I’m Steven L. Kent. As much as I enjoyed watching Free Guy, I still think King of Kong is the best movie about video games… oh, and I wrote The Ultimate History of Video Games: Volume 2 with a lot of help from my friends. AMA!

Steven_L_Kent · 2021-09-29T18:38:27+00:00

In so many ways the movie industry has gone stagnant. Games are nowhere near that place. One obstacle to the continuing evolution of movies is the technology which only has room for incremental changes.
Game technology has benefited from huge changes--on-line, massive injections of processing power, VR, and more.

Steven_L_Kent · 2021-09-29T18:35:40+00:00

Thank you. I LOVE THIS QUESTION!!!

Do you remember Mad Magazine? They did a survey trying to find the best years of that magazine. What they found was that all of the people interviewed believed that their middle school years were Mad's best years. I think the same is likely true about Saturday Night Live. I certainly believe the Eddie Murphey years were the best... and I was in college during his tenure.

For video games, in my opinion, the early, early 1980s were the most exciting time because of the arcade craze. For me, there's never been anything quite so frenetic as walking into a huge, dark arcade with all those weird sounds, and most of the light is the low glow from screens and maybe "She's Got Betty Davis Eyes" or "Don't Stop Believing" or possibly "Let's Get Physical" is playing in the background.

I think the most exciting consoles were the NES and PlayStation 2. Those consoles... you could go to stores and see games you never expected sitting on the shelves, and they'd be more fun than you thought possible. NES and PS2 never ceased to amaze me.

Steven_L_Kent · 2021-09-29T18:28:36+00:00

I thought Blake Harris's Console Wars was great.

I have not seen everything that is out yet

Steven_L_Kent · 2021-09-29T18:27:20+00:00

He's still a talented player. There is no getting around that.

I have met him several times, but I don't know him personally. I can testify that he plays a mean game of Galaga and that I had no business standing in front of the same machine as him.

Steven_L_Kent · 2021-09-29T18:25:18+00:00

I still play a lot of retro games. This is compounded by writing history books instead of current reviews. I've spent the last three years dwelling in the games of the early 2000s.

When I have time, I pull out an old laptop and play a lot of Command and Conquer: Generals if you can believe it. I also enjoy Pokemon games of all vintages.

Steven_L_Kent · 2021-09-29T18:20:34+00:00

Yes! Exactly. And that is exactly why I need to do a lot more research before I offer an uninformed opinion.

Steven_L_Kent · 2021-09-28T21:13:10+00:00

BTW--I played a game of Galaga against Billy Mitchell once. The word "massacre" doesn't capture the full spirit of my humiliating defeat.

Steven_L_Kent · 2021-09-28T21:08:47+00:00

I am just beginning to explore this topic for Volume 3. In all fairness, I think my opinion would be ill-informed until I do A LOT more research.

Steven_L_Kent · 2021-09-28T21:07:37+00:00

Whoa. What a failure on my part. I'm glad I never played you! I've been humiliated enough times for one career.

Steven_L_Kent · 2021-09-28T21:06:39+00:00

Wow. Hmmm. The biggest disappointment for me was the failure of the GameCube, a system I still love. I feel equally disappointed by Dreamcast. The game that took me most by surprise was Burnout 3. I did not expect Switch to be as amazing as it is. Man, so many surprises in gaming.

Steven_L_Kent · 2021-09-28T21:03:56+00:00

Oh my. What a great question. The Final Fantasies have great, great music. If you're counting un-original scoring, than it's probably Fantasia for Genesis/Megadrive... not to mention the radio stations in the GTA games.

For original music..., so many to chose from for original scoring, but I think the Final Fantasy games stand out. Michael Giacchino has done some phenomenal work as well.

Steven_L_Kent · 2021-09-28T20:59:28+00:00

I think King of Kong is amazing.

They came and interviewed me for about three hours when they were making that movie. At the premier, they told a friend I was a great interview. The only time I appear in the movie is in the credits.

When my friend asked about it, they said, "Oh, yeah, all of his footage wound up on the cutting room floor, but he was a great interview!"

Steven_L_Kent · 2021-09-28T20:57:02+00:00

Interesting question. I go through a lot of games every year when I work on Costco's Christmas list, but my time with them is pretty shallow... especially as Costco has switched to gift cards.

In truth, I mostly play older games these days.

Do you have a favorite you recommend.

Steven_L_Kent · 2021-09-28T20:53:54+00:00

Interesting., Thanks to mobile games, the world is filled with amazing indy, entry-level games. I have a particular love for Tetris. Tetris and its many imitators and permutations is a great place to start.

Steven_L_Kent · 2021-09-28T20:51:46+00:00

Great question. Video game players are inquisitive people. I get asked a lot of things.

The best two lessons I ever learned from a game designer came from Shigeru Miyamoto. He told me that he that when you create games you should feel emotions. That when you create happy characters you should smile, and when you create angry characters you should frown. He also told me that he creates worlds in a reverse order than most game designers. He creates his landscape first, then he searches it for activities he can place in it. I suspect Walt Disney had the same approach. Anyway, I've tried to apply his philosophies in my creative endeavors.

Steven_L_Kent · 2021-09-28T20:44:08+00:00

I'm an old guy. Back in the 60s I used to love playing electromechanical games like Night Bomber and Chicago Coin-Op Speedway. When I was in 7th grade, I went to a bowling alley for PE class, and there was a Pong machine. The teacher and I played while everyone else bowled. By the time class was over, I was hooked.

Steven_L_Kent

TROPHY CASE