The history of Australian video game websites
I wrote an article for the National Communication Museum (NCM) about the history of Australian video game websites. You can read it here.
While researching the piece I spoke to a bunch of people with first hand experience developing, managing and running local websites. Folks who were down in the trenches during the 90s dial-up BBS days. Folks who managed the local version of Kotaku. Folks who created thriving local hubs out of nothing.
I was only able to use a fraction of these interviews in the associated article. That seems like a waste. So if you want the full story, I’ve published all the interviews in full (below).
A huge thank you to Luke Plunket, Guy ‘Yug’ Blomberg, Mark Serrels, Daniel Vooks, Seamus Bryne and Alex Boz for their time and insights.
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Luke Plunket interview
Luke Plunket spent almost two decades writing for the US edition of Kotaku. He was based in Australia the whole time. These days he’s one of the co-founders behind Aftermath.
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Guy 'Yug' Blomberg interview
Guy ‘Yug’ Blomberg is the co-creator of the AustralianGamer.com website, helped launch the world’s first video game bar, ran Pax Australia for several years, and was the Global Gaming Content Director at ReedPOP.
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Mark Serrels interview
Mark Serrels was a managing editor at Allure media for several years where he oversaw the Australian editions of Kotaku, Gizmodo and Lifehacker.
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Seamus Byrne interview
Seamus Byrne is an award-winning journalist. He was previously at Allure Media where he served as managing editor for the Australia versions of Kotaku, Gizmondo and LifeHacker.
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Daniel Vooks interview
Daniel ‘Vooks’ Vuckovic has been running Australia’s go-to website for Nintendo news and coverage since 2000.
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Alex Boz interview
Alex Boz is the co-founder and editor-In-chief of AusRetrogamer, which he started in 2012. He’s also a retro gaming curator and PAX Australia classic gaming showrunner.