Matt Barton's Blog, page 2
June 21, 2013
Matt's Podcast June Edition
Hi, guys, I had the itch to do an audio podcast today, so here ya go! Don't expect slick production values, though--this is just some off-the-cuff stuff about all the exciting things Bill and I have been working on. Those projects include the forthcoming Vintage Game Consoles book, Frayed Knights II dungeons, and of course Matt Chat interviews and retrospectives. If you'd like to propose topics for me to cover in future episodes, please do so below!
Download or stream the podcast here.
Now back to work!
June 17, 2013
Matt Chat 197: Lord British on Virtue
Lord British returns this week to flesh out our discussion of the later Ultima games, including the groundbreaking virtue system. Richard relates some of his favorite fan mails and comments, which include a heartfelt letter about a little girl whose life was changed forever by Ultima.
Please help spread the word about Matt Chat by posting this episode on your favorite social networking and bookmarking sites! Download the episode here.
June 13, 2013
Matt Chat 196: Lord British on Ultima
In the second part of my interview with Richard Garriott--aka Lord British, we chat about the origins of Ultima, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Apple II.
Download the mp4.
June 5, 2013
Matt Chat 195: Towns
This episode is a review of the game Towns, a 2012 release reminiscent of games like Settlers, Rogue, Dungeon Keeper, and Minecraft.
Download the mp4.
May 28, 2013
Matt Chat 194: Neal Hallford on Dungeon Siege and More
In the fourth and final installment of my interview with Betrayal at Krondor designer Neal Hallford, we chat about a variety of topics starting with Dungeon Siege. Was Dungeon Siege too big for its britches? Then we chat about the hit game Champions of Norrath and why Neal prefers PC gaming to consoles. We wrap up with a discussion about Chris Taylor and his excellent leadership.
Download the mp4.
May 16, 2013
Matt Chat 193: Neal Hallford on Swords & Circuitry
I'm back this week with part three of my interview with Neal Hallford, designer of Betrayal at Krondor. In this installment, we chat about why Ron Gilbert's Cavedog company failed followed by a discussion of Neal's book Swords & Circuitry, the best-ever guide to creating your own computer role-playing games.
Download the mp4 here.
Sadly, Neal's Thief of Dreams kickstarter failed, but a third party has emerged to back him anyway.
Matt Barton Joins TPG Cast
I was recently invited to be a guest on TPG Cast with Adam Ames and Phil Cordaro, and though Adam sadly had to miss, Phil and I had a great discussion on how I got started with Matt Chat, academic gaming, DRM, where the industry is headed, and much more. These guys are a hoot, so please check out their other episodes if you like this one.
May 12, 2013
Matt Chat 192: Neal Hallford on Betrayal at Krondor
In my second installment of my interview with Neal Hallford, we chat about his masterpiece, Betrayal at Krondor. Famous among CRPG aficionados for its epic story and superb writing, BaK is set in the fantasy world of Raymond E. Feist. Unfortunately, Neal did such a great job mimicking Feist's style that many people wrongly assume that it was Feist who penned the game script! The interview also covers why a proper sequel to the game was never made.
Download the mp4.
April 29, 2013
Matt Chat 191: Neal Hallford's Early Days
This week's Matt Chat features the first slice of an interview with fantasy author and game designer Neal Hallford, best known for his work on Betrayal at Krondor, Dungeon Siege, and Planet's Edge. He talks here about his roots and inspirations, which include Cinematronic's Space Wars arcade game. We also chat about his time at New World Computing, where he worked with Might and Magic creator JVC. There's lots of great stuff here for retro fans to enjoy.
Download the MP4.
You can support Neal's new Kickstarter project for his fantasy novel here.
April 25, 2013
What's so great about adventure games?
I received a notification today that Google is about to shutter Reader, so in my quest for finding a replacement (I ended up with Feedly), a blog post from Rampant Coyote caught my eye. He features the new trailer for Broken Age, which I must say just doesn't impress me as much as I hoped it would. Then Jay talks about how he has plenty of unfinished adventure games on his shelf now, just as he did back in 92. Like Jay, I also tended to give up on many adventure games, only finishing LucasArts classics like Monkey Island and a few other series such as Myst, Broken Sword, Gabriel Knight, etc.
