0:00

Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio.

0:27

Welcome back to the show Ridiculous Historians.

0:29

Thank you, as always so much for tuning

0:31

in. Let's hear it for the man the myth,

0:34

our very own dally Bop sound

0:36

super producer mister Max Williams.

0:38

Dealing about sounds amazing

0:40

like up be

0:43

up, oh right, right, right, right right? How

0:45

does one become a myth?

0:46

You know?

0:47

Is the myth is a myth the same as a legend?

0:50

What is thenoid considered

0:52

a myth or a legend or an urban legend?

0:54

The nooid is, I think at this point,

0:57

considered a mascot. It would need a couple of centuries

1:00

for there to be a legend of

1:02

the noid for me.

1:04

But we can see it for me now. I've been bulling

1:06

you're an old round to that, and I.

1:08

Got a side note kick us off with because it seems

1:11

very fitting for today's episode. You guys

1:13

know my sound qure that's at the beginning of the episode.

1:15

Yes, it's a ship of thesis. It is something

1:17

I'm adding more onto and changing

1:20

throughout time. But

1:22

the original of it, I don't know if you fill you guys

1:24

this it's a game boy sp advance,

1:27

turning on one going forwards, one backwards.

1:29

That's what it day.

1:30

The secrets have been revealed. The secrets

1:32

have been revealed. We've we've

1:35

saved all the posts that will get

1:37

on Ridiculous Historians. But folks, if

1:39

you are on our Facebook group, we

1:41

hope you enjoyed this one. There have been

1:43

some comments in the past because

1:46

I I'll monitor the Ridiculous Historians

1:49

page about our love of video

1:51

games. So a while back we

1:53

decided we're going to lean into

1:56

it and do at least one video

1:58

game episode.

1:59

We'll probably do.

2:00

I think there's a history of Bethesda on the way.

2:02

But we had a cool

2:04

conversation briefly before we started

2:07

rolling today about just

2:09

the sheer concentrated

2:12

nostalgia of video

2:14

games and back in the day

2:18

some listeners of a certain age may remember.

2:21

Add folks and marketing people

2:23

throughout all these different industries, from your

2:26

favorite fast food to film and

2:28

just you name it, right, they said,

2:30

let's expand our promotional

2:33

opportunities. Let's not just

2:35

sell toys with a happy

2:37

meal, Let's not just sell

2:39

t shirts or thermoses with the

2:42

movie stars on them. Let's see if

2:44

we can put them in a video game.

2:46

Well it's funny too because now

2:48

those product tie ins appear

2:50

more in the form of skins

2:53

and things that are like added or layered

2:55

on top of an existing video game. Of

2:58

course, I'm looking at you, Fortnite. You

3:00

know where you've got you can get your Peter Griffin,

3:02

you know, playable character.

3:04

Like Mortal Kombat,

3:06

they add a lot of creatures

3:09

from comic books or even characters

3:11

from The Walking Dead, Like, yeah,

3:14

I don't.

3:15

I don't know teching as much, but I definitely have played

3:17

some of the more recent iterations in Mortal

3:19

Kombat that add like you can play

3:21

as Rocky not Rocky Rambo,

3:24

you can play as Jason Vorhees, and

3:26

you know, the Zeno more for whatever.

3:28

And I think the reason for that is that to

3:31

designing games is hard, okay,

3:34

designing games that are enjoyable to play,

3:37

not so difficult that they're like oppressive

3:39

and like you know, rage quitty, and also

3:42

that will create some buzz and create a community

3:44

around it.

3:45

So to kind of.

3:46

Squander all of that on

3:49

exclusively a product tie in today

3:52

feels like a fool's errand, or it feels like

3:54

something that time has proven to

3:56

be a bad fit for today.

3:58

We're talking about the time where this

4:00

is exactly what was done.

4:09

Yeah, yes, this was This

4:11

was a brilliant idea because look, if you've

4:13

ever worked in advertising,

4:15

you know one of the most important demographics

4:19

well is children. You know, like

4:21

like old Dirty said, WU tangs for

4:23

the kids, and a lot of people

4:26

a long time ago realized that if you can

4:28

convince the children of a family

4:30

that a thing is cool, then you've

4:32

done a lot of work toward getting the parents

4:34

to buy your product. And that's why

4:37

we end up with stuff that, you know, it's weird

4:40

walking through memory palaces here,

4:42

I recall quite a few of these in

4:45

detail. Some of them

4:48

were games that I played

4:50

for products that I didn't even care about.

4:52

Like I'm not a seven up guy. I'm not

4:55

necessarily a spread guy. If that's your deal,

4:57

go with God. But I

4:59

do remember remember the seven up

5:01

game?

5:02

That's right?

5:03

I mean, I think the thing that is evident

5:05

in the article by Andy Kelly uh

5:07

not art coworker. No, that's trying a different

5:09

one. A gamer writer who does quite

5:12

a good job. It's evident in the title of his article

5:14

cool Spot tricked me into playing a seven

5:16

up commercial I think that was

5:18

the idea. It was to kind of spread brand

5:21

awareness without maybe

5:23

letting you know that's what was happening, which is

5:25

a sort of a one of the weird, subliminal,

5:27

kind of emotionally manipulative

5:30

parts of marketing.

5:31

So let's definitely John. That was one that I remember

5:33

too.

5:33

Back when you used to be able to rent

5:36

games from Blockbuster Video. You

5:38

could even rent the consoles. If you couldn't

5:40

afford to have all of the systems, you could

5:42

rent you know, sns for a weekend.

5:45

I made the choice to be a

5:47

Sega kid.

5:49

I never really I had a regular Nintendo,

5:51

but then from that point on I was Sega all the

5:53

way until adulthood when I got into

5:55

like, you know, the newer Nintendo generation

5:57

stuff, the you know, the Wiz and all of

5:59

that. Now I'm a huge Switch fan, but the

6:02

seven up mascot ben just

6:04

pretty brilliant stroke of marketing on its

6:06

own and design.

6:07

It's a red dot HM.

6:09

Doesn't get much more elegant,

6:11

I guess and or dirt

6:14

simple than that.

6:15

Right, and the kiss

6:18

rule applies to all

6:20

things, so keep it simple. Stupid is that acronym.

6:23

And one thing that Andy

6:26

if you're right if you're hearing this. One thing Andy

6:28

wrote that I really

6:30

appreciated was these lovely descriptions

6:32

of his childhood. Playing this, he says,

6:35

quote, I'm playing with quote

6:37

a fun around little guy who loves

6:39

bouncing on balloons, killing crabs,

6:41

and doing front flips. I was innocent,

6:43

then a fool. Years

6:45

later I learned the truth that this swaggering

6:48

shades where he asks beat me

6:50

or not, is in fact an anthropomorphization

6:53

of the red dot from the seven Up logo. I

6:55

was playing a commercial for a soft drink. I

6:57

didn't even know it, and I felt the same

7:00

way mister Kelly, because

7:02

also this is in the miliu of

7:04

really weird nineties games.

7:07

Like you might think, dang, this

7:10

advertisement disguised as a game would stick

7:12

out to me if I were a kid playing now.

7:14

But we also have to remember this is the

7:17

era of really out there concepts

7:19

Earthworm Gym, you know what I mean. This

7:23

seven Up spot fits right

7:25

in to that milu.

7:26

And if I remember correctly, I don't know, guys,

7:29

correct me or or if your memory differs,

7:31

but I think it sort of drives with what

7:33

Andy's saying. This was in and of itself

7:35

a pretty fun, cool game. Sure

7:38

it was enjoyable to play. I

7:40

definitely remember the stage that he's describing,

7:43

the beach stage. But I also remember, like

7:45

this was back when games weren't as large, it didn't

7:47

take as long to beat. If you could beat it in

7:49

like a couple of days or whatever, the span

7:52

of a rental, let's say, from Blockbuster,

7:55

and I seem to recall getting decently

7:57

far in this game. I don't remember much

8:00

beyond the beach themed stuff, but

8:02

uh, it was a pretty neat game, and the fact

8:05

that Andy didn't realize it was a product tie until

8:07

years later sort of speaks to that.

8:09

Yeah, and a little bit of history, uh,

8:12

you can put it in here, but a little bit of history about

8:14

the mascot that I thought we'd all appreciate.

8:16

Uh, Fido Dido is his

8:18

name? Fido Dido is what the name

8:21

of the seven up mascots? You're joking,

8:23

No idea, that's that's

8:26

there's two of them. There's that's the

8:28

UK one. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

8:31

But here's the here's what

8:33

I think is the most fun

8:35

part. So cool Spot sorry is the

8:38

name of the dot? You're right, Max, cool

8:40

Spot is the name of the red dot Fido.

8:42

Dido is the UK version, and

8:45

there's there's a mantra for

8:47

these mascots, for Fido in

8:49

particular that stands out to me. It is

8:51

this, this is official, Fido

8:53

is for Fido, Fido is against no one.

8:56

Fido is youth, Fido has no age,

8:58

Fido sees everything, Fido judges nothing.

9:00

Fido is innocent, Fighto is powerful. Fighto

9:03

comes from the past, Fido is the future.

9:05

Jesus very culty sounding. I don't

9:07

r a sinister intense

9:10

for a.

9:11

We'll also recall from recent episodes

9:13

on Presidential Pets, was

9:17

Lincoln's pooch right, Fido?

9:20

Yes?

9:20

And then and then you know, I guess through the magic

9:22

of looney tunes and other pop cultural references

9:25

to that kind of became just a generic

9:27

stand in for dog.

9:28

You know, hey, Fido, you know, get over here.

9:32

That's wild, dude.

9:33

Whatever you just read, Ben, I would I

9:35

would call that more of an incantation than

9:37

a mantra. Right, I felt like demons

9:39

were about to come, you know, crawling up out of the

9:41

out of the floor.

9:42

Let's be militaristic fido fascists.

9:44

But it's going back

9:47

to how they came up with cool spot.

9:49

Just some brief history here courtesy of our

9:51

research associate mister Max Williams. In

9:54

the nineteen nineties. Seven up was

9:57

in the early nineties, it was called

10:00

something equally culty, the uncola,

10:02

you know, like it's somehow better

10:05

because I guess it's clear.

10:08

Well it's yeah, right, I mean, and

10:10

then of course crystal PEPSI yeah, we're

10:12

saying I'm a big flop. But and now,

10:15

honestly, it was probably a response to this side.

10:17

Oh gosh, we got to compete with these clear beverages.

10:20

They're they're they're othering us. They're making people

10:22

think that cola is inherently dark

10:24

and sinister in some way. Right, they

10:26

both, by the way, equal amounts of

10:28

sugar and and gook nothing

10:31

better about any of them.

10:33

But yeah, the uncola, that is a marketing

10:35

stroke of genius, like the other white

10:38

meat.

10:38

You know, it's it's

10:41

a it's a strange one because it's

10:43

also there's always this question,

10:45

do we want something that sounds in any

10:47

way negative attached to a brand?

10:49

But I do think I think it maybe they found

10:52

it a little bit cerebral. Uh

10:54

so they they started

10:58

leaning further into cool Spot, the

11:00

mascot of the young Kola, and he

11:02

was He was one of those agi

11:05

attitude guys like Chester the Cheetah.

11:07

You know what I mean, he's breaking the rules. He

11:09

had sunglasses off, I got sunglasses.

11:11

Yeah. Yeah, he was cool. He knew what was up,

11:13

he knew the score, and.

11:15

He launched like Helen of Troy

11:17

launched a thousand ships. He spawned,

11:19

cool Spot spawned and Empire merchandise.

11:22

He survived until nineteen ninety

11:24

seven, and these video games were

11:26

talking about were just one of

11:29

the things he did. And if you ever

11:32

played video games at that time, this was

11:34

one of the most popular advertising

11:36

tie ins because it like Sonic

11:38

the Hedgehog, it was just fun to play

11:40

as a game. You didn't have to know anything

11:44

about Seven Up and we

11:48

I jumped the lead a little bit, talked about Fido

11:50

Dido just because of that creepy that

11:53

creepy Matra. But Kelly also

11:56

pointed out who was a UK guy

11:59

Yah came up in the Yeah. He points

12:01

out the game is very different in

12:03

Europe. In the game he was

12:05

playing in the UK, there are

12:07

no references to seven Up or

12:09

Soda in that version, but it's

12:12

still an advertisement

12:14

because in Europe he considers it an advertisement

12:17

for the publisher of the game, the

12:19

company Virgin and Virgin

12:22

Man. Virgin is such a huge deal

12:24

in the UK. I don't think I told

12:26

you guys, I flew Virgin for the

12:28

first time.

12:30

Nice assumed to be nice.

12:32

You know, it was nice. It was nice.

12:34

It had this weirdly Austin

12:36

Powers quirky man of

12:38

mystery vibe and a lot of the stuff.

12:41

Richard is kind of

12:43

the og Austin Powers in his own

12:45

way.

12:46

That's where I'm going. Man, He's like, it's

12:48

it's strange, and people seem

12:50

to like him in the United Kingdom, so it makes

12:52

sense that he would. This guy's company

12:55

does all these other things,

12:57

including space travel, it makes sense that he

12:59

would do advertising,

13:02

game tie.

13:02

Ins, diversification.

13:04

I mean, let's not forget you know, I'm not to

13:06

make it about nerdy music

13:08

stuff. But Virgin Records was

13:10

a very important label. That's what Smashing Pumpkins

13:12

Siamese Dream came out on their

13:15

label, which was actually printed on the

13:17

CD for Siamese Dream, which for the

13:19

longest time I thought was a Smashing

13:21

Pumpkins image. Is these really crazy,

13:24

kind of very medieval looking, almost

13:26

woodcut prints of these Siamese twins

13:28

facing left and right on sitting

13:31

on this coiled up dragon. And because

13:33

the record was called Siamese Dream, I assumed

13:35

that was just you know, a smashing pumpkins thing.

13:37

That turns out that is an official

13:39

branding image of Virgin.

13:41

Records, so look it up. It's pretty interesting. You didn't

13:43

know that.

13:44

Yeah, interesting, And we also you know

13:46

Mike Oldfield who did Tubular Belts

13:48

that was on Virgin Records

13:51

and was a massive hit, I believe before

13:53

The Exorcist, so really

13:55

interesting. Richard Branson was a pretty

13:57

smart guy in terms of like picking

14:00

winners.

14:00

He got started with music

14:03

and promotions, so it's no surprise they

14:05

returned to it. And that's kind of the that's

14:07

one of the questions that our pal Kelly

14:09

has when he's talking about

14:11

cool Spot. We know that in nineteen ninety

14:13

five, cool Spot appeared in another

14:16

video game. A lot of these advertising

14:18

tie in games don't get a sequel. You have

14:20

to actually be a fun game. And the

14:23

second one, Spot goes to Hollywood

14:25

levels. The levels are

14:28

based on different genres of movie

14:30

and then later they release a

14:33

couple of or later they released an

14:35

enhanced version for Saturn and

14:37

for PlayStation.

14:38

pH the Sega Saturn. That

14:41

was a flash in the pan.

14:42

But Andy is certain that, as

14:44

you know, nostalgia is cyclical, right. Andy

14:47

is certain that as nostalgia for

14:50

the nineties rises, we

14:52

shouldn't be surprised if seven up. Well,

14:54

Andy phrased it in a way that's

14:57

little controversially, he says, don't be surprised

14:59

if seven up wheels cool spots decay

15:01

and corpse out at some point. I'd be happy

15:04

to see it. It'd be funny too if he was undead.

15:06

Just for kicks.

15:07

First of all, spots don't rot, y'all. They are

15:09

immortal, They are eternal. And I completely agree

15:12

with the nineties nostalgia craze because I

15:14

would argue that if you're you know, like in thrifting

15:16

and like, you know, people that like go to vintage markets

15:19

and stuff certain types of clothing,

15:21

uh, they start to see a spike in

15:23

price at certain points

15:25

when they become trendy, like apparently

15:28

when the next day, Guys, you don't quote

15:30

me on this, but I read this somewhere. The next

15:32

big trend that's coming back is

15:34

surf brands from the nineties.

15:37

Things like like stussy, Uh.

15:40

And they're maybe not maybe that's not one, but

15:42

like things like Ron John even

15:44

or like kind of what would have been considered a little

15:46

dorky at the time. Those are coming

15:48

back in a big way. And Uh,

15:51

I just was at a vengeance shop in New York

15:53

where I was in search of one of those dare

15:55

to Keep Kids Off Drug shirts and

15:58

they had a whole section of them and they were you

16:00

know, you know, forty fifty bucks but seven

16:02

up. I would argue the branding cool

16:05

design, and I bet you they are gonna

16:07

start seeing a bumping price if they haven't already

16:09

seen him.

16:10

Yeah, let's get him. Let's get him out there.

16:12

And while we're there, let's get

16:14

weird with it. Let's

16:22

introduce our second. We

16:24

could call it a protagonist of this

16:26

exploration, which is Thenoid.

16:30

Even in a time of let's

16:32

be honest, cocaine fueled

16:34

brainstorming where someone should

16:37

have said no and everybody just kept saying

16:39

yes, and even in that strange

16:42

soil, Thenoid remains

16:44

a weird dude. He's

16:47

a guy, but he's dressed

16:50

like in a skin tight superhero

16:52

rabbit eared body suit. He's got

16:54

an in with white circle on his chest.

16:57

Now he looks unwell, and he.

16:59

Does and he and he absolutely

17:02

wants to ruin the lives of pizza

17:05

drivers. So it's interesting because

17:07

you know, uh, I always love

17:10

the philosophical complexity

17:12

of an antagonistic mascot, you

17:14

know what I mean. Silly rabbit tricks are for kids.

17:17

He represents tricks, but he can't

17:19

have any. Your whole job

17:22

as a kid is to stop the mascot

17:24

of the company from getting the

17:26

thing.

17:27

And that's kind of.

17:27

What the noid is, you said, Hamburgler, Right,

17:30

I did not I said, I said, I

17:33

Oh, I just forgot I said tricks,

17:35

the Trabba tricks Trabba the lucky

17:38

Charms. Leprechaun is a little

17:40

different because they're his lucky charms,

17:43

but still somewhat antagonistic.

17:45

Very antagonistic.

17:46

He's it was a golden time for that

17:48

the sugar bear for

17:51

a Golden Crisp. I always seemed

17:53

like he was just really high. Uh,

17:55

you know, he.

17:55

Can't get enough of that golden grewopopop

17:59

doo.

17:59

Was deal was he trying to wasn't

18:02

he trying to like get the kids high on golden

18:04

cris He felt like a little pushery.

18:06

Frankly, I don't remember,

18:08

you know, I don't remember. Tu can Sam?

18:10

You can't Sam guided you to

18:13

the fruit loops, right, you'd follow his nose.

18:15

He'd take you to where the fruit loops were. The

18:18

noid.

18:18

However, you're right. He was a pizza terrorist.

18:22

And all the descriptions you made

18:24

been were perfectly correct. Not to be inconsidered

18:27

here anyway, but it looked like he escaped from the looney

18:29

ban.

18:30

Yeah, and he this again, this

18:32

was the eighties, and I problematic

18:35

to we'll go too far into some of the

18:38

controversies about eighties executives

18:40

and marketing.

18:41

But the NOI was.

18:45

A world famous

18:47

phenomenon, or definitely us famous phenomenon

18:50

for the better part of a decade

18:52

from eighty nineteen eighty six to

18:54

nineteen ninety five. And there was a lot it was

18:56

claymation right often, and I love

18:59

a good claymation thing. And

19:02

he he didn't have that look.

19:04

Yeah, and he also

19:07

appeared in Michael Jackson's film

19:10

Moonwalker.

19:11

He's star Walker, by the way, also had a video

19:14

game that was all very good.

19:15

But carry on, and.

19:19

This takes us to an article by John Brownlee

19:21

for Fast Company, who says, even

19:24

compared to the worst corporate mascots,

19:26

the Nooid was an utter grotesque

19:29

y and you thought we were being

19:31

mean to Thenoyd folks check out with John wrote,

19:33

quote, a gibbering, pot bellied bucktooth

19:36

pervert squeezed into a skin tight rabbit

19:38

suit. He was a Hamburglar

19:40

like character wholly devoted to delaying

19:43

pizza deliveries, and

19:45

only Domino's Pizza. The

19:48

World Building argued, only Domino's

19:50

Pizza could deliver pizzas that Werenoyd

19:52

proof, So you have to if

19:54

you order from anybody else, you risk in

19:57

currying the wrath of the Nooid. You have to go to

19:59

Dominoes and get your pizza in a half hour or

20:01

less.

20:02

Yeah, it almost like hits him as like the

20:04

big bad super villain, where

20:07

Dominoes the humble Domino's pizza delivery

20:09

man is like your friendly neighborhood spider man,

20:11

you know.

20:12

Yeah, exactly. And this

20:14

this idea, I think is quite brilliant to look.

20:17

If you've ever delivered pizza, you know it's

20:19

a really rough gig. People can be mean

20:21

to you, they can be drunk, they will

20:23

tip in or not tip and complain,

20:26

so painting them as these sort of heroic

20:29

first responders of hot za

20:31

because they used to say za.

20:32

In the eighties. Let's

20:35

bring it back then.

20:36

All right, I'll follow your lead on that. We

20:39

know, we got to talk about the video game

20:41

because this okay, So this guy became like a cultural

20:45

icon of sorts, right, a piece of pop

20:47

culture beyond just pizza,

20:50

beyond just He was more than a pizza slice.

20:52

He was a pizza slice of pop culture whatever

20:54

we're keeping it. The first

20:56

game they came out about him was called

20:58

Avoid the Noid nineteen eighty nine.

21:00

Did you ever play that one? Absolutely?

21:03

I don't you're telling me there was a sequel

21:05

to this one as well. Yes, it was called

21:07

Yo Nooid. I think I might have

21:09

been a Yooid era. I

21:11

mean, it isn't it funny how when you're that age, what

21:13

a difference a year makes, because

21:16

eighty nine, I mean it would

21:19

have been still you know what year apart?

21:22

I just don't know. I Avoid Thenoid

21:24

really rings a bell.

21:25

But that was also just their tax slogan

21:27

in general, their slogan. I remember,

21:29

thenoids would like travel

21:31

around on these handheld little helicopter things

21:34

or maybe umbrellas or something. Yeah, they

21:36

would, they would, they would float down. There were

21:38

gadgets. He really did give him a lot

21:40

more smart kind

21:42

of like like he was some sort of diabolical

21:45

super villain who had really planned

21:47

out this pizza grift, you know, to the

21:49

nth degree.

21:50

Right.

21:50

Yeah, and weird thing that they did that first

21:53

game, Avoid Thenoid. I

21:55

remember because my family had

21:57

relocated, so you

22:00

had to fight multiple noids.

22:03

It was a multi vers of noise. And yes,

22:05

some of them had missiles that would

22:07

aim for your pizza, some through water

22:09

balloons. And when Yo

22:12

Noid or I feel like we have to say it Yo Noid

22:15

when it came out in nineteen ninety uh,

22:17

they were collaborating with Capcom,

22:21

one of the most reputable video game

22:23

publishers in the world at that point.

22:25

Bro, I have to say something. I just looked up

22:27

gameplay footage of Avoid the Nooid. This

22:29

game looks like trash. It's

22:32

nineteen eighty nine, and in my well, I think

22:34

I mentioned this maybe off air, but in this

22:36

era, like obviously everyone's familiar with

22:38

the Maybe not obviously, but a lot of listeners

22:41

I think are probably familiar with the Atari

22:43

debacle.

22:44

Surrounding the et video games.

22:47

Yeah, that was that was right,

22:49

the Burial of the Burial of the landa landfill

22:51

because the game was so terrible, so

22:53

unplayably bad, that they

22:56

they just had they were left.

22:57

You know, the game.

22:58

The movie was a smash, so

23:00

of course they're gonna be able to sell a million

23:02

units of this thing. No, it turns out you got

23:04

to make a game. It's playable. It

23:07

was unrecognizable. You couldn't tell

23:09

what was anything in the game, you know, which was supposed

23:12

to bet, which was supposed to be Elliott whatever. Super

23:15

an era, very glitchy, exactly.

23:17

This is an era where you

23:20

you're the cover art of your game

23:23

was Money in the Bank, just

23:25

like a lot of horror movies of the eighties. You

23:27

know, if you had a box that on the

23:29

shelf, that blockbuster could capture

23:31

the imagination of a

23:33

child or like you know, a movie fan, that

23:36

would be Money in the Bank.

23:38

And I swear to god, dude, it had to.

23:40

Have been the next one that I played, because

23:42

looking at those nineteen eighty nine gameplay footage,

23:45

what I'm imagining in my head it

23:47

looks like claymation. It looks

23:50

like a real animated cartoon.

23:52

And I know that nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

23:54

And when you think back on things that you remember

23:56

from being an age and then look at them as an

23:58

adult, they hit different.

24:00

I know this, but this I

24:02

swear I didn't play this one. I'm gonna look at the other one. I

24:05

remember.

24:05

There was also that era as consoles

24:08

became more complex, where you would

24:10

play games that looked as though they were entirely

24:12

playmation, and I was a sucker

24:14

for those.

24:17

Yeah, that's what.

24:18

I'm thinking of A good call. Also, I'm

24:20

wondering this is a question for you guys and all of

24:22

us ridiculous historians playing along at home.

24:25

Is the annoyed supposed to be a

24:27

humorous misspelling or like

24:29

an accent of someone say nerd

24:32

like younnoyed?

24:34

I think it's I'm annoyed at

24:36

you?

24:37

Any to annoy? And

24:40

just to backtrack, I got three quick things,

24:42

Uh, I know three, it's a lot one.

24:45

No, I were talking about this. I think you were

24:47

on this as well. A couple of years ago, for Christmas,

24:50

my brother got me a good old fashioned

24:52

retro cartridge of the ET game,

24:55

so he did not I don't know if he dug

24:57

it out out of a out of the landfill of New Mexico

24:59

or not. But I have one.

25:01

Two.

25:02

This is my one celebrity

25:04

flex Henry Thomas, who played Elliott,

25:07

a dear old friend of mine. He was

25:09

filming something in Atlanta a couple of years

25:12

back, and he frequented the

25:14

bar restaurant I worked at. I got to know him quite well.

25:16

Nicest human being in the.

25:17

Entire world, legitimately, so sweet.

25:20

And then three to Knowle's

25:22

point about this thing looking like crap, and

25:24

I was researching this stuff. I

25:27

made sure to go and find like gameplay

25:29

footage of all of them. The seven

25:31

Up game looks great, animation,

25:35

smooth, it looks like

25:37

it was really fun to play. There's another one later

25:39

on that you guys already know. I'm

25:41

gonna well, it was based off of

25:43

a really successful game. It was. It's

25:45

still great. I found out I could play this one,

25:48

this one's this one's a.

25:49

Piece of shit. Let me just add them mask.

25:51

I was questioning myself because I looked up,

25:54

you know, a year apart, and what a difference

25:56

a year made, especially in terms of the development

25:58

of technology.

25:59

Uh.

26:00

Yoonoid was from ninety

26:02

was definitely the one that I played, because

26:04

if you look up game play footage of that, it

26:07

is a much more traditional Super Mario

26:09

Brothers esque side scrolling platformer,

26:12

whereas the one from eighty nine Avoid

26:14

the Nooid is like a early

26:17

PC mishmash

26:21

piece of garbage. So you know, and

26:23

the one that I'm talking about, the Noid could skateboard,

26:26

he could throw baseballs at you, there were different

26:28

weapons and stuff.

26:29

That's the one I played.

26:30

And you may be asking yourself, a

26:33

fellow fellow ridiculous historians

26:36

withther the Nooid, what happened?

26:38

Where did he go? Well, there is

26:41

a tragic story that takes place here in our home

26:43

state of Georgia that explains this. We

26:45

also find this in the Fast

26:48

Company article by John Brownlee on

26:51

January thirtieth, nineteen

26:53

eighty nine. Meaning the

26:56

Yo Deid was already in production since

26:59

it publishes, And.

27:00

You're right, though, definitely nerd I think is part

27:02

of the double entendre there.

27:04

It's like saying Yo annoyed, you

27:06

know. I think it's been a combination of those

27:08

things.

27:10

January thirtieth, nineteen eighty nine.

27:12

There is a guy living in

27:14

our fair state of Georgia in Chamblee,

27:17

which is a little bit north of Atlanta. He's

27:19

twenty two years old. His name

27:22

is Kenneth Lamarnoyd

27:24

spelled the same name,

27:27

and this is a track in his life.

27:29

Yeah, and it ruined

27:32

some other people's lives, or at least their

27:34

days. He had a thirty five seven

27:36

Magnum revolver. He went to a

27:38

Domino's PiZZ in Chambley, took two

27:41

employees hostage. There was a five

27:43

hour standoff, and during

27:45

this standoff he demanded one

27:47

hundred thousand dollars in ransom money.

27:50

The employees in question luckily were

27:52

able to escape, but because

27:55

of just the inherent viral

27:57

strength of the headline things

28:00

like Domino's hostages couldn't avoid

28:02

the Nooid this time. They

28:05

decided that they were going to have to

28:08

walk this character back and Lamar,

28:10

Kenneth Lamar annoyed had

28:14

paranoid schizophrenia with delusions

28:16

of grandeur and persecution. So

28:18

he believed that he was either

28:21

the inspiration for the Nooid and they stole

28:23

his life, or that he

28:25

had become thenoid.

28:27

Yeah, it's just it's definitely a

28:30

tragic story and a problematic mascot.

28:33

Again because this is a character that is

28:35

meant to.

28:36

Be uh, a deranged

28:38

lunatic psychopath, you know, like

28:41

the Joker or something, but only when

28:43

it comes to pizza related things, so

28:45

only specifically.

28:46

Well, I guess to your point, but maybe he did.

28:49

He did target other pizza rheas,

28:51

but Dominoes were the only intrepid

28:53

pizza delivery folks that could

28:56

outsmart the Nooid.

28:57

Domino his white whale exactly.

29:01

But sadly, Kenneth Lamar Noyd did

29:03

take his own life in nineteen ninety five, though

29:06

no one was harmed or

29:08

killed injured in that standoff,

29:11

thankfully, but enough

29:13

to cause Dominos to rethink that

29:16

ad campaign.

29:18

And the Nooid. Still, through

29:20

perhaps the power of nostalgia and

29:22

as social ubiquity, the Noid

29:24

continued as a specific pop

29:27

culture reference point. A

29:35

couple fans got together made a video

29:37

game in twenty seventeen called

29:40

Yo the Nooid to into Thenoid

29:42

into the Void. Excuse menyd

29:45

fans Noid a renos. I

29:47

have not played that game. I like this

29:49

fan created one right that.

29:52

Yeah, I'd like to. I'd like to give it a shot.

29:54

And you know, I think we decided

29:57

off air we were going to make this a

30:00

two parter, but we can't. I've

30:03

got one thing to add for I

30:06

don't know where we put this, but so

30:08

we can save more of the advertising

30:11

tie ins. Did you know there are real

30:13

life like there's the reverse of this, their

30:15

real life in the

30:17

real world video game tie ins

30:20

like.

30:20

You can

30:24

follow.

30:24

Yeah, okay, So to

30:26

get the answer, we have to travel to one of the absolute

30:30

mecca's video games, Japan.

30:33

So in the early teens,

30:37

Japanese towns who are brilliant at

30:39

tourism right or tourism efforts.

30:42

Every pretty much every town has its own

30:44

mascot, et cetera. Some of these

30:47

small rural Japanese towns wanted

30:50

to take video game tie ins to a crazy

30:52

new level, and they went

30:54

around to video game publishers

30:57

and they said, hey, you know, your capcom

31:00

you have a scene in one of your games

31:02

that takes place in our prefecture or

31:05

even in our town or something near there.

31:07

So we want you to make a big event

31:10

and get all the nerds to come visit

31:13

our town and spend those sweet, sweet tourism

31:15

dollars. And no kidding, it actually

31:17

worked. There are people who like you know, for

31:20

instance, Monster Hunter three so

31:22

much that they will hop the Shinkanson

31:25

and go across the country just

31:27

to hang out and like get their picture

31:30

with people in costume.

31:31

So you're saying that there are locations

31:33

depicted in certain video games based

31:36

on real locations, So there's almost

31:38

like video game tourism, and the same way

31:40

people will go to like locations from

31:42

the Lord of the Rings films and then do like

31:44

ab kind of like photos or whatever

31:46

on Instagram.

31:47

Okay, that's pretty cool, and

31:49

I love it.

31:50

By the way, when games use real locations

31:52

as influences

31:55

for their for their backgrounds and their scenery, I

31:57

can't help but think of the backdrops

31:59

in Street Fighter two exactly

32:01

where there's like the marketplace, and I'm sure

32:04

I don't know specifically where those are based on. I

32:06

bet you were more likely to and I bet this figures

32:08

into that, but I think the fact that they were

32:10

based on something gives them more of

32:12

a vibrant zee, a.

32:13

Kind of a sense of life, you know. I agree.

32:15

Also, we'll get to some

32:18

of the worst rankings in episode

32:20

two. But I love that you mentioned some

32:23

of these because my memories are clocking of

32:25

you know, days of being one of

32:27

the kids in the computer lab at school

32:30

and trying to.

32:31

Stay late to beat a video game.

32:33

Because what we're also going to see in episode two

32:35

is I think we were getting to this a little bit

32:37

off air. There was this era

32:39

especially, I would say that et era wherein

32:42

they said, we can't make games look

32:45

past a level, a certain level of

32:47

bitrate or sophistication. So

32:49

what we'll do instead is make these games really

32:52

difficult, you know what I mean?

32:53

Right, that's fine, that's a great stand

32:55

in for quality exactly.

32:57

It's just it's like, hey, does this look good?

32:59

No, but it's also not fun to play.

33:02

So that was that was the idea for a

33:04

while. Well, and that's the thing though, they

33:06

were really trying to the gaming industry

33:09

was still kind of in its nascency, you know, and so they

33:11

were really trying to figure out who is this four And

33:14

at the time, I think there was a bit of a misconception

33:16

that like this, or maybe it wasn't a misconception, it

33:18

was just not sustainable that this is for

33:21

hardcore game nerds

33:23

who want to be punished, you know.

33:26

Like today, I mean, you still do have

33:28

folks that are really only into the like Frumsoft

33:31

games of the world.

33:32

They insist on their games to be

33:34

punishingly difficult, which

33:36

for me ain't that much fun.

33:38

Guys, I'm gonna cop to it right here. Didn't finish

33:41

Eldon Ring. No, that was the easiest

33:43

of the Frumsoft game, was it? That's

33:45

what everyone says. Last it was the most accessible

33:47

of the Frumsoft games. I didn't finish

33:49

it. I found it oppressively difficult.

33:51

Yeah, I think every Frumsoft game gets easier

33:54

because of the fact that and they've become

33:56

much more mainstream.

33:58

I'll tell you again, I

34:00

love fun game.

34:03

I'm a fun person.

34:05

Fun, you know. I'll tell you one thing if I yeah.

34:08

Hey, fellow kids. But also also

34:10

I've long ago decided, you know, I

34:13

have real world problems. I don't need to

34:15

enter a created reality

34:17

that just gives me more increasingly

34:20

difficult problems.

34:22

One game play on normal, guys.

34:25

Every game, one

34:27

uh, one game that I really

34:29

enjoyed. I don't know if you guys heard of this. This might

34:31

be a little too specific, but there's

34:33

a game called Papers Please,

34:36

and Yeah,

34:38

you're you are You are

34:41

a US State Department

34:43

or immigration officer at the

34:45

well, you're not US States. It's a

34:47

communist country country

34:50

and you you're the immigration officer.

34:52

You have to approve who can get in based

34:54

on their paperwork. It's a very Egon Spangler

34:57

type of.

34:57

Guests, so ridiculously pedantic. And it's

35:00

more complicated pedantic with like body

35:02

scans and stuff like that. And because

35:04

if you let somebody wrong in they could be a terrorist

35:06

and everything goes wrong. It's so fully

35:09

pedantic.

35:09

Yeah, there's a game that my kids, uh,

35:12

turn me onto you. I haven't really played it much, but I

35:14

just got it for the Oculus. Yes, I

35:16

have an Oculus. I'm a stupid nerd, but

35:18

do not have an Apple Vision pro so, so I'm not that level

35:21

of nerd.

35:21

I have a I think it an Oculus. Yeah, because

35:24

the Vision I didn't like.

35:25

I have an ODU.

35:25

Wow, it's just ridiculous. Three thousand dollars

35:28

for a toy. Uh, we haven't gotten. I

35:30

know there's gonna be a time where VR and AR is

35:32

going to be more of a thing. But maybe it's not my bag.

35:34

But my point is, I do have this game called Job

35:36

Simulator for the Oculus,

35:39

and you can get it. I think just for standard

35:41

you know, two D systems, But it is

35:43

literally a game where you work in an office and

35:45

you like stamp documents and different things like

35:47

that.

35:47

And then of course there's untitled Goose

35:49

game where you're.

35:50

Just a goose wanders around wreaking

35:53

having So there is this truck simulator

35:55

is a great where you just drive a truck.

35:57

It is so peaceful.

35:59

Yeah.

35:59

Damn Diver, I believe, or Dave the Diver

36:01

is another one where you're just like this skin

36:04

diver who catches fish and makes sushi. There's

36:06

a whole genre of games that I think are collectively

36:09

often referred to as cozy games that

36:11

are very popular because it is

36:14

the antithesis of this oppressive

36:16

level of difficulty that was really

36:18

the only stand in for quality,

36:20

you know, in this era of game design.

36:22

Oh, I'm excited for part two as

36:24

well, because we're going to learn about

36:27

some more tie ins from

36:29

all sorts of other industries. We're gonna,

36:31

maybe, if we have time, have a little ranking

36:33

of some of the worst games based on movies.

36:37

Before we do any that, we've got to

36:40

give give a shout out. We do always get

36:42

to say this, but I believe it is our friend

36:44

Jonathan Stricklet aka the Quist, who

36:46

has a great episode on Tech stuff about.

36:48

The et game. He absolutely does. There's

36:50

also an episode Ephemeral.

36:53

Yeah, that's right that Max worked on with

36:55

his brother, amazing human,

36:57

talented and a friend of the show, Alex

36:59

Willilliams.

37:00

And now that we're speaking of those shout outs fun

37:03

fact hopefully

37:05

not a surprise the longtime listeners. Alex

37:07

Williams is also our composer. Big thanks

37:09

to him, and big thanks to our super producer,

37:11

mister Max Williams.

37:13

Oh Man, I'm excited to get to part two, where we talk

37:15

about games based not only on drinks

37:18

and delivery junk food, but

37:20

also snacks. There's a couple of

37:22

fun snack themed games. Huge

37:24

thanks to Chris Frosciotis and he's Jeff Cots here

37:26

in Spirit aj Bahamas.

37:29

You already thank Jonathan Strickland the quizzor

37:32

what else we got.

37:32

I think that's the whole crew, right.

37:34

Rachel big Spinach Lance. I

37:36

think we owe her an appearance. Are we

37:39

brag?

37:40

We owe her? We just like her? Right

37:43

all right?

37:43

Yes, yes, yes, but the conversations

37:46

are all going and of course thanks

37:48

to all the hard working video game

37:50

makers out there. I know it can be really challenging

37:52

industry, but you're making stuff billions.

37:55

Of people enjoy. We'll

37:57

see you next time, folks.

38:05

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the

38:07

iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

38:10

you listen to your favorite shows.