Channel 4: How Videogames Changed the World, 30th Nov UK

[lifeschool]

I stopped watching TV after Brookers 'How TV ruined Your Life' series, so although I was expeciting a tongue-in-cheek mock of the subject I wasnt too surprised when the show turned into 'How Video Games Ruined Your Life' after the Monkey Island segment. I guess Monkey 1 footage was the PC version but Amiga looked just as good. Yes, the music was from Robocop on c64. The includes a 1 second clip of Trashman on c64 but they didnt show the trashman shagging all the lonely housewives in the game. Lemmings and Populous were the games which really kicked off the 'builder/god' games as you could assign tasks to 100 characters individually and just leave them to build things. Minecraft is ok but also total waste of time to build stuff without an aim or goal. Picking out Mortal Kombat just because it used blood are gore and got away with it is a bit sad, especially when even most games today dont use blood as an excuse to play it. Doom contained no (or little?) blood and same with Fallout and Tekken etc. In Farcry 3, blood is only really seen when harvesting animal skins. No Command and Conquer. No Outrun or Need for Speed (or any racing game). I have COD4-MW and thought it was a bit shit. I woulnt say it was as ground-breaking as Tomb Raider or GTA3, or even Sim City. Even Monkey Island was not such a huge impact as the Kings Quest series which helped start the graphic adventure scene. But no roberta williams.

Good to see Jeff Minter representing llama-vision. He was cool and had more screen time that Peter Moly and Dave Brabben put together.

As I say, after the c64 section I was looking forward to Alan Sugars Amstrad cpc464, the Amiga, and how they stole the Amiga blueprints (minus the blitter chip) and made the Atari ST. Basically they didnt cover half of the very interesting stuff from the DSK History Of Video Games series, and consentrated on just the games. The low point was when they showed the low-rent hotel killer CD game (I forget the name) and said this made the list because it was 'controversial'. It was a dumb lackluster quality game which was over-hyped and sold a few units due to notoriety. Every game today sells on the same basis, but so did Leasure Suit Larry, Zork and perhaps even Cannon Fodder. The sims, that is such a waste of time so do chores around a house when the user could be doing chores around their own house! I woke up after playing the game a few days and realised this and never went back to it.

Facebook, a game? Twitter, a game? Posting personal comments in a tiny thread in the smallest corner of cyberspace and expecting anyone to read it, a game? Those guys could say everything is now a game; even art of muting out all the TV adverts so as not to be offended with intollerable fear-traps about prostate cancer, impotence, why I should love pulped meat in McDonalds, why Eric Cantona loves piss water, and why bankers give money to black dudes who get white women pregnant; all with a coy look on their faces. Thats x10 times way more offencive than 95% of the stuff in the show, except the woman sawed in half.

The indy games movie was much better, although the guy panicking about his partner not signing before the show was a bit crap as the show went ahead anyway and the guy got a new partner the next day when the game was 90% complete anyway. The meat boy guys where cool, and I thought the guy hammering the insuline shots and getting depressed represents the state of video games industry in general. Way too much pressure. I bet out of the 1 Billion sales of that game, MS only gave them 25% of that amount. And it all depends on whether a game shows up to buy or download for it to make anything on the 360,; as the 360 is a closed system its either MS' way or nothing.

Thats my cynical comments over. Not bad, not great, not boring, not mega.

[Solid Snake]

There were many other influential games which were simply ignored or was it down to inadequate research or program time?

There was much coverage of the inferior Spectrum, but not even a single mention of a C64 classic. Technically, the C64 wiped the floor with the Spectrum. To add insult to injury, no mention of the phenomenal Amiga and how it became an instant classic.

Other notable games definately worth including :-

Command & Conquer
Final Fantasy VII
Metal Gear Solid
Half Life
Jak and Daxter
Uncharted
The Elder Scrolls V:Skyrim
Prince Of Persia
Burnout
God Of War
Batman Arkham Asylum
Halo
Shenmue
Sonic Adventure
Resident Evil
Lemmings
Cannon Fodder
Worms
Gran Turismo
Gears Of War
Uridium
Way Of The Exploding Fist/IK+
Mercenary
FA/18 Interceptor
Outrun

Oh, well. I guess there will never be a good videogame documentary. But, this was one of the better ones. Videogames are a touchy subject for many gamers. Your first experience of videogames will vary depending on your age, but your long lasting enjoyment and sense of achievement will continue to bring you back to play more. Game On.

[lordofchaos]

@Lifeschool. I had a discussion like this with my brother after the show, we came to the conclusion if the show was to satisfy everybody it would have needed to be 8 hours long, or a series.. As always there was way too much emphasis on console machines for me.. Looking at the list Snake posted up it seems incredible some of these were ignored or missed. Would have been great to have the show divided into individual platforms..

[DonAmiga]

Overall I enjoyed it just because its rare to see video games documentaries on the TV with it being 2hrs long I would have thought we would have seen more! I hope they got good ratings as then maybe we'll see some other gaming programmes. One I'd like to see would be "Top 100 gaming moments of all time" which C4 have done similar programmes, it would be two episodes each being 3 to 4 hours With recent next gen sales records and past sales in the video games industry I would have thought there would be a market for such a programme!

[Mrs Beanbag]

Brooker would love to have a full series about video games, but the TV people won't let him.

Here's an interview on that subject:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...-tv-shows.html

[lifeschool]

Originally Posted by Solid Snake

There was much coverage of the inferior Spectrum, but not even a single mention of a C64 classic. Technically, the C64 wiped the floor with the Spectrum.

There was one shot comparing the zx Last Ninja 2 knife thrower room with the c64 version, and then Dara o Brian saying something about the Cadilac of machines was the c64. That was IT.

@ Mrs Beanbag - Thanks for the link. TV shows are blind to gamers and geeks. So true that 90's games were about score and modern games are about pure survival. There is no reward in killing unlimited zombies just to continue on and kill more endless zombies. If a TV show was made like gamesmaster today it would be more than likely just pure killing killing killing and not so much fun. That is unless they made a show purely about driving games or platformers and puzzlers etc, of which there are only a few compared to FPS and open-world games.

Games are not just for kids. The first game was played with white and black pebbles and a flat rock with a white and black face; which the player would throw to gain or lose a go. This was played like 3,000 years ago in caves, by anyone of any age.

[Retrofan]

I coudn't watch it on live from here, and they have got it now here if you want to watch it: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/c...-the-world/4od

But I neither can watch it from here (service is currently not available in your area). Perhaps someone could upload it to somewhere else.

[jimbob]

Always enjoy Charlie Brooker. More Rob Florence would have been good too. Video Gaiden was hilarious, Burnistoun too though not games related.

Not such a surprise that Amiga wasn't mentioned but I did think it strange that pretty much all the 16 bit hardware was ignored. Hardware wise it skipped from speccy wars to PS1. No sports games, flight sims or cRPG either. At least the Monkey Island box was Amiga version.

[Mad-Matt]

I put it on youtube, but It desyncs towards the end, so am uploading again and hope youtube behaves this time.

[Mrs Beanbag]

Originally Posted by lifeschool

Games are not just for kids. The first game was played with white and black pebbles and a flat rock with a white and black face; which the player would throw to gain or lose a go. This was played like 3,000 years ago in caves, by anyone of any age.

Oldest games are gambling games (game - gambling - same root) and would have been played in a pub, with copious beer. In some English country pubs, dominoes is still played that way.

Anyway there's a grown man of 33 years playing Sonic Generations right behind me.

[tin]

Originally Posted by lifeschool

Yes, the music was from Robocop on c64.

I think it was actually the gameboy version, to add insult to injury

[Rob 1]

I can't believe so many people are knocking this show I could name a thousand titles that didn't get a mention and a hundred consoles and computers that didn't get a even a whisper (thank god one of them was the Atari ST)

From an Amigan point of view it was great to see an Amiga copy of monkey island on the a pedestal for all to see and there were some great comments about the game.

It would have been nice to see a few more Amiga screen shots say how games like space invaders evolved in to games like xenon 2, or elite into hunter in the 90's, but hey you can't have it all.

From my personal gamers point of view I thought the programme was top notch.

The early games they mentioned were very obvious and we all know about them, but to pick parappa the rappa was a great move. I loved that game! so much fun and I suppose it was the first of its kind.

And games like angry birds, wipeout, tomb raider, gta 3 and doom were very much ground breaking games for their time and I loved them all for that very reason.

I think a magazine gaming show for adults would be a great idea so they can expand on this even further.

I'd be interested to hear what none UK amigans thought of the show, as I thought it was a very British point of view of gaming?

I know the title music its from a game I've played but I haven't played the games mentioned in this thread?

I thought it was jump and roll or something like that ?

1000 Points to those who post a link to the game music it was from the eab's a game too when you think about it

Thanks again Charlie keep up the good work!! I could have easily watched the 8hr show mentioned earlier

[tin]

EASY 1000 POINTS!

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and Ariston

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[lifeschool]

Originally Posted by lifeschool
Yes, the music was from Robocop on c64.

Well, it was the Robocop main menu music at any rate, I thought that was neat because out of all the c64 themes and songs the Robocop music stands out as the most memorable. My fav music of all time is actually the Robocop level 1 music on c64. Never played the gameboy ever. @rob, search for this online. Do I get the 1000 points?

I agree that its easy to dis a show for what it hasnt got. I thought it was made 'by the numbers' and without much passion for the subject except for a few egg-heads and celebs. By all accounts, Bedrooms to Billions is a much better show, and many of the shows I posted references to earlier are better at telling the whole story. Like someone said already, it would have taken at least 8 or 10 hours to tell the whole story. GOOD! Thats x20 30min shows!

[tin]

Agree completely. Maybe not my fav of all time anymore, but Robocop level 1 music is right up there. Perhaps the first thing I played on my own '64 (although had played plenty on other people's before that )

Reason I know it's gameboy was because of that 2nd link. When it popped up in the Ariston adverts all those years ago I was sure it was the C64 version too. I got schooled then, so not this time Shame cos I think the C64 version is a bit better. I guess it's not used on TV cos it's mono, or perhaps doesn't sound computer-y enough.

[Hungry Horace]

I only saw the last half hour or so of the programme, but I will be downloading it to watch in the future - big fan of Brookers shows myself, they always make me laugh even when I don't agree with his opinions.

For the comments about there being too much ZX Spectrum, it's a British show.... The British General public are still "aware" of the ZX... The same cannot be said of the C64. Whatever tired arguments there are the c64 being "better" (which I don't agree with anyway) I am pretty sure the ZX was a better selling machine in the UK and as such more recognised by this shows intended audience....

[chocolate_boy]

Originally Posted by Hungry Horace

I only saw the last half hour or so of the programme, but I will be downloading it to watch in the future - big fan of Brookers shows myself, they always make me laugh even when I don't agree with his opinions.

For the comments about there being too much ZX Spectrum, it's a British show.... The British General public are still "aware" of the ZX... The same cannot be said of the C64. Whatever tired arguments there are the c64 being "better" (which I don't agree with anyway) I am pretty sure the ZX was a better selling machine in the UK and as such more recognised by this shows intended audience....

Nonsense, any Brit who is familiar with the Speccy certainly knows the C64 too. I know younger gamers in their teens and they know of the C64 in the same way we knew about the Atari 2600. The c64 was a global phenomenon and is definitely mentioned more than the Speccy thee days in general.

[Hungry Horace]

Originally Posted by chocolate_boy

Nonsense, any Brit who is familiar with the Speccy certainly knows the C64 too. I know younger gamers in their teens and they know of the C64 in the same way we knew about the Atari 2600. The c64 was a global phenomenon and is definitely mentioned more than the Speccy thee days in general.

You are free to disagree but I regularly chat to people in my office, at college, out in pubs etc and those who are not "into computers" or games seem to be aware of least vaguely aware of the ZX - i am not saying that some people arent also aware of the C64 it, but in my opinion far less are.

I am not referring to those people who are into IT or even gaming in general.

I think the fact that this TV program apparently focused on the Speccy reinforces that opinion! (although i know it's painful for C64 fans to hear).... i know a lot of people will disagree though.




btw, don't understand your comment about "we knew about the Atari 2600" ... been into gaming almost since i could crawl (i wish i was joking...) and wasnt aware of the Atari 2600 and many of the other variety of machines until much later in life... I guess it just depends on your background, for which all differ.

[trydowave]

I surprised my beloved C64 got a look in at all. I like how it mentioned that the C64 was the cadillac of 8bit gaming while showing the Speccy version of Last Ninja 2 next to the C64 one Made my day that did.
Sadly no sign of the Amiga and as ususal with these retro programs, endless shout outs to the Atari 2600 and Pong. I know the historical signifigance but it would be nice if some other systems got a bit more air time for once. Not enough time though...
Wish they never mentioned that 'Non-gamer' Anita Sarkeesian!

[Mad-Matt]

Finally uploaded and processed.

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