Freedom Stream 2014

Watching this stream and seeing Dan be introduced to games we watchers know super well because we've seen them in dozens of other GB livestreams makes me wonder. Is watching SNES and Genesis be played novel anymore? That Steam stream from last week was great because there were only a few recognizable games and they hadn't been in a stream for years. Has there ever been a Gamecube stream? I don't think there's ever been a Gamecube stream on Giant Bomb.

Screw you, Whomp 'Em's awesome! It's a melee Mega Man! (The Retron definitely borked the music, by the way.)

No, but having owned a game cube, i dont even have fond memories of gamecube games, I own 3 gamecube games, Tales of Symphonia, Zelda Wind Waker, Mario Party. And that was buying the system at launch.

But would like to see them play Baton Katos, or Pikman.

Also Dan seemed more like a guy who goes over to a friends house, and gets super excited because he gets to play with his friends toys.

If Jeff had brought in 3 Atari games it wouldnt have had the same impact on Dan as the 3 buckets

For me it's easier. I own a ton of carts and the original systems but they look like shit when upconverted to HDMI via a box. They also look bad using the built in svideo/RCA connectors that my HDTV has, which kinda sucks since I bought the TV because it was the one a bunch of classic gamers on forums suggested because it looked best and had the best latency. I DO have a tube TV but it's not as big nor as convenient to play on when I just want to veg out with some classic games.

With the Retron I can still use my original carts and it looks really great. This way I don't have to boot up my PC and hook up a dongle to play with the original controllers and try to find the roms I want. Not a hard task, I know, but still an extra step that can be quite annoying because of ads and download limits etc, and I'm personally not just going to torrent a full romset. It's just easier and yes, putting the cart in (swabbing it clean and all) just adds a silly bit of nostalgia that booting up a rom doesn't give you. I know that last reason isn't sensible but it's there nonetheless.

There's also the thrill of the hunt aspect, going to an expo like Too Many Games, or flea markets, or even shops like Video Games NY looking for a game gives a strange adrenaline rush (or something) as does inserting it and playing it once you get home.

I don't begrudge people who'd rather just boot up roms on a pc but for me, even if the retron 5 is just an emubox that takes carts, it isn't the same.

"I heard Dota has a good community"

This person LIED to you.

AIR FORCE GATOR

Really impressed by Dan's old game knowledge, it's not Jeff level but it's pretty impressive. I can barely remember some games I played a few years ago let alone countless obscure childhood games, I don't know how these guys do it. Seems like Dan and Jeff can talk endlessly about games. Almost 4 hour stream with basically no lul in conversation, awesome chemistry between these two, they can apparently keep chatting and being entertaining forever. Somehow I'm already looking forward to a 24 hour extra life stream with Dan and the crew. Dan + Jeff is beautiful bromance! Very pleased by this hire.

Man this had some pretty great and intense moments. I would love to see a 3DO stream, or a Saturn one would be great too.

@eojay: Ah, i see. I never really liked that film, but i guess it must have made a impact over there.

...jk

I really liked the dueling streams, it made a ton of sense to do while messing with old systems and getting them to work. Look forward to seeing Dan and Jason getting some time with Windjammers and seeing Jeff play Pro Wrestling. Good Work Duders.

So, watching (kinda) Brad play Dota has totally reconfirmed my opinion of those kinds of games. I'll plead old, but man the barrier to entry for that shit seems high.

Also, that's a bummer that the Retron doesn't work, it would likely be real nice for these guys if they had an HDMI out solution for the systems.

@dagbiker: Well, in fairness most of the games they would play would be 1st or 2nd party games, yeah, but they'd be really good first and second party games though. And there are at least a dozen really great you could round up. There's Paper Mario Thousand Year Door, Metroid Prime 1, Metroid Prime 2, Animal Crossing, Pikmin, Pikmin 2, Star Fox Adventures, Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion, Melee, Four Swords Adventures, Resident Evil 4, Killer 7, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. Throw in Mario Kart DD, the Mario Parties and Pokemon Channel if you want bad games and Donkey Konga if you want bottom of the barrel. Looking at Wikipedia for more you could also throw in Geist, Odama and Billy Hatcher in there. Also you could always throw in games that were also on PS2/Xbox because eh.

@avyshue: Don't feel bad or old. DOTA and its ilk have an incredibly high barrier to entry, and it's one of the things that every single iteration on the idea past Heroes of Newearth has attempted to address, but the nature of the games is that there's only so much they can do without diminishing the core appeal of the games.

@avyshue: If you or anybody else is remotely curious as to what a Dota game might be like when you actually understand something there is going to be a newcomer-centric stream for TI4. As the name implies this would be purely for people who are entirely new to the genre/game.

Man, really liked seeing the new guys in this. Those close matches in Street Fighter II and the Hello Kitty game were incredible. That, and Dan's intense grunting.

So, does Brad get paid for this time? Because if he is, you guys are enablers, we are way past the intervention time, you need to check that dude into rehab.

Upon Brad's eventual hiatus to get straight, if you need someone to sit there silently and play a video game, I'm willing to do it for 1/3rd of the price.

The console versions of SF2 aren't so good.

@ripelivejam: They didn't have to. They did it to make sure archives were stored correctly for super long live recordings. Those files can get huge depending on the quality they were storing them in so I think to be safe they were pausing so the file size didn't end up crashing things or something like that. Basically it wasn't required as much as they were just trying to avoid any potential problems.

Either their game audio output is broken, or the retron 5s audio slider in the menu shouldn't be maxed out.

Sounds horrible.

@supberuber: its a problem with the retron5 going through their streaming devices.

"Brad, stop playing your video game, I did Kidd Thunder over here."

I'm with Dan on MK: Deception, that game was fantastic. Definitely one of my favorite in the series.

Brad might as well not have turned up.

Just want to say I'm real real happy for Dan and Jason to be joining the Giant Bomb crew.

The excitement in Jeff's voice at the end of the latest Bombcast was palpable. The reasons why are obvious with how well the new hires mesh with the team.

With all that's gone in the past year, seeing excitement and happiness out of this bunch again while consuming Giant Bomb media will be a great extra reward to what always is (and has always remained) awesome content.

Rock on duders.

Dan & Jason seems to be really cool dudes, super great additions to the crew :D

Dan is awesome on camera!

Awesome stream, lots of laughs.

Dota seems like an awesome game.

The Retron 5 is a great idea for someone like me who can't be bothered owning a lot of old consoles and making them work with my setup. But it's a bummer that it just sort of works.

Anyways, great stream.

Thanks for uploading this! I had fun watching the stream and had to rewatch is last night.

One day there will be a Dan/Vinny quick look, and the level of joy will consume the world from within.

Jeff has a breakthrough 30 years in the making. Brad is unimpressed.

i like it. except c'mon, what are you doing, brad

I never thought I would laugh so hard at a hello kitty game.

seems like there's a good reason why square was going bankrupt before final fantasy

Brad: "Fuck off, I'm DOTAing over here!"

fuck Top Gun. Hated that shit.

@danryckert you punch tigers in the face in yakuza 2 for the ps2, speaking of um, punching felines in the face. if you want more of punching felines in the face in videogames, maybe check that out :]

also watching this top gun play makes me nostalgic for freespace 2, a real man's flight combat game in which you can totally do barrel rolls

@murdoc_: Shit son why don't we get you to play LoL and Brad to play Dota. You'll both be seated facing one another and this can be the final test to see which is the best Lords Management game

This was great, Glad to be part of Giant bomb cause streams like this. Dan gets the thumbs up.

I would like to propose a new video series: "Street Fightin' with Jeff and Jason". It would be 30 to 60 minute videos of Jeff and Jason fighting each other in various fighting games for various systems.

Also while I enjoyed Dan's reaction to and enthusiasm for the TriCaster shenanigans I feel that him trying to summon them was maybe overstepping his bounds a little.

This was a warning video about the effects of Dota on ones social skills.

So...Warlock is a Power Forward?

Disapproving brad is probably my favorite thing in existence