Checkpoints

My guest today is Dr Mark Johnson. Mark is a man of many talents, he's currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta where he mainly focuses on the intersection of money and games, particularly in relation to eSports and pro streamers. He's also the co-host of Roguelike Radio, creator of the game Ultima Ratio Regum, a former bullet hell world champion and a former professional poker player.

As that breif intro suggests, Mark is not someone who does things by halves, and we delve deep into all of his various interests and areas of expertise, from the similarities between poker and rogue likes, why Command & Conquer changed everything, why speed running never appealed to him despite his clear skills, why professional streaming is more of a job than you think it is, and the big loss that led him to leave poker behind.

"Listen, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.."

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by Craig Stevenson

I'm very excited to welcome Richard Garriott to the show. Sometimes known as Lord British, Richard is a video game trailblazer. As the creator of Ultima he helped forge a new genre in games, and with Ultima Online invented a whole new one. His latest, Shroud of the Avatar, was released just a few weeks ago and continues this storied tradition. 

As one of the only second generation astronauts in the world, he's also travelled into space.

We talk about luck and timing,  how his interests and passions coalesced with the rise of technology, and how he has been able to ride the crest of that wave. We talk about magic tricks and his collection of automatons.  We hit on how he plays more games now than he ever has, the importance of Command & Conquer, how he had to learn to program before he could learn to play, how important the crest of a hill is in a video game world. We also talk about his life long journey to travel into space, what it felt like to finally achieve it, and whether or not a game can ever recreate that sensation.

"Don't tell me what I can't do."

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by Craig Stevenson

Games discussed: Hunt the Wumpus, Pong, Ultima, Escape, Dungeons & Dragons, Myst, Warcraft, Command & Conquer, Medal of Honor, Monument Valley, World of Warcraft, The Creeps, King's Quest, Wing Commander,

Last month I recorded a special episode of Checkpoints live from the All Your Base festival in Nottingham. One of my guests was Paul Kilduff-Taylor who I ended up hanging about with a bunch over the weekend and we had a lovely time so I asked him back for a full episode. Wholesome af.

Paul is one of the co-founders of mode7 games - creators of Frozen Synapse and the upcoming Forzen Synapse 2 - and while music is his specialty, he has a hand in all aspects of design. In a wonderfully meandering chat we hit on some timely networking tips in the run up to GDC, how mash ups are the internet's first musical genre, sword fighting games for the Novint Falcon, the satisfaction of games that linger in your brain when you're not playing them, how much of a gamer his mum was growing up, the excellent music of Nintendo World Cup, why Half Life 2 maybe isn't as good as you think it is and Noel, the mysterious employee at a Canadian Electronics Boutique. 

"March the 12th be with you."

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by Craig Stevenson

Games discussed: Contraption, Chuckie Egg, Tetris, Nintendo World Cup, Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage 2, Into the Breach, Monster Hunter World, Day of the Tentacle, Prison Architect, Tap Titans, Rocket League, Wing Commander Privateer, Hitman Blood Money, Hotline Miami, X-Com, Half Life 2, SWAT,

One of my favourite parts of doing this show is discovering the ways people played games in countries all around the world, In this special episode of the show I speak with a listener and linguistics lecturer Andrej Bjelaković about growing up with games in Belgrade, Serbia.  

Part of the former Yugoslavia, Serbia has had a tumultuos half century. During Milosevic's reign in the 1990s, the country was sanctioned by the UN meaning imports like video games would not be allowed through by any legal means.

The ways in which games did find their way into the country, and how people like Andrej were first exposed to them and grew to love them is a unique and fascinating story and one that I had never heard before.

We talk about Sega Clubs, a nationwide solution to the problem of having no access to games,  pop up PC stores ran by grandparents from their flats, discovering a love of English through blackmarket imports of PC Zone and PC Gamer, playing games while your city is bombed, and how the first legitimate video game he was able to buy was World of Warcraft in 2005.

Andrej is a passionate and engaging guide through all of this and so much more. A unique and fascinating take on the games that shaped many of our lives. A genuine treat, and something I’m thruked to share.

"We've got a wave in the air, radar love."

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by

My guest today is Zach Barth, founder of Zachtronics and creator of some of the best video games ever made, including Spacechem, Infinifactory and their latest, Opus Magnum.

We talk about the surprising amount of instinct and chance that goes into designing a Zachtronics game, his love of play sets and miniatures but oddly his hatred of board games, the influence of the TV series How it's Made?, why Solitaire is such a great chicken soup game, the unique struggles of making educational software and how his love of video games has slowly withered while his love of making them has flourished.

“Bertha, lovely Bertha. You're such a lovely machine!”

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

Games discussed: Duke Nuken, Team Fortress 2, Heroes of the Storm, Construction Simulator, Megaman Battle Arena 3, Opus Magnum, SpaceChem, infiniminer, infinifactory

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by Craig Stevenson

My guest today is James Ryan who - as part of his PhD at US Santa Cruz - has been working on some of the coolest and most exciting projects I’ve seen in years, and this chat made me incredibly excited about the future of games and could potentially change the future of writing. This is largely due to his Talk of the Town framework, which simulates 500 years of history in a small American town, and is the engine behind the award winning theatre piece / text adventure / procedural story telling of Bad News and the beautiful and poetic Juke Joint. For his final project he is using this framework to automate radio drama. Amongst several other exciting projects, one of my favourites is GameSpace, an explorable universe of tens of thousands of videogames grouped by genre. (I explored for an hour and only saw a handful of games I recognised). What a treat.

As well as possibly my favourite rage quit story of the show so far, we talk about the inner monologue of a Goomba, the profound impression that Link to the Past continues to have on him (and how apt that title is), why he could only be doing what he’s doing at UC Santa Cruz, how he discovered a whole other universe in Madden 2000, the slapstick violence of GTA3, how learning to code completely changed his life, and why Façade is like the first Velvet Underground album.

“From downtown!”

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

Games discussed: Pitfall, Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, NFL Blitz, Madden 2000, NBA JAM TE, Façade, Grand Theft Auto 3, The Sims, Sim City, Dwarf Fortress, Tecmo Super Bowl, Football Manager, Little Computer People, Driver

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by Craig Stevenson

My guest today is Sarah Elmahleh. Sarah is an actor and voice over artist and has worked on a whole bunch of videogames including Gone Home, For Honor, Call of Duty, Pyre, Galak-Z and Final Fantasy 15. She was also the lead in the recent - and excellent - BBC Radio play Game Over written by Emily Short. (This is only available until the 29th of January so click the link and listen now!)

We talk about how games were a forbidden fruit for a chunk of her childhood, and how getting a PC changed everything. Her deep love for the Curse of Monkey Island and the subsequent radio play adaptation she made in college, how the Tango is a great example of emergent game play, the healing power of getting snowed in with Dragon Age: Inquisition, why The Mortician's Tale resonated with her so much,  and how she got into games when she didn't know anyone in games (pro tip: meet Rich Lemarchand).

"I don't think my father would approve of me dating the undead, and you're probably too nice a zombie-pirate for me anyway. Let's just be friends instead. "

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

Games discussed: Everquest, The Sims, KOTOR, Curse of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Gone Home, Final Fantasy 8, Super Hexagon, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Super Meat Boy, Dragon Age: Inquisition, A Mortician's Tale, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Night in the Woods

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by Craig Stevenson

My guest on today's episode is Devine Lu Linvega. How to begin describing Devine. In videogame terms he has created some wonderful games like Hivesaires, Donsol or the Proteus remix Purgateus. He currently lives with his girlfriend on a sail boat, where they run their floating studio 100rabbits. This interview was conducted while they docked in New Zealand. He is also a musician and a photographer and a visual artist and a developer and he created a new language.

In an incredibly broad and meandering chat we hit on how his parents desire for him to never have a computer back fired spectacularly, how he quickly learned to play games at arms length through tool assisted runs of Diablo, his intense love of role playing within Eve Online, his compulsion to play through games like Quake, X-Com and Civilsation 5 endlessly, how much fun an interactive gravestone would be, why everyone should make things and how sometimes how you approach a game can say a lot about how you approach life.

"If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything.."

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

For more details about All Your Bass festival and the live Checkpoints episode, visit the NVA

Games discussed: Ultima Online, Diablo, Quake 3, Eve Online, Civ 5, Nuclear Throne, Rainbow 6, Riven, Myst, What Remains of Edith Finch, Tokyo Extreme Racer, Mount Your Friends, X-Com, Age of Empires

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by Craig Stevenson

This is a show about videogames, the people who play them and the people who make them. Each episode, a guest talks about the games that have shaped their life in one way or another. Games that have inspired them, games that have forged connections & games that have soothed wounds. Checkpoints!

My guest on today's episode is Jim Rossignol. Jim spent many years working at PC Gamer, founded Rock, Paper, Shotgun and has since set up his own video game studio, Big Robot, and made the games Sir, You Are Being Hunted and The Signal from Tölva.

We talk his early memories of Amstrad CPC and Amiga gaming, why philosophy is important, how  S.T.A.L.K.E.R represents the open world we were promised, the genesis and risks of Rock, Paper, Shotgun, whether or not he misses video game journalism, and why he's the best at Speedball 2.

"This is my Boom Stick."

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

For more details about All Your Bass festival and the live Checkpoints episode, visit the NVA

Games discussed: Chuckie Egg, Elite, Speedball 2, Lemmings, Stunt Car Racer, Quake, Goldeneye, Hidden & Dangerous, Eve Online, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Mad Max, Prey, Dishonoured, Teleglitch, Sunless Sea, The Long Dark, Diaries of a Space Port Janitor

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by Craig Stevenson

This is a show about videogames, the people who play them and the people who make them. Each episode, a guest talks about the games that have shaped their life in one way or another. Games that have inspired them, games that have forged connections & games that have soothed wounds. Checkpoints!

My guest today is Lisy Kane. Lisy is a speaker, curator and videogame producer currently at League of Geeks. She's also the co founder of Girl Geek Academy and the only Austrailian on this year's Forbes 30 Under 30.

We talk Commander Keen on paternal laptops, playing Driver by the rules, a fierce love of demo discs, finding friends in Age of Empires, why my quick fire questions remind her of a high school band and how deals get done in DOTA 2.

"It was the last hero left and I never played it before."

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

Games discussed: Mass Effect, Gone Home, Commander Keen, Dr. Mario, Super Mario Land, Catz, Age of Empires 2, Battle Toads, DOTA, Stardew Valley, Destiny 2, Jack Box Party Pack, Thumper, Rock Band, Home Alone, Driver

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by Craig Stevenson