Original subtitles

(soft expectant music)

- Ralph baer was working as a electrical engineer

For a defense contractor.

- He has this device to test tv displays,

And as he's moving the dial, he realizes

(soft expectant music)

He's manipulating the lines on the screen.

- If I'm staring into different types of screens

Day in and day out, it might occur to me,

What else can we do with tv rather than just watch it?

- [narrator] ralph baer doesn't know it yet,

But starting with the turn of a dial,

(dramatic music)

He'll pave the way for the most profitable

Form of entertainment of our time, video games.

Across the planet, one out of every three people

Plays video games, contributing to an industry

That earns over $200 billion every year,

More than the film and music industries combined.

- Yeah! - All right, here we go.

(scene whooshing)

- [narrator] but back in 1951, tvs are in their infancy.

- It was just a fleeting moment idea.

"let's make this interactive."

He didn't think about it in detail.

The idea laid dormant for another 15 years.

- [narrator] until the time is right to reignite it.

- Let's try table tennis.

- [narrator] as he fights to bring

The world's first video game to market.

- [executive] we're gonna have to get back to you on this.

- [narrator] a determined young engineer.

- It's gotta grab attention, right?

- [narrator] aims to beat him at his own game.

- How soon can you get a home version of pong ready?

- [narrator] setting off an arms race.

- Please, hear me out.

If we just add the sound device I'm working on.

- [narrator] to bring one of history's greatest inventions

To the world.

(video games beeping)

(tense music)

By the mid 1960s, tvs have gone from being

In 9% of american homes to over 93%.

- This was a medium that was fairly new,

And people were enamored of it,

But it was sort of a passive pastime.

Information came one way at you,

And you sort of were at the mercy of television.

- In 1966, ralph baer was primarily working

On different types of display technologies.

Ralph really held on to that early idea

Of doing more with television,

And then something radical happened.

- While waiting for one of his colleagues at a bus stop,

He suddenly just had this, as he said, a eureka moment.

Using televisions as the monitor,

Can we bring video games into the home?

(dramatic music)

- He starts to sketch out some ideas for a device

Where one can play games on television.

- The idea was to create a system

That plugged into your set

With a switch that allowed you to go

From game to television.

(tense music)

He had a vision and he actually executed it.

He actually made a working prototype.

He put the whole thing in wood paneling,

And he called it the brown box.

(tense exciting music)

- It had no brain like a computer does.

It was just circuits, wires, resistors and transistors

That kind of controlled the image on the tv screen,

A bit like a kind of advanced light switch in a way.

- [raiford] he's given a very small lab space

To start doing r&d on this device.

- [narrator] including figuring out its first game.

- The brown box was only capable of drawing lines or dots.

- You had limitations on what types of games

The technology itself was capable of.

So given that, ralph baer and his team of engineers,

They were trying to imagine a gameplay world

Based on what it was able to render

On a consumer television screen.

- [narrator] while ralph baer searches for a breakthrough,

(dramatic expectant music)

2,000 miles away, an ambitious electrical engineering student

Is already thinking about the future.

- Nolan bushnell went to university of utah.

In between that he was spending his summers

Kind of working in the lagoon amusement park

In farmington, utah, and his first job there

Was basically repairing the arcade machines.

Arcades at the time, they really had two things.

They had pinball machines,

And then they have electro-mechanical games.

These were quite cranky machines.

I mean, they broke down constantly.

- I think seeing that and being in that space,

He realized that, "hey, there's a buck

To be made off amusements."

(pinball machine ringing)

Now at the same time, he's also experienced

And exposed to space war.

(pensive music)

- [narrator] only available at select universities,

Space war requires technology the general public can't access.

- Mit had just taken delivery of a pdp-1,

Which was one of the first kind of early computers.

It had a screen, which was unusual

For computers at the time.

So a bunch of students there, they were like,

"wow, what can we do with this amazing computer with a screen?"

So they decide to then make this game, about basically,

Two space rockets trying to shoot each other

Around this kind of star.

- So bushnell's thinking, "what if we can take

This game space war, and think about it

In the form of a consumer product,

Something that people would put quarters into to play?"

(tense music)

- Space war is on this, kind of very expensive

University machine, I mean it's like

Hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And he's like, "this game is amazing,

But if I could take that game and put it

Into an amusement arcade, I'll make millions."

(dramatic music)

- [narrator] as bushnell's wheels are turning,

Ralph baer is determined to figure out

The right game for his brown box.

- We need something simpler.

- Ralph baer knew that he could create shapes,

Manipulate them horizontally or vertically,

Manipulate the speed at which they moved,

But that's really it.

(tense dramatic music)

- Table tennis.

- One of the things that initially came to him

Was the idea of ping pong,

Paddles that would smack this ball.

And obviously that takes a lot of finesse,

A lot of nuance, and a lot of programming

That simply had never been done before.

- [narrator] but selling a brand-new concept

To a manufacturer will be no easy feat.

- The system hooks right to the antenna terminals,

Just like rabbit ears, let's try table tennis.

- The key thing is that the game is hardwired

Into the brown box.

- [ralph] now turn the knob to move your paddle

Up and down, just like ping pong.

- [raiford] it did not have onscreen scoring,

It did not have sound reproduction technology.

(dramatic music)

- They went to rca, they went to zenith,

And couldn't sell it.

Ralph was frustrated.

Here's a good idea nobody's interested in.

- [narrator] as baer struggles to bring his invention

To market, just three years out of college,

Nolan bushnell teams up with fellow engineer ted dabney

And a manufacturing company to build

An affordable arcade game for the masses.

- In order to mass produce this game,

The production costs had to be low.

So the master stroke was to do what was built

In a mini computer by way of television technology.

- They hit on this idea of, okay, we've got a tv screen,

And you can control where the images

On that tv screen move using everyday circuitry.

So essentially they just repurposed tv technology

In a different way, and that was in the same kind of path

As ralph baer and his team over on the east coast.

- Bushnell and dabney developed their version

Of space war known as computer space.

(dramatic electronic music)

The first mass produced, coin operated video game machine.

They take it to a pizza parlor,

But a lot of people who played it

Reported that they found it confusing to understand.

- Essentially he built something for sober people

Who went to stanford university.

What he should have been building

Was something for drunk people in a bar.

It was just too complicated

For the market it was going after.

- Also, the name computer space is,

The technical term is crappy, it's a crappy name.

So computer space doesn't grab people.

Though it sold some units, it didn't do very well at all.

But nolan bushnell, he's gonna go,

"okay, how can I do it better?

How can I profit from it?"

(tense music)

- [narrator] as bushnell goes back to the drawing board,

Ralph baer's brown box is finally gaining interest.

- I think a lot of the television manufacturers

Were kind of averse to taking this type of risk

On something that wasn't proven, except magnavox.

- [narrator] baer licenses the brown box to magnavox.

- It becomes this sort of sleek, aerodynamic white console,

And because of the public's obsession at the time

With the stanley kubrick film "2001: A space odyssey",

They take the brown box and they change it

Into the magnavox odyssey.

- [narrator] but getting his revolutionary game made

Means handing over control.

- The odyssey was the game of the future,

But magnavox didn't know how to market it.

- They started throwing in all

Of the traditional accoutrements for a typical board game.

There were dice, there were cards, there was play money,

Things that have absolutely no connection

Whatsoever to a video game.

- [narrator] and they make another unusual decision.

- But we built color in.

- Ralph baer's initial vision of the brown box,

Of the first ever home game system, was in color.

And he couldn't do anything, he just had to sit and watch.

- Too expensive.

We've decided to go with these instead.

- It was a piece of basically saran wrap,

And you put it on top of your cathode ray tv,

And it let the little dots inside have color,

And makes it look like that they were in a real environment

Instead of just individual dots.

- When you see someone else take your baby,

Your precious brain child, it's gotta be heartbreaking.

But that is the sad but true nature of contracts.

If you have an idea that you can't take to market

But this larger entity can, and they buy that idea from you,

They now control your idea.

(dramatic music)

Magnavox has their odyssey and they now want to promote it.

They go on a cross-country road show.

(lively electronic music)

- Ralph baer decides, "we gotta take this on the road.

We gotta show people what this could do."

- For ralph baer, to the magnavox showcase.

It's like, "this could be make or break.

This could be a fork in the road of my future."

(tense dramatic music)

- So nolan bushnell basically crashes this event,

Posing as a magnavox store owner, to try to get a glimpse

Of this video game system for the very first time.

He's gonna see people's excitement and interest

And curiosity about the odyssey, then he's gonna go,

"okay, there is clearly an appetite

In the marketplace for this."

(dramatic music)

And as the old saying goes,

"good artists borrow but great artists steal."

(tense music)

(dramatic music)

- On may 24th, 1972, ralph baer demos

The magnavox odyssey in california.

Nolan bushnell attended the demo.

- Hi, just sign in for me. - Absolutely.

(tense music)

- So he goes,

Picks up the controller to play this

Kinda table tennis game, and it's really, really basic.

There's zero sound, completely silent.

There's no scoring, you have to do that yourself.

- When bushnell is playing the odyssey, I think he sees

Unrealized potential there, untapped potential.

I think hubris was also a factor

In bushnell's reception of the odyssey, in saying,

"I think I can get it to a place where people

Will not be able to stop playing this game."

(tense music)

- Ralph baer and nolan bushnell, they have different objectives.

For baer, it was the home.

For bushnell, it was arcade spaces.

- [narrator] less than a month after seeing

The odyssey in action, bushnell leaves his engineering job

To start a company with ted dabney.

- Nolan bushnell and ted dabney

Hire a third engineer, al alcorn.

Bushnell told al alcorn, "join us,

Because we're gonna invent a brand new industry."

- [narrator] bushnell gives his new company a name

That hints at its grand ambition, atari.

- It's a term from this ancient chinese board game,

And it means to hit a target, or good fortune.

Atari's a kind of scrappy company, it has a party culture.

You know, there are people there smoking dope in the office.

There are beer parties every Friday night.

You know, it's a kind of wild place,

And it kind of plays by its own rules.

Ted and nolan's plan was to build a racing game

For this company called midway,

But the problem they had is they'd just hired al alcorn,

And they gotta get him familiar with their technology.

Nolan decides he wants a simple kind of training project

To make alcorn kind of get what they're doing.

So he decides to tell alcorn, "what we'd like

Is you to make this table tennis game,"

And describes to him the table tennis game

That he saw at the magnavox show.

(tense music)

(atari beeping)

- Alcorn puts together a version of what will become pong.

- Isn't it a bit too simple?

- Simple? - Yeah.

- I've put in scoring, sound, and spin.

(soft tense music)

- Let me see for myself. - Uh-huh.

(atari beeping)

- When alcorn finishes work on it,

Nolan, al, and ted dabney kinda play it.

They have this kind of discussion about

What to do with this game.

They'll put it in a bar called andy capp's,

And see how it does.

(upbeat trap music)

Pong was simple enough that you don't

Have to think too much, a game that kind of,

Drunk people at a bar can play.

It looked like something new.

- The key is, bushnell takes this video game

And sticks it where people are primed to play.

That's why he does it, he's gonna see the test market.

(pensive music)

- [jackie] one of pong's revolutionary features

Was demonstration mode.

- But if we're gonna put this actually out,

It's gotta grab attention, right?

- Right.

- It needs to play itself.

- Demonstration mode is a brilliant sales move.

As passers-by are seeing the demonstration mode of pong,

They're able to see how the game is played,

And pique their interest.

- [narrator] while bushnell hopes pong

Will reel in players and reinvent the arcade game,

Ralph baer's odyssey is off to a rough start.

- By the time magnavox odyssey comes to market in 1972,

It retails at $100, an exorbitant amount of money

In that moment.

- [announcer] odyssey, the electronic game of the future

That lets you do your own thing on television,

And only from magnavox.

It's available only from the magnavox salesmen in the store.

- Some salesmen were saying

It only plays on magnavox televisions.

That limited the market even more.

So, I'm sure ralph was frustrated

About things like that.

(dramatic music)

- Please, hear me out.

If we just put color back,

And we had the sound device I'm working on.

- Open your eyes, ralph.

Magnavox isn't spending another dime on the odyssey.

- Magnavox didn't listen to him about anything.

(heavy metal music)

- [narrator] meanwhile, atari's founders

Get distressing news about pong's test run.

- They start getting calls going,

"uh, your machine's not working."

- The bar owner calls al alcorn like,

"hey, this thing's broken."

And he's like, "I don't know what I'm gonna do

If it's broken."

- Al alcorn goes down to service the machine.

He's trying to figure out what's wrong.

The circuits seems to be fine.

(suspenseful dramatic music)

- And he opens it and it's just stuffed with quarters.

It wouldn't work because it was full of quarters.

People have just gone crazy for it,

And there are people kind of lining up

At the doors before the bar opens.

- But pong is an appropriation.

Ralph baer actually brought this game to fruition

And was able to place it in people's homes,

And then this company comes along

And poaches the concept for the game.

(tense music) (pong beeping)

(dramatic music) (patrons chattering)

Ralph baer was devastated when he sees pong,

And I don't think it's any stretch of the imagination

To say that he would have been profoundly irritated

And annoyed at the appropriations that atari made.

- Ralph baer seeing pong was probably like,

"they ripped me off."

That's the only reaction you're gonna have, right?

You're gonna look at this game and go, "that's my game."

(dramatic tense music)

- [narrator] less than a year since its release in arcades,

Pong is ready to sweep the nation.

- The pong prototype proved wildly popular

In andy capp's tavern.

This was hugely influential for the way

That bushnell conceived of atari.

His plan was to engineer games and to then license,

Sell these games to other companies.

Andy capp's pong convinced bushnell to think otherwise.

So atari decides it's gonna mass produce this game.

- Pong was really expensive to make,

So bushnell and dabney are able to convince distributors

That they have to buy the machines outright.

That they're not, like financing these.

You buy it outright with cash.

- They're filling a lot of local orders.

Eventually 300 more machines are produced.

By 1973, the games are being distributed nationwide.

(upbeat music)

Total sales are between three and $4 million

After the first fiscal year.

- [narrator] as pong goes coast to coast,

(tense music)

Atari's reputation captures the attention

Of silicon valley insiders.

- Jerry lawson is a kind of general geek,

Nerd of the time period.

From queens, new york, jerry grew up playing with radios,

Fixing, you know, televisions in the neighborhood.

He was kind of a general electronics guy,

And then he becomes an engineer.

- [narrator] by age 30, lawson lands a job

With one of silicon valley's top tech companies,

Fairchild semiconductor.

- Jerry takes a position that is sales,

But also combines the skillset of a technician.

- One of the benefits of jerry being a salesperson,

He met some of the most innovative people

In silicon valley.

Two of those people being al alcorn and nolan bushnell.

(pulsing music)

- That's it, isn't it? That's the original pong.

- Let me introduce to al. - Yeah, yeah, please.

- Jerry was able to kinda talk shop with him.

I think meeting nolan bushnell and al alcorn

Helped him decide he wanted to jump into the games industry.

- He designs the game demolition derby in his garage.

- Which was very innovative.

It was an arcade cabinet that actually

Had a steering wheel on there.

Fairchild had developed this processor

Called the f8 microprocessor.

So this was gonna pretty much be the brain,

The heart of the entire arcade system.

So he decided upon himself to just borrow it,

You know, from them.

- Fairchild was doing lots of different projects,

But none of them involved consumer products for games.

- [narrator] typically reserved for high-end computers,

A microprocessor has never been used

In a video game before lawson's,

Making it a revolutionary first

In what will become the modern standard.

(soft tense music)

- Word gets around that jerry is playing around

And building this cabinet,

Using fairchild's f8 microprocessor.

- We're gonna need the processor back, immediately.

- Can I show you what I did with it first?

- He was worried about his job.

He knew that hey, any small slip up

Can literally mean his career and what the implications

Of that would be for his family could be devastating.

(tense dramatic music)

- In the 1970s, silicon valley,

Jerry is one of the few african americans on the scene.

We do have to wonder to what extent

His identity, his race, his social status,

His social capital played at the time.

(soft tense music)

- I call it demolition derby.

(tense music)

- That was like, the moment where things

Kind of changed for jerry.

They didn't wanna fire the sales guy

Who built (chuckling) an arcade system in his garage.

- [narrator] instead, jerry's promoted

And tasked with creating the first

Microprocessor-powered consumer game console,

Along with another game-changing innovation.

- Prior to that, all the games are built in on your console.

Interchangeable cartridges for a game manufacturer,

That's like the holy grail, right?

If you could interchange cartridges,

What happens is you buy the console,

But then because you own the console, you're hooked.

- The problem was that interchangeable cartridge system

Just didn't work.

- Putting cartridges in and out can really wear and tear

The pins of the the connectors, and cause damage

Where the hardware itself will not play.

Eight-track was a form that would allow them to make sure

That that program was locked into the console itself.

- Jerry was able to look at that technology and say,

"I feel like we can do something with this."

- So they shaped the cartridge in the form of an eight-track.

This becomes the fairchild channel f.

- Suddenly you have control over swapping the games

Through these cartridges.

So the idea was that you could build

A library of video games, as many as they could sell.

- [narrator] as fairchild prepares to introduce

Its game cartridges to the world,

Atari eyes their next move to keep up.

(video game beeping)

- Nolan bushnell, after the success with pong

And the success in the amusement arcades,

Is thinking about what's next,

What's the next step for video games?

And there's a pretty obvious answer,

You take video games into the home.

- [narrator] but there's a new obstacle in their way.

- Thank you.

Magnavox is suing us.

(dramatic music)

- Baer and magnavox, they were able to patent

The very idea of playing a video game.

If I'm baer and pong comes out,

I'm already thinking about filing a lawsuit there.

So yeah, magnavox took them to court.

- All right, well thank you for letting me know.

- Nolan bushnell is not type to go,

"oh, some lawyers are coming after me, I'm frightened."

- When you look at any of the great companies

Or great brands, the amazing men and women behind them,

As much as they are entrepreneurs

And business people,

They are also ruthless when it comes to competition.

- How soon can you get a home version of pong ready?

(al scoffing) (rising dramatic music)

- [narrator] in 1975, atari finally takes pong

From arcades into people's homes,

With its first home console.

- People know about pong, but the idea that you could have

Pong in your home and play it on your own tv is a new one.

It comes out in christmas of 1975,

And they push it really hard and it sells like crazy.

- [narrator] bushnell's success with the single-game

Home pong console opens the door to something bigger.

- Like fairchild, they want to produce a hardware

That will accept interchangeable cartridges,

So you can program your hardware to play different games.

- Needs much bigger factory, and needs big marketing,

Teams of game designers creating new games for it all the time.

It's a much, much bigger project.

(tense music)

- So they seek funding, warner communications comes in,

They need warners in order to get

This new product developed and off to market.

- Warner puts huge pressure on atari

To settle this mess of a lawsuit.

They basically said, "we will not go through

With this acquisition unless this lawsuit is settled.

(horn honking)

(tense dramatic music)

- [narrator] bushnell agrees to sit

For a deposition with magnavox lawyers.

- Bushnell's viewpoint is, "this lawsuit is rubbish.

We made our own technology.

Pong is a much better version of table tennis anyway,

So it's not a direct copy."

(tense music)

The thing is, magnavox have lots of records

From ralph baer.

They also have the guest book

At the magnavox road show that nolan went to.

So they've got his signature of attending the event.

His case is kinda struggling in a way,

Because everything points to, "well you knew about this game

And then you went and made pong."

(tense music)

- Yes, okay, I played the odyssey,

But I found it completely uninteresting.

- [narrator] atari is forced to settle,

Paying $1.5 million to license ralph baer's

Patented technology so they can keep selling pong.

- The odyssey is the first to come out.

It's probably the least successful,

And yet every other company that comes after magnavox

Has to end up paying for a patent that baer developed.

- If you think about it, here you have ralph baer,

The person who really is the creator of the brown box,

But he doesn't become a millionaire.

Magnavox is the one that enjoys all the profits, right?

The only person to become a millionaire is nolan bushnell.

- [narrator] with the lawsuit behind them,

Warner acquires atari for $28 million.

Bushnell pockets 15 million in the deal.

- Which sounds great, however what's not so great

Is he loses control of the company he built.

- [narrator] then, before bushnell can get

An interchangeable game console out,

Jerry lawson and fairchild beat him to it.

(lively upbeat music)

- The channel f presented something different.

For the first time, you can actually play with a joystick

That can go in eight directions for the first time.

The ability to switch cartridges in and out multiple times,

Different titles for the first time,

And then being able to pause your game for the first time.

This was all innovations that came

With the fairchild channel f

Behind the leadership of jerry lawson.

- [narrator] but nolan bushnell's

Not going down without a fight,

As atari mobilizes $120 million from warner brothers

To create its own cartridge-based console.

And bushnell has a cunning plan to squash the competition.

- Nolan bushnell's like, your prototypical

Kinda silicon valley entrepreneur.

The idea that you're gonna go, "yeah, yeah, okay,

You were there first, it's yours."

Nah, you're not, you're gonna go, "no, this is mine.

I've earned my place in history, I'm not backing down."

- [narrator] in 1977, atari trails

Fairchild's channel f by nearly a year,

But the delay gives them access

To a newer, cheaper microprocessor,

And bushnell sees a move to further his advantage.

- Bushnell finds the companies making the same technology

And ties them up contractually for a year

Where they can only make microprocessors for atari.

So that essentially gave atari a one-year head start

On all of their competition.

- [narrator] less than a year

After jerry lawson's channel f hit the market,

Atari releases its first cartridge-based console,

The vcs.

- The atari came up and just kinda crushed any momentum

The channel f could have had,

And I think that if I'm jerry lawson, I'm probably crushed.

- The fairchild channel f was only in production

From '76 until '77.

- [narrator] with two visionaries

Now in his rear view,

Nolan bushnell is at the top of the video game food chain.

(tense music)

- The atari vcs is the best selling games console

Of all time at that point, but nowhere near the numbers

Warners needs to justify the $100 million it's invested.

So warner is starting to get a bit twitchy,

So they're starting to butt heads constantly

Over how atari should be run, over the success of the vcs.

So all these things are coming to a head,

And something's gotta give.

I don't think nolan necessarily quit,

But they both kind of agreed, "we can't work together."

And the reality is warner wasn't gonna go away,

So nolan walks.

(lively electronic music)

- [narrator] nolan bushnell's exit doesn't slow atari,

As successful arcade titles move to the vcs home console,

Generating a sales windfall.

But not everyone at atari reaps the rewards.

- So, one day in 1979, the marketing department

Sends out this list of the best selling games of 1978.

And these four designers at atari,

They kinda look through this list, and they figure out

The four of them made 60% of the sales,

And that's like hundreds of millions dollars

Worth of business, and they're getting paid 30 grand a year.

- [narrator] the group of designers go

To new atari ceo ray kassar to demand royalties.

- And ray kassar is like, "what next?

The person who screws these game cartridges

Together wants royalties?

No, we're not gonna give you royalties," so they quit.

- They left atari to start their own company

Called activision, and with it they kinda left

With a lot of knowledge on game creation.

- Activision's plan is to start making games for the vcs,

And basically start intruding on atari's market.

And they figured, "we're gonna make millions outta this."

- At this time, console makers like atari

Made and owned a 100% of their games.

- Atari hated it, because essentially if activision

Was able to go and start making games for the vcs

However it liked, then anyone could.

- In may 1980, atari threatens

To take activision to court for $20 million,

Basically saying, "you're stealing trade secrets,

And you're making games for our hardware."

- Activision had to prove that they didn't

Take proprietary technology from atari

In order to make the software for the atari system.

- [narrator] to make its case, activision needs help

From an outsider, someone smart enough

To reverse engineer atari's game cartridges,

And they find him in jerry lawson.

- [narrator] after pioneering the modern video game console,

Engineer jerry lawson has left fairchild semiconductor

To start his own software company.

- I think jerry left fairchild for many reasons.

One of them is the failure of the channel f,

But I also think it was just him

Bringing all of these innovations,

And none of it really being credited to him.

I think he eventually just felt like,

"you know what? I can do this on my own."

- And now lawson comes into atari's world

In a very interesting way.

Lawson's brought in to provide testimony

Where he was asked by activision to kinda rear engineer

The atari vcs to see if he could

Make software titles for the game.

- Lawson is able to demonstrate that you can develop

This software from just the standpoint

Of a software developer, without having to violate

Any of atari's intellectual property rights.

- [narrator] but lawson's breakthrough

Opens a pandora's box.

- Suddenly anyone can make a game for the vcs at any time.

You have this flood of games coming onto market,

Hundreds upon hundreds of games

Just filling up the shelves all at once,

And some of them were just downright terrible.

- I mean, everybody wanted in on this thing.

Purina made chase the chuck wagon,

And quaker oats made sneak'n peek.

You know, these crazy stupid things

That just cheapened the brand,

And cheapened the experience for everybody.

- They start pumping out a lot of lower-quality video games

And consumers actually reject them.

They're not buying atari cartridges anymore,

And they're rejecting the gaming systems.

- [narrator] atari stock price tanks, and by 1983,

The us market sours on all video games.

- I think at that moment in the industry,

People started to come to the realization

That maybe video games was a fad.

Maybe this was just a trend that was temporary.

It was hot for a minute, then it went away.

- [narrator] even with the crash of 1983,

The early pioneers of this video game revolution

Leave a profound mark on the industry as we know it today.

- Nolan bushnell was the guy who saw

That the video game industry was gonna happen.

He created it, you know, almost through sheer force of will,

He decided that this is gonna happen.

- And we often forget that bushnell

Goes on to bring us chuck e. Cheese,

These community-based entertainment meccas.

- Ralph baer would go on to produce

A number of handheld games,

Simon, maniac and other toys, electronic toys.

I think the odyssey really is kinda the legacy

That he's left behind, because it showed us

That we can do other things with television.

Other than watching it, we can play it.

(reverent music)

- It is safe to say that jerry lawson

Has a resurgence of interest in his legacy.

That legacy includes removable media,

The cartridges that were the driving force

For the industry for so long, and continue to exist.

- In the history of games, we tend to privilege

Only certain names, we turn them into stars.

But there's a lot of other people whose names

Need to be brought out into the open,

And their time, their vision, their work,

Their innovations, their labor needs to be respected.

(rising dramatic music)

- [narrator] it doesn't take long for the legacy

Of these visionaries to inspire the next generation,

As two new icons will rise up to save

The american video game industry.

(dramatic music)

Later this season,

The biggest console war of all will break out.

(dramatic music)