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Pistol Shrimp Podcast Episode 2 - War & Space
🕑 Added 2022-10-20 23:55:12 +0000 UTCTwo weeks early for our Patreon supporters, we have Paul Reiche and Lee Hutchinson returning for another episode of our podcast about the creation of UQM, UQM2, and the many steps taken to get here.
The main topic for this discussion is all about how war & space (and war in space) influenced our personal upbringings and the history of gaming through our lenses, which in turn influenced us. Why is Paul so obsessed with space combat? What did we learn from science museums, the threat of nuclear warfare, and pressing buttons in front of screens?
Local Science Museums & Influences
https://www.exploratorium.edu/ Playtime in the Exploratorium at its old location in the Palace of Fine Arts.
https://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/lumen-illusion Lumen Illusion, a spinning array of neon tubes you could manipulate via a control panel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Oppenheimer Frank Oppenheimer, founder of the Exploratorium
https://lawrencehallofscience.org/ Lawrence Hall of Science
https://kermitmurray.com/trek73/the-old-trek73-page/ Trek73 game at Lawrence Hall of Science
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Ball_Gardens Silver Ball Gardens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Cerny Mark Cerny, another Berkeley developer.
https://spacecenter.org/ Houston Space Center
Early Space Games
https://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,56326/ Space Wars developer Larry Rosenthal.
https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9691 Space Wars gameplay.
https://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/one-two-three-four-i-declare-a-space-war/ Spacewar!
https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=6939 Asteroids
https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8000 Gravitar
https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9647 Space Duel
https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9326 Rip Off
Authors
https://www.adriantchaikovsky.com/ Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shards of Earth
https://larryniven.net/ Larry Niven's Neutron Star
Real Life
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/tsar-bomba-largest-atomic-test-world-history Tsar Bomba
Paul will probably not be able to actually fly a spaceship because he has motion sickness. :( https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/motion-sickness
Comments
Capn Capacitor
Really enjoyed this episode and fun to hear the connection to the Science Centre where Dan’s dad contributed that Paul had frequented as well. Small world! I remember UQM being one of the big reasons that I knew so much about astronomy before I even had my first lesson about space in science class. It clued me into things like atmospheric pressure and the temperature of planets being higher closer vs. farther to the sun as a 7-year old. That and the Magic School Bus episode where they explored the Solar System. Thanks Lee and Paul!
Dan Gerstein
Oh no, I missed this when you originally posted it. Thank you for sharing your story and we're so glad you stumbled on a bin full of floppies (unless it was literal, and you fell and injured yourself, in which case we hope you were ok).
Martin Lettvin
Thanks for the deep dive, guys. So great that you are doing these. I love that it's as much a history lesson as it is insight into the origins of UQM. I related to the story about getting a bin full of floppies with old games through a colleague of my father ... because it's how I discovered Star Control 1 for the first time in 1990 at the age of ten, shortly before UQM1 was released. I remember rifling through the bin and stumbling upon a disk labeled "Star Control" and the rest was history.
