DiscoverVideo Game History HourEpisode 140: The 49 Ways of Sinistar
Episode 140: The 49 Ways of Sinistar

Episode 140: The 49 Ways of Sinistar

Update: 2025-09-17
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Description

Host Frank Cifaldi is joined by documentarian, historian, hacker, and all around cool guy SynaMax to talk about their documentary Resurrecting Sinistar: A Cyber-Archaeology Documentary. The 1983 top-down space shooter arcade game’s unique 49-way joystick allowed players to pilot their spaceship to prevent a giant skull, Sinistar, from forming. SynaMax interviewed developers, restored cut content, and emulated the game itself to better explore the challenges the development team faced due to limited storage and to highlight the importance of source code preservation. SynaMax recently hosted a panel with said developers at the annual classic arcade game show California Extreme - a panel Frank, sadly, missed! 


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See more from SynaMax:

YouTube: youtube.com/synamax

Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/synamax.bsky.social

Patreon: patreon.com/synamax


Video Game History Foundation:

Email: podcast@gamehistory.org

Website: gamehistory.org

Support us on Patreon: /gamehistoryorg

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Episode 140: The 49 Ways of Sinistar

Episode 140: The 49 Ways of Sinistar

Video Game History Foundation