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[Jooxed]

High Score is a Netflix documentary series about 'golden age' of games

High Score Netflix documentary! Covering Space Invaders, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Sonic the Hedgehog, Madden NFL, Pac-Man, & Doom.

www.nintendoenthusiast.com

High Score is a six-episode Netflix documentary premiering on Wednesday, Aug. 19 about the “golden age of video games” and “revolutionary stages of gaming.” Explicit topics for each episode in the series haven’t been specified, but Nintendo, Sega, Space Invaders, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Sonic the Hedgehog, Madden NFL, Pac-Man, and Doom are all cited in promotional materials.

 

[Rentahamster]

The golden age is the pre-horse armor age.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

That's like saying the golden age of music was when cavemen first started hitting sticks on rocks repeatedly.

The golden age of videogames contains...

Fortnite, League of Legends, Minecraft, World of Warcraft, Rocket League.

Don't let nastolgia fool you.

 

[Mistake]

That's like saying the golden age of music was when cavemen first started hitting sticks on rocks repeatedly.

The golden age of videogames contains...

Fortnite, League of Legends, Minecraft, World of Warcraft, Rocket League.

Don't let nastolgia fool you.

Some of these games are largely credited for helping create the ones you just mentioned

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Some of these games are largely credited for helping create the ones you just mentioned

Just as the first caveman grunts and repetitious bashing of sticks on ground laid the groundwork for Mozart and Miles Davis.

 

[Mistake]

Just as the first caveman grunts and repetitious bashing of sticks on ground laid the groundwork for Mozart and Miles Davis.

I think you're the first person I've talked to who gets in such a huff over documentaries. Nothing wrong with knowing a bit of history

 

[Bigfroth]

Just seen an article on this documentary. As anybody watched it? Any good?

 

[Jooxed]

Just seen an article on this documentary. As anybody watched it? Any good?

Comes out next week on the 19th!

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I think you're the first person I've talked to who gets in such a huff over documentaries. Nothing wrong with knowing a bit of history

I'm not always like this. I'm a relatively reasonable and calm person IRL.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I think you're the first person I've talked to who gets in such a huff over documentaries. Nothing wrong with knowing a bit of history

He’s right though. Pac-Man was 40 years ago, tech has improved beyond our wildest dreams since then and video games are literally in every person’s pocket, with an audience that’s thousands of times what it was when SF2 and Doom were new. Yet the age of arcades is still referred to as “the golden age of video games”. You’d think the term “golden age” implies that things have only been free falling since then, but in the case of video games it’s mostly the exact opposite.

 

[Mistake]

He’s right though. Pac-Man was 40 years ago, tech has improved beyond our wildest dreams since then and video games are literally in every person’s pocket, with an audience that’s thousands of times what it was when SF2 and Doom were new. Yet the age of arcades is still referred to as “the golden age of video games”. You’d think the term “golden age” implies that things have only been free falling since then, but in the case of video games it’s mostly the exact opposite.

"golden age" is mainly to refer when things kicked off and started becoming mainstream. It's not to say that it was best. Take comics for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Comic_Books

 

[Aggressive Carrot]

It looks like High Score would be worth watching. I'll check out the documentary when it premieres.

 

[Heavy_D206]

Hearing someone say Fortnite is the golden age of gaming makes me want to puke lol

This documentary looks cool tho, reminds me of the one they did about classic toys.

 

[MastAndo]

That's like saying the golden age of music was when cavemen first started hitting sticks on rocks repeatedly.

The golden age of videogames contains...

Fortnite, League of Legends, Minecraft, World of Warcraft, Rocket League.

Don't let nastolgia fool you.

 

[DragoonKain]

I've tried to watch multiple vg documentaries. Couldn't get through any of them, I find the history of video games incredibly boring, and I love video games.

 

[Clear]

Willing to bet that this documentary skips over the whole home computer gaming scene of the 1980's and fixates on the same old narrative about the great crash of '83 and how Nintendo saved it all...Yawn.

(Would be happy to be wrong, but I like seriously doubt I will be)

 

[epicnemesis]

Golden age was 1998-2006. The tech was there to not make 3d complete ass, assets weren’t HD so dev costs were still low enough to allow risk and innovation, and broadband was spreading enough to make online gaming viable.

 

[Futaleufu]

Willing to bet that this documentary skips over the whole home computer gaming scene of the 1980's and fixates on the same old narrative about the great crash of '83 and how Nintendo saved it all...Yawn.

(Would be happy to be wrong, but I like seriously doubt I will be)

That narrative has now evolved into "arcade games were pay to win and never good, NES games were better"

 

[Tesseract]

golden age was 1998 to 2006 if you cared about mechanics

 

[Anki]

Watching the first episode, it’s really great.

 

[Mihos]

TIL the golden age of television was Friends and Seinfeld.

 

[Pejo]

Watching the first episode, it’s really great.

Do they inject it with political stuff or is it truly just a video game documentary?

 

[Anki]

not sure, i dont follow politics
Its nice i learned some new things i didn't know.

 

[Heavy_D206]

Do they inject it with political stuff or is it truly just a video game documentary?

No political BS really, aside from featuring a trans woman but they don't even really go into any trans issues.

I've gotten through 3 episodes and they were all really good. It's a lot of stuff gaming enthusiasts have probably read about before, but it's neat seeing interviews with the people who really created all this stuff.

 

[Notorious_Roy]

Saw the first two episodes and loved them both. It's really worth watching if you like videogames.

 

[Duellist]

4 episodes in and it's pretty good. No mention of the Sega Master system though, which is a bummer. Just straight focus on NES until Genesis and sonic.

 

[Kev Kev]

lol huge ffvii spoiler in episode three. yes it's THAT spoiler

i mean, who doesn't know at this point. it's so old you can't even be mad, but i'm sure someone will. oh well spoiler warning for anyone reading this.

really great so far. well put together doc and consistent from episode to episode. only in ep 3 and it mostly focused around 80's with some really interesting early 70's stuff, and reaching into the 90's

looking forward to the rest

 

[nush]

4 episodes in and it's pretty good. No mention of the Sega Master system though, which is a bummer. Just straight focus on NES until Genesis and sonic.

Of course, it's America. No gaming culture outside of there and Japan existed.

 

[Redlancet]

30 minuties and they injected a lot of political stuff,it netflix so its a given,there are some good parts ( the japanese guys) but its a very shallow and simpe documentary,no european scene,big nintendo blowjobs

 

[ghairat]

Wrote this in another thread:
Kind of disappointed that they didn't mention or interview Nasir Gebelli during the Final Fantasy part. While the Amano part was good, Nasir's story was certainly a missed opportunity.

 

[John Mullins]

No political BS really, aside from featuring a trans woman but they don't even really go into any trans issues.

I've gotten through 3 episodes and they were all really good. It's a lot of stuff gaming enthusiasts have probably read about before, but it's neat seeing interviews with the people who really created all this stuff.

lol seen this and thought GAF would be triggered but actually seemed legit and not shoe horned.

Only seen the first episode but was great so far.

 

[ape2man]

Can someone explain why that trailer feel like someone recorded that video with his phone at a convention?

 

[John Mullins]

Can someone explain why that trailer feel like someone recorded that video with his phone at a convention?

It does? Nostalgia?

Some of the footage is quite ancient maybe that's why.

Thread should be moved to the main gaming forum, no? Not exactly off topic...

 

[H4ze]

Whaaattt, that's awesome, no I know what I will watch this evening and tomorrow I don't have to go to work, what a time to be alive.

 

[ZywyPL]

Watched 3 episodes yesterday, gonna finish the series today after work, really loving it, really well made.

Sorry mate, someone had to do it. If it was just just the nostalgia people wouldn't go back to 10/15/20yo games and still enjoy them, or pray for remasters. To each their own I guess, depends on when someone has started gaming, today's 5-10yo kids will take over NeoGaf in 2040-50 and they all will say how 2020 was the best year in gaming thanks to Mincecrafe, Fortnite etc. and Covid lockdown that allowed them to play those games pretty much 24/7. But IMO the older the games are the more they have in common with books, the graphics are severely limited and people just have to use their own imagination, that's those games' charm, their magic, and now everything is put on the table right in front of you to just blankly consume.

 

[S77]

After watching 4 episodes I can say that unfortunately it's full of political bullshit. The production value is great (Netflix money of course) but it almost solely focuses on the american side of video gaming, omitting alot of japanese generations of consoles, not to mention that Europe is not on the map for them. But hey, at least every episode has a story of a gay video game, or a gay player, a black and gay developer, a transexual and so forth.

The problem is that it's insanely forced just to score "woke points" for the sjw reviewers. First they show up Ultima and Final Fantasy coverage, then inserts "Gayblade" into the mix... that's like comparing a high quality game with a miniclip shovelware, they're not even in the same league, there would be hundreds of more important and defining RPGs that could've been shown, but instead they had to pick some bottom of the barrel shit just for the sake of "diversity" representation.

Not a bad show overall, just don't expect anything very representative of that gaming period, it's mostly inserting today's political shit into a period that had little to do with it.

 

[Clear]

Think I'm going to avoid this show, sounds like the exact sort of thing that winds me up.

Its upsetting because the real story is way more interesting than these reheated myths.

 

[Kev Kev]

After watching 4 episodes I can say that unfortunately it's full of political bullshit. The production value is great (Netflix money of course) but it almost solely focuses on the american side of video gaming, omitting alot of japanese generations of consoles, not to mention that Europe is not on the map for them. But hey, at least every episode has a story of a gay video game, or a gay player, a black and gay developer, a transexual and so forth.

The problem is that it's insanely forced just to score "woke points" for the sjw reviewers. First they show up Ultima and Final Fantasy coverage, then inserts "Gayblade" into the mix... that's like comparing a high quality game with a miniclip shovelware, they're not even in the same league, there would be hundreds of more important and defining RPGs that could've been shown, but instead they had to pick some bottom of the barrel shit just for the sake of "diversity" representation.

Not a bad show overall, just don't expect anything very representative of that gaming period, it's mostly inserting today's political shit into a period that had little to do with it.

i wouldnt say "full" at all

but yeah, each episode goes out of its way to be "inclusive" and score woke points. its undeiniable. but its usually just a very short 2 or 3 minute thing, then it goes right back into talking about gaming/history. not "full" at all though. disappointing and cringy when they start going into woke stuff though bc it feels so forced

EDIT: ok yeah the gayblade thing took up a ton of time. i did think it was an interesting bit though, i didnt know that existed but youre absolutely right that many other classic RPGs got robbed of having that time in the doc, just bc they had to force the wokeness

 

[John Mullins]

There was a brief 10 seconds mention of transgender in the first one but apart from that it was an excellent game focused episode, not seen other episodes though.

The person did come first place in the first national gaming competition supposedly ever held. So it's not like it was tenuous and forced. She was a women now and it had footage of him as a youngster, so it was more like an explanation otherwise you would have been like - whut??

 

[GeorgPrime]

High Score is a Netflix documentary series about 'golden age' of games

High Score Netflix documentary! Covering Space Invaders, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Sonic the Hedgehog, Madden NFL, Pac-Man, & Doom.

www.nintendoenthusiast.com

High Score is a six-episode Netflix documentary premiering on Wednesday, Aug. 19 about the “golden age of video games” and “revolutionary stages of gaming.” Explicit topics for each episode in the series haven’t been specified, but Nintendo, Sega, Space Invaders, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Sonic the Hedgehog, Madden NFL, Pac-Man, and Doom are all cited in promotional materials.

I prefer the "Golden Age of Point & Click"

 

[Stitch]

Can someone explain why that trailer feel like someone recorded that video with his phone at a convention?

because netflix didn't release the trailer on youtube so someone recorded it from their website with a potato

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Cool. Didn't even know about this. I'll watch it on the weekend.

Hoping it fun and cheery. That old Donkey Kong movie with Mitchell and Wiebe was depressing. One is a bearded business guy with a mullet and another plays DK in his garage 24/7.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Watched 3 episodes yesterday, gonna finish the series today after work, really loving it, really well made.




Sorry mate, someone had to do it. If it was just just the nostalgia people wouldn't go back to 10/15/20yo games and still enjoy them, or pray for remasters. To each their own I guess, depends on when someone has started gaming, today's 5-10yo kids will take over NeoGaf in 2040-50 and they all will say how 2020 was the best year in gaming thanks to Mincecrafe, Fortnite etc. and Covid lockdown that allowed them to play those games pretty much 24/7. But IMO the older the games are the more they have in common with books, the graphics are severely limited and people just have to use their own imagination, that's those games' charm, their magic, and now everything is put on the table right in front of you to just blankly consume.

 

[John Mullins]

Cool. Didn't even know about this. I'll watch it on the weekend.

Hoping it fun and cheery. That old Donkey Kong movie with Mitchell and Wiebe was depressing. One is a bearded business guy with a mullet and another plays DK in his garage 24/7.

DONKEY KONG KILL SCREEN COMING UP!!

 

[Squirrel Killer]

No political BS really, aside from featuring a trans woman but they don't even really go into any trans issues.

I've gotten through 3 episodes and they were all really good. It's a lot of stuff gaming enthusiasts have probably read about before, but it's neat seeing interviews with the people who really created all this stuff.

Did we watch the same series? I'm not necessarily criticizing because they show that there were political aspects in gaming, but I don't see how you can claim there's no politics in the doc. Frankly, they should've gone more in the trans issues, because I know there's got to more to the story with Cranford leaving Bard's Tale/Interplay. But I guess that would've left less time for the lost LGBTQ game story (which they completely dropped the ball on resolving.)

There was a brief 10 seconds mention of transgender in the first one but apart from that it was an excellent game focused episode, not seen other episodes though.

The person did come first place in the first national gaming competition supposedly ever held. So it's not like it was tenuous and forced. She was a women now and it had footage of him as a youngster, so it was more like an explanation otherwise you would have been like - whut??

She went on to become a prominent developer in her own right. Not that they spent any time on that at all.

 

[Xenon]

Yeah I made it about ten minutes in until the lady said she loved Space Invaders because it allowed her to play as a female even though her Aanatomy didn't match. This made absolutely no sense in the context of the game at all which has no gender in its design. It feels like propaganda which is unnecessary since I would have never questioned the lady's gender history had it not been brought up.

I do have to agree that it seems a little light on facts but does have high production quality. It was nice seeing his original design document for the aliens in Space Invaders.

 

[Richard Packer]

Cool. Didn't even know about this. I'll watch it on the weekend.

Hoping it fun and cheery. That old Donkey Kong movie with Mitchell and Wiebe was depressing. One is a bearded business guy with a mullet and another plays DK in his garage 24/7.

"Dad! Wipe my butt"
"Wipe your own butt!!"

 

[Notorious_Roy]

Finished the series and I loved it. Yes, it checks some boxes for poc or gay people but that's okay. Those are only minor parts and I actually laughed my balls off during that GayBlade section. I would play that on my Switch if possible.

Now go make season 2 with the rise of Sony and the fall of Sega.

 

[Kev Kev]

going back to the "what is golden age" argument...

i feel like golden age is somewhere around the 2000's, around when halo 2 came out, xbox live arcade was just starting, all kinds of new and exciting games/franchises were being created. somewhere from around 2002 or 2003 to around whenever kinect and all that shit started coming out, so 2009 to 2010ish

the 90's were great. i was born in 87 and didnt experience arcades the same way kids thart grew up in the 80s experienced them. but still, i wouldnt consider 90s golden age bc it really wasnt until n64 and PS1 came out that things started getting really interesting. but that wasnt until 94 and 96, and a lot of the best games for those consoles came out in the late 90's towards the end of that gen.

so i really think it's that Ps2/xbox through the ps3/x360 gen (2000-2010 roughly) that are golden age years imo

 

[The Scrivener]

After watching 4 episodes I can say that unfortunately it's full of political bullshit. The production value is great (Netflix money of course) but it almost solely focuses on the american side of video gaming, omitting alot of japanese generations of consoles, not to mention that Europe is not on the map for them. But hey, at least every episode has a story of a gay video game, or a gay player, a black and gay developer, a transexual and so forth.

The problem is that it's insanely forced just to score "woke points" for the sjw reviewers. First they show up Ultima and Final Fantasy coverage, then inserts "Gayblade" into the mix... that's like comparing a high quality game with a miniclip shovelware, they're not even in the same league, there would be hundreds of more important and defining RPGs that could've been shown, but instead they had to pick some bottom of the barrel shit just for the sake of "diversity" representation.

Not a bad show overall, just don't expect anything very representative of that gaming period, it's mostly inserting today's political shit into a period that had little to do with it.

Awww shucks, was gonna watch with my two boys, but, eh...

Prolly better off playing Battletoads with them.