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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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Apr 14, 2021

Gregory Fischbach has had a career most of us could only dream of.  Starting out as a civil rights lawyer in the 1960s, he then represented some of the biggest musical acts of the 70s, before reinventing himself in the video game industry and running Activision's European operations.  All of this culminated in the formation of Acclaim and the building of one of the most powerful publishers of the 8 and 16 bit eras. 

 

In part 1 of our interview, Greg talks about those early years, what drove him, and how business was done when games were young.

 

NOTE: This interview was recorded over many sessions.  Any meandering is purely due to the fact that we kept getting lost on tangents and coming back to topics sometimes weeks later.  Yeah, we were having way too much fun.  :)

 

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Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Corps

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lloyd_Prosser

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crosby,_Stills,_Nash_%26_Young

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Miller_(musician)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boz_Scaggs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merle_Haggard

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostbusters

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_CPC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Kombat_(1992_video_game)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8V7TwlYCt0

https://accelerate.games/

https://www.mobygames.com/game/toy-soldiers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ZOWWs6rNE

https://www.mobygames.com/game/turok-dinosaur-hunter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertelsmann

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acclaim_Entertainment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoru_Arakawa

https://www.mobygames.com/company/acclaim-entertainment-inc

https://www.mobygames.com/game/mortal-kombat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_Software_Rating_Board

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WMS_Industries

https://www.mobygames.com/game/nba-jam

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Team_(TV_series)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165600/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6RH33lDxrY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LJN

https://www.mobygames.com/game/simpsons-bart-vs-the-space-mutants

https://macysthanksgiving.fandom.com/wiki/Bart_Simpson

https://www.handheldmuseum.com/Acclaim/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Nintendo_Entertainment_System

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Genesis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Kombat_(1992_video_game)

https://www.mobygames.com/game/dave-mirra-freestyle-bmx

https://www.mobygames.com/game-group/nfl-quarterback-series

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Probst

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Line_Cinema

https://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/gtfo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroProse

https://www.patreon.com/posts/36710924

https://store.steampowered.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameStop

https://www.mobygames.com/game-group/mary-kate-and-ashley-licensees

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola