Charlie Brooker's How Videogames Changed The World [Channel 4]

Skid X

A GamesWipe Special A new Brooker show on Channel 4 about Games. But it's over two hours long - maybe it would have worked better as 2 * 1 hour shows. Might be worth a look.

Saturday at 9pm on Channel 4

From Pong to Grand Theft Auto, Atari to Angry Birds, the broadcaster delves into the history of the games industry and celebrates a selection of its most significant titles. He explores how interactive entertainment has evolved from a penny arcade diversion into a medium that some believe is art, and shows how it is changing the way people work, communicate and play. Joined by Jonathan Ross, Dara O Briain and leading designers including Will Wright and John Romero, Brooker looks at how video games have become one of the most progressive art forms of the past 40 years

Welsh Megaman

*dusts off 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment system and Mega Man games*

Will Barry Sh*tpeas throw in his two cents?

Skid X

Welsh Megaman wrote: »

*dusts off 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment system and Mega Man games*

Will Barry Sh*tpeas throw in his two cents?

Always good to see a Megaman post about Mega Man

Probably no Barry S involvement, Brooker is something of an evangelist for Video Games. (He was writing for PC Zone many years ago). I don't think he'll be taking the piss out of the Gaming World too much.

Welsh Megaman

Leila: Invaders! Possibly from space!

Skid X

Some Rose Tinted Glasses being worn here.

I remember when you would turn on the Commodore 64, put the cassette in, wait for the game to load ... wait a bit longer for the game to load, hope that the game will work when it loads ... lose the will to live ...

Welsh Megaman

Wow!

Who'd thunk that would be the no.1 videogame?!

siblers

Make sure you guys watch/record Indie Game: The Movie.

Gran Hermano

Skid X wrote: »

Some Rose Tinted Glasses being worn here.

I remember when you would turn on the Commodore 64, put the cassette in, wait for the game to load ... wait a bit longer for the game to load, hope that the game will work when it loads ... lose the will to live ...

Sounds like your head wasn't aligned

Welsh Megaman

siblers wrote: »

Make sure you guys watch/record Indie Game: The Movie.

I was hoping they would show 'The Wizard' starring Fred Savage!

*dons Nintendo Power Glove*

RayM

Skid X wrote: »

Some Rose Tinted Glasses being worn here.

I remember when you would turn on the Commodore 64, put the cassette in, wait for the game to load ... wait a bit longer for the game to load, hope that the game will work when it loads ... lose the will to live ...

Some of them were worth waiting for. Mad Nurse was very temperamental, but when it actually loaded it was great... You had to stop babies from electrocuting or poisoning themselves and falling down lift shafts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfp4uvAQuuM

For all the talk of games being more violent nowadays, I'm not sure such a game would be considered acceptable today.

Cartridge games on the C64 were always my favourite. So 'modern' and no tedious loading times. For some reason, the only cartridge I ever had was the one I got with the computer... four games on one cartridge: Fiendish Freddy's Circus, International Soccer, Flimbo's Quest and Klax (which was basically a poor man's Tetris).

Mr.Prodston

I really enjoyed watching that. As a 90's kid it was great to see some of the older games that I missed out on, I'd have been more than happy to watch another hour of it as it felt kind of rushed towards then end. Or maybe I was just more aware of the games they were talking about.

I though Sonic or maybe even Toejam and Earl may have made an appearance

Lenin Skynard

It was a decent watch but it wasn't really a whole lot different to the BBC Gameswipe show from a few years ago. It seemed like an expansion of it in a way.

Although I enjoyed it I did think that the ending with the Twitter gimmick was ill-conceived and served to undermine the whole preceding film.

wil

siblers wrote: »

Make sure you guys watch/record Indie Game: The Movie.

Didn't realise this could be required viewing - its like The Social Network turned up to 11.
Thought it'd be some boring docu about some boring developers and it is but in a completely unboring treatment.
Anyone remotely interested in the industry should watch this, the stress the commitment, the personal flaws, depression, anger and hairless cats.
And of course there has to be

the stereotypical burger for breakfast at 4pm followed by a shot of insulin.

This was about 3 successful games, now I'm thinking what about those that didn't do so well.

Tomohawk

It was a good watch but no Asteroids or mention of vector based games like Tank Command or Red Baron that were the 2nd wave early 1980s, no mention of driving games or football games driving the 1990s boom and no Amiga! Thought they might mention the Atari home console of the early 1980s too, the arcade in the home. The first hour was more interesting than the second...They could have talked more about the early pioneers and the business failures and the guys who made it big when the corporates took over...

Utopia Parkway

Tomohawk wrote: »

It was a good watch but no Asteroids or mention of vector based games like Tank Command or Red Baron that were the 2nd wave early 1980s, no mention of driving games or football games driving the 1990s boom and no Amiga! Thought they might mention the Atari home console of the early 1980s too, the arcade in the home. The first hour was more interesting than the second...They could have talked more about the early pioneers and the business failures and the guys who made it big when the corporates took over...

In fairness even though it was 2 hours it still felt like they rushed through the more modern stuff during the final 40 minutes or so. To take in everything mentioned they would probably need a series rather than a one off special.

IvaBigWun

Despite the Twitter twist (which was still a good thought starter) and some omissions (Metal Gear Solid) this was well produced and enjoyable.

Has Brooker got other similar documentaries of note?

Gamayun

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Despite the Twitter twist (which was still a good thought starter) and some omissions (Metal Gear Solid) this was well produced and enjoyable.

Has Brooker got other similar documentaries of note?

This special was in a similar vein for the BBC, very good it is too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvNuzx-aqWs

Skerries

even though Video Games are practically still in their infancy compared to film there is quite a dearth of history that would take a series to get through as Utopia Parkway mentioned such as the great games crash of the 80's with millions of carts being buried in the desert to the failed virtual reality trend of the 90's, still very enjoyable though