Episode 481: The Localization Gap (Patreon)

Apologies for the belated upload today. Retronauts has been mobile lately—I've traveled three of the past four weekends for live events, and I've seen Bob and Nadia along the way. While it's been great to meet up with so many listeners have several years of lockdown, the travel routine has been a little rough on recording schedules. 

But hey, at least today you can enjoy some of the fruits of those journeys, even if you weren't able to attend the events in question. And this time, we took along our own recording gear, so the sound quality is pretty excellent rather than ear-piercingly horrid.

First, from Retro World Expo in Hardford CT two weekends ago, Nadia and I talk about the ’80s localization gap. The Russians and Americans made a lot of to-do about their missile gap, but for us, it was the video game gap between the U.S. and Japan that really felt devastating. How did this come to pass? How was this injustice wrought? We explore.

The second portion of the episode comes from two weeks before that at Long Island Retro Expo, from a panel I presented solo about the Sega SG-1000. You know, the l'il baby version of the Master System.

Although the audio format does mean you'll miss out on a handful of visual cues, it's nothing big. The sweet, delicious, chewy nougat of our video game knowledge comes through all the same. Please enjoy now that these conversations have been freed from the shackles of an on-location auditorium and uploaded into the universe. Or at least into the tiny galaxy of people who subscribe for patron exclusives. That's you!