Archives For VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY

Gracious Films have done a meticulous job of revealing the history of the Commodore Amiga.  I’m a big supporter of projects like this that document the history of the video game industry before a lot of the pioneers pass away.

It’s very low cost to watch the (over two hours long) movie when compared to the amount of work and passion that Anthony and Nicola have clearly put into it.

Enjoy!

Arduboy Arrived 

February 22, 2016 — 2 Comments

Super excited to get my new Arduboy from Kickstarter. Besides being incredibly cool I think it will be amazing for education (future game coders and Arduino fans.)

I’m stoked to have #1 hot off the presses!
   
 

ESA Foundation Scholarship Program

In 2007 the ESA Foundation established a scholarship program to assist women and minority students who are pursuing degrees leading to careers in Computer & Video Game Arts. In 2009 we extended this opportunity to graduating high school seniors and doubled the amount of awards granted from 15 to 30.

The scholarships are offered for full-time undergraduate study at accredited four-year colleges and universities in the USA.  Up to 30 scholarships of $3,000 each will be awarded annually, 15 to graduating high school seniors and 15 to current college students.

Applicants must be:

  • Women or minority students,
  • Pursuing degrees leading to careers in computer and video game arts (high school seniors must already be accepted into a program),
  • Enrolling or enrolled in a full-time undergraduate course of study at an accredited four-year college or university in the United States,
  • Maintaining a grade point average of 2.75 or above on a 4.0 scale (or its equivalent), and
  • US citizens.

This scholarship program is administered by International Scholarship and Tuition Services, Inc. To apply, please visit https://aim.applyists.net/esaf between February 1 and April 1 for the following academic year.

Just had a fun chat with the guys at Lost Treasures of Gaming.

http://omgnexus.com/2016/01/episode-19-earthworm-jim/

 

Kojima-san

December 16, 2015 — 2 Comments

At the launch of Video Games Live at the Hollywood bowl I was asked to join a group of people to sign autographs.  Beside me was Hideo Kojima and Stan Lee (Spiderman/Marvel etc.)   After some time the line ran out for Stan Lee (a legend in the comic industry) but Kojima-san still had a LONG LINE of people wanting him to autograph everything they had on them.

Stan leaned back and said to me “WHO IS THIS GUY?

He’s Kojima and he’s one of the most respected video game directors of all time.  I have to congratulate Andy House for signing his next project exclusively on consoles for PlayStation.

Enjoy the video…

This book does an incredible job of capturing a great deal of the British video game history.  They found a lot of the people working at that time to interview, and I just got my copy in the mail!

http://readonlymemory.vg/shop/book/britsoft-an-oral-history/

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Britsoft: An Oral History is a collective story of the early British games industry. Composed of interviews with thirty-five people who shaped the modern videogame, including David Braben (Elite), Peter Molyneux (Populous), Rob Hubbard (Commando) and Jeff Minter (Attack of the Mutant Camels), it documents a vibrant period of invention in Britain’s cultural history – the start of a new form of entertainment, created on ZX Spectrums, Commodore 64s, Amigas and Atari STs, in bedrooms and living rooms.

The book is a companion piece to the 2014 documentary, From Bedrooms to Billions, and draws from the hundreds of hours of interview footage to find new, untold stories, and craft an original narrative. Through the voices of programmers, musicians, journalists and business people, it traces the making of games such as Dizzy, Elite, Paradroid and Kick Off; and the birth of publishers, magazines and software houses, from Codemasters to Zzap!64.

Britsoft: An Oral History is edited by Alex Wiltshire, former editor of ‘videogame Bible’ Edge, and designed by London-based studio Julia. It includes rarely-seen archive images, such as candid period photographs and magazine ads, which perfectly set the Britsoft scene.

Interviewees: Peter Molyneux, David Braben, Archer Maclean, David Darling, Jeff Minter, Charles Cecil, David Perry, Geoff Crammond, Julian Gollop, Julian Rignall, Dino Dini, Mo Warden, Rob Hubbard, Martin Kenwright, Fred Gray, Martin Galway, Mel Croucher, Mike Montgomery, Rod Cousens, Sean Cooper, Malcolm Evans, Steve Turner, Tim Tyler, Nigel Alderton, Jon Hare, Gary Penn, Eugene Evans, Oliver Frey, the Oliver twins, Peter Stone and Richard Leinfellner, Chris Anderson, Shahid Ahmad, Andrew Braybrook, Geoff Brown.

“Make and Share Games!”

https://www.arduboy.com/#play

This is an incredible little device that’s based on Arduino so there’s lots of game code out there for you to experiment with.

It’s cool to be able to make a game and HAND THE DEVICE to a friend to play it.

Cost is $39

I’m excited by the impact this can have on education as it’s by far more fun to make games when learning to code.  At the same time you’re learning how to control electronics as it’s really an Arduino device.

Fun to see the amazing progress.

This was the original prototype:

Cloud Gaming Conference

September 27, 2015 — Leave a comment

Just arrived in San Francisco for the Cloud Gaming Conference.

Popping over to TechShop this afternoon.

We’re excited that Ubisoft’s amazing Assassin’s Creed series is now available on PlayStation Now.

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/explore/playstationnow/

Thanks Naughty Dog, I get asked a lot what it takes to be a video game designer…  It’s now answered in one short video.

They also have a video for Programmers.