retronauts

Early access: Retronauts Micro 70

Added 2017-09-15 21:31:39 +0000 UTC

For this week's Micro episode, I managed to line up an interview with David Craddock about his new book on the history of video games on the Apple II, Break Out. You might recall I referenced Break Out back in our dedicated Apple II episode; I read through an early draft of the book last year, and I found it to be absolutely jam-packed with information, anecdotes, and historical perspective. I know David from having worked with him on Retro magazine — despite that publication's sometimes bumpy history, he was a hard-working, straight-shooting EIC, and that work ethic shines through in Break Out. It's sincerely one of the finest books on video game history I've ever read. So, I was happy to get David on the show (hopefully not for the last time) to share some behind-the-scenes insights into putting his new work together.

You may notice that today is not Sept. 28, despite what we say in the show. His publisher apparently pushed the book's release forward a couple of weeks, and the copy I ordered arrived a few days ago from Amazon... so we decided to go ahead and post this episode a little early to match.

Anyway, it's a good conversation about a great book. Like I said on the show, Retronauts is not profiting from its sales in any way. We just believe in supporting top-flight work about the medium's history. If you're interested in Break Out, I give it my full recommendation. You can buy it at Amazon. (If you prefer to wait and see, we'll be running an excerpt from the book's Oregon Trail chapter on retronauts.com next week.)