Maximum Power Up

Games magazines have always been a popular part of gaming. Although there aren't too many around these days, in the 80's & 90's there were loads to choose from. In January we asked our listener's to tell us their 5 fave games mags. Obviously there were many suggested but over the next 2 episodes we cover the top 10 that made the list. In this part we discuss places 10-6 alongside a guest from each magazine featured. They share some of their experiences from the magazine and what made it so special. We hope you enjoy the show and thanks to our guests and everyone that voted.

Chris Smith Mk. 2 takes the reins for this episode looking at some highlights from the history of bringing pinball to the world of video games. Chris is joined by Phil, and our hosts discuss their favourite pinball games and some notable not-so-favourites. Links from the show: Demon’s Tilt Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/422510/DEMONS_TILT/ Soundcloud link for Demon’s Tilt OST: https://soundcloud.com/ec2151/sets/demons-tilt-sample-fm As always, please take the time to leave us a review on iTunes, or your podcast supplier of choice. They all help us reach new people.

In this episode Paul interviews Dave Upchurch. Starting his career at EMAP on popular 90's magazine ACE he soon was moved to The One Amiga where he became the magazines editor. At the time the Amiga was going from strength to strength with games such as The Secret Of Monkey Island 2, Chaos Engine. In 1996 following his success at The One Amiga he went on to work on Nintendo Magazine System up until the official UK launch of the Nintendo 64 in 1997. Dave tells us a few tales of his good and bad experiences in games journalism before we move discuss his career away from the magazines. We look at his time working for LEGO who wanted to break into the video games market, his time making educational software for Mangahigh which received a lot of accolades and much more. Dave currently works for Curve Digital that have released games for the PC, PS4, Switch such as Human Fall Flat, Smoke and Velocity 2X. With almost 30 years in the games industry now there was plenty to discuss in this 3 hour interview.

Witness Phil using powers that rival those of the World’s Greatest Detective, as he supervises the first joint appearance of Chris Smith original and Chris Smith redux on a journey through the highs and lows of the caped-crusader’s video game career. Which Chris Smith has the controversial favourite Batman? (Don’t worry, no one picked Clooney), and who had made it until now, oblivious of the delights of Batman Forever Arcade Game? Find out all this and more, as we ask “Dark Knight, or Dark Shite?” If you enjoy our show, please do throw us an iTunes review as they always help.

In October this year it was announced that after almost 26 years GamesMaster magazine would be ending. A mainstay on magazine racks for so long the mag had many great writers over the years. From the SNES, Mega Drive and Amiga in the early days, it covered all the major consoles up until present day with the PlayStation 4, X Box One, Nintendo Switch, PC. In this episode Paul speaks to final editor Robin Valentine as well as another previous editor Matt Gilman. They discuss some of their favourite moments of working on the magazine, why they think it lasted so long and more. If you enjoy this episode check out episode 40 which covered issue 1 interviewing several staff that helped make the 1st issue of GamesMaster way back in 1992.

In this episode Paul sits down with Geoff Glendenning to discuss his career in games marketing. Spending over a decade working in advertising and then onto marketing for companies such as Commodore, Acclaim but most importantly Sony gave us a lot to discuss. As Head Of Marketing for the Sony PlayStation, Geoff had a lot of great ideas to help build the PlayStation brand. He shares some great stories from his time at Sony but also the days working on adverts for Commodore Amiga 600 and CD32 beforehand. Even after leaving Sony he has some fantastic experiences to share for Tony Hawk, Apocalypse and more. We hope you enjoy the show and please leave us an iTunes review if you can. 

Join our intrepid three as we go runnin’ and gunnin’, and diving into the shoot’em up sub genre of run’n’gun games. Messers Phil, Jake and Chris Smith MkII pick up some heavy weaponry, don their bandanas and camo kecks, and jump in the chopper… or do they? As they discuss the well known favourites like Contra and Metal Slug, and the blockbuster movie influence on the games of the time, we ask is the genre all 90s explosions and testosterone? Your hosts pick out their own three favourites – and there’s a few pleasant surprises in there – which our listeners may or may not agree with!

Paul sits down to chat to ex games journalist Neil West in this episode to discuss his career. Neil started his career on Sega Power alongside Andy Smith (another previous guest). Learning the ropes working on tips, reviews etc Neil soon got his first editor role on MEGA where he was given his own chance to plan his own vision for a Sega Megadrive magazine.  We also discuss his time doing freelance work for GamesMaster, Total and other magazines before leaving to work in America and launching Next Generation magazine which was the sister magazine to Edge. Returning to the UK a couple of years later we discuss Arcade a short lived but much loved multiformat magazine from Future.   We hope you enjoy the show and the stories Neil shares. Please check out all our past shows/

In this episode Paul chats with Gary Penn about his career in the games industry that spans over 30 years. They discuss his work on well known games magazines Zzap 64, The One, Amiga Power and more. As well as this they talk about his experiences and memories working at DMA design and the rise of Rockstar including a little known game called Grand Theft Auto.  Gary has spent almost 20 years now over at Denki up in Dundee where his latest work is on the upcoming Autonauts. Find all the info about his latest work at www.denki.co.uk  We hope you enjoy the show and if possible an iTunes review or feedback is also grateful.

“That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die.” Hot on the heels(ish) of the Dreamcast Listener’s Choice episode, Phil, Tom & Chris reunite to tackle nameless horrors and eldritch terrors as they explore video games influenced by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."  

In this spoilerific episode Julian Hill and guest Richard Otlet discuss some of the most thought provoking and engaging stories in video games, proving that the most powerful tales told in games can be as memorable as any novel or movie and that just because a game is geared towards a mature audience that doesn’t mean that it’s all about sex, drugs and ultra violence.

In this episode Phil, Jake and special guest Matt ‘Gameboyle’ 10 Game Boy titles chosen by our listeners to see how they’ve fared growing old. We take a trip down a rose tinted, nay, drenched, memory lane and revisit what our listeners decided we the shining examples of  Nintendo’s legendary handhelds library. Some have fared better than others! See if your faves still cut the mustard, and perhaps give some of our alternatives a play too.

In this episode Paul sits down with another well known name from games journalism. Steve Merrett has worked in the games industry for over 30 years working on many well loved magazines such as Nintendo Magazine System, Mean Machines Sega, ST Action and many more. Currently working in PR for Konami, Steve discusses his experiences working on the magazines, what he loved and hated and how he ended up working for Konami. There are a lot of great stories told covering 30 years so we hope you enjoy the show. If you enjoy the episode please check out all our others www.maximumpowerup.com

Paul, Julian and Arron are massive fans of the Nintendo Switch so were more than happy to discuss Nintendo's latest home console. With it just over a year old there are loads of games to choose from. From Triple A titles such as Zelda, Mario Kart etc the console has a fantastic range of eShop games at some great prices. We discuss our thoughts on the console so far and what we are looking forward to for it. In the main part of the show we set ourselves a challenge to find three eShop games for a £20 limit that we enjoy and would recommend. We then wanted to show a good selection of 9 games for less than £60. We hope you enjoy the show and if possible please leave us an iTunes review or subscribe to the show on Stitcher, Spotify or your podcast player of choice.

In this episode Paul interviews documentary film maker Jonathan Beales about his new upcoming film Retro Gaming The Movie. Jonathan has worked in the games industry for magazines such as ACE for Future Publishing. After working on magazines Jonathan left print media to begin making promotional videos for Psygnosis, Gremlin, Sony and more. Jonathan's upcoming film will feature hours of unseen footage from the games industry and showcase some great behind the scenes footage from the years of 1990 to 1998. We discuss his career, how he got into the industry, the release of his Call of Duty documentary aptly titled ‘CODumentary’, as well as some of his memories from the games industry.

Hot on the heels of (6 episodes later than) our Commodore 64 Listener Top 10, we bring you another episode in the same format. Once again we bravely outsourced the responsibility for the games we played to you. Listeners were invited via social media to share their five favourite Dreamcast games with us, which we then combined to create a Top 10 of the most popular ones. Phil is joined by show regular Tom “The Dreamcast Junkyard” Charnock and Chris Smith vol. 2, as they play and discuss the 10 titles you’ve selected. With three self-confessed fans of the system on hand, what could possibly go wrong? Do get in touch on the usual channels to say hello or to give us any feedback. If you enjoy our work, it would be great if you could drop us a review on iTunes, they really do help us get the show out there.

In this episode Paul sits down for a chat with Andy Smith. Andy started working for Future Publishing quite early on starting his career on multiformat magazine ACE. As the magazine became more popular it was sold to rival publisher EMAP. However that led to Andy's career continuing at Future on new magazine Amiga Format. Over this 2 hour chat we discuss Andy's thoughts and memories of gaming, his time on Amiga Format and the very popular Sega Power. As well as this we cover setting up Binary Asylum and making Zeewolf for the Amiga, his experiences working at Codemasters and much more.

"Let us go out this evening for pleasure. The night is still young." Phil and interloper, Chris Smith HD (more a reboot than a remaster) stroll through the candlelit hallways of the Castlevania series, trying not to fall down any pits. Join our heroes as they take on pretty much every game, and almost get away with their sanity intact. As usual, do get in touch on the channels below with any feedback or to just say hi, and if you enjoy our work, it would be great if you could drop us a review on iTunes. "But enough talk... Have at you!"

In this episode Paul interviews Nick Clarkson. Nick has been in the gaming industry since the 1980's starting work for Gollner Publishing on ST Action. From his starting role as editor on the magazine it then led to working on popular weekly games mag Games X and then onto GB Action for the Nintendo Gameboy. In the summer of 1992 Nick left magazine work to start work as PR Manager for Gremlin Graphics helping promote so many well known games such as Zool, Premier Manager and more. Over the years he also worked in similar roles for Ocean, Rage, THQ and more. Nick now works for Merge Games that release many games for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and more. So in this episode prepare to hear about a lot of experiences and viewpoints from a 30 year career within different aspects of the games industry.

In this episode Paul sits down for a chat with Paul Rose AKA Mr.Biffo. Paul spent 10 years writing popular Teletext section Digitiser from 1993 to 2003. Over the years the quirky sense of humour to go alongside the gaming coverage gained a massive following. Although there was plenty of Sega and Nintendo footage, Paul did manage upset Amiga owners which we do discuss. As well as Digitiser, they discuss Mr.Biffo's Found Footage, Paul's magazine career on Edge, Retro Gamer and more. There is also a Kickstarter for Digitiser The Show currently live which is going really well. Check out more details and back it here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/1534877882/digitiser-the-show-proper-retro-gaming-tv Also Paul is appearing at Revival 2018 over in Walsall this May for a Q&A session. Get tickets for the event here: http://www.revivalretroevents.co.uk/ We hope that you enjoy the show and if you use ITunes please leave us a quick review.