Episode 143: The Andrew Nelson Collection

More from Video Game History Hour

1. 

   S2 · E146 · 24 Dec 2025 · 1 hr 1 min

   Episode 146: A Monograph of Todd Howard

   Phil Salvador hosts a discussion with Dr. Wendi Sierra, author of Todd Howard: World Building in Tamriel and Beyond , and Emily Higgs Kopin. Dr. Sierra’s, associate professor of games studies at Texas Christian University, book follows the career history of the Bethesda Game Studios executive producer and his influence on game design throughout the years. Emily Kopin, head of digital collections strategy at the Swarthmore College Libraries, joins us as our guest expert on the Elder Scrolls franchise to make up for Phil’s tragic lack of extended time spent in this expansive universe. Wendi…

2. 

   S2 · E145 · 28 Nov 2025 · 1 hr 45 min

   Episode 145: The 40th Anniversary of the NES: A PRGE Panel

   At this year’s Portland Retro Gaming Expo, VGHF director Frank Cifaldi had the pleasure of hosting a panel celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System launch. Frank moderated 3 guests who were at Nintendo of America during this time: Gail Tilden, Marketing; Bruce Lowery, Sales; and Lance Barr, Product Design. This event was particularly special as two of these three guests had never before attended a retro convention. The panel discussion includes many visual elements, including many never shown publicly before, and some pre-recorded messages from additional people…

3. 

   S2 · E144 · 13 Nov 2025 · 1 hr 13 min

   Episode 144: Phil Salvador - A Rule-Following Hooligan

   Let’s all learn what makes our Library Director, Phil Salvador, Phil Salvador! Producer Robin Kunimune sat down with Phil to learn all about his life as a youth, an early path to his passions, creating chaos inside the lines, the mental health struggles many face in early adulthood, finding his community, and making his way to VGHF. And, don’t forget the birds! Phil candidly shares his failures, successes, and everything in-between in this week’s episode. Take a listen. You can listen to the Video Game History Hour every other Wednesday on Patreon (one day early at the $5 tier and above), on…

4. 

   S2 · E142 · 15 Oct 2025 · 1 hr 31 min

   Episode 142: October Update

   It’s another quarterly update! Host Robin Kunimune talks with Frank Cifaldi and Phil Salvador about our recent work. From Chicago travel to launching Computer Entertainer, from our new Booth-in-a-Box to 4,000 magazines archived, from NES’s 40th to building Lego; come find out just how many new collections we've added in the last few months. You can listen to the Video Game History Hour every other Wednesday on Patreon (one day early at the $5 tier and above), on Spotify , or on our website . Video Game History Foundation: Email: podcast@gamehistory.org Website: gamehistory.org Support us on…

5. 

   S2 · E141 · 2 Oct 2025 · 58 min

   Episode 141: Hidden Advertising of Feminine Games

   Phil Salvador interviews Dr. Stephanie Harkin, lecturer at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) School of Design Games Program in Australia, about her research on femininity in gaming, particularly in girls' lifestyle magazines. Dr. Harkin discusses her journey from media studies to focusing on feminine games. She highlights her findings on the lack of representation of feminine games in traditional gaming magazines and her discovery of Girl Gamer magazine, which promoted Nintendo games in a lifestyle format. We explore the coverage of games in magazines like Total Girl and the…

6. 

   S2 · E140 · 17 Sep 2025 · 1 hr 3 min

   Episode 140: The 49 Ways of Sinistar

   Host Frank Cifaldi is joined by documentarian, historian, hacker, and all around cool guy SynaMax to talk about their documentary Resurrecting Sinistar: A Cyber-Archaeology Documentary . The 1983 top-down space shooter arcade game’s unique 49-way joystick allowed players to pilot their spaceship to prevent a giant skull, Sinistar, from forming. SynaMax interviewed developers, restored cut content, and emulated the game itself to better explore the challenges the development team faced due to limited storage and to highlight the importance of source code preservation. SynaMax recently hosted…

7. 

   S2 · E165 · 8 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 17 min

   Episode 165: VGHF Q3 Update

   It’s time for another quarterly update seeing as how we’re now well into October. In this episode, we share some of our latest accomplishments: hitting a milestone of over 5,000 magazines digitized, completing our donor-data cleanup, new project-specific giving initiatives, major technical upgrades to our Japanese-language OCR and large image galleries (which helped power the successful launch of our E3 historical collection), active community research for the first EULA, and so much more! You can listen to the Video Game History Hour every other Wednesday on Patreon (one day early at the $5…

8. 

   S2 · E164 · 23 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 4 min

   Episode 164: National Virtual Forum for Digital Games in Libraries (DGIL)

   Phil Salvador is joined by Dr. Colin Post and Marisa Marzilli from University of North Carolina at Greensboro to discuss their upcoming Digital Games in Libraries (DGIL) National Virtual Forum , a conversation for the cultural preservation of digital-only indie video games to be held October 29-30 . In this episode they introduce the DGIL initiative and its origin, discuss collection models, and ideate on future phases and resources for these efforts. You can listen to the Video Game History Hour every other Wednesday on Patreon (one day early at the $5 tier and above), on Spotify , or on…

9. 

   S2 · E163 · 11 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 9 min

   Episode 163: The Complexities of EULAs

   Phil Salvador interviews Amy Thomas, legal expert and author of Copyright, Contract, and Video Games: Terms of Play , about the evolving landscape of digital rights and ownership in gaming. In this episode, Amy discusses her journey from studying Microsoft's Xbox One EULA in 2013; the complexities of EULAs, user rights, and the impact of digital ownership on game preservation; her research on possibly the earliest EULA, found in 1985 for Pitfall II; and the challenges of digital preservation, including implications of Sony's recent decision to discontinue physical PlayStation discs.…

10. 

    S2 · E162 · 26 Aug 2026 · 58 min

    Episode 162: Roberta Vaughn’s Retro Adventures

    Library Director Phil Salvador is joined by guests Heather Fryling and Daniel Greenberg to discuss Roberta Vaughn’s Retro Adventures, a nonprofit organization that creates traveling, living exhibits focused on the history of adventure games and entertainment. The RVRA, founded to honor the legacy of adventure games collector and enthusiast Roberta Vaughn, travels to conventions like Portland Retro Game Expo and PAX West to share their curated exhibits, original interviews, and special guest appearances. You can listen to the Video Game History Hour every other Wednesday on Patreon (one day…

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