Customer Reviews

The Black Art of Video Game Console Design

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3 star:		(3)
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Some background on me:

I have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science. I'm also a professional software engineer in the video game industry.

In my education, I had a few classes on electronics/digital circuits and I loved it. I started doing my own circuits outside of class and buying digital ICs to add to my toolkit. Over the years, I'd lost touch with that side of myself and the joy that it gave me. Then I found this book, "The Black Art of Video Game Console Design".

This book is basically an abridged EE (Electrical Engineering) degree with a focus on video game consoles! And the kicker is that you're being instructed by one of the most "readable" authors around. By "readable", I mean that the author has a way of teaching you things as if it was your friend, sitting next to you, turning complicated subjects into an easy-to-understand, entertaining, data stream. The information is clear and the tone is upbeat and occasionally humourous.

As I read through the book, I was hitting everything that I learned in months and months in the classroom, but without all the fuss and only the relevant information. Resistors, capacitors, diodes, truth tables, timing diagrams, etc, it's all there. Then, the author jumped into complicated areas such as joysticks, sound, microprocessors, assembly language, the NTSC (standard TV) video signal (just to name a few). Finally, there we were at the pinnacle of the mountain, the culmination of all our learning, and here's where the real "Black Art" of the book kicks in, the full process of designing a video game console.

In today's hardware driven world, this book should be on every game programmer's shelf, whether they're a hobbyist or a seasoned veteran.

Andre LaMothe is an amazing guy, no question about it. He tends to write huge books, and the amount of material he fits into them is superlative. He's obviously got a passion for what he does, and that passion is certainly revealed in his writing style. He's a guy who never lost that simple love of video games.

Perhaps it's his sheer enthusiasm that makes him seem to sometimes write too quickly. A few minutes spent with The Black Art Of Video Game Console Design brings this tendency to light: I don't know how long it took to write this book, but I imagine the author was under some pressure to get it finished before some kind of deadline, because there are the typical signs of a book that didn't get properly edited. There are occasional typos and punctuation glitches, but more worrisome is the potential for factual errors. For example, an early and very glaring inaccuracy is the claim on page 66 that most electronics solder is 60% tin and 40% flux. In reality, typical solder is 60% tin and 40% *LEAD*, not flux; the flux burns and evaporates away from the solder once the solder has been melted. Yeah, it's a small detail, but any technical editor should have caught that one a mile away.

On a larger scale, however, LaMothe's enthusiasm propels the book forward at a speed not typically seen in how-to books. Comprising almost a thousand pages, this is already a pretty massive book, but the amount of material LaMothe crams into that space is remarkable. The first few chapters are something you have to see to believe, each chapter condensing basically an entire college electronics class' worth of material into around 50 pages. While this means that, in a sense, the book is a good value because it provides a lot of material, this compression obviously comes at a price: Some concepts were just not meant to be explained in a single paragraph, and the book falters multiple times trying to explain something as quickly as possible when the concept would really have benefited from some elaboration.

The result is a book that often makes me wonder what audience would most benefit from it. The first few chapters are all about electronics, and are written on a level that would benefit someone with literally no background in electronics at all. However, the focus of the book is on console design, not EE, and there are better books out there for the person who just wants to learn electronics. This, combined with the fact that you really can't (and probably shouldn't try) to learn the entire field of electronics in one night, leads me to believe that anyone approaching this book should probably have some thorough grounding in electronics technology before you actually start reading the book. Once you get past the first half and into the really game-focused material, the book comes into its own, but a majority of the material here would be better read elsewhere.

So ultimately, this is a book with a HUGE amount of material that you can learn a lot from, and if you really want to buy just one book, it's hard to find a better value than this. But if you want a truly broad-based education in electronics, you'll need to do some heavy supplementing with other books before you can get the most benefit out of this one.

In today's world of high-tech computer games, the art of gaming hardware is a lost art...reserved for those with millions of dollars and a PhD in Electronic Engineering. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would get to learn it.

But Andre' changed all that. With this book, I have been able to learn all about the black art of electronics and gaming consoles. I have no PhD, no degree in any kind of electronics...and yet I now feel like I know enough to jump into my own console projects after reading this book.

Andre' is brilliant in the way that he writes with the average reader in mind. None of this "high-tech" speak where the author seems like he's trying to impress himself with all he knows...Andre' tells it like it is...and suprisingly enough, it wasn't as difficult to learn as I thought it was.

He starts out with basic electronic theory, then moves into the art of Analog programming (its a bit of a brain-buster at first, but analog electronics always were...when you get into the digital realm, you'll see how much easier it is). He then jumps into digital theory and explains chips, logic gates, etc. And to keep the pace flowing he throws in fun chapters about how to solder or how printed circuit boards are made. Then he gets into the good stuff: he talks about microchips and microcontrollers, RAM and ROM, and everything that a computer contains. He even teaches you how to software render a TV's NTSC signal!

Then my favorite chapter...he takes all that you've learned thus far and shows you how to make simple computers based on the old Z80 chips and 6502 chips (the NES and Atari2600 were both based on this).

And last but not least, he takes you thorough the building of his personally designed system, the XGameStation. After all is said and done, you come out of it with an extensive knowledge of game console hardware design. Simply amazing!

For goodness sakes, get this book! It will blow your mind!

I am not going to give a quick rundown of this book, many others have already done that in the reviews. I want to tell you what the book can enable you to do. I was a hardware hacker back in the day when WOZ was hackin the Apple II. I hacked my way into being a programmer and sold my soul to business software.

I wanted to return to my roots and be able to do what the WOZ did with the Apple 1. After surfing the net I came across this book and the XGameStation. With it I have learnt the basic electronics needed to produce a gaming system. I have in fact built my very own video game console and am now programming PacMan for it.

This was all made possible by the information in this book. If the book didn't have it, it told me what to look up with regards to other IC's timings speed etc. Thus providing the Keys for me to unlock those doors that remained hidden until now.

Simply put this book is truly the 'Keys to the Kingdom' of video Game Console Design. I can say that because I have made my own Game Console and I know it to be true.I completely taught myself and I am not an EE student but just a hacker/hobbiest. I highly recomend this book for any beginner or EE student/hacker interested in designing their own Video Game Console.

If your new to electronics Andre' gives you crystal clear basic teaching for you in this book so don't be afraid and have some fun.

Mike

At least a book about the most obscure aspect of game programming: hardware designed to play.

This book gives a unique glimpse to the stuff needed to build your own game machine, the decissions you need to made, why to take certain paths in your designs and so on... even it gives you a very good primer on electronics and semiconductors.

Given the great number of Atari homebrewers out there, this book arrives just in time to create a whole new scene... a scene in which not only you will make your own games.. but the very machine they run on!

Definitely, a must have.

I've been a programmer for years but have never found EE very easy to get into. The learning curve is definitely not the same as setting up a DirectX app! My fascination with video game hardware has always kept me curious though, and this book is what finally made it all click.

In only a short time I've gone from being a complete electronics newbie to building real, functional devices with logic gates, state machines, ALUs, and so on. This book takes you so much farther than that, though. ALL of the aspects of building a real, working video game console are explained, from power regulation to generating a TV signal. I feel comfortably conversational in all of these topics now, and am steadily working towards the point where I can build my own game machine totally from scratch (my ultimate goal). I never would have learned so much so fast without this book.

There really is nothing else like this, and being a fan of Lamothe's game programming books for years, this couldn't have come from a better source. The unintimidating writing style makes the topics so much easier than the textbooks I had tried my hands on previously. If you have any interest in learning EE and hardware at all, this book is 100% recommended.

I'm amazed by how far my knowledge of hardware has advanced through reading this book. Even though I'm less than half way through I have to say I'm really enjoying absorbing all the information provided. Having flicked through the later chapters I think the best is yet to come :)

If you're a complete beginner when it comes to hardware you'll certainly find this book useful. Even those already familiar with building circuits will find recovering hardware design with the specific purpose of designing a "game console" useful.

Not only does it teach you about hardware components, it provides information on how each component functions, information that is critical if you plan to design your own hardware circuits rather than build other peoples.

AFAIK this is the first and only hardware related book that teaches you everything needed to design and build your own game console and it does a very good job of it.

Highly recommended to anyone even slightly interested in hardware.

I have been a long fan of Andre' LaMothe since forever.

About two years ago, I got a huge interest in learning electical engineering because I wanted to build my very own "Retro Computer". A computer that would be on par with Commodore 64 and Atari 800. Anyway, after searching the Internet, I stumbled on Andre's site (...) The XGamestation (XGS) is a game console that Andre' designed for learning. The complete design and how everything works is in this book. If you know a little about programming, you can take this book and literally design/build your own computer or game console.

He first starts on atomic theory and how electricty works. Then he gets into resistors, capicitors, etc. Plus, he walks through several full designs of 6502 based (plus Z80, etc) computers.

Another thing, chapter 9 and 11 are worth the price of the book alone. I kid you not. I learned SO much in those two chapters that I am now at the point of building COLOR video circuits using hardware and software tricks to get some interesting results.

This is some advanced stuff but anyone with a knowledge for learning can grasp it pretty quickly.

I HIGHLY recommend this book. Even if you don't want to actually build a game console, this book will give you a lot more understanding and respect for the people who have designed the Atari 2600, the Nintendo NES and even the XBox.

cbmeeks

I am always amazed how one person can know so much, learn new things and write <<2 000>> page book--and still produce accurate information that any hobbiest can pickup, without burning out! I wonder if Lamothe's next book is going to top his last? This one, just like Tricks 3D, is not for the faintheart but for the passionate individual that wants to learn how things are done in this world.

I'm in school for Electronics and I am shocked at how much information is packed into a single chapter. I think I learned more reading half of this book than in a year of schooling (as far as practical matters go). I have much to say but I should ramble no more... just buy it man! You won't be disapointed.

This book is simply awesome (and long overdue). I am glad that Andre is the type that he loves to share knowledge and goes through the trouble of compiling "all" necessary information into a single resource for the general public. For that I thank him a trillion times over.

Those of you that have any of Andre's previous books know that you won't be disappointed with his latest creation. So, much information I don't even know where to begin, but at a high level, I am a person that wanted to know more about hardware and in particular about game devices.

That stated, this book gives me everything I need to be an effective hardware guru. From Boolean Algebra and Digital Logic to simple circuits, microprocessors, and microcontrollers. I even get a taste of systems old and new (Commodore/Apple II to Xbox). The Assembly section/chapter was also a nice refresher for me and got me juiced up for even more information.

In short, Amazon needs to bump up their rating system to include more stars so authors like Andre and their works of art can get the true credit they deserve. I highly recommend this book for anyone that is interested in the internal workings of today's hardware devices (in particular game hardware devices).

And don't forget to checkout the goodies, including the XGS systems on his website where you can actually construct and write games for the device. And of course, share your killer games on this platform with other XGS owners ;)