Category: (Book)
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Inside the Games You Grew Up with but Never Forgot
With all the whiz, bang, pop, and shimmer of a glowing arcade.
The Ultimate History of Video Games reveals everything you
ever wanted to know and more about the unforgettable games that
changed the world, the visionaries who made them, and the fanatics
who played them. From the arcade to television and from the PC to
the handheld device, video games have entraced kids at heart for
nearly 30 years. And author and gaming historian Steven L. Kent has
been there to record the craze from the very beginning.
This engrossing book tells the incredible tale of how this backroom
novelty transformed into a cultural phenomenon. Through meticulous
research and personal interviews with hundreds of industry
luminaries, you'll read firsthand accounts of how yesterday's games
like Space Invaders, Centipede, and Pac-Man helped
create an arcade culture that defined a generation, and how today's
empires like Sony, Nintendo, and Electronic Arts have galvanized a
multibillion-dollar industry and a new generation of games. Inside,
you'll discover:
·The video game that saved Nintendo from bankruptcy
·The serendipitous story of Pac-Man's design
·The misstep that helped topple Atari's $2 billion-a-year
empire
·The coin shortage caused by Space Invaders
·The fascinating reasons behind the rise, fall, and rebirth of
Sega
·And much more!
Entertaining, addictive, and as mesmerizing as the games it
chronicles, this book is a must-have for anyone who's ever touched
a joystick.
Pretty good, but expected moreReviewed by R. Pope, 2009-09-09
This bood was pretty good and probably has a place in my library. It had a lot of interesting facts and wa a fairly complete history. I am a real classic video game nut, though. I would have liked to have seen more picures - there really did not seem to be much effort at illustration.
DéçuReviewed by L. Faverie, 2009-08-28
Très peu de visuels (quasiment pas en fait), et le propos est centré à 80% sur Atari (qui ne représente pas 80% du jeux vidéo !). Le livre est pas mal mais très loin d'être la référence "ultimate" auquelle je m'attendais. Déçu.
Terrific BookReviewed by Robert M. Fleischman, 2009-06-29
This is an accurate, in-depth, and complete review of the great
history of video games. Being a 80's video game junkie, it was
wonderful to hear the details Mr. Kent reveals.
Also, it is an easy read as the style is pleasing and clear.
A somewhat lacking history of videogames industryReviewed by Emiliano Sciarra, 2009-05-27
The actual title of the book would have been "The Ultimate History
of U.S. Videogames Industry". The whole text is very U.S. and Japan
centered, while Europe is almost absent: Acorn, Rainbow Arts and
Infogrames, just to name few, are not even cited, while Sinclair
and ZX Spectrum deserve three lines of text on the overall 500
pages.
The point of view is extremely focused on Atari, Nintendo and Sega:
Mattel Intellivision is dismissed in less than three pages, Philips
VideoPac is completely non-existent.
Many ground-breaking all-time classics are not present at all:
Galaga, Moon Patrol, Dig Dug, Tomb Raider, Sid Meier's
Civilization, Elite, SimCity, Command & Conquer, Quake...
Interactive Fiction is ignored altogether: even Infocom's "Zork" is
nonchalantly bypassed despite its million copies sold.
The book is very well documented on various trials between industry
firms, which may or may not interest the reader: but again, this is
the history of the industry, not of videogames themselves: for
this, you have to definitely look elsewhere.
Awesome chronicle of gaming history (at least up until around
1995).Reviewed by J. Puckett, 2009-03-04
While I was never an arcade rat (born in 1981), I can remember
playing on an Atari 2800, and the love for console gaming has never
ceased. It had been a goal of mine to finally pick up video games
history book, and this is the one I chose.
Before writing this review, I read through a few others to see if
anyone shared my views, and they have. Like other readers
suggested, the majority of this book is fantastic and detailed.
It's all you want to know about the rise and fall of Atari, and
their interwoven relationships with other gaming companies (i.e.
Namco, etc) and prominent figures of today (i.e. Steve Jobs, etc).
Also detailed is Japan's introduction into the American arcade
market, most specifically Nintendo. No detail is left out. I loved
reading about the work atmosphere of early Atari, how they made
more money than they knew what to do with in such a short amount of
time, and the crucial decisions they made early on to advance the
arcade and home video game market. It's really hard to get a feel
on whether Nolan Bushnell was a genius or simply lucky. Also great
were the risks that Nintendo made to break into the American
market, along with their determined positioning behind the team of
Arakawa and Lincoln.
However, when you get up to around the mid-1990's, the book falters
tremendously based on what came before it. The last decade of video
game history up to this book's publishing isn't well represented
with the behind-the-scenes info that you've become used to from
early in the book. Like someone else said in their review, it felt
rushed, but it also felt as if the author wasn't anywhere near as
well versed about recent happenings in the industry. You'll realize
quickly that when you get to the launch of the original Playstation
and Saturn, you've only got 2 or 3 chapters to go.
While I wouldn't call this the "ultimate" history because of the
lack of detail in more recent times, it definitely is the ultimate
history of video games from their inception up to the 16-bit era.
That's why I still give it 4 stars, because it's really good
reading for those interested.
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