Ok some feedback -- and as a fan of the show who has listened to every single episode, I'm going to assume that honest criticism is appreciated.
Rather than just taking turns going through favorite games and least favorite games of each generation, I really kind of wish that there had just been a timeline of like retro sports milestone games and just had the guests straight-up roundtable discuss those milestone games. There's probably a lot of listeners out there (as you guys pointed out) that aren't sports games fans, so I think something that kind of made a list of "well these are the important games in the genre, and here's why" would have been helpful to them.
Certainly you all touched upon such games anyway -- things like NBA Jam for instance -- though I thought just making it personal favorites could have perhaps turned non-sports fans away from the episode early on potentially thinking that they'd just be hearing sports fans discuss their favs, rather than thinking they might be learning some history.
Anyway, I hope you guys see that criticism as constructive.
That said, I enjoyed the hell out of the episode. And I actually found the end bit the most interesting when discussing what makes a memorable sports title.
I'l also answer Dave's specific question about show length: personally, I didn't find the show too long. In fact, once the ball got rolling at the end and everyone was really conversing (like how Brad and John sort of disagreed on Madden's recent stagnation) I kind of wished that the show would go on longer. I listen to podcasts on my commute, so as long as the content is interesting, I really don't mind hearing them in pieces.
Dave talked about Pete Rose Baseball and I thought it was interesting that this game showed up on the Activision Anthology for PS2.
Haven't seen a 7800 anthology yet though.
When the game was re-released by Activision (who bought Absolute's video game properties after Absolute folded in 1995) for inclusion in Activision Anthology, the game was renamed Baseball, due to the license deal with Pete Rose having expired.
Best closing number in a retro sports-themed podcast ever.
Dave - great work editing out Sevin's mic issue there - we had to jump into me mid-rant on the single player aspect of John Elway's Quarterback but I think folks knew what I was talking about.
Finally had some time today to listen to the entire show. Was awesome the second time around too.
