Listening to this weeks classic game segment and I couldn't help but wonder if the reason Jones in the Fast Lane got a lot of jokes thrown its way might have been because of when it was released and where we are now in gaming. I know a lot of those CD-Rom games can be an acquired taste and got me thinking about games that don't hold up.

Now I can't judge Jones in the Fast Lane, having never played it, but as far as games I used to love that don't quite hold up, the first game that came to mind is Syphon Filter. I used to love this game, and spent a lot of time attempting the stealth missions on my roommate's PS1. I downloaded it on PS3 when it became available to play there and I found it to be a mess. The camera bugged me, the controls weren't great and the voice acting and story were bad, especially compared to Metal Gear Solid which came from about the same time period and still holds up pretty well.

So is there an old game you love that doesn't quite hold up anymore?

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It actually does hold up IMHO, I still enjoy it today. The problem here is there were people more interested in making jokes and hearing themselves talk during a segment that is usually a respectful telling of an old game. I bet if Jamie was talking about it, there wouldn't have been as many interruptions.

I wasn't happy with how the game was portrayed on the show. I know if I had never heard of the game and heard that segment, I'd stay far, far, far away from it. I actually had to stop listening to the rest of the episode after that. It really deserved better treatment.

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Bobby Blackwolf
Co-Founder, Editor in Chief: Technical
Host - The Bobby Blackwolf Show
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For Flaco's question, I'd say Anticipation, which I also picked as a classic game of the week previously, and also routinely gets giggles on the show (I mean, the heels). That game was so awesome when I was a kid but like 20 years later I don't even need to see the drawing, if I just see the dots I know what it is. And the song gets really really grating after a while where I had more tolerance for it as a kid, LOL.

I don't mean for this to be pick on Rare day, but Pin*Bot also comes to mind. I really really loved that game on NES, even the fact that they did weird shit you wouldn't actually see on a pinball table like aliens on the board and stuff, but when you put it next to the actual recreation of the Pin*Bot table we have today in Pinball Arcade, it's kinda rough to revisit.


As far as Jones goes, I kinda saw this reply coming from Bobby as I knew this was a game he liked a lot and sometimes unexpected derailments happen on live radio (pepper, thyme and mint!). Honestly, I didn't get the hangup on the marble either. However I will say that the puns in the game are a little silly, and often the type that elicit groans when uttered by a PUNNY GUY. Some of them are kind of self-referential too- Allen reminded me later in the week that Monolith Burger was actually a Space Quest reference which I neglected to call out on-air. So those self-references & puns probably held up a little better in 1990 to a pre-teen than they do today, BUT I think if you can still look at it thru that lens, which you should, there's still extremely solid gameplay that holds up today and who knows, potentially influenced popular board game games that came later (Mario Party?). The full video/audio was also really groundbreaking at the time, especially when you consider that the genre this game falls into is not where you'd expect to see that... typically that was left to the adventure games, Sierra's main bread and butter. It's part of why I remember it so strongly, even if your avatar on the board is a marble.

As with all Classic Games that are more obscure than a Final Fantasy or a Mario, even the ones where Jamie says It's not that great but simply noteworthy (that has happened), my hope is that the listeners will check it out, thru legal channels where possible, and draw their own conclusions.

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I must say, aliens notwithstanding, that Pin*Bot was IMHO as awesome of a pinball table recreation as was possible on the NES. Since playing it as a kid, I've played the actual table, and now I own the Pinball Arcade rendition...but I wouldn't have been as familiar with either one without the time I spent with Rare's NES version. Knowing the rules going in really helped! And I enjoyed the real deal a lot more than I possibly would have otherwise.

As far as Jones in the Fast Lane, the segment interested me enough that I visited the Wikipedia page, at least. When I hear someone say they love a game, I take it as a legitimate recommendation.