Maximum Power Up

Chris Smith mk 2 is joined by returning host Tom Charnock to share fond memories of Atari’s much maligned console. They cover their own introductions to the console, and discuss their favourite games on the platform.  As always, if you enjoy this episode, please take the time to leave us a review on iTunes, or wherever else you choose to listen to your podcasts. If you want to continue the conversation, or give us any feedback, feel free to contact us on any of the socials below:

This episode features two interviews discussing two new print productions.   First up is Daryl Baxter who has written the Making Of Tomb Raider book. This book covers the stories behind the making of the first two games by Core Design. The book features over 20 interviews with people who worked on the game and Daryl also shares other things we can expect from this labour of love.   Secondly is an interview with the team of SEGA Powered. This new monthly print magazine has recently been funded on Kickstarter and is due for release in November. Paul who is also part of the project sits down to speak to the rest of the team and asks them to tell everyone what we can expect from the magazine. Dean Mortlock, Neil Randall and Marc Jowett share some of their experiences in the world of magazines as well as discuss a few of their favourite SEGA games.   The Making Of Tomb Raider book can be found here:  https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-Making-of-Tomb-Raider-Hardback/p/20165   And the Kickstarter for SEGA Powered can be found here, as we release this episode there is still a little time left to back: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/segapoweredmagazine/sega-powered  

Our latest guest is Ashley Day, currently employed by Team17. Over this three hour chat we discuss all aspects of his career. Starting out writing for GamesTM, Ashley discusses his love of games mags and the challenges faced in his time on the magazine including getting interviews. In 2012 he moved to Nintendo working in Digital Marketing which involved coming up with some fantastic ideas to help drive Nintendo franchises. Now at Team17 he shares a few thoughts on a childhood dream working for a local company, the A500 Mini featuring several Team17 games plus more. We hope you enjoy the show and thanks to Ashley for his time.

This episode we are joined by two guests, both writers and they also produce their own podcast. Samuel Roberts and Matthew Castle join Paul to discuss their career working on games magazines. Both starting in the mid '00's we cover more recent gaming discussing the PS3, PS4, Wii, DS, X360 etc. Working on Official Nintendo Magazine, NGamer, X360 Magazine, PC Gamer and more game us lots of memories to chat about.  There are some great stories shared including trips away, challenges of ending magazines and Samuel's experience with The Walking Dead. We hope you enjoy the show and thanks for listening.

Our 42nd magazine related guest is Tim Ponting. Paul spoke to Tim about his career in games magazines and PR. Starting out on drumming magazine Rhythm, he soon joined Dennis Publishing on the much loved magazine Zero. He shares some memories of being editor and the challenges he faced against other magazines, coverdisks and more. From there we go onto his time on PC Zone and how the industry changed, the rivalry with PC Gamer, and what it was like to work with the late Felix Dennis. Finally we cover his time on Official Dreamcast mag, PR role at Activision which led to an amazing Call Of Duty 2 event plus much more. We hope you enjoy the interview and thanks to Tim for his time.

Paul is joined by best selling author and journalist, Keith Stuart. Keith started his career in the 90's at Big Red Software helping write game manuals. However in 1995 previous MPU guest Jason Brookes gave him his first games magazine role on Edge. We discussed his memories of working on Edge at such an important time in the games industry. As well as this we discuss his work on DC-UK and how the mag upset Sega.  Also covered is how he began writing for The Guardian and how that role evolved as well as taking the leap into writing novels (his latest Frequency Of Us recently released). We hope you enjoy the show and thanks to Keith for his time. 

The same motley crew as the last bonus episode return for another pandemic related show, as Chris, Chris, Jake and Arron do their best to appear like they still have it together as we approach the anniversary of the pandemic.  As ever, this show is as much about life as anything else, but if you just want the games chatter, I'd skip the first 20 minutes. . As ever, if you like the episode or have any feedback, we'd love it if you'd hit us up on the socials and leave reviews. More importantly though, stay safe everyone and look after each other. We'll be okay.

There is plenty for Commodore Amiga fans in this episode. Paul sits down to speak to Marcus Dyson who spent 4 years on Amiga Format, as well as some time at Team 17. Starting in 1990 at Future Publishing Marcus started off as an artist for the magazine before moving to editor. He shares some of his memories as well as challenges faced on the magazine at that time. We discuss reviews, cover disks, fave games and more. In 1994 Marcus moved onto Team 17 helping bring several well known Amiga titles to other systems including Worms. He shared some great stories with us including the Tower Assault FMV film for CD32. We also cover how SPOnG website came about and what the original aim for it was. A massive thank you to Marcus for his time and we hope you enjoy the interview.

Our latest interview is with VP of IGN, John Davison. John started his career in the games industry over 30 years ago with his first fulltime role on Games-X magazine. John shares the challenges he faced on a weekly games magazine before moving onto Megadrive Advanced Gaming, PC Zone and more. We discuss how PC Zone became one of the leading PC magazines and some of the standout features in the mag. Moving onto his time in America we cover EGM, GamePro,  Metacritic, 1Up podcast, Gamespot and loads more! To finish we briefly mention his most recent role at IGN. A massive thank you to John for his time and we hope you enjoy the show.

This episode we are joined by a huge guest! Gary Whitta joins Paul to discuss his career in games journalism, writing Hollywood screenplays, Animal Crossing talkshows and more! Covering a 30 year plus career, Gary started off on Commodore User being an owner of the Amiga which helped get his big break on magazines. He shares several stories about his time on Games-X, The One, ACE, CVG and more. However the main magazine that changed so much for him was PC Gamer which he edited in the UK before eventually moving to America and taking over on the US version. He shares a lot of the challenges he faced in America before trying his hand at writing screenplays for Hollywood. We briefly discuss Book Of Eli, After Earth and a little film called Star Wars Rogue One. Finally we cover how 2020 lockdown life led to his Animal Crossing talkshow and how crazy it has been to have several big name guests. We hope you enjoy the show.