Factsheet
Series:
Let's Play 1001 Games
Based in Toronto, Canada
First Episode:
May 30, 2015
Website:
letsplay1001.com
Press / Business contact:
GamingJay1001@gmail.com
Social:
YouTube.com/GamingJay1001
Twitter.com/GamingJay1001
The Book:
Current Progress:
~250 / 1001 Games Played
Description
One Canadian's quest to play through the book "1001 Games You Must Play Before You Die" before he dies.
History
About JayI’ve been playing video games since I was first introduced to them on my Dad’s Atari 2600. Growing up I played a lot of games on my 286-computer and NES. I was raised on shows like Video and Arcade Top 10 and Electric Playground. I used to dream about being a video game designer, and in my teenager years taught myself BASIC and C++ and then developed a series of small real-time strategy games, RPGs, and Mario-clones that I played with my friends.
These days my interest in games has transformed into playing and discussing them online, primarily through my Let's Play series. My series has also spurred me back into the realm of collecting, and I have been accumulating as many rare and unique controllers and systems as I can. On that point, I have nearly completed a collection of every NES zapper game ever made. And yeah, that's exciting to me!
Whether it’s designing, collecting, playing, or just talking about games, it’s safe to say that I am a gamer, through and through.
In this series I am trying out every game in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. In my videos I aim to capture the feeling of hanging out with a friend on a Saturday and trying an old game for the first time. Each week I pick two random games to play and record the results. While I play, I chat. As I seek to both educate and entertain, for each game I include some history, trivia, discussion, and good humored-nitpicking. Ultimately, I provide my own thoughts on the game in question, and whether I think it is a must-play game.
Thinking more long-term, I play 100 games from the book per year. To complete my quest it will therefore take 10 years plus a day. I intentionally skew toward older games, meaning that although the book includes numerous entries from the 2010's, I don't plan to play many of them until my final years of this series (~2025). In this way, my series will always be geared towards retro games.
To spice things up I also record a companion series called Saturday Afternoon Gaming where I play many iconic and classic games that did NOT make it into the book. This series let's my inject some of my favorite games from the 80's and 90's into my YouTube channel as the book, honestly, leaves a number of classics out. This also helps ensure my channel will always contain a healthy mix of classically retro games.
Years back I was given the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. It's a great coffee table book to just leaf through and reminisce about old games over. I always wondered however, how many people have actually ever played all the games in the book. Eventually, I started to realize that playing through this book sounded like a great premise for a Let's Play series. I looked around on YouTube and indeed, a handful of people had given it a shot, but most of these videos were of low quality, or the creators got started, made a handful of videos, and then just gave up. There were no good Let's Play series for this book.
Realizing the opportunity to do it right, I decided to make the series myself. To keep it realistic, I commit to trying only 2 games per week, resulting in 100 games per year (accounting for a bit of time off). Doing some quick math that results in 100 games done per year. This means that to try every game in the book, will take 10 years (plus a day)! It seems like a crazy commitment, but I've decided to take the plunge and go for it! And it's really as simple as that...
I am a big fan of gaming channels and gaming shows. The idea to even make this series is the result of how much I enjoy watching gaming series on YouTube. Though not every show is still active, my biggest influences over the years (and favourite online shows) are/were Bleep Bloop, HuskyStarcraft, HD Starcraft, The Angry Video Game Nerd, Let’s Drown Out..., and All Your History.
Trailer
What is "Let's Play 1001 Games"? YouTube
Images
There are far more images available for Let's Play 1001 Games, but these are the ones I felt would be most useful to you. If you have specific requests, please do contact me!
Credits
Gaming Jay
Let's Player, Retro Gamer
Contact
Inquiries
GamingJay1001@gmail.com
YouTube
YouTube.com/GamingJay1001
Twitter
Twitter.com/GamingJay1001
presskit() by Rami Ismail (Vlambeer) - also thanks to these fine folks