From YouTube:

Christmas Video Gaming Quiz.

To celebrate the holiday season we’ve thrown an inter-podcast quiz on the subject of video games. Tony is quizmaster (and a very strict one) and I’m competing against Chris O Regan from Superhappyfuntimeshow, Ratso Albion of Gamerdork and Sinan Kubba of Big Red Potion.

Find out who among us is the king of gaming knowhow.

Also as a special treat we had a bit of a Christmas sing-song at the beginning, the video of which can be found here.

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Retro Review: The Sony Playstation.

This week, Commander Tim joins us to take a close look at the original Sony wonder machine. We examine how it came about, how Sony made it it THE console to own and the legacy of game franchises it left in its wake.

We were originally going to talk about the Playstation 3, but considering last weeks show, we wanted to wait until we had a stronger angle, so that episode will be coming in the new year.

Remember for the next week there’s still a competition on to win a $40 to spend at Casually Hardcore. To be in with the chance of winning check out this thread on the forum.

Many thanks to Commander Tim, who came on at relatively short notice and made this a mature and entertaining debate, rather than the playground scrap it would have been without him. You can find Tim’s website here, Gamehounds here and The Widget here.

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I just wanted to make sure our contestants got their time in the sun so here are the entries for our fan art competition from a few weeks ago.

Runner Up: Darth Cuddles

Second Place: Darth Cuddles Again

First Place: SeijinAxeman

Well done guys.

For this week’s competition , which will actually run for a fortnight until episode 136 Digital Cowboys has teamed up with Casually Hardcore These guys sell geek-friendly clothing, perfect for our listeners. They operate out of the USA, but ship very reasonably worldwide. To be in with the chance to win a $40 gift voucher from them simply design a T-Shirt that we find amusing or clever. No need to make something particularly artistic, a simple phrase or slogan will do. There is no guarantee that Casually Hardcore will use any of the entries for an actual T-Shirt but you never know.

One of mine is www.youaresoignored.com

So jump onto this thread on our forums and start spreading the geek lore with pride.

Xbox 360 Explored / Borderlands

This week we continue our console focused episodes in the run up to Christmas and take a look at the Xbox 360. So that we don’t come off like fanboys we tear into its flaws first, before taking a look at the strengths that make it worth buying.

Following this we give a full review of one of the sleeper hits of the year; Borderlands. If you haven’t played this yet then find out why you should. If you already have then enjoy the warm, fuzzy feelings associated with people saying nice things about a game you like.

But how do you follow up on an episode where you get to interview Dominik Diamond? It’s almost impossible folks and I will tell you truthfully now, that this episode was one of the hardest to edit in our long run of shows.  The original recording was 135 minutes long so rather than giving you a boring, long show I cut it to the bone and then, inspired by the podcasts of Robert Ashley and Kevin Smith I filled every inch of it with interesting, mood-setting music, employing a few unusual editing styles along the way. The result took me more than ten hours to edit, twice as long as the average show, so you may love it or hate it, but I won’t be doing it again.
There’s an Easter Egg at the end. I hope I made this show worth the wait.

Alex

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Dominik Diamond on Gamesmaster.

We’re immensely honoured this week to bring you Dominik Diamond, presenter of the greatest show about games ever to grace television screens; Gamesmaster.

For nearly seven years (barring one brief hiatus) Dominik presented this classic British production with a mixture of wit, charm and innuendo sending challengers, both unknown and celebrity into gaming tasks set by a techno-wizard played by Patrick Moore and commentating on their progress as though it were the most exciting sports action ever. The formula worked and Gamesmaster consistently drew audiences from the 16-Bit era all the way through to 1998 when the Playstation held full sway.

Dominik has been a journalist, and a DJ for XFM simce then and has moved to Nova Scotia; Canada with his family. He very kindly gave us two hours of his time to reminisce about his experiences, and the interview we now have here is probably one of our favourites in all our long years of podcasting.

You’ll definitely find out some things you didn’t know, learn behind the scenes tidbits and see how Dominik got in and out of the show. For those new to it, YouTube is a vertitable treasure trove of clips and if you’d like to see shows recommended by Dominik himself, that followed in Gamesmaster’s footsteps, check out Consolevania and Video Gaiden.

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