Shacknews • 28th July 2023 Becoming Doom Guy: John Romero on his memoir and a life in games Legendary designer John Romero joined David L. Craddock at San Diego Comic Con 2023 to discuss his book, his philosophy on forgiveness, and more.
Toy Tales • 9th September 2022 David L. Craddock, Writer and Publisher, Long Live Mortal Kombat David L. Craddock is writer and publisher of Long Live Mortal Kombat, a book dedicated to the history of the iconic video game. In this edition of The Friday Five, David discusses the impact of Mortal Kombat on the video game industry and shares what it takes to run a successful crowdfunding campaign in an era of endless content.
Kool Stuff • 27th April 2022 Fighting Machine: The Making of Pit-Fighter's Digitized Graphics Chief Atari digitizer Rob Rowe and I talked about what it was like working at Atari from the 1980s through the early 2000s, stories from Pit-Fighter's development, and what he thought of Mortal Kombat.
Game Developer • 13th April 2022 Dr. Carly Kocurek on Masculinity in Games Dr. Carly Kocurek and I discussed the pervasive view of games as being made by and for men, the practices of documenting video game history, how her interest in research brought her to video games, and much more in this wide-ranging interview.
11th April 2022 Rob Holmes on the End of Acclaim's Relationship with Midway Acclaim co-founder Rob Holmes reveals what caused the difficult split between Midway/Williams and Acclaim.
Game Developer • 11th April 2022 Crushed: Inside Capcom's Marketing Feud with Acclaim and Mortal Kombat Former Capcom USA senior VP Joe Morici talks Capcom's friendly feud with Acclaim, the cultural differences between Capcom USA and Capcom Co., Ltd., in Japan, and Street Fighter versus Mortal Kombat.
Substack • 10th February 2022 Kool Stuff [2]: Bad Science - Hacking Mortal Kombat for Sega Genesis I talked to the four developers of the Mortal Kombat Arcade Edition ROM hack to learn how the project started, what their contributions entailed, what tools they used, and what gave them the most trouble along the way.
Substack • 4th February 2022 Kool Stuff [1]: Chasing Scores with Outworld I talked to Mortal Kombat world record-holder Outworld about how he manipulates Mortal Kombat's AI, his strategies for the game's toughest match-ups, why he plays on player two's control panel, and more.
Shacknews • 9th November 2020 Last One at the Table: Phil Spencer on Inheriting Xbox One and Launching Xbox Series X The 'Xboss' of Xbox reflects on his early years at Microsoft, the circumstances that led to him volunteering to lead Microsoft's Xbox division, launching a console during a pandemic, and more.
13th August 2020 ImMortal Mystique: Mortal Kombat's John Tobias on the Creation and Evolution of a Franchise While interviewing MK co-creator John Tobias for Arcade Perfect, my 2019 book about arcade-to-home-system conversions, we talked about the genesis of MK, concepts for characters, the emphasis on lore over storytelling, and more.
Shacknews • 20th June 2020 Arcade1Up's David McIntosh on Ms. Pac-Man and surviving a pandemic Arcade1Up's marketing director talks securing the Ms. Pac-Man license, physical plungers on pinball tables, and more.
Shacknews • 12th May 2020 Iron Will: Grim Dawn designer Arthur Bruno on the ups and downs of remote development As someone who's been running a remote office for years, Arthur Bruno talked to me about Crate Entertainment's origin story, how Grim Dawn rose from the ashes of Titan Quest, and why the pandemic hasn't disrupted his routine much.
Shacknews • 8th April 2020 Last Escape: Streamer 'CarcinogenSDA' talks strategy for Resident Evil 3's remake One of the world's most popular Resident Evil runners reveals how he dissected Capcom's remake of Resident Evil 3, how he compares Nemesis with RE 2's Mr. X, and more.
Shacknews • 3rd April 2020 Moving Forward: Composer Aubrey Hodges on Doom 64's haunting soundtrack Doom 64's composer reveals how the game's soundtrack was a happy accident, Taco Bell's influence on his work, and more.
Shacknews • 19th March 2020 Voices in the Blood: Scott Patterson and the Terrifying Soundscape of Doom 64 Doom 64's audio engineer talks his interest in sound design, and the particulars of building dread in the former N64 exclusive title.
Shacknews • 18th March 2020 Apollo 11 Situations: John Romero on Porting Doom and Wolfenstein 3D After Doom's release in December 1993, John Romero turned his attention to scouting for opportunities to collaborate on external projects related to id's games, namely strategy guides and ports.
Shacknews • 16th March 2020 Insanely Fast: Bethesda's Pete Hines talks Doom Eternal When you think Bethesda, two names likely come to mind: Todd Howard, the studio's director and executive producer; and Pete Hines, global senior vice president. In fact, you may think of Hines first. Besides juggling countless other plates, he serves as the public face of the ZeniMax-owned studio and others under its umbrella, including id Software.
Shacknews • 23rd December 2019 After the Fact: John Staats on Storytelling in World of WarCraft WoW's first level designer and I talk the dev team's early days, the as-yet-unknown medical condition that forced him to retire from making games, and his book on how Blizzard made one of the most important games ever.
Eurogamer.net • 15th September 2019 Arcade perfect: charting the often tortured journey of old school ports David L. Craddock has recently compiled a fascinating account of the history of arcade ports in Arcade Perfect: How Pac-Man, Mortal Kombat, and Other Coin-Op Classics Invaded the Living Room - which is out right now. It's a brilliantly detailed read, allowing us to hear first-hand reports on the trials and tricks of those who were often tasked with the impossible.
Shacknews • 14th July 2017 Mega Maker's Creator on Building Your Own Mega Man Levels Mega Maker director WreckingPrograms talks how the game got started and whether he's afraid of Capcom dropping a DMCA hammer on his efforts.
