Tales from the Backlog - Episodes Tagged with “Sega”

198: Crazy Taxi (with Darren Hupke - Pixels & Polygons)

Dave Jackson — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0500

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In the midst of so many games and podcasts with heavy story themes, sometimes it's nice to just play a video game-ass video game. And so here we have Crazy Taxi (Sega, 2000), plowing through a bunch of mailboxes on its way to the podcast schedule. This is a seminal game, especially for Dreamcast owners and arcade-goers, that I had somehow never played before. So what was it like playing for the first time in 2025? Listen in to find out!

Guest info: Darren Hupke (he/him)

Find all of Darren's work https://pixelsandpolygons.net/
Follow on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/darrenhupke.bsky.social

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Title Card
0:11 Introductions
4:05 Our Histories with Crazy Taxi
9:56 Opening Thoughts About Crazy Taxi
13:50 Game Setup
23:34 Crazy Box Mode and Advanced Maneuvers
31:26 Sense of Humor, Future Crazy Taxis and Soundtrack
43:39 Real Life Crazy Taxis and Product Placement
49:40 Closing Thoughts and Recommendations
55:00 Darren's Books and Pixels & Polygons
1:00:31 Announcements and Patron Thank-Yous

Music used in the episode: All I Want (The Offspring), Ten in 2010 (Bad Religion), Change the World (The Offspring)

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Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://linktr.ee/JackAllenCaricatures

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155: Shenmue (with Luis Aguasvivas)

Dave Jackson — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 00:00:00 -0500

I remember reading about Shenmue (AM2 of CRI, Sega, 2000) in the magazines back in the day and really marveling at how cool it all sounded- a revenge/investigation story, a town with characters that live their own lives outside of interacting with you, life in small-town Japan...but I didn't have a Dreamcast, so I never got to play it and eventually forgot about it as everyone else seemed to move on too. But over the past 5 years, I've also become a huge fan of the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series, and I eventually decided it was finally time to play Shenmue. Listen in to the discussion to hear what we think!

Guest info: Luis Aguasvivas. Find his writing and games criticism at https://aguaspoints.com/ and more at https://linktr.ee/laguav

TIMESTAMPS

Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 0:22
Story Setup/Setting 14:37
Gameplay/Closing Thoughts 39:51
SPOILER WALL/Thank Yous 1:16:24

Music used in the episode

Shenmue - Sedge Tree (Takenobu Mitsuyoshi)
Hip De Hop (Yuzo Koshiro)
Working Man (Osamu Murata)
Hazuki Residence (Takenobu Mitsuyoshi)
Tears of Separation (Ryuji Iuchi)

Check out Dave's appearance on 1 Hour, 1 Decision talking about the first hour of Avowed! https://linktr.ee/tc1h1d

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Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages

Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)!

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34: Yakuza: Like a Dragon (with Rick Firestone - Pixel Project Radio)

Dave Jackson — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 00:00:00 -0400

Dave is joined by Rick Firestone from Pixel Project Radio to discuss Ryu Ga Gotoku's refresh of the Yakuza franchise. Yakuza: Like a Dragon brings a new protagonist and turn-based combat into the franchise, so tune in to find out how Rick and Dave feel about it.

TIMESTAMPS:
Intro, Personal Histories and Opening Thoughts 0:26
Story Setup 13:34
Combat 47:37
Side Content and Final Thoughts 1:19:28
Spoiler Wall 1:41:15

Find Pixel Project Radio on Twitter, Instagram, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts!

[Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon!](patreon.com/realdavejackson) or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi!
Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server!
Social Media:
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook
Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages

Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)!

Support Tales from the Backlog