Panic Podcast: Recent Episodes
Panic
Given enough time, even a business starts to collect some interesting stories. And Panic, Portland's long-standing software company/video game publisher/hardware developer/who knows what, has been around for a long time. Our host, Christa Mrgan, takes a look at the strange, funny, interesting, and useless parts of Panic, through interviews, stories, and Cabel's rambling asides. Now Panic lore can be shared by everyone, for better or worse.
The full motion video games of the 90s never truly delivered on the promise of creating exciting interactive films, but games like Blippo+, Her Story, Telling Lies, and Immortality manage a sort of alchemy that combines movie magic with the interactivity of video games. Creators Claire L. Evans and Sam Barlow talk about the past and present of the medium, and what (if anything) makes a good FMV.
Show Notes* Half Mermaid * Blippo+ * Telefantasy Studios * Wild Gunman, early Nintendo gunslinging game * Videodrome * Panic Podcast S1E1: Untitled Goose Game * FMV World * Claire’s Essay on Interactive Cinema * Silent Hill * Phantasmagoria * Myst * Night Trap * Night Trap: 25 Years Later from MY LIFE IN GAMING * Control Vision * Sleep No More * Sega CD * ESRB * Mad Dog McCree games * Dragon’s Lair * Black Narcissus * Eyes Wide Shut * Klute * Sailor’s Dream * Year Walk * Device 6 * Nick at Nite * #Wargames * Eko * The Daniels * Everything Everywhere All At Once * Markiplier Choose Your Own Adventure Series * Quibi * Clip from The Last Movie: Stanley Kubrick and 'Eyes Wide Shut,’ on Kubrick’s non-submersible units * Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) Transformation Scene * The Addams Family set in color * Episode Transcript
Why would anyone—and in particular Panic—want to make a trade show booth? A look back at our completely normal trade show history, plus a look ahead to some of our Season 2 episodes!
Show Notes* Campo Santo * Firewatch * Panic Podcast S1E4: Audion & On * Playdate Podcast S1E22: Forrest Byrnes: Up In Smoke * Panic Podcast S1E1: Untitled Goose Game * Macworld/iWorld * PAX West * A machete is a big knife * Jardiniere * Playdate * Nour * Arco * Time Flies * Greem Cafe * Despelote * Thank Goodness You’re Here! * Episode Transcript
Find out how an offhand idea to mark the 15th anniversary of a software company launched a decade-long saga of twists, turns, and mini-boss battles that led to the creation of a handheld gaming console as surprising and unique as its creators. Pre-order day is finally here, but it’s dangerous to go alone. Take this adorable yellow box, and let’s get crankin’… on the story of Playdate.
How the Nokia N-Gage failed so spectacularly that it became a meme before social media really existed. And what that has to do with Panic, exactly.
How did a fierce competition with a rival lead Steven Frank and Cabel Sasser to make a life-changing decision in a meeting with one of their biggest idols... and one of their arch nemeses?
An act of social media spite, an unlikely friendship, and a lot of fast food coupons. How did signing up for a Twitter account to do support lead to an odd and endearing relationship… and whatever happened to the cardboard friends we made along the way?
Most of us remember the iPhone app store launch in 2008 and the iPhone app gold rush that followed. Indie developers flocked to the platform, all determined to build a breakout app that would earn them millions. And pretty soon that gold rush… turned into a brown rush. Enter Panic, with a ridiculous novelty app and an elaborate fake backstory for a German company that didn't exist.
It's a lovely morning in the village, and you are a horrible goose. How did four-person indie game studio House House create the anti-hero internet sensation that honked its way into our hearts in 2019? And how did a small-ish company on the other side of the world — one known primarily for making Mac and iOS software — come to be the publisher of that game?