The games we love reveal something true about who we are, and about the world that made them. They Create Worlds is a podcast about the people, technology, and forces that built the video game industry. Through video game history, the show looks at how culture, business, and technology shaped what we play, tracing the choices and circumstances that led to the games so many people around the world enjoy. Each episode digs into where games came from, who made them, and why they were made the way…
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TCW Podcast Episode 264 - Knights of the Old Republic Knights of the Old Republic did not simply bring Star Wars to the role-playing game format. It was BioWare’s effort to build a cinematic RPG in a part of the galaxy far enough from the films to tell a new story, while drawing on decades of Expanded Universe worldbuilding, tabletop systems, and the storytelling model popularized by Timothy…
TCW Podcast Episode 263 - Howell Ivy Howell Ivy had a knack for taking familiar arcade ideas and pushing them somewhere new. He discovered video games through Computer Space while serving in the Air Force, and in his off time he built a ball-and-paddle game that led to a position at Ramtek. Clean Sweep gave the ball-and-paddle format a new twist and helped inspire Atari's Breakout. Ramtek Baseball…
TCW Podcast Episode 262 - Vectrex The Vectrex came with its own screen, plastic color overlays, and roots in the aerospace industry. GCE brought Smith Engineering in to design and develop digital watch games, then calculator games, before the two companies set their sights on a full home console. That console had to include its own display because home televisions could not support vector…
TCW Podcast Episode 261 - StarFox Before Star Fox, there was a developer in Britain building copy protection tools, a dinner party that opened the right door, and a Game Boy prototype game that could do something it was never supposed to do. Jez San's Argonaut Software caught Nintendo's attention at CES and was invited to Japan. The meeting led to a two million dollar deal to build a custom chip…
TCW Podcast Episode 260 - Vivendi Electric Boogaloo How does a Canadian liquor company end up owning Universal Studios and, eventually, help create Activision Blizzard? Seagram chased diversification as liquor sales softened, tried to take over Conoco, and instead wound up with a 25% stake in DuPont that generated most of its earnings. Edgar Bronfman Jr. sold that stake to buy MCA from Matsushita,…
TCW Podcast Episode 259 - A Cendant to Vivendi CUC International looked like a company that never missed. Quarter after quarter, just barely beating estimates, right up until the moment Henry Silverman got access to their books and found out why. When a new customer signed up, CUC booked a full year of revenue immediately, even though billing was monthly. If that customer left before the year was…
TCW Podcast Episode 258 - The Shenanigans of CUC Software Walter Forbes built CUC International from Comp-U-Card, a phone-in discount shopping club that cut out the middleman with a small markup and annual fee, not unlike a proto-Amazon Prime. As computer networks like CompuServe, Prodigy, and GEnie rose, CUC pivoted online and Forbes set his sights on the games business, joining the Sierra…
TCW Podcast Episode 257 - Nine Atari Games The Atari VCS launched with nine games to entice consumers into the new gaming medium, and Combat set the trend of packing multiple "games" into a single cartridge. Featuring a wide array of game modes, Combat holds its own even today and served as the console's official tie-in title. Atari's partnership with Sears, however, rebranded all but one of the…
TCW Podcast Episode 256 - Cinemaware Bob Jacob launched Cinemaware to fuse movies and video games on Amiga, hiring journalist Kellyn Beeck to design Defender of the Crown's medieval themes. Programmer John Cutter led in-house development after massive outside studio delays, tapping coder R.J. Michael for an intense programming marathon to barely hit deadline and make Defender the Amiga's killer…
TCW Podcast Episode 255 - The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind After Arena and Daggerfall's triumphs, Julian LeFay's Battlespire spinoff marked his last hand in the Elder Scrolls universe. Amid conflicts while working on other projects, LeFay left. Ted Peterson had already departed after Daggerfall. This left Bethesda Softworks with none of the original creators for the next Elder Scrolls. Development…
TCW Podcast Episode 254 - The Elder Scrolls: Arena & Daggerfall Bethesda Softworks, founded in 1985 by Christopher Weaver with sports titles like Gridiron and Wayne Gretzky Hockey along with licenses like The Terminator, pivoted to RPGs. Demo scene legend Julian LeFay hired Vijay Lakshman as designer and buffer to management so LeFay could focus on games. Together they birthed The Elder Scrolls:…
TCW Podcast Episode 253 - Masanobu Endō Masanobu Endō is one of Japan's most important game designers, yet remains relatively unknown in the West. Starting from an uncertain role at Namco, he first made his mark by turning Dig Dug play notes into an official strategy booklet, then shifted into programming work where he learned from Namco's maze games, including Pac-Man. Assigned as a programmer on…
TCW Podcast Episode 252 - A Guitar Hero The rise and fall of the Guitar Hero franchise and the rhythm game craze of the mid to late 2000s. Red Octane got its start making Dance Dance Revolution pads, but a partnership with Harmonix Music Systems, a studio building technology that let people interact with music without learning an instrument, led to the creation of Guitar Hero. Major retailers…
TCW Podcast Episode 251 - Virgin Games As a companion piece to our Mastertronic episode, we look at the rise and fall of Virgin Games. Beginning with Richard Branson’s mail-order record business and the success of Virgin Records, the company expanded into games under executive Nick Alexander, whose interest in the industry led to the creation of a Virgin gaming subsidiary. Early successes included…
TCW Podcast Episode 250 - Mastertronic From budget software publisher to the gateway for SEGA’s entry into Europe, we look at the rise and fall of Mastertronic. Initially shunned by high street retailers, the company found success supplying discount games to chains like Woolworths while importing and reselling titles from other publishers for the European market. A failed attempt to bring budget…
TCW Podcast Episode 249 - New World Computing We look at the rise and fall of New World Computing through the career of Jon Van Caneghem. Coming from the era of the lone programmer as the industry shifted toward larger development houses, Jon built Might and Magic into one of the most influential RPG franchises of its time. We trace the evolution of the series from its early focus on quest driven…
TCW Podcast Episode 248 - An Act of Control We look at Japan’s Act on Control and Improvement of Amusement Business and its impact on the arcade industry in Japan. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, video games became increasingly popular in Japan, drawing public concern over how much time and money players were spending in game centers. With little cultural context for games as entertainment,…
TCW Podcast Episode 247 - The History of Commodore Pt 4 The final chapter of our Commodore series covers the company’s chaotic decline. After early success with the Amiga line, internal conflict grew under President Tom Rattigan, who wanted to focus on the low end with the Amiga 500 while Irving Gould pushed for high end systems like the Amiga 2000. Missed deadlines and a failed boardroom…
TCW Podcast Episode 246 - The History of Commodore Pt 3 After Jack Tramiel left Commodore and founded Tramel Technology, the company pressed on with mixed results. Systems like the SX 64, the C900, the Plus/4, the C16, and the C116 failed to gain traction, which led to the development of the C128. It improved on the C64 in many ways, but because so many games relied on C64 quirks, Commodore…
TCW Podcast Episode 245 - The History of Commodore Pt 2 Commodore’s shift from calculators to computers began with the PET, which found success in Europe as a business machine. After seeing the ZX80 in Britain, Jack Tramiel pushed for an affordable home computer, leading to the VIC-20. Guided by marketing manager Michael S. Tomczyk, Commodore promoted the VIC-20 as “the friendly computer” with…
TCW Podcast Episode 244 - The History of Commodore Pt 1 We kick off our look at Commodore with the story of its founder, Jack Tramiel. A Holocaust survivor who emigrated to the United States, Tramiel began repairing lamps and typewriters before founding a typewriter import business in Toronto. His early success was nearly undone by the Atlantic Acceptance financial scandal, which forced him into…
TCW Podcast Episode 243 - RCA Studio II The RCA Studio II emerged from the company’s faltering computer division and the vision of engineer Joseph Weisbecker, who had long dreamed of personal computing after reading "Giant Brains or Machines That Think". He developed FRED at home, a TTL-based hobby computer. A later iteration using the COSMAC microprocessor inspired his daughter Joyce, who went…
TCW Podcast Episode 242- Fumito Ueda Fumito Ueda entered game design through art rather than a love of traditional play. Influenced by titles like Flashback and Another World, he sought to tell stories with minimal interfaces and expansive environments rich in mood. After early work on D and Enemy Zero, Sony gave him a trial period that led to ICO, a game shaped by surreal landscapes inspired by…
TCW Podcast Episode 241 - The First 10 Years of European Consoles The first decade of European consoles began with imports of the Magnavox Odyssey, but soon local experiments took shape. In Spain, the Overkal may have been tied to a possible attempt to bring the Odyssey into the country, though no hard evidence survives, and it is generally treated as a local product. Across Europe, companies like…
TCW Podcast Episode 240 - Nintendo: Playing with Mii & Wii From DS touch-and-stylus play to living-room motion, we trace Nintendo's road to Wii. Nintendogs and Brain Age broadened the audience to parents and grandparents. After cold receptions at Microsoft and Sony, inventor Tom Quinn's Gyration motion tech found a home at Nintendo, and internal prototypes were so fun they became Wii Sports, Wii…
TCW Podcast Episode 239 - Nintendo: Wii Were Struggling Nintendo’s struggle for cultural relevance in the lead-up to the Wii was marked by the N64’s poor fit for Japanese homes and the GameCube’s failure to outsell even the fledgling Xbox globally. Internally, a power struggle unfolded as Hiroshi Yamauchi prepared to retire. Former Sharp executive Atsushi Asada was brought in and became Executive…
TCW Podcast Episode 238 - Quake We dive into the development of Quake, the ambitious and turbulent follow-up to Doom from ID Software. John Carmack set out to build a groundbreaking engine featuring full 3D rendering, dynamic lighting, and client-server multiplayer. This pushed the technical boundaries in a pre-GPU world. To achieve this, he brought in legendary programmer Michael Abrash from…
TCW Podcast Episode 237 - Jordan Mechner and Price of Persia We continue our look at Jordan Mechner with the development of Prince of Persia. Its cinematic inspirations include Castles of Dr. Creep, the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the 1938 Robin Hood. To animate the prince, Mechner filmed his brother performing stunts, then manually painted key frames, painting his brother white and…
TCW Podcast Episode 236 - Jordan Mechner and Karateka This episode explores the early life of Jordan Mechner and the making of Karateka. We cover his Jewish family’s escape from Nazi Europe, his years at Yale, and his struggle to choose between careers in film, art, and game design. Drawing on lessons from arcade games, Mechner formed core design principles that shaped his approach. He also worked…
TCW Podcast Episode 235- Coin-op Legends of Japan Long before they entered the world of video games, a generation of Japanese entrepreneurs built their fortunes in the coin-operated amusement business. In this episode, we trace the early lives and business ventures of five pioneering founders who helped lay the groundwork for companies like Tehkan (later Tecmo), Sammy, and IPM (later IREM). These…
TCW Podcast Episode 234 - Yu Suzuki Often called SEGA’s Shigeru Miyamoto, Yu Suzuki redefined arcade gaming through innovation and ambition. He pioneered immersive cabinets like Hang-On's rideable motorcycle and After Burner’s flight sim, and used sprite scaling to simulate 3D in hits like Space Harrier and OutRun. His work culminated in the R360 G-LOC—a gyroscopic cabinet offering full 360°…
TCW Podcast Episode 233 - Baldur's Gate When three doctors, a prolific dungeon master, a database programmer, and a writer come together to make video games, you get Baldur’s Gate! Often credited with saving the Western RPG, Baldur’s Gate became a phenomenal hit, taking full advantage of Microsoft’s new DirectX API and Windows 95. With this technology, the team created massive, beautiful maps for…
TCW Podcast Episode 232 - All the Other Home Pongs The home Pong market of the mid-1970s extended far beyond the big three—Atari, Coleco, and Magnavox. Numerous smaller companies entered the scene, not only in the United States but also across Europe and other parts of the world. As the home gaming industry rapidly evolved, many manufacturers introduced unique systems powered by integrated…
TCW Podcast Episode 231- Street Fighter 2 Street Fighter 2 is often credited with reviving the arcade scene in the early 1990s. While it successfully brought back the must-have arcade game mentality, it couldn’t stop the overall decline of arcades. The original Street Fighter was influenced by many sources, including Bruce Lee’s Game of Death, anime like Fist of the North Star, and Space…
TCW Podcast Episode 230 - Crafting the World of WarCraft World of Warcraft has stood the test of time for twenty years, and now we can explore the fascinating history behind its creation. The developers drew inspiration from MMOs like Ultima Online, EverQuest, Anarchy Online, Dark Age of Camelot, and more, incorporating what they loved while tackling unique challenges. From art style and…
TCW Podcast Episode 229 - US Gold US Gold started as an importer of American games before becoming a dominant force in the British gaming industry. Partnering with Ocean Software, they formed a duopoly that shaped the UK and European gaming markets, bringing top titles to 8-bit computers and later expanding into consoles—US Gold backing SEGA while Ocean focused on Nintendo. When competitors began…
TCW Podcast Episode 228 - PopCap Games PopCap Games was initially overlooked by the larger gaming industry due to its focus on fun, well-designed, and polished casual games. Their first major hit, Bejeweled, became a consistent source of income, allowing PopCap to invest time in developing new titles. This led to the creation of Peggle, which helped solidify PopCap’s reputation, particularly after…
TCW Podcast Episode 227 - Donkey Kong Donkey Kong, a game and character that stands as one of the foundational elements of video game history, has a popular narrative with some inaccuracies that need correction. Thanks to the efforts of Kate Willaert and Norman Caruso, we can better understand the influences and origins of Donkey Kong. Nintendo’s use of hardware from another game, Radar Scope,…
TCW Podcast Episode 226 - Ray Kassar Ray Kassar rose from humble beginnings to become a talented, savvy, and personable executive. He began his career in the textile industry at Burlington Industries, where he eventually became president of its most profitable division. However, after the unexpected passing of Burlington’s head, Kassar faced ageism and cronyism, which stifled his advancement.…
TCW Podcast Episode 225 - Games by Apollo The great video game crash of the mid-1980s had many factors contributing to it. One such factor was the rise of companies like Games by Apollo, which is sometimes seen as an exemplar of the many businesses that entered the video game industry hoping to make quick money. While some criticisms of Games by Apollo are valid, the company was also much more…
TCW Podcast Episode 224 - D&D & Video Games 3E In our final look at D&D & Video Games, we explore the early PC and mainframe computer scene, as well as the games created by fans of D&D. Various aspects of D&D were incorporated into these games, ranging from puzzles and light combat to full-on dungeon dives to claim treasure from the deepest levels. These games grew in popularity and led to others…
TCW Podcast Episode 223 - D&D & Video Games 2E In the second part of our exploration of Dungeons & Dragons and its connection to video games, we examine the game’s refinement and rise in popularity. D&D was a groundbreaking experience, brought to life through Gary Gygax’s collaboration with others, particularly Dave Arneson, who developed many of its foundational concepts. The game evolved from…
TCW Podcast Episode 222 - D&D & Video Games 1E In the first part of this series, we explore the various influences leading to the creation of Dungeons & Dragons. This episode is an edited version of our livestream, delving into the rise in popularity of war games, board games, and miniatures. Avalon Hill, a major company in this field, published The General magazine, which helped players connect…
TCW Podcast Episode 221 - North to Hellgate London In a pseudo part three of our look at Condor and Blizzard North, we explore the troubles the company faced after a year and a half of crunch. David, Max, and Eric were all burned out along with the rest of the staff. David was going through a divorce and had trouble putting his heart into figuring out what the next game would be. Due to lack of…
TCW Podcast Episode 220 - Diablo 2 We continue exploring the Diablo franchise with Diablo 2 and the journey of the team at Blizzard North. This episode covers the history of the Hellfire expansion for Diablo 1 and how it came to be developed by Sierra Online. A directive was issued for Blizzard North to focus on creating Diablo 2. The team aimed not just to create a bigger dungeon but to expand…
TCW Podcast Episode 219 - Diablo 1 We explore the monumental game Diablo! Initially a collaborative effort between David Brevik, Erich Schaefer, and Max Schaefer, Diablo brought together elements from games like X-Com, Angband, and surprisingly NHL '94. The trio formed the company Condor, producing NFL games and a Street Fighter clone called Justice League Task Force for the SEGA Genesis. At CES,…
TCW Podcast Episode 218 - The 100 Games Redux - The Revival We’re back to revisit the 100 most influential games, this time with your feedback! We’ve made many changes to the list and even brought back some of the games that were previously cut. A huge thank you to everyone who wrote in, left a comment on YouTube, or reached out to us in other ways. Although we couldn’t read every single comment,…
TCW Podcast Episode 217 - The Games of Ed Logg Ed Logg had a long and distinguished career in Atari's coin-op division. Initially aspiring to be a math professor, his path changed after encountering the Atari 2600 at a friend's Christmas party. While at Atari, Logg created the legendary game Asteroids, which became a massive success. He continued his streak with Super Breakout and co-created…
TCW Podcast Episode 216 - The 100 Games Redux - The Removal We revisit our list of the top 100 most influential games, making decisions on what to keep, remove, or change. We’ve removed 19 games and altered another—do you agree with our choices? What would you add or remove? We’d love to hear your thoughts! Email us at feedback@TheyCreateWorlds.com to make your case. We’ll use your feedback in our…
TCW Podcast Episode 215 - Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy VII holds a special place in the hearts of many gamers. For some, it was the first time they really connected with a JRPG. For others, it marked the transition from pixel art games to 3D gaming. Final Fantasy VII owes much to the storytelling work of its predecessor, Final Fantasy VI, led by Yoshinori Kitase. Kitase used his love of…
