Rarity: Retro Video Game Collecting in the Modern Era (2021)

GoldenEra

GoldenEra is a documentary that tells the story of the creation and legacy of the video game GoldenEye 007 (1997) for the Nintendo 64.

Atari: Game Over

The Xbox Originals documentary that chronicles the fall of the Atari Corporation through the lens of one of the biggest mysteries of all time, dubbed “The Great Video Game Burial of 1983.” Rumor claims that millions of returned and unsold E.T. cartridges were buried in the desert, but what really happened there?

Pretending I'm a Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story

The story of the skaters and developers who came together to create one of the best-selling games of all time, changing the skateboarding scene and pop culture forever.

Video Games: The Movie

From executive producer Zach Braff and director Jeremy Snead, "Video Games: The Movie" is an epic feature length documentary chronicling the meteoric rise of video games from nerd niche to multi-billion dollar industry. Narrated by Sean Astin and featuring in-depth interviews with the godfathers who started it all, the icons of game design, and the geek gurus who are leading us into the future, "Video Games: The Movie" is a celebration of gaming from Atari to Xbox and an eye-opening look at what lies ahead.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

In this hilarious arcade showdown, a humble novice goes head-to-head against the reigning Donkey Kong champ in a confrontation that rocks the gaming world to its processors! For over 20 years, Billy Mitchell has owned the throne of the Donkey Kong world. No one could beat his top score until now. Newcomer Steve Wiebe claims to have beaten the unbeatable, but Mitchell isn't ready to relinquish his crown without a fight. Go behind the barrels as the two battle it out in a vicious war to earn the title of the true King of Kong.

Free to Play

Follow three professional video game players as they overcome personal adversity, family pressures, and the realities of life to compete in a $1,000,000 tournament that could change their lives forever.

Super Seducer 2 - The Dark Side of Seduction?

The Dark Side of Seduction is the Super Seducer 2 documentary. Culled from over 200 hours of footage, the documentary follows Richard La Ruina and the team as they go from pre-production to completion. See behind the scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew, as they struggle with making a sequel to one of the most controversial games ever. Get unparalleled access to the team, and gain insight into the process of making the world's biggest ever FMV game. The team battle with the question of whether they are doing something evil or actually doing something that will make the world a better place.

Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe

Charlie Brooker sets his caustic sights on video games. Expect acerbic comment as he looks at the various genres, how they have changed since their early conception and how the media represents games and gamers. Features interviews with Dara O Briain, sitcom scribe Graham Linehan and Rab and Ryan from Consolevania.

From Bedrooms to Billions: The PlayStation Revolution

The PlayStation Revolution is an independent documentary feature film that uncovers the incredible story behind the creation of the Sony PlayStation. It is an essential watch for anyone interested in video games and the history of the biggest entertainment industry on earth. The film investigates why Sony decided to enter the video games business, when it was already dominated by both Nintendo and Sega, who not only produced their own hardware but made and published fantastic games. To compete, Sony would not only have to design and build a new piece of hardware, but they would have to find a way to persuade the game development industry to take a chance and develop games for it long before it even came out!

From Dreams – Making “The Last of Us: Left Behind”

Go behind-the-scenes to explore the themes of love and loss and how The Last of Us: Left Behind single player story chapter was created.

The Story of Nintendo

Over 133 years in the making, from humble beginnings manufacturing 'Hanufuda' cards came one of the world's most recognized videogame companies, from the birth of Mario and Luigi to Donkey Kong and Zelda... to beating its competition and presenting itself as a platform for quality games and strong values. This is the story of Nintendo.

The Making of Fallout 3: The Vault-Tec Files

Documentary exploring the making of the third installment of the popular post-apocalyptic roleplaying game series Fallout. The Making of Fallout 3 features behind the scenes footage, concept art and was only made available to people who had purchased the collectors edition of the game.

World of Warcraft: Looking For Group

An all-new documentary celebrating 10 years of adventure, camaraderie, and /dancing on mailboxes all around Azeroth. Explore the history of WoW with its creators, and journey into corners of Blizzard and the WoW community you’ve never seen before.

Level Five

Laura, a French programmer, inherits the task of creating a game about the World War II Battle of Okinawa. Her research and interviews with Japanese experts and witnesses prompt her to reflect on life, humanity, and the lasting influence of history and memories.

Video Games: The New Masters of the World

In thirty years, the video game has conquered an increasingly wide audience. Drawing on the recent work of economists, sociologists, experts and interviewing major players in this field, this investigation unravels the overwhelming domination of this new mass media.

The Gleaners and I

Varda focuses her eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip. Her investigation leads from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets of Paris, following those who insist on finding a use for that which society has cast off, whether out of necessity or activism.

League of Legends: Origins

Fans, experts and creators of “League of Legends” detail the game’s rise from free demo to global esports titan.

To Win It All

To Win It All: The Road to the Six Invitational is an exciting view into Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, one of the world's fastest-growing esports. Three top players from around the globe try to balance lives, relationships, and training while chasing a chance to compete in the Six Invitational and win its life-changing $2,000,000 prize pool.

Playing Columbine

Chronicles the history of the game "Super Columbine Massacre RPG!." The film traces back the 16-bit role-playing game to its inception, through the 2006 shooting at Dawson College in which the game was singled out by the media as a "murder simulator" that "trained" the shooter, and finally the game's removal from the list of finalists at the Slamdance 2007 Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition - prompting half the entries and a sponsor to pull out of the festival in protest. Written by tolka

Beyond the Wasteland

Shot in Australia, USA, Italy, France, Germany, and Japan, Beyond the Wasteland follows the fans from around the world who go to extraordinary lengths in the name of Mad Max. Transporting us into the world of Mad Max, we explore the eccentric world of the fans, their costumes, and their machines as these oddball fans find their place amongst the Mad Max community. The documentary also follows original cast member, Bertrand Cadart as he continues his fight against stage IV leukemia and travels from his home on the Sunshine Coast to the “Wasteland,” the desert location of Mad Max 2 in Silverton, for the last time. Beyond the Wasteland not only celebrates life but the ability to change oneself through passion.

Minecraft: Into the Nether

Minecraft. The game that took the world by storm. Follow the story of how the Minecraft phenomenon has ploughed through the 21st century selling over 54 million copies worldwide on a multitude of platforms engaging an audience in the millions which is still continuing to grow. The game boasts the biggest digital world in gaming history with a fan base stretching to every corner of the globe. Youtube viewing numbers have grown and online participation has tripled over the last few years creating a new industry for enthusiastic gamers. Vast communities have been brought together through it's educational impact, YouTube celebrities, festivals and game events pushing the boundaries of technology and creativity to the limits.

George A. Romero's Resident Evil

A documentary that brings to light the vision that director George A. Romero had for an adaptation of Resident Evil, using newly filmed interviews with those who were there, and unravels the secrets behind why it was never produced.

Becoming Jessica Nigri

A portrait of cosplayer Jessica Nigri, from a magical childhood growing up with quirky parents in New Zealand, to entering middle school in the U.S. where she was mercilessly teased for her "nerdy" interests.

Insert Coin

The oral history of a team of geeks and misfits in the back of a Chicago factory creating the biggest video games of all time. Midway Games pioneered the concept of live-action gaming, kick-starting a new arcade boom and grossing billions of dollars with hits like Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam. The documentary covers much of Mortal Kombats history, including the creation of fatalities and characters such as Liu Kang, Kitana, Johnny Cage and Scorpion.

Man vs. Snake

1984. One shiny quarter. 44.5 hours of continuous play. The race to be the first gamer in history to score one BILLION points. Until recently, Timothy McVey (not the terrorist) thought he had — for all these years — held the world record on Nibbler.

Console Wars

In 1990, SEGA, a fledgling arcade company assembled a team of misfits to take on the greatest video game company in the world, Nintendo. It was a once-in-a-lifetime, no-holds-barred conflict that pit brother against brother, kids against grownups, Sonic against Mario, and uniquely American capitalism against centuries-old Japanese tradition. For the first time ever, the men and women who fought on the front lines for Sega and Nintendo discuss this battle that defined a generation.

Grounded II: Making The Last of Us Part II

Learn directly from the team at Naughty Dog about what it took to bring the acclaimed sequel The Last of Us Part II to life, with a new behind-the-scenes look at development.

The Name of the Game

The Name of the Game is a feature-length documentary about the team up between the legendary arcade game designer, Eugene Jarvis, and the Finnish game developer, Housemarque. The end result of the collaboration was the critically acclaimed PS4/PC title Nex Machina. The film gives the audience an unprecedented access to the unpredictable and plain crazy world of making a video game – uncensored.

Minecraft: The Story of Mojang

Minecraft: The Story of Mojang is a feature-length documentary that follows the young company over the course of its first year as their profile expanded across the world stage and into the homes of millions of gamers. Featuring insights from industry icons, journalists, tastemakers, and players profoundly impacted by the game, the film serves as a time capsule for one of this generation's most unorthodox success stories.

Frequencies: The Music of League of Legends

Go behind the scenes with the Riot music team as they challenge themselves and each other to reveal a part of the League of Legends universe that hasn’t been heard before.

Not a Game

This documentary offers an honest look at our fraught, complex relationship to video games from the perspectives of gamers and their concerned parents.

Making Fun: The Story of Funko

From a small garage in Redmond, Washington, to the furthest corners of the earth, Funko's story is one that is centered around the fans and the global community that arose from their unique passion - a story that spans twenty years full of joy, ambition, adversity, and... well... toys.

Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters

A documentary that captures the greatest world record Tetris players as they prepare for the Classic Tetris World Championship. From the days of Thor Aackerlund and his historic victory at the 1990 Nintendo World Championships, right up to the present and Harry Hong's perfect "Max-Out" score, this documentary expertly chronicles over two decades of Tetris Mastery.

Celluloid Bloodbath

DEFINITION: 'Celluloid' - Motion picture film, cinema film. 'Bloodbath' - Savage, indiscriminate killing, a massacre. CELLULOID BLOODBATH: MORE PREVUES FROM HELL - the long-awaited sequel to 1987's horror cult classic, MAD RON'S PREVUES FROM HELL. An awesome collection of 61 over-the-top horror movie prevues, from the golden Grindhouse age, spanning the 1960's through the 1980's! Also features commentary from film makers, actors, critics and fans, that make this a true, incredibly entertaining, one-of-a-kind movie-going experience!

The Hobby

Follows longtime collectors and a new generation of buyers from the trading card industry, diving deep into the real-time trading card fever as the hobby goes nuclear.

Behind the Wall: The Making of Skyrim

Behind the Wall: The Making of Skyrim contains exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, including interviews with the Bethesda Game Studios team as they take you from concept to creation and provide insights into the story, gameplay, setting, legacy of the Elder Scrolls franchise, and much more.

Us and the Game Industry

This film follows several independent game developers (Jason Rohrer, thatgamecompany, Douglas Wilson, Zach Gage, Aledander Bruce) examining why they make digital games. The film delves into their creativity and explores some of their thinking and design strategies. Game developers operate in terrain that demands both programming logic and aesthetic quality. The work is hard, however that's what they want to do. The film explores how the developers go deeper into the notion of entertainment and discovery.

The King of Arcades

Follow the rise and fall of the King of Arcades as one man pursues his dream against all odds. The King of Arcades details the life and times of punk rock musician and classic arcade collector Richie Knucklez, on his journey to cultural prominence when he takes his passion for collecting to new heights by opening an arcade business in Flemington, New Jersey, only to watch it fall in the wake of economic hardship.

The Video Craze

A documentary on classic video arcade collectors across North America. Those who were the first to look into the neon haze of a vector/raster screen and fall in love. The first quarter poppers, the "vidiots" who never grew up.

The Lost Arcade

Chinatown Fair opened as a penny arcade on Mott Street in 1944. Over the decades, the dimly lit gathering place, known for its tic-tac-toe playing chicken, became an institution, surviving turf wars between rival gangs, changing tastes and the explosive growth of home gaming systems like Xbox and Playstation that shuttered most other arcades in the city. But as the neighborhood gentrified, this haven for a diverse, unlikely community faced its strongest challenge, inspiring its biggest devotees to next-level greatness.

Grounded: Making The Last of Us

A feature-length exploration of the game's creation, and a love letter to the trials of exploring new territory. There are no road maps or guide books for creating a new world. The only way through is to fail—over and over again. This is the story of how a team of artists, musicians, programmers, writers, actors, filmmakers, playtesters, and a lonely UI designer—came together and pushed each other to build something larger than themselves.

Operation: Jane Walk

The war zone of a dystopian multiplayer shooting game is used to embark some urban explorers on a winter walk, avoiding the combats whenever possible, as peaceful observers, inhabitants of a digital world, which is a detailed replica of Midtown Manhattan.

GameStop: Rise of the Players

From the makers of Console Wars comes the origin story of the GameStop stock market phenomenon, featuring exclusive access to the original players who lit the fuse on a historic amateur investor uprising. Spotlighting the human side of a sensational business drama, this documentary is a David vs Goliath tale about ordinary people waking up to the power they have in numbers.

8 Bit Generation: The Commodore Wars

The rise and fall of Commodore computers in the 70s and 80s as described by the people who created the companies and technologies.

Brian and the Boz

In some ways, Barry Switzer and Brian Bosworth were made for each other. The Oklahoma coach and the linebacker he recruited to play for him were both out-sized personalities who delighted in thumbing their noses at the establishment. And in their three seasons together (1984-86), the unique father-son dynamic resulted in 31 wins and two Orange Bowl victories as Bosworth was awarded the first two Butkus Awards. But then Bosworth's alter ego: "The Boz," took over both their lives and ultimately destroyed their careers. In "Brian and The Boz," Bosworth looks back on the mistakes he made and passes on the lessons he learned to his son. It's a revealing portrait of a man who had and lost it all, and a trip back to a time when enough just wasn't enough.

Playing Hard

The human tale behind the creation of a blockbuster game.

I Am Street Fighter

For one of the longest-running game franchises in history, Street Fighter creators Capcom needed something exceedingly special to accompany the release of their 25th anniversary edition of the game. AREA 5 produced, shot, edited, and finished a documentary that spans three countries, more than two decades, and tells the story of how a game not only birthed an entire genre, but changed the lives of a generation.

Lara Croft: Lethal and Loaded

Lara Croft is the fearless pioneer of "girl power." She's the empress of the digital age, and the star of the wildly successful computer game and movie Tomb Raider. Now, for the first time, this fascinating program explores the unique phenomenon of Lara Croft and tells an amazing tale of ingenuity and success. It reveals how Core Design invented Lara Croft and catapulted her into mainstream contemporary culture, making her the most successful cyber character to cross over into global marketing, advertising, and of course, Hollywood. This is the amazing story of cyber tomb raider Lara Croft, and it is a “must see” for all of her fans.

Easy to Learn, Hard to Master: The Fate of Atari

Before Google, Yahoo and even Apple, before the Silicon Valley cliché of informal dress code, skateboards running the corridors and wild creativity became commonplace, one company embodied the digital economy lifestyle and business style: the one firm coming out of the Age of Aquarius was Atari. The story of Atari is two-thirds the story of Nolan Bushnell, founder and visionary, and one-third the first and probably biggest boom and bust of the new economy some 20 years before the new economy even existed. Atari was showing that technology is cool, way before the personal computer revolution took place and they were reaching out to an ever-growing audience with something that is still cool today: video games. Atari literally introduced the digital world to the mass consciousness.

Life 2.0

This feature-length documentary follows a group of people whose lives are dramatically transformed by a virtual world -- reshaping relationships, identities, and ultimately the very notion of reality.

Idol Hotline: Miho Nakayama's Tokimeki High School

Hello, my name is Miho Nakayama. Thank you very much for participating in the Famicom event "Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School." And congratulations on winning a prize! I send you an autographed videotape. Please be careful with it. I will remember the drama (game) we starred together in forever as a precious memory, and I’m going to do my best in songs and dramas in the future. I’ll be happy if you also remembered this as a precious memory. And please watch over me from now on forever. Well then, I’m looking forward to the day we’ll meet again. For those who beat Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School and registered their "Best Ending" victory via the Disk Fax network, this tape was given out as a special prize to 8000 winners. This tape showcases behind the scenes footage of Nakayama Miho and her involvement in the game.

World 1-1

How Atari helped create the games industry years before it should have happened, and the lucky deals and unfortunate mistakes that almost destroyed the entire industry just as quickly as it was born. The personalities of the pioneers, the creations of the engineers, and the challenges, technology and business deals. See the games and hear the stories from the creators themselves.

Wake Up Punk

Joe Corré, son of punk visionaries Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, burns an estimated £5M worth of punk memorabilia protesting the commodification of punk. The film takes this incendiary act of ‘cultural terrorism’ and the questions it raised to explore the lifespan and true worth of punk - the 20th century's most volatile movement.

The Making of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

As Solid Snake is about to undergo another sneaking mission, he gets a call on his Codec. Expecting Otacon, he proceeds to answer and explains that he's about to start the mission. However, the caller is actually revealed to be Hideo Kojima, who requests Snake's help as he fears his project had been leaked. He then proceeds to explain the development process alongside a narrator, also using some game footage.

Metal Gear Saga: Vol. 1

Metal Gear Saga Vol. 1 features an in-depth documentary-style video feature that details the Metal Gear series' epic narrative, from beginning to end. Spanning five games and just as many decades of fictional history, Metal Gear Saga ties together the game's complex narrative in chronological order, from the 1960's-with the heroic origins of Big Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater-to the cliffhanger conclusion of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, set in the early 21st century. Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima also appears in a series of candid interviews, recounting the origins of the series and sharing its secrets, such as the original setting of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, his thoughts on the infamous NES game Snake's Revenge, and what gamers can look forward to in the forthcoming Metal Gear Solid 4.

Deliverance: The Making of Kingdom Come

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a unique single-player RPG set in the realistic world of medieval Europe. The path to its release was a long and complicated one: the game was rejected by publishers as too risky and its development was only possible thanks to the support of thousands of backers on Kickstarter. Even then, the developers still faced a whole range of obstacles due to the game's unconventional ideas and mechanisms. This documentary charts the more than six-year long, tortuous journey from the foundation of Warhorse Studios to the final release of the game.

The New 8-bit Heroes

The New 8-Bit Heroes began after discovering childhood illustrations of a proposed game for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Embarking on a quest with fellow creatives, Granato and his team set out to retrofit their skills to realize the abandoned ambition of developing a brand new, cartridge based game for the 30 year old console. What began as a novelty project about making a video game quickly shifts into an analysis of the relevance of the ambitions shed in our youth and an examination of what happens when we inject them into our adult lives.