375 · Spot: The Video Game

• Warning: Not recommended for Squares
• 1. Introduction
• Overview of Spot: The Video Game.
• Released in 1990 by Virgin Mastertronic.
• Featured 7-Up’s mascot, Spot.
• 2. Gameplay Mechanics
• Based on Othello/Reversi. If there’s one way to make my soda mascot stand out its going to be by reinventing the rules to a 100+ year old game.
• Played on a 7x7 board, with ability to edit the board to lose as many squares as you want
• Two to four players alternated turns, with each player controlling pieces of a specific color. On each turn, a player selects an existing piece of their color, and then an empty position one or two squares away. If the selected location is one square away, a new piece is created in that location; otherwise, the chosen piece moves from its original location to the new location. In either case, all adjacent pieces are then changed to that player's color.
• Animated Spot character adds charm with moves like dancing and roller skating.
• 3. Development History
• Origins: Created as Infection by Dave Crummack and Craig Galley in 1988 for Wise Owl Software.
• Commercial Path: Virgin Mastertronic UK acquired rights, but Infection versions for Amiga, C64, and Atari ST never saw release.
• Arcade Version: Licensed to Leland Corporation, released as Ataxx in 1990.
• 7-Up Branding: Virgin Mastertronic US added branding and released it as Spot: The Video Game.
• Development: NES version created in six weeks with minimal resources.
• Promotion: NES version was briefly offered for $24.99 with four 7-Up bottle labels.
• 4. Versions & Platforms
• Available on NES, Game Boy, Amiga, MS-DOS, and Atari ST.
• Differences in multiplayer and graphics across platforms.
• 6. Cultural Impact
• Paved the way for Spot: The Cool Adventure (Game Boy) [a port of the NES game, M.C. Kids.], Cool Spot (Genesis) and Spot Goes to Hollywood (Genesis)m

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

00:00 Spot, the video game. Warning, not recommended for squares.

00:21 And welcome to the next chat. Holy shit, that sound, that was great. That was a great joke there. That was good. You liked it. I was so confused just now. Yeah, you know. You just gotta know. For those that don't know, Spot is a circle. So it would make sense that it's not for squares. So good, dude. Who are we? Who are you? And I'm Joe. Okay, good. I'm Sean. We have Joe, we have Sean, and you have me, Mike, your host, doing a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America.

00:59 This week, we're playing soda. We're playing soda. It's 7-Up's Mask. It's like pop. Yeah, it's. Oh, yeah. Sorry. It depends on where you're from. Soda, pop. Would you say fizzy drink, Sean? Yeah. Coke. Sean says fizzy drink. Yeah. I know over in Europe, they say that they want it with gas. They're like, water with gas. That just sounds nuts. You guys gotta work on something better. They all say that. Dude, does anyone just say soda pop anymore? Just combine, bring back soda and pop? No, you're actually kind of, I think you're some kind of schizophrenic, I think, if you say that. I might start trying to do it. I think it sounds the most delicious.

01:41 All the soda talk is happening because this is a game about a soda mascot, 7-Ups mascot, Spot, who is a red circle, who wears sunglasses, has stick figure arms and legs, but not stick figure hands and feet. It's a little confusing. I guess, like, technically, he might have them under the shoes and the gloves, but I prefer to just think that the shoes and gloves are, like, atomically part of his body. Now, I like to think that basically he is just a stick figure, and he's wearing the red circle, and he's wearing the gloves and shoes and sunglasses, and he's really just, like, a void of stick. And this is just, like, his job. He's just like, hey, it's a living.

02:30 Yeah. He kind of looks like he'd say that. Yeah. No, Spot's, like, cool. Spot would be like... Not here. What do you mean? Well, there's a game, Cool Spot. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just meant, like, he's giving off that he's hip, you know? It's like, Spot, you know, Spot would be like, I don't work for the man. Man. Yeah, exactly. Spot also not around anymore, right? Like, when was the last time you saw this guy on Bottle of 7-Up? I don't know the last time I saw a Bottle of 7-Up. Oh, that was going to be my next question. You know, when's the last time you saw a Bottle of 7-Up?

03:10 I don't know. What about you, Joe? I haven't seen 7-Up at all. I hadn't thought about it until I started playing this game. It was like, is 7-Up still around? Do people still drink that?

03:20 Now, the 7-Up, it does have in the logo a red circle, and I promise this is going somewhere. But obviously, like, I think that that red circle is not like, I don't know why it's there in the first place. But now that, like, they were like, hey, we can make that red circle our mascot, I'm all in. You know, I'm invested in Spot as a character. You know, he was always there. He was always lurking. And now I just want to know, you know, like, when I don't see Spot on screen, I'm asking myself, where's Spot?

03:54 It's weird that, you know, if you're just playing a standard game, that, like, the number one, like, the first player is not the red circle. Like, you are not, you are never Spot unless you play, like, a four-player game. Well, hold on. You can't get, you can't just talk about the gameplay like that. Okay, we're talking about that. Okay, you're right. I'll hold off. I'll hold off. I know what it was. I gave you guys, like, too many Simpsons quotes at once, and you didn't have to send you them. That one, we had no idea. Yeah, it's with Poochie, and they're like, oh, God. Yeah, never mind. Oh, God.

04:30 It's not an oh, God moment, because believe it or not, the Simpsons is actually a popular American TV show. If you can believe it. In Europe, they call it gassy cartoon.

04:42 Yeah, yellow people with gas. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, well, they are yellow, Sean. It's not controversial. It's not new. Well, on my CRT, they're kind of like a sickly green. You've just got to adjust your CRT. We're not even doing, like, filler stuff right now. That's what's crazy. It's like, there's things to talk about in this game. We're not trying to kill time. I tried. I don't think I'm trying to kill time. I think there's just so much to talk about when it comes to a video game starring a soda bottle mascot where the mascot does not make me think about the soda at all. You know, like, Pepsi Man?

05:20 He's just like a guy dressed to the nines in Pepsi. Let's see. What does Cool Spot make you, or Spot, make you think of 7up for? Because of the red circle in it? I'm not going to lie, though. Maybe this is the genius of their branding, but just that red dot does make me think of 7up.

05:39 There you go. And you haven't seen a bottle in ages. Like, 7up is not red. It doesn't have, like, a cherry flavor or anything. It does. Cherry 7up's one of my favorite flavors. Well, no, no, I'm saying, but, like, regular 7up doesn't have an inherent cherry flavor. That's poser 7up. But, like, that little circle makes me think, yeah, that's what 7up, that's what the taste of 7up would look like.

05:57 Now, I, if I could talk about video games for this. I don't want you to talk about the video game. You're going to scoop my story. I'm not going to talk about this video game. Oh, perfect. Then go ahead. Okay, so, the spot that I remember is from Cool Spot. And maybe I'm stealing your sequels and spinoffs bullshit, Mike, but I want to talk about this. Um, when I was young and would go to Blockbuster to rent video games, uh, I had, I had rented Cool Spot and thought it was one of the, like, the coolest things in the world. Like, you know, you, you, you just see this bottle of 7up, uh, looked real realistic. Like, wow, I'm playing this game and it's in real life.

06:44 And, and the bottle sort of washes up onto a beach and then you just sort of jump out of the bottle and, like, start hanging out on the beach. And I thought that was one of the coolest things in the world. And then the rest of the game happened and it was lame. So, that, that, that's all, that's my memory of 7up and Cool Spot. Well, thank you. I appreciate that because that was relevant to the topic we were discussing, which is, uh, one of the, um, mascots in the Mascot Hall of Fame spot from 7up. Uh, I have a 7up memory and it involves Cherry 7up, which is not a poser. It's poser 7up. Yeah, it's not a poser drink.

07:27 Um, and that was that one time I, like, some birthday party that I was invited to and I was like four years old. Whose birthday? I had, I don't know, it was like my cousins, I think. And I had a, I had a cup. How many cousins do you have? I have 15 cousins on one side and six on the other. Um, and I drank a cup of Cherry 7up and I still can taste it to this day. I don't know if I said I was going to like remember it or whatever, but I remember how refreshing that Cherry 7up was that day. And so I really want spot the video game to be good. Joe, last chance, any 7up memories? I don't, I honestly, I'll just, I'll just be straight with you guys. I don't know what 7up is. I don't know what we're talking about.

08:08 Wow. That's, that's amazing. That's amazing. It's like Sprite. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah. Well, okay. But that, all right. Joking aside, I know it doesn't taste exactly like Sprite. What's the difference? Really? I don't know. I really don't. Is it sweeter? No, I will tell you the difference. I do know the difference. Sprite has an emphasis on, in my opinion, on the lime part of lemon lime.

08:37 I don't think 7up hits the same lime. You think it's more lemon? I think it's more lemon. Okay. I disagree. You think that there, wait, who's doing it harder? I think that, uh, I don't remember the taste of 7up. So. And you're going to disagree? What are you? So I'm, I'm disagreeing. Oh my goodness. This guy. Because I don't remember the taste of it. I honestly might, right after we're done recording this, run and grab a 7up. Yeah. Who let one of our Twitter users on the show today? What the hell is going on over here?

09:08 Uh, anyway, to get into the video game, which is aptly titled Spot the Video Game. Uh, it, naturally, it's based on, like, uh, Othello and Reversi rules. And if there's one way I'm going to make my soda mascot stand out, it's by reinventing the rules to a 100 plus year old game. I've never played Othello before. Didn't we play? But you kind of have, yeah. Yeah, wasn't it an episode of this podcast? It was a game.

09:33 We already played Othello? Yeah, yeah. I'm pretty sure you were on it. I don't think I was. The black and white circles? I don't think I was. I thought that was Go. No, oh my god, we definitely didn't play Go. I don't think they can bring Go to the NES.

09:47 I don't think they had the competition for it. I must have not been on that episode. Well, Adam, we'll check it out. Uh, listeners, please check it out. Uh, here's the thing. Let Sean know at, no, I'm just kidding. It's not, but it's not Othello and Reversi. No. I think that's important to say. It's like, this isn't just like, hey, let's take the rules of Othello, let's use the same exact board, and let's just make it, um, you know, uh, red and green and square. Is it because there's breakdancing in this one? No, no, no, no, it's way more than that. Well, there is breakdancing in Othello.

10:16 In Othello, uh, I believe, in Othello, you could place one white, um, circle on any of the, I think it's an eight by eight board. You can place it anywhere on there, and then your opponent puts a black piece down, and then you keep doing that, but basically, after, uh, you try to capture the opponent's, uh, circles. So, if you have a bunch of, if you're white, and you have a white piece, and then there are three black pieces in between, like, sandwiched in between, if you put the next white piece down in between those three black pieces to kind of, like, hug the ends of those three black pieces, they turn white. Yeah, you have to sandwich your opponent's pieces in between two of your pieces to, to capture them.

11:03 Yes. Oh, and this one, it's just, they gotta touch. They have to be adjacent, yeah. Right, so this, yeah, this is a different kind of game, and again, a weird way to, like, be like, you know, what I think of 7-Up, I think of, uh, that old board game, but, like, with new rules. Like, like, next they're gonna tell me that, um, Pepsi Man is gonna go on to make Chess 2, you know? It's like, we don't need to, just, why couldn't it, why couldn't it be an action platformer?

11:27 Why couldn't it just be, like, Spot doing something interesting? Probably because this, you need, like, you probably need, like, thousands of, I don't know how this works at all, but thousands of fewer lines of code to make it. Like, I feel like you could just make this, like, you know, in a weekend. I think you, you guys need to, like, take this from my perspective, somebody who has already described that they know of Spot from an action platformer game, and then seeing, like, oh, I guess there was one on the NES, and then getting this?

11:58 Yeah. I think it's even more surprising than just only hearing that it was a soda at one point, and now it's a video game. Like, it's just, it's just very strange. I mean, I agree, and I fully expected this to be a platformer, but then once I booted up, I was like, oh, they were lazy. So there's a couple of other big changes, other than just, like, so we're saying the Othello things, this way you at least get the general concept, but also Othello does not have any more than two players. Spot allows for four-player fun, so that is kind of interesting as well. And so you can have anywhere from two to four players.

12:36 Each one starts in their own respective corner, and you just put a piece down in a 7x7 board. You're free to design the board however you want, and by design, I mean removing available spaces to lay down your pieces on. But everybody takes turns starting from the corners, laying down a piece, and the game kind of starts slowly. You know, you are at the corners, and they're at their corners. Nobody's really touching each other yet.

13:07 You know, it's like a middle school dance. And then next thing you know, all of a sudden, somebody gets close to the middle, and another person sees an opportunity to take. And if a player selects an existing piece of their color, and then puts it on adjacent to a piece of another player's color,

13:27 all of the adjacent pieces that are not the current player's color will also change that color. And when you have to talk about colors and squares and grids this much, you can understand how confusing it must be if you're not playing the game to have someone describe it to you like this. So just take my word for it. It's kind of like Othello with some extra steps to make sure that they don't get, I don't know, who invented Othello? Nobody's going to sue them.

13:56 Shakespeare. Somebody might hold the rights. So maybe we shouldn't talk about the game. And here's an interesting thing, too. You don't have to, you can't lay down pieces anywhere. But basically, from the piece that you laid down, you can either move one or two steps away from that piece. So you can move across the board pretty fast.

14:21 Yeah, but the sort of balancing act here is if you do move two, then you have to sort of like make it as if that piece is actually like jumping over there. Like it doesn't get to stay there. But if you only move one, it's kind of like you're a cell undergoing mitosis. And then you get to sort of like blob a bit. Yeah, and that actually makes it, that does add an extra layer here. Because if you're surrounded by, you know, the opposite color and you want to take, you want to jump over them to take a bunch over there, you are already inherently leaving an open space for them to come and take a bunch of yours. Because you're not, you're not leaving a piece behind.

15:10 So if you can, sometimes it's better to just move one space. So keeping all your spaces filled. So there's not like somewhere in the center of all your pieces that they can go in and take a whole square worth a whole, you know, three by three. Yeah, of your pieces.

15:27 There's so much strategy here. There's endless opportunities for not just fun, but also for capturing, for capturing the pieces too, because the boards change. So it's not like, oh, you know, like I know how this goes because it's just a seven by seven board and you can play somewhere ever. It's like, no, all of a sudden you can design it in the shape of like a smiley face if you want to. That's pretty neat. Endless fun. But we all know that the game really shines. And I mean really, really shines because Spot becomes an animated character to move between the pieces. So when you select, even if it's not a red circle, if you select a piece and move it somewhere else, that piece becomes Spot.

16:16 And he does some cool things with his legs and arms. And I think he even has like, what is that, like a cane? He'll do like a cartwheel. Yeah. He'll breakdance, like I said before. He'll sort of loiter like he would in an alleyway when you're waiting to make your move. And so he can jump you because he's that kind of cool. Yeah. He's kind of dangerous. I love that like the idea of what's cool to these developers is like loitering. But like it is. It is a very cool loitering. But like it's just, it's like, yeah, this is what kids like to see. He's like a jet.

16:53 Yeah. That thing. He has like a lot of different animations dependent on like where you make him go to. So like if he's facing, this is hard to describe again on a podcast. But if he's, if he's, he's always looking at you right out to the television. And if you move him backwards one square, he kind of pretends to like fall in the hole. Yeah. That's just, that's just really cool. He does like the Egypt walk if it's just to the left or right. Yeah. With a little, with a little music to it too. It goes like, like actually that's the song. Yeah. Oh, and yeah. And there's also like a little cartwheel thing. And in this, correct me if I'm wrong. It's, it's one animation per every like possible direction you can go. Right. Yeah. Probably. Absolutely.

17:42 So I feel like if you, if you go down like diagonal down, right one, he's got the same animation every time. But if you jump over an X one, it's a different animation, but it's like, it's all dependent on which, you know, which direction you're going. Yeah. Down and left is a moonwalk. Like it's pretty, it's pretty crazy. You have no idea what spot's going to do at any time. And that's the hook of the game. Spot can do anything.

18:08 It's actually scary, but he could. Yeah, exactly. He doesn't do it, but he could do it since it's a game of capture. Uh, it also has like a finite amount of moves that can be done before the game is over. So, um, just like Othello and reverse, the way the game is scored is by whoever has the most colored pieces on the board at the end of the game. After every possible square has been filled, uh, that is the winner.

18:35 And, um, then it goes back to the title screen and you ask your friends, would you like to play again? Well, no, it doesn't just go back to the title screen. Oh my goodness. Yeah. It then pulls back to show that you've been playing this game in the center of a giant stadium that is doing the wave and they're holding up signs that say that your color won and there's fireworks. Yeah, but then it goes back to the screen.

19:03 That's just a, that's just a stadium that where you're inside a TV though. So it's not even real because in the setup of the game, you're seeing, first off, you're seeing like the controller, like, you know, who's computer and who's, and who's a human and how much time they have between moves and stuff. You're setting that up, but there's an NES like in the game that you're seeing as well as the TV. So like you're playing on an NES on your TV.

19:31 Now you're on a screen looking at an NES with a TV and then you're going to go inside that, which is a stadium. Are you saying that if you can find the button to walk away from the in-game NES, it's like a life sim? Yeah. There's gotta be, you get to go see what Spot's doing otherwise. Cause you can actually see on the TV, Spot is, uh, at least in this section of the TV I'm remembering he's on, um, not ESPN, but SSPN, which must stand for, um, the Spot Sports Network. Spot Sprite News Network. Yeah. Exactly. Uh, yeah. The, it's not Sprite. Wait a minute. Don't say Sprite. What does the P stand for in this? Delicious Sprite. What does the P stand for in ESPN? Oh, an ESPN. Well, an SSPN. Entertainment Sports. What is it? I've never, I've never thought about this. What does the P stand for in ESPN? Well, what does the E stand for? Entertainment? Entertainment Sports.

20:36 People. People Network? Network. What, are you just going to say every word after me? Entertainment Sports Programming Network. I'm saying, I said these last night before I went to bed. Oh, okay. Got it. Sports Programming. Oh, okay. Here's a question. Okay. Here's an answer. Spot the video game main menu. Uh-huh. It's already pretty bare, right? It says- Should it just be one button moves your cursor in all directions?

21:05 I would never ask a question like that. I would never. This is serious, okay? Okay. The way that they have, like, put spot, uh, you know, like, how they've done the text for it, there are black dots on the P and the O that kind of make it look like two eyes, right? Sure. Like two eyeballs, because- Like googly eyes. Yeah, they're more googly eyes than eyes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. They look silly. But couldn't they have just put spot sunglasses?

21:35 Oh, yeah. Over the P and the O, so this way, because, you know, they're kind of like circles, and then it's like- Or just over the O, and then it's just spots in the logo. Sure, it's just kind of weird that spots not on the logo, and it's just this font. Well, Mike, are you in your name?

21:52 That's a great point. It's just you all crunched up as an M. Like, yeah, if I were to write my name, would you be in there? Write that one down, Joe. Write that one down right now. Uh, no, I don't have to be in my name because that's not something that's possible, but we don't know that spot can't do that. Like, that does feel like something spot could do. You're right. It does- that is the vibe that he's putting down. Spot gives me the vibe that he could do anything. Are you in your name might be- that might be my favorite thing you've ever said, John.

22:19 Wow. I'm not- The bar is so low. I'm not saying other things are worse. No, no, the bar is really low. Yeah, that's what I figured. I don't even like that, but it's still my favorite thing you've ever said. I don't even like it. It also says 7up, which is spelled out S-E-V-E-N dash U-P. 7up, and then 7up, the number 7 and U-P. Are there two different brands of 7up? No, no. It's just that they're both trademarked, and that's the show. That's gotta be the show. Now, well, wait a minute.

22:52 I have a question now. Okay. How many spots are there? Is it the same spot every time you see the animation, or does each team have their own spot? Well, there's at least- we know that there's at least two spots. Right. We know there's at least like 150 compared- everybody in the stadium was a spot. Oh, were they? Yeah, they're all- in the back, they're all red circles.

23:14 Oh, yeah, you're right. They spell out your name, they say when, and then, you know, whatever color. So this is like an extended- this is like an alternate universe where everybody is a spot. Well, maybe this is just- you know, it doesn't have to be an alternate universe, it's just like a planet of spots. Oh, okay. They should have made like an Astro Bot-style game for Spot, and he like works at the 7up factory, and it's like all cool like 7up memorabilia and history, and you know, that would have been great. It's not too late. But instead we got this. It's not too late, but- Maybe if they drop a console. I'm also noticing right now on the, you know, on the options screen where you can like change your timer and all that,

23:54 the TV with the NES, they're just like- there's two spots in a band. One's playing the guitar, the other's playing the drums. Oh, there's all sorts of different channels for- that must be on STV. Can you change the channel? Oh, wait, I just saw the cursor go over the button. Is that what's happening? Yeah, like we said, like this is just a mini game in a larger Spot universe. Wow, I didn't realize that like you actually had that control. I thought you were just commenting on the- just the animation.

24:22 Go select the NES. You can change the cartridge to Super Mario Bros. You can play that instead. You can play any game. And it's just Spot doing Mario stuff. No. Can we go back to the game for a minute? And by that I mean- We've been talking about the game, but I meant the Othello-style game. Can we go back to that for a second? Sure. You can't get that attitude to try and talk about the game after. I try to talk about the game, and you're mean about it. That's true. I was kind of mean about it. You're pretty mean about it. I'm sorry. It's okay. All right. Back to what I wanted to discuss.

24:57 There is some depth to this, though. Even if you don't have friends, right? Because the computers are tough. I'll say that much. The computers know how to play the game. They're vicious. Yeah. You and your friends probably don't know how to play the games. That's probably more fun. But there is a lot of thought to put into this. I'm not saying the developers put in a lot of thought, but there is a lot of thought as a player to be good at this. To go back to Pipe Dream, right? It takes five seconds to understand, but it takes a lifetime to get good, really good at Spot. Stop it.

25:36 But no one's going to spend a lifetime. Is that what you're saying, Sean? Nobody's still playing Spot today? There aren't the Spot World Championships on SSPN? No, I just hate the way you said it. Like, that stupid AI said it. And it really grinded my gears. But I think partially that. Yeah. It's funny that this game is so simple. And the developers probably didn't really think too hard about it. Yeah. I'm going to make that claim. Like what Joe said earlier. We're just going to call them lazy.

26:14 But yeah. I guess there are some emergent strategies that come out of it. Like protecting your interior and stuff. Yeah. I don't think that this, like, as a board game is a bad game. I like games like this. I like Othello, you know.

26:34 But, you know, now that I'm thinking about it, this isn't one of those ones. Like, this does do a little tiny bit of that thing that I'm always saying. Like, if you're going to make it a video game, might as well do stuff that you couldn't do in a board game. And this sort of does. I mean, it's stuff you could do, but it would be tedious. Like, if you had four players, you'd have to be replacing. You can't just flip over the discs. You'd have to be replacing the different colors with different discs. That would be annoying. Yeah. And you know you can't have Spot do any of this stuff in real life. Yeah. You would have to breakdance on the board.

27:03 But then, same thing with, like, you're moving things one. I guess, yeah, you could, instead of moving things one space, you're just, like, adding one to a space adjacent to your own. But, I mean, I guess none of this is stuff you couldn't do. But it's just, you can't flip over the disc four times and have four different colors. We'll just have a four-sided die.

27:24 That's true. You've got to have cubes. Joe, it's kind of like that time we played Monopoly on PS5. It's like, it wasn't necessary, right? But, like, it made playing Monopoly so much easier. Oh, it's so much faster. It's just like, yeah, here's all your money. It's right there already. You don't have to track down the banker and be like, give me this money and then watch people steal from it. There are other spot video games. Okay. I just wanted to acknowledge that. I'm not going to do a sequels and spinoffs thing because Sean already talked about Cool Spot. But here's something interesting.

27:58 Joe, did you really call the developers lazy? Did I? Oh, are they not? I'm going to learn that they were, like, that they, like, worked themselves to death on this and now I'm going to feel bad. The NES version of Spot the Video Game was created in six weeks. I mean, that could be considered lazy. It could be considered hustle. No, no, no. It was, I think, I don't have any information to confirm this, but I think they were given six weeks and then they kind of procrastinated for five of them. And then they made it. It was the night before. Yeah. Well, notice how I said the NES version.

28:36 Hmm. Because this is just a shameless plug for a giant soda company to try to get their branding on a video game on a popular console. You see, the original game was a game called Infection. And it was made by Wise Owl Software. And it was on, like, computers. C64, Atari ST.

29:02 And then there was apparently an arcade version called Attacks, but A-T-A-X-X. And then 7-Up branding got involved because they were, I guess, looking for, like, a quick way onto the NES. And they saw this game and said, hey, those are circles. We have a circle for a mascot. Like, let's put our guy on this. And then the same development team that made the original game was in charge of making the NES version here. And they made it in just six weeks, which, you know, sounds like a lot of time to just, like, put it out. But you have to remember, the NES is, like, in assembly. So it's, like, any game that is a port of another game is also basically, at the very least, a redo.

29:50 You know? Not necessarily a remake. But, like, it doesn't just, like, oh, this is the C64 code and let's bring it on to the NES. It doesn't work like that back then. So that is kind of crazy, right? They didn't have Unity? They did not have Unity or Unreal. Wow. Yep. Or even, what's the Source? Half-Life? What's the Half-Life one? Gary's Mod? Yeah, just Gary's Mod. They didn't have Gary's Mod to make these games.

30:22 Anyway, one other neat fact. The NES version was briefly offered for a limited time. For just $24.99. Sounds expensive. But, came with four 7-Up bottles. I'm trying to think about, like, inflation adjustment here. Yeah, what that would be.

30:41 I read it wrong. Is that still, like, a $60 game? I read it wrong. I'm sorry. It's even worse. The game could become $24.99 if you handed in four 7-Up bottles. This was the recycling. Without the four 7-Up bottles. It must have been $50. They wanted to make sure. Yeah, you spent. You spent at least, like, $15 on soda before you bought the game. Yeah, I actually heard that Fallout 5 will be discounted based on how many bottles of Nuka-Cola you buy beforehand. I'm in. The game is also available besides on the NES on the Game Boy, the Amiga, Windows, and Atari ST, as I mentioned. And there's just some light differences between that.

31:32 Sean mentioned Cool Spot on the Genesis, but there's also... That was on the Super Nintendo. Oh, okay. It's also on the Genesis. Okay. And then Spot goes to Hollywood. Did you ever go to... Not Blockbuster, but maybe you went to Hollywood Video to get that one?

31:48 I did not. Okay. So there was those two, and then there was also Spot, the cool adventure on Game Boy. And just saying Spot a lot reminds me that, like, when I saw Spot, the video game, I was thinking of a totally different spot. Maybe a much cooler spot, if you catch my drift. Pun intended. And I'm thinking about the dog. The yellow dog spot. You see Spot Run. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Where's his video game? That would be sick. Probably in the baby aisle. Oh. You know, it's funny. Spot did teach me how to read.

32:23 That was my first book. This Spot 7 Up Spot? Yeah, 7 Up Spot taught me to read because I was like, oh, 7 Up. I was so freaking wired on caffeine. That you just knew how to read. Yeah, I just figured it out. Yeah. But we're not here to talk about learning how to read or Spot the dog or really even video games, apparently, today. Today, we're just judging things based on 7 Up as a soda brand. And the best place to judge anything would be the Essential Games List.

32:58 This is pretty easy. This is not going to be something that I'm going to joke about or, you know, make into a long spiel. This shouldn't have been what you ever do with a mascot. This is mascot no-nos 101. I don't think this makes Spot seem all that cool. I do agree that the animation of the tricks he's doing is great. But why can't he just do those kinds of tricks in a game where I control him? It's so weird that they went this board game route.

33:29 It's going to be unmemorable. We're going to—definitely an oddity. Like, whenever somebody talks about 7 Up now, I'm going to think about this game. But overall, I don't think this helps Nostalgia, Nintendo, 7 Up, or Spot. I think Spot's probably the biggest casualty of this whole thing. And, you know, he's going to live for a lot longer. He gets all the way to Spot, goes to Hollywood. But he's not around with us anymore, and that's a sign.

33:55 So, no. It's not on the Essential Games list. Joe? Yeah, I generally—like, I like games like this. I like little—not video games like this, but I like Othello. I like Dots. You ever play Dots on a piece of paper? I don't know if this is the place for it. I mean, I guess it's fine if you're looking for, like, a board game experience.

34:20 Fine. This is—I don't think that the—especially if you're trying to market your mascot as, like, the cool thing. I don't know if anyone's, like, picking this one and be like, yes, this is awesome. I'm going to say not essential, but, like, yeah, it's a fine little take on Othello. But definitely a disappointment for someone as cool as Spot. Sean? I'll take back what I said that the developer was lazy. Like, I don't—I think that was unfair. And I kind of feel—I've been feeling bad about that since I said it. Because, obviously, you know, they did the job. You know, they made the Spot game. They made the—they made the Moonwalk animations.

35:02 So I just want to get that out there. However, I don't like this game. So it's not essential. That's three no's. But I do want to revisit something Joe said in his Essential Games list vote, which is that he enjoys the game Dots on paper. As if, like, as if that's a console. Like, paper is its own. Well, it was ported to paper. Yeah, it was ported to paper.

35:29 So great. What are some other great paper games? Like the Long-Tak-Toe? Yeah, Tic-Tac-Toe. Yeah. Is it an all-timer? I almost went, you know, mentioned this on the Essential Games list, but I was like, no one will know it. But now I'll mention it anyways. I like the game Dots. And what, you know, Mike and Sean, you both know about me. Our listeners probably don't. I am an obsessive Survivor fan. Love Survivor. I've, you know, seen all 48 seasons, all that.

35:56 I recently was re-watching an early season, and one of their immunity challenges was Dots, but with, like, ropes on, like, a beach. And I was like, you know what, I like Dots, and I like Survivor. I don't know if this is, like, if this, just because Dots is good doesn't make it, like, a great, exciting reality TV challenge.

36:16 Dots, Sean, since you asked, is, uh, yeah, you've got a, you've got a paper full of a grid of Dots, and you, you, you and another player take turns drawing a line from either, either vertically or horizontally, no diagonals, from one dot to another. Yeah, yeah. You keep doing that until when, when one person closes a box, they own the box, and then they can go again. So it, if you, like, leave someone to be able to close a box, you can, like, cause a chain reaction, or now they can close, like, 20 in a row, or something like that. There is a, there is a great port of Dots on Nintendo Switch, uh, part of Clubhouse 51. I thought you were, I thought you were going to say a port of Dots on, like, the Magnet Doodle or something.

36:57 Yeah. Uh, no, no, for real, Clubhouse 51, great, uh, game on the Switch, and it has many of these board games, and I think it has Othello as well, uh, might, might, they might be calling it Reversi. You know, there is a difference between Othello and Reversi. I always thought it was just, like, a, a language thing, or, like, a different, um, way of saying the same game.

37:16 Like Hellman's Mayonnaise. Sure, um, but, uh, the difference is, is that Reversi has the fixed position, where, um, it's in the center, the four, the center four squares are black, white, black, white. Uh, so this way it's, uh, or sorry, black, white, white, black. So this way, um, it's a defined position, whereas in Othello, you can start in any position you want, um, which I think is interesting.

37:41 One more thing I just wanted to talk about, which wasn't really, like, a flaw with the game, it's a flaw with me. But, like, was it ever unclear to anybody else which circles exactly were going to change for them? Like, like, okay, if I move my thing here, were you ever, like, 100% certain of, like, which ones were gonna flip? I, at first, I wasn't clear on, like, that it's diagonally adjacent works also. Because the way that the grid is laid out, anything that you're adjacent to not diagonally, they're a lot closer to each other. Because the space diagonally between them is a lot larger. So they, that was confusing at first. But once I figured that, I think I got the gist.

38:20 Yeah, no, it was, it wasn't, like, black magic. I, it was pretty simple. Okay, so I should just feel bad. You should. It's not as complicated as, uh, Solitaire. As Mike makes it out to be. Uh, also, speaking of last week, I just want to confirm that Hogwarts Legacy does cut to black before you pet the cat. Thank you.