Topic: RFN Special: Jonny's E3 2001 Audio Diaries

[Jonnyboy117]

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!

[SupaKirb]

Oh gosh... this is going to be a treat to listen to while I'm out. NINTENDO WORLD REPORT! You spoil us.... lol.

[happyastoria]

Wow, that accent....My father has a hardcore Brooklyn accent and never lost it even when he lived in Miami for 10 years. I think you lost it on purpose, lol.

Anyway, this is interesting stuff!

[Jonnyboy117]

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.

[Ceric]

My wife was raised in Tennessee but she has her parents northern accent.  Accents are funny things.
 
Edit, my non-descriminatory policy gooo:
 
It's an RFN Prequel.
 
So it's the same as now
 
What was your position then?
 
Oh, Previews Editor.
 
Is he related to Hulk Hogan?
 
Wait, who was doing Planet Trivia?
 
Ok, so far you call yourself Southern.
 
Do you still bring Eye Drops? (They also help with petrification.)
 
lol, Captian PlanetGamecube.
 
I still never finish Super Metroid.
 
You don't Sign out anymore.
 
Internet names.  More fun.
 
Think one day you will rule them.
 
Fun business cards.  Do you still have business cards?
 
Joneson for an Internet Fix.
 
I hear typing in the background.
 
Ah, Staff meeting misser, late sleeper.
 
lol Tie. Now seriously was it Purple?
 
OOOh Juice and Cookies.  Did you get the Nintendo Cookie recipe?
 
If only they "ripped everyone to shreds."
 
Lot of people back in the day knew the site.  Did that ever change?
 
Did they try to trap you in one of those Boxes from the early commercials in the day?
 
IGN had a correct mock-up back in the day.  Maybe they'll be right this time?
 
You could touch the Cube.
 
Oh the tased you if you did.
 
And Stuff.
 
You ditching the sales data
 
Woohooo Super Smash Brother Melee.  It does look good.
 
I would agree about Luigi.
 
If you had Smash Bros wouldn't you show a lot of footage?
 
Miyamoto-san Mr. Miyamoto which is it?
 
Luigi Mansion doesn't look bad.  I really should actually play it all (and get my own copy.)
 
That was surprising.
 
The boot up of the Cube is cool.  Did you ever have it hang out as the clock?
 
I like the alternative sound as well.
 
Even today the load time is impressive.
 
You can hear the Ah and wondering in your voice.  But not this deep southern accent I was promised.
 
Pikmin was called Cabbage...
 
The environment was impressive.
 
Learn Mr. Miyamoto's backyard.  It should be on the box.
 
You thought Starfox Adventure looked cool but, you didn't know the horrors it would launch.
 
Knew the DK animals by memory.
 
Sad it pretty much stayed that way.
 
I'm surprised how many of the gems of GCN where being shown in some form.
 
All those Bad updates editor.
 
Staff Chat in the Third Dimension.  It will blow your mind.
 
Did it change your perception for the good?
 
Hunger Beat up Diary.
 
You no longer sound like your Transmitting from Space.  In fact it sounds like
 
the regular podcast in the Future.
 
Gamecube has no Bottlenecks, yay.
 
New job really.
 
7 o'Clock Dedication.
 
It feels justify later when your in the front and can't see the end.
 
WooHoo.  We're Number 1.
 
Noooo, the Exhibitors we're taking space.
 
Good choice.
 
lol, Sardine can.
 
Kameo: Elements of Power what happened to that...
 
Evil Jonny is starting to raise his head.
 
Thanks Rise.
 
That Preview Editor.  Slacking off.
 
Booth Tour Priority, Yay.
 
Go Go, Mario Tennis.
 
Interactive Imagination?
 
Interview appointments sound cool.  We should get more of those this year.
 
How many Small Companies are their anymore?
 
So the Lesson is Go to the ones that sound dumb on paper.
 
Food for 20 is a fiasco.
 
This is making the coverage for this year already sound pathetic.
 
They could Die on a Plane...
 
Sounds like a blast and I be sad afterwards.
 
Hours on Fighting games... Ok I could see doing that.
 
Where Everybody Knows your name...
 
Yeah, I can understand that.
 
All Hardcore, oh yeah
 
Yep, how do you.
 
Do you still think that their is E3 and everything between E3?
 
You will Survive.  As long as You...
 
I was promised Bromance.
 
lol Long and its half a Podcast all together in todays time.
 
I'm really really glad I listened to this.  Thanks for sharing.  I was stoked for the Cube and wish I had found the site sooner.

[Traveller]

This should be really cool, I love looking back at peoples impressions of things like this. Sometimes I read old magazines from this time aswell.

[Ceric]

I kept all my Nintendo Power magazines from childhood for that reason.

[nintendo1945]

"Makin sure I get some ah-drowps so my eyes don't burn out lookin' at them plasma TV screens awl day"

[Kytim89]

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.

Jonny, I am a Kentuckian and I have a very prominent southern accent. In fact, my high school was in a rural suburb and the kids there lived in the country and they said my accent stood out the most. Also, some kid in that school said that I sound like Snake, or David Hayter, from the MGS series with a southern accent because my voice is deep.

[Kwolf]

Accents are defiantly a funny thing.  The way they can be picked up and lost.  The way they change over time, etc.     Thanks for sharing the audio "diary" .  Was fun to take a trip back into the past.   If you anything like me, you also find it funny to hear yourself in the past, or see yourself.   Thinking about how much you have changed, on the note of accents and such.    Either way it was a cool time back then, anticipating Gamecube and what it might bring.

[Chad Sexington]

Is that some southern twang I sense in your voice?  What happened to it?  Did you go Hollywood on me?

[Scatt-Man]

Standard, redundant appreciation comment. Cheers, Johnzo-boi!

[TrueNerd]

I can't help but feel you've lost some of your wide eyed wonder over the last decade.

[The_Darkest_Red]

My favorite part so far:


"I'm going to be playing the Gamecube in two days. That hasn't really sunk in yet."


This is amazing stuff. Thanks for posting it. 

[King of Twitch]

"internet cafe" now that brings me back.

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

This is a gem of a find, best E3 ever.

[AV]

i really enjoyed it and the accent was fun to hear since I'm used to the 'modern' Jonny on RFN. I think timing wise releasing this near e3 this year would have been cooler ,but whatever i'm still happy i got to hear them all

[Scatt-Man]

The gaming community is in shock this morning as thousands of games journalolygists' bodies were found in a mass heap after committing what police are suspecting was a mass suicide. The cause? Not false promises of fake, magical afterlife lands full of chocolate, oh no... Close friends and family of many of the dead have mentioned that their loved ones were suffering from a servere form of depression after attending the E3 gaming expo of '91.

Resident famous-yet-useless psychiatrist Bobby Bobbob predicts that once after having experienced the magical wonders of the Nintendo Gamecube, then being forced to return to Mischief Makers for hours on end, with its constant 'Shake-Shaking', no matter how entertaining, just could not compete to the awesomeness that had been experienced mere days beforehand. Cindy Spreadum, a useless-yet-somehow-still-in-business prostitute discovered numerous voiced recordings of a one Jonny Metts of Planet 'Kewbs which backs up the claims of Bobby. Cindy was adamant in clarifying that she had no professional business relationship with Johnny, and that she simply saw an opened window and wandered inside, like flies to a fresh, steaming pile of bulldog vomit.

...That's not to say that Johnny's room smells like vomit.
End.
*I was tempted to add a link to a Youtube clip of a dog having sex, followed by it vomiting, but felt it might've been inappropriate. Just search for 'dog', 'sex' and 'vomit' for lulz in the 'Tewbs.*

[SupaKirb]

*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?

[KeyBilly]

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.

[Chocobo_Rider]

This is awesome, Jonny.  Thanks so much for sharing it.

Like everyone else, I'm getting a kick out of your accent haha.  It's nothing crazy, but it is a noticeable difference from what you sound like now.

It's also really fun to hear the awe in your voice as a wide-eyed gamer experiencing the "visual orgy" of Smash Bros. Melee 

I'll be listening to the rest throughout the day....  thanks again for sharing it!!

[Crimm]

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.

Glad NWR can give you some levity during this time.

[KeyBilly]

I actually dodged some light posts and ran through a tree day before yesterday, after which I was stranded for hours in a pitch black area.  What did I do?  Praised the Lord and played some Pokemon.  I also had the last NWR on my 3DS and tried to listen, though the poor battery life cut things short.  That was the least of my worries and actually made me laugh.

[Chocobo_Rider]

Just finished listening.  Poor Jonny and his post-E3 depression!!  It's interesting to hear how much Jonny yearned for the social connection with fellow gamers.  Some people might find it pathetic, but I found it very endearing.  Again, thanks for sharing, Jonny! This was very insightful and enjoyable.

I wish the rest of the RFN crew had recordings like this to share ^_^

[Sundoulos]

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.

Ditto for me.   I've enjoyed the pick-me-up listening to my stored copies of NWR podcasts...I was finally able to get the family out of North Alabama late last night.

[Jonnyboy117]

Thanks for the comments everyone, I'm really glad you enjoyed it. It was a real kick for me to hear, as well.


For the guys in Alabama, I hope you and your loved ones are safe. It has been a terrible week down there. My aunt lost her home, but it seems that all of my relatives and friends are safe. Tornadoes were always a common problem in the summer, but these were especially bad, and it's strange to hear talk of it around the nation for once.