No comments about Frogger?: Ancient Shadow(tm) Official Strategy Guide (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames)).

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.

No comments about Red Steel (Prima Official Game Guide).

4 comments about Dead or Alive 3: Prima's Official Strategy Guide.

1. Strategy guides are horrible. Why use one ESPECIALLY for DOA3? ITS LIKE A STRATEGY GUIDE FOR PONG!!!!!!!



2. I dont know why "nightmarecow1" didnt like it.. I thought it was amazing... I loved it and thats all that matters....



3. Lets face it a Strategy Guide for DoA3 is very lame. BUT it is insightful. Another reviewer said that it's as useful as a guide for Pong. Well they have a point, DoA3 is a fighting game whos objective is to bash the other player. Play long enough and you learn how to do just that. What this guide shows you is how to do it in style, how to take out the other guy with that rare combo, and with some practise do it everytime. If you are like this Gamer, who is NOT 14 and can NOT spend 12 hours in front of his XBOX (though I wish I could), then this guide is for you. Enjoy it.
   PS Rember Pong was the #1 selling game for a long time back in the day.



4. Dead or alive 3 is a very good fighting game. The graphics are realistic. Kicking fighters off clifs, through glass windows, into electric gates, and fighting in water or while it's snowing is really cool. The reason I rated it 4 instead of 5 is because the only thing I don't like about it is the amount of fighters in this game. You beat the game too fast. If it had like 20 to 25 fighters like mortal kombat 4 or tekken tag then It will probaly be known as the 3rd best fighting game ever. Right now #1 is still the tekken series and #2 is still the mortal kombat series.

2 comments about Sid Meier's Civilization II: The Official Strategy Guide (Secrets of the Games Series.).

1. Definately worthwhile. One of the best books for Civ II I have seen. Some really good info. Strategies for the intermediate player to the beginner. Not only a good strategy guide but a good referance as well.



2. This book is the absolute best Civ 2 book. Bar none. It is also the best Civ 2 reference book available. Do not even bother to buy other Civ 2 books; I have read them all and most are a waste of your money, esp. the worthless book by Jason Rich.

   This book has excellent suggestions for beginners and intermediates, and is invaluable for experts as a reference. Many of the details of the game are simply not found anywhere in the game's original documentation, but are explained very well in this book. From this excellently formatted wealth of information, one can deduce many advanced strategies of the game.

   There are a few minor errors which advanced players will eventually notice (eg, page 309 concerning subversion), but these are very subtle and probably won't be noticed by most beginners and intermediate players.

   This book is easily worth the price. If you like Civ 2 (or wish to play and/or understand it better), this is the book for you. This is the first book you should buy after you get the Civ 2 game.

5 comments about Bully Signature Series Guide (Signature Series(Bradygames)).

1. Normally, I have loved BradyGames guides, and have found them to be full of useful strategy, excellent layouts and essential maps to be able to accomplish everything possible in a game. Recently however, their quality has suffered tremendously, and the Bully OSG is one of the shoddiest strategy guides, and in fact books, I've ever come across.
   
   The strategy in most parts of the book is either severely lacking, misleading, or just plain wrong. While the lists of where items are located tend to be accurate, they are about the only consistently accurate aspects of the guide. Times of classes are mixed up, strategies for passing missions and even classes are either nowhere near optimal or are just plain wrong (the main strategy given for passing Shop Class is the exact opposite of what one actually needs to do to pass), and even requirements for how to unlock certain tasks are nowhere near as detailed as they should be. A rather poor job by Tim Bogenn, and one not excused by the changes that likely occurred between the writing of the guide and the final version of the game due to basic strategies being deeply flawed.
   
   But even the bad strategy is nowhere near the worst thing about the guide. This is supposed to be a "Signature Series" guide where production values are through the roof and exclusives are to be found. First off, I'm unaware of any exclusive or special feature that would make this a "Signature Series" worthy guide.
   
   But most importantly, after approximately fifteen minutes of using the guide's maps to find all of the collectible items, the pages started falling out of the guide!!! I currently have a guide that is missing six pages near the beginning due to the pages just coming loose and falling out of the book, and there are about three more that are perilously close to falling out, making me scared to even open the book. In my over ten years of playing video games and buying the strategy guides for them, this has never happened to me, and is absolutely inexcusable.
   
   While the shoddiness of the Bully guide isn't enough to make me not buy BradyGames guides anymore, it is an alarmingly bad production from content to binding, and makes me seriously concerned about the quality control that is currently going on at BradyGames. Other recent guides from BradyGames have been rather lackluster for similar content accuracy and strategy reasons (the Kingdom Hearts 2 OSG leaps to mind), though thankfully none have had the binding issues of the Bully guide.
   
   For now, I would suggest not buying a BradyGames guide without examining its content and apparently its binding quality before purchase. I have never rated a product one star before, but this one deserves that rating.



2. My son asked for the game and guide for Christmas. He and his cousins played on Christmas day and loved it. It especially helped to have the guide to assist with the classes and the different missions.



3. Quite an interesting game -- being involved in not only trying to keep yourself out of trouble but to accomplish various missions and defeat certain enemies along the way to the ultimate goal of being able to pass your finals but to also gain respect for yourself and overcome everything in your way.



4. If you need a game book that has all the info on Bully, then this is it. Literally.
   The binding coming unglued after a little use. One page has fallen out.



5. I was having trouble finding a few things in the game so I got the guide and it helped me find what I was missing, so it worked for me.

1 comments about Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Operation Resurrection: Prima's Official Strategy Guide for PlayStation 2.

1. Since I'm new to console gaming and only have the PS2 for comparison, you can take my comments' with a grain of salt.
   
   This strategy guide here is the only one I've ever used on one of the few games I've ever played through...Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Operation Resurrection (great game by the way).
   
   So with no real comparisons' I will say that THIS guide provided me with just about everything I could ask for. Actually, with the exception of a few treasures passed by this game guide included everything and then some.
   
   The game in and of itself is relatively easy for the experienced gamer (even redundant at times for me). Probably only those who are new to "first person shooters" (FPS) like me would even consider this purchase in the first place.
   I know 'walkthroughs' are available for free online and I used one also just to see how it worked.
   
   Ultimately I found the Official Guide more useful, easier to follow, and perhaps most importantant...fun. It also sells "like new" rather inexpensive.
   
   I docked it one star only because its' usefulness is solely dependant on the player's ability to start with. In my case it was necessary. You, dear reader might think differently. But to be honest, unless you're some kinda gamer wonderkin, I could'nt possible see how you could play this game and expect to find all the secret areas and treasures without it. Even knowing where these areas were I STILL found it difficult or impossible.
   
   btw, there are 4 difficulty levels to the game...Easy, Normal, Hard, Extreme. This guide is based on the Hard setting.

5 comments about Total Digimon: The Complete Player and Collector's Guide to Every Card and Character.

1. This is a pretty good book with a lot of information, if you watch digimon, collect any of the card game, you should find this book pretty interesting. It would help if it had more info about the ty show.



2. This is an exact duplicate of their Card Collector World magazine Special Digimon issue. This is OLD information. I bought their magazine and then bought this book. Since this book is exactly like their magazine THIS WAS a total waste of my money. Creativity is poor.



3. The writers of this book sound like Digimon fans, espeically when one article author describes his lengthy hunt for the original LCD virtual pets.

   However, the proofreading leaves a little to be desired. For each of the Digi-destined, they have pictures of their Digimon in various stages, taken from the cards. However, cards and names do not always match.

   i.e.: Gabumon; Agumon card is shown. A Candlemon card is shown instead of Zudomon.

   The names of the kids' crests are sometimes incorrect, and WarGreymon is constantly spelled WereGreymon.

   This probably won't mean much to the younger fans, however, who get to look at pictures of the toys, cards, and Digimon, as well as a mini episode guide.

   Though this is better if you're looking for an alternative to buying more than one Digmon book (i.e., one for the cards, one for the characters, etc.) it's still a decent Digimon book, if you can ignore some of the glaring errors




4. Even though I am a Digimon fan, there is TOO MANY MISTAKES in this book!If you want a good Digimon guide get the official digimon character guide. There is mistakes in that one was well, but only a little.



5. This book spells the simplest of names wrong and labels Agumon as Gabumon. Its as if it was written by someone whos never even seen the show. Plus on one of the pages there is an advertisement for pokemon! ick much.

5 comments about Half-Life : Prima's Official Strategy Guide.

1. A very thurough walkthrough covering just about everything, and very useful description of enemies and strategies to handle them. My only complaint is that the maps could have been better.



2. If your as tired of vague and unrelated reviews as much as I am, here is the no bull$hit deal. A very good stragedy book as far as the script, very small and uncolored illustrations, but not that neccessary due to the detail of the step by step walk-through. The first part of the book is an extensive stragedy section, as well as overviews of all weapons and enemies. With tips thrown in the whole way through, I had no 30 minute "where the f@ck do I go now" sessions.



3. I got this guide after I beat the game for entertainment. I started to read it and it's a great guide to me it showed some secret places I haven't been to and how to complete some situations in an easier fashion. I reccommend it to anyone.



4. I beat "Half Life" before even opening this book, but I still found it to contain plenty of useful information and tips even for the experienced gamer. If you're getting this book for the walkthrough only, then you'd probably be better off not purchasing it. You can find many detailed walkthroughs online (albeit not quite as detailed as the one found here, but still detailed enough to understand.) On the other hand, if you want to pick up a few new tricks to beat enemies, or load yourself with information on the weapons, beasts, levels, and tactics than this book is definitely for you. The walkthrough itself was very good, although, as I said before, not worth the price of the book. It includes clear pictures and precise details about where to go, what to shot, what to do, and how to do it. Other sections include information on all items you can pick up, and all enemies you will face. There is also a "tips and tricks" section of the book for the game, explaining various tactics that are useful for different situations. Near the back of the book, as well, there is a chapter dedicated to tactics for multiplayer games. Even though I haven't tried playing online or over a network yet, the advice seemed to be quite sound and reasonable.

   I enjoyed the book immensely, and it's a definite must for any serious "Half-Life" player.




5. I recommend this guide for anyone playing Half-Life. The game is difficult, and this guide is a "must have" to avoid getting frustrated and quitting. First time I played this game, I never got past "On A Rail", less than half into the game. I also recommend checking out the walkthrough on the Planet Half-Life web site.

1 comments about Ultimate Spider-Man(tm) Official Strategy Guide (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames)).

1. I bought this book hoping that it would help me find the hidden items that I just could not seem to find on my own and it did just that However when it started walking me through the races I discovered a problem. THIS BOOK IS INCOMPLETE!!!! All I needed was to beat Johnny Storm in the race around Manhattan and wouldn't you know it As far as this book is concerned that paticular race dosen't seem to exist. So if you are looking for 100% game completion don't bother with this book. However if all you want is the cheats and the location of all the bonus tokens by all means by this book.