With Game Boy World on a bit of a hiatus while I work on the new book and play, you know, not puzzle games, Good Nintentions is back. That’s nice! I worry for the future, though. I’m afraid I’ll have a hard time topping this week’s episode.
There’s really quite a lot to say about Duck Hunt, it turns out. Lots of history, and lots of cultural politics as well. I’m really proud of this episode, which (I feel) really presents the NES launch within the context of its time… while also talking about the game, of course. It also includes what I feel fairly confident is the only clean, high-definition, non-emulated direct feed of the game on the Internet, played with an actual Zapper on an actual TV. It also includes a lot of original photography, both of NES peripherals for the inevitable Good Nintentions 1985 book as well as slides from Masayuki Uemura’s NYU presentation on designing the NES.
Speaking of politics, in a super weird coincidence, a few hours before this episode went live I was contacted by the National Rifle Association to appear on some TV show they do to talk about… Duck Hunt. Taking part in an NRA-hosted program about the thrills of shooting guns wouldn’t be a good look for me, so I declined, but man… talk about your bizarre coincidences.
I bet you never imagined you’d get a call like that when you got into games writing!
BTW, thanks for plugging your video work – I’ll be looking forward to checking this out on my TV later to appreciate the effort you’ve gone to in order to present clean HD, non-emulated footage.
That is a crazy call to get, wow.
Loved this episode when I saw it yesterday, too. Both Good Nintentions and Game Boy World are informative and great, and will probably be used as reference material for years. Thank you for continuing to do them.
You got a call from the NRA to talk about a video game? Weird. They must not realize you are the son of a card carrying hand gun control advocate. Thank you for turning them down. If they were the same organization they were back in the day, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. That said, they have gone way crazy in the last few decades with their more guns for all attitude.
Not a call, but yeah, I couldn’t imagine trying to explain that one to you.