Retro Ridoctopus

In what might be our longest episode ever, we welcome back one half of the Throwdown Thursday Podcast (the great Ashes Von Nightmare) to talk about some of our favorite movies that feature fictional bands! After a STONEHENGE-sized presentation on the one that started it all, Rob Reiner's seminal classic THIS IS SPINAL TAP, we move onto 8 other films that are also GONNA ROCK YOU (tonight). We've got everything from outright comedies to hard-hitting Oscar-winning dramas. Some of these flicks have full soundtracks by their "fake bands" and others only a track or two. Does the cast sing and play their instruments? Who did the writing? Make no mistake, while the bands are all made up... this ROCK AND ROLL is as real as it comes! \,,/ And if horror and indie films are your idea of a good time... check out the what Ashes came to promote, the Dead of Winter Festival coming to Worcester, Massachusetts Feb. 21st & 22nd 2026! NOTE: This episode is dedicated to the wonderful Catherine O'Hara, who passed just hours after this recording. Our hearts were not ready and are thoroughly broken. #RIPCatherineOhara #SpinalTap #ThisIsSpinalTap #ThatThingYouDo #Airheads #AMightyWind #AlmostFamous #2gether #StillCrazy #Rockstar #SteelDragon #Stillwater #StrangeFruit #TheFolksmen #MickeyandMitch #TheWonders RETRO RIDOCTOPUS is ----------------------------------- "Parasite Steve"...... AKA Steve Van Samson (read) "8-Bit Alchemy "...... AKA Tim Krikorian (listen) "Coopster Gold"...... AKA Justin Cooper (subscribe) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is a proud member of The Dorkening Podcast Network and is brought to you by Deadly Grounds Coffee. Podcast intro and all heavy metal interstitials by Enchanted Exile.

Back in the BRIG is a 10-time Amazon/Audible best selling author of the long running post apocalyptic zombie mega hit series ADRIAN'S UNDEAD DIARY and much much more! This time, Chris is here to chat about his brand new smash hit LitRPG novel AN UNDEAD GLITCH! This one takes the zombie apocalypse and makes it digital, via an incredibly well realized (sadly fictional) game environment. Think "Dungeon Crawler Carl" or "Ready Player One", but with ZOMBIES and tons of crude humor! What's extra cool is that the audio book for An Undead Glitch is a Retro Ridoctopus co-production—featuring engineering and narration by Parasite Steve and original retro game style music and sound effects by 8-Bit Alchemy! Expect plenty of talk on all of that, plus a discussion of our favorite glitches in gaming. Oh yeah... and WE HAD A CONTEST, which Chris graciously chooses the winners for!! SPOILER ALERT...(everyone is a winner). SHUBIBIN!! RETRO RIDOCTOPUS is ----------------------------------- "Parasite Steve"...... AKA Steve Van Samson (read) "8-Bit Alchemy "...... AKA Tim Krikorian (listen) "Coopster Gold"...... AKA Justin Cooper (subscribe) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is a proud member of The Dorkening Podcast Network and is brought to you by Deadly Grounds Coffee. Podcast intro and all heavy metal interstitials by Enchanted Exile.

This week, things are gonna get a little MESSY, as we welcome back a true comic book expert. In the virtual studio is artist Derek Rook, (from Rough House Publishing) to talk about his newest book and horror comics as a whole! After a excruciatingly cool expose on the brand new issue of GORE SHRIEK RESURRECTUS, we go on to spotlight from the 60s, 80s, 90s... all the way up to today! Expect some serious GUSHING about the characters, creators, titles and story lines that left their marks on us. Get your copy of GORE SHRIEK RESURRECTUS Vol. 3 at the Rough House Publishing website! #Hellboy #SwampThing #DeadWorld #JuniIto #BlackestNight #HorrorComics RETRO RIDOCTOPUS is ----------------------------------- "Parasite Steve"...... AKA Steve Van Samson (read) "8-Bit Alchemy "...... AKA Tim Krikorian (listen) "Coopster Gold"...... AKA Justin Cooper (subscribe) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is a proud member of The Dorkening Podcast Network and is brought to you by Deadly Grounds Coffee. Podcast intro and all heavy metal interstitials by Enchanted Exile.

Having worked for Bally Midway in the 1980s, game designer / artist / animator Brian F. Colin has created and worked on more classic arcade games than you can shake a giant mutant wolfman at! RAMPAGE, XENOPHOBE, ARCH RIVALS, PIGSKIN 621ad, GENERAL CHAOS and RAMPAGE WORLD TOUR, just to name a few! Brian infused each of these games with the sardonic wit of MAD Magazine, while ensuring each of these games pushed the limits of what had been created. These were titles that broke new ground and resonated with audiences of the day and are remembered fondly by classic gamers! Brian shares a metric ton of stories from his decades in the industry and dishes all about his upcoming Kickstarter: GENERAL CHAOS - MAJOR SNAFU! The Long-awaited Sequel to the hilarious Squad-based, RTS Sega Genesis Battlegame! General Chaos - Major Snafu is in Pre-Launch now and you should definitely sign up to be notified when the campaign launches! RETRO RIDOCTOPUS is ----------------------------------- "Parasite Steve"...... AKA Steve Van Samson (read) "8-Bit Alchemy "...... AKA Tim Krikorian (listen) "Coopster Gold"...... AKA Justin Cooper (subscribe) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is a proud member of The Dorkening Podcast Network and is brought to you by Deadly Grounds Coffee. Podcast intro and all heavy metal interstitials by Enchanted Exile.

Season 8 begins in the wake of tragedy, as we lovingly celebrate a truckload of our favorite Rob Reiner films! From tense courtrooms, to the Cliffs of Insanity and the thousand laughs and tears in between, we each picked two movies Rob directed and try our best to put into words what these true classics have meant to us over the years. #afewgoodmen #theprincessbride #princessbride #ghostsofmississippi #robreiner #standbyme #asyouwish #youcanthandlethetruth RETRO RIDOCTOPUS is ----------------------------------- "Parasite Steve"...... AKA Steve Van Samson (read) "8-Bit Alchemy "...... AKA Tim Krikorian (listen) "Coopster Gold"...... AKA Justin Cooper (subscribe) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is a proud member of The Dorkening Podcast Network and is brought to you by Deadly Grounds Coffee. Podcast intro and all heavy metal interstitials by Enchanted Exile.

All tentacles are in the air as we reflect on and celebrate another successful season of the Retro Ridoctopus cephalopodcast! After copious amounts of reminiscing over another amazing year, we dive into our annual final topic. Like every year, we asked you for voice mails, giving your quick reviews of a classic movie you watched for the first time this year. Every single year, this block gets longer and longer and season 7 was no exception. Thank you for coming out in droves to be a part of the show and for helping to make Retro Ridoctopus what it is. But listener beware... for lurking within this finale is the startling HORCHATA SCARE OF 2025... SHUBIBIN!!! --------------------------------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is a proud member of The Dorkening Podcast Network "Parasite Steve", AKA Steve Van Samson (read) "8-Bit Alchemy " AKA Tim Krikorian (listen) "Coopster Gold" AKA Justin Cooper (subscribe) --------------------------------------------------------------- Intro and all heavy metal interstitials by Enchanted Exile \

If your purple tentacles are tingling, that might just be because our pal Nintenjoe joined us for NUMEROUS playthroughs of the classic LucasArts point and click adventure game Maniac Mansion! Seriously, this one has a ton of different ending and we got almost all of em! So watch out for falling meteors and get that hamster in the microwave because things are about to get WEIRD. ---------------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is: • Parasite Steve (read) • 8-Bit Alchemy (listen) • Coopster Gold (party) • Nintenjoe (subscribe) ---------------------------------------------- All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile

For our last regular episode of season 7, we are talking about a childhood experience everyone out there can relate to. Sitting down with a big box of crayons and a coloring book! With the help of guest host Christine (AKA Mrs. Parasite), we'll share a bit of history on the Crayola company before diving into some colorful childhood memories revolving around crayons. Get ready for some personal coloring techniques and a run down of our favorite and least favorite #Crayola crayon colors of all time. Then, after the Octoponder, we expand the discussion into numerous other ways we were able to play with color. Things like markers, colored pencils, water color paint and much much more! ---------------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is: • Parasite Steve (read) • 8-Bit Alchemy (listen) • Coopster Gold (party) • Nintenjoe (subscribe) ---------------------------------------------- All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile

Tonight, in the BRIG, we are thrilled to welcome back an incredible guest from all the way across the pond! Simon Bestwick is an accomplished as well as prolific British contemporary horror author, whose acclaimed work includes the novels Black Mountain, Hell’s Ditch, The Devil’s Highway and Wolf’s Hill as well as numerous short short collections such as 2020’s “And Cannot Come Again: Tales of Childhood, Regret, and Innocence Lost”. Chalking up no less than 4 British Fantasy award nominations (so far), Simon’s work has been described as ‘Brilliant’ by the Guardian and ‘among the most important writers of contemporary British horror’ and he's here to chat about his newest book (as Daniel Church)... The Sound of the Dark! Also expect plenty of chatter about Simon's love for Doctor Who and his favorite schlocky paperbacks and obscure 80s horror flicks. Prepare to walk away with some serious recommendations to check out! Pick up the new Daniel Church book THE SOUND OF THE DARK, today! ---------------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is: • Parasite Steve (read) • 8-Bit Alchemy (listen) • Coopster Gold (party) • Nintenjoe (subscribe) ---------------------------------------------- All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile

It's time to play the music... It's time to light the lights... It's time to meet the Muppets on Ridoctopus Tonight! You host of the moment Coopster Gold has a backstage pass to the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational show around! For this episode, we celebrate some of our favorite all time characters from Jim Henson's The Muppets! We're talking Frogs, Pigs, Dogs and all the wacky Whatevers in between! And later on, 8-bit Alchemy delivers a Muppetational installment of his long running music-focused segment, Compose Yo'Self! YAAAAAAAYYY!!!!! ----------------------------------------Retro Ridoctopus is:• Parasite Steve (read)• 8-Bit Alchemy (listen) • Coopster Gold (join) • Nintenjoe (subscribe)----------------------------------------All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile

Double, double, toil and trouble... fire burn and cauldron... (well you know). With the help of our be-broomed co-host Greenie AKA The Green Witch of the Shire) we squeeze one last episode into the spooky season! This one is all about movies involving witches! We're talking mean ones, green ones and even seldom seen ones! Some are sort of nice, but some will turn smelly little children into mice! witches #thewitches #hocuspocus #warlock #kikisdeliveryservice #wickedwitch #pumpkinhead #haloween ---------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is: • Parasite Steve (read) • 8-Bit Alchemy (listen) • Coopster Gold (join) • Nintenjoe (subscribe) ---------------------------------------- All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile

The legendary Ellen Datlow has been called “the venerable queen of horror anthologies” per the New York Times, and with over 40 years in the business, it's not hard to see why! Returning to the podcast, Ellen has brought two amazing authors from her new horror anthology, "Night & Day" from Simon & Schuster! Kari Sanders and Parasite Steve get to chat with Rachel Harrison and Kaaron Warren, as well as Ellen herself before ending with an author reading of Kaaron's story "Bitter Skin"! Snag your copy of this truly killer book today! ---------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is: • Parasite Steve (read) • 8-Bit Alchemy (listen) • Coopster Gold (join) • Nintenjoe (subscribe) ---------------------------------------- All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile

This episode is not for the faint of heart, nor the weak of mind... For our second spooky episode of 2025, we tackle the cosmic horrors of H.P. Lovecraft--and we do it through the lens of... well, a LENS! We've picked six Lovecraft inspired films to raise from the unknowable depths. Three direct adaptations of his stories, and three more that are what has come to be known colloquially as... LOVECRAFTIAN. Hold onto your sanity folks, things are about to get cosmic. Lovecraft #HPLovecraft #Lovecraftian #Cthulhu #Dagon #StewartGordon #JohnCarpenter ---------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is: • Parasite Steve (read) • 8-Bit Alchemy (listen) • Coopster Gold (join) • Nintenjoe (subscribe) ---------------------------------------- All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile

We welcome back New York Times Best Selling Author, Thomas Sniegoski (author of the Herculoids comics and the bestselling The Fallen series of novels), and Jeannine Acheson (co-author of Vampiverse comics) to chat about their HOTLY ANTICIPATED dark-fantasy novella! "Nira: A Constance Evermore Story" is out now from Bad Hand Books and is gorgeously illustrated by Thomas Brown! Pre-Order NIRA from Bad Hand Books! ---------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is: • Parasite Steve (read) • 8-Bit Alchemy (listen) • Coopster Gold (join) • Nintenjoe (subscribe) ---------------------------------------- All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile

Hey gang! Fire up those ascots and tie off your Mystery Machines because it's time to dive back into the topic of everyone's favorite mystery-solving scaredy dog... Scooby Doo! This time, we are focusing on a few of the nearly 50 Scooby movies. Whether they were released on TV, VHS, DVD, streaming or theatrically, they all count. We each pick two to spotlight and, as usual, get thick into the weeds as we creep up stairs, down abandoned mines and through haunted amusement parks to unmask those pesky mystery men! ---------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is: • Parasite Steve (read) • 8-Bit Alchemy (listen) • Coopster Gold (join) • Nintenjoe (subscribe) ---------------------------------------- All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile

About 100 episodes ago, we recorded Ep 060: Nintendo Hard / The Triumphant Return of Nintenjoe where we discussed some NES games that we loved despite their extreme levels of difficulty. Tonight, we are dipping back into that topic with the awesome Mike Levy from the Dongled channel on YouTube. We've got a whole new crop of tough as nails games for ya, and this time we decided to widen the scope to include SNES and Genesis titles as well! Expect limited continues, plenty of one hit kills and definitely no Konami code for extra lives. Will your favorite hard games make the list? Listen and find out! ---------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is: • Parasite Steve (read) • 8-Bit Alchemy (listen) • Coopster Gold (join) • Nintenjoe (subscribe) ---------------------------------------- All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile

This week, all your BASE are belong to Retro Ridoctopus! We are celebrating the crown jewel of any action figure toy line! Whether you called it a base, playset, headquarters, or battle station... we all drooled over those commercials. Begging our parents to pony up even more cash so we could bring a little piece of our action figures' world home! He-Man had Castle Grayskull and the Thundercats had Cat's Lair... but that's barely scratching the surface. In this episode, your Octo-hosts rattle off a veritable city's worth of play sets across all different toy lines from the 80s and 90s. So go pick out your favorite "guys" and familiarize yourselves with the locations of all available foot pegs because it's time to play! heman #masteroftheuniverse #thundercats #tmnt #teenagemutantninjaturtles #Starriors #gijoe #sectaurs #starwars ---------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is: • Parasite Steve (read) • 8-Bit Alchemy (listen) • Coopster Gold (join) • Nintenjoe (subscribe) ---------------------------------------- All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile

John Candy left us on March 4th, 1994 at the age of 43. And though John was probably far too humble to have ever believed it, his enormous absence is still felt these 30 years later. Fortunately, he left us a library of fun to remember him by! To help celebrate his life and career, we have a returning guest-host and John Candy super-fan, Retroid and co-host of the Spooky Picture Show, Raina Madison! We each picked 2 of our favorite Candy films to talk spotlight, but knowing us, it's a safe bet we'll mention way more than that. ---------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is: • Parasite Steve (read) • 8-Bit Alchemy (listen) • Coopster Gold (join) • Nintenjoe (subscribe) ---------------------------------------- All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile

Love him or hate him, the career of John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne was one for the ages. With the help of our pals Synopsis Grim and Portland Maine's own, DJ Rick Johnson, we'll hop on a crazy train and journey across five decades—spotlighting five albums from the solo career of heavy metal's one and only Prince of Darkness. Along the way, we'll share plenty about each track and what listening to these albums has meant to us over the years. Obviously, we are all huge metal heads and Ozzy was a major influence in shaping the music that shaped each one of us. And since you're here... check out Rick Johnson's blog: HEAVY METAL NOMAD! ---------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is: • Parasite Steve (read) • 8-Bit Alchemy (listen) • Coopster Gold (join) • Nintenjoe (subscribe) ---------------------------------------- All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile

This week, down in the slimy, ever-squirming blackness of the BRIG, we have the Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award nominated author of such acclaimed horror as Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, Kill Your Darling, Stay on the Line, What Kind of Mother, Ghost Eaters and much much more… he’s two parts Vonnegut, one part Ellison… and like nine more parts tornado made of crazed weasels... it's Clay McLeod Chapman! Snag your copy of ACQUIRED TASTE at your local bookseller or from one of our favorites! And keep up with all things CLAY on his official website! ---------------------------------------- Retro Ridoctopus is: • Parasite Steve (read) • 8-Bit Alchemy (listen) • Coopster Gold (join) • Nintenjoe (subscribe) ---------------------------------------- All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile