Of Movie Tie-Ins and Joystick Storytellers: The Video and Computer Game Revolution that devoured Hollywood

Why did the computer and video game industry “tie in” with motion pictures? How come the once ubiquitous game adaptations disappeared whilst gaming is more popular and lucrative than ever?

Of Movie-Ties and Joystick Storytellers: How  the Computer and Video Gaming Industry devoured the Motion Picture. An Analysis by Andreas Wanda. Screenshot: Jurassic Park by Ocean Software, Amiga OCS, 1993
Of Movie-Ties and Joystick Storytellers: How the Computer and Video Gaming Industry devoured the Motion Picture. An Analysis by Andreas Wanda. Screenshot: Jurassic Park by Ocean Software, 1993

This is an analysis of how gaming industry’s original envy turned into unsurpassed pride, of how the relationship between the motion picture and the computer and video game industries has undergone a significant change over the last four decades, of how players cast off the double-duties as brand ambassadors name-dropping a film’s title in conversations to tell their very own, very personal story of their adventures inside the bits and bytes of computer and video gaming. This is the journey of the joystick marketeer that lived to be a virtual storyteller…

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Thimbleweed Park: A New Classic Point & Click Adventure! by Ron Gilbert & Gary Winnick

Writes the great Maniac Mansion duo: “It’s like opening a dusty old desk drawer and finding an undiscovered LucasArts adventure game you’ve never played before.” The pledge descriptions alone make you want to pay Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick a dollar for every second you’re laughing: pledge at their Kickstarter Thimbleweed Park project page to help the legendary adventure game designers become even more legendary than the legendary treasure of Big Whoop!

Thimbleweed Park: A New Classic Point & Click Adventure! by Ron Gilbert & Gary Winnick

Why C64: A Visual Commpendium by Sam Dyer Matters

It must have been one of these singular Eureka! moments in the history of the world when Sam Dyer, a graphics designer from Bath, conceived of his book Commodore 64: A Visual Commpendium, now available from www.funstock.co.uk. Here is a brief reflection on why this elegant publication matters so much.

Celebrating 160x200 pixels in print - Commodore 64: A Visual Commpendium by Sam Dyer available exclusively at www.funstock.co.uk
Celebrating 160×200 pixels – Commodore 64: A Visual Commpendium by Sam Dyer available exclusively at www.funstock.co.uk

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8bit terror on the Commodore 64: Terrorpods – A reconsideration

Retro Asylum, the UK’s No. 1 retro gaming podcast show, featured an outstanding episode dedicated to one of gaming industry’s most divisive developers, Psygnosis (click here to listen to RetroAsylum’s Psygnosis special). I contributed a segment on one of Psygnosis’s earliest releases, the trading-resource management shoot ’em up crossover Terrorpods.

Terrorpods by Psygnosis, C64 cassette version distributed by Melbourne House in 1988, photo by Andreas Wanda
A mysterious box bearing familiar logos from the glory days of 8/16bit computing contains the Commodore 64 version of Terrorpods, one of the first games to take advantage of the then new groundbreaking platforms Atari ST and Commodore Amiga.

In the weeks leading up to the Psygnosis-podcast’s release, RetroAsylum regular Sam Dyer kindly pointed out to me an exciting ebay offer, a sealed copy of Terrorpods for the Commodore 64. Quickly did I jump at this opportunity to come full circle and procured said 8bit conversion. Box in hand, how did the C64 incarnation fare in comparison to the 16bit classic?
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Han Solo posted first

If only Leia and Han had taken a closer look at Lando’s Facebook page, launched shortly before the fateful Bespin encounter in Star Wars – Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back…
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The Official Retro Asylum YouTube Channel

Although the Retro Asylum team often post videos via YouTube, they have never actually had a dedicated channel that the entire team could upload to. Thankfully this has now been put right! The channel currently features videos by the great retromaniac Dean Swain, yet all members of Retro Asylum are set post videos in the very near future, so I highly recommend to get watching and subscribe instantly!

The Official Retro Asylum YouTube Channel

Subscribe to The Official Retro Asylum You Tube Channel!
Subscribe to The Official Retro Asylum You Tube Channel!