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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Sep 9, 2021
Broderbund was one of the most important publishers of the 80s
and 90s, releasing seminal titles such as Choplifter, Prince of
Persia, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Print Shop, and
Myst.
But behind the scenes was a family, a true band of siblings, that
proved that business didn't have to be a cutthroat winner-take-all
affair.
Gary Carlston, together with his brother Doug and sister Cathy,
helped create a legendary company with a legacy like few
others.
Gary tells his story from humble beginnings peddling TRS-80 games to local shops to becoming a global powerhouse and, finally, having to call it quits to preserve the family.
Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broderbund
https://www.mobygames.com/company/brderbund-software-inc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80
https://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,19676/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softalk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast_Computer_Faire
https://archive.org/details/softalkv1n03nov1980/page/26/mode/2up
https://www.mobygames.com/company/starcraft-inc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synapse_Software
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Entertainment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_British
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Simulations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius_Software
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Arts
https://videogamenewsroomtimemachine.libsyn.com/ken-williams-interview
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4881/personal-preference
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_Street_Writer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Sandiego
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lode_Runner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_E._Smith
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Mechner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_International
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity
http://www.psytronik.net/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris
https://videogamenewsroomtimemachine.libsyn.com/don-daglow-interview-part-2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-Force
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_Software_Association
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlassian