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Kent reveals.Also, it is an easy read as the style is pleasing and clear. 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.
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 whole text is very U.S. 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. The actual title of the book would have been "The Ultimate History of U.S. Videogames Industry".
No detail is left out. 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. Like other readers suggested, the majority of this book is fantastic and detailed. That's why I still give it 4 stars, because it's really good reading for those interested.
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. 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. 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.
Namco, etc) and prominent figures of today (i.e. It's really hard to get a feel on whether Nolan Bushnell was a genius or simply lucky. 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. 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.
Also detailed is Japan's introduction into the American arcade market, most specifically Nintendo. It's all you want to know about the rise and fall of Atari, and their interwoven relationships with other gaming companies (i.e. Steve Jobs, etc).
The Ultimate History of Video Games is one of those fantastic books that will keep you awake and you will have a hard time putting down. I have read it at least 5 times and am getting ready to get a clean new copy. Some books like Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years (Carl Sandburg) are fantastic books, but will quickly put you to sleep. If I had to choose between reading this book or playing a video game, I would read this book. And when you do put it down you will find yourself reaching for it often. That is something to say about such a large book. It is fun, exciting, and never boring. At the time I picked it up, I figured it might be ok.
Ultimately, Kent provides the reader with a wealth of research and interviews, warranting the 4-star rating given by this reviewer. Kent's "History" is more a history of the business decisions and financial climates under which the gaming industry thrived and suffered and much less an account of the particular games, game designers, and technological breakthroughs that marked the milestones in the progression of the art form. While Kent steers clear of pandering to the hardcore gamer crowd in this volume, he also proves to lack deep or unique insights into the nature of the Video Game form. TUHOVG is a long and intriguing book that covers the earliest interactive computer experiments and progresses pseudo-chronologically through each major movement up to the start of the new millennium. The account provided for the early years of gaming is particularly detailed and well crafted while the details on gaming history post-80's lacks the same luster.
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