007 - License to Book with Nicolás Suszczyk

Featured Image

Players

Squidge

Jay

Nicolás

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Our Thanks

As Squidge says in the intro:

Squidge

Before we start, we have Jordan Freeman of Zoom Platform to thank for hooking us up today. So thank you, Jordan.

And do go check out Zoom Platform. They hit the ground running in January and have released tons of new games all DRM free, almost every week. They are also the only web-based store front to actually sell Postal One, Two and Three with all the DLCs, even if we don’t talk about Postal Three that much

We’re also grateful to the Zoom Platform folks for hosting this week’s episode on their youTube channel. If you’d prefer to watch this episode rather than listen to it, please feel free to check it out here.

It’s also worth noting that we recorded this episode on GoldenEye 007 before a confirmed release date was put into place for the Nintendo Switch and the Xbox systems.

Show Notes

As is our new tradition, Squidge started the episode off with our new customary intro:

Squidge

From active timer battling to zombie slaying, Waffling Taylors covers video games beyond

This episode saw the boys connecting with author, James Bond fan, and all-round nice person Nicolás Suszczyk

Nicolás

You know, it’s funny because as a kid I used to introduce myself like Bond, but now I’ve grown up and I don’t do it that often, but I’m Nicolás

Nicolás has written a long list of books about James Bond and the effect that the character has had on popular culture; all of which you can find on Amazon. Nicolás had ostensibly joined the show to talk about his most recent (at the time of recording the episode) book: The Golden Games of Bond: A Total Summary and Analysis of the GoldenEye Legacy.

Interestingly, although it isn’t mentioned in the episode

but was in the recording

the topic of the Xbox and Nintendo Switch re-release of GoldenEye 007 didn’t come up in the conversation; but only hours after the recording was finished, Nintendo announced its release date.

The first thing Squidge wanted to know was how Nicolás got into James Bond:

Nicolás

Well, it was 25 years ago or so in was January 1998. Yes, 25 years ago. I remember I was walking on the in my home town here in Argentina and I saw huge billboard of Pierce Brosnan. They were promoting the broadcasting of GoldenEye on TV.

…

I want to see it. And then with my parents, we sat together when it was showing [on TV]. And that was the beginning. I mean, I rewatched the film every time I could on TV. I didn’t have a video cassette player or the Nintendo 64, but whenever I could, I watched the movie on TV and replay the game. And since I couldn’t play the game as much as I wanted when I started watching the film, the more I can and I started reading everything about Bond, buying the books, watching the old films.

…

But the introduction was the Nintendo 64 game actually more than the movie, but the game broke me to the movie. But since I couldn’t play it that often, I focused it more on the film than on the game.

And that, naturally, lead into a conversation about our favourite actors to have portrayed James Bond:

Squidge

Okay, just a quick fire when I had to get in there, of course it wasn’t golden. I the first one I watched. It was the very first one with Sean Connery. For me. It’s Sean Connery. What about you?

Nicolás

Pierce Brosnan

Jay

I don’t know. That’s a tough one. I’m not as big of a fan as the Daniel Craig’s [Bond], personally. I think Daniel Craig is too muscly to be yeah. And it’s a bit too action packed, and the camera work is a bit wobbly. Yeah, I think I’d have to go with Pierce Brosnan as well

But before long, the topic turned to Nicolás’ most recent book and his sources.

Nicolás

Well, let’s say it’s probably one year. I recall writing the first words by early 2021 or so. I continually interrupted it to focus on another project, even another book. So it’s not like I was writing it continually. …

I wanted to be very cautious regarding interviews, mostly because the developers have been telling the same stories for some 20 years and they wanted to bring something new. You know, sometimes it happens.

… I wanted to be the quote and the interview to be functional to the progression of the text and bring something we have never heard before. For example, there’s Adrian Smith, which is one of the developers. He explained to me how he came up with the dead screen [with] the blood coming down.

…

in a movie you can talk about a director or a camera shot and all that, but in a game you have to go more to the point to what it’s the technical aspects, the playability and all that. But thankfully, there was my friend Jack, who helped me a lot, and Jordan, of course, from Zoom Platform who his comments I made the book a lot richer. So did Steve L Kent with the author and he helped me a lot with his experience. So thankfully, I counted with a lot of great people who helped me on these technical aspects.

Jay: we interviewed Steve L Kent in 2021. Just sayin'

Any conversation about Bond has to include a discussion about why he has remained so endearing to consumers, and Nicolás offered the following opinion:

Nicolás

I think Bond represents have confidence that he was frequently described as what every man wants to be and what every woman wants… [Bond movies] deal with a lot of adult fantasies. Driving a car, gambling, hooking up with girls, going to a casino. It’s all things and adult man does

Before recording the episode, the boys had reached out to the community for their thoughts and comments on GoldenEye 007. First up was Malwinius Cyrano Olfram f. York, from over on the Zoom Platform Discord

which you can join here

who prompted a discussion on GoldenEye 007 XBLA (the cancelled and much pirated Xbox Live Arcade remaster). Which was then followed up with a comment from Anthony Sytko

Jay: who we talked with, back in episode 149

Anthony’s full comment didn’t get read out on the episode, but here it is in full:

Anthony

Now, GoldenEye. This was a STAPLE of my freshman year of college (1999-2000). We’d get 5 of us in a room to play it. Whoever came in last had to give up the controller for the next round. If someone was on a hot streak, we’d band together to wreck them - sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Screen watching was strictly verboten, but of course it happened, because we were playing on a 20 inch screen, and you can’t block peripheral vision like that haha.

We’d play until ungodly hours of the morning, ordering Cluck-U at 12:30 AM just to keep going. I don’t remember the names of any of the dudes I played with, but I will never forget those nights.

Proxies in the Library FTW, and RCP90s all day err’day. If we were in the mood, Slappers Only. Lastly, NO ODDJOB! To this day it remains a top tier multiplayer game. Can’t wait to play it again on Switch!.

These show notes only cover about 20% of the content in this episode. Nicolás is a font of Bond knowledge, and you should definitely check out both the full episode (embedded at the top of this page) and his books over on Amazon.

External Links of Interest

• Join our Discord server and be part of future episodes
• Our Facebook page
• Us on Twitter
• Support us on Ko-Fi
• Zoom Platform
• YouTube version of this episode
• Nicolás on the Internet:
  • All of his books on Amazon
  • GoldenEye Dossier
  • Twitter

Music

Links to the music used in the podcast can be found below. Definitely check them out, because they're amazing tracks by awesome musicians.

• Intro music is Massive Scratch - Eight Bit/Chiptune
• Goldeneye 007 - Frigate [16-bit Sega Genesis Chiptune Remix]
• Outro Music is Massive Scratch - Eight Bit/Chiptune