Allen's Gaming History (Extended Mix) [September 2026]

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Welcome to Gaming History (Extended Mix)! This is a video series that serves as an "extended" version of #MonarchyGamingHistory, a regular segment on the Tuesday (tech news) edition of the Morning Monarchy radio show (hosted by James E. Pilato of Media Monarchy). 

If you like this content and the other work that I do (Pokémon ROM hack walkthroughs, DJ sets, manga/comic book podcasts, Weekend Bonus Stage and more), you can support me from here https://mrtkallen.blogspot.com/2023/09/support.html

If you're new here and need to catch up...


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Sunday 6 September 2026



Episode 15: OutRun 40th Anniversary

40 years ago last week, on 4 September 1986, Sega released OutRun for arcades in Japan.

Watch on the Internet Archive


00 Hiroshi Kawaguchi - Magical Sound Shower [OutRun]

01 OutRun Arcade 1986 (Japanese version) [Jamess Cornejo]

02 Out Run (Arcade) - Video Game Years 1986 [Pat the NES Punk]

03 Megadrive OUTRUN Japanese Commercial Video アウトラン [Trader Games]

04 The Out Run Story [Little Car]

05 -OutRun segment, 8 Minutes In- Yu Suzuki Interview [ACMI Collection]

06 OutRun - Arcade Review | How to Retro [How to Retro]

07 -First 6 Minutes- Icons S2E04 Yu Suzuki [Unimportant Entertainment]

08 OutRun: Top 5 Things You Didn't Know [Scarflix]

09 -First 15 Minutes- The History of Outrun - 2025 edition - アウトラン - arcade console documentary - Remastered [PatmanQC - History of arcade game documentaries]

09.5 Hiroshi Kawaguchi - Passing Breeze [OutRun]

10 -Snippet- Out Run Series - Review - Game Sack [Game Sack]

11 -Snippet- Yu Suzuki And His Classic Games - Which Way Games [Sy Retro]

12 -Snippet- Out Run: The Complete History | SEGA's most iconic driving game - SGR [Slope's Game Room]

13 -Snippet- OutRun Game Evolution (1986 - 2009) [Game Evolution]

10 (Ending theme) Hiroshi Kawaguchi - Last Wave [OutRun]

Apologies for the super late posting of this episode, it would've come out on Friday if we didn't have one of those really busy weeks here. Busy at work and busy at home because there was a house guest that had to be looked after until they left yesterday. Also, I do have to apologise for the minor dip in audio quality. I ran the original video file (which was over 2GB) through two different video compression programs: the first program kept the audio quality well enough but the visuals looked a bit squashed. The second program maintained the visuals but the audio has that little telltale sign of a file that has been compressed, especially when you hear the Out Run songs. The dip doesn't spoil the episode but I just wanted to let you know, especially those of you with good ears for sound quality.

Out Run was just a few years before my time and as I've tried to recall to my arcade venturing days in the early 90's, I can't remember if I saw the game in either of places I would visit. It could've been there but I just didn't play it. But I do appreciate the influence that it had on racing and driving games which came years later such as Need For Speed and Gran Turismo that I did have a chance to play. I couldn't find any video interviews with Kawaguchi, those would've been a nice addition because I wanted to hear him talk about putting together the game's amazing soundtrack. I like jazz so I'll be sure to search for that jazz album mentioned in the Scarflix video which the Out Run team had to listen to, maybe some of those songs will make it into a future #SoulfulSunday set 😎

**Honourable Watchables**

Best Video Game Creator: Yu Suzuki's interview with english subtitles [Actu, sport, musique et jeux video !!!]

OutRun (1986) Retrospective | SEGA Talk Podcast [SEGAbits]

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Wednesday 9 September 2026


Episode 16: Wonder Boy & Adventure Island 40th Anniversaries

40 years ago, on 21 April 1986, Wonder Boy (developed by Escape and published by Sega) was released for arcades in Japan. Hudson Soft was tasked with developing a port of the game and on 12 September 1986 this port was released as Adventure Island on the Nintendo Family Computer and the ASCII Corporation's MSX video game systems.

Watch on Substack
Watch on Rumble


00 Jun Chikuma - Title Theme (Hudson's Adventure Island)

01 Wonder Boy Arcade Version Intro - 1986 - Retro Gaming [Arcada]

02 Wonder Boy - Classic Arcade Game - Retrospective & Review [Classic Arcade]

03 -First 4 Minutes- The Making of Wonder Boy / Monster World [strafefox]

04 -First 6 Minutes- The History of the Wonder Boy Franchise - Arcade console documentary [PatmanQC - History of arcade game documentaries]

05 -Area 1 Round 1- Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima (Adventure Island) [NES] játékmenet (gameplay) 1. rész [Retro Játékos / Retro Gamer]

06 Adventure Island - TV commercial 1 (Japanese) [PyoroX]

07 Adventure Island (NES, 1988) - Video Game Years History [Pat the NES Punk]

08 Adventure Island (NES) - Angry Video Game Nerd - NES Marathon Exclusive [Pat the NES Punk]

09 Adventure Island - 1986 Alternative Japanese NES Commercial [Daniel-san SV]

10 CGR Undertow - TAKAHASHI MEIJIN NO BOUKEN JIMA review for Famicom [CGRundertow]

11 -First 4 Minutes- Story Breakdown: Hudson's Adventure Island Series - Defunct Games [Defunct Games]

12 -First 5 Minutes- Adventure Island Has a BIG Localization Problem... [Thane Gaming]

13 -First 10 Minutes- Wonder Boy vs Adventure Island - Review - Game Sack [Game Sack]

14 Takahashi Meijin: Adventure Island model toy [famicomchannel]

Ending theme: Jun Chikuma - Ending Theme (Hudson's Adventure Island)

This was going to be an episode just about Adventure Island since its anniversary is coming up in a few days, but as I was watching these videos about the game I'm finding out about this other game Wonder Boy and learning that Adventure Island was meant to be a port of it for the Famicom. I had never even heard of Wonder Boy before so after learning more about it I thought it would be best to showcase both games since they are so connected and both came out in the same year just a handful of months apart.

For the Konami Classics episode Show Notes I mentioned a 56-in-1 TV Game cartridge that I had many, many years ago and that it included games like The Goonies and Circus Charlie. Adventure Island was also on that cartridge, one of the games which were listed on the first selection screen alongside Super Mario Bros., Hokuto no Ken/Fist of the North Star, Contra, Legend of Kage, Battle City and others that I can't remember now. Adventure Island stood out because of the music, the island setting and this cap-wearing guy whose name I didn't know (at the time I just called him Islander 😂) but I cared enough to want to see where his journey will take him. Fun game, but challenging as well and yet I still kept coming back for more, even though I never finished Adventure Island during that TV Game era. I did finish it many years later on an emulator, one of MANY old games that I aim to get back to and finish...someday.

**Honourable Watchables**

Evolution of Wonder Boy games (1986-2021) [EvolGam]

Wonderboy / Monsterworld review retrospective [strafefox]

Every Wonder Boy Game [Reviewed] [NeverChris]

Wonder Boy (1986) - Sega's Arcade Hit | Video Games Over Time [ballerscuba]

Hudson's Adventure Island & Milon's Secret Castle retrospective: The Hudson proxy | NES Works #087 [Jeremy Parish | Video Works]

Famidaily - Episode 0140 - Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima/Adventure Island (高橋名人の冒険島) [RndStranger]

Adventure Island Retrospective: The NES Original and its Revivals [Thane Gaming]

Evolution of Adventure Island games (1986-2009) [EvolGam]

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Saturday 12 September 2026


Episode 17: Crash Bandicoot 30th Anniversary

30 years ago this week, on 9 September 1996, Crash Bandicoot (developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment) was released for the Sony PlayStation in North America.

Watch on BitChute
Watch on the Internet Archive
Watch on Substack


01 -N. Sanity Beach- Crash Bandicoot | Longplay | Gameplay Walkthrough | No Commentary (PS1) [Virtual Game Collection]

02 Crash Bandicoot Ad from 1996 [SeansShowStudios]

03 Crash Bandicoot - Trailer 1996 [konzolista]

04 CGRundertow CRASH BANDICOOT for PlayStation Video Game Review [CGRundertow]

05 Crash Bandicoot as PlayStation Mascot TV Commercial 1 for PlayStation - PS1 - PSX - 1996 [Echoes of PlayTime]

06 -Snippet- E3 1996 Showfloor [Crash Bandicoot, Sonic X-Treme, Mario Kart 64 and more] [NeoGamer - The Video Game Archive]

07 -1 Minute in- Sony PlayStation E3 Satellite Feed, May 16, 1996 [Game Zero]

08 -First 5 Minutes- What's So Great About Crash Bandicoot - A New Age of Platforming [What'sSoGreatAboutGaming]

09 Crash Bandicoot for Playstation One Commercial (1996) [augustv123]

10 -7 Minutes in (6 Minutes)- G4 Icons Episode #34: Naughty Dog [G4Icons]

11 Crash Bandicoot (Dance) (Long) Japanese Commercial [83Chrisaaron]

12 -Jungle Rollers (4 Minutes)- Crash Bandicoot - E3 Demo - 1996 [FenderXT]

13 Sony PlayStation - Bandicoot in the Hood [Foulowe59]

14 -First 5 Minutes- Crash Bandicoot review - ColourShed [ColourShed]

15 -First 3 Minutes- [Old] Crash Bandicoot - Did You Know Gaming? Feat. Caddicarus [DidYouKnowGaming]

16 -6 Minutes in (6 Minutes)- Crash Bandicoot: How Naughty Dog Changed the Course of PlayStation and American Video Games [GTV Japan]

17 Crash Bandicoot as PlayStation Mascot TV Commercial 2 for PlayStation -PS1 - PSX - 1996 [Echoes of PlayTime]

18 -First 5 Minutes- CRASH BANDICOOT - An Icon Decline [Good Blood]

19 -4 Minutes in (5 Minutes)- How Crash Bandicoot Hacked The Original Playstation | War Stories | Ars Technica [Ars Technica]

20 -First 4 Minutes- E3 Coliseum: Crash Bandicoot Reunion [gameslice]

Ending theme: Josh Mancell - Main Menu theme [Crash Bandicoot]

When I think of the PS1 (whether it's the original design or the slim design), Crash Bandicoot is one of the games that comes to mind and I go back in time to the late 90's because that's when I first saw and played on a PS1. One of my next door neighbours in 1999 had a PS1 and games such as Jumping Flash, Spyro, Tomb Raider, plus demos of Tomba and a fighting game called Zero Divide. As someone who had only played games on a TV Game console, at the arcades and on old Windows desktops, and watched shows like Video Power, the PS1 was quite the shock to system. By the time the 2000's rolled in, those arcades which I would frequent in the early 90's were gone and instead the new arcades which were around had PS1 and later on PS2 consoles. It was at one of these arcades where I found Crash Bandicoot (they didn't have the first game, they had Warped). Just like Jumping Flash and Spyro, I had fun playing Crash Bandicoot: Warped because it wasn't too complicated to pick up and learn (which might explain why it was among the popular games at the arcade, along side Tekken 3). I lost track with the rest of the games in the series as the years went by (there were always other games to be found and played) so I didn't know about what happened with Naughty Dog and other developers working on the other games until all these years later. 

**Honourable Watchables**

Crash Bandicoot Co-Creator Andy Gavin: Extended Interview | Ars Technica [Ars Technica]

Crash Bandicoot Games with Caddicarus - Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN) [Cinemassacre and Caddicarus]

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Tuesday 15 September 2026


Episode 18: Tekken 2 & X-Men vs. Street Fighter 30th Anniversaries

30 years ago in Japan, Namco released Tekken 2 on 29 March 1996 for the Sony PlayStation and several months later on 9 September 1996 Capcom released X-Men vs. Street Fighter for arcades.

Watch on YouTube
Watch on Substack


01 Tekken 2 - Game Soundtrack - Intro Movie [Yukiko]

02 Tekken 2 (PSX) Longplay - Kazuya Playthrough [Darius320]

03 -First 5 Minutes- Tekken 2 PlayStation Review [PSX Gaming Memories]

04 Tekken 2 Japanese Commercial [83Chrisaaron]

05 -First 10 Minutes- Tekken 2 - A Retrospective On The Second Coming [LarsJinn]

06 Tekken 2 "The Greatest Fighting On Earth" (Sony PlayStation\PSX\PSone\Commercial) 4K [RGTV]

07 -11 Minutes in, 1 Minute- The Godfather of 3D Fighting Games – Seiichi Ishii [〚Mild Conviction〛]

08 X Men VS Street Fighter Trailer [MMSTHfanatic]

09 -First 3 Minutes- X-Men vs. Street Fighter (PlayStation 4) Arcade as Ryu/Cyclops [TheInnocentSinful]

10 -First 8 Minutes- X-Men vs. Street Fighter 25 Years Later [Shacknews]

11 -First 5 Minutes- X-Men vs. Street Fighter: Arcade vs PS1 vs Saturn Comparison [RetroPort]

12 X-Men Vs. Street Fighter - Official Arcade Trailer | Summer of Gaming 2020 [IGN]

13 -First 5 Minutes- X-Men vs. Street Fighter Arcade1Up Review | MichaelBtheGameGenie [MichaelBtheGameGenie]

14 -First 5 Minutes- How X-Men vs. Street Fighter Revolutionized Fighting Games | Full Documentary [Retro Reload]

14.5 Ending theme 1: Namco Sound Team - "Almost Frozen" (Anna stage theme) [Tekken 2]

15 Tekken 2, Playstation (Namco, 1996) UK TV ad [Transmit Him]

16 Ending theme 2: Namco Sound Team - "Silent Assassin" (Nina stage theme) [Tekken 2]

As you can tell from the Show Notes above, there wasn't a whole lot as far as major non-YouTuber reviews go. I found a couple of reviews from Classic Game Room, this one for Tekken 2 and this one for XMvSF's Sega Saturn port. I've enjoyed CGR's reviews but this time I thought the Tekken 2 review was terrible (less of a solid review and more of, "Let me pepper the review with more talk about what I was doing in college around the time Tekken 2 was fresh) and I didn't feature the other review because this episode is about the arcade version (it turns out the Sega Saturn port came out over a year later anyway). 

I've only played XMvSF once - outside a restaurant that we had stopped at while on holiday in South Africa sometime in the 2000's. The arcade cabinet was just standing out there, waiting for any would-be challengers and that one lucky day I happened to be in the area 😂. I had been a fan of X-Men thanks to the 90's cartoon and I was familiar with Street Fighter thanks to one of the local arcades back in the 90's having Street Figher 2. So it was really cool to find this crossover game and even if it was for a few minutes, to play as and against some familiar characters.

As for Tekken 2, I have Tekken 5 to thank for it. It is 20 years this year since I received my original PAL PS2 as birthday gift. It came bundled with Tekken 5, Gran Turismo 4 and either my dad or uncle decided to through in an extra game in the form of WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2006. Myself, my brother and our friends spent a lot of time with Tekken 5 and SvR and eventually in Tekken 5 we unlocked Tekken 2 and it was a nice little surprise. This wasn't my first meeting with a Tekken game, I had become aware of the series through Tekken 3 a few years before at one of the newer arcades (same arcade which had Crash Bandicoot 3, Star Wars Episode 1, Men in Black and other games). What drew me in was the characters and their stories around the King of Iron Fist Tournament, they were interesting enough and that made playing through Arcade Mode worth it because we wanted to see each character's ending or the interactions with other characters before fights.  

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