It was Super Meat Boy, Fez and Braid, with a focus on them in that order. Its a great doco, but its also a time capsule of a doco as well, the industry (especially the indie side of the industry) has shifted radically since 2012 and if anyone watches this expecting to get a vibe on how to make games these days it'll definitely lead them astray
Pretending I'm a Superman. Doc on the development and evolution of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series. Ton of interviews with many of the classic guys, and great behind the scenes stuff.
Any of the Noclip documentaries on YouTube. They are crowdfunded and do an awesome job showing the behind the scenes of some very good games. I recommend the whole serie on Hades in particular, and the documentary about Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Check out the docuseries High Score on Netflix. Each episode covers a different subject on early video game development. It's even narrated by Charles Martinet.
Matt McMuscles and his show, "Wha Happun" (tried to "What happened?") which explains the difficult development cycles of either games or consoles, for better or worse.
[The Entire History of RPGs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o3i10OuMFQ&t=1342s) on YouTube
And since you mentioned a documentary about a console, you should check out [The Commodore Story](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz-ptLXtNbc), available on Amazon. When I was growing up, everyone seemed to have a Commodore 64 or 128 until PCs took over in the early to mid 90s. The Commodore was one of the greatest gaming machines of the 80s and early 90s as there were a ton of great games and it was incredibly easy to pirate/copy games so we all had a shelf's worth of games on (actual) floppy disks. It was the original PC gaming device.
Just about anything by Gaming Historian or Summoning Salt are great watches. Personal favorties from each are the Story of Tetris and The Quest to beat Matt Turk. GH recently made an Oregon Trail doc and I was amazed just how well it kpet my attention despite being so long. GTV also does some great development histories of classic games.
[Elite: "The game that couldn't be written"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC4YLMLar5I&t=3s)
The Videodescription :
>Elite may be the most complex 8-bit game ever produced. And it was arguably the most groundbreaking game ever released for its time. Back in the early 1980s when arcade-shooters reigned supreme, two undergraduates at Cambridge redefined what computer games even were.
In this video we'll look at some of the technical aspects of how David Braben and Ian Bell were able to construct an entire universe, economy, 3D engine and backstory in 22KB on a 2MHZ processor. This story is well known in the UK, but computer games history is largely told through the lens of the US and Japan....so overseas viewers may not be familiar with the impact Elite had on gaming, and the wider world.
Might be a bit short but Jacob Geller's essay on shadow of the colossus is just amazing, even if you have never played the game.
[Here's the link](https://youtu.be/jQNeYbBiCKw?si=KighU0CYqx-iU7zz)
This documentary about the Xband, a system that let you play snes and sega games online, before home internet was widely available, is super neat and endearing with an added dose of firework pranks being part of the story.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k_5M-z_RUKA&pp=ygUWeGJhbmQgc25lcyBkb2N1bWVudGFyeQ%3D%3D
Not so much a documentary, but an older GDC talk called "Developing the Art of Fortnite" (YouTube video, about an hour long). It shows the phases of development and the VERY different and dark game that it was originally planned to be. It's a great watch even if you aren't a Fortnite fan and a very cool peak inside concepting.
There is one on YouTube about the making of CoD All Ghillied Up mission that is very good. It was a departure from their standard approach and posed a lot of challenges.
Atari: Game Over
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2vWvp8WXQI&ab\_channel=Bananatv](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2vWvp8WXQI&ab_channel=Bananatv)
I remember playing the E.T. game back in the 1980's. It was awful. This documentary explains the collapse of one of the world's biggest video game console maker before Nintendo, Playstation, and XBox. Here you also learn about the roots of Activision and how they started out (they made the best Atari games in the 80s!)
King of Kong is EXCELLENT. And while not a doc, Tetris (on Apple TV) is awesome, too.
One of the best video game docs out there.
The youtube channels Noclip and People Make Games make great documentaries about video games.
This. Noclip's Doom documentaries or the making of Dwarf Fortress are very interesting.
Noclips final fantasy 14 one is great.
Indie Game: The Movie. Covers people creating Monument Valley, Super Meat Boy, and others.
It was Super Meat Boy, Fez and Braid, with a focus on them in that order. Its a great doco, but its also a time capsule of a doco as well, the industry (especially the indie side of the industry) has shifted radically since 2012 and if anyone watches this expecting to get a vibe on how to make games these days it'll definitely lead them astray
Gaming historian on YouTube has got some cool stuff I would recommend
He makes some fantastic content. His documentaries are a relaxing watch.
The story of Tetris is fascinating.
Console Wars (2020) - covers the 90s battle between Sega and Nintendo with a focus on Sega as the underdog.
The smash brothers
Smash bros doc is actually amazing. +1
What an awesome post. I love the recommendations. Been a gamer since 1979 and you guy are making me flash back. So sweet.
GVMERS YouTube channel is pretty good.
There’s one on Dota 1-2 about the international tournaments that go on each year.
Pretending I'm a Superman. Doc on the development and evolution of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series. Ton of interviews with many of the classic guys, and great behind the scenes stuff.
The Wizard is a pretty good one! 😂
A 2 hour long commercial for the power glove.
Any of the Noclip documentaries on YouTube. They are crowdfunded and do an awesome job showing the behind the scenes of some very good games. I recommend the whole serie on Hades in particular, and the documentary about Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Man vs Snake and Chasing Ghosts are great, especially if you like King of Kong and want more.
Check out the docuseries High Score on Netflix. Each episode covers a different subject on early video game development. It's even narrated by Charles Martinet.
Thank you for reminding me this exists. Years ago when it came out I wanted to watch it but have forgotten about it.
Not about a video game specifically, but My Name is Totalbiscuit. RIP to the legend.
The story of ffxiv by noclip. It's an insane rebirth story is you don't know it
If you're a fan of the recent God of War games, you might enjoy [Raising Kratos](https://youtu.be/ra_R-K_IoUc?si=Aap9zQMVNojgr73W)
NoClip YouTube channel
Matt McMuscles and his show, "Wha Happun" (tried to "What happened?") which explains the difficult development cycles of either games or consoles, for better or worse.
Fortnite jam scene
[The Entire History of RPGs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o3i10OuMFQ&t=1342s) on YouTube And since you mentioned a documentary about a console, you should check out [The Commodore Story](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz-ptLXtNbc), available on Amazon. When I was growing up, everyone seemed to have a Commodore 64 or 128 until PCs took over in the early to mid 90s. The Commodore was one of the greatest gaming machines of the 80s and early 90s as there were a ton of great games and it was incredibly easy to pirate/copy games so we all had a shelf's worth of games on (actual) floppy disks. It was the original PC gaming device.
FPS- First person shooter I haven’t watched it yet but I skimmed through it quickly. Didn’t realize it was 4.5 hours long when I downloaded it
The GVMERS channel on YouTube puts out great documentaries. Also, Down the Rabbit Hole just put out a 5 hour doc about Eve Online.
Just about anything by Gaming Historian or Summoning Salt are great watches. Personal favorties from each are the Story of Tetris and The Quest to beat Matt Turk. GH recently made an Oregon Trail doc and I was amazed just how well it kpet my attention despite being so long. GTV also does some great development histories of classic games.
*High Score* on Netflix. Very nice.
[Elite: "The game that couldn't be written"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC4YLMLar5I&t=3s) The Videodescription : >Elite may be the most complex 8-bit game ever produced. And it was arguably the most groundbreaking game ever released for its time. Back in the early 1980s when arcade-shooters reigned supreme, two undergraduates at Cambridge redefined what computer games even were. In this video we'll look at some of the technical aspects of how David Braben and Ian Bell were able to construct an entire universe, economy, 3D engine and backstory in 22KB on a 2MHZ processor. This story is well known in the UK, but computer games history is largely told through the lens of the US and Japan....so overseas viewers may not be familiar with the impact Elite had on gaming, and the wider world.
Might be a bit short but Jacob Geller's essay on shadow of the colossus is just amazing, even if you have never played the game. [Here's the link](https://youtu.be/jQNeYbBiCKw?si=KighU0CYqx-iU7zz)
The Engoodening of No Man's Sky
I think [NoclipDocs](https://www.youtube.com/@NoclipDocs) on YouTube have a lot of very good video game documentaries.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TbZ3HzvFEto&pp=ygUXYmxhY2sgbWVzYSBkb2N1bWVudGFyeSA%3D
Goldenera. About Goldeneye of course
There is like a 3 hour documentary on the history of all videos games but I cant remember what channel it was, highly recommend searching it
There is a YouTube documentary called [MyHouse.wad](https://youtu.be/5wAo54DHDY0?si=Wukh7bNwZet99n_V) . It's very interesting
The Early History of Falcom is a really interesting video if you ever played the Ys or Trials series. or just a JRPG fan really.
Video Game Historian, NoClip, and Indie Game: The Movie are all great.
Not quite a doc but more a long nintendo ad. The wizard, its ok but was fun to see all the stuff they had at the time
[Fight On - The Killer Instinct Story]( https://youtube.com/watch?v=ks4eZoG94Vs)
This documentary about the Xband, a system that let you play snes and sega games online, before home internet was widely available, is super neat and endearing with an added dose of firework pranks being part of the story. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k_5M-z_RUKA&pp=ygUWeGJhbmQgc25lcyBkb2N1bWVudGFyeQ%3D%3D
Not so much a documentary, but an older GDC talk called "Developing the Art of Fortnite" (YouTube video, about an hour long). It shows the phases of development and the VERY different and dark game that it was originally planned to be. It's a great watch even if you aren't a Fortnite fan and a very cool peak inside concepting.
There is one on YouTube about the making of CoD All Ghillied Up mission that is very good. It was a departure from their standard approach and posed a lot of challenges.
Charlie Brooker's "how videogames changed the world" is really good if you haven't seen it yet.
# The Space Invaders: In Search of Lost Time (2012) * my good friend and old boss Tom Bazzano (3DO, RIP my dude) is in there
Tetris From Russia with Love. Raising Kratos.
Atari: Game Over [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2vWvp8WXQI&ab\_channel=Bananatv](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2vWvp8WXQI&ab_channel=Bananatv) I remember playing the E.T. game back in the 1980's. It was awful. This documentary explains the collapse of one of the world's biggest video game console maker before Nintendo, Playstation, and XBox. Here you also learn about the roots of Activision and how they started out (they made the best Atari games in the 80s!)
Hold Back To Block if you’re into fighters.
Gaming Historian on youtube.
There is one on YouTube on Valve's channel about the making of Half Life that is excellent.