The idea of doing a video came up almost together with the song. Back in 1997, while gathering the sounds that would eventually make up Video Computer System, we were stunned by the graphic conciseness of the old Atari games. We all remember those days, when we had to look at a square and imagine it was a basketball or something. But to analyze it after all these years was a very different experience. The composition, the brilliant figurative solutions. It's amazing the way such scant technological possibilities were used to create something so creative and efficient. There were exceptions, sure, but on the whole, we can't deny the pioneering design of the Atari games.
And the idea of the video lingered timidly inside our atonal brains...
3 years later...

Of course, it's needless to say that it all happened a few days from the deadline for the MTV Brasil Video Music Awards 2000 entries.That's when 4 crazy motion graphic designers from Lobo Filmes, a design bureau based in Sao Paulo, Brazil decided to take the challenge.
We hesitantly proposed they developed a music video that reinterpreted some old Atari games, and they fell in love with the idea on the spot.By the time we offered them the job they were already busy working on another music video for a pop group, and they knew that by taking it they would give up their lives completely for at least 15 days. Girlfriends, regular sleeping hours, the movies... it would all be cast aside instead of the videos.
Still they were in.
So, in between sessions of aural punishment from the chanting of said pop group, we started getting together to discuss our video.
After some meetings punctuated by good laughs and phrases such as "no fucking way we're gonna make it on time" we finished the storyboard.

From then on, the Video computer System song began to be scrutinized note by note, sound by sound. Its own structure helped us creating an interesting sequence that also connected with the song. For us, that was essential.
First we faced one of the most fun, and also weird, parts of the proccess: to play as much Atari games as possible, but under a technical perspective, paying attention to the animation, the colors, the shapes, etc.
All this research was made using an Atari emulator for Mac, running more than 500 game titles, one by one.
In the meantime we discussed the settings, costumes, characteres, spaceships, every item that would take part in the animation later. Everything was made on Photoshop, after carefully studying the relations and proportions and comparing the old Atari technology with modern computers.
We finally started animating, trying to keep in mind the style of the old games. All the animation and editing was made on Adobe After Effects.
By then we only had a few hours left to finish the whole thing and take it to MTV Brasil in time for submitting it for the VMB. Of course we spent a couple more nights hard at work listening to that "inovative" pop group, that obviously also wanted to run for the Awards, which made things even more complicated.
At long last, we delivered the video 1 hour before the deadline.

The rest of the story is known to everybody: we were nominated for "best electronic music video" at the MTV Brasil Video Music Awards 2000, competing with the cream of the Brazillian Electronic scene. The nomination itself was surprising enough for us, but actually winning was something totally unexpected. We didn't do any promotion, didn't throw any parties... nothing. And we made it.
Thanks go to the directors Carlos Bêla, Guilherme Marcondes, Mateus de Paula Santos e Mário Sader, to the people who saw the video on MTV and those who got acquainted with Golden Shower thanks to the Internet.
Long live MP3! Long live Lobo!
THANKS!

What about that pop group? Well, they weren't even nominated...
Too bad!