Rating: 
Summary: Great History, Sometimes Hard To Follow
Review: At 27, I grew up fascinated with video games at the Arcade and at Home (2600, et al.). My friends and I had arguments, Atari vs. Coleco vs. Intellivision, and it was all a lot of fun!
When I heard about this book, I couldn't wait to read it. Now that I've completed it, I can say that it's a great overview of the early years.
However, it falls short when talking about the most recent years of video game history. In addition, the book starts off with a good base of chronological chapters, but about half-way through it starts to get confusing; jumping back and forth, sometimes forcing you to revisit earlier chapters to re-learn the characters.
Again, having said all that, it's a GREAT read. I do hope that a new addition will come out, perhaps a second edition, with updated chapters on the recent video game machines (DreamCast, PS2, GameCube, and XBox), and a revision of some of the interior chapters.
Rating:
Summary: A word from the author
Review: I want to thank the people who were so kind in their reviews. The First Quarter has been re-released as The Ultimate History of Video Games by Prima Publishing. This new version of the book includes an additional chapter, a time line, the oft-requested index, additional art, and above all--PROFESSIONAL EDITING. As stated in many reviews, The First Quarter suffered from my lack of editing skills. I self-published that book. While my writing skills may be questionable, my editing abilities are indisputably bad. Finally, I want to thank the people who bought my book and read it. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing my enthusiasm for video games.
Rating: 
Summary: De Facto Standard
Review: I've been reading Steven Kent's articles in Next Generation magazine for a few years, patiently waiting for his book to come out. As soon as it was released, I purchased it and read it the next weekend. All I can say is I enjoyed the interviews, articles and historical information so much it inspired me to write a paper on the history of video game heroes for my Business Communications course! Good work!
Rating:
Summary: An Impressive Work
Review: If you read NextGen, you're familiar with Steven Kent's column, which talks about the history of video games. The columns were, I suspect, re-worked fragments from this book. Surprisingly, the book is a page-turner, but I love video games. The book is over 460 pages - I was convinced much of it was filler so the publishers could feel good about the cover price. I was wrong. I read and enjoyed every page. The book starts with pinball, with which of late, I've become fascinated (perhaps because today's arcades are so dull). Though I was peripherally aware of the pinball's dark image, which spilled onto video games in the '70's, The First Quarter documents how the industry began with pinball and grew into video games with an impressive amount of anecdotal accounts from people who helped shape the industry. The book isn't without problems, though. As you read it, you're thrown about, forward and backward through time as the author occasionally branches from a linear timeline to a topical approach requiring the timeline to be reset. Also, the book is shaped by who gives the anecdotes -- there's a lot of coverage for Nintendo and Atari, but less for 3D0 and SEGA. While some coverage of EA exists, the PC game industry is largely ignored. (I would enjoy reading a book about the PC game industry.) I got a surprising amount of information from the book. For example, I always thought Ray Kassar was the programmer for Yar's Revenge, but he was the general manager for Atari. Atari programmers, by and large, got no credit, hence the Adventure egg. It was some programmer who named Yar's Revenge as a play on Kassar getting revenge of Activision. The programmer apparently told a marketing manager Kassar was in on the joke and the name could not be changed, though that wasn't the case. Also, the success of the early console systems were dependent upon the retail channels they could gain and convincing retailers to carry new-fangled home video games wasn't easy. I'd recommend the book to anyone who loves video games or has even a casual interest in the video game industry.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting story
Review: In this book, Kent describes the history of the american game market. Therefore, the title is a little wrong. It should be 'A 25-year History of Video Games in America' instead. However, once you realise this, it is a very good book. Kent takes us to all the places that matter in America, and the early days of Atari and the Nintendo's rise are espesially well covered. But he doesn't cover Sega or Sony, or some of the very good independent gamecreators that well. Perhaps this is because he can't find the sources (to lazy?), but he should have tried more. And when it is dealing with the industry after 1995 it is very bad written, possibly because the industry got to big and international then. The most fundamental flaw of the book is that Kent writes about thing that are commercially succesful instead of good. Maybe this is because he doesn't care about artistic quality, maybe he isn't really a gamer, or maybe this style was what he wanted. However, since this book is the only of its kind, it is higly recommended to all gamers who wish to know more about the American history of gaming. Just don't expect it to be anything more........
Rating: 
Summary: Great Material, marred by Bad Editorial Job
Review: Kent has a great way of juggling the many industry icons he speaks of in this fairly comprehensive study, and I admire the many anecdotes which are often more revealing and informative than a mere straightforward historical recounting. However, I can't get past the many, many grammatical, typographical, and spelling errors which riddle the text. I hate being a stickler over such things, but it makes the book appear a lot less professional than it actually is. There's no doubt a great deal of effort went into its research and writing, yet the publisher dropped the ball by not taking those crucial, editorial extra steps in quality control. The video game industry deserves such comprehensive studies in order to boost its reputation, yet such mediocre editing does nothing to further the proverbial cause. In terms of content, I'd give the book five stars.
Rating:
Summary: An engaging look at a fascinating story.
Review: Not being able to find "The First Quarter" I emailed Mr. Kent. He told me that the book he wrote being published by Prima, "The Ultimate History of Video Games," was was a rewrite of "The First Quarter" with a little added material. (So if you're loooking for this one and can't find it there you go.) This was the most interesting book I've read in a long time. Reading the stories and history from an insider's perspective was truely fascinating. If you're a gamer I highly recommend this title.
Rating:
Summary: A highly original, accurate reporting of history
Review: There isn't a person alive who hasn't either heard of, seen, or played a video game. Even in a "transition" year, it's a $6+ billion industry, expanding and improving dramatically with every passing holiday sales season. And there is only one book I could recommend in good faith as a guide to understanding where it came from, who made it happen, and how it has changed over the last 25+ years - this book, The First Quarter, by Steven Kent. It's a superb combination of meaty, previously undisclosed text and a judicious collection of insider photographs. What's best is that it doesn't insult your intelligence by portraying history through a picture-heavy format or hypey, trendy language appropriate for fourth graders. The insiders here speak for themselves, many of them for the first time. Kent really set the benchmark for original reporting on the history of games. His interviews with key industry players are primarily what distinguish this book from others, which with the exception of the original print of Sheff's Game Over are not as well-researched or objective. Unlike Game Over, however, this is written by someone who clearly actually plays and enjoys games and companies enough to know which are worth exploring, and why, and it's not just about Nintendo - every company of importance is in here. My only reservation about a 5 star rating is that this edition has an unfortunate number of typographical errors which get in the way of perfection, but since Amazon doesn't offer a 4.5 on the scale, 5 stars is about right.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, entertaining look at Video Game History
Review: This book doesn't study video games so much as it studies the people who created them. That's a good thing, because the heroes of the early video gaming industry are fascinating. I'm talking about colorful personalities, cut-throat business deals, and bizarre corporate cultures. You'd think that these things would scare a fan away from the book, but I was only drawn in more. Author Steven Kent interlaces his words with hundreds of quotes from the very people he talks about. This book gets 4 stars because it tries to do too much with too little space. The author himself admitted that he originally planned to end the book with the launch of the Sega Saturn and Playstation, but instead he carries the book through to just before the launch of the Playstation 2 - five years of intense history which deserve a book of their own. Kent should have saved these extra 80 or so pages and spent more time on the NES, Super NES, and Genesis. There were so many important games throughout video game history that Kent gives passing mention, or no mention at all. As a side note, I was able to find ROMs on the internet of the very games Kent mentions, thus able to play video game history on my own PC. You can legally play these games if you delete them from your hard drive within 24 hours, so don't worry. Although they are incredibly easy and have terrible graphics by today's standards, they were still fun to play.
Rating:
Summary: The Best in the Field
Review: This book is one of the most comprehensive tellings of the history of video games. The author puts you right in the middle of the discoveries and events that shaped how we view games today. I have read about a half dozen different books about video game history and this one is hands down the best written so far on the subject. So even if you are not a huge fan of games or havent picked up a controller in years, this is still the book for you!
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