PickVidsBest Game history & retro gaming Videos
The 106 Game history & retro gaming videos here were recommended by different people across different months. Choose by who it is for: 1 introductory, 23 intermediate, 78 for a general viewer, and 4 for someone who wants the harder derivation. Most of them are a demo. What they share is that you see the result first and only then decide whether to follow the detail. Channels you will keep seeing include GDC Festival of Gaming, Ars Technica, Ahoy.
The largest campaign ever to stop publishers destroying games
Ross Scott of Accursed Farms lays out a campaign to stop publishers from permanently shutting down games, using The Crew as the test case.
The Complete History of the A Button Challenge
A five-hour documentary history of the Super Mario 64 A button challenge, which aims to beat the game with as few A presses as possible.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Speedrun in 22:38, live at AGDQ2013
Cosmo's 22:38 Ocarina of Time speedrun, performed live at AGDQ 2013.
Ocarina of Time TAS by dwangoAC, TASBot, Savestate, Sauraen in 53:05 - Summer Games Done Quick 2022
A tool-assisted speedrun of Ocarina of Time at Summer Games Done Quick 2022, using TASBot and arbitrary code execution to reach an alternate ending in about 53 minutes.
Super Mario World Ending Theme sight-read by Tom Brier
Pianist Tom Brier sight-reads a piano arrangement of the Super Mario World ending theme, working from a first-draft score by Keeper1st.
Elite: "The game that couldn't be written"
An hour-long video essay on Elite, the 1984 BBC Micro game by David Braben and Ian Bell.
Crash Bandicoot Co-Creator Andy Gavin: Extended Interview | Ars Technica
A two-hour extended interview in which Crash Bandicoot co-creator Andy Gavin tells how he and Jason Rubin built the game at Naughty Dog.
Pitfall: A Classic Game Postmortem
David Crane's 2011 GDC postmortem of Pitfall, the classic Atari 2600 game.
Why Are Emulators Legal? Dolphin vs. Nintendo, and the Fate of Emulation [Great Emu War Pt. 1]
Moon Channel, run by a lawyer, explains the legal basis for emulation, including the history of emulation case law and Nintendo's takedown of Dolphin's Steam release.
The Story of Another World on the Amiga | MVG
Modern Vintage Gamer explains how Eric Chahi built Another World on the Amiga 500, using 2D polygons, rotoscoping and clever techniques to run well on a stock 7MHz machine.
Lyle Bickley explains the PDP-1 (and we play the original Spacewar!)
Lyle Bickley of the PDP-1 restoration team tours the 1959 DEC machine at the Computer History Museum and plays the original Spacewar!
iMUSE Demonstration 2 - Seamless Transitions
A two-minute demonstration of LucasArts' iMUSE adaptive music system in Monkey Island 2.
Zarch (1987) Gameplay for BBC Acorn Archimedes High Quality
Gameplay footage of Zarch, the 1987 3D Defender-like game by David Braben for the Acorn Archimedes.
How a Laser-Shot Disk Defeats Hackers & Pirates (Coding Secrets)
An episode of Coding Secrets by Jon Burton on retro copy protection, in particular physically damaging a disk with a laser so copies fail.
How Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun Solved Pathfinding | War Stories | Ars Technica
Westwood Studios co-founder Louis Castle talks about how pathfinding was solved in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, in an Ars Technica War Stories episode.
How I implemented MegaTextures on real Nintendo 64 hardware
James Lambert demos a MegaTexture-style technique running on real Nintendo 64 hardware, built for an N64Brew game jam.
We Play Doom With John Romero
IGN plays through the first episode of the original Doom with its creator John Romero providing commentary.
Why does PUNCHING Sonic 3D trigger a Secret Level Select?
A short Coding Secrets episode explaining why hitting a Sonic 3D cartridge triggers a hidden level select.
Tomb Raider on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance is incredible | MVG
Modern Vintage Gamer looks at OpenLara, an open source Tomb Raider engine, running on the Game Boy Advance.
GOG: Preserving Gaming's Past & Future
A /noclip documentary on GOG, covering how it finds and re-releases classic games and pushes DRM-free releases.
The History of Tetris World Records
Summoning Salt's roughly two-hour documentary traces the history of Tetris world records, from early play through the modern competitive scene.
Hareraiser (The Worst Game Ever) - Stuart Ashen - Norwich Gaming Festival 2017
Stuart Ashen presents a talk at the 2017 Norwich Gaming Festival on Hareraiser, a notoriously bad video game tied to the Masquerade treasure hunt.
Racing the Beam Explained - Atari 2600 CPU vs. CRT Television
Retro Game Mechanics Explained shows how the Atari 2600 draws images with almost no video memory, by having the CPU race the CRT beam line by line.
The Story of RollerCoaster Tycoon | Noclip Greatest Hits
A Noclip Greatest Hits documentary on the legacy of RollerCoaster Tycoon, covering its original design, Chris Sawyer and the OpenRCT2 community that keeps it alive.