Videogame Books

[FreddyKrueger]

I'm looking to pick up a couple of titles from Amazon and wondered if anyone can recommend some good reads - have heard people mention the likes of Trigger Happy etc but not sure what else is out there.

Oh and please don't recommend any strategy guides

[Papercut]

Trigger Happy is a good read. While you might not agree with Steven Poole, he does a good job of really exploring game worlds and gameplay mechanics.

Game Over is a brilliant exploration of the rise of Nintendo, including a great account of how they obtained the rights to Tetris. The recent BBC 4 documentary managed to even an even better job of the Tetris story, but Game Over made the affair famous. Game Over is dated now though.

There is Phoenix: The Rise & Fall of Videogames which is an encyclopedic reference book to console releases.

High Score is an above average look at various American developers, but there are lots of holes.

The Game On book and Relay are style over substance coffee table stuff.

Techno Sculpture is cool photo book of recent Japanese arcade games.

[Brats]

Agree with everything Papercut says. High Score has lots of holes, but it does have excellent pictures in it. It's the perfect companion to:

The Ultimate History of Videogames (known as The First Quarter on the US) by Steve Kent. An exhaustive look into videogames (i.e. arcade games and console games, not computer games). It's great value, I think it's around ?10 from Amazon and at over 600 large pages its well worth it.

Masters of Doom. The story of id software. A really facinating read into one of the success stories of the videogame industry and how Carmack and romoeros differences brought them together and eventually tore them apart. You don't have to be a fan of id games to enjoy. I couldn't put it down.

Opening the XBox Dean Takeshi obtained rights to follow the development of the XBox from basic idea to release. Much more intersting that you might think, it gives an surprsingly frank insight into the develop[ment of the console and a huge operation like MS. Very interesting due to to Takeshis excellent writing style.

[Papercut]

I've thought of some more

Hacking the Xbox is a fascinated read describing how the Xbox was reverse engineered by an MIT student. It also has some nice simple Xbox mod guides, great if you're technically inclined:

http://hackingthexbox.com/

There is the genuinely classic Hackers by Steven Levy from the early eighties, which has a really good section on American bedroom coders made stars by companies like Sierra back in the 8 bit days.

Renegades of the Empire is an utterly compelling read, chronicalling the brilliant, bored mavericks behind DirectX and how they coerced Microsoft into including in with Windows 95. Features a description of debauched video game industry parties, and terrified Sega execs being driven over Microsoft's manicured corporate lawns. I can't recommend this book enough, in fact.

[neoglow]

Found a list of 'suggested texts' I was given at Uni for an essay question we were given about Videogames.

* More Than A Game : The Computer Game as Fictional Form
* From Barbie to Mortal Kombat : Gender And Computer Games
* Game On : The History And Culture Of Video Games
* The Video Game Theory Reader

Got the Author and Publisher info if you need it too.

Would recommend Amazon.
M.