This week, we’re joined by Larry Kuperman, former VP of Business Development at Nightdive Studios, former Business Development Manager at GameStop, Stardock veteran, and co-founder of the IGDA Ann Arbor Chapter. Larry shares incredible stories from the business side of games, from discovering Wolfenstein 3D on a mighty 486, selling custom PCs in the ’90s, and Stardock’s early digital distribution gamble, to GameStop’s attempt to compete with Steam and Nightdive’s mission to bring classics like Turok, System Shock, Star Wars: Dark Forces and more back to life. We also dig into DRM, lost source code, game preservation, and why classic games are art worth saving.

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
49:20 – Larry Kuperman Interview

Please visit our amazing sponsors and help to support the show:

Bitmap Books – https://www.bitmapbooks.com

Go to https://surfshark.com/retrohour or use code RETROHOUR at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!

Nottingham Gaming Market: https://www.nottinghamgamingmarket.com/

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We need your help to ensure the future of the podcast, if you’d like to help us with running costs, equipment and hosting, please consider supporting us on Patreon:

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Show notes

VCF Bomb Scare: https://tinyurl.com/c4k2kb27
Resi 4 On Dreamcast: https://tinyurl.com/ud4v8t69
Commodore 64C Returns: https://commodore.net/
GoatBeat Hits C64: https://tinyurl.com/4cebch5b
Majora’s Mask On Vita: https://tinyurl.com/8dzxj937
Warhammer Classics Return: https://youtu.be/crVfMM3by_k

This week, we’re joined by John Mathieson, the hardware designer best known as the father of the Atari Jaguar. John takes us through an extraordinary career that began at Sinclair Research on the ZX Spectrum, before moving through ambitious and often misunderstood projects including Loki, the Konix Multisystem, Atari’s Panther and Jaguar, and later the Nuon. Along the way, he shares brilliant behind-the-scenes stories about working with Clive Sinclair, Jeff Minter and the Tramiel-era Atari team, and reflects on the technical ideas, challenges and missed opportunities behind some of gaming’s most fascinating machines. 

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
53:08 – John Mathieson Interview

Please visit our amazing sponsors and help to support the show:

Bitmap Books – https://www.bitmapbooks.com

Go to https://surfshark.com/retrohour or use code RETROHOUR at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!

Nottingham Gaming Market: https://www.nottinghamgamingmarket.com/

Check out PCBWay at https://pcbway.com for all your PCB needs

We need your help to ensure the future of the podcast, if you’d like to help us with running costs, equipment and hosting, please consider supporting us on Patreon:

https://theretrohour.com/support/

https://www.patreon.com/retrohour

Join our Discord channel: https://discord.gg/GQw8qp8

Website: http://theretrohour.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theretrohour/
X: https://twitter.com/retrohouruk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/retrohouruk/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/theretrohour.com
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/theretrohour

Show notes

Stunt Car Racer 60FPS Update: https://tinyurl.com/48auryjz
Stunt Car Racer Multiplayer: https://tinyurl.com/4juw2a99
Pokémon Adventure Demo: https://tinyurl.com/2bcntp4u
Crystian And The Lost Crystals: https://tinyurl.com/4ju936w9
DS And PSP Screen Fix: https://tinyurl.com/4mphcth5
SuperSega Creator Returns: https://tinyurl.com/5eezr29v
Sega RPG Returns: https://tinyurl.com/nw8jupxa

On this week’s podcast, we celebrate 42 years of the Amstrad CPC with special guest Jo Cook, who takes us deep inside the Amstrad scene of the late 80s and 90s. From growing up with a CPC 464 and helping run the legendary King Arthur’s Domain PD library and Merlin-Serve, to writing for Amstrad Action and seeing the community evolve into the modern day, Jo shares a warm, funny and fascinating insider’s view of one of Britain’s most beloved computer scenes.

UK Amstrad Group: https://www.ukag.org.uk/

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
49:16 – Amstrad Group Interview

Please visit our amazing sponsors and help to support the show:

Bitmap Books – https://www.bitmapbooks.com

Go to https://surfshark.com/retrohour or use code RETROHOUR at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!

Nottingham Gaming Market: https://www.nottinghamgamingmarket.com/

Check out PCBWay at https://pcbway.com for all your PCB needs

We need your help to ensure the future of the podcast, if you’d like to help us with running costs, equipment and hosting, please consider supporting us on Patreon:

https://theretrohour.com/support/

https://www.patreon.com/retrohour

Join our Discord channel: https://discord.gg/GQw8qp8

Website: http://theretrohour.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theretrohour/
X: https://twitter.com/retrohouruk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/retrohouruk/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/theretrohour.com
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/theretrohour

Show notes

New Neo Geo Hardware?: https://tinyurl.com/n8eheyw9
Mac OS X on Wii: https://tinyurl.com/4rzxpk76
Eclipse Blade Emerges: https://tinyurl.com/23eewcua
Miracle Boy on Atari ST: https://tinyurl.com/453duhke
Ground Zero Terror: https://tinyurl.com/42me5wh8
Mario on Master System: https://tinyurl.com/4bn4zzpx