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

Heather Chaplin (Author), Aaron Ruby (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Freelance journalists (and married couple) Chaplin and Ruby team up for a wide-ranging look at the video-game industry. They dwell extensively on the corporations behind the games, from Nintendo's humble origins as a playing card manufacturer, to the extravagances of today's most popular game designers, who have earned millions by applying their world-class computer programming skills to increasingly complex imaginary worlds for players to explore, both peaceful (The Sims) and violent (Grand Theft Auto). The game players are the other major part of the story, and Ruby's experiences in the gaming community prove especially helpful as his role-playing character becomes intertwined with that of one of his interview subjects in online multiplayer games like Star Wars Galaxies (Ruby writes this portion in the third person and mentions his wife's frustrations with the time he spends online without naming her, underscoring the duo's efforts to make themselves invisible in the story). Much of the reporting takes place at gaming tournaments and industry expos, reinforcing the circuslike atmosphere. A chapter on the U.S. military's interest in using video games as both recruiting and training tools adds some gravity, but overall it's easiest to appreciate this work as a whirlwind subcultural tour.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-This thorough history in eight essay-style chapters begins at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2001 with CliffyB, a 26-year-old who already had nine years of experience in the industry. The story goes back in time to MIT in the late '50s and the development of the first video game. Moving onward to the present, readers meet developers at Nintendo, the creators of Doom, the developers of the Sims series, and players of Massively Multiplayer Online games. By the book's finish, the arrival of video games as the dominant form of contemporary entertainment could not be made clearer than by the embrace of gaming by two behemoths of industry-the U.S. Military and Microsoft. The essays consist of both first-person interviews and well-noted research and give a holistic picture of how the industry developed the way it did. Lots of numbers and facts back up the popularity of video games-for example, it only took a year for PlayStation2 to appear in 10 million homes, a feat that took the telephone 35 years to accomplish. This immensely readable book will have great appeal with gaming teens, but should also be required reading for librarians interested in learning more about gaming and its role in our culture and our teen-focused libraries.-Jamie Watson, Harford County Public Library, Belcamp, MD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Algonquin Books (November 4, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1565123468
  • ISBN-13: 978-1565123465
  • Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #886,223 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Author

Heather Chaplin
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
videogame industry, alternate lives, world builders, game developers
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Will Wright, United States, David Reber, Raph Koster, Rich Vogel, Bill Gates, John Carmack, Star Wars Galaxies, Frank Rivera, Super Mario Bros, Colonel Wardynski, Donkey Kong, Ion Storm, World War, Alan Yu, Booth Babe, Computer Space, Future Objective Force, Mary Kay, Naval Postgraduate School, Stupid Fun Club, America's Army, Electronic Arts, San Jose, Shigeru Miyamoto
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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars This book is more smart than bomb, November 11, 2005
By Steven L. Kent "gamereader" (The GREAT Northwest) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution (Hardcover)
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.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A slice in time of the videogame revolution ..., December 14, 2005
By Michael Zyda (Carmel, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution (Hardcover)
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.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Just a few points short of a high score..., May 17, 2006
By skooly (Christmas Islands) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution (Hardcover)
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book
I liked the book... a must-read for anyone in the industry or who wants to open the kimono on the industry.

[...]


Published 10 months ago by Matthew Heindl

4.0 out of 5 stars Superb Insights and Revelations from Game Land
This book is very well written, with a fun and engaging style a bit similar to other great books like "Hackers" and "Masters of Doom". Read more
Published 23 months ago by Rui Ferreira

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Book about the Game Industry
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... Read more
Published on April 16, 2006 by RossPW

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic overview
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... Read more
Published on February 24, 2006 by Stephen Grout

5.0 out of 5 stars The history of how this country become involved in video games
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... Read more
Published on February 6, 2006 by Midwest Book Review

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book even if not interested in videogames
Although the first book by either of the authors, they manage to keep the reader engaged from cover to cover. Read more
Published on January 7, 2006 by Alexander Whitworth

4.0 out of 5 stars the story of a new industry
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. Read more
Published on December 17, 2005 by W Boudville

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!
This wonderful book shanghais you into the world it describes; I read it in two sittings and my spouse read it in one. Read more
Published on November 10, 2005 by Annie Watt

1.0 out of 5 stars Smartbombs
New Yorker goes to the Left Coast, doesn't understand what she sees and hears, writes quotes out of context and without any insight or understanding into the logic or philosophy... Read more
Published on November 9, 2005 by Kimber Edwards

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Bloody Fantastic!
I'm not really that into videogames and yet...I could not put this book down! It is completely engaging and interesting. Read more
Published on October 29, 2005 by M. Blake

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