Icons brings you an in-depth look inside a place we all grew up with. Get the story behind the arcade's glorious past, its downfall, and where it's headed in the future. With interviews from some of the pioneers of the video game industry, join us as we take a look back at the history of the arcade.

Arcade

Jake Steele

The History Of E3

Xbox

We kick off our new season with the real story behind the world's first truly great videogame company: Atari. Find out just how wild they got, what happened to bring it all down, and what the future holds for them.

Atari

We sit down with Tommy Tallarico, George Sanger (AKA "The Fat Man"), Clint Bajakian, Masaya Matsuura, Scott Gershin and other music makers to get their stories and learn about the history of music in gaming.

Music Music

We get the lowdown from Cliffy B and show you the true story behind the creation and rise of the Unreal series. From the first Unreal to Unreal 2, see how one beautiful first-person shooter spawned a legendary franchise.

Unreal

A founding father of gaming, Yu Suzuki's every step revolutionized the way we play games. Watch as we follow the ups and downs of the Michelangelo of game design, from the success of Virtua Fighter to the struggle to bring Shenmue to life.

Yu Suzuki

We take an in-depth look at the Intellivision. Get the true story behind how they began, the world's first console war, and who won. With interviews from people who were there, we show you what happened to Intellivision and where it is today.

Intellivision

Icons brings you the story behind a boy named Link, a princess named Zelda, and one of the most loved gaming series of all time. Join Shigeru Miyamoto, and Eiji Aonuma for a look back at the creation of The Legend of Zelda franchise.

The Legend Of Zelda

How does a console go from an idea to your living room? Join us as we follow the path the Xbox team took. Learn how a failed game led a young designer to become the voice that would push Microsoft into the video game arena, then hear from the team that started the system and find out what they think about it now. This is the story of how a great idea can change the way we play.

It's where we see the games for the first time. It's a celebration of gaming and a testing ground for game companies. We take a look behind the spectacle and bring you the history of E3.

From Ball Blazer to Grim Fandango, we give you a tour of the one and only, LucasArts. Find out how they got their start with games like Rescue on Fractalus, and get the story behind some of their key games like X-Wing and Dark Forces.

LucasArts

What happens when Tom Clancy meets up with a former British submarine Commander? Videogame history. Gear up, it's time to learn about how a small game developer in Raleigh North Carolina changed the face of first-person shooters with games like Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon.

Red Storm

In an industry ripe with derivative sequels Warren Spector's games have consistently given players new ways to play. From his days at Origin working on the Ultima and Wing Commander series, through his time helming the Ion Storm Austin team, Warren has struggled to see his games made the way he and his amazing teams envisioned them.

Warren Spector

Its beginnings were humble, but soon the personal computer would become one of the greatest gaming platforms of all time. Join us as we follow the rise of PC gaming from the early days of text adventures in Ziploc bags to the latest in 3D accelerated first-person shooters.

PC Gaming

In the early 80's video games were still a young medium, but they were responsible for billions of dollars in sales every year. Predictions were made that video games would surpass films in revenue. But in the blink of an eye, it all went terribly wrong: game companies disappeared left and right, arcades fell into decline, and the end of video games was declared. In this episode of Icons, we'll hear from the people involved to find out what went wrong--and why.

The Crash

From Battlezone to Operation Flashpoint, we take a look at gaming in the Military. Find out what happens when a civilian game becomes a military training tool and get a look at how some training tools become games.

Games In The Military

In 1986 two sixteen year old friends start a company together to make money to buy games. Now, almost twenty years later, people are saving to buy their games. We'll follow the steps that took Naughty Dog from just another upstart company to one of the most respected development companies in the world.

Naughty Dog

We'll follow the Italian pipe-cleaner as he climbs the ladder of success from a bit part to a global celebrity. With over twenty years of gaming experience and six of the top ten best-selling games of all time, this little plumber is a true Icon in every sense of the word.

Mario Franchise

While Resident Evil was a hit series, Capcom pushed the evelope with Keiji Inafune's Onimusha series. The first game was the first million-unit seller for the PlayStation 2 and set records in both sales and production costs. Get the history behind this spectacular franchise.

Onimusha

It's the story of the little robot that could. Mega Man creator, Keiji Inafune, looks back at the victories and hurdles his team faced with each new game.

Mega Man

Yuji Naka began his career at Sega as a teenager. Girl's Garden, F-16 Fighting Falcon and Phantasy Star earned him critical praise and fan appreciation. But it was the introduction of Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991 for the Genesis that solidified his place as one of the most creative forces in the game industry. Sonic competed head-to-head with Nintendo's Mario for nearly a decade until the failure of Sega's last hardware system, the Dreamcast in 2001. Now, Mr. Naka brings his memorable characters to all platforms. In 2002, he was awarded with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by his peers at the 2nd Annual Game Developers Conference.

Yuji Naka

From the first Final Fantasy to X-2 and beyond, get the story behind one of the most successful and longest running franchises in gaming history. With interviews from the likes of Hironobu Sakaguchi, Tetsuya Nomura, and Nobuo Uematsu, find out about Final Fantasy's rise from its humble beginnings to its stratospheric heights.

Final Fantasy

Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy world that invites players to create their own characters and adventures. By the 1980's, this new world translated seamlessly into video games with the release of games like Ultima and Bard's Tale which borrow heavily from the D&D world. However, the series is not without its criticism; parents and conservative groups denounced the games as "dangerous" to young people, though the intense public scrutiny only helps D&D find a new audience. Today, developers such as Bioware use the complex D&D rule set in their most popular games like Baldur's Gate.

Dungeons and Dragons

Icons was a documentary TV show on G4 that originally focused on significant people, companies, products, history, and milestones in world of video games. It was relaunched in 2006 and focused entirely on pop culture. It was cancelled soon afterwards.

On May 10, 2006, it was announced that Icons was relaunching on June 3 with an episode focusing on J.J. Abrams. The show will feature a broader scope on things and people "men 18–34 care about, admire and emulate." Future episodes would focus on Marc Ecko, The Onion, and Family Guy. This change in format had been suspected, due to the recent episodes about George A. Romero, Frank Miller and the history of the King Kong franchise.

The classic video game themed episodes continued to air on the network sporadically until 2008, under the new name of Game Makers.

Arcade

Seasons5

Season 2 Episodes22

Cast1

Discussion

Episode Summary