Video Game History Hour

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 41: Exploring Stellar Track (Star Trek) Jul 21, 2021

Show notes

Once again, we’re joined by Kevin Bunch of Atari Archive, this time to talk about his 50th episode of said series: Stellar Track (Star Trek): Atari Archive Episode 50. We learn the history of this very early, very influential game, its many iterations, and its different names along the way.

See more from Kevin Bunch:

Twitter: @ubersaurus

YouTube: /atariarchive

Website: atariarchive.org

Patreon: /atariarchive

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Video Game History Hour:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gamehistoryhour

Email: podcast@gamehistory.org

Video Game History Foundation:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GameHistoryOrg

Website: https://gamehistory.org/

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/gamehistoryorg

The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Ep. 40: That’s 2021 Halfway, So Now It’s Time for Q&A Jul 14, 2021

Show notes

We open up the mailbag and answer some of our listeners' burning questions! We cover emulation preservation, the definition of a gaming historian, growing pains of the organization, best dinosaur games ever made, plans for our personal collections, and so much more!

Quick note: this is episode 40, but we refer to it as episode 41 in the recording; sorry for the mix up. The producer will have her head on correctly again next week!

Video Game History Hour

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gamehistoryhour

Email: podcast@gamehistory.org

Video Game History Foundation

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GameHistoryOrg

Website: https://gamehistory.org/

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/gamehistoryorg

The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com/) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Ep. 39: Tex Murphy, P.I. Solves the Case of the Missing Production Tapes Jul 07, 2021

Show notes

Fan turned archivist Mat Van Rhoon of Big Finish Games tells the story of the lost Tex Murphy series production tapes in a recent article, Tex Murphy and the Raiders of the Lost Tapes. We hear about the sheer elation, joy, and maddening frustration these adventures in preservation led to, as well as the odd places from which some of these tapes were excavated. From discovery to digitization, Mat really put a tick in the ‘Win’ column for game history preservation!

See more from Mat Van Rhoon:

Twitter: @MatVanRhoon

LinkedIn: /matvanrhoon

See more from Big Finish Games:

Twitter: @BigFinishGames

Website: bigfinishgames.com

Facebook: /bigfinishgames

The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Ep. 38: The Sega Mega Modem Saga Jun 30, 2021

Show notes

Norman Caruso is here to share the history of the Sega Mega Modem from his most recent video SEGA Mega Modem: Ahead of Its Time | Gaming Historian. Despite many of its drawbacks and pitfalls, this device pointed to a brighter future that wasn’t able to come to fruition until almost a decade after its lackluster release. Was online, social gaming an inevitability or did the Mega Modem pave the way?

See more from Norman Caruso:

YouTube: /gaminghistorian

Twitter: @gaminghistorian

Website: thegaminghistorian.com

Patreon: /gaminghistorian

The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Ep. 37: Nokia's Disengaged N-Gage Jun 23, 2021

Show notes

Grace Kramer and Derek Alexander are this week’s guests discussing the Nokia N-Gage from their recent documentary, N-Gage: Cell Phone Gaming's First Big Flop | Past Mortem [SSFF]. While there is some debate on the pronunciation of Nokia depending where you live, there is little doubt to the N-Gage’s major DOA status. Find out what exactly happened, both inside Nokia and out in the marketplace, to put this side-talking cell phone in the Bummer Books of gaming history.

See more from Grace Kramer & Derek Alexander:

Twitter: @stopskeletons

YouTube: /StopSkeletonsFromFighting

Twitch: /stop skeletons from fighting

Patreon: /StopSkeletonsFromFighting

The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Ep. 35: The Dreaded Age Rating Jun 09, 2021

Show notes

We sit down with Jimmy Maher, author of The Digital Antiquarian, to examine his recent four part series: The Ratings Game. This series takes a look at how games came to have age ratings, why it was inevitable and necessary, and the fascinating butterfly effects that came because of it. Maher draws a very clear throughline from a United States Senate hearing controversy over violence in video games in 1993 directly through the inaugural E3 show in 1995. And, spurred by the curiosity of his wife, he even wades through fistfuls of scientific studies on the effects of violence in video games. Do they cause harm to our children?

See more from Jimmy Maher:

The Digital Antiquarian: filfre.net

Patreon: /DigitalAntiquarian

Twitter: @DigiAntiquarian

The Analog Antiquarian:https://analog-antiquarian.net/

The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Ep. 34: The CRPG Book Jun 02, 2021

Show notes

Felipe Pepe takes us through his collaborative, non-profit project to create a historical guide to computer role playing games: The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games. What CRPG’s around the world are cool, interesting, historically important, popular, meaningful, and why are they so? Each entry highlights a game’s eccentricities, context of the time to better understand it, and the straightforward reasons why you should play it (though, there are plenty of games they recommend you don’t play). What started as a six month, 72 item project quickly became a four year, 400 item effort, but only due to overwhelming participation from the community. While the PDF version is completely free for download, all profits from hardcover sales benefit an educational charity in Brazil.

See more from Felipe Pepe:

Hardcover Book: https://www.bitmapbooks.co.uk/products/the-crpg-book-a-guide-to-computer-role-playing-games

Free PDF Book: https://crpgbook.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/crpg_book_2.0-1.pdf

Twitter: @Felipepepe

Website: crpgbook.wordpress.com

Contact: crpgbook@gmail.com

The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Ep. 32: Darkwatch with Eric Switzer May 19, 2021

Show notes

Eric Switzer joins us to share the development and downfall of Darkwatch in his article The Untold Story Of Darkwatch. A vampiric haunted western, Darkwatch could have, in another universe, been a major franchise. But, through a series of acquisitions and mandated pivots, its storyline deadended after only one title. Will this long silent universe ever see its rebirth? Switzer gives us his exciting take on what may come down the line.

See more from Eric Switzer:

Twitter: @EpicSwitzer

Website: thegamer.com

The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Ep. 31: Spacewar!: Dual to the Death May 12, 2021

Show notes

Our podcasting duo takes us back to the dawning of real-time computer games: Spacewar! Alex Smith joins us for round two, being our second second-time guest, to pairaphrase the history of this 2-player game of binary ships thrusting around a gravity-well star, who (reluctantly) wrote it, who modded it, who played it, and who created the first couple of video game controllers ever made. If necessity is the mother of invention, can we agree ‘fun’ is at least a cool aunt? The second generation of computer engineers doubled down on these machines simply being fun toys and spawned an entire industry which now generates more than twice the revenue of both the music and film/TV industries combined!

Play Spacewar!: Masswerk.at

See more from Alex Smith:

Blog: videogamehistorian.wordpress.com

Video Game Pioneers Archive: https://invention.si.edu/node/20723/p/489-videogame-pioneers-archive

Project Transcripts: https://sova.si.edu/details/NMAH.AC.1498?s=0&n=10&t=C&q=&i=0

Book: https://www.routledge.com/They-Create-Worlds-The-Story-of-the-People-and-Companies-That-Shaped-the/Smith/p/book/9781138389908

Podcast: http://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/

The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Ep. 30: Bejeweled: A Match 3 Made in Heaven May 05, 2021

Show notes

Ben Hanson returns to the show to bring us The Oral History Of PopCap Games, a not 4 hour long video in which we learn how the “colors game” spawned the casual juggernaut Bejeweled, the black sheep in the corner made all the money, the PopCap Burrito won’t give us Plants Vs Zombies on our Switches, and the final score is 3-4. Look, I know that doesn’t really make a lot of cents, but you really only need nine.

See more from Ben Hanson:

Twitter: @yozetty

Website: www.Minnmax.com

Patreon: /minnmax

Podcast: The MinnMax Show

The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Show

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