[This is a repost, as my server died this week.]
Despite my earlier and unfounded skepticism, Matt Barton of the blog Armchair Arcade has posted the second of a series about the origins and history of the computer RPG. It’s currently up on Gamasutra, but he’ll be posting it on his own blog in a few weeks.
This installment features games from the time period that he calls the Golden Age of CRPGs: 1984-1993.
Over on Matt Barton’s blog Armchair Arcade, he’s started a series about the origins and history of the computer RPG. The first installment features games from the time period smack dab in the sweet spot of this podcast: 1980-1983.
As someone who wrote a basic RPG for his Zenith computer out of frustration (not a lot of games for that platform) I found this pretty fascinating. I’m looking forward to the next few installments, assuming that he gets to them.
(Yes, this is from last month — still catching up).
As it’s been a while since I’ve done a pure computer game, I decided to do another blast from the Macintosh past. This time the game is The Fool’s Errand, designed and created by Cliff Johnson, and originally published by Miles Computing. It’s a puzzle game that should hopefully appeal to you pencil puzzlers out there. I also talk about the follow-up games At the Carnival and 3 in Three, as well as the sequel, The Fool and His Money.
I also give the final winners of the Politika games, and talk about some recent appearances on other shows.
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Finally I return to games that most would consider “vintage,” this one being both 20 years old and out of print. The game this week is Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective, a paragraph-based deduction game from Sleuth Publications.
I also talk a little bit about the Politika pair of shows, and the continuing Politika board game giveaway. Yes, I managed to get one, maybe two, additional copies. So if you’re interested, drop me a line by Dec 31.
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This month is the 10-year anniversary of the founding of Red Storm Entertainment. As a commemoration, I’m doing a two-parter on my experience as lead designer on Tom Clancy’s Politika. Not a well-rated or beloved game by any stretch, but I thought that relating our experience would help any aspiring designers out there to avoid the mistakes we made. This week I’m covering the things that I thought didn’t go so well — tune into the previous episode to hear the game description and the things that I thought succeeded.
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This month is the 10-year anniversary of the founding of Red Storm Entertainment. As a commemoration, I’m doing a two-parter on my experience as lead designer on Tom Clancy’s Politika. Not a well-rated or beloved game by any stretch, but I thought that relating our experience would help any aspiring designers out there to avoid the mistakes we made. This week I’m covering the things that I thought went well — next week, the parts that, er, didn’t go so well.
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This week, Dani Bunten Berry’s M.U.L.E, a multiplayer classic of the 1980s computer game era. Develop, trade, consume, make a buck and crush your friends! All this and a nifty musical theme…
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This week, I cover Dark Castle, originally published for the Mac by Silicon Beach in 1986 and created by Mark Pierce and Jonathan Gay. Also discussed: Beyond Dark Castle (1987) and Return to Dark Castle (2006?).
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