# The History Of Shoot 'Em Ups - This Week In Retro 256

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-week-in-retro-1052400/the-history-of-shoot-em-ups-this-week-in-retro-256
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-week-in-retro-1052400/the-history-of-shoot-em-ups-this-week-in-retro-256.md
Podcast: [This Week in Retro](https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-week-in-retro-1052400)
Published: 2026-02-21T10:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://TWIR.podbean.com/e/the-history-of-shoot-em-ups-this-week-in-retro-256/
Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/t5bn8yxqqzc65kcm/TWIR_Episode256_The_History_Of_Shoot_Em_Ups.mp3
Processing state: processed
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/this-week-in-retro-1052400/episodes/the-history-of-shoot-em-ups-this-week-in-retro-256
Duration seconds: 3687

## Resource

DJ Slope of @slopesgameroom is our guest for this week's dive into the history of shoot 'em up games of all shapes and sizes. In other departments we examine the claim that 1996 changed computing history forever and explore whether handheld retro tech can defeat the modern scourge of doomscrolling. Plus news in classic tech ranging from the Nabu to the CIDCO Mailstation, on Episode 256 of This Week in Retro. Visit https://www.addict.media/ for your copy of Pixel Addict magazine. 00:00 - Show Opening 02:23 - Shmups Away Story Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9GFX6lIbeE 20:59 - 1996 Really Was A Big Deal Story Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM1gXDZsMO0 Additional link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OHkrQYSmtE 38:01 - Housekeeping - News links found below 44:07 - Doomscrolling Defeated Story Link: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/feb/09/how-a-decades-old-video-game-has-helped-me-defeat-the-doomscroll 56:42 - Community Question of the Week 🏆Your monthly support helps us keep the retro news flowing! https://www.patreon.com/thisweekinretro 🕸 TWiR Sub Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/thisweekinretro/ Follow your hosts! Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/davevelociraptor.bsky.social https://bsky.app/profile/jasoncompton.bsky.social Youtube: Chris - https://www.youtube.com/@005AGIMA Jason - https://www.youtube.com/@jpcompton Audio Podcast: https://retroadventurers.podbean.com/ Subscribe to the audio version of the show! 📻 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-retro/id1526487568?uo=4 📻 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2OPQ3cADaB92E9SpRdTe5y 📻 Podbean: https://twir.podbean.com 📻 Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/en/show/5734337 📻 RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/TWIR/feed.xml 📻 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinRetro This Week in…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/this-week-in-retro-1052400/episodes/the-history-of-shoot-em-ups-this-week-in-retro-256/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-week-in-retro-1052400/the-history-of-shoot-em-ups-this-week-in-retro-256.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.