Retronauts Episode 333: Tron & Spy Hunter with George Gomez
Finally, we learn the secret of the Grid Bugs
I would say our "pandemic protocol" has resulted in an assortment of podcasts on a variety of topics, but in the case of this week's episode I'd say it landed us a wonderful gem we might not have otherwise recorded as Jeremy speaks to George Gomez remotely for a full hour about his work in the early days of designing arcade cabinets.
Now with Stern Pinball, George joined Midway right out of college as an industrial designer and spent seven years working on a variety of cabinets, but the two biggest titles he was involved with - and the two he has the most to tell us about - were Tron and Spy Hunter. In the case of the former, he was in contact with Disney as the coin-op had to be ready alongside the release of the 1982 film. In the case of the latter, he was trying to create an original product once the team's hopes of a major license tie-in fell through. In both cases he has lots of stories to share and we are grateful for this glimpse behind the scenes of how two legendary arcade cabinets were made.
Description: Jeremy Parish chats one-on-one with an arcade gaming legend: George Gomez, who discusses the critical creative role he played in bringing classic arcade works like Spy Hunter and Tron to market and designing their iconic cabinets.
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MP3, 33 MB | 1:12:07 Direct download Retronauts on iTunes Retronauts at Libsyn
Artwork for this episode by Nick Wanserski and editing thanks go to Greg Leahy.
