discovery channel

Rise Of The Videogame Begins Tonight

1:30AM Mike Fahey | Just a quick reminder for those of you graced with cable and not forced to choose between apartment-contracted ‘bargain’ cable providers or pointing a satellite dish directly at a tree and praying for a very fastidious woodpecker to come along. Tonight at 8pm eastern is the premier of the Discovery Channel’s five-part documentary, “The Rise of the Videogame.” It explores, using form Kotaku guest editor Geoff Keighley’s words, “a look at how the social and political climate shaped games and game designers in the 70s through present day.” I can assure you it is much more interesting than it sounds, stuffed with game developers both famous and obscure. Tonight’s show features the dark, misunderstood beginning of the video game phenomenon, when people struggled to even understand the concept itself. If you won’t watch it for you, watch it for sad, cable-less me. Discovery’s Rise of the Videogame Web Page [Discovery Channel] More »

Discovery Channel to Air 5 Hour Videogame Documentary

10:51AM Kotaku US Edition | Today the Discovery Channel announced that it’s going to air a five-hour prime time documentary entitled “Rise of the Videogame”. It covers the entire history of the industry and has interviews with the likes of Ralph Baer, David Jaffe, Will Wright, Peter Molyneux and even some now-obscure names like Ken and Roberta Williams, the founders of Sierra Online. I should disclose that I wrote the treatment for this show and served as a producer on it alongside World of Wonder (the company behind Inside Deep Throat). As opposed to a standard “History Of” documentary, the series takes a look at how the social and political climate shaped games and game designers in the 70s through present day. The first episode will premiere on Wednesday, November 21 at 8 PM (ET/PT) with new episodes to follow every Wednesday night through December 19th. If you want more details on each episode, you can read the press release after the jump. More »