Television series
High Score
High Score is a candy-colored, six-episode romp through the origin stories of the games that built an industry — Pac-Man, Tetris, Mortal Kombat, Sonic and friends — told by the programmers, designers and hustlers who made them in garages and basements. It's breezy, nostalgic and unapologetically fun, more clip show than critical history. Best for anyone who wants warm fuzzies about their childhood console rather than a rigorous industry exposé.
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The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters2007
The gold standard of arcade documentaries — a real-life underdog vs. villain rivalry over a Donkey Kong high score that's funnier, sadder and more gripping than most scripted drama.
But The 'villain' framing is famously unfair to its subject, which can leave a slightly sour taste once you know the full story.
Atari: Game Over2014no page yet
The story of the infamous E.T. cartridges buried in a New Mexico landfill, and the excavation crew who dug them up decades later. A tidy, satisfying myth-busting caper.
But Slighter than King of Kong — one good story stretched to feature length, with less at stake once the shovels come out.
The Toys That Made Us2017
Same producers, same cheerfully irreverent nostalgia-doc formula as High Score, just aimed at Star Wars figures, He-Man and Barbie instead of consoles. Instant comfort watching.
But The tone and structure are nearly identical episode to episode, so it can feel like diminishing returns if you binge it all at once.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Halt and Catch Fire2014
Same pioneer-era tech gold rush High Score romanticizes — but told as fiction, with all the human wreckage the talking-head format leaves out.
A gorgeously written drama about the personal-computing boom, following the rivalries, failures and heartbreaks behind the machines High Score treats as pure triumph.
But It's slow to start, fictional rather than documentary, and trades cheerful nostalgia for genuine grief and burnout.
More like this (7)
The Movies That Made Us2019
The third leg of the nostalgia-doc trilogy, digging into the chaotic productions behind Ghostbusters, Die Hard and Home Alone with the same gossipy, behind-the-curtain energy.
But If you've already watched the toy and game versions, the format's tricks — talking heads, archival stings, jaunty music — start to show.
Nintendo Quest2015no page yet
A collector races against the clock to buy every officially licensed NES game without using the internet — a scrappy, low-budget love letter to cartridge-hunting obsession.
But Rougher production values than the Netflix stuff, and the stakes are entirely self-imposed, which some viewers will find hard to invest in.
Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade2007no page yet
The overlooked cousin of King of Kong — original 1982 Video Game Masters Tournament champions revisit their fifteen minutes of fame, with a melancholy undertow about faded glory.
But Less polished and less widely seen, with a sadder, more reflective mood than the triumphant arc High Score prefers.
Free to Play2014no page yet
Valve's own documentary about the first Dota 2 tournament follows three players chasing a life-changing prize, capturing esports right as it tipped into the mainstream.
But Assumes some familiarity with competitive gaming culture, and the emotional stakes work better if you already care about the players.
Score: A Film Music Documentary2017
Widens the lens from games to the composers shaping mood across all of pop culture — a good companion piece if High Score's chiptune nostalgia left you wanting more on craft.
But It's about film scoring more than games specifically, so the connection is thematic rather than direct.
Free Solo2018
Strip away the code and the joysticks and High Score's real subject is the same one: the human drive to beat an unforgiving system perfectly, once.
Alex Honnold climbs Yosemite's El Capitan without a rope, in a documentary about total, terrifying mastery of a system with no margin for error.
But Zero video games, zero nostalgia, and the vertigo is real — this is tense in a way High Score never even tries to be.
Tron1982
Where High Score remembers the arcade era fondly from decades later, Tron is a snapshot taken from inside the boom — sincere, uncynical, live.
A programmer gets zapped inside a mainframe and fights for his life in a neon gladiator arena — made at the exact moment the arcade craze High Score looks back on was actually happening.
But The plot is thin, the effects are charmingly dated, and it's earnest sci-fi rather than clever documentary storytelling.
People
Cast
Charles MartinetNarrator