Name: The Video Game Revolution: How Geek Culture Became Pop Culture - Ep.3
Uploaded: 2020-12-31T19:05:17.000Z
Duration: 11 min 54 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

There was a time when video games were only for programmers.

Theun just for serious gamers now games, air everywhere, even on our phones.

How did video games go from so niche to completely mainstream?

Siri's How Geek culture Became pop culture.

Once niche and ridiculed geek culture has exploded into the mainstream.

How did so much change join us as we look at how Pulp fiction, comics, video games, anime and nerd heroes became pop culture staples.

It actually took a long time for video games to even catch the public's interest.

The earliest games were created by computer scientists at universities.

It wasn't until MIT researchers and students created Space War in 1962 that a game was played on more than one terminal space.

War pushed the limits of the PDP ones graphics and real time capability.

Even then, the computers that ran space war weighed £1600 not something the average Joe could use.

However, space war did inspire the creation of the first ever commercial arcade video game computer space.

Its creators, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, went on to found Atari in 1972 and release the legendary Pong Pong was a commercial success, both in a coin operated arcade cabinet and eventually in home console form.

Competitors piled in, and the video game industry was born Hung, invented by Atari.

Now, at last, you've been playing at home.

Atari found success again with games like Break Out, But it was the 1978 game space invaders that took the popularity of arcade games to the next level.

Japanese designer Tomohiro Nishikata was inspired partly by the sci fi renaissance caused by Star Wars, while Pong turned a tidy profit space.

Invaders was a cultural phenomenon, appearing in restaurants, movie theaters, bowling alleys and gas stations everywhere, showing everyone just with ease.

Spiffy new video games were all about Who's Mad Max?

Its appeal included the fact that it could record high scores, allowing friends to compete.

Not only did it establish the Shoot em up genre, its success also helped usher in what's now known as the golden era of arcade games.

In the eighties, home video consoles also began to take off thanks in no small part to the Atari 2600, which featured Ah, home version of space invaders and interchangeable cartridges.

Around the same time, disgruntled Atari employees founded their own company, Activision, the first ever third party developer for games.

Of course, video games were still pretty niche.

Came Disaster, the video game crash of 1983.

Warner Communications said today that its once booming Atari business lost another $180 million in the third quarter for total losses this year of more than half a billion dollars.

The console market had become over saturated, personal computers were taking a slice of the pie, and Activision wannabes were producing low quality games.

Capping it off was the legendary misfire that was Atari's E.

The Extra Terrestrial, a game so bad that Atari buried unsold cartridges and a New Mexico landfill.

As Faras, the public was concerned the era of video games was over.

Who could possibly clean out the pipes and restart the system?

Hello in 1985 Japanese company Nintendo decided to bring their hit console, Fama com or family Computer to the U.

But the industry was still reeling from the crash, so instead of marketing it as a console, they marketed it as a toy.

It was given a square look resembling a VCR and bundled with a light gun or zapper and an interactive robot, the first to play with Rob, the extraordinary video robot.

The best selling title of this new entertainment system was a little game called Super Mario Brothers.

To this day, Super Mario Brothers is regarded as arguably the most influential game of all time.

It wasn't just a fun and engaging adventure.

With Mario in its corner, the NES singlehandedly revitalized the video game industry, becoming the talk of schoolyards everywhere.

Mario quickly became not only Nintendo's mascot, but the face of video games.

Sega wouldn't catch up until several years later with the help of a certain speedy hedgehog.

With the crash in mind, Nintendo introduced the Nintendo seal of quality to keep third party games upto a high standard.

Nintendo also expanded into a new untapped market portable systems for short pick up and play sessions.

In 1989 they released the GameBoy, bundling it with a game out of the Soviet Union.

This puzzle game, by Alexey Pajitnov, was simple to understand, but challenging to master appealing to a wide audience and having it on a portable system made it ideal for kids to take to school where they could challenge their friends to beat their high scores.

The fact that it wasn't built around cute or cartoony characters drew in adults, too.

And so, as we transition into the nineties games more no longer just for kids.

I'm sorry, sir, your flight's been delayed.

In a roundabout way, this adult appeal grew, thanks to the fallout from a new sort of game in arcades.

Street Fighter two featured a diverse set of characters from around the world, though the standout was Chun Li, whose popularity paved the way for future female video game protagonists.

However, Street Fighter two also led to the rise of popular competitors Mortal Kombat, which took a much more bloody approach.

The shock of seeing such scenes got gamers talking but also lead to moral panic among parents.

And so video games found themselves in front of the United States Senate for hearings on whether they were suitable for Children.

This newfound infamy, Haddon upside The congressional hearings led to the establishment of a rating system for video games, allowing parents to make informed decisions while also permitting games to tackle mature themes.

Within certain ratings, video games had grown up.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board, or SRB, has proven controversial, but it also opened the floodgates.

No longer were games shackled to being kid.

Friendly or stigmatized is just for kids, leading to the emergence of new household names.

And with the rise of mature games came consoles designed for that audience.

In 1994 Sony released their PlayStation Ah console using CD ROM's, which allowed farm or storage space, while other manufacturers also switched from cartridges.

PlayStation stood tall, unleashing a wave of cinematic games using full motion video, but started blurring the line between games and movies.

This also allowed them to tap into other markets.

FIFA and Madden started to look like the actual sports they were based on.

Tomb Raider established a female character in the lead role, and horror fans found the likes of Resident Evil and Silent Hill to get spooked by.

Some of these titles were also available on PC and Sega Saturn.

In the two thousands, the industry continued to expand to cover diverse interests.

Mario Kart and Halo became the biggest games at university dorm room party nights.

Grand Theft Auto Three showed that it was possible to explore entire cities inside of games.

Call of duty for modern warfare, released at the controversial height of the Iraq war showed that video games could be grounded in realism and touch on contemporary themes.

And the Nintendo Wii broke down even Mawr audience barriers as casual games became a popular activity for the whole family.

There's also been a major shift in how gaming is perceived as a hobby.

It's no longer a solo activity, or even just for local co op land.

Parties have been replaced by online multiplayer, but what's more, games have become a spectator affair.

Online streaming has seen the popularization of E sports, while platforms like YouTube and twitch allow people to sit back and watch rather than play the personalities behind.

Video game content have become bona fide celebrities.

In fact, let's play videos have played a significant role in YouTube's history.

In turn, YouTube helped popularize the best selling video game of all time Minecraft.

These online platforms allow fans to connect like never before as they exchange content and duke it out in the comments.

However, arguably the biggest shake up over the last few decades has come with the rise of mobile devices.

The first mobile game was actually Tetris back in 1994.