The greatest podcast in the world
There was a time - long, long ago - when the world of videogame podcasting was a burgeoning fellowship of only the most strident and enthusiastic individuals.
The release and popularity of the iPod in the 2000’s started a snowball of interest in this new internet talk-show format, which eventually grew into an avalance of independent, amateur (and dare I say mostly-mediocre) bedroom podcasters.
Hidden among that sea of mediocrity were some exquisite aural gems, you just needed to be lucky enough to stumble across them (or unlucky enough to see one of their adverts being spammed on a PHP bulletin board you happened to frequent).
Let’s hear it for the boys
In August of 2008, two friends - one in England and one in Japan - who ran an internet gaming forum, decided to take their friendship to the next level and the Sanctuary4gamers podcast was born…
Chris and Steve had no idea just how much work was going to be involved, the strains it would put on their families and friendship, the late nights spent editing the show or fixing the website. It couldn’t last forever, but while it did it was magic.
From August 2008 to October 2010, these two fine gentleman created what I consider to be my favourite podcast of all time, and one I was glad to be there with from (almost) the beginning. They were always enthusiastic, hard working and hilarious to listen to, when a new pod hit my device I knew I was going to have a good day.
From prank calls, parody songs, special guests, replying to listener mail and of course game reviews, each episode was jam packed with fun. Their consistent approach to making the denizens of the internet have a laugh and feel welcomed into the Sanctuary was a big part of what made them so special.
One for the records
While my iPod classic died a death some years back, I was fortunate enough to get hold of an archive of the shows and keep them safe from the ravages of time. It’s bounced from Dropbox, to dvd roms, to Google Drive, to usb sticks, to iCloud storage and everywhere in between!
After a small revival of interest in S4G on Twitter from Chris, Steve and other mainstay forumites, I decided it was time to share the wealth and get these podcast files uploaded to the Internet Archive.
It’s not quite the full set of shows (I’m missing the USA spinoff episodes), but the majority is there and hopefully you will all find something to enjoy. I’ve tried to dump in the show notes from the XML files too, as there’s some easter eggs sprinkled among them.
Here’s the link to the archive of shows, in release order - Sanctuary4gamers podcast @ Internet Archive - if you have any problems with any of the files, or have anything I am missing that needs to be added to the archive, please let me know.
As a parting gift, I have embedded an iframe into this post which contains the first episode, so if you’re curious to see how it all started feel free to click that play button.
Thanks Chris and Steve, love you guys x