Hi Score on Netflix

[Retro STrife]

P.S. If you like High Score, check out the series called "The Video Game Years" on Youtube or Amazon Prime Video. It's completely free to watch. IMO it's the best video game docuseries out there, and will be very tough to dethrone. Link to the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwaiRvDFLNI

It's done in the style of VH1's classic "I Love the 80s" series, and it goes year by year through gaming in the 1980s, with one episode per year (10 total). I wish we'd see a 90s version, but doesn't seem likely at this point.

[DialSforSam]

P.S. If you like High Score, check out the series called "The Video Game Years" on Youtube or Amazon Prime Video. It's completely free to watch. IMO it's the best video game docuseries out there, and will be very tough to dethrone. Link to the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwaiRvDFLNI

It's done in the style of VH1's classic "I Love the 80s" series, and it goes year by year through gaming in the 1980s, with one episode per year (10 total). I wish we'd see a 90s version, but doesn't seem likely at this point.

Oh man, I loved watching The Video Game Years. Really hope they get some more funding or something, because I want to see them continue.

About 5 years ago, IGN had their "History of Awesome" series, but it wasn't really all that in-depth, and they kinda skimmed over a few things.

[TheEagleXIII]

Eh. Watched the first 10mins and I really can’t get into it.

There was some interesting moments. It was cool seeing the original scrapbook for Space Invaders and the old Atari ads. But it feels slow paced and very style over substance - like it’s trying too hard to be interesting. If you’re padding out your documentary with that little ‘magic show’ bit, the CGI War of the Worlds bit, and Space Invaders being played sky, then it makes it seem like you don’t have much interesting to say about your actual subject matter. And I know there must be plenty interesting to say.

It feels like it’s aimed solely at the teen - young adult demographic. Like, this is tailor made for my niece and nephew. It’s full of things like ‘oh you haven’t heard of Atari?’ ‘This is what people did before eSports’ ‘Back when computers were dinosaurs’ etc.

If it’s made for that demographic, then it’s understandable, of course they won’t have the knowledge or the reference points we have. And if it gets them into the history of the industry or helps them understand the current retro gaming trend, then that’s cool. But it feels dumbed down - arguably even for some that fit into that demographic.

[CaptainCruch]

I liked this serie, though all stories were pretty familiar and didn't offer many new insights. However, it's good such a serie is made while the developers are still alive and can give interviews! (that's kinda the unique aspect of video game history, I think). Furthermore, I agree that the whole gender-items seemed too much forced in.

Anyway, as European my main criticism is that it's almost entirely focused on the USA and Japan, the only Europeans I heard where Richard Garriott and the British Argonaut-developers. What about European developers such as Braben and Bell (Elite) and Ubisoft (Rayman)?

[ActRaiser]

On the plus side they only barely scratched the surface of what they could do. They skipped Ralph Baer which was a shame. There's nearly 50 years worth of stories they could tell. So far we've got six episodes. I'm hoping for more as it overall was enjoyable and I'd certainly watch more.

[Retro STrife]

Following up on my last post, I've since finished the final 3 episodes. Overall I thought it was a good series if you go in with the right expectations. It's not really targeting retro gamers, and I appreciated it more once I accepted that. I think Actraiser's last post is spot on too.. these 6 episodes jumped around a lot and left a lot of stories on the table. With this being a Netflix-backed show, it's fair to wonder if Netflix will order more episodes if these were successful. It could become a full series of gaming stories, rather than just a one-off miniseries.

BTW, one interesting side effect of High Score... prices of the Channel F console have skyrocketed. The two seem linked based on the timing of the spike. One console even sold for over $1,200 on ebay after a bidding war ensued. And several are hitting around $500. Just a couple months ago, it was an obscure console that you could usually snag for $100-$200. What compels such crazy buying? You'd think the most serious retro collectors would already know about the Channel F. So are casual retro gamers really going out of their way to spend big money for a Channel F after seeing it for 5 minutes on a documentary? And, if the documentary focused on the Magnavox Odyssey instead, would that be skyrocketing in price now too?

[pacman000]

Apparently, CBS All-Access is working on their own gaming doc, based on this book: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_Wars_(book)