The First Hour

Epsiode 7 of The First Hour Podcast, the only official podcast of firsthour.net!

This week Mike and Greg convince Paul to buy Dragon Quest IX, Mike finally gets to play Starcraft II after waiting 12 years, and we voice our opinions about the 3D fad.  Don't miss it!

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Theme Music

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 'Party in the Shop'  - Dr. Fruitcake

Download the podcast: 

first-hour-podcast-episode-007.mp3

Video games came into homes more or less in the mid 1980's. Sure there were games before then, before the crash, but I'm considering the NES as the start of what we now know (and love) as gaming.  Because of this, my generation is the first that have grown up entirely within the era of videogames.  This holds a lot of implications, and I'd like to look at a few of them over time.

I was born shortly after the NES debuted.  Even though I wasn't an avid gamer until I was a teenager, I do remember video games always having a presence in my life.  When I was about 5 years old, we lived in an apartment complex that had a janitor named Mario.  Even though my family didn't own any video game systems at the time, I remember thinking it was funny that his name was the same as the guy from that one game.  One issue this brings up is this: what becomes of gamers when they "grow up?"

Resident Evil is the original survival horror game.  It didn't invent horror, but it definitely laid some groundwork as far as the genre went in video games.  It was originally released in 1996 for the Sony PlayStation.  In 2002, it was released as a remake for the GameCube in a surprising deal that had the series on Nintendo's system and eventually led to the stellar Resident Evil 4.  It is the GameCube REmake (get it, RE stands for Resident Evil?  Ah, nevermind) that I will be playing.

So what I want to know is this:  Is this game good, and is this game scary? I've played Resident Evil 4, and had a few good jumps, but overall it was just a moody action game (arguably becoming the basis of the modern third-person shooter).  The original (and remake) had a lot more focus on puzzle solving and exploring, and less on fighting.

I'm going all out with this one.  I'm playing at night, while everyone else is sleeping, with the lights off.  Let's see if we can get a good scare out of this.

Those of us who play a lot of video games know the power that music brings to them.  We all have our favorite classic tunes, and we know the feeling of hearing a great piece of music while playing a game.  Personally I am a huge fan of game music, listening to soundtracks and remixes of soundtracks in my everyday life.

Video Games Live is a show designed to bring the joys of video game music to the greater public.  The show consists of an orchestra playing music from games while footage from the game plays on big screens, accompanied by a light show and sometimes stage antics.

Last week I had the privilege of attending this show.  For those of you who are stalking me online, let's just get this out of the way.  I live in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the show was just outside the city April 1st.

Now for those of you who listen to the podcast, you will know that myself and one of our other writers, Michael T, were planning on attending the show in February but it was canceled.  Although we're still not completely sure why, they rescheduled it at a different venue about six weeks later.