The autobiography of Ralph Baer, the inventor of home video game consoles. Released in 1972, the Magnavox Odyssey is one of the starting points of the history of video games. First of all, it's the first video console solely dedicated to games. Moreover, one of its titles, Ping-Pong, was a direct source of inspiration for Atari to create Pong. Through a book featuring many pictures, Ralph Baer details us the process he followed to invent this first console ever. As a natural-born engineer, he ke
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Keywords : ralph baer, magnavox odyssey, first video game, simon, lawsuit, biography
A tiny 60 pages book released by the french national postal services alongside with a videogames-themed stamps collection. The book presents some of the most famous videogames thanks to a lot of images. And here the series of stamps released alongside with this book (the stamps were packaged within the book):
Keywords : pictures, histoire, french national postal service
A small book (150 pages) laying down a general introduction to the universe of videogames. The author details the history of videogames (with the contribution of the Le Diberder brothers and their "cycles theory" on this topic), the various jobs of the videogames industry and the process of game design, and in a last chapter try to analyze the future of videogames as a communicational tool. An English translation of this book was published in 2006 under the title "Video Games And
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Keywords : introduction, jobs, history, schools
The french written reference about the history of videogames. This must-have book has know five different editions between 1997 and 2012. It details the story of many famous videogames thanks to interviews with their designers: Pong, Tomb Raider, Tetris, Doom, Myst, Sim City, etc. The book also have a background story with the life of Philippe Ulrich, famous french game designer and founder of Cryo, who have lived through all the stages of the videogames history. A very interesting read with a l
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Keywords : french, history, phillipe ulrich
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
A scientific book gathering 12 chapters written by different authors who are studying videogames through the lens of sociology.
Keywords : sociology
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
One of the reference book about the scientific study and design of games. This huge 700 pages book will explore in great details the core concepts related to any kind of games: from outdoor sports to videogames games and TV games. The authors introduce a theoretical framework that defines three level of analysis, which were often cited by many others researchers: "Rules", to study games as artifacts, "Play", to analyze the human experience of playing games, "Culture"
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Keywords : theory, research, games, play, defintitons
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
A scientific essay trying to analyze pen & paper role-playing games and videogames using the lens of sociology.
Keywords : sociology