They Create Worlds

TCW Podcast Episode 257 - Nine Atari Games

 

The Atari VCS launched with nine games to entice consumers into the new gaming medium, and Combat set the trend of packing multiple "games" into a single cartridge. Featuring a wide array of game modes, Combat holds its own even today and served as the console's official tie-in title. Atari's partnership with Sears, however, rebranded all but one of the launch titles under different names, including Target Fun, released elsewhere as Air-Sea Battle. Many of the launch games carried multiple modes to stretch their value, and even these early titles pulled clever tricks to push past the VCS's five sprite limit. To justify the console's cost to families, Atari aimed squarely at adults with Blackjack while also including the educational game Basic Math. While many of these early titles were forgotten as more advanced games arrived over the course of the Atari VCS's life, their influence on a foundational system cannot be disputed.

 

Atari Archive: https://www.atariarchives.org/

Atari Archive (Youtube): https://www.youtube.com/c/AtariArchive

Combat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNtI90yiOOU

Air-Sea Battle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l0AQ5LuvQM

Video Olympics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rie4hsUeDuA

Indy 500: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_POr4OdHhiI

Street Racer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCSYY1kK9so

Star Ship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4zySJ96a4U

Blackjack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nvWBin7_Rc

Basic Math: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv7T4ya9hcg

Surround: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhZ1wfGLq1w

How to do long form Square Roots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6evC4klO_lI

TCW 051 - Sons of Pong: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW051

TCW 201 - Advanced Balls and Paddles Part 1: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW201

TCW 202 - Advanced Balls and Paddles Part 2: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW202

TCW 009 - History of Mediagenic Part 1: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW009

TCW 010 - History of Mediagenic Part 2: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW010

 

New episodes are on the 1st and 15th of every month!

 

TCW Email: [email protected] 

BlueSky: @theycreateworlds.bsky.social

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theycreateworlds

Alex's Video Game History Blog: http://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com

Alex's book: http://bit.ly/TCWBOOK1

 

Intro Music: Josh Woodward - Airplane Mode -  Music - "Airplane Mode" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/AirplaneMode 

Outro Music: RoleMusic - Bacterial Love: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Rolemusic/Pop_Singles_Compilation_2014/01_rolemusic_-_bacterial_love 

 

Copyright: Attribution: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

TCW Podcast Episode 256 - Cinemaware

 

Bob Jacob launched Cinemaware to fuse movies and video games on Amiga, hiring journalist Kellyn Beeck to design Defender of the Crown's medieval themes. Programmer John Cutter led in-house development after massive outside studio delays, tapping coder R.J. Michael for an intense programming marathon to barely hit deadline and make Defender the Amiga's killer app. Lone coders followed with Doug Sharp's janky Macintosh hypercard-style King of Chicago and Bill Williams' Sinbad, creator of Mind Walker. Licensed properties piled on, Rocket Ranger, Three Stooges, and Lords of the Rising Sun, plus TV Sports Football that inspired EA Sports' empire. Jacob chased Academy Award glory with a 1927 Wings adaptation you couldn't lose, featuring a story told by WWI pilot journals where downed fliers were memorialized via an end credits roll. With poor Amiga reception in the US, loyalty to the system cost them dearly. Pivots to consoles like obscure View-Master Interactive Vision and failed TurboGrafx-16 prevented a PC shift. Amid financial difficulties, Jacob sold Cinemaware in parts after just five years.

 

TCW 082 - An Unlikely Pairing of Siliwood: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW082

TCW 246 - The History of Commodore Pt 3: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW246

Kellyn Beeck - Atari Battlezone for the U.S. Army: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ppv5B6Lwcc

Kellyn Beeck - The Pac-Man Zone: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ClEuynw--YQ

Kellyn Beeck - Final Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfW6h1_yrvY

Commodore Power Play Issue 13 (Page 66 - Who Will Design The Perfect Game? - by Kellyn Beeck): https://archive.org/details/commodore-power-play-13/page/n67/mode/2up

TCW 094 - Epyx not Epic: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW094

Defender of the Crown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1qqoczc0m8

SDI (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLOAkpOKWno

The King of Chicago (Macintosh): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2Oi6a68MqE

The King of Chicago (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLaDhmIdvcs

Mind Walker (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NygI9u_10Vs
Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flpTfx0jaMw

The Three Stooges (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAu-XvxV3zs

Rocket Ranger (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6vIHcxGyIA

Lords of the Rising Sun (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAfMrJ3rpSw

TV Sports Football (TurboGrafx 16): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKYCgHhHquM

TV Sports Basketball (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gdIRB-6s_k

Wings (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL-qtxNgoHU

Wings (1927 Film): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jf7Qn1IJsY

View-Master Interactive Vision (Sesame Street): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7ZciCfgjmg

View-Master Interactive Vision (Muppets - You're the Director): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i56ym5vZpQU

View-Master Interactive Vision (Disney Interactive Arcade): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31QN5aT_RHw

Green Eyed Lady by Sugarloaf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYbmls7c8EM
Aspen Interactive Movie Map: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf6LkqgXPMU

TCW 042 - Laser Craze: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW042

Them! (1954 Trailer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4URRp39XOo

It Came From the Desert (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8LaMMSEs5Q

It Came From the Desert (Turbo Grafx 16): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVFQXnukUvQ

 

New episodes are on the 1st and 15th of every month!

 

TCW Email: [email protected] 

BlueSky: @theycreateworlds.bsky.social

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theycreateworlds

Alex's Video Game History Blog: http://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com

Alex's book: http://bit.ly/TCWBOOK1

 

Intro Music: Josh Woodward - Airplane Mode -  Music - "Airplane Mode" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/AirplaneMode 

Outro Music: RoleMusic - Bacterial Love: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Rolemusic/Pop_Singles_Compilation_2014/01_rolemusic_-_bacterial_love 

 

Copyright: Attribution: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

TCW Podcast Episode 255 - The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind

 

After Arena and Daggerfall's triumphs, Julian LeFay's Battlespire spinoff marked his last hand in the Elder Scrolls universe. Amid conflicts while working on other projects, LeFay left. Ted Peterson had already departed after Daggerfall. This left Bethesda Softworks with none of the original creators for the next Elder Scrolls. Development stalled amid Bethesda turmoil, spawning Redguard which introduced the Pocket Guide to the Empire, an unreliable in-universe narrator that sowed mystery and deep worldbuilding for Tamriel's forged empire. New lead Todd Howard ditched procedural generation for handcrafted openness where everything interacted. Morrowind featured quests like the falling wizard and pantsless Hentus, hiding logical lore amid hundreds of books blending mythology, humor, and misdirection. Morrowind launched on PC and Xbox at a dire hour for Bethesda. It's make-or-break success rescued the studio from probable collapse in a dark time.

 

The Elder Scrolls Legend - Battlespire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk9uKElPCJQ

Pensacola Wings of Gold (S1E1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDVuiLIKLAE

The Elder Scrolls Adventures - Redguard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7-Hup8Pqms

The Terminator - Skynet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD4ZLkbnDCA

Pocket Guide to the Empire (1st Edition): https://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1393284074508.pdf
RCW 144 - Ascension into the Black Gate: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW144

The-Spolier.com: https://the-spoiler.com/RPG/New.World.Computing/Might..magic.6.html
Might & Magic VI - Solution by J Pike: https://rpggamers.com/walkthrough/might-magic-vi-mandate-of-heaven
Might & Magic VI - Solution by Mike Marcelais: https://rpggamers.com/walkthrough/might-and-magic-vi-solution

Morrowind - A Falling Wizard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWVKMMxCgY4

Morrowind - Hentus Needs Pants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSSv1mcI_GM

The Elder Scrolls - Morrowind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVFyDmd9RsA
Morrowind Map: https://en.uesp.net/maps/mwmap/mwmap.html

 

New episodes are on the 1st and 15th of every month!

 

TCW Email: [email protected] 

BlueSky: @theycreateworlds.bsky.social

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theycreateworlds

Alex's Video Game History Blog: http://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com

Alex's book: http://bit.ly/TCWBOOK1

 

Intro Music: Josh Woodward - Airplane Mode -  Music - "Airplane Mode" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/AirplaneMode 

Outro Music: RoleMusic - Bacterial Love: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Rolemusic/Pop_Singles_Compilation_2014/01_rolemusic_-_bacterial_love 

 

Copyright: Attribution: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

TCW Podcast Episode 254 - The Elder Scrolls: Arena & Daggerfall

 

Bethesda Softworks, founded in 1985 by Christopher Weaver with sports titles like Gridiron and Wayne Gretzky Hockey along with licenses like The Terminator, pivoted to RPGs. Demo scene legend Julian LeFay hired Vijay Lakshman as designer and buffer to management so LeFay could focus on games. Together they birthed The Elder Scrolls: Arena, a gladiator combat simulator that morphed, nine months into a 13-month development cycle, into a first-person 3D epic inspired by Ultima Underworld. Arena evolved from a combat management game to a full RPG with a procedurally generated world, unique races like Argonians and Khajiit, and a plot to topple the wizard Tharn. With the second game, LeFay, challenged by Sandy Petersen's claim that CRPGs could never match tabletop RPGs, made Daggerfall a massive world the size of Great Britain: 15,000 cities, towns, and dungeons; 44 regions; 100 factions; skill leveling based on what players actually did; and reputation grinds to unlock quests and plot. Ted Peterson, who took over lead design after Lakshman left, wove a complex plot with gray themes, diverse motivations, and moral quandaries into a simulator packed with layered systems rather than pure RPG simplicity. It sold out the initial run, hit 700,000 units, and became Bethesda's best game yet, bringing fresh air to a fallow RPG era!

 

TCW 156 - Madden for Some Football: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW156

Gridiron (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0q7sc_T3FU

Wayne Gretzky Hockey (NES): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1Apj9IRcpQ

Tell Me Your Name (Russia Heat): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYpcZ2NfMYU

(Explicit) Sodan & Magician 42 - TechTech (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB5CujcTN8A

Terminator 2029 (PC/DOS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-PBi-N1hQo

Flesh+Blood (Trailer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVyLe-k16gw

Jason And The Argonauts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq4requMqvY

Khajit/Khajiit Has Wares: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/khajiit-khajiit-has-wares

Ultima Underworld: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee4PUcpGSn8

The Elder Scrolls: Arena (Box Art): https://bigboxcollection.com/TESArena.3DBox

The Elder Scrolls: Arena: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjEn6ETA7EM

What Do You Do With a B.A. in English? (Avenue Q): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYenQEjvlD0

Walk Across the Entire Map in Dragonfall Unity (Timelapse 512x): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xTvdK88cww

The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpX5y6jiafg

 

New episodes are on the 1st and 15th of every month!

 

TCW Email: [email protected] 

BlueSky: @theycreateworlds.bsky.social

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theycreateworlds

Alex's Video Game History Blog: http://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com

Alex's book: http://bit.ly/TCWBOOK1

 

Intro Music: Josh Woodward - Airplane Mode -  Music - "Airplane Mode" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/AirplaneMode 

Outro Music: RoleMusic - Bacterial Love: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Rolemusic/Pop_Singles_Compilation_2014/01_rolemusic_-_bacterial_love 

 

Copyright: Attribution: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

TCW Podcast Episode 253 - Masanobu Endō

 

Masanobu Endō is one of Japan's most important game designers, yet remains relatively unknown in the West. Starting from an uncertain role at Namco, he first made his mark by turning Dig Dug play notes into an official strategy booklet, then shifted into programming work where he learned from Namco's maze games, including Pac-Man. Assigned as a programmer on Xevious, he stepped into the lead role when the original planner left, pushing for a coherent world where every enemy and structure had a purpose in a larger mythology. The secrets, patterns, and hidden elements he built into Xevious encouraged dedicated players to map routes, chase glitches, and hunt for new techniques in a way that feels very similar to how modern communities approach speedrunning and score optimization today. Endō then expanded these ideas in The Tower of Druaga, fusing Dungeons and Dragons style dungeon crawling with Babylonian and Sumerian myth, cryptic treasure requirements, and a real ending instead of an endless loop. The result helped shape how Japanese designers approached action adventure, including early thinking around what would become "The Legend of Zelda."

 

A Super Basic Summary of Gundam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16tDMkmZKiA

Blockade (Gremlin 1976): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUacA8Dj3BY

Atari Football (Atari Arcade): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_ZOtqMWHoU

Battlezone (Atari Arcade): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdfKy4c7yuc

TCW 029 - 50 Years of Namco: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/50-years-of-namco/

TCW 116 - The Atari Games You Are Looking For: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-atari-games-you-are-looking-for/

Dig Dug (Atari): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ZD7VCiBes

Pole Position (Atari/Namco): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeYZGtwydIA

Learn Assembly in 10 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S5KRJv-7RU

Scramble (Arcade): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p08J-AK-BE

Galga (Stupidly Explained): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pE2SbPgzd0

Space Runaway Ideon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYI251fFCAY

The Nazca Lines (SciShow): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EILw-mKefew
The Nazca Lines Part 1 (Astonishing Legends): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYIUJuFj9h8

The Nazca Lines Part 2 (Astonishing Legends): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F9UMJcSCRg
Xevious (Arcade): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Stjrz3CM8R4

Haruomi Hosono - Video Game Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO7qAggk6-I&list=PL4NXUZspQ7Bxi8nsNylZBWBK392FgMlAT
Xevious (Famicom): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_bS_SAzknk

Dungeons & Dragons ET: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hJdhL1Ni_w

Pac Man Ghosts: https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/1136hi/pac_man_post_from_rgaming_i_thought_it_belonged/

Tower of Druaga (Arcade): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCCGIP4SifE

 

New episodes are on the 1st and 15th of every month!

 

TCW Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @tcwpodcast

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theycreateworlds

Alex's Video Game History Blog: http://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com

Alex's book, published Dec 2019, is available at CRC Press and at major on-line retailers: http://bit.ly/TCWBOOK1

 

 

Intro Music: Josh Woodward - Airplane Mode -  Music - "Airplane Mode" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/AirplaneMode 

Outro Music: RoleMusic - Bacterial Love: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Rolemusic/Pop_Singles_Compilation_2014/01_rolemusic_-_bacterial_love 

 

Copyright: Attribution: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/