Re:Why did Square request to be left out?
on
High Score
·
· Score: 1
Square didn't really give a reason for asking not to be included. Despite email and letters from me and from several other industry people, and even a phone call directly to the head of Square USA, they simply said no. After months of trying, we finally had to give up. They would not give us permission to use any screenshots or graphics from their games.
I, too, am a huge fan of Square's games. In fact, I even wrote a strat guide on Secret of Mana. Getting permission to print screens and art from games was a major task, and the Japanese companies were somewhat more difficult than those here in the States - which is why there was much less specific coverage of the origins of Japanese companies other than Sega and Nintendo (both of whom were immensely helpful). I deeply regret having to leave Square out of the book. On the other hand, the images that we did include were all with permission or with the tacit blessing of the copyright holders.
Author's comments
on
High Score
·
· Score: 5, Informative
First, thanks for all the commmentary. And thanks for the review. I thought I'd take the opportunity to respond to some of the comments I've heard about High Score! And some of what I think are misconceptions.
First, my goal in creating the book was to make it visual - a colorful journey through the history of games. To do so required some compromises. For instance, the stories (the actual text) had to be kept pretty short. It's amazing how much space it takes to write substantial text, and how often it came down to "more story" or "more and bigger graphics." I was constantly fighting with the publisher for more pages. However, since the retail price of the book is only $24.99, and it is all color and oversized, they quite legitimately refused to do a 500-page book. In my opinion, the book provides a lot for the price and McGraw-Hill was a great company to work with. They all worked really hard to make the book as good as it could be.
I also find some people recommending other books, such as Steve Kent's and Leonard Herman's books. I want to echo those recommendations. Steve and Leonard have done great jobs, and it was never my intention, or Johnny's, to redo what they had done. I'm really happiest when someone looks at High Score! and has happy nostalgic moments - which are mostly triggered by the pictures. In interviewing many of the pioneers of electronic games for the book, I was able to get some interesting facts, some cool quotes and, hopefully, the nugget of the history. I hope readers will find that material interesting. However, it is my belief that the greatest strength of High Score! is in the graphics, and that there are other books that have approached the subject with more depth, though none (that I've seen) covering the evolution of PC games. At any rate, I hope it's not "either/or" but more like "both/and".
And High Score! is far from perfect. There are plenty of omissions and even a few mistakes (I'm embarrassed to say). I'd love to do a future updated version of it with more pictures (I have plenty that weren't used), with some omitted games and companies added in, and with more coverage of the history in Europe and Japan. That will depend on the publisher and how well the book does.
Finally, it is my hope that people will enjoy the book. We don't really attempt to make all that many grand philisophical points in it (despite the tone of the review). Johnny and I each have our own opinions about the impact electronic games have had on our world. (And no, we don't use the term "e-games" anywhere that I know of. It's not in my vocabulary and I don't think it's in Johnny's, either.) But I think we kept our philosophy mostly out of the book. It wasn't our intention to do a whole lot of philosophizing - though maybe just a little.
I do think it's interesting to observe the idealistic philosophies of companies like Atari and EA when they started out, and compare them to the business as it exists today. But, again, the main purpose of the book was to have fun, and to share it with others.
Even though the book took a ton of work, and I really wanted it to be something great, in the end it's not a prescription for world peace or a deep exploration of human consciousness. It's a picture book, hopefully a pretty cool one, about electronic games - where they came from, some of the people who pioneered them and how they evolved. So, I hope people will enjoy it for what it is.
Slashdot Mirror
I have thought of it...
Square didn't really give a reason for asking not to be included. Despite email and letters from me and from several other industry people, and even a phone call directly to the head of Square USA, they simply said no. After months of trying, we finally had to give up. They would not give us permission to use any screenshots or graphics from their games.
I, too, am a huge fan of Square's games. In fact, I even wrote a strat guide on Secret of Mana. Getting permission to print screens and art from games was a major task, and the Japanese companies were somewhat more difficult than those here in the States - which is why there was much less specific coverage of the origins of Japanese companies other than Sega and Nintendo (both of whom were immensely helpful). I deeply regret having to leave Square out of the book. On the other hand, the images that we did include were all with permission or with the tacit blessing of the copyright holders.
First, thanks for all the commmentary. And thanks for the review. I thought I'd take the opportunity to respond to some of the comments I've heard about High Score! And some of what I think are misconceptions.
First, my goal in creating the book was to make it visual - a colorful journey through the history of games. To do so required some compromises. For instance, the stories (the actual text) had to be kept pretty short. It's amazing how much space it takes to write substantial text, and how often it came down to "more story" or "more and bigger graphics." I was constantly fighting with the publisher for more pages. However, since the retail price of the book is only $24.99, and it is all color and oversized, they quite legitimately refused to do a 500-page book. In my opinion, the book provides a lot for the price and McGraw-Hill was a great company to work with. They all worked really hard to make the book as good as it could be.
I also find some people recommending other books, such as Steve Kent's and Leonard Herman's books. I want to echo those recommendations. Steve and Leonard have done great jobs, and it was never my intention, or Johnny's, to redo what they had done. I'm really happiest when someone looks at High Score! and has happy nostalgic moments - which are mostly triggered by the pictures. In interviewing many of the pioneers of electronic games for the book, I was able to get some interesting facts, some cool quotes and, hopefully, the nugget of the history. I hope readers will find that material interesting. However, it is my belief that the greatest strength of High Score! is in the graphics, and that there are other books that have approached the subject with more depth, though none (that I've seen) covering the evolution of PC games. At any rate, I hope it's not "either/or" but more like "both/and".
And High Score! is far from perfect. There are plenty of omissions and even a few mistakes (I'm embarrassed to say). I'd love to do a future updated version of it with more pictures (I have plenty that weren't used), with some omitted games and companies added in, and with more coverage of the history in Europe and Japan. That will depend on the publisher and how well the book does.
Finally, it is my hope that people will enjoy the book. We don't really attempt to make all that many grand philisophical points in it (despite the tone of the review). Johnny and I each have our own opinions about the impact electronic games have had on our world. (And no, we don't use the term "e-games" anywhere that I know of. It's not in my vocabulary and I don't think it's in Johnny's, either.) But I think we kept our philosophy mostly out of the book. It wasn't our intention to do a whole lot of philosophizing - though maybe just a little.
I do think it's interesting to observe the idealistic philosophies of companies like Atari and EA when they started out, and compare them to the business as it exists today. But, again, the main purpose of the book was to have fun, and to share it with others.
Even though the book took a ton of work, and I really wanted it to be something great, in the end it's not a prescription for world peace or a deep exploration of human consciousness. It's a picture book, hopefully a pretty cool one, about electronic games - where they came from, some of the people who pioneered them and how they evolved. So, I hope people will enjoy it for what it is.
Thanks,
Rusel DeMaria