I'm here for world
fighting game tournament
world's finest
Daigo saying spell you're a little bit
off here
it's all about fresh at the kilo
and that's going to be the
because you died that's just fine by
Peugeot until they buy any acts to keep
the combo going yes it's always smile
what's gonna be
beyond a perfect to get cycle the
hartebeest with bras on
this is unprecedented
some people are raised on baseball and
football I was raised on ColecoVision
and Atari seven eight hundred arcades
were like milestones landmarks name if
those are like part of the part used
what just be arcades it was just a whole
film of new technology that hasn't
really been seen before you know to be able
to control objects on a screen pretty
much every major milestone of my life
was related to video games the first
the time I ever kissed somebody it was in an
alley behind her baby it's influencing
and inspiring people in ways well beyond
just sitting there playing some
techniques and built up to this culture
you can't leave now we're still playing
Mario Brothers we're still thinking
about pong and space invaders for better
for worse I mean I hate Mario Brothers I
hate it
there's no indication that the girl
wanted to be rescued not only that but
all of the wildlife in Mario
Brothers getting along fine living in
stasis and a kind of self-sustaining
ecosystem until we as the player that
the transparent element you torture them all
we'd murder them at the time that video
games that came out there have already been
about 40 years or 50 years of the
traditional arcade being in existence
and they were commonly recreational
rooms with a few pinballs a few pool
tables and way back they used to be
connected to the Mafia a lot of Loren
not all of them probably but enough of
them that you can say it's a mafia
driven business
and pinball with a nickel put a nickel
you're playing put your offers on
another free game I'm saying as a
gambling and the end pinball
where children are they some of
people that like the kids getting raised
on gambling and so you saw pitchers in
you know the Chicago Tribune where some
the sheriff or some District Attorney was
breaking up pinball machines and with
axes and things like that
to prove to various cities and counties
and states that pinball was an
amusement device Roger Sharpe became the
voice of the pinball and did a very very
good job in getting a lot of these rules
relaxed and at court hearing it was able
to call Babe Ruth style a shot said look
if I pulp under like this it's gonna
bounce here here here and go straight
down this hole and he did it and the
court legalized pinball in New York
again and it's kind of I wonder like
what would happen if he had missed his
shot
I'm the director of stuff and things
My sister lost in this pinball holic
that's all I know how to join up too
stupid to stop basically we're much
pinball collectors that got together and
decided that it was stupid to have whole
bunches of pinball machines and just
leave them in your garage so we decided
to figure out a way that we could put
them in a space and let the public come
into that space and play them and that's
what we have here
well pinball arcades are pretty much
over the economics of pinball is not
very good right now the machines cost a
a lot when you break down a lot of people
aren't putting them out like they used
when I was growing up every 7-eleven
had two or three every bar had four or
five pinballs used to be everywhere and
then one day it all just disappeared no
we keep a few video games around just so
that when dad shows up to play the
pinball the kids have something to do we
got the older simpler slower 8/5 games
like Pac-man Galaga stuff like that
pinball to me has always been a better
test of skill than the little baby video
games people that are young
children play video games, real men, quite
pin box
that's why they call it Gameboy
my name is Brent Bushnell my dad is the
founder of Atari and chuck-e-cheese so
you know I like to say basically you
know my childhood didn't decide I saw a
demonstration of a Magnavox home game
but I thought it was pretty crappy and I
thought that it'd be interesting to
bring it up to the digital function
because it was sort of an analog game
the pretty machine I assigned to the guy
named Allan Alcorn and pretty soon we
have a game that became pong that blew
the doors off and the party was started
and we never looked back in the mid
seventies Atari had been having great
success with their dedicated pong
machine and so they created the Atari
the video computer system which later became
the Atari 2600 my mission in life is a
ball of mankind Atari 2600 was the first
big mainstream consoles kind of
funny like his back then they wouldn't
think Atari versions of arcade games and
they looked nothing like it and they
barely played like it sounded horrible
Montalvo but still like kind of you know
gave you the little fix we have here the
Atari 2600 joystick it's a great classic
joystick with the stick and the button
and the joy that comes with it for me it
was very important from the beginning to
the controller because it's the first
time machine gives you a little hand and
you have a handshake quite an almost
sexual experience you have like a big
the guy would never even think of that's
another male but there he's grabbing
computer all day in the same way if
people really got into it they had the
one button and it just like hammer away
a funny thing is you could plug that
joystick into the Sega Genesis he'll
work
I really wanted the Atari 2600 but my
father came home with the television the
Intellivision was kind of like the
bastard redheaded stepchild that came
out to be targeted but the television
could display more colors it had better
graphics which of these games is the
the closest thing to the real thing an in
television B Atari if you put the Atari
baseball game up and you put the
Intellivision baseball game up the
Intellivision one looks like you see a
baseball diamond that's baseball if you
thought a and television you're
absolutely correct because Mattel was
this toy company and family and
everything like that they really were
gonna try to make it the basis of a
The whole computer educational system may be
games it would be education it would be
stock market analysis all of the stuff
the thing was though from the very
beginning people wanted games people
wanted simple games the in television
here most people know it because it had
this controller looked kind of like
a cordless phone of the air that's very
complicated and uncomfortable looking
this thing the controller was basically
like a number pad with like a weird
the metal disc that you control these weird
buttons on the side I guess you could
call it revolutionary a lot of people
that distance up they still don't
understand the disc they own a joystick
boy Atari was better had a joystick but
if you look at it it was just a
directional pad Magnavox presents the
future people ask me what my first
the system as they say honestly what the
[ __ ] is that
you know like I'm crazy the Odyssey was
as the third-place console, there was
like Atari and Intellivision were like
the two big camps and then the weird
fringe third party words it was the
Odyssey 2 and what's really amazing
about it is if I recall 97% of the
games for the Odyssey 2 were written by
one guy named
was edited average they put his name on
here yeah II average so this one guy
this edy is a buret like all the other
companies had teams of programmers but
you picture Magnavox had this crappy
the office may be from a converted toll booth
and port add in there just laboring
making things out they'd like take a
snapshot of something that was working
in an arcade and mike and my Polaroids
ahead we need one of these a jump chop
in my first video game experience, I think
that release I remember was my dad
brought home an Aussie too which is a
a real piece of [ __ ] and so I don't really
consider that my first system my first
the system was really the cover 64 because
my neighbor had one it had amazing music
and graphics $16 and it is what sold me on
the Condor was more the music than the
actual computing power or the graphics
and that's what actually made me a
musician today from the early days
In the 1950s when they started having these
computers around universities and big
companies up people would take their
spare time to come up with ways to use
them for games or music or other things
and that's what Nolan Bushnell saw was
these games on computers cost
a million dollars and saying gee is
there is some way to bring that into a
commercial realm and then at the same
the time you had Ralph Baer you know say be
mmm we can put together stuff
that hooked up to a person's television
the set they can play a game on a TV set and
that was the first Odyssey and at Mattel
until electronic biggest toy company in
the world somebody there actually by the
name of Richard Chang looked at and said
we should have that we should have one
of those how do we get one of those
midway through that development Atari
actually went through a hard time they
stopped selling them they people were
not buying them as much as they thought
they were gonna be buying them and then
what happened was space invaders
now addicted is not the true correct
word but I love playing space invaders
so much that when I travel anyplace I'd
make sure that there was an arcade
nearby that I could stop and play space
invaders for a while the legend is the
like it was so popular in Japan that
like they could make enough of the yen
because everybody's dropping it in space
invaders machines space invaders one of
the first games that really blew up see
if you can eliminate the entire Armada
with this like primitive cannon while
these like super-advanced aliens descend
on you dropping turd bombs
you know you played space invaders and
as you kill more of the aliens the game
speeds up and this seems like it makes a
a lot of sense from like a gameplay
standpoint the amazing thing is that was
totally an accident that was all chance
the screwed computer at the time when it
came to drawing a full screen of space
invaders it took so much effort for the
machine to draw them that it would slow
everything down so the less it had to
draw the quicker it could draw them and
so by the time you get down to one it
would be able to draw it really fast
they release space invaders for the
Atari and that's what everybody wanted
and that's where really the game
the industry learned that you have to have
the game there was probably only about
three or four hundred people developing
games the United States professionally
at that time between Atari and
ColecoVision and Mattel because it was
the first generation there was really no
precedent beforehand of what to do and
how to do it remedy and television
started gaining some ground like
basically all video games in general
just completely collapsed the demand was
going up people didn't want to play more
video games where more people were
getting into it but the crash itself in
1983 came about simply because it was
too much supply the Atari tried
to push 15 million additional 26
hundreds into a saturated market they
also had a massive overstock in
cartridges which also meant
prices dropping so the Atari 2600 is
simultaneously responsible for the
amazing rise and spectacular fall of the
gaming console industry culminating on
that piece-of-shit ET that was the end
the crash of 83 a lot of people like to
blame it on ET which to be fair it
deserved a lot of credit for that
because it was a singularly awful game
made by an otherwise talented developer
who was forced into a ridiculous
schedule that even Electronic Arts or
Activision would say whoa dude you need
to chill out there everybody kind of put
their consoles away and kind of either
they got out of video games or they
turned their focus to computers and so
for a brief period
you only had gaming on computers
Commodore 64 Apple 2 all that stuff and
eventually, an 85 Nintendo took a big
risk and brought out the NES and for
whatever reason it works and it saved
In the video game console industry the
Nintendo was the first game console that
the graphics actually look like what
you would see close to what you'd see in
arcade whoa nice graphic I'd like to get
my hands on that game you mean you
haven't played it yet
kind of like towards the 90s what
everyone consoles really kind of said in
with the NES Super NES Genesis all that
arcades were kind of like this mundane
thing that you had to kind of decide
well it's when I dropped five dollars of
quarters into an arcade machine or do I
want to pick up a game a barn off for my
friend because people abandon ship for
the home games our cage will be full of
15 20 30 games that were completely
unpaid for so all at once the whole
the system collapsed the console is so
advanced now that why would
you want to go somewhere and play a
regular video games when like the most
amazing games around and you can just
play at home I think that the arcade as
a concept will be forever
I think its current articulation is very
bad they're kind of based around
spitting out tickets that are virtually
worthless even if you do hit the jackpot
you're still getting a pair this big you
don't even want it's pretty sad when I
grew up you had to leave your house to
play a real videogame
you know you had Atari or the Commerce
The city which was great for your home
play if you want to see the latest
graphics and the best sound you had to
go to the arcade to experience the
the building wasn't an arcade it wasn't
connected anything like it was just its
own world all your icky games playing
like at the same time creates this like
pleasant cacophony for gamers and you
kind of had this feeling that you were
onto something that not everyone was on
- you know it's like wow there's a
the coolness here that I get and everyone in
here gets used to putting my quarter upon
the game and you know wait my turn and
either serve someone or get served
jamming quarters from the bottom trying
to get free games or we did things like
drill holes in the quarters and attach
strings and put them in a slot and pull
them back out to get free credits ya
ended up kind of cutting classes here
and there to go play Street Fighter -
down at the arcade I only needed $0.50
really to play all day or Korver's and
that would be enough to play like almost
all-day cuz you know we're good right
and then meanwhile outside your bikes
getting stolen that's the saddest part
of it all, that's sort of like something
you'd brag about also being good at this my
the bike got stolen sometimes I would be in
arcades or
four or five hours and then just like
finally standing on my chair to put a
a bathroom or something and then gets back
to my identity to be the reigning king
of the arcade back in the day like when
you could pass a boss or a certain level
at an arcade, game kids would just kind
of the crowd around behind you and be like
oh look he's doing it you could be the
champ and if you're the champ you were
kind of a star and believe it or not at
the arcades I mean if you're that good
girls are hanging out of you I mean
you're not getting anything but girls
would be hanging out with you watching
the game know in memory they were hot
but I think it's because they really
want are you sitting out in the arcade
that was kind of the thing back in the
day whether I will be playing the arcade or
beating the kids up in the arcade you
know for their token money when I was
really young I wasn't allowed to go to
our kids I had two arcades in my local
mall my mom didn't want me going to them
cuz she thought oh you know bad people
there are drugs you know we'd get
rip-roaring drunk smoked a couple of
joints drop a hit of acid you know a
pocket full of quarters and just wait to
throw down with some kid you know I'm
telling you man back in the night is I
don't know if I would have been able to
hang this back it's not just a little
the kid wasn't the best crowd in the world
you know please got shot up with many
times I was playing at going on my lunch
break every day playing Mortal Kombat so
I'm playing this kid and he was whooping
everyone's ass and I get up and I'm
playing and I just wiped the floor
with him and he got so mad he punched me
in the face and you walked away little
Philippine okay you know what if you did
not have some guy sitting in a wire mesh
cage smoke chain-smoking Marlboro was
all day and giving you know you know
practically mumbling under his breath
about what uh yeah what an [ __ ] you
were while he was making change for you
Have you never experienced an arcade that
culture is dead the arcade model is
gonna change the point where it's not
about going and putting your Porter up
it's about you're gonna pay for blocks
of time and you're gonna sit at a
console and you're gonna play
against another guy thankfully you'll
still have that one-on-one interaction i
don't discredit I find with it it's just
you know it's where we go a player game
there are cave communities it's really the
people that go there to play in the
the competitive aspect of everything and we
still have the element that element is
not dead you know even though we don't
run about rednecks on arcade machines
anymore we still have our K tournaments
in the sense that we are all meeting up
every week were all playing
competitively we're all friends it has
now evolved into this console or gate
generation Sony Nintendo like Microsoft
you know it's similar to what mp3s and
iTunes Store did to you know like the
record store it just completely wiped it
out except for one here that we have in
Vegas is it's more of like a bar
nightclub type thing that they've
incorporated the old vintage stand-up
arcade games in and that's downtown
called insert coins they have DJs booze
and games and what more could you ask
for the video game industry of the
eighty-seven billion dollars a year I
the figure let's open the bar for cameras we
have arcade cabinets you have video game
consoles one of the things that makes
our bar stands out from almost others is that
we have our video gameplay at the bar
as well
it's almost invigorating of the arcade
the scene in terms of that social aspect of
video gaming but we're all adults now
and we drink so it seems to be working
well when I wasn't trying to get the
money initially from my perspective
investors, they're like I don't get it
who plays video games and just shaking
the head like everybody well there's a
bar downtown
called insert points the only problem is
you can't serve two masters you can run
games and run a bar since the games
don't really make any money you end up
spending all your time trying to improve
the bar it's just another bar from a
strictly, business model, it will not
survive without a bar there's no
question about it we have not yet
advanced our cultural acceptance of
video games to a degree that says in
Japan where you know large groups of
people will go to a 5-story arcade it's
it's just it's not yet here I would I
like to see it that way absolutely I
mean that's the reason why I put all
this into insert coins is so that one
the day you know there are arcades again
it's just a resurgence or rebirth a
different evolution
our kid games were actually illegal in
the town I grew up so I had to like ride
my bike all the way across town but when
I saw Street Fighter things changed it
went from something that I liked
and had fun doing something that
I had like I need to do
they got Street Fighter 2 at the pizza
parlors down the road and that was what
everybody was doing that was the big
the thing you know I became pretty well
addicted to the game for several years
of my young adult life, it didn't steal
my childhood assured in my manhood
the fighting game genre is the face to face
it's the boxing of video games you know
I'm face to face with you and if I'm
beating you I'm gonna talk [ __ ] to your
face right next to you so that might
spit flies on your face in fighting games
as a genre, we're just one of the first
ones that really encouraged multiplayer
play and vs. play that element of
competition not just versus a system in
the game but versus another human that's
what made video games really come alive
for me, it's real competition call it a
sport call it whatever you want it's one
the person against another person it's two
minds going at it this community is in
people's faces and generally kind of
angry I love that I want people to get
mad because I think that I think that
Garner's competition
even though Street Fighter players are
video gamers don't fit a lot of
their these the regular video gamers
stared at our paradigm I should say
The Street Fighter community has some of the
most competitive alpha male people I've
seen in any other community it's hard to
describe but they're great people most
of them, I didn't really understand the
culture the following behind Street
Fighter in their events until I
Justin Long and I go I thought there
were just regular dudes that just like
the video game that I played when I was
10 but uh the third round they killed
each other and they got a double payout
at the exact instant the whole group out
right over there I realized what this
meant
the judgment
McMahon
you can threaten
we are at evolution 2012 this is the
world finals tournament now this is for
the most money because it sure all the
bragging rights this is you know where
you prove all your smack talk and you
have 2,000 people and they're willing to
come to Las Vegas from all around the
world two people $20,000 I think it's a
big statement about the game very
nerve-wracking because a lot of people
are here the food point a lot of people
are here to do that they deserve to be
one of the best in the world your people
who are hungry your people who play
every [ __ ] week every week for a year
and all they're thinking about is
winning evil
comparing competitive gamers with pro
athletes I think in terms of mindset and
dedication and skill and ability and
drive there's they're all in the same
plane
maybe you're not 280-pound maybe you're
not 6 4 7 these things will keep you out
of many professional sports for as a pro
gaming you get all types and I think
that opens the world competitions in a
the way that we've never seen before
[Applause]
this here was probably the coolest
the fighting game trophy was for the
very first Street Fighter 2 competition
that they ever had my name's Chris tang
you could describe me as someone whose
life has been profoundly impacted by
video games
aka a nerd oh this is my command center
this is where I extend my influence to
the far reaches of the galaxy I mean
there was a whole lot else in my life I
wasn't very popular I don't think girls
like me yet so when I got the video
games it kind of gave me a little
self-esteem boost 1994 Sega
decided to have a tournament and the
the prize was $25,000 and everything that
Sega made for a year including consoles
every game they made and I did very well
actually, I want the whole thing whereas
my parents did not approve of me playing
video games previously now that I was
actually kind of like winning things and
getting a certain amount of fame from it
now they were complete and total
approval
this person is a guy who's not to be
trifled with or his particular car
champion in a group of 11 another 12 to
17 and then one city champ a native of
18 in over
then when the championships came along
you know I had always wondered if maybe I
was the best in the world I knew that I
was the best kid I had ever met in 1990
Nintendo World Championships this thing
is part of Nintendo lore and legend they
had these giant stages with awesome
professional announcers calling the
action every city would crown a champion
and they'd send them all to Universal
Studios to find who was the best in the
world
I just blew everyone away
I was scoring in the two million and
the second-highest score in the whole
the city was probably who actually was Chris
tang Canyon Robin the Harvey so I had to
go to Los Angeles the next week and in
Los Angeles, I want there
this exhibition is open not only to the
people who have invested a tremendous
amount of time in gameplay game theory
and design but to anyone who's ever been
delighted inspired or touched by a game
that they've played I'm really excited
that video games are in the Smithsonian
American Art Museum because this is
video games crossing out into other
aspects of the world that they never
were before right this is validation
that video games are art their art their
science their math engineering I
mean there's the intersection of
all of these things video games are the
the ultimate playground for the mind and I
believe this is incredibly empowering
for kids, we had a very specific dialogue
that we wanted to have or narrative if
you will through this exhibition the
the goal was to examine 40 years of video
games through the lens of 20 systems
comprised of four genres of games those
of us who grew up playing video games
for our entire lives for those of us who
have spent countless hours creating
these worlds that we can then share with
the rest of the world we already knew
that video games were art the problem
was we were such an early medium that we
lacked the vocabulary to describe it as
art video games are art on many many
many levels and also there has to be the
the incredible elegance of an actual
gameplay in there so that it becomes a
fun desirable experience it transcends
just being a for immediate to become art
when it is played video games as an
an amalgam of all traditional art form
illustration to painting to music to
composition and poetry
the result is greater than any
individual part contained within the
game saying that video games are forms
of art is like saying that flowers are
forms of art they are not formed so far
they are modern they are like
the environment you can extract art from
there a video game is the most brilliant
[ __ ] a piece of art because not only
did someone create it and give it a
story and give it life but they also
made it so that you could interact with
I mean can you go [ __ ] interact
with a painting at a museum so yeah
anybody that says a videogame is not art
up your ass [ __ ] you
I'm a cold war kid I grew up in the 70s
in the 80s it was a really fun time to
grow up because there was all this
insanity going on in the real world so
what did we have we had Atari we had us
had a television and then after that we
had Colecovision and then he had all
these other revisions he's mean all
these gaming companies were Waring Ferb
you know teens' attention it just for me
it became one of those things where I
played video games I was able to
disconnect just having that joystick
having that Atari 2600 that I begged my
mother for it just opened up a world
that was so different and then in
reality so that's that's why the
controller I brought it back as an
artist and I started getting it all over
the streets because I think the
controller now has a completely
different meaning to people the premise
of Big Brother the premise of who
controls who what controls what you know
another deep [ __ ] like that we are at
destroy headquarters at Lee my um my
hometown my rundown garage with my
arsenal of paint paste liquids that they
shouldn't be stored in your home
I wanted to create a dialogue that
everybody could could understand and
read who doesn't love the joystick some
people looked at it as looking really
you know jovial and fun to look at other
people looked at it more of a social
commentary republicana traitor lately
I've been doing a lot of 1% pieces
because I think this entire country is
gone well I don't wanna get too
political but it's gone completely crazy
with the three corporations have raped
the common man to me the joystick
represents that type of control as well
controls everywhere right
my name is Milton monitors I am an
artist painter working a lot with
digital media the picnic the
psychological landscape of our days
cables computers people playing video
games time went out to the store bought
the PlayStation and the copy of Lara
Croft of tumor either but I didn't care
to play my interest was not playing but
discovered immediately something
interesting to feel so I start playing
the game dying by the poison Tyrell
filming that for two hours
fill up a tape with these and I had a
beautiful video artwork so in this way I
had gotten involved with video games I
mean I discovered that they are like a
Pandora Box for an artist I would use
the cardboard as props and the software
as environment two shirts for myself
little later I start I voted Nintendo 64
and Super Mario and they're the most
interesting thing of the game was that
if you would not play with Super Mario
you would lay down and fall asleep and I
thought this is genius
for me the slap videos with bigger than
Picasso's bigger than anything that any
other Warhol or anybody ever did with
visual culture the only artists I take
seriously today are the artists that
play with their games in a creative way
I think that this is the arc of our day
is the art of playing video games
since the birth of this planet a memory
has become deeply engraved onto the
genes of all living things taken torture
tournaments set a hack of PlayStation 1
Tekken game players were hooked up to
these armbands that gave them electric
shocks as we were getting hit in the
game your muscles are contracting and
disabling your ability to control the
joystick the defining moment of that
game happened when we did the game in
Australia and then all the local like
Tekken champions flew in to play this
game
we also cranked up the intensity for
that tournament all the way to the end
so it was extremely painful almost
intolerable these were people who were
invested so deeply in this virtual
fighting game that were watching them
play Tekken torture with this physical
pain and fear that came with it it felt
like watching people go through a real
write rite of passage there was just the
emotion and the intensity in the space
was like nothing I'd seen before
my name is Eric Nakamura we're at China
robot 2 which is an art gallery we'd
started giant robot in 1994 as a
magazine and then kind of branched out
from there started getting into heart
video games just kind of doing anything
we can you know fun stuff we've been
doing a video game art shelf like four
or five years now in a row and it's just
just to kind of get our artists that are
doing their own work and just making
them think about video games for once
actually a lot of artists will say they
don't play games at all but then in
reality I could say Tetris and uh oh
yeah yeah that I play that I'm like
flats a game you know and a lot of times
they play games on their iPhones or you
know they don't even consider their
regular game playing as game playing I
think games have permeated our lives in
so many ways that you don't even
consider it as a special thing anymore
it's just something that you do and live
with I began as a our show and tribute
to that wonderful era of seventies and
eighties uh video games
I was very fixated on that idea of games
as culture is no one really thought
there was a place for a culture
and always concern about star ratings
and news but never the people what
we do with I made is allow artists
complete freedom to do whatever the [ __ ]
they want
if the magical thing is that Mario to be
interpreted a billion different ways
it's about exposing it in a way that was
kind of intimate to you if possible
fantastic artists, he's making these
custom arcade machines for a super I'm a
bit Art Show and one will be projected
on the wall beetle, you know kind of
world's biggest arcade machine and the
another one will be up for grabs the
the highest score on the opening night they
told me just do whatever I wanted and I
love cartoons like rebel attack and
Plus gallic is like that my favorite
arcade games to rock on so I did this
huge space battles it's like it was like
kind of like a Battlestar Galactica with
giant bugs John Gibson and I were
talking and he was telling me how much
he wanted something kind of special like
this big engaging event kind of thing
that would really get people involved
and I took a regular Atari joystick and
I measured all the dimensions that I
could actually measure and I multiplied
that by a factor of 15 and functionally
inside it it was actually built and
works a lot like the original Atari
stick did so you can plug it into any
any regular Atari and it will work we
had it set up outside with the like a
giant projector so we had like pitfall I
think and then we had the joystick kind
of set up in the middle one of the
things that was most exciting was Nolan
Bushnell you know the founder of Atari
he was actually there and actually saw
and played around a little with the
giant Atari joystick I remember he had
this look on his face where he he was
very excited to see this giant joystick
but just behind the excitement there was
a slight sense of a little bit of
disbelief that anybody would give him
enough of a dam to go through all the
effort to make a colossal version of
this joystick that he had worked on
designing so so many years ago
my name is Holly Conrad I am the
commander of crabcat industries and I
make monsters props and all kinds of
nonsense
almost every costume that I've made has
been video game related even the first
one I was 40 years old and I made a
Koopa costume with a green pillow and
taped it to my back and ran around the
house and after that my parents were
concerned but you know I thought I was
awesome so it was that sort of like
immersive interactive quality of games
that really made me want to you know be
a part of that whole world and as I
started getting older and playing
Baldur's Gate Neverwinter Nights and all
those games those you could actually
make your own mods and characters and
after that I just kind of thought oh
I'll take it to the next step and start
actually making you know props from the
games and it just kind of was a natural
progression I wanted to compete but you
know video games were really doing it
for me but I started going to anime
conventions and they would have costume
contests it was a different form of
competition it was creative and it
required different types of skills like
sewing and being able to design an
object in three dimensions yeah I went
from the guy that kept winning the video
game tournaments to the guy that kept
winning the masquerade competitions and
I have over the years gotten over poor
Hippias Awards
instead of playing video games I was
dressing up this video game characters
and I'll tell you why because of girls
okay you go to anime masquerade and I'm
like one of the only guys there and all
the other competitors are beautiful
girls dressed like Sailor Moon and tani
hot play is costume play it is a hobby
that men and women do to pay homage to
their favorite video game comic book
movie characters my outfit I'm a cheap
kind of person you know I'm still in
high school
so I was working on a low budget and I
was able to throw this together you know
I had a military surplus store and I
feel
I'm a little bit more expensive say
around over 2,000 for everything maybe
even more
it's a lifestyle I would say from
whatever deserves more than a hobby
people that are really into it are like
hardcore food they're just always
planning their next costume they're you
know always practicing their poses that
they're going to do when they get in
costume and like start doing photo
shoots I started playing Street Fighter
a long time ago and it's just stuck with
me ever since I've always played dhalsim
I just found a stretchy just really
really cool and the fact that he can
breathe fire
just two awesome videogame culture it
conjures up an unfortunate stereotype of
the sweaty neckbeard basement-dwelling
you know hardcore gamer and stereotypes
exist for a reason so that's you know a
large component of what's out there just
for everybody who thinks that everybody
you know everybody who plays games and
stuck up in the room now there's
something here that without proper Jesus
because he surfaces without everybody do
it everybody it's a game dude we got
started ooze I'm going a 420 doge old
crew in case you don't know even my mom
plays video game she can smoke me a
Tetris you know if I ask her are you a
video gamer she's like of course not but
when she's not reading books or watching
TV she's totally sitting at the computer
trying to play Tetris or something like
that my favorite game is minecraft I've
learned a lot and I just love to build
so build castles boats enormous things
it's fun because like you can create
anything you wanted if I wanted to
create a beast however I could just like
the others blocks and make it
I love video games
because I find that better than TV and
believe me video games are constructive
and cool I probably would have got beat
up in high school if I told him I'd the
social thing I think is slowly going
away I think gaming is becoming more
mainstream go to countries like Korea
it's like an accept it it's like some of
those guys didn't create professional
gamers are rockstars you know they're
dating the the pop stars and likes
somewhere to upside down we're all over
there I'm I am not ashamed that I play
because it's something that I do and I
know I do it well I just feel like a lot
of people don't really understand what
it is that we do I think a lot of people
have a huge misconception of gaming I
had a really hard time growing up
because my mom has MS so pretty much
I've taken care of my mom my whole life
she could play games and feel like she
was kind of participating in like things
she couldn't do like if I was gonna hang
out with her on say World of Warcraft
she could do it - because she's obvious
she can't walk but in a game like that
we rated together we did all that and
there were no limitations they allow you
know people of diverse you know physical
abilities to to play together in a way
that they might otherwise not so know
I've I've never experienced or even
witnessed firsthand video games doing
anything but enhancing relationships
video game even never really got in the
way of a relationship with a girl but
I'll tell you right now no girl has ever
showed me her vagina while I was playing
a video game not once my wife doesn't
like gaming it all she never really got
it I think it's just more annoying
her than anything else my wife is very
supportive of the gaming habit and she
games herself we like to play Gears of
War we play left 4 dead she's actually
better at Marvel vs. Capcom 3 than I am
when we were dating I had arcade games
in my bedroom when I was living with my
parents
yeah and I think that I didn't see your
room until later it was a while I was
about a month or so if a guy tells you
that yeah they play video games and you
ask him like what games and they say
Mario you're like Oh Mario I dated this
guy once that like he said he was a
gamer but he played like games on his
iPhone which like totally don't count
you know so I didn't stop talking about
one I think it's absolutely a
requirement that any guy that I'm dating
play video games because otherwise I'm
not really sure what we would do in our
spare time with my ex-girlfriend we used
to sit there and play games together but
you know what's really funny when we
broke up I remember her saying you know
what you can have your video games you
know but you get at me and like let I
said okay well at least I still have my
video games I do have a friend who lost
his girlfriend because he got into
Warcraft like really deep and she was
like super hot so his loss I mean if you
don't like getting late and I guess
Warcraft is your thing since I love
games so much from playing games I know
there's times when I've said like you
know what not gonna hang out with you
this weekend that's happen often enough
you know some games are just more
important than women oddly enough in
EverQuest I didn't know a guy who who
his marriage did break up over the game
because it's like our guild leader comes
on one day and he says hey it's a boy
it's a boy Mike my wife just gave birth
to a boy and we're like calling ago and
he says two hours ago and we're like
dude getting over there with your wife
why are you online with us right now I
pull up in front I call I'm here five
minutes
great I'm seeing out
an hour later I was still out there it
was till I was lathering and you know I
didn't wanted to affect my rank I know
that's why it was so bad between us I
have been the girlfriend who has gotten
annoying but my boyfriend was playing
when you ain't know too much and so I
would kind of just go hang out and he
would play video games and I were just
kind of snuggle at him and he that
sounds awesome yeah I want one of this
ideal really the person who got me into
halo was someone I was dating and one of
the nerdiest things we've done was
connect our Game Boy Advance ESPYs and
play final fight one in good
playing Halo multiplayer it's a totally
different world for a girl because you
hear a lot of things like what are you
doing at the kitchen giving me a
sandwich it taught me how to talk [ __ ]
to people because you know you have to
give me that little poke you know no
you're better than them right there was
no such thing that's like a gamer girl
where I grew up we all play games even
people hit the arcades just in like
large co-ed groups stepping out of that
community was the first time that I
really discovered that most everywhere
else girl gamers are more rare I was
until I got older and then the internet
happened and I was playing a lot of muds
on the PC and then when you go online it
was predominantly males and they're
really interested when you are female
and playing you know a lot of girls are
like intimidated to start playing and
stuff because you know you're gonna lose
at first but it just it just takes like
a real gamer just work through all that
stuff and figure out the game and learn
how to kick ass and stuff like that do
you feel like you kicked ass when you
climb no [ __ ] right I do
found that you feel about like the girls
only a street fighter thing they're
having tomorrow I have to answer that
right I think it was a very ridiculous
tournament that then we have girls kind
of
a little bit because we can with the guy
and by any means of mine sexist or
anything like that you're a girl you can
play I'm in there too so that's awesome
it looks like I see Sofia girl so you
really do know what they're doing you
know they're not just sitting in
matching which is you know it's just
great I like to see that there are girls
who are really trying to play the game
and really learn it and not just be
playing the game for the attention she
said the way I present myself I'm not a
shoe bieber love hola disposition you
are so there's a ball walking on an
advice is dirt
I guess we have beef with each other I
just don't like her she's been talking
[ __ ] about me last year she started [ __ ]
to me in the game you don't do that
she's only started should talk first she
said garbage right then I was like oh
this [ __ ] wants to play I wanted to
shake her hand because I thought it
would have been matched but she said
[ __ ] [ __ ]
she's talking she should have the right
to talk [ __ ] who's gonna back her back
they call me circus that's my codename
I'm a gamer I'm also a player
I'm from the almighty shapeshifters crew
we're all into video games cartoons
comic books were all raised on this
culture I just had this idea went over
to DJ Pam's and we were pillaging all
the sounds of NES Kid Icarus and legend
is all that happened to be two of the
cartridges I brought it was like yo hand
me that uh hand me that kid Zelda
cartridge and then I just like froze
right there and I was like you know what
that's it boom kid Zelda that's my
[ __ ] name I'm speaking for this
underground scene that is gone on here
everything from 12 inches with video
game sound effects put put on with DJ
scratching this stuff to us stealing
samples from video games and rapping
over them and put putting it out like
illlegally this is just kind of how we
do it
I think because of my love of video
games growing up it definitely
influenced the type of music I listen to
and it was never intentional I think
it's all very subconscious I
automatically liked electronic music my
brain has been wired to the electronic
generation and that's a lot to do with
Colin does 8-bit gaming resonating in my
ear that I just I like that's right you
are listening to the videogame music
show here on KSP see you know even when
I was little I've always liked video
game music of course back then it was
never really even close to being
accepted it has something you listen to
on a pastime however my buddy and I we
used to drive down our streets with the
music that were recorded on the
cassettes and while everyone else was
playing Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli
you know we're blasting songs like Sonic
the Hedgehog and Streets of Rage
I like that about Nick a lot thinner the
first time I heard that I was a really
little kid I got really scared and made
my grandfather played that boss for me
because I was like I'm too scared
you know when I got back and listen to
these soundtracks now I'm still
impressed with the range of sound and
kind of emotion that these guys were
able to squeeze out of such a limited
chipset these little 30-second 90 second
loops of music
stick with me much more than the pop
music of the time and they've achieved
immortality in a way that I think the
other
their-their composers are probably
surprised to see my specialty in music
at that time was to you know understand
the requirements of the game arranged
music for the game and then come up with
a data format that was so abbreviated
that it would actually fit in the game
do you know now a sound effect is any
sound effect in any contemporary game is
much larger than all of the gameplay in
the classic and television library yeah
it's the Legend of Zelda in this really
rad those creatures for ganas are really
bad off - right tektites leavers - with
your help our hero fools - yeah your
parents help you hook it up
look
little white listen to mostly videogame
music yeah I have a boombox set up in my
bathroom just so I can like listen to
music and a lot of it's video game music
pretty much all of it actually what's
really interesting about music based off
of video games is regardless of what
instruments you use or anything else if
you start out with doo doo doo did he do
dude everybody knows whether that's done
on a double bass whether it's done on a
techno turntable whether it's done on a
heavy metal guitar they all know it's
Mario even from another part of the
world where we can't even speak the same
language it evokes that sort of
childhood feeling and the sort of
exploration and the action and the
running and the jumping a huge fan of
video game music itself and also music
that sounds like video game music
chiptunes
it's either music that's made with the
old video game chips you know that they
use in these old systems or music that
sounds like it was but you know you have
to have been exposed to those sounds and
already feel like it's not obscene to be
making music that sounds like square
waves and things like that you know the
sounds of the retro consoles but with
the beats and the mixes of today's music
you know I'm surprised it's not bigger
we're hey Pat weapon and we make modern
music using old computers and vintage
video game consoles as musical
instruments in the late 90s I discovered
color 64 music itself without the video
game attention so I'd listen to those
when I was a teenager like when I get
dressed and just let it loop so then
when I discovered
one of our 8-bit weapons of course is
the Apple 2 I put together some drum
sounds so that's all straight off the
Apple 2 motherboard pretty phat sounds
for one bit drum samples this is a
common or sx60 for a long time Seth will
play the notes and then manipulate when
I first got introduced to the fact that
the gameplay made music was served by
man-made we were both homeless at the
time and it was awesome that we got to
make music on four separate tracks Wow
we didn't even have a studio I was
intrigued by the idea that you could do
like a whole performance with a tiny box
that cost like five bucks with LSD J you
donate $2 you get wrong and you get
a free emulator and then like literally
with just the emulator and the ROM you
can create an album you know
The first time play the show I would
appreciate it everyone takes up all your
clothes put duct tape on your feet and
sticks to the roof my only desktop
the computer is completely crashed and I
remember - I got that Gameboy you know
like the creative output you just want to
get something out then all of a sudden
sort of you're like these fingers like
super powerful you up you know forget
that I got this game bonus to go to the
park and I hang out I'm just sitting on
the tree is just like programming stuff
just laughed my head off and took my
earphone sounds like do you guys know
what's going on over here like this is
the craziest thing that ever felt like this
going on ever
hi my name is Ingold I founded DJ tech
tools which are what's around us
so the midi fighter which is this here
came about because of my first creation
which was this controller this was one
of the first DJ controllers ever made
but the buttons are really hard and then
kind of sticky and street fighter in the
arcades made me think of the class dark
a button and it just so happened that
there was enough room and his controller
that I was able to chop out the old
buttons and hack in arcade buttons in
the bottom controller was just an arcade
buttons and I like all the mini fighter
after street fighters and so that's what
we did
taking the thing about Street Fighter
What drew me in was you had to know-how
to move the joystick it's just the right
time at the same combination a certain
control then it could produce this
exceptional result and I think that
actually has probably continued today in
my DJing where it's all about doing
crazy combination of different moves
will create
games were a huge factor in my life
growing up my friends and I used to make
tape recordings of the soundtracks from
our favorite games when I started
getting into electronic music later in
my life I was always trying to emulate
that ship sound I didn't really realize
it at the time until I kind of took a
turn down the road of circuit bending
what is circuit bending it is taking a
musical toy usually a kid's toy or a
the musical instrument then you tamper
around the circuit board to find new
sounds just by touching it sounds that
are very similar to some of the vintage
arcade games that I grew up playing the
the machine behind me is called the mova
door 2600 is the only one in existence
it's an invention by myself it is part
Commodore 64 part Moke part Atari 2600
with a touchscreen, this is a special
Odyssey you type it talks mechanism
built to it and you type words and it
says it back in an 8-bit voice process
all right for you couldn't even applause
I played keyboards for farside for six
years and my main ax was a micro Momo
and they would break on stage and break
on the road and I had to learn and start
fixing it I open it up with the
screwdriver and fix whatever is broken
and that's where really circuit bending
in electronics began for me yeah this is
a circuit Bank Commodore 64 not many of
these around yeah and do some mods to us
it's a really is a keyboard you can play
it like a keyboard so you guys see the
ehe
be and you got your your sharps in your
flats up here and then you got your
Lambie bar do you have your octave
buttons yeah it's like a keyboard it's
pretty gangster pretty freakin gangster
never demonstrates on the sales here
made on some various devices triggers
right off the bat sometimes it doesn't
these things different this little toy
here is like a little wheel circuit
bending and all of a sudden you see a
smoke thing come up and that's gonna be
a bad sign you don't want the smoke
thing to come up sometimes things break
in the middle of the song no two shows
are the same so but it's always fun
yeah these devices are kind of not
always the most stable you can't really
trust any of them to produce sound
perfectly at any one time it's kind of
bad because there's kind of a one single
point of failure for each one of these
things so if one of them kind of breaks
at some point I can't I just can't play
I'm rotating I'm not even kidding I mean
I guess that's the end of the sense the
thing which hit music especially is that
it's like the minute that you pull out
so any sort of like vintage gaming
hardware audience that is an educated
expectorant and like hopefully they're
gonna do like yeah Super Mario cover is
there like you know like play Mega Man
or like just whatever like we're not
we're not a video game cover band we've
never covered a video game we are the
descendents of Eric our video game
trivia bands yeah
people respond really well in the
Castlevania Megaman 3 Chrono Trigger
gets some good stuff and by that time
some people are enjoying it or maybe a
little lost and then we break out the
denna
Mario has gotten us out of a few pinches
I didn't know what to name the quartet
the beginning but Zelda was the first
medley that I made the first arrangement
and so and I really like the Zelda games
and just trying to think of something
from a series that would just work well
treasure chest
squirt uh I don't know how to knit
quartet
so yeah so I just thought Triforce all
that sounds cool to me you know this
music really stands out for me mainly
because the nostalgic factor you know
when I get to play this stuff I get to
think you know back to my childhood one
you know you just had your siblings your
friends over
here's playing through like Mario 64 or
whatever it is
look festival is a annual party to New
York City over three days where they
collect as many different styles of chip
music from around the world and presentó
it's a pretty beautiful phenomenon to
see like that there's so many people in
so many different areas that are
actually using this technology to make
music
the the blip festival that's sort of the
apex of like every chip musicians like
career have you ever been asked to play
it like the blip festival or like any of
those hell no I think all of you will
hate me am I going to go that's up in
the air probably not making a movie or
really any other media out of video
games is a really daunting proposition
because forcing a video game to be
something where there is no choice and
no deviation and you just passively
watch the action happen I think is
almost contrary to the very idea of
video games it's a very sensitive topic
for a lot of people because there have
been adaptations that have been
disappointing I think the gamers have a
lower tolerance for crap
whereas like movie goers they'll
tolerate crap and studios know that and
so they just they put out grab like
here's some crap you know it's almost
like now the video games are way better
than the movies it's like I go see a
movie now I'm kind of unimpressed some
of my family members don't play video
games like I do like the new Clash of
the Titans they're like oh man that
movie is awesome and I'm like well yeah
but God of War was kind of more awesome
did you play that and they're just like
nah cuz they don't you know they go to
work and stuff like that whatever it
they want to start making another mortal
kombat movie you know there's been a web
series which is actually there they kind
of want to base it on that I hear and
they have an interesting director you
know he's directed Glee Glee what are
they gonna do singing you're making this
up there is no way it's true right
no budget way when I did my original
short film for Mortal Kombat that was
kind of like my first step in trying to
force people to believe that I can do
that type of stuff I always wanted to
make big action movie but who's gonna
give a guy like me whose credits all say
fame Glee Britney Spears in sync and
you'll be like yeah let's give him a
cool action you know I knew that wasn't
gonna happen
he likes to rip the heads of his victims
body I have been a fan of Mortal Kombat
for a very long time and of course when
it came out in the 90s
I saw the movie opening day now that I'm
older and I have a career in the in the
feature film world I you know
desperately wanted to create it again
every couple of years
someone's gonna question it you know
games are they bad for people you know
do they make people do things which is
it's just funny it's so doesn't the
games are now encouraging more and more
violent scenarios I want to say Grand
Theft Auto was the first popular game
where you could really just run up and
down the streets and hurt anyone you
wanted to but I kind of had a suspicion
that like every single kid who plays
that eventually will do so I mean I
wasn't going on killing hookers running
them over just how they're playing Grand
Theft Auto I wouldn't even think of
doing it I don't know anybody who would
think of doing that and if they are they
are probably on bath salts or you know
smoking crack I think there's a clear
line of enjoying fantasy to real-life
morality I do remember the first time I
was think of all and that was seeing the
fatalities in the mobile combat
kids have always played violent games
and I remember even when I wasn't
playing video games we were playing you
know cops and robbers and shooting guns
at each other and things like that but
video games definitely raised the bar in
terms of making it at times very graphic
very explicit these games aren't that
violent really I mean the most popular
games you might feel it over colleges
there's not a lot of blood there's no
limo or anything like that I sometimes
wondered if you know playing hours and
hours a day of like being completely
alert if you're going to be attacked
I wasn't also wearing off on their
personalities about 95% of kids in 7th
and 8th grade that play violent video
games it probably doesn't negatively
affect their lives in any way as a
matter of fact what they say is it
actually helps them because they find it
to be fun and find it to be challenging
they find it to be socially critical in
their lives for some kids who have a
little bit of anger though the game
might actually help them vent for other
kids the whole catharsis thing just
doesn't hold water at all so it really
comes down to which kid which game how
much are they playing it's really
important for parents teachers
pediatricians of all of us kids to know
other kids and and identify kids who are
at risk
it definitely has affected the way
reactive things and it's not constant
it'll spring up but there'll be times
where I'll be walking down the street
and I'll see somebody in my peripheral
view and my natural reaction will be to
spring over and zero in you know with my
scope on that person which is really odd
I mean the first time it happened it
scared the bejesus out of me but it
doesn't happen a lot but when it does it
makes me realize I'm spending way too
much time on these silly things
we live in a very ugly reality our
cities are are nasty our clothes are not
interesting so if you are a kid of
course you prefer to be there in a
beautiful place in the beautiful super
mario kind of place or in a place where
you can kill 25 monsters then go out
there in New York in a place full of
stressed people trying to do job I would
like to see video gamers get out the
house more do physical activities go
play some basketball you know I want to
see some kids play tag freeze tag or
something like that go ding-dong-ditch
throw some oranges at some walls or
something like that anything in your
life that you allow to consume it will
be detrimental be it in what you're not
learning in their relationships you're
not forming if you play video games
eight hours a day it's going to have
that effect if you read comic books
eight hours a day it's going to have
that effect if you exercise eight hours
a day it's going to have that effect it
is very much like drug addiction there's
no there's no way around that
I mean basically yeah I think for about
a year and a half I would get up go play
World of Warcraft and then go to sleep
and that was a thousand a day 2003 I
started playing World of Warcraft my son
had just been born and suddenly I just
got so enthralled with the game and just
that was all I did my wife was kind of
well she she's always been agitated
about it and then she started playing
suddenly there is two people that were
zoned out of the world playing became
more important than taking care of
business paid bills next thing I knew I
was being served divorce papers my wife
met a guy online playing World of
Warcraft she left me and then two weeks
later he was living in her apartment
with her in my case
it's safe to say that video games
destroyed my marriage world of warcraft
hands down they get what gamers
Foundation is a charity dedicated to
taking people's old video games and
systems refurbishing them and installing
them insolence hospitals you know we
want to be the Red Cross of gamers you
know too much provide this you know
scientifically backed proven the therapy
to virtually anyone who wants it
well the origins of the foundation are
very personal I was very sick as a child
very often I've had pneumonia 12 times
run kind of 16 times 27 broken bones
psychomotor epilepsy blood poisoning and
it got to the point where I had my room
at the local Children's Hospital
the little break room down the hall from
my usual room had had a couple arcade
cabinets installed in it I would drape
my little IV trip over the second player
controller and you know press go because
the hospital adversely put them on free
play and you become so involved in the
the processes of the game that the minor
and sometimes major aches and pains of
being sick just sort of fade into the
background you know you don't you don't
have time to hurt you've got a princess
to save
I had the mother and father in senior
living communities 2004
and I played Wii in 2008 to be bowling I
just had this idea that this would be a
good opportunity to start be quick on a
natural basis physical activity with
game play has always been a real
important thing and anytime you can get
a person in a restaurant to be standing
up and throwing a virtual bowling ball
or trying to chip on to the 5th hole
that's good when you can match the
physical activity with a mental activity
that's like the perfect storm of
neurogenesis I partnered up with
Elizabeth emini we started building out
this website called anti-aging games we
make a convergence of games that are
good for you
you know they grow your brain they make
you smarter they teach you something we
were testing our games on people with
strokes and there was a guy there who
couldn't talk couldn't couldn't move his
hands couldn't type the only thing that
he could do is he could lift one arm and
drop it and it was really remarkable to
watch him play our games he played our
code cracker game which is the numbers
game the first number I'll never forget
this it was 22 and so he tried to drop
his hand on the keyboard and what
happened was it
it entered 222 so it took him a couple
tries but he figured out exactly how
high he would have to drop off drop his
hand in order to hit the keyboard
without bouncing and then he proceeded
to just kick the games but like he got
better scores than I do
on that game and his entire like his
therapist was there everybody was around
him and they were like oh my god this
guy is totally intact on the inside
I really believe they have capacity to
do more than just entertain and and you
know be good for fitness and good for
learning and and and a real kind of
excellent framework for moving the world
forward I believe that game technology
is going to allow us to teach kids in
high school
100% of what they need to know what
they're currently learning in about six
months instead of four years and so I
believe that the mesh of the games and
the addictive nature of games that can
happen sometimes I want the kids of the
future to be addicted to learning
ultimately we can make a bunch of crafts
games just for money or we can make
games that really help people in terms
of memory improvement in terms of speed
of processing in terms of everyday life
whether it's healthy people or people
with strokes traumatic brain injuries
the the power of video games is so so
strong
video games are there they're fun
they're positive that's what they're
meant for it you know all parents see or
the violence that's all they see is the
call of duty's I think parents if they
stop to look at a game like Madden and
to see how much information their kids
were processing I think they'd be amazed
keeping track of all the teams the
league players the stats all that I mean
they're essentially coaching a virtual
football team kids that are nine years
older than us and it's impressive to me
person I'm a father myself
I have a son six years old he's autistic
so as he got older it kind of got a
little worse you know it wasn't anything
original whether it was Street Sesame
Street with whether it was anything more
than anything in his wealth I could
reach him out
aside from video games and that was the
only way he learned how to take risks
how to you know be brave enough to be
like I'm gonna do this I'm gonna do this
jump in Mario I'm gonna do this I had
some really terrible experiences at
college with some of my dorm mates um
like threats
I almost got beat up multiple times I
had people post signs all around the
dorm making fun of me for being gay at
this point I didn't even know it was a
gay I started playing Final Fantasy 6
for the Super Nintendo and I just
started playing it over and over and
over and it was like the most crazy
life-changing experience of my life I
mean there's stories in this game about
suicide pregnancies like there's there's
there's stories about like murder and
lost love and betrayal and like people
like not being comfortable with who they
are and I was like wow this is amazing
like I'm totally like losing myself in
this game and really kind of like
finding myself and like from now on I've
just been a different person
I'm more open-minded you know like I'm
completely comfortable with who I am you
know I came out to my parents like
everything in the rest of my life after
that moment I like to think was because
of that game I think there's more
flavors to life than just adrenaline and
aggression and that drives a lot of
games but not all and we're starting to
see I think especially in the last few
years with the explosion of any
development a lot more personal vision
and people who are setting out to make
something through a medium that I think
most people associate with just guns and
sort of childishness the palette
available to a game developer right now
has never been as rich a kid can sit
down and build a 3d game in a weekend
and publish it to all platforms you know
it's ridiculous we're now getting the
tools into the hands of creators in
every corner of the planet and I believe
that we're really on the precipice of
this Renaissance that will occur in game
development any kid
with a little bit of passion can build a
game it wasn't too many years ago that
that's same passion was not enough 30 40
years ago it would have been millions of
dollars to build that same game and now
you can do it on a home computer or on
an iPad so from the very beginning from
the from the Magnavox Odyssey brown-box
all the way through to the Wii U like
that still just been like one lifetime
really of video games it's such an
important part of history and being able
to see how video games have evolved from
the 80s the 90s into today it's been
incredible we used to have the you know
an arcade to go to and that was you know
filled with pinball machines and arcade
machines and then we had two home
consoles and that was cartridges and
discs and I think in the future it's
just gonna be up a digital it's gonna be
out just out there for you to Brian
games are seeping into people's lives in
ways that don't require you know a
commitment to a giant box and sitting in
front of a TV it's just gonna become
part of the fabric of everyday life and
it's hard to imagine that ever changing
it kind of infects every type of
entertainment whether it be feature
films or TV shows or music you know and
for a very universal audience now it's
not a very specific culture anymore I
don't think though they become shared
culture more and less subculture and
that's really the shift if you make up
an 8-bit graphic of a space invader or
pac-man everyone knows what that means
I do think it's a big deal actually
acknowledging that video games haven't
have a place has like a genuine cultural
event these are the things in our world
back and they were definitely worth
commenting right yeah yeah games are
interactive in a way that movies and
stage plays and novels can't be and if
we're actually making choices in the
role of people that we've never been or
couldn't be I think all have to be more
fulfilling because it involves the
individual and it reflects back it
allows you to reach deeper into the
human psyche Vita games offered a
holistic view into life when Myra sleeps
I see the viewers because we are all
body
what people do is play and to me sort of
what being a human is all about and I
think that's sort of what's driving the
rise of games and will continue to drive
the rise of games we are at one of the
changing points in history and I think
that the games have had an effect in
that videogames and ATM machines I think
I've changed the world
