Looking Back with Sean Haas (part two)

Arrggh! A Video Game Podcast from The Waffling Taylors

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This is part two of a two-parter, folks. If you haven't heard part one, I'd take a moment to listen to that first. Unless you're listening in the past - if so, RUN!

Content Warning

At 25:43, Sean says:

They developed the first god-damn plasma display
- Sean

Some folks may find that offensive, whilst some may not. Please listen responsibly.

Show Notes

We’re back with Sean “Advent of Computing” Haas for this episode of the podcast. If you’re at all interested in the history of computers - both digital and analogue - then I’d really recommend that you check out Sean’s show. In the time between recording this episode (which was recorded on August 16th, 2020) and it being released, Sean released episode 48 of his show, and it was all about the history of Pong! - the episode is called Electronic Ping-Pong and is a must-listen for anyone interested in video game history.

Sean was also on the previous episode, which I would recommend that you all listen to as we jump straight back into the discussion on…

Colossal Cave Adventure

Colossal Cave, aka Colossal Cave Adventure, is a game that we ended the previous episode with but wanted to come right back to it, as Sean had some questions for Squidge, including

Did you find many of the treasures in the colossal caves, Squidge?
- Sean

Whilst Squidge didn’t get a chance to play Colossal Cave Adventure before the show, he did check out a lot of YouTube footage of the game in play. And you can play it in your web browser here.

But it does sound like a great game. There are pirates, evil dwarves, dragons, and treasure. What else could you want from a game? Especially since the layout of the cave doesn’t seem to conform to Euclidean geometry.

(in the traditional narrative) so one one the things that makes Colossal Cave Adventure so important in the overarching story of programming and video games in general, is that it’s the first video game where there’s this fantasy world that you’re entering into and enjoying
- Sean

Oh, and it was written in 1976. Which was shortly after something called ARPANET (which was what the Internet was built off of) was created. It was also one of the first computer programs to spread via the ARPANET, making it a federal crime to spread and play. This is because the computers at ARPANET were supposed to be used specifically for the following things:

• Research
• Government
• Military

I’m not sure that Colossal Cave fits into any of those, unfortunately.

Full Show Notes

Make sure to check out the full show notes for more discussion on the points we raise, some extra meta-analysis, and some links to related things. We've included a whole slew of links to extra content, identified a game that neither Squidge nor Sean could remember the name of, and included some video material for you to check out.

Had you ever heard of The Sword of Damocles before? No, no the Greek myth, or the song. What about Plato? And no, we don't mean the Greek philosopher. Would you have wanted a plasma screen back in the 1970s?

Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, leave a comment on the show notes or try our brand new contact page.

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