Rise of the Videogame documentary impresses

by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 27th 2007 at 4:45PM }

If you missed Discovery Channel's video game documentary's first episode last week, try extra hard not to miss episode two. Rise of the Video Game is actually a pretty solid documentary (so far) with the right interviews, research and b-roll to make an entertaining and informative hour of television. Rock, Paper, Shotgun puts it best by saying, "Rise Of demonstrates a depth of research and work that lifts it above the usually banal, patronizing rubbish that television normally produces on the subject."

A good general overview of games before the rise of Nintendo made for a great first episode. The second episode is scheduled for tomorrow at 8PM (with a few repeats sprinkled over the next week) and chronicles consoles and PCs bringing video games to a larger audience in the home. This episode will feature EA founder Trip Hawkins, adventure game guru and Psychonauts creator Tim Schafer, and Leisure Suit Larry creator Al Lowe. Hm, 3DO, the golden age of adventure games and Larry -- tragedy, triumph and sex. Sounds like a good hour of television.

Tags: discovery, documentary, rise-of-the-video-game

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Dadidito @ Nov 27th 2007 4:49PM

I caught the first one and it was at the levels of what you would expect for a Discovery show. It was informative and fair. I especially like how they showed the dumpsite of the E.T. cartridges.

LilCo187 @ Nov 27th 2007 4:52PM

Nintendo is the automobile of the video game industry. The Television. The Computer if you will.

They are what is all.

Zertoss @ Nov 27th 2007 4:53PM

I missed most of it, but what I saw was definitely good Discovery material. Definitely going to try to catch the next one, Al Lowe is hilarious.

samfish @ Nov 27th 2007 4:58PM

Kinda almost makes me wish I had cable.

..almost.

Quickly, Robin! To the bittorrents!

shivr @ Nov 27th 2007 5:45PM

heh, agreed

gonk @ Nov 27th 2007 5:03PM

eh, nothin i haven't read before a few times

the visuals might be nice, but i'll just play mass effect instead

XanthouS @ Nov 27th 2007 5:08PM

Yeah, the best way to respond to a major mainstream news/research outlet portraying out hobby/culture in a fair and unbiased light is to remain in our caves and ignore it altogether.

I would expect nothing less from Discovery, and I think it's great they've taken the time to properly research and produce a multi-chapter report on the "Rise of the Video Game". There are only 3 or 4 cable channels worth watching, and Discovery has been on the list for quite some time.

NATO_Duke @ Nov 27th 2007 6:19PM

Whether you have read it before or not, the first episode was pretty good and worth the time.

Mike @ Nov 27th 2007 5:04PM

Might help if you told us when it was on :P

(Wednesday at 5:00, 8:00, and 9:00 eastern).

Mr Khan @ Nov 27th 2007 5:31PM

At 5:00?

Now that's actually a time i could watch

Rususeruru @ Nov 27th 2007 5:33PM

Even if you don't like a program on Discovery you have to admit they're usually all-in when it comes to production quality and content.

gonk @ Nov 27th 2007 5:39PM

yeah that planet earth thing was cool

i only saw like 30 minutes of it though, lol

Skippy @ Nov 27th 2007 6:16PM

I would like to have seen more (or any!) coverage of the Atari-era competitors and successors: Intellivision, Odyssey2, ColecoVision, Atari 5200, etc.
I realize that in the grand scheme of things, those are mostly dead ends in the videogame history road, but still...

Mr Khan @ Nov 27th 2007 6:20PM

I'd rather they would have made 7 chapters, one per console generation

Now i now it isn't all about the consoles, but those time periods are good demarcations for gaming history
1970-1976 1st, 1976-1985 2nd (for North America anyway), 1985-1989 3rd, 1989-1993 4th, 1993-1999 5th, 1999-2005 6th, and so on

gonk @ Nov 27th 2007 7:00PM

yeah, that's where videogame consoles became really confusing

and it's funny that they all had almost the same games. everyone had a space invaders clone, a pong clone, etc

but only the ti-99 had parsec! whooo man that shit was hard

playwhutyalike (toast is done) @ Nov 27th 2007 7:38PM

Gotta go set the DVR! Playwhutyalike out!

Rocky the boxer @ Nov 27th 2007 8:23PM

are there any videos online for episode one

(01) @ Nov 27th 2007 9:18PM

The dump site for ET was pretty classic. Overall it's pretty good, and informative. My only complaint was the generic lead-in after every commercial break, but hey, you gotta pay the bills...

spunkyMP4 @ Nov 27th 2007 9:22PM

This is a good series. Lots of shows from Discovery are entertaining and informative.

WiNG @ Nov 27th 2007 9:42PM

Ok this is shameless BUT, it's finally ready, the epic fight showdown between Guy and the Red Jackal!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgJQ1t4Sxx8

Life in a Game 2-2, the conclusion to episode 2! Over 20 hours of filming and now 60 hours of editing! Holy crap!

Featuring Mortal Kombat 2, Half Life 2, Super Mario 3, Super Metroid, and Diablo 1!!!! Check it out!!

If you SOMEHOW missed the previous story:

Episode 1-1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyXUVd2c83c

Episode 2-1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9nTx0nLX8U

SGT Grumbles @ Nov 27th 2007 10:03PM

It's nice to see the world embracing video games, step by step. I just wish they did it a little faster.

PacoDG @ Nov 28th 2007 6:36AM

I checked eztv, it isn't up, anyone have any torrent links without me having to search really hard for the first episode?

Gangsta Smurf @ Nov 28th 2007 10:13AM

I usually dig documentaries (I love Discovery channel! Only thing worth watching, IMO) but I thought RofV was proper stupid. Showcasing the boring side of the video game industry, while all factual in its own right, it still bored the shit out of me.

Real talk. It's a miss.

Shiroi Kaze @ Nov 29th 2007 12:05AM

Just watched the second episode tonight... kind of a letdown. They had some great old interview footage of a young Miyamoto but then they skipped from SNES straight to the PSX... I can understand leaving out turbografx but they entirely snuffed the N64/Saturn/Dreamcast. They talked about how GTA3 was so revolutionary to create a 3D world without mentioning Mario 64 as the roots of a true 3D world and also how GTA 3 was so cinematic with no mention of games like Ninja Gaiden or Metal Gear Solid that pioneered cinematic gaming... definitely a show targeting towards the mainstream and not longtime gamers.

Mr. Picklesworth @ Dec 18th 2007 2:11AM

My thoughts exactly. Their clips of first person shooters seem to have a lot of Halo, too, with no HalfLife. (Which is dumb, considering that HalfLife was an incredibly well received game that breathed a lot of life into both the first-person shooter genre and modding).

Many strange exclusions...

fred @ Dec 23rd 2007 5:43AM

big let down on episode 5 where they spent their time uncritically flogging second life.
second lifes population is a fraud. active population is low. and theres nothing compelling about socializing with other fat geek males pretending to be hot babes online. its just creepy.