Hey all,

Well, I’m happy that Video Game Deep Cuts made it past 200 newsletters! That’s the good bit. But sadly, all good things must pause, and four years into the VGDC project, I’ve decided to hang up my hat for a while on it.

Couple of reasons: firstly, COVID-19 has made things complicated for everyone, including myself in both dayjob and health (and until recently, childcare!) variants. I’m imagining everyone has some variant of this in their life, and I need to focus a bit more.

Secondly, I’ve been spending a lot of time on Game Discoverability Now! (go subscribe!), my other Substack newsletter that’s geared more towards game developers and how they find an audience. I’m finding a lot to say there, and I feel like it’s making a concrete difference to people who make games.

Some of the VGDC content is going to other places, though, as follows:

• Since I’m on the board of the wonderful Video Game History Foundation non-profit, the retro links I used to post will appear on VGHF’s Twitter feed starting next week. (Please help fund their work, btw.)

• The ‘new games of the week’ section is going to move - in a much more data and dev-centric format, at a later date - to a planned standalone Game Discoverability Now! newsletter. More on this soon.

Thanks to everyone who’s supported me on this project over the past four years, and everyone I’ve linked to. Keep up the amazing work out there, and speak to you soon.

Yours truly,
Simon Carless

Em has recently written for Rock Paper Shotgun and EGM, and I really enjoy her sensibility and point of view - for example, this Speculation Jam piece on what game preservation could be like in 2024, or indeed her picks for the ‘20 games to remember’ for the past decade. Take it away, Em…]

It’s hard to decide the “best-ever” anything, especially writing. Assembling this list was a good chance for me to think back over my experience writing about games from around 2013, and an even longer-standing interest in them.

These pieces are all well-written and interesting, that should go without saying. But to really narrow down the field I decided to focus on ones that also expanded my perspective and had a lasting influence on my own writing practice.

Rhizome: Towards an Art History for Videogames (Lana Polansky, 2016 )

This is an article that always jumps to mind when I think of really important, formative work. Lana Polansky has gone on to do amazing critiques of the game industry and its labor practices, and has even started a Twitch channel which features lesser-known, experimental games.

But this one sticks with me because of how it upends the standard narrative of “art games” and instead widens the field to include some fascinating aesthetically and conceptually ambitious work from across gaming history. 

The Arcade Review: Anyhowly Anyhow (Krish Raghav, 2014)

Remember when everyone was making custom versions of 2048? I like teaching this article alongside Nick Montfort’s “Combat in Context” because it is a deep read on a videogame that is far from the first thing to come to mind when you ask people to think about videogames.

This article explores the mechanics of the game PAP 2048, as well as the platforms which enabled its creation and distribution alongside the political and cultural context of Singapore masterfully illustrates the variety of elements effecting a game’s reception and meaning.

Real Life: Well Played (Vicky Osterweil, 2018)

Despite being a recreational activity, videogames’ technological nature and the effort they often demand can make them feel a lot like the technologically-mediated work many of us already spend a lot of time doing. This article, and the subsequent instalments of Vicky Osterweil’s work on this site, don’t avoid this contradiction, tracing it across topics like the gaming industry, game design, and live streaming. 

ZEAL: Playing Love Live: School Idol Festival Or: My Perverted Image-Object Commodity Fetish (Helen Stefanie, 2019)

I both love and see myself in this charmingly personal comic that still incorporates an insightful analysis of not only the mechanics of gacha games, but why so many people are so attached to them. If you’re baffled as to why Fate/Grand Order was the most discussed game on Twitter of 2019 (really!) then read this.

Eurogamer: Shooters: How Videogames Fund Arms Manufacturers (Simon Parkin, 2013)

This piece sticks with me because it evaluates the issue of videogames and representation of gun violence from an alternative angle that does not rely on psychological speculation one way or the other. Instead, Simon Parkin literally follows the money, examining how the intersection of high-quality digital gun models and official licences from firearm brands are seen as a marketing opportunity for videogames and weapons manufacturers alike. 

Fictional Videogame Stills (Suzanne Treister, 1991-1992)

So this is not really a piece of writing, but I find Suzanne Treister’s evocative Fictional Videogame Stills, made on an Amiga in the early 90s, to capture the imagery and tone of videogames, the mysterious experiences they offered, and the excitement and tension of this new technology.

They’re still extremely inspiring to me. Treister captured these images by photographing the screen of her Amiga, so clicking on the thumbnails also reveals lovely material traces of the CRT monitors of the time. 

Slots of Fun, Slots of Trouble: An Archaeology of Arcade Gaming (Erkki Huhtamo, 2005)

This article uses a ton of wonderful historical details to come at videogames from a different angle. Instead of focusing on their relation to other, longer-lived forms of play like sports, boardgames, or make believe, Erkki Huhtamo puts videogames in dialogue with issues of automation and human-machine relationships that emerged over the 19th and early 20th century. 

Game Studies: Say it with a Computer Game: Hobby Computer Culture and the Non-entertainment Uses of Homebrew Games in the 1980s Czechoslovakia (Jaroslav Svelch, 2013)

This article is a fascinating look at how videogames come to serve different purposes and are created and distributed in very different ways in an area without an established gaming entertainment industry. It’s a reminder that the history of videogames is much broader than even what we know, and that creativity and expression have always played a role at every level of production.  

Everything But the Clouds (Patrick LeMieux, 2017)

While this video essay is primarily about a piece of New Media art, which led to some controversy, it is also a rigorous investigation of the code and structure of the original Super Mario Bros., its related romhacking scene, and Nintendo’s broader cultural influence. You will definitely learn something, either about art or homebrew.

The Time Traveler's Diary: A Year in YU-NO (2017-2018) (Phantom, 2019 - NSFW)

This was a fairly recent read for me, but I still found it incredibly impressive. Combining personal reflections, multiple theoretical perspectives and careful analysis into an inventive format leads to a definitive longform essay about a wildly ambitious game that hardly anyone has played.

However, YU-NO is also an eroge or H-game, and the discussion does not shy away from some of its more controversial and graphic sexual and violent content, so heed the content warnings!

[In Camouflaj’s just-out PSVR title Iron Man VR, you can definitely… punch things!]

And once again, again, we’re here with Video Game Deep Cuts on Substack. Lots of things going on, but here’s some interesting and relevant links about games to round out your week. Enjoy them!

- Simon, curator

The Current: New Games To Consider

• Townscaper (PC) is “a cute and chill little town building toy game where you can create small or large towns.” 📽

• A new reboot of madcap/unorthodox racing title Trackmania (PC) - with an odd subscription-based biz model - is getting decent but confused reviews. 📰

• Iron Man VR (PlayStation VR) is Camouflaj’s title that’s one of the highest-profile late PSVR releases - seems great conceptually, but has some issues. 📰

• Now on console, Assetto Corsa Competizione (PS4, Xbox - also PC) is limited to 30fps on console but still an impressive hardcore sim racing title, tho bugs need ironing out. 📰

• West Of Dead (PC, Xbox, PS4) is a dark Western twin-stick shooter with permadeath and a complex but rewarding combat and cover system. 📰

The Culture: Game Culture & Deep Dives

• How Satisfactory’s developers lied to their players & why the players loved it. 📰

• Payload delivered: how Team Fortress 2 modders did what Valve wouldn’t. 📰

• Why have these people been playing Cookie Clicker for seven years? 📽

• Why Kentucky Route Zero connects the dark past of adventure games in fascinating ways. 📰

• Nintendo is taking down Animal Crossing glitch YouTube videos, and creating quite a debate by doing so. 📰

The Past: Game History

• A look at why the Monkey Island game series might not be what you thought. 📽

• How frantic arcade classic Robotron 2084 got put together. 📰

• The unsung genius who tempted Nintendo's president to pick up a joypad. 📰

• How EA remastered the FMV for Command & Conquer’s cutscenes. 📰

• Boomshakalaka: How the original NBA Jam caught fire through chaos 📰/📽

The Other Goodness

• On how the history of how video games and game shows interact. 📰

• Why ‘90s CD-ROM game Obsidian is a spectacle of surrealism. 📰

• Worryingly in-depth on how Supercell’s Hay Day Pop functions from a design/monetization perspective.📰

• Explaining how the sprite decompression in Pokemon Game Boy titles works. 📽

• The forgotten game engine? Criterion’s RenderWare powered a whole era of hit games. 📽

Thanks for reading, and see you next week,
Simon.

[Yes, this is what Hylics 2 really looks like. Any more questions?]

It’s Friday, and it’s definitely time for Video Game Deep Cuts on Substack, folks. It’s interesting - I can feel the newsletter morphing beneath my feet, as it moves more towards ‘things of interest’ than longform writing.

Though it has both, now! Has it attained its final form? Only time will tell.

- Simon, curator

The Current: New Games To Consider

• Death Come True (Switch, iOS, Android) is a demise-heavy FMV adventure and the newest title from Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka. 📰

• The deranged but amazing-looking Hylics 2 (PC) feels like a long-lost RPG from the 1970s. 📰

• SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox) is selling remarkably well, but is a pretty slavish update of the 2003 original. 📰

• Ninjala (Switch) is a Splatoon-ish looking free to play multiplayer brawler with cosmetics and a modicum of charm. 📰

• The Almost Gone (PC, Switch, iOS, Android) is a puzzle-box game which has you poking and prodding at beautiful miniature dioramas of homes. 📰

The Culture: Game Culture & Deep Dives

• Why The Last Of Us II is a “narrative experiment depicting what would actually happen if a real human being behaved like a video game character.” 📰

• This 10-year journey of an indie game dev from the Philippines is personal, interesting, & has twists and turns. 📰

• Bot mafias have been wreaking havoc in World Of Warcraft, leading to 75,000 player (well, bot!) bans in the last month. 📰

• How Magic: The Gathering’s biggest fan landed the role of a lifetime as its head designer. 📰

• What famous game logos look like in Arabic (extremely good, actually). 📰

The Past: Game History

• Deus Ex at 20: The oral history of a pivotal PC game. 📰

• A great Shinji Mikami interview about 1999’s Dino Crisis, “about horror game design, difficulty, and how to engage players on a deeper level”. 📰

• The real story of the people who legally changed their name to Turok. 📰

• A new prototype of (the Western-developed) Mario Artist: Paint Studio for the Nintendo 64 DD has surfaced. 📽

• Topdown GTA-a-like Shakedown Hawaii is coming to the Wii U and Wii later this year, because the dev really converting to odd, defunct platforms! 📰

The Other Goodness

• A great video essay on the strange reality of Rollercoaster Tycoon. 📽

• Robert Yang’s new game Hard Lads is typically outrageous and thought-provoking. 📰

• Don’t generally link to previews, but found this piece on what it’s like to actually play Cyberpunk 2077 very useful. (It’s as expansive a game as billed.) 📰

• On LGBT+ video game streamers and the importance of communities. 📰

• Huh, Island Saver (a Top 20 free game in both Europe and the U.S. on Switch) is an educational game commissioned by a UK bank and has a 'tax bot' in it. 📰

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
Simon.

[Actually, the very first game I worked on as a pro game designer was bundled with a 3D card.]

It’s issue number 200 (I think!) of Video Game Deep Cuts on Substack, so thanks for all of those still sticking around.

Nowadays, betwen 2,500 and 3,000 people actually open and read each of these newsletters across Substack and Gamasutra, and as many as 250 click through on each individual link, so… that’s great! Will keep it going as long as I can…

- Simon, curator

The Current: New(er) Games To Consider

• Hardspace: Shipbreaker (PC, Early Access) is an impressive-looking first person salvager (FPS?) where the focus is on looting derelict spaceships. 📽

• Summer In Mara (Switch, PC) is a gorgeous-looking ‘Harvest Moon vs. Wind Waker’ 3D pastoral adventure that arrives with hype, tho it has a rare negative review from NintendoLife & mixed Steam reviews. 📰

• Out last month, Wildfire (PC) is a 2D game about starting impressive dynamic fires to stand up to an authoritarian military intent on beating you down. 📽

• Beyond Blue (PC, Xbox One, PS4, Apple Arcade, pictured) is a relaxing-looking underwater adventure that also teaches about the ocean. 📰

• The Steam Game Festival: Summer Edition (PC) is in progress, with over 900 game demos to sample - here’s sixteen of the best broken out. 📰

The Culture: Game Culture & Deep Dives

• A well-done video on how Animal Crossing New Horizons fosters routine and connection. 📽

• Looks like chess is having a moment on Twitch, led by grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. 📰

• How games like Satisfactory make chores and busywork… fun? 📽

• EVE Online disabled the 'asset safety' feature on in-game factories for lapsed players. Despite a heads-up, a looting free-for-all ensued. 📰

• In 2017, you could get a Super Mario Odyssey… marriage license? 📽

The Past: Game History

• Sega president Hayao Nakayama’s company New Year speech in 1994, a fascinating (near-peak?) juncture in Sega history. 📰

• GameClub, which resurrects older/incompatible iPhone games in a subscription service, has also now launched on Android. 📰

• The World Video Game Hall Of Fame has inducted Bejeweled, Centipede, King’s Quest & Minecraft with a very well put-together video presentation. 📽

• Namco’s Famicom (NES) collection just shipped on major platforms including Switch, with neat rare material - Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti (pictured), and a NES ‘demake’ of Pac-Man Championship Edition - in it. 📰

• The very specific horror of old PC graphics card packaging art (see top image) 📰

• Arcade1Up's David McIntosh on Ms. Pac-Man and surviving a pandemic. 📰

The Other Goodness

• What’s the role of slurs and obscenities in Scrabble, where words are stripped of their broader functions? 📰

• An ode to the game design opportunities created by the Nintendo DS’ dual-screen format (especially visual novel puzzle 9 Hours, 9 Person, 9 Doors!) 📽

• The hard truth of poker - and life: you’re never ‘due’ for good cards. 📰

• The secrets of Streets Of Rage 4’s well-constructed animation. 📽

• The man who never left Habbo Hotel (pictured. Well, Habbo is, not the man.) 📰

Thanks for reading, and see you next week.
Simon.

This, by my rough estimation, is edition number 199 of Video Game Deep Cuts (now on Substack), crazily. That’s a few links - probably towards 50,000 over the entire life of the darn newsletter. But what’s going to be different for issue 200? Well, different links, for starters…

- Simon, curator

The Current: New Games To Consider

• The Last Of Us Part II (PlayStation 4) is out next week, but spoiler-free reviews just hit, & with a 96% average on Metacritic, reviews seem hyper-enthused. 📰

• Little Orpheus (Apple Arcade, pictured) is the latest game from Dear Esther devs The Chinese Room, & looks like a lush, adventurous 2D side-scroller. 📰

• Also out next week, Desperados 3 (PS4, Xbox, PC) is an anticipated return to the long-dormant Western stealth strategy game franchise. 📽

• Just leaving Epic Store exclusivity, Atomicrops (Switch, PS4, Xbox, PC) is a messed-up ‘bullet hell’ farming game 📰, quite an intriguing combo.

• Disintegration (PC, PS4, Xbox) is an FPS/RTS hybrid from one of Halo’s creators which is getting mixed reviews for not quite winning at either of the genres. 📰

The Culture: Game Culture & Deep Dives

• What game devs can learn from controversial Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren about promoting & hyping their game. (I wrote this!) 📰

• A photo-taking game themed around environmental decay & government incompetence from a Maori perspective? That’s Umurangi Generation. 📰

• A history of the (often-weird) attempts by Nintendo to convert their games to TV and movies? Don’t mind if I do. 📰

• Talking to the YouTuber (featured on VGDC a few times!) who recreates iconic game mechanics to teach game development. 📰

• How an eSports (real-life) photographer is using in-game captures to entertain fans instead of snapping at live events. 📰

The Past: Game History

• This gigantic feature-length ‘history of Killer Instinct’ doc is excellent. 📽

• An overview of Ken’s Labyrinth, an extremely weird Wolfenstein-style PC shareware game with an almost ‘outsider art’ vibe. 📰

• Checking in on Settlers Of Catan as the seminal board game reaches its 25th anniversary. 📰

• Game Boy hacking (for aesthetics & extra light!) is still a big thing in 2020. 📰

• Here’s some fun Vectrex modding - both a ‘buzz off’ kit for speaker hum & a really impressive light pen. 📽

The Other Goodness

• An inspirational (and, OK, stat-filled) story of a dev who did the ‘single-person route to Steam success’ thing. 📰

• Inside the wars, triumphs and petty thefts (pictured) of hardcore Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord roleplayers. 📰

• How AAA third-party titles are starting to get ported to Nintendo Switch, and the technical ups and downs there-in. 📰

• One disadvantage of cloud streaming: an accidental ‘publish’ button push can make your prototype easily accessible to the whole world. 📰

• How some of the titles in Itch’s anti-racism game bundle gave one writer the chance to look outwards, as opposed to pure escapism. 📰

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
Simon.

[I like the sorta ‘spooky Castle Crashers’ vibe of Skelattack’s art direction, FWIW.]

Yes, this is another Video Game Deep Cuts newsletter on Substack. Yes, I hope you are directly donating to support Black communities & Black Lives Matter, as many game creators now are. And yes, I hope you are thinking about ways to provide long-term systemic support, in addition to short-term support. That’s all.

- Simon, curator

The Current: New Games To Consider

• Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics (Switch) is the latest in the typically eccentric but delightful Nintendo ‘collection of card/board games’ franchise. 📰

• Officially out now, Valorant (PC, pictured) looks like a strong Riot entry 📰into the team-based FPS a la CS:GO, already has in-depth analyzing of tactics. 📽

• Skelattack (Switch, PS4, Xbox, PC) is interesting in that it’s Konami’s entry into publishing indie titles - the game itself is simply a ‘well-made 2D platformer’. 📰

• Gunfire Reborn (PC Early Access) is a Hong Kong-developed PC FPS that blends Borderlands & Risk Of Rain cannily, & is getting some notable buzz. 📽

• Finally, not new but ‘new old’ news, Command & Conquer Remastered (PC) gets a decent review for both graphical updates & useful ‘quality of life’ tweaks.

The Culture: Game Culture & Deep Dives

• What (more) casual games are like for someone who doesn’t play games. 📽

• It’s wedding season in Animal Crossing on Switch (as a special in-game task!), and some of the takes on decor are already straight-out crazy. 📰

• The latest Sims 4 expansion lets you choose to live carbon neutral - in a video game, at least. 📰

• On unionization & game development - was impressed to see publisher/dev Paradox proactively agree a union agreement with its Swedish studios. 📰

• Doom Eternal speedruns are surprisingly hypnotic to watch and analyze. 📽

The Past: Game History

• The Video Game History Foundation (I’m on the board, please donate!) resurrected a completely unreleased NES game, Days Of Thunder. 📰

• Turns out Pokemon Diamond & Pearl has better encounter rates on its creator’s birthday. Fair enough! 📰

• Come for the ‘how Epic got built with shareware’ lead, but stay for the super-fascinating Gathering Of Developers history from Mike Wilson. 📰

• ‘Lost’ 1992 Westone arcade game Clockwork Aquario has been unearthed and confirmed for PS4 and Switch release in 2020. 📰

• The recent article on Maxis’ internal edugame with Chevron, SimRefinery, led to a copy of the game being uploaded online & emulated - wonderful news! 📰/ 🕹️

The Other Goodness

• How board games have embraced tabletop virtual sims during lockdown. 📰

• Zynga & Supercell’s conflicting attitudes to making games & growth. (I prefer Supercell’s - profitable, but relaxed about making more $ YoY). 📰

• You too can get letters addressed to Sherlock Holmes in the mail & solve fiendish literary mysteries. 📰

• The Last Of Us Part II is doing game accessibility right, which isn’t always simple for large-scale titles. 📰

• How AAA games currently pace (& should pace!) their replay options. 📽

Thanks again for reading, and see you next week,
Simon.

[Great to see commissioned illustrations in articles - in this case by Sonny Ross for Polygon.]

Somehow, someway, we’re still putting Video Game Deep Cuts on Substack, folks. Particularly this week, with all that’s going on, it feels weird to be putting out a newsletter about video games. But I had the links already, you can read it if you like and… see you next week?

- Simon, curator

The Current: New Games To Consider

• Poly Bridge 2 (PC, Switch) is an enjoyable looking sequel to the physics-tastic bridge building simulator. 📽

• Sludge Life (PC, Switch) is a first-person lo-fi open world game with a lot of weird, grungy character. 📰

• Wondered why there’s no other Paper Mario-style cutout art/lite RPG games? Bug Fables: The Everlast Sapling (Switch, PS4, Xbox, previously on PC) did too, & it’s being very well received. 📰

• Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath (PS4, Xbox, Switch, PC) is new story & character DLC for MK11 📰which includes Shang Tsung (!) & Robocop (!!).

• Shantae & The Seven Sirens (iOS, PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox) is a well-reviewed full release of the latest (formerly Apple-exclusive) 2D character platformer. 📰

The Culture: Game Culture & Deep Dives

• This 6-part deep dive into Epic Games (from the Epic Games Store to Fortnite) is very long, but pretty much unmissable. 📰

• The debut of Umurangi Generation (pictured), a first-person photography game where you can document a ‘world on fire’, seems… apposite. 📽

• From farming to trucking to bus driving, why do millions play games that replicate regular jobs in forensic detail? 📰

• Did you think anyone could do a 3 hour 18 minute review of the Final Fantasy VII remake? Well, Tim Rogers did, & it’s typically entertaining. 📽

• The definitive history of Magic: The Gathering’s Commander game format. 📰

The Past: Game History

• Controlling sewing machines with a Game Boy? Now someone has emulation working for it. 📰(Check out his full article archive, including GB fish sonar.📰)

• This untold history of Arkane Studios documentary is stupendous, including much detail on canned games like Half-Life spinoff Ravenholm. 📽

• The McDonalds MMO (pictured) was totally a thing that existed. 📰

• Sega collectors, did you know about the miniaturized Sega grand piano you can use MIDI files on, ‘player piano’ style? 📽

• How the makers of Samurai Shodown Neo Geo Collection dug up a long-lost, unreleased game. 📰

The Other Goodness

• A Louis Theroux-ish investigation into virtual world Second Life’s most expensive brothel. 📽

• Why Fortnite’s and Apex Legends’ top players keep colluding to stay close to the top of the rankings. 📰

• Giving the Game Boy Color two identical screens 📽- inspired by someone doing the same thing 📽to a GBA SP. (And let’s not even talk about ‘I made the Game Boy longer for no reason’ 📽, lol.)

• Talking to Respawn about the storytelling & lore in Apex Legends - interesting to see narrative woven into ‘seasons’ of big-budget multiplayer shooters. 📰

• How Runescape is helping Venezuelans to survive in 2020 by virtual ‘gold farming’ for much-needed cash. 📰

Thanks for reading, and see you - I presume - next week.
Simon.

[Time for our third Video Game Deep Cuts guest post, following Kyle Orland’s & Bennett Foddy’s ‘best ever game article/video’ picks. This time, Brandon Sheffield of Necrosoft Games & the Insert Credit podcast (sign up for the Patreon!) contributes some great, often retro & Japanese-focused picks for his favorite game culture links of all time.

Coincidentally, Brandon - also my friend/former colleague on Gamasutra & Game Developer magazine - is also currently in the news for finding a ‘lost’ Samurai Shodown game for the upcoming Samurai Shodown Neo Geo Collection, thanks to some stellar detective work. So… we’ll call this column timing fortuitous, eh?]

ARTICLES

• Two interviews with Japanese devs who like the Mega Drive (Takayan and Hideyuki Suganami, Shmuplations, 2004 & 1995 - links are below.)

I feel that these two Shmuplations articles are somehow companion pieces. Shmuplations does excellent work translating vintage Japanese game dev interviews, and this one about the obscurity Battle Mania 📰, and this one about the better-known obscurity Alien Soldier 📰, both show developers who love the Mega Drive [aka the Genesis], hate Nintendo, and just want to do what they want to do, no matter what.

It's really interesting to see people being so honest with themselves, with their preferences and tastes, and almost using game development as a flag to rally around, or personal therapy (though the success of this therapy is debatable). Especially interesting when remembering the Mega Drive was not so popular in Japan.

• "Recipe: Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom" (Frank Cifaldi, Insert Credit - 2011 📰)

I miss having fun while writing about video games. My own attempts at game journalism always gets so ponderous and serious! Frank's article about the NES obscurity Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom reminds us that you can still have a good time with game journalism, turning (mostly) the entire kingdom into a recipe for a salad, complete with vinaigrette.

• "Welcome To The Club" (Anne Krueger, Video Games magazine, 1983 📰)

Way back in 1983, in an obscure video game magazine called "Video Games," writer Anne Krueger highlights some of the early women of game development, and shows how their struggles for recognition, compensation, and just general respect have... frankly not changed that much over the years.

At the same time, it shows the resilience of a group of people who are really passionate about the medium, how they've always been here, always been influential, and how hard they've worked to make the industry a better place, and make games more fun.

• Road to the IGF: Zachtronics' Eliza (Matthew Burns & Joel Couture , Gamasutra, 2020 📰)

It can be a struggle to keep a positive view of games and the future in general at times. I think one of the best things you can do is make a video game about that feeling. Matthew Burns' dissection of his own game Eliza (a visual novel about a "virtual therapy" startup) gets into some great thoughts about what it means to externalize your internal fears, and to try to share them with others in a way that resonates.

I feel like visual novels "with a point" require that you trust the author to take you somewhere that won't go against your values. If one did not already know Matthew Burns, this article would go a long way toward building that trust.

• Game Design Psychology: The Full Hirokazu Yasuhara Interview (Hirokazu Yasuhara & Brandon Sheffield - Gamasutra / Game Developer magazine, 2008 📰)

Hirokazu Yasuhara, the map designer of Sonic the Hedgehog 1 to 3, Uncharted, et cetera, has the most crystalline and easy to understand ideas about game design of anyone I've ever met.

Doing this interview opened my eyes to the world of game design as a methodology and a mental state, rather than spreadsheets or seat-of-your-pants ideas. I keep coming back to this conversation year after year, and really wish he'd write a book. (Full disclosure, I did this interview, but I'm sharing it for the content, not for my amazing writing!)

VIDEOS

• Sega Saturn Graphic In-depth Investigations (Low Score Boy, 2015 📽)

I really like looking at the early days of 3D finding its footing in the console space, so the 5th generation of consoles has a special place in my heart. The Saturn, especially, which got a 3D chip kind of bolted onto it at the end of production, and which had terrible documentation for devs, basically required a combo of finesse and absolute brute force to get anything good out of.

Naturally, I love that.📰Low Score Boy breaks down the arcane summoning circle one must construct in order to get some of the most interesting graphical achievements of the generation moving on screen, across the console's two (and a bit) main graphics chips. For bonus watching, here's a discussion of the Saturn's video formats📽. And if you like radical obscurity, be sure to check out his investigation of the Taiwanese-exclusive console, the Super A'Can.📽

• Amazing 16-bit Effects from every GENESIS game we've ever made (Jon Burton / GameHut, 2019 📽)

It's nearly impossible to choose a favorite GameHut video for me. GameHut is Traveller's Tales co-founder Jon Burton's channel, in which he reveals how he and his team pushed the boundaries of vintage consoles (Genesis through PS2, basically). There's so much to be impressed with here. The "3D" depth effects in Toy Story 📽, environment-mapped polygons in Sonic R 📽, the "3D" tower in Mickey Mania 📽, and on and on.

The dedication he shows to the craft of making games look good is palpable. For some reason he uses clickbait titles on each video, but the content is laid out so carefully that even the layperson can grasp the concepts behind the tricks. Each video is a fantastic peak behind the curtain of vintage game development.

• PS1 Bad Games Vol.1 (Yawaraka uchū kenkyūjo aka "soft space research institute", 2015 📽)

This one only has Japanese text, but you'll probably get the gist just by watching the footage. Essentially, it's a collection of Kusoge (shitty games) for PS1, from King of Crusher, in which a guy who has to kick everything to death, to terrible fighting games, to terrible RPGs. In Volume 2 📽, you get the excellent "Not Treasure Hunter" which had 50 endings, most of which just involve you accidentally falling off a cliff.

In the "weird games" series 📽series, you can enjoy Suzuki Bakuhatsu [cover semi-pictured], a game about a woman who must defuse bombs contained in an increasingly unusual series of household objects. Ultimately this is about discovering new obscurities. If you like that, you'll probably enjoy a lot of this YouTube playlist. 📽I must admit the particular linked video is not my favorite of all time - it's the SERIES that's my favorite.

• TAS Brain Age DS in 4:08 (Ryuto, 2010 📽)

Tool Assisted Speedruns are mostly about completing games as quickly as possible. But I especially like when runners trick a game into thinking they're doing the right thing when you're actually doing something else.

In this TAS, runner Ryuto convinces Brain Age that they've written the answer to an addition problem when actually drawing Star Fox characters. It calls to mind the classic (somewhat problematic) Jeopardy TAS 📽with answers like "I bathed Keanu Reeves" turning into the correct "Baker."

• SNK 40th Anniversary Collection Museum section (Digital Eclipse, 2019 📽)

Okay, I worked on this one, but I'm putting it forward as a potential (very expensive) evolution of the video game article, and something I'd love to see more of. In the museum section of the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection game we are able to show a curated view of the evolution of an entire company, in this case SNK.

Through an interactive slideshow you are given a glimpse into the company's roots, and why what they did mattered for the future. And when we hit on a game that's actually playable in the collection, you can drop in and actually see for yourself what we're talking about, either through watching a video or playing the game yourself.

[Mario steamroller-ing pirate cartridges at a Dutch airport will now haunt your dreams?]

Goodness, it’s time for yet another Video Game Deep Cuts on Substack, my darlings. This week, what’s been up? Well, another interminable quarantine week, but at least the Internet continues in good form.

Hope you enjoy all of these links, and we’ll be back midweek with the latest ‘All-Time Greats’ picks from a guest.

- Simon, curator

The Current: New Games To Consider

• Maneater (PC, PS4, Xbox One) is an open-world RPG lite action game where yes, you’re a bloodthirsty shark. It’s a bit silly. 📰

• Extending the block-y franchise, Minecraft Dungeons (Xbox One, PC) is a “more approachable entry for the hack and slash genre”. 📰

• Monster Train (PC, pictured), from my buddies at Shiny Shoe Games, is a super well-crafted deckbuilder which “might be the best.. since Slay The Spire”. 📰

• Crucible (PC) is Amazon’s newest foray into game creation, and “a MOBA-shooter for the Twitch generation”, - Steam reviews currently mixed. 📰

• Also new this week, If Found… (PC, iOS) is an indie-vibe visual novel with an intriguing eraser game mechanic. 📰

The Culture: Game Culture & Deep Dives

• In a genre that's all about staying hidden, what should designers do in stealth games when the player is found? 📽

• It’s the 30th anniversary of Microsoft Solitaire: did you know the game originally had a fake Excel spreadsheet ‘boss mode’ that was removed before release? 📰

• An ever so slight upside of COVID-19: brand-new gamers are being created. 📰

• How a dedicated team and a series of miracles led to My Little Pony-inspired (excellent) 2D fighting game Them's Fightin' Herds (pictured). 📰

• What’s still faring well in a quarantined world - and now more accessible for those with disabilities? Pokemon Go, surprisingly enough. 📰

The Past: Game History

• Amazing longform piece on “when SimCity got serious: the story of Maxis Business Simulations and SimRefinery.” 📰

• You may have spotted the 40th anniversary of Pac-Man (pictured) this week - here’s a great overview of the phenom that also chats to its creator. 📰

• A look at the Creative 3DO Blaster, a hyper-rare PC add-in card that let you play 3DO games on your personal computer. 📽

• Was super impressed by this oral history of Rare’s Perfect Dark, 20 years after it launched - a LOT of honesty about a great game with a troubled dev cycle. 📰

• How niche documentaries are helping to preserve video game history through in-depth interviews & reportage. 📰

The Other Goodness

• Bored of your Zoom calls? You could always try doing company meetings in Red Dead Redemption 2. 📰

• A detailed look at the (nearly insane) amount of graphical rework put into Saint’s Row The Third to remaster it for new platforms. 📽

• A surprising take on the FMV game: Out For Delivery (pictured) is a “slice-of-life experience following a food delivery courier in Beijing on January 23, 2020.” 📰

• How people find your game on the Nintendo Switch, & some modest suggestions to improve discoverability (I wrote this!) 📰

• Here’s some cultural commentary on a new indie game that’s also Nintendo history-related - “you are a bootleg cartridge [at a Dutch airport]… and Mario is desperately trying to destroy you”. 📰

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
Simon.

[Ah, this Id Software candid - fronted by the two Johns - never fails to entertain.]

Well, we seem to be approaching the 200th issue of Video Game Deep Cuts (now on Substack), my dear readers. And I’m still enjoying putting these together - though formatting them is a bit of a slog - since it helps organize the cool things I saw.

Hope you’re holding up, out there in Internetland.

- Simon, curator

The Current: New Games To Consider

• Delores (PC) is a free prototype using Ron Gilbert’s new adventure game engine & “found art” from point ‘n click-er Thimbleweed Park. (Great idea/giveaway.) 📰

• Huntdown (PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox) is a frantic ‘80s influenced cyberpunk 2D side-scrolling platform-shooter - seems tight! 📰

• The latest Apple Arcade addition, Winding Worlds (iOS) is an artsy-looking puzzle adventure from the GNOG devs. 📽

• Before We Leave (PC, Epic Store), pictured, is a non-violent, chill-looking city building game where you expand from a single island to multiple planets.📰

• Just leaving Steam Early Access, Nimbatus (PC) is an action sim where you construct drones out of hundreds of parts & then fly them on the surface of planets.📽

The Culture: Game Culture & Deep Dives

• Why cheating in PC multiplayer games is still a massive issue - and the quest for solutions. 📰

• Ten culture/business learnings from ten years at Supercell (Clash Of Clans), possibly the savviest F2P mobile game company. 📰

• A fan of dynastic leadership? Here’s an early look at Crusader Kings 3, the late-2020 sequel to Paradox’s cultish, incredibly complex kingdom simulator. 📰

• Going inside Decentraland, the surreal Second Life for crypto true believers.📰

• Looks like hire-able game companions are taking off in China - including a billionaire you can rent time with? 📰

The Past: Game History

• LSD: Dream Simulator’s unofficial English localization is a chance to play and savor the highly experimental PlayStation 1 title. 📰

• This wonderful history of the shareware revolution makes it to Id Software. 📰

• Mini Prince is a low-res ASCII fan QBasic version of Prince Of Persia's first level - with a mini physical edition (!) 🎮

• The story of Donkey Kong, surprisingly told in manga form. 📽

• The DooM chip is a piece of hardware that has the first level of the classic shooter (E1M1) directly embedded into it - no software or CPU. OK, then! 📰

The Other Goodness

• Tony Hawk interviews the OG pro skaters from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, now the remake has been announced.📽

• How come you can’t (legally) buy & play Popcap’s genius Bookworm Adventures any more? For shame. 📰

• When government public arts funding helps innovative games get made.📰

• Bringing back ‘choose your own adventure’ book Deathtrap Dungeon, but as an FMV game with Eddie Marsan narrating, is a super interesting concept. 📰

• The upcoming Ghosts Of Tsushima for PS4 will have a Mad Max: Fury Road-style option to play in black & white (pictured) throughout the whole game. 📰

• Why do horror games sound so beautiful? A video essay. 📽

Thanks for reading, and see you next week.
Simon.

In this one, I asked Bennett Foddy, designer of games including QWOP and Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy (pictured) & NYU Game Center professor to contribute some of his favorite game-related writing & videos of all time. With super-interesting results, I reckon.]

• ‘Mightyvision’ Blog: Imbroglio Notes (Michael Brough, 2016 📰)

Michael Brough has made a long habit of writing detailed design breakdowns of his amazing roguelike games, including 868-HACK, Imbroglio, and Cinco Paus. Every single one is an education, but I would start with his notes on Imbroglio’s design, which I think is when he started to go into much greater detail.

• ESL Classics: Rapha vs. Cooller (ESL, match was in 2009, commentary in 2010📽.)

Frank Lantz put me on to this video, a classic e-sports cast where one of the competitors, Rapha, breaks down what’s in his head as he plays a high-level 1v1 deathmatch in Quake 3. The shocking thing about it is the degree of design complexity which is exposed by this kind of play — complexity that could not possibly have been anticipated by the designer who laid out the level in the first place.

• Robert Hughes - The Shock of the New: Trouble in Utopia (BBC/Time-Life Films, 1980📽)

This is not about games at all, but an episode from an old documentary series on the rise of modern art and architecture, by the Australian art critic Robert Hughes. This episode is about the rise and fall of high formalism in architecture and urban planning. I show it to my game design students because it mirrors in some ways the current evolution in level design - as we try to contend with designing for the behavior of players who are as expert as Rapha and Cooller, or who are performing for millions of viewers, or who are bored out of their minds in quarantine.

• Douglas Wilson - Brutally Unfair Tactics Totally OK Now: On Self-Effacing Games and Unachievements (Game Studies, February 2011📰)

This article, from when Doug Wilson was still a PhD student in Copenhagen and had just released B.U.T.T.O.N, has gotten gradually more relevant for me over time. In 2020 ‘good game design’ has become pretty boring to me just through the abundant supply of it, and even ‘experimental gameplay’, which was once so exciting to me, has become a stale. What’s most interesting to me right now is design that leaves room for culture and can interact with it in rich and interesting ways - an idea that was mapped out very early by Wilson in this prescient article.

• Leslie Scott - Thinking Inside The Box (PRACTICE Conference, 2015📽)

This talk from NYU’s PRACTICE conference is one of my favorites. The designer of Jenga tells a story about how that game was designed and brought to market. The thing which sticks with me is how even Jenga, the most apparently-minimalistic of games, required a high level of attention to fine-grained design details to get it working well.

• Joseph ‘Zep’ White - PICO-8 and the Search for Cosy Design Spaces (PRACTICE Conference, 2018📽)

I invited this talk so I’m biased, but this is another one of my favorite NYU talks. Zep starts by discussing the detailed how and why of PICO-8, his seminal fantasy console platform, and gradually works his way around to articulating two crucial, deep concepts in creative process, being ‘cuteness’ and ‘cosiness’. It has been an important influence on my own creative practice.

• Andrew Braybrook - Birth of a Paradroid series - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 (Zzap! 64 issues 3-6, 1985📰)

This is a developer diary from the development of Andrew Braybrook’s 1985 C64 masterpiece ‘Paradroid’, commissioned by Zzap!64 magazine for a young audience and a young industry, well before anyone got serious about videogame design as an intellectual thing. So it’s primitive by contemporary standards but still fascinating, a window into another time and place and still full of lessons. The biggest one for me: Paradroid’s transfer game, which seems to underpin the entire design, was an extremely late addition.

• Commercial Breaks: The Rise and Fall of Imagine Software (BBC, 1984 📽)

Still on the topic of 80s British bedroom developers, this documentary by the BBC’s Paul Anderson starts by capturing the bizarre Fagin-gang economics of late-1980s British game studios, focusing on the Liverpool studio Imagine software. It takes a dark turn, which I will not spoil here, but I recommend watching it and thinking about the contrast with the all-digital contemporary equivalents of this situation.

• Ansh Patel: Slave of God (The Arcade Review, Issue 4, 2015.📰)

This is an experimental type of analytic approach which I hadn’t seen before: Ansh Patel explores the meaning in Stephen Lavelle’s oblique 2012 art game ‘Slave of God’ by exploring the code itself and plumbing its secrets. Although the idea of someone analyzing my code is a horrific nightmare to me, Stephen’s code is entirely non-shameful and Patel reveals some unexpected beauty in it too.

• Zach Gage - “Building Games that Can Be Understood at a Glance” (GDC 2019 📽)

Zach always gives a great talk but I love this one for its unusual ratio of how useful it is, how easy to apply it is, and how unobvious it is. It’s focused on a single UI/UX design rule-of-thumb, but actually I have continued to bear it in mind whenever I’m designing how a game works, as well. 

[Like slogging through the mud in a busted-up truck? Snowrunner’s your game!]

And here’s another installment of Video Game Deep Cuts on Substack, in our 932nd week of self-isolation. That’s about right, huh? At least our digital video games & interesting articles/videos still seem to arriving promptly. Bon appetit!

- Simon, curator

The Current: New Games To Consider

• Tonight We Riot (PC, Switch) is an ‘unapologetically leftist’ pixel squad brawler made by a worker-owned cooperative. 📰

• Levelhead (Xbox Game Pass, PC, Switch, iOS, Android) is a ‘leaving Early Access’ super-fun ‘platformer maker’ game from the Crashlands devs. 📰

• Wintermoor Tactics Club (PC, Switch) is a strategy RPG & visual novel combo about high school D&D shenanigans. 📰(Trailer.📽)

• Old World (PC Early Access @ Epic Games Store) is Soren Johnson (Civ IV/Offworld Trading Company)’s latest intriguing 4x strategy game.📽

• Snowrunner (PC, PS4, Xbox) is the latest in the Spintires series, involving lots of slow, low-gear heavy vehicle maneuvering in rough terrain. It’s weird/good! 📰

• Someday You’ll Return (PC, pictured) is an atmospheric first-person psychological horror game which has great visuals, but mixed reviews to date. 📰

The Culture: Game Culture & Deep Dives

• What makes a good RPG dungeon? A look at 11 great video game dungeons. 📰

• Why we need more games that are social platforms first & games second. 📰

• Fed up of no physical game exhibitions? LIKELIKE Online & oMoMA are playful, tricksy pixel-art style multiplayer galleries & environments. 📰/ 🎮

• Went deep into the rhythm game scene this week, & found this joyous 2-player freestyle on Konami’s Dancerush Stardom - 100%-ing the game while doing it! 📽

• A great overview of virtual concerts in Minecraft. 📽 (BONUS: this 100 Gecs DJ set from the recent Square Garden benefit is wild. 🎧)

The Past: Game History

• The story of how Bullfrog made futuristic racing game Hi-Octane in 8 weeks (?!) after EA decided they wanted a PC game out that quarter. 📰

• Billy Mitchell’s Donkey Kong high-score cheating controversy makes it all the way to court, sigh. 📰

• Go behind the scenes of seminal ‘80s British game magazine Your Sinclair. 📰

• The massive effort to re-engineer Mario & Zelda N64 game source code. 📰

• The ‘best art show of the year’, the 2020 Famicase exhibit (pictured) features imaginary covers to imagined Famicom/NES games. 📰(Alt list of the 25 best!) 📰

The Other Goodness

• Sim car racing doesn’t have the same physical danger as real-life racing - is that changing the rules of fair play? 📰

• ‘The floor is lava’. Or quicksand? Or something else? A comprehensive survey of the most dangerous childhood imaginary floors. 📰

• How the Jackbox Party Pack devs grapple with quarantine-driven success. 📰

• What games really help you unwind? 50 notable game developers tell us their personal picks. 📰

• Not out just yet, but the Hylics 2 closed beta (pictured) reveals an insane fever-dream of an oldskool 2D RPG that’s graphically… something else. 📽

• The wild, affordable world of 1 player print & play board games. 📽

Hope you liked this particular set of links - and see you next week!
Simon.

[Did I expect this particular Sega franchise to come back & hit big? Nooope.]

We’re back again with Video Game Deep Cuts on Substack, folks. I’m still enjoying putting these together - not least because there are plenty ‘big news of the day/week’ newsletters, but finding time to discover the alternative material is rewarding.

The ‘all the notable new games’ section may be getting too big/complex. But even working out what came out can be surprisingly tricky for the average reader, with all the platforms/microscenes out there. So I’ll keep noodling!

- Simon, curator

The Current: New Games In The Spotlight

• Gears Tactics (PC) takes the limb-strewn franchise into XCOM territory. 📰

• The Flower Collectors (PC, pictured) is an unusual short narrative game - “a simple but full-hearted spin on Rear Window.” 📰

• Fallout 76’s ‘Wastelanders’ update (PC, Xbox, PS4) - which is solo play-focused, intriguingly - seems to have elevated the game to ‘try this out!’ levels. 📰

• Paper Beast (PS4) is the under-the-radar Eric Chahi (Another World) PlayStation VR game which “throws players into a hallucinatory cyberscape.” 📰

• 2D brawler remake Streets Of Rage 4 (PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox) is a bit of a surprise hit. 📽 (BONUS: ICYMI, Treachery In Beatdown City is an intriguing 2D RPG-brawler combo. 📽)

• 4 vs. 1 multiplayer shooter Predator: Hunting Grounds (PC, PS4) has mixed reviews - game ‘feel’ better suited to dev’s previous, Friday The 13th? 📽

The Culture: Game Culture & Deep Dives

• Screenwriter (& former game mag editor) Gary Whitta has built a talk show in Animal Crossing, complete with bandleader & musical guests. 📰(Example! 📽.)

• Fortnite is more fully embracing the Metaverse comparisons with a no-shooting Party Royale mode. 📰

• How the game biz is dealing - somewhat awkwardly - with pregnancy & motherhood as a game dev. 📰

• The video game arcades struggling to survive in the era of COVID-19. 📰

• There’s a green vs. purple alien war in Grand Theft Auto Online that’s taking over the Internet? Apparently? 📰

The Past: Game History

• Vintage interview on the making of Capcom’s classic 2D fighter Darkstalkers (concept art pictured). 📰

• A visit to see Final Fantasy illustrator Yoshitaka Amano in his art studio. 📽

• Where are our queer and transgender elders in video game history? A historical look. 📽(Part of a host of interesting MAGFest talks/panels coming online.)

• How PC game ‘shareware’ came about, from Softdisk to Apogee & beyond. 📰

• A longform documentary on the genesis of megahit indie strategy battler Darkest Dungeon. 📽

The Other Goodness

• Magic: The Gathering has a wild card trading/speculation scene. 📰

• If you play PUBG on Stadia, you get to kill a lot of Derek-level bots? 📰

• 3D printing is creating a whole new fan/semipro-created market for D&D miniatures (pictured). 📰

• Elite Dangerous has a benevolent clan that currently - in a coronavirus-related goodwill gesture - just gives players rare items to help them upgrade. Aw. 📰

• There’s a streetwear scene in the extremely fashion-customizable Animal Crossing. 📰

• Sure, you know about game engines like Unity & Unreal, but which game companies roll their own engines? Quite a few, actually. 📰

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
Simon.

So in the first one (these will be running every 2 weeks, mid-week), we called up Kyle Orland. He’s a long-time game journalist and ‘ombudsman’ & currently at Ars Technica, & he picked his favorite game-related articles & videos of all time for us, hurray!]

[Photo credit of Billy Mitchell: John Pacheco. Courtesy of EGM.]

I’ve been obsessively following (and working in) the gaming press for over two decades now, to the point where I wrote an entire book analyzing the space. But when Simon asked me to pick out the most “notable and great (ideally longform-ish or otherwise well considered) pieces of video or journalism about game culture, game design, etc.,” I found the task was surprisingly tough.

So much of what we do in the “game journalism” industry is so disposable as to be utterly forgettable a week later. Even many of the industry’s best long form features and interviews are tied to previews of games that are quite literally yesterday’s news the day after they launch.

Here, then, is a selection of those rare pieces that I find myself still thinking about or referencing months or years later, for one reason or another:

Writing

• The New Games Journalism (Kieron Gillen / Kieron’s blog, 2004)

The stuff about magazines vs “lower quality” upstart Internet writers seems a bit quaint now. But the call for journalists to focus on the players and the play experience itself, rather than the mechanics of the game’s construction, was equal parts prescient and influential on the form. Over 15 years later, Gillen’s request that we be “Travel journalists to imaginary places” has stuck with me.

• My industry pisses me off (Dan Hsu / EGM & 1UP, 2006)

This one meant a lot to me, personally, coming as it did near the beginning of my career as a self-appointed game journalism watchdog. To see the editor of one of the biggest magazines out there call out the entire industry for shady ethical practices was a watershed moment in the transition from the “game magazines as glorified advertisements” era to the more freewheeling, irreverent blogging era to come.

• Peter Molyneux Interview: "I haven’t got a reputation in this industry any more"(John Walker / RockPaperShotgun, 2015)

When an interview starts with the question “Do you think that you’re a pathological liar?” you know it’s going to be confrontational. But what might be most surprising about Rock Paper Shotgun’s interview with Peter Molyneux is that the question, while a little rude, isn’t completely unwarranted. Through unflinching use of meticulous research and evidence of broken promises, John Walker gives Molyneux just enough rope to hang himself. This interview was the capper to a publicity tour so bad that Molyneux promised to “withdraw completely from the press,” a promise he was only able to keep for a year.

• Inside The Culture Of Sexism At Riot Games (Cecilia D’Anastasio / Kotaku, 2018)

When most people picture Journalism-with-a-capital-J, they think of All The President’s Men-style investigative work where anonymous sources use public pressure to affect major structural change. The vast majority of video game journalism is decidedly not that. So when a piece like this comes along that leads directly to a $10 million class-action lawsuit settlement and reports of real change at a corporate level, it’s definitely notable.

• The Split Screen Man (Josh Harmon / EGM NOW, 2019)

Billy Mitchell doesn’t give interviews, and he’ll be the first person to tell you that if you ask him for one. But he did speak to EGM’s Josh Harmon as part of an effort to restore his name, which has been tarnished by a cheating scandal that has cost him world record recognition with both Guinness World Records and the Twin Galaxies Video Game Scoreboard. Harmon uses his rare access to paint a skeptical but well-rounded picture of a complicated subject that should serve as a textbook lesson for how to write an interesting profile.

Videos

• SM64 - Watch for Rolling Rocks - 0.5x A Presses (Commentated) (pannenkoek2012, 2016)

What started as an effort to beat Super Mario 64 with as few presses of the A button as possible eventually led to a surprisingly fascinating discussion of increasingly esoteric glitches and exploits in this incredibly buggy piece of early N64 software. You wouldn’t think such a discussion would remain interesting for a full 24 minutes, but I’ll be damned if the deep dive into N64 memory mapping, binary numbering systems, and “parallel universes” didn’t keep me captivated the entire time.

• The Perfect Pokerap (Brian Gilbert / Polygon, 2019)

In a gaming video landscape where kids screaming curse words while failing at video games is the standard, Brian Gilbert’s work stands out for bringing equal amounts of fun and professionalism. This live, lively performance of a new and improved Pokerap from the PAX East stage is a singular achievement; a fun, deep, intense, incredible one-man show that serves as a high water mark for pure showmanship in the space.

• The Unbearable Now (Electron Dance, 2016)

There are plenty of reviews I’ve come away from thinking “I don’t agree with that take, but I understand it.” But it’s rare to encounter a piece of video game criticism like this one, which made me completely re-evaluate my time with a game. This half-hour consideration of The Witness makes deep use of research into the game’s influences and techniques, both overt and subtle, to add critical context that most players probably completely missed on a casual playthrough. I still think about this piece years later, which is something I can’t say about very many pieces of gaming criticism.

• Breaking Madden and Fumble Dimension (series) (Jon Bois, 2013-2020)

Pushing a video game simulation to its ridiculous limits is a “Why didn’t I think of that” simple idea that plenty of YouTubers have taken up for plenty of genres. But Jon Bois’ work sets itself apart with impeccable execution that’s equal parts ironically overwrought and knowingly aware of just how ridiculous it is. Seeing these games buckle and break under the weight of Bois’ machinations is like staring deep into an abyss where game programmers’ best-laid plans go to die.

• Awesome Games Done Quick 2015 - Part 99 - Tetris: The Grandmaster exhibition by Qlex and friends (AGDQ, 2015)

This two-hour segment of various arcade Tetris games is one of the best demonstrations of pure video game skill I’ve ever seen, even amid a charity marathon that makes incredible video game performances routine. But this particular video gets a place on this list because the live commentary serves as an entertaining and easy-to-follow introduction to the state of high-level play in one of the best games of all time. Whether you’re a beginner or already an expert, watching this will make you want to get better at Tetris.

We’re back again! Regarding this week’s header pic, the Japan Retro Game Association is refurbishing Super Famicom (Super Nintendo) consoles “to [provide to] 100 households with kids who have to stay at home due to the coronavirus.” How wholesome.

Otherwise, I hope everyone is still dealing OK (enough) with the super weird real-life situation still playing out. I’m still on sabbatical, working on my game discoverability newsletter & this one, and wrestling a small child who is definitely not at preschool. Wish me luck!

- Simon, curator

The Current: Recent Games In The Spotlight

• Cloudpunk (Steam, PC - pictured) is “a story-driven delivery game set in a stunning voxel metropolis”, and looks gorgeous. 📰

• Surprise stand-alone mini-sequel XCOM: Chimera Squad (PC) “achieves greatness by disassembling the turn-based formula.”

• The raytracing tech of Minecraft RTX (PC) is super-impressive - the engineers behind it explain how they did it.📽 (BONUS: a more detailed deep-dive.📽)

• Industries Of Titan is out on Early Access (PC, on Epic Store) & is “a sci-fi Sim City” with a surprising two-level playfield.📰

• Out next week, Fancade (iOS, Android) is a really endearing-looking ‘make your own game’ game - one to watch.📰

The Culture: Game Culture & Deep Dives

• Meet the storm chasers of Red Dead Redemption 2, streaking across the map in search of lightning strikes.📰

• Going deep on the design of Peggle-like dungeon crawler Roundguard (pictured).📰 [Interview by me!]

• Visiting the offices of Serious Sam creator Croteam, ‘Croatia’s game dev pioneers’.📽

• The legacy of fy_iceworld, Counter-Strike's divisive and hugely popular custom map.📰

• Animal Crossing’s Nook Miles Tickets have become a weird trading currency. 📰

• Itch’s ‘games that help you stay inside’ free (but PWYW!) sale has ended up being a big hit with those stuck in the house. 📰

The Past: Game History

• The history of the bizarre Bungie ‘game’ (OK, in-joke) Pimps At Sea, pictured. 🎧

• Deconstructing 8-bit arcade fonts with type designer Toshi Omagari. 📽

• The making of spectacularly ahead-of-its-time sandbox game Stunt Island. 📰

• Auto Museum 64 is a virtual museum featuring cars, boats, and other vehicles from 20 racing games in the Nintendo 64 library.🎮

• Somebody unearthed an English cartridge of a Pokemon Sapphire bootleg - with ‘unconventional’ bootleg text - translated between the JP & EN release dates. 📰

The Other Goodness

• Why Fortnite might surreptitiously be the first step towards the Metaverse. 📰 (Related: the Travis Scott x Fortnite in-game concert - pictured - was/is just amazing📽. Go check it live before it disappears.)

• How animal sounds are made in games, “from kazoos to trashcans”. 📰

• Behind the concept of ‘juiciness’ in games with the creator of Holedown.🎧

• The strange ways that Fallout 76 players are reacting to COVID-19. 📰

• Blizzard’s virtual Take Your Child To Work Day 📰included Samwise Didier’s super-cute ‘How To Draw An Orc’ video.📽(BONUS: how Blizzard & other studios went remote during COVID-19.📰)

• Discussing the game Occupy White Walls, a modern-art themed sandbox construction space with “luxe minimalism”. 📰(Also see, in VR: the Museum of Other Realities.)

There’s so much out there - this is just a chunk! See you next week, folks…
Simon.

[Do you know who these superheroes are? Did you expect them to return?]

We’re back again, and thanks to those who made additional formatting comments on the revamped Video Game Deep Cuts. A couple more tweaks this week, and it’s approaching its final form!

As it evolves, there’s a few shifts. For example, a minority of the links are now to ‘cool/interesting stuff’ and notable new games, rather than longform articles or videos. Like, uhh, Chex Quest. Oh no, the $218 fan bundle sold out just as I was finishing this newsletter. Sorry, folks!

- Simon, curator

The Current: Recent Games In The Spotlight

• Receiver 2 (PC) is a process-obsessed guns vs. drones FPS sim sequel which is both odd and compelling at the same time. 📰

• Also out this week on Steam, & selling like hotcakes, the YouTuber-friendly edgelord-ism of Drug Dealer Simulator (PC). 📽

• The TurboGrafx-16 [aka PC Engine] Mini (hardware) is by far the weirdest all-in-one microconsole to come out in recent times. 📰

• A Fold Apart (Apple Arcade, PC, Switch, pictured) is a unique puzzle game in which the player tries to unite two characters in a long distance relationship.

• Still in closed beta, but Riot’s surprise-announced multiplayer FPS Valorant (PC) is getting a lot of interest and hype.📰

The Culture: Game Culture & Deep Dives

• Game devs from big (and small) studios on adapting to working from home in today’s quarantine situation.📰

• How the original developers of Fallout came together to make spiritual sequel The Outer Worlds (pictured). 📽(Bonus: extra docs on characters & quests.📽)

• Devs of some of your favorite games share the one thing they’re most proud of making.📰

• With coronavirus closing schools, here’s how video games help teachers.📰

• Why video games have become a form of meditation in tough times.📰

• In these weird times, here’s the best games for non-gamers who don’t (normally) play.📰

The Past: Game History

• A detailed mini-doc on Awesome Possum (pictured), Tengen’s eco-friendly ‘90s (flop) platformer mascot (with real-life opossum footage!) 📽

• A mainstream (personal) history of Valve’s resurrected Half-Life franchise.📰

• The weird history & modern evolution of Sonic The Hedgehog fandom & culture.📽

• Were you expecting a super-deluxe physical version of ‘90s DOOM engine-powered cereal promotion game Chex Quest? Nope, me neither. 📰

The Other Goodness

• Not up on what’s on Apple Arcade? Here’s its top 50 games ranked. 📰

• The latest music video from UK grime MC JME references the notorious Kapkan glitch in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege.📰/📽

• Lena Raine (Celeste) has made music for the latest Minecraft update, & it’s beautifully melancholic ambient. 📰/🎼

• Having trouble describing this real-time improv actor Half-Life ‘self-aware AI’ thing.📰/📽

• Somebody’s created a HyperCard version (pictured) of ‘lost’ Kojima horror game PT. 📰

Hope you liked this one, and see you next week!
Simon.

[My Gamasutra colleagues had an editorial meeting in Animal Crossing - here’s evidence!]

We’re back again with Video Game Deep Cuts on Substack, folks. I got some good feedback on the revamped newsletter, so there’s going to be a couple of tweaks, hurrah.

(Specifically: tactical bolding of words/phrases, plus the use of emoji to show whether the linked piece is a video📽, article📰, podcast🎧, etc.)

Since I’m on sabbatical from the dayjob, I could actually make multiple of these ‘core’ free VGDC newsletters per week. But it’s a slippery slope timewise. So I’ll be keeping it to two newsletters per week (one for free, one for paid subscribers!) for now - enjoy!

- Simon, curator

The Current: Recent Games In The Spotlight

• The Final Fantasy VII Remake is here, it’s weird as heck, and yet it’s still “one of the most audacious [classic JRPG] remakes that we’ve ever seen in any medium.”📰

• Medieval ARPG Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is voraciously awaited and still in Early Access, but generally classified as ‘buggy but brilliant’. 📰/📽

• The design anatomy of an individual DOOM Eternal combat encounter. 📽

• An epic delay for earthquake sim Disaster Report 4 (pictured) has led to “an absolute mess that’s well worth playing”.📰

• Horror remake Resident Evil 3 might be a great way to deal with the horrors of the COVID-19 pandemic. 📰 [Bonus review: why the game is ‘fun while it lasts’.📰]

• Also out & notable: Python-esque Renaissance adventure game The Procession to Calvary (Steam), the trash-cleaning beat-em-up Scrappers (Apple Arcade), mystic RPG card battler Ancient Enemy (Steam).📰

The Culture: Game Culture & Deep Dives

• Yes, people are holding weddings in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. 📰 (And even hiring bouncers for turnip trading protection, haha.📰)

• A deep dive from the creator of Baba Is You into its sentence-based game design rules. 📽

• What to do if you’re running an escape room during a coronavirus outbreak. 📰

• Noted novelist Robin Sloan (Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore) is blogging the creation of a new text-based game with procedurally generated maps.📰

• Going behind the scenes of the in-game locomotion in Valve’s acclaimed Half-Life: Alyx. 📽

• Why pro video game streamer is one of the most coronavirus-resistant jobs out there. 📰

The Past: Game History

• How 30 different people play Level 1-1 of Super Mario Bros.📽

• A detailed cultural history of Trilobyte’s ‘90s FMV adventure The 7th Guest. 📰

• ‘The Uncredited’ discusses “the rise of the American computer game industry from the point of view of three women who worked… at Sierra On-Line.”📽

• First-hand sources on the creation of the surprisingly good console port Doom 64. 📰[Bonus: how - technically - the game was brought to new consoles.📽]

• Implausibly, PONG Quest exists, & uses the phrase “humanized paddle” in its official announce. *pokes corpse of Atari experimentally* 📽

The Other Goodness

• How China’s game industry is coping with - and reacting to - Covid-19.📰

• A feature-length compilation of star YouTube game essayists on ‘how we talk about games’.📽

• The five deadly sins of game attractiveness, from a dev perspective. 📰

• Bitesized new streaming network Quibi has a daily video game culture show, Speedrun. 📰

• Borderlands 3 is the latest title to include in-game ‘citizen science’, “helping advance medical research by mapping the human gut microbiome.”📰/📽

• Who’s roving the U.S. buying Switches & flipping them on eBay? This guy. 📰

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
Simon.

[Pic via Tim Lapetino’s sublime ‘365ofPac’ visuals/collecting project, which I only just found!]

Welcome to the revamped Video Game Deep Cuts newsletter, folks. So, since I moved across to Substack as our newsletter host, it has a much more fully-featured CMS than Tinyletter.

Therefore, I thought I’d try a different newsletter format, inspired by both my buddy Juan Gril’s suggestions & Rex Sorgatz’s (sadly on hiatus) Recs newsletter. Feedback is very much appreciated - do you like it more? Less? Are the headings useful? Ping me with comments.

- Simon, curator

The Current: Recent Games In The Spotlight

• Half-Life: Alyx is “scary as hell, and proves Valve’s VR gamble paid off.”

• The Nintendo-published indie Good Job! definitely breaks social distancing rules, but looks super cute.

• In Other Waters is a unique-looking adventure game “where you get to play a helpful AI assistant to a xenobiologist on the trail of a missing colleague.”

• Always fascinating to see how Animal Crossing: New Leaf is covered in the New Yorker. (Spoiler: it’s about ‘finding connection’.)

• Just out on Steam, but another of the Apple Arcade flood I missed, Over The Alps is “a Hitchcockian World War Two spy thriller” with an intriguing dev heritage.

The Culture: Game Culture & Deep Dives

• Why does Animal Crossing’s fake language sound different in Japan?

• A love letter to video games, in the time of coronavirus.

• How a cozy, therapeutic vibe was created in hit visual novel/java-slinging sim Coffee Talk.

• Mutazione’s Hannah Nicklin has a ‘virtual GDC 2020’ talk on why writing for an ensemble in video games is great, vs. typical ‘hero’s journey’ tropes.

• A neat mini-doc about the impact of the Hadouken in the Street Fighter series.

The Past: Game History

• The history of how the Magnavox Odyssey was advertised to ‘70s proto-gamers, in visuals.

• The quest to beat a legend in speedrunning on Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out.

• On the making of Big Blue Box/Lionhead’s Fable, featuring “angry swans and crippling crunch”.

• 57 classic Atari games are now conquerable via artificial intelligence, because of course they are.

The Other Goodness

• Why netcode (& lag) can make or break your favorite online fighting game - and currently is!

• In a hard time for positivity, a focus on why Kind Words is wonderfully uplifting as a game concept.

• Game designer Adam Saltsman (Overland/Canabalt) critiques the design of Doom Eternal.

• The intriguing imagined evolution of Riot Games from single-product ‘stuck in the mud’ to expansive multi-game universe creator.

• What happens when the coronavirus outbreak messes with your game announcement plans.

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
Simon.

Hey, I’m Simon, and I spend MANY hours every week producing Video Game Deep Cuts, a weekly newsletter that features the best longer-form articles & videos you might have missed about the state, future, & history of video games.

Welcome to the rebooted version of VGDC on up-and-coming subscription newsletter platform Substack!

The existing newsletter - here’s the latest one - is a ‘best of the Web’ for video game culture, and has thousands of weekly subscribers and almost 200 editions from its previous home on Tinyletter.

I’m a video game industry veteran who has worked as a game developer (at Atari & Eidos), helped to run the massive Independent Games Festival, GDC events & Gamasutra, & advise hit indie game publisher No More Robots. And I truly love games & game culture!

Your newsletter!

If you’ve signed up for this newsletter (or you subscribed before I moved to Substack), you’ll still get my regular weekly email with 20+ links & commentary on the best game writing & videos of the week. All good.

(I have plans to level it up further over the coming weeks and months with new layout and stylings. But I’m skipping this week’s edition due to the Substack launch - look for it next weekend!)

We’re also adding new content every month, including a regular new ‘All Time Greats’ newsletter. This features some of the best game writing & videos of all time, handpicked & commentated on by notable game developers, critics, and figures.

Thanks,
Simon!