Earlier this year, I spent a few months getting into everything Civilization for an in-depth look at the history of Sid Meier’s classic. The result of that work is now up on Gamasutra as “The History of Civilization.” It also includes (at the end of the article) the transcript of a lengthy telephone interview I conducted with Sid Meier on the topic.

I’d like to extend special thanks to Sid Meier, Bruce C. Shelley, and Troy S. Goodfellow for their indispensable help in putting the piece together. I hope you enjoy reading it.

I forgot to mention this earlier, but an article I wrote about the “most ported” games of all time is now up on 1UP.com. It’s called Platform Agnostics, and it takes a look at eight games that are prominent for their cross-platform status, i.e. appearing on many different computers or video game systems. (By the way — I’m not a big fan of the “whore” analogy that the 1UP editors used on the subtitle, but hey, that’s their call. I’ll admit that my title is a little dry.)

Anyway, take a look at it if you’re interested. It’s definitely on-topic for VC&G, as most of the games discussed are pretty old.

Having recently fallen upon hard times (I’m saving up for a new Mac), I found it necessary to trim some fat from my monthly budget. Naturally, funds for groceries took precedence over gaming luxuries like GameTap .

I first tried the GameTap service last year as part of a review for VC&G and I found it somewhat lacking. I canceled my account after my free trial expired.

Earlier this year, I thought I’d check out Uru Live, so I reinstated my GameTap account. The service is much better than before, but alas: money is money, and GameTap had to go. As I mentioned in my 2006 review, canceling GameTap is quite a hassle, requiring a phone call to GameTap support, a long wait on hold, and an annoying chat with a customer service representative who tries to tell you what you are really thinking. And according to the numerous comments from unhappy Tappers on my review, GameTap’s practice in this regard has not changed. (By the way, thousands of people find this site each month through keyword searches featuring variations on how to cancel GameTap. Check out this entry, at the bottom, for examples.)

[ Continue reading The Glacial Pace of GameTap Customer Chat » ]

It’s that time of year again, where vintage computer enthusiasts around the world emerge from their long winter hibernation to gather in one spot on the east coast of the US and show off their prized computer possessions. The name of this grand gathering? Vintage Computer Festival East, and it’s in its fourth iteration this year (hence the “4.0”). I attended this festival’s big brother (VCF 9.0) in Mountain View, California last year, and it was a blast. So if that’s any indicator of what East might be like, you should drop everything and go. Just remember to pick everything up again when you get back.

I wish I could attend, but I won’t be able to make it. Something about “needing money to eat” or something like that, says my wife. Somebody take pictures for me. And give my regards to Evan Koblentz if you run into him. Does anybody want to file an official report of the show for VC&G? Let me know.

You can read the full press release after the break.

[ Continue reading VCF East 4.0 This Weekend » ]

Thirty years ago today, the Apple II personal computer officially went on sale in the United States. As Apple Computer, Inc.’s flagship product, the Apple II put the company on the map, made stars of Apple’s founders, and changed the world of computing forever. The machine stood out at the time of its release due to features such as its all-in-one, no assembly required design with an innovative plastic enclosure; integrated color graphics, sound, and paddle inputs; and the ability to use an ordinary TV set as a display.

I’m not going to get into the details as to why the computer is great — it’s been written about so many times before that you’d be better served reading about it somewhere else. But I did interview Steve Wozniak, creator of the Apple II back in February for Gamasutra, and I had a great time talking to him. Wozniak crafted the innards of the Apple II, an absolute masterpiece of minimalistic yet highly functional design, all by himself. Steve Jobs provided the finishing touch by insisting on a stylish case for the unit, and the rest is history.

My first computer was an Apple II Plus, a unit I still have and hold dear to this day. I squeezed years of entertainment out of it just by programming BASIC, so the Apple II means a lot to me personally. Happy birthday, old friend.

It’s true: in 1967, Ralph Baer and Bill Harrison created the world’s first television video game hardware. And forty years ago today (May 15th, 1967), the first television video game took place. Who won? Mosey on over to 1UP.com and check out the full feature I wrote about it. You’ll find out that answer and a lot more.

Also check out the interviews I’ve conducted with the two participants in the monumental contest, Ralph Baer and Bill Harrison. I just published the Bill Harrison one today.

As an extra treat, here’s a video of Ralph Baer and Bill Harrison demonstrating their Ping-Pong game on the “brown box” prototype at Sanders in 1969. Ping-Pong would later form the basis for Atari’s famous Pong.

I would like to extend a special thank-you to Ralph Baer, Bill Harrison, and the family of Bill Rusch for their generous and invaluable help with this story. I could not have written it without them.

Happy birthday, video games.

For those of you intrepid VC&G readers into the dreadfully sluggish and badly designed social networking scene, I’ve recently created an official Vintage Computing and Gaming MySpace page. Show your friendshiphood statusness by becoming lifelong virtual buddies with VC&G on MySpace. We’ll swap old war stories and trade recipes for capacitor bombs. Tell all your friends and bring them along too. It will be fun.

The two most popular news agencies have published no less than two articles in the last two days about vintage computers. Are the planets in alignment, or does there now exist a vast conspiracy (the conspiracy of “twos” perhaps?) to cover vintage computers in the national media? Either way, it’s been a great week for our hobby.

The first article (Reuters via Yahoo) focuses on the ever-popular Sellam Ismail, organizer of the Vintage Computer Festival, and his lovable buddies (Bruce Damer, Evan Koblentz) from the festival scene. Poor Sellam has been covered so many times that he’s probably getting tired of it by now. The second article (AP via Yahoo) “unearths” a relative newcomer to media publicity, Jeremy Mehrle, whose Basement Mac Museum I covered back in February (along with a short interview with the Mehrleman himself). It’s true that many news outlets get some of their news by culling blogs these days. But with cool topics like these, can you blame them? And obviously, the door swings both ways.

Back in January, I had the wonderful opportunity to conduct an extensive telephone interview with the inventor of home video games, Ralph Baer (I’ll be writing more on him soon, so stay tuned). That epic interview, in a much shorter form, appears in the March 2007 edition of Game Developer magazine, which is available on newsstands now. (Just to note, there is a slight factual error in the introduction of the interview about Spacewar in the print version, not written by me, but there will be a correction published next issue.)

The good news for you is that there is a much longer version of the interview up on Gamasutra right now that you can read through online. Check it out, and look for more of my interviews with computer and video game industry pioneers in the coming months.

In Memoriam: John Backus (1924-2007), inventor of FORTRAN.