I, Videogame Level 1

1) Videogames emerged from the culture of the "Cold War" - what does Henry Jenkins from MIT compare the period to in terms of a famous board game?

He states that the Cold War was almost exactly like a global simulation of the famous board game, Battleship.

2) a) Who was the inventor of the first Video game according to the documentary?

William Higginbotham.

b) What was the name of the game?

Tennis for Two.

3) Steve Russell is credited with the first true computer-based videogame (in terms of its use with the 1961 PDP1 mainframe computer) with SPACEWAR! - what popular science fiction book series also influenced him?

“Doc” Smith’s Lensman series.

4) What innovation did Steve Russell's SPACEWAR! introduce in terms of input hardware?

Steve Russell introduced the joystick.

5) a) In the anti-war and counterculture period of the 1960s and 1970s, what new home entertainment system let consumers finally control what was being seen on the home television?

The Magnavox Odyssey.

b) b) Who was its inventor/developer?

Ralph Baer.

6) PONG emerged out of the counterculture spirit of the early 1970s - its natural home was what type of entertainment setting?

Bars, restaurants, and coffee shops.

7) Who does Nolan Bushnell say were generally best at playing the game?

He still says that women are better at playing games than men.

8) "Space Invaders" emerged in the late 1970s as the first game from Japan.
How did the TAITO production team intensify the emotion of the game using the four-note in-game music theme?

They sped up the tempo of those four notes as the ‘invaders’ would get closer and closer to you, the player to instill a sense and feeling of panic.  And it worked.

9) Steve Moulder reflects that the first arcade games tended to result in the player's defeat. This he argues in turn reflected the view held by many designers during that time that war itself is defeatist.

Has this view changed since that time? Do today's latest games still convey this sense? Why? Why not? (use your own words)

It is a very hard question to answer in that I think games do still convey that sense that war is defeatist, because war has not changed much and some even home console and handheld games are still resulting in millions if not billions of player’s defeats even as we speak worldwide.

10) Have you ever played any of the games shown in this the first episode of "I, Videogame"? What was your memory of playing it? Where were you, when was it?

TETRIS was the game.  I would play this game on the first generation Nintendo Game Boy non-stop on the bus rides to and from elementary school back in NYC in the late 90’s…before Pokémon came to the US.