VIDEO GAMES | DISCOUNT VIDEO GAMES

Inside the Games You Grew Up with but Never Forgot
With all the whiz, bang, pop, and shimmer of a glowing arcade. The Ultimate History of Video Games reveals everything you ever wanted to know and more about the unforgettable games that changed the world, the visionaries who made them, and the fanatics who played them. From the arcade to television and from the PC to the handheld device, video games have entraced kids at heart for nearly 30 years. And author and gaming historian Steven L. Kent has been there to record the craze from the very beginning.
This engrossing book tells the incredible tale of how this backroom novelty transformed into a cultural phenomenon. Through meticulous research and personal interviews with hundreds of industry luminaries, you'll read firsthand accounts of how yesterday's games like Space Invaders, Centipede, and Pac-Man helped create an arcade culture that defined a generation, and how today's empires like Sony, Nintendo, and Electronic Arts have galvanized a multibillion-dollar industry and a new generation of games. Inside, you'll discover:
·The video game that saved Nintendo from bankruptcy
·The serendipitous story of Pac-Man's design
·The misstep that helped topple Atari's $2 billion-a-year empire
·The coin shortage caused by Space Invaders
·The fascinating reasons behind the rise, fall, and rebirth of Sega
·And much more!
Entertaining, addictive, and as mesmerizing as the games it chronicles, this book is a must-have for anyone who's ever touched a joystick.

User Reviews about The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon--The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World

This bood was pretty good and probably has a place in my library. It had a lot of interesting facts and wa a fairly complete history. I am a real classic video game nut, though. I would have liked to have seen more picures - there really did not seem to be much effort at illustration. -- Pretty good, but expected more

Très peu de visuels (quasiment pas en fait), et le propos est centré à 80% sur Atari (qui ne représente pas 80% du jeux vidéo !). Le livre est pas mal mais très loin d'être la référence "ultimate" auquelle je m'attendais. Déçu. -- Déçu

This is an accurate, in-depth, and complete review of the great history of video games. Being a 80's video game junkie, it was wonderful to hear the details Mr. Kent reveals.

Also, it is an easy read as the style is pleasing and clear. -- Terrific Book

While I was never an arcade rat (born in 1981), I can remember playing on an Atari 2800, and the love for console gaming has never ceased. It had been a goal of mine to finally pick up video games history book, and this is the one I chose.

Before writing this review, I read through a few others to see if anyone shared my views, and they have. Like other readers suggested, the majority of this book is fantastic and detailed. It's all you want to know about the rise and fall of Atari, and their interwoven relationships with other gaming companies (i.e. Namco, etc) and prominent figures of today (i.e. Steve Jobs, etc). Also detailed is Japan's introduction into the American arcade market, most specifically Nintendo. No detail is left out. I loved reading about the work atmosphere of early Atari, how they made more money than they knew what to do with in such a short amount of time, and the crucial decisions they made early on to advance the arcade and home video game market. It's really hard to get a feel on whether Nolan Bushnell was a genius or simply lucky. Also great were the risks that Nintendo made to break into the American market, along with their determined positioning behind the team of Arakawa and Lincoln.

However, when you get up to around the mid-1990's, the book falters tremendously based on what came before it. The last decade of video game history up to this book's publishing isn't well represented with the behind-the-scenes info that you've become used to from early in the book. Like someone else said in their review, it felt rushed, but it also felt as if the author wasn't anywhere near as well versed about recent happenings in the industry. You'll realize quickly that when you get to the launch of the original Playstation and Saturn, you've only got 2 or 3 chapters to go.

While I wouldn't call this the "ultimate" history because of the lack of detail in more recent times, it definitely is the ultimate history of video games from their inception up to the 16-bit era. That's why I still give it 4 stars, because it's really good reading for those interested. -- Awesome chronicle of gaming history (at least up until around 1995).