I think I am a bit older than the average gamer these days and I often talk about how I was there for all the stages of evolution of video games. I had a Pong machine, was there when Atari took the world by storm only to 5 years later nearly destroy the industry entirely. I was also there when Nintendo took the reigns and not only saved the industry but expanded it and was also there when Sega miraculously took on Nintendo and actually became the industry leader for a while only to later throw it all away on a series of really stupid mistakes that resulted in them leaving the console industry entirely.
I don't really recommend that people go back and actually play most Atari, Nintendo, or Sega games but it was a fun trip down memory lane for me when this Netflix series summed up all the relevant parts of history in gaming. In season one they take us all the way to the console wars of the 90's and to me, this was the most exciting time in gaming ever because things were changing so much.
I found this series really interesting and actually learned a few things I didn't know before such as the extreme limitations of the various machines that were released to the public throughout the ages. Atari 2600 games look absolutely absurd by today's standards but when it was released to us in the late 70's and early 80's we had exactly nothing to compare it to so of course, we loved it.
Games like Space Invaders, Pac Man, and Donkey Kong took the United States and later the world by storm and it was such a sensation that these arcade games were everywhere and everyone was familiar with them. Arcades became a massive industry and they were a lot of fun to visit and throw quarter after quarter into. These days arcades barely exist as the home technology has caught up with and largely surpassed what can be done inside of a gaming cabinet. There was a time though that these cabinets were much more powerful than anything you could hope to have at your house unless of course you were really wealthy and could afford the actual stand-up cabinets.
Take Pac-Man for example. Everyone LOVED the arcade version of the game but the home console version was just awful. Atari would later admit that the game was rushed to make the Xmas season and they were aware that they were releasing a terrible product. It was this same mindset that lead to the near destruction of home gaming and later, the destruction of Atari as a company overall.
As the series discusses this and many other things we eventually find ourselves in the late 80's and early 90's when a new player entered the scene called Sega. Personally, I had never heard of Sega up to that point because Nintendo had something crazy like 95% market-share in the US. It was a very lofty goal for Sega to try to take on this behemoth of a company but with initial good management they actually pulled it off.
Their battle plan seems simple as it is presented by the ex-CEO of the company in the docuseries but they go really in-depth to show exactly how difficult it was to make this happen. One thing in particular that I enjoyed was the design process of their hit game and mascot Sonic and how he was nearly going to be a panda. I don't think that would have worked out as well :)
For those out there that don't know the history of gaming, this is a relatively short refresher course that will get you up to speed on what me, and anyone else around my age actually lived through. In around 4 hours you get all the major historical gaming moments thrown at you. Of course this is still Netflix so go ahead and prepare yourself for the LGBT stuff that Netflix seems to be obligated to throw into everything. It must just be protocol over there.
I don't always enjoy gaming shows because I feel like they get a lot of stuff wrong when they make them. High Score seems to have been very thoroughly researched and they have interviews with a lot of the people that were actually involved in the creation process. If you are gamer who lived through this time period like I did, it is a wonderful trip down memory lane. If you are a younger gamer, it is a great way of seeing how the industry evolved into what it is today. I highly recommend that you watch this.