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

Monday Sep 01, 2025

The First 10 Years of European Consoles

Monday Sep 01, 2025

TCW Podcast Episode 241 - The First 10 Years of European Consoles

The first decade of European consoles began with imports of the Magnavox Odyssey, but soon local experiments took shape. In Spain, the Overkal may have been tied to a possible attempt to bring the Odyssey into the country, though no hard evidence survives, and it is generally treated as a local product. Across Europe, companies like Videomaster in the UK, Zanussi in Italy, and Interton and Grundig in Germany built dedicated ball-and-paddle systems. Many went beyond Pong using discrete logic hardware to support more advanced play, a technical achievement later supplanted by programmable consoles. A key shift came when General Instrument’s Scottish branch developed the “Pong on a Chip,” enabling mass-produced systems like Videomaster’s Superscore and Zanussi’s Play-O-Tronic. By the late 1970s, firms such as Philips, Radofin, and Hanimex moved into programmable systems like the Videopac. The arrival of Atari, Mattel, and other American companies displaced Europe's fragmented but inventive hardware scene, but the North American video game crash killed their systems at the same time European gamers were shifting their focus to home computers.

TCW 105 - The Big Voice of Magnavox: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-big-voice-of-magnavox/

TCW 106 - The Small Voice of Magnavox: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-small-voice-of-magnavox/

TCW 177 - The Intellivision Part 1: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-intellivision-part-1/

TCW 178 - The Intellivision Part 2: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-intellivision-part-2

TCW 076 - A Fairchild Story: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/a-fairchild-story/

Overkal: https://prehistoricgaming.com/en/overkal-console/

Interton Video 2000: https://www.pong-story.com/v2000.htm

GI Gemini Systems: https://www.pong-story.com/pc-50x.htm

RCA Studio III Variants: http://videogamekraken.com/rca-studio-iii-by-rca

Philips Videopac G7000: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgG9F9SsgCw

Interton VC 4000: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yqVcULUqOU

Radofin Programable Video System: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvCFYLfQrC0