160 · Bandai Golf: Challenge Pebble Beach

• Play one of the world’s most difficult and challenging golf courses on your Nintendo Entertainment System
• Introductions
  • The placement of the colon
• Overview
  • The game is named after Pebble Beach, a golf course on California's Pacific Coast
• Gameplay
  • The idea of a game being branded around it’s golf course
  • Should we review this?
    • It seems like Lee Trevino already showed this game how it’s done
  • What does the manual mean when it says TITLE MUSIC in Asterisks
  • Presentation of the game
    • Scorecard
  • First time we have a handicap
  • The rules of the clubs
  • Why is Golf going for realistic? Why can’t we get EVERYBODY’S GOLF or WHAT THE GOLF on NES?
• EGL
  • Groovy Soundtrack. Lee Trevino outfought this game
    • Characters 2 courses, different modes with stroke and nassau
• Next week - FRIDAY THE 13th!

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 Bandai Golf Challenge Pebble Beach. Play one of the world's most difficult and challenging golf courses on your Nintendo Entertainment System. Bandai Golf Challenge Pebble Beach.

00:23 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. I'm Joe. And I'm Sam. So, do you think it's weird that they were saying that you can only play it on your Nintendo Entertainment System, considering there's multiplayer built into this game, and like, you're not allowed to go over to your friend's house and play it on their Nintendo Entertainment System, only on your Nintendo Entertainment System? I think, I think you're being a little, uh, uh, literal. You don't understand that there was still like DRM in the 80s, and it was basically just lying to people and saying that they didn't work on any other NES. Yeah. I think it was just, I think a lot of people just played online.

01:08 True. They could've just played online. So they're both on their own NES. Yeah. A lot of people would just commit piracy and travel to Pebble Beach and play on the actual golf course. Ha ha ha ha. That's a good one. I just took it as like marketing. Ha ha ha. Another thing though, too, the placement of the colon here, Bandai Golf colon Challenge Pebble Beach. I know I joked about this at the end of last week's episode, but it merits discussion.

01:33 Is the colon in the correct place? I feel like it's not. I, I mean, I don't think that there's actually a, there is a colon there, is there? Okay. But the, the menu screen, it does like even just the, the size of, there's no colon on the menu screen itself, but the size of Bandai Golf looks like that's like the little developer title above the title. Bandai Golf developed it.

01:55 Challenge Pebble Beach is the game is what it looks like to me. Yeah. I, I feel like it is in the right spot, but challenge Pebble, Pebble Beach, Pebble Beach isn't, there's something wrong about that. Like challenge, maybe it needs a dash or another colon or something. Challenge. Like here's the challenge. I'm going to take it as like a, like a Metal Gear solid sort of thing. Like that's just the word salad.

02:20 It doesn't really mean anything. Um, but for this, it's just Pebble Beach challenge would have made more sense. Uh, but yeah, it's fine. Well, the game is named after Pebble Beach, a golf course on California's Pacific coast. And that's like a little strange, right? To be naming a game after like, uh, uh, an actual course or a stadium, you know, you don't play like Shea stadiums baseball, you know, you play like Ken Griffey's baseball.

02:48 Usually it's named after players. Yeah. But I, I think golf is more, it's, it's, it's more described by the courses because they all have their own personality. And while yes, like each baseball stadium has its own little players, it doesn't change the game as much as any, any particular, uh, golf course changes that specific game of golf. Right. Like if this game did well, then maybe that's what they were like, they were anticipating making more courses as their own separate games. That makes sense. So you had DLC and microtransactions in mind already. Well, yeah, they're already playing online.

03:31 Just watered down sequels is what I'm thinking. Got it. Okay. But, but listen to me. All right. We already had Lee Trevino's fighting golf. Like that used a real name to like sell a product. And we know that the tiger woods and now, uh, who is it? Rory McIlroy, right? Like they get their names on these games. Do you think that pebble beach, you know, to somebody who's not a golf fanatic or maybe even is a golf fanatic. Do you think that the course name is holding a higher, uh, pedestal to, to like, you know,

04:03 recognition than say a, you know, Arnold Palmer challenge. I wouldn't say that it's more so, but I think that it still has that, uh, that weight to it because I mean, my, uh, my dad has been talking about how he wants to play at pebble beach for like a decade. So I, I would never have heard of it without him talking about it, but I do know that it's like, it's, it's sort of the, uh, it's like, it's, it's known as one of the best, like the biggest, the best courses in the, at least the country.

04:42 As far as I know. And that brings up, that brings up another, uh, another point with, with your dad, uh, talking about it that, um, it's kind of like another form of wish fulfillment here that you wouldn't get with a player. It's like, this is somewhere that you can go in real life, but it might not, you might not be able to get there. You might, it might just be, you know, hopefully one day you can go there and play. But in the meantime, you can kind of, uh, play digitally on the NES.

05:05 Exactly. I think it's important to know that. And, uh, thank you guys for the distinction there because I know not the next a little about golf. So for me, you know, us open like holds a, uh, bigger prestige there because it, you know, it always changes the venue, but like, that's the big event, like the masters and stuff like that. Like those things matter. So I think knowing that Pebble beach is kind of like a, uh, a bucket list thing for golf players, add some credibility to putting it in the name and stuff like that.

05:32 Still, I'm still wondering if an athlete would have done better, but you know, that's probably expensive. I don't know if Bandai necessarily had to pay much for Pebble beach's name, if at all, because there's, I think they did. It's a, I feel like it's probably lower than if it were a player. Um, but I'm sure that there were some royalties, uh, being paid out there. So what do you guys want to talk about when it comes to this game? I, I feel like a lot of what we've said in golf and Lee Trevino, uh, has already like

06:02 covered a lot of the things that we could talk about here. You know, all the mechanics are still, uh, mostly untouched. You, you still get to choose your, uh, I was gonna say weapon. Still get to choose your golf club before you, uh, before you putt and everything like that. And you still get to, um, explore the maps. This way you get a full idea of what the course is like. You can't change players like Lee Trevino, um, let you do. So that's an interesting, uh, setback. But ultimately, is there anything here that stood out to you guys?

06:32 That's something that I sort of want to touch upon. Uh, like you talking about not being able to change your player because, uh, this is a very abstract version of golf. It's, it's like if you menu-fied golf, because, uh, in the previous games, there's always been like the, the main mode of play has been like your avatar, whichever golfer that may be on like standing on the ground.

07:04 And, um, and, and like you, you, you're sort of like there, like your guy is there. And in this one, it's mostly played from this satellite imagery. And only when you decide to actually swing, does your guy just sort of like get plastered on the screen. It doesn't like it, it doesn't mean anything. It's just, that's a visual representation of you swinging.

07:33 It's, it's sort of like you're playing from a tactical, uh, point of view and not so much playing a golf game. I don't know if that makes sense. Yeah. Honestly, the, the guy on the screen, while, while I think it does help to give you timing, you know, it just, I, obviously there's still that same timer bar that's in all the other games, but it's nice to see the guy swinging, but it also threw me off a little bit just because like, at first, like the, it, it looks because of the proportion of the guy that he comes up, not proportionate to the, to the course at all. It makes it look to me like I'm not hitting the ball very far.

08:07 So like, it kind of just skews my perspective, like initially until I like think about, okay, wait a second. So this is how big the course is. And, and, and because if you, if you miss the ball, if you miss your, your window and timing a lot, you will hit it really short. Sometimes I had a hard time telling like, did I hit it really short or am I just seeing it wrong? Because I'm, because it's my new, like your perspective is just a new hole or something. Yeah. I saw it more as just like the superimposed, like, uh, sort of, uh, companion to the meter. Like it didn't have any, it didn't really exist in the game world. It was just an image of a guy swinging.

08:45 So, uh, that you knew like where on the meter it kind of meant. So I didn't really see that, uh, that perspective switch, uh, change. I just saw it as just like an image. Yeah. Now that you're saying it that way, for some reason, it's making me think of like those you're watching like cable TV and you see like up next at the bottom and it's like a little character from like, who's like rotoscoped out. Exactly. Like just pop up on the screen.

09:11 Uh, so when I was playing this, like speaking of the guy who's the avatar, uh, I, well, I played this and I went back and I played NES golf to see how it compared. And one thing I noticed about NES golf is that you, when you are aiming your shot, when you're rotating, your character, Mario is still on the screen. Like your avatar is there the whole time in NES golf. And as you rotate that little image of your character, the, uh, the scenery in that image will change to reflect what you're seeing in front of you. So if there's water in front of you, that'll come into frame as you rotate around.

09:50 And I don't know, this, this was just like a guy, you know? So it just seemed more like very abstract. I thought. Yeah. And this could be a real rule in golf. I'm not sure, but depending on where the ball lands. So if it lands like on the fairway or in the rough or the, or, um, the bunker, you're only allowed to use like very specific, uh, clubs that they provide for you. Like you can never use the one wood again after you tee off. And then even if you're, uh, like far away, if you don't land on the fairway, the three woods sometimes is not available to you either. So getting off like really far shots is sometimes tough depending on where you land. I'm not sure if that's a real thing in golf and maybe that like, you know, warrants it,

10:38 but I actually think it's just weird to like restrict the user flexibility, uh, of the golf clubs. Cause we didn't have that in the other two games. And we also didn't have, um, you know, like we didn't have the, uh, tightness of the meat, the swing meter and of flexibility of moving your player where like in both NES golf and Lee Trevino's fighting off, you can move pretty precise where you want, uh, the cursor to move. I don't know. It felt very rigid in, uh, in this one, obviously when you're on like teeing off in the fairway, like it only lets you move in 45 degree angles. Let's say, I think it might even be a little less than that.

11:17 But when you're, even when you're putting at the end, like you have to like, the D pad is really sensitive. You got to like almost like tap it and walk away and hope that you tap it again. If you need to be more precise.

11:28 So it felt like a lot of this game was fighting back on the video game aspects of, of golf and, uh, more like, I don't want to say punishing the player because for all I know, these things are real golf rules. I'm too ignorant to find out, but it just seemed like it was against play. Yeah. I'd say that with, uh, it's sort of restricting you away from the one wood, which I guess is just the driver or whatever. Um, uh, when you're in the rough or if you're in a sand trap or whatever, I'd say that that's more just like, it's, it's not so much a rule of the sport as it is just like commonly

12:05 like situational to the sport. I guess like a, an analogy would be like in Madden, you can't have your quarterback line up wide. Um, even though teams do that relatively frequently. So as like trick plays, whereas like, it just doesn't allow you to do that in the simulation of the game. Um, there's no rule against it. It's just not what they put in. And as for like the angle of accuracy for like whatever degree, um, or whatever degrees are possible or just how, uh, fine tuned they can be. I did find that kind of odd, especially, uh, when you're sort of hitting for distance, it seems like that they add a little bit more precision when you get into putting, but not

12:52 too much. Uh, I think they want you to do a lot more with like in the actual swing meter, like where you can sort of adjust where on the ball you hit. It's a little confusing, but that's the only thing I can think of to explain away, uh, what in other golf games that we've played so far, it seemed a lot more granular. As far as like the swinging at the ball to change your direction, that was something that I noticed a huge difference between NES golf and this game, because in this game, your window where you can swing, I mean, it depends on which, um, which club you're using, but it's regardless, it's still pretty small of a window.

13:39 And in NES golf, like, I don't think you miss at all when you're swinging, but yeah, just kind of a curve, right? Like, yeah, curves the ball a lot more depending on that. And that's, uh, you know, not to cut you off here, Stan, but in case you didn't remember, I think that's because in this game, this one has like a triangle acting as like the golf ball. And in the other game, like there were actually a series of white pixels that were supposed to represent the golf ball. That was like a pretty big part of your meter.

14:07 Yeah. That's the difference. You can go on. Yeah, no, that's, I mean, what I was going to say is that in NES golf, you can like really curve it to like suit the course or the wind or whatever. And this one, I feel like even when I was getting it on the side, one, it's a lot harder to hit it on the side because your window where you can select is a lot smaller and a lot harder to hit because of that.

14:32 And it, even if I hit it really far on the side, I feel like it doesn't curve at all. Maybe only the slightest bit and it'll affect angle of it, but it doesn't really have the same kind of play that NES golf. Well, I think to curve it in this game though, I think you have to move that cursor, right? Move the cursor and then just get within the window. I actually did. Wasn't sure if where you hit in the red, which is the ball, it was actually affecting the curve at all as much as just me moving that. You can move that cursor.

15:05 I don't know any other way to describe it. It's just a little, little thin cursor. The triangle thing, right? Yeah. Triangle. That's what it is within the red. And if you move that, you curve it, which is what I get for not reading the manual. Yeah. Cause otherwise you don't even need to hit the button and it'll like, as long as you set your power, it'll just come back and it automatically makes contact. Yeah. It's something that I truly couldn't really understand.

15:31 Um, like, like how you were supposed to play with this, uh, play, play with that whole meter thing. Uh, I, I eventually think I got the hang of it, but I don't know. It was, I couldn't really get a full handle on it. Um, so what I got from it was that, well, it was that if you, if you move the cursor forward, it, it, it curves to the left. And if you move it backwards, it curves to the right.

15:57 Um, and at first I was a little, I was a little off put by the fact that, you know, your meter, if you don't hit it just exactly where you want to hit it, you get very little give. And it's either like, all right, it's a good shot. Or if you miss it by a, by a centimeter, it's a terrible shot. It doesn't, the ball doesn't go anywhere. And at first I was kind of like, well, that, that's kind of annoying. The more I thought about it, I mean, I guess that is kind of like real golf. You have a very little space that you need to hit exactly. And if you miss a little bit, you, it changes your shot a lot. So like, I started to kind of, what's that?

16:32 I guess I've never had that. I had that issue a lot of like, different from when, from, from what I remember from NES golf. Sam, you can correct me if I'm wrong because you played it more recently, but I remember having a lot more leeway and that maybe it was just, maybe I was just bad at this game, but I noticed in this game, if I missed just a little bit, it would go nowhere.

16:51 Oh, definitely. Yeah. You have way more leeway in NES golf. And I mean, sometimes if you really mess up, the ball goes straight up in the air and then come right back down, but you don't miss it ever. And Joe, I get what you're saying about, you know, if you miss it, if you miss the theoretical ball a little bit, like, yes, the shot would be awful, but I refuse to also believe that

17:11 you have the skillset of a pro golf player and then can also make like such terrible mistakes like that in the same instance by just being off a little bit. Like the window just needed to be bigger, bigger here regardless, because like, I think what Sean was talking about where like auto hits for you, like that is definitely something that happened for me in the putting mode.

17:33 And, um, and I, I was actually like nice to see it there because that's the last thing I want to worry about is like hitting the ball correctly while I'm like playing mini golf. But like in some respects, yeah, you do have to make sure that you're like hitting the theoretical golf ball because if you've ever been to a driving range and you're not a regular golf

17:49 player, you're going to miss that golf ball a lot of times, you know, even though it's right there on the tee. Like it, it feels like tee ball where you're like, how could I possibly miss this thing? But it will happen. I just think that that that was just another moment in this game where things were just a little too strict that, uh, for a video game. You're not trying to simulate being an amateur golfer. You can do that yourself.

18:12 Exactly. Yeah. Especially because it's, it's done with, it's illustrated with a meter with that, that moves at a random speed and like random compared to what the fact that there is no meter in real life. Like if it was illustrated with something that translated more to golf, then I can understand it being that difficult. But since it's like, oh, we need to get how, you know, figure out how well, how good you can

18:37 time this press of the a button with this meter that's moving. Like, well, it doesn't really translate the golf. So like that part shouldn't be what's difficult. Sorry. That was a mouthful, but I hope everyone. No, I understood it. Yeah. Loud and clear. You know, it's not even the biggest disappointment in this game though. That award goes to the moment where you leave the title screen with its super groovy Kirby's dreamland inspired music. And then you just wind up going to the golf course and it's the same track over and over again. And I'd rather just have NES golf soundtrack, which I'll remind you was nothing.

19:13 I thought that a lot too. NES golf was like relaxing. Yeah. This song was so annoying. Just the same. It's like not even interesting at all. There's no. There's like nothing to it. Someone just kind of was like, all right, hum something real quick and I'll turn into a song. It's like something like that. And I was like, all right, that's good enough. Well, I just tuned it out.

19:35 I can't even remember the sound of it, but that sort of plays into the rest of like what's sort of wrong with this game. I mean, it would have been more in character for this game to be silent because it also just doesn't have any personality anywhere. It's just like, like I said earlier, it's just like a menu based golf game. And I did like that. It had sort of the cross section of showing the showing elevation changes across the course.

20:09 Uh, that was sort of like a cool image thing that was also useful. But otherwise, like there's nothing that there's nothing like there's no personality to this game. Yeah. But the data is there. And I get what you're saying, Sean, with like it just being a series of menus, because it feels like ultimately that's what they're going for, because things that we have never seen before, I don't think any of the other games had handicap. So like that has it there. Sure. But even the detail that they put on the scorecard is pretty good.

20:37 And then finally, like a long complaint that I've had with the other golf games is that you'd never really know how much distance you have to go to the hole. And finally, like we got that here in this game. So like they give you more than enough information. It's just, it's just about as boring as real golf as the end result. Like if you're trying to make golf as boring as it seems on TV for someone like me, you've done it. You've done it.

21:04 They've succeeded. This is coming from Mike, who, who I think voted. Didn't he vote like NES golf, like number two of 1985? That's true. It's like one of your favorite games. I think as NES golf understood the arcadey moments of golf and also came up with the remind you with the whole system that all these other golf games are based on. We haven't like that was the first time that it was ever done. So I think that's really cool that they wound up coming up with this solution that all these other people have found. And I think that like the changes that both Lee Trevino and Pandai Golf here have made

21:38 are not like changes in the appropriate direction. Like, yes, they might simulate more things. Like I think for whatever reason, Pandai Golf has an actual fluctuating wind system that is just not realistic to life. All of a sudden, it's like, you know, it's one meter to the left, zero meters nowhere, nine meters up front. And it's like, does that stop once I select my club? Because I still have a good amount of time. And now you've removed the wind information. So like, did it just end wherever I selected? And now that's like, that's the that's the wind for the rest of the course? Or is it still fluctuating? And I just have no idea. And I happen to be in the middle of a tornado that's going to sweep up my ball.

22:18 Apparently, there's a windy course. So I would imagine that there are gusts. But like the one time you should be able to see the wind information is when you're in like about to take your swing. But like once exactly like I would imagine it goes away that it pauses where you left it. Like it's I guess like the whole that just wouldn't make any sense. I give them enough credit to say that they're giving you the correct information at the time of this swing.

22:47 But then it's only ever like an advantage though, right? It's only ever to your benefit. You might as well just wait until you see a great wind in your favor if it's going to change so rapidly. Like I understand that certain holes are built different so that so that like if you're on a whole number seven or something like it is designed so that the wind is going to the left. But if it's still going to fluctuate wildly, you might as well wait till it's not like seven meters in your direction. And the ball is going to like not travel as far. And now you're thinking like a regular golfer that might not hit into the wind if he can help it.

23:22 So, OK, no point taken. That was good. That was well thought. Yeah. Why is golf going for realism on the NES of all systems like we have just started with the return of video games? Um, it's it's early on the graphics aren't like able to be as detailed and they wouldn't know that obviously but like interesting in hindsight here. Why are they all going for this realistic simulation style? Why can't we get just a like a lunar pool style mini golf game that's really silly? Why are we always getting, you know, this is Pebble Beach. This is Japan and USA's premier golf courses with different recognizable characters. Like when are we going to get something fun?

24:42 Like, cause you're talking about it in hindsight. It's not like they should have said like, yeah, we should just wait until like 2018 when we can put something on like the, the PS4 or to be actually realistic. I think that there, that everybody throughout the history of video games has been trying to get realism down, like whether or not they succeed or not, it's more likely in the later generations. Um, but I do agree that I would like a more, more of like a golf story sort of thing. It, where it's more like, let's just have fun with the concept of golf and have it be this arcade fun thing. Uh, I'm surprised we haven't seen that, but I, I cannot fault them for wanting to be realistic.

25:31 I, I, I agree with you on that. And I also think though, that it's just a matter of precedent to like, you haven't seen anything like that before. So an idea like that, if you're a developer is like weird and scary where it's like, well, what if nobody likes that? Like no one's ever done anything like that. If you're thinking like, Oh, we're gonna make a golf game. Probably just the first thing everyone thinks of is like, okay, let's just make golf.

25:52 You know, like until you've seen like until some more things start kind of slowly breaking into it. And then more people are like, Oh, people like these quirky, weird things when they're talking about sports too.

26:01 Then, um, then I feel like we'll see more of that stuff. Yeah. Cause what other sports game? I mean, so you said lunar pool and like, maybe we had that one hockey game. That was, uh, that was like a little less realistic in more in the art style really. But like most of the sports games we've had are like all going for realism. Yeah. Double dribble is pretty arcade. Yeah, I'd say so. But it's not, not in the same regard as, uh, as a lunar pool. It was still trying to simulate the rules of, uh, of basketball the best they could. It just ended up being a much more action packed game because it's basketball and not golf.

26:40 Yeah. My only answer to that is just, you know, again, my biases here. I am putting golf in the like bowling billiards darts category and not the baseball, you know, basketball football category. So I guess that's where I'm branching off with my, like, they should just make these games fun, not focus on simulation because they're at the, at the root core of it for me. Like, I want these games to be fun.

27:05 Whereas like, you know, for baseball, it's like, Oh, bring on the simulation. Like I'd love to control a team through a full season, you know, even if it is on crappy hardware, like that's, that's just my own bias here. I just think it is strange that a game that like you could theoretically like the putting system is all you need. A mini golf game would be great on this system. And I'm not sure we're going to get it. So you have you looked ahead and confirmed? I'm not, I have not looked ahead. I don't, I don't do that.

27:34 All right. I have, then I'm, I'm still prone to agree with you though. I, I don't think, uh, it seems that sports games have, have sort of just fit that one mold and we're not going to see like, even like, even in the other category that you described of, of like basketball, baseball, et cetera, et cetera. We're not going to see like a backyard baseball or something like that. It's just going to be simulation after simulation. I want them to prove me wrong though. I mean, if anything, I know this is super Nintendo, but we might see something like a Kirby's dream course or something like that, which isn't like supposed to be golf, but it's, it's golf. It's just silly, goofy golf.

28:14 And like, maybe we'll see stuff more like that. It's just like cartoony and not necessarily golf, but it's like hit the ball towards the target in funny ways. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

28:42 Oh, yeah.

28:54 Did you guys read the manual? I did. Did you like all the like nice drawings and detailed descriptions that they had going on? There's a lot of information here too. Like speaking of data, there's just, they really wanted you to know everything about this game without ever having to play it. I could almost play the game in my mind based off of the manual.

29:13 That's just golf, man. Like it, that they will. I remember when I was, uh, but my, my dad made me watch a video describing a golf course. And like, they had segments of like talking about each hole and all of the interesting things about that hole. Like it was telling you a story about going from the, uh, the driving green or whatever the bucket, the T going from the T to the hole. It's sort of like this. So it's just sort of falling in line with the culture of the game.

29:52 I didn't enjoy reading it. Yeah. I was gonna say, um, page 13 in the manual actually reminds me of like 11th grade math with the graph paper and stuff. More than it ever does remind me of a video game. Yeah. I'm not sure why that's there. Um, but it's, you know, it's, it's appreciated that it almost makes you seem like you're reading a textbook. That's cool. To me, it looks like it's like information on like a style doc. Like when I plug those numbers in, it's going to give me like specific colors. Or, uh, it's the, uh, it's the illustrations on the golden record of the Voyager.

30:32 And, and now I'm just being mean, but if you go to page four, how to play the game, uh, it tells you start in bold and then title screen. And then next to that, an asterisk with title music. I'm, I'm just not even, this is all sounding like gibberish to me. What do you mean? Start. It sounds like start the title screen. Like the title music. What is that? Like, it sounds like it's like partially a manual and also partially like some of the documents they use. Yeah. It's like instructions to make the game. Yeah. All right. This is where the title is and we're going to put the music there. So we got to asterisk that so we don't forget.

31:14 I agree. I think that's what this is. Yeah. It's wild. Cause it's almost like the start in bold means like a whole series of things that I feel like if they're trying to explain this to someone who's not familiar with video games, they're failing here because they're really telling you like plug the NES into a TV, put the cartridge in and turn the power on. That'll start in bold. And then you'll get to the title screen. Don't be alarmed if there's title music during the title screen.

31:44 Finally, you can push start. They do. They do say push start. This way, you know, that it's about using your controller, but then they just start explaining other parts of the sub menus and the options between them going into a lot more detail. So I think this thing really just needed some good old fashioned tables in Microsoft Word style, you know, like just to explain like what each column is supposed to be. And you know, by the end of the manual, they sort of have that. I mean, they don't have lines, but they do have a table.

32:14 Uh, so over, yeah, over the course of the author's, um, writing experience, he did figure out how to, how to put together, uh, some Excel docs, I think. Oh my God. Actually, if you overlay page 13 over page four, it points everything out of it. It's so funny. That is so good.

32:36 You know, it is a nice touch though, with that subtle master's green color. That they use across the, uh, the whole entire manual that, you know, you get that jacket. If you win the masters, that's like the same color here. Is it a green jacket? I thought it was, it's a green jacket. Yeah. It's like the whole thing. I wanted the green jacket and I don't even like golf as we're talking about this for 35 minutes now. Yeah, it's been, been a lot. You know, Sean, it has been a lot, but we're still one more thing we got to do, whether we like it or not. We have to take Bandai golf colon challenge pebble beach into the essential games list.

33:17 All right. So it's time for the essential games list and I'm going to do something I don't usually do. And I'll just go first because I know there's only so many things you can say about why or why not this game shouldn't be on the essential games list. And so for me, this game peaked at the title screen with that asterisk title music. It was amazing. Uh, I really do feel like that's one of the best tracks we're going to have, uh, in 1989. It's definitely a lot more memorable than some other stuff. And it's in a golf game. That's pretty crazy that it's happening on the menu screen of a golf game. However, I think Lee Trevino outfought this game in every way possible.

33:54 Uh, there's, there's more characters. There's any, there's any characters. There's two courses, a USA and the Japan course, and there's different modes too. There's actually stroke play and, uh, NASA. So to have two different modes, even this game won't offer you that. It's really just saying like, Hey, you can play with a friend if you want, but only on your NES, not on theirs. And so for that reason, this game is not essential. Sean? Um, yeah, I think that if, if this game had a bit more of a sense of presence, sort of maybe like putting your character on the green.

34:27 Um, I just something as wild as that idea. I think this would have been a better experience for me. Um, right now it kind of feels like you're in a, like a Gran Turismo B spec mode where you're just sort of telling a guy what to do instead of saying. Instead of playing golf.

34:45 Uh, so even in the essential golf games list, this is sort of, it's, it's not there. Um, so no, this is not an essential game. Fair enough. Joe? Yeah, I'll say that maybe if, if we didn't have NES golf and Lee Trevino's fighting golf, uh, I wouldn't say not to play this game. But since we have those two, I would say don't play this game only because it's, uh, it's, it's not as good as either of them. Um, and then while neither of them are on the essential games list, this is definitely not on the essential game. And last but not least, Sam. I mean, kind of what everyone's been saying, what I've been saying the whole time is that, uh, NES golf is a better game.

35:27 And if NES golf isn't on the essential games list, then surely this isn't. I think that this just doesn't have very much character in it. And it doesn't, I don't know, it just, it's like, oh, we need some music, so put some music in because it's a video game about golf. So have golf music, which is boring, because golf is boring. I don't know. Um, it's not essential. All right, and so that's four no's. Um, not a surprise, I guess, based on the first 30 minutes of the episode.

35:56 However, you know, it's still up for debate whether they put the colon in the right place or not. So, uh, we don't do an essential games list for the titles. There's no essential titles list. Uh, but since we're there, you know, is any, uh, any video game titles in general stand out to you guys that you just like? I love that they named the game that.

36:16 If you put me on the spot, I can't really think of anything. Chubby chairman. I think Lee Trevino's fighting golf, which is funny because it even beats this game in the title. Something about Pac-Man Championship Edition DX to like just throw everything you've got at it, but it's still like all is sound. It's not like a Kingdom Hearts title, you know, like where it's like, okay, that, that literally doesn't mean anything. So I don't care. Uh, here, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX does mean something. So yes, I'm going to bring up that game whenever possible.

36:45 Oh, um, I do have one and I know it's not like the correct way to say it, but, uh, DRIV3R, um, you know, DRIV3R, um, you know, DRIV3R, um, if it's stupid stylization, I cannot look at that, uh, box and say in my head DRIV3R. That's probably my favorite. What about 3D battles of Worldrunner? No, I hate that. It was, it was technically in 3D. Well, I'm talking titles. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true.

37:15 The battle. Yeah, there's something interesting. You cannot just call the game untitled or, uh, I guess you could actually. Why not? Who am I? I'm not your mom. Do whatever you want. Uh, but Sam. Yeah. Why don't you tell us a little bit about, uh, the rules, regulations, what a game jam is, what jam is. So jam is like, is like marmalade, but without the rind. Um, good. But this isn't like that. This is the other kind of jam. So this is a set period of time that you have to make a video game. You can use an existing video game engine. I like using Godot or Godot, however you want to pronounce that. Unity is also good.

38:22 Um, both of those are free, by the way, in case you're, you don't know about these things. Um, and you basically just make a game to certain specs of whatever the jam, uh, says to do with within certain constraints. And you can only work on it during, like while the game jam is happening. So, uh, yeah, ours is starting March 19th and I think it goes until the 28th. It goes until that next Sunday. 19th. Yeah, we'll just, we'll just let it ride. Yeah. That, uh, it, it goes from March 19th is a Friday and it goes from that until the following Sunday. Um, and then after that, we'll, uh, we'll, we'll pick our, our favorites and talk about them on a special episode, right?

39:12 That's exactly correct. So for ours, um, where it's going to be NES specs is we're asking you to make the games in NES specs. It doesn't have to be exactly NES. You don't have to code it to an NES cartridge. And if you want to, that'd be cool, but that's probably going to take more than a week and a couple days. Uh, so we're asking 256 by 240 pixels because that's the NES resolution. Um, 8 bit audio. It doesn't have to be, you know, exactly NES sounds like you don't have to copy sounds from the sound chip or anything like that. But I'm just saying like, keep it, you know, keep it 8 bit, keep it 8 bit, keep it like, make it sound like it's coming from the NES.

39:57 Um, and for your controls only do the amount of controls that an NES controller would have. So you have your D pad, you have your A button, your B button, your select button and your start button. And that'll all be on the itch page, right? Yes. And this is on itch.io is the website where we're hosting the jam. It's a good website for playing games and, you know, uploading your games as a developer. And if you don't want to enter the jam and make a game, you can still play all the games that people submit, which might be fun.

40:29 Yeah. It all sounds awesome. And if anybody wants additional information, you know, to check the show notes, it's, uh, right there at the bottom after all of this random Bandai golf challenge, Pebble Beach show notes where you're like, what they do show notes. Yeah. Every single episode, go back in time, every single episode. And this one has them too. But if you also want some more information, we'll be talking about this a lot on our Twitter page. That's at NostalgiaCast on Twitter. You know, we are always posting on Twitter.

40:54 Some people say that NostalgiaCast really happens on Twitter and that the podcast is just an accessory to the Twitter page. I don't say that. I definitely think that the podcast has been around longer and that the Twitter is just an accessory to it. However, other people have said otherwise. So don't ask me about those other people. I don't know anything about them. I'm Michael Esposito. You can find me at Esposito Film on Twitter, where I may or may not also be posting as the NostalgiaCast. Twitter at the same time. And I'll be talking to you real soon. Bye. Bye.!! Bye.!!!!!!!!!!!