would be like, that kids would always get. Like there were some specific, they felt like real Jeopardy! categories. Yeah, I would also say that it sort of has the, it's definitely not as difficult as TV Jeopardy!, at least from what I've seen. But it does have a variation in difficulty. Like you can definitely tell that the $500 question or answer, I guess, is a bit more difficult than the $100. So I think it's got a pretty good balance. And a lot of the categories are timeless. A lot of them aren't, but there's enough here where somebody in 2020 could still play this game.

05:26 All right. And so Joe, you still get control of the board because no one answered. So what would you like to pick next? You know, I'll do play the game for $200. This gambling feature is hidden behind one clue in the Jeopardy! round and two in Double Jeopardy! Beep! Sean? What is Double Jeopardy? Oh. Ooh, that is wrong. I just realized it was listed in the question. Joe, would you like to respond?

05:59 Man, I wish I watched more Jeopardy! And we will move on. We are looking for the Daily Double. Daily Double, yes. The Daily Double. And that gives you the opportunity to wager $1,000 or more or less, to be honest, if you didn't feel comfortable with the category, as a way to spice up the game and also a way to like completely dominate the game too. Yeah. If you're really feeling good about a category, if you have $3,000 to your name, you can risk it all and now jump up to $6,000, which in this kind of game is really going to put you ahead of the computers.

06:30 So how did you guys feel? Were the questions tougher with the Daily Doubles? Did you bet a lot of money? How did that work? I did a... So now I'm remembering... When you said Double Jeopardy, that's what confused me. Because I was confusing Double Jeopardy with Daily Double. But I did a true Daily Double when I actually played the game, which just meant I bet everything, which put me in a substantial lead in the first round, which I thought was very helpful, but also could have terribly screwed me if I happened to get a question that I didn't know.

07:03 It's definitely a risk. And Sean, were you being risky during your Daily Doubles? If I was in the lead, I wouldn't bet so much that I could possibly lose the lead. So I tried to make some money, but I didn't go all in like that. Got it. And for the record, I never went all in either. It's tough because you have to bet the amount of money you want before you ever see the question. Yeah. So it's like, no matter how... The categories are just vague enough that I don't feel too confident about the general curriculum that might be involved. For sure. Okay, so Joe, you still get to pick another category. And I'm going to stay with Play the Game for $300. A class or division of people or things regarded as having particular shared characteristics.

07:55 Beep, beep. That is Joe. Joe? What is a category? That is correct. What is a category? Okay. And so we've already talked about the varying skill levels of categories, but what were some... Can you recall anything that came to mind as like a category that either you particularly were good at or that you avoided? Because I had one category or a recurring theme of just like, you know, things that start with B or things that start with C. Like you would see that and they would have it for every kind of letter. And I thought that was funny that like, it seemed kind of just like a, well, now we can just do anything, but as long as it starts with this letter, we're covered. I kind of like those.

08:39 I usually stayed away from the ones that were definitely more of the time or ones that were about a certain period, like the 50s. Like I know very little about the culture of the 50s. So I would stray away from those. Yeah. I noticed that there were, I mean, I guess, I don't know why I wasn't expecting them to include these little things that are just in jeopardy all the time, but they would have categories that were like, ended up, the answers always ended up being like a play on words for what the category was called. Which I guess, I don't know why I just didn't expect the, like this NES game to do that, to be so similar to, to actual jeopardy, which is weird in retrospect.

09:26 And they would have some interesting ones too. I mean, there was a whole category on Disney. I don't know if you guys got that one, but that seems like very approachable. And then at the same time, you could have right next to it, a whole category called like thick and thin, which, you know, like, which is, which is completely like, what could that be? And it goes through a whole gambit of different things, like what is flower? What is thin air? Like it's very tough to, to tell what those categories are going to be like. So the game keeps you on your toes for sure. Mm-hmm. All right. So Joe, since you got that one, you're now in the lead with 300 and you get to pick again.

10:07 Um, I'm going to, I'm going to just stick with play the game, keeping us consistent in the chapters here, uh, for 500. This round features a single clue and requires contestants to wager their money before receiving the question. Beep. Joe. What is final jeopardy? You are correct again for 500.

10:28 And let's talk about that final jeopardy because, uh, I think that is the make or break moment because it gives the computers a huge chance to come back at you if you're not prepared with an answer. So how did you guys feel about the final jeopardy compared to the rest of the game? Well, in one of my games, uh, both of the computers had ended up with negative amounts, so they couldn't even participate. Uh, so I ended up just wagering $1 and won anyway. But, um, uh, there was another game where it was actually close and, uh, no, I mean, it's, and especially if you're playing this, how it was probably designed to be made, uh, to be played with, which is with people.

11:11 So, uh, there's this thing where you'd have to go into the other room and make sure you couldn't see whoever's typing. And, um, but I think it, it works. Yeah. I found that really funny the way that they deal with like, make sure you don't look at the screen while your other player is typing. I thought that was really funny because there's just no other way around it. But, uh, but yeah, in my, in my game, I had, I, it actually, I had a lead in the first round and it actually ended up being pretty close, uh, by the end though.

11:41 And final jeopardy is what gave me the, the, the boost, uh, to win, but it is a little bit of, you know, I mean, it's jeopardy rules, but like a little bit of that gamble of like, how much, how much are they going to wager? The person who's closest to me, like I want to wager enough that I'll win, but not too much that, you know, hopefully if I get it wrong, I'm still above, you know, above their score.

12:01 Yeah. I had one particular final jeopardy where I was in the lead for most of the game and then actually wound up being like 400 under, uh, one of the computer players. And so I did the math and everything for like how much it would take me to make sure that like, you know, well, I can't bet at all, but I also kind of need to like, how much should I put in and stuff like that. And I did all that and the computer wound up giving like a bogus answer, you know, one of those nonsensical ones. And then like also just put in like what seemed to be a completely arbitrary amount, like had no idea that I was only 400 behind them. So like, I don't think that the computer cares enough to do the math. So I don't know why we would, we would care.

12:46 All right, Joe. Uh, I'll actually take trust your mechanic for 500. Okay. Trust your mechanic for 500. This mechanic allows for additional players to join in on the fun of Jeopardy. Beep. Sean. What is multiplayer? You are correct for 500. That's right. And, uh, that puts you up from the negative. So you are now at 300.

13:11 Nice. And, uh, would you like to talk about, uh, the multiplayer? It sounds like neither you or Joe played multiplayer. I know you attempted to with me. Yeah. We, uh, we, we tried to get some kind of net play going, but that didn't end up working out. Um, but I imagine this being, you know, a poor man's Jackbox now, or like, I don't know if there is a Jackbox game that's just trivia. They're usually much more goofy with it, but it, yeah, it's like a, it's a party game. It's one of the first party games we played.

13:44 Yeah. And I think, go ahead. I was going to say, I think that I was surprised at how, even though I didn't actually play it multiplayer, I mean, this functions like Jeopardy. I mean, there's a few little bit of, you know, annoyance to it now where you got to type things in and whatnot. But like, I can't see you playing this with a friend and feeling like, oh, that wasn't, that didn't feel like a good trivia game. Like if you're playing it with another person, like it's just trivia. Like it really just kind of works.

14:12 Yeah. Me and my fiance did play this, uh, this game as multiplayer. And I have a couple of interesting observations. And the most interesting actually is that this game is technically the first three player NES game. Because you're, you are able to, uh, use controller one for both player one and three, but player two needs to have a second controller. So you, if you only have one NES controller in your house, you're like out of luck to play this multiplayer game. Like it still somehow finds a way to lock you behind it, even though you could theoretically play with just one controller.

14:51 Yeah. That's interesting. Because I would have thought that the only reason to do that is to make sure people are still buying a second controller. But didn't the NES come with two controllers? Yeah. The NES didn't, uh, did come with two controllers for the most part. Um, like with the action set and stuff like that. But I imagine, you know, you could buy this console in many different packs.

15:10 Like there's that pack that came with Rob and there's that pack that came with the Zapper. So, I mean, I'm sure there was eventually a version sold with just one controller. Huh. The Famicom, on the other hand though, uh, as long as it wasn't the Famicom disc system, the original Famicom, the two controllers always came with it because they were built into the system. Oh, I see.

15:31 No plugging. All right. Uh, so Sean, since you got that one right, you can choose the next category. Let's do Trust Your Mechanic for 400, Alex. In a game of real Jeopardy, sometimes this mechanic causes contestants to be unable to answer all questions on the board. Beep? Is that a beep? Okay, that's a beep. What do you got, Joe? Uh, time limit? What is a time limit? I'll allow it because I didn't correct you in time. But yes, don't forget to always say what or who.

16:06 Yes, what is a time limit? Actually, there's no time limit in the NES version of the game, so you're forced to answer every single question in both the first round and Double Jeopardy. How did you guys feel about that? I think that was a little too many questions for one game. I was kind of feeling that way too. Maybe, I mean, you played with someone else. Maybe if I played with someone else, I would have felt differently.

16:30 But when I was playing against a computer, there was a point where I was like, come on, please tell me they're going to cut me off at some point. We were going to have to go through all these questions. Are you saying in a real game of Jeopardy, there's an overall timer that's going on the entire time? I mean, I know it's like, you know, for commercials and everything, but it's like, it's displayed?

16:47 No, it's not displayed, but it is, it is for, it resets at the end of each round. But essentially, because they need commercial breaks and stuff like that, there's only a certain amount of time that you get during single Jeopardy and double Jeopardy. And so very, it's very rare that they actually answer all the questions on the board. Okay. Because there are timers within the questions. Like you can only buzz in for 10 seconds and you have like a minute to write out your answer. Right, right. And those, those are true in Jeopardy too, although you get significantly less time to answer than you do here. Can you imagine if they had to type it out on like, not even like an alphabetical keyboard on real Jeopardy?

17:28 I think in real Jeopardy, you get something like 10 seconds, maybe that even sounds like a lot. Maybe five. Yeah. But 45 seconds was very good because it gives you a generous amount of time. Like I've never needed the full 45 seconds, but I appreciated that they didn't just think like, well, you wouldn't need 45. So let's just give, you know, like it was better to go over than under on the estimate. And since Joe, since you got that one, you get to pick the next category. You're, you're leading by your 1200 to 300 for what it's worth. I'll do trust your mechanic for three, please. This mechanic is the only way computer opponents can get a question wrong. Beep. Sean. What is typing nonsense? That is exactly what I wrote.

18:18 So yes, you get, you gain that and you have cut your lead to just being halfway to Joe. It's 1200 to 600. And, and we already talked about this, but I thought it was pretty interesting because I couldn't think of a better way for the computers to do this. It was, it was so jarring at first, but then you realize, were they really going to program a bunch of like, not so correct answers for them to say? Like that would have been more difficult. I think a better way. Go ahead. At first I thought it was just actual randomness. And it wasn't until I saw a couple of computers get the wrong answers that I could tell that it was basically playing hangman or something.

18:59 But yeah, no, it's, it's kind of clever. Yeah. I was a little thrown off at first by the fact that parts of the answers were in there. Like, I feel like if they had just done gibberish answers that had nothing to do with it, it'd be like, okay, they got it wrong. But it also doesn't clue me into what the answer might be. But then if you think about it, I guess sometimes that could happen where like the wrong answer is close enough where it sparks like, oh, this is what it is.

19:23 But I don't know if it happens so much that it, like there were so many times where the question, they answered the question wrong, but I could just clearly tell what it is from context now that I don't think would have happened if like in a real game of Jeopardy, I don't think someone would have tipped me off like that.

19:41 Yeah. And I could see if it was like, you know, presidents was the category and they provided just like a bunch of random chances for them to guess like other U.S. presidents. But you'd have to do that for so many different categories and so many different things that I just, I don't even know how they handle it in future Jeopardy games. Like I'm sure there's a Jeopardy on PlayStation 1. Like how does that get handled? Yeah. Well, yeah, I'm not even, I'm not even saying they should have necessarily given them like fake answers to, to answer, but like instead just have it be complete gibberish with no clues to the real answer in it. You know, I feel like that makes it a little more like real Jeopardy.

20:20 Totally. Okay. Sean, you get to pick again. I'm going to, I'm going to go off the beaten trail here and I'm going to pick get nostalgic for 400. The first game chronologically to be removed from the essential games list. Beep. Joe? Because I know this one. What is Excitebike? That is correct.

20:47 Excitebike was, was not, was it unanimous? I feel like it was not unanimous. No, I think it was just like me and Sam that voted it. And then I immediately regretted it. Right. Uh, and it came off quickly after, have any of you revisited Excitebike since episode five? I have not. And I never will again. It was just, I didn't even vote for it. So. I haven't either. I think I probably did before we took it off, but not since then. Just to feel better about your decision. Yes. I feel like, yeah, this comes off.

21:19 It is still a very impressive game though, to watch somebody like set a world record on a new track because that's still happening, believe it or not. So it's like, it's pretty impressive to watch these guys find new ways to break that kind of game. Uh, but I personally would just continue to, uh, to tumble on the way down. And then you have to like, watch your character like fall off to the side of the road and then go run over, pick up their bike. And it's like, oh, this is painful. Oh man. Okay. Uh, Joe, you could regain control.

21:54 Um, you know, I'll go the remaining play the game. I can't remember which one it is, but there's one left. It is for 100. Yep. Play the game for 100. An icon or figure representing a particular person in video games. Beep. Sean. What is a character?

22:13 I'm going to allow it. Uh, I was looking specifically for avatar, but I think this works and I'm going to allow it because it's basically the same thing in this game too. Uh, cause you choose your character, uh, not like based on like their IQ or anything like that, but just on a look for you. But everybody, everybody looks super weird in this game, right? Yeah. You've got like, uh, you've got like five variations with the three main, uh, like colors of people. There's pink, uh, puke green and like sort of a, a weird Brown. So, uh, I think it, it, it covers all of the demographics.

22:54 I, you know, can I admit something? I didn't even realize that I was able to choose. I just, I guess I just, maybe I hit a too fast and I just picked the first guy that it gave me. I thought it was just assigning it to me, but yeah, it says, do you want this character? And you have to keep pressing, or no, it was like select different character and you have to keep pressing yes. And it defaults to no. Um, and then it just cycles through, uh, the weird, uh, pixel art for them. I guess I was just too eager to get to it. I had like this cool, quote unquote, cool looking guy with like sunglasses and like his hair was like whipping forward a little bit. Yeah. I thought that was just like the general guy that everyone played as.

23:33 Now, uh, in fact, most people get those two, uh, nerd looking people with the glasses and the bad haircuts. It's like, why even include those types of people in your game? I picked the anchor looking guy. He looked like, he looked like he did TV news.

23:50 And I also think it's weird that you can have like between you and the computers, multiple people can be the same looking character. They should have like crossed that off the options of availability, but that's a whole nother story. Uh, okay, Sean, you got that one. So now you get to pick. Let's go with developing situation for 200. The name of the very first Jeopardy video game. Beep. Joe. I'm going to say, what is Jeopardy? You are correct. It's called Jeopardy. That's the 200 question.

24:27 Yes, that's the $200 question. And, um, funny enough, uh, pretty much most of them are called Jeopardy, uh, throughout the like sequels and spinoff section. There's no like, um. Jeopardy 2. There's no like subtitles. Jeopardy Reloaded.

24:43 Right. Uh, and funny enough, I didn't want to give it away, but this is the very first Jeopardy video game adaptation. This NES game. So, uh, that's pretty cool. And Jeopardy, uh, obviously a longstanding game now, but, uh, was also popular back then. So I'm sure this was a big win just for like families in general, but also for like parents to pick up the game and be like, oh, finally some video game that like our kids will learn something. Now there was apparently a Jeopardy game being developed during like the Atari 2600 times, but that's really strange because at the point that that game was being developed, Trebek wasn't even the host.

25:25 So it would have been like this really early, like non-popular version of Jeopardy with a old host who I think only did like two or three seasons. I didn't even know. I always thought Trebek was the first host of Jeopardy. I didn't know there was someone before him. Yeah, well, I'll, I'll link it in the show notes or something. I'm sure there's like a video I can show of like the first ever episode of Jeopardy and you can just be like, wow, that doesn't bring the same energy.

25:50 Okay. Um, so since Joe got that one, Joe, you are leading with 1800 to 700. Where would you like to go next? Um, what's left in trust your mechanic? 100 and 200. I'll take 200. This mechanic is the only way to answer questions in this NES game.

26:10 Beep. Sean. What is typing? Yes. Correct. For 200. Uh, you're slowly working your way back to the lead. Uh, and I think it's important that we just talk about this because I was thinking about this and the only other way to really, um, provide responses would have been like a multiple choice style thing. And I think for a game like Jeopardy, that would have really not worked well because it requires like this specific knowledge and the ability to like narrow down or, you know, they'd probably do like A, B and C are close, but D is like completely stupid, you know, like they couldn't do it that way. So I think this was the appropriate way to handle this.

26:55 I agree. I fully expect it to be multiple choice. So I was kind of, I was kind of surprised when they allow you to actually input the answers. And, um, I don't know, this is something that we would get into after another question, but did, did anybody have any, um, like concerns about like, Oh, like typing something slightly wrong or maybe in a different format that it expects? Like for example, I had, I had a question that was, uh, it was the name of agent 86 from GetSmart's partner and 86 in the question is, is in digits, 86. So I, and I knew the answer to it. So I typed in 99, but I typed in nine, nine and it was incorrect. And the answer was 99 spelled out.

27:38 Interesting. Yeah. I, I want to say that maybe there's some, a couple ways to do it, like a couple of correct answers. I can't confirm that, but I do know that like, yeah, if you misspell something, even like commonly, like one of the answers that I had was the Blarney stone and I forgot to put the E in and it said, uh, that I got the wrong answer. So I'm not really sure what the, uh, how lenient it is. Right. Although the manual does confirm that, uh, that there are multiple, there are multiple right. It's for some questions there are like, like commonly misspelled words can be accepted as correct. And also for some, uh, questions there might be like multiple ways of phrasing. So that, that was kind of impressive to me too on the NES.

28:31 If it really is true. I mean, I didn't really experience it because of the 99 thing. The most important thing there, Joe too, is that, uh, there's a couple of different instances of like rule placements for how you can handle like misspellings and stuff like that. So even things like if the answer was what, what are fish and chips, you can't do what are chips and fish. You have to do the commonly used, like correct version of the answer. Simply just like getting them all, uh, like getting everything that should be in the question. Like if you did last name, first name, that wouldn't work either. You have to do first name and last name.

29:09 Uh, but also it says that you don't have to do spaces. And I wasn't like courageous enough to try that. That's weird. But I think that's really strange that they were kind of like spacing between words is optional. It's like right there in the manual. So, um, you know, things like that are interesting. They do say though, Joe, something that was interesting for your 99 one is that, uh, most, most questions will accept, uh, either like Roman numerals, numbers, or spelling out the,

29:39 um, the number itself. So I thought that was weird that it didn't take yours. Right. Because I saw that afterwards and I was, I was kind of, uh, confused because it definitely just did, did not accept 99. Okay. Well, um, who got that one? Was that Joe? I did. Sean did. Okay. Sean. Good. Okay. So I did give you the points for that, Sean. Good. Um, you, you are able to pick the next category. Let's do developing situation for 300. Like host Alex Trebek, the game developer Rare is not from the USA. Instead of being a Canadian citizen, they reside in this country.

30:13 We're looking for what is the United Kingdom? You'll remember that Rare was the first third party developer on the NES with, uh, from, that, that wasn't from, um, Japan and they were from the UK and they brought us Slalom. Instead of being a Canadian citizen. Okay. That's cute. Well, because they're, they're, they're alike with Alex Trebek, but instead of being a Canadian citizen, they, they reside in. Oh, I see. Yeah. Alex is, yeah, he, he is Canadian, isn't he? Yes. I didn't know that.

30:47 Sorry. I'm just dishing. I guess I'm secretly revealing with each question that I like watch Jeopardy weekly. I knew that about you. I knew you were a Jeopardy fan. I did not. All right. So Sean, you still get to pick. All right. Let's, let's try developing situation for 400. The number of additional Jeopardy games on the NES.

31:10 Beep. Sean? What is two? That is correct. How did you know that? Um, I looked at the library and had to make sure I played the correct one. Very good. And do you know the names of the other two? I don't. I believe I'm working from scratch here because I don't have notes, but I believe it is the 25th anniversary edition and the junior edition. So there's a version that, like, theoretically will be a lot better at.

31:46 Blue. What is blue? Blue. Now, they're also both, uh, developed by Rare as well. So I feel like Rare just, like, racked up the license on Jeopardy and said, we'll just keep spitting these out. How different do you expect those games to be from the one we played today?

32:03 Well, with Jeopardy, go ahead, Joe. I would just say that the 25th anniversary edition, I can't, there's not, like, an additional theme to that that's different than this. So I just imagine it would be different questions. I don't know what else they would do differently. Yeah, I feel like, yeah, that one has to just be Jeopardy 2 for all intents and purposes or, like, an expansion pack. But with Jeopardy Jr., all I can see is just this, like, almost insultingly easy game. But I don't know. I mean, we'll play it.

32:32 Right. And I wonder, like, will they even change, like, the characters that you can play as? Like, will they go that far? Or will they just say, like, eh, those characters are fine. Maybe they'll be babies. You know, but, like, will they just reuse the same ROM but just put in new categories? It'll be open world Jeopardy.

32:52 I've been saying that we need an open world Jeopardy for a long time. Okay, so, Sean, that was you. You are only 500 points away from the lead. What would you like to pick? Let's do developing situation for 500. Okay, this is to tie. The number of game show games Rare made for the NES.

33:14 What is a whopping nine? My God. I never would have got that. Yeah, same. It would have been a shot in the dark. The same people. The same people who made Banjo-Kazooie later on would first make nine game show games for the NES. That's crazy. Did they make, like, Double Dare? They did. Okay. I remember seeing videos of that before. So it's not even all just, like, similar. It's not like they're like, oh, we have Jeopardy. We can make other trivia games. It's, like, completely different.

33:44 I guess there's trivia in Double Dare, right? Yeah, and to be fair, I mean, Double Dare is definitely a game show, so I did count that in the nine. Right, right. But, yeah, there's also, like, the obvious ones, too, of, like, Wheel of Fortune. Yeah. You know? I feel like those two shows, since they air back-to-back, are also just owned by the same person. Gotta be. So they just, like, bought the license for both. All right, I guess since I retain control. You do. I will get nostalgic for 300.

34:21 This game's manual had a unique story that we turned into a radio play on the show. Beep. Ooh, that was Sean by a hair. Sean? What is, Scoon? Yes, you are correct. What is Scoon? Tell me, what else do you remember from that game's manual? I mean, aside from the story, I remember a bunch of nonsensical names of enemies.

34:50 I did mean from the story, though, like, the general plot. Like, what do you remember? I remember it was about a warm-hearted pirate who actually, I don't know if it was, like, as a mercenary or just out of the kindness of his heart, decided to help save the world from an alien invasion. But I remember there being some, like, bargaining in that story. Yeah, I thought there was something where, like, you were being asked to do it, and then even, like, or the character or whatever, even the character was kind of like, well, what's in it for me or something like that?

35:21 Like, other than the world not ending. And Sean, you played the pirate. I was the pirate. Can you give us your best, like, yar? Yar! I think that's exactly how you did it. Probably. Okay, so Sean, you are only 200 points away from tying. What do you got? Let's do, uh, let's do Trust Your Mechanic for 100. This mechanic allows you to change the behavior of your computer opponents. Beep! I think that's Sean again. What is difficulty?

35:56 Correct. And we've already talked about the difficulty of the game, but did either one of you modify the difficulty to medium or hard? I just stuck on medium. I didn't, I actually didn't try easy or hard. I did easy first, and I noticed that the time just ended up running out a lot if I didn't do any input. And I think with medium, uh, they were a bit quicker to the draw, and I think they got more answers correct.

36:25 But I didn't play enough to, like, get an actual, to get a real feel of what was happening. Let's just say, I wonder if the questions actually get more difficult, or if it's really just, like, time limits in the AI. Yeah, I'm fairly certain that it's just, uh, time limits and, uh, and, like, their ability to, like, answer questions correctly.

36:45 Because I didn't try medium, but there is a, definitely, like, a jump from easy to hard, where the categories all seemed, like, relatively the same of what you might see on easy, but the, uh, the computers were definitely, like, in control of the game and getting the answers correct a lot more often. Hmm. Okay. Uh, Sean, you keep going. Let's do developing situation for 100. The developers of Slalom, RC Pro-Am, and Wizards and Warriors.

37:17 Beep. Sean? What is rare? That is correct. And they are the ones we've been talking about this whole time. Uh. I actually couldn't remember either. Yeah, no, it's fine. Uh, and I just think, like, at this point we probably exhausted what we were going to say about them, but we've seen these other three games, Slalom, RC Pro-Am, and Wizards and Warriors from them, and now this is our fourth game from Rare, and it kind of feels out of left field, right? But it probably doesn't matter back then. Yeah, they're all kind of out of left field. They haven't really decided who they are yet.

37:52 They've made sports games and, uh, adventure slash action game, and then this? Like, they haven't really settled into anywhere. Yeah, it almost feels like back then, like, making video games in itself was, like, a niche, so you didn't have, like, an additional one within that. Like, oh, I make this kind of game. You're just like, we make video games.

38:12 Yeah. And then they have to cast kind of, like, a wide net. Yeah, I would definitely agree with that, because even if you look at Square's output so far, there's nothing that says we make RPGs, you know? Indeed. So nobody's trying to, um, to lock themselves in, and to be fair, like, I think, uh, Rare's approach here of, like, Slalom being a sports game that they partnered with Nintendo on to get, like, the Versus system version going as well in the arcades, and then RC Pro-Am having this, like, multiplayer, uh, genre of sports that, I mean, I don't know if you'd consider it a sport game, but, like, just that racing thing is something that nobody else was doing on the NES, so that's a completely untapped market, too.

38:51 Wizards and Warriors actually feels like the one out of left field for them of the four that we played. Yeah, I would say so, too, because it is, yeah, they're all kind of simulations on something aside from Wizards and Warriors.

39:04 And this game is officially tied now, so, Sean, as you pick the board, you're both tied at $1,800 apiece. All right. Uh, let's, uh, let's touch the I Am 8-Bit category for $300. $300. In Arkanoid, you control a spaceship named this in order to break the alien blocks. An NES accessory of the same name was also released. I knew I had to get a little tricky here for you guys. The name is The Vouse.

39:31 The Vouse? I don't remember that at all. I remember talking about it. I would not have ever remembered that name. And I thought it was just funny that it had, like, its own name and that it was a spaceship, and I was like, I just think of that as, like, the thing in Pong. You know, like, it's just a wall that knocks into the ball. Yeah, it definitely seems, like, tacked on later. Like, we should make it a spaceship in the manual, even though they already just made the game.

39:59 And the, uh, the accessory also was just, like, a dial that, uh, would allow for more precise, like, fast movements than what a D-pad could give you. So that was actually pretty neat. Yeah, I do enjoy, I prefer the dial-in games like that. Um, I'm never, I'm not actually any better at it, but at least I feel like my mistakes are my own more. Right, right. Okay, Sean, take us through another one. Let's get nostalgic for 500.

40:27 Ooh, big one, big one. This other podcast is sometimes recorded during Nostalgia and does not feature the host. Wait, can you beep during the question? I think it has to go to Joe, because you have to wait until after the question is read. Oh, that's bullshit. Those are Jeopardy rules. So, Joe, what is the name? What is Mike's Without Mike? That is correct. Mike's Without Mike. Also, I didn't know you knew about that.

40:56 Oh, yeah. And we do sometimes call it off the mic, too. So it's, uh... Oh, I didn't know that, actually. So that's trivia even for me. We never called it off the mic. It's definitely happened. But Mike deleted all of the evidence, obviously. For sure. No, I believe that there is one Mike's Without Mike that did make it to a post-show. Really, all of you know which episode? There was one. I know, but I don't know. There were three recorded. I don't have the second one. I only have one and three, so I don't know if you guys did that thing where you just label the pigs one, two, four. Right. Yeah, so you can't find it. Right. But only Mike's Without Mike one, I think, has ever made it to a post-show of an episode, and I don't know which episode it is.

41:45 We can release three on the 50th anniversary of nostalgia. Yeah, that sounds fair. If anybody wants to hear more Mike's Without Mike, let us know. I have never listened to one I'm not allowed to, but I hear Sean is a big fan. It's a great show. Sean's the creator. He's a significant individual.

42:08 Okay, so Joe, next category. What do we have left in Trust Your Mechanic? Anything? They're all gone. We only have Get Nostalgic and I Am 8-Bit left. Then I'll take Get Nostalgic for 200. That's left, right? That's correct. The 50th and 100th episodes of Nostalgia. Beep? Oh, Sean's got a beep. Okay, Sean, what do you got? What are baseball games? Ooh, so close. 99, right? Yeah. 100 was Major League Baseball, but 50 was Rygar. So we were looking for one of Rygar and Major League Baseball. I see. I thought they had something in common. Okay. Yeah. So be it. The thing they have in common is that they are anniversary episodes, I guess you could say. For sure. All right, so Joe, you are now leading 2300 to 1600.

43:10 Where would you like to go next? What's left on 8-Bit? Everything but 300. Then I'll take 200. King Slender, Starman, and the Amazon are all characters in this fighting game. What is pro wrestling? Ah, yes. There were too many options there. I knew that it was a wrestling game. I just forgot which one.

43:35 Then that's fair because I didn't want to say in this wrestling game, but actually now that I'm thinking about it, I probably should have because we played four. So it probably should have been narrowed down even further. But we haven't even really had a fighting game per se either. So I guess we're kind of like in this weird limbo of games where we got like a bunch of wrestling all at once, and then nobody dared make another one because those ones all came out so terrible.

44:03 Okay, Joe? I'm going to do, forgive me if this is already taken, get Nostalgic for 500. Yes, it is taken. Only 100 is left. Oh, wow. What did I miss? Then I'll do, uh, Get Nostalgic for 100.

44:20 That's funny. Okay, Get Nostalgic for 100. Usually recorded at the end of every podcast. Plays after the end song. Beep beep. Okay. Who was it? You, Joe. What is the post show? Hey, he did it.

44:41 Uh, I, I'm going to allow it because he caught himself before he said the whole thing. Um, what is the post show is correct. Uh, for fans that don't know what we're talking about, we do this at the end of almost like most of our episodes. So please listen to them. They're pretty funny. And we might have one, um, at the end of this for all we know. So, uh, it's always worth listening at least through Sam Smith's sweet end song before we get to the post show. So why not? Just give it a listen. I like the idea that until now nobody has ever heard the post show. They always just tune out as soon as the music of them.

45:14 I don't like that idea at all. Just wasted. Well, one time we did a post show and then we did a post post show and then we did a post post post show and we just kept going. That was a great episode. It was a great episode. I don't remember what the game was, but I remember the post show. I don't think I was on that episode. I remember hearing it, but I don't think I was on that. That's what made it great, I'm sure. I'm sure that's what made it great.

45:39 Okay, so Sean, don't worry. You're not out yet. Oh, I know. You do have a chance here, but Joe picks the categories. So Joe? I am 8-bit for 200. We did it. It doesn't exist. What's last? I love the contemplation though, too. Because I can't see what we know. 100, 400, and 500. I'll do 400. In Kung Fu, you have to work your way through five stages. If you want to save this character, who happens to be your girlfriend, legend has it, if you beat the game 50 times, you can play as her.

46:22 No. I can't risk it. Okay. We are looking for, who is Sylvia? Sylvia. Yes. I knew as soon as I heard it, I would know it, but couldn't come up with it. And you'll remember that that is not true. Do not try to beat Kung Fu 50 times.

46:45 It will not work. And if you want to play as Sylvia, someone did make a ROM hack that you can play on a legal card even, if you patch it correctly, to play as Sylvia, and nothing else has changed. Yeah, I'm glad I didn't answer that because I thought it was Maria. Oh, Maria is Shadow the Hedgehog's girlfriend. You're still stuck on an April Fool's joke. What April Fool's joke? We didn't do an April Fool's joke. Absolutely. I don't know what I'm talking about. Uh, Joe? I'll do IM8Bit for 500. The subtitle of the only video game sequel that has had both its games appear on the NES so far. To make matters more confusing, the subtitle was the only title in the arcade release. Beep. Sean?

47:37 Gradius? Well, what is Gradius II? No. Oh, God damn it. So, you're... Oh, I messed up so bad there. It's okay, it's okay. Your heart was in the right place. I know, I know. Unfortunately, Life Force cannot be considered the Gradius sequel because it wasn't in the arcade and stuff like that. It was not. Gradius II is a separate release from Life Force. Yes, yes. So, we were looking for Ikari Warriors I and II, and the correct answer would be, what is Victory Road? Oh, right. Gosh darn it. The only question I decided to make near impossible.

48:24 Well, because I thought it was something with Gradius also, but I couldn't remember what the subtitle would be, but I totally forgot about Victory Road. All right. This leaves one thing left, and that is I am 8-bit for 100, so here is the question. If you want to defeat Dracula in this game, you'll need more than just garlic. Perhaps a whip would be best. Beep. Sean? What is Castlevania?

48:52 So boring, right? Yeah. I tried to think of, like, what would be, like, such a, you know, stupid question for a measly 100 points, and I almost went with something from Mario, but I thought that was, like, insulting. You know, like, that was too easy. Yeah. All right, so, like, I could still come back if I do the final Jeopardy, right? Correct. You could tie with Joe. So Joe has 2,400. You have 1,200. So Joe must theoretically bet a dollar unless he wants to call it a tie. So we will be right back with Final Jeopardy.

49:34 All right, and we're back, and first we have to handle the wagers here. So I will give that the category is game designers. All right. All right, so please submit your, um, the amount you're willing to gamble. They never say gamble on Jeopardy, though, but it is essentially gambling, right? It really is. I suppose. Wager. Gamble. Yeah, they do say wager. That's true. It's just the dirtier word for wager. The question is, so far on the NES, this game designer has been responsible for Wrecking Crew, Kid Icarus, Gumshoe, Balloon Fight, and most notably, Metroid. You have 30 seconds. You have 30 seconds.

50:56 And that is time. I think I lost. I think I just lost it all, folks. Did you submit an answer, Joe? I didn't. I couldn't think of it. Okay. Here we go. Once again, the question was, so far on the NES, this game designer has been responsible for Wrecking Crew, Kid Icarus, Gumshoe, Balloon Fight, and most notably, Metroid.

51:21 Sean, you submitted, who is Hideo Kojima? I don't know. You'll note that Metal Gear was not on the list here. Oh, man. Oh. And therefore, it could not possibly be Kojima, but we appreciate an answer. And that was my entire $1,200. Yes, you wagered your entire $1,200. And now for Joe. Joe, you said, who is Konami? Very late. And I also didn't say who is. Okay. Who is Konami? And that is not correct either, but you only wagered $1. So you will be today's champion with $23.99 as your total. Congratulations, Joe. Thank you. The correct answer, by the way, we only needed a last name. We don't need the first name, but the correct answer is who is Yoshio Sakamoto?

52:27 Yes. I was going to be my second. Like, that was my second place answer. You will remember Sakamoto is the one who just gives the most absurd answers on video game development. He says things like, well, we wanted this to be fun, so we made a video game. Exactly. Yeah, that's right. He doesn't, like, clue anybody into the development process. He talks about, like, when I was designing Metroid, I thought about caves. Is he not the one that, like, fell off his bike on the way to work one day? Or was that somebody else? I knew that this would happen, so I'm glad you brought it up.

53:02 See, what happened is that was the whole story of Kid Icarus was those two guys were, like, left alone to make Kid Icarus, and nobody remembers their names. And then Sakamoto comes in with his entire team after they're, like, finished with Metroid, and they look at Kid Icarus, and they're like, what?

53:19 What is this? Like, and then they fix the game and finish it, and the two guys who, like, not only did he fall on his bike on his way to work, but then he had to, like, he had to leave his honeymoon to come back to work on the game. Oh, yeah. I remember that. Oh, my gosh. So, this has been nostalgia, but we do have to remember the priority of the show, which is coming up with an essential games list. And so, right now, let's do that and decide if Jeopardy! is an essential NES game.

53:53 Sean? Well, I will say that this is the best version of Jeopardy! that can exist on the NES. It basically copies everything that it needs to in a way that sort of works for a video game. But that being said, the max potential for that kind of game is well below an essential game, like, for the essential games list, Jeopardy! even if it were the perfect Jeopardy! game would never be an essential game. So, it'd be like that sometimes. Okay, well said. I think we should put that as the banner quote for our essential games list. It'd be like that sometimes.

54:44 Joe, what are your thoughts? I'll just lead off with saying that I also will not be voting this essential. For similar reasons. I mean, it's still just Jeopardy! It's exactly what you kind of expect from Jeopardy! I'm sure that later consoles can do things, like, slightly better. I can't imagine it getting, like, too much better. But I do want to say that I thought this game was going to be atrociously boring.

55:11 And maybe when you play by yourself, it's not particularly fun. But, like, hey, it functions. It works. If you want to have a trivia, like, contest, a game of Jeopardy! with a friend, I mean, it works surprisingly well. And there are a lot of questions. I feel like you can play for quite a bit.

55:28 But, yeah, it just doesn't really hit anything that grand. It's still just Jeopardy! So I'm not voting it essential. Well said. And I think that, you know, in 1988, this offered a lot for people who wanted to play this. But I also know that for many people, Jeopardy! is a chore to watch, let alone play. So I don't think this belongs on the essential games list because it's definitely not, like, what people think of, like, peak video games, let alone peak game shows. You know, who wants to be a millionaire, right? Like that. Now that's a game that has, like, stakes and thrills.

56:04 That said, what's interesting here is that there's really nothing I would fault on this game. It pretty much gets everything right in terms of Jeopardy! with the, you know, for the limitations of the NES. It's just that I'm not personally looking forward to playing the other two versions that Rare makes, the 25th Anniversary and the Junior Edition. So why would I put this one on the essential games if I'm not looking forward to even playing them again? Yeah. I will say, though, that as a good, um, I don't even know if it's good, but as a memorable video game game show experience, you should seek out who wants to beat up a millionaire on the Dreamcast. That's a real game? That is a real game.

56:47 I have to find out. And you do, like, there's a minigame where you end up beating up, like, your opponent's avatar. It's so goofy. I just found it. That is crazy. Thank you for this, Sean. Of course. This will go in the show notes, for sure.

57:04 And, you know, that's really all the time we have for this episode of Nostalgia. Join us next time when we're playing something else, because we always do. We just keep moving forward in the game of life, which is another board game, but not game show. So I shouldn't have said another. Guys, any other thoughts? Well, thanks for putting together that game. That was well done, and it was a fun game. So we appreciate that. Thank you. Anything for the fans and you, Joe. Sean, you should submit requests three to five days in advance to see if they will be granted. I'll see what I can do.

57:39 All right. And we will talk to you guys next week. Remember to tell people about the show. Remember to tell yourself to listen to the show. It's important. Right now, even though, like, you know, most of the world is shut down, podcast listening is down. And we need you guys to listen to these episodes if you want us to keep making them. So please do that.

58:01 Don't think that just because you're not commuting somewhere that you can't listen. You can listen whenever you want. I would say that if you really wanted to simulate your day-to-day from the before time, just sit in a dark room and just sort of pretend that you're going to work. You know? It's not that difficult. Yes, and I should also note that NostalgiaCast is doing just fine. You don't have to worry about us. We are great.