Basement Brothers - Retro gaming youtubers that actually have something new to tell you

[Fcret]

God-tier channel. Reminds me of the uncs at the game stores when I was growing up who'd always be rambling about their sick import collections.

They are well worth watching. Now we need their European counterpart for their computers.

Dan Wood is a good guy on Youtube to watch if you're interested in euro stuff. Laird's Lair is also solid.

-

What's interesting to me specifically about early JP PC games is that the PC-88 and PC-98 were nearly on par with EGA and VGA graphics in 1983 and you already had big companies developing on those platforms with a heavy multimedia focus. In a lot of ways, Japan was ahead of the curve in terms of the quality and budgets allocated to computer games up until Nintendo mindraped the entire country into becoming console golems.

 

[skykiii]

What's interesting to me specifically about early JP PC games is that the PC-88 and PC-98 were nearly on par with EGA and VGA graphics in 1983 and you already had big companies developing on those platforms with a heavy multimedia focus. In a lot of ways, Japan was ahead of the curve in terms of the quality and budgets allocated to computer games up until Nintendo mindraped the entire country into becoming console golems.

What impresses me is how much Japanese PC games are aesthetically similar to console games. As an American I always felt the two were worlds apart so its really kind of weird to see a game that looks like something I would have played on the SNES or Genesis, but its on an old PC.

It honestly fucks with my brain a bit, because I see games like Emerald Dragon and a part of me is nostalgic for that era of JRPG, but it's ever so slightly "wrong" because its not on a console (although there was a Super Famicom port later). I'm probably not making sense. It's sort of like looking into an alternate timeline where Super Mario Kart was a Sega CD game.

 

[stupid frog]

No, I understand. I didn't have a PC till I was a teenager, so the two were always "different" to me. This was in part due to all the first player view games I knew being PC only.

Steam utterly destroyed the barrier.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

So here's a sad thing: A lot of the games this dude has reviewed are available on the Switch, possibly PC too--search "Eggconsole," which is a line of re-releases of Japanese PC games... it's basically sort of like Arcade Archives, just for PC games.

One catch though.... another similarity to Arcade Archives is that the actual game roms are not altered, at all. Meaning yes, almost every game this guy reviewed is on the Switch... on the other hand, hope you know Japanese!

That's one helluva catch. At least they're easily accessible now.

What impresses me is how much Japanese PC games are aesthetically similar to console games. As an American I always felt the two were worlds apart so its really kind of weird to see a game that looks like something I would have played on the SNES or Genesis, but its on an old PC.

It honestly fucks with my brain a bit, because I see games like Emerald Dragon and a part of me is nostalgic for that era of JRPG, but it's ever so slightly "wrong" because its not on a console (although there was a Super Famicom port later). I'm probably not making sense. It's sort of like looking into an alternate timeline where Super Mario Kart was a Sega CD game.

I know what you mean. They don't have that "PC" look or design philosophy western games did during the same period.

 

[Fcret]

The other half of Basement Bros (Neo Alec) had a bit of a crashout today on Twitter:


It looks like the channel is kinda in Youtube algo hell right now because most of the subscribers are there for Japanese PC content and don't click through for NeoGeo content which ends up killing the NeoGeo stuff in engagement.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

The other half of Basement Bros (Neo Alec) had a bit of a crashout today on Twitter:
View attachment 7648643

It looks like the channel is kinda in Youtube algo hell right now because most of the subscribers are there for Japanese PC content and don't click through for NeoGeo content which ends up killing the NeoGeo stuff in engagement.

Hm, I was kinda interested in the Art of Fighting video. Might watch it.

 

[Fcret]

Hm, I was kinda interested in the Art of Fighting video. Might watch it.

I watched it just to support the channel and it was pretty interesting. I don't have a ton of nostalgia for NeoGeo nor am I particularly into fighting games but some of the graphical effects are extremely impressive for the time.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

I watched it just to support the channel and it was pretty interesting. I don't have a ton of nostalgia for NeoGeo nor am I particularly into fighting games but some of the graphical effects are extremely impressive for the time.

Sounds pretty cool, and I am into SNK & Fighting games, I should probably enjoy it.

 

[Sweetheart]

Things like that immediately turn me off from a channel, regardless of how petty it sounds like. Oh, the topic most people did not subscribe for does not get the same amount of views as the stuff they subscribed for? Must be the fault of the evil algorithm!

 

[skykiii]

No, I understand. I didn't have a PC till I was a teenager, so the two were always "different" to me. This was in part due to all the first player view games I knew being PC only.

Steam utterly destroyed the barrier.

Yeah, and nowadays it feels kind of weird.

Not so much when I'm playing a console game on PC--emulators helped to make that feel more normal--but there's a great many Nintendo Switch games where I feel like I'm playing a PC game except its on a console. And somehow that just feels a bit wrong. Younger gens should be thankful they won't even notice.

....

I need to watch the Art of Fighting video, I remember their deep dive into the first Fatal Fury was awesome.

 

[stupid frog]

He should make his own channel, the whinner.

 

[skykiii]

He should make his own channel, the whinner.

To be completely fair to him, the channel was not originally focused on Japanese PC games. Just look through the backlog--the Japanese PC RPG stuff was basically a pivot that happened within the last five or so years. I think the Neo-Geo stuff was actually going on before that.

 

[ChefKiss]

always happy to see a retro game channel that isnt 99.99% nintendo slop 4 hour essays about the lore of a sprite in the background of one level in a spinoff

 

[Fcret]

It's also nice to see a channel going over autistic retro Japanese computer games (including a few eroge) where the guy running it is just a chill boomer and not a porn-brained troon.

Amelie Doree is the only other person I know who regularly covers obscure Japanese PC/niche console shit but it's hard to watch because "uwu i'm a smol bean lesbian with a penis" is a schtick that gets old really quickly.

 

[skykiii]

It's also nice to see a channel going over autistic retro Japanese computer games (including a few eroge) where the guy running it is just a chill boomer and not a porn-brained troon.

Amelie Doree is the only other person I know who regularly covers obscure Japanese PC/niche console shit but it's hard to watch because "uwu i'm a smol bean lesbian with a penis" is a schtick that gets old really quickly.

There used to be one called Bowl of Lentils but she only did, like, twelve videos before vanishing.

I've seen a few I like who still post--Dungeon Chill sometimes covers niche Japanese PC stuff, there's a youtuber/speedrunner named Punchy who now does deep dives. I think I ran into someone else but I'm having trouble remembering them.

And a lot of the others I ran into tended to have specifically a horror/surreal game focus.

 

[skykiii]

I remember the SNES one... the original PC one sounds... like an experience.

 

[Samuel Fuller]

To be completely fair to him, the channel was not originally focused on Japanese PC games. Just look through the backlog--the Japanese PC RPG stuff was basically a pivot that happened within the last five or so years. I think the Neo-Geo stuff was actually going on before that.

One of the brothers does the Japanese PC stuff, and he keeps a pretty regular schedule. The brother who does the Neo-Geo stuff tends to be kinda flakey in his uploads, like he will do five or six in a month, then nothing for half a year.