5 comments about Joystick Nation: How Videogames Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our Minds.

1. This is a great read for gamer developers in between reading other books about vector math, pixel shading, and what not. Sometimes, you need to take a look back and realize it's not all about how many polygons you can cram into your renderer or how many microseconds you can shave off of your graphics engine. This is supposed to be fun, man!

   There are some entertaining anecdotes and Herz's writing style is fresh, witting, stylish, and biting (reminds me of a female version of Neil Stephensen). She makes some observations and remarks that were humorous as much as they were dead-on. The analogy of Pac-man as the all-consuming capitalist icon, for example, send me rolling with laughter and earned me concerned looks from the other people in the library.

   Needless to say, this is not a documentary on the history of video games. You will not find a detailed timeline here of what company hired who and make what game that grossed how many copies. Blah, blah, blah... Frankly, who cares? There's enough of those already.




2. J.C. Herz may be able to articulate herself well, but the subject matter warrants more than what she offers. The content of the book is already well known my any video game scholar or enthusiast; she has no real new ideas or revelations. And there are other books, such as Kent's Ultimate History of Video Games, that are more suited for a person new to games. She is a gifted writer, however, and her use of metaphor is well done. I would not recommend this book to anyone except those that must read every video game book known to humanity.



3. While not as engaging as the competition, this book offers enough to be read. Some of the stories are the same that you see in many other books, but this book does give you a better grasp of the emotional atmosphere of the 80s and early 90s (the book came out in 97, making it a bit dated, but much of the material is surprisingly relevant today). Easy reading, with the chapters being somewhat artificially broken, good for leisure time.



4. Initially, Herz's enthusiasm is infectious, but her hyperbole soon becomes tiresome. As does David Sheff in *Game Over*, Herz finds practically every game and piece of software she writes about to be brilliant and exciting, even decidedly B-grade titles like *FX Fighter*. In addition, the book is full of factual errors. These are not restricted to statements about videogames: while her most egregious error is to claim that George Lucas was involved with the *Wing Commander* series, which Herz also suggests is related to *Star Wars*, she also writes that the 1980s pop group A-Ha are Swedish, when they are in fact Norwegian. While Herz manages to make some interesting comments about videogames, she arrives at them by accident, and later chapters degenerate into undirected rambles. The book's lack of a conclusion demonstrates its equal lack of an effective structure and overarching argument.



5. 
   This is a rich-kids/rich-parents book, in the sense that those who buy it probably will not think for an instant of the fact that 90% of the world will never, ever, play a video game or have a computer. Having said that, I give the book a solid four stars on three planes:
   
   1) Believe it or not, this book is in vogue within Army training circles and has even been recommended to the Commanding General of the Special Operations Command.
   
   2) As a parent of three boys, 15, 12, 9, this book helped me appreciate the "new" knowledge that they have which offsets my annoyance at their being online too much. Every parent of young teens who have at least one computer in their home should read this book or one of the alternative recommended books--it will increase your appreciation for them. On page 117 the book makes it clear that kids have *better* judgment than their parents in evaluating high-tech as well as in navigating cyber-space, because they have different metrics, different patterns that they apply.
   
   3) For my young teen himself, I marked pages 94-97, 102, 105, 109, 118, 123-124, and 129-130. He read those, liked them, and agreed that he would like to read the book. Super!
   
   The book's opening is packed with insights--we're entering third generation of kids, six generation of videogaming, 50 million adults have now been "programmed" by earlier gaming, it is moving us from passive watching to interactive manipulation, and--well before Microsoft got this--it is creating an adult generation (at least in the US and Japan) that is juggling sixteen different information streams at once, with a result that most adults--including US general officers--are in what is called "constant partial attention" mode all of the time.
   
   The author touches upon but does not discuss the offsets of millions (more like billions) in lost-time cost to those who play at work, versus how it changes our productivity. A very nice timeline of game evolution from 1962 to 1996 is provided early on. Somewhat interesting to me is the author's observations that the games and the new computer power have not changed the "basic plots" which tend to pursue the same enduring patterns that Shakespeare and others did...
   
   Relevant to Department of Defense and Homeland Security: on page 35 there is a discussion that confirms my long-held belief that while DoD investments in very expensive earlier generations of computers helped spawn the consumer industry, the time has come for DoD to get out of the unilateral C4I business, and concentrate on improving security and functionality for the generic whole. We must depart from secret unilateral expensive C4I systems, toward open (but secure) generic inexpensive systems that can be thrown away easily while the data is ported over. This merits emphasis--on page 77 the author emphasizes that as hardware and software get fancier, they actually make it *harder and more expensive* to port data forward, and the author suggests that the true test of a new system should be FIRST, its ease of "reach back" to old data, and ONLY then, its ability to excel with new data. This is an extremely important point that I am fairly certain neither CIA nor DoD nor JFCOM take seriously.
   
   Page 41 is helpful in discussing the "wife/whore" mindset that prevents the US in particular from merging tools--one complete set for "work", one complete different set for "play", leading to the obvious point that lots of money could be saved, and functionality cross-migrated, if we could break out of this mindset trap.
   
   Page 89 sums up some really excellent coverage of how the earlier games rocketed in both sales and sophistication because of their commitment to giving out free simplified samples and the open source code. If we are ever to stabilize the world, we need to learn from this: generic open source software, open source intelligence, and open spectrum are the heart of 21st Century peacekeeping and capitalism, and anyone that does not get this is part of the problem. Open source (3) is the key to harnessing COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE (great Google search).
   
   Unexpectedly for me, the author covers the "model Prisoner of War" or gulag/sweatshop of the modern videogame industry, and for those aspiring to working in this field, absolutely worth the price of the book.
   
   Three final points that many will miss:
   
   1) The book does a good job of noting that most games represent a form of cultural imperialism, value-free games that promote dominance through violence, and are not nuanced at all.
   
   2) Boy games and girl games are different because boys and girls are different--boy games focus on violence and take-over, girl games focus on problem solving and peacekeeping. Obvious thought to me: use them to cross train boys and girls with one another's strengths.
   
   3) Games are limited in both possible outcomes, and in terms of who is able to create them. THEY DO NOT PROVIDE FOR THE FOG OF WAR--while useful in terms of improving *technical* skills, they are NOT a substitute for real-world training with respect to *judgment*, *nuance*, and *situational awareness*. These games are lacking INTELLIGENCE in the combat sense. I was reminded by this section of an old Isaac Asimov short story, in which the world evolved to where everyone had to qualify to run an "expert system" and those that did not were "executed." In the conclusion we learn that the ones executed were actually exported to a moon where they WROTE the expert systems, keeping the fiction alive that everything was okay with the machines back home. DoD is in that trap right now.
   
   I liked this book--of the 10 or so recommended to the Special Operations leadership, this book and Marc Sageman's book on Understanding Terrorism are the only two that have been really worth my while.

No comments about Oregon Trail II (25th Anniversary Limited Edition).

1 comments about James Bond 007: From Russia With Love (Prima Official Game Guide).

1. This guide helped me a lot on stuff like bond moments the objectives were straightforward so I didn't really need it there. But the bond moments were hard to identify! I also used the maps a lot to see places that items to pick up resided. overal, a simple but good guide.

No comments about Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse (Prima Official Game Guide).

5 comments about Super Smash Bros. Melee: Prima's Official Strategy Guide.

1. If you need a reason to buy a Gamecube, this game is it. With over 300 trophies to unlock, and many characters and stages of Nintendo's past, this game will keep you playing for weeks. The guide comes with a move list of each character, and ways to unlock everything. Great game, Great guide!



2. This book has nothing except ways to get characters. It can be found on the net.



3. This book is very good quality. I used it to help me beat the game. I remember Event Match 50 and Event Match 51. I used DK for Event 50 and Jigglypuff for Event 51!!!!!!



4. I would like to see a Super Mario Cart 64 book.



5. Sure you could get this guide and waste lotsa money, but why would you? Super Smash Brothers Melee is a game that doesn't require the use of "Strategy" guides because there is no basic strategy to give. Sure you could get it for all the events and unlock the secret characters, but again, to aquire most of the secret characters and such, no strategy is needed for it. Also, there is no reason to teach you and of the combos they show in the guide for each character, it just isn't neccessary. I wouldn't want to go out and buy this guide for a game where getting the secrets and unlocking everything is so simple and easy. It's not exactly what you need, considering SSBM isn't your Tekken like fighting game here.

5 comments about The First Quarter : A 25-year History of Video Games.

1. I've been reading Steven Kent's articles in Next Generation magazine for a few years, patiently waiting for his book to come out. As soon as it was released, I purchased it and read it the next weekend. All I can say is I enjoyed the interviews, articles and historical information so much it inspired me to write a paper on the history of video game heroes for my Business Communications course! Good work!



2. I want to thank the people who were so kind in their reviews.

   The First Quarter has been re-released as The Ultimate History of Video Games by Prima Publishing. This new version of the book includes an additional chapter, a time line, the oft-requested index, additional art, and above all--PROFESSIONAL EDITING.

   As stated in many reviews, The First Quarter suffered from my lack of editing skills. I self-published that book. While my writing skills may be questionable, my editing abilities are indisputably bad.

   Finally, I want to thank the people who bought my book and read it. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing my enthusiasm for video games.




3. This book is one of the most comprehensive tellings of the history of video games. The author puts you right in the middle of the discoveries and events that shaped how we view games today. I have read about a half dozen different books about video game history and this one is hands down the best written so far on the subject. So even if you are not a huge fan of games or havent picked up a controller in years, this is still the book for you!



4. Not being able to find "The First Quarter" I emailed Mr. Kent. He told me that the book he wrote being published by Prima, "The Ultimate History of Video Games," was was a rewrite of "The First Quarter" with a little added material. (So if you're loooking for this one and can't find it there you go.) This was the most interesting book I've read in a long time. Reading the stories and history from an insider's perspective was truely fascinating. If you're a gamer I highly recommend this title.



5. As books on gaming history goes, this one is excellent. It does an extremely good job of meshing together concise narrative with compelling quotations from industry luminaries. Mr. Kent does a good job of distilling the chaotic early days of Arcade games and the eventual boom of home video game systems. His gift is for making connections between seemingly disperate events. I have read several books that chronical the early days of Atari, but few of them provide such a rich background as to the influences on Nolan Bushnell and his band of pot smoking, hot tub soaking programmer-savants.
   
   My only caveat is that this book has been entirely reprinted as "The Ultimate History of Video Games". So closely do these two books resemble each other that there are a number of typos that passed from one book to the newer edition.
   
   Had I known that "The Ultimate History of Video Games" was a reprint I wouldn't have had this so high on my Wish List. My girlfriend search and searched and picked this book up for 75 bucks on ebay. The bonus for me is that it was signed by Mr. Kent...and the signature is vague enough that I can go...oh yeah...I saw him at E3. I don't mind having both this book and the reprinting in my collection and if you to are building the definitive video game history library, you should get it otherwise...I'd say track down the "Ulitimate History of Video Games" and be confident that you aren't missing out on anything in this book.

2 comments about Ultimate Doom: Totally Unauthorized Tips & Secrets (Official Strategy Guides).

1. With the aid of this book, you too can get the inside edge of virtually countless secrets, maps and proiles on just about everything of th game. Warning provides extremely detailed and concise information, and interesting methods on all aspects of the game. There is history, stories and facts that every doom follower should have in this book. I strongly reccommend this book to those followersout there who can see through the great original game and into the great expanse of creativity that was employed in its creation. The profiles, maps and (especially) the stories captivated me. Well worth the investment (particulary if you take interest in the far reaches of the doom universe!)



2. This is a very well written guide for a very good game. When buying this book, keep in mind that there are maps with bubbles that say most of the secrets in the levels. It does not really list too many strategies on how to beat the level. The Ultamite Doom section doesn't even have anything other than secrets, which is a major dissapointment considered most of the harder levels are in the 4th episode. This guide has a few nice resources for other DOOM sites and a Barney Addon explination. One big reason to get this is for the "you must be a doom fanatic when..." Buy it if you love doom.

5 comments about Resident Evil 2 & 3 Official Strategy Guide for GameCube.

1. This book better have all teh pages to it. It better have all the different peoples adventures to



2. THIS BOOK IS THE STRATEGY GUIDE TO RESIDENT EVIL 2 AND 3 FOR GAMECUBE. THIS WILL HELP YOU THROUGH WHEN YOU CAN'T GO ANY FURTHER...

   A NOTE TO THE OTHER REVIEWER: DON'T WRITE ANYMORE REVIEWS!




3. this is the most detailed guide ever



4. The strategy guide is decent but it seems to lack a few things I would like to see. I would've like to see a listing of the enemies and what their names are. I still don't know what one of the creatures is called in RE3. This book really isn't neccessary for RE2, since that was a fairly straightforward game, but RE3 is a mess to get through, especially with the quick decisions that need to be made. This guide provides clear descriptions of how to get through areas, as well as providing screenshots. It even tries to account for much of the randomness in RE3, usually by saying "Depending on ... Nemesis may or may not be chasing you here". Its about as good of a guide as you can expect when the guides are combined.



5. I purchased this book thinking it might be a decent book since I enjoyed the games and the Movie. However, this book isn't really a prequel as advertised. It barely starts ahead of the movie. The first 6 chapters are just build up to the movie beginning. Starting at chapter 7 the author goes basically scene by scene of the movie adding his own words (what he probably thinks they are thinking)to the thoughts of characters which could be based off the situation happening. Overall it wasn't terrifying at all and it wouldn't be considered a prequel since it didn't take place prior to the original movie events. THUMBS DOWN on this one!!!

No comments about Star Trek: Bridge Commander Official Strategy Guide.

2 comments about The Everything TV and Movie Trivia (Everything).

1. I really liked this one. It is compact, the sections are quite complete and it is easy to use for any occasion.



2. This book has a lot of interesting trivia, however as far as finding the answers to the questions it is very confusing. I've been interested in trivia books for quite awhile and I found this one to be the most frustrating to work with. It's really a shame since there is really quite a bit of fun information and trivia.