A Video Review Show hosted by Norman Caruso, born from his love of history and video games. While most video gamer reviewers deal with games or consoles, the Gaming Historian also covers lawsuits, character biographies, personal biographies on people involved in the making of video games, video game related books, and even a movie on video games.
Mostly updates on his Youtube account
. Has a website He is also a member of RetrowareTV, but he hasn't uploaded a video on the site since August of 2014.
The Gaming Historian provides examples of:
- April Fools' Day: In 2010 he switched shows with The Happy Video Game Nerd, another Retroware personality. Norman did a normal game review of Ristar, while Derek talked about Shenmue's history. For 2016 and 2017, he made Normotagari, a parody of reviewers like JonTron and PeanutButterGamer.
- The Cameo:
- Other gaming YouTubers provide voice overs during quotations.
- Norman and other retro gaming YouTubers appeared in The Angry Video Game Nerd episode covering the Aladdin Deck Enhancer, with the Nerd even viewing Norman's own video covering the same subject. Near the end of the episode, the Nerd wished, as his final wish, that all Aladdin Deck Enhancers in existence would self-destruct.
- Edutainment Show: Norman goes in-depth about the history of video games and their pioneers, covering a wide range of subjects from iconic games (e.g., Tetris, Super Mario Bros. 3) to obscure peripherals (e.g., Aladdin Deck Enhancer, LJN's Roll 'n Rocker).
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: He's a historian who loves video games and covers the history of video games.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Unlike many of his contemporaries, Norman avoids gratuitous swearing in his videos, due to the edutainment aspect of his show. However, it is downplayed, since he called Super Mario Bros. 2 "a damn good game" towards the end of its review.
- Mistakes Are Not the End of the World: Despite doing meticulous research in his topics, Norman admits from time to time he had made mistakes. In a February 2020 episode, Norman discusses five mistakes he made in past videos, offering corrections and analyzing what went wrong.
- Running Gag:
- Has a couple that turn up in his live streams. Such as playing inspirational music when having difficulties getting through a level (usually a song that pertains to the level), or making a character look like they're "twerking".
- Another running gag involves Doug, which Norman will sneak references to in his videos whenever he gets a chance. One example is in his 3rd Party Game Boy Players episode, which specifically shows a Doug game as an example of a Game Boy Color game.
- Signing-Off Catchphrase: "That's all for this episode of The Gaming Historian. Thanks for watching!"
- Shown Their Work: As expected, the man does have a degree in history, and he has been a high school history teacher in the past. The intro to his episode about the Game Boy even shows him walking from his classroom.
- Video Review Show: Video games, and just about everything related to them.
- Viewers Like You: Later episodes end with his wife, Kristin Pitts, stating that this show "Is made possible through our Patreon supporters. Thank you." after Norman says his aforementioned Signing off Catch-phrase above.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: "The Story of Tetris" episode ends with short blurbs documenting what happened to everyone involved in the creation, licensing, and marketing of the game. The same goes with "The Story of Punch-Out!!", complete with final career records for Mike Tyson and Larry Holmes.
