5 comments about Revolutionaries at Sony: The Making of the Sony Playstation and The Visionaries Who Conquered The World of Video Games.

1. This book is interesting, but it really feels like Sony-worship. It is great PR for Sony, but if you're looking for an objective view of the great videogame wars you won't find it here. What you will find is some good historical information about why Sony entered the videogame industry. The book largely centers on the Japanese side of Sony; it uses many examples which have been translated to English but discusses Japanese commercials, prices, etc, leaving me a bit confused until I realized the book had been translated from Japanese. Most of the information concerning Sony v Nintendo is accurate but presented in a "Sony can do no wrong" light which I found aggravating. The author takes every opportunity to represent Sony as revolutionizing the videogame industry, and declares Kutaragi the savior. If you read this book, just keep in mind that the author is extraordinarily biased toward Sony, and take all information presented in that light. Then you'll be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.



2. This book presents Ken Kutaragi as the genius who single-handedly created the successful Playstation. It is just not a realistic picture of how a business runs or how a product becomes a success. It needs to include more information about other people who contributed to the product and the cultural environment in which it originated.

   The translation from the Japanese also creates a style of grammar that is just not quite right to the English reader.

   Half-way through the book I decided that my time was more valuable than this book and I needed to move on to something more rewarding (and more entertaining).




3. Your virtually guranteed to walk away with 1 or 2 good ideas about how to develop and market products. This is like reading the play book for the New York Yankees. You won't find anything shocking, it's just a great story about how to break into a very competitve computer games market. You'll read how superior technology, relentless attention to detail and design, love for the customer, cost superiority and a vision to be the best in the world lead to great success. This is the closest thing the business world has to a royal straight flush! It's a quick read, so stop reading this and start reading this book.



4. Revolutionaries at Sony does a good job of detailing an insider's perspective of the rise of the Playstation. It gives a good account of how the platform came to be, and a thorough discussion of the hardware. Sony's business plans, particularly its marketing strategy is also detailed for the reader, and gives some insight into the marketing of the PS2.

   Unfortunately, the story of Ken Katarugi, the "hero" of the book (p. xi), reads more like "The Life and Times of Montgomery Burns, as told by Waylon Smithers" rather than even a semi-objective attempt at accurate history. Indeed, after reading Revolutionaries at Sony, I was left wondering what is this book exactly? A history? A fan book? By its cover, it's supposed to be a business case-study book. As a case study book, I'd expect a wider range of perspectives. Who heard of a case study of a business that quotes the senior executives almost exclusively? Where are the attempts to build alternative explanations, or refute alternative hypothesis. If it is a business case study, then I'd also expect to see a more thorough description of the business environment Nintendo's business model, which Asakura seems to have missed almost completely, is scantly mentioned. Given that Sheff's excellent history of Nintendo is now several years old, this oversite is more than a little disturbing.

   But, if you're looking for a good one sided (Officially sancioned) account of the rise of the PlayStation, and a few of the facts behind the Rise of the Playstation, then Revolutionaries at Sony will do.

   You can read the full review at Joystick101.org

   http://www.joystick101.org/?op=displaystory&sid=2000/12/23/19945/112




5. Revolutionaries at Sony is the authorized case history of how Sony came to enter and become a leader in the video game business in the 1990s. Many people despair about the potential for large companies to produce entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial results from within major corporations. Even more people would despair about that occurring with fast-changing technologies in the slow-moving, consensus-driven cultures of Japanese companies. The latest look at this general subject is found in the well-done book, The Innovator's Dilemma.

   This book is an important case history on the subject, because it both confirms and challenges many common beliefs about intrapreneurship (being an entrepreneur inside a company, a term coined by Gifford Pinchot).

   First, Japanese companies have a reputation for being not very innovative. The Sony entry into computer games is just the opposite, an important innovation based on a well-considered bet on advanced technology and how a market could be developed. In describing this case, the potential advantages of a large company because obvious in terms of creating access to and the ability to use more types of advanced technology.

   Second, the case history is especially noteworthy because the Sony team took the unusual perspective (but one that I subscribe to in The 2,000 Percent Solution and The Irresistible Growth Enterprise) that ordinary people can approach perfection routinely. And the Sony team did just that.

   Third, Ken Kutaragi, the key entrepreneur in the story, shows how being a contructive rebel can pay off. Shades of skunk works at Lockheed! He clearly must be familiar with the literature that suggests that you need to get the team away from everyone else, yet access top talent. He did this by the unusual approach of heading a joint venture between Sony corporate and Sony Music, a subsidiary. This allowed the venture to be both in and out of Sony, depending on what is needed. He was aggressive when Sony was wrong, and enthusistically supportive when Sony was right in its support.

   Fourth, this case is an excellent example of technological vision: Many of the key decisions were based on the expected development of future technology, but that technology was not yet available as the product was developed. If the technology had not become available later, Sony would have lost a fortune. Yet it made one instead. This is a wonderful example of anticipation.

   The summary of the key principles that created this success (over $7 billion in sales in its fourth year -- one of the greatest new business entries in history) near the end is worth putting on your wall.

   Anyone who wants to create fast growth should study this book. It provides many key lessons into the required leadership practices for technology-based businesses in the 21st century. I suspect it will become a classic in Japan. It should become one everywhere else as people seriously consider how to make giant companies dance nimbly with technology.

3 comments about Max Payne Official Strategy Guide for PlayStation 2 & XBox.

1. This guide is very accurately detailed. Has almost every cheat in it. Also the guide has very good info. Bottom Line: Definetely get this guide.



2. When you play Max Payne one of the first things you might notice is the way the blood splatters. It is very cool and this is where the Max Payne(TM) Official Strategy Guide comes into play. It shows you how to get the most from your weapons, whats the best way to take out the bad guys(SPLATTER), and most important when to do that MATRIX-type effect that you can only do on MAX PAYNE.
   Trust me with this guide you will get the max out of your MAX PAYNE. You just can't go wrong.



3. The book is composed of hard to see screenshots with commentary. The screenshots and descriptions are quite different form the Mac OS X version. It was somewhat helpfull but there are sites online that do a better job.

No comments about Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Prima Official Game Guide).

No comments about Paranoia Flashbacks II (Paranoia XP) (Paranoia XP).

5 comments about Call of Duty Official Strategy Guide.

1. Call off Duty was easy enough to beat without the strategy guide. Unless your stuck and cant get past one of the first levels dont buy this. Save you money and get somthing else.



2. It's not badly written or anything, but it's just useless. You can beat this game without any guide, and besides that, you can find most of it online anyway (for FREE!)



3. This game is EXTREMELY difficult without this book to guide you on your way. The open ended game play makes for a countless amount of options available. This stratagy guide shows you the best routes to take and which will open secret missions or new weapons. A must have for anybody looking to spend hard erned money on a useless book for a great game not needing one.



4. I am a pro at call of duty, and have even made AVI videos of myself gaming...the guide is quite pointless...i can't imagine people having trouble, that's why they have difficulty settings...i have teh guide and gave it to my friend...i'm not really sure why people would buy this...



5. The book arrived in a timely manor, and in very good shape. I love the game, but the book leaves a lot to be desired. I think that Mark Walker is a much better author, and should write more game guides; but I am happy with the book I have for now. thanks.

5 comments about Game Coding Complete.

1. I'm old enough to remember awful books with titles like "Graphics Tips from Game Gurus". From the cover I was worried that this was that type of book. But there is wisdom in the saying "don't judge a book by it's cover". This is a very serious book about both the technical aspects of the job, and the serious non-technical process aspects of the job. As the author says in the first chapter "game programming is freaking hard."
   
   There are well written sections on 2D and 3D programming, including an excellent section on basic trigonometry. There is also some good timely material on working within the Windows framework. I would have liked some more material on 3D engines, but that's a minor flaw.
   
   There are two very solid chapters on process and testing. And a very good chapter on techniques that you can use to survive the death march.
   
   Game programming sounds fun and sexy but it's a very tough gig where the odds are stacked against you. Schedules are necessarily tight. Performance concerns are paramount. And the requirements are prone to change as the game play is refined. This means that all three points of the software project (quality, schedule, requirements) are in play. To survive you need knowledge, tools, wisdom, and a little luck. This book provides you with at least three of those four.



2. This is one of those books that you need to be able to read some of it first to understand it's value. I've read some unflattering reviews that said the book was entirely inadequate for an experienced developer and they are right. This is not a Code Complete that encapsulates an entire discipline's wisdom. This is a book that talks about the rest of game programming, all the other stuff unrelated to what most DX/OGL/most graphics "games" programming books talk about. Here's a tidbit, why would a physics system be related to the refresh rate of your display?
   
   Another example, using a debugger and interpreting things by a combination of memory addreses, and assembly is pretty arcane fare these days compared to the early days when most programmers needed to do this to micromanage their allocs and stack calls. Neverthenelss this knowledge is invaluable, and even Mike himself mentions he coded for 4 years before running across a debugger (and I don't mean the common step through, step into stuff). There are all kinds of weird but essential (and interesting) wisdom here that cover issues that you can only really run into on a commercial product.
   
   This is essentially game dev mentor in a book. Highly recommended



3. Game Coding Complete will teach you how to be a professional game programmer. It assumes that you already know how to program in C++. The tone of the book is conversational, and the author does an excellent job of explaining complex ideas.
   
   This book is filled with practical knowledge hard-won from years of experience. I prefer getting advice from someone who has shipped games, someone with a MobyGames entry. Mike McShaffry qualifies on both counts.
   
   Chapter 18, Debugging Your Game, is a gem. It contains many practical tips that could only have been learned by someone who has worked "in the trenches" on numerous shipped games. This chapter alone is worth the price of the book.
   
   At first, some of the topics included in the book may seem random or unrelated, but by the end of the book you realize that every topic covered is relevant to being an effective game developer.
   
   I know of no better introduction to all the topics that are important to a professional game developer. I use this book in the UW Game Development Certificate class that I teach.



4. although i did not read all the book thorougly, from the topics covered in the book. i can say that it is a very good book and a good reference for almost all your requirements



5. As a hobbyist, this book has been immensely useful. I would especially recommend it to anyone at an intermediate level of programming skill making small or medium-size games. In particular, the chapters on initialization, the main loop, and events give a good big-picture view of what a game's structure looks like. If your ideas about game architecture are a bit mushy, this book will likely help you sort them out.

5 comments about Cutting-Edge 3d Game Programming With C++.

1. 3D game programming is about concepts and applications rather than code and code. The modules that form part of the engine that half the book is dedicated to seem to come from nowhere, at least if you're reading about 3D game programming for the first time. No-one likes reading code that comes from some mysterious library. Therefore it is not an opening text on 3D game programming. But if you are an experienced programmer, reading lines and lines of code that WAS meant for beginners would seem redundant to me. Maybe computer science lecturers and game debuggers will find it helpful.



2. Good, but you'd better know C++ and the basis of trigonometry (it's 3D).You can learn 3D programming, but I think you'd better read another book first, like Lamothe's Black Art, if you are a beginner and don't know anything about 3D, before this one. Currently outdated, basically DOS , but interesting. Teach you how to make a 3D-Engine, not a game. I have port the source code to work in DJGPP, v.2.8. for the flat and gouraud demos (Up to chapter 9).



3. I bought this book in a fit of ambition. The first reading was slow going, and the theoretical explanations were a bit lacking. However, I bought it nearly a year ago, and I'm still finding it useful. Don't expect miracles from this book - it's an excellent companion when making your own 3d engine, but you're going to have to sweat for it. Excellent for DOS, but the Windows chapter is dire.



4. an excelent book but i need it now .. becuese i dont have it now .. some of my freind's got it and do not return it to me ..



5. You need to be an avid programmer to appreciate the way the code is organized into C++ objects. This is an older book and all the examples are in DOS until the last example which is in Windows (fun little game). The 3D engine renders to a block of memory so it makes no real difference where the example renders. Unlike books about DirectX or OpenGL, this teaches you the "Under the hood" mechanics of 3D. Keep in mind, DirectX and OpenGL are interfaces and what you are learning is how to talk to DirectX or OpenGL. That doesn't mean you will understand the "Under the hood" mechanics of 3D because there are a lot of math algorithms being used. If you want to understand, or at least try to understand 3D on it's lowest level, you will need to read this book many times over. 3D is just that hard unless your a math wizard. The biggest plus to this book is that you have a full 3D, texture mapping, light shading, 4 point polygon rendering engine to play with. There are no libraries here, it's all in C++ for you to see. I have taken the engine and expanded on it and made a tool for applying textures to polygons and animating the polygon objects for my own projects. That's not to say I completely understand everything in the book because 3D math is that hard. You will gain the most knowledge by trying to use and expand the code for your own use. This is not something you will accomplish over a few week ends. Understand this book, then go to DirectX and/or OpenGL and you will have a far better understanding of 3D and what's really happening. ...

5 comments about The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning (Prima Official Game Guide).

1. I got my book today with the game and I couldn't beleive how small it was. It's like half the size of a normal book and when I was playing the game and needed to look at the book, I had to pause the game open the book read what I needed and then go back to the game and if I didn't get what the book told to do and needed to go back to the book, I still had to pause the game to try to find the right page. The book just doesn't work for me...still gives good hints to get through the stages but a hassel to try to keep looking at the book and then get right back to the game. Still recommend it for getting everything within the game!



2. I always buy these guide books because I am an older adult and need the extra help. I do not like the format of this book because it is long and skinny, rather than the usual 8 1/2X11 or larger size. That being said, it is a beautiful, very helpful guide. I wish it had had more of an explanation on the various weapons and combinatins.
   I'd buy it again, but hope all guide books don't take this fomat.



3. This guide is very hard to use. It's hard to keep the book open if you force it, it will tear apart the book. Maybe it's the size of the book or the quality of the gluing.



4. I read the reviews about this item and started not to order it, but I do need the walk through so decided to get it anyway. It's much smaller than I expeted it to be. I certainly hope they will redo it and make it the size of the other Prima Official Guides!!!



5. The book is nice looking and has all the helpful hints you need to play the whole game without missing anything, but it's awkward to deal with due to the size. It doesn't just stay open so you can look at it while you play - if they want to make it smaller like this then they need to also make it spiral-bound so it will stay open. Still a good purchase though.

No comments about Mortal Kombat 3 Pocket Kodes (Official Strategy Guides).

1 comments about Superman Returns(tm): The Videogame Signature Series Guide.

1. Wonderful guide filled with pictures, suggestions and even a full map. Fun reading and does a good job explaining what the objectives are. High quality guide.