Episode 539: Minesweeper + Shareware (Patreon)

Jeremy: Books! As you may know, we here are Retronauts are what you might call "fans." Sure, we work in this newfangled podcast medium, but that's just because it's where the money's at. Our hearts belong to paper... and to video games, of course. Old meets new, you know? And when the two intersect, well, that's a good conversation just waiting to happen.

So: This week, my book-editing compatriot Jared Petty and I put on our newsprint hats and enter print mode by speaking to the authors of two recent books on video game history: Kyle Orland and Richard Moss. Neither is a stranger to Retronauts, and both walk us through not only the history of the topics they've chosen to dissect—Minesweeper and shareware, respectively—but also the process of actually digging up enough substantial info about those topics to create great reads.

Please forgive the number of times I accidentally called Minesweeper "Minecraft." 

Edits by Greg Leahy and cover art by Amanda Pruitt Neipris.

• 09:12 - Minecraft: Aria Math
• 17:55 - Final Fantasy VII (PSX): World Crisis
• 29:56 - King Crimson: "21st Century Schizoid Man"
• 41:29 - Minesweeper (PCE-CD): Title Theme
• 47:14 - Minesweeper (GB): BGM | Peter Gabriel: "Not One of Us"
• 56:18 - Peter Gabriel: "Not One of Us" (continued)
• 1:05:28 - Doom (MS-DOS): Victory
• 1:17:48 - Marathon (Mac OS): Flippant
• 1:25:15 - Tread Marks: Technotic
• 1:33:52 - Jazz Jackrabbit: Credits/Pay Prompt
• Closing - Escape Velocity: Title Theme