Tetris, EarthBound, Link's Awakening & More | This Week in Video Game History Ep. 20

This Week in Video Game History: Halo, Mario, Final Fantasy Tactics & Among Us | June 15–21

This Week in Video Game History covers June 15th through June 21st — five releases and three deep-dive stories tied together by one idea: the day a game comes out is almost never the day that decides what it becomes.On the timeline: Among Us (2018), the InnerSloth social deduction game that flopped on release and became the defining game of 2020; Wrecking Crew (1985), the early Nintendo puzzle game where Mario swaps his jump for a sledgehammer and rival Foreman Spike makes his debut; Baku Baku Animal (1996), Sega's charming, forgotten Saturn puzzler; Final Fantasy Tactics (1997), Yasumi Matsuno's genre-defining tactical RPG and the birth of the world of Ivalice; and Shadows of the Damned (2011), the cult horror-action trip through hell from Suda51, Resident Evil's Shinji Mikami, and Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka.Then three stories worth slowing down for: how Disney animator Don Bluth quit the studio, nearly went broke, and was rescued by the 1983 laserdisc arcade classic Dragon's Lair; how the cursed Ghostbusters: The Video Game survived development limbo to reunite the original cast and become the third movie fans never got; and the quiet June 2000 morning Microsoft bought Bungie, turned Halo into the Xbox's killer app, and reshaped the console war.This Week in Video Game History is a weekly podcast and YouTube show covering notable game releases and industry history from the 1970s to today. Written, produced, and hosted by Doug Coleman. New episodes every Thursday. Follow for more video game history.00:00 -- Teaser01:46 -- Intro03:09 -- Among Us (June 15, 2018)04:36 -- Wrecking Crew (June 18, 1985)06:21 -- Baku Baku Animal07:48 -- Final Fantasy Tactics09:49 -- Shadows of the Damned11:31 -- Don Bluth and Dragon's Lair13:07 -- Ghostbusters: The Cursed Movie Tie-In14:54 -- Microsoft Buys Bungie16:54 -- OutroVideo Credits:1 Hour of Among Us Impostor Gameplay #1 - No Commentary [1080p60FPS] -  @mausser993  [https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCeY21o4hMDDh553E0kvdaZA]NES Longplay [206] Wrecking Crew -  @worldoflongplays  [https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCVi6ofFy7QyJJrZ9l0-fwbQ]Baku Baku Animal (Saturn) Playthrough -  @NintendoComplete  [https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UC1hYTBZ0dFjntk9PQf0ld6g]Final Fantasy Tactics ... (PS1) Gameplay -  @10minGameplay1  [https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCzjc5u-yPodS9U9E4tpNRUw]Xbox 360 Longplay [109] Shadows of the Damned (Part 1 of 8) -  @worldoflongplays  [https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCVi6ofFy7QyJJrZ9l0-fwbQ]Dragons Lair (1983) [Arcade] --  @sharkyssharkade4050  [https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCcUTu5NRWyjAaeQ92Suef4w]Ghostbusters the game Xbox 360 walkthrough part 1 training HD --  @MrJTJP  [https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCSBwMBC32hu-Ek0pAPkJofA]Halo - Macworld Unveiling -  @Bungie  [https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCxidp0WgNPBdIXpHZKQcoMw]Evolution Of HALO [Beta Pre-XBOX] RTS & 3rd Person version --  @unseen64archive  [https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCjt4zRCKnJpdEM3N6KDFhGg]#gaminghistory #videogamehistory #retrogaming #gamingpodcast #AmongUs #Mario #Nintendo #FinalFantasyTactics #Halo #DragonsLair #Suda51 #SegaSaturn

Ep 21 — The Last of Us & Metal Gear Solid 4: One Week, Two Goodbyes.

This week on This Week in Video Game History, we cover June 8th through June 14th — a single week that gave us two of the most acclaimed games ever made and the strangest lucky streak on Nintendo's entire calendar. We run the timeline day by day: Torn Banner's gloriously chaotic medieval brawler Chivalry 2 (2021); Radical Entertainment and Activision's open-world monster Prototype (2009); Hideo Kojima's farewell to Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PlayStation 3, 2008); HAL Laboratory's stylus-only Kirby: Canvas Curse (Nintendo DS, 2005); the Japan-only Famicom Golf: U.S. Course on the Famicom Disk System (1987), which ran a national high-score leaderboard over the Disk Fax decades before "online" meant anything; and Naughty Dog's The Last of Us (2013), released exactly twenty-six years to the day after that Mario golf disk. Then three deep dives: the June 11 phenomenon (Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS Lite, Big Brain Academy, Rhythm Heaven Megamix, Game Builder Garage), the week Interplay almost died (the studio behind Fallout and Baldur's Gate), and the rise and fall of E3.

Tetris, EarthBound, Link's Awakening & More | This Week in Video Game History Ep. 20

This week on This Week in Video Game History, we're covering June 1st through June 7th — a week that runs from 1984 Moscow to 2023 and hits some of the most fascinating stories in gaming along the way. On the timeline: Super Mario Bros. 2 on the Famicom Disk System — the brutally difficult Japanese sequel Nintendo of America refused to release, later rebranded as The Lost Levels. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, the first handheld Zelda, born as an unauthorized side project by Nintendo developers working off-hours. EarthBound on the SNES — Shigesato Itoi's genre-defying RPG, which arrives in North America in 1995 and sets up our second deep dive perfectly. GTA San Andreas landing on Xbox and PC in 2005, bringing the Hot Coffee controversy with it. The Sims 3 rewriting the rules of PC game launches in 2009. inFamous 2 closing out Sucker Punch's PS3 era. And Street Fighter 6, one of the best fighting game launches in years — dropping on the same date as Tekken 7 did in 2017 and Diablo Immortal in 2022. Deep dives this week: the Cold War thriller behind Tetris — how Alexey Pajitnov created one of history's most important games in 1984 Soviet Moscow and didn't own a ruble of it for twelve years. The "This Game Stinks" EarthBound marketing disaster. And E3 2009's Project Natal reveal — the night Microsoft showed the world a controller-free future that half-delivered.

This Week in Video Game History Ep 19 -- May 25-31

0:00 -- Cold Open 1:40 -- Intro 2:34 -- Smash Ping Pong - May 30, 1987 3:54 -- Zero Wing - May 31, 1992 5:04 -- Tokimeki Memorial - May 27, 1994 6:20 -- The Lion King (NES) - May 25, 1995 7:48 -- Worms Armageddon - May 31, 1999 9:14 -- Mario Kart 8 -- May 29, 2014 10:25 -- Deep Dive: Dragon Quest and the Strange American Journey of the JRPG 11:50 -- Deep Dive: Splatoon and the Console That Shouldn't Have Worked 13:14 -- Deep Dive: Super Mario Bros. The Movie, and What Happens When Hollywood Doesn't Get It 14: 28 -- Outro Video Credits Smash Ping Pong (Famicom Disk System, 1987) Full Game Session -- @NenrikiGaming Zero Wing (E) - Intro Sequence [TTS] -- @Bot-ultracorp Tokimeki Memorial ~ Forever With You Opening -- @TokimekiMedia The Lion King (NES) Playthrough -- @NintendoComplete Worms Armageddon Online (WormNET) | Intermediate 3 Players -- @OldNerdPlayingOldPCGames #VideoGameHistory #GamingHistory #RetroGaming #NintendoHistory #JRPG #DragonQuest #Splatoon #MarioMovie #ThisWeekInVideoGameHistory #GamingFacts #GamingPodcast

This Week in Video Game History Ep 18 - May 18 - 24

0:00 - Cold Open 1:54 - Intro 2:50 - May 22, 1980 -- Pac-Man 4:40 - May 1980 -- Golden Axe 6:31 - May 22, 2000 -- Perfect Dark 8:34 - May 18, 2010 -- Red Dead Redemption 10:27 - May 18, 2015 -- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 12:38 - Deep Dive 1 -- Pac-Man's Cultural Invasion 14:46 - Deep Dive 2 -- CD Projekt Red: Poland's Game 16:34 - Deep Dive 3 -- The Burlingame Moment: May 24, 1972 19:05 - Outro #VideoGameHistory #GamingHistory #RetroGaming #GamingPodcast #PacMan #Witcher3 #RedDeadRedemption2 #MagnavoxOdyssey #GoldenAxe #ClassicGaming