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

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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)

Social Media:
BlueSky- https://bsky.app/profile/tftblpod.bsky.social
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/talesfromthebacklog/

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