Video Games: The Movie Page #2

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the guys who did Spacewar,

John Carmack.

Hideo Kojima, I'm telling

you right now, brilliant.

You can't just pick one,

because it's doing injustice

to all the other people

that have helped

develop the games.

I don't think I've ever really

thought about who started gaming.

I just appreciate that they did.

Some say it began here,

a small back room

at the Massachusetts Institute

of Technology in 1962

on the PDP-1,

the first computer

to utilize a visual display.

Steve Russell,

which I consider to be

the fellow who I

stood on the shoulders of,

did a game called Spacewar

for the PDP-1.

And I played that

in college while working

in an amusement park,

and I felt if I could bring

Spacewar to the arcade,

it would make a lot of money.

It was a game developed

as a demonstration

of the capabilities of a digital

equipment corporation,

PDP-1 computer back in 1962.

A group of students

and employees at MI wanted to create a game

that really would showcase

the capabilities

of this new machine

that had one particular feature

they were really interested in,

and that was a display screen.

Before that,

most computers had maybe

paper tape outputs

or something like that.

But this one had

an actual screen on it.

I would go back to Steve Russell,

because he's the one

that actually made

the first playable game.

Russell's product was

so much fun to play

it infected every

PDP-1 in the world,

and they were trying to get

the people to get it

off the machine, 'cause it was

wasting so much computer time.

Others argue that electronic

games began much earlier

or that video games

were a byproduct

of Cold War technology.

As usual, the truth

is somewhere in the middle.

While many industries

and innovators

combined to pave the way

even for the possibility

of the first video game,

there is little argument

as to the visionaries

and the company that finally

brought video games

to the public... in a big way.

All the colors

of the world should be

Lovin' each other

wholeheartedly

Yes, it's all right

Take my message

to your brother

And tell him twice

Spread the word

and try to teach the man

Who's hating his brother

When hate won't do, ooh

'Cause we're all the same

Yes, the blood inside

of me is inside of you

Now, tell me

Can you feel it

Tell me, can you feel it

Can you feel it

Ooh, when you see what's

goin' down

Can you feel it in your bones

Can you feel it

Really, Nolan brought to

Atari the understanding

of what makes a good game.

He played a lot of games

and understood them.

When we started this thing,

we found that

the games that were most successful

were those that were

simple to learn,

but impossible to master.

Pong was somewhat of an accident.

It was what we consider

to be too simple,

but when it got all wired up,

and it was done by Al Alcorn,

he put in some twists to it

that were just remarkable

and made it a massively fun game.

One of the design feature's

flaws in the original Pong game

was the paddle would not go

to the top of the screen

all the way,

and I was gonna fix it,

but I didn't get around to

doing it, and I realized

that that feature kept

the game from...

two good people

from playing it forever.

It would never end.

The coining of the phrase

"video game" refers to an RGB,

or red, green and blue raster

or "video" display device.

Lets take Pac-Man for example,

the original.

This is a bitmap image of Pac-Man.

When enlarged, individual pixels

appear as squares.

Zooming in further,

they can be analyzed,

with their colors constructed

by adding the values

for red, green, and blue.

A bitmap corresponds

"bit-for-bit" with an image

displayed on a screen.

A bitmap is technically

characterized by

the width and height

of the image in pixels

and by the number

of bits per pixel,

or a "color depth",

which determines

the number of colors the pixel

and ultimately the image

can represent.

The more bits,

the better the games looked.

More bits, however,

meant more memory was needed,

which was in short supply

in the early days of gaming.

This resulted in games that

looked blocky and simple.

But that didn't stop designers

and gamers from diving headlong

into this amazing new medium.

Over time and as technology

advanced, 8 bits became 16,

then 32, 64, 128 and so on.

With each generational jump

in graphics

and so called "image fidelity,"

the depth of story

and immersion in games

seemed to progress as well.

The technological limitations

drove the art form

and vice versa.

Games were slowly evolving,

and those on the inside

were growing up with the very

art form they were creating.

It was the Magnavox machine,

I think it was called the Odyssey,

and to show you how different

things were... I mean, basically,

it allowed you to play Pong really.

That console had no real graphics.

There were just squares

of light on the TV screen.

So, there were Mylar overlays

that you would stick on the screen.

And so like, then you'd put

up like a haunted house.

And then all of the sudden,

the white Pong ball

would be like a ghost, you know,

moving through the house.

So, you had to kind of

use your imagination

and those Mylar overlays

to understand

the story they were trying to tell.

Magnavox presents Odyssey,

the electronic game of the future.

Odyssey easily attaches

to any brand TV,

black and white, or color,

to create a closed circuit

electronic playground.

Odyssey gives you all

the exciting action of hockey,

and 11 other challenging

play and learning games

for the entire family.

I had a very dear friend

who was the head

of ATCO Records.

She had an Atari 2600 console

in her office.

And she pointed at it and asked me,

"Do you know what that is?"

And I said, "Well, kind of,

but what is it?"

And she said to me, "It's a license

to print money."

Attention, shoppers.

The new Atari cartridge game is in.

Only Atari makes

the world's most popular

home video games.

The only Space Invaders.

The only Asteroids.

The only Pac-Man.

And the only way you can

play any of them

is on a home video system

made by Atari.

Come and play Atari today

The first game that I

ever remember playing

was Space Invaders

on the Atari 2600.

I was six years old

and was at my friend's house,

and I was just blown

away by the fact that

you could manipulate an image

on your television.

My first console I remember playing

was the Atari 2600.

We played everything.

We had Donkey Kong, obviously.

Baseball.

I loved BurgerTime.

I remember my brother saying like,

"Wow, look at the graphics."

Pitfall! Was like a wonderland,

because, you know,

like there were so many colors,

you know, you could

only really run...

you know, it was a side scrolling

game, but it was amazing.

You just see the same

screen over and over again.

You're like, "Oh, they added

an alligator head that time,"

or, "Oh there's a vine."

The fact that you could

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