RESTORE RESTART QUIT

Episode 03:
“The As-yet Incomplete History of PC Games, Part Two”
with special guest Ben Mansill

About the first part of this podcast: “It was weeks ago now, over a number of beers, that the three of us here at RRQ decided that really, what would make a fascinating podcast, was to go over the history of PC Games. Now, while most of us have at least partially changed our gaming habits to include Consoles, really we’re all PC gamers at heart. We tinker, and we love depth over The Shiny.”

So, as the discussion with our special guest Ben Mansill of Byteside (Hey! That sounds like some kind of Stargate reference) continues in this episode, we delve into different genres, how they affected PC gaming as a whole, and finally discuss the future: where PC gaming is going, and just how we all feel about this.

To be more precise, the topics covered include:

• First-person Shooters
• The development of 3D Acceleration
• Real-time Strategy games
• Turn-based Strategy games
• Simulations (including Elite and its clones)
• Distribution methods & packaging PC Games
• and finally, the future of PC Gaming

We hope you enjoy the episode! If you’d like to help us out, spread the word – let people know what you’re listening to on twitter, facebook, via telegram or smoke signal (although we’d prefer a review on the iTunes store or a good tweet/forum post).

FOOTNOTE: Comments about the Ares launch vehicles were made before the Obama budget was released. Sigh.

Links to things discussed or relating to this show:

• Duke Nukem Forever’s demise – related to the discussion of “unfinished masterpieces”.
• Daikatana – as above.
• Terminator: Future Shock and Skynet – the two true-3D first person shooters, and the first to push players to use mouselook.
• Hardw[a]r (the most creative Elite-esque game ever) on Wikipedia and a still-running and useful fan site.
• Terminus – the other Elite-clone with the scarily complex newtonian physics model.
• Orbiter – the free, space-flight and orbital mechanics simulator by Martin Schweiger.

 Restore Restart Quit Episode 03 [122:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

RESTORE RESTART QUIT

Episode 02:
“The As-yet Incomplete History of PC Games, Part One”
with special guest Ben Mansill

It was weeks ago now, over a number of beers, that the three of us here at RRQ decided that really, what would make a fascinating podcast, was to go over the history of PC Games. Now, while most of us have at least partially changed our gaming habits to include Consoles, really we’re all PC gamers at heart. We tinker, and we love depth over The Shiny.

But what a bloody huge topic. I mean, we could easily have spent a single 90 minute episode on any one genre or any one sub-section of PC gaming’s nearly-30-year history. But despite that, spurred on my caffeine and a nice lager or nine, we sat down to record what would become episodes 2 & 3.

So, in this episode, along-side industry veteran and fascinating chap Ben Mansill (now of Byteside, and founding editor of both PC Powerplay and Atomic magazines) we tackled subjects such as:

• Our first PC Gaming experiences.
• Classics that we never got to play, but wish we had.
• The way game design has shifted over the years.
• Early multiplayer, LANs and early pre-internet online gaming services.
• Adventure Games.
• RPGs
• and finally, Massively Multiplayer RPGs.

Next week, you can hear the conclusion of this discussion, when we discuss First-person Shooters, Simulations, Modding, the development of 3D Acceleration and the future of PC Gaming.

Links to things discussed or relating to this show:

• Meridian 59
• The Realm
• The History of 3D Acceleration
• Friendlyware – the GWBasic-driven game collection discussed by Rohan.
• Beneath a Steel Sky – the freely available adventure game Jay mentioned. Both ScummVM and the game data (bottom of the page) are required to play.

 Restore Restart Quit Episode 02 [87:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download