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Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984 Paperback – Illustrated, October 24, 2003

by Van Burnham (Author)

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A gloriously illustrated history of the videogame and its legacy for both our mindscapes and video technology.

It was a time when technology was king, status was determined by your high score, and videogames were blitzing the world... From Pong to Pac-Man, Asteroids to Zaxxon—more than fifty million people around the world have come of age within the electronic flux of videogames, their subconscious forever etched with images projected from arcade and home videogame systems.

From the first interactive blips of electronic light at Brookhaven National Labs and the creation of Spacewar! at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; to the invention of the TV Game Project and the myriad systems of Magnavox, Atari, Coleco, and Mattel that followed; through the rise of the Golden Age of videogames and forward into the imagination of millions, Supercade is the first book to illustrate and document the history, legacy, and visual language of the videogame phenomenon.

Exuberantly written and illustrated in full color, Supercade pays tribute to the technology, games, and visionaries of one of the most influential periods in the history of computer science—one that profoundly shaped the modern technological landscape and helped change the way people view entertainment.

Supercade includes contributions from such commentators and particpants as Ralph Baer, Julian Dibbell, Keith Feinstein, Joe Fielder, Lauren Fielder, Justin Hall, Leonard Herman, Steven Johnson, Steven Kent, Nick Montfort, Bob Parks, Carl Steadman, and Tom Vanderbilt.

Print length

448 pages
Language

English
Publisher

The MIT Press
Publication date

October 24, 2003
Grade level

12 and up
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

10 x 9.62 x 0.97 inches
ISBN-10

0262524201
ISBN-13

978-0262524209
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Editorial Reviews

Review

...[A] satisfying, illuminating read. Recommended for hardcore gamers (and ex-gamers) of all ages.—Dominic Al-Badri , Kansai Time Out, Japan—

...Big, glossy, comprehensive...a blitz of zippy words and zappy graphics.

—Iain Finlayson, The Times Weekend Review—

Who can resist a book that opens by tying invention of the video game to development of the atom bomb?

—Computer Gaming World—

Burnham's done a splendid job of recreating the cathode-lit dens and arcades of our youth...

—Bill Smith, LA Weekly—

It's impossible to praise this book too highly.

—Paul Di Filippo, Asimov's—

...[M]akes a crucial point...the 'golden age' of video games kick-started an entertainment industry that now rivals Hollywood.

—Erik Davis, Bookforum—

...this book celebrates...software, programmers, and machines that arose from nothing more than the desire to create the perfect game.

—Fin Fahey , New Scientist—

About the Author

Van Burnham is a Contributing Editor at Wired magazine and a member of the Video Arcade Preservation Society.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The MIT Press; First Edition, Second Printing (October 24, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0262524201
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0262524209
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 12 and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.35 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10 x 9.62 x 0.97 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #352,649 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #67 in Computer & Video Game Design
- #86 in Computing Industry History
- #695 in Video & Computer Games

Customer Reviews:
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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5

105 global ratings

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azolivas

bought this twice

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2024

Verified Purchase

i originally bought this book almost two decades ago. I am a teacher and sometimes bring my own books into class to use in our library. This book was extremely popular and throughout the years it wore down and got tattered. I bought a second book to keep at home. The book is thick and heavy but worth the read. The visual pictures illustrations are fantastic. it is a great piece of history at your fingertips. love the history of early video games!

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Jim Van Cise

Tried the rest. This is the BEST coffee table book offered

Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2003

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In recent years, I had bought the other similar historical reference books on the subject and saved this one for last because I took the bad reviews about the photo quality seriously. I work in printing/graphic design and I avoided buying the book until the price came down. After thumbing through it for only five minutes, I knew I'd found the best one. Yes, it may be true that many of the images could have lifted from MAME screen shots but here's my take on that. I was looking for the best VISUAL record of the era. That's what this about isn't it? Walking into an arcade today may have the same visual appeal with all the lights and noises, but since the late 80's, our expectations obviously changed. No one can milk a quarter for more than 3 minutes anymore. My memories of the old arcades are the unique characters, the first time that we were able to play with multiple players and all those other "firsts" that influenced what we see today. This "found art" really takes me back in time. The images may only be low rez screen shots, but for the most part they are clean and made more fun by being enlarged to the point where you can see all the pixels. I think the word from art school I'm trying to remember is MACRO. Where you zoom IN to a particular piece of the image and crop it to make it more interesting visually. These photos are big and bleed beyond the edge of the page. It's funny now to how those huge pixels made us spend so much in the 80's in our era or super slick realism in current games. While THE FIRST QUARTER and THE ULTIMATE HISTORY OF VIDEO GAMES may be a "good read" for historical facts and funny stories, they lacked imagery. The book ARCADE FEVER is another strong visual book for it's sharp photography of actual game cabinets and more traditional screen shots. Supercade is an artsy (but not cheesy) way of showing the era. I was also happy to see arcade games featured that came along years after 1984. This book goes the extra mile visually.

8 people found this helpful

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Anthony Volpe

An absolute explosion of eye candy

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2021

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As far as coffee table books go, this is probably the greatest video game related book ever made. The information in this book is exhaustive, the layout is fantastic, and the information in this book is amazing. By the time you’re through the middle of this book, you’re still barely out of the 1970s. This book is an absolutely wonderful combination of eye-opening information and I candy.

Apparently the author is working on a sequel that takes us to the present day, and if that’s the case, I am buying this book on day one.

One person found this helpful

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Tim Weaver

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2015

Verified Purchase

Nice coffee table book for a man cave arcade.
Doesn't contain any detailed information on each game though

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2023

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Interesting tidbits of information and lots of photos.

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Adriana Roberts

Gorgeous and beautiful

Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2001

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Finally, a book about the classic era of videogames that strikes a gorgeous balance between history lesson, nostalgia trip, and that initial lo-tech excitement that videogames garnered back in their early '80s heyday. The design of this coffeetable book is beautiful, jam-packed with images, many familiar, others of rarely-seen videogame gems. The articles that are interspersed amongst the large images are well-written and informative. A very immersive book, one that belongs on every classic gamer's coffeetable -- perfect for a quick flipping through of pages by curious house guests, after which you will soon be suckering them into a few quick rounds of arcade classics on your Playstation (or hell, even your Atari 2600, if you still have one.) A bit pricey, but hey, it's a huge, hefty, HARDCOVER book, so what do you expect? It's worth it.

2 people found this helpful

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Clint Feddersen

All the classic games are here!

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2014

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This book is great for anyone who remembers or wants to learn more about the arcades and home video game units of the 1970s and 1980s. I have owned, played or wanted pretty much every game and unit featured in this book, so I love it! The layout is visually engaging, making it a great coffee-table book as well as a great cover-to-cover read.

One person found this helpful

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Clay N. Cowgill

It's very pretty, and very big, and a little bit frustrating.

Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2015

Verified Purchase

It's very pretty, and very big, and knowing Van I would love to give it a glowing 5-star review, but in an attempt at being impartial I need to dock it in two critical areas.

First, the image quality of a lot of the historic material is really rough-- perhaps too-small of scans blown up too large for the format of the book? While I originally tried to write that off as simply being part of "the aesthetic" there were enough counter-examples of good quality images interspersed that that seemed unlikely. While it's not easy to source the sheer volume of all the material available, I wish that better quality examples were presented. (I mean, really, there's no reason an Atari 2600 box should be a blurry two-page spread when there's plenty of good quality examples to photograph/scan available on eBay every week. Similarly, a weekend spent with a game flyer collector would have yielded plenty of better quality images of those...)

Second, the heavy reliance on emulated screenshots as others have mentioned bothers me as well for a work that purports to be a 'visual history'. I can forgive that in the case of particularly rare games, but having extremely low resolution shots of rasterized/emulated vector games is kind-of unforgivable for a book that really would do well to show off some of the beauty of technologies that a lot of people have never experienced first-hand today. It's a bit like going to a museum only to find that all the displays are cardboard props instead of real artifacts.

I'm still generally pleased with my purchase as it was via a gift-card from Christmas, but if I was spending 'real money' I'd be tempted to pick up a used copy of the paperback on the cheap before committing bigger dollars.

20 people found this helpful

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Kranibal

Wow!

Reviewed in Canada on May 16, 2023

Verified Purchase

I got to buy the most recent Supercade (1985-2001) before I got this one and I was totally amazed! I didn't really have any expectations for this book since it was covering a period in video game that was less interesting to me. Although I knew the still shots from that gaming era was not as interesting to me, the ads and game cover art / posters from that era blew me away.

The book pages, quality and printing is absolutely the same as its sidekick (Supercade (1985-2001)) and this is impressive knowing this book was published 22 years ago!

Do not wait to fetch a copy, I have a nagging feeling once it goes out of print, this book will skyrocket in price.

Cliente Amazon

buena información mala edición

Reviewed in Spain on January 12, 2020

Verified Purchase

buena información mala edición

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Darren Borg

Brilliant book

Reviewed in Australia on April 9, 2021

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Great book. Highly recommended for the retro gamer at heart.

Homo_Ludens

Opulenter Bildband über eine faszinierende Ära des Videospiels

Reviewed in Germany on February 18, 2009

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"Supercade" ist - wie im Titel bereits erwähnt - ein äußerst aufwendig und opulent gestalteter Bildband über die Frühzeit des Videospiels. Im Großformat wird dem Leser auf Hochglanzpapier in Bildcollagen oder Großaufnahmen von Screens der Glanz und Charme der frühen Coin-Op- und Homecomputer-Ära nahegebracht.

Wer noch das Glück hatte, in den achtziger oder frühen Neunzigern zumeist im Ausland in einem Pub oder auf Fähren die lärmenden Automaten mit seinem eh nicht umwechselbaren Kleingeld füttern zu dürfen, wird vermutlich nie den faszinierenden Charme vergessen, der von den damals in der Regel jeglicher im eigenen Hause stehenden Hardware unendlich überlegenden Automaten ausging.

Die Autorin fängt diese Atmosphäre mit den großformatigen Abbildungen sehr gut ein. Aber nicht nur das Bildmaterial überzeugt, sondern auch die Texte weisen im Regelfall einen großen Informationsgehalt auf und/oder sind mit interessanten Anekdoten gespickt.

Schade nur, dass der Bildband bereits mit dem Jahr 1984 endet. Andererseits sind bereits so 430 großformatige Seiten zusammengekommen; eine Fortführung bis in die frühen Neunziger hätte wohl den Umfang des Bandes gesprengt. Auch aus struktureller Sicht bot sich der Schnitt im Jahre 1984 an: Der Crash der Videogameindustrie zog weitgehende strukturelle Veränderungen mit sich, die das bisherige Erscheinungsbild der elektronischen Unterhaltungsindustrie weitgehend umgestalteten (Wechsel von Arcade/Videospiel hin zu Multifunktions-Heimcomputern wie dem VC-20 oder dem C64).

Insgesamt halte ich diesen Bild- und Textband für eine lohnende Investion für alle, die sich mit dem Thema auseinandersetzen oder einfach noch einmal in ihrer Kindheits- und Jugenderinnerungen schwelgen wollen.

3 people found this helpful

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L. M. Davis

Stunning piece of Nostalgia!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 21, 2004

Verified Purchase

I had seen this book advertised on various sites and as I am a devotee of computer games old and new I felt I needed this in my life ;-)
The book itself it HUGE and contains pages and pages of nostalgia. There are full page photos of game screenshots and old advertisements.
This book WILL appeal to anyone who has grown up with computer games and played different formats (the book seems MAINLY geared towards the home console history).
Everytime I want to relive my childhood the book comes out - what I want to know is, when is Supercade 2, 1984-2003 coming out!!!!

4 people found this helpful

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