Following on from last week, back in 2018 we did a two-part look (Episodes 269 and 270) at video games remade with new or changed features such as The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening gaining a color expansion as Link's Awakening DX.  I don't know if you've noticed, but video game publishers are still doing this sort of thing six years later, so it's time to take another look at the topic.  This one is so large that we're breaking it into pieces; Part 1 was released last week and this is Part 2. Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, subscribe via iTunes, Amazon Music Podcasts, and 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. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way. 

Back in 2018 we did a two-part look (Episodes 269 and 270) at video games remade with new or changed features such as The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening gaining a color expansion as Link's Awakening DX.  I don't know if you've noticed, but video game publishers are still doing this sort of thing six years later, so it's time to take another look at the topic.  This one is so large that we're breaking it into pieces; Part 1 is available right now with Part 2 coming next week. Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, subscribe via iTunes, Amazon Music Podcasts, and 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. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way. 

I sent my international buyer, Blake Grundman, overseas to acquire some rare gaming antiquities for me.  That is, he picked up some fairly priced amiibo and games that are hard to find and not so fairly priced here.  This leads into a discussion on how else to play retro games whose corporate ownership has turned to dust over the decades, and that's how we get into hacking devices to run emulators. Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, subscribe via iTunes, Amazon Music Podcasts, and 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. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way. 

We were fortunate enough to get advance access to the new Digital Eclipse Gold Master series of documentary releases, Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, so for this week's episode of the podcast we discuss the title, its interactive exhibits, and the 42 games and light synthesizers included.  From Attack of the Mutant Camels to Hover Bovver to Tempest 2000, there's quite a collection of history here.  Join us and find out what all the fuss is about.  Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is available now on all major platforms.  Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, 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. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way. 

2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie was a real "local plumber makes good" story that the media loved to frame as making up for the 1993 film loosely based on happenings in the Mushroom Kingdom, but if you weren't around back then, you may not understand what all the fuss was about.  That's where Dan Larson steps in.  Digging into what made Super Mario Bros. such a troubled production is a very deep rabbit hole, but Larson condenses the key points down to a half hour tale of discarded drafts, inexperienced directors, and dissatisfied actors for an overview of what went wrong.  Consider it a gateway to a larger topic and a good starting place.  I'll say it once again: it's not a perfect movie, but I enjoyed it and have happy memories of watching it.

We're strolling on the shady side of the tracks this week as we focus on some favorite retro ROM hacks and the baked-in achievements that go with them.  All of this talk of emulation inevitably leads us to touch on the Nintendo/Yuzu Switch emulator lawsuit, too.  Join us and bring your ROM patching tools for some new takes on old fun.

ROM Hacks Mentioned In This Episode

• The Real Ghostbusters Remastered
• Sonic 3D Blast Director's Cut
• Mega Man X3 - Zero Project
• Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 Color Edition
• Mega Man World 5 DX
• Smash Remix
• Ghostbusters - Special Edition

Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, 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. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way. 

When we were recording our podcast this week, Blake Grundman described our grab bag of topics as a hodge podge.  That phrase knocked loose an old childhood memory of a Commodore 64 game called, fittingly enough, Hodge Podge.  A quick Internet search found that it's been archived and you can play it online in a browser.  Hodge Podge is a primitive educational vocabulary game created by Leonard Bertoni & Rich Scocchera for preschool children that maps each key on the keyboard to a specific related animation and, sometimes, music.  Press H and you'll be greeted with art of a horse.  Press Q to see the quick worm scootch across the screen.  E, as it turns out, is for Empty.  Press J to see the word JUMP literally jump across the screen.  Hodge Podge is one of the first games I remember playing for the Commodore 64 in 1985 along with another word-based edutainment title, Sea Speller.  Goodness, games were so simple back then.  Soon the Mario brothers would show up and then nothing would ever be the same again.

We have a hodge podge of smaller topics for you on this week's podcast as we touch on the recent Nintendo Direct, Microsoft taking select Xbox games to other platforms, retrogaming emulation made easy, the Borderlands movie trailer, and much more.  Join us for another reach into the grab bag!  Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, 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. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way. 

Nintendo released a batch of unexpected classic video games from developer Rare this morning for the suite of Nintendo Switch Online apps in North America.  Subscribers can now enjoy Snake, Rattle, & Roll and R.C. Pro-Am for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Killer Instinct and Battletoads in Battlemaniacs for the Super NES, and the underrated Blast Corps for the Nintendo 64.  This is the first time many of these games have been re-released at all.  I'm happy to see them back, particularly Blast Corps which I sank a lot of time into back in the late 1990s but could never fully unlock everything.  Looks like it's time to get moving.  My wife, on the other hand, is excited for Snake, as it was one of her favorite games from her childhood.  She even has a framed in-box copy hanging on her game room wall!  I know she'll appreciate being able to play it without having to open up the frame. 

It's time for a brief history lesson.  Back in 1994, Nintendo began creating video gaming content for the BS-X Satellaview satellite modem add-on for the Super Famicom.  This device connected to the console's AUX port and allowed players to download games and other content via satellite.  Much of the content was recycled from retail Super NES releases, though some of it (such as an Excitebike sequel featuring Mario or a remake of the original The Legend of Zelda) was brand new.  Curiously, some of the new content took the form of expansions of retail games.  Consider F-Zero, for instance.  The Sattelaview service offered a semi-sequel to the game that went unreleased on cartridge.  While considered for international release on a cartridge, ultimately nothing more came of the project and when the Sattelaview service shut down for good in 2000, those new tracks were lost. 

F-Zero fans are a committed bunch though and have never let a little something like "lost to time" stop them, and so after six years of work and offering a $5,000 bounty for the lost data, the F-Zero hacking community has created what it calls BS F-Zero Deluxe.  Containing all ten of the new BS-X tracks split over two cups, four new cars, and a mode where you race against a course ghost, the Deluxe content is seamlessly added to the retail F-Zero cartridge data to create the ultimate Super NES F-Zero experience.  You can download the patch files from Archive.org and load the resulting ROM into the emulator or original hardware of your choice.  I've been talking with project programmer Guy Perfect about the effort that went into recovering the lost tracks and adding them to the base F-Zero game.  You may remember him from such previous F-Zero hacks such as adding the 64DD tracks exclusive to the F-Zero X Construction Kit to F-Zero X and adding the lost e-Reader courses to F-Zero GP Legend.  I'm going to turn things over to him because he can explain it much better than I can.