Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchEarthBound: The Scratch-and-Sniff Flop That Became a Cult Masterpiece
Episode 11257
In 1995, Nintendo spent roughly $2 million telling Americans that EarthBound stinks, complete with foul-smelling scratch-and-sniff magazine cards. Th…
1 day, 23 hours ago
Metroid: How Isolation and Dread Built Nintendo's Genre-Defining Franchise
Episode 11256
In 1986, players who finished Nintendo's toughest new game watched the robotic hero remove a helmet to reveal a woman. This episode argues the real s…
1 day, 23 hours ago
Keiji Inafune: 23 Years Building a Blue Hero, Then Walking Away
Episode 11255
In the late 1980s, a fresh graduate named Keiji Inafune had to design a new console hero with a 56-color hardware palette. He chose blue because it o…
1 day, 23 hours ago
Dark Souls: How a Punishing Game Rewired Players and Built a Genre
Episode 11254
Dark Souls strips you of resources, drops you into decaying kingdoms, and punishes every misstep with death, yet the franchise has shipped over 39 mi…
1 day, 23 hours ago
Crash Bandicoot: Rise, Fall, and Revival of PlayStation's Mascot
Episode 11253
In 2014, researchers at Australia's Riversleigh World Heritage Area named an extinct Miocene marsupial Crash bandicoot. This episode traces how a cha…
1 day, 23 hours ago
Among Us: How a 30-Player Indie Flop Became a Global Pandemic Phenomenon
Episode 11252
In May 2021, a single chicken nugget from the BTS meal sold on eBay for $99,997 because it looked like a crewmate from Among Us. This episode explain…
1 day, 23 hours ago
1993 Senate Video Game Hearings: Mortal Kombat, Night Trap, and the ESRB
Episode 11251
In 1993, politicians accused the Sega CD game Night Trap of teaching children to hunt women, and the obscure title sold 50,000 copies in a single wee…
1 day, 23 hours ago
Warren Robinett, Atari's Adventure, and the Birth of the Easter Egg
Episode 11250
Warren Robinett's 1980 Atari 2600 game Adventure generated $25 million for the company while he earned a $22,000 salary, no royalties, and no credit …
1 day, 23 hours ago
Twitch: From Justin.tv Spinoff to Amazon's $970 Million Streaming Empire
Episode 11249
In February 2014, more than six and a half million people watched tens of thousands of strangers type commands into a chat box to steer a Pokemon Red…
1 day, 23 hours ago
How Diablo Was Born in One Weekend and Invented the Action RPG
Episode 11248
In 1994, publishers told David Brevik that role-playing games were dead. This episode traces how his slow, turn-based, claymation dungeon crawler pit…
1 day, 23 hours ago