They Create Worlds

TCW Podcast Episode 111 - Jumping to It!   We leap around to the myriad of games that were influential in the development of  platformer genre.  Starting with an evolution from Space Invaders into Heiankyo Alien; the concept was thrown onto its side with Space Panic.  Further refinement brought in jumping with Donkey Kong.  Platformers were not as suited for the arcade scene, and ended up truly fi...

TCW Podcast Episode 110 - Books of History   We look at the many books dealing with video game history.  Starting off with books that were primarily strategy guides, and had tidbits of historical interest woven in.  As time progressed journalists, and industry insiders started to write books that included more history and even interviews with the people involved.  As time moved on more comprehensi...

TCW Podcast Episode 109 - Adventuring with LucasArts Part 2   This our second half looking at LucasArts adventure games.  We look at a company that for a time could do no wrong!  Innovative storytelling, and gameplay with Monkey Island 2, Day of the Tentacle, and Sam & Max hit the Road being prime examples.  However due to retail outlets, competition, and the continuing technological advanceme...

TCW Podcast Episode 108- Adventuring with LucasArts Part 1   We look at LucasFilm games, AKA LucasArts.  Not the company as a whole, but their influence on adventure games.  Not only were they instrumental in advancing adventure games, they were able to affect the industry as a whole.  We look briefly at the formation of the company, and get into some of their early projects.  A young contractor,...

TCW Podcast Episode 107 - Storytime with a Book   We read from chapter 18 of "They Create Worlds: The People and Companies that Shaped the Video Game Industry Vol. 1," which discusses the impact of Breakout on Japan.  There are some tangents, other story times, and we bring a lot of things discussed over the years into a more complete perspective.  We also learn about the mysteries of magnets.   S...

TCW Podcast Episode 106 - The Small Voice of Magnavox   Magnavox continues to strive for survival as an axillary of Philips.  While people close to the video game division continue to be optimistic about their offerings; management at Philips was not so.  The company continued to be plagued with production shortfalls with new chips, FCC approval problems, and new competition.  They were able to ma...

TCW Podcast Episode 105 - The Big Voice of Magnavox   We look at the company of Magnavox.  Started around the turn of the century getting into electronics with voice amplification, and eventually radios.  Magnavox continued with home  electronics in televisions and stereo systems.  Unfortunately their visionary leader died unexpectedly, and with the rise of non-American television manufacturers pu...

TCW Podcast Episode 104- A Holistic View of ET   The game that has become so shrouded in myth and legend is brought to light in this holiday episode!  We look at how E.T. was thrust upon Atari by Warner in a bid to bring Stephen Spielberg in to makes movies for Warner.  With a massive royalty overhead, a short five week production time, and a massive brain drain at Atari Howard Scott Warshaw stepp...

TCW Podcast Episode 103 - Elite Systems   We look at one of the British software companies Elite Systems.  The company was originally named Richard Wilcox software, and was founded as a collaboration between two brothers with the encouragement of their father.   Owing to Richard still being a teenager, had schooling, and could not make programing a full-time career at the time the decision was mad...

TCW Podcast Episode 102 - Stern Electronics   We look at the short history of Stern Electronics.  A company that has influenced and been influenced by multiple other companies through its people.  We cover the paths of many of these people including the founder Gary Stern.  During the transition to video games in the late 70's and early 80's Stern was the American arm for Konami bringing over many...

TCW Podcast Episode 101 - Infocom We look at the short life of Infocom.  A company that fell into the videogame sphere.  Best known for their text adventure games, including the renowned game Zork.  They started off as a company to keep creative minds together from MIT, and brought forth unique developments including using virtualization for video games.  Due to lack of innovation, combined with i...

TCW Podcast Episode 100 - The 100 Most Influential Games Part 3   And at long last, TCW Episode 100!  To celebrate our 100th episode, we finish our countdown of the 100 most influential video games of all time.  This time, we look at only 20 games, but these are the games we have deemed the absolutely most essential for shaping the video game industry as it exists today.  We present these final tw...

TCW Podcast Episode 099 -  The 100 Most  Influential Games Part 2   And now, forty more games drawn from our list of the 100 most influential games of all time! Presented in no particular order, this list of hits and obscurities provides an overview of video game history through some of the most important milestone titles.  This batch of forty games tend to be of more recent vintage, with RPGs, MM...

TCW Podcast Episode 098 - The 100 Most Influential Games Part 1   In a completely arbitrary order we look at what we feel are the 100 most influential games.  Starting off with the first 40 games!  These are 100 games that we consider influential or important to the development of the modern industry. Some are popular, some are obscure, some you will wonder why we were crazy enough to pick them, b...

TCW Podcast Episode 097 - Revisions and Updates 2   The podcast is four years old!  We celebrate by looking back at past episodes, and revising subjects that Alex has found new information on!  There is, of course, more and new information in regards to Atari.  We also do some speculation into the origin of Scramble, some commentary on what has been going on at Blizzard Entertainment, and some new...

TCW Podcast Episode 096 - Hello Big Blue   We look at Big Blue and their continuing development of computers in both business, and the home.  We see how IBM had to deal with the eye of the government still looking at them for monopolistic practices.  Eventually IBM found out they needed to enter the micro-computer market.  They spun off a group that had a mandate to get a computer together in a ye...

TCW Podcast Episode 095 - Hello Little Blue   A sorted history involving scams, monopolies, and acts of petty revenge predate the company the world would see dominate the computer industry in the 70's and 80's.  What started as an umbrella company became, under Tom Watson St's leadership, a tabulating company that grew to prominence in the great depression.  Later on his son Tom Watson Jr would le...

TCW Podcast Episode 094 - Epyx not Epic   This is an epic story about Epyx.  But don't confuse it with Epic!  We look at the computer game company, and the many bits of software that had influences at the dawn of home computing.  Everything from the first RPGs to action games that are remembered fondly, especially in Europe.   Not to mention the worldwide appeal of the Games series featuring Olymp...

TCW Podcast Episode 093 - Books-B-Ware   We look at what was largely a footnote in video game history.  However it is notable as an early attempt at the integration of traditional media and the computer revolution.  There are parallels between bookware and the Siliwood era that came after.  Many of the games were stifled by the limitations in hardware at the time.  Still there are some notable col...

TCW Podcast Episode 092 - Citing Apologies   A filler episode, with some updates on upcoming podcast items, and Alex's first book.  Due to Alex trying to meet a deadline for the book we were unable to record until a few days before release.  Nothing really historical covered, however a few interesting tidbits in this short episode!   Simpsons "Brownest of the brown liquors": https://www.youtube.co...

TCW Podcast Episode 091 - Bally: The Road to Fitness   In our continuing look at Bally we see the shifting landscape ad they evolve and develop gambling machines.  This is not to mean that pinball was neglected.  Bally, with an eye to innovation and technology, introduced some of the first sold state pinball machines!  They were also, through some luck, brought in with licensing deals with The Who...

TCW Podcast Episode 090 - Lion and Bally Manufacturing   What will they do in '32? Ballyhoo! We examine the origins of the Bally Manufacturing Company, makers of pinball and slot machines and operators of fitness centers. While Bally rarely ever created video games under its own name, the company was a domineering force in the coin-operated amusement and gambling spaces and through its subsidiarie...

TCW Podcast Episode 089 - The Dawn of Computers and Gaming   We look at the dawn of computers.  Not just people; but analog, electronic, and digital computers!  We look at how the early games on the computer were not so much games as demonstration programs or simple AI to play games like tic-tac-toe, NIM, checkers, and, of course, chess.  We look at how the work done during WWII around RADAR playe...

TCW Podcast Episode 088 - Gotta Go Fast!   Since we covered Mario a few episodes ago, it is only fair that we cover his great rival, not Bowser, but Sonic!  We go at not quite sonic speed over the creation of the character and franchise.  Sonic's interesting inception was brought about through a character submission process.  Sonic is the melding of a rabbit, a character called "Mr. Needlemouse,"...

TCW Podcast Episode 087 - Virtual History   And now we discuss at the technology that has been just a few months away from revolutionizing video games for the past thirty years, virtual reality. While a hot topic again due to the emergence of the Occulus Rift and the PS4 VR, virtual reality has been a Holy Grail of computer graphics research since the early 1960s. We examine the origins of VR at t...