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The Retro Hour (Retro Gaming Podcast)

479: Psygnosis, G-Police & Writing FPS History with Stuart Maine - The Retro Hour EP479

The Retro Hour (Retro Gaming Podcast)

The Retro Hour

Technology, Leisure, Video Games

4.9558 Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2025

⏱️ 92 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, we’re joined by game designer and author Stuart Maine, whose 28-year career spans iconic titles like Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper, and G-Police: Weapons of Justice. Stuart shares stories from the heyday of Bullfrog and Psygnosis, reflects on the golden era of first-person shooters, and reveals the wild behind-the-scenes of cancelled games and dev kit coffee tables. Plus, we dive into his latest book Hurt Me Plenty which explores the blockbuster FPS era of 2003–2010.

Contents:

00:00 - The Week's Retro News Stories
37:15 - Stuart Maine Interview

Pre-order Hurt Me Plenty: The Ultimate Guide to First-Person Shooters 2003–2010: https://tinyurl.com/mwtf8juz

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Show notes

Sega opens first shop: https://tinyurl.com/44mb6amr
Sega HQ relocating: https://tinyurl.com/38eyzs3t
New Vectrex shooter from Alan Wake dev: https://tinyurl.com/buup3kwp
WavePhoenix revives classic controller: https://tinyurl.com/ra7a8y9c
Fan remake of Altered Beast: https://tinyurl.com/5n8kn8rs

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Coming up on this week's show, Sega is opening new physical shops.

0:04.9

An amazing new shooter for the Vect Tracks.

0:07.2

And we're joined by game designer and author Stuart Main.

0:14.6

And the Retro Hour podcast is brought to you every Friday with our sponsor, our friends, a bitmap books.

0:24.4

Now, today we're going to be talking all about their amazing new book that lands this month.

0:28.3

You can get it from the 21st of May called Hurt Me Plenty, the Ultimate Guide to First Person Shooters.

0:34.6

Now, this is the follow-up to their last book.

0:36.7

I'm too young to die. And this details of the

0:38.8

years, 2003 to 2010, covering some absolute blockbusters. When that journal went into the big

0:45.9

budget games, Caller Duty, Doom 3, Half-Life 2, and lots more as well. You'll hear more about that

0:50.8

later on on this week's show, but you can check it out in the rest of their retrogaming

0:53.8

collection at bitmapbooks.com.

0:57.2

Hello and welcome to the Retro Hour podcast, episode number 479, your weekly dose of retro gaming and technology news with me, Dan Wood.

1:06.2

Me Ravi Abbott and me, me Joe Fox.

1:08.7

And a very warm welcome to the show, the podcast.

1:11.3

It comes out every single Friday.

1:12.9

And, of course, brings you up to speed on all the big happenings in the wonderful

1:16.7

world of retro gaming and technology from over the last seven days and brings you veterans

1:21.7

of the industry onto the show for an interview in the second half.

1:27.0

And I hope your boys had a good week.

1:29.0

I must have been going out really old school this week.

1:31.5

Actually, we've been there playing around with my mega 65.

...

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