Video Game Invasion: Documentary

[l_lamb]

There's an ad in the April GamePro (page 95) for a video game documentary called Video Game Invasion: The History Of A Global Obsession hosted by Tony Hawk. It's airing on the Game Show Network on Sunday, March 21 and March 28 at 9pm eastern.

The GSN website doesn't have any information, and it's not in their schedule yet, so there's no indication of how long it is.

[Lady Jaye]

Ooh, thanks for the info! I've gotta see this (and tape this)!

Is that a 2-parter or is March 28 an encore broadcast of March 21?

[Lady Jaye]

I found the press release by GSN:

2004-01-10 - Game Show Network Premieres Two Hour Documentary 'Video Game Invasion: The History of a Global Obsession'
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GAME SHOW NETWORK PREMIERES TWO HOUR DOCUMENTARY
“VIDEO GAME INVASION: THE HISTORY OF A GLOBAL OBSESSION “

Documentary Hosted By Pro Skateboarder and Video Game Star Tony Hawk
And Premieres Sunday March 21 at 9P.M. ET/PT


(HOLLYWOOD, CA))– GSN, the network for games (formerly Game Show Network) will premiere its second documentary, VIDEO GAME INVASION: THE HISTORY OF A GLOBAL OBSESSION. This documentary will cover the creation and evolution of video games, and will be narrated by skateboard and video game icon Tony Hawk. VIDEO GAME INVASION will debut Sunday, March 21 from 9 to 11 PM ET/PT. The announcement was made today by Rich Cronin, President and CEO, GSN, as part of the network’s Television Critics Association presentation.

In making the announcement, Cronin said: “Video games have had such an enormous impact on popular culture and on the leisure time of young people that we felt it was important to document the birth and growth of this amazing entertainment phenomenon. The video game industry now generates 20 billion dollars in annual revenues, and the profile of the average gamer is changing. Some 41% of computer gamers are women and more than half of all players are over 18, demonstrating the continued expansion in popularity.”

"We knew that to do justice to the amazing thrill ride that is the video-game industry, we had to capture all the drama, the intrigue, the scope, even the humor that's been part of the industry from the beginning," says David Comtois, executive producer. Adds David Carr, executive producer, "And as producers of numerous personality-driven documentaries, we knew that the best way to accomplish that was through the human element. All these folks were off-the-wall, wildly colorful pioneers in a business with no boundaries. We couldn't have asked for better subjects!"

Hosted by Tony Hawk, world champion skateboarder and co-creator of such hit video games as “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater” and “Tony Hawk’s Underground,” VIDEO GAME INVASION explores the creation of video games in an entertaining and comprehensive fashion. Taking viewers through the maze of games that comprised the evolution of video gaming, VIDEO GAME INVASION focuses on the impact of the human element, and the behind the scenes competition between these impassioned geniuses who create video games. Bold and irreverent, VIDEO GAME INVASION delves into the fascinating world of tech-heads as they pushed the technological envelope to create such breakthrough early games as Pong and Space Invaders, and subsequently emerged with the huge international corporations that now dominate the multi-billion dollar video game industry. Paying homage to those unique individuals for pushing the game envelope and making the industry what it is today, VIDEO GAME INVASION takes us on an adventure through the phenomenon of video games and explains why they have become a global obsession. VIDEO GAME INVASION will be sponsored by Planters.

VIDEO GAME INVASION is executive produced by David Carr and David Comtois of Beantown Productions, and includes interviews of Nolan Bushnell, former CEO of Atari, Al Alcorn, former Vice President of Atari and designer of “Pong,” Seamus Blackley, CAA agent who leads their video game division and former CTO and lead designer for Microsoft Xbox, John Romero, CEO of Monkeystone Games and co-creator of “Doom” and “Quake,” and many other industry pioneers.

Beantown Productions, founded by David Carr and David Comtois, is a leading independent production company and an acclaimed TV advertising and marketing powerhouse. The company’s recent TV production credits include Lifetime Television's Operation Style; AMC's Behind the Planet of the Apes; The Alien Saga and 20th Century Fox: The First Fifty Years; A&E’s Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Sound of Movies and Hugh Hefner: American Playboy; and the Fox Family Channel's LeoMania. On the film side, the company recently handled editing and post production work for Family Tree, a semi-autobiographical short from Oscar-winning Shrek director Vicky Jenson. Beantown Productions is based in Los Angeles with offices in New York City.

GSN, the Network for Games, is the only U.S. television network dedicated to game-related programming and interactive game playing. The network features game shows, reality series, documentaries, video game programs and casino games. As the industry leader in interactivity, GSN features 84 hours per week of interactive programming, which allows viewers to win prizes by playing along with GSN’s televised games via gsn.com. Reaching 54 million Nielsen homes, GSN is distributed in the U.S. through all major cable systems and satellite providers. The network is jointly owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Liberty Media Corporation. For further media information, visit GSN’s press website at corp.gsn.com.

Contact: Nikki Lichterman
310.255.6938
nlichterman@gsn.com

[Kejoriv]

sounds good. I am gonna have to tape and watch that. If only I had Tivo....

[Lady Jaye]

I'm watching it right now (I'm gonna tape it during its rerun at midnight, as I had a problem with my VCR that kept me from taping it right now). It's better than I expected. Even though it cuts corners quite a bit (whaddya expect for a documentary that runs at 1 1/2 hours without the ads?), it's well done and can be considered as a sort of highly visual summary of the Ultimate History of Video Games (Steven Kent is one of the people interviewed, along with Nolan Bushnell, Ralph Baer, Alan Miller, David Crane...). Tony Hawk is pretty good as a narrator, better than I thought he'd be.

The only thing I can reproach to this documentary: it should have been a 10-hour mini-series (it'd be a lot more exhaustive). This said, it's a lot more satisfying to watch than that other documentary that ran on TLC last summer (it's more balanced).

Anyway, I'm only half-way through the show, so hopefully the second half will be as good.

[l_lamb]

Yes, it's a lot better than I was expecting from GSN. Great interviews - it's always nice to hear the anecdotes directly from the people involved.

It's re-airing after a one-hour break tonight (12am eastern/11pm central), then again on the 28th at 9pm eastern for those who missed part or all of it.

[Lady Jaye]

I left a posting over at GSN's forum (over at www.gsn.com), congratulating them for the documentary but adding that it'd be even better if it were turned into a series.

Now that they've broadened the network's definition as "The Network for Games", it'd fit in nicely into their regular schedule. Even better, it could even be expanded into some kind of "Biography"-type episodes... The possibilities are quite wide.

[l_lamb]

That really ended up being a great show, and you're right, it could be done in a "Biography"-style format with more time to cover each subject. They sure did gloss over the SNES and N64, though. Maybe because Nintendo was so prevalent earlier in the show, they wanted to balance it out.

[Algol]

*Sigh* If only I had GSN. :(

[NE146]

This was very well made! Good watching :D

In my opinion it was far better than many of the G4 'specials' that deal on the same subject. One cool thing is they showed actual arcade footage... like an arcade cab Space Invaders with the background intact...wheras the G4 specials often embarrisingly showed MAME footage when talking about the old games. :roll: (Anyone catch that one episode of Filter where they showed Asteroids and the sounds were the broken Mame ones? x_x )

Anyway, this was a pleasant surprise :)

[§ Gideon §]

(Anyone catch that one episode of Filter where they showed Asteroids and the sounds were the broken Mame ones? x_x
heh. No, but I'm not surprised. Did you catch the Miyamoto episode of Icons where Zelda 2 footage was shown as "the original Zelda game"?

I'll try and catch this the next time it comes around. Hopefully, it will be re-run often.

[fargus]

Dredging up the past a bit, but this show is being released on DVD on October 26th. Amazon has it listed for $10.49 here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002T7YYE/qid%3D1094690459/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/102-2093893-9995338

[VinnyT]

Man, i remember liking the whole thing, until they went from early 90's to almost present time, in about 10 minutes.

They just totally went random times after the first hour and a half, I think that was it.

[kainemaxwell]

Worth buying?