The History of a Company Built on DARPA Money and Flight Simulators

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The professors received DARPA money to start a company that built commercial flight simulators in the late 1970s-early 1980s
Flight simulators required advanced graphics that were not available on desktops at the time
They developed proprietary silicon and ultimately entered the supercomputer business in the 1980s and console business in the 1990s
Former employees of the professors had a big impact in the games community

We sit down Benchmark’s legendary gaming investors Mitch Lasky and Blake Robbins (now also of the excellent Gamecraft podcast fame) to discuss the history and future of gaming business models. This episode is the perfect bookend to our Nintendo/Sega gaming series this season on Acquired — no one is more qualified than Mitch and Blake to breakdown how the business side of the industry has evolved so radically from the Periscope quarter-drop days to the forever games and platform based publishers of today.

Regardless if you’re a gamer, understanding the incredible innovation that’s taken place over the past two decades in gaming and what it portends for other industries is critical for any founder and investor to understand. Tune in!

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