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The Video Game Newsroom Time Machine is a weekly retro gaming podcast in which we travel back in time to see what was making headlines 40, 30, and 20 years ago in the arcade, video game, and computer gaming business and interview industry veterans. 

We try to put those events into historical context to understand how the industry of today came to be. 

It's fun and educational! (in case you need to justify listening to it to a significant other)

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Nov 9, 2019

Taito is going Made in USA
Capcom launches the CP System 1
With the PS2 launch looming, the Dreamcast is thinking "I might be in trouble"

These stories and many more on this month's episode of the Video Game Newsroom Time Machine

This month we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in November of 1979, 1989, 1999.
As always, we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the actual events..

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Show Notes:
1979:

FCC Regulates computer market
https://tinyurl.com/y6pnt3uy

Last month we got Visicalc, this month we get WordStar
https://tinyurl.com/yymblfrk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordStar
http://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2018/04/25/fire-blood-on-the-way/

Taito opens American plant
RePlay November 1979, pg. 7
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taito

AMOA show preview
RePlay November 1979, pg. 28, 55
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcmdlzm1Tyw

Joe Keenan becomes president of Pizza Time Theatre
Play Meter November 1979, pg 67
https://showbizpizza.fandom.com/wiki/Pizza_Time_Theatre

Atari Chess is coming
https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputing197911/page/n74
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Chess

Atari tries to touch Simon...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkjjzNYDR9Q
https://archive.org/details/CreativeComputingbetterScan197911/page/n19

Electronic games are big business for Xmas
http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1979_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-652.html

Christmas outlook not so jolly
Christmas Outlook for Stores: Not So Jolly, U.S. News & World Report, November 19, 1979
Consumer Scorecard, The Associated Press, November 23, 1979

1989:

Logotron splits up
https://archive.org/details/ACE_Issue_26_1989-11_Future_Publishing_GB/page/n9
https://sonycorporation.fandom.com/wiki/Guerrilla_Cambridge
https://www.mobygames.com/company/creature-labs-ltd

Maxwell sells Microdeal
https://archive.org/details/ACE_Issue_26_1989-11_Future_Publishing_GB/page/n149
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirrorsoft
https://www.mobygames.com/company/microdeal-ltd

Epyx exits computer gaming biz
https://www.filfre.net/2016/12/a-time-of-endings-part-2-epyx/
https://archive.org/details/ACE_Issue_26_1989-11_Future_Publishing_GB/page/n149
https://archive.org/details/Computer_Gaming_World_Issue_65/page/n9

Polarware gets bought by Merit Software
https://archive.org/details/Computer_Gaming_World_Issue_65/page/n9
http://graphicsmagician.com/polarware/index.htm

The Sam Coupe gets presented to the press
https://archive.org/details/ACE_Issue_26_1989-11_Future_Publishing_GB/page/n8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAM_Coupé

Oswald is taking Danish TV by storm
https://archive.org/details/ACE_Issue_26_1989-11_Future_Publishing_GB/page/n8
http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=2764

Lucasfilm games is going console
https://archive.org/details/Computer_Gaming_World_Issue_65/page/n9
https://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/lucasarts/offset,175/so,1d/list-games/
https://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,1744/

Mega Drive peripherals are on the horizon
https://archive.org/details/computer-video-games-magazine-096/page/n11
https://segaretro.org/Sega_Graphic_Board
https://segaretro.org/Mega_Drive_Floppy_Disk_Drive

Entrepreneurs are picking up NEC's slack
https://archive.org/details/ACE_Issue_26_1989-11_Future_Publishing_GB/page/n27

The PC Engine II is coming!
https://archive.org/details/computer-video-games-magazine-096/page/n11
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_Engine_SuperGrafx

PC Engine based arcade hardware shown off at Vegas AMOA show
https://archive.org/details/computer-video-games-magazine-096/page/n102
https://www.tg-16.com/pce_tg16_JAMMA_conversion_kit.htm

Capcom gets on the reusable arcade board bandwagon
https://archive.org/details/ACE_Issue_26_1989-11_Future_Publishing_GB/page/n21
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP_System

1999:

Atari Games gets renamed to Midway Games West
https://mcurrent.name/atarihistory/at_games.html

Interplay is going to the movies
https://archive.org/details/PC-Player-German-Magazine-1999-11/page/n10
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Interplay_Films

Hasbro buys Wizards of the Coast
https://archive.org/details/PC-Player-German-Magazine-1999-11/page/n14

3dfx in trouble
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3dfx_Interactive#Voodoo3_and_strategy_shift
https://archive.org/details/PC-Player-German-Magazine-1999-11/page/n11
https://archive.org/details/PC_Zone_Issue_082_1999-11_Dennis_Publishing_GB/page/n34

Dreamcast US launch numbers revealed!
https://archive.org/details/NextGen59Nov1999/page/n12
https://segaretro.org/History_of_the_Sega_Dreamcast/Release

Dreamcast launches in Europe
https://archive.org/details/MicromaniaTerceraEpocaSpanishIssue58/page/n4

Sega talks big about online gaming
https://archive.org/details/NextGen59Nov1999/page/n22

PS2 details revealed!
https://archive.org/details/NextGen59Nov1999/page/n34
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_2_online_functionality

Game Boy Advanced announced
https://archive.org/details/NextGen59Nov1999/page/n11
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Advance


Recommended Links:
They Create Worlds: https://tcwpodcast.podbean.com/
Digital Antiquarian: https://www.filfre.net/
The Arcade Blogger: https://arcadeblogger.com/