And who could forget the weirdness of “blast processing,” right?
Okay, so this episode? It’s all about this thing—what was it called again? Oh yeah, the Konix Multisystem. Apparently, 99.99% of gaming nerds have never even heard of it. Not shocking, I guess, because it’s like those strange aborted ideas you hear about late at night on some obscure YouTube channel.
It’s just wild. Like GX, this guy who emails me a lot and does some game stuff on the side, said the trailer for the Konix is straight outta a Simpsons episode. Kind of nails it, really.
Now, Konix used to make accessories. Quality? Eh, that’s debatable. But they pushed this motion chair thing hard. It’s like peeking into some weird little past world where everyone wasn’t glued to the net 24/7.
The Multisystem’s ads were clearly targeting the home computers folks in the UK adored back then. Think Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Sinclair… and whatever Amstrad was dreaming up that year. Gaming wasn’t about consoles like in Japan or North America. Nope. It was all about arcade-style and weird British software. Forget Mario or Sonic—those came later.
Konix tried to do what a bunch of companies were doing—Amiga CD32, Atari Jaguar, Amstrad GX 4000—all these were practically home PCs in disguise (minus the Jaguar, that was a Konix in a new suit). Even in the US, Atari and Commodore faced these challenges after Nintendo’s NES took over post-crash. The UK was just out of sync with all that. Consoles weren’t as big in every living room.
But then, as our world shrunk and ideas flew around, it shifted. Japanese consoles dominated, especially Sega in Europe. Microsoft took the PC reigns. They even have a term for this whole isolated development thing—Galapagos Syndrome. Mostly about Japan, ironically enough.
Then there’s the awkward jump to New Business. Greg and James? They’re almost done with Donkey Kong Bananza (time-stamped for your convenience at 00:02:17). They give way more detail than last week. James compares it to Ultimate Play The Game’s work (you know, before they got better under Nintendo’s wing).
James needs a break, turns to Guillaume, who’s into Mario Kart World (00:57:39). He’s got opinions—no love for those pushing for a Mario Kart 8 4K. Then there’s this whole thing with Balatro he’s working through, but Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster? Nah, not today. Instead, he bought Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story (01:09:12) from the Atari collection.
And Jon? He’s all retro with Gaiares on Sega Genesis (01:41:59). But he’s bummed because the Movies and TV store on Xbox is, well, dead (01:52:11).
