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Name and occupation please?

My name is John Delia and along with Retroware TV, I work in the Digital Assets group at A&E Television Networks and The History Channel
 
For all our readers who are not familiar with your site, could you explain what your site is about and how did it all get started?

Well I guess the technical explanation is that Retroware TV is a community-based, video aggregate website that and hosts  independent short form videos that tackle all areas of classic video gaming.  Bu really, Lance and I first started this site simply as a place to host and embed our own show from YouTube and have a forum to get some feedback. 

But over the last couple years we've grown and met a lot of great people with similar interest and approaches and now we host a family of friends who each run their own show and put it under the Retroware TV umbrella.  Back in November of 2006, Lance called me up and said, "Hey, we should do a show about classic gaming but focus on some of the great obscure classic games that most people don't talk about." 

We both had a film production background and we both loved great old games so we figured we could put both together and try for some high production values in the show.  We were rusty at first but I think we've gotten a bit better over time.  We decided that we wanted to make a show that focused on more straight forward videos about video games.  Many of the shows we loved on the web were either comedic or filled with bad language and we thought we could take a more serious approach.  Sometimes we less serious than other times!
 
A lot of kids are starting gaming younger and younger these days so When did your love for video games started?

It all started back when I was 5 years old and my dad bought an Atari 5200.  He loved Pac Man and Pole Position and I loved Pengo and Super Breakout.  Many of my early memories were based around my dad constantly buying new controllers because the old ones kept breaking.  Everyone started either with the Atari VCS or the arcade or the NES.  I swear that I was the only kid that that started to love video games because of the Atari 5200.
 
At what point do you think a game should be considered retro?

Lance and I discuss this sometimes because while we're a retro gaming show, we really want to wax nostalgic about the Dreamcast and that system is from the PS2 generation.  Hell, they're still releasing PS2 games now!  I'm 28 years old and when I think retro, I think of two times:  early childhood and later childhood.  For me, that was Atari followed by the NES and 16 bit time.  But I suppose it's in the eye of the beholder.  There are kids born in 1990 or later that think back to the early years of the N64.  I think the essence of "classic" or "retro" games is all in the feeling and nostalgic admiration has for that time when they were young.  To me, it's getting enveloped in that same feeling I once had when pretending to be Link when I was 8 years old.  It takes me back to that time when I was a kid.

Do you believe there is an age when a person can grow out of games?

No way!  I think there's a time when certain responsibilities of being an adult can eat into the free time you once had as a kid.  God knows between work and the show and a bunch of other things going on, it's sometimes tough getting into a 70 hour RPG these days.
 
Some people say that violent games create violent people; do you believe this to be true?

I remember the "Night Trap" fiasco in the mid 90s.  I'm from Connecticut in the USA, the state where Senator Joe Lieberman is from.  He went bullshit over this and other games back then.  Just like movies, I personally think of gaming as pretend.  If you're blurring the lines between video games and reality, I don't think the game is the problem.
 
You've played a lot of games over your lifetime, which game tops them all?

When someone asks me what my favorite movie is, I usually say that I have 100 films in my Top 10 list alone.  For me, it's a toss up.  It depends on when you ask!  Right now, I'll have to say Chrono Trigger.  But on other days I'll say Snatcher or the original Zelda... or maybe A Link to the Past.   But damn, I'm really loving the Phoenix Wright series too!  It's all about the story to me... this question is too hard."


GamerAU interview with Lance "Ito" Cortez (2008) -
"Name and occupation please?
 
My name is Lance Cortez  and along with Retroware TV, I work in the production dept of Ascent Media.
 
For all our readers who are not familiar with your site, could you explain what your site is about and how did it all get started?
 
(Same As Johns Answer)Well I guess the technical explanation is that Retroware TV is a community-based, video aggregate website that and hosts  independent short form videos that tackle all areas of classic video gaming.  But really, Lance and I first started this site simply as a place to host and embed our own show called Retroware TV from YouTube and have a forum to get some feedback.
 
But over the last couple years we've grown and met a lot of great people with similar interest and approaches and now we host a family of friends who each run their own show and put it under the Retroware TV umbrella.  The shows we currently host in addition to our show are Video Game Take-Out, The Gaming Historian, The Happy Video Game Nerd, Destroy The Humanoid, From Pixels To Plasitc, and Retrobeats.  We also have some smaller quick format shows we do in addition to our main shows.  All of this started back in November of 2006, Lance called me up and said, "Hey, we should do a show about classic gaming but focus on some of the great obscure classic games that most people don't talk about." 
 
We both had a film production background and we both loved great old games so we figured we could put both together and try for some high production values in the show.  We were rusty at first but I think we've gotten a bit better over time.  We decided that we wanted to make a show that focused on more straight forward videos about video games.  Many of the shows we loved on the web were either comedic or filled with bad language and we thought we could take a more serious approach.  Sometimes were less serious than other times!
 
A lot of kids are starting gaming younger and younger these days so When did your love for video games started?
 
Well I believe I was 3 my first video game experience started with the colecovision I believe in 1983.  My cousins and neighbor had a 2600 so I was playing that too.  Between the colecovision and the commodore 64 which I got a year later, I was hooked.  If you ask anyone in my family to say something about me when I was little the first thing that would probably come out of their mouth would be that I was a video game addict...or that I was cute.
 
At what point do you think a game should be considered retro?
 
Lance and I discuss this sometimes because while we're a retro gaming show, we really want to wax nostalgic about the Dreamcast and that system is from the PS2 generation.  Hell, they're still releasing PS2 games now!  I'm 28 years old and when I think retro, I think of two times:  early childhood and later childhood.  For me, that was Atari followed by the NES and 16 bit time.  But I suppose it's in the eye of the beholder.  There are kids born in 1990 or later that think back to the early years of the N64.  I think the essence of "classic" or "retro" games is all in the feeling and nostalgic admiration has for that time when they were young.  To me, it's getting enveloped in that same feeling I once had when pretending to be Link when I was 8 years old.  It takes me back to that time when I was a kid.  (Lance’s additional take) Yeah I have to agree with John on this.  I guess technically when games aren’t made for a system anymore it’s retro probably a year or so after.  But like John said it’s all in the eye of the beholder.  I personally think the PSX/N64 is just becoming retro.
 
Do you believe there is an age when a person can grow out of games?
 
No way!  I think there's a time when certain responsibilities of being an adult can eat into the free time you once had as a kid.  God knows between work and the show and a bunch of other things going on, it's sometimes tough getting into a 70 hour RPG these days.  (Lance)Yeah for people like us I would have to agree with John on this but there were those people who just played games for fun you know the “CASUAL GAMER” who have given it up.  With the advent of these party games like rockband, singstar, and the wii sports like titles I think they are getting back to gaming.  To be honest though I don’t they will ever get totally emerged in to the gaming scene.
 
Some people say that violent games create violent people; do you believe this to be true?
 
I remember the "Night Trap" fiasco in the mid 90s.  I'm from Connecticut in the USA, the state where Senator Joe Lieberman is from.  He went apeshit over this and other games back then.  Just like movies, I personally think of gaming as pretend.  If you're blurring the lines between video games and reality, I don't think the game is the problem.  (Lance Input) Yeah I honestly think it’s 100% the parents responsibility to keep tabs on their kids and make sure their playing the right thing.  It really depends on the individual too.  I personally was never really monitored when I was younger, I was playing doom and mortal kombat as a teenager and my parents didn’t seem to care at all, I think that’s because they knew what kind of person I was and that I was smart enough to know the difference.  I mean yeah I am sure at one point I reenacted some non contact play fighting from a video game but I wasn’t trying to rip peoples spine out or anything.
 
You've played a lot of games over your lifetime, which game tops them all?
 
When someone asks me what my favorite movie is, I usually say that I have 100 films in my Top 10 list alone.  For me, it's a toss up.  It depends on when you ask!  Right now, I'll have to say Chrono Trigger.  But on other days I'll say Snatcher or the original Zelda... or maybe A Link to the Past.   But damn, I'm really loving the Phoenix Wright series too!  It's all about the story to me... this question is too hard.
 
(Lance Answer)
This is a tough one.  I would have to say Mortal Kombat 1 or 2, basically because I have such fond memories of playing those game in the arcade in town as well at home when they were ported.  They aren’t the most in depth games but I still love the stories of the games.  Contra would probably be my second choice because I have good memories of playing that game with my older brother.  I unlike John wasn’t a big RPG fan till the mid 90s so I missed a lot of stuff."

Cheers
James.A
 2/7/2010
I have hit a new high in my podcast invasion, not only was I on episode 8 of classic L337, It was also aired on the Gnet radio station. It was F$%#^&G awesome.