Books about video games

Ok, so in some last terrible step in my attempts to become totally socially unacceptable, ive been looking into books about video games that are worth reading. So far the only one that i've found that looks interesting is The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven Kent, but that was published in 2001 and is going to be fairly dated (excerpts about the history seem pretty great, very entertaining).

Anyone else bothered to look into this/have any suggestions?

you really want me to google "video game books"?

I suggest the WoW Dungeon Compendium, v.v. informative.

i haven't read this, but the most recent issue of the believer had an interview with heather chaplin, author of "smartbomb: the quest for art, entertainment, and big bucks in the videogame revolution," which sounded interesting

that is, i read the interview, but i haven't read the book

it's terrible

did you know: in the 70s the game 'adventure', which the player interacts with a text parser to explore a cave system, was an underground hit on campuses and amongst computer engineers?

did you know: shigeru miyamoto's videogames are known for their sense of childlike wonder?

did you know: john romero is known as the 'rock star' of gaming?

Lucky Wander Boy wasn't bad. I'd check it out at the library if it's available.

did you know: the two children who killed their classmates at columbine were really into a 'first-person shooter' called doom?

etc.

Isn't this supposed to be good?
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Culture-Play-Identity-Warcraft/dp/0262033704/

The Kent book is pretty good so far, the stories about Nolan Bushnell starting up a company to "compete" with Atari by making his neighbor president and getting away with it despite being on the board of directors is pretty entertaining.

Also found this: http://www.shannacompton.com/gamers.html at my local library, but am afraid that it could have some infuriatingly pomo bullshit going on.

And I read this recently:
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10331

are you looking for books about games and game theory or about the history of gaming? i can recommend some of the former but i cant think of any of the latter? steven poole's trigger happy is available for free on-line and is an excellent read. richard rouse's game theory is good too and in addition to the mechanical stuff he offers breakdowns of classic games - how they work and why. it also has interviews with sid meier, will wright and others. writing is poor tho.

It doesn't only cover video games, and maybe it fits a little too neatly into the whole comfort food/confirmation bias territory for me personally, but I've been reading "Everything Bad is Good for You" by Steven Johnson. It makes a pretty good argument about the increasing complexity of television and video game media being a positive thing for society overall.

both i guess? i am def on sort of a dilletanteish tip here, not looking to get into uber mechanics, but not looking for just corporate history either. figure that getting the actual historical groundwork done first is good, but from there who knows?

xpost

Smartbomb is kind of 'ten reasons games are interesting (for people who are going to play them for an hour to see what the novelty is and not think about them very hard)'. it's kind of confusing, i don't really think there's a big audience of people who would RATHER read books about videogames than play them?

I kind of remember Steven Poole's 'Trigger Happy' being at least not-awful.

There's a 300-pager on the id guys, 'Masters of Doom', going up to the point where Romero ends up making cellphone games and Carmack rockets. There's a lot of heard-this-before in it, too, but it's pretty readable. if only competent in terms of writing.

i just downloaded a massive, massive pack of scanned game design stuff so i could read raph koster's 'a theory of fun in game design'. bonus: i now have the design documents for leisure suit larry games five through seven.

ooh, xposts

This is considered a classic of early video game criticism (particularly w/r/t gender):
http://www.amazon.com/Barbie-Mortal-Kombat-Gender-Computer/dp/0262531682/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b

oh btw, youll be glad to know that my local public library has both the books i mentioned filed in the "young adult" section, which considering i just read a whole bunch of stuff about the atari dudes getting super high all the time and trying to get secretaries to join them in the hot tub for business meetings seems about right.

i can recommend this wholeheartedly:

http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2006/09/mgsbookcoverksjnfjkn.jpeg

the cassel book is TERRIBLE like think of that calvin and hobbes strip about academic writing and then make it 10000000000% time more patronizing and subcompetent. tracy fullerton has a book about game design that offers the same perspective w/o being y'know THE WORST

everything bad is good for you is great but its not really about games

To be honest, I haven't read the Cassel. But I've seen it cited all over the place.

my god, I think the cover for that Cassel book has killed my brain cells

Looking at the 2004 afterword to 'Trigger Happy' I note it's another place in which Poole has used that one Adorno comparison, which I think I've now seen him use in three different places

I liked Masters of Doom. Really great if you remember that time in the early 90s when you could get Apogee demos on 3.5" diskettes at the counter of Babbage's or from the local BBS

i was kind of too busy watching saturday morning cartoons and learning how to do math.

too bad, junior. you missed out on the thrill that was when Xwing was first released

Via a Freaky Trigger post, just read Grand Thieves & Tomb Raiders: How British Video Games Conquered the World which, despite the title, is mainly about 80s home coding stuff. V.readable, if not as deliciously pulpy as Masters of Doom.

I finally have access to an academic library; kinda tempted to read economic histories of Korean eSports.

Would totally be put off even looking at that book just because of the cover. However, as my subscription to Retro Gamer Magazine will attest, I never tire of reading about/reading interviews with the bedroom coders of the 80s/90s.

Ha I have that subscription too

I have noticed that there is a book coming out on Sega/Nintendo called Console Wars, but are there any good historical overviews on the industry?