Chris Smith is joined by regular host Paul Monaghan and special guest Rob Leane, gaming editor for the Radio Times. We discuss Rob's career so far, the beloved status of Radio Times and how it came to have a gaming editor, as well as an extended discussion about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and its implications for modern games jouralism. It's …

Chris and Paul once again realise almost another year has gone by since they last recorded. Join us as we catch up on the year just gone, and manage to almost entirely avoid talking about Christmas.

You wait weeks for a podcast, then two hours come along at once. Chris is joined by returning host Paul to look at their highlights from the games that have been announced for the year ahead. With a brief diversion to discuss the Amiga Mini, because there was no chance of them staying on topic.

Chris Smith the Newer is joined by returning hosts Jake and Tommy to discuss the last 12 months, and what they've been up to in life and videogames since Maximum Power Up last released an episode.

Chris Smith mk 2 is joined by returning host Tom Charnock to share fond memories of Atari’s much maligned console. They cover their own introductions to the console, and discuss their favourite games on the platform. As always, if you enjoy this episode, please take the time to leave us a review on iTunes, or wherever else you choose to listen to y…

This episode features two interviews discussing two new print productions. First up is Daryl Baxter who has written the Making Of Tomb Raider book. This book covers the stories behind the making of the first two games by Core Design. The book features over 20 interviews with people who worked on the game and Daryl also shares other things we can ex…

Our latest guest is Ashley Day, currently employed by Team17. Over this three hour chat we discuss all aspects of his career. Starting out writing for GamesTM, Ashley discusses his love of games mags and the challenges faced in his time on the magazine including getting interviews. In 2012 he moved to Nintendo working in Digital Marketing which inv…

This episode we are joined by two guests, both writers and they also produce their own podcast. Samuel Roberts and Matthew Castle join Paul to discuss their career working on games magazines. Both starting in the mid '00's we cover more recent gaming discussing the PS3, PS4, Wii, DS, X360 etc. Working on Official Nintendo Magazine, NGamer, X360 Mag…

Our 42nd magazine related guest is Tim Ponting. Paul spoke to Tim about his career in games magazines and PR. Starting out on drumming magazine Rhythm, he soon joined Dennis Publishing on the much loved magazine Zero. He shares some memories of being editor and the challenges he faced against other magazines, coverdisks and more. From there we go o…

Paul is joined by best selling author and journalist, Keith Stuart. Keith started his career in the 90's at Big Red Software helping write game manuals. However in 1995 previous MPU guest Jason Brookes gave him his first games magazine role on Edge. We discussed his memories of working on Edge at such an important time in the games industry. As wel…

The same motley crew as the last bonus episode return for another pandemic related show, as Chris, Chris, Jake and Arron do their best to appear like they still have it together as we approach the anniversary of the pandemic. As ever, this show is as much about life as anything else, but if you just want the games chatter, I'd skip the first 20 min…

There is plenty for Commodore Amiga fans in this episode. Paul sits down to speak to Marcus Dyson who spent 4 years on Amiga Format, as well as some time at Team 17. Starting in 1990 at Future Publishing Marcus started off as an artist for the magazine before moving to editor. He shares some of his memories as well as challenges faced on the magazi…

Our latest interview is with VP of IGN, John Davison. John started his career in the games industry over 30 years ago with his first fulltime role on Games-X magazine. John shares the challenges he faced on a weekly games magazine before moving onto Megadrive Advanced Gaming, PC Zone and more. We discuss how PC Zone became one of the leading PC mag…

This episode we are joined by a huge guest! Gary Whitta joins Paul to discuss his career in games journalism, writing Hollywood screenplays, Animal Crossing talkshows and more! Covering a 30 year plus career, Gary started off on Commodore User being an owner of the Amiga which helped get his big break on magazines. He shares several stories about h…

In this third pandemic related bonus episode, the two Chris Smiths are joined by Jake and Arron for as they check in on each other, and talk life, games and a bit about the new systems. Oh and some of the hottest takes on the PS3 since 2006... As ever, if you like the episode or have any feedback, we'd love it if you'd hit us up on the socials and …

Tim Weaver has been writing for decades. Currently he has 10 David Raker novels under his belt, a very popular crime/ thriller series. He started his career at Future Publishing back in 1996 on Nintnedo magazine Total! Tim shares the early days on the mag as well as other Snes magazine Super Play before he went on to work on the magazine that gave …

In this episode Paul sits down to discuss CVG magazine and more with Paul Glancey and also another Paul, this time Davies! Yes three people on one call all called Paul (that's a mouthful). Paul Glancey makes his MPU debut to take us through some key moments of his career. Starting on Zzap64, working with Jaz Rignall he soon got into the swing of th…

Chris Scullion joins us this episode to discuss his career as a games writer. Starting on Official Nintendo Magazine in 2006, he has also written for the online versions of N Gamer and CVG as well as being a regular contributor to Nintendo Life. When he joined ONM the Gamecube was on the way out but the Wii would go on to become one of Nintendo's m…

In this episode Paul interviews Paul McNally about his career in videogames journalism and much more. Paul started his career on ST Action under the guidance of previous guest Nick Clarkson. Working up-to editor he stayed there until the magazine began to wind down in a challenging market for the ST. Staying at Europress publishing he also worked o…

In this latest interview, we speak to original Retro Gamer magazine editor Martyn Carroll. We cover several magazines for the first time on the podcast as Martyn shares his early experiences of the magazine industry. It wasn't a games magazine he started on however. As a rabid horror fan his first published work was in long running horror magazine,…

This episode we revisit the "listener choice" format, previously used on our Dreamcast, Game Boy and Commodore 64 shows. Back before the world went mad, we asked our listeners to share their five favourite SEGA Mega Drive games with us, which we then got Paul to count up and combine to create a Top 10 of the most popular ones. Join Chris Smith v2 a…

In this episode we celebrate 100 episodes of Maximum Power Up. Since the show started in 2015 we have covered a mixture of modern and retrogaming. Most of the team share their experiences of making the podcast, fave episodes, games played etc. Even though it does take a lot of work we are very happy to have great listeners that have helped the show…

In this bonus episode we have two guests, Frank Gasking and Sam Dyer. Frank runs the excellent and informative website Games That Weren't for the last 20 years. Sam is known for his excellent work over at Bitmap Books. Games That Weren't features many games that were due to be released but for various reasons didn't happen. Frank has spent years sp…

In this episode we are very happy to have Dominik Diamond on the show. For many gamers in the 90's he was the face of gaming on television as the host of GamesMaster. The show covered so many amazing challenges, features and more. We discuss some of Dominik's favourite memories of the show, guests that were on, commentators and more. We also talk a…

The Maximum Power up team for another special bonus episode as Lockdown 2020 continues. In this new Pandemic Pod, the team discuss the two "big hitters" Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Streets of Rage 4, and also share what else they've been up to. As ever, if you like the episode or have any feedback, we'd love it if you'd hit us up on the socia…

We are delighted to have Danny Wallace on the show discussing his career. In this 90 minute chat we discuss how he started out doing work experience on Sega Power magazine before being taken on by Future and had several years on much loved mags Super Play, Total and a return to Sega Power. As well as this Danny shares his early experiences working …

Following on from episode 94 we continue our walk down memory lane looking at July to December 1998. Many gamers see 1998 as one of the greatest years in gaming. All the main machines had several must own titles that were released. We share our experiences and memories playing Banjo Kazooie, Half-Life, Tekken 3 and many more. We also discuss some o…

In this episode we speak to Glen O'Connell about his career in the games industry as well as sports PR. Starting out at Psygnosis he shares some great experiences of visiting games magazines helping promote new titles and his early thoughts working in the industry. However when Sony were ready to launch the PlayStation things soon changed. Titles s…

For this special bonus episode of the Maximum Power Up podcast, we have an almost full house* as the team gather to keep each other sane during Lockdown 2020. What games do the team reach for in times of trouble? What games will they play over the coming weeks as they're "staying home" like responsible adults? What tips do they have for you, the li…

We are very happy to welcome David Wilson on the show for this new episode. David recently left Sony after almost 20 years as Head of UK PR and Director of Communications. Starting in the games industry on classic gaming mags Your Sinclair and Zero, he shares some of his early memories playing and reviewing key games and the challenges faced workin…

Is this one of the greatest years for games releases? Paul, Chris, Arron and Chris sit down to discuss if it truly is. The major players in the industry were still battling it out to be number one with each of the major consoles hitting their stride. The Nintendo 64 had 1080 Snowboarding and Banjo Kazooie. The Sega Saturn had Panzer Dragoon Saga an…

Once again Chris Smith mark 2 is joined by Paul & the other Chris Smith, with Arron coming along for the ride too. After the fairly well received Christmas episode, the boys are back with their highlights from 2019, and the old and new games they’re planning to play during 2020. They even manage to commit themselves to a few gaming resolutions that…

Chris Smith mark 2 is joined by Paul & the other Chris Smith for a bit of Christmas chatter. Somehow Maximum Power Up hasn’t done this before. Tune in as your hosts compare Christmas memories. Some of them are bleaker than others. As per Paul’s Christmas wish, please take the time to leave us a review on iTunes, or wherever you listen to podcasts, …

This is a special one off episode celebrating the games writing of Jason Brookes who sadly passed away recently. In 2016 and 2019 Paul had the pleasure of interviewing Jason to discuss his time on Super Play and Edge. These interviews have been taken from episodes 33 and 86 so we understand some listeners will have already heard them but we felt th…

In this episode we take a look at one of the most loved 16bit game tie ins. Released in 1993 for the Sega Megadrive and Super Nintendo, gamers were treated to two very nice looking but very different games based on the hit Disney movie. Chris, Paul and Arron sit down to discuss the two versions and their experiences playing them. The pros and cons …

Well this is a blast from the past, back in 2014, Chris got together with Martin Hinson and Kurt Kalata from Hardcore Gaming 101 to talk all things Castlevania. Now these were thought lost after a laptop containing the files was lost, however Chris had backed them up to an external hdd without realising and here they are now. There is another Castl…

Paul sits down with Cam Winstanley to discuss one of the most popular Amiga magazines, Amiga Power. Lasting over 5 years Amiga Power built up a passionate readership that Cam was there to witness for several years starting as a writer and later becoming editor. We discuss some of his favourite memories and games from his time on the magazine. As we…

In November 2001 Microsoft released their first console into a market that was changing. Sega's Dreamcast had failed so they left the market. However Microsoft knew how to make an entrance! From the off they set out to do things differently. With a several must own exclusive games, a built in hard drive, some amazing arcade style games from Sega of…

Join Chris, Phil and Aaron as they take a trip to the movies. In what’s hopefully a first of many movies based on games episodes the crew take a look at 1993’s Super Mario Bros The Movie. We take you through the movie, offer our thoughts and what we want from a future Mario Movie.

Welcome to part 2 of the Top 10 Games Mags. These are the final 5 magazines that have been voted by our listeners on Twitter, Facebook and more. Paul sits down with a guest from each magazine again to discuss their memories and thoughts of each magazine in the list. With over 100 magazines voted for a lot didn't make the final 10 and we give a quic…

Games magazines have always been a popular part of gaming. Although there aren't too many around these days, in the 80's & 90's there were loads to choose from. In January we asked our listener's to tell us their 5 fave games mags. Obviously there were many suggested but over the next 2 episodes we cover the top 10 that made the list. In this part …

Chris Smith Mk. 2 takes the reins for this episode looking at some highlights from the history of bringing pinball to the world of video games. Chris is joined by Phil, and our hosts discuss their favourite pinball games and some notable not-so-favourites. Links from the show: Demon’s Tilt Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/422510/DEMON…

In this episode Paul interviews Dave Upchurch. Starting his career at EMAP on popular 90's magazine ACE he soon was moved to The One Amiga where he became the magazines editor. At the time the Amiga was going from strength to strength with games such as The Secret Of Monkey Island 2, Chaos Engine. In 1996 following his success at The One Amiga he w…

Witness Phil using powers that rival those of the World’s Greatest Detective, as he supervises the first joint appearance of Chris Smith original and Chris Smith redux on a journey through the highs and lows of the caped-crusader’s video game career. Which Chris Smith has the controversial favourite Batman? (Don’t worry, no one picked Clooney), and…

In October this year it was announced that after almost 26 years GamesMaster magazine would be ending. A mainstay on magazine racks for so long the mag had many great writers over the years. From the SNES, Mega Drive and Amiga in the early days, it covered all the major consoles up until present day with the PlayStation 4, X Box One, Nintendo Switc…

In this episode Paul sits down with Geoff Glendenning to discuss his career in games marketing. Spending over a decade working in advertising and then onto marketing for companies such as Commodore, Acclaim but most importantly Sony gave us a lot to discuss. As Head Of Marketing for the Sony PlayStation, Geoff had a lot of great ideas to help build…

Join our intrepid three as we go runnin’ and gunnin’, and diving into the shoot’em up sub genre of run’n’gun games. Messers Phil, Jake and Chris Smith MkII pick up some heavy weaponry, don their bandanas and camo kecks, and jump in the chopper… or do they? As they discuss the well known favourites like Contra and Metal Slug, and the blockbuster mov…

Paul sits down to chat to ex games journalist Neil West in this episode to discuss his career. Neil started his career on Sega Power alongside Andy Smith (another previous guest). Learning the ropes working on tips, reviews etc Neil soon got his first editor role on MEGA where he was given his own chance to plan his own vision for a Sega Megadrive …

In this episode Paul chats with Gary Penn about his career in the games industry that spans over 30 years. They discuss his work on well known games magazines Zzap 64, The One, Amiga Power and more. As well as this they talk about his experiences and memories working at DMA design and the rise of Rockstar including a little known game called Grand …

“That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die.” Hot on the heels(ish) of the Dreamcast Listener’s Choice episode, Phil, Tom & Chris reunite to tackle nameless horrors and eldritch terrors as they explore video games influenced by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."…