Video Game History Hour

We open up the mailbag and answer some of our listeners' burning questions! We cover emulation preservation, the definition of a gaming historian, growing pains of the organization, best dinosaur games ever made, plans for our personal collections, and so much more! Quick note: this is episode 40, but we refer to it as episode 41 in the recording; sorry for the mix up. The producer will have her head on correctly again next week! Video Game History Hour Twitter: https://twitter.com/gamehistoryhour Email: podcast@gamehistory.org Video Game History Foundation Twitter: https://twitter.com/GameHistoryOrg Website: https://gamehistory.org/ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/gamehistoryorg The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com/) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Fan turned archivist Mat Van Rhoon of Big Finish Games tells the story of the lost Tex Murphy series production tapes in a recent article, Tex Murphy and the Raiders of the Lost Tapes. We hear about the sheer elation, joy, and maddening frustration these adventures in preservation led to, as well as the odd places from which some of these tapes were excavated. From discovery to digitization, Mat really put a tick in the ‘Win’ column for game history preservation! See more from Mat Van Rhoon: Twitter: @MatVanRhoon LinkedIn: /matvanrhoon See more from Big Finish Games: Twitter: @BigFinishGames Website: bigfinishgames.com Facebook: /bigfinishgames The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Norman Caruso is here to share the history of the Sega Mega Modem from his most recent video SEGA Mega Modem: Ahead of Its Time | Gaming Historian. Despite many of its drawbacks and pitfalls, this device pointed to a brighter future that wasn’t able to come to fruition until almost a decade after its lackluster release. Was online, social gaming an inevitability or did the Mega Modem pave the way? See more from Norman Caruso: YouTube: /gaminghistorian Twitter: @gaminghistorian Website: thegaminghistorian.com Patreon: /gaminghistorian The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Grace Kramer and Derek Alexander are this week’s guests discussing the Nokia N-Gage from their recent documentary, N-Gage: Cell Phone Gaming's First Big Flop | Past Mortem [SSFF]. While there is some debate on the pronunciation of Nokia depending where you live, there is little doubt to the N-Gage’s major DOA status. Find out what exactly happened, both inside Nokia and out in the marketplace, to put this side-talking cell phone in the Bummer Books of gaming history. See more from Grace Kramer & Derek Alexander: Twitter: @stopskeletons YouTube: /StopSkeletonsFromFighting Twitch: /stop skeletons from fighting Patreon: /StopSkeletonsFromFighting The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Game historian, journalist, and content creator Kim Justice joins us to talk about the commercial and critical disappointment, though surprisingly influential, Jurassic Park: Trespasser. In her recent documentary Jurassic Park: Trespasser - A Failure That Stood The Test Of Time | Kim Justice we’re taken through her six part story of its development, its failings, and its lessons learned. While some of those lessons learned include how to hide your non-existent legs with massive breasts, they also include how counting out bullets can be valuable to the player and using one’s entire body to press a button is only accurate physics on paper. Through video game archeology we now have the ability to experience Trespasser for what it was truly meant to be, which in itself is essentially what Jurassic Park is all about. See more from Kim Justice: YouTube: /kimblejustice Twitch: /kim_justice Patreon: /kimblejustice Twitter: @kimxxxjustice The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

We sit down with Jimmy Maher, author of The Digital Antiquarian, to examine his recent four part series: The Ratings Game. This series takes a look at how games came to have age ratings, why it was inevitable and necessary, and the fascinating butterfly effects that came because of it. Maher draws a very clear throughline from a United States Senate hearing controversy over violence in video games in 1993 directly through the inaugural E3 show in 1995. And, spurred by the curiosity of his wife, he even wades through fistfuls of scientific studies on the effects of violence in video games. Do they cause harm to our children? See more from Jimmy Maher: The Digital Antiquarian: filfre.net Patreon: /DigitalAntiquarian Twitter: @DigiAntiquarian The Analog Antiquarian:https://analog-antiquarian.net/ The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Felipe Pepe takes us through his collaborative, non-profit project to create a historical guide to computer role playing games: The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games. What CRPG’s around the world are cool, interesting, historically important, popular, meaningful, and why are they so? Each entry highlights a game’s eccentricities, context of the time to better understand it, and the straightforward reasons why you should play it (though, there are plenty of games they recommend you don’t play). What started as a six month, 72 item project quickly became a four year, 400 item effort, but only due to overwhelming participation from the community. While the PDF version is completely free for download, all profits from hardcover sales benefit an educational charity in Brazil. See more from Felipe Pepe: Hardcover Book: https://www.bitmapbooks.co.uk/products/the-crpg-book-a-guide-to-computer-role-playing-games Free PDF Book: https://crpgbook.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/crpg_book_2.0-1.pdf Twitter: @Felipepepe Website: crpgbook.wordpress.com Contact: crpgbook@gmail.com The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Diving into the history of the Xbox in his recent long read, Bet on Black: How Microsoft and Xbox Changed Pop Culture, Part 1, David L. Craddock goes back to the time of JezzBall, Age of Empires, and trusty ‘ol Minesweeper: the games that kept us entertained while someone else in the house was using the phone. We discuss the import of porting Doom to show off DirectX, the PC Magazine two level Diablo demo disc, and the PR disaster of The Lion King for Windows 95. Craddock, no stranger to suddenly massively expanding the scope of his research, takes us down this rabbit hole with tales of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, Dwayne the Rock Johnson, and Halo’s Blood Gulch map. See more from David L. Craddock: Website: shacknews.com Twitter: @davidlcraddock Book: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/monsters-in-the-dark-the-making-of-x-com#/ Website: davidlcraddock.com The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Eric Switzer joins us to share the development and downfall of Darkwatch in his article The Untold Story Of Darkwatch. A vampiric haunted western, Darkwatch could have, in another universe, been a major franchise. But, through a series of acquisitions and mandated pivots, its storyline deadended after only one title. Will this long silent universe ever see its rebirth? Switzer gives us his exciting take on what may come down the line. See more from Eric Switzer: Twitter: @EpicSwitzer Website: thegamer.com The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Our podcasting duo takes us back to the dawning of real-time computer games: Spacewar! Alex Smith joins us for round two, being our second second-time guest, to pairaphrase the history of this 2-player game of binary ships thrusting around a gravity-well star, who (reluctantly) wrote it, who modded it, who played it, and who created the first couple of video game controllers ever made. If necessity is the mother of invention, can we agree ‘fun’ is at least a cool aunt? The second generation of computer engineers doubled down on these machines simply being fun toys and spawned an entire industry which now generates more than twice the revenue of both the music and film/TV industries combined! Play Spacewar!: Masswerk.at See more from Alex Smith: Blog: videogamehistorian.wordpress.com Video Game Pioneers Archive: https://invention.si.edu/node/20723/p/489-videogame-pioneers-archive Project Transcripts: https://sova.si.edu/details/NMAH.AC.1498?s=0&n=10&t=C&q=&i=0 Book: https://www.routledge.com/They-Create-Worlds-The-Story-of-the-People-and-Companies-That-Shaped-the/Smith/p/book/9781138389908 Podcast: http://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/ The Video Game History Hour music is Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/