Yeah it's a great documentary and quite sad too ;( he won in the end though, have a look on YouTube for events after the filming.

Game Boys - documentary by E4 following sujoy and timber with a little bit on blokey as they prepare for quakecon. Quite good if you can find a copy.

Thumb Candy - channel 4 documentary presented by iain lee as he looks at the history of video games, meeting and interviewing people such as Nolan Bushnell and Shigeru Miyamoto. It's on YouTube.

http://ecstasyoforder.com/ - Following tetris players as they prepare for a tournament (not released yet)

http://www.indiegogo.com/100Yen - http://100yenfilm.com/ - not released yet but looks really good from the clips. Documentary about Japanese arcades with interviews with people such as Daigo.

MTV True Life: I'm a gamer - following 3 groups of gamers, fatality as he prepares for tournaments, group of guys who just play games all day and a guy preparing for a golden tee golf tournament.

High Score - documentary following a guy trying to get the missile command world record.

I Got Next - documentary about street fighter 4 tournament scene in USA. On YouTube.

King of Chinatown - documentary following street fighter player Justin Wong.

Special When Lit - pinball documentary

I actually tried playing Donkey Kong on mame after seeing it to see if its impressive or not, its only when you see how much of a mind fuck that game is do you realise how impressive it is.

Here's the ROM if anyone wants a go.

http://www.coolrom.com/roms/mame/13334/Donkey...t_1%29.php

WARNING

That score is bad for your ego!

>High Score - documentary following a guy trying to get the missile command world record.

i hope its not about this guy called captain awesome, because this guy is really insane, negatively spoken.

Game Boys - documentary by E4 following sujoy and timber with a little bit on blokey as they prepare for quakecon. Quite good if you can find a copy.

Was Babbage's CPL they were preparing for.

King of Chinatown - documentary following street fighter player Justin Wong AND his shady, useless manager.

Do not watch.

FOCUS: An Original Movie About Street Fighter Champion, Mike Ross - G4 Films

i think now there are a few fighting docus released, so what is the best of these. i remember your into fightning games, so your an expert.

Frag - A pro gaming documentary.

"The true story of professional video gaming. Almost everyone in the world has played a video game, but some kids do it for a living. FRAG shed light on the struggles that kids face while trying to break into and maintain success in pro gaming. At a young age, they are faced with making adult decisions that impact the rest of their lives. Below the surface of a simple game is an underbelly of corruption, money, drugs, and even death. Exploited, abused, and abandoned, most gamers fail to reach the top, but like all sports, there are heroes, FRAG pulls the curtain back on the biggest sport industry in the world..one that you know nothing about."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhXzL8_qJvE


Pretty much the only one I'd ever heard of before this thread.

that was garbage.

what i like about frag that it has a darker tone with all the problems in esport carmac mentions. yes the movie could have been better. its some kind of history snapshot (on cpl). timewise it was important to critizies cpl.

Beyond the game :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_the_Game

Great insight into WC3 players lifes and their families as well as how eSports is shown over in their countries (The part where the Chinese couple were arguing as to why his son didnt become a progamer in front of Sky's parents, made me chuckle).

Beyond the game

King of Kong is awesome....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQZ9wXO8RVs

Totally agree. Brilliant.

have seen it too, good documentary

I love shit like this. Just watched King of Kong and really liked it (even tho I just read that the story is kinda fabricated and the director has manipulated with the interviews, facts and what not to make Weibe look like a hero and Mitchell like a villain) and now I'm heading straight to the Street Fighter documentary about Mike Ross, that Aquashark posted. Keep them coming fellas.

Link

I'm not sure how much truth can be found in these videos, but the perspective behind them is quite interesting after watching the King of Kong documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fszs371Le0Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpa65K3zniA

I meant the Street Fighter one, but thanks anyway.

Aquashark already linked to it but here are some quick links:

HD version: http://www.g4tv.com/videos/54396/focus-a-g4-f...quality=hd
youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDJzpEzC6xY

If you liked Focus then you'll probably like "I Got Next" or "King of Chinatown".

I Got Next:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iYPJYQTFAA
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikkRB18Q3_s
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz-j7zvBfRo

"King of Chinatown" you can get it on itunes or probably find it floating around somewhere on the web. You might enjoy that documentary more since the film producer changed the focus of the story to show the drama that occurred when JWong left Empire Arcadia.

Triforce's comments after seeing the film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znNnWgszavI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4vqS29S_XU

Some other interesting videos:

Small clips from ArcadeHustla on the SF scene in NYC: http://www.youtube.com/user/ArcadeHustla?feature=watch
Behind the scenes of the B5 tournament (2000): http://vimeo.com/13802824

FRAG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhXzL8_qJvE

Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters (2011)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1836974/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecstasy_of_Order:_The_Tetris_Masters
http://ecstasyoforder.com/

the whole movie is not on youtube, i searched. the dvd is now hard to find if you live in europe, ebay is an option, its available for video on demand.

a guy visits good snes tetris players, we see the different playstyles, hes held a championship tournament. the movie is not onpar with king of kong, its more like people come together to play the game they love, the competing factor/rivalry is only a bit to see in the background.

the site story is about Thor, the first oldschool champion from 1990, you can watch him here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd12G5Bp9J4

Thor didnt won recent tetris championships but he is still the best player because he is the only one (or the first one) who entered level 30 on snes tetris. i think if the guy wants and train more he could beat them all.

Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade (2007)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0479879/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasing_Ghosts:_Beyond_the_Arcade

on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1c1l2IW0K8

its about the oldschool arcade gamers and twin galaxies, a legendary arcade gambling hall. we can say its about the first players that got money for a very very brief time. its a nice history piece.

The only watchable gaming movie is king of kong.

from the entertaining factor it really is.

ok im going for "special when lit" and "highscore". im curious.

edit

the pinball documentary was interesting to me, because i never connected to pinball. i didnt get this "rebellion thing" about pinball, but pinball was huge. i remember when people bought these awfull pc pinball programms, they sold good lol. the docu shows the p history. sometimes i saw a glims at the beauty of those things in the movie. funny sounds, shiny blinking, people talk emotional. hard to believe there is only one p machine producer left in 2009. cant believe it, maybe its the truth. the movie was too long for my taste.

the missile command documentary was boring. problem is, the antagonist who tries the worldrecord is just not interesting enough. hes only a guy with no story. and there is no competition with another guy. the game itself dont shine in the movie. it maybe is a good game, but the movie dont show it. the makers had good intentions, i believe that, but it fails.

Stermy's documentary

OH WAIT NVM

king of kong is great
the frag was sensationalist bullcrap at it's finest
only found the lost cauze bit entertaining. don't watch unless you have a thing for fatal1ty

There are atleast two mtv pieces bordering e-sports,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE9x8JPrwFc

Joint venture on fatal1ty preparing for ut tournament, some kind of a bohemian gaming community and some aging jock playing some dodgy arcade golf game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXpnk4o_Pj4

Some douchebag meathead halo player , chick cs player and so-far lacking more big time success, but iirc personality-wise more tolerable smash bros player. Not the greatest bunch.

"frag" docu about the dark side of esports. "beyond the game" grubby/moon w3. stermy life of a progamer. quake 16 years of dedication.

frag was utter shit bro

i actuallyliked it. oh also there is "/qry grubby" and i remember a documentary about the street fighter scene, cant remember the name though

Just seen this, very good
http://www.indiegamethemovie.com/

Numb3rs did present an interesting take on IRC, and gave us the brilliant quote "I speak leet".

haha yeah i remember that. made me feel so pro

alias: slayer - part 1, part 2 and part 3.

Norway's best SC:BW player ( [GG99]Slayer) goes to Korea and wins a big tournament there in the days (~2000) before the Koreans took over entirely.

StarCraft: World Cyber Games 2005 - link.

A National Geographic documentary which features Korean SC:BW player Xellos' story, he won the gold that year.

My comment: Pretty decent piece for the mainstream.

First Person Shooter - link

A journalist makes a film about his son's addiction to Counter-Strike and how he feels it is interfering with his life. His son was shaGuar, who later went on to place top three in a number of big events (CPL, ESWC, WEG and WCG) and become the most successful Canadian CS player ever.

My comment: Hilarious if watched ironically.

Liquid rising - link

A documentary about Team Liquid, one of the most famous non-Korean StarCraft2 teams.

My comment: Cheesy as fuck and full of gross exaggeration.

NonY's Courage attempt - link

NonY, one of the best foreign SC:BW players, goes to South Korea to try and become a pro. To do so he needs to win the toughest amateur tournament out there, as the winner receives a KeSPA (basically the governing body of Korea esports) pro-gaming license.

My comment: Hardly a documentary, basically just gonzo filming.

Hyungjoon becomes a progamer - playlist (missing episodes 6 and 7 for some reason)

Hyungjun, member of the Korean boy band SS501, attempts to become a progamer, practicing and learning from the MBCGame Hero team.

My comment: This is basically a reality show in the most standard sense, a lot of faked stuff. BW is far too hard at the Korean pro level for the guy to even stand a millionth of a chance, so they have to figure out ways to make you believe he could.

Nal_rA's Oldboy - playlist

After seeing the success of the Hyungjoon show they bring former OSL and MSL champion Korean SC:BW player Nal_rA out of retirement, he had been a commentator for the last few years, to try and qualify for the OSL, Korea's most prestigious individual league.

My comment: Watching this after the Hyungjoon show will really expose how fabricated that series was, as Nal_rA is an all-time great player and yet struggles heavily with getting anywhere close to the kind of form required to even qualify for a big league.

First Person Shooter - link

A journalist makes a film about his son's addiction to Counter-Strike and how he feels it is interfering with his life. His son was Canada shaGuar, who later went on to place top three in a number of big events (CPL, ESWC, WEG and WCG) and become the most successful Canadian CS player ever.

My comment: Hilarious if watched ironically.

How exactly is it hilarious? I can think of many hilarious things but where is the "irony"?
The guy is asking valid questions. He is honest in his enquiry and isn't afraid to state his opinion. Traits of good documentalist. Especially considering that he is personally engaged in the topic.
Also it presents the fears and struggle of large part of parents' generation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_d...vc#t=1661s

that is hilarious.

You are missing the point :P

yeah i know i am but i found that part hilarious as a gamer, but i understand that journalists or w/e have to show it differently to how it happened to explain to your everyday audience

If anyone finds Game Boys post it, I remember enjoying it and wouldn't mind seeing it again.

I have it on disc, I'll find it later.

found it yet? get it uploaded for all to enjoy...and have a plus :)

http://www.freekevin.info/

Hello old friend, hows life?

still waiting for my #cpmpickup.se ban to expire so i can play ctfs with rail and lg..........

It's due to expire any year now.

madfraga babbages - some footage filmed from Babbage's CPL in December of 2000, including the crowd reaction to czm beating Aim in their OT thriller on tourney4.

Finally something good.

Here's a documentary of the Razer CPL Q3 tournament in 2000.

As this thread is not only about documentaries, I think Existenz is also worth mentioning. Good Cronenberg movie and very trippy!

King of Arcades - very very good