1 00:00:13,180 --> 00:00:16,934 [man] There's a lot of different ways to look at what a video game is. 2 00:00:19,436 --> 00:00:23,106 As a game designer, it's not about what I'm putting on the screen 3 00:00:23,190 --> 00:00:25,150 and it's not about what's in my design. 4 00:00:25,651 --> 00:00:29,279 It's about what's going on in the head of the player. 5 00:00:31,365 --> 00:00:33,283 We were pioneering a new medium. 6 00:00:34,340 --> 00:00:38,380 We're taking the TV, which has been a traditionally passive medium, 7 00:00:38,455 --> 00:00:40,666 and turning it into an active medium. 8 00:00:41,875 --> 00:00:43,752 That's a huge thing to do. 9 00:00:45,450 --> 00:00:46,213 It was thrilling, 10 00:00:46,630 --> 00:00:48,131 and it was terrifying. 11 00:00:48,215 --> 00:00:49,341 And I was into it. 12 00:00:52,219 --> 00:00:55,305 But it wouldn't be fair to not discuss 13 00:00:55,389 --> 00:00:58,100 that I made the worst game of all time. 14 00:00:59,601 --> 00:01:02,271 [dramatic music playing] 15 00:01:07,317 --> 00:01:08,652 Some people say 16 00:01:08,735 --> 00:01:11,905 that it was the thing that destroyed the video game industry. 17 00:01:14,241 --> 00:01:17,578 That wasn’t what I was going for when I was designing it, by the way. 18 00:02:02,622 --> 00:02:05,876 [narrator] Some revolutions come out of nowhere. 19 00:02:06,793 --> 00:02:10,505 And this one happened almost by accident. 20 00:02:11,214 --> 00:02:16,345 Long before the internet or cell phones, when computers were prehistoric. 21 00:02:17,540 --> 00:02:19,556 But a handful of visionaries used them 22 00:02:20,140 --> 00:02:22,768 to reimagine the world. 23 00:02:22,851 --> 00:02:24,603 [man in Japanese] When I was little 24 00:02:24,686 --> 00:02:28,815 War of the Worlds by author H.G. Wells was very popular. 25 00:02:31,401 --> 00:02:33,737 So having grown up seeing that, 26 00:02:34,404 --> 00:02:35,947 I thought that aliens... 27 00:02:38,617 --> 00:02:41,119 were octopuses. 28 00:02:41,536 --> 00:02:43,789 I'd look up at the night sky 29 00:02:43,872 --> 00:02:46,875 and wonder whether aliens may come and attack us. 30 00:02:54,633 --> 00:03:01,181 That's why we used octopus as the biggest enemy in Space Invaders. 31 00:03:03,183 --> 00:03:07,479 My name is Tomohiro Nishikado, I made Space Invaders. 32 00:03:09,189 --> 00:03:13,151 [narrator in English] Back in the early days, video games seemed kind of... 33 00:03:13,235 --> 00:03:14,736 -[electronic beeps] -[Nishikado] Ta-da! 34 00:03:14,820 --> 00:03:15,946 [narrator] ...like magic. 35 00:03:16,446 --> 00:03:17,364 [in Japanese] Yes. 36 00:03:17,989 --> 00:03:20,700 This is called a Magic Hat. 37 00:03:21,118 --> 00:03:23,780 There's nothing there now. 38 00:03:23,537 --> 00:03:27,207 If you show magic tricks, people will enjoy watching it. 39 00:03:27,874 --> 00:03:29,251 Now a sushi. 40 00:03:30,669 --> 00:03:32,129 It's the same with games. 41 00:03:33,964 --> 00:03:35,340 Then a flower. 42 00:03:35,882 --> 00:03:38,301 If you make a good game, people will enjoy playing it. 43 00:03:39,928 --> 00:03:41,388 Now a ball pops up. 44 00:03:43,223 --> 00:03:46,590 [narrator in English] Nishikado performed his greatest magic trick... 45 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:49,938 in 1978 46 00:03:50,397 --> 00:03:51,815 when he created 47 00:03:52,649 --> 00:03:53,733 Space Invaders, 48 00:03:53,817 --> 00:03:56,528 Japan's first arcade blockbuster. 49 00:03:56,611 --> 00:03:59,531 And it was such a success that many game centers 50 00:03:59,614 --> 00:04:02,742 were simply known as "invader houses." 51 00:04:03,326 --> 00:04:06,288 [reporter] Space Invaders got so big in Japan that, for a while, 52 00:04:06,371 --> 00:04:11,418 the Japanese government had to declare a shortage of 100 yen coins. 53 00:04:11,501 --> 00:04:15,881 [narrator] And it all sparked when Nishikado hit a wall. 54 00:04:16,506 --> 00:04:17,340 Literally. 55 00:04:17,424 --> 00:04:20,760 [in Japanese] For the invader game, 56 00:04:21,344 --> 00:04:25,765 I was inspired by Atari's Break Out game. 57 00:04:25,849 --> 00:04:28,810 It was a game that made you want to play it again and again. 58 00:04:28,894 --> 00:04:30,604 It was amazing. 59 00:04:30,687 --> 00:04:34,941 I thought to myself how can I make this into a new game? 60 00:04:35,984 --> 00:04:38,612 We thought maybe a battle-based game would be good. 61 00:04:38,695 --> 00:04:40,405 Initially we considered tanks, 62 00:04:41,198 --> 00:04:43,241 planes, ships, 63 00:04:45,535 --> 00:04:47,704 and then we considered various targets. 64 00:04:48,622 --> 00:04:53,585 But the game didn't really click, and I wasn't convinced. 65 00:04:53,668 --> 00:04:56,129 So we tried it with soldiers. 66 00:04:56,922 --> 00:04:59,508 And it was great fun. 67 00:05:00,550 --> 00:05:03,845 But people shouldn't be shot. 68 00:05:04,763 --> 00:05:07,349 About the same time, in the US, 69 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:10,727 there was talk of Star Wars coming out. 70 00:05:10,810 --> 00:05:13,104 So we decided to go with something like a droid, 71 00:05:13,188 --> 00:05:17,108 which moves like a human but isn't a human. 72 00:05:17,192 --> 00:05:22,614 That decision ultimately became Space Invaders. 73 00:05:27,244 --> 00:05:34,209 It's already falling apart, so I'll go through it slowly. 74 00:05:38,296 --> 00:05:43,760 These are the original characters that I sketched. 75 00:05:44,636 --> 00:05:48,431 I drew a monster like an octopus. 76 00:05:48,515 --> 00:05:51,893 Breaking this down into bits gives you this. 77 00:05:51,977 --> 00:05:57,816 So then I thought about the squid as another sea creature, 78 00:05:57,899 --> 00:06:01,194 and here it is drawn out in bits. 79 00:06:02,863 --> 00:06:06,740 Then there's a crab, although it looks a bit weird. 80 00:06:06,908 --> 00:06:08,451 This is a UFO 81 00:06:08,535 --> 00:06:11,830 and this is the bit-version of the UFO. 82 00:06:12,706 --> 00:06:15,417 Programming is not done via this method nowadays... 83 00:06:15,917 --> 00:06:17,335 but it used to be. 84 00:06:19,546 --> 00:06:23,425 [narrator in English] The programming, the concept, the characters... 85 00:06:25,343 --> 00:06:28,597 Nishikado pretty much did it all. 86 00:06:29,556 --> 00:06:32,100 And it caught the eye of American gaming giant... 87 00:06:33,143 --> 00:06:33,977 Atari. 88 00:06:34,894 --> 00:06:37,731 I'd like an Atari 2600 system, please? 89 00:06:38,273 --> 00:06:41,776 If you haven't heard of Atari, don't worry, we'll get to it later. 90 00:06:42,193 --> 00:06:46,114 All you need to know for now is that they transformed the arcade hit 91 00:06:46,197 --> 00:06:49,200 into the first ever cartridge bundle 92 00:06:49,284 --> 00:06:52,704 and it quadrupled sales of their home console. 93 00:06:53,163 --> 00:06:54,748 We got an Atari video game. 94 00:06:55,290 --> 00:06:57,417 We especially like Space Invaders. 95 00:06:57,500 --> 00:06:58,376 It's fun! 96 00:06:59,850 --> 00:07:01,796 Fun, but really hard. 97 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:05,759 [Nishikado in Japanese] I have the skills to clear level one, 98 00:07:06,343 --> 00:07:09,471 but not level two, rather embarrassingly! 99 00:07:11,806 --> 00:07:17,200 There are people that are almost super-humanly good at it. 100 00:07:23,485 --> 00:07:26,946 It's amazing watching them play. 101 00:07:30,992 --> 00:07:32,994 [woman in English] When Space Invaders came out, 102 00:07:33,780 --> 00:07:35,455 it was the hottest game out there 103 00:07:36,122 --> 00:07:39,459 because it was one of the first games out there that had strategy. 104 00:07:40,585 --> 00:07:42,837 And as long as you can maintain that strategy, 105 00:07:42,921 --> 00:07:44,964 you could get a very high score. 106 00:07:45,382 --> 00:07:47,384 It was all about patterns. 107 00:07:48,134 --> 00:07:50,387 There's six rows of aliens. 108 00:07:51,120 --> 00:07:53,431 When you see the first one firing, 109 00:07:54,150 --> 00:07:56,976 then you have a good idea who's going to be the next one firing. 110 00:07:57,727 --> 00:07:59,854 And then go ahead and slaughter them all. 111 00:08:01,189 --> 00:08:05,110 Those are the tricks you learn in order to get an edge. 112 00:08:06,403 --> 00:08:07,987 I'm Rebecca Ann Heineman. 113 00:08:08,530 --> 00:08:11,241 My friends call me Becky. My enemies call me Rebecca. 114 00:08:11,825 --> 00:08:14,770 I got into the industry by playing 115 00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:17,747 in the Atari National Video Game Championship in 1980. 116 00:08:17,831 --> 00:08:20,750 [narrator] 1980. That was well before this. 117 00:08:20,834 --> 00:08:24,671 [announcer] This battle's about to explode! 118 00:08:24,754 --> 00:08:25,922 [narrator] Esports. 119 00:08:26,548 --> 00:08:29,467 Back then, there was no such thing as video game leagues, 120 00:08:30,510 --> 00:08:32,178 pro players, or spectators. 121 00:08:34,140 --> 00:08:36,570 So where did it all start? 122 00:08:40,854 --> 00:08:43,523 Where most teens in the '80s would hang out... 123 00:08:45,191 --> 00:08:46,735 at the mall. 124 00:08:46,818 --> 00:08:48,690 Isn't that cute? 125 00:08:48,737 --> 00:08:51,364 That's where the LA regional qualifiers were held 126 00:08:51,448 --> 00:08:55,410 for the very first national video game tournament. 127 00:08:55,493 --> 00:08:59,289 This was the very first time I'd ever heard about a video game contest. 128 00:08:59,956 --> 00:09:02,500 And it makes sense because it was the first one ever. 129 00:09:03,100 --> 00:09:06,400 So when the Space Invaders Regionals came to LA, 130 00:09:06,504 --> 00:09:08,256 I went in there and I just paid my one dollar, 131 00:09:08,965 --> 00:09:10,300 all right here's a joystick... 132 00:09:11,301 --> 00:09:12,302 here's the game... 133 00:09:13,344 --> 00:09:14,220 let's go! 134 00:09:18,933 --> 00:09:22,187 When I played video games back in the '80s, 135 00:09:22,729 --> 00:09:25,857 I never believed I was actually any good at the game 136 00:09:26,858 --> 00:09:28,693 or that I had any real skill, 137 00:09:30,236 --> 00:09:32,720 but it allowed me to be myself. 138 00:09:33,406 --> 00:09:35,408 It allowed me to play as a female. 139 00:09:37,827 --> 00:09:39,704 I've always identified as a woman. 140 00:09:41,289 --> 00:09:44,459 Unfortunately, my anatomy didn't agree. 141 00:09:45,100 --> 00:09:48,129 So when I played video games, I was... 142 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:53,900 in this virtual world where I was mowing down rows of aliens 143 00:09:54,427 --> 00:09:56,513 and ignoring the world around me. 144 00:09:57,514 --> 00:10:02,435 It was the only place that I was able to find solace and peace. 145 00:10:04,938 --> 00:10:08,775 So at the Regionals, I'm playing and playing and playing, 146 00:10:08,858 --> 00:10:11,152 and finally the aliens landed on me. 147 00:10:11,569 --> 00:10:14,405 "Oh, crap, they got me. Is that a good score?" 148 00:10:15,698 --> 00:10:17,617 I had no idea what to expect. 149 00:10:18,910 --> 00:10:21,579 They then announced third place. 150 00:10:22,497 --> 00:10:23,581 Second place. 151 00:10:24,666 --> 00:10:27,126 And then eventually, the announcer said, 152 00:10:27,210 --> 00:10:28,711 "Heineman is the winner! 153 00:10:29,170 --> 00:10:33,299 You get an all-expense paid trip to New York City to play in the finals." 154 00:10:33,800 --> 00:10:34,926 Cool! 155 00:10:36,135 --> 00:10:38,221 [narrator] There's a reason why Space Invaders 156 00:10:38,304 --> 00:10:41,349 was the perfect game to play in a tournament. 157 00:10:43,170 --> 00:10:44,180 The high score. 158 00:10:44,686 --> 00:10:46,855 [in Japanese] If you see the high score, 159 00:10:46,938 --> 00:10:49,858 it encourages people to want to beat those scores and do better. 160 00:10:49,941 --> 00:10:52,318 It's what's called a "replay appeal." 161 00:10:53,194 --> 00:10:56,300 So we featured the high scores for the first time. 162 00:10:57,699 --> 00:10:59,159 [narrator in English] The high score. 163 00:11:00,285 --> 00:11:02,412 It's what drives us to play... 164 00:11:02,495 --> 00:11:04,914 and play and play again. 165 00:11:05,957 --> 00:11:08,418 It's what gets us so immersed, so engaged, 166 00:11:08,501 --> 00:11:10,461 that we forget the world around us. 167 00:11:10,879 --> 00:11:14,549 And it turns out that this state has a name... 168 00:11:15,341 --> 00:11:16,509 flow. 169 00:11:16,593 --> 00:11:18,887 It was discovered by this man, 170 00:11:18,970 --> 00:11:21,306 Hungarian-American psychologist 171 00:11:21,389 --> 00:11:23,558 Mihaly... [mumbling] 172 00:11:24,392 --> 00:11:27,228 So what exactly is flow? 173 00:11:27,812 --> 00:11:29,147 Athletes get it, 174 00:11:29,230 --> 00:11:30,857 musicians get it, 175 00:11:30,940 --> 00:11:32,775 and even gamers get it. 176 00:11:33,735 --> 00:11:36,237 Why? Because... 177 00:11:36,321 --> 00:11:40,325 it needs to be a fun activity, with the right amount of challenges, 178 00:11:40,408 --> 00:11:43,578 a clear set of rules, with concrete goals and outcomes, 179 00:11:43,661 --> 00:11:45,788 an effortless yet intense practice, 180 00:11:45,872 --> 00:11:48,708 that pushes your skills to the limit, so you simply... 181 00:11:48,791 --> 00:11:50,793 lose track of time. 182 00:11:51,377 --> 00:11:54,130 Basically, you're in the zone. 183 00:11:54,797 --> 00:11:56,841 [in Japanese] Today, I'd like to show you the magic trick 184 00:11:56,925 --> 00:11:58,426 I used to do when I was little. 185 00:11:58,927 --> 00:12:02,960 It's a bit of a childish trick but I wanted you to see it. 186 00:12:03,181 --> 00:12:05,767 So firstly, here is a 100 yen coin. 187 00:12:08,311 --> 00:12:11,898 I'll make this go through the top of the table. 188 00:12:12,899 --> 00:12:17,280 For me, one of my aims when making a game 189 00:12:17,111 --> 00:12:19,300 is that it's simple. 190 00:12:19,822 --> 00:12:23,326 And to get people to spend as many 100 yen coins as possible. 191 00:12:24,202 --> 00:12:28,373 [narrator in English] And it turns out that his simple idea was big money. 192 00:12:28,456 --> 00:12:32,710 [Nishikado in Japanese] About four months after the release of Space Invaders 193 00:12:32,794 --> 00:12:36,547 I went to a head office this one time 194 00:12:36,631 --> 00:12:40,760 and saw a truck collecting money. 195 00:12:40,843 --> 00:12:44,264 I saw how the back of it was low down 196 00:12:44,347 --> 00:12:48,101 with bags of money being unloaded from it 197 00:12:48,184 --> 00:12:51,229 sinking into the ground. 198 00:12:52,563 --> 00:12:56,985 That's when I got a feel of how much money was being made. 199 00:12:59,237 --> 00:13:00,738 It's now under the table. 200 00:13:00,822 --> 00:13:03,366 It's a simple trick. 201 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:09,706 [reporter in English] Space Invaders prompted a video game revolution 202 00:13:09,789 --> 00:13:10,790 in the United States, 203 00:13:10,873 --> 00:13:13,626 as more than 30 computer and electronics companies 204 00:13:13,710 --> 00:13:18,470 started designing new games and competing for our quarters. 205 00:13:18,131 --> 00:13:20,758 [narrator] And just like that,  business was booming, 206 00:13:20,842 --> 00:13:25,263 even in a city like Detroit, Michigan, known as the heart of the auto industry, 207 00:13:25,346 --> 00:13:28,599 but where the number of licensed arcades grew 208 00:13:29,170 --> 00:13:32,979 by more than 20,000% in only two years. 209 00:13:33,563 --> 00:13:36,274 And the rest of the country wasn't far behind. 210 00:13:37,984 --> 00:13:42,322 [reporter 1] The video game industry has grown into a $5-billion-a-year giant. 211 00:13:42,905 --> 00:13:45,658 [reporter 2] Greg Davies, an 18-year-old from Fresno, California 212 00:13:45,742 --> 00:13:49,662 played Asteroids for 31 hours on just one quarter. 213 00:13:50,246 --> 00:13:54,751 Now my life kind of centers around the game... the games, arcades and stuff. 214 00:13:56,294 --> 00:13:59,470 [narrator] Playing 31 hours on one quarter is extreme... 215 00:13:59,130 --> 00:14:00,256 [gasps] 216 00:14:00,339 --> 00:14:03,509 ...but players were definitely getting too good at the game. 217 00:14:03,593 --> 00:14:06,763 You want to get the high score on the game every time you come in. 218 00:14:06,846 --> 00:14:09,140 And who better than a group of college kids 219 00:14:09,223 --> 00:14:12,310 to figure out a way to keep them challenged... 220 00:14:12,393 --> 00:14:13,352 All right! 221 00:14:13,436 --> 00:14:14,479 ...and paying. 222 00:14:25,281 --> 00:14:26,532 My name is Doug Macrae. 223 00:14:27,241 --> 00:14:30,453 I went to MIT in '76. 224 00:14:30,870 --> 00:14:33,706 [narrator] But Doug got a little sidetracked. 225 00:14:33,790 --> 00:14:35,666 Technically, I'm a college dropout. 226 00:14:36,709 --> 00:14:37,960 And now that I'm retired, 227 00:14:38,461 --> 00:14:40,296 I'm an unemployed college dropout. 228 00:14:41,500 --> 00:14:42,757 That is kind of like a badge of honor. 229 00:14:44,133 --> 00:14:46,719 And it was all because of video games. 230 00:14:47,845 --> 00:14:49,680 [Macrae] I was a triple major 231 00:14:49,764 --> 00:14:53,142 in mechanical engineering, economics, and architecture. 232 00:14:53,851 --> 00:14:55,812 And was living in a dormitory 233 00:14:55,895 --> 00:14:59,524 that I brought a pinball machine into. 234 00:15:00,775 --> 00:15:03,319 The pinball machine was collecting quarters. 235 00:15:04,362 --> 00:15:06,531 I was very much enjoying the operation. 236 00:15:07,156 --> 00:15:10,493 I bought a second pinball machine, bringing in more quarters. 237 00:15:10,576 --> 00:15:12,745 I decided at that point to expand the business. 238 00:15:17,208 --> 00:15:18,376 It was me 239 00:15:19,210 --> 00:15:20,795 and a few friends. 240 00:15:21,212 --> 00:15:23,673 We bought some more video games, 241 00:15:23,756 --> 00:15:27,802 moved into a second dorm, a third dorm, a fourth dorm. 242 00:15:27,885 --> 00:15:33,266 And by our junior year, our operation was now about 20 machines. 243 00:15:34,725 --> 00:15:36,978 So we were very popular on campus. 244 00:15:41,149 --> 00:15:43,985 Those games did very, very well, earning a lot of money. 245 00:15:44,819 --> 00:15:47,405 We had a route collecting all the quarters in backpacks 246 00:15:47,488 --> 00:15:50,741 and hauling them to the bank. And that paid our tuition. 247 00:15:50,825 --> 00:15:54,780 So as we went into our senior year, we had purchased 248 00:15:54,162 --> 00:15:56,330 three new games called Missile Command. 249 00:15:57,540 --> 00:16:01,430 Missile Command games fit the MIT personality perfectly. 250 00:16:01,127 --> 00:16:05,470 It was a game where you had to stop these intercontinental ballistic missiles 251 00:16:05,131 --> 00:16:07,300 from coming in and destroying cities. 252 00:16:07,383 --> 00:16:09,552 And the game was tremendous. 253 00:16:16,601 --> 00:16:20,229 The first week we had the games, they pulled in $600 a piece. 254 00:16:20,313 --> 00:16:23,441 But by week two, it had fallen to 400 dollars, 255 00:16:23,524 --> 00:16:26,861 and by week four, we were down to about 200 dollars a week. 256 00:16:29,739 --> 00:16:32,408 We were looking and saying, "This has a problem." 257 00:16:32,491 --> 00:16:35,369 The revenue falls off so quickly on the machine. 258 00:16:35,453 --> 00:16:36,662 We wanted to try addressing it. 259 00:16:36,746 --> 00:16:39,248 [narrator] To better explain this revenue issue, 260 00:16:39,790 --> 00:16:41,167 here's Doug’s buddy, Steve. 261 00:16:41,751 --> 00:16:43,586 Steve also went to MIT. 262 00:16:44,170 --> 00:16:46,839 [Golson] I started MIT in 1976. 263 00:16:47,298 --> 00:16:49,342 I came in as a freshman that fall. 264 00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:51,552 [narrator] Steve also dropped out. 265 00:16:52,553 --> 00:16:54,550 [Golson] So revenue... 266 00:16:54,138 --> 00:16:58,893 Ideally, you want the length of the game to be a few minutes. 267 00:16:58,976 --> 00:17:01,687 You put in a quarter, you play for a few minutes, 268 00:17:01,771 --> 00:17:02,730 the game is over. 269 00:17:02,813 --> 00:17:05,608 Oh, they put in another quarter, they play for a few minutes, 270 00:17:05,691 --> 00:17:06,692 the game is over. 271 00:17:08,152 --> 00:17:09,779 But eventually, 272 00:17:09,862 --> 00:17:12,365 the players would get good at the game 273 00:17:12,448 --> 00:17:14,784 and they could play for a very long time. 274 00:17:14,867 --> 00:17:19,622 And arcade owners were making less money. 275 00:17:21,290 --> 00:17:22,208 I got it. 276 00:17:25,836 --> 00:17:28,381 More. More, more, more. That's good. 277 00:17:29,131 --> 00:17:32,426 So the players have learned how to beat the game, 278 00:17:32,927 --> 00:17:35,930 but there's nothing physically wrong with the game. 279 00:17:36,130 --> 00:17:37,556 The cabinet is still fine, 280 00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:39,267 the monitor still works. 281 00:17:39,350 --> 00:17:41,600 The controls are fine. 282 00:17:41,143 --> 00:17:44,313 What they're beating is the software. 283 00:17:44,772 --> 00:17:47,858 And we said, "Wouldn't it be really nice if there was software 284 00:17:47,942 --> 00:17:50,945 which added new things and made it a little bit harder 285 00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:54,310 and could really help the revenue stream of it?" 286 00:17:55,783 --> 00:17:58,202 So we started making enhancement kits, 287 00:17:58,828 --> 00:18:01,664 which modifies an existing video game 288 00:18:02,810 --> 00:18:05,209 and makes it more challenging to the player. 289 00:18:05,293 --> 00:18:07,461 Because it's more challenging to the player, 290 00:18:08,870 --> 00:18:11,841 their games are shorter and the operator makes more money. 291 00:18:11,924 --> 00:18:13,509 And that's the real key, 292 00:18:13,592 --> 00:18:15,219 the operators making more money. 293 00:18:18,306 --> 00:18:21,559 And so in spring break of 1981, 294 00:18:22,590 --> 00:18:26,731 we took Missile Command games and started making these kits. 295 00:18:27,773 --> 00:18:30,670 What else are you going to do over spring break? Hey! 296 00:18:30,151 --> 00:18:33,946 Let's learn how this video game works and make changes to it. 297 00:18:35,448 --> 00:18:36,949 So here's Missile Command. 298 00:18:37,330 --> 00:18:38,659 So let's take this out. 299 00:18:40,578 --> 00:18:44,373 This is the main logic board, and this is one of our kits. 300 00:18:44,457 --> 00:18:46,917 You plug in these various cables, 301 00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:49,837 and you can slide this back in. 302 00:18:53,716 --> 00:18:54,550 And you're done. 303 00:18:57,136 --> 00:18:59,305 [Macrae] So we ended up with 304 00:18:59,388 --> 00:19:03,851 version 2.0 of Missile Command, called Super Missile Attack. 305 00:19:03,934 --> 00:19:07,438 [narrator] Super missile attack kits offer more missiles, faster missiles, 306 00:19:07,521 --> 00:19:10,240 smaller clouds, different colors, different attack modes, 307 00:19:10,107 --> 00:19:13,778 new sounds and a totally new attack object, the UFO. 308 00:19:13,861 --> 00:19:16,720 All yours for just $295. 309 00:19:16,155 --> 00:19:18,449 [Golson] We sold about 1,000 to the arcade owners, 310 00:19:18,532 --> 00:19:21,911 which was a quarter million dollars? 311 00:19:21,994 --> 00:19:25,373 In a couple months of sales? 312 00:19:26,332 --> 00:19:28,751 It's like, that's just incredible. 313 00:19:29,168 --> 00:19:31,504 It, in some ways, felt like funny money, 314 00:19:31,587 --> 00:19:34,900 but it told us that we were onto something. 315 00:19:34,548 --> 00:19:38,344 [Steve] I was supposed to graduate that spring of '81. 316 00:19:38,427 --> 00:19:41,806 But it's, like, okay, we're not doing that anymore. 317 00:19:42,848 --> 00:19:45,434 And it sort of turned into this company. 318 00:19:45,518 --> 00:19:49,355 And so, we started looking around and saying, "We should do this again," 319 00:19:49,438 --> 00:19:53,250 and this time we decided to focus in on 320 00:19:53,109 --> 00:19:55,653 the biggest selling video game at the time. 321 00:20:11,377 --> 00:20:15,172 [man in Japanese] Game centers were places where men played, 322 00:20:15,798 --> 00:20:18,384 where you'd do things like shoot dead aliens. 323 00:20:20,803 --> 00:20:23,764 They were dirty, smelly and dark. 324 00:20:25,349 --> 00:20:29,145 No games were available for women. 325 00:20:29,728 --> 00:20:32,220 So my aim certainly was to change that. 326 00:20:36,444 --> 00:20:38,946 [shutters creaking] 327 00:20:46,370 --> 00:20:50,875 I was going to arcades at least once a week 328 00:20:51,959 --> 00:20:57,470 to monitor what sort of people were playing with what types of games. 329 00:21:03,763 --> 00:21:08,517 We thought about what kind of games women might want to play. 330 00:21:08,976 --> 00:21:13,314 So we thought, "Eating doesn't involve killing each other, 331 00:21:13,856 --> 00:21:17,193 and maybe women can enjoy it as a game too." 332 00:21:34,100 --> 00:21:37,213 When we were developing a game with the new concept, 333 00:21:37,922 --> 00:21:40,132 we happened to eat a pizza. 334 00:21:40,216 --> 00:21:41,217 Thank you very much. 335 00:21:41,800 --> 00:21:45,596 When I took a slice out there was this shape left... 336 00:21:46,180 --> 00:21:49,892 That's when Pac-Man first appeared. 337 00:21:50,976 --> 00:21:53,771 I'm Toru Iwatani, the maker of Pac-Man. 338 00:21:55,231 --> 00:21:58,776 Right, so today's seminar 339 00:21:58,859 --> 00:22:03,447 will be on Pac-Man. 340 00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:07,409 Pac-Man, as you all know, involves 341 00:22:07,493 --> 00:22:10,830 Pac-Man going around eating cookies. 342 00:22:10,913 --> 00:22:16,430 People tend to think the idea is the important thing about a game, 343 00:22:16,877 --> 00:22:20,500 but it's not just that, it's about the visual aspect too. 344 00:22:21,215 --> 00:22:24,843 Pac-Man is just a yellow eating thing with a mouth, 345 00:22:25,344 --> 00:22:26,971 no eyes, 346 00:22:27,540 --> 00:22:28,389 and no nose. 347 00:22:28,806 --> 00:22:32,643 We kept it extremely simple as a symbol. 348 00:22:33,310 --> 00:22:35,688 We thought it would be fairly popular in Japan, 349 00:22:35,771 --> 00:22:39,275 but not so much in America. 350 00:22:42,653 --> 00:22:46,310 [narrator in English] Turns out American girls couldn't get enough. 351 00:22:46,115 --> 00:22:49,118 Men like the sports games, the action games, and the space games. 352 00:22:49,660 --> 00:22:51,829 Women are insane about this game. 353 00:22:51,912 --> 00:22:55,332 Pac-Man is so cute. It is, it's so cute! 354 00:22:55,416 --> 00:22:58,127 I like the little guys that go by and chomp on everything. 355 00:22:58,210 --> 00:23:01,338 -[reporter] What makes Pac-Man cute? -'Cause the little mou-- [laughs] 356 00:23:02,339 --> 00:23:04,633 -[narrator] Pretty soon... -♪ Pac-Man fever... ♪ 357 00:23:04,717 --> 00:23:06,468 ...he was inspiring hit songs, 358 00:23:06,552 --> 00:23:09,847 churning out endorsements, and starring in his own show. 359 00:23:09,930 --> 00:23:11,390 ♪ Going out of my mind ♪ 360 00:23:11,890 --> 00:23:13,642 [narrator] But, like any global celebrity 361 00:23:13,726 --> 00:23:15,936 basking in the glow of international fame and fortune, 362 00:23:16,353 --> 00:23:18,522 along came the critics. 363 00:23:18,606 --> 00:23:20,357 [Macrae] Pac-Man was very repetitive. 364 00:23:20,899 --> 00:23:23,944 After you played it a little bit, you got extremely good at it, 365 00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:27,948 so Pac-Man was the perfect game for an enhancement kit, 366 00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:29,742 even more than Missile Command. 367 00:23:29,825 --> 00:23:31,744 So we immediately got to work on that 368 00:23:31,827 --> 00:23:34,204 as our second enhancement kit project. 369 00:23:34,288 --> 00:23:36,665 In order to make it work, we need more people. 370 00:23:36,749 --> 00:23:39,501 And so it was like,  "Hey, Mike, we’ve got this new company. 371 00:23:39,585 --> 00:23:42,630 You should come and check us out. We need programmers." 372 00:23:50,554 --> 00:23:53,682 [Horowitz] Engineering is in itself creation. 373 00:23:54,433 --> 00:23:56,393 Really good developers are creative people. 374 00:23:57,227 --> 00:24:00,356 So my job as an engineer is to come up with solutions. 375 00:24:00,439 --> 00:24:03,525 Given a problem and given a set of constraints, 376 00:24:04,109 --> 00:24:06,695 I have to figure out how to make it work. 377 00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:12,910 Pac-Man was a great game. 378 00:24:14,662 --> 00:24:16,288 But Pac-Man had a problem. 379 00:24:17,390 --> 00:24:18,582 It was deterministic. 380 00:24:18,666 --> 00:24:20,501 It played the same way every time. 381 00:24:21,126 --> 00:24:22,711 People were learning patterns. 382 00:24:22,795 --> 00:24:25,673 So I did what engineers do. 383 00:24:26,465 --> 00:24:29,718 I took this thing that was great, 384 00:24:29,802 --> 00:24:30,886 but that had flaws, 385 00:24:31,845 --> 00:24:33,889 and I tried to fix the flaws. 386 00:24:34,556 --> 00:24:37,393 So we had to reverse-engineer the game. 387 00:24:38,352 --> 00:24:40,479 We had certain things we wanted to change. 388 00:24:42,356 --> 00:24:44,358 We wanted new mazes. 389 00:24:44,441 --> 00:24:48,862 We wanted the ghosts to be random in how they attacked the character. 390 00:24:49,738 --> 00:24:51,740 We wanted to put in new sounds. 391 00:24:51,824 --> 00:24:55,744 So we just zeroed in on those things and figured out how to do it. 392 00:24:57,371 --> 00:25:01,410 Meanwhile, Atari has sued us for $15 million, 393 00:25:01,542 --> 00:25:03,752 due to our Missile Command kit. 394 00:25:03,836 --> 00:25:08,298 We have the biggest consumer electronics company on the planet 395 00:25:08,382 --> 00:25:09,967 coming after us? 396 00:25:10,500 --> 00:25:14,221 [narrator] To understand how we got here, you should know about this man, 397 00:25:14,304 --> 00:25:15,723 Nolan Bushnell. 398 00:25:15,806 --> 00:25:17,558 "One, two! One, two! And through and through. 399 00:25:17,641 --> 00:25:19,643 His vorpal blade went snicker-snack! 400 00:25:19,727 --> 00:25:23,188 And with its head, he left it dead. He went galumphing back." 401 00:25:23,939 --> 00:25:26,108 -That's my mic check. -[man] Mic check? 402 00:25:26,191 --> 00:25:27,985 -[producer] That was amazing. -[laughs] 403 00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:31,655 [narrator] Some refer to him as the godfather of video games. 404 00:25:34,408 --> 00:25:35,367 It was the '70s 405 00:25:35,993 --> 00:25:37,911 and Bushnell was a young entrepreneur 406 00:25:37,995 --> 00:25:41,540 -who had many visions, and one motto. -Go big or go home. 407 00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:44,209 [narrator] The Silicon Valley we know now? 408 00:25:44,877 --> 00:25:47,546 It was rather... different back then. 409 00:25:47,629 --> 00:25:52,760 Silicon Valley was probably 80% prune orchards. 410 00:25:53,594 --> 00:25:56,764 Bushnell built the Silicon Valley startup prototype 411 00:25:56,847 --> 00:26:00,434 when he created his own video game company, Atari. 412 00:26:00,934 --> 00:26:04,630 [Bushnell] We were all in our late 20s and we thought to ourselves, 413 00:26:04,146 --> 00:26:07,357 "What we want is to create a new kind of company, 414 00:26:07,441 --> 00:26:09,401 an Age of Aquarius company, 415 00:26:09,860 --> 00:26:12,738 where our work ethic was work hard, play hard." 416 00:26:12,821 --> 00:26:17,159 I could target any engineer in the Valley 417 00:26:17,242 --> 00:26:19,244 and get them to come to work for Atari. 418 00:26:19,745 --> 00:26:21,580 All you had to do was take them to our beer bus 419 00:26:22,390 --> 00:26:26,168 and talk about how we would not care what you wore to work. 420 00:26:26,627 --> 00:26:30,464 You can come in in shorts and flip flops if you want to. 421 00:26:30,547 --> 00:26:32,674 We would not care when you came. 422 00:26:32,758 --> 00:26:34,593 We would focus on your outcome, 423 00:26:34,676 --> 00:26:38,180 and if you wanted to come in at noon and leave at midnight, 424 00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,558 -it's your business. You're adults. -The pressure is on. 425 00:26:42,142 --> 00:26:44,394 And all of a sudden, boom, they were in. 426 00:26:46,647 --> 00:26:49,107 [narrator] There were tales of board meetings in hot tubs, 427 00:26:50,317 --> 00:26:52,270 pot smoking in the halls, 428 00:26:52,945 --> 00:26:55,322 and lots of hooking up, allegedly. 429 00:26:55,405 --> 00:26:56,281 And... [chuckles] 430 00:26:56,365 --> 00:26:59,785 And so the other companies were looking around the Valley, 431 00:27:00,327 --> 00:27:02,663 Atari was kicking serious butt, 432 00:27:02,746 --> 00:27:04,623 and they said maybe that's the way. 433 00:27:05,415 --> 00:27:08,377 [narrator] And Atari... made a ton of money. 434 00:27:12,464 --> 00:27:15,551 They built their empire by producing hit arcade games, 435 00:27:16,510 --> 00:27:20,806 on top of industry-defining consoles and computer systems. 436 00:27:20,889 --> 00:27:24,351 We felt that we were creating a world-changing technology. 437 00:27:25,102 --> 00:27:27,896 [narrator] Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications 438 00:27:27,980 --> 00:27:31,400 and about two years after the suits took over, he was out. 439 00:27:31,900 --> 00:27:35,571 And the video game Goliath found its David. 440 00:27:35,654 --> 00:27:38,730 Well, Doug, Mike, and Steve. 441 00:27:38,574 --> 00:27:42,995 We have the biggest consumer electronics company on the planet 442 00:27:43,780 --> 00:27:44,288 coming after us? 443 00:27:44,371 --> 00:27:45,914 Awesome. Bring it on, dude. 444 00:27:45,998 --> 00:27:47,875 And they just said, "Hey, Mike! 445 00:27:47,958 --> 00:27:50,919 There's a restraining order against us! We can’t sell anything anymore!" 446 00:27:51,300 --> 00:27:51,837 And they were giddy. 447 00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:54,298 That was not how I felt  when I first heard about it. 448 00:27:54,381 --> 00:27:56,925 But I think they thought the lawsuit legitimized them. 449 00:27:57,900 --> 00:27:59,428 It actually made the broad tape, on Wall Street, 450 00:27:59,511 --> 00:28:03,515 and I remember my dad seeing that I had been sued for five million, 451 00:28:04,990 --> 00:28:06,518 which was one third of the 15 million dollars. 452 00:28:06,602 --> 00:28:08,604 And he called me up and said, 453 00:28:08,687 --> 00:28:10,772 "Doug, are you gonna win this suit? 454 00:28:11,481 --> 00:28:14,902 And, if not, do you have five million dollars?" 455 00:28:15,402 --> 00:28:18,947 I said, "We're gonna win it, and no, I don't have five million." 456 00:28:19,489 --> 00:28:21,491 [narrator] Did these guys steal Atari’s idea 457 00:28:21,575 --> 00:28:24,770 by modifying a game to make it better? 458 00:28:24,578 --> 00:28:26,790 A judge would decide. 459 00:28:26,163 --> 00:28:27,915 Okay, so we're going to court. 460 00:28:30,792 --> 00:28:33,420 [narrator] While Mike continued on the Pac-Man kit, 461 00:28:34,838 --> 00:28:38,175 the others went to battle over Missile Command. 462 00:28:39,301 --> 00:28:41,530 Atari launched their case... 463 00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:44,848 claiming copyright infringement, 464 00:28:46,990 --> 00:28:47,476 trademark dilution, 465 00:28:48,393 --> 00:28:50,687 and misrepresentation of origin. 466 00:28:52,648 --> 00:28:53,815 The dropouts... 467 00:28:54,441 --> 00:28:55,692 went on the defense, 468 00:28:56,610 --> 00:28:58,528 pulling all-nighters over the weekend, 469 00:28:58,612 --> 00:29:00,614 to change everything in their code 470 00:29:00,697 --> 00:29:02,449 that Atari took issue with. 471 00:29:03,116 --> 00:29:05,452 But there was one bigger issue for Atari. 472 00:29:06,328 --> 00:29:07,496 If they lost, 473 00:29:08,205 --> 00:29:10,582 the suit could set a new legal precedent 474 00:29:11,830 --> 00:29:14,461 allowing even more users to transform their games. 475 00:29:14,544 --> 00:29:16,380 So Atari surprised everyone 476 00:29:17,130 --> 00:29:18,131 and settled... 477 00:29:18,632 --> 00:29:20,920 but on two conditions. 478 00:29:20,842 --> 00:29:24,972 One, that the twenty-somethings come make games for Atari. 479 00:29:25,389 --> 00:29:29,768 And two, that they get permission for any game enhancements in the future. 480 00:29:30,686 --> 00:29:33,105 Mike had just finished their kit for Pac-Man. 481 00:29:33,188 --> 00:29:37,734 So we've got this Pac-Man kit, and how are we going to sell it? 482 00:29:37,818 --> 00:29:41,321 We have to get permission from the manufacturer. 483 00:29:41,405 --> 00:29:46,493 Pac-Man was not made by Atari so if they were going to release the game, 484 00:29:46,576 --> 00:29:48,578 they were going to have to get creative. 485 00:29:48,662 --> 00:29:51,248 We called the president of Midway Manufacturing 486 00:29:51,331 --> 00:29:54,543 who's the manufacturer of Pac-Man in the US. 487 00:29:54,626 --> 00:29:56,878 We've just signed this deal with Atari. 488 00:29:56,962 --> 00:29:59,506 No one knows about this. It's secret. 489 00:29:59,589 --> 00:30:03,844 All the industry knows is that Atari dropped their lawsuit. 490 00:30:05,178 --> 00:30:06,130 Really? 491 00:30:06,555 --> 00:30:08,807 And we said we had beaten Atari in court 492 00:30:09,307 --> 00:30:13,520 and that if they wanted to fight us in court, we would beat them also. 493 00:30:13,603 --> 00:30:15,397 So we just want permission to sell it. 494 00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:17,149 It was a total, complete bluff. 495 00:30:17,232 --> 00:30:19,359 We're like 21, 22 years old. 496 00:30:20,270 --> 00:30:22,290 And we thought we were very good poker players 497 00:30:22,112 --> 00:30:23,613 and might get permission. 498 00:30:23,697 --> 00:30:28,744 They saw this as a great way to basically keep the Pac-Man assembly line going. 499 00:30:28,827 --> 00:30:30,912 So we signed a deal with Midway. 500 00:30:32,414 --> 00:30:35,420 [narrator] They called it Ms. Pac-Man. 501 00:30:35,125 --> 00:30:37,377 ♪ Honey, don't you know ♪ 502 00:30:37,461 --> 00:30:40,464 ♪ I'm more than Pac-Man with a bow ♪ 503 00:30:40,547 --> 00:30:43,175 You know, I didn’t cure cancer. I gave her lipstick. 504 00:30:43,550 --> 00:30:46,720 [narrator] And video games' first femme fatale was born. 505 00:30:47,637 --> 00:30:48,972 On screen, that is. 506 00:30:50,570 --> 00:30:54,895 On stage, video games' first national championship was about to begin. 507 00:30:57,522 --> 00:30:58,857 [Becky Heineman] I was 16. 508 00:30:59,274 --> 00:31:02,444 And I've never left home, 509 00:31:02,527 --> 00:31:05,197 and now I'm going to New York City by myself 510 00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:08,742 to play a Space Invaders video game contest. 511 00:31:08,825 --> 00:31:11,286 I was scared shitless. 512 00:31:15,540 --> 00:31:18,877 I flew by myself. They picked us up in a limousine. 513 00:31:20,837 --> 00:31:24,966 They gave us a tour of New York City.  They took us to a really fancy restaurant. 514 00:31:25,467 --> 00:31:26,927 They put us up in a hotel. 515 00:31:27,100 --> 00:31:29,471 And the very next day, they picked us all up 516 00:31:29,971 --> 00:31:31,973 and took us to the contest. 517 00:31:32,570 --> 00:31:33,517 And I couldn't believe it. 518 00:31:34,142 --> 00:31:37,437 There were film crews from NBC and CBS. 519 00:31:37,521 --> 00:31:41,358 When you have news like that, you know this is a big thing. 520 00:31:44,270 --> 00:31:48,490 They had five TVs with Atari 2600s, in a row, 521 00:31:48,990 --> 00:31:51,993 and they gave each of us a t-shirt with our names on the back. 522 00:31:52,786 --> 00:31:55,205 I remember I was the seat on the far left. 523 00:31:55,997 --> 00:31:58,542 I was just told, "Play until you die." 524 00:31:58,625 --> 00:32:01,419 And then at that point, they then said, "All right, everybody. 525 00:32:01,962 --> 00:32:03,213 Turn on your Ataris. 526 00:32:03,630 --> 00:32:04,798 And... 527 00:32:04,881 --> 00:32:05,841 go!" 528 00:32:06,716 --> 00:32:10,804 And, of course, the sound I still remember to this day as if it was yesterday, 529 00:32:10,887 --> 00:32:14,766 was the sound of all five Ataris starting up at the same time. 530 00:32:21,940 --> 00:32:24,609 We were completely in sync, where you hear the... 531 00:32:24,693 --> 00:32:28,363 "Boom, boom, boom, boom." 532 00:32:28,447 --> 00:32:31,320 And of course, we all started blasting. 533 00:32:32,242 --> 00:32:35,370 And then the UFOs all came with this thing of, "Woo-woo-woo-woo!" 534 00:32:35,453 --> 00:32:38,165 And it was all, like, five of them at the same time. 535 00:32:39,499 --> 00:32:42,419 What they didn't expect, was after 20 minutes, 536 00:32:42,502 --> 00:32:44,379 the first player fell. 537 00:32:44,462 --> 00:32:48,800 But the other four of us, we played and played and played. 538 00:32:51,303 --> 00:32:53,680 At that precise moment in time, 539 00:32:54,181 --> 00:32:57,309 the only thing that existed in the entire universe 540 00:32:57,851 --> 00:32:58,727 was me, 541 00:32:59,603 --> 00:33:01,396 the joystick I had in my hand, 542 00:33:03,231 --> 00:33:04,316 and that screen. 543 00:33:08,945 --> 00:33:11,907 Good players last around three minutes. 544 00:33:12,824 --> 00:33:14,868 Great players last 30 minutes. 545 00:33:15,619 --> 00:33:16,995 But exceptional players... 546 00:33:17,662 --> 00:33:18,872 [boy yells] 547 00:33:18,955 --> 00:33:20,290 ...play the game forever. 548 00:33:20,373 --> 00:33:23,960 So the intent, obviously, was that one by one, 549 00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:25,170 we would each fall off 550 00:33:25,253 --> 00:33:28,256 until there's only one person standing,  and they would declare us the winner. 551 00:33:30,467 --> 00:33:32,385 But we played and played 552 00:33:32,469 --> 00:33:36,139 and I must have wiped out 200 screens' worth of aliens. 553 00:33:36,681 --> 00:33:38,683 An hour and 45 minutes later, 554 00:33:39,392 --> 00:33:40,936 they just suddenly announce, 555 00:33:41,190 --> 00:33:44,439 "And so concludes that first Space Invaders Tournament!" 556 00:33:45,230 --> 00:33:47,250 So they announce the winners. Of course, fifth place 557 00:33:48,235 --> 00:33:50,487 was the guy who lost in the beginning. 558 00:33:50,570 --> 00:33:53,448 Then the gentleman from Texas got fourth place. 559 00:33:53,949 --> 00:33:56,534 Frank Tetro of New York got third place. 560 00:33:56,618 --> 00:33:59,788 Once they announced him, then I realized... [gasps] 561 00:34:00,622 --> 00:34:02,290 ...I could actually win. 562 00:34:02,832 --> 00:34:06,419 Then they announced Hang Ming of San Francisco got second place. 563 00:34:06,503 --> 00:34:12,300 "And the National Champion is Heineman, from Los Angeles!" 564 00:34:12,384 --> 00:34:15,428 With that I just reached over, grabbed the cartridge, 565 00:34:15,512 --> 00:34:18,390 yanked it out, and just put it down and I’m like, 566 00:34:18,473 --> 00:34:24,200 "I don't want to play this game ever again in my life!" [laughs] 567 00:34:26,231 --> 00:34:29,192 [reporter] So what do you think it takes to be a winner at this game? 568 00:34:29,734 --> 00:34:31,736 Raw courage. [laughs] 569 00:34:32,153 --> 00:34:34,489 [reporter] How did you first get involved in Space Invaders? 570 00:34:34,572 --> 00:34:36,324 I buy the cartridges when they come out, 571 00:34:36,408 --> 00:34:39,327 and Space Invaders came out as a cartridge, 572 00:34:39,411 --> 00:34:42,664 I bought it up immediately, and I got addicted ever since. 573 00:34:44,207 --> 00:34:45,625 [narrator] Cartridges, 574 00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:47,877 the clunky plastic boxes 575 00:34:47,961 --> 00:34:51,548 that gave players an endless supply of video games. 576 00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:55,760 They were new and they revolutionized the home console market. 577 00:34:57,512 --> 00:35:01,141 Before, when you bought a Pong console, you could only play, 578 00:35:01,224 --> 00:35:03,601 well, one game, Pong. 579 00:35:04,436 --> 00:35:07,981 But in 1976, that would all change... 580 00:35:09,983 --> 00:35:14,404 thanks to one unsung hero of video game history. 581 00:35:18,742 --> 00:35:20,493 What do you know about your papa? 582 00:35:20,577 --> 00:35:24,331 -He makes video games? -Okay. 583 00:35:24,956 --> 00:35:28,293 [man] He was a bit of a maverick.  And I think you’ve got to be, right? 584 00:35:28,376 --> 00:35:30,920 You're the only African-American in that space. 585 00:35:31,504 --> 00:35:34,341 You represent more than just yourself. 586 00:35:35,342 --> 00:35:38,470 So here's a picture of your grandfather on the roof. 587 00:35:39,929 --> 00:35:41,890 -Putting up an antenna, see? -[boy] Oh. 588 00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:45,977 [woman] Being a six-foot-six black man in Silicon Valley 589 00:35:46,610 --> 00:35:50,523 before they were calling it the Valley, I can only imagine what... 590 00:35:50,607 --> 00:35:53,485 his everyday existence was like 591 00:35:53,568 --> 00:35:56,738 working with people that did not look like him. 592 00:35:57,864 --> 00:36:01,201 [man] He was obsessed with electronics and computers. 593 00:36:02,952 --> 00:36:06,539 [narrator] Karen and Anderson Lawson's father was Jerry Lawson. 594 00:36:06,998 --> 00:36:11,711 He died in 2011, but his legacy lives on today. 595 00:36:13,505 --> 00:36:15,715 [Anderson] My father was an electronic engineer. 596 00:36:16,216 --> 00:36:17,592 [Karen] He loved his work. 597 00:36:18,134 --> 00:36:19,844 He was consumed by it, really. 598 00:36:21,540 --> 00:36:23,765 The garage was almost like a mission control. 599 00:36:23,848 --> 00:36:26,643 Monitors surrounding him. 600 00:36:26,726 --> 00:36:29,938 Equipment that was up against the walls. 601 00:36:31,689 --> 00:36:35,652 [Anderson] On the side, he worked on a project out of the garage, 602 00:36:35,735 --> 00:36:38,738 where he built an arcade game. 603 00:36:40,156 --> 00:36:41,699 He just thought it was fun. 604 00:36:42,951 --> 00:36:46,370 [Karen] His bosses got wind of him tinkering with the game 605 00:36:46,121 --> 00:36:48,206 and brought him on 606 00:36:48,289 --> 00:36:53,378 to create the technology for their new video game console. 607 00:36:58,216 --> 00:37:01,761 [narrator] His mission was to create a video game console 608 00:37:01,845 --> 00:37:04,431 with interchangeable gaming cartridges. 609 00:37:05,560 --> 00:37:06,975 It had never been done before. 610 00:37:07,475 --> 00:37:09,394 [Anderson] There is power in having 611 00:37:09,477 --> 00:37:12,630 the games programmed onto individual cartridges. 612 00:37:14,649 --> 00:37:17,260 It puts you into a place where you can actually 613 00:37:17,861 --> 00:37:20,488 have multiple games for your console. 614 00:37:21,720 --> 00:37:22,157 So your library... 615 00:37:23,658 --> 00:37:25,535 can grow exponentially. 616 00:37:30,999 --> 00:37:35,545 [Karen] He led that team and he was able to create the technology 617 00:37:35,628 --> 00:37:38,965 that allowed interchangeable cartridges to play. 618 00:37:39,799 --> 00:37:42,969 [Anderson] You're talking about a system that is revolutionizing 619 00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:46,970 how games are going to be manufactured and played. 620 00:37:46,181 --> 00:37:47,849 So it was kind of a top secret thing. 621 00:37:48,683 --> 00:37:51,561 The console was finished within six to eight months 622 00:37:51,644 --> 00:37:53,521 and it was named the Channel F. 623 00:37:53,938 --> 00:37:56,441 The Channel F was the first ever console 624 00:37:56,524 --> 00:37:58,943 to use cartridges, and it was a pivotal invention. 625 00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:02,780 So much so that competitors soon followed 626 00:38:02,864 --> 00:38:05,158 with their own cartridge-based consoles. 627 00:38:05,241 --> 00:38:08,369 Okay, Atari, let’s see your best pitch. 628 00:38:10,872 --> 00:38:12,582 You're out, Rose! 629 00:38:13,333 --> 00:38:16,586 [announcer] No other company offers you as many different video game cartridges 630 00:38:16,669 --> 00:38:17,795 as Atari. 631 00:38:18,963 --> 00:38:20,757 Okay, let me show you this, Mason. 632 00:38:21,633 --> 00:38:25,595 [Karen] When Atari came out with interchangeable cartridges, 633 00:38:26,638 --> 00:38:31,100 it eclipsed anything that came out prior to it. 634 00:38:32,435 --> 00:38:34,187 And Dad’s story was lost. 635 00:38:35,897 --> 00:38:36,731 And look here. 636 00:38:38,107 --> 00:38:39,442 Sleeping Papa. 637 00:38:40,109 --> 00:38:42,862 [Anderson] He always used to fall asleep at his desk like that. 638 00:38:42,946 --> 00:38:43,947 [Mason] What? 639 00:38:44,656 --> 00:38:45,573 It's crazy. 640 00:38:45,657 --> 00:38:49,244 The fact that the Channel F is not known by a lot of people 641 00:38:49,327 --> 00:38:50,578 is a little bit sad, 642 00:38:51,790 --> 00:38:53,206 but I'm willing to bet that there's probably others 643 00:38:53,289 --> 00:38:54,666 just like my dad, right? 644 00:38:55,416 --> 00:38:57,100 No one knows their name. 645 00:38:58,127 --> 00:38:59,295 Long time ago, right? 646 00:39:00,588 --> 00:39:04,968 [narrator] Lawson may not have gotten the recognition he deserved as an inventor... 647 00:39:05,510 --> 00:39:07,530 [Anderson] Ah, this is a good picture of Dad. 648 00:39:07,136 --> 00:39:09,597 [narrator] ...but others got recognition... 649 00:39:10,723 --> 00:39:12,141 for the wrong reasons. 650 00:39:13,184 --> 00:39:15,186 [man] When I started working at Atari, 651 00:39:16,104 --> 00:39:18,690 it was a vibrant, exciting... 652 00:39:19,315 --> 00:39:21,109 environment to be in. 653 00:39:21,901 --> 00:39:22,944 It was creative, 654 00:39:23,270 --> 00:39:26,739 stimulating, the people were fascinating. 655 00:39:26,823 --> 00:39:28,700 It was cool to work at Atari. 656 00:39:29,242 --> 00:39:32,245 [narrator] And Howard Scott Warshaw had a pretty good start. 657 00:39:32,328 --> 00:39:34,455 I had a number of very successful games. 658 00:39:34,539 --> 00:39:36,874 I still to this day get fan mail about Yars' Revenge. 659 00:39:36,958 --> 00:39:39,210 ♪ Yars' Revenge... ♪ 660 00:39:39,294 --> 00:39:42,422 [narrator] Howard made his name at Atari doing big games that earned millions. 661 00:39:42,505 --> 00:39:44,841 ♪ Have you played Atari today? ♪ 662 00:39:44,924 --> 00:39:48,110 Back then at Atari, a typical time for development of a game 663 00:39:48,940 --> 00:39:50,263 would be anywhere from six to eight months. 664 00:39:50,346 --> 00:39:54,684 [announcer] Can Indiana Jones escape from the forces of evil? 665 00:39:55,393 --> 00:39:58,313 [Howard] Raiders of the Lost Ark took about nine months. 666 00:39:59,814 --> 00:40:02,358 [commercial] Will Indy make it all the way? 667 00:40:02,692 --> 00:40:06,821 Find out in Atari’s Raiders of the Lost Ark adventure game! 668 00:40:07,447 --> 00:40:09,824 [Warshaw] That was a huge undertaking. 669 00:40:09,907 --> 00:40:12,702 I'd literally just finished Raiders... 670 00:40:14,203 --> 00:40:15,788 ...when I get the call to do E.T., 671 00:40:16,456 --> 00:40:18,333 another big movie property game. 672 00:40:18,416 --> 00:40:19,959 [telephone rings] 673 00:40:20,430 --> 00:40:21,252 Hello? 674 00:40:21,336 --> 00:40:24,464 "Hey, we need E.T. for September 1st." 675 00:40:24,547 --> 00:40:27,500 And this is July 27th. 676 00:40:27,133 --> 00:40:28,301 Five weeks. 677 00:40:29,636 --> 00:40:32,764 No one's ever done it and no one would think of doing it. 678 00:40:32,847 --> 00:40:35,725 It's a stupid idea, you know? [laughs] Nobody would do it. 679 00:40:35,808 --> 00:40:37,185 That's just ridiculous. 680 00:40:37,268 --> 00:40:39,312 But the game had to be delivered for Christmas. 681 00:40:39,395 --> 00:40:41,648 It was deemed that if it wasn't a Christmas release, 682 00:40:41,731 --> 00:40:43,566 there's no point in going out with the game. 683 00:40:44,275 --> 00:40:46,319 So I said, "Absolutely I can." 684 00:40:47,487 --> 00:40:50,907 There was no hesitation, and no doubt in my mind 685 00:40:50,990 --> 00:40:52,116 I could do this. 686 00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:55,360 I'm not exactly sure what I was full of, 687 00:40:55,119 --> 00:40:58,289 but whatever it was, I was overflowing with it. 688 00:41:00,208 --> 00:41:02,168 I was not short of confidence. 689 00:41:02,669 --> 00:41:05,630 Now, this is a Tuesday afternoon. 690 00:41:05,713 --> 00:41:08,925 He says, "Okay, so Thursday morning at eight a.m. 691 00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:12,220 be at San Jose airport at the executive terminal. 692 00:41:12,303 --> 00:41:16,891 There will be a Learjet waiting for you to take you to see Spielberg 693 00:41:16,974 --> 00:41:19,644 to present the design for the game." [laughs] 694 00:41:19,727 --> 00:41:23,398 I'm like, "Oh, I've got 36 whole hours to design the game? Fabulous." 695 00:41:28,569 --> 00:41:31,989 But I was a little nervous because Spielberg was like an idol of mine. 696 00:41:32,730 --> 00:41:33,199 It was a big deal. 697 00:41:36,350 --> 00:41:37,870 So I pitched the game to Steven. 698 00:41:44,335 --> 00:41:46,587 He sits there, thinks about it for a moment. 699 00:41:47,380 --> 00:41:49,465 "Couldn't you do something more like Pac-Man?" 700 00:41:50,842 --> 00:41:53,177 I mean, in my head I am exploding. 701 00:41:54,512 --> 00:41:57,560 What? Are you kidding me? 702 00:41:57,140 --> 00:41:59,851 You're one of the most innovative filmmakers 703 00:41:59,934 --> 00:42:02,520 and you want me to do a knock-off for the game 704 00:42:02,603 --> 00:42:04,689 for your very exceptional movie? 705 00:42:05,189 --> 00:42:08,609 I did not say this to him, though, because this is Steven Spielberg 706 00:42:08,693 --> 00:42:10,987 and I'm not completely out of my mind at that point. 707 00:42:12,155 --> 00:42:15,199 So I said it would be a dishonor to the movie in some way 708 00:42:15,283 --> 00:42:17,118 to just do a knock off of something like that. 709 00:42:17,201 --> 00:42:19,620 I said, "I think this is more appropriate to it." 710 00:42:19,704 --> 00:42:22,498 And he just said, "Okay." The reality of it was, 711 00:42:22,582 --> 00:42:25,293 "Holy crap, I can't do Pac-Man in five weeks! 712 00:42:25,376 --> 00:42:27,962 This is the game I can do in five weeks! 713 00:42:28,450 --> 00:42:30,673 I can do this game." It's just a question of writing it. 714 00:42:30,757 --> 00:42:33,551 It was an extremely intense five weeks. 715 00:42:33,634 --> 00:42:38,723 Virtually nothing else existed in my life other than the game. 716 00:42:39,599 --> 00:42:41,142 I worked all the time. 717 00:42:41,726 --> 00:42:44,687 I almost killed myself in my car 718 00:42:44,771 --> 00:42:47,899 because I was coding in my head instead of watching what I was doing. 719 00:42:48,316 --> 00:42:51,569 E or FF. That'll change everything. 720 00:42:52,695 --> 00:42:56,991 I could be eating with people and, in my head, I’m still coding. 721 00:42:57,740 --> 00:42:59,869 I had a development system moved into my home, 722 00:43:00,286 --> 00:43:03,247 so that wherever I am, I'm never more than a minute 723 00:43:03,331 --> 00:43:05,249 from being able to get to a keyboard 724 00:43:05,333 --> 00:43:07,835 and start putting the code that I need to put in in. 725 00:43:07,919 --> 00:43:11,470 That five weeks was the hardest five weeks I ever worked in my life. 726 00:43:11,464 --> 00:43:15,885 And by the time it was September 1st, I hand it over and it's done. 727 00:43:15,968 --> 00:43:19,639 I was the hero who had come through in the impossible situation 728 00:43:19,722 --> 00:43:21,349 and made it happen. 729 00:43:21,432 --> 00:43:23,226 I went to present it to Steven. 730 00:43:23,810 --> 00:43:26,771 Spielberg plays the game and approved the game, so it went. 731 00:43:27,522 --> 00:43:30,660 It was a huge moment of relief. 732 00:43:30,566 --> 00:43:32,860 So they made four or five million of them. 733 00:43:40,340 --> 00:43:43,621 [narrator] Commercials were made, stores were stocked, 734 00:43:44,372 --> 00:43:46,207 and stockings stuffed. 735 00:43:46,707 --> 00:43:50,253 [announcer] The video game that lets you help E.T. get home... 736 00:43:51,450 --> 00:43:53,470 just in time for Christmas. 737 00:43:53,130 --> 00:43:55,508 [narrator] But it all turned out to be a huge, 738 00:43:55,925 --> 00:43:59,950 expensive, disastrous misstep. 739 00:43:59,846 --> 00:44:03,349 E.T. was nothing to phone home about. 740 00:44:03,432 --> 00:44:07,979 Reviewers called it cumbersome, crude, maddening. 741 00:44:08,620 --> 00:44:10,231 [Warshaw] People said, "What are all these pits doing? 742 00:44:10,314 --> 00:44:12,942 It's stupid. Why do you have pits? They're so annoying." 743 00:44:13,250 --> 00:44:16,700 [narrator] In short... it bombed, big time. 744 00:44:16,529 --> 00:44:19,866 [reporter] Some stores are canceling orders right before Christmas. 745 00:44:20,533 --> 00:44:21,993 [man] We have a lot in stock 746 00:44:22,760 --> 00:44:24,620 and we want to get rid of them before the holidays. 747 00:44:24,704 --> 00:44:28,400 [Howard] Who wants to have done the worst piece of entertainment? 748 00:44:28,124 --> 00:44:30,585 So there had to be an identifiable face. 749 00:44:31,460 --> 00:44:34,255 And I think E.T. became that face. 750 00:44:34,338 --> 00:44:37,550 And I became the butt somewhere behind that face. 751 00:44:37,967 --> 00:44:40,386 [narrator] But it was just the beginning of the end. 752 00:44:42,847 --> 00:44:45,570 The home version of the arcade smash Pac-Man 753 00:44:45,141 --> 00:44:46,893 left fans disappointed. 754 00:44:46,976 --> 00:44:49,437 I thought it would be a lot different than it is. 755 00:44:49,520 --> 00:44:51,480 I thought it would be more like the arcade version. 756 00:44:51,564 --> 00:44:54,358 [narrator] Then, a wave of crappy games 757 00:44:54,442 --> 00:44:58,321 and a corporate mindset of "quantity, not quality" had emerged... 758 00:44:58,404 --> 00:45:00,698 [reporter] There may just be too many games on the market. 759 00:45:00,781 --> 00:45:04,327 [narrator] ...and players began to hang up their controllers. 760 00:45:04,410 --> 00:45:07,955 [reporter] The booming video game fad is losing its grip on American youth. 761 00:45:08,390 --> 00:45:11,459 -I'm getting tired of them. -Video game sales have gone tilt. 762 00:45:11,542 --> 00:45:13,628 The boom simply isn’t booming anymore. 763 00:45:13,711 --> 00:45:17,131 [narrator] America's video game boom had gone bust. 764 00:45:17,924 --> 00:45:21,385 If Pac-Man, E.T., and Raiders of the Lost Ark 765 00:45:21,469 --> 00:45:23,512 aren't selling, what will?