Customer Reviews

The Video Game Revolution [VHS]

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This 2-hour documentary made for PBS is an excellent documentary on the history of computer and video games, and some of the aspects, good and bad, of gaming. Some giants of the gaming industry are interviewed, and we get a glimpse in the inner workings of that industry as well.

What's better, this documentary does not fall into the old "games are bad" mindset that seems to pop up so often in mainstream press. It doesn't avoid the issues, but rather ask people from both in and outside the industry.

Overall, this is most interesting stuff - not to mention a lot of fun!

I'm disappointed that PBS, which has so many truly excellent documentaries, would allow their logo to be put on this.

1) There are content problems. Many of the "talking heads" interviewed have no name subtitles. Who are they? Are they notable people, or randoms?

2) There are minor inaccuracies: "Spaceware" (vs Spacewar), "Willy Higginbottom" (vs Higginbotham), "Apple Computers" (vs Apple Computer), "the Atari 2600" (that's how it's referred to much later than its original introduction). These are errors I caught because I'm familiar with this subject. What are the errors I missed?

3) This may be the worst quality video transfer to DVD I've ever seen. Ironically, the opening splash screen says "PBS Digital - This program is available in widescreen - Welcome to the future". Yet this transfer is neither digital (analog noise is prominent throughout) nor widescreen. During the approximately 3-minute introductory interview with Greg Palmer, the audio is mis-synchronized by over a quarter of a second. Other synchronization problems (though not as severe) occur at various other times in the video.

4) The subsection titles, and the narrative writing in general, are amateur ("All In The Famicom", "Have Alienware - Will Travel"); the attempts at puns and wordplay are groanworthy, and not in a campy/good way. (There is a voiceover of "...a day which will live in infamy..." used in the narration leading up to the "video game crash" of 1982 triggered in part by the horrid "E.T." cartridge for the Atari VCS. Enough said.) This same segment features a screenshot subtitled "Los Alamos, NM" while describing the dumping of unsold Atari carts in *Alamogordo*, NM. There is a screenshot from a Mac that shows a window that says "Internet", referring to the rise of home computer video games c.1984, nearly ten years before the Internet became available in *any* form on home computers. Come on, guys. Didn't anyone even WATCH this? Or offer to buy some videogame aficionados a few pizzas to watch it and trap these errors?

5) The material doesn't cohere. There is a segment on a blind gamer (really) which, while a nice human-interest piece for a slow news day, seems really disconnected from the rest of the narrative. Indeed, the narrative's thread isn't very clear.

What a disappointment -- I truly love this subject and have read and watched a fair amount of material about it. "Video Game Invasion, hosted by Tony Hawk" is more superficial in its treatment, but vastly better produced; and I'm sad to say that despite the attempt at deeper treatment here, in terms of material this video doesn't offer much more beyond "Invasion". (There is some material in this video on the Japanese video game scene that is absent from the US-centric "Invasion".) The book "Replay: the history of video games" by Tristan Donovan, while it has a few errors, is a particularly thorough treatment, and even Ralph Baer's self-serving "Video games: the early days" has some interesting content for EECS geeks like me. This video is at the bottom of the list. It's not even a must-have, only a nice-to-have, but it doesn't seem to be available in any libraries or video rental services, so I had to buy it. Too bad. You won't miss much by passing on this one.

This is a great documentary which not only chronicles the history of videogames, but also provides a variety of viewpoints.

Henry Jenkins, a professor of culture and media at MIT, is prominently featured in interviews - he could probably be the subject of a documentary himself, he is so fascinating in the way that he looks at media and popular culture. But the documentary also includes those opposed to certain videogames, so theoretically it offers a "balance."

The documentary knows that its viewers range from "digital immigrants" (those who grew up without digital technology and who therefore don't really speak the language like the natives who grew up with it) as well as gamers, and the narrator nicely introduces ways for both groups to view the program.

As for the DVD, I had hoped for more, especially given the price. Or I should say, I hoped for less, such as less advertising for the DVD itself during the program! It is as if someone just copied the program onto DVR, including the PBS promos and including for this very show. How about some extras with interviews with gamers, samples of gameplay, etc?

Overall, cheezy DVD, great content. (Actually, it would be nice to see a follow up that keeps up to date with the newest trends, but the documentary does a good enough job covering the fundamentals that it needn't re-do itself every time a new game platform comes out).

Excellent Documentary - For more of the history of Video Games, I recommend any edition of "Phoenix: The Rise And Fall Of Video Games" by Leonard Herman.