Gadgetory

welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Chang I'm Ben Fox we're even let's get some props to NASA for successfully landing the insight spacecraft onto Mars is the first robot to land on Mars since 2012 then what are you hoping to find on Mars with this robot I'm like quietly hoping that we find microbes but I feel like it would be kind of like down come up what what are you talking about life on another planet is a boring answer you're being alien artifacts or something cool like that way too many movies give me a break if you didn't catch a lie though you you missed six harrowing minutes when the insight Lander was descending through the Martian atmosphere it's kind of shaky six minutes where we're sure what was gonna happen and then you know NASA later I'll confirm the solar arrays we're out powering the robot and instead of moving around this robot I'll actually dig into the planet and get some more information on how the plan was formed and hopefully we'd learn a little bit more about how earth was formed because of this right and also give some very useful data to Elon Musk to ensure that I don't know his Mars colony will be up and running by 2025 chances moving there so she's definitely ready to go but it'll be really cool to see what this comes up with and I was personally very tickled or very happy to see that so many people were really excited about this yeah because it's it's very you know fun and exciting to see people get really excited about space exploration especially during cyber monday which granted is like a very you know retail centric type of thing I mean that's a great Segway cyber monday is over we've got some numbers Ben runs down how big was Cyber Monday so cyber monday was another huge shattering success broke sales records up and down but it's really hard for me I mean I cover ecommerce I've been doing it for the past three years and it's hard for me to get too excited about that because if it didn't break records then everybody would be freaking out like much more money is moving online versus offline into traditional stores so you would expect it to break records the biggest like drivers this year were mobile phones and a lot more people are buying stuff on phones including big-ticket items and also this thing called bow piss or at least Adobe calls it opus buy online pick up in store oh okay I thought both this was a product of like a hot toy for the holiday season no and as you would expect like there were a lot of like here I'm gonna try to find like some of the hot toys that were selling or just a generally hot stuff I'm just surprised that phones is a big seller because generally people still get their phones through their carriers I guess they're doing I know buying stuff through your phones what was really driving traffic yeah so some of the stuff that people were buying using their phones included the Nintendo switch little live pets Red Dead Redemption - that's not a surprise me LG TVs drones Dell laptops for real pets I've never heard of these toys and of course the Amazon echo smart speakers I was waiting for that to join the list all right well lastly seen a review of the PlayStation classic is out and our own Jeff Bakalar notes that you know the original PlayStation games don't hold up so well hmm yeah he kind of makes me wonder if the whole classic gimmick of these retro consoles has run its course I mean yes that that feels true to me don't you think they overdid it a lot Nintendo found huge success at the NES classic NES NES classic but those were some of the very earliest gaming consoles the Atari one I think also came out but what it was really like do you really like talk to your friends and Pine over PlayStation games like the PlayStation guys I think the Metal Gear Solid game Final Fantasy 7 those those are classics but I think as Jeff noted like these are the first 3d games and so they're they're more keen to the games that were playing now and except they look uglier like way way uglier so they don't hold up as well as that kind of the kind of 8-bit 16-bit action it's like playing contra with your friends with that guy that like jumps like three flips like three times in the air single time all right that's all the time we have for a full coverage chicken sounds seen it I'm wondered Chang I'm Ben Fox Ruben thanks for listening it's like the countdown music for like NASA itself or something and always there's this weird like serendipity when I when I just let the playlist shuffle and our library music beds just kind of figures it out and it legitimately felt like we were in like control room master control waiting for the lander it was like that was the TV movie dramatization version soundtrack okay thanks everybody for joining us for the recording of the audio a podcast that we'll publish later you can download that and take it with you on the train in the car to bed whatever you like for the meantime we're going to take your questions and comments about today's stories and topics at hand so go ahead and send in whatever thoughts are going through your top of the neck balls whatever they call those they're sorry I'm a little burnt out this morning totally fine let's talk a little bit about the PlayStation since we're still on topic here I think I like the point that you made that there's less of a nostalgia factor for that PlayStation because it's not as old and we were kind of talking about this like when does classic run out are we gonna get a Gamecube clásica we're gonna get a Wii classic are they classic enough to be classic me and I think that's something to be said Glenn cute classic yeah I mean as much as I'd like to have it again I can't classify that as classic nor can I really the PlayStation as much as there is a beloved fan base for the PlayStation that was kind of a turning point into the modern era I feel so there's less of a nostalgia factor for the sake of like the the 8-bit art and such Jeff notes you know the lineup of the games aren't that great half the games are ok I wasn't really a PlayStation guy but even I understood the importance of Final Fantasy 7 as sort of as one of those hallmark RPGs but they're remaking Final Fantasy 7 into like a new high definition version for you know current consoles so like why why suffer through the the crappy graphics of the original one we can get sort of the revamped version I know there gonna be some hardcore PlayStation fans who are gonna want this thing I know the classic is already sort of sold out like it was selling like gangbusters just see the appeal of it Scott Scott MyID agrees with you he says I understand the mini retro consoles or Playstation if I want to play the original Metal Gear I'll just dig out my old PlayStation not a classic Nintendo people still own their Playstations and I say one of the the cutoff point should be if there's games out there and no get me wrong PlayStation awesome I'm not trying to discredit it at all but right if you're better off and finding greater success taking things like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro and remastering them and reissuing them on modern platforms go that route don't dig back into the well people who had those probably still have those if they wanted them if they want to get him again give them the Refresh get the remasters out there I think that's a better course of action than trying to read up the hardware itself yeah and just he notes that some of the games that you would have wanted on the PlayStation Classic one of them but that's obviously a licensing issue I think Tony Hawk and I think that was also oh man they don't one of the only ones that I actually yeah yeah that would be a nightmare yeah oh man that soundtrack was dope yeah it was I mean think about it we've got like the the crash bandicoot insane trilogy and what spiral just came out with the reissue HD remaster trilogy and it's doing really well and it looks really really good I would rather see them do more of those than get like a ps2 classic yeah I agree all right let's go ahead and take some questions from the chat this isn't a question as much as a testament to my heart Stream joy says I and my friends drank a shot of vodka every time they clamped it in the control room sure enjoy are you alive are you sure you're okay I'm concerned because that sounds terrible every time they what clapped oh yeah yeah that that was a lot of clapping also can we talk about the mean elephant in the room and the dancing dancing the dancing handshake that was absolutely precious I loved it I mean that was just a good honest moment yeah totally I mean it was clearly rehearsed but they're like okay when we land on Mars we're gonna do this do this I mean listen let's be honest we'd probably do the same that's how I end every iPhone launch event I do it does make me feel like I should at least try to add to my bucket list like be in a control room like a NASA control room for a major effort but like that would never happen so I I don't know ever say never I guess I could quit my job and go into science right now it's okay so what were some of the hype what were some of your highlights guys from yesterday's broadcast I honestly I thought that was really really well done I fear what some of the backlash is gonna be from the audience who are already skeptics because it looks like it was super well produced but I give that to them as a credit I feel like I was watching an episode of Bill Nye with all the animation and the personality and it was just I thought was a great presentation from like a TV producer standpoint yeah yeah same here I mean I didn't really have any issues with I didn't realize that there would be a backlash that if like it was too well produced I didn't realize that was gonna be a thing but I'm sure people find some people find something to complain about it was also kind of cool to see so we were talking about like the grainy image originally yeah so Brian I don't know if you can grab this off of Twitter or I'll try to send it to you through slack but after the grainy image they actually sent a much clearer one later in the day yesterday which looked really pretty cool so if you want to follow some of this info you can follow NASA or you can follow NASA insight on Twitter just to see what it's actually doing out there and I don't know get your mind blown yeah like what looking at a robot take pictures on Mars which is pretty cool that is so cool I hadn't seen the new image I was here for the stream like we carried the stream yesterday so I watched the whole thing and and saw that initial one which is like that's just kind of cool yeah it was kind of a lame image it didn't really give you much as a feeling you know I bet outside of the feeling in your heart but like wow yeah I mean you would expect a much more modern like much more modern equipment to provide that type of imagery so when I first saw the original like kind of dusty image I was just like what what what is this this is kind of a letdown so yeah this was a lot more impressive what do you think they're using a pixel yes yeah so no surprise here people want to talk more about video games I just know audience - well Scott Myatt says I wish they'd remaster the original Metal Gear that would be an amazing remaster you are not wrong there agent mulder awesome name by the way I want the 80 Star Trek and Star Wars arcade games to get reissued those were solid games also correct and then Gabriel says I like this comment well why refresh create new games they out did the old function already new versions and new ideas and new outcomes are the way to go and that is also an excellent point nostalgia yeah I'm down with both the styles is a powerful thing some of my favourites games existed on the Dreamcast which is why I still have a Dreamcast so you still play it yeah Wow I loaned it to a friend recently so he's had it but yeah I still played it actually I when I first moved to New York in 2008 that was the first thing I unpacked and set up and within two weeks and that was like the original one I got in 99 yeah it blew up it died so I had to go get a refurb so I got a refurb no.9 and I've been running that ever since yeah which is I guess you're a perfect candidate to get these new types of consoles because I don't think there's a new Dreamcast but if you really love the games but that's extremely old hardware and it's really hard to find like refurbished ones would you want to buy a Dreamcast classic no I would keep buying like it wouldn't be hard to keep finding a refurb Dreamcast out there with how adamant the audience base is any console somebody's out there keeping them alive remaking them I would rather have that og Hardware sitting on rather than like a pocket version no I I still loved the idea of the NES classic and a cns classic they did a really nice job bringing those back it was a nice one-off I don't think it's a wise decision for them to turn it into a trend and do everything down the line until we've come completely full circle yeah well a year after the concert comes out the classic comes out it's which classic it's just basically the Nintendo storage but made out again a gameboy classic it's like an even smaller version of the Gameboy that's actually I like that idea of the original Gameboy bring it to your phone I yeah see that's it but Nintendo so apprehensive about mobile development that that's such a tricky place for them to get into it don't know why it's obvious that that trend is it at the very least cooling down there were so many that we're coming out why I mean it's clear - I can see what they're thinking I mean it's wrong but you know they've always been apprehensive about mobile because they're in the handheld gaming business and they don't want to cannibalize it you know I've long said that's that's a stupid fear to have the fact that they they kind of dabble in in these games these kind of mobile specific games is you know like their test mission that they should be in smartphones but why not just go all the way bring in some of these games port them straight into your phone I would definitely you know I'd pay good money for accurate ports of the Metro Legend of Zelda I don't even complain if the console developers created dongle and hardware peripherals to turn that your phone into that console so that you could tap in like a Bluetooth controller that's reminiscent of the original PlayStation oh yeah then essentially generate the HDMI out from the phone into the TV to get the better more authentic big-screen adaptation I'm I wouldn't be opposed to that I'd pay for that well ok while I wouldn't agree I wouldn't disagree with your point Roger about that maybe Nintendo should be doing more of this it's pretty clear from a business perspective that they no longer have to as much as maybe they did maybe a year or two ago like they're doing way better yep and the Nintendo switch was a much bigger success than I think a lot of people were anticipating so it was it was kind of the situation where everybody was yelling at them like get into mobile so your business survives that's not really the case now they've got the switch and yeah the Heat's off yeah for sure so it's possible that he will be back on a couple years from now but for the time being I don't think they have any need right to get into mobile as much as they did before I just love that we've opened up this Pandora's box and people are just listing their favorite games they want to come back Chris Wesley says twisted metal priority once it's contra Carlos Carlos says Megaman I'm down with all of these syringes asking if any of us ever played the driver games on PlayStation and I did I loved that game that was my favorite thing precursor it wasn't really precursor to but I thought it was better than at the time grand theft auto hmm it came out before grand theft auto 3 so before they went like full-on 3d so that 3d driving crime spree gameplay kind of originated with driver to my knowledge maybe there's other games that predated that but I thought that was one of the best I love that game I don't know that was really a PlayStation guy neither was i but I was like it was before and then I jump straight to xbox I had in 64 my neighbors had PlayStation so we'd just come back and forth and 64 what it was it and then GameCube and then yes - yeah yeah and GameCube it was awesome I'm still really hoping they bring back the game came came classic we had 64 classic before a game festro that's Joe I thought they were gonna bring one out this year like I thought Nintendo was gonna keep the trend going but it's a good thing they probably cooled off on that I feel sure if PlayStation misstep not to mention the Atari one kind of sucked the Sega were not done by right they were licensed games they were not and they weren't great like the second one had like I think it boasted of like a hundred games but most of the games were not shovelware yeah they weren't part of the Sega lineup they were just like random crap games that were thrown into it that sounds lame also the sound emulation was total garbage oh yeah there you go like you can sit there and be like this isn't the Sonic the Hedgehog theme I remember you know something's wrong that's nostalgia done completely wrong Priority One is asking what was the mobile a console from the 90s that was the game gear sir there was also the Nomad magic deep on this one Jean knows so many things I was I was a gamer kid also this is a great setup for a little self plug here dad says I'm sure it's out there but is there a reasonable reasonable price for an arcade console like full height box with all the great games from the 80s that's the retro I want I myself was investigating this if you dig around on ebay you can get a box for like 30 to 300 500 bucks but that's just the shell you'd have to put in a screen and like a Raspberry Pi for yourself or or very own Bridget Carey went ahead and dug into arcade one up and yeah it was great this was really neat and now we have this console the Street Fighter console they let us keep it Bridget built it herself we'll see that here in a second and then our very own John Falcone bought a classic retro box that had Galaga no wait galaxia yeah yeah was a Galaga I think gal goes in there centipede yeah yeah and I had the roller ball like that they're their mini collections like there's turned on no no I don't think yeah I need to play them right now so yeah these things are these are shorter but the art is authentic and you can easily prop it up on a box seat and of course they sell a convenient box you can pay yeah yeah oh risers yeah it's silly but you can also put it on in about an hour it's basically IKEA furniture okay yeah that was really I like that you can build it yourselves like the legit like I mean not size wise like it's scaled-down but it looks great it looks like exactly what I played in the arcade yeah next up that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game no but see that's the one I want I want the only like mega multiplayer the turtles turtle time or turtles or ash man x-men was my favorite cuz he could do like six yeah they need to release those as special editions charge extra have all my money yeah all right we are just about out of time so getting any last-minute questions we didn't spend nearly enough time talking about space because we got distracted by a nostalgic see what I said nostalgia is a powerful thing so what are do we know what the timeline is for develop I love that during yesterday's presentation she kept saying so when are we going to see science when we go see some science it's like phrasing that she could have used but what do we know about NASA's timeline and what their projected projects are gonna be in 4th coming months and years with insight well they're the like I said the robots gonna be drilling down into Mars and collecting data sending it back I think the idea is that this thing will be around for the next at least two years collecting data it'll be around for a while how long do the Rovers usually last I don't that's a really great question I'm not entirely sure but this one isn't it doesn't move around it actually is stationary because it's really focused on the drill bit it should last a while I mean it does yours yeah it doesn't it doesn't move around so there's a lot less risk of it running into issues okay and what do we what are we drilling for again okay I guess seismic data looking at how the planets crust was formed really kind of looking at that and kind of comparing it to how Earth was was formed trying to get more of the I guess more insight into just how these planets were formed beginning right and whether we can terraform it but yeah this is apparently this what this robot is the first time that we're gonna be able to thoroughly investigate what's inside of Mars for the very first time and so they're really in that really what it's gonna be and drilling down may be getting some oh gosh sorry and may be getting some microbes as Ben is hoping for underground microbes underground microbes who know possible I don't know if fossils gonna be amazing if this robot that they set up there to build Ilan's new house if it actually found life and their amazing development yeah yep yeah Elon would um you know I have to the margins you know it's interesting guys you gotta move legs in Hawaii yeah yeah that we're on we're back on Mars now but over the weekend I spent my time watching mst3k is the gauntlet including Mac and me which is about Martians oh yeah a true classic I felt like that was maybe a documentary presentation of what we're going to see now CT yeah it's a poor man's et mixed with a McDonald's commercial oh yeah that's right but anyways we are out of time thanks everybody that was a fun chatterbox today we'll be back tomorrow with episode 495 until then Roger take us out yeah 359 is available on iTunes tune in feedburner stitcher google play music google podcast the amazon echo and of course Tina calm we'll see you all tomorrow bye folks thanks you