Nintendo was in trouble. It was 1980, and they’d just poured a ton of money into an arcade game they’d hoped would be a hit. They called it Radar Scope. It was a massive flop. In a panic, the company rushed to create a new game that they hoped would make good use out of all their unsold Radar Scope arcade cabinets. That game – Donkey Kong – took the world by storm.

Nintendo basked in the success of their new game. They had no idea that a massive lawsuit was headed their way.

Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Norm pulled from:

Audureau, William. The History of Mario. Pix’n Love, 2014.

Internet Archive. “Universal v. Nintendo Court Documents.” 2026. https://archive.org/details/universal-v-nintendo-court-documents.

Sheff, David. Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children. Random House, Inc., 1993.

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Are you *really* enjoying An Old Timey Podcast? Well, calm down, history ho! You can get more of us on Patreon at patreon.com/oldtimeypodcast. At the $5 level, you’ll get a monthly bonus episode (with video!), access to our 90’s style chat room, plus the entire back catalog of bonus episodes from Kristin’s previous podcast, Let’s Go To Court.

Hachi was just a puppy when he was adopted by a professor at Tokyo Imperial University. The two bonded instantly. Every day, Hachi greeted Professor Hidesaburo Ueno at the Shibuya Train Station as he came home from work. The pair would walk home together. But when the professor suddenly died, Hachi’s loyalty didn’t. For years, Hachi still went to the train station, waiting for the professor to return.

Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Norm pulled from:

Fritz, Robb. “History’s a Bitch: A Dog Walk Through Time: Wait for Me.” McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, February 7, 2012. https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/wait-for-me.

Itoh, Mayumi. Hachi: The Truth of The Life and Legend of the Most Famous Dog in Japan. Self Published, 2013.

MC. “Hachiko’s Droopy Ear.” The House of Two Bows, March 3, 2011. https://shibasenji.wordpress.com/tag/saito-hirokichi/.

Perkins School for the Blind. “Helen Keller: A Life with Dogs.” June 24, 2016. https://www.perkins.org/helen-keller-a-life-with-dogs/.

Skabelund, Aaron. “Fascism’s Furry Friends: Dogs, National Identity, and Purity of Blood in 1930s Japan.” In The Culture of Japanese Fascism, edited by Alan Tansman, Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, and Masao Miyoshi. Duke University Press, 2009. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781478090885-008/html.

Are you enjoying An Old Timey Podcast? Then please leave us a 5-star rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts!

Are you *really* enjoying An Old Timey Podcast? Well, calm down, history ho! You can get more of us on Patreon at patreon.com/oldtimeypodcast. At the $5 level, you’ll get a monthly bonus episode (with video!), access to our 90’s style chat room, plus the entire back catalog of bonus episodes from Kristin’s previous podcast, Let’s Go To Court.

By the mid-1800’s, the River Thames was essentially a massive sewer. People poured their waste into it. They also drank from it. That combination resulted in thousands of deaths. People weren’t sure what caused the deaths, but in the summer of 1858, when the temperatures rose and the water levels dropped, London stunk to high heaven.

It took a lot of money, creativity, and an incredible act of civil engineering from Sir Joseph Bazalgette to fix the Great Stink.

Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Norm pulled from:

Ackroyd, Peter. London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2012.

“Cesspools and Sewers: Toilets in Dirty Old London.” Yale University Press, November 19, 2014. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2014/11/19/cesspools-and-sewers-toilets-in-dirty-old-london/.

“Cholera in Victorian London | Science Museum.” https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/medicine/cholera-victorian-london.

Contagion - CURIOSity Digital Exhibits. “Cholera Epidemics in the 19th Century.” March 26, 2020. https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/contagion/feature/cholera-epidemics-in-the-19th-century.

Halliday, Stephen. The Great Stink of London: Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Cleansing of the Victorian Metropolis. The History Press, 2020.

Historic UK. “The Victorian Workhouse.” https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Victorian-Workhouse/.

“Joseph Bazalgette | The History of London.” December 21, 2024. https://www.thehistoryoflondon.co.uk/joseph-bazalgette/.

“The Great Stink | The History of London.” January 20, 2025. https://www.thehistoryoflondon.co.uk/the-great-stink/.

The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered, dir. History and Sewage: The Great Stink of 1858. 2018. 11:44. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD7nRrSH_VE.

“The Smithsonian and the 19th Century Guano Trade: This Poop Is Crap.” May 25, 2017. https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/smithsonian-and-19th-century-guano-trade-poop-crap.

Tulchinsky, Theodore H. “John Snow, Cholera, the Broad Street Pump; Waterborne Diseases Then and Now.” Case Studies in Public Health, 2018, 77–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-804571-8.00017-2.

Are you enjoying An Old Timey Podcast? Then please leave us a 5-star rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts!

Are you *really* enjoying An Old Timey Podcast? Well, calm down, history ho! You can get more of us on Patreon at patreon.com/oldtimeypodcast. At the $5 level, you’ll get a monthly bonus episode (with video!), access to our 90’s style chat room, plus the entire back catalog of bonus episodes from Kristin’s previous podcast, Let’s Go To Court.