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High Score
This book is fascinating for anyone around my age (thirty something) who remembers Atari Video Console Systems, Apple ][, and the space invader tables where you sat two people down.
Many people have flicked through my copy of this book and taken trips down memory lane. Almost anyone who has played computer games will find something in here that they remember. The book is a large paperback full of glossy pictures of screenshots, game packaging, and celebrities from the world of computer games. I can't really fault it on production values (though I did spot one photo of an Apple which they printed the wrong way round).
The organisation of this book leaves something to be desired. You would have thought that as a "History" book it might be organised in chronological order, but not really. It has sections on the 70s, 80s, and 90s but within those sections there is only a token effort to write things in order. Thankfully the index saves the day.
The first section ("Before the Beginning") looks at the pre-cursors to computer games such as pinball, and analogue electronic games. These are as fascinating as the computer based games. We learn that "Sega" stands for "Service Games" and "Nintendo" means "Leave Luck to Heaven". The article on "SpaceWar" (probably the first graphical computer game) was fascinating. It ran on a PDP 11 costing 120000 US dollars.
The section on the seventies is (you will forgive me) before my time. The book tells us about "Pong", the early days of Atari, but I don't think I played on any of those machines.
The section on the eighties is where I really start saying "Oh I remember playing that". Missile Command, Defender, Pac-Man and so on. This is the first section where we can't just list everything in date order. The authors have decided to switch between writing about a particular year, writing about different computer games systems and finally writing about different games companies.
It has a couple of pages on Infocom who did the most famous Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Adventure Game including a photo of Douglas Adams (the author) and Steve Meretzky who programmed most of the game. This game almost convinced me to create interactive fiction as a career.
As another example I played Br0derbund's "Lode Runner" on a schoolfriend's Apple ][e. The authors suggest that this might have been the first game that allowed you to create your own levels. That ability found in Lode Runner and David's Midnight Magic was exactly the sort of thing that got me into writing computer programs rather than just playing games.
What it doesn't have is any mention of British companies like Sinclair, BBC/Acorn, or Amstrad. I was shocked to find that "Elite" wasn't mentioned at all in the index. This is a diabolical let down. Sure these companies didn't sell very well in the United States, but they did play an important part in most Brit's growing up. You Americans might not care that much, but I'm reading this book because it is being published in Britain... No where on the cover does it say Illustrated History of Electronic Games played by Americans.
I suppose it does open up the opportunity to some quick thinking British journalist to write an "Illustrated History of British Electronic Games" as a companion piece to this book.
Another snapshot from my youth.... Page 155, Sir-Tech's game Wizardry had a "faux 3D maze". I liked this effect so much that I learned how to program the same effect into my Acorn Electron computer. And some 18 years later I'm still cutting code.
There are real gems hidden away in here. For instance I never knew there was a game based upon the sixties tv series "The Prisoner". I know a lot of Prisoner fans who would love to be able to play that one... And "Wing Commander" which I played for hours on end on my college science fiction society's PC. It was the summer holidays and I didn't have anything better to do....
The Nineties: Maybe I had played myself out, but with a computer degree, and a job I don't think that I played all that many games in the nineties. Sure - it is interesting to read about the SimCity related games. Of course we have a few pages dedicated to id Software, Doom, Quake, and the related games. I've just realised what went wrong. I get motion sickness playing Doom (and all subsequent first person shot-em-ups) I remember playing Doom during my lunch hour at work and then feeling sick for the next hour whilst I tried to recover.
The Playstation, Eidos / Lara Croft, Lemmings, all get a look in, and we finish with Online Gaming, Playstation 2, Gamecube, and XBox.
The verdict -- a great book for delving in and remembering the good old days and a great present for game-playing boyfriends too.
Alex McLintock is the editor of DiverseBooks.com. You can purchase High Score from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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Lameness filter bypass...
I apparently keep violating the postercomment filter.