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Force Friday II: Toys, Books, Porgs – The Blockade Runner Podcast – September 2nd, 2017

Force Friday II Ep Art

Ryan and John discuss a bounty of Star Wars toys, books, porgs, and more on Saturday, August 2nd (otherwise forever known as the day following Force Friday II!). Join us as we breakdown our pre-Force Friday II expectations, share a bit of footage from the line at our local Toys ‘R Us (video version only), recount our favorite purchases, and even take a quick look at a few interesting pages from some Journey to the Last Jedi books!

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Blockade Runner Pickups: August 21st – August 27

Ryan

The Jedi Master’s Quizbook

After the incredibly entertaining episode of Blast Points, I HAD to get a copy of Rusty Miller’s Star Wars trivia book.

Entertainment Weekly Magazine

I don’t typically buy multiple covers of magazines, but I couldn’t resist with these; they just make such a great pair.

Light week for Star Wars pickups; the calm before the Force Friday II storm… 

John

X-Wing MicroKite

My pickups are pretty light this week as I’m mostly waiting in anticipation for Force Friday II, but I did find a couple of little deals at my local Meijer when I went to look for street date-breaking Last Jedi merch (I didn’t find any…). The asking price on this X-Wing MicroKite was slashed all the way down to a buck, so I thought “why not?” Not sure if I’ll ever use it, but if not, it’ll be a fun thing to pull out of a Star Wars bin full of Star Wars-themed magazines, party favors, and school supplies in 10 years or something.

Force Awakens Folders

IMG_0094At least I think these are from The Force Awakens. They’re certainly not Last Jedi product, so I’m guessing they were designed for this season’s Back to School sales window, and hastily so judging by the questionable font/text choices. I actually sorta hate these, but they features Star Wars images, so I was compelled to buy them, especially at sixty cents apiece.

Autographed Star Wars Stern Pinball Machine Flyer

IMG_0111 2

My brother Jason went to the Star Wars Pinball Party and Toy Store event at Logan Arcade in Chicago last Friday night and was nice enough to grab me this Stern Star Wars Limited Edition table info sheet signed by Stern’s Steve Ritchie! You can find more info on the table here, but it looks amazing and I can’t wait to make the trip into Logan Arcade to scope it out.

IMG_0112 2


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The Power of the 90s – The Blockade Runner Plays The Empire Strikes Back (NES, 1992)

Power of the 90s NES Empire Cover ArtThe Empire Strikes Back on the NES is first up for our Blockade Runner Plays videos for covering 1992 for The Power of the 90s. Our play through covers the first 30 minutes or so and features some ice cold 8-bit gameplay in Hoth’s icy caves, battlefields, and bases.

These pages from the March, 1992 issue of Nintendo Power provided some helpful tips to players getting their hands on Empire when it originally released, but I found them pretty helpful all these years later too. Empire didn’t get the Nintendo Power cover for this issue, but Darth Vader does grace the cover of the November, 1992 magazine (more on that in our next Blockade Runner Plays).

Click the image below for a gallery featuring the Nintendo Power images (or open them individually at full size from there if you’d like a closer look).

I’m also including a pic of the NES cart from Moby Games, but follow the link to their site for more developer and publisher info as well as screen shots, box art, and more.

155108-star-wars-the-empire-strikes-back-nes-media.pngUnfortunately I don’t have the manual on hand to scan, though I did find an advertisement for the Game Boy game (which Ryan grabbed a copy of recently). This version looks like it was published by Capcom in the U.S. and Ubisoft in Europe, but it was also developed by Sculptured Software and is presumably very similar to its NES counterpart.

empirestrikesback_1992NES Empire is definitely worth a look or play if you get the chance, and I definitely enjoyed my time with it, but as far as I’m concerned the Star Wars games main event would follow later in 1992. Stay tuned to our Power of the 90s coverage for 1992 as we’ll be diving into Super Star Wars next!


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Star Wars: The Power of the 90s – 1992 – The Blockade Runner Podcast, August 21st, 2017

Power of the 90s 2 Cover ArtJoin Ryan and John as they discuss all things Star Wars from 1992. We cover the Star Wars books, comics, games, toys, and home video releases from 1992 in this episode, including Dark Empire Rising, The Glove of Darth Vader, The Empire Strikes Back on NES, Super Star Wars on SNES, the letterbox release of the original trilogy, and much, much more! Find more Blockade Runner Power of the 90s coverage by subscribing to our YouTube page or our podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcast app.

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Collectibles from the Outer Rim: Star Wars VHS Releases!

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Discussing Entertainment Weekly’s The Last Jedi Coverage – The Blockade Runner Podcast – August 12th, 2017

EW Last Jedi CoverRyan, John, Dan, and Kevin get together to discuss Anthony Breznican’s incredible coverage this week of The Last Jedi for Entertainment Weekly. We share our reactions, theories, and favorite moments from each of this week’s stories with a heavy emphasis on Luke, Rey, Leia, Chewie, Snoke, Kylo, Caretakers, and PORGS! Ryan and John warm up for the show by discussing a few Last Jedi toy leaks too. Join us for an in-depth discussion with plenty of analysis, insights, and laughs shared between friends!

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The Power of the 90s – The Blockade Runner Plays Star Wars (NES, 1991)

Check out the first 30 minutes or so of Star Wars on the NES in our second (and last) Blockade Runner Plays video for our Power of the 90s series covering 1990/1991. I play from the start of the game up through the first part of the Death Star, so the video provides a pretty solid look at the first third or so of the game.

I’m also including Nintendo Power’s coverage from its September 1991 issue (Volume 28, the rest of which you can read here on archive.org). It’s a fun look at what games coverage, Star Wars or otherwise, was like in 1991 and it’s also super helpful if you want to play some NES Star Wars yourself!

The game’s manual also includes some helpful info as well as some fun graphics and character write ups (Star Wars’s manual can be found at Digital Press’s site which also includes a ton of other game manual scans for numerous consoles). You can also click on the image below to view the entire manual as a pdf.
NES Star Wars ManualYou can also find some information about the hint book mentioned in the video here, or check out this eBay listing for the hint book (which includes a couple of pictures).

I just recently learned that there is a totally sweet tv commercial for the game too. Check out a dastardly Darth Vader taking on a super-heroic mom in this fantastic ad for the game:

While you’re at it, why not check out comedian Mario Cantone (for some reason) shilling for the game on some sort of video game-related tv show:

Finally, check out the Moby Games page for NES Star Wars for more info on the games development and release as well as screenshots from this and other versions of the game if you’re interested in the differences between them that I briefly mentioned in the video.


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Star Wars at San Diego Comic Con 2017 – The Blockade Runner Podcast – July 22nd, 2017

Comic Con 2017 Cover

Ryan and John discuss the toy and book announcements coming out of San Diego Comic Con 2017. We weren’t planning on recording this show ahead of time, but the news from Hasbro and Lucasfilm publishing was too exciting not to talk about! Highlights and links below:

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The Blockade Runner Plays: Star Wars Demolition (PS1)

Ryan plays a few rounds of Star Wars Demolition, a Twisted Metal-style vehicular combat game released on the Playstation and Dreamcast in November of 2000, in our latest Blockade Runner Plays video. This genre was all the rage at the time and (as Ryan discusses in the video) Demolition looks pretty good even if its gameplay is just so-so. Check out the video for the crazy story featuring Jabba’s new, even more dangerous podracing replacement, cool character cameos, and a chance to see some wild Star Wars death race mayhem.


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Star Wars at D23 2017 – The Blockade Runner Podcast – July 15th, 2017

Join us as we discuss all of the news coming out of D23 2017 including The Last Jedi behind the scenes footage, new Battlefront 2 story info, and the reveal of the Galaxy’s Edge parks!

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The Last Jedi

Behind the Scenes Video

Star Wars 8 Post-Credit Scene to Pay Tribute to Carrie Fisher?

Battlefront II

Behind the Story video

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

StarWars.com story

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The Power of the 90s – The Blockade Runner Plays Attack on the Death Star (Sharp X68000, 1991)

Power of the 90s Attack on Death Star Cover Art

Check out some video footage we put together of Attack on the Death Star for the Sharp X68000 as part of our Power of the 90s series. The game was released in Japan in December of 1991 and features an incredible wire-frame style look and some cutting edge (for the time) audio. It’s a super cool game that not many Star Wars fans in the west seem to have experienced, but it’s totally worth checking out either through this video or with your own play-through if you can track it down!