Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchTomohiro Nishikado: The Sony Reject Who Built Space Invaders
Episode 11165
In 1967 a young engineering graduate failed the final round of Sony's hiring test. That rejection pushed Tomohiro Nishikado toward Taito, where he we…
4 days, 11 hours ago
Halo: Combat Evolved and the Nine-Month Sprint That Saved the Xbox
Episode 11164
In 1999 Steve Jobs stood on stage at Macworld and introduced an open world science fiction game as the future of Apple gaming. Two years later that g…
4 days, 11 hours ago
The Sims at 25: From Will Wright's Ashes to a $5 Billion Sandbox
Episode 11163
After the 1991 Oakland firestorm destroyed his home, Will Wright itemized his entire life for insurance and started seeing the system underneath rebu…
4 days, 11 hours ago
Gunpei Yokoi's Game & Watch: The Sick Day That Saved Nintendo
Episode 11162
In 1979 Nintendo was carrying roughly 8 billion yen of debt when a company chauffeur called in sick, forcing toy designer Gunpei Yokoi to drive presi…
4 days, 11 hours ago
Infocom: The Rise and Fall of the Kings of Interactive Fiction
Episode 11161
Infocom fought software piracy with scratch and sniff cards, sold games in bookstores next to hardcover novels, turned down a $28 million buyout from…
4 days, 11 hours ago
Zork: How an MIT Text Adventure Pioneered Interactive Fiction and AI
Episode 11160
You type Get Lamp into a blank screen in the late 1970s and a machine designed for mathematics talks back with a sarcastic remark, then tells you a g…
4 days, 11 hours ago
Yu Suzuki: The Sega Visionary Who Dragged Gaming Into 3D
Episode 11159
One of the most influential creators in modern entertainment would rather ride a real roller coaster than play the games he built. This deep dive dra…
4 days, 11 hours ago
World of Warcraft: How a Virtual Nation Reshaped Economics and Politics
Episode 11158
The spark for Ethereum was not a boardroom but a 2010 patch to a warlock spell that showed Vitalik Buterin he did not truly own his digital assets. T…
4 days, 11 hours ago
Gunpei Yokoi and the Game Boy: Winning With Withered Technology
Episode 11157
Imagine a Michelin-starred chef ignoring truffles and caviar to serve canned beans and day-old rice, and it turns out to be the best meal of your lif…
4 days, 11 hours ago
Galaga: How Leftover Arcade Boards Became a 1981 Masterpiece
Episode 11156
A prehistoric shark, a throwaway line in The Avengers, and a submarine on the island in Lost all point back to the same 1981 arcade game. This deep d…
4 days, 12 hours ago