I was always going to watch this wasn't I? First up Tetris: From Russia With Love which went through the development of Tetris from its foundation in Russian academia. In fact Discovery covered similar ground some months ago as part of an hour long documentary that took in the whole of computer games (obviously this was a very "broad" documentary - I don't think many people would attempt to summarise the history of, say, cinema, in an hour). When I say similar ground, I could swear that this was the same programme re-cut and re-edited. The credits gave 2004 production date, but the same faces seemed to have been interviewed and told the same story - OK that shouldn't change.
Oh, and what a pleasant surprise to get a random 30 seconds of Coupling thrown in towards the end! Someone hit the wrong button somewhere on the playout system.
Next up was Hard Drive Heaven in the Timeshift strand, examining the advent of the home computer, with the likes of Sir Clive Sinclair talking. Familiar ground, but as an original 16k Spectrum owner who'd previously played with a ZX80 at school and ZX81 with friends over the road, this is pure nirvana. I did chuckle when they spoke about the first BBC Micros being put into the domain of the maths teachers, and consequently some found themselves in cupboards. My maths teacher, Mr Donohue, is probably singularly responsible for my involvement in computers.
And as for the third programme in the strand? Well it's on tape. I was busy watching episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm downloaded from the net.
Posted by adambowie at February 10, 2004 12:22 AM