Tetris's Cold War Origins | Nintendo vs. Sega Console War | Ancient Civilizations and Solar Eclipses

High Tales of History

Welcome to season three! We are thrilled to be back with you and thrilled to be back with one of our favorite guests, Dr. Darren R. Reid, history professor at Coventry University in Coventry, England. We previously had Dr. Reid on in episodes 52 and 53 (linked below if you want to hear!) to talk to us about Indigenous representation in popular movies and they quickly became listener favorites.

This time around, he's bringing his passion for pop culture history with the story of the game of Tetris. From its origins behind the Iron Curtain of the Soviet Union to becoming the best selling game in the world.

Next, Laurel presses "start player 2" and picks it up with the console wars between Nintendo and Sega during the 80s and 90s. It was Sonic vs. Mario, David vs. Goliath, underdogs vs. the video game titans, who emerges as the winner?

Finally, Kt brings it to the final level with ancient civilizations and how they handled solar eclipses. What did these great cosmic events mean to ancient peoples? Were they seen as a bad omen? It's a totally different topic altogether because this is Hightailing Through History where two sisters get high and surprise each other with a story from history's vault of the weird and the wonderful!

If you like what you hear, please subscribe/follow, rate and review. It means so much and it helps our show grow!

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Learn more about our guest, Dr. Darren R. Reid:

Instagram-- @thathistorianinsta

TikTok-- @thathistoriantiktok

YouTube-- That Historian

His website

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Mentioned in the Stories:

Console Wars Documentary Trailer

Console Wars by Blake Harris (book)

Kt's Episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Reebok Pump Commercial

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The Socials and Patreon!

Patreon-- ⁠The Best Buds Club!⁠ Instagram⁠ - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@HightailingHistory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok⁠- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@HightailingHistoryPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook⁠ -⁠⁠⁠⁠Hightailing Through History or ⁠⁠@HightailingHistory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube- ⁠⁠⁠⁠Hightailing Through History⁠⁠⁠

[e-mail]

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Source Materials--

Console Wars--

Console Wars Documentary

Console War Book by Blake Harris

https://em360tech.com/tech-article/what-happened-to-atari#:~:text=The%20'video%20game%20crash%20of,with%20consoles%20of%20varying%20quality

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27373587

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/protecting-children-dangers-virtual-violence-2016080210036

https://tucson.com/life-entertainment/local/mattel-barbie-nintendo-sega-tucson/article_d07a1996-984f-11ee-85bf-e731a58ceb31.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_war

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27373587

Ancient Civilizations and Eclipses--

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/07/1243320725/ancient-babylonians-brought-light-to-mysterious-eclipses#:~:text=Unsurprisingly%2C%20in%20the%20ancient%20world,detailed%20records%20of%20celestial%20movement

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-ancient-civilizations-reacted-to-eclipses-180983894/

https://www.britannica.com/list/the-sun-was-eaten-6-ways-cultures-have-explained-eclipses

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Intro/outro music: "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/