1 00:00:04,960 --> 00:00:08,760 Speaker 1: Hey, folks, It's hard to believe, but Ephemeral has been 2 00:00:08,760 --> 00:00:11,840 Speaker 1: on the air now or whatever the podcast equivalent terms, 3 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:15,680 Speaker 1: for almost three years. In that time, our team has 4 00:00:15,720 --> 00:00:18,680 Speaker 1: continued to grow what for me has been a dream 5 00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:23,160 Speaker 1: come true. To that end, this and next episode you'll 6 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:27,160 Speaker 1: be hearing from our producer, Max Williams, who heretofore has 7 00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:30,159 Speaker 1: been working with Trevor and me behind the scenes. You 8 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:34,800 Speaker 1: might recognize him from Christmas Special Noel or as the 9 00:00:34,800 --> 00:00:39,560 Speaker 1: on Mike producer of Ridiculous History. Fun fact, Max is 10 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:43,159 Speaker 1: also my little brother and frankly our family's expert on 11 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:52,120 Speaker 1: video games. So without further ado, enjoy the episode. Ephemeral 12 00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:56,600 Speaker 1: is production of My Heart three D audio for full 13 00:00:56,600 --> 00:01:05,559 Speaker 1: exposure listen was that phones gaming as a pastime goes 14 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:09,400 Speaker 1: back at least to ancient Greece, from Olympic tournaments to 15 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:14,120 Speaker 1: bouts of Aristotelian logic. For millennia, humans have been fascinating 16 00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:18,839 Speaker 1: by the interplay of chance and skills. As games advanced 17 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:23,680 Speaker 1: alongside technology, The twentieth century brought with it new spaces 18 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:27,280 Speaker 1: dedicated to gaming. When I was a youngster, I fell 19 00:01:27,319 --> 00:01:30,920 Speaker 1: in love with the arcade business when I visited a 20 00:01:30,959 --> 00:01:34,679 Speaker 1: place called the Casino in the town of Rye, New York. 21 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:37,880 Speaker 1: I come from the Bronx and we bicycled up there, 22 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:41,080 Speaker 1: and I just loved the smell of the wood on 23 00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:45,160 Speaker 1: the floor, the games, the noises they made totally unlike 24 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:47,480 Speaker 1: what we see today when you're going in an arcade 25 00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:51,640 Speaker 1: with the electronic noises beeping and screaming and all of 26 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:56,880 Speaker 1: the interesting electronic aspects that define today's amusement king Back then, 27 00:01:56,920 --> 00:02:00,240 Speaker 1: it was all mechanical stuff. It ran an electric city, 28 00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 1: of course in most cases, but not all. And we 29 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:07,080 Speaker 1: had machines like Chicago coins hockey table when you batted 30 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:10,880 Speaker 1: the ball back and forth underneath the glass, and recording 31 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:14,480 Speaker 1: studios wherefore a quarter and a dime you could get 32 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:17,080 Speaker 1: in there with your buddies and do anything you wanted, 33 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:19,680 Speaker 1: to sing a proper song or maybe use some foul 34 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:22,079 Speaker 1: language just to hear it played back in et cetera. 35 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:31,640 Speaker 1: My name is Eddie adlum Um, the publisher of Replay Magazine, 36 00:02:31,880 --> 00:02:36,480 Speaker 1: which is a monthly trade journal. I've been covering that 37 00:02:36,639 --> 00:02:42,160 Speaker 1: industry for approximately fifty four years right now, and I 38 00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:47,120 Speaker 1: have continued to work in this field my whole life. 39 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:50,960 Speaker 1: And he grew up loving arcades, but he never thought 40 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: he'd devote himself to them professionally. As it turns out, 41 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:59,040 Speaker 1: he fell into the game's business almost by accident. As 42 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:02,520 Speaker 1: the years went by, I graduated college. After a period 43 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:06,480 Speaker 1: of time which look magazine, shoppening pencils, and then the 44 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:11,080 Speaker 1: US Army, I answered an ad in the New York 45 00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:16,160 Speaker 1: Times for an editorial assistant. It was with cash Box Magazine, 46 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:20,200 Speaker 1: now a defunct trade paper which largely centered on the 47 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:24,240 Speaker 1: recording industry, with a small section in its back page 48 00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:29,040 Speaker 1: is devoted to the jukebox and games business. And they 49 00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:31,040 Speaker 1: told me they were looking for somebody to do the 50 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:34,120 Speaker 1: pages in the back on the games business, and I 51 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:36,200 Speaker 1: said I needed a job, but I've been doing it 52 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:40,800 Speaker 1: ever since. We reached other Eddie to talk about video 53 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:44,600 Speaker 1: in arcade games, but he reminded us that their history 54 00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:48,680 Speaker 1: went back further than most people think, and arcade is 55 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:52,040 Speaker 1: not unique. The penny arcade, as they were originally called, 56 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:55,600 Speaker 1: go back practically since the beginning of the twentieth century. 57 00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:58,839 Speaker 1: A common name would be playland. The common machine would 58 00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:01,880 Speaker 1: be a fortune teller or restraint testing thing that you 59 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:06,360 Speaker 1: squeezed together but basically only find them in major cities 60 00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:11,040 Speaker 1: like New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and so on. Up until 61 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:15,240 Speaker 1: the these arcades might have been purely analog games like 62 00:04:15,320 --> 00:04:20,159 Speaker 1: ski ball or pinball. But with technology advancements in post 63 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:23,160 Speaker 1: World War two America, we saw the rise of electro 64 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:26,200 Speaker 1: mechanical games, and that brought a whole new level of 65 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:31,360 Speaker 1: popularity to gaming. In the sixties, there were no video games. 66 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:34,159 Speaker 1: There were electro mechanical games. There was pinball, but I 67 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:39,280 Speaker 1: really stunk at pinball. But you had Chicago Motor Speedway, 68 00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:42,200 Speaker 1: which was this game where there was a screen that 69 00:04:42,279 --> 00:04:45,000 Speaker 1: had sort of a cartoon of cars on it, and 70 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:47,520 Speaker 1: then there's a little plastic car and you tried to 71 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:50,600 Speaker 1: steer that little plastic car to avoid the cars on 72 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:54,040 Speaker 1: the screen. There was a game called Knife Bomber that 73 00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:56,159 Speaker 1: was very fond of where you looked for a little 74 00:04:56,200 --> 00:04:59,520 Speaker 1: head thing and you'd pressed button and I hope that 75 00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:03,320 Speaker 1: you tie named that the bomb hit different targets. These 76 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:07,640 Speaker 1: games were very rudimentary. They were quarter gobblers. They were fun. 77 00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:12,320 Speaker 1: My name is Steven L. Kent. I'm the author of 78 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:15,479 Speaker 1: the Ultimate History Video Games, Volume one and two. Been 79 00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:18,200 Speaker 1: playing games for a long time. Although it doesn't show 80 00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:23,640 Speaker 1: in my skill level. Although Stephen loved arcade gaming, he 81 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:26,280 Speaker 1: says back in the sixties arcade games were not as 82 00:05:26,279 --> 00:05:30,760 Speaker 1: easy to find. There were pinball machines and electro mechanical 83 00:05:30,839 --> 00:05:35,800 Speaker 1: machines in bowling alleys. Those were pretty safe places to go. 84 00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:40,279 Speaker 1: Then there was pinball and electro mechanical machines. For instance, 85 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:42,680 Speaker 1: if you went to Vegas or Taho, you might see 86 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:46,039 Speaker 1: some of those in the hotels. Other than that, you 87 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:48,559 Speaker 1: saw them in pool halls. And pool halls were actually 88 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:54,400 Speaker 1: pretty spooky places to go. They were associated with vagrants 89 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:58,600 Speaker 1: and tough guys um some crime. And then there were 90 00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:03,480 Speaker 1: arcades which were certainly associated with vagrancy and problems. Komy 91 00:06:03,560 --> 00:06:06,320 Speaker 1: Island is the classic one that you always hear and 92 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:10,320 Speaker 1: they might smell like somebody and urinated just outside. Somebody 93 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:14,640 Speaker 1: might have vomited. They were places you didn't necessarily want 94 00:06:14,680 --> 00:06:17,760 Speaker 1: to send your five year own. When you see arcade, 95 00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:20,280 Speaker 1: the young folks they have a very different view changed 96 00:06:20,440 --> 00:06:23,279 Speaker 1: with all the redemption games the game for you get 97 00:06:23,279 --> 00:06:27,240 Speaker 1: the tickets that you've been redeemed for a game. When 98 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:30,039 Speaker 1: you say arcade to old folks, they think of a 99 00:06:30,279 --> 00:06:33,599 Speaker 1: room where cavern, where the lights are almost all out 100 00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:37,000 Speaker 1: except for maybe some neon lights on the wall. Music 101 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:40,640 Speaker 1: is playing, maybe a juke box. She's got Benny Davis 102 00:06:40,720 --> 00:06:44,600 Speaker 1: eyes by Kim karn I have the Tiger. Most of 103 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:47,000 Speaker 1: the light in the room is the low glow coming 104 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:49,640 Speaker 1: from the arcade machines, and you can hear all those 105 00:06:49,839 --> 00:06:53,520 Speaker 1: iconic little lips and squeaks and things that the different 106 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:57,600 Speaker 1: machines made, And people are making little rows of quarters 107 00:06:57,640 --> 00:07:04,520 Speaker 1: to say that they're reserving the next game. Eddie says, 108 00:07:04,520 --> 00:07:07,279 Speaker 1: there's a reason that kids like Stephen found our kids 109 00:07:07,279 --> 00:07:12,440 Speaker 1: so wonderful despite the grudginess. It's the poor man's country club, 110 00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:16,280 Speaker 1: whereas people with money could go to the literal country 111 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:19,560 Speaker 1: club and play golf and blah blah blah. People who 112 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:23,679 Speaker 1: are working class people or youngsters in high school could 113 00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:27,200 Speaker 1: get into a different realm in the head with the 114 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:30,600 Speaker 1: lights of the machine. The challenge of trying to beat 115 00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:33,680 Speaker 1: it so you get to repeat play or extra innings 116 00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:38,240 Speaker 1: is just a nice way to recreate. The word recreation, 117 00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:43,440 Speaker 1: if it's pronounced properly, is recreated. Although it wasn't yet 118 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:47,400 Speaker 1: available in ourcades, the first video game was being developed 119 00:07:47,400 --> 00:07:51,000 Speaker 1: behind the scenes in the nineteen fifties. You would have 120 00:07:51,200 --> 00:07:55,600 Speaker 1: to say that the inception of video games was with 121 00:07:55,640 --> 00:08:01,320 Speaker 1: Willie Higgins Boffel, who was working at the Cave in Labs. 122 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:05,760 Speaker 1: It was a nuclear power facility, but they were having 123 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:09,480 Speaker 1: an open house. He thought nothing could be more more 124 00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:11,360 Speaker 1: than an open house here, so he took it in 125 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:15,200 Speaker 1: a selescope and he built an interactive game into it 126 00:08:15,320 --> 00:08:18,800 Speaker 1: called Tennis for two. Really, truly, you have to say 127 00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:23,840 Speaker 1: that's the inception. Tennis for two was literally just a 128 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:26,760 Speaker 1: dot of light on a screen. They were bounced back 129 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:30,120 Speaker 1: and forth, prompted by buttons corresponding to each side of 130 00:08:30,120 --> 00:08:35,280 Speaker 1: the screen. From there, It's always been rumored that Ralph Bear, 131 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:40,040 Speaker 1: who worked for Sanders Associates, which was a military contractor, 132 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:45,120 Speaker 1: attended that open house and Ralph, while working at Sanders Associates, 133 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:48,160 Speaker 1: came up with an idea for taking a TV and 134 00:08:48,240 --> 00:08:50,920 Speaker 1: being able to do something more than just watch television 135 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:55,760 Speaker 1: shows on it. He developed an interactive game, which started 136 00:08:55,760 --> 00:08:59,160 Speaker 1: out really dismally. One of the first things they did 137 00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:02,000 Speaker 1: for it was there was a little box that would 138 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:04,199 Speaker 1: be red and then you had a pump, and if 139 00:09:04,200 --> 00:09:09,200 Speaker 1: you really pump that pump furiously, the box turn Blue 140 00:09:09,520 --> 00:09:12,240 Speaker 1: represented a house that was on fire and you were 141 00:09:12,280 --> 00:09:15,120 Speaker 1: pumping water into it to put the fire out. They 142 00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:18,080 Speaker 1: came out with a little dot that would travel and 143 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:20,040 Speaker 1: you had a little toy gun and you would shoot 144 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:22,160 Speaker 1: at it, and that was supposed to be like shoot 145 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:25,000 Speaker 1: at clay pigeons. And they came up with the tennis game, 146 00:09:25,720 --> 00:09:29,240 Speaker 1: Uh Sanders Associate supports itself couldn't publish it. They were 147 00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:32,960 Speaker 1: military contractor, but they eventually almost told it to our 148 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:35,439 Speaker 1: c A and eventually sold it to Magnavox and it 149 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:40,440 Speaker 1: became Odyssey, the first console. And tomorrow he's sure to 150 00:09:40,480 --> 00:09:44,439 Speaker 1: see all the holiday specialist at your Magnavox dealer. Outstanding 151 00:09:44,520 --> 00:09:47,960 Speaker 1: values and videomatic color televisions that adjust their own picture 152 00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:52,280 Speaker 1: the changing room like automatic an exceptional offer on Odyssey. 153 00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:58,400 Speaker 1: The exciting electronic game. The Magnufox Odyssey was released in 154 00:09:58,520 --> 00:10:03,960 Speaker 1: nineteen sevente well very rudimentary, it was also revolutionary. The 155 00:10:04,040 --> 00:10:06,560 Speaker 1: Odyssey was the first game system that you could hook 156 00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:10,000 Speaker 1: up to a TV at home. Families who are content 157 00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:13,560 Speaker 1: to let television do its things often find themselves at 158 00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:17,080 Speaker 1: its mercy for a choice of entertainment. Wild people who 159 00:10:17,080 --> 00:10:21,280 Speaker 1: want television to do their things entertain themselves with Odyssey, 160 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:25,080 Speaker 1: and it caught the eye of someone else who was 161 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:29,680 Speaker 1: also developing games at that time. Nolan Bushnell came across 162 00:10:29,720 --> 00:10:32,160 Speaker 1: it because he happened to be going to school at 163 00:10:32,160 --> 00:10:35,319 Speaker 1: the University of Utah, which was one of the great 164 00:10:35,360 --> 00:10:37,640 Speaker 1: schools and computers of the time. There was m I T, 165 00:10:38,160 --> 00:10:43,240 Speaker 1: there was Stanford, and there was the University of Utah. 166 00:10:43,679 --> 00:10:46,600 Speaker 1: No One. Bushnell had just released a game called computer Space, 167 00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:50,480 Speaker 1: developed with a company called Nutting Industries. The game was 168 00:10:50,520 --> 00:10:53,599 Speaker 1: only moderlly successful, but it helped bush now make a 169 00:10:53,679 --> 00:10:58,640 Speaker 1: name for himself. It's a big, tall, well animated showman. 170 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:01,800 Speaker 1: Because it was an twenties then I also got to 171 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:05,600 Speaker 1: see this machine, which my immediate reaction was, is nobody's 172 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:08,400 Speaker 1: going to buy this? And it didn't do well at all. However, 173 00:11:08,480 --> 00:11:11,520 Speaker 1: the next year, Nolan had left nothing and gone into 174 00:11:11,559 --> 00:11:15,000 Speaker 1: business for himself with a name he picked called Atari. 175 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:22,440 Speaker 1: Nolan hired a guy by the name of al al 176 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:26,080 Speaker 1: Corn to design a game based upon a Magnavox game. 177 00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:31,240 Speaker 1: That Magnavox game was the tennis game mentioned earlier, as 178 00:11:31,280 --> 00:11:35,520 Speaker 1: released on the Odyssey in nineteen seventy two. Tori's first 179 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:39,840 Speaker 1: product was Palm, which was of course very closely based 180 00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:44,240 Speaker 1: on Odyssey. It was battened the image of a ball 181 00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:47,400 Speaker 1: on a TV screen from left to right, left to right, 182 00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:50,600 Speaker 1: left to right, and Nolan told al make me a 183 00:11:50,640 --> 00:11:55,280 Speaker 1: coin machine version of this. Nolan Bush No wentl Corn 184 00:11:55,559 --> 00:11:58,760 Speaker 1: described the Odyssey game he had seen at that trade 185 00:11:58,760 --> 00:12:01,120 Speaker 1: show and said, can you make something like that? And 186 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:03,720 Speaker 1: all Corn went to work and not only made it, 187 00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:07,080 Speaker 1: but made it a lot better than the Odyssey. I 188 00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:09,360 Speaker 1: first started about it over the telephone when I was 189 00:12:09,400 --> 00:12:12,680 Speaker 1: working at cash Box that in the West Coast. This 190 00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:16,280 Speaker 1: machine had been put down into locations, bars, et cetera, 191 00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:20,680 Speaker 1: and made nothing but money. They got it all done 192 00:12:21,160 --> 00:12:25,040 Speaker 1: and they thought, okay, a Torii doesn't manufacture the games. 193 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:28,679 Speaker 1: Attari creates the games then sells it to other companies, 194 00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:35,000 Speaker 1: to pinball companies like Williams, Valley, Midway, Sterns. And so 195 00:12:35,559 --> 00:12:38,720 Speaker 1: Nolan went off to Chicago to try and sell Palm 196 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:44,160 Speaker 1: to one of the established manufacturers. While he's gone, alal 197 00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:47,480 Speaker 1: Corn gets a call from Andicapps Tavern, which is the 198 00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:50,280 Speaker 1: place where they had a demo unit out to see 199 00:12:50,280 --> 00:12:53,800 Speaker 1: how people would react. It's a call from the manager saying, 200 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:57,000 Speaker 1: can you come out here? The machine's broken down. So 201 00:12:57,080 --> 00:13:00,280 Speaker 1: he comes out in the morning and the manager is him. 202 00:13:00,280 --> 00:13:03,040 Speaker 1: You know, it's the strangest thing. Normally we don't get 203 00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:06,000 Speaker 1: any traffic at all early in the morning, but these 204 00:13:06,040 --> 00:13:08,760 Speaker 1: days I come out to open the tavern and there's 205 00:13:08,760 --> 00:13:11,200 Speaker 1: a line and they're not here to drink. They're walking 206 00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:15,280 Speaker 1: over and playing Palm. Al opens the machine to see 207 00:13:15,320 --> 00:13:18,200 Speaker 1: what's wrong with this and Quarters poor out. It was 208 00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:22,920 Speaker 1: overflowing with Quarters. That's what's going wrong. So he called 209 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:25,600 Speaker 1: Nolan and told him, and Nolan decided on the spot, 210 00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:28,240 Speaker 1: a Torii isn't going to just design the machines. A 211 00:13:28,360 --> 00:13:32,480 Speaker 1: Torii is gonna start making. Nolan, working with Ted Dabney, 212 00:13:32,920 --> 00:13:36,840 Speaker 1: figured out how to take this game that will only 213 00:13:36,840 --> 00:13:39,920 Speaker 1: play on a thirty computer and replicate it on a 214 00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:45,240 Speaker 1: relatively inexpensive technology that people could play in ourcades. And 215 00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:53,280 Speaker 1: the result was Ahead. You say, what is ahead? Machines 216 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:55,760 Speaker 1: cost money. If you have a machine, let's say in 217 00:13:55,840 --> 00:13:59,400 Speaker 1: the bar, where the commission to the bar owner is 218 00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:02,920 Speaker 1: generally of the take, and you have two hundred dollars 219 00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:05,000 Speaker 1: in the cash game in that machine, when you come 220 00:14:05,040 --> 00:14:08,079 Speaker 1: to make collections, you net a hundred dollars. You need 221 00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:11,200 Speaker 1: a lot of plays to just pay for the machines, 222 00:14:11,559 --> 00:14:15,200 Speaker 1: and I they're paid in a respectable length of time, 223 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:18,360 Speaker 1: and then continue to make good revenue. You've got a hit. 224 00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:25,520 Speaker 1: Pong officially launched a video game sensation, although as Eddie 225 00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:30,440 Speaker 1: tells us, that term was still the making. The phrase 226 00:14:30,520 --> 00:14:33,800 Speaker 1: video game was coined by myself when in the early 227 00:14:33,880 --> 00:14:36,720 Speaker 1: days of covering it for cash Box, I got tired 228 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:40,880 Speaker 1: of calling them TV games television games. We were coming 229 00:14:40,960 --> 00:14:43,080 Speaker 1: up with all kinds of names to call this class 230 00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:45,560 Speaker 1: of amusement game. And one day I was sitting at 231 00:14:45,560 --> 00:14:49,960 Speaker 1: the typewriter writing another story about somebody's machine, and I says, 232 00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:54,240 Speaker 1: I remember we used to call the movie jukeboxes audio 233 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:59,480 Speaker 1: video machines. I says, hey, video game, and I started 234 00:14:59,520 --> 00:15:13,360 Speaker 1: to do it the rest of that his history. With 235 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:17,720 Speaker 1: the release of Pong, video games quickly became a burgeoning industry. 236 00:15:18,680 --> 00:15:20,960 Speaker 1: So Pong barely came out, and then all of a sudden, 237 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:23,520 Speaker 1: everyone starts making Pongo likes because they can see the 238 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:26,720 Speaker 1: writing on the wall. Pong is huge. Pong is also 239 00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:30,640 Speaker 1: cheaper to make than a pinball machine, much easier to 240 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:34,680 Speaker 1: maintain than a pinball machine. Plus it's more popular. So 241 00:15:35,160 --> 00:15:37,760 Speaker 1: Williams and Midway and everyone else started coming out with 242 00:15:37,840 --> 00:15:41,520 Speaker 1: their own versions of Pong, and new companies came out 243 00:15:41,520 --> 00:15:44,200 Speaker 1: of nowhere to do it as well. That you are 244 00:15:44,280 --> 00:15:46,600 Speaker 1: watching the most exciting game you will ever see on 245 00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:50,200 Speaker 1: your TV set till start by Kalico with three different 246 00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:54,960 Speaker 1: games tell Star Tennis with digital scoring, variable speeds. But 247 00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:59,880 Speaker 1: the first real competition came from Key Games. Key Games 248 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:02,720 Speaker 1: was a bunch of Atari ex patriots who went off 249 00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:05,720 Speaker 1: and trying to compete. Only it turns out that that 250 00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:10,240 Speaker 1: was a lie. Atari owned Key Games. Attari always owned 251 00:16:10,320 --> 00:16:13,560 Speaker 1: Key Games, but they pretended like they were arrivals, and 252 00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:17,240 Speaker 1: that's pushed the industry further. If you take a look 253 00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:21,520 Speaker 1: at what Atari did. They made Pong the first sports game, 254 00:16:21,560 --> 00:16:24,720 Speaker 1: They made Gotcha, the first maze chase game. They had 255 00:16:24,880 --> 00:16:31,080 Speaker 1: Grand Track and Sprint, the first racing games. As the 256 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:35,520 Speaker 1: leader in the industry, Attari grew rapidly. In nineteen seventies six, 257 00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:39,360 Speaker 1: They're at least a video arcade game, Breakout, which was 258 00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:44,760 Speaker 1: partially designed by two famous Steves, Steve Jobs Steve Wasniac. 259 00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:48,520 Speaker 1: Did you try and break Out? Did you try and 260 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:52,080 Speaker 1: break out, and it would sort of a return to 261 00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:56,960 Speaker 1: bomb and only now you're not playing horizontally. You're playing vertically. 262 00:16:57,640 --> 00:16:59,520 Speaker 1: And at the top of the screen there are bricks, 263 00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:02,560 Speaker 1: and when you're ball hits those bricks, the bricks disappear, 264 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:04,920 Speaker 1: and you're trying to beat your way through one wall, 265 00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:07,320 Speaker 1: and then there's another wall, and then there's another wall. 266 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:10,560 Speaker 1: No one bush Nell says he designed the game. Other 267 00:17:10,600 --> 00:17:13,359 Speaker 1: people have said that other people designed, and who knows 268 00:17:13,440 --> 00:17:15,520 Speaker 1: for sure, but one thing is certain. There was a 269 00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:18,320 Speaker 1: young Atari engineer who was involved in all of this. 270 00:17:19,080 --> 00:17:22,840 Speaker 1: His name was Steve Jobs. When you design a game, 271 00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:26,720 Speaker 1: every chip in that game is gonna cost you, over 272 00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:29,240 Speaker 1: the life of the game, tens of thousands of dollars. 273 00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:31,800 Speaker 1: Let's see you make ten thousand copies of that game, 274 00:17:32,080 --> 00:17:36,359 Speaker 1: the chip costs five bucks. That's fifty dollars. Bush Nell asked, 275 00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:39,480 Speaker 1: who can redesign this game to get some of the chipstell. 276 00:17:39,960 --> 00:17:44,479 Speaker 1: Steve Jobs was not an engineer, but he was working 277 00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:49,040 Speaker 1: on a small homebrew computer package was a good friend 278 00:17:49,160 --> 00:17:52,800 Speaker 1: named Steve Woznia. He was quite the engineer. I think 279 00:17:52,800 --> 00:17:56,440 Speaker 1: he was viewed pretty roundly as the most brilliant engineer 280 00:17:56,440 --> 00:17:59,879 Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley at the time. Jobs was also not 281 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:04,399 Speaker 1: a huge video game player. Wasn'tiac was So Jobs asked 282 00:18:04,440 --> 00:18:07,280 Speaker 1: Wasniac to come over and gave him pizza, let him 283 00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:09,800 Speaker 1: play whatever game he wanted for a while, and then 284 00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:13,520 Speaker 1: when everyone was gone, said could you redesign this game 285 00:18:13,560 --> 00:18:16,119 Speaker 1: for us and get some of the chips out. The 286 00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:20,439 Speaker 1: story goes that his redesign worked perfectly, but it was 287 00:18:20,560 --> 00:18:23,760 Speaker 1: so brilliant and he had taken so many chips out 288 00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:29,639 Speaker 1: that they couldn't replicate. Famously, Steve Jobs told Steve Wasniac 289 00:18:29,800 --> 00:18:31,359 Speaker 1: that he was only in a portion of what he 290 00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:35,480 Speaker 1: really was getting, and he pocketed the rest. According to 291 00:18:35,520 --> 00:18:39,440 Speaker 1: Bushnell and according to anyone who would know, Steve Jobs 292 00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:43,040 Speaker 1: then plowed all the rest of the money directly into Apple, 293 00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:47,840 Speaker 1: but he didn't mislead Wasniac, and that was pretty much 294 00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:53,480 Speaker 1: the end of their friendship. Meanwhile, companies in Japan was 295 00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:56,760 Speaker 1: starting to jump on the video game bandwagon, the first 296 00:18:56,800 --> 00:19:00,440 Speaker 1: of which was Namco. You have to look in Japan 297 00:19:00,560 --> 00:19:03,400 Speaker 1: of the time to understand their success. First of all, 298 00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:09,520 Speaker 1: Japan loves technology, and Japan loves storytelling, Japan loves glitz, 299 00:19:09,720 --> 00:19:12,640 Speaker 1: and video games were all of those things right from 300 00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:19,159 Speaker 1: the start. Japan at the time was better at renovating 301 00:19:19,280 --> 00:19:24,440 Speaker 1: than innovating, so they took this idea of video games 302 00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:27,520 Speaker 1: that American companies would come up with, and they found 303 00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:31,600 Speaker 1: ways to change it to make it more fun. Video 304 00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:36,399 Speaker 1: games became incredibly popular in so incredibly popular that there 305 00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:40,320 Speaker 1: was no keeping up with the math. Pretty soon, Tito 306 00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:44,080 Speaker 1: creates a game which Midway imports and adds the changes. 307 00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:47,600 Speaker 1: They enhanced it with a computer was the first game 308 00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:51,080 Speaker 1: to have a computer processor in it. That game was Gunfight. 309 00:19:59,040 --> 00:20:01,560 Speaker 1: But that wasn't even the most impressive trick that Tito 310 00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:05,240 Speaker 1: had up their sleeves. In nineteen they would turn the 311 00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:16,800 Speaker 1: industry upside down by releasing Space Invaders. Where and whereas 312 00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:19,439 Speaker 1: Pond made a big hit in the USA and some 313 00:20:19,520 --> 00:20:24,840 Speaker 1: other places, Space Invaders absolutely hit the entire world. It 314 00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:26,960 Speaker 1: was a great game and it still is a fun 315 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:29,880 Speaker 1: game to play. They may know, but three hundred thousand 316 00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:34,360 Speaker 1: of these machines, which is unheard of. All of a sudden, 317 00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:38,119 Speaker 1: you have a battle going, especially seventy nine. All of 318 00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:42,160 Speaker 1: a sudden, you have Space Invaders and a Tory football 319 00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:46,199 Speaker 1: exploding on the American public. And a Tory football that 320 00:20:46,280 --> 00:20:48,640 Speaker 1: was the one with this big old track ball. People 321 00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:51,720 Speaker 1: would be slapping until they had blisters on their hands. 322 00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:55,520 Speaker 1: Their hands are numb. Sometimes your skin got caught in 323 00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:58,480 Speaker 1: the little circle that held the track ball in place, 324 00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:01,880 Speaker 1: so people got cuts. But they loved that game. They 325 00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:05,480 Speaker 1: played that game silly until January when the Super Bowl 326 00:21:05,560 --> 00:21:08,800 Speaker 1: took place, and then they moved on because football season 327 00:21:08,840 --> 00:21:14,760 Speaker 1: and with Space Invaders that didn't happen. Space Invaders season 328 00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:24,520 Speaker 1: never added. Reacting to Space Invaders, nam could develops some 329 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:28,320 Speaker 1: big hits of their own, including pac Man and Rallyatts. 330 00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:35,240 Speaker 1: Also around this time, a small Japanese company named Nintendo 331 00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:45,359 Speaker 1: started to make games. Nintendo did okay in Japan, it 332 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:48,880 Speaker 1: really floundered than the United States. They had a game 333 00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:51,640 Speaker 1: called Radar Scope that was like the third biggest game 334 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:53,880 Speaker 1: in Japan in the year came out and they thought 335 00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:56,879 Speaker 1: it would be big here, but it wasn't, and so 336 00:21:57,000 --> 00:21:59,560 Speaker 1: they created a conversion get to make it a new 337 00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:02,480 Speaker 1: game they thought might be able to save the company, 338 00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:11,720 Speaker 1: and that new game was Donkey Kong. And he calls 339 00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:14,960 Speaker 1: this period the Golden years of the games. It was 340 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:19,800 Speaker 1: almost entirely fueled by Japanese companies. It was known and 341 00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:23,240 Speaker 1: is known to the general playing public as the pac 342 00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:31,720 Speaker 1: Man Days, Defender Days, Donkey Kan Days, Centipede, Millipede by Atari. 343 00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:37,000 Speaker 1: The just classics of that period captured the attention and 344 00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:40,600 Speaker 1: the devotion of kids and even some grown ups all 345 00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:43,320 Speaker 1: over the country and all over the world. During the 346 00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:46,639 Speaker 1: Golden Years, which really started with the Space Invaders, that's 347 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:49,919 Speaker 1: the Japanese machine. Pac Man and Mrs pac Man are 348 00:22:50,040 --> 00:22:54,400 Speaker 1: Japanese machines. Donkey Kan is the Japanese machine. Now you're 349 00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:57,400 Speaker 1: looking to some of the classics, and they deserved everything 350 00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:02,000 Speaker 1: they got over here. The so called Golden Years of 351 00:23:02,119 --> 00:23:05,800 Speaker 1: video games change commerce across the entire entertainment industry. In 352 00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:10,040 Speaker 1: the late seventies and into the early eighties, all of 353 00:23:10,119 --> 00:23:14,960 Speaker 1: a sudden, it's not just boollyon alleys and pool halls 354 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:18,080 Speaker 1: that have video games. People are seeing that you can 355 00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:21,800 Speaker 1: attract people to your business with video games. Business owners 356 00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:24,240 Speaker 1: and managers are seeing that you can even make money 357 00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:28,880 Speaker 1: with video games. The game's only lasted most of them, 358 00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:31,679 Speaker 1: so people were crowding, and all of a sudden, grocery 359 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:38,720 Speaker 1: stores and drug stores malls are just putting up video 360 00:23:38,760 --> 00:23:47,160 Speaker 1: game areas and arcades are appearing everywhere. By eighty arcades 361 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:51,760 Speaker 1: are a big thing. And the money that went into 362 00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:55,520 Speaker 1: those machines, which by the way, we're popping up everywhere, 363 00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:58,520 Speaker 1: including in the funeral home in one case, was so 364 00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:03,080 Speaker 1: large that it hurt the recording industry. It hurt the 365 00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:06,520 Speaker 1: movie industry. It became the number one form of entertainment, 366 00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:11,720 Speaker 1: but it didn't last. The reason it didn't last was 367 00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:15,360 Speaker 1: it again, something developed by Nolan Bushnell. It was what 368 00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:19,640 Speaker 1: we call consumer video. You could play Pong on your 369 00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:23,320 Speaker 1: home TV set using this little gizmo. I think it 370 00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:27,560 Speaker 1: was called the Atari twenty four D the Atari twenty 371 00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:30,600 Speaker 1: DRED because if you've got Matari you can play pac Man, 372 00:24:31,359 --> 00:24:34,600 Speaker 1: Bang Out, Spice Invitas with free with the Atari Movie 373 00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:37,560 Speaker 1: EA gmes in any other system. With Alligator clips, you 374 00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:39,760 Speaker 1: could clip it onto something in the back of your 375 00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:43,120 Speaker 1: TV set at home and play Pong for free. And 376 00:24:43,359 --> 00:24:48,480 Speaker 1: that was the beginning of the end of the boom days. 377 00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:51,960 Speaker 1: Just like how Palm started the video games industry, it 378 00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:55,800 Speaker 1: also birthed the home video game market. The home version 379 00:24:55,840 --> 00:24:59,160 Speaker 1: of Pong was released in nineteen and although it would 380 00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:02,520 Speaker 1: be a few more years before home consoles fully grab hold, 381 00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:05,960 Speaker 1: people liked the convenience, so some companies started to make 382 00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:10,560 Speaker 1: more consoles. First there was the fair Child channel left 383 00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:13,040 Speaker 1: and that was as I recall was the first console 384 00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:16,680 Speaker 1: that used cartridges. I had never heard of. I think 385 00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:20,440 Speaker 1: his name was Gerald Lawson, the gentleman who invented the cartridges. 386 00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:24,960 Speaker 1: Until he came around, consoles pretty much had one or 387 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:28,480 Speaker 1: two or three hardware games and the loss and changed 388 00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:30,320 Speaker 1: all that all of a sudden. Now you can play 389 00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:35,720 Speaker 1: completely different games. So ATRII sees that and picks it 390 00:25:35,800 --> 00:25:39,720 Speaker 1: up with the twenties six hundred. I'd like a system, please, 391 00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:42,560 Speaker 1: and everything that goes with everything everything. I want everything 392 00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:44,720 Speaker 1: you gotta do, low price after thirty dollars, a rebate 393 00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:47,119 Speaker 1: office and that everything. He's got everything you can do 394 00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:49,680 Speaker 1: nearly think on your different company. Yes, not think something, 395 00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:51,840 Speaker 1: but it's not everything will be a voice do a 396 00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:55,160 Speaker 1: track bowl, remote and rol joysticks and the commute amazing. 397 00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:57,440 Speaker 1: It's amazing, but it's not everything, not everything. They will 398 00:25:57,440 --> 00:26:03,160 Speaker 1: be educational games. Prease at everything to every thing. My 399 00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:07,520 Speaker 1: favorite home console of the eighties was actually the Collico Vision. 400 00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:13,399 Speaker 1: Now bring the arcade experience home because your visions vision, 401 00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:18,520 Speaker 1: especially Donkey Comb on the Callico Vision looked exactly like 402 00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:21,200 Speaker 1: Donkey Kong in the arcade. A lot of the games 403 00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:25,159 Speaker 1: look better on Collico vision. A fun fact is that 404 00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:29,640 Speaker 1: Colliko is short for the Connecticut Leather Company. They used 405 00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:32,560 Speaker 1: to make these little kids like wallets the cub scouts 406 00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:37,240 Speaker 1: would get. That was what Collico actually originally did. As 407 00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:41,240 Speaker 1: the arcade in the Street fell apart, Kaliko made a 408 00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:46,200 Speaker 1: really interesting investment. There was a little company making dolls 409 00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:49,240 Speaker 1: outside of Atlanta, Georgia, and they looked at that and 410 00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:52,200 Speaker 1: they said, Okay, video games are falling apart, will buy 411 00:26:52,240 --> 00:27:01,800 Speaker 1: This was cabbage Patch Dolls. Their Cabbage Catch kids. You 412 00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:05,560 Speaker 1: can give them all you love. Cabbage Patch kids are 413 00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:07,520 Speaker 1: each old separately. Each doll comes with him a ten 414 00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:11,520 Speaker 1: bird certificant in adoption papers from Colico. They made more 415 00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:14,000 Speaker 1: off cabbage Patch dolls in one year than they ever 416 00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:19,200 Speaker 1: did off video games. Eventually, Warner Brothers caught wind of 417 00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:23,280 Speaker 1: Atari and all their success. They bought the company from 418 00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:28,000 Speaker 1: Nolan Bushnell. Nolan still ran things for a while, at least. 419 00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:33,119 Speaker 1: Nolan Bushnell is a very smart guy. He's got Atari going, 420 00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:36,280 Speaker 1: and he's always going down to the research and development 421 00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:39,639 Speaker 1: team and he's looking over people's shoulders. He's gotta have 422 00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:42,800 Speaker 1: of giving people suggestions, you should really do this and this. 423 00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:44,960 Speaker 1: You know that would work better if you do this 424 00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:47,600 Speaker 1: and this. Then he'll come back two weeks later and 425 00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:49,480 Speaker 1: he'll say, you know, you should do it like this 426 00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:53,000 Speaker 1: and this, and he's making people undo the changes they've 427 00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:56,320 Speaker 1: just made to accommodate him before. So it became a 428 00:27:56,359 --> 00:27:59,920 Speaker 1: real problem. Al Alcorn, who was running research and development 429 00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:02,919 Speaker 1: at first. One he would do was the moment Nolan 430 00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:05,879 Speaker 1: came into research and development, al would rush over as 431 00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:08,320 Speaker 1: quickly as he could. No one has to sort of 432 00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:11,479 Speaker 1: a shorter attention span, so he put his hand on 433 00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:13,720 Speaker 1: no one's shoulder and said, oh, look at this one. 434 00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:15,800 Speaker 1: And by the way, let's look at this one over here. 435 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:18,160 Speaker 1: Oh look, we're at the end of the research and development. 436 00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:20,000 Speaker 1: No one was so nice of you to stop by. 437 00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:22,640 Speaker 1: We'll see you next time. And he'd rush him through 438 00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:25,040 Speaker 1: before he could do too much damage. But then no 439 00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:27,719 Speaker 1: one caught onto that, and so the next thing they 440 00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:30,960 Speaker 1: came up with was al would tell people, you don't 441 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:32,680 Speaker 1: have to do what no one tells you to do 442 00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:36,119 Speaker 1: until he's told it to you three times. No one 443 00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:39,040 Speaker 1: would come through, and he'd make suggestions and people would 444 00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:42,240 Speaker 1: ignore him. They had a company wid beating out at 445 00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:45,080 Speaker 1: Grass Valley and no one came up to speak. And 446 00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:47,560 Speaker 1: he stands up in front of the crowd and he says, 447 00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:51,120 Speaker 1: I hear that there's new policy going around it. When 448 00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:53,360 Speaker 1: I tell you to do something, you don't have to 449 00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:56,240 Speaker 1: do it until I told you three times. I'm telling 450 00:28:56,240 --> 00:28:58,640 Speaker 1: you right now. When I tell you to do something, 451 00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:02,720 Speaker 1: you do And somebody from the back of the audience yelled, hey, 452 00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:08,560 Speaker 1: could you see that two more times. As it turns out, 453 00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:14,440 Speaker 1: Warner Brothers wasn't pleased with bush Now's antics. Warner looked 454 00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:17,840 Speaker 1: at Nolan and his Shenanigans and some of his other 455 00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:23,000 Speaker 1: executives and fired them all. Retired them would be a 456 00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:26,360 Speaker 1: much more accurate way to say it, but put them 457 00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:31,200 Speaker 1: out the pasture with nice severance packages, and replaced Nolan 458 00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:36,320 Speaker 1: with a guy named Ray Kassar. Ray had no idea 459 00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:39,080 Speaker 1: what he was getting until he came from Burlington, the 460 00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:44,760 Speaker 1: cope manufacturer, the textile manufacturer. His first big move was 461 00:29:44,800 --> 00:29:47,320 Speaker 1: to hold a company meeting in which he tried to 462 00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:50,680 Speaker 1: ensure his game designers that he knew how to work 463 00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:53,440 Speaker 1: well with designers because he'd been working with them for years. 464 00:29:53,760 --> 00:29:57,080 Speaker 1: He was talking about the town manufacturers as of creating 465 00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:00,120 Speaker 1: towels was similar to creating video games that didn't not 466 00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:05,440 Speaker 1: go overwhelmed. Kastar was not well liked from within the 467 00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:09,080 Speaker 1: game's industry. A lot of people left because they didn't 468 00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:10,640 Speaker 1: like being under rak a star, and a lot of 469 00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:12,800 Speaker 1: people left because they knew there was money at the 470 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,080 Speaker 1: other end of the rainbow, and that wasn't an Atari. 471 00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:19,000 Speaker 1: They were making dollars a year. They were making Natari 472 00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:22,120 Speaker 1: a lot of money, but they weren't making a lot money. 473 00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:26,880 Speaker 1: Raykassar told all of his designers, the guys who designed 474 00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:29,680 Speaker 1: my towels, don't tell everyone what towel they did. I 475 00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:31,840 Speaker 1: don't want you telling people what games you worked on. 476 00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:37,440 Speaker 1: But there was a silver lining to his lack of popularity. 477 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:40,800 Speaker 1: We got to give credit where credit is new. The 478 00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:44,200 Speaker 1: first open world game is also the game was the 479 00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:48,520 Speaker 1: first Easter Ring. Of the original ten designers would all 480 00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:52,480 Speaker 1: last two to remain was a guy named Warren Robinette. 481 00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:57,400 Speaker 1: Warren was working on a game called Adventure. If you've 482 00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:01,200 Speaker 1: watched many player one, that's the game. At the end. 483 00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:05,440 Speaker 1: Was proud of Adventure. He wanted people to know who 484 00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:08,800 Speaker 1: was behind it. That's why you created the first did 485 00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:12,680 Speaker 1: you at Easterday? You could only carry one object at 486 00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:16,040 Speaker 1: a time. If you carried the ladder, you didn't have 487 00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:18,840 Speaker 1: a sword to defend yourself. But if you got that 488 00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:21,200 Speaker 1: ladder and you leaned it against the wall at the 489 00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:24,000 Speaker 1: very end of the game, at the far end, and 490 00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:26,640 Speaker 1: you climbed up to the top of it, even though 491 00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:29,880 Speaker 1: there was no visible door, you would pass through an 492 00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:32,720 Speaker 1: invisible hole in the wall, and then if you ran 493 00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:36,040 Speaker 1: your cursor over that wall, you'd find that there was 494 00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:39,000 Speaker 1: one hot pixel. And then if you pull that pixel 495 00:31:39,040 --> 00:31:40,920 Speaker 1: and you carried it back to the front of the game, 496 00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:45,200 Speaker 1: you opened a hidden room. And in that hidden room. 497 00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:52,120 Speaker 1: In Rainbow Letters by Warren Robinette, he didn't think anybody 498 00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:55,720 Speaker 1: would ever find that. I remember talking to him about it. 499 00:31:55,800 --> 00:31:58,400 Speaker 1: He told me about going out to dinner. He'd quit 500 00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:01,240 Speaker 1: Atari by this time, or was just about the levator. 501 00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:03,600 Speaker 1: He's out to dinner with his friend. And I said, 502 00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:05,240 Speaker 1: what did your friends say when you told him that? 503 00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:07,280 Speaker 1: And he said he didn't And I said why And 504 00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:10,280 Speaker 1: he said, well, if I couldn't keep the secret myself, 505 00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:14,520 Speaker 1: how could I ask my friends to keep. So here's 506 00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:17,880 Speaker 1: this amazing innovation he's done. There's no way in the 507 00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:22,640 Speaker 1: world anybody's ever gonna find it, right, except there's this kid. 508 00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:26,280 Speaker 1: He's in Salt Lake City. He's got nothing to do. 509 00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:28,280 Speaker 1: I think it's the dead of winter in Salt Lake 510 00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:30,800 Speaker 1: it gets snowy. He maybe he's a nerd like me, 511 00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:33,239 Speaker 1: trying to play pong with both hands to see how 512 00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:36,479 Speaker 1: far he could get. For some reason, he climbs up 513 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:40,080 Speaker 1: the ladder. For some reason, he walks through the hole. 514 00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:43,360 Speaker 1: For some reason, he finds the pixel and terries it 515 00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:46,400 Speaker 1: all the way back, and he calls it try and says, 516 00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:49,959 Speaker 1: there's a glitch in your game. They had no idea. 517 00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:55,160 Speaker 1: They thought he was crazy. Unfortunately, for a tory, stories 518 00:32:55,200 --> 00:32:58,040 Speaker 1: like this for a few and far between and left 519 00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:01,240 Speaker 1: them unprepared for what came next in the video games 520 00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:15,120 Speaker 1: industry break. His Stars run as head of Atari did 521 00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:19,480 Speaker 1: not go well. It didn't take long for Rade to 522 00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:23,880 Speaker 1: alienate and in some ways ruin Atari. I was lucky. 523 00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:28,040 Speaker 1: I think post Atory I may have been the only 524 00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:32,640 Speaker 1: interview he ever grabbed. He was touching the first point. Now. 525 00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:35,960 Speaker 1: It was his idea to bring space invaders to the 526 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:39,360 Speaker 1: Attori twenties and unt out here we entertain ourselves at home, 527 00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:42,000 Speaker 1: so we got an Atari video game. There's so many 528 00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:46,000 Speaker 1: different games to play. We especially like Space Invaders, Stafano's 529 00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:49,160 Speaker 1: Little Devils from Outer Space. It's fun, but personally I 530 00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:51,320 Speaker 1: think the whole idea of creatures from outer space is 531 00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:54,560 Speaker 1: a little far fetched. And that was a big thing. 532 00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:59,080 Speaker 1: But they made some huge mistakes. There were two almost 533 00:33:59,160 --> 00:34:02,360 Speaker 1: concurrent as a Master's. The first one was ET. The 534 00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:06,880 Speaker 1: movie ET had come around was a huge success. Warner 535 00:34:06,960 --> 00:34:10,840 Speaker 1: want to lure Steven Spielberg away from Universal where he 536 00:34:10,920 --> 00:34:13,840 Speaker 1: was making ET and movies like E T and Jaws, 537 00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:16,720 Speaker 1: and so part of what they did was they said, look, Steve, 538 00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:22,920 Speaker 1: here's twenty five million dollars licensing fee for ET. Twenty 539 00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:28,520 Speaker 1: five million was unheard of. So they promised him all 540 00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:32,239 Speaker 1: that money, and they promised him the game would be 541 00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:35,960 Speaker 1: ready for Christmas, and he was gonna hold them to that. 542 00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:38,839 Speaker 1: They didn't realize it takes a year to make a game, 543 00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:42,200 Speaker 1: and this is July. They're leaving three or four months 544 00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:45,040 Speaker 1: to make a game. And they brought him this one guy, 545 00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:49,160 Speaker 1: Howard Scott Warshaw, to make the game Warshaw was a 546 00:34:49,200 --> 00:34:53,520 Speaker 1: good choice. He was a bright guy. He was a 547 00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:56,280 Speaker 1: good game designer. He had made the Raiders and lost 548 00:34:56,320 --> 00:35:00,520 Speaker 1: our game. They assigned him to make the e T game. 549 00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:02,920 Speaker 1: They gave him no time to do it. They gave 550 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:06,600 Speaker 1: him really truly no budget because the million had been 551 00:35:06,640 --> 00:35:09,920 Speaker 1: spent on it. Games at that time were made by 552 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:12,360 Speaker 1: one person. There's gonna be music in the game. You 553 00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:14,560 Speaker 1: came up with the music. There's art. You came up 554 00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:17,520 Speaker 1: with the art, and you did the program in the game. 555 00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:23,480 Speaker 1: Howard an unreasonable task, and he went after it and 556 00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:28,120 Speaker 1: came out with a virtually unplayable game. I mean, everyone 557 00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:30,920 Speaker 1: in the world hates that game. I'm not sure you 558 00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:36,080 Speaker 1: can fully blame Howard for it. According to Eddie, this 559 00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:38,880 Speaker 1: sort of tie in movie and game deal it's a 560 00:35:38,920 --> 00:35:42,680 Speaker 1: pretty common thing in the nineties. We call that a 561 00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:47,560 Speaker 1: license game. It's good marketing tool. It draws you, but 562 00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:50,759 Speaker 1: they're only good for the first quarter. We used to say, 563 00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:53,799 Speaker 1: and you say, what does that mean. The rule is, 564 00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:58,520 Speaker 1: if the license is basically a marketing draw, it's an 565 00:35:58,520 --> 00:36:03,400 Speaker 1: eye attractor and into detractor, but basically the game itself, 566 00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:06,040 Speaker 1: regardless of what it's called, it's gonna have to happen 567 00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:10,200 Speaker 1: in the legs. Let's say the Roaming Stones Pinball. Ooh, 568 00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:12,560 Speaker 1: I wonder what that's like. You're going when you're playing 569 00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:15,000 Speaker 1: a couple of times. If the game isn't any fun 570 00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:17,960 Speaker 1: and don't care if it George Washington or your teacher 571 00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:21,000 Speaker 1: at school face on the game, You're not gonna play. 572 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:24,920 Speaker 1: It's only good for the first few players, until the 573 00:36:25,040 --> 00:36:30,799 Speaker 1: game itself is the attraction rather than the license. The 574 00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:34,600 Speaker 1: other game was a pac Man. Bear in mind that 575 00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:37,280 Speaker 1: at the time, pac Man was the most popular game 576 00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:39,640 Speaker 1: in the world. Pac Man has been on the cover 577 00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:43,080 Speaker 1: of Time magazine and Mad Magazine. Pac Man was the 578 00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:46,120 Speaker 1: best selling our Ka game of all times all by Time. 579 00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:48,839 Speaker 1: Pac Man into or a Tirey video computer system and 580 00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:52,480 Speaker 1: you're playing the hottest games and Spice Invitus time pac Man. 581 00:36:56,280 --> 00:36:59,839 Speaker 1: They released the Detroy twenty version of it, and it's 582 00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:07,240 Speaker 1: don't It was terrible. It didn't play or look even 583 00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:11,680 Speaker 1: vaguely like the game in the arcade. People didn't like it, 584 00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:17,560 Speaker 1: and concurrently, America had lost its focus on video games. 585 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:21,719 Speaker 1: Arcades started closing. First. It was the big words. You 586 00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:25,760 Speaker 1: had these huge arcades, and arcades are like blue whales, 587 00:37:26,239 --> 00:37:29,600 Speaker 1: the biggest animal that's ever lived, but it only eats krill. 588 00:37:30,040 --> 00:37:32,719 Speaker 1: And it's the same thing. And these huge arcades that 589 00:37:32,760 --> 00:37:35,600 Speaker 1: were living on quarters, and as long as you have 590 00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:39,400 Speaker 1: quarters lined up on the machines, you can live on 591 00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:43,040 Speaker 1: those quarters. But when a few less people show up 592 00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:47,280 Speaker 1: and a few less people are playing, and the people 593 00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:50,200 Speaker 1: who did show up again again were the people who 594 00:37:50,200 --> 00:37:53,359 Speaker 1: were better at games. They were the people who could 595 00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:59,480 Speaker 1: make a quarter less a minute, and thus arcades started 596 00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:04,080 Speaker 1: to fall out of popularity. Meanwhile, Nintendo was hard at 597 00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:08,440 Speaker 1: work at developing their own home council, The nes released 598 00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:14,840 Speaker 1: in over in Japan, Nintendo is just preparing to release 599 00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:19,040 Speaker 1: their fammycom which is short for Family Computer, which would 600 00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:23,120 Speaker 1: be repackaged as the Nintendo Entertainment Center in the United States. 601 00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:27,640 Speaker 1: It played games that looked closer to the arcade games, 602 00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:31,400 Speaker 1: and interestingly, it had basically the same processing chip in 603 00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:35,200 Speaker 1: it as the Autori twenty, and if you played Mario 604 00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:38,239 Speaker 1: on it, it looked just like the arcade game. And 605 00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:41,560 Speaker 1: I remember looking at that and thinking this is high art. 606 00:38:42,600 --> 00:38:44,680 Speaker 1: There were other companies that tried to compete, but the 607 00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:47,240 Speaker 1: only one that even made a dent on the market 608 00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:51,719 Speaker 1: was Sega with the Sega master System. The Sega master 609 00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:55,400 Speaker 1: System actually had slightly better graphic's, a little more memory 610 00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:59,560 Speaker 1: and everything. But there was this thing called packing game. 611 00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:02,560 Speaker 1: If you bought consoles back then, and if you bought 612 00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:05,759 Speaker 1: a Sega master System, it came with Super hang On, 613 00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:07,960 Speaker 1: which was a pretty good game. It was a motorcycle 614 00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:11,719 Speaker 1: writing game. But the basic packet on the nes was 615 00:39:11,840 --> 00:39:16,480 Speaker 1: Super Mario Brothers. That was all the technology Nintendo needed 616 00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:23,640 Speaker 1: to be anybody. Stephen says Nintendo was successful because they 617 00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:28,319 Speaker 1: were smart about design. They created iconic characters that would 618 00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:42,440 Speaker 1: stick in the minds of players everywhere. Giant trap you. 619 00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:47,280 Speaker 1: In a lot of ways, the growth of video games 620 00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:49,520 Speaker 1: is like the growth of Hollywood. In some ways, the 621 00:39:49,560 --> 00:39:52,400 Speaker 1: death of arcades is like the death of movie theaters. 622 00:39:53,239 --> 00:39:55,680 Speaker 1: There was a time when Charlie Chaplin was very big, 623 00:39:55,960 --> 00:39:58,120 Speaker 1: and then people kind of looked at Charlie Chaplin and 624 00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:00,279 Speaker 1: you know, it was cool. He was old school. But 625 00:40:00,719 --> 00:40:04,080 Speaker 1: we like Hattie Murphy, Addie, Welcome to the Army, Our 626 00:40:04,520 --> 00:40:06,880 Speaker 1: thanks themis nice to see you again, where we like 627 00:40:07,040 --> 00:40:11,000 Speaker 1: John Wayne, I got no interest in you today, Stan Claire, 628 00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:13,560 Speaker 1: and you won't get hurt or eventually we like Arnold 629 00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:21,360 Speaker 1: schwarzenegg Asta le Vista Baby. Originally, pac Man and the 630 00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:26,640 Speaker 1: Aliens from Space Invader were cool things, but they had 631 00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:32,560 Speaker 1: a very long ways. Donkey Kong somehow became far more iconic, 632 00:40:32,640 --> 00:40:37,319 Speaker 1: even though pac Man outsold Donkey Kong. But Mario had 633 00:40:37,360 --> 00:40:41,200 Speaker 1: an advantage and that Mario got the nes. There was 634 00:40:41,239 --> 00:40:45,919 Speaker 1: never a Capcom consult right. The people at Nintendo were 635 00:40:46,040 --> 00:40:50,600 Speaker 1: very intelligent and that they realized as Mario goes, so 636 00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:55,600 Speaker 1: goes are consult they started looking for other icons they 637 00:40:55,640 --> 00:41:00,239 Speaker 1: could create. What will the future bring from nintend Dome 638 00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:08,520 Speaker 1: more hits like Super Mario Brothers, arcade hits like Cotton Food. 639 00:41:09,680 --> 00:41:14,480 Speaker 1: Nintendo has the most video game hits Halkin's Alley, Duck Utters, 640 00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:18,239 Speaker 1: and more like Baseball and Excite Bike, and you can 641 00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:24,000 Speaker 1: play them only on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Now you're 642 00:41:24,120 --> 00:41:27,440 Speaker 1: playing with power. For a little while, it looked like 643 00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:32,600 Speaker 1: it might be Excited Bike. Certainly, Duck Hunt is still remembered, 644 00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:39,319 Speaker 1: but they came out with this game that was so 645 00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:42,759 Speaker 1: dicey called the Legend of Zelda. Did you see the 646 00:41:42,800 --> 00:41:46,439 Speaker 1: latest Nintendo newsletter? Whoa nice graphics? I'd like to get 647 00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:48,320 Speaker 1: my hands on that game. You mean you haven't played 648 00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:51,520 Speaker 1: it yet? We can play on my Nintendo Entertainment system. 649 00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:54,240 Speaker 1: It's the legend of Zelda and it's really rad. Those 650 00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:58,480 Speaker 1: creatures from Ghana are pretty bad rock tech tanks leaders too. 651 00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:06,160 Speaker 1: But when you'll help a harrow polster, Yeah, awesome, intense 652 00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:09,759 Speaker 1: Nintendo Entertainment System, your parents help you look get up? 653 00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:13,120 Speaker 1: Did people really want to invest this much time in 654 00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:16,520 Speaker 1: the game. There was a nicy thing for Nintendo to do, 655 00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:20,040 Speaker 1: but they really threw their weight behind him. Um it 656 00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:26,880 Speaker 1: caught on. It rivaled Mario in popularity. Nintendo released their 657 00:42:26,920 --> 00:42:32,200 Speaker 1: first handheld counsel in They called it the Game Boy. 658 00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:34,439 Speaker 1: This effort was led by a man named gun Pay 659 00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:38,680 Speaker 1: your COI. That's a very sacred name to me because 660 00:42:38,719 --> 00:42:41,839 Speaker 1: Goompey was one of my first friends in the industry. 661 00:42:42,280 --> 00:42:47,120 Speaker 1: He affected Nintendo culture almost as much as Shaguiro Miamoto, 662 00:42:47,200 --> 00:42:51,480 Speaker 1: the creator of Zelda and Mario and Donkey K. Miamoto 663 00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:55,160 Speaker 1: created the personality of the games. Nintendo to this day 664 00:42:55,200 --> 00:42:59,839 Speaker 1: makes family friendly games because Miamoto likes the smile when 665 00:42:59,840 --> 00:43:05,279 Speaker 1: he creates games. Goompeo KOI. He was nice, he was quiet, 666 00:43:05,320 --> 00:43:10,080 Speaker 1: and he was miserly. His whole view was that you 667 00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:14,799 Speaker 1: could do things using old technology very cheaply. Even though 668 00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:18,000 Speaker 1: he wasn't the greater the ne s, the people who 669 00:43:18,080 --> 00:43:22,319 Speaker 1: did create it were trained by him and the nes. 670 00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:24,640 Speaker 1: If you take a look as basically the same chip 671 00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:31,440 Speaker 1: as the attar he created the arcade hardware that Miamoto 672 00:43:31,560 --> 00:43:35,600 Speaker 1: used for Donkey Kong, and in the case of game Boy, 673 00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:39,759 Speaker 1: he takes just this very very old chip and monochrome 674 00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:43,920 Speaker 1: technology and he puts it all together. What he sees 675 00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:46,919 Speaker 1: is everyone knows this chip. This is an ancient chip. 676 00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:50,319 Speaker 1: Anyone in the world can program on. It doesn't need 677 00:43:50,360 --> 00:43:54,280 Speaker 1: to be color. And he makes an assumption that nobody 678 00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:59,719 Speaker 1: else would make. He assumes that when people play portable 679 00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:03,319 Speaker 1: game games, they want portability. They're not looking to play 680 00:44:03,360 --> 00:44:06,480 Speaker 1: the exact same game on their game Boy that they 681 00:44:06,520 --> 00:44:09,040 Speaker 1: would play on their console. So a lot of the 682 00:44:09,120 --> 00:44:11,759 Speaker 1: games are built around the idea that they're small, you 683 00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:13,720 Speaker 1: can pick them up, you can play them very quickly, 684 00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:15,839 Speaker 1: you can put them down, you can play them while 685 00:44:15,840 --> 00:44:18,160 Speaker 1: you're on the bus. You don't have to concentrate the 686 00:44:18,239 --> 00:44:23,080 Speaker 1: same way you would concentrate for other games. The technology 687 00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:26,879 Speaker 1: is cheap. Heads Game Boy sells for nine bucks. When 688 00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:31,160 Speaker 1: it came out, they said it wasn't humanly possible. All 689 00:44:31,280 --> 00:44:34,440 Speaker 1: the power and excitement of Nintendo right in the palm 690 00:44:34,520 --> 00:44:39,640 Speaker 1: of your hand. Introducing Game Boy. It's portable, it's in stereo, 691 00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:43,360 Speaker 1: and its games are interchangeable. Game Boy comes complete with 692 00:44:43,400 --> 00:44:46,680 Speaker 1: batteries and the outrageous new game Tetris and for head 693 00:44:46,719 --> 00:44:50,680 Speaker 1: to head competition, use video link and blow your opponent away. 694 00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:55,280 Speaker 1: Game Board only from Nintendo. Now you're playing with power. 695 00:44:55,600 --> 00:45:01,120 Speaker 1: Power Atari coming out with the Links was color and 696 00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:06,320 Speaker 1: had a better processor and eight batteries. Live introducing Links 697 00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:08,399 Speaker 1: from a Torii, the color video game He Can get 698 00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:15,680 Speaker 1: away with Sometimes never knew what hit it. The first 699 00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:18,879 Speaker 1: three thousand units of a game Boy were sold out 700 00:45:18,920 --> 00:45:23,080 Speaker 1: within two weeks of release. By the game Boy had 701 00:45:23,080 --> 00:45:27,319 Speaker 1: sold sixteen million units. The Autari Links sold fewer than 702 00:45:27,360 --> 00:45:31,319 Speaker 1: seven million units. By that same time, goon Pay was 703 00:45:31,360 --> 00:45:35,920 Speaker 1: a bona fide hero. His next big project would be 704 00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:39,759 Speaker 1: the Virtual Boy, which everyone looks at as a disaster, 705 00:45:40,080 --> 00:45:44,680 Speaker 1: but it was brilliant. Again. He simply took monochrome technology 706 00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:47,719 Speaker 1: and he put it on a view Master. It was 707 00:45:47,760 --> 00:45:50,400 Speaker 1: a failure, so he was in the doghouse for about 708 00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:53,320 Speaker 1: a year. About the same time that the N sixty 709 00:45:53,400 --> 00:45:59,000 Speaker 1: four came out, they had a Space World that's the 710 00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:03,040 Speaker 1: Nintendo proposed dietary game show. And last time I saw 711 00:46:03,160 --> 00:46:08,000 Speaker 1: my friend Gumpey was at that Space World in Maco Hare. 712 00:46:08,719 --> 00:46:12,000 Speaker 1: It's in this big warehouse and if you went off 713 00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:14,920 Speaker 1: to the far right corner, that's where they at the 714 00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:18,520 Speaker 1: N sixty four. So everyone went there, and then there 715 00:46:18,520 --> 00:46:23,360 Speaker 1: were nests. The Soprannias was still pretty popular at that point, 716 00:46:23,840 --> 00:46:27,040 Speaker 1: and Game Boy games out, and then in a small 717 00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:31,279 Speaker 1: corner near the exit was what was left of Virtual Boy, 718 00:46:31,440 --> 00:46:34,680 Speaker 1: and Gunpay was there holding down the fort trying to 719 00:46:34,680 --> 00:46:37,799 Speaker 1: show anybody who would come by what Virtual Boy would do. 720 00:46:37,840 --> 00:46:40,120 Speaker 1: And when I walked by, he said, please, please come, 721 00:46:41,080 --> 00:46:44,440 Speaker 1: let's talk. He didn't speak English and my Japanese is 722 00:46:44,480 --> 00:46:47,520 Speaker 1: completely non existent, but he showed me as games and 723 00:46:47,560 --> 00:46:49,719 Speaker 1: then we sat down and talked for about an hour, 724 00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:52,080 Speaker 1: and then I left, and that was the last time 725 00:46:52,120 --> 00:46:56,840 Speaker 1: I saw gun Pay. Then left Nintendo and went on 726 00:46:56,920 --> 00:47:03,360 Speaker 1: to develop the Bandai wonder Swad, a short lived handheld 727 00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:06,479 Speaker 1: gaming device, but it was the last project he would 728 00:47:06,480 --> 00:47:11,759 Speaker 1: work on. In October four, Goom pay tragically died in 729 00:47:11,760 --> 00:47:16,080 Speaker 1: a car accident. The world gave him a nice tribute 730 00:47:16,080 --> 00:47:18,760 Speaker 1: when he died. I was very surprised and very pleased. 731 00:47:18,800 --> 00:47:22,200 Speaker 1: I think he got more attention when he passed, maybe 732 00:47:22,239 --> 00:47:26,000 Speaker 1: the Hiroshi Yamochi, the guy who took Nintendo into video games. 733 00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:28,960 Speaker 1: There was a lot of attention about the father of 734 00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:34,279 Speaker 1: game Boy dying. Game Boy was amazing because to that 735 00:47:34,360 --> 00:47:39,920 Speaker 1: point in time, the biggest electronics family of product was 736 00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:44,720 Speaker 1: Walkman family and products. Game Boy was a close second. 737 00:47:45,440 --> 00:47:53,759 Speaker 1: Then the PlayStation brand name came and that was that 738 00:47:56,640 --> 00:48:00,759 Speaker 1: Sony Entertainment entered the video game market or with the 739 00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:05,400 Speaker 1: release of PlayStation. We'll talk about Sony, Nintendo, and the 740 00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:09,919 Speaker 1: Microsoft Xbox in Part two. All that on the next 741 00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:17,920 Speaker 1: episode of Ephemeral. This episode of Ephemeral was co written 742 00:48:18,000 --> 00:48:21,320 Speaker 1: by Max Williams and Trevor Young, with editing and sound 743 00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:25,600 Speaker 1: design by Max Williams. Stephen Kent is the author of 744 00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:28,800 Speaker 1: The Ultimate History of Video Games Volumes one and two, 745 00:48:29,440 --> 00:48:33,440 Speaker 1: and Eddie Adlam is the publisher for Replay magazine. Some 746 00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:36,200 Speaker 1: of the great music this episode, like the piece you're 747 00:48:36,200 --> 00:48:40,120 Speaker 1: hearing now, comes courtesy of the artist mon Plasier. If 748 00:48:40,160 --> 00:48:42,560 Speaker 1: you've listened to Ephemeral for a while, you've heard a 749 00:48:42,560 --> 00:48:45,279 Speaker 1: lot of their work, and we're happy to announce we'll 750 00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:49,200 Speaker 1: have an upcoming episode interviewing the artists for now here 751 00:48:49,239 --> 00:48:53,319 Speaker 1: more at Loyalty Freak music dot com. Tune in next 752 00:48:53,360 --> 00:48:57,439 Speaker 1: episode for video Games Part two. In the meantime, find 753 00:48:57,520 --> 00:49:01,520 Speaker 1: us on social media. We're at Ephemeral Show and for 754 00:49:01,640 --> 00:49:04,399 Speaker 1: more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart 755 00:49:04,480 --> 00:49:08,080 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 756 00:49:08,080 --> 00:49:24,840 Speaker 1: favorite shows. H