Hello everybody welcome to another special episode of explicit material the podcast where a nerdy drummer talks with friends And in some cases meets new ones kindred spirits that he feels after watching and listening and just in taking all of their content feel like they know this person and their kindred spirits and Ladies and gentlemen may I introduce Michael K. He is a fantastic producer Musician drummer all around nerd culture enthusiast amazing videos amazing content on his YouTube channel I discovered him on TikTok and I just never look back it is incredible his stuff If you like any sort of nerd culture talented musician stuff, please check out his stuff. It is incredible welcome Michael K Thank you. I really appreciate that intro.
That was awesome Dude first of all, how do you say your last name? I've been Claude Zinski. Claude Zinski. Okay, what is that Polish?
It is Polish It's funny like that's really the most Polish thing about me Like I did like a DNA test thing or you know whatever fairly a couple years ago, and I'm like I don't know like 10% 8% Polish or something like that. It's just what else are you what sort of what are you? The one thing that sticks out to me is it said I was like 7% Nigerian or something like that. Well, you know We'd all kind of be you know some African you know cuz that's where humans kind of came from right?
Dude, so what's up, man? How have you been like I want us to say I love your stuff It's you know what really clicked for me when I saw yourself I was like wow, this is not only is the music really not only are you very talented in as a drummer and apparently you play a bunch of Other instruments which is just impressive. I can only barely play drums. I can't play Any other is my whole guitar.
I'm like what do these do? I don't know my fingers can't do the thing So but not only that but your production value is just top notch. It's fantastic. I really want to know like I think by the way, I think my favorite things be yours is dark wing duck the dark wing duck cover do space jam Okay Dude, I yeah, I really really loved both of those that particular version of the space jam theme like I have always loved that If you've never heard it barkly shut up and jam whatever It's it's so good back when I was streaming drums.
We play that all the time It's so good. I love those two covers and the night trap cover that I did oh, yeah I'm not sure I was good like I just love you had to like put on the wig in the costume like it just puts it all together Right, so I haven't actually talked about this at all But like all these these are like different characters and I plan to like they actually have names But I haven't really brought it to life just yet, but at some point I'll you know introduce them all but like you got Rod who is the he's the percussionist He's kind of like hyped like coped out of his mind and then you got Humphrey he's like the chill saxophone player and then you got Todd who's kind of like the 80s hair metal like key Taurus and then the me sorry actually work. Are you yeah? Oh, wow?
I love it. Oh, man Years ago like in 2007 2008. I was in this funk group funk rock group Yeah, we would you know open up and we would like had a buddy band we played with I can't recall their name, but it was very loud clothes. We were wore loud clothes to that was one like sneakers were in again like really bright So yeah, like pro-keds and in the like and so we were all about that life and this band had two key-taurus Awesome, it was awesome.
It was so cool. I missed those days, but yeah every time I see a key-tar I'm like that's fucking it's so funny like when I was like in high school or something I just saw key-tar it was like this is a lame and now I'm like that is the coolest thing I have ever seen It really is like let's merge two instruments together. Why the hell with a brilliant? Exactly, you know, and I just like bass drums I don't know right But what's like um so obviously you're very talented in all the instruments like what is what has been your musical journey like did you start on drums?
Did you start with like guitar or piano first and then move your way up? Yeah, this is the whole thing So my mother made me take piano lessons starting when I was about four years old Um, so thank you mom even though I did not enjoy it at the time I constantly complained about it, but I took the analysis for probably about nine years or so Um, and then in middle school I picked up the saxophone Uh, my grandfather was actually a he was like a touring jazz musician So he he toured like a big band and he like opened for like he opened for Elvis once. Oh dude really? Yeah, it's funny that your so your family is a musical family.
Okay, so dude this is why I knew it I are like he's very serious because my parents are musicians are Oh nice rather and they toured and my dad is an Elvis impersonator. That's how like he You know, I've had him on the podcast years ago when they were when they visited and it's just a hilarious podcast If you guys are into Elvis, please just just and he's just and dad and it's just dad's a fun. Yeah, um So like my whole life like he was a In personator like before I was even born that's how my parents met my mom audition to be his backup singer And they're still together and they still sing together and so I've been inundated with that you know the musician life So when you say that you came from musical family, I totally identify with that's that's awesome though Although my parents wanted me to go to college Yeah, um, yeah, I don't really know where the piano lessons thing came from, but you know, it happened so starting at early age Man, they knew like this we you know, this is it right here. Right?
Like right now Um and funny enough like I there's actually a picture of me from I don't know I was probably like maybe Two or something playing on some little drum set some little like kid drum set that my parents got for me Um, although I didn't really pick up drums until forever later, but um, but anyway foreshadow So, uh in middle school I picked up the saxophone and then joined the middle school band Um just to be I guess a little more social musically, I guess Um, so that was in the eighth grade. I also maybe about a year later picked up guitar and started playing guitar Um, so I was playing saxophone and guitar at the same time basically Um, you know trying to be a master of everything and you know that that not great at anything that that whole thing Not focusing or whatever Master of what was a master of all weight But what's the what's the word that they're just saying like master right right, uh, you know what i'm talking about Yeah, um So, uh jack-a-ball trays master of none that's what that's the thing. Yeah, yeah, um Found it. All right.
Um, in the ninth grade I uh, I played saxophone in the marching band from high school and I saw the drum line and specific But do you know anything about about drum lines? I I took or like in high school I took drums one year and I said this sucks I don't want to do this anymore and so from then on I was like I actually went into football and I didn't really start Really getting into drums until I got like a full-on drum set at 16 Am I because my friend had a guitar and he's like hey, we should start a band I was like, I don't know really know how to play the drums, but it sounds like fun And so we would get together and uh, we would just play drums Uh, I heard play in a band and we do like in tower covers and stuff like that So I never really got into the drum line because I looked at it and go I can't do that I'm not even right Yeah, it's a whole different world um and actually side note the reason I started playing guitar is because a bunch of friends of mine wanted to start a band and I guess every you know all the other instruments were spoken for so I guess I'm playing guitar So that's kind of how it works. Yeah, but uh, and singers too like I don't have a singer you can kind of hold it to and watch you sing right? Oh, I'll get back to that So, uh, so I saw the drum line and specifically the the tenor drums Which for anybody who doesn't know what those are those are like the the four or five or sometimes six tom drums that are like out In front of you and you know do like cross over.
Yeah, that whole thing. Yeah, um, so I just thought that was the coolest thing I'd ever seen so I went home and made some out of some buckets and proceeded to Teach myself from what I could hear of like the drum breaks and stuff of the show Um and had like one of my friends was actually on the drum line He kind of filled in some gaps so I was like, you know freaking playing the drum break on buckets Uh a few months later. I bought some tenors and actual drums off of ebay started playing those Uh, and then I just you know kept going with that So I was juggling I was really playing drum set at that point just kind of juggling the marching drum thing and saxophone and guitar Um and a few years later actually did the drum line Uh, I got good enough to actually do the drum line in high school went on to do drum line in college Kind of dropped the saxophone thing wasn't really keeping up with that as much anymore So I was kind of focusing on guitar and drums at that point Um And then it wasn't really until like my sophomore year college that I really started playing drum set I started like getting into like progressive metal like dream theater and you know all that kind of stuff Um, so being like really coming from that like technical drum line background or whatever like that stuff was always super appealing to me Yeah, progressive metal things. That's kind of how I got into I think every musician goes through a progressive rock progressive metal stage I think because like there's a certain when you're young.
I don't know how old you are And I'm not gonna ask because you know if you can tell me but whatever 36 look at that. Oh nice Let's go Um Like I think when you're young and you're especially if you're in a band and you're trying to make it quote unquote and you just you know You want to be the best version of a musician you possibly can and it's you know the only way Past pop and regular metal and rock is progressive music because it you know it bring that's like the top one and then after that would be jazz But that's a whole different world. You know, yeah You gotta like grow up in jazz like jazz people like they don't go from rock to jazz You know they always go from jazz to rock or something like that You know this but if you know a person that grew up with jazz like they stay with jazz and there's Oh, yeah, definitely Yeah, I've never that's like my one weakness as far as drumming goes is like you will never see me do any of the jazz stuff that stuff is insane Insanity it's insanity. Um, but uh, what was saying I think everybody goes through that progressive rock stage I did we had a progressive band we were called a beginner's mind Which is like a Zen Buddhist kind of philosophy And we had a story and everything and I think what happened was I have told this story before but I think it's hilarious We promoted the hell out of a show.
We were like a pro like just on the streets This is before like my space was a thing so we were doing my space But like actual physical promotion was what you did you know liars at shows and when we were there every night for like two or three weeks And uh, the day of the show came up and we thought you know, it was gonna be gangbusters 150 people 200 people thought we're like, yeah I mean we promote the hell out of the show some great and we're awesome Yeah, and then the day of the show comes up and two people oh people showed up To the show and they were our friends and girlfriends. Yeah, so it was like that was a big wake up call That was a big wake up called us. We're like, okay. No one likes this Right or at least our version of it.
So we need to like it traumatized us for really good because we were all about like mars volta Coding camera, uh dream theater. We were all about the progressive rock stuff And then that happened and we went to frick it like right off that we went straight into like funk rock Like something very easy going bob or head kind of stuff and actually really worked out You know, it really did we actually started people started coming in and we had a little thing out here national a little tiny bit Sign or anything, but you know that was a traumatic experience. Yeah, realizing that Doing the progressive rock thing. That's a really tough road to go down Yeah, so it seems like everything I I write is always kind of rooted in like Uh the progressive metal kind of stuff and sometimes in my past I've gotten a little too crazy like I'm gonna try and make this the most confusing sounding thing that I have ever played Uh for no reason whatsoever other than just because um So I tried to stay away from that kind of stuff No, but it lends but it lends very well because you're you're sick of patien and you're in your drumming is like It's very obvious that you did take like some sort of uh really heavy lessons and inspiration from like drumline and stuff because you're You know, you know, you're feet.
You know, like it's just it's all perfect. It's great. It's just very Yeah, it's very uh very clean if I could say like that's really tough to do I can't do stuff like that like I'll throw my body into something to make up for it to make up for the lack of skill I'm just like, okay, I'm just like, you know, I can't do that But what I can do is turn my arm as far as back as I possibly can and make look like I'm you know Right, I think that you know that I can do that I can I can get into I can throw my body into something But nothing like nothing like what you can do like it's it's incredible. I love it Um, yeah, so you got into so you got in the drum set.
Um, did you like are you have you been in any like bands? Have you tried to do the band thing or is it just all for the love of music? Yeah, so um, I did the kind of like, you know, whole garage band thing deal in high school, which is when I picked a guitar Um going into college. I was actually in a uh, a fantasy power metal band.
Um, I did not play drums in that actually Um, so I do so the guy, um, he goes by Zorane. He's in a lot of my videos. He wears like the green The guitarist. Yeah.
Yeah. Um, so so Right side note he and I have been in bands, you know, for like the past 20 years or whatever and he's like very heavily involved in The michael kekos full-on production things like he's he does like all the guitar recording and and the video editing and stuff like that for me So that okay, I was gonna ask you if you had any skill in like video and as well because your production is really good Yeah, he we we definitely tag team the whole thing even though it totally looks like it's like 90 percent me It's like it's not 100 percent not Um, but anyway, so he actually played drums in the power metal band Oh wow, um, and I played guitar and we spent literally years looking for a singer Tried a few different people it never worked and then one day we were recording some music and he said get in the closet and you know Record the vocal line. And so I did it and like you're the new singer. So I had to learn how to sing and play guitar at the same time Um, so that was a thing in a power metal band.
That's amazing. Yeah, real quick. Is my vocals, uh clipping at all? I think it sounds fine.
It sounds good. Okay. All right. I'm just making sure because usually like what zoom does is they automatically put compression On your mic and so it does it through the app and so lately it just didn't do that this time So I'm just making sure that everything's sounding good.
Okay. Cool. Yeah, uh, do that's awesome. Um, a fantasy power metal band Yeah, that is I wish in my life that I could Instead we went the new metal route.
We were all about like mud bane in my early days. Yeah, that's cool Dude, I I loved mud bane in high school man. That was my jam for a long time. I slipped not mud bane the whole new metal scene I was all about it.
I had the jinco jeans. I had the caffeine pants I had the Every shirt I had was a bantee. I had the fishnet stockings. I was all about it.
Mm-hmm. Yeah I used to have the studded belt that I just rocked constantly. That's my favorite freaking belt in the world in my metallic shirt, of course You gotta have a Um, so speaking of speaking of drums and we'll get into your singing ability as well See when you start singing but like what's your setup for drums? Cause I know you're using like you're using pads and whatnot.
What kind of setup are you using? So it is at its core a Yamaha dt extreme three Um and pieces of it have died over the years. So it has some other like uh, I even know what they are just a couple other Yamaha pads Um, they got a kind of just like Frankenstein everything together like a lot of electronic drummers that have done it for years do Mm-hmm. These even if you get a roll in I mean eventually these things will die Yeah, um, and the uh, the the bass drum here.
This is actually a sonar bass drum. The kick pad died on this so I Made this bass drum. What didn't make the bass drum. I I triggered the bass drum Um, maybe like 10 years ago or something for for one of the bands I was in Um, and I just put a mesh head on it and it works fine for this That's that's awesome.
Like did you get like those is it a trigger that you hit or is it a trigger that you have on the side? It is so actually made like a crossbar for the inside of it. Okay. So you went deep.
Okay So that's what you're supposed to do to get the the best like attack when you do your own trigger system dude I generally in life I overcomplicate Literally everything I do. I always like to you know create things and make things and whatever and you know, so case and point Yeah, that's awesome. Uh, yeah, I love to pick uh brain because I'm not like that. I I need it to work now I have no patience to make my own shit.
Yeah I'm like if I have to pay three grand. I will I will take out a credit card. I will buy the thing and then if it dies I'll buy another one right back I I am in my older age. I've come to value time a little bit more So I don't always go the diy route anymore But you know if if I actually think I might enjoy the process of creating the thing then sure but you know, otherwise No, I'm just gonna do that.
I'm just gonna you know shell out whatever I need to so it just works Right and so I wanted to ask like so you sing too Like have you always like just sound song or were you kind of forced into it or I might just kind of suck with it It's something that I just kind of dabbled in for a long time Which is kind of why I wound up singing in the power metal band. Um, I just yeah and I um I never really took lessons for it for the longest time Um, and you know I sang in the power metal band which which is funny because like I have like a baritone voice You know, so I have a much lower voice like everything I listened to at the time was like dragon force and dream theater And all these dudes that are just like, you know, like all that kind of stuff and it's it was just the farthest thing for my ability So Um, but anyway, you know, here's this baritone dude singing power metal. Oh man. Did you have to wear a wig at that time as well?
No Uh, I actually had hair back then so I didn't have to do that but uh, um, but uh, but yeah, so um, that I kind of got into singing because I was you know thrust into it at the time um, and then honestly I kind of got out of singing because Nothing I listened to ever had somebody singing with like my kind of voice So I just thought, you know, I'm not gonna sing, you know, I'll do background vocals or whatever But you know, I'm just gonna focus on drums and guitar and you know stay in my lane. Yeah But you have singing voice to get you hold it to and man. I appreciate that. Um, kind of fast forwarding a little bit So I maybe like three or four years ago.
I came right. Do you know Jonathan young is It sounds familiar. We're not he uh, he is a an artist on youtube He he does a lot of original stuff now, but he mainly got known by doing anime and Disney covers. Okay He's a singer right longer.
Okay. Yeah, I knew Jonathan. Yeah, he's great. Um fantastic Yeah, so he has a voice that is much much deeper like mine And so I heard him literally singing stuff that I wanted to sing like uh, like specifically the first thing I heard him sing was a live and learn from sonic adventure Too.
Oh man, that's awesome. And I was like holy crap. I can do this. I can totally do this and so I you know started singing and Yeah, that was gonna be my next question because you're obviously a nerd culture enthusiast and you you've gone down this road of basically nerd culture and musicianship kind of thing and I want to know like what like have you always been like what was the the video game the thing that made you go?
Okay, this is my thing not only is music my thing, but I'm also a big giant nerd and I'm gonna let everyone know it and so Yeah, um So In my childhood my parents owned a video rental store in the 80s and early 90s Um, so I've always been like around a plethora of like, you know, physical media and and stuff like that I inherited of you know the games and basically whatever movie I wanted from the store when they closed it rip. Um, so Um, and I've always been someone who like loves playing games regardless of what generation they are or whatever So like I was you know playing the n64 and I still had my NES and genesis and super Nintendo and all that stuff hooked up Like I you know, I just yeah, I just love playing games Um, and then you know, I kind of went through the whole thing that most people go through where they get into high school And they like, you know get a girlfriend and you know, they don't really play as many games and all that kind of stuff and um, you know I still held on to everything but I didn't I wasn't like, you know, I'm a video game nerd, you know that whole thing Um, and so uh, it was probably maybe like she 11 years ago something like that Um, I had always wanted a power glove like my whole life. That was you know for whatever reason Uh, I saw it. Have you ever seen the movie Beethoven?
Uh, it had like a big st. Bernard dog, whatever It doesn't matter There's this like four second clip of this kid playing with a power glove and I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen in my life Um, and it was like wait I saw this way past when it was discontinued and everything for good reason Um, and couldn't find it anywhere. So whatever, you know fast forward to me being an adult And uh, this video game this local video game store here had one complete in box. Oh my god And suddenly yes like literally like complete it even has like a mail-in, you know Warranty card like all that kind of stuff.
Oh my god. Like how much did they sell that for if you don't mind my asking? It was I want to say it was about $90.00. It's like only $90.00.
Wow. Yeah, this was when collecting was actually a thing you could do And you know, not spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Yeah. Yeah, I can only imagine how much a power glove in box With the warranty information everything like that could $900 at least yeah, um, but yeah, so I got that and it just woke up this thing inside of me like This is awesome I want to get this stuff that I didn't have as a kid that I always wanted as a kid You know, whatever sort of getting into like the youtube videos or like people hunting for games and collecting games and you know All that kind of stuff.
So yeah, um So yeah, it's just kind of spiraled out of control over the past decade of my life and uh I figure you know now I should just uh lean into it. Um, it's one of those things where it's like I Um, I really like enjoy collecting this stuff, but I I want to play it and I also like I feel like I want to share it with people I don't I don't want to be like hey look what I got look at all this stuff that I got You know, it's like I want to share it with people so like other people can enjoy it with me, you know, like that whole thing Absolutely. Yeah, I never I was never a big collector I don't really have a big giant collection But as the years go by like I really do regret me like not holding on to the things That's especially now because like it's impossible as far as like money Uh, these old games and gaming systems like you know, you think like $500 where 10 years ago They went for 20. Um, and so like I feel like I've missed my window I held on to some like you know my old crone trigger cartridge a bunch of other cartridges that I'm so glad I kept Um, and but like I never got into the whole collecting And so I love seeing other people's collection kind of just like in being the hell out of it all and just Dang it man.
I wish I wish I freaking held on to my Sega CD actually I actually do have my do have a Sega CD, but my original when I sold Um, but I managed to get that one on eBay when eBay first came out. That was nice. Um, but um My dreamcast is missing. I don't know where the hell that thing is Uh, I'm pretty sure I'm sold I sold it off But I thought I got another one.
I tried to look for it the other day. I was like I thought I had another but I just don't I can't Located anywhere, which is kind of unfortunate. Um because I love the dreamcast when it came. Oh dude.
Yeah, me too Like I random side note that this is so strange, but I feel like uh 999 when the dreamcast came out I for some reason always use that as the date to figure out how old I was or when something happened Like you know, because I know that I was in seventh grade when the dreamcast came out So, okay, so high school was you know two years after that or like, you know, so I always kind of use this as this like a middle ground of my life For some reason I told him about that when it came out. Oh my god. That's right. Wow.
Yeah, I remember what like that Playing the dreamcast for the first time. I remember specifically thinking to myself. Oh, this is I remember looking at the blades of grass In sonic adventure. Yeah, and I was like, oh, you can actually see blades of grass.
That's incredible And it's in sonic adventure was super fun, too But I specifically remembered that moment where I was like, okay, this is the next generation of gaming Yeah, I'll always remember that. Yeah, definitely The place I do hadn't even come out yet. Mm-hmm Right PlayStation two came out and was like, okay, it's over now. It's it's this is this is life from no one So what like what games are you like?
Is there any specific genre that you're into or like what kind of games are you into? Or so, whatever. Yeah, um So recently over the past few years, I kind of I've gotten into PlayStation one games. So a bit of history on me was I was a Sega Saturn kid I did not have a PlayStation when I was a kid Yeah, so I I was I was definitely a Sega fanboy at the time Um, and you know the whole schoolyard thing I wanted nothing to do with that stupid freaking PlayStation console Um, which is yeah So And so which is so funny like nowadays I hear people like arguing about like Xbox and PC master And it's like I will play whatever game I want to do in whatever system I want to get you know that Experience on you know, whatever But anyway, so I never played like, you know, final fantasy seven or you know All these like like silent hill or resume like all these like classic ps1 games And so I over the past few years have been basically playing ps1 games and then like some modern stuff Oh, man.
So like are you saying are you saying are you saying you haven't played? Let's say um final fantasy each seven since that's like the big game You hadn't played the final fantasy seven until much like recently I beat final fantasy seven for the first time last year Oh my god, that's impressive. Yeah, actually I'm actually interested in asking you that so As a person that has obviously played like more modern games and modern rpgs and you know end the like and going back and playing older Got it. Older generation playstation games where you know, they're a lot more grind heavy end the like What was your experience with something like that?
Was it like kind of like okay? What I mean do I have to sit here for an hour and literally grind to get to a certain level? So I actually beat this fucking weapon Uh, so really the grinding thing didn't bother me the one thing that sent me over the edge like I just I felt like I was losing my mind. Um, it's so convenient now a day is to be able to be playing a game And stop whenever I want at any point in time and go to bed or go to the store or whatever And it's like no where is the freaking save point in this game?
I know I know I saw one I know I saw one where did it go and then I spent 30 45 minutes like my wife told me like 30 minutes ago We gotta go somewhere so it's like all right scrit. I guess I'm just leaving this thing on for the next four hours Like that's something that just we have we take for so much granted. Yes. Oh my god Yeah, and man, dude I have a similar thing with uh with with older games like I recently played final fantasy eight And it's actually my favorite final fantasy for no other reason that it just hit me and a special point in my life And I enjoy the story and identify with the characters in the adventure and all that stuff It's so I'm playing that right now.
I'm really enjoying it. Okay. Are you playing the so here's my question Are you playing the re-mastered version like okay? You're playing the old school playstation one version Okay, there's a lot of grinding in that game There's a lot of grinding and I'm back then and you might have to do this and it's okay It's okay if you do this right?
I personally say it's okay. I don't give a crap like nerd frickin on high person says you can't enjoy a game this I cheated I cheated in PlayStation one games I said infinite life infinite not infinite life, but like fast leveling up Uh that sort of stuff I did that original PlayStation one and game shark the hell out of it and then when the remastered version came out You damn well better I freaking use the r1 and r3 like super max power thing to like go through these battles because Jesus Christ man Like these are like a hundred hour games But back in the day when you didn't have like, you know the ability to auto save or you know, uh, you know fast forward You know a battle that you've you know like you've grinded frickin fighting kaktors for like the you know hundredth time It's just like oh god. I just don't have time Don't ever this 100% like I played chrono cross for the first time. That's another one.
Yeah Um it really took me about a year to beat that game Like I was playing other stuff kind of at the same time, but it took me about a year to beat that game You can get burnt out. You can have like you can totally get burnt out on playing those older games And just like I can't I can't you know, I don't have time I don't have time And then by that by the like the sixth the month and you're playing this game like you get tired of the story and you're just kind of like I can't even it's like watching it's like watching the same season of a tv show for six months Okay, all right. Nothing is happening. Nothing is happening right now.
I need to stop and live my life Yep 100% Yeah, like a lot of people complain about the length of games now like I like people say oh, this is only a 15-hour game I'm like dude like I love 15-hour games because I feel like that's gonna last me a few months And it's gonna be a good solid experience, you know, we're and we're here for sure. Yeah when I see something that says like 100 hours I'm like whoa, I don't know about that. Yeah, yeah So when you get older man when you get older and you know the time constraint of like the fun stuff in your life It shrinks man, you know, you got a lot you got a wife you got a house you got a this you got a job You know and you got to keep a roof over your head and you got to be an adult You can't just sit in your basement all day and just oh, yeah, you know grind away like you were You know and let your mother and father do with all your bullshit. Yeah You can't do that anymore.
You have to actually take care of your own life And so video games kind of like and I actually had this conversation with a buddy mine on my other podcast god mode Which honestly funny you actually remind me a lot of them with the beard and the hair and the hair Oh, no, I've obviously I've committed to it like you know, I'm saying you pull it off really well See like I don't think I'd be able to pull it off very well. I don't think I could do maybe I could I don't know I don't know the stone coles see Boston look I don't know I think I feel like I'd buff up a little bit Right You know just to be like an intimidating adult man. That's just walking through the store Okay, because don't go it's serving um But uh, you know, it's like I had this conversation about I think it was about dark souls and I think it was about like the whole difficulty Um debate that always rears its ugly head every year that dark souls makers come out with a game like scurro Shadows like twice and everyone's like get an easy mode and they're like no Easy mode is not how you play the game and you're terrible and then you're terrible and then the two sides just like clash It happens every year or every time the dark souls can come down Yeah, and so we were talking about that and I'm sort of on the side of Like I'm actually I'm on the fence actually because I feel like a game company should be able to do what they want to do without any sort of Outside influence telling them how they should make their game. Yeah, that's the same time at the same time The selfish side of me says I want to play this game But I can't because I don't want to I don't want to dedicate a hundred hours into or you know Pick your amount of time that it would take to be one boss Because you have to learn it's moves and you got to learn how to dodge and roll and you got to level up and all that stuff and so like I just yeah The time that I have is now constrained and so I now have to pick and choose Which games to play as opposed to back in the day where I can just you know get them all and just you know I had all the time in the world to play everything and so yeah Oh, no, it wasn't it wasn't dark souls we were talking about it was about first person perspective Which is something that I am strangely I don't like first person games.
That's that's a that's a thing You know it was about CD project red when they first said it was gonna be a first person I definitely prefer third person kind of games. I I'm okay with the first person thing But I prefer it's just not I'm like I'm just tired of it I'm just tired of it It's like everything that's come out in the past decade, you know like first person this first person that I'm just like I'm not a video game developer, but I imagine again. I'm not I don't know the first thing about video game programming Not one so this might be coming out of my ass But I imagine that a first person game is a hell of a lot easier to make than a third person game because just simply because you have to You don't have to really dedicate a whole lot of time to the characters at ama- animations as he's like touching or throwing a sword or Doing all that stuff. There's a whole another level of you know programming to make this character look cool doing mirror actions like walking Yeah, first person game.
You don't have that you just you're all you're dealing with is other characters and moving the camera around and then So I imagine that's why we're seeing a whole as a part of the reason why we're seeing a lot of first person Perspective like rpgs and stuff. You're not just so not about that life. I'm so sorry to everyone who just RPGs no like I can't I can't do it I get it and they're saying like well, you don't get sick from it It's like well a certain subset of people do get sick from it because and they're like well It's like that the immersion debate comes up. It's it's more immersive heavily disagree I heavily disagree that first person is more immersive just because it's not it's like it's not VR It's not as if your TV is like up to your face, you know, it is you're you're playing a box You're in your room that you have pretty real vision you can see what's going on besides what's going on in the tv So you're not really immersed in the game and that's what makes people sick because Yeah, I have never when I was playing a first-person game felt like bro I am this guy right now.
I am I'm in this game Like it doesn't matter the story and like the environment that's you know the presentation of the whole package is kind of what makes it immersive to me Yeah, like I can get immersed just as immersed in like a third person, you know game then then a first-person game Yeah, and I think what's just just the characters movement in general I think immers you or like you can imagine like let's say you're just standing there You know your character is just standing there, but you the wind hits his cloak in such a way So then you're imagining wind hitting your face you can't do that when you're you know, you're in a first-person perspective There's no wind you can be like you see like the trees moving stuff But there's something about you know like something hitting a character and you just imagine it that way. I don't know I didn't mean to go down this this way. Oh no, I'm on board. I feel you 100% I'm back there with you But yeah, like I've had I've had you know, I'm a weird I'm a weird gamer man There are things that I like that and I like I'll totally cheat at a game I don't even care I you know all this whole moral stance of like, you know, you're not supposed to cheat at a game You're not supposed to hack it.
You're not supposed to mod it You're supposed to play the game that it was supposed to be played. I'm not about it I'm like I'm 60 bucks for this game. I'm gonna do it. Fuck.
I want to it right 100% I agree like especially in the retro scene There are so many people that say you have to play on a CRT You can't you know stretch the image out played in widescreen. You can't do this you can't do that It's like just play the game how you want to play the game like just just play the game Enjoy it. Yeah, how you want to enjoy it? You enjoy playing it on Xbox?
Well play it on Xbox man You know, you want to build a three thousand dollar computer go for it. That's awesome. Yeah, and I mean I get like when you're playing, you know online and stuff Yeah, don't cheat. I mean, but that's that's what goes without saying.
It's like you that's cheating That's actual cheating, but if you're, you know, if you don't got time to sit and grind for an hour and 40 minutes You know, and you just want to you know what? I just want to just get through the story because honestly at the end of the day And I don't know if you're the same way when I play a game, it's an escape Okay, it is it is purely an escape It is not for me to be the best at gaming it is not for me to you know work so hard at a stage in You know mega man or whatever and beat the game and get that satisfaction although that is a thing You know that people enjoy and that's that's the great that's a great thing about video games But what's great about video games now in today's modern world is that games now starting with I think starting with the super Nintendo especially Like they were able to tell a story and really grab you mentally as opposed to you know When games first came out when it was all about difficulty in high scores and arcade and quarters and all that stuff now It's you know, I really lose myself in a story in the adventure and the characters as opposed to beating a boss Yeah, same 100 percent. Yeah, do we have so much in common? I know we really do I told you you know, I knew it as soon as I saw you like I need to talk to this guy Because he's a kindred spirit and then your family and your musicianship and like everything is like this is my dude This is my dude right here.
So I'm so happy we're doing this right now, man. Yeah, this is awesome Yeah, yeah, so we were talking about the games like you're into the whole retro thing right now Um, have you played since you just beat final fantasy seven? Have you played the remake version yet? So, um, or do you have or do you not have a playstation for whatever?
I so I have I just got a ps5 like Three weeks ago, congratulations. Oh my god. How did you manage to do that? So here's here's what happens Um, I I wasn't like actively like trying to get one or anything like that But I apparently at some point in time last year like before they came out I signed up on sony's website to possibly have the opportunity to buy one Um, and then you know fast forward to literally like two weeks ago.
I get an email that says hey, um If you want to buy a ps5, you know, just use this link on this day and you'll be in a queue to check out and get one and So I did oh my god. That is that's incredible. So yeah, um, I had just now kind of gotten to the point where there were some games That I wanted to play on it. So I was kind of you know starting to scope it out Um, even though I freaking hate the way it looks and I told myself, you know that I was gonna wait until there was a redesign or something I think you can get your own skin.
I think you can turn it from white to black. I think oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah, I think you can Um, although I'm pretty sure it's from a third party or something. I'm pretty sure sony doesn't make one yet Um, uh, but yeah, that because I think that we really cool be like it'd be a cool design black Oh, yeah, black with white trimming or black with red man black and red or just that's my jam.
Um, everything should be black and red Um, yeah, I had a laptop once upon a time that was a black and red. That's awesome. Beautiful. It's beautiful.
It's beautiful Made out of ran well, but it looked fucking cool Right Um, but uh, so you okay, so you haven't got into the remake and um that Uh, yeah I know I've talked about remake like so much over there and we don't have to get into it But have you played so what games have you played on the playstation 5 if you've played in any? I I've played the new ratchet and clink. Oh, um, which um, I really enjoyed that. Um, you know, call me a child or I mean, I mean, you don't talk about retro.
I mean, that's when it all started. It's like what playstation one was first right or plays it Two to two. Yeah, um, I just side note about that game like it's I the thing I love about that game is that it's just like they have created this environment Like it's not just like oh, we're in a forest doing some stuff or whatever It's like they have like created this environment and characters and just like this whole presentation of the whole thing You know ground up. Yeah to suck you out of your life into into this world.
Um, so uh, so yeah, so I played that And I'm playing through resident evil 8 right now. Oh wow. Yeah, that looks I never got into horror games But at least I did when I was in the original playstation because I'm cheap Um, because it's freaking scary and so like I felt like this cloak of protection whenever I like okay I need to get a rocket launcher so I can do it And not feel bad when the you know when I feel like terrified when the moon comes out of the window I still was terrified. Yeah, I had a rocket launcher It did the thing it did the job scare the hell out of me I did not like horror games when I was a kid.
I you know that was that was just too scary for me I just didn't have anything to do with that. Um, and uh, my buddy's a rain. He actually got me into horror games He loves horror games. He actually speedruns resident evil 2.
Oh wow. Um, but he's really OG. Yeah. Oh wow.
That's impressive Yeah, he hasn't really been streaming that recently, but he used to stream that all the time him speedrunning that Oh man, uh, those games those games number one super hard, uh, because they're survival games They're not like pointing to you and that's how that's what oh yeah when you have to manage like I have three bullets How am I gonna use these three bullets? Like that's quite a thing. Yeah, the knife always have the knife handy. Yeah Um, but he kind of got me into horror games maybe like 10 years ago or so and I played like a Silent Hill was really the first horror game that I played Did you did you ever play the PT when it first came when I was gone dude that game like I still talk about that oh Man and like that just that triggers me so hard like anyway That's that's all different conversation dude.
Let's get into it man. I'm not again I'm not a horror game player, but when that came out and I started yeah I have it still on my hard drive in my p.m. Same for and pause side note I totally did a backup of my ps4 hard drive onto a usb stick And I literally have it in a safe in my house with that game on it because I have so much anxiety about the hard drive dying and losing it So here we are. I got to do that actually.
I probably should do that Again, I'm not a horror game player, but like I I had some friends over and this was when I was really getting into a market player Yeah, yeah, market market player. I love market player. I mean his it's so freaking great It's so funny just to see people just play horror games and just get this shit scared out It's just there's some evil joker like thing where you're like I want to see the world burn kind of yep He's frightened. I love it.
Um, so yeah, and then so my buddies came over and I was like guys And I just got the ps4 I just got it and so like do you have any games for it? And all my games were like dragon age and like RPGs that just aren't fun to people that don't enjoy RPGs They just want to see explosions and stuff. So it's like hmm It'd be perfect time to draw the lights down and play PT and so we Yes And it was so funny because like even they were frightened, you know, they were even playing it You know, it's a horror games have that effect they can suck you in especially today's modern horror games where everything looks so good You know and just and everything's dark and the lighting is just right and just a little baby in the sink and just Yeah, man when that came out so I actually got a ps4 at launch And barely played it like there was I don't know I was just like I wanted to have the new hotness or whatever And there was literally nothing I wanted to play on it. So I don't know why I got it But uh, so I got it and I didn't play it for honestly probably about a year Uh, embarrassingly like I kind of you know dabbled in some I had like, you know, PlayStation plus so I played like the free things that came out or whatever But um and then when PT came out that was the first thing that I played on the ps4 was like, okay This is this is the next this is the next gen here.
We have arrived. Um, like I actually I was playing it at night um And uh, and I that that part when uh when lisa is down at the end of the hallway when you first hear I was like Absolutely not I am not doing this right now. I am going to uh, I'm gonna go play mario 64 or something And I just I need I need a cleanse Uh, I'm not doing this right now. So I actually stopped playing it right then and then I didn't pick it up until like a few days later But I got the courage to walk down the hallway.
Oh Um Dude, it's it's a it's a travesty. It is a absolute travesty that that that game was never made Absolute travesty because that game would have shook the world that that I mean just that 20 minute that 20 minute little presentation Is just yeah, it's up there with like To name name a tragedy Yeah There Yeah, um, and I actually had a similar experience. I I brought it over to a friend's house We had just like some dude hanging over or hanging over hanging out over there and um, and we Brought peti with me and you know, we all turned off the lights and uh, I don't remember who actually played it But one of my friends played it and everybody else watched and everybody was, you know screaming and freaking out and stuff and it was it was great It was fantastic. Oh, man But like I don't know if you ever saw much about like some of the plans that we're talked about for it But it's it's kojima like it was just insanity He was talking about having um like you potentially get like emails From the game like based on like, you know where you were or what was going on or whatever to like pull you back into it when you're like, you know Out there in real life doing your thing and suddenly you get an email from you know, whatever in the game He yeah, I mean could I never got into death stranding um, I felt like That's gonna that's gonna be one of those things where I'm like I have nothing else to play So I'm gonna get into that because I've now I understand that You know looking at a game previews and whatnot.
That doesn't that doesn't make up what the game is But it's just yeah, just the whole idea of it. I was just kind of like I might not enjoy this Let me give you an honest review of this game because I did play through the whole thing Um, and I actually did really like it. Um, I hate fetch quest games. Like I hate fetch quests.
I I just I hate it I'm burning passion. Yes. Um, it's why I can't play MMOs anymore, aside from the time thing. That's a whole different thing Obviously, but um, I hate fetch quests.
That is like fetch quests the game basically Um, you are literally picking up packages and delivering them places And you know that that's that But a lot of the things that you get along the way and make that a lot more tolerable Um, as far as like the story goes it throws like everything it shows you the whole deck up front Like in the first 15 minutes of the game and you're like what? What am I looking at here? And then it slowly kind of unpacks the whole thing so so that that was pretty cool, but I will say it's one of those things like Um, like when somebody tells you to watch a show and they're like, okay, hear me out Just get through the first season. Yeah, and you'll be into it.
It's kind of like that with the first like sniss Five to eight hours or so. It's kind of you know, which I know it's a long time, but It's manageable. That's yeah, but once you once you kind of get into it and you start kind of like absorbing You know, it's it's definitely way out there. It is, you know, today okejima, but it's you know, it's it's pretty cool Uh, if you can uh, you know, you can kind of like wrap your head around all the the weirdness that's kind of I do I do love me some norm and read us, you know, and then that Ah man freaking walking dead.
Ah that frigging show. I we stopped watching. I know this is we I mean Did you ever watch walking dead? So yeah, I actually so I still watch walking dead.
I mean, it's still on I we stopped Yeah, um, how much of it did you watch? We got up to when rick left, okay? Um And at that point we're like, I'm where we're done. I can't I can't keep doing this anymore.
It's like how many times can they move? Uh, yeah, zombies leave come back set up calm down move. Uh zombies and repeat the process over again I'm like, uh, I can't do this anymore So I I read the the comics. I'm a little behind on the comics.
The comics are phenomenal It's if you're like if you like that kind of thing definitely definitely worth it. It is like The the show is like a fissure price kindergarten show compared to some of the stuff that happens in the comic It's it's actually pretty like whoa. Yeah. Yeah, they went there.
Yeah, uh, I remember reading about um, was it Was it Negan or was it wasn't Negan? It was someone else like the governor the governor? Yes I remember reading the panels because I don't really read comic books I never really got into comic books But I did because that was when the governor was the show was like I wanted to learn more about this character The governor and uh, I looked into some of the the backstory of him and his daughter and like how he kept her chained in there And then like there's that panel where he's like he like kisses her and it's like a very weird kiss It's like it's on the cheek It's something else. Yes.
Yes. I'm like, yes. Okay, so this guy's a creep. Okay.
Yeah. Yeah. He has lots of other issues too Our extreme spoilers for anybody who ever wants to read that but uh, um, but yeah, so I but the the the show like Later on especially like once Negan gets involved like I love Negan. He's part of favorite character in the whole game.
Um, The show takes like some stuff from the comics and like it's just maybe like a few pages and like turns it into a whole season and it's like Can we just be done here? But um The the show actually got a new showrunner I don't know a couple seasons ago or something like that like around the time Rick left honestly Yeah, so it's it does a lot of really cool stuff from the comics After that. Okay, so I will say that but you know, it's still walking down. I think zombies and all that stuff Yeah, you know, it's like one of those shows where like Okay, it's based on a comic book the comic book's not finished and even the show writers of the comic book said this show or this comic Won't end until Rick dies.
And so you know, I will say this. I thought it was very Um cool of them when Rick left and how he left because it couldn't come off because then it would go against what the whole idea of the comic book is Um, so how he left I thought that was kind of brilliant. I was like, okay So they keep him kind of in limbo and he can come back later if he wants to for like a episode or two So he's happy the actor is happy Yeah, because he can come back and you know every one or two episodes and leave vice versa I thought I liked that um, but I think what happened with me was like that when the whole introduction of nigan I think that was the turning point because like and the show was supposed to be like that You know, you you get attached to characters and your character your favorite character might not survive And that's something like that and game of thrones and whatnot But it was I don't know man It was just like one of those things like I don't think I want to continue to watch the show if it's gonna like break my heart Yeah, it's it's yeah, it's brutal It's just that whole thing was brutal. Um, and not only do your characters die, but they die in the most horrific of ways Like getting torn apart by zombies or nigan, you know bashing their head in and I'm all talking Which actually like that is exactly the way that looked in the comic too They actually did that very well I don't know if you've ever seen like screenshots of that panel from the comic, but I mean like Same same thing, but I don't know.
It's a little more fitting in the comic because the comic is just brutal like that the whole way through Yeah, I think the show isn't until then it's like whoa That was rough. You never really saw like something so violent I mean that zombie so yeah violence is a part of the show, but nothing like straight up, you know bondage murder You know essentially like yeah and just that long drawn-out process of like him You know pointing and you're just anxious the whole time trying to figure out like who's gonna go Is anyone is someone gonna come in and save the group because that'd be awesome You know people dying. Yeah, this is gonna happen. Yeah, and it happened and so we were giving one definitely I need to change that.
It's getting hot here. Sorry about that. I had a turn on the Fans a little bit higher. It gets hot in here sitting down and talking.
It's a lot of work. Yeah, right Dude, yeah, like I my this this whole area so like my game room is basically over there and my studio area is over here So this is like a bonus right? I'm highly envious of your setup man Like I love the lighting I love the I saw that you have those shelves that I is on my freaking list of things to buy when I am able to have my own little Space and just look at those shelves that you can set up your systems and such I look that is on my freaking list. I appreciate that.
Um, yeah, that was actually another thing that I kind of I actually I got those from Lowe's they're just like cube. Yeah, whatever's did you get wheels on the bottom of them? You did nice and right now I have PVC pipe on the back of them for cables because I thought in my infinite wisdom that that was gonna Be brilliant which seems brilliant But when you have you know however many consoles over there hooked up You just have this freaking bill who cord going across it's just ridiculous So I don't I have not figured out a good way to deal with cords like that many cords like it's even my let me tell you I recently I recently saw this I haven't done it yet Um, but you get a pegboard like you know like you see like a garage or something that you hang like tools on or whatever And you put that on the back of your cabinet or whatever and then you can zip tie all your cables anywhere on the thing Oh, there you go. Yeah, that's that's that's a wow.
Okay. So I will do that at some point But that is that's gonna be an ordeal project. Yes, that's like a weekend project Oh, man. Yeah, I'm super Yeah, I need to get some of those lights.
I need to get some of those. I need to just up my game man My game literally dude, uh, yeah, man Um, is there any like I think I've gone down the list of my my questions Is there anything in particular that that you want to talk about specifically like anything that you like you might get off your chest This is your moments right? Random side note. So I realized this the other day.
So, um, your cover of woe, uh, the sea podcast theme Oh, yeah Is awesome by the way. I totally remember watching that when pat tweet about that. Oh my god, really? Yeah, like it clicks with me the other day.
It's like wait This is the same dude that did that cover that I saw however long ago Dude that made my freaking week man when he retweeted that I was like Fuck man. That that made me so happy like I was just so because I noticed that no one did a cover of that Or at least that's so good. It's so good Like I so I haven't really kept up with the podcast over the past couple of years because I haven't been driving over the past couple of years As much. Yeah, um, but like I used to listen to it constantly.
So like Every single line of those lyrics is just it's like inside joke after inside joke. It's it's just it's flawless Yeah, it's a really it's catchy. It's just it is like it's literally the best podcast theme I have ever heard Like I'm credible. It's definitely one of the best if not the best Theme I've ever heard ever and so it was like someone needs to cover this and sorry that and there you go.
Yeah, so you win It was great It's great. Thank you. I appreciate that. Uh, yeah I haven't done any of those like really high production covers in a long time I it's just it's a lot of work.
It's a lot of work to do myself And I just I don't have that you know if I only had a partner to really do that But at the same time like I don't like relying on anyone else to do my at least I haven't found that person That's as into the stuff that I'm into and constantly can like work on stuff like that So I think it's really special that you have a partner that can like help you with the camera work and like edit and like that's that's really cool So yeah, like about the camera thing. So actually my wife is filming the whole thing That was actually gonna be my question is like someone is someone's holding that camera. He's it's not a still camera going here So that's really cool. She she has a really good eye for Not only camera shots, but like moving camera shots and different things like that like interesting enough What kind of camera do you use an iPhone 12?
Are you serious? Yes? No shit? Yes, it looks so insane, right?
Wow Conversation with my wife who wants to get a camera we actually have a conversation because we want to like take pictures I mean, you know, we have a whole thing We want to get a farm eventually and have like a bunch of land and like forces and all that stuff And we want you know to like make like a little YouTube channel like hey This is our farm and that's future plans But you know we wanted to get like a really nice camera and whatnot and so we had this conversation And I went into like the rabbit hole as it were to find like what's a good camera to get what it is and like there are Fantastic cameras, but you know the ones that are really nice Insane I have a buddy that streams full-time And he streams piano and he has like I don't know three or four different cameras around him And like the lenses on those cameras cost more than the cameras themselves. Yes, it's insane In the film industry and he'll tell me like oh, you know, you should just get this lens. It's $1,800 That's where they get you it's like $800 for this camera. It's like, all right I mean, that's a lot of money, but you know and then oh You know 2,500 bucks for the lens for that sucker.
It's like oh, oh man That actually makes me really happy that your stuff looks so good in an iPhone 12 camera Yeah, the only thing that we did was we got like a stabilizer like one of those handheld That stabilizer thing once I got my stabilizer from my camera It just changes everything like it makes it look so much more professional Just because it's so still but the camera is moving and just little thing just little thing But stabilizers can be kind of expensive too, but not for iPhones But like for like legit heavy cameras to get that really nice stabilizer the stabilizers themselves are like 1500 bucks for like a DSLR I'm like yeah, the one I think is about a hundred ninety or hundred something like that. That's about right. That's a that's a very manageable purchase Yeah, um, yeah Yeah, iPhone 12. That's awesome.
So yeah, me my wife kind of just landed on that because she has an iPhone 7 And I'm like, you know, like we're talking about cameras here But like I really think you know phones are gonna get to a point where you really don't need a super high tech camera And you have the convenience of apps right there on the phone and if you get like really good at video editing on a particular app Yeah, you're golden. Yeah, um, we use Filmic Pro. I have the same one. I love that app.
Yeah That's amazing. Yeah, somebody I discovered that app because I was looking for an app to take because iPhone at least From like iPhone 10 or whatever. Um, still can't shoot in 24 frames So they could do that sort of slowed down movie look that film look and I was looking for an app that did it film It pro does that it slows down the frame rate from 30 or 60 to 24 And I'm like or whatever frame rate you want and it does a pretty decent job of doing it digitally Yeah, yeah, that dude that 24 fps thing like that is a game changer Like everything that we filmed for a while was in 60 and it just looks goofy It looks like home movie-ish. Yeah, but the moment we flipped that set it.
He was like whoa What's going on here? We're in a movie. Look at that. Just the frame rates and you know, what's crazy I had a conversation years ago with with a with a friend of mine and she She's in the film industry as well and um, we had a conversation of like how How film has just never gotten off 24 frames even though directors editors have been trying to make other frames The setting like you see in films.
It's just it's been 24 for the longest time Even though like 60 and 180 and all that stuff is like looks all you know fast and you think that you know With the modern age camera is getting better and better and better. We'd want things to look faster But it's never changed from 24 to get that really crisp, you know film look that makes it that's in a man look, you know It's crazy. Yeah Like I know nothing about that kind of stuff, which is actually like funny that I'm like making all these videos I should probably know more about it, but but here we are But that's the thing about you know, again using iPhones You know in the technology that are in this freaking things They're at our hands and as the technology grows we don't really need To get to technical at a certain point because the apps do it for us Yeah, you know and like you could get like purists about it Like a lot of people like to feel like they can get on top of soapbox and say this is how you're supposed to This is how it's supposed to be but a bit, you know But at the end of the day if you get the same result and you work less hard, isn't that a win? Yeah, it's like a win to me like going back to the retro gaming thing like I prefer to play all my stuff on original consoles You know, but that is not for everybody that is a pain It costs a lot of money To be able to do that and maintenance and all this stuff and it's like, you know, you could just play this stuff in an emulator and be good to go Totally accessible that way, but I think that that's you know the beauty of that kind of thing is just like, you know, do what works for you Yeah, well, I you know not to take away from the retro gaming community Which I feel like I have a little bit here just just in talking and I don't want it to make it seem like that You know a versus sort of situation I think there's a beauty in older technology and remembrance of like this is how You know games were supposed to be played during this time, you know, and you kind of get sucked into that Especially if you go the whole like CRT TV route, you know, especially if you haven't hooked up with a little coax cable Channel 3 yeah all the video noise all that stuff is part of the experience It's like watching an old VHS tape or even having a VHS player or even better yet having a beta max player Right Dude, who have you watched um the the last blockbuster on Netflix yet?
No, I want to it's so it's been on my list of things to watch and just have it done It's so good considering your parents had a video store. It wasn't a blockbuster. It was like a family-owned business So it was a family-owned business. My my dad still is so bitter from blockbuster He was so thrilled when they you know went out of business from that place.
Yeah, finally the trial has been vanquished Right. Um, but yeah, I mean they just couldn't compete, you know with with the blockbusters were just sprouting up all over the place around them And you know it was literally just my parents and maybe like one employee that ran the store Did the blockbuster at all like Do they like contact you guys and like say hey, you know, we're about to set up a shop in you know your area Instead of we can set up a shop and you know basically put a business or you can become a blockbuster Yeah, I don't I highly doubt there was anything like that. All right That's what that's what was part of the the documentary is that they would often do that They would often be like there was another family owned video store in the area and instead of like building a place Like right next to them and essentially pushing them out of business. They would say hey you can come work for blockbuster We can turn your building into a blockbuster building and you know, we can actually work together Well, hey, that's why I didn't know about all that.
I'll have to let him know about that But but yeah, so I mean they um I didn't really rent games from blockbuster until I could convince my mom that you know, we could get a membership Eventually my mom was like, okay, whatever about it. I don't think my dad was ever thrilled when I would come home with a blockbuster game But yeah, I guess that would be kind of tricky. Yeah, so that was that was the whole thing Um, but I always like, you know, whenever I was at a friend's house or something We would you know go to blockbuster, right? You know, I say all this like they're sore clothes in like 90 the end of 92 beginning of 93 or something like that so okay So it's not so much a hot Yeah, right time enough time is enough time.
Yeah, you're okay It was around the time to n64 was thriving that I was able to rent games from there, you know without conflicts I actually never owned a 64 because I was like a PlayStation fanboy. Although I never I was never like against the 64 I just loved the PlayStation so much I had no need to go get it 64 But my uh my neighbor buddy my best friend at you know, my on the down my street whatever he had a 64 And man, I will never forget the time that he put in ocarina time and I was like There was one time I secretly remember with the middle of the game and it's a part where you're the adult link and You can ride on Epona And you can like literally I didn't do any missions or anything like that. I just rode around like the like the the land forest area On Epona just shooting my arrow off the horse against like, you know all the ghosts that would pop up I would do the powers that's good stuff. It was just it was amazing to me Like that was the first time that you actually could like ride a horse on land and shoot a bow and arrow On a video game.
Yeah, I remember getting a ponon being just blown away that I was able to do that like I thought no way I could just ride this horse whenever I want And shoot like it was just it was crazy. It's such a simple idea that we just take for granted Maybe before that that didn't happen Like you had like you had games that would have like sequences where you ride a horse You have a stage where you're riding a horse and then you get off and you're on the rest of the game But never Like ocarina time where it was 360 movements. It was you know, you can have control of the camera Somewhat and you know, like Uh, you know, you could see and explore in a three-dimensional space, you know that never happened before then Yeah, dude that that analog stick was something else like it has an age very well or whatever but like and you know, The controller is just quite a thing, but um It's not the most sexiest of controllers But like I remember playing mario 64 for the first time and just like the amount of you know analog control that you could get Like you just tilted a little bit and he would just like tippy toe and you know all that kind of stuff like it was just It was just it was crazy at that time just you know that that that immersion level and it's funny like a lot of n64 games They don't really Um, they don't really compare it to like even mario 64 They just feel really clunky But you can like really tell that they put in a lot of effort to just even the movement in that game Oh, yeah I mean it's nintendo they you know, they are masters at what they do and they they're the masters of small details that you don't think about You know, and that's one of them is just movement is just so important And you know the 64 did so many things like the analog stick that forced other companies to go. Oh, okay So because of the original playstation, they had analog sticks But what didn't really like they didn't like the programmers of the games wouldn't have you move your character with the analog sticks?
They didn't really know what to do with it yet, you know, and it wasn't until the 64 came out and they kind of just showed everybody like This is what you use analog stick for and they're like, okay So from then on there was a there was a tiny moment It was like a first year of playstation when they first came out like the analog stick wasn't really used Yeah, I'm pretty positive it didn't come out at all until much later. Yeah, that's right So it came out with the like analog lists. Yeah, I think I remember having a controller with no analog stick Um, yeah, there's actually uh, there's actually another version of it um Between that the original one and the one with like the the round thumbsticks. It has like concave Yeah, some thumbsticks on it.
Yeah, I don't remember what the difference is maybe it doesn't have vibration or something like that Yes, that's right. That's right. They didn't start putting vibration in their controllers until much later. Yeah Man, yeah, uh, and what's also crazy speaking of controllers is uh, you know ever since then like the playstation kind of controller and then 360 like kind of made it better When the 360 controller came out and people argue that it's like the best feeling controller and games really haven't shifted Like as far as controllers since and it's been like what almost 20 years.
Yeah since the 360 came out. Yeah. Oh wow That's insane. Oh, yeah, I think it's almost been 20 years since the three.
I want to say it was like 2005 or six or something Like that somewhere around there and just like it's they're kind of In the same. I mean like don't have like haptic vibration and stuff like that, but she's got your triggers You got your analog sticks and you got your buttons your four buttons. Yeah, wait, it's like four buttons. So I need you don't need any more buttons Like dude, it's sony nailed that controller like with the two analog sticks You know you can press them in you know you got the the two triggers on both sides Like they nailed that controller, but unfortunately nobody really knew how to use it Until you know like many years later.
It's like well now. It's like of course I can you know move with this stick and you know move the camera with this stick You know, of course that makes sense to do but here we are you know back in the day having two sticks and you know Not doing anything with them basically and I just love just the evolution of games and just evolution of You know, it's such a it's such a I got a get going a little bit after this But I do want to talk to you about and or just you know converse like there's you know People ask me like why are you so into gaming and people who aren't into video games like video games in the culture They're in like a video game is such a unique art form You know like it's like it's not like a movie and it's not like a book, but it's one of those things that merge Immersion just on the fact that you will physically are interacting with it As opposed to a book where you kind of have to imagine and a movie where you're you're not imagining You're just watching it happen and video games say hey, you can actually interact with the story You actually have a part to play you as a person has a part have a part to play in this reality And I just it's just so crazy to me That video games like there it's a thing now, you know like video games are now becoming like really like pop culture You know it took years for it to happen and so we know we all plus nerds back in the day all this suffer all the bullies Now it's all cool and shit and everyone's like Great. We didn't have to deal with that. Okay, that's exactly right It kind of reminds me of star wars like I would I vividly remember getting made fun of for liking star wars as a kid But you know now, you know here we are we have star wars land and everybody's like whoa star wars It's like with the blood that we had to shed for yeah, exactly You know, uh, but you know Do you feel like the same way do you feel like you know because you went down this path and everything like you know video games are unlike any other art form What are your thoughts on what I just said?
Yeah, I mean I I think it is It's it's it's it's it's its own thing It's like It's like whenever somebody says, you know, like they read a book and then they watch a movie and then they say oh Well, the book just had all this other stuff in it. It's just not in the movie I mean it's because like, you know, the book is its own thing like it can't really translate You know, I mean sure you can adapt it or whatever, but you know, you can't one to one it Yeah, and I think that might be the reason why not a whole lot of like the video game to movie thing hasn't been done very successfully Sonic did pretty well and then the Pikachu movie did really well But those two movies To my knowledge are the only successful video movies out of how many tries I and that's that's that's an interesting thing because It's like those movies have taken source material and they have basically made their own thing Out of it. So it's not like you get this immersion, you know, or whatever like the same way that you would get from playing like a game of that Yeah, um, so I don't know it's just it's it's this thing where it's you're trying to take something that is this thing And turn it into something else and it's just not that thing anymore. Yeah, it's like crazy How like the Assassin's Creed movie, you know, like I never watched it never even I never watched it, but I heard it was terrible and I'm like, how can you fuck up?
Assassin's Creed, which is like the story is super cool and like, you know, you're talking about time travel kind of not really But you're like using and it's got you know, Michael fastbender who's a fantastic actor. Yeah, like How can you mess this up? Like another movie that they keep messing up or don't bother to even make it's just such a simple idea that okay, look street fighter, okay I I actually do and really enjoy the John Klein Band-Am version because I'm a huge fan of John Klein Band-Am anything Just like give me high roundhouse kicks. I'm there just unrealistic high roundhouse kicks You got me.
Yeah, and this is whatever I loved I actually secretly loved the Street Fighter movie because it was so bad. It's so bad. It's good It's in that thing, but like even with that movie in the Reese it's goofy But even with that movie they you know, they at least kept all the characters at least in the characters that you know in love and you're like, oh, they got freaking You know, I guess Cammy no, it's not Cammy right. Cammy.
What's her name? Yeah, I think it's Cammy. Yeah, the bond. Yeah.
Yeah. I'm blanking. It's been so long Anyway, you know, they got guile he did the high-flip and I was like that's what you do anyway They haven't like bothered to do another Street Fighter movie They came out with like the legend of Chun Li and I'm sitting here thinking like no She's a detective and it's it's a weird and there's guns and just like oh well. I never even heard of that one actually It's exactly exactly my point because like it's not freaking Street Fighter.
Yeah, Street Fighter is a tournament of fighters fighting in the street That is it. That is all you need to know. There's no other there's no other thing that we need to do It's like a turn of fighters enter the dragon do something else like it's not freaking hard Right, I'm not a producer. I'm not a director.
I'm not a filmmaker by any means but like bro I can write up a story for you right now. Yeah, I just get the right people and you got yourself a freaking Kung Fu movie, right? It's hard speaking of that movie. I one of my favorite things to come out of that movie is Street Fighter the movie the game Have you seen that?
Okay, yes, yes We were a malgabation of just events that Street Fighter the movie so they make a movie off a game. Yeah, and they make a game off the movie that made a movie off the game exactly Brilliant brilliant. Love it. Actually, apparently the arcade version is actually super fun I actually heard that I haven't played it apparently the real arcade version is actually really good and then like the ports are terrible But like I think it's just like digitize actors like more combat, but it played like Street Fighter.
Yeah, so interesting Very interesting Set of events to tour in the video game world that which actually could happen more often we need more weirdness We need more weirdness in games. I totally agree with that and like I Think back to like the dreamcast and like the library on the dreamcast and like how weird so many games for it were and Yeah, I mean there was just like they did all kinds of strange stuff and like it it worked The original Shenmue, you know like when Shenmue first came out. I love that game But a lot of it is you're just walking around People like there's hardly any action in it, but I loved it. Yeah, I loved it that game Like I'm gonna go get some money and I'm gonna put it in this little capsule machine and I'm gonna freaking look at this little dude Yeah, I got a sonic.
That's great No, it's like you're you then you fight in the arcade and there was no fast travel I did a whole video game review on it like years ago because the that was when the Shenmue 3 had just been announced And it even waiting for that forever forever And then finally it was announced and like people lost their shit And so I was like I want to go back and get the remastered versions and I did and I played them and they still hold up man I like even though there is no fast travel It was it was brilliant what they did because When they took when they didn't give you the ability to fast travel to you know So locations it forces you to like look at the and be immersed in this world That they created which makes you feel like you're in a living breathing world because you're walking through and like people are walking And like everyone has their own lives and you can talk to every one of them and to my knowledge That's the first game where you actually had voice acting for every single NPC every single character It wasn't just text. You know every every person had a voiced it wasn't great voice acting But you know it was just like you could talk to these people and hear their voice Just like actual personalities everywhere around you. Yeah, and it was the first time I ever experienced anything like that Like it's an open world game Not you know, but completely unlike the other open world game that came out right after that Which was 2001 or 2002 when grand theft out of three came out Like I'm pretty positive that Shenmue is the first open truly open world game that we actually can recognize what a world game is Yeah, I can't think of anything else other than that. I mean that was definitely the first one that I played like that Yeah, again one of those one of those times where like it's pretty impossible to make this a movie Even though they actually did make a movie, but they made a movie off the actual game footage Like if you bought the if you bought the sequel Shenmue 2 Um for the xbox which came out because it was supposed to come out for the dream cast but Dreamcast didn't do very well.
So they Had to port it to America somehow in xbox was a thing and so xbox said hey you can import it to you know xbox And you and once you bought it you actually got a an hour long or out and half long movie of the original game the original Shenmue On a little that's a good idea. I like that the recap there. That's great. It was like a real movie.
It was great. Yeah Um, but yeah, I mean like something like that just I don't know how you could try it The biggest thing about that game is walking into that world and like you can look around and interact with all these different things And I mean like if you were to turn that into a movie, you can't like sure you can show somebody doing all that stuff But it's not the same as like man Again, what toy am I gonna get out of this machine here? Yeah, but like you know, I said this in my review I was like you guys don't understand like when you're making a game and the details matter like those small details This is what good video game directors do they think about the small details. Yeah, especially during 1999 This is 1999 by the way This isn't modern day where you know all those things have already been thought of and you just build on you know The scaffolding that exists they had to make new scaffolding and what Shenmue did just the details that I'm talking about is the fact that you can open Up every drawer of your house Right like just you can open up the drawer and look in there and then some doors had like secrets and some you know Like and you do that with other buildings as well open up every door and even the doors that you couldn't enter You knock on the door, you know, you interact with something that really it's not you know, it's designed to do anything But just the mere act of the character actually just like knocking on the door Says something about the world.
Yeah, exactly like who would want to watch a movie where somebody's walking around opening drawers for 30 minutes and knocking on all the doors, you know Um, but like that decision to do that. I think that is what what is awesome. Like I mean even going back to p.t I made the decision. I'm not walking down that hallway No, but if I was watching that as a movie You know, it just doesn't it doesn't do the same thing.
It's that that sense of terror It's just I mean, you know sure it's still scary. I guess but you know, you just don't get that like This is actually in my control and I'm going to choose to go that way or not go that way, you know that that whole thing Yeah, yeah, dude Man, uh, I gotta get going but man. This has been such a great talk, man I'm so glad that you that we got to do this and like hang out and stuff and like I I would love for you one of these days one of these podcasts. Um, sometimes we have like a little group You know podcasts or whatever and we just like I'll just talk over each other and you know, just just have fun to talk about games and Yeah, and other things.
I'd love to invite you to one of them because I think you'd think you'd be great on them Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah one of these days. Um, maybe we'll do like a dk I I'm trying to like I'm trying to like wrap my head around like can I do that like do some time intensive But it looks so much fun. I never got a deal to be to be But one of these days I will yeah, but uh, michael k thank you so much for for doing this man.
This was a lot of fun Uh, please everybody Subscribe to his his TikTok his youtube his instagram is twitter. It's just michael k it's you can see it right here I'm gonna put it in post right there to see his thing right there subscribe and do all that stuff because He's amazing. It's incredible. I really appreciate that road.
Yeah, dude not a problem. Well, thank you so much, man And uh, I'll see you all later until next time