The world has gone 8-bit crazy. It has, and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image's April 24 premiere of director Marcin Ramocki's film 8 Bit: A Documentary About Art And Videogames is proof of this fact.

If you happen to live near the ACMI (pro tip: It's in Melbourne) and have a keen interest in the history of art in games, then you should contemplate paying the institution a visit. Ramocki will be in attendance to field questions, so it's definitely worth the effort.

DJ Trip will also be at the premiere. Trip has a love of 8-bit music, which is why he'll be back at the ACMI on May 4 for Game-O-Rama.

Read on to see a special document designed to inform one of the specifics of this event. A press release, in other words.

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This a pretty interesting short documentary on the making of a commercial for Biohazard 2/Resident Evil 2. The commercial was directed by zombie master George Romero and starred (the recently deceased) Brad Renfro as Leon Kennedy. I can't say that I've ever seen a documentary on the making of a commercial but this one is actually pretty interesting with the possible exception of the vapid quotes from the gal playing Claire Redfield. It lasts about eleven minutes and is definitely worth a watch.

[Thanks, king_e_dawg]

Some Auburn University students are planning a documentary on the famed E.T. landfill. The landfill, which many still claim is an urban legend, has been widely discussed in video game circles for years. Now our intrepid filmmakers are out to find the legendary dumping ground with their film E.T.'s March.

We are proud to announce our upcoming documentary, E.T.'s March. Over the course of a week this March, we will go on a road trip from Auburn, AL, to El Paso, TX. From there, we will take the actual path those fourteen trucks took that fateful day, into the heart of Alamogordo, New Mexico. Along the way, we will take in the video game culture of our great country. The documentary will be released for free via the internet this summer.

Good luck guys! Hopefully this doesn't turn out to be another Al Capone's Vault.

E.T.'s March Official Site

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]

The Sci Fi Channel's special on Bioware's Mass Effect is airing tonight, giving fence-sitters an extra-half hour's worth of information—and, no doubt, glowing praise—on the space epic. The special is definitely airing at 11 PM in both the EST and PST time zones, but folks in every region should check their local listings for specific times. The reason? It's airing in some regions at 8. The first act is available for preview above.

Cave Story fans, this could be as close to a DVD "making of" special you'll probably get. Pixel, Cave Story's creator, has released a whole ton of early screens and concept art for the game. Background art, character design, enemy ideas, early level design, the works. Some are interesting, others informative, some even adorable. Check out some if below, the rest is at the link underneath. Good stuff all round.

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.

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