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

Friday May 15, 2020

The Wizards of Sir-Tech

Friday May 15, 2020

TCW Podcast Episode 114 - The Wizards of Sir-Tech

We look at the company Sir-Tech. Known as "the Wizardry company", and founded by Norman Sirotek and Robert Woodhead. The company was originally founded to market Info Tree, a database program. The shift was made into video games starting with the release of Galactic Attack. With the heavy influences of the games on the PLATO system. Andrew Greenberg and Woodhead would meet, and would start collaboration on what would eventually be Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. One of the best produced games at the time, it was a major hit on the Apple II platform. Sustainability for the franchise was hamstrung with lack of innovation, and the requirement of the first game to play Wizardry II and III. This culminated with the major disaster that was the release of Wizardry IV.

TCW 084 - Time Shared: http://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/time-shared/

CARDIAC - Computer Teaching Tool: https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/museum/cardiac.html

Free Pascal and Lazarus Wiki: https://wiki.freepascal.org/

The Digital Antiquarian - Pascal and the P-Machine: https://www.filfre.net/2012/03/pascal-and-the-p-machine/

Empire on Plato: http://www.daleske.com/plato/empire.php

Galactic Attack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPBac4JAOmg

DND - DOS version: https://www.classicdosgames.com/online/dnd_121.html

PLATO Online Emulation: https://www.cyber1.org/index.asp

Wizardry I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-iOZzwIlMA

Wizardry II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5eYUXmt_sk

Wizardry III (PC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cWa5HqhWdg

Wizardry IV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQaRAYcUoIM