FINALLY! Episodes 24 & 25 Write-Ups, Updates, Sun & Moon, and 5 Year Anniversary?!

It’s been TOO long!

Hey, everyone!  PAPAYA here, back again for a long awaited blog post.  It’s actually insane what took place in the process of editing Episodes 24 and 25.  I’ve had those files saved in my laptop since August 25, 2015 (yeah, I know).  However, earlier this year, that very laptop finally gave out after 6 years.  It really signified the end of an era, since that laptop made it entirely possible for FireGold to exist in the first place.  Luckily, I was able to track down a tech guy who was able to send all the files from the old laptop to my new, refurbished laptop!  Thus, preserving FireGold’s hard work and sound effects, and enabling the latest FireGold episodes to be edited and posted.  Let’s get to them!

Episode 24, of course, takes place directly after the events of Gold vs. Silver #74057832.  That little dig at Silver from Gold’s opening narration was inspired one night while I was watching the original Rush Hour movie.  There’s a scene where Chris Tucker’s character mocks Jackie Chan’s character similarly to how you hear Gold mock Silver.  Team Rocket’s worthlessness was heavily on display here.  It still amazes me to this day how they really ARE that weak in the games.  Either way, this has some of my favorite gags so far:  Gold battling Rattata, Gold being silly with the switches, and the exchange between Gold and the Squidward sounding Rocket.  It was also fun to reference the moment when you tried to catch a trainer’s Pokemon.  Eventually, Gold gets the Card Key from the Director guy and finally makes his way to the top of the Tower.  Draftmaster came up with the idea to voice the final Rocket executive as Goldmember on the spot.  CUE CLICHÉ CLIFFHANGER!!!!

24’s bloopers also happen to be one of my favorites thus far.  Never a dull moment when Draftmaster has a tough time executing his lines!

The milestone Episode XXV starts off WHERE?!  Of course right after 24!  Gold quickly takes care of Goldmember Rocket and Team Rocket is no more!  From here, the Director gives Gold the key to finding the legendary Ho-Oh, the Rainbow Wing!  From there, we made a reference to two of our Halloween specials, Lost Halloween and Forgotten Halloween.  For those that missed it, Forgotten Halloween was another crossover special we did with The Red Squirtle in 2013 paying homage to the Pokemon creepypasta story called "Forgotten Red."  It only released on iTunes and PodOmatic after something came up behind the scenes that prevented a YouTube release.  I may release it on YouTube this Halloween for those who didn't know about it.  Creepy Unown echos galore!  Eventually, Gold finds Ho-Oh, the Pokemon he used in the Forgotten Halloween special.  OF COURSE he catches it!  Too bad his party is full and he has yet to capitalize on using his PC.  From there, shenanigans ensue at the dreaded Ice Path!  The resourceful Gold uses Noctowl to avoid more than a few headaches along the way.  Eventually, he arrives in Blackthorn City only to find Violet the Random B*tch waiting for him YET AGAIN!  The sound I used for Violet being destroyed was Jago's Ultra Combo on Fulgore from Killer Instinct 2.  As you could probably tell by the "Ultraaaaaaa Coooomboooooooo!"  My gosh, we have made it to the 8th gym city after 25 episodes!  I honestly can't believe it.

THE FUTURE!  As I finish this blog post, it’s in fact the 5^th month of June since we began this crazy endeavor!  We have yet to decide what the 5^th anniversary special will be about.  However, I can say that I have Episodes 26 and 27 written!  You can also expect another edition of GoldCast with us discussing the upcoming 7^th generation of Pokemon!  It's highly likely, however, that we may deliver a 5 Year Anniversary special a little late this year, due to scheduling conflicts at FireGold, Inc.  Nevertheless, we shall deliver it to you!  

ALSO!  For those that may have missed it, our resident Black and White fanboy, Carl, recently posted his reaction to the Sun & Moon gameplay showcase at E3 2016!  Click the link below to check it out!    
  
Carl's Sun & Moon E3 Reaction!

And, that'll do it for now!  We thank you all for sticking with us for so long.

-PAPAYA

Episode 23 Write-Up! And MOAR!

Hello, everyone!  PAPAYA here, back once again for another post!  If you didn't know already, Episode 23 is out!  Apologies once again for the delay.  With that, let's get right to it.

Fun fact:  This episode was done in ONE TAKE!  Very few errors took place while recording this episode, hence the lack of bloopers at the end.  I believe this is the only time Draftmaster actually did well saying his lines!  As you might have expected, the episode begins right where Episode 22 left off.  Gold has little trouble disposing of the Impostor Guy and his army of Koffings.  I still get a kick out of Teddy's idea to have the whiny employee from the Goldenrod Department Store be the Impostor in the Radio Tower.  From there, we poke fun at the little things you witness in Goldenrod, from the train not coming in to the Name Rater.  It was actually Draftmaster's idea to rename Typhlosion "Tommy Oliver."  No idea why, but we figured, "Why not?!"  Hence, the title of the episode.  Eventually, Gold finds his way to the Underground and finds his good friend, Violet the random B*tch again!  I thought this would be a good time to have her reappear since we could have her just standing behind the door that requires the Basement Key.  After Gold unleashes a proverbial can of whoop ass on Violet, he finds out that he indeed was not hallucinating at the Station as Silver appears again!  It was quite fun to put together Typhlosion's little Mighty Morphin segment with the 8 bit Power Rangers theme in the background.  Will Silver EVER pose even a SLIGHT threat to our hero?!  Time will tell.  Actually, no.  I will tell you.  Nope, probably not!

UPDATES!  As I type this out, I have not written the next episodes out yet.  Right now, I plan to remain focused on the last few weeks of my college semester and then we'll go from there.  I'm going to predict that we at FireGold, Inc. will meet up again at some point in late May.  Rest assured, we still plan to do a GoldCast talking about Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire!  Speaking of which, that podcast will now be found exclusively on the YouTube channel.  Also, there will most likely be at least one new FireGold episode out before the 4 year anniversary this coming June 24th!  I'm also thinking of doing some new things for the YouTube channel.  May be game related, since I have a video capture card.  I'll be sure to update you guys as we go along!

And yes, that's about it!  Until next time, blog you all later!

-PAPAYA

Episodes 21+22 Write-Ups, 2015, New Facebook Likes, Upcoming Plans, and MOAR!

Happy 2015, everyone!  PAPAYA here, finally back with a new post.  It's been a crazy time for yours truly this past month and I'm glad I finally have time to once again write one of these out.  We hope you've enjoyed our latest episodes and the little Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire advertisement featuring our very own Carl.  With that, let's begin with our latest installments of the FireGold series!

Episode 21 kicks right off with Gold finally entering the Mahogany Gym!  We first hear Gold and Tipster Nerd bickering, continuing the gag that is so fun for me and Draftmaster to concoct.  From there, Gold begins to destroy all the trainers in the gym before battling Pryce.  I also couldn't help but to include some puns pertaining to the ice themed gym (Chill, break the ice, etc).  I really wish there was a way to just jump on that neutral floor in front of Pryce, it would've been so much easier.  How the gym battle went down was essentially a reflection of my experiences in this gym back then.  If you had a Typhlosion, you had no trouble wrecking Pryce.  Once Gold leaves, he's suddenly called by Professor Elm.  Gold's ring tone was the Break the Targets theme from Smash Bros Melee.  I was excited for Smash Bros 4 at the time of editing this episode.  I forgot to have Draftmaster say it was Elm in the call, but I know you all knew who it was based on playing these games.  If not...then it was Elm.  Yes, ELM.   DA JOHTO PROFESSOR!  From there, the Mahogany civilians are freaked out by Team Rocket's return through the Radio Stations across Johto.  Gold gets freaked out by the panic from these folks and flies away with Noctowl.  I still can't get enough of Arch Canine saying "I can't find my dentures!" in all that commotion.  TOO good.

So, in Episode 22, we find that Gold somehow arrived in Goldenrod!  The irony!  Before we explored the Radio Tower battles, I had to make sure we touched upon the giant PokeMart in the city, since we hadn't before.  From there, I came up with Gold's phenomenal shopping adventure!  If anyone played the game like I did back then, you too went to the 5th floor, got yourself a Thunderpunch TM, taught it to Typhlosion, and made everyone mad at you when you battled them via link cable and destroyed their Feraligatrs with it!  I wasn't going to have Gold go away without buying this TM.  We decided to briefly bring back the Narrator this time to explain the forgotten game mechanic of teaching Pokemon moves.  Why?  FORSHADOWING?  Silver's Monologue Adventures, Part 4?!?!  After the shopping, it was time to begin tackling each moment in the Radio Tower.  Well, almost.  We reach the end to find that Nightwalker, the disgruntled employee character Teddy came up with on the spot while recording, is indeed working with Team Rocket!  What will materialize in the battle between Gold and Nightwalker?!  Only time will tell...in Episode 23!

Now, onto something that has really taken us at FireGold, Inc., by MAJOR surprise.  Beginning in the late December last year, we began to notice a huge flux of likes on our Facebook page.  Around 75 in a week.  We have no idea why, but it just happened.  Now, as if that was any indication, as I type this out (and the number is rapidly growing), we have had 275 new likes within these past TWO days!  I absolutely have no idea how this is happening, but it's absolutely amazing!  To all the new followers visiting our blog for the first time, welcome!  And thank you for taking the time to give our page a like!

Finally, upcoming plans!  Episode 23 is recorded and ready to be edited!  I plan to release it within the next few weeks!  We also plan to get together once again in that time span to record some more episodes of FireGold and GoldCast!  As for the GoldCast discussions, the topics will most likely be the Generation 3 remakes and Smash Bros. 4!  Should be interesting to see what each of us bring to the table in these discussions.

And, yes!  That's about it!  Until next time, blog ya all later!

-PAPAYA

Updates, Plugs, Smash 4 3DS Thoughts, 5 Year Red Squirtle Milestone, and MOAR!

Hello, folks!  PAPAYA here, back with another post!  I should be studying for exams right now, but procrastination is hitting me real hard tonight.  We would like to thank you for your continued patience and understanding.  With that, let's begin!

More FireGold episodes are on the way!  We were able to record some episodes back in August before college began again.  My goal is to have Episode 21 released before the end of September!

Have you been listening to our new podcast, GoldCast?  If you haven't, you've missed out on hearing our thoughts on the Generation 6 games and our anticipation for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire!  Episodes 1 and 3, respectively, are available on iTunes, PodOmatic, and our YouTube channel!  We may be recording more GoldCast episodes once Smash Bros 4 and the Gen 3 remakes are released.  I'd love to have us all give our thoughts on those upcoming games upon release.

Speaking of Smash Bros 4, WOW!  I am blown away with how smooth the fighting is on the 3DS demo!  If it's this good on a little game card like that, it looks like we are in for a doozy on October 3rd.  It's just a shame that I have to wait till then to fight as PACMAN.  Seriously, Nintendo, WTF?  I've played as Rockman plenty of times on Mahhvel vs. Capcom so I can wait to play as him in Smash!  Yes, this complaint will be void in less than two weeks.  I know.  Still, though.  PACMAN!

As I type this out, it's 12:52 am on September 25, 2014.  Does anyone know the significance behind this day?  Anyone?  NO?  Well, it's the FIVE year anniversary of Red Squirtle!  As someone who's been listening to them since October 2009, it's absolutely mind-blowing to think that they've been on the interwebs for that long.  Largely because of this podcast, Draftmaster and I became really good friends in the latter years of high school.  Heck, it's the main reason why he and I created FireGold back in 2011!  For this, I personally thank the guys at Red Squirtle for their ongoing series.  Your series has had such a positive impact on my life.  It has been a tremendous ride all these years listening to the podcast.  Here's to many more episodes in the future.  Let's all celebrate Red Squirtle on this day!

That about wraps it up for now!  Until next time, you all take care!

-PAPAYA

3rd Anniversary & GoldCast!

Hello, all!  PAPAYA back once again for another blog post!  There's a lot going on here at FireGold, Inc as of late.  So, without any further ado, let's get right into it!

First off, we'd like to thank you all once again for listening and supporting the Pokemon FireGold podcast for the past 3 years!  We've had a lot of fun writing, recording, editing, and posting these first 20 episodes for you.  We are excited to continue on for quite some time!  As for the special itself, we ultimately decided to go with a similar route as last year's with a twist.  Instead of Gold being kidnapped while playing Nintendo 64, he ends up getting knocked out by his ceiling fan after a sudden earthquake!  From there, he hallucinates the first events of the Gen 6 adventure.  An aftershock hits and end hallucination!  It was quite a blast recording this one, as evident in the bloopers.  We hope you enjoyed the special as much as we did.

Speaking of Gen 6, I segue to a BIG announcement!  We have decided to concoct a brand new podcast endeavor called GoldCast!  In this GoldCast, we will be shooting the breeze on a plethora of topics.  Pokemon, music, movies, TV shows, comic books, video games, and much more will be discussed at a moment's notice!  Episodes will be solo (one person), tag team (2 people), triple threat (3 people), and roundtable (all 4 of us) discussions!  You can also expect special guests accompanying the FireGold members on random occasions!  We've opened up another podcast feed for GoldCast on PodOmatic due to limited storage space remaining on the FireGold feed.  The GoldCast feed is found on that url below!

http://goldcastone.podomatic.com

Feel free to download episodes there!  I shall announce whether or not GoldCast was accepted at iTunes for downloading episodes on our Facebook and Twitter pages when the news becomes available.  Be sure to follow us on both pages if you haven't already!  Also, just like all FireGold episodes, all GoldCast episodes will be posted on our YouTube channel!

Our first GoldCast discussion is up on the GoldCast PodOmatic feed and the YouTube channel NOW!  The first topic is none other than the Generation 6 games.  Will we all agree on Gen 6?  Some opinions discussed may surprise you.  Enjoy!  And remember:  It's all subjective!

GoldCast #1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dns73mlZt_4&list=UUlMZMboTkWbkay3PD8ImUxg

And, yes!  That's about it for now!  Until next time, blog ya all later!

-PAPAYA

Episodes 19 & 20 Write-Ups and Anniversary Update!

Hey, everyone!  PAPAYA here, back once again to give you the write-ups of the latest two installments of FireGold!  Hard to believe we've completed 20 episodes right before our 3 Year Anniversary.  Thank you all again for listening throughout all the insanity!  Now, onto business.

Episode 19 picks up right where 18 left off with Gold going on a massive password scavenger hunt.  He encounters all the Rocket Grunts and Scientists that we encountered back in the Gen 2 days and easily defeats them all.  Could those Rockets been more of a pushover for Gold?  Thanks to a random table, his mind immediately goes into Cinnabar Volcano Burger mode.  Thought it was a good time to bring back that old gag from the first episode upon seeing the table there while writing the script.  Gold eventually gets both passwords and finds the door that leads to the Rocket Executive's room.  Before he gets in the room, Silver appears out of nowhere to annoy himself for even approaching Gold to begin with!  This probably means we shall get another Silver Monologue Adventure really soon!  All depends on DM.  Could this Rocket Executive have had more pathetic Pokemon?  Wow, you talk about the pushover of pushovers.  This is precisely why I implemented a laugh track after he introduced each of his Pokemon into battle.  From there, a talking Murkrow gives Gold the Password of Passwords!

For the 20th episode, it needed to go straight into the action.  Gold runs a long way back to the main door he needed to open all along.  After overcoming memory loss, Gold succeeds but runs into another Grunt and Executive.  Nanananananana...Lanceman...returns!  While Lance takes care of the useless Grunt guy, Gold battles the female Executive, voiced by Arch Canine.  At least she had slightly better Pokemon than the previous Grunts.  Heavy emphasis on the "slightly."  After a revealing of Team Rocket's not-so-sinister plot, Lance and Gold infiltrate the inner sanctum of the Hideout and find the machine supported by 6 Electrodes.  I remember playing the games back then and always getting hit with stupid Self Destruct by all the Electrodes.  Annoying as hell, I had Gold experience the same thing, only simultaneously!  Gold comes out of the Hideout mystery a hero...but without Cinnabar Volcano Burgers.  Will he ever eat some of his favorite meal again?!  Only time will tell.  For this PokeCenter healing gag, I had to shake things up a bit.  After a bit of brainstorming, I came up with Gold telling a lie about a bomb only to find that he now needs a passcode to heal his Pokemon!  I originally planned to include a buzzer sound effect when Gold guessed wrong but when DM came in with the voice, I believed it was the funnier option.  How did Nurse Joy end up choosing Gold's least favorite number of 101 as the passcode?  Conspiracy much?!  Gold then heads to the Gym only to find Carl still there playing the latest installment of Pokemon games.  After destroying his 3DS, Gold has enough and blast-kicks Carl into the next region!  Surprisingly, we didn't mess up that much while recording this episode, hence the lack of bloopers.

Now, onto the updates!  FireGold's 3rd Year Anniversary is coming up fast on June 24!  We have something planned for you all this year, a new podcast endeavor!  More details on that will be revealed as we approach the Anniversary.  That's NOT all!  We also want to give you guys an opportunity to do what our loyal follower, Mongo, did last year.  It's another way for us to thank you for listening throughout these 3 years!  Anybody, give us any ideas you have for a separate special involving any character from FireGold you'd like!  It can even be an entire script outline!  Whatever comes to mind for you, inform us of your ideas in one of the following 3 ways:

1.  In the comment section below!
2.  Our email at pdafiregold@gmail.com!
3.  Our Facebook wall or through private message!

We look forward to your responses!  Oh yeah, by the way.  The deadline is Saturday, June 14, 2014!  That's right!  You have TWO weeks!

And, si!  That's all for now.  Until next time, blog you all later!

-PAPAYA

Episodes 17+18 Write-Ups, Updates, and MOAR!

Hey, everyone!  PAPAYA here, back once again for yet another set of write-ups!  April saw us releasing Episodes 17 and 18, so let's talk about them!

Gold makes to-do lists?  The episode picks back up with Gold flying back to that damn Lighthouse to deliver the mysterious Secret Potion to Jasmine for her sick Pokemon.  Once Amphy is cured, Jasmine finally returns to her Gym after all the hassle Gold had to go through.  When it comes to this gym battle, there really wasn't much I could do with it to try to create a tight, back and forth battle.  I mean, if you had Typhlosion in your party back in the Gen 2 days as I often did, you wouldn't have had any problem at all dominating the battle as Gold did here.  Aw, well.  Easier time editing for me!  After the battle, we hear that Gold heads to the PokeCenter and finds Nurse Joy knocked out by the Fat Man who looks VERY similar to our favorite character, Carl!  He challenges Gold to a fight, which leads to Gold kicking his arse, Bruce Lee style!  The sequence of Gold exhibiting his superior martial arts skills is exactly the way it went down in a scene from Bruce Lee's movie "Way of the Dragon," hence the Fisherman guy bringing up Lee's name right after.  Gold then heads for Mahogany by once again disregarding the rules of the Official Pokemon League Bylaws and Regulations Rulebook and flying to a new city.  Once he arrives, he easily gets sidetracked by local candy bars being on sale.  Who can blame him?  Candy is GOOD.  Unfortunately, his enthusiasm causes him huge barf problems and he then ends up in his worst nightmare:  Being physically tended to by Nurse Joy!  I mean, at least she didn't take him into the inner sanctum of the PokeCenter, carve him of all his appearance, and turn him into another Joy...  All creepypasta theories aside, we then find that someone is blocking the door to the Mahogany Gym.  Since in the games this person also closely resembles our wonderful friend, Carl, I decided to make him be the one blocking the door!  He leads Gold to the Lake of Rage all while playing a certain installment of the latest generation of Pokemon.  How did he know about it, much less get his hands on a 3DS and a copy of X if it's supposed to be 2000?  And how did he access a wireless internet connection to battle and trade online?  Your guess is as good as mine!

Now, onto Episode 18.  If you noticed the background music being a little too loud in certain spots throughout most of the episode, I apologize for that.  It clearly wasn't my best music editing here.  However, I digress.  I decided to shake the opening narration up a bit here by having our good buddy, Carl, interrupt Gold!  Carl's "narration theme," if you will, was an 8 bit version of Metallica's song "Carpe Diem Baby."  As Gold would, he kicks Carl out of his private space through a window, Bruce Lee style!  The episode picks up with Gold in hot pursuit of the Lake of Rage and the shiny Gyarados.  As it occurs in the game, Gold finds a familiar Rocket asking for a fee to pass through.  Will that Rocket ever get the saying of "make like a tree..." right?!  Time may or may not tell.  To avoid battling two Pokemaniacs and further editing hassle, I had Gold trick them into going to that same passageway for "free Pokemon."  Gold then reaches the Lake of Rage and jumps in for a night time swim!  This was a way to have him get in the water without having to use Surf.  Then, out of nowhere, like a bullet, from the night, the shiny Gyarados attacks!  After a tough battle that included Typhlosion escaping fire vs. water logic, Gold manages to catch the 6th Pokemon in his party!  We then meet Lance the Batman Guy!  I concocted this idea after YEARS of thinking how much Lance's sprite resembled Batman to me as a youngster.  I have no idea why but I decided to mimic the voice of Snake from The Simpsons for the character.  I don't know, it just stuck with me and the others while recording.  Pitch his voice down just a bit and you get what you heard in the episode!  Totally oblivious of Batman and Sherlock Holmes, Lance leads our hero back to Gotham to investigate a mysterious mystery in the local shop.  It turns out to be yet another Team Rocket conspiracy!  So, naturally, Gold defeats all the Rockets with virtually no problem.  After getting his Pokemon healed by Lance just because he's Lanceman, Gold then discovers A DOOR.  A door that requires a password.  Here, I brought out a Spongebob reference from one of the old school episodes, "Survival of the Idiots."  Ah, good ol' Spongebob from 1999-2004.  Good times.  After defeating the same Rockets yet again, Lance informs Gold that indeed TWO passwords are needed.  How will Gold obtain them, and when?  You shall find out in the next episode!

Speaking of the next episode, that leads me to the updates for the immediate future.  Episodes 19 and 20 are recorded!  Draftmaster, Arch Canine, and I got together during spring break and recorded these four episodes all in the same day.  We are hoping to release both sometime in May.  One thing for certain is that they'll be released long before our 3rd Year Anniversary rapidly approaching on good ol' June 24!  As far as the Anniversary goes, I have a few ideas for what we may do but nothing is set yet.  This is your opportunity to provide us with any ideas you may have, similarly to last year!  After all, it is our way of thanking YOU for listening and supporting FireGold throughout these years!  So, if you have anything you'd like for us to discuss/perform for a 3rd year special, feel free to leave a comment below!  You can also tell us via email (pdafiregold@gmail.com) and on our Facebook page!  Further updates on the Anniversary will be provided for you in the next blog post.

And, yes!  That is about it!  Until next time, blog ya all later!

-PAPAYA

Episodes 15+16, Updates, and MOAR!

Hey there, everyone!  PAPAYA here, back once again for the long-awaited write-ups of the latest FireGold episodes!  Without any more lollygagging, let's get straight into it.

Ok, I admit it.  I really did forget that Gold had a Metapod in his party while writing Episodes 13 and 14.  This is precisely why he didn't even remember that Metapod existed in said episodes.  After about 10 seconds after I listened to Episode 13 post-editing, it struck me.  And it struck me hard.  So hard, I kicked myself for it.  And I did it again.  And again.  And again.  Then...I did it yet again!  After that, I then realized that a simple explanation in the following episode would suffice.  And then, I kicked myself again.  Then, I wrote Episode 15 out.  Ok, now I'm really done lollygagging.

With Episode 15, it was time to explain what the madness behind the missing Metapod was all about.  To start, I decided to bring back a familiar character who had been the victim of a little white lie Gold told to a Nurse Joy back in Episode 11.  Remembering that Gold ran out as he saw this trainer being pulled downstairs by Joy, I figured that he would accidentally drop a Pokeball in the process.  It turns out he did.  With that little plot line in mind, we find that Gold tries to cheat the game mechanics and attempts to fly to Cianwood on Noctowl before even arriving there for the first time and without HM02.  The music used as the Flying music is an 8 bit version of Dream Theater's song "The Count of Tuscany."  Thanks to some non-cooperative wind, Gold and Noctowl crash into the building next to the Olivine PokeCenter, destroying a good portion of it in the process.  After finding a stray HM04 in the rubble, Gold walks outside and we meet the familiar trainer character again.  While writing this episode, I was actually listening to tons of Megadeth, hence the numerous Megadeth references in it.  The trainer rises from the debris, meeting Gold again!  The trainer's theme music is an 8 bit version of Megadeth's song "Angry Again."  In the flashback, the Officer who arrests this trainer quickly notices a stray Pokeball on the floor and takes this trainer to the Police Station.  The music used in the Station is from the original Spider-Man movie game when you sneak into OsCorp.  We find that the mysterious Pokeball turns out to be the missing Metapod, who helps this trainer escape from jail.  After raising hell and escaping the Station, we find that the trainer is named Dave (referencing Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine) and he challenges Gold to a battle.  The music used for this battle was an 8 bit version of the song "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due" by...you guessed it, MEGADETH.  I'm pretty sure you know how the title of this episode manifested itself now.  As the battle closes, we find out that Metapod had evolved!  Remembering him at long last, Gold apologizes to Butterfree, while being accompanied by an 8 bit version of the song "A Tout Le Monde" by...wow, you're getting good at this!  MEGADETH!  Gold and Dave manage to confuse Butterfree, and Dave snaps it out of confusion after some harsh words.  The whole "Gold letting Butterfree go" part was inspired by Ash making the same, boneheaded decision in the anime.  Only here, Butterfree is actually assaulted by Fearow upon being set free and is instantly killed by an explosion of random proportions!  As Gold would, he totally misreads the whole situation and witnesses his dead, lost Pokemon fall into the sea.  Dave is arrested again and is vowed by the Johto P.D. to be stowed away in the high security room, which begs the question:  Why wasn't he put there in the first place?

Episode 16!  Shortly after Dave's arrest, the sea winds die down!  Gold then successfully screws the rules and flies to Cianwood.  He then finds the Secret Potion and decides to win the Cianwood Gym badge before hurrying back to the Olivine Lighthouse.  Since Chuck's gym is filled with martial artists, I decided to reference Bruce Lee quite a bit, hence the title of the episode, a parody of Lee's martial art Jeet Kune Do.  After teaching Sudowoodo Strength and defeating the martial artists, Drowzee evolves into Hypno!  Gold then finds Chuck, who I ended up voicing along with Gold.  After a tightly intense battle, Quilava beats Poliwrath to his feet in his severely weakened state, a la Rocky against Apollo Creed in Rocky II.  Gold wins the Stormbadge and another newly evolved Pokemon, Typhlosion!  Then, out of nowhere, Violet the Random B*tch interrupts Gold in his narration outro and he kicks her out of there, Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon style!  It was unbelievably frustrating to record these episodes at first because, as evident in Episode 15's bloopers, this no good jabroni behind my backyard decided to do some yard work while we tried to record.  After a while, we did the smart thing and moved to an indoor location and managed to record the episodes.  That part was really fun.  Still, curse that yard work guy!  We would like to thank our good friend, Brian, once again for creating that extremely awesome artwork above!

Now, onto some updates!  As it stands, I have Episodes 17-19 written.  Episode 20 will also be written by 1/18/2014.  With any luck, we will get together once more to record before college semester insanity kicks off for all of us again!  Be sure to like us on our Facebook page for all recording updates, updates in general, random pictures, rants, and MOAR!

And, yes!  That is all!  Until next time, blog ya all later!

-PAPAYA

2nd Christmas Holiday Special, End of 2013 Update, and MOAR!

Hey, FireGold fanatics!  PAPAYA here, back once again for a long awaited post!  We would like to thank you all once again for your patience!  With that, let's get down to business.

On the exact first of December, we released our 2nd Christmas special!  This was originally intended to be released last year but because it was recorded a few days after Christmas, I decided to hold it off and let it sit in my hard drive.  One extremely quick year later, and here we are!  Immediately, you can tell that this is outdated when Gold sends out Hoothoot (now a Noctowl) to Fly back to New Bark for the town's season festivities.  To his surprise, the town holds a dinner instead of their traditional roundabout get together in front of a huge tree.  Seeing as how this was a special and not part of the actual story, I figured it would be as good a time as ever to include many familiar characters in the dinner.  Enter Elm, his Assistant, Fat Carl, 3 Rocket Grunts, Silver, and Gold's Mom!  I also felt it would be funny to bring up the running gag of Elm's Assistant inability to purchase the appropriate holiday decorations with a twist.  After Mom unleashes a kung fu whooping on the Assistant, the guests arrive and it's feeding time!  After the dinner, it turns out Ol' Kurt from Azalea Town was also invited but shows up late and hits on Gold's Mom.  To end it off, I incorporated DM and Teddy's AHHNOLD impressions to play the TWO Santa Clauses who deliver Gold's gifts.  When Gold opens his gifts, you can also tell there that this was recorded a year ago since Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 are yesterday's news.  It was a blast editing this special after it spent a year in my hard drive unedited.  Plenty of laughs and reminiscing were abundant along the way.  It's unlikely that we'll record another Christmas special next year but if you all would like another, be sure to let us know!

Now, onto some updates.  The Christmas special is NOT the last thing we plan to release this year!  FireGold, Inc. will be getting together once again in the next few days to record Episodes 15 and 16!  We also plan to record some more exclusive gaming related shtuff for the YouTube channel!  So, if you have not subscribed to our YouTube channel, do so now!  You definitely don't want to miss these!

If all goes according to plan, we will have both episodes and the YouTube exclusives up before the end of the year!  I'll be updating you all again on our state of affairs when 2014 arrives, so be on the lookout for that!

And, si, that's about it!  Merry Christmas to all our fellow Christmas celebrators, and Merry Happy Days to the rest of you!  Blog you all again very soon!

-PAPAYA

Episodes 13+14, Anniversary, and MOAR!

Hey, FireGold fanatics!  PAPAYA here once again, and it's been quite a while since the last post!  Before I carry on with the write-ups, I must apologize to you all for the buzzing frequently evident in these episodes.  For some particular reason, the microphone we use kept making the sound, no matter how many times we unplugged and plugged it back into the USB drive.  I can assure you that it won't be evident as much in future episodes.  With that, let's dive into the episodes!

The 2nd Anniversary special was written by myself and Teddy, with Teddy coming up with most of the hilarity.  The crowbar, bag, taser, and his guard character's verbatim was all him, among other things.  Seeing as how it was an anniversary episode, I figured it would be fitting that Gold would be hanging out at home playing his N64, hence his Mario Karting with Toad.  I completely edited the opening sequence of Gold playing his Mario Kart 64 game together from scratch using the familiar sound effects.  It wasn't actual live gameplay sound.  From there, we based the questioning Gold gets summoned into on Mongo's suggestion.  The background music used during the questioning was Kazuya's theme from Tekken 2.  As Arch Canine said in the outro, it was indeed the fourth take and completely unscripted.  By the way, if you still have not seen our 2 Year Anniversary livestream with Alex on our YouTube channel, check it out!  There's a topic set list in the video description so you can skim through the stream to hear a particular topic that you're interested in.

With Episode 13, it was time to tackle the fourth gym battle.  I wanted to make sure that this battle went down to the wire like never before in the series.  As a result, you heard quite the back and forth struggle for the Fogbadge.  A lot of that battle was me venting out childhood raging for Morty using the Hypnosis, Night Shade, and Dream Eater trio of moves extensively.  Arch Canine had a bunch of input on Morty's character.  The parts where Morty said "Count them, 1, 2, etc." were all off the top of his head.  Some of you will probably ask why we forgot about Metapod.  Trust me, the explanation will come in the next episodes.  After Togepi saves Gold's hopes, he earns the badge, meaning he would go back to the PokeCenter to heal his Pokemon again.  I realized that Gold had yet to use the PC there so I came up with the gag of him tricking Joy into thinking the PC was faulty to get away with self-healing his Pokemon again.  From there, he luckily goes in the right direction to the next city and avoids a bunch of trainers along the way.  I knew that I had to end the episode with something more than just the gym battle, so I came up with Hoothoot evolving into Noctowl, now voiced by Arch Canine.  It made sense to me since by this time playing the 2nd gen games, my Hoothoot had evolved, as well.

With Episode 14, there was a lot that had to be addressed in one episode.  Since Gold would still be scarred from the battle with Whitney and her Miltank, I figured he would run away as soon as he noticed the field full of the evil cows.  It was a good way to skip the 3 remaining trainer battles on the way to Olivine.  From there, Silver confronts Gold and tells him that Jasmine is MIA from the gym.  As Gold would, he completely botches his reading of the Olivine sign.  I figured he would also be wise to Violet the Random B*tch's tactic of correcting him, so I had him send out Quilava to avoid seeing her pop up again.  But, we all knew we couldn't go without her correcting him again, so he then sends all of his Pokemon to send her blasting off again.  The forgetful Gold still goes in the gym and is reminded of the situation with Jasmine by the Tipster Nerd.  From there, the forgetful Gold goes into the city and is reminded of the Lighthouse's location by a local Sailor.  He then enters the House O' Lights, encountering many Sailors, crazy girls, Gentlemen, Bane sound-a-likes, and SAILORS.  His whole ascend up the Lighthouse was mapped out by me as I played through the game.  The whole Bane part was Teddy's idea.  After much battles and distractions, Gold finally reaches the top and finds a depressed Jasmine asking him to go to Cianwood for medicine for Amphy.  It looks like Gold will have to find a water Pokemon to surf him to Cianwood, and fast!

All of these episodes were recorded in one day.  All 4 of us were able to get together for only the second time ever in mid-August to get it done.  It was really fun recording them and doing that livestream with Alex all on the same day.  We plan to have another livestream with the Red Squirtle in the future on a more convenient day than a Monday.

Finally, news on new episodes!  We have something very special ready for release VERY soon and another Halloween special in the works for October!  Want some clues on what the Halloween special will be about?  Simply go to our YouTube page (refer to the links on your right), watch the Episode 13 and 14 videos, skim to the end credits in those videos, and listen to the music accompanying the credits in each video.  From there, let your guessing commence!

And, that's about it!  Until next time, blog you all later!

-PAPAYA

YES! An Update!

Hey, everyone!  PAPAYA here, giving you an update!  First off, we apologize for not uploading anything back in late June for our 2 Year Anniversary.  Something occurred that was beyond our control and we were forced into an impromptu hiatus.  However, I'm glad to announce that we're back and we will be recording the remainder of the anniversary special we had in the works and some new episodes very soon!  Also, we will be having a livestream on our YouTube channel (check the links to your right) on MONDAY, AUGUST 12 at 4:30 pm EST/1:30 pm PST!  Most, if not all of us at FireGold, Inc. will be there!  Our Red Squirtle Squad affiliate, Alex, will also be there!  This will be your chance to ask us ANYTHING throughout the stream!  It's sure to be a fast-paced cluster of fun!  The late and out of date Anniversary special and some new episodes are sure to be uploaded before we head back to school once again!  Again, we appreciate your patience and understanding through this time.  Until next time, blog ya all later!

-PAPAYA

Episodes 11 & 12 Write-Ups and MOAR!

Hey, FireGold fanatics!  PAPAYA here, back to give you all the semi-long awaited write-ups for the latest episodes.  Let's dive into 'em!

So, that new direction I was teasing in the last post was the idea of having Gold narrate his own adventures from here on out!  I had been contemplating this to make our series stand out a bit more by creating the sense that you know you're listening to FireGold once you hear the opening narration.  It was nothing personal towards Arch Canine, who was on board with the idea.  Gold's narration tune in the background is an 8-bit version of Metallica's song called "My Friend of Misery."  After Gold's opening narration, we find that Gold has approached the Sudowoodo and caused it to go haywire upon using his Squirtbottle.  The part with Metapod doing a Super Saiyan-ish Harden move was something Draftmaster came up with while we were initially reading the script out.  It happened to work out well for Gold's little narrating transition.  It looks like this Metapod needs to train its Hardening skills a bit more before it reaches the annoying status of Bugsy's Metapod.  After a long, tough battle, our hero finally succeeds in capturing the tree creature object.  From there, Gold finally reaches Ecruteak City and meets Bill in the Pokemon Center, just like in the games.  I was watching one of the Back to the Future films while I was writing out the script and thought that due to Bill informing you of a Time Capsule machine where you could trade Pokemon with the first generation games, I figured that it would be neat to give him a Doctor Emmett Brown type of personality.  Draftmaster had quite the fun time doing his Doc impression while recording.  After we make another reference to BTTF with Gold pulling off a classic Marty McFly gag, he once again mispronounces the city's name and Violet the Random B**ch pops up again.  This time, Gold puts his latest addition to his party to good use and makes quick work of Violet, referencing the redundant but nostalgic Team Rocket bit as she flies away.  From here, it was tough to decide which task from the games in Ecruteak we wanted to cover first.  Eventually, we settled on the Dance Theater first and left off the battle with Silver and Morty for future episodes.  Teddy completely came up with that accent for the HM03 Guy while we were rehearsing the episode.  It was pretty hard to stay in character while he did the voice, haha.  From here, Gold begins taking down the Komino Girls one by one.  I wanted to have Gold come off as a completely oblivious idiot while still defeating the Girls with seemingly no effort so I came up with his ridiculous line of thinking as he saw each of the Eevee evolutions in battle.  This influenced the title for the episode, since the battles were in a Dance Theater and Gold was completely stupid through it all.  It's also a parody of Dream Theater's song called "The Dance of Eternity" (which is one of the most AMAZING songs EVAR).  After Gold defeats the Girls, he receives HM03 from the Male in the Hat but not without some more tomfoolery from our hero.  I figured that since Gold successfully distracted Nurse Joy before to manually heal his Pokemon, he would want to do it again.  This is where I included the gag of him falsely accusing someone of trading a Gen 2 Pokemon to the Gen 1 games.  After the episode ends in an obligatory cliffhanger, we all knew that we needed to have some type of skit acknowledging the change in narrators.  Therefore, Teddy came up with that entire skit involving the Former Narrator, DM, a few guards, and myself.  The background music used here was an 8-bit version of Megadeth's song called "Dawn Patrol."  It worked out so well and it's one of my favorite moments in the series thus far.

Now, onto Episode 10+2.  After Gold's opening narration, we quickly find that Gold had come across Silver once again.  Continuing the obliviousness of Gold from the previous episode, we played around with the gag that he doesn't know what Silver was referring to when he mentioned a legendary Pokemon.  They quickly engage in a battle, showcasing Silver as even more of a loser than before.  This would influence the title for the episode, parodying the "2B a Master" song from the Pokemon CD Soundtrack from way back.  I decided to continue Gold's signature mispronouncing with Silver's Pokemon, causing even more tomfoolery in the battle.  This battle turned out to be a more comical one between the rivals than the previous two, leading to Gold falling into one of the holes in the Burned Tower.  I know you don't come across the legendary dogs in Gold Version until you get the Rock Smash move, but I felt it would be a good way to have Gold end up in the Pokemon Center again to continue the gag with the Framed Trainer.  We find that an officer arrests the poor Trainer and that Nurse Joy may have done some inappropriate things while Gold was unconscious.  Before we covered the gym, I figured it would be a good idea to acknowledge the Oldster blocking your way if you tried to go to the Tin Tower before you won the fourth badge because I remember being annoyed with that man back in the day for doing so.  Also, it worked because he informs you of the badge and gym, which would help Gold out tremendously.  I also noticed that there were sprites that resembled Carl's sprite in New Bark long before Ecruteak City and since I had yet to bring them up, I figured now would be a good time.  From there, Gold enters the gym and after no help whatsoever from the Tipster Nerd, he engages in battles after suffering the annoyance of the Invisible Floor.  It was here that I was even more glad to have come up with Gold narrating his own adventures because it turned out to be a great way to skip some of the longer, unnecessary parts from the game, such as the 5 Gastlys and the last two battles before Morty.  After another obligatory cliffhanger, we continued the side story involving the Former Narrator.  This time, Arch Canine and DM came up with the little skit and we recorded it about a nanosecond later.  These episodes were a blast to record, especially after not recording for months.

Soon after we gathered all the lines for the episodes, DM and Arch Canine collaborated on the third installment of Silver's Monologue Adventures.  Aside from a few notes guiding the three of us, what you heard in the final cut was off the top of DM and Arch Canine's heads.  I simply filled in for Haunter, Bayleef, and Gengar wherever necessary.  It was during this recording that Arch Canine suggested that the Narrator fill his role exclusively for Silver's adventures and he brilliantly came up with the explanation of the situation on the spot for the opening narration.  It was so hilarious in between line recording for this due to AC's amazing improvisation skills.

Now, onto the ridiculously amazing Carl song parody.  I came up with an idea with DM and AC about Carl parodying "America F*ck Yeah" with a Johtonian twist.  When the final editing was done, I remember laughing so hard.  It actually turned out quite well and it was really fun writing the song and recording it with the others.  It's only on the YouTube channel right now, but if any of you want me to upload it on PodOmatic and iTunes, be sure to let me know below!

Finally, we'd like to thank Mongo for the idea that he pitched to us for the anniversary special!  We will most likely be taking that approach for the special.  We will also probably do something else to complement that, similarly to last year's Q&A and ReEpisode 1 one-two punch.  We hope to meet again before a few days before June 24 to record our anniversary specials.  I'll be sure to update you all as much as possible as we approach the anniversary!

And, yeah!  That's about it!  Until next time, blog you all later!

-PAPAYA

Moar BRILLIANT Updates and Shtuff!

Hey, FireGold fans!  PAPAYA here with some updates!  Before I give you said updates, I'd just like to take this moment to thank you all for your patience during this insane college semester.  As I type this, it's finals week and we're nearly finished!  After May 24, we should finally all be free to record some more episodes!  Hurrayz!  Now, I segue to the updates.

I'm happy to announce that Episode 11 is written and is ready to be recorded with DM's potentially numerous bloopers included along the way!  Episode 12 will be written after finals week is over.  As I eluded to on our Bookface page, I'm planning to head in a slightly different direction with the series starting in this episode.  It's actually something I've been contemplating for quite a while.  What could it be?  Ooh, the suspense!  Me and DM were also talking today about doing something outrageously outrageous involving a certain, familiar person from the series.  Should actually be fun writing it and recording it, it could end up being awesome.  We hope to have at least one episode out before our 2 year anniversary.

Speaking of our 2 year anniversary, June 24 is rapidly approaching!  As far as that goes, nothing is set in stone just yet.  However, you guys can help influence our decision by giving us suggestions in the comment section below!  It could be another Q&A, live stream with the Red Squirtle, Let's Play video like the Pokemon Stadium and Lost Silver playthroughs, or a special episode specifically for the anniversary.  Whatever comes across your minds, feel free to leave any ideas down below!  We'd greatly appreciate some input!

And, si, that's about it for now!  Until next time, blog you all later!

-PAPAYA

One More Month...

Hey, guys!  It's been quite a while since I last blogged you all!  Boy, it's been another crazy semester and it's only going to get crazier!  Just letting you guys know that it'll be another month before we at FireGold, Inc. will be able to get together again to record new episodes.  As of now, Episode 11 is being written and will be completed soon.  We also will begin talking about what we will do for our 2 year anniversary soon.  So, hang tight!  We all should be out of school by the last week of May.  Until then, blog you all later!

-PAPAYA

Episode X Write-Up!

Happy 2013, FireGold fanatics!  We've now reached our 10th episode!  We'd like to thank you all for the support that helped make this possible!  With that, we segue to the write-up!

Once I completed the editing for this milestone, I immediately thought of using the Roman Numeral 'X' in the title to help make it stand out.  We start out with Gold still in Goldenrod.  I thought it would be great in this episode to bring up the rest of the things you can encounter in the city, minus the Underground Tunnel.  After a very awkward exchange between Joy and a local pervert, the egg that Gold received from Mr. Pokemon hatches into a Togepi!  Gold then goes to the Cycle-Bi Store and calls it as such, continuing the gag we've been doing between him and Violet, aka the Random B**ch.  DM suggested that Gold fall off his bike as soon as he hopped onto it, leading to him learning how to properly ride it after 3 hours.  He then goes where he really needed to go to advance the story and meets the Squirtbottle Lady.  It was quite difficult to stay in character while recording because of that voice DM decided to use for her, haha.  From there, Gold rides past the gate building and we finally discover that it is morning in Johto again after one of the longest nights in its history.  Since it was now Thursday in Johto, it was time for tackle the Bug-Catching Contest.  Because of the event, I figured that everyone on the path to the National Park would be at the contest, avoiding all those battles we usually encountered before the Park in the games.  Gold chooses Drowzee to accompany him to the Park and the insane bug-catching adventure begins!  When Gold misreads yet another sign, I figured that Gold would be so fed up with Violet at this point that he would use his Pokemon to help get rid of her.  Therefore, Drowzee puts her to sleep and, from there, Gold fails to catch some of the stronger bug Pokemon.  I figured that all of the contestants would snatch these Pokemon to the point that Gold would have no choice but to catch a weaker bug Pokemon.  One Caterpie catch later, we go back to the Official and learn that despite Gold's lackluster bug catching, he wins the contest anyway.  Then, Caterpie evolves into a Metapod!  I think Gold will have quite a bit of fun with it in his party now.  Looks like those trainers will regret ever interfering with Gold's bug catching experience.  Gold then encounters Violet again and, with the help of Quilava, gives her a good roasting.  We shall see if she gets the message down the line.  We end the episode with Gold encountering a familiar Pokemon, one that will surely give him quite a hard time as he continues onward to the next city!  Wow, now that I think about it, this milestone episode resulted in one of our shortest episodes yet.

Earlier this month, we had the opportunity to have a livestream with the Red Squirtle Squad!  If you missed it, feel free to catch the recording of it on our YouTube channel now!  We hope to have another one again sometime soon, it was quite fun.

Now, onto some news!  We have a late and out of date Christmas special recorded.  I'm still kind of debating whether or not to release it now since it's obviously WAY past holiday season.  If you all still want it, tell us in the comments below, our Facebook, or our Twitter ASAP.  If you do still want it, you can be sure that it'll be out sometime real soon.  Also, we hope to record at least one more episode before we begin another grueling semester of college!  Updates will be sent your way via our Facebook and Twitter accounts so be sure to follow them in the coming days!

And, yeah!  That's about it!  Once again, thank you all for 10 FireGold episodes and I'll blog ya all later!

-PAPAYA

Pokemon FireGold now Twitting on Tweeter!

Yes, that's right!  We now have a Tweeter account!  Be sure to follow us @PDATFireGold for updates if you're into the whole Twitting thingy!

-PAPAYA

Holy Miltank! The Episode 9 Write-Up!

Hello, everyone!  Episode 9 is out, which means that it's time for another write-up!

We begin with Gold receiving some tips on battling Whitney by the Tipster Nerd.  Being the arrogant little kid that he is, he ignores the tips.  He easily avoids a Lass on his way to battling Lass Carrie.  This is where we begin to realize that Gold may have bit off more than he can chew.  Once he defeats Carrie, he avoids another Lass and reaches Whitney.  I remember battling Whitney on the classic games and how much of a pain it was to defeat her, especially if I chose Cyndaquil as my starter (which was 99.5% of the time).  Also, Ash lost to Whitney before defeating her in the anime.  These things helped inspire the idea of having Gold lose more than once.  With the help of his Pokemon, Gold remembers that the Sages at the Sprout Tower's top floor broke the rules and he decides to do so himself.  Surprisingly, Whitney allows him to do so.  Unfortunately, it doesn't work out for our hero the first time around.  Then, with Quilava's help, he remembers about the Drowzee he encountered close to Goldenrod and catches one after two very long and painful hours.  This is why I didn't have Gold run away from the Drowzee battle after running away from the Youngster battle in Episode 8.  Now, with Drowzee at his disposal, Gold puts the Miltank to sleep and lets his faithful Pokemon unleash the assault of a lifetime on the defenseless cow.  Whitney cries like a little kid just like in the games.  Only, it was kind of justified since she witnessed her beloved Miltank get killed...I guess.  Fat Carl then appears and decides to cook the dead cow carcass in front of Whitney, which leads to Whitney swearing like crazy.  I cringe a bit when I hear that back because my throat and chest were SO sore after recording that, haha.  DM came up with the idea of having Carl cook the dead cow carcass.  After a good meal, Gold ditches him in vintage fashion.  It looks like Carl will have to wait even longer to find out about his long lost parents...

Oh, what's that?  When is the next episode coming out?  Hmm...well, it's highly likely that not for a while.  Late November and early December are the most crucial parts of the Fall semester.  Also, DM is expected to be very busy during the month of December.  So, earliest I can tell is January...but, it's not certain just yet.  I'll be sure to update you all as we plow through the rest of 2012.

Lastly, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we are very thankful for all of your support.  You guys are awesome.  Thank you so much, and have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Yup, that's about it!  Hope you all enjoyed the episode and I'll blog you all later!

-PAPAYA