The Rest Is History
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History
They Create Worlds
by Alex Smith, and Jeffrey Daum
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About the show
The games we love reveal something true about who we are, and about the world that made them. They Create Worlds is a podcast about the people, technology, and forces that built the video game industry.
Through video game history, the show looks at how culture, business, and technology shaped what we play, tracing the choices and circumstances that led to the games so many people around the world enjoy.
Each episode digs into where games came from, who made them, and why they were made the way they were. Business decisions, technological shifts, and creative choices all shaped what ended up on screen, and the show covers all of it together, not just one piece in isolation.
Hosted by Alex Smith and Jeffrey Daum, They Create Worlds grew out of long conversations about the strange corners of the industry and the patterns that only show up when you look across companies, platforms, and decades. That conversational feel remains, built on careful research, clear structure and editing that makes even the deepest topics easy to listen to.
History turns out to be less settled than it looks. New documents surface, memories conflict, and the clean stories about why things happened the way they did rarely survive contact with the evidence. The show digs into all of that, following the creative and business forces that pushed and pulled on each other, and uncovering the human stories that lie beneath the games so many people around the world enjoy.
New episodes are released twice a month.
Latest episodes
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Dragon Quest Part 1
October 1, 2026 · 1 hr 16 minTCW Podcast Episode 267 - Dragon Quest Part 1 Kazuhiko Torishima is not well known outside Japan, especially in relation to video games, but the Weekly Shōnen Jump editor was instrumental in bringing together many of the people behind…
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The 10 Best Selling Atari Games
September 15, 2026 · 1 hr 53 minTCW Podcast Episode 266 - The 10 Best Selling Atari Games An internal Atari document visible in the background of the documentary Once Upon Atari provides a rare look at the company’s best-selling VCS games during the years leading up…
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Hasbro Interactive
September 1, 2026 · 1 hr 39 minTCW Podcast Episode 265 - Hasbro Interactive Hasbro began as a family business selling textile remnants and pencil boxes before expanding into school supplies, children’s art products, and toys. Innovations such as Mr. Potato Head…
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Knights of the Old Republic
August 15, 2026 · 1 hr 27 minTCW Podcast Episode 264 - Knights of the Old Republic Knights of the Old Republic did not simply bring Star Wars to the role-playing game format. It was BioWare’s effort to build a cinematic RPG in a part of the galaxy far enough from the…
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Howell Ivy
August 1, 2026 · 1 hr 28 minTCW Podcast Episode 263 - Howell Ivy Howell Ivy had a knack for taking familiar arcade ideas and pushing them somewhere new. He discovered video games through Computer Space while serving in the Air Force, and in his off time he built…
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Vectrex
July 15, 2026 · 1 hr 33 minTCW Podcast Episode 262 - Vectrex The Vectrex came with its own screen, plastic color overlays, and roots in the aerospace industry. GCE brought Smith Engineering in to design and develop digital watch games, then calculator games…
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Starfox
July 1, 2026 · 1 hr 13 minTCW Podcast Episode 261 - StarFox Before Star Fox, there was a developer in Britain building copy protection tools, a dinner party that opened the right door, and a Game Boy prototype game that could do something it was never supposed…
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Vivendi Electric Boogaloo
June 15, 2026 · 1 hr 10 minTCW Podcast Episode 260 - Vivendi Electric Boogaloo How does a Canadian liquor company end up owning Universal Studios and, eventually, help create Activision Blizzard? Seagram chased diversification as liquor sales softened, tried to…