Long-lost footage from the E3 2000 event has emerged thanks to the Video Game History Foundation. And it’s as retro and cool as you’d hope for!
To best orient yourself and prepare for the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) footage, you must remember what the video game scene looked like back in 2000 at the time of the event.
The E3 2000 event took place in May, and many of the major players in video game entertainment were present.
That includes Nintendo, Sony, Sega, Blizzard, Capcom, SNK, Activision, Namco, Sierra, Konami, Bethesda, Fox Interactive, LucasArts, Midway, Ubisoft and many many more.
The event was quite Sony and SEGA heavy, with Microsoft’s Xbox and Nintendo’s GameCube both being prepared for the eminent 2001 release.
The Sony Playstation 2 had just released in Japan, but had not yet hit the North American market. So this was also a focus of the event. And Sega’s Dreamcast had released two years prior and was in the peak of its popularity.
There were over 45 thousand people in attendance during the three day event, all of whom were were hungry for new video games.
And always, E3 absolutely delivered with style!
E3 2000 Footage
The new footage from E3 2000 is nearly two and a half hours long. And it begins from the Los Angeles Ritz-Carlton hotel room of the person documenting the exciting event.
The footage recorded by a friend and co-worker of Mark Flitman from NuFX is just awesome. You might know Mark as the producer of titles like Wolverine: Adamantium Rage, Virtual Bart and Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage, all for the Sega Mega Drive.
Their ties with Sega would certainly be reason enough to attend the event, if not as fans of video games in general. They were technically there for business, but that didn’t stop them from having fun!
The footage then continues to the Los Angeles Convention Center, where we spotted things like a Game Boy Color booth, Homer and Lisa Simpson mascots, Lara Croft, some aliens, a BMX halfpipe promoting Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX, and a buff dude in some incredible Duke Nukem cosplay.
Of course, there were a ton of developing video games being previewed, and you’ll have to watch the full video to see which ones you can catch.
A few notable favorites – Pokemon Silver for the Game Boy Color, a big Spyro the Dragon whose titular game was PS1 exclusive at the time, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, Chrono Cross, some sweet Warcraft III statues, and Half-Life.
Just Go Watch It!
We found it very difficult to narrow down which games, character appearances, and studio booths to mention in this summary of this long-lost 2000 E3 footage.
The two and a half hour footage is jam packed with so many classics, as well as some never before seen footage of games that never saw a release date.
This video is a wonderful capsule of retro video game history, and it was truly an enjoyable watch.
If you’re a fan of retro video games, we highly recommend that you take the time to watch the full video on the Video Game History Foundation Youtube channel.
