In case you haven't heard, Kevin and I started a podcast a month or so ago. A podcast about homebrews by a couple of brewers! It has been a lot of fun, and stems from our shared passion for this hobby. We cover a variety of theoretical topics, feature a central game under review, have guest interviews with folks, and also showcase some music. Write in questions or requests for topics are more than welcome, so send them on in  .

If you feel like checking it out it is available on the Apple and GooglePlay stores.



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Episode Guide:

Episode 1: Battle Kid: What is a homebrew (and what is not!), Battle Kid analysis and review, current happenings at KHan Games, Twin Dragons and Eskimo Bob Kickstarter campaigns, Floating by Zi.

Episode 2: Tailgate Party: How to make an NES game in 2017, peripherals and homebrews, interview/review with Orab Games about Tailgate Party, NESDEV compo 2017 and history of the event, untitled music from an untitled platformer by Derek of Gradual Games.

Episode 3: Starkeeper: The "limitations" of the NES, review of Starkeeper, developer philosophies, current happenings with SGP, the release of retroUSB's Wireless Gamepad, interview with Gradual Games about GGVm, and an untitled track by Memblers that was featured in 0-to-X.

Episode 4: The Mad Wizard: NES homebrew publishers and publishing, review of The Mad Wizard, interview with Rob of Sly Dog Studios about The Mad Wizard, current happenings with KHAN Games (Isolation) and SGP (Family Vacation), the situation of having many projects on the table at once, Eskimo Bob Steam release, Lucky Penguin, the Goofy Foot, and ending music from The Black Box Challenge.

Episode 5: Homebrew World Championships 2012: NES homebrew collecting, review and analysis of Homebrew World Championships 2012 (HBWC), interview with Paul Sergeant, listener questions about ROM releases and post-Nerdy Nights tutorials, Interview with Greg of Retrotainment about Full Quiet, AVS restock, Estoscerro progress, closing music by Sergio Elisondo from A Winner Is You.

Episode 6: Alter Ego: Creative vs technical challenges when making a game, review and analysis of Alter Ego, interview with Kulor (Alter Ego musician), current happenings with KHan Games (Halloween Incident) and SGP (Spook-o'-tron), the question of legally protecting homebrews, interview with Brad Bateman about the NESDev compo, closing music by Kulor.

"Creative vs Technical" community discussion here

Episode 7: Spook-o'-tron: Homebrews and the holidays, review and analysis of Spook-o'-tron, interview with SGP (guest interviewer Orab Games), listener question about desert island games, PRGE recap, other community happenings, and music by someone (Kevin wouldn't tell me, and I have not had the internet to be able to check! quite vexing)

Episode 8 HAUNTED Halloween '85: Finishing old projects versus starting new ones, review and analysis of HAUNTED: Halloween ‘85, interview with Greg and Tim from Retrotainment, what’s been happening with KHAN Games and SGP lately, various KS rewards that have been shipping, Tower Defense 1990, Cowlitz Gamers Second Adventure second batch, SNES-to-NES adapters, Frankengraphics, The New 8-Bit Heroes documentary releases, exit music by HumanThomas: Convenient Chaos (mall theme, HH85)

Bonus Holiday 2017: Join Ferris and Neodolphino as they compete in some homebrew trivia on this end of the year bonus episode. Facts, fun, and plenty oh shenanigans!

Episode 9: Quest Forge: Indie versus homebrew games, review and analysis of Quest Forge: By Order of Kings, interview with Mattias Hakulinen, what's been happening with KHAN Games and SGP, major Lizard update, the Homebrew Player's Competition (HBPC) run by Mega Mario Man, Gradual Games public ROMs and utilities, programming tutorial videos by Xelius, Game genie codes for homebrews, the upcoming Long Island Expo is looking for devs, exit music by Zi (possible upcoming track for something... maybe... someday)

Episode 10: The 2018 NESDev Competition Part 1: General thoughts on the competition, interview with Nathan Tolbert (Robo Ninja Climb), interview with M-Tee (Gruniozerca 2), interview with Brad Bateman (organizer), interview with Dougeff (Jammin' Honey), interview with Toggle Switch (Project Blue), with lots of music from the entries

Episode 11: The 2018 NESDev Competition Part 2: Recap of Part 1, interview with Tomas Guinan (The Alfonzo Project, Alfonzo Melee), discussion of Wolfling, Miedow, and Inherent Smile, interview with Pubby (F-FF, Star Evil), interview with KHan Games (Nothing Good Can Come of This, guest interviewer AaronE), interview with Paul/INL of InfiniteNESLives (organizer), interview with Zutano (Light Shields), closing summary and commentary of the judging results

Episode 12: Lizard: What do we mean when we say "licensed quality" in relation to homebrews, review and analysis of Lizard, interview with Brad Smith, Root Zone track from Lizard, current happenings with SGP and KHan Games, the releases of REKT and Lucky Penguin, NES Start Kit by cppchriscpp, closing music by Frankengraphics.

Episode 13: Micro Mages: Tools and creativity, review and analysis of Micro Mages, interview with Julius and Nicholas of Morphcat Games, world 2 music from Micro Mages, current happenings with SGP and KHan Games, Glutock's wifi NES project, Babel Blox, Nim & Nom, Untitled turn-based strategy game, interview with Chris of Nebs & Debs fame, closing track from Nebs & Debs.

Episode 14: The Incident: Different viewpoints regarding what it means to support the community, review and anaylysis of The Incident by SGP and Tim from Retrotainment, interview with special guess Kevin Hanley, current happenigs with KHan Games and SGP, Battle Kid: Dangerous Trap,  XMAS 2018 development, HH86 now available on XBOX, HD Zapper Kickstarter, Project Blue, closing music from Gradual Games' upcoming release Trophy.

Episode 15: The Legends of Owlia: Recurring topics in the homebrew community over the years, review and analysis of The Legends of Owlia, interview with Derek from Gradual Games, current happenings with KHan Games and SGP, Super Homebrew War, XMAS 2018, ShmupSpeed, The Incident 2 User Data, Galf, closing music from Heosphoros.

Episode 16: 8-Bit XMAS 2018: End of the year recap, review and analysis of retroUSB's 8-Bit XMAS 2018, music by Zi, happenings with KHan Games and SGP, Lizard DOS release, music by Xelius and also an intrerview about his attempts to live stream learning to make NES games, closing track by KHan.

Episode 17: Eskimo Bob: Starring Alfonzo: Homebrew hopes for 2019, review and analysis of Eskimo Bob by Spoony Bard Productions, interview with Tomas Guinan, MagFest 2019, Tower!, NESDev 2018 Compo, Puzzle Game Maker by chriscpp, Wolfling, Nebs & Debs, closing track Nuclear Winter by MiniMacro Sound.

Episode 18: Candelabra: Estoscerro: I don't remember  

Episode 19: NEScape!: Guest co-host Nathan Tolbert, sizes of game and the interesting things about them, NEScape! analysis and review, interview with Kevin from KHan Games, NES Spectrum Marathon, current happenings with SGP, Orange Island, Micro Mages shipping news, XMAS 2019 sneak (n) peek, closing music for an unnamed SGP RPG by HumanThomas.

Loving the 'cast fellas! Q: how do you pick the games to review?

I have listened to each episode as soon as I saw them! Absolutely love it guys. Keep it up!

Who is Kevin? I'm not the in crowd of knowing people by name.   Is that the kevbot guy that does all the homebrew stuff? And made the kill cart?

I'll probably download those tomorrow to help work pass by.

Yep. He did the kill cart and I think the Halloween scare carts.

 

Neat. I'll give them a listen when I can 

Glad to see this thread finally. Really enjoying the podcast.


Don't listen to Kevin. Kevin is the homebrew guy who made the kill cart. Kevin is the homebrew guy who is also one half of The Assembly Line.  

It kind of depends on the week. For the first episode we knew that we wanted to start with a game that many people would recognize: Battle Kid. We were going to do a quick overview of Tailgate Party at the end of the episode, but it was already running long and we figured that Mega Mario Man would be up for an extended discussion. Starkeeper was chosen in order to shed some light onto an amazing game that is hard to find, and therefore relatively unknown. Episode 4 will bounce back to a more recognizeable game  .

Overall, we hope to highlight a bunch of things that have been missed in the community, some of the bigger names, and even upcoming projects. This whole endeavor is also a chance for me to put to use my little homebrew collection and get in some light research, as well as get in some solid play time with them. At times this involves forcing Kevin to beg, borrow, or steal a game from a friend, as was the case with Starkeeper.

All of that to say, there is perhaps less rhyme or reason to the choices than you may think. We pick games that we have really enjoyed playing (and that we think others might too!), or games that have been important to the development of the community in one way or another.

I have been listening to this podcast on my way to work at five in the morning. I approve! Well structured, no awkward pauses, a variety of topics- it's worth a listen to if you have even the slightest amount of interest in homebrew games.

Plus, plenty of community and supporter shoutouts  . Thanks again for letting us borrow your copy of Starkeeper Corey!

My new favorite podcast now. Keep it rockin'!

I eagerly await each new episode. They have all been great so far.

Going back to the most recent episode/battle kid, you mentioned that you wouldn't want to use a keyboard. If I remember correctly, I think Sivak never used a NES controller when developing battlekid.

Updated the OP with the link to the Google Play Music store, if any of you Android people want to listen.  

Otherwise you can just search for The Assembly Line on your favorite podcast listening software.

And I don't have a southern accent dammit.

^ okie.

Jeesh, mod edits! Wanna be po po rent a cops...

Episode IV is now up! Kevin and I take a look at the world of homebrew publishing, review The Mad Wizard, talk with Rob of Sly Dog Studios, detail some of our personal current happenings, discuss some projects like Lucky Penguin and the Goofy Foot controller, feature some excellent music, and more!

This is the first and only podcast I've ever enjoyed. Meanwhile I've got all these coworkers that are major fanboys of Google and Android and such and they're like: "Check out all these work-related podcasts!" And I'm like "GAG ME!" *listens to The Assembly Line!!!*
 

Same here. First and only podcast I have listened to. Great stuff, wish they could manage 1 per week.  

In a perfect world this would be a possibility, but coordinating schedules (especially when we interview someone) and then the fact that it takes close to 6 hours to edit each episode makes that a lofty dream.  
 

I can still dream!
 

One a week!? We would run out of brews to talk about... oh wait, we could just make more  .

I'm with you on that. My friends and coworkers all talk about podcasts they like, but I've never found one (until this) that I've really enjoyed. Good work, guys.

Loving this so far! Wanted to give you a heads up that the audio for Episode #1 on Google Play has a lot of skips in it, though.

Thank you for listening! Yeah, we had some growing pains on episode 1. I believe I apologized in the episode notes for the quality of Beau's audio. We got it straightened out immediately afterwards though. As far as our audio is concerned anyway.  
 

It's great, and I've loved every episode. I don't know why you even apologized for Robs audio, I didn't think it was that bad.