episodes
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1.
You Can Keep Your Quarters: The Death of Arcades
Back in the day, people left their homes to play video games! Hosts discuss the rise of arcades and all the old school games: Space invaders, Asteroids, Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Frogger, and many more! E...
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2.
Up from the Ashes: The Rise of Nintendo
Nintendo's long trek from playing cards to gaming monopoly. While most Americans thought video games were a fad, Nintendo was pushing their way to the top of the gaming world. Learn how Nintendo creat...
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3.
Ashes to Ashes: The Fall of Atari
The stunning rise and steep decline of Atari. Atari started the home video game, quickly becoming the fastest growing company in American history. In the last six months of 1982, however, it all fell...
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4.
Splitting the Iron Curtain: A Brief History of Tetris
You won't believe the drama behind one of the best loved games of all-time. Tetris is not only one of the most universally loved games ever created, it also has one of the most fascinating histories....
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5.
Atari-gate!: The Theft of Nintendo's Code
The history of the bitter feud between Atari and Nintendo. In the high-stakes world of early console gaming, Nintendo knew it would have to think outside the box to prevent crappy games from being com...
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6.
The Dirty Dozen: 12 Failed Consoles — Part One
The trashcans of the past are stuffed with consoles that didn't catch on. From the Atari 5200 and the ill fated Nintendo Virtual Boy, to the Atari Jaguar and the poorly timed Sega CD, the trashcans of...
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7.
The Dirty Dozen: 12 Failed Consoles — Part Two
More video game consoles that failed to attract fans. The continuing saga of consoles that couldn't cut the mustard. From the ill-fated and poorly conceived Atari Jaguar, to the doomed Panasonic 3DO,...
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8.
The Fight of the Century: Sega vs. Nintendo
Remember when Sonic and Mario went head to head? Video game rivalries are no joke, especially considering the billions of dollars up for grabs for the console with the most successful games. Back when...
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9.
I am Outraged!: Controversy in Gaming
Sex and violence in video games is a potent issue and has been for quite some time. It may surprise you to know that long before Grand Theft Auto and Mortal Kombat raised eyebrows, Congress and concer...
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10.
Two Gorillas and a Leather Company: ColecoVision
The story of an upstart leather company that took on a corporate titan. ColecoVision could've been the next big thing if it wasn't for some major problems that popped up along the way to their unattai...
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11.
You Don't Know Jack: Introducing the Commodore 64
This little computer rocked the gaming world. Back in the day, the Commodore 64 came screaming out of the gates into the waiting hands of gamers all over the world. Although it is no longer around, it...
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12.
From Score to Story and Back: Return of the Arcade!
The arcade is back! You might not have noticed, but it returned to the gaming scene. After the advent of home gaming systems, many assumed the end of arcade gaming as we know it was upon us. They were...
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13.
We Have Awakened a Sleeping Giant!: Nintendo Angers Sony
This rivalry tells us an important story about electronics in the 20th century. Based on the information that Sony accrued creating peripherals for the console makers, they were able to create a groun...
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14.
Shigeru Miyamoto: The Father of Modern Video Games
Game designer Shigeru Miyamoto has set the gold standard for gaming. If you play a fair amount of home video games, one thing you'll notice is that they all have a certain general form. Just like movi...
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15.
Gaming Mascots: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
Follow the various video game mascots during the late '80s to the late '90s. Video game mascots used to be all the rage in the late '80s to the late '90s. Similar to the Hollywood "star system" of the...
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16.
30 Years in the Making: Women in Gaming
Did you know that almost half of the world's gamers are women? Since the beginning, gaming has most often been associated with guys. Guys made the games; guys played the games; guys played the games s...
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17.
From Dust to Doom: The Two Johns
Meet the two most famous American game designers. While video game designers aren't rock stars, there were two who got about as close as game designers could get: John Carmack and John Romero, also kn...
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18.
Nolan & Ralph: The Founding Fathers
The Founding Fathers—the men who started it all. The video game industry is thought of as having started in the early '70s with Pong and other early arcade hits. While this may have effectively starte...
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19.
The Unsung Heroes: Game Controllers
A history of gaming's unsung hero: the controller. While good hardware and creative software are both key, the controller is what actually connects the player to the game. It's the third part of the g...
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20.
We Hardly Knew Ye: R.I.P. Sega Dreamcast
The Sega Dreamcast was one of the greatest game consoles ever released. Usually, the history of video game failures is pretty simple. Either the games, the hardware, or the marketing stinks. But there...
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21.
Mine!: Gaming and Copyright
Landmark lawsuits exploded as the video game industry struggled to define itself. In video games' early days, the law was struggling to figure out how exactly to regard video games. Were they toys? Au...
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22.
College Dreams: The Story of General Computer
Two students, without money or contacts, found their own way into the game business. In 1981, A couple of MIT students named Doug Macrae and Kevin Curran started a small company called General Compute...