Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

History Of Gaming Featured In New Media Book/CD-ROM

Posted by simoniker on from the wumpus-rumpus dept.

nickmontfort writes "The New Media Reader is out now from MIT Press. The book tries to shed light on how people have used computers to create and communicate. Also included is a cross-platform CD with original programs from the past four decades, some documented, some running in emulation." With a book and CD including vintage articles and classic titles like Spacewar!, Hunt The Wumpus, Yar's Revenge, and Karateka, this is an interesting, if quite theory-skewed look at computer interactivity - check out excerpts at the official website.

10 comments

  1. Other books on history of gaming by lightspawn · · Score: 2, Interesting

    (please post opinions if you've read them)

    Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984

    The Ultimate History of Video Games

    Arcade fever

    High Score! The Illustrated History of Electronic Games

    I only own the first one, and it's visually striking; as much an art book as a history book.

    1. Re:Other books on history of gaming by veganjay · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I've got the first three, and am going to order the fourth.

      Overall, I like all the books, as each of them is good in a different way:

      "Supercade" has some a wide amount of pictures, however, sometimes the quality isn't too happening. It features pictures of arcade games, as well as home consoles: Odyssey, Pong, Channel F, Home PCs.

      "The Ultimate History" is aptly named; it is mostly text, and covers the history of the video game industry. I enjoyed reading about the history of Atari, Nintendo, etc. Good book.

      "Arcade Fever" covers mostly Arcade machines. There is a good mixture of pictures and text, and the layout looks cool. It is a good coffee table book. The arcade cabinets and screenshots (taken from MAME) are very clear.

      "High Score" is another good one; I look at it everytime I'm in the bookstore, but haven't picked it up yet.

      You can also check out:

      Phoenix, the rise and fall of VideoGames
      Game Over (History of Nintendo)

      --
      jason

  2. HUNT DA WUMPUS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What a great name for a game.

    1. Re:HUNT DA WUMPUS! by JamPaladin · · Score: 1
      Ahh, Hunt the Wumpus. That was a fairly interesting game. You were stuck in a maze, in which every room ahd three exits. Being in the same room as the whumpus killed you, so to beat it you had to find the room next to it, and shoot an arrow in the right directioon (You knew you were adjacent, but never which direction) Incidentillay, the whumpus was some kind of animal/beast type thing.

      I remember ereading in a book discussing programming games for some old apple computer a description of suggestions for games. There was one in which you had to defeat a wizard, which was identical to the game.

  3. note, this is dated 1984 by Khopesh · · Score: 1

    so it can't talk about tetris, doom, civilization, simcity,
    or compare with console games (nintendo came out when, 1986?).

    so when it discusses violence, think violent like pac-man.

    --
    Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
  4. Good C64 books? by CPD · · Score: 1

    I have High Score! and it's a visually striking book, there's a photo of the original Space War machine - cool! However there is alot of material to cover in the history of gaming and it glosses over quite alot in an attempt to cover everything.

    What I'd really love to see is a book detailing the history of gaming on the Commodore line of computers. Specifically the 64, 128 and the Amiga. Does such a thing exist?