Toru Iwatani explaining the mechanics behind Submarine
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One good thing for video game history buffs is that many individuals who helped shape the industry in the first place are still around to share their insights into what happened. Recently a video was released of industry pioneers Ralph Baer and Al Acorn discussing how they came up with different concepts which would influence games for decades to come (via GameSetWatch); and even more recently four pioneers in the Japanese video game industry sat down at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Japanese Digital Games Society (DiGRA JAPAN) to delve into history from their angle. Those pioneers are: Toru Iwatani (Pac-Man), Masanobu Endō (Xevious, Tower of Druaga), Nishi Sumi (aka Tomohiro Nishikado / Space Invaders), and Ishimura Shigekazu (Galaxian). They discuss the history of coin-op games in Japan and the different influences, such as Pong, Breakout and Night Driver, that drove ideas and innovation in their own games.
You can read all about this lecture at 4Gamer.net via either Google Translator or Microsoft Translator
