Computer Game Evolution: Recent Episodes
Tim
A journey through many years (and occasionally centuries) to find out who is responsible for modern computer and video games. May contain balls, Napoleon Bonaparte, robots, organized crime, and the US Air Force.
Three years of no Wizardry are met by a shrug, as Ultima IV attempts to introduce role-playing into RPGs, SSI keeps making tactical wargames by accident, while Ghostbusters and Might and Magic bring sex back on the menu. Watching this, the French can't help but join the fun with the strangest games around.
Support the show
"It's not that kind of dungeon," say people inspired by Dungeons & Dragons to make games where you get picked up by wenches, or mate with your spouse for the glory of mankind.
Support the show
Jim Dunnigan's ruling out gay incest aside, what else was happening in the early years of RPGs?
Support the show
Book reviews. It has come to this. EuroWarGames, Cardboard Ghosts, and Wargames According to Mark – which ones are good, and which ones are worth buying?
Support the show
Mathematicians keep suggesting games so infuriating that other people rebel against numbers.
Support the show
If you've written a novel or two, writing a few pages of rules should be easy… right?
Support the show
As the Cold War takes a turn, computer wargames transform into strategy games, where a president does whatever the last person to see him told him to, dudes multiply in castles, and officers ask Napoleon to speak proper English.
Support the show
The Cold War continues to terrify and inspire, so say hello to orbital laser strikes, new games of power politics, and the start of a long-running Japanese series. The British are still weird.
Support the show
Is a paper Call of Duty possible? Can Sid Meier design a good wargame? What's the punishment for being horny in Camelot? Would you kill if you had to?
Support the show
Is the Canadian PM good in a fight? What are the best places to summon demons in Armenia? How to overthrow the US Government in 2020? Jim Dunnigan could tell you all of that, but not how to run his own company.
Support the show
In the dark days before everyone had a microprocessor, some people just didn't care. They simulated current events, politics, and fantasy epics with paper.
Support the show
It turns out that lasers, mines, and various bombs can be used for more than just pure mindless action. Also, sliding blocks – you need lots of sliding blocks.
Support the show
Why are arcade joysticks so tiny? Who let Peter Molyneux into the industry? Both answers are somehow related to a game where robots call the player "chicken."
Support the show
More action, more adventure, a 3D engine, a physics engine and a whole lot of other great ideas are arriving year by year.
Support the show
Action-adventuring comes to busy city streets and schools, heaven and hell, Wonderland and Scotland. Also, Nintendo makes an OK game.
Support the show
Fidel Castro and Sylvester Stallone return for another round, joined by Aztecs, wizards, keys, and an unhealthy but adorable number of bats.
Support the show
You never know for certain what you're going to get. Sometimes, it's a box of grenades. Sometimes, Santa gives you a gun arm to take down Albert Einstein. Sometimes, a nuclear power plant melts down.
Support the show
It's the longest episode so far for two reasons: weaponised boobs, and Margaret Thatcher.
Support the show
Will jumping be mastered? Will it ever work in a way that satisfies players? Do players even know what they want? Can Mario beat Goku?
Support the show
Apes on vines, frogs on lily pads, cats on cheese, and plumbers on ice – everybody wants to jump, but for now it is still optional.
Support the show
A dung beetle, a comet, and a Buddhist counsellor walk into a bar and order a scrolling shooter.
Support the show
While micro makers keep trying to improve their product, the saga of IBM's terrible decisions continues.
Support the show
Arcades decide to stand together rather than die alone, while consoles are advancing into a generation that might not be real.
Support the show
A promising start-up splinters into an alphabet race, while nobodies from Japan accidentally make a good game and pretend they meant to.
Support the show
A future legend of game design shows a kid a computer game. What's the worst that could happen?
Support the show
What happens when a company that is the American video game industry is run by incompetent grifters long enough?
Support the show
Computerless entertainment strikes again.
Improvised stories: https://wobbupalooza.neocities.org/
Random music: https://opus-infinity.org/
Support the show
Who would have thought years of permeating fear could be so inspiring.
Support the show
There are so many types of media to put your game on, but each is promising both exciting opportunities and terrifying flaws. And don't forget the Dutch.
Support the show
The competition for pocket money and pocket space brings about strange machines and technological advances.
I've got a few pictures of the Microvision here
Support the show
Ray Kassar has pissed off the wrong four people with a very particular set of skills.
Support the show
One day the mob wants your quarters, the next day IBM lobbies your business into dust. It's a wonder anything got done in the industry at all.
Support the show
Weary game masters rejoice at the sight of computers generating dungeons for them. They quaff as many drinks as their magic sack funds allow them, and go watch rats fight giants.
Support the show
The world discovers the joy of applying items to problems, and escaping mazes.
Support the show
It turns out that getting people excited about space for a decade makes their imaginations run wild.
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)
Sometimes, a military network project becomes a place for Microsoft to borrow games from.
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)
And I hate surprises.
https://ko-fi.com/post/A-special-announcement-V7V7BHKYT
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)
Not all pioneers of computing and video games were white and male.
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)
Sometimes, people want their own pizza place a little too much.
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)
How hard can it be to understand what was happening 50 years ago in an industry based in information? Pretty hard, as it turns out.
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)
Time marches on, bringing us closer to video games with every step.
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)
It's a short trip from games on computers to computer games to "computer" games in name only.
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)
Dice have escaped, and now you have to roll for everything.
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)
Playing wars is fine, but what if someone modelled how much it costs to prepare for one?
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)
A few hundred printed sheets bound together might not look like they're inviting reader's input, and yet…
Errata: "Senderos" – not "senedros."
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)
Metal, wood, glass, and plastic are here to entertain and teach, for a price.
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)
Playing with money, politics, painful history – is there anything people won't turn into a game?
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)
The original game industry is a bright patchwork of games and puzzles covering a pile of bodies.
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)
"This chess game is old and stupid."
All of Prussia, early XIX century.
https://kriegsspielorg.wordpress.com/articles-2/von-reisswitzs-original-equipment/
Errata: "Spee" – not "Spree"
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)
The main driving force in the history of chess has been humanity's love of mating.
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)
The plan for the show is to have a show.
Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/gameevopodcast)