by Jason Snell
Text adventures make Best Podcasts list
At 9to5 Mac, Bradley Chambers made a list of his 10 top podcasts of this decade, and at #4 was a surprising choice.
[Relay FM’s Members-Only shows] are something else, though. I am mainly talking about their episodes like Danger Town Beatdown. Over the past few years, Myke, Jason Snell, and CGP Grey have done these episodes as a bonus for members. Watch the trailer above to get an idea of what the episodes are all about, but they are in a genre by themselves. The editing is superb, and the story is so much fun to listen to over and over again.
I’m amazed that someone would list these bonus episodes of Cortex and Upgrade in a top 10 list, especially given how silly and off-format they are, not to mention that you can’t listen unless you are a Relay FM member! Thanks to Bradley for the honor.
In these podcast episodes, we’re playing Parsely Adventures, games by Jared A. Sorensen that are meant to be played out loud in groups in the style of old-school text adventures. They’re derived from the Action Castle/Parsely series of episodes from The Incomparable Game Show, hosted by Tony Sindelar.
For the Relay FM specials, I ran the games as the computer parser, and Myke and Grey played the game while bickering with one another in increasingly amusing fashion. Then when all was said and done, Myke would add a bunch of sound effects and Grey would commission a trailer video. They’re a group effort and we have a lot of fun doing them
If you’re still curious about this, I recommend you listen to the Game Show podcast episodes and check out the trailers for Six-Gun Showdown, Spooky Manor, Space Station, and Danger Town Beatdown. Or better yet, just become a Relay FM member and get access to all of them.