Play Value Season 1, Episode 19: The Unsung Heroes: Game Controllers

1

You Can Keep Your Quarters: The Death of Arcades

Back in the day, people left their homes to play video games! Hosts discuss the rise of arcades and all the old school games: Space invaders, Asteroids, Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Frogger, and many more! Enjoy this blast from the past while you learn how and why home gaming eliminated arcades.

8 min

2

Up from the Ashes: The Rise of Nintendo

Nintendo's long trek from playing cards to gaming monopoly. While most Americans thought video games were a fad, Nintendo was pushing their way to the top of the gaming world. Learn how Nintendo created their gaming monopoly and revisit the game systems of the past.

8 min

3

Ashes to Ashes: The Fall of Atari

The stunning rise and steep decline of Atari. Atari started the home video game, quickly becoming the fastest growing company in American history. In the last six months of 1982, however, it all fell apart even faster than it started. Here’s why...

7 min

4

Splitting the Iron Curtain: A Brief History of Tetris

You won't believe the drama behind one of the best loved games of all-time. Tetris is not only one of the most universally loved games ever created, it also has one of the most fascinating histories. This episode covers everything from its invention by a Russian government programmer to its phenomenal success in the world market.

8 min

5

Atari-gate!: The Theft of Nintendo's Code

The history of the bitter feud between Atari and Nintendo. In the high-stakes world of early console gaming, Nintendo knew it would have to think outside the box to prevent crappy games from being compatible with its new system. Atari wasn't having any of it.

8 min

6

The Dirty Dozen: 12 Failed Consoles — Part One

The trashcans of the past are stuffed with consoles that didn't catch on. From the Atari 5200 and the ill fated Nintendo Virtual Boy, to the Atari Jaguar and the poorly timed Sega CD, the trashcans of the past were stuffed with consoles that simply failed to catch on. This episode examines why some of them didn't become the next big thing.

8 min

7

The Dirty Dozen: 12 Failed Consoles — Part Two

More video game consoles that failed to attract fans. The continuing saga of consoles that couldn't cut the mustard. From the ill-fated and poorly conceived Atari Jaguar, to the doomed Panasonic 3DO, bad decisions and a lack of foresight hobbled these machines right outta the starting gate.

8 min

8

The Fight of the Century: Sega vs. Nintendo

Remember when Sonic and Mario went head to head? Video game rivalries are no joke, especially considering the billions of dollars up for grabs for the console with the most successful games. Back when Sega was hawking a blue hedgehog and Nintendo was promoting their plumber, it was hard to tell who was winning. Find out what was going on behind the scenes in this episode of Play Value.

8 min

9

I am Outraged!: Controversy in Gaming

Sex and violence in video games is a potent issue and has been for quite some time. It may surprise you to know that long before Grand Theft Auto and Mortal Kombat raised eyebrows, Congress and concerned parents were raising the alarm over suggestive pixels in first generation games on systems like the Atari 2600. The battle for video game makers' artistic freedom rages on!

8 min

10

Two Gorillas and a Leather Company: ColecoVision

The story of an upstart leather company that took on a corporate titan. ColecoVision could've been the next big thing if it wasn't for some major problems that popped up along the way to their unattainable success. Another interesting episode in the history of video games courtesy of Play Value.

8 min

11

You Don't Know Jack: Introducing the Commodore 64

This little computer rocked the gaming world. Back in the day, the Commodore 64 came screaming out of the gates into the waiting hands of gamers all over the world. Although it is no longer around, it has left an impression on the multi-billion dollar industry that lingers to this day.

8 min

12

From Score to Story and Back: Return of the Arcade!

The arcade is back! You might not have noticed, but it returned to the gaming scene. After the advent of home gaming systems, many assumed the end of arcade gaming as we know it was upon us. They were wrong.

8 min

13

We Have Awakened a Sleeping Giant!: Nintendo Angers Sony

This rivalry tells us an important story about electronics in the 20th century. Based on the information that Sony accrued creating peripherals for the console makers, they were able to create a groundbreaking and popular system themselves. The Sony PlayStation would go on to become one of the most popular consoles of all time.

8 min

14

Shigeru Miyamoto: The Father of Modern Video Games

Game designer Shigeru Miyamoto has set the gold standard for gaming. If you play a fair amount of home video games, one thing you'll notice is that they all have a certain general form. Just like movies all have a repeated basic structure that has been crafted over the last 80 years, video games also have a conventional mold that parallels audience expectation. And the guy who really defined that structure—the D.W. Griffith; the Orsen Wells of video games, so to speak—was Shigeru Miyamoto.

8 min

15

Gaming Mascots: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

Follow the various video game mascots during the late '80s to the late '90s. Video game mascots used to be all the rage in the late '80s to the late '90s. Similar to the Hollywood "star system" of the 1940s, back in the day, there was a tremendous drive to create and push mascots by game companies. What happened?

10 min

16

30 Years in the Making: Women in Gaming

Did you know that almost half of the world's gamers are women? Since the beginning, gaming has most often been associated with guys. Guys made the games; guys played the games; guys played the games starring a bunch of guys. But right now, almost half of gamers are women… how did this happen?

10 min

17

From Dust to Doom: The Two Johns

Meet the two most famous American game designers. While video game designers aren't rock stars, there were two who got about as close as game designers could get: John Carmack and John Romero, also known in the gaming industry as "The Two Johns".

10 min

18

Nolan & Ralph: The Founding Fathers

The Founding Fathers—the men who started it all. The video game industry is thought of as having started in the early '70s with Pong and other early arcade hits. While this may have effectively started the business, video games themselves go all the way back to '50s.

10 min

19

The Unsung Heroes: Game Controllers

A history of gaming's unsung hero: the controller. While good hardware and creative software are both key, the controller is what actually connects the player to the game. It's the third part of the gaming experience trinity.

10 min

20

We Hardly Knew Ye: R.I.P. Sega Dreamcast

The Sega Dreamcast was one of the greatest game consoles ever released. Usually, the history of video game failures is pretty simple. Either the games, the hardware, or the marketing stinks. But there was one failure that was an all around near perfect product, and yet it failed anyway: The Sega Dreamcast. Why?

10 min

21

Mine!: Gaming and Copyright

Landmark lawsuits exploded as the video game industry struggled to define itself. In video games' early days, the law was struggling to figure out how exactly to regard video games. Were they toys? Audio-visual media? Computer code? Art? Lawsuits were flying left and right, but unfortunately, there was almost no legal precedent to refer to in settling disputes.

10 min

22

College Dreams: The Story of General Computer

Two students, without money or contacts, found their own way into the game business. In 1981, A couple of MIT students named Doug Macrae and Kevin Curran started a small company called General Computer. These guys loved video games, played video games, bought a few arcade games, and even had their own coin-op route on campus. But the two kids were just engineering students and didn't have the factory resources to make big arcade games from scratch. So instead, they just made enhancement boards that would connect to the circuit boards of existing arcade games and modify them into new and improved versions. Thus began the start of their amazing video game career.

16 min