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PBS Special: Video Game Revolution

K

Kung Fu Jedi

Member
Did anyone catch this show on PBS last night? I watched the first hour, and recorded the second to watch later. It was a well done documentary, in HD no less, about the Video Game industry. The first hour covered a lot of ground, right through the 16-bit era, and did a good job of telling the story of video games.

There were also a number of prominant devlopers, including Sid Maier, Peter Molyneux, and Miyamoto, amongst others. It was a nice walk down memory lane, while still showing the history in context.

If you missed it, it looks like they intend to show it again over the coming weeks.
 
Could you scream it from the roof tops if you happen to find out when it going to be replayed? I don't want to miss it.

...or at least make another topic about it when it happens.
 
I saw the very end of it last night. Seemed like it was very well done. Interesting who they interviewed too. Seemed like they got people who would tell the truth, not corporate shills.
 
I've seen it before. They've been showing it for quite a while now, as I think it's from 2004. I just watched it because it was in HD, but it was alright.
 
Revolution eh? That has to be a reference to Nintendo's upcoming console.

PBS has a dev kit, don't they?! BILL MOYERS REVOLUTION CONFIRMED!
 
I caught the second half last night, too. I think it was originally aired about a year and a half ago. Good documentary. I liked how they showed people testing BC for the Xbox. Has that been moved to the 360, or is it even coming out at all any more?

Here's the link to the site:

http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/

You can also order the DVD from there, which costs about $25 bucks, I think.
 
Man, PBS aired another documentary I missed during their telethon campaign over the weekend. "One Man's Wilderness" 60min doc based on the journals of an retired naval mechanic who leaves the civilized world for the deep forest fields of alasaka w/ nothing but a few tools & $40 bucks. For the next 30 yrs of his life, he lives in solitude as a survivalist in conditions that reach -50 below at times in the country. Is said to be good from the person who told me about it.

PBS FTW!
 
I was watching this in HD actually. It was filled with inaccurate information.

They refer to the Sega Master System as 'Sega Master'. I got a chuckle out of that.
 
Yamaha98 said:
Man, PBS aired another documentary I missed during their telethon campaign over the weekend. "One Man's Wilderness" 60min doc based on the journals of an retired naval mechanic who leaves the civilized world for the deep forest fields of alasaka w/ nothing but a few tools & $40 bucks. For the next 30 yrs of his life, he lives in solitude as a survivalist in conditions that reach -50 below at times in the country. Is said to be good from the person who told me about it.

PBS FTW!
Click to expand...


Sounds kind of like 'Survivorman' on The Science Channel. They put a guy in some wilderness area with a backpack of tools and leave him there for a week. Then he has to try to survive. He carries a camcorder to track his movements. It is a pretty good show actually. But that documentary sounds better.
 
HAHAHAH They have Ralp Baer's favorite and least favorite games of all time. Baer's worst? Wind Waker! And on his top 5? KIRBY AIR RIDE! :lol :lol :lol
 
Yeah, that's the problem with PBS. They don't all show the same thing. And when they do show something you like it's usually after a 5 hour long telethon.
 
Cheebs said:
HAHAHAH They have Ralp Baer's favorite and least favorite games of all time. Baer's worst? Wind Waker! And on his top 5? KIRBY AIR RIDE! :lol :lol :lol
Click to expand...


Haha, yeah, I thought that was pretty funny when I read it. Especially coming from an 82 year old! Tony Hawk Underground is his favorite game?! Then I saw the reason for it:

Visionary inventor and creator of the first home video game.Baer says that at his age (82), he doesn't play video games anymore. He sent us this list from his 11-year-old grandson:
Click to expand...

Also check out the "Name That Game" game. You have to match up the sound clips with what game they belong from:

http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/arcade/name/name_that_game.swf
 
DaCocoBrova said:
I was watching this in HD actually. It was filled with inaccurate information.

They refer to the Sega Master System as 'Sega Master'. I got a chuckle out of that.
Click to expand...

That's a pretty minor screw-up. They only briefly touched on the Master System in regards to Nintendo's dominance at the time, before moving on to the Genesis.

I'd hardly say it was "filled with inaccurate information", but there are a few minor quibbles here and there. The one you point out is hardly worth mentioning.
 
dskillzhtown said:
Sounds kind of like 'Survivorman' on The Science Channel. They put a guy in some wilderness area with a backpack of tools and leave him there for a week. Then he has to try to survive. He carries a camcorder to track his movements. It is a pretty good show actually. But that documentary sounds better.
Click to expand...

No, nothing like that. I despise those reality-shows, really do. This one was a real story, truly aspiring for the many who dream up of doing something like that. The guys name was Dick Proenneke, intelligent guy who was extremely skilled as a woodsman & carpentar.
dick.jpg


He apparently spent an entire season cutting down tree's before the coming winter so he can build this log cabin by himself. Notice the suspended food cache on the left for protection against wildlife.
dickscabin.jpg


dickatcabin.jpg


Clever door hinges from bent spruce trees.
dp_cabin_wood_hinges.jpg


Self-made tools
dp_homemade_shovel_%26_rake.jpg


Wiki on the fellow
 
Kung Fu Jedi said:
That's a pretty minor screw-up. They only briefly touched on the Master System in regards to Nintendo's dominance at the time, before moving on to the Genesis.

I'd hardly say it was "filled with inaccurate information", but there are a few minor quibbles here and there. The one you point out is hardly worth mentioning.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought it was really well done with only a few very small quibbles, like that one. Hardly anything major, IMO.

Something else I found out while poking around the site: Seamus Blackey is a former high-energy physicist?! He always seemed like a really smart guy to me, but.. damn...
 
Kung Fu Jedi said:
That's a pretty minor screw-up. They only briefly touched on the Master System in regards to Nintendo's dominance at the time, before moving on to the Genesis.

I'd hardly say it was "filled with inaccurate information", but there are a few minor quibbles here and there. The one you point out is hardly worth mentioning.
Click to expand...


If there's one thing I know about, it's videogames. I just mentioned one thing. There were many.

Minor or not, to do that much research, only to flub console names, release dates etc. Kind of killed it for me.
 
I found it annoying that they refered to TWW as The Wind WALKER everytime it was mentioned on the site. I mean come on how hard is it to get a name right?
 
Yamaha98 said:
No, nothing like that. I despise those reality-shows, really do. This one was a real story, truly aspiring for the many who dream up of doing something like that. The guys name was Dick Proenneke, intelligent guy who was extremely skilled as a woodsman & carpentar.
dick.jpg


He apparently spent an entire season cutting down tree's before the coming winter so he can build this log cabin by himself. Notice the suspended food cache on the left for protection against wildlife.
dickscabin.jpg


dickatcabin.jpg


Clever door hinges from bent spruce trees.
dp_cabin_wood_hinges.jpg


Self-made tools
dp_homemade_shovel_%26_rake.jpg


Wiki on the fellow
Click to expand...

They show this once or twice a month on the local PBS station... and I always end up watching it in it's entirety. It is the most soothing and fascinating program I've seen in a long time.
 
i just saw this special yesterday. it was really much better than i expected.
there were a few errors (like saying that SNES came out at launch shipped with a zelda game) but they were pretty minor in the big scheme of things.

the part that really seemed insightful (for a tv program) was that they imply that online role playing games are for more damaging to society than games like GTA or doom. to me that seems really obvious but usually the media is way too blind to pick up on even the most basic concepts or obvious things.

also i found it really funny to hear the playstation developers bashing microsoft for trying to use xbox to push other MS products... ya because sony would never do that with DVDs or blu-ray or anything. i'm not saying it's wrong to do that but to say microsoft is the only one doing that is such a joke.
 
I saw it was on again over the weekend as well. Didn't watch it a second time, but I agree, there weren't as many errors in it as people were making it out to be. Some were very nit picky, but overall, it was an interesting look at the industry.
 
It wasn't the number of errors, but the errors themselves. I remember thinking to myself while watching, that between the local news stories and documentaries related to videogames, the chances of ever getting accurate gaming information via a television is pretty slim.
 
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