The Official ZOOM Platform Podcast - Episode 1 - The Pilot - Table of Contents:

0:00 - Theme song introduction.

0:25 - Podcast team introductions – Cameron, Jordan, and Max tell a little bit about themselves.

2:37 – The guys discuss the first computer/video games they ever played. P.S. All three started with MegaRace.

6:46 – Max and Jordan reminisce about the Knowledge Adventure titles.

9:21 – Max talks about game glitches and modding.

11:45 – The boys discuss the Midtown Madness series.

12:43 – The guys talk more about games from growing up, including GoldenEye, Jane’s Combat Simulations, Pokemon Stadium, Age of Empires, and many more.

19:22 – Max discusses Beetle Adventure Racing’s surprising Need for Speed origins.

20:48 – Jordan brings up one of his all-time favorite racing games, well, one of his all-time favorite games period, San Francisco Rush 2049.

23:47 – Jordan brings up another of his all-time favorites, Burnout 3: Takedown.

26:01 – The boys discuss more of their favorite racing titles, Full Auto and Full Auto 2: Battlelines from Pseudo Interactive (Creators of Cel Damage), and they continue professing their love of Burnout.

28:59 – Cameron talks about one of his favorite franchises, the Driver series.

32:05 – The guys discuss the SpyHunter Midway re-make for GameCube, PS2, and Xbox.

33:43 – Max discusses his favorite game soundtracks and video game composers including MegaRace’s Stephane Picq. Jordan also mentions one of his favorites, former Hitman series composer, Jesper Kyd.

36:15 – Max reveals an interesting soundtrack crossover link between Need for Speed and Mass Effect.

37:41 – Max talks about the bizarre GameCube port of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit II.

38:30 – Max brings up how the GameCube is based on PowerPC architecture and Jordan adds in how the Xbox 360 is also based on the same technology.

39:18 – Jordan brings up one of his favorite game designers, Ed Logg of Midway.

40:41 – Max discusses Eugene Jarvis of Williams and the Cruis’n series.

43:01 – The boys discuss their favorite arcade games at Chuck e’ Cheese’s, etc including the SNK Neo Geo, Time Crisis, House of the Dead, X-Men, Rail Chase 2, Chase HQ, AeroFighters/Sonic Wings 3, Lethal Enforcers, Area 51, Virtua Cop, Jurassic Park, Star Wars Trilogy, and more.

49:52 – Jordan slips in how a modded Xbox with 128 MB of RAM can run Virtua Cop 3.

50:14 – Jordan reveals what type of game GoldenEye was supposed to be on Nintendo 64, along with how the multi-player functionality was added at the very last minute.

51:03 – Max talks about how GoldenEye almost also appeared on the Virtual Boy.

51:59 – Cameron brings up 007 Racing and Jordan discusses his love of all things GoldenEye, including the Eric Serra soundtrack. Jordan also discusses his favorite James Bond games.

53:17 – Jordan talks about the id Tech 3 engine links between Quake 3: Arena, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, and the Call of Duty franchise. He also mentions how the developers of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault would go on to create Call of Duty.

54:34 – Max brings up the origins of the x86 and x64 architectures and the boys discuss how young the medium of interactive entertainment is. They also discuss the deaths of some gaming industry legends and the various console wars.

59:09 – The guys discuss their love of the Metroid series and their mutual excitement for Metroid Prime 4.

1:09:08 – Max brings up Halo: Combat Evolved and the boys quickly discover that it’s a mutual all-time favorite, especially the PC port by Gearbox Software.

1:10:32 – Jordan brings up another fantastic Gearbox Software port,
Half-Life on PS2.

1:10:43 – Jordan slips in that his grandfather’s name was indeed, Gordon Freeman.

1:10:50 – Cameron mentions that his favorite version of Half-Life is the PS2 version and very articulately explains why. Jordan agrees and adds some other points. The boys then continue discussing their favorite Half-Life/Valve experiences. Max’s favorite is Garry’s Mod and Cameron’s favorite is CounterStrike.

1:15:45 – Cameron talks about how CounterStrike was his first online game and tells a funny story that happened to him while playing it.

1:18:05 – Jordan reveals his first online games were Quake 3: Arena and Unreal Tournament. Max mentions his first online game was Halo: Combat Evolved for PC and tells some funny anecdotes from his time playing the game. The boys then continue reliving their Halo PC and Halo Xbox Split-Screen days.

1:23:30 – Cameron brings up Overwatch and then he and Max go very in-depth about how much they love the franchise. Max mentions how the game is also attracting a female audience and shares his opinions on game and toy marketing.

1:32:00 – The guys talk about the Switch, Wii, and Wii U’s effects on the industry. They especially talk about Splatoon.

1:34:15 – The conversation moves to the boys’ favorite controllers and also the many controller design histories.

1:43:08 – The guys suddenly realize their pilot episode has been going on for nearly two hours and decide to wrap it up. Two of them think they did a good job, one does not.

1:44:06 – The end for now…