Gintendo returns with Japanese gin and Japanese mystery games

I had hoped to stream some Gintendo videos from abroad as I traveled through Japan last week collecting interviews for Retronauts, but that didn't happen; between jet lag, a packed schedule, and the last lingering bits of a cold, I simply wasn't able to. Don't worry, though, because I'm going to make up for the disruption with style. Beginning tomorrow, I will be hosting frequent Gintendo streams featuring the games I picked up while in Tokyo (mostly per Patron request).

I'll kick things off tomorrow at 5 p.m. ET (2 p.m. PT) with a mystery stream:

I will be playing whatever this strange Game Boy cartridge contains. This is a Nintendo Power cartridge, which has nothing to do with the American magazine — rather, it's a blank rewritable cart that you could take to a convenience store kiosk and load up with inexpensive games. The service has long since become defunct, so carts like this one exist as relics of sort, containing whatever games the last owner happened to have downloaded. There are a couple of pretty cool games on this one, according to the label, so hopefully it still works when I plug it in tomorrow. Join me tomorrow to enjoy the surprise.

Also new for this stream: I picked up the legendary Super Game Boy Commander controller for use with Game Boy World (and related streams). The controller I've been using has been a standard Super Famicom controller, which I picked up last time I was in Japan. It was naturally in much better condition than any vintage Super NES controller you're likely to find here in the U.S... but the controller cable is so short that it's difficult to use with my office setup. The Commander has a nice lengthy cable, and it's specifically laid out for use with Game Boy software, so that should be a nice upgrade.

And finally, the gin for the evening will be the very first gin ever distilled in Japan (so far as my research can determine): The Kyoto Distillery's Ki no Bi (as in "the beauty of seasons," not as in Obi-wan Kenobi). It debuted back in October, and obviously, I had to acquire a bottle for Gintendo purposes. Big thanks to Retronauts friend Kyle McLain for helping me to track it down!

You can watch the stream Thursday afternoon here or on the YouTube channel.

http://www.youtube.com/c/JeremyParish/live