The Ultimate History of Video Games

[bradjewell]

I'm here at work (Noon till midnight) at Q95FM, and I brought this book along to read. Damn, It's good. I just was wondering if anyone else had opinions on it. I really like the stories they tell about the beginnings of the industry and Nolan. And on a related note, does anyone have a copy of the "outstanding in our field" video.

 

Brad

[christianscott27]

i read that book and really got a lot out of it. in addition to all of the new info i picked up it gave me nice framework to put all of the bits of history i knew into. hopefully someday a book will come out that does better on the 16 bit and on era, that was the only area i found a bit lacking.

[+Cafeman]

I loved that book by Steven Kent. I remember that old Next Generation magazine would sometimes have columns by Kent, these would actually be clips from this book.

 

I actually interviewed Steven Kent a year or two ago for gaming-age. Here's the link, you might find his interview interesting as he talks more about the book and other folks in the industry as well as about himself.

 

http://www.gaming-age.com/cgi-bin/specials...=kent&pagenum=1

[Balloon Fight]

I really love this book, because it gives a ton of history about many of the classics. I love reading about the stories of Eugene Jarvis and Ed Logg.

An excellent read.

[tantone56]

I put the book on my christmas list and my mom and dad said they would get it for me. Has anybody here read the book Arcade Fever by John Sellers? I was wondering how the book is.

[Retro Rogue]

The Ultimate History is a good book with a lot of good info in there, and certainly belongs in anyone's bookcase of course. Unfortunately though, there's also a lot of errors as well - so as with anything else read it for the enjoyment of the feeling of getting behind the scenes of the industry. Don't try and use it as a completely factual reference though. (I'm specifically focusing on the pre-NES history in the book).

 

I had several talks with Steve about it, and he has no way to correct a lot of it. He sold the rights to the book (this is actually the second version) and has no control over it's content now.

[MrRetroGamer]

There are many great books to read about the video game industry. Some are newer releases like Ultimate History by Kent, Phoenix by Lenoard Herman, Supercade by Van Burnham and Arcade Fever by John Sellers. Also try to pick up the reprint of Zap! The Rise and Fall of Atari by Scott Cohen if you can - excellent read.

 

There are also some of the out of print books, mostly strategy guides, that I have in my collection, too many to list. Why not just take a look at the ones I have on my site, and if you have any specific questions I'd be happy to answer them!

 

http://retrogames-r-us.tripod.com/ - choose the Classic and Current Video Game Books link.

[+Cafeman]

Kent said he was really embarassed by some of the errors. Such as putting the wrong guy in as the president of Nintendo, or something. Most of us would catch such errors and obvious typos.

[Famicoman]

I was thinking about geting that book for myself for christmas a;ong with this book High Score, that I was mezmorized with while reading it at borders.

[tantone56]

yeah my parents ordered the book for me for christmas

[Mr.FoodMonster]

I told my mom I wanted it, and because its a book, she will definitly get it for me.

[AtariDude]

I love that book!

 

I liked hearing from the people that were actually involved in the industry and the kind of things that were going on. This is a great book to compliment Leonard Herman's book.

[Zwackery]

Sorry for the reanimation of the thread, but I am curious about two things:

 

1) the "Outstanding in Our Field" video made by the coin-op division - was this ever preserved? released somewhere or still in someone's possession?

 

2) the book of game themes - did this book actually exist within Atari? has any copy ever been (re)produced?