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

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

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