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| Rise of the Video Game - tonight on Discovery |
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| Avrus:
Honestly I didn't think they spend enough time on Atari. In my mind Atari is what started the arcade revolution -- and they seemed to have it out of order because I don't recall going to an arcade before Atari but in the mid to late 80's arcades were HUGE. As soon as you got out of school you were in an arcade. |
| bfauska:
They failed to mention Computer Space. I don't know much about the game except it was out before Pong, which they gave credit as the first "Arcade" game. I was pleased to come home and find episode 2 listed in my TiVo since I had created a season pass for it. |
| Xiaou2:
Ok, I thought the 1st episode was 'ok'. But after barely suffering thru the 2nd, I can say that Im severely unimpressed, and overall disgusted. Id say 98% of the statements that the interviewed people made absolutely incorrect BS. (portrayed as truth!) It was low down shame how they skipped over some of the most important historical aspects of the arcade industry... as well as the computer and console happenings. Geez.. they discuss the Genesis for 10 seconds, then 30 seconds later... its the PS1! Going from Dkong to Grand Theft Auto in less than an Hr?! I nearly lost my cookies... and had to fight not to turn the thing off 1/4th way thru it all. The depth of the actual pioneers of the arcade industry were literally untouched. As was the hardware challenges, and great stories behind it all. It cracked me up how they tried to put their spin into it... by saying that it was Mario's "STORY" that changed everything! What a Joke. The reason D.Kong got rave attention was due to more advanced hardware (at that time period), good graphics, and Solid gameplay. (vastly different gameplay than what was currently available or in the past - again, mostly due to more advanced hardware) Almost All games had some story behind them. Weather or not the game had the capability to convey it promisingly, is another thing entirely. D.kong wasnt really any Epic story. It was gameplay that made it special. Not a 'Story'. You can bet I wont be watching the rest. Its a disgrace to Video game History. |
| MaximRecoil:
--- Quote from: RandyT on November 28, 2007, 06:29:46 pm --- Ahh, the difference 9 years can make :) FWIW, an awful lot of the history presented in that first episode took place before 1980, which is most likely why you are having difficulty relating to it. --- End quote --- Well that's fine, but what relevance to video games does that have? Before Missile Command, what was there with a Cold War theme? Pong? Space Invaders? Galaxian? Pong certainly doesn't count, and it is quite a stretch to associate space/alien themes with the Cold War. --- Quote ---Ok, I have to get this straight, so they were not a significant threat because we found the threat significant enough to deploy thousands of troops to foreign countries ready to fire nuclear weapons at them at a moments notice. I guess that sort of makes sense. --- End quote --- You do realize that such actions go a long way to neutralize the threat, right? If there is a criminal on the loose with a gun, that's a threat. How does the dynamic change when he's cornered by a SWAT team with guns aimed at him? Given the ubiquity of the survival instinct among most creatures, humans included, and assuming he's not suicidal, the threat is now greatly reduced. Yes, he still has a gun but now he is probably not going to do much with it. --- Quote --- --- Quote ---The only major title that had a strong connection to the Cold War was Missile Command. --- End quote --- There were others. War themes included Commando, Rambo (the movie and the video game), another shooter (can't remember the name) that dropped a dreaded "MIRV" that destroyed the cities you were defending (actual citties from around the word) and plenty of other war related games. Viet Nam was also mentioned, not just the "cold war". There were tons of tactical simulations for home computers as well. Games really didn't start getting "cutesy" until Nintendo. That episode airs tonight. --- End quote --- Yes, and general war themes have never died out in video games, and I suspect they never will. They have no strong association with the Cold War, in which the alleged threat was a nuclear attack rather than conventional war. Most of them from the 80's were Vietnam-themed in fact (jungle setting). And BTW, Namco beat Nintendo to the punch with "cutesy games" with Pac-Man. |
| Havok:
Edit by Havok - no piracy! (Why should Saint have all the fun?) |
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