Podouken

We bring the Mounted Gun miniseries to a close with a good old fashioned Arcade Obscura. Each of us brings our pick for an obscure or underrated mounted gun game but one game is so obscure we invite the only person known to own it onto the podcast - Doc Mack from The Galloping Ghost arcade! Who is giving all these zombies guns? What American city has its own arcade game named after it? Are birthda...

We're back in the saddle again with another Midway mounted gun game that's not the same old song and dance. So if you don't want to miss a thing then walk this way as we cover this amazing and crazy game. Let's get back in the saddle with Revolution X: Music is the Weapon. Featuring: Aerosmith - Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer. Why should this game really have Fea...

Konami trains an entire generation to become snipers as they task you with saving the model 90s American First Family, but not their secretary. In this episode we're taking a long, focused look at the biggest gun in the arcade, Silent Scope. Why are there so many "wow" moments in this game? Will Jarrod ever reclaim the Mr. SNK title from Rob? Is this the only video game where you can shoot Tom and...

Midway hits all their targets when they make THE mounted gun game of the 90s, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (and it was all thanks to Narc). What actors gave it their all to bring the arcade game to life? Which host hasn't seen the prequel to this movie (and how is that not at all surprising)? Who recorded more dialogue for the game than they did for the movie? How does one gameplay tip make this gam...

Let's play the 80s version of Operation! It has a lot of changes over the popular board game like the tweezers being replaced with an Uzi and instead of Cavity Sam we're operating on unspecified enemy troops to rescue hostages… actually these games don't seem to be related at all. In this episode we're talking about THE mounted gun game of the 80s, Taito's Operation Wolf (and the sequels that foll...

It's time to explore the way of the light gun with one important condition - it's mounted to the arcade control panel. Our first episode of this new miniseries explores the transition from electromechanical to video with the Exidy light gun games that brought multiple C's to the arcade with Crossbow, Cheyenne, and Chiller. Is the Chiller controversy valid? What is the best way to describe the game...

Iza Jinjou ni Shoubu! Let's have a good clean fight in this final episode of the Neo Geo 4 Slot miniseries (for now). The board has been repaired and we're dedicating an entire episode to cover our last selection of 1993 - Samurai Shodown! Is SamSho the most underrated fighting game of the 90s? How does the Edo period heavily influence this game and make the inclusion of some characters impossible...

Travel with us back to 1993 when Bill Clinton became the 42nd President of the United States, your mom and grandmother's favorite collectible was released, Samuel L. Jackson implored people to hold onto their butts, and a Dolly Parton song takes off again. Sadly it appears our Neo Geo 4-slot has a slight malfunction so we'll only fill it with three of our four picks this episode with Sengoku 2, 3...

It's the year 1992 - the public witnesses the first televised presidential threeway debate, eating liver with a nice Chianti is all the rage, and the Cartoon Network debut helps mold the tastes of a generation. Join us as we compose our 1992 Neo Geo 4 slot with Mutation Nation, Last Resort, King of the Monsters 2, and Viewpoint. What game gives us some Nautiboys, Thornygirls, and a viking crusader...

Welcome to the year 1991 where war is the hottest collectible, geography tests just got a whole lot harder, and arguably the best movie sequel ever came out. In this very sick episode we'll be assembling the Podouken 4 slot with Ghost Pilots, Eight Man, Crossed Swords, and Thrash Rally. Why are we recording this episode remotely? Can you still hire pontoon plane pilots on Fiver? Will we make Jarro...

It's 1990 - the year of the Berlin Wall coming down, the Hubble Space Telescope going up, and Wilson Phillips asking us to hold on for one more day. In this episode we'll fill the Podouken 4 Slot Neo Geo with Ninja Combat, Cyber-Lip, The Super Spy, and Blue's Journey. Does this episode have our worst bit ever? Why is Debra a fat man holding an ax? How are we disappointing the futurists from the 90...

New year, new miniseries as we dedicate our next group of episodes to answer a question posed years ago: "What Neo Geo games make it in the Podouken 4 Slot?" This episode is a gimme as the Neo Geo launched with four titles in the US: NAM-1975, Baseball Stars Professional, Top Players Golf, and Magician Lord. What are the hosts' first memories of the Neo Geo? Did Mr. SNK skate regular or goofy mong...

We're closing off the Hollywood miniseries with our first Arcade Obscura in over a year! And it's been so long that some of us have forgotten how it works (and how much content to prepare for the episode). So get ready to hear a whole lot about one game (and a little bit about two others) as we bring our picks for obscure or underrated arcade games based on movies. Are we going to cover a Star War...

Now I have a machine gun. Ho-ho-ho. On this special holiday episode of Podouken we take an in-depth look at not just a Christmas movie, but THE Christmas movie - Die Hard (and the very literal arcade game by Sega). How did this film based on a book that was written as a sequel to a Frank Sinatra film turn into a holiday classic? What led Golden Axe's creator to use Die Hard to revive the beat 'em...

Sorry X-Men, there's a new longest episode in town. It's time to talk about George Lucas's totally-not-inspired-by-Lord-of-the-Rings fantasy epic (and Capcom arcade game) Willow, which coincidentally (or not) has a new TV series coming out… today! Why are all the names in this movie so awful? Does Val Kilmer make the perfect Madmartigan or would John Cusak have done it better? Did we talk about th...

Hold on to your butts as we explore a Steven Spielberg directed film that was a #1 top grossing box office movie and spawned a video game. No, not Jaws . No, not E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial . Welcome to Jurassic Park (cue the kazoos). How did one Spaz lead to the extinction of a special effects technology and the supremacy of another? Which Jurassic Park arcade game is the best? Who is the Gatekeep...

Dead or alive, you're coming with me to hear the Podouken gang explore RoboCop the movie… and the arcade game! How did a home video game company play the Uno Reverse card on an arcade maker? Why are there so many dicks in this movie? What movie set gave inspiration for the creation of RoboCop? What makes this movie and Starship Troopers so similar? Would you like to know more? Fun fact enough: Rob...

After 80 episodes we're not going home. We're going to get on our boat, and we're going up river, and we're going to kick that son-of-a-bitch Bison's ass so hard that the next Bison wannabe is gonna feel it. Now who wants to go home, and who wants to listen to a Street Fighter: The Movie podcast?! Why have we been watching this movie all wrong? How did breaking the Seven Dwarfs rule ultimately doo...

After three years of podcasting, nearly 80 episodes, and covering 200 arcade games, it's time to switch our focus to something with more audience potential. So we're going full Hollywood and rebranding as a video arcade game… movie podcast! To start we're covering the live-action Walt Disney classic, Tron. How was this movie inspired by Pong? What convinced Tron's creator to move away from traditi...

The Listeners' Choice miniseries wraps up with a game that won't give you power and wealth by punching hard, or knowing economics, or looking good. Nope, you have to blow up a bunch of hover tanks in T-MEK released by Atari Games. What popular games was T-MEK inspired by? How did this game make Rob thousands of dollars? Is there a secret Atari meetup that we're blacklisted from? Why is there so li...

Time to go SHBROOM-ing with the bros as we fight to protect all animal life - except bats - ef them bats. Come experience the EXCITE, ACTION, THRILL, EXCITE, and FIGHT of Taito's Growl. What is the secret twist that may have you feeling sympathy for the bad guys? How many characters were lifted from Indiana Jones? How did some popular Konami beat 'em ups end Growl's time in arcades before it even...

It's the year 20XX and the economy sucks, warfare is spreading, and terrorism is rampant. No, we're not doom scrolling, we're talking about the Psikyo/Capcom collaboration Cannon Spike! How long can we talk about a game that takes 15 minutes to play? Is Cannon Spike primarily a shmup or a beat 'em up? What's the correct way to describe a single ski? Is the Dreamcast version better than the arcade?...

We hope you saved room for the final course in our Blue Collar series because it's a whopper. We're talking about the deliciously classic food service game by Data East - BurgerTime! Peter Pepper packs a lot of peppered pickles in his burgers, but how many peppered pickles can Peter Pepper pack? How did PastBlaster score a free BurgerTime? What are the hosts' picks for their favorite burger chain?...

We grab the Blue Collar miniseries by the handlebars and cover the game that seems to be the talk of the town, Atari's Paperboy. How did this game deliver something fresh and newsworthy to the mid-80s arcade? What makes the technical descriptions in Atari manuals so delectable? Will you choose to play Paperboy as a Paragon or Renegade? How did Paperboy's evolution into Atari System 2 sacrifice som...

Stop us if you've heard this one before: a crazy monkey has kidnapped a girl and it's up to our hero to get her back. And the girl is Zelda. But we're not talking about a Nintendo property here. We're talking about Taito's Zoo Keeper. Who was the Zoo Keeper co-creator that drastically altered the face of arcade history in the U.S.? What non-video arcade game released just before this is a Podouken...