Plutonian Ocean, Metal Slug, Huni Kuin & Cyberpunk Edgerunners

July 9, 2020

The Nerds Amalgamated fishing trip is coming up, and we'll be going to Pluto for some ice fishing. Could Pluto have underground oceans with alien fish, and will they taste good with chips? Unfortunately it'll take a really long time to get there to find out. Maybe we'll have FTL by the next fishing trip.

Metal Slug is back, again. SNK have plans to make some new Metal Slug games and not just work on porting the old ones to new consoles.

The Huni Kuin tribe of Brazil have become some of the most primitive game developers in the world. Working with a team of anthropologists to preserve their tribal stories in the form of a video game.

Cyberpunk 2077 is getting an Anime. The resident weebs are excited. Cross another one off on your Cyberpunk 2077 media bingo card.

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.

Half-Life, Dragon's Lair & A NEW PLAYER HAS ENTERED THE GAME !!!

April 6, 2020

This week the Nerds welcome Dev-i-boy to the group. Dev-i-boy is also known as Brad, a Brisbane game developer, who we interviewed around a year ago. Check that one out too, it's a good one and it'll be in the show notes below.

Professor and Dev-i-boy are gushing over Half Life: Alyx, despite a massive lack of Valve Index availability in Australia. Why, Valve, why?. HL:Alyx also doubles as an online lecture platform, a Cover your Cough training simulator and apparently, a generally good game.

DJ wants to see the Dragons Lair movie. Ryan Reynolds has been cast in a live action remake of a classic animated Laserdisc game from 1983. Don Bluth is on board, so it should be something interesting to watch.

Once again, the Nerds take on the topic of dinosaur chickens. Professor rants about the software design skills of Dennis Nedry and Dev-i-boy thinks there's no point in bringing back dinosaur chickens. But imagine the drumsticks on those chooks.

As usual, we cover the games of the week and remember some famous figures who passed away this week.

Seaweed, DMCA & Transformers

March 3, 2020

Professor and DJ are back to talk about billion-year-old seaweed found in China. This seaweed is older than the combined ages of all our listeners, but doesn't complain when you say "OK Boomer". It also has no thoughts on how you should live your life. Not many thoughts on anything, really, it's extinct. Professor summarises the development of life to DJ, but since DJ is a robot, he just doesn't get it.

Activision are trying some legal tactics to close some leaks while ignoring their own incompetence revealing the new Warzone game mode to the world without the efforts of a leaker. Are they just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic: Modern Zombies Ops 8?

This week it's DJ's turn to rant about a missing voice actor. #NOTMYOPTIMUS. A new Transformers series without Michael Bay is in the works from the same people who made the recent Godzilla anime trilogy. Who joins the ranks of the NA wall of wasted cast?

Of course, the Nerds talk about games and have some remembrances for some big names this week, Katherine Johnson and Kazuhisa Hashimoto.

Stay healthy, and we'll be back next week.

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.

Stimulation, EVE Online & Cowboy Bebop

April 14, 2019

Hello and welcome back once again, we hope that everyone is having a fabulous time. This week we celebrate many achievements that are pure catnip for Nerds, to start with the eventual launch of the Falcon heavy rocket, also the first image of a black hole, my goodness, so much interstellar goodness. The first topic up this week is about electrical stimulation of the brain and how it can help improve memory. Now that doesn’t mean that any students should go out and start electrocuting themselves…although we all know that one person we want to zap. Research is still being developed on application of electrolysis in the treatment of Alzheimers and other issues, and NO, do not got out and electrocute the elderly, that is not cool. Next up we look at a lawyer and a lobbyist who has been banned from Eve online, apparently he claims to be innocent. It is all a misunderstanding or something is his defence, please I used that when I was 8 as an excuse, surely he can do better. Next he will be saying it was his dog did it. Then DJ has news about the cast being announced for the live action series of Cowboy Beebop. We are all nervous but hopefully this one will work, of course we aren’t holding our breathe. After all, they have to get one right eventually don’t they? What do you think is the worst live action adaption from anime? Drop us a line and let us know, also which is you favourite anime you would recommend? Then we have the games of the week, shout outs, remembrances, events of interest, and birthdays. Hot diggedy do, now that is looking like a great show. As always, take care and look out for each other and stay hydrated.

Spacewalk, Hall of Fame & Dora

April 1, 2019

To start with, welcome back and hello to the new listeners, we hope everyone is having fun and taking care of themselves. So this week we find out that NASA forgot to pack enough clothes for the astronauts and that by doing this we failed to see history being made. That’s right folks, we had the first all-female space-walk in history planned and someone messed up. We roast the folks at NASA for messing this up. Hopefully it will be able to happen next time and become a regular practice. Also for those in Brisbane the Queensland Museum has an exhibit of space suits and other items to spend some time dreaming over. Next up we look at the latest on this year’s Video Game Hall of Fame nominations, some are looking good and one is surprising. We take a look at the games already in the Hall and try to find out which is the favourite. Unfortunately Leisure Suit Larry isn’t on the list, neither was there any of the Police Quest, Space Quest or Outrun for Buck. Oh to be so old and to have played so many games as our resident geriatric. Lastly we review the new movie coming out for Dora the Explorer and try to figure out if it is working out to be great or just another in a long line of failures. One thing though is Danny Trejo is involved and we don’t think he has a machete in this movie. Oh well, I guess it is safe for kids to watch then. As usual we have the regular list of shout outs, remembrances, birthdays, and events of interest. As usual we have a lot of fun bringing you this latest episode of mayhem, so settle in with a cup of earl grey and a biscuit while we bring you some of the news this week in Nerd pop culture. Remember, take care of each other and stay hydrated.

Episode 48: Welcome to 2019 : New Horizons, Stranger Things & Tattoos in Games

January 7, 2019

Happy new year, welcome to the first episode of the year; we hope everyone is safe and enjoying themselves. This week we are bringing you stories about the new horizon project with pictures of MU69 or as it has been dubbed, the Ultimate Thule. This could be the perfect piece of real estate for those wanting to avoid those door to door sales people. We discuss the distances to it, the distance the New Horizons travels near the Ultimate Thule, the fact it travels in what is low earth orbit, also the lunar distance just for a laugh.

Next up is a discussion about the new season of Stranger Things, and we don’t mean the crazy movie named Mad Max Fury Road either. Which Buck says was an ok movie but not a ‘Mad Max’ movie by any stretch of the imagination. We have a laugh of at the poster and the atomic wedgie of one of the kids, ah the eighties and bad fashion, thank goodness it is over. Also once again it appears that Hollywood is copying Australia instead of creating origional IP. It appears that ‘Stranger Things’ is copying the movie and series ‘Puberty Blues’ folks; that’s right you heard it here first.

Then we talk about tattoos and gaming with the recent lawsuit regarding LeBron James and his appearance in various video games. We then wonder about who owns the artwork on your body. Also the levels of insanity, with people selling advertising on themselves by getting tattoos for organisations such as Golden Palace. Some of these people are all kinds of crazy with where they get these tattoos. Once again, happy new year and keep listening as we approach our first birthday in a few weeks.

Episode 43: No Propellers, Nintendo & Neon Genesis

December 4, 2018

So, I was going to be clever and lead in with a Kermit the frog intro and a Fuzzy B Bear joke, but we would probably get in trouble with Henson productions and Disney. So instead, Like sands in the… nope, that’s been taken too. Like a case of athlete’s foot, it is Nerds Amalgamated, here with the latest episode for you all. We hope everyone is safe, with massive fires in Queensland and devastating storms down south, Australia is reminding us of how unpredictable it is. We wish to say thank you to all the people of the various emergency services that are out saving lives in horrendous conditions.

This episode we start with Buck and a plane without propellers, in fact it is Star Trek inspired as it utilises an ion drive. That’s right folks, a plane that is taking a page out of science-fiction. So, my fellow Nerds, once again a piece of fiction is moving to the non-fiction section of the library, whoop whoop! Buck and the Professor are both excited about this one, and at some point the DJ gets beamed up by Scotty because he fries the Dilithium Crystals. Aww, for goodness sake man, we canna take much more of this…

While the DJ disappears Buck and the Professor talk about Nintendo closing the Nintendo Creators Program. That’s right, people who show video’s containing images of any games etc have had to submit it to the NCP for authorisation. Out of curiosity am I the only one thinking NCP sounds like OCP from Robocop? My goodness, Nintendo are going to give us Robocop in the future!!! I’ll buy that for a dollar.

The DJ returns to tell us about how Neon Genesis is coming to Netflix, and some other items that are going to be live action remakes. Let’s hope they don’t screw these up like they did with Deathnote and Full Metal Alchemist. Rest assured though, if they do screw it up we will tell you about it and make more terrible puns. At this time we wish to say thank you to our listeners who have been with us each week, you are why we do this.

Episode 38: Del Toro's Pinocchio on Netflix, Steam supporting Australian Dollars & Future Mars landing

October 30, 2018

Welcome, welcome, come on up to the slab and let us see what mischief and havoc your favourite ne’er do wells have been up to this week. First up the DJ fiendishly illuminates us on the latest plans of Guillermo del Toro, apparently Pinocchio is set to be re-envisioned by this sorcerer and his mystic arts.

Then the mad professor brings us tales of Steam announcing it is finally intending to accept the currency of the land of criminals and exiles (otherwise referred to as Australia). Although given the latest insanity from some twisted mind, Australia is all a hoax perpetrated on the unsuspecting world…mmmm, yes some people are decidedly stupid aren’t they.

Next up Buck the mad scientist carries news that there is talk of landing sites for the next Mars Rover mission. Such is how the darkness of humanity shall spread across the verse…. Beware the reapers…

Such a ghoulishly fun filled episode that will give you paroxysms of laughter and mirth… remember you have been informed of the dangers involved in listening to this dark chaos….