What happens when you unconsciously don’t realize the importance of an upcoming product? Simple, you are even more amazed during the first viewing. This is, without mincing words, High Score, an experimental Netflix docuseries, designed to dynamically explain how troubled it was, but at the same time epic, the primordial birth of the videogame and how so many figures have spent every glimmer of physical and mental energy to contribute to an industry that, paradoxically, was born, died and resurrected so many times that it lost count.
A bolt from the blue
If at this moment the video game and everything floating in its orbit generates crazy revenues, by now becoming de facto one of the most profitable industrial sectors worldwide, it is thanks to the passion, love and also to the healthy madness of many men and women that since the early 70s they believed that from an anonymous string of code one could generate art and business, without hiding too much too sacrosanct aspect.
High Score is a bolt from the blue. Created by France Costrel and narrated by Charles Martinet, the historic and beloved American voice actor of Super Mario, this docuseries is a winning project for one simple reason: it speaks simultaneously to those who love video games and those who are completely newbies, going beyond the mere technical aspect. There is a lot, a lot of human factor in this first season; and it is beautiful, exciting in certain situations.
Haven’t we convinced you yet with this short introduction? Well, make yourself comfortable because we are sure that after reading you will immediately run to turn on Netflix on your favorite device to enjoy in peace High Score! Also because we are talking about only six episodes with an average duration that varies between 30 and 40 minutes per episode. In short, it looks like it’s a pleasure.
The first steps of the video game, between great successes and as many failures
High Score retraces faithfully the most important stages that have marked growth of a medium still so young as the videogame one. We will not repeat anything about it; for that, in addition to the docuseries, there are some parallel insights that we strongly advise you to retrieve to get an even clearer picture of the situation. As mentioned above, this is a product that wants to speak to a wide audience and, as such, it cannot afford to take refuge in tedious technicalities. The very first episodes of the Netflix series clearly show the first boom and the consequent first major crisis that the gaming industry had to face. And yes, High Score she certainly did not spare herself on the disastrous E.T signed Atari.
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At the time – we’re talking about the 1970s – Atari was practically synonymous with video games because of its flagship titles – Space Invaders to name one – and for the captivating company policy headed by Nolan Bushnell; a young MIT scholar who quickly understood the commercial potential of this entertainment industry. Bushnell grew up with the nickname “godfather of video games”, which is saying something. High Score show scrupulously as Atari in that period went from the stars to the stables and how that very important company, thanks to its flourishing and predominant commercial period, inspired so many new personalities to set in motion a real global revolution in pixels format.
United States vs Japan … FIGHT!
The 1980s saw the great rise of the Rising Sun in the gaming industry, it is enough to mention Nintendo and Capcom among the important companies that thanks to their ideas set foot in the American market, until then dominated in an uncontested way by Atari and its amazing home consoles. In fact, the docuseries provides an excellent and interesting point of view on the constant and sometimes funny, exasperated competition between Japan and the United States which, just like in the most classic of 1v1 matches, they studied each other so well that they unconsciously improve each other. If they hadn’t copied themselves, if they hadn’t dared with decidedly particular market moves – just think of Ms. Pac-Man – probably now the video game would not be as globalized and mature as a commercial entertainment medium.
From here on, without going into detail, the first season of High Score has, in the central bets, a series of interesting focuses on very important figures in the industry, such as Richard Garriot, Gail Tiden, Shigeru Miyamoto and John Romero. These portraits allow, especially for those who chew little of video games, to really understand who are the men and women behind a videogame work. There are even some interesting revelations that could easily surprise even the lover of Atari or the great N. In short, a lot of quality associated with other quality in this Netflix docuseries.
The human factor of High Score
The most striking element in High Score is not the meticulousness in recounting the facts known to most, but thego behind the scenes, showing the human side of those who have always given their all for the video game.
We pass by who narrated the events of the first amateur American tournament of Space Invaders (the ancestor of eSports to extremes) to those who, like Jerry Lawson, through the touching testimony of his children, finally got his stage after passing away. Lawson is in fact the inventor of Channel F; a console boasting interchangeable cartridges that was unfortunately immediately copied by Atari, thus putting his inventor and his brilliant intuition on the corner. A sad story, but without this series it would have remained further in the shadows.
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