Cover of They Create Worlds

They Create Worlds

They Create Worlds

By: Alex Smith and Jeffrey Daum
Listen for free

Season's Savings | 0.99 €/month for 3 months

5.99 €/month thereafter - terms apply. Cancel monthly.

The games we love reveal something true about who we are, and about the world that made them. They Create Worlds is a podcast about the people, technology, and forces that built the video game industry.

Through video game history, the show looks at how culture, business, and technology shaped what we play, tracing the choices and circumstances that led to the games so many people around the world enjoy.

Each episode digs into where games came from, who made them, and why they were made the way they were. Business decisions, technological shifts, and creative choices all shaped what ended up on screen, and the show covers all of it together, not just one piece in isolation.

Hosted by Alex Smith and Jeffrey Daum, They Create Worlds grew out of long conversations about the strange corners of the industry and the patterns that only show up when you look across companies, platforms, and decades. That conversational feel remains, built on careful research, clear structure and editing that makes even the deepest topics easy to listen to.

History turns out to be less settled than it looks. New documents surface, memories conflict, and the clean stories about why things happened the way they did rarely survive contact with the evidence. The show digs into all of that, following the creative and business forces that pushed and pulled on each other, and uncovering the human stories that lie beneath the games so many people around the world enjoy.

New episodes are released twice a month.

Copyright 2015-2026 . All rights reserved.
Episodes
  • Mortal Kombat
    1 Nov 2026
    TCW Podcast Episode 269 - Mortal Kombat What began as a stopgap project at Williams/Midway became one of the defining fighting-game franchises of the 1990s. Warren Davis returned to rebuild Williams’ video game division with a belief that 256-color hardware and digitized actors could give games a new level of visual realism. Truevision’s TARGA board made true-color image capture dramatically faster, and Davis adapted it into WTARGA, a system that could turn those images into game graphics. Eugene Jarvis returned to lead the division and drove development of new hardware built around the Texas Instruments TMS34010 graphics processor and Mark Loffredo’s VLI blitter chip. Two teams began developing games for the platform, one for the ultimately canceled USAA and another for NARC. Elsewhere in the division, Ed Boon moved from pinball to High Impact Football, while John Tobias joined the Smash TV team. The two became friends and began imagining a fighting game shaped as much by what they disliked about Street Fighter II as by what they admired in the genre. When Midway needed a project to keep staff and equipment active between larger releases, their game moved into production. It began as a proposed Jean-Claude Van Damme licensed game, but his agent turned it down. Tobias instead turned to martial artists Richard Divizio, Daniel Pesina, and Carlos Pesina, who had all appeared as Foot Clan extras in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. During digitization sessions, Divizio brought in a rope dart, inspiring Scorpion’s signature attack. Built in roughly eight months by a four-person team handling art, music, programming, and design, Mortal Kombat was made on a budget of about $1 million. Its tests beside a Street Fighter II cabinet went so well that management asked for another fighter, leading to Sonya Blade, modeled on fitness instructor and dancer Elizabeth Malecki. The arcade game sold more than 20,000 machines, but the real explosion came at home. Acclaim used its right of first refusal for Williams/Midway games to create “Mortal Monday,” launching versions for the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, and Game Gear on the same day. A three-person team rushed the Super Nintendo port through Nintendo’s strict content rules, while Sega allowed blood and fatalities behind a deliberately publicized code. A chip shortage forced Acclaim to persuade Nintendo to use US government-specification chips at a 10-cent surcharge per cartridge, while Sega cartridges were packed with lettuce to move more quickly through U.S. customs after arriving from Mexico. The coordinated launch sold three million copies in its first three weeks, with Sega’s uncensored version outselling Nintendo’s. TCW 041 - Beating Them All Up: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW041-beating-them-all-up TCW 231 - Street Fighter 2: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW231-street-fighter-2 TCW 059 - Williams' Crazy Story Pt 1: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW059-williams-crazy-story-pt-1 TCW 060 - Williams' Crazy Story Pt 2: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW060-williams-crazy-story-pt-2 TCW 116 - The Atari Games You Are Looking For: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW116-the-atari-games-you-are-looking-for TCW 090 - Lion and Bally Manufacturing: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW090-lion-and-bally-manufacturing TCW 091 - Bally: The Road to Fitness: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW091-bally-the-road-to-fitness TCW 149 - Gottlieb Part 1: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW149-gottlieb-part-1 TCW 150 - Gottlieb Part 2: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW150-gottlieb-part-2 Journey (Midway 1983): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2h-bCOI4WU TCW 132 - Eugene Jarvis: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW132-eugene-jarvis NARC (Arcade): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEYgjLRJVyQ Smash TV (Arcade): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIPn7RZJ4vg High Impact Football (Arcade): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A90DJZGwMQ4 Super High Impact Football (Arcade): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDIAOJ7LxoU Total Carnage (Arcade): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbtlOTTz_Xc Terminator 2 (Arcade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erbk--Q4ovw Universal Soldier (Trailer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v32Yu-h7UzE Bloodsport (Trailer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCZ1CIQ64YQ Mortal Kombat Filming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-AECxvqObs Rope Dart Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu_VdDDFuqA Mortal Kombat Fatalities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv0IfWkS75A Mortal Kombat - All Characters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtqHgV0vcRUs Mortal Kombat Commercial 1993: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVQkKmEkwzw Mortal Kombat (SNES): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln_Hu0uOng0 Mortal Kombat (Genesis): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36zOb9iFg0k Mortal Kombat (Game Gear): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba0T-a8LdRI ...
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 45 min
  • Dragon Quest Part 2
    15 Oct 2026
    TCW Podcast Episode 268 - Dragon Quest Part 2 Yuji Horii continued developing adventure games after The Portopia Serial Murder Case, but his growing interest in Ultima and Wizardry led him to incorporate role-playing elements into his work. Karuizawa Yūkai Annai combined adventure-game investigation with Ultima style overworld exploration and a climactic fighting sequence that included leveling, showing Horii’s desire to bring RPG ideas into a different kind of game. As the Famicom became a phenomenon in Japan, Weekly Shōnen Jump editor Kazuhiko Torishima created Famicom Shinken, a regular feature covering games, tips, and tricks. Its material became so popular that the magazine placed it in special envelopes to prevent readers from copying the information without buying an issue. Enix, meanwhile, brought PC successes including Door Door and The Portopia Serial Murder Case to the Famicom. When dedicated game magazines began competing for that audience, Torishima reshaped Famicom Shinken around an inside look at the creation of a new game. He brought together Horii and Koichi Nakamura, who wanted to make an RPG, with Enix as publisher and Shōnen Jump as the source of exclusive development coverage. Torishima also recruited Akira Toriyama, then at the height of Dragon Ball’s success, to design the game’s characters. Horii and Nakamura combined Ultima’s overworld and exploration with Wizardry’s combat and detailed monsters, while Nakamura developed a menu system inspired by the recently released Apple Macintosh. Composer Koichi Sugiyama joined after responding to an Enix survey card for a Shogi game, bringing a new musical approach to Dragon Quest. The first game succeeded, but its sequels turned it into a cultural phenomenon: Dragon Quest II expanded the party to three characters and added broader storytelling, while word of mouth, a delay, and a cartridge shortage drove demand even higher. By Dragon Quest III, the series had become so popular that it sold one million copies on its first day, and store owners held a midweek resupply until the weekend at the urging of the National Police Agency, helping create the enduring myth that new Dragon Quest games could only be released on weekends. TCW 114 - The Wizards of Sir-Tech: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW114-the-wizards-of-sir-tech TCW 115 - The Return of the Sdraziw of Sir-Tech: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW115-the-return-of-the-sdraziw-of-sir-tech THE HOKKAIDO SERIAL MURDER CASE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHWnvyK7uvc THE KARUIZAWA KIDNAPPING GUIDE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0WGusYjg0E Harvey Birdman - Not there, there!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeRTo8MuTrw TCW 181 - The Fabric of Koei: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW181-the-fabric-of-koei Karuizawa Yūkai Annai (Part 8): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhKXziP2JwU Karuizawa Yūkai Annai (End): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m56mYPiauQ TCW 134 - Famicom: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW134-famicom TCW 135 - The Famicom Disc System: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW135-the-famicom-disc-system TCW 253 - Masanobu Endō: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW253-masanobu-endo Door Door (Famicom): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrN0_iGy2DA The Portopia Serial Murder Case (Famicom): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcQhnJxP7qU TCW 011 - The Genesis of JRPGs: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW011-the-genesis-of-jrpgs Slime concept art: https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonquest/comments/1rmxfgy/do_you_know_the_original_idea_behind_the_slime/ Dragon Quest 1 Art: https://dragon-quest.org/wiki/Category:Dragon_Quest_I_official_art Wizardry 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uUHjeWJLUs Dragon Warrior 1 (NES): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmzHrNVelL0 Dragon Quest (Famicom) Cart, Manual, and gamplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f62DSsg9NXU Morita Kazuro no Shogi (PC 98): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oDGHVj5ask How to play shogi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ABrpbjoHCk Wingman 2 (PC 8801): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_M2ARASwps The Road to Dragon Quest: https://archive.org/details/roadtodragonquestmanga/Road%20to%20Dragon%20Quest%20%28Searchable%29/ The Road to Dragon Quest (Translated): https://mangadex.org/title/9d751491-a72d-41ae-8d95-3cb420a9d582/the-road-to-dragon-quest Dragon Warrior NES OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_jq0eqJKHU&list=PLo-SH6FNUdp3oJua5LbxQ9VL8LOyRVTFl Dragon Quest Symphonic Suite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-ZqUPMwoSg&list=PLhdWViYE-gnm2kSB2wnAPcq7wbbMNohfr 2020 Tokyo Olympics - Opening Ceremony - Dragon Quest Overture: https://youtu.be/6u6uCbe6zh8?t=3080 Dragon Warrior II (NES): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4NsE4tpb6k Dragon Warrior II Map: https://mikesrpgcenter.com/dw2/maps/world.html Dragon Warrior III (NES): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNnlkwdXNow New episodes are on the 1st and 15th of every month! TCW Email: feedback@...
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 40 min
  • Dragon Quest Part 1
    1 Oct 2026
    TCW Podcast Episode 267 - Dragon Quest Part 1 Kazuhiko Torishima is not well known outside Japan, especially in relation to video games, but the Weekly Shōnen Jump editor was instrumental in bringing together many of the people behind Dragon Quest. He encouraged Akira Toriyama early in his career, helping him develop the work that led to his first major hit, Dr. Slump. Torishima’s friendship with Weekly Playboy writer Akira Sakuma, built around their shared interest in video games, introduced him to Yuji Horii. Torishima gave Horii regular opportunities to write about computers and games for Shōnen Jump, which drew Enix’s attention as it prepared a contest for game submissions. Horii entered Love Match Tennis for fun and, while covering the contest, discovered that it had won alongside Koichi Nakamura’s Door Door. The two became friends, while Nakamura went on to port Door Door to multiple platforms and found Chunsoft. Enix later sent the contest winners to AppleFest, where Horii, Nakamura, and Torishima encountered Wizardry. Meanwhile, Horii’s work on adventure games produced The Portopia Serial Murder Case, a hugely influential game often credited with helping establish the popularity of visual novels in Japan. These connections, shared interests, and early successes brought together the people who would create the Dragon Quest phenomenon. TCW 011 - The Genesis of JRPGs: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW011-the-genesis-of-jrpgs Tomato The Cutesy Gumshoe: https://www.viz.com/shonenjump/akira-toriyamas-manga-theater-chapter-3/chapter/23730 TCW 053 - The History and Merger of Enix and Square: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW053-the-history-and-merger-of-enix-and-square TCW 074 - The Japanese PC Industry: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW074-the-japanese-pc-industry Love Match Tennis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jdbvLs3QgI TCW 101 - The Fabric of Koei: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW181-the-fabric-of-koei TCW 102 - The Koei Dynasty: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW182-the-koei-dynasty Door Door (NEC PC 9801): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiM5d0jWQy8 Door Door (Fujitsu Micro-7): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk4PcFwzQsc TCW 114 - The Wizards of Sir-Tech: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW114-the-wizards-of-sir-tech TCW 115 - The Return of the Sdraziw of Sir-Tech: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW115-the-return-of-the-sdraziw-of-sir-tech Wizard and the Princess (PC Jr): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTbeYX9BVcs The Portopia Serial Murder Case (PC 8801): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSeDy0qCZQU New episodes are on the 1st and 15th of every month! TCW Email: feedback@theycreateworlds.com BlueSky: @theycreateworlds.bsky.social Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theycreateworlds Alex's Video Game History Blog: http://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com Alex's book: http://bit.ly/TCWBOOK1 Intro Music: Josh Woodward - Airplane Mode - Music - "Airplane Mode" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/AirplaneMode Outro Music: RoleMusic - Bacterial Love: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Rolemusic/Pop_Singles_Compilation_2014/01_rolemusic_-_bacterial_love Copyright: Attribution: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 16 min
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet