Consoles don’t really brag about bit ratings anymore. Growing up with games, the leaps between generations felt profound From 8 Bit to 16 Bit, to 32, to Nintendo 64! It was exciting. The last consoles to even mention it in their marketing were the Dreamcast and the Playstation 2. They were the 128 bit consoles. They were the end of an era.

The same is true for Checkpoints. Episode 128 is the final episode.

This isn't bad news. There will be a special Epilogue episode coming in a week or two where I’ll talk about the reason for the finishing the podcast in much more detail, suffice to say this isn't a sad ending. I'm just sticking the landing.

Appropriately enough my final guest is the creator of the much loved and missed video game podcast A Life Well Wasted, Robert Ashley. Robert was one of the very first people I ever contacted about coming on the show, and I'm delighted that he decided to temporarily come out of video game podcast retirement to talk. As well as A Life Well Wasted, Robert is one half of the amazing I Come to Shanghai, a former video game journalist and of course a GFW radio alum.

We talk about his formative video game experiences in Texan dive bars, how the internet ruined the mysteries and rumours of the arcade, how he invented new ways to play Super Mario Bros, his ultimately fruitless efforts to enjoy Final Fantasy, how an arcade called Einstein’s led to him dropping out of college, and why live events are often the best place to enjoy indie games.

We also talk on his work as a journalist, the time he got into a brawl over Goldeneye, why he’d play Samba di Amigo with death, how Psychonauts still doesn’t get the credit it deserves and of course the history and future (!) of A Life Well Wasted.

Thanks so much to everyone for listening and supporting the show. I have had the best time.

Declan x

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE - SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by Craig Stevenson