Gaming History You Should Know – Halo 2: The Road To Glory August 29, 2021

Sunday has arrived, and now it’s time to bring back another Gaming History You Should Know, where we highlight some of the best independently produced gaming documentaries across the web. Today, instead of focusing on a documentary about a game or game franchise, we’re going to look at something that was focused particularly on the people who call themselves fans.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced the official release date of the next major game in the Halo series, Halo: Infinite, and while the hype levels for the game have been a bit under the radar due to the game’s longer than expected development time Halo has always had a major fan base excited for each new game. In fact, I cannot under-describe just how big a deal the release of Halo 2 was back in November 2004, and that was just the second game in the series. Halo: Combat Evolved was an incredible game and between 2002-2004, players were going crazy waiting for its sequel, which promised online multiplayer.

I picked up Halo 2 at midnight on its release night, and can attest how excited the crowd was. A few months later, I caught the announcement on the Halo fansite Halo.Bungie.Org about an upcoming film called Halo 2: The Road to Glory, which was going to be about the agonizing wait a group of Halo fans were enduring anticipating the release of Halo 2. The film was directed by Noah Gallop, who went under the gaming name Mortalis, and was released in 2005, a few months after the release of Halo 2. It also featured interviews with Noah’s friends, and had a cameo by the late Knuckles Dawson.

I was one of the lucky people who was able to brave the (shudder) BitTorrent release and watch the film back when it first released. Of course, that is no longer an option and I had no idea if his documentary would ever make an appearance in other mediums like YouTube. Thankfully, one of the people who appeared in the doc, Barbara Molt, was nice enough to put it on their YouTube Channel. It’s a great watch, if just as a time capsule for early Halo fandom.

I was actually able to get in touch with the film’s director about a decade ago to express to him how much his film meant to me, but sadly we lost touch shortly afterwards. I hope he’s doing well. In fact, The Road to Glory inspired several videos I’ve made over the past few years particularly my Halo 4 fan documentary, Waiting for Halo 4.

Halo 2 is out for the Xbox and PC.

Gaming History You Should Know – Epic Mickey: What Might Have Been August 8, 2021

It’s Sunday, and that means it’s time for yet another Gaming History You Should Know, where we share some of the most interesting videos we’ve found across the web detailing the history of games.

Mickey Mouse has been an enduring figure of popular culture ever since he first appeared in the short film Steamboat Willie. Since the advent of gaming, he has appeared in countless video games (of varying quality). In 2009, Disney Interactive made a huge push for a new type of game lead by Game God Warren Spector, Epic Mickey. Despite favorable reviews, an original art style, and decent sales, the franchise eventually dissolved following a disappointing sequel.

Nowadays, everyone barely remembers the franchise, and most of Mickey’s gaming fans returned to playing the Kingdom Hearts games. But did you know, before they pulled the plug, Disney was banking on delivering a lot more Epic Mickey games? I didn’t. DidYouKnowGaming, who is legendary for being one of the biggest references on the internet for game history trivia, produced this fantastic in-depth dive into the history of the games’ development, and what we lost following the closure of Junction Point. Check it out.

Disney’s Epic Mickey is out now for the Wii. Epic Mickey 2 is out now for the Wii U, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Gaming History You Should Know – History of the Apple I August 1, 2021

Welcome back to Gaming History You Should Know, where we highlight some of the best independently produced videos on the history of video games. Today, we’re going Old School, and talking about one of the very first Personal Computers. In fact, this may be the FIRST computer ever made that could be considered worthy of the term PC. Before the iPhone, iPad, Mac or even the Lisa was a thing, Apple was just a small business trying to create a computer they could sell to regular people.

Steve Wozniak, who I will henceforth refer to as “The Woz”, designed and constructed Apple’s first computer on his own time. It used custom processors in a configuration that revolutionized anything other companies were doing at the time. After getting rejections from every major company who might’ve had a legal claim to his work, Woz and Steve Jobs moved on to create the computers themselves. The company would go on to be called Apple and as of this day is one of the most successful companies in the world.

The 8-Bit Guy did this fascinating look at the original Apple Computer, affectionately dubbed the Apple-I. Enjoy.

Gaming History You Should Know – The Sharp NES Television July 25, 2021

Welcome back to Gaming History You Should Know, where we highlight some of the best independently produced content on the history of games. While I always make sure to prioritize space for my big screen TVs and game consoles, other people are not so lucky. Today’s modern SmartTVs work by integrating online services like Netflix and Prime without the need to buy a separate Chromecast or AppleTV. Back in the day, it wouldn’t be uncommon to see televisions with integrated DVD players, or before that you would see combination TVs with VHS players. Most people remember at least one person who had a tv like that, but did you know you could’ve gotten a brand-new TV with a built-in game console as early as the 90s?

One of the first major rare items I can think of when it comes to gaming history was the Sharp Game Television. Not too much is known about its development but these TVs are just iconic, and a reminder of an era when the Nintendo Entertainment System ruled the gaming landscape. It was essentially a 19” television with a built-in NES. In the early 90s, that was all some people needed.

YouTube Channel Nintendrew has created what I believe is the definitive history and analysis of this TV. He also dispels some serious myths I’ve heard about since forever. Give it a watch!

Gaming History You Should Know – Donkey Kong Country Dissection July 11, 2021

It’s Sunday, and this is the long-awaited return of Gaming History You Should Know, where we highlight some of the best independently produced gaming documentaries across the internet. As a person who grew up playing games almost exclusively on the PC, I never owned an SNES or Nintendo 64. Quite a shame, as in the mid-90s, Nintendo was in the middle of a renaissance reinventing what they could do with their classic properties for the 90s. Games like Super Metroid and Link to the Past not just revolutionized the games that came before them, but set a new standard for gaming later games would have to meet. But what do you do when you have a character like Donkey Kong?

Donkey Kong, created by Shigeru Miyamoto, was an arcade game which put you into the shoes of the iconic Jumpman (later named Mario) where you had to tangle with the titular Donkey Kong in a quest to save your girlfriend, Pauline. It was a great game for its time, but by the 90s it would be the character of Mario that Nintendo was known for, not Donkey Kong. To bring DK back into his rightful place of Nintendo’s pantheon, Nintendo needed to create a new Donkey Kong game for the 90s. They tasked the studio Rare, who brought in SGI 3D-graphics workstations that could create a game to win back players’ to the great ape. The game would be called Donkey Kong Country and it would be a tremendous success.

YouTube star MistareFusion, who I’ve been inspired by ever since I saw his comparison of the original Power Rangers shows with the Sentai it was based on, produced this great video about the classic game. He covers it’s history, the technical aspects about the game and what made it so ground breaking for the time. It’s a great look back into the era and I totally recommend giving it a watch.

Donkey Kong Country is out now for the SNES. It can be played on the Nintendo Switch as part of the Nintendo Switch Online service.