Book Review : The Ultimate History of Video Games

The Ultimate History of Video Games

By Steven L. Kent

I have to admit, I really geeked out on this book. Journalism, gaming, pop culture, it was everything that makes me squee!

The Ultimate History of Video Games tells you everything about the industry from an insider's point of view. The author, Steven L. Kent, is a former video game journalist who already had an understanding of what was happening in the industry as he was documenting its growth. As he wrote in his intro though, even he was flabbergasted by just how easily he was able to get people to talk about what went on behind the scenes. And not only that, he was able to get great interviews with the important people, the ones who founded and nurtured the industry, the ones who made it the multi-million dollar industry that it is today.

While the facts and figures are in there, the basic who-did-what-where-when-and-how stuff, the really interesting parts are all the anecdotal stories. While the author plays the part of the impartial journalist, that doesn't mean that the story is dry and factual. There's a lot of colour commentary thanks to quotes from the people involved in the stories. He lets them add their opinions and personal points of view to the details of the story. This weaves the entire history into one big soap opera, full of backstabbing and intrigue. The winner doesn't write the history here, the loser also gets their say.

It really feels that the book has been thorough, not just in content, you can really feel it by weight too! This book is massive with more than 600 pages on 9" by 7" pages. It was a pain in the ass to carry around on the train, but I really couldn't be without it if I had even a few spare moments to read.

The only complaint that could be made about its thoroughness is that it is, like many things, Amero-centric. Only things relating to America and Americans are in this book. Of course you can't talk about Nintendo without mentioning Japan, but the background there is very brief. (Though he does suggest another book specifically about Nintendo to know more about that company in particular.) So there is a big chunk missing from this "ultimate" history. But I know that if he had included more from other countries either I wouldn't have been able carry the book around or my favourite parts, the anecdotes, would have been cut out.

The book tends to move chronologically, making a few side-steps later in the book when topics tend to be more grouped by themes (such as litigation). It moves at a leisurely pace, going even further back than Pong, even back before pinball machines! There is nothing rushed when the story is being told, no anecdote too small to be included. However it does get a bit rushed towards the end. You can tell that the book has been written over several years, with the care that has been put into it. But it also shows at the end when what has happened during the time that the book has been crammed into a single page. The last part doesn't contain the hindsight and thoughtful reflections that are found throughout the rest.

Which is quite unfortunate since this book was published in 2001. There's a HUGE chunk of recent history missing. The author says on his blog that he'd love to do an updated version, but the publisher who owns the updating rights isn't interested in doing that. Which is a shame. It's amazing to have this kind of chronicle of such a world-wide history-changing phenomenon.

Anyone who was near me while I had the book in hand had to suffer through me gushing over it. And probably had to listen patiently while I excitedly flipped through pages to read out some of my favourite passages. Hopefully the chuckles they got out of it were worth it. I have several people already lined up to borrow it from me in fact!

I found this book on a recent list called Books For Everyone In the Game Industry and I can't wait to pick another off the list!