"I, Videogame"
As you watch the documentary, write comments about the film in the boxes provided based on the questions supplied for each. These will be used as the basis for a post-film class discussion.
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1. Videogames emerged from the culture of the "Cold War" - what does Henry Jenkins from MIT compare the period to in terms of a famous board game?
A global version of the game "Battleship" - a simulation
2. Who was the inventor of the first Video game according to the documentary? What was the name of the game?
Higgingbotham - Tennis for Two.
3. Steve Russell is credited with the first true computer-based videogame (in terms of its use with the PDP100 mainframe computer) with SPACEWAR - what popular science fiction book series also influenced him?
Doc Smith Lensman Series
4. What innovation did Steve Russell's SPACEWAR introduce in terms of input hardware?
The joystick
5. When the USA was aflame with internal conflict in the 1960s and 1970s, what new home entertainment system let consumers finally control what was being seen on the home television?
Magnavox Odyssey
Who was its inventor/developer?
Ralph Baer
6. PONG emerged out of the counterculture spirit of the early 1970s - its natural home was what type of entertainment setting?
The pub, bar.
Who does Nolan Bushnell say were generally best at playing the game?
Women.
7. "Space Invaders" emerged in the late 1970s as the first game from Japan.
How did the production team intensify the emotion of the game via the use of the four-note in-game theme?
Increase the tempo of music as the game sped up.
8. Steve Moulder reflects that the first arcade games tended to result in the player's defeat and that 'defeatism' in turn reflected the view by the designers that war itself is defeatist. Has this view changed since that time? Do today's latest games still convey this sense? Why? Why not? (use your own words)
Today's games have achievement levels with the commercially successful ones involving more social connections such as the multiplayer franchises. Some games have an imperfect balance to encourage competition or marketability to different audiences. Some games have an inbuilt world politic reflected in their narrative.
9. Have you ever played any of the games shown in this the first episode of "I, Videogame"? What was your memory of playing it? Where were you, when was it?
Space invaders was completely addictive - this was in 1978 when a computer arcade opened up around the corner. I lived in Athens at the time. I would spend all my pocket money there every week.
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