They Create Worlds

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...

TCW Podcast Episode 118 - The Whole Video Game Industry Part 1   This is part one of our four part series looking at the entire video game industry at a very macro level.  We look at the start of computers all the way through to the early video arcades and beyond!  We see the evolution of games on PC, the arcade, and the initial forays into the home.  We even see a hybrid of sorts with games like...

TCW Podcast Episode 117 - Wing Commander   We look at one of the great space flight simulators of the 90's!  Wing Commander is largely attributed to Chris Roberts. However we find out in this episode the many other people who were instrumental in not just the story, but gameplay of Wing Commander.  We can see the true potential of the Siliwood era with the live action cut scenes used in both Wing...

TCW Podcast Episode 116 - The Atari Games You Are Looking For   In this episode we continue our tradition of looking at Atari!  This time a deep look at Atari Games.  We look at the company starting with it's acquisition by Namco.  We look at its progression through the 80's and 90's with many notable games.  Unfortunately during the Siliwood era Atari was reacquired by Time Warner.  After limited...

TCW Podcast Episode 115 - The Return of the Sdraziw of Sir-Tech   Our second part look at Sir-Tech Software!  The company continues to struggle with the release of wizardry V, but makes the transition away from the Apple II with the release of Wizardry VI.  The Wizardry franchise is a major hit in the Japanese PC space.  This leads to Wizardry anime, manga, and Japanese only games.  Sir-Tech still...

TCW Podcast Episode 114 - The Wizards of Sir-Tech   We look at the company Sir-Tech.  Known as "the Wizardry company", and founded by Norman Sirotek and Robert Woodhead.  The company was originally founded to market Info Tree, a database program.  The shift was made into video games starting with the release of Galactic Attack.  With the heavy influences of the games on the PLATO system.  Andrew G...

TCW Podcast Episode 113 - Primordial Computer Game Industry   A big episode looking at two major companies that bridged the gap between the mainframe time sharing age, and the trinity of home computers.  We also look at the lead up to those companies with type in listings in books, and magazines.  We look at the evolution of early PCs, and the eventual development of video display cards designed t...

TCW Podcast Episode 112 - And Landing on it!   We continue our dive into platforming games.  We look at the three main "schools" of thought brought about in the 2-D era.  We start with the fast platforming pioneered by Sonic with Crash Bandicoot.  The cinematic platformer of Prince of Persia is continued with Tomb Raider.  Nintendo, makes its shift into 3-D with Starfox, and the development of the...