mythical origins of video games

in the feature ‘made of myth’ amusement magazine tell the unlikely histories behind some of the best known video games. who’d have thought that tetris, super mario and pong began life in the surrounds of dusty workshops and metal foundries. tetris (top) ‘when alexei pajitnov first ordered a load of bricks from karpov abramtsevo’s workshop, workers there were wondering who could be interested in all those right-angled blocks. no one in 1985 could have imagined those concrete tetriminos would become world famous and constitute russia’s deadliest weapon against reagan’s america.’

super mario ‘in 1995, the collaboration between oita’s mushroom farms and nissin foods co. in sapporo revolutionised the conditioning techniques of the time, also bringing biochemistry out of labs and onto a global stage. without shigeru miyamoto’s 750 billion colored (shiitake) mushrooms, the japanese food processing industry wouldn’t have cruised through the 1990s with the same optimism.’

sonic ‘in hindsight, yuji naka and hirohaku yasuhara almost regretted opting for a local foundry rather than sub-contracting from abroad. during the heatwave of summer 1991, the yokohama seitetsujo metal foundry had to keep four teams on the go to meet their deadlines. over 32 billion brass rings have since been completed in these traditional molds.’

see ‘made of myth’ in full

project credits photography: marc da cunha lopes touching up: christophe & graziella @ asile 3D : ben @ asile text : rémi vermont

via quipsologies