A video game history podcast looking at the whole industry from a scholarly viewpoint! With a little fun on the side :)

Joined December 2014
Yuji Horii and Koichi Nakamura wanted an RPG combining Ultima exploration and Wizardry combat. Torishima united the team: Toriyama designed characters, Shōnen Jump followed development and Sugiyama composed the music youtu.be/bExRebz0zlY #DragonQuest #JRPG #VideoGameHistory
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Atari’s best-selling VCS games hold a few surprises. Sales records glimpsed in Once Upon Atari show what really sold and how the crash hit Atari. We dig into the stories behind these games and the people who made them. youtu.be/7Zj61ykgVk8 #Atari #AtariVCS #VideoGameHistory
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Hasbro went from toys to a major force in video games. Tom Dusenberry made Win95 Monopoly the foundation of #HasbroInteractive, leading to Frogger #Atari #MicroProse Avalon Hill and #WotC before Hasbro sold it to Infogrames. youtube.com/watch?v=whweXETc… #VideoGameHistory #RetroGaming
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One of gaming’s greatest twists changed Star Wars forever. Explore how BioWare built Knights of the Old Republic, and how Obsidian’s rushed sequel reshaped its future. #KOTOR #StarWarsGames #VideoGameHistory youtube.com/watch?v=Og9W3uyb…
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Howell Ivy turned familiar arcade ideas into something fresh, from his early work at Ramtek and Exidy to his later impact at SEGA. #ArcadeHistory #Ramtek #SEGA #Exidy #RetroGaming youtu.be/fHoRfn1uh3o
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A one-inch CRT built for aircraft instruments sparked the idea for a home console that had to bring its own screen. The Vectrex launched into the Video Game Crash and cost Milton Bradley $31.6M before Hasbro bought what was left. youtu.be/VHSUP6FhJAU #Vectrex #VideoGameHistory
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A British dev built a Game Boy prototype that caught Nintendo's attention at CES and helped build a 3D chip for the SNES. The Super FX chip made Star Fox possible. What happened to Argonaut after is another story. youtube.com/watch?v=0vwa2366… #StarFox #SNES #RetroGaming #Nintendo
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How does a Canadian liquor company end up owning Universal Studios and help create Activision Blizzard? Seagram, Vivendi, bad timing, and deceptive accounting. Messier than you think. 🎙️ youtu.be/PzHARV7hO7w #VideoGameHistory #Vivendi #ActivisionBlizzard
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CUC International kept beating estimates until Henry Silverman saw the books and uncovered fraud built on phantom subscriptions and merger-money games. That scandal helped push its software division into Vivendi's orbit. TCW259: youtu.be/T1k5u5a8NFY #AccountingFraud #Vivendi
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Walter Forbes turned a phone-in shopping club into CUC International, spent $1.7B on software companies, then merged with HFS to form Cendant. How was this company always just barely beating estimates? 🎙️ TCW258: theycreateworlds.com/episode… #VideoGameHistory #CorporateScandal
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Nine cartridges, a Sears rebrand, and clever sprite tricks that pushed a new console to its limits. The Atari VCS launch titles were modest, but their fingerprints are everywhere. youtube.com/watch?v=lcwswd4x… #AtariVCS #Atari2600 #RetroGaming #VideoGameHistory
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Bob Jacob wanted to put Hollywood into games and nearly pulled it off. #DefenderoftheCrown, Wings, Rocket Ranger, and a football game that quietly inspired EA Sports, all from a studio that lasted five years. youtu.be/EN43CmoJpyc #Cinemaware #RetroGaming #GamingHistory
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With the original creators gone and development stalled, a new Bethesda team inherited the Elder Scrolls. Todd Howard's Morrowind ditched procedural generation for a handcrafted world so rich it saved the studio from collapse. youtu.be/_9L1FIa4MoU #Morrowind #ElderScrolls
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From sports sims to Elder Scrolls Arena: how Bethesda's Julian LeFay and Vijay Lakshman built the gladiator-to-RPG pivot, then LeFay's massive Daggerfall vision met Ted Peterson's intricate design & gray plots. youtu.be/vK5oo4mU-Xc #ElderScrolls #Daggerfall #Bethesda #Arena
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From “Dig Dug” tactics to “Xevious” secrets and “The Tower of Druaga” that helped shape Zelda, Masanobu Endō pioneered concepts that still resonate in games today, from hidden secrets to layering story into gameplay. youtube.com/watch?v=TmKvbqrY… #MasanobuEndo #Xevious #TowerOfDruaga
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How did Virgin go from music to games like Command and Conquer, The 7th Guest, Aladdin, and The Lion King? We explore the rise and fall of Virgin Games, from early development and European distribution to major licenses and corporate collapse. youtube.com/watch?v=WEM3IZmH…
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How did a budget software publisher become the foundation of SEGA Europe? We look at the rise and fall of Mastertronic and how a failed console push changed its fate. youtube.com/watch?v=DXG_2mO3… #theycreateworlds #videogamehistory #segahistory #retrogaming #mastertronic
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