466: Deus Ex, System Shock & Origin Systems: Harvey Smith Tells All - The Retro Hour EP466

The Retro Hour (Retro Gaming Podcast)

The Retro Hour

Technology, Leisure, Video Games

4.9 • 558 Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2025

⏱️ 100 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, we chat to Harvey Smith, the legendary designer behind Deus Ex, System Shock, and Area 51! From his early days playing D&D and Ultima Underworld to working at Origin Systems on Super Wing Commander. We hear about the challenges of designing Deus Ex, working alongside Warren Spector, and the technical innovations that made it a classic!

Contents:

00:00 - The Week's Retro News Stories
37:43 - Harvey Smith Interview

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Show notes

Mortal Kombat II for 3DO: https://tinyurl.com/mjf9hewr
PS2 memory card that can run your entire library: https://youtu.be/mdxDRtfEXNg
Dream Ride – a new Skidmarks style game for the Dreamcast: https://tinyurl.com/vnysuarv
Tang FPGA console: https://tinyurl.com/pp3jhzun

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Coming up on this week's show, a legendary fighter arrives on the 3DO.
0:05.3	Run your entire PS2 library from a memory card.
0:08.4	And we chat with Harvey Smith about the origins of immersive sims.
0:19.2	And the Retro Hour podcast is brought to you each and every week with our incredible friends,
0:24.7	our sponsor Bitmap Books.
0:26.2	Now, one of their best books you need to check out.
0:28.6	I'm Too Young to Die, the Ultimate Guide to First Person Shooters, covering the years 1992 to 2002
0:37.4	and celebrating more than 180 games.
0:41.4	All the big ones are in there, Doom, Quake, Half-Life, DaySX.
0:45.5	And of course, we'll be talking about this week's interview.
0:47.6	Golden I-O-7, the Halo games are in there too.
0:50.4	So you've got to check this out, an incredible book,
0:52.4	celebrating the biggest genre in gaming and weighing in at more than 420 pages.
0:58.2	You can check it out and the rest of their retro gaming collection at bitmapbooks.com.
1:03.9	Hello and welcome to the Retro Hour podcast, episode number 466, your weekly dose of retro gaming and technology news with me, Dan Wood.
1:12.8	Me, Ravi Abbott, and me, Joe Fox.
1:15.4	And a very warm welcome to the show. In fact, our first episode of February. I did say that on
1:20.8	last week's podcast. It came out on January 31st, which a few people pointed out on the YouTube
1:26.1	comments. Thank you for that.
1:27.9	But, of course, first podcast of the month.
1:29.8	And I think we should maybe give the virtual birthday bumps to our lad, Ravi, Joe.
1:35.8	Let's beat him up.
	...

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