Resurrected Podcasts

There are many classic gaming podcasts whose original sites have ceased to exist.

Thankfully, in many cases, preservationists have uploaded complete sets of these podcasts to the Internet Archive in mp3. But without an RSS feed, 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 apps.

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 made high-resolution cover art. 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).

Feeds coming soon.

It’s not working in my podcast client

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 I can’t download episodes

It’s possible that archive.org is experiencing downtime, or that the audio files have been taken down permanently. Please let me know if that’s the case. 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, where they exist. Otherwise, pulling dates, descriptions, etc. 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.

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 probably doesn’t have broad 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! Drop me a message, explain why it’s important (historically or just personally), include a link to an mp3 archive (if you know of any), and I’ll take a look when I can.

How do I get in touch with you?

Mastodon and Bluesky links are in the sidebar (on desktop) or footer (on mobile).