Techtite's TV Reviews!

"Three hours of everything you ever wanted to know about games. The only bad news is that they didn't expand it to four hours ...or even a mini-series! "

---from the review

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Video Game Invasion: 

The History of a Global Obsession

A Review by Techtite

Given how much of a staple video games have become in the gaming industry, it's surprising that a documentary about such video games took so long to be made by GSN, The Game Show Network channel. However, such a special was worth the wait; not only is this one of the best game documentaries ever seen; it's probably the best documentary that will air on TV in all of 2004. I'm not kidding.

This three-hour special is hosted by Tony Hawk, whose sport game is so much of a top seller these days, it's sold for free on new Mac computers. I like how he begins the special --after a short sneak peek of the show as a whole-- by talking about his days playing Pac-Man at the local pizza parlor. It helps to have a host that's well associated with what they're talking about. That's actually one of many instances this documentary shows how associated with the subject matter the cast and crew are.

The most interesting part of this special is in how far back they go. Not only do they go back to the days of "Pong,' but they even tell of the very first time anyone attempted an entertainment-like computer product. You'll learn of the first time someone made a ball bounce back and forth on a computer monitor, for example. There's also the guy who made an asteroids-like game with two spaceships flying around a small star, yet the guy never followed through in the game industry, never thinking that computer games would sell (D'oh!). Then there's the guy who made The Odyssey system; the first planned video game system for home TVs, which was black-and-white yet had color overlays to stick via static to the TV screen for various games. This is going pretty far back!

Of course, no first-generation video game history lesson would be complete without the rise and fall of then-heavyweight Atari. It makes perfect sense that this would be the pinnacle of the show's history lesson in gaming, given how Atari, and their "2600" game system, was the start of the whole home gaming industry as we know it today. Yet so much detail is offered during the "Atari years," one wonders if this was originally intended as an Atari documentary, only to have the decision made at the halfway mark to make the special encompass all arcade and video games, as a whole. This is belittling how much detail they give of Atari's legacy, though, from the series' creation by Nolan Bushnell, to the exodus of then-under-appreciated game designers to the first-ever third party game companies, including Activision. There is even a less-heard-of trivia byte that one of Atari's original game designers was none other than Steve Jobs.

Along the way in this first-generation game lesson, we are told of arcade games as well. From the Pac-Man craze to the first Donkey Kong; they're all covered here, as well as the origination of both titles. As some trivia buffs will tell you, Pac-Man was originally intended to be titled "Puck-Man" until designers felt that vandals may paint obscene alternate names on the arcade game boxes. Donkey Kong originated as something like "Bad monkey" until the designer looked in a thesaurus and came up with "Donkey...Kong." This and much more arcade goodness in throughout this show's three hours.

It's when the series enters its second hour that it's clear that the show should've either been entirely of the dawn of gaming, or expanded its show to even more hours...perhaps a mini series. The rise and fall of Sierra On-Line, for example, is mentioned as a mere footnote compared to the time they spend about Atari. Likewise for the entire computer game industry, which quite frankly, was riding quite high around the time that video game systems were struggling to get their niche back. However, there is an impressive amount of material about the dawn of the computer-gaming age, including the rise of Electronic Arts, plus anecdotes from former Sierra heavyweights like Al Lowe (Leisure Suit Larry) and Jane Jensen (Gabriel Knight).

Not that modern gaming isn't saluted as well. Younger, more modern video game names like John Carmack and John Romero are given their spotlight, plus a lot of interview clips from Romero himself. This is where the documentary redeems itself from the lackluster first installment of the computer game industry, by not shying away from the whole modern, violence-in-games controversy. However, much like any documentary with a smart approach; no sides are taken here. Washington DC's take on the whole anti-game-violence is given, as well as comments from the game designers. You're then allowed to make your own decisions.

Gripes? Not many. I mean, the documentary is three hours long, after all, and what they cover in that time is thorough and informative. However, given how unusual it is to this very day for women to participate in the game industry, I was a bit miffed that Roberta "King's Quest" Williams was given little more than a footnote, especially when compared to Trip "EA" Hawkins. If not for Roberta and her King's Quest series, several game series that piggy backed on the same game engine --including Space Quest, Police Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, and on and on-- would never have existed. Even if for whatever reason Roberta was not on hand for an interview, her major role in the video game industry --as well as adventure games as a whole-- should not have been so pooh-poohed as it is here.

Likewise for how the show paints a very brutally honest picture of Atari's successes and failures, yet merely a sugary sweet one for more modern gaming giants. Trip Hawkins made Electronic Arts what it is today, yes, though he also left the company to make 3DO; one of the bigger video game system crash-and-burns of recent years. While Sega's more popular systems like the Genesis console (and the dawn of Sega's icon in gaming, Sonic the Hedgehog) is covered, their initial, flawed entry into the video game system world --The Sega Master System-- is barely discussed at all. There are a few of many omissions.

However, in three hours is is very impressive how much is covered here. Consider this the Cliff's Notes summary of video games as a whole, for anyone who was unaware. Informative as well as entertaining --I doubt that even an agnostic, non-gamer would yawn once during this special-- this is the kind of special documentary that Game Show Network should have more of. So what if their singular attempt at a video game oriented news series was unsuccessful; they really should have more video game oriented material than they often have. This special is a great start.

                                                                    ---Techtite

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