Episodes

Episodes | The Life & Times of Video Games

33 - MobyGames

02 Oct 2021

There was no encyclopaedia nor fleshed-out database of video games in 1999. There were barely even any reliable or comprehensive lists of video games. Not until Jim Leonard decided he needed to build one.

He called it MobyGames, and 22 years later it's the de facto source for credits, screenshots, and other general information about video games. It is the "IMDB of video games". This is its story.
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Tags: mobygames, jim leonard, clint basinger, lazy game reviews, john romero, matej jan, retronator, john sczepaniak, tomer gabel

32 - Flight Control

19 May 2021

How a game designed in a week helped to change everything — for the company that made it, for a local industry in turmoil, and for a global industry in transition.

Features interviews with Defiant Development co-founder Morgan Jaffit and Firemint founder / Flight Control creator Rob Murray, along with a clip of former Touch Arcade editor Eli Hodapp.See full show notes and episode player…

Tags: flight control, mobile games, iphone, rob murray, morgan jaffit, australia, firemint, defiant development

30 - The Dragon Speech, and Chris Crawford's improbable dream

09 Dec 2020

Chris Crawford delivering his 1993 lecture

It was "the greatest speech he ever gave in his life", and it marked a turning point in his pursuit of his dream, but it had the note of a eulogy. This is the story of how — and why — the legendary designer Chris Crawford left the games industry in an opening-day lecture at the 1993 Game Developers Conference, an event that he had founded just six years prior.

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Tags: chris crawford, balance of power, balance of the planet, gdc, games as art, interactive storytelling

29 - Utopia, and the teacher who made a game of its impossibility

02 Nov 2020

When Don Daglow pitched management at Mattel on an Intellivision game about trying to build a perfect society, he thought he was just creating a "line filler" in their product calendar. Instead he made one of the most important games of all time.

30698-utopia-intellivision-front-cover A screenshot of 1982 Intellivision game Utopia

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Tags: don daglow, utopia, intellivision, game design, richard bannister, retro games for mac

28 - Transport Tycoon (aka the great optimiser, Chris Sawyer)

28 Sep 2020

On the rise and, um...fade out(?) of Chris Sawyer, the genius creator of bestselling, critically-acclaimed simulation games Transport Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon — who made a career out of working at the cutting-edge, in bare metal assembly code that he wrote and optimised (and optimised again) on his own.

Until the cutting-edge left him behind.

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Tags: chris sawyer, transport tycoon, rollercoaster tycoon, simulation, game design, programming

27 - Links

30 Aug 2020

In 1990, in a bid to move ahead of their rivals, Access Software reinvented virtual golf. Their game Links set the template for golf games over the next decade, with a technological tour de force, and along the way it dominated bestselling PC games charts month after month, year after year. Until suddenly it didn't.

This is the story of Links and the huge shadow it cast over its genre.
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Tags: access software, links, golf, sports games, kevin homer, vance cook

26 - The Nostalgia Box

03 Aug 2020

I go inside Australia's only permanent video game console museum and find that what makes it special is more than just the size of its collection — or the fact that it exists.

A photo of a small section of The Nostalgia Box video game console museum.

A photo of a small section of The Nostalgia Box video game console museum.

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Tags: the nostalgia box, museum, covid-19, australia, perth

25 - Pimps at Sea

09 Apr 2020

Box art mockup for Bungie's April Fools' joke game Pimps at Sea.

It began as an impromptu April Fools' Day gag, but Pimps at Sea was the joke that kept on giving. This is the story of how a chance encounter on the streets of Chicago led to a semi-annual tradition, an industry/fan-favourite insider joke, and a cult classic multiplayer game.

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Tags: bungie, matt soell, pimps at sea, joke games, comedy, halo

24 - Bully (Canis Canem Edit)

27 Feb 2020

A screenshot from the 2006 game Bully with Jimmy fully clothed in the shower, with a bull's head on. He's trespassing, too.

How 2006 PS2 hit Bully (aka Canis Canem Edit) showed an alternate future for Rockstar and the open-world genre, with its compromised-yet-brilliant schoolyard satire — here I dive deep into the game, not for its overblown controversies but rather for its struggles against technological limitations and its triumphs in world-building, satire, and focused, more intimate and structured open-world game design. And I wonder why, nearly 15 years on, open-world games continue to strive for bigger and bigger playgrounds filled with more and more trivial collectibles rather than building on the legacy of Bully's deliberate, glorious smallness.

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Tags: bully, rockstar, open world, ps2, dma design, game design, satire, comedy

23 - The Fog of War

30 Jan 2020

A screenshot of the Warcraft II fog of war in action.

In war, no information is complete. No intelligence absolute. No view of the enemy unobstructed. There’s no such thing as perfect knowledge. It is a realm of uncertainty, where decisions are made on flawed and often outdated data — as though looking through a fog.

Hence the term, the fog of war, a military phrase with origins in the musings of a 19th century Prussian general called Carl von Clausewitz. A phrase that’s since found its way into video game lexicon, and video game design, as we explore here. (Featuring interview clips with former Blizzard lead programmer Patrick Wyatt about the fog of war in Warcraft II and StarCraft.)
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Tags: fog of war, warcraft, blizzard, game design, wargaming, strategy, close combat, adventure, rogue, patrick wyatt, empire

22 - Wololo

24 Dec 2019

The Age of Empires monk in his 'convert' enemy unit pose, with the word wololo printed underneath

The sound designers from Age of Empires I and II, brothers Chris and Stephen Rippy, tell the story behind the iconic "wololo" priest chant — for converting enemy units to your side — that's since become a popular meme, as I delve into its strange legacy.
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Tags: age of empires, sound, chris rippy, stephen rippy, ensemble studios, microsoft, fan culture

21 - Pitfall Harry, the Jungle Runner

22 Nov 2019

Front cover of the US release of Pitfall! for Atari 2600

It’s strange to think of a time before jumping was a standard video game action, to be expected whenever and wherever you have control over an individual character. A time before you could hop onto enemies’ heads and not die, or swing on ropes, or move back and forth across a vast level — many times wider than the screen.

But these ideas were rare, and just beginning to find their way into video game lexicon, when David Crane came along and with one single game turned them into tropes. With just one game that had begun as a simple tech demo of a running man. One game that would go on to define a console generation, amid 64 consecutive weeks atop the Billboard bestsellers chart and a whopping four million lifetime sales on a gaming system that itself sold 30 million units.

That one game is Pitfall!, or Jungle Runner, as it was called during development, an Indiana Jones-like adventure distilled into the (home console) video game technology of the era.

This is the story of Pitfall!'s creation and its phenomenal legacy, pieced together from myriad sources — interviews, reviews, history articles, promo videos, book chapters, retrospectives, and a 2011 postmortem delivered at the Game Developers' Conference by none other than David Crane himself.
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Tags: pitfall, atari 2600, david crane, game design, programming, 1980s, platformers

20 - RealSound™ and Voice Characterisations

08 Nov 2019

A screenshot of Dark Castle (Mac, 1986) showing the Fireball 1 level.

How a quest to put sound in an early Mac game helped usher in a revolution in computer game audio design and production.

Features interviews with tech entrepreneur Charlie Jackson and former Adobe and Microsoft executive Eric Zocher, who together co-founded 1980s software company Silicon Beach Software — a pioneer in creative software tools and desktop publishing, as well as the publisher of several popular games (two of which we cover here: Airborne and the original Mac version of Dark Castle).
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Tags: silicon beach, dark castle, airborne, eric zocher, charlie jackson, mark stephen pierce, jonathan gay, mac, 1980s, music, sound, audio design, voice acting, dick noel

19 - Premier Manager

03 Sep 2019

Amiga_Format_Issue_065_1994_11_Future_Publishing_GB_0064

On the rise and fall of the Premier Manager series of soccer management games — a former PC gaming juggernaut that lost its way amidst a shuffle of developers and publishers — and the part it played in the broader consolidation and homogenisation of sports games (of all kinds) over the past 20 years or so.See full show notes and episode player…

Tags: game design, gremlin, infogrames, premier manager, british games, business, championship manager, football manager, sports interactive, soccer, sports games, amiga, pc

18 - Hogs of War

25 Jul 2019

Far from a mere "Worms in 3D", Hogs of War was its own breed of madness. Hear the story of how it evolved from a concept of "Command and Conquer with pigs", what made it such a well-designed satire, and how this underrated PlayStation game saw the funny side of serious global conflict.See full show notes and episode player…

Tags: game design, gremlin, worms, hogs of war, infogrames, ps1, artillery, british games, multiplayer games, command and conquer, comedy, satire

17 - Super Mario Kart

01 Jul 2019

Screenshot of the Rainbow Road track from Super Mario Kart

How Nintendo and its mascot created a genre, and a combat-racing franchise heavyweight, and in the process gave us a masterclass in game balance, with the best-selling 1992 Super Nintendo game Super Mario Kart.See full show notes and episode player…

Tags: game design, super mario kart, nintendo, super nintendo, mario, racing, multiplayer games, japanese games

16 - Sega Rally Championship

08 Jun 2019

Sega Rally Championship changed everything for the racing genre, and the 1995 off-road arcade hit was an incredible game too. This is the story of its development, critical reception, and long-term legacy.See full show notes and episode player…

Tags: game design, sega rally championship, sega, rally games, tetsuya mizuguchi, japanese games, multiplayer games, ridge racer, racing, daytona usa, arcade, kenji sasaki, colin mcrae, sega saturn

15 - The Boss Button

16 May 2019

The boss key for 1982 game Bezare brings up a mock spreadsheet like the one here, which breaks down a household budget.

Before computers had proper multitasking support and quick shortcuts for changing apps, playing games when you're not supposed to be could be super risky. But if there's one thing that's been a constant in technology, it's that wherever there are computers, there are also games. And for a while, in the 1980s and 90s, many game developers actually put in a special key command that would bring up a fake productivity screen. This is the story of the rise and fall of the boss button.See full show notes and episode player…

Tags: boss button, boss key, roger wagner, brøderbund, hackers, spacewar, boss coming, games at work, bezare, maze, apple ii, plato, dave lebling, brand fortner, plato, windows 95, dos, mac, pc

14 - Lode Runner

01 May 2019

A screenshot of Lode Runner for the Apple II

The story of how a terrible description of the Donkey Kong arcade game led to the creation of Lode Runner, one of the greatest games of all time and one of the earliest games with a built-in level editor. See full show notes and episode player…

Tags: game design, apple ii, arcade, brøderbund, doug smith, level editors, lode runner, puzzle games, donkey kong, mainframe games

13 - Girl Games, Inc.

23 Nov 2018

On the 90s girl games movement, and its assault on the status quo of the video game market, featuring Girl Games Inc founder and former filmmaker Laura Groppe.See full show notes and episode player…

Tags: game design, girl games, laura groppe, brenda laurel, business, theresa duncan, barbie, mattel, teen digital diva, marketing, 90s gaming

12 - Microsoft Games

01 Nov 2018

Before something like the Xbox could ever hope to exist, Microsoft first needed to learn how to be a successful games publisher on the PC. This is the story — or part of it — of how Microsoft got games, featuring input from four key Microsoft Game Studios people — Ed Fries, Stuart Moulder, Ed Ventura, Jon Kimmich — and Age of Empires co-creator Rick Goodman.See full show notes and episode player…

Tags: microsoft, pc, ed fries, jon kimmich, ed ventura, stuart moulder, age of empires, flight simulator, xbox, close combat, games publishing, rick goodman, business, marketing

11 - Bomberman

19 Jul 2018

On June 11th, 2018, character designer and artist Shoji Mizuno passed away. He was a key figure back in the 1990s at the now-defunct Hudson Soft, a renowned Japanese games publisher — having directed art or design, or sometimes both, on more than a dozen games in the popular Bomberman franchise as well as providing original character designs for the Beyblade anime series.

Since this year is also the 35th anniversary of the release of the first Bomberman game on the MSX, I thought now would be a good time to look back on how the explosive puzzle franchise made its way into the world — and into the hearts of millions.See full show notes and episode player…

Tags: game design, bomberman, hudson soft, shoji mizuno, japanese games, multiplayer games, eric and the floaters, dynablaster

10 - Dogz

14 Jun 2018

Frustrated by the unjustified furore that surrounded his tame interactive movie game, designer Rob Fulop turned to Santa for help. And with a clever business model he and his team at PF Magic invented a new kind of game, one in which you adopt and care for a digital animal — a virtual dog or cat, or something more exotic, with a personality and needs and quirks not unlike a real one.See full show notes and episode player…

Tags: game design, catz, dogz, hexing, night trap, petz, pf magic, rob fulop, simulation, virtual pets, us congressional hearings into video game violence

9 - Midwinter

28 Mar 2018

On the late Mike Singleton and the importance of Midwinter and The Lords of Midnight, his two great works. After switching from high school English teaching to professional game development in the 1980s, Mike quickly rose to the top of the industry. His games pushed the limits of what was possible, and he routinely crafted worlds that were way ahead of their time.

Here, based on archival research and old magazine interviews, I present part of his incredible story.

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Tags: game design, amiga, atari st, midwinter, mike singleton, open world, the lords of midnight, british games

8 - The Tomb Raider grid (part 2)

18 Feb 2018

Continuing the story from Part 1, this is how the original Tomb Raider's grid-based engine/level editor impacted on the series, on Lara Croft's rise to fame, and on the shifting sands of blockbuster game development. This episode also discusses the place that such a grid system has — or might have — in game design today. Featuring input from former Core Design artists and level designers Heather Stevens and Andy Sandham as well as programmer Gavin Rummery.See full show notes and episode player…

Tags: game design, 3D, core design, lara croft, level editors, tomb raider, gavin rummery, heather stevens, andy sandham, toby gard

7 - The Tomb Raider grid (part 1)

23 Dec 2017

A screenshot of Lara doing a swan dive in Tomb Raider III

Every aspect of the original Core Design Tomb Raider series (and by extension the franchise's success post-Core) comes back to the grid that lies beneath it — the majority of the puzzles; the platforming; the cavernous chambers and ruins and outdoor areas that provide a sense of isolation, of solitude and discovery; and Lara Croft's iconic acrobatic movement style.

And yet it never would have happened if not for one pragmatic choice made by a programmer early in the game's development.

This is the story of how that came to be, and how it made Tomb Raider…well, Tomb Raider, based on interviews with Heather Stevens (née Gibson) and Gavin Rummery as well as my past work covering Tomb Raider's history as a freelancer.

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Tags: game design, 3D, lara croft, tomb raider, toby gard, heather stevens, gavin rummery, core design, level editors

6 - ROM Hack

11 Nov 2017

At the dawn of emulation and the World Wide Web, a group of fans discovered the Nintendo and Super Nintendo games that never made it over from Japan. One of them decided to hack into a few of these and translate them, unofficially, with help from some friends — starting with Final Fantasy II for the NES.

Featuring quotes from Steve Demeter, founder of one of the first fan translation groups, Demiforce, who was the driving force behind three high-profile ROM hacks — the Final Fantasy II and Radical Dreamers translation projects, and the Earthbound Zero prototype release.

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Tags: chrono trigger, demiforce, earthbound, emulation, fan translations, final fantasy, nes, radical dreamers, rom hacking, super nintendo, steve demeter

5 - FIFA 3DO

23 Oct 2017

A story from the dawn of 3D sports games, and the forgotten link between the 16-bit isometric and 32-bit 3D EA Sports games — this is how FIFA 3DO transformed the way sport was represented in video games.See full show notes and episode player…

Tags: game design, 3D, fifa, ea sports, isometric, marc aubanel, soccer, sports games, 3DO

4 - Bug Salad

15 Oct 2017

How a marketing guy at shareware game publisher Ambrosia Software ended up eating bugs in front of hundreds of people at Macworld New York 2000.
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Tags: ambrosia software, bugs, cythera, jason whong, mac, macworld, marketing, PR, shareware

3 - Color Cycling

01 Oct 2017

This is the story of illustrator Mark Ferrari, whose artwork was so good it forced Lucasfilm Games to figure out how to make a graphics technique called dithering compress to fit on floppy disks — in the process winning awards and triggering the use of dither in the wider games industry — and who pioneered the use of two background illustration tricks that gave the illusion of animation. He became world-renowned for his colour cycling and palette shifting techniques, which could be used to make a single computer illustration appear alive.
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Tags: graphic adventures, colour cycling, deluxe paint, dithering, art, gary winnick, loom, lucasarts, lucasfilm, mark ferrari, palette shifting, scumm, seize the day, thimbleweed park, illustration

2 - Airfight

16 Sep 2017

The story of the one of the earliest flight simulator games, Airfight, a favourite among the PLATO community back in 1973, based on an interview with its creator. Airfight was a multiplayer flight combat sim with wireframe graphics and real-time chat, and it was an influence on the first home computer flight simulator, subLOGIC's fittingly-named 1980 game Flight Simulator for the Apple II and TRS-80.
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Tags: game design, airfight, brand fortner, bruce artwick, flight simulator, multiplayer games, plato, silas warner, simulation, sublogic

1 - Race to the Bottom

06 Sep 2017

In the early days of the iPhone App Store, game developers found themselves locked in a race to a $0.99 price point that none of them wanted to become standard. This is the story of how that happened, and how it affected mobile games going forward.
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Tags: airwings, app store, brian greenstone, enigmo, iphone, mobile games, pangea, pocket gamer, marketing, business