007: License to Book with Nicolás Suszczyk

Arrggh! A Video Game Podcast from The Waffling Taylors

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Adventurers and world-builders alike will be thrilled as Gold Mountain Games joined us to talk through The Saltreach Isles. Rob and Tim joined us to discuss their upcoming campaign, the world-building behind it, and whether the recent changes to the OGL will affect it. We also talk about their personal opinions on the changes to the OGL.

Here's a sample of the full show notes - make sure to click through and check them out.

Our Thanks

As Squidge says in the intro:

Before we start, we have Jordan Freeman of Zoom Platform to thank for hooking us up today. So thank you, Jordan.
And do go check out Zoom Platform. They hit the ground running in January and have released tons of new games all DRM free, almost every week. They are also the only web-based store front to actually sell Postal One, Two and Three with all the DLCs, even if we don't talk about Postal 3 that much.
- Squidge

We're also grateful to the Zoom Platform folks for hosting this week's episode on their youTube channel. If you'd prefer to watch this episode rather than listen to it, please feel free to check it out here.

It's also worth noting that we recorded this episode on GoldenEye 007 before a confirmed release date was put into place for the Nintendo Switch and the Xbox systems.

Show Notes

As is our new tradition, Squidge started the episode off with our new customary intro:

From active timer battling to zombie slaying, Waffling Taylors covers video games beyond
- Squidge

This episode saw the boys connecting with author, James Bond fan, and all-round nice person Nicolás Suszczyk:

You know, it's funny because as a kid I used to introduce myself like Bond, but now I've grown up and I don't do it that often, but I'm Nicolás.
- Nicolás

Nicolás has written a long list of books about James Bond and the effect that the character has had on popular culture; all of which you can find on Amazon. Nicolás had ostensibly joined the show to talk about his most recent (at the time of recording the episode) book: The Golden Games of Bond: A Total Summary and Analysis of the GoldenEye Legacy.

Interestingly, although it isn't mentioned in the episode - but was in the recording - the topic of the Xbox and Nintendo Switch re-release of GoldenEye 007 didn't come up in the conversation; but only hours after the recording was finished, Nintendo announced its release date.

The first thing Squidge wanted to know was how Nicolás got into James Bond:

Well, it was 25 years ago or so in was January 1998. Yes, 25 years ago. I remember I was walking on the in my home town here in Argentina and I saw huge billboard of Pierce Brosnan. They were promoting the broadcasting of GoldenEye on TV.
...
I want to see it. And then with my parents, we sat together when it was showing [on TV]. And that was the beginning. I mean, I rewatched the film every time I could on TV. I didn't have a video cassette player or the Nintendo 64, but whenever I could, I watched the movie on TV and replay the game. And since I couldn't play the game as much as I wanted when I started watching the film, the more I can and I started reading everything about Bond, buying the books, watching the old films.
...
But the introduction was the Nintendo 64 game actually more than the movie, but the game broke me to the movie. But since I couldn't play it that often, I focused it more on the film than on the game.
- Nicolás

And that, naturally, lead into a conversation about our favourite actors to have portrayed James Bond:

Okay, just a quick fire when I had to get in there, of course it wasn't golden. I the first one I watched. It was the very first one with Sean Connery. For me. It's Sean Connery. What about you?
- Squidge

Nicolás:

Pierce Brosnan
- Nicolás

Jay:

I don't know. That's a tough one. I'm not as big of a fan as the Daniel Craig's [Bond], personally. I think Daniel Craig is too muscly to be yeah. And it's a bit too action packed, and the camera work is a bit wobbly. Yeah, I think I'd have to go with Pierce Brosnan as well
- Jay

But before long, the topic turned to Nicolás' most recent book and his sources:

Well, let's say it's probably one year. I recall writing the first words by early 2021 or so. I continually interrupted it to focus on another project, even another book. So it's not like I was writing it continually
...
I wanted to be very cautious regarding interviews, mostly because the developers have been telling the same stories for some 20 years and they wanted to bring something new. You know, sometimes it happens
... I wanted to be the quote and the interview to be functional to the progression of the text and bring something we have never heard before. For example, there's Adrian Smith, which is one of the developers. He explained to me how he came up with the dead screen [with] the blood coming down.
...
in a movie you can talk about a director or a camera shot and all that, but in a game you have to go more to the point to what it's the technical aspects, the playability and all that. But thankfully, there was my friend Jack, who helped me a lot, and Jordan, of course, from Zoom Platform who his comments I made the book a lot richer. So did Steve L Kent with the author and he helped me a lot with his experience. So thankfully, I counted with a lot of great people who helped me on these technical aspects.
- Nicolás

Full Show Notes

Make sure to check out the full show notes for more discussion on the points we raise, some extra meta-analysis, and some links to related things.

With the recent re-release of GoldenEye 007, did you go back and play it again? What did you think, and are you blinded by 25 years of nostalgia for it? Have you read any of Nicolás' books? If not, why not?

Let us know on Discord, Twitter, Facebook, or try our brand-new contact page.

Links

Here are some links to some of the things we discussed in this episode:

• Join our Discord server and be part of future episodes
• Our Facebook page
• Us on Twitter
• Support us on Ko-Fi
• Zoom Platform
• YouTube version of this episode
• Nicolás on the Internet...