Episode 451: Taito, Pt. I (Patreon)

Good morning/afternoon/indeterminate temporal void—it's time for another patron-exclusive episode. With this episode, we begin another multi-part deep dive into the history of a key game developer. In this case, the developer is Taito, and the period under examination is their early days leading up to the company's big transformation in 1985. You'll hear quite a few familiar classics discussed in this episode, along with some games that, by all accounts, no longer seem to exist in any meaningful way.

I did not actively time this episode around the launch of Taito Milestones; I was really more inspired by the fact that I've covered a lot of early Taito games for my video projects. Oh, and the Egret II Mini. But the timing works out nicely, and you can use this episode for an explanation of a whole lot of the games included in Milestones (since Milestones itself doesn't include any sort of meaningful retrospective content). Just consider this our good deed.

Description: Jeremy Parish "chacks'n" with Brandon Sheffield and Ray Barnholt on the "front lines" of history to learn more about how Taito "invaded" gaming's "space" back in the late 1970s and early ’80s, with "action" that "elevates" our discourse to new levels.

Art by John Pading and edits by Greg Leahy (who apologizes for the small audio hitches he wasn't able to iron out of this remote recording). Music this episode:

• 10:42 - EGRET II mini: NEWGEN (Menu BGM no.3)
• 19:25 - Taito Legends 2: Intro Theme
• 27:32 - Taito Legends 2: Game Select BGM
• 38:30 - Taito Milestones: Menu BGM | Taito Legends: Neon
• 49:22 - Space Invaders Extreme (PSP): Menu BGM
• 59:03 - Yellow Magic Orchestra: "Computer Game (Theme From The Invaders)"
• 1:05:06 - Yellow Magic Orchestra: "Rydeen"
• 1:17:13 - QIX (GB, 1990): Congratulations!
• 1:26:17 - Chack'n Pop (Arcade, 1984): SUPER CHACK'N
• 1:38:07 - The Fairyland Story (Arcade, 1985): 1st Half BGM
• 1:48:39 - The Legend of Kage (Arcade, 1985): Start ~ Run!
• Closing - EGRET II mini: Hexadecimal Dream (Menu BGM no.1)