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[junkwaffle]

Inspired by the best penny ever spent thread:
~ Post Yours! ~
Has this been done before? Probably.... but I've never seen it. So,

Mine: all paperback unless noted otherwise

Power Up by Chris Kohler
Video Games: A Guide for Savvy Parents by David Sheff (probably my first book about games. Mostly, I bought it because I never saw a book about games before and I knew Sheff wrote Game Over, which I hadn't yet purchased
High Score: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games 2nd edition by Rusel Demaria & Johnny L. Wilson (a beautiful picture book, very slick)
Supercade: a Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984 by Van Burnham (another big slick beautiful picture book)
Game Over: Press Start to Continue - The Maturing of Mario by David Sheff (yet another updated paperback edition of the Sheff classic)
Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames 3rd edition by Leonard Herman
Video Game Bible 1985-2002 Edited by Andy Slaven
The First Quarter: A 25-Year History of Video Games by Steven L. Kent
The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven L. Kent (pretty much a reprint of The First Quarter, which has the better title, imo)
Videogames by James Newman (a PhD in media examines videogames)
The Digital Press: Collector's Guide - The Bio-degradable Source for Video Gamers by those dudes who always tell me I'm getting ripped off on eBay (and they're right, dammit!)
Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children First edition by David Sheff -hard-cover- (best fuckin' title ever, and the prize of my book collection)

.... that's probably most of the important books on the subject, but quite a few more were being released last time I looked on amazon. Any good new ones?

 

[iapetus]

 

[bitwise]

i only have power up. i read enough about games online that the books i buy cover other subjects.

 

[Jotaro]

What did you think of the Ultimate History of videogames? The books becomes dull after the 8-bit console war, doesn't it?

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Dude! I never knew he got more specific than How to Win at Nintendo Games.

Game Over: Press Start to Continue
The First Quarter (or what it was renamed, rather... this is the much better name that sticks)
The Official Nintendo Player's Guide

Fiction
Worlds of Power: Blaster Master
Worlds of Power: Infiltrator
A few crappy Pringles-giveaway Mario-themed choose-your-own-adventure type books (hyphen hyphen hyphen)

 

[Error Macro]

Perhaps I should get some more books.

 

[Jason]

Also have How to Win at Nintendo Games volume 3 I think.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

I would suggest these two to every longtime gamer....

 

[junkwaffle]

Also have How to Win at Nintendo Games volume 3 I think.

Those look awesome! I should've mentioned that strategy type books should be left out. I have way too many to list. Part of the collection.... really!

Musashi, what are those? Novels? Poems? I've never heard of them, what are they like?

 

[bitwise]

i liked this book when i read it, but it was eons ago. Have no idea if I would consider it good now or not, but I really liked it then

 

[Musashi Wins!]

Musashi, what are those? Novels? Poems? I've never heard of them, what are they like?

Yes and yes. The novel is fantastic. About a listless, aimless fellow who thinks a sort of salvation awaits him if he solves the mystery about a mysterious japanese game designer of his youth. Gets a bit surreal as madness mounts in the plot, but I would HIGHLY recommend it to any fiction reading gaming fanatic.

The 2nd is a bunch of poems and small pieces about the author's gaming history. Sort of goofy, occasionally poignant reflections through the lens of some really cool games. You can check some of it out at Amazon.

 

[FortNinety]

 

[SiegfriedFM]

Only game artbooks for Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, various Capcom games, Suikoden, Xenogears, FFIX etc...

I'd love to get that book on Ico, anyone know if it's been translated/published yet?

 

[TheDiave]

Mine are all paperback too, although its limited to one particular franchise; Resident Evil. I have all of S.D. Perry's RE novels up to "Zero Hour." They're quite good. The ones that are original stories are fuckin' awesome! I'd love to see Caliban Cove or Underworld translated to a game in the series.

 

[Late Stage Marxist]

Just a hardcover copy of Game Over I got off abebooks for $2.

BTW Anyone know where I can score the extra chapters?

 

[Kobun Heat]

Thinking about Jeff Rovin's books makes me wish I was born about fifteen years earlier. If I'd been a writer in 1988 instead of being in the second grade, I could have done exactly what Rovin did -- knocked out a dozen or so text-only strategy guides (TEXT ONLY!) that gave bare-bones descriptions of the first five levels of every NES game, then sold MILLIONS of paperbacks.

Those days are long gone.

 

[etiolate]

This is an interesting read..

I've also read a bit of this

 

[Great King Bowser]

I remember looking for the David Sheff Game Over books before, but could never find anywhere that sold them in the UK. NGC magazine were giving them away with subscriptions at one point, can't believe I didn't just subscribe for the damn book.

Anyone know where I can get a copy?

Ordering a copy of Power Up and Illustrated History of Electronic Games from Amazon though. Thanks for the recommendations.

 

[Gazunta]

I would suggest these two to every longtime gamer....

This man has good taste. Listen to him. This book rocks.

(And I'm not just saying that because you can donate 5 cents to What Was That Game and be in the running to win a copy, ahem)

Also: Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams On Game Design. Great stuff. And I keep my copy of Game Over here at work to educate the kids who don't know their history

 

[jiggle]

The only one...

 

[Jotaro]

Jeff Rovin! I read his books for NES, only translated in french. Now I know why I had that much of a hard time understanding what I had to do to find the goddamn castles in Castlevania 2! Engrish that made the game unplayable, Rovin's barebones descriptions, which was then translated by a french linguist who did not have a clue. :lol

 

[shuri]

I read, re-read, re-re-read that book religiously when I was kid. It was pretty basic, and the strategies were pretty generic, but it was one of the rare books IN FRENCH back when I was a kid. There's about 50-60 titles covered, with exclusive infos about upcoming titles such as JACKAL!!

Ahh memories.

 

[Duck of Death]

I'm surprised at the lack of game theory texts so far.

 

[Jotaro]

I read, re-read, re-re-read that book religiously when I was kid. It was pretty basic, and the strategies were pretty generic, but it was one of the rare books IN FRENCH back when I was a kid. There's about 50-60 titles covered, with exclusive infos about upcoming titles such as JACKAL!!

Ahh memories.

I had the exact same book, it was my first video game books! I did the exact same thing as you did!

You forgot the preview made the Athena NES game look awesome. :lol

 

[Mejilan]

Power Up by Chris Kohler
Game Over: Press Start to Continue - The Maturing of Mario by David Sheff
The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven L. Kent

 

[Ironclad]

Blue Wizard is about to Die is an awesome read. The Pac-man poem is absolutely hilarious.

Power-up
Game Over
The Ultimate History of Video Games
Masters of Doom

 

[belgurdo]

Tons and tons of hentai doujinshi.

I never knew Yuna could stretch like that

(internet is SERIOUS BUSINESS edit) What videogames have to teach us about learning and literacy-James Gee

Stop Teaching our kids to kill-Dave Grossman (because you have to see how the other side thinks)

 

[Date of Lies]

was actually a great read about the 'gaming community'

I'm not entirely sure why I bought this but there seems to be some cool quotes from a few top designers. Although all of them contradict themselves so it's pretty confusing. Other than that, I need to actually read it to form an opinion on if it was worth 80$ CDN.

and I have
Supercard
Ultimate History of Videogames
High Score
Power Up

all I need to do is get my hands on Game Over and Phoenix, I guess.

EDIT: I heard Japanese Game Graphics (the book) sucks

 

[shuri]

I had the exact same book, it was my first video game books! I did the exact same thing as you did!

You forgot the preview made the Athena NES game look awesome. :lol

I bought that game because of that preview. Fuck you Schwarts! :lol Oh well, I didnt pay full price, but it was a lot of money to me :lol

Remember the secrets section? To prevent people from spoiling the games by accidently reading that section, the printing was reversed and you had to use a mirror to read them. God that was so neat when I was 10 :lol

edit: I'm going thru the book right now, I love the hardcore strategies.. From ZELDA II: Tip #1 Explore every forest <bla bla fillter text> Tip #2: Explore every town!

 

[Dead]

I have a few random Art Books but thats about it

 

[Date of Lies]

Rules of Play

is this worth anything?

 

[jiggle]

EDIT: I heard Japanese Game Graphics (the book) sucks

I like it. Not big on worded contents. It does have lots of behind the scene images of games(wireframe models, unshaded models etc), which was why I bought the book for anyway.

 

[Miburou]

I would've bought Powerup had I never read any of Kobun Heat's posts.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

I would've bought Powerup had I never read any of Kobun Heat's posts.

I'm going to take a strange tact and say that it lacks a bit of his GAF persona. It wouldn't have hurt.

 

[Kobun Heat]

I'm going to take a strange tact and say that it lacks a bit of his GAF persona.

I agree, although "Power-Up: Shut the Fuck Up, Motherfuckers" wouldn't have flown with Middle America.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

I agree, although "Power-Up: Shut the Fuck Up, Motherfuckers" wouldn't have flown with Middle America.

Screw them, Kohler. Screw them. There should have been special sections.

Niger please.

 

[Kobun Heat]

 

[FortNinety]

Thinking about Jeff Rovin's books makes me wish I was born about fifteen years earlier. If I'd been a writer in 1988 instead of being in the second grade, I could have done exactly what Rovin did -- knocked out a dozen or so text-only strategy guides (TEXT ONLY!) that gave bare-bones descriptions of the first five levels of every NES game, then sold MILLIONS of paperbacks.

Those days are long gone.

I know Jeff and I think I'll let him know about this thread. I'm sure he'll get a big kick out of it.

 

[FortNinety]

is this worth anything?

It's probably the best book to approach the art of game design, period. Well worth the hefty price.

 

[Kobun Heat]

I know Jeff and I think I'll let him know about this thread. I'm sure he'll get a big kick out of it.

He's like my hero. I still have pretty much every game book he ever wrote -- even the original black-cover edition of How To Win At Nintendo that doesn't even have Super Mario Bros. in it.

 

[BreakyBoy]

Novels - Definitely not the prizes of my book collection, but hell curiosity killed the cat and all that.


Doom series by Dafydd ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver - Purchased these two when they were first published at an airport bookstore out of sheer curiosity/novelty value.

Knee-Deep in the Dead - This book does a pretty fantastic job of producing the paranoia and adrenaline pumping tempo that the original Doom had. Not a literary masterpiece or anything, but worth a read if you loved Doom.

Hell on Earth - Eh. It's alright. Completely different feel from the first. More sci-fi, less action and it ends on a bit of an anti-climactic cliffhanger.

BTW, Amazon informs me that there are two other books in the series (not surprised). I might pick them up later, but those reviews don't look promising. :S


Halo series

The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund - Interesting prelude to the first Halo. Pretty well done, and provides a pretty good insight into the Master Chief. Best compliment I can give to this, is that I didn't care about Master Chief as a character at all until I read this.

The Flood by William C. Dietz - Strangely, where the novelization of the first Doom managed to be interesting, the novelization of Halo, a game with a much richer story than Doom ever pretended to have, falls flat on its face. Pretty boring, really disappointing after the first one. Skip it, and play the game instead, nothing to see here.

First Strike by Eric Nylund - I don't know if it's just because Nylund is better at this than Dietz, or if it's a matter of the author not being restricted by the timeline of a videogame story, but this one was just as good as the first. If I had to choose, I'd pick The Fall of Reach, since I thought the Chief's "early years" were especially well done, but this is an excellent followup to the events of the game.


Other crap

King's Quest: Kingdom of Sorrow by Kenyon Morr - Not even google image search can save this one. My god it was terrible.

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry - I need to re-read this, but I seem to remember thinking it was a very good bridge between the events of ESB and RotJ.


Gaming History

Game Over: Press Start to Continue - The Maturing of Mario by David Sheff - Awesome book about the rise and stumble of Nintendo as a gaming company. The Tetris chapter is phenomenal reading.

The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven Kent - No surprise here. Steven Kent is easily one of the best writers in the industry, and he does a bang-up job of covering the dawn of the industry. My only complaint is that the post Atari-era isn't quite as in-depth as the rest of the book. Then again, that makes it a good compliment to Game Over.

I actually want to get Power Up, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Send my apologies to your wallet Mr. Kohler. :S


Game Design

Game Design: The Art and Business of Creating Games by Bob Bates - Uh, I honestly don't remember much of this. Picked it up on a whim, I think I wanted something to help me write a design document, and I saw that there was a chapter on just that. I do remember being disappointed that it didn't really offer a primer for that at all aside from vague descriptions of what should be there. It's not a bad book though, I remember it being pretty good for a general guide for the design process and what to expect for when you pitch it to publishers. Just don't expect anything too in-depth.

Game Design: Secrets of the Sages, 2nd Edition by Marc Saltzman - Essentially a collection of advice from prominent members of the game development community. Interesting, but again, not really all that informative.

Gameplay and Design by Kevin Oxland - I actually had to buy this book, since it's the required text for the Level Building & Design class I'm taking (*shout out to classmate Javy007* ). Only six chapters in, but so far it seems to be a good text focused entirely on game design. The latter half of it seems to be almost entirely devoted to writing a design doc. Wish I'd found this earlier.

Data Structures for Game Programmers by Rob Penton - Bought it a while ago. I've been to busy to read it though. :/


Aside from all those, I've got a decent collection of guides and art books.

 

[junkwaffle]

Wow, I'm surprised by the sheer number of books on the subject I didn't even know existed. I thought I was aware of every book ever printed....

.....literally.

 

[DDayton]

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy. Amazon has it for about $11, and it's great. It covers aspects of the gaming industry from MIT in the 40's to the early/mid 80's... just before the Nintendo years.

 

[8bit]

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy. Amazon has it for about $11, and it's great. It covers aspects of the gaming industry from MIT in the 40's to the early/mid 80's... just before the Nintendo years.

That's a great book. I must find my copy as I'm sure it's full of post it notes and added annotations that I might find interesting these days.

 

[D-X]

 

[Great King Bowser]

Ordered Power Up!

Kobun Heat royalties +1

 

[Azih]

Did you order it through Amazon thus giving GAF a bit of cash as well?

 

[Nick Laslett]

Here are my recommendations:

For History of video games try this:
The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven L. Kent

For how Nintendo resurrected videogaming in the eighties try this:
Game Over: Press Start to Continue - The Maturing of Mario by David Sheff

For how Sony came to own Nintendo try this:
Revolutionaries at Sony: The Making of the Sony Playstation and the Visionaries Who Conquered the World of Video Games - Reiji Asakura

For how Microsoft came the launch the Xbox, try this:
Opening the Xbox: Inside Microsoft's Plan to Unleash an Entertainment Revolution -
Dean Takahashi

For explanation of why we play games try this:
Trigger Happy - Steven Poole

For wider cultural impact of games try this:
Game on: The History and Culture of Videogames - Lucien King (Editor)

If you want to make games, try this:
Game Architecture and Design - Andrew Rollings, Dave Morris

 

[User 406]

Yes and yes. The novel is fantastic. About a listless, aimless fellow who thinks a sort of salvation awaits him if he solves the mystery about a mysterious japanese game designer of his youth. Gets a bit surreal as madness mounts in the plot, but I would HIGHLY recommend it to any fiction reading gaming fanatic.

This doesn't sound too interesting, we've got at least a dozen guys like that posting to this forum already. :X

Just so I'm not completely off topic, I've got Game Over, Revolutionaries at Sony, and a few game related programming texts, but I consider those to be more programming references than part of a "gaming library". Oh, and I wouldn't be caught dead reading pulp novels based on games. Eric Nylund did a nice job with Signal to Noise, and it's sad to see a good author like him jump over to the R.A. Salvatore & Pals retard shelf at the bookstore. :/

 

[FortNinety]

Another excellent book that I don't think that anybody has mentioned yet...