Video Game History Hour

Much the way we all set our status to not show when we’re in a game, the Game and Watch was originally created to allow Japanese sallarymen to play games at work while their boss was none the wiser. This week we’re joined by Matt Alt as he discusses his article, “ How Gunpei Yokoi Reinvented Nintendo ,” which is pulled from a chapter in his new book Pure Invention . See more from Matt Alt: Twitter...

In his documentary, Insert Coin , Josh Tsui explored the good, the bad, and the ugly of Midway Games' Studio from varying management styles and their resulting culture to the magic formula for sequel games. Listen in with the guy who knows where all the skeletons are buried and learn how the NBA may owe much of its current popularity to NBA Jam. See more from Josh Tsui: Twitter: @insertcoindoc Ins...

In this turn-based interview, Sid Meier takes us from zero to 255 and brings the show nuclear! Well, at least that’s the rumor. Sid opens up his lifelong dev notes to discuss how he got started in games, why he decided to write his recent book, Sid Meier’s Memoir! , and how he’s better at Red Baron than an actual fighter pilot. On a personal note, we can officially say Sid agrees: dinosaurs are th...

Garry Kitchen joins the podcast to discuss his lifelong career in gaming and how spending his summer of 1982 porting Nintendo’s Donkey Kong over to the Atari 2600 was tedious, but worth it. He’d also like you to know he’s a hell of a good ROM hacker, Mario’s eye is just a void, and you’re darn right he slanted those ramps. See more from Garry Kitchen: Twitter: @kitchengarry Medium: https://garryki...

Spoiler Alert: It’s a monkey wrench! You find a banana to put on the metronome to hypnotize the monkey to put in your pocket to take to the waterfall to use on the valve as a “monkey wrench.” *puff, puff* Oh, you don’t have monkey wrenches in your country? Mm okay, that may throw a spanner into the works… Pete Armour and Frank get pretty far into the weeds of The Making of Monkey Island (30th Anni...

Though it’s the reason he was hired as a video producer at Game Informer, Ben Hanson back-burnered his documentary, Trailheads: The Oregon Trail's Origins Documentary , for 11 years on a game that took 5 days to create (don’t we all have some project like that?). And yet, the wait has been worth it: You’re gonna party like it’s 1999 when you find out what role the late Prince may have played in Th...

The Video Game History Hour kicks off its inaugural episode with Mr. Gaming Historian himself, Norman Caruso, who recently published a nearly 45-minute long YouTube documentary about the 1992 Super Nintendo title, Mario Paint. By providing the context of history, Norm ‘paints’ us a full picture of how and why this classic title came to be, who it was made for, and what this program inspired to com...

Matt Leone, features editor of Polygon, recently published the second in a series of articles delving into the history of the Street Fighter franchise: Street Fighter 1: An oral history . Matt helps us understand the market conditions that made this game unique for its time and how it served as a foundation to a wildly successful giant in fighting game history. Hear more from Matt Leone: Twitter:...

We sit down with Ally McLean to discuss her recent article The Incredible Story Behind The Barbie As Rapunzel Video Game to learn some behind-the-scenes stories of how Barbie as Rapunzel came to be. From being heckled at GDC, to stalking MC Hammer’s press tour, all the way to how this game even inspired Ms. McLean’s own career. In this interview, Ally takes us through her very personal journey int...

Putting aside his ‘imposter syndrome’ feelings, video game journalist Elijah Lee asked, “Who was the first female video game designer” in his A First Lady of Gaming microdocumentary. Lee takes us through a bit of Muriel Tramis’ progressive and lightning-in-a-bottle career, laments the heartbreaking loss of history to the maw of time, and aims to support activism for young women. Find more content...

Industry experts Frank Cifaldi and Kelsey Lewin, co-Directors of the Video Game History Foundation, bring on fellow content creators, game developers, video game historians, and story tellers to teach us a little bit about video game history. Our casual, “chatting over coffee” style interviews let us see the true life of a researcher: bang-your-head-against-a-wall dead-ends, “I can’t believe no on...