Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time

Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time

by: Bill Loguidice, Matt Barton List Price: $34.95 Amazon.com's Price: $23.07 You Save: $11.88 (34%) as of 11/22/2009 01:57 EST Used Price: $28.96 Third Party New Price: $19.06 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 794.8 EAN: 9780240811468 ISBN: 0240811461 Label: Focal Press Manufacturer: Focal Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 408 Publication Date: March 04, 2009 Publisher: Focal Press Studio: Focal Press Features: ISBN13: 9780240811468 Condition: NEW Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices Related Items: Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System (Platform Studies) Arcade Mania: The Turbo-charged World of Japan's Game Centers The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon--The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-playing Games The Rough Guide to Videogames 1 (Rough Guide Reference) see more Alternate Versions: Click to Display Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: Vintage Games explores the most influential videogames of all time, including Super Mario Bros., Grand Theft Auto III, Doom, The Sims and many more. Drawing on interviews as well as the authors' own lifelong experience with videogames, the book discusses each game's development, predecessors, critical reception, and influence on the industry. It also features hundreds of full-color screenshots and images, including rare photos of game boxes and other materials. Vintage Games is the ideal book for game enthusiasts and professionals who desire a broader understanding of the history of videogames and their evolution from a niche to a global market. *Explores the gameplay, history, development, and influence of the most important videogames of all time *Includes material from interviews, contemporary reviews, manuals, and other primary and secondary sources *Identifies and analyzes the key concepts behind each videogame *Features hundreds of exclusive, full-color images Customer Reviews Average Rating: Rating: - Perfect introductory book about games! This is the perfect introductory book about games i've read yet. It connects the dots and draws interesting parallels with modern games which keeps it relevant & interesting. This is what makes it more than just a book about game "nostalgia". It also focuses on little known computer classics, which is nice. A very enjoyable read. Rating: - Video game lineages Bought this title on an impulse and haven't even used the "look inside the book" button here at Amazon. I thought at first that the book would be more game designer centric, dealing with technical, mechanical and structural details of the games. Rather than that the book is focused with the lineage of each game. By lineage I mean that the book tries to follow the branches that influenced more games later in time. As in biology, some branches were filled with leafs, while others whithered and died. So each chapter deals with the games that left some heritage after them. Unfortunately some chapters are really less inspired than others. The chapter explaining the roots of the stealth games (Metal Gear and the like) are superbly written while others are less so. Sometimes it feels you're just reading a huge list of titles, with no further contextualization. Another issue the layout of some pages. The pictures are beautiful and huge, but the text wrapping the pictures has no logical flow. You're reading a paragraph and then the rest of the text goes to the end of another page. Better pictures should be used too. The chapter on racing games really lacks the pictures from the arcade machines they described. All in all a good work of archeology, but requires a little furnishing to be used as tool for the aspiring game designer looking for the inner workings of the great games of yore. Rating: - Will bring lots of great memories flooding back I thoroughly recommend this book. It is great for a trip down memory lane. Each chapter takes a classic game as it's starting point and then discusses it in historical context including the games that influenced it's creation and later games that used it for inspiration. There are a lot of full colour photos that really add to the experience. 25 classic games are covered in the book (Zork, Diablo, Sim City, Ultima, Doom, Space Invaders, Pac Man etc etc) and the authors also run a brilliant vintage game website where they have posted links to bonus chapters (Defender, Pong, Elite, Tony Hawks). Check out the book and their website you won't regret it. Rating: - Interesting Wow, this is a great book, something I guess people call a real page turner. Glossy pages with full color photos. I love the progression from the begining of a type of game (think say, Karate Champ) to its logical progression. There is an abundance of screenshots (I wont say overabundance, you can never have enough!), and its so cool to see some classic arcade games show. The chapter 14 / pole position was one of my fav chapters in the book. Rating: - Scholarly, Nostalgic and Fun! An Instant Classic! "Vintage Games" is a surprisingly comprehensive, scholarly, fun, and informative work on subject of video games, which is a subject not taken too seriously by the general public. And when I say "scholarly," I don't mean it in a boring sense, because the book is anything but; it is a refreshingly adult and entertaining treatise on the games in question, and of their impact on "our" generation. The first thing that struck me about the book is the quality of the book's layout. The book is very slickly produced, printed on glossy pages with plenty of crisp, colorful images throughout the book. The images range from video gameplay screen captures, game box covers, classic game advertisements, and an occasional hardware photograph. There are images on nearly every page, and often more than one image on a page! Even the humble "Space Invader" book cover, which looks rather plain in the Amazon cover image sample, pops with color and class when seen in real life. I must say, I wasn't expecting much, presentation-wise, from the book, so I was more than pleasantly surprised at the slick layout and color of the book! The next thing I found intriguing was the scholarly, in-depth focus of the writing. The authors take the subject seriously, explaining the historical and cultural significance of the games covered in each chapter. The writing is crisp, informative, adult, and scholarly, but not without an occasional dry witticism that will have "in-the-know" readers chuckling. I would quote some humorous examples, but that would spoil some of the fun. :-) The book is not funny overall, so the occasional humor was appreciated. Although the book officially covers only 26 "influential" games, many, MANY more games are mentioned in the book, either as precursors to the "influential" game, or as "offspring" of the influential game in question. For example, the "Street Fighter II" chapter mentions classic games such as "The Bilestoad," "Karate Champ," "Double Dragon," "Yie Ar Kung Fu," "Virtua Fighter, "Super Smash Bros." and "Karateka," among others, that were influential towards, or influenced by, "Street Fighter II." And the "John Madden Football" chapter covers a serious history of nearly ALL sports videogames, be it Football, Soccer, Baseball,Basketball, or Boxing, again, with plenty of photos of the games in question. Some of the most interesting chapters are actually about games I haven't really played or didn't like! For example, the chapters on "MYST" and "Castle Wolfenstein" gave me new insights and a new appreciation for these games, so much so that I am tempted to play them again just to see if my impressions have changed. Most of the all-time favorite games are covered: Tetris, Pac Man, Super Mario, Street Fighter II, Ultima, Sim City, Final Fantasy, etc. are all covered with full chapters. And many old-time favorites (computer, arcade, and concole favorites) are at least mentioned in passing, adding to the fun and nostalgia factor. "Hey, I played that game!" I found myself thinking as I read about the games mentioned (often with accompanying photographs of the games)! I do have some minor complaints about the book, but these complaints were not enough to bring down my five-star rating, considering how deeply the book covers its subject matter. First of all, the book is softcover; I prefer hardcover books. The book is not poorly bound, it's just.... softcover. I admit it's a nitpicky concern, but I am well-known for falling asleep while reading, and I'd hate to think that my face rolling around on the book could damage it. :-) Secondly, the book is occasionally biased against those who might find some aspects of videogaming disturbing or dangerous. In the "Grand Theft Auto" chapter, for example, the authors casually dismiss the opponents of these notoriously violent and amoral games as "concerned but uninformed citizens." While not surprising, I would have liked to see a bit more of the "other side" of the argument, even though I've played and enjoyed several of the GTA games. I admit that such a subject could take up an entire book in and of itself, so I'll forgive the book on this one. It's beyond the scope of a book such as this to cover such territory. Finally, the book has many references to "bonus chapters" that are only available (for free) online at armchairarcade.com/vintagegames. They are not included in the book itself. I think the idea of "bonus chapters" is a cool one, but occasionally the book makes references to online bonus chapters that don't currently (as of this writing) exist yet. I want to read those chapters! I consider these "criticisms" to be extremely minor in comparison to the overall quality and enjoyment the book provides. I doubt that any of these "minor" criticisms will hamper the reader's overall enjoyment of this otherwise spectacular ... Read More see more