The Story of Computer Games 2/5

This is a pretty good documentary by the british Discovery Channel about the beginnings of computer games. It covers the early 70s with the rise of Atari right up to the big crash of the videogame market in the 80s. From that point on, it becomes pretty one-sided by only covering Miyamoto (the inventor of Mario and Zelda) and Nintendo. Anyway, it's still an excellent documentary thanks to its accurate way of dealing with historical facts.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• The
• story
• of
• computer
• games
• game
• documentaries
• documentary

[TearyEyesAnderson]

It's sad that Ralph H. Baer is hardly mentioned in this show,even though he created&patented the Video Game idea & even released the first successful games, Pong was released after his system, and Computer Space, the first commercially available arcade game, also isn't mentioned. Ralph's patent also covered the Computer Space type of game style also. I think it's terrible that Nolan Bushnell took one of Baer's ideas form his ping-pong game. Atari later stole Nintendo lock-codes and lost Tetris.

[GameDocumentaries]

i think you're a little harsh and also unfair. i guess you're american. the usa is the only western country i know that has software patents - one of the worst abuses of the patent system ever.

when bushnell adapted baer's concept, software patents hadn't been established yet, so he did nothing wrong. also, he did not just copy the game. he copied the design, but invented his own, far superior concept. two freely movable pixels hardly qualify for a game, while pong had a clear gaming concept

[GameDocumentaries]

if anything it's unfair that they left out higinbotham and made it look like baer was the grandfather of all computer games - a mistake that seems to mislead many people, as you clearly proved.

funny thought: what do you think about baer now? higinbotham invented a pong-like game almost a decade before baer came along, yet baer patented the idea and even became rich when atari had to pay license fees to him. poor old baer doesn't look so poor now, does he?

[r3dfella]

To the entreprenuer goes the spoils. No offense to Bear, but he failed to capitalize on a golden ticket and that's his fault. No blame should be given to Bushnell for having the vision and the hustle to get the game out there. Bushnell saw a dollar signs and went for it - just like any good American entreprenuer would do (the same thing happen when Jobs walked into Xerox PARC). Nothing against Bear, but he was just an engineer who played by the rules. Nolan bent the rules and won big time.

[invaderhim23]

My god, how far we've come!

[Soepieman99]

Looks to me like Ralph Baer clearly was the innovator (father of videogames if you like). Years before Bushnell actually new how to bring it to the masses. I'll give Bushnell credit for his contribution, but I think it's "arrogant" or almost an act of "denial" to call the "Baer Pong" not clever! Btw, Baer also had a 2 paddles and a pixel, not just 2 pixels chasing each-other around. Also Bushnell was actually there! The guy saw it, maybe he proceeded to perfect it, but did not invent it!

[SadDepressedClown]

2 pixels made loads of dollars

[theguyyouate6]

Once again, not really bothered to watch the whole video. This crap about this video-game nonsense will just deteriorate my mind.

[dahmeredsback]

ralph baer owes me money...

[kidsteal]

@AZleb no they came along when online gaming came along, before online gaming was fun. If was a hobby not a way of life.

[AZleb]

So this is where the fanboys and COD vs HALO started!!!!!!!!!!!

[DeadIslandTrailers]

@fpvshitsonhsv

yea its more magical as a kid. although i liked more games than others, i still played the ones i had

because they were the only games available for me. the empire strikes backs for the game boy, for example,

was a ruthless pile of wookie dung, but i spent countless hours on the stages.

NOW as an adult, and with FAR more money and gaming options than I had as a child, I would rather spend my entire day on the internet than any of my consoles!