The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon--The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World

When I was younger, I loved playing video games especially during the 1990s and early 2000s. I can even remember how, mainly during the sixth generation of consoles, my own addiction to the history and people of the video game industry. I could not get enough of it, even if I knew that I would never get to play many of the most popular games. With a book like The Ultimate History of Video Games, from the earliest days of arcades and the first consoles to the launch of Xbox, a great story is told. As the title of the book implies, the entire history of the video game industry is looked at. The first half of the book is pretty heavy on Atari. Nolan Bushnell plays a big part in Atari's early success. Many details are included such as Atari's internal affairs and how the budding industry got onto its feet. This led to the so-called golden age of video and arcade games in the early 1980s. After the North American video game crash in 1983, it would take a company from Japan, Nintendo, to rescue home video gaming. The rise of Nintendo is detailed in the book along with its fierce competition with, and eventual dominance of, Sega. The book ends with the release of three major consoles in the early 2000s: Sony's PlayStation 2, Nintendo's GameCube, and Microsoft's Xbox. Throughout the book, many individuals who played key parts in video game history are looked at and even interviewed. Many gamers have probably heard of men like Ralph Baer, Nolan Bushnell, and Shigeru Miyamoto, but many others played part not only in designing games but also the executives who ran companies. Not only are the major points in video game history looked at but also the minor side events that marked the way. Controversy is no stranger to video games and the book looks at the two times the U.S. Senate held hearings on the matter. Companies would sue each other, or at least threaten, for a variety of reasons. I thought this book was an excellent history of video games for the period of time it covered. Although the previous twelve years are not covered due to when this book was published, the historical information available is invaluable. My only disappointment with the book was that I felt too much coverage was given to Atari and not enough to other companies at the time, such as Coleco. However, the sheer amount of information available more than made up for it. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of video games.

I just finished this book. I was engrossed. I'm not sure if Kent is ever planning on a "Volume 2," but I'd love to see it. Kent's book reads like more than a chronology of events. His book is full of great stories. While it's a top-down history, it's also personal and intimate (except in the later chapters). It's full of humor, trivia and nostalgia. Don't let the publication date discourage you. While the book ended back in the early 2000s, it hasn't aged at all. It could have been written today. My only complaint is that the final chapters seemed a little rushed. The last chapters covering the mid-90s on seemed a little too rushed. Lots of factoids about release dates and sales figures, but fewer of the compelling and entertaining tales and characters that the first part of the book offered. But this is a very minor gripe, though. Buy this book.

While I was never an arcade rat (born in 1981), I can remember playing on an Atari 2800, and the love for console gaming has never ceased. It had been a goal of mine to finally pick up video games history book, and this is the one I chose. Before writing this review, I read through a few others to see if anyone shared my views, and they have. Like other readers suggested, the majority of this book is fantastic and detailed. It's all you want to know about the rise and fall of Atari, and their interwoven relationships with other gaming companies (i.e. Namco, etc) and prominent figures of today (i.e. Steve Jobs, etc). Also detailed is Japan's introduction into the American arcade market, most specifically Nintendo. No detail is left out. I loved reading about the work atmosphere of early Atari, how they made more money than they knew what to do with in such a short amount of time, and the crucial decisions they made early on to advance the arcade and home video game market. It's really hard to get a feel on whether Nolan Bushnell was a genius or simply lucky. Also great were the risks that Nintendo made to break into the American market, along with their determined positioning behind the team of Arakawa and Lincoln. However, when you get up to around the mid-1990's, the book falters tremendously based on what came before it. The last decade of video game history up to this book's publishing isn't well represented with the behind-the-scenes info that you've become used to from early in the book. Like someone else said in their review, it felt rushed, but it also felt as if the author wasn't anywhere near as well versed about recent happenings in the industry. You'll realize quickly that when you get to the launch of the original Playstation and Saturn, you've only got 2 or 3 chapters to go. While I wouldn't call this the "ultimate" history because of the lack of detail in more recent times, it definitely is the ultimate history of video games from their inception up to the 16-bit era. That's why I still give it 4 stars, because it's really good reading for those interested.

This book was previously published as simply "From Pong to Pokemon and Beyond...The Ultimate History of Video Games: the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world" (without the "volume 1"), and had different cover art, and with the 2021 release of volume 2, this has been reskinned so that both books look like they belong together on a bookshelf. If you frequently buy books on the subject of video game history, you may want to make sure you don't already have the original 2001 edition before buying the "volume 1" edition. That said, this excellent book covers the history of video games prior to 2001 very thoroughly, and anyone with an interest in video game history will almost certainly find it to be a good read.

If you've read the other reviews first, they say it all. This book is brilliant, well researched, and covers pretty much all you would want it to. It is written in a riveting fashion too- If you love video games and its history, you just won't want to put it down. It is without doubt the best book you can buy on video games, from a quality of how it's written, and information point of view. However, I put the book 'High Score!- The Illustrated guide' slightly higher, as I love the coffee table layout, and the many beautiful and rare photographs.Comparing the two is very hard; they are different styles of book really, one with depth, one with style. I personally found it impossible to pass up either once I knew they existed. Together, you have the best set of video game guides, and two of the four 'must own' books on video games available. (Ultimate guide, High Score Illustrated Guide, Phoenix: Fall and Rise of Video Games, Game Over: Nintendos History). If you are picking only one book on video games for your shelf however, it's definately down to the first two- Dependant on whether you need the full depth story or great photographs. I can't see any fan on gaming history passing up either. Just wonderful.

Combine Leonard Herman's accurate but dry Phoenix with the intimacy of David Sheff's Game Over and you've got The Ultimate History of Video Games, the best account of video game history to date. Numerous anecdotes from the people who made the games that made history--from Atari's Al Alcorn and Nolan Bushnell through to Square's Hironobu Sakaguchi and Sony's Kaz Hirai--give the book an personal, friendly tone. Gamers should note that this is a reprinted but noticably improved version of Kent's self-published The First Quarter, with a full index, more photographic examples, a more attractive layout, and the removal of all the confusing typos and minor errors (sadly, the original book's clever title was removed as well, but the amended facts are worth it). Ultimate History's conversational tone, broad scope, and authoritative direct quotes make it very compelling as a narrative but just as useful as a reference. Along with David Sheff's Game Over, it's an entertaining must-read for students of gaming history.

The world of video games today is a trillion dollar industry with many facets, and in the early 80s and late 70s was smaller but certainly a world with potential and an industry designed to print money. While this book covers most of the scope - it leaves a few areas of the market, such as early PC games and point-and-click adventures - what it covers is very complete and very accurate. Good read.

Anybody over the age of 18 will remember the classic arcade games that raked in billions of dollars in quarters (or later, their video console and home computer translations) - Donkey Kong, Defender, Asteroids, Battlezone, Space Invaders - the list is almost endless. And the companies that produced them were as well known as major league sports teams: Atari, Midway, Williams, Electronic Arts, Commodore, etc. This book chronicles the fascinating story of the birth and evolution of the video game industry, from the pre-video arcade games to the modern high res computer games. It's large, about 600 pages,but it reads more like a fast paced novel than an encyclopedia, and contains just enough information to keep the narration interesting without getting bogged down in minor details. As the title indicates, this book covers it all, and it does so with an insider's perspective, Kent having reconstructed the full story from hundreds of interviews with the major players. It's also full of interesting insights and anecdotes about the games, their creators, and the founders and movers of the industry. Ever wonder where the strange title Donkey Kong came from? Did you know there was a military training version of Battlezone? Which video game resurrected a dying arcade industry? The business, as well as the technical, side of the video game history is covered, with stories about the wheeling and dealing that took place to launch and maintain the companies, and the reasons behind the successes and failures. I thought I'd read a little bit of this book at a time, but ended up plowing through it, it was that engrossing.

Fun read. Delivered as described.

Finally the videogame industry has a book worthy of its association. While Trigger Happy by Steven Poole is a interesting read in its own right, it is book aimed at trying to distinguish what exactly is at the heart of a computer game. The Ultimate History of Video Games, however, is just that. An exhaustive biography of how the industry grew from the early seventies with Nolan Bushell and Atari right through to the latest battles between Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, virtually no stone is unturned. Kent's exploration through the twenty five years of the industry reveals so much about the companies and the people who nurtured its growth: the 'work less, think hard' mentality of early Atari, the humble beginnings of Nintendo in the U.S., the moral outrage over such games as Doom and Mortal Kombat and so on. What I didn't realise before reading this book was how self-destructive the industry has been. As you will discover, the number of law suits filed against rival companies over patent issues is phenomenal and Kent highlights a number of these. There is so much crammed into this book that it's difficult to pinpoint a highlight. The entire book is a highlight. It is a little unfortunate that Kent's book does not focus on the industry within Britain (such as the rise and fall of Clive Sinclair and Wipeout, the game that really launched the PlayStation in the UK). This is not a criticism though, as the author is based in the U.S., but it would have been nice to see a little more of the influence the U.K has had rather than just reading about Rare's exploits during Donkey Kong Country and silicon graphics. If you are a serious gamer interested in the heritage of videogame industry then this is an absolute must. Despite weighing it at a hefty 600 pages I was gripped throughout.

Il libro di Kent è consigliato per chiunque sia interessato alla parte storica dei videogames. Partendo con un capitolo (a sorpresa molto interessante) che parla del flipper (pinball) va avanti fino agli "annunci" delle console 128bit. I paragrafi si leggono benissimo ed includono le storie dietro la creazione, non tanto dell'aspetto tecnico dei giochi, quanto di fatti ed evoluzioni che hanno portato al concepimento di macchine e successi (ed insuccessi), con numerose citazioni di gente del settore. Forse mezza stellina in meno data da una specie di sensazione di disorientamento per i lettori europei (o meno "esperti"). Ma va ricordato che in effetti la storia dei videogiochi è iniziata e si è evoluta proprio in USA oltre che ovviamente in Giappone e che per alcuni anni il vecchio continente non è stato un vero e proprio protagonista della Storia dei Videogames. Tra le fonti S.Kent cita molti libri per approfondire. Il formato è una goduria (23x19 per quasi seicento pagine)!

Este libro contiene una narrativa de la historia, es interesante el formato en el que a modo de narrativa los actores mismos de la historia te cuentan un poco sobre su paso por esta industria. Me encantó.

I purchased this book after carefully reading (almost) all the existing reviews available on internet about books that could provide a longitudinal and rigorous perspective on the evolution of the video game industry. Steven L. Kent wrote a fantastic book that is catchy, exciting and easy to read. It has great narrative and offers the right balance between rich details and a digestible amount of information that one can get about the industry. The content is based on interviews and a ton of hours dedicated to gather some insights about the industry. There are some interesting stories and facts that I found in this book and was not able to find on the internet (figures, insights from CEOs, anecdotes, etc.) Personally I think that this is one of the best books you can get about this topic.