The Gaming Historian

My entertainment highlight of the year has unquestionably been my discover of the Gaming Historian. Norm Caruso, who goes by the moniker Gaming Historian on twitter and youtube, has put together my favorite youtube channel ever.

I first discovered Caruso's channel during my quest to beat Super Mario Bros. 2. I couldn't figure out a way past a portion of a level in the last world, and so was watching a few Let's Plays to see how other people handled that particular section. In the side bar I saw that one of the recommended videos was for a video about the story of Super Mario Bros. 2. Being a fan of documentaries, and a fan of video games, I decided to check it out.

I was hooked.

I spent the next several weeks watching recommended video after recommended video, until I was getting no more recommended videos which I had not yet seen. Then I subscribed to his channel, went into the channel, and discovered that there were several dozen more that I not been able to watch yet! I can now say that I've seen them all, that the vast majority of them are very good, and a few are among the most thorough and well produced documentaries that I have seen, especially considering the budget on which they are operated.

So what is the Gaming Historian? It's basically a channel run by Caruso, in which he chooses lesser known and historically important developments in gaming history, games, systems, and other topics that are more peripherally related to video games, and creates little documentaries about them. In these, he explains things like, where did the game come from? Who made it? Was it successful? Why is this important to the history of video games? What other impacts might this subject have had outside of the world of video games?

Watching them in chronological order, I can say that the series started off very well (a brief documentary about the NES Top Loader), and has only progressed in quality since that point. While his documentaries were, at the beginning, anywhere from 5-10 minutes, he has since begun to produce videos that, at times, exceed a half an hour in length. And the production quality on the videos has vastly improved, showing a dedication not only to the historical craft and a love for video games, but also an increasing set of skills in video editing, script writing, and sound production. The videos are meticulously researched, decidedly reasonable in their conclusions, and aesthetically pleasing. Perhaps even more importantly, Caruso's genuine love for video games as art, and as important history, shines through in each riveting second.

To give you a sense for just how excellent these videos are, my wife has recently begun watching them with me, and she loves them a lot too. This is particularly remarkable because save for a few nostalgic ties to game played with her family when she was younger, she has next to no interest in video games. For her to appreciate the artistic craft and dedication on a subject for which she has little affinity shows the high quality at which Caruso operates.

My two favorite episodes are fairly recent. One covers an incredibly larger than life lawsuit between Tengen and Nintendo, which I'd highly recommend to anyone interested in video games, copyright law, or just plain old good story telling! The next is a hilarious April Fools day video he published under the facetious moniker "Normogatari", which discusses the satirical theory that Toad (from the Mario series) is actually dead. This video showcases the talent of Caruso, as he pulls off comedy and satire as well as his documentaries.

Anyway, check out the Gaming Historian, and I'm looking forward to the next Gaming Historian video launching! It's been teased that it's about Super Mario RPG, one of my personal favorite SNES games, so I'm pretty pumped.

I'd give Gaming Historian a 10/10, as the pinnacle of youtube perfection.

-TRO