At the beginning of March, I had the opportunity to attend the Omaha Film Festival at the invitation of Tim McVey to watch a showing of Man vs. Snake: The Long & Twisted Tale of Nibbler by Andrew Seklir & Tim Kinzy. It is an opportunity I am glad I was able to participate in.
Man vs. Snake: The Long & Twisted Tale of Nibbler (from here referred to as MvS) tells the tale of Tim McVey and being the first person to set a billion points on a video game. Nibbler was the first game to have a counter that rolled over 999,999,999.
The documentary discusses how Tim decided to set the record and first accomplished it when he was 16. It goes from there to talk about how Enrico Zanetti, from Italy, beat the score, which Tim found out 25 years after the score had been beat, thinking he had held the record all along when it had been Enrico instead.
The documentary covers not only the history of the original record setting events, but Tim and others attempts to achieve or significantly beat the billion points score. It covers the challenges they faced, especially for Tim trying to go after the world record and marathon a game while in his forties. It also covered other Nibbler score contenders, including but not limited to Elijah Hater and Rick Carter.
Many familiar faces from King of Kong are in the movie as well, including Billy Mitchell and Walter Day, which is fitting since Tim set the score in the original Twin Galaxies arcade.
We were told the ninety minute film was created from more than 500 hours of footage shot over several years.
That being said, I thought they told a really good story without there having to be a bad guy to make the story good. This is very different from King of Kong and other documentaries where they needed a bad guy to further the story along. This documentary had several victors and recognized many individuals for their accomplishments.
I enjoyed the movie and I think most gamers, both classic and modern, would appreciate the story and the history behind the movie. I really enjoyed the ending of the movie – when you watch it, be sure to watch it through the credits.
The movie concluded with a Q&A with Tim, his wife Tina, Pat and Glenn from Star Worlds Arcade and Walter Day. A transcription of the Q&A will be available on this site later this week. Trading cards commemorating the event were available for individuals to pick up.
It was also announce that Tim McVey was one of the individuals being inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame in Ottumwa, Iowa, come August.
MvS has won many awards, including but not limited to the Documentary Honorable Mention at the Omaha Film Festival, Jury Award Winner Documentary Best Picture for Fantastic Fest Film Festival 2015 and Twin Cities Film Festival Honorable Mention 2015. This past weekend it also won “Best Documentary Feature” at the Calgary Underground Film Festival.
It should be being released via a distribution deal soon.
You can learn more about Man vs. Snake by visiting their website: http://manvssnake.com/