There are many classic gaming podcasts whose original sites have ceased to exist.
Thankfully, in some cases, preservation-minded individuals have uploaded complete mp3 sets of these podcasts to the Internet Archive. But without their original RSS feeds, it’s not easy to listen to them in podcast apps (like Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, or Overcast) and benefit from the features and convenience of these clients.
I’ve laboriously reconstructed the metadata (dates, episode descriptions) for the podcasts below, and generated new RSS feeds that link to the audio files on the Internet Archive. I even remade the cover art in high-resolution! Add the URL to your podcast app of choice, and they should behave like any other podcast (with one obvious exception: there will never be any new episodes).
Please note that some of the products of games media in the 2000s and 2010s have, in a few aspects, aged poorly. Bad audio and technical problems are common in these podcasts. They are sometimes gratuitously sweary, are usually extremely male-dominated, and can occasionally be offensive. They are presented as found. The people featured in them have grown older and wiser in the intervening years and decades.
Nevertheless, there's a rich vein of gold in here for history buffs: live, unfiltered reactions to gaming news from the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era onward, as well as interviews with some of the most prominent developers of the day. And, of course, there's an absolute ton of entertainment here as well; more than one person could ever realistically listen to.
I hope they bring you many hours of enjoyment.
Retronauts (1UP.com)
166 episodes, 2006–2013
The granddaddy of podcasts about old videogames: as close as possible to everything that ever went out on the 1UP feed, with the correct dates and descriptions. The first 100 episodes, various one-shots, and all of the shows from the Live/Prime era (including 'minisode' interviews) leading up to the site's closure. Featuring Jeremy Parish and a rotating panel of regulars and guests.
In 2013, a successful Kickstarter funded the first year of Retronauts as an independent podcast; the show is running weekly to this day.
Files originally uploaded to archive.org by users berniesbc and silentq15.
GameSpot's long-running weekly show offered reactions and commentary on the latest developments in the games industry from the PS2/GameCube/Xbox era through to Skyrim, the PS Vita and the unveiling of the Wii U. The original crew included Rich Gallup, Jeff Gerstmann and Greg Kasavin; the lineup shifted over the years, as did the runtime; starting at a tight <20 minutes, by 2008 the shows were frequently past 90.
Later years of the podcast introduced occasional interviews; interviewees included Todd Howard, Yoshinori Ono and SWERY.
The show switched to video late in its run, but audio versions continued to be released on the feed. All 359 episodes are included here, with the last 29 being audio versions of videos. Some (but not all) of these video episodes can still be found on GameSpot's YouTube channel.
Files originally uploaded to archive.org by user Plexirvones.
97 episodes, 2011–2015 (abridging shows from 1994–2014)
Between 2011 and 2015, Matthew Floratos released a podcast consisting of edited highlights of other long-running podcasts. These labour-intensive edits, which frequently boiled an entire year of output down to a few hours, abridged gaming shows from 1UP and Giant Bomb, radio like This American Life and Loveline, and popular comedy, science, politics and sports shows from podcasting's first decade. The episodes served as instant flavour samples of shows that ran for hundreds of hours.
I've created two feeds for This Year. The first contains the gaming episodes only: 1UP Yours, EGM Live*, GFW Radio, Giant Bombcast, Good Grief/The Oddcast, The HotSpot, Idle Thumbs and Retronauts: in total, over 150 hours of highlights. Also included: the Ryan Davis Summer Jams Memorial, originally released on the Giant Bomb forums.
The second feed contains everything: the episodes from the first feed, alongside NPR and BBC programmes, science, politics, comedy and sports podcasts and all of Floratos' announcements, as well as an episode never released to the feed: the first of three planned edits of The Chris Morris Music Show.
Files originally uploaded to archive.org by the creator.
1UP's RPG podcast, a companion piece to their blog The Grind. Though early episodes were hosted by Jeremy Parish with Kat Bailey as a panelist, the two switched chairs a few episodes in, with Kat taking on host duties; a role she would continue for the next fifteen years through three different RPG podcasts.
Mostly panel discussions on RPGs (old and new, from all countries and on all platforms) with a rotating table of guests. Also featured occasional interviews with the developers of upcoming games.
The show went on hiatus in March 2011 with Kat's departure to GamePro, resuming in May 2012 after she returned to 1UP.
After the demise of 1UP, Kat started another RPG podcast, Axe of the Blood God, for USgamer, adding Nadia Oxford as her co-host a few months in. After that site was shuttered, the podcast continued as an independent patron-funded operation, and—with Eric Van Allen and Victor Hunter added to the roster—is still in weekly production today. The USgamer-produced episodes remain in the free feed.
Files originally uploaded to archive.org by user filgate.
Basically a continuation of Active Time Babble, but for GamePro.com (and latterly PCWorld.com after GamePro's demise). Same host, same topic, same format, some of the same guests. Chronologically, the entire run can be slotted in between episodes 33 and 34 of ATB.
Files originally uploaded to archive.org by user Zero-Crescent.
I’ve followed the iTunes RSS specification in these feeds, and tested them on Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts and Overcast. Between those three, I’m pretty sure the feeds are working as intended. Get in touch by all means, but it isn’t possible for me to take on the burden of testing every app; sorry.
The feed imported, but episodes won't download
It’s possible that archive.org is experiencing downtime, or is blocked in your location, or that the audio files have been taken down or disabled. Please let me know if you think it's the latter. The hosting of the audio files is out of my control, but I can at least update this page to reflect the situation.
How did you reconstruct the metadata?
From Wayback Machine snapshots of the RSS feed, when possible. Otherwise, I pulled dates and descriptions from webpage snapshots, original filenames, old podcast catalogues, etc.
I’ve tried to minimise guesswork, but in some cases it was unavoidable; for example, the feed specification requires an exact date for each episode, and sometimes I couldn’t find a source for that data. In all cases, I've attempted to ensure episodes are, at the very least, arranged in their original release order.
Wouldn’t it be quicker to just throw the files into a feed with boilerplate descriptions and dates?
Sure would. But if I’m going to the trouble of doing this, I’d like to do it properly.
Won’t this kill your transfer quota?
Hopefully not. I’m only serving RSS files and, let’s face it, this vintage gaming podcasts thing doesn’t have universal appeal. But if your podcast client allows it, it’d be cool if you could turn off update polling for these feeds; they’re completely static, and it’d save both your bandwidth and mine.
Can you add Podcast X?
Maybe! More 1UP shows are on the to-do list. Something else in mind? Drop me a message, explain why it’s important (historically or just personally), include a link to an mp3 archive if you know of one, and I’ll take a look when I can.
How do I get in touch with you?
There are Mastodon and Bluesky links on the right side (on desktop) or at the bottom of the page (on mobile).
