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The Art of LucasArts
Gamasutra has a piece talking with Michael Rubin about his new book, Droidmaker. From the article: "GS: Why do you think George Lucas saw the importance of games so early, and why was he able to capitalize on it so relatively well? MR: I think he actually didn't see the importance early. He had to be convinced that a games effort wasn't going to be a distraction. Quickly though, he was able to integrate his personal interest with education and using technology to aid in education, with the research going on in the games group. Making video games was only one aspect of that groups' work."
I assume you're joking ... cuz one could just as well have a book on chess that goes "Move a piece when it's your turn until you've got the other guy's king checkmated."
Pac-Man was so wildly successful in part because it nicely combined strategy & tactics, with pure reflexes. Books could describe highly specific strategies, such as the least-time path through a maze, and more general information, such as the differing behavior of the ghosts, e.g. which ones were more likely to chase you, which ones were more likely to head you off.
The right book could save you a lot of quarters!
--- Attorneys Assisting Citizen-Soldiers & Families -
Memorizing certain patterns could also help a lot when playing Pac-Man.
For more information check out How to Win at Pac-Man.
Ah, those were the days...
Not that it's changed much - most "boss" encounters in games these days rely on finding the "pattern" of attack and repeating it until the big guy falls over.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
In a good way. X-wing was the bomb. Later games would be like The Phantom Menace but X-wing showed us what a movie tie-in was meant to be. Not just the endless disney tie-ins where a bad sidescoller has the sprites replaced with the latest chars.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.