Category Archives: Videocracy

Baseball, Videocracy

Oh Japan, You’ve Done It Again 13 Years Ago

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A while ago, I wrote about what I thought was my favorite baseball video game of all time, Sega World Series Baseball 1999. It still is, without question, but there is now a close contender that came to my attention via a tweet from Crashburn Alley: 98 Koshien.

98 Koshien was a Japanese Playstation game that came out (I assume) in 1998 and did not ever make it state-side. As we all know, Japan loves baseball and Japan loves video games. Therefore, the transitive property dictates that Japan should love baseball video games and make well-crafted ones. However, this logic ignores one very important factor: Japan is still Japan.

Put it this way: Have you ever seen the insane Nintendo game Muscle March? 98 Koshien is a prehistoric version of that. For baseball.

The first footage I saw of this game comes from cr1tikal, who’s made something of a career (?) in busting on video games with MST3K-ish commentary on YouTube. The video starts with him showing some of the game’s odd batting/baserunning gameplay. Things don’t get really bonkers until the 3 minute mark, when he shows us some of the “pitching” moves that can be pulled off in this game. Feel free to skip ahead to that point, but only if your helmet is securely fastened enough to keep your brain from flying out of your head. (Commentary NSFW at times, so wear headphones, please.)

If you’re still with the living and can stand to watch more, here’s a musical montage of some fantastic mound moves originally posted at Awesome Robo!

Japan, please don’t ever stop being Japan.

Videocracy

The Big Man Wails for AFS

I have very little to add to the news of Clarence Clemons passing away. But I did remember that in my YouTube archives, I have an artifact: The Big Man appearing in a 1988 ad for AFS, which was (is?) the foreign exchange student program. Basically, Clarence stands on what appears to be the Brooklyn Bridge Promenade and plays “America the Beautiful.” The ad also has a curious length: 20 seconds, making it longer than a regular spot but slightly longer than a “half ad.” The only explanation I have is that it aired during an episode of Steampipe Alley, a show not bound by the surly bonds of common sense.

YouTube Comment of the Week

YouTube Comment of the Week: McDonalds Daydream

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I’ve posted many videos to YouTube over the years. Most of them are commercials from old VHS tapes. Why do I feel compelled to do this? No idea. It’s just my nature You might as well ask the salmon why he swims upstream, or Rudy Giuliani why he says “9/11” all the time.

I have email alerts setup to inform me whenever someone comments on one of my videos. Because I don’t know if you noticed, but YouTube comments have a tendency to be hideously wrong. Racist, sexist, homophobic–you name the wrongness, they’ll invoke it. I’d really rather not have something I posted as a lark be polluted by sub-literate hate. At least learn some proper spelling and grammar, hate-mongers!

Amazingly, very, very few of my videos have gotten such comments. But they have gotten a few that are doozies for other reasons. So I thought I’d share some, without editorializing, with the public. The inaugural edition comes courtesy of an old McDonald’s commercial crica 1986 called “Daydream.” (All 1980s McDonald’s ads had titles and seems about 11 months long compared to their modern counterparts.) Comment appears below the video.