Feedback on GameHeadz on TLC

[TVs Hasselhoff]

Can we start the feedback here? Curious to hear from the gang.

Of course, watch it first.

[zektor]

Recording it now :)

[punkoffgirl]

The Legend of Zelda commercial clips are awesome! Too bad they don't show them in their entirety, without that voiceover. All the Japanese commercials were WAY better than the US ones.

[Lady Jaye]

Okay, so what's the whole deal about codemasters??? Why not Mattel or Coleco? for such a short documentary, I would've chosen any of several other companies before them.

Oh, and roughly 45 minutes without ads is definitely not enough for a videogame history documentary. Even without going into deep details, this should have been at least 3 or 4 hours.

At least they interviewed Ralph Baer.

[TVs Hasselhoff]

Yeah, the original systems were kinda glassed over in favor of more current and recognizable names (aka Nintendo, Tetris). Made the founding systems seem rather insignificant. And the arcade influence was almost entirely overlooked.

And how can you have a documentary with Atari and NOT mention John Hardie?

[zektor]

I believe this should have been a 4 part episode at absolute minimum. THere was so much NOT covered. Mattel INTV, Colecovision, Commodore...to name a few. You can't jump from Atari to Sinclair to NES and to Gameboy. It was all in all a nice little documentary with some interesting interviews, but does no justice to the history of gaming as a whole IMHO.

[Lady Jaye]

Where are the Blue Sky Rangers? Eugene Jarvis, Defender and Robotron? Sega? Namco, Midway and Pac-Man (just the story behind the creation of Ms. Pac-Man is worth being told)? And why does it stop at Tetris???

It definitely should have been a multi-part series.

[Bratwurst]

Wait, it's just a single one time show? Bah, it really felt like they were going to pontificate further in more episodes.

[ventrra]

Wait, it's just a single one time show? Bah, it really felt like they were going to pontificate further in more episodes.
Personally, I'm hoping that it's just a test episode for a series (maybe a couple of years long). It was rather ... light, I suppose, but if it were to become a series, they could get quite a bit more in depth with a lot more stuff. As it stands, leaving it at just what was on the screen tonight would seem rather incomplete. :/

[TVs Hasselhoff]

Maybe they could do an episode covering each re-issue of Leonard Herman's book, Phoenix.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Just makes me wonder one thing...whatever happened to the PBS Joystick Nation miniseries that was supposedly in the works? I had such high hopes for that.

God willing, I will get my TV project off the ground by the end of the year, at least in a minimal form that'd demonstrate the potential of such a show to someone who could bankroll it properly. There are so many stories to be told. Someone's gotta tell those stories. I want to do it so bad my brain hurts, but I'm blessed with the privelege of being based out of precisely the wrong part of the country to track people down and interview them on my current budget. :|

God willing, someday I'll have more to show for my work on the idea thus far than some visual concept tests...
http://www.thelogbook.com/phostv/pics/close.jpg

[NE146]

Wait, it's just a single one time show? Bah, it really felt like they were going to pontificate further in more episodes.

ok.. 9:30 pm pacific. That TLC show starts taping in an 30 minutes :D

BTW, if you guys get a chance to watch G4 at all, they got a running series called "Icons" where they do a half hour on certain subjects and the history behind them. Some of the ones that come to mind are half hours dedicated to things like Atari, Nolan Bushnell, Intellivision, Activision, Richard Garriott, Sid Meier, Pacman, Shigeru Miyamoto, etc. Collectivity it makes for a pretty good tv perspective on specific videogame history.. and hopefully it will get better.

[Zaxxon]

Okay, so what's the whole deal about codemasters??? Why not Mattel or Coleco? for such a short documentary, I would've chosen any of several other companies before them.

I wondered about that too. They must've been throwing a bone to the British audience(no offense Brits). The Brits have a huge boner for Codemasters. It's always Micro Machines!, Micro Machines! Micro Machines! As if it were the greatest game ever. I can see covering it maybe if it were a 3 hour special.

[Zaxxon]

I liked how David Crane has the same exact haircut in 2003 that he had on the back of the Pitfall box in 1982. I guess if the ladies like it, why change it. LOL

[NE146]

Why the heck is it when they talk about Space Invaders they show that stupid UK graphic hack of the game :2gunfire: They might as well show on of the multitudes of graphic hacks to Super Mario Bros when they show that game. Geezus at least show the original thang x_x

[rolenta]

Maybe they could do an episode covering each re-issue of Leonard Herman's book, Phoenix.

Well they do have a copy of it. Ralph Baer gave them a copy when they were at his house interviewing him.

BTW, Ralph couldn't find his circuit boards for the Odyssey so he asked me to send mine to him. So in the scene where they show the Odyssey with the 2 circuit boards sitting atop it, those boards are mine!

[rolenta]

By the way I am an advisor for a documentary that is now in the works, Check out www.runstopfilms.com

[Atar1G1rl]

Ahh, west coast time, always the last to view and chime in...

The first words out of Michael's mouth when it was over was "is that it? When is the next part on?" I was thinking the same thing.

It was a generally nice overview, but sooo much was left out that it's still bugging me. I had wondered what they were going to fit in during a mere hour's time.

I agree that a regular series would have been much better. The show just doesn't do justice for all the many contributors over time to the industry. I just kept seeing all these gaps and trying to add what I could during commercial breaks as I talked about it with Michael.

And no kidding- like Tetris is the end of the line? What the heck? I love the game, but still, geez.

A regular series would be a good thing. Taking donations, Earl? Quit cloning folks for Sothy and get crackin'! ;)

[zektor]

Why the heck is it when they talk about Space Invaders they show that stupid UK graphic hack of the game :2gunfire: They might as well show on of the multitudes of graphic hacks to Super Mario Bros when they show that game. Geezus at least show the original thang x_x

I noticed this as well. Seems TLC has a click with Europe in this documentary at least. Not saying that is a bad thing, but it would have been nice if they explained the USA and UK versions...

[Felixthegamer]

So I forgot about the show, is it worth trying to catch? It seems like a thumbs down so far. Is it worth watching?

[Sothy]

Codemasters got Operation Flashpoint out fuck the rest of it

[Lady Jaye]

Guys, we should all write to TLC asking them to expand Gameheadz into a regular series (or at least a multi-part series). Feedback can be left at http://extweb.discovery.com/viewerrelations
since TLC is part of the Discovery channel network.

I mean, G4 sounds great and all, but it's not even available throughout the US, let alone Canada. At least TLC has a better market penetration percentage.

[digitalpress]

I'd give it a thumbs up, but only as a very general overview of the history of video games, certainly not something people in THIS group would find enlightening.

But think about it. If you only had 45 minutes to produce a show and bring as many people into the "story" as possible, would you really throw everything but the kitchen sink in there? Sure, they didn't mention Intellivision, ColecoVision, or even Fairchild (first cartridge based system), and left out a wagon full of important gaming figures, but if I had that amount of time, I dont' think I would have changed too much.

The checklist.
-Bushnell
-Atari
-Baer
-Space Invaders
-Activision
-crash and computer age
-Miyamoto
-Tetris

It's really not that bad if you want to cover the most important pieces of the history in such a short time. Consider that if much more were added to this, you'd have a very confused "general" audience.

There's no question that it would have been better as a multi-part series or presented like a TRUE history of video games. I anxiously await Earl's documentary series to do that.

[geelw]

it seemed like a pilot of sorts to me... there were holes and gaps to jump over, and some of the stuff was hysterical (the recreations and editing). tlc did a fast food documentary series that ended up as a multi-part deal, so there's no reason why they can't expand and fill in what's missing. i was waiting for more when it ended- they cover codemasters but never mention their NES games. sega COMPLETELY got the shaft (lol), and the whole tetris segment should be expanded to a TV movie- it was pretty damn funny!

on an interesting side note, i got to see the show with a particular lady who's not a gamer, but is quite interested in the culture, so i got to fill her in during commercials (shut up LOL ) with little details of what was left out (with a little help from leonard herman's phoenix, naturally!)... ;)

[Six Switch]

I forgot about it,damn South Park!Thank God they are showing it again on Sunday,I'll have to watch it then. >:(

[The Scribe]

The program was decent, but way too short. You could tell that they had a lot more content, but edited most of it out; e.g. there was a quick shot of E.T. as they mentioned the video game crash of '83-'84.

Also, they should have mentioned Infocom or Sierra or Origin Systems when discussing early personal computer games.

[Nynaeve]

It's on again on Saturday if anyone missed it, 3pm

http://tlc.discovery.com/schedule/episode.jsp?episode=0&cpi=54255&gid=0

[RJ]

Worth watching, but a very average attempt at plumbing the depths of gaming.

Yeah, what was the big deal w/ Codemasters? I guess I learned something, 'cuz I'd NEVER heard of them before the show...

(starts chant): "WE WANT A SERIES!"