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Episode 0: Pilot

by Steven Rodriguez - February 23, 2007, 7:51 pm EST
Total comments: 20

Don't have time to play Radio Trivia on Friday nights? Download this and play it any time you want.

Download in MP3 Format

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Subscribe via iTunes (Please rate and review, too!)

Nintendo trivia has been an important part of our history. Since 1999 we've been offering up weekly contests in our chat room where we'd ask questions and you'd answer them. Our Radio Trivia off-shoot has turned into our main event around these parts, where the questions are replaced with great video game music.

We've got a lot of fans of our regular podcast, Radio Free Nintendo. We know you like listening to us talk about Nintendo. We've also got a lot of devoted fans of Radio Trivia. (We wouldn't have been doing it for as long as we have if we didn't!) We put two and two together on this one and came up with a new podcast: Radio Trivia: Podcast Edition.

Here's how it works. Download the MP3. Listen to it. We'll play three songs from a game that was released on a Nintendo platform, which could be a game on any system from the NES to the Wii. After the first two songs, we'll ask you a question about that game, which will serve as either a hint for those that don't know what the game is, or a challenge for those that already do. After we play the third song, we'll reveal the game, the answer to the question, and chat a bit about the game before moving on. Just like regular Radio Trivia, there are five games in all.

However, unlike our regular Radio Trivia contests, this is not a competition against other people. We devised this as a test against yourself. How much video game music do you know? This is how you can find out. Even if you don't know one tune from another, you can still enjoy some great game music, and learn a little about the best-sounding games ever made. It's a win-win for everyone!

(MP3 Format)

We're considering the first crack at this as a "pilot episode" of sorts, so there aren't any iTunes or Odeo feeds. Please download the MP3 it and let us know what you think of the newest member of the Nintendo World Report family by responding to this article's talkback thread. (The link is at the top if the page.) We'd like to know what you like and don't like so we can improve upon it as we start to do this more regularly.

Enjoy the music!

Talkback

oohhboyHong Hang Ho, Staff AlumnusFebruary 23, 2007

It is an refreshingly nice to hear the music at a much higher quality than normal radio. Also it is a pretty nice time waster. I hope to see the quality match the normal podcast in time. For now you have my vote of confidence.

EntroperFebruary 24, 2007

There's an awful lot of hum in the audio for this one. My subwoofer is going like crazy.

I really like this idea for Radio Trivia. I've always wanted to play, but I've never been around when it's going. Good stuff. face-icon-small-smile.gif

EDIT: Megaman 2 IS the best NES Megaman game. :P
EDIT 2: That last game was an awesome choice. I didn't get it until the third song. I thnk overall, the difficulty was right on. I'm pretty well-versed in gaming music (or so I thought), but I only got one game right away, and I got a few others on the second or third songs.

I really enjoyed the new Radio Trivia. The difficulty is almost just right -- I was struggling with most of them until the hint question. Maybe it should be slightly harder, but not by much. We always had to make the live version really hard because some of the competitors were ridiculously good, and we had to differentiate among them. That's no longer an issue, so make it appealing to a wider audience.

Karl's commercial was GREAT.

ShyGuyFebruary 24, 2007

I liked it, I'm usually busy during the time of Friday trivia. Does the fact that it's no longer live mean no more contest tie-ins?

Who said we couldn't have live Radio Trivia any more?

I think we could even use the podcast version for giving away a prize. It's very hard to look up the answers when all you have are music clues, and if there's only one prize at stake, there would be no incentive for people to cheat by sharing answers with each other. We could randomly draw in case of a tie.

Saturn2888February 24, 2007

So we don't send in answers, we listen and try to guess? There's like no way to win, we just kinda guess right? I'm just confused.

This is cool I guess, but I don't wanna hear the entire song because that's like cheating. Hearing a part of it and guessing is better. Also, it makes the podcast smaller.

Shift KeyFebruary 24, 2007

Hahaha an interesting format for trivia. Windy and TYP did a good job of it.

Perhaps you could give away prizes on a weekly basis? (play a song, don't spill the answer and the first correct answer emailed to the host wins, and gets announced on the next show).

KnowsNothingFebruary 24, 2007

Quote

This is cool I guess, but I don't wanna hear the entire song because that's like cheating. Hearing a part of it and guessing is better. Also, it makes the podcast smaller.

Wait, what. Hearing the entire song is what makes this podcast worthwhile. I haven't actually listened to it, but I figure besides being a fun little game to play with yourself, it also functions as a videogame version of NPR's All Songs Considered. As well as being a game, I can listen to it just for the music. The listener gets a taste of music from different games, and from there they can broaden their musical horizon. Not including the full song makes me less inclined to just listen for pleasure, making this just a game. And a game with no prospect of winning is pretty lame.

ArtimusFebruary 24, 2007

I don't see what's confusing at all? I thought it was really fun. Though I wish you'd played Rainbow Cruise instead of Yoshi's Story. Rainbow Cruise has been stuck in my head since the very first time I played Slip Slidin' Away on a store demo unit. Best Mario music ever.

I have talked about this with Windy before. I tend to believe it IS fairly easy to cheat given enough time, so I'm not sure a contest would work well if it were of the "first person to submit" kind. It would have to be the person w/ the most correct answers (randomly chosen among those with the most correct answers).

If I had to play only part of a song from a game, I'd rather not do Radio Trivia.

EntroperFebruary 24, 2007

I think it's easy to cheat too, but I don't see how making it the person with the most correct answers solves the problem of cheating. It does solve the problem of not everyone being available on Friday night (first person to submit would just mean first person who downloaded the mp3).

I don't understand the cheating thing. Let's say TYP plays three songs from Rocket Knight Adventures. How in the world would you start searching through SNES soundtracks to find a match? Most people may not even know where to find obscure game soundtracks/rips, and even those who do have hundreds if not thousands of possible games after narrowing down to a platform. Having access to a huge library of game music and time to delve into it would only be useful if you already have a few guesses for the game and just need to figure out which one is correct.

Now the hint questions are a different story. You may or may not want to give a hint for a prize round, but I wouldn't make them bonus questions because those would be extremely easy to look up on GameFAQs once you know the correct game.

EntroperFebruary 25, 2007

Well, for example, on this podcast, I could tell that the second game was from Capcom pretty readily. It sounded similar to Megaman 3, but I knew it wasn't, and also knew it wasn't MM1 or MM2. So it had to be one of the ones I never got into, 4-6. The hint question helped me guess that it was 6, but I still really wasn't sure. If I had time, I could easily find music from the Megaman games and play it until I discovered which game it was. I wouldn't be able to do this in a real-time setting.

You can almost always narrow something down, at least to a certain platform, and probably genre. All that leaves you with is an educated guess in realtime, but if there are prizes involved, you bet that people are going to hunt down the tracks if they have time to do it.

wulffman04February 25, 2007

Hey guys,
loved the trivia, but I think it would be sweet if the podcast didn't have any answers within the recording. Then you'd have to write in, with what you think the answers are and then the staffers would announce the people with the most correct answers a day or two later. So it's more like a contest.

I never caught the trivia on Fridays before and i think this is a better way to get more people involved.

...................................................................................................
Well that's my two cents

Nick DiMolaNick DiMola, Staff AlumnusFebruary 26, 2007

I thought this format was fun and an interesting listen. I have the mp3, so if I feel like skipping ahead because I am certain of the game, I can do so, for the others I am unsure of I can listen to the whole song and think about what it is or may be. I would say this should be a weekly feature like the podcast. Live audio and games are the things that help bring NWR to life, and make it much more than just a site to look at Nintendo news.

CalibanFebruary 26, 2007

It would be good if the commentators would loosen up a little bit.

*note to self. Drink before recording trivia.*

CalibanFebruary 26, 2007

hahahahaha, well I was thinking that since there were so many podcasts done that both of you would be confortable, instead it seemed like you were reading a script.
I am still looking forward for the next Radio Trivia Podcast, drunk or not, although it wouldn't be my first time listening to a gaming podcast ("VGM Daily", not so daily anymore) where both commentators were drunk, it was hilarious.

EntroperMarch 03, 2007

Just a note, since I missed yesterday's trivia once again -- it might be a good idea to put up a post on the website more than 45 minutes before the event begins. Unfortunately I don't have time to check NWR every half hour. face-icon-small-frown.gif

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