All Your Base Are Belong to Us
How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture
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3.2 • 65 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Through the stories of gaming's greatest innovations and most beloved creations, journalist Harold Goldberg captures the creativity, controversy--and passion--behind the videogame's meteoric rise to the top of the pop-culture pantheon.
Over the last fifty years, video games have grown from curiosities to fads to trends to one of the world's most popular forms of mass entertainment. But as the gaming industry grows in numerous directions and everyone talks about the advance of the moment, few explore and seek to understand the forces behind this profound evolution. How did we get from Space Invaders to Grand Theft Auto? How exactly did gaming become a $50 billion industry and a dominant pop culture form? What are the stories, the people, the innovations, and the fascinations behind this incredible growth?
Through extensive interviews with gaming's greatest innovators, both its icons and those unfairly forgotten by history, All Your Base Are Belong To Us sets out to answer these questions, exposing the creativity, odd theories--and passion--behind the twenty-first century's fastest-growing medium.
Go inside the creation of:
Grand Theft Auto * World of Warcraft * Bioshock * Kings Quest * Bejeweled * Madden Football * Super Mario Brothers * Myst * Pong * Donkey Kong * Crash Bandicoot * The 7th Guest * Tetris * Shadow Complex * Everquest * The Sims * And many more!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This highly informative book, written by veteran gaming columnist Goldberg, is billed as the first of its kind, spanning 50 years of video game history with its zany personalities, many trends, and marketing coups. The video game industry boasts revenues equaling that of Hollywood and a huge consumer base of 70% of Americans playing its games, Goldberg reveals. He details the ebb-and-flow of video game history and stories of its creators such as Ralph Baer, Nolan Bushnell, Hiroshi Yamauchi, William "Tripp" Hawkins, Dan and Sam Houser, Graeme Devine, and Jason Kapulka. His coverage of the development of games like Tennis for Two, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Dungeons & Dragons, Myst, Sims, and Grand Theft Auto will appeal not only to nerds and gamers in Goldberg's easily accessible anecdotes but to those who grew up with these games through generations.
Customer Reviews
Okay read...
I thought this book was an okay read, but I also think to get the most from it you have to have read a bunch of other more interesting and well-written books. "Game Over" being one example.
There was some really interesting history and anecdotal stuff but more it was stuff I knew from other sources and really annoying prose.
I was amused by all the Electronic Arts stuff in the middle of the book, but that comes from having worked there for so long and knowing those people and places mentioned.
To end, I would say unless you want to read every book about videogames you can probably skip this one.
Zzzzzzz Zzzzzz
The beginning is great and then about half way through the book it begins to drag and by the time you get to the chapter on everquest, you just don't care anymore.
Very Good History Lesson
I learned a few things that I didn't know about video game history, and wad reminded of a few that I had forgotten. It was a fun read, and worth what I paid for it.