Start your weekend off right by diving into a trio of videos highlighting some of the lesser-known stories behind the creation of Doom, Splatoon, and Ubisoft’s annual E3 extravaganza.
From short films to podcasts to full-length features, Documenting the Past tunes in to the history of video games through a documentarian’s lens.
After the Konami Code and JUSTIN BAILEY made the world safe for cheat codes, id Software took things a step further in 1993 with Doom. The most famous code gave you invulnerability (IDDQD or “God Mode”), while others delivered all items and weapons (IDKFA), a level select (IDCLEV) and the ability to clip through walls (IDSPISPOPD).
Kyle Matthews, along with id Software’s Dave Taylor, explored the origin stories behind these cheat codes for Codex:
Doom was a massive inspiration for the shooter genre, and a straight line can be drawn from its creation to games like Duke Nukem 3D, Half-Life, and Halo. But with its bright palette of colors and extremely laid-back vibe, Nintendo’s Splatoon may be the biggest influence on the next crop of shooters.
Splatoon famously began life as “Tofu Prototype,” but the core gameplay was the same. Throughout the prototyping phase, Nintendo ditched the blocks of tofu and eventually replaced them with human characters (including a version with Mario), before settling on rabbits. But after a while, the rabbits were pushed aside to make room for the squid-kids we know and love.
But before all of that, Splatoon may have emerged from the ashes of a water-based shooter that Nintendo was working on with High Voltage Software. Liam Robertson explores that possibility in this episode of Game History Secrets:
Splatoon was unveiled during Nintendo’s pre-recorded “Digital Event” at E3 2014. The consolemaker has mostly given up on elaborate stage shows at events like the E3 Expo, though Shigeru Miyamoto made an appearance at Ubisoft’s E3 Press Conference to help introduces Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle to the world.
Unlike Nintendo, Ubisoft can always be counted on to produce a splashy set of performances for the E3 Expo. Especially because the event is typically used to announce the newest entry in their hyper-colorful Just Dance franchise. But what does it take to create an E3 Press Conference? People Make Games, and host Chris Bratt, tried to answer this question (that I never knew how much I wanted the answer to) with Ubisoft’s Director of International Events, Leon Winkler:
Thanks to Kyle, Liam, and Chris for putting together these videos, and I can’t wait to see more episodes of Codex, Game History Secrets, and People Make Games in the future.