Interview: Phil Salvador (The Obscuritory)

The Life & Times of Video Games

I speak to librarian, games critic, and blogger Phil Salvador about his website The Obscuritory and his research and writing on games unplayed and unknown. In a far-reaching interview, conducted in late February, 2020 (and thus before the full brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the West), we explore the challenges, rewards, and lessons we've each found in writing about little-known areas of games history, as well as the importance of being kind and much, much more.

This is the third entry in a new series of interviews I'm running alongside the main show — every month(ish) I'll talk to a different person who's exploring games history, in one way or another, to learn about the many ways people are preserving the games industry's past as well as to further our understanding of how this wonderful medium (and the industry that's built around it) has come to be the way it is now. Follow the "games history explorers" tag or the Interviews category on my website to see them all. (Or just search the show feed in your podcast player for episodes that begin with "Interview:".)

Links:

• Carly Kocurek (she's been researching the girl games movement, amongst other things)
• Control Monger freeware shooter game on Obscuritory
• Bring on the Old and Obscure at Archive.vg
• Bad Game Hall of Fame
• MobyGames user review of Destiny, a game that's like Civilization but terrible
• Knights of the Crystallion on The Obscuritory
• The Colony developer memoir; my book, The Secret History of Mac Gaming, tells more of the story behind the game
• Phil's article on one of Cyberflix's games, Lunicus; my book has some general info and a few insider quotes on the company's rise and fall
• Phil's interview with Bob Stein of the Voyager Company
• Millennium Auction article on Obscuritory
• The CRPG Book
• Mystery Science Theater on Wikipedia
• SimHealth article on The Obscuritory
• Video Game History Foundation co-director Kelsey Lewin's tweet about a pregnancy tracker for Wonderswan
• Treasure Quest Wikipedia entry
• Continuum (I also have a video about it and I covered it in my book)
• Emily Reid's Speculation Jam
• My talk on the rise and fall of Ambrosia Software
• Secret Writer's Society article on The Obscuritory
• Angst: A Tale in Urban Survival download
• Freedom: Rebels in the Darkness article on The Obscuritory
• Magfest
• Mysterium
• Keeping the Game Alive article/community profile on Eurogamer
• GTA Secret Hunters article/community profile on Ars Technica
• Tecmo Super Bowl fan and modding community
• Hamster Republic RPG engine
• Phil's Twitter handle is @ItsTheShadsy
• My book: https://secrethistoryofmacgaming.com/
• Life & Times of Games on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lifeandtimesofvideogames
• Twitter: @LifeandTimesVG
• Instagram: @lifeandtimesvg
• Podcast website: https://lifeandtimes.games

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