Tuesday, December 28, 2010

SnoutCast #47: "Before Midnight"

This week's guest: Don Luskin, one of the creators of "The Game" which directly inspired the movie Midnight Madness. See Puzzalot's history posts for more background, including newspaper clippings.

ALSO: We're on vacation for the next two weeks. SnoutCast will return on January 18, 2011. Happy New Year!


[ Download mp3 - 37 MB ]

No show notes this week--just listen. It's good for you.

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "A Talk with George" by Jonathan Coulton

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CKL DeeAnn Jasper

3 comments:

ubragg said...

Thanks guys, this one was truly riveting, easily my favorite episode to date. I would have happily listened to Don talk for hours on the Games from his era. It would be awesome to have him back for more some time if he and you were up for it. Like DeeAnn mentioned, this only barely scratched the surface.

Some random thoughts:
- I'm impressed how many of the details of the Game mechanics haven't changed. The old school version of time-released hints, nice!

- It seemed pretty clear that the competitive aspects of the Game were important to Don in his era, as they were in Midnight Madness, and as far as I can tell, in the early Belfiore Games as well, which always had clear winners. So then what is the origin of the totally non-competitive approach to Games that seems to be popular with some factions of "old school" Gamers? This probably isn't a question for Don, but I am genuinely curious.

- I wonder if that fancy trophy they made still exists somewhere. Now that would be a cool item for a future Game museum, which will certainly happen sooner or later. It might be interesting to see if it is around.

- I also wonder about the folks that participated in Don's games in the 70's. Do many of them know about the modern versions? I love that Don has played in some of them and enjoyed them, it might be great to see if there are others still around that might be interested. There had to be some other enthusiasts in the bunch that would be delighted to pick it back up again. And maybe one of them has that trophy! :)

Anyway, thanks for the holiday surprise, enjoy the Jonathan Coulton Cruise, and see you at the GC Summit next month!

lahosken said...

"further interviews?"

Anyone have Sondheim's phone number?

Skott said...

"Thanks guys, this one was truly riveting, easily my favorite episode to date."

"Anyone have Sondheim's phone number?"

Both things I wanted to say, already said.