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

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.

Comments

Other books on history of gaming

[lightspawn]

(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.

Re:Other books on history of gaming

[veganjay]

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)

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jason