321 · Jeopardy 25th Anniversary Edition

• 6 years, that’s a long time to run a podcast. But we’ve had some great memories
  • Like the time we played Jeopardy
  • And the time we played Jeopardy Junior edition
• But what about the time we played Jeopardy on our Jeopardy episode…
• It’s the same game with new questions, so what did we think about the old questions…
• And you never know what Sean is going to say when it comes to jeopardy
• Does the show need an ending? The game just ENDS
• Sequels and spinoffs? Oh yeah you better believe there are plenty…
• It does need an EGL, who could forget how we voted last time
  • And it’s the same now
• Next week - The Last Starfighter
• NEStalgia Byte - Konami Wai Wai World
• EP 117
• Various 2020 references (record date)
• Remember when we tried to play jeopardy (for entirely too long)?
• Remember all our "beep"s? 4:00, 8:00, 10:25, 15:49, 18:10, 22:08
• 9:45, Remember when Mike said Gambit instead of Gamut, and nobody called him out?
• 22:30 solved race relations (colors of people, pink, puke green, weird brown)
• EP 228
• Remember when Mike's audio got much better?
• What happened to Joe?
• 1:55 I describe that I hate gimmicky episodes
• 3:05 why is everything phrased as a question?
• 8:00 Remember when Mike said "Room for wiggle" and I did call him out on it
• 17:25 I say how much I hate those kids
• 21:30 Mike rants about the current state of actual Jeopardy
• 24:00 fake money or fake cars. What's better?
• 26:15 we set up false expectations for what we do for the 25th anniversary edition
• 28:20 analog horror child avatars
• Episode 1
• 15:34 - 16:10 I had a lot of uncertainty to what the questions was asking
• 18:02 - 18:20 Sean had an advantage because he thinks like Mike so he knows what Mike wrote verbatim
• 20:27- 21:20 I admit that I regret voting excitebike on
• 24:09 - 24:45 I answer the easiest question on the board
• 27:05 - 28:36 there are problems with the question input, where if you don’t type it the way they expect it is considered wrong.
• 30:01- 30:20 - it’s edited in a way that makes it seem like Mike gives us no time to answer
• 31:50-33:04. we talk about todays game!
• Episode 2
• 0:49 - 1:21 no host? How does that work? Who writes the questions
• 1:55 - 2:11 Sean hates when we do gimmicks and here we are
• 7:25 - 8:20 a great mike-ism “room for wiggle”
• 13:06 Sean does grocery trivia

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

00:00 Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary Edition!

00:18 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. Six years. That's a long time to run a podcast. Has it been six? We've had some great memories, haven't we? Oh, God. Six? Sure have. Sounds like I maybe agree with that more than Sean does. I feel like I've wasted my life. I would hate to tell Sean right now that I've known him for 13 years and how he would react to that. Yeah, 13 years and six of them. No, that's great. No, but six of them on a podcast. Yeah, you're almost, it's almost the half, almost half of your time knowing Mike has been doing this podcast.

01:06 And eventually it will be greater. I'm not sure how to feel about that. Unless you guys forget each other in the middle of the podcast. I could never forget. I could never forget Mike in the same way that I could never forget playing this game so many times. Right. Like that time we played Jeopardy. And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Sean.

01:38 And I'm Joe. And the time we played Jeopardy! Junior Edition. And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. And I'm Sean. I don't remember Jeopardy! That's weird. But do you remember the time we played Jeopardy! on Jeopardy! Oh, of course. Okay, I forgot. Remember there being lots of uncertainty to, at first, to what questions, what the question was actually asking. So I got a lot of questions wrong that way.

02:13 All right, 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. All right, 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! Well, we sure did have a lot of crazy categories. Play the game, trust your mechanic, developing situation, get nostalgic, and I am 8-Bit. Yeah, I wasn't a huge fan of what we played because I'm pretty sure I lost our actual in-universe Jeopardy! match. But I really did like being the buzzer. It really got me into a groove. And you guys buzzed a lot.

03:15 Beep! Is that a beep? Beep! Sean, a couple of these questions, I do remember thinking like, you had a little bit of an advantage because you and Mike are just on the same brain wavelength. Sometimes I felt like you knew exactly what his answer was going to be. Beep! 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.

03:49 So, yes, you gained that. And you have cut your lead to just being halfway to Joe. It's 1,200 to 600. Beep! Sure, sure. But you did still win Joe. And you have to admit that it's hard to really understand him when he butchers the English language to such a degree. Such as, such as this.

04:15 Um, 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, uh, you know, like, which is, which is completely, uh, like, what could that be? And it goes through a whole gambit of, uh, different things like what is flour, what is thin air. Like, it, 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. And we didn't actually call him out for that one, but I appreciate that we eventually called him out for this one.

04:53 Okay. They did ask me some questions that made me think for a minute of, will they accept some variations of the answer or not? So I tested it with, um, they asked, uh, what the human torch's real name is. So I tried John Flame, which sounds stupid, right? You wouldn't call Peter Parker, Pete Parker, but it's technically not wrong. However, they will only accept the exact answer. There is no room for, uh, Wiggle here. So, like, Pepe Le Pew, you can't just call him Pepe. Room for Wiggle. Well, that's funny because you never know what Sean's gonna say during an episode of Jeopardy!

05:37 You asked the question first and now I'm giving you an answer. I should have said, like, oh, no, you're right. There was an entire category for Captain Power, which I had never even heard of. Yeah, the, I think it was Two's, Two's, not Two's Company. I don't know. Three's Company. Eggs. What is eggs? There you go. What are eggs?

06:02 Yeah. It's a bagel. Where is New Delhi? Yeah, I'm so against Wordle. I would, I would never do those anymore after we shared them for, for like a month or so, but $72,400. Praise be. Hey man, like, don't, don't pigeonhole us. I can like football and, and asking questions as answers. I think I'd rather see fake money than see a fake car. 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, and just sort of pretend that you're going to work, you know? It's, it's, it's not that difficult.

06:48 Wait a second. I, are we, guys, are we in a clip show right now? That, that's, that seems pretty, that's kind of fun, right? Hold on, you're, you're, so you're, you're happy with the clip show idea? Yeah, this is, this is cool. I, I, the vibe is interesting. I find that really interesting because I seem to remember you having like an opinion about, about gimmicks like this in the past. Yeah, you know, I hate, I hate when we try and do gimmicks. It means, it's like we're being lazy. It's crutch, it's a crutch. I like the purity. No, I don't really, but let's, let's do it the way you want to do it.

07:26 Well, if we are in a clip show, which is something I wouldn't know until after the episode is edited, then that would be really weird, because I feel like I've had that idea before in Jeopardy! Jr. edition. On the sequels and spinoff side, we have to play this game two more times. Ugh. Can you believe that? What are we going to do? Let's just, okay, one of them we have to actually play together, so. Yeah, 100%. Actually, the three of us, hopefully. Well, yes. So why don't we all play for Jeopardy! 25th anniversary edition, since that seems like a big deal. And, um...

08:03 And if that game comes out in, like, 1990, and we play it in 2025... Is that really when we're gonna, when we're playing it? Yeah, I don't know. I'm just saying, with bad math, you could think that that's the 25th anniversary, but that would be like the 35th or 45th anniversary. I can't tell how old people are. 35th anniversary. Yeah, I'm, I'm that old. That's good. Not that old. You will be. Someday. Yeah. And then I think for Super Jeopardy! Which sounds like it should be on the Super Nintendo, but for Super Jeopardy! that is the last time we'll play this game. I think that's the one we make a clip show. Of all the Jeopardy! stuff. Yeah, I think, yeah, we could make something really, really cute out of that.

08:52 So wait, what's the point of this episode then, if we're just playing content that we've already produced? I don't know. I think there's still some value in what we're doing here, because, you know, we can bring to light the things that we may have discussed, and like, you know, we've solved some issues here, like, uh...

09:12 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, because you choose your character, uh, not, like, based on, like, their IQ or anything like that, but just on a look for you. Yeah. But everybody, uh, 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 weird brown. So, uh, I think it covers all of the demographics. And we helped Joe come to grips with his regrets.

09:56 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. Uh, Excitebike, uh, was, um, 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. Yeah, this comes off.

10:47 Yeah, I'm, I'm much better now. But, uh, I do remember that when listening back to those episodes, maybe it's the way you edited it, but it does not sound like you gave us any chance to answer the questions that, like, we didn't know.

11:02 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. 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. And of course, Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary Edition does need an essential games list vote. Who could forget how we voted last time?

11:52 Jeopardy! Even if it were the perfect Jeopardy! game, would never be an essential game. So, it'd be, it'd be like that sometimes. Okay, well said. Um, I think we should put that as the banner, uh, quote for our essential games list. It'd be like that sometimes.

12:11 Joe, what are your thoughts? I'll just lead off with saying that I also will not be voting this essential. Um, for similar reasons. I mean, it's still just Jeopardy! It's, it's, it's exactly what you, 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. Um, but I do want to say that I was, I thought this game was going to be atrociously boring.

12:38 Um, and maybe when you play by yourself, it's not particularly fun, but like, hey, it, 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. Um, and there are a lot of questions. So I feel like you can play for quite a bit. Um, but yeah, it just doesn't really hit anything that grand. It's still just Jeopardy! So I'm not voting in essential.

13:00 Well said, 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.

13:23 Um, you know, who wants to be a millionaire, right? Like that. Now that's a game that has like stakes and thrills. Uh, that said, um, 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, um, 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 list if I'm not looking forward to even playing them again?

13:57 And it's the same now, right? But wait, did, did Joe get to vote last time? Yeah, on the original Jeopardy! Oh, okay, you, that was part of the clip show. Got it. Yeah, it just played if, you know, everybody just heard it and now you sound crazy. I do sound crazy. Yeah, I was actually hoping that everything I said on the original Jeopardy! could just be reused for every Jeopardy! episode we ever have, including that one I missed. Well, when they release Jeopardy! 26th Anniversary Edition next year, uh, for 1991, we will, we will definitely use this and talk over this file.

14:33 It's just recursive all the way down. Sorry, go ahead. Next week, we're back to real podcasting with The Last Starfighter, uh, a game that promises to be a bit more exciting than Jeopardy!

14:46 Uh, Jeopardy! is exciting though, and you can watch it weeknights at 7 on ABC. We'll see you next week! Stay up and notice this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this later this