"World 1-1" is a new documentary film about the early days of the video game industry. Filmmakers Daryl Rodriguez and Janette Garcia have put together a well-made, but oft-told, tale.
From the film's website: "'World 1-1' is an independent documentary on the early history of video games. The personalities of the pioneers, the creations of the engineers, and the challenges, technology and business deals. See the games and hear the stories from the creators themselves. This is the story of how Atari helped create the games industry years before it should have happened. 'World 1-1' follows the lucky deals and unfortunate mistakes that almost destroyed the entire industry just as quickly as it was born."
The film received backing on Kickstarter in late 2013, and is now seeing the light of day via vhx.tv for digital purchase ($9.99) or rental ($3.99).
I consider myself something of historian video games because, quite frankly, I find the wild and wooly stories of those early days fascinating. Therefore, I've read books such as "Atari: Business is Fun," "Videogames: In the Beginning" and "Commodore: A Company on the Edge," and all of those tomes are very extensive in their research and overall coverage of those formative times. I also became "internet" friendly with Bill "The Game Doctor" Kunkel, the father of video game journalism, before he passed, so I've heard a good many of the stories that aren't recorded in the books as well.
"World 1-1" just gave me an overall sense of déjà vu, as the usual suspects (Nolan Bushnell, David Crane, Howard Scott Warshaw, etc.) tell their usual stories. Where "World 1-1" truly succeeds is in getting people like Dona Bailey ("Centipede"), Warren Robinett ("Adventure"), and Al Alcorn ("Pong") to tell their stories which you typically don't hear without some serious digging. If there were more of those kinds of interviews in this film then it would have a serious leg up on many of those that have come before it.
My other issue here is the focus on Atari alone and Nolan Bushnell's "Nolanized" version of events. Others are mentioned in passing here and there, especially Ralph Baer, but a more in-depth exploration of the many other historical nooks and crannies would have been illuminating for sure. I'm confused as to why Baer wasn't interviewed for this piece? His image (see above) is prominently displayed on the film poster, yet no Ralph in the film. Plenty of Nolan...but no Ralph. Unfortunately, he passed away recently so I'm curious if that prevented the filmmakers from speaking with him because Ralph definitely liked to discuss these topics at length. Also, what isn't even mentioned here is Jack Tramiel's time as the head of Atari after Warner Communications bailed. Tramiel was essentially piloting a sinking ship to the bottom of the ocean when he took over, but he was an extremely polarizing and colorful character that many people have interesting things to say about (one way or another), yet his name isn't even whispered here and I find that odd.
Technically and aesthetically, the film is well produced and put together. There was a bit too much reliance on the "talking head" shots for my liking, but in these kinds of documentaries, I understand their necessity. The music, by NGHT and Wait and See, is very well done, being a nice mix of synth and 8-bit sounds that evokes good feelings without overwhelming what's on the screen. The soundtrack can be downloaded from iTunes right here.
All in all, "World 1-1" is a solid piece of work that just needed to step out of its comfort zone and ask some harder questions (and break away from asking the usual suspects) to be truly exceptional. This is good place to start for those looking to get in on the on ground floor from a historical perspective, but those who already have heard these stories many times before may want to look elsewhere. I watched the film twice and came away with that same conclusion both times.
There's also an end credit scene (do all movies need these nowadays or what?) that strongly suggests there will be a "World 1-2" film that will focus on Nintendo. Hopefully, Rodriguez and Garcia will go a bit further and dig a bit deeper with that film...but that may prove rather difficult with the notoriously reticent Nintendo.
Check out the trailer for "World 1-1" below: