This book presents a historical, economic and artistic analysis of Japanese video games, hoping to explain why they are so successful all around the world. The author, who is an expert of this topic, offers us a combination of detailed history (the birth of Japanese video game industry), personal analysis of games series (Mario, Final Fantasy, etc.), and interviews with legendary game designers such as Shigeru Miyamoto and Fumito Ueda. The author then explores some "japanese-specific"
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Keywords : japan, analyse, shigeru miyamoto, fumito ueda, jrpg, akihabara, pokémon, music games
This tiny 80 pages book tackles the question of the artistic and cultural potential of video games. The first part of the book quickly reviews the history and classification of video games, using elements from the classical book written by Le Diberder Brothers. In the second part, the author deals with how players regard games. He then draws elements from his personal experience in a "gamer's club" running monthly Lan Parties (networked computer game sessions). Thanks to the interview
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Keywords : video game, art, culture, introduction
This book focuses on the history of role-playing and adventure games made in the USA. The central theme of the book is the truly captivating story of Richard Garriott, the creator of famous rpg saga Ultima (1981-1999). The book details his path starting with his teenage years, when he discovered Dungeons & Dragons, a game that will greatly influence his first amateurs creations on the Apple II. After two years of work, he attempts to sell his first "real" game, Akalabehth (1980), b
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Keywords : history, ultima, richard garriot, origin systems, id software, john romero, doom, texas
This essay attempt to analyze the history of videogames through a critical lens in order to highlight the marketing, industrial and cultural strategies that drives the "videogames revolution." An interesting book which succeed to go behind the usual "success stories" to make the reader think about the stakes at play in this cultural evolution.
Keywords : history, critic, marketing, industry, culture
This book tells the story of id Software, the company that created the game "Doom". It mainly focuses on the life of the two key people of the studio, John Romero and John Carmack, from their first experience with videogames during their youth to their split-up after the massive success of "Quake". It also goes through the numerous hits that they created throughout their careers: "Commander Keen", "Wolfenstein 3D" and of course "Doom". Full of un
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Keywords : id software, john carmack, john romero, doom, wolfentstein 3d, commander keen, quake, shareware
One of the best book ever written about the history of video games. Over more than 450 pages, the book explores the American history of videogames with a great deal of details: the beginnings with Spacewar!, the rise and fall of Atari, the arrival of Nintendo, the birth of the ESRB alongside the Nintendo-Sega war, etc. It also focuses on several important trials related to video games: the Atari-Ralph Baer case for the paternity of video games, the Universal strike to Donkey Kong over King-
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Keywords : history, united states, trials
This is the third edition of one of the first, if not the first, book to seriously tackle the history of video game on a global level. The book structure is chronological: each chapter covers the main events of a single year. Moreover, the author chose to mostly focuses his book on the history of consoles in the US. After a first chapter dedicated to early digital games, the book details the main events of the video game industry between 1970 and 2000. Among others things, it presents the variou
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Keywords : history, videogame, usa, console
This book is dedicated to the history of computing, but deals with the history of computer and video games too. The main topic is the birth and legacy of the "Hacker" movement: a group of talented youth people who initiated a drive for computers to be a tool available and useful to everyone. During the dawn of the 60's, in the U.S., at the famous MIT university, a group of students changed the very idea of "computing" by using one of their university's computer to create all
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Keywords : hackers, MIT, spacewar!, apple II, steve wozniak, sierra on line, ken and roberta williams, homebrew computer club
The first edition, self-published, of one of the best book ever written about the history of video games: The Ultimate History of Video Games. Over more than 450 pages, the book explores the American history of videogames with a great deal of details: the beginnings with Spacewar!, the rise and fall of Atari, the arrival of Nintendo, the birth of the ESRB alongside the Nintendo-Sega war, etc. It also focuses on several important trials related to video games: the Atari-Ralph Baer case for th
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Keywords : history, usa, nintendo, sega, sony, atari, trials
This book tells us the history of Nintendo, and more specifically how it conquered the US video game market in the 80's. This book details the first steps of Nintendo in the field of video games, both in Japan and in the US. It explores arcade hits like Donkey Kong, alongside with the NES and its most popular games series such as Mario and Zelda. The form of the book is brilliant: it's written like a captivating novel. But the main point is the substance: this book is literally filled with a lot
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Keywords : nintendo, history, hiroshi yamauchi, japan, usa, mario, minoru arakawa, shigeru miyamoto