Underunderstood Wiki

Game Players Gametapes

· John Lagomarsino

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Summary

Who’s the voice of these video game VHS tapes?

Show notes

Transcript

John: Hello.

Billy: Hi, John.

Adrianne: Hello.

Regina: Hey.

John: I have to declare bankruptcy on a story.

Adrianne: Oh, no.

Regina: Oh.

Billy: Uh.

Adrianne: Not again.

John: Do you remember the one, uh, about video game tapes?

Regina: Mm-hmm.

Adrianne: Yes, it was-

Billy: Yes.

Adrianne: … a long time ago.

John: Well, yeah, I think it’s a… Let’s not spoil anything, but, uh, I’m sorry to disappoint the three of you, but I didn’t find the answer and I think it’s been long enough that I’m not going to find the answer on my own. So- … today, here… Yeah, I know. We’re gonna put it in this feed. For those of you listening at home, know going into this that there won’t be closure. There will be fun, there will be laughter, there will be intrigue, but there will not be an answer at the end of this Overunderstood.

Regina: Luckily, at this point in 2020, we are all used to disappointment, so.

John: That’s one way of looking at it, sure.

Billy: Wow.

John: All right, so what you are about to hear now is a, a, a story idea from 2019. I’ve on and off spent a year trying to find the answer to it. Um, we’ll come back with an update at the end about what I found and what I didn’t find. Enjoy. Were you guys Nintendo kids?

Regina: No. I had a, I had a Game Boy.

Adrianne: Sega.

Billy: I was also a Sega kid.

John: Wow.

Adrianne: I knew there was a reason we were friends.

John: Well, we were a Nintendo household. I had a Game Boy and a Super Nintendo. I didn’t play much of the Super Nintendo, but, um, so I, I’m… I game more now as an adult than I did as a kid. So, I was interested because I knew we had the Super Nintendo when I was, like, probably 12-ish. Uh, so this past Christmas, I made it a mission while I was home at my parents’ house, uh, to tear the place apart and look for my Super NES. Uh, after a full day, it was hiding in plain sight. I didn’t have to spend a whole day looking for it, but I found it and I brought it back, and it was time to hook up the Super NES to my TV, my HDTV, here at home. Uh, and I was unaware that this is kind of a difficult thing to do for a bunch of arcane technical reasons.

Billy: Wait, what do you… Wait, what do you mean? You… Don’t, don’t you just plug in the yellow, the red, and the white and then you’re done?

John: Uh-

Billy: Do you not have those inputs?

John: Oh, Billy. Billy.

Regina: There’s no component?

John: Billy. Billy. Okay, that’s not component, for one thing. That’s composite.

Regina: No.

Billy: RCA, as us Sega kids called it.

Regina: Component is the three separate…

John: No, component is the r- is the YRPB-

Regina: Yeah, component is the three cables, right?

John: Yeah, but there’s also the red, yellow, white, and those are composite. It’s one composite video with two audio, and component-

Regina: Right.

John: … is the… They’re labeled red, green, and blue, but they’re not red, green and blue channels, uh-

Billy: The way I remember this, I don’t know if this is actually why they’re called that, but components, three different components of a video stream.

John: Yep.

Regina: Yes.

Billy: Compositing video and audio.

Regina: But component’s the better one, right?

John: Well, no, composite is-

Billy: Well-

John: … chroma and luma in a single cable and then audio on a second.

Billy: So, it’s called that ‘cause it’s compositing-

John: … y- separa-

Regina: Two separate cables.

Billy: … all the video into one.

John: We’re going into the rabbit hole that I fell. So, the other th- the other reason it’s, uh, kinda complicated to hook these… Uh, this will not make it into the show. The other reason it’s kinda complicated to hook these things up to a modern HDTV is that the composite signal and most of the other analog signals from these devices were 240p. Uh-

Regina: Oh, wow.

John: Weird, right?

Regina: Whoo.

John: Modern TVs have, uh, trouble dealing with that, um, and I was very disappointed by this when I plugged it into my TV. So, I wound up on this YouTube channel called My Life in Gaming that’s made, like… They’ve made a name for themselves being the source for information on how to get the best image quality out of your retro gaming consoles and hooking them up to your modern TVs. So, anyway, and it’s all very expensive, so I wound up not taking any of their advice. But, uh, for, like, months since, it’s become, like, the, the one thing that I keep watching on YouTube, is just these, uh, very detailed tutorials about old gaming consoles and then they, they go into… They do all, also documentaries about old games and stuff and modern games too. It’s, like, this very cool gaming channel on YouTube. Um-

Adrianne: How long are these tutorials?

John: Oh, they can be very long. Some of them are, like, 45 minutes, uh, but some of them are shorter. It… They run the gamut. Um, the, the, the… These two guys, uh, Coury and one of them goes by Try, um, they don’t… They, they live in different parts of the country and they, they, like, go back and forth making this channel, and they kinda, like, stumbled into success because of their RGB video tutorials. One of the videos that I found, though, was not about the technical stuff. It was this survey of old gameplay VHS tapes that were published by various, uh, people in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and, um, I wanna, I wanna play you…

Adrianne: Like, the original gaming YouTube?

John: Yes, exactly, exactly. There were these old tapes that would do, like, tips and tricks for, for playing video games and, like, how to beat certain games, and you’d get them, like, in a VHS, in like a $10 VHS tape with gameplay, with-

Regina: Oh, that’s amazing.

John: It’s so cool. Uh, so I’m gonna play you this video. Uh, this is, this is the beginning of their video.

Regina: Whoa. Oh my god, I love it.

Playback: During the early days of this channel, long before the RGB Master Class, the main thing that we were known for was our How to Beat series. If you didn’t know, that series was directly based on a classic videotape, or rather, game tape series from the editors at Game Player’s magazine. Greetings, game player. You’re about to learn many new skills. Are you ready? The premise was simple: you watch a playthrough of a game while a voiceover guides you through and drops hints during each segment. To defeat the first super warrior, use jumping spin kicks. When he raises his arms, he’ll shoot fire, so back off quickly. Each volume of this series covered at least four games and ran around 40 minutes. This series ran from 1989 through 1990, and consisted of 14 tapes. Most covered a variety of popular titles like Mega Man 2. Shoot the lobster for extra life and beat whoever has the least energy, so he gets more energy. Ninja Gaiden. Now you must face Jocyo. Here’s how our ninja does it. And Castlevania. These games contain a lot of information. You may want to take notes on what you discover. Now, let’s go into the Game Players laboratory. We’ll see how one of the Game Players’ professional game testers uses the Power Glove.

Adrianne: What?

Billy: Oh, my God.

Playback: All these games work really well with the Power Glove. Watch how our expert player uses the glove to help him win.

John: So, in the ‘80s, there were these gameplay videos that would, like, walk you through how to play certain video games. Um, they were 40 minutes long. They were made by Game Players magazine, and these game tapes would basically break down games one level at a time, giving you tips and tricks on how to play them. And, and Coury from My Life in Gaming loved them, uh, because he didn’t have access to all the games, but also because of the narrator in this thing.

Playback: There’s so many quirks to the production of these tapes that I can’t help but to find them incredibly endearing. Like how the voiceover occasionally mispronounces certain words. Dodge the stotatotas. The fun names they come up with for items. Also, don’t overlook the ugly stick. It’s a valuable weapon. Move over to this tree and you’ve got it made.

Billy: The guy doing the voiceover has definitely has never played a video game in his entire life.

Regina: In his whole life.

Billy: Well, okay, keep, keep watching. Keep watching.

Playback: Maybe it’s weird, but over time, I’ve developed a deep sense of nostalgia specifically for these tapes, especially for the narrator. Over the last few years, I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit trying to figure out exactly who this person was. In fact, back when our How to Beat Shovel Knight episode got picked up by a number of websites, it was shared by Chris Slate, a former editor for Game Players magazine. As it turned out, he was the one playing the games on these tapes. I figured that since I had his attention, I may as well ask him if he remembered who the voiceover guy was. But all he seemed to recall was that he was a DJ in North Carolina at the time. Game Players magazine was based out of North Carolina, after all.

Adrianne: It’s, it sounds like narrator voice.

Billy: Yeah, it sounds-

Regina: Yeah, exactly.

Billy: … like a generic voice for the time. Like, it, it could be either, like, this video game video. It could be, uh, a sex ed video. It could be, like-

Adrianne: That’s what I thought, too. Like health class.

Billy: It could be a TV show about gruesome murders. Like, the tone fits anything. It’s just, like, a classic, standard ‘80s, ‘90s narrator.

John: Yeah. So, I found Coury, um, and Coury was very, very willing to talk to me.

Playback: Hello?

John: Hey, Coury.

Playback: Hey, how’s it going?

John: Hey. Good to, good to talk to you.

Playback: Yeah, good to talk to you. Uh, is, is my audio sound all right?

John: I asked Coury where he found the video tapes in the first place, and he said he had a bunch of them as a kid, uh, and he, he loved them because they were a cheap way to basically see a full gameplay session. Uh, but at some point, he actually threw out his collection.

Playback: I got rid of them a long time ago, and then I, I think I found one at, like, a flea market or something like that. I’m like, “Oh, I used to have these.” And I really, I just got into them in a big way again. The thing I liked about it is how the person reading the script, or, uh, like giving the hints clearly did, had no idea what they were even saying most of the time. This, this is obviously a person that was just, you know, paid because of their voice.

John: So, uh, wh- what have you, uh, what have you learned about the voice?

Playback: W- okay, so, uh, we did the videos, the VHS style videos for our channel a long time ago, and then when we were probably around 3,000, 4,000 subscribers, we did a very limited run of actual VHS tapes with a number of these compiled onto them.

John: Oh, wow.

Playback: And we, we did one based on Shovel Knight that kinda got a lot of, a lot of traction online, and it was seen by this guy by the name of Chris Slate, um, who, at the time, was working for Apple. But he worked for Game Players when, when it first started, and I think now he’s, I think he works, like, he works for Nintendo now.

Billy: So, you would think that Chris Slate, this guy, would know who was reading his scripts, because presumably he wrote the scripts.

John: Yeah, and also, he was the one playing the, the games. So, like, to match up the gameplay with, with the voiceover, yeah, you would think that he would know. Um…

Adrianne: Or that he would know who was doing accounting.

Regina: Right.

Adrianne: And cutting the checks for this person.

John: Yeah, I don’t know. Do- do- do- uh, would he have known? Uh, it’s like a, a small newspaper owned by another c- company, um, which we’ll get to.

Adrianne: Right. He could’ve been a freelancer style kind of contributor.

John: Right.

Adrianne: Who was not really connected with the infrastructure.

Billy: Well, also, for a magazine to produce a series of VHS tapes, I assume they contracted an outside company at the time. It’s, well, it’s not really-

Regina: Right.

Billy: … a trivial thing to do. Uh, the equipment wasn’t super accessible. So, they, I’m sure they contracted another company, and that company took what they gave them and hired the voiceover artist, put it together, edited it, added the graphics.

Adrianne: Yeah.

Billy: So, you’d need to find them, I would think.

John: Yeah. Um-

Adrianne: Probably Chris has the name of someone who might have more information.

John: Maybe.

Adrianne: Who worked there at the time.

John: Yeah, so this is what he told Coury.

Playback: He’s like, “I don’t remember. I just remember he was, he was a DJ in, in, uh, in North Carolina, and I can’t tell you anything else about him because I don’t remember.”

John: Mm-hmm.

Playback: So-… you know, we tried to figure out what was going on, like, ‘cause the, the company that owned Game Players was, like, Signal Research or something like that.

John: Yep, yep.

Playback: And I don’t believe they still exist in any way.

John: So I looked into this too. This was even before I talked to Coury. Uh, I found this out, that Signal Research, um-

Regina: Oh yeah, that’s what I was just reading about.

John: Yeah, yeah. They were based… Oh, you found the same article that I did. Yep.

Regina: Yeah.

John: They’re based in Greensboro, North Carolina and they closed up shop in 1992. So if you guys look at the article that Regina just dropped in Slack, um, it says, “From a small office in Greensboro’s Pomona Park, 21 men and women are trying to set their hooks into the technological revolution. They turn out four monthly publications that freeze frame lightning-quick changes in parts of the personal computer and video game industries. It’s kinda like closeup photography of an erupting volcano.” Sorry, so this is-

Regina: Can I tell you that I read this while you were talking and I s- thought it said pornography-.. and I was really confused.

John: This is actually a different article from the one that I had, uh, weirdly.

Billy: But to be clear, this- let’s be clear, this is their explanation of a screenshot.

John: Yes.

Regina: Yeah.

Billy: They turn out… Yeah. They f- “Freeze frame lightning-quick changes in parts of a personal computer and video game industries. It’s kind of like a closeup photography of er- an erupting volcano.”

Adrianne: The author of this article-

Billy: It’s a screenshot.

Adrianne: … is like the equivalent- … of the narrator of the Game Tapes-

Regina: Yeah, exactly.

Adrianne: … in their knowledge of the subject.

Regina: Exactly.

John: “You can convey a lot without using any words, since,” uh, said Lance Elko, director, editorial director for CD-ROM Today, one of the publishing company’s newest products. Um, this is actually a very different article from the one that I found. Um-

Regina: Oh, I thought… Yeah, I thought that Lance guy was potentially…

John: Yeah, they, it said, “The secret of the two Game Player, the secret of the two Game Players mags is in the head-spinning graphics and in the in-depth game reviews.” These graphics are like Fisher-Price. Like, solid color, chunky 90s-

Regina: Right.

John: … uh, what you would expect from something made for kids in the ‘90s. Um-

Regina: But it does back up the freelan-, like it says that freelance writers are contributing to it, so it does make sense-

John: Where does it say that?

Regina: … that they wouldn’t know who the voiceover is. It’s the next one. It says, “They design the magazines at the offices, but freelance writers provide most of the content.”

John: Okay, well, Chris Slate, I believe, was actually a full-time employee of the, of the, um-

Regina: Oh, okay.

John: … of the magazine. But, so check out this article from 1992. This, uh, greensboro.com was-

Regina: They were on his beat.

John: … uh, yeah, News & Record was, was hot on the trail of, of Signal Research. So this, this article says, “Greensboro-based Signal…” This was February 27th, 1992. “Greensboro-based Signal Research, Inc., a publisher of computer entertainment and video game magazines has suspended publication. William Trotter, a senior writer for Signal Research, said Thursdays that employees were laid off the week of February 10th. Headed by Robert Locke, who made a fortune on a consumer publishing venture when he sold Compute! Magazine in 1983, headed Signal Research. The company was founded in 1987. Trotter would not elaborate further on the magazine’s fate, and Selby Bateman, managing editor, could not be reached for comment.” Uh, the magazine did continue for years after this under different management, I guess, and then became, ooh, it was like Game Enthusiast or something, and then, um, Game Buyer’s Magazine. Uh, by the way, Coury said that the magazine itself was not very good at all. Uh, it was his least favorite of the gaming magazines from this era.

Adrianne: So the article that Regina put in Slack is from a year later, and it’s about the company that succeeded-

John: Oh.

Adrianne: … Signal Research.

John: Oh.

Adrianne: GP Publications.

John: Oh.

Regina: You’re right. Yeah, 1993.

John: Okay.

Adrianne: “Two years later, Signal floundered and closed, leaving its employees stunned. GP was born when their main creditor decided to refinance the Greensboro operation.” So it was reborn like a phoenix.

John: “Within a month,” quote, “Within a month, almost all of us were reemployed,” Bateman said. “We didn’t even know m-, we didn’t even miss shipping an issue, although we were close.” So it continued on, uh, but the, the tapes themselves do say Signal Research on them, and they were from that era. Um, so we would have to find people from that era. All right, so g-, uh, what Coury is basically saying is that, uh, just to back up a moment, they did these play-through videos that were done basically in exactly the style of the, um, the Game Players Magazine videos. They look great. They look, like he actually passed them through VHS and stuff, and they used another, uh, buttoned-up voiceover type guy, and that’s what started this whole thing-

Regina: Mm-hmm.

John: … where, where they were, like, trying to find out who actually did-

Regina: They wanted the original guy-

John: Yeah.

Regina: … to do theirs.

John: I think he does. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Playback: But around the time that I did that, the video game VHS tapes, uh, episode, there was somebody that said, “Oh, this is the guy. He’s, he’s a voice actor and he does all this, like, he was in, did Mass Effect 3 and he did all these other things.”

John: Coury explains all of this in the original video.

Playback: About a year later, I got a random lead from someone who thought that they knew who it was, a voice actor by the name of Neil Ross, who’s done a bunch of work, most prominently as the Codex in Mass Effect 3. So I booted that up and wow, this has gotta be him, right? In recent years, the pro-human syndicate known as Cerberus has seen its influence grow galaxy-wide. While preparing for this episode, I decided to contact Mr. Ross directly to see if I can confirm his participation. This was it. After all these years, this burning question would finally be answered. It didn’t take long before I heard back. The answer was short and to the point. He said, “I have absolutely no memory of having worked on game tapes for Game Players Magazine. I can see where someone might mistake it for the ‘80s version of me, but it’s not. I have no idea who it is and I’ve never set foot in North Carolina.” Man, that sucks, right? Maybe one day I’ll find out who it actually was.

Regina: Wow. Wow.

John: So, right, like Coury said in the video, uh, that guy was Neil Ross. Uh, and apparently Mass Effect 3 is something that this guy’s really famous for.

Playback: The Asari were the first species to discover the Citadel. When the Salarians arrived, it was the Asari who proposed the establishment of the Citadel Council to maintain peace throughout the galaxy. So, I actually… I emailed that guy. I said, “Was this you that did this?” And, you know, he sent me an email back and said that this was definitely not me. They can attune their nervous system to that of another individual of any gender and of any species to reproduce.

Regina: I don’t know.

Playback: This capability has led to the unseemly-

Regina: I don’t know.

Playback: … and inaccurate rumors about Asari promiscuity.

Billy: Nope.

Regina: No, I think it’s different.

Billy: It’s not… It’s not him.

John: I also think it’s different.

Billy: It’s a similar delivery style, but this guy has a little bit-

Regina: Which is just old white guy.

Billy: But the Mass Effect guy has a little bit more of a grit. And sure, maybe with time that grit developed, but… Or maybe he’s just doing a s- like a slightly different style, but I’m not buying it.

Adrianne: Hang on, I need to go back. I need to go back to the game tapes.

Playback: Welcome to the third stage. The party wagon is the only way to travel, and the only way to blast through the roadblocks.

Billy: No, they don’t sound anything alike.

Adrianne: Yeah, this guy sounds like… This… Yeah.

John: To me, yeah.

Adrianne: This guy sounds like more-

John: I agree. To me, uh-

Adrianne: A little bit stodgier.

Regina: Yeah.

John: To me, Neil Ross sounds a little bit more like John Wayne than the Game Players-

Regina: Wow.

John: … Magazine guy. It… But, like, people in the comments of Coury’s video think that… Think that Neil Ross is lying, like straight up lying.

Regina: Yeah.

Billy: No.

John: Well, there’s definitely a faction of people who think that guy was totally lying for some reason.

Playback: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

John: Uh, wh- I cannot fathom a reason someone would lie about this.

Playback: I mean, a lot of people say that he is… That the guy was lying. ‘Cause if you listen to that voice in Mass Effect 3, it is-

John: Yeah.

Playback: It’s spot on. Like, it’s- it’s pretty, pretty crazy just how close it is.

Billy: What?

John: I don’t agree. I don’t agree.

Adrianne: Right now John, John is thinking to himself, like, “No, no.”

Billy: This is why conspiracy theories spread so quickly on YouTube.

Regina: Exactly.

Billy: His denial is very interesting, though.

Regina: “I have never set foot in North Carolina.”

Adrianne: It’s a little bit “protest too much.”

Billy: Yeah.

John: It does… Well, yeah.

Regina: “I’ve never even thought about setting foot in North Carolina.”

Adrianne: He’s like, “I… Yeah, I’ve never heard of North Carolina.”

Billy: Right. It’s like he got-

Regina: “What is that? Where is that?”

Billy: It’s like he got accused of something that could end his career.

John: It d- d- does seem like that, yeah.

Adrianne: I could see… Yeah, I could see someone being worried that a more amateur voice would be attributed to them.

John: But he’s in Mass Effect.

Playback: No.

Billy: He just takes it very personally. He’s like, “That guy sounds like… That guy sounds like a poser.”

Adrianne: I do think the game p- game tape guy sounds… He’s, like, a little dweebier. Like, he sounds sillier.

John: Stalactities. Stalactities. He is trying to say stalactites, right?

Regina: Yeah. Stalactities.

John: Yeah, stalactites. Stalactities. Sorry, that’s it. Um, okay, so I-

Billy: It’s so good.

John: It’s not even a game word.

Billy: So we need to… We need to go to North Carolina with a microphone and just ask people to pronounce the word stalagmites.

John: Stalactites, I think, is probably what-

Billy: Oh, s- Oh, s- Right, stalactites.

John: They were f- They were falling from the ceiling.

Billy: Right.

John: Uh, let me play you some more stuff here, though, ‘cause it… We… It gets a little bit interesting. Um, uh, so I a- I- I asked Coury about that, uh, about the people in that article from 1992. Yeah, I’m looking at a very, uh… Like, a, a, a newspaper article from 1992. They mention a William Trotter, who’s a senior writer for Signal Research. Said Thursday that employees were laid off the week of February 10th. Um, uh, and they say that the company was headed by someone named Robert Locke.

Playback: Okay.

John: Are these names ringing any bells?

Playback: No, not at all.

John: Okay.

Playback: I mean, you’ve- you’ve clearly looked into this, like, even further. I mean, I- I think I had a whole list of different people, maybe different people that wrote for the magazine.

John: Right, right.

Playback: I might have a list like that. I could-

John: Is there, like, a… Uh, like, an address of publication or anything on… Do, do you have any issues of the magazine?

Playback: Yeah, yeah. Um, give me a second. I’ll go grab one.

John: Cool.

Playback: Okay, so I have… I have the first issue right here. Um, from, uh, May 30th, where it says display until May 30th, 1989. Okay, so yeah, here it is. Uh, Robert Locke. Robert C. Locke, Editor-in-chief, and Amy L. Pr- Pruitt, Senior Art Design Editor.

John: Mm-hmm.

Playback: Um, let’s see. There’s a PO box. It is, uh, Signal Research Incorporated, PO Box 29364, Greensboro, North Carolina, 27429.

John: Okay. Something to go on. Uh, it was not something to go on. That does not exist anymore, unsurprisingly.

Billy: The PO box?

John: The PO box does not exist anymore.

Billy: Hmm.

John: Not- not for, um, Signal Research, at l- at- at least. So, that’s all we know about this person and this company, so that’s where we are. But I wanted to know what Coury… Like, if I did find out who actually did this, uh, I- I wanted to know what would satisfy Coury in here. Well, okay, so, like, if I… If s- If you could, like, ask this person something, what would you wanna know about these sessions?

Playback: Um, I mean, that’s, like, something I never really even thought about. You know, it’s like… I- I was more thinking about, like, what… About finding him than what I would do if I actually did find him. I mean, what am I gonna be like, “Oh, uh, you know, I watched y- these tapes when I was… when I was 10. They were awesome.” “I think… I think your voice was… was… It’s kind of funny, but, like, I- I like it a lot.” You know? It’s like, “I- I attribute your voices to…”… these specific games and sometimes I will think, when I, I’m, like, playing these games, I will think in your voice. Um, but I mean, I don’t, I don’t know what I would, I, I don’t really know what I would ask him.

John: Yeah.

Playback: I mean, like, how did he get that job? What was, what was it like doing this kinda thing? Did he even understand what he was even reading? Will he do voiceover for something for me? If, if you found him-

John: Yeah.

Playback: … I would say, “Can we do, like, a bonus episode for this last tape and will you read it?” It would be amazing.

John: I will hap- if I find him, I will ask him that. Um-

Playback: And I mean, obviously, I’ll, I’ll pay him and everything, but it’s just, it would be, it would be like a dream come true to be able to do something like that.

John: Barring that, if I could get him to say one sentence for you, what, what would you want that sentence to be?

Playback: Um, probably it would be, uh, “Dodge the statistatactitas.” Dodge the stat-

John: So, we need to find this guy. Uh- That’s a good s- that’s, I generally, uh, loathe YouTube sign-ons and sign-offs, but if this guy’s sign-off was, “Dodge the statistatactitas.”

Regina: Oh, yeah. Oh, that’s so good.

John: And he had an original… Yeah.

Regina: So good.

John: I would like and subscribe. Yeah, mash that Like button and dodge the statistatas until next time. Uh, what do I, I don’t know, what, uh, do we just start r- reaching out to people he used to write for the magazine?

Billy: Well, this is early ‘90s, right?

John: Late ‘80s. ‘89 was the first- Late ‘80s…. video.

Billy: Okay.

John: Oh, no, that was the first issue. No, you’re right. It is early ‘90s.

Billy: Okay, so before Fiverr existed.

John: Yes, yes.

Regina: Yeah.

Billy: So that narrows down the pool of people doing voiceover work in North Carolina, I would imagine.

John: Well, and the guy from, from Game Players-

Regina: How old is Voice 123?

John: … seemed to know that this was a, a radio DJ in North Carolina.

Billy: Oh, a radio DJ?

John: Yeah.

Billy: Oh, that narrows it down too.

John: Uh, in a way that’s, like, not very useful, though. Like, I don’t know how to search for radio DJs in North Carolina in the ‘90s. Like, how would you-

Regina: Well, you could find, like, the biggest station in Greensboro and potentially figure out who was working there at the time.

John: Or someone who’s been working in radio for a while.

Regina: Right, exactly.

John: Yeah, I’m not terribly optimistic that this is gonna be easy, but I do really wanna I wanna find this out.

Regina: I think we can do it. We just need to look for sex ed tapes.

Billy: I’ve already started.

John: Oh.

Playback: But no one else is really interested in picking it up and going any further with it.

John: All right. Well, uh, uh, I will absolutely keep you abreast of what’s going on with this.

Playback: Sounds good. Thanks so much.

John: All right. It is the present. The four of us are here. We’re back to talk about what I did and didn’t find with regard to Game Players Magazine and video tapes.

Billy: Okay, I’m very interested because we kind of implied that, you know, it might be v- achievable. You seemed-

Regina: Yeah.

Billy: You actually were the most skeptical, John.

John: Yeah, this was back in, what, March of 2019, when, um…

Regina: We were optimistic about a lot of things.

John: I had a lotta hopes.

Billy: A lot, a lot of- Regina, Regina, are you okay?

Regina: I’m so sorry. We all-

Billy: And then she just starts crying, and then it’ll…

John: Look, in, in March of 2019, we all thought things would be a little bit different by now. Um, so-

Regina: Mm-hmm.

John: … I can walk you through what I found, but, uh, honestly, it was just a bunch of conversations with very nice people who knew nothing about this man’s voice. So, uh, what I talked to, I talked to Coury, I guess, in- at the beginning of February, y- of 2019, so, uh, almost a full year ago. Uh, then we kind of, other episodes happened, right, different things, and I picked up the trail in September of 2019. So, there was a long period of time where I really didn’t think about this story at all. But I reached out to, you know our friend Chris Plante?

Billy: Yes.

Regina: Yes.

John: Uh, we used to work at Vox Media with Chris. He is the editor in chief of Polygon, uh, Vox’s gaming website, and, uh, co-host of The Besties, a gaming podcast. So, I thought he would, and he’s into just kind of, like, the vintage stuff. So I asked him, um, if he knew anything about this, and he did not, but he suggested that I talk to two people, Jeremy Parish and Frank Cafaldi. Both of these people are kind of gaming historians who are, like, the, who are, who are pretty big in this whole, like, retro gaming scene, right? Um, yeah, what, what, what, what, what Chris said to me was, “I have no clue, sadly, but if there’s anybody who would know this, it’s Jeremy Parish or Frank Cafaldi.” So, I emailed both of them. Uh, both of them were very punctual and responded right away. Frank responded, “I love that you’re pursuing this, but I don’t think I have any way to help. Sorry.” Jeremy Parish replied, “Sorry, I don’t know any North Carolina DJs, especially from the ‘90s. I’ve only lived here for six years. I’ve lived,” Chris, “I believe Chris Slate, host of the official Nintendo Power podcast, worked at Game Players. You might ask him if he knows anything.”

Adrianne: Okay.

John: You’ll remember that Chris Slate was the person-

Adrianne: Back to the beginning.

John: Right, exactly. Now we’re running in a loop because Chris Slate was the same person who told Coury that it was a DJ in North Carolina. Um, so that loop kinda led me nowhere. Uh, in the meantime, I looked a little bit into, um, people who would’ve been involved in, I think it was ABC Video, people who would’ve been involved with ABC Video who were somehow involved in the publishing of these tapes. Uh, I couldn’t-… eh, the people that I did find on LinkedIn didn’t respond to me, but it also seemed like a real long shot that that company would, uh, know anything about the specific voiceover artist. So then I messaged another Polygon friend of ours, Chris Grant. He’s a founder of Polygon.

Regina: Mm-hmm.

John: And, um, he’s even more into the vintage gaming stuff than, than Chris Plante is. He didn’t know the answer either. But he said, “Thinking some of the magazine old heads might know or remember, or an old school marketing person. Would try Chris Kohler, would try fo- magazine folks like Dan Amrich, worked at GamePro for like 20 years. Can see about finding folks in marketing at Capcom or Nintendo back then too.” Uh, so I-

Billy: The old heads.

John: Yeah, right? The old heads.

Billy: Like, I think there’s, like, some, like, grungy bar they all hang out in.

John: Right.

Billy: Talk shop.

John: Uh, I tried all of these people. Not many of them responded to me, but Chris Kohler did, and his his response was just, “No insight from me. Good luck.” Huh.

Billy: He responded.

Adrianne: Dang.

Billy: That’s nice though.

John: No, it’s great.

Billy: Yeah.

Regina: Yeah.

John: Uh, but it do- it, it, it does seem like nobody from that era, uh, has any connection to the videotapes themselves. All right, so on the radio DJ thing, uh, in April of this year, I sent out a tweet, a long shot here, “I’m looking for someone who was involved in commercial radio in North Carolina in the ‘90s. DJs, station managers, etc. Anyone know someone?” And, uh, I got a tw- I got a tweet response back from someone named Wilson, who said, “Hello.” This was someone who other people on Twitter also pointed to. I think he’s, uh, somehow involved in the radio scene and has been for a long time or something like that. Anyway, he seemed to have a lot of connections in that world. So, uh, I talked to him a little bit over DM, uh, explained to him what I was looking for, uh, put the video in front of him. He said, uh, he wanted to ask his old boss who knew some radio people. And he goes, “This guy owe you money?” S- so this guy Wilson said he put out a few feelers, um, like a whole group of people it sounds like he asked in the radio world, uh, in North Carolina to, um, to identify this voice. And he said, “No luck, man. Sorry.” And so, and he also said if I find out to let him know ‘cause now he’s curious too.

Regina: Did you look at the Asheville Radio Museum?

Billy: Oh.

John: I did not.

Regina: I mean, they, uh, unfortunately just closed for the next two months.

John: Great.

Regina: But they said they m- might make an exception for out-of-town visitors. So if we all wanted to go on a trip…

Billy: Wait, really?

Regina: It says that?

Adrianne: What? That’s the last person you wanna make an exception for.

John: Yeah.

Billy: They’re like, “If you are willing to-”

Regina: Listen.

Billy: “… cross state lines, maybe it will open.”

Regina: It really does say that. “We also make special appointments for out-of-town visitors. Just use the contact form at the bottom of the page.”

John: I’m not doing that.

Regina: Uh, you know, could be fun. It’s a little COVID. I’m kidding.

Adrianne: I have a feeling that could just be totally wrong.

John: Oh, wouldn’t that be terrible? The only fact we have about this man.

Adrianne: Mm-hmm.

Billy: But you’re saying you got essentially nowhere with looking into who would’ve been a, a j- a radio jockey at the time, right?

John: Yeah, look, I di- I didn’t spend that much time on this- … on that road.

Billy: Well, I’m just saying, so that’s a, that’s an open door potentially, if people are trying to figure out how they could help solve this, that’s, I think, one, one path that definitely needs further exploring. I wonder if there is an AI for identifying people- … by voice. Like, this exists for face, faces, you know? There’s like-

Regina: Mm-hmm.

Billy: … search engines, you can search somebody’s face.

Adrianne: This is probably what Descript is gonna end up being.

Billy: That’s true.

Regina: Oh god, they’re just collecting data on all of us.

John: So one thing I didn’t try, ‘cause honestly I forgot about it until last night when I went to recut the pitch, um, w- we had talked about, like, finding some, like, forensic linguist or something to at least rule out-

Adrianne: Oh, right.

John: … what’s his name?

Adrianne: The Mass Effect guy?

John: Y- Right, to rule out the Mass Effect guy. Uh, ‘cause he denies it being him, but, like, I guess since it seems to be such a close match, it would be cool for someone to t- to confirm to us that that’s not the same person.

Adrianne: Mm-hmm.

John: Um, but that isn’t, like, a positive indicator. That doesn’t get us closer-

Adrianne: Right.

John: … to finding out who the guy is. Yeah. So I don’t know.

Adrianne: Yeah, I don’t know. It’s a human flesh search. Oh, you know what we could do? We could do a Facebook ad targeted at DJs in North Carolina in the ‘90s or some proxy for that.

John: Can you, can you target ads at former…

Regina: Yeah, that seems… I, I know it’s impressive, but that seems, like, very specific.

John: So I don’t know. Uh, I’m still interest- I wanna… I, uh… I’m motivated by wanting to just, like, get the answer for Coury.

Adrianne: Mm-hmm.

John: So I don’t know. Uh, I will try to pick this up in the future. But-

Adrianne: Maybe Discord will help.

John: Maybe Discord-

Regina: Yeah.

John: … will help. Maybe, yeah, I don’t know. Um, I really would like to find the answer to this, but it’s been, you know, over a year. And, uh, at some point you gotta know when to fold ‘em. Am I using that correctly? I’ve never played poker.

Billy: Uh, yeah.

Adrianne: Sounds good to me.

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