They Create Worlds

TCW Podcast Episode 143 -The Prophet of the Avatar   In part two of our look at the Ultima series we start with how Richard came to the morality system that became a central feature of the franchise.  Using a combination of features he likes from various worlds religions, his own experiences, and so on Richard crafted the eight virtues that the play, who would become the avatar, would have to emul...

TCW Podcast Episode 142 - Ultima: Exodus to Akalabeth   In this episode we look at the legendary series of Ultima!  We look at the lead up inspiration, and influences that led to the creation of Ultima.  This episode ties in heavily with our look at Origin Systems.  In this we use the creation of Ultima as a microcosm of the development of the PC industry.  The plight of the bedroom coder.  Wantin...

TCW Podcast Episode 141 - The Console Market of the 70's and 80's Part 2   In our second part we look at the emergence of the programable consoles.  We see how many companies kept falling into the same trap of FCC regulations, heat issues, and chip shortages.  By the time most of these issues were sorted out, with the notable exception of the Apple II being classified as an "industrial computer",...

TCW Podcast Episode 140 - The Console Market of the 70's and 80's Part 1   We look at the early dedicated hardware systems in the United States.  We have talked about many of these companies in the past.  However we have not brought the story together at a large scale looking at the influences these companies had on each other, the consumer market in general, and what the market could handle.  We...

TCW Podcast Episode 139 - Tec Toy and Brazil   We look at the video game industry in Brazil.  A big thanks to Marcus Garrett and his book "1983+1984 " which details a lot of the video game industry in Brazil.  We delve into the interesting history of outside companies operating in Brazil and the gray market that has developed as a result.  Once we have laid the groundwork we look at the company Te...

TCW Podcast Episode 138 - Dave Nutting Associates   This is our second half looking at Dave Nutting and specifically Dave Nutting Associates.  We see how they are able change the industry by showing the viability of solid state Pinball.  Despite the setback of not being able to license the technology to Bally/Midway they pressed on with developing video games.  Specifically Gun Fight which had rea...

TCW Podcast Episode 137 - Dave Nutting & Nutting Industries   In part one of our two part look at the contributions of Dave Nutting to the video game industry, we see where he came from.  Some of his contentious relationship with his brother, and some of the design contributions he did that led to developments in the future with coin-op games.  With the founding of MCI he was able to further f...

TCW Podcast Episode 136 - Ocean Software   We look at the company Ocean Software.  The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods as Spectrum Games, and was later renamed to Ocean Software.  The company specialized in a mail order business harnessing the best of the bedroom coder scene in Brittan to produce ports of popular arcade titles.  In fact the initial offering of the company were clon...

TCW Podcast Episode 135 - The Famicom Disc System   In our second part look at the Family Computer we start off with the launch in Japan.  We see all the early games, and the slow start the system had.  However it rapidly gained steam and gained widespread adoption.  Nintendo faced one of their first challenges which was the overheating of the graphic chip.  Nintendo did a recall and revised the s...

TCW Podcast Episode 134 - Famicom   We look at the Family Computer, or the Famicom's development.  The state Nintendo was in before they entered into home dedicated consoled, and then explored programable consoles.  We look at how the console was developed with the main focus being on cost and quality.  The reason behind the use of the MOS 6502 chipset, sourcing ROM chips, and bringing it together...

TCW Podcast Episode 133 - Rolling Dice with the Parker Brother's   We look at the history of the company Parker Brothers.  Originally a board game company founded in the 1880's we follow the company's growth though the century.  This family owned business was eventually bought by General Mills in 1963, and was brought into the ever expanding non-food properties of the conglomerate.  Starting off w...

TCW Podcast Episode 132 - Eugene Jarvis   We look at the life and story of Eugene Jarvis.  Unique in the industry of being one of, if not the only designers to have lived through and continues to work in the lifespan of the video game arcade industry.  Starting off with Pinball and working at Atari for only two weeks.  Eugene came to be influential in many popular pinball, and arcade games.  Alway...

TCW Podcast Episode 131 - Sir Clive of ZX   In our second part looking at Sir Clive Sinclair we pick up the story where we left off!  We follow Sir Clive Sinclair as he reluctantly develops computers for the British market to fund his other project's.  The wild popularity of the ZX line including the ZX 80, ZX 81, and ZX Spectrum led to a booming home computer market in Brittan. Sinclair even trie...

TCW Podcast Episode 130 - Uncle Clive's Radionics   We look at Sir Clive Sinclair in his early years dealing with creation of electronics for hobbyists.  Sir Clive held a passion for miniaturization and doing so at a low cost.  This started with audio equipment, amplifiers, high fidelity stereo, and FM radios.  This continued into calculators, and digital watches.  Sir Clive wanted to look into mi...

TCW Podcast Episode 129 - The Crash That Almost Was   We look at the crash that almost was.  Most people do not realize that in the mid nineties we came very close to another video game market crash.  A difficult transition was at hand as companies tried to figure out how and if they embrace the third dimension in video games.  Coupled with a declining arcade market.  New hardware costing twice as...

TCW Podcast Episode 128 - Nintendo in 1985   We look at that special time during 1985 when Nintendo did a holiday test market in New York City!  By being in the right place at the right time they were able to, along with market forces, revive the dead home console industry.  They  had quite a challenge with retailers, and a public that were hostile towards games.  Knowing this Nintendo worked to d...

TCW Podcast Episode 127 - Dreams of Sega   We look at the rapid decline of SEGA.  A company mired in infighting between executives.  This led to the disasterous  launch of the Sega Saturn.  Which was launched early as a panic move when faced with the competition from the SONY PlayStation.  SEGA tried again with the Dreamcast, but was hindered by NEC only able to produce a quarter of the promised c...

TCW Podcast Episode 126 - Activision and Atari   We look at the video games that Activision made for the Atari VCS/2600 when the founders of Activision split from Atari.  Activision focused on graphics and presentation as a key factor in the game creation process.  They were able to push the limits of the Atari VCS to do things that were thought impossible by the base system.  The sunset employed...

TCW Podcast Episode 125 - The Visions of Coleco Part 2   In our second part look at Coleco we dive into the electronics and transition into programable consoles.  We see how they influenced the post crash consoles of Nintendo and Sega.  With the release of Colecovision we saw one of the most advanced consoles of the pre crash era.  The system was able to do faithful recreations of many popular arc...

TCW Podcast Episode 124 - The Visions of Coleco Part 1   We look at the Connecticut Leather Company otherwise known as Coleco!  We see how a simple company starting with leather goods transformed into a toy company that spanned multiple generations.  Coleco started exploring electronic toys with games like electric football.  They found themselves uniquely suited to take advantage of the coming Po...

TCW Podcast Episode 123 - A Casual World Part 2   In our continued exploration of casual games we see the rise of match three in popularizing the genre.  Exemplified by games such as Klax, Columns, Bejewed, and Candy Crush.  The continued development and migration to the web further fueled the popularization of casual games.  Reaching the apex today with the help of casual games on Facebook.  That...

TCW Podcast Episode 122 - A Casual World Part 1   We look at the changes in the industry, mindset, and accessibility of games that lead to the formation of casual games.  The early groundwork is set with casual games like Shanghai, Rubix, Reversi, Solitaire, and Tetris.  The development happened organically, almost by accident.  The tales of some of the pioneers that opened the door to what is arg...

TCW Podcast Episode 121 - The Whole Video Game Industry Part 4   In this, our conclusion of the whole video game industry, we start with a look at Xerox Park, and the technologies that came from their endeavors. We see the true formation, merging, and maturation of videogames as an entertainment fixture!  This of course is not without the challenges that stand before any new industry, including in...

TCW Podcast Episode 120 - The Whole Video Game Industry Part 3   This is our third part looking at the entire video game industry.  We start with looking at the European PC industry, and then transitioning into the Arcade industry.  We look at the arcades from both the United States, and Japanese standpoints.   We then see the creation of the Famicom, and its debut in the west as the Nintendo Ente...

TCW Podcast Episode 119 -The Whole Video Game Industry Part 2   We continue our look at the entire video game industry!  In the second part we start looking at the industry leading up to the crash!  We continue the story where part 1 left off.  We see the evolution of the industry along the three lines of arcade, home console, and PC.  We see the pervasive influence of Dungeons and Dragons on the...