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The Retro Hour (Retro Gaming Podcast)

504: “I’d Never Even Seen a Computer Until I Worked at Sierra!” – Mark Crowe on Space Quest - The Retro Hour Podcast EP504

The Retro Hour (Retro Gaming Podcast)

The Retro Hour

Leisure, Technology, Video Games

4.9558 Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2025

⏱️ 100 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week we're joined by Sierra legend Mark Crowe, co-creator of the Space Quest series and one half of the iconic Two Guys from Andromeda. Mark reveals how he went from never touching a computer to helping define the golden age of adventure gaming, working alongside Roberta Williams, Disney, and a hapless space janitor named Roger Wilco. Plus, we hear about the long-awaited reunion that brought Space Venture to life.


Contents:

00:00 - The Week's Retro News Stories 
58:10 - Mark Crowe Interview 


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Show notes

Sugar Ghouls: https://tinyurl.com/4kjjxvw2
Amiga Addict Amiga Format issue: https://tinyurl.com/53vsfmtd
The A1200: https://tinyurl.com/538trdxx
MD Engine: https://tinyurl.com/yea8r8fn
New Barcode Battler cards: https://tinyurl.com/y33362mk
Intellivision Amico prototype sold: https://tinyurl.com/9ze43yf8
Deep Sea Horror Shooter Inspired By Star Fox 64: https://tinyurl.com/ymn9je3r

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Coming up on this week's show, details of Retro Games Limited's The A-1200 are here.

0:06.2

One of the weirdest consoles ever makes a return.

0:08.8

And we chat SpaceQuest and Sierra with Video Games designer Mark Crow.

0:18.4

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

0:27.0

of Bitmap Books.

0:28.1

Now, of course, today on the show, lots of talk about classic adventure games.

0:32.2

And if you love that genre, one of their books you need to check out.

0:34.7

There's actually in stock right now is the art of point andand-click adventure games. Now, weighing in at more than 520 pages, features some of the most legendary games in that genre, including stuff like Kingsquest, Miss, Discworld, Blade Runner, Gabriel Knight, the Dig Monkey Island, of course, is in there as well. If you love your point and click adventure, so you can check it out right now.

0:55.8

And the rest of their retro gaming collection, have a look at bitmapbooks.com.

1:01.4

Hello, and welcome to the Retro Hour podcast, episode number 504, your weekly dose of retro gaming

1:07.6

and technology news with me, Dan Wood. Me Ravi Abbott.

1:16.8

And a very warm welcome to this week's show that lands, of course, on Halloween.

1:22.8

You can't help yourself.

1:45.2

That's just my normal speaking voice after Amiga Germany a couple of weeks ago. I'm sounding a little bit croaky. Nothing to do with all the alcohol that Ravi and I consumed. That was two weeks ago now. But yeah, if you were out there at the huge Amiga Germany event two weeks ago, we're going to update you a little bit on some of the big announcements from there in just a bit. And actually, we've got some big, exciting Amiga news.

1:47.4

If you're a fan of Amiga magazines back in the day, Ravi,

1:48.3

we're going to talk about in a minute.

1:49.4

Yeah, definitely.

1:53.6

We'll hold the gold and talk about it later. But I knew that you guys would go cheesy on Halloween

1:56.7

because you absolutely love it.

1:58.6

You know, I'm more of a bonfire man myself, but I know you guys love to kind of pick some games that you've been playing and have a spooky selection of stories as well. Don't drag me down with it. It's all. It's not me. As I've said before, every day's Halloween in Joe's house. It's all horror games, isn't it?

2:32.7

As you may have noticed in the last couple of weeks, we did think that actually, that we would, because the show does land on October 31st, you know, Halloween on Friday, of course. We thought we'd talk about a couple of games because Joe and I love our spooky games for Halloween that were going to be playing. I do always talk about one game in particular, Jack in the Dark,

2:34.0

which was this 1993

...

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