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Ive read a few of these, and I think the well is being dried. Phoenix and Steve Kent's book (The First Quarter is the name of the copy I own, its the first print run or something) are both quite good but Phoenix is fact-drive while The First Quarter is more interview-driven. So while they cover the same basic events, both have their place. Plus Phoenix's focus was definitely on the pre-crash days... the PlayStation pages basically just talked about companies that re-released old Atari games, not about revolutionary modern titles.
Now it's to the point where most of these are just gonna cover the same shit. If Kent were to write a history of the pc gaming side, everything would be complete. I think authors now who want to write a videogame history book need to forget about the idea of a survey book and instead get a little bit focused, a la that Xbox book or Game Over. I dont need to read about how Nintendo originally made Hanafuda cards or that Sega was founded by an American in Japan again.
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I've thought about picking up High Score, but the mistakes tarnish the book. I've found quite a few (Saturn page for instance) and it makes the info I'm not familiar with useless.
Nice pics though. *-neo
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I've tossed in some Amazon.com links for those who want to pick some of these up.
Here's another nod to Steven Kent's Ultimate History of Video Games. Excellent reading that unfortunately stops around the beginning of the current console generation (the author notes this as well). Here's hoping for a good sequel a few years from now. Enough has been said of this book already, so I'll refrain. Simply put, if you're into this hobby and want to know how it started and why we're at this point, run out and buy this book now!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books
I think that High Score! is better for as a pictorial history/retrospective of the American side of video game development, particularly the PC spectrum. I really think that all of the console/Japanese/international stuff is tacked on and does not show the care that the American/PC side received. As noted in other posts, High Score has an unfortunate amount of mistakes and factual errors which make it less useful as a definitive historical reference. Still, it was fun seeing all those old C64/Apple/Atari game ads.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books
Other books I can recommend are:
Game Over by David Sheff, which still might be found buried in the bargain bin at your local EB for .99 (this was a give away item when the GC was released). This book is _all_ about Nintendo really, and makes an excellent companion to the Ultimate History book. Pretty riveting stuff--a definite page turner. I believe it ends around the N64 era, but the book has been updated at least once.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...363637-9575033
Opening the XBOX: Inside Microsoft's Plan to Unleash an Entertainment Revolution by Dean Takahashi is a fine inside look at the making of the XBOX and all the politics and drama behind it. If you consider Seamus Blackley one of your favorite developers, give it a shot. Be warned, though, that this is more of a business study (though fascinating).
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books
Other books worth looking at (but I don't own):
Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984 by Van Burnham. I can't vouch for its historical accuracy since I haven't fully read it, but damn if this isn't an excellent pictorial piece on the subject! Worth picking up for those of you into the arcade scene of that time.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...363637-9575033
Arcade Fever by John Sellers is similar to Supercade, but covers specific arcade games. Again, I can't say how well written this book is, but it's a another look at the arcade era of the 70s-80s.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...363637-9575033
Though it's not about video games, The Complete Pinball Book by Marco Rossignoli is easy to recommend to anyone with an interest on those "other games" found in the arcades. This is a huge book about the history of pinball and comes with an immense amount of pictures. I enjoyed seeing the machines that I'd played when I was younger. If you've got a passing interest in the game, this is something to look for. The author clearly loves the game and it shows.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books
Books I own/owned but I'm kind of "eh" on, and am mentioning because of the topic:
Trigger Happy and the Entertainment Revolution by Steven Poole. The author isn't really into video games (and says so in the book), and tries to discuss the psychology of why we like video games. Yes, you can count on bits of Lara Croft coverage here. I disagreed with a lot of what he said, but am still pointing this out for those interested.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books
Game On edited by Lucien King is not a history of video games, but attempts to present a "global perspective" on video games. Yes, it's yet another book that attempts to study video games and how they impact everybody. Some nice page design and maybe 1 or 2 good articles, but largely disappointing. I read this in its entirety in about an hour and didn't come away feeling good about the purchase.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books
Lastly, this book is not on video game history per se, but it is a fine book in its own right: 1000 Game Heroes edited by David Choquet. This is a 600+ page beast filled with a tremendous amount of concept art, illustrations, and CG renderings of many, many different video game characters from both the console and PC side of things. It's by no means complete (that would be bigger book!), but has just enough to satisfy. This book is a definite must buy for those of you interested in video game artwork. Out of all the books I've mentioned in this post, this is probably the one you should all have (along with Kent's Ultimate History, but this is one is just an amazing collection of art).
Here's the Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...363637-9575033
Here's the Taschen (publisher) link with pictures:
http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/cata...acts/03314.htm
There are other books I've not mentioned either because I'd forgotten about them or have never seen/read them. For example, there are quite a few books on video game development, with words of "advice" from different developers that might be worth it for some of you. Other than that, the above books and others mentioned in this thread should be a good representation today of what exists now for your video game-derived reading pleasure.
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Be careful with Game Over, it starts off pretty interesting, but it gets extremely dry and boring once you get to the Tetris chapter.
