Episode 118 - Richard Garriott

This is a show about videogames, the people who play them and the people who make them. Each episode, a guest talks about the games that have shaped their life in one way or another. Games that have inspired them, games that have forged connections & games that have soothed wounds. Checkpoints!

I'm very excited to welcome Richard Garriott to the show. Sometimes known as Lord British, Richard is a video game trailblazer. As the creator of Ultima he helped forge a new genre in games, and with Ultima Online invented a whole new one. His latest, Shroud of the Avatar, was released just a few weeks ago and continues this storied tradition. 

As one of the only second generation astronauts in the world, he's also travelled into space.

We talk about luck and timing,  how his interests and passions coalesced with the rise of technology, and how he has been able to ride the crest of that wave. We talk about magic tricks and his collection of automatons.  We hit on how he plays more games now than he ever has, the importance of Command & Conquer, how he had to learn to program before he could learn to play, how important the crest of a hill is in a video game world. We also talk about his life long journey to travel into space, what it felt like to finally achieve it, and whether or not a game can ever recreate that sensation.

"Don't tell me what I can't do."

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by Craig Stevenson

Games discussed: Hunt the Wumpus, Pong, Ultima, Escape, Dungeons & Dragons, Myst, Warcraft, Command & Conquer, Medal of Honor, Monument Valley, World of Warcraft, The Creeps, King's Quest, Wing Commander,

Episode 117 - Paul Kilduff-Taylor

This is a show about videogames, the people who play them and the people who make them. Each episode, a guest talks about the games that have shaped their life in one way or another. Games that have inspired them, games that have forged connections & games that have soothed wounds. Checkpoints!

Last month I recorded a special episode of Checkpoints live from the All Your Base festival in Nottingham. One of my guests was Paul Kilduff-Taylor who I ended up hanging about with a bunch over the weekend and we had a lovely time so I asked him back for a full episode. Wholesome af.

Paul is one of the co-founders of mode7 games - creators of Frozen Synapse and the upcoming Forzen Synapse 2 - and while music is his specialty, he has a hand in all aspects of design. In a wonderfully meandering chat we hit on some timely networking tips in the run up to GDC, how mash ups are the internet's first musical genre, sword fighting games for the Novint Falcon, the satisfaction of games that linger in your brain when you're not playing them, how much of a gamer his mum was growing up, the excellent music of Nintendo World Cup, why Half Life 2 maybe isn't as good as you think it is and Noel, the mysterious employee at a Canadian Electronics Boutique. 

"March the 12th be with you."

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by Craig Stevenson

Games discussed: Contraption, Chuckie Egg, Tetris, Nintendo World Cup, Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage 2, Into the Breach, Monster Hunter World, Day of the Tentacle, Prison Architect, Tap Titans, Rocket League, Wing Commander Privateer, Hitman Blood Money, Hotline Miami, X-Com, Half Life 2, SWAT,

Episode 116 - Andrej Bjelaković

This is a show about videogames, the people who play them and the people who make them. Each episode, a guest talks about the games that have shaped their life in one way or another. Games that have inspired them, games that have forged connections & games that have soothed wounds. Checkpoints!

One of my favourite parts of doing this show is discovering the ways people played games in countries all around the world, In this special episode of the show I speak with a listener and linguistics lecturer Andrej Bjelaković about growing up with games in Belgrade, Serbia.  

Part of the former Yugoslavia, Serbia has had a tumultuos half century. During Milosevic's reign in the 1990s, the country was sanctioned by the UN meaning imports like video games would not be allowed through by any legal means.

The ways in which games did find their way into the country, and how people like Andrej were first exposed to them and grew to love them is a unique and fascinating story and one that I had never heard before.

We talk about Sega Clubs, a nationwide solution to the problem of having no access to games,  pop up PC stores ran by grandparents from their flats, discovering a love of English through blackmarket imports of PC Zone and PC Gamer, playing games while your city is bombed, and how the first legitimate video game he was able to buy was World of Warcraft in 2005.

Andrej is a passionate and engaging guide through all of this and so much more. A unique and fascinating take on the games that shaped many of our lives. A genuine treat, and something I’m thruked to share.

"We've got a wave in the air, radar love."

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by Craig Stevenson

Episode 115 - Zach Barth

This is a show about videogames, the people who play them and the people who make them. Each episode, a guest talks about the games that have shaped their life in one way or another. Games that have inspired them, games that have forged connections & games that have soothed wounds. Checkpoints!

My guest today is Zach Barth, founder of Zachtronics and creator of some of the best video games ever made, including Spacechem, Infinifactory and their latest, Opus Magnum.

We talk about the surprising amount of instinct and chance that goes into designing a Zachtronics game, his love of play sets and miniatures but oddly his hatred of board games, the influence of the TV series How it's Made?, why Solitaire is such a great chicken soup game, the unique struggles of making educational software and how his love of video games has slowly withered while his love of making them has flourished.

“Bertha, lovely Bertha. You're such a lovely machine!”

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

Games discussed: Duke Nuken, Team Fortress 2, Heroes of the Storm, Construction Simulator, Megaman Battle Arena 3, Opus Magnum, SpaceChem, infiniminer, infinifactory

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by Craig Stevenson

Episode 114 - James Ryan

This is a show about videogames, the people who play them and the people who make them. Each episode, a guest talks about the games that have shaped their life in one way or another. Games that have inspired them, games that have forged connections & games that have soothed wounds. Checkpoints!

My guest today is James Ryan who - as part of his PhD at US Santa Cruz - has been working on some of the coolest and most exciting projects I’ve seen in years, and this chat made me incredibly excited about the future of games and could potentially change the future of writing. This is largely due to his Talk of the Town framework, which simulates 500 years of history in a small American town, and is the engine behind the award winning theatre piece / text adventure / procedural story telling of Bad News and the beautiful and poetic Juke Joint. For his final project he is using this framework to automate radio drama. Amongst several other exciting projects, one of my favourites is GameSpace, an explorable universe of tens of thousands of videogames grouped by genre. (I explored for an hour and only saw a handful of games I recognised). What a treat.

As well as possibly my favourite rage quit story of the show so far, we talk about the inner monologue of a Goomba, the profound impression that Link to the Past continues to have on him (and how apt that title is), why he could only be doing what he’s doing at UC Santa Cruz, how he discovered a whole other universe in Madden 2000, the slapstick violence of GTA3, how learning to code completely changed his life, and why Façade is like the first Velvet Underground album.

“From downtown!”

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

Games discussed: Pitfall, Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, NFL Blitz, Madden 2000, NBA JAM TE, Façade, Grand Theft Auto 3, The Sims, Sim City, Dwarf Fortress, Tecmo Super Bowl, Football Manager, Little Computer People, Driver

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by Craig Stevenson

AUTOSAVE - Live from the All Your Bass Videogame music festival

This is a show about videogames, the people who play them and the people who make them. Each episode, a guest talks about the games that have shaped their life in one way or another. Games that have inspired them, games that have forged connections & games that have soothed wounds. Checkpoints!

This is a special live episode of the podcast recorded on the 20th January 2018 at the All Your Bass videogame music festival in Nottingham.

Joining me on the show to talk about their work and the games that inspired them are:

• Rob Hubbard - Hugely influential videogame composer most commonly associated with his incredible C64 soundtracks for games like Commando, Spellbound and Sanxion.
• Paul Kilduff-Taylor - Human calendar and co-founder of Mode 7 Games.
• Alastair Lindsay - Head of Audio at Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
• Coral Manton - PhD researcher, lecturer in Digital and Game Design and algoraver.
• James Newman - A video game professor, author and one of the brains behind the festival.

It was such an excellent weekend, huge thanks to the NVA for asking me to come along. Do make sure and bookmark the website or follow them on twitter to find out about all their upcoming events.

"Well I think I'm gonna leave a long bomb line... "

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

Episode 104 - Mike Cook

This is a show about videogames, the people who play them and the people who make them. Each episode, a guest talks about the games that have shaped their life in one way or another. Games that have inspired them, games that have forged connections & games that have soothed wounds. Checkpoints!

Hello! So good to be back. My guest on today's episode is the amazing Mike Cook
 Mike is an AI researcher, the founder of #procjam (this year's even has just started so you should check it out.) and the creator of ANGELINA an AI system that makes video games.

As you can imagine, this is a mind blowing and fascinating talk. It honestly completely reshaped the way I think about and understand AI. There's also a ton of great video game stories like the surprise LAN party he had for his 10th birthday, how Command & Conquer cracked open his mind, his mum keeping the secrets of Monkey Island to herself, his 1000s of hours with DOTA 2 and how the AI he created to create games reflects the games he creates himself.

"He's smart, nice, liked by all. Why is he targeted for destruction?"

PATREON - patreon.com/checkpoints

iTunes HERE -  SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW

Games discussed: Zool, Comman & Conquer: Red Alert, DOTA, N++, Final Fantasy 8, Broken Sword, Spelunky, Metal Gear Solid, Desert Golfing, PUBG, Fortnite, Black and White, Rogue Process, Invisible Inc. Secret of Monkey Island, Facade. 

Theme song by Samuel Baker

Art work by Craig Stevenson