All Your History

All Your History: MMO Part 1 – Crawling Through the MUD

Throughout the Nineteen Seventies, many new technologies were emerging out of research into what computers could accomplish.  One was computer gaming, using the simple graphics and low memory of the time to make an interactive entertainment experience.  Another was... Continue »

All Your History: Rare Part 5 – Unique

The games of Rareware are some of the most beloved in Nintendo’s legendary library.  Donkey Kong Country brought 3D models into the video game world forever, well before anyone else in the industry was thinking about it.  GoldenEye stands... Continue »

All Your History: Rare Part 4 – Invaluable

As the nineties came to a close, British developer Rareware was one of the most high-profile studios in the world.  For years they’d been generating hits for their part-owners, Nintendo.  Then out of left field, they produced the movie... Continue »

All Your History: Rare Part 3 – One of a Kind

By the late nineties, British developer Rareware was one of Nintendo’s most treasured assets.  After creating a slew of games for the original NES, their output on the Super Nintendo had been fewer in number but better in nature. ... Continue »

All Your History: Rare Part 2 – In Demand

During the nineteen eighties, the Stamper brothers created a successful studio in their native England.  Focusing on the popular Sinclair ZedEx Spectrum platform, Chris and Tim made a number of great games that made their Ultimate label healthy profits. ... Continue »

All Your History: Bethesda Part 5 – Maxed Stats

embedded by Embedded Video By the mid-2000s, Bethesda Game Studios had grown into one of the biggest RPG developers in the world.  Their Elder Scrolls franchise had become famous for featuring the biggest open worlds in gaming, offering hundreds... Continue »

All Your History: Bethesda Part 4 – The Next Level

embedded by Embedded Video Despite a promising beginning, the ambitious publisher and developer Bethesda Softworks soon found itself overextended.  They had made a cult hit with the first game of their Elder Scrolls franchise, Arena.  Understandably, they wanted to... Continue »

All Your History: Bethesda Part 2 – Overload

embedded by Embedded Video When Christopher Weaver founded his own video game company in Bethesda, MD, he started off by making a number of sports games.  Bethesda Softworks’ Gridiron was the first football game to ever simulate real-world physics,... Continue »

All Your History: Bethesda Part 1 – The Open World

embedded by Embedded Video By 1986, nobody accused Christopher Weaver of being an underachiever.  After working on high-end technologies in the labs of MIT, he went on to both NBC and ABC, before becoming the chief engineer to the... Continue »

All Your History: Metroid Part 4 – The Cursed Franchise

embedded by Embedded Video The Metroid series had always been the victim of a terrible paradox: while its games were routinely considered stellar, their sales were terrestrial at best.  The original Metroid had released on the Famicom Disk System,... Continue »

All Your History: Metroid Part 3 – Comeback Kid

embedded by Embedded Video By the mid-1990s, it seemed like the Metroid franchise had run its course.  Despite its non-linear gameplay, fantastic art direction, and relatively mature tone compared to other Nintendo franchises, the games in the series all... Continue »

All Your History: Metroid Part 1

embedded by Embedded Video In the middle of the 1980s, Nintendo was on top of the world. After releasing their popular Famicom console in their native Japan, they released it in America as the Nintendo Entertainment System, the console... Continue »

All Your History: Interplay Part 3

embedded by Embedded Video Interplay began as little more than a gleam in the eye of its founder, Brian Fargo. But through a few early successes and sheer ambition, the company quickly grew into one of the most powerful... Continue »

All Your History: Volition Part 1

embedded by Embedded Video After working for a number of other companies, young programmers Mike Kulas and Matt Toschlog decided that it was time to start their own gaming studio.  Unfortunately, they were separated by half of America.  Toschlog... Continue »

All Your History: Blizzard Part 5

embedded by Embedded Video The first half of the 2000s had been rough on Blizzard Entertainment.  A series of major resignations and projects that went nowhere seemed to signal the end of the juggernaut’s reign.  But that all changed... Continue »

All Your History: Blizzard Part 4

embedded by Embedded Video Throughout the 1990s, Blizzard Entertainment had risen from unlikely startup to the most powerful force in PC gaming.  Early successes with their Warcraft and Diablo games had led to even more successful sequels.  And after... Continue »

All Your History: Blizzard Part 3

embedded by Embedded Video By the end of 1997, Blizzard Entertainment was on a roll.  From its humble origins as three college grads with a dream, it had risen to unparalleled success with two games in a row selling... Continue »