378: Midway Magic and Strategic Simulations: Brian Lowe's Game-Changing Career - The Retro Hour EP378

The Retro Hour (Retro Gaming Podcast)

The Retro Hour

Technology, Leisure, Video Games

4.9 • 558 Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2023

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We sit down with Brian Lowe, a veteran in the gaming industry, known for his work at Strategic Simulations and Midway. We explore his early gaming experiences, his shift from testing to production, and his unique perspective on the evolution of the industry.

Lowe shares his experiences on working on legendary titles like Pools of Darkness, Eye of the Beholder 2, and the challenges of porting games like NBA Hangtime from console to PC, and the pressures of handling high-profile titles like "Mortal Kombat Trilogy." We also hear his perspective on early network gaming, his experiences with systems like the Sega Saturn, and his thoughts on underrated 90's gaming mascots.

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Show notes:

Gran Turismo movie trailer: https://youtu.be/CGboRbiJYjU
Mouse, Noir retro shooter in development: https://bit.ly/3MmSNXY
Golden Axe hack for 32x: https://bit.ly/45hfXHS
386 handheld: https://bit.ly/3IqXbE6

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Coming up on this week's show, the latest big budget video game movie is coming.
0:05.1	An arcade classic comes to the 32X and we taught strategic simulations at Midway with Brian Lowe.
0:20.5	And the Retro Hour podcast is brought to you each and every Friday with our wonderful mates at Bitmap Books.
0:26.7	Now, this is everyone's favourite Amiga book.
0:29.0	Commodore Amiga, a visual compendium.
0:31.8	A real celebration of the 16-bit legendary Commodore machine, celebrating all the early titles like Defender of the Crown,
0:38.5	Barbarian, lots more as well, Marvel Madness is in there, and then those later games,
0:42.4	we all grew up playing Space Harrier, Rainbow Islands, cannon fodder, speedball, worms, of course,
0:47.0	in there as well, a real celebration of the Amiga over 420 pages, and bringing to life
0:53.6	more than 140 of the biggest titles. You can check that out
0:56.6	and the rest of their retro gaming collection right now at bitmapbooks.com. And with our friends
1:03.2	at PCB way. Now they offer a fully featured custom PCB prototyping service with low cost,
1:09.9	fast turnaround quality boards.
1:12.2	So if you're working on a retro project right now, definitely worth checking them out.
1:15.5	They also offer services like 3D printing and injection molding, and they're huge supporters
1:19.8	of the retro community.
1:21.5	So check out their website, get an instant quote for your project right now at PCBway.com.
1:29.0	Hello and welcome to the Retro Hour podcast episode number 378, your weekly dose of
1:35.0	retro gaming and technology news with me, Dan Wood, me Ravi Abbott and me Joe Fox.
1:40.1	And great to be joining us for another hour-ish of Retro Gaming chat, bringing you up to speed on what's been happening in the wonderful world of retro gaming and technology from over the last seven days.
1:50.8	And of course, a veteran of the industry coming on in the second half of the podcast to share some of their memories, their time working in the industry, the incredible games that they've worked on as well, all of that coming up. And, of course, a very busy couple of weeks coming up now that we
2:05.3	are well and truly into summer. So I'm cutting the grass today and my sunglasses on this afternoon.
	...

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