Documentary: Rise of the Video Game [Archive]

Cantaloup

11-21-2007, 10:27 AM

Just to let everyone know, this airs TONIGHT (11/21/07) on the Discovery Channel at 8 p.m. EST. It's the first of a 5 part series, with the following parts to air weekly on Wednesdays.

More information:

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/video-game/video-game.html

Edit: According to the schedule, each episode will be re-run the following Saturday at 11 a.m. EST if you happen to miss the initial airing.

sidnotcrazy

11-21-2007, 10:58 AM

Thanks for posting this. I always miss shows about video games, and it is only afterwards to I hear about them.

Dark_Sol

11-21-2007, 11:09 AM

Cool!!

ZackyH

11-21-2007, 11:29 AM

The scores for the games on that online portion were pretty low. New Super Mario Bros was like a 6.7 and is the highest ranking one.

MachineGex

11-21-2007, 11:49 AM

My TIVO is set, many Thanks!

XYXZYZ

11-21-2007, 11:50 AM

I don't have cable TV, I hope this gets uploaded to USENET later on.

otaku

11-21-2007, 12:51 PM

I think I've seen this but am not sure, hopefully not.

rolenta

11-21-2007, 01:00 PM

I hope the information in the show is better than what's on the website. On their timeline, under Space War, they have a screenshot of Pong! In the Atari & Pong section, it says that Space War was the first arcade game that Atari released.

cyberfluxor

11-21-2007, 02:09 PM

Thanks for the heads up! We just started getting Discovery HD, hope it's broadcasted in HD. :)

jjessop

11-22-2007, 12:35 AM

ZackyH

11-22-2007, 08:43 AM

What a snoozefest! I stopped watching 20 minutes into it to go play BF1942. How could they spend so much time saying so little about video games? It looked like somethink E television or G4 would produce.

Did it get better? I recorded it just in case.

JJ

I thought it was pretty interesting from beginning to end. Then again I stared at the designs of a desk at the hospital the other day for seven hours so I guess I was willing to watch anything with interest after sitting in that waiting room for that long(I put money in a snack machine and got two ice cream sandwiches for the price of one, though. Awesome!). However, it kind of bugged me about this social commentary they were trying to connect with games. Seemed kind of like they were grasping at straws a little but it did make sense as far as saying why the population gravitated toward the hobby in the first place. I think most of the people who made these games weren't doing it as some sort of commentary of the times or anything. They made them because they were bored at these military jobs with these big computers and decided to make programs like that to pass the time.

k8track

11-22-2007, 09:04 AM

What a snoozefest! I stopped watching 20 minutes into it to go play BF1942. How could they spend so much time saying so little about video games? It looked like somethink E television or G4 would produce.

Did it get better? I recorded it just in case.

JJ
Yep, agreed. QFT. I lasted about 7 minutes. I knew and feared beforehand that that would be exactly the case. I guess they were trying to put it into historical context, but ended up being very irrelevant. The way they presented it was very schizophrenic, with snippets of interviews here and there, supplemented by lots of irrelevant archival footage (they kept dwelling on the Cold War and the military way too much).

It suffered from what way too many documentaries have been afflicted with in recent years: an MTV/VH1-I-Love-The-80s style of pacing and editing. God forbid you have a clip longer than 3 seconds on the screen at a time (the ADD kids might lose interest and start txtng thr frnds!). I would greatly prefer a far more focused, relevant, Ken Burns-style approach to the subject. For example, for historical context, start with pinball and other early non-video arcade games (and pachinko in Japan), not a bunch of crappy archival footage about the Cold War. Actually show longer portions of the people you interviewed, and not with “snazzy” background graphics going on behind them (geez, I hate that!).

I would love it if Ken Burns took a crack at this.

Flack

11-22-2007, 09:33 AM

I forgot this was on last night but the PiVo caught it so I watched it this morning. Not including commercials, I think it ran a little over 45 mins roughly. Based off of that, I'd say 25 mins was spent discussing the cold war, 20 mins was spent discussing Pong and Atari, and 5 mins was spent discussing Tetris. Those numbers may not be 100% accurate but that's how it felt. I think they showed more footage of rockets, astronauts and JFK than the average space documentary!

The short bit on Tetris at the end felt tacked on and way out of place. I guess they were trying to tie it into the whole cold war theme, but it took them 45-50 mins to get to the Atari 2600 and then (of course) they talked about ET and burying carts in the desert, and all of a sudden there was footage of Ronald Regan and the fall of the Berlin Wall, and then a short bit on Tetris. The end of the program showed footage of Donkey Kong, so I assume episode #2 will either cover arcades in greater detail, or the NES. Episode #1 did talk about arcades but if all you knew about arcades came from this program you'd think there were only two games, Space Invaders and Pac-Man.

After this year's CGE I heard some people complaining about the speakers, saying that they'd heard all these stories before. That's how I felt about this program. Every story they mentioned I thought, yeah, heard that one before. I've heard all of them before.

diskoboy

11-22-2007, 12:23 PM

I tivo'ed the 1st part, and am watching it now.

When is part 2 coming on? According to my cable listing, it's not on next Wednesday (of course, this thing has been wrong from time to time)..

cyberfluxor

11-22-2007, 12:33 PM

Man, I was expecting something better than this. Flack and k8track hit it on the head. It almost felt like a high school or crummy college documentry project. It is lacking, full of filler and rambles off topic. If part 2 is as bad I don't believe I'll watch the others unless someone comes forward letting me know it's worth the time. At least it's not the worst job ever, thank god.

rolenta

11-22-2007, 12:57 PM

I was very disappointed with it. Videogames were born from the cold war? Give me a break. I contacted Ralph Baer last night. Here's what he had to say about that: "The reason why everything is "related to the military", which is of course a total fiction, is simply because the producers employed (Heather Chaplin) as a script writer. She wrote a book that makes that precise assertion on every other page. Of course, she never contacted me...."

And I never knew that Tetris was the reason why the videogame industry "rose from the ashes" (hmmm, where did they get that line?).

Bushnell is now claiming that what made Pong fun over the Odyssey was the segmented paddles which caused the ball to return at different angle. He only started speiling that line about three years ago, after he ginally admitted that yes, he "did see the Odyssey, but it was a failure". Of course he doesn't take into the account the Odyssey's English feature which performs almost the same function.

And nobody saw the crash coming except good old Bushnell who made a fortune by selling Warner stock short.

And they pulled in JC Hertz to make a commentary! Oh please!

I could go on but I rather use my energy and work on finishing the new edition of Phoenix. Someone has to try and get it right.

11-22-2007, 12:58 PM

Why WOULDN'T we have heard them before? It's not like they're producing it for members on a video game forum...:roll: How many different ways can they do a documentary on video game history? Are you expecting new info from these shows?

Keep in mind it's mainly for the general public, people who may not know the rarity of a given game cartridge, or that Atari or Nintendo DIDN'T actually create every gaming system known to man, or there was more than 1 type of Atari VCS.

Last night I saw it was on just an hr or so before it aired. My wife said "what would be on there you dont already know about?" & she was right...but I still watched & enjoyed it.

I admit I played PS2 as it DVRed, then watched it at my leisure.

jjessop

11-22-2007, 01:23 PM

Thank goodness it was not just me. The true story of videogames and the individuals involved is far more interesting than the fluff they tossed in. Get it right Lenny, I'm counting on you!

JJ

sidnotcrazy

11-22-2007, 02:15 PM

I was very disappointed with it. Videogames were born from the cold war? Give me a break. I contacted Ralph Baer last night. Here's what he had to say about that: "The reason why everything is "related to the military", which is of course a total fiction, is simply because the producers employed (Heather Chaplin) as a script writer. She wrote a book that makes that precise assertion on every other page. Of course, she never contacted me...."

Yeah, I hated how they tried to spin everything in the direction of the cold war. Now I don�t expect them to cover much of the actual events that transpired during video game history. However, I hate it when a documentary tries to make connections, and assert ideas as fact instead of treating them as what they really are. Which is just the opinion of the creators of said documentary.

Even though I said all of this I will still watch this entire documentary. I am just a sucker for anything that mentions video games even remotely. I did enjoy seeing Ralph Baer, Nolan, Al, and the rest of the gang. But enough with the highbrow intellectual analogies. Video games are interesting enough without having to go into the mindset of the populace at the time.

otaku

11-23-2007, 01:24 AM

I swear I've watched this show (or one damn similar) and even taken part in a topic damn similar. Needless to say I've lost interest-its a terrible show and very misinforming.

p_b

11-23-2007, 02:57 AM

This show was aired over here about a few months ago, so I've seen them all before (At least I'm fairly certain it's this show, having read the descriptions on the website...)
I quite enjoyed the first 2-3 parts of it, but then it just got worse and worse...

Dark_Sol

11-23-2007, 09:43 AM

There was another documentary earlier, "I, video game". Looks like this is similar shit about cold war...
Anyway. Anyone can upload the first serie?

rolenta

11-23-2007, 10:02 AM

And that's an excuse for sloppy journalism? Documentaries can gloss over the details while still being accurate. Every time crap like this comes out, it only makes it more difficult to keep the facts straight b/c it ends up being used as reference material by the next "weekend historian".

Several years ago I was having a discussion with Ralph Baer (who documents everything), and I complained how I couldn't get an accurate accounting from Nolan Bushnell on the history of Atari. Ralph told me that many people suffer from "Selective Memory". They'll remember things the way they want to remember it, regardless if it's true or not, and that's how folklore begins. I've spent a lot of time (with a lot of help from Stonic) trying to sort the real memories from the imaginary memories in an effort to get it correct. Then a documentary like this comes along and changes everything.

I would like to point out that Heather Chaplin, who according to Ralph, was a writer of this series, did contact me when she was writing her book. We made two appointments for her to come and talk with me and she bailed out both times. I have no idea where the 'facts' in this documentary came from.

xfrumx

11-24-2007, 11:47 AM

This is decent, I think the "second level" episode will be much better!

11-24-2007, 10:24 PM

If it isn't, expect it to be shredded here.

Phosphor Dot Fossils

11-27-2007, 05:45 AM

I give them points for talking to Ralph at some length, rather than one hideously, hideously wrong UK documentary a few years back that didn't even discuss him until after going on and on about Bushnell for fifteen minutes and saying "But wait! There's this other guy who sued Nolan because he thought he came with the idea first. The case was settled out of court." And that was all they said or showed.

Leonard, I think I've said this to you before, but deep down inside, I'm overjoyed when one of the documentaries comes out, gets it completely wrong, and tanks. I know it doesn't help the real historians of the medium, but it's purely selfish: it means that someday I can still come along and produce something and hopefully get it right. :evil laugh:

NE146

11-27-2007, 09:33 AM

I don't have cable TV, I hope this gets uploaded to USENET later on.

It is... if anyone wants it here's a direct link:

http://binsearch.info/?q=Rise.Of.The.Video...=50&server= (http://binsearch.info/?q=Rise.Of.The.Video.Game&max=25&adv_age=50&server=)

k8track

11-27-2007, 09:50 AM

Leonard, I think I've said this to you before, but deep down inside, I'm overjoyed when one of the documentaries comes out, gets it completely wrong, and tanks. I know it doesn't help the real historians of the medium, but it's purely selfish: it means that someday I can still come along and produce something and hopefully get it right. :evil laugh:
Earl, I would very much like to see you and Leonard team up for just such a project, for real. It would be interesting, entertaining, and accurate.

rolenta

11-28-2007, 07:51 AM

Level 2 is tonight and judging by TVguide.com's synopsis, I'm expecting errors galore!

"Rise of the Videogame
Level Two
Examining the increasing sophistication of video games in the late 1970s and early '80s. Included Sega's Genesis and Sony's PlayStation."

rolenta

11-28-2007, 07:53 AM

Earl, I would very much like to see you and Leonard team up for just such a project, for real. It would be interesting, entertaining, and accurate.

I'm game. I can provide the accuracy and some of the interest. I'd have to leave the entertainment to Earl.

8bitgamer

11-28-2007, 09:26 AM

I missed the first segment, but will be watching tonight (if nothing else to see how bad it is).

cyberfluxor

11-28-2007, 09:35 AM

Yeah, I hated how they tried to spin everything in the direction of the cold war. Now I don’t expect them to cover much of the actual events that transpired during video game history. However, I hate it when a documentary tries to make connections, and assert ideas as fact instead of treating them as what they really are. Which is just the opinion of the creators of said documentary.

Although I agree it's crap, the truth is all history is open to interpretation based on "facts" which are dependant on the perspective you've received them from. Todays news isn't tomorrows history, rather it will be a collective of many sources and some conclusion we today may not agree with. It's actually funny too because in a few more years there'll be another VG show, then later another and so forth until evetually there will be some ultimate "history of video games" series, which I'm sure will get many accounts from online ducumenteries/articles/recordings because most of the foundering programmers, developers, designers and so forth will be dead.

cyberfluxor

11-28-2007, 08:07 PM

There's a show on Starz tomorrow night called "Hollywood Goes Gaming":

http://www.starz.com/appmanager/seg/s?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=movie_detail&vid=4225259&eid=-1

I know that Howard Scott Warshaw appears in it, and (from the pic on the website) I'm guessing Nolan Bushnell does too.
Oh snap! It's On-Demand apparently. I'll need to see if it holds true tonight and if it's good (imo :p).

rolenta

11-28-2007, 09:13 PM

Well Level 2 was a lot better than Level 1. To their credit, they interviewed Chris Kohler, who in my mind, is the authority on Japanese games.

Still, some glaring errors:

* - Mario was given a brother in Super Mario Bros

* - Sega marketed the Master System but then was hit by the crash of 1983. The company rebounded by releasing the Genesis.

* - The Playstation appears to be the first system to use CDs

* - They made the impression that Grand Theft Auto III came out for the PS1.

* - They said the PS1 lasted from 1994 till 1997. I believe it was 1995 to 2000

Heather Chaplin made a stupid comment that it took the Playstation 10 years to have the same market penetration that the telephone accomplished in 30 years. Maybe it did, but there was a lot more people around with more money in the late 20th century then there were in the early 20th century.

Snapple

11-28-2007, 11:35 PM

I'm watching it right now, and I'm having trouble getting past some of the inaccuracies.

The thing about how they say the crash killed the master system has already been brought up. Then, when they start talking about the Genesis, Trip Hawkins starts explaining why 16-bit games were so great. And in the background while he's talking, they're showing footage of master system games! Drivin me crazy, yo.

jjessop

11-29-2007, 12:42 AM

Well Level 2 was a lot better than Level 1. To their credit, they interviewed Chris Kohler, who in my mind, is the authority on Japanese games.

Far easier to watch than the first but full of errors, and all over the map timeline wise. They missed some real cool stories, like the fact Atari had the exclusive rights to the 8 bit NES in the U.S. in 1983-85. They missed a ton of oppertunities on the PlayStation side and then just jumped into Grand Theft Auto for PS2!

With the exception of JC Hertz the "guests" were a bit more relevant in general than #1.

I believe Mario's brother was introduced in.......duh...Mario Brothers! A great 2 player co-op game from 83/84 if I recall.

I made it through a full half hour of this one :)

JJ

Hwj_Chim

11-29-2007, 02:27 AM

I found this to be boring. I watched it than wished I had spent the hour doing homework instead. They needed to go slower and go into deeper detail. they also needed to concentrate on video games not compare them to movies for 30 minutes :angry:

Flack

11-29-2007, 08:02 AM

My biggest problem with this series (and it was worse on the second episode than the first) is the whole MTV-style editing. Back in my heydey of gaming, things moved slower. If you think about old arcade games like Donkey Kong or Asteroids or whatever, things moved slow enough that you could focus on what was going on. Usually when you were killed, you saw it coming ("nonononono-POW"). I don't like this whole "jumping around" thing these shows do. I don't like it in games and I don't like it on television.

At one point in the program they were talking about computer games. Within a two-minute span, they said the following: "Well first there was Mystery House, the first computer game with graphics. Then Sierra Online released King's Quest. Then people quit playing games because the Internet came out." I know they kept talking after that but for a while I was still trying to wrap my head around how we jumped from 1980 to 1995 in two minutes.

I can't fairly give this one a review because quite frankly I found myself flipping between this and a rerun of The World Series of Poker. These shows appear to be arranged somewhat chronologically, but once you get into them they're not. I guess I didn't really understand last night's "theme." I was expecting a chronological romp through gaming history, and when I flipped back to the show they were discussing the graphics in current gen sports games.

I dunno, man. Sometimes I feel like gaming has passed me by and now I feel like gaming-related programming has, too.

Flack

11-29-2007, 08:07 AM

While I'm complaining, let me throw something else out. I don't like how the series uses game footage that doesn't match up with what they're talking about. For example, when they were talking about Grand Theft Auto for the PS1 they were showing footage from Grand Theft Auto 3 from the PS2. While they were talking about Sonic and the Sega Genesis they showed Sonic footage from current gen games. While they talked about the original Leisure Suit Larry they showed footage of the updated VGA version. It's like they were embarassed of the original graphics or something.

AcePuppy

11-29-2007, 08:58 AM

Great episode last night, although there were inaccuracies through out but who am I to complain.

rolenta

11-29-2007, 09:05 AM

when they were talking about Grand Theft Auto for the PS1 they were showing footage from Grand Theft Auto 3 from the PS2.

No, they were talking about the PS1 and then SPECIFICALLY said that Grand Theft Auto III changed the way games played. The way they jumped back and forth they probably switched to the PS2 without us knowing it but they were talking about GTA III at the same time they were talking about the PS1.

While they were talking about Sonic and the Sega Genesis they showed Sonic footage from current gen games.

Yeah, even my 11-year old complained about that one

k8track

11-29-2007, 09:37 AM

My biggest problem with this series (and it was worse on the second episode than the first) is the whole MTV-style editing.
Yep, I totally agree--I've gone on record several times (including a few posts back) with this same observation. I can't stand it. I want something with a slower, normal pace. I think this may illustrate a generational divide, perhaps. The younger people are so acclimated to this style of editing, they don't even notice it. But if the "older" people are like me, then it really grates on their nerves.

sidnotcrazy

11-29-2007, 10:14 AM

The funny thing is I fuss and complain about these shows, but anytime a show has anything remotely to do witth gaming comes on I have to watch it. The entire time I was fussing and complaining, and even my wife was shocked at how agitated I got. Asking me if I wanted to watch something else, and I was like �No.�

Another aspect of this documentary that irritates me is how they will have interviews with some really talented people from the industry. Yet, they only let them speak for at most what seems like 10 seconds. Another pet peeve of mine is how they seem to skip over the rich history of the arcades.

Did anyone see the Hollywood goes gaming show that Stonic mentioned? We don�t get Starz in my area.

rolenta

11-29-2007, 10:22 AM

I watched it last night. Same people interviewed (Bushnell, Heather Chaplin, Trip Hawkins). As can be expected, ET was called one of the worse games in history. The actors that they interviewed seem to have no clue what they're talking about ("games are like interactive!")

cityside75

11-29-2007, 12:23 PM

Yep, I totally agree--I've gone on record several times (including a few posts back) with this same observation. I can't stand it. I want something with a slower, normal pace. I think this may illustrate a generational divide, perhaps. The younger people are so acclimated to this style of editing, they don't even notice it. But if the "older" people are like me, then it really grates on their nerves.

I kept getting the feeling that I was watching one of the old "Icons" episodes that they used to show on G4. While those were decent for a network like G4, I expect something with a little more meat (and aimed at an older audience) on the Discovery Channel. I did happen to notice in the end credits that the shows were created by Geoff Keighley, who I believe used to be at G4, so maybe that's the connection.

As everyone else has mentioned, the inaccuracies, timeline jumps and crazy editing were all disappointing to me as well.

Ryu3324

11-29-2007, 02:48 PM

i thought they had some good old stock footage. I had never seen some of it before.

rolenta

11-29-2007, 03:08 PM

Are you talking about the Starz show? According to their website, it's on tonight.

It's on Starz On Demand so I was able to watch it last night.

PingvinBlueJeans

11-29-2007, 08:54 PM

Heather Chaplin made a stupid comment...

Who? I don't even know who she is...but she made a lot of stupid comments. To say this series is a major disappointment is a serious understatement.

Wolfrider31

11-30-2007, 09:56 PM

jjessop

12-01-2007, 11:54 AM

There's alot of oversight, and screw ups in it for sure but I still love it for one reason and one reason only. We finally have a mainstream piece of video game coverage that isn't about violence or the negative health effects of gaming or how nerdy gamers are. It actually legitimizes video games as a proper art form.

Cheers to that!

Good points, never thought of it but your completely on target. While I dislike the series in general it does portray the video games industry in a positive way.

JJ

Lemmi_Is_God

12-01-2007, 11:57 AM

There's alot of oversight, and screw ups in it for sure but I still love it for one reason and one reason only. We finally have a mainstream piece of video game coverage that isn't about violence or the negative health effects of gaming or how nerdy gamers are. It actually legitimizes video games as a proper art form.

Cheers to that!

there is still 3 more parts to go they could still hit those topics :)

alittle off topic but
i was watching game head last night and they had jack thompson on it, it was probably a rerun but i usually dont watch game head

nebrazca78

12-01-2007, 12:12 PM

Why is it shows on video game history are usually so badly made?

I was just watching this show on the Discovery Channel. It was 10:28 so the show was about halfway through when they started talking about Sega. They talked about how the Master System briefly and then started in on the Genesis. The first thing I though was ridiculous was how they exaggerated the difference between 8 and 16 bit.

They had Trip Hawkins talking he says something like "16-bit was so much more powerful than 8-bit. With 8-bit you could only do simple games like Pong and Donkey Kong"

I'm not an Atari expert but wasn't the 2600 4-bit or something? Moreover, the original Pong console surely wasn't 8-bit. That's not even the half of it. While 16-bit games certainly look better and are generally slightly more complex, there's not a night-and-day difference between 8 and 16 bit games.

If you ask me, the difference between 16 and 32 bit is much bigger and changed video gaming like nothing else. That's when the 2D to 3D change started.

And then, right after Trip Hawkins' moronic statement, the voice over keeps talking about how great 16 bit graphics are. Except these idiots are showing footage of what? Master System games.

Keep in mind I watched the show for less than 5 minutes. I can't even imagine what the rest of the show was like.

Reminds me of that South Park episode.

"The Discovery Channel made a TV show dum dum dum dum dum"

"They don't know the difference 'tween Pong and Mario dum dum dum dum dum"

It makes me wonder if their other documentaries are full of errors and bullcrap.

.

boatofcar

12-03-2007, 01:43 AM

Why is it shows on video game history are usually so badly made?

Because most documentaries are badly made when you watch them with an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject matter. To most people, Ken Burns' Jazz documentary was great---unless you talk to people who actually know a lot about the history of jazz. KB's saving grace (unlike this doc) is that his films are well shot and edited.

12-03-2007, 07:30 PM

boatofcar wrote: "Because most documentaries are badly made when you watch them with an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject matter."

Ahhh! Someone else sees the light!

RJ wrote: "Why WOULDN'T we have heard them before? It's not like they're producing it for members on a video game forum..."

cyberfluxor

12-03-2007, 07:45 PM

So many people I want to respond to but simply I agree 100% with Flack after watching episodes 1-3. As for the Hollywood show, it's far better and at least the E.T. segment is longer than 10 seconds! You should expect actors/actresses or most directors to really know much about games and their history. There are few that starred in game-related movies and know what they were acting the part of.

dgdgagdae

12-05-2007, 12:21 AM

I just watched episode 2, and I had to rewind it, one time when Heather Chaplin was talking. "Did she say Famicon, with an 'n'?" Yep, she sure did. Multiple times.

rolenta

12-05-2007, 08:00 AM

I just watched episode 2, and I had to rewind it, one time when Heather Chaplin was talking. "Did she say Famicon, with an 'n'?" Yep, she sure did. Multiple times.

I noticed that too but thought it was me. She kept stressing the FAMILY part but not the COMPUTER part.

Well that clinches that in future documentaries, the system will be known as the Famicon.

I wonder what interesting information we'll learn in tonight's installment.

PingvinBlueJeans

12-05-2007, 04:24 PM

I wonder what interesting information we'll learn in tonight's installment.

It'll probably talk about how Trip Hawkins made Electronic Arts a success by releasing John Madden Football for the 3DO.

rolenta

12-06-2007, 07:55 AM

I have only one word for Episode 3: YAWN!

diskoboy

12-06-2007, 02:09 PM

I have only one word for Episode 3: YAWN!

No kidding.

I don't particularly care about the military uses for Video Games.

AcePuppy

12-06-2007, 02:13 PM

Episode 4 is going to be more about computers
and the final episode is going to be all about MMO's.

Yawn to both but I'll watch them just because I've watched the rest of the series.

slapdash

12-07-2007, 11:28 PM

I just watched episode 2, and I had to rewind it, one time when Heather Chaplin was talking. "Did she say Famicon, with an 'n'?" Yep, she sure did. Multiple times.

I noticed that too but thought it was me. She kept stressing the FAMILY part but not the COMPUTER part.

To be fair, "famicon" is closer to the written Japanese (though even most Japanese will pronounce the "n" like "m" in the full word "konpyuuta", due to the "p"), so you could make a case that she's trying to be more accurate. Er, maybe.

PingvinBlueJeans

12-07-2007, 11:33 PM

To be fair, "famicon" is closer to the written Japanese (though even most Japanese will pronounce the "n" like "m" in the full word "konpyuuta", due to the "p"), so you could make a case that she's trying to be more accurate. Er, maybe.

Huh? All I know is, my (Japanese) console says 'Family Computer' on it, not 'Family Conputer'.

slapdash

12-09-2007, 09:03 PM

That's English though. The original Japanese name, in romanized Japanese, is "famirii konpyuuta". Note the "n" in "konpyuuta".

PingvinBlueJeans

12-10-2007, 11:29 AM

The original Japanese name, in romanized Japanese, is "famirii konpyuuta". Note the "n" in "konpyuuta".

Since I can't read Japanese, I'll take your word for it...but, like stonic said, the console has "FAMIly COMputer" (in English) written right on the front of it.

Besides, the person who was saying "Famicon" was not Japanese. ;)

slapdash

12-10-2007, 11:14 PM

Well, mostly I'm trying to be a devil's advocate because, well, I'm good at it at times. But I know that my Famicom doesn't have any English on the box, and the Japanese romanization for the character in question is definitely "n". But I even admitted that if Japanese person pronounced it, it would sound "m"-like due to the "p" coming next. So I was having a bit of fun while being entirely (though somewhat contrivedly) truthful.

12-13-2007, 08:55 AM

Wow! No replies regarding Ep #4? Did everyone else quit watching? No trashing the SmartBomb co-author???

PingvinBlueJeans

12-13-2007, 10:11 AM

Wow! No replies regarding Ep #4? Did everyone else quit watching?

I know I did...I didn't even watch part 3.

jjessop

12-13-2007, 01:42 PM

Wow! No replies regarding Ep #4? Did everyone else quit watching? No trashing the SmartBomb co-author???

I caught 10 minutes of it before I almost threw my remote into my 70" XBR.

For the life of me I don't know what the cold war and the Berlin wall has or had to do with gaming! I just don't get the constant military association they keep trying to make. I'm struggeling to figure out how I missed all of this in my now 30 years in the industry.......

JJ

diskoboy

12-13-2007, 02:26 PM

I'm officially done with it. The past 2 episodes sucked ass, and there really hasn't been an accurate history of video games presented throughout the entire series. They seem to gravitate around what was popular at a certain time period.

The first 2 episodes were at least watchable. But for the rest of the series - Game Over.

YoshiM

12-13-2007, 02:37 PM

I'm not sure what episode I caught the tail end of but the show described the wave of user-made content and machinima. It really didn't feel all that "historical", more "anecdotal" where the past is mentioned but the focus is more on "this is what's now".

From the way it sounds I really don't want to waste the time watching this.