Ep. 81: Ghosts ‘N Goblins… ’N Ghouls… ’N Demons

Chris Baines shares his recently published documentary, The History of Ghosts ‘n Goblins (and Makaimura 魔界村) – Full Series Retrospective | ChrisB Crisps, covering the extensive (if confusingly titled) franchise and its creator Tokuro Fujiwara. In this episode: cringing from ‘go,’ clout is expensive, women are hard to find, we visit Kelsey’s WonderSwan Corner, and…

Ep. 80: The Strong National Museum of Play

Jon-Paul Dyson, the Director of the International Center for the History of Electronic Games at The Strong, where he is also the VP of exhibits, shares all about the museum and its 2022 World Video Game Hall of Fame finalists. In this episode Disneyland is one of the best level designs ever made, collectors make…

Ep. 79: Nintendo’s Page Boy

Gaming historian Liam Robertson returns as almost a sequel to Ep. 16 to share how Nintendo’s Page Boy was almost a sequel to their unreleased Work Boy, as shown in his recent video Page Boy: Nintendo’s LOST Game Boy Add-on | Game History Secrets. Man, that’s a lot of boys! We stack add-ons to get…

Ep. 78: Fan Culture Through Final Fantasy V

Author Chris Kohler explores the evolution of niche fan culture from analog to digital through stories from his book Final Fantasy V (Boss Fight Books Book 18). “Young Chris” learns uploading to America Online makes it live forever, all the cool games stay in Japan, you can use Mario Paint as a Rosetta Stone for…

Ep. 77: A Life of Game Design: Noah Falstein

Veteran game designer Noah Falstein looks back on his 42 year long, and counting, career and reflects on the evolution of both the role and industry over these four decades. We find Noah’s cassette tape, Simon is in Silicon Valley, $30 brings utter horror, Noah has to rein in the fun or else you’ll get…

Ep. 76: C:\>QBASIC /run GORILLA.BAS

Benj Edwards – journalist, tech historian, and recovering retro computer hoarder – teaches us a little about MS-DOS and QBasic through their How-To Geek article: GORILLA.BAS: How to Play the Secret MS-DOS Game From Your Childhood. Frank and Benj reminisce back to day zero, Snacks ‘n Jaxson gets swatted, we hack a powerful secret instead…

Ep. 75: Nintendo Power Reunion

A couple months ago we hosted a ticketed event as a fundraiser we called Nintendo Power Reunion – Stories from the Original Nintendo Power Staff. Nintendo Power was one of the most popular and iconic video game magazines in the US, and its original staff have gathered together for the first time to talk about…

Ep. 74: Pokémon’s Translator: Nob Ogasawara

Translator, localizer, and writer Nob Ogasawara shares highlights of his career working with the Pokémon franchise and at EGM. He shares his birthday with two funny coincidences, gets called a “god,” inadvertently creates a fashion legend, and laments a lost Brittney Spearow. No one expects the Monty Python reference! See more from Nob Ogasawara: Twitter:…

Ep. 73: What is Source Code?

Dimitris Giannakis, well-known for creating excellent videos on the technical aspect of video game preservation, explains. Luckily, he wears a T-shirt as a perfect example, we ponder at what point the code becomes Michael Jordan, and a boy dancing with a baguette solves a problem. See more from Dimitris Giannakis: Twitter: @ModernVintageG YouTube: /ModernVintageGamer Patreon:…

Ep. 72: Happy 5th Birthday!

Join us in our celebration of the Video Game History Foundation’s 5th birthday! Let’s take a ride through history as we retrace the long road to how the VGHF came together, what we’ve been up to for these last 5 years, and where we’re going next. Thank you to everyone that has contributed to our…