Customer Reviews

Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

The genre of history books about video games is becoming crowded. Most of the books are good. All of the books repeat the same stories. Look, there are only so many legends to be written about in a history that is only 34 years old. Every book is going to talk about why Willy Higgenbotham created Tennis for Two, how Nolan Bushnell founded of Atari, how Shigeru Miyamoto explored the caves of Kyoto as a boy, and how the guys from id Software created Doom.
What separates the great books from the good ones is what the authors do next. Some books feel like they were cribbed from earlier works. You know what, Bushnell must be getting tired of every author asking him to recount stories about the creations of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese.
If you are looking for the same old stories, by all means you can find them in just about any book on video games. If you want something more, the field narrows. And that is where Smartbomb comes in.
The authors of this book made some great choices. Sure, they interviewed Bushnell and all the usual suspects, but they also went to Cliff Bleszenski (before his star rose to new heights) and to a host of new faces.
Chaplin and Ruby expanded the old stories--the sign of great interviewers--by getting Miyamoto, Steven Russle, Al Alcorn, and others to tell their stories in more detail than ever before.
I think this is their most valuable contribution. They have expanded and clarified some of the persistent legends. They have also captured the culture of modern gaming and modern game designers far better than any book since David Kushner's "The Masters of Doom."
And then there is the question of writing. Most books on gaming are written with in a straight forward, unsophisticated style. Dean Takahashi's "Opening the Xbox" may have been the most stylishly written book on the topic.
I think, though, that Chaplin and Ruby, talented New York writers, have brought some of the most lively and readable prose to the gaming bookshelf. "Smartbomb" is very, very readable.
It is not the most complete book on gaming and makes no pretense of being such. Chaplin and Ruby are generous about attribution to classic works such as Lenny Herman's "Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Video Games."
All in all, I think "Smartbomb" is one of the four or five best books ever written on video games... and certainly the best book on the modern industry. I highly recommend this book.

This book is an engaging look at some of the movers and shakers in today's videogame production world. The author breathes life into the characters, and she makes you appreciate their humanity, although often her physical descriptions of people tend to be not quite right and sometimes just plain wrong. Is in no way comprehensive but is a quick and fun read on a slice in time of the videogame revolution.

I'm not really that into videogames and yet...I could not put this book down! It is completely engaging and interesting. Reads like one of those perfectly delightful New Yorker magazine stories or profiles that you wish would never end. I highly recommend to gamers and non-gamers alike. You will be charmed by the many amazing, eccentric characters behind the rise of the now massive video gaming industry.

This wonderful book shanghais you into the world it describes; I read it in two sittings and my spouse read it in one. A couple of points worth stressing about Smartbomb in case no one else makes them:
First, only two of the blurb writers on the back of the jacket mention that the book is marvelously written: significantly one of them (Baker) is a major novelist and the other (Spiegel) is one of NPR's most gifted correspondents. Probably not many readers will consciously notice the terric writing, though it will be one of the things that will keep them reading.
Another point, a lot of the significant people in the industry whom Chaplin and Ruby bring us warmly close to are notoriously hard to approach. This says something about the authors' gifts as journalists (and, I imagine, human beings).

THE GOOD: All things considered, Smartbomb is an excellent book. It's well paced and paints an exciting portrait of an exploding industry. Following in the footsteps of "Game Over", "Trigger Happy" and "Joystick Nation" the authors present a dynamic overview of the gaming scene. All the usual suspects are here (Miyamoto, Bushnell, Carmack...). Instead of just rehashing the same stories and personalities found in other books they manage to squeeze out a couple of new gems. Who knew that Will Wright has been working on "Spore" (aka "SimEverything") for 8 years now? Or that he wanted to call "The Sims", "SimDollhouse"? The bits on Miyamoto's family life and a clever retelling of his 'cave games' proved insightful. They also did a great job capturing the inventive atmosphere that spawned video games in the first place. Probably the most interesting (and frightening) section though, featured the American military's take on video games as a recruiting tool. The blunt nature of these conversations and giddy allusions to "Ender's Game" and kid soldiers left my jaw on the floor. The fact that the American government promotes this agenda while demonizing games as corruptors of youth speaks volumes.

THE BAD: As much as I enjoyed reading the accounts of those featured here, the overall aim of the book left something to be desired. While it's true that a Tony Hawk game can sell more copies than a Britney Spears album and no one will know who made it - generating some sort of "star culture" found in other industries won't help. If anything, it will damage the industry. There are already enough megalomaniacs chomping at the bit to earn the label of "the next Carmack" or "the next Miyamoto". The fact of the matter though is that people like Miyamoto and Carmack earned their chops back when teams were smaller, the stakes lower and projects much smaller in scope. Surely there will still be visionary characters that raise everyone else's game but it will most likely be a collection of individuals working together, shaping artificial reality as a cohesive whole. Not very sexy I'm afraid but that's really where we're at.

THE UGLY: This is more of a nit-picky game nerd thing but I found some of the inaccuracies in this book a little disappointing. Crediting Yu Suzuki as the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog is like giving Michelangelo credit for painting the Mona Lisa. Luigi appeared in games before "Super" Mario Brothers, and it's QuakeCo"n" not QuakeCo"m". These are admittedly obnoxious things to point out but it made me wonder if some of the other sections of the book which I wasn't so familiar with were in fact accurate.

Criticism aside I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Hopefully more people will point to this book as a document of the exciting, positive aspects of video game development.

The video game industry is big money these days, powered by a blend of computer geeks and business mavericks who have turned it into a big business - and Smartbomb: The Quest For Art, Entertainment, And Big Bucks In The Videogame Revolution traces the history of how this country become involved in video games. Authors Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby went on a five-year investigation into the history and technology of the video game explosion, gaining access to design labs and business meetings alike: Smartbomb examines both individuals and trends in a survey of models, legends, and achievement.

Smartbomb tells of the rise of a vast new industry in just a few decades. Essentially, it was Pong, released in the 70s, that started it all. The first big hit. From which quickly followed Space Invaders out of Japan and then the flourishing of videogames in arcades, circa 79-83. This plateaued thereafter. But as computing power got faster and cheaper, and disks and memory got cheaper, the spread of personal computers led inevitably to games dedicated to those platforms.

The book also shows the surge of specialised computers, like the Playstation, that were meant only for gaming.

If any of you have played videogames, the book offers a good background on the industry. Key movers, like Nolan Bushnell, are described. You get a glimpse at the trends that have propelled large sustained growth, and an understanding of what the future might bring.

Simply put, Smarbomb is well-written and insightful. The words on the page are enjoyable to read, and the portrayals of the movers and shakers of the industry are the kind of writing you usually find in award-winning literature.

This is rare -- writing about games is usually not very interesting nor does it presenting views that challenges or makes you think. Trust me, I know. I've worked as a video game designer, and read far too many books on the topic.

That's probably this book's biggest strength -- because of the way it's written anyone can enjoy it: gamers, game-makers, or people who've never played a game before in their life.

I read about the videogame industry constantly as part of my job, but I got more of an overview of the pioneers and personalities involved in the development & running of this industry.
The only complaint I had about the book was I thought it should have given more of a background about the 900 lb. gorilla in the industry--Electronic Arts. Even so, a very enjoyable book for anyone interested in how the videogame industry came about & the personalities behind it.

Although the first book by either of the authors, they manage to keep the reader engaged from cover to cover. I could hardly put the book down, although it helps to be in an airport for several hours w/ nothing else to do.

The book gives a thorough history of videogames (both platforms and games), and then progesses to give a well-written, engaging narrative of a MMORPG gamer along with a preview of where the videogame industry is headed. And it's headed more and more towards the mainstream of 21st century culture.

Not only does this book include the obvious things (Atari, Nintendo, Doom, Quake, and the Sims) but it also gives insight into why the videogame revolution--if one can call it that--is so vibrant and why it will continue to flourish.

This book is a great read for anyone whether you are a hard core gamer, a casual gamer, non-gamer, or just intersted in reading a good book. I highly recommend it to anyone. A very well-written and researched short read.