Before the terms 'open source' and 'internet' were even coined—there were gamers. They created proto-open source communities, sharing and building upon each other’s work. For many programmers, gaming led them to their careers. In this episode, we explore the creative free-for-all of early game development over ARPANET. Game development brings together a mass ... Show More
Mar 2024
How do you make an addictive video game?
This episode will change how you look at games. We talk to Ben Brode, the designer behind Hearthstone and Marvel Snap, about how a creative person learns to make the things they love, and about the secret ideas hiding in games as simple as rock-papers-scissors.If you'd like to su ... Show More
50m 13s
Jul 2020
Video Games | Electric Dreams | S30-E1
Call of Duty, Fortnite, Animal Crossing.... The video game industry generates billions of dollars each year. But not so long ago, video games were mostly played by the programmers who made them. On our new season, we’re telling the story of how video games broke out of university ... Show More
38m 56s
Jul 2024
Founders Playbook: Lessons from Riot, Discord, & More
<p>Gaming is not just entertainment—it's a revolution reshaping our culture, technology, and economy. </p><p>a16z’s Jonathan Lai and Andrew Chen dive into the current gaming renaissance and its future impact. Joining them are Michael Chow, CEO and Steven Snow, CPO of The Believer ... Show More
25m 56s
Dec 2023
579: Writing About Video Game History
Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, Nadia Oxford, Stuart Gipp, and Kevin Bunch have one thing in common: They've published books about video game history. In this episode, they break down the work involved in making the magic happen. Retronauts is made possible by listener support through ... Show More
1h 44m
Apr 2020
30: The Neighborhood Software Pirate
<p>Special guest time! Digital Eclipse's Mike Mika joins us to talk about the early days of programming video games, how not to get murdered by your arcade machine, reverse engineering classic games without source code, the coming CRT apocalypse, and what the new console hardware ... Show More
1h 17m