Follow us to the transitional, warm summer glow of 1997 for episode 29 of the Video Wizards podcast. It’s a tumultuous and fisticuffs filled time in the arcades as we look at a range of fighting games that would go on to have a keen audience at home as well, such as The King of Fighters’ 1997 installment by SNK, Hudson and Eighting’s own mighty mor…

In episode 28 of the Video Wizards podcast, we are confronted with a persisting theme of assassinations and gun violence in popular media as we head back to the month May in 1993. In the arcades, Frank Castle drags Nick Fury with him into a cycle of carnage on a rampage through the underworld, in Capcom’s The Punisher. And cinemas are in for a shoc…

In the 27th episode of Video Wizards, we close in on the end of the Cold War as the political system of communism takes hits left, right and center, in the month of April, 1989. Not in the least as Strider Hiryu bowls into Moscow and assassinates all members of the Duma, in Capcom’s arcade hit Strider. Konami, meanwhile, try their first hand at a D…

In episode 26 of Video Wizards, we get sucked into the cultural maelstrom of March 1985, where the global arcade industry has picked up the pieces and is striking back with, well, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back by our good friends at Atari and Konami’s cutesy, sugary vertical shoot ’em up TwinBee. Namco, meanwhile, are digging in a different di…

For this 25th episode of Video Wizards, we find ourselves back in the earlier 1980s, when health and safety regulations were of a lesser concern. It’s the cold, cold winter of 1983 going on 1984 and the arcade industry was rocked to the core by the “Atari Shock”. Picking up the pieces and strapped for cash, developers West and East had to make do w…

In the 24th episode of Video Wizards, we travel to a time close to the “mark of the millennium”, as we find ourselves covering the autumnal months of September, October and November of 1998 for yet another very substantial seasonal spectacular. Arcade games increasingly lose floor space to slot machines and the ones that don’t have specialised cabi…

In episode 23 of Video Wizards, we return to the year 1994 to bask in the sunrays of the summer, for another seasonal spectacular. With the midpoint of the ’90s just one year away and the ’80s now full and well behind us, we find ourselves in a period of cultural turmoil, where the arcade industry, the music industry AND the film industry seem to l…

In episode 22 of Video Wizards, we find ourselves in the glorious year of 1988, where the 2D shoot ’em up still reigned supreme as the most dominant video game genre. In the arcades we see releases of heavy hitters like Vulcan Venture a.k.a. Gradius II by Konami, Forgotten Worlds by Capcom and Silkworm by Tecmo, the three of them pushing boundaries…

In episode 21 of Video Wizards, we return to the mid nineties, in that period before Sony’s PlayStation was released to change the gaming landscape forever. In the arcades of April 1995, there is a lot of fighting and a lot of flying going on, as Midway drops the much anticipated third instalment in the dominating “kultural” force that is the Morta…

In episode number 20 of Video Wizards, we travel back the furthest yet: all the way to March 1981. With baby Ben keeping his parents awake all night with his lung and vocal chord exercises and Michiel celebrating his 5th birthday, the arcade game scene is typified by innovation and the establishing of brand new genres, with seminal releases like Sc…

In this special Video Wizards minicast, Ben and Michiel briefly look back at 2 years of the podcast and announce a new era, as we introduce our Patreon page. Learn more about the why, the how and the extras you get when you support us! Enjoy this shorter conversation and check out our page at patreon.com/videowizards! Show theme tune: NEON CITY, co…

In the 19th episode of Video Wizards, we again travel back to 3 months in one single episode: December 1990 and January and February in 1991. And we find ourselves in a tumultuous time, with a lot of political twists and turns on the world stage and the arcade industry being on the brink of changing forever, with the impending release of Street Fig…

In the 18th episode of Video Wizards, we again travel back to 3 months in one single episode: September, October and November, all in the year 1986. And do things get more 1980s than this one? Perhaps not when arcade games like Out Run and movies like Top Gun see a release in this time period. It’s a true golden era of mid eighties arcade gaming, w…

In this episode of Video Wizards, we ambitiously travel back to 3 months in one single episode: June, July and August, all in the year 1996. In this Olympic summer, arcade floors are dominated by 3D fighting games like Last Bronx, Star Gladiator and errr… Fighters’ Impact by Taito. SNK, meanwhile, represent two dimensions with the fantastic The Kin…

The hits keep on coming as the Video Wizards travel back to the heydays of ninja related crimes in May 1987 and discuss monumental arcade games like Double Dragon, Taito’s Rastan Saga and Super Hang-On. But there is also Konami’s Combat School, which failed to prepare Ben and Michiel for its final level in the White House, and the rather anticlimac…

In this episode of the Video Wizards Podcast we’re traveling back to April 1992 to an arcade landscape that differs wildly from the one we left in the last episode. In the wake of 1991’s Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, we find the scene reinvigorated, with big budget games and showy machines occupying the floors and the 6-player, double scree…

In this episode, the Video Wizards find themselves in March 1984, where they are confronted with the wreckage left by Atari on the North American video game market and its effect on releases in European arcades. It’s nothing but obscure coin-ops this month as SNK quietly introduce the now little known sequel to Vanguard, Coreland and SEGA put out t…

In this episode, the Video Wizards travel back further in time than they ever have, all the way to February 1982. In this month, SEGA make a splash with the visually striking axonometric space shooter Zaxxon while Atari revisits Asteroids in a tethered fashion for Space Duel. Gaming’s first diva appears in the form of a yellow orb with a red bow an…

In this episode of Video Wizards, we travel to January 1997 to witness the sad slow demise of the arcades in Western Europe, with cabinets getting replaced by slot machines in all but the last remaining dedicated gaming halls. But in these bright and colourful sanctuaries, there’s still a lot of video game fun to be had, with head to head combat an…

In this final Video Wizards Podcast episode of 2020, we travel back 31 years, to the month of December 1989. With the last holiday season of the 1980s upon us, we are visited by Santa Haggar, backed up by Cody and Guy, for Capcom’s genre redefining Final Fight. Konami, meanwhile, set out their own brawling path with their first arcade beat ’em up c…

In the 10th numbered episode of the Video Wizards Podcast, the stage for November 1992 is set by U.S. president George H.W. Bush smoothly transfering power to the political face of the ’90s, Bill Clinton, as SEGA brings about a revolution with their introduction of Virtua Racing to the arcade market. Toaplan enlist “mangaka” Joker JUN to make an im…

Episode number 9 of the Video Wizards Podcast sees us travel back to October 1988, where things are about to get all sorts of horrifying! In the arcades, werewolves are fighting zombies, vile monsters and a dark sorcerer in SEGA’s legendarily oddball autoscrolling beat ’em up Altered Beast. Also, Ryu Hayabusa ends up in his buzzsaw filled personal …

The 8th episode of the Video Wizards Podcast is a huge one: we travel to a little bit over the middle of the mid 90s, namely the month of September in the year 1995. This is a real moment of transition, where 3D polygons start eclipsing 2D graphics in popularity, both in the arcades and in home gaming. Tekken 2 makes people take closer notice of pa…

In episode number 7 of the Video Wizards Podcast we travel to August in the first year of the 90s. It’s a new decade, filled with the hope to wrestle itself from under the looming nuclear threat of the 1980s, but a war that’s far from cold is about to kick off in the Gulf and Atari Games gets gritty with the hyper violent and (for the time) hyper r…

In the 6th episode of the Video Wizards Podcast we travel all the way back to July in the year 1985. In this month, Yu Suzuki and SEGA go “full body” and unleash the Super Scaler revolution on arcade goers with the legendary superbike racer Hang-On. Namco show their quirkier side with the autorunner inspiring Metro-Cross and the cutesy-yet-slightly…

In this fifth episode of the Video Wizards Podcast we travel back to June 1993, where Midway releases the final revision of the digitised live actor driven fighting fantasy Mortal Kombat II. There is summertime amusement aplenty as well, with the thrill ride-like cabs of Lucky & Wild and Alien 3: The Gun, by Namco and SEGA respectively. And Technos…

In the fourth episode of the Video Wizards Podcast we find ourselves in May 1994, where Capcom made a powerful statement in that they were still not done with making “belt scrolling” beat ’em ups, with both Alien vs. Predator and Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom making their mark. In this time period, their fellow Osakan rivals SNK were showing th…

In the third episode of the Video Wizards Podcast we’re traveling a bit further back again, to April 1986, and enter the Fantasy Zone for some unique shoot ’em up stylings by SEGA. Japanese developers continue making their mark as we also look at a string of Capcom hitters like Trojan, Gun.Smoke and Section Z and Konami’s oddly similar looking Doub…

This second episode of the Video Wizards Podcast is huge! We’re traveling back to March 1991 and look at how Street Fighter II: The World Warrior changed the (arcade) gaming landscape… and we get to reminisce about colourful cartoony games like The Simpsons, Caveman Ninja and Bells & Whistles a.k.a. Detana!! TwinBee. We also marvel at Jeff Speakman…

In the first offical episode of the Video Wizards Podcast, we’re traveling back to February 1989 and look at a surprisingly horror-inducing selection of arcade games like Splatterhouse, Ghouls’n Ghosts and Hard Drivin’. We also give an update on our home gaming situation of the day, catch the wave of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, find ourselves…

In this pilot episode of the Video Wizards Podcast, we’re traveling back to January 1987 and look at arcade games like Alien Syndrome, Rolling Thunder, and 720º. We also check out the European, pre-console, home computer scene, Eddie Murphy’s performance in The Golden Child and music from The Beastie Boys, Guns N’ Roses and Cameo… and did you know …