The MADEcast: Recent Episodes
The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment
The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment presents The MADEcast: a podcast about video game history, preservation, and so much more.
Red gives a short update about our absence and lack of episodes. He also talks about the schedule for the podcast moving forward. Thank you for all of the support.
This week Red sat down with the MADE's own Event Manager, Criss Burki. They talk about their time at the museum and what's going on!
The boys talk about the game that launched an empire: Donkey Kong! They got into the interesting origins of this beloved arcade game, some of its inspirations, and some trivia about the game itself!
This week the gang talks about the ins and outs of Marathon, one of Bungie's first breakout hits, and the granddaddy of Halo and Destiny! Also, we're gearing up for our Grand Reopening, Friday June 10th!
Red sat down with the CEO of Atari to talk about their upcoming initiative, Atari XP, where they'll be releasing new cartridges of 2600 games, as well as previously unreleased games, and some new titles. They also get into talking about game preservation and the difficulty of finding working hardware!
This week it's another classic: 1981's Defender! We're talking about one of the hardest games ever, what went into its design, and some of the quirks of its gameplay that made it such a standout hit!
Today we're talking about 1980's Adventure, the Atari game that influenced countless games and genres. We talk a bit about its development and the famous easter egg in it that spawned a new concept in gaming!
We decided to talk a bit more about Kirby this week, to celebrate his recent 30-year anniversary! Some of the more out-there games, the thought behind his design, and his spinoffs over the years are discussed!
You read that correctly. After closing down the doors during the pandemic, the MADE is making a triumphant return with a new physical location in downtown Oakland!! Tune in as Red chats with our director Shem Nguyen as they talk about the exciting plans the MADE has in store.
This week we're talking about Dragon's Lair, the hit fully hand animated FMV game from 1983! We go into its development, why arcade operators loved and hated it, and its ongoing legacy!
Today Alex sits down with Sean Barber-Crane, one of the MADE's longest-running volunteers! They talk about his time at the MADE and some of what they've gotten up to over the years!
Last week Red manned the MADE's booth at GDC and talked to some of the people who stopped by! They talked about old systems, their experiences, and what they were up to at GDC and in general!
We're talkin' DOOM! Back to the granddaddy of the FPS, released in 1993, and so packed with revolutionary ideas it brought down university internet networks! We dive into a bit of its history, some of the culture around it, and what makes it so revolutionary! Next week's GDC, we'll have a booth so come by and talk with us if you get the chance!
Today Red sat down with Karla Zimonja, who worked on Bioshock titles, Gone Home and more, about founding Fullbright, and a bit of her experiences and history working in the industry!
We're doing something a little different this week and talking about the wild and wacky ways you could control games in the heady days of yesteryear!
Today Red sat down with Megan McDuffee, a composer out of the Bay Area who's most recently worked on games like River City Girls and the Atari: Recharged games! They talk about her process, working on games, and making music in general!
This week Red catches up with his friend Joey Vergara, of Toys for Bob! They talk about old times, working on Spyro, and much more!
Surprise! It's opposite day, and we're interviewing Alex! We talk about the MADE, the museum's history and some of the problems and highlights of running a museum like it!
Alex sits down with Jon-Paul Dyson, from the Strong Museum of Play, to talk about their history, the logistics of a museum dedicated to play, and some highlights of their collection!
The crew sits down with Britton Watkins, a professional language designer, or conlanger, to talk about his process, experience, and working with the Star Citizen teams on making the languages for the alien races in that massive world!
Red talks with the MADE's executive director Shem Nguyen this week! They talk about his origins at the MADE, the museum's present and future plans, as well as some of his favorite games and thoughts about the museum and its community.
This week Alex sat down with Marie Foulston, the creative director behind some interesting gaming art installations over the years. They talk about her work with a few prestigious institutions, some interesting control schemes in her projects, and what she’s up to these days.
Welcome to 2022! This week Alex talks with Paul Galloway of the New York MoMA! They get into his career, the logistics of displaying gaming culture, and the role of the player in the creation of meaning!
In this last episode of 2021, we run through the Game Awards, talk about some of the winners, and some of the many, many announcements made during them! Catch you all in the new year! Happy Holidays!
Well, you can't keep us away! As we gear up for the Game Awards, and the holidays, we take some time to talk about upcoming games, movies, and our holiday gifts and gaming memories.
Today we talk about photos! Alex talks with Evan Amos, who contributes professionally taken photos of gaming consoles, candy, and more! They talk about his work and entry to this fascinating niche, and what goes into photographing rare consoles.
Alex sits down with David A. Smith to talk about his work developing The Colony, working with James Cameron, and pushing the envelope of 3D technologies.
Listen in on Alex talking with Keith Nemitz, AND Josh Mandel, one of the producers of Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist! They root through memories of working at Sierra, the development of Freddy Pharkas, and what they're up to these days.
Today Alex hangs out with Keith Nemitz, founder of Mousechief and veteran of Apple, Sierra Online, Digital Pictures, and 3DO. They talk about his storied career, porting games to macs, and generally hang out!
For our 50th episode, Alex sits with longtime friend Travis Julyan to talk about their memories growing up, wargaming, and how gaming and the armed forces mix!
Today Alex talks with former White House Senior Advisor for Digital Media Mark DeLoura! They go into his history with games and early VR, his time at the White House, and this thoughts on educational games!
This week we sat down with the legendary Tommy Tallarico, musician and sound designer for games and film since the late 80s! We run through his storied career, get some of his tips and tricks, and learn about the changes in the industry over the decades!
Darren Gladstone, another CGW veteran, talks with Alex this week as they discuss the games industry, the games they've been playing, and his history with technology!
Hear from the brain behind The Smithsonian's Art of Video Games exhibition, Chris Melissinos! He and Alex get into the weeds of games as art in this great talk!
Listen in on Howard Scott Warshaw, developer of games for the Atari 2600, as he and Alex talk about working within hardware limitations, and the art of turning those limitations into features! Plus... Monopoly?
This week listen in on Alex's conversation with David Perry, the developer behind Genesis games such as Earthworm Jim, Aladdin, and more!
Listen in to Alex's talk with Andre LaMothe, the brains behind the upcoming Intellivision Amico! They cover his long career in the industry, his writing, working on educational software, and the Amico!
This week we got to talk to Bonnie Bogovich, a sound designer and voice actress! We go into her journey from working in theater to working in games, and the things she's learned along the way!
This week Alex sits down with Rob Coffey, another CGW alum, to talk about their time there, his path through the industry, some great stories, and a bit of talk about the state of games today.
This week Alex sits with his former boss Jeff Green, a games journalism veteran. Tune in as they chat about his experiences in the games magazine industry, his introduction to Computer Gaming World, his column “Green Speak” and much more!
Today Alex sits down with Michael Martin, part of the core team behind Ur-Quan Masters, the open-sourced revival of the legendary game Star Control 2, to talk about the history of the port, the rules around open-source software, and his involvement in the project!
On today's extra-long episode, Alex catches up with Keith Kaisershot, a longtime friend of the MADE and Bandai Pippin guru, to talk about his introduction to the MADE, quirky videogames and playing Doom with John Romero, his work in preserving the Pippin, its history, cracking it, and much much more!
This week Alex has a chat with Nedrick Mclaren, who is an animator, game developer and MADE volunteer. Tune in as they talk about indie game development, his transition from art to learning programming languages, his inspirations, and the good ol’ days of Newgrounds!
We let the boys loose again! Or maybe they let themselves loose... anyway, the Steam Deck has been announced! This episode discusses all the specs and pros and cons of it, as well as the rise of handheld consoles writ large. More interviews next week!
As always, this episode starts out with some current gaming news... but what would we have done before we had all this game information at our fingertips? Well, this week Alex is talking to Crispin Boyer and Mark Macdonald, legends from the now-defunct Electronics Gaming Monthly. This is a super fun interview which covers what it was like to be passionate about games back in the 'good ol days' of IRC and Babbage's.
This week on the MADEcast we have the talented Cassady Toles, The MADE’s resident general counsel and law wizard, who sits down with Alex to talk about his volunteer role at the MADE, Gaming Law cases, his Warhammer 40K cosplay, and views on practicing law.
On this episode, the amazing, illustrious Tony Barnes is taking us back in time to the 1980's, a beautiful decade in which kids learned to program by being unsupervised on an Apple II, you could get a job at Atari just by walking through the front door, and your new business partner is the guy with the mohawk at the goth bar. The details behind all of that, plus even some new news about the Strike series, in this episode!
Brennan Anderson is back! And this episode is all about dynamic audio– how programming and composition intersect to create a unique, memorable experience for a player. Plus the importance of tempo, and the difference between horizontal and vertical mixing. If you've ever wanted to gain a greater appreciation for game music, this is the place!
This week's guest is Brennan Anderson, audio designer at Crystal Dynamics, and the boys had such a great time nerding out with him that we had to split this interview into two parts! In this first one, they talk about Brennan's twisty career path, burnout at indie vs AAA studios, and what exactly a technical sound designer is. Plus at the top, we get a rundown of E3 news.
Tune in next week for more Brennan :D
This week Alex chats with the men, the myths, the legends... Wolf and Anders! These two MADE volunteers have been with The MADE long enough to have some pretty wild stories. Tune in as they talk some of their favorite memories of working at the MADE from hosting public events, GDC, as well as the infamous P.T. exhibit.
MADE in Progress is back, baby! On this episode, Leland sat down with Hanae El Mansouri, a game producer who just got her masters from UC Santa Cruz in Games and Playable Media. She tells Leland about her access to video games as a kid in Morocco, what it's like to go to school to study games, and especially about the development process for her capstone project: Vertical Slice, a video game about... video games.
You can find Hanae here and you can download Vertical Slice right here. Make sure to check it out to support the next generation of game devs, like Hanae!
Know someone who would be a good guest on MADE in Progress? Shoot us a message!
This week's guest is Elan Lee, who you might know from hit board games like Exploding Kittens, but he got his start in ARGs (Alternate Reality Games), which he used to create amazing viral marketing campaigns for games like Halo. Tune in to learn about Elan's consistent design philosophy about making players have extraordinary experiences... oh, and to hear the myriad of wacky hijinks he's gotten into for the sake of fun.
This week, Alex talked with Dan "Shoe" Hsu about his illustrious career in the world of games journalism (a term Dan actually has quite a few strong opinions about!). They chat about the pros and cons of working in traditional media, how to get in (and out) of the industry, and how to deal with leaks. And as the boys discuss, Pokémon Snap came out this week, which, y'know, I think there's a connection you could find there?
This week Alex sits down with Glen Dahlgren, game designer, author, teacher, and music composer. Glen shares with us his origins from creating adventure games to classics such as Wheel of Time and Unreal 2, and how that has fueled his passion for writing novels such as his acclaimed fantasy fiction novel “The Child of Chaos." Plus, he shares his advice for those dreaming of creating games themselves.
On this episode, Alex sits down with Jim Stormdancer (game devs have the best names, right?), to talk about the wild freedom that he's been able to have making indie games. Jim talks about his aim to make games that are "as surprising as possible," which even extends to the wacky ways he has advertised his games, which includes a soup-themed ARG and even sneaking his way into other games. Plus, Alex and Jim reminisce about The MADE's coworking sessions, which we hope to bring back once we're open again :)
This week, Alex and the gang have a chat with Steve Horowitz: musician, composer, educator, audio engineer and sound director at Nickelodeon Digital. Steve gives us insight on what it was like working with games in the early 90s and how it transitioned to our current time. He also gives valuable advice for any musician wanting to dive into the game audio world!
Have you ever wanted to get to know our hosts? Well, this episode's for you! The Boys are going rogue with an episode that's no guests and no rules. Each of them gets some space to introduce himself, including his favorite video game and future aspirations. Plus, ruminations on the futility of videogame-to-movie adaptations.
MADE in Progress is back with a third installment! This time, Leland is talking to Daniel Pool, a librarian by day, and game designer, writer, and podcaster by night. However, as it turns out, there's a to learn about game design by being a librarian, and vise versa. Plus, The Boys mourn some of the decisions Sony has been making lately.
You should follow Daniel on twitter, or check out their games profile on itch.io. And if you like the sound of their voice, they've got a podcast too!
This Week Alex and the MADEcast gang have a chat with Khris Brown, the VO director and audio engineer at Double Fine studios. Khris shares some valuable insight into the role of an audio engineer in games as well as her experiences working with some of the finest talent in the industry!
This week Alex chats with the amazing illustrious Roberta Williams, video game designer, writer and co-founder of Sierra On-line. Roberta gives us a first hand account of what it was like designing the first ever adventure games, a legacy that is still carried on in our video games to this very day!
This week, Alex is talking to Christy Marx, a legendary writer who has 4 decades of experience writing for video games, comic books, and animated TV shows (she created Jem!). They touch on her transition from the world of Hollywood to the world of games, and her unique ability to straddle both worlds. Also, she lets Alex in on the secret backstory of a great game she worked on that unfortunately was never made.
On this episode of The MADEcast, Alex talks to Tami Borowick about her transition from studying communications and computer science at Mills, a women's college, to studying Scumm at Lucasfilm Games, a male-dominated workplace. They also chat about her impact on children through her time at Humongous Entertainment, where she educated a generation through lovable characters like Pajama Sam and Putt-Putt.
Today we continue with the classic MADEcast format, and what a treat we have for you! Alex talked to the legendary Lucasfilm Games alum Tim Schafer about his commitment to designing intuitive, beautiful adventure games, whether or not they were profitable. Plus, Red tried to come up with a new jingle for the podcast which... well, you'll just have to listen to it to see how it goes.
For episode 2 of Made in Progress, Leland is talking to Christian Scandariato about how his childhood love of wordy, grindy games turned into his super unique attitude towards designing games for younger audiences. Plus, his take on going to school for game design and learning video game history.
You can find Christian and all of his ongoing work on his twitter. And make sure to check out Floppy Knights when it comes out!
Christian and Leland had so much to talk about for this episode that there is no news report from our other hosts, but don't worry, they'll be back next week, along with some more interviews with Alex and important figures from the history of adventure games. We'll be dropping more episodes of Made in Progress as we go along, so if you know anyone who'd like to come on the show, let us know!
Introducing a brand new miniseries called Made in Progress! We're interviewing up-and-coming & aspiring game devs about the games that influenced them. For our inaugural episode, Leland talks to Cara Hillstock, a twitch streamer and narrative designer about her love of visual novels, the stigma of 'girl games,' and the ways video games can help our future relationships.
Check out Cara's twitter, or her website, and especially her latest game, To Be With You, which is a semi-autobiographical visual novel about an abusive relationship.
On this week's MADEcast episode Alex has a chat with the amazing Ron Gilbert! Inventor of SCUMM, as well as being one of the Lucasfilm Games legends. If that isn't enough, He is also one of the brilliant minds behind Maniac Mansion as well as a fierce champion of adventure games. Seriously, he’s amazing!
On today's MADEcast episode, Alex is talking to another former Lucasfilm games legend, David Fox, about his work on adventure games, as well as the Marin Computer Center, a magical place which directly inspired The MADE! Plus, he answers the age-old question: can you microwave the hamster in Maniac Mansion?
This week for the MADEcast, Alex meets with Noah Falstein as he discusses his role as a project leader for Sinistar, the early days of Lucasfilm games, and his current work as a pioneer in the games for the medical realm. Yes, you read that correctly. Games as Medicine.
A long time ago, when the internet was still an twinkle in our collective eyes, there was a dream. A dream of a game where real people could connect online. In today's episode, Alex talks to Randy Farmer, who made that dream a reality with the 1985 Commodore 64 game Habitat. The world's first MMORPG had a wonderfully winding road filled with lots of experiments along the way, and Randy is here to illuminate the path.
Thanks to the efforts of Randy and The MADE, you can still play Habitat through our project, Neohabitat. Now that you have the background to the original game and its restoration project, give it a try and tell us what you think!
If you're half as dorky as we are, you're gonna love today's episode. In fact, this one is so dorky that Alex needed to call in backup. We've brought on Matt Hargett, who you'll remember from last episode, to talk to Chip Morningstar, programmer extraordinaire. Chip and Matt give us insight into the origins of SCUMM, how to weasel your way into a job at Lucasfilm, and the power of a great name.
After our refreshing holiday break, The MADEcast triumphantly returns to talk about the preservation of the adventure genre. In this episode, Alex talks to Matt Hargett, who got into adventure games in the late '80s and hasn't stopped since, having worked on the FreeSCI and SCUMMVM teams. Oh, also expect quite a few 'bleeps' in this one. Don't say we didn't warn you.
As a piggyback off of last week's episode on adventure games, this week we bring you a jewel from that genre. Alex is chatting with his wife Veronica (awwwwww) about her love of adventure games, which began in her childhood with the NES, and in particular the 1987 Lucasfilm game Maniac Mansion. This nostalgic segment is bookended by discussion of The Game Awards and Cyberpunk 2077.
This will be the last episode of the year as we take a break for the holidays. We'll see you next year for more episodes of The MADEcast!
This episode topic was voted in by our lovely Patreon supporters! Today, we bring you the history of the Adventure genre, elucidated by our local gaming history expert, Alex Handy. This is a story with many twists and turns, from the text-based origins 50 years ago, to the genre's implosion, to the eventual return to glory. One could say this episode is an... adventure.
On this episode of The MADEcast, we have a fascinating interview with Joe Decuir, who talked to Alex about his involvement in the development of the Atari 2600 and other groundbreaking early consoles. Plus, The Boys talk about the video game awards and the magic of Katamari Damacy.
Enjoying the Atari content? Well there's more where that came from! Today we answer the age old question: why do Atari 2600 games look like that? Along with this deep dive into the Atari 2600's technology, enjoy an introduction to the Fairfield Channel F, a pioneering console from 1976.
Former MADE volunteer John Demian joins us this week to nerd out about the Atari 2600. Tune in for a discussion about how the culture of home consoles has changed since the 1970s, as well as John and Alex's tips for thrifting vintage electronics. Oh, and an excellent overview of the Mass Effect series.
This week the podcast gets groovy! We have very special guest Frank Cifaldi of the Video Game History Foundation on to talk about the 1970s and the Magnavox Odyssey. And as always, enjoy some video game news and recommendations from our lovely hosts.
This week we get a whirlwind tour of early gaming history, from bagatelles and pinball to arcades and Tennis for Two. Then we get into “personal” computers, Spacewar! and the start of the 70s with the Magnavox Odyssey. Some video game news and chat rounds out this week's episode.
Welcome to the first episode of The MADEcast! Tune in for an overview of who The MADE is and what we do, featuring some special guests: founder Alex Handy, and development extraordinaire Leland Heller. Plus video game world news and a story about the Gizmondo, the video game world's greatest scam.