Video Games--Behind the Fun

In 1962, Steve Russell made videogame history with the introduction of the world's first computer-based game: Spacewar!, a very primitive looking effort that had the additional drawback of requiring an $8 million mainframe on which to play it. Another 10 years would elapse before the first commercial videogame console would hit the streets, the Magnavox Odyssey (featuring a tennis-like game). During the mid-1970s, Atari would rise to prominence with its line of arcade video games, followed by the introduction in 1977 of what would eventually be known as the Atari 2600. But the real spark that lit the videogame revolution would come in 1985, when Nintendo released the NES with, among other games, an action title built around the exploits of an Italian plumber named Mario. While the history of videogames is full of interesting stories and ironies (Nintendo originally approached Atari about marketing its new NES, but was rejected, for instance--but you won't learn that here), this workmanlike A&E effort from the Modern Marvels series is content to simply deliver the factual highlights--the names, dates and systems--buttressed by endless footage of videogames (although clearly without access to screenshots from some of the more famous games). Yet even the "history" is too sparse to be useful: how can you present a history of videogames without even mentioning the Sega Genesis, the first 16-bit machine that paved the way for today's stunningly realistic games? Not a necessary purchase. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)