What this video taught me was that the actual creator of LJN was a brilliant businessman who did his thing, saw his company going to shot so he left while making millions. Then went on to form multiple other successful enterprises like THQ and Jakks Pacific. So when I bash LJN for the majority of their horrible games they published, ill remember that it wasn’t the founders fault lol

So the founder of LJN was actually a smart man with an eye for quality, notice everytime he jumped ship the company would degrade soon after, lol

The origin story for the AVGN’s greatest antagonist.

I'm definitely not here because of the AVGN. Well, maybe a bit.

Blows my mind that the founder of LJN also made THQ and Jakks Pacific. I learned so much now!

I'm actually really happy that Jack Friedman was ok after LJN

as James Rolfe, also Known as The Anğry Video Game Nerd Said, "There's No Gold At The End Of That Rainbow"

The creator of LJN was really a genius, huge respect for that guy

Back in the day, when my friend bought a Dreamcast system, he was thinking of getting Spirit of Speed as his token racing game. Luckily, I stepped in and stopped him from tasting the rainbow.

The history of the Laughing, Joking, Numbnuts.

AVNGs influence on internet culture has been pretty impressive. I've been watching him since about 2005 and I just can't believe how massive he has become. His movie reviews are just as good as his AVGN persona.

His bosses name was Numbnuts Jokin Laughin?

I had no idea LJN was responsible for Entertech, and consequently the orange tips on guns we have today. That's pretty interesting.

JakksPacific is known for the creation of several licensed plug and play systems, some were actually good and original titles. It all makes sense now, Friedman wanted to keep making toys but the public was hungry for video games. Those system were a mix of both.

And now the circle completes when the AVGN uses one of Norman's video for an AVGN video.

Atlus, the same company that made Persona 5, made LJN games. WTF

I never knew the history of such crappy games could be so touching.

More history videos! ;) Could watch these all day.

honestly my main takeaway was that LJN once literally got people killed thanks to their waterguns

This channel is like 12 years old now. We need a history of Gaming Historian video

The piano music at the end hit me right in the feels.

That music that played when the founder dies is really sad. Like much sadder than I'm willing to get while watching it.

You mentioned AVGN honorably. My respect.

Have to admit, LJN knew exactly what they were doing the entire time.

I almost got chocked up there at the end, almost.

The rainbow stamp of death

Alot of respect for this guy. too many KZfaqrs out there only doing it for the money and this guy makes these videos for the joy of video games. gotta love it

"There's No Gold At The End Of That Rainbow" -The AVGN

*LAUGHIN' JOKIN' NUMBNUTS intensifies*

Spirit of Speed 1937 sounds like a great AVGN episode in the making.

This man is so casual with blowing my mind. “Yeah, the same guy who made the worst game company for the 80s also made one of the most important companies for the PS2 and a well-known toy company. It’s no big deal.”

the end of this episode was heartfelt. Salesman for a toy company sounds amazing, and to travel around as well. I would actually like to collect some of LJN games. Also those reports of kids being killed with those toy guns is really sad.

dude your name should be "relaxed video game nerd".

Out of curiosity, would you happen to know why a lot of LJN's later games share the same assets as the early THQ games? I mean play Bart Vs The Space Mutants/vs the World, then play Swamp Thing and Home Alone 2. They all share the exact same sound effects and even the odd sprite and background.

2:31 - “Ljn, what did it stand for?...” - “Aassssss!”

It's so funny how lonely I felt hating LJN games my whole life. It is thanks to te Historian and Angry Nerd I learnt I wasnt alone. priceless.

AVGN and the LJN Defender should do a crossover. :D

I've watched this video so many times. I find Jack Friedman's history especially interesting because he was following his dream and knew what he wanted to do and worked hard it to be successful. It is somehow inspirational.

"What were they thinking!?" Avgn

*EA:* Dad. When I grow up, I become a best video game company ever. *LJN:* No, my son. You will become a worst video game company like me.

Purple for putrid gameplay.Blue for bad musical abominations.Green for graphical farts & garlic.Yellow for pisspoor lack of loyalty to the source material.Orange for "ORANGE you a fucking idiot for playing these games?"Red for high-level stress-inducing masochism. Put 'em together and you get all the colors of the Shit Rainbow. Hooray, LJN.

I guess pretty many would never been even heard of LJN without AVGN..

LJN should've just stayed as a Toy Company.

7:17 "... hang on, I know that sound font... Did the Megami Tensei composer write music for this damn NFL game?" *googling intensifies* HE SURE DID

Wait...The same guy build a sucessful toy company(ruined by a bad move), a freaking amazing game developer(

I always call LJN .. Let's Just Not.

Love your work Gaming Historian. Hope to keep watching for years to come.

8:17-8:19 ljn would touch the ground seein' their world spinning upside down and cause a crashing, mighty sound

I was rooting for the Friedman guy and when you mentioned THQ and his last endeavours that hit me right in the feels

That was really, really great! I'm a big video game history nerd, and you still told me some stuff I didn't know. Your research obviously went extremely deep, and the video is full of good information. Yet, you kept the tone light and fun. It never felt too info-heavy. The vid was just the right length, too. You also did a great job as the presenter. You've got a good voice and a friendly presence. Just a superb, excellent job all around. I loved it! A+

Thank you Jack Friedman for giving us THQ and Jack's Pacific! Without you we wouldn't have gotten all those magnificent WWE wrestling games! May you Rest In Peace.

It's a little known fact that they attempted to make an LJN Classic Edition in 2017 (similar to the NES Classic Edition), but it didn't work out. It turns out loading all of those horrendous games onto one micro-console caused it to physically transform into a mound of dog excrement.

Ironic that THQ would later go bankrupt from screwing up a addon for the gaming industry.

Wow what a brilliant guy. He always made the right moves. "Games are too complicated and I don't understand them anymore. Rather than destroying this company and the livelihoods of all it's employees, I'm out. Peace".

Honestly this warmed my heart more than anything. Good man behind plenty of good content with some scuffs here and there.

"Jack wasn't happy and he felt like he wasn't control anymore" Well, Jack, that's because you weren't in control. That's what happens when you SELL your company, lol

Whoah, so THAT'S what THQ stands for... Great video, man!!

This is what I wish school was like.

I thought he was going to turn into AVGN at any moment.

LJN and THQ? Men... THQ was really good...

First video I watch from this channel, clicked thinking it would poke fun or throw a few jabs at LJN. Gotta admit it was A LOT more informative and insightful than I thought it would be. Very cool video.

First - did anyone notice that the NFL theme sounds a metric ton like Friday the 13th? The NES LJN games were sort of crappy. Usually not the worst games in the world, but rarely anything excellent. The Maximum Carnage and Separation Anxiety games were great in their day, particularly the latter for being co-op. They have one saving grace in my book: In their day, the WWF titles they made were great games. As usual, Historian - good episode.

I can't believe Atlus developed some of these games, it's insane how they went from this to Megami Tensei and Persona. The main theme from T&C Surf Design was actually remixed in MT1+2.

This is awesome. LJN influenced my childhood quite a bit. I had one of the water guns and still remember how fantastic it was. I also really enjoyed TC surf designs on my NES. Thanks so much for the video. I had no idea this company existed.

A little late to the party here, but I really enjoyed this piece. It was great to learn more about LJN the toy company and about its founder's travels. I honestly didn't know about the LJN/THQ/Jakks Pacific link. LJN games do get a bad rap, but it's not always deserved. ***** does a great job bringing to light some of the positive points and serves as a great balance to Cinemassacre and the comedic slant that James Rolfe takes as the Angry Video Game Nerd. That's not to say that there aren't clunkers (OMG NFL WAT), but there are definitely a few good games, too. It was really neat to see James and Matt mentioned in the same segment, by the way. I always learn something when I watch these videos, and that's a big reason why I became a fan.

LJN Video Art doesn't have a paint bucket tool, what were they thinking???

Been gaming my whole life and LJN did not ring any bells, but I do remember liking T&C Surf Designs and Jaws on the NES a lot. PS I know I'm 10 years late to your channel but I am really enjoying all these Gaming History videos you guys put together. Great work!

I had the gotcha! pain guns as a kid and they were indeed defective. All of them failed to fire the paint balls after a short duration. The pain balls were stored in a fat hockey puck shaped plastic disc which you inserted into the top of the gun to the rear. The paint ball was dried onto a plastic cylinder which was fired along with the paint. You were supposed to soak the disc in water before firing to get the dried paint wet. What would happen was the barrel would get clogged with the paint or the plastic cylinder that the paint was adhered to. So you could fire the gun but nothing would come out. What was worse was the loading/rotating mechanism that spun the ammo disc would lock the entire hockey puck into the gun, so you couldn't remove the paint unless you misfired the entire cycle so that the cartridge came back to the "empty" position. We had 3 of them I think, and they all quit working in the same fashion

At first I felt bad about this guy forming LJN but learning he moved on to THQ and Jakks Pacific, that's not too bad.

"It has that distinct LJN feel." They knew it was bad!

Great work. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Thank you for another history tour.

So much time wanting to know about the history of this company beyond the videogames. Thanks Norman!!

Way fuckin cool Norm. Great video, it was very interesting to see LJN's humble beginnings

Great Episode, really enjoyed it as I have been playing a lot of LJN games lately and can honestly say that they are actually rather good, sure a few bad games, but a few a number of them are a lot of fun.

“My Kansas City Royals” it always freaks me out when people on KZfaq are from Kansas City area like me. Like when the defunct land guy reminisced about worlds of fun Orient Express. Anyway love the series.

This appeared on my KZfaq feed, I think because of AVGN, and I'm very thankful. Gotta follow and turn on the bell.

5:25 holy shit I thought that was going to go another way.... "Jack Freedman felt like he wasn't in control anymore...." "2 years later in 1987 Jack Freedman...." WHAT..!?! killed him self Jesus "Left the company" Oh okay lmfao

Wait, RARE made some Ljn games?!

Excellent piece of history by the Gaming Historian. Many thanks for sharing. I have to say, I'm quite fond of the SNES version of Spider-Man and the X-Men: Arcade's Revenge, which was published by LJN. The game may not have the hottest graphics, but the music and game play is pretty solid and challenging. ;)

"So, whats your profession?" "I'm a Toy Expert"

Immediately likes when I heard the shitty royalty-free music.

Wow had no idea about the history of this company. Really enjoyed the video. Thanks much!

I just remember the LJN logo and sound coming up on the wrestling games and they were all good games :X.

ahh.... the EA of the early 80s and 90s

A game based on a toy line based on a movie about paintball. If that's not the greatest premise since the Bebe's Kids video game, I don't know what is.

As fucked up as this sounds, WWII may have actually benefited society in some pretty strange ways. After all of the horrors and atrocities in the War To End All Wars, all people seemed to do was want to focus in on something good afterwards. They immediately came back, took advantage of the GI Bill, started families like crazy, and soon a new brand of toys, cartoons and other contraptions began flooding the markets. Consequentially there's a noticeable spike in creative minds after WWII. Not trying to sound like a knowitall, just saying. My grandpa was one such person!

These are some of the best videos on KZfaq.

My older brother had those wrestling figurines when he was younger and those were definitely pretty badass for their time

I always see videos where people talk about the things that companies like LJN produced. That's all well and good, but I want to hear from the developers who worked on these titles. I want to know, were they inexperienced? Did they know what they were doing and want to do better but were hamstrung by MBAs goosestepping around and chanting 'the perfect is the enemy of the good'? Were they just accountants whose boss threw a devkit at them and demanded they produce a game on a tight schedule? I want to know!

This is an amazing video telling the other side of the story. I never played an LJN game so I can't comment on the quality, only what I saw in the AVGN videos. It's easy to forget that people run companies and they have their own hopes and dreams. I hope everyone sees this video to get an informed perspective. Your videos are great, no annoying screaming or click bait pictures. Keep it up!

Your and avgn's channels are two of the best subscriptions i have made on yt

You solved a childhood mystery of mine. I use to play LJN's baseball game on the NES!!!! Thank You!

Jesus fuck, this video got WAY darker than I was anticipating.

My name is Lj and my last name starts with n so every time I heard ljn it sound weird in my ears.

You do it perfect man good work love it

Remember when that rock band, the Lone Rangers, used the LJN guns to hijack a radio station?

That Jack Friedman guy sure was a hell of a businessman. I did not realize Major League Baseball on the NES was an LJN title. I'm obviously biased, but I loved that game as a kid and for my money it's one of the best 8-bit baseball games out there (my other favorite was Baseball Stars 2, although I have yet to play the first one). Yeah, it was rather glitchy, but games in general were sometimes glitchy back then, so I didn't really care, and I always found the glitches pretty funny (okay, so I'm sure that one more than one occasion, I got pissed when a glitch screwed me over). The battery-powered water guns thing is interesting, I'm pretty sure I owned one of those. It was a little black Uzi that took 4 AA batteries. It looked very much like a real gun, there was nothing to distinguish it without examining it closely. The battery-powered aspect was great, you didn't have to pump it or anything, and it shook in shots, like it was firing bullets, and the water stream was likewise pulsed. However, if you look at the guns themselves, you'll notice a huge downfall: where does it store the water? My gun (and I'm assuming most of them) stored it in the clip, which was removable. So it would run out of water in like less than ten seconds. That was a real bummer. Finally, the last thing I wanted to mention was Spirit of Speed. I don't think the game was *that* bad... don't get me wrong, it was pretty bad. But there's plenty of worse games you could play, including *maybe* one or two Dreamcast games, possibly. Spirit of Speed ran on Windows CE on the Dreamcast, and as far as I know, it's the only game to do so. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong. But that's probably why it ran so poorly.

It's great to see videos involving video game history or stuff along those lines without a bunch of dumbass, random jokes thrown in for an attempt (I stress that word, attempt) at being funny, which ruin their boosts of being an "intelligent show" (Game Theorists in a nutshell). So thank you for these videos, The Gaming Historian deserves much more popularity and attention than it already does.

Great video 👍 Thank you for educating me

This man made part of my childhood and i never realized it