Episode 522: Civving Up

This week’s episode is full of industry news in the wake of The Game Awards. There wasn’t many news items but there was plenty to talk about with the Awards, especially with this week’s Gaming Flashback, Unlimited Adventures.

This week’s news items include:

Let us know what you think.

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Episode 608: Ghosts and Goblins and EverythingEpisode 608: Ghosts and Goblins and Everything

Lots of stuff is coming to Game Pass and platforms everywhere, as TJ enthuses about Ghosts ‘N Goblins, and shows less enthusiasm over Resident Evil Re:Verse.

This week’s news includes:

  • Ghosts ‘N Goblins Resurrection coming to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC in June
  • Elite Dangerous: Odyssey launches on PC in May
  • Dragon Quest Builders 2 is coming to Xbox Game Pass
  • Resident Evil Re:Verse has been delayed

Let us know what you think.

Gaming Flashback: Lode RunnerGaming Flashback: Lode Runner

Lode Runner, a game many of us logged hundreds of hours upon. Lode Runner has a great deal of replay value thanks to its great map editor. The game was first published by Broderbund in 1983, but was first prototyped by Douglas Smith, an architecture student at the University of Washington.

The Lode Runner prototype was called Kong and was originally written for a Prime Computer 550 minicomputer on campus, but shortly after it was ported to the VAX minicomputer. Originally programmed in FORTRAN and utilized only ASCII character graphics (the most basic of characters).

In September of 1982 Smith was able to port it to the Apple II+ (in assembly language) and renamed it to Miner. In October of that same year he submitted a rough copy to Broderbund and he’s said to have received a one-line rejection letter, “Sorry, your game doesn’t fit into our product line; please feel free to submit future products.”

The original title had no joystick support and was developed in full black and white…not exactly exciting. So, Smith then borrowed money to purchase a color monitor and joystick and continued to improve the game. Around Christmas of 1982, he submitted the game, now renamed Lode Runner, to four publishers and quickly received offers from all four: Sierra, Sirius, Synergistic, and Brøderbund.

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Episode 394: Paul Bravely DefaultsEpisode 394: Paul Bravely Defaults

Paul is back from being deathly ill, and joins a half-asleep Jonah and Scott, where he and Scott try to have better timing. There’s no Gaming Flashback this week but plenty of weird news.

The list of news items include:

  • Disturbing portrait of Konami corporate environment alleged
  • Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: player choices more impactful, boss fights optional
  • ZombiU drops the “U,” preps for August launch on PC, Xbox One, PS4
  • Fallout 4 fan releases schematic for 3D printed Pip-Boy
  • Vote to play coming soon for PS Plus members
  • Hitchhiking robot is decapitated, left in a ditch

There’s a new Question of the Week that wasn’t going to be the Question – listen and find out what it is.