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Video Game Invasion: The History of a Global Obsession [2004]

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    [THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
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    [TIRES SCREECHING]
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    - It's an industry
    that's revolutionized
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    every area of entertainment.
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    From television to
    sports to movies.
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    The video game business rakes
    in more than $20 billion a year,
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    making bigger bucks
    than even Hollywood.
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    - This industry was
    created on products
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    that were so exciting
    that people would stay up
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    all night outside a store
    to get it the next morning.
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    - But how did two lines and a
    dot turn into the high tech,
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    hyper realistic worlds of
    games like The Sims and Halo?
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    It's not just about
    circuit boards and chips,
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    it's about people driven
    by vision and obsession.
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    JOHN ROMERO: Video games
    to me is my whole life.
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    That's all I've
    done since I was 12.
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    - It's about games that
    have been blamed for making
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    kids antisocial and violent.
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    - If you play too
    much doom, you're
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    going to end up going
    on a shooting spree.
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    [GUNFIRE]
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    There's really people
    who believe this.
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    - It's about feuds, wars,
    and even a little bit
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    of good old fashioned piracy.
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    - If they were going
    to copy our stuff,
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    we were going to bury
    them one way or another.
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    - But most of all,
    it's about how
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    a whole generation
    grabbed the joystick
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    and got juiced up
    on video gaming.
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    The secrets behind
    the games, the passion
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    that powered the industry, and
    the guys who made it happen.
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    TONY HAWK: Video games.
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    For some people, they're
    a blast from the past.
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    [VIDEO GAME SOUND EFFECTS]
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    Something they used to
    do at the local arcade
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    when they were hanging
    out after high school.
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    But for others, video games are
    the new technological frontier.
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    And innovative form of
    communication and storytelling,
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    and the future of entertainment.
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    Hi, I'm Tony Hawk.
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    A lot of you are probably used
    to seeing me with a skateboard
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    and looking a little
    something like this.
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    And a lot of you gamers
    are even more used
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    to seeing me like this.
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    I got into video games
    early on, even before I got
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    to be a video character myself.
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    In fact, I don't think I
    even had my first board yet,
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    and where could you find me?
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    Playing Pac-Man down
    at the pizza parlor.
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    But games have come a
    long way since then.
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    And if you think the history
    of the video game invasion
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    is all about cool graphics
    and cutting edge technology,
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    well you're right.
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    But it's also a story about
    a group of unique individuals
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    who started with
    nothing but ideas.
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    Guys who came out
    of their garages
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    and ended up as power players
    in a multi-billion dollar
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    industry who revolutionized
    entertainment and turn
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    themselves into rock stars.
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    And the first rock star
    of them all was this guy.
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    This is Willie Higginbotham.
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    He helped invent the nuclear
    bomb and the first computer
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    [EXPLOSION]
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    The bomb looked like this.
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    The game looked like this.
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    A primitive version of tennis.
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    It was just a dot
    moving back and forth
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    on an oscilloscope screen.
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    It showed up as
    a novelty exhibit
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    at Brookhaven
    National Lab in 1958
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    and generated about as much
    excitement as this picture.
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    Mortal Kombat it was not.
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    Fast forward, 1961.
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    Student and pioneering hacker
    Steve Russell, nicknamed Slug.
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    He spent six months tapping
    into $120,000 computer at MIT.
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    End result, a punch card
    driven video called, Space War.
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    STEVE KENT: He was
    the one who conceived
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    the idea of making
    a game that would
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    be completely interactive.
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    It was a game where
    there were two rockets.
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    A game where a Flash
    Gordon style rockets that
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    would fly around
    shooting each other
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    with a sun in the middle
    that had some gravity.
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    If it sucked you in,
    you got destroyed.
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    TONY HAWK: Space Wars spread
    to universities around America
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    on an early version
    of the internet.
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    But would the average Joe
    spend $120,000 to own one?
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    Slug figured, no way and
    never patented the idea.
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    He left MIT without graduating.
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    Jump to 1966.
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    A little device
    called television
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    had made it into almost
    every living room in America.
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    It was a cultural phenomenon.
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    But to Ralph Baer, Vice
    President of Engineering
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    at electronics giant
    Sanders Associates,
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    it was a business opportunity.
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    [CHA-CHING]
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    RALPH BAER: The concept
    was this, 40 million TV
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    sets out there in the US alone.
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    If I could hit 1% of
    that, that's 400,000.
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    Attach some gadget to 400,000
    set, I got a business.
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    TONY HAWK: Baer needed his
    play device to fit on a shelf.
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    So that didn't give
    his little brown box
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    much room for processing power.
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    He wasn't doing much better
    than old Higgy, just two dots
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    moving on a screen.
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    No way this was going to
    set the world on fire.
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    Then it hit him.
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    A blockbuster breakthrough
    that would blow the roof off
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    of home entertainment forever.
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    Three spots!
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    RALPH BAER: The
    third spot became
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    a ball that made it into a ping
    pong game or a tennis game.
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    Once we had that third
    ball going back and forth,
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    we knew we had something.
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    TONY HAWK: By
    1971, Baer's bosses
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    had patented the brown
    box and licensed it
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    to television
    manufacturer Magnavox.
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    Now called Odyssey, it began
    showing up at various trade
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    fairs around the country.
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    RALPH BAER: The Odyssey
    was the hit of the show.
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    I had a hard time not
    getting up in my seat
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    and then jumping up and
    down saying, that's my baby.
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    - The system is called
    Odyssey and the hardware
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    consists of a master control
    and two player control
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    units connected by cable to any
    set 18 inches or larger, black
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    and white or color.
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    The players will simply
    switch to an unused channel,
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    select their game,
    insert the program card
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    in the control box, and place
    the overlay on the TV screen.
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    SELLAM ISMAIL: So for instance,
    if you were playing the tennis
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    game, this would
    actually using--
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    from static
    electricity, would cling
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    to the front of your television.
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    So this would be the
    overlay for a hockey game.
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    TONY HAWK: The Odyssey hits
    store shelves in May, 1972,
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    and sold for $100.
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    And hey, if you wanted
    to pop for another $29,
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    you could also buy
    yourself this wicked weapon
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    and play the first ever
    shooter video game.
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    Seems that even then,
    guns and video games
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    were destined to be together.
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    And to convince America how
    hip it was to own an Odyssey,
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    Magnavox got the King of Cool,
    old blue eyes, Frank Sinatra
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    himself to pitch the product.
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    RALPH BAER: Unfortunately
    in the beginning,
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    they connected to a Magnavox
    television set, of course.
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    That got the idea abroad
    that you needed a Magnavox
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    television set to play games.
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    And they had to undo that
    by convincing customers
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    in the store that you could
    indeed plug it into any TV set.
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    TONY HAWK: It took over
    a year, but Magnavox
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    managed to hook up about 150,000
    Americans and their televisions
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    to an Odyssey system.
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    Next player in the
    game, Nolan Bushnell.
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    An employee of a northern
    California electronics firm.
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    He played Slug Russell's
    Spacewar at engineering school
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    and couldn't get it
    out of his brain.
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    NOLAN BUSHNELL: And
    actually thought, hey,
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    this would be great news
    in an amusement park,
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    but how do you put a million
    dollar computer into--
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    and pay for it at $0.25 a throw?
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    Remember, the microprocessor
    hadn't been invented yet.
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    And then one day the
    mini computer for $5,000
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    came across my desk.
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    I mean, the ad for it.
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    I had the epiphany of
    being able to reduce it
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    to a single board that was
    actually a fancy, signal
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    generator, if you would.
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    TONY HAWK: In 1971,
    Nolan's first video game,
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    Computer Space hit
    American pinball arcades.
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    Sleek, sexy, and we all
    remember the first time
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    we played it, right?
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    Right.
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    It was one of the biggest
    turkeys of all time.
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    NOLAN BUSHNELL: The problem with
    the game was that I loved it,
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    all my friends loved it, but
    all my friends were engineers.
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    It was a little bit
    too complex for the guy
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    with a beer in a bar.
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    TONY HAWK: Nolan's
    next move, taking $500
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    and starting his own company
    in Santa Clara, California,
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    with buddy Ted Dabney.
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    The year was 1972.
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    The company was called Atari.
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    NOLAN BUSHNELL: Atari comes
    from the Japanese Game
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    Go which is plight
    warning saying, watch out,
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    you're going to get whacked.
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    TONY HAWK: First big
    hire, engineer Al Alcorn.
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    Nolan, proving he
    already has what
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    it takes to be a great
    corporate executive,
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    landed Al by lying to him.
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    AL ALCORN: He told me he had a
    contract with General Electric
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    to build a consumer
    video game, a home video
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    game, which was almost
    impossible to do in those days.
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    And the fact that nobody
    from General Electric
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    ever came by or called or wrote
    us a letter didn't occur to me.
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    I was too busy
    building the prototype.
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    NOLAN BUSHNELL: We decided
    to give him a test game.
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    Call it throw away game, it
    was something that was simple.
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    Basically, ping pong.
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    two Paddles on either side,
    ball moving between them.
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    TONY HAWK: Man does
    this sound familiar.
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    But remember, it was
    still early in 1972
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    and the Odyssey hadn't
    hit stores shelves yet.
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    The concept was still
    fair game and AL
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    had his own spin on the idea.
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    AL ALCORN: One of the
    things I discovered
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    is that if the ball didn't
    speed up, it wasn't fun to play.
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    So I added the ball
    speed up to the game.
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    And the other thing that we did
    at the very end was the sound.
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    And since I was already
    way over budget,
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    I poked around and found
    tones that were already
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    existent in the machine.
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    And that became the sound.
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    NOLAN BUSHNELL: We said
    OK, let's call it Pong.
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    And we put it in
    Andy Capp's Tavern
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    in Sunnyvale, California.
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    AL ALCORN: This baby here is
    the original Pong prototype
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    that went to Andy Capp's
    Tavern in Sunnyvale.
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    And it has the
    original wire wrap
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    that I built in three
    months, in 1972.
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    We put it in a box,
    put up on a barrel.
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    [BEEPING]
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    NOLAN BUSHNELL: It
    was an immediate hit.
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    We weren't aware of
    just how much of a hit
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    it was until we
    got a service call
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    and found that the coin
    box had totally filled up
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    and wouldn't take
    anymore quarters.
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    Those were kind of technical
    problems that we can solve.
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    [COINS DROPPING]
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    AL ALCORN: Here we have
    one of the first quarters
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    that the Pong machine
    ever made, which now
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    represents a multi-billion
    dollar industry.
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    And it's in a little
    piece plastic.
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    TONY HAWK: Atari started
    rolling out their machines
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    in November of 1972.
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    And America went Pong crazy.
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    NOLAN BUSHNELL: There
    were several reasons
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    that Pong was very successful.
  • 11:15 - 11:17
    The first one was,
    it was extremely
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    easy to play, but very,
    very difficult to master.
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    They had to pay a lot of
    money to get really good.
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    The second one is that
    women found that they
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    were better players than men.
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    It turns out that women
    have better small motor
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    coordination than men do.
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    And it became
    socially acceptable
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    for women to ask men to
    come over and play Pong.
  • 11:41 - 11:44
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    TONY HAWK: More players
    meant more machines.
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    And Atari needed more
    manpower to build them.
  • 11:50 - 11:51
    Fast.
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    NOLAN BUSHNELL: We tried
    a few social experiments
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    with running buses into
    undesirable parts of the town
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    and giving people a chance
    to come and have a job.
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    It was kind of a rude
    awakening from some
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    of our Age of Aquarius
    belief structures.
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    STEVE KENT: They
    hired whoever they
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    could hire in the beginning.
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    Which meant they
    got a lot of bikers.
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    You talked to some of
    the straitlaced people
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    and they'd talk about being
    scared to walk the floor.
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    They'd talk about
    going into bathrooms
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    and seeing used needles
    and stuff on the ground.
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    NOLAN BUSHNELL: The
    converse is, the 20%
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    that stayed with us really
    appreciated the opportunity.
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    Became some of our most
    valuable employees.
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    TONY HAWK: But who wouldn't
    want to work at a company
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    where the bonuses
    came in beer kegs?
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    And strategy meetings
    were held in hot tubs.
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    NOLAN BUSHNELL: Since we
    had a lot of young people,
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    we would constantly
    offer to throw
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    a party if they hit quota.
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    And it turns out when you've
    got 18, 19, 20 year olds,
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    they're much more interested
    in a party than an extra $0.50
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    an hour.
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    So we got known as
    a party company.
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    STEVE KENT: There's a story
    that if you walked by the Borega
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    Street building and you breathed
    deeply by the air vents,
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    you'd get stoned because
    the pot smoking inside of it
  • 13:08 - 13:09
    was so heavy.
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    DAVID CRANE: It was a
    very laid back culture,
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    which is very important
    in a creative environment.
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    I mean, you can't
    really punch the clock
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    and come up with
    something creative.
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    [MUSIC PLAYING]
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    TONY HAWK: It didn't
    seem to matter
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    what was going on inside
    Atari because on the outside,
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    they'd become the kings of the
    60-year-old arcade business.
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    And in America, how do you
    know when you've really
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    made it to the top?
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    When people start suing you.
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    It wasn't long before Atari got
    hit with their first lawsuit.
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    And it came from Magnavox who
    claimed that Pong violated
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    Ralph Baers' Odyssey patent.
  • 13:45 - 13:47
    AL ALCORN: And I
    looked at the patent
  • 13:47 - 13:49
    and I said, my God,
    this guy has patented
  • 13:49 - 13:52
    the idea of any kind
    of a moving object
  • 13:52 - 13:54
    on a video screen
    controlled by anything
  • 13:54 - 13:57
    and it was filed in 1969.
  • 13:57 - 14:00
    NOLAN BUSHNELL: Magnavox was
    based on analog technology,
  • 14:00 - 14:01
    which makes a fuzzy.
  • 14:01 - 14:04
    Didn't have sound,
    didn't have score.
  • 14:04 - 14:06
    I mean, you didn't really
    feel like you were you beating
  • 14:06 - 14:08
    somebody when you beat them.
  • 14:08 - 14:11
    Which is one of the core
    essence of what a game is.
  • 14:11 - 14:11
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 14:11 - 14:13
    TONY HAWK: But hey, what
    about those Magnavox trade
  • 14:13 - 14:14
    show demos?
  • 14:14 - 14:16
    RALPH BAER: Nolan
    Bushnell played
  • 14:16 - 14:23
    a game in Burlingame, California
    on May 24th, I think, 1972.
  • 14:23 - 14:26
    He signed a guest book
    playing the ping pong game.
  • 14:26 - 14:29
    TONY HAWK: Bushnell decided
    to accept Magnavox's offer
  • 14:29 - 14:30
    of a settlement.
  • 14:30 - 14:32
    Atari paid Magnavox just
    under a million dollars
  • 14:32 - 14:35
    and in exchange, became
    their first licensee.
  • 14:35 - 14:37
    Game over and
    everyone's a winner.
  • 14:37 - 14:39
    And who says losses don't work?
  • 14:39 - 14:41
    NOLAN BUSHNELL:
    Believe it or not,
  • 14:41 - 14:43
    it was never a very
    big issue for us.
  • 14:43 - 14:47
    We settled it for less than
    it had cost us to defend it.
  • 14:47 - 14:50
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 14:50 - 14:53
    TONY HAWK: Then Atari went on
    the attack against the clones,
  • 14:53 - 14:55
    knock offs, and pirate
    versions of Pong
  • 14:55 - 14:58
    that were popping up
    all over the world.
  • 14:58 - 14:59
    NOLAN BUSHNELL:
    We actually became
  • 14:59 - 15:02
    quite diabolical
    about seeing ways
  • 15:02 - 15:03
    that we could just mess them up.
  • 15:03 - 15:05
    [CRASH]
  • 15:05 - 15:07
    We put a chip in
    and we purposely
  • 15:07 - 15:12
    mismarked it so that
    when somebody copied us,
  • 15:12 - 15:13
    they'd put the wrong chip in.
  • 15:13 - 15:16
    We felt like we were in a war.
  • 15:16 - 15:18
    TONY HAWK: It was a war that
    would change entertainment
  • 15:18 - 15:19
    forever.
  • 15:19 - 15:22
    And as the Atari troops
    attack the arcades,
  • 15:22 - 15:24
    Bushnell got ready to
    open a second front
  • 15:24 - 15:26
    in living rooms across America.
  • 15:26 - 15:29
    The battle for video game
    dominance was about to begin.
  • 15:29 - 15:32
    [THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 15:32 - 15:33
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 15:33 - 15:36
    In 1974, nearly two years
    after Pongs introduction,
  • 15:36 - 15:38
    everyone had played
    the game so much
  • 15:38 - 15:40
    that 3/4 of the world
    population was suffering
  • 15:40 - 15:42
    from carpal tunnel syndrome.
  • 15:42 - 15:43
    No, not really.
  • 15:43 - 15:44
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 15:44 - 15:48
    But in the arcades, Pong fever
    was still running hot as ever.
  • 15:48 - 15:48
    [BUZZER]
  • 15:48 - 15:50
    People couldn't get enough.
  • 15:50 - 15:52
    So Nolan Bushnell
    figured he'd give
  • 15:52 - 15:55
    them more by introducing
    a home version of Pong.
  • 15:55 - 15:56
    NOLAN BUSHNELL:
    Al Alcorn said, I
  • 15:56 - 16:01
    believe we can put
    Pong on a chip.
  • 16:01 - 16:03
    And I said, let's do it.
  • 16:03 - 16:05
    AL ALCORN: This
    is actually what's
  • 16:05 - 16:08
    inside the coin operated
    Pong video game.
  • 16:08 - 16:12
    There's about 75 integrated
    circuits on this.
  • 16:12 - 16:18
    And that was all replaced
    by what's in this.
  • 16:18 - 16:19
    TONY HAWK: Atari cut
    a deal with Sears
  • 16:19 - 16:23
    and over 150,000 home Pong
    units flew off the shelves
  • 16:23 - 16:28
    during the 1975 holiday season
  • 16:28 - 16:30
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 16:30 - 16:31
    Now the established
    gaming leader,
  • 16:31 - 16:33
    Atari was the place
    where top programming
  • 16:33 - 16:36
    talent wanted to be.
  • 16:36 - 16:39
    STEVE KENT: Steve Jobs
    showed up unannounced one day
  • 16:39 - 16:40
    and wanted a job.
  • 16:40 - 16:45
    He was unwashed, unkempt,
    smelled bad, had no degree.
  • 16:45 - 16:48
    Al Alcorn's secretary came to
    him and said, what do I do?
  • 16:48 - 16:50
    And Al Alcorn's
    comment was, well
  • 16:50 - 16:52
    we should either hire
    him or call the cops.
  • 16:52 - 16:54
    And Al hired him.
  • 16:54 - 16:58
    TONY HAWK: Jobs brought
    along a buddy, Steve Wozniak.
  • 16:58 - 17:00
    NOLAN BUSHNELL: We
    hired Steve Jobs
  • 17:00 - 17:03
    and we didn't know that
    we sort of got Woz along
  • 17:03 - 17:04
    with the package.
  • 17:04 - 17:07
    He was never an official
    employee of Atari
  • 17:07 - 17:11
    but hung out with Jobs
    a lot in the labs.
  • 17:11 - 17:13
    They did break out, actually.
  • 17:13 - 17:14
    STEVE KENT: There
    was a line of bricks
  • 17:14 - 17:17
    and you tried to break the
    bricks away by knocking
  • 17:17 - 17:19
    the ball against them.
  • 17:19 - 17:22
    It was Pong only it was
    Pong turned vertical.
  • 17:22 - 17:23
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 17:23 - 17:25
    TONY HAWK: Pretty soon, Jobs
    and Wozniak broke out of Atari
  • 17:25 - 17:29
    to start their own little
    business, Apple Computer.
  • 17:29 - 17:34
    Jobs asked his boss to invest
    in the idea, Bushnell declined.
  • 17:34 - 17:37
    The company's capital was tied
    up producing home Pong units
  • 17:37 - 17:40
    and developing their next
    home console concept.
  • 17:40 - 17:42
    They called it--
  • 17:42 - 17:44
    NOLAN BUSHNELL: The VCS,
    the Video Computer System
  • 17:44 - 17:46
    was the 2600.
  • 17:46 - 17:50
    And became universally
    known as the Atari.
  • 17:50 - 17:53
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 17:53 - 17:55
    AL ALCORN: The idea
    behind the 2600
  • 17:55 - 17:58
    was to get away from having
    to build a whole new custom
  • 17:58 - 18:00
    chip for every new game.
  • 18:00 - 18:03
    So if we can make the game just
    be in a cartridge and software,
  • 18:03 - 18:06
    we could release it much
    faster and much cheaper
  • 18:06 - 18:09
    than we could with
    a whole new game.
  • 18:09 - 18:10
    TONY HAWK: Nolan
    needed big money
  • 18:10 - 18:13
    to develop and launch the 2600.
  • 18:13 - 18:17
    He got it by
    selling the company.
  • 18:17 - 18:18
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 18:18 - 18:21
    Warner Communications, headed
    by Chairman Steve Ross,
  • 18:21 - 18:24
    paid Bushnell $28
    million for Atari.
  • 18:24 - 18:27
    Not bad for a $500 investment.
  • 18:27 - 18:29
    Plus, Nolan would
    still draw a paycheck
  • 18:29 - 18:30
    as the company chairman.
  • 18:30 - 18:31
    [CHA-CHING]
  • 18:31 - 18:34
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 18:34 - 18:37
    In October of 1977, supported
    by a handful of games
  • 18:37 - 18:41
    like Street Racer,
    Indy 500, and Kombat,
  • 18:41 - 18:47
    the Atari 2600 hit the streets.
  • 18:47 - 18:49
    STEVE KENT: It was a bomb.
  • 18:49 - 18:50
    It did nothing.
  • 18:50 - 18:52
    They didn't get them out
    in time for Christmas.
  • 18:52 - 18:55
    They didn't sell, the
    ones that were out there.
  • 18:55 - 18:58
    And Warner hit the roof.
  • 18:58 - 18:59
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 18:59 - 19:00
    AL ALCORN: The
    net result of that
  • 19:00 - 19:04
    was they removed Nolan
    and put in Ray Kassar, who
  • 19:04 - 19:07
    was the person from the east
    coast who worked at Burlington
  • 19:07 - 19:11
    Industries and was probably
    a more professional,
  • 19:11 - 19:14
    big businessman to run Atari.
  • 19:14 - 19:15
    TONY HAWK: Nolan was out.
  • 19:15 - 19:17
    But don't cry for this guy.
  • 19:17 - 19:19
    He made even more money
    with his next business,
  • 19:19 - 19:25
    a chain of family restaurants
    called, Chuck E. Cheese.
  • 19:25 - 19:28
    Now, while all of this
    was going on at Atari,
  • 19:28 - 19:33
    something even bigger was going
    on in a galaxy far, far away.
  • 19:33 - 19:36
    In 1977, the movie
    mega-hit Star Wars
  • 19:36 - 19:41
    sent the nation's sci-fi crazy.
  • 19:41 - 19:43
    And in less than
    a year, a new game
  • 19:43 - 19:47
    arrived that cashed
    in on the craze.
  • 19:47 - 19:50
    Atari's competitor Midway
    got the arcade upper hand
  • 19:50 - 19:54
    with a Japanese import that went
    by the name, Space Invaders.
  • 19:54 - 19:56
    JEFF GREEN: We're all
    fascinated by the Pong machines
  • 19:56 - 19:59
    and then we were fascinated
    by Space Invaders, which
  • 19:59 - 20:02
    again, was just lines
    coming down from the screen.
  • 20:02 - 20:04
    TONY HAWK: Ultimately,
    you couldn't win.
  • 20:04 - 20:06
    But it was the
    first arcade machine
  • 20:06 - 20:09
    to record and
    display a high score.
  • 20:09 - 20:12
    And that just made
    people want to play more.
  • 20:12 - 20:13
    JEFF GREEN: You
    look at games today
  • 20:13 - 20:16
    that cost literally millions
    and millions of dollars
  • 20:16 - 20:20
    that take literally four or five
    years, or more, to complete.
  • 20:20 - 20:25
    Most of those games don't rival
    the game play and addictiveness
  • 20:25 - 20:28
    of Space Invaders.
  • 20:28 - 20:29
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 20:29 - 20:32
    TONY HAWK: It took Atari nearly
    a year but they did strike back
  • 20:32 - 20:34
    with Asteroids.
  • 20:34 - 20:38
    An updated version of
    Slug Russells' Spacewar.
  • 20:38 - 20:41
    The object, breakup
    a surrounding storm
  • 20:41 - 20:44
    of falling asteroids and
    avoid getting blown up
  • 20:44 - 20:46
    by a fleet of flying saucers.
  • 20:46 - 20:48
    JOHN SMEDLEY: I can
    remember Asteroids
  • 20:48 - 20:50
    like there's no tomorrow.
  • 20:50 - 20:53
    Going down there and literally
    begging my mother for quarters.
  • 20:53 - 20:56
    And you know, an hour later
    I'm back asking for more.
  • 20:56 - 20:58
    It's a good memory for me.
  • 20:58 - 21:00
    JOHN ROMERO: The first ones
    that I played was basically
  • 21:00 - 21:04
    Space Invaders and Asteroids.
  • 21:04 - 21:05
    I always spent my
    allowance really fast.
  • 21:05 - 21:07
    It was only $5 a week.
  • 21:07 - 21:09
    It was like two
    days and I mean, I
  • 21:09 - 21:11
    was stretching it as
    far as I could go.
  • 21:11 - 21:16
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 21:16 - 21:18
    TONY HAWK: As the '70s disco
    danced their way into history,
  • 21:18 - 21:20
    1980 arrived.
  • 21:20 - 21:24
    And true 8-bit color came
    to the arcade screens.
  • 21:24 - 21:26
    Up until then, any
    colors seen in a game
  • 21:26 - 21:29
    had been achieved by
    using tinted overlays.
  • 21:29 - 21:33
    Atari was pumping out hits
    like Missile Command and Battle
  • 21:33 - 21:36
    Zone, which had a custom version
    built for the American military
  • 21:36 - 21:37
    to use in combat training.
  • 21:37 - 21:40
  • 21:40 - 21:42
    One of the biggest
    hits of the year
  • 21:42 - 21:45
    was Defender from
    Williams, an Atari rival.
  • 21:45 - 21:47
    This was another
    "fight the aliens" game
  • 21:47 - 21:49
    but it was cooler
    because it had a radar
  • 21:49 - 21:50
    screen that let
    you see everything
  • 21:50 - 21:53
    that was coming your way.
  • 21:53 - 21:56
    But there was one invader
    no one saw coming.
  • 21:56 - 21:57
    Check him out.
  • 21:57 - 21:59
    He's got a classic profile.
  • 21:59 - 22:04
    [PAC-MAN MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 22:04 - 22:05
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 22:05 - 22:08
    His name, Pac-Man.
  • 22:08 - 22:10
    He was born at a
    Japanese game company
  • 22:10 - 22:15
    called Namco and brought to the
    US by Atari's nemesis, Midway.
  • 22:15 - 22:17
    Originally called
    Puck-Man, Midway
  • 22:17 - 22:20
    was afraid vandals would
    have too much fun changing
  • 22:20 - 22:22
    the first letter of his name.
  • 22:22 - 22:26
    Small and yellow, he ate
    everything in his path.
  • 22:26 - 22:28
    Little dots and
    ghosts with names
  • 22:28 - 22:32
    like Blinky, Pinky,
    Inky, and Clyde.
  • 22:32 - 22:34
  • 22:34 - 22:36
    AL KAHN: I loved Pac-Man.
  • 22:36 - 22:39
    It was just such a simplistic
    movement with a joystick
  • 22:39 - 22:44
    and yet it was easy to
    play, hard to master.
  • 22:44 - 22:46
    And that was really, I
    think, the secret of it.
  • 22:46 - 22:47
    [PAC-MAN SOUND EFFECTS]
  • 22:47 - 22:50
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 22:50 - 22:52
    TONY HAWK: It was also the
    first time a character was
  • 22:52 - 22:55
    the star of a video game.
  • 22:55 - 22:57
    Most important thing
    about characters?
  • 22:57 - 22:59
    You can license them.
  • 22:59 - 23:01
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 23:01 - 23:04
    Pretty soon, Pac-Man had a
    song in the top 40 charts.
  • 23:04 - 23:06
    A Saturday morning TV show.
  • 23:06 - 23:10
    And he even made it to the
    cover of Time magazine.
  • 23:10 - 23:11
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 23:11 - 23:15
    Then a year later, Ms. Pac-Man
    showed up on the scene.
  • 23:15 - 23:17
    Same profile, only
    this time sporting
  • 23:17 - 23:19
    a bow and a beauty spot.
  • 23:19 - 23:24
    There were also more mazes, more
    ghosts, an even bigger success.
  • 23:24 - 23:27
    [MS. PAC MAN THEME MUSIC
    PLAYING]
  • 23:27 - 23:29
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 23:29 - 23:31
    Time to head back over
    to Japan and the company
  • 23:31 - 23:33
    called Nintendo.
  • 23:33 - 23:37
    They got their start in 1889
    manufacturing playing cards.
  • 23:37 - 23:41
    By 1980, under the leadership
    of Hiroshi Yamauchi,
  • 23:41 - 23:45
    the company was desperate to
    cash in on the video craze.
  • 23:45 - 23:47
    STEVE KENT: Nintendo
    was doing modestly well
  • 23:47 - 23:49
    in the Japanese arcade business.
  • 23:49 - 23:52
    They could not get a foot
    in, in the US market.
  • 23:52 - 23:55
    In desperation, Yamauchi
    turned to this guy
  • 23:55 - 24:00
    he had hired named
    Shigeru Miyamoto.
  • 24:00 - 24:01
    TONY HAWK: By
    Japanese standards,
  • 24:01 - 24:03
    Miyamoto was sort of a wild man.
  • 24:03 - 24:07
    When it came to music, he loved
    the Beatles and bluegrass.
  • 24:07 - 24:11
    He played the banjo and
    he loved designing toys.
  • 24:11 - 24:16
    STEVE KENT: And they said,
    can you make a game for us?
  • 24:16 - 24:18
    Miyamoto started spouting
    off about how he'd do this
  • 24:18 - 24:19
    and he'd do that.
  • 24:19 - 24:21
    And Yamauchi's like,
    yeah, yeah, sure.
  • 24:21 - 24:23
    Just make us a good game.
  • 24:23 - 24:24
    TONY HAWK: Miyamoto came
    up with something that
  • 24:24 - 24:26
    had never been done in gaming.
  • 24:26 - 24:28
    A story to motivate the action.
  • 24:28 - 24:31
    [DONKEY KONG MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 24:31 - 24:33
    A gorilla runs away
    from a carpenter
  • 24:33 - 24:36
    and steals the
    carpenters girlfriend.
  • 24:36 - 24:38
    Carpenter chases the
    gorilla through a factory
  • 24:38 - 24:39
    to rescue the girl.
  • 24:39 - 24:41
    Hey, nobody said
    it was Shakespeare.
  • 24:41 - 24:46
    [DONKEY KONG MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 24:46 - 24:49
    Literally translated, Miyamoto
    Japanese title for the game
  • 24:49 - 24:52
    came out as, "Stubborn Gorilla."
  • 24:52 - 24:55
    Wanting something sexier, he
    went to the Japanese/English
  • 24:55 - 24:56
    Dictionary.
  • 24:56 - 24:59
    For stubborn, he
    came up with donkey.
  • 24:59 - 25:01
    Gorilla became Kong.
  • 25:01 - 25:03
    Yamauchi called his
    American headquarters,
  • 25:03 - 25:06
    headed by Minoru Arakawa
    and Howard Lincoln,
  • 25:06 - 25:08
    and gave everyone that
    good news on the game.
  • 25:08 - 25:11
    STEVE KENT: And he
    said, Donkey Kong.
  • 25:11 - 25:12
    I mean, they almost passed out.
  • 25:12 - 25:15
    They were like, Donkey Kong?
  • 25:15 - 25:16
    What's a Donkey Kong?
  • 25:16 - 25:19
    I think Howard Lincoln's comment
    was, Donkey Kong, Konkey Dong.
  • 25:19 - 25:20
    I mean, come on.
  • 25:20 - 25:23
    But Donkey Kong
    was a magic game.
  • 25:23 - 25:26
    [DONKEY KONG MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 25:26 - 25:27
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 25:27 - 25:29
    TONY HAWK: Donkey Kong
    fever swept the arcades.
  • 25:29 - 25:33
    Closely followed
    by Donkey Kong Jr.
  • 25:33 - 25:36
    When it came to merchandising,
    the monkey was natural.
  • 25:36 - 25:40
    But it was really the man who
    became the breakout character.
  • 25:40 - 25:42
    Plans were soon made to give
    the little guy with the mustache
  • 25:42 - 25:44
    his own game.
  • 25:44 - 25:47
    Everyone knew he had
    personality but what he really
  • 25:47 - 25:49
    needed was a name.
  • 25:49 - 25:51
    American Nintendo
    chief Minoru Arakawa
  • 25:51 - 25:53
    came up with the answer.
  • 25:53 - 25:55
    STEVE KENT: Originally,
    he was Jump Man.
  • 25:55 - 26:00
    And the Nintendo's landlord
    out here, Mario Sigali,
  • 26:00 - 26:01
    pissed off Arakawa.
  • 26:01 - 26:06
    So then Arakawa re-named Jump
    Man, Mario, after Mario Sigali.
  • 26:06 - 26:08
    TONY HAWK: And when
    Mario got his new name,
  • 26:08 - 26:10
    he also got a new
    job as a plumber.
  • 26:10 - 26:12
    Along with a new
    brother named Luigi.
  • 26:12 - 26:14
    [MARIO BROS THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 26:14 - 26:16
    And the Mario Bros
    jumped into the arcades
  • 26:16 - 26:20
    in a series of games that
    are still popular today.
  • 26:20 - 26:23
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 26:23 - 26:25
    By 1982, it seemed
    like the country
  • 26:25 - 26:27
    was having one great big party.
  • 26:27 - 26:30
    Ronald Reagan was in power,
    the economy was booming,
  • 26:30 - 26:32
    and the gaming industry
    was taking a big slice
  • 26:32 - 26:34
    of the disposable income.
  • 26:34 - 26:38
    Americans had now spent
    over 75,000 man years
  • 26:38 - 26:40
    playing video games and dropped
    more than 20 billion quarters
  • 26:40 - 26:42
    in the process.
  • 26:42 - 26:44
    It looked like things
    couldn't get any better.
  • 26:44 - 26:45
    And you know what?
  • 26:45 - 26:47
    They couldn't.
  • 26:47 - 26:48
    Players in the
    video game industry
  • 26:48 - 26:50
    were about to move
    up to the next level
  • 26:50 - 26:52
    and faced a revolution that
    would tear the business apart.
  • 26:52 - 26:57
    [THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 26:57 - 26:58
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 26:58 - 27:00
    This is the first
    game I ever played.
  • 27:00 - 27:02
    There was a machine just like
    it at the local pizza place.
  • 27:02 - 27:04
    Man, it's still great.
  • 27:04 - 27:07
    Pac-Man, not the pizza.
  • 27:07 - 27:09
    But there was one version of
    this game that wasn't so hot.
  • 27:09 - 27:12
    In fact, it was so bad that it
    nearly killed off video games
  • 27:12 - 27:13
    for good.
  • 27:13 - 27:16
    Rewind to 1980.
  • 27:16 - 27:17
    Namco and Midway's
    Pac-Man is eating up
  • 27:17 - 27:19
    most of the arcade
    business and cutting
  • 27:19 - 27:21
    into Atari's bottom line.
  • 27:21 - 27:21
    [PAC-MAN SOUND EFFECTS]
  • 27:21 - 27:24
    The company had a new
    president, Ray Kassar
  • 27:24 - 27:26
    who was a marketing pro.
  • 27:26 - 27:27
    Looking for a new
    revenue stream,
  • 27:27 - 27:29
    he set his sights
    on American homes
  • 27:29 - 27:34
    and getting the 2600
    console into more of them.
  • 27:34 - 27:37
    Marketing 101, people
    buy what they know.
  • 27:37 - 27:41
    And people know these guys.
  • 27:41 - 27:43
    Space Invaders had kicked
    Atari's butt in the arcades
  • 27:43 - 27:46
    back in 1978.
  • 27:46 - 27:49
    Now Kassar thought they were
    the ones who could save it.
  • 27:49 - 27:51
    In the best, can't beat
    them, join them tradition,
  • 27:51 - 27:54
    he went straight to Taito, the
    original Japanese company that
  • 27:54 - 27:56
    designed the game and
    bought the rights to a home
  • 27:56 - 27:59
    version of Space Invaders.
  • 27:59 - 28:03
    When it hits stores,
    2600 sales skyrocketed.
  • 28:03 - 28:04
    Kassar wanted more.
  • 28:04 - 28:08
    DAVID CRANE: We were asked to do
    home versions of popular arcade
  • 28:08 - 28:08
    titles.
  • 28:08 - 28:12
    Very difficult task
    because the Atari 2600
  • 28:12 - 28:16
    is a very simple game
    system, electronically.
  • 28:16 - 28:18
    Whereas an arcade
    game has $4,000
  • 28:18 - 28:20
    worth of technology in it.
  • 28:20 - 28:21
    TONY HAWK: Faster
    than you could say
  • 28:21 - 28:25
    Asteroids, more Atari arcade
    knockoffs hit store shelves.
  • 28:25 - 28:29
    Atari soon had a reputation
    as a profitable company
  • 28:29 - 28:31
    and a great place
    to work, but only
  • 28:31 - 28:35
    if you were in upper management.
  • 28:35 - 28:38
    ALAN MILLER: The culture
    changed at Atari.
  • 28:38 - 28:42
    When Bushnell was forced out
    and the new management came in,
  • 28:42 - 28:44
    they didn't understand
    the industry.
  • 28:44 - 28:45
    They didn't understand
    consumer electronics.
  • 28:45 - 28:47
    They didn't
    understand technology.
  • 28:47 - 28:50
    They had little respect
    for the creative work
  • 28:50 - 28:52
    that was being done by game
    designers such as myself.
  • 28:52 - 28:55
  • 28:55 - 28:57
    AL ALCORN: These
    engineers would create
  • 28:57 - 29:00
    a software program that would
    result in $20- $30 million
  • 29:00 - 29:02
    in sales.
  • 29:02 - 29:04
    And they were making
    this little paltry salary
  • 29:04 - 29:06
    and they figured gee, I'd
    like to get a penny or two
  • 29:06 - 29:08
    or three per each cartridge.
  • 29:08 - 29:10
    DAVID CRANE: So we go to
    the president of Atari
  • 29:10 - 29:14
    and point that out, and he said
    to us, and I'll quote, he said,
  • 29:14 - 29:18
    you are no more important
    to that game than the person
  • 29:18 - 29:21
    on the assembly line
    who puts it together.
  • 29:21 - 29:22
    That didn't sit
    too well with us.
  • 29:22 - 29:24
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 29:24 - 29:26
    TONY HAWK: Contempt
    breeds competition.
  • 29:26 - 29:28
    So four of Atari's
    top game designers
  • 29:28 - 29:32
    gave Kassar the kiss off and
    started their own company.
  • 29:32 - 29:37
    - You blast light
    out of your sense.
  • 29:37 - 29:40
    Star Master by Activision.
  • 29:40 - 29:42
  • 29:42 - 29:44
    ALAN MILLER: The most
    significant thing
  • 29:44 - 29:47
    about Activision was that it
    was the first independent video
  • 29:47 - 29:48
    game publisher.
  • 29:48 - 29:51
    Prior to our formation,
    all game software
  • 29:51 - 29:54
    was created by the
    hardware manufacturers.
  • 29:54 - 29:56
    DAVID CRANE: One of the
    differences with Activision
  • 29:56 - 30:01
    was we promoted the game
    creator as an author.
  • 30:01 - 30:03
    If you're creative
    at what you do,
  • 30:03 - 30:06
    you kind of like some
    recognition from the public.
  • 30:06 - 30:07
    ALAN MILLER: Activision
    was a huge success.
  • 30:07 - 30:11
    We grew from $0 in
    revenue to $160 million
  • 30:11 - 30:14
    in revenue in three years.
  • 30:14 - 30:19
    TONY HAWK: Their first hits
    included Pitfall, Ka-Boom,
  • 30:19 - 30:20
    and Freeway.
  • 30:20 - 30:22
    - I came up with Freeway
    on Lakeshore Drive
  • 30:22 - 30:24
    in Chicago, which is
    10 lanes of traffic.
  • 30:24 - 30:26
    Looked out the window
    and there was this idiot
  • 30:26 - 30:28
    trying to cross the street.
  • 30:28 - 30:29
    And I'm looking at
    that and I said,
  • 30:29 - 30:31
    that would make a
    good video game.
  • 30:31 - 30:35
  • 30:35 - 30:37
    TONY HAWK: Atari wasn't the
    only game in town anymore.
  • 30:37 - 30:40
    More companies were
    making more consoles.
  • 30:40 - 30:43
    Activism was making
    games for all of them.
  • 30:43 - 30:46
    Magnavox had the Odyssey 2.
  • 30:46 - 30:50
    Famous toymaker Mattel
    had Intellivision.
  • 30:50 - 30:53
    Mattel's ads for
    their console featured
  • 30:53 - 30:56
    intellectual literary
    figure George Plimpton.
  • 30:56 - 30:58
    - I've been comparing the
    exciting new Intellivision
  • 30:58 - 31:01
    space game Star Strike with
    one of the most popular Atari
  • 31:01 - 31:02
    games, Asteroids.
  • 31:02 - 31:04
    TONY HAWK: I guess they
    figured most Americans had
  • 31:04 - 31:07
    to be dragged away from
    reading War and Peace to play
  • 31:07 - 31:08
    video games.
  • 31:08 - 31:11
    - Star Strike features our
    most exciting visual effect--
  • 31:11 - 31:12
    total destruction of a planet.
  • 31:12 - 31:15
    Which is why after
    Star Strike, Asteroids
  • 31:15 - 31:18
    left [INAUDIBLE] rather flat.
  • 31:18 - 31:22
    To-to-total destruction
    of a planet.
  • 31:22 - 31:24
    TONY HAWK: Then another unlikely
    player showed up on the field--
  • 31:24 - 31:28
    a plastic pool
    maker called Coleco.
  • 31:28 - 31:31
    - We had looked at this
    whole arcade position
  • 31:31 - 31:34
    and believed that electronics,
    as it related to kids,
  • 31:34 - 31:37
    was going to be very,
    very important angle.
  • 31:37 - 31:39
    So we started to work on a
    number of different products
  • 31:39 - 31:43
    that's used electronic
    chips as they're heart.
  • 31:43 - 31:45
    - I'm an electronic quarterback.
  • 31:45 - 31:48
    I start in the back field
    and follow my blockers.
  • 31:48 - 31:48
    - Blockers?
  • 31:48 - 31:50
    I don't have any blockers.
  • 31:50 - 31:52
    MAN: Coleco's
    Electronic Quarterback.
  • 31:52 - 31:55
    - We did the head to head
    series of dedicated games,
  • 31:55 - 31:56
    where you played
    against an opponent
  • 31:56 - 31:57
    on the other side of the game.
  • 31:57 - 31:59
    - Now we can play
    at the same time.
  • 31:59 - 32:00
    - I'm offense.
  • 32:00 - 32:01
    - I'm defense.
  • 32:01 - 32:02
    MAN: With Head to Head,
    you're really in the game.
  • 32:02 - 32:03
    A power sweep.
  • 32:03 - 32:04
    You pass.
  • 32:04 - 32:04
    He blitzes.
  • 32:04 - 32:05
    Intercepts.
  • 32:05 - 32:07
    - This is real competition.
  • 32:07 - 32:10
    - And we did the miniature
    tabletop arcade games,
  • 32:10 - 32:13
    which are miniature versions
    of Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.
  • 32:13 - 32:15
    They looked exactly
    like the arcade games.
  • 32:15 - 32:16
    - They were very successful.
  • 32:16 - 32:21
    And that Coleco on the road
    to developing more video
  • 32:21 - 32:25
    and electronic games.
  • 32:25 - 32:28
    TONY HAWK: And the new console
    called Coleco Vision was born.
  • 32:28 - 32:31
    - Coleco Vision was an attempt
    to try and replicate as closely
  • 32:31 - 32:35
    as possible in those days
    the actual experience
  • 32:35 - 32:35
    of the arcade.
  • 32:35 - 32:37
    TONY HAWK: Knowing
    they needed a hot game
  • 32:37 - 32:39
    to kick off their console
    sales, they set their sights
  • 32:39 - 32:41
    on the arcade hit--
  • 32:41 - 32:44
    Donkey Kong.
  • 32:44 - 32:46
    And bought themselves
    a six month
  • 32:46 - 32:48
    exclusive to the
    game from Nintendo.
  • 32:48 - 32:53
    Coleco Vision became
    the smash hit of 1982.
  • 32:53 - 32:55
    - And Donkey Kong
    was the driver.
  • 32:55 - 32:56
    We impacted it with the unit.
  • 32:56 - 32:57
    You bought the
    Coleco Vision, you
  • 32:57 - 32:59
    got a Donkey Kong cartridge.
  • 32:59 - 33:02
  • 33:02 - 33:04
    TONY HAWK: Suddenly,
    another 800 pound gorilla
  • 33:04 - 33:06
    came into the room--
  • 33:06 - 33:07
    Universal Studios.
  • 33:07 - 33:10
    They claimed that Nintendo's
    Donkey Kong violated
  • 33:10 - 33:12
    their copyright on
    the movie King Kong
  • 33:12 - 33:14
    and they wanted their
    piece of the action.
  • 33:14 - 33:16
    - It's a great court case.
  • 33:16 - 33:19
    They actually at one point
    brought in a Donkey Kong
  • 33:19 - 33:22
    machine and played
    the game for the judge
  • 33:22 - 33:25
    in the middle of the core,
    which was quite a scene.
  • 33:25 - 33:26
    TONY HAWK: But the
    biggest laugh came
  • 33:26 - 33:29
    when court papers, prepared
    by Universal's own lawyers,
  • 33:29 - 33:31
    revealed that the
    original copyright holder
  • 33:31 - 33:35
    that the rights fall
    into the public domain.
  • 33:35 - 33:38
    - So in the end, not
    only did they lose,
  • 33:38 - 33:41
    they have to pay damages
    and court expenses.
  • 33:41 - 33:43
    TONY HAWK: Hate to say
    it, but we got to--
  • 33:43 - 33:45
    Nintendo made a monkey
    out of Universal.
  • 33:45 - 33:50
  • 33:50 - 33:52
    And what about those monkeys
    who were running Atari?
  • 33:52 - 33:56
    - They were affected by waves
    of people leaving the company--
  • 33:56 - 33:57
    first, Activision.
  • 33:57 - 33:59
    Then there was
    another wave after us.
  • 33:59 - 34:02
    And so they lost their
    very best programmers.
  • 34:02 - 34:03
    TONY HAWK: Desperate,
    Atari licensed
  • 34:03 - 34:07
    the arcade classic Pac-Man and
    ordered 12 million cartridges.
  • 34:07 - 34:09
    [BEEPING]
  • 34:09 - 34:10
    It sucked.
  • 34:10 - 34:12
    - It flickered, it
    didn't look like Pac-Man,
  • 34:12 - 34:16
    it didn't play well, it was
    hard to control, it was ugly,
  • 34:16 - 34:18
    it was an awful game.
  • 34:18 - 34:21
    TONY HAWK: And a financial
    disaster, big time.
  • 34:21 - 34:25
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 34:25 - 34:28
    Steve Ross, chief of Atari's
    corporate parent, Warner
  • 34:28 - 34:31
    Communications, decided
    to step in and he brought
  • 34:31 - 34:33
    one of Hollywood's biggest
    talents along with him--
  • 34:33 - 34:35
    Steven Spielberg.
  • 34:35 - 34:39
    In the summer of 1982, ET was
    burning up the box office,
  • 34:39 - 34:42
    and Ross wanted to
    ride that bike too.
  • 34:42 - 34:44
    He paid a cool $25
    million for the right
  • 34:44 - 34:47
    to use Steve's extra
    terrestrial in a new video game,
  • 34:47 - 34:50
    and he promised to have
    it out by Christmas.
  • 34:50 - 34:53
    - I think they had to develop
    the game in eight weeks instead
  • 34:53 - 34:56
    of nine months.
  • 34:56 - 34:58
    It's kind of hard to
    make a game be really fun
  • 34:58 - 35:02
    and have a lot of depth in it
    in a period of a eight weeks.
  • 35:02 - 35:04
    - And it was so bad.
  • 35:04 - 35:07
    The ones that they sold,
    most of them were returned.
  • 35:07 - 35:12
    - In '83, Atari sent diesel
    trucks into the New Mexico
  • 35:12 - 35:15
    desert packed with unsold
    cartridges and they buried
  • 35:15 - 35:16
    them.
  • 35:16 - 35:18
    - The legend was, they had
    to run in and pour concrete
  • 35:18 - 35:20
    over them to make
    them really go away.
  • 35:20 - 35:21
    Ugly, ugly.
  • 35:21 - 35:22
    I basically killed Atari.
  • 35:22 - 35:23
    It was the end of Atari.
  • 35:23 - 35:26
  • 35:26 - 35:28
    TONY HAWK: By early
    1983, it looked
  • 35:28 - 35:32
    like the home gaming boom
    was going bust for everyone.
  • 35:32 - 35:34
    - 30 companies got a couple
    million dollars in venture
  • 35:34 - 35:37
    capital, hired a
    couple of programmers
  • 35:37 - 35:39
    off the street who'd
    never designed games,
  • 35:39 - 35:42
    and developed a video
    game and tried to sell it
  • 35:42 - 35:47
    and nobody was buying it,
    because it was garbage.
  • 35:47 - 35:51
    It was ironic, because when
    we saw those 30 new companies,
  • 35:51 - 35:53
    we looked at each other and
    said, none of these guys
  • 35:53 - 35:55
    are going to be in
    business a year from now.
  • 35:55 - 35:57
    And we didn't take
    that one step further
  • 35:57 - 35:59
    and say, and my god, what that's
    going to do to the business.
  • 35:59 - 36:01
    TONY HAWK: In the
    next two years,
  • 36:01 - 36:02
    Warner Communications
    dumped Atari
  • 36:02 - 36:05
    and got out of the industry.
  • 36:05 - 36:08
    Mattel shut down production
    of their Intellivision system.
  • 36:08 - 36:12
    Coleco sales dropped
    through the floor.
  • 36:12 - 36:15
    And in 1985, just as
    everything really hit bottom,
  • 36:15 - 36:17
    Nintendo stood up
    and said they weren't
  • 36:17 - 36:21
    going to take it anymore and
    launched their own gaming
  • 36:21 - 36:21
    console--
  • 36:21 - 36:26
    the Nintendo Entertainment
    System or NES.
  • 36:26 - 36:28
    Everyone thought
    they were crazy.
  • 36:28 - 36:30
    - All of a sudden,
    Nintendo came in,
  • 36:30 - 36:33
    better graphics, better
    color, better sound.
  • 36:33 - 36:35
    Boom, rock and roll--
  • 36:35 - 36:36
    total success.
  • 36:36 - 36:39
    MAN: Nintendo has the
    most video game hits,
  • 36:39 - 36:42
    like Baseball and Excite Bike.
  • 36:42 - 36:45
    Now, you're playing with power.
  • 36:45 - 36:47
    - They really brought in
    a new age of video games
  • 36:47 - 36:50
    with the simple introduction
    of the NES system.
  • 36:50 - 36:51
    They've rethought everything.
  • 36:51 - 36:53
    They said, the way a
    cartridge is loaded,
  • 36:53 - 36:55
    the way the controllers
    are designed--
  • 36:55 - 36:58
    they said, let's start over and
    create a really friendly game
  • 36:58 - 37:00
    system for families to enjoy.
  • 37:00 - 37:04
    TONY HAWK: And who was leading
    the Nintendo NES charge?
  • 37:04 - 37:06
    Their Donkey Kong
    hero Mario, now
  • 37:06 - 37:08
    starring in Super Mario Bros.
  • 37:08 - 37:11
    - They came out with Super Mario
    Bros, which was a great game--
  • 37:11 - 37:15
    so far beyond anything that
    has existed before in he home.
  • 37:15 - 37:19
    It made side scrolling vivid,
    and it gave you puzzles--
  • 37:19 - 37:21
    hidden puzzles and fun puzzles.
  • 37:21 - 37:25
    It characterized
    what games could be.
  • 37:25 - 37:29
    And it was a phenomenon
    all over again.
  • 37:29 - 37:31
    - Once that happened, it
    really changed the business,
  • 37:31 - 37:34
    because then Sega started
    looking at the business
  • 37:34 - 37:35
    more seriously.
  • 37:35 - 37:38
    TONY HAWK: Sega was
    short for Service Games.
  • 37:38 - 37:40
    It had actually gotten its start
    as an American company then
  • 37:40 - 37:43
    imported pinball machines
    to military bases in Japan
  • 37:43 - 37:45
    after World War II.
  • 37:45 - 37:50
    But by 1986, Sega was a
    Japanese company toiling away
  • 37:50 - 37:51
    in the arcade business.
  • 37:51 - 37:53
    Seeing Nintendo's
    success, they came out
  • 37:53 - 37:55
    with their first console--
  • 37:55 - 37:57
    the Sega Master System.
  • 37:57 - 38:00
    Most of their games were
    repackaged arcade titles
  • 38:00 - 38:02
    and couldn't compete with
    the exciting originals
  • 38:02 - 38:04
    that Nintendo was cranking out.
  • 38:04 - 38:06
    It would take another
    five years before Sega
  • 38:06 - 38:09
    would get a real shot of
    pushing Nintendo and Mario
  • 38:09 - 38:12
    off their high latter.
  • 38:12 - 38:15
    - And the Japanese really took
    over the video game industry,
  • 38:15 - 38:18
    because we had these games
    that anyone could play,
  • 38:18 - 38:21
    anyone could understand
    and everyone loves.
  • 38:21 - 38:23
    And they're very simple,
    they're very easy to get into.
  • 38:23 - 38:25
    And the hardware is more
    powerful than anything
  • 38:25 - 38:27
    we've seen from
    the American side.
  • 38:27 - 38:30
    So these guys, they were able
    to bring back video games,
  • 38:30 - 38:32
    like they brought it
    back from the dead.
  • 38:32 - 38:34
    TONY HAWK: After
    a five year slump,
  • 38:34 - 38:36
    consoles were clawing their
    way back into homes only
  • 38:36 - 38:39
    to meet a new challenger--
    the personal computer.
  • 38:39 - 38:41
    We can barely remember
    life without them,
  • 38:41 - 38:43
    but in the early
    '80s, these machines
  • 38:43 - 38:44
    were the hot new thing.
  • 38:44 - 38:47
    And they were about to take
    video game play to a higher
  • 38:47 - 38:50
    level, create new competition
    for gaming dollars
  • 38:50 - 38:52
    and give game designers
    a new opportunity
  • 38:52 - 38:54
    to take even more power
    into their own hands.
  • 38:54 - 38:58
  • 38:58 - 39:00
    You know how some
    people always seem
  • 39:00 - 39:02
    to be in the right
    place at the right time?
  • 39:02 - 39:05
    Maybe it has more to do
    with being ready to step up
  • 39:05 - 39:06
    than just dumb luck.
  • 39:06 - 39:08
    And the video game
    industry has always
  • 39:08 - 39:10
    been packed with risk
    takers, people who
  • 39:10 - 39:13
    can't wait to take their shot.
  • 39:13 - 39:15
    Time for another chapter
    in our tale of two Steve--
  • 39:15 - 39:17
    Jobs and Wozniak.
  • 39:17 - 39:18
    Remember?
  • 39:18 - 39:20
    Those two guys who left Atari
    to start their own thing.
  • 39:20 - 39:23
    By the early '80s, their Apple
    2 Home Computer was a must
  • 39:23 - 39:27
    buy for tech heads everywhere,
    at a whopping $1,300 a pop.
  • 39:27 - 39:30
    - I just thought
    I had to have one.
  • 39:30 - 39:34
    I convinced my wife that I would
    somehow make it pay for itself.
  • 39:34 - 39:37
    And we spent well
    over a month's income
  • 39:37 - 39:41
    for the two of us buying
    that first Apple 2 computer.
  • 39:41 - 39:48
    And well, I guess I did make
    it pay for itself eventually.
  • 39:48 - 39:50
    TONY HAWK: Computers were
    making word processing a breeze
  • 39:50 - 39:53
    and typewriters were being
    tossed out of office windows
  • 39:53 - 39:54
    everywhere.
  • 39:54 - 39:56
    But coming out of
    Atari, the two Steves
  • 39:56 - 39:59
    had gaming in their blood
    and knew that working hard
  • 39:59 - 40:01
    meant playing harder.
  • 40:01 - 40:04
    So they made sure their
    baby was built to game.
  • 40:04 - 40:06
    - Once you have a
    PC on your desk,
  • 40:06 - 40:08
    you soon realize
    that it's something
  • 40:08 - 40:09
    that you can goof off on.
  • 40:09 - 40:12
    And right from
    the very beginning
  • 40:12 - 40:14
    of PCs on desktops
    in the workplace,
  • 40:14 - 40:15
    there were games to play.
  • 40:15 - 40:18
    In those days-- the
    mid-80s, a lot of them
  • 40:18 - 40:21
    were just text games like Zork.
  • 40:21 - 40:23
    The great thing about that
    is because it was all text,
  • 40:23 - 40:25
    it actually kind of
    looked like work.
  • 40:25 - 40:29
    TONY HAWK: A rival PC, the
    Commodore 64 came out in 1982,
  • 40:29 - 40:30
    and was even more successful.
  • 40:30 - 40:34
    22 million machines
    were sold in 1983 alone.
  • 40:34 - 40:39
    Well, maybe because
    that one was only $600.
  • 40:39 - 40:42
    - When the Commodore
    64 first came out,
  • 40:42 - 40:44
    I bought one of those
    like the first day
  • 40:44 - 40:46
    and spent like the next month
    just learning machine, trying
  • 40:46 - 40:48
    every last feature of it.
  • 40:48 - 40:49
    And then, the first
    game I did actually
  • 40:49 - 40:50
    was on he Commodore 64.
  • 40:50 - 40:52
    - I would go into
    the college and there
  • 40:52 - 40:54
    were students
    programming on the Apple,
  • 40:54 - 40:57
    so I could ask them, how do
    you get the dot on the screen.
  • 40:57 - 40:58
    And I'm just asking them
    all the basic commands
  • 40:58 - 41:01
    and writing them all down and
    trying to make my own programs
  • 41:01 - 41:03
    in the corner on the machines.
  • 41:03 - 41:05
    - I love playing on a computer
    a lot more than a console
  • 41:05 - 41:07
    because, I felt like the
    interaction was there.
  • 41:07 - 41:11
    There was a lot more fun in
    actually programming things
  • 41:11 - 41:14
    rather than just being passive
    and letting somebody else make
  • 41:14 - 41:16
    the game for me.
  • 41:16 - 41:18
    That was really when I
    fell in love with games.
  • 41:18 - 41:21
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 41:21 - 41:23
    TONY HAWK: Back at
    Apple, a young employee
  • 41:23 - 41:26
    named Chip Hawkins was
    getting ready to pull a Steve
  • 41:26 - 41:29
    Jobs on Steve Jobs and
    take off on his own.
  • 41:29 - 41:32
  • 41:32 - 41:35
    - At Apple, Steve
    Jobs was treating him
  • 41:35 - 41:39
    like a worthless MBA instead
    of like the future CEO
  • 41:39 - 41:41
    and rockstar.
  • 41:41 - 41:44
    - The big idea I had
    was to basically bring
  • 41:44 - 41:47
    a lot of practices
    from Hollywood
  • 41:47 - 41:51
    into this new digital
    medium elevating
  • 41:51 - 41:54
    the development of the
    product to that of an art form
  • 41:54 - 41:58
    and treating the creative
    talent as artists.
  • 41:58 - 42:01
    TONY HAWK: In October of 1982,
    Electronic Arts was born.
  • 42:01 - 42:05
  • 42:05 - 42:08
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 42:08 - 42:10
    - We wrote the business
    plan in November '82.
  • 42:10 - 42:12
    And two weeks
    later, Atari, which
  • 42:12 - 42:15
    had just shipped ET,
    announced that they
  • 42:15 - 42:18
    weren't going to make their
    revenue, or profit, targets.
  • 42:18 - 42:19
    And what they were
    doing was they
  • 42:19 - 42:22
    were spending their money
    on bulldozers bulldozing
  • 42:22 - 42:25
    all those ETs into the ground.
  • 42:25 - 42:28
    We though cartridge video
    games we're done for ever.
  • 42:28 - 42:30
    So we took a big risk and
    we launched and only did
  • 42:30 - 42:32
    floppy disk PC games.
  • 42:32 - 42:36
    TONY HAWK: Trip had to get
    people's eyes back on gaming
  • 42:36 - 42:40
    and he did it by catching
    their eye on the store shelves.
  • 42:40 - 42:43
    - I immediately gravitated
    towards thinking
  • 42:43 - 42:45
    that the product should be
    packaged like a record album.
  • 42:45 - 42:48
    And it was very successful
    in the marketplace in that,
  • 42:48 - 42:53
    a lot of people really liked
    those early record albums.
  • 42:53 - 42:57
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 42:57 - 42:59
    TONY HAWK: Trip also figured
    sports stars would look great
  • 42:59 - 43:00
    on box covers.
  • 43:00 - 43:02
    Not sure why.
  • 43:02 - 43:04
    Maybe he ate a lot of Wheaties.
  • 43:04 - 43:07
    Whatever the reason, he went
    after two of the biggest--
  • 43:07 - 43:09
    Larry Bird and
    Julius Erving, better
  • 43:09 - 43:12
    known as Dr. J.
    Each got about $25K
  • 43:12 - 43:15
    for a snapshot and their names.
  • 43:15 - 43:18
    And the doctor himself got
    involved in the game design.
  • 43:18 - 43:21
    - We asked him questions about
    how he played and strategies
  • 43:21 - 43:23
    and we wanted to understand
    what kind of shots
  • 43:23 - 43:25
    he would take from
    different parts of the floor
  • 43:25 - 43:27
    and what his shooting
    percentages were.
  • 43:27 - 43:29
    - We exactly built
    into the game.
  • 43:29 - 43:31
    And then we said, imagine
    you're really going one on one
  • 43:31 - 43:34
    with Larry, what
    would the outcome be.
  • 43:34 - 43:37
    And he goes, if I went
    one-on-one with Larry,
  • 43:37 - 43:40
    I'd beat him every time.
  • 43:40 - 43:42
    Cool.
  • 43:42 - 43:46
    - Premiering on the Apple
    2 and Commodore 64, Dr. J
  • 43:46 - 43:51
    and Larry Bird go one on
    one was a huge seller.
  • 43:51 - 43:52
    Next up, football.
  • 43:52 - 43:55
    The tie-in, John Madden.
  • 43:55 - 43:57
    With a big name,
    give him a big shock.
  • 43:57 - 44:01
    You see, in the early '80s,
    technology would only allow
  • 44:01 - 44:02
    seven players on each team.
  • 44:02 - 44:08
    - Madden looked at it and he
    goes, where's the other guys?
  • 44:08 - 44:13
    Well, this is an Apple 2
    and it only has 64k of ram.
  • 44:13 - 44:17
    So actually having seven on
    seven is a huge breakthrough.
  • 44:17 - 44:18
    And he just gets
    the stink face--
  • 44:18 - 44:22
    it's like, where are the
    other-- that's not football.
  • 44:22 - 44:25
    You can shift that if you
    want, but not with my name on.
  • 44:25 - 44:27
    We're thinking,
    he's got our money.
  • 44:27 - 44:30
    So I would go back to Rob
    and Anthonic, the programmer
  • 44:30 - 44:33
    and designer, and say,
    it's got to be a 11-on-11.
  • 44:33 - 44:38
    And he goes, that's impossible.
  • 44:38 - 44:41
    Two years later when the
    11-on-11 game was finished,
  • 44:41 - 44:42
    we shipped it.
  • 44:42 - 44:47
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 44:47 - 44:50
    TONY HAWK: And in 1988, the
    ultimate video sports game
  • 44:50 - 44:52
    franchise was born,
    along with one
  • 44:52 - 44:55
    of the greatest video
    marketing opportunities ever.
  • 44:55 - 44:57
    Like football itself,
    a new version of Madden
  • 44:57 - 45:02
    started arriving every season
    with new teams, statistics,
  • 45:02 - 45:03
    and players.
  • 45:03 - 45:05
    - And I said, this
    is the crown jewel.
  • 45:05 - 45:06
    We're going to build
    the company around this.
  • 45:06 - 45:08
    This is going to be a
    hugely successful product.
  • 45:08 - 45:11
    Madden's success proofed
    that sports can be very, very
  • 45:11 - 45:13
    good for EA, and it
    has, giving birth
  • 45:13 - 45:16
    to a whole subdivision
    within the company.
  • 45:16 - 45:20
    And it doesn't stop there,
    from action to adventure,
  • 45:20 - 45:23
    from franchises to tie-in
    titles, these guys are on it.
  • 45:23 - 45:25
    Now going for over
    20 years, they
  • 45:25 - 45:26
    are the biggest
    and most successful
  • 45:26 - 45:28
    publisher of video games ever.
  • 45:28 - 45:33
    In 2003, the revenues
    topped $2.5 billion.
  • 45:33 - 45:36
    But hey, we're starting to
    get ahead of ourselves here.
  • 45:36 - 45:42
    Put the brakes on and
    let's rewind back in 1979.
  • 45:42 - 45:44
    This is Ken Williams
    and his wife Roberta.
  • 45:44 - 45:47
    Based in LA, Ken had just
    started a computer consulting
  • 45:47 - 45:50
    business called Online Systems.
  • 45:50 - 45:53
    And then, one day, he bought
    his own computer along
  • 45:53 - 45:55
    with a computer game.
  • 45:55 - 45:57
    - Roberta started playing it and
    she got really, really hooked.
  • 45:57 - 46:01
    Then after she got hooked, she
    said, you know, I can do that.
  • 46:01 - 46:03
    And it turned out that
    she could not only do it,
  • 46:03 - 46:05
    she could do it brilliantly.
  • 46:05 - 46:10
    TONY HAWK: In 1980, she
    started writing her own game--
  • 46:10 - 46:12
    Mystery House.
  • 46:12 - 46:14
    - The adventure game
    genre really developed
  • 46:14 - 46:17
    around what the
    PC was capable of,
  • 46:17 - 46:20
    which was exploration
    and storytelling.
  • 46:20 - 46:22
    You could type in
    walk left and you
  • 46:22 - 46:23
    would get a description of--
  • 46:23 - 46:24
    OK, now you're in the field.
  • 46:24 - 46:27
    It was all text based.
  • 46:27 - 46:29
    TONY HAWK: An avid
    movie lover, Roberta
  • 46:29 - 46:31
    loved visuals, and
    insisted the game would
  • 46:31 - 46:34
    be more fun if there were
    pictures to go along with it.
  • 46:34 - 46:37
    - She couldn't understand
    why the hardware at the time
  • 46:37 - 46:40
    couldn't do the things
    that she wanted done.
  • 46:40 - 46:44
    And so she would just say, Ed,
    you've gotta make this happen.
  • 46:44 - 46:47
    And somehow Ken would
    work on it and figure it
  • 46:47 - 46:49
    out some kind of thing
    and make it happen.
  • 46:49 - 46:52
    Because of her, Ken created
    this software program
  • 46:52 - 46:56
    that allowed them to store
    hundreds of graphic screens
  • 46:56 - 46:58
    on one single floppy disk.
  • 46:58 - 47:01
    And they produced the first
    adventure game for the Apple 2
  • 47:01 - 47:02
    that had graphics.
  • 47:02 - 47:02
    It
  • 47:02 - 47:04
    - They take these
    games in a baggy
  • 47:04 - 47:06
    and they'd drive them
    around California
  • 47:06 - 47:08
    about have computer
    shops sell them.
  • 47:08 - 47:11
    And that got successful and
    that became their company.
  • 47:11 - 47:14
  • 47:14 - 47:18
    TONY HAWK: Ken and Roberta sold
    80,000 copies of Mystery House.
  • 47:18 - 47:20
    More games started
    coming, some were
  • 47:20 - 47:24
    originals, some adaptations
    of arcade titles.
  • 47:24 - 47:27
    They also moved their
    office out of the LA kitchen
  • 47:27 - 47:30
    and into a building just
    outside Yosemite National Park.
  • 47:30 - 47:34
    Name change time too-- the
    company became Sierra Online.
  • 47:34 - 47:37
    Then IBM knocked on
    the new office door.
  • 47:37 - 47:39
    They wanted a game for their
    new consumer machine, the PC
  • 47:39 - 47:40
    Junior.
  • 47:40 - 47:43
    Roberta came up with King's
    Quest, a fantasy adventure
  • 47:43 - 47:46
    game filled with knights,
    treasures and puzzles.
  • 47:46 - 47:49
    It would also let gamers
    play from a third person
  • 47:49 - 47:50
    perspective.
  • 47:50 - 47:52
    Controlling and
    moving a character
  • 47:52 - 47:53
    inside a physical world--
  • 47:53 - 47:55
    a first for adventure games.
  • 47:55 - 47:58
    - My first experience with
    question was just a revelation.
  • 47:58 - 48:01
    It was kind of a very, very
    early form of virtual reality,
  • 48:01 - 48:02
    that I was the main character.
  • 48:02 - 48:05
    And I was actually creating
    the story as I went along.
  • 48:05 - 48:07
    I thought that was very
    exciting as a storyteller
  • 48:07 - 48:09
    and very compelling
    for me as a gamer.
  • 48:09 - 48:13
  • 48:13 - 48:15
    TONY HAWK: Like the movie
    biz, success brought
  • 48:15 - 48:18
    equals and a few spin-offs too.
  • 48:18 - 48:21
  • 48:21 - 48:24
    With each game,
    Roberto's vision expanded
  • 48:24 - 48:26
    and Ken had to think
    fast to keep up with it.
  • 48:26 - 48:27
    - She said, well, I want color.
  • 48:27 - 48:30
    And he said, well, Apple
    only has six colors
  • 48:30 - 48:31
    and they're kind of weird.
  • 48:31 - 48:33
    And she said, well,
    make more than that.
  • 48:33 - 48:33
    And so he did.
  • 48:33 - 48:35
    She wanted sound.
  • 48:35 - 48:37
    So he convinced
    [? Rollins ?] to produce
  • 48:37 - 48:40
    a mini board and a sound
    card so that the PCs could
  • 48:40 - 48:42
    have music soundtracks.
  • 48:42 - 48:44
    Because with them,
    the sound cards
  • 48:44 - 48:48
    really came into the PC world.
  • 48:48 - 48:50
    TONY HAWK: And like
    Nintendo with Mario,
  • 48:50 - 48:53
    Ken and Roberta knew continuing
    characters like Leisure Suit
  • 48:53 - 48:57
    Larry could be just as
    lucrative as franchise titles.
  • 48:57 - 48:59
    - The first Leisure Suit Larry
    King game had a very simple
  • 48:59 - 49:06
    plot-- you were a 39-year-old
    virgin software salesman in Las
  • 49:06 - 49:10
    Vegas for one night and
    hoping to lose your virginity.
  • 49:10 - 49:13
    And you can do that through a
    variety of means, none of which
  • 49:13 - 49:18
    were very sexy or
    stimulating, but we're funny.
  • 49:18 - 49:19
    That's what made it successful.
  • 49:19 - 49:22
    It was a risqué title.
  • 49:22 - 49:25
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 49:25 - 49:27
    TONY HAWK: Despite all of
    the success that Sierra
  • 49:27 - 49:29
    and Electronic Arts we're
    finding in the mid-80s,
  • 49:29 - 49:31
    their audience
    still consisted of.
  • 49:31 - 49:33
    A highly specialized group
    of tech heads and gamers
  • 49:33 - 49:35
    with computers becoming
    an everyday part
  • 49:35 - 49:38
    of everyone's work and
    home life, a money making
  • 49:38 - 49:42
    stream of potential players was
    just sitting there untapped.
  • 49:42 - 49:44
    All someone needed
    was one simple game.
  • 49:44 - 49:47
    It needed to be something
    that anyone could play,
  • 49:47 - 49:49
    a game so addictive that
    workers around the world
  • 49:49 - 49:50
    would have to cover their
    computer screens when
  • 49:50 - 49:51
    the boss walked by.
  • 49:51 - 49:53
    Well, that game was
    about to arrive.
  • 49:53 - 49:58
  • 49:58 - 50:01
    In terms of global
    obsession, this next game
  • 50:01 - 50:02
    broke all the records.
  • 50:02 - 50:04
    It was one of those classic--
  • 50:04 - 50:07
    why didn't I think of that
    ideas, a game so simple,
  • 50:07 - 50:09
    no one in the world
    could resist playing.
  • 50:09 - 50:12
    It was called Tetris.
  • 50:12 - 50:15
    And next to cocaine, It was
    the most addictive substance
  • 50:15 - 50:18
    being passed around in
    the party hardy 1980s.
  • 50:18 - 50:22
    And the idea came right
    out of party central.
  • 50:22 - 50:24
    Well, make that
    Communist Party central.
  • 50:24 - 50:27
  • 50:27 - 50:30
    In 1984, Alexey
    Pajitnov enough was
  • 50:30 - 50:32
    working at the Academy
    of Science in Moscow.
  • 50:32 - 50:35
    Occupation-- mathematician.
  • 50:35 - 50:37
    His hobbies-- puzzles.
  • 50:37 - 50:41
    Alexey came up with Tetris
    using his computer at work.
  • 50:41 - 50:45
    He based it on an old Russian
    puzzle game called Pentomino.
  • 50:45 - 50:48
    - So this is original Pentomino,
    which I brought from Russia.
  • 50:48 - 50:52
    And I had an idea to make
    to play a game with this.
  • 50:52 - 50:54
    And let's start to program it.
  • 50:54 - 50:57
    And when I program it, I see--
  • 50:57 - 51:00
    well, in order to
    put it there, you
  • 51:00 - 51:03
    need to flip it or rotate it.
  • 51:03 - 51:06
    That was the moment
    when Tetris was born.
  • 51:06 - 51:09
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 51:09 - 51:11
    TONY HAWK: In 1985,
    the game was ready
  • 51:11 - 51:15
    and Alexey made his big
    launch, Soviet style.
  • 51:15 - 51:16
    - [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH],,
    in Russian,
  • 51:16 - 51:19
    means that you give the
    copy to your friends.
  • 51:19 - 51:24
    And that was like a
    forest fire, you know?
  • 51:24 - 51:27
    In two weeks, it was on
    every single PC in Moscow,
  • 51:27 - 51:30
    and probably in Russia.
  • 51:30 - 51:31
    I don't know.
  • 51:31 - 51:34
    TONY HAWK: And of course, Alexey
    made a ton of money, retired
  • 51:34 - 51:36
    and he's been sitting
    around sipping
  • 51:36 - 51:38
    Stoli in this 30-room
    mansion ever since.
  • 51:38 - 51:39
    Yeah, right.
  • 51:39 - 51:43
    This was the Soviet
    Union, remember?
  • 51:43 - 51:46
    - It was Communist
    power in Russia,
  • 51:46 - 51:49
    so basically, at
    that point, we are
  • 51:49 - 51:55
    agreeing that I will grant them
    all my rights for 10 years.
  • 51:55 - 51:58
    TONY HAWK: So the Communists
    did what any good capitalist
  • 51:58 - 52:02
    would do, they sold the rights
    to Tetris around the world.
  • 52:02 - 52:06
    It started showing up on US
    computers in January of 1988.
  • 52:06 - 52:09
    Soon everyone was
    playing, at home, at work,
  • 52:09 - 52:13
    on company time, personal time,
    it didn't seem to matter--
  • 52:13 - 52:15
    the nation was transfixed.
  • 52:15 - 52:16
    Kids, ask your parents.
  • 52:16 - 52:20
    If they say they never
    played Tetris, they're lying.
  • 52:20 - 52:21
    - Tetris is very intuitive.
  • 52:21 - 52:23
    Kids are very good at Tetris.
  • 52:23 - 52:26
    Adult people, even senior
    people like these games.
  • 52:26 - 52:33
    Everyone would find something
    for himself in this game.
  • 52:33 - 52:34
    TONY HAWK: Smelling
    a hit, Nintendo
  • 52:34 - 52:38
    used Tetris to launch Gameboy,
    their new handheld gaming
  • 52:38 - 52:39
    device.
  • 52:39 - 52:41
    - The very big part
    of the Tetris success
  • 52:41 - 52:44
    is connected to Gameboy.
  • 52:44 - 52:48
    Somehow, this platform and this
    game was born for each other.
  • 52:48 - 52:51
    Gameboy for Tetris sold them
    the number of 30 million.
  • 52:51 - 52:54
    It's a pretty big number.
  • 52:54 - 52:57
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 52:57 - 52:59
    TONY HAWK: Not only
    was the game a hit,
  • 52:59 - 53:02
    it helped establish the Gameboy
    as a viable and popular gaming
  • 53:02 - 53:04
    platform that could move
    software numbers that
  • 53:04 - 53:08
    rivaled consoles and
    PCs, and continues to do
  • 53:08 - 53:09
    that kind of business today.
  • 53:09 - 53:14
  • 53:14 - 53:18
    The best part of the story,
    in 1996, Tetris rights
  • 53:18 - 53:19
    returned to Alexey.
  • 53:19 - 53:22
    Now, instead of Stoli, he's
    sipping Starbucks in Seattle
  • 53:22 - 53:25
    where he works with Microsoft.
  • 53:25 - 53:26
    And new generations
    are discovering
  • 53:26 - 53:29
    Tetris on a variety
    of platforms,
  • 53:29 - 53:30
    including mobile phones.
  • 53:30 - 53:34
    - We collect and distribute
    royalties for the game.
  • 53:34 - 53:38
    They are not that big
    anymore, but it's still--
  • 53:38 - 53:39
    it's still good.
  • 53:39 - 53:42
  • 53:42 - 53:46
    TONY HAWK: As the 1990s kicked
    in, Nintendo was riding high.
  • 53:46 - 53:47
    Not only was the
    Gameboy doing great,
  • 53:47 - 53:50
    but Nintendo had single-handedly
    rebuilt the home console
  • 53:50 - 53:55
    market, leaving Atari and
    the toy makers in the dust.
  • 53:55 - 53:58
    The NES was the leader of the
    pack with their lock on hit
  • 53:58 - 54:00
    titles and game franchises.
  • 54:00 - 54:04
    Sega was also hanging in there
    with their master system.
  • 54:04 - 54:07
    They decided it was time to
    challenge Nintendo supremacy
  • 54:07 - 54:11
    and in 1989, Sega launched
    the Genesis console.
  • 54:11 - 54:13
    - When the Sega
    Genesis came out,
  • 54:13 - 54:16
    it really brought video
    games to the next generation
  • 54:16 - 54:18
    of technical capabilities.
  • 54:18 - 54:21
    - Our agency created the
    slogan, Genesis does when
  • 54:21 - 54:24
    Nintendon't, which meant,
    we had a 16-bit system,
  • 54:24 - 54:25
    they have an 8-bit system.
  • 54:25 - 54:27
    It was the first
    competitive position
  • 54:27 - 54:31
    in the video game industry in
    terms of home game systems.
  • 54:31 - 54:33
    TONY HAWK: In the no
    holds barred campaign,
  • 54:33 - 54:36
    Sega rolled out
    their secret weapon--
  • 54:36 - 54:39
    a blue hedgehog called Sonic.
  • 54:39 - 54:40
    - They said, you know what?
  • 54:40 - 54:42
    This is going to be our mascot.
  • 54:42 - 54:44
    He's going to have
    more of an attitude,
  • 54:44 - 54:46
    he's going to be here toward
    a slightly older audience
  • 54:46 - 54:48
    and he's going be fast.
  • 54:48 - 54:51
    [INAUDIBLE] show Sonic just
    like, whizzing by on his feet
  • 54:51 - 54:53
    and just going super
    fast, while Mario is just
  • 54:53 - 54:54
    kind of jumping up and down.
  • 54:54 - 54:59
    And they really made Mario out
    to be some kid's character,
  • 54:59 - 55:02
    while Sonic was, hey, this
    is the next hottest thing.
  • 55:02 - 55:03
    TONY HAWK: And this sound--
  • 55:03 - 55:03
    MAN: Sega!
  • 55:03 - 55:06
    TONY HAWK: Heard at the end
    of every Sega commercial,
  • 55:06 - 55:08
    piled on the attitude.
  • 55:08 - 55:11
    While Sega and Nintendo were
    fighting over the home market,
  • 55:11 - 55:13
    gamers we're heading
    back to the arcades
  • 55:13 - 55:16
    where the games were
    more graphic and intense,
  • 55:16 - 55:20
    games like Street Fighter
    2 and Mortal Kombat.
  • 55:20 - 55:22
    - Mortal Kombat is a
    game where after you've
  • 55:22 - 55:25
    beaten your opponents, you can
    put in what's called a fatality
  • 55:25 - 55:27
    and you can rip out their
    spine and their skull
  • 55:27 - 55:30
    or stick your hand
    into their chest
  • 55:30 - 55:32
    and pull out their hard or a
    whole bunch of other really
  • 55:32 - 55:33
    grizzly little endings.
  • 55:33 - 55:39
  • 55:39 - 55:40
    TONY HAWK: Both
    Sega and Nintendo
  • 55:40 - 55:42
    wanted to match
    the visual quality
  • 55:42 - 55:45
    of these intense arcade games.
  • 55:45 - 55:47
    Sega saw possibilities
    in a new format--
  • 55:47 - 55:49
    the CD-ROM.
  • 55:49 - 55:53
    One CD could hold 320 times more
    data than a console cartridge.
  • 55:53 - 55:56
    To you and me that's
    just more gaming power.
  • 55:56 - 55:59
    But just as Sega began
    to consider the CD-ROM,
  • 55:59 - 56:01
    personal computers
    beat them to the punch.
  • 56:01 - 56:04
  • 56:04 - 56:09
    In 1993, a new game designed
    for the Macintosh home computer
  • 56:09 - 56:11
    made its debut.
  • 56:11 - 56:14
    - Blue pages.
  • 56:14 - 56:16
    TONY HAWK: It was
    designed by Rand and Robin
  • 56:16 - 56:19
    Miller, two brothers who had
    found modest success designing
  • 56:19 - 56:21
    children's computer games.
  • 56:21 - 56:24
    Working out of their garage
    in Spokane, Washington,
  • 56:24 - 56:28
    they crafted an immersive
    interactive world--
  • 56:28 - 56:30
    Myst.
  • 56:30 - 56:34
    - Typically, games start
    with a game play system,
  • 56:34 - 56:35
    ours start with a place.
  • 56:35 - 56:38
  • 56:38 - 56:39
    In our minds, we we're
    building real places
  • 56:39 - 56:41
    that people could
    lose themselves in.
  • 56:41 - 56:43
    They'd sit down in
    front of their computer,
  • 56:43 - 56:47
    they'd turn the lights
    down, turn the sound up,
  • 56:47 - 56:50
    and they'd forget that
    they were in this world
  • 56:50 - 56:54
    and they would feel like
    they were in that world.
  • 56:54 - 56:57
    The graphics in Myst
    were what defined it,
  • 56:57 - 57:00
    because for the first time,
    I think people saw stuff
  • 57:00 - 57:02
    on your screen that
    could be mistaken
  • 57:02 - 57:04
    for real images of real places.
  • 57:04 - 57:07
  • 57:07 - 57:09
    There were some
    terrific constraints
  • 57:09 - 57:12
    like, we couldn't actually
    move the pictures in real time.
  • 57:12 - 57:17
    So we built them very
    realistic, but they were still.
  • 57:17 - 57:21
    Myst was the killer
    app for CD, because it
  • 57:21 - 57:25
    allowed for this incredible
    wealth of graphics
  • 57:25 - 57:27
    that we had really
    never seen before.
  • 57:27 - 57:29
    A floppy disk just
    couldn't handle
  • 57:29 - 57:30
    the size of these graphics.
  • 57:30 - 57:35
  • 57:35 - 57:37
    TONY HAWK: Myst became
    the must have game,
  • 57:37 - 57:41
    selling 250,000
    copies in 12 months.
  • 57:41 - 57:44
    It stayed on computer game best
    seller lists for the next three
  • 57:44 - 57:47
    years, selling over
    4 million copies.
  • 57:47 - 57:52
    It also turned the Miller
    brothers into a millionaires.
  • 57:52 - 57:54
    - I smile because I
    look back and think,
  • 57:54 - 57:57
    when we were two stupid
    brothers sitting in the garage,
  • 57:57 - 57:59
    we didn't have great insight.
  • 57:59 - 58:04
    We maybe had some good instincts
    and the timing was right.
  • 58:04 - 58:07
    For loads of gamers, Myst
    was a watershed moment,
  • 58:07 - 58:09
    with it's enchanting
    magical graphics helping
  • 58:09 - 58:11
    to create a completely
    immersive experience.
  • 58:11 - 58:14
    But the next killer
    application for multimedia PC
  • 58:14 - 58:18
    would follow arcade games on a
    much darker more brutal road.
  • 58:18 - 58:20
    And suddenly, the
    video game industry
  • 58:20 - 58:22
    would find itself in
    a head on collision
  • 58:22 - 58:24
    with the US government.
  • 58:24 - 58:28
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 58:28 - 58:30
    20 years after the
    awesome success of Pong,
  • 58:30 - 58:32
    video games had morphed
    from the geeky hobby
  • 58:32 - 58:35
    for computer engineers to
    addictive entertainment
  • 58:35 - 58:36
    for the masses.
  • 58:36 - 58:38
    And like all success
    stories, the industry
  • 58:38 - 58:43
    soon attracted the attention
    of big business and law makers.
  • 58:43 - 58:46
    OK, let's back up to
    1981 for a second.
  • 58:46 - 58:49
    This is the original castle
    Wolfenstein, a classic,
  • 58:49 - 58:53
    let's-fight-the-Nazis
    computer game.
  • 58:53 - 58:57
    When it came to action gaming,
    this was as good as it got.
  • 58:57 - 58:59
    But just 11 years
    later, technology
  • 58:59 - 59:02
    would take it from this to this.
  • 59:02 - 59:05
    Wolfenstein 3D
    was the brainchild
  • 59:05 - 59:09
    of id Software, a company run by
    two young game designers named
  • 59:09 - 59:12
    John Carmack and John Romero.
  • 59:12 - 59:15
    Based in Texas and both
    in their early 20s,
  • 59:15 - 59:17
    they were hardcore
    gamers with a passion
  • 59:17 - 59:20
    for movies like
    Aliens and Evil Dead
  • 59:20 - 59:23
    and a love for
    heavy metal music.
  • 59:23 - 59:26
    Combine these influences
    with Carmack's recent mastery
  • 59:26 - 59:29
    of smooth scrolling
    3D graphics for the PC
  • 59:29 - 59:32
    and you got one of 1992's
    breakout computer games,
  • 59:32 - 59:35
    especially when the buzz
    got out about it's blood
  • 59:35 - 59:36
    and gore content.
  • 59:36 - 59:39
    - People were quite
    literally blown away by it,
  • 59:39 - 59:41
    because they had never
    seen anything like this.
  • 59:41 - 59:43
    And it really showed
    that there could
  • 59:43 - 59:47
    be this whole interesting,
    compelling, edgy gaming
  • 59:47 - 59:52
    experience on a PC that you
    were able to find on consoles
  • 59:52 - 59:54
    or necessarily in arcades.
  • 59:54 - 59:56
    TONY HAWK: It was also
    one of the first games
  • 59:56 - 59:59
    to be played to a first
    person perspective.
  • 59:59 - 60:02
    Since you needed to shoot
    a lot of people to win,
  • 60:02 - 60:04
    it helped coin the
    video genre title--
  • 60:04 - 60:07
    first person shooter.
  • 60:07 - 60:10
    - First person shooter is
    where your eyes are the monitor
  • 60:10 - 60:13
    basically and you get to see
    your hands or your weapons
  • 60:13 - 60:15
    or whatever in front
    of you-- so it's you.
  • 60:15 - 60:17
    And first person to us was
    the most successful interface
  • 60:17 - 60:18
    that there was,
    because you didn't
  • 60:18 - 60:22
    have to think about
    anything but just what
  • 60:22 - 60:24
    you're doing in the game.
  • 60:24 - 60:26
    TONY HAWK: But the best
    thing about Wolfenstein 3D
  • 60:26 - 60:28
    was the way it was sold.
  • 60:28 - 60:30
    With more and more computers
    hooking up to the internet,
  • 60:30 - 60:33
    Carmack and Romero could take
    advantage of a new distribution
  • 60:33 - 60:36
    system called shareware.
  • 60:36 - 60:39
    - Shareware was a really, really
    radical concept at the time,
  • 60:39 - 60:42
    because what it basically
    meant is that you would
  • 60:42 - 60:44
    be giving games away online--
  • 60:44 - 60:48
    portions of a game, hoping
    that people got hooked.
  • 60:48 - 60:51
    - Here's the first third in a
    trilogy that you get for free
  • 60:51 - 60:53
    and you leave them with a
    cliffhanger and all this stuff,
  • 60:53 - 60:55
    so they have to
    buy the other two.
  • 60:55 - 60:59
    - And it was like crack
    basically over the internet.
  • 60:59 - 61:01
    TONY HAWK: And a
    lot of people got
  • 61:01 - 61:04
    hooked on Wolfenstein's
    hardcore style.
  • 61:04 - 61:06
    18 months later,
    Carmack and Romero
  • 61:06 - 61:08
    gave them their next fix.
  • 61:08 - 61:11
    The game was called Doom.
  • 61:11 - 61:14
  • 61:14 - 61:17
    - December 10 of 1993
    when we released Doom,
  • 61:17 - 61:20
    we'd been up for about 30
    hours before that working.
  • 61:20 - 61:22
    - Id was trying to
    get this uploaded,
  • 61:22 - 61:27
    but there were so many
    people waiting online
  • 61:27 - 61:30
    that id could not
    get in to upload it.
  • 61:30 - 61:31
    - And the files--
  • 61:31 - 61:33
    it should had been
    an empty directory--
  • 61:33 - 61:35
    but people were putting
    sentences in there
  • 61:35 - 61:37
    as file names.
  • 61:37 - 61:39
    They're making, when
    will it be here?
  • 61:39 - 61:40
    And hurry up and stuff.
  • 61:40 - 61:42
    It's like a whole directory
    full of sentences.
  • 61:42 - 61:45
    And we're just like,
    these people are insane.
  • 61:45 - 61:50
    - What id had to do was to tell
    everybody to just back off,
  • 61:50 - 61:53
    don't come on for a few minutes
    while they upload the game.
  • 61:53 - 61:59
  • 61:59 - 62:01
    TONY HAWK: When it came to
    graphic action and intensity,
  • 62:01 - 62:04
    Doom pushed it farther
    than Wolfenstein
  • 62:04 - 62:07
    and was an even bigger success.
  • 62:07 - 62:10
    - My most seminal
    gaming experience
  • 62:10 - 62:11
    was playing Doom
    with my headphones
  • 62:11 - 62:14
    on late at night with my
    wife asleep in the other room
  • 62:14 - 62:17
    and being really terrified.
  • 62:17 - 62:18
    And feeling stupid
    for being terrified,
  • 62:18 - 62:21
    but still being terrified.
  • 62:21 - 62:24
    TONY HAWK: The other thing that
    made Doom appealing to gamers
  • 62:24 - 62:28
    was its multi-player
    capabilities.
  • 62:28 - 62:29
    - Go, go, go.
  • 62:29 - 62:31
    TONY HAWK: Network a
    few computers together
  • 62:31 - 62:32
    and you could start
    shooting at your buddies
  • 62:32 - 62:33
    inside the same game.
  • 62:33 - 62:34
    MAN: Here they come.
  • 62:34 - 62:36
    Here they come.
  • 62:36 - 62:40
    TONY HAWK: Carmack and Romero
    called it death matching.
  • 62:40 - 62:41
    - But through all
    of pretty much 1994,
  • 62:41 - 62:43
    I was just addicted
    to death match.
  • 62:43 - 62:45
    It was just the
    coolest thing I'd ever
  • 62:45 - 62:48
    experienced my entire life.
  • 62:48 - 62:51
    TONY HAWK: For two young guys in
    their 20s, the success of Doom
  • 62:51 - 62:53
    was a dream come true.
  • 62:53 - 62:55
    Practically overnight,
    the id software founders
  • 62:55 - 62:57
    had become multimillionaires.
  • 62:57 - 63:00
    - I totally had fun
    buying fun cars and houses
  • 63:00 - 63:02
    and all that kind of stuff.
  • 63:02 - 63:03
    - Romero with show up
    at gaming conventions
  • 63:03 - 63:06
    and there would be people
    literally bowing at his feet
  • 63:06 - 63:07
    and doing the Wayne's World--
  • 63:07 - 63:08
    I'm not worthy.
  • 63:08 - 63:12
    They really were the
    rock stars at that time.
  • 63:12 - 63:14
    And then, when all
    of the controversy
  • 63:14 - 63:16
    came out for violent
    games, then they
  • 63:16 - 63:21
    had all that too to kind
    of stoke their image.
  • 63:21 - 63:23
    TONY HAWK: In the year
    leading up to Doom's release,
  • 63:23 - 63:26
    violent video games had become
    headline news makers, but not
  • 63:26 - 63:28
    in a good way.
  • 63:28 - 63:30
    Popularity of games
    like Street Fighter 2
  • 63:30 - 63:33
    and Mortal Kombat among
    young children and teenagers
  • 63:33 - 63:35
    had parents and
    lawmakers blaming
  • 63:35 - 63:39
    video games for everything,
    from unfinished homework
  • 63:39 - 63:42
    to antisocial behavior
    and rising street crime.
  • 63:42 - 63:45
    In late 1993, the
    issue was picked up
  • 63:45 - 63:47
    by Connecticut Senator
    Joseph Lieberman
  • 63:47 - 63:50
    who formed a Senate committee
    to investigate video game
  • 63:50 - 63:51
    violence.
  • 63:51 - 63:54
    - We're not talking about
    Pac-Man or Space Invaders
  • 63:54 - 63:55
    anymore.
  • 63:55 - 63:59
    We're talking about video games
    that too often glorify violence
  • 63:59 - 64:04
    and teach children to enjoy
    inflicting the most gruesome
  • 64:04 - 64:07
    forms of cruelty imaginable.
  • 64:07 - 64:09
    We are calling on the
    video game industry
  • 64:09 - 64:12
    today to recognize its
    responsibility to the parents
  • 64:12 - 64:13
    and children of this country.
  • 64:13 - 64:16
  • 64:16 - 64:18
    TONY HAWK: Lieberman's Senate
    committee wagged their finger
  • 64:18 - 64:21
    at the uncensored
    version of Mortal Kombat
  • 64:21 - 64:24
    and an obscure game
    called Night Trap.
  • 64:24 - 64:27
    - In the game, you
    play a guy who's
  • 64:27 - 64:31
    trying to protect a house
    full of sorority girls that
  • 64:31 - 64:33
    are being attacked by these
    fledgling vampires, who
  • 64:33 - 64:37
    apparently don't have fangs
    yet so they use this drill
  • 64:37 - 64:40
    contraption that hooks up to the
    neck and sucks their blood out.
  • 64:40 - 64:42
    The game wasn't
    selling, it wasn't fun,
  • 64:42 - 64:45
    it was a silly game.
  • 64:45 - 64:47
    TONY HAWK: Lieberman called
    a gratuitous and offensive
  • 64:47 - 64:51
    and ought not to be available
    to people in our society.
  • 64:51 - 64:54
    His comments turned Night Trap
    into one of the biggest selling
  • 64:54 - 64:56
    games of the year.
  • 64:56 - 64:58
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 64:58 - 65:00
    The result of the
    government hearing
  • 65:00 - 65:02
    was that all major
    game producers
  • 65:02 - 65:05
    agreed to set up the
    Entertainment Software Rating
  • 65:05 - 65:07
    Board to rate games.
  • 65:07 - 65:10
    Violence didn't go away, but
    now it came with a warning.
  • 65:10 - 65:14
    - I was actually a key proponent
    in the creation of the rating
  • 65:14 - 65:15
    system for video games.
  • 65:15 - 65:18
    So I'm a big believer
    in honest packaging
  • 65:18 - 65:20
    and providing consumers
    with all the information
  • 65:20 - 65:22
    they need to make a
    good product decision
  • 65:22 - 65:24
    and to know what
    they're getting.
  • 65:24 - 65:26
    - If you don't let your
    kids see r-rated movies,
  • 65:26 - 65:28
    you shouldn't let your
    kids play m-rated games.
  • 65:28 - 65:31
    And once that becomes more
    ingrained in American culture
  • 65:31 - 65:34
    in everyone's minds, then
    the whole violence issue
  • 65:34 - 65:36
    in video games will
    become less of an issue.
  • 65:36 - 65:38
    TONY HAWK: With the
    government battle behind them,
  • 65:38 - 65:41
    Sega and Nintendo were now free
    to start beating each other up
  • 65:41 - 65:43
    in the marketplace again.
  • 65:43 - 65:46
    Sega fired the first volley
    by announcing their plan
  • 65:46 - 65:47
    to launch a new
    home system called
  • 65:47 - 65:50
    the Saturn, which would
    operate exclusively
  • 65:50 - 65:51
    from a CD-ROM drive.
  • 65:51 - 65:53
    - Nintendo said, well, if
    they're going to do it,
  • 65:53 - 65:54
    we've got to do it.
  • 65:54 - 65:57
    So Nintendo partnered
    with Sony and they
  • 65:57 - 66:02
    created a CD player
    for the Super Nintendo
  • 66:02 - 66:04
    called the PlayStation.
  • 66:04 - 66:07
    Only then, Nintendo
    decided, you know what,
  • 66:07 - 66:09
    we don't trust Sony very much.
  • 66:09 - 66:11
    And they partnered
    up with Phillips.
  • 66:11 - 66:13
    They left Sony
    standing at the altar.
  • 66:13 - 66:15
    TONY HAWK: And as anyone who's
    been left at the altar knows,
  • 66:15 - 66:17
    revenge can be sweet.
  • 66:17 - 66:19
  • 66:19 - 66:22
    Nintendo's and Phillip's
    plans for a CD-ROM system
  • 66:22 - 66:26
    began to fall apart and
    consumer electronics giant Sony
  • 66:26 - 66:28
    decided they could make it
    in the video game industry
  • 66:28 - 66:30
    all by themselves.
  • 66:30 - 66:32
    - They kept the name
    PlayStation, which I think
  • 66:32 - 66:34
    was a real thumbing of
    the nose at Nintendo.
  • 66:34 - 66:35
    - Everybody knows
    Sony is a company that
  • 66:35 - 66:38
    makes Walkmans and electronics.
  • 66:38 - 66:39
    And then gradually,
    over time, consumers
  • 66:39 - 66:42
    have accepted that Sony
    represents really good quality
  • 66:42 - 66:43
    stuff.
  • 66:43 - 66:45
    It was a natural progression.
  • 66:45 - 66:47
    And then with the PlayStation,
    they just dropped the bomb
  • 66:47 - 66:49
    and it was incredibly.
  • 66:49 - 66:53
  • 66:53 - 66:55
    TONY HAWK: The Sony
    PlayStation hit the shelves
  • 66:55 - 66:58
    in September, 1995
    and immediately left
  • 66:58 - 67:02
    Sega's new system, the
    Saturn, in the dust.
  • 67:02 - 67:06
    - Technologically, you could
    tell that the Saturn way
  • 67:06 - 67:07
    behind the PlayStation.
  • 67:07 - 67:09
    The PlayStation handled 3D.
  • 67:09 - 67:12
    All of a sudden, there
    was no competition,
  • 67:12 - 67:14
    because here's Sony,
    they've got a better unit,
  • 67:14 - 67:19
    the unit is $100 cheaper and
    they've got all the games.
  • 67:19 - 67:21
    You can't compete with
    something like that.
  • 67:21 - 67:22
    TONY HAWK: Especially
    when Lara Croft
  • 67:22 - 67:26
    was playing on their team.
  • 67:26 - 67:28
    - Thank you.
  • 67:28 - 67:31
    TONY HAWK: When Tomb Raider
    first came out in 1996,
  • 67:31 - 67:34
    it was only available
    for the PlayStation.
  • 67:34 - 67:38
    - You had not only a female lead
    character, but a sexy one, who
  • 67:38 - 67:40
    had big boobs and short shorts.
  • 67:40 - 67:43
    She became really popular and
    the game itself was incredible.
  • 67:43 - 67:45
    So Tomb Raider was
    one of the key games
  • 67:45 - 67:48
    that helped make PlayStation.
  • 67:48 - 67:49
    TONY HAWK: Two of
    the other games
  • 67:49 - 67:51
    that helped push the
    PlayStation to success
  • 67:51 - 67:56
    were a fighting game called
    Tekken and Crash Bandicoot.
  • 67:56 - 67:59
    Crash did for Sony
    when Mario and Sonic
  • 67:59 - 68:01
    had done for their competitors.
  • 68:01 - 68:03
    And the character became sort
    of an unofficial PlayStation
  • 68:03 - 68:04
    mascot.
  • 68:04 - 68:07
  • 68:07 - 68:10
    Sega just couldn't compete
    with the might of Sony.
  • 68:10 - 68:14
    In 1999, Sega launched another
    console, the Dreamcast.
  • 68:14 - 68:17
    It bombed.
  • 68:17 - 68:19
    Sega quietly dropped out
    of the console market
  • 68:19 - 68:23
    to concentrate on
    game development.
  • 68:23 - 68:25
    Sony planned to follow
    up the PlayStation
  • 68:25 - 68:27
    with the PlayStation
    2, which would
  • 68:27 - 68:32
    be more of a multimedia machine,
    able to play CD music and DVD
  • 68:32 - 68:34
    movies.
  • 68:34 - 68:35
    But just when it
    looked like Nintendo
  • 68:35 - 68:38
    would be the only
    competition, a Seattle
  • 68:38 - 68:41
    based company decided it was
    time to get into the business.
  • 68:41 - 68:45
    Oh, and that company was just
    about the biggest in the US--
  • 68:45 - 68:47
    Microsoft.
  • 68:47 - 68:48
    - There are a lot
    of people saying,
  • 68:48 - 68:52
    Sony is going to
    replace the PC with PS2.
  • 68:52 - 68:56
    It occurred to me that the
    only way to really counter
  • 68:56 - 68:58
    that would be to make
    a dedicated device,
  • 68:58 - 69:02
    to make your game console.
  • 69:02 - 69:04
    TONY HAWK: But Microsoft
    was all about software
  • 69:04 - 69:06
    and had trouble convincing
    people in the game business
  • 69:06 - 69:09
    that they knew what
    they were doing.
  • 69:09 - 69:11
    - And we had about six months
    of not being taken seriously,
  • 69:11 - 69:14
    because I would show up or
    some other guys would show up
  • 69:14 - 69:16
    and say, hey, we're
    from Microsoft.
  • 69:16 - 69:19
    We're making a game console
    that will compete with Sony now.
  • 69:19 - 69:20
    That's a hard thing to say.
  • 69:20 - 69:22
    That's like saying, we're
    from the government,
  • 69:22 - 69:23
    we're here to help.
  • 69:23 - 69:28
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 69:28 - 69:30
    TONY HAWK: But it turned
    out that Microsoft
  • 69:30 - 69:31
    did know what they were doing.
  • 69:31 - 69:35
    CROWD: 4, 3, 2, 1.
  • 69:35 - 69:36
    [CHEERING]
  • 69:36 - 69:38
    TONY HAWK: They even
    got the hardware was
  • 69:38 - 69:41
    useless without killer games.
  • 69:41 - 69:45
    When the software giant
    released the Xbox in 2001,
  • 69:45 - 69:49
    they had an exclusive on
    first person shooter--
  • 69:49 - 69:51
    Halo.
  • 69:51 - 69:53
    - You look at that
    successful console launches
  • 69:53 - 69:54
    and you'll see,
    the console becomes
  • 69:54 - 69:56
    a player for the popular game.
  • 69:56 - 69:58
    The Xbox became the Halo player.
  • 69:58 - 70:01
    Yes, this black device with the
    green circle on it plays Halo.
  • 70:01 - 70:04
    - Halo was a big hit,
    because the critics loved it,
  • 70:04 - 70:06
    then the hardcore gamers
    really picked up on it,
  • 70:06 - 70:08
    and then word of mouth spread.
  • 70:08 - 70:10
  • 70:10 - 70:12
    TONY HAWK: Microsoft might
    have established their gaming
  • 70:12 - 70:15
    credentials, but along with
    Nintendo's new mini-disc
  • 70:15 - 70:16
    system--
  • 70:16 - 70:19
    the Game Cube-- the Xbox
    was still chasing the market
  • 70:19 - 70:20
    leader--
  • 70:20 - 70:22
    Sony's PlayStation 2.
  • 70:22 - 70:24
    Now, some of the biggest
    multimedia corporations
  • 70:24 - 70:27
    in the world were gaining
    control of the video game
  • 70:27 - 70:27
    industry.
  • 70:27 - 70:29
    Real proof that there
    were big bucks to be made
  • 70:29 - 70:32
    and that video games were now a
    major part of the entertainment
  • 70:32 - 70:32
    business.
  • 70:32 - 70:35
    And as entertainers,
    the game designers
  • 70:35 - 70:36
    would have to keep
    the hits coming.
  • 70:36 - 70:41
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 70:41 - 70:43
    Games today have gone way
    past the run, jump and shoot
  • 70:43 - 70:45
    basics of the early titles.
  • 70:45 - 70:48
    Instead of blowing up aliens
    and aiming for high scores,
  • 70:48 - 70:50
    gamers are looking for a
    more realistic, immersive and
  • 70:50 - 70:52
    open-ended experience.
  • 70:52 - 70:54
    And the gaming audience
    is changing too.
  • 70:54 - 70:56
    Boys, girls, men, women--
  • 70:56 - 70:58
    they're all getting
    into games big time.
  • 70:58 - 71:01
    Whether it's attempting to
    cubed a 900 on a skateboard
  • 71:01 - 71:03
    from the safety of
    your couch, or deciding
  • 71:03 - 71:08
    how much to tax the residents
    of your very own virtual city.
  • 71:08 - 71:11
    Back in the late '80s, Will
    Wright, a young programmer
  • 71:11 - 71:13
    and hardcore gamer
    was fascinated by how
  • 71:13 - 71:14
    cities and societies work.
  • 71:14 - 71:17
    Urban planning might not
    sound like the next hot thing
  • 71:17 - 71:18
    in entertainment,
    but Will thought
  • 71:18 - 71:22
    it was a great idea for a game.
  • 71:22 - 71:24
    - Well, Sim City
    was basically a game
  • 71:24 - 71:25
    where you're designing a city.
  • 71:25 - 71:27
    It's almost like a
    paint program in a way--
  • 71:27 - 71:29
    you have a pallet of parts,
    but the parts in this case
  • 71:29 - 71:33
    are things like roads or
    industrial zones or schools.
  • 71:33 - 71:34
    And as you paint, things happen.
  • 71:34 - 71:37
    People start building houses,
    traffic appears on the roads,
  • 71:37 - 71:39
    there's pollution,
    there's crime.
  • 71:39 - 71:41
    So we released in '89.
  • 71:41 - 71:43
    It was a very different
    sort of game at the time.
  • 71:43 - 71:46
    At that time, still most games
    were very action oriented,
  • 71:46 - 71:47
    very clear goals.
  • 71:47 - 71:50
    And at first, we were having
    a hard time getting anybody
  • 71:50 - 71:52
    to even play it.
  • 71:52 - 71:53
    TONY HAWK: Until a
    rave review in Newsweek
  • 71:53 - 71:57
    put Sim City on the map
    and sent sales of the game
  • 71:57 - 71:58
    through the roof.
  • 71:58 - 72:00
    And a new gaming
    franchise was born.
  • 72:00 - 72:04
  • 72:04 - 72:07
    But the big payday came when
    Will applied his simulation
  • 72:07 - 72:11
    concepts to the human form.
  • 72:11 - 72:14
    When the Sims debuted
    in February of 2000,
  • 72:14 - 72:16
    players can now build
    simulations of actual people
  • 72:16 - 72:18
    and run their lives.
  • 72:18 - 72:19
    - It's effectively
    a dollhouse where
  • 72:19 - 72:21
    you get to a virtual life.
  • 72:21 - 72:22
    And it's really fun to play.
  • 72:22 - 72:26
    I think it's one of the most
    innovative games ever made.
  • 72:26 - 72:28
    - The Sims is one of the
    games that my daughter
  • 72:28 - 72:30
    will play, it's one of the
    games that my wife will play.
  • 72:30 - 72:35
    Sims is one that they're
    immediately drawn to.
  • 72:35 - 72:37
    TONY HAWK: Will Wright wasn't
    the only one giving gamers
  • 72:37 - 72:39
    the power to build
    their own world.
  • 72:39 - 72:42
    5,000 miles east of Silicon
    Valley, in England to be exact,
  • 72:42 - 72:45
    British designer
    Peter Molyneux also
  • 72:45 - 72:46
    had a new take on game play.
  • 72:46 - 72:48
    - Instead of playing
    a hero, or instead
  • 72:48 - 72:51
    of playing a character, or
    a plumber, or a hedgehog,
  • 72:51 - 72:53
    why don't you play a god.
  • 72:53 - 72:57
    That's the most powerful thing
    that you could possibly be.
  • 72:57 - 72:59
    TONY HAWK: Molyneux's
    game, Populace
  • 72:59 - 73:02
    sold over 4 million
    copies and gave birth
  • 73:02 - 73:04
    to a new genre, the god game.
  • 73:04 - 73:08
    - Rather than actually
    controlling a single character
  • 73:08 - 73:10
    with your godly
    powers, your influence
  • 73:10 - 73:12
    lots of little characters.
  • 73:12 - 73:13
    - Just as when you
    were little kids
  • 73:13 - 73:15
    and you were setting
    up your GI Joe's
  • 73:15 - 73:17
    in the sandbox or
    whatever, you're
  • 73:17 - 73:21
    doing the same thing now,
    but with digital toys.
  • 73:21 - 73:23
    TONY HAWK: If some gamers
    got juiced being God,
  • 73:23 - 73:25
    others wanted to get
    their kicks by playing
  • 73:25 - 73:28
    with a bunch of friends inside
    the virtual world of a game.
  • 73:28 - 73:30
    When the internet
    exploded in the '90s,
  • 73:30 - 73:33
    technology was able to
    deliver their fantasy.
  • 73:33 - 73:35
    One of the first games to
    really hook into the concept
  • 73:35 - 73:42
    was Carmack and Romero's 1996
    follow up to Doom, Quake.
  • 73:42 - 73:47
    - Quake enabled 16 people
    to play over the internet.
  • 73:47 - 73:50
    And that really
    just blew it open.
  • 73:50 - 73:53
    There started to
    be teams of gamers
  • 73:53 - 73:54
    and they called
    themselves clans.
  • 73:54 - 73:55
    - All right, go.
  • 73:55 - 73:56
    - Go now.
  • 73:56 - 73:58
    - I just wake up in
    the morning and can't
  • 73:58 - 74:01
    wait to go hope on the
    game and see who's there
  • 74:01 - 74:06
    or say hi or pop in
    and go kill people.
  • 74:06 - 74:09
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 74:09 - 74:11
    TONY HAWK: Not
    exactly the usual way
  • 74:11 - 74:12
    to win friends and
    influence people.
  • 74:12 - 74:15
    Within months of Quake's
    release, some of the clans
  • 74:15 - 74:20
    decided to have a get together,
    so they can meet face to face.
  • 74:20 - 74:23
    - QuakeCon is really
    a grassroots event.
  • 74:23 - 74:26
    It was about 50 guys that
    wanted to get together,
  • 74:26 - 74:28
    because they met online,
    and thought, well,
  • 74:28 - 74:30
    we'll just do it in Texas.
  • 74:30 - 74:31
    And it just grew.
  • 74:31 - 74:33
    - This has become
    a yearly vacation.
  • 74:33 - 74:36
    It's my time to just
    have fun, stay up late,
  • 74:36 - 74:41
    sleep late, meet people
    I play against online.
  • 74:41 - 74:43
    - We're in a senior
    gaming league
  • 74:43 - 74:45
    and we have our own competition.
  • 74:45 - 74:49
    Anyone over the
    age of 35 can play.
  • 74:49 - 74:50
    I just have fun.
  • 74:50 - 74:54
    - We came out here to meet our
    fellow teammates that we play
  • 74:54 - 74:55
    on-- it's NADs--
  • 74:55 - 74:57
    North American Destroyers.
  • 74:57 - 75:00
    And our NADs set up a group
    for the younger children.
  • 75:00 - 75:01
    We call them NITs--
  • 75:01 - 75:02
    NADS In Training.
  • 75:02 - 75:05
  • 75:05 - 75:07
    TONY HAWK: Seven years on
    from their first fan fest,
  • 75:07 - 75:11
    QuakeCon attracts over
    5,000 players every summer.
  • 75:11 - 75:15
    Texas in August, they've
    got to love Quake.
  • 75:15 - 75:17
    It seemed people
    couldn't get enough
  • 75:17 - 75:18
    of playing in big groups.
  • 75:18 - 75:20
    So game designers started
    coming up with games
  • 75:20 - 75:24
    that thousands of computer
    gamers could play online.
  • 75:24 - 75:28
    - But when you go from 16 or
    8 or 32 people to thousands,
  • 75:28 - 75:30
    it's massively multi-player.
  • 75:30 - 75:32
    A massively multi-player
    game is where
  • 75:32 - 75:34
    you are running
    the game on your PC
  • 75:34 - 75:38
    and thousands of other people
    are connecting to the server.
  • 75:38 - 75:40
    And that connection is allowing
    you to interact with the game
  • 75:40 - 75:43
    and communicate with others.
  • 75:43 - 75:46
    TONY HAWK: Hot titles included
    Ultima Online, Lineage
  • 75:46 - 75:50
    and Everquest-- the
    brainchild of John Smedley.
  • 75:50 - 75:53
    In 1999, he persuaded Sony to
    create a whole new customer
  • 75:53 - 75:57
    service online so that 30,000
    people could play at once.
  • 75:57 - 75:59
    - We make a world for
    people to play in.
  • 75:59 - 76:01
    On Everquest, we
    have a 60 person team
  • 76:01 - 76:05
    that does nothing but make
    this world unique every day.
  • 76:05 - 76:08
    So when they come into work,
    they're changing creatures,
  • 76:08 - 76:10
    they're adding new
    quests, they're
  • 76:10 - 76:13
    looking at what the players
    have done and saying,
  • 76:13 - 76:15
    OK, that's a little too easy
    for them, let's tweak that,
  • 76:15 - 76:17
    or maybe that's too hard.
  • 76:17 - 76:21
    - There are dragons and
    orcs and fairies and giants
  • 76:21 - 76:23
    and all sorts of creatures.
  • 76:23 - 76:26
    And it's supposed to be a
    virtual world to the extent
  • 76:26 - 76:31
    that, whether you're logged on
    or not, the world keeps going.
  • 76:31 - 76:33
    TONY HAWK: So much for the
    stereotype of a nerdy gamer
  • 76:33 - 76:35
    playing on his own.
  • 76:35 - 76:38
    Now gamers, including
    women, were joining forces
  • 76:38 - 76:42
    to take on the
    challenges of Everquest.
  • 76:42 - 76:44
    - Women are really into
    forming relationships.
  • 76:44 - 76:46
    And so women do go
    to these worlds.
  • 76:46 - 76:49
    You often find that they
    become community leaders.
  • 76:49 - 76:53
    They become the center
    of a social group.
  • 76:53 - 76:55
    TONY HAWK: Soon millions
    of computer gamers
  • 76:55 - 76:57
    around the world we're
    logging on to massively
  • 76:57 - 76:58
    multi-player games.
  • 76:58 - 77:02
  • 77:02 - 77:05
    PlayStation and Xbox jumped
    on the bandwagon in 2002
  • 77:05 - 77:07
    when they made the
    latest versions
  • 77:07 - 77:09
    of their consoles
    internet friendly.
  • 77:09 - 77:12
    - The console online
    scheme is really
  • 77:12 - 77:14
    just a response to the PC.
  • 77:14 - 77:16
    They're looking at what's
    happening on the PC
  • 77:16 - 77:18
    and saying, well,
    we can do that too.
  • 77:18 - 77:20
    - If the game is entertaining
    and you put it online
  • 77:20 - 77:22
    and it's entertaining
    online, then it's awesome.
  • 77:22 - 77:24
    It's entertainment squared.
  • 77:24 - 77:26
    If it's a bad game
    and you put it online,
  • 77:26 - 77:28
    you're just spreading the misery
    around in a more efficient way.
  • 77:28 - 77:32
  • 77:32 - 77:33
    TONY HAWK: You probably
    won't believe it
  • 77:33 - 77:37
    when we tell you this, but not
    everyone plays games for fun.
  • 77:37 - 77:39
    Remember how back
    in 1980, the US Army
  • 77:39 - 77:40
    ordered a special
    version of Battlezone
  • 77:40 - 77:43
    from Atari to train the troops?
  • 77:43 - 77:45
    The Marines even had
    their own version of Doom
  • 77:45 - 77:49
    in 1994 to teach
    teamwork skills.
  • 77:49 - 77:53
    21st century army recruits
    are tech savvy and into video
  • 77:53 - 77:55
    games big time.
  • 77:55 - 77:57
    So it made sense
    for the military
  • 77:57 - 77:59
    to tap into all that expertise.
  • 77:59 - 78:02
    - With these kids playing
    13 hours, 20 hours a week--
  • 78:02 - 78:03
    video games--
  • 78:03 - 78:05
    these thumbs are very
    agile, they know joysticks,
  • 78:05 - 78:06
    they know triggers.
  • 78:06 - 78:08
    And they said, let's just
    make our interfaces like that
  • 78:08 - 78:10
    and we're already
    over the first hurdle
  • 78:10 - 78:14
    in getting them to kind of feel
    comfortable in these systems.
  • 78:14 - 78:15
    TONY HAWK: In 2002,
    the army gave away
  • 78:15 - 78:19
    a game called America's
    Army to the American public.
  • 78:19 - 78:24
    Intended to test wannabe GIs,
    it turned into a smash hit.
  • 78:24 - 78:27
    Then they drafted
    Pandemic Studios
  • 78:27 - 78:28
    onto a top secret project.
  • 78:28 - 78:31
  • 78:31 - 78:34
    They wanted a game that would
    get recruits ready for combat
  • 78:34 - 78:36
    without putting them at risk.
  • 78:36 - 78:38
    Full Spectrum Warrior.
  • 78:38 - 78:40
    - It's not a war
    game where you are
  • 78:40 - 78:42
    running around and
    celebrating the fact
  • 78:42 - 78:43
    that you're killing people.
  • 78:43 - 78:46
    Your goal is to advance
    to a certain location
  • 78:46 - 78:49
    or secure something to make
    sure your men are safe.
  • 78:49 - 78:53
    It's a very different take
    on other military games.
  • 78:53 - 78:54
    TONY HAWK: The army
    also had a plan
  • 78:54 - 79:00
    to create a retail version
    of Full Spectrum Warrior.
  • 79:00 - 79:03
    Of course, the GI Joe
    game needed a few tweaks
  • 79:03 - 79:04
    to make it play for
    a general public.
  • 79:04 - 79:07
    - The army product was made for
    sergeants who are already fully
  • 79:07 - 79:08
    trained, years of experience.
  • 79:08 - 79:11
    We couldn't make that assumption
    with the average game player.
  • 79:11 - 79:15
    So it's up to us to teach as
    you play all of the Army tactics
  • 79:15 - 79:16
    that the soldiers had
    spent years learning.
  • 79:16 - 79:19
    - It's a design challenge,
    because we're moving away
  • 79:19 - 79:21
    from the sim into the
    purely entertainment
  • 79:21 - 79:23
    aspect of the game.
  • 79:23 - 79:25
    So we were trying to
    find creative ways
  • 79:25 - 79:28
    to keep it authentic, but
    also keep the pace going.
  • 79:28 - 79:33
    Keep you moving forward, get
    the action level up a bit.
  • 79:33 - 79:36
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 79:36 - 79:38
    TONY HAWK: Playing
    the commercial version
  • 79:38 - 79:39
    might just be one of
    the best recruiting
  • 79:39 - 79:42
    tools the Army could dream up.
  • 79:42 - 79:45
    - Video games actively improve
    your hand eye coordination
  • 79:45 - 79:47
    and can train you
    directly in things that
  • 79:47 - 79:49
    are relevant to the military.
  • 79:49 - 79:50
    They're planting those
    seeds in your head
  • 79:50 - 79:51
    when you're really young--
  • 79:51 - 79:53
    hey, you want to
    be a super soldier,
  • 79:53 - 79:56
    or to play games-- the
    Army is the place to go.
  • 79:56 - 79:58
  • 79:58 - 80:00
    TONY HAWK: It's pretty ironic
    that the same government that
  • 80:00 - 80:02
    a few years ago
    hammered the video game
  • 80:02 - 80:04
    industry for
    damaging young minds
  • 80:04 - 80:06
    and is now using the same
    tools to hook and train
  • 80:06 - 80:09
    their raw recruits.
  • 80:09 - 80:11
    The video game industry is
    still full of surprises.
  • 80:11 - 80:13
    And now the biggest surprises
    are not just the games
  • 80:13 - 80:16
    themselves, but who's playing,
    how many billions of dollars
  • 80:16 - 80:20
    are involved and who wants
    to be part of the action.
  • 80:20 - 80:23
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 80:23 - 80:26
    So video games have been
    with us since the 1970s,
  • 80:26 - 80:28
    moving from arcades
    to home consoles
  • 80:28 - 80:30
    to handhelds and cell
    phones like this.
  • 80:30 - 80:32
    They've become
    essential entertainment
  • 80:32 - 80:33
    for a whole generation.
  • 80:33 - 80:36
    And with gross revenues of
    over $20 billion a year,
  • 80:36 - 80:38
    the video game industry
    is making more money
  • 80:38 - 80:39
    than the movie business.
  • 80:39 - 80:42
    But they also continue to be a
    lightning rod for controversy.
  • 80:42 - 80:44
    Anytime there's
    trouble in society,
  • 80:44 - 80:46
    video games still get a
    big chunk of the blame.
  • 80:46 - 80:49
  • 80:49 - 80:54
    In 1999, two students went
    on a horrific shooting spree
  • 80:54 - 80:55
    at their school and Columbine.
  • 80:55 - 80:59
    And as society
    searched for a reason,
  • 80:59 - 81:02
    people began to
    blame video games.
  • 81:02 - 81:04
    - There was a videotape,
    much later I think,
  • 81:04 - 81:07
    released of Eric Harris
    talking about how
  • 81:07 - 81:10
    shooting up a high school saying
    it would be just like Doom.
  • 81:10 - 81:13
    And the press ran with it.
  • 81:13 - 81:15
    - They just said,
    you know what, this
  • 81:15 - 81:17
    is bad for America's morality.
  • 81:17 - 81:19
    It's corrupting kids
    and it's causing kids
  • 81:19 - 81:21
    to do all sorts of bad
    things, when there's
  • 81:21 - 81:24
    quite a bunch of problems making
    kids do bad things nowadays.
  • 81:24 - 81:27
    - There's no correlation between
    video games and human violence.
  • 81:27 - 81:28
    Human violence has
    always been with us.
  • 81:28 - 81:31
    We're in a society
    where politicians
  • 81:31 - 81:34
    and the special interest
    groups pick on the new media.
  • 81:34 - 81:37
    It just underscores the fact
    that it's not about video games
  • 81:37 - 81:39
    at all.
  • 81:39 - 81:40
    TONY HAWK: And
    with recent titles
  • 81:40 - 81:43
    like Max Pain and the
    Grand Theft Auto series,
  • 81:43 - 81:46
    the controversy continues.
  • 81:46 - 81:47
    Who knows if it will ever end.
  • 81:47 - 81:52
  • 81:52 - 81:57
    In 2004, 145 million Americans
    are playing video games.
  • 81:57 - 81:59
    That's more than half of us.
  • 81:59 - 82:01
    And they're not all
    lonely teenage kids
  • 82:01 - 82:04
    sitting in a dark room
    playing for hours on end.
  • 82:04 - 82:07
    - People still have this idea,
    particularly in the United
  • 82:07 - 82:11
    States, that games are something
    for a 14-year-old skater
  • 82:11 - 82:13
    criminals to do to avoid
    doing their homework.
  • 82:13 - 82:17
    And when you point out that the
    middle of our demographic is
  • 82:17 - 82:19
    the 26-year-old with a
    lot of expendable income--
  • 82:19 - 82:21
    is probably professional--
  • 82:21 - 82:24
    they just refuse to believe it.
  • 82:24 - 82:26
    - The female gaming
    population is actually
  • 82:26 - 82:29
    the quickest growing segment
    of the video game business.
  • 82:29 - 82:33
    - Almost every girl my age
    has played a game in her life
  • 82:33 - 82:37
    and would not call
    herself a gamer, but is.
  • 82:37 - 82:40
    TONY HAWK: Now 28% of
    video gamers are women.
  • 82:40 - 82:43
    And for PC players, the
    numbers are even higher--
  • 82:43 - 82:43
    41%.
  • 82:43 - 82:46
  • 82:46 - 82:48
    With such a diverse
    audience, the industry
  • 82:48 - 82:51
    has to use every available
    resource to keep them hooked.
  • 82:51 - 82:54
  • 82:54 - 82:57
    Thanks to the mega processing
    power of 21st century
  • 82:57 - 82:59
    computers, programmers
    have been able to develop
  • 82:59 - 83:02
    artificial intelligence,
    which means
  • 83:02 - 83:04
    that non-player
    characters in games
  • 83:04 - 83:07
    can apparently think
    for themselves.
  • 83:07 - 83:09
    - What artificial
    intelligence should do
  • 83:09 - 83:14
    is look at what you, a player,
    enjoy, and what you, a player,
  • 83:14 - 83:17
    doesn't enjoy and adapt
    the game accordingly.
  • 83:17 - 83:20
    Not only adapt
    the challenges you
  • 83:20 - 83:23
    face, the opponents you face,
    but adapt the storyline,
  • 83:23 - 83:26
    adapt the world itself.
  • 83:26 - 83:30
    Yes, ultimately, we could
    all be playing the same game,
  • 83:30 - 83:33
    but having a completely
    different experience.
  • 83:33 - 83:37
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 83:37 - 83:39
    TONY HAWK: Sports
    games are still huge,
  • 83:39 - 83:41
    and they've kept up with the
    explosion of action sports
  • 83:41 - 83:43
    like snowboarding and
    BMX and a little thing
  • 83:43 - 83:44
    called skateboarding.
  • 83:44 - 83:47
    And there's some games here
    I can really recommend.
  • 83:47 - 83:49
    In the latest one called
    Tony Hawks Underground,
  • 83:49 - 83:52
    you could email a picture of
    yourself to Neversoft, download
  • 83:52 - 83:55
    from their server, you match
    up the points to your face
  • 83:55 - 83:57
    and you're in the game.
  • 83:57 - 84:00
    It's pretty cool
    if I say so myself.
  • 84:00 - 84:02
    - Whoa, not bad.
  • 84:02 - 84:03
    Where are you from?
  • 84:03 - 84:06
    - I came all the way down from
    New Jersey for the Tampa Am.
  • 84:06 - 84:08
    - Talk about a
    surprise attack, if you
  • 84:08 - 84:09
    stay on your board
    tomorrow, you'll
  • 84:09 - 84:12
    walk away with the contest.
  • 84:12 - 84:14
    TONY HAWK: Another method
    of customizing games
  • 84:14 - 84:18
    has been around since the early
    '90s when John Carmack and John
  • 84:18 - 84:20
    Romero put out software
    that let gamers make
  • 84:20 - 84:22
    their own versions of Doom.
  • 84:22 - 84:25
    Just like hot rodders
    personalizing their cars,
  • 84:25 - 84:29
    gamers could now
    modify or mod Doom,
  • 84:29 - 84:32
    bringing the gaming experience
    to a new and even more personal
  • 84:32 - 84:33
    level.
  • 84:33 - 84:35
    MAN: Game over man.
  • 84:35 - 84:36
    - I put out all the
    information out there
  • 84:36 - 84:38
    for how the sectors
    and line segments
  • 84:38 - 84:41
    and everything was organized.
  • 84:41 - 84:43
    So everyone had the information,
    they could write tools for.
  • 84:43 - 84:46
    And that was the start
    of the whole mod scene.
  • 84:46 - 84:47
    - Doom spawned
    this whole culture
  • 84:47 - 84:50
    of mod making, which
    was incredibly far
  • 84:50 - 84:53
    reaching and important,
    because it was really
  • 84:53 - 84:56
    weaning the next generation
    of game developers.
  • 84:56 - 84:59
  • 84:59 - 85:01
    TONY HAWK: Check it out,
    the next wave of designers
  • 85:01 - 85:04
    can even go to school to learn
    how to create video games.
  • 85:04 - 85:08
    - For me, game design is design
    field, like architecture.
  • 85:08 - 85:12
    It should have courses,
    departments, whole schools
  • 85:12 - 85:15
    dedicated to it.
  • 85:15 - 85:19
    TONY HAWK: At schools like
    USC and the DigiPen Institute
  • 85:19 - 85:22
    of Technology in Seattle,
    a degree in game design
  • 85:22 - 85:24
    is more than just a
    workout for the thumbs.
  • 85:24 - 85:26
    - We want to teach
    people how to be
  • 85:26 - 85:30
    critical thinkers
    about this rich medium
  • 85:30 - 85:34
    that there isn't historically a
    lot of academic grounding too.
  • 85:34 - 85:38
    - We have the Faculty of Science
    and the Faculty of Fine Arts.
  • 85:38 - 85:41
    You may not have bargained
    for so much math.
  • 85:41 - 85:43
    You may not have bargained
    for so much physics.
  • 85:43 - 85:45
    You thought that if
    you played video games,
  • 85:45 - 85:47
    you were going to be good at it.
  • 85:47 - 85:50
    - Having more game related
    studies in the university
  • 85:50 - 85:53
    context is part of
    what needs to happen
  • 85:53 - 85:56
    for games to become a more
    mature pop cultural medium.
  • 85:56 - 85:59
  • 85:59 - 86:00
    TONY HAWK: But
    future graduates will
  • 86:00 - 86:02
    have to be pretty
    determined, because none
  • 86:02 - 86:07
    of the video pioneers are
    going away anytime soon.
  • 86:07 - 86:10
    After 30 years in the business,
    Atari founder Nolan Bushnell
  • 86:10 - 86:12
    is still coming up with ideas.
  • 86:12 - 86:15
    His latest is called
    uWink Inc, touch
  • 86:15 - 86:17
    screen coin-operated games.
  • 86:17 - 86:20
    - We're generally
    in adult locations.
  • 86:20 - 86:23
    Simple games, a little bit
    Atari-esk, if you would.
  • 86:23 - 86:27
    Games that are well produced
    and operate for adults.
  • 86:27 - 86:29
    You can sit down, you
    play for a few minutes
  • 86:29 - 86:32
    and have a good time.
  • 86:32 - 86:34
    TONY HAWK: And Nolan's
    first company, Atari,
  • 86:34 - 86:37
    has changed hands a few
    times and hit rock bottom
  • 86:37 - 86:40
    more than once, but
    they've stormed back
  • 86:40 - 86:43
    with a slew of hit games like
    Enter The Matrix and Unreal
  • 86:43 - 86:46
    Tournament.
  • 86:46 - 86:49
    The rock star designers are
    also looking at new ways
  • 86:49 - 86:51
    to deliver great games to us.
  • 86:51 - 86:53
    Everyone's got a
    cell phone, right?
  • 86:53 - 86:57
    With a cell phone, you can play
    video games anytime, anywhere.
  • 86:57 - 86:58
    - Even though the
    handset may not
  • 86:58 - 87:00
    have a lot of
    computing power itself,
  • 87:00 - 87:04
    it's connected to an incredibly
    vast computer network.
  • 87:04 - 87:09
    - I saw that now mobile
    devices like PDAs
  • 87:09 - 87:12
    had the power to actually
    play games well on them.
  • 87:12 - 87:14
    That's always kind of going
    in the back of my mind
  • 87:14 - 87:17
    is, how can I do something else
    that I think would be a killer
  • 87:17 - 87:19
    app for this new platform.
  • 87:19 - 87:20
    TONY HAWK: With all
    those guys still
  • 87:20 - 87:22
    pushing the envelope
    and new designers
  • 87:22 - 87:24
    joining their ranks
    every day, we can't even
  • 87:24 - 87:27
    imagine what games are going
    to look like 10 years from now.
  • 87:27 - 87:32
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 87:32 - 87:35
    In just a few short
    decades, video games
  • 87:35 - 87:37
    have led an
    entertainment revolution.
  • 87:37 - 87:40
    Movies, television, they haven't
    been the same since video games
  • 87:40 - 87:41
    arrived on the scene.
  • 87:41 - 87:43
    - There's a perception
    in the game industry
  • 87:43 - 87:46
    that games are in their infancy.
  • 87:46 - 87:48
    We've achieved a
    lot, but we're far
  • 87:48 - 87:50
    from where it's going to be.
  • 87:50 - 87:52
    - And more than that, they
    continue to massively impact
  • 87:52 - 87:54
    every aspect of our culture,
    influencing everything
  • 87:54 - 87:57
    from education to the military.
  • 87:57 - 87:59
    - People really do
    wonder, how can we play
  • 87:59 - 88:00
    that damn thing for 40 hours?
  • 88:00 - 88:03
    I mean, think about
    40 hours a game.
  • 88:03 - 88:05
    It must be deep, it must
    be doing something for you.
  • 88:05 - 88:07
    So the emotional experience we
    have with games is something
  • 88:07 - 88:09
    everybody can have with games.
  • 88:09 - 88:12
  • 88:12 - 88:14
    - As the debate over their
    violence and addictiveness
  • 88:14 - 88:16
    rages on, video
    games also continue
  • 88:16 - 88:19
    to drive the leading edge
    of computer technology,
  • 88:19 - 88:21
    opening players minds to
    new concepts of strategy
  • 88:21 - 88:23
    and tactical thinking
    and capturing
  • 88:23 - 88:26
    the attention of the world
    in bold and unexpected ways.
  • 88:26 - 88:28
    - In the next 20
    years, the person
  • 88:28 - 88:30
    who is in the White
    House will have
  • 88:30 - 88:32
    played Super Mario Brothers.
  • 88:32 - 88:34
    And what will that
    mean for the way
  • 88:34 - 88:36
    that they think about
    policy or the way
  • 88:36 - 88:38
    they think about resource
    distribution or the way
  • 88:38 - 88:42
    they think about
    problem solving.
  • 88:42 - 88:45
    - People in their 30s who
    grew up playing this stuff
  • 88:45 - 88:47
    are now paying attention to it.
  • 88:47 - 88:48
    And we don't think
    twice about it.
  • 88:48 - 88:51
    And we don't think these
    games are just for kids.
  • 88:51 - 88:54
    We don't think these games are
    destroying the fabric of youth.
  • 88:54 - 88:57
    For us, it's just like
    music, it's just like TV,
  • 88:57 - 88:59
    is just like film.
  • 88:59 - 88:59
    It's part of life.
  • 88:59 - 89:02
  • 89:02 - 89:04
    - And thanks to the vision
    of the guys behind the games,
  • 89:04 - 89:07
    there's a limit to where
    they'll take us in the future.
  • 89:07 - 89:10
    The video invasion
    is just beginning.
  • 89:10 - 89:18
  • 89:18 - 89:21
    [OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 89:21 - 90:21
  • 90:21 - 90:22
    WOMAN: GSN.
  • 90:22 - 90:24
    GSN.
  • 90:24 - 90:25
Title:
Video Game Invasion: The History of a Global Obsession [2004]
Description:

Video Game Invasion: The History of a Global Obsession is a 2004 documentary exploring the history of the video game, from the arcade and all the way to the Xbox, hosted by skateboard legend Tony Hawk.

Please visit : http://gameplayerspecial.com
Like Us on facebook : https://www.facebook.com/GamePlayerSpecial

Thank you !!!!

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Video Language:
English
Duration:
01:30:26

English subtitles

Revisions