Jake

Idle Thumbs 286: I Can't Do It, Gilgamesh

Recommended Posts

Idle Thumbs 286:

 

1013__header.jpg

I Can't Do It, Gilgamesh

 

The fog clears, the blazing guitar solo ends and echoes off the walls. You crack your knuckles and slam Sim Ant into the SNES; your oppoent, Gilgamesh, really starts to sweat. Black ants overtake the yard, leaving a sea of red in their wake. "Please, I'll give you anything," Gilgamesh pleads. Before his colony is fully destroyed, you switch inputs, drop your GameCube onto the table (by its handle) and load up Pikmin 2. "No more, no more," he begs, his eyes watering, hands shaking. You can't stop. 

 

Discussed: Civilization VI, Sim Ant, Nintendo Switch, Waluigi Land, Cities: Skylines


 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

That's an extra good episode description.

 

edit: to add a little extra nuance to Nero Burning ROM: as FNB pointed out, Rome is spelled Rom in German, but it's also worth pointing out that Rom is pronounced basically the same as Rome in English. So it works pretty well if you read German and English, I guess.

 

Still weird, because it doesn't fully work as a pun in any single language.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I love bilingual puns, though. They usually need to be explained to me but that's fine.

 

***

 

The music in Civ 6 actually is based on specific civilizations: each civ has their own theme (based on some traditional music from that part of the world) and different versions of that theme for each era. However, the music you'll hear in any given game of Civ 6 is based not just on your own civ, but also all the other civs you've met. So if England is in all your games, you'll always get Scarborough Fair in the mix.

 

I am SO curious as to what track apparently sounds like the Muppet Show theme. I'm sure it'll pop out at me eventually in some future game session.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm the same as Nick, Nero Burning ROM was an obvious reference to me, but for whatever reason I never thought about Phoenix Down until just this moment.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Don't worry about the Switch, even the WiiU has actual profiles that you friend.

 

There's still strides to be made in their online/profile infrastructure, but we're past friend codes at least.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Johnny Driggs said:

Don't worry about the Switch, even the WiiU has actual profiles that you friend.

 

There's still strides to be made in their online/profile infrastructure, but we're past friend codes at least.

 

Oh at this point it's just things like Mario Maker levels that have codes? Still the worst. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I actually got in to the Giant Bombcast through Idle Thumbs as well. The full genealogy of my gaming-related pod-listening goes as follows: The Kingdom of Loathing Podcast > Video Games Hot Dog > Idle Thumbs > the Giant Bombcast > the Giant Beastcast > "VICE Gaming's" New Podcast*, with a couple branches off Idle Thumbs for Three Moves Ahead and Idle Weekend, a branch off the Beastcast for Friends at the Table, and a totally separate tree for Cool Games Inc and The Adventure Zone, by way of MBMBAM and Judge John Hodgman.

 

It actually seems pretty insane when I lay it out like that, and even more insane that gaming podcasts are less than half of my overall podcast listening.

 

*For full effect, read the ">" arrow as "begat".

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

NICK: I was reminded that I played this game as a kid in 1992 and then, like, I had to do a report on animals or something in like first grade and I just wrote about ants, but all of my information was sourced from SimAnt.  And I got away with it!

 

Was this the same report as Ants: Do They Deserve The Torture? or did you have multiple ant reports?

 

BTV1EHAIMAA552H.jpgBTV1EHAIMAA552H.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I heard about Idle Thumbs when Anita Sarkeesian was a guest on the show! So having guests definitely helps.

 

As for Mario Maker level codes...Nintendo did release a website to help you search for levels and bookmark them. Since you can log into the website using your NNID, you can boot up the game and find your bookmarked levels there as long as you used the same NNID for the website and the console. The website is here! https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/profile/eRonin?type=posted

 

You can replace "eRonin" in the URL with any other NNID to find levels posted by that person

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Was trying to figure out how I found out about Idle Thumbs, and it was through another gaming podcast called 4 Player Podcast around '09(?) where one of the hosts referenced Nick's 'turret brigade' joke.

 

2 hours ago, mikemariano said:

Was this the same report as Ants: Do They Deserve The Torture? or did you have multiple ant reports?

 

The floating font is incredibly ominous.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I found out about Idle Thumbs because GFW Radio had stopped recording, so I was looking for new podcasts to listen to while going running. I remember Chris or Nick talking about Diablo 2 and being shocked that people knew about Diablo 2 because it came out when I was four years old! I assumed Diablo wasn't popular because few people played online at the time and no one I knew talked about it except my Dad.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I found Idle Thumbs through a much shorter path. I just searched for gaming podcasts and found one called Experience Points. I listened to it for a while, and they kept talking about Idle Thumbs. I actually dropped that cast after a while too. But with a lot of casts it works that way.

 

Idle Thumbs > Followed Danielle to > Bombcast > Followed Austin Walker to > Friends at the Table and Vice Gaming's Waypoint's New Podcast

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
12 hours ago, Upthrust said:

I actually got in to the Giant Bombcast through Idle Thumbs as well. The full genealogy of my gaming-related pod-listening goes as follows: The Kingdom of Loathing Podcast > Video Games Hot Dog > Idle Thumbs > the Giant Bombcast > the Giant Beastcast > "VICE Gaming's" New Podcast*, with a couple branches off Idle Thumbs for Three Moves Ahead and Idle Weekend, a branch off the Beastcast for Friends at the Table, and a totally separate tree for Cool Games Inc and The Adventure Zone, by way of MBMBAM and Judge John Hodgman.


Absolutely identical path for me as well. Eerily so.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

my boyfriend was listening to podcasts during his commutes to school and had me listen to the episode with Jeff Green after I told him about how much I 1. Love Jeff 2. Loved GFW radio and 3. Wish Jeff was my second dad.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Don't listen to podcasts but hang around a bunch of forums > Start listening to Giant Bombcast in 2011 or so > Giant Bomb livestream? Games people on Twitter? > Idle Thumbs Kickstarter > Catch up before it ends > Really want to play Far Cry 2 for some reason

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
5 hours ago, Jolly0451 said:

I found out about Idle Thumbs because GFW Radio had stopped recording, so I was looking for new podcasts to listen to while going running. I remember Chris or Nick talking about Diablo 2 and being shocked that people knew about Diablo 2 because it came out when I was four years old! I assumed Diablo wasn't popular because few people played online at the time and no one I knew talked about it except my Dad.

 

Diablo 2 is a dad game: confirmed.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I love this episode. It has a mid-twenties feel to it, circa "Put on the Top Ghost." Horsebag!

 

I got into Idle Thumbs because Penny Arcade (ugh) referenced Three Moves Ahead approvingly back in 2010, and the second episode of TMA that I listened to had Troy Goodfellow list Idle Thumbs as one of his favorite podcasts. I checked it out right as "Nasty/Good/Badass" came out and it became my favorite... right before Chris announced that he was becoming the new Nick Breckon and shutting it down. Good times! I was over the moon when the Kickstarter happened.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't remember exactly from where I got into Idle Thumbs, but I suspect it was via Adventuregamer(s) or Mix'n'Mojo or some dorky LucasArts-fan-related thing like that because my first episode was the Ron Gilbert interview episode. So I, too, jumped onboard just in time for a cancellation.

 

FNB, as it were.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
14 hours ago, eRonin said:

I heard about Idle Thumbs when Anita Sarkeesian was a guest on the show! So having guests definitely helps.

 

As for Mario Maker level codes...Nintendo did release a website to help you search for levels and bookmark them. Since you can log into the website using your NNID, you can boot up the game and find your bookmarked levels there as long as you used the same NNID for the website and the console. The website is here! https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/profile/eRonin?type=posted

 

You can replace "eRonin" in the URL with any other NNID to find levels posted by that person

 

Such a short and easy to enter URL

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I got into Idle Thumbs back in 2011 (otherwise known as one the In-Between Years) because a bunch of people at another forum I frequent were fans.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, elmuerte said:

 

Such a short and easy to enter URL

 

As others have mentioned though, at least the URL tells you exactly what this website does!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm pretty sure Idle Thumbs was the first podcast I started listening to regularly, in 2014. I think it might have been from following the Amnesia Fortnight from Double Fine, which included Chris at some point? Or maybe had him from the previous Amnesia Fortnight? That was around the time where I started getting in to Twitter as well so maybe it was from finding the hosts on Twitter. To be honest I have pretty much no idea!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I found out about Idle Thumbs because there was a prominent Wizard joke on Giant Bomb, and everyone kept mentioning that it reminded them of Idle Thumbs, so I thought "what the heck is that", looked it up, and then didn't listen to a single episode. Two years later, I remembered the name out of nowhere, listened to all the episodes, and have been following ever since. That was...episode ~160ish era so I guess it's been over 2 years.

 

Hope this informs your future marketing strategies. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now