We once again return to the earliest days of game sound and music and trace the evolution from 1977 through 1984 in this historically focused episode. We go from the arcade boom, to early home consoles and computers, to the video game crash, and end just before the rise of the NES. The show is a much deeper dive on historical context, although we cover a lot more music in the second half.

We were very pleased to collaborate with special guests Alex Smith and Jeff Daum of They Create Worlds, a podcast, blog and book that focuses on getting nuanced and often untold stories from the game industry, with an emphasis on the lesser talked about business side of things. Their show does a fantastic job of capturing engaging context on everything from game genres, mega hits like Space Invaders and Tetris, to the founding of individual companies.

Our teams chose this specific time frame to both coincide with the first volume of Alex's recently released historical chronicle on gaming, and as a chance to explore music from a period that doesn't often get talked about. We also wanted to give a special thanks to another video game historian Ethan Johnson for connecting us with Alex and Jeff of They Create Worlds.

If you'd like more information on They Create Worlds, they can be found at:

theycreateworlds.com, on Twitter @tcwpodcast, or podcast.theycreateworlds.com

The book: "They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry, Vol. I: 1971-1982"

CRC Press

Amazon

For even more, Alex's older blog covers several more topics not discussed in the podcast videogamehistorian.wordpress.com

 

Track List:

0:00:00 Wandering Across Sosaria - Ultima III: Exodus (1983, APL2) - Kenneth W. Arnold

0:20:32 Circus (1977, ARC) - Edward Valleau, Howell Ivy

0:27:56 Space Invaders (1978, ARC) - Tomohiro Nishikado

0:32:06 Asteroids (1979, ARC) - Lyle Rains, Ed Logg, Dominic Walsh

0:34:11 Sheriff (1979, ARC) - Genyo Takeda

0:38:29 Targ (1980, ARC) - Unknown

0:40:15 Pac-Man (1980, ARC) - Shigeichi Ishimura, Toshio Kai

0:45:33 Wizard of Wor (1981, ARC) - Tom McHugh, Dave Nutting

0:47:44 Rally-X (1980, ARC) - Toshio Kai

0:48:00 New Rally-X (1981, ARC) - Nobuyuki Ohnogi

0:54:52 Venture (1981, ARC) - Ed Anderson

0:59:54 Snafu (1981, INTV) - Russell Libelich

1:04:05 Moon Patrol (1982, ARC) - Ichirō Takagi

1:08:47 Pengo (1982, ARC) - 1st version is a cover of "Popcorn" by Gershon Kingsley (likely the Hot Butter arrangement)

1:10:01 Super Locomotive (1982, ARC) - cover of "Rydeen" by Yellow Magic Orchestra

1:12:42 Xevious (1983, ARC) - Yuriko Keino

1:14:50 Mappy (1983, ARC) - Nobuyuki Ohnogi

1:18:05 Donkey Kong (1983, FC) - Yukio Kaneoka and Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka

1:19:13 Necromancer (1984, C64 | 1983, Atari 8-bit) - Bill Williams

1:24:22 SubRoc (1983, ColecoVision) - Arnold Hendrick, Philip Taterczynski, David Wesely

1:25:55 Title - Forbidden Forest (1983, C64) - Paul Norman

1:28:52 Title - M.U.L.E. (1983, Atari 8-bit) - Roy Glover

1:31:33 In-game - Spy Hunter (1983, ARC) - cover of "Peter Gunn Theme" by Henry Mancini

1:32:46 Attract Mode - Tube Panic (1984, ARC) - Ryoichi Yamada, Ichirou Takagi

1:34:30 In-game - Pitfall II (1984, Atari VCS) - David Crane

1:36:30 Tower of Druaga (1984, ARC) - Junko Ozawa

1:40:07 Title - Dragon's Lair (1984, Coleco Adam) - Unknown

1:43:59 Intermediate Race - Marble Madness (1984, ARC) - Brad Fuller, Hal Canon

1:52:46 Rank Theme 2 - Road Fighter (1984, ARC) - Yoshinori Sasaki