1 00:00:16,349 --> 00:00:20,099 [woman] I have always liked the idea of adventure. 2 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:24,650 Hiking... 3 00:00:26,443 --> 00:00:27,783 exploring... 4 00:00:29,863 --> 00:00:33,243 I just have this really deep curiosity. 5 00:00:33,324 --> 00:00:34,874 It just doesn't seem to quit. 6 00:00:38,580 --> 00:00:43,130 My imagination was always taking me to all these places. 7 00:00:44,544 --> 00:00:47,264 I would dream about it, and I'd make up worlds. 8 00:00:49,841 --> 00:00:51,551 With the games I designed, 9 00:00:51,634 --> 00:00:54,184 the whole idea is to make you feel like you're there, 10 00:00:54,679 --> 00:00:56,179 that you could explore. 11 00:01:01,978 --> 00:01:03,938 I just wanted to be swept away. 12 00:01:06,232 --> 00:01:08,232 [upbeat electronic music playing] 13 00:01:52,487 --> 00:01:55,117 [man] I met Roberta when we were in high school. 14 00:01:58,785 --> 00:02:01,535 I was very interested in girls at the time. 15 00:02:02,455 --> 00:02:03,865 And I liked her. 16 00:02:04,541 --> 00:02:06,501 It was kind of love at first sight. 17 00:02:06,584 --> 00:02:09,464 We got married four days after I turned 18... 18 00:02:09,963 --> 00:02:12,303 and have been together ever since. 19 00:02:14,134 --> 00:02:18,854 [Roberta] We are very different. Ken is more serious. 20 00:02:19,681 --> 00:02:21,931 He's a little bit more methodical. 21 00:02:22,517 --> 00:02:26,097 [Ken] When there's an adventure to be had, Roberta hears about it. 22 00:02:26,187 --> 00:02:29,267 Then all of a sudden, that's something we just have to do. 23 00:02:31,901 --> 00:02:33,741 [narrator] This is Roberta Williams. 24 00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:35,910 And starting in the late '70s, 25 00:02:35,989 --> 00:02:37,409 she and her husband Ken 26 00:02:37,490 --> 00:02:41,040 would take video games into a new dimension. 27 00:02:42,620 --> 00:02:45,420 [Roberta] He is Mr. Computer. 28 00:02:46,166 --> 00:02:50,166 When we first went out, he had just enrolled in a computer science class. 29 00:02:51,337 --> 00:02:56,177 So that year, a lot of our dates were in computer rooms. 30 00:02:56,259 --> 00:02:59,009 That gave me my introduction into computers. 31 00:03:00,263 --> 00:03:04,433 [narrator] In the early 1970s, computers weren't gaming machines. 32 00:03:04,517 --> 00:03:08,097 They ran calculations, contained databases... 33 00:03:08,188 --> 00:03:10,318 Not exactly pillow talk material. 34 00:03:10,398 --> 00:03:12,228 Unless you're Ken and Roberta. 35 00:03:13,526 --> 00:03:15,356 [Ken] One day when I brought home a computer, 36 00:03:15,445 --> 00:03:18,025 she took an interest in a game that I was playing 37 00:03:18,615 --> 00:03:21,615 and all of a sudden a whole different Roberta emerged. 38 00:03:24,621 --> 00:03:28,001 [Roberta] The game that was on it was called Colossal Cave 39 00:03:28,082 --> 00:03:30,792 which was the beginnings of the adventure games 40 00:03:31,252 --> 00:03:36,632 where you are actively involved with the story. 41 00:03:38,593 --> 00:03:42,063 [narrator] Colossal Cave Adventure was written by a computer programmer 42 00:03:42,138 --> 00:03:44,558 named Will Crowther in 1976, 43 00:03:45,516 --> 00:03:48,646 well before there was such a thing as computer graphics. 44 00:03:48,728 --> 00:03:52,898 And for most, a mouse was still just a rodent. 45 00:03:54,150 --> 00:03:56,990 So the game was played through words. 46 00:03:57,070 --> 00:04:02,330 The player typed in basic commands and the screen would respond back. 47 00:04:02,450 --> 00:04:06,410 It was a new genre of gaming: the text adventure. 48 00:04:06,496 --> 00:04:09,826 It was always, "What do you want to do?" Okay, you're in a clearing, 49 00:04:09,916 --> 00:04:12,246 and the well, it's really deep 50 00:04:12,335 --> 00:04:15,835 but you see a rope going down into the well. 51 00:04:15,922 --> 00:04:18,802 So you would go, "Get rope." 52 00:04:19,384 --> 00:04:22,974 And then as you're standing there, suddenly up on the text it would say, 53 00:04:23,054 --> 00:04:25,394 "You see a little dwarf coming your direction." 54 00:04:26,224 --> 00:04:30,814 [narrator] The game offered something that was truly unique at the time: choice. 55 00:04:31,312 --> 00:04:34,522 But if you didn't do anything, he could bring out an arrow 56 00:04:34,607 --> 00:04:37,487 and shoot you dead and you're dead. That's it, end of story. 57 00:04:37,568 --> 00:04:39,148 You have to start all over again. 58 00:04:39,779 --> 00:04:43,989 [narrator] And that choice was just the thing for an adventurous spirit. 59 00:04:44,075 --> 00:04:46,945 I would go to bed and think about it. 60 00:04:48,121 --> 00:04:50,461 How am I going to get past this dragon? 61 00:04:50,540 --> 00:04:53,960 'Cause there's a cavern behind this dragon 62 00:04:54,043 --> 00:04:56,133 and I must go there. 63 00:04:56,754 --> 00:04:58,264 How do I get past the dragon? 64 00:05:00,466 --> 00:05:03,426 I got very taken with this game. 65 00:05:03,511 --> 00:05:06,311 To the point was that's all I was doing. 66 00:05:06,848 --> 00:05:08,308 And, in about a month... 67 00:05:09,225 --> 00:05:10,345 I finished it. 68 00:05:11,060 --> 00:05:15,190 And I remember thinking, "You know what? I think I can do this. 69 00:05:15,273 --> 00:05:18,693 I think I can write a game. I really want to write a game. 70 00:05:19,610 --> 00:05:21,820 I'm going to write a game." 71 00:05:25,325 --> 00:05:29,115 [narrator] It took a novice like Roberta to ask the big questions: 72 00:05:29,620 --> 00:05:33,000 Could games be more than blasting aliens out of the sky 73 00:05:33,082 --> 00:05:36,002 and an endless back-and-forth of a pong ball? 74 00:05:36,627 --> 00:05:41,167 Could they invite players into new worlds to tell an interactive story? 75 00:05:45,636 --> 00:05:47,966 It would take some true storytellers 76 00:05:48,056 --> 00:05:51,766 with a taste for the theatrical, shall we say, 77 00:05:51,851 --> 00:05:52,941 to figure it out. 78 00:06:04,739 --> 00:06:08,239 Ah, there you are. Welcome to Britannia Manor. 79 00:06:08,743 --> 00:06:10,663 You're probably wondering who I am. 80 00:06:10,745 --> 00:06:12,785 Would you like to hear a few tales? 81 00:06:14,540 --> 00:06:15,880 [chuckles] Very good. 82 00:06:15,958 --> 00:06:20,298 Well, it all began with a pair of polyhedral dice. 83 00:06:23,758 --> 00:06:28,178 As you open the door, you see a large darkened room 84 00:06:28,721 --> 00:06:32,431 with a vast iron chest sitting right in the middle. 85 00:06:33,059 --> 00:06:35,229 What do you do? 86 00:06:35,311 --> 00:06:37,021 [narrator] This is Richard Garriott. 87 00:06:37,105 --> 00:06:39,855 I lead the party in and I open the chest. 88 00:06:39,941 --> 00:06:42,111 [narrator] This is also Richard Garriott. 89 00:06:42,610 --> 00:06:43,820 This is him again. 90 00:06:43,903 --> 00:06:45,493 And one more time. 91 00:06:46,239 --> 00:06:50,829 As you can see, Richard likes to wear many different hats... literally. 92 00:06:52,036 --> 00:06:54,866 He's a deep-sea diver who has visited the Titanic... 93 00:06:55,623 --> 00:06:57,333 an explorer of the Amazon... 94 00:06:58,126 --> 00:07:00,546 and he's even been to space. 95 00:07:01,129 --> 00:07:06,129 He's also an iconic game developer and something called a dungeon master. 96 00:07:06,592 --> 00:07:08,262 As you open the chest, 97 00:07:08,761 --> 00:07:12,431 a bounty of treasures pour out around you onto the floor. 98 00:07:13,015 --> 00:07:17,015 [narrator] What you're watching right now is a game of Dungeons & Dragons, 99 00:07:17,520 --> 00:07:21,570 a board game that took basements by storm in the mid-70s 100 00:07:21,649 --> 00:07:25,359 and inspired a generation of future game designers. 101 00:07:25,445 --> 00:07:30,485 It's exactly how computer games like Colossal Cave Adventure were conceived. 102 00:07:31,242 --> 00:07:34,542 Not in a computer, but on a table top. 103 00:07:35,455 --> 00:07:41,205 The four doors around the room open and in stream masses of goblins. 104 00:07:42,336 --> 00:07:47,336 You have a free form dialogue between a game master, 105 00:07:47,425 --> 00:07:51,465 who is describing what you might see in a fantasy setting, 106 00:07:52,096 --> 00:07:55,476 and the players, who have decision-making skills, 107 00:07:55,558 --> 00:07:58,978 react to the story that is being told. 108 00:08:02,815 --> 00:08:05,105 [narrator] The game is complicated. 109 00:08:06,819 --> 00:08:09,659 There are rule books hundreds of pages long, 110 00:08:10,323 --> 00:08:15,413 crazy-looking dice, and the same game can last for years. 111 00:08:16,037 --> 00:08:19,537 What's important to know is that it's a role-playing game. 112 00:08:19,624 --> 00:08:21,794 And one that became quite popular. 113 00:08:22,668 --> 00:08:25,878 It began as a cult phenomenon. Then it caught on. 114 00:08:25,963 --> 00:08:28,013 Now a new game is sweeping the country. 115 00:08:31,677 --> 00:08:34,347 [narrator] While herds of nerds adored the game... 116 00:08:34,430 --> 00:08:36,140 [man] But there's nothing there or anything? 117 00:08:36,224 --> 00:08:39,274 [narrator] ...vanquishing hell spawn and conjuring black magic... 118 00:08:39,352 --> 00:08:43,232 yeah, that had parents freaking out. 119 00:08:43,314 --> 00:08:45,274 [reporter] Dungeons & Dragons has been called 120 00:08:45,358 --> 00:08:50,448 the most effective introduction to the occult in the history of man. 121 00:08:50,947 --> 00:08:54,777 [man] I do not think that many parents are aware of what's inside the game. 122 00:08:54,867 --> 00:08:58,367 I mean, the gruesomeness of this game and the occult link to it… 123 00:08:58,955 --> 00:09:02,455 [narrator] And then Hollywood tried to cash in on the controversy 124 00:09:02,542 --> 00:09:06,212 with a TV movie about an eerily similar game... 125 00:09:06,295 --> 00:09:09,335 Mazes and Monsters is a far-out game... 126 00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:12,930 swords, poison, spells. 127 00:09:13,386 --> 00:09:16,716 ...starring future Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks. 128 00:09:16,806 --> 00:09:18,886 JJ, what am I doing here? 129 00:09:19,475 --> 00:09:24,305 [narrator] To be clear, Dungeons & Dragons was never about satanic worship. 130 00:09:24,814 --> 00:09:26,864 It was about storytelling. 131 00:09:26,941 --> 00:09:29,531 And, at the time, a 16-year-old Richard 132 00:09:29,610 --> 00:09:32,320 was eager to combine that love of storytelling 133 00:09:32,405 --> 00:09:34,275 with a new piece of technology. 134 00:09:37,702 --> 00:09:41,962 It was the forerunner of what would become the modern computer 135 00:09:42,039 --> 00:09:44,579 and it was called the teletype. 136 00:09:44,667 --> 00:09:46,247 There was no video display. 137 00:09:46,335 --> 00:09:49,205 It was a spool of paper where you could continue to print 138 00:09:49,297 --> 00:09:52,047 the output from whatever my interaction might be. 139 00:09:53,134 --> 00:09:57,354 Teletypes were used for boring stuff like data processing, 140 00:09:58,055 --> 00:10:00,925 but some people were trying to make games with them 141 00:10:01,017 --> 00:10:03,727 and Richard wanted to give it a shot. 142 00:10:05,021 --> 00:10:08,071 [Richard] The high school I attended actually had two teletypes 143 00:10:08,149 --> 00:10:11,109 and there was no class in the entire school that used it. 144 00:10:11,193 --> 00:10:12,993 No teacher that knew how to use it. 145 00:10:13,529 --> 00:10:17,739 So I convinced the school to let me have that classroom to myself 146 00:10:17,825 --> 00:10:19,445 for one full period every day. 147 00:10:22,079 --> 00:10:24,999 The number of options you had were quite limited. 148 00:10:25,791 --> 00:10:29,461 Asterisks for walls, spaces for corridors, dollar signs for treasure, 149 00:10:29,545 --> 00:10:31,455 the capital letter A for a giant ant. 150 00:10:32,715 --> 00:10:36,335 You could move north or south or east or west or maybe pick up that treasure. 151 00:10:36,427 --> 00:10:37,847 Uh, but that was about it. 152 00:10:37,928 --> 00:10:40,678 Every time you would make a move, you'd have to wait ten seconds 153 00:10:40,765 --> 00:10:44,765 to see how the monsters had moved and where you had moved inside the space. 154 00:10:46,187 --> 00:10:49,067 But it worked. The computer could do this work. 155 00:10:49,899 --> 00:10:52,989 It could actually create an experience that, instead of being the game master, 156 00:10:53,069 --> 00:10:55,319 I could actually be a participant in, myself. 157 00:11:04,789 --> 00:11:06,169 I began to sit down and go, like, 158 00:11:06,248 --> 00:11:09,668 "Well, I'm going to write a fantasy game like I'm enjoying playing." 159 00:11:11,879 --> 00:11:15,839 I would create these notebooks of each game as I was writing it. 160 00:11:17,218 --> 00:11:18,798 [narrator] It was a great idea, 161 00:11:19,220 --> 00:11:22,890 but come on, is it really that fun beating up the letter A? 162 00:11:23,641 --> 00:11:26,731 If any computer was going to be a serious gaming machine 163 00:11:26,811 --> 00:11:29,231 for high adventure and fantasy, 164 00:11:29,313 --> 00:11:33,033 then it needed something special that no one had figured out… 165 00:11:33,984 --> 00:11:34,824 yet. 166 00:11:43,327 --> 00:11:46,117 [Roberta] I had no idea how to start to write a game. 167 00:11:47,248 --> 00:11:49,538 But I think I need some big pieces of paper. 168 00:11:50,918 --> 00:11:53,048 And I remember sitting there, pen in hand. 169 00:11:53,462 --> 00:11:54,962 I had never done this before. 170 00:11:56,048 --> 00:11:57,798 So what am I writing? 171 00:11:57,883 --> 00:11:59,433 What is this? What am I doing? 172 00:12:00,302 --> 00:12:02,562 And the first thought that came to my head was, 173 00:12:02,638 --> 00:12:04,178 "What games have I played?" 174 00:12:05,015 --> 00:12:06,925 I came up with the game of Clue. 175 00:12:07,601 --> 00:12:09,601 But it has to be a story, too. 176 00:12:09,687 --> 00:12:11,727 It can't just be just a board game. 177 00:12:16,360 --> 00:12:21,200 I sort of started developing the idea of creating this world to explore 178 00:12:21,282 --> 00:12:22,282 with a flow chart. 179 00:12:26,245 --> 00:12:29,035 Things to do, things to run into. 180 00:12:29,123 --> 00:12:32,293 Characters that come along, and some are good, some are bad. 181 00:12:33,586 --> 00:12:38,916 You have to open up the world so you could feel like you're there. 182 00:12:40,092 --> 00:12:43,642 The way you do that is to give people the decisions 183 00:12:43,721 --> 00:12:44,971 of where they can go. 184 00:12:45,931 --> 00:12:47,731 I was drawing it, 185 00:12:47,808 --> 00:12:49,728 and building it, little by little, 186 00:12:50,227 --> 00:12:53,977 and I could see it develop, and I could add more... 187 00:12:54,648 --> 00:12:55,858 obstacles, 188 00:12:56,567 --> 00:12:57,987 secret passages, 189 00:12:58,068 --> 00:13:01,488 trapdoors, and murders. 190 00:13:05,993 --> 00:13:08,413 When I had written my game, 191 00:13:08,496 --> 00:13:11,166 and it was on this big piece of paper 192 00:13:11,749 --> 00:13:13,999 and I have no place else to go, 193 00:13:14,084 --> 00:13:16,174 because I can't program this. 194 00:13:16,253 --> 00:13:18,013 It's a design document. 195 00:13:18,547 --> 00:13:19,797 I need a programmer. 196 00:13:20,633 --> 00:13:21,593 I need Ken. 197 00:13:23,844 --> 00:13:27,064 Now, meantime, while I'm doing this, 198 00:13:27,932 --> 00:13:30,982 Ken had the idea that he would start this company. 199 00:13:31,685 --> 00:13:34,265 I wanted to build a company that would be kind of a, um, 200 00:13:34,355 --> 00:13:38,315 Microsoft style of background and was hard at work on that. 201 00:13:39,652 --> 00:13:41,402 So, I did a little scheme. 202 00:13:41,487 --> 00:13:43,907 I made reservations for him and I to go to dinner. 203 00:13:44,824 --> 00:13:46,664 Ken always loves to go out to eat. 204 00:13:46,742 --> 00:13:48,702 And he was pleasantly surprised. 205 00:13:49,537 --> 00:13:51,867 And I was in high, high salesman mode. 206 00:13:55,125 --> 00:13:57,625 [Ken] She was talking loudly and people at other tables 207 00:13:57,711 --> 00:13:59,631 were looking at us like we were crazy. 208 00:14:01,715 --> 00:14:03,465 [Roberta] First he was kind of like... 209 00:14:06,136 --> 00:14:08,306 [Ken] 'Cause she was talking about murder 210 00:14:08,389 --> 00:14:11,309 and who was going to die and how they were going to die. 211 00:14:12,685 --> 00:14:14,975 It was just kind of a weird conversation. 212 00:14:16,564 --> 00:14:18,364 [Roberta] Finally, he said, 213 00:14:19,149 --> 00:14:22,779 "Everybody else has already done text interactive stories 214 00:14:22,862 --> 00:14:24,282 or adventure games. 215 00:14:25,322 --> 00:14:26,662 You know what we need to do?" 216 00:14:27,575 --> 00:14:28,525 And I said, "What?" 217 00:14:29,535 --> 00:14:31,195 "We need to go beyond that. 218 00:14:31,787 --> 00:14:33,707 We need to add graphics to it." 219 00:14:34,790 --> 00:14:36,420 And I was like... [gasps] 220 00:14:36,500 --> 00:14:39,040 ..."Oh, my God. Oh, my God. 221 00:14:39,712 --> 00:14:41,552 He's gonna do it. He's gonna do it"  222 00:14:43,132 --> 00:14:45,382 [narrator] There was just one problem. 223 00:14:45,467 --> 00:14:48,297 What Ken proposed had never been done. 224 00:14:49,430 --> 00:14:51,600 [Ken] I love a good technical challenge, 225 00:14:51,682 --> 00:14:54,732 and since computers were new, everything was new and cool. 226 00:14:55,603 --> 00:14:58,023 [narrator] Games back then came on a floppy disk, 227 00:14:58,105 --> 00:15:00,315 the USB drives of their time. 228 00:15:00,900 --> 00:15:04,240 But they only had about 360K of storage. 229 00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:07,780 That's just a few seconds of a streaming song. 230 00:15:07,865 --> 00:15:09,275 Forget about pictures. 231 00:15:09,950 --> 00:15:11,370 These days it would be easy. 232 00:15:11,452 --> 00:15:13,702 I mean, it's-- But it was a different world then. 233 00:15:14,747 --> 00:15:18,077 So rather than just digitizing the pictures, 234 00:15:18,167 --> 00:15:21,877 I had the idea of using the end points of lines as graphics. 235 00:15:24,256 --> 00:15:26,376 That allowed me to fit all the pictures, 236 00:15:26,467 --> 00:15:28,137 the whole game, on one floppy. 237 00:15:30,387 --> 00:15:35,387 Mystery House was the very, very first computer game that had graphics. 238 00:15:35,476 --> 00:15:38,056 It was a huge leap technologically. 239 00:15:41,315 --> 00:15:44,685 [narrator] The images were simple... straightforward, 240 00:15:45,110 --> 00:15:46,530 nothing fancy. 241 00:15:47,196 --> 00:15:51,026 But to see this on a personal computer was a revelation. 242 00:15:51,116 --> 00:15:53,576 This is the beginning of something big. 243 00:15:56,330 --> 00:15:58,500 [narrator] Up until Mystery House was released, 244 00:15:58,582 --> 00:16:01,342 most gamers got their fix at the arcades 245 00:16:02,252 --> 00:16:03,882 or in front of an Atari. 246 00:16:05,923 --> 00:16:09,683 Now, a new player had entered the industry. 247 00:16:10,928 --> 00:16:13,598 My Apple is my manager. 248 00:16:14,515 --> 00:16:17,175 [announcer] There are more people in more places 249 00:16:17,267 --> 00:16:19,597 doing more things with Apples 250 00:16:19,687 --> 00:16:22,607 than with any other personal computer in the world. 251 00:16:22,690 --> 00:16:27,150 [narrator] A machine once relegated to word processing and simple spreadsheets 252 00:16:27,236 --> 00:16:31,406 suddenly became a portal  into a whole new magical realm. 253 00:16:31,490 --> 00:16:35,700 The Apple II would go on to sell over five million units around the world 254 00:16:35,786 --> 00:16:38,076 and set the stage for a new term... 255 00:16:38,205 --> 00:16:39,865 [announcer] The most personal computer. 256 00:16:39,957 --> 00:16:41,247 [narrator] ...the home computer. 257 00:16:42,459 --> 00:16:44,669 [Richard] The Apple II ran a lot faster. 258 00:16:45,170 --> 00:16:49,300 It had a real time video display. There were huge advantages to it. 259 00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:52,930 Immediately I realized instead of just doing a top-down map 260 00:16:53,012 --> 00:16:54,352 like on the teletype, 261 00:16:54,430 --> 00:16:57,930 I could do, in theory, a perspective view into the world. 262 00:17:00,060 --> 00:17:03,110 I actually cleared out the closet of my bedroom, 263 00:17:03,188 --> 00:17:06,728 because I wanted to have a dark, 24-hour-a-day place to sit there 264 00:17:06,817 --> 00:17:08,437 in front of my glowing monitor. 265 00:17:08,527 --> 00:17:12,567 Day and night, continuing to evolve, step-by-step, this game. 266 00:17:15,034 --> 00:17:18,954 [narrator] When it was finally done, Richard named the game Akalabeth 267 00:17:19,038 --> 00:17:23,128 and earned $150,000 in royalties. 268 00:17:23,208 --> 00:17:26,048 Not bad for six weeks of work in high school. 269 00:17:26,795 --> 00:17:28,755 But he still wasn't satisfied. 270 00:17:31,133 --> 00:17:35,513 Akalabeth was a widget, a toy, a piece of self expression 271 00:17:35,596 --> 00:17:37,096 and an exploration. 272 00:17:37,181 --> 00:17:39,561 It was just, what can I do? What is possible? 273 00:17:39,641 --> 00:17:43,231 And Ultima was the first time I sat back and tried to craft 274 00:17:43,729 --> 00:17:46,569 an entire role-playing experience on a computer. 275 00:17:46,648 --> 00:17:51,028 [narrator] Let's pause there for a second and dive into some gaming lingo. 276 00:17:51,111 --> 00:17:52,151 Role playing. 277 00:17:52,654 --> 00:17:55,874 Here to explain role playing games, RPGs for short, 278 00:17:55,949 --> 00:17:58,449 is renowned developer Becky Heineman. 279 00:17:58,535 --> 00:18:00,535 Role playing games are very attractive 280 00:18:00,621 --> 00:18:05,131 because it allows you to play a character of your own creation. 281 00:18:05,209 --> 00:18:10,589 The biggest appeal to this game is that it doesn't create characters for you. 282 00:18:10,672 --> 00:18:12,342 You create the characters. 283 00:18:12,925 --> 00:18:17,965 You play as somebody you would aspire to be, good or bad, 284 00:18:18,430 --> 00:18:20,270 but you can't become in real life. 285 00:18:22,684 --> 00:18:26,774 [narrator] Before RPGs, most popular games followed a formula. 286 00:18:27,439 --> 00:18:30,859 Players control a ship in space, blowing up asteroids. 287 00:18:30,943 --> 00:18:34,243 A ship in space, blowing up space invaders. 288 00:18:34,321 --> 00:18:36,741 No story arc. No exploration. 289 00:18:36,824 --> 00:18:40,084 Just shoot stuff and make it go boom. 290 00:18:40,619 --> 00:18:42,959 But Richard wanted to do something different. 291 00:18:43,747 --> 00:18:45,827 Enter his new game, Ultima, 292 00:18:45,916 --> 00:18:48,626 which was more than just mindless explosions. 293 00:18:52,714 --> 00:18:56,844 [Richard] Some of the ways that Ultima was quite unique back in the 1980s 294 00:18:56,927 --> 00:19:00,597 was that you would start through creating a character. 295 00:19:00,681 --> 00:19:04,601 Your character would have attributes, like strength and dexterity and stamina. 296 00:19:04,685 --> 00:19:05,555 Whatever it might be. 297 00:19:07,271 --> 00:19:09,111 It had characters and story. 298 00:19:09,189 --> 00:19:12,319 It had places where, once you had gone out on a battle and fought, 299 00:19:12,401 --> 00:19:16,241 that you could return to a city or a town, where you could replenish your supplies, 300 00:19:16,321 --> 00:19:18,451 rest up, heal up, those sorts of things. 301 00:19:18,532 --> 00:19:20,782 And so I sort of saw it as a world, 302 00:19:20,868 --> 00:19:24,538 a living, breathing fantasy universe  to play as a player. 303 00:19:25,247 --> 00:19:29,417 [narrator] In an industry that had always assigned players a character to play, 304 00:19:29,501 --> 00:19:32,421 a game like Ultima allowed you to build one. 305 00:19:32,504 --> 00:19:34,554 It created an open world 306 00:19:34,631 --> 00:19:37,971 where you could then venture forth on epic quests 307 00:19:38,051 --> 00:19:42,391 and equip different weapons and armor to aid you on your adventure. 308 00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:44,890 [Richard] With Ultima... 309 00:19:45,392 --> 00:19:48,942 in a very real way, you know, I was finally beginning to flex 310 00:19:49,021 --> 00:19:53,031 a little bit of those game master roots. 311 00:19:55,235 --> 00:19:57,315 You're now being involved in a narrative 312 00:19:57,404 --> 00:20:01,034 where I have laid out the fundamentals of the narrative, 313 00:20:01,116 --> 00:20:03,986 but a lot of the details are filled in by you, the player. 314 00:20:10,334 --> 00:20:14,674 [narrator] To be brutally honest, the game hasn't aged gracefully. 315 00:20:15,422 --> 00:20:16,802 But without this... 316 00:20:17,549 --> 00:20:19,969 you wouldn't have these... 317 00:20:20,052 --> 00:20:22,302 [dramatic music playing] 318 00:20:28,060 --> 00:20:32,020 In a short period of time, creators like Richard and Roberta 319 00:20:32,105 --> 00:20:35,395 had taken computer games from simple text on screen 320 00:20:35,484 --> 00:20:38,494 to crude graphics to character creation. 321 00:20:39,321 --> 00:20:42,741 The genre was evolving, trying to perfect itself 322 00:20:42,824 --> 00:20:47,414 within the limits of technology, and building upon each innovation. 323 00:20:47,955 --> 00:20:51,245 And the next big breakthrough would be found in Japan. 324 00:20:51,333 --> 00:20:52,833 Not at a keyboard... 325 00:20:53,418 --> 00:20:55,798 but at the tip of a paintbrush. 326 00:20:59,675 --> 00:21:01,715 [Amano in Japanese] I'm always imagining things. 327 00:21:03,428 --> 00:21:05,888 I feel like I'm always deep in imagination. 328 00:21:05,973 --> 00:21:08,893 I feel like I'm in that realm, 329 00:21:09,851 --> 00:21:11,231 not in reality. 330 00:21:11,728 --> 00:21:15,938 [narrator in English] Yoshitaka Amano is an artist known for his unique characters. 331 00:21:17,067 --> 00:21:18,397 Early in his career, 332 00:21:18,485 --> 00:21:21,105 he brought them to life in popular anime series 333 00:21:21,196 --> 00:21:23,066 and illustrated manga. 334 00:21:24,992 --> 00:21:28,912 But his style evolved past the cutesy, wide-eyed anime look 335 00:21:30,038 --> 00:21:33,038 and into something otherworldly. 336 00:21:39,423 --> 00:21:43,893 [Amano in Japanese] I thought it would be interesting to draw a fantasy world. 337 00:21:46,513 --> 00:21:49,063 I think it's better to create new characters 338 00:21:49,141 --> 00:21:51,771 based entirely on your own imagination. 339 00:21:52,561 --> 00:21:54,941 There's really no end once you get started. 340 00:21:58,775 --> 00:22:02,195 I think of each character as its own color. 341 00:22:05,532 --> 00:22:08,412 I'll add things when a picture needs a little extra panache. 342 00:22:08,493 --> 00:22:10,753 I'd draw an extra little animal. 343 00:22:10,829 --> 00:22:16,789 You want their defining features to stand out. 344 00:22:21,631 --> 00:22:24,761 The next step is to breathe life into them, so to speak. 345 00:22:30,349 --> 00:22:35,439 [narrator in English] In 1987, Amano would be challenged with an entirely new medium: 346 00:22:36,271 --> 00:22:37,401 video games. 347 00:22:38,648 --> 00:22:43,198 [Amano in Japanese] People didn't really understand what video games entailed. 348 00:22:43,278 --> 00:22:45,698 It had a niche, outsider vibe. 349 00:22:46,281 --> 00:22:49,371 [narrator in English] At the time, the process of designing games 350 00:22:49,451 --> 00:22:51,751 wasn't exactly seen as high art. 351 00:22:52,412 --> 00:22:55,792 But a new project in development piqued Amano's interest. 352 00:22:56,249 --> 00:23:00,419 [Amano in Japanese] Final Fantasy was the first video game I worked on. 353 00:23:00,504 --> 00:23:02,134 It's an imaginary world, 354 00:23:02,964 --> 00:23:05,934 so someone has to create visuals based on their imagination. 355 00:23:06,968 --> 00:23:09,258 [narrator in English] The company behind Final Fantasy 356 00:23:09,346 --> 00:23:12,926 wanted to make an RPG inspired by Ultima, 357 00:23:14,017 --> 00:23:17,687 but they needed an artist's touch to make it stand out. 358 00:23:18,355 --> 00:23:19,975 In stepped Amano. 359 00:23:20,065 --> 00:23:22,565 [Amano in Japanese] And my job was to create characters. 360 00:23:23,485 --> 00:23:26,145 We wanted to create an entirely new world... 361 00:23:27,322 --> 00:23:30,582 with characters that don't exist in the real world. 362 00:23:37,207 --> 00:23:39,377 [narrator in English] There were heroes and monsters, 363 00:23:41,545 --> 00:23:43,955 dark evils and faraway lands 364 00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:47,050 promising adventure and wonder, 365 00:23:47,843 --> 00:23:50,603 but it had to be shrunk down to size. 366 00:23:52,055 --> 00:23:56,385 [Amano in Japanese] My job ends once I've drawn the character on paper. 367 00:23:57,060 --> 00:23:59,810 Then I pass the baton off to someone else. 368 00:23:59,896 --> 00:24:06,736 Someone else drops the characters into the game. 369 00:24:08,113 --> 00:24:12,283 [narrator in English] Amano's fantastical drawings ended up looking like... 370 00:24:13,702 --> 00:24:14,542 this. 371 00:24:16,788 --> 00:24:20,248 [Amano in Japanese] Even if they have short, stubby proportions... 372 00:24:20,333 --> 00:24:22,043 I thought they turned out cute. 373 00:24:22,127 --> 00:24:24,377 Anything becomes cute like this. 374 00:24:24,463 --> 00:24:26,723 [narrator in English] In the beginning, that was okay. 375 00:24:27,215 --> 00:24:31,385 Players could look at a stubby character and, using their imagination, 376 00:24:31,470 --> 00:24:34,220 remember Amano's masterpieces. 377 00:24:34,806 --> 00:24:38,636 These creatures and characters are what gave the original Final Fantasy 378 00:24:38,727 --> 00:24:40,727 its incredible longevity. 379 00:24:44,024 --> 00:24:50,074 Now, there are dozens of sequels, prequels, and spin-offs of the game. 380 00:24:51,698 --> 00:24:54,828 [Amano in Japanese] In the case of a game like Final Fantasy... 381 00:24:56,286 --> 00:24:59,616 the characters evolve with each new game released. 382 00:25:03,251 --> 00:25:05,591 They take on a life of their own. 383 00:25:06,004 --> 00:25:09,424 [narrator in English] They may take on a life of their own, but with each version 384 00:25:09,508 --> 00:25:13,798 of the game, the characters look more and more like Amano's originals. 385 00:25:15,847 --> 00:25:20,557 It was becoming easier to lose yourself in the world of the game. 386 00:25:20,644 --> 00:25:23,864 To feel sympathy for a character when things went wrong, 387 00:25:24,689 --> 00:25:28,859 and suspense and fear when facing down a challenging final boss. 388 00:25:31,488 --> 00:25:32,948 Or, in some cases, 389 00:25:33,031 --> 00:25:36,201 the exhilaration of uncovering some lost treasure. 390 00:25:41,331 --> 00:25:43,171 [man] I've always liked searching things. 391 00:25:44,459 --> 00:25:47,169 When I was a kid I would go to cemeteries, 392 00:25:47,254 --> 00:25:51,344 I would go to old abandoned buildings and find treasure. 393 00:25:52,842 --> 00:25:56,972 [narrator] Like a character from an RPG, Ryan Best is on a mission. 394 00:25:58,390 --> 00:26:01,640 But his quest is unfolding in the real world. 395 00:26:02,227 --> 00:26:05,607 It started 40 years ago, when he taught himself to code 396 00:26:05,689 --> 00:26:07,769 and created a computer role playing game. 397 00:26:09,651 --> 00:26:11,991 But the game has since disappeared. 398 00:26:14,364 --> 00:26:18,704 [Ryan] I've searched all of my hard drives from every source that I knew. 399 00:26:19,828 --> 00:26:22,578 The game's lost to history at this point and... 400 00:26:23,248 --> 00:26:25,458 I'm afraid it's never to be seen again. 401 00:26:26,501 --> 00:26:29,171 [narrator] Ryan's game wasn't a commercial success. 402 00:26:29,254 --> 00:26:32,384 In fact, most people probably have never heard of it, 403 00:26:32,465 --> 00:26:33,715 much less played it. 404 00:26:34,426 --> 00:26:37,506 But for those who did, the RPG was an outlet 405 00:26:37,596 --> 00:26:40,636 both for Ryan and those in his community. 406 00:26:47,981 --> 00:26:51,281 [Ryan] I moved to San Francisco probably in 1988, 407 00:26:52,485 --> 00:26:55,565 and I wanted to get more close to the gay and lesbian center 408 00:26:55,655 --> 00:26:58,025 of San Francisco, which was really big. 409 00:27:00,118 --> 00:27:02,998 You'd see guys walking down the street holding hands 410 00:27:03,788 --> 00:27:05,288 and women doing the same. 411 00:27:06,541 --> 00:27:07,581 It was freeing. 412 00:27:09,419 --> 00:27:11,919 But this was during the AIDS crisis. 413 00:27:12,005 --> 00:27:14,085 And so gay men stared dying. 414 00:27:16,051 --> 00:27:18,011 [narrator] It was the late 1980s 415 00:27:18,094 --> 00:27:20,014 and Ryan watched helplessly 416 00:27:20,096 --> 00:27:23,176 as the US government failed to act on the crisis. 417 00:27:23,266 --> 00:27:27,096 I think that abstinence has been lacking in much of the education. 418 00:27:27,562 --> 00:27:29,862 [narrator] And some blamed the victims. 419 00:27:30,523 --> 00:27:33,653 The right wing conservatives really latched onto this 420 00:27:33,735 --> 00:27:37,985 and said that it was God's retribution for being gay. 421 00:27:38,823 --> 00:27:41,243 At the time, we had all of these preachers going on TV 422 00:27:41,326 --> 00:27:43,616 filled with hatred towards the gay and lesbian community. 423 00:27:43,703 --> 00:27:48,963 The gay people are giving their blood knowing that it is contaminating people 424 00:27:49,042 --> 00:27:51,502 and, to me, that is irresponsible and immoral. 425 00:27:53,046 --> 00:27:57,466 Pat Buchanan, he was like enemy number one of the gay and lesbian community, 426 00:27:57,550 --> 00:27:59,300 just for all of the hatred he was spewing. 427 00:27:59,386 --> 00:28:02,386 The homosexuals have declared war on human nature, 428 00:28:03,056 --> 00:28:07,186 or declared war on human nature, nature's exacting an awful retribution. 429 00:28:08,228 --> 00:28:11,648 And if there's any good that came out of all this hatred, is... 430 00:28:12,565 --> 00:28:16,065 it helped the rest of the community come together and fight. 431 00:28:16,611 --> 00:28:17,651 [chanting] 432 00:28:17,737 --> 00:28:19,487 [Ryan] We had groups protesting. 433 00:28:21,074 --> 00:28:24,414 I really thought of trying to do something else 434 00:28:24,494 --> 00:28:27,164 to really fulfill me internally. 435 00:28:27,747 --> 00:28:30,957 I decided I'm going to do a gay and lesbian role playing spoof. 436 00:28:35,672 --> 00:28:39,012 [narrator] For Ryan, coding was his form of protest. 437 00:28:39,718 --> 00:28:42,098 He called the game GayBlade. 438 00:28:42,971 --> 00:28:44,601 And wow. 439 00:28:46,141 --> 00:28:49,731 [Ryan] The monsters in the dungeon were things like preachers 440 00:28:49,811 --> 00:28:51,101 with bags of money, 441 00:28:51,187 --> 00:28:52,187 rednecks, 442 00:28:52,689 --> 00:28:53,689 giant crabs. 443 00:28:54,315 --> 00:28:59,445 Basically the people and the creatures that in my mind had picked on me. 444 00:29:00,071 --> 00:29:03,451 'Cause yes, it's true. I had crabs once in high school. [chuckles] 445 00:29:03,533 --> 00:29:05,623 So crabs went into the game. 446 00:29:07,537 --> 00:29:08,747 But giant ones. 447 00:29:08,830 --> 00:29:11,250 Weapons became press on nails. 448 00:29:12,083 --> 00:29:13,633 Until the final scene, 449 00:29:14,586 --> 00:29:17,126 where it's really difficult to win against... 450 00:29:17,630 --> 00:29:18,550 Pat Buchanan. 451 00:29:21,509 --> 00:29:24,849 It was hilarious. It was wacky and funny. 452 00:29:26,389 --> 00:29:29,639 And when I was finished with the game, it was like therapy for me. 453 00:29:31,019 --> 00:29:35,149 A lot of the anger that I'd carried with me for years was gone. 454 00:29:35,231 --> 00:29:38,491 And it was very freeing. 455 00:29:38,985 --> 00:29:42,565 [narrator] GayBlade was a big, fabulous snub to the man, 456 00:29:43,239 --> 00:29:44,449 a catharsis. 457 00:29:44,532 --> 00:29:49,332 It cloaked social issues and morality in the disguise of a fantasy game. 458 00:29:50,872 --> 00:29:54,832 RPGs were allowing players to be their most altruistic self, 459 00:29:55,627 --> 00:29:59,007 but they also allowed inner demons to escape. 460 00:30:03,009 --> 00:30:05,049 [Richard] While I was creating these games, 461 00:30:05,136 --> 00:30:10,016 I assumed and planned that you are the great hero, 462 00:30:10,099 --> 00:30:13,189 who is here to save the world from the great evil. 463 00:30:15,146 --> 00:30:16,396 But when I would watch 464 00:30:16,481 --> 00:30:19,281 what people would be doing to actually play the game, 465 00:30:19,359 --> 00:30:21,819 they were anything but heroic. 466 00:30:25,740 --> 00:30:29,660 The surest path through all the games was not to be the virtuous person, 467 00:30:29,744 --> 00:30:31,964 but was rather to steal from all the shops, 468 00:30:33,289 --> 00:30:35,289 kill all the characters, 469 00:30:36,084 --> 00:30:39,634 and basically be morally ambiguous at best 470 00:30:39,712 --> 00:30:41,262 to defeat the big, evil bad guy. 471 00:30:41,339 --> 00:30:44,679 But along the way, you were actually being a pretty bad guy yourself. 472 00:30:45,093 --> 00:30:48,143 And that to me was a real shock. 473 00:30:49,222 --> 00:30:50,602 I was somewhat horrified 474 00:30:50,682 --> 00:30:53,312 that I was creating this little band of rogues 475 00:30:53,393 --> 00:30:57,773 that were not living the aspirational virtuous fantasy 476 00:30:57,856 --> 00:30:59,606 I had imagined they were playing. 477 00:31:00,650 --> 00:31:02,610 And so I set out to fix that. 478 00:31:09,158 --> 00:31:14,578 Ultima IV was a radical departure in how I rethought gaming, 479 00:31:14,664 --> 00:31:16,214 frankly from the ground up. 480 00:31:17,959 --> 00:31:20,419 I wanted to write this game that says, you know, 481 00:31:20,503 --> 00:31:23,883 you have to be a person of virtue or you couldn't win the game. 482 00:31:24,549 --> 00:31:26,299 Not only do you have to be a person of virtue, 483 00:31:26,384 --> 00:31:29,474 it's important that it's you, not your alter ego. 484 00:31:29,554 --> 00:31:31,604 If I'm going to judge you harshly, 485 00:31:31,681 --> 00:31:33,521 based upon you deciding to steal from that shop, 486 00:31:34,225 --> 00:31:36,935 I want you to feel like you personally have stolen from that shop. 487 00:31:37,854 --> 00:31:41,484 [narrator] What Richard is talking about is giving the player a conscience 488 00:31:41,566 --> 00:31:42,816 in the game. 489 00:31:42,901 --> 00:31:46,651 And that moral inspiration came from an unlikely place. 490 00:31:49,032 --> 00:31:50,072 No, not there. 491 00:31:51,534 --> 00:31:53,294 No, not there either. 492 00:31:53,953 --> 00:31:55,623 Ah, yes, here. 493 00:31:55,705 --> 00:31:56,955 -[woman] Shh! -[narrator] Oh! 494 00:31:57,040 --> 00:31:59,630 [whispers] Here, in the library. 495 00:32:05,256 --> 00:32:09,136 [Richard] In my research, I had come across this interesting word. 496 00:32:09,218 --> 00:32:11,348 And that word was "avatar." 497 00:32:11,429 --> 00:32:13,929 If you look up in the encyclopedia the word "avatar," 498 00:32:14,015 --> 00:32:19,345 it's the incarnation on Earth of a deity in human form. 499 00:32:20,813 --> 00:32:22,693 And I thought, "Oh, this is perfect." 500 00:32:22,774 --> 00:32:26,324 It transports you, the perhaps skinny little computer nerd from Earth, 501 00:32:26,402 --> 00:32:29,362 who arrive in my magical world of Britannia, 502 00:32:29,447 --> 00:32:33,487 now as the buff adventurer that you might aspire to be. 503 00:32:33,576 --> 00:32:36,866 But it's still you. This is your avatar. 504 00:32:36,955 --> 00:32:40,375 And that way, you are now responsible for the actions 505 00:32:40,458 --> 00:32:42,538 and deeds of your character. 506 00:32:43,044 --> 00:32:45,344 [narrator] With Ultima IV, Quest of the Avatar, 507 00:32:45,421 --> 00:32:46,761 Richard had discovered a way 508 00:32:46,839 --> 00:32:51,509 for players to bring their sense of right and wrong from the real world 509 00:32:51,594 --> 00:32:52,974 into the game world. 510 00:32:53,054 --> 00:32:54,394 If you steal from a shop, 511 00:32:54,472 --> 00:32:57,232 you're not going to be able to buy that demon slayer sword 512 00:32:57,308 --> 00:32:59,268 that will be so important later on. 513 00:32:59,352 --> 00:33:00,772 Kill indiscriminately? 514 00:33:01,354 --> 00:33:05,194 Nobody will help you on your quest, and you won't be able to beat the game. 515 00:33:07,527 --> 00:33:10,907 While primitive, the code of conduct the game laid out 516 00:33:10,989 --> 00:33:14,489 would have a huge impact on today's open world games. 517 00:33:15,493 --> 00:33:18,873 In titles like Pillars of Eternity and Skyrim, 518 00:33:18,955 --> 00:33:23,915 the behavior you bring to the game impacts how the experience unfolds. 519 00:33:25,545 --> 00:33:29,465 I really think this was me trying to say, "How can I make Ultima IV important?" 520 00:33:29,549 --> 00:33:33,429 Not just a place to happily waste some time, 521 00:33:33,511 --> 00:33:38,561 but how can I actually make something that is relevant to the individual player? 522 00:33:45,231 --> 00:33:49,571 [Ryan] GayBlade was the first role playing game 523 00:33:49,652 --> 00:33:52,492 that's focused on the LGBTQ community. 524 00:33:55,700 --> 00:33:57,330 The mainstream computer games, 525 00:33:57,869 --> 00:34:00,409 if they have any gay and lesbian characters, 526 00:34:00,997 --> 00:34:03,247 they are always playing a minor part. 527 00:34:04,459 --> 00:34:07,549 It kind of represents how we've all been marginalized. 528 00:34:08,212 --> 00:34:09,762 Almost like we're an afterthought. 529 00:34:11,966 --> 00:34:14,506 I was getting people writing me notes. 530 00:34:15,219 --> 00:34:17,349 In a time of great unhappiness, 531 00:34:17,430 --> 00:34:22,020 they got a little bit of relief, humor and chuckles from playing GayBlade. 532 00:34:22,101 --> 00:34:24,311 And it was amazing how many people 533 00:34:25,021 --> 00:34:26,151 wanted to play it... 534 00:34:27,315 --> 00:34:28,685 ...and wanted more. 535 00:34:29,942 --> 00:34:32,702 [narrator] And then, the craziest thing never happened. 536 00:34:34,322 --> 00:34:36,372 Pat Buchanan heard about GayBlade, 537 00:34:36,866 --> 00:34:38,866 got into his presidential tour bus, 538 00:34:39,619 --> 00:34:41,749 drove across country to San Francisco, 539 00:34:42,538 --> 00:34:44,828 stopped in the Castro to buy some souvenirs, 540 00:34:45,708 --> 00:34:47,958 then showed up at Ryan's door. 541 00:34:48,044 --> 00:34:51,924 and stole the game, telling Ryan to “pray the gay away” as he left. 542 00:34:52,715 --> 00:34:56,675 But funnily enough, the game made Pat Buchanan realize that he was gay! 543 00:34:57,720 --> 00:35:00,930 And now he's living in Paris with his partner, François, 544 00:35:01,015 --> 00:35:04,095 and their two Bichons, Coco and Chanel. 545 00:35:05,269 --> 00:35:07,519 Actually, that didn't happen at all. 546 00:35:08,022 --> 00:35:12,362 The truth of how Ryan lost the game is far less colorful. 547 00:35:17,740 --> 00:35:23,080 [Ryan] I lost all my copies of GayBlade in a move from Honolulu to San Francisco. 548 00:35:24,705 --> 00:35:28,835 A shipping company never showed up to pick up the items at my apartment 549 00:35:28,918 --> 00:35:30,548 that I was moving out of, 550 00:35:30,628 --> 00:35:33,338 and I was not going to be able to fly back to Honolulu. 551 00:35:35,758 --> 00:35:40,508 Everything, my master copies, my installation, my source code, 552 00:35:40,596 --> 00:35:41,466 it was all gone. 553 00:35:42,348 --> 00:35:45,348 So I've been searching for it ever since the shipping incident, 554 00:35:45,768 --> 00:35:48,768 and that was 15 years ago. 555 00:35:49,897 --> 00:35:52,397 If it's out there, it would be momentous. 556 00:35:52,483 --> 00:35:55,323 It would be so important and so meaningful to me. 557 00:35:58,656 --> 00:36:01,736 But I recently got some help in my search. 558 00:36:03,619 --> 00:36:06,409 Out of the blue, a woman contacted me 559 00:36:06,497 --> 00:36:10,667 and she was building an archive of computer games 560 00:36:10,751 --> 00:36:13,251 that featured gay and lesbian characters. 561 00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:16,800 And she had sent out the word to all of these different forums. 562 00:36:16,883 --> 00:36:22,853 And it's only been four to six months, but I've noticed websites, Twitter, 563 00:36:22,930 --> 00:36:26,140 different news groups all trying to find GayBlade. 564 00:36:26,851 --> 00:36:29,311 Word began to spread on social media 565 00:36:29,395 --> 00:36:32,605 and a committed online community formed on a joint mission: 566 00:36:33,107 --> 00:36:35,687 the search to find Ryan's lost game. 567 00:36:36,819 --> 00:36:38,359 It blew me away 568 00:36:38,446 --> 00:36:41,196 to have all of these people sending feelers out. 569 00:36:42,283 --> 00:36:44,333 I really feel that if it's out there, 570 00:36:44,952 --> 00:36:46,542 it's going to be found. 571 00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:53,420 [narrator] This outpouring of support shows the power that RPGs have on players 572 00:36:55,129 --> 00:36:56,759 and how far the games have come 573 00:36:57,548 --> 00:36:59,178 from asterisks as walls, 574 00:36:59,717 --> 00:37:02,087 to a fully connected community. 575 00:37:02,720 --> 00:37:07,060 [Richard] I think that role playing games play an incredibly positive role 576 00:37:07,141 --> 00:37:08,101 in society. 577 00:37:10,937 --> 00:37:12,857 It's people from all over the world 578 00:37:13,314 --> 00:37:15,864 who know each other through their avatars 579 00:37:15,942 --> 00:37:20,862 and now have found reason to seek each other out in the real world 580 00:37:20,947 --> 00:37:22,737 and deepen those personal bonds. 581 00:37:23,491 --> 00:37:27,201 [narrator] But before we finish, there's one last detail to wrap up. 582 00:37:52,228 --> 00:37:55,898 A whole new genre and way to play games had emerged. 583 00:37:57,316 --> 00:38:00,316 Choice in what you did, and how you did it, 584 00:38:00,403 --> 00:38:02,283 could actually have consequence. 585 00:38:05,241 --> 00:38:07,031 And, as technology improved, 586 00:38:07,118 --> 00:38:10,248 so did the complexity of the stories they told. 587 00:38:13,749 --> 00:38:17,299 But back on home consoles, a war was brewing. 588 00:38:17,378 --> 00:38:21,168 And a company that had struggled to take on an industry behemoth 589 00:38:21,632 --> 00:38:24,592 started to develop their own secret weapon, 590 00:38:24,677 --> 00:38:28,097 one that was too fast for the naked eye. 591 00:38:30,808 --> 00:38:31,638 [man] Sega!