On this Halloween, let us turn our attention to the end credits of Konami's original Castlevania for the Nintendo Entertainment System.  Rather than credit the staff that worked on the game (either real names or pseudonyms), the credits list the supposed cast of the game itself as played by notable horror icons such as, er, Christopher Bee and Jone Candies.  Mistranslation much?  Probably not.  Drew Mackie at Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games has dissected the Castlevania credits to explain who these parodic names are supposed to be.

Slide two: “Screenplay by Vram Stoker / Music by James Banana.” Again, the first one is very obviously a nod to Bram Stoker, author of the novel Dracula, with a little of the [b]/[v] confusion I mentioned in my piece on Sypha’s name. Interestingly, the person who best fits the title of screenwriter for the first Castlevania is again Hitoshi Akamatsu, so I’m guessing the credits are all purely horror references and not stand-ins for actual people. 

James Banana is presumably a reference to James Bernard, Hammer Films composer and specifically the person who scored the 1958 Dracula. The music for the first Castlevania game was composed by Kinuyo Yamashita and Satoe Terashima. For whatever reason, the name has stuck to Yamashita specifically, even though it’s Terashima who wrote the iconic track “Vampire Killer.”

Those three NES Castlevania games use the tropes of classic horror movies starting on the title screens, so it's no surprise that the credits would complete the experience. Today's modern games include closing credits full of real names that scroll on and on and on, listing everyone who worked in programming, marketing, catering, international versions, people who drove by the studio one day, etc., and it's important to credit everyone who works on a game, but sometimes I think we've lost something by doing away with quick credits that go for a laugh (or at least, in Castlevania's case, a bemused "huh?").

Following on from our last episode where we discussed the closing of Google Stadia, this week's episode follows on from that theme with a discussion of games and modes you cannot play anymore because support for them has been terminated by their publisher.  Spend an hour with us in gaming's graveyard. Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes, Amazon Music Podcasts, and Google Podcasts, toss this RSS feed into your podcast aggregation software of choice, and be sure to catch up on past episodes if you're joining us late. Remember that you can reach us via , you can leave a message on the Power Button hotline by calling (720) 722-2781, and you can even follow us on Twitter at @PressTheButtons and @GrundyTheMan, or for just podcast updates, @ThePowerButton. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way. 

Sega's 2005 release Shadow the Hedgehog for the Nintendo GameCube and its competing consoles took some bold chances with the Sonic the Hedgehog formula that were watered down to pass kid-friendly muster.  Guns and grittiness were the order of the day back then, so Sonic Team armed Shadow with weapons  and equipped him with vehicles for an adventure that ended up serving too many masters and pleasing nobody.  Sure, let's make a dark Sonic game that's rated E10+ with profanity for the sake of profanity that's censored anyway.   Add in some technical issues depending on which console you played it on, and the result is one of those "can you believe this?" footnotes in Sonic history.  Nevertheless, there's a decent game hiding in Shadow the Hedgehog somewhere, and now modders going by the name dreamsyntax and LimblessVector has released a fan-made quality of life update for the game they call Shadow the Hedgehog Reloaded that smooths out the controls, tweaks the level progression ladder, and adjusts the speed of the sluggish vehicles among other changes.  It's great to see games like Shadow get a second chance if only in the fan community.

We're in the weather bunker this week as the clean-up from Hurricane Ian continues, but after we check in with podcast meteorologist Dalton Galloway, we discuss the sudden but inevitable end of Google's Stadia service and what that means for all of its customers.  Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes, Amazon Music Podcasts, and Google Podcasts, toss this RSS feed into your podcast aggregation software of choice, and be sure to catch up on past episodes if you're joining us late. Remember that you can reach us via , you can leave a message on the Power Button hotline by calling (720) 722-2781, and you can even follow us on Twitter at @PressTheButtons and @GrundyTheMan, or for just podcast updates, @ThePowerButton. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way.