Artwork for podcast In The Keep
Sam Marshall | DOSMan Games & Skarab
11th March 2025 • In The Keep • In The Keep
00:00:00 02:14:11

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Sam Marshall is the head of DOSMan Games, an indie publisher and studio focusing on bite-sized retro FPS games. Their titles to date include Flash of the Blade X, Reverend, Reaper, DOSMan: Space Aliens in Space, Satan, and the upcoming ancient Egypt themed Skarab. | In The Keep | Support In The Keep | Theme Song by Jon of the Shred |

Transcripts

Tyler:

[0:00] If, for instance, I determine the weight of each stone in a bed of pebbles and get an average weight of 145 grams, this tells me very little about the real nature of the pebbles.

Tyler:

[0:11] Anyone who thought, on the basis of these findings, that he could pick up a pebble of 145 grams at the first try would be in for a serious disappointment.

Tyler:

[0:20] Indeed, it might well happen that however long he searched, he would not find a single pebble weighing exactly 145 grams. The statistical method shows the fact, in light, of the ideal average, but does not give us a picture of their empirical reality. While reflecting on an undisputable aspect of reality, it can falsify the actual truth in a most misleading way. This is particularly true of theories which are based on statistics. The distinctive thing about real facts, however, is their individuality. Not to put too fine a point on it, one could say, the real picture consists of nothing but exceptions to the rule. And that, in consequence, absolute reality has predominantly the character of irregularity. Carl Jung in The Undiscovered Self.

Sam:

[1:13] Life started in a hospital, as it does for most.

Tyler:

[1:16] You know, that's tragic. You should really think about it. Like, the first thing you do in your life is you're in the hospital. It's like, fuck, you got injured. Is birth an injury?

Sam:

[1:26] Well, I was £9.3, so I think that's debatable.

Tyler:

[1:30] I think you injured your mom.

Sam:

[1:33] But yeah, I decided as a young lad, and then played some PS1 games kind of growing up, and never thought I'd ever be any sort of creative or making anything. And then suddenly found an engine that I could work in, and now I make games. that's the uh that's the abridged version.

Tyler:

[1:57] So it would be great if that was not the abridged version like that's the synopsis of my life is video

Sam:

[2:06] Game video game video game yeah and uh and a lot of jean-claude van damme in the in between yeah.

Tyler:

[2:13] He was your father right like you guys was it strained with him traveling so much for film shoots or

Sam:

[2:19] I feel like as much as i like van damme he would more fit creepy uncle.

Tyler:

[2:23] Vibes having a belgian uncle would suck

Sam:

[2:28] Um yeah okay so okay so.

Tyler:

[2:32] Anyway growing up uh in in the in the uk and everything you got what you had like maybe mega drive or did you skip place straight to the playstation or what was kind of the

Sam:

[2:45] My my parents were a bit uh a bit weird with it like um they were very much like oh you shouldn't be playing video games and and even like when i was like using my imagination indoors it was more like you should go outside um so i did that too, I didn't have a console growing up for a long time. When I stayed at, we had like a childminder. I'd stay at hers and her grandson had Quake and Doom up on the PC upstairs. So I'd try like the first level of that and absolutely be terrible at it as like a five or six year old and then get found out and brought downstairs.

Tyler:

[3:21] But a childminder is what we would call a babysitter, right?

Sam:

[3:25] Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Tyler:

[3:27] Yeah. It's just one of them things. Even having been to the UK, I don't think anyone's ever said those words to me. Child-minded.

Sam:

[3:35] I don't think it's something that would just come up in casual conversation.

Tyler:

[3:38] I know, right? It's just one of those, like, okay. It's another one on the list of, like, tires with a Y.

Sam:

[3:47] But, yeah, like, I didn't have a console until I was probably 10 or 11, which is when a friend of the family just gave us a PS1 and a bunch of football games. Soccer, to you guys. Right. And from there, I just kind of became completely absorbed in them and slowly started finding where my tastes sort of lied there, which surprisingly wasn't in soccer games. And, you know, started playing first-person shooters.

Sam:

[4:21] TimeSplitters was coming around pretty soon after that, which was sort of my big FPS introduction. um and then yeah played a few other things here and there uh did some writing about video games as well and then we sort of come towards me entering the industry uh started working at peggy the aid rating place in europe for video games uh and from there managed to use that as like a launch pad into uh into working at a game publisher uh and whilst at the game publisher i was like, I like publishing these people's games, but you know what I'd like more would be publishing my games. And then... did that and made them.

Tyler:

[5:04] I i gotta ask like okay so if you worked at peggy were you like deciding what rating a game should get yeah

Sam:

[5:13] Well you have like uh you have like a questionnaire you've got to like abide by which has got like a bunch of rule stacks and stuff how.

Tyler:

[5:21] Much like gray area is there really or is it pretty pretty scientific uh

Sam:

[5:26] I mean there's a little bit of gray area there's stuff like uh a bit of blood mist is allowed but like a blood splat might be a bit more uh veering towards 16 uh there's probably 12 or 14 what you've got out there uh it's it's a weird little career and uh and something that has pretty much zero transferable skills which was quite interesting to come out of feel.

Tyler:

[5:50] Like it would have certain transferable skills like you could probably like off the top of your head just kind of tell somebody what their rating is going to be on a game like they don't have to work like you're like oh well that that's how to go you can't have that it's gonna be you know for mature whatever peggy would call those things it's one of the more annoying things i would hate to be like on whatever the german version of that is oh

Sam:

[6:13] Yeah and the uh the australian one as.

Tyler:

[6:15] Well yeah why are they so fucking uptight what australia of all places like so uptight about these things like oh you're gonna corrupt our youth or whatever i'm Like, fucking send them outside is way scarier than anything I'm going to put in this video game.

Sam:

[6:29] In Australia, it's probably more common for parents to want their kids to say inside and not be productive.

Tyler:

[6:34] Yeah, it's just a weird place to be, like, prudish. But, I mean, much respect in all that, Australia. You know, that's fine.

Sam:

[6:42] Yeah, I mean, I've been watching Married at First Sight Australia this year.

Tyler:

[6:46] You seem like...

Sam:

[6:47] I'm not even joking. I actually love it.

Tyler:

[6:50] It's like wrestling, is it? My wife loves, uh, uh, love is blind. Like all the weird things that come from that or the, the ultimatum, like the one where like they, like my partner doesn't want to marry me. Uh, so we're going to go on this dating show where we both get to date other people. And I wonder if they'll decide to marry me. And the answer is no. And then the South Africa version is like way better. Cause it's just like, you know, in the American version, it's like, oh, he kissed another girl or some shit. in the south african version is like they're just full-on fucking people and like i do not see what is the problem here there's

Sam:

[7:28] Just there's something amazing about reality tv like uh and usually it's not from america and uh the uk where you get the good stuff like you guys had some you had some interesting things geordie short.

Tyler:

[7:40] I think the greatest american reality show ever was robin big i

Sam:

[7:45] Don't even know what that is what is that.

Tyler:

[7:47] It was uh rob dyrdek the pro skateboarder and his bodyguard it was a it was really popular i don't know why but it was really popular on mtv like 20 years ago like it was before he did like ridiculousness and fantasy factory and all that this was like his first reality show and it wasn't even about skateboarding it was just them doing fucking goofy bro shit most of the time but you know rob dierdeck is just one of those psychopaths that like you know he had ambition he was like a fucking nobody skateboarder kind of guy and he was like I want to be a fucking millionaire so he would just do crazy stuff like I'm gonna I'm gonna set as many world records in a month as I can and then I'm gonna set the world record for most world records And then they would just film him doing that. It was fucking fun. Like, actually, I know it's all bullshit. Don't get me wrong. But, like, it was fun to watch as a, you know, as a redneck kid who was basically doing all the same stuff but with less money. Like, oh, I want to do that. Like, yeah.

Sam:

[8:44] But I'm sanctioned. Or Jackass.

Tyler:

[8:47] Jackass was also.

Sam:

[8:48] Like, come on.

Tyler:

[8:49] Yeah. But, oh, God, we're going to have a reality TV. This is probably the first time this has ever happened on the show. Reality TV.

Sam:

[8:56] It's going to be the longest episode ever. It's just going to be us sitting here for 10 hours watching entire seasons of The Bachelor.

Tyler:

[9:02] Yeah, I just don't do the dating stuff. There's something about it that rubs me the wrong way.

Sam:

[9:07] I think for me, it is kind of similar to wrestling. You've got your heels, you've got your baby faces, and you've got your characters who you just look at and you're like, why are they acting like that? That's a Vince McMahon creation. Well, that's a Russo creation.

Tyler:

[9:23] That's how I feel about it. like when i'm watching it i i just wish that we could like for me it would be easier if i knew for sure this guy's bullshitting me otherwise i actually hate them and i find that difficult to live with like i'm like i don't understand like i hate you for what you're doing and i hate this fucking stupid bitch that you're dating before letting you get away with it and then not putting two and two together that you're a psychopath for

Sam:

[9:48] Someone who doesn't do the whole dating reality show thing you have a lot of

Sam:

[9:51] opinions about the whole dating reality show.

Tyler:

[9:52] Thing because my wife loves you she loves him so much man um and she like she will always ask me questions like if we were on love is blind do you think that we would still have ended up together and i say things like i would not be on that show and if i were you can guarantee i'm there for the paycheck and not because i think that there's some actual love that's going to happen between me and someone else on the show she's like but but if you say you would you know outcome would be better for you. And I'm like, oh yeah,

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