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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Jun 30, 2025
Mechanical amusements have long been a mainstay of theme parks
and travelling fairs. In the 1980s, this technology entered
the realm of the arcade, most notably through Chuck E. Cheese and
since then, has merged with the traditional dark ride to become the
interactive dark ride, a mixture of animatronics, motion, lightguns
and video games.
Our guest today, John Wood is the head of Sally Corporation, a
pioneer of animatronic entertainment and especially the interactive
darkride. John tells us how this industry leader got its
start
Recorded: September 2024
Video version:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/jeff-johannigman-125624209
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Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Corporation
https://www.sallydarkrides.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathkit_H8
https://youtu.be/jjNca1L6CUk?si=tAux1b9ri9ZJ_mdm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Association_of_Amusement_Parks_and_Attractions
https://www.sallydarkrides.com/post/remembering-jan-sherman-sally-dark-rides-memorializes-long-time-co-worker-and-friend
Recommended Links:
The History of How We Play:
https://thehistoryofhowweplay.wordpress.com/
Gaming Alexandria: https://www.gamingalexandria.com/wp/
They Create Worlds: https://tcwpodcast.podbean.com/
Digital Antiquarian: https://www.filfre.net/
The Arcade Blogger: https://arcadeblogger.com/
Retro Asylum: http://retroasylum.com/category/all-posts/
Retro Game Squad: http://retrogamesquad.libsyn.com/
Playthrough Podcast: https://playthroughpod.com/
Retromags.com: https://www.retromags.com/
Games That Weren't - https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/
Copyright Karl Kuras