As an avid midlife gamer with nostalgic interest in gaming history I enjoy reading gaming books.
In this picture you can see the gaming books I own. My favorite is “Masters of Doom” followed by “The Ultimate History of Video Games” (I am aware there is a second volume).
I would like to hear more recommendations from you.
P. S: Note that PC gaming is my thing therefore it is highly unlikely that I will get a book about consoles or console games.
Raising the Bar (out of print for several years now so I recommend just finding yourself a .pdf) is a book about the development of Half-Life 2 and bits of Half-Life as well. Geoff Keighley has also written a few “The Final Hours” books about the development of Portal 2, Titanfall, and Half-Life: Alyx, though I think all are digital-only.
If you like DooM and are interested in the techy parts of it at all, there’s a great series called “Black Book” that has a volume dedicated to DooM. The author is a cool dude and has done one for Wolf3D, DooM, and others - https://fabiensanglard.net/gebbdoom/
I’ve read that tedium. Some chapters revealed something interesting, but everything else was empty. Why do I need to know what kind of wine the developers drank and in what pub after the bad news got announced to them?
This book’s core issues are very important. The book itself sucks!
Youtube’s Ashens has a couple of books about games published - Terrible Old Games You’ve Never Heard Of and Attack Of The Flickering Skeletons. If you know his style you can imagine the general tone.
If you enjoy science fiction, Ready Player One is super great. Do not judge it based off the movie. Quite different plots. Do skip Ready Player Two though.
Came here to recommend RPO, myself. It’s an absolutely fantastic book. It’s loaded with tons of 80s/90s music, gaming, and pop culture references, and is just so damn fun.
I can’t personally recommend them yet but I’ve read great things about the lock on “magazines” (they look more akin to coffee table books) and have a set in my cart that I’m going back and forth on
There are the Boss Fight Books where each Book is about a single Game (MegaMan, Red Dead Redemption). The writing Style varies for each Book since they are written by different people.
This Game Analysis of Wario Land 4 is pretty interesting aswell. The focus is more on the Game Mechanics instead of personal experience.
I think it would be more worthwhile to learn a programming language. The great majority of gamers have no clue how games actually work, and it isn’t that difficult to at least grasp the basics. It will completely change your perspective while gaming and you’ll have a deeper understanding of features, design decisions, etc.
Thanks for your advice but I am pretty sure that is not what I am looking for (source: I did start a programing career in college eons ago but lose interest and become a dropout. :)).
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“The Ultimate Guide to Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest”
Couldn’t have beaten the game with it.
Raising the Bar (out of print for several years now so I recommend just finding yourself a .pdf) is a book about the development of Half-Life 2 and bits of Half-Life as well. Geoff Keighley has also written a few “The Final Hours” books about the development of Portal 2, Titanfall, and Half-Life: Alyx, though I think all are digital-only.
I also second this one.
If you like DooM and are interested in the techy parts of it at all, there’s a great series called “Black Book” that has a volume dedicated to DooM. The author is a cool dude and has done one for Wolf3D, DooM, and others - https://fabiensanglard.net/gebbdoom/
I second this. I’m not involved in game development in any way and I still enjoyed it.
Maybe you will find Blood, Sweat and Pixels by Jason Schreier of interest. Been a little while but I enjoyed it as an audio book.
I’ve read that tedium. Some chapters revealed something interesting, but everything else was empty. Why do I need to know what kind of wine the developers drank and in what pub after the bad news got announced to them?
This book’s core issues are very important. The book itself sucks!
Youtube’s Ashens has a couple of books about games published - Terrible Old Games You’ve Never Heard Of and Attack Of The Flickering Skeletons. If you know his style you can imagine the general tone.
I haven’t read either, but the following two are on my list:
If you enjoy science fiction, Ready Player One is super great. Do not judge it based off the movie. Quite different plots. Do skip Ready Player Two though.
Came here to recommend RPO, myself. It’s an absolutely fantastic book. It’s loaded with tons of 80s/90s music, gaming, and pop culture references, and is just so damn fun.
I can’t personally recommend them yet but I’ve read great things about the lock on “magazines” (they look more akin to coffee table books) and have a set in my cart that I’m going back and forth on
There are the Boss Fight Books where each Book is about a single Game (MegaMan, Red Dead Redemption). The writing Style varies for each Book since they are written by different people.
This Game Analysis of Wario Land 4 is pretty interesting aswell. The focus is more on the Game Mechanics instead of personal experience.
There`s also this Dark Souls Book.
There is a Doom Novel Series aswell. I can`t really tell anything about them since I only read a few pages of the first book.
If you’re into lore expanding fiction, I really enjoy the Halo books:
both of Jason Schreier’s books - Blood, Sweat, and Pixels and Press Reset
https://aaronareed.net/50-years-of-text-games/
Originally a blog, recently edited into a published book via Kickstarter.
I think it would be more worthwhile to learn a programming language. The great majority of gamers have no clue how games actually work, and it isn’t that difficult to at least grasp the basics. It will completely change your perspective while gaming and you’ll have a deeper understanding of features, design decisions, etc.
Thanks for your advice but I am pretty sure that is not what I am looking for (source: I did start a programing career in college eons ago but lose interest and become a dropout. :)).
I recently read “Tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow” and I don’t recommend it.
Fuck Yeah, Video Games: The Life and Extra Lives of a Professional Nerd by Daniel Hardcastle.
This one got me interested, added it to my wishlist. Thanks!