My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin

Updated: 29 Sep 2025 • 155 episodes
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In My Perfect Console, Simon Parkin, award-winning author video game critic for The Observer invites well-known guests from the worlds of gaming, film and television, music, comedy and more to pick the five video games they would like to immortalise on a fictional games machine. They discuss those five games in chronological order of release, interspersed with biographical chat about the guest’s life and career –– a lens that often leads to new and unexpected insights. "Thoroughly modern and ahead of its time...a gift." - NEW YORK'S VULTURE "Charming, insightful." -- THE GUARDIAN TIME OUT'S 50 Best Podcasts VULTURE's Best Podcast of the Year Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Alexander O. Smith is a translator, writer, and creative producer whose work has brought some of Japan’s most acclaimed stories to audiences around the world. After graduating from Harvard University with a degree in classical Japanese Literature, he went on to become one of the most respected voices in literary and vi

93 min
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Charlie Rosen is a Grammy award-winning musician, composer, and arranger whose work sits at the intersection of jazz, pop, and video game nostalgia. As the founder and leader of The 8-bit Big Band, a 35-piece jazz-pops orchestra, he had transformed classic video game soundtracks into virtuosic symphonic showstoppers. 

87 min
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Andy Robertson is a veteran journalist, editor, and entrepreneur who has spent his career exploring how video games can bring people together. After graduating from Brunel University with a degree in Computer Science, he worked as a freelance games critic for the BBC before launching Family Gamer TV, a YouTube channel

82 min
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Lizzie Killian is the lead vocalist and guitarist of Teens in Trouble, an indie rock band known for its anthemic melodies, sharp lyrics, and emotionally charged hooks. Before taking to the stage, she started her career as a writer covering games, then moved into communications, collaborating with titans of the industry

81 min
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Jonathan Jacques-Belletête is a French-Canadian creative director and artist whose work has helped shape some of the most stylish and thought-provoking contemporary video games. After graduating from Dawson College in Montreal, he worked as a commercial illustrator before joining Ubisoft as an artist on the Far Cry, Pr

80 min
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My guest today is an American visual artist whose work is redefining how we think about mystery, architecture, and imagination in interactive storytelling. In 2013 he founded Dogubomb, a Los Angeles-based independent Film and Game Studio making music videos, films, and commercials for clients such as Magic the Gatherin

91 min
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