Chicxulub, Lost NES game & Chinese theatres

June 8, 2020

Hi diddly ho fans, welcome to our new episode...

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, a meteor crashed into a planet. This week we talked about Chicxulub, yes that the asteroid that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago left behind more than a legacy of mass destruction.

Out of the ashes, comes a nostalgic game….we talk about DAYS OF THUNDERRRRRR!!!!! An old NES game that was remade from scratch. An unreleased, never-before-seen title co-authored by Chris Oberth at Mindscape. It took a lot of floppy disks and a ton of nostalgia...one must wonder...will we ever see more old games resurrected.

And finally, we talk about Chinese theatres and how they are going to be really affected by the coronavirus. More than 40% of surveyed Chinese cinemas say they are “very likely to close” in the near future.

This week in gaming DJ jumps into an old game with a twist….Mortal Kombat 11 Aftermath complete with Robocop and other Mortal Kombat characters.. and Professor enjoys hovercraft racing while shooting down aliens in Crysis Warhead.

Until next time...

Nintendo Lawyers, Home Gardening & Comic-Con At Home featuring Shaun from Comics2Movies

May 18, 2020

This week we invite our special guest Shaun Keenan, creator of Xtreme Champion Tournament (in which mythical and legendary heroes face off) to share his thoughts on some news from San Diego Comic Con.

Kicking things off, the Nerds discuss Nintendo's itchy DMCA trigger finger, they’ve taken down the tragically short-lived DirectX 12 Super Mario 64 Port. This was a fan work based on the Mario 64 decompilation project, reformed into a gorgeous 4k Ultra-Widescreen rendition of everyone's favourite plumber. And they also lost 2TB of data including user account details, which are now being used to hack people. Oops.

There's now one less reason to leave the house, since gardening provides a boost to your emotional well-being that is as powerful as going out for dinner or taking a run. Grow chickens and you have an excuse for a dinner and a run as well. So, is gardening the ultimate weapon against millennial depression memes?

Lastly, Shaun chips in to talk about SDCC's move to being an online only event. Pros: Better food. Better chairs. No lines. Cons: No costumes. No crowd excitement. It's a tough sell for some of us, but the rest of us are perfectly happy to stay at home.

This week, Professor broke his brain in HyperRogue and DJ confronted his fear of the dark in Alan Wake.

Come back next week, we miss you.

Magic the Gathering, Brushing & Cuphead

June 10, 2019

It is time to grab a cup of tea (Earl Grey Hot for the Trekkies), strap in and get ready for another episode from the Nerds we all look forward to each week. Also grab a slice of birthday cake and help us wish the DJ a Happy Birthday, yep our favourite funny guy is another year older. Now on with the show; that’s right, we once again have another fun packed episode in which we entertain you with some of the latest topics in Nerd pop culture news. This week we start off with news of an animated series coming from Netflix of Magic the Gathering. While details are limited at the moment it is something to look forward to. The boys have some interesting points to consider with this one, and the chief among them is based on who determines what is canon for stories. Also what is possibly the coolest car commercial at the moment?

Next up we look at why brushing your teeth is more important than just to protect your teeth and good breathe. The implications for this are actually quite important, particularly if you want to remember where you hid your favourite comics and figurines. Once again Buck has found a research article that we should take a moment to look at that highlights some very interesting and disturbing facts. So, remember to brush, rinse and floss if you want to have the best health in the nursing home.

Next up Professor brings us news that Tesla is now becoming a rolling game console. That’s right, Tesla cars are gaming consoles with the release of another game to play on the in car tablet style interactive screen. Unfortunately you are not able to play them while driving, um, oops, maybe that’s a good thing. We also hear about what some people have been doing with their Teslas that has been noticed by Elon, and trust us, this is not something we recommend.

The games played this week show us that Buck truly is a grumpy old man, and that DJ is a fan of Clint Eastwood. But honestly tough, who isn’t a fan of Clit? What game is this, listen in or cheat and scroll down to the link. DJ has been playing Mortal Kombat 11 and still hasn’t exhibited any signs of PTSD, lots of other funny behaviour, but hey, that is normal. Professor has set fire to a house and read a book by the light. Then we have the shout outs, remembrances, birthdays, and events. Speaking of Birthdays, we wish to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to DJ. He is OLD folks!!! As always, stay safe, take care of each other and stay hydrated, catch you all next time.

SpaceX, Game of Thrones & Anthem

March 11, 2019

In this latest marvellous and riveting episode we are going to first travel into the cold, quiet and overcrowded outer space. That’s right, we are going into earth orbit and visiting the ISS (International Space Station) where Space X has just docked the new Dragon Capsule. This is the next step in a flight to the moon in 2023, still trying to get a ticket if anyone has one. The capsule was only a test with a dummy aboard, and no, not Trump. Next up is the fast approaching final season of Game of Thrones – season 8 – with what is looking like a record breaking battle scene that took weeks to film. This is expected to be more epic than Helms Deep, even the extended edition. Then we look at the fact that Anthem is hard crashing consoles and systems around the world. Cue the music “Queen – Another One Bites The Dust.” That’s right folks, EA has struck again, and this time it gets personal with systems and consoles being bricked by this latest screw up. There is mention of compensation floating around, so hopefully word will spread before too many systems are wrecked. Then we have the games of the week, the weekly shout outs, birthdays, remembrances and events of interest from this week in history. As always we would welcome any feedback, suggestions or whatever. Until next week, stay safe, look out for each other and stay hydrated.

Episode 34: Telltale, AI, Prince Charles and E-Sports

September 30, 2018

The DJ has returned to the show. Yay?!

Glad to see he is alive and talking still. Buck scares everyone by being polite and friendly, not sure what happened there. Maybe someone spiked his coffee.

At the start we get an update from the Professor about Nintendo’s save policy (still no sign of Ginger or Mary-anne but DJ looks and acts like Gilligan). We did it, yep, we started the show with two good pieces of news, and Buck was friendly, what is happening?

Then Buck brings up the saga of Telltale games closing down, with the absurd behaviour of management. Such a shame and our thoughts are with all the employees who have lost their jobs, hope everything works out well for you all.

The Professor tells us about how an AI has created a couple of games, so if we can combine that with all the other AI’s out there can we expect Skynet? The DJ is worried about being replaced with all the automation, there is a valid point that we can combine all the AI’s and build a new member for the show.

Prince Charles is opposing cyborgs, he mustn’t have watched Robocop or Star Trek, so he is off the guest list, not a Nerd. Although why he was in GQ talking about the subject is beyond us, like, literally, he is not cool, fashionable and he is older the Buck, and he went to school with Noah.

The DJ gives us a story about a bunch of wack jobs at a football game throwing game controllers and tennis balls onto the pitch in a protest against E-Sports. So please, no one help them with any tech service et cetera if they want to attack Nerds lets show them we make the world better and not to mess with us.

On the games front the Professor has been playing Legend of Zelda on the Switch, and Buck has been slaying dragons in Skyrim. The DJ has been slack yet again and not played any games, we are unsure about if he truly is a nerd.

We have all the regular shout outs at the end of the show, and Buck deliveries some breaking news about a crazy drunk woman from Adelaide, South Australia, who attacked KFC. She needs to just let the nugget go. We also made an important announcement and that is the show will no longer be called Top Shelf Nerds, it will be called Nerds Amalgamated.

Episode 31: Star Citizen Paywall, Killer Robot Ban & Violent ESports

September 9, 2018

So is this a Ponzi scheme or is Star Citizen just plain lost it and gotten lazy? This is how we start this week, with a debate on the fact that $200 million has been raised and nothing other than concept art has been delivered. Now there is the backlash on “charging” to access the live stream of the citizen convention. Buck gets heated and starts to rant, we all love those.

Then we look at automated killer robots and the combined call from the Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law Schools International Human Rights Clinic. The realities of automated warfare are much more demoralising than we expected. But on the bright side, war will become more like a video game and spectator sport. Now if we could only get the politicians to lead the charge onto the battle field the world would be a better place.

A hack from the Olympic committee has declared video games are too violent for inclusion at the Olympic Games despite the growing trend in eSports. Someone claims it is the presence of blood. We ask about the violence of boxing, football, wrestling and even gymnastics. Yep, gymnastics had a sickening display of physical harm and it is still there. If this doesn’t make you chuckle a little you need to check your pulse.

In games of the week the DJ has dropped the ball and leaves us high and dry. The professor has been playing Vermintide II and it is sounding Fan-FREAKING-tastic!!! Definitely a game to look into for your games rotation, so much fun set in awesome graphics. Buck played a classic in Warhammer 40k, Spacemarine and is still having fun even after all these years.

There is the usual mention of various events from history that happened this week, plus the birthday shout outs, including the legendary Freddy Mercury. Also, a thank you to Chery Gladman for mentioning us as a great Australian podcast.