Long before podcasts were invented, Jonny recorded these audio logs for his trip to E3, including first impressions of GameCube, GBA, and the Planet GameCube staff.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/26153
This special episode of Radio Free Nintendo is actually compiled from four separate audio files that I recently found on my hard drive. In May 2001, I returned to Los Angeles for my second trip to the Electronic Entertainment Expo. That year's E3 would be my first time attending with a group, as a staff member of Planet GameCube (now Nintendo World Report). It was also the first time anyone had played GameCube, the American debut of Game Boy Advance, and my first experience at a Nintendo press conference.
You'll hear about all of these experiences and much more in this four-part "audio diary" that I recorded long before podcasts existed as a concept. You also get to hear my innate Southern accent, before years of being around non-Southerners gradually suppressed it. I hope this blast from the past will be an exciting prelude to E3 2011, which has many overt parallels to that heady time of one decade ago. Please excuse the poor audio quality -- my equipment and recording technology has come a long way in the past ten years!
This audio was recorded after I'd been in college for about nine months, so my accent was probably already less pronounced than it had been in high school. I don't know if others will hear this, but I noticed the accent is noticeably softer even by the fourth audio diary, which was recorded about a week after the first one. So, just spending that much time in California with PGC friends had an effect, even after I returned to Alabama.
In any case, definitely not on purpose. Accent absorption and loss is fairly common. I have a friend from Tennessee who spent a year in London and came back with a distinct (though partial) British accent that lasted at least six months after she was back in the U.S. It would be at least that severe if I moved to another English-speaking country, or a region in America with its own strong accent.
it's this weird simulation/real-time strategy game that Miyamoto's making it's the game called Cabbage that he's been workin on forever and this is finally it.. it's almost complete it looks like and you're this little dude and you have these little plant guys that follow you around and you toss them at these different objects and it's context sensitive whenever they land next to a certain object they have something they do to it like if you throw it at a plant they'll start to chop down a plant if you throw it at a bridge they'll start to cross the bridge if you throw it at a rock they'll pick it up, they'll pick up the rock if you throw em at a wall they'll start to break down the wall
I'm also from Alabama and listened to this on my phone, since the electricity is out. Somehow, that made it more nostalgic. Maybe it's the candles. Anyway, thanks for sharing something so personal. It really did bring me back to that time, and I hope you get to enjoy E3 this year too.
I'm also from Alabama and listened to this on my phone, since the electricity is out. Somehow, that made it more nostalgic. Maybe it's the candles. Anyway, thanks for sharing something so personal. It really did bring me back to that time, and I hope you get to enjoy E3 this year too.
*Probably gonna email you this, in hopes you might discuss it on a future Podcast or something.
Just got a chance to listen to this thing in its entirety, and gosh I envy you John. This was about 10 years ago.. so I'm guessing you were in your late teens or early 20's? I just wish that I could be doing something like this in my life right now. I'm passionate about gaming, but my knowledge isn't as great as yours was here. I think the reason for that is because I've had no real reason to be knowledgeable about gaming in the first place. It's like the ending of your diary explains, no one is interested in gaming to the degree I am. And it sucks! I've gotten to know a few people online who I am close to, but even they don't seem like they are interested in the way that I am. I listen to you guys on the podcast, having these great conversations, and to be honest, at times I am overwhelmed by how technical you all get with gaming terms and such. But anyways, I want to end this ramble and ask a question which I hope you see and don't mind answering. And that is….
What advice do you have to someone like me who wants to be able to do what you were doing, during the time of this audio diary? I really am interested in gaming, and I want to learn about Nintendo, report on Nintendo, and write my thoughts on Nintendo. (If I'm playing a game, it’s usually by Nintendo.) But the problem is, I don't feel like I have the writing ability and gaming knowledge to do so. Did you ever feel this way before you got into video game journalism John?
