Video Game Newsroom Time Machine

The modern world of gaming revolves around designers and programmers being able to harness the raw power of today's high end GPUs.  APIs make this task manageable and no API set has been more important in the tradition from software rendered graphics to the age of the GPU than Direct3D. We speak with one of its original architects, Servan Keondjian, about is initial work on machines like the ZX81,...

Commodore goes portable IBM introduces the XT Nintendo shows off Game and Watch These stories and many more on this episode of the VGNRTM This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in February 1983.  As always,  we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the actual events. Alex Smith of They Create Worlds...

Video game violence begins to make operators uneasy 3DO plans to shake up console biz Federal investigation into Nintendo dropped These stories and many more on this episode of the VGNRTM This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in February 1993.  As always,  we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind t...

Few eras of gaming history are more legend filled than the British bedroom coder boom of the early 1980s.  Martin Wheeler wasn't just one of them but continues to be a pioneer or one-man coding in the VR space of today. Recorded March 2022. Get us on your mobile device: Android:  https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly92aWRlb2dhbWVuZXdzcm9vbXRpbWVtYWNoaW5lLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz iOS:      htt...

Atari announces mass layoffs, Time names the personal computer the man of the year & Nintendo launches the Game and Watch in North America These stories and many more on this episode of the VGNRTM This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in February 1983.  As always,  we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit...

  Sony and Nintendo break up, Intel christens the Pentium & EA and ESPN bury the hatchet These stories and many more on this episode of the VGNRTM This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in January 1993. As always, we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the actual events.   Wouter, aka Wiedo, is ou...

Compaq gives birth to the PC clone,  Commodore and TI declare war on Sinclair &  A day of reckoning awaits the software business These stories and many more on this episode of the VGNRTM This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in January 1983. As always,  we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the...

Sega launches the SegaCD, Nintendo and Sony kiss and make up & Intel goes multitasking These stories and many more on this episode of the VGNRTM This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in December 1992. As always, we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the actual events. Mads from the Retro Asylum...

The video game market crashes, Coinop is on the skids & Home computer competition heats up These stories and many more on this episode of the VGNRTM This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in December 1982. As always, we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the actual events. Wouter, aka Wiedo, is o...

Super FX brings 3D to the SNES NeoGeo breaks the 100 meg barrier The 1200 brings the Amiga into the modern age These stories and many more on this episode of the VGNRTM This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in November 1992. As always, we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the actual events. Dal...

Atari, Bally, Sega, Namco and so many more... our guest today, Roger Hector, has seen the industry from every perspective during a career that has spanned more than three decades. He shares with us insights into his passions and philosophies on game design, art, and surviving corporate cultures Recorded March 2022. Get us on your mobile device: Android: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM...

While Warner was crashing due to lower than expected holiday sales from their Atari unit, the rest of the market, competing consoles like Colecovision and Intellivision, as well as game makers like Activision, Imagic, and Parker Brothers, all felt the seismic repercussions of the goliath's fall. In this second part of our look back at the Video Game Crash, we find out what happened to all the othe...

Coinop income plummets Wall Street short sellers smell blood Vic20 sales hit a million These stories and many more on this episode of the VGNRTM This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry inNovember 1982. As always, we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the actual events. Jeff from the Retro Games Sq...

ATTENTION:  This is a re-upped version of the episode with corrected audio.  We apologize for the previous entry. On December 8th, 1982, Warner Communications, parent company of Atari, announced that their guidance to investors concerning their profit outlook would be dramatically lower than it had expected. While many in the video game space had felt unease at the meteoric rise of the industry ov...

Arcades take on theme parks Amstrad and Sega team up EA buys Origin These stories and many more on this episode of the VGNRTM This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in October 1992. As always, we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the actual events. Jon from the Retro Games Squad is our cohost. Y...

No family name is more associated with the early popularization of computers than Tramiel. We speak with Leonard Tramiel, son of Commodore co-founder Jack Tramiel about his life growing up around tech, his role in Commodore's earliest machines and becoming VP of Software at Atari. In this second part of our interview, Leonard talks about the reshaping of Atari after the crash, the creation of the...

No family name is more associated with the early popularization of computers than Tramiel. We speak with Leonard Tramiel, son of Commodore co-founder Jack Tramiel about his life growing up around tech, his role in Commodore's earliest machines and becoming VP of Software at Atari. In this first part of our interview Leonard talks about programming Commodore calculators, advising his dad on the ent...

Distributors give conversion boards the cold shoulder Atari looks down on the competition The computer price war heats up These stories and many more on this episode of the VGNRTM This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in October 1982. As always, we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the actual e...

Xbox sales figures soar 3D gaming is coming to your cellphone Cryo is no more These stories and many more on this episode of the VGNRTM This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in September 2002. As always, we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the actual events. Get us on your mobile device: Andro...

No company did more to make computers household items than Commodore. Many great names are associated with that success, Chuck Peddle, Jack Tramiel, Irving Gould, and many more, but maybe more important than any of them was the man that made sure the funds for such lofty goals were available, that man was Don Greenbaum, banker and later treasurer of Commodore. We talk about those early days at Com...

Fears of violence in games make coinop jittery Multimedia takes on 3D for the future of gaming Capcom partners up with Sega These stories and many more on this episode of the VGNRTM This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in September 1992. As always, we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the actu...

Magnavox Odyssey goes on sale VCS games grow up Atari's 5200 bets on classics These stories and many more on this episode of the VGNRTM This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in September 1982. As always, we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the actual events. Ethan from the The History of How W...

50 years ago, television manufacturer Magnavox launched a revolutionary new device that allowed users, for the first time, to manipulate the images on their home television sets.  How did this technological wonder come to be?  How did its development evolve?  Find out with our own resident Warden of the Department of Corrections, Ethan Johnson.   Links: https://www.mobygames.com/game/super-breakou...

Online gaming is one of the dominant business models today, but back in 1979, a small start up in Chicago showed how it was done. The Game Master was a virtual playground for computer enthusiasts before most people knew what a personal computer was. Robert Kniskern helped bring that technology to life. He tells us about his early experiences with minicomputers, buying Altair 8800 number 400 with s...

Yamauchi steps down Rare abandons Gamecube The US Army wants you... to play their game These stories and many more on this episode of the VGNRTM This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in August 2002. As always, we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the actual events. Wouter, aka Wiedo, is our coh...