I’m going to really date myself here, but I’ve been a fan of the Atari brand for as long as I can remember. Now, I wasn’t around at the dawn of the company but the very first console my family ever owned was an Atari 2600 and we owned quite a few games for that innovative piece of hardware. I can also say that they don’t make gaming machines like they used to. After over three decades ours is still running strong.
Anyway, as a fan, when I saw that a documentary was being made on the company called Easy to Learn, Hard to Master I had to check it out. 8bit Generation ran another project that I honestly don’t remember hearing about but this one has certainly put them on my radar. The little snippet of interview shown in the pitch video looks top notch and it’s incredibly tempting to help make this movie a reality. With 25 days left at the time of this writing, and with the funding almost to the halfway mark, it looks like they’ll make it.
For those of us that have been following the Atari brand name for a while we know that the name has been held by a good number of different companies over the years, but Easy to Learn, Hard to Master covers the very early days when people like Nolan Bushnell dared to pioneer a new type of gaming. And while the focus is on this man there’ll be plenty to learn from others in the industry during that time.
Even if you’re not a fan of these old school games this one is worth checking out just for historical purposes alone.
