Elon Musk Gives His Rushmore Of The World's Greatest Video Games | Rushmore On X

Introductions and Rushmore origins

00:00Welcome to the show. This is Mount Rushmore video games. We're going to have Bobby Kodic and Elon [music] Musk. Of course, Ben and I. Rushmore started actually with Elon, Ben, myself, and my wife Stodd. We were in Greece. Stood goes to Elon. I think Ben asked me, "What would you do for your last meal if it was your last meal?" It was a bunch of answers. >> Mine was uh Lamboise. That's right. >> On divorce in Paris. >> In Paris. Yeah. >> Shake Shack. Mine's Shake Shack. >> Okay. [laughter] A solid pick. A solid pick. Honestly, Shake Shack is underrated. >> You can you can never go wrong. >> I I've honestly never regretted a meal from Shake Shack. [laughter] >> So, from that that it evolved into

00:40Rushmore. >> I mean, I mean, you're pretty funny for like carving meals into the side of a mountain, you know? >> I guarantee you Mount Rushmore would make a lot more money if they had a Shake Shack at the bottom. [laughter] >> Exactly. >> Yeah. So, one of the things we do, but I don't think we need to do it with the two of you, is for you two to introduce each other, but I don't think Elon needs any introduction. No disrespect, Bobby. Bobb's Bobby. He ran Activision, just sold it. As we're planning this, one of the funniest text exchanges when Bobby threatens Elon, you couldn't handle 24 hours of retirement, which Bobby has gone through, and Elon laughs hysterically on the text exchange. I thought that was fantastic. So, this is

01:21a conversation about uh video games. >> No, I don't play like Eli. He >> There's nobody who plays like Eli. >> More serious video game player. He actually should own Blizzard. Like, like >> that's probably true. I do love video games. Um, and when people ask me what do I spend my, you know, nonwork time on, I said, well, first of all, I probably work every day, uh, seven days a week. But, uh, >> at 3 in the morning, what do you do? >> Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Like u I my my hobbies are sort of spending time with friends and family and video games. Um and then you that's it's probably not like the sexiest thing to say, you know. In fact, I was looking at some list of things that turn women off the most and

Musk's gaming habits and first games

02:03one is if your hobby is video games. [laughter] >> What was the first one you ever played? Do you remember? >> I mean, I was a little kid. Um, it was this pre-tari game which had like uh basically Pong and a racing game. It didn't even have cartridges. It just had like four games that were built in. >> Do you know what that was, Bobby? >> Yeah, let's think about it. So, the Magnavox Odyssey, >> maybe that was it. >> Magnavox Odyssey came I I think it was with four games, but I don't remember >> who owned that company. >> Magnavox was owned by Phillips of the Netherlands. >> Got it. Those were all 6502, you know, one megahertz processor games that like that's what I started playing too is Apple 2 games and Atari 2600

02:50games. >> And Elon, had you played all his games on Activision? >> I played a lot of games. So, I mean, there's Activision makes a lot of games, so I haven't played them all, but I played uh a number of them. Played the Call of Duty series from the beginning. I didn't look. I should have looked your KD ratio, but [laughter] >> do you know what it is, Elon? >> No, but I mean I'm pretty good at video games. You know, when Quake first came out and was multiplayer and there there was a what I was told was the first paid esports tournament in the US. >> How old were you? >> So, I was probably 23, 24 or something like that. >> Okay. >> My like final semester in undergrad, I spent more time playing Quake than I did

Quake esports tournament story

03:26all my classes. >> [laughter] >> There was some startup that was trying to make esports, paid esports, uh, a thing in like 96 or 97 and they they held a paid tournament. Uh, so four person teams. Um, I was the second best person on the team. >> Who was first? >> The guy who later became out CIO. >> How much money did you make? >> I I think like $5,000, something like that. >> Were they all kids you met playing online or did they go to school with Did Brandon go to school with you? >> Actually, I'm not sure how I met Brandon. might have met him playing Quake and then he later became uh the sort of chief information officer of my company. [laughter] >> That's wild. All right, Elon, what's your four on Rushmore?

Musk's Rushmore picks

04:06>> I guess I'd probably have to put Quake up there. >> Okay, >> I would too, actually. I mean, I didn't say it, but I think Doom and Quake were the most transformative games from a multiplayer perspective. >> I never played it. >> I played Doom. I never played Quake. >> All right, keep on going. And these things obviously have to be evaluated against the time that they were. >> Okay. Okay. Stop qualifying. Just keep on. Let's let's see the other three, please. >> I think HalfLife 2 is an amazing game. Bioshock. DSX. >> I don't know that game at all. Sorry. Do you know that game? >> No. >> That should absolutely be like a a TV series or a movie or something. That's >> When did it come out? >> 20 years ago, maybe. No, more than 20

Deus Ex plot discussion

04:46years ago. >> Who made it? >> Ion Storm. >> Yeah, Iron Storm. >> What's the concept of the game? It's some of the best writing and and and one of the most interesting plots of any any game. [music] Uh it takes it takes a minute to explain. It is funny in that it in the game they use a a sort of an an engineered bio bioweapon virus to cause massive fear in the population so that the population demands a lockdown. [laughter] >> Keep on going. >> Yeah. I'm like, wait a second. This sounds Wait, this sounds familiar. So So there's an engineered boweapon that terrifies the population and uh and and and the government is the only one with the cure and then but there's a limited amount. And so out of fear, the

05:37population demands lockdown and demands martial law. >> Wow. >> And then control over the world is is given to the UN security forces. I mean, I'm I'm doing some some plot spoilers here if you [laughter] but I guess we can do a few plot spoilers, but it turns out that the head of the UN security forces was the one who engineered the virus >> for power. >> Exactly. So, you say like how do you let's say you work backwards from you want to get absolute power somehow. Well, you put yourself in charge of the rescue forces and then you create the the the crisis >> that makes you in power. >> Yes. and and then people actually demand that you you take power um because you've got the because to to deal with

06:21the crisis and you've got the cure. >> But what character do you play in the game? >> You play this guy JC Denton who is you start off as part of the UN security forces. It turns out you're sort of a biological experiment and you can get all the these uh cyberware adaptations to enhance your abilities. So, as you go through the game, you get these like various cyberware implants to enhance your abilities. And then as you progress, you just you think you're working for the it starts off you think you're working for the good guys >> and you realize >> Yeah. And and you've got to stop these these terrorists who are trying to undermine the UN security forces. >> Bobby, did you ever play this game?

John Romero, Ion Storm and Warren Spector

06:58>> Uh but you know what? When it came out, I mean, you know, I tried it. >> Had you owned Activision at the time? >> Yeah. John Romero, you know, we had worked with ID for a long time. He left it. He started Iron Storm, but the guy who wrote that, his name Warren Spectre. >> Yeah, Warren Spectre is excellent. It's a very thoughtful plot and and um dialogue. It's it's it's very clever. >> He lives in Austin. Like I think he teaches >> I should say hi to him or something. >> Yeah. Everyone was surprised because nobody thought that Romero could come up with a great game after ID and he did. >> But ID's not on your guys list. >> Well, ID is Quake and Doom. >> Oh, yeah. That's what Yeah. >> Oddly, John Romero

John Carmack and rocketry

07:39used the money that he made from ID to start an aerospace company called Arvar Aerospace >> or Armadillo. >> Oh, yeah. Armandillo. [laughter] >> And I wasn't always sure. He wanted to launch somebody into orbit, but I don't think he cared if they came back. >> I mean, John Com is actually a good friend of mine, and we've been friends for a long time. John Comx is really one of the world's best engineers, but he he kind of likes kind of likes being a lone wolf. >> Isn't he working on an AI program now? >> Yeah, but he's he he he doesn't want to manage a company or anything like that is my understanding. >> He left Facebook and now he started his AI company by himself, his own AI company. >> Yeah, he made a huge contribution to

08:18Oculus, making Oculus successful, but then wanted to just do his own thing. But John and I see each other, you know, every month or two. He comes down for launches at Starbase. He's very he's very knowledgeable about rocket technology. So John and I comic and I can have very in-depth discussions about rocket engineering. >> Yeah. I mean he started it like in a little warehouse, but you know he he's he was probably the most capable graphic programmer that >> ever >> I ever knew. >> Yeah, he might be. Yeah, >> he's definitely on Rushmore. >> He'd be on Rushmore programmers. Yeah, >> absolutely. He's he's incredibly talented. There's a guy named Peter Pike Sloan who is like in that category, but

Diablo and Polytopia addiction

09:00very few people like that. >> All right, so we now have two Rushmore. Well, I got a question on both Rushmore. I think Elon, all of your Rushmore are FPS. >> No, didn't you say Diablo? >> I mean, I only have four, so I probably put Diablo I on Rushmore. If we're speaking about actual time allocated, like right in the past uh year or so, the game I've played the most is Diablo 4. >> So, let's look at the screen time for the truth. Uh, screen time. Screen time. Don't lie. >> Over the game you introduced Ben to. >> Oh, Poltopia. I had to stop playing Poltopia. Yeah. I think I finally got like like ELO up around like 1609 or 1614, something like that. >> Jesus. >> That's a crazy number. >> It is a crazy number. But the I started

09:42seeing Poltopia when I closed my eyes. I [laughter] would close my eyes and I'd see the Poltopia. >> I deleted it from my phone. I had to delete it from my phone. >> Exactly. So I had to delete it from my phone. >> The most addicting game. Bobby, have you ever played this game? >> I didn't play it. I know. You know, a lot of >> They tried to explain it to me. It was way out of my league. >> Strategy games were not my thing, but everybody like my friends who are real gamers all love Poltopia. And but it is completely timeconuming. >> The final straw was like I was at my friend's birthday party. Great birthday party and all I could see was the Poltopia board. >> Didn't you beat the guy that made the

10:19game? >> Oh, Felix. Yeah. [laughter] >> That's so funny. the the win to loss ratio is about even between me and and Felix. So, he's he's quite a good player or he'll say he's not a good player, but he is he is a good player. >> You got up to the fifth in the best in the world, right? At one point. >> Well, I mean, at one point I I I did get [laughter] I was number one on the leaderboard. >> So many hours of Polytopia. >> Yes. So, that's why I had to delete it. Yeah. [music] Heat. [music] Heat.