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Rise of the Videogame - WTF Was that Shit?
maximumzero
I...wait, what?New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
I...wait, what?New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
Did anyone catch the documentary on the history of videogames that Discovery ran yesterday and last Wednesday, yesterday being part 2?
The first part was decent, going from the pre-pong games all the way through the crash of Atari. They could have gone into a bit more detail about Colecovision and the other Atari combatants, but I could forgive it somewhat.
But holy shit Part 2 was a giant clusterfuck, the second half in particular.
This was pretty much how it went in summary:
Sega released the Genesis in 1991. It catered to people that were tired of Mario, more angsty teens who wanted someone new. Then the Playstation came along, catered to a whole new generation with mature games. Grand Theft Auto 3 came out. It changed videogames forever. Now videogames are a mature player's fantasy.
No mention of Nintendo Post-SNES. The Nintendo 64? That didn't exist. The Gameboy Advance? Nah. Gamecube? Definitely not. Dreamcast? Psh. It was almost as if Sony arrived and then everyone else just disappeared off the face of the earth.
Anyone else catch this?
The first part was decent, going from the pre-pong games all the way through the crash of Atari. They could have gone into a bit more detail about Colecovision and the other Atari combatants, but I could forgive it somewhat.
But holy shit Part 2 was a giant clusterfuck, the second half in particular.
This was pretty much how it went in summary:
Sega released the Genesis in 1991. It catered to people that were tired of Mario, more angsty teens who wanted someone new. Then the Playstation came along, catered to a whole new generation with mature games. Grand Theft Auto 3 came out. It changed videogames forever. Now videogames are a mature player's fantasy.
No mention of Nintendo Post-SNES. The Nintendo 64? That didn't exist. The Gameboy Advance? Nah. Gamecube? Definitely not. Dreamcast? Psh. It was almost as if Sony arrived and then everyone else just disappeared off the face of the earth.
Anyone else catch this?
maximumzero on
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and honestly, as much as it pains me to say it, the n64, saturn, dreamcast, xbox and gamecube were all greatly overshadowed by the Grendel-like monstrosity of the psx/ps2, so it is not surprising that a brief history would read out like that. Had this special been made 3-4 years later, Nintendo and Microsoft would get a bit more of the spotlight, i would assume.
they tried to tell the story of the comeback kid... a market that crashed then found new life with the mainstream sometime later.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
But could we not talk about Nintendo's continued dominance in the handheld scene? Pokemon exploding onto the market? Nintendo defining the 3D videogame with Super Mario 64 and then redefining it again with Ocarina of Time? Dreamcast being to first to bring Gaming online? Anything?
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
Also, the PC was the first console to bring in online gaming ;O
and ocarina defined diddly
Thumb Candy will forever be the only documentary that properly handles video game history.
It has Iain Lee beating Miyamoto at Mario Bros.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=LDjEWOh9pJY
"You invented this game."
Yeah, but the N64 put up a fight, producing quite a few of the best, most influential titles of the generation. The Gamecube, not so much. The Dreamcast deserves a mention. The Gameboy Advance with its various models and such sold 80.48 million units. Not quite the PS2's 120 million or so, but jesus christ, it's worth a MENTION.
PSN ID : Xander51 Steam ID : Xander51
The ottoman empire is worth a mention when people talk about WWI, but few people seem to bother :O
Seriously. This isn't Memento. I don't need an exciting new way to see history when I'm watching a documentary. Chronological order, plz. The very fact that Donkey Kong isn't in part one is half the problem.
*blink*
My history prof in college talked about the Ottoman Empire at length when we covered WWI. Try another metaphor.
Edit: Yeah, I know they're trying to cram everything into 40 minutes, but at least a brief mention of Halo, the Dreamcast and its stab at online capabilities, the Gameboy/GBA, etc. are necessary.
You have to realize, this program (or episode, if it really is a multi-parter) wasn't trying to be a lexicon of videogaming history.
I'd like to see him do something like that to Epic. Those guys have played UT more than anybody else.
Fatigue would set in after a while, but everything everyone would WANT mentioned (Bionic Commando, Final Fantasy, Virtual Boy, etc. etc.) could be given its due.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
It would have to be to that song too, just swapped lyrics. God, I would buy the fucking DvD if they did that.
The mention of Leisure Suit Larry.
It's like we went...
Genesis
Leisure Suit Larry
Playstation
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
Then the second episode... wtf? The first bit talking about Mario was great, then it got onto the express train to Crapville. How many episodes of this are there gonna be anyways? Maybe, just maybe, they can redeem themselves with episodes about the 64, the fall of the sega consoles, etc.
Hmmm but this show Thumb Candy sounds real neat.
But I can't expect the average person to even know there are PC games anymore, let alone a TV station. At least they interviewed a few cool people.
This episode wasn't meant to cover the history of consoles.
The Leisure Suit Larry 16 bit console was a huge seller.
It did start out like it was going to about the evolution of story in video games, but then it jumped all over the place. I cant believe they actually bothered to interview Tim Schafer and then only show one clip of it, which consisted of him saying yes games with a story are better than those without one...
It would be cool if they did focus on stuff like characters through the timeline or story development. But they jumped back into console history, then over into sports games advances, and then into uncanny valley discussion. One segment was along the lines of in the 80s...the genesis was launched. Some details about that. Then in the 90s. Wait that was all that happened in the 80s?
I guess I had higher expectations because I thought their first segment was pretty good and contained itself to the earlier period and explored at least a somewhat decent amount of it.
They have episode descriptions up on that site, looks like it focuses on the 2d to 3d jump next, then I guess sims and AI, then online gaming.
LEVEL THREE
Premiere: Wednesday, Dec. 5, at 8 p.m. ET/PT
With games like Castle Wolfenstein 3-D and Doom, video games grew from their primitive 2-D roots into richly detailed 3-D worlds. These groundbreaking 3-D games led the industry down new paths, both thrilling and troubling. Designers now had the technology to create games that accurately simulated the real world. For the first time, game designers had to grapple with a difficult question — how long before a game was nearly indistinguishable from reality? For all the controversy surrounding the first-person shooter genre in video games, its popularity was undeniable. And in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the same government that fought to regulate video games quickly designed their own as a recruiting tool for the Army. America's Army was born and an even more sensitive debate arose as to the morality of recruiting young men for real war through the fun of a video game. Were games desensitizing us to the very real pain of violence and war? And more importantly, were video games leading us on a march towards virtual war? Some people interviewed in this episode include Colonel Casey Wardynski (director and project originator of America's Army) and Asi Burak (producer of Peacemaker — a computer game simulation of the Israeli-Arab conflict).
LEVEL FOUR
Premiere: Wednesday, Dec. 12, at 8 p.m. ET/PT
Ever since the invention of the computer, man has feared "the machine" and its ability to think. But a computer's unique computational power has also led to the development of unpredictable, intelligent and malleable games. "God games," like SimCity and Civilization, simulate entire worlds and let players experiment with cause and effect. As the 1990s dawned, global turmoil forced gamers to find solace in the world of videogames — a virtual world that offered control at a time when the real one seemed dangerously out of control. Now, videogames have become tools for learning and creative expression. Players use games like Halo and Unreal Tournament 3 to tell their own stories via Machinima or through custom content that is shared with others over the Internet. The line between producer and customer has forever blurred — further proof that videogames are destined to become the dominant form of entertainment. This episode features Will Wright (creator of SimCity, The Sims and Spore), Sid Meier (who developed the game series Civilization) and John Brennan (voice actor from the Jerky Boys and Family Guy).
LEVEL FIVE
Premiere: Wednesday, Dec. 19, at 8 p.m. ET/PT
The advent of the Internet has changed everything — including videogames. When ARPNET, a military precursor to the Internet, went live in 1969, gamers almost immediately began using this new technology for gaming. But what began as text-based adventure games called MUDs (multi-user dungeons) quickly evolved into graphic-based online adventure games called MMOs (massively multi-player online games). Millions worldwide have battled together and against one another in the latest genre of videogame. From Ultima Online to the most successful MMO of all time, World of Warcraft, gamers now are attracted to virtual second lives as they battle friends and foes across the globe from the safety of their home computers. In the virtual world, gamers have found they can be anyone or anything. The ability to reinvent oneself virtually has become an irresistible experience for many, and has some critics wondering whether the line between the real world and the virtual world has become dangerously blurred. Many gamers spend more time in the virtual world than the real world, but they argue that the virtual experiences of MMOs are still human experiences simply delivered via the latest wave of technology — the videogame. This episode includes interviews with Cory Ondrejka (chief technology officer at Linden Lab) and Richard Bartle (British writer and game researcher best known for being the co-author of MUD).
Looks like they are skipping the N64 entirely (and they seemed to skip the SNES too), and not even bothering with this generation or the last generation for that matter.
I won't be watching this show any more. Looks like nothing but "hot-button" popular media topics.
The program is called "Rise of the Videogame" and in it, they go on and on and on about the videogame industry's downfall, quickly gloss over Nintendo's single handed revival of the industry, then suddenly it's all Sonic, Leisure Suit Larry, and Playstation.
What kind of show called "Rise of the Videogame" completely skimps over the part where the goddamn thing RISES?
So would you say the PS3 is Grendel's arm getting ripped off?
It should be right up your alley!
They didn't even interview Roberta Williams for King's Quest, it was her game not Ken's!
Edit: Aim? It looks like the aim was just a bunch of writers splooging off to their favorite games.
even if you don't count pc, I distinctly recall having quite a bit of fun playing MK II online on my snes via X-band, this modem cart that went in between the game and the system like an old game genie, or sonic and knucles, etc. it may not have been "real" ie it was sending your control presses rather than actually syncing the game--but it was still online play and a ton of fun. also, the saturn had an add on that let you surf the net. true story.
Hey, I have a blog! (Actually being updated again!)
3DS: 0860-3240-2604
Yeah.
Hey, I have a blog! (Actually being updated again!)
3DS: 0860-3240-2604
seriously, if you're going to do the history of video games, in multiple parts, what the hell is wrong with doing it in a generation by generation format?
It's about video game history, handheld portables are pretty important to that.