The Life & Times of Video Games

Richard Moss
  • 4.9 (11)
  • VIDEO GAMES
  • UPDATED BIMONTHLY
The Life & Times of Video Games

An award-nominated documentary and narrative audio series about video games and the video game industry — as they were in the past, and how they came to be the way they are today. History doesn't just vanish into the distance behind us; it casts a very long shadow that affects everything that comes after it, and so with The Life and Times of Video Games journalist and historian Richard Moss draws those through lines to tell fascinating stories about the past that link right back to the present.

  1. 12/22/2022

    PAX Panel: Shareware Downunder

    I was on a panel about shareware games at PAX Australia in October, with Halloween Harry / Alien Carnage co-creator John Passfield, indie developer and bookshop owner Terry Burdak, and ACMI games curator Arieh Offman. This is the full audio from that panel. You can find a PDF of my slides from the panel at this Dropbox link. I've also got John's slides in PowerPoint format (so you can play the videos yourself) and Terry's in another PDF. As for where to find us and the things we talked about: My new book, Shareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the Internet, has a website hereYou can find out more about John's past work at the Play It Again website and his personal site. Terry's games studio and shop are located in Melbourne's inner north. You can check out their games and buy some things at https://www.paperhousegames.com/If you live in or are ever visiting Melbourne, be sure to visit ACMI and stop by the free Story of the Moving Image exhibition. And you can find us all on social media. I'm @MossRC on Twitter and @mossrc@social.mossrc.me on the Fediverse (Mastodon et al); John is @JohnPassfield on Twitter and @johnpassfield@mastodon.gamedev.place on the Fediverse; Terry is @PaperHouseGames on Twitter and Instagram; and Arieh is @OffmanArieh.Special thanks to Helen Stuckey for conceiving and organising the panel And here's the original panel description: Remembering a time when the shareware demo ruled PC gaming, this panel discusses the impact and legacy of shareware on the local gaming landscape. Featuring author of "Shareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the Internet" Richard Moss, game designer John Passfield, whose Apogee-published game Halloween Harry / Alien Carnage (1993) topped the charts just before shareware legends id Software made it irrelevant with Doom, and shareware devotee in their youth, indie developer Terry Burdak (Paper House). Panel chaired by Arieh Offman, ACMI's Curator of Videogames for Play it Again: Preserving Australian videogame history of the 1990s project.

    1h 9m

  2. 02/28/2022

    Soundbite: Home of the Underdogs founder Sarinee Achavanuntakul on abandonware vs piracy

    The founder of influential old website The Home of the Underdogs discusses the difference between "abandonware" and piracy, and explains why the former needs to exist.

    9 min

  3. 12/29/2021

    If Monks Had Macs

    To wrap up the year I wanted to revisit one of my old favourites: a story I made for my other (currently-inactive) podcast about one of the strangest and most thought-provoking programs ever created. This is the story of If Monks Had Macs.

    36 min

  4. 10/25/2021

    The Tomb Raider grid (remastered)

    To celebrate the 25th birthday of my favourite game franchise, I thought I'd pull out the old Tomb Raider grid episodes from Season 1 and merge them into one. I also put some time into cleaning up the audio, though it'll still sound rough compared to newer episodes — given the lower-fidelity recordings I was using then.

    1h 1m

  5. 10/03/2021

    MobyGames, the IMDB of Video Games

    There was no encyclopaedia nor fleshed-out database of video games in 1999. There were barely even any reliable or comprehensive lists of video games. Not until Jim Leonard decided he needed to build one.

    56 min

  6. 08/05/2021

    Interview: Kate Willaert

    I speak to games historian and graphic designer Kate Willaert about her research and current projects, as well as her efforts to turn this work into a job. We also voice our complaints about Google's Usenet archives, discuss the horrible world of YouTube publishing, the struggles of getting your work seen/read/heard as a content creator today, the value of a good hook for getting people interested in history, how to structure a historical narrative, our font choices for writing draft scripts, and much, much more. Interview conducted 1 May 2021 Links: Kate has talked lots about her Carmen Sandiego research, both on Twitter and her blog. Here's one example. Tetris: The Games People Play, a graphic novel about the history of Tetris The intro to Kate's (eventually) 50-part video series on playable female protagonists MobyGames tag for female protagonists (excludes games with multiple playable characters) Hardcore Gaming 101 feature on 1980s video game heroines The rules governing her 50-part playable female protagonists series are laid out in the intro video and this article Atari Compendium's collection of scanned magazines The Internet Archive's Magazine Rack The Usenet archives on Google Groups are now mixed in with the other groups and not easily browsable, but search still works The UTZOO-Wiseman archives on archive.org are a great resource for Usenet posts American Radio History newspapers.com newspaperarchive.com Kate's Moonlander article Kate's YouTube channel I didn't go into specifics on the many significant games made in 1973, so here are several off the top of my head: Maze, arguably the first first-person shooter Spasim, one of the earliest 3D games Airfight/Airace, the first computer flight combat sim (covered on this show in ep2) Moonlander Empire (the PLATO one) David Ahl's 101 BASIC Computer Games collection/book Lemonade Stand Kate's article/video on the origin of the term "gamer" Kate's Moonlander article has good info and sources for the electro-mechanical Lunar Lander game, but those of you looking for more detail may appreciate this article that contextualises its place in early coin-op game history (the article is about Nutting Associates, but Lunar Lander is mentioned at the end) Kate's best social media posts are highlighted in her newsletter. Two specific ones we mentioned: The "City Boy Mario" Twitter thread The Comic Sans Twitter thread As of August 9th, 2021, the best of these threads are available in an ebook that's part of a video game StoryBundle along with a bunch of other cool games books. Check it out. Here's an article with more info about the ideal number of characters per line They Create Worlds book — publisher website | My Amazon affiliate link They Create Worlds podcast The Ultimate Guide to Video Game History by Steven Kent We didn't talk about it, but the best big-picture, whole-industry history of games that I've read is Replay by Tristan Donovan (And while we're linking to books, note that my first book, The Secret History of Mac Gaming, is getting an Expanded Edition from Bitmap Books, and my second book, Shareware Heroes: Independent Games at the Dawn of the Internet, is currently slated for Q2 2022 publication.) Kate's Patreon page Thank you to my Patreon supporters for making this episode possible — especially my producer-level backers Carey Clanton, Joel Webber, Scott Grant, Rob Eberhardt, Simon Moss, Seth Robinson, Wade Tregaskis, and Vivek Mohan. To support my work, so that I can uncover more untold stories from video game history, you can make a donation via paypal.me/mossrc or subscribe to my Patreon. (I also accept commissions and the like over email or Ko-Fi, if you're after something specific.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    1h 34m

  7. 05/19/2021

    Flight Control, the simple little iPhone game that helped redefine an industry

    How a game designed in a week helped to change everything — for the company that made it, for a local industry in turmoil, and for a global industry in transition.

    42 min

  8. 04/27/2021

    Interview: Andrew Borman (Strong Museum of Play, PtoPOnline)

    The Strong Museum of Play's digital games curator Andrew Borman describes his deep passion for uncovering and preserving cancelled, unreleased, and prototype games. This is so much more than a vocation for him, and here you get to hear all the stories and insights he shared with me when I interviewed him for the season 4 finale, The Ghosts of Games That Never Were. Highlights include the stories behind cancelled Halo and Elder Scrolls games, an unreleased version of Until Dawn, an early version of Resident Evil 2, and some in-depth discussion about the significance of finding and sharing these stories. We also talk a bit about Andrew's work at The Strong and the amazing power and value of institutional backing in games preservation. Interview conducted January 14th, 2021. Links (many of these go to YouTube): I can't find a surviving archive of Andrew's Resident Evil 1.5 post, but here's a great Eurogamer article about the game and the community quest to preserve it The Strong Museum of Play Research fellowships at The Strong This page on The Tomb of Ash has info, screenshots, and download links for Core Design's cancelled Tomb Raider 10th Anniversary Edition Episode 31 of this show also included a segment on said 10th Anniversary Edition Tomb Raider's video game hall of fame entry Andrew has multiple videos on the Haggar Xbox demo build for a Halo Mega Bloks game. Here's the most recent one. And here's the first one. A video Andrew made about the Sonic Extreme skateboarding/hoverboarding game that turned into the Sonic Extreme we actually got Elder Scrolls Oblivion cancelled PSP game Andrew's Star Wars Battlefront 3 unseen PC footage video Andrew's video on Until Dawn's unreleased PS3 version VICE Gaming/Waypoint has an excellent Halo 1 oral history Manse was mentioned four times in Ambrosia Software's newsletter before its quiet cancellation Here's the Wikipedia page on Captain Comic Andrew's Stargate SG1: The Alliance hub page from his old website has both articles and videos Women in Games exhibit at The Strong Andrew Borman is @borman18 on Twitter I am @MossRC and @LifeandTimesVG on Twitter Thank you to my Patreon supporters for making this episode possible — especially my producer-level backers Carey Clanton, Joel Webber, Scott Grant, Rob Eberhardt, Simon Moss, Seth Robinson, Wade Tregaskis, and Vivek Mohan. To support my work, so that I can uncover more untold stories from video game history, you can make a donation via paypal.me/mossrc or subscribe to my Patreon. (I also accept commissions and the like over email or Ko-Fi, if you're after something specific.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    58 min
See All (64)

Trailer

4.9
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

An award-nominated documentary and narrative audio series about video games and the video game industry — as they were in the past, and how they came to be the way they are today. History doesn't just vanish into the distance behind us; it casts a very long shadow that affects everything that comes after it, and so with The Life and Times of Video Games journalist and historian Richard Moss draws those through lines to tell fascinating stories about the past that link right back to the present.

Information

More From The HP Video Game Podcast Network

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada