Video games have been a hugely popular form of entertainment since their debut in 1972. As an art form almost 50 years old, historians have started to take a look at the saga of video games, chronicling and analyzing how they came to be what they are today. One podcast endeavors to look at the history of arcade, console, and computer gaming history. That podcast is They Create Worlds. On that podcast, historian, Alex Smith and cohost/editor, Jeffrey Daum discuss a new topic in video gaming history. Alex has also released the first volume in his epic length textbook on video game history. In this episode we talk to Alex and Jeff about their interests, why they’re involved in this project, and the important of video gaming history.
Since this was an interview episode, there was no five-minute controversy.
Show Notes:
Here are some worthy references on video game history.
They Create Worlds Vol. 1 (Alex’s history of video games)
Game Over: Press Start to Continue (A history of Nintendo)
The Ultimate History of Video Games (Alex will tell you this one is a mixed bag. Lots of inaccuracies, but a good narrative and lots of direction quotations.)
Phoenix IV: The History of the Video Game Industry (Nice, comprehensive chronicle of all gaming systems from the beginning to 2016.)
Atari Inc.: Business is Fun (Great overall history of Atari)
Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction (History of interactive fiction along with a dissection of its philosophy)
Videogames: In the Beginning (Ralph Baer’s autobiography of his entire work on video games from the 1960’s through 1989)
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