Gaming History Books

Corazon de Leon · PostGaming History Books by **Corazon de Leon** » Fri Mar 26, 2021 10:20 am

Just saw this:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darrenwall/gamesmaster-the-oral-history

Which looks extremely interesting, and it got me wondering if there is any market in the UK for gaming history books that focus quite tightly on the UK industry. It's a field that, academically, I'm really interested in and there are a load of great people working on wider histories of the industry, like Jon Wills(try his book, Gamer Nation out) and Esther Wright. There's even an academic journal that looks specifically at critical videogames studies:

http://gamescriticism.org/current-calls-for-papers

Obviously this is all academic and a bit niche. On the pop gaming front, there are quite a few gaming almanacs coming out courtesy of Geeks Line(I have their N64 book by Math Manent, it's a great package) that can be found here: https://www.geeksline-publishing.com/

And the publisher who is trying to kick start the Gamesmaster book has a wee library available here: https://readonlymemory.vg/about/

How do you guys feel about gaming history books? Would you be interested in something looking specifically at UK gaming culture?

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **kerr9000** » Fri Mar 26, 2021 10:37 am

I had a book I got which was about a guy who as a youngster coded a Spectrum game and sold it to some publisher, I Dont remember the name of the book, I am pretty sure the game he made was called Snookerd or something but it was really interesting it talked about how he got a computer, his computer classes at school, how he started making the game because him and his friends had seen a machine in an arcade and he claimed he could make a programme like that and they'd all called BS so he did it to prove he could.

I liked it as it was a very British based thing , and he also talked about getting more ram and new machines and it made me laugh because it was like '' And I got a machine with 128k of memory who could ever need more than 128k I thought''

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **Jenuall** » Fri Mar 26, 2021 10:40 am

Ooh, thanks for the heads-up on that GamesMaster book!

I like the idea of a book looking at UK gaming culture, I think there would definitely be a market for that sort of thing. We (and Europe in general) still tend to get overlooked when it comes to gaming history with most takes on the subject focusing too much on Japan and the US

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **Cheeky Devlin** » Fri Mar 26, 2021 11:29 am

Yeah I'll be getting in on that GamesMaster book I think.

Corazon de Leon · PostRe: Gaming History Books by **Corazon de Leon** » Fri Mar 26, 2021 11:41 am

Cheeky Devlin wrote:Yeah I'll be getting in on that GamesMaster book I think.

I think we were chatting in your stream about some of the stories and articles that came out of GM last week, Dev. I’ll be really interested to see if they’re borne out in this book, and how biased it’s going to be in Dominik Diamond’s favour with all the feud stuff.

I might, if I ever get a free couple of days, spend a bit of time compiling a list of gaming books, academic and non-academic, and shove them in the first post. Hopefully people are interested in the idea of gaming history, gaming art and so on, to keep the topic bumped at least every few months!

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **Johnny Ryall** » Fri Mar 26, 2021 11:50 am

I have their mega drive book it’s brilliant.

Not been fully through it yet but I got the Zelda encyclopaedia for Christmas and it seems decent too

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **Mafro** » Fri Mar 26, 2021 12:23 pm

Looks interesting but £30 is a bit much for me. I'm more interested in visual stuff so I've got a few of the Bitmap Books visual compendiums and box art collections for the NES and SNES, was hoping they'd do a N64 and PS1 one but they seem to have branched out a bit to cover other stuff for now.

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **Photek** » Fri Mar 26, 2021 1:48 pm

twitter.com/DominikDiamond/status/1375420968965873669

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **Johnny Ryall** » Fri Mar 26, 2021 3:33 pm

Mafro wrote:Looks interesting but £30 is a bit much for me. I'm more interested in visual stuff so I've got a few of the Bitmap Books visual compendiums and box art collections for the NES and SNES, was hoping they'd do a N64 and PS1 one but they seem to have branched out a bit to cover other stuff for now.

Jeremy Parish has some good Nintendo books

https://www.fangamer.com/products/nes-w ... ume-i-1985

Corazon de Leon · PostRe: Gaming History Books by **Corazon de Leon** » Tue Apr 06, 2021 1:17 pm

Courtesy of Lagamorph in the retro thread:

https://fusionretrobooks.com/collections/pdf

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **Zilnad** » Mon Dec 27, 2021 9:57 am

Just got this amazing, hefty tome for my birthday. It's looks like an extensive, interesting read so I can't wait to get stuck in. Only problem is, I'm going to want to replay every RPG I read about and there just isn't the time in the world.

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **Jordan UK** » Mon Dec 27, 2021 1:35 pm

Love Bitmap Books. I've got the Point n Click compendium they did a few years back, as well as the Amiga Visual History. I've also got the Bitmap Brothers book published by Read Only Memory books, which is great as well.

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **Carlos** » Mon Dec 27, 2021 2:35 pm

Isn't a book called 'Oral History' an oxymoron? Wouldn't it be 'Written History'?

Honestly I quite enjoy reading older books. Game Over is the best treatise on Nintendo you will ever read and Trigger Happy a nice chronicle of its era.

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **Green Gecko** » Mon Dec 27, 2021 11:40 pm

Carlos wrote:Isn't a book called 'Oral History' an oxymoron? Wouldn't it be 'Written History'?

Honestly I quite enjoy reading older books. Game Over is the best treatise on Nintendo you will ever read and Trigger Happy a nice chronicle of its era.

I suppose they could make reference to the spoken testaments of people involved in making games ie normally what you'd only hear of you spoke to them, because people undervalue their own experiences, historical value, or for a long time aren't allowed to talk about stuff for legal reasons or just pissing off their employer or they were too busy.

Ana then write that down.

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **jiggles** » Tue Dec 28, 2021 10:26 am

Zilnad wrote:Just got this amazing, hefty tome for my birthday. It's looks like an extensive, interesting read so I can't wait to get stuck in. Only problem is, I'm going to want to replay every RPG I read about and there just isn't the time in the world.

Hah, my sister got me this for Christmas. It really is magnificent.

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **jawa_** » Tue Dec 28, 2021 11:10 am

jiggles wrote:
Zilnad wrote:(Computer RPG games book)

Hah, my sister got me this for Christmas. It really is magnificent.

Excellent stuff, guys; Bitmap Books also make the "compendium" series of console books and the quality of the pictures and design is very good.

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **Buffalo** » Tue Dec 28, 2021 12:34 pm

I didn’t realise that the mega drive book was a limited run. Going to have to source a used copy but it’s a bit steep!

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **jawa_** » Tue Dec 28, 2021 11:14 pm

Buffalo wrote:I didn’t realise that the mega drive book was a limited run. Going to have to source a used copy but it’s a bit steep!

Dunno if I'm being a dum-dum, but... Mega Drive book? What one is this, dude?

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **Buffalo** » Wed Dec 29, 2021 10:17 am

jawa_ wrote:
Buffalo wrote:I didn’t realise that the mega drive book was a limited run. Going to have to source a used copy but it’s a bit steep!

Dunno if I'm being a dum-dum, but... Mega Drive book? What one is this, dude?

If you hit one of the links in the OP - the readonlymemory website - and go to ‘products’ in their menu you’ll see eventually a book called Mega Drive: Collected Works. It looks sensational but I think it was a very limited run.

PostRe: Gaming History Books by **jawa_** » Wed Dec 29, 2021 11:01 am

Buffalo wrote:
jawa_ wrote:
Buffalo wrote:I didn’t realise that the mega drive book was a limited run. Going to have to source a used copy but it’s a bit steep!

Dunno if I'm being a dum-dum, but... Mega Drive book? What one is this, dude?

If you hit one of the links in the OP - the readonlymemory website - and go to ‘products’ in their menu you’ll see eventually a book called Mega Drive: Collected Works. It looks sensational but I think it was a very limited run.

Ah! I see it - ta, Buff! It does look smart and, yeah, it'd be ace to see it available again. I'm hoping that Bitmap Books will soon publish an entry for the Mega Drive as a part of their Compendium series. The other versions for the Master System and older computers are super.

Gaming History Books

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