Advertise on podcast: The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast

We start with some difficult news... Cheers to everyone who has supported the podcast, past and present. We're delighted you're still along for the ride. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No, not the episode 300 you were promised. For a (hopefully) obvious reason. Instead we fire up The Back Page time machine once again, setting the dial for 1998. Many call it gaming's greatest ever year. Ocarina! MGS! Half-Life! Gran Turismo! StarCraft! There's no arguing with that lot. Or is there? Find out as two contrarian chrononauts break down the main events of the year, recap the highs and lows of E3 and reveal their top ten lists. This week's music is from the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron soundtrack by Chris Huelsbeck, and the Baldur's Gate soundtrack by Michael Hoenig. You can get us, as ever, at [email protected]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matthew flew to Germany and played The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, which is rather a nice surprise. Games discussed: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Gears of War: E-Day, Control Resonant, Valor Mortis, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, Dicevaders Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're off this week, but here's our MGS2 episode from August. Support us at patreon.com/backpagepod if you enjoy what we make! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Probably the least relevant and most tangent-heavy mailbag episode to date, and that's saying something. Here's Samuel's piece on game names for PC Gamer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our third and final attempt to tackle the big games of September reaches Sony's biggest release of the year and the latest Silent Hill entry. The developer of Orbitals is Shapefarm, not Shapeform as Samuel incorrectly stated. Duh. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Been quite a while since we did a 'games journalism craft' episode – this is one of those, as we're joined by former music journalist and Vice senior editor Mike Diver for a lively chat. Hear about the time Mike met Paul McCartney! Sadly, it wasn't about his terrible Destiny song that Matthew rather likes. Mike's book, Aliens: The Video Games, is available now.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emergency Nintendo Direct chatter, powered by the reveal of sequels to two of our favourite Switch games (Metroid Dread and Kirby and the Forgotten Land), then another pile of games from the September 2026 mountain.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The September release schedule avalanche begins. Games discussed: Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Star Wars: Zero Company, Guns of Eschaton and Super Mario Sunshine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From outlawing the L3 and R3 buttons to combat-oriented games with bad platforming sections, our listeners have submitted 12 more possible game design crimes for Room 101...sorry, Room 64 (double copyright infringement!). Our returning guest, actual game designer Jamie Smith, helps us judge the innocent and guilty. Want to submit a game design crime for a future episode? Head here to the relevant Discord channel, or ping us at [email protected].  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Four giant men select their favourite DS and 3DS games in our latest 3-hour draft episode. We hope you enjoy this deep dive into both consoles. Vote for the winner in the announcements channel of our Discord server. These are the categories: Game featuring MarioGame featuring Link90+ on MetacriticGame with novel touchscreen controlsGame made in JapanGame made outside JapanPort or re-releaseWild card (has to be below 80 on Metacritic)Free pickWas advertised on the telly by a celebrity  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More of the games we've been playing recently, before the September avalanche of big titles crashes into Back Page headquarters. Samuel's games: Denshattack!, The Incident at Galley House, Big Walk, Motorslice (a tiny bit) Matthew's games: Splatoon Raiders, The Message from Deep Space, Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some thoughts on the Halo remake, then almost an hour of total nonsense that we will never, ever speak of again. This week's music is from the Halo: Combat Evolved by Michael Salvatori and Martin O'Donnell.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How many ideas get saved from the original game when you're making a sequel? Does it cost more money to make a follow-up? How do you make sure an indie sequel doesn't vanish without a trace? Our returning guest Jay Baylis answers these questions while discussing his next game with Bytten Studio, Cassette Beasts 2002. This week's music is from the Cassette Beasts soundtrack by Joel Baylis.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stepping outside our 2000s comfort zone, this week we're sharing our two top 10 lists from 1997 in the first of a new quadrilogy of pods. Expect 1998, 1999 and 2000 episodes in the coming months. This week's music is from The Curse of Monkey Island soundtrack by Michael Land. You can get us, as ever, at [email protected]. Videos referenced in this week's episode: the German bloke touring E3 in Atlanta, Howard Lincoln talking about Rare, Nintendo's Space World, Games World's segment from the Sega booth at E3 1997 and B-roll of the games shown at Space World.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.