Amazing Arcade Podcast that required “No Quarter” to enjoy.

Its the middle of the week and I wanna talk about podcasts. I have to admit I’m addicted. I scour the web,  hither and thither, looking for gaming podcasts to listen to. They are my respite during my long and boring commutes every working day. I especially appreciate the ones that have a regular schedule so I know when to expect a wonderful new episode. The epitome of of podcast punctuality has to belong to the “No Quarter” podcast. Almost like clockwork, I have a new gaming  podcast to enjoy every week, usually on a Monday.

No Quarter is hosted by Mike Maginnis and Carrington Vanston. Mike is located in Denver Colorado and Carrington is located in Toronto Canada, so there is some long distance trickery going on when they record their podcast. Ok.. I have to stop.. My first revision of this article sounded like a commercial review … and I was not satisfied with that at all .. so here is my second shot at a less uptight review .;)

Go to the website of the podcast here:  www.monsterfeet.com/noquarter.

Take a gander and you will see close to 100 hrs of content. This is meaningless unless the content is good, and yeah, No Quarter is really excellent. Every week we get a review of a game picked from their secret list. This list is made up of games they want to play, and tons and tons of listener suggestions. The month of November this year was Renamed Novector, and for 4 weeks we got a different vector game each show.  The best part is Mike and Carrington use MAME to play their games. So, if the game sounds interesting, you have the ability to load up MAME yourself and play along. Trying to see if you can beat their scores is always fun.

Before they get to covering the game they had planned to review that week, the guys do a quick run down of what they’ve been up to (if it was remotely relevant), and share items they’ve come across on the interwebs, since the last show. They also spend a nice amount of time on listener feedback. The feedback segments are always fun because you can hear other peoples reactions to previous podcasts. This is also where they get game suggestions for future shows. I had the privilege ..twice.. to have  my messages read on air, Episode 79 and  111.  It was awesome to have that happen. I’m never one to write to shows unless I had a strong opinion or a reaction to something. I really felt they got what I was trying to express, and for that I was grateful.

A great thing about No Quarter is they have a set of show notes posted for each episode. During a show there can be a lot of references to websites, documentation and just interesting stuff mentioned. Instead of frantically trying to try and write down where this stuff can be found, you can peruse the show notes at your leisure.  The usually comprehensive show notes allow you to go back and have links to everything. I have literally spent hours clicking on all the different material they have posted.

Mike and Carrington are two  funny, self deprecating, and all around just regular guys, who have a genuine fondness for this crazy hobby.  I can’t recommend this well organized, fun, and informative podcast enough. Give it a listen, and if you like it.. there are a ton of shows to keep you busy for a long long time.

 

5 Comments

  1. Yes, your post is spot on! And indeed, their show notes are very good. I like how on a recent episode, they went and describe their game and research times, and it’s a lot of work, and it shows in the quality of their show, and their notes. And they have a good sense of humor to top all this.

  2. Down with Mike!
    Mike must go!

    • Mike you are banned!!! banned for wanting yourself removed from your podcast!! and you ban is now lifted…. you are prob one of 5 people to ever visit the page.. I can’t start banning people this soon.

  3. Well, five is three more than the average number of listeners who tune in to a typical episode of No Quarter.

    As long as you maintain your strong anti-Mike stance, I’ll be a loyal reader!

Leave a Reply to James Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.


*