Computer Game Evolution
A journey through many years (and occasionally centuries) to find out who is responsible for modern computer and video games. May contain balls, Napoleon Bonaparte, robots, organized crime, and the US Air Force.
Episodes
62 episodes
3.1 The Long-Term Outlook Has Never Been Better
What happens when a company that is the American video game industry is run by incompetent grifters long enough?
3.2 The Art of Business
A future legend of game design shows a kid a computer game. What's the worst that could happen?
3.3 Going Down, Going Up
A promising start-up splinters into an alphabet race, while nobodies from Japan accidentally make a good game and pretend they meant to.
3.4 Generation 6502
Arcades decide to stand together rather than die alone, while consoles are advancing into a generation that might not be real.
3.5 Computer Lib/Dream Machines
Selling micros was tough when everyone wanted to invent their own.
3.6 Computerworld
While micro makers keep trying to improve their product, the saga of IBM's terrible decisions continues.
3.7 Out of the Mystery House
Your most influential game is not always your best one.
3.8 Spaceships, Helicopters, Jets
A dung beetle, a comet, and a Buddhist counsellor walk into a bar and order a scrolling shooter.
3.9 A Hop, Skip, and a Jump
Apes on vines, frogs on lily pads, cats on cheese, and plumbers on ice – everybody wants to jump, but for now it is still optional.
3.10 A Leap Forward
Will jumping be mastered? Will it ever work in a way that satisfies players? Do players even know what they want? Can Mario beat Goku?
3.11 A Rocky Road to Glory
It's the longest episode so far for two reasons: weaponised boobs, and Margaret Thatcher.
3.12 Armed and Dangerous
You never know for certain what you're going to get. Sometimes, it's a box of grenades. Sometimes, Santa gives you a gun arm to take down Albert Einstein. Sometimes, a nuclear power plant melts down.
3.13 Between Roots and Towers
Fidel Castro and Sylvester Stallone return for another round, joined by Aztecs, wizards, keys, and an unhealthy but adorable number of bats.
3.14 Between Spaceships and Hell
Action-adventuring comes to busy city streets and schools, heaven and hell, Wonderland and Scotland. Also, Nintendo makes an OK game.
3.16 Running in Circles
Why are arcade joysticks so tiny? Who let Peter Molyneux into the industry? Both answers are somehow related to a game where robots call the player "chicken."
3.18 Sliding Faster
It turns out that lasers, mines, and various bombs can be used for more than just pure mindless action. Also, sliding blocks – you need lots of sliding blocks.
3.19 Historians Gone Wild
In the dark days before everyone had a microprocessor, some people just didn't care. They simulated current events, politics, and fantasy epics with paper.
3.20 SPI to SSI
Is the Canadian PM good in a fight? What are the best places to summon demons in Armenia? How to overthrow the US Government in 2020? Jim Dunnigan could tell you all of that, but not how to run his own company.
3.21 Shedding Old Skin
Is a paper Call of Duty possible? Can Sid Meier design a good wargame? What's the punishment for being horny in Camelot? Would you kill if you had to?
3.22 To Command and Control
The Cold War continues to terrify and inspire, so say hello to orbital laser strikes, new games of power politics, and the start of a long-running Japanese series. The British are still weird.
3.23 War(game)s are over?
As the Cold War takes a turn, computer wargames transform into strategy games, where a president does whatever the last person to see him told him to, dudes multiply in castles, and officers ask Napoleon to speak proper English.
3.24 Pens, swords, boards
If you've written a novel or two, writing a few pages of rules should be easy… right?