Video Game Invasion: The History of a Global Obsession (2004)

Director:
David Comtois

IMDB

Review:
Tony Hawk hosts this fascinating overview of the video game invasion, which grew from a hobby for computer mavericks to a multi-billion dollar industry. Starting with Pong in the early 1970s and programmers like Atari maestro Nolan Bushnell, then exploring the craze on through the coin-operated madness of the 1980s and on into the home computer market with game masterminds like John Romero (Doom, Quake), this fun and fascinating documentary will provide any gamer with the historical perspective they need to bring a whole new appreciation to their favorite pastime.

Frag (2008)

Director:
Mike Pasley

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1266566/

Review:
The true story of professional video gaming. Almost everyone in the world has played a video game, but some kids do it for a living. FRAG shed light on the struggles that kids face while trying to break into and maintain success in pro gaming. At a young age, they are faced with making adult decisions that impact the rest of their lives. Below the surface of a simple game is an underbelly of corruption, money, drugs, and even death. Exploited, abused, and abandoned, most gamers fail to reach the top, but like all sports, their are heroes, FRAG pulls the curtain back on the biggest sport industry in the world..one that you know nothing about.

I, Videogame (2007) - 5 Episodes

Episode 1:
In the 1950s, the Cold War quickly evolved between the world superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union. Mutually assured destruction enforced an uneasy stalemate, yet also drove computer technology to create missile simulations in order to predict the results of a nuclear war. This same computer technology was used to develop the first computer game in 1958 – Tennis for Two. The Space Race and the Vietnam war coincided with Steve Russell’s game Space War! and the emergence of the first true giants in the videogame business – Nolan Bushnell and Atari. In post-World War II Japan, electronics and computer technology emerged to rebuild a land and economy devastated by the atomic bomb. Space Invaders and Pac-Man soon followed, and the Golden Age of videogames was born. Among others, individuals featured in this episode include Steve Russell, Nolan Bushnell, Ralph Baer (considered by many to be the inventor of the videogame) and Toru Iwatani (Pac-Man designer). Videogames emerged as a form of entertainment where the player was in control, as opposed to the more passive diversion of watching television.