Any good video game books?

[crazydean]

So, I'd like to get a few high quality game books. I'm mostly looking for something with game reviews, pictures, etc like Pat Contri's Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the NES Library.

Anyone seen or read anything good? Thank you for taking the time to respond.  :catastrophy:

[lukester]

Can't go wrong with this one. I've read most of it

https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-History-Video-Games-Pokemon/dp/0761536434

Gives a pretty large scope of history on the American video game industry up until the early 2000s. Has a large amount of quotes from different executives too. Definitely a big focus on Nintendo of America but there's more than meets the eye.


There's an HG101 book on Japanese developer interviews, I don't know much about it. 4Chan /vr/ board might have a free pdf circulating if you ask.

[ClodBuster]

All the "HG101 presents" books so far. Even the thicc b/w book titled "Classic Adventure Games".

Then, there's Gameplan's "The Encyclopedia of Game Machines - Consoles, handheld & home computers 1972-2012".
https://gameplan.de/the-encyclopedia-of-game-machines/
I've read the German edition and think it is pretty well written with lots of good photos and screenshots. I don't know how well the English edition fares in that regard.

[Punch]

I was going to say Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six but nevermind

I'm really not into review magazines, much less books.

[Sparky]

Great topic. I have a couple but there stored away right now but there older and focus a lot on the arcade games and the artwork on the cabs, that’s what started it all for me so those books get me all giddy when I see them


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[TheClash603]

Can't go wrong with this one. I've read most of it

https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-History-Video-Games-Pokemon/dp/0761536434

Gives a pretty large scope of history on the American video game industry up until the early 2000s. Has a large amount of quotes from different executives too. Definitely a big focus on Nintendo of America but there's more than meets the eye.


There's an HG101 book on Japanese developer interviews, I don't know much about it. 4Chan /vr/ board might have a free pdf circulating if you ask.

I hardly ever read anything and I even more seldom finish what I start reading.  With that said, I did make it through The Ultimate History of Video Games.

It seems like a nice book for anyone, because it lays out enough facts that even a newcomer could follow along.  For someone who knows more about games, a lot of it was redundant, but every few pages I remember seeing something I didn't know before that made it all worth it.

[wildfruit]

The Nintendo adventure books from the early 90s were great. Except when my mum threw them out after I moved out.

[Necromancer]

I've got Paul's two books and a Pia Carrot wank book for PC-FX.  I'd recommend the first two, at least as pdfs as the printed ones are OOP.

[nopepper]

I have 4 Hardcore Gaming 101 presents books:

-Konami Shooters
-Sega Arcade Classics 1
-Castlevania
-Taito Arcade Classics

I think all 4 are sub par, with amateurish art, low quality paper and poor writing/editing. I think it's great to have printed stuff about these topics, and thus would still recommend them, but they are really not very good.

I can vouch for the Pixellence Turbo book by Sunteam, but I'm not sure if he'll ever reprint those. Now THAT's a labor of love.

I also have the Mega Man and X Complete works by Udon and that thing is a monster and very high quality. If you like Mega Man, it comes highly recommended.

[ClodBuster]

I can vouch for Paul's PC Engine books as well.

I don't think the HG101 books are amateurish, but each to his own. I agree that they might not be everybodies cup of tea, and there's of course a lot of recycled content from the website, with some unique articles thrown in not to be found somewhere else (this is especially true for the Adventure game book which has a lot of original content).
Still, thanks to them going more in-depth, they leave a better impression to me than so many other glossy wanna-be videogame books.

This book made me try games I haven't heard of or wouldn't have considered playing them before:
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/books/hg101-presents-the-200-best-video-games-of-all-time/

[seieienbu]

I had a couple of the "How to Win at Nintendo Games" books by Jeff Rovin back in the day.  I remember the third one, in particular, had a section where he just copied all the codes out of the write-in section from Nintendo Power. 

The books are maybe okay for a laugh as they're cheap on ebay...?

[jtucci31]

Jason Schreier from Kotaku just wrote an excellent book called "Blood, Sweat, and Pixels." It's a really great book filled with 30 page stories on a ton of different games (Stardew Valley, Diablo III, The Witcher 3, Uncharted 4, etc.).

He interviews a ton of developers and people who worked on these games and really goes over the hardships that go into making a modern AAA (or sometimes not so AAA) video game. Gave me a whole new perspective on video games today and what the hell really goes into them, what's beyond a developer's control, and the thought process of why a company would do something we don't always agree with.

The part that really got me about the book was about the video game "crunch." The time crunch that developers are on in order to release a game on time. Some companies will work crazy overtime like you wouldn't believe just to fix bugs, make art assets look just right, or implenting some sort of function that's totally vital to a game's success.

[xelement5x]

I really like the Mega Drive Collected Works book:
https://readonlymemory.vg/shop/book/sega-mega-drive-genesis-collected-works/

[esteban]

You want a great f*cking book to read?

How about an author who knows what he actually is talking about... documenting his actual experiences (and not attempting to self-aggrandize or make excuses?).

I ALWAYS WANTED A “behind the scenes, in the trenches, on the frontline” account of what software development in a SMALL TEAM (or even a SOLO coder) was like in the 80’s...

...and this is it.

Forget all the bullshit out there and read this:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18480679-it-s-behind-you---the-making-of-a-computer-game

It’s a free .pdf... if it isn’t easily found, I can find it (I must have it on an old hard drive somewhere).

You can easily skip any discussion that gets too technical (personally, I didn’t have to, because it is pretty rudimentary, but these parts only pop up occasionally).

R.I.F.
READING IS FUNDAMENTAL

[GaijinD]

I've also read It's Behind You, and I'll second that recommendation. Also, I remembered the author had a web site set up for it, and I took the liberty of finding it: http://www.bizzley.com/