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Episode 786: Retrogame Dreamscapes (Patreon)

Published:
2026-08-03 10:00:13
Imported:
2026-08
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Nadia: It's time to put on your jammie-jams, snuggle into bed, and...play an old video game? If sleep is eluding you in the real world, join myself (Nadia) and my husband (David) as we recall some of our favorite dreamscapes from our favorite digital adventures. Dreams are mana for creative types. We spend half our lives wandering through worlds that lack borders and foundations, yet we know so little about the true nature of dreams. Writers know it, artists know it, and you can bet the cool side of your pillow that video game creators know it, too. Bed down with us as we talk game dreamscapes, from the cotton candy fields of Mother's Magicant to the entire Zelda game that's merely a dream on the lid of a leviathan's eye.

Edits by Greg Leahy, art by Amanda Neipris.

03:39 - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me: Moving Through Time

13:06 - Radical Dreamers: Epilogue ~ Dream Shore 3 | Mario Kart World: Overworld (SMB2)

21:41 - Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES): Ending

26:53 - Little Nemo: The Dream Master: House of Toys

36:12 - World of Illusion: Among the Clouds | The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019): Sword Search

46:42 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019): Southern Face Shrine

55:22 - Nights into Dreams: Dreams Dreams (Instrumental ver.)

1:04:36 - LSD: Dream Emulator: Pit and Temple, Standard A | Yume Nikki: Snow World

1:13:12 - Mario & Luigi: Dream Team: Dreamy Somnom Labyrinth

1:20:22 - EarthBound: Sea of Eden

Closing - Nights into Dreams: Dreams Dreams (Kids ver.)

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Comments

TheLupineOne

I really need to give Link's Awakening another chance. I think I got stuck in the third dungeon or something? Maybe knowing that the twist is "it's all a dream" was preventing me but I now think there's a lot more nuance to that. Who's dream is it? Why is Link in it? And there's another certain game that was not mentioned in the podcast that I need to start playing for the same reason. Not mentioning which because spoilers, even if it may be "Dallas" levels of well-known-ness. As for my favourite video game dream, although not retro, I would give it to the post-game campaign of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, in which Kirby enters the dreams of a certain character to rescue another certain character, which is a great excuse for "world where each stage is a hard remix of parts of each world's stages". The music for the most part remixes a certain track from the main game, to the point where you go "this track feels familiar, but I can't put my finger on it". Same for the last stage, except that's a completely different Kirby game entirely that's getting remixed. Cue fan speculation. As for the finale... let me just say these four words... "And here we are!"

Craig

Eternal Sonata is a recent game that comes to mind on the topic of dreamscapes. And a certain recent RPG smash hit may qualify depending on your interpretation of the narrative and what a dream is.

Devon Dale

Nadia, I'm going to put forth an unpopular opinion, but Twin Peaks doesn't hold up 35 years later. I'll happily concede that it's important, but so many shows and games have since succeeded in picking up on what made that show interesting. For me, I like the quirky characters, and the red room (and Sherilyn Fenn), but the story meanders too much, and like a lot of David Lynch stories, it fails to nail the ending (endings?) for me. Thimbleweed Park, Silent Hill, Link's Awakening, Deadly Premonition (mostly)—I can name a slew of things that Twin Peaks clearly inspired; but I feel like these days, Twin Peaks is something that I don't enjoy, but that was the basis for countless things I love. Great show, Nadia & David—thanks for recording!

OffshorePigeon

The episode's title alone unlocked two PS1 memories--the Dreamwalker sequences in Alundra, and the silly lyric from Lunar Silver Star Story's opening song, "All things are real unless you dream they're not"

littleterr0r

Yume Nikki is the ultimate dream game. It's literally right there in the title!

littleterr0r

There's also a Yoshi doll in Link's Awakening and there's the game Yoshi's Cookie and cookies are a dream to eat.

Chris Cashmoney

Don't feel bad David, I'm 40 and y'all had to explain Subcon to me. Also, excited for your MM Legends run. Best of luck.

Shrunken Shrine

Nice to hear Yume Nikki come up. Pretty much unbeatable, or even comprehensible, without a guide, but I think it had real early '10s cache for a certain type of anime aesthetic/homemade indie enthusiast. I remember a lot of Madotsuki fanart knocking around about 15 years ago.

Jon Heiman

I think I literally winced when Nadia said she cut up her Final Fantasy 3/6 box. I regret cutting up the things I did for collages as a kid too, but I don’t think I did anything that extreme. And I find it ironic, for all the SMB2 talk, that David’s website Poison Mushroom comes from the *other* Super Mario 2!

Joe Hodgson

If the phrase "Bucky O'Hare" is mentioned on a podcast I come a runnin'! Sadly, Bucky is owned by Continuity Comics these days and ever since the passing of founder Neal Adams they've kind of lost interest in Bucky. The action figure line from Boss Fight Studio of a few years ago ended because Continuity basically lost interest. They had nothing else lined up for Bucky, just whatever amount of money they were making was no longer worth their time. It's a shame because that NES game is so much better than it has any right to be.