Black Art of Video Game Console Design, The

by Andre LaMothe (Author)

38 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0672328206

ISBN-10: 0672328208

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&a>breaks new ground in game development by bridging the alien worlds of hardware and software together for the first time!

The Black Art of Video Game Console Design is written for the programmer and/or hobbyist interested in software game development, but also wants to understand the hardware games are implemented on. This book assumes no prior knowledge of Electrical Engineering or Computer Architecture, but takes you on a breathtaking journey from atomic semiconductor theory to the design and construction of basic video game consoles that you can build and write your own games for! Included in the book is the entire design of numerous embedded game systems including the XGameStation systems and much more.

The Black Art of Video Game Console Design with 800+ pages covers everything you need to know to design your own game console including:

• Basic atomic physics and semiconductor theory primer.
• Introduction to circuit analysis; current, voltage, and resistance.
• Analog design using discrete components.
• Digital electronics and Boolean algebra.
• Physical hardware construction and prototyping techniques.
• Combinational logic and advanced integrated circuit building blocks.
• Finite state machine design.
• Computer architecture and design.
• Understanding and using microprocessors and microcontrollers.
• Developing software for embedded systems.
• Designing video (NTSC/VGA), audio, and input device systems.
• Interfacing and communications.
• The complete design and discussion of numerous game systems including the XGameStations!

Register your book at informit.com/register and download the following additional resources (previously on bundled CD):
• PCB and circuit simulation tools.
• All necessary data sheets.
• Demos and source code.
• Complete designs to numerous embedded systems including the XGameStations.

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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Written by Computer Scientist Andre' LaMothe, the world's best selling game programming author, The Black Art of Video Game Console Design breaks new ground in game development by bridging the alien worlds of hardware and software together for the first time!

The Black Art of Video Game Console Design with 800+ pages covers everything you need to know to design your own game console including:

CD-ROM Contains
• PCB and circuit simulation tools.
• All necessary data sheets.
• Demos and source code.
• Complete designs to numerous embedded systems including the XGameStations.

About the Author

Andre LaMothe is the best-selling author of Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus and has been involved in the computing industry and technology for more than a quarter century. He holds degrees in mathematics, computer science, and electrical engineering, and is one of the rare individuals that actually did work at NASA at the age of 20 doing research. His early teens and twenties were filled with consulting for numerous Silicon Valley companies, where he worked in fields such as virtual reality, robotics, compiler design, 3D engines, artificial intelligence.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sams Publishing (December 12, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 984 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0672328208
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0672328206
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.51 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 1.95 x 9.05 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #994,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #322 in Computer & Video Game Design
- #460 in Computer Systems Analysis & Design (Books)
- #667 in Computer Graphics

Customer Reviews:
38 ratings

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5 star		89%
4 star		3%
3 star		8%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
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Top reviews from the United States

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Ronnie Richardson

A Good Read for Anyone Interested in Console Design

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2016

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I really didn't know exactly what to expect when I ordered this book. It was kind of an impulse buy, but I'm glad I made it. While I won't be creating my own console any time soon, or probably even purchasing any more books on the subject, The Black Art of Video Game Console Design was an interesting read and gave me quite a bit more insight into one of my favorite hobbies, video games. I can easily recommend this book to anyone that has an interest in video games that goes beyond just buying and playing them.

4 people found this helpful

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3D developer

The best snack a tech-nerd could ever want

Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2016

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Easily one of the best written books I've ever read. It should have been named "How to be an expert on Modern Electronics for Dummies". It's filled with detailed descriptions of analog and digital components, the mathematics to combine them, the physical/chemical reason they work and last but not least, where to find out more. If you're a programmer looking to know about the real world, this is the link for you. Especially if you've only done scripting or high-level languages. If you're a science noob with a hunger for the ability to do more with your batteries, this is also the book for you.

3 people found this helpful

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Good book but read this first.

Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2011

Verified Purchase

A book with lots of information. If you are new to electronics start with a book that takes it easy and explains things with examples and that has questions to test if you understand the chapter that you read. I would recommend it however because there is a lot of good info on game console design.

I recommend you buy direct from the writers site though. The version sold on the amazon site is printed on demand and does NOT come with a cd. It is supposed to be downloaded from the publishers site but it isn't there. The author offered to send a cd himself! 5 stars for that!

9 people found this helpful

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Atif Zafar

THE RESOURCE for video game Console design

Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2020

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The only book that describes how to build your own video game Console! A classic!

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David Chapman

text book

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2015

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this is a great book for some one that has no idea about electronics not only does it explain how electronics work but what they look like on a blue print this book is not a book for easy reading but its more like a text book for school but its great for learning

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Zachary Martinez

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2014

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great book

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rwrife

This is how it’s supposed to be done!

Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2019

The author is a prime example of a good teacher. The title of the book is a little misleading, he touches on every aspect of electrical engineer and leaves very little to question while at the same time getting to the core of the book, building a game console. If you're new to EE this book is absolutely perfect for teaching you all of the core concepts that can be used for just about anything, not just building a simple game console. My only complaint is that they didn’t use this book in college for teaching EE.

3 people found this helpful

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Richard B.

A Black Art No More....

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2006

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.

30 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Mr L

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 11, 2018

Verified Purchase

Great book. Look at Udemy for Andre LaMothe online course which has some of it based on this book.

One person found this helpful

M. Davies

Fascinating.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 26, 2009

Verified Purchase

Andre LaMothe is a wonderful communicator, he makes sense of a highly technical subject and has the ability to actually make reading his books enjoyable, which is impressive considering the complexity of his subject. Andre's enthusiasm is infectious and he's one of those rare technical authors you'd love to meet.

2 people found this helpful

eSchneider

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 20, 2014

Verified Purchase

excellent

One person found this helpful

Neil

Comprehensive, but hard to follow the explanations

Reviewed in Canada on February 9, 2014

Verified Purchase

I am myself a total amateur at console design and electronics engineering. So when I first saw this book's description online, it held great appeal to me. I was hoping that it would progressively guide a complete beginner such as myself one small step at a time, unravelling mysteries of electronics as it applies to game consoles.

However, after moving through a fair portion of the books contents, I personally have found that the explanations themselves are often poorly constructed. It's not at all that the actual number of concepts covered in this book are lacking, but rather the issue of concern is that the explanations themselves are, for the most part, inadequate.

Sometimes the explanations I read were too technically worded and did not translate at all into layman's terms. Other times they were just too concise, not providing enough detail. And then there were other explanations which provided excessive detail, which actually distracted from the core concept or topic which the explanation originally addressed.

If I didn't understand a particular explanation, then I quickly became helplessly lost in subsequent material, which builds on an assumed understanding of the previously explained content. Perhaps the author's teaching style and my own personal learning style are incompatible, but quite often I found the book very hard to follow. In any case, this book was a commendable effort to explain highly technical subject matter to those such as myself who are not trained to be electronics technicians or designers.

I am sure that for someone who is knowledgeable in electronics this book would be more valuable than it was for a complete beginner like myself. Time permitting, I would like to have another go at reading portions of this book and maybe the second reading will be easier and will make more sense to me. The author's level of technical knowledge is impressive, but like many authors of technical subject matter, the actual teaching style in the book seemed weak to me.

I wish there were more books like this one, which covers the two related but separate technical topics of electronics engineering and console design. Nonetheless, even inexperienced as I am, I would still definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in those two topics and how they relate to each other.

Weloz

Great book

Reviewed in Italy on July 26, 2014

Verified Purchase

HUGE quantity of information well and simple organized.
Is the only book I've found to have the characteristic of bridging a so vast area of subjects in such a clear way

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Black Art of Video Game Console Design, The

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