Do you yearn for the days of blowing dust out of temperamental NES game cartridges? Have fond memories of the PS2‘s groundbreaking graphics? Or do you want to learn the stories behind the best-selling games that now rake in billions each year? Then it‘s time to further your education through podcasts exploring video gaming‘s winding, decades-long journey.
As someone who grew up puzzling over text adventure games that would barely pass for YouTube Poops now, I love seeing today‘s immersive, cinematic masterpieces continue pushing entertainment boundaries. The podcasts below helped me appreciate the innovation along the way.
So whether you prefer dissecting Mario‘s evolution or developer drama behind the scenes, strap in for 12 podcasts guaranteed to level up your knowledge. Let‘s dive in!
1. Reset – For Retro Gaming Nostalgia Trips
My earliest gaming memory is booting up Oregon Trail on an Apple II in school, which inevitably ended with my entire wagon party perishing of dysentery. If you too enjoy dusty DOS and Apple II games, Reset will satiate your retro cravings.
Co-hosts Jason Cirillo and Joe Feenstra draw on their own massive childhood gaming habits covering 80s and 90s titles on Nintendo, Sega, TurboGrafx, and PC platforms. Think forgotten Strider gems or return of underrated classic Ristar in Sonic Origins. Their passion feels like chatting with friends at a FuncoLand as you debate 16-bit console favorites. Whether reminiscing about classics or appreciating retro-homages like Shovel Knight, Reset delivers.
Nostalgic Fact: Game rentals from stores like Blockbuster supported much 1990s gaming before buys became standard.
2. Watch Out for Fireballs – Cataloguing Key Franchises
What powered you through dreary school days? For me, imagining the next Legend of Zelda adventure fueled my mind almost as much as Mountain Dew. I‘d pore over each Nintendo Power issue and fantasize walking in Link‘s shoes.
Watch Out for Fireballs feeds that craving for franchise development stories. Hosts analyze seminal series starting from early prototypes to modern entries across PC and consoles. Understanding Duke Nukem‘s path from 2D chop-fests to his Bassmasters outing was eye-opening! By covering both heights of fame and bizarre missteps, they contextualize modern obsessions like Fallout 76 or Cyberpunk 2077 as part of long journeys. Each deep dive will strengthen your gaming roots.
Wow Fact: The average AAA game now costs over $27 million to develop.
3. Arcade Attack – Revisiting the Quarter Killer Era
While kids today binge $60 games in a weekend, getting gaming time in the 80s meant begging your parents for a ride to the arcade (and more quarters)! This hands-on experience created ultra-challenging games made to suck your allowance dry yet keep you coming back.
The charming Arcade Attack podcast summons this lost era‘s memories with creator interviews about iconic quarter killers like Defender, Bubble Bobble, Shinobi and more. Learn what innovations helped games like Outrun stay engaging despite primitive 3D. Fun insights like how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shaped the 90s arcade scene will have you craving Nintendo Switch resurgences like Turtles: Shredder‘s Revenge!
Quarter Killer: Average 80s game cost $0.25 for just 90 seconds of play.
4. Sega Nerds Forever – An Underdog Story
When I skipped school (shh!), instead of causing trouble I‘d play hours of Ecco the Dolphin on Genesis – feeling oddly more educational! Though considered an underdog versus Super Nintendo, Sega still boasted an iconic roster starring blue blur Sonic, pixel-packing shooter classics, Disney adventures and more.
For a nostalgia-drenched appreciation of underdog Sega consoles, Sega Nerds Forever delivers. Despite some audio quirks, host Pat The NES Punk fires off passion for the Master System, Game Gear, Saturn and their legendary games with occasional special guests. Rounding out trivia like the forgotten Sega Neptune prototype helps you appreciate their unmatched 90s attitude!
Best Year: Sega captures 65% of the 16-bit console market share in 1994.
5. Pixel Scholars – Games As Art And Stories
Once blows like the PS1‘s Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy VII hit with their CGI cutscenes and orchestral scores, I realized games‘ potential as serious art! Pixel Scholars celebrates pivotal titles where technical feats facilitated huge creative leaps.
Diving into Deus Ex making moral choice gaming legit or Silent Hill as survival horror‘s pinnacle demonstrates their cinematic scope! Despite some overly-academic dialog, you‘ll gain renewed appreciation for landmark accomplishments hidden beneath modern standards. Understanding the past amplifies the meaning when you next boot up Elden Ring or God of War Ragnarok!
Emotion Engine: Chip allowing PS2 to render 75 million polygons per second for unrivaled graphics.
6. Game History Secrets – The Hits You Missed
Gaming innovation cultivates massive hits…as well as hidden gems lost to time! As easy as Steam and GOG make accessing old classics now, glaring library gaps remain. How did darling Psychonauts flop among 2005‘s blockbusters? What events made the TurboGrafx-16‘s reign fade away?
Game History Guy Clint Thornton satisfies such curiosities by unspooling teardowns of consoles like Atari Jaguar or 3DO – warts and all! Alongside respectful industry autopsies are his personal excavations of obscure treasures from conventions and private collections. Hearing virgin impressions of recovered goodies like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night‘s stolen alpha build is pure joy!
Forgotten Feature: Sega Channel streamed games on demand to Genesis in 1994 – decades before Stadia!
7. Stratechery – Following the Money
As a youth, developers and their games felt shrouded in mystery until magazine previews arrived. Lacking context for landmark sales figures or interactions between competing companies somewhat dulled their impact. Stratechery lifts this curtain to uncover gaming titans‘ aggressive business moves.
Digging into acquisitions like Microsoft buying Bethesda/Activision or Sony securing exclusivity rights ties together disconnected industry news into motivational narratives. Less gameplay-focused but equally gripping, hearing how Steam conquered PC gaming distribution or Epic Games‘ strategies adds societal weight to daily gaming hobby pleasure!
Big Spenders: Sony purchases Bungie for $3.6 billion and Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion dollars.
8. Retro Warriors – Filling History Gaps
Despite quarantining with my Sega Genesis during high school, gaming history blind spots persisted until retro nostalgia boomed. I was shocked learning the Japan-centric PC Engine gave Nintendo headaches until North American indifference (and Zelda) decided its TurboGrafx-16 fate!
The Retro Warriors empathize with such discovery joys – two Australian fanboys revisiting gaming‘s namedropped yet obscure platforms. Beyond reaffirming Saturn and Dreamcast fandoms, their contagious curiosity for the WonderSwan‘s amazing battery innovation or Atari Lynx‘s unfulfilled promise spotlights near-forgotten forces that moved gaming along in their own small ways.
Regional Differences: Famicom games hardwired for Japan‘s 60hz televisions ran 17% faster/tougher than North America‘s NES versions.
9. Watch This Impress Me – Documenting Development Hell
As cinephiles admire directors battling against production disasters mid-filming, many epic games endured torturous paths to release. Development hell reaches nightmarish extremes for games – no wonder Duke Nukem Forever became vaporware legend after 14 brutal years!
Watch This Impress Me podcast recounts these ultimate underdog stories – Final Fantasy XV‘s reboot catastrophe, how constant overturns almost canceled now-classic Ocarina of Time, the unbelievable 7 year labor of Borderlands. Through revealing interviews and social media leaks, Chris documents humble origins through messy uncertainty toward the final emotional gold master build. Cringing at these war stories will make you view Super Mario Odyssey‘s easy development as an outright miracle!
Long Dev Cycles: Too Human began development in 1999 as a 4 player arcade game before ending up totally different Xbox 360 release in 2008!
10. Designer Notes – Charting Careers
Legendary creators like Sid Meier or Hideo Kojima deserve deep analysis. Beyond shining moments birthing megahits, dramatic career evolutions filled with interactive magic get overlooked. Designer Notes profiles pioneering developers unmatched in marrying technology constraints with sheer creativity across multiple eras.
Revisiting Will Wright‘s journey modernizing simulations from SimCity to The Sims reveals recurring threads tying generational feats. Discovering Roberta Williams‘ graphic adventures empowered 1980s gamers when computers intimidated most resonates today. Both audio polish and storytelling hearken AAA podcast quality for these 15-20 hour definitive documentations no true fan should miss!
Auteur Saga: Al Lowe lead one company for 17 years to handcraft iconic risqué adventure Leisure Suit Larry through 11 meticulous sequels!
11. Gameumentary – Zooming Out For Perspective
It‘s easy to downplay gaming‘s modern diversity when past eras felt dominated by singular rivalries like Nintendo vs. Sega or Xbox vs. PlayStation. In reality, knockout innovations often disrupted progress everywhere in parallel. Metroid kickstarted action exploration evolutions eventually perfected in PlayStation‘s Tomb Raider years later.
For highlighting key genre inflection points, Gameumentary delivers fascinating deep dives into watershed moments including:
- How shareware demos supercharged PC game distribution
- When/why Japan lost their tight grip over gaming‘s trajectory
- The advancements and missteps in virtual reality‘s rollercoaster appeal
Despite some lengthy episodes, memorable insights justify time investments – especially for longtime hobbyists.
Regional Power Shift: Japan represented 80% of the gaming market in 1990 compared to just 17% in 2022.
12. Player One Podcast – For The Love Of It All
After digesting so much expert analysis, take comfort in Player One Podcast‘s casual fourth-wall-breaking style. Lifelong friends Brian, Nelson and Shane loosely explore nostalgic memories and geeky passions. While conversations wandering between Super Mario Bros‘ iconicity down to X-Men arcade‘s six-player mayhem may sound chaotic for some, I loved how their whimsy echoed hanging with pals who you‘d debate Star Wars with for hours.
Player One meanders more akin to gaming podcasts from the hobby‘s earlier days. Yet their infectious camaraderie around such personal joy recaptures the core reasons these interactive adventures enthralled generation after generation. Mixing occasional banter about speedrunning records or their favorite ignored RPG gems keeps things lively. When you crave motivational reminders what gaming means to us, this podcast never fails to uplift.
For The Love: 220 billion hours were spent gaming worldwide in 2022 – a number sure to grow!
Keep Exploring Gaming‘s Innovation Journey
I hope my handpicked podcast platter inspires you to continue chasing gaming‘s evolution from crude pixels to awe-inspiring worlds that now rival Hollywood‘s visions. Understanding the technology leaps, legendary designer heroics, and risk-taking ideas from past eras will deepen your appreciation whenever you next boot up hardware old or new.
Here‘s to many more amazing gaming memories ahead for all! Now if you‘ll excuse me, I need to track down Nintendo 64 cartridges stashed somewhere in my mom‘s attic…
