"At one time we experimented with putting beer in our drinks machine at work...That was a mistake."

Everyone's favorite cynic is back with another round of foreboding about the present and future state of the videogames industry. In this episode, Jon and I continue our discussion of the ups and downs of the casual and mobile market, Speedball 2, then dip into the early days of Sensible Software and what set them apart from the competition.

Download mp4.

“Tiny Wings is an insult to professional game designers.”

This week, I chat with Jon Hare, founder of Sensible Software and a guy who doesn't mind telling it like it is. The gist is that back in the day, computer games were made for intelligent people and designers could take bigger risks--after all, an intelligent gamer isn't turned off by a true challenge or learning something new. According to Jon, that changed dramatically after the introduction of the Sega Megadrive/Genesis and the Sony PlayStation. Once the ordinary children could play videogames, the industry got really nervous about anything remotely intellectual and the result is the endless sequels and dumbed down games we're saturated with today. Warning: Jon pulls no punches here. If you're a diehard console or FPS gamer, expect to be offended by this video.

Download the mp4.

It's episode 100! Yup, I've finally strolled into 3-digit land. To celebrate, I'm re-releasing Matt Chat #6, the Dungeon Master episode that was deleted from YouTube. It's only available here and on iTunes, so grab it while you can. And, by the way, if you haven't bought our books by now, how lame is that???

Anyway, back to this episode. Scott talks about Max Payne, Prey (which looks awesome, by the way!!), the future of games publishing, and immortality. In a nutshell, he thinks services like OnLive are the future, and retail will wither away and die in a few generations. Companies like EA will exist only to help market and fund big projects. Finally, there will be a universal platform. I've got some comments on this below.

Download the mp4 of Matt Chat 100.
Download the mp4 of Matt Chat 6 (Dungeon Master) here.

This week's episode contains the first segment of my interview with Scott Miller, founder of Apogee, 3D Realms, and The Radar Group. He's also a marketing genius who made a fortune from shareware, and recruited talent like Romero and Carmack among others. In short, you can't miss these if you're serious about videogame history.

You can download the episode here.

In my final segment with Star Control creators Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III, we discuss a range of issues including abandonware, their 90s games for 3DO and Playstation, and their plans for Star Control 4. We even talk about their choice of alcoholic beverage! I went through a brief fruity drink phase myself, mostly because one of the local Chinese restaurants in Natchitoches, Louisiana had insanely cheap rum drinks (Zombies, Mai-Tais, etc.) that came in really funky (even scary) looking mugs. Anyway, here's the video!

You can also download the MP4.

Hi, folks, I'm back this week with part two of my interview with Fred Ford and Paul Reiche. In this installment, we talk about Free Fall Associates, Toys for Bob, and, of course, Star Control.

Download the mp4 here.

In this last segment of my interview with Brian Fargo, we talk about the end of Interplay (at least the end of the Interplay that dared to take the big risks). We also discuss Brian's new game, Hunted: The Demon's Forge. Enjoy! Download audio here.

I just finished my live appearance on Don Kurtz's The Static Hour. Give the replay a listen. On his show, we talk about all sorts of things, including the Jets (they won!), videogames, computers, fitness, and family. Don has previously interviewed all sorts of other people, including porn stars, musicians, and our very own, Matt Barton. It's an honor to be included in such a diverse interview pool...

Welcome back, Matt Chatters! This episode features the first part of my interview with Brian Fargo, founder of Interplay and CEO of inXile Entertainment. I was able to sit down with him for an hour and talk about everything from the original Demon's Forge (a 1981 adventure game for Apple II) to Hunted: The Demon's Forge (the upcoming action game). We also talk about the origins of Bard's Tale, the impact of Wizardry, the humor of Battlechess, and much more.

Download the audio here (also available on iTunes).