In old RPG news, we have a few items. First, there’s the concluding articles to Ken Denmead’s Top 10 D&D Modules series: #7 Finale. I approve of both choices (but still no Barrier Peaks?).

Second, Allen Varney (no roleplaying slouch himself) has an interview over at the Escapist with Marc Miller, creator of Traveller.

The retro videogaming department is busy this week. For recent homages, we have Greg Costikyan at Play This Thing! with a review of a Japanese rogue-like and Z over at GeekDad with a review of a NES/SNES clone. For the latter, I’m glad Mur has her old SNES — this thing sounds like a cheap knockoff.

In nods to the past, Marc Cerny, creator of Marble Madness and contributor to many a Naughty Dog and Insomniac game (disclosure: I work for Insomniac Games) has been inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame. And around the same time Marble Madness came out, there was Starflight, one of the most complex games of its time. Erin Hoffman at the Escapist covers the story of its development.

Finally, a rather interesting story about how partnerships can go awry. Apparently, Konami, the creators of Yu-Gi-Oh, discovered that someone was creating bootleg cards, thereby both profiting from their creation and polluting the market with counterfeits. Little did they suspect that someone was their partner, Upper Deck… Cult-Stuff has all the details.

For a fuller picture of the show, I recommend you check out The Spiel Origins episode for a lot more show floor interviews, and the Dice Tower Origins episode for more info and a nice interview with (Spiel des Jahres winner!) Reiner Knizia.

Featured interviews:

• Matt Duhan of Gozer Games discusses: Collateral Damage
• Rob Balder of many things discusses: The FUnny Music Project, Erfworld, Partially Clips, Get Nifty
• Peter Hansell of Tablestar Games discusses: Wealth of Nations, Martinis and Men, HeroCard Orc Wars
• Fred Hicks of Indy Press Revolution and Evil Hat Productions discusses: Heaven and Earth, Archaia Studios, Avenues and Alleyways, Solipsist, Spirit of the Season, Spirit of the Century, Don’t Rest Your Head, Don’t Lose Your Mind, Monsters and Other Childish Things, GODLIKE, Wild Talents, Dresden Files RPG
• Curt Covert of Smirk and Dagger Games discusses: Cutthroat Caverns, Run For Your Life, Candyman, Hex*Hex, Hex*Hex Next, Cutthroat Caverns: Deeper & Darker
• Greg Lam of Pair Of Dice Games discusses: Chopstick Dexterity Megachallenge 3000, Warp6, Knockabout, Marvin Marvel’s Marvelous Marble Machine

Pictures of my trip to Origins including most of these folks can be found on my flickr feed. You can also see the lovely new sewer line.

Show Notes:

I’m at Balticon and have to run to a panel… show notes tomorrow.

• New job
• Origins report
• Congrats to ENnie Winners Have Games, Will Travel and Yog Radio
• Cosmic Encounter, Dune and Borderlands to be reprinted
• Boardgame Podcasters Awards: Gateway Game, New Publisher, Innovative Concept, Small Publisher, Game of the Year
• Dragon*Con: Gaming podcast panel on Sept 1, 2:30pm
• Listen to Geeklabel Radio!
• History of Nuclear War
• Rules
• Expansions: Nuclear Escalation, Nuclear Proliferation, Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Listen to Heaven – Season Three: Earth!
• Future plans
• Closing

Links:

• Nuclear War BGG entry
• Nuclear Escalation
• Nuclear Proliferation
• Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Flying Buffalo’s Nuclear War page
• Doug Malewicki’s web page
• Nuclear War at Game Table Online

Final thoughts:

Yeah, yeah, Dune is not an Eon game, but it might as well be.

• Theme Music: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by J.S. Bach, performed by James Clarke
• Intro
• Arkham Horror (and Curse of the Dark Pharoah and Dunwich Horror)
• (The) Fury of Dracula (& show)
• Chill: Black Morn Manor
• Haunted Mansion Game
• Ghost Train
• Which Witch?
• Dark Cults (cards and rules)
• Intruder
• Vampyre
• They’ve Invaded Pleasantville
• The Awful Green Things from Outer Space (& show)
• Ghosts!
• Closing
• End Music: Creepy Doll, written and performed by hairy backwoodsman Jonathan Coulton

Final thoughts:

This should have been the Illuminati episode. Oh well, 23 skiddoo. Fnord.

• 00:00 – Intro
• 02:48 – Thurn and Taxis/Thurn und Taxis
• 07:34 – Buccaneer/Seeräuber
• 09:24 – Aqua Romana/Aqua Romano
• 10:11 – Reiner Knizia!
• 10:28 – Funny Friends/Fiese Freunde Fette Feten
• 15:22 – Blue Moon City
• 17:24 – Arkham Horror – Curse of the Dark Pharaoh Expansion
• 19:19 – Enemy Chocolatier
• 22:29 – Bear’s Grove Bumper
• 22:41 – Scurvy Musketeers of the Spanish Main
• 24:31 – Ticket to Ride – Märklin Edition/Zug um Zug Märklin
• 27:00 – Abridged
• 29:21 – Fish Eat Fish
• 30:51 – Blink!
• 32:03 – Wallamoppi
• 33:11 – Beetlez

Other Links:

• My Origins 2006 Geeklist
• The Dice Tower Origins Show, with my Top Ten List
• Paul Tevis’ review of Ticket to Ride
• My review of Rook

Final Thoughts:

Yes, I know that Eurorails and other crayon rail games aren’t terribly heavy. But they’re heavier and usually have a greater time commitment than Ticket To Ride. And given a choice among train games, they’re at the top for me.

Paul Tevis (Have Games, Will Travel)
Mike Sugarbaker (OgreCave Audio Report)
The Mad Three (Gamer: The Podcasting)
Don Dehm (Pulp Gamer)
Yours truly
Tom Vasel (The Dice Tower)
Mike Stackpole (Podcast Entertainment Network)

Many thanks to Paul Tevis for organizing this — it was fun! But boy, can podcasters talk…

• Intro, revisits for last two podcasts, hello and many thanks
• History and basic description of Gavitt’s Stock Exchange
• History and basic description of Pit
• Optional rules for both
• Discussion of recent play
• Analysis and review
• Next week: My Diplomatic history or a possibly a two-player game

Links:
BGG entry
Wikipedia entry
Out of the Box Gavitt’s Stock Exchange page
Winning Moves Deluxe Pit page (you need the bell)
Office Depot Call Bell (in case you don’t have it)
Patrick Korner’s review of Gavitt’s Stock Exchange

Final Thoughts:

I probably should have mentioned the silent rules, where you indicate your desired trade with your fingers, but like Tom Vasel I think this game should be loud and boisterous — otherwise, what’s the point? I’ve also included Patrick Korner’s review of Gavitt’s Stock Exchange in the links above, to give an alternate and more informed perspective.

• Thanks to Mark Johnson and Rick Thornquist, hello to new listeners
• Origins of Rook
• Regular Rook
• Tournament Rook
• Other variants: Kentucky Rook, Red 1, Display Rook, Boston
• Some thoughts on strategy
• Arrivederci until next week

Links:

• BGG entry
• Wikipedia entry
• Coit’s Rook Cards Collection
• Rules of card games: Rook
• Peter Dutton’s Rook Page
• Nate’s Kentucky Rook (Windows version)
• Rook+ 1.6 ( Windows version)

Final thoughts:
There doesn’t appear to be a shareware version of Rook for Mac OS X, sorry. And a note on Rook+: When I ran the installer it asked to overwrite some of my system DLLs. Since it appeared to be a Win95 installer I ignored them, and it runs fine.