This Week in Video Game History

Two companies stared down bankruptcy this week — and two games pulled them back from the edge. This is July 6th through 12th in gaming history. A young artist named Shigeru Miyamoto turns two thousand dead arcade cabinets into Donkey Kong and saves Nintendo. A near-bankrupt studio called Square bets everything on one last role-playing game and names it accordingly. A summer arrives when the entire...

Video game history, one week at a time. Episode 24 covers June 29–July 5 — the week the original iPhone launched in 2007 unable to play a single game, and the story of how mobile went on to become the biggest force in gaming. We run the timeline from Diablo II and NiGHTS into Dreams to Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Civilization Revolution 2, Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow, Zenless Zone Zero, and...

Five legendary games. One date. June 23rd is the strangest, most loaded square on the entire gaming calendar — and this week we walk through all of it. From the birth of Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Genesis to Super Mario 64 launching the Nintendo 64, the immersive-sim landmark Deus Ex, Sonic Adventure 2's farewell on the dying Dreamcast, and Batman: Arkham Knight — plus Quake dragging the w...

This Week in Video Game History covers June 15th through June 21st — five releases and three deep-dive stories tied together by one idea: the day a game comes out is almost never the day that decides what it becomes. On the timeline: Among Us (2018), the InnerSloth social deduction game that flopped on release and became the defining game of 2020; Wrecking Crew (1985), the early Nintendo puzzle ga...

This week on This Week in Video Game History , we cover June 8th through June 14th — a single week that gave us two of the most acclaimed games ever made and the strangest lucky streak on Nintendo's entire calendar. We run the timeline day by day: Torn Banner's gloriously chaotic medieval brawler Chivalry 2 (2021); Radical Entertainment and Activision's open-world monster Prototype (20...

This week on This Week in Video Game History, we're covering June 1st through June 7th — a week that runs from 1984 Moscow to 2023 and hits some of the most fascinating stories in gaming along the way. On the timeline: Super Mario Bros. 2 on the Famicom Disk System — the brutally difficult Japanese sequel Nintendo of America refused to release, later rebranded as The Lost Levels. The Legend of...

0:00 -- Cold Open 1:40 -- Intro 2:34 -- Smash Ping Pong - May 30, 1987 3:54 -- Zero Wing - May 31, 1992 5:04 -- Tokimeki Memorial - May 27, 1994 6:20 -- The Lion King (NES) - May 25, 1995 7:48 -- Worms Armageddon - May 31, 1999 9:14 -- Mario Kart 8 -- May 29, 2014 10:25 -- Deep Dive: Dragon Quest and the Strange American Journey of the JRPG 11:50 -- Deep Dive: Splatoon and the Console That Shouldn...

0:00 - Cold Open 1:54 - Intro 2:50 - May 22, 1980 -- Pac-Man 4:40 - May 1980 -- Golden Axe 6:31 - May 22, 2000 -- Perfect Dark 8:34 - May 18, 2010 -- Red Dead Redemption 10:27 - May 18, 2015 -- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 12:38 - Deep Dive 1 -- Pac-Man's Cultural Invasion 14:46 - Deep Dive 2 -- CD Projekt Red: Poland's Game 16:34 - Deep Dive 3 -- The Burlingame Moment: May 24, 1972 19:05 - Ou...

May 11th through May 17th gave us the first E3, the birth of Guilty Gear, a Japan-only Fire Emblem that never officially left the country, Skate 3's unlikely second life on YouTube, and the story of Team Bondi — the studio that built L.A. Noire's revolutionary face technology, worked itself into the ground, and was liquidated five months after shipping its only game. Plus the press release...

Every first-person shooter you've ever played started with one shareware floppy uploaded to a BBS in May 1992. This week we're covering Wolfenstein 3D, Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, EVE Online, Red Dead Revolver, Plants vs. Zombies, Prey, and Resident Evil Village — plus three deep dives: how Capcom cancelled the game that became Red Dead, why E3 2006 was the most...

In this episode, we take a deep dive into the 2011 PlayStation Network outage, pay tribute to the Noble 14, and look at how Nintendo purchased a Legendary RPG maker for the cost of a house. Timeline this week: - Mario Kart Wii - Grand Theft Auto IV - Star Fox 64 - Nier - Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Breath of Fire IV - Bomberman Herof A video version of this episode is hosted here: https:/...

This week we are covering April 13th through April 19th — a week that gave us one of gaming's greatest cult classics that almost nobody bought, a DC Comics fighting franchise that redefined superhero games, the most beloved puzzle sequel of its generation, a neo-noir indie that took six years to make and became an instant classic, a shooter that had absolutely no business being on a Nintendo c...

This week in Video Game History looks at April 6 - 12. Some great games came out this week, and some amazing events that have shaped the gaming world happened this week!

0:00 - Teaser 0:43 - Intro 1:43 - Timeline Intro 2:44 - Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite 3:25 - Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes 4:15 - Kirby's Adventure 4:56 - Black & White 5:55 - Bioshock: Infinite 6:47 - Diablo III: Reaper of Souls 7:33 - Deep Dive: Resident Evil 10:35 - Deep Dive: Nintendo Holy Day 10:59 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 12:42 - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker 1...

In this Episode: - Pac-Man - Punch-Out!!! - EverQuest - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Animal Crossing: New Horizions - The Founding of Konami - The Sims Dethrones Myst Video Credits Atari 2600 Longplay Pac-Man: @worldoflongplays Arcade Long Play Punch-Out: @worldoflongplays Everquest Original Trailer: @everquest The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Trailer: @bethesda Animal Crossing: New Horizions -...

0:00 - Teaser 0:50 - Intro 1:27 - Timeline 1:42 - Ms. Pac-Man 2:13 - Super Mario RPG 2:51 - Titanfall 3:31 - God of War II 4:25 - Ori and the Blind Forest 5:13 - Starcraft 2 6:03 - Feature: Chrono Trigger 8:02 - Outro Video Credits Chrono Trigger Intro: ⁨@ShiryuGL⁩ Ms Pac-Man: ⁨@oldclassicgame⁩ Super Mario RPG: ⁨@MegamanNG⁩ Titanfall: ⁨@IGN⁩ God of War II Trailer: ⁨@IGN⁩ Ori and the Blind Forest T...

This Week in Video Game History March 2 - 8 In this episode: 0:00 - Flash back to PS2/Switch launches 1:11 - Intro 2:30 - Timeline Start 2:49 - Ninja Gaiden 3:40 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 4:19 - Donkey Kong II 4:47 - Dragon Age 2 5:35 - Mass Effect 3 6:41 - PS2 and Switch Launch Looks 6:56 - PS2 Release 8:05 - Switch Release 9:10 - Outro #gaming #retrogaming #videogames #nintendo #...

This Week in Video Game History February February 23 - March 1In this episode:- Pokemon Day (February 27, 1996)- Brief History of Sports games--- Ralph Baer Demos Brown Box (February 24, 1968)--- Intellivision Major League Baseball (February 28, 1980)--- Intellivision NFL Football (February 28, 1980)--- EA Sports MVP Baseball 2005 (March 1, 2005)- Space Invaders port comes to Atari (February 28, 1...

This Week in Video Game History February 16 - 22 In this episode: - Nintendo Releases the Famicom Disk System - The Legend of Zelda - The Legend of Zelda II - Starfox (SNES) - PlayStation Vita launches in the US - Horizion Forbidden West - Destiny 2: The Witch Queen - The New 3DS XL hits North America - PS4 Unveiling - EA Aquires Criterion - The Xbox Multiplatform Pivot Special thanks to The Gamin...

This Week in Video Game History February 2 - February 8In this episode:- Release Timeline - Dragon Warrior III (February 10, 1988) - X-Men Arcade (February 12, 1992) - Super Mario 3 (February 12, 1990) - Metroid: Zero Mission (February 9, 2004) - World of Warcraft Launches in Europe (February 11, 2005) - R.C. Pro Am (February 1988) - Mario Kart 64 (February 10, 1997)- Ralph Baer demonstrates TV Ga...

This Week in Video Game History February 2 - February 8 In this episode: - Quick Hits: - Paper Mario (Feb 5, 2001) - Valheim (Feb 2, 2021) - Helldivers 2 (Feb 8, 2024) - Defender (Feb 1981) - Contra on NES (~Feb 2, 1981) - The Death of Flappy Bird (Feb 8, 2014) - Sony sells Sony Online Entertainment (Feb 2, 2015) - The Sims is released (Feb 4, 2000)

This Week in Video Game History January 26 - February 1In this episode:- Quick Hits: - Silent Hill (Jan 31, 1999) - Mass Effect 2 (Jan 26, 2010 - Dying Light (Jan 27, 2015) - Kingdom Hearts III (Jan 29, 2019)- The Fall of Hardware Sega- The Great Betrayal - Final Fantasy VII's Japanese Launch

The first episode of This Week in Video Game History! In this episode:- Capcom Coincidence- Indie Class of 2018- The Shadow Drop Hear 'round the World- The Viral Anomoly