Episode 604: The Hunt for Red October (Patreon)

Jeremy: For some reason, this week appears to be all about Communism, at least for my work. Between this episode and my latest NES Works video, we're partying like it's 1989 and the party takes place in a bare unheated room lit by a single lightbulb in the back side of a brutalist concrete apartment block the size of an airport. And other such clichés.

No theming was intended, though! It's just one of those things. And this particular thing came into being because The Hunt for Red October has a weirdly huge place in video game history—not so much to do with the property itself (which made more of a splash, as it were, in its book and film forms) but because of the way it propelled author Tom Clancy into the limelight, which eventually resulted in an entire franchise of military shooters and stealth games. This episode is not about Rainbow Six and Splinter Cell, however, except in passing. It's more about Clancy's beginnings, the textbook-perfect Hollywood adaptation, and the incredible difficulty several developers had in translating a film about a submarine very explicitly not dealing in naval combat into a fun action game for consoles.

Edits by Greg Leahy; art by John Pading

• 10:35 - Motion Picture OST: Hymn to Red October

• 18:43 - Motion Picture OST: Hymn to Red October (cont.)

• 25:43 - Motion Picture OST: Nuclear Scam

• 34:39 - Motion Picture OST: Two Wives

• 46:05 - Motion Picture OST: Chopper

• 56:38 - Motion Picture OST: Torpedo, Bullets and The Cook

• 1:04:35 - Motion Picture OST: Red Route I | Amiga (1990) OST: Title

• 1:12:39 - NES OST: Briefing

• 1:18:24 - NES OST: Submarine Stage

• 1:23:59 - Game Boy OST: Level 1

• 1:30:34 - SNES OST: Staff Roll

• Closing - Motion Picture OST: End Title