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The Power of the 90s: 1996 (Shadows of the Empire) – The Blockade Runner Podcast #83

Ryan and John are joined by Jeff “The Metal Mando” Kelts to celebrate all things Shadows of the Empire. Join us for two hours of talk about the Shadows book, comic, game, toys, soundtrack, trading cards, and more!

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The Power of the 90s : 1996 (Everything But Shadows) – The Blockade Runner Podcast #82

Power of the 90s 1996

Join us for our latest Power of the 90s episode devoted to discussing all of the Star Wars books, comics, toys, and content released in 1996. Well, everything besides one notable giant multimedia project spanning all of those mediums that we’ll cover on our next episode (yes, it features Prince Xizor, Dash Rendar, IG-88, and a whole lot of pheromones).

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Star Wars: The Power of the 90s (1994) – The Blockade Runner Podcast #70

Power of the 90s 1994 Cover Art

Ryan and John return to the 90s to discuss all of the Star Wars books, comics, games, and merchandise releases from 1994. Join us as we look at:

  • Books: The Jedi Academy Trilogy, The Courtship of Princess Leia, The Crystal Star, A Guide to the Star Wars Universe (2nd Edition), The Art of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, and West End Games’s The Last Command Sourcebook and Star Wars Adventure Journals #1
  • Comics: Droids, Classic Star Wars, Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures, and Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith
  • Games: Super Return of the Jedi and Tie Fighter
  • Plus: The inaugural issue of Star Wars Insider and the start of The Phantom Menace pre-production!

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Star Wars: The Power of the 90s (1993) – The Blockade Runner Podcast – February 11th, 2018

Power of the 90s 1993 Cover Art

Ryan and John return to the 90s to discuss all of the Star Wars books, comics, games, and merchandise releases from 1993. Join us as we look at

  • Books: The Last Command, The Truce at Bakura, Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas, and the West End Games sourcebooks from 1993
  • Comics: The Dark Empire trade paperback and Tales of the Jedi: The Knights of the Old Republic #1-#3
  • Games: X-Wing, Rebel Assault, Super The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars Chess
  • Plus: The George Lucas Super Live Adventure, The Star Wars Trilogy: The Original Soundtrack Anthology, and more!

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Rian Johnson’s New Star Wars Trilogy & Live Action Star Wars TV Show Announced Plus Battlefront II! – The Blockade Runner Podcast – November 18th, 2017

Rian Johnson Trilogy Cover

Ryan and John discuss Rian Johnson’s new Star Wars Trilogy, Lucasfilm’s live action Star Wars tv show, and our time so far with Battlefront 2! We consider what’s most likely for the trilogy and tv shows before jumping into what we’d actually like to see. Plus Ryan shares his impressions of the Battlefront 2 campaign and we share our take on the EA/Battlefront 2 micro transactions controversy.

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StarWars.com: Rian Johnson To Create All-New Star Wars Trilogy

MarketWatch: Disney to Charge “Substantially” Less Than Netflix for Streaming, Plans New Star Wars Content

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Battlefront 2 Beta & Recent Books/News – The Blockade Runner Podcast – October 7th, 2017

EW Last Jedi CoverRyan and John discuss the Battlefront 2 beta in the latest episode of The Blockade Runner. We chat about all of the content in this week’s beta release, including the playable maps, modes, classes, and characters. We also lament how terrible we are at the game but share our hopes for improving through the experience of playing the single player mode.

After we wrap up the Battlefront 2 discussion, we move on to covering the latest Star Wars books releases as well as touch on our feelings toward J.J. Abrams directing Episode IX and speculate about the now confirmed Last Jedi trailer release on Monday night.

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Part One (Battlefront 2 Beta)

Battlefront 2 Small

Part Two (Recent Books & News)

Leia Small

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The Power of the 90s – The Blockade Runner Plays Super Star Wars (SNES, 1992)

Power of the 90s Super Star Wars Cover Art

The Super Star Wars games were super popular upon their release and they played a significant role in bringing a new generation of kids into Star Wars at the time, so I’m thrilled to be playing them for our Power of the 90s series. The games are known for their sometimes brutal difficulty, and that’s certainly part of what I remember about them, but after revisiting Super Star Wars with my copy of Volume 42 of Nintendo Power by my side and exploiting a secret free life-farming area, I had a surprisingly smooth experience playing through the game. And it’s absolutely worth tracking down Super Star Wars (even if you don’t have nostalgic memories of playing as a kid) for it’s bright, colorful visual interpretation of the Star Wars universe, it’s 16-bit renditions of classic Star Wars themes, and its giant green womp rats! Check out the videos below to watch my recent playthrough of the game with Star Wars in the 90s-focused commentary.

The Blockade Runner Plays Super Star Wars – Part One:

The Blockade Runner Plays Super Star Wars – Part Two:

The Blockade Runner Plays Super Star Wars – Part Three:

The Story of A New Hope As Told By Super Star Wars SNES (1992):

It occurred to me while recording my playthrough of Super Star Wars that the story screens are so impressive that they would be fun to break out and cut together as their own video. It actually reminds me of reading a children’s picture book version of A New Hope, only with excellent 16-bit visuals and sound!

Nintendo Power:

 

Super Star Wars TV Commercial:  

In case you were wondering if you want this game or not (you do), check out this sweet television ad from the time of the game’s release!

We’ll be back later this month with our Power of the 90s episode cover all things Star Wars in 1993, and we’ll definitely be posting our playthrough for Super The Empire Strikes Back too! Whether or not we can beat the game remains to be seen…


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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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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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