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Summary: MyMac.com Book Review
Review: I have always enjoyed video games, be it arcade, hand-held, or home gaming systems. And lately, I have been getting more and more into home electronic games. As such, I was very interested when I found this title on Amazon.com for under $...(U.S.) The Ultimate History of Video Games is an impressive name for any book, and weighing in at 624 pages, you would think that Steven L. Kent has written just that. Without reading very many other books about the history of video games and the companies that create them, I would have to say that for me, this is an accurate statement. The book, however, ends a little early. Neither the X-BOX nor the Nintendo GameCube had hit the streets when this title was published in September 2001. Unfortunate, as I think the current state of video games is more interesting than the Pokemon craze that this book ends on. For those wondering just what happened at Atari, this book will tell you. How in the world did Nintendo ever revive video games after the almost-death of the industry after the early 1980÷s? When did SEGA become a big player, and where are they now? How did the Sony PlayStation ever get a foothold in the gaming market, and how did they end up trouncing Nintendo at the beginning of this decade? Who were the people that created all those great games? What is the best selling video game of all time? The Ultimate History of Video Games will tell you. I would rather have seen this book broken up into multiple books. Ten-year increments to the story would have been nice, which would have given the author more time and space to really delve more into each company and game along the way. While Atari, Activision, Coleco, and other pioneering video game companies are represented well in the story, I would have loved more in-depth coverage. (Besides Atari, which is the entire first two-thirds of this book, but for good reasons.) All negativity aside, I really enjoyed this book. It was a pleasure to read. Unlike some other history books which cover other industries, and some which cover the video game world as well, this book is filled with human interest stories, not just how many units of the Atari 2600 version of PacMan sold. Steven L. Kent is a gifted writer who put a lot of time and passion into this book. I think he did a great job, and the only real gripe I have is that the book ended before I wanted it to. With luck, he has plans on reviving newer editions every few years to chart the progress of the industry. If you are at all curious about the history of video games, you will want this book. Don÷t buy it hoping to find color photos or screen snapshots of Donkey Kong. This book is almost all text, for a very good reason. This is the Ultimate History of Video Games, after all, and 624 pages barely cover it. Hats off, Mr. Kent. A job well done. Highly recommended! MacMice Rating: 5 out of 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tim Robertson
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Summary: Great book
Review: I have been a video game fan/player since the Atari 2600 days, and have always wanted someone to write a book like this. Kent does a great job interviewing all the key players from every significant video game company, including Nintendo, Atari, Sega, and Sony. At 560 pages, the book encompasses every significant "VG" development, including the key technology developments, decisions, and lawsuits that shaped the market the way it is today. The book is current through 2001 so it is right up to date. Highly, highly recommended!!
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Summary: A Must-Buy for Gamers and a Must-Read for Businessmen
Review: I love to read about video games, and I pretty much devour everything I can find on the subject. So I became excited when I heard about the release of this book, written by one of America's most beloved (and yet perennially controversial) video games journalists. Steve Kent's MSNBC, USA Today and Next Generation columns are always honest and a bit quirky, which is a good combination from my perspective. When I buy books, especially ones with the word "ultimate" in the title, I expect a lot. This book, a properly edited and indexed version of Mr. Kent's self-published "The First Quarter," absolutely delivers on its title. As a telling of history, The Ultimate History of Video Games is not pretentious, nor is it heavily opinionated, and those are among its greatest assets. The approach: interview nearly every major decision-maker involved in video gaming and let their words tell the 25-plus-year story of the industry. And Ultimate History actually tells the WHOLE story. It's not just about Nintendo. It's not just about 10 years worth of old arcade games. It covers everything -- from before the dawn of video games to just before the releases of the Xbox and Gamecube. Plus it does so without pulling any punches. It's a big thick book with a lot of previously undisclosed information. Fans of The First Quarter will even find some surprising new additions inside, too. This is the sort of book you stay up all night reading and then consult again whenever you're talking with your friends. And it's also the sort of book that ANY person considering a career in video games, especially the gaming business, really has to read. These are the reasons it rates a "buy" instead of a "borrow" or a "skim." I keep a copy on my shelf at work.
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Summary: The First Quarter, with error correction
Review: I reviewed this book for Syzygy Magazine in its First Quarter guise back in 2000. In that review, I pointed out a few errors and omissions that marred an otherwise excellent book. With this edition (and new title to boot), the errors have been corrected. And while there are still some omissions that are almost criminal (i.e. Tim Skelly's role in the success of Cinematronics, the story of the "Owen Rubin Memorial Gameroom", and more than a mere mention of Willy Higinbotham's Tennis For Two), this is still the best video game history book in print. The history of Atari and the early coin-ops is a highlight, and the quotes from the designers/programmers and industry executives add to the great depth of content that this book contains. As I said in my review of the First Quarter, you'd be hard pressed to find a better book about the video game industry and its history. In fact, you can't. Other books have come out in the wake of The Ultimate History Of Video Games, but most of those are either decent coffee table books filled with factual errors (Supercade) or concentrate too much on one area of gaming (High Score!, with its overabundant PC game coverage). If you're a hardcore gamer with an interest in the industry and its origins, you owe it to yourself to pick this book up.
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Summary: Ultimate History is truly the Ultimate Book
Review: I'm not much on reading books, I usually like lots of pictures & this book doesn't have a lot of pictures. But I must say I LOVED this book!
It was so fascinating that I couldn't put it down. It tells the story of Video games from the early days of Atari & Pong, up to the Play Station Era. It tells about the rise & fall of the game companies, programmers & the people who shaped the industry.
If you are at all interested in video games, aren't we all, you must read this book. It is a pretty big book, 624 pages & only about 10 pages of pictures. It is filled with cool facts, lots of history, & great stories about not only the games, but the people who brought them to life. All of the game systems & companies are talked about, I doubt the author left anyone out.
I love the crazy stories of the Atari companies antics; they liked to hold board meetings in hot tubs & smoke unusual things in their factory. I love the conflicts between the companies; theft, industrial espionage,patent & copyright infringement: I think everyone sued everyone else at some point in time.
Most of all I really love the stories of people who believed in what they were doing & were ably to follow their dreams & make something special no matter what anyone else told them. And I love remembering the games. My favorites were: Tempest, Centipede, Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac Man, & the Atari 2600 Adventure. Those were the days.
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Summary: It's entertaining, but lackluster at some points, too.
Review: I've always been fascinated with video gaming history. Although I was born in the mid 80's, consoles such as the Atari 2600 have always captured my interest even though they were "outdated" by the time I got into video games. The neat thing about gaming history is that you can tell the story from so many different angles - different companies, different time periods, etc. Although I've read many books (and articles) on video games prior to this one, there is still plenty to learn - and there was certainly information in here new to me. There were many things to enjoy in this book, but there were a few shortcomings. I loved how the book went in-depth on the history of the classic gaming era, but it seemed to go a bit soft when it came to the 8-bit and 16-bit systems. Arcade games are discussed thoroughly in the beginning of the book, but are ignored near the end. Nintendo and Atari have chapters upon chapters of history, but lesser selling systems (such as the Neo*Geo) are restricted to the footnotes. The book also tended to waste too much time discussing court cases. Now, although many of those cases were turning-points for the gaming industry, a few seemed irrelevant (e.g., Donkey Kong vs. King Kong) and were confusing and hard to follow for someone like me without a background in law. Make no mistake, the first half of this book is excellent. And in the closing paragraph the author says he intended to publish this book in 1995 or 1996. I think, given the little coverage he makes of anything past the mid-90's, his book would have fared better if released earlier. A few chapters (mainly the ones concerning the legal disputes) I could do without. The book also had a bad habit of jumping around in time. It documents the rise and fall of Atari's coin-op division, but then starts over to talk about the rise and fall of the Atari VCS. Bottom Line: If classic gaming history is your thing, there are better books to be read than this one. But if you want a broader look on video games that encompasses all generations - you may just enjoy this!
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Summary: It's entertaining, but lackluster at some points, too.
Review: I've always been fascinated with video gaming history. Although I was born in the mid 80's, consoles such as the Atari 2600 have always captured my interest even though they were "outdated" by the time I got into video games. The neat thing about gaming history is that you can tell the story from so many different angles - different companies, different time periods, etc. Although I've read many books (and articles) on video games prior to this one, there is still plenty to learn - and there was certainly information in here new to me. There were many things to enjoy in this book, but there were a few shortcomings. I loved how the book went in-depth on the history of the classic gaming era, but it seemed to go a bit soft when it came to the 8-bit and 16-bit systems. Arcade games are discussed thoroughly in the beginning of the book, but are ignored near the end. Nintendo and Atari have chapters upon chapters of history, but lesser selling systems (such as the Neo*Geo) are restricted to the footnotes. The book also tended to waste too much time discussing court cases. Now, although many of those cases were turning-points for the gaming industry, a few seemed irrelevant (e.g., Donkey Kong vs. King Kong) and were confusing and hard to follow for someone like me without a background in law. Make no mistake, the first half of this book is excellent. And in the closing paragraph the author says he intended to publish this book in 1995 or 1996. I think, given the little coverage he makes of anything past the mid-90's, his book would have fared better if released earlier. A few chapters (mainly the ones concerning the legal disputes) I could do without. The book also had a bad habit of jumping around in time. It documents the rise and fall of Atari's coin-op division, but then starts over to talk about the rise and fall of the Atari VCS. Bottom Line: If classic gaming history is your thing, there are better books to be read than this one. But if you want a broader look on video games that encompasses all generations - you may just enjoy this!
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Summary: A Book by a Game Lover, for Game Lovers
Review: If you've read the other reviews first, they say it all.
This book is brilliant, well researched, and covers pretty much all you would want it to. It is written in a riveting fashion too- If you love video games and its history, you just won't want to put it down. It is without doubt the best book you can buy on video games, from a quality of how it's written, and information point of view.
However, I put the book 'High Score!- The Illustrated guide' slightly higher, as I love the coffee table layout, and the many beautiful and rare photographs.Comparing the two is very hard; they are different styles of book really, one with depth, one with style. I personally found it impossible to pass up either once I knew they existed. Together, you have the best set of video game guides, and two of the four 'must own' books on video games available. (Ultimate guide, High Score Illustrated Guide, Phoenix: Fall and Rise of Video Games, Game Over: Nintendos History).
If you are picking only one book on video games for your shelf however, it's definately down to the first two- Dependant on whether you need the full depth story or great photographs. I can't see any fan on gaming history passing up either. Just wonderful.
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Summary: Excellent social look at video games
Review: In many ways, this book may be misrepresented to people. Its not simply "hey, remember how awesome this game was?" type of book, nor does it look at games from a technical side (though technology is featured at times). This is more to do with the social impact of games. As such, it does not spend excessive time on the failed consoles, or failed games (though the exception can be made for the Atari-buster known as E.T.).
Its a very useful book, I'm using it for a college class! Its probably the first 'text book' i'll actually look forward to keeping! The book is about as comprehinsive as one volume can be (and obviously, books like High Score and Game Over will complement this book). It is comprehensive, and exhaustive, as there are many excerpts from the people that made the games, and changed the world of home entertainment. A great book, when teamed up with a personal history of video games, this can shed some light on the people and events behind the games.
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Summary: The Semi-Ultimate History of Video Games
Review: Just about wrapping up my read of The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven L. Kent. Kent traces the history of video games from the early versions of pinball that made the novelty circuit back in the day to the latest consoles of today. It was extremely interesting reading about the early days of computer gaming, from open source code sharing with Spacewar, which was developed at MIT, to the creation of arcade coin-op gaming post pinball and the rise (and fall) of Atari. The book delves into the histories of the greats, from SEGA to Nintendo, Bally and Williams, and even goes into a bit about the C64, which revolutionized gaming as we know it. Unfortunately, I think the only reason why the C64 was mentioned was because the guy that founded that company eventually bought Atari. Little was mentioned about PC gaming. Infocom... ignored. Origin... almost ignored... Myst and Doom had some highlights, but not much. That's not to say it wasn't a good read. It was. The use of quotes throughout the book were great and enlightening. I learned a ton. But Kent seems more interested in telling Nintendo's story, and the fact that he pretty much ignored PC gaming only scores this book a 7 on my scale. Ultimate it is not. A shame, too.
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