They Create Worlds

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The games we love reveal something true about who we are, and about the world that made them. They Create Worlds is a podcast about the people, technology, and forces that built the video game industry.

Through video game history, the show looks at how culture, business, and technology shaped what we play, tracing the choices and circumstances that led to the games so many people around the world enjoy.

Each episode digs into where games came from, who made them, and why they were made the way they were. Business decisions, technological shifts, and creative choices all shaped what ended up on screen, and the show covers all of it together, not just one piece in isolation.

Hosted by Alex Smith and Jeffrey Daum, They Create Worlds grew out of long conversations about the strange corners of the industry and the patterns that only show up when you look across companies, platforms, and decades. That conversational feel remains, built on careful research, clear structure and editing that makes even the deepest topics easy to listen to.

History turns out to be less settled than it looks. New documents surface, memories conflict, and the clean stories about why things happened the way they did rarely survive contact with the evidence. The show digs into all of that, following the creative and business forces that pushed and pulled on each other, and uncovering the human stories that lie beneath the games so many people around the world enjoy.

New episodes are released twice a month.

Episodes

Sunday Dec 01, 2019

Elite Systems

Sunday Dec 01, 2019

TCW Podcast Episode 103 - Elite Systems

We look at one of the British software companies Elite Systems. The company was originally named Richard Wilcox software, and was founded as a collaboration between two brothers with the encouragement of their father. Owing to Richard still being a teenager, had schooling, and could not make programing a full-time career at the time the decision was made to rebrand the company. Steve renamed the company to Elite Systems in 1984, and hired bedroom coders to produce software for the company. The company continued to be one of the industry leaders when it came to where the market was going. They went to licenses, in studio development, consoles, independent developer, and now mobile gaming. We finish up looking briefly at the controversy around the company's Kick-Starter campaign for the ZX Spectrum Bluetooth keyboard for retro games.

Blue Thunder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9nESwphljA

Kokotoni wilf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cnq4SdcYzs

Airwolf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LOAciMPGrI

Frank Bruno's Boxing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cUku-A0UOc

TCW 035 - EA: The Teenage Years: http://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/ea-the-teenage-years/

TCW 028 - Picking up the Pieces: The US Arcade Industry After the Crash: http://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/picking-up-the-pieces-the-us-arcade-industry-after-the-crash/

Commando: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKom2O2H0pQ

Paperboy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR9tQYb76UM

Dragon's Lair EU NES: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63JKJPtZ344

Striker SNES: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVmLLmILrrg

Test Drive Off-Road PSX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMNUsD_FfQw

Test Drive Off-Road PC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA3M5K0ezsg