Lost Treasures of Gaming

In 1984, an 18 year old saw his dreams come true and Montezuma's Revenge was released into the world by Parker Brothers.  As one of our favourite games to ever grace the Commodore 64, we are thrilled to welcome the creator of Montezuma's Revenge, Robert Jaeger.  Robert takes us back to when he was only 11 years old and started creating video games. We learn of his early creations and what lead him to create Montezuma's Revenge and how it was picked up by Parker Brothers.

This week's Lost Treasures of Gaming take a bit of a twist with our coverage of a classic video game. While normally we would interview someone who was personally involved with the original development of the game, this week's guest is the Founder/Director of House Hold Games, formerly of Drink Box Studios.  Jason had nothing to do with the development of Wizard for the Commodore 64.  In fact, he was only 4 years old when he first played the game.  But that was a fateful moment in his life and Wizard began something in Jason that is still alive in him today. This week we explore the very real affect that video games can have on people and how an obscure Lost Treasure can change a life forever.

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Web: www.omgnexus.com

This isn't a normal episode of Lost Treasures of Gaming.  This week we are joined by Kristen Sych, a personal friend and High School buddy of Syd's.  Kristen is a cinematics director at Activision and has worked on Treyarch's Call of Duty Black Ops franchise.  While the original Black Ops isn't a lost treasure in the normal sense, we thought it would be nice to look at the development of games from a different angle. That of the animation and the cut scenes we see so much of these days.  Kristen is an artist and an animator and we talk about what it takes to create the amazing scenes for blockbuster games such as Call of Duty.

It's time to go back to where it all began. Our guest this week was instrumental in designing and bringing the original Atari 2600 console into our lives, as well as the pack in game, Combat.  Of course, we are talking to Joe Decuir this week.  Prepare yourself to take an amazing walk through history and discover what the Atari 2600 could have been.

Get ready for the longest episode of Lost Treasures of Gaming yet! We are pleased to welcome Lorne Lanning to the show this week to talk all about his Oddworld Inhabitants games, including Abe's Oddysee, Munch's Oddysee, Stranger's Wrath, and more.  In this interview we get some real, down to earth, behind the scenes goodness about the making of these games.  As a first for the show, we even had the pleasure to have Lorne answer some listener questions.  Sit down, relax, and enjoy!

We are excited to welcome a true Canadian Video Game Pioneer to the show, Chris Gray.  Chris Gray got his first big break in the video game business with Boulder Dash, released in 1984. This single game has become a cult classic and has found its way onto nearly every home console and continues to be remade today. Recently, Boulder Dash was even released in cartridge form for the Intellivision! Chris continues to work in the game industry at TapStar Interactive (http://www.tapstargames.com/) creating high quality mobile games. Including, you guessed it, Boulder Dash: 30th Anniversary Edition for iOS.

We are honoured to have industry veteran David Perry on the show this week.  If you don't think you know who David is, you do.  David has been programming games since the age of 15 and was the Founder of Shiny Entertainment and the programmer of Earthworm Jim.  He then went on to Co-Found Gaikai which is now found on your PS4 and Sony televisions as PlayStation Now.  David has been a pioneer in the industry and is still striving to bring us the future of gaming now.

This week's show is a little different as we will not be concentrating on just one game.  Our guest this week is one of the founding members of Activision, Steve Cartwright.  Steve was the 5th game developer to join Activision back in 1982 to begin working on Atari 2600 games.  We speak to him about his time at Activision and many of the "firsts" in video games that he was personally responsible for.  He is a legend in the gaming industry and we owe a lot of what we know today to him.

You may know our guest from such games as Ratchet and Clank, Sonice the Hedgehog 2, and even from companies like Naughty Dog.  Today, we are joined by the legendary Mark Cerny himself to talk about a true lost Treasure, 1984's Marble Madness.  Originally created for the arcade, Marble Madness made its way into the home on many home platforms and even inspired countless more games. Mark has a special midas touch when it comes to making games as everything he's involved in is simply fun.

Do you remember Remember Me or are your memories all mixed up?  Our guest this week is co-founder of Dontnod Entertainment and the Creative Director of 2013's Remember Me, Mr, Jean-Maxime Moris.  We dive into the inspirations of Dontnod's first game, and learn all about the creation process behind it, what made it into the game, what didn't. We even learn of a distinct link between this game and their next game, Life Is Strange.  It may not be an old game, but Remember Me is a lost treasure just the same. If you've never played it, you owe it to yourself to seek it out. For more information, visit www.omgnexus.com.