Tabonga | 2,528 Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 I don't recall a specific topic about this - this is mostly for new books about video games - although if you have older books or guides you like please feel free to mention them. This game series/genre is not my cup of tea at all but others likely like it so they might be interested. I have a couple of other Bitmap books and they print most excellent stuff by the quality of what I have. https://www.bitmapbooks.com/collections/all/products/the-king-of-fighters-the-ultimate-history?mc_cid=830edd16a9&mc_eid=6bf7f46a20 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki | 5,079 Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 I have the NES, SNES and Gameboy books they did, very high quality stuff with a nice healthy selection of games with a good box art if not a gameplay image or two along with a decent writeup for the page dedicated to it. There are a few other random sections too to break it up with other history or good facts to dig around. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodysGameRoom | 2,013 Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabonga | 2,528 Posted April 20, 2022 Author Share Posted April 20, 2022 (edited) 19 minutes ago, Tanooki said: I have the NES, SNES and Gameboy books they did, very high quality stuff with a nice healthy selection of games with a good box art if not a gameplay image or two along with a decent writeup for the page dedicated to it. There are a few other random sections too to break it up with other history or good facts to dig around. I have the SNES one and this most excellent book - I really like this one since it gives good coverage to the SRPG genre: Edited April 20, 2022 by Tabonga 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefaultGen | 5,707 Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 Just now, Tabonga said: I have the SNES one and this most exellent book - I really like this one since it gives good coverage to the SRPG genre: Yeah this book rules. I collected a lot of stuff out of it this past year! This book is great too and cheap. It goes over a smattering of cool promos, prizes, and rare items, stuff that you normally have to dig through specialized Japanese blogs for: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4866730269?language=ja_JP. In general I've found Japanese collector-focused books better than English ones, but it's probably because they tend to have more information I'm not already aware of. Lots of English books to me feel written by generalists and not the psychopath specialists I crave detailed/obscure knowledge from. If only someone like @fcgamer wrote books. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RH | 5,186 Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 26 minutes ago, CodysGameRoom said: These are definitely books I've wanted for many years but dragged my feet to ever pick up. I need to start getting a few of these before they are out of my price range (if they aren't already!) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulpa | 3,674 Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 If you want some good video game history books, there's of course Game Over. Zap! The Rise and Fall of Atari is good, and Revolutionaries at Sony is a great book about the original Playstation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki | 5,079 Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 1 hour ago, CodysGameRoom said: I've got the whole series of the regular 8 in excellent shape (cards too) just don't have the 2 big ones, baseball is a rare one to find and mega man I just didn't bother. The step down from laughable ot junior is a bit much trying to read it, kind of painfully bad. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaMan52 | 2,547 Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 (edited) Books about video games: Guides/Other books: Edited April 20, 2022 by MegaMan52 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDIRunner | 2,869 Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 I'm a big fan of video game art books. I have all 7 Visual Compendiums made by Bitmap Books. I also have a few of their other publications including a box art book for the Super Famicom (I want to get their Game Boy box art book as well), plus the Artcade book which is an art book of arcade marquees. I also enjoy the Anthology books made by Geeksline. These are more history focuses as opposed to art focused, but I still enjoy them. Here is most of my stuff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RH | 5,186 Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 Here's a couple. First, there's The Art of Computer Game Design by Chris Crawford. This is the first book ever published on video game design and engineering. I tried to find out what book was the first and after a bit of research and references to this book from the early 80's, I figured I'd try to see if I could find one. I managed to get this copy for something like $20-30. I've never found another copy and I've looked off and on over the years. There is a copy marked as "New" on Amazon but since it's so old and sellers don't post images, I'm not even sure if it's a later edition and I know this book had at least one revision if not more. It's possibly my favorite book in my small tech book collection. Next, there's Final Fantasy V by Boss Fight books. It's simply a book about the history of the game, told by a Westerner who happened to import as a kid, and was always in love with it. I think the author is a journalist and basically did this as a personal, passion project. Anyway, I've yet to buy it but the subject definitely intrigues me. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1940535182 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkTone | 1,007 Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 I had a mario "choose your path" book. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabonga | 2,528 Posted April 20, 2022 Author Share Posted April 20, 2022 I have these two books by Fangamer which are very nicely done: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodysGameRoom | 2,013 Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 6 hours ago, TDIRunner said: Here is most of my stuff. GASP Pat Contri books! You'll be shunned! SHUNNED!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDIRunner | 2,869 Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 1 minute ago, CodysGameRoom said: GASP Pat Contri books! You'll be shunned! SHUNNED!! Not likely, but even so... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesRobot | 6,005 Events Team · Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 I read this in grade 4. Sister gets sucked into the video game and brother has to go save her. I'm sure it's terrible but I read it at least a few times. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabonga | 2,528 Posted April 21, 2022 Author Share Posted April 21, 2022 (edited) 35 minutes ago, JamesRobot said: I read this in grade 4. Sister gets sucked into the video game and brother has to go save her. I'm sure it's terrible but I read it at least a few times. Did you have to fight the Gorn in Zorn? Edited April 21, 2022 by Tabonga 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesRobot | 6,005 Events Team · Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 2 hours ago, Tabonga said: Did you have to fight the Gorn in Zorn? Pretty sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabonga | 2,528 Posted April 21, 2022 Author Share Posted April 21, 2022 2 minutes ago, JamesRobot said: Pretty sure. Well I hoped you saved some of the diamonds! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabonga | 2,528 Posted April 21, 2022 Author Share Posted April 21, 2022 I love maps for games - so I had to order the bundle for this: https://old.reddit.com/r/retrogaming/comments/u884f2/video_game_maps_nes_famicom/?sort=new Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RH | 5,186 Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 (edited) When I was young, I picked this up at a Scholastic book fair. I looked it up a couple of years ago wanting to get a copy, and a lot of people think it inspired Ready Player One. It's less because the author or anyone would know the details about RP1 has said it inspired it but, incidentally it is quite similar. I found it funny that in other corners of the web, kids gave this book a poor rating because it was "a knock off of Ready Player One". Those poor children... IIRC, this book is around 20 years older than RP1. Edited April 22, 2022 by RH 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabonga | 2,528 Posted April 21, 2022 Author Share Posted April 21, 2022 (edited) I used to love ordering books at school through Scholastic (maybe twice a year) and looking forward to the books to arrive (which took several weeks). In hindsight the promo blurbs usually oversold what the book delivered. Edited April 21, 2022 by Tabonga 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
final fight cd | 226 Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 i think this is great book. it was published in early 2000s? its's cool to look back at the prices from 20+ years ago. it also has write ups, advertisements, boxart. it has a rarity for each game as well, though i think that concept is a bit dated in 2022, especially on a 10 point scale. regardless, it is fun to look at prices and perceived rarity from 20 years ago. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki | 5,079 Posted April 22, 2022 Share Posted April 22, 2022 A few days ago I found for $4 the Rovin orange book for How to Win at SNES games. I used to have a couple of the NES ones and it's like night and day on quality. A real difference a couple years made as the writing in this one isn't utterly immature and to the point of humor bad, and the actual material matches the game and is put in a very well written way about it all. I've only skimmed a few games so far and the coverage is fantastic with solid depth of detail, then at the end you get like a few categories with a letter grade assigned and another little bit under each why it got that. I'm looking to grab the same era Genesis(has a few TG games) one too as I think it would be a fun bit of discovery and perhaps the Game Boy one would be too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbowl | 152 Posted April 25, 2022 Share Posted April 25, 2022 (edited) I've got lots of "books about video games". There are much fewer of these made in the '80s thanonce the NES become popular. The books and strategy guides really exploded in the 90's. A good list here (but not complete!) https://thehistoryofhowweplay.wordpresscom/2020/08/27/the-video-game-history-booklist/ T Edited April 25, 2022 by dogbowl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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