And sometimes video games have been an influence to some of the best technologists to get into technology. With that, let us begin with video game number one. Here is Video game number one
Shammi Mohamed
@shammi · 0:07
So bookesh podcast. You beat me to it. That is the sound of Space Invaders unmistakably
Shammi Mohamed
@shammi · 1:52
So while we were on Space Invaders, I wanted to share a small piece of trivia. The way Space Invaders works is you have a grid of aliens that move back and forth and you have to shoot down as many as as possible. Now, when the game starts, they're moving really slow. And as you keep bringing down as you keep taking away aliens or shooting them down, the speed keeps increasing and keeps getting faster and faster and faster. Faster
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 1:29
As a young man, he moved his family to the East Coast of China. I'm not sure which city or which state he was in and then his family as traders. He took a trip to Japan for some business opportunities as an 18 or 19 years old. This was just about the time the war started and he was locked up and spent the war years in a prisoner of war camp in Japan
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 1:32
And Ronnie Rushman, the head of engineering, looked at him and said, That's the reason why we're hiring you bring your own guitar and keypad, because that's all the tools we have for you. Anyway, it's really interesting to think that the games guys who really developed all the sounds originally came from musical backgrounds and were smart enough to realize that there was another way for them to enjoy their ability, make sense
Shammi Mohamed
@shammi · 0:28
Hey, Howie, thanks for that wonderful information. I just wanted to add that nothing much has changed. Well, actually, a lot has changed, but the core Tenet of hiring musicians to make games sound still exists today. I have worked in the video game industry for 20 years right now, and all of our sound designers started out as musicians
phil spade
@Phil · 2:10
But that was really the first video game that I remember that I was drawn to, and I was drawn to it by the sound of the video game and not the actual video piece of it. So there is video game number one for you. Thank you for all the responses. I especially loved show Me's rendition of the song of the audio of Space Invaders. Well done
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 0:38
Hey Phil, sounds are very, very important in doing a game. I think that the sounds are there to amplify the action, to like in a movie, to give you clues as to what's going going on to build with attention, and they have to be done very thoughtfully. And it's not an easy work. I'm attaching the game Reactor, which is actually the first game that I released that I at Gottlieb and the sounds are truly amazing for the time and place
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 0:32
Be patient when listening to the sounds of Reactor. Give it a few seconds to load and give it some time before you really can hear all the sounds and appreciate it. And you'll see why it was Sudha are just such a great work of art that other sound guys did. We released Cubert right after we released Reactor. And obviously the sounds to Cuba were equally important to the game and to the success or three days
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 1:11
Hi, Phil. I'm sitting here with a great big smile on my face and laughter. You mentioned the sounds, and you mentioned listening at Shaky pizzeria was your first exposure to Space Invaders, and the sounds were games like Pacman, Space Invaders, Missile Command, all played on a quarter per play, and a good game in those days collected $300. So if you do the multiple of four times 300 that's 1200 plays in a week. The game lasted in those locations for four months
Shammi Mohamed
@shammi · 1:14
Hey, thank you very much for those stories. Those bring back such wonderful memories. Howie. I don't know about the guys in Shakey's Pizzas, but those sounds are the sweetest things for me. I could just listen to those sounds over and over again all day long. Some of those attract sounds have been etched into my mind and cannot be erased. I have very fond memories of just visiting the arcade
phil spade
@Phil · 1:39
Okay. Video game sound number two. And it is abundantly clear that I need to make two every day here because one is just going to be way too easy for Xiaomi and and Howie here. So this is for everybody except Shammi and Howie. Here we go. Okay. That was video game number two for everybody except Shammi and Howie. And here is video game number two for Shammi and Howie, which is going to be a little bit more complicated for them
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 0:16
Hi, Phil. I definitely recognize these sounds, but cannot associate them with the game. So I'm forced to yield to Shammi. He does have an advantage. He is younger, brighter has more Gray matter than I do. So shall I. Tammy, you're the winner
Shammi Mohamed
@shammi · 1:14
Oh, that's a lot of pressure on me, but I think I know what the game is. Initially, as soon as I heard I was like, oh, it's super breakout, could it be? But then the Nutcracker Suite kind of gave it away. Crystal Castles. Interesting fact about Crystal Castles is I think it might have been the first game ever to use UGC user generated content
phil spade
@Phil · 2:23
Yes, Crystal Castles was Game Two B. And if you got that one, Xiaomi, I don't know that I'm going to be able to stump you on any of these, but I'm going to try and I really appreciate the history on that. I didn't realize that Crystal Castles was the first where you put your initials in. And speaking of that, I always felt bad for the kids that were named Anthony Stephenstone or Paul Oscar O'Brien. At least where I used to play games
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 1:06
Hi Shammi, you mentioned high score tables, and I just want to repeat something that I have mentioned before in some of my swells. We learned early on in the gaming business the importance of high score tables. The players love to be recognized for their accomplishments. I think that this is something that should be incorporated into slow. So when you have question and answer trivia type things going on or things where you can absolutely positively reward the users, you should do that
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 1:27
Hey, Phil, just for the record, Crystal Castle's, an old Atari game, I believe released Somewheres in the 80s. Early 80s, was not the first game to utilize high score tables. The coin in operated world, especially the video game world, recognize the importance of the high score tables long before and most of the early Atari games. Ballet games, Midway games, et cetera, et cetera
Shammi Mohamed
@shammi · 3:28
And those three letter shaped features in the first level changed to be the letters of the top score guy. That's what I meant by UGC. So if you got a high score on that machine, other first level in that machine would feature your initials in the level itself as a part of the level. And, Howie, oh, my God, you can't do that. You cannot do that as a game developer, I think that is one of the best things
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 1:25
Hi Shammi. Just for the record, I softened on my stance about allowing the programmers, game designers, sound guys to put their names in the games. And after Cubert me allows that to happen. I'm laughing at the fact that you were named in a game. We did the bases loaded series for Nintendo and we had I think at that time, 16 teams, 20 players on a team
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcast · 0:26
Okay, game three A. That sounds like Pacman. For a minute. Two A got me confused. I thought that was like Pacman, but it's not because three A is definitively Pacman OOH, boy. So now two A, I'm stumped on. I was like, maybe some of Pacman. Now let me think about two A. Let me listen to it again. But my thing for three A is Pacman
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcast · 0:16
Okay. Video Game two. A Donkey Kong. I'm like, oh, I've heard it, I know, I've heard it. I'm sure I've played it. I can't. I'm going with Donkey Kong
phil spade
@Phil · 4:11
It was a top ten hit, which is pretty ridiculous, but top ten hit. That's how big Pacman was. Pacman just really kind of defined in a complete era. And after that, there was Ms. Pacman. There was baby Pacman, Super Pacman. There was a lot of Pac Man, and I'm sure Shammi and Howie will tell us exactly how Pacman took off, but it was a maze game. And some of these maze games were extremely fun to play
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcast · 3:20
I got a retro game console and there is Pacman out there. But being the doctor, I don't think it will look good for me sitting there all day playing Pacman when a patient walks in. But, yeah, it's a big hit because there are all these retro games and everyone loves it. And I recently discovered actually, I was looking for a Pac Man console for the office, and they were selling those. I was going to buy them
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 0:24
Little Bit More Trivia Pacman was developed by Namco in Japan and licensed to Bali Midway in the United States. You'll never guess what the original name of the game was in Japan and why the Bally Midway guys deemed it necessary to change the name
Shammi Mohamed
@shammi · 0:24
So, Phil, you have finally tripped me up. I do not know what three B is. Kind of sounds familiar, but unfortunately, at this point and it sounds too familiar with a lot of things. And I can't pinpoint exactly what it is
phil spade
@Phil · 1:36
Three B was actually Joust joust. And you can hear the flapping noise. I think you were riding camels, camels with wings. And you had a jousting sword. And your sword had to be above the enemies when you made contact with them. And then they would produce an egg, and then you had to go collect that egg, or else it would come back to life. It was a fun game for me. I really love the game, and I really love the sounds of the game
Shammi Mohamed
@shammi · 0:36
Oh, how could I have Miss Joust? Yes, I think I was tripped by the start intro sound that I didn't discount for now that you mention. Yes, the flapping wings. Yeah, it kind of sounded familiar. Anyways, four B boy, things are getting tough. I want to take a pot shot. It sounds vaguely familiar. Like, Is it Commando? I'll have to go and take a look at Commando. But is it commando
phil spade
@Phil · 1:29
I'm going to post a separate swell if you have any questions for Howie, this guy I worked with Howie, and I asked him question after question about all the video games that he produced, and he's more than willing to answer any question that you have. And I think you've seen his enthusiasm about these games on this one, but we're really lucky to have him in this community. And so I wanted to provide a link to as well for a Q and A with Howie
phil spade
@Phil · 1:46
Here is another piece of four B. Another clue to help four B. Good luck, everyone. And if you have any questions about video games again, I just want to highlight the link above to the swell conversation with Howie Rubin and Howie, as I mentioned before, pioneer and coin up and video games and knows about everything about any game. As you've heard here. So highly encouraged. If you do have an interest in video games, feel free to ask him anything on his well cast
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcast · 0:39
So five A sounds like a pinball game. I just cannot put my finger on it. So yeah, I'm stumped. And you know what, four B sounds like a racing game. However, however, it's not pole position because I've played pole position a million times and it's definitely not that well and it's too advanced for me. I'm not a gamer. Anyway, this is a great trivia
Shammi Mohamed
@shammi · 0:46
Okay, Phil, it took me a while to guess this. I had a lot of sounds crossword in my mind that was like, gravitas and other things. But yeah, that noise was kind of familiar. And it took me a while. And finally I got the light cycle sounds out of it. And I was like, yes, but I had some help this time
phil spade
@Phil · 1:38
And I think that the original Star Wars game was after that. And then there was just a number of films that made video games. And famously, the Et video game for the home system of Atari was a complete dud. And there's a documentary on that. It used to be on Netflix. I'll have to look it up on exactly what that name was. It was super interesting, though. Go ahead, Shammi
Shammi Mohamed
@shammi · 0:53
So I used to look around and some of the guys were really good runners. And when I just like, ask one of them to join me and he'd do the running and I do the jumping and we made a pretty good team and got pretty far
phil spade
@Phil · 1:34
And I remember the game started with 100 meters dash, and the times were always very consistent with what the actual world record was. So a ten second time was actually very good. Anything sub ten was just fantastic. And it was achievable, but you really pounded on the buttons. And later they replaced the buttons with a track ball. And as I understand it, the machines just took a beating with the buttons. And that's completely understandable
Shammi Mohamed
@shammi · 2:42
And the way you did track and field style, the game I played was Daily Thompson, Dcatlin. And the way you ran was you shook the joystick left and right, really quick. But that's how you do it. But that took out one too many joysticks really quick. Anyways, while we're on the topic, I thought I'd add one more interesting thing
phil spade
@Phil · 2:28
That reminds me that Activision released the Catalon for the Atari 2600 home console, and it was the same thing that you described where you move the joystick back and forth very fast to get the runner to run. And other was different methods that you could use with that with other Atari 2600 joystick
Shammi Mohamed
@shammi · 1:56
I remember I think one of my friends got one of those. And then we just, like, set amazing record times on that. We're just, like, all right, you want to go? We just turn on that feature and it just like, simulates left and right in the joystick without breaking the joystick. Anyways, I thought I'd share
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 2:33
Just taking that a little bit further when they did the track and field as a Queen operated game, which was a couple of years before it came out on Nintendo other write a first refusal for any Konami game that they built up to a certain point. Track and Field was one of those games that I saw when I went to Japan. I tried to get that as part of my right of first refusal and was told point blank for whatever reason was that
Shammi Mohamed
@shammi · 0:38
Hey, Howie, thanks for that. It's funny that you should mention Arkanoid. Arkanoid is one of my all time favorites, and I really loved how in the Eighties it was a remakes on a retro. It's kind of cool, but I think it's held really well. And till today, it's one of my favorite to the point that actually, two days ago, I purchased Arkanoid Live on Xbox and have been playing it for the last two days
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 0:56
The games were actually pretty good and again, unfortunately, the movie sucked and we didn't get any realm got pushed from the license of the game. Fortunately for us, the game was owned by Columbia Pictures, and the license wasn't too terrible
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 1:23
Hi, Shemy glad you enjoyed Arcanide. That was a real problem. The game was meant to be played with a trackpad, and we had huge fights amongst ourselves and certainly amongst the people at title in Japan. We wanted to build a special controller so that you could play the game much better. And Japan didn't want us to do that. They argued, and I'm not sure whether they were right or wrong that I'm building a new controller
Shammi Mohamed
@shammi · 0:22
Hey, Howie, I'm curious as to when you mentioned controllers. Was this for the Coin Op version? Because the only Arkanoid I remember playing in the Coin Op version was the one with the paddle controller, the one with the circular paddle controller. Which was really cool. Is that the controller you're mentioning? Or did you guys have a separate controller with the track ball
phil spade
@Phil · 1:00
Shami had other paddle controller just makes so much more sense for that game. I can't imagine playing that game with a track ball, but for some reason that does sound familiar