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Matt Barton

Bill Loguidice

Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of "Grand Theft Auto", "Super Mario", and the Most Influential Games of All Time (Paperback) - Common Paperback

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408 pages
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Focal Press
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Chris Kohler
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00FBC3KL8
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 408 pages

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38 ratings

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Matt Barton
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Matt Barton is a professor of English at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he specializes in writing and new media. He is a co-founder of the award-winning website Armchair Arcade and the author of scholarly and popular articles on games and writing. He also produces a weekly series of YouTube videos called "Matt Chat," which focus on classic games and vintage hardware.
Matt is a laidback and easy-going guy with a keen interest in computers, videogames, and gadgets. A native of Louisiana, Matt loves spicy food, Belgian ales, and exotic hot sauce. He lives in St. Cloud with his wife Elizabeth.
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Bill Loguidice
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Bill Loguidice is a full-time freelancer who is a critically acclaimed technology author and journalist. He is the co-founder and Managing Director for the online publications, Armchair Arcade and fullSTEAMahead365, and co-founder of creative services firm, Armchair Creative Services. He excels in the modern remote work environment, thriving in collaborations with today’s cross-functional, culturally diverse worldwide teams to get the job done right.
Bill has written for major publications like How-To Geek/Review Geek, Physician’s Weekly, Screen Rant, Lifewire, TechRadar, PC Gamer, and Ars Technica, and was an Editorial Board Member for the lifetime of The Computer Games Journal. He was also the Director of Strategy and Content for AtGames Digital Media, a leader in interactive videogame and computer entertainment experiences.
Bill is the author of the following major books: Fortnite For Dummies (2019, Wiley), Atari Flashback: The Essential Companion (2017, Prima Games), My Xbox One (2014, Que Publishing), Vintage Game Consoles: An Inside Look at Apple, Atari, Commodore, Nintendo, and the Greatest Gaming Platforms of All Time (2014, Focal Press/Taylor & Francis Group), CoCo: The Colorful History of Tandy’s Underdog Computer (2013, CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group), My PlayStation Vita (2012, Que Publishing), My Xbox: Xbox 360, Kinect, and Xbox LIVE (2012, Que Publishing), Motorola ATRIX For Dummies (2011, Wiley), Wii Fitness For Dummies (2010, Wiley; making use of his AFTA personal training certification), and Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario and the Most Influential Games of All Time (2009, Focal Press; which received an Italian translation).
Bill was also a writer and producer on the 2015 LUX Digital Pictures feature film documentary on the history of videogames entitled, Gameplay: The Story of the Videogame Revolution, distributed by Gravitas Ventures and PBS.
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Andrew Utting

Interesting but disappointing

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 29, 2010

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I really wanted to love this book, but ultimately found it a bit underwhelming. I don't really have a problem with the choice of games featured, but found the book's execution lacking.

Firstly, the chapters were inconsistent. One would look at cultural impact of the title it was discussing, but not really explain the game sufficiently (not a problem if you're familiar enough with the games, but it could be frustrating if not). Another would describe the game in a lot of detail, but gloss over the history too easily. It would have made for a better read if there was a consistent structure to each chapter - description of the game, history of the developer, precedents leading to that game, impact (culturally and on the gaming industry) of the game.

Secondly, the actual writing felt sub-par at times. Too many times it would introduce a topic, and then literally say "We will now discuss this". Exclamation marks appear a bit too often. A bit of judicious editing would've helped the flow of reading the actual text.

There are numerous images through-out the book, but a little too many of box art and not enough of the games. For example, the chapter on "Pole Position" only contains a single screenshot of "Pole Position" itself (admittedly, not a game that needs many screenshots to get the idea across). The screenshots also don't always focus on things that the text is making a point of saying were important/a major innovation.

A minor quibble is every time a game is mentioned that is has a chapter to itself, the chapter is always mentioned in full after the game e.g. "... a game like Super Mario Bros (Chapter 19, 'Super Mario Bros (1985): How High Can Jumpman Get?') wasn't ...". I understand why this is done, but after seeing it for the 50th time interrupting the flow of the text, it became rather frustrating.

Theres no doubt a lot of work has gone into this, and I discovered a lot of history I was unaware of. I just wish it had been a better read than it was.

8 people found this helpful

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Fabio Fonseca

Video game lineages

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 18, 2009

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Bought this title on an impulse and haven't even used the "look inside the book" button here at Amazon. I thought at first that the book would be more game designer centric, dealing with technical, mechanical and structural details of the games. Rather than that the book is focused with the lineage of each game.

By lineage I mean that the book tries to follow the branches that influenced more games later in time. As in biology, some branches were filled with leafs, while others whithered and died.

So each chapter deals with the games that left some heritage after them. Unfortunately some chapters are really less inspired than others. The chapter explaining the roots of the stealth games (Metal Gear and the like) are superbly written while others are less so. Sometimes it feels you're just reading a huge list of titles, with no further contextualization.

Another issue the layout of some pages. The pictures are beautiful and huge, but the text wrapping the pictures has no logical flow. You're reading a paragraph and then the rest of the text goes to the end of another page. Better pictures should be used too. The chapter on racing games really lacks the pictures from the arcade machines they described.

All in all a good work of archeology, but requires a little furnishing to be used as tool for the aspiring game designer looking for the inner workings of the great games of yore.

8 people found this helpful

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Ricardo Lopera Jaramillo

Mucho más que un simple texto cargado de datos (more than just a book full of data - spanish review)

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 10, 2010

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Matt Barton y Bill Leguidice hacen un extenso recorrido por la muy interesante historia de los videojuegos y su época dorada.
Vintage Games hace un trabajo fenomenal diferenciandose de los demás libros donde también se trata el tema, es una maravillosa pieza investigativa de 25 capítulos y casi 400 páginas repletas de información y complementada con muy bien logradas capturas de pantalla a todo color. Una de las mayores ventajas del libro es que no es necesario leerlo de manera lineal, cada capítulo se construye a partir de uno de tantos juegos populares dejando a un lado la exageración en textos y narrativa para enfocarse en sus características e historia además de sus precursores así como otros productos similares que fueron apareciendo posteriormente (es asi como, por ejemplo, en el capítulo de Doom habla acerca de como Ultima Undergrond lo influenció y menciona además como Halo y Quake aparecieron gracias a este glorioso FPS de 1993).

Los autores usan un lenguaje fácil de comprender para quienes tenemos un inglés nativo, lo recomiendo como primera opción sobre muchos otros libros existentes si quiere un texto donde se aprenda sobre la historia de los más importantes juegos de ayer y hoy contada de una manera sencilla y completa.

One person found this helpful

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Daniel Chisarick

Excellent book for anyone interested in video games

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 25, 2009

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I read the book cover to cover over a span of 3 days (it's hard to put down). Each chapter stands on its own, so it's easy to read in small segments as well.

Because game developers draw from other titles for inspiration, the book will reference itself as applicable to show how these influences propagated across games over time. There are numerous examples of what did/didn't work, as well as discussion to support these claims. Additionally, several of the supplemental/external references are available over the web, so pursuing areas of interest is easy.

As the title says, the book is about influential games, which aren't always the best-selling games (though they usually inspire a best-selling game if the original work wasn't a hit in its own right). It's a collection of 'firsts', as well as cataloging those that followed (with varying degrees of success).

Ultimately it was a very enjoyable read that flowed very well from chapter to chapter. Certainly it was nostalgic thinking back to when those earlier games were released, but the combination of the discussion and additional insight made it like living those experiences for the first time.

12 people found this helpful

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Hans Wurscht

Ein Stück Zeitgeschichte zum erinnern und schwelgen ...

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on March 16, 2009

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Das Buch setzt einen zurück in die Zeiten als die Computer- und Videospiele noch gut waren, etwas bedeutet, etwas bewegt haben und voll von Innovationen waren.

In anderen Worten: es bietet den verliebt-verträumten Rückblick auf die Spiele die ein Genre begründet oder definiert haben, ohne das man selber zur Abandonware greifen muss und sich dadurch den Technologie-Schock ersparen kann.

Man behält diese Spiele also in der Erinnerung, wie man sie liebgewonnen hat, und läuft nicht Gefahr desillusioniert zu werden. Insofern ein schönes Buch fürs "In-Erinnerungen-schwelgen".

Wer jedoch mehr Hintergrundwissen erwartet oder wünscht, z.b. wie es den Entwicklern ging, welche Entscheidungen hinter verschlossenen Türen gefällt oder vertagt wurden, welche Gelegenheiten genommen oder verpasst wurden - dem muss ich das "The Ultimate History of Video Games" näher legen, wobei Vintage Games durchaus als süffisanten Aperitif gereicht werden darf. Aber ohne entsprechende Erinnerungen hat das Buch nicht den erwarteten Tiefgang und dient z.b. dem Jugendlichen von heute vielleicht als kurzer Überblick was damals angesagt war, vielleicht um wieder Interesse am Geschichtsunterricht zu wecken? Sei es drum, dafür das man die eigene Erinnerung mitbringen muss und das Buch meines Erachtens nicht tiefgründig genug vermittelt warum diese Spiele Meilensteine waren ziehe ich einen Punkt ab. Alle über 25 und bestimmt ab 30 dürften es eher mit 5 Sternen bewerten.

Warum muss ich bei Vintage nur immer an Wein denken? Auch dafür hat das Buch eine Antwort... ;)

Ein Blick ins Menü (Inhaltsverzeichnis) sollte man sich vor dem Kauf auf jeden Fall gönnen, damit man weiss was einen erwartet. Nur falls die eigenen Lieblingsspiele nicht dabei sein sollten - aber es würde mich überraschen wenn jemand, der seit den 90ern zockt, nicht wenigstens 2-3 geliebte Titel entdeckt.

4 people found this helpful

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Sascha

... and all started with "Pong" - Vintage Computing at its best

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on April 17, 2013

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Reading this book I feel again back in the 80's when I was a child and found myself stunning about the possibilities of Home Computers and the games.
But the book offers more: Focussing the history of computer games is also looking at the revolution of our world to a digital one and an evolution of the behaviors of all of us: nearly nothing would work without some knowledge of computers that today everybody has - necessarily like reading and writing.
The first popular computer games were the beginning of all these things because they made binary codes interesting.
The history of games is the history of the fascination of technology. But first of all it's the unwritten story showing the changes in everybody's daily life - a change to the better, e.g. working places, access to knowledge for everybody from everywhere, better medical possibilities, to make a long story short: 1984 didn't become "1984".
Therefore, reading the book is an optimal possibility to reflect all these things again ... and all started with "Pong".

Henrik Østerlund Gram

trip down memory lane

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 12, 2011

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The authors make a courageous effort listing what they believe are the most influential games of all time and many are bound to disagree with some of their findings, including myself. Nevertheless, it's a pretty good read and the very good print quality turns what would otherwise be a 3-star book into a 4-star one.

Fred

Absolutely Great!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 30, 2013

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This really is a must for all people like me who grew up with the Coleco and who saw the Nintendo been released on the market. This really takes you back in the days when all you had to worry about was finishing the games level. For all the fans of vintages games, i highly recommend this book! a++++++++++++++++++++

Client d'Amazon

Superbe ouvrage

Reviewed in France 🇫🇷 on February 24, 2019

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Achetez le en Kindle. C'est un superbe ouvrage sur l'histoire des jeux vidéos, qui vous ramènera pleins de bons souvenirs de jeux. Il y a des liens internets très intéressants, j'ai appris beaucoup de choses en lisant ce livre.

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