Ep. 437 - Cookie's Bustacular

The panel reviews Cookie’s Bustle, a Japanese PC adventure game hindered by endless copyright strikes and finally freed by the Video Game History Foundation.

Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, and Brandon Sheffield. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.

Watch episodes with full video on YouTube

Discuss this episode in the Insert Credit Forums

SHOW NOTES:

• Yoko Kanno
• Cowboy Bebop
• The Real Folk Blues
• Vincent Diamante
• Alto saxophone
• The Offspring
• Phil Collins
• Wet Leg
• Wednesday
• The Weeknd
• Taking Back Sunday
• Wednesday Campanella
• Cookie’s Bustle
• Streisand Effect

1: How did we get here? (05:53)

• Rodik, Inc
• ClassicsOfGame
• Video Game History Foundation
• Games That Weren’t
• Moon Child
• The Video Game History Hour

2: How hard is it to get this Japanese abandonware game from 1999 running on your PC in 2026? (11:38)

• Sega Genesis
• QuickTime

3: What is happening in Cookie’s Bustle and what are you doing in it? (18:18)

• sebmal
• Mr. Bean
• James Bond
• Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures
• Lara Croft

4: Apart from financial cost, what are the material advantages of keeping a development team small? (36:43)

• Tokyo Godfathers (2003)

5: Chopemon asks: If you were to go on an adventure, what items have video games taught you to take that you wouldn’t normally think to take? (43:26)

6: Developer Keisuke Harigai once said in a 2001 interview that he designed Cookie’s Bustle with the European market in mind. What do you think that means? (49:51)

• Keisuke Harigai
• New Jersey
• LucasArts
• Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
• Grim Fandango
• Euro Truck Simulator series
• Farming Simulator series
• Football Manager series
• Total War series
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Atomic Heart
• Disco Elysium

7: Do you like Cookie’s Bustle? (56:07)

• Tony Hawk series
• Mario Party series
• Gold Saucer
• Mr. Bones
• Bennett Foddy
• GDC
• Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors
• Alter Ego
• SimTunes