Gaming History Club

Video game magazines were more important than you might think! Before the internet was around they were the gatekeepers to all things video game related. Find out how magazines and gaming journalism got started.

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Sources:

Play Meter #1 December 1974

VIDEO - Arcade Alley 1979

Electronic Games #1 Winter 1981

Interview with Bill Kunkel

Interview with Arnie Katz

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It's time for our annual recap of just exactly what happened in 2025. Spoiler alert: still no GTA VI. Joining us as usual is our special guest Brad and we discuss some of the most noteworthy things that happened in gaming.

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Achievements changed why and how we play games. But before Xbox arrived with Gamerscore, players were already being rewarded! just in very different ways.

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Sources:

Activision Iron-on patches

Gamerscore Patent

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Welcome to Gamergate: a scandal that mixed ethics, harassment, conspiracy theories, and online shouting in equal measure.

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Sources:

Britannica – Gamergate Campaign

Wired – Inside Gamergate Chat Logs

NPR / Rep. Katherine Clark – How Gamergate Became a Template for Malicious Action Online

Factually – Gamergate Controversy Explained

Data & Society – Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online

Digital Studies Journal – Doxxing as an Online Tactic

LawPop – From Unknown Subculture to Political Mainstream

arXiv – Tactical Reframing of Online Disinformation Campaigns Against the Istanbul Convention

Washington Post – Disinformation campaign targeting Roy Moore’s Senate bid may have violated law

Northeastern University – How Gaming Culture Played a Role in Jan 6 and QAnon

Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) – Total remigration: Anti-migrant narratives targeting the UK

Kotaku – Alyssa Mercante, Sweet Baby Inc. Doesn’t Do What Some Gamers Think It Does

IGN – Developers Speak Out Against Harassment of Sweet Baby Inc.

GameDeveloper.com – Sweet Baby Inc. Harassment Campaign Echoes Gamergate

Data & Society – Weaponised Participation: From Gamergate to the Alt-Right

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Text adventures and interactive fiction might look primitive today, yet they changed gaming forever. Through imagination and clever code, these games laid the groundwork for everything from RPG dialogue trees to open-world exploration. Join us as we celebrate the witty, weird, and world-shaping legacy of interactive fiction.

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Sources:

Consider the Consequences!

ELIZA

Colossal Cave Adventure

Get Lamp: The Text Adventure Documentary

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Why did Football Manager get banned in China? Why did Pokémon cause a moral panic? And why does a “game” called Ethnic Cleansing even exist?

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Sources:

Pokemon

Ethnic Cleansing

Football Manager 2005

Tropico 5

Liyla and The Shadows of War

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This episode contains a 10-second extract of the song 'Lavender Town' created by Junichi Masuda for the Pokemon Red & Green GameBoy games and is sole property of Nintendo, which is in no way affiliated with Gaming History Club.

In this haunting Game Lore special we investigate one of gaming’s darkest legends. Did the chilling theme of this small town in Pokémon Red and Green really drive children to madness? Or was it just an internet-born myth that spiralled out of control?

Along the way, we also revisit a very real incident known as “Pokémon Shock” when an episode of Electric Soldier Porygon sent hundreds of Japanese viewers into seizures.

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Sources:

Everything you need to know about Pokemon's creepy Lavender Town Syndrome myth - Retroware

Sounds only kids can hear

Dennō Senshi Porygon Wikipedia

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Warning: This episode deals with death and drug references

Video Game Addiction, or as the WHO calls it: Gaming Disorder, is a complex issue that has led to tragic deaths. We take a look at what causes video game addiction, the mechanics hacking our brain to dopamine addiction and who is to blame.

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Sources:

Video Game Addiction: Past, Present and Future - Current Psychiatric Review

Theory of Flow - Mihaly Robert Csikszentmihalyi

WHO - Gaming Disorder

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If you're concerned for yourself or a loved one about possible video game addiction and related problems, talk to your healthcare provider or a mental health professional.

What began as a strange little experiment in the late ’90s quickly became one of survival horror’s great pioneers. Team Silent — a ragtag group of outcasts — rewrote the rules with fog-choked streets, monsters born from trauma, and a mood that still lingers decades later. And with Silent Hill F releasing just a day after this episode drops, the question hangs in the fog: can Silent Hill still deliver the mystery and terror that once defined the genre?

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Sources:

Team Silent

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We explore how propaganda, ideology, and assumptions sneak their way into games. Sometimes loudly, and sometimes in ways you’d never expect.

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Sources:

Can Video Games be used for Propaganda?

Mindkaleidoscope Top 10 Games that deal with political issues

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