The Video Game Years

Mostly the 80s decade as previous decades are on Youtube via the Retroware TV channel. It's a great documentary with interviews with Youtube video game celebs as well as footage you've seen on Youtube before. It's educational and worth watching if you're a video game fanatic like me. The quality of the video is fine and the soundtrack classy; the production values are usual Youtube fluff.

This series is like popcorn - a comparison that's even more apt when the episodes are consumed as individual 13-14 minute bits on YouTube, where the show can be accessed for free on Retroware and Pat Contri's channels.

It's a brilliant concept: examine the history of video games in the late '70s through the '80s with high quality editing, flashy transitions, copious usage of original gameplay footage and archival video game advertisements, and have a variety of talking head YouTube personalities tie it all together with context and commentary. I love how the interviews were all conducted in front of green screens so that colorful footage, animation, and graphics can play over the subjects' shoulders while they talk. It yields lots of visual interest, without being overly distracting.

The show is fun and fantastically re-watchable, but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out some of the flaws. Frequently, the show suffers from a conflict between its high level of presentation and the quality of the commentary provided by the YouTube talking heads, most of whom I was unfamiliar with outside of Pat Contri, James Rolfe (The Angry Video Game Nerd), Jason Lindsey (Metal Jesus Rocks), and Mark Bussler (Classic Game Room) - and the latter three of barely appear at all. While the hosts are clearly having a good time, none of them are experts about any of the things they're talking about - they're all enthusiasts, reminiscing about their childhood video game experiences or providing Wikipedia-like factoids about the games they're discussing. For a show with such a polished TV documentary feel, the lack of serious video game scholars or historians hindered things a bit for me, though some old-school game programmers and company reps are included such as Howard Scott Warshaw and David Crane.

And the humor didn't always land with me - many of the jokes are profoundly dumb and there's an unnecessary smattering of sexual humor, as well as an irritating recurring gag where the commentators will loudly attempt to vocally recreate classic video game tunes.

Despite all that, I enjoy this series. In the crowded subgenre of YouTube retro gaming videos, these are some of the most professionally produced ones out there (apparently there was an Indiegogo campaign as well, where the producers raised over $13,000). They're almost - almost! - to the point where you wouldn't bat an eye if you caught 'em on a real TV network.

If you enjoyed the VH1 series of "I Love the xxx" shows many years ago, you'll enjoy this. It's the exact same format, but all video games. Well-known podcasters & YouTube self-made celebrities give their overview on various video game releases by the year. They occasionally hit the obscure stuff, which is a treat.

Great reviewers and well put together show, endlessly entertaining. Someone bring this show back!

The Video Game Years was a series Pat Contri (Pat the NES Punk) created back in 2012. It's a great time capsule of three key timeframes in video game history: The rise (and fall) of Atari, the Golden Age of Arcade Video Games, and the domination of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Other platforms like Sega, PC gaming, and others also are given mentions. Starting in 1977 and ending in 1989, it gives a snapshot of 12 very important years in the growth of the video game industry.

The show is set up in similar style to VH-1's "I Love the 80s" series. Key games are highlighted, as are accessories, consoles, moments, and more. The show also airs old advertisements, talks about pop culture at the time, brings up more obscure games, and even points out the popular pinball machines of the time.

The series is a bit of a time capsule. This was YouTube in the early years, when retro gaming was at the height of popularity, and seeing many of these gaming YouTubers together is a bit strange. For example, Tommy Tallarico is a part of the series, yet he and Pat the NES Punk had a very prominent falling out, so very odd seeing them together. Other YouTubers in this series have long since left the platform or retro gaming, some have passed away, and of course others, like Pat or James Rolfe, are still going strong. It's a time capsule, not just of the early years of video gaming, but of a different era of YouTube.

Two reasons I give this series a 6. One, there is a little too much reliance on YouTubers instead of industry professionals. Yes, some are here like Intellivision's Keith Robinson, Nintendo's Howard Phillips and Atari's Howard Scott Warshaw, but I wish there was more from them to give the series a little more authenticity. The other thing that annoyed me was when a subject came up that obviously was something that either wasn't known by the show or wasn't of interest, they would do a very basic "uh yeah, it's a game, cool." It felt almost like a check box they felt like they had to so people wouldn't yell at them about "hey, what about this game?" I almost would have rather they just put in a quick mention or something, it comes off a bit lazy.

Overall, it's a fun series, but it's quite apparent in many ways that this was an early YouTube production by some of the production choices and somewhat "on the cheap" feel to it. You will learn a few things, but they will drive you nuts by how they skim over or skip certain subjects.