Gameography

This week we get back to Fallout and discuss some of the things that maybe haven’t aged as well, like the humor, as well as some of our favorite moments from the game, and the ending! And of course the star of the show Keith David. Season 2, Episode 32 | 74 mins https://gameographypod.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/S2E32%20The%20Sequel%20to%20the%20Episode%20on%20the%20Sequel%20to%20Wasteland.mp3 The post S2 E32: Keith David is in Fallout first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This week our Fallout episodes finally emerge from the vault. Recorded almost a year ago, these episodes were too hot, the takes were too spicy to be released to the public. But now as global climates reach historic highs, our dive into the post-apocalyptic RPG of a lone individual on the search for water for […] The post S2 E31: Fallout the Real Wasteland 2 first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Todd Howard took us through an extensive overview of various systems and components of Starfield. Today we deep dive into everything we learned from the presentation and talk through where we still have questions and concerns about the game. How much mining will you really have to do? How does everything fit together? Is there […] The post Side Quest! Everything We Learned About Starfield first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

We leave Tamriel behind for the multi-tiered Kingdom of Hyrule and give our impressions of the opening sections of the Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. We talk a lot about expectations and how Nintendo has managed to subvert them while still creating what is recognizably the second Breath of the Wild style Zelda. […] The post Side Quest! Zelda Tears of the Kingdom first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This week we continue to discuss The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. We talk though the insane difficulty curve that means escaping the tutorial will be the hardest thing you do in the entire game, and the difficulty of just navigating spaces. We also talk about the size of the world of Daggerfall, and how despite […] The post S2 E30: Dungeons and Daggerfalls first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This week our journey into Todd Howard’s works truly begins. Well, kind of. After some talk about headphones falling apart, we get in to how Todd got in to the business of making games. Then we talk about the Elder Scrolls series as a whole, our relationships to them, and finally we get in to […] The post S2 E29: Dying in Daggerfall first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

We kick off our Todd Howard extravaganza with a look at the recently released information about Bethesda Studio’s upcoming science fiction RPG Starfield. The rest of our season will be examining Todd Howards’ oeuvre leading up to the release of his first game in almost a decade. We discuss where we want to see Bethesda’s […] The post Side Quest! What We Are Looking For In Starfield first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

You thought season 1 was over? Absolutely not! Miyamoto is back and he is tearing up the charts with The Super Mario Bros Movie, which is on its way to being one of the most financially successful animated films of all time. But is it artistically successful? Does it have Miyamoto’s trademark touch? How does […] The post S1 E28: Miyamoto's The Super Mario Bros Movie first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Welcome to Gameography Side Quest, our new short form format. We’ll be dropping these in occasionally to supplement our regular episodes with topics that don’t fit in neatly to our regular format. This time, we talk about Tim’s slow but steady descent into a lurid love affair with PC gaming. What is it about these […] The post Side Quest! PC Gaming For All first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This week we say farewell to John Romero with his last AAA shooter, Daikatana. Last week we talked through its disturbed development, and this time we talked about how, despite Daikatana being one of the most reviled games of all time, it still left us disappointed somehow. It’s one of those rare blunders that makes […] The post S2 E28: Sucking Down John Romero's Daikatana first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This week we begin to wrap up our journey with Id co-founder John Romero with a look at the ill-fated production of his post-Id project Daikatana. Daikatana has been a punchline for the last 23 years, but it wasn’t always. There were a few years when it was one of the most highly anticipated games […] The post S2 E27: Daikatana's Mythic Production Woes first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This week we continue our retrospective on Deus Ex, the seminal Immersive Sim. While age hasn’t been entirely kind to the game’s visuals and sounds, we found a surprisingly relevant and meaningful story and clever design to be found. We talk about Deus Ex’s relationship to player choice and player agency, and the masterful way […] The post S2 E26: Deus Ex's Philosophy of Human Agency first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

We’re back after a bit of a break with Matt Devil to continue discussing the history of the immersive sim with the quintessential spy action thriller Deus Ex. This episode covers how the game came to be from a spark of an idea while watching the X-files to John Romero calling up Warren Spector with […] The post S2 E25: How Deus Ex Was Made first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This week we’re joined by special guest Matthew Devil to talk games that have made us cry, Sonic the Hedgehog, the upcoming Mario movie and of course we get around to talking through our thoughts on the System Shock remake demo at some point. That’s it for Gameography for 2022. We’ll be back next year […] The post S2 E24: System Shock Remake With Matt Devil first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

We talk a bit about the punishing difficulty and how that probably stopped many from seeing the quite insane ending. And we finally get to talking about how the game was made by a small team working in symbiosis with the company who made the original System Shock, Looking Glass Studios while they worked on […] The post S2 E23: System Shock 2 – How SS2 Was Made first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

System Shock 2 took players into deep space and placed them in the middle of a politically complex and tense situation. While the player character has amnesia and wakes up to the horror of an alien infestation on their ship, the player knows that this is System Shock and that SHODAN is somewhere around the […] The post S2 E22: System Shock 2 – The Story of Our Voices first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

System Shock 2 saw rookie designer Ken Levine and his new business partners at Irrational Games take a swing at their take on the System Shock universe. System Shock 2 introduced true survival horror elements to the franchise, and concerned you less with hacking AIs and more with hacking apart zombies. This game is still […] The post S2 E21: System Shock 2 – The Horror of Discovery first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

System Shock was an early example of a game that thrust you into a fully realized world, with a backstory, seamless travel between areas and interlocking systems. It could appear almost quaint given that these things are in many ways the standards by which almost all modern games are judged, but at the time they […] The post S2 E20: System Shock: the First Great Immersive Sim first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Looking Glass Technology did what Id didn’t. The plan for their 1994 immersive first-person shooter was on the face of things quite similar to Romero and Hall’s vision for Doom: A story driven, action packed, seamless open world adventure through a space station. But while Romero ditched the story and open-world design, for short levels […] The post S2 E19: System Shock, Dreaming in Cyberspace first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This episode we get into the cultural history of Minecraft with the explosion of let’s plays and creepy pastas. Then we talk through our experiences playing and struggling to survive on our shared server, our terrible luck, and our feelings on the game. Finally we talk about Wurm: Online, 0x10^c and other failed projects Notch […] The post S2 E18: The Wild History of Minecraft first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Minecraft asks you to return to the days of yore, before modern conveniences and commodities. The days when a man had to build his own wooden pickaxe. So what better time to discuss the Romantic era’s own Mary Shelley, her marriage to playboy Percy, Frankenstein and of course Roald Dahl?  Season 2, Episode 17 | […] The post S2 E17: Minecraft first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Hot Doom Summer is coming to a close on Gameography, but we have one more episode on Quake to give you your last fix of the Johns. This week we get into the level design, similarities to Mario 64, the mod scene, and the Quake engine’s continued influence on video games to this day. Season […] The post S2 E16: The Legacy of Quake first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

While today it appears to be little more than a 3D retread of Doom, Quake broke new ground in 1996 with its fully 3D rendered first person gameplay and internet networked deathmatch. Perhaps surprisingly, John Romero, the lead designer of the game didn’t want Quake to be just another shooter. He envisioned a fantasy epic […] The post S2 E15: Quake and the Breaking of Id Software first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

John Carmack’s fateful decision to create a standalone file format for Doom’s levels and other data rather than bundle them with the game’s code let others create new levels without overwriting the original Doom data. Carmack opened the path to a modding culture to be born. Soon enough there were total conversions like the Aliens […] The post S2 E14: Doom, the Modfather first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This episode is a bit all over the place, talking Lennon and McCartney, Halo, the legacy of Doom, and where shooters went after it. Season 2, Episode 13 | 49 mins https://gameographypod.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/S2E13%20Doom,%20the%20Modfather.mp3 Notes Roots: The Evolution of Doom Level Design Lilith The post S2 E13: Doom, the Legacy first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Id Software put out one ad for Doom in a single enthusiast magazine. Within a few years the shareware version of Doom was on more computers than Windows. Doom defined first-person shooters for over a decade with its fast paced transference of arcade action to an immersive world filled with demons. This week on Gameography […] The post S2 E12: Doom, the Let it Be of PC Gaming first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Arguably video gaming’s one and only true rock star programmers, John Romero and John Carmack road computers from lives as juvenile delinquents to worldwide fame and success. This week we look at Romero and Carmack’s turbulent lives up until they created Doom at Id Software. We also look at some of Id’s lesser known figures […] The post S2 E11: The Origins of Id Software first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Paul Neurath took a look at the dungeon crawling landscape and knew he could do better. He wanted something immersive and fluid that you could lose yourself in. What he and his team ended up creating was the first texturemaped 3D first person game. Not only that it is considered the first immersive sim, with […] The post S2 E10: Ultima Underworld first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

When Will Wright pitched SimCity, a game where you watch a city grow under your guidance, game publishers saw it as an unmarketable product. How could you sell a game you couldn’t win? But Wright self-assured, or obsessed enough with his virtual simulation, built on the back of years of enjoying model train and semi-professional […] The post S2 E9: SimCity first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

By the late 80s, the 8-bit computer boom set off by the Apple II was winding to a close, but not before Brian Fargo could prove that there was still some untapped potential in those archaic chips. Fresh off the success of A Bard’s Tale, Fargo hired up a team of pen and paper roleplaying […] The post S2 E8: Wasteland, AKA Fallout 0 first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Searching for the inspiration behind Wasteland and the Fallout series, we look back at the independent film that started it all. And, if you haven’t seen the film in a while or ever, it probably isn’t what you think it is. Seriously, where are the fights over gasoline and desolate unpopulated spaces? This week on […] The post S2 E7: Mad Max And the Road to the Apocalypse first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This episode we continue our discussion of The Beatles: Get Back and the post-Beatles fab four solo careers. Get Back | 70 mins https://gameographypod.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Get%20Back%202,%20Devin%20is%20Dead%20(Devin%20is%20Devin).mp3 The post Get Back 2 Bein 4 Fab Guys first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This episode and next we break from our regular season to bring you a conversation on the new documentary Get Back. Our conversation roves between observations on the filmmaking and the four who fab along with their post-Beatles careers. Get Back | 60 mins https://gameographypod.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Gort%20Bork-%20and%20now%20your%20hosts%20for%20the%20evening,%20The%20Gameographies.mp3 The post Get Back first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

It wasn't until 1985, 14 years after the original, that the game most people associate with The Oregon Trail name was released for the Apple II. Benefiting greatly from the Apple II's breakthrough success, especially in the education sector, Philip Bouchard reimagined The Oregon Trail as a real-time simulation, breaking from the text only, turn […] The post S2 E6: The Oregon Trail Across the Ages first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Looking for a way to get his students engaged in the material, Don Rawitsch decided he was going to make a board game about the western migration to Oregon in the 1800s. His roommates who knew a little about computers suggested they build it as a computer program instead. The year was 1971. Yes, before […] The post S2 E5: The Oregon Trail, 50 Years of Dysentary first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Video games, like Richard Garriott were still in their adolescence in the early 80s. Garriott, known as the father of computer role-playing games, straight off the success of the first three games in his groundbreaking Ultima series that he developed while still in school, moved away from home for the first time and felt a […] The post S2 E4: Ultima IV & The Origin of Morality in Games first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Surreal psychedelics come to video games. In 1982, Mel Croucher, an anti-establishment music producer and father of the British video game industry, released Pimania a puzzler that blended a virtual mystery with a real one. Pimaniacs, as he referred to the players sucked in by the game were tasked with finding a golden sundial hidden […] The post S2 E3: A Couple of Pimaniacs first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Where did Rogue and the Roguelike come from? Created to appease its own programmer’s lust for adventure, Rouge (1980) built the game world from scratch each time you played. On top of that, it is one of the first games that based its play and setting on the still relatively new Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying […] The post S2 E2: How Rogue and the Roguelike Were Born first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Computers were built for war. Specifically, calculating artillery bombardments. It wasn’t until a group of students at MIT, uninterested by the traditional, often painfully practical, applications of computers, challenged themselves to create a game, that the true potential of interactive entertainment became clear. But of course, it was about war. 1969’s Spacewar! is often considered […] The post S2 E1: Spacewar! Or Pong Wasn't the First Video Game? first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Inspired by 30 years of Nintendo games, Team Cherry released Hollow Knight in 2017 to critical and commercial acclaim. The Metroidvania with souls-like combat follows a solitary knight on his journey through the fallen kingdom of Hallownest. This game is often cited as an example of games as art, but what is it exactly that […] The post What Made Hollow Knight an Instant Classic? first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This week, we take a look back at our favorite and least favorite parts of Miyamoto’s Gameography in the first Gameography Game Awards! Who is the horniest Zelda character, what are the best and worst eggs, what were the most frustrating and most magical moments? Find out the answers to these questions and more on […] The post S1 E27: The Miyamoto Gameography Game Awards (GGAs) first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This week we look back at the entire gameography of Miyamoto, discuss his creative process, and his impact in shaping an entire industry and artform. The post S1E26: Shigeru Miyamoto's Legacy first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

"I'm retiring!" Miyamoto said in the waning years of the Wii. Of course, to Miyamoto this didn't mean he was leaving the company, just that he wanted to step back from making big budget projects. He was ready to pass the torch, and we talk about how that transition went with the Wii U, why the Wii U ultimately failed, and how that led to the Switch. We wrap up by talking about some of the other projects that Miyamoto has been up to the past ten years including Super Mario Run, the upcoming Super Mario Bros animated film, and 3DS at the Louvre! The post S1E25: The Wii U, Super Mario Run, and Switch first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This week we take a look at the Zelda and Mario games as they transition to the motion controls of the Wii. They are attempts to show that the Wii can still offer a traditional gameplay experience in addition to the Wii's strength as a casual machine. This week on Gameography we finish our discussion of Wiiyamoto's works with two of the last games Miyamoto ever personally produced, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy as well as his pet project Wii Fit. The post S1E24: Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Nintendo found themselves at a crossroads in 2004. The best selling games in the world were violent shooters and sports games where they had once been the exploits of a mustachiod plumber. Would Nintendo bow to the market and create a Call of Duty: Mushroom Kingdom, or try and reach those people for who headshots held no interest. Needless to say with the Nintendo DS and Wii, Nintendo opted for the latter. Miyamoto himself expresses this idea best, by rating his own works against the Wife-o-meter, or the interest level of his own wife. This week we get into the story behind the Wii, how Miyamoto's years long ambition to create a character creator led to Miis, the impact of Wii Sports, and how the Wii is the only console with a soundtrack. The post S1E23: Wiiyamoto first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

While the Gamecube was not the abject financial failure the Dreamcast was for Sega, it was a low point in the company's sterling history. Just what was it that didn't connect with people about the Gamecube and even Nintendo's flagship franchises of Mario and Zelda? This week on Gameography we look at Miyamoto's works on the Gamecube with Luigi's Mansion, Pikmin, Super Mario Sunshine, The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker, and The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure. The post S1E22: Luigi's Mansion, Pikmin, Mario Sunshine, and Windwaker first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

Codenamed project Dolphin, the Gamecube was developed along the same assumptions that led to the N64. They wanted the most powerful console and the most entertaining games, but with burgeoning competition from Microsoft and themselves having lost decisively to Sony in the previous generation, could Nintendo and the Miyamoto school of design win back the hearts and wallets of the world? This week on Gameography, we begin our look at the Gamecube, Nintendo's deal to sell Rare, Miyamoto's thoughts on GTA and more! The post S1E21: The Gamecube first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This week we finish our discussion of Majora's Mask with a lively debate over what is the better game: Majora's Mask or Ocarina of Time. We also give our theories as to what the game means and is trying to convey and get into a lengthy Jungian analysis of the game's symbolism. The post S1 Ep. 20: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Part 3 first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This week as we continue to explore Majora's Mask we turn our attention to the main quest. The game explores characters and cinematography in a new way for the series and the medium in general. We're talking Dekus, Gorons, Zoras, and Majora's Mask's second defining mechanic, using masks to transform. Putting on the masks is a horrifying process, indicative of the Lynchian feel of the game. Join us as we go even deeper into the mystery of Termina and Majora's Mask! The post S1 Ep. 19: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Part 2 first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This week, considered by many the black sheep of the Zelda franchise, and by others one of the best games of all time, Majora's Mask! We dive into the breakneck development cycle of the game which was to be developed in one year. This led to the reuse of many assets including whole NPCs and songs, which only heightens the strange dissonance the player feels in the land of Termina. Then we get into the signature clockwork town mechanic of the game and how it works and doesn't work some 20 years later. The post S1 Ep. 18: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Part 1 first appeared on Gameography Podcast.

This week we continue our look at the development of Ocarina of Time, including the origins of Young Link, cut-content from unreleased versions of the game, and much more! We also take a deeper look at one of the best soundtracks in video game history, why Ocarina of Time is the most Miyamoto game of them all, and revolutionary cinematic gameplay. The post S1 Ep. 17: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Part 2 first appeared on Gameography Podcast.