Play Value

2007 • 1 Season

This series traces the sweeping history of video games—from the golden age of arcades to the home‑console revolution that reshaped the industry. Through fast‑paced commentary and archival insight, it explores how hits like Space Invaders, Pac‑Man, and Donkey Kong fueled an arcade boom, why the market collapsed in the early 1980s, and how Nintendo revived gaming with the NES. The story expands into the fierce rivalry between Atari and Nintendo, the global battle for Tetris rights, and the constant cycle of innovation that defined consoles from the 1970s through the 2000s. Blending humor with industry analysis, the episode shows how creativity, competition, and a few spectacular missteps shaped modern gaming.

Latest Episode

College Dreams: The Story of General Computer

S01 E22 • Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008 • Nov 11

Two students, without money or contacts, found their own way into the game business. In 1981, A couple of MIT students named Doug Macrae and Kevin Curran started a small company called General Computer. These guys loved video games, played video games, bought a few arcade games, and even had their own coin-op route on campus. But the two kids were just engineering students and didn't have the factory resources to make big arcade games from scratch. So instead, they just made enhancement boards that would connect to the circuit boards of existing arcade games and modify them into new and improved versions. Thus began the start of their amazing video game career.

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