Tomorrow - 244: Smooth sailing

Episode Date: December 18, 2021

On this week's Tomorrow, Josh and Ryan discuss three relentless plagues upon their lives: the Omicron variant, the Sex and the City reboot, and the Analogue Pocket. There's also a lot of complaining about the price of used video games. 2022, here we come! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey and welcome to tomorrow I'm your host Josh Wittboski. Today on the podcast, we discuss O'Macron, Munchausen by proxy, and Pokemon. I don't always one minute. Let's get right into it. All right, Ryan, we're back. And there's nothing going on in the world, which is great. I think it's been a very calm, we're just we're just finally finally smooth sailing. You know what we got Coronavirus is gone and

We've settled down the political landscape in in this country and And supply chain problems have been and supply chain problems have been everything's coming up roses and Davidils everything is fixed everything is perfect there's nothing to worry about no I we speak to you Tony on the eve of the next maybe not the eve maybe we're in the more on the morning of the

next big coronavirus wave in in the world and it's and it seems bad All the cool kids can't taste anything everybody's like They're at pasties or wherever people go and they're like why does my Fograw tastes like like Like shit, so he's like, that's because basically what it is. No, but like a different , no, but like worth like a different kind of shit this time. No, I mean, we're, so we have this, I'm a crime variant, which is kicking, kicking ass and taking names. And you know, it showed

up and it's like, I'm here to kick ass and chew bubble gum and I'm all out of bubble gum as it does, as one does. And now everybody's like, I think this started, I think there's an interesting thing about this. It started like, people were like, your boyfriend probably has tested positive, which I like, I would just say that, you know, I think we all got pretty comfortable feeling like we were, this thing was on the run.

Yeah, we were like, we got it guys. We got it, and we was like, it raves and shit, you know. But we need to do it, start fucking having orgies at the movie theaters. Yeah. Absolutely no air circulate. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, of Spider-Man, No Way Home or whatever the new one is called will not probably be the highest grossing film of all time Given the fact that I will definitely be watching it whenever it is available on demand in Disney plus on Christmas Eve. Yeah, it's the eternal. Yeah, I still haven't seen the eternal so if I can watch that at home Not yeah, well, then I guess I'll just wait for that at any rate. So yeah, so there's

I'll just wait for that. At any rate, so yeah, so there's a, we're surging, big surge happening. Now, I guess the silver lining, if we wanna give it a silver lining is that apparently so far, many of the cases seem mild. People who are with people who are vaccinated, people who are vaccinated and in particular boosted are have a very good shot of either

have any very mild case of this or not getting it from what I have read thus far, but but it's not going well. I mean, I think a bit a lot of people are getting it and it was going to cause some hot amount of hospitalizations, it's going to cause some amount of hospitalizations, it's going to cause some amount of deaths, not insignificant, I would imagine on top of the 800,000 we've already done in America. But this is like crazy. I mean, it was like one day nobody had it.

And then the next day, like as of last night, if you read Twitter last night, and I don't know if you experienced this at all, but I went and looked at Twitter in the evening, like before bed, and people were like, oh, God, like everybody I know has this now. Yeah, you know, just so long very quickly. My husband did exactly what he did last time,

which was I was like, I think this is really getting serious, and he was like, I don't think so, and I was like, no, it really is. And this time full head in the sand, he was like, well, I'm going to the office one last time and there's blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, okay, today just texting him updates, like multiple people in the office have been exposed.

Hey, just you know, just found out my cousin's in the hospital. Like, ooh, yeah. Yeah, no, it's happened literally almost overnight. Although, I think a week ago, you kind of see this coming. Definitely. So I don't think we really... I don't think anybody really had any... I mean, yes, there were like experts on Twitter,

which are not, I don't consider to be like, I mean, that's good for people who look at Twitter all the time but in the real world. There wasn't like guidance like this is going to spread super quickly, so we need to like immediately revert back to don't go in the office, don't go to a movie, don't X, Y, and Z until we get a handle on this. It was kind of like, well, we'll keep an eye on it. And you know, the CDC was like, yeah, you know, it's, there's like four cases and it could be. Remember how we did that thing last time? That was like a big thing, right?

We should do it again. I think we're hitting this point though. I mean, I do feel like, if I can speak personally for a moment, I was notified recently that I was with somebody who had been who tested positive. And so I'm now I've been exposed. This happened like within two days at the same time as everybody else. And I'm currently isolating.

I'm testing negative. I feel fine. I actually feel like I have a little bit of a sore throat, but Laura had a cold over the weekend. So I'm kind of like, I feel like I have that cold. And she did not have, she tested it, did not test, she tested negative for this thing. Anyhow, but, you know, it's like this,

like everybody I know is telling this story. But I do think there is, we are getting to a point, I mean, I gotta say, like as a person who spent two years never once getting exposed as far as I knew, never once having to take a test, okay? For two years, I never once having to take a test. Okay? For two years. I never once had to take a test because I was worried because I wasn't sick. I wasn't around anybody who'd gotten it.

I was not notified. And then this was like overnight, but I will say this. I mean, we, this, we may be at a point where, I mean, obviously vaccines and boosters are massively helpful. I mean, from what I can tell, if you've got a vaccine and you've got a booster, if you've got a vaccine, you're good, if you've got a full vaccine, if you have a vaccine

and the booster, you're even better, and it looks like whether it's delta or Omicron, the cases are, they are just less way, way less severe, right? They're sort of like a bad cold, you know, or a light flu Which is what you want if you get like if you have to get fucking Covet, you know, but I do think it's like it's very I feel very frustrated like having spent two years doing Every single thing right. I do think like we maybe jump the gun But it's like what are we gonna what are you gonna do when you have like you know 75% of your population or 80% of your population that's

vaccinated I mean New York's been very good about vaccinations You know and I you know, I'm still wearing I've still been wearing a mask to stores When I'm like riding an elevator if I have to take an elevator, you know anywhere where there's like kind of random interaction and it's and like yet I an elevator if I have to take an elevator, anywhere where there's kind of random interaction. And yet, I would say October through the week, like last week, the week before this week, I guess. I started to ease up on my crazy, like, well, I was like, well, I'm boosted.

There's Vax checks wherever I go. I wear a mask otherwise. If I'm not in a Vax checked place, there's nothing else I can do. I've done my part. I'm just gonna like, you know, start doing things again. Yeah. And that was real dumb.

I should have known then. But I will say, I fucking have not had COVID. I'm knocking wood right now. I have not had COVID because I'm not saying that it's because I'm, it's a lot of luck. But I also have worked pretty hard to not had COVID, I'm not getting what right now. I have not had COVID because I'm not saying that it's because I'm, it's a lot of luck, but I also have worked pretty hard to not have COVID, and not get it from people and not spread it. Right.

And to be back at the beginning again, it's very frustrating. Yeah. No, I'm just very angry. And basically everyone I hate has gotten COVID, so the anger of my fury has, has crystallized and squeezed itself into a little diamond of orange. No, I like that. I like that. I wear it on my finger. It is like it is like maddened as a person in a similar situation where we've been unbelievably cautious. I mean, for lots of different reasons. I mean, Zelda didn't, I mean, she still hasn't, she got her second shot, but it's not all the way to the past, the

two week period of where it's like fully effective. And so, you know, but like early on, I mean, obviously before she could get a vaccination, we were doing, you know, everything plus, like probably unnecessary things because it's like, I don't want to put her at risk. I know it's low risk, but I don't want to take one fucking little chance at all. And then, and then, and then we've been very even post since she's gotten the her shots. Like, we've been very, very limited. I mean, like, like I said, where not a lot has changed the only, the really, the only things that have really changed for me is that I was going to the office and so going

into the city, like, once or twice a week, you know, and clearly we're not there yet, just in general. I don't mean with our, I think, with every business, we're not there yet in New York or anywhere else, but I guess like what I, what I've been thinking a lot about through this period now that everybody seems to be getting this, either this new variant or Delta or whatever, I mean, one is like, did we jump the gun on what was a good idea? I think probably the answer is yes, but then it's like, at what point, everybody was like, once everybody's vaccinated in a place like New York, when you've got like a huge amount of the population vaccinated, you're kind of like, okay, well, what more can I do at this point? We went to, we took Zelda to see Aladdin,

like on Broadway Broadway after Thanksgiving. That's something we never, first of wasn't possible to do. We never would have done in a pre-vaccination world. But they're shutting down Broadway again. So they're shutting down schools. It's like, my fear is they'll shut down Zalda's school. What do we do here? Are we perpetually in, at this shutting down schools. It's like, my fear is they'll shut down it's out of school, but it's like, so what do we do here? You know, is like, are we perpetually in,

I mean, at this point, I'm sort of like, I'm not going like, I'm not like getting red-pilled or something, as the kids like to say. But I do think like, there may be, I mean, I think if it's true that vaccines prevent, in most cases, severe illness, we're just gonna get to a point where we are like, you're gonna get this, you're gonna get vaccinated,

but you're probably gonna get it, and you're gonna deal with it, and then you'll get over it like any other illness that people get. And at some point, maybe this just settles down to a state where it's like, you know, we're accepting the fact that people are going to get it and get over it.

But it's not there yet. I mean, we're still dealing with people being hospitalized and dying from this thing on a very regular basis. So which has gone way down, but like I presume we'll go way back up since we have cases spiking like in a crazy number right now. So I don't really know, you know, I don't know what the answer is. I do not know what the correct answer is. I can tell you this,

I am never going anywhere ever again. Like I'm done leaving my home. I'm gonna send one of those fucking telepresents, guys, the fucking thing with the iPad for a face. Did you see that piece that was on the Atlantic a couple days ago? The one that Yasmin wrote? No, the one that was like, where I live.

Nobody never cared about our COVID. I heard people talking about it, but I try to avoid engaging with clickbait bullshit. Oh yeah, I mean, and I definitely didn't link to it. I didn't read tweet it. I didn't bring anyone's attention to the piece I didn't even say what publication I saw it and when I was tweeting about it, but It astonishing to me astonishing that people That you could be an asshole for two years on the on the brink of this happening again watching 800,000 people

Minimum die of a disease and be like, well, I never obeyed the rules and I'm fine. Yeah, no, I mean, it's fucking, it is, it is batch of crazy to me. There's actually like, I've seen people who are a bin, though, like those people who are like, yep, see, like there's no beating it, so you might as well just like mask off and fucking go for it.

And it's like actually, like, unvaccinated people are 13 times more likely to die if they get it than vaccinated people. Like dude, that's fucking nuts. 13 times more likely to fucking die because you didn't want to get a little little itty bitty shot in your arm. Like, I'm sorry, that's crazy. You're also five times as likely to get it. Like, you know, it's like, I don't even know what the debate is anymore. Like, the debate is, I mean, listen, it's always what it's been, right?

It's like, you're an asshole who doesn't care about other people and that's just, get your existence in front of you. And like, and honestly, you know, you're more likely more likely to die in good riddance, I guess, because you can be pretty good. I guess, because we're also more likely to infect other people. You're fracking to everybody.

But I guess if, I guess if even a small percentage of the biggest assholes in America kicked the bucket because they would not listen to science, then maybe, I don't know, again, trying to find myself religning in all of this. But, you know, of course I don't wish death on anybody and I, you know, peace and love to all, but also, you know, go fuck yourself. You know, you don't have to vaccinate it. But also goodbye. So, yeah, so whatever.

So it's a nightmare scenario, though, it's like, it's not like a nightmare. You know, you have a nightmare sometimes and you're like, you kill somebody in the nightmare and you wake up and you're like, oh my God, like that was the worst. You know, have you ever had that? Like you killed somebody in your dream and you wake up and it was so real and then you have that moment.

That moment of like, you didn't do it and the incredible feeling of relief. This is like, not like you murdered somebody, but like, I don't know, you beat them badly. Yeah, it's that kind of nightmare. So whatever, I don't know what's going to happen. But it's obviously on everybody's mind right now. It's obviously on the rise pretty much everywhere. It's obviously not going to be good. Not going to be good. But I think we're all just trying to navigate it and and and you know, get through this period. I don't know what this period is going to look like. I think clearly vaccines work, but clearly

this is a, you know, we're used to vaccines that are like, oh yeah, we had this thing and we went through like whatever this period was I would not be able to manage it and then we came up with a solution to manage it and now there's a gap a vaccine, right? Like you take it you take the shot and you're done and This is like oh yeah, we have a vaccine for this early version of this thing That's like literally just arrived on the scene and now we're just kind of chasing what the end game is, right? Basically, I mean, the way I see it is this is like a video game in some way where you know when you're like fighting a boss, you know, and then like you beat the first version of the boss and then they like their skin comes off and some create like skeleton comes

out of them and then you have to fight the skeleton. Mm-hmm. This kind of like where we're at, you know, it's like we're fighting this, we're fighting like when I- We're fighting the skeleton. I want to use, I'm at, you know? So we're fighting this, we're fighting the skeleton. I want to use, I'm going to use a Castlevania metaphor because the next topic I want to discuss is Castlevania, of course. We're actually sort of Castlevania,

a bit adjacent to other Newsy things that have nothing to do with coronavirus. You know, it's like you fight Dracula and he's like, he's just like a tall guy in a cape, and then he becomes a giant demonic monster who's like three times your size. This is more like, I feel like we fought like the demonic monster and now the monster turned into Dracula kind of.

And he was just saying I'm drained, okay? It's a draining experience for all of us. But switching gears, but luckily with an amazing segue provided by yours, truly, I got an analog pocket. Oh, must be nice for you. I don't know why. Everybody's like, I think I ordered it when you ordered it, but I don't have it, so I'm being punished.

I assume you're definitely being punished. There's no question. And that's fair enough, that's fine. You know what I guess? I would have So I'm being punished. I assume you're definitely being punished. There's no question. And that's fair enough. That's fine. I get it. I would have punished me too. It's a pricey pay. I thought I was real clever.

But not so clever now. Are you a mystery? I don't have an analog pocket. But I got mine. But somebody I was like, so anyhow. So the one thing that I kind of like, my brain sort of glossed over while I was ordered the analog pocket was you needed physical cartridges

to play games on it, and which is a very outmoded IT, it's me. But all at first of every physical game I have is in my parents' basement at Pittsburgh. So, not everyone, I've got some Neo Geo games here. I've got a few, like Neo Geo pocket, I have a few TG 16 games. I actually might have a Game Boy game lurking

here somewhere, but regardless, regardless, I don't have the games that I want to play on it, which are, you know, Game Boy Advance, Castlevania games. Large. Why don't you just get a flash card? Well, of course, I explored getting a flashcard. There seems to be some skepticism about whether or not they're working. I'm not sure that the EverDrive is actually functioning with it right now.

They're working. You have to read what happens with a save state. And what? Great guide. Great guide. Read a guide, quick guide, for the website. That's how to use an ever cart with your, here's whichever cart to get

and how to use it with your new analog pocket or whatever. I'm all on board, but I still have to acquire the thing, right? I have an ever drive for my TurboGraphics, which is great. I bought like, I bought a Turbo Duo, a Japanese Turbo Duo that's been modded, and then I got, I was like, well, I'm not going to, like I'm not going to go to Pittsburgh and get my CD ROMs right now or whatever.

So I got it, I got it, I got it never drive. And it's great, but that's like, you know, once in a blue moon, I'm not really setting it up. The truth is, it's much easier just to emulate the shit. But I do love the idea, I love the idea of getting some of these games that I'm really into. Like for instance, I've been playing Ari of sorrow. I think Ari of sorrow. Either Ari of sorrow or circle of moon, I can't remember. I think it's Ari of sorrow. I've been playing on the advanced collection, which they which I got from my switch. I've been playing it

like religiously. Like I'm deep into it Because I never played those games when they came out. That was a whole generation that kind of like I was busy. I don't know what I was doing, but I wasn't doing that. And anyhow, so, so, yes, so I was like, okay, I better buy some games, right? And I started looking, and at first I was like, okay, here's like, I can get Ari of Star. Well, like wow, on Ali Express, like somebody selling Ari of Saro in circle of the moon

and like two other, it cast so many games and they're like five bucks a piece. I'm like, that's awesome. Which is what I kind of, in my mind, what I expected them to be, five, $10, maybe $20. Like, game stop has some listings. They're like $20, $15 bucks for a Gameboy cartridge. You know, I'm like, that seems route, right?

These were, again, I want to stress before I make this next point. These were wildly popular games sold by the millions as far as I know, correct? Mm-hmm. Right? Like Gameboy Advance was a popular system. Had a lot of popular games. It's completely. Right.

So I go and I'm like, well, let me investigate here a little bit. I don't know if I want to buy the Ali Express. Also, it's like this doesn't ship until like January, late January. It's like I need this, I need a game now. I need the fucking go right the second. Anyhow, so I start looking.

And like you really can't buy a copy of Arya of Sorrow for the Game Boy Advance for like less than a hundred dollars. No. Okay. Like, which is insane. And there are a bunch of fake like, I guess they're fine. They're literally like people are making reproduction cartridges that are the game on

some sort. They're not fine. I will say if you, I don't want Tony to have their own impression. Those things are fine if you play it for like a few hours and you just kind of want to own it and it's definitely not important hardware to you. But those things are not correctly rated electrically. So, if you play long term, it could damage your Game Boy, the cartridge itself could give out, it could short circuit both.

So, you don't want wanna fuck around so much with three production carts that you don't know where they came from. Right, well at any rate, so obviously as I started researching, there's a lot of like, do I really wanna buy? Well, as a kind of, do I wanna buy a reproduction? Anyhow, like I want the game, the original game

that would be like, you know, what I would own had I bought it in that era. We're talking like 2002, 2003. So, yeah, so I was shocked and surprised and sort of confused because it shouldn't be a very expensive game to buy. Now, look, you can buy the Shrek Game Boy Advance game is like three bucks, like, don't problem, you know. But there are certain games, Castlevania, seem seemed to be at the top of the list. That's why anyone would want to play.

Right. Well, yeah. Like the Pokemon games, presumably, they came out in like a wide variety of, you know, let me like, let me actually look, I didn't really like, because I was kind of like, well, what am I going to get? It was the first time in a long time that I had to think of, you know,

purchasing a physical game, you know, and, you know, what do I want to, what do I want to have physically, right? Because I just download everything. Um, but so anyway, so the games are expensive, you know, and they and they seem like they shouldn't be, but they are very expensive. These are games that you would on like, and not that long ago, you would go to to a good will. You're like, I wanna buy some old guys clothes at Goodwill, which is what I did as a youngster. And there'd be over in the electronic section of Goodwill, there'd be a pile of Game Boy Advance games,

and they were all like $1. Not that long ago. I mean, 10 years ago, maybe, or maybe a little bit longer, but still, whatever I can remember in my lifetime. And now it's like, I don't know, $150 for Ari of Sara without a box feels like something is wrong, right? And so I'm trying to figure out where this is.

Obviously, the things of our youth and from our past are now becoming more valuable. Obviously, there's real scarcity, though. I don't believe scarcity is the issue here. I do think, I'm trying to kind of make sense of this now, and I do think that, you know, the reproductions have certainly have some effect on this, because the market is flooded with fake versions of these things. Like, from what I can tell, there are dime a dozen.

You can get these reproductions, they look just like real games. And we're all trapped inside dealing with the nightmare coronavirus, and I think like people are just like, I'm gonna start collecting X or whatever it is, you know, and it's like, and that has led to, there's just like, I think this has just led

to like, totally inflated prices for these things. I mean, you that has led to, there's just like, I think this has just led to like, totally inflated prices for these things. I mean, you're preaching to the choir. I went before this all started. I purchased to Sega Saturn from Japan for like $140, and I put in a, I put in a, oh, an ODE, an optical disk emulator to play whatever ROM files I wanted. Um,

and I was excited about it. I bought like custom controller. I like set up HD fucking setup so that I would, you know, get the cleanest picture. I cleaned out the entire Saturn. I was like stoked about this. And I recently looked and it's like, I think I for what I built for probably around like two 25 to 50.

I could sell that shit right now for like $700, $800. Yeah. And it's like been two years. Oh no, I just I called my mom this morning. I was like, Hey, can you go check on My games in the basement. I mean, there's shit like the original Castlevania for NES I 100% have it with the box and Like that selling for hundreds of dollars down. Not that I want to sell it I don't but it's just curious to me that I get and then I get this like I know if this was like a thing

Like in 1989 when the new Batman movie was coming out, Tim Burton's Batman, everybody was like, hey, do you throw some comics into the basement? Like, those could be worth a lot of money, because people were suddenly aware of comic books existing. And they were like, hey, there's a market, like people paid money for old comics. And you know, squares were like,

I can't believe this is a thing you'd spend money on, you know? But like, you know, they're collectibles and I understand these being collectibles though I just feel like the level of the quantity of these things that exist in the world I Understand if you have one in a box. It's fucking sealed like I totally get it, right? Like that's a classic situation where you've got a at it, right? Like that's a classic situation where you've got a pristine, unopened sort of time capsule from that era. But we're talking about like loose cartridges, right? I'm looking at the Pokemon games like you can get some, you can get some for like 50 bucks or 40 bucks. But most of them are like 60 to 100 or 200 dollars200 like, you know,

just like Pokemon Fire Red version, $70. I mean, the thing is, is it's like, if it's a cartridge that's in at least usable condition, right, like you're a certain kind of person. And if you're that kind of person, you know that it's a game that it's going for more and more and you're gonna hold yours, because you're like, it's not only is it a collectible it'll probably

be worth more and so the inflation process just goes up and up and up and up and the higher the price looks the less people are gonna sell their copy unless they really money of course and I mean yeah that's it I mean you hold on but you know if you want to plan for this go out and buy a whole bunch of cheap SPS 4 games and then talk to me in 30 years. I would say, I gotta say, I'm really, I'm really glad that I have like boxes and boxes of old games like from my Xbox 360. And I was like, I should just fucking throw these out. And it's, you know, they're sitting in storage right now and someday, someday that's gonna

be a good thing. They are, although discs do rot, whatever bank, get out of my face, that shit. Okay. That's, that's, I have a bunch of Game Boy Advance games. I can go through in theory, but you have Castlevania, that's all I want to know. I'm sure I have no awareness in these games.

Like, like these Pokemon, like they have it in all these different colors. Like, I, I don't know what this game is like. It wasn't your era. No, I know. I'm like, I have, I don't even know what this game is like. It wasn't your era. No, I know I'm like I have I don't even know what the game looks like like you were like you were like a hot shot Young guy who hasn't played Game Boy Advance game. I mean when what year did Pokemon Emerald version come out? It came out 2004. I was gonna say to them three minutes 2004. Yeah, I mean in 2004. I was definitely not

Excuse me. Sorry, just a little coronavirus that I got to clear. I definitely was not playing Game Boy Advance games, you know. Great game though. Looks good, I don't know, should I get it? Yeah, it's great. I mean it looks like a top down kind of, I'm sort of spoiled by the Switch games I think. Yeah. Well, I, yes and no.

I understand that this is where you're getting into Pokemon and that you guys love it and that's great and I'm very excited for Zelda. But I do believe the Switch games, this is a piece I kind of wanted to work on for a little bit. I kind of believe that Game Freak is very distracted at the moment and I don't, I think the Switch games while fine are just not, they're like the not, they're like the old games exactly the same

with like a slightly updated graphics and then everything has made a lot easier. Yeah, well, I mean, they sanded all the edges down and the story lines are a lot more like, we're all friends unless there's like less conflict, which again, maybe it's better for kids. Yeah, I don't know. I have no way to reference this because,

I mean, obviously, I've only really seen the more recent stuff. She got a brilliant diamond or shining pearl or just one of them I got for her, for Hanukkah. And she's been playing it. I don't know how much. I don't know that she's obsessed with it or anything. I think it's a good game. I mean, I'm saying if you as an adult are like,

I wanna play a Pokemon game, I would get black and white one or two. What is that? Where is that? Black one and white one and then black two and white two are two games that are set in you know, which is like the New York. What's it for?

What's it for? The DS. I think that's the fucking pocket doesn't play DS. Oh, that's true. Yeah, that's true. It's right. It's very limited actually. Here's the thing.

I don't, people are making a big deal out of the pocket. Like, they're like, it's so good. It's cool. It's fine. I don't have regular people to play regular games. I just, in my opinion, like, it's like, they're like, oh so good. It's cool. It's fine. I don't have regular people to play regular games. I just, in my opinion, like, it's like they're like, oh, this is this pure format. I get for like the purposes of,

you know, the purposes of archival and preservation. Like, I understand that the power of having a system that can play natively play these games, like from a hardware, not an emulation standpoint, but it's actually like, I mean, understand that the power of having a system that can play natively play these games, like from a hardware, not an emulation standpoint, but is actually like, I mean, there's some form of emulation happening, but because they're not. It's FPGA hardware emulation at like the logic level. Yeah, like that's cool.

And I think that's awesome, but the reality is, it's easier to play it through an emulator on literally anything. I mean, it's like the play it through an emulator on literally anything. I mean, it's like the game is the same. There may be some... You get more features with an emulator. Yeah, like if you use... What is the shell that everybody uses that I... It's blanking on right now.

So what? The shell that the emulator shell everybody uses. The one that's like... Oh, MGBA. No, no, no, no. The one that has like every system, I'm just like blanking on the MU. Open MU.

No, the other one. You know, it's got like a replacement interface. Yeah, retro arc, retro arc, retro arch, whatever the fuck it is. It's like complicated to set up, but it has like a lot of really amazing features and you can literally put it on anything, which is super interesting.

I mean, I have, it's funny, but like, I have, you know, my switch and I've got a Retroid Pocket. I ordered a new Retroid, the Retroid Pocket too, but I ordered the new one, which has like a touchscreen and a faster processor, because I'm a fucking idiot, and I just love to burn it. I know, it looked really good.

Yeah, I love to love to. I was just taking money and just putting a match to it and just calling it a day. But, and then I got this. You can play DS games on the retro pocket too. No, I know I know But this is you too, but I'm saying sure that's easy That's the easiest thing you're saying what I what you're saying and I fundamentally agree is it's like the pocket is a cool Toy for people and it will definitely guys for the guys and It's cool for the guys and girls who are, for the cats who are buying the $150 fucking a RE of sorrow like or for the hardcore collector.

And I think that's who it's for. But the end of jailbreak, you can load the run. No, the jailbreak, which is what they did by the way, I got the SNES, the analog SNES, whatever it's called, super NT. Super NT. And you know, when I got it, they're like, ohES, whatever it's called. Super NT. Super NT. And, you know, when I got it, they're like, oh, yeah, you can flash it with this and you can then you can play all of every game you want. Like off of an SD card, you know, which obviously makes a lot of sense.

Like, I think it's awesome if you can have, if you have physical versions. And I think that obviously I'm not condoning piracy. I think you should own the game if you have a ROM of it, but it's also very convenient to be able to stick a SD card in there and have all of your games finger- Nobody is losing money if you don't purchase the hundred. Nobody is associated with the game is losing money. Oh yeah, to be clear, $200 a card.

To be clear, I think it's- Ciao and Montana. Right. I mean, I think it's, there is a, the market is completely, is completely sideways in terms of this pricing. And- If I've bought a collection of roms for my switch,

which I have with Castlevania, I feel zero guilt. I've already paid you, you're fine. I'm just gonna play it on this other thing. I know that's not legally true. Right, I mean, I think, yeah, listen, these are, this is like, but again, what I wanted to say is I think the analog pocket will be a very cool device when like FPGA programmers have like

come up with different cores for it and people are making games in GV Studio. Right, well I actually, the only thing I've, the only thing I've been able to play on it is a game I personally compiled in GB Studio last night, which was awesome. And actually, GB Studio is super cool. And I'm, oh my God, rules. And I'm fucking around with it now.

And actually has given me, because you know, like I was messing with Pico 8 before. And it's actually given me, like a lot of, it's given me a lot of excitement about working on my own stuff, like because it's really easy to use. They have a great demo. It absolutely owns.

Yeah, and they have a great demo that kind of gets you started where you can start to just play with little things and see how you can change the environment. And I think, and I think that it's, so anyhow, like that's whole other side of things that's going to be really cool. And I'm looking forward to, because people have made some really great GB studio games, and that they're not compiled for pocket right now, but I'm looking forward to hopefully that becoming a thing. I think they could really have their own little marketplace of games if they play their cards right for this.

And it will be a cool device. It's just right now, it doesn't even have save states. It like, you know, you can actually in the beta, actually, I just updated the firmware because the first thing they ask you to do is to update the firmware and I'm pretty sure there is a beta mode you can turn on that has save states. Well, you can save one save state per cartridge as long as the cartridge is inserted. Yeah, I think I crashed the system by doing it to my trying to do it on my on my GB studio game. So yeah, very cool. But at any rate, it's and it's a beautifully made system, but the screen, oh yeah, it looks amazing. No, it's great. And it feels great to play with it. And like I'm

looking forward to it. So like, you know, none of the games I actually want to play are available before one other thing I'll say is that the Game Boy Advance games are widescreen and it's a, it's a, it's a square, you know, four by three display or whatever, four or three displays. So it will be, you know, essentially letterbox, which is sort of a bummer. Yeah, don't love that.

No, I don't love it either. And it's like, I feel like they could have, um, still a large screen, still a nice, but played a play. But I'm playing, but I've been playing, one thing I'll say is, I've been playing the cast of any games on, I got the advanced collection for my Switch, I mentioned this before. And by the way, interesting question to ask, which is like,

you know, if I paid for the advanced collection, should I feel like I'm, it's fine if I get, if I go and get the ROM to play the original version? I feel like it's a little... Legally not true, but ethically and morally... I feel like I paid for the game. Like I definitely bought 100% of that title. And what I'm, and yes, there's like the physical cost

of like the actual cartridge and all that shit. But it's like, you know what I mean? It's like, I get, it's like, okay, it would be one thing. If it was like, you paid the person who owns the rights to the game for the game, there should be a universal save system for every game that like, that you can export your save to like no driver or whatever. And then I should be able to play it wherever I have the game.

Cause I, cause I, it's such an amazing idea because I have my game way saved in the switch version. And I'm like, God, when I started on this, when I started on the pocket, I'm gonna be at like zero, you know? And yeah, it's very annoying to me. I've been playing Cuphead and I am at one level

that is apparently the hardest level that I beat everything else, but I haven't been able to beat this one level on regular mode and I've Googled it and everyone's like, it's the worst level, it's very frustrating, I'm very annoyed, blah, blah. And I was like, fine, fuck it. I have to play it with like a real controller,

and I don't know where my Switch dock is, because when we got the OLED, I switched it out, and I never hooked it back up, whatever. So it was like, fine, I'll just play it on Xbox, let me just sync my save somehow. You can't do that. There's no way my cup head save now lives in Nintendo world. So I had to fucking dig out a dock, plug the dock,

and find a pro controller and sync that up. All this shit, and I still couldn't be the level. I, if anyone's familiar with cuphead, it's Grim matchstick. I hate him. It's so, I'm sorry, that game is so hard. It's so hard. I think I got it for the Switch and I was like, I played it for like an hour and I'm like, no, I love how punishingly hard it is. I know. It's taken me a year. I'm not enjoying it. I was like, two years. I'm out of here. No, I don't have time to get good at games as you know.

Um, and anyway, not saying you've got a lot of time, but like, like, I'm out of here. Well, I don't have time to get good at games as you know. And anyway, not saying you've got a lot of time, but like, you know, I mean, it's Mega Man lever climbers. You require as a level of commitment that I just can't get into. But anyhow, so the point is getting back to my point, or getting to the thing I said about the, you know, I paid for it.

I do think it's something interesting about the fact that, you know, if you get a DVD of the Matrix, and then they release like the 4K version, those are different, they literally are different, the content is different, you know if you get a DVD of the matrix and then they release like the 4k version Those are different they literally are different the content is different You know it's remastered you put effort into a different piece of of It's completely different reproduction, but but in the case of a game It's literally like a copy the copy of the code

You know sometimes there may be some you know changes I mean in the case of obviously on the switch. Sometimes there may be some changes. I mean, in the case of obviously on the switch, it's running as an emulation. And M2 does a very good job. Like, there are studios that do a great job of making the emulation literally millisecond perfect. And the sound is literally perfect. And it's in an amazing package with great extras.

Like, at the Castlevania Collection, in particular, is a beautifully done collection. But I pay due for that. and I pay due for the original ROM which you're running. So I'm good. I'm good. I feel no guilt. I think there's a point.

I do think there's a line at some point where you're like, OK, I definitely have paid for this. And I'm very happy to pay for the pay for things that I care about and that I like and that I want. But anyhow, it's just something I was thinking about. It's just an interesting. And it seems like Nintendo doesn't want my mother three money.

I'm offering them money to purchase the ROMs or a cartridge or something. They won't give it to me. So fine, I'm gonna take the fan hack and illegally tour it, the crappy whatever ROM that was ribbed and dumped 20 years ago and I'll apply the fan hack myself. And I am not gonna feel guilt.

I'm not gonna feel like I'm a bad person. And Nintendo's, when they take people, what take down rom sites or whatever, for $40 million, that to me is an injustice. It is, it's really shitty thing to do. Because if you're not gonna release your games for purchase, how the hell are people supposed to, I mean, it's an art form.

It would be like saying, like, well, that book was released in the 80s. What do you expect to read it? Well, yeah, I do expect to be able to read it. I mean, I mean I You know listen, I think there's probably more You know as a person who's certainly been Has certainly gone and gotten like the 500 best ads roms on you know on Archive dot or a torrent or whatever. You know, like, listen, I don't know

in every one of those games. And the truth is, I'm not going to collect every one of those games, and I'm not going to play every one of those games. Like, I probably plot for me in Netflix, like, service out of, yes, great idea. Out of 500 games, I've probably played five, you know, but, um, but yeah, I think there's probably like, but is that an issue for Nintendo? I fucking highly doubt that these games are literally don't exist anymore. I mean, to our point, you can't buy them, but is that an issue for Nintendo? I fucking highly doubt it. These games are literally don't exist anymore. I mean, to our point, you can't buy them, but for totally inflated prices.

So, what do you expect? Is the, and you have to be able to manage the hardware at that point, right? Right, so you say you buy a $300 NES game. You have to have a working NES that also can hook up to a modern monitor and you have to keep it in good shape to ever play that game. Yeah, it's like, is the idea that, okay, well,

you didn't buy the advance in 2002 and you don't own this game so therefore, like, you should never be able to play it. I mean, you know, it's like, that's not really a, that's not really a tenable solution for a digital product, you know? Especially in art form that is just like, it is informed by, like all media is informed by the fact that this came before it.

And Castlevania is like not a not important cultural object. I don't know. I especially like things like Pokemon, it's like, I actually think this is a pivotal RPG in like the entire medium of video games, and I don't, I don't, I would, it begrudged literally nobody who is interested in developing video games or

interested at all in the in the industry for downloading a rom of pokemon red i think in india will survive that i think they've made their pokemon money well pokemon unquestionably does not need any money from you or anyone else and god knows they're getting it regardless i mean i've spent the amount of money I've spent with that company. Pokemon has made more money than Harry Potter, made more money than Mario, made more money than Disney, any Disney Pixar characters, all combined.

Pokemon is like the most money making media property by far ever to exist. And they're games, I'm sorry, the modern games are the old games with like shitty graphics replacing the nice pixel art. They were like, I don't understand. They were like, hey, we don't wanna make a whole new game, but I mean, they do have new games coming out obviously,

but they're like, but also those old games, we could just like, spice them up a little bit. Just keep pumping them. It's very hot, it's like the fucking GTA thing, which is the most unbelievable, also those old games we could just like sp-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s- in the history of video games. I find it to be one of the most deranged and unusual things. Obviously, completely, just naked cash grab from Rockstar, which is like, do you need the money? Cause I think this could have been really cool for you to do in the right way.

But even if they put out the original, like the original shitty fucking, whatever, builds of the games in 4 by 3 and they just compiled them to run on the switch or whatever. Yeah fine. Fine. This remastered version doesn't even work. I mean, what's so not to not to totally go down a rabbit hole, but there's a great digital

foundry video about this that I tweeted about when the game came out, which kind of explores like it goes deep on. Love those guys. On what it is. They're the best. On what it is're such nerds, and it's like, so, they're so good at, like, just being like, we're gonna go all over. Digital Foundry, My Life and Gaming,

there's a handful of hardcore nerds doing analysis of, like, software and hardware on a technical level, pixel by pixel, and I live for it. Yeah, so good. It's so good. But they were like, they kind of go through the, like, what is, like, what are these games? And they explain very clearly that were like, they kind of go through the, like, what is, like, what is the, what are these games? And they explain very clearly that like, the games are not the games.

Like, actually, to get to the, to the, back to that topic, we were just discussing about like, a copy of a game or whatever in a different format or running on emulation, these are like, they're like, oh, they built these games on this one platform. And then they couldn't keep building them on that platform because it really was like, they're like, oh, they built these games on this one platform. And then they couldn't keep building them on that platform because it really was like old and not compatible with like more modern systems. So they rebuilt the game with like different assets and different textures and different character design.

Like all this shit and it's like, this is crazy. What they're selling is the definitive edition is literally not, it's not the game that you play in. It's not the game that you play. There's variations of it, but really when you think about like what the actual original version of that game is, these are like these bastardized,

like basically created for mobile systems. Like they were created for like iOS basically, and they were recreated as an entirety. Like it's not, and so like what you get into, which is really interesting, and what kind of, actually like kind of cooks your noodle a bit when you start to think about it, is like what is that?

Like what is the game that you're playing? Because it's not the game that you played for the whatever the original system was that it was on PS2 maybe I wanna say. You know like GTA 3 or GTA 4, I that it was on PS2 maybe I want to say. You know like GTA 3 or GTA 4 I think it's like PS2 maybe Xbox 360. But like what are you playing? The controls aren't the same because it's built differently. The graphics aren't the same. Maybe they use some of the audio, they do, they use most of the audio but like a they use most of the audio, but like a lot of it is sensor added in. Yeah, and it's like so, so what is it, you know, and I think like, I find that to be a fascinating question,

but also like a madding one, because to get to bring it all the way back to the analog pocket, what they are doing is something that I think is very necessary and what everybody who's interested in this preservation, and particularly as we talk about buying the original cartridge versus some weird reproduction, there is a version that is the real version, the original version, as intended by the creator, right, the creator of the game. I mean, this is just getting us into George Lucas territory stuff. No, but like the, but George Lucas was, George Lucas's changes to the Star Wars films are fucked up and wrong. And like, you're a complete bastard.

And ruined those movies in a variety of ways. And it's like, and I understand a director going, like, I understand an artist going, like, you know, I wasn't really happy with this thing. But like, that's the thing. It's there now. Like, it exists. And like, as much as you want it to be something else It can't ever be that's a new thing right to the point about these GTA games That's a new thing whatever it is. It's not the original see this is I mean and we could go down a whole rabbit hole We actually don't have time to do no I know but

It's a fascinating but people get mad at me when I talk about theme parks really passionately because everyone thinks it's such a shitty annoying topic. Everyone does. I talk about this at dinner parties. People can't stand it. However, when you when you come out with pirates of the Caribbean, right? And then you update it four or five times for appropriateness for children, social justice reasons, marketing purposes for your new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, technical upgrades, weather proofing. At what point is that no longer the ride Pirate to the Caribbean that we originally debuted

and saw, and like, it's fine. I'm glad that the real original one doesn't exist because like, it was full of rape scenes, but it should be called something else. It was. Oh, yeah. Pirate to the Caribbean? Real bad. Yeah. Real bad.

There's a whole section, the whole middle of the ride was just Pirates chasing unwilling, screaming, crying women and then we saw them holding them down and stuff. It was really bad. Yeah. Wow. And Disney obviously updated it and changed things around

and now the women chased the men with rolling pins or something and there's Johnny Depp is there, which is now problematic and out and out, and they're gonna take him out. And it's a completely different thing and there's a restaurant in the middle of it now. And that's fine. But it's just like, is it that pirates of the Caribbean?

Well, that's different to the Caribbean. That's different, I mean, that's different. I mean, in the sense of like, I mean, okay, yes, it's not. I guess the digital marketplace is very similar. Well, but the dual ride where they are living things that have been made. No, but the difference between a ride in reality

and a digital product is you can actually duplicate with for all intents and purposes, you can. You could give people both. There actually is an original version of GTA that was built for its original, whatever release was. And that version can be played. Full stop. You're right.

You can, in one, it can be played on that hardware, but also it can be emulated. That can happen, okay? Yeah. So what is obviously not applicable to reality is like, you can't, like, there's's no physical perfect copy of a thing right it's like everything is in some way like every iPhone is nearly identical but there is something different in each one like some micron of difference like whether or not you want to wait a minute

it's just a piece of that whatever I mean I'm just saying it's a physical good like the the the mixture of materials may have some very this is why I don't buy NFTs. Yeah, but like, well, don't get me. That's a whole other fucking thing. But, but, but, but, but I think what's so interesting about it is like, I do think it's important to preserve the originals and also offer the alternatives to the originals or the upgrades or the kind of deviations, but, but I think that's what actually at the core of the pocket, what's so interesting is that there is like a huge desire to create an ecosystem that allows people to play to preserve and play those versions, but you know, that's if you don't price people out of actually owning them or replace them with shitty weird knockoff copies. And so that like seems to be a little bit of an issue right now. One quick thing before we do nice things, can I just

comment on something? Yeah. Because we were talking about Pokemon and Game Freak and the way they are kind of like redoing the games. Like, can I just say Pokemon Ruby version and Pokemon Sapphire version are 2002 role playing games developed by Game Freak. Okay, this is the Wikipedia entry for the first Game Boy Advance games they are the First installments in the third generation of Pokemon games known as the advanced generation okay. Here's the next game that came out for Sorry, honey. The next game that came out for the advance Pokemon fire red and leave green are remakes of the 1996 Game Boy game Pokemon Red and Blue and then the next game that comes out is

enhanced it's Pokemon Emerald which is an enhanced version of Ruby and Sapphire which is the first version to do with the other one. Yeah, which is the first version of the game that came out for the advance. So it's like yes, this is just their thing. They're like, I didn't realize this, but they're just like, just like add a Pokemon and re-release it. And what people are like, all right, I'll buy that. Yep, do you know how many copies of Pokemon Blue? I have purchased it in my life. It's got to be somewhere in the neighborhood of like, why do they put random Pokemon on them?

I mean, they put them on 3DS and that's technically a version. They put them on them. I mean, they put them on 3DS and that's technically a version. They put them on collections. They put them. I mean, you, you, you, I mean, it's sort of like Sonic the Hedgehog one and two. I own so many copies. I own multiple versions of that for iOS. Why? I don't know. It's convenient and it's $2. So I rebuy it. And now I have purchased, I mean, if I count Genesis copies and then collections on other consoles, it's gotta be upwards of 30 times. I've purchased on a website.

You're a very sick man. I've said it before. I'll say it again. All right, let's do nice things, get out of here. Okay. You go ahead. My nice thing is that since I'm being punished by analog, which again, fair enough,

and I'm not getting my pocket until the last moment, they legally have to give it to me. Choose it. 2024. Yeah, I have been playing on my original, well, not original. I mean, it's a Game Boy Advance that I resheld and put a different screen on and different battery and a bunch of other stuff, but it is quote unquote original hardware. And I have to say, this is why I love FPGAs. There's just nothing like playing on the original hardware. It feels so good.

And to scratch that Game by Advanced, it's I have been doing that. And even with a flash cart, you're just like, there's nothing that touches the experience. There's no lag on the buttons. Everything is where it's supposed to be. The, I mean, even with a new replacement screen, the screen pretty much is the exact screen it's supposed to have.

There's no like shimmer, there's no like resizing, there's no borders. The, I mean, it's just exactly what was intended. And that's really nice. And should be available to everybody. And that's my nice thing. And it's I propose for that episode we just had. I mean, that's very fitting.

Very fitting. My nice thing is I'm gonna keep it simple, is to show yellow jackets on showtime. And I'm gonna keep it timey to watch. I think if you're not watching it, you're crazy. It's very, very good. It could turn bad. No, we don't know, you know, still early.

I think it's a show that could go either way. I will say I'm really enjoying it and I recommend people watch it. But everyone's been saying it's definitely the kind of show that could disappoint me in a major way. Like it's got a lot going on. But I think it's very good. The actors, Christina Ricci is in it, and Juliet Lewis is in it. Just a ton of great, very talented, very interesting actors to watch. Great music. It's like part of it's set in the 90s. There's a lot of 90s music that I recognize.

Obviously, it's great for maybe an old person. Can we talk about Sexless City last time? Oh, boy. I don't think we did. Though I have watched two of the first two episodes of it. I have not seen the most recent. Jaila Jackets check it out on Showtime, which is an issue. But yeah, it's actually, I have only one thing to say about and just like that, which is, uh, Carrie needs to go to jail for not calling 911. And there's no question in my mind that, uh, big could be a spoiler alert.

Big could be alive today. If she had just a moment of, uh, thought, okay. That's it. I, I have a theory. She let big dying cold blood. I don't think Samantha's in London. I think she kills the man. But that would be a fucking, I'm sorry.

If that were actually the plot of this show, I mean, she's like, just a serial killer. Amazing. She's taking the one by one. Actually, Big doesn't die from the peloton she slips something in his wine like, you know, heart-stopping, undetectable heart-stopping. Passing him, of course.

She's like doing like a Munchausen by proxy on him or whatever. Anyhow, this is all great stuff. What a way to cap off the nice thing. Let's get out of here. All right, goodbye. Well, that is our show for this week. We'll be back next week with more tomorrow. And as always, I wish you and your family the very best, though I've just learned that your family has collapsed and only carry us there to help them. you