Game criticism with a buzzer and a grin.
The Insert Credit Show turns video game talk into a brisk panel game of arguments, jokes, and oddly precise questions. It suits listeners who like criticism that can jump from old consoles and Wario-like platformers to GDC, Linux, lost games, and bad fandom instincts without losing the thread.
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The Insert Credit Show is a fast panel show about video games, but its real subject is the strange behavior games create around themselves. It is built from questions, interruptions, jokes, and sharp little corrections. The pacing can feel messy in the best way. Someone says a dumb phrase, someone else catches it, and suddenly the room has a working theory about taste, status, hardware, fandom, or the business of making games. Recent episodes move from old console memories to vehicle vanity plates, hyper-specific gamer tattoos, and the fading ability of any one game preference to mark someone as a dork. The retro side is not decorative. It shows up in concrete talk about old hardware, old licensed games, licensing letters, Cookie's Bustle, lost Japanese games, and the weird emotional ownership collectors can project onto rare material. The industry side is just as present. A GDC episode follows Brandon Sheffield through a changed relationship with the event, then shifts into conversations about platformers, Antonblast, Wario Land influence, and how economic pressure reshapes a creative plan. The show is comfortable with digression, but it rarely feels empty. Even the throwaway bits have a habit of becoming evidence. A joke about The Rock pointing a microphone at action on Titan Quest becomes part of the show's larger fascination with performance, presentation, and spectacle. The panel can be blunt, irreverent, and impatient with flimsy ideas. It is also warmer than its edge suggests, especially when guests enter with their own corner of game history or development experience. The show works because it trusts listeners to keep up. It does not sand down the references or pretend every thought needs a neat landing. Instead, it lets informed people argue in public until the shape of the idea becomes visible. For PlayNext listeners, it is a strong match when the appeal is not just games, but the absurd social machinery that collects around them.
Made for: For listeners who enjoy video game criticism that is fast, referential, and willing to be funny without becoming lightweight. It especially fits retro gaming fans, preservation-minded players, and people who like industry talk with personality.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by mixing panel-game pressure with deep, specific game knowledge. It can turn a joke about a bad acronym, a GDC walk, or a lost Japanese game into a real argument about culture and design.
A relentlessly on topic smorgasbord of hard hitting video game questions as addressed by a panel of experts. Featuring Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, Brandon Sheffield, and a rotating group of special guests. Hosted by Alex Jaffe. Edited by Esper Quinn. Original music by Kurt Feldman.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Deep gaming knowledge becomes quick, funny conversation without sanding away the hardware, history, and design details that make each argument matter.
The Insert Credit Show turns video-game knowledge into a lively contest of questions, digressions, and panel chemistry. Alex Jaffe and guest hosts use a buzzer-driven format that keeps answers moving while Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, Brandon Sheffield, and visiting guests test…
The question hole asks if video games were ever cool; you get disagreement down to Bullet Witch.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A credit game turns ZX Spectrum Batman dread into a sharp, messy riff on simulated control.
The episode turns a running game about credits into its main comic motor. The panel weighs whether those credits might one day force people into playing something, with ZX Spectrum Batman treated as a punishment and Sensible Soccer briefly held up as the kinder option.
A filthy acronym joke becomes a sharp, messy question about what video-game fandom still finds embarrassing.
The Insert Credit Show turns a crude Cybertruck acronym joke into a neatly restless question about video-game fandom: when games are everywhere, what still counts as dorky?
A dorkiness debate gets funnier once it turns into a Kentucky PS4 player named Josh.
The Insert Credit Show's episode 435 starts with a slippery question: what actually makes a video game fan look like a dork anymore? Catherine Masters, Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, and Brandon Sheffield turn that into a loose, funny argument about how the label keeps moving.
An ordinary GDC day leads into a grounded talk about Wario Land, Anton Blast, influence, and making games in a crowded field.
Brandon Sheffield arrives at GDC as a regular person for the first time in more than two decades, taking the train from home and sitting near a waterfall in Yerba Buena Park as the event unfolds around him.
Unsigned superhero rights letters open into a funny, uneasy debate over who gets to claim game history.
The episode turns early-1990s Sunsoft paperwork into a compact bit of superhero game archaeology, drawn to the rights the company was circling around Plastic Man, Catwoman, Ragman, Sandman, and Sgt. Rock.
A loose, funny panel turns video game coolness into a question of taste, memory, and framing.
The question of whether video games are cool turns into a lively argument about who gets to decide. The panel moves from character-selection habits to a remembered late-90s-to-early-2000s stretch around the PlayStation 2, when games seemed to carry a different kind of charge.
A used-media hunt in Japan turns into a focused look at Virtua Fighter's unusual PC and graphics-card history.
John Linneman's used-media hunt in Japan becomes a compact tour through Virtua Fighter's strange PC afterlife. What starts with a Japanese Windows 95 release and a retro room built around three OLED screens soon opens onto NVIDIA's NV1, the rare early graphics card tied to…
John Linneman joins Alex Jaffe in Tokyo to discuss their recent game shopping finds across Chiba and Saitama.
A video game podcast episode with guest Mike Drucker, discussing games and recommendations.
The host rambles about his dog's near-death experience with a bully stick before introducing guest Colin Spacetwinks.
Substitute host Eric Silver leads panelists Ash Parrish, Brandon Sheffield, and merritt k through a roundtable of video game questions.
The hosts of Insert Credit discuss Discord settings, a spell to summon an anvil, and share video game-inspired dog names.
Shivam Bhatt, a Hindu priest and guest on Insert Credit episode 460, connects spiritual practice with flow states in Rez and Tetris Effect.
Insert Credit Ep.
Episode 435 of Insert Credit, "Never Underestimate a PS4 Player from Kentucky Named Josh," has Catherine Masters hosting Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, and Brandon Sheffield while they trade first-console stories about a Nintendo DS Lite, an Atari 2600, a Game Gear, and an Intellivision bought for $20.
Episode 435 of Insert Credit opens with Catherine Masters, Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, and Brandon Sheffield trading first-console memories, including a Nintendo DS Lite with Dogs 2 and an Intellivision with Intellivoice.
The panel discusses Linux vs Windows file systems and upcoming episodes.
The hosts discuss funny typos, Discord memes, and a physical competition show hosted by The Rock.
Host Brandon Sheffield records a series of short field interviews at GDC 2026 in San Francisco's Yerba Buena Park, framing the episode as an antidote to a conference dominated by AI marketing booths — including one called 'Game Bite' promising to 'create games in minutes with AI.' He interviews six guests: Mexican indie developer Antonio Uribe about Pancito Merge and Dig Dig Dino (a Play Date dinosaur archaeology puzzle game); Phil Salvador of the Video Game History Foundation on the difference between preserving and interpreting historical game data; Anton Blast developer Tony Grayson on building a deliberately maximalist platformer while unknowingly co-developing with Pizza Tower's team; Skin Deep narrative director Laura Maché on writing deliberately broad on-the-nose comedy in an industry that rewards subtle nuance; Skin Deep creative director Brendan Chung on in-world labeling as a tutorialization strategy; and Chris Pruitt of Meta's games team.
Insert Credit episode 431 features hosts Alex Jaffe, Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, and Brandon Sheffield opening with newly surfaced 1992 Sunsoft paperwork showing negotiations for DC licenses including Plastic Man, Catwoman, Ragman, and Sandman.
The Insert Credit Podcast crew discusses the concept of kusoge (bad games) and debates whether Final Fantasy VII qualifies as the first AAA game.
The hosts of Insert Credit Show engage in casual banter about diner orders and a missing co-host before starting their video game discussion.