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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 they were. Business decisions, technological shifts, and creative choices all shaped what ended up on screen, and the show covers all of it together, not just one piece in isolation.
Hosted by Alex Smith and Jeffrey Daum, They Create Worlds grew out of long conversations about the strange corners of the industry and the patterns that only show up when you look across companies, platforms, and decades. That conversational feel remains, built on careful research, clear structure and editing that makes even the deepest topics easy to listen to.
History turns out to be less settled than it looks. New documents surface, memories conflict, and the clean stories about why things happened the way they did rarely survive contact with the evidence. The show digs into all of that, following the creative and business forces that pushed and pulled on each other, and uncovering the human stories that lie beneath the games so many people around the world enjoy.
New episodes are released twice a month.
Episodes
2 days ago
2 days ago
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 launch titles under different names, including Target Fun, released elsewhere as Air-Sea Battle. Many of the launch games carried multiple modes to stretch their value, and even these early titles pulled clever tricks to push past the VCS's five sprite limit. To justify the console's cost to families, Atari aimed squarely at adults with Blackjack while also including the educational game Basic Math. While many of these early titles were forgotten as more advanced games arrived over the course of the Atari VCS's life, their influence on a foundational system cannot be disputed.
Atari Archive: https://www.atariarchives.org/
Atari Archive (Youtube): https://www.youtube.com/c/AtariArchive
Combat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNtI90yiOOU
Air-Sea Battle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l0AQ5LuvQM
Video Olympics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rie4hsUeDuA
Indy 500: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_POr4OdHhiI
Street Racer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCSYY1kK9so
Star Ship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4zySJ96a4U
Blackjack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nvWBin7_Rc
Basic Math: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv7T4ya9hcg
Surround: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhZ1wfGLq1w
How to do long form Square Roots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6evC4klO_lI
TCW 051 - Sons of Pong: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW051
TCW 201 - Advanced Balls and Paddles Part 1: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW201
TCW 202 - Advanced Balls and Paddles Part 2: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW202
TCW 009 - History of Mediagenic Part 1: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW009
TCW 010 - History of Mediagenic Part 2: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW010
New episodes are on the 1st and 15th of every month!
TCW Email: feedback@theycreateworlds.com
BlueSky: @theycreateworlds.bsky.social
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theycreateworlds
Alex's Video Game History Blog: http://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com
Alex's book: http://bit.ly/TCWBOOK1
Intro Music: Josh Woodward - Airplane Mode - Music - "Airplane Mode" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/AirplaneMode
Outro Music: RoleMusic - Bacterial Love: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Rolemusic/Pop_Singles_Compilation_2014/01_rolemusic_-_bacterial_love
Copyright: Attribution: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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