- Joined
- Sep 29, 2022
This topic I'm surprised doesn't exist yet (and I had considered putting it in a different subforum) but it's about video game books, and not strategy guides, but either reference guides, history, etc. about video games. With that there were a few I wanted to discuss.
Masters of Doom by David Kushner - Well-written, informative book on the history of DOOM and id Software. I found it interesting that it can be sympathetic to Romero and Carmack while also making you wonder which one was the bigger douchebag. (By now, Romero 100%, but in the book Carmack, either because of his upbringing or being clearly on the spectrum, comes off as sociopathic).
The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven Kent - Until it was republished as "Ultimate History of Video Games Vol. 1" (and a sequel published) this was a bit outdated but it went over a lot of the early 80s/90s history of video games but mostly through various vignettes of Atari, Nintendo, and Sega, but edited in a way that it feels cohesive enough and a history of the industry. Personally I preferred Rusel DeMaria's High Score! but that could just be the nostalgia talking.
Console Wars by Blake Harris - A history of Sega during the Sega Genesis days. It seems to be heavily based on interviews from Tom Kalinske, who is the "hero" of the book though it does admit that the former Mattel executive could've just been in the right place at the right time.
High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games by Rusel DeMaria - Sadly out of print these days (a third edition was planned but never officially released--long story) and out of date (published 2002, even the second edition doesn't update any of the original stuff, just adds sections on European and Japanese games). Still, it had an impressive overview of any console or company's games, complete with box art (most of which was from MobyGames, but whatever).
Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4 by Daniel Johnson - I have no idea what to make of this. Is it an elaborate joke, or just autistic? It feels like they wanted to write a strategy guide but instead overexplains every single part of the game.
Boss Fight Books: EarthBound by Ken Baumann - I wouldn't say "somewhat familiar with" since I wasn't aware of it until a few days ago but I included this because I was intrigued by the idea of a series of books, each written about a single game, so I downloaded a copy to see what it was about. I have no idea what MovieBob's book is like but I imagine like it's this one...using the game as a framing device while going into long personal anecdotes that are both self-indulgent and off-putting, including being born through wife-swapping, a super-gay local theater production of a Shakespeare play, sperging about the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and engaging in all sorts of hedonistic behavior (it makes more sense when you remember he's an actor--though other than being a main character in The Secret Life of the American Teenager has only been in bit parts and other films so obscure they lack Wikipedia articles).
Those are the only ones I can think of right now that aren't more specialized toward a particular console or genre.
Masters of Doom by David Kushner - Well-written, informative book on the history of DOOM and id Software. I found it interesting that it can be sympathetic to Romero and Carmack while also making you wonder which one was the bigger douchebag. (By now, Romero 100%, but in the book Carmack, either because of his upbringing or being clearly on the spectrum, comes off as sociopathic).
The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven Kent - Until it was republished as "Ultimate History of Video Games Vol. 1" (and a sequel published) this was a bit outdated but it went over a lot of the early 80s/90s history of video games but mostly through various vignettes of Atari, Nintendo, and Sega, but edited in a way that it feels cohesive enough and a history of the industry. Personally I preferred Rusel DeMaria's High Score! but that could just be the nostalgia talking.
Console Wars by Blake Harris - A history of Sega during the Sega Genesis days. It seems to be heavily based on interviews from Tom Kalinske, who is the "hero" of the book though it does admit that the former Mattel executive could've just been in the right place at the right time.
High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games by Rusel DeMaria - Sadly out of print these days (a third edition was planned but never officially released--long story) and out of date (published 2002, even the second edition doesn't update any of the original stuff, just adds sections on European and Japanese games). Still, it had an impressive overview of any console or company's games, complete with box art (most of which was from MobyGames, but whatever).
Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4 by Daniel Johnson - I have no idea what to make of this. Is it an elaborate joke, or just autistic? It feels like they wanted to write a strategy guide but instead overexplains every single part of the game.
Boss Fight Books: EarthBound by Ken Baumann - I wouldn't say "somewhat familiar with" since I wasn't aware of it until a few days ago but I included this because I was intrigued by the idea of a series of books, each written about a single game, so I downloaded a copy to see what it was about. I have no idea what MovieBob's book is like but I imagine like it's this one...using the game as a framing device while going into long personal anecdotes that are both self-indulgent and off-putting, including being born through wife-swapping, a super-gay local theater production of a Shakespeare play, sperging about the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and engaging in all sorts of hedonistic behavior (it makes more sense when you remember he's an actor--though other than being a main character in The Secret Life of the American Teenager has only been in bit parts and other films so obscure they lack Wikipedia articles).
Those are the only ones I can think of right now that aren't more specialized toward a particular console or genre.
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