A new documentary about video games premiers this Wednesday night on The Learning Channel. Did I mention that Shigeru Miyamoto will be featured?
Gameheadz Premieres on TLC on Wednesday 16th April at 10pm ET/PT
TLC presents a new documentary that tells the story of the early pioneers of the world's fastest growing entertainment industry. It's a tale of visionaries, brilliant inventors and genius hippie renegades - the story of Computer Games.
It all began with the unveiling of PONG in a local Californian tavern in 1972. Atari's founder Nolan Bushnell and Pong's creator Al Alcorn tell the story of how they created the games industry with a bunch of spare parts and an old wooden crate.
Gameheadz includes never-before-seen footage from "A Day at Atari" - a mock documentary made by Atari employees in the late seventies.
Activision founder and star designer, David Crane, explains what went wrong at Atari and how it led to the entire industry collapsing in 1983.
Ralph Baer, creator of the Odyssey system, sets the record straight on who really invented video games.
In the early Nineteen-Eighties, British teenagers revolutionised the computer games industry with games they designed at home on cheap computers - computers bought by parents to help with their homework.
Oliver Twins, Philip and Andrew, tell the story of how they sold their first game at the age of thirteen and went on to become millionaires. Their collaboration with the teenage Darling Brothers helped build one of the world's most powerful and acclaimed game publishers, Codemasters.
Nintendo filled the void left by the collapse of Atari and the American computer games industry.
Thanks to the work of its creative genius, Shigeru Miyamoto, the company became synonymous with computer games and its mascot, Mario became more famous than Mickey Mouse.
Gameheadz explains the Miyamoto phenomenon, tracing his inspirations back to a magical childhood spent exploring the Japanese countryside. Miyamoto tells the story of how an amazing series of twists of fate led to him being asked to design his first game - Donkey Kong.
A highlight for game fans in particular is Miyamoto performing the theme tune to Super Mario Bros. on his guitar.
And Miyamoto reveals how he came up with the magic formula for Zelda - the game critics said at the time was doomed to failure, but has since been acclaimed as the greatest series of computer games ever made.
Nintendo's dominance of the games industry was assured when it scooped the world rights to Russian puzzler Tetris - the most addictive game of all time.
Henk Rogers tells the story of how he travelled to Moscow in the dying months of communism, befriended the games creator Alexey Pajitnov and won the rights to Tetris against strong competition from Hungarian publisher Robert Stein and the wishes of the KGB.
Alexey Pajitnov reveals how he came up with the game that has driven a generation of children and adults alike to the brink of insanity. And this program gives viewers a rare glimpse of his original version of the game in action on a Soviet Electronica 60 computer.
Never heard of em...
