Retro Power

Retro Power Issue 8: Pop Con Special

GREETINGS READERS! We just got back from the second annual Indy Pop Con. Ok, that is a bit of a fib, it took place on the last weekend in June. We did however attend the con, and had a blast. Both of us attended the inaugural Pop Con last year, and were excited to attend as members of the press this year. That’s right, we are going to bring you some highlights of our favorite parts, and some interviews. We hope you enjoy reading about the con as much as we enjoyed attending it.
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Queries

Queries: Kubbi (Episode 6)

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Queries

No More Inquiries

Good day, comrades! Today we have a very… interesting interview with a man who is very… unique and… dear to me. I won’t give that much of an introduction, I’ll just let the piece speak for itself.

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Retro Power

Retro Power: Issue 3

Helloooooo, reader folk! So nice to see you again. We hope your new year is going well so far– we automatically renewed your Retro Power subscription for you! You’re welcome!

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Queries

Queries: Blake J. Harris (Episode 5)

Queries

Queries: Episode 4 – 1MoreCastle New Year’s Resolutions

Ya miss me? Yeah, holiday break was a lot of fun (I slept more than usual). So, originally I was gonna do “The 25 Days of 1MC”, and interview one person on the 1MoreCastle site every day leading up to Christmas, then someone alerted me to the fact that we probably don’t have 25 people on staff, so that idea went out the window. I did, though, still want other people from the site involved, so instead, I asked people to send me their New Year’s resolutions and I would compile them for a mega-post (the evolution of a super-post, but not quite an ultra-post).

So without further ado, let’s get started. Read More

Queries

Queries: Ray Koefoed (Episode 3)

So here we are! Another Queries! This time I have one of my personal favorite internet people. Most of you probably don’t know, but for a long time, I wanted to make machinima for a career. Obviously, once I found out I had no talent for it, it didn’t work out.  But when I was still in that beautiful wide eyed haze of believing I could meld my two greatest interests: video games and film, Ray Koefoed was one of the people I really looked up to. Ray was someone who could meld great, catchy music with some of the most quality Source machinima of the time. If I could tell my thirteen year old self that someday I would get to talk to Ray Koefoed, I probably wouldn’t be here, because thirteen year old me would have died of a heart attack.
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Wordy Fun with Jim Crawford, creator of Frog Fractions

Queries

Queries: 2xAA (Episode 2)

Recently (but not too recently, because I was stupid and got late on this post), I was able to correspond the programmer, chiptuner, Englishman, and internet cool guy, Sam Wray, or as the internet likely knows him, 2xAA. Now, before you ask, yes, we are going to move out of the territory of Chiptune and video music, but I just happen to think Sam is both a great musician, and a great guy, as well as someone who interests me personally. I do have other guests in mind, who lie outside the realm of chiptune, so fear not. But for now, let’s get down to business.

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Queries

Queries: Dj Cutman (Episode 1)

Welcome to Queries! My name is Daniel Lamplugh, and in this series, I will be posting monthly interviews with people from Internet Culture, generally related to gaming. This could range from game devs to chiptune musicians, or whoever else is willing to come on the show. I can’t promise Cliffy B, Minoru Arakawa, or Adam Sessler will be on here, but I will try to find interesting and noteworthy guests.

Daniel Lamplugh: And on that note, today I am here with musician, remixer, and record label manager, Dj CUTMAN.

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Interview with the creator of Atlantic Canada: The RPG

As someone who grew up on the East Coast of Canada playing RPGs like Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy on the NES, when I heard that a game called Atlantic Canada: The RPG had been created, and by a band from my hometown, I knew I had to try and get an interview with the person behind it. On a sunny afternoon in downtown Moncton, I met up with Don Levandier, the main person behind the game and lead singer and guitarist of The Motorleague, at The Laundromat Espresso Bar. We had a chat about the game, games in general, nerdom, and how it all relates to the band.
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Interceptor Entertainment – Rise of the Triad Interview

Released in 1994, Rise of the Triad was a FPS released and developed by Apogee Software. Featuring engrossing gameplay, and a penchant for being over the top, the game has gone on to be a cult classic. Lucky for us, the game is being faithfully remade by Interceptor Entertainment, and will see release later this year on Steam.

Game Director Frederik Schreiber was kind enough to answer some questions for me, so read on below to hear all about the game!
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An Interview with American McGee

American McGee: The man is the founder of Spicy Horse, creator of the Alice series of games, and currently is pushing Akaneiro: Demon Hunters on Kickstarter. But perhaps you’d like to know more about the man who got his start working for ID, on such games as Wolfenstein and Quake. Read on, as we’ve got an interview featured after the break!
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Sandy Petersen: An interview about DOOM, Quake, and AoE

Sandy Petersen. You may know him as the level designer behind such games as DOOM, DOOM 2, and Quake. Or maybe you’re more familiar with his role as a game designer for many of the Age of Empires games. Perhaps though, you’re instead a fan of his Call of Cthulu role playing game? Whatever it is, I got a chance to ask Mr. Petersen some questions on his varied, and influential, career.
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Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition – A Trent Oster Interview

In 1998, a little company by the name of Bioware released a game called Baldur’s Gate. Based in the world of Forgotten Realms, a Dungeons and Dragon’s campaign, the game was met with both critical and financial success, and is often credited for reviving the RPG genre on the PC.

Now, the game is set for a re-release on November 28th, 2012. Developed by Overhaul Games, the enhanced edition brings the original Baldur’s Gate, and it’s expansions, to PC, OS X, iPad, and Android. To give you more information on this release, I managed to catch up with creative director Trent Oster. Read on to see the interview below!
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Interview: The Game Fanatics

There are a lot of websites out there that have something to do with video games.

As someone involved with one or two modest sites of my own, I have the pleasure of interacting with those who run others, and very much enjoy communicating over social media such as Twitter. One of the simply coolest people I have run into has been @FanaticalG, who runs the show over at TheGameFanatics.com.

Although The Game Fanatics is a very modern site that covers the most cutting-edge titles in gaming, peripherals, and tech, there is also a notable fondness given towards retro gaming and their influence. I suspect most modern gamers have fond memories of old games, but always appreciate it when webmasters of these sites are willing to talk about older titles.

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Halloween Harry: A John Passfield Interview

In 1993, Apogee released John Passfield’s Halloween Harry, and a classic was born. Later retitled Alien Carnage, the game saw you guiding agent Halloween Harry through a world full of people who have been zombified by Aliens. Using a flamethrower to dispatch your enemies, you used a jetpack to navigate around each stage as you rescued various hostages from the various monsters throughout the game.

So what Happened to Halloween Harry, and where is the creator now? As luck would have it, I was able to get an interview with creator John Passfield. So read on dear readers, all your answers lie below!

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An Interview With GirlBandicoot, aka Retro Girl

There is an up-and-coming gaming video producer on YouTube on the GirlBandicoot channel that is beginning to find a nice niche. She specializes in Let’s Play videos that show her live-reaction facial expressions as she plays and provides commentary, including series such as GameTerrors and Retro Girl, which would be the one I discovered her by. This is a Let’s Player with a unique style to her clips, which we will elaborate on, and it turns out that she has a fondness for the older games and classics.

Although she has only been uploading videos for a month, at press time she has already gathered over 20,000 views and a whopping 885 subscribers. I wanted to ask her some questions before she got too famous, and she was kind enough to answer.

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Karen Chun – Redwood Games

In my opinion, Redwood Games was one of the best education game development houses in the early nineties. With classic such as Math Rescue and Word Rescue challenging children to learn in exciting and engaging ways, their games were mainstays of my childhood. Developed by Karen Crowther (now Karen Chun), the games were published by Apogee and went on to be nominated for, and win, many awards in the educational gaming category.

So what happened to Redwood Games, and Karen Chun? Is she still making games? Is she retired? Continue on good readers, for the answers lie in the interview below!

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Christopher Williamson of DreamQuest Games on their licensed M.U.L.E. sequel

Originally written for the Atari 400/800 and published in 1983 by Electronic Arts, M.U.L.E. was an influential multiplayer video game that still maintains a following in the retro gaming community today. In fact, M.U.L.E. was Electronic Arts’ first big ‘hit’ and really helped form the publisher.   With versions on the Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, and other computers and consoles, this planetary colonization economic simulator has struck a fond chord with thousands upon thousands of different gamers over the years.

One of those people was Christopher Williamson, who is now involved with creating an officially licensed sequel to M.U.L.E. I wanted to ask him some questions about this endeavor, called Alpha Colony: A Tribute To M.U.L.E., and am grateful for the time taken out of his busy schedule to answer them.

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