Buy World 1-1

Inspiring video game documetry portraying the birth of the video game industry and history of atari all the way through to the video game crash of 1983, Accounts from former employees of atarii/ video game legends are very insightful and entertaining... Totally recommended to anyone who has a passion for video games.

This 2 hour 11 minute documentary covers the birth of the videogame then focuses mainly on the rise and fall of Atari. It is nice to have (mostly) the whole story in one film, and it IS a fascinating story. Much of it is narrated by folks from IGN.

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PROS:

1. STAR-STUDDED
You hear the stories from many of the very people who lived through the them. Howard Scott Warshaw, Nolan Bushnell, David Crane, Al Alcorn and more.

2. ENJOYABLE
It is an entertaining watch. I expect I will put it on many times in the future and have it play in the background while I am working.

3. NICE MUSIC

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CONS:
1. BARE BONES PRODUCTION VALUES
This is a sticking point for me as I am an animator. But the "look and feel" of the presentation other than the music is very dry. Almost no graphics and animation to give us a visual personality to the film. The early videogame history captured the imaginations of most every child around. There was so much that could have been done to create visual metaphors for the energy and creativity that was happening. Instead, you get a fixed camera recording talking head after talking head. Black & white titles using the classic font used on Atari cartridges. That's about it.

2. VERY LITTLE VITAL INFORMATION
Next to nothing here that you can't learn elsewhere for free on YouTube by scouring through various videos that cover the history of Atari.

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CONCLUSION:
If you can afford it, it's a worthy addition to your library. As for me, I am glad I bought it while it was discounted. The spartan production values and not containing much in the way of new information do not justify paying the full asking price. Look into getting Howard Scott Warshaw's "Once Upon Atari" before making your purchase decision.

This is the documentary on video games that I've been waiting for.

We've finally reached the point in our world where the young engineers and programmers of the '60s and '70s have sufficiently become legends. This documentary sums up so many of the questions I had about these early pioneers who helped create the very landscape of what has become video game entertainment. If anything, this documentary helps showcase the pioneering technical and creative spirit that helped make video games what they are today.

What's wonderful about video games is that they seem so simple and yet are anything but. Is it entertainment? Is it art? Is it just a business? Is it fun? Is it dangerous? Oddly enough, the answer is yes; it is all of these things. "World 1-1" explores that contentious history and how making games has run the gamut from being pure bliss to utter hell.

At the heart of this film, though, is you understand the pure love that these people have for video games. They wanted to do something with the knowledge they had, and they wanted to make it fun, as well as challenging. If making video games was pure drudgery (and I'm not saying the drudge doesn't exist. It surely does), then video games wouldn't exist. What illustrates the staying power of video games is that despite the fact that it's hard work, people still want to make them, and that's exactly what we get from this film.

What I hope is that we get more documentaries like this or perhaps even a continuation of this series. What I find interesting is that this film is everything I wish Discovery or History Channel was like. These were media outlets that used to thrive on this kind of documentary filmmaking and which could have made an entire series out of this. But their loss in creative thinking is our gain.

Entirely propelled by face-to-face interviews with pioneers like Nolan Bushnell, the film never fails to be intriguing while telling us about what are basically the building blocks to early video-game engineering. Enough time has passed that many of the subjects have no trouble discussing their past, such as when Atari was bought up by Time-Warner, which some may say hastened the end of Atari, especially since many of them have gone on to bigger and better things. Alas, we may have to wait another couple decades before we can get a truly detailed documentary about our current era of games, but I take solace in the fact that this documentary only scratched the surface of what the true substance of video games are. Pay special attention to the post-credit interview in that I'd like to think it's a hint of things to come. The eruption in gaming that occurred following Nintendo's rise to power would be amazing, especially if the documentary covered Japan's entry into the gaming field prior to coming to North American shores (though I imagine it would require a good bit of flying and some translators).

All in all, an excellent retrospective with a lot of great stories and thoughts, complete with period game artwork and personal photos, that fully explain the rise of the early games industry.

As someone who enjoys both videogames and history, this movie was tailor made for me. I've read several books on the subject, but getting to hear from the folks who actually lived the story added another dimension. If you have no interest in why videogames are the way they are and why the industry is the way it is, then I'd avoid this movie. But if you are curious about (or if you remember) Pong, Pac-man, Donkey Kong and of course ET, then this is a great watch.

This is just the first part of the story as it covers the birth of video games and then the rise and crash of the classic cartridges system of Atari. There is certainly room for several more movies to get us anywhere close to today. The style in general is to let the featured actors of the industry speak for themselves. The interviews are cleverly interwoven so that it feels like a narrative history without much actual narration. The editing is exceptional.

An informative and compelling insight into the birth (and first death) of the video game industry, specifically detailing the history of Atari and Activision. I'm a sucker for well-made video game documentaries, and this one quenched my thirst for the week.

So yeah, I started watching it twice now and both times I woke up not knowing how it ended.
All I can say is that I enjoyed the first 30 minutes.

Well done documentary on how Atari shaped the video game and home console industry. Good production and a large amount of commentary from many industry names. Enjoyed this very much.

World 1-1 is an amazing video game history documentary movie created by the team made up of Jeanette Garcia and Daryl Rodriguez, two awesome, young but thorough movie makers from Miami. Although World 1-1 automatically might make you think of the world start screen from Super Mario Bros., the film is actually about what I call the rise and fall of the original Atari (I would have probably called the film The Rise and Fall of Atari). The film covers the birth of video games from their origins in scientific labs, onto games being played on what at the time were time-shared supercomputers, to the creation of arcade video game machines, and onto the rise and fall of early video game consoles (video gaming at home).

Read more here in my review:
http://obsoletegamer.com/world-1-1-review/

A really interesting history of the beginnings of Atari and early videogame design, straight from the mouth of the men & women who were actually involved. A must see for any true fan of video games.

An over two-hour long documentary that speaks of the creation of the first video games in the technology wings of major U.S. Universities (Space War), to the development of the coin-operated and home video game markets by Atari from the mid 70`s to the early 80`s, as well as the development of Activision Publishing from disgruntled former Atari employees. The period of video game history covered in this film ends with the video game market crash of 1983. Not only very informative (told from the perspectives of many key `players` in the industry from this time frame) but also featuring a nice collection of archival footage (print and television media sources). Much better than any other documentary that I have seen to date on the subject.

Film is fully subtitled.