GWJ Conference Call Episode 404

Master of Magic, Sim City 2000, Tie Fighter, Doom II, Marathon, Our Favorite Games of 1994, An Interview With Rand Miller of Cyan Worlds, Your Emails and More!

Our inter-dimensional flux technology has captured an alternate-dimension episode of the Conference Call! This one is from December 28th, 1994. Listen in on our alternate selves as we talk about our favorite games of 1994. Julian also interviews Rand Miller, Co-founder of Cyan Worlds and Co-creator of MYST!

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind. You can even send a 30 second audio question or comment (MP3 format please) if you're so inclined.

Chairman_Mao's Timestamps
00.02.59 Master of Magic
00.11.35 Marathon
00.16.59 Doom II
00.23.00 This week's topic: Our favorite games of 1994!
00.23.19 TIE Fighter
00.30.05 Wing Commander III
00.34.29 Earthworm Jim
00.38.11 NHL 94
00.39.53 Flight Unlimited
00.42.25 Sim City 2000
00.44.35 The Elder Scrolls: Arena
00.48.18 Master of Orion
00.52.16 X-Com
00.55.01 Donkey Kong Country
00.55.54 Sam and Max
00.56.40 Myst
00.58.08 Interview with Rand Miller, creator of Myst
01.13.55 Your emails!

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Entryway - Doom 2 - http://doom.com/ - 22:29

Myst Theme - Myst - http://cyan.com/games/myst/ - 57:43

Title Theme - Donkey Kong Country - http://donkeykong.nintendo.com/ - 1:13:00

Comments

Podcast not found.

56 MEGS? Do you know how much of my hard disc drive that's going to take up?

Dr_Awkward wrote:

56 MEGS? Do you know how much of my hard disc drive that's going to take up?

Do you know how long I need to tie up the phone line and hope no one breaks through the call waiting? My parents won't let me deactivate the call waiting

But... Rand Miller? Seriously? This will totally be worth the wait! I hope this means we'll get other special guests like John Carmack or Roberta & Ken Williams on some time!

Xeknos wrote:

Podcast not found.

Seems ok to me?

shoptroll wrote:
Dr_Awkward wrote:

56 MEGS? Do you know how much of my hard disc drive that's going to take up?

Do you know how long I need to tie up the phone line and hope no one breaks through the call waiting? My parents won't let me deactivate the call waiting

But... Rand Miller? Seriously? This will totally be worth the wait! I hope this means we'll get other special guests like John Carmack or Roberta & Ken Williams on some time!

The worst part of being on dialup is that my mother will sometimes forget and pick up the phone and then start apologising when she realizes that she broke the connection.

(Also, we won't get internet at home until 1996.)

Gremlin wrote:

(Also, we won't get internet at home until 1996.)

(I think we had dial-up via AOL in late '94. I wouldn't get broadband at home until 2002, and I remember having to use dial-up to check my college email freshman year. The horror!)

Certis wrote:
Xeknos wrote:

Podcast not found.

Seems ok to me?

No, no, the link works, I was just making a poor joke about the number. Sorry.

plavonica wrote:
Xeknos wrote:
Certis wrote:
Xeknos wrote:

Podcast not found.

Seems ok to me?

No, no, the link works, I was just making a poor joke about the number. Sorry.

Don't feel bad. I came here to post the same dumb joke.

I just got it... Guess this is going to be a 3 cup of coffee kind of morning.

And here's the equivalent video that we'll be laughing at 20 years from now:

Edit: Also, I miss LORD, a lot.

That modem noise!

shoptroll wrote:

That modem noise! :D

We figured it was the best way to get people in the mood. It was that or Ace of Base.

Thanks for making me 34 years old again. I can't wait to tell my wife & kids.

Fantastic episode guys! Your phone quality is amazing. Either that, or you were all in the same room.

Any chance of hearing outtakes (if any) from the show?

Well played guys, you had me at 1200 baud.

If you think story doesn't matter, "especially in first person," then you obviously didn't play Betrayal At Krondor last year, or any of the Wing Commander games. And if that's the case, then you're dead to me.

Dead.

I don't buy that Elder Scrolls is big deal. Sounds like they tried to do a first-person Ultima 7 and failed.

So pissed that my December PC Gamer demo disc is unreadable!! Was really looking forward to giving Wing Commander III a try.

Thanks for reading my question. It's nice to see at least Julian has my back on King's Quest VII (even if he cannot pronounce "Mario" correctly). For those of you with sound cards who haven't had the "pleasure" of hearing The Girl in The Tower (I guess none of you paid attention to the NPR campaign to get it on the radio), I've attached an extracted version of it to this message.

I'm still in shock you guys got one of the Miller brothers on the show for an interview. What a great exclusive this month!

I picked up Master of Magic on boxing day at the local Electronics Boutique, and I haven't slept much over the last couple of days.

I think I'll have to leave the box at home when I head back to school next week. I've got 2nd year Electromagnetism next semester, and staying up all night casting lightning bolts isn't going to help my grade any.

(Thanks for the great trip. Turning forty next Wednesday. Nope, not feeling old!)

shoptroll wrote:

Thanks for reading my question. It's nice to see at least Julian has my back on King's Quest VII (even if he cannot pronounce "Mario" correctly). For those of you with sound cards who haven't had the "pleasure" of hearing The Girl in The Tower (I guess none of you paid attention to the NPR campaign to get it on the radio), I've attached an extracted version of it to this message.

I'm still in shock you guys got one of the Miller brothers on the show for an interview. What a great exclusive this month!

All the people disrespecting this song need to check themselves. I could see it fitting perfectly in the end credits of a movie based on KQ6, probably with Kevin Costner as Prince Alexander.

Games and books and movies are ways for us to entertain ourselves and feel deep emotional swells in an edifying context where beautiful people wear cool clothes while interacting peacefully with other cultures. If that's not what you're looking for, then I guess you can go back to the '80s!

Sorry for the rant.

So great, guys. I've had a smile on my face all day.

I wish my parents could afford a RAM upgrade. I just flipped through PC Gameplay (a new Belgian PC gaming magazine), seems like every freaking game has a 4MB RAM requirement! I want to play XCOM damn it!

Also: this 386DX40 owner is jealous of your almighty 486DX2-66 If you also have 16MB RAM and a 14" SVGA screen I will cry myself to sleep tonight.

Interacting "peacefully"? That's funny considering how many times that genie tried to kill me.

Edit: To be fair, Sierra did step up their songwriting. The Ballad of Freddy Pharkas always brings a huge smile to my face.

Paraphrased Certis wrote:

"When you turn the music off on Doom it's a whole other experience."

*Cough*

My house still doesn't have Internet so I'm using one of the computers at the library right now, but I got the CD and am still listening to it when I can borrow my brother's player. Y'know, when he's not busy listening to Nirvana and Mudhoney.

I am thoroughly disappointed in all of you for not mentioning Super Nintendo games so far. Shame. Shame shame shame.

ccesarano wrote:

I am thoroughly disappointed in all of you for not mentioning Super Nintendo games so far. Shame. Shame shame shame.

I tried to ask a question about Super Metroid but they opted not to read that part of my email

Ah, here we go. 34 minutes in.

Certis wrote:

It's been kind of a rough year for console games...

You're all dead to me.

shoptroll wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

I am thoroughly disappointed in all of you for not mentioning Super Nintendo games so far. Shame. Shame shame shame.

I tried to ask a question about Super Metroid but they opted not to read that part of my email :(

No love for the Amiga 500 either. Sensible Soccer anyone? And you forgot Pizza Tycoon too, another smash hit published by Microprose this year.

shoptroll wrote:

Interacting "peacefully"? That's funny considering how many times that genie tried to kill me.

Edit: To be fair, Sierra did step up their songwriting. The Ballad of Freddy Pharkas always brings a huge smile to my face.

That game was hilarious!

I miss Tie Fighter sooooo much. If I had been listening to that before getting the game, the anticipation would have killed me.

Loved the show, from the intro on through. In fact, when I got the handshake tones I thought my phone was doing something odd (I was in the car).

You guys did an amazing job staying in character, I only noticed a couple times where you may have used anachronisms (did we say 4x space game or first-person shooter back then?).

More than anything else, the choice of 1994 was interesting to me. That was a time when I had kinda drifted away from games in general, and moreso PC games. Sadly, I never played Tie Fighter, although I had X-Wing (with expansions) and X-Wing Alliance, I never got to experience the joy of being an Imperial pilot.

Again (as always) great show.