Rise of the Videogame on Discovery Channel

[Sinistron]

Was watching the second eppy of this last night and turned it off in disgust when they skipped over the pc-engine.  They went from Famicom/NES straight to Megadrive/Genesis and then started talking about Playstation like it was the pioneer of home system CD gaming.   

[nat]

Interesting. But that's bullshit. The PCE/TG-16 deserves mention on any video game documentary for many things: CD gaming, 5-player multi-player capabilities (what systems had this before the PCE?), first 16-bit graphics console, etc.

I watched the first episode in this series last week and I was excited to see the followup since the first seemed to go so in-depth. They covered all sorts of obscure shit, lots of which I've never seen or heard of before.

I just don't get it. How can you skip over a system that was a true pioneer of many things we still find in game systems today?

[Sinistron]

Yeah they flubbed it.  Second episode had this segment on Leisure Suit Larry- which I slightly enjoyed.  but how are you gonna do a segment on Leisure Suit Larry and no mention of pc-engine?  I know there's no relation there- I'm just saying.  It's an hour-long show on the period- get your priorities straightened.  Actually they flubbed the Leisure Suit Larry bit too.  The whole time they're talking about Leisure Suit Larry being the first adult oriented game (which isn't true)- and they're showing scenes of the REMAKE of the 1st Leisure Suit Larry- not the original. 

[Sinistron]

I did turn it off before it was over- but I doubt they would double back to the PC-engine after going from Famicom to Megadrive to Playstation.

[Necromancer]

Glad I missed that.  They can't provide in depth coverage of everything, but it's super gay to just ignore big chunks of gaming history like that.  It's bad enough that they left out the Turbo, but how could they skip the SNES too?

[Sinistron]

I turned it off after about 45 minutes I think- but yeah they'd have to double back to SNES after going to Playstation- SNES is a fourth generation machine and Playstation is a fifth.  They were showing different Mario games through the years however and they probably showed SNES Mario titles- but didn't mention SNES while I was watching.  Maybe on the third episode?  I've lost faith in the series though.  And correct me if I'm wrong- but I don't remember "Computer Space" being mentioned in the first episode- another outlandish slight.

[Sinistron]

I must have this sexiest of posters.

[sunteam_paul]

Most commentaries on videogame history seem to act as though Japan never existed back then and the only things that are important are those that did well in the US.

[Sinistron]

well they mentioned the Famicom before the NES and the Megadrive before the Genesis.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I will mention it again(since I've mentioned it on these boards before) that once while watching the news, they had a thing on violent video games, & they showed.......Ninja Spirit!  This was a few years back, during the reign of PS2, & I saw a young kid, with a Turbo controller, playing Ninja Spirit.  Wierd.

[TR0N]

Watch it but it realy didn't tell me any thing that i knew all ready.

No surpise they skipped the pce/tg16.My guess,there looking at the consoles that have the most commerical sucess.

Yeah the pce did great in jpn but it was a flop in the u.s.

That's like expecting them to cover the,NeoGeo when it was a cult hit in the u.s as well.

[Keranu]

This sounds a lot like the video game documentary I saw on the Game Show Network back in like 2004. They didn't mention the Turbo whatsoever, said the Sega CD was the first console to introduce CD games, and spent a lot of time on classic PC adventure games.

[WoodyXP]

Sounds like this documentary is based on an American's perspective.  To an average American the Turbo is rubbish, and not worth commenting on.

[MissaFX]

What next?  Final Fantasy as the first RPG game?

Oh and that yellow arcade machine is insane.  Someone needs to revive this design.  I would feel like I just stepped inside something from 2001 standing next to one of these.

[Sinistron]

Computer Space- according to Wikipedia (okay not the MOST reliable of sources- but still...)- is "generally accepted that it was the world's first commercially sold coin-operated video game — and indeed, the first commercially sold video game of any kind, predating the Magnavox Odyssey by six months, and Atari's Pong by one year".  Which is why it should have been featured on the show.  And yeah- that machine is the cat's ass.