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*** HIGH SCORE *** (Netflix Original)

2,519 Views | 27 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by amercer
Gladiator 96
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11:26p, 8/27/20
AG
This show hit Netflix August 19th and I have enjoyed it so far. The show highlights the development of the video game industry in the late 70's, 80's and 90's.

One of the cool aspects of the show is the interviews with some of the masterminds behind many of the most iconic games and systems of that era. Also key to the episodes are gaming competitions surrounding the story line.

Would like to see how others enjoy this
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Sex Panther
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12:24a, 8/28/20
AG
It was awesome. Especially after episode 2, when it gets into more recognizable games. Fun seeing the stories behind stuff like Mortal Kombat, Sonic, Starfox and Madden.
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TCTTS
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12:29a, 8/28/20
AG
I keep a seeing this advertised on the home page. Good to hear it's worthwhile. Will give it a shot.
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Apache
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6:50a, 8/28/20
AG
Quote:
Especially after episode 2, when it gets into more recognizable games.

I'm old enough that all the games are recognizable to me. Space Invaders, Missile Command, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, the Atari 2600 etc. were a big part of life when I was a kid.
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Counterpoint
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In reply to Apache • 7:03a, 8/28/20
AG
Apache said:
Quote:
Especially after episode 2, when it gets into more recognizable games.

I'm old enough that all the games are recognizable to me. Space Invaders, Missile Command, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, the Atari 2600 etc. were a big part of life when I was a kid.
Oh crap, I hoped he was talking about games I hadn't heard of either.
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Proposition Joe
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7:23a, 8/28/20
Episode 1 tries to be a little too SJW and woke for my tastes - "male who identifies as female being able to be herself due to Space Invaders" and then segue in to an interview with the family of a black man who didn't get the credit he deserved in the 70's... Joked with the significant other about how long before we have a random gay and lesbian segment and sure enough... end of E3 we have a segment on a guy that created "the first gay and lesbian role playing game" that focuses more on the era than the actual game. Very apparent that it's less about the history of the industry and more about certain topics they wanted to cram in and them googling to find any random joe they could find for an interview related to that topic. Halfway expect a furry segment before it's all over.

But when it's not trying to check off all the social justice bingo squares it has some gems mixed in. Loved hearing the interviews with Tanaka and all of the clips from the Nintendo Championships in 1990. And I love anything about Roberta Williams and Sierra, could listen to the history of that company for days. The 16-bit generation has been covered ad nauseum by every video/book documentary out there, but if you don't know the stories it's a fun watch. I suggest anyone interested in this time period to read Console Wars by Blake Harris. It's a great book that dives into how Nintendo and Sega went head to head and all that it impacted (eg. that Nintendo basically ushered in the Playstation when they dropped the plans to team up with Sony on the SNES-CD). There's a chapter on the marketing behind Sonic and how and why they went the direction they did and it's enthralling.

I hate the production that Netflix seems to like for it's documentaries though -- too much damn filler mixed with pointless animations - they did something similar with the mafia documentary where it's like they feel like they have to put quick moving stuff on the screen to keep the viewer's attention because the actual content isn't engrossing enough. Like, show me more in-game scenes from Mystery House... Not "modern but made to look 16-bit" animations of Roberta Williams climbing up a mountain. Hell show me more in-game scenes from the gay and lesbian games, not retro-animations of Pat Buchanan getting slapped around.

Worth a watch IMO for some of the interviews, but overall there are much better documentaries on the subject.
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MookieBlaylock
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7:46a, 8/28/20
AG
Starts very very slow
Great concept and once again terrible editing and execution
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Gladiator 96
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8:08a, 8/28/20
AG
Episode 1 probably hit most with me so far, although I have not watched all of the episodes yet. I am a 46-year old Gen-Xer so Episode 1 was when I was around 6-8 years old.

We had the Sears knock-off version (never understand why they made a full knockoff) of the Atari 2600 and thus had some of the Sears knock-offs of some of the games, including Air-Sea Battle (Target Fun) and Combat (Tank Plus).

I was a Pac-Man junkie during its heyday and had the lunchbox, sheets, ball cap, etc. I remember when Pac-Man came out on Atari 2600 and was like many others in my disappointment in how much different the graphics were.

I had the E.T. game for Atari 2600. I actually did not mind it that much, but because I was so young, I was unaware of how much the game was an absolute DISASTER in the industry, to the point that millions of copies of the game were buried in a landfill.
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AggieChemist
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In reply to Proposition Joe • 8:17a, 8/28/20
AG
Proposition Joe said:
Episode 1 tries to be a little too SJW and woke for my tastes - "male who identifies as female being able to be herself due to Space Invaders" and then segue in to an interview with the family of a black man who didn't get the credit he deserved in the 70's... Joked with the significant other about how long before we have a random gay and lesbian segment and sure enough... end of E3 we have a segment on a guy that created "the first gay and lesbian role playing game" that focuses more on the era than the actual game. Very apparent that it's less about the history of the industry and more about certain topics they wanted to cram in and them googling to find any random joe they could find for an interview related to that topic. Halfway expect a furry segment before it's all over.

But when it's not trying to check off all the social justice bingo squares it has some gems mixed in. Loved hearing the interviews with Tanaka and all of the clips from the Nintendo Championships in 1990. And I love anything about Roberta Williams and Sierra, could listen to the history of that company for days. The 16-bit generation has been covered ad nauseum by every video/book documentary out there, but if you don't know the stories it's a fun watch. I suggest anyone interested in this time period to read Console Wars by Blake Harris. It's a great book that dives into how Nintendo and Sega went head to head and all that it impacted (eg. that Nintendo basically ushered in the Playstation when they dropped the plans to team up with Sony on the SNES-CD). There's a chapter on the marketing behind Sonic and how and why they went the direction they did and it's enthralling.

I hate the production that Netflix seems to like for it's documentaries though -- too much damn filler mixed with pointless animations - they did something similar with the mafia documentary where it's like they feel like they have to put quick moving stuff on the screen to keep the viewer's attention because the actual content isn't engrossing enough. Like, show me more in-game scenes from Mystery House... Not "modern but made to look 16-bit" animations of Roberta Williams climbing up a mountain. Hell show me more in-game scenes from the gay and lesbian games, not retro-animations of Pat Buchanan getting slapped around.

Worth a watch IMO for some of the interviews, but overall there are much better documentaries on the subject.
Perfect take.
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expresswrittenconsent
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8:42a, 8/28/20
Another below average netflix 'doc' where they take 2 or 3 hours of an interesting subject and stretch it into 5 or 6 hours.
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wcb
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10:16a, 8/28/20
AG
Didn't know the story of the guys selling the mods to arcades (Ms Pac Man, etc). The fact that they went toe to toe with industry giants was fascinating.
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double aught
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In reply to wcb • 10:35a, 8/28/20
AG
That story of those MIT guys was really interesting, especially how they bluffed their way into a big payday.

There are some legit criticisms in this thread, but I thought it was still really good overall. Loved the synth heavy opening credits.
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double aught
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10:41a, 8/28/20
AG
Also, if anyone in the DFW area has the urge to visit an arcade after watching this, might I suggest Free Play Arcade. They're good people who put a lot of love into their games, and they have been struggling mightily during the pandemic. Great place.
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MSFC Aggie
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11:10a, 8/28/20
AG
For us really olds, the doc Atari: Game Over is a decent watch
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Sex Panther
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In reply to Apache • 11:23a, 8/28/20
AG
Apache said:
Quote:
Especially after episode 2, when it gets into more recognizable games.

I'm old enough that all the games are recognizable to me. Space Invaders, Missile Command, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, the Atari 2600 etc. were a big part of life when I was a kid.

Haha, my bad... I guess I should've specified more recognizable for me specifically
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Bruce Almighty
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11:36a, 8/28/20
AG
I guess I'm in the minority, but I thought this show was not very good. I wish they would have done what the toys and movies show did and spend an entire episode on one game.
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gggmann
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11:44a, 8/28/20
AG
Brought back good memories of hanging out at the Arcade all day and play Atari and then Nintendo. I remember playing that damn E.T. Atari game.
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bluefire579
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12:16p, 8/28/20
AG
Will probably check it out at some point just because it's video games, but the reviews I've seen haven't been great and what's being posted here seems to corroborate that.
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Sex Panther
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12:26p, 8/28/20
AG
I guess I thought the first two episodes were mediocre, but after that it was good. I just enjoyed hearing the stories behind the games I mentioned. The Nintendo vs Sega episode was cool as well. I also liked the one about violence and Mortal Kombat and Doom... and that ridiculous Night Trap game. If you grew up playing video games I think it's definitely worth your time. Not a huge time investment.

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rebag00
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12:36p, 8/28/20
AG
It was interesting, I remember most of the games and systems, or owned them. I visited Japan in the very early 80s as a little kid and remember space invaders being in the tables. My brother and I would beg to sit at those tables when we would go to a restaurant.

The virtue signaling was over the top at times, and felt shoe-horned in for sure (for instance - gay, black engineer getting color of players changed in Madden 95 in an episode about...Sega? I kind of wish they had done an episode about the marginalized finding their place in video games in one whole episode, not multiple ham-fisted attempts to place it in juxtaposition to another developer or gamer who was white and straight. I think those stories can be compelling and entertaining. They seemed mildly distracting in context.), but that is pretty much what you're going to see all the time now in movies, docs, TV shows, commercials, etc...so I am becoming conditioned to it.
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Proposition Joe
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In reply to rebag00 • 12:56p, 8/28/20
rebag00 said:
The virtue signaling was over the top at times, and felt shoe-horned in for sure (for instance - gay, black engineer getting color of players changed in Madden 95 in an episode about...Sega? I kind of wish they had done an episode about the marginalized finding their place in video games in one whole episode, not multiple ham-fisted attempts to place it in juxtaposition to another developer or gamer who was white and straight. I think those stories can be compelling and entertaining. They seemed mildly distracting in context.), but that is pretty much what you're going to see all the time now in movies, docs, TV shows, commercials, etc...so I am becoming conditioned to it.

Yeah, had they done an episode on marginalized gamers then I would have appreciated it a lot more as all of those stories would have really fit. Giving the guy who created "Gayblade" the same amount of time in an episode on adventure/rpg roots as the creator of Ultima and the creator of Sierra Games just seemed a little ridiculous. You know you're trying too hard when there's literally a 45 second cartoon about Pat Buchanan stealing Gayblade source code, but secretly being gay and moving to Paris with his boyfriend.

I feel like a much more entertaining episode could have been done on video game piracy where you could have had the early arcade modders that they mentioned but also the rom dumps, counterfeit games (eg. the Tetris saga), etc... That whole scene has very little out there. Still remember this bad boy very fondly:

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Proposition Joe
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10:47a, 8/30/20
Seems like some of the documentary isn't even factually accurate on the stories -- in the Trip Hawkins/Madden segment it referenced John Madden as Hawkins' "first pick" which wasn't how it went down at all. He wanted Joe Montana and then also the coach from Cal (forget his name) but neither were interested or able to. Madden was his third pick.

And later in the episode they find a guy who claims he helped get the first black athlete on the cover of a video game (Madden '95).

I guess if we ignore about a dozen other sports titles before it? I mean, even ignoring obvious omissions like Mike Tyson's Punch Out -- even the Genesis had Jordan vs Bird with both players on the cover 3 years prior.
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CrawfordAg
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In reply to Proposition Joe • 9:14p, 8/31/20
AG
Used to play this all day back in the day...


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redd38
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4:55p, 9/4/20
AG
Would have been a better series without the agenda
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Dekker_Lentz
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In reply to Proposition Joe • 5:29p, 9/4/20
AG
Proposition Joe said:
Seems like some of the documentary isn't even factually accurate on the stories -- in the Trip Hawkins/Madden segment it referenced John Madden as Hawkins' "first pick" which wasn't how it went down at all. He wanted Joe Montana and then also the coach from Cal (forget his name) but neither were interested or able to. Madden was his third pick.

And later in the episode they find a guy who claims he helped get the first black athlete on the cover of a video game (Madden '95).

I guess if we ignore about a dozen other sports titles before it? I mean, even ignoring obvious omissions like Mike Tyson's Punch Out -- even the Genesis had Jordan vs Bird with both players on the cover 3 years prior.

Not to mention EA did it back in 1983 with One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_on_One:_Dr._J_vs._Larry_Bird

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The Debt
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8:38p, 9/5/20
Here, cleanse your mind with this:

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GiveEmHellBill
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In reply to Dekker_Lentz • 8:47p, 9/5/20
AG
I had that game on my Commodore 64.
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YouBet
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1:55p, 9/6/20
AG
Friend of mine held the world record for high score on Galaga for a time.
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amercer
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2:49p, 9/6/20
AG
Series was interesting, but I think they tried to tell too many stories at once. Made it a bit of a jumbled mess. And I don't mind the SWJ stuff. I think a full two hour doc on the search for the Gayblade source code could be a brilliant doc.
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