Tivo Alert - "Rise of the Video Game" Documentary Begins Tonight

November 20, 2007
Up front, I must confess that I no longer possess the famed GamePolitics Tivo which has spawned so many game-related program alerts over the last few years.

When I switched my service to Verizon's FIOS a few months back I found that my Tivo unit and the FIOS set-top box didn't play nicely together, so I've opted for the plain-vanilla DVR boxes FIOS offers. I thought about changing the title of articles like this one to "DVR Alert," but it just doesn't have the same ring, so...

The Rise of the Video Game, a new five-part documentary begins tonight on Discovery Channel. From the press release:
Long before the coming of "Halo 3," there was "Pong," and your parents really dug it.  is a five-part documentary series that traces the history of the medium from its crude beginnings to the mind-blowing, eye-popping phenomenon of today. 8 p.m., Discovery Channel.

This 5-part series is a comprehensive, pixel-by-pixel exploration of videogames and entertainment systems, from their beginning in the early 1970s to today. From Pong to Playstation 3, this series goes from evolution to revolution, playtime to primetime – following the amazing business that’s changing how entertainment is created, produced, marketed and distributed.

The games & systems featured in tonight's opening episode are enough to make an old-school gamer weep with nostalgia:

Tennis for Two, Spacewar!, Magnavox Odyssey, Pong, Space Invaders, Pac Man, Atari 2600, E.T. the game, Tetris...

We're not sure if this appears in the documentary, but the Discovery Channel PR rep alerted GP to this classic commercial:


Comments

I looked, but it didn't air over here in Canada for some odd reason :/ .

Thank you for all of the help that are! I am 14, and I'm doing a 2500 word paper on Violence In Video Games, and I love this place. Keep it up!

Ryan out.

May your Tivo rest in piece.

i was confused and scared after the giant arm came from the sky

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oops, sorry that didn't work. Never mind. It was supposed to be a grave for poor Tivo. Oh well.

[...] Up front, I must confess that I no longer possess the famed GamePolitics Tivo which has spawned so many game-related program alerts over the last few years. When I switched my service to Verizon’s FIOS a few months back I found that my Tivo unit and the FIOS set-top box didn’t play nicely together, so I’ve opted for the […] (more game news…) [...]

@ Ryan L

It's funny because I just saw some guy talking to his teacher about writing a 2500 word essay on video game violence yesterday at my high school.

I actually mentioned this a little while back in the forums but didn't email you about it because I figured you already knew. :)

Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Nightwng2000 NW2K Software http://www.facebook.com/nightwing2000 Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl

OOOO! Game documentary! GottawatchGottawatchGottawatch. :D

@ Geno

I doubt it was me. I'm homeschooled!

Thank you for the notice - this blog is great ;)

IT'LL LEAVE SKID MARKS ON YOUR SOUL!

That commercial makes me smile.

I watched the first two episodes of this series, and could not watch any more. It is horrible. I mean, it's slick and well-produced, but they play games with the information to manufacture a dramatic narrative. They have HUGE blindspots when it is convenient for them, and then will later have to contradict themselves. Hey, did you know Sierra Online invented the adventure genre? I nearly ate my TV.

Hey I just got FIOS and plan on hooking up my TiVo as soon as a new set of IR control cables comes in the mail (I apparently threw mine out but TiVo was nice enough to send me a new cable free of charge). What problems did you have? I'd be really sad if I couldn't keep my beloved TiVo.

Does anyone know what time this airs?

LOL This makes me feel old, when I owned an Atari 2600, I don't think it even had a number in it's name, it was just 'The Atari' because the only other real console on the market was 'The Binatone', with Colecovision popping up a few years later iirc.

But then, admittedly, my first computer was a ZX81, bought in '81...

Well. IT was certainly informative, but nothing I didn't already know. I doubt this mini-series will get the kind of depth I want. :/ It's like reading Kent's "Ultimate History of Video Games" again. Still worth a watch. how often do we get documentaries about games?

Agnosto,

But, then again, you've read the ultimate history of video games! This documentary is mainstream (cable) on a respected channel (Discovery). It's made for people who don't know video games, and does go a ways toward dispelling the 'just for kids' myth. I just hope they treat the violence angle fairly. When's the next installment? GP, tivo alert me up!

It was the one about narratives in games that really pissed me off. They credit the cheap rip offs and late comers as the innovators. They come up with ridiculous thesis that they have to warp the facts to fit, and then it just gets awful when they try to use EA sporting games to support the idea that a good narrative is essential to a good game. I think that was the second (and for me, final) episode.

Well this bodes well ...

"Long before the coming of “Halo 3,” there was “Pong,” and your parents really dug it." No they didn't, & neither did most gamers parents. idiots.

The second episode effectively said. GTA is the video game market. There is no .jp game in America.
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