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00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:11,553
[man in Japanese]
Nintendo was our rival at the time,

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00:00:11,637 --> 00:00:14,389
and they had a powerhouse in Mario.

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00:00:16,600 --> 00:00:21,730
Honestly, Sega didn't have
any characters on that level.

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00:00:22,189 --> 00:00:28,111
We were told to create a character
that could compete with Mario.

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00:00:31,198 --> 00:00:35,160
Nintendo was like an impossibly huge wall.

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You would think that they were invincible.

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We were too outmatched
to even feel pressure.

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00:00:45,300 --> 00:00:49,258
With nothing to lose,
we might as well go down swinging.

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00:01:32,926 --> 00:01:37,139
[narrator in English] In the late '80s,
all kids wanted for Christmas was…

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00:01:37,222 --> 00:01:39,224
Nintendo!

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00:01:39,308 --> 00:01:41,810
[narrator]
...a Nintendo Entertainment System.

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Thank you! [crying]

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And parents--

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uh, Santa,

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made it one of the best-selling
holiday toys of 1988.

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Nintendo!

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00:01:55,320 --> 00:01:57,576
But if Mario was the undisputed king,

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an underdog was about to declare war.

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00:02:02,831 --> 00:02:07,461
For Japanese game maker Sega,
mainly known for its arcade cabinets,

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the battle was about
winning the home console market.

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[reporter] This year,
kids and their parents

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will spend more than three billion dollars

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00:02:16,303 --> 00:02:19,389
on video games and game cartridges.

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[narrator] Sega had released
its new Genesis console in Japan...

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[speaking Japanese]

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...where its 16-bit technology

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was a giant leap
from the existing eight-bit consoles.

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[announcer] A scientist
creates the ultimate machine.

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At last!

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[announcer] A machine
that will give him the power.

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Yes!

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[narrator] With 16 bits,

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Sega's Genesis had the power to defeat
the Nintendo Entertainment System.

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The only thing missing were hit games.

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For that, they turned to this man.

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I was very aware
that we were starting a war with Nintendo.

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And I knew that if we did it correctly,
we could win the battle.

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This is Tom Kalinske,

39
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the general
in Sega's war against Nintendo.

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Before joining Sega,

41
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Kalinske had already
made a name for himself at Mattel toys.

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But a few years after leaving Mattel,

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Tom got a surprise visitor.

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[Tom] I was actually on vacation

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in Hawaii with my wife and my kids.

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And Hayao Nakayama,
the chairman and CEO of Sega Japan,

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tracked me down in Maui,
and he just appeared.

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He came and he said,

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"I want you to run Sega of America,

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and I'm going to show you
16-bit technology,

51
00:03:48,728 --> 00:03:51,898
I'm also going to show you
a color handheld game unit,

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and the reason why it's better than
what Nintendo has."

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00:03:56,736 --> 00:03:59,865
And I ended up going from Hawaii
to Japan with him,

54
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and I was knocked out
by 16-bit technology.

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It was so much better
than eight-bit technology

56
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that I believed that,
yes, we could take on Nintendo,

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00:04:11,100 --> 00:04:14,546
who had a 98% share
of the video game market in those days.

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[narrator] Tom accepted the offer 
to become CEO of Sega of America.

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But there was a catch.

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The directive from Japan
was hyaku man tan'i

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00:04:24,764 --> 00:04:27,100
which meant sell a million units.

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They had only sold maybe
70,000 units of Genesis up to that point,

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so there was a long way to go
to get to a million units!

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00:04:36,359 --> 00:04:39,863
[narrator] So Kalinske had to come up
with a battle plan

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00:04:39,946 --> 00:04:44,159
to sell one million
of Sega's newest console, the Genesis.

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[Tom] So I developed a plan
and went back to Japan.

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We went into
what's called the decision room.

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And, of course, most of the people
that I'm talking to did not speak English.

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00:04:54,920 --> 00:05:00,800
And I had to sell the battle plan
to the board of directors of Sega.

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00:05:01,718 --> 00:05:05,764
[narrator] Kalinske's five-point
battle plan would prove pretty unfamiliar

71
00:05:05,847 --> 00:05:07,974
to the Japanese business mindset.

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So I present my strategy
to the board of directors,

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but it wasn't going well.

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And Nakayama gets up,
and he kicks over a chair. 

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"They don't agree with anything you said."
And he starts to leave the room.

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00:05:23,281 --> 00:05:26,340
I thought, "Well, this is
the shortest career anybody ever had.

77
00:05:26,117 --> 00:05:28,411
I'm done for. He's leaving the room,

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00:05:28,495 --> 00:05:30,705
leaving me with all these people
who don’t agree with me."

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And he turned at the door, and he said,

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"When I hired you, I said you were
going to be able to make all the decisions

81
00:05:36,461 --> 00:05:37,712
for the American market,

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and so go ahead and do your things
that you've planned."

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Now, it had to work, obviously,
or I was finished.

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[narrator] The first part...

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was relatively easy.

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But the next step of his war plan 
would rely on Sega's secret weapon.

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[man in Japanese] I think speed
was probably crucial to Sega because...

88
00:06:04,447 --> 00:06:07,117
the Sega Genesis

89
00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:11,913
was being marketed
as a 16-bit machine.

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It had much faster processing
than a conventional system.

91
00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:23,800
We could make the game
faster than ever before.

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[narrator in English] Having
a fast console wasn't enough for Sega.

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They needed a new hit game.

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So game designer Hirokazu Yasuhara
looked for a little...

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[screaming]

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00:06:38,773 --> 00:06:39,941
...inspiration.

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[Yasuhara in Japanese]
We targeted an American audience. 

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We wondered what was popular in America.

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00:07:02,881 --> 00:07:09,137
And we thought roller coasters
might be a very viable attraction.

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Our program could already
render loops and turns.

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We decided to leverage the program

102
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and make a game
with a lot of acrobatic loops.

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We made like a big roller coaster...

104
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and then snipped it. 

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And then we added little surprises
along the way.

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[narrator in English] And with
thrilling gameplay sketches in hand,

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the final element Sega required 
was a mascot to outrun Mario.

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[man in Japanese] The game
was developed before the character,

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then we created

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00:08:02,649 --> 00:08:07,612
the character designs
that best fit the game.

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[narrator in English] Mario was 
a cute little plumber in overalls.

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So Naoto Ohshima wanted
to design something different,

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something edgy,

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sleek, aerodynamic.

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[Ohshima in Japanese]
We finally settled on a character

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that could run faster than anyone
and could curl up and attack.

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I think the first one was a rabbit.

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Then we said something like a panda
would be good.

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But we thought it might be
too cute and confusing

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for a panda to roll and attack.

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So we decided a hedgehog.

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[narrator in English] This tiny, spiny
furball was a rather obscure choice,

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so Oshima conducted
an informal field test,

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00:09:04,961 --> 00:09:06,838
which took him to New York City.

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[Ohshima in Japanese] The goal was
for him to become popular in the US.

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Coincidentally, I had a personal trip
to New York coming up.

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I brought a board.

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I drew out a hedgehog,

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a human character, and another animal.

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And I took a survey in Central Park
of the characters that people liked.

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Then Sonic came out as number one.

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That's how I became confident
that the hedgehog was the best.

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00:10:00,350 --> 00:10:02,977
[narrator in English]
Meet Sonic, the speedy hedgehog

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00:10:03,610 --> 00:10:05,188
who would become Sega's new mascot.

135
00:10:05,772 --> 00:10:07,899
And he wasn't just all smiles.

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00:10:07,982 --> 00:10:10,568
He was fierce and ready to attack.

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00:10:14,823 --> 00:10:18,201
[Ohshima in Japanese] Once it curls up
into a ball, it looks unbeatable.

138
00:10:18,868 --> 00:10:23,390
The needles made him look
like he can cause pain.

139
00:10:24,499 --> 00:10:28,795
To express some form of speed,

140
00:10:28,878 --> 00:10:34,592
it was useful to have spikes on the back.

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00:10:39,264 --> 00:10:42,350
At the time, Sega's color was blue,

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00:10:42,976 --> 00:10:45,270
so we made him Sega blue.

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00:10:46,771 --> 00:10:49,732
I think a good character is

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00:10:50,233 --> 00:10:53,778
something with a trait
that can be described in a single phrase.

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00:10:53,862 --> 00:10:58,157
If I were to describe Sonic in one word,
it would be "speed of light."

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00:11:00,326 --> 00:11:03,790
[narrator in English]
On paper, Sonic was fully crafted,

147
00:11:03,163 --> 00:11:06,583
from his sneaky eyes to his fancy sneaks.

148
00:11:07,292 --> 00:11:08,251
All that was left

149
00:11:08,334 --> 00:11:12,460
was to see if he would fit
Yasuhara's roller coaster design

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00:11:12,130 --> 00:11:13,214
like a glove.

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00:11:19,345 --> 00:11:23,850
[Yasuhara in Japanese] People tend
to think games are a solitary activity.

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00:11:25,590 --> 00:11:30,481
But the game designer is always there
behind the screen.

153
00:11:33,359 --> 00:11:37,113
Whenever the game player
makes an action...

154
00:11:37,197 --> 00:11:40,158
the designer leads them
on to the next thing,

155
00:11:40,241 --> 00:11:44,495
encourages them with a reward,
and leads them onward.

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00:11:45,496 --> 00:11:47,665
When he rolls,

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00:11:48,625 --> 00:11:50,877
he doesn't simply bounce back,

158
00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:53,296
he bounces really fast on the spring,

159
00:11:53,713 --> 00:11:57,634
and suddenly gets transported
to a new place.

160
00:11:58,801 --> 00:12:03,890
Also, we supply ups and downs
in the game experience.

161
00:12:04,390 --> 00:12:08,937
Once you overcome the challenge,
you get a slight breather.

162
00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:11,147
By adding these waves...

163
00:12:11,231 --> 00:12:17,700
you heighten the feeling
of accomplishment.

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That's how we build games.

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00:12:21,574 --> 00:12:24,494
[narrator in English]
And all of that work paid off big-time

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00:12:24,577 --> 00:12:27,580
when Sonic launched in 1991.

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00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:31,584
The game was jam-packed with springs,

168
00:12:32,210 --> 00:12:33,169
loops,

169
00:12:34,128 --> 00:12:37,382
and a nearly endless supply of gold rings.

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00:12:39,425 --> 00:12:43,471
It's quite possibly the most iconic game 
Sega ever made,

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00:12:43,554 --> 00:12:47,558
and gave rise to a new legion
of competitive players.

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00:12:49,727 --> 00:12:52,230
[man] My life is like a video game
in so many ways.

173
00:12:53,523 --> 00:12:56,734
If you're competing
in video game competitions,

174
00:12:57,235 --> 00:12:58,403
in order to succeed...

175
00:13:00,321 --> 00:13:01,781
your life must be a video game.

176
00:13:03,741 --> 00:13:05,910
You make decisions like a video game.

177
00:13:05,994 --> 00:13:07,996
You must play precisely and perfectly...

178
00:13:08,830 --> 00:13:10,206
Do not make any mistakes

179
00:13:10,957 --> 00:13:12,830
and be focused.

180
00:13:12,834 --> 00:13:15,169
So... I got one shot.

181
00:13:16,629 --> 00:13:18,339
And I have to make the most of it.

182
00:13:18,965 --> 00:13:20,675
[narrator] This is Chris Tang.

183
00:13:20,758 --> 00:13:22,760
I've been in the industry for a while.

184
00:13:22,844 --> 00:13:28,558
He knows a lot about video games
because his resume is long.

185
00:13:30,180 --> 00:13:31,227
I'm a game designer,

186
00:13:31,894 --> 00:13:32,729
game tester,

187
00:13:33,271 --> 00:13:35,773
the voice
of the “Boom! Tetris for Jeff” meme.

188
00:13:35,857 --> 00:13:36,983
Boom, Tetris for Jeff!

189
00:13:37,660 --> 00:13:39,819
[narrator] He's even
a Nintendo World Champion finalist!

190
00:13:39,902 --> 00:13:43,197
I was meeting girls, and saying, "Hey,
I'm a Nintendo Champion now. What's up?”

191
00:13:43,740 --> 00:13:47,243
The Nintendo championships was the start
of my competitive gaming career.

192
00:13:47,327 --> 00:13:49,746
But my favorite video game
was actually a Sega game.

193
00:13:50,663 --> 00:13:55,668
[narrator] So he's most known for playing 
in the 1994 Sega World Championships.

194
00:13:55,752 --> 00:13:57,587
-[cheering] 
-Yes!

195
00:13:57,670 --> 00:14:01,700
And it all started with an ad campaign.

196
00:14:01,900 --> 00:14:03,426
[Chris] Sega had its own magazine
called Sega Visions,

197
00:14:03,509 --> 00:14:05,530
and they had this article that said,

198
00:14:05,136 --> 00:14:09,150
"We're going to reveal the next Sonic game
and there's going to be this competition 

199
00:14:09,980 --> 00:14:11,434
and 100,000 people are
going to compete against each other 

200
00:14:11,517 --> 00:14:15,210
for $25,000 and find out who the best
video game player in the world is."

201
00:14:15,104 --> 00:14:18,441
-[narrator] And they called it...
-[announcer] Rock the Rock.

202
00:14:18,524 --> 00:14:20,902
[Chris] For the Sega Rock the Rock
competition,

203
00:14:20,985 --> 00:14:24,720
there were three elements
that had rock in it.

204
00:14:24,655 --> 00:14:29,243
It was going to be televised on MTV,
which, you know, rock music.

205
00:14:29,994 --> 00:14:33,831
They had their preliminaries
at Hard Rock Cafes across the world,

206
00:14:34,332 --> 00:14:37,627
and they're going to have
the grand final at Alcatraz...

207
00:14:38,669 --> 00:14:40,400
which is also known as the Rock.

208
00:14:40,505 --> 00:14:42,757
So, they should've called it
Rock the Rock the Rock, but...

209
00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:44,801
I think two rocks was probably enough.

210
00:14:45,218 --> 00:14:46,260
It totally rocked!

211
00:14:46,677 --> 00:14:49,180
But I knew
that competitions like this were rare,

212
00:14:49,263 --> 00:14:52,183
and I was feeling really good
about playing Sonic the Hedgehog.

213
00:14:52,266 --> 00:14:54,185
So I'm like,
"I'm going to go for this thing."

214
00:14:54,268 --> 00:14:55,603
Turns out that, you know, 

215
00:14:55,686 --> 00:14:57,647
this Rock the Rock
Sega world championships

216
00:14:57,730 --> 00:14:59,190
was a real world championship. 

217
00:14:59,273 --> 00:15:02,777
So they had preliminaries
in Japan and France and Brazil.

218
00:15:02,860 --> 00:15:06,489
[narrator] And Chris entered
the preliminaries in San Francisco,

219
00:15:06,572 --> 00:15:08,991
his and the Rock's hometown.

220
00:15:09,750 --> 00:15:10,868
[Chris] It was very busy.
It was very crowded.

221
00:15:10,952 --> 00:15:14,122
They had everything roped off,
and they had this line of stations

222
00:15:14,205 --> 00:15:15,581
that people would play on.

223
00:15:17,875 --> 00:15:20,253
The day progressed and they'd
have these elimination rounds

224
00:15:20,336 --> 00:15:22,400
and you can't make any mistakes. 

225
00:15:22,755 --> 00:15:23,756
I was kind of laid back,

226
00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:26,300
on the outside. On the inside
I really wanted to win this thing.

227
00:15:26,384 --> 00:15:28,219
Keep your cool and keep moving.

228
00:15:28,302 --> 00:15:31,139
Make sure nothing hits you.
And just be careful.

229
00:15:32,140 --> 00:15:35,590
So, it went from
everybody in the whole building

230
00:15:35,143 --> 00:15:38,146
to down to two and I did end up
making it into the top two...

231
00:15:39,438 --> 00:15:41,983
where I made a perfect run
and won for San Francisco.

232
00:15:42,483 --> 00:15:43,317
Yeah!

233
00:15:44,110 --> 00:15:46,280
They handcuffed me to this briefcase

234
00:15:46,112 --> 00:15:49,730
and they hauled me off to a limousine
and drove me to the finals.

235
00:15:49,907 --> 00:15:52,285
[narrator]
Chris Tang was advancing to the finals,

236
00:15:52,952 --> 00:15:56,581
and Sonic was threatening
his rival, Mario.

237
00:15:56,664 --> 00:15:59,667
But for Kalinske, this wasn't enough.

238
00:16:00,209 --> 00:16:03,421
Sports games, to me,
were a very important part of our strategy

239
00:16:03,504 --> 00:16:07,216
because I knew that the teenage player
was really into sports.

240
00:16:08,801 --> 00:16:10,678
So we needed a sports game.

241
00:16:12,130 --> 00:16:17,226
And one visionary entrepreneur 
had already started tackling the challenge

242
00:16:17,310 --> 00:16:21,147
of taking sports
from the stadium onto the screen.

243
00:16:24,275 --> 00:16:27,445
[man] I played football,
I read a lot of books about football.

244
00:16:27,528 --> 00:16:29,989
I even had fantasies
about being a football coach.

245
00:16:31,574 --> 00:16:33,951
I really felt like
I understood enough about...

246
00:16:34,452 --> 00:16:36,621
the mechanics of the real sport

247
00:16:36,704 --> 00:16:38,414
and the probabilities of things 

248
00:16:38,497 --> 00:16:41,667
and I loved using statistics
and leveraging them.

249
00:16:43,628 --> 00:16:46,297
But, anything
that was calling itself a sports game

250
00:16:46,380 --> 00:16:48,299
was really just a kid's toy.

251
00:16:49,175 --> 00:16:52,720
[narrator] In the early '80s,
sports video games existed,

252
00:16:53,512 --> 00:16:57,160
but they didn't really look real.

253
00:16:58,226 --> 00:17:01,687
It was basically saying
Pong was like tennis. 

254
00:17:02,271 --> 00:17:04,482
There are tennis-like elements to it,

255
00:17:04,565 --> 00:17:07,860
but it doesn't have any
of the actual physical properties

256
00:17:07,944 --> 00:17:09,237
or strategies of tennis. 

257
00:17:09,904 --> 00:17:12,532
And I felt like,
"I think I can make a better game.

258
00:17:12,615 --> 00:17:14,784
Something more real."

259
00:17:14,867 --> 00:17:18,871
And then I thought, "Oh, if you think
you can do a better game, then...

260
00:17:19,372 --> 00:17:20,665
go do that."

261
00:17:21,415 --> 00:17:26,796
So in 1982, Trip Hawkins created
his own video game company

262
00:17:27,546 --> 00:17:30,216
and called it Electronic Arts.

263
00:17:31,800 --> 00:17:34,530
[Trip] When I started Electronic Arts,
I couldn't wait to do a football game. 

264
00:17:34,136 --> 00:17:35,596
I was really itching to do it.

265
00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:37,181
I was just going to do it anyway,

266
00:17:37,265 --> 00:17:39,809
no matter what investors thought about it,
or anybody else.

267
00:17:40,393 --> 00:17:43,980
And everybody just knew
it was Trip's thing.

268
00:17:44,647 --> 00:17:47,275
[narrator] Trip's thing was football.

269
00:17:48,401 --> 00:17:50,152
But no, not that one.

270
00:17:50,236 --> 00:17:52,780
[announcer] Here's the play.
Quarterback has the ball.

271
00:17:53,281 --> 00:17:54,532
And there's the throw.

272
00:17:54,615 --> 00:17:58,770
[narrator]
The one and only American football.

273
00:17:59,912 --> 00:18:01,330
The most popular sport...

274
00:18:02,582 --> 00:18:04,125
in the United States.

275
00:18:05,543 --> 00:18:07,378
But football's really complicated.

276
00:18:07,461 --> 00:18:11,340
[narrator] Which is an understatement
for a sport where one single play

277
00:18:11,424 --> 00:18:14,385
can unfold in countless different ways.

278
00:18:14,927 --> 00:18:18,222
So, if I had something
really tricky and challenging to do,

279
00:18:18,306 --> 00:18:20,391
maybe I could work with a coach

280
00:18:20,891 --> 00:18:23,352
that could provide
additional knowledge and insight.

281
00:18:24,353 --> 00:18:26,689
[narrator]
Trip needed an endorsement from a pro,

282
00:18:27,356 --> 00:18:29,233
someone with experience

283
00:18:29,317 --> 00:18:31,319
and enthusiasm.

284
00:18:31,902 --> 00:18:33,904
The left goes to the right,
right goes to the left, 

285
00:18:33,988 --> 00:18:35,698
this guy crosses here, he crosses here,

286
00:18:35,781 --> 00:18:38,750
they have no idea
where we are, who we are,

287
00:18:38,159 --> 00:18:39,952
where we're coming from,
who we're throwing to.

288
00:18:40,360 --> 00:18:41,162
Very interesting.

289
00:18:41,245 --> 00:18:42,371
[narrator] John Madden.

290
00:18:42,455 --> 00:18:45,291
-Can you hear me?
-[narrator] You may have heard of him.

291
00:18:45,374 --> 00:18:49,545
With me, of course, is coach John Madden,
our CBS football analyst superb.

292
00:18:49,629 --> 00:18:51,422
[narrator] Or you may have just heard him.

293
00:18:51,505 --> 00:18:55,551
He makes a little basketball twist there
and pivot and boom! The ball's there. 

294
00:18:55,634 --> 00:18:59,180
[narrator] But Madden wasn't just
an iconic sportscaster.

295
00:18:59,263 --> 00:19:00,639
[Madden] Unbelievable!

296
00:19:04,310 --> 00:19:08,640
[narrator] He won the Super Bowl
coaching the Oakland Raiders...

297
00:19:08,147 --> 00:19:10,524
[announcer] John Madden
goes on the shoulders of his players.

298
00:19:10,608 --> 00:19:13,652
[narrator] ...and was inducted
into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

299
00:19:13,736 --> 00:19:16,572
[Madden] Today feels
like the second time in my life

300
00:19:16,655 --> 00:19:20,117
that I'm being carried
off the shoulders of others.

301
00:19:20,201 --> 00:19:23,454
He had really kind of done it all
in football, and I thought,

302
00:19:23,954 --> 00:19:26,400
"This guy would be
really great to work with."

303
00:19:27,830 --> 00:19:29,126
As I was saying,
I don't care what anybody else...

304
00:19:29,210 --> 00:19:30,440
Hey, wait a minute!

305
00:19:30,127 --> 00:19:33,756
[narrator] While his top pick was
busy breaking through paper walls...

306
00:19:34,340 --> 00:19:36,300
Like I was saying,
light beer tastes great.

307
00:19:37,259 --> 00:19:39,929
...Trip was going through paper reams

308
00:19:40,120 --> 00:19:44,350
to draft a plan
in hopes of sealing the deal with Madden.

309
00:19:46,227 --> 00:19:50,523
[Trip] I had spent a lot of time preparing
 a 60-page design document

310
00:19:50,606 --> 00:19:54,944
and a dossier of several pages
of questions I wanted to ask him

311
00:19:55,361 --> 00:19:58,114
including the question
about seven-on-seven football,

312
00:19:58,197 --> 00:20:01,450
because the machines
of that time were eight-bit

313
00:20:01,534 --> 00:20:06,205
and the memory was limited
to have a real 11-on-11 football game.

314
00:20:06,288 --> 00:20:08,791
So I know John knows about seven-on-seven,

315
00:20:08,874 --> 00:20:11,850
where its really more about
executing the plays.

316
00:20:11,168 --> 00:20:14,460
And I just thought I'd run it by him
to get his detailed input.

317
00:20:15,470 --> 00:20:19,593
So I flew to Denver
and boarded the Amtrak train with John.

318
00:20:20,177 --> 00:20:22,471
[narrator]
A train from Denver to Oakland...

319
00:20:22,555 --> 00:20:24,348
[man] Have your tickets ready, please.

320
00:20:24,432 --> 00:20:27,977
...a ride of more than 1200 miles,
crossing four states…

321
00:20:28,477 --> 00:20:29,728
Get one by the window!

322
00:20:29,812 --> 00:20:33,482
...all because the tough guy
is afraid to fly.

323
00:20:33,566 --> 00:20:36,819
It's the only way.
The wheels never leave the ground.

324
00:20:37,653 --> 00:20:40,281
[Trip] And we just basically
spent the next two and a half days 

325
00:20:40,865 --> 00:20:43,330
all day and night talking about football.

326
00:20:44,952 --> 00:20:46,996
[narrator] They talked about pigskin.

327
00:20:47,790 --> 00:20:48,800
[pig oinks]

328
00:20:48,164 --> 00:20:49,957
They talked about kicks.

329
00:20:52,376 --> 00:20:55,504
And Trip asked about
his stripped-down version of the game.

330
00:20:56,213 --> 00:20:58,549
[Trip] What do you think about doing
seven-on-seven football?

331
00:20:59,258 --> 00:21:01,552
And he said, "That's not real football."

332
00:21:03,637 --> 00:21:05,598
[train wheels screech]

333
00:21:05,681 --> 00:21:09,935
He needed it to be real 11-on-11 football.
Not some imitation.

334
00:21:10,811 --> 00:21:13,105
And then we all go,
"Yeah, that's not--  Yeah, of course,

335
00:21:13,189 --> 00:21:15,441
that's not real football.
We're going to do the real thing

336
00:21:15,524 --> 00:21:19,690
even though it's going to be really
painful, technically, to get it to work.

337
00:21:20,290 --> 00:21:22,281
[narrator]
Now that Madden was on board...

338
00:21:22,364 --> 00:21:23,324
See you later.

339
00:21:23,407 --> 00:21:25,201
...Trip had to get it right.

340
00:21:25,284 --> 00:21:26,285
This is it.

341
00:21:26,368 --> 00:21:28,245
[Trip] That desire for authenticity 

342
00:21:28,329 --> 00:21:30,331
took what could have been
a one-year project

343
00:21:30,414 --> 00:21:31,999
and turned it into a four-year project.

344
00:21:32,820 --> 00:21:33,918
It became known to the company
as Trip's folly,

345
00:21:34,100 --> 00:21:36,545
because we really bit off
more than we could chew.

346
00:21:37,870 --> 00:21:43,844
[narartor] And now, entering the field
of play is star producer Joe Ybarra.

347
00:21:44,595 --> 00:21:48,807
[Joe] I've always liked technology,
and I like to solve problems.

348
00:21:49,642 --> 00:21:53,771
I'm very passionate about
building immersive worlds. 

349
00:21:55,105 --> 00:21:57,566
The big idea was to bring
professional football

350
00:21:58,984 --> 00:22:00,402
onto the personal computer.

351
00:22:01,237 --> 00:22:04,698
But we weren't sure if this could be done
in the first place.

352
00:22:06,575 --> 00:22:08,577
So, as a producer,

353
00:22:09,370 --> 00:22:13,499
I had the determination
and passion to make this game work.

354
00:22:14,166 --> 00:22:15,417
[narrator] And to figure out

355
00:22:15,501 --> 00:22:17,461
-this complicated process...
-[whistle blows]

356
00:22:17,545 --> 00:22:19,838
...Ybarra took it layer by layer.

357
00:22:20,339 --> 00:22:24,301
Or rather, sticky note by sticky note.

358
00:22:26,110 --> 00:22:29,139
The layers of a football game
are complex and robust,

359
00:22:29,848 --> 00:22:34,103
so developing the technology
to reflect an entire 60-minute,

360
00:22:34,186 --> 00:22:37,356
twenty-two man football game
with player statistics

361
00:22:37,439 --> 00:22:41,110
and add infinite amounts of plays
was really difficult to do.

362
00:22:42,611 --> 00:22:45,114
You have to think about
the players on the screen.

363
00:22:45,197 --> 00:22:46,782
How fast is this guy?

364
00:22:46,865 --> 00:22:49,118
How agile is he? How smart is he? 

365
00:22:49,201 --> 00:22:52,246
Now we have 22 of them,
so there's 22 different roles. 

366
00:22:52,329 --> 00:22:55,291
So now you have them all working
in concert together,

367
00:22:55,374 --> 00:22:59,128
that's another layer,
which is how do we do the team editing? 

368
00:22:59,211 --> 00:23:01,130
How are the plays executed? 

369
00:23:01,213 --> 00:23:03,215
What kind of cues do the user have?

370
00:23:03,299 --> 00:23:05,217
What is the user interface gonna be?

371
00:23:06,427 --> 00:23:10,681
So Madden is built upon the idea
that we embrace these layers

372
00:23:10,764 --> 00:23:14,727
and make sure that each one of them
did the job that it needed to do

373
00:23:14,810 --> 00:23:16,770
to make football seem real.

374
00:23:18,105 --> 00:23:20,899
[narrator] And finally, in 1988...

375
00:23:23,861 --> 00:23:26,780
the project made it into the end zone

376
00:23:26,864 --> 00:23:30,993
when John Madden Football was released 
on the Apple II computer.

377
00:23:33,780 --> 00:23:34,371
[Trip] Finally after a few years,

378
00:23:34,455 --> 00:23:36,749
it started to really feel like
a football game.

379
00:23:36,832 --> 00:23:39,543
And I thought for an Apple II,
this is amazing.

380
00:23:39,627 --> 00:23:41,337
And so it got good reviews. 

381
00:23:42,870 --> 00:23:44,256
But the eight-bit machines
are very limited.

382
00:23:44,340 --> 00:23:46,675
When is there going to be a 16-bit one?

383
00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:49,136
[narrator] And, as fate would have it...

384
00:23:49,720 --> 00:23:51,930
while Trip was looking
for the perfect console

385
00:23:52,140 --> 00:23:53,807
for his next Madden game to shine, 

386
00:23:54,516 --> 00:23:59,229
Kalinske was looking to bring sports 
to the 16-bit Sega Genesis.

387
00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:05,402
[Trip] The Madden game for the Genesis
was fabulous.

388
00:24:06,528 --> 00:24:10,240
Finally after six years,
it looked like real football.

389
00:24:13,350 --> 00:24:15,496
It was a really, really great game.

390
00:24:15,579 --> 00:24:17,706
[grunting]

391
00:24:19,625 --> 00:24:21,251
[narrator] And luckily...

392
00:24:21,335 --> 00:24:23,420
[Madden] Look at this defense.
The guys aren't there.

393
00:24:23,504 --> 00:24:24,922
Get in there. Get my guys in there.

394
00:24:25,500 --> 00:24:27,132
...John Madden felt the same way.

395
00:24:27,216 --> 00:24:29,551
I can't stop them. I can't stop this team!

396
00:24:30,386 --> 00:24:32,429
[Joe] The personality of John Madden

397
00:24:32,513 --> 00:24:35,933
reinforced
the professionalism of the product.

398
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:37,434
[announcer] Touchdown!

399
00:24:37,518 --> 00:24:39,728
It immediately gave us credibility.

400
00:24:40,187 --> 00:24:42,940
[man] We'll take the flip, the kick,
the headbutt and the taunt. Brr!

401
00:24:43,230 --> 00:24:45,359
Throw in that and that.
Looks good, give me the feel too.

402
00:24:45,442 --> 00:24:48,737
[narrator] EA would go on to become 
a powerhouse in sports games, 

403
00:24:48,821 --> 00:24:52,740
continuing to attract athletes
as partners.

404
00:24:52,700 --> 00:24:55,744
And expanding their titles 
to include basketball

405
00:24:55,828 --> 00:24:58,664
and what the rest of the world
calls football.

406
00:24:58,747 --> 00:25:01,583
[man] EA Sports. It's in the game.

407
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:06,672
[narrator] But for some players,

408
00:25:07,890 --> 00:25:10,175
these games meant more.

409
00:25:11,719 --> 00:25:13,679
[man] I was never the best athlete.

410
00:25:14,430 --> 00:25:18,100
But I had the passion
for the narrative journey of sports, 

411
00:25:18,183 --> 00:25:22,104
and I feel you go on a narrative journey
with any game that you play.

412
00:25:23,605 --> 00:25:26,817
Video games afford you
the opportunity just to start over. 

413
00:25:27,443 --> 00:25:30,738
You can be tall or short, or fast or slow.

414
00:25:30,821 --> 00:25:33,490
In games, we all start
at the exact same place

415
00:25:33,574 --> 00:25:36,702
and have the opportunity
to begin to play together.

416
00:25:39,163 --> 00:25:41,290
I'm black and I'm gay,

417
00:25:41,373 --> 00:25:44,918
and when you grow up
African American and gay, 

418
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:46,754
you're taught
there's a different set of rules

419
00:25:46,837 --> 00:25:49,600
that you're going to always
have to play by.

420
00:25:49,548 --> 00:25:52,676
For me, games were a place
where the rules were the same.

421
00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:54,553
You know? Where I could be my best me 

422
00:25:54,636 --> 00:25:56,805
because we're all playing
by the same rules.

423
00:26:01,310 --> 00:26:02,311
[whistle blows]

424
00:26:02,853 --> 00:26:07,399
Madden was the first game to achieve
the feeling that you were a part of it,

425
00:26:07,483 --> 00:26:09,610
that you were one
of the 22 players in the game.

426
00:26:10,319 --> 00:26:13,447
There's an art and there's a science
to making that feel right.

427
00:26:14,310 --> 00:26:16,909
And it was magical.

428
00:26:19,369 --> 00:26:24,666
For the first time, you could enjoy
football the way you loved it on Sundays,

429
00:26:25,830 --> 00:26:27,503
Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

430
00:26:27,586 --> 00:26:28,420
I was hooked.

431
00:26:29,213 --> 00:26:31,381
There are lots of games
I had a great experience with.

432
00:26:31,465 --> 00:26:34,802
Madden was the one I identified with,
that actually changed my life.

433
00:26:36,512 --> 00:26:39,515
[narrator] Gordon Bellamy was so hooked
on Madden Football

434
00:26:40,474 --> 00:26:44,895
that it inspired him to chase
after a career at Electronic Arts.

435
00:26:46,271 --> 00:26:49,358
[Gordon] I had wanted, all my life,
to design Madden Football,

436
00:26:49,441 --> 00:26:51,693
to go out there
and make the coolest games ever.

437
00:26:51,777 --> 00:26:54,196
[narrator]
And so Gordon threw a Hail Mary.

438
00:26:56,907 --> 00:27:01,286
[Gordon] I sent my resume in
and did not get the response I expected.

439
00:27:02,120 --> 00:27:06,500
So I cold called every single person
in the credits at their desk.

440
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:09,336
"Hello, I'm Gordon." Click. [laughing]

441
00:27:09,419 --> 00:27:12,589
Dialed next name, "Hello,
I'm an engineer from Harvard." Click.

442
00:27:14,633 --> 00:27:17,594
-I called and called and called.
-[phones ringing]

443
00:27:17,678 --> 00:27:20,130
A guy named Jim Simmons
picked up the phone 

444
00:27:20,472 --> 00:27:23,809
and gave me a shot
at an entry level interview

445
00:27:23,892 --> 00:27:26,895
to try to get in the games business.
That's why I'm here.

446
00:27:28,355 --> 00:27:31,984
[narrator] Gordon finally landed
his dream job working on Madden.

447
00:27:32,670 --> 00:27:34,987
And he immediately set out 
to make a major change

448
00:27:35,700 --> 00:27:36,905
to EA's flagship game.

449
00:27:37,906 --> 00:27:41,118
So, back then because
of what the machines were capable of, 

450
00:27:41,201 --> 00:27:43,620
the players all had to be one race.

451
00:27:44,288 --> 00:27:49,877
And back then, the majority of players
in the NFL were African American.

452
00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:51,211
[whistle blows]

453
00:27:51,295 --> 00:27:53,630
I'd waited all my life
to see players of color,

454
00:27:53,714 --> 00:27:55,841
to see a reflection of myself in games.

455
00:27:57,634 --> 00:27:59,803
So in '95,

456
00:28:00,554 --> 00:28:02,806
we put African-Americans in the game.

457
00:28:02,890 --> 00:28:05,976
And it was provocative...

458
00:28:07,311 --> 00:28:08,937
because people had never seen

459
00:28:09,438 --> 00:28:12,399
black people on the back
of a major sports game.

460
00:28:12,482 --> 00:28:14,359
They just hadn't. It was a new thing.

461
00:28:17,112 --> 00:28:20,320
For marginalized people,
a lot of energy is devoted

462
00:28:20,115 --> 00:28:22,659
to justifying your existence in spaces.

463
00:28:23,368 --> 00:28:25,871
So when you see yourself
placed as default,

464
00:28:25,954 --> 00:28:27,456
it has real meaning.

465
00:28:28,248 --> 00:28:29,374
It matters.

466
00:28:30,250 --> 00:28:33,879
[narrator] For Gordon Bellamy,
Madden leveled the playing field.

467
00:28:33,962 --> 00:28:34,796
Hut!

468
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:37,966
And the game also scored big for Sega.

469
00:28:38,634 --> 00:28:43,263
[Tom] The Madden game helped bring
lots of people into playing video games,

470
00:28:43,347 --> 00:28:48,226
just because they wanted to play football
on a Genesis machine.

471
00:28:49,937 --> 00:28:52,981
[narrator]
Next up, while Nintendo was fun for kids,

472
00:28:53,650 --> 00:28:57,270
Sega wanted to prove
that they were too cool for school.

473
00:28:58,403 --> 00:29:00,322
[announcer] Suddenly,
the sky is a little clearer.

474
00:29:00,405 --> 00:29:01,949
The water is a little bluer.

475
00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:03,533
The roads, a little bumpier.

476
00:29:03,617 --> 00:29:08,747
[Tom] Nintendo was marketing
to children nine to 13 years old.

477
00:29:08,830 --> 00:29:10,582
-It's a dragon!
-I know!

478
00:29:10,666 --> 00:29:11,833
[announcer] Super Mario World,

479
00:29:11,917 --> 00:29:14,336
it comes only as part of the system
it was created for,

480
00:29:14,419 --> 00:29:16,296
the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

481
00:29:16,380 --> 00:29:20,920
So I was convinced
we had to go after an older age group.

482
00:29:20,175 --> 00:29:21,718
♪ Yo, he goes slow ♪

483
00:29:21,802 --> 00:29:26,181
[narrator] So Sega advertised their mascot
as the coolest kid on the block.

484
00:29:26,932 --> 00:29:28,850
♪ Sonic the hedgehog ♪

485
00:29:28,934 --> 00:29:29,977
♪ No fool ♪

486
00:29:32,896 --> 00:29:35,315
[Ohshima in Japanese]
Sonic didn't try hard to be liked...

487
00:29:35,399 --> 00:29:36,316
[in English] Little brat!

488
00:29:36,733 --> 00:29:38,443
[in Japanese] ...he didn't smile too much.

489
00:29:38,944 --> 00:29:41,571
That was his personality.

490
00:29:41,655 --> 00:29:43,740
[in English] Wrong answer, pal.

491
00:29:43,824 --> 00:29:45,993
[in Japanese]
He makes a lot of mistakes along the way.

492
00:29:48,245 --> 00:29:50,330
He's slightly rebellious. 

493
00:29:51,957 --> 00:29:55,752
And of course
he can run around super fast.

494
00:29:56,795 --> 00:29:57,713
♪ Sonic ♪

495
00:29:57,796 --> 00:29:59,715
♪ Sonic the hedgehog ♪

496
00:29:59,798 --> 00:30:00,674
♪ No fool ♪

497
00:30:01,383 --> 00:30:04,344
[Yasuhara in Japanese]
He's not an all-mighty character.

498
00:30:04,428 --> 00:30:07,931
He loses rings left and right. 

499
00:30:08,150 --> 00:30:10,851
He's just like all of us. 

500
00:30:11,977 --> 00:30:15,147
But he overcomes all perils.

501
00:30:15,230 --> 00:30:17,441
-[announcer] Sonic the Hedgehog!
-No fool.

502
00:30:17,524 --> 00:30:19,860
[narrator in English]
Sonic was definitely no fool,

503
00:30:19,943 --> 00:30:22,290
and neither was Kalinske.

504
00:30:22,112 --> 00:30:25,991
I knew fully well, though,
if we got older brother 

505
00:30:26,740 --> 00:30:28,760
to play with Sega Genesis,

506
00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:30,746
younger brother
was going to want to do it too.

507
00:30:30,829 --> 00:30:32,706
So that by going after
the older audience, 

508
00:30:32,789 --> 00:30:36,668
we were going to automatically steal
some of that younger audience 

509
00:30:36,752 --> 00:30:37,836
that Nintendo had.

510
00:30:38,587 --> 00:30:42,299
[narrator] So Kalinske made some
out-of-the-box guerilla marketing moves...

511
00:30:42,382 --> 00:30:44,926
It's up to you to decide...

512
00:30:45,100 --> 00:30:46,678
...taking Sega to malls...

513
00:30:46,762 --> 00:30:49,181
All we're asking is for everybody
to come down here,

514
00:30:49,264 --> 00:30:51,641
look at both machines
and decide for themselves.

515
00:30:52,225 --> 00:30:53,769
...and college campuses.

516
00:30:54,728 --> 00:30:56,104
[Tom] Most people aren't aware

517
00:30:56,897 --> 00:31:00,108
that we had a student
on almost every college campus

518
00:31:00,192 --> 00:31:02,486
who was a Sega guy. 

519
00:31:02,569 --> 00:31:04,279
We gave him a Genesis.

520
00:31:04,946 --> 00:31:06,573
We sent him free software.

521
00:31:07,616 --> 00:31:09,284
And all he had to do...

522
00:31:10,494 --> 00:31:13,914
was wander around the college campus
and fraternity houses,

523
00:31:14,915 --> 00:31:17,626
plug in the system and play, 

524
00:31:17,709 --> 00:31:20,300
and get other people interested in Sega.

525
00:31:20,879 --> 00:31:23,465
It's not Nintendo, it's Sega.

526
00:31:23,548 --> 00:31:24,925
That's cool.

527
00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:26,259
And it worked.

528
00:31:26,343 --> 00:31:27,803
[narrator] In 1994,

529
00:31:28,428 --> 00:31:31,139
only one thing was cooler than Sega.

530
00:31:31,723 --> 00:31:33,725
[voices] I want my MTV.

531
00:31:34,476 --> 00:31:36,186
Too much is never enough.

532
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:41,358
[narrator] So when Chris advanced 
to the finals of Rock the Rock,

533
00:31:41,441 --> 00:31:43,777
it was the epitome of cool.

534
00:31:44,736 --> 00:31:47,114
And he wasn't alone.

535
00:31:48,198 --> 00:31:49,908
I got $1000 on my boy Chris.

536
00:31:49,991 --> 00:31:52,452
[man] Hear that Chris?
Can't let this big man down.

537
00:31:52,536 --> 00:31:55,122
[narrator] Chris had an entourage to cheer

538
00:31:55,539 --> 00:31:56,623
and to train with.

539
00:31:57,207 --> 00:31:58,917
[Chris] The night before the finals...

540
00:31:59,751 --> 00:32:01,753
[man] This is our hotel room right here.

541
00:32:01,837 --> 00:32:03,588
Mike's over there practicing right now.

542
00:32:03,672 --> 00:32:05,966
[Chris] My brother and I
were practicing my strategies

543
00:32:06,490 --> 00:32:07,968
and what patterns would be effective.

544
00:32:09,719 --> 00:32:13,140
[narrator] Strategic patterns, 
Chris' secret weapon,

545
00:32:13,980 --> 00:32:15,350
which he has down to a science.

546
00:32:15,433 --> 00:32:17,811
[Chris] When you break a game down
to its basics,

547
00:32:17,894 --> 00:32:21,106
it's a set of variables and decisions
that you make in real time.

548
00:32:21,189 --> 00:32:24,734
So in Sonic, the maps are very large,
there are multiple ways that you can go.

549
00:32:25,527 --> 00:32:27,154
You can take a loop to go to the right

550
00:32:27,737 --> 00:32:29,781
or you might find a springboard
that bounces you up

551
00:32:29,865 --> 00:32:32,868
to a totally different area,
and traversing these things takes time. 

552
00:32:33,368 --> 00:32:35,360
So you have to choose. 

553
00:32:35,453 --> 00:32:36,955
Do you spend your time going up?

554
00:32:37,380 --> 00:32:38,665
Do you spend your time going right?

555
00:32:38,748 --> 00:32:40,750
Do you backtrack
and get the rings over there

556
00:32:40,834 --> 00:32:42,460
or is it not worth it? 

557
00:32:42,544 --> 00:32:45,130
So plotting that out,
having that all in my mind 

558
00:32:45,213 --> 00:32:47,883
and being able to figure out
what I need to do in what situation 

559
00:32:47,966 --> 00:32:50,719
and risk manage all of that
at the same time

560
00:32:50,802 --> 00:32:53,180
is part of the complexities
of the competition.

561
00:32:53,263 --> 00:32:55,724
[man] This is Chris' day
to dominate the world. How do you feel?

562
00:32:55,807 --> 00:32:58,268
-Great, ready to kick some ass. 
-[man] All right.

563
00:32:58,810 --> 00:33:01,563
[Chris] So we were up all night,
and I knew the optimal pattern.

564
00:33:02,314 --> 00:33:04,240
My friend asked me, "Hey, are you ready?"

565
00:33:04,107 --> 00:33:05,734
I'm like, "Yeah, I'm ready.
Let's do this."

566
00:33:09,738 --> 00:33:12,365
[narrator] Let the games begin.

567
00:33:12,449 --> 00:33:15,785
-[cheering and applause]
-[Chris] They bused us over to the pier...

568
00:33:16,286 --> 00:33:17,454
Here they come, Bill. 

569
00:33:17,537 --> 00:33:21,820
Twenty-five people compete for the title
and contents of this Brinks truck.

570
00:33:21,499 --> 00:33:23,251
[Chris] They introduced
all the competitors.

571
00:33:23,335 --> 00:33:24,419
[man] Right there!

572
00:33:24,502 --> 00:33:28,131
And then they got us all onto a boat,
and we're going to Alcatraz.

573
00:33:29,174 --> 00:33:32,636
[narrator] Alcatraz: a great place 
to lock up thieves and murderers

574
00:33:32,719 --> 00:33:36,264
like Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, 
and Whitey Bulger.

575
00:33:36,348 --> 00:33:39,184
But a place for kids to play
in a video game competition?

576
00:33:39,267 --> 00:33:40,894
Not so much.

577
00:33:44,481 --> 00:33:48,260
Eventually, they put us all
into a big room with all the stations,

578
00:33:48,568 --> 00:33:50,862
and they went over just
how the competition was gonna work.

579
00:33:51,655 --> 00:33:55,158
[narrator] First, the 25 contestants
play for three minutes.

580
00:33:55,242 --> 00:33:58,536
Then the two players
with the highest amount of rings

581
00:33:58,620 --> 00:34:00,914
go on to the final face off.

582
00:34:00,997 --> 00:34:03,708
[man] All the best players
in the country are here.

583
00:34:03,792 --> 00:34:09,756
Twenty-four global opponents.
Giant TV crew. Mega-babe Daisy Fuentes.

584
00:34:09,839 --> 00:34:11,841
-[man 1] All right.
-[man 2] Zoom in!

585
00:34:11,925 --> 00:34:13,176
[man 1] Don't worry. I got it.

586
00:34:14,386 --> 00:34:16,263
[narrator] Must be hard
to keep a clear head.

587
00:34:16,346 --> 00:34:18,223
[man] Chris!
Don't let nothing get to your head.

588
00:34:18,306 --> 00:34:19,891
Just keep focused on your pattern.

589
00:34:20,892 --> 00:34:23,728
But when it came time
to play in my preliminaries, I was like...

590
00:34:24,271 --> 00:34:25,188
[mimics explosion]

591
00:34:25,689 --> 00:34:27,607
I had to be completely focused.

592
00:34:28,108 --> 00:34:30,527
[announcer] The contestants
are locked in position.

593
00:34:30,610 --> 00:34:32,700
[man] Get ready, Chris.

594
00:34:32,153 --> 00:34:33,290
[whistle blows]

595
00:34:33,113 --> 00:34:35,730
[cheering]

596
00:34:38,451 --> 00:34:41,413
[Chris] I was smart to play it safe enough
so that I wouldn't get hit,

597
00:34:41,496 --> 00:34:43,248
but not reveal my actual pattern

598
00:34:43,331 --> 00:34:46,918
because people were watching me,
and information is power.

599
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:52,966
Eventually they started eliminating people
until it got down to two people.

600
00:34:53,490 --> 00:34:56,594
This kid is insane. I'm telling you,
this man built the machine.

601
00:34:57,929 --> 00:34:58,930
[Chris] It was me...

602
00:34:59,472 --> 00:35:02,309
and the guy from Boston.
He got a higher score than me,

603
00:35:02,392 --> 00:35:04,728
so I knew I was up against someone
who was really good.

604
00:35:04,811 --> 00:35:07,814
These are the two heading for the finals
in the big house.

605
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:14,279
[man] This is it!

606
00:35:14,904 --> 00:35:16,364
It's the playoffs now.

607
00:35:17,407 --> 00:35:20,702
There are the two. Just the combat zone.

608
00:35:22,780 --> 00:35:24,800
[Chris] So, eventually,
we went out to the finals.

609
00:35:24,998 --> 00:35:27,334
All right, this is the final stage
of the greatest

610
00:35:27,417 --> 00:35:30,587
international video game challenge
of the 21st century.

611
00:35:31,379 --> 00:35:33,798
[Chris] We got three minutes
to get as many rings as we can.

612
00:35:33,882 --> 00:35:35,633
I had to get more rings
than the other guy.

613
00:35:36,176 --> 00:35:38,303
[man] The other guy's nervous, uh-oh.

614
00:35:38,386 --> 00:35:39,971
Let the games begin!

615
00:35:40,550 --> 00:35:40,972
[airhorn sounds]

616
00:35:46,895 --> 00:35:48,938
[man] All right, here's Chris, right here.

617
00:35:49,220 --> 00:35:53,443
[Chris] Before, I didn't want to reveal
the final form of my pattern.

618
00:35:53,526 --> 00:35:55,904
But now, since there's just one run off,

619
00:35:55,987 --> 00:35:57,822
I'll do my final pattern
right out the gate.

620
00:36:00,575 --> 00:36:02,535
[cheering]

621
00:36:02,619 --> 00:36:05,246
[man] Go, Chris, go! Go all out.

622
00:36:06,206 --> 00:36:09,125
[Daisy] Chris is still ahead
by just a few-- Now they're tied!

623
00:36:09,209 --> 00:36:10,460
Whoa!

624
00:36:10,543 --> 00:36:11,461
[man] Damn!

625
00:36:11,544 --> 00:36:13,213
[Chris] At one point, I was worried

626
00:36:13,296 --> 00:36:15,548
that the other guy was scoring better
than I was scoring.

627
00:36:15,632 --> 00:36:16,883
[Daisy] Mark is on a roll.

628
00:36:18,510 --> 00:36:20,530
[Chris] But at about seven seconds,
I hit pause,

629
00:36:20,887 --> 00:36:23,181
looked at his screen
to confirm what his ring count was.

630
00:36:24,599 --> 00:36:27,180
[crowd] Three, two, one!

631
00:36:27,102 --> 00:36:28,812
[man] Yes! Yes!

632
00:36:28,895 --> 00:36:30,730
Yes! He got him!

633
00:36:30,814 --> 00:36:32,982
[cheering]

634
00:36:33,525 --> 00:36:37,654
[Chris] I did this awesome, like,
victory roar, "Yeah!"

635
00:36:37,737 --> 00:36:42,283
and on MTV they put that into slow motion
and it's like this iconic thing.

636
00:36:42,992 --> 00:36:45,245
[man] The Sega World Champion!

637
00:36:46,454 --> 00:36:47,288
Yeah!

638
00:36:47,372 --> 00:36:49,165
[Daisy] $25,000!
What are you gonna do now?

639
00:36:49,249 --> 00:36:52,430
Buy games, play! Play! Play! Play!

640
00:36:54,170 --> 00:36:57,340
It was a real emotional,
really thrilling moment, 

641
00:36:57,424 --> 00:36:59,134
and Sega said they were going to find out

642
00:36:59,217 --> 00:37:01,219
who the best video game player
in the world was.

643
00:37:01,302 --> 00:37:03,346
I guess I'm the best
video game player in the world? 

644
00:37:03,430 --> 00:37:06,141
At least according to Sega,
which is kind of cool.

645
00:37:08,476 --> 00:37:10,190
[cheering]

646
00:37:11,521 --> 00:37:13,690
[Chris] It's one of the greatest moments
of my life,

647
00:37:13,773 --> 00:37:16,670
and I'm glad
I get to tell the story about it.

648
00:37:16,901 --> 00:37:21,114
[narrator] Chris Tang's story is
a testimony to Sega's cool victory.

649
00:37:21,656 --> 00:37:26,350
But to really bring it home, 
Sega started a bold marketing campaign, 

650
00:37:26,119 --> 00:37:29,539
which wasn't without some sassiness.

651
00:37:30,123 --> 00:37:31,666
We had great commercials.

652
00:37:31,749 --> 00:37:35,440
But I had to be very certain
that we could make fun of them

653
00:37:35,128 --> 00:37:38,923
in a way that was enjoyable.

654
00:37:39,700 --> 00:37:41,301
-♪ Genesis does ♪
-[announcer] Sixteen bits.

655
00:37:41,384 --> 00:37:42,552
[Tom] We had a good line.

656
00:37:42,635 --> 00:37:44,679
"Genesis does what Nintendon't."

657
00:37:44,762 --> 00:37:45,972
-♪ Genesis ♪
-[announcer] Does.

658
00:37:46,550 --> 00:37:47,640
-♪ Genesis ♪
-[announcer] Does.

659
00:37:47,724 --> 00:37:48,850
-♪ Genesis ♪
-[announcer] Does.

660
00:37:48,933 --> 00:37:50,560
-♪ Genesis ♪
-[announcer] Does.

661
00:37:50,643 --> 00:37:53,354
-♪ Genesis does ♪
-[announcer] What Nintendon't.

662
00:37:53,438 --> 00:37:56,858
Eventually I didn’t feel
the advertising was aggressive enough 

663
00:37:56,941 --> 00:37:58,260
or clever enough,

664
00:37:58,109 --> 00:37:59,903
and I wanted to take it further.

665
00:37:59,986 --> 00:38:02,322
So one of the commercials
that I loved was

666
00:38:02,405 --> 00:38:06,750
we put Genesis on the back of a race car.

667
00:38:06,159 --> 00:38:09,454
And we had Nintendo on the back
of an old milk truck

668
00:38:09,537 --> 00:38:11,539
that smoked and was very slow,

669
00:38:11,623 --> 00:38:13,374
and off they went and, of course,

670
00:38:13,458 --> 00:38:16,419
the Formula car
left Nintendo in the dust.

671
00:38:20,890 --> 00:38:21,382
[tires screech]

672
00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:22,634
Sega!

673
00:38:22,717 --> 00:38:24,552
And every commercial ended with "Sega!"

674
00:38:24,636 --> 00:38:25,470
[man] Sega! Sega!

675
00:38:25,553 --> 00:38:27,263
It was fun to say, it was fun to yell.

676
00:38:27,347 --> 00:38:28,223
[man] Sega! Sega!

677
00:38:28,306 --> 00:38:29,974
-People enjoyed it.
-[man] Sega! Sega!

678
00:38:30,580 --> 00:38:31,309
They got the humor of it.

679
00:38:31,392 --> 00:38:32,310
[man] Sega! Sega!

680
00:38:32,393 --> 00:38:35,210
-You'd see kids screaming, "Sega!"
-[man] Sega! Sega!

681
00:38:35,104 --> 00:38:36,814
-It woke up Nintendo.
-Sega!

682
00:38:36,898 --> 00:38:41,152
They realized that we were a real
competitor, and it did explode. I mean, 

683
00:38:41,236 --> 00:38:44,822
every kid on the block became either
"I'm a Nintendo kid,"

684
00:38:45,490 --> 00:38:47,116
or "I'm a Sega kid."

685
00:38:47,617 --> 00:38:49,369
I think I'd rather play Genesis.

686
00:38:49,452 --> 00:38:51,704
Sega's got more better games.

687
00:38:51,788 --> 00:38:53,164
I think it's pretty cool.

688
00:38:54,207 --> 00:38:56,840
[narrator] Kalinske's battle plan worked.

689
00:38:57,627 --> 00:38:59,546
And in the early '90s,

690
00:38:59,629 --> 00:39:03,341
Sega was outselling
the once-unbeatable Nintendo.

691
00:39:03,424 --> 00:39:05,385
I heard Matt got a Sega Genesis.

692
00:39:06,553 --> 00:39:07,637
[doorbell rings]

693
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:09,847
I heard Matt got a Sega Genesis.

694
00:39:09,931 --> 00:39:12,100
[narrator]
But beyond the commercial take-downs...

695
00:39:12,183 --> 00:39:14,143
Well, I guess one more is okay.

696
00:39:15,979 --> 00:39:18,147
...and all the corporate posturing...

697
00:39:20,191 --> 00:39:21,734
[announcer] Now there's a wack!

698
00:39:21,818 --> 00:39:26,656
...the console war expanded gaming 
into entirely new genres

699
00:39:26,739 --> 00:39:28,950
and caught the eye of new audiences.

700
00:39:30,326 --> 00:39:33,371
Video games weren't just for kids anymore.

701
00:39:33,454 --> 00:39:34,664
I'm a video game addict.

702
00:39:34,747 --> 00:39:36,416
I'm always playing it
and sitting by the TV.

703
00:39:36,916 --> 00:39:40,336
[narrator] But with anything
that gains a more mature audience,

704
00:39:40,420 --> 00:39:42,338
things inevitably get

705
00:39:42,755 --> 00:39:44,924
violent, gory...

706
00:39:45,466 --> 00:39:47,100
-[screaming]
-...and outright disturbing.